Saturday Night Live wasn't on network TV in Australia when I was growing up so we were mostly aware of it from movies made with SNL stars. I remember seeing the trailer for Corky Romano with Chris Kattan and knowing nothing about it but that wasn't unusual - we'd had Chris Farley and Mark Myer and Adam Sandler movies foisted on us.
Kattan didn't become a movie star though he had a few chances - Corky and A Night at the Roxbury and Undercover Brother. That's more than a lot of them get. From clips I've seen Kattan was an energetic very physical performer who liked to pull faces - the sort of comic that doesn't age well, physically I mean, though he's no orphan on that score. He became hooked on drugs and blames this on a neck injury - that's not surprising, it happened to Jerry Lewis, though it's clear from the book Kattan had other issues. He was needy, didn't always handle fame well, was chronically insecure about his career.
Kattan talks a lot about the origin of characters like the Roxbury guys and Mr Peepers which is only going to mean anything if you know them. He had a mixed relationship with the show - it gave him fame, his only real fame (he's done some stuff since then but none of it has really broken through). He quit the show, seems to regret it, has doubts, wonders about his place on the show, etc. Lorne Michaels has seen them come and go.
Mind you what could he have done once his films didn't do that well? Probably stayed on the show and tried another film, maybe. But his drug habit would have made that too tricky.
He was a pants man. He dated Zooey Deschenal, Jennifer Aniston, Jennifer Coolidge, the red haired girl from Clueless. He also had a fling with Amy Heckerling. This is the most interesting part of the book no matter how indiscreet. He also talks about his friendship with Will Ferrell, who formally ended their friendship by taking him aside and ending it.
It's a really fascinating read.
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