Gasping For Airtime: Two Years In The Trenches Of Saturday Night Live (2005) - Plot & Excerpts
I read some reviews on here and I think people give Mohr too tough of a time for coming across as whiny and/or defensive. I didn’t think he was being defensive in this book. Sure, there are times when he tells a story about a skit he wrote that did great at read-through, or killed during rehearsal, and then got cut last-minute, but then he also tells about seasons when he couldn’t write or do anything funny. He talks about people like Chris Farley like they are at the top of the list of the all-time greatest comedians ever and how lucky he was to just be in the same room with those kinds of people… that’s not the voice of someone who decided to write a book for the purpose of defending his career and credentials… that’s the voice of someone who is just being honest. As for him being whiny. I guess that holds to some degree, but not at all to the degree that people are accusing him of on here. (It’s always easy to bash someone in the comments section of some faceless blog or website in a way that one would never do in person… I think there was an SNL skit about that.) I felt like he was just saying how he felt when he was on this crazy show. And, I don’t think it’s fair to say, “Hey, it’s a job… that’s the way jobs work.” It’s not just another “job”. This is Saturday Night Live. This is a live comedy show that can make or break a career for a young comedian in his or her 20’s. This is not your normal, “first job out of college” while working in some cubicle and slowly getting to work you way up the ladder and learn the system and the people. This is national TV and being judged on your ability to do one of the hardest things in acting (make people laugh) within 60 seconds of stepping into the spotlight. I’m not saying he didn’t ask for that, because that’s what it means to join the cast of SNL, but the reality is that it’s not “just another job”, if this was just another job then I never would have read this book.Regardless of trying to dissect Mohr’s motives for writing this book, the reality is that Jay Mohr got to be on the show at a time when the cast was as absurd as it ever was, and as absurd as it ever will be. Which is why I thought this book was fun to read. He had moments on the show when he was funny. He was obviously never going to be a Mike Myers, a Dana Carvey, a Chris Farley, a Chris Rock, an Adam Sandler, etc., but he was a really solid standup performer that understood how to write tight, intelligent comedy. I thought the behind-the-scenes looks were really fascinating. The majority of the anecdotes are genuinely fun to read. For that matter, every single anecdote of Chris Farley off-stage is amazing. Farley was a genius and I love that Mohr called him the Michael Jordan of comedy and talked about how in awe he was every time he got to be in the presence of Farley’s greatness. I do think Mohr was gossipy at times, which I didn’t like at all. But, all in all, if you love that mid-90’s cast of SNL, if you love dissecting humor and really looking at the anatomy of a joke, and if you enjoy someone trying to be honest by relating the story of a really dramatic season in his or her life, then I think there’s a good chance that you would enjoy reading this book.
Meh. Jay Mohr is a much better writer of stand up comedy then actual books. The book means well, to a degree, as Mohr gives plenty of love to those he, well, loves.But after awhile the whining just grates. The entire time Mohr thinks Saturday Night Live wasn't giving him respect (or realizing their error) by not putting him in sketches or using his writing on the show. He never really stops to consider maybe he just wasn't good for the show. Hey, it happens. Jay would appreciate a sports analogy and in this analogy, Jay would be a coach who sucks on his first big job but then becomes a legend with his next team.Mohr is talented. He got a sitcom, then Jerry Maguire, then produced a hit TV show, and is now a regular fixture of movies and comedy circuits across the country. And add podcasting giant to his resume. Considering he wrote the book years after SNL and years after he was famous, you'd think he'd have relaxed a bit.But the book IS great for the inside workings of the off-the-air parts of SNL and for neat, uncensored stories of SNL celebs and producers (and hosts). Mohr sticks to 'putting his name on it' and tells the truth. If he thought a cast member was a bitch, he says so. If he loved a cast member, he says that too.So the book gets points for honesty. But it loses points for being kind of mundanely written and rather bitchy.
What do You think about Gasping For Airtime: Two Years In The Trenches Of Saturday Night Live (2005)?
While research has its place, some events and institutions are best known through people who were there, themselves. The late night mainstay, Saturday Night Live is one such institution. No collection of interview-gathered anecdotes can really compare with the sort of day-to-day account Jay Mohr provides in "Gasping for Airtime." While it's easy to conjure images of a riotous atmosphere populated by larger than life personalities like Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, etc., you know that sort of thing can only be half the story.And you'd be rightMohr is a talented comedian and, while parts are laugh out loud funny, he also succeeds in capturing the real grind of producing live television following a work schedule that was pioneered 20 years before, when everyone was ingesting massive amounts of cocaine. He touches on the pressure to produce sketches (something complicated by his emerging panic disorder), the crushing letdown when they don't make it to air, and the all-too-infrequent elation when they do. Add the especially poignant remembrances of his late co-stars, Phil Hartman and Chris Farley, and you've got an especially entertaining (if a bit brief) memoir.
—Paul
This book is proof that SNL is an unorganized mess, filled with writers that don't know how to write. Mohr's writing style is a perfect example--he jumps back and forth between stories, episodes, events with such repetition that it's shocking there wasn't a decent editor who told him to rewrite the book completely in chronological order. By the 10th time you hear about him showing up early every Monday or him repeating stories about running through the streets of New York in a panic attack you'll suddenly realize what's wrong with SNL--they hire people like Mohr who have severe mental disabilities.There are great stories, however, that are worth reading. It's quick to discern why so much of SNL falls flat each week--while Lorne Michaels expects people to show up for two pre-set meetings, everything else is on their own with a crazy mixture of drugs, ego, and schedules that go unenforced. It's a lousy way to run a show. It's the inmates running the asylum while the warden locks his door and doesn't want to hear about problems.Mohr's main problem is that he thought he was a god at age 15, sneaking out to comedy clubs and refusing to go to college. He thought he was smarter than everyone else--then he got to SNL where he was the low man in the room and everyone made fun of him. His ego was crushed and he couldn't figure out what was wrong with him. The result was his sudden "panic attacks" and he got rid of them with drugs. He also admits to being an alcoholic. Then he wonders why he was depressed and suicidal. The guy, like everyone else at SNL, has a gigantic ego that overestimates his talent, a smart mouth, and no objective sense of what makes for good writing.
—Mediaman
Jay Mohr entered Saturday Night Live with a chip on his shoulder and he spent his time there being an overly aggressive sourpuss. This book seems, at times, vindictive and casts Mohr in a very negative light. There are, however, a few redeeming points to this memoir. Mohr, for instance, writes about his struggles with panic attacks and anxiety in a very candid and enlightening manner. Moreover, there are a number of interesting anecdotes about his fellow cast mates in the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons (including Phil Hartman, Norm Macdonald, and Sarah Silverman). If you are interested in the history of SNL, I would point you to the far superior 'Live From New York: An Uncensored History Of Saturday Night Live' by Tom Shales and James Andrew Miller.
—Chelsea
