Gasping for Airtime

By: Jay Mohr

Narrated by: Jay Mohr

When 20-year-old Jay Mohr moved to New York City, he never thought he would land his first real job on Saturday Night Live. But he did - and what followed were two crazy years of trying to keep up with his talented cast mates and get on the air as often as possible.

Jay offers an intimate first-person account of the inner workings of Saturday Night Live - the audition, the pitch meetings, and how skits make the final cut of the show. Jay also dishes on the guest hosts (Travolta, Doherty, Baldwin, Barkley), the musical guests (Cobain, Tyler, Clapton), and, of course, his Saturday Night Live cast mates (Farley, Sandler, Myers). This book is refreshingly honest and laugh-out-loud funny.

©2004 Jay Mohr (P)2004 AudioGO

Great story; boring show

Great and funny account about performing in the least funny show in TV history. How that show still lingers is incredible to me.

THERE IS NOTHING FUNNY ABOUT SNL

Interesting view point on SNL

Jay is a good comic and tells a pretty engaging story overall. He tends to come off complaining that he doesn’t get airtime but doesn’t fully give full details and skips over time a lot. Overall it’s a good read if you like SNL and learning about behind the scenes is pretty cool.

Beautifully written and performed

I don’t know why I waited so long to listen to this. I was a fan of SNL from the first season, and this is an exciting, hilarious and sometimes heartbreaking look into one incredibly talented artist’s journey into this comedy abyss. I wonder how many people had to be medicated to survive it. The last paragraph implies what we might have guessed: It was all worth the pain.

An absolutely fascinating look in SNL

I just finished this listen, and I am SHOCKED by the negative reviews. Jay is a great writer that makes the content human, funny, and overwhelming all at the same time. Entitled? This dude was relegated to a hallway closet and was just happy to be on the 17th floor. That was his second of two seasons--his first? PLAGUED by mental health issues. He is candid, honest, and shows the reader a REAL look into 30 Rock. The unabridged version is amazing if you want to hear how the SNL-era of Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Phil Hartman, Mike Myers, Norm McDonald, Tim Meadows, David Spade, Rob Schneider, Michael McKean, Sarah Silverman, and Dave Attell functioned. It's a fantastic look at how SNL functions for someone just entering the chaos that is SNL in the '90s. This is a wonderful book, if you like SNL give it a shot.

Entitled?

I found the story very interesting - especially how a dream job can actually turn into a nightmare job. I appreciated his honestly and him sharing his struggle with extreme anxiety. Also so interesting to get an inside peak into what it's like to work on SNL. The only thing that rubbed me the wrong way was his attitude that he deserved so much more exposure without truly earning it. For example stealing someone else's act and still believing that he could negotiate to return as a main player on the show. There was a lot of whining and complaining - I got the feeling that he would not have been super pleasant to work with. Definitely the entitlement attitude was alive and well before it became and epidemic. Overall, it is worth a listen especially for fans of the show!

A good, quick read

Overall, it's a good book. Enjoyed the story and liked that Jay narrated it. He had a lot of great stories and was honest about the situation without sounding whiny or like he blamed others for everything that was wrong. I especially enjoyed that because he was reading it, he would do impressions.

Young guy gets a hard job

Why would I give a book an overall of 3 stars when I give the performance and story 5 stars? Well, let's just say it has more to do with the personality of the author than his recounting of his stent at SNL. His recount comes off as straight-forward and honest. Unfortunately for Jay, his personal trials and traits are difficult to swallow at times because he can come off as shallow and selfishly ungrateful. He admits it himself and spends the very last chapter admitting fault and trying to rosey up his accounts from the rest of the book. It doesn't really work. He just should have owned it. We can't all be media darlings or even nice people. Jay is the perfect example of a regular guy (a new comedian in his 20's at the time) going through the rigours of a fast paced hugely creative and applauded job. His reactions to the work environment can be off putting at times and he can come off like a brat. He sounds like a 20 something in the throes of an existential tantrum. But.... in the end I will say I didnt ask for a book about the fairytale of SNL, I wanted a real person telling a real story and I got that. I may not want to hang out with the guy after this, but I respect his journey.

I absolutely loved this book.

Jay Mohr was never really someone that registered on my radar so he caught me by surprise. Jay was very engaging with his spot on impressions, insightful words and entertaining stories. Behind the scenes books can either be hit or miss but Jay truly knocked it out of the park with this one. The first few Farley stories had me laughing til tears and then the last Farley & Hartman story had me wiping real one's away. Jay is an amazing writer, excellent performer and a charming story teller. Do yourself a favor and check out this book.

Must read for SNL nerds

I’m a huge fan of Saturday Night Live and I’m also a huge fan of the cast for the years that Jay Mohr was on. He gives a lot of great “inside baseball” stories about specific cast members & sketches and what it’s like working on the show. If this topic interests you, definitely get this book.

Must hear for SNL lovers

Jay Moore breaks it down here. The trials and tribulations of being an SNL. And also the growth of his comedy