Ego Nwodim likes to work. It’s no surprise that after six seasons on “Saturday Night Live,” the comedian has adjusted to the nonstop pace being part of the show requires. Even when presented with downtime between seasons, Nwodim found a way to keep busy. In August, she appeared in the comedy series “Mr. Throwback,” starring Stephen Curry, and at the start of September she launched her podcast, “Thanks Dad.” Oh, and she managed to fit a trip to the Olympics with some “SNL” colleagues along the way.
“When they say ‘if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life’ — that’s a really cute quote,” Nwodim says. “But if you love what you do, it makes working every day of your life enjoyable.”
This week kicks off the 50th season of “Saturday Night Live,” with the premiere featuring Jean Smart as host and Jelly Roll as musical guest. The 50th season, which is Nwodim’s seventh, is expected to have many surprises and legendary “SNL” returns.
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“I’m most looking forward to the parties. Am I allowed to say that?” Nwodim jokes. “The parties, I’m getting all my outfits ready right now. But then I guess people say I have to work as well? So I guess that too.”
Reflecting on her time at the show, during which she has become known for characters like Lisa from Temecula and her impression of Dionne Warwick, Nwodim can hardly believe it’s been six seasons already.
“What’s been really cool is sort of learning the voice of the show and how to marry my own to it. I came in having done my one-woman show, for which I wrote 20 characters. I think I performed eight total, but I had written so many characters to try out for that show and then narrowed it down. By the time I got ‘SNL,’ I felt like I was really clear on what my comedic voice was. But then you get to ‘SNL’ and ‘SNL’ has its own voice and its own way of doing things and its own audience. And so watching my progress, just from my perspective, I’ve gotten to see myself marry my voice to that of the show’s and make what I do fit into the puzzle that is the show,” Nwodim says.
“And to see the audience trust me more has been really, really cool over time. I remember my very first episode going out for a dress rehearsal and going ‘oh my gosh, this audience doesn’t know me. Will they laugh at what I say?’ So now getting to walk out on stage at 8H I’m like, ‘well, they know who I am. I still don’t know if they’ll laugh, but at least they know who I am.’”
Having become a known name in comedy over the last several years has allowed her other opportunities, like the Peacock show “Mr. Throwback.” The series follows a one-time basketball star, played by Adam Pally, who hits up childhood friend and now NBA star Stephen Curry (who plays himself) to help restart his life. Nwodim plays Curry’s right hand, a character based on Curry’s real-life COO Tiffany Williams.
“I’m still riding the energy from that experience. It was so just fulfilling and affirming, and it was perfect,” Nwodim says, recalling taking the script to dinner one night and finding herself laughing out loud in the restaurant as she flipped through it. “It’s what you hope every job feels like. I feel really, really fortunate. They didn’t pay me to say that.”
Filming took place in Chicago mostly, so during the last few weeks of SNL’s 49th season she was flying back and forth from New York between episodes.
“I like running on fumes. But because ‘Mr. Throwback’ was such a different energy in terms of pace, it just was a lot easier to manage than it sounds,” Nwodim says. “But also I might be out of my mind and my metric of what’s manageable is not that of a normal human. But I was up for the challenge.”
Adding a podcast into the mix was born out of her love of the medium — she frequently has them playing in her apartment — but also a return to an idea she had for a show pre-SNL, based on her experience of being raised by a single mom and never having a relationship with her dad. Comedy Central had made an offer and Kevin Hart was on board to produce, but once she got “SNL” it fell by the wayside. Now, she’s spent the summer recording conversations with people who share her experiences, and has been pleasantly surprised by how open her guests have been with wanting to discuss them.
“I remember this from AP psych that if you express vulnerability, people will be more inclined to express theirs as well. So by coming out and saying, ‘I don’t have a relationship with my dad,’ it has proven that psychological phenomenon to be true because people are going, ‘I don’t either, and yes, I will come talk to you about it,” she says. “It has been a pretty vulnerable endeavor, but each step of the way, I’ve been reassured that it’s a purposeful mission and that I’m not alone in my experience.”
“The more and more I have all these conversations with people I’m like, ‘oh, you have a similar experience to mine.’ What excites me about this is that it is a podcast I would listen to, and it’s a podcast that I feel will make people feel less alone and more connected,” she adds. “And that’s really exciting to me.”
