Dana Carvey recalls early days of his legendary Lorne Michaels impression

Dana Carvey recently stopped by Studio 8H, reminiscing about one of his most famous celebrity impersonations from his Saturday Night Live years.

On the new companion web series to the NBC sketch comedy show, The Rundown, the Emmy winner shared how he created his impression of the show's creator, Lorne Michaels.

“As I see it, my initial feeling is fear, as it honestly scares me,” he said during the latest episode while positioned in front of the show's rundown board.

“The way I got into doing Lorne Michaels was right after the Wednesday read-through, after we’d gone over loads of sketches, like 50,” Carvey recalled. “Then Lorne would try to arrange them for the show, quite frustrated. And he’d say, ‘Um, I still have no f*cking first act.'”

In 2016, Carvey told the same story, addressing rumors about a possible disagreement with Mike Myers over the latter allegedly taking his Michaels impression for Myers’ portrayal of Dr. Evil in Austin Powers. The two have since reconciled.

After his stint that spanned from 1986 to 1993, Carvey returned to SNL in 2024 to depict President Joe Biden ahead of Election Day, alongside Maya Rudolph as Vice President Kamala Harris, Andy Samberg as Doug Emhoff, and Jim Gaffigan as Tim Walz.