Sunday, October 31, 2010

Amazing Alan Alda impression

From Bill Hader on last night's SNL...

19 comments :

Anonymous said...

Bill's great. Probably the only current SNL member (I think) who may go on to do good things movie-wise.

He is currently the voice of Prof. Impossible on Adult Swim's Venture Bros. thankfully NOT trying to impersonate Stephen Colbert.

Anonymous said...

The voice is uncanny. Scary.

Mike said...

Yeah, the Alan Alda part was the highlight of that sketch (which, IMO, had so much more potential than what was actually executed). I agree, the voice is amazing, and he had the mannerisms down too. And yes, Bill Hader is my favorite current SNL member (with Kirsten Wigg a close second). He's just amazing.

Unknown said...

Really? The Alda impression? Seriously?

I thought it was a cross between Woody Allen and Johnny Carson.

I didn't see it as Alda at all.

Jason said...

And Hamm's Robin Williams was pretty good, too!

The Milner Coupe said...

Alda was spot on. Thanks.

Shane said...

Ed, you pretty much just described Alda to a T.

Anonymous said...

There's always this ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfDE4f32_pA

Joe Flaherty as Alan Alda... well, he has the look right.

Nat Gertler said...

Hader is talented. I don't know if it was Hader or one of the writers who made the decision that his Vincent Price character should be the sane center around which insane characters bounce, but it was a rare SNL decision to be non-showy... and it works. It would be easy to make Price an over-the-top madman; making him a character who reacts make him more valuable than all of Wiig's showy (and generally indistinguishable) characters combined

Mac said...

Freakily accurate. Bill Hader must have a good career ahead of him. He's done OK bits in OK movies, but he obviously has the potential to do much more interesting things.

Craig R. said...

And on top of it, if SNL ever tried to do an ESPN Radio sketch, Hader would be a dead on Colin Cowherd...Jus' Sayin'...

Stu said...

i thought jay pharoah's eddie murphy was also spot on. this was a great bit. snl was actually kind of funny that night. great blog k-lev.

Dan Serafini said...

A complete ripoff of SNL's audition reel from Star Wars featuring Kevin Spacey as Chris Walken, Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon.

Vincent Price is funny, but way to skew old, grandpa Lorne!

cadavra said...

Dan, it's not really a rip-off if it's a premise you've used before. And on behalf of all us alta kockers, I'm sorry if there you were offended by the one sketch on the show that wasn't designed for brain-dead teenagers.

D. McEwan said...

Speaking as one of Vincent Price's most-ardent fans, @Dan, way to skew callow, shallow, and ignorant. Not everything that was ever interesting happened in the last 15 years. And "old" also means experienced, educated, and even wise.

I just wish that Hader's Vincent Price impression was even in the same ballpark as his Alda, because he captures neither Price's look nor his extremely-distinctive voice. (And Vinnie Price, admitted bisexual, putting down Liberace's gay jokes? Especially given that Liberace never did gay jokes. Yes he was the most-flamboyant performer on earth, but he was still deeply closeted, right up to the day he died.)

I watched an actual Vincent Price Halloween TV special from 1974 last night. Hader gets the setting right, and the cornball humor of the show, but he doesn't capture Vinnie himself, nor his suave command over his shows. And the often-overpraised Miss Wiig's Judy Garland caught nothing of Judy either.

The "comedy" of Price's real special was painfully-obvious and sledgehammer, but when he and John Carradine sat down, abandoned the script, and just began talking about their films, it became wonderful for five minutes, until the script and the bad jokes came back.

qrter said...

Hader's impression of Alda was good, but not as perfect as British comedian/actor Peter Serafinowicz's Alda:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-h3dFalF8A

(At about the 1:37 mark - probably a bit NSFW!)

Ian said...

Boo! Hiss! There's no video to see!

SallieSNeblett said...

This is one of the best sketches in a long time. Bill Hader's impressions are incredible! I love that he does obscure impressions like alan alda, Vincent Price and Peter Faulk. He definitely has a long career ahead of him.

Anonymous said...

THAT VOICE was Alan Alda for a few minutes. I have listened to Alan Alda every other year or so since 1968 or something, eventually watching every ep of MASH by now. Bill TOTALLY did Alda and I was sorta freaked out that he could be so ON! Y'know?