Interview Hannibal Buress discusses "fedora basketball" and his other absurd SNL skits

Chicagoans will recognize Hannibal Buress as one of the city's premier stand-ups of the past few years, one that climbed the ranks from open-mic night to headlining Lakeshore Theater. With a deliberate, lazy-cool delivery and an absurdist bent to his material (one joke managed to weave a narrative of apple juice and racism), Buress caught the eye of Saturday Night Live after an appearance on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon last August, earning him a writing gig for the iconic sketch show. In addition to SNL, Buress has an upcoming role in The Awkward Kings, a stand-up film that premieres April 9 on Comedy Central, another step in his steadily improving career. Before his week-long stint at Zanies and his appearance on The Interview Show at The Hideout on Friday, The A.V. Club caught up with Buress to chat about the hallowed hallways of SNL, why some of his sketches never made it on air, and whether his stand-up album is ever going to be released.

The A.V. Club: How many Saturday Night Live sketches of yours have made it to the broadcast? 

Hannibal Buress: I’ve had a few things on; the Barkley golf sketch on the Charles Barkley show, and I’ve contributed to a few other things too.  

AVC: When you were hired, you said via Twitter that you’d be pitching a lot of elaborate poop sketches.  

HB: That was a joke that I put on Twitter that I didn’t think newspapers would pick up as a quote. So now I know that newspapers use Twitter. [Laughs.] I really wasn’t using it that much, just every now and then. I kind of announced it on there, then I saw that and was like, “Oh, I gotta watch what I say.”  

AVC: Is it a surreal experience being at SNL?  

HB: Yeah, you get used to it, but sometimes you are like, “Oh man, this here is an institution.” You read about the history of the show. Like the hallway on our floor is all the headshots of everyone that’s been on the show, and you walk past that everyday and it’s pretty much a who’s-who in comedy.  

AVC: What’s been the most mind-blowing moment so far?  

HB: I remember one Friday, our producer came around the offices and was like, “We gotta write some different jokes for the monologue because the monkey isn’t available.” It was a bit about a monkey; somebody wrote a monkey into something. But I guess the monkey was booked up, so he couldn’t do SNL.  

AVC: What could be more important for the monkey than to do SNL?  

HB: I don’t know, maybe the monkey wanted speaking lines and SNL wasn’t giving him speaking lines, so he turned it down.  

AVC: Are there any actors on there that you particularly like writing for?

HB: Everybody has their different strengths. I don’t really write for specific people, I just write for my sketches. And then as I write my sketches, I just think of who would fit the role the right way. Like who plays that sort of character.  

AVC: Is it weird being a new guy there? Is it different than any other office?

HB: I never worked in an office before, really, but it’s kind of weird being a new guy anywhere. I’ve been here six months so it’s kinda worn off a bit. Luckily there were a few new writers so you can stick with them. And everybody is pretty nice here. 

AVC: Are you working on any big projects? 

HB: I definitely want to write some for myself in the future, and just keep doing more stand-up and maybe get on camera more. I’ve been doing a little bit of acting. So I’m definitely just trying to branch out and work. Years down the road, write a project for myself. Write movies, all of that.  

AVC: What kind of movie would you like to write?  

HB: I’d make a comedy/snuff porn where, after the people die, the bodies still titter with laughter. [Laughs.] I just made that up so I don’t know if that idea has legs.

AVC: The newspapers are gonna pick up on this: Hannibal Buress is producing snuff porn. 

HB: What is he talking about, comedy/snuff porn? That’s nonsense.

AVC: Has writing for SNL helped your stand-up at all?  

HB: Yeah, it makes it easier to get some gigs because of the job. And also it helps me with editing and rewriting jokes, or adding stuff to jokes. It makes it easier for me to do those kinds of things and make those kinds of decisions quickly. And also it frees me up where, since I’m working most of the time, I’m not trying to fill 52 weeks like when I was just doing stand-up. I’m trying to fill way fewer weeks so I can be a little bit pickier with my gigs.

AVC: On the flip side, how does your stand-up style parlay into the sketches that you write?  

HB: Some of the sketches I’ve written are just stand-up bits stretched out. Or different concepts that I’ve thought of for stand-up but that didn’t really work in the stand-up format, so I put it in a sketch.  

AVC: What are your favorites sketch ideas that didn’t get on the show? 

HB: Well, with my first couple sketches, I was still learning. My first sketch I wrote for the show was Megan Fox as a scatting horror villain that killed people with her scatting.  

AVC: How did Lorne Michaels not go for that? 

HB: He might have liked it but scatting wasn’t her strength. But you know, all the sketches get readthrough at the table, so she did scat. It didn’t make it to TV, but I did get to see Megan Fox scat.  

AVC: Was she any good?  

HB: She was better than you would think at scatting. Actually I can’t say better than you would think, because I don’t know what your opinion of Megan Fox is—I’m just assuming. You might think off the top that she’s an excellent scatter.

AVC: Do you ever write a sketch and know there’s no chance that it’s going to make it on the air?

HB: Well, I try to have a positive attitude. If I put a lot of effort into a sketch, and rewrite it, and get other people's input on it, I go in thinking it’ll get on. But sometimes I’m like, “Oh man, I like this idea, but it might not…” I wrote this sketch called “Fedora Basketball,” where the players in the NBA had to wear fedoras, and the goal was the try to keep your fedora on. It’s something that won't go over in print. [Laughs.]  

AVC: So they had to keep the fedora on their heads—

HB: Yeah, and that would be a stat. Like if you crossover somebody and their fedora fell off, that’s a stat.  

AVC: So, it would be a turnover if your fedora fell off?  

HB: No, not a turnover, it’s just your fedora fell off, that’s not good for the game and for your team. It’s bad for morale.  

AVC: Did you write an entire skit for that? 

HB: Yeah, I wrote the whole thing. Another thing you have to worry about when writing for the show is making it fit within a studio. The way I wrote it initially, it was like five different sets. There was a basketball court, a press conference room, and a locker room set. So it would have been a big production.

AVC: What era of the show did you really grow up on?  

HB: I don’t know, when I was a teenager, so like Chris Farley, and [Adam] Sandler, those dudes. Chris Rock was on. Tim Meadows. Phil Hartman.  

AVC: Do you think the show now is just as good as that era?  

HB: I was 13 then and I’m 27 now, so my sensibilities are different, and you can’t really compare. The show now is great. You just can’t really compare. It’s definitely a different status of life and a different perspective from watching it to working on it.  

AVC: You recorded a stand-up record at Lakeshore Theater. When will that be released?  

HB: I’ve got to finish doing work on it. I have to do track names and that’s pretty much it. Track names and thank yous. I guess I’m delaying on it because I’m kind of nervous about putting out a CD. But I eventually have to put it out or the record label will be mad.  

AVC: So it’s just sitting there? Wasn’t this from last year? 

HB: Yeah, it’s a year ago. It’s all topical from a year ago, so I don’t know how it’s going to go over.  

AVC: It’s probably a lot of, “How about that election we just had?”  

HB: Yeah it’s really dated. I do a lot of jokes about the pilot “Sully” [Chesley Sullenberger] that lands the plane in the water. I do 15 minutes on him, cause I thought the CD would come out like a week after I did the show.  

AVC: Do you have a working title?  

HB: I think I might just make it self-titled so I don’t come up with a weird title and regret it later. Or that might be my title.  

AVC: What you just said?  

HB: This Album Is Self-Titled Because I Don’t Want To Come Up With A Weird Title And Regret It Later—that might be the title.  

AVC: Has your stand-up evolved at all since you moved?

HB: I don’t know—I guess so. I do different jokes. I hope it’s evolving. I do a lot more material about slapping people. I do about 20 at the top about that.

AVC: Just slapping-people jokes?  

HB: Slapping people. I do seven minutes on left-hand slaps and 13 minutes on right-hand slaps.

AVC: Why more on right-hand slaps?  

HB: I don’t know, because I’m left-handed. You would think I’d do more with that. It’s just how it worked out.  

AVC: Has your pace changed at all or is it still pretty slow?  

HB: It depends on the crowd. I can speed it up if need be, depending on how I’m feeling. But usually I try to keep a nice pace.  

AVC: How’d you get involved with The Awkward Kings?  

HB: My friend [director Victor Varnado] was like, “You want to do this show? We’re going to tape it." And I was like, “Yeah, I’ll do it.” And it ended up being a movie. I didn’t know if it would be straight-to-DVD or what it would do. It took a few months after we filmed it to see, “Oh, this is a real project.” And then when I saw it I thought, “This is shot really well.” But it was a fun project and I’m excited for it to come on Comedy Central.