The three-hour celebration of the 50th anniversary of Saturday Night Live that was broadcast live on NBC on Feb. 16 opened with a duet by Paul Simon and Sabrina Carpenter and closed with a Beatles medley by Paul McCartney.
In between there were star turns by Miley Cyrus, Tom Hanks, Brittany Howard, Steve Martin, John Mulaney, Eddie Murphy, Jack Nicholson, Martin Short, and Meryl Streep, among far too many other bold-faced names to mention.
All of which is to say: it was a tough night for a performer to stand out and do something memorable. And yet, that鈥檚 just what one of Dartmouth鈥檚 own, Rachel Dratch 鈥88, managed to accomplish, as a signature offering from the seven years she spent in the SNL cast from 1999 to 2006.
Dratch, who currently serves on the Board of Advisors of the , partnered with the veteran SNL writer Paula Pell to imagine what sad-sack Debbie would be worried about in 2025.
They had no shortage of material as Debbie, in the role of a backstage bartender, name-checked the hazards of microplastics, the latest research on the perils of alcohol consumption, the threat of bird flu, and even the looming extinction of the white rhino, each observation punctuated by the sound of a muted horn.
In a sketch that also featured Drew Barrymore, Ayo Edebiri, and Jimmy Fallon, the tension was highest between Dratch鈥檚 Debbie and an unlikely partner: Robert De Niro, who was playing himself. Perhaps only Debbie would fearlessly greet the two-time Oscar-winning actor with 鈥淵ou talkin鈥 to me?鈥 one of his own, best-known lines, from the movie Taxi Driver. As of Feb. 20, had been viewed more than 1.7 million times on YouTube.
In a brief interview earlier this week, Dratch talked about how she drew on her improvisational training at Dartmouth (she was in the troupe Said and Done) to go toe-to-toe with an actor famous for some of the most menacing roles in film history. She also discussed how it felt to sit in an audience that was the equivalent of a mash-up between the Academy Awards, Emmy Awards, and the Grammys.
Q: How did Debbie Downer end up with a coveted slot in the SNL 50th anniversary celebration show?
A: When you hear the 50th is happening, you wonder, 鈥淎m I going to be in anything? Or am I just going to be in the audience?鈥 Then I got the call a couple of weeks ago that they wanted me to do a Debbie Downer.
Q: How did you and Paula Pell approach the writing of the sketch?
A: It came together quite easily because there鈥檚 a lot of downers right now. After we started brainstorming we had two possible scenarios. One was to do what we did: backstage with real celebs. The other was to have Debbie as a party clown at a kids party. I guess Lorne (Michaels) liked the idea of the celebs thing. And then we found out that Robert De Niro was available. So we were really excited about that.
Q: Was it you or Paula who came up with the idea of Debbie channeling Travis Bickle by asking DeNiro: 鈥淵ou talkin鈥 to me?鈥
A: I think Paula might have had that idea. That made me laugh. The script initially had De Niro lunging at me and Jimmy says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 not worth it, Bobby.鈥 But during rehearsal I was like, 鈥淲hat if you actually strangle me?鈥 That was an improv moment. Then we put it in for the actual sketch. So I got to be throttled by Robert De Niro.
Q: How did that feel?
A: When you鈥檙e a comedian you don鈥檛 think you are going to be in a scene with Robert De Niro. I know he does comedies. But when you鈥檙e a lowly sketch player you don鈥檛 think you鈥檙e going to be in a scene with an Oscar winner. And then here we are, in our ragtag sketch gang, getting to do a scene with De Niro. It鈥檚 really cool.
Q: Were you nervous?
A: I might have been in a little inner panic. You鈥檙e looking around the room. You鈥檙e seeing all these people in the audience. And you鈥檙e thinking: I have to perform in front of THESE people? It can give you some nerves. The whole thing is actually a blur to me.
Q: You had been out in that all-star audience earlier.
A: I was in the audience most of the time. Steven Spielberg was sitting in the row directly behind me. Ryan Reynolds was to my left. And then down the row is Jack Nicholson and De Niro. Cher is two rows behind me. That was just my section. Some people were just watching the audience.
Q: Long before you were a Saturday Night Live cast member you were a fan, one who was in elementary school when the show had its premiere in 1975.
A: I grew up watching it kind of religiously. Even if I hadn鈥檛 been on the show, I would have been happy just being there in the audience Sunday night. It just covered so many moments of our lives and so many little catch phrases. I had that admiration and nostalgia. Then there鈥檚 seeing all your friends, like a reunion of your cast.
Q: How was the after-party?
A: The party was at the Plaza Hotel and it was really fun. Arcade Fire played. And Eddie Vedder got up there. I was mainly hanging with old cast members like Will Ferrell and Ana Gasteyer and Molly Shannon. I took my mom along. Her name is Elaine and she is 85. She was sitting next to me during the show. She stayed out until 4:30 in the morning. She鈥檚 so spry.
Q: What鈥檚 next for you?
A: My little podcast鈥斺攊s ongoing. It鈥檚 about stories of 鈥渢he unexplained, the eerie and other-worldly.鈥 If anyone has a ghost story they want to share, hit me up. It feels funny to say that in a Dartmouth interview. Like: 鈥淪he鈥檚 gone crazy!鈥 But we鈥檝e had some really cool stories of time travel and astral projection. It鈥檚 not just ghosts. It鈥檚 other weird things too.
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Jacques Steinberg 鈥88 was a journalist for 25 years at The New York Times, where he mainly wrote about education, TV, and pop culture. He , his classmate, for the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine in 2000.