There's such a saturation of content in general. What is Molly Shannon's advice on breaking through all of that noise and grabbing attention, whether you’re an advertiser or a teen comedian on TikTok?
If you find just one person you're comfortable with, where you feel that you can be yourself, that’s good enough. It only takes one—if you feel like you're trying to create something or have some idea, if you have this one person to understand you, that can be really great. When I was little growing up in Cleveland, I had this one friend who was like, ‘I could picture you being in the movies’ and I was like, ‘You could?’ and she was like, ‘Yeah!’ We’re just like two little kids! So then we started doing characters, and it was like an organic friendship that led to creating characters just in the friendship and kidding around that led to then further art and characters. Follow your heart and your gut.
For what it’s worth, Mary Katherine Gallagher would definitely be a viral hit on TikTok.
Oh my God, that's so funny. Nobody's ever brought that up to me and I'm not on TikTok. I don't know anything about it. That's so interesting that you would say that because I was thinking about that, if I’d never gotten “Saturday Night Live,” if I’d gotten some sitcom and I never created that character, whatever would have happened? Would I have just dropped that? I feel lucky that I got the right break that I did, but I can't imagine what that would have been like to just do it on TikTok.
What is an ad that you’ve seen recently that got your attention and made you buy something?
My friend, Laura Dern, does an ad for True Botanicals. I think Olivia Wilde also does. It makes your face look so fresh and it’s organic. I like the way Laura and Olivia put it on and it just looks like they wake up and put that on and it makes it look really good. Gwyneth Paltrow did some sort of lip gloss recently that looked really good—I was like ooh that makes me want to use it too. I like when they show how they put it on. Drew Barrymore will do lipsticks that she puts on on Instagram.
Oh! Oprah recommended for her Favorite Things these soft pajamas and they are so soft. When I ordered them I was like, “Well, if Oprah likes them, I have to have them!” and they live up to the advertising! My kids and I all tried them and we all loved them. And Sarah Jessica also put her favorite sweatpant on her Instagram and of course I ordered that too and it was fantastic.