In June of 2012, āSaturday Night Liveā executive producer Lorne Michaels made his biannual trip to the iO Chicago Theater to scope out the talšent, hoping to find the next Tina Fey or Seth Meyers.
The theaterās co-founder, Charna Halš °pern, held auditions before Michaels arrived. Sheād gathered her 15 best performers, ready to show them off.
But as she walked past the red glow of the ticket sign in tšhe box office, she spotted Cecilš y Strong ā and realized the 28-year-old had skipped out on the auditions.
āYšÆou didnāt audition for me,ā Halpern said. āWeāre getting ready for Lorne Michaels!ā
āYeah, I know,ā Strong replied from behind the wooden half-door at the box-office counter, where she sold tickets for the twice-nightly improv shows. āI have some ideas, but I wanted to make sure it was really a great auditioną¼ šbefore I did it.ā
āThatās crazy,ā Halpern counteršed. āYouāre one of my best people. Let me see wāØhat you have.ā
Halpern pulled the performer into her offiš§ce, andā Strong did a bit about an annoying girl at a party, along with a few other short and sweet impressions.
āI told her she had exactly what Lorne is looking for,ā Halpern telšls Tź¦he Post.
She was right. Michaels was struck by Strong and hired her to join the cast last season, where she made her mark doing impressions of MSNBCās Rachel Madšdow and Mayor Bloombergās animated sign language interšpreter, Lydia Callis.
And yesterday, a little more than a year later, NBC announced Strong will be taking a seat aš„t the āSNL Weekend Updateā table next to Meyers. Strong will make her coanchor debut Sept. 28 for the showās Season 39 premiere.
Strong, now 29, has big shoes to fill in a year of major transition for the iconic sketch-comedy show. A whopping six new cast members were announced yesterday, after heavyweights Bill ą“Hader, Fred Armisen and Jason Sudeikis departed last season.
But itās Strongās new high-profile position, presenting news satire in the showās longest-running segment, that has everyone talking. After all, previous āWāeekend Updateā hosts include Fey, who will be hosting the season premiere (no pressure!); Jimmy Fallon, who will be the new host of āThe Tonight Showā early next year; and Amy Poehler, a favorite of Strongās.
āEvery time Iām offered something, I think, āWhat would Amy Poehler do?ā ā Stroą¦ng told the San Francisco Chronicle earlier this summer. āSheās sort of my hero.ā
Poehšler, who won an Emmy for her role on āSNL,ā took her spš°ot next to Fey behind the famous wooden desk after three years as a cast member.
Strong made it there in one quick season.
But sheās no stranger to the news segment. The bit aboš®ut the girl at a party that Strong performed for Michaels last summer? That character is a regular guest on āWeekend Updateā and Strongās most popular.
The Girl You Wish You Hadnāt Started a Conversation With š§øat a Party is a blathering know-it-all who can always get a laugh out of Meyers with clueleāss lines like, āThere are homeless people out there who canāt even pay their mortgages.ā
Although Strongās rise has seemed qušick, the Illinois native has been acting są²ince she was a kid.
Growing up in Oak Park, a Chicago suburb, she did professiošnal theater āwhen she wasnāt working part-time at Buzz Cafe in the townās art district. She started as a dishwasher at the restaurant before graduating to counter service and eventually waitressing.
āI remember her because sheā had a really tight-knit family,ā recalls Buzz Cafe owner Laura Maychruk, who hired Strong in 2000. āHer stepbrother worked here, too, and her dad was a regular customer. I remember Cecily as beautiful, so vivacious and smiling all the time. She had a ton of friends.ā
Strongās high school pals remember her constantly cracking jokes, and when they tuned in last season for her āSNLā premiere, thereš¼ was one character who was very faź§miliar.
āWhen she pź§erformed š¤”the Puerto Rican character [Mimi Morales] on āWeekend Update,ā I was like, āOh, my God, itās high school again,ā ā laughs Matt Johnston, a former classmate of Strongās. āShe used to do that character all the time in the lunchroom.ā
After high school, Strong attended the California Institute of the Arts, where she gź¦”raduated in 2006 with a BFA in theater. She eventually returned to Chicago and began performing at both iO Chicago Theater and the famed Second City.
āWhen she went to āSNL,ā it was like, āMaybe they got her too early,āā says Kelly Leonard, executive vice president at Chicagoās Secšŗond City theater. Strong had only been performing in the theaterās touring group for a year and a half, without even making it to the main stage, where most of their performers are discovered.
But when Leonard watched her āSNLā debut, he says, she āpopped off the screen.”
āShe strikes mše as a combination of Amy and Tina,ā he says. āSheās got Amyās sex appeal and Tinaās dark wit. And all three women have the ability to have their natural likability shine through to the audienź©µce and to say truly mean things in a way that will let you say the next thing and not have people gasping in horror.ā
šLeonard says another key to owning the āWeekend Updateā role is unflappable poise and extreme consistency.
āTo sit at that desk takes a sense of composure and a master delivery,ā says Leonard, who produced Meyers in the 1999 improv show āPickups & Hiccups.ā āSeth doesnāt stumble. You canāt stumble. And you have to have incredible timing and delivery thatās incredibly consistent night after ā¦night.ā
Luckily, Strong wonāt be flying solo just yet.
Meyers will be at the desk with her next weekend and co-hosting āWeekend šØUpdateā aāt least through February, when he begins hosting āLate Night.ā And Michaels, who also produces āLate Night,ā has said he hopes Meyers will continue hosting āWeekend Updateā after the big move.
After the announcement, Meyers tweeted of his new co-anchor: āVery excited about the new Weekend Update co-anchor.ā To which Strong responded: āLetās hope I make it through the first shšow without barfing or fainting!ā
All eyes will š²be on Strong and the young cast next weekend, as people tune in to see if Michaels is able to reinvent the wheel after last seasonās mass cast exodus.
Asā her tweet implies, Strong is already feeling the pressure.
āWe were e-mailing back and forth last night, and she has this fear everyoneās going to be šøupset, but from what Iāve heard, itās going to be quite the opposite,ā Leonard says. āBy far the best actors here have a very healthy amount of insecurity š¹about their own work, and thatās a good thing in the long run. [Stephen] Colbertās like that, Tinaās like that, and thatās a good thing, otherwise youād be building comedy monsters.ā
Additional reporting by Gregory E. Miller and Lindsay Putnam