GetOut Magazine

Darrell Hammond plays the Tempe Improv this weekend
By KELLY WILSON
Get Out

Although Darrell Hammond had the summer off from NBC's “Saturday Night Live,” the comedian — best-known for his impressions of Bill Clinton, Sean Connery and Donald Trump — didn't stop working.

He spent the last few months filming roles in a movie (“Easier, Softer Way”), which will be released next year, and two TV shows (NBC's “Las Vegas” and FX's “Starved”).

Hammond played a “party guy” in the film, a “havoc maker” on the new season of “Las Vegas” and a bulimic on “Starved.” It was the latter role that allowed him to draw upon his past.

“I knew someone who dealt with bulimia,” he says of his “Starved” role, which aired last month. “I appreciate the kind of anxiety that they went through. There are laughs in this episode, but it's sort of a treatment of a subject that often doesn't get a lot of treatment.”

Ideally, Hammond says he would love to become a character actor and take on more serious roles.

“The challenge I have is that I worked my whole life in front of live audiences, and there's no audience here,” he says. “You film these things to complete silence, so it's sometimes a little misleading to me.”

With summer coming to an end, Hammond says he's waiting to hear from “SNL,” which will premiere on Oct. 1, for future assignments.

“Usually I do one or two new (impressions) a year, but after 10 seasons, most of the ones I do, I've done before,” he says.

Though Hammond usually doesn't get a full week to perfect his impersonations, he remains undaunted.

“I think the pressure and also the elation is great when you do score out there,” he says. “I think speed is part of doing that show as opposed to doing any other show.”

Like “SNL” alumni Adam Sandler, Will Ferrell and Jimmy Fallon, Hammond says he sees himself eventually leaving the sketch show to pursue a movie career.

“But before I do that, I want to put a certain amount of money away just in case it doesn't work out,” he says. “I've been fortunate enough to get some movies and some TV guest spots in the time that I've been on the show. I can't guarantee, and I don't think anyone can guarantee someone, a second career in show business. If I have to settle for 10 years on network TV, I really feel like that's an accomplishment.”

Darrell Hammond
When: 8 and 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Where: Tempe Improv, 930 E. University Drive
Cost:$27
Information: and www.tempe improv.com