Ben Marshall’s first encounter in Hollywood didn’t go as expected.
It was only a year after graduating from university, during the early days of his comedy career, that he and friends Martin Herlihy and John Higgins began making names for themselves with their YouTube videos. The three had just signed with a manager who arranged a meet-and-greet with executives at Comedy Bang Bang, the influential Los Angeles broadcasting and production company, so the trio hopped on a plane thinking they were about to make it big.
“We came in and came up with a bunch of ideas,” he recalls. “Like: We want to do this and this.” The man gently patted us on the back and said, “That’s not how things work.” I’m just getting to know you. ”
It took a little longer, but Marshall, 31, eventually became popular. In fact, this month, he will wrap up his first season in charge SNL The cast member – after four previous seasons on the writing staff – pulled back the curtain on his first on-camera appearance which included kissing Harry Styles and making Jack Black lose it on live TV. This summer, he will star alongside Kevin Hart 72 hoursa “big, broad, crazy comedy” about a bachelor party that will mark Marshall’s big screen debut.
“It was my first time being a paid actor,” he says. “But I’m also interested in doing something more grounded. A rom-com would be great.”
Marshall describes his early career as… High school musical-He loves. He grew up in Savannah, Georgia, and despite his early love of comedy — “My parents divorced when I was 10, and when we would sleep over at my parents’ house, we would always go to Hollywood Video down the street and rent a VHS with Will Ferrell or Adam Sandler” — he was going to play basketball instead. His father was a college star who almost turned pro, and getting an athletic scholarship seemed like the thing to do. “In the end I said, ‘No, Dad, I want to perform,'” says the 6-foot-5 Marshall.
He transferred to the Arts Magnet School and then went on to New York University, where he joined the prestigious improv group Hammerkatz, where he met Harlihy and Higgins, as well as SNL Writer: Mos Pericone. “Moss used to host a show with Rachel Sinnott in the basement of his apartment, and that was also my bedroom,” Marshall says. “It was called Puke Fest, and it was also a drinking game, and I would move my bed and set up the chairs. “It smelled amazing.”
A slightly more formal live show, in a slightly less smelly basement, he recorded SNL gig. Please Don’t Destroy was building their following the hard way — performing weekly shows under East Village bar Von’s — when the shows first caught their attention SNL Cast member Heidi Gardner and then Lorne Michaels, who recruited the three members of Please Don’t Destroy to join SNLIts writing staff produces digital short films for the show.
Marshall arrived at 30 Rock without much direction. “There are a million rules and also no rules SNL,” he explains. Their breakout effort — a deadpan satire about Jiffy Lube launching a hard seltzer line — hit airplay and went viral, and soon they were promoting the A-list spot every week.
“John pitched the idea to Sydney Sweeney as she was in our office confidently farting — we’re having a conversation with her and she’s farting loudly and won’t admit it,” he says. “To her credit, she said, ‘That’s funny, but maybe let’s come up with another idea.’”
Marshall says the promotion to full cast member has been life-changing (he recently helped his mother buy an apartment) but it’s been difficult. “This year in SNL “It was like being a senior and a freshman at the same time,” he says. “I know my way around, and I give advice to other new actors.”
However, knowing his way around the writers’ room turned out to be poor preparation for performing on stage. During an early season rehearsal for a sketch with host Nikki Glaser called “Beauty and Mr. Beast,” Marshall found himself in a state of complete panic. “I remember saying, ‘Will you help me figure out where I’m supposed to look?’ He remembers with a laugh. By Josh O’Connor’s Episode A month later, playing a sensitive stripper at a bachelor party, he realized he was completely comfortable in front of a red light.
However, he still had trouble turning off his mind in the writers’ room. He often wakes up in the middle of the night with a jolt of inspiration for drawings. “My Notes only has 40,000 pages of random thoughts,” he says. “That night, I wrote: ‘I am the son of a janitor, and an up-and-coming murderer.’” I think it’s an astrology joke, but it’s just nonsense.
On 30 Rock, he shares a dressing room with castmate Tommy Brennan, and the two installed a basketball hoop so they could shoot before the show aired. To vent his anger outside of Studio 8H, he plays a weekly pickup game of Lower East Side Comedians — which recently got a write-up in New York times.
“They said the name that came up most often as one of the best players was Ben Marshall from Please Don’t Destroy,” he recalls. “That was the best press I’ve ever gotten. That means more to me than anything I’ve ever done in comedy.”
This story appeared in the May 6 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.
