Hey, welcome back to snap decisions. This is part two of our conversation with Wally Farrison. AKA cue card Wiley coming up. We're going to hear from Wally more stories behind the scenes on the set of Saturday night live and Seth Myers. Here we go.

You talked about making some of the guests and the hosts comfortable. Clearly that works because man, reading about you and just listening to I don't want to promote another podcast, but they're already number one. So what the hell, you know, the guys on smart list, Jason Bateman and Sean Hayes and Will Arnett often reference you. And it's clear that some really big talent of all stripes. just rely on you when they come on that show and have developed a comfort with you. Obviously there's some experience there. There's some chemistry there to what do you attribute your ability to kind of make those connections and make them feel comfortable?

It's, you know, I mean, I guess doing it so long, I think, you know, one of your questions, which was interesting, was how long did it take to get good at what what you did. So I was naturally really good at holding the cards when I first started. I wasn't running anything. I was just a worker and within 3 years, the guy that was running it. Left and there were three or four people that had four years more experience than me and they picked me to run the show because I was the coolest under pressure and I could handle those pressure situations, making snap decisions very quickly without panicking. Can we get the changes done in time? Can we only do these amount of changes? Something like that. It probably took me three years to get comfortable running that show. Because I didn't trust anybody to do it because now I'm, now I'm responsible. So I think you guys may be in those situations where you're in charge and you're doing all the work or you're doing supervising everything and you won't do it something without being involved with it, and then you get comfortable with your workers and you say, oh, they can do it, they're trained well, and then I can relax a little bit. So it took me about three years to get really good. And then when I got comfortable, then I could make the hosts. Comfortable. I think just by showing, Hey, this is where I'm going to be on Saturday. And there's going to be a set over here and you want to run cards, you know, if it's a sketch that really hard, I'll come in your dressing room and cards, anything they want to make the experience, better. So I had a good experience this summer. With Ryan Reynolds. I did a commercial. They hired me to do a commercial with him in Toronto, and he didn't know I was coming so that their director flew me out, put me up, flew me on first class was really nice. And I got on set, and he walks by me doesn't see me. And, and then I see him talking to the director and then he runs over to me and he was like, what the hell are you doing here and I was like, I'm here.

Okay.

And he was like, Brian, the director, told me they had cue cards and they, he was like, they told me, he's like, you won't believe who we got. And he told me, and he's like, when he said your name, he was like, I instantly relaxed. My body relaxed. I, I was, he's like, I was, I'm at ease and I'm not worrying about anything for the rest of the shoot today. It's just hearing my name made him relax and say, Oh, Oh, this is going to be, this is great. So yeah, I guess I have that appeal because I proved myself over the years, proving yourself and doing that right. But it was really nice to hear him say that and instantly relaxing people. That's why I did cards for Seth when Seth started. I was only working three days a week, 21 weeks out of the year. I had a really nice, nice life,

good gig there,

time on it. But when Seth started, I wanted him to relax and not worry about cue cards. I wanted to worry about the writing. That's why I took on that.

So, obviously you're putting people at ease. Do you think you're, you've done a bunch of writing? Do you think some of your writing chops have helped you with, you know, timing and kind of being on the same page with a performer?

I think so. I think that's a really good, that's a really good point. I grew up in comedy. My brother writes, my brother writes comedy. My dad wanted to be a comedian. I really wanted to write comedy. I wanted to write funny movies. Yes, I think having a good sense of humor helped me understand the sketch and maybe write it differently and, and, you know, just, yeah, help them out. So yes, I think, I think that having that sense of humor comes into play a lot, you know?

So yeah, so when you're filming both, both shows during a week, are you, are you going up and down 30 Rock, like back and forth the whole time, or

Thursday is the only day of Seth tapes Monday through Thursday and SNL is Thursday, Friday, Saturday. So Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, I'm there from 2 to 5 nice cushy 3 hour day, you know, drive in our drive home our Thursday is the tougher one where I have set that from 4 to 5. Well, SNL starts rehearsing at three. And the studios are right next to each other on the same floor. So I'm just so it's really easy. So I'm just going back and forth wherever, you know, Seth gets the preference because they're taping that day and I said, well, it's just rehearsal, but I'm going in there and if it's a host, I haven't met, I try to go talk to them and say, Hey, this is, I'm doing Seth. I'll be here, you know, out in an hour or two. And they're like, okay, fine. You know, go ahead. The ones that are nervous would be like, Oh, you're coming back. I say, yeah, I'll be back. I'm just. So yeah, it's a little bit of juggling on thursday, but then friday I'm there all day and saturday there. I'm all day doing, you know, doing stuff when amber, I don't know, amber ruffin, if you guys ever watched that show, that used to take friday mornings, a rehearsal would start friday morning. So that was a tougher one. I have to be in at like 8 30, which I hate mornings being 30. We tape at one and then we finished around three and then I'd have to go over and press it down rehearsal. So it was a long, it was a lot.

a long day.

It was between two shows on Thursday, two shows on Friday, and then Saturday. Yeah, it was long, but she's not taping any shows right now, right now, so it's good.

And then you, so you, you, you mentioned around Reynolds special, you do pick up occasional things here and there too, just to kind of stay busy in the off season, I

Well, yeah, I mean, when the strike was going, I was a commercial, so I could still do that. I mean, I used to do that a lot when I was first starting out or when I was starting out with my company and I was younger and I was like, yeah, they, I'm the only cue card company in town, basically. So if someone comes to town and they need cue cards, they're thinking about getting cue cards. They have to come to me. So I get, you know, I would get a lot of offers like, yeah, in the summer when I was off, I was off in the summer when there was no Seth. And yeah, I'd get like, we do the parade. We do the Macy's parade. We, we do shows on New Year's Eve. We were in the, in Times Square. We don't do them anymore. We did the ones in Miami this lately. Cause Lauren produces the one, the Miley Cyrus ones with Lauren produced those. So I did those. Yeah. It's things like that, you know

So my big takeaway from all that is that there's a, there's a cue card cartel that you're in charge of.

pretty much

No, no one else can come in and do it. Huh?

I mean, they could try, but I own all the cue card workers. So, you know, good luck, good luck with that. It was like,

you, you've got a full staff, right? You've got a full staff at any time doing a bunch

got 15 15 workers, 15 people, guys and girls working for me. And yeah, I mean, it's just it's something that, again, I didn't set out to have a company. It's just something that turned into this opportunity. And I was really good at it. And know, it's my career now, you know, it's what I'm known for.

that. I love that. Cause you, you just, never know where, where life's going to take you. And here you are. Yeah.

I know people like this, people, I tell them what I do, like that's a job. That's a thing. It's

It's not just a job, it's a whole business

I say it's the, I, I say it's the, it's the, I have the card company in the, in the, in the world, in the, in the country, because cue card company in the country and people are like, well, you couldn't say the world because there's not really big cue card companies in the world. And I was like, yeah, that seems, even for my ego, that seems really hard. I'm not going to,

we'll say it for you.

you guys can say it.

Maybe, we'll redo the intro and introduce you as the world's, running the world's largest cue card company. You also run a side business, a cue card business. So Brian mentioned this, that during, during COVID, you started selling cue cards directly

Yeah. personalized cue cards. Now, these are, there's a two really good snap decisions in this story. And it's not ones that I made. It's one that my business wife made that you guys know, Deborah Feresten, a year before that 2019.

Brilliant, brilliant woman.

Brilliant

up with this idea. I had the idea to do personalized cue cards for people. I can't, I was thinking about it one night and I remember walking into the kitchen and she was, she was sitting doing something, probably work. And I told her, I go, I get this idea for this, for this company. What do you think? And I told her the idea and within three seconds, she said, nope. Nope, not the time for it. It's not going to work. You know, you'll go away. It was like that. I swear it was that quick. And I, and whether it was, I don't know what she based her decision on probably based it on that. I was already working a lot, and she knows me. I don't like to do work. She made she made me that was part of the decision whatever it was, it was, it was quick and I didn't challenge her on it because she's she knows her she knows her stuff. Year later, COVID's here. It's probably three months in the COVID. I think it was like May and I've been doing nothing. I'm, and I'm sitting on a couch gaining weight, not doing anything. And she's, she's watching a show and she said, I think I need to start a new company. And I was like, Hey, what about that? Cue cards by Wally. We think that personalized cue card. And again, snap decision. Yes. How's the time to do it?

Just as fast as that now. Right.

Yeah, it was really fast again. And she was like, yes, now's the time to do it. You can't, people can't go to weddings. They can't go to birthdays. This is, this is perfect. So again, even though I wasn't working, I didn't want to do a lot of work. So it took a couple of weeks for her to figure out. And she came up with, I know you guys have done this MVP, minimal viable

Mm hmm.

It was like, she's like, get a Venmo account and get an Instagram account and go. And that's what I did. That was easy. And then it, it took off. I got some press within like two weeks of opening and it was on its way. And she, again, was right again. So really smart snap decisions by her from her business, all the stuff she learned in business. You know,

So I, I hadn't thought of this before, but now I know I'm going to get Brian for his birthday. I'm going to get him a, a, a personal handwritten cue card by

yeah.

fantastic.

going to say something nasty, but it will be from you.

So yeah, so, so she, she used her business acumen and, and knowing her husband to say no. And then to say, yes, that

now's the time. Timing's everything.

true marketer, assessing the market predicting when things are ripe for opportunity. That's great.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was really, really smart. And I, and that, that was something. That I didn't expect to bring me so much joy. I thought it was just something to keep me busy, but it was the feedback I was getting from people that they couldn't go to a birthday party or an anniversary and that they were giving this original gift that went over really well. And everyone was like, Oh my God, this is fantastic was, was kept money coming in and just kept me happy. You know, and it made me, made me feel like I was doing something to, to bring joy to people during this. Pandemic that we all suffered through, you know, is it was it was really, really fun, fun. And it just felt, made me feel really good about what I do, you know?

Very cool. Does anyone ever pay you to come do an event? Like that's not like a recorded, not a professionally produced thing, but

that's the, that's the next business we're launching. Now, no, no, we were, we're doing research, I'm very, very slowly, but doing research on like, I speak at a lot of colleges, like for free, I'll go to like the colleges that my kids went to, but also local colleges like Montclair State I've been to with, with friends of my sons that go there. And I'll go and speak to classes or groups of people. And I get a lot of really, really good feedback from that. I get a lot of good stories and I give out cue cards and they have a great time. So, yeah, so we're looking into that down the road as another income stream. When I get closer to maybe not doing as much cue cards, but going and speaking to colleges or you know, she thinks I would do well with at businesses. I don't know if I would do as well with the, with the, you guys would know, like, like a company thing. I just don't know if, if that's my audience, you know, maybe some of them would be my audience, but not all of them, you know,

think you can figure it out.

Yeah, I think you

there's something there.

There's definitely something there. and I, you know, going to I think colleges would be really fun. And yeah, I don't know, you know, there's, there's, that's going to be the next step. The next thing, you know, speaking, speaking things with a whole presentation and one thing. Yeah.

was your what was your reaction to being on camera? You know, I know that it started year or two into when you were in SNL, but like, is that, I mean, that's gotta be like icing on the cake. But were you, nervous were you in those types of situations? And it's gotta be so much fun.

it's, you know, I was, I was an actor. I did acting in high school. I always wanted to be a writer. I did. I didn't, I got, I liked being on camera, but it wasn't my focus. So anytime SNL said, Hey, we put you in the monologue, we put you in the cold open. It was fantastic. It was really fun. And I get to, you know, you have enough time to rehearse, even though it's SNL, you have time to rehearse. And then when Seth started doing it more and more and more Yeah. I think I was, you know, I was nervous at first and I don't think I was great, but the more and more I did it, the more and more I would relax about it. Because the thing is sometimes I won't know I'm on camera until an hour before the show starts. We'll get a closer look. At two 30, I start printing it. I see I'm in it. So as I'm printing it, I'm trying to learn my lines

So wait, they write you into it and you don't even know?

No, I have no idea. And so I get the script, you know, an hour and a half before the show while I have to print the script. So I don't really have time to be nervous. I just kind of like, take it like, and it's fun. Like they don't set that Seth has the confidence to put me in it and keep on putting me in, into it. And let me add, I'm Mike every day, whether I'm in the show or not, we had a mistake. We had a misspelled word, Pennsylvania. We misspelled on a, on a monologue joke. And he called me out on it and then called himself on it. Cause I was like, I read this. During rehearsal and I didn't see it and we just started talking about it in the process of what happened and it was really funny and it was, you know, really good. So they feel free with letting me ad lib something like that. And I feel it feels fun, you know?

I love when they had you look like George Santos. That

Oh, yes. I'm very upset. I didn't, I was going to text the writer to see if I could, you know, have a reference to me or at least play him one more time, you know, when he was ousted, but it didn't, it didn't happen.

was a good one

that was, that was fun.

So as you, as you get more and more on camera time, especially on Seth, like you just said, and you're, you've got kind of some celebrity status.

Yeah.

Do you feel like you have to make decisions like how to walk that line between being behind the camera and in front of the camera? What is that? Or is it just like kind of thrust upon you and you just go with it?

It's trying to keep my ego, you know, so that smaller so that I don't annoy my coworkers, my wife.

Well, that's what your wife is for to keep your

Any anybody around me and it's harder and harder like, you know, like I said, I did that Ryan Reynolds commercial He put me in instagram post last week. I don't know if you guys if you saw it there were there were leaked photos from the set of his superhero movie so the shooting deadpool 3 and I guess a cameraman Big lens got shots of set and leaked them to some websites. So he, two days after, leaked his own on set photos, but they were photoshopped, really bad photoshopped, like Mickey Mouse was in one and Urkel was in the background of another one. And then he put me in one holding a card that said, Wally put the cards down that he got from, that he photoshopped in from SNL. Now I think he did it because the commercial we worked on released the day before this happened. That is crazy. Mike, Seth Meyers was calling me. He was like, did you see what Ryan Reynolds just posted? My brother was calling me from Hollywood saying, what, what's going on with this? You know, like it was, it was really, so when things like that start happening. That's crazy. You know, that's really,

I, I love that your brother who wrote for Seinfeld is now, is now jealous of your celebrity status.

Oh, no doubt. I can tell you the stories of hanging out with my brother at a cast party early on in my career and Nicole Kidman hosted me. She was still married to Tom Cruise. And we were hanging at the bar and Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise walk in and they're trying to get to the table and Tom Cruise is like, hold on a second. And he did a beeline for me and came up. Shook my hand. He's like, thanks so much for helping her out. You are fantastic tonight. And my brother's there with his mouth open going, what is going on?

Right. And so he was a, he was a receptionist first at saturday night live, right? Before he became a

He worked. Yep. Yep. He worked his way up. I try to keep

Not Tom Cruise, your brother, just to be clear.

No, my brother. I try to keep that stuff in check. Like I said, it's really cool to hear that stuff. And I have celebrities coming up and telling me they watch me on the show. And I think I'm really funny. Like Jon Hamm. I know who I know from SNL, but he was like, you're so funny in the show. That kind of blows me away when I, when I have celebrities that will be that, but like I said, I try to keep it in check and I try to say, okay, it's the fun part of the job, but it's still, I'm still doing cue cards. I'm still going to focus on that and not that.

Well, you know, it's good. Cause you have. You, you know, when you look at your team, you know how they need to be acting. So you, you are able to be able to, you know, see it

I have to balance. It is a balance, though. I do have to balance it. I can think about it when the show's over, but when the show's going on, I'm focused on doing cue cards, unless I'm in something, you know, for that, for that moment, because you have to be focused to do that job, you know?

Well, you've had some nice moments to shine in the spotlight, but it sounds like also from your description that sometimes you're kind of working in the bowels of Studio 8 H you know, writing for hours, so I get that that could be kind of the non glamorous side. Curious to hear you don't have to name names, but, you know, please do. Like any of like really unpleasant cast members or guests, like any stories around, like just a, just a crappy situation regarding talent.

cast members know, and, you know, it's the people that you would imagine were not, were not nice. You know, like George Steinbrenner, when, you know, he comes to host. He's

Okay. Name names.

going to be a pleasant, he's not going to be a pleasant guy, you know, it's people like that. I will say, you know, Donald Trump wasn't the, wasn't the worst when he was, this was before politics. He was just a reality host and a state guy. And he was, he was fine. He wasn't good, but he was, you know, he was fine. Usually it's not the non actors, you know, that come in, the Elon musks will come in and people like that, that aren't used to this kind of thing. So they don't know how to act,

different environment for them.

you know, they're not an act on camera. They don't know how to act off camera kind of thing, you know, but most of, I would say 97 percent of people are really nice because they need me. I'm, I'm helping them out, you know, so not going to be mean to me or a jerk to me because I'm there to help them, you know?

absolutely.

Yeah.

What was your what's your favorite cast era?

Well, they say it's when you started watching, right? That's what they say. Whatever you were watching, or when you were a teenager, I think when you were a teenager, that's, that's that's probably your favorite. So, I mean, I started watching when I was 10, when the show started. So, I mean, the original cast really is what, how I grew to love the show. I don't remember a lot when they left, so I think I stopped watching that Eddie Murphy, Eddie Murphy years, Billy Crystal. I don't remember watching a lot, but I was Probably in high school, probably going out a lot on Saturdays. And this was, did we have VCRs in, in the early eighties? right.

Yeah. Not everyone had them, but you know,

Yeah. So, so it's the first cast. And then when I started working, you know, I started working with Adam Sandler and Chris Farley and, you know, and you know, those guys and David Spade. So, you know, those, that's my second favorite when I started with those guys, you

Really putting him on the spot there, Brian. He's got, he's got to work with these people, you know, not,

they know,

and I, and I'm guessing the cast is listening,

maybe

cast. Yeah,

they're not here, they're not here right now,

no, no, but they will be listening eventually,

when you came in when you started SNL did you always see that as kind of like uh, going to be here for a couple of years and I'm going to do something else and see that as, you know, what point did you realize that like, know, this is where I'm going to

there. I was gonna be stuck there for 33 years. Yeah, I wanted to be a writer. So I don't know if we covered that. I went to school, went to Syracuse for writing. And I wanted to be a writer. So I took the job to get my foot in the door. And I did. I made contacts. I was writing. I started writing jokes for Norm Macdonald on Weekend Update immediately. And then. I got hired to do some stuff for Nickelodeon and Cartoon Network and MTV. And I was writing episodes of things here and there, nothing, you know, to keep, nothing to pay the bills, you know, it was just like 500 here, 800 there.

but you were actually, you were actually a writer.

Yeah, oh yeah, I was hired to write, I was doing that, so I was doing the cue cards to keep, you know, the money coming in, but I really, really wanted to write, so I took, I took six, four months off, I, I, I left the show one year, my buddy took over, and I think I had just got married, so I think my wife was maybe a little bit of that, I was like, well, you should, if you want to write, why don't you, you know,

I mean, just go and do it. Yeah.

I went out to LA with my brother. My brother set me up with an agent and I took like a bunch of meetings, you know, people at production companies and I pitched them ideas and, you know, introduced myself kind of thing. I did that for like three months, like going out, flying out and doing that and nothing came of it. And she said, okay, you know, don't have to give it up, but we need to, we need some money. We need somebody coming in my, her, her city bank salary was not going to pay for us living in the city. So I went back to help out. And in the meantime, while I was gone in those four months, my buddy who I knew. He was good at doing cue cards, but again, like I said, it took me three years to get the hang of running the thing. He was nowhere close to knowing how to run it. And they were missing me big time. At the end of the season, he decided to move to LA and the show said we want Wally back to run it. And I was, and I was like, well, I don't know. And they were like, whatever you want, whatever

leverage, right?

I had serious leverage because they saw what life was like without me and they didn't like it. So I went back. I named my salary. I said, I want to make this. I want to do this. And I want to write, I wanted to write sketches. And they said, okay, we'll agree to all that. They paid me what I wanted. it was the first year of the Will Ferrell all those guys. It was a whole cast came in at the same time and write all writers too. They said, let us have the first three months to get like our feel and then we'll let you start submitting sketches. And they did in January, they went to me and said, okay, you can submit a sketch to every show, you know, one sketch to every show.

Wow.

I started writing sketches and I almost got the first one I submitted almost got on it was in the it was in the show like four or five times it was out it was in it was out it was in and word came back from Lorne, Lorne loved it. He was like you're you're you could keep on writing, and that was like a good boost I was like this is really nice, and they were trying to figure out if I did get one on. I'm not in the Writer's Guild. How are they going to pay me? What am I going to do? There was all this talk about that. And I did it for three weeks. I didn't get a sketch on, but I was really close, and they were really liking my stuff. And then a guy in props, who'd been there for 20 years, you know, longer than me, went up to them and said, Hey, why is Wally allowed to write

Oh yeah.

I want to write a sketch too. And then they were like, all right, we can't let Wally write sketches anymore. And that guy is my mortal enemy. I, he doesn't work on the show anymore, but he ruined it. Yeah. He's like, okay, you can't do it. I know it did, but it was, it was a good feeling. And then again, I was getting to the point where I think I started the company in 2004 because we were being treated pretty badly. And again, Deb making the decision. I got her the, I got her the number. She ran a number, she did a business plan, which I didn't know what that was. And she was like, yeah, we can make some money. We can move to a better town, bigger, bigger house. I go, I just bought a sports car. You can have a sports car. I'm like, okay, let's do it. So we started the, and it's 19 and we've had it for 19 years now running pretty well. So

Fantastic. So, so you had a couple of decisions there. One was to not stay in L. A. and keep writing, and then to start your own company. Those are big decisions that kind of got you to be the king of cue cards.

yeah, yeah.

What if you, what if those decisions had been different and you'd kind of gone down the writing track? Do you think that would have been as fulfilling?

I say, I talk about it all the time. No, I think, cause I see my brother who's doing that. My brother's a very successful writer but. I think the experiences I have and continue to have as a cue card guy would far outweigh anything that I would have had as a writer, even if I was writing great movies or really funny movies. I'm meeting these people and getting this relationship with them and this thing that no one else has, you know, and it's fantastic.

maybe you would have got five good years and then,

Yeah, maybe hit movies and maybe, you know, I've been able to live off that, but this is so much fun. And I've got a, I've got a really cool reputation. A friend of mine like two years ago said I Googled cue cards and your picture came up. I was like, Oh, that's that's, that's kind of cool.

Well, well, hearing you talk about those connections and those relationships and hearing the people you're, you're connecting with talk about their relationship with you, clearly you're doing something right. So

Yes. Well, thank you, I, I, I try, I try. Yeah. It's really fun. And yes, when I get that feedback from people like Alec Baldwin and stuff, it's really, really, really meaningful, you know, really great.

Awesome. Awesome. Well know, we really appreciate you taking some time and talking to us. We'd love hearing your story. We'd love.

Great stuff.

Everything about it and, you know, it's not marketing, but it is, you know, and it's uh, there's a lot of crossovers here and it's great. So thank

No, I appreciate you guys having me. No, I've done, I've done some talks. I have a friend that's in the business world and I've gone and talked to his group. And they've asked me questions, stuff like that. And it's a lot of it's really relatable to, to what you guys do. I'm managing employees, but it's a different kind of thing, but it's the same. It's the same kind of things. It's communication and it's trust and it's, you know, the communication thing I think is probably one of the most important things. Right. You guys, You know, it's all, it really is all this.

Huge. Yeah. And when stuff isn't going, going well, a lot of times it's a communication breakdown,

Yeah. I appreciate you guys having me.

no matter what you're, what you're, doing. Yeah. Thank you so much. It was great to see you. Great talking to you. And thanks so much for sharing your stories.

guys too. Thanks a lot.

you. Wow, John, that was a great guest. It's great talking to Wally.

Yeah. What cool stories he has.

Yeah, second to none really.

It's fascinating to hear, not only the stories, that he has from these iconic TV shows, but, and you think about it's him because he's on camera an awful lot, but the fact that there's a whole team that he is just orchestrating to bring all this content to life, live, every single week is just really cool.

yeah, and it seems like he, it doesn't get old for him either. He just loves it. Good stuff. Good stuff. All right.

right, well, to close this out here, do you have a dear, hopelessly unattainable guest for us?

yes, I got one to wrap it up here. And, uh, you know, I was thinking long and hard about, how we're going to get somebody on here that is, uh, one of our moonshots. And so I decided to take a little bit of a different approach on this one. And so, who I am trying to attract this time is, uh, none other than Tom Hanks.

Ooh

Yeah, so,

Big name. That's a true A lister.

true A lister, top actor of our generation. so here we go, alright? Let's get after it.

Moon shoot away.

Dear Tom, we are a new ish podcast that really focuses on the hard and tough choices professionals make that lead to their inevitable success. While we love to hear about the highest of the highs and occasionally talk about the lowest of the lows, I'd love for you to join our show to only talk about your lows. You have a magnificent career parallel to almost no one, including giant consecutive hits in the 90s in Philadelphia, Forrest Gump, and Apollo 13. Your sweethearted rom coms with Meg Ryan. Your portrayal of legends like Walt Disney, Mr. Rogers, Colonel Tom Parker, and Ben Bradley. I want to hear about whether you have a floor piano like you danced on in Big, or what it was like to work with, and know, Steven Spielberg. But I'm willing to give it all up and sacrifice all those fun conversations to dig into your rock bottom. Moves like Joe vs. The Volcano and the Bonfire of the Vanities. You're my favorite guest ever on Saturday Night Live. You're so likable and make it look all too easy. especially in the legendary skits like David S. Pumpkins and the Mr. Belvedere fan club. But what the heck happened with the movie Larry Brown? Let's focus on those struggles. I'm sure there's others I can't think of. And the agony and stress it brought upon your career. And so much more on an episode of Snap Decisions. It's the thing that we do. Behind the curtain with Tom Hanks. I can't wait, and I have a feeling you can't either. Sincerely, Brian and John.

I'm not sure what you put my name on that one.

We're in this together, man. We're in this together.

I feel like you really embraced the unattainable portion of the dear, hopelessly unattainable guest who we are offering an unattainably impossible collection of questions for. Tell us about how horrible things have been for you at some time.

I mean, I think that it could be a short episode. So maybe that'll track him, you know? We only want to talk to you for 45 seconds, because there's not very many lows for you.

That's a good point. There's not a lot of conversation around things that haven't gone well for Tom Hanks cause that guy seems to spin most things into gold.

He sure does. He sure does.

All right. Well, you know, we. know somebody who knows him, uh, you know, I, I don't know what kind of relationship Wally has with him, but. We can start there.

we should have, we should have said something.

Let's call him back. All right. Well, let's call it a wrap. Shall we?

let's do it. Let's close it up.

All right. Well, thank you all for joining next time. We will, uh, we'll be even better prepared because we'll have cue cards in front of us.

One more thing, John. Happy new year

Oh yeah. Happy new year.

2024.

I'm going to go work on my resolutions now.

Come on. I'm already done mine. Goodbye.

See ya.