Designing the Magical Effects On Stage in 'Paranormal Activity' and 'Stranger Things'

All Of It with Alison Stewart

The episode features three distinct segments hosted by Alison Stewart, exploring the hidden mechanics of entertainment and art. It begins with an interview with Wally Feresten

Key takeaways

Wally Feresten has managed cue cards for Saturday Night Live since 1990 and oversees a team of 15 employees.
The Tanya Weddemire Gallery focuses on representing Black and Brown artists from the diaspora to increase museum visibility.

Main topics

Saturday Night Live cue card management
Black-owned art galleries and the Armory Show

Notable quotes

I do magic. I'm an illusion designer...

Conclusion

The episode provides a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the unsee

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:07) I'm Alison Stewart here in the WNYC studios in Soho. Thanks for spending part of your day with us. I'm grateful that you are here. On today's show, Tony Award-winning illusion designer Chris Fisher will talk about his work on shows like Harry Potter and the Cursed Child and Paranormal Activity. And we'll preview the Armory Show with two artists and a gallery owner. But first, live from New York, it's all of it. Speaker 2 (0:41) Saturday Night Live returns for its 52nd season this weekend with a show hosted by Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson. And when Brunson takes the stage that night for the opening monologue, there's one person he's going to be looking at. That's Wally the cue card guy, a.k.a. my guest, Wally Ferriston. Wally has been writing and holding cue cards at SNL since 1990. He's in charge of around 10 members of a team. He also works on Late Night with Seth Meyers. And he runs his own cue card business called Cue Cards by Wally, where you can get a handwritten card from Wally himself. Joining us now is Wally Fairsten. It's nice to meet you. Thank you so Speaker 7 (1:19) much for having me. I appreciate it. Speaker 2 (1:21) Hey, listeners, if you want to get on this conversation, what question do you have for the man behind SNL's cue cards? 212-433-9000. Speaker 2 (1:31) 212-433-WNYC. Whether you've been aware of his work for years, you just dawned on you that there is actually somebody holding cue cards, you can ask Wally a question. Our number is 212-433-WNYC. 212-433-9692. What was your first cue card job? Speaker 7 (1:49) It was actually Saturday Night Live. The first job? Yeah, that's where I started. And the person that hired me... tried to fire me within three shows because my printing was not good. But I had a little bit of an in, so they were testing me out. My brother knew somebody that worked in the cue card department. So the man running at Tony Mendez, who used to run SNL and ran David Letterman for years, had me hold six cards for the first show I ever did. And it was a sprocket sketch I'll never forget. I would never do this to someone starting out, but I think, like I said, I think he was trying to get me fired because my handwriting was so not great. So it was a sprocket sketch. It was the first six cards. It was Kyle McLaughlin and Mike Myers. Mike Myers was reading directly to the camera, and I was the only one holding those cards. So if I screwed up, the whole sketch got screwed up. Speaker 7 (2:40) I held them perfectly. There was a guy standing behind me that when we finished, he was like, I can't believe that. He's like, you held the cards perfectly still, but your entire body was shaking. I was going to say, Speaker 2 (2:50) my hands would have been shaking had I been you. I was really nervous, Speaker 7 (2:53) but I did it fine. And then the next week, they gave me three sketches to hold again to try to get me out of there. I was on a ladder, I remember. I was lying on my back for one, and I did them perfectly. And then I think a light bulb went off in his head. It's like, oh, wait, he could be an asset on the floor. He's really good at this for some reason. For some reason, it just clicked with me. worked with me on my printing and then, you know, the rest of the story goes, I've been there 37 years. So when Speaker 2 (3:15) did you even realize you could have a career in cue cards? Yeah, Speaker 7 (3:18) that's an interesting question. I wanted to be a writer. I went to Syracuse and I majored in writing and I just took the job to get my foot in the door and it allowed me to write for Norm Macdonald. I wrote weekend update jokes and I wrote that allowed me to write some for some MTV and comedy central and never enough to support myself. And Within three years, I was the department head. They picked me over other people because of my calm demeanor and how well I handled the cards. And I still was looking to write. I was still looking to do that. But as I get deeper and deeper into it, you know, my wife's kind of an entrepreneur. And we were having some bad—I was working for somebody. We were having some issues with being paid. properly and paying for supplies. So my wife says, we should maybe start our own company and see if they'll go with us. And that's what we did. And that's when I realized, oh, this could be a career and I could do this for a while. Speaker 2 (4:09) You said you had a calm demeanor. Why is that important? Speaker 7 (4:13) Yeah, well, you know, live shows and we get last minute changes and you're working with celebrities with egos and they're nervous because they've never worked with cue cards before. And I just, for some reason, I handled that well and it didn't, nothing phased me. And I think, you know, cue cards is like a lot of hand-eye coordination. I played sports growing up as a kid and I think that part just really clicked with me. And, you know, it's TV. What are you going to be nervous about TV? It's not surgery. No one's dying at the end of the day, hopefully. In Speaker 2 (4:44) terms of hand-eye coordination, that's very interesting. Can you describe what it is? Yeah, Speaker 7 (4:48) because the way cue cards work is you have to flip the card. Either you're pulling it or you're doubling it, like holding it over another. But you're moving them before the actress finished reading them because they'll be able to read the last three or four words on the card when you're moving them. It's already in their head. So it's really timing. If you pull it too slow, then they're waiting for the next card to come. If you pull it too fast, then maybe they don't see the last. couple words on that card or the last word on the card. So it's really timing. Every single card has to be perfectly turned or, you know, you ruin, kind of ruin a sketch with the timing wise. So it's very important. Focus and just timing really is what it is. Speaker 2 (5:29) We've got a call already. This is Maya calling from Red Bank, New Jersey. Hey, Maya, thanks for taking the time to call all of it. You're on the air with Wally. Speaker 5 (5:37) Hey, Wally. I was just going to ask how much time do you have to implement those last minute changes? I know you just said it doesn't seem so stressful, but it seems stressful to me. Speaker 7 (5:49) Yeah. In the old days, we used to get the scripts, the changes between dress and air. around 11 o'clock, between 11 and 11.10. And we didn't start changes until then. And the live show starts at 11.30. So it was mayhem. It was chaos. And then I asked the question. We decided to go one person less so that everybody would get more money. This was before I took over the company. And I asked the script department, hey, when do you start getting those changes? And they said, well, we get them during dress rehearsal. And I was like, what? why are you waiting until 1110 to send them to us? Send them to us now. So now we get changes throughout dress. And my guys that aren't working and holding cards for dress, they start the changes in dress. So we're starting them earlier, like 9 o'clock, 930. And then we still get a lot closer to the show, but we've already done a good portion of them. So it's not as crazy. But sometimes we'll get them, you know, if they want to keep a sketch in and we're running late, we'll get changes. you know, maybe 45 seconds or a minute before that sketch is going to start. And we have to just make some cuts real quick and get the cards onto the floor. So it's stressful, but that's kind of the fun part of it now, you know. Speaker 2 (6:54) Here is a text. Hey, Wally, who's your chiropractor? And if you don't have one, what on earth do you do to keep your neck and shoulders working properly? And if you do have a chiro, seriously, who is it? Speaker 7 (7:05) It's a great question. I don't have a chiropractor, but when the season's over, and this is for the last nine years, when the season's over, I go to my orthopedic surgeon. He gives me a cortisone shot in my right shoulder, and then I do 10 weeks of physical therapy to get ready for the next season of SNL. If I didn't, my shoulder would be gone. I wouldn't be able to do it. But yeah, I do 10 weeks of physical therapy every summer. I consider myself like the worst out-of-shape athlete getting rid of... getting ready for the next season of work, just Speaker 1 (7:33) barely hanging on. Speaker 2 (7:35) I'm speaking to Wally Farriston, a.k.a. Wally the cue card guy. He's been the man in charge of the cue cards for more than 30 years on SNL. He is our guest. If you have a question for Wally, our number is 212-433-9692, 212-433-WNYC. Would you walk us through the color-coded system you use on Saturday Night Live? Speaker 1 (7:58) Yeah, so the host will always be in black. They're the only one in black, so it stands out to them. and they won't get confused by what they see. And Speaker 7 (8:07) then certain actors have colors that we specifically use for them, but usually we can switch around depending on who's featured in that sketch. But we use blue, red, green. and then brown. And those are the only colors you can really use because they stand out from other colors. You can't really use orange because it's too close to red. You know, you could purple as close to blue, like that kind of thing. So we have four colors. And then, you know, you just have to double up on some colors and put people's names in front of them that way. But, you know, it just depends on who's featured in the sketch. That way you go by the color. Speaker 2 (8:39) Do you ever have people who are dyslexic or who can't? Speaker 7 (8:44) Yes. Yeah. Lara Flynn Boyle. Do Speaker 2 (8:46) you Speaker 7 (8:46) remember her? Yeah. The actress. She... I went to go say hi to her on a Thursday, and she told me I had my work cut out for me. And I was like, oh, why is that? She's like, well, I'm dyslexic, colorblind, and nearsighted. Oh, no. The triple threat. But she was lovely, and she just said, I just need to run the cards a bunch of times before we rehearse it, and it'll be good in my mind. We had to print it bigger for her nearsightedness. And for the colorblindness, she made me wear a red T-shirt where you're supposed to wear black. The studio is black when you're in the studio. She had me wear a red so I would stand out. so she'd be able to find me really easily. And she did fantastic. She did so well. How brave is that to be able to host that show with those deficiencies and come out? She was calm. I remember she was very calm, and she was great. She was wonderful. Speaker 2 (9:33) Got another question for you. Using cue cards seems like a dying art. I'm amazed that SNL uses cards. Why not use a teleprompter? Speaker 1 (9:41) Because SNL is live, Speaker 7 (9:42) and teleprompters break. Or people unplugged them. It's happened at the Emmys one year when Jimmy Fallon walked out. And someone, a photographer, got there late Speaker 1 (9:52) and unplugged something to charge his phone. And it was a teleprompter. So Jimmy had about 15 seconds of nothing on the teleprompter. Speaker 7 (10:00) And I remember Speaker 1 (10:01) sitting at home. And I know Lorne Speaker 7 (10:04) was Speaker 1 (10:05) in the audience for that. And I was sitting at home and my wife was sitting next to me. And I was like. We've got job security for the next 10, 15 years. And it's true because Seth Meyers hosted the following year. And it was the Golden Globes, I think. And they Speaker 7 (10:17) brought me out, put me in a tuxedo, and I was the backup in case the prompter went down again. I had cards ready to go. So it made him feel comfortable. But yeah, prompters break. They do. And they have wires. We don't have wires. We can move around a lot. And it's just, you know, it's just, and it's part of the show. Lauren considers cue cards part of the show. People are watching us like they're watching the actors as well. So it's kind of fun. Speaker 2 (10:37) Jalen Brunson, great hooper, but he's Speaker 7 (10:40) a rookie host. Yeah. So what Speaker 2 (10:41) advice do you have for rookies who come in? Speaker 7 (10:43) Yeah, my goal is to get them to trust me and be comfortable so that they can focus on their acting and not worry about the cue cards. It's all about trust. I don't want them thinking about it too much. It's just, you know, if I see them asking the cast about... cards, then I start to get, okay, they're a little nervous. Let me maybe go in there and just chat with them and just say, just relax. Everything will be good. I'm going to show you where all the cards are going to be. And I just want them to focus on the acting part because that's hard enough. You know what I mean? Cards, I'll get you through the cards. I think he probably has really good eyesight, I imagine, because he's an athlete. Speaker 1 (11:19) So that's half the battle right there. You Speaker 2 (11:22) can Speaker 1 (11:22) actually see them. You can see them. And he can see me. So he'll be fine. He'll be fine. He'll be a lot of fun to work with, I think. Speaker 2 (11:28) Let's talk to Daniel, who's calling in from Queens. Hey, Daniel, thanks for calling all of it. You're on the air with Wally Fairsten. Speaker 5 (11:35) Hey, how's it going? I just had a quick question. I was wondering how many employees you have, Wally, and if you have any favorites by any chance. Speaker 1 (11:47) Is this one of my employees calling? Probably. One of Speaker 5