Pho tos by Kim berly Wright
lawyer brother)
were baffled by
his interest in
comedy, but
encouraged him.
"I liked other
comedians when
I was a kid," he
explained. "I
used to listen to
comedy records
and watch
movies and
stuff. What
actually brought
me to comedy
was not know-
Barrymore co-stars in "The Wedding Singer"
ing what else I
could do. My
family, they were just glad I came up
Singer's writer, Tim Herlihy; director,
with something."
Frank Coraci; and producer, Jack
After a rough apprenticeship doing
Giarraputo, whom Sandler first met
when they were students at New York stand-up comedy and getting "a lot
of angry energy thrown at me"
University in the mid-1980s.
(although he met the woman he's still
"I met those guys," he added with
involved with at one of his early
a grin creeping onto his face, "and I
shows), he found his way to
remember looking them all in the
"Saturday Night Live."
eyes and saying, 'Someday, I will own
Initially hired as a writer, he
you.'"
became a cast member in 1991 and
Much of the comedy in The
was there for four years. Sandler
Wedding Singer comes from the fact
equates leaving with "graduating
that it's set in 1985 and pokes fun at
from high school" (his bittersweet
the era's fashions while effectively
nostalgia about "SNL" includes the
using the music to set the bouncy,
sad fact of castmate Chris Farley's
romantic mood.
"It was Tim Herlihy's idea to do it
recent death).
Sandler successfully made the tran-
in the '80s; it kind of took the corni-
sition to films and continues to be a
ness out of me singing songs,"
recognizable figure. But of all the
explained Sandler.
fans he encounters, his favorites are
"I couldn't sing '90s tunes without
kids.
people going, 'I just heard that on
"I like kids," explained Sandler,
the radio. Why do I want to hear
who included a scene in The Wedding
him — that buffoon — singing
Singer where Robbie plays a bar mitz-
that?'"
vah. He and Julia, who is a waitress
The Wedding Singer also features
at the event, conspire to help a
the kind of mock-serious comedy
picked-on kid come out on top.
songs that Sandler features on his
"I like seeing [kids] happy because
albums — like the recent What's Your
I know what comedy meant to me as
Name?. He had a surprise radio hit
a kid. Nothing else, nothing else is
with "The Chanukah Song," from
that important to me."
1995's What The Hell Happened To
It was when Sandler was a kid that
Me?
the wedding singer made his first
"When you're a kid, and you hear
so and so's Jewish, it made you relax a appearance.
"The first time I was on stage was
little more, like, Ahhh,"' said Sandler
at my sister's wedding," he recalled.
about the inspiration for "The
"I was 11 and I sang 'You're Sixteen.'
Chanukah Song."
I knew all the words to it, and that
"My dad would talk about Kirk
went over all right. Then I sang
Douglas or something, tell me he's
`Yesterday,' and they all started boo-
Jewish. I know I would think, 'That's
ing me. One [song] was enough, they
good, that makes me feel good."'
said, because I was starting to steal
The 31-year-old Sandler, born in
the focus of the wedding.
Brooklyn and raised in New
"Apparently," Sandler added, "it
Hampshire, said his non-show busi-
was about those two getting mar-
ness family (including his electrical
ried." ❑
engineer father, dentist sister and
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