David Spade got so sick during ‘SNL’ that NBC prepared rerun to air

David Spade is recalling the gnarly illness that hit him when he was set to host Saturday Night Live.

The Tommy Boy star said the last time he hosted the sketch comedy show in March 2005, he was so sick that the episode was nearly canceled.

“I got sick during dress [rehearsal], the worst f—ing anxiety-riddled time,” Spade revealed on the latest episode of his podcast Fly on the Wall. “In the middle of a sketch, they go, ‘Come on, come on,’ and I stood up. I was in a UPS outfit and I go, [sighs], and then I sat back down on the set.”

The crew continued urging Spade to proceed with the rehearsal. “They go, ‘Come on,’ and the band’s like, ‘Ba ba ba,’ ‘You got 90s seconds!’ and I go, ‘Ugh, I don’t feel good,'” he said. “And then I laid down on the floor, and everyone’s like, ‘What the f— is going on?'”

Spade, who was a cast member on SNL from 1990 to 1996, became even sicker once rehearsal fully paused, which prompted the crew to suggest pulling the plug on the episode altogether.

“They walked me to the dressing room, put me in the bathroom, I lay on the floor, and the audience is still there,” he said. “So it was the last sketch, they just wrapped, and then let everyone out, and then they’re pounding on the door going — I hear them going, ‘If he doesn’t come out, we’re gonna have to put a rerun on. We gotta tell NBC.'”

The comedian’s condition became so concerning that SNL boss Lorne Michaels came and stood outside Spade’s dressing room. “I’m laying on the floor sweating — I don’t know if it was food poisoning — then I started barfing, and then I just sat there in my little UPS uniform,” he recalled. “There couldn’t be more stress. Already you’re sick, and everyone including Lorne is behind the door going, ‘Are we doing this? It’s fine if we’re not, we just have to —'”

Spade eventually staggered to his feet. “I finally get the door and I go, ‘I mean, I can try,’ and then they go, ‘Alright, let’s pull the rerun, let’s just try it,'” he remembered. “And I started feeling a little better, and I got some food in me, and I was like, ‘I don’t know what happened.'” 

The comedian ultimately thinks he was able to give “a good, solid 70 percent” of the performance he ordinarily delivers when healthy. “And the guy in the UPS sketch, the writer, I could see him in the back going, ‘Yeah, you’re a real f—ing hero,'” Spade said, mimicking him sarcastically. “Because obviously that sketch got cut because I don’t think I even finished it [at dress rehearsal].”

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Listen to the full Fly on the Wall episode above.