Saturday Night Live‘s Bowen Yang dropped by Late Night With Seth Meyers on Monday night (March 11) to deconstruct his hilarious Moulin Rogue spoof with Ariana Grande on this weekend’s SNL. “That was very fun,” Yang said of the bit with his Wicked co-star in which they imagined what the movie musical would have been like if director Baz Luhrmann had been able to grab the rights to some other popular songs.
“No play, she’s a real friend,” Yang said, adding that someone had asked him backstage if he was intimidated to sing with the pop diva. “I was like, ‘it never occurred to me’… that I was singing with her and that I should be intimidated. She’s so disarmingly wonderful and great and it was just so fun to do it,” he said.
Yang also told a hilarious performing skills origin story about how as a kid he used to haunt the Dance, Dance Revolution game on display at his local Best Buy, which was, naturally, situated next to the Costco at Park Meadows Mall in suburban Colorado. The game was set up in the middle of the store and Yang said he’d compete with the staff to see who had the slickest, fastest feet.
“And all these, like, 25-year-old goths were shaking in their boots when this 14-year-old Asian kid would walk into the store and everyone would scurry,” Yang said. “Because I was about to hand their asses to them dancing to Kylie Minogue!” The SNL breakout star said he would go every week and by the third month he had developed his well-deserved DDR ass-kicking reputation.
It was such a formative experience that Yang said he thinks he could play the Super Bowl halftime show, because, like his DDR clinics, he’s used to having an audience behind him. “Because it’s a 360 stage and I’m performing to the people behind me,” Yang boasted.
Yang also talked about his instant classic “Bowen Straight” sketch from two weeks ago in which the out comedian made out with host Sydney Sweeney and actress Gina Gershon. “I gotta tell you guys something. You know when you have a head injury and you can’t see colors quite right?” Yang said. “I feel like I got hit in the head by these two women and I’m still a little straight… I understand why Austin Butler talked like Elvis for a while after the movie. I think for a couple more weeks I’m still straight… ladies get in there!”
The first part of the Wicked musical will open in theaters on Nov. 27.
Check out Yang talking about Grande and DDR on the Late Night below.
