‘SNL’ Star Mikey Day Talks ‘Surreal’ Experience on NBC Series as He Partners With Great Clips for March Madness (Exclusive)

Saturday Night Live’s Mikey Day continues to bring the laughs on the NBC variety sketch series, and now he’s doing the same for his new March Madness commercials.

The actor and comedian spoke to PopCulture.com about his partnership with Great Clips while also taking a look back at his time on SNL, including the recent 50^th anniversary special.

Day has been awfully busy as of late. Between working on SNL and his Great Clips commercials, among other projects, he might not have a lot of time to just relax. However, the Is It Cake? host shared that being on Saturday Night Live is like “the best job in the business to have.” Not to mention the fact that the whole experience on the series has been “surreal,” especially after being hired as a writer for Season 39 and being upped to cast member for Season 42.

“It still feels like, ‘Oh my God, what? This is SNL.’ Usually, it’s always after the cold open, after ‘Live from New York, it’s Saturday Night,’ that line,” Day explained. “And the music starts playing. I always kind of have a moment there where I think, ‘Wow. This is a good nightlife.’ But it’s been incredible. And it fits my ADD so perfectly. It’s like a puzzle piece that just interlocks. I think the show, too, is obviously structured in a way where your triumphs, you don’t really get to celebrate that much as you’re moving on, but also the failures of something that goes badly or you have a bad week.”

“You’re like, ‘Oh, well, I’m looking forward to the next week.’ So it’s just a fantastic job,” he continued. “I feel very blessed and lucky to have been a part of it. Especially with the 50^th. It’s kind of worth taking stock of its legacy. You’re like, ‘Wow. It’s going to stay around for a long time,’ but it does kind of have this cultural impact. Kind of reviewing it’s like, ‘Wow. I’m a small part of this.’”

He also shared just what it was like to be part of the 50^th anniversary special, which spanned three hours and brought back many SNL alumni, former hosts and musical guests, and had other surprise celebrity appearances. He said looking at the audience “was remarkable,” and it was “surreal thinking about” being surrounded by so many greats. But there was one celebrity he still couldn’t believe he was able to work with.

“My colleague, Peter Sidel and I write the Kate McKinnon alien abduction close encounters sketches,” Day explained.“So we wrote one for the 50th where Meryl Streep played her mother. So, just working with her was a dream come true. Meryl Streep for me, is on my list of people I wish would host because it’s always so much fun when really incredible actors come on the show and they just commit to it, especially when the majority is so stupid. Just them committing. I remember Willem Dafoe was like that. He was just like, ‘Oh, this is awesome.’ He’s giving so much to our film script.”

“And Meryl was so wonderful to work with, so nice,” he continued. “We were kind of nervous. ‘So, here’s the script. You call your rear end a mud gun. Is that okay with you?’ Because these characters come up with euphemisms that rhyme for her, it was funny. What makes her so good in preparation and wanting to just play the character no matter how short, or I mean, this was just a five-minute sketch, but we got a very cursory glimpse of her process, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s why she’s so good.’ We’re just like, ‘Well, you can just read it off the cards,’ and she was stubborn and reading the script. But she was awesome in it. It was the image of her and Kate man spreading that to me was just wonderful. Who knows if we’ll do another one. I’m sure we will, but if that’s the last one we ever do, what a way to go out.”

Meanwhile, Day can also be seen in two new commercials for Great Clips, as the company has a new March Madness campaign headlined by $10 off Haircut Coupon. Appearing alongside Kansas center Hunter Dickinson, Day touches on the coupons and the benefits of Great Clips. Now through Apr. 4, fans can visit GreatClips.com/10off for full terms and to register for the $10 haircut coupon. The coupon will only be valid at participating salons.

Day said it was “awesome working with the Great Clips people.” He continued, “We went out to Atlanta and shot a bunch of fun commercials. A lot of which were with Hunter Dickinson, who plays for Kansas, who is 7’2. That’s a tall man, but he was a sweetheart, an absolute delight. And I had so much fun. They were all awesome. I went and got a haircut by the Great Clips folks and loved it. This was a while back. I had just gotten a haircut from them, like, half an hour before we shot and Hunter did too. Hunter’s haircut looks a little cooler than mine because he’s a younger, athletic man.”

“However, I loved it, and it was all the kind of theme of the commercials, me kind of breaking into March Madness, talking about how much I love my haircut and saying, ‘Go to greatclips.com/10of to get $10 off a haircut.’ I think that’s what sports fans are gonna want to hear and see their game interrupted by me talking about my haircut,” Day explained. “I just love the idea of working with Hunter. I just thought it would be fun to be with an athlete, and they were so cool at letting me kinda mess around and have fun with it, have fun with the script, and they were very receptive to ideas. It was like an ideal situation.”

As for Day’s favorite part about the commercials, he recalled having to stand on a box next to Dickinson because the All-American player was so tall. “They had to get this box that was not just kind of a little boost. It was enormousfor meto be anywhere near this height. So that was probably my favorite part, and just getting to know Hunter a little bit.”

While fans are watching their favorite teams, including Day, who will be rooting for Kansas (because of Dickinson) and UCLA (because that was his school), viewers will surely be swayed by the actor and comedian spreading the important word about the $10 off coupon for affordable and high-quality haircuts at Great Clips available to college basketball fans everywhere. The television spots will run on CBS, TBS, TNT, and TruTV during the NCAA DI Men’s Tournament and on ESPN during the NBAA DI Women’s Tournament.

To learn more about Great Clips’ “Greatest Story” campaign, the $10 off haircut coupon, and hairstyle tips for tournament season, visit www.GreatClips.com/MarchMadness.