by SCOTT C

Atlanta-born comedian Finesse Mitchell entered and won his first comedy contest in 1995, and now regularly steals the show as part of the current cast of Saturday Night Live. This Southern gentleman can transform himself from the fast-talking Starkisha into memorable caricatures of 50 Cent and Donovan McNabb without breaking stride. The Mirror spoke to him over the phone from a mall in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Mirror: So, have you played in Montreal before, and if so, was it a smart career move to do so?

Finesse Mitchell: I played there four years ago, and yes, it was a big help to me. I was like the new hot kid in L.A. with a solid 10 minutes at the time, and I got the New Faces Showcase and the Uptown Showcase at Just for Laughs. As you probably know, our whole reason for coming up to Montreal is so that we can make deals when we go back to L.A., so I was getting a really good response, and had lined up a few things. Of course, that was the year that September 11 happened, so nothing really ever panned out for me at all. Any momentum I had was only rejuvenated when I joined SNL, and that was a blessing.

M: I hope you won't be offended if I say that you are one of the very few people on that show today who can get big laughs out of me.

FM: No, I'm not offended. Everybody on there is funny. A lot of times we just drop the ball if no one finds something funny. We don't like to repeat things, and we're always trying to top certain sketches. Sometimes that may hurt the show in general, but when we do come up with some winners, that's the night that nobody's watching!

M: [laughing]Tell me something. You know when that fat guy, Horatio -

FM: Horatio Sanz.

M: Yeah, him. What's the deal with him and Jimmy Fallon breaking up in every skit that they're in? It was funny for a minute, then it seemed like they'd planned to have things fall apart at a point.

FM: When I first got there, they used to do it a lot, but y'know, I wasn't gonna do it [laughs]. To be honest with you, man, if you walk around the street with me you'll see, people will be like, "Oh I love it when he cracks up!" You really can't win. Sketch comedy purists will say they hate it when people start laughing - that it's a cheap way to get a laugh. But on the other side, there's lots of people who like it. Who knows what's going through Horatio's head.

M: So what's still on your "to-do" list?

FM: Man, I know this guy named Omar - he's that big black guy with a little kids face. We came to L.A. around the same time, and he's been in 8 Mile, Shall We Dance and about 10 other blockbuster movies. He comes up to me and says "Finesse, how does it feel to be on SNL man? That's crazy!" I'm like "Dude, how does it feel to be in every frickin' movie I can't get in?" But I've come this far, so I have to keep tryin'.

Finesse Mitchell will be at the Bubbling with Laughter Show Five, July 21; the Gala on July 22; and two Uptown Comics shows on July 23. www.hahaha.com

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