MR. SHOWBIZ

S.N.L. star Cheri Oteri is a newcomer to comedy, but she's already proven to be a keeper

                    CHERI OTERI was making twelve dollars an hour as an L.A. office
                    temp when Saturday Night Live producers plucked her from The
                    Groundlings, the comedy club where she'd been appearing on Sunday
                    nights. It's Oteri's second showbiz gig ever, but in her rookie season with
                    NBC's late-night comedy show, she has emerged as a break-through star.

                     From the foul-mouthed, porch-sitting Rita Delvecchio ("You crack-
                     smoking, condomless bastards!") to the hyperactive youngster Althea
                     ("I'm not allowed to talk to strangers, 'cause stranger spells danger!"),
                     Oteri's repertoire of characters is the freshest anyone's seen on S.N.L. in
                     a long, long time. Most of them are takeoffs on her Italian grandmother--
                     "a living saint with a mouth like a truck driver"--and her grandmother's
                     colorful South Philly cronies. But Oteri's borrowing goes way beyond
                     Grandma's gang. "I wasn't very sure of myself, so I used to watch people
                     and listen," says Oteri, who grew up in suburban Drexel Hill,
                     Pennsylvania. "Now, as a performer, I'm being everyone I ever watched."

                     The quick success--she just signed with big-time Hollywood agents
                     I.C.M.--hasn't made Oteri's first year on S.N.L. any less stressful. She
                     thought she'd faint backstage at the season premiere ("I prayed this wasn't
                     too big for me"). During her third show, she got so immersed in doing
                     Rita--with guest host David Schwimmer--that she let a forbidden expletive
                     ("Can you believe this shit?") slip out on live TV. Afterward, says Oteri, "I
                     just walked past Lorne [Michaels, S.N.L.'s producer], said, 'sorry,' really
                     quickly and kept on going."

The Wednesday that Oteri and fellow Groundling alum Will Ferrell previewed a goofy high school cheerleader sketch for the crowd, they were petrified. "No one had ever
stood up to do a sketch--we didn't know if standing up was even allowed," she says. "But we did know that if we did it sitting down, no one would get it. We were shaking, but we did it standing up, and everyone applauded. Afterward, we high-fived under the table, because you can't show your excitement."

                     Oteri is a natural comedienne, but she didn't grow up considering a career
                     in comedy. Her dad owns a music publishing company in Nashville, and
                     after high school she took a stab at being a rock singer. "I was so bad the
                     band never even got to work in clubs," she laughs. She moved to L.A. in
                     the late eighties, went to work as a receptionist at A&M Records, and
                     rose to the position of radio promotions coordinator, securing airtime for
                     Sting, Amy Grant, Blues Traveler, and others. Oteri was such a cut-up in
                     the office that her co-workers convinced her to take some comedy
                     classes. In 1991, after two years of improv training, she performed--with
                     The Groundlings--for the very first time.

                     Since she's been an S.N.L. regular, "I have money to actually pay my
                     manager his cut!" marvels Oteri. There is little doubt that her one-year
                     S.N.L. contract will be renewed, and there is almost certainly a feature
                     film in her future, perhaps as soon as this summer. The fact is, things are
                     going really, really well for Cheri Oteri these days. "All my life I wanted
                     to be on Saturday Night Live," she says. Her only fear now is "that it's all
                     gonna end."

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