The life of 'Saturday Night' // Cheri Oteri leaps to the head of NBC show's freshman class
By Alan Bash
 

    Cheri Oteri already has a leg up on the rest of the Saturday Night Live freshmen.

As half of the duo parodying aging dancers in the recurring sketch called "Leg Up," Oteri is the first newcomer to kick up some positive buzz from the nation's TV critics. Some have pegged her as SNL's strongest woman to come along since Gilda Radner.

"That was like the big dream coming true," she says of those first positive reviews. "I had to prove to myself that I wasn't going to faint. It was very scary, and I just kept praying, 'Please God, don't let this be too big for me.' "

With the "breakout" label branded on her forehead, has Oteri felt any jealousy from the six other SNL newcomers?

"Everyone's been really supportive of me," she says. "People are going to come out at different times, and you just have to trust that and know when it does happen for somebody else, I'm going to show my support."

Born outside Philadelphia, Oteri moved to Los Angeles to get a job in the music business in the late '80s. Back East, she had always pronounced her last name O-teer-i, but in L.A. people began saying O-teh-ri and the rhyme scheme stuck.

While working in music promotions, Oteri joined the Groundlings comedy troupe, fount of many other SNL stars. It was there last spring that SNL boss Lorne Michaels found her.

"I have not one complaint" about SNL, says Oteri, not willing to join the ranks of recent disgruntled players. "I hate to sound boring, but I'm having a ball."

The 5-foot-1 performer not only shudders at all references to her height, but also refuses to disclose her age, saying she loves being able to play characters ranging from little girls to old women.

The low-key fame that accompanies a breakout star has already set in: strangers stopping her on the street; local news crews interviewing her sister and her family, who live in Drexel, Pa.; a former cast member (Janeane Garofalo) saying on a recent late-night show that she likes Oteri's work.

As for the on-air product this season, which is earning lukewarm reviews: "I don't feel it's my responsibility to bring the show back. It's my responsibility to do the best that I can do on the show," Oteri says. "You're not gonna agree with everything, but I've been proud of the shows."

The long hours she now spends at SNL haven't left much time for romance in the Big Apple. "Just as I trusted my timing on my career, I feel like I have to trust my timing on love. I have a lot of love to give to the right person."

Her biggest fan: Dad, who sends flowers before each show.

And her biggest inspiration: a close friend from the Groundlings who died last spring from cancer. Michael Sweeney worked in the box office and came to see all of Oteri's performances; they later traveled together to Hawaii.

Now she says a little prayer about him each time she goes out on stage.

"He is now acting as my agent in the sky," says Oteri. "I always think that when he died and went to heaven he said, 'Listen, I know you have these big plans for Cheri, but could you move it along?' "

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