![\"saturday](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20250907_180416-rotated.jpg\")
\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
Geoff Countryman and his wife Alissa at the 2025 Emmy Award Show in September<\/p>\n
Courtesy of Geoff Countryman<\/p>\n
\t\t Search our comprehensive guide to things to do in Queens<\/a> for more local events \u2014 or submit your own<\/a>!<\/p>\n The \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d 50th Anniversary Special<\/a>, which aired Feb. 16, won an Emmy for outstanding sound mixing with the help of a local musician and Middle Village<\/a> resident, Geoff Countryman. The 50th Anniversary special won a total of three Emmys out of eight nominations and featured guest appearances from the many cast members turned stars throughout the years since its inception in 1975, which Countryman played a hand in producing both behind the scenes and live.<\/p>\n \u201cWe went up on stage and I was standing there looking out at Will Ferrell and Bill Burr sitting in the front row, it was crazy,\u201d said Countryman. \u201cI\u2019m old enough now to know that that statue and $3 will get you on the subway. I\u2019m proud of it, but it\u2019s the job I genuinely love.\u201d<\/p>\n Originally from San Jose, CA, Countryman\u2019s entire family adores \u201cStar Wars\u201d and his uncle even worked for Lucasfilm at Skywalker Ranch with Sound Designer Ben Burtt. Countryman was inspired by the creativity and ingenuity of the films, such as Burtt using slowed baby elephant trumpets for TIE Fighters, and tried to incorporate those \u201ctricks\u201d into his own sound design.<\/p>\n Countryman moved to New York to attend New York University\u2019s (NYU) jazz performance program, where he was taught by fellow saxophonist and long-time SNL band member Lenny Pickett, and began working as an intern for the same show. After graduating, Countryman continued his work at SNL and as a musician, eventually appearing on the iconic stage playing his saxophone. Even when not on stage, Countryman helped prepare the band and even legendary musicians, like Paul McCartney; just don\u2019t ask him for the lyrics to the song.<\/p>\n \u201c[While preparing] for a Christmas song he asked for a lyric, and I was the only one onstage, so I told him\u2026 and it was wrong,\u201d Countryman said. \u201cAfter he sang it he turned around, gave me a shrug, and just laughed.\u201d<\/p>\n A beacon of professionalism and a seasoned performer himself, Countryman avoids pestering guest stars for personal favors like autographs and selfies. However, backstage of the award ceremony, Countryman made an exception in order to meet Conan O\u2019Brian, a personal hero of his, who thanked him for providing \u201call the bleeps and boops.\u201d<\/p>\n After 23 years with the show in various roles, Countryman\u2019s official title with the show is \u201cSupplemental SFX Mixer,\u201d which does not do the chaotic nature of the job justice. Countryman records, mixes and plays the sound effects using a keyboard during the live sketches. Some highlights include the sound of Jack Black cracking his whip while NOT dressed as Indiana Jones and helping honk the car horn for Kristen Wiig as Dooneese, to accommodate her for her tiny hands.<\/p>\n \u201cThe game shows are the ones that keep me up at night,\u201d Countryman said. \u201cEddie Murphy was doing jeopardy and he decided to start riffing and buzzing in randomly, so I just threw my script out and watched Eddie to see what happened. That was a pretty wild moment.\u201d<\/p>\n The sound effect virtuoso enjoys the work, but also the time off between shows and during the summer off-season to be able to perform as a saxophonist, run his Grammy-nominated recording studio, Jeff & Tyler, and spend time with his wife Alissa and two kids Jean and Ronan at their home in Middle Village. His kids are both around 10 and still young enough to get a kick out of their dad\u2019s role in the show while watching.<\/p>\n Have you ever wanted to be on SNL? Well, if you drive your car down Dry Harbor Road, you might have made an indirect appearance on the show. Countryman carries a microphone with him at all times to collect sounds from his daily life to incorporate into a vast library for use on the show. Countryman\u2019s Emmy sits on the mantle in his house, but you\u2019d never know about his impressive career unless you asked.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were ecstatic when he won, he worked so hard for it,\u201d said Jessica Boiardi, a family friend who moonlights as a member of Queens Community Board 5. \u201cHe\u2019s so good at his job, and just so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geoff Countryman and his wife Alissa at the 2025 Emmy Award Show in September Courtesy of Geoff Countryman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[310,11464,11465,9,24,63,122,124,123,10100,2039],"class_list":["post-15817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-daily-newsletter","tag-emmy","tag-geoff-countryman","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-ridgewood-newsletter","tag-saturday-night-live"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Geoff-Countryman-SNL.jpg\")
Geoff Countryman onstage in the back-left during Jonah Hill\u2019s monologue in 2014. Courtesy of Saturday Night Live<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/20251023_162747-rotated.jpg\")
Emmy casually displayed on the mantel of the Countryman home<\/p>\n