A lot has changed since “Saturday Night Live” first aired in 1975, but one carpenter has remained the same.
Stephen “Demo” DeMaria, 85, has helped build the sets for all 960 episodes of the show.
“I’ve never taken a break from the show,” the Brooklyn native told the Post in a thick accent.
The weekly production schedule is an adrenaline race.
DeMaria, who now lives in Staten Island, comes to the store at 1 a.m. Thursday. By 2 a.m., he has the set sketches he needs for that week’s show. He then divides the work among his five workers and about 50 carpenters. You have just 36 hours to complete everything by Friday night.
“We have to know who can do what,” he said. “Some of these sets are very difficult to do, and you need the right people. I distribute all the sets to different members.”
Not all sets will pass. His team built a giant boat for a February episode hosted by actress Ayo Edebiri, but it was never used on the show.
“That happens all the time,” DeMaria said. “We’ll make 10, 12 sets, and they might cut two sets.”
The father of two and grandfather of three said his wife of more than 60 years passed away in 2022, and although many SNL insiders attended her funeral, he announced the news late Saturday night. I don’t always stay up and watch the programs that are broadcast. But he and his team make sure to watch it on Monday morning.
“We had a big TV in the store. Everybody who worked on the show, we put it on the TV and we watch the whole show to see the set,” he said, explaining how their work was done on the air. He added that it’s often interesting to see what it looks like.
“Some of the sets are amazing and you only see a little bit of it when you watch it on TV.”
Many of his co-workers are like family.
Nicole Stiegelbauer, 51, is the operations manager at the family-owned Brooklyn Navy Yard manufacturing plant, where “SNL” sets have been built since 1989. Previously, the show was built in-house at NBC by a team led by her father. Michael J. Stiegelbauer belonged to the division led by his grandfather, James Clifton Stiegelbauer.
She has known DeMaria since she was a child and he worked for her father.
“He’s the most loyal employee we’ve ever had,” Stiegelbauer said, adding that DeMaria was “irreplaceable” and “a lovable madman.”
DeMaria plays as hard as he works. He is a regular at the annual “SNL” wrap party.
“I walk in and say hi to Lorne Michaels first. Then I go to the dance floor,” he said, adding: [the cast]”
He recalled cutting rugs with Kenan Thompson and being forced into a dance circle to make out with Leslie Jones.
“He is the lifeblood of the party,” Stiegelbauer said.
His favorite current and recent cast members include fellow Staten Islanders Colin Jost and Tina Fey.
“I heard that if Lorne Michaels decides to quit when he turns 50, she will replace him.” [years in]DeMaria, who plans to retire after the show’s 50th season next year, said of Fey:
He is very nostalgic about his early days.
“The best ‘SNL’ shows for me were the first 12,” he said. “Belushi was truly amazing.”
He can’t imagine working anywhere else.
“If I were to be born again, I would like to be the same,” he said with a smile.
