Bowen Yang reflects on manifesting ‘Wicked’ and ‘SNL’ success in touching story

Bowen Yang recently opened up about how he and his parents’ manifestation regarding Wicked and SNL success came true after 20 years.

While talking to People, he recalled, “My first trip to New York when I was 13, Wicked had just come out, but I begged my parents to go to the Gershwin just so I could touch the glass and look inside the lobby.”

Calling to mind the days when the original Broadway production came out in 2003, Yang quipped, “We couldn’t afford tickets, but I just wanted to feel it in my hand; just look at the signs. And then, that same day, we went to 30 Rock at NBC and did the studio tour, and I sat in the seats at SNL.”

“So, I was like, ‘If those two things happened on the same day, I need them to intersect just one more time,'” the comedian shared.

Yang, who is in his sixth season as a Saturday Night Live cast member, also stars in the movie Wicked alongside Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, and Jonathan Bailey as one of Glinda’s sidekicks, Pfannee.

The Bros star told the same outlet that before the premiere of the film on Friday, he first watched the movie with his SNL castmates at a special screening earlier this year, the same week Grande hosted the show.

At first he was unsure, but it turned out to be the best group for his first time seeing the film.

Yang articulated, “I was so adamant about not going [to the screening], because I was like, I think I need to see this for the first time with other friends that aren’t professionally involved, and I just need to have a pure experience,” he said.

“All of us were in shambles by the end. Sarah Sherman was sobbing, and she was like, ‘I didn’t expect to love it this much.’ It will get you. It flattens every demographic. Everyone gets bowled over no matter what they’re going into it with, and I’ve never been a part of something like that. I don’t think I’ve seen a movie… have this universal impact,” he concluded by saying.