"As they’re shooting, the stage manager whispered to me, ‘It turns out you’re not a total idiot.’"

“Saturday Night Live” was mere seconds from rolling cameras in front of a studio audience and millions watching at home when the stage manager realized the set’s black door had a large scratch on it.

“It was going to look terrible on camera,” said Steven Demmler, then a fourth-year stagehand. “People started freaking out.”

But Demmler remained calm, grabbed a black sharpie and colored the scratch so that it was invisible on camera.

“As they’re shooting, the stage manager whispered to me, ‘It turns out you’re not a total idiot,’” Demmler said with a laugh, “And I was like, ‘Yes, now I’ve arrived.’”

That was around 2003.

Since then, the Tampa resident’s career has been on an upward trajectory.

Read more at the Tampa Bay Times