Comedian Bobby Moynihan said sheep might not deserve their reputation. In his first children’s book, “Not All Sheep Are Boring!,” he sets out to paint them in a new light. No longer barnyard creatures so dull you can fall asleep counting them, Moynihan’s sheep are all quirky individuals.
“I love the idea of trying to convince people that sheep aren’t boring,” Moynihan told TODAY.
Moynihan was a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” from 2008 to 2017. Now the father of a six-year-old daughter, Moynihan said his Saturday nights look a little bit different.
“It definitely changed. 48-hour days, a lot of not sleeping. Now, it’s the opposite. In bed by eight, up by five,” he said.
But he still gets out his performance itch during elaborate bedtime routines with his daughter, whom he shares with wife Brynn O’Malley.
"Not All Sheep Are Boring!" by Bobby Moynihan
“Not All Sheep Are Boring!” was written with their routine in mind, he said. “Let me just write a book with a bunch of different characters so that we can act out different voices and different kinds of sheep that are empowering but also funny,” he said.
The sheep have funny traits that kids will pick up on and a few jokes only the parents will grasp. “I tried to make it fun for parents and kids. There are definitely jokes in there for the parents,” he said, giving away one of them: Take a close look at the sheep called Marni over the course of the book.
He hopes the book prompts readers to unleash their own inner “SNL” stars. “I encourage readers to make up their own sheep and act out their own because that's part of it. I say choose your own adventure on that one,” he said.
And after all their reading sessions together, Moynihan said his daughter picked up on the performance gene.
“My favorite thing in the world is when my daughter decides to do voices and act it out,” he said.
As for whether “Saturday Night Live” is in her future? “If so, I've done something horribly wrong,” he joked.
Beyond the literary realm, Moynihan said that fatherhood has changed his approach to choosing roles. “There are some roles I won't take now because I don't want my daughter to see them and stuff like that. But I also look back and go like hopefully I was smart enough not to do anything stupid,” he said.