• 2 days ago
Kenan Thompson, SNL’s longest-tenured cast member, reflects on his first night on the show, his favorite advice from Lorne Michaels, and the legacy of Saturday Night Live. He also shares his thoughts on how SNL has evolved while continuing to shape pop culture and reveals how many more seasons he’s got in him.

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Transcript
00:00Well, congratulations. This is a big night, an epic night. You're the longest tenured cast member
00:05ever on SNL. What do you remember most about your very first night on the show?
00:10I remember being very nervous. I remember Jack Black was hosting. And I remember I was doing
00:17Bill Cosby that night. And yeah, that was a long time ago. 2003. Yeah, yeah. Well,
00:25come a long way. And what do you think about when you think about the legacy that is SNL and
00:29how much it's kind of changed course, but also still kind of impacted pop culture in such a big
00:34way? In a huge way, man. I mean, you're talking about a 50 year show that's live every single
00:39week that is doing a show like for 90 minutes. It's beyond epic. And like the writers and
00:46performers are some of the most brilliant minds on the planet that love comedy. We've been taught
00:52to love each other. Like it's a very supportive environment since I've been there, you know,
00:56so like it's just been amazing. And for them to have their finger on the pulse like that means
01:01that they care, in my opinion, and they want the good for the world. Yeah. Obviously,
01:06we wouldn't be here without Lorne Michaels. What was the best or biggest piece of advice that he
01:11gave to you? I mean, there's a there's a lot of them, you know, but one of the greatest is like,
01:20never be too big for the moment. You know, you never want to like peak too early
01:25or, you know, just, you know, be too loud in the beginning. You know what I mean? Like you want
01:29everything to like build and escalate in a beautiful kind of orchestra kind of way. You
01:34know what I mean? Yeah. And how many more seasons you think you got in you? Orchestral award?
01:39Orchestral? We'll figure it out. We're gonna make it a word. And how many more seasons you got in
01:46you? As many as they want. We out here, dog. We're not done yet. No, we out here. Congratulations.
01:52Thanks. Thanks.

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