In His 15th Season At ‘SNL,’ Kenan Thompson Still Knows How To Play It Funny

There was only one reason the sketch was even nominally funny: Kenan Thompson.

At a rehearsal the Thursday before SNL‘s premiere, Gosling and SNL cast member Kyle Mooney pretended to play flute and keyboard while real musicians provided the notes offstage. Thompson, meanwhile, gave notes on how to balance that fakery with their lines for maximum impact, guiding the scene as much as the show’s actual director.

That preparation, professionalism and instinct for the funny has allowed Thompson to survive on SNL for 15 seasons — longer than any other performer in the show’s history.

This season, he edges ahead of impressionist Darrell Hammond to become the show’s longest-serving cast member. But ask how he pulled it off — how he has stayed so funny for so long — and Thompson doesn’t really have an answer.

“Man, I wish I could say,” he offers, relaxing in his closet-sized dressing room at SNL‘s studio in Rockefeller Center while his longtime barber gives him a touch up. “It was a blessing just to get the job, you know what I mean? Everything is so up in the air week by week, year by year in a place like this.”

Two days before the first show of the season, the atmosphere backstage at SNL is like the first day back at school after summer vacation. There’s a lot of anticipation: Last season was SNL‘s most successful in decades, with a big win at the Emmy Awards for best variety sketch show.

According to Thompson, the show clicked with viewers because their take on the Trump administration was just what the audience was thinking. “Everybody was on the same page, that’s what it was,” he says. “When everybody’s on the same page, everybody can hear the joke coming, and they can enjoy it when it lands.”

Thompson says being part of the cast last season was a singular experience, even for someone with 14 years on SNL‘s stage.

“To see Alec Baldwin as Trump getting a standing ovation — it was kind of weird,” Thompson adds. “Because it’s like they’re cheering for Alec, I think. …They were cheering for his impression and what it’s doing for the world. We’re healing a lot of wounds that people have to live with throughout their day. And they finally get to a Saturday night, and they patch it up a little bit and go back to Monday.”

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