Soft spoken and humble, Thompson doesn’t say much about his own performances, but SNL co-head writer Bryan Tucker (who has written for Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle) has a few ideas.
“He’s always a guy who cast members can look to … because he’s going to know how to play it funny right away,” Tucker says. “… I think the biggest thing it takes [to survive at SNL] is to have your own distinct voice that other people don’t do, and then a willingness to … do what we call ‘playing service’ — stepping aside and letting someone else be the star. And when you come in [with] your three or four lines, you make them count.”
Flourishing at SNL is legendarily tough. Chris Rock didn’t make much of an impression over three seasons; Jim Carrey and Kevin Hart didn’t even get hired when they auditioned. It’s important to have a distinct voice; to click with the material, the audience and the times.
Thompson found his voice in 2009 with a sketch called “What Up With That?” It was a fake talk show on BET with three random guests (the first trio included James Franco as himself and Bill Hader as Lindsey Buckingham) who wait for Thompson, as host Diondre Cole, to finish singing the theme song. But the joke is that Thompson never really stops. He’s surrounded by a growing succession of oddball background players — Jason Sudeikis as a track suit-wearing dancer, Fred Armisen as a saxophonist who looks suspiciously like Kenny G.
After years of struggle, the sketch was a triumph for Thompson. And according to Tucker, his co-workers knew it.
“He finished, the audience clapped,” Tucker says. “And then he went out into the hallway to change and a bunch of SNL staff — people from wardrobe, people from makeup, lighting, stagehands — were all kind of lined up on the wall, and they all kind of applauded and gave him a high-five. … It’s pretty rare I see that at SNL, that everybody just decides we’re going to acknowledge this for one person. And it was kind of a celebration of Kenan.”
Since then, Thompson has become one of the best sketch comedy actors on television. He consistently knows how to score a laugh in sketches, sometimes just by making a face. His likeability is his secret weapon.
“Sometimes when a writer just needs a joke in the sketch, or a laugh, you can write in the action line, ‘Kenan reacts,’ ” Tucker says with a laugh. “It’s kind of a cheat, but we know it’ll work, so sometimes we get lazy and do it. … He’s just a guy you see and you like and he just knows how to play those moments.”