Sunday Sitdown with Willie Geist - Kenan Thompson

Episode Date: February 14, 2021

Kenan Thompson is the longest-running cast member on Saturday Night Live, playing an endless range of characters and performing a record number of celebrity impressions throughout his 18 seasons on the show. In this week’s “Sunday Sitdown,” Willie Geist gets together with the actor and comedian to talk about pulling double duty with SNL and his new sitcom, Kenan, which films in Los Angeles.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My big thanks, as always, for clicking and listening along. I got a good one for you this week. Somebody I think you all know, and I assume if you're a right thinking person, you all love. The great Kenan Thompson. He's been a cast member on SNL for 18 years, the longest running cast member in the history of the show. He is the tent pole. He is the anchor.

He is the glue of that iconic show. 18 years he's been there. If you didn't know, he started out a Nickelodeon on a kids' comedy show. They did sketch comedy. It was called All That. Child Star, Bonafide Child Star, spun off into a series called Keenan and Kel, which was huge, as most of you know, also on Nickelodeon. And then, wait till you hear about him getting into SNL. No improv experience, no stand-up experience, just showed up for an audition. He said it went terribly with Lauren Michaels in the room. But luckily, he got a second crack at it. He wasn't sure it went much better, but he did get the job. And the rest is history playing characters like Steve Harvey, personal favorite of mine. D'Andre Cole. Wait, I take that back. DeAndre Cole, what up with that? That's my favorite.

Steve Harvey, Big Poppy, David Ortiz. I mean, you could go on and on and on. So we talk about his long run at SNL. His new sitcom, executive producer along with Lauren Michaels, his boss at SNL, of a new sitcom on NBC called Keenan. Obviously, he's the star. His buddy and fellow cast member, Chris Redd, is on the show with him, as is Don Johnson, playing his father-in-law, the Don Johnson. Really funny show. It's called Keenan. He's the star. He's the executive producer. His name's on the door. His name is on the director's chair where he sat down across from me for our interview. He was shooting the show. Was nice enough to sit down and talk to me. Literally, he's in his wardrobe for the show, Keenan. He's out in L.A. He sits down. I am in a room above my girlfriend. garage where we've just been dumped on with a massive snowstorm. So he's living that Hollywood life. I'm living the Nor'easter life back in New York. A great conversation with a truly wonderful guy, always funny and always fun to talk to right now on the Sunday Sit Down podcast, Keenan Thompson.

Kenan, it's great to see you. Thanks for doing this. William, always a pleasure. So we got to tell people, you are all suited up. You've got a Hollywood set behind you. you and there's a reason for that right now. Yeah. That's your house. Isn't it back there somewhere? This is part of my house. It's right actually here to my, I guess you're right, my left.

Yeah, man, this is my show that I'm sitting in the middle of, in the middle of a big giant soundstage in Hollywood, California. It's a dream come true, man. I'm so excited about the premiere coming up. And I don't know, it's just good to catch up with all my press buddies. Yeah. You literally, your name is on the door. The show is called Keenan.

It's your show. You're a father of two on the show, which reflects real life. How did this idea start to percolate for you? First of all, to do a sitcom that you would lead and also to do this specific story. Well, I mean, you know, the sitcoms always been the dream life. You know what I mean? Like, if you get it right, you can just squeeze out the way they used to do it with multicamps.

It could be like a three-day week for you, you know what I mean? And then you're just making a... all the money in the world, hopefully, and stuff like that. But, you know, as just a performer on SNL, SNL is kind of always that platform where everybody comes and hopes to springboard into something else. For me, it's been a little bit different, I guess, because I just had a mentality of knowing what that, you know,

development, audition life is like. So I've never been in a super duper hurry to get back to it. You know what I'm saying? So my whole thing is like, maybe I can do S&L and do a sitcom at the same time. That's what has kind of been, you know, massaged into manifesting basically right now. So we developed the idea. I was thinking, you know, like what haven't I seen on television and stuff like that? And then I met with writers and the one writer that had a similar idea to mine was Jackie Clark.

And we started from there, you know what I mean? And we were really, you know, having a good time writing and we did the pilot and everything. It was exciting, like having Chris Rock join and stuff like that. And then, you know, it was kind of like, we like it, but, you know, we don't overly love it, you know what I'm saying? Which isn't that great. So we went back to redevelopment and stuff like that. And now I think we're at a point where everybody's feeling pretty great about it. So very excited, you know, we have a super good core team around the creative, you know, bringing in David Casp and stuff like that.

And my buddy Ken Whittingham is directing a lot of the episodes. And I think we just got a good squad. like Universal and NBC seem to be like really, really behind it. A lot of people are very excited to see it. The cast couldn't be greater, in my opinion. Like everybody is just, you know, beyond just being nice, they're all super-tuper talented and delivering, you know what I'm saying? Which I couldn't ask for anything more.

You know, I feel, you know, kind of weird about even asking people to do things. You know what I'm saying? Because it's like, I'm a favorite kind of guy, but not necessarily everybody is, you know what I mean? So you never want to, like, be the guy that's always like, can you give me a little bit more? Can you give it? You want people to come to work and give on their own. And that's kind of what's been happening.

So I'm overly excited and eager to see what people think about it. Before you sat down, there's a director's chair that you're sitting in right now that says Kenan Thompson. And I was thinking to myself, as a fan of yours for so long, I was just happy for you as a fan that this is your show with your name on the chair. What does that feel like? Man, it's overwhelming. You know, it's beyond exciting. And it's a joy, dream come true and all of that, you know, career milestone, good stuff. It's a blessing.

But honestly, it's a lot. Seeing my name, like, just blast it because it's not like we're doing the show called Under the Moonlight or anything like that. Like, this is called Keenan, and they're using my first name. And, you know, it's not even like the Keenan show. It's just, like, very straightforward. Like, Keenan, like, let's go. And I'm with it. You know what I'm saying?

But it's a lot. Seeing my name on the vans, on like courtesy shuttle signs and stuff. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's pretty intense. But like I said, I have a great group of people around me. So I don't necessarily feel like I'm hanging out there in a way and, you know, unclothed or anything. Does it feel different? Obviously, it's different than SNL where you're a part of a cast and you're a cog in this big wheel that's been chugging along since 1975.

Is it a different feeling knowing, okay, a lot of this is on me right now? It is. I mean, like at S&L, I can be, you know, a piece of the puzzle as opposed to, like, what the puzzle should look like when it's finished. You know what I mean? Like, I'm a big involved part of this whole thing, you know, like, it's rare that I have, you know, time off when we're shooting or I get to come in late or have a day off or anything like that. So I feel that burden. I feel that, you know, responsibility on my shoulders. Like, I don't want to waste anybody's 22 minutes, you know what I mean? It's 22 minutes. You know what I mean? It's 22 minutes. minutes you can't get back. So we want to make sure that everybody enjoys it and wants to eat up more of those episodes and stuff like that. So yeah, man, I don't know, man. I'm just, I'm pumped. That's why I'm agreeing to do every single interview than anybody wants to do. Like, I want to sit down and talk to everybody just because I want to make sure that I'm not crazy and we're on the right track, you know, because I'm enjoying the heck out of it. Well, you are. I told you before we started, I watched the first episode. The writing is funny. The acting is good.

You and Christopher Red, your buddy from S&L, Don Johnson is on the show. He's hilarious. And these two girls are great, these two young actors who you've brought along. So I guess the question people will have is, how is Keenan on the show, Keenan, different from the Keenan who's sitting here with me right now? How much of yourself did you bring to it? A lot. It's not going to be a whole lot of super different.

I guess in person, I'm a little more mellow. But, you know, we're making a show here. So it's definitely my show persona. that's on. Yeah, I mean, the cast is great, and they bring it out of me. Just, you know, having the energy of the girls, Danny and Dana around.

And especially Chris, Chris, you know, he does not stop. He's relentless, you know? Stand up in him just keeps fishing for jokes and keeps going. So he keeps me on my toes. And Don could not be nicer, you know, and sweeter. And we have incredible laughs, you know, like behind the scenes, too.

You know, like, that dude is a real yuckster. I don't know if people ever get. to see that side of him. But yeah, I'm getting like all of it. So we're having a good time. And then the rounded out professional environment side of the cast, we have Kimmery Lewis, who was on single parents with Taryn, my buddy from MSNL, and he recommended her.

And I'm so thankful that he did. So shout out to Taryn Kill him. Taylor Louderman, who was on Broadway with Mean Girls playing Regina George. So those are big shoes to fill. So I saw her do that. And I was like, well, she can do anything. And then Lauren recommended her. I was like, yeah, she can do whatever we'd be lucky to get her.

And then the same thing for Fortune Feimster. You know what I mean? We got Fortune Feimster in the cast, which is, to me, beyond a cherry on top. You know what I'm saying? It's just like a well-rounded group of comics, but also a group of like really, really nice people, man. Like, it's pretty awesome. You mentioned Lauren Michaels, one of the executive producers of the show as well. How different is it working with them on a project like this versus your day-to-day?

in Studio 8-8. Yeah, he's, you know, he wants it to work. And he's just like, this isn't going to embarrass me, right? Like, we had dinner the other night. And it's like, yeah, this better work there, buddy. I was like, yeah, I feel you. Because, you know, SNL is a well-established machine, and they know very well what's going to work before everybody else.

So this is kind of a different thing. It's a longer process. And now that we're kind of getting close to, like, we're beyond the point of like no return, basically. He's just like, hmm, mm-hmm, this is your shot there, young man. But honestly, I think it's all like tough love, you know, Jedi mind trick type stuff. Because every time he does that, I go out and overperform. So it's like that.

That's what he wanted in the first place. I like that. His one piece of sage wisdom is this better work. Okay, bye, I got to go. Thanks. Thanks, Lord. He's like, oh, yeah, wow, that's brilliant. It actually better work.

That makes a lot of sense. Oh, by the way, you're shooting this. show while you're doing SNL. So for example, you just had a show as we sit here right now on Saturday. You wake up early on Sunday morning and fly to L.A. and get right to work basically this week, doing an entire week and then fly back for this week's SNL. How is that going for you? I mean, that's the plan. We'll see how well we executed, but it went fine last week. I was able to jump in and I didn't have anything to build from super duper scratch necessarily. I did OJ and then a couple filler things or whatever.

So it wasn't overly stressful. And then I made it back before I even knew I was gone. So starting back on Monday, my voice was a little hoarse because I sing those warm warm up songs and I hadn't done it in like a month since like Christmas or something like that. So I was like, oh, I have to like warm myself back up. But thank God it came back today. And I think as I go and do it this week, I won't be so like out of practice.

So I don't think I would just blow myself out like that. And yeah, if I can keep that same. schedule. Like I came running back because my family is out here. So that way I didn't like, you know, feel so exhausted when I got it wasn't like nighttime or anything like that. So I, you know, if I can do it like that, it's working. That'll change whenever they go back to New York. And then I'm like wanting to stay in New York as long as possible. Right. And then running out here the last minute and getting up at six in the morning, that's when I'll start feeling it. But honestly, these is the first world problems, man. I was going to say.

I'm outside buildings in the freezing cold with my bare knuckles. I'm good, bro. I'm good. Speaking of the freezing cold, Kenan, look behind me. This is the snowstorm you missed, my friend, while you're out in sunny Hollywood. I thought you were sitting there with like a fancy green screen. No, that's a foot and a half of snow that came into New York right after you flew out for L.A. It looks like more than that.

It looks like six to eight feet. Those are like pine trees out there. This is what you're coming home to, and you know what New York. City's like after a storm like that. It ain't pretty. It's gorgeous. It's absolutely all. The dirty piles of snow with the little dog pee and pee on the top. I love it.

And they're little treasures that are hidden. They'll come back in a few weeks or a couple of months. That's your culture, baby. By the by the way, you mentioned singing the song before SNL. I don't think people who have not seen the live show know you do that. I didn't know it before the first time I got to go. You warm up

with Give Me Some Loving. Yeah. Spoil. I sing, give me some love, and if you've ever heard my voice cracking on the show, like, that's why. Because I sing it twice because we do the dress rehearsal as well. And, you know, music does that. It makes you give, you know, as much energy as you possibly have every single time because the band is playing it exactly the same. You know what I mean? And the people want to have a good experience, you know, and you just feel the obligation to do it like that. So I've never been able to like not, or like, half a thing.

or like halfway sing that song, you know what I mean? For some reason, it's just like it's a get everybody going type of thing, and I just can't half sell it like that. Hey, guys, thanks for listening to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Stick around to hear more from Keenan Thompson right after the break. Welcome back to the Sunday Sit Down podcast. Now more of my conversation with Keenan Thompson. It's interesting to hear you talk about this transition back and forth from the show

was because it used to be, actually not that long ago, maybe it's still that way. At SNL, it was like, okay, I had my SNL career. Now I have to leave to go do the sitcom. I got to leave to go do my movie career. And what you've said and maybe started is, no, you can actually do both. I mean, yeah, I mean, I think Fred was like the first one I saw do it,

like, for real with, like, one foot on a show and another foot still in SNL, like, for real, for, like, when he was doing Portland, I think for the first maybe two or three seasons. You know, he was gone and he'd be back, you know. And then he was kind of the first person I saw that was doing it, but then he still ended up leaving, you know, and continue in Portlandia. And, you know, I saw him the other day.

Thank God. Shout out to Fred. But it was super random and I don't get to see my buddies like that anymore. And that always kind of made me like a little sad, especially when I would see if they get to come back to host, how much they miss it, you know what I mean, and stuff like that. to get six days with it as opposed to like it being your yearly life type of situation and

I don't know I was just I don't like change I guess that's the tourists in me or something like that but it's a special place man and there was a way for me to figure out how to do both what better situation would it be than to have multiple shows on the same network you know what I'm saying so at the moment yeah it's working is it exhausting me I can't say that it is But something's kind of probably being under service. Maybe I'm not writing as much on SNL because I'm distracted working here. So, you know, hopefully I'll find that balance to where I can still, you know, introduce characters or anything like that and perform at a high level over there as well.

Because my focus over here is 100% just because it's in my face, like, what's writing on this? You know what I'm saying? And then I go to SNL and I pitch in, but it always feels like maybe that I could have done a little more if I was around the right maybe or something like that. Yeah, I mean, can you believe it's been 18 years that you've been on SNL? And it seems to me, just watching your career, you've never been anxious to run out the door like some people are, right? Yeah, no, I mean, I've never done 18 years of anything, you know, so I don't believe, I don't know how to, like, gauge that. You know what I mean? It's crazy. I can only gauge it in, like, you know, my marriage years or, like, my children or

anything like that, you know, but it's crazy. That even pushes me further down the road of why would you ever leave type of thing, you know, like unless people really like, you're trash, you know what I mean, like you suck, like you're not even, why do you even come? You can't even remember your lines. You're in the way. Or, yeah, that's another thing. If I felt like I was in the way of other people coming up, then, yeah, I would fall back.

But that's not the case. It's like 17 people in the cast regardless of if I'm there or not, you know? So everybody's figuring it out for themselves and stuff like that. And if I'm requested to come around, then I would like to oblige those requests. It's not like I can just be like, I'm going to come back next season. You know what I'm saying? You can't do nothing about it. It's like, you know, ask him.

Well, you'll be happy to know no one's saying those bad things about you. In fact, when you talk to writers, they say, if we know the sketch is a little weak, let's get a cutaway of Keenan reacting or give Keenan a line that wasn't there before. They need you. They feel like you're the glue to that show. I hope so. I'm willing to take all cheats. Is it true, Keenan? I didn't know this about you, that your audition was a little bit of a disaster and you were pretty sure you had bombed it and you were never going to get another call? Oh, yeah. In my eyes, for sure. I mean, I don't know what they thought they saw. Maybe it was the cheeks.

maybe a couple of impressions or anything. But yeah, I had to do stand-up and I'd never done stand-up before, so I was just overly terrified. And, you know, I just didn't really even know how to engage the audience. Like, I started off with a sound effect of a phone ringing, as opposed to being like, how's everybody doing tonight, like a normal person? So, yeah, it was just a rocky kind of experience on my first one. But then the call back was in the studio,

and that felt better because it was just straight to camera, more like a kid playing in the mirror type of thing, and that felt a lot better. And then I went home for a week, didn't hear anything. That's always terrifying, you know, when you audition for stuff, it's usually either that day or the next day, that they're like, you got it, come on in, you know,

it's a done deal, blah, blah, blah. So by day two and a half, I was just like, yeah, I blew it, basically, and kind of let it go. And then they called, like, on a Friday or something, And they were like, all right, we want you to audition one more time, but at the laugh factory. And I was like, snap, more stand-up. Here we go. Great.

Not great, but okay. You know what I'm saying? Like, this is the job that everybody wants to get. So you do what, you know, you're asked to do if you want that foot in the door or whatever. So it was down to me and like everybody else I was auditioning against were all stand-ups, you know, and they were obliterating the crowd because, you know, they had their tight sets, basically. They've been working on it for years or whatever. And I was so nervous, I was drinking out of the faucet in the bathroom. Really?

I didn't want back and forth to the bar. Yeah. And then I just couldn't quench my thirst because I was just so terrified. And I just kept pouring water out of the sink. It was crazy. Wow. But when I'm Dan did it. So, Keenan, you're drinking out of the faucet.

So there's a live crowd at the laugh factory waiting for you to make them laugh. So this isn't the dark studio with Lorne and two other people there. This is like, you better go make some people laugh. Do you remember what you did? Once, I didn't learn my lesson. Started again with the phone call. You know what I mean? I just stretched it more.

Like I had, you know, five minutes to do the first time. And then they wanted like eight to ten minutes or whatever this time. So just gone down my own weird sketch, impression impressionation rabbit hole. And like pretty much entertaining probably my one buddy that was in the crowd. I think I played directly to him for the entire, the entire thing. show. Shout out to my homie lucky because he is my luck charm as far as that job is concerned. Yeah, that laugh probably got you in the door. So as you said, you didn't have that stand-up pedigree that we've come to understand is a requirement. You also didn't do Second City or the

groundlings or any of that. You did obviously, you did Keenan and Kell. You did all that. You had showbiz experience. When you got the job, did you feel a little bit like an outsider almost, knowing that a lot of these people knew each other from these different places? Yeah, also, I was a baby. As far as the cast was concerned, I got hired with Finesse, and even he was, like, 30. And J.B. got hired as a writer,

and he was in his 30s as well. And I was 25, you know what I mean? So I also looked like I was maybe 19. You know what I'm saying? So I definitely was getting, like, you know, the baby love and stuff like that. But it brought me close to, like, my sister's, Maya and Amy and, you know, Rachel and Tina, you know, just because they called me Kiki and stuff

like that. And they thought I was just, you know, a cute little boy that could make them laugh. And that's where a lot of those relationships started. And servicing, you know, other people's writing helped me kind of get my feet wet because I didn't know how to write. Like, they wrote for us on Nickelode. And so I had to like learn. And it took me a long time before I wrote my first sketch. I think maybe by my fifth season, I probably got something on the show that I wrote, or that was like my idea, that's the column. Yeah, but yeah.

So how do you find your place in that iconic show? Because I know people who've gone there, incredibly talented people, and they just can't crack it, you know? How did you find your place? I don't know, man. It goes left and right for so many different people, but I joined a large cast, and there wasn't a lot of pressure on me in the beginning.

guess, you know, like I was always able to fill in, like, as a Carol Mosley Braun or as Gary Coleman or like little pops here and there. And then, you know, people started being able to trust me with their writing and stuff like that. And once I had developed like an ongoing relationship with like James Anderson, we started doing the one show. God, I can't remember the name of the skits. That's so terrible. Who's the character? I'll remember it. I used to say, ooh-wee T-Shane. Like, ooh-wee T-Shane. Oh, oh.

Then it was Randy Samberg. I can see it. Yeah, it was Samberg, right? Yeah. Yeah. Like, that was the first time we started doing, like, a recurring sketch. You know, he just started writing those things for me. And so I was able to, like, you know, develop that relationship with him.

And then everybody could see, like, okay, maybe we should try to, like, get something or going or whatever. And, you know, on and on it went until I started writing my own type stuff. And I think I was able to fly under the radar a little bit before I was over exposed as like not being ready to do the show yet. You know what I mean? Like I was pretty ready. And like I did something in my first episode like as Bill Cosby or whatever. That was a moment. But I just, I always came to play.

Number one, I never came to like throw my ego around or anything like that. I just want to be helpful and, you know, help out people's stuff. Like, you know, you give me something and I have an idea about it, you know, and it gets a laugh. And that seems like I've done my job, basically. So that was always my mentality. And yeah, I get along with people, you know what I'm saying? So, like, I guess I was a pleasure to be around when it came time. Like, do we want to keep this guy around or not type decisions?

You know what I'm saying? Like, I don't think anybody was just like, nah, he's a dick. Like, get rid of him, blah, blah, blah. So it was just trying to be professional, man. And by the time I started really putting stuff out that I thought was specifically funny, I felt good about it. You know, I felt like I knew how the show worked. I knew how the audience worked and, you know, what the audience was made up of as far as the people that were coming into the room. And then how much of that trickled out into everybody else.

Some of the guys on our crew just gave DeAndre Cole a shout out with what's up with. that. What character of yours do you hear about the most if you're walking down the street? It depends. Like if, uh, you know, if it's mostly like family type people, like around the Christmas tree, it's like, oh man, what's up with that? We sing it, you know, while we're decorating our Christmas tree at home. Um, if I'm in Harlem, there's a whole lot of David Ortiz love up there. Oh, yeah. Yeah. If I'm around like older black people, They love the Steve Harvey. Oh, I love the Steve Harvey.

No, because we all cherish that guy. Yeah, any kind of like super black family setting, it's all about Steve Harvey. Charles Barkley, too, strong for the sports fans. Yeah, whenever basketball comes around, Charles Barkley starts to get talked about. Everybody else does Shaq. I got a Shaq, too. What everybody wants to do Shaq with Crossed Ice, but I just do it a little more. That's it.

That's the voice. You got the voice. So those are other people's favorites. What's your favorite to do? If you see it on a show or you're pitching a show and you're, yes, I get to do him again. Yeah, Big Poppy's a lot of fun. That dude is just so joyous. Between Big Poppy and Willie, just because Willie is the craziest stuff ever.

I think that might be me and Michael Chase's little, you know, secret little guilty pleasure. Like, writing for that guy. It's kind of the best. You mentioned playing Carol Mosley Braun, and I smiled a little bit because that was back in the day when you had to play the black women who would be on the show. And you actually stepped up a few years ago and said, guys, this is ridiculous. We've got to get somebody on the show who can play black women. What was that moment like to have that clout to be able to step up and say, we need more diversity on the show. Let's open it up.

I mean, it felt good until it was misinterpreted. You know what I'm saying? And then, like, I started catching all his backlash for things that I didn't say. Oh, really? It was like, you know, people twisting words and, like, taking their own meanings from, like, what I was overall trying to say. But, you know, the outcome was we got Leslie Jones, we got Seashir, you know, and now we have ego in there.

We got punky and, you know, Che came through. There was just a lot of diversity doors, like, swinging wide open because of it. So, I mean, I'm not reg. regretting any of it necessarily, but I'm always trying to make clear that I would never say that black women aren't funny or anything like that. Like, that's just crazy. Like, what I was trying to say is, you got to be ready to do S&L, you know what I mean? And the people that they were looking at for years and years and years, either they were already working the ones that were ready to do the show or they just weren't ready to do the show, in my opinion. You know what I'm saying?

But that was just my opinion. and it had nothing to do with the fact that black women or women period aren't funny or anything like that. That's wildly crazy to me. You know what I mean? Like I'm not that kind of guy to just throw out crazy jabs like that. No. What I was saying is that it's a very specific training you need. I know coming from a place where I thought I was ready to do the show.

You know what I'm saying? Like I was ready to perform? Yes. But was I ready to feed that machine? No. You know what I'm saying? And you got a notice. these things. And a lot of that, you know, training is in those improv houses and things like that.

And our numbers aren't necessarily that drastic over there. So we need to build those numbers up. And then you'll have more, you know, people that are auditioning on a regular basis or larger pool of qualified people that are ready to do the show to be, you know, chosen. Because that, like you said, that experience goes left and right for so many people. And I don't want to see anybody get hired just for the sake of and then have a experience. Right. No, I took you, I took your point exactly. I mean, having, you've been inside the machine, you know what it takes to succeed there, and I felt like you were passing that on. I know you've got to get back to work, and I want to let you get back to work, but I note that Keenan take- Oh, don't send me back. Oh, you can stay

as long as you want to. Believe me, I don't want to cut into your lunch hour. I note that Keenan takes place in Atlanta, which is where you grew up. So I'm wondering where the acting thing started for you beyond being a five-year-old Toto the dog and the whiz? You were great in that, by the way. Thank you. It takes courage to play a dog. I don't know, man. It just was one of those things.

It was like, you do some acting, do some, you know, baseball, do some football, do some, you know, whatever. Just stay out of the street, basically. You know what I'm saying? So acting was kind of the thing as I got up through. high school and I hadn't, you know, grown my puberty levels to the sizes of my football teammates. I'm like, all right, well, I guess I'm done with football, you know what I'm saying? So I'm in this March. I'll hang out with my trumpet, you know what I'm saying? I can still go to the games. You know, I can, I can letter in band so I can still get a jacket. There you go.

So that's my thinking than that. But then, you know, along that path at the same time, acting kind of showed me that it, you know, it could be like a career, you know, it could pay me, could, you know, sustain me, it could, you know, be my way of making a living. And it kind of showed me that early. So I didn't know if it was necessarily going to be something that I could do my entire life at the time, but it just stayed with me and then on through the Nickelodeon years. It was like, oh, well, I guess I'm a professional now, you know, by the time we've done, we've done nine seasons of both shows or whatever, five on all that. before on Keenan and Kel. I was like, I'm in this. You know what I'm saying? And I want that kind of

longevity that I've had seen my mentors have. So, yeah. Well, it's paid off clearly. Look at you sitting in that director's chair with your name on it, with your own sitcom on NBC, my friend. Congratulations. This is a free suit, by the way. You're going to keep that suit. You know how to do that, right? All you got to do is clean it. Sneak it off the set. Keenan, thanks for taking the time. I know how busy you are shooting. It's always great to see. friend. Oh, it's my pleasure, man. Congrats on the show. We'll be rooting for you. I appreciate it. All right, Keenan. See you, man.

All right, man. You too. My big thanks to Keenan for a great conversation. His new show, Keenan, premieres February 16th on NBC. You, of course, can catch him every weekend on Saturday Night Live. As always, my thanks to you for tuning in. If you want to hear more of our conversations every week, be sure to click subscribe so you never miss an episode. And, of course, do you. not forget to tune in to Sunday today every weekend on NBC. I'm Willie Geist. We'll see you

right back here next week on the Sunday Sit Down podcast.