‘SNL’ star Kenan Thompson announced as fall comedian

| Senior News Editor

Kenan Thompson, the actor and comedian best known for his roles on “Saturday Night Live” and Nickelodeon sketch comedy show “All That,” will be performing at Social Programming Board’s second fall comedy show on Nov. 6.

SPB announced Thompson’s performance Tuesday night. Student response to the announcement seemed generally positive, with over 1,000 students listed as attending the Facebook event for Thompson’s performance just 24 hours after the announcement.

SPB’s comedy director, junior Ishi Metkar, said that the group had pursued Thompson and this semester’s first comedy show performer, Bert Kreischer, after students ranked them highly on SPB’s fall comedy survey. Although SPB received additional funding in the Student Union general budget for the 2014-15 academic year, Metkar said that none of the additional funding was allocated for comedians.

Thompson, in his 12th season on “SNL,” is the most senior of the sketch comedy show’s current cast, and he has also appeared in films “Good Burger” and “Fat Albert.”

Metkar said Thompson was planned to serve as a comedian who would appeal to a wide range of students, as last fall’s comedian, Nick Offerman, did.

“[Thompson] wasn’t just a comedian who went out of style,” Metkar said. “He’s just starting his career.”

Metkar said that she hoped that Thompson’s significant name recognition would result in a higher turnout for his performance than for those of spring comedians Judah Friedlander and Mike Birbiglia.

Sophomore Nicole DeRosa was excited to hear that Thompson would be performing at the comedy show, as she had been following his career since his days on Nickelodeon.

I’m super excited about it. I’ve been watching him since he was on ‘All That,’ so I can’t wait to actually see him perform in person,” DeRosa said. “We’ve grown up with him since he started on ‘All That’ and ‘Kenan & Kel,’ and we’ve had the chance to continue watching him on ‘SNL,’ so it’s really exciting that we get to see him perform in person.”

Sophomore Imran Mumtaz said he was also looking forward to the show.

“I think it’s awesome; Kenan [Thompson] is one of my favorite members of ‘SNL.’ SPB has consistently excited us with fantastic comedians, and this is just another example of that,” Mumtaz said.

Metkar said that she and SPB’s special events director are working to add a show by campus comedy improvisational groups in the Gargoyle the week of Thompson’s performance to complement his show.

With additional reporting by Emily Schienvar.

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