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Kenan Thompson Gets Psych-ed Before 35th Anniversary of SNL
by Troy Rogers
Saturday Night Live regular, Kenan Thompson, takes
a break from SNL on Friday, September 25 to step
into the world of the USA network series, Psych,
in a guest role that sees the SNL funny man join
Psych co-star Dule Hill as one of four members
from Gus' college a capella group. The very next
night, Kenan Thompson returns to Saturday Night
Live to go live on SNL for the 35th Anniversary
of the famous Lorne Michaels created late night
staple with actress Megan Fox as host and Irish
Rockers U2 as the musical guest.
Ahead of Kenan Thompson's appearance on Psych and the 35th Anniversary of SNL, we hopped on the phone to conduct our own investigation into Thompson's new Psych guest gig and how he feels about the 35th celebration on the set of Saturday Night Live.
Which of your impressions
is your favorite?
KENAN THOMPSON: I like Al Sharpton. I want to do some more Al Roker. I think I have a different take on him. The last time it was just more about doing a silly voice. I think I have a pretty funny take on him now. I just like doing impressions if I can do them well, like if they're genuinely getting laughs; that's when it's fun. But when I feel like I'm stretching, that's when it's like OK maybe this isn't the best impression.
Have you ever gone out for a night on the town while still in character?
THOMPSON: I should. I mean I want to go out as a scared straight guy and try to talk to high school kids.
Your character in "Psych"
is a member of an a cappella group. Do you actually
have a good singing voice and will we hear it
in the episode?
THOMPSON: Yeah, we have to sing. We have to harmonize, me and Jaleel White with Dulé [Hill]. The first day we got to Vancouver we had to go like straight in the studio and learn all these harmonies. It was fun and I don't know if I have a great singing voice but I did sing in church as a child; I can hold a note.
And is there something
different about when you have to do this kind
of a harmony like an a cappella? Is it more
difficult than the kind of stuff you sang in
church?
THOMPSON: Absolutely because singing a melody is like a lot of easier and when you sing harmony you have to really kind of know music and listen to the music and be able to hear the notes or whatever. So I don't know like Dulé had like a harmony. He had a high harmony part and all my harmony parts were kind of lower - which is funny because my voice isn't usually that low it's only low right now because I'm a little sick.
"Saturday Night Live"
was on the air before you were even born. At
what point did you become aware of the show,
and how influential was it in your decisions
to become a sketch comedian?
 THOMPSON:
It was pretty large in my household. I became
aware of it sort of like in the mid ‘80s when
Murphy was on. And I became an instant fan because
I thought he was so great ... And then I started
learning about the show ... and started doing
more research and watching like all through
the late ‘80s and ‘90s and stuff like that and
like became a real fan. So I think it definitely
had a large impact on my life.
What made you want to
be a part of the show "Psych"?
THOMPSON: My homey Dulé called me and like I guess he was trying to call me through Jorma Taccone but Jorma has been busy with the "MacGruber" movie this summer, so I didn't get the message from him. They finally like got my manager people on the phone. I was like, "Yeah, I'll do it with Dulé." Like I met him when he was on "The West Wing" and stuff like that. So he's a good dude. And then they told me Jaleel [White] was doing it and I was like, "He's the man too," so we just had a good time and did it.
What about playing on
"Saturday Night Live" continues to challenge
you?
THOMPSON: It's just a challenge doing live television every week. It's a challenge to come up with new material every week and stuff like that and try to keep it current ... It's a kind of a stressful environment ...
Do you ever still get
nervous going on?
THOMPSON: Absolutely ... I try to like turn the nerves into energy and hype myself up or whatever. But yeah, you can feel that definitely that countdown, you know, from 11:25 [p.m.] basically to 11:30 [p.m.] is crunch time ... And like if the first joke doesn't hit, you can fail. But that's the beauty of dress rehearsal as well so it kind of calms all that down. You figure out what's really funny by the time it's a live show; that's the aim.
Is there any impression
that you've ever tried to nail down but couldn't
or somebody who you found really, really hard
to mimic?
THOMPSON: Every time I watch like Jay Leno and his new show, I don't even know if I'll ever get a chance to be on there because I went on "The Tonight Show" and tried to do a Jay Leno. He hated it.
Oh really?
THOMPSON: Yeah, I mean, it was a bad Jay Leno impression. I don't even think they aired it ... It was just like an awful moment. But he really hated my Jay Leno impressions. I guess that's one I need to work on.
When you are trying to
impersonate someone, what do you go for as far
as like their traits go? Do you opt for like
the funniest trait of theirs or the hardest
one that people may have not tried to mimic
before?
THOMPSON: You try to go with something that's familiar to people, and that way they can jump on board with what you're trying to do, basically. No, I only mimic people that really have like interesting voices, because it's really hard to mimic like someone who just talks regularly - like me. There's nothing fun about that.
Has anyone ever just
really praised your impersonation of them?
 THOMPSON:
Yeah, Roker was nice about it. I did Al Roker
once or twice. I think I'm going to do him some
more; he's a cool dude. Bill Cosby was cool
about it. I did Whitney Houston's daughter one
time and she was quite upset about that.
Oh really?
THOMPSON: Well, that was wrong, she was a child. Like I didn't need to do that, but we did it anyway and it was funny. But that was probably one of those things I would maybe or maybe not do again. I'm not sure because I really enjoyed doing it and it made us laugh. But, you know, it was kind of not fair to pick on a child, basically.
Is there anyone that
you're really, really excited to kind of try
your hand at this upcoming season on "Saturday
Night Live"?
THOMPSON: I wanted to do that whole Hellgate story but it's kind of an old story now. And maybe we'll take a poke at Kanye [West] a couple times or something.
What are your thoughts
on the new casting and departures this season?
THOMPSON: I hear we welcomed two new cast members and two of our older cast members have moved on to greener pastures ... It happens, you know.
Have you started working
with new "Saturday Night Live" newcomers Jenny
Slate and Nasim Pedrad?
THOMPSON: Yeah, I met them and ... we got like a table ready. So yeah, we're all working. It is going well. They're nice girls and we've got like a lot of new writers and everybody's really, really nice. And they seem like they're not too nervous and they want to get right into it or whatever so, you know, best of luck to them.
There was a report that
Casey Wilson being let go from "Saturday Night
Live" had to do with weight loss. Was there
any truth to that report that you know of?
THOMPSON: I'm not quite sure ... I'm sure that's between like the heads of the show and her. But I doubt it. Casey was super-funny and super-great and we all loved her performances and everything.
Are you going to be taking
over "Weekend Update" at all?
 THOMPSON:
Yeah, I'm down. You know what I mean? If they
make me do it, I'll do it, but we haven't really
discussed that yet this year. I remember we
had the auditions with Seth [Meyers] took over
and everything but like that was the last time
we talked about that, so bring it back up. I'm
down with it.
Are there any reoccurring
characters that we'll be seeing of yours this
season?
THOMPSON: I'm sure we'll try to do like a scared straight guy again, because that’s the only masculine character that I have.
Can you give us any hint
on what the first digital short is going to
be of this season?
THOMPSON: I wish I knew. I know those guys are like working hard; they barely came out of their office. We all write so last minute and so...
Over the last couple of years until now, what have you seen change in what we find funny?
THOMPSON: I definitely think television has changed a lot in the last few years ... [On reality shows] just the looks of those people, it's like funny. And [there are] hoards of women chasing after them for episode after episode or like muscled up dudes chasing after day-to-day love, so those kind of situations make me laugh. ... What makes me laugh is the same old same old ... anybody tripping and falling in front of me ...
Have you noticed any
change in the tone of what you guys are writing
about on "SNL"?
THOMPSON: We try to keep it smart every week. Every season, we get a lot better. I know I've learned a lot more. I've studied by classic-rock history for the last two years so maybe I'll be able to pull a joke out of there and not have it seem so random. Stuff like that, you know? Smarten it up, because we only have a few days after we've written something to like perfect it, as opposed to like months and months of discussion.
Especially with all the
political satire, that was another thing I was
going to ask ...
THOMPSON: Yeah, yeah, that was great for us last year. The whole Sarah Palin thing and Tina Fey doing her like that. Now that we don't really have a federal election going on this year, it's going to be like more intact political jokes so you really have to watch the news to maybe get a lot of them, but that also leaves room for a lot of funny features too ... I'm excited about that.
What did the sketch comedy
in your younger years teach you about the sketch
comedy that you do now?
THOMPSON: Just trying to tackle characters immediately, I guess I got good at trying to throw a voice on a character from the very beginning, as opposed to like reading it and sitting with it and mulling over it and stuff like that - just try to read what it is and then try to put a funny voice to it as soon as possible and stuff like that. And then once you get laughs with your voice, then you can start thinking about the physical characteristics and how they might walk or if they stick out their buck teeth or if they wear an Afro and stuff like that. I think finding the voice of the character helps to like build the wardrobe and everything else.
What did you find different
about shooting "Psych" than you did about doing
the live sketch?
 THOMPSON:
It was cool. They work really hard on that show;
they shoot like 12 to 14 hours days every day.
And they take the weekends off, but it's just
weird because they start a new episode in the
middle of the week as well because they do seven-day
shoot weeks. So it's Monday through Friday,
and then Monday and Tuesday, and then by Wednesday
they're on another episode. So it's a little
confusing for I'm sure for them. But for me,
it was super-easy. They were nice and we had
a good, good time and a lot of laughs. I hope
to do it like six more times.
What’s being planned
for the 35th-season opener of "SNL," besides
Megan Fox hosting and U2 performing?
THOMPSON: A super-sexy lady on one hand and then one of the more awesome rock bands ever on the [other] hand. It's just going to be an explosive show. And I think we all like itch to get back over the summer like it's nice to be off for a time ... When it's time to crank up the season, we all get excited. So hopefully we'll all have a lot of good energy and stuff like that. This is a great cast and we've all been together for so long now, and we're all very, very close and we enjoy each other's comedy ... I get excited for the season every year even though it's a lot of work.
We're kicking it off with basically 11 shows in a row or something crazy like that, but it just doesn't matter because it's just such a good environment to work in. Yeah, it's stressful but I've also learned a lifetime's worth of how to write sketch comedy and dealing with how to make a joke funnier or if the joke is not working then how to research it and stuff like that. I mean, you make life-long connections ... It's the best job in the world.
Who are your main role
models?
THOMPSON: Role models? I don't know ... I look up to my mom a lot, really. She's like the main one. But she's only 5-feet tall so I have to look down to look up at her. But just people like that, I guess. You know, like a lot of these celebrity types I've met in the past and sometimes it's not always as pleasant as when you hold them on such a pedestal, so I've given that up. Like I'm just trying to keep my fantasies alive and keep them to myself when I see a famous person.
How did the ghetto mom
Virginiaca character come about?
THOMPSON: It came about with me and James Anderson who writes the sketch with me. We just started doing like some ghetto lady voices just. I was trying to make it different than [Martin Lawrence’s] Shanaynay or this and that. Everybody has done Wanda [Jamie Foxx character on "In Living Color"] and stuff like that. So I was like, "What if it was somebody's mom that was acting like that?" And then I was like, "And let's take it a step further and like what if it was somebody's mom who just kind of married into the family. These aren't really her kids but she is their mother or their mean stepmom and stuff."
Do you think this season
we'll get to see more of Virginiaca?
THOMPSON: I don't know. I caught a lot of flack for this Virginiaca thing. So I don't know, I don't want to make every black woman in America mad at me, so I'll see.
As you look forward to
the rest of your career, do you get that sense
that "SNL" is kind of preparing you for anything?
And if so, what other places would you like
to go with your career with the experience you're
gaining now?
 THOMPSON:
It's funny because like I've heard that actually
a lot from people that graduated from the show.
Like this show is nothing like anything else,
like everything else is downhill from here and
blah, blah, blah. And they're right. Like I'll
do guest stars and stuff like that in between
shows and all you do basically is come in and
say your lines like how it was when you were
auditioning. [On] "SNL," you have like your
hand on the pulse. And if what you do isn't
funny then you don't get to be on the show.
And no other show is like that. So yeah it is
preparing you basically to be able to deal with
any situation. If I go onto a show, that means
I can write my own show basically when I leave
here and produce it as well, because we have
to like produce our own sketches too. So everything
short of directing, it seems like.
Could you ever just be
satisfied just being an actor, like going in
and reading your lines, or are you much more
happy when you've got some form of creative
control over what's going on?
THOMPSON: Yeah, I mean especially for comedians like we're so kind of anal about what makes us tick basically and what we think is funny. So any situation I stepped out in like where I was representing the entire show and it's about like my taste and stuff, I would definitely have to be in the writer's role.
Jaleel White is supposed
to be like a really good basketball and Dulé
Hill is a talented tap dancer. Did you guys
get to do any of that?
THOMPSON: We didn't play basketball but we were doing some dancing. There was like a flashback scene where you see us like kind of in our groove and what we used to look like and how we used to get down and dance. And we shot that scene like super-early in the morning and I just remember I was sweating and huffing and puffing and just going at it. And it was all old ‘90s dances and stuff like that so ... it was like, "Oh, that's what that guy remembers" ... It was cool to see that.
With U2 performing on
the 35th-season premiere of "SNL," what other
stars who’ve been on the show still awe you
to this point?
THOMPSON: Well U2, they're incredible. They've been doing it for so long. And then they'll mess around and like do songs after the show is off, just for the people that are there and stuff. So that's always like a mind-blowing thing ... Like any time we have like a host [doubling as the] music guest that's always fun, like the Janet Jackson thing and we have Taylor Swift doing it this year and Jennifer Lopez doing it this year. So I'm excited about that.
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