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Seth Meyers Performs at Bailey Hall

Seth Meyers performed Tuesday, March 27 at Bailey Hall for a full house of fans. The performance lasted slightly over an hour and drew consistent laughs form the crowd. Much if his humor centers around sarcasm and deft wordplay. As an anchor on Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update, Meyers focuses on highlighting the ridiculousness of current events. Viewers of Saturday Night Live sometimes wonder why he is not in more skits. When Meyers initially joined the cast he was in many skits, but his role in writing the show itself has grown dominant across his decade with the show. He is now head writer.

“Some people are prone to violence, I am prone to sarcasm;” claimed Meyers during the Bailey Hall show. His jokes ranging across political and collegiate topics confirmed that. During fistfights, flights to Vegas, and unreasonably large room service deliveries; which many students may have recently experienced over spring break, Meyer’s sarcasm has minimized awkwardness and maximized entertainment value.

After the show, Meyers explained that for Saturday Night Live “you can make skits that are funny forever and that’s great but tapping into the vein” of a current moment and getting “a new angle” on it if possible is something he continually seeks to do. His skits on Sarah Palin did this with great success.  His jokes regarding Trump at last year’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner caught the moment as well and generated great media attention. He retold some of the Trump jokes, including the irony of his appearances on Fox News. Additionally, he tapped into the current republican primaries and referred to the GOP debates as the “best reality show of the year.”

Meyers began writing at an early age and continued it as his teachers praised his work. Comedy was something he naturally because interested in as he grew up with it. He watched Monty Python and Saturday Night Live.

“I enjoy the camaraderie of SNL and working with people who make me laugh really hard. We get to write a show that for every one of us is the show we grew up on, and the greatest thing is when we can make a show that we feel adds to that legacy” according to Meyers.

Meyer’s road to SNL began after performing in an improv comedy group during college. He took classes at Improv Olympic during his senior year. After that he auditioned for a comedy troupe called Boom Chicago that as going over to Amsterdam. While working there for two  years he decided that upon going back to the US he wanted to see if he could continue working in comedy professionally. He then got his audition with SNL.

To anyone interested in comedy Meyers says, “you have to get on stage all the time, you have to do whatever it takes to perform at lot,” even if that means moving, “you cannot wait for opportunity to come to you.”