hey i want to ask you about you were
doing sketch comedy at that same age so
you're in kind of a sitcom world kind of
but you're also in a in a
doing full-on sketch comedy and playing
characters so
i think i was thinking about this today
of all the people i know that have been
on saturday live and i've known so many
of them
you've been on the longest on sunday
live but also
you probably had the most years of
sketch comedy experience before
you even got the show of anybody i know
yeah i mean that's interesting i mean it
was like
five seasons of all that so
yeah we looked at it i mean we used to
call ourselves like the snl for kids and
stuff like that but
thought we would ever really make it you
know even to like auditioning for it for
real for real just because
you know it just seemed very you know
it's just such a different world like we
were in florida and then we went to la
you know what i mean so i didn't have
that like
new york chicago comedy scene hustle
knowing that sml is that 30 rock like i
didn't know what 30 rock was you know
until i went there for an audition
basically so
it was very far-fetched kind of idea for
all of us pretty much and then you know
as i stayed kind of diligent
pressing the issue of letting me
audition or whatever i finally got the
chance
and then yeah i don't know if i'll ever
give that job up
you know yeah yeah well i don't see a
reason why
i think there used to be this feeling
like well i've done starting out live
and
now i need to move on and and and and
put that down and do something else and
it's occurred to me that
the world we live in now that's not
really necessary
you can do sarnat live you can do it
if you had to part of the time do your
sitcom
make a movie it's not an either or world
anymore
so and you're so great on that show i
just don't see why there's any reason to
say well
your time's up you've got to leave high
school it's not that way anymore
thank you for saying that i mean that's
exactly how i see it too you know
like it was a time like you said it was
a platforming type of situation but
for me it was always kind of different
because
i came into the show with people knowing
who i was and wanted to see me mature or
whatever and now i'm at to the point
where
a lot of people don't really know the
show without me being on it you know
so it's like a weird kind of
do i want to leave and just go do
whatever else
without it like not really you know i
think it's a very special place it's a
very special
tool to keep sharp you know just being
on top of things week after week and
well there's yeah there's a there's a
type of comedy that you can do on sarnot
live that you can't do other places i
remember when i was there phil hartman
one of the great sketch performers of
all time he was on the show and then
he had been there with at the time
seemed like a long time and then
he was said well i guess i need to move
on now and do my other stuff
and i thought no show is going to use
phil hartman as well as sarnat live
they're going to he's and and he went on
to do other things and then sadly
uh you know uh was gone but um
very like one at a time yes you know
years in between uh incredible phil
hartman performance you know just
because
weight on the project basically exactly
you're in the hands of other people
whereas on starting out live there's so
much you can do
and which brings up the question of
lorne
lauren michael's obviously uh famous
uh creator producer starting out live uh
huge influence on me um pretty much gave
me my career
so i'm indebted to him like so many of
us are
he produces uh he produces keenan he
produces your
show and i'm wondering is he
in i i know lauren from the world of uh
being my producer on saturday live and
being the producer
on my late night show what's he like on
a sitcom is he still the same
guy that kind of doesn't say much but
when he says something it cuts like a
knife
oh man it cuts like a machete
it's like you do so you know like
there's a lot
on the line as it is like the show is
you know self-titled at this point you
know it was
giving larry at one point which i felt
much more you know
distant from and you know like just
an actor coming to do a show but now
this is called keenan you know what i
mean
it's all about me and like you know the
phrase you said keenan
lauren produces keenan like that's kind
of like really the
overall kind of statement for my life
for the last
18 years he's just been that guy so
the fact that there's so much weighing
on it and we do so much thinking and
back and forth and before he chimes in
when he does chime in and it's something
we haven't thought of it's like
man you know what i mean like why
aren't you just around
all the time but you know he can't be
everywhere
at all times but you know it's nice when
he does chime in because he's usually
pretty on point
yeah he can sort of uh just put his
he can shine a light on something and
and you realize immediately
oh okay yeah link i'm sure he's watched
you know watches rehearsals of your show
and if there's something that doesn't
seem right
he'll say to you like he he used to say
to me that my manners were very
important you have good manners and i
thought
what does that matter it's about it's
about being funny and he would say
no it's funny is one thing but you have
to have this other component which is
part of you which is to be nice to
people and to be well-mannered
and uh he has a way of making it
feel a lot less cooler than you think it
is
but your approach to how you present
that cool is
pinnacle and that's what he makes kind
of like
lock in on it's like you want to be nice
and you want people to like you
yes lean into that lean into the night
lean keen and lean into the nice
i didn't realize it had a different
title i thought there was a show called
uh
keenan and you auditioned for it and you
got it and yeah
[Laughter]
we had keen and ivory wayans in mind who
the
is this guy