-Our first guest tonight is an Emmy Award-winning comedian
who you know from his 18 seasons on "Saturday Night Live"
and his fantastic series "Kenan."
Please welcome back to the show one of the all-time best.
Kenan Thompson, everybody!
[ Cheers and applause ]
-Yes!
In the studio.
-In the studio.
-In the stooge.
What's up, my dudes?
I thought it was gonna be a while
since I saw a lot of these guys. -Have you ever been
in front of this many people at once?
-This is incredible. -Isn't it?
-Hello, hello, hello, hello.
I love it. -Take a set.
-Which one? Are we still having to six-foot it?
-No, you can do this now. We're doing this now.
-Oh, that's gangster. -Not bad, right?
-What's happening around here? -Look at us.
Like a regular TV show. -We got the whole studio.
-Now, you're filling in for us. Thank you so much.
Our friend Luke Wilson had to cancel at the last minute,
and you scrambled over here.
Now, I will say, there was one person
who was a little upset that you're here.
-Oh, who's that?
-Wally, who you know well from "SNL."
Wally was our last time fill-in guest.
-What's up, Wall-oo? -Hey, buddy.
-He just assumed this would be an all-time thing.
-Oh, man. I'm sorry.
Did I crash your parade a little bit?
-If anybody was gonna replace me, I'd rather it be you.
-Yeah, sure, sure, yeah. -Yeah.
And, again, I need to stress, you don't have a say in it.
-Oh. -I was just about to say.
Who's really got the power here, by the way?
-Wally, of course, does -- Wally does have the power, of course.
You and I both learned how to do cue cards from Wally.
-I learned everything I know about cue cards from Wally.
-What did you guys do on your early sketch days on "All That"?
-We memorized.
-Really? -Absolutely.
We were kids who were under the heavy pressure
and foot of the Nickelodeon legacy.
No, I mean, it's just like they gave us --
-I like that the first day at Nickelodeon, they were like,
"You will learn your lines." -Yes.
"And you will learn French and you will speak it."
They literally had me trying to learn French
to do that character.
-That's Escargot? -Yeah, that's Escargot.
And I was like, "I'm gonna make this up."
-Wally, could you tell right away Kenan was a pro?
-Oh, yeah. Yeah.
He picked it up right away.
-I'm sorry. I couldn't hear. What was that?
-Well, it's hard because Wally's speaking through two --
Do you know why Wally has a sponge on his mask?
-Yeah, 'cause he likes to lick his disgusting fingers
so he can turn the cards.
I get it, man.
When I'm counting bread, when I'm counting money,
you know what I'm saying, I do the same thing.
-The burn on Wally is, we don't have to wear the masks anymore,
but he can't figure out
how to get his sponge on the paper mask,
so he's still wearing the plastic mask
'cause of his finger problem.
-It doesn't stick?
Isn't it just sticking to the plastic?
-It's glued there. -It's glued there.
So then if you glue it, you'll be inhaling glue.
-Yeah. -Hey, man.
Typical Friday night for Wally. -The weird thing is he says
he has to lick his fingers to do the cards.
But I've watched. He licks them,
then he dries them off, then he does the cards.
-Oh, man. -It's just a tick.
-What's going on there, bud?
Let's just focus in on this for a while.
-When Wally was here, we talked about the time
that Charles Barkley pulled the prank
where he pretended at rehearsal to get mad at Wally.
-Yes. -Do you remember that?
-I do remember that.
Also, like, one of the nicest human beings in the world.
-One of my favorite things,
and this obviously happened more for you at "SNL" than me
because you did so many impressions.
Sometimes people would host the show
that you had done an impression of.
And I remember at the Monday pitch when Barkley hosted,
you walked -- as everybody was walking in,
he was like [As Charles Barkley] "Where's Kenan?"
-[ As Charles Barkley ] "Come on, sucker, do it to my face!"
[ Normal voice ] "Alright, hello, Mr. Barkley.
Good to see you, sir."
[ As Barkley ] "Yeah, next time I'm going to give you
one of these knuckle sandwiches."
[ Normal voice ] "Alright, yeah, sure.
Yeah, I'll take it." But, yeah, no, he's great.
And I remember him, like, trying to get everybody, like,
very enthusiastically to go along
with this small prank that he wanted to do.
-He just wanted to yell at Wally.
-Yeah, it was.
[ As Barkley ] "I think it'll be really funny
if we got mad at Wally and then yell at him."
[ Normal voice ] We're like, "Okay, cool."
Like, "Let's just do it."
And, you know, we improv for forever sometimes,
especially Fred.
He'll just go for a day and a half with a joke.
But Barkley broke it after two seconds.
He was like [As Barkley] "Wally, what the hell you doing?
I'm just playing, man. Be my friend.
Just be my friend."
-It speaks to what a good guy he is.
-Yeah, he's a sweet dude.
-You and I, obviously, have been friends for a long time.
I was very happy about the fact that you were at my wedding.
I was happier about the fact that you rented a car.
-Oh, God, let me show you. Here's a picture.
-This was very unique to the location.
-Absolutely.
-I did not realize it was even available to rent.
-Okay, so, you know, not a lot of people
have destination weddings, number one,
but let alone go to a wonderful, you know,
isolated place like Martha's Vineyard.
-Yeah. -It's a beautiful place.
I had never been there in my life.
And, you know, I guess it's not known
for lots of black people being there.
There is a certain sector of them that go there.
-Yes, actually, I would say
of New England vacation destinations
it's most known for. -Yeah.
But at the time, on the island, I think I was the only one.
And the only rental car that they had left
that was like semi-cool
was a bright yellow convertible Camaro.
And so, yeah, I was just driving around, me and my wife.
And she took this picture of us,
with me wearing this bright red --
And for some reason, my eyes are half closed.
But I'm just having a grand old time just dri--
And people were shouting out my name and stuff like that.
I thought I was much more low-key than that,
but I guess I was standing out like a sore thumb.
-I'm worried we've told this story on the show before,
but I had the pleasure once of driving with you.
We did a stand-up show together at University of Rhode Island.
I said, "Kenan, it's the best. We'll take Amtrak."
We get there. Amtrak's closed.
Like, that train is canceled. -They canceled the train.
-And so we went to get a rental car.
And at the time, I did not have a driver's license,
and you did not have a credit card.
-Right.
-And they were very insistent
that we couldn't combine the two to rent a car.
-Yeah, meanwhile, clock is ticking.
It's approaching.
-Yes.
-'Cause it's an hour-and-a-half drive?
-No, it was a longer drive than that.
I think it was like a 3 1/2-hour drive.
-So it's already after 5:00.
Show was starting at like 7:30-ish?
-Yeah, we were gonna have to hustle.
And then you -- I said, "Can we talk to a manager?"
Which I've never done before.
And I will say, it's very empowering.
-"May I speak to the manager, please."
-Yeah. And the manager came out.
And do you remember what she said when she saw you?
-She asked -- It took a minute.
She was like, "Okay, what's going on here?"
And it was like, "Well, ma'am." I think you were talking to her.
It's like, "Well, we're trying to rent a car,
but I don't have a driver's license
and my friend doesn't have a credit card."
And then she looked over and saw me.
"Hey, baby, oh, y'all good.
Go on and take it. Take these keys."
I think she gave us a very nice car immediately.
-I couldn't believe it.
It was nothing. There was like nothing.
It was like, "I can't do this."
And she saw you -- -I was her son, basically.
Like, "Oh, yeah, baby, go on to the prom.
Take this car. Have a good time.
This your date? Y'all have fun.
I don't judge."
-And then you drove.
By the way, I think it was we were 3 1/2 hours away,
and we had to make it there in 2 1/2 hours.
And you drove so fast, we still had like an hour to spare.
-Yeah, and I just remember a moment where I was like,
"Oh, I'm doing the most for Seth right now."
Because it was a two-lane highway,
and then there was two cars,
and I ended up going in between the middle of them.
And just watching Seth do like this was just --
Mm, if I could have filmed it.
That was a beautiful --
-But we did make it. -Yeah, we made it.
-And that was a good time. Before you go --
And thank you again for coming over here and bailing us out.
-Buddy, it's my pleasure.
I want to run through the audience.
-Kenan, your sitcom got picked up for a second season.
You're gonna start shooting that.
-It sure did. -Congratulations, buddy.
-Thank you very much.
-I am in awe of the fact that you both did "SNL" this year,
you also did the first season of a wonderful sitcom,
and also father to two beautiful girls.
So it must have been a real balancing act.
But you just pulled it off with aplomb.
-Thank you, man. Thank you.
It was a real hustle, you know?
And luckily, I'm going from one loving environment to the other.
You know, like, I've been here
for 18 years of my life now at this point.
And then going over to our new built family over there
with the great Don Johnson and Chris Redd,
you know what I mean, like, just my brother in tow.
Like, you know, as tired as I was,
I knew Chris was going through the same thing at least.
You know what I'm saying? So I never felt alone.
But also, I was just going from one big hug to the other,
so it was a real pleasure.
-Well, it paid off, buddy.
And it is always a pleasure to see you.
That's Kenan Thompson, everybody.
We'll be right back with Juno Temple.