As we mentioned yesterday, Saturday Night Live's co-head writers Seth Meyers and Colin Jost stopped by Orlando last night. There was a lengthy wait between doors opening and the show starting, and kudos to the UCF Campus Activities Board for encouraging audience members to tweet using the hashtag #SethMeyersUCF, and displaying those messages on the big screen. It was a fun way to kill the time, as people on their smartphones gradually got more and more creative. Best one? "I thought this was STEPH Meyers, who wrote Twilight. Disappointing".
Just before 9pm, the voice of Seth Meyers introduced his buddy Colin Jost, a Harvard grad who was president of the Harvard Lampoon. Now he's one of the head writers on SNL. This dude has serious credentials. His act is very funny, and very college student friendly - stuff about relationships, drinking, sex, etc. He has a cadence and style of delivery that recalls fellow SNL-writer John Mulaney, except where Mulaney comes across as a 30-year old channeling a radio announcer from the 1940s, Jost is a 30-or-so year old who can make jokes about Christian Mingle and Taylor Swift. After closing with a great bit about the perils of Facebook - which you may have seen on his Fallon appearance - Jost brought out the headliner.
Before the show, I had wondered how Seth Meyers' standup would play, given that he's mostly known now for Weekend Update and topical, political stuff, that might not be best suited to a college audience that's there for free ("How about this sequester, huh?"). Plus, he has a background in improv, sketch and writing, and is not necessarily known for his standup. Fortunately, Meyers plays colleges pretty regularly, and has his act nicely honed for the audience. There were bits about drinking in Vegas, arguments with girlfriends, and spending time in Amsterdam. He generally avoided getting too political, and his current affairs routines stayed pretty neutral, though the group of girls sitting behind us did not care for his fairly mild ribbing of President Bush. There's a nice story about how he was secretly annoyed by the Bin Laden death announcement because it took focus away from his performance the previous night at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Meyers closed out the show with a handful of Weekend Update jokes that were too risque to make it past the censors and while some of these were pretty funny, the set up/punchline/groan format was not as effective and satisfying as his storytelling.
Still, it was a great evening, with two funny dudes both being very funny. Thanks to UCF for putting on events like this.
Just before 9pm, the voice of Seth Meyers introduced his buddy Colin Jost, a Harvard grad who was president of the Harvard Lampoon. Now he's one of the head writers on SNL. This dude has serious credentials. His act is very funny, and very college student friendly - stuff about relationships, drinking, sex, etc. He has a cadence and style of delivery that recalls fellow SNL-writer John Mulaney, except where Mulaney comes across as a 30-year old channeling a radio announcer from the 1940s, Jost is a 30-or-so year old who can make jokes about Christian Mingle and Taylor Swift. After closing with a great bit about the perils of Facebook - which you may have seen on his Fallon appearance - Jost brought out the headliner.
Before the show, I had wondered how Seth Meyers' standup would play, given that he's mostly known now for Weekend Update and topical, political stuff, that might not be best suited to a college audience that's there for free ("How about this sequester, huh?"). Plus, he has a background in improv, sketch and writing, and is not necessarily known for his standup. Fortunately, Meyers plays colleges pretty regularly, and has his act nicely honed for the audience. There were bits about drinking in Vegas, arguments with girlfriends, and spending time in Amsterdam. He generally avoided getting too political, and his current affairs routines stayed pretty neutral, though the group of girls sitting behind us did not care for his fairly mild ribbing of President Bush. There's a nice story about how he was secretly annoyed by the Bin Laden death announcement because it took focus away from his performance the previous night at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. Meyers closed out the show with a handful of Weekend Update jokes that were too risque to make it past the censors and while some of these were pretty funny, the set up/punchline/groan format was not as effective and satisfying as his storytelling.
Still, it was a great evening, with two funny dudes both being very funny. Thanks to UCF for putting on events like this.