By Alyssa Seidman
Editor-at-Large
As a part of the university’s 60th Anniversary festivities over Homecoming Weekend, late night host and Saturday Night Live alum, Seth Meyers, graced the Tilles Center Mainstage to perform stand-up comedy on Friday, Oct. 9.
Meyers is most well known for his 13-year stint at Studio 8H; for eight of those years, he sat behind the coveted “Weekend Update” desk.
Meyers co-anchored with notable Saturday Night alum, Amy Poehler, for two seasons before he was given the privilege to be the sole anchor in the sketch. It was here that the comic made a name for himself in the entertainment world, gaining enough traction in the eyes of the White House to be invited as the keynote speaker for the Correspondents’ Association Dinner in 2011.
Meyer’s recalled this experience in his act on Friday night, applauding his own performance as the speaker. He told the audience that his keynote speech, which was given on a Saturday, would be all over
the Monday news – if it hadn’t been for the successful mission completion by SEAL Team 6 in assassinating Osama Bin Laden that Sunday.
He joked that Obama knew “Monday would belong to Seth Meyers,” so the president plotted an even bigger stunt to steal his thunder. “I think I was the only American who was disappointed that we had shot bin Laden,” he joked.
The rest of Meyer’s set was a hit with audience, as he seamlessly mixed his thoughts on current events with his own personal anecdotes.
He touched on the presidential primaries, obviously naming the media circus that is Donald Trump. He likened the candidate to “a chimp with a switch blade duct taped to his hand,” and how this bravado would intimidate anyone else running.
He also talked about the potentiality of a second Clinton presidency, setting a role-reversal scene for the audience. “Could you imagine Hillary coming home from a day at work? Bill would ask her how her day was, and she’d respond, ‘it was hard…not sleep-with-an-intern hard, but difficult. I just worked my stress out on the treadmill.’”
Meyer’s also discussed domestic policy issues that Americans are apathetic about. President Obama has held a fervent stand on both climate change and gun control in America, and Meyer’s stated that “if a tornado were to form and somehow swoop up every gun in this country, and it would start shooting everything, causing irreparable damage, Americans would still find a way to blame it on gay marriage.”
He talked about the refugee crisis in Europe, as well as the inability of the countries to come to an economic agreement, comparing it to trying to make brunch plans with friends. Meyer’s mentioned that he had lived in Europe for two years – specifically in Amsterdam. “If you live in Amsterdam long enough, you’ll notice that you slowly turn into Matthew McConaughey.”
One bit that had the audience hunched over in laughter was Meyer’s demonstration of the cycle of emotions one goes through while waiting for a picture to be taken, only to realize moments later that they had been recorded the whole time.
Another segment involved Meyer’s interest in video games, and how the advent of Xbox Live had ruined the hobby for him since he had come to the conclusion that he was worse than 12-year-olds. From this he found a Segway to discuss his own experiences as a 12-year-old boy, declaring that when he was growing up kids his age had to work harder to “get off,” deeming that this had helped developed his generation’s work ethic – their “stick-to-itiveness” (pun, intended).
He let the audience in on some other fond memories from his life, one being his appearance at a baseball game where he had been invited to sing during the seventh inning stretch. He acted all big before his performance, only to confess that he had forgotten the lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” as soon as he took the field.
He also admitted that while he’s drunk that he’s “prone to sarcasm” – this funny flaw, he said, earned him a punch in the face in a Vegas nightclub. He talked of his relationship with his wife, and even delivered some stand-up from her perspective. One of his favorite things to do with her is mess with her Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: “I will never get bored,” he said.
Meyer’s concluded his stand-up by sharing some jokes that didn’t pass the censors for Late Night, all of which were a hit with the show-goers. His energized and obligated presence on stage was well received and similar to the stature he brought to the “Update” desk – an amiable yet informed funnyman.
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