Kenan Thompson gave Us some insight about how he will know when it’s time to retire from Saturday Night Live.
“When my badge stops working, you know what I mean? [When] I don’t have access anymore, that’ll tell you,” the comedian, 46, exclusively told Us Weekly of his potential retirement while promoting his “GERD Is No Joke” partnership with Phathom Pharmaceuticals.
All jokes aside, Thompson, who is the longest-tenured cast member in the show’s history, added that when he does leave SNL, it would be a “mutual” decision.
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“It’s their environment to employ me at. You know what I mean?” he said. “So [if] they keep asking then and I’m more than happy to oblige, and as long as the audience continues to laugh when we do something new.”
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Thompson joined the SNL cast in 2003 and has been a staple on the late-night sketch show for the past 22 seasons. While Thompson is a seasoned veteran on the series, he admitted he still gets the pre-show jitters after all these years.
“I still get nervous before every show. Every single show. It just is what it is,” he told Us. “I think I’ve talked to different people about it, especially stand-ups because to me, stand-up comedy is the craziest thing ever.”
Despite feeling nervous before hitting the stage, Thompson gets his “jitters out early with the warm-up.”
“I get to be in front of the audience, and I actually get to shake that whole taboo of being in front of people or imagining them in their undies or that kind of stuff,” he said. “I just get all that nonsense out of my mind early because … I’m singing in front of these people kind of forcefully.”
Thompson confessed that former costar Leslie Jones gave him a pep talk about his anxieties and reaffirmed that it just meant that he cares about his work.
“I was like, ‘Oh, look at that perspective’ … and approach it from that kind of standpoint,” he recalled. “I try to turn the butterflies into adrenaline and all those kinds of mental notes or whatever.”
In addition to getting some standard nerves, Thompson’s struggle with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) also had an effect on his performance.
“It started to affect my voice and stuff like that when I was at work and I would notice I would get hoarse a lot sooner or a lot more often,” he explained. “When I say sooner, it’s because I sing the warm-up song before the show comes on, and we do it twice a night.”
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Thompson noticed he’d lose his voice if he didn’t give it time to rest and decided to get checked out. That’s when Thompson learned he had GERD and was prescribed Voquezna, which helped him recover. Now, Thompson wants to help spread the message for others who are on a similar health journey.
“Thank God I actually spoke to a doctor,” he told Us. “A lot of people are weird about it … but if I can break that stigma … I’m happy to do so because I was able to find a cure for myself.”
With reporting by Christina Garibaldi
Us Weekly
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