i was at the top of the mountain and now i'm back at the base [Music] hey what's going on everybody from first we feast i'm shawn evans and you're watching hot ones it's the show with hot questions and even hotter wings and today we're joined by kenan thompson from his roots at nickelodeon to becoming the longest tenured cast member
in saturday night live history he's been making us laugh for over 25 years he also stars in a new comedy series from nbc it's called keenan tuesdays 8 30 7 30 central keenan thompson welcome to the show man thank you for having me i'm a big fan i have literally seen all of them down to the game show so
wow i'm gonna hold up i'm flattered uh if you don't mind me asking do you have like a favorite episode i think i'm gonna flip into my gordon ramsay impression when it starts to get pretty hot that was an incredible episode i also made my eggs like that thanks to that episode so that was incredible that was incredible
pete was great i'm surprised he got through it you know what i mean because he does have like intestinal issues they're all pretty solid man like once that like first kick kicks in and you do that effect where you know they're starting to feel feel some heat you know what i mean i can't wait till it happens to me so it
it's just really funny and like really smart and it's awesome i don't understand how your stomach is still intact because you go through it all like fearlessly all the way down [Music] we're going with the classic let's go salud salud okay so we're already starting off in a hot spot so this is going to be definitely
interesting this is a good wing wing it so let's begin with this new chapter in your career going from as you put it a piece of the puzzle at snl to now shouldering a major network primetime tv show that you not only star in but also one that bears your name one of the parts of the show's premise
that i found amusing was that you played the host of atlanta's number two morning show yeah we're we're always there for jokes even in the description you know like that's what i think you have to do especially coming on the heels of a 30 rock or parks and rec or office type of a culture you know like everything is very
progressive throwing out millions of jokes every 10 seconds coming in with a comedy show in that kind of culture yeah we got to come with jokes all the time so that that's where that is basically like we could easily be like yeah i'm the best but where's the joke or not [Music] okay that's on the sweeter side that's a
nice little sweet y'all see this is how you get people hooked in right oh it's all good i can just sauce up all these wings that's when watching the back catalog is is an advantage in this game you know you can see the tricks coming yeah man people all happy in the beginning like yeah don't talk about my career
i understand that you're pretty comfortable on ice skates what do you remember about the mechanics of choreographing hockey scenes and the mighty ducks and then who taught you how to knuckle puck well the knuckle puck is you know our hockey coach was this guy named jack white and he used to host like the kids junior
olympic hockey team or something and his daughter was an incredible hockey player as well she was incredibly good and also very encouraging she was just always like yeah you know dig in learn how to use your edges and blah blah very supportive environment her father on the other hand used to give me [ __ ] constantly like
come on russ used to call me by my character name come on i was like you know i'm a person i'm not just my character but he had us locked in and like would just break us of wanting to quit or wanting to be like oh we can just use our stunt doubles he was like no you guys are going to be a real team
so we just played all day it was great one of the biggest strengths of all that were the musical guests which helped to introduce craig mack the lox aaliyah to fourth graders all over the country looking back do you have an all-time favorite musical performance from that show all time i mean tlc set the bar pretty
high you know like we were obsessed with them and then they came and they were so cool they did the theme song and then they came and performed in the first season and then we had people like usher at a young age you know and coolio came through and that was an interesting week because coolio stuck up the studio and that was
the first time like us kids were kind of exposed to the smell of that going on in the hallway yeah all right mark let's go to barbados toss and toss toast house flippy toast interesting that's good starting to kick that spice huh mm-hmm all right so you've been a staple on saturday night live for 18 seasons so i'm sure that
in the hundreds of episodes that you've done in studio 88 you've seen it all i know that creating that show it's a collaborative process but it's also extremely competitive looking back was there an og cast member who you recognize with helping you to break through all that yeah i mean tracy was like the first one like he
wasn't even in the cast anymore but for some reason he was still around that first week like writer's night just holding court in the middle of the conference room sitting there telling jokes and blah blah and then he took me and finesse to lunch at tgi fridays and it was a half a blocks walk but we walked two blocks away to
get his car out of the garage and then drive around the corner to tgi fridays and he was like the first person to be like yo listen to me this is how you do it blah blah blah engage these writers you know what i'm saying go to the you know the darker ones or whatever and see what you can learn from them and
everybody else on down i kind of learned by watching basically because they were just performing at such a high level it seemed like they were in another atmosphere stratosphere or some [ __ ] like that you know when you think back on all the sketches that maybe made it to the table read but got cut before they went to the live show is
there one that you regret never got to see the light of day there i mean i was hung up on this one that was uh active jack the idea was bruno mars was like one of those 70s workout kind of tv show kind of guys named active jack like come on kids and he was did these songs to get the kids to work out
and stuff and it was like the 40th year anniversary so like cut to is me like old and out of shape redoing the song and stuff like that it was really funny but when we did it with bruno mars it was pretty well received and then it just didn't make it to the show and i was kind of crushed kevin hart ended up being able to do it
years later so it lives you know what i'm saying again kind of spicy bro it's getting kind of spicy so this is definitely interesting let's just keep it pushing though you know might as well right we here right that's the devil's blend huh yeah that tastes like satan that's taking that yeah that's the devil
[Music] so from growing up on outcast in atlanta to just recently actually dropping your debut verse as tiny diamond and trolls world tour it seems like you've long had a love affair with hip-hop and you've played rick ross you've played ice cube you've played suge knight is there a key to doing a hip-hop
impression knowing that rappers are so lazily lampooned elsewhere in pop culture i mean i think it depends on the individual like ice cube has a very clear tone to the way he talks you know what i'm saying like it's a very clear tone doc and he's always frowned and then ross of course big bows you know all that like when i'm gone
excuse me i caught a little yeah best favorite impression i ever did was rick ross suge knight i think you got a no should to like listen to him you know what i'm saying he said he's a deep individual his his voice is a little higher than you might assume just because he's so big that's kind of the way he talks he talks
like with a real menace it's gonna be coming at the end of his sentence i'm proud of myself we got into the halfway mark man this is what's up it shake it what's happening see that's what it starts to do it starts to throw out hot just crazy spikes in places and make you react to things
well that ain't necessary you don't need all that you don't need all that but okay okay all right kingdom we have a recurring segment on our show called explain that graham where we do a deep dive on our guest instagram pull interesting pictures that need more context so i'll show you the picture you just tell us the bigger story
here you are backstage with the legend alex trebek at the nhl awards last year was he aware of black jeopardy that was the first thing he mentioned he actually said god bless you for figuring out a way to do a jeopardy behind the legendary will feral jeopardy you know it seems like anything will fair was kind of like
holy grail-ish off-limits-ish you know my writing buddy brian tucker and michael che are two brilliant dudes when they figured out a take on it that was just chock full of too many jokes to ignore basically so he was patting me on the back about that but i was patting him on the back for probably being one of the smartest
people in the world because it seems like he knows the answer to all those jeopardy questions he has a way of responding to each question like no of course like it's this and then the other because i read this book or i've known about this historic town in rome or you know i'm saying he was incredible
and i was asking him about his health and he was saying he was feeling better and fighting through it and stuff like that so it was quick but very very positive [Music] it's about to get real all right we're doing it the same way each time basically is what you're saying yeah big drip big drip well you know that's how we do out here player big
drip mouth on fire two seconds later all right cool a little bit of a time delay here should be about a three two one feel that but it's still pretty good i'm not doing it you're doing great keenan you're doing great i'm not doing too bad so there are countless quotes about you from lorne michaels and past castmates
that basically boil down to you being an ultimate teammate reliable somebody who pumps oxygen into sketches rather than sucking the air out of the room is that something that came to you naturally or early on in your career was there ever a time where you were a little more me me me about things no i'm a taurus man
i'm mellow you know what i'm saying and i'm a little you and me you and me when's your birthday april 26th oh nice april um i'm may 10th so yeah you know we're strong we're strong very hard-minded individuals probably um but i never want people to like turn all the attention on me i'm big on the mindset of ensembleness
so yeah i mean i'm i'm definitely trying to see it's starting to burn my lip a little bit now i'm starting to feel that that's a little that's a little burn on that there it's happening so you know um yeah i i love to hear that you know people feel like i i inject positivity instead of negativity like i
i'd much rather be happy than sad you know it just feels like natural logic to me right honey badger don't do me dirty now we already suffered through the super bowl with you i'm smelling it and i'm i'm i'm hesitant but i'm gonna go for it okay that's sweet relief until until it starts happening right now it's like a volcano
slow eruption i like that though hell yeah i think you're a spice guy i think you're a spice man am i a spice man like if i could give her a spice in my other three i earned my spice degree yeah yeah we send you a commemorative plate that also rhymed by the way get through the other three earned that spice degree oh
snap coming off the dome so i've read that you're a prolific stock trader and pride yourself on being able to read the wall street ticker a recent snl cold open spoofed that whole wall street bets phenomenon with pete davidson playing the majority shareholder of gamestop what's your take on this recent
phenomenon of meme stocks and then all that's going on with social media and stock trading yeah i mean that whole movement is incredible um just the fact that they tried to show that the system is rigged and then the system showed them that it is rigged you know what i'm saying like it's like yo we have big money in place
so yeah you can play those games for a day but then we're going to show you the next day that all of that is about to fall back whoever was able to get in and out that same day man god kudos to you if you saw that coming and you were inside enough to know that that was happening i'm not that far inside i can only watch and hope
and pray basically i'm definitely just gambling with it being in the entertainment industry for decades means that you've had no shortage of people telling you what to do with your money looking back what do you think is the worst piece of financial advice you ever received uh giving somebody power of attorney
never give anyone the power of attorney of anything yeah that was an early lesson for me for sure you're able to make your own decisions and be able to watch your money you definitely should do it with somebody like i always had mentors and stuff like that but i learned better by being involved you know i didn't learn anything about someone just
handling stuff for me honey all right she's got to come back for this one okay we're going for the bomb wow that choke me up this is the bomb how much are we pouring historic moment how much we pour in just the traditional yeah that's that's football that's plenty he says all right cool that's a lot that's a lot that's a lot
man we're going crazy in here i'm along for the ride i'm along for the ride i smell it it smells like a problem it does smell like a problem cheers cheers again yeah i see why you would say that that would be a problem [Music] i was just trying to protect you from yourself nah it's not even about flavor
anymore it's just about getting hot yeah so that that's hot i'm gonna need water for this one starting to cough me up a little bit i hear the live studio audience right yeah was supposed to just continue with that huh wild man yeah that's hot bro any more questions yeah yeah so the nature of sketch shows seems so
burn the midnight oil cram for a final exam sort of situation what is the food situation like in the writer's room like is it just pizza and energy drinks or is there more to sustain it yeah man it's like um mcdonald's and [ __ ] this is [ __ ] hot yo i'm telling you we gotta slow this down yeah it's like
uh late night snacks or we'll get like a full meal but yeah that one is crazy though you're sweating too you and me both you mean up from there is what you're saying it goes up from there i don't know about that on your podcast you already know you talk about everything including food how has this pandemic
renewed or changed your love of cuisine in unique and interesting ways um like you used to not be able to get delivery from like your favorite high-end spots you know what i'm saying so now it's like they put together whole meal packages for the family and you know alcoholic packages or whatever if you want to have like a full dining
experience mix cocktails blah blah blah but even though the food is really good you want to go out you want to like be social so still a little depressing sometimes that [ __ ] was hot bro right it's calming down but it calms down and flares back up what's that about [Music] i don't know why they call it the bomb
you know like we're sweating mouth burn [Music] all right so this next one is the eye of the scorpion i had a scorpion all right cool [Music] you work for it did you learn that that last one is just an explosion so it's better to like do it so people can actually get through it so we've kept it in in this spot since like season two
but this has just stood the test of time because it never bricks on a reaction never i'm not even spiced anymore i feel like that one broke down at the bottom finally so i'm coming down off of that i'm just like terrified of this one because i've seen what it does to people well you know what keenan i know that
you're a thrill seeker i know that you are because you have an obsession with roller coasters that goes all the way back to being a kid and working on this nickelodeon lot where a lot of the shows were shot at universal studios in florida yeah did being on that network give you carte blanche in the amusement parks or did
you have to wait in line like everyone else back in the day i think it was just the original universal challenge there was like terminator 2 or something was like the main attractions like 3d and halloween horror nights i think was like starting or like still in his first like 10 year phase or whatever so we used to
sneak through the back door during lunch time and like ride a bunch of rides and then come back when halloween horror nights would come we would like take a group of friends and sneak through the back door once again and then we just like have so much halloween fun like for free uh and then they started locking the door
because i think they were watching the cameras but you know we're kids you got to try it like until you get caught basically like that's what kids do push boundaries i am not afraid we're gonna rub it in rub it in so that everybody is deliciously spicy cheers my friend this has been an absolute pleasure man
cheers keenan thank you so much here we go another one not for flavor so i'm expecting the explosion it's coming here comes here it comes oh yeah that's good yeah that's a smoker all right i'm gonna go like whoa going back in i have one more wing so that's good i mean i feel like after that the bomb
i earned my stripes homie keenan thompson card carrying spiceman spiceman i have many leather bound books [Laughter] okay keenan thompson our spicy wing experience is coming to an end but before we roll credits i want to spotlight one of the many brilliant sides of keenan thompson and that is when it comes to the art of the
impression in your nearly two decades on snl you've broken records for the number of impressions performed so if you'll humor me i want to channel some of those legendary caricatures while your brain and mouth boil in scovilles what up what up i'm photo with you because i want to make a good post about
this later this has been a real experience it's explosive steve harvey which do you prefer drums or flats uh honestly the flats is good for me you know i like to chop a good drumstick every now and again but i love getting in between them blacksmithing david ortiz with sauce in the lineup was your favorite
i enjoyed the barbecue style because it reminds me of the islands it's a very sweet and very spicy but the bomb man that one is the truth man the bomb is the truth for big papi we eat a big lunch and finally how would deandre cole react to eating a wing covered in the bomb spicy as hell [Music] burning up my mouth now
oh [ __ ] i'm sweating now baby the spicy baby and i guess the same whoa my mouth is burning what an amazing run through the hot ones gauntlet an absolute treat keenan thompson and now there is nothing left to do but roll out the red carpet for you this camera that camera probably just the camera you're looking at let the
people know what you have going on in your life thank you very much i mean you covered it all man we podcasting out here the show is coming out uh february 16th and then it will be on on tuesdays at 8 30 i guess as that goes along sml still rolling never going to stop you know what i'm saying and i'm always trying to perform or
create ways for others to perform so that's what i would be up to great job keenan great job i thought i was gonna flip into my gordon ramsay man i don't know why he was whining so hard all right here we go [ __ ] on the heat off the heat put it on the heat now take it off the heat oh man brilliant that was a brilliant episode
spicy as hell [Music] hey what's going on hot ones fans this is sean evans checking in to say thank you so much for watching today's episode if you enjoyed it maybe like it maybe you maybe throw us a subscribe even if you're feeling generous and as long as you keep watching [ __ ] it i'll keep eating