Although he is now the longest-serving member of the cast Saturday night liveKenan Thompson’s early mistakes on the show almost forced him to quit altogether.
In an excerpt from his new memoir When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories, and Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clownwhich hits shelves Tuesday, the comedian, 45, reveals that his first few years on the late-night variety show were “marred by a bunch of rookie mistakes.”
His confidence “rocked to rock bottom” when he “sunk” a sketch written by T. Sean Shannon called “Randy the Bellhop.” Thompson was set to take on the role of Randy, a porter who shows Alec Baldwin and cast member Rachel Dratch to their room in “all the wrong ways.”
“I was excited about the first opportunity to show my skills on the big stage,” he recalls in his new memoir. “The thing was, I couldn’t pass the dress rehearsal. I stuttered over this one line and I couldn’t get out of it.”
Kenan Thompson.
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Although “twenty years SNL veteran” could now recover from the mistake, Thompson says he “went into full-blown panic” as a rookie and even heard “an involuntary ‘Oh no!'” slip out of “someone’s mouth.”
“If something like that happens at Nickelodeon or the movies I’ve done, we might just do another take,” he continues. “On SNL Apparently a lot was tied to the live performance, and to no one’s surprise, the sketch didn’t make it to air.”
Thompson felt like he had “let T. Sean down”, although he understood that he had gone through failed skits many times. From then on, Kenan & Kel The alum says that “he and every other writer avoided me like it was COVID” and he began to think he would never “get his character.”
Kenan Thompson on ‘Saturday Night Live’. Kenan Thompson Says There’s Always More For Him On ‘Saturday Night Live’
He adds, “I had no idea if I was doing a good job or not. When the season ended, I didn’t even think I’d be called back. I knew I had to get better at writing my own characters, and I prayed I’d get another season to try. ”
The actor was often given “doughnuts” – industry lingo for “no air time during the show” – and “almost quit” because of them.
“I thought, ‘What the hell am I doing here?’ I was famous enough that people tried to follow me off the subway, but I couldn’t get on the show,” he writes, sharing that he took the cuts “personally” and often wondered “if there was room on SNL for my kind of comedy.”
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“It led to a lot of depressed feelings,” he says, until he worked up the “courage” to approach Maya Rudolph and ask her why he was chosen. “‘It was easy,’ she said. ‘We could tell you were ready and you were wonderful. We all said, ‘Obviously it’s Kenan.'”
“I went completely crazy when I heard that. I was literally sitting next to one of the most talented performers I’ve ever seen. Her pedigree was legendary,” he gushes. “Getting a compliment from someone you admire was humbling and enlightening. I wasn’t just a kid laughing at my own jokes in front of the mirror. I was validated.”
“Hearing that the things I was doing resonated with people was hard, man. It had a big impact on me and was a turning point,” he writes.
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Kenan Thompson and Keke Palmer on ‘Saturday Night Live’. Saturday nights live Celebrities in SNL Five-pronged club
Going forward, Thompson learned how to be a “good cheerleader” for other people’s “wins” and “celebrate a performance beyond yourself.”
He continues, “After being promoted to team player, I was out in the cold for the first time yelling, ‘LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!’ And let me tell you, it never gets old. It’s exciting every time.”
Thompson joined SNL 2003 and holds the record for the longest-serving cast member in the show’s history. He was nominated five times for Emmy Awards for his work on SNLand in 2018 he took home a statue for co-authoring the sketch “Come Back Barack”.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories, and Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clown is now available from Harper Books, an imprint of HarperCollins.
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Source: HIS Education