When Jost first mentioned his Weekend Update co-anchor Michael Che in his stand-up at Cornell Sunday, the crowd in Barton Hall burst into applause. “I’m not going to tell him you applauded,” he shot back, tying into their banter on Weekend Update. Talking about Che seemed to animate Jost — a foreshadowing signal that he might do his best comedy alongside his friend and fall short alone.
Colin Jost is my favorite current SNL star. I read his memoir, A Very Punchable Face, and I devotedly watch Weekend Update, so when I heard that he was coming to perform at Barton Hall on Mar. 23, I immediately bought a ticket. I brought it up to most friends I saw that week. “This could be my favorite standup yet” constantly rang through my head. As days passed, I heard the buzz of students getting tickets, even ones unfamiliar with SNL. It was then not a surprise when Barton Hall was full of familiar faces in the sold-out rows of seats and bleachers on Sunday.
Since 2014, Jost has been famous for hosting the recurring segment Weekend Update alongside Michael Che. I look forward to Jost providing satirical accounts of the world’s events and a reminder that not everything is so serious in each show. Jost’s humor comes from his demeanor — his tone blends a preppy stature, crisp delivery and a usually careful treading of “the line,” stopping just before jokes go too far.
Jost’s performance in Barton felt like an extension of his Weekend Update character: composed, sharp and familiar. However, especially after sitting in Barton’s uncomfortable athletic facility for an initial 30-minute delayed start and two underwhelming opening acts from other SNL cast members Michael Longfellow and Molly Kearney, I was left wondering whether I expected too much.
Jost struggled to get a handle on the audience at first. He started with jokes about ICE and the World Wars that didn’t quite land, resulting in half-formed laughter and Jost jokingly pleading, “Come on, please give it a try.” While I think many jokes deserved more laughter than they received, some leaned on the side of uncomfortable, especially coming from a straight white male from Staten Island.
He continued by piecing together bits on cultural events and some small stories, but the dynamics were relatively constant. He made a few appeals to Cornell — his trip to Greek Peak, the gorges and a comparison to Ithaca College. With his Harvard undergraduate degree, I was surprised he didn’t make any “fake ivy” jokes (but simultaneously appreciated it).
I started to laugh out loud around halfway through his set. My favorite bit was Jost’s repeated jokes on hotels, playing on the “hotelies” of Cornell. He brought up how his aunt majored in Hotel Administration at Cornell in the first few minutes: “My aunt came to Cornell to study hotels, and now she stays at hotels.” Throughout the remainder of his performance, he had multiple hotel-centered sets and would sometimes randomly circle back to something about hotels. At one part, he simply began, “I was in a hotel —” and let the pause do the comedic work. It landed gloriously.
He picked up the pace and appeared more in his element for his longer set pieces — personal stories that seemed part of previous rehearsed sets. His jokes about his family were especially funny, like one reference to why he went to Thailand recently, remarking, “My wife was working in Thailand… she’s a plumber.” The audience obviously knew better: Scarlett Johansson is no plumber.
Jost constantly laughed at himself during the performance. Some of my favorite moments on SNL are when he laughs at one of his or Che’s jokes as a sign of self-deprecating humor, a joke not landing or just a hilarious moment that he can’t not laugh with the audience. His laughs in Barton were a nice tie between his SNL and stand-up self, reminding me again of Colin’s unmistakable flair.
I feel so fortunate that several SNL cast members have made their way to Ithaca during my four years at Cornell, including Chloe Fineman, Ego Nwodim and Marcello Hernandez, and I have zero regrets attending Jost’s performance. I don’t think the show’s preliminary excitement fully translated into the performance, but it will nonetheless be one of the college events I fondly look back at. I got to laugh both with and at one of my favorite comedians in the same room — that’s pretty incredible.
Jost is the generic white male with a “very punchable face,” but he consistently and keenly uses this trait to poke fun at himself in a fresh, welcoming way. I have no doubt the next time I watch him on Weekend Update will be entertaining, but as of now, Jost’s best acts are still playing off his co-anchor behind the faux-news desk. If he ever leaves SNL, I would not only be heartbroken, but hope he’s ready to stand out on his own.
Gillian Lee is a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences. She can be reached at gl386@cornell.edu.
