{"id":107222,"date":"2025-08-30T18:50:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-30T18:50:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107222\/"},"modified":"2025-08-30T18:50:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T18:50:07","slug":"we-both-felt-like-it-was-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/107222\/","title":{"rendered":"‘We Both Felt Like It Was Time’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDevon Walker is feeling sanguine about leaving Saturday Night Live<\/a>. Although he said in an Instagram announcement<\/a> of his departure that his former workplace could be \u201ctoxic as hell,\u201d Walker tells Rolling Stone he\u2019s \u201cgrateful\u201d for the experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd he\u2019d like to remind folks that, really, it\u2019s not all that deep. As heartbroken fans have been reacting online to the ongoing off-season shakeup<\/a> \u2014 in addition to Walker, Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, and Emil Wakim have thus far exited the long-running sketch-comedy series \u2014 he jumped on X<\/a> to say, \u201cY\u2019all acting like we died lol we just getting different jobs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWalker tells Rolling Stone that between him and the powers that be at SNL, \u201cwe decided together that it was time to go our separate ways.\u201d Still, he\u2019s fully aware that his three years at Studio 8H forever changed his life and unlocked a level of the entertainment industry most people never get the chance to even glimpse. It\u2019s the kind of place where a comedy god<\/a> like Adam Sandler<\/a> might offer up sage advice and a \u201cvote of confidence\u201d from creator Lorne Michaels sticks with alums long after they\u2019ve left.<\/p>\n

\n\tWalker says he\u2019s especially thankful that the show gave him the chance to work with his best friends, former SNL writers Gary Richardson and Alex English, with whom he ran the Dad comedy show at New York\u2019s Jane Hotel prior to their arrival at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn a recent phone call, Walker reflected on how he quelled the self-doubt notorious among cast members and writers, why most of today\u2019s art lacks \u201cgood taste,\u201d and why he\u2019d be perfect to play Lionel Boyce<\/a>\u2018s brother on The Bear.<\/p>\n

\n\tFirst, how are you doing?
Feeling great. Feeling great. Just had some lunch. It\u2019s been a busy day, but a nice day.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat were you up to this morning?
I was having meetings for my podcast [My Favorite Lyrics]. Just kind of trying to navigate that. We started completely independent and now we got some deals on the table, so we\u2019ll sort through that and figure out what the right move is.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n

\n\tYou recently had Gary Richardson on the podcast and you two talked about what it was like working on SNL. I thought it was insightful when you said the real battle when you\u2019re on the show is reckoning with that voice inside your head that says you\u2019re not good enough.
Self-doubt is part of any creative process. And I feel like there, especially, you\u2019re doing something that\u2019s brand new. There\u2019s no other show like it. I think you are constantly fighting self-doubt \u2014 that\u2019s just part of it. I\u2019d done sketch comedy one time before in my whole life, and then I auditioned for the show, then got on the most famous sketch comedy show in America, you know? There\u2019s a natural doubt that comes with that, where you\u2019re like, \u201cOh, I\u2019ve never done this thing before. I hope I\u2019m good at it,\u201d and you\u2019re around people who are experts at it. So you\u2019re trying to find your way in this field that\u2019s so challenging and so competitive.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow did you get out of that headspace when you were in such a demanding atmosphere?
You got to dive straight into it. You can\u2019t run away from it. You got to meet the moment. I did a lot of work on the show that I\u2019m really proud of, and none of it would have happened if I didn\u2019t go out on a limb and try to try to make it happen. Me and Gary wrote a [Weekend] Update feature for [NBA star] Draymond Green, which is one of my favorite things that I got to do on the show. That truly came together in one day, like a lot of the stuff on the show. It might have been [Michael] Che\u2019s idea to do it, and then they asked us if we could write something on Friday, and then it was on the show live on Saturday. The high pressure of the environment almost forces you to push past the doubt.<\/p>\n

\n\tI\u2019m going to ask, did you leave the show by choice?
The big question. To be frank, I guess the best way I put it is like me and the show kind of looked at each other and we decided together that it was time to go our separate ways. I think I felt ready to leave the show, and I think the show felt ready to leave me. I was just ready to do something else. We both felt like it was time. This was such a big time commitment, and life commitment. There\u2019s been a lot of life stuff that I feel like I\u2019ve had to miss out on. And I felt ready to do a different version of my life. I think that me and the show are both ready to turn the page.<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n

\n\tYou\u2019ve mentioned that there are times when working there can feel like family.\u00a0
I got to work at the show in my first two seasons with two of my best friends in the world \u2014 Gary Richardson and Alex English. To me, that really felt like family. And you spend so much time together, we\u2019re seeing each other way more than we\u2019re seeing our families. Being able to be in that environment, in the foxhole with two people who are so close to me \u2014 I feel really grateful for that.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd even people who I didn\u2019t know before, like James Austin Johnson. I never met him a day in my life before I got started at SNL, and that man really looked out for me in ways that he really didn\u2019t have to. There are people there who, even if you didn\u2019t know each other before, you forge a bond with.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s like a fraternity on a certain level. I might see, like, Adam Sandler, you know, and he\u2019s talking about how there\u2019s a shorthand. Even though he went through the show 30 years before I ever got there, we know what it is. There\u2019s just an understanding that anybody who\u2019s ever worked there will always share.<\/p>\n

\n\tDid Sandler have any words of advice for you?
He said something to the effect of, \u201cYou need to make sure you\u2019re performing in the off season, so you remember what it feels like to perform, like, in the way that got you to the show.\u201d Because so many of us were doing sketch or improv or, for me, I was doing stand-up, and you get on the show, and the way that you do those things changes, because you need to do things the SNL way. And I think what Sandler was kind of trying to tell me was, \u201cMake sure you get back to performing in the way that feels the most free to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWhat was the most meaningful part of working with Lorne Michaels?
The best part of working with Lorne was probably getting hired by him. It\u2019s true. Something about, the same guy that handpicked these people that I\u2019m a big fan of \u2014 the Will Ferrells, the Sandlers, the Tracy Morgans, the Tina Feys \u2014 the same person who decided on these folks, also picked me. To me, that vote of confidence is something that I\u2019ll carry with me for the rest of my life.<\/p>\n

\n\tBefore SNL you had the Dad show at the Jane with Gary and Alex. You\u2019ve said that when they left SNL, you really felt their absence. You\u2019re a free agent now and mentioned you plan to work with them again, and for as long as you can. What makes working with them so special to you?
We\u2019re similar in a lot of really cool ways, and we\u2019re different in a lot of ways. They\u2019re both from the Midwest. I\u2019m from Texas, so I grew up in the South. We all grew up with no family money and no industry connections, but we all found our way into the same types of spaces. The higher up you get, the more you realize how rarely that happens, and how hard it is to do that.<\/p>\n

\n\tI feel grateful that we all found each other, because they\u2019re both really, really funny, and I also think they\u2019re really, really smart. They also have really good taste, which I think the industry, frankly, could use more of.<\/p>\n

\n\tHow would you define taste in that sense?
Isn\u2019t that kind of the weird thing about taste? It\u2019s like, smoke, right? You can\u2019t even really quantify it, but you know what that feels like when somebody\u2019s got it, like Tyler, the Creator. You see it in his art and in the choices that he makes and the choices that he doesn\u2019t make. Maybe the best word is intentional. Everything that\u2019s you\u2019re seeing is put in place for a reason. Intentionality, to me, is what people with real taste have.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn what way do you feel taste is lacking in art today?
The current media infrastructure definitely encourages you to just be pushing out things as quickly as possible and as much as possible to garner attention. When you\u2019re thinking about your creative output that way, you lose something, you miss some details, you can\u2019t be intentional.<\/p>\n

\n\tVince Staples feels really intentional whenever I see his stuff. Solange is somebody I\u2019ve always been a big fan of \u2014 super-intentional, who doesn\u2019t necessarily feel like they\u2019re playing somebody else\u2019s game, or they are playing the game on their terms.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s tricky, though, especially in the age of social media, to discern what ideas and feedback you\u2019re going to let into your brain and stay there.
Totally\u2026 You\u2019re creating to appeal to this algorithm that none of us fully understand and feels like it\u2019s like shifting all the time. It feels double-sided, because on one hand, you\u2019re going to have a lot of people [today] who maybe wouldn\u2019t have gotten past the gatekeepers [in the past]. But on the other side \u2026 There\u2019s a weird thing right now where it feels like as a person who did get past a bunch of the gatekeepers, it almost feels like I got up to the highest level at this one game, and then you learn the game\u2019s actually different now. I won the game from 1995. I beat that game.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere\u2019s this basketball player, Roy Hibbert \u2014 in 2010 he was a really valuable basketball player. He was a big guy. And then Steph Curry comes along, and Steph Curry starts shooting threes and he expands the game in this crazy way. All of a sudden, now that we play basketball like this, Roy Hibbert doesn\u2019t fit in this current thing. It\u2019s become a thing: Are you gonna adapt to what this game is? Or are you gonna fade away? There\u2019s a weird dichotomy between trying to stay true to yourself, but also, you got to learn how to shoot threes.<\/p>\n

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\n\tSo now that you\u2019ve done SNL \u2014 you\u2019ve put in the work for three years \u2014 what\u2019s the next level?
The thing that\u2019s really awesome about doing the show is it makes people aware of you. I got to do some work that I liked a lot. People got to see me. And now it\u2019s about expanding from there. I want to work with people that make things that I think are good, that I think are cool. I really like the show Industry on HBO. It\u2019s one of my favorite shows. You know, they need a comedic relief of some sort. Harper needs it, like a stand-up comedian boyfriend that she doesn\u2019t take seriously. I\u2019m trying to get involved with that type of action. I\u2019m trying to be on The Bear. If Lionel [Boyce] needs a brother, like, I\u2019ve been Black and sad for years. I got all of that really locked down. Succession, there\u2019s black stories to tell in that world. Jesse Armstrong, let\u2019s talk about it. The Severance folks, come on now, let\u2019s get involved. Let\u2019s have a conversation. I\u2019ve got time now.<\/p>\n

\n\tWe\u2019d love to see it.
I appreciate it. I feel genuinely very excited. I think when somebody leaves SNL, people\u2019s impulse is to be like, \u201cOh, I\u2019m really sorry.\u201d But to me, getting on SNL was such a blessing. I was never even training to do that thing. That\u2019s just like a God thing, a fortunate happenstance that I ended up getting to be on that show. I\u2019m proud of a lot of the work that I did on there, but wait till people get to see the stuff that I really want to do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Devon Walker is feeling sanguine about leaving Saturday Night Live. Although he said in an Instagram announcement of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[19754,64,63,134,33892,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-107222","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-adam-sandler","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-saturday-night-live","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}