On Friday, November 13, Colin Jost, Saturday Night Live (SNL) comedian, actor, and writer, spoke to members of the Stevens community. Organized by the Entertainment Committee (EC), the Q&A with Colin Jost was one of the main events of the semester. In an hour-long question and answer event, the SNL comedian brought laughs and lessons to the audience.
Alex Rubino, Comedy Chair of EC, helped organize the event. At the beginning of the semester, Jost’s agency reached out to the EC Executive Board for some general advertising and mentioned a few names they represent. Rubino stated, “There were a few major comedic names on the agency’s list, one of them was Colin Jost, immediately catching my eye. From there, I reached out to members of Colin’s team and after nearly two months of planning and negotiating, we were able to get a deal of Colin giving an hour-long Q&A to our students plus 150 copies of his new memoir A Very Punchable Face.”
The event started at approximately 9:05 p.m. with around 175 members in the audience, and it was moderated by David Zimmerman, Executive Director of University Events. Jost began by telling jokes about himself and about Stevens; shortly after, he answered questions from Zimmerman and from the audience members.
Many questions regarded his experiences on SNL and some extraordinary experiences that occurred prior to or during filming, such as a time on set where Kanye West was apparently frustrated with the stage design. After his first song, West left the building and had to be convinced by SNL creator Lorne Michaels to stay and complete his second song.
Jost attended Regis High School in New York City and went to Harvard University. When answering a question about his high school experience, he spoke about his high school mascot that is currently an owl but was a raider during his time. He then joked, “Even the name Attila the Duck feels like a mascot that is straddling two worlds — it sounds like a duck that would maybe burn down another duck’s house.”
The event ended approximately at 10:05 p.m. and concluded with Jost sending the Stevens community his best wishes.
The event was an absolute success according to the Entertainment Committee and their Executive Board. Rubino was thrilled with the virtual event that took place after setting up a contract with Jost’s team and spending the last two months attempting to arrange for Jost to come virtually to Stevens. Rubino commented, “The overwhelmingly positive feedback I received right after the event and seeing people who I knew were going through so much in their personal lives smiling for an hour made all the effort of getting Colin Jost to Stevens well worth it.”
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