 "Photo: photo by Travis Marak")
Actor and "Saturday Night Live" cast member Seth Meyers performed stand-up comedy in Hamilton Field House April 18.
Meyers followed opening band Dreams from Jettison, and was careful to study up on UCO trivia while preparing for his routine, working into his monologue the university's founding, including jokes about the spelling of "broncho."
He kept the crowd laughing constantly, and seemed to be improvising it as he went along, gleaning jokes and segues to anecdotes from frequent discussions with the audience, making nostalgic jabs at college life and impersonating celebrities such as Matthew McConaughey and Owen Wilson.
Meyers became a full-time "SNL" cast member in 2003 after being featured on the weekly, live sketch comedy show for years before that.
"The first few shows were crazy," he said, sitting in a T-shirt and jeans on a couch in the women's locker room that doubled as his green room. Showers lined the wall behind him.
He said he'd never been to Oklahoma before, "but my dad did basic training here and one time a buffalo ran into his car."
"That's the best thing about doing college gigs; you get to see a lot of towns," Meyers said. He said he's visited between 10 and 20 colleges.
"It's not stressful at all," he said. "You get used to traveling."
Meyers said he watched "SNL" growing up, long before he got on the show.
"I can't imagine a job being more stressful," he said. "It's a great job for procrastinators. There's no time to do anything but work."
He said the cast members meet the host for each week's show on Monday, write the entire show on Tuesday, read through each script and pick the best 12 on Wednesday, and on Thursday and Friday they rehearse.
As if he weren't busy enough, Meyers also does a free improvised comedy show in New York every Sunday night with the other cast members from Chicago.
"It's unbelievably thrilling," he said. "Everybody's friends with everybody."
Meyers said each host brings something different to the show, which allows for different sketches, and some members are nervous when they come on.
He said Alec Baldwin is his favorite host, "because he has a filthy sense of humor."
Meyers said he still gets star struck sometimes.
"There are a few people that do it," he said, like Pearl Jam, Bruce Springsteen and Steve Martin.
Meyers is known for his impersonations, which include 2004 presidential hopeful John Kerry and NBC newsman Brian Williams.
He said Williams sends him notes all the time, jokingly threatening Meyers with bodily harm.
Meyers said the notes say things like, "If this note can find you, so can I."
"You try to take their one feature and exaggerate it," he said. "I learn a lot from watching Darrell Hammond."
Hammond, another "SNL" cast member, is perhaps most famous for his impersonations of Sean Connery and former president Bill Clinton.
Meyers said his favorite sketch is one where he and Amy Poehler play a couple that should be divorced.
"We play a married couple that stays married because we don't want the other one to find happiness," he said.
Before he started on "SNL," Meyers was doing improvised comedy in Chicago when he saw an audition notice for "Boom Chicago," an improvisational theater in Amsterdam. Meyers got the job and moved to the Netherlands.
"They chose 'boom' because no matter what language you have, it means something fun, although 'boom' in Dutch means 'tree,'" he said.
Now, he does about 20 "SNL" shows a year, and stars with Hugh Grant and Dennis Quaid in "American Dreamz," which opens April 21.
"I play Mandy Moore's agent," Meyers said. "Hopefully it will be really good."
He's also writing a movie called "Key Party," which he will star in, and he said it will use some of the same humor that he uses for "The Couple That Should Be Divorced."
"It's about a couple that goes to a swingers party and how it ruins their marriage," Meyers said. "I find nothing more entertaining than people in relationships that don't like each other."
"I thought Seth Meyers was pretty funny," said Kellie Swagerty an art education sophomore who's lizard, Archie, was the butt of some of Meyer's jokes. "His improv was above par for your typical 'Saturday Night Live' skit of 'Comedy Central Presents.'
"I think he performed a great show, he knew how to work a college audience," said Rick Foresee, theater sophomore. "It was an exciting event."
Nathan winfrey can be reached at nwinfrey@thevistaonline.com.
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