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Seth Meyers gives the Family ‘Weekend Update’

By Abbey Gingras, News Editor

Late night talk show host and Saturday Night Live (SNL) veteran Seth Meyers will perform at Millet Hall tomorrow evening for Family Weekend.

In an interview, Meyers said he is excited to switch up his normal comedy style for the show.

"The nice thing about stand up is it's all stuff that you've written yourself and it's great to have a full hour with the audience," Meyers said. "You get to know them and they get to know you in a way that they're not going to when it's a talk show with commercials."

Director of Performing Arts Patti Liberatore helped choose Meyers for Family Weekend. She said he was a popular choice for people of all ages.

"It is a great way to entertain the students and their parents," she said. "It bridges the generation gap. He doesn't do [stand up] a lot so it's kind of a coup for us to get him now because he just started his show and people knew him from Saturday Night Live."

Currently, Meyers hosts Late Night with Seth Meyers on NBC. He left SNL in 2014 after 13 years. During his time on SNL, he was well known for hosting the regular segment Weekend Update - first with Amy Poehler, then by himself.

"[Amy] was one of the best communicators I ever worked with and certainly one of the best team players," Meyers said. "These can be really high pressure and high stress environments, and when you have someone like Amy around who is everybody's friend at the same time, you remember you can do these jobs and retain some humanity."

Meyers also had high praise for fellow SNL alum Tina Fey.

"When I showed up at SNL, Tina was the head writer, and I learned more about the work ethic of writing from Tina than anyone else," Meyers said. "She was never satisfied with the script until she knew she'd looked everywhere for the best possible jokes."

In addition to his time on SNL and Late Night, Meyers has had a slew of hosting responsibilities from the ESPYs on ESPN to the Emmy Awards. He was also the keynote speaker at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner in 2011.

One aspect of comedy that Meyers enjoys is having the ability to reflect on what's going on in the world.

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"It's nice that we have these platforms to not just do silly, dumb stuff that makes us laugh but also talk about the stuff that we're really thinking about," Meyers said.

SNL recently made headlines for foraying into the gun control debate with a sketch featuring female comedian Amy Schumer. Meyers felt the commentary was well-timed.

"If people are talking about something, comedy should be talking about it as well," Meyers said. "I think the timing of the gun control piece was perfect because obviously this is an issue that everybody is talking about now, and it would be silly if SNL and other shows ignored it."

Meyers regularly talks about his family and personal life on his show, and has had his younger brother, Josh, and his parents on multiple times. Josh is also an actor, and Meyers noted they have a close relationship.

"We've been so supportive of each other over our careers that we always sort of laugh about the fact that we've managed to avoid over the years any sort of sibling rivalry," Meyers said. "I would say the biggest rivalry now is between my parents and my brother because they all want the most amount of screen time on my show."

First-year Hana Hall, a member of Miami Activities and Programming (MAP), is looking forward to the show. MAP was involved in bringing Meyers to campus.

"I loved him on Saturday Night Live, and I can't wait to see what he brings here," Hall said.

Meyers said he is excited for this weekend and to get to know the audience at Miami.

"When I do stand up, I like to talk about what's going on in the world, I like to talk about my life, my relationships, stuff that you don't talk about on television," Meyers said. "It's going to be a fun hour."

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