Michael Che, an American stand-up comedian, was invited by the University to do a late-night stand-up comedy routine at Kodak Hall in Eastman Campus on Feb. 1. He is best known for his sketches on SNL, especially for a Weekend Update segment known as “joke swap,” in which he wrote jokes for his white co-host, Colin Jost, to tell — and vice versa. Often, these jokes push the envelope due to the nature of making the other person uncomfortable. Che’s reliance on race-centric jokes extended into his performance at Winterfest.
His performance was a part of the UR Winterfest Weekend performances, which usually feature a big-ticket performer invited by Wilson Commons Student Activities (WCSA) and the Student Activities Board (SAB). As the featured performer for this year, there was an air of uncertainty about Che’s potential for stand-up comedy, since many attendees had only seen him on SNL. Still, as it was the big-ticket performer, the first floor was nearly filled with people.
The event was slated to start at around 8 p.m. in Kodak Hall, but Che set foot on stage about 10 minutes after the start time, beginning by talking about how he wasn’t used to doing stand-up performances, before starting by making jokes about Rochester, referring to Frederick Douglass and his ancestry. He seemed — at first — to be well-received by the audience.
As I experienced his work live, I thought the performance was relatively stereotypical in terms of subject matter: topics surrounding the local environment, jabs at racism, hammed-up personal experiences, cultural references, sex jokes, and more. He seemed to have prepared a few jokes, but around the middle of the set, his jokes seemed to lose direction. Che seemed to fill the crowd’s silence with awkward laughs and rambled as a replacement for unwritten jokes.
The SAB later posted a comment about Che’s performance, saying that they “were not given a script, draft, or any mention of his jokes before the show” and that they “do not condone or tolerate ableism, homophobia, or any form of discrimination.”
At the beginning of the night, Che mentioned that he was sober, but by the end of the night, he reminded me of a rambling drunk, mumbling under his breath and laughing to himself.
Notably, Che mentioned that he may be leaving SNL. He had been considering leaving for several seasons, but only publically (and definitively) brought it up during this performance. As a mainstay on the show since 2014, serving as the co-anchor of “Weekend Updates” and co-head writer until 2022, Che’s upcoming absence may come as a surprise.
Although he has a history of threatening to leave the show, Che mentioned that he might even have to reaudition if he wanted to go back. “This is my last season. I’m not coming back, don’t worry. I’m done, it’s over for me. It’s been so much fun. It’s a little emotional, it’s bittersweet,” he mentioned during his performance. Che did not talk about what he planned to do afterward, citing a lack of job experience outside of the show, and instead just continued his set.
The late night itself was supposed to end at 9 p.m., but Che extended his stay for about another 25 minutes, talking to the audience and going off on small tangents. Instead of being captivating, Che’s performance held the concert hall captive. As Kodak Hall emptied out, I overheard chatter of how the end felt like Che was just running out the clock. While the set wasn’t the worst comedy I had ever seen (I had even thought that the middle part was rather well done in terms of joke delivery), in retrospect it lacked uniqueness and dragged at the end unnecessarily.
Perhaps the most notable takeaway from this is Michael Che’s statement that he may be leaving SNL. What he intends to do afterward is unknown, but I’d urge him to reconsider if he’s looking to pivot back to stand-up.
