Kenan Thompson calls starring on ‘Saturday Night Live’ and his own sitcom “a weird thing”

Kenan Thompson‘s schedule is a little crammed these days, with the comedian flying on both ends of the country each week to work on his two projects: Saturday Night Live and his new eponymous sitcom.

Speaking with E! News about how he doesn’t become overwhelmed by the pressure, Thompson noted, “It’ll all pay off soon.”

The 42-year-old actor, who is the longest-tenured SNL cast member, finds himself flying between Los Angeles and New York City multiple times a week.  While some of his former SNL coworkers stepped away from the long-running late night comedy show to work on their passion projects, Kenan doesn’t think he’s quite ready to move on.

“It’s a weird thing. Before, I was having a problem associating that the show was the same show before I got there. I was such a big fan of it and then to see me on it, I was like, ‘Is this the same show? This is crazy,"” he explained. “And now, I’ve been there so long that it would be weird for me to leave it, which is even crazier. So I don’t even know what to do at this point.”

As for Kenan — his new sitcom — he says he does find himself stressing about the show’s success.

“There’s a lot riding on it, like my whole name… Whole name, face, I’m out there,” said Thompson, who is glad to hear four million people watched the series premiere. “It felt really good to get the feedback we got this week, and we just gotta keep it going.” 

However, constantly flying between LA and NYC does have its downside, with the comedian admitting, “I definitely would love the Monday through Saturday experience” — but for right now, he’s happy working the grind.

By Megan Stone
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