“This is a great state to murder someone in,” Pete Davidson, the newest Saturday Night Live cast member, said in his thick Staten Island accent to an audience in Madison.
“You murder someone, go ice fishing and put them in that hole.” No one would ever find out, he said.
This brand of off-color, locally-conscious humor was the theme of his Thursday performance.
Both of his two shows on Thursday brought long lines and a full house to the Play Circle in the Memorial Union: a dark, intimate venue that often hosts free comedy shows. Davidson has been doing standup since he was 16. The first time he performed, he said he felt confident.
“In my head, I [fucking] murdered it,” he said in his show.
He recently watched the tape of that first performance and realized there was only dead silence. However, he got the exact opposite reaction at the Play Circle. As little as he seemed to appreciate Wisconsin — or at least Wisconsin weather— Wisconsin definitely appreciated him. He related incredibly well to the crowd of mostly college students or grads. Oddly enough, most of these kids were probably older than Davidson himself, who at 21, is the youngest Saturday Night Live cast member.
In the middle of his routine, he’d interrupt his stand-up flow for a new joke and take ten seconds writing it in his phone rather than use a pen and paper. He’d test out new material, using the University of Wisconsin audience as guinea pigs. He also took time out of his routine to read tweets that were too underdeveloped or politically correct for Twitter but perfectly ok in a stand up routine. Davidson employed millennial-age mediums to bolster his routine, unlike the more austere comedic heavyweights who have recently graced Madison’s comedy arenas, like Jerry Seinfeld.
Davidson’s standout bits focused on timely cultural topics for the young crowd. He parodied rising pop star Sam Smith with an impression that was just incomprehensible wailing into the microphone. He continued along the pop culture trend with his insistence that judges are mean to the young fragile contestants on Top Chef Kids, and he brought it close to home with his running joke that everyone in Wisconsin is a serial killer.
He also joked about how apolitical he is. The only reason he voted for Obama, he said, is because he seemed more fun to get high with than Romney. This bit seemed to exponentially endear Davidson to the young crowd at a liberal campus.
He also offered some words of advice from his short but eventful career. He assured the audience with anecdotes about his failures.
“I’ve bombed in front of executives, in front of movie people, in front of my mom, which is the worst,” he said. “The important thing is to keep up and not get discouraged.”
His stand up career wasn’t very successful for the first couple years, Davidson said. A lot has changed in five years. He is a series regular on MTV’s Guy Code. He has guest starred on FOX’s Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Now he’s a Saturday Night Live cast member in the 40th season.
As one might imagine, Davidson loves being on SNL.
Naturally funny, endearing and not too self-deprecating like some of his peers, Davidson has that millennial appeal that college kids love. He’s goofy, young and weird, but the audience didn’t seem to find fault in his style.
“I think everyone that’s kinda cool is weird,” Davidson said as a justification of his unconventional style and as a credo for all of the weirdos out there.
