Chris Redd was already a successful stand-up comedian and TV actor before he got cast on Saturday Night Live. So when Lorne Michaels asked him to costar on SNL-veteran Kenan Thompson’s new self-titled single-camera sitcom, Redd was good and ready to fly back and forth across the country every week in the middle of a pandemic for a second demanding job. And just last week, it was announced that Redd would be joining a third Lorne Michaels–produced comedy on the network, Bust Down, about bored casino workers in Middle America.
On Kenan, airing Tuesdays at 8:30 p.m./7:30 p.m. CT on NBC and streaming on Peacock, Redd plays Gary, Kenan’s live wire and very single brother. Kenan (the character) is a successful morning-show host, self-help author, and father of two daughters who has recently lost his wife. He’s living with his kooky white father-in-law, played by Don Johnson—and despite how much he typically has it together, he’s falling apart. Gary, by contrast, is gleefully shallow and childish, and Redd plays him with a hilariously shifty-eyed unpredictability.
Vanity Fair spoke to Redd over Zoom about getting into character as a “confident dummy,” juggling two prime-time shows, staying funny during the pandemic, and what he’s learned from sketch-comedy legend Thompson.
Vanity Fair: Kenan takes an unexpected angle on the sitcom form; I didn’t know what to expect going in, especially because I haven’t watched a network show in awhile. Waiting for a new episode each week—turns out that’s an exciting way to watch TV.
Chris Redd: I think it’s what excites me about it a lot too. And it’s crazy, because I want everybody to see it all [at once], because I’ve been streaming like crazy. But it’s interesting to get one episode a week again. It brings the fun back.
And you’re shooting right now, in the middle of a pandemic. What has it been like to be in that bubble?
Well, the show is a single cam, so there’s not much audience. But then for the morning-show stuff [Thompson’s character is a TV host], there’s a tested audience. So everybody goes through the same procedures. We come in here with all the shields and the masks and all of that. And Cinnamon Toast Crunch [holds up a box of cereal], which has nothing to do with it. It’s just really tough to get into the building with any sniffles or cold or coughs of any kind.
You have to hide that stuff.
I swear, I ate a cookie the other day—and I get tested every day—and the cookie got caught in my throat, and I coughed twice. Somebody was like, “You got it?” And I was like, “That’s not fair.” Sometimes you got something in your throat, man. It ain’t got to be ’rona every time.
And on top of that, you’re shooting two shows on opposite sides of the country. Usually, people will have to leave SNL to establish themselves beyond it. What has it been like to do both at the same time?
It’s been wild, it’s exciting. I’ve been toying at my comedy career for about 12 years doing stand-up. Since stand-up is not around right now for me to do safely, it does kind of feed that bug of [wanting to] jet-set everywhere. It is a little crazy, because I like SNL when you’re able to be there all week and just cultivate ideas with the hosts and with all your friends and then kind of build it.
But there’s still something really special about being able to come in on the night [of the show] and have to just know what you’re doing and get to it. It’s exciting. I love it. And I’m not done with sketch. My parents always told me, don’t leave a job until you have another job. Then I told myself, I don’t leave a job until I’m ready to leave the job. I want all the jobs. So I’m just trying to get all the damn jobs.
Yeah, be greedy. That’s good.
Hey, man, I was broke all through my 20s. I didn’t have a real money job until I was 31 years old. I want all of the jobs.
I was excited to see you in Kenan because I love the various roles that you take on at SNL. Especially the roles where you seem to be playing an innocent character, then there’s something strange that comes out of left field.
Yeah. I love playing distinct weirdos, very confident dummies. Because no matter how dumb you are, there’s an intelligence to everybody. And I just like finding that little line and walking it. Gary is really energetic and just really tries to sell his whole thing all of the time. But at the heart of it, he’s loyal and he cares about his brothers. I like just being a loose cannon, man. It’s a real fun place to be. They always told me I shouldn’t do that when I was in school, and now look at y’all. Wrong as hell.
Kenan’s character is this very accomplished, even-keeled person who’s going through his own struggles. And Gary’s always just crossing the line of appropriateness. How do you approach striking that tone, and how do you play off of the other actors?