SNL head writer and Weekend Update host brings standup to Patriot Center

Seth Meyers performed at the Patriot Center for this year's Family Weekend. Eight years ago, Meyers performed his first standup routine at Mason. (Peter Flint) 

Comedian and actor Seth Meyers didn’t know who George Mason was on Saturday morning. Come Saturday night, he had a new favorite founding father and according to his tweet, some “good times” at the Patriot Center.

Meyers, Saturday Night Live’s head writer and host of the show’s Weekend Update, performed a standup comedy routine at the headline event of this year’s Family Weekend. A representative from Student Involvement, the office which organized the event, says about 2,600 people purchased tickets to the Saturday night show.

The majority of his material touched on subjects familiar to college students: study abroad, stories of drunkenness and predictive text.

“My problem with predictive text is it predicts words you don’t want to text,” joked Meyers near the beginning of his act. Problem words with hilarious results, according to Meyers, included “wolf” when you wanted “woke,” and “panties” when you wanted “panther.”

Like Weekend Update, he also joked about politics and in particular, the upcoming midterm elections. Segueing from cellphones, he compared his excitement for Obama in 2008 and the use of text message alerts during the campaign to what he said could now be considered “the handing out of his phone number” to a bunch of less attractive, not as cool friends.

“Maybe it’s time we vote for other people,” he joked, with a portion of the crowd responding in applause.

“I’m willing to sacrifice laughs for what I believe is accuracy,” he joked in response. Meyers additionally poked fun at the planning of Tea Party rallies and the recent “I’m not a witch” ad by Republican nominee for the Delaware Senate seat, Christine O’Donnell.

Sarah Palin, the former Alaskan governor who Meyers “raised the roof” with in a Weekend Update sketch during her 2008 vice-presidential campaign, also came up. One audience member asked about the performance during a 15 minute question and answers session at the end of his routine. Meyers told a story about Palin backstage before the performance, one in which the vice-presidential candidate fake-shot the actor in a moose outfit.

Meyers interacted with the crowd before the Q & A session as well. While talking about study abroad, he asked audience members where they had been, resulting in joking about one student student “really taking advantage of the study abroad opportunity” by studying in Canada. A query into audience member’s recent weird eBay purchases ended in Meyers’ experience with a cardboard cutout of Han Solo.

One audience member asked whether or not SNL just skipped Weekend Update this week. Meyers, who usually would spend his Saturday nights at Studio 8H, broke the news to the audience member that sometimes TV shows have repeats. Meyers performed at the Patriot Center during an early season off-week between shows hosted by Jane Lynch (“Glee”) and Emma Stone (“Easy A”).

“When the SNL schedule for this fall was finally released, we put an offer in that day,” said Lauren Long, director of Student Involvement. Meyers was one of the options Student Involvement pursued over a four or five month period in order to secure a comedian for Family Weekend’s Saturday night.

Long says other comedians considered included Jimmy Fallon, Aziz Ansari, Demetri Martin and Wanda Sykes. Last year, Wayne Brady performed in the Saturday night slot.

Behind the scenes at the Patriot Center

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