Devon Walker is feeling sanguine about leaving Saturday Night Live. Although he said in an Instagram announcement of his departure that his former workplace could be “toxic as hell,” Walker tells Rolling Stone he’s “grateful” for the experience.
And he’d like to remind folks that, really, it’s not all that deep. As heartbroken fans have been reacting online to the ongoing off-season shakeup — in addition to Walker, Heidi Gardner, Michael Longfellow, and Emil Wakim have thus far exited the long-running sketch-comedy series — he jumped on X to say, “Y’all acting like we died lol we just getting different jobs.”
Walker tells Rolling Stone that between him and the powers that be at SNL, “we decided together that it was time to go our separate ways.” Still, he’s fully aware that his three years at Studio 8H forever changed his life and unlocked a level of the entertainment industry most people never get the chance to even glimpse. It’s the kind of place where a comedy god like Adam Sandler might offer up sage advice and a “vote of confidence” from creator Lorne Michaels sticks with alums long after they’ve left.
Walker says he’s especially thankful that the show gave him the chance to work with his best friends, former SNL writers Gary Richardson and Alex English, with whom he ran the Dad comedy show at New York’s Jane Hotel prior to their arrival at 30 Rockefeller Plaza.
In a recent phone call, Walker reflected on how he quelled the self-doubt notorious among cast members and writers, why most of today’s art lacks “good taste,” and why he’d be perfect to play Lionel Boyce‘s brother on The Bear.
First, how are you doing?
Feeling great. Feeling great. Just had some lunch. It’s been a busy day, but a nice day.
What were you up to this morning?
I was having meetings for my podcast [My Favorite Lyrics]. Just kind of trying to navigate that. We started completely independent and now we got some deals on the table, so we’ll sort through that and figure out what the right move is.
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You recently had Gary Richardson on the podcast and you two talked about what it was like working on SNL. I thought it was insightful when you said the real battle when you’re on the show is reckoning with that voice inside your head that says you’re not good enough.
Self-doubt is part of any creative process. And I feel like there, especially, you’re doing something that’s brand new. There’s no other show like it. I think you are constantly fighting self-doubt — that’s just part of it. I’d done sketch comedy one time before in my whole life, and then I auditioned for the show, then got on the most famous sketch comedy show in America, you know? There’s a natural doubt that comes with that, where you’re like, “Oh, I’ve never done this thing before. I hope I’m good at it,” and you’re around people who are experts at it. So you’re trying to find your way in this field that’s so challenging and so competitive.
How did you get out of that headspace when you were in such a demanding atmosphere?
You got to dive straight into it. You can’t run away from it. You got to meet the moment. I did a lot of work on the show that I’m really proud of, and none of it would have happened if I didn’t go out on a limb and try to try to make it happen. Me and Gary wrote a [Weekend] Update feature for [NBA star] Draymond Green, which is one of my favorite things that I got to do on the show. That truly came together in one day, like a lot of the stuff on the show. It might have been [Michael] Che’s idea to do it, and then they asked us if we could write something on Friday, and then it was on the show live on Saturday. The high pressure of the environment almost forces you to push past the doubt.
I’m going to ask, did you leave the show by choice?
The big question. To be frank, I guess the best way I put it is like me and the show kind of looked at each other and we decided together that it was time to go our separate ways. I think I felt ready to leave the show, and I think the show felt ready to leave me. I was just ready to do something else. We both felt like it was time. This was such a big time commitment, and life commitment. There’s been a lot of life stuff that I feel like I’ve had to miss out on. And I felt ready to do a different version of my life. I think that me and the show are both ready to turn the page.
You’ve mentioned that there are times when working there can feel like family.
I got to work at the show in my first two seasons with two of my best friends in the world — Gary Richardson and Alex English. To me, that really felt like family. And you spend so much time together, we’re seeing each other way more than we’re seeing our families. Being able to be in that environment, in the foxhole with two people who are so close to me — I feel really grateful for that.
And even people who I didn’t know before, like James Austin Johnson. I never met him a day in my life before I got started at SNL, and that man really looked out for me in ways that he really didn’t have to. There are people there who, even if you didn’t know each other before, you forge a bond with.
It’s like a fraternity on a certain level. I might see, like, Adam Sandler, you know, and he’s talking about how there’s a shorthand. Even though he went through the show 30 years before I ever got there, we know what it is. There’s just an understanding that anybody who’s ever worked there will always share.
Did Sandler have any words of advice for you?
He said something to the effect of, “You need to make sure you’re performing in the off season, so you remember what it feels like to perform, like, in the way that got you to the show.” Because so many of us were doing sketch or improv or, for me, I was doing stand-up, and you get on the show, and the way that you do those things changes, because you need to do things the SNL way. And I think what Sandler was kind of trying to tell me was, “Make sure you get back to performing in the way that feels the most free to you.”
What was the most meaningful part of working with Lorne Michaels?
The best part of working with Lorne was probably getting hired by him. It’s true. Something about, the same guy that handpicked these people that I’m a big fan of — the Will Ferrells, the Sandlers, the Tracy Morgans, the Tina Feys — the same person who decided on these folks, also picked me. To me, that vote of confidence is something that I’ll carry with me for the rest of my life.
Before SNL you had the Dad show at the Jane with Gary and Alex. You’ve said that when they left SNL, you really felt their absence. You’re a free agent now and mentioned you plan to work with them again, and for as long as you can. What makes working with them so special to you?
We’re similar in a lot of really cool ways, and we’re different in a lot of ways. They’re both from the Midwest. I’m from Texas, so I grew up in the South. We all grew up with no family money and no industry connections, but we all found our way into the same types of spaces. The higher up you get, the more you realize how rarely that happens, and how hard it is to do that.
I feel grateful that we all found each other, because they’re both really, really funny, and I also think they’re really, really smart. They also have really good taste, which I think the industry, frankly, could use more of.
How would you define taste in that sense?
Isn’t that kind of the weird thing about taste? It’s like, smoke, right? You can’t even really quantify it, but you know what that feels like when somebody’s got it, like Tyler, the Creator. You see it in his art and in the choices that he makes and the choices that he doesn’t make. Maybe the best word is intentional. Everything that’s you’re seeing is put in place for a reason. Intentionality, to me, is what people with real taste have.
In what way do you feel taste is lacking in art today?
The current media infrastructure definitely encourages you to just be pushing out things as quickly as possible and as much as possible to garner attention. When you’re thinking about your creative output that way, you lose something, you miss some details, you can’t be intentional.
Vince Staples feels really intentional whenever I see his stuff. Solange is somebody I’ve always been a big fan of — super-intentional, who doesn’t necessarily feel like they’re playing somebody else’s game, or they are playing the game on their terms.
It’s tricky, though, especially in the age of social media, to discern what ideas and feedback you’re going to let into your brain and stay there.
Totally… You’re creating to appeal to this algorithm that none of us fully understand and feels like it’s like shifting all the time. It feels double-sided, because on one hand, you’re going to have a lot of people [today] who maybe wouldn’t have gotten past the gatekeepers [in the past]. But on the other side … There’s a weird thing right now where it feels like as a person who did get past a bunch of the gatekeepers, it almost feels like I got up to the highest level at this one game, and then you learn the game’s actually different now. I won the game from 1995. I beat that game.
There’s this basketball player, Roy Hibbert — in 2010 he was a really valuable basketball player. He was a big guy. And then Steph Curry comes along, and Steph Curry starts shooting threes and he expands the game in this crazy way. All of a sudden, now that we play basketball like this, Roy Hibbert doesn’t fit in this current thing. It’s become a thing: Are you gonna adapt to what this game is? Or are you gonna fade away? There’s a weird dichotomy between trying to stay true to yourself, but also, you got to learn how to shoot threes.
So now that you’ve done SNL — you’ve put in the work for three years — what’s the next level?
The thing that’s really awesome about doing the show is it makes people aware of you. I got to do some work that I liked a lot. People got to see me. And now it’s about expanding from there. I want to work with people that make things that I think are good, that I think are cool. I really like the show Industry on HBO. It’s one of my favorite shows. You know, they need a comedic relief of some sort. Harper needs it, like a stand-up comedian boyfriend that she doesn’t take seriously. I’m trying to get involved with that type of action. I’m trying to be on The Bear. If Lionel [Boyce] needs a brother, like, I’ve been Black and sad for years. I got all of that really locked down. Succession, there’s black stories to tell in that world. Jesse Armstrong, let’s talk about it. The Severance folks, come on now, let’s get involved. Let’s have a conversation. I’ve got time now.
We’d love to see it.
I appreciate it. I feel genuinely very excited. I think when somebody leaves SNL, people’s impulse is to be like, “Oh, I’m really sorry.” But to me, getting on SNL was such a blessing. I was never even training to do that thing. That’s just like a God thing, a fortunate happenstance that I ended up getting to be on that show. I’m proud of a lot of the work that I did on there, but wait till people get to see the stuff that I really want to do.
From Rolling Stone US
