Devon Walker grew up obsessed with comedy as a teen in Texas, watching Chris Rock and “Seinfeld” with a passion. But he didn’t know he wanted comedy to be his career until he was a graduate student studying organizational development and planning to be a management consultant for the rest of his life.
When the time came to actually seek a position in that field, Walker was hit with the realization that he’d rather be a stand-up. Eight years later, he’s ridden a wave of success all the way to being a second-year cast member of the longest-running comedy show of all time, “Saturday Night Live.”
Walker will be bringing his comedy stylings to the stage at Zanies July 13-15, performing five shows at Chicago’s longest-running comedy club. He took the time to discuss living his dream on a show that’s been trailblazing in comedy for nearly fifty years.
“When I started and throughout my whole first season, walking through the hallways and seeing all the pictures and being reminded of all the people who had the exact same job as you makes you realize you’re a part of comedy history in a way,” says Walker, thirty-two. “Very few other shows have that level of resonance because shows don’t last that long, no shows last for fifty years.”
“How many people can say they had the same job as Eddie Murphy? How many people can say they have the same job as Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler and Chris Rock? These are real legends, so that’s my favorite part. I feel like I’m part of the history of comedy in this country. And I’m very thankful for that.”
While “SNL” was renowned in past years for its iconic characters, Walker had to take a different tack in his audition because he had very little experience in sketch comedy. Instead, he just rolled with the best five minutes of material he had in his repertoire, and the move paid off as he overcame the nerve-wracking experience of performing for five strangers including the show’s legendary producer, Lorne Michaels, in the show’s Studio 8H at 30 Rock.
That high-stakes performance came after an initial audition round performing for an audience at the Asylum comedy club, and was followed by a couple of conversation meetings “where they’re trying to see if you’re cool to work with.”
“Lorne never actually tells you you got the job,” says Walker, who started performing comedy eight years ago. “With me, he said ‘Being a new cast member is tough. Are you sure you’re going to be able to do it?’”
Once hired, Walker faced the hurdles that come every “SNL” rookie’s way: trying to get notable air time amid a sea of more than twenty cast members.
“When you first get there, like your job is to find your spots where they are and you’ll get a couple opportunities,” Walker adds. “They’ll say ‘Alright, we need somebody to play this, we need somebody to play this waiter. We need somebody to come in and say two lines as this bartender.’ And I think the key really is to embrace those smaller roles when they’re given to you because I think when the show sees that you can willingly go into those roles and be serviceable, then they’re more likely to want to give you those bigger opportunities later.”
While Walker looks ahead to his second season this fall, he’s also focusing on “universally relatable” topics like love, fear, money and family through his own perspective. He also tells tales of the frequent awkward encounters he’s having these days, where people recognize his face but have no idea who he is yet.
But his biggest dream is to have his own sitcom in the vein of Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and “Seinfeld.” It would bring him full circle to his earliest days as a comedy fan.
“My dad was a ‘Seinfeld’ fan when I was a kid and in my teen years I got really, really into it. I was definitely the only kid that I know of at my school that had the entire series on DVD,” he recalls. “I would ask for a season of Seinfeld every year for my birthday or Christmas. I must have been the only thirteen-year-old Black boy doing that.”
Devon Walker performs July 13-15 at Zanies, 1548 North Wells. Tickets $30, (312)337-4027, zanies.com
