On Sunday evening, the show won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Scripted Variety Series—its ninth win in a row—and as senior writer on the show, Vali took home his eighth Emmy for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series, a dynastic run of critical success that he calls “humbling.” The show, which each week takes an irreverent deep dive into a broad range of issues like net neutrality, televangelism, and predatory lending, also earned Vali a prestigious Peabody Award in 2018. Fordham Magazine spoke with the 2010 Fordham College at Rose Hill grad about the role comedy plays in tackling big issues, why Oliver is so good at what he does, and, naturally, the thrills of ice climbing.     

What are some of the big differences you encountered going from a print/digital publication to working on a weekly TV show?
I think the biggest thing is that here, there’s such a heavy research element to the show. Obviously we did research at The Onion, and we wanted things to be accurate in the world of the stories, but we weren’t really consulting experts from Harvard about anything.

To give you a rundown of how we make a story, a topic is pitched and the research team will compile a document that can be 100 pages, like “I’ve talked to people at Boeing, I’ve talked to people who are experts in aviation at various universities.” And meanwhile, the footage department will compile documentaries and news reports, all sorts of footage, as well as funny clips that we could potentially use. Most stories here are a four- or five- or six-week process.

Another element I’m really interested in is that you’re writing for a specific person—a specific voice—in John Oliver. How did you get used to writing things for his particular delivery?
It was its own bit of a learning curve. But then once you know where the boundaries are and what works and what doesn’t, you can just have fun.

To John’s credit, I think he does a great job of adopting elements of our comedic voices as writers. So there are definitely jokes where he’s obviously speaking as himself, but I am injecting my comedic sensibility in there as well, and he is manifesting that. It’s a cool two-way street where we’re writing for his voice, but he is also giving us the freedom to write in our own voices and he will find his own way to perform it.

How would you describe what makes something funny coming from him?
He has a humongous comedic range, which is why I think he’s able to manifest different writers’ voices. I always write long runs with him being obsessive over weird things, where he’ll zero in on some weird esoteric thing that is only tangentially related to the topic of the show and talk about it for six minutes—where he’ll be really into weightlifting or really into horses or really into aquatic life. Those are always really fun for me. I feel like it gives us the opportunity as writers to obsess over those topics.

While it’s not necessarily focused on electoral politics, Last Week Tonight is certainly a political comedy show in some ways. What do you see as the societal role of that style of comedy?
I think everyone falls on a different spot on that map of making people laugh versus taking a more activist approach towards what you’re writing. The kind of comedy and satire that I find to be the most effective is when you’re talking about something that’s a really difficult issue, but you’re finding a moment of catharsis that everyone can collectively feel.

I don’t know if we’re going to change anyone’s mind on anything. I’m guessing that most of the people who watch this show are probably more politically aligned with us than not. But I do think if you can make them think about something in a way that they hadn’t before, that’s a success. And if you can do that while making them laugh and entertaining them—that’s what I strive to do.

One thing that I think is smart about the show is that there are often built-in calls to action—and some of those are really funny calls to action that speak to the absurdity of a situation.
Totally. And I think we like highlighting things that are maybe on the more boring side or technical side of politics—something as technical as gerrymandering or zoning. It’s cool to put a magnifying glass on things that can go under the radar but that are actually really important.

Between seasons, I’m sure there’s a lot of work being done, but presumably you have at least a little bit of a break there. How do you spend that time?
Yeah, we usually get about seven or eight weeks between seasons. It’s really nice to have a break to decompress and work on my own personal writing. And I also really like ice climbing, so I go to western Colorado and ice climb for a few weeks, which is always fun.

Oh wow, ice climbing?!
Yeah, I started getting into it around 2019. I tried it for the first time and I started getting super into it. There’s a place in southwestern Colorado called Ouray that actually has an ice climbing park. It’s a gorge that they water and they actually make ice on it. I’ve been going there for a few weeks every year for the last few years. Just getting to play in this ice wonderland for a few weeks is a nice way to decompress after the season, and then I feel like I’m rebalanced and ready to go for the new one.

Interview conducted, edited, and condensed by Adam Kaufman, FCLC ’08.

“It was terrifying,” Seidell says. “Not because of anything Lorne did, but just because he’s Lorne Michaels.”

That summer, Seidell had been going to a lot of Mets games, and though he says Michaels asked a couple of comedy questions, they also talked a lot about baseball.

“He talked about how the Mets weren’t great, because there was no expectation of excellence on the Mets, whereas on the Yankees there is,” Seidell says. “I think he was probably using this to talk about SNL, because I remember him saying, ‘If you’re not excellent on the Yankees, then you’re not a Yankee for very long.’”

Looking back, Seidell realizes that meeting with Michaels is the last step of a thorough hiring process—a step that exists so Michaels can be sure “that you can conduct yourself around people with some level of chill.” But at the time, he says, “I left there being like, ‘I don’t know. We just talked about baseball. I think I blew it.’”

It turns out he didn’t blow it. He got the job, and like a ballplayer who’s proven his worth, he’s stuck around: In May, he finished his fourth season as a writer for the show.

‘The Last Place on TV You Can Bomb’

Seidell began performing stand-up in Manhattan during his sophomore year at Fordham. He started writing for the website College Humor in 2004, and eventually worked his way up to become the site’s editor in chief. That job became a springboard to other opportunities, including working on shows for MTV and writing on a sitcom in Los Angeles.

But his dream job was always to write for SNL. He grew up watching the likes of Will Ferrell, Molly Shannon, and Cheri Oteri on the show—part of a childhood comedy diet that also included Adam Sandler records and John Candy movies. Some of the first laughs he got as a kid were the result of simply repeating lines from his favorite SNL sketches. (“I live in a VAN, down by the RIVER.”) And so after Sarah Schneider, a friend from College Humor, was hired to write at SNL in 2011, Seidell began applying as well, sending in packets of sample sketches whenever the show put out a call for submissions. He applied four times before finally getting the job.

And though Schneider had given Seidell a heads-up about what he was in for once his first season began, he says nothing can truly prepare you for it. “It’s like someone telling you what skydiving is like,” he says.

Indeed, he quickly learned how grueling the schedule would be: pitches on Monday, a marathon writing session on Tuesday into Wednesday, a table read of potential sketches later that day, rewrites on Thursday, and rehearsals on Friday. All of that builds to a long day on Saturday—an occasion Seidell marks each week by forgoing his usual casual wear in favor of a suit and tie.

Seidell is the first to admit that writing a great sketch that kills on air is hard. Some sketches he works on in a given week won’t even make it to dress rehearsal, and sometimes a sketch just doesn’t work even if it does make it to the live broadcast. But that’s part of the job’s appeal. “This is the last place on TV you can bomb, which adds to the pressure, which I find motivating,” Seidell says from the office he shares with writing partner Mikey Day on the 17th floor of 30 Rockefeller Plaza, nine floors above the fabled studio 8H. Tacked to a bulletin board above his desk are cue cards from sketches Seidell co-wrote that most definitely did not bomb, including “FBI Simulator,” which features Larry David as a lifelike weirdo target-practice dummy in an FBI training exercise.

Satire vs. Silliness for Silliness’ Sake

The entire office is decorated with props and mementos from memorable sketches Seidell co-wrote. A cue card from “Close Encounter,” in which Kate McKinnon explains that she was not “dealing with the top brass” during her abduction by aliens, hangs in a frame in the office’s corner. There’s a pizza-guitar prop from a sketch featuring Aziz Ansari in a Chuck E. Cheese’s-like restaurant, an illustration of Chance the Rapper from a sketch in which he plays an out-of-his-element hockey announcer, and, near the door, a fan-made poster depicting perhaps Seidell’s most famous sketch: “Haunted Elevator,” written with Day and Bobby Moynihan and starring Tom Hanks as David S. Pumpkins, a confusing character who repeatedly appears in a Tower of Terror-type ride wearing a jack-o’-lantern-print suit. The 2016 sketch blew up after the show aired. Not only did it lead to some media appearances by Seidell, it served as the inspiration for a kids’ Halloween special that aired last fall.

Seidell suggests the timing of the episode helped it go viral. “My personal theory is that it was right before the election, and the rhetoric was really harsh on both sides. I think it was the last safe thing to talk about with your friends and family who disagree with you politically.” (It also didn’t hurt that Hanks, in Seidell’s words, “just went for it,” fully committing to the goofy character.)

It’s fitting that “Haunted Elevator” became Seidell’s most buzzed-about sketch, as it’s representative of the type of sketch he most prefers to write. It’s impossible for an SNL writer in 2018 to ignore politics, as the current administration has provided fodder for many sketches over the past two years. Seidell, for instance, pitches in by co-writing appearances by cast members portraying President Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric. But he is most interested in writing sketches that aren’t tied to the news cycle at all, particularly when they’re a little on the weirder side.

“There are a lot of [comedy shows] that just sort of say something everyone agrees with, and they’re aiming for applause and not laughs,” Seidell says. “But as a writer, I just find that boring. This show’s always been a balance of political stuff versus just baldly funny stuff. I’ve just always favored silliness. I’ve always just gone for a laugh over some stinging political critique.”

That’s not to say that topical sketches can’t be silly—or that they can’t appeal across the political spectrum. With Day, for instance, he co-wrote a commercial parody for “Levi’s Wokes,” comically ugly, ill-fitting jeans described as “size-less, style-neutral, gender nonconforming denim for a generation that defies labels.”

“I feel like I found a creative soulmate in Streeter, so I’m very lucky that he got put in my office that first season,” says Day, who joined the show a year before Seidell. “We share an odd sense of humor, and there’s few people there who are as crazy as I am to start writing something new at like 4 or 5 a.m. out of nowhere.”

A Seat at the SNL Kids’ Table

SNL‘s schedule of intense show weeks combined with downtime in the summer has allowed Seidell to work on other projects, including the David S. Pumpkins special last year. And he says he’d be interested in working on a bigger project like a film at some point, in addition to continuing with some stand-up dates, though his time away from the show also lets him spend more time with his wife and 2-year-old son.

In the meantime, he’s laser-focused on SNL. Since being hired, he’s added the title of writing supervisor, which means he not only writes sketches but also helps decide which ones make the show. “You have a seat, maybe not at the big-boy table, but at the kids’ table,” he jokes. It also means more opportunities to learn from Lorne Michaels. “It’s like if you were a baseball player and you get to talk with Babe Ruth,” Seidell says. “He’s maybe the most important person in American comedy, maybe ever.” Seidell pauses, then laughs. “And he wasn’t even born in America.”

Michaels, after all, has been producing groundbreaking sketch comedy for generations. “My parents told me growing up, ‘This is the funniest show,’” says Seidell, who made it his professional goal to be a writer there, preferring it over other beloved programs like The Late Show. “If you want to write comedy, this is the place to be.”

—Joe DeLessio, FCLC ’06, a social media editor at New York magazine, is a frequent contributor to this magazine.

Related Story: Streeter Seidell’s Top 5 SNL Sketches

1. Close Encounter (2015)

“This one was the first one where it really just destroyed in the room. I feel like Lorne [Michaels] started to know my name after that one. It truly changed my trajectory here. It was the first one I had that really just crushed. And Kate [McKinnon] was so funny. Everything about that one just worked.”

2. Haunted Elevator (2016)

“This did great in the studio, but it didn’t start out that way. It didn’t really work until the final one on air. So it was just getting better each time [during the week], but going into the show, we were like, ‘I don’t know if people are going to like it.’ And then to have it hit as hard as it did was rewarding. Tom Hanks is just a hero of mine and Mikey’s, and just having him go all in on such a stupid thing, just trusting these two idiots—and Bobby [Moynihan], excuse me, these three idiots, to bring him through that thing … It’s just nice knowing Tom Hanks is as friendly and cool as you want him to be.”

3. Civil War Soldiers (2017)

“I did this one with Jimmy Fallon when he hosted where they’re singing this old Civil War song, and he keeps jumping in with what he calls his ‘fat catchy hook’ that just sounds like a modern song called ‘Party at My Parents’ House.’ I just loved it. It did pretty well on the show. Jimmy was so funny, and just got the concept right away. I love history stuff. Whenever I can get a history thing on, I get excited about it.”

4. New Mercedes (2016)

“We did this commercial with Julia Louis Dreyfus for a Mercedes car that ran on like 5,000 AA batteries. I love the joke, and the way it was shot was just gorgeous. But I think I love it more for the fact that they really bought like 20,000 AA batteries, and there was a guy on set whose job was just shoveling batteries. He had, like, a snow shovel. It would be, ‘Action,’ then 10,000 batteries fall out of a hole in this car. Then ‘OK, cut,’ and this dude had to come in and shovel batteries all day. It was just making me laugh.”

5. Rap Song (2017)

“Season 42 was just such a momentous season for the show, and this was from the last episode. I got to do a thing with the full cast, and I knew that Bobby [Moynihan] was leaving, and Vanessa [Bayer] was leaving, and Bobby in particular was one of my buddies, and so it was cool to just have everybody there. It was really fun on a personal level of like, ‘Oh wow, we got to do this really big, deeply stupid song thing at the end of the season.’”

—Joe DeLessio, FCLC ’06, a social media editor at New York magazine, is a frequent contributor to this magazine.

Related Story: The Comedic Stylings of Saturday Night Live‘s Streeter Seidell

Writer. Producer. Philanthropist. Actress. Director. Comedic Mastermind.

There are many ways to describe Jeannie Gaffigan, and no one would be surprised to hear “Catholic” also on that list.

Her Catholic presence in the media was honored on Oct. 14 when she received the inaugural Eloquentia Perfecta Award from Fordham’s Graduate School of Religion and Religious Education (GRE) and the Paulist Press.

The award is given to a professional whose work in the industry of communications or performing arts captures the essence of the human experience.

“We wanted to honor someone who told the true story of what it is like to be human and invites reflection upon our own experiences,” said Colt Anderson, Ph.D., dean of GRE. “Jeannie, you spread your faith with the perfect pitch for our contemporary time.”

Since then she has been writing, directing, and producing comedy shows, including her autobiographical TV Land hit series, The Jim Gaffigan Show, which has received acclaim for expressing the Gaffigans’ Catholic faith openly and honestly.

“We show what it’s really like to be Catholic and living in today’s society,” said Gaffigan. “We didn’t want to portray a Catholicism that was hidden or watered down for the audience. What you see is what you get.”

The TV show’s fictionalized version of her family, Gaffigan said, illustrates “a household of faith in one of the most culturally diverse places in this country, New York City,” and the struggles that lifestyle incites.

“Our household is not a perfect place,” she said, “and we wanted to show that. We wanted to cast a light on the flaws that are a part of every human experience, and show how we grow in goodness through our triumphs, even if we don’t always know it.”

Through her work as a comedy writer, Gaffigan said she aims to bring communities closer together through their doubts, mistakes, and insecurities.

“People don’t live in a vacuum; there will always be something that offends or upsets someone,” said Gaffigan. “I want to show how people can come together through their flaws, and rise above their doubts through resilience and compassion.”

Gaffigan said that her work is inspired by the words of St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus: “Love ought to manifest itself in deeds rather than in words.” She tries to “evangelize creatively and subtly,” spreading her faith in a humorous and reflective way that does not alienate her audience.

“No one likes a preachy story, which is why it’s important to embody your mission into your actions,” she said.

In lieu of accepting her speaker’s fee, Gaffigan asked that equivalent monetary aid be presented to a Fordham student who reflected the values of the Eloquentia Perfecta Award. The recipient was Caitlin Sakdalan, FCLC ’18, a Film and Television Major, who has started her own food blog and hopes to be a food connoisseur in the media.

Listen to Gaffigan comment on how their show deals with the pressures of contemporary celebrity culture:

–Mary Awad