Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce is no stranger to the spotlight, but when it came to hosting Saturday Night Live, even one of football’s biggest stars found himself outside his comfort zone.
Kelce, a three-time Super Bowl champion and one of the most recognizable faces in the NFL, took the stage on March 4, 2023, for SNL’s 14th episode of Season 48.
While fans saw a confident and entertaining performance alongside musical guest Kelsea Ballerini, the process behind the scenes wasn’t nearly as smooth for Kelce, especially when it came to the dreaded table read.
Appearing this week on the Bussin’ With The Boys podcast, Kelce gave some candid insight into the prep work that went into the show. Despite his naturally magnetic personality and love of performing, the scripted element of the show posed a significant challenge.
“The writers’ rooms were fun because you’re just getting pitched ideas,” Kelce said. “The table reading, for a guy that can’t really read that well, it was kind of a f***ed situation.”
That moment, he admitted, was the most stressful part of the entire SNL experience. As the cast and writers sit around a table and read through each sketch-line by line-it requires a certain level of performance that Kelce wasn’t fully comfortable with at first.
“I felt like I was just trying to get through the reading instead of actually acting it out and giving it a voice and giving it a character and things like that,” he continued. “I was just focused on, ‘Don’t f**king skip this line.’ … The table read was the hardest part.”
Though nervous at first, Kelce ended up enjoying the challenge of live comedy
The pressure to deliver was clearly weighing on Kelce in the days leading up to his live debut. Unlike his role on the field, where instincts, preparation, and muscle memory carry him through high-stakes moments, SNL required him to rely on rhythm, reading, and comedic timing-skills he admitted he’s still developing.
“There was still a sense of like, ‘I need to be a professional here,'” Kelce said. “I want to take advantage of this, but I want to have fun doing it, but I don’t want to look like a loser doing this. I want to make them respect my approach and how I’m like taking it serious. But it was just a fun roller coaster, man.”
Despite the nerves and difficulty with the table read, Kelce‘s final performance was well-received. He leaned into his goofy, playful side in sketches that poked fun at his NFL persona, his brother Jason, and his dating life. His timing, expressions, and willingness to be self-deprecating won over both fans and critics, proving that he could indeed hold his own outside the football arena.
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