How Seth Meyers got to "SNL" via Amsterdam
Seth Meyers said the Dutch improv theater Boom Chicago gave him and his comedy partner Jill Benjamin a "road map" to create a show that eventually got the attention of "Saturday Night Live."
Seth Meyers, a prominent host on NBC's Late Night with Seth Meyers, found his start in the Netherlands at Boom Chicago, an improv theater in Amsterdam. It was at Boom that Meyers, along with comedians Jordan Peele and Ike Barinholtz, honed his skills and developed his comedic style. Meyers recounted his experience in a conversation with journalist Jon Wertheim, describing how the time at Boom provided him with a roadmap to his big break in television.
It was during rehearsals for Boom that Meyers came up with the idea for the sketch "Bar Pickup," a game involving two people meeting at a bar and asking each other questions, with answers fed back into the sketch. Meyers and his colleague Jill Benjamin developed this sketch into a two-person show, "Pick-ups and Hiccups," which received critical acclaim and toured internationally.
This international exposure eventually led to Meyers landing a job at Saturday Night Live in 2001, cementing his career in American comedy.
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