by Haley Emerson. @haleyemerson_.
NEW YORK, NY - LaGuardia High alum and local actor Timothée Chalamet is the latest theater kid to try his hand at comedy. Chalamet, 24, has landed a gig hosting a midtown comedy show this Saturday night, marking his first foray onto the scene.
“I was hoping to run the half hour I wrote last night, but I’m definitely down with MCing. Gotta come up through the ranks like everyone else,” said Chalamet, who has probably never had to do something like everyone else before. “I respect the process, it’s important. As an actor, I get that.”
Lorne Michaels, the booker for Saturday night’s show, has a long-earned reputation around town for discovering fresh talent. Michaels spoke to the Beat about giving Chalamet his first shot in the New York comedy scene.
“Giving local kids a chance is my thing. Look at Pete [Davidson, a mainstay at Michaels’ shows]. He’s a New York kid and people like his look,” said Michaels of his choice to hire yet another spindly twenty-something white guy. “With Timmy, we took that and turned it up a notch. Pete’s like a hot 90s zombie and Timothée’s like a hot Victorian ghost. Young ladies like that nowadays. Ya gotta be funny, but also kind of look like you’ve been dead at one point.”
One of Chalamet’s LaGuardia classmates, Andrew Green, also sat down with the Beat to talk shop. A fellow New York actor, Green weighed in on his old friend’s new venture.
“Timmy was always a jokester, so this new direction makes a lot of sense for him,” said Green, his eyes twinkling with admiration and ablaze with envy. “That video he made for our statistics class was comedy gold!” Predictably, Green went on to add, “Hell, maybe I’ll be the next of us to try comedy. It can’t be that hard, right? I make my girlfriend laugh all the time.”
When asked if he had any worries about trying comedy for the first time, Chalamet seemed unconcerned.
“My friends always tell me I should try standup, so I figured why not! Plus, my take on Willy Loman back at LaGuardia got, like, a ton of laughs.”
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