Sometimes, a friend canceling plans last minute is no big deal. Other times, you end up disappointing an entire sports arena, as Saturday Night Live alum Brooks Wheelan unfortunately discovered.
The Big Hero 6: The Series actor, who spent one season as a cast member and writer on the NBC sketch series, opened up about how scoring tickets to a hockey game during his time at the show blew up in his face after costar Kenan Thompson had to bow out of going with him due to a family illness.
“I asked for tickets to go to the New York Rangers game through Saturday Night Live, and I asked Kenan Thompson, who is one of the coolest guys in the world,” Wheelan explained on a recent episode of the Doughboys podcast. “I was like, ‘Kenan, do you want to go to the Rangers game with me?’ And he’s like, ‘Yeah, that sounds really fun.'”
Dana Edelson/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty
Brooks Wheelan on ‘Saturday Night Live’
As Wheelan was biking over to Madison Square Garden for the game, he got some bad news from his costar. “Kenan texted me, ‘Hey, my wife’s sick. I’m really, really sorry I can’t make it,'” Wheelan recalled.
The comedian explained it was too close to game time to find someone else to join him, so he decided he’d fly solo. “I’m having fun. I’m eating a hot dog, and the game rules, and I’m like, ‘This is really nice,'” he shared of the experience.
But things took a turn when a member of the Rangers’ crew approached him to ask if Thompson was there. It turned out they had planned to showcase the SNL stars on the big screen during the game, which Wheelan told them was no longer necessary since Thompson had canceled.
“We don’t need to do the Jumbotron, you know, ’cause the famous guy is not here,” Wheelan explained. “They were like ‘No, we did a package for both of you guys.'”
Soon after, they started to showcase celebrities like Reese Witherspoon in the crowd, leading with clips from her beloved movies.
“Then it comes to me and Kenan, who’s not there. Before they showed us, they showed Kenan Thompson doing the knuckle puck from the Mighty Ducks so clearly we’re about to see Kenan Thompson,” Wheelan recalled of the spectacle.
Walt Disney Pictures / courtesy Everett Collection
Kenan Thompson in ‘The Mighty Ducks’ in 1996
Sign up for Entertainment Weekly‘s free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.
“And then [they showed a clip of] Kenan Thompson being super duper duper funny on an SNL sketch where I brought him like a lunch where I was like, ‘Here you are, sir.’ Uh, clearly this is definitely not just going to be the guy who brought the lunch alone without Kenan,” he said of the crowd anticipation before the live shot. “And it was just, boom, Brooks baby!”
That’s when reality set in.
“I disappointed Madison Square Garden. Everyone was like, ‘Not that one. Why would you show Kenan doing the knuckle puck?'”
The embarrassment lingered. “The next day at work, Kenan was like, ‘How was the game?’ I was like, ‘It was f—ing awful, dude. Sucked.'”
Wheelan’s takeaway from the experience? “Don’t go by yourself, you’ll be so embarrassed.”
Watch Wheelan’s full episode of Doughboys, hosted by comedians Nick Wiger and Mike Mitchell, above.
Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly
