At this point in the NFL football season, there are many more losers than winners. If your team is no longer in the hunt, then Saturday Night Live star and whiskey drinker Kenan Thompson feels your pain. He roots for the Falcons, which finished a disappointing 8-9 this season.
“If you’ve had a lemon of a season, turn those lemons into Jim Beam and lemonade,” he recently told me. “Turn a negative into a positive.”
He just paired up with Jim Beam Bourbon for a campaign promoting this simple yet tasty combination. Jim Beam even created a special kit to make this drink, which includes a SMEG juicer, Owen’s Lemonade, stylish glassware, and fresh lemons. (Kits are being given away to adults on a first-come-first-serve basis. Get more info here.)
Courtesy Keith Montero
I chatted with him about his personal drinking philosophy, how he got into whiskey and Saturday Night Live’s famous after-show parties. Read on for more.
Before this ad campaign, were you a huge lemon fan?
Weirdly enough, I do have an affinity towards lemons. Like I even wear a citrusy kind of cologne. But, you know, it wasn’t anything that I was intending on. Like, it’s not necessarily my go-to because I don’t even mix anymore. I’ve been on a nice little health kick these days. So I’m kind of just straight up for the low carbs or whatever but I do remember lemonade always going kind of hand in hand with great things—Jim Beam being one of them. So I was happy to spearhead this new movement for them.
Are you a big bourbon drinker?
Yeah, it’s always fun learning the difference between bourbon and whiskey.
Was there someone who introduced you to whiskey? Your family or Saturday Night Live creator and executive producer Lorne Michaels?
No, I don’t have a whiskey mentor. It’s always been much more casual. But as I’ve gotten older, I like to get into the history of things and also the quality of things by doing a little research. Like we have the Brandy Library here in New York. Having gone there and seeing so many varieties of things, it’s easy to kind of get immersed in it a little bit. So anytime I’m drinking whiskey, it’s nice to know the good ones.
Courtesy Keith Montero
Besides mixing it with lemonade, how do you like to drink your whiskey?
I need a rock. I need something to soothe it a little bit, you know. A nice big rock or even a few smaller ones. It doesn’t really matter. Sometimes I do want several rocks to get a little water in there.
Whiskey drinkers tend to be very specific about ice. Are you picky?
No. At home it can be whatever. It’s always nice to see when people have curated cubes, like any sort of Star Wars-themed cubes–Death Stars. Anything like that is always fun. Or just a traditional round ball or big square cube kind of thing. But at a restaurant, I expect some fanciness.
What’s your all-time favorite fictional bartender?
Who did it better than Tom Cruise? I’ve seen lots of movies and that was a lot of training for him. He really wanted to take it seriously. So between that and maybe Coyote Ugly, I guess.
What’s the perfect snack food to have with bourbon while watching sports? Popcorn? Peanuts?
I think we need to level up. We’re in the connected world where you can experience so many different flavors. I think you’ve got to get into some charcuterie or something like that where you can have a bunch of different tastes on a plate—especially in the master chef days we’re living in. I like putting together a display, then feast on it.
Related: Eli Manning Reveals the 3 NFL Legends He’d Share His New Knob Creek Bourbon With
I imagine around New York City, it’s been a long time since you’ve had to pay for a drink in a bar.
I like to pay for myself. I don’t like being indebted to people, but sometimes you’ve got to take the gesture and it’s nice. But I’m pretty low key, so a lot of the time people don’t even see me there.
SNL famously has an afterparty for each episode. What do you like to drink at these celebrations?
It’s going to be Jim Beam and Lemonade now! But definitely a slow sipper, like a bourbon. You want to keep it slow because it’s already been a long day. It’s nice to mellow out because we’re kind of decompressing from such an adrenaline rush.
Do you have a favorite all-time guest host of SNL that you’ve enjoyed drinking with?
Dave Chappelle is great because he enjoys the night as well. He doesn’t get introverted or anything. It’s kind of like he’s just waking up after the show. He’s a great one to just have a moment with him to pick his brain. He’s a praiser. So he’ll always be giving you props while you’re trying to give him props. So if you can out-dance that and actually get to picking his brain on some things, it’s fascinating what starts flowing out of there when he’s relaxed.
If you could have a drink with anyone who has been in the cast of SNL, who would it be?
One cast member I would do it with, because I can’t, would be Phil Hartman. I would love to be able to really sit down and just be around him more than once. I would love to have been able to build an alumni brotherhood with him. We met him on a plane once and he was so generous. It almost seemed like a dream because it was happening in the sky. He was so nice and it was just kismet that we were put together on this flight. I say “we” because it was me and Kel [Mitchell]. He got up during the you-can-unbuckle-your-seatbelts-now-and-walk-around-the-cabin time and he just came over to us. And we just had a conversation for a while. It was fantastic.
Watching movies and TV shows about the history of SNL it seems like a party all week long. Is it really like that?
It’s a lot more corporate these days. Everybody just kind of comes in and focuses. We’re all aware of our HR meetings and stuff like that. I think we keep it more so for after the show is done, kind of like decompression.
