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Vols @ Home: SNL Came to Knoxville!

By: Hayden Cheek

20277486594_4391b4a6a9_kSaturday Night Live (SNL) came to Knoxville! Well, at least the only one that matters to some, Colin Jost, or from the ten people I talked to, “the hot one”. For those uninformed individuals out there, Colin Jost is the co-anchor of SNL, and is primarily featured on the Weekly Update skit on the show. Hundreds and hundreds of UT students flocked to the Cox Auditorium, in the Alumni Memorial Building, to see Jost perform on August 25, thanks to one of the largest organizations on campus, the Central Programming Council (CPC).

Throughout the year, this organization provides an insane amount of educational, social, and musical events for UT students. The events are usually free for those students that opted-in, and around ten dollars for the opt-outers (opt-outers: if you are devastated by the ten dollars, you can always change your decision every semester). CPC is such a large part of this campus’s community, and really gives the students something exciting to do other than the mountains of school work, that growing to-do list, and those awkward group projects. Most importantly though, the program largely benefits students that live on campus, given that most of the events are on-campus and are usually in the afternoon.

This was actually the first CPC event of the year, and you could see the anticipation on each person’s face as they entered the doors. This made me happy, because at the beginning of my freshman year, I had no idea what to do. I knew of Welcome Week, but that was not really an event to go and enjoy with friends, or perhaps even make friends. If you did meet someone, we did that awkward “oh, yeah we should totally hang out” without exchanging any info. Welcome Week was more of just an information session for me. For this organization to be on top of their game so early in the semester, helping incoming freshman acclimate to their new surroundings, was awesome to witness20907419981_30f6ceb930_k.

While my friends and I were heading to the CPC event – which was actually hosted by the Center for Entertainment Board (CEB), which is just one of the eight sub-organizations that CPC offers – we actually made a friend along the way. We were on the elevator, and I noticed this kid was holding a picture of Colin Jost, and with my personality, prompted me to ask him if he was attending the event (obviously he was) but I knew if he said no, he was also a liar. Luckily, he informed us he was on his way and was huge fan, but he exclaimed he was a freshman and did not really know anyone that wanted to go with him so he was going alone. Honestly, I hate to eat alone, and sometimes I will not eat if I have to go alone, so for him to be going to this huge event by himself was such an insane concept for me to grasp. Therefore, I fixed that; this guy may have wanted to actually go alone, but joke’s on him, because he was going with us now.  At UT,  “Vols Help Vols”, and UT’s inclusiveness has been the driving force of why I am still a student here. I figured if I could invite him and show him that inclusiveness, then I have done my part as a student here at UT.

20712215668_ea37683197_zMoving on to matters that are more important: Colin Jost and Chris Killian. First things first, the performances’ were nothing short of amazing. Before Colin Jost performed, we got to watch Chris Killian.  He seemed relatively new to the comedic scene, but overall performed a hysterical cover of Justin Bieber’s “Baby”, and even included a member of the audience for a special dance, which consisted of a bouquet of flowers from his pants, that the participant eagerly but cautiously took. However, we were there for Colin and when he finally performed, everyone was content.  If you like to laugh, and do not care about wrinkles, and have a chance to see him, I highly recommend the experience. To our surprise, we got the opportunity to meet and have our picture taken with Jost. The guy we picked up along the way actually got Jost to sign his picture he brought, regardless of the numerous “no signings please”, and I honestly think that made his entire semester. He could fail all of his classes, but it would not matter, he got to meet Colin Jost. To say the night was a success is a huge understatement. I ended up with a new friend, got to meet Colin Jost, and we ended with Chipotle, so just another ordinary night on campus. So, for the people that live on campus, always be on the lookout for these events.  You are paying for them regardless, so you might as well attend some of them, and who knows, you might meet some really great people along the way.

 

Hayden Cheek is a Junior majoring in Public Relations.  In his free time, Hayden like to listen to music, and his favorite is RnB.

“My favorite thing about living on campus is the fact that I can wake up at 9:30am and still make it to my 9:40am on time.”