‘Saturday Night Live’ alum to perform in central Illinois
One of America's most prominent stand-up comedians is planning on making a stop in central Illinois this summer, with a stop in Bloomington being part of a nationwide tour.
Pete Davidson, a longtime cast member on “Saturday Night Live,” is slated to perform at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts on June 14 at 7 p.m. Tickets will go on presale Thursday at 10 a.m., with general public sales beginning Friday. Prices start at $59 and are available online via Ticketmaster or by calling the ticket office at (309) 434-2777 Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The Bloomington stop on Davidson's Prehab Tour is one of three he is currently scheduled to make in Illinois, with a stop in Waukegan scheduled for the next evening and a stop in Rockford slated for July 27.
Despite his still relatively young age – only 30 years old for much of 2024 – Davidson has already enjoyed a fascinating career complete with remarkable successes and no shortage of controversy. He first began doing stand-up at age 16 and made appearances on MTV and Comedy Central programs before he was 20 years old.
In 2014, only two months before he turned 21, he joined the SNL cast, becoming the first cast member born in the 1990s to arrive on the show. At 20 years and 10 months, he was the fourthyoungest person ever to be in the cast, with only Robert Downey Jr., Eddie Murphy and Anthony Michael Hall – who was 17 when he joined in 1985 – being younger than he was.
Davidson's stand-up skills helped him stand out during his eight years on the show, with his direct-to-camera pieces on Weekend Update earning him acclaim, along with music video parodies of notable rap songs like Eminem's “Stan” and Lil Pump's “Gucci Gang.”
He also was criticized for jokes that compared the Catholic Church to R. Kelly shortly after the premiere of the documentary Surviving R. Kelly, and for famously mocking then-future U.S. Congressman Dan Crenshaw's eyepatch, which came as the result of his service in Afghanistan. Davidson quickly apologized for the comments on Crenshaw – with the congressman making an appearance shortly after he was elected into office – but he hinted during a 2020 stand-up special that he was forced to do so by the show's producers.
While at SNL, he starred in the critically-acclaimed “King of Staten Island,” alongside Marisa Tomei, Bill Burr and Steve Buscemi as a young man trying to find himself and dealing with the trauma of his father's death. The film is loosely based on his life, as Davidson's father Scott, a New York City firefighter, died on September 11, 2001, trying to rescue people from the World Trade Center.
Davidson's love life has also garnered attention, having dated the likes of Ariana Grande, Kate Beckinsale and Kim Kardashian while he was a cast member on SNL. Davidson departed the show in 2022 and was most recently seen in the Peacock series “Bupkis,” which paired him with Joe Pesci and Edie Falco in a show also loosely based on his life.