Funny man:
At 21, Pete Davidson of “Saturday Night Live” is becoming a breakout comedy star.
Pete Davidson’s schedule is so tight these days that our interview takes place while he’s having a blood-test panel done, charming various nurses, doctors and orderlies who recognize him as the breakout star of the most recent season of “Saturday Night Live.”
The 21-year-old Staten Island native started doing stand-up while he was still in high school, which led to appearances on MTV’s “Guy Code,” “Nick Cannon Pre- sents: Wild ’N Out” and a bit part in Judd Apatow’s “Trainwreck,” where he met “SNL” alum Bill Hader, who introduced him to Lorne Michaels.
Davidson, whose most memorable skits in his first season involved getting awkwardly tangled up with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and shot in the chest with an arrow by Norman Reedus, this week brings his stand-up act to the San Jose Improv.
Q: Didn’t you get the call
from Lorne Michaels saying you were going to be on “Saturday Night Live” while you were visiting San Francisco?
A: Yeah, I was going to Cobb’s to see my girlfriend (Carly Aquilino) and I got the call the second I landed.
Q: I’m surprised you didn’t jump on the first plane back to New York.
A: What, go and just yell at the sky? No, I stayed. I’m actually glad I stayed because once the show starts, you don’t have much of a life.
Q: How would you describe the last year of your life?
A: It’s been a little overwhelming and extremely stressful. But I get to do what I love. I’m learning how to handle the new schedule and the new things I get to do. It’s not easy. But I’m very lucky I get to do it.
Q: What are the pros and cons of being the “resident young person” on “SNL,” whatever that means?
A: I don’t know what that means either. It’s a crutch. People could be like, he’s really good, but he’s young. Or they say, he’s really bad because he’s young. I don’t pay much attention to that. It’s click bait. I don’t think it has anything to do with my comedy. I just try to be as funny as possible.
Q: Is your life as crazy as you make it sound in your stand-up show?
A: It’s pretty much like that. Any stories or jokes I have are pretty much true. It’s pretty much from experiences, the little I’ve had. That’s pretty much who I am. I think people get a little surprised. People come to my show and expect this cute kid from “SNL,” and they’re very, very shocked. Or they go, “Cool, he’s a filthy guy!” It’s pretty much true.
Q: What were you like at school?
A: I was really bad at school. I had no friends. But it was my fault. I used to really care and want everybody to like me. Now I just don’t care. Now I’m like, whatever. That’s helped a lot. It’s not a good idea to have a “whatever” attitude about something, but that’s how I feel.
Q: The irony is people love you now.
A: Whenever someone tells me they like me, I don’t believe them. I don’t believe anybody. I can’t take a compliment.
Q: You did your first standup show at 16 in a Staten Island bowling alley. What inspired you to get on that stage?
A: My friends dared me. They knew I always wanted to do it. And then I wasn’t going to do it. And then I smoked a joint and I did it. It went all right. I got the bug where I just needed to be an attention whore for 12 minutes a day every day.
Q: How hard is it to be funny?
A: Whenever it comes to me, it comes to me. The great thing about “SNL” is there’s a whole team of brilliant writers. If you’re stuck on something or you have writer’s block, there are people who can help you with that. But my stand-up show is all me.
Q: Do you feel like you hit your groove, like you know what’s going to work, who you’re going to be onstage?
A: I don’t think I’ve figured it out yet. I’m not a man yet. I don’t know about life. But that’s another reason to watch. It’s kind of endearing. Everybody grew up, so you get to see what it’s like when someone else goes through it.
Q: At Comedy Central’s Justin Bieber roast in March, you took a dig at Snoop Dogg and Kevin Hart’s 2004 movie “Soul Plane” by saying it was “the worst experience of my life involving a plane.” Your father, Scott, was a firefighter who died in the 9/11 attacks. When did you feel it was OK to joke about that?
A: I don’t know. I only do it when I find something really funny about it. I’m not sitting in a lab cooking up 9/11 jokes. I don’t want people to think that. It’s always going to be a f— story. It will always follow you. I’m not trying to use that. I felt that was the perfect scenario. It was a roast. A roast is where you can say whatever you want. Justin’s dad is a f— loser. I wasn’t going to go up there and say my dad died. It was a perfect segue. The “Soul Plane” thing wrote itself. It was really funny.
Q: You also called Natasha Leggero out on Twitter for recycling one of your jokes from that roast during her appearance on “At Midnight.” Did you make peace with her?
A: That’s why 20-year-olds shouldn’t have Twitter. I didn’t call her first. I didn’t talk to her. My first impulse was to trash her in public. Nobody even saw it. She was lazy and didn’t pay attention and did the same joke. We’re good now. She’s hilarious. Everyone should go see her when she’s performing. See her, but see me first.