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Wally Feresten has been making people laugh his entire life.

Growing up in Fall River, Massachusetts, his father would show him and his brother comedy tapes, which made them fall in love with the artform. One night, when Wally was 10, he and his brother ran downstairs as the television flipped to NBC.

“We always were listening to Cheech and Chong and George Carlin albums way too early, like 7, 8 years old, and when SNL started, (Feresten’s father) woke us up and said, ‘You guys need to watch,’” Feresten said. “I watched SNL from when it started; it was our favorite show.”

For 35 years, Feresten has been a cue card holder on Saturday Night Live, going by the nickname “Cue Card Wally.” The job allows him to remain close to the comedy world he grew up loving, giving him an in-depth perspective on comedic art.

Feresten came to Syracuse University in 1983 to study television, radio and film, specializing in writing. While on campus, he wrote for the humor magazine Panache, constantly working on his craft.

Feresten’s comedic ability was evident to those around him during his time on campus. He was a member of the Phi Lambda Pi fraternity, where he met people who are still his close friends. Although all his friends had a strong sense of humor, Feresten said he was the only one to enter the entertainment business.

Being around the same group of friends for four years helped prepare Feresten for comedy work. His time at SU built the large personality and connections he needed to succeed at SNL. He learned the importance of teamwork and how to keep up with the speed required to be a part of the SNL machine.

When Feresten joined Pi Lambda Phi, fraternity brother Mike Finnerty immediately knew he would fit in. Finnerty said Feresten’s creative gene was evident, and his success in comedy was not surprising.

“I just think he’s so adaptable. He can walk into a room and just become your friend with any kind of personality,” Finnerty said.

Finnerty said Feresten’s sense of humor hasn’t changed since their college years. They still try to get together once a year, and according to Finnerty, Feresten always comes up with the best jokes and stories to tell.

Feresten has also used his SNL cachet to give his college friends once-in-a-lifetime experiences, like when Finnerty and his friends wrote a joke that Norm MacDonald read on Weekend Update.

“I just decided to go to the bar around the corner from 30 Rock and watch the show. When our jokes got read, we just flipped out in the bar,” Finnerty said.

While Feresten’s comedic ability was evident from his first days on campus, his biggest step as a writer came toward the end of his time at SU.

During his senior year, Feresten worked with writer Ernest Kinoy, picking his brain on television writing. The process opened his eyes to the intense rewrite process.

“You might think it’s perfect, but it’s not even close to being perfect. You have to work on it, rewrite and think about what you’re writing,” Feresten said he learned from Kinoy.

None of the writing classes at SU focused on cue cards, and Feresten said he had no idea what he was getting into when he first started. The job was open, and it was a way to get a start at SNL, so he jumped at the opportunity.

Although his writing was messy and he struggled with the timing of live cue cards, hard work and dedication led to quick improvement. His personality and comedic experience made for an easy transition into SNL, and cue cards soon became his life.

“Don’t turn down a job because you don’t know what it is, you don’t think you’d be good at it or you don’t know where it leads because you never know where it will lead,” Feresten said.

When a new host enters 30 Rockefeller Plaza, Feresten is assigned to help them get comfortable working with cue cards. Most people don’t have experience reading off cue cards, Feresten said, so he needs to ensure the process is smooth. He’s open to anything a host needs and can deal with any personality on the show, allowing the host to focus purely on acting.

Within three years of being at SNL, Feresten was promoted to run the cue card department, which he said was mainly due to his calmness when dealing with the pressure of being on live television.

“All different personalities come in (to SNL), and I’m there to help them out,” Feresten said. “For some reason, I’m good, I have patience, and I don’t make a face if they ask me something crazy.”

SNL stage director Chris Kelly said strong people skills are key to success in the entertainment industry, but they are rarer than one may think. He said Feresten balances his job on the show well and understands what each person needs to succeed.

For Kelly, working at SNL is a foxhole mentality. An entire show is written, designed and produced in a week, and Kelly said every cast and crew member needs to give their all for an episode to succeed. Not every episode is perfect, especially on live television, he said. It takes a certain type of person to keep up with the intensity of SNL.

“You can’t coast. It’s impossible. It’s just the show literally won’t get on if anybody is not giving it their all,” Kelly said. “You have to be wired for it, and Wally’s got it.”

On Feb. 16, SNL will celebrate its 50th anniversary with a three-hour live show. As the show reaches this milestone, Feresten said he’s grateful to be a part of SNL’s magical legacy.

Although he never dreamed of holding cue cards, Wally Feresten said the job had given him a lifetime of incredible memories and relationships, allowing him to play a significant role in the comedy world he grew up loving. From Steve Martin to Christopher Walken to Tom Hanks, a young Feresten would never have believed he would work so close to so many legendary people.

“Knowing I’ve been there 35 out of the 50 years, it’s been pretty special,” Feresten said. “Working on one show for 35 years is not supposed to happen; I got pretty lucky.”

Correction: When originally published, Wally Feresten’s name was misspelled “Fereseten” in one instance, and Pi Lambda Phi was misspelled as Phi Lambda Pi. The Daily Orange regrets these errors.

Published on February 6, 2025 at 12:19 am