Al Franken’s Comedy News Experience Runs From ‘Weekend Update’ to ‘Daily Show’
variety.comBrian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Al Franken spent nine years as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, and it all finally paid off in recent weeks when he logged a stint as a guest host on “The Daily Show.” Franken turned in some robust impressions of Charles Schumer, Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins during one sketch on the Comedy Central program that suggested he was taking some pretty interesting notes when he served in that chamber. “I didn’t give them a heads up,” Franken says in a recent interview, after his run. “I served wth those people.
Some I could do. I’m not one othose impressionists who can do everyone. I do who I can do.” While Franken is one of a number of noted hosts who have helped the show keep spinning after the depature last year of Trevor Noah, you might say he has been training for such an appearance for much of his professional life.
Franken made some famous appearances on the long-running “Weekend Update” segment of “Saturday Night Live,” and, after a few stints on the show as a writer and performer, tried his hand at other exploits.
He led comedic coverage of the the run-up to the 1992 presidential election for Comedy Central, presaging efforts to do so by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.
Read more on variety.com