Travis Kelce reveals the hardest part of hosting “SNL” as 'a guy that can't really read that well'

Hosting Saturday Night Live is like competing in a triathlon - it tests your comedic chops, team player instincts, and ability to play live and for the camera - simultaneously. But Travis Kelce says his biggest challenge came before the audience had even filed in.

The Kansas City Chiefs' star tight end reflected fondly on parts of pre-production his stint as host of the March 4, 2023 episode. Participating in the writers' rooms with longtime head writer Kent Sublette and cast like Michael Che and Colin Jost was "fun, because you're just getting pitched ideas." Ironing out the kinks in those ideas during the pre-tape table read? That was another story.

"The table reading, for a guy that can't really read that well, it was kind of a f---ed situation," Kelce shared. "I felt like I was just trying to get through the reading instead of acting it out, and giving it a voice, and giving it a character, and things like that. I was just focused on, 'Don't f---ing skip this line, you know what I mean."

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Kelce called the table read "the hardest f---ing part" of the whole experience.

Kelce ended up sailing through numerous sketches alongside star players in SNL's new roster like Ego Nwodim, Bowen Yang, and Sarah Sherman without flubbing a line or breaking. His opening monologue, which featured humorous cuts to his mother, father, and fellow footballer brother Jason in the audience, and sketches like the Please Don't Destroy short "Self-Defense" won polite notices in Entertainment Weekly's review of the episode.

All in all, he was a successful host, and despite his phonics-focused fears, he enjoyed himself too. "I want to have fun doing it, but I don't want to look like a loser doing it," Kelce remembered feeling. "I want to make them respect my approach and how I'm taking it serious, but it was just a fun rollercoaster, man. You're there all week, f---ing, up till 2, 3 in the morning every day, just trying to knock stuff out... that was insane. That was a crazy ride."

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Will Heath/NBC via Getty

Travis Kelce, Heidi Gardner, and Bowen Yang on 'Saturday Night Live' in 2023

Kelce's star has shined aloft in the sports world for years, having led the Chiefs to three Super Bowl victories since he joined the team in 2013. But his fanbase massively expanded in 2023 when he began dating pop supernova Taylor Swift.

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Though rumors of the couple's romance were swirling at the time of Kelce's turn on SNL, the couple only confirmed those rumors in the months that followed. But they both appeared in blink-and-you-miss-it cameo roles on the sketch comedy institution's season 49 premiere that October. Kelce uttered a single line in a Kenan Thompson-led sketch that skewered the chatter around their romance taking over game commentary, and Swift introduced the episode's musical guest, her "Karma" collaborator Ice Spice.

You can watch the rest of Kelce's interview on Bussin' With the Boys above.

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly