The Events Barn was buzzing with energy on Monday evening in anticipation of the final CAB Comedy show of the semester. With a line stretching past Sadove, students piled onto the stairs and lined the Barn’s upper levels, packing the building from head to toe. Following a lively introduction from CAB Comedy Chair Luke Hayes ’25, the crowd erupted in applause for the star of the night, Emil Wakim.
Wakim recently rose to prominence through his appearances on Saturday Night Live’s 50th season. Hailed as one of the most coveted routes to a comedy career, SNL features a rotating cast of both established and formerly unknown comics. Wakim’s start on the show was announced in September 2024, alongside fellow new members Jane Wickline and Ashley Padilla. Since his hiring, Wakim has showcased his talents on Weekend Update and in smaller roles in sketches. As Wakim noted during Monday’s show, he is more drawn to Weekend Update as it closely mimics stand-up, the format where his comedic roots lie. Before SNL, Wakim opened for acclaimed comics like Nikki Glaser, Hasan Minaj and Roy Wood Jr., and he was selected as the New Face of Comedy at the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal.
Upon his introduction, Wakim began his set with questions thrown at the crowd, ranging from popular majors, to political leanings on campus, as well as overall school culture. A particularly memorable riff involved Wakim poking fun at acapella’s prevalence at Hamilton, using the three-hour singing session as an ‘opener’ for President Obama’s visit as an example. The numerous opportunities given to students to converse with Wakim added a reciprocal back-and-forth aspect to the show.
The crowd work bordered on excessive, taking up about half of the show’s runtime. At one point, Wakim noted himself that he felt unprepared as his performance at Hamilton fell on the same week as a Weekend Update sketch that he was occupied with writing. The lack of planning likely contributed to the unstructured nature of the performance, as it seemed Wakim was working off-the-fly with content from the audience over premeditated jokes. Despite the unconventional format, the improvisational skill of Wakim in such moments was impressive, and did generate increased connection between presenter and audience.
Following the interactive section of the show, Wakim opted for a more traditional stand-up routine. While still occasionally asking questions to the crowd, Wakim shared stories about his audition for SNL, awkward interactions with Uber drivers and the appeal of reincarnation. In particular, Wakim touched on his familial background as a vehicle for comedy, as he grew up in Chicago, Illinois to a white-American mother and Lebanese-Maronite father. In a hilarious story, Wakim joked about how he returned home to his parents with an earring stud, and chaos ensued. It is clear that Wakim’s stand-up influences his writing on SNL, as the sketch “Earring,” featuring Paul Mescal, seems largely inspired by that particular story. In “Earring,” Wakim plays a father dramatically distraught over his son coming home with pierced ears, jumping to absurd conclusions about his sexual identity in the process.
Wakim finished out his set with a Q&A session that touched on everything from his experience on SNL to his opinions on Hamilton as a college. In a touching moment, Wakim shared that Hamilton was the most engaging college he has performed at so far, describing the crowd of students as “so much fun.” Wakim’s appearance at Hamilton was a worthy conclusion to a year of hilarious comics visiting the Hill. The coordination required for the comedy events to go off without a hitch cannot be understated, so a huge round of applause goes out to the students working behind the scenes for CAB.
