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Chris "Wally" Feresten (born 1965 or 1966) is an American cue card handler and supervisor known for his work on Saturday Night Live. He also does cue cards for Late Night with Seth Meyers and his private business, Cue Cards by Wally.
Jun 29, 2015 · For 25 years now, Feresten has been the cue card guy at “Saturday Night Live.” An unassuming, 49-year-old father of two with short white hair and glasses, he has played a vital but largely unsung...
- meredith.blake@latimes.com
- Staff Writer
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- 11:27 P.M.
- 11:30 P.M.
- SNL Pivoted to Remote Episode
- SNL's New England Connections
- Feresten Was 10 When SNL Premiered
- His Brother Spike Wrote For 'Seinfeld'
- The Center of The Comedy Ballet
- On-Camera Moments
- Betty White Thanked Feresten in Her Book
- Cue Cards by Wally
Panic takes over. Feresten surveys the cavernous Studio 8H, where comedy legends are made, where pop culture catchphrases are born, where the impossible somehow happens week after week. He wonders if this is the moment he screws everything up. “Where is everybody?” he asks. “Why isn’t anybody working?”
Ready or not, Wally, live from New York, it’s Saturday night. In real life, Feresten has a solid reputation for getting the job done. After 30 years on the set of “Saturday Night Live,” the Fall River-born and West Bridgewater-raised late-night TV veteran has never had a dangerously close call. He’s no conehead, he’s a superstar. That doesn’t mean ...
Stuck at his New Jersey home last year as “SNL” temporarily pivoted to recorded, remote episodes, Feresten revisited a business idea he had imagined the year before. The timing, he thought, might be right. But would people really be willing to pay for marker ink on cardboard? The answer would soon be as clear as the bold, instantly recognizable let...
“SNL” has attracted plenty of funny New England talent on and off camera over the years, including Amy Poehler, Conan O’Brien, Rachel Dratch, Adam Sandler, Sarah Silverman and part-time Dartmouth resident Jenny Slate. Seth Meyers, a former head writer and cast member who hails from Bedford, New Hampshire, might know why. “If you don’t have a sense ...
Feresten was 10 when “SNL” premiered in 1975. He watched the show on a little black-and-white TV in his bedroom, unaware he’d spend most of his life as one of its essential crew members. “It’s pretty crazy,” he says now. A West Bridgewater High School graduate, Feresten attended Syracuse University with dreams of becoming a TV and film writer.
He moved to New York in 1990 after three tough years in Los Angeles. Spike, older by 11 months, mentioned an opening in the card department at “SNL,” where he was a receptionist. Also born in Fall River, Spike would go on to write for “Seinfeld,” including the famous “Soup Nazi” episode, and to host a late-night talk show on Fox. At 25, Feresten go...
Holding cue cards is hard work. As soon as “SNL” wraps for the year, Feresten gets a cortisone shot in his right shoulder, inflamed and arthritic after “years of abuse,” and does physical therapy all summer. “I have to rehab it like a pro athlete in the off-season,” he says. At “SNL,” Feresten and his small team churn out hundreds of cue cards each...
Feresten’s proximity to the action has led to some memorable on-camera moments. He first appeared — holding cards, naturally — in a December 1991 song-and-dance monologue featuring Steve Martin. He had a speaking part in a 1993 Alec Baldwin monologue. He makes regular appearances down the hall from “SNL” on “Late Night with Seth Meyers,” for which ...
He is particularly proud of the “SNL” episode an 88-year-old Betty White hosted in 2010 because he remembers it being a big accomplishment for the comedy icon. White later thanked Feresten on “The Tonight Show” and in her book. The not-so-funny moments also stand out. Feresten says he had a hard time keeping his emotions in check in 2019 when Sandl...
Feresten’s latest venture has unexpectedly made him feel special, too. Early in the coronavirus pandemic, and with the help of wife Debra, who works in marketing, he began a side business he had thought of a year earlier: Cue Cards by Wally, personalized cue cards delivered to your door for $55, postage included. In the first two months alone, he f...
- Phil Devitt
Sep 18, 2017 · Dutch's best college friend, Chris Feresten, invited him to attend a rehearsal and taping of "Saturday Night Live." Alec Baldwin would host, with McCartney set to perform. Dutch, then 28,...
May 24, 2018 · Some of Feresten’s most memorable moments working on “SNL” have come when he worked not with cast members, but the hosts — who arrive on Thursday before a Saturday performance. Most of the hosts, he says, have never worked with cue cards, leading to a series of obstacles.
Chris Feresten is known for Weinerville (1993) and Space Ghost Coast to Coast (1993). Add photos, demo reels. Add to list. More at IMDbPro Contact info & Agent info. Known for: Weinerville. 7.2. TV Series. Writer. 1994 • 10 eps. Space Ghost Coast to Coast. 7.9. TV Series. Writer. 1994–1996 • 4 eps. Credits. IMDbPro. Writer. Previous. 2.
Aug 12, 2021 · LOCAL. Wally Feresten is the cue card guy for 'SNL' and 'Late Night With Seth Meyers' Standard-Times. Wally Feresten has worked with every “Saturday Night Live” cast member for the last 30...
