Jon Schneider is the founder and main host of LateNighter’s podcast partner, the Saturday Night Network.
Jalen Brunson got top billing at Saturday Night Live‘s Season 52 premiere, but Ben Marshall may have been the night’s most valuable player.
Marshall had the kind of premiere that can change the way you see a performer. His work in “Men’s Support Group” and “Parent-Teacher Conference” showed a range that wasn’t always apparent during his first year in the cast. Suddenly, a cast member whose path to a bigger role once looked crowded seemed capable of becoming a real fixture in the show’s next phase.
That was closer to what many of us expected a year ago.
Marshall is now in his second season as a cast member after spending four years in the writers’ room alongside his Please Don’t Destroy partners, Martin Herlihy and John Higgins. Unlike most incoming featured players, he arrived with an audience already familiar with his comedic voice, plus years of experience getting material onto the show.
He also had an established collaborator in Herlihy, who remained on the writing staff last season. And of the three Please Don’t Destroy members, Marshall was the one chosen to join the cast. We don’t know exactly what went into that decision, but it was reasonable to see the move as a vote of confidence in his ability to contribute beyond the trio’s familiar format.
Which is why it was so surprising when, in last season’s Bad Bunny premiere, Marshall appeared for just 12 seconds across two minor roles. A performer who seemed positioned to be everywhere was instead barely there.
His season ultimately amounted to much more than that debut. Marshall made 58 aired sketch appearances in Season 51, eleventh overall among the cast. But there’s a difference between appearing regularly and becoming someone whose presence helps define an episode, and Marshall’s cast identity often emerged only in flashes.
Saturday offered a much clearer picture of what that identity could be.
In “Men’s Support Group,” built around men whose partners received attention at Chris Brown and Usher concerts, Marshall stood out in a busy ensemble premise. Then “Parent-Teacher Conference” gave him a different assignment: holding the scene together as a teacher listening to an increasingly bizarre account of a student’s home life.
Opposite Ashley Padilla, Kenan Thompson, and Brunson, Marshall provided the grounded presence that allowed everyone else’s absurdity to land. It’s the kind of contribution that’s easy to overlook, but sometimes the person reacting to the ridiculousness is doing as much to make the sketch work as the person creating it.
Taken together, the two performances made Marshall look more versatile—and more comfortable—than he had at almost any point during his first season.
Heading into this year, it was easy to imagine that his clearest path to bigger parts might require Mikey Day, or perhaps Andrew Dismukes, to leave. Both occupy territory that overlaps with Marshall’s strengths: ordinary guys, exasperated observers, and seemingly reasonable people who turn out to be deeply strange themselves.
But both are still here, and Marshall found room anyway.
That matters because there’s still room for someone to emerge as a central presence in SNL’s next phase. Marcello Hernández is an obvious candidate, but his greatest strength often comes through distinctive characters and performances built around his own personality. Marshall’s premiere suggested something different: a player who can be just as useful taking the joke as setting it up for somebody else.
That’s where Jason Sudeikis comes to mind.
Sudeikis could give a sketch structure and credibility, play the most normal guy in the room, and then become gloriously stupid when the material called for it. That versatility made him useful in an enormous range of sketches and opposite just about anybody.
Marshall doesn’t need to become the next Sudeikis. But there’s real value in becoming the kind of performer SNL can trust in both modes.
One premiere isn’t enough to prove that’s where he’s headed. But, as with Jane Wickline, who also spent much of her first season under the radar, there’s something to be said for giving a cast member time to find their way. Knowing the building and understanding the writing process don’t necessarily make the transition from writer to on-camera performer effortless.
And now, with Herlihy gone, Marshall is the only Please Don’t Destroy member still at SNL. Whatever comes next for him will depend less and less on the identity he arrived with.
Saturday offered the clearest glimpse yet of the SNL performer Marshall could become.
Get stories like this in your inbox: Sign up for LateNighter’s free daily newsletter.
