In his weekly column for LateNighter, Chris “Wally” Feresten, (a.k.a. the guy who holds the cue cards on Saturday Night Live, Late Night with Seth Meyers, and beyond) shares stories from his remarkable career. Got a question you’d like Wally to answer in a future column? Send it to [email protected].
As I have previously written, my brother, Spike Feresten, was instrumental in getting me my job doing cue cards, but he wasn’t sold on it being my career. Soon after I started working at Saturday Night Live, Spike began writing on Late Night with David Letterman. It was his dream job, and I couldn’t have been happier for him.
Meanwhile, I was busy learning the ins and outs of cue carding. And after just three seasons, I was promoted to department head and was running the whole show.
I was nervous about the promotion, but my brother was constantly suggesting that if I wanted to be taken seriously as a writer—which I did—I should leave my cue card job and reposition myself as a writers assistant on SNL or Late Night.
He wasn’t wrong; it probably would have been the better strategy. But two very cool things happened soon after that seemed to change his mind.
The first was when Nicole Kidman hosted SNL on November 20, 1993. I was a big fan of Nicole’s—and an even bigger fan of her then-husband, Tom Cruise.
Nicole was nervous about reading and seeing the cue cards, as many hosts are, because her eyesight was not great. And she didn’t wear contact lenses. This is a common problem that we solve by making the letters bigger on the cards. While it enables the actor to better see the lines, it makes my job somewhat harder.
Bigger words mean fewer words per card, and more cards overall, which I then have to pull faster than I normally would. This allows for more possible mistakes in timing when the host is trying to read the cards. But again, this happens fairly often and I’m always ready for the challenge.
We were rehearsing a sketch on Friday night and, during a break, I looked behind me and there was Tom Cruise. He was wearing a Boston Red Sox baseball hat and quietly watching us block the sketch.
When we finished and I was exiting the studio, Tom stopped me to ask if I was doing all of Nicole’s cards for the show. I told him I was, and he whispered, “Good luck, buddy!” He informed me that she really couldn’t see a thing, and that often when they were out to dinner, someone would wave at Nicole; she’d smile and wave back, then turn to him and ask who it was that she’d just smiled and waved at.
I told him we printed her lines bigger and promised him I would take good care of her.
Ultimately, both the dress rehearsal and the live show went off without any mistakes, cue card-wise. Nicole had no trouble seeing the cards and this allowed her to relax and give a great performance.
At the after-party, I was hanging out at the bar with my brother and a few friends when Nicole and Tom walked in. The normal practice when the host arrives at the party is to whisk them to their private table as quickly as possible, since they’ll inevitably be tired, and probably a bit overwhelmed at the end of a very hectic week.
They were being guided to their table when Tom stopped and made a beeline right toward me. He grabbed me, gave me a big hug, and thanked me for taking such good care of his wife. I told him it was my pleasure, we shook hands, and he then went back to join Nicole at their table.
I looked over at my brother who—for once in his life—was speechless and seemed not to believe his eyes. Tom Cruise, the biggest movie star in the world, had just hugged his younger brother, Wally. “Maybe this cue card job isn’t so bad for my brother,” is what I imagine he was thinking.
What was the second incident that made my brother rethink his career advice to me? You’ll have to come back next week to find out. I’ll give you a little tease about who it involves: Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger, another one-time celebrity power couple.
If you would like your very own personalized cue card written and autographed by Wally, please go to cuecardsbywally.com and get all the information you will need. It’s the perfect gift for that late night comedy fan in your life.
