When I Was Your Age is a hilarious, heartwarming and surprising ode to growing up, getting older and wiser, and luck, life, and learning from the school of hard knocks, from SNL's longest-serving actor, Kenan Thompson Kenan Thompson is Saturday Night Live’s longest-ever-serving cast member and a star of such pioneering sketches as “Black Jeopardy” and is hugely beloved thanks to a tidal wave of nostalgic fans who grew up on early 2000s classics All That, Good Burger , and Kenan & Kel on Nickelodeon. He’s also a dad (to two girls) in his mid-40s living in suburbia, and whose universal, relatable, family-friendly humor has created unbelievable appeal and engagement from fans from middle America to coastal elites. Becoming a dad sucked the cool right out of him -- and he's OK with that! When I Was Your Age is packed with hilarious yet poignant essays that are aimed to offer any reader valuable advice on parenting, focusing on positivity, and having fun in life. Kids, new parents, fellow fathers, budding comics, and aunties who want to pinch his cheeks, can all learn from his biggest mistakes and most triumphant victories. There’s something for everybody here!
When I Was Your Age: Life Lessons, Funny Stories & Questionable Parenting Advice from a Professional Clown is a great memoir in which Kenan Thompson shares lots of "behind the scenes" tidbits, as well as his perspective on what he's learned through it all. Fans of Saturday Night Live will enjoy his candid take on how the show functions and his relationships (collegial) with various cast members. Overall, the book reads like a sweet love-letter to Kenan's two young daughters, Georgia and Gianna, and you can really tell how much Kenan loves being a dad. This memoir is best experienced as the audiobook, read by Kenan Thompson. You'll get some bonus impressions that just won't convey in the written text. Plus, Kenan's voice is so warm and friendly, it is a joy to listen to. - Diana F.
Hilarious, thoughtful, and genuine. I’ve grown up with Kenan in that I watched him every Friday night on All That, drank orange soda because of Kenan & Kel, and went to see Good Burger opening weekend. We both graduated to SNL about the same time and, 20 years later, he is still bringing me joy. His book is for any SNL fan even if you didn’t spend his childhood years with him. Or really for anyone who appreciates the hard work of a humble, insightful human in the entertainment business. He has put in the work, has had some incredible life experiences (both heartbreaking and heartwarming) and is genuinely grateful for all of it.
*edited to add that I listened to the audio version. Based on other criticisms of the writing, I think audio is the way to go. Hearing it read as it was intended to be heard makes a difference.
Rating an autobiography can be difficult. Someone’s origin story is authentic to them, so who are we to review it as good or bad or give a one star or five stars. So, I am reviewing this on the writing or in this case the audiobook and the format.
The audiobook was a good listen. It was read by the author, Keenan Thompson. As I was listening, there were many moments when I could see his face, smiling in one of his characters on SNL, such as Steve Harvey in Black Jeopardy, or in Good Burger, as Dexter Reed, but I continued, onward, giving it a chance.
I didn’t find the story jumped all over the place. It wasn’t chronological, but it was easy to follow.
I enjoyed learning about his roots, his family, and how he began in acting. Also, how he became a cast member on All That. It was nice to hear the background and how friendships were forged with the cast. Also, his rise and fall, losing his money, and the quick and respectful way he addressed his divorce, a subject he didn’t have to discuss. I also loved the reconciliation between him and Kel. That was sweet.
I also wanted to address the few reviewers that wrote about Keenan Thompson’s mentioning of Bill Cosby in the book. They appeared to be appalled and outraged that he did such a thing. A few must have missed that Keenan Thompson stated that he will never negate Cosby’s sexual assault conviction. However, he states that he worked with Cosby on the Fat Albert movie, and he can’t dismiss that he was raised on The Cosby Show and is grateful for the impact he had on his life. This is true for a lot of black people, including myself. The Cosby Show was groundbreaking. It remains a great show for many black people, as it is the first time seeing a black family portrayed positively on television, with a physician father and a lawyer mother, not struggling like on Good Times or What’s Happening. Also, the Cosby spin-off, A Different World, with its fictional HBCU, showed black people that college was attainable. Once again, it is unfortunate and a horrible crime Bill Cosby was convicted of committing, however The Cosby Show and A Different World will always stand as having an huge impact on the lives of many black people, including myself. That can’t and never will be erased.
Lastly, another reviewer also stated that he didn’t speak about SNL enough. That reviewer must not have read the book. Actually, Keenan Thompson goes in great and lengthy detail about SNL. I enjoyed learning of how he was cast on the show, his move to New York, and how he struggled in the first few seasons to get a sketch on air. Also, how he had so many mentors on the show along the way. I loved the part where he named dropped. Telling of all the wonderful cast members, both present and former, as well as guest.
The exactly safe, middling, book I expected from someone who is currently still plugged into the Hollywood machine and interested in playing the game.
His insights are minimal, his backstory is pretty standard, and he has no interesting scandals to explore or industry secrets he's willing to share. Rather than spend time reading this whole book, you'd be better off just skimming his Wikipedia page.
In short, it's an easy money memoir that barely seeks to pretend otherwise.
A behind the scenes look at how KT became the longest star player on SNL. Behind the scenes brushes with big name celebrities and a bit about his 2 adorable young daughters. A fast fun read.
Oh, I came up with a better title for his book: Kenan Reacts.
This was great! Kenan did an amazing job with the narration and I thought he wrote an enjoyable book. It was fun to hear the behind the scenes SNL stories and about his childhood career. He was humble and funny and very relatable. Highly recommend!
Not particularly meaningful, felt like surface information. I feel Kenan could’ve dug deeper. The writing was also bland, transitions and editing were weak.
essay 1: as someone with a almost all white girl friend group I relate to his "I liked white people" quote. 😂
essays 1- 16 : I think his relationship with his daughters is so adorable, he really emphasizes on what it means to be a girl dad and I love that.
FINAL REVIEW:
I feel like the plot was kind of all over the place but I don't really expect award winning book writing from a comedian. I went through a small reading slump in the middle of reading but this book was pretty addicting to read. His story is very interesting and it's refreshing to see a not completely solemn memoir, overall I really enjoyed reading it. I feel like this book might not be an everyday gr girlies pick but I really enjoyed it and would recommend it if your a fan of kenan and his work.
Kenan and I are about the same age, and I’ve always found him to be reliably talented and interesting. This peek into his life and thoughts, his path to successes and the people around him was made all the funnier and relatable by listening to him tell it in his familiar, charismatic voice.
I love me some Kenan Thompson! This man has been on our TVs and movie screens my entire life so like many millennials, I grew up with the guy. My brother and I watched The Mighty Ducks religiously as kids and one thing we always agreed on (and we never agreed on anything!!!) is the fact that while the original movie was better, D2 was more fun because of Kenan.
Kenan is such an incredibly talented individual. His family friendly comedy was a staple of my childhood and while I don’t tune into SNL regularly, whenever I do watch I know Kenan will steal the show and have me lol-ing. Sometimes I just search “snl clips kenan” on YouTube when I’m having a bad day (Airport Sushi is a guaranteed mood booster). I was thrilled to hear he was writing a book and excited to learn more about his life.
WHEN I WAS YOUR AGE was such a fun memoir! Kenan shares stories from his thirty year career and in between countless dad jokes, he tells readers what he’s learned as a father to two young girls.
The book is obviously hilarious but I also really appreciated his honest commentary on race, religion, body acceptance, and growing up in the limelight. At the end of the day, Kenan is just a good guy and it was refreshing to read about a child star who has stayed so grounded.
Was this the best memoir I’ve ever read? No. (Viola Davis and Simu Liu share that title, thanks for asking). I don’t necessarily think it’s an immediate must-read but if you like Kenan (and honestly, who doesn’t?) it’s a good book to request from the library.
🎧the audiobook is 1000% necessary. Seriously, don’t try to read this without Kenan’s hilarious narration. The occasional celebrity impressions alone are worth an audible credit.
“Parenting is like 50% mind games, and 50% Amazon orders.”
A fun and easy listen to pick back up with my SNL reads. Found it interesting how much he shared about his perspective on the Bible and his experience growing up in church.
I love Kenan Thompson and I will continue to after reading this book but after a previous reviewer said, “everything said in this book could have been gotten off his Wikipedia page.” It was nostalgic to hear about these television shows that made up my childhood (All That and Kenan and Kel) and ones that I watch still to this day (SNL). Kenan keeps much of it surface level and doesn’t give reader insight into these worlds that one would hope to get from a memoir. He maintains this pleasant upbeat and neutral (or what he thinks is neutral) stance on a variety of topics and doesn’t share anything profound or inspiring. Which is fine, I guess, but why write a book? He touches on racism, sexism, politics, and religion but is seemingly careful to not ruffle feathers. It felt like a missed opportunity for education, inspiration and a call to action against these things that have impacted him or those he cares about. He will then drop these opinions that felt slightly tone deaf. Like how he shares that he takes pieces of all religions and takes comfort in his eclectic spirituality but then dogs on atheists saying that they think they “know.” Atheists don’t believe they “know.” And a quick google even says on atheists.org that “Being an atheist doesn't mean you're sure about every theological question, have answers to the way the world was created, or how evolution works. It just means that the assertion that gods exist has left you unconvinced..” Second, his comment for body acceptance is not permission to be unhealthy had me banging my head against the desk. No one ever said it was and this narrative is just loop hole speech for people to continue perpetuating weight bias. The last one I will comment on is how he wasn’t subtle about enjoying one of his daughters more than the other… ouch! To quote Kenan himself "I'm Gen X. I Just Sit On The Sidelines And Watch The World Burn." He brought that attitude to his book.
4.5 ⭐️s—I really enjoyed listening to this memoir! Growing up, I watched every episode of All That and Kenan & Kel and this book was full of nostalgia. I loved learning about how Kenan grew up, what went down with him and Kel (and their reconciliation), and what his rise to comic stardom was like. Because I don’t watch SNL, I wasn’t as familiar with his adult career, so I enjoyed hearing more about that as well. There were tons of fun stories and interesting tidbits and the experience was elevated by his narration! There is adult language, but not too much. It’s not a linear memoir, so there was some repetition, but not enough to make it feel repetitive as a whole. Totally recommend—especially if you were a 90s Nick fan like me!
I kept going back and forth between 4 and 5 ⭐️ but ultimately this was a fun, heartwarming story of a guy who grew up before our eyes with a little behind the scenes fun stuff thrown in. He is remarkably normal for the life he’s lived, and you can tell he’s obsessed with his daughters. Very sweet, quick read and great one to listen to (on 1.5x!).
A funny, lighthearted book about the things that helped Thompson get to where he is. I love his positive vibes and his honesty that life wasn’t always easy but he found the way to overcome struggles. The way he talks about his daughters is so heartwarming and his stories about SNL were hilarious especially for a huge SNL fan! Would highly recommend on audio!
Kenan Thompson is a joy on SNL and one of my favorite cast members. This was so enjoyable and I liked hearing about things for his perspective. He talks about everything; growing up and growing up as a Black kid, racism as a child and adult, his daughters, and all that he has accomplished. He is very relatable.
An entertaining if disjointed memoir from the lifelong sketch comic, currently enjoying an unprecedented third decade at Saturday Night Live. I'll repeat that: at 21 seasons on the show and counting, author Kenan Thompson has blown past the previous record of 14 years set by former cast member Darrell Hammond back in 2009, and despite saying in this book that he might finally be leaving soon himself, he apparently has no specific departure plan that he's ready to share just yet.
Given that degree of longevity on the program, this title is honestly a bit of a missed opportunity. Although the writer shares plenty of charming backstage anecdotes, there's no real effort here to critique it seriously or capture how the series has changed over the course of his tenure, in a long-term view that he'd be uniquely positioned to offer. He likewise doesn't really address the underlying question of why he's stayed on SNL all this time, while so many other talented performers have continued to come and go from its soundstage. An introspective exploration of that topic could have been particularly interesting and insightful, but the text instead steers smoothly around it.
In its place, we're offered the nuts and bolts of Thompson's upbringing in Atlanta, his big break as a child actor on Nickelodeon's All That, subsequent TV and movie projects, and ultimately, the revered late-night institution at NBC. The amount of celebrity name-dropping is unavoidable / expected in a work like this, and it's neat to learn about the comedy touchstones that Kenan idolized and how they influenced his own approach to the business, not to mention the difficulties he faced as a short Black kid "on the rounder side of things" in an industry so focused on biased superficial beauty standards. We also hear some about his two daughters and his philosophies on parenting them -- inspired heavily by the peers he's lost to gun violence, drug abuse, and suicide -- as well as his complicated feelings on Bill Cosby, whose squeaky-clean comedic persona was so formative for the young man before all his horrendous sex crimes came to light. (And a weird focus on the zodiac, too. The author doesn't list the astrological sign of every single person he mentions, but he includes way more of them than you'd think and seems to genuinely believe they're indicative of people's behavioral patterns or something.)
Anyway. Not a bad read overall, but nothing too exceptional, either.
I enjoyed this more than I expected to. When I was a kid, I was always amped when I would stay the night and my cousin's house and we could watch All That (because she had cable and I didn't). a few years later I became a massive SNL fan, and my husband and I regularly watch it with our kids, and now the oldest is a big fan. Kenan has been a part of my life for most of my life, but as sometimes happens with constants, I never really thought about his experiences behind the scenes.
His protected upbringing and strong family life gave him the stability to succeed in an unstable profession. I relate to his fierce love for his children and his mindfulness of how he parents them and teaches them the lessons he wants to impart.
I was surprised at how good his impressions are while listening to the audiobook because he doesn't do many on SNL. He can do Bill Cosby and Steve Harvey but also Lorne Michaels and Tracy Morgan.
I loveeedd this memoir! Kenan Thompson is a name I’ll know forever—I grew up watching him and his cast mates on Nickelodeon and now getting to see him on the occasional SNL clip I come across just makes me happy haha. I appreciate Kenan holding his boundaries and keeping things he wants to keep private private but still sharing with his audience a glimpse of what his life was/is like outside of the spotlight. He loves his daughters and he loves his job and that comes through so clearly in the writing. It made it so enjoyable to read because you can tell how genuine and happy he is.
Teenage me is so happy. It's hard to realize that he had a life outside of Nickelodeon. I loved him in all that and Kenan & Kel. That was my show. I loved this book even though I don't agree with his religious beliefs.
I didn't care for good burger however I would love to see part two.
Continuing my tour of memoirs written by SNL cast members… this one fell flat for me. I love Kenan on SNL, but you can tell from this book that he’s an actor primarily and not a writer. There were too many life details that I didn’t really need to know, like his beef with Kel and how he loves going to clubs. It was honestly boring for a while until the very end when he talks about SNL.
I also tried to read this months ago and couldn’t bring myself to finish it because it was pretty boring.
I just couldn't get into this book. Maybe it's because I'm not a huge Keenan fan. Maybe because much of the book is parenting advice (and I'm not a parent). Maybe it's that this book was surface level. Either way, it was okay.
Kenan is one of the first comedians I remember watching as a kid and he’s been in a similar role ever since. He tells stories of Nickelodeon, SNL, and his personal life in this solid memoir.
This was a fun audiobook! Lots of happy, sad, and funny stories from shows, movies, and life. Gave great behind-the-scenes explanations of what auditioning for SNL was like and why he wasn’t initially chosen to play Fat Albert. Talks at length about the rift between him and Kel Mitchell without getting to personal about the exact reason.