Wally Feresten, the man behind SNL’s cue cards, is tiptoeing into the limelight
The trick to being great at cue cards is not just about the handwriting – it’s also about being calm under pressure.
That’s according to Wally Feresten, and he would know: He’s run cue cards for “Saturday Night Live” for 33 years, and for “Late Night with Seth Meyers” since it started in 2014.
His first night of work at “Saturday Night Live” was in 1990 — he held six cards for a “Sprockets” sketch with Mike Myers.
Later, his boss Tony Mendez told him that although Feresten’s body had been visibly shaking, he’d held the cards perfectly still. Mendez said he’d never seen anything like it.
Three years later, he was picked to run the department when Mendez left to work for David Letterman.
The job of a cue card handler requires a package of talents: good penmanship, athleticism, emotional intelligence, confidence on stage and an ability to manage adrenaline.
