On Monday night, comedian Marcello Hernández “came all this way” to Pitt, delivering a set direct from Domingo.
Pitt Program Council hosted Hernández for a 1 ½ hour set in the William Pitt Union’s Assembly Room. Though PPC sold about 500 tickets to the event, due to a room capacity issue, some students were offered refunds — which must be claimed within the week — and redirected to the adjacent Kurtzman Room to watch Hernández via livestream.
Seats in the Assembly Room were first-come, first-served. As a result, a line of students snaking out the back door of the WPU formed well before the event’s 8:30 p.m. start, with dozens of students sitting criss-cross on the ground in the food court.
Emma Núñez Colón, a senior psychology major, said her friend got in line around 3 or 4 p.m. to snag seats. She said she was “very happy” she had the chance to see Hernández in her last semester.
“I just really like him because he’s Latino [like] me,” Colón said. “I just feel like I identify with him. He loves Bad Bunny, all those Hispanic artists, and I just really love that about him, and he’s very funny.”
Hernández, 27, moved to New York City in 2019 to pursue stand-up comedy. Three years later, he joined Saturday Night Live as its first Gen Z cast member, quickly becoming a beloved fixture on the show. Many audience members said they became fans after watching his Weekend Update features, including one memorable episode in which he wore a dog suit. And his popularity shot up even more after his performance in the hit sketch “Bridesmaid Speech” as Domingo, the “other man” at a wedding. The sketch earned a cool 18 million views on YouTube.
Andrea Flores, an applied developmental psychology major, said Hernández already had an enthusiastic audience in the Latin American community when Domingo took TikTok by storm.
“[With] Pedro Pascal and with Bad Bunny — that was the pivotal moment,” Flores said. “It’s like the big three.”
First-year chemistry major Lucy Mazzocchi didn’t expect to see such a big name at the WPU.
“I was really surprised when I saw that he was coming to Pitt,” she said. “And then I watched SNL over the weekend, too, and it was like ‘Oh! There he is, he’s going to be there!’”
Since recording and photography were not permitted, PPC provided phone sleeves that lock with a magnet. With tech distractions off-limits, the audience — of notably more women than men — quickly filled the room with chatter until the lights dimmed.
The opening act, featuring actor, comedian and writer Matt Richards, saw roaring laughter from the audience, too. Richards has written and produced for TV for Snoop Dogg and worked on the HBOMax show “That Damn Michael Che.”
From the first “Wassup, Pitt?” he kept students engaged with plenty of crowd work and a frighteningly good Trump impression complete with the president’s idiosyncratic hand mannerisms. Richards’ set explored everything from his recent breakup to the unusually high proportion of pre-dental students in the front rows.
Just after 9 p.m., Hernández strolled to the stage, wearing blue-and-gold track pants, a white hoodie and a white beanie worn high on his head such that it vaguely resembled the hats worn by Smurfs. It briefly seemed that the audience might break the sound barrier.
During his set, Hernández took the audience on a tour of his memories, from growing up in a Cuban-Dominican family in Miami to attending college at a small school in Ohio to all the jobs he worked before SNL. Olivia Defazio, a nursing student, said, “I just liked him talking about having immigrant parents. It was very relatable … I think it resonated with a lot of people.”
“I hope he comes back,” she added.
Carli Oniskey, a first-year political science major, said Hernández’s stand-up was “so good — some of the best ever.” She suggests his youth makes his material resonate especially well.
“He’s the most relatable and up with stuff, not in the cringey way,” Oniskey said.
Anna Radzinski, a first-year English major, was just as impressed.
“I’ve literally never laughed so hard in my entire life,” she said. “I’m so obsessed with him. I watch SNL every Saturday, so it’s just so nice to see [him].”
In February 2024, news outlets reported declining viewership in recent years for SNL, especially among Gen Z Americans. Radzinski says Hernández is helping turn that trend around.
“I’m so glad that it’s coming back,” she said. “SNL was — everyone was like, ‘Oh, it’s so bad now, it’s never gonna be as good,’ but it’s people like him that are making it better. So I’m glad that he’s getting famous.”
She and Oniskey got a photo with the event poster, featuring a grinning Hernández, before heading out for the night.