Keegan-Michael Key had some advice for fellow comedian Larry Wilmore: have a drink before roasting the president at Saturday’s White House Correspondents Dinner. Or three, actually.
“Breathe and have about three drinks before you go on,” Key told TIME. “Because there’s no way he doesn’t already have this thing memorized backwards and forwards, he’ll be fine. Just got to loosen up, Larry.”
Key, producer and star of the new comedy Keanu, was attending the annual People/TIME cocktail party leading up to Saturday’s dinner with President Obama—his last while in office. The comedian appeared alongside Obama at last year’s dinner, reenacting a skit from the popular comedy show Key & Peele, where Key played the President’s “anger translator” Luther.
Wilmore will roast Obama at this year’s dinner and Key had a burning question he wanted the host of the The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.
“Larry should ask this question for himself and me both, can you help us out on that lecture circuit,” Key joked. “We’ll take a small part.”
His parting words of advice: After taking those drinks, “let ‘er rip.”
“This is the last one,” he said. “Let ‘er rip.”
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