Ben Marshall will be back on the “Saturday Night Live” stage this weekend for Shane Gillis’ third stint as host, but there’s a chance you could see the Please Don’t Destroy comedian pop up elsewhere on your screens between now and then.
That’s because Marshall is currently appearing in an NFL-adjacent Jim Beam commercial opposite former placekicker Kai Forbath for the bourbon brand’s “Hit the Beam” campaign.
“It’s an exciting way for people watching pro football for them to tune in and feel involved in the game somehow,” the “SNL” star told TheWrap. “Every time the ball hits the beam, if they sign up on hitthebeam.com, they have a chance to win a full 85-inch TV, which is turning a bad thing into a good thing.”
The ad spot features the NBC star as a coach who is intentionally trying to get Forbath to hit the beam – only these uprights happen to be a pair of comically elongated arms, straight out of an “SNL” sketch or digital short (with up to five prizes awarded per week, rolling over for missed DOINKs).
“They’re very similar in a lot of ways. Similar in that we were trying to shoot so much stuff in one day; very run-and-gun, improvising things on set, pitching bits to each other,” Marshall said. “That was something that was really cool about Kai – professional athlete, years in the NFL – so game to just improvise and riff and have fun, such a great sense of humor.”
“[Jim Beam’s] always had funny spots in the past. I feel like they’re a company that does not take themselves too seriously – we like to have a good time and bring people together. I’m a big sports fan, so it just felt like an opportunity to be fun and goofy and not too self-serious with it,” he added. “I think there’s a lot of sports fans who watch ‘SNL,’ so it’s cool to do this thing centered around pro football with a pro athlete. And speaking of pro athletes, Jalen Brunson hosting the first week was like the coolest, most fun thing ever. I’m a huge basketball guy, too, so getting to hang out and be on sketches with him was insanely cool.”
Indeed, the New York Knicks champion hosted the Season 52 premiere last month with cameos from his NBA teammates Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart. The episode also introduced two new featured players who, like Marshall, similarly got their starts on the Internet: Saidah Belo-Osagie and Grace Reiter.
“Naturally, as the comedy landscape changes, it kind of becomes a little more democratized in a way; anybody who has a phone and TikTok can make stuff that can be seen by an ‘SNL’ producer,” he noted. “There’s so many great new people: Grace and Saidah are so funny, and they did a lot of stuff online; Veronika [Slowikowska], all those people are great. It’s cool to see people find different paths to the show.”
But whether he’s goofing off live onstage or getting to play out his sports fantasies for Jim Beam, Marshall couldn’t be happier: “Just to be able to be stupid on camera and get to laugh and make funny things, it’s always the dream. I can’t believe it.”
“Saturday Night Live” Season 52 airs Saturday nights at 11:30 p.m. ET/8:30 p.m. PT on NBC and Peacock.
