
Saturday Night Live has been responding to American politics for five decades lampooning Presidents from Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump.
Susan Morrison, author of the bestselling book Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live and the articles editor of The New Yorker joins SNL Cast Member, Mikey Day, writer, producer, actor, director and former SNL Cast Member, Robert Smigel and Vogue’s long-time theater critic and former SNL staff writer, Adam Green, to talk about the longest-running and most relevant comedy show on television.
Signing of LORNE to follow. Books can be purchased before and after the program.
Click HERE for tickets.
FULL SCHEDULE:
GUARDRAILS ON DEMOCRACY
MONDAY, JULY 7, 7 PM
SNL: 50 YEARS OF AMERICAN SATIRE
MONDAY, JULY 14, 7 PM
POST-PLAY CHILDHOOD
MONDAY, JULY 21, 7 PM
ORDER OR CHAOS: THE ECONOMY UNDER TRUMP
MONDAY, JULY 28, 7 PM
Hamptons Institute is a forum for ideas that shape both our community and the world. Founded in 2010 at Guild Hall, the Hamptons Institute returns with a compelling series of dynamic conversations. Each session features world-renown experts from diverse fields exploring a single topic through multiple perspectives, followed by an audience Q&A.
The Hamptons Institute’s 2025 installment is guest-curated by Ellen Chesler—author and Hamptons Institute co-founder (alongside Guild Hall’s late Chair, Mickey Straus)—and Patricia Duff, founder of the nonpartisan nonprofit The Common Good, dedicated to civic participation, civil dialogue, and finding solutions through common ground.
Founded in 1931 by Mary Woodhouse and her husband Lorenzo, Guild Hall began as a civic institution anchored by a museum and theater. The multidisciplinary arts institution has long been driven by the conviction that engaging with the arts—through exhibitions, performances, and meaningful dialogue—sparks connection, deepens understanding, and inspires people to participate more actively in the world beyond the boundaries of the East End.
This mission expanded in the 1980s with the launch of Hot Topics, a series designed to spark civic discourse, featuring notable panelists like Peter Jennings, recognized for his commitment to democratic journalism. Today, alongside its rich offerings in performing and visual arts, Guild Hall continues to foster thoughtful dialogue with leading luminaries across diverse fields.
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Susan Morrison
Susan Morrison is the articles editor of The New Yorker and the author of the New York Times-bestselling biography "Lorne: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live." She is the former editor-in-chief of the New York Observer and an original editor of SPY magazine. She lives in New York City.
Photo: Taylor Jewell
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Mikey Day
Mikey Day recently completed his ninth season as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” after joining the show as a writer in the 39th season.
During his first season as a cast member, Day gained recognition for his wildly popular “Haunted Elevator (ft. David S. Pumpkins)” sketch with Tom Hanks as well as his Donald Trump Jr. impression. Day also co-wrote and starred in the viral sketches “Beavis and Butthead” and “Washington’s Dream.”
Day has appeared in Netflix’s “Unfrosted” and “Hubie Halloween,” Universal’s “Little” opposite Issa Rae, and the Amazon comedy “Brittany Runs a Marathon” opposite Jillian Bell. Additionally, Day and his writing partner Streeter Seidell co-wrote the 2021 comedy “Home Sweet Home Alone” for 20th Century, starring Ellie Kemper, Rob Delaney, Pete Holmes, and Kenan Thompson. The duo is currently writing the Disney reboots of “Inspector Gadget” and “Space Camp,” as well as “The Rugrats Movie” for Nickelodeon/Paramount.
Previously, Day was a member of the Groundlings comedy troupe in Los Angeles and Nick Cannon’s MTV comedy series “Wild ‘N Out” for seven seasons. He was also a head writer on Cartoon Network’s “Incredible Crew,” co-head writer and cast member on NBC’s “Maya & Marty” and co-writer for the 2016 comedy “Brother Nature.”
His notable voiceover work includes numerous characters in DC’s Mad Animated Series that brought the classic humor magazine to life, and he can currently be seen hosting the Netflix hit “Is It Cake?”
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Adam Green
Adam Green began his career right out of college, where he was an editor of The Harvard Lampoon, as a staff writer for Saturday Night Live. He went on to write numerous screenplays and sitcom pilots (none of which you will have seen because none got made), as well as several TV comedy specials (some of which you might have seen). Since leaving the entertainment world for the lucrative field of print journalism, he has been Vogue magazine’s longtime theater critic and a frequent contributor to The New Yorker. He is currently at work on a long-overdue memoir for the very patient folks at Farrar, Straus and Giroux. He and his wife Katie live in Watermill with their almost-four-year-old daughter Helen and terrier mix Grace.
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Robert Smigel
Robert Smigel is a writer, producer, actor and director known best for his Saturday Night Live “TV Funhouse” cartoon shorts, including The Ambiguously Gay Duo, Fun With Real Audio, and the X-Presidents, and as the creator and voice of Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, the foul-mouthed puppet who has mercilessly mocked everyone from Star Wars and Bon Jovi fans to Eminem and Ted Cruz. Triumph continues to appear on The Daily Show and Hollywood Squares, but did the bulk of his poopery on Late Night with Conan O’Brien, for which Robert served as the first Head Writer/Producer, creating numerous bits including “In the Year 2000” as well as providing the mouth/voices for Conan’s celebrity “Clutch Cargo” interviews of Bill Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Donald Trump and many more.
Robert met Conan at SNL, where they collaborated on many sketches including the infamous Nude Beach and the Girlwatchers (with Tom Hanks). They also wrote and produced the legendary unsold pilot Lookwell starring Adam West. Robert’s own best-known sketches at SNL included the Chicago Super Fans, Schmitt’s Gay Beer, William Shatner and the Trekkies, Mastermind Reagan, The Sinatra Group, Seinfeld’s Stand Up & Win and Steve Martin’s Holiday Wish and “Not Gonna Phone It In Tonight” song.
Most recently, Robert co-wrote, co-directed, wrote songs for and voices characters in the animated Netflix movie, LEO, starring Adam Sandler, Bill Burr and Cecily Strong, which is the service’s most successful animated film ever. He also co-wrote and produced Sandler’s Hotel Transylvania, Hotel Transylvania 2 and You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. His film debut as a writer/director was The Week Of (2018) starring Sandler and Chris Rock.
Robert has had roles in many Sandler films as well as This is 40, Punch Drunk Love, Marriage Story and the recent Sundance hit Between the Temples with Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane, as well as featured roles on Curb Your Enthusiasm, Portlandia and What We Do in the Shadows.
Robert has won three Emmys for his work on SNL and for Night of Too Many Stars, a biannual benefit he and his wife Michelle created that has raised over $32 million for autism programs nationwide, hosted by Jon Stewart. Robert’s Triumph Election Special ’16 earned Hulu its first-ever primetime Emmy nomination. His Grammy-nominated comedy album for Triumph, Come Poop With Me, somehow lost despite classics like “Underage Bichon” and “Cats Are C***s”.
Sponsors
Principal Sponsor: Lisa Rosenblum
Performing Arts programs are supported in part by funding from Galia Meiri-Stawski and Axel Stawski, Henry and Peggy Schleiff, The Melville Straus Family Endowment, Monica and Peter Tessler, and Vital Projects Fund. Music Programming is supported in part by The Ellen and James S. Marcus Endowment for Musical Programming.
Additional support provided by Friends of the Theater: Natascia Ayers and Jim Ciquera, Bonnie and Joel Bergstein, Christine and Bill Campbell, John and Joan D’Addario, Gabrielle and Gianpaolo de Felice, Debbie and Henry Druker, Lena Kaplan, Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan, Steve Pesner, in memory of his wife, Michèle Pesner, whose entire life was devoted to all aspects of culture, The Schaffner Family Foundation, Lisa Schultz and Ezriel Kornel, Jayne Baron Sherman and Deborah Zum, Stacey and Oliver Stanton, Susi and Peter Wunsch, and Andrew Yuder and Kyle Glaeser.