Travis Kelce was the guest host of a 2023 Saturday Night Live episode. This was before he even met Taylor Swift, and he was invited to host because the Kansas City Chiefs had just won another Super Bowl. I remember reading some interviews with various SNL cast members who pointed out that Travis, while charismatic, was not a natural actor or performer, and he was really nervous about learning his lines. Someone said that he spent a lot of time in his dressing room, reciting his lines to his crew of bros. Well, Travis recently appeared on another podcast, and he spoke about how he “can’t really read that well.”
Travis Kelce had some trouble behind the scenes when hosting “Saturday Night Live” in 2023. During a recent interview on the “Bussin’ with the Boys” podcast, the Kansas City Chiefs tight end said that the “hardest” part of hosting “SNL” was the pre-show table read because he “can’t really read that well.”
“The writers’ rooms were fun because you’re just getting pitched ideas,” Kelce explained. “The table reading, for a guy that can’t really read that well, it was kind of a f–ked situation… I felt like I was just trying to get through the reading instead of actually acting it out and giving it a voice and giving it a character and things like that,” he added. “I was just focused on, ‘Don’t f–king skip this line.’”
Kelce hosted the 14th episode of “SNL” Season 48 on March 4, 2023. He was joined by musical guest Kelsea Ballerini. Once past the table read, the Super Bowl champion said he was “so much more comfortable” engaging with “the comedy” and “the silly stuff.”
“There was still a sense of like, ‘I need to be a professional here,’” Kelce said. “I want to take advantage of this, but I want to have fun doing it, but I don’t want to look like a loser doing this. I want to make them respect my approach and how I’m like taking it serious. But it was just a fun roller coaster, man.”
Do you think he means that he has a tough time with general literacy and actual reading, or is he using “reading” as industry-speak, like “I wasn’t good at the table read-through?” I think it was probably both – he has difficulties with reading, and those difficulties were heightened in the table-read environment. Anyway, there are definitely techniques to employ to help him become a better reader.
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Avalon Red.
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- Kansas City Chiefs media day during Super Bowl LIX, New Orleans, LA, USA – 03 Feb 2025 Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce87 talks to the media. New Orleans LA USA, UK NEWSPAPERS OUT Copyright: xx,Image: 960018208, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Avalon
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- Kansas City Chiefs media day during Super Bowl LIX, New Orleans, LA, USA – 03 Feb 2025 Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce87 talks to the media. New Orleans LA USA, UK NEWSPAPERS OUT Copyright: xx,Image: 960018214, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: imago is entitled to issue a simple usage license at the time of provision. Personality and trademark rights as well as copyright laws regarding art-works shown must be observed. Commercial use at your own risk., Model Release: no, Credit line: IMAGO/Avalon
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- Miami, FL – Travis Kelce exits the Annual ‘American Express Presents Carbone Beach’ party in Miami solo, without his girlfriend Taylor Swift in sight. Pictured: Travis Kelce BACKGRID USA 5 MAY 2024 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Miami, FL – Travis Kelce arrives at the Annual ‘American Express Presents Carbone Beach’ party in Miami solo, without his girlfriend Taylor Swift in sight. Pictured: Travis Kelce BACKGRID USA 5 MAY 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: 305shock / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- Cannes, FRANCE – NFL’ Kansas City Chief’s and Taylor Swift’s beau Travis Kelce with his brother Jason Kelce at the Cannes Lions Festival. Pictured: Travis Kelce BACKGRID USA 20 JUNE 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: Newspress / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
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- New York, NY – Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce cause fan frenzy leaving Karen Elson’s star-studded wedding at Electric Lady Studios in NYC. Pictured: Taylor Swift, Travis Kelce BACKGRID USA 7 SEPTEMBER 2024 BYLINE MUST READ: Tatiana / BACKGRID USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
Thank you.
Okay i swear when i originally wrote this i was replying to a post that basically said- he is dyslexic, hence, it was difficult for him.
I am not dyslexic, and reading out loud, in front of people, makes me tongue tied. I also turn bright red.
But i feel like between dyslexia, and things like it, a number of people struggle with that (also, our country, as a whole, reads at like a 6th grade level).
I wish he had been able to say- by the way awesome cast and writing staff at SNL- i’m dyslexic, so, please give me a little grace if i screw something up.
Because even though we are living through the holocaust and being ruled by a cruelty first, only white people with money matter regime, cruelty and disregard for humanity is something we see a lot.
But most people, sitting in a room together will act decently towards each other.
I think you were replying to my post which suddenly bounced further down the page. Over the years, Travis has said many times that he’s dyslexic and who knows, maybe mentioned it to the SNL group during the reading.
Re: giving a little grace – it’s weird to me that people would immediately jump to the illogical conclusion that Travis is illiterate. Apart from being one of the best TEs of all time, he has multiple businesses, he’s produced programs, he’s a philanthropist, an investor. It’s barely possible that he could be carried through one of these without being able to read, but not everything he’s accomplished in his life. While commenters are at their keyboards, they could take a few extra seconds to google the facts.
I hadn’t started following Travis Kelce until he started dating Swift, but in the clips of him on his dating show he seemed pretty sharp. Is this possibly due to the head trauma of football, dyslexia, or has he just never been a reader?
“Cold reading” , where you read something aloud that you’ve never read before, is a special skill. It is hard for most people to do well, and actors that are used to doing it are great at it. I think he’s just being self depreciating and pointing out that the table read was stressful for him.
@Tiffany, reading a text you never read before aloud isn’t a special skill? We all did that while we were at school in front of the class. If he has dyslexia like everyone commented here, it is understandable for him why it was hard for him to do that. It would be also hard if someone has social anxiety. But, reading something isn’t some special skill. That is why we look for a why if a child has a hard time with it.
No, I’ve have decades of experience with people doing cold reading of scripts, and it’s a skill to do it well. Reading a *script* cold is a different thing than just reading. It’s the acting aspect that makes it more challenging, and he refers to that in his comments.
@sevenblue— doing a table read isn’t just reading out loud. Like Tiffany said, it is a verbal performance. That said, if someone struggles generally with reading out loud, then doing a table read would be even harder.
@Meredith Travis has never been a reader. Jason, on the other hand, was an A student and also played a musical instrument. (Can’t remember which instrument, though.) But Travis has good spatial intelligence, which factors into his job. He claims that he can often assemble things without looking at the instructions.
I’m a good reader…until it comes to putting something together so yes that is a good skill.
Aw I like that he shared this. My husband has always had a speech impediment that shows itself in his inability to pronounce words sometimes or even mix words up. Relatedly, he loves reading but isn’t a great reader so he often reads while listening to the audiobook version lol.
I know some people will respond to what Travis said with “who’s surprised?” or something equally sarcastic but it’s just wrong to correlate ability to read well with intelligence. My husband is SO much smarter about so many things, even if I’ve always been a “good” reader.
Reading while listening is a great idea! I bet it helps with the reading side. I used to have these kid book and record sets, where someone would read the book on the record and I could follow along and look at the illustrations. It probably helped with comprehension!
I’m a natural reader, or so I think. I bet those book and record sets helped me out.
I’m over here cheering on Mr Kitten!
Exactly! Helps with both reading comprehension and retaining the info.
Thanks, CatGotMyTongue! 🙂
@CatGotMyTongue I had those records, too, and loved them! I also swear they helped me be a better reader and better at comprehension and facilitated my imagination!
Travis has dyslexia.
Travis Kelce has never claimed to be dyslexic. Others have made that claim and assigned it to him, but he himself has never stated that. I’ve looked at the videos where a voiceover claimed he was, but the underlying and supporting videos never show him making that claim. He may be but he has never claimed it himself. Not one iota of backup on this from him.
Look, I don’t know if he has learning issues. But he’s a crazy smart guy. He didn’t even justify the reading thing like he was embarrassed. I struggle with a li Of reading but I’m not rich and I need basic jobs. I’m impressed that he said it without justification
Acting is so much more than just reciting lines. I really respect people from other professions who get on that SNL stage and give it a try.
And the SNL script keeps changing right up until they go live so you can’t rely on memorization to get around any reading difficulties. I think Travis sounds like somebody who tries really hard in general and I respect that.
He comes across as very bright regardless of any reading difficulties or dyslexia. Sadly not bright enough to refrain from interviewing Brad Pitt lol. But he’s not alone in that.
If he’s a smart guy who has dyslexia, let’s also not discount the impact of athletic programs that keep top athletes from getting a real education. My husband was forced to work through his dyslexia in high school and is stunningly good at rearranging letters in his head (don’t challenge him at Scrabble). Sounds like Travis wasn’t given that opportunity because he had other skills considered more valuable.
That’s been my take-away over the last couple of years as well. I’m not wild about diagnosing public figures, but from taking in a good deal of Kelce content over the last couple of years it seems fairly evident that he is probably dyslexic, and it probably was never diagnosed, and he simply got assigned the role of “funny screw-up trouble-maker who’s good at sports” rather than being offered help.
(And as to Kaiser’s question at the end, the full quote is pretty clear – he feels like he couldn’t do the industry-version of reading well because he can’t do the mechanics of reading well. He had to focus on literally making sure he was accurately reading the words on the page, and therefore had no additional bandwidth to do voices, character, etc)
That took some courage to go on SNL.
Right before he started dating Taylor, I remember seeing a sm clip of a lady who had been a writer on SNL who was doing stand up. A crowd member asked who the nicest celebrity she’d met at SNL was, and she said Travis, hands down. She also said he had a hard time at the table read through, because he wasn’t good at reading, and later after getting through all that, she walked past his dressing room and he was like on zoom with “his football friends” practicing his reading. She said it was so sweet she teared up and she should’ve known she was pregnant right then (she was visibly very pregnant) 😂
This makes me like him even more.
I’ll bet it was also stressful being in that environment where everyone is super sharp, super focused witty etc and you feel out of your element. I would definitely be tounge tied.
He’s very open about his dyslexia. I can’t help but like this guy.
Zantasia,
There is not one single statement or video out there that he himself has claimed to have dyslexia. The videos online that claim he is are always someone else’s claims. He has never said he was dyslexic.
He doesn’t have dyslexia, has never mentioned it. It’s just heresay. Maybe he has processing issues or ADHD — my step-granddaughter has ADHD and it’s affected her reading.
I applaud his honesty, his earnestness.
As a retired teacher, it was the effort that made a difference to me in my career of teaching Special Needs students.
And BTW .. his girlfriend seems to accept his quirks and efforts just fine.
I hope his honesty helps his young fans to admit their problems with reading. He seems like the kind of guy who would talk about this, particularly at his Operation Breakthrough Ignition Lab for teens, where kids learn to develop STEM skills.
Based on stories that have been shared by his mother, father, brother, and Travis he probably has the very common co-morbidity of Dyslexia and ADD/ADHD. While Travis has never labeled his reading difficulty, he does present as someone who is dyslexic and has spoken about how difficult traditional schooling was for him. That said, to address some comments. Dyslexia has zero connection to IQ. Dyslexia refers to a manifestation of a learning difference based on the way the brain synapses fire when completing certain tasks. For all children, but especially students with Dyslexia, learning to read requires a very specific teaching approach that was out of favor in the 90s when he was in school. Rather, he more than likely was instructed using aspects of “Whole Language” or pedagogy attributed to Lucy Calkins. The brain science around dyslexia suggests that individuals with dyslexia process information differently, impacting up to 20% of the general population. And, from an evolutionary perspective, they are very important to the survival of the species, as those with ‘Dyslexic’ brains see patterns and trends that non-dyslexic brains do not see. This ability to see patterns and trends probably contributes to his excellence as a Tight End. He can see plays – how they are forming and breaking down- very quickly because of how his brain is wired. Richard Branson, Albert Einstein, and Keira Knightley are very famous Dyslexics. #MomofaDyslexic #Educator
He’s never said specifically he has a diagnosis, but I suspect he had a mild version of some learning difficulty but was bright enough to get by at school, and it was masked in combination with his athletic ability.
Jason has mentioned Travis was pretty good at mathematics and everyone he plays with in the NFL says his football knowledge and ability to read defences is off the charts. Different kinds of intelligence. IIRC he made the Dean’s List for academic achievement at his university in a period he had to improve his GPA to continue playing football.
I just thought it was sweet when the SNL writer doing some stand up. Talked about seeing Travis’ football teammates. In the dressing room with him running lines. Everyone just wanted him to succeed.
Live television is terrifying and reading off of cue cards on the fly as scripts change. Is doubly terrifying. It’s just not his normal world. I would be freaked out too.
I remember his episode and thought he was a sweetheart even back then. And I didn’t know a thing about his football team. And was about a year before Taylor entered the scene.
He just took it really seriously and knew it was a great opportunity for him. He’s naturally funny and gifted.
I mentioned this lays stand up above! I’m glad someone else has seen it too😂.
A comedian who was on Who’s Line Is it Anyway did a crowd work bit that I can’t remember the whole thing, but basically he worked with Travis on this show and exchanged numbers. And then a couple of months later was in Kansas City for his tour (he’s not huge, but I recognize his face) he texted Travis to say hi. And Travis said sorry I can’t hang out, have a game then, do you want to come? And gave this guy tickets, and then texted him before the game started to see if he needed anything before he went into “game mode”. The guy was just like, it’s the sweetest thing anyone famous has ever done for me.
I agree that he’s smart, and definitely using it for covering for whenever he doesn’t quite know. A couple of times in the podcast Jason has cracked up and called him out for using a word that isn’t written because he didn’t recognize the written down word.
He also reminds me of Joel McHale on Community, and had an E clip show. He didn’t get diagnosed as dyslexic until he was late 30s, when he recognized himself in the description of dyslexia a woman who ran a charity gave (he had agreed to emcee an event for the charity). She’d asked him to emcee because she thought he was diagnosed 😂
““I was just focused on, ‘Don’t f–king skip this line.’”
That statement makes me wonder if there is some physical/neurological thing going on. He didn’t say “don’t forget how to pronounce that word,” he indicate he was having problems tracking.
Some people with ADHD have problems tracking when reading. I am not suggesting Kelce has ADHD, but if the challenge with reading is related to tracking, there might be a related ‘condition’.
I glad he ended up having fun on SNL.