During Fall term of his Freshman year at Carleton, Peter Gwinn ’93 went to a football game to watch his roommate play. But he was distracted by the fact that, where Bethel had cheerleaders, Carleton had five people dressed like Vikings that kept disrupting the cheerleaders by having sword fights right in front of them whenever they started a routine. “Who is that?” he asked his RA. “That’s the school’s improv group.” And Peter said, “I want to do that.”
That dream of one day harassing Division III cheerleaders became a 30-year career in comedy, much of it paid! Peter won two Emmy Awards as an original member of the writing staff for The Colbert Report, and is currently a writer for Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me! on NPR.
Join Peter as he describes his journey from the Nourse Little Theater to the glamor of the Governor’s Ball, to the cubicles of NPR, and takes you inside the workings of a professional news-based comedy writer’s room.