Interview: A conversation with Kevin Nealon

​Some may remember Kevin Nealon from his nine-year stint on Saturday Night Live, where he anchored Weekend Update and was part of many memorable skits such as Mr. Subliminal, Frank Gannon Political Incorrect Private Investigator, and Franz of the Hans and Franz sketches with Dana Carvey. Others may know him from his role on Weeds, his roles in 13 Adam Sandler films, his show Hiking With Kevin that is on YouTube, or any of the countless roles he has played since his network television debut in 1984 on the Johnny Carson Show. 

​Nealon is in St. Louis this weekend, appearing at Helium Comedy Club tonight at 7:30 p.m., Friday at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m., and Saturday at 7 p.m. and 9:15 p.m.  

​Before he could take the stage, he took some time to chat with ReviewSTL. 

Review STL-In my research, I see that you were born in St. Louis?

Kevin Nealon– I was born there. I was born at the Incarnate Word Hospital, which is no longer there. It’s on Grant Street andI only lived there for like three weeks and then my father got a job in Connecticut. So off we went.

RSTL-So, I guess we can consider you an honorary St. Louisan?

KN-Yeah, I have a certificate at home that says I am. 

RSTL-Oh nice! You happen to be in town for 314 Day, if you know what that is.

KN-Is that a zip code or area code?

RSTL-Yeah, so the area code here is 314. So, they call today 314 day and they have all these different specials and things going on for people if they want to check them out. 

KN– What is the significant of the 314?

RSTL– I think it’s a little bit ridiculous myself. But um yeah, it’s kind of a big deal in Saint Louis now. 

KN-They’re just running out of things to celebrate.

RSTL– I agree. 

KN- So what is the zip code celebration when they got to do the zip code?

RSTL-I wonder that myself. Yeah.  So, this weekend, what can fans expect from your show?

KN-They can expect me to show up first of all. I’m very, very uh prompt and, you know, responsible and also,  they can expect to see somebody a lot taller than they thought they were. And, you know, basically, I’ve been on tour. It’s called the I Exaggerate Tour. It’s also the name of my new book called ‘I Exaggerate My Brushes with Fame.’ I do character paintings of different celebrities and accompanied with an anecdote on the opposite page. So yeah, I continue to develop a new material. I’m leaning toward doing another special. My comedy is very conversational. It’s not the type of comedy some people do or venting, you know.

RSTL-So, where do you come up with inspiration for your comedy?

KN– I thought you’re going to say, where do you get off doing this comedy? And where do you get off, man? The inspiration comes from so many things. It could come from just being on stage and riffing a little bit. It could come from being with friends and, you know, kind of joking about different things.Like, when I was on a Saturday Night Live, I was trying to think of sketch ideas or characters. I would often go to Blockbuster video just to look at the covers of some of these videos and hope to be inspired by something by that. So, it could be actually anywhere. I mean, you know, it could come with the most surprising moments too, you know, you just have to be open to it.

RSTL-You mentioned SNL and I’ve talked to several comedians in the past and some of them have talked about how they didn’t always enjoy it because it was very high pressure trying to come up with different skits. What was your experience like for the nine years you were there? 

RSTL-Well, first of all, Jeremy, I was very lucky to get on that show because I wasn’t a sketch player. I didn’t do improv or have many characters. I was just a stand up. So, I felt very grateful to be on there and every year that they asked me to come back, I was grateful and I didn’t see it as a stepping stone, ike a lot of people do. They want to be on there for a year or two and then become a big star. I was just happy to have the job and it was great because I got to work with a different host every week. You know, a lot of them were my idols and then these rock musicians coming in or any kind of musician, you know, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Aerosmith, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger. You know, what a great job that was I thought.

RSTL-Absolutely. You were there in an era where we saw the likes of Lovitz, Carvey, Myers, Sandler and Farley, I mean, that was kind of the top of the line for comedians. Do you still watch the show today and what do you think was one of the best casts for SNL?

KN-I don’t really watch the show anymore. You know, it’s like a lot of people. I will YouTube it if I heard something was good or if there’s a host I particularly like. As far as the cast, I think ours was one of the better casts starting from when we all came on,the eight of us, like Phil Hartman and Jan Hooks and Dana Carvey. And then, of course, we took on more and more, and the cast got bigger with Farley and all those guys. It seems to be that whenever you were in high school, that was the cast that you people like, you know, uh which seems to make sense.

RSTL-Absolutely. Um I, I was just checking out your book and I just actually ordered it off Amazon. 

KN-Thank you.

RSTL-Yeah, absolutely, I love talking to fellow authors. I actually released the book in November, my first book. What led to you coming up with the idea for the book? 

KN-Good question. I was hiking with a friend of mine, Jake Steinfeld. He used to have a program called Body By Jake. He was a trainer and a motivator above all. And I asked him how many books he had out? Because, I knew he used to write a lot of books. He goes, oh, I got about 10 books out. He goes, what about you? Have you got any books in mind? I said, yeah, I’ve been thinking about this idea for this book. You know, I do paintings and stuff. He goes, let me call my agent right now, Jen Miller. So, he puts her on the phone on the trail. You know, she goes, call me when you get home. I like this idea and I called her and we agreed to partake in this journey together and, you know, went out to publishers and had a little bidding war and it was great.

RSTL-And, I also tune in to your show on YouTube. Hiking with Kevin, and I really enjoy it. I think it’s great. It’s a kind of a cool concept to see, you know, just celebrities out in the woods, hiking and talking, like an everyday life type of show. 

KN– I came about in two different ways. I like to hike or walk in the canyons around LA and, occasionally somebody will walk by me and I’ll hear their conversation, mid conversation. It’s always kind of interesting. Like, one time I passed this group of guys and they’re following their teacher, I guess, and the teacher was talking about the black hole in space and I found it so interesting and I turned around and started following them. I kind of hopped on their tour guide, you know. The other point was when was I started hiking, I, I did a hike with my friend Matthew Modine from Stranger Things and Full Metal Jacket and we were so out of breath as we were talking, I started videotaping it. I thought this would be a funny, like, talk show type of a thing, you know? I posted it on Twitter and on Instagram and people immediately liked it. So, I started posting more and more and now it’s kind of reached the 15-to-20-minutepost I do on YouTube, Hiking with Kevin.

RSTL-Awesome. And will we get to see a new season?

KN-Oh, yeah. I just completed season four with 30 hikes and, um, season five will be coming up in September.

RSTL-Do you have a favorite guest that you’ve had to go on a hike with and I really enjoy the different guests, it keeps the show fresh.

KN-Yeah, it does keep it fresh. It keeps. And also, the various trails I go on are interesting and the people that we come across. I was with Jack Black and we couldn’t go 10 yards without somebody stopping and wanting a selfie and he felt kind of left out, you know. But, you know, I can’t say it’s a favorite one, but there’s been notable ones. I was a big Breaking Bad fan, so when I hiked with Bob Odenkirk and Jonathan Banks and Brian Cranston, I was excited.

RSTL– I was reading that you just finished a movie a while back called Inhabitants a horror film. What can you tell me about that, and when will we get to see that?

KN-You know, that’s funny you should bring that up because I, sometimes do these independent films and I’ll forget about it, but I did it and, I was watching a trailer on YouTube. I’m thinking, boy, this looks scary and I show up in the trailer. I go, that’s right. I was in that one! I have a couple of horror films that are in the can right now. There’s another one called Mermaid. I’m really looking forward to all of them but this one is about a mermaid who’s kind of a killer and more of a monster than a mermaid.

RSTL-I know that you are a big painter and I love looking at the different paintings and that’s another reason I ordered the book. I am looking forward to seeing the different caricatures that you created. What got you into painting? And is that something that you do as a hobby to pass time?

KN– Yeah, I did. I’ve been doodling all my life but never anything this concrete, this focused, I would doodle a lot on airplanes when I’m sitting there waiting to take off or in school,if I was bored, I would doodle in the margins of the paper, you know, just silly things like making those 3D letters with the shadows behind them. Then, growing up, I had two caricature paintings of my parents hanging on the wall that this really fantastic artist did from Paris. And I would, you know, subconsciously just kind of stare at those and kind of figure out all the curves and the exaggerations that the artist made. So, I think that was kind of my biggest education right there, as far as painting and drawing caricatures. So, during SNL, I would sketch, you know, on the scripts if I wasn’t in the script or whatever. And then, about a year before the pandemic, I started looking at some people on Instagram, some of these artists and they’re really good. I thought I want to learn how to do that, you know, get a little more detailed with it. So, I just started practicing and during the pandemic, I came up with about, you know, 50 or 60 paintings and just put them in the book.

RSTL-Another thing that I found in my research was a sketchyou did on SNL with Donald Trump. It was really funny. But,while you were doing that and during your interaction with him, would you ever have thought that he would be a future President of the United States? 

KN– No. Never. Never.

RSTL-Back then, was he as brash and outspoken and sometimes offensive as he is now? 

KN-Well, I wasn’t around him that much. He did a couple little guest spots on there. Everybody who’s on that show is on their best behavior because they’re terrified because they want to look good. So, they’re friendly with everybody. So that’s what I remember. Pretty much the only contact I had with him waswhen my mother, who was also in one of the sketches because it was a Mother’s Day special, he had a little scene with her too. So, uh it was quite memorable.

RSTL– Last question, when people approach you, is there a certain character that you’ve played in the past that you’re recognized for more than any?

KN– Oh, wow. There are so many different ones, Jeremy, because I’ve had such an expansive career. I’ve done so many things like, you know, it’s a period of time in my life where people were recognizing me from SNL. And then, you know, as time went by, people would recognize me from Weeds, that Showtime series I did. And then, it became Adam Sandler films and then it became Man with a Plan, I recently did with Matt Leblanc, Joey from Friends. Now, it’s actually Hiking with Kevin, my show on YouTube.

RSTL– Awesome. Well, Kevin, thank you so much and I look forward to seeing you this weekend at Helium.

KN-Thanks, Jeremy. Talk to you soon. All right. Take care. Bye

Catch Kevin Nealon at Helium this weekend.

https://st-louis.heliumcomedy.com/events/86108