FROM THE VAULT: 'SNL' Veteran Kevin Nealon

Paul and Skip have a hilarious talk with the longtime Saturday Night Live veteran, who opens up about his hit YouTube series 'Hiking with Kevin,' rumors of a 'Weeds' reunion, and his early years as a little German boy. He also recalls how he won over SNL producer Lorne Michaels for a spot on the iconic comedy mainstay, his enduring friendship with fellow comedy titan Dana Carvey, and what happened when he crossed paths with Arnold Schwarzenegger after years of mocking him in Hans & Frans sketches. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our Way with yours truly Paul Anka and my buddy
Skip Bronson, is a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, folks, this
is Paul Anka.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
And my name is Skip Bronson. We've been friends for
decades and we've decided to let you in on our
late night phone calls by starting a new podcast.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
And welcome to Our Way. We'd like you to meet
some real good friends about us.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Your leaders in entertainment and.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Sports, innovators in business and technology, and even as sitting
president or two.

Speaker 2 (00:35):
Join us as we ask the questions they've not been
asked before, tell it like it is, and even sing
a song or two.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
This is our podcast and we'll be doing it our way.

Speaker 3 (01:27):
I don't know where you are.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
You're always traveling somewhere, so I'm not sure where you are.

Speaker 3 (01:31):
All right, okay? Cool?

Speaker 2 (01:33):
Well, you know today we have Kevin Neil and who
I know through my wife Feet because she was at
Saturday Night Live all those years and I got to
know Kevin. And he's a blast. He's very dry, he's funny.
I love when he sort of gets you, you know,
you don't even know. He'll say something and you say, yeah,
that's right, and then all of a sudden, you say,

(01:54):
wait a second, he's fucking with me and.

Speaker 3 (01:58):
He's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2 (01:59):
But we have to get him talk about you know,
he was the host of Weekend up Date on Saturday
Night Live for so long.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
Yeah I remember that. Yeah, yeah, what about the hiking thing?
I enjoy watching that. That's pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Oh yeah, he's got that YouTube series Hiking with Kevin.
I think he's done. Believe it or not, I think
he's done one hundred episodes. I just troned in a
few weeks ago. I was watching. He had Brian Cranston
on me, and he gets some pretty significant guests to
go hiking with. You should all kidding aside, you should
do that with him. I think it'd be fun for you.

Speaker 4 (02:28):
They'd come and hike my property with me.

Speaker 3 (02:31):
You know, you know the back ways. You can help
him out.

Speaker 4 (02:34):
Yeah, I know, the good trails. No, but that's gonna
be funny. Seems like a good guy in terms of
articulating comedy and what he's doing and all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (02:44):
Yeah, people love him. He's you know, he's had so
many television shows. Weeds, you know, with Mary Louise Parker
was enormously successful. I mean he's had just a great
another one of these people that came out of SNL
and you know, wound up with a great career beyond it.
If I've known him going back to like the late nineties,

(03:05):
when I when I was hanging around Saturday Night Live
while Edie was working, and I was just you know,
taking it all in.

Speaker 3 (03:13):
And then I started to play golf with him.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
He was a golfer, so that became the common denominator,
and so we started to spend time there. We also
talked to him about he was like, may not get
this right, but he was like the honorary mayor or
something of Pacific Palisades, a suburb of LA where he lives.

Speaker 3 (03:33):
We should sort of hit.

Speaker 4 (03:34):
On that too, well, read up on him. Jordan's gonna
send me some stuff and I'll read up on him
and we'll have fun as usual.

Speaker 3 (03:41):
Yeah. I think I think you'll enjoy it.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
Man, Thanks for re call, and I'll talk to you
another hour after dinner.

Speaker 3 (03:48):
That'd be great. I'll think of something clever in between.
Please talk to you later.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
I love you too.

Speaker 5 (03:58):
Hey, how's it going.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
Here's the man? Hey, k man?

Speaker 5 (04:02):
Hey, what's up? What's up?

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Heah?

Speaker 1 (04:05):
I wish every they were working up, but they ain't nowadays.
But anyway, you above ground, you're above ground.

Speaker 5 (04:13):
Your friends with Linda Thompson, right.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Yeah, there's a blaster of the past.

Speaker 5 (04:17):
She's a buddy.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
I knew her in her unhappy days with Foster.

Speaker 5 (04:23):
She's many unhappy days.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Yeahs unhappy days with Elvis. Elvis, we understood. She's a
great gual.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
After every podcast that Paul and I do, I get
a note from her. She's so sweet. Yeah, she's wonderful,
wonderful and talented.

Speaker 5 (04:40):
Oh yeah, she really is. She really is such a
nice person.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
First of all, I have to start with your friend
the Edie Baskin said, you must tell Kevin that I
just adore him. So check that box.

Speaker 6 (04:51):
Done well, I adored too. So talk about talent. She
is so talented. What a photographer.

Speaker 2 (04:58):
She's great.

Speaker 5 (05:00):
Yeah, yeah, and a nice person and a tall person.
Is she taller than Ski?

Speaker 1 (05:04):
Of course we can evade that subject. You tall people.

Speaker 6 (05:12):
You know a lot of people see me, Paul, and
they don't realize I'm this tall, and it really boggles
their mind because it's it's funny when you have the
idea of somebody's height in your head and you see
them in person and it's not accurate. It really takes
them aback a little bit. And people mention that a
lot Kevin about me.

Speaker 1 (05:32):
When I meet people Kevin, they don't think I'm missed
tall either. No, that's five three or four.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
You know.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
I went to the doctor.

Speaker 1 (05:43):
I was talking to Steve about this, a mutual friend,
Steve Wynn, and we're both like, say what we both
lost three inches?

Speaker 5 (05:51):
Oh yeah, I heard that happens.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
As you get older. You guys don't have to worry
about it yet. I'm three inches less.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
But speaking of older, you know, I forgot Kevin is
the younger looking seventy year old. I know, no joke,
no joke. Yeah, I get that. He get deally young
for his age.

Speaker 6 (06:08):
Skip, I look young on the outside but the inside.
I just had my fourth joint replaced, which one from arthritis.

Speaker 5 (06:16):
Oh my name, I left knee. But it's it's a genetic.

Speaker 6 (06:19):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (06:20):
You know.

Speaker 6 (06:21):
I tell people from playing football stuff, but it's really
it's from my mother. She had a lot of but
she did play football, so she's got an excuse.

Speaker 5 (06:30):
I had a cage fighter. She's a cage fighter too.

Speaker 1 (06:32):
Paul Love that woman. I want to meet her. Yeah,
I think I can handle her now, it probably could.

Speaker 3 (06:38):
You know.

Speaker 6 (06:38):
It's funny, you know, whenever I'm talking to somebody around
my age, it always becomes about medical issues.

Speaker 2 (06:44):
That's right.

Speaker 6 (06:46):
I'll be talking to somebody and then I say, can
we please just go without talking about your blood pressure
or you know your cholesterol, or that you know your
neuropathy and the feet for just one minute.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
That is so true. And it's also the drug, the
latest pill, right, Oh have you tried such and such?

Speaker 3 (07:05):
Oh?

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Yeah, Oh no, I've got a better one. What's yours?
Everybody's got one?

Speaker 6 (07:10):
Well, the truth is I don't have room in my
pill box for one more pill. If I'm prescribed another pill,
I tell the doctor I said, okay, but I have
to take another pill out of the box to replace it,
because it's like a suitcase now, you know, when you
have to sit on a suitcase to close it.

Speaker 2 (07:27):
Don Olmyer used to say when people would say that
Don Omyer they wanted him to meet someone, Don would say,
I used the lifeboat theory. What's that if someone gets
into the boat, someone's got to get out of the
boat first.

Speaker 3 (07:39):
Same deal, Same deal.

Speaker 2 (07:41):
I love Quincy. Quincy.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
I think he told me a couple of years ago.
He's hanging in. He's unknown. I'm getting old. I'm getting diseases.
I can't pronounce.

Speaker 5 (07:50):
It's true. That's part life though.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
Speaking of getting old, I have to tell you I
was looking at your tour schedule and I saw that
you're doing multiple show was in Saint Louis, and then
I remembered that you were born in Saint Louis, but
you grew up like me. You grew up in Connecticut,
and ultimately I know you went the Sacred Heart, which
is in Fairfield, and that's where your friend and my wife,
Hedie Baskin lived when we were Wirfield, right when we

(08:16):
were first together. We're at Greenfield Hill in Fairfield.

Speaker 5 (08:20):
Yeah, it's a beautiful area there.

Speaker 6 (08:21):
I was born in Saint Louis and people see that
on my Wikipedia or whatever.

Speaker 5 (08:26):
But I only lived.

Speaker 6 (08:27):
There for three weeks because my father graduated from Slough
Saint Louis University and then he got a job in Connecticut.
But I tell people I just didn't like the place.
I got in the car.

Speaker 3 (08:37):
I split.

Speaker 1 (08:37):
You know, did I see that you lived in Germany?

Speaker 6 (08:40):
Kevin yeah, I lived in Germany for like years, four
years when I was six until I was ten, so
that would be around nineteen fifty nine to sixty four
around there, and that was great. Where was it Heidelberg?
Did you It sounds like you lived in Germany.

Speaker 5 (08:56):
For a while.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
I did ice fresh noodle, cell kraut, ondre leider, jovo
gibs and just had a teacher. Her name was secret Folkeman,
and she insisted we started eight in the morning because
I had to do a whole album in German. I
didn't do eight in the morning when I was poor,
so she was all over me. I'd say they were miserable,

(09:20):
but she taught.

Speaker 5 (09:20):
Me to do the words rhyme in GERMANO and another language.

Speaker 2 (09:24):
Not like they do in our language.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
It's like would be like vice versa noodle gizl from
bayant Land this vere so you get it maybe on
the last second, third day then and then jo vo
gibst and e liber it's five mach and that was
German gizl Monika. Yeah, they they'd rhyme them up at

(09:49):
the end, but it's all up in the tongue in
the front of the mouth, you know. It's a tough language.
It wasn't like French or Italian. Those were easy for me.

Speaker 6 (09:56):
Yeah, yeah, because I know the Beatles did that too
for a little bit, a little bit on their album.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
You know, I saw them Kevin in Paris when they
were just doing covers. I went to see a friend
of mine who was a big, big star over there
at the Olympia Theater. You probably know, it's the great
classic house, and and I went in to see, uh,
this friend of mine and the announcer because they always
had opening acts ladies and gentlemen, stous and these four

(10:23):
guys walk out with the hair and the look, and
I'm going, what the hell is this? And I'm a kid,
you know, I was blessed that I was over there
singing that you know, left the country at seventeen, eighteen ninety,
and that's where I first met those guys. And you
know when I started rapping with them, after they said, yeah,
we got to start writing our own songs. We're doing

(10:43):
Chuck Berry and blah blah blah blah blah. You know,
for years, I'd come back from Europe and I'd go
to my agent, Norman Weiss, and Uh, I'd say these
guys over in England, you're not being a media driven society.
You know, nobody know what the hell was going on
outside of each city over here and along in the
short one. I pounded him for a couple of years
until he finally flew over and Matt Epstein and brought

(11:05):
him over on The Sullivan Show. But that's the first
time I met the Beatles. And then, as you said,
they started in Germany, you know, as a as a
cover band. That's where they started. Yeah, that was the
first countries that they were. Yeah, that's where they were playing.

Speaker 5 (11:18):
Yeah, I mean, what a treat to be able to
see them that long ago.

Speaker 6 (11:21):
I like to ask people who their first concert was,
and you know, they'll say whatever, whoever it was.

Speaker 5 (11:26):
And then I had this British driver.

Speaker 6 (11:29):
He was probably about seventy two at the time, and
I said, who was your first concert? And he thought
about it for like twenty seconds. He goes, because the Beatles,
the Beatles. It wouldn't take me twenty seconds to tell somebody, Yeah,
to think of who his first concert was, I mean,
would I would have like round the Beatles. I saw
the Beatles at the cavern, you know, that's where he

(11:50):
saw them.

Speaker 1 (11:50):
It's so wild because when I watched them, or any
of the the acts have been around. Until they put
that mileage in, they're not worth going to the concert.
They got to do at least two three thousand metaphorically
to really get something for you to watch, because they're
usually very bad when they're in that growing stage.

Speaker 5 (12:06):
Yeah, yeah, very bad. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 6 (12:08):
And they're playing all night too, and they're repeating a
lot of the same songs.

Speaker 1 (12:12):
Yeah, I saw it like all the time. On those
rock and roll shows. We were just, you know, kids
doing one and two songs two hundred bucks a week,
and we were terrible. But the kids were screaming and yelling.
They didn't know the difference.

Speaker 6 (12:24):
I was in the garage band growing up, and we
were horrible. But I'll be listening to the radio now
and I'll or whatever, and I'll hear a song that
we used to do in our band, you know, like
Midnight Confession or Windy, you know, one of those songs.
And I started compiling a list of all the songs
that we did because we only had like twelve thirteen

(12:44):
songs that we did cover songs. So it's fun to
do that, and I kind of I think I've got
them all now, you.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Know, indigenous to what you were saying that I've always noticed,
you know, you talked about just starting up how far
you can go. I've been around comics, you know, all
my life. They opened for me from the coponn when
as a kid. I'm always curious about the ones that
just don't even to this day, don't quite make it
because all of the it isn't there. You know, they're

(13:11):
not subscribing to commercialism. I mean, you know those that
are making it, and there's a lot of dynamics they
make it. What about guys like is it Kat Williams
or EPP's the guy that's on television. Yeahs, some of
their routines are classic. Well what's your feeling about guys
like that?

Speaker 6 (13:28):
Well, like you said, some people have that it and
others don't, and then others don't have that it and
some of them make it huge. Now, there's a lot
of comics now that I would say a lot, but
a good handful of comics that are selling out arenas
now and huge venues, and a lot of times it
comes from them doing their podcast or just hitting the

(13:51):
same market over and over and over. Again over the years,
and I think comedy has become much more accessible than
it used to be social media, so people are more
familiar with different comics. Kat Williams, you know, he's he
has a specific style of comedy. It's more of an
urban kind of an act. And Michael Epps, I'm not

(14:13):
as familiar with his comedy.

Speaker 5 (14:14):
But yeah, it's a good question. I don't know what.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
They're funny. They're funny, They're very funny, yeah, but they
never get the forum to be seen that way. You know,
you get down to some of the guys around today,
there's you know, there's ethnic reasons, there's so many reasons
why it's all encompassing and that they're doing it. But
I was I was always even like years ago, you
know the comics I choose from because you know Johnny Carson,

(14:39):
you know, I hired him to do a show with me.
Nobody was even looking and I hired and brought him
to England because I needed comic value. But you know,
nobody was aware of him in the beginning until he.

Speaker 2 (14:49):
Hit the television.

Speaker 5 (14:50):
Yeah, yeah, wow, that was amazing to have him open
up for you.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
But by the way, so you know, Paul wrote the
Tonight Show theme song. That's the theme song that we
use for that's right.

Speaker 5 (15:01):
I forgot about that.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
We didn't like skips. We didn't like skips. He submitted one.

Speaker 5 (15:05):
Ding.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Uh, it didn't It didn't fly.

Speaker 1 (15:07):
But you can hardly wait. I'll tell you some real estate.
I'll meet you at the gate.

Speaker 6 (15:12):
Was that a song you specifically wrote for the Tonight
Show or was that a song you were panhandling for
a while and then the Fight Show said yeah, I'll
take that.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
Kind of a little of both, you know, you know,
the way you take your material and your file it. Johnny,
when we got home after he was on the Grown
Out of TV special, I ran into him and I say, hey,
what's up. He said, I know, you know, still floundering around,
but I might do this Tonight Show team for a year.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Ha ha. What there nine years.

Speaker 1 (15:38):
Later and I'm changing this and changing that. And you know,
I was a song man. I was, you know, didn't
think I was going to last. So you know, I
wrote Buddy Hawley's last song and a bunch of people,
and I was just trying to stay with a foundation
as a writer. So he said, and I might need
a new song. You know, wrong guy to talk to
with that. So I went in the studio a couple

(15:58):
hundred bucks like I did with Longest Day, and I
put the vision down.

Speaker 2 (16:02):
I sent it to him and he.

Speaker 1 (16:03):
Said, uh, love it, and then he covered the next
day said sketch Henderson, who's with the show and has
been doesn't want some kid horning in and we can't
use it. And I said, Johnny, you know, I'll tell
you what. I'll give you half the song. I'll give
you half.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
I'll give you half of everything.

Speaker 1 (16:21):
Then he called me the next day he said, you
got it. So that's how it got on.

Speaker 2 (16:25):
Jennerson. I gave him everything. We put his kids through
school on mine. No, we made we made a lot
of money.

Speaker 5 (16:31):
Sure, still still probably that's amazing.

Speaker 1 (16:35):
Well not as much we would know, hey, but you
know what, we had a good ride with it.

Speaker 5 (16:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:39):
Yeah, there's no there's no forum for it today, certain licenses.
But I was off the off the show totally until
I gave away half and I had nothing anyway, so
it didn't matter.

Speaker 2 (16:50):
You know. Things happened a lot of.

Speaker 5 (16:51):
Efficiency, Yeah, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (17:04):
When you were talking about comedians and venues, we had
Bill Burron as a guest, and he performed at Fenway Park.
So the thought that a comedian could perform in a
in a stadium like Fenway Park is just extraordinary. So
that's that's so different from the way things used to be.
If you will, you know, comedy, it's a whole different thing,

(17:27):
and that now of course with Netflix and all the
things that you've done. But how did you know? As
long as I've known you, I've never asked, but how
did you first get started? I know where that went obviously,
but how did you start?

Speaker 5 (17:39):
I was wondering when you're going to ask me that question? Finally, finally, yeah.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Kevin did When did you start?

Speaker 5 (17:45):
Kevin?

Speaker 1 (17:46):
I read something I really want to know. When did
you start? How did you start?

Speaker 5 (17:49):
You know, I was just a kid out of the Bronx.

Speaker 4 (17:51):
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 5 (17:54):
It just kind of fell into it, that's all, you know,
That's all. Uh No.

Speaker 6 (17:57):
I I love stand up comedy and I would used
to highlight the name of the comics and the TV guide,
whether it was George Miller or Jay Leno or Alan
King whoever, and I would make sure that I was
home to see them perform. And I love like memorizing
the jokes in the back of the Parade magazine, my

(18:19):
favorite jokes by whoever the comic was. And then I
go to a party and I kind of personalized those
jokes like it was my life that it happened to.
Like I would tell a friend, Hey, man, did you
hear about this guy yesterday? He stole a fire truck
downtown And they're all like, are you serious? I go yeah,
they said, did they get the guy? I go, yeah,
they got them, and some guy that stole a cop

(18:41):
car pulled them over and got them. So I memorized
those jokes, and then you know, one front of mine
said hey, you should go into the comedy clubs and
you know, do an act, and so I went to
New York. I checked out some of those clubs like
the Catch, Rising Star and the Comic Strip Live, and
it just terrified me.

Speaker 5 (18:57):
There's New York comics.

Speaker 6 (18:58):
You know, they're smoking the clubs back then, and the
comics were really brash and edgy.

Speaker 5 (19:02):
So I thought, California is that's going to be my place,
more laid back. So I just came out here and
started putting together an act long story short.

Speaker 2 (19:09):
And then you wound up going back to New York
because Saturday Night Live from nineteen eighty six to nineteen
ninety five. My wife Edie, of course, was there starting
with show number one as the photographer, and you got
there in eighty six. I actually met her in ninety one.

Speaker 3 (19:24):
Oh really yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
But a lot of the people sort of referred at
the time that you were there as the golden era
of Saturday Night Live, the cast that was there when
you were there. By the way, Chris Rock called me today.
He's in la and he said to say, Hi, do
you needless to say?

Speaker 5 (19:39):
Oh? So nice? And would you tell him? I said, Hi,
next time you see him, we will call each other.

Speaker 2 (19:46):
But you you auditioned, right, I mean the standard that
was the standard way that everybody got the job. You weren't.
They didn't come after you. Everybody went there to audition, right.

Speaker 6 (19:56):
No one comes after me, nobody, you guys, air, this was.

Speaker 5 (20:03):
Well what happened to a lot of people.

Speaker 6 (20:05):
In fact, a lot of people ask me how I
got on Saturday Night Live, although they phrased it more
like this, how did you get on Saturday Night Live?
You know, aside from being lucky because I didn't do
characters or sketches or accents or anything. I was friends
with Dana Carvey, and Dana Carvey get on the show,
and rightfully so, because he does characters and accents and

(20:25):
the sketches, and so I was really excited for him.
And off he goes to New York and two weeks later,
get a call from him, Kevin, I dont Laura Michael's house.
I'm in the back bedroom, guess was in the kitchen,
Bill Murray. I'm like, no way, he goes, Yeah, I said,
he said, Laurenn's looking for a one more cast member.
I told her about you, and I think he's going
to want to see your audition tape. And I'm like,
Bill Murray's in the kitchen, you know.

Speaker 3 (20:45):
What I mean.

Speaker 6 (20:46):
I wasn't even acknowledging that other stuff because I knew
I wouldn't get it. I knew I wasn't gonna get
rejected because I knew I didn't new characters. You know,
I'm just a stand up, a really really good stand up.
So I sent my audition tape in two weeks later,
get the call from Dana VI. I'm back, got to
Laura Mike Gus he was in the kitchen. Steve marn
no yeah, anyway, Lauren, like you tape, they're gonna fly
in the front audition, I said, Steve Burns in the kitchen.

(21:08):
I just wasn't buying into it anyway. I fly in
pre airline ticket. Brian Kraston took my seat, so that
wasn't so good.

Speaker 5 (21:15):
But I do my little.

Speaker 6 (21:17):
Audition and I fly back, and two weeks later I
found myself sitting in a high rise in Beverly Hills,
across from LORNI. He's offering me a job in SNL
and I told him, let me think about it over
the weekend. That's how I rolled it. That's how I
massaged the deal. Do you know what I mean? And
he said, you think about it over the weekend. We'll
see in New York on Monday. And the rest is
what happened.

Speaker 2 (21:37):
But think about the cast that was there with you.
So Chris Rock who we spoke about, Adam Dana Carvey,
Chris Farley, Rob Schneider, you know.

Speaker 5 (21:46):
What, Phil Hartman, Yeah, Phil Harmon Skip.

Speaker 6 (21:48):
When I first came on, this must have been the
smallest cast ever is eight. I think there was eight
of us, and then as time.

Speaker 5 (21:56):
Went on, more and more people came on.

Speaker 6 (21:58):
Farley came on, Sandler Mike Myers, so it became maybe
thirteen people. But now if you watch it, the intros
take maybe about five minutes because they're introducing everybody and
featuring guest starring.

Speaker 5 (22:13):
And the man off the Street we don't even know
who he is.

Speaker 2 (22:16):
It's so true.

Speaker 1 (22:17):
Anybody who are all struck with Kevin between your Hiking
Show and SNL, anybody.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
That you are really yeah, yeah, you know.

Speaker 6 (22:25):
First of all, Paul I felt like I was just
an outsider on the show. I felt like I had
imposters syndrome. I felt like I'm not really qualified to
the Ennis Show because I don't do characters or accents.
But Lauren got me because of the chemistry between I
had with Dana and Dennis Miller and Jan Hoaks with
my girlfriend at the time, so he was doing it

(22:46):
based off of that. But I've seen you know, it
was mostly musicians that I was all struck by. Steve
Martin was I was always a fan of his, so
when he came out, I was excited in Bill Burray.
But as far as the musicians, I mean, I saw
Roy Orbison was on, you know, I was always a
fan of James Taylor's and so I got to meet
him and we became friends from that, Mick Jagger, Path, Richards,

(23:09):
Paul Simon. I get to see all these dinosaurs, all
these musicians I grew up. You know, they're my soundtrack,
my life, and and and just to be able to
hang out with them have lunch. I mean, what a
great experience that was for someone who didn't even belong there.

Speaker 1 (23:25):
En off point Andy Kaufman during your time Improv.

Speaker 6 (23:28):
Andy Kaufman was and it was one of my influences.
It was Andy Kaufman, Steve Martin, and Albert Brooks. Those
three guys right there were my inspiration and I met
all three of them. And Andy Kaufman, I love. He
really influenced me a lot because the way he kind
of misdirected everything and kind of fooled the audience.

Speaker 5 (23:51):
So I met him.

Speaker 6 (23:53):
I would see him at the Improv in Hollywood because
I was a partender there for two years, and I
would meet all these comics that I used to see
that I highlighted their names as the TV guide here.
They were all of a sudden, you know, ordering a
white wine from me, and Andy Kaufman would come in
and you know, I watched him do his act in
the back room, and then, I mean and I was
too shy to go up to him.

Speaker 5 (24:13):
I was too intimidated.

Speaker 6 (24:14):
And then one day he was standing out one night,
he is in front of the air problem and against
the wall, and I knew he was into TM transidental meditation.
So I went up there and I asked him about it,
and he talked to me for about a half hour
and didn't look at me that much. Was just kind
of looking at the traffic going by, and I wasn't
listening too much to them. I was just looking at
his face and looking at the moles on his face.

Speaker 5 (24:38):
But it was a great experience. I was so happy
about that.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
And how about Jim Carrey, Man, did he do a job?

Speaker 5 (24:43):
Jim Carrey's great. I mean, so did he do a job?

Speaker 1 (24:47):
He was amazing in that phone. Yeah, he really nailed it.

Speaker 5 (24:50):
Yeah, Yeah, he's great. Man.

Speaker 6 (24:51):
It's just there's so many great comics out there, and
I've seen so many great ones.

Speaker 5 (24:56):
Gary Shanling was a good friend of mine. He was
one of my mentors.

Speaker 2 (24:59):
Knew Gary up.

Speaker 5 (25:00):
Harry was great. You know, Bob Stage It's is.

Speaker 6 (25:03):
Richard Lewis always it's sad when you start seeing all
these people fall along the wayside. I'm sure you've seen
that throughout your life with singers and.

Speaker 1 (25:12):
More more recently, Buddy, more recently too many in the
Bowling Alley.

Speaker 2 (25:16):
Now. Yeah, So when you were on the show, you
were the host of Weekend Update, which you know, was
always one of the favorite parts of the show for me.
That and the fact that going back to the music,
as you know, keV Thursday's the music guest rehearses on
the set and for those of us who are lucky
enough to be in there, you got to see something

(25:38):
that was very special, up close and personal. But my
favorite Kevin has to be when you were in the
Hans and Franz skip based upon you know, Schwartz and er.
Have you ever crossed the paths with him?

Speaker 4 (25:51):
Oh?

Speaker 5 (25:51):
Yeah, sure, yeah.

Speaker 6 (25:53):
So we were obviously basing our characters on on Arnold Schwarzenegger.
So so when we heard he wanted to come on
the show and being a sketch with Hans and Franz,
Dana and I looked at each other and we thought, geez,
doesn't he know we're making fun of him?

Speaker 3 (26:07):
Doesn't he know that?

Speaker 5 (26:08):
And then we realized.

Speaker 6 (26:10):
We figured, maybe he's coming on the show to rough
us up a little bit, right. So that day came
and they got us. They said, Arnold's in his dressing room.
He wants to talk to you guys. So we were
like two kids going to the principal's office. We were
blaming each other. You came up and I know I did,
you did. I said not to do it, and now
it's too late. We get to his dressing room. His
name was on the door. His name was so long

(26:31):
it went onto the wall a little bit.

Speaker 5 (26:33):
We knocked on.

Speaker 6 (26:35):
That's right, We knock on his door and we open
it up. And I'll never forget this scenario. It was
full of cigar smoke. We could barely see him sitting
across the room, and he had a big cigar in
one hand, and on the other hand he had the
script that we wrote for him.

Speaker 5 (26:50):
And he looked up to us through the cigar smoke
and he goes, I know, fellows, now, how am I
supposed to do the accent?

Speaker 3 (26:58):
Right there?

Speaker 5 (26:58):
We knew he had a sense of humor.

Speaker 6 (27:01):
That he's been using a lot of those Arnold you
know slogans, like even when he ran for governor.

Speaker 5 (27:06):
He was quoting all those lines.

Speaker 2 (27:08):
He's so terrific. I have to say he. We have
a place up in Sun Valley, Idaho, and I know
him a little bit through there, and I would go
to the gym early in the day because I don't ski,
and all the skiers were up on the mountain, so
I had the whole gym to myself. And one day
two guys came in wearing sports jackets with earpieces, and

(27:29):
sure enough, next thing you know, the door opens the
governor of California comes walking in. So as I see him,
I take the pin on the machine where I'm lifting
weights and I put it all the way down at
the bottom. And I don't want to I don't want
I don't want to look wimpy. And I watched him
start to work out, and he's lifting one plate on
every machine, pull down one plate, press one plate, and

(27:50):
I'm thinking, what's this about. So as he was walking out,
I said, I have to ask you a question. Why
do you only lift one plate? And he said, oh,
I'm own. I said, oh, toning interesting. So that night
we're at a party together and I walked up to
him and I said, Governor, I have to ask you
a question. Do you think maybe as you try that
toning thing? He grabs onto my bicep and he goes, first,

(28:14):
you need something to which it's just it's just so him.
He's so great.

Speaker 5 (28:25):
Yeah, yeah he was. I was at one of these
openings for playing Hollywood. I guess he was co owner
of or something. And because.

Speaker 6 (28:34):
He's the kind of guy who you know, he's heard
a joke and he tries to repeat it and he
doesn't really have the delivery. But this one I remember,
he goes, you know, my wife, she just had some
plastic surgery.

Speaker 7 (28:45):
Yeah, I cut up her credit cards. Yeah, you know,
black belted shopping. She has black belted shopping.

Speaker 6 (28:56):
I got to tell you, my friend Brad Garrett open
up for Frank Sinatra once or twice.

Speaker 5 (29:01):
And I know Tom Dreesen does.

Speaker 6 (29:02):
It a lot or did it a lot, but Brad
said he was doing it. And at the end, uh,
he said that they would tug on the cable to
let you know when Frank is ready to come on,
you know, the Mike cable. And so he said that.
As he was wrapping up his act, he said, folks,
stick around, there's more. Come, there's more. Act to come,

(29:24):
you know, and he gets off stage as a joke
and the guy that you know, Frank's guy goes, what
do you mean this more show to come?

Speaker 5 (29:32):
They came here to see Frank, not you. You know,
he didn't realize it was a joke, right right, and
then he would go off stage.

Speaker 6 (29:40):
And and uh and Frank's got you know, he didn't
get it.

Speaker 1 (29:45):
That was probably Jilly Jilli was the right hand guy
with the that's right.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Yeah, he was the tougher. He was a cool guy though.

Speaker 1 (29:52):
But doesn't doesn't Brad have a place up in Vegas
in one of the hotels Jim Jim.

Speaker 5 (29:56):
Yeah, he's got a little comedy club up there. It's
really good. Have been there, I've worked at. It's really
probably the nicest comedy club I've ever seen.

Speaker 2 (30:03):
Oh cool because we've set up.

Speaker 1 (30:04):
Yeah, I'm looking to go in there. A friend of
mine knows him well. I've been planning to go in
and see him. I think MGM Hotel.

Speaker 6 (30:09):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, it's really nice. Tom Jason though.
Tom Reson is a friend of mine.

Speaker 5 (30:14):
I've known him forever and I did I did a
show with him once and we.

Speaker 6 (30:18):
Talked all about his opening for Frank and all the
stories about Frank Sinatcha. I'm sure you've got tons of
them too, But it was really interesting and so many people.

Speaker 5 (30:27):
Viewed that show.

Speaker 6 (30:28):
They were so interested in it, and he thanks me
to this day, you know, for putting that out there.

Speaker 1 (30:35):
Do you have a dream guest? Do you still have
Nike with? Oh, other than Skip and Eye, that sounds
like a comedy team.

Speaker 2 (30:44):
And who you still like to get on there with you?

Speaker 6 (30:47):
Well, I'd like to get Steve Martin, but I wanted
to get Carl Reiner as was friends with him, and
mel Brooks would have been great.

Speaker 5 (30:57):
But these guys are I think a little past the
the heike.

Speaker 6 (31:01):
Yeah, yeah, but there's you know, there's a lot of
I throw on a wide net there, Paul, you know,
because I'm not afraid to ask people, from Taylor Swift
to Oprah, you know, I just throw it out there.
I guess Taylor Swift would be good since she's so popular. Now,
really you think, I mean, I don't know if I
could connect with her on anything.

Speaker 2 (31:19):
I think you fly something. I'm your latest hike with
Nick Aferman. I thought it was great, but one of
one of the things that stood out for me. Really
made me laugh is when you asked where he was from,

(31:41):
when he said Minooka, Illinois, and you said, even the
people who live there haven't heard of it.

Speaker 1 (31:48):
About Jack Black. We had Jack Black on. Yeah you've
gotten interrupted by all those people.

Speaker 6 (31:53):
Yeah, I mean we couldn't even Here's what I learned
is don't do these hikes with the big celebrities on
a weekend because that's when.

Speaker 5 (31:59):
All the people are out there hiking.

Speaker 6 (32:01):
So I typically go on a weekday, like around nine o'clock,
and it's before many people are out there, you know.
And I used to I used to live in the Palisades,
Skip and I lived near Temescal Canyon and it's one
of my favorite canyons out there.

Speaker 5 (32:13):
And I was on that show Weeds at the time,
and I.

Speaker 6 (32:16):
Would bring my script with me early in the morning
to learn my lines while I was kind of hiking
up the canyon there and the sun was just coming
out right, and so it would be interesting because one
time I went up there, I hiked, I got thirty
minutes up and I heard this deep growl and I
knew it wasn't a dog or anything, and I knew
it was a mountain lion. I could feel it in

(32:37):
my chest and I scurried up the hill.

Speaker 5 (32:39):
I came back like.

Speaker 6 (32:40):
Two hours later, and you know, everybody's hiking around and
I felt safe. But the next day, I swear to you,
they caught a two hundred pound mountain lion right there
in sunset and tamescal and I know that was the one.

Speaker 5 (32:51):
It had to be the one.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
Oh man, are you guys going to reboot that weeds?

Speaker 5 (32:55):
Weeds? Weeds?

Speaker 6 (32:56):
I hear tell of that, but I don't I'll believe
what I see it. I don't know how they would
do it since weed is legal now, you know, it'd
have to kind of really take a big turn.

Speaker 5 (33:05):
Ye.

Speaker 3 (33:05):
That's right.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
So how about your stuff as being a visual artist,
because I know you were talking to eighty about, you know,
what you do with the caricatures. Maybe you could explain
that for a secondents, Do you have a book out
now too?

Speaker 3 (33:15):
Right?

Speaker 5 (33:16):
Yeah, I wrote a book about a year ago.

Speaker 6 (33:18):
It's a collection of my caricature paintings of celebrities and
a lot of them are my friends. And then there's
an anecdote on the opposite page about how I know
them or an experience we had together, and if I
don't know them, it's just musing.

Speaker 5 (33:31):
About, you know whatever. And it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 6 (33:33):
Writing it, and people really like it a lot funny,
you know, Skip, I was going to I brought I
usually bring a book with me to a club and
just kind of show it and they'll put up on
a screen or something. And I forgot my book last week.
I was going somewhere, so I called Barnes and Noble
in that city. I said, do you have a book
called I Exaggerate by Kevin Neelan And she goes, hang

(33:58):
on a second. I mean, I'm sorry, who is it by?
I said, Kevin Kneeling. She said, let me go check
I Exaggerated right.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
He go yeah.

Speaker 6 (34:05):
So she goes back two minutes later she goes, yeah,
we do have the book, and shall I hold it
here by the cash register? I said, yeah, please do that.
She said, who should I hold it for? I said,
Kevin Kneeling. But anyway, you know, Skip, I used this
doodle all my life. I would just but there's always
like quick little doodles or really kind of rough caricatures

(34:27):
of people, and I never really fully committed to it.
And then when Instagram came along, I saw some really
good illustrators, real good character artists, and I thought, wow,
that's really good.

Speaker 5 (34:35):
They're really good.

Speaker 6 (34:36):
And I used to have two pictures in my bedroom
hanging up, two really great caricatures of my parents, and
they're framed, and every night I would lie down and
look at those and kind of subconsciously study how the
artist went about doing it, what he exaggerated. And I
think that was probably my greatest lesson, because I've never
really taken any real lessons on how to draw, and

(34:57):
it's kind of doing characters have really in my life
because wherever I go now, I look at people and
I see their outstanding character traits. It's like going through
a funhouse with all the mirrors, so I could never
see anybody normally anymore.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Do you see it as a bit of an escape
for you, Kevin?

Speaker 5 (35:13):
Definitely, definitely. When I'm drawing. I don't know if it's
like when you're writing a song or something, but I
just I forget to have lunch. I forget. And I
was going through a period of claustrophobia for a while.

Speaker 6 (35:27):
It's kind of an anxiety claustrophobia, and I couldn't be
in a room where I knew I couldn't get out,
or I felt like maybe I couldn't get out, and
I would sometimes and I would think, oh my god,
my career is over. You know, I can't get on
an airplane. But for some reason, I could fly. I
could be in an airplane, but if it got stuck
on the tarmac, I would really start to get anxious
and get that feeling of clustrophobia. But if I took

(35:50):
out a sketch pad, which I always kept with me
and a pencil, it would totally take me out of
that and I would just escape into whatever it was
I was drawing.

Speaker 2 (35:59):
So yeah, good, definitely fascinating work. I used to hang
out with.

Speaker 1 (36:04):
You know, Stella and Warhol did a few on me,
but I'd get to go down and hang with them
when they were, you know, creating, and it's just a
fascinating process to watch, especially the modern painters. You know,
you'd sit there and they'd see all kinds of colors
and they'd be throwing this and doing that. I saw
it so much, I said, I think it was Stella.
I said, how the hell do you know when you're finished?

(36:26):
But it was fascinating watching those guys create, you know,
and then buying the stuff back in the sixties when
it was cheap as opposed to later on.

Speaker 5 (36:34):
Do you have any paintings that you bought that you
really are Oh?

Speaker 1 (36:39):
Had I had a whole collection, you know Stella Dacooning
and I had. I had a whole collection. I built
a house around it when I lived in Carmel with
my wife then May she Rest in peace, and we
had forty foot ceilings and we bought and bought and bought.

Speaker 2 (36:55):
Skip.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
I think you got a taste of it near the end.
I think it turned Steve on Steve Whinn when he
started buying. But when I got divorced, I gave her
everything and said goodbye to it all. And she deserved it,
you know. She was, you know, very involved in it
with me, but I gave it all to her. But
we had major, major pieces that we started selling for
the years.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
Yeah, Kevin showed me this work. It was on his phone.
I'm telling you this is not like a hobby thing, Paul.
You should see these. These are spectacular. I mean I
couldn't get over these caricatures because when I first heard
that he was doing them, I thought, well, it's a
little thing he's doing on the side wherever going around.

Speaker 3 (37:31):
They're great.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
I mean they're really great.

Speaker 1 (37:34):
Do you offend anybody seen them?

Speaker 3 (37:36):
Sure?

Speaker 5 (37:38):
Yeah, go for it.

Speaker 2 (37:39):
The truth, the truth.

Speaker 6 (37:42):
You know a lot of times people ask me, have
these people seen their caricatures?

Speaker 5 (37:46):
At that point, they hadn't seen them.

Speaker 6 (37:48):
And I never knew that they had seen him because
I didn't have him in a book.

Speaker 5 (37:51):
But then when I put him in a book, and
you know, I had to go out and promote the book.

Speaker 6 (37:57):
So I would take a few of the paintings with me,
but out of courtesy, I would ask these people, do
you mind if I use your if you're painting to
to help sell my book? And you know, Jim Carrey
was fine with it, Steve Martin was fine with it,
and I uh, I sent Christopher Walkins to his agent
and he hated.

Speaker 5 (38:15):
Christopher Walkin hated it so badly.

Speaker 6 (38:18):
He goes under those circumstances, could you use this to
promote your book?

Speaker 5 (38:23):
But it's in the book?

Speaker 1 (38:24):
So is that the one that makes you laugh the most?

Speaker 6 (38:27):
Yeah, that's my favorite, one of my favorite one. But
you know you're speaking of painting.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
Skip.

Speaker 6 (38:32):
I went to Lakhma in New York a couple of
years ago, and they had Starry Night by Vincent and.

Speaker 5 (38:40):
Everybody was crowded around it, and I.

Speaker 6 (38:42):
Took my cell phone out and I went up next
to this the middle of the group, next to a
couple of people.

Speaker 5 (38:48):
I said, is this a famous painting here? And yeah?
I go and what is it called? And the woman
was so so offriended next to me.

Speaker 6 (38:58):
She goes, it's starry It's Starry Night by this Ben go,
that's like not knowing who you know? The Mona Lisa
is And I said, okay, and how much is it?
How much are they selling it for? She goes, it's
not for sale. I said, well why is it? What
do you think it would be worth? It would be millions.
I said, is that because the frame? Because I don't
think the painting is that good? Maybe the frame alone.

Speaker 5 (39:20):
To be that much? Did a child paint it? Is
it like a finger painting?

Speaker 6 (39:25):
She was so incensed she just huffed off and she
walked and I videotaped the whole thing.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
Wonder why these sickos that want to go and throw
a suit? Yeah, yeah, yeah, throw things at the Mona
Lisa where it's like behind such an incredibly impenetrable piece
of glass that you can never impact it anyway. But
why they choose to do that, it's just bizarre.

Speaker 6 (39:47):
Well why they choose to do it is because it
draws attention to their cause, because you know, had they
not done that, they wouldn't have gotten the attention. And uh,
I just feel bad for the makers of the suit
because that gives them a bad wrap.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
We don't like the soup.

Speaker 5 (40:02):
We don't like.

Speaker 2 (40:03):
We don't like the soup.

Speaker 6 (40:05):
I read a book on leonardoo da Vinci, which my
son kind of laughs at because it took me like
a year and a half to read it, big book,
And I took me so and to read it because
I was fascinated by his life and it's all everything
about him and his paintings in his process. And do
you know that the Mona Lisa took him eight years

(40:28):
to paint and he would just.

Speaker 5 (40:30):
Carried around in his wagon.

Speaker 6 (40:31):
When he moved to Milan, he would have it with him,
and then he went to Rome and he just would
just keep touching it up and just keep painting it.
So I don't even know if it's finished to this day.

Speaker 2 (40:41):
That's funny. So just to pivot for one second. You
were talking about Tom Greeson, and Tom Dreeson's a very
avid golfers, you know, played all he could and kept
by Paul. Kevin and I played a lot of golf
together over the years. But now that we're both banged up,
maybe not so much. But need to get I need
to get him back on the golf course. That's where

(41:02):
you have a lot of fun together.

Speaker 5 (41:04):
Golf.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
I used to and then I uh, I was a caddie.
Maybe it's because of that for many years in Canada,
and then I golfed and pucked around, played a lot
of tennis. But you know, when you're writing, well, you know,
just so much time in the day. And then I
had a young child, he's eighteen now, and my time
was very special.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
No, I don't you know.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
I got as frustrated as you all do. But I
had the benefit of you know, Steve Winn built his
place in Las Vegas. Steve and no, the answer is
a big no. I'm pickleballing and I'm playing tennis now.

Speaker 5 (41:40):
Yeah, pickle balls become so popular.

Speaker 6 (41:42):
My friends started playing that about fifteen years ago, and
I shook my head thinking this guy's given up. He
has given up. He's playing like, well, he's gonna play
shuffle board later. But yeah, the thing with golf is
I love it. I'm horrible at it. But you know,
when I go golfing, I go because I want to golf.

(42:02):
But then when I'm golfing after nine holes, I think
I should be home doing something else, you know, I
should be writing or whatever.

Speaker 5 (42:08):
You know, it's never it's never like I'm a more
of a nine hole guy.

Speaker 2 (42:14):
But you know what the truth is, We're all driven
in our own way. You know, thinking of Paul, Paul's
in his eighth decade of performing and he's leaving to
go out on tour again. It's just it's so inspirational
and incredible to just keep going. You know, you look
at people that you know sort of call it a

(42:36):
day early and say, well, you know, I had a
great career, see you later. And I love I love
the fact that Paul is still filling up these venues
and it's just phenomenal that he gets to do that.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
So, hey, you stand still, they throw dirt on you.
So as long as you can do it, you love
a passion, you do it. You know you don't look
at life that way.

Speaker 6 (42:55):
Yeah, I mean, how lucky are we that we have
this passion where we don't want to retire?

Speaker 5 (43:00):
You know, we just love what we do.

Speaker 6 (43:02):
I mean, if I retired, I still be doing what
I really it's just not for money. So you have
an eighteen year old son, Paul, I have a seventeen
year old son, and I know what you mean.

Speaker 5 (43:22):
You want to be home with them as much as
possible before they go off to college or whatever.

Speaker 6 (43:27):
I'm writing a bucket list now of all the things
I haven't donn my son yet that I want to
do because he's going to be leaving the nest pretty soon.
I mean, it's everything I go into it, you know,
a salmon, a salmon fishing trip in Alaska, going camp
and white water rafting, going here and going there.

Speaker 5 (43:43):
And I don't think I'm going to be able to
get them all in, you.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Know, Southern kep.

Speaker 1 (43:47):
Like I got five girls when they hit that eighteen mark.
And when they did, boy do they go out and
get it. They just leave you. You know, they love you,
but they leave you. Look they look back at your
times like you're an alien. So I'm putting in a
lot of years with him. I'm committed to that, and
I do everything at home in my studio. And somebody

(44:07):
recently said kids are overrated. Maybe, but I'm having a
great time with him, great time with him.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
Yeah, but you need time.

Speaker 5 (44:18):
You got to make the time sometimes.

Speaker 2 (44:19):
Speaking of time, weren't you getting involved in spending some
time with politics and Pacific Palisades? You were like running
for the city council.

Speaker 5 (44:30):
I never ran for anything.

Speaker 6 (44:31):
They asked me if I would be the honorary Mayor
of the Palace, and I said, what is that involved?
They said, all you have to do is ride in
the Fourth of July parade and then h Christmas. You
just ride on the fire truck with Santa Claus. And
so my son was younger at the time. I thought, yeah,
that'd be kind of cool. He'd like to ride in
a parade. So I said, that's all I have to do.

(44:51):
That's fine. So immediately after I became honorary mayor, I'm
getting all these calls, Hey, man, they're using cuesticide on
the side of our Well, could you do something about that?
You know there there's a round up. Can you do
something about Hey? Can you throw the first ball and
at the polo match. You know, can you judge your
beauty cuts. I'm just here for the ride. I just
want to be on the ride in the parade. But

(45:13):
it was great, you know, do it for two years
and then I handed it off to Bully Crystal and
then he took it really there.

Speaker 1 (45:19):
Speaking of mayor's I was living in Carmel, so that's
Clint Eastwood country.

Speaker 2 (45:24):
So we're buddy.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Things were starting to fray a little in Carmel and
a run for Meyrit Paul I said, okay, I'll support you.
So we take him down to the city hall. You know,
he start doing his speeches. Nobody could hear him because
he talks so softly. So I said, hey, Clint, I
got an idea. I'll pay for it. You know, I'm

(45:46):
a big sound nut, and I flew in a sound system.
I think they trucked it down from San Francisco, so
that when we got him on the steps of the
city Hall and he had to give his speech, everybody
could finally hear him because he had no idea what
he was saying was running. But he was a cool
He was a cool guy. He was a great mayor too.
He put her all back together up there.

Speaker 3 (46:06):
Yeah, he did.

Speaker 2 (46:06):
He did. Was he like ninety and working in nineties
and he's doing new films, you know, pursing directly.

Speaker 3 (46:14):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:14):
And he doesn't want to hear about age either man.
He says, keep the keeping the old man out. He
got nothing to do with anything.

Speaker 2 (46:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:20):
I think he because close to the family and has daughter.
I think it went to Africa for this current film.
I think that's where he was and he's backing.

Speaker 6 (46:28):
Friend of mine is a huge Clint Eastwood fan, kind
of looks like him a little bit. And he married
his daughter and he loves Clint Eastwood, and he married
his daughter I think to be close to Clint Eastwood.
And the marriage Ollie lasted six months and Clint said
to him, he said, he didn't have to marry my
daughter to go golfer with me.

Speaker 5 (46:49):
I would have golfed with you.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
Yeah, she's married.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
Well now she's really involved and they're they're putting up
a shelter because she's into animals and save and all that.
We've been helping and contributing. But she's put together a
real nice complex for saving animals. She's a good girl
and she's married well.

Speaker 6 (47:09):
That's goods. I know, like Doris Day up and Carmel
used to love animals.

Speaker 2 (47:12):
Who's a neighbor up there?

Speaker 5 (47:14):
That's beautiful up there.

Speaker 2 (47:15):
I was just there a couple of weeks ago talking
about when things wind up or wrap up? Do you
think Saturday Night Live we were together at the fortieth anniversary.
Now the next year is going to be the fiftieth anniversary.
It's hard the fathom that show that originally got in
order for maybe like four episodes, it's going on for
fifty years. You think Lauren will call it a day

(47:38):
or do you think he'll just keep going?

Speaker 6 (47:40):
Well, you know, the last time he called it a day,
the show almost ended because it was out out of
his control, and so he came back and it took
a year or two for to kind of get back
in good graces again with the audience.

Speaker 5 (47:55):
So I think it's going to be a difficult decision
for him to make. I saw him about a year going.
He look great, looks fine. So I don't.

Speaker 6 (48:03):
Know that just because something is a round number, I
don't think people should call it a day unless that
round number is one hundred and it's his round number.

Speaker 2 (48:12):
Well, this has been a blast. Man, Have you come
on and just just just so multi talented, you know,
making people laugh and no, you're right, you're right, right, Hey, Heyki,
when you're right, you're right, you got it, nailed it, Paul, Yeah,
what do you think we Kevin and I drag you
out on the golf course. We make you play golf
with us.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
Yell, drive there you go. I want to see my caricature.
That's what I want to see.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
Hey, I have to whip one up, one up.

Speaker 5 (48:37):
I stopped doing characters with my friends too risky.

Speaker 2 (48:40):
Okay, I won't be your friend.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
I want to see'd be my next seat.

Speaker 6 (48:47):
I'm sure you got a couple of characters at some
of those restaurants.

Speaker 5 (48:51):
Oh boy, the wall.

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Yeah, we've got Nunzie, Johnny Lips. There were some funny people.
And with Sinatra, I'll tell you, I don't know how
I got out of all that clean, but there were
some characters, real characters.

Speaker 5 (49:05):
Oh yeah, I'm sure man, donle oh, I.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Love don you know we used to. He used to
when he came to town. We were all working Vegas
back in the sixties. He'd be working the lounges, which
were back then as important as the clubrooms themselves. But
he'd take on Frank and he put down every him
and Shaky Green would tear everybody apart. And you know,
he was just kind of new to all of us,

(49:27):
but we all knew he was a sweet guy. But
he tore Frank apart one night to get back to
got back to Frank one night and after the show
one of the sands he was at the Sahara. He said, okay,
we're going over to the Sahara to see Rickles. So
I think it was about eight of us, and his
right hand man was Jilly. So we sit down ringside

(49:48):
in these lounges which only held about two hundred people,
and Don was going on at midnight. We're sitting ringside
and Frank said to Jilly, okay, Jilly, go get the papers.
He went out to the news step he brought back
eight la times. We're all sitting there and franksis put
him under the table. So he put him under the

(50:08):
table and then Don still had that torriodor or whatever
that instrumentally had that brought him on, and he came
on and Frank say, okay, now we all picked up
the papers, opened him up, and we started reading them
while he was doing his accenting ringside, Hey, jolly was
the want of the Dodgers playing no more. I don't

(50:30):
know if we never put the damn papers down. Well,
Don sweated, as you know, but man, it was the
funniest thing. We wouldn't put those fucking papers down.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
He was going nuts.

Speaker 1 (50:40):
But that's what it was back then, you know, it was.
It was close. It was the all of them mafia
guys you worked for. Everybody knew who you worked for,
and everybody would get together and just the town was
way different than it is today, much much different, until
Hughes came in and then Steve Wynn came in and
it became very very corporate.

Speaker 2 (51:00):
Brickles was loved.

Speaker 1 (51:01):
He was a sweetheart. He was really a very very
warm guy off stage, he was a good guy.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
I had a chance to meet him.

Speaker 6 (51:09):
About a year or so before he died at a
party in the backyard. We were sent at the same
table and he was so curious about the younger comics now,
and I think he was so confused that what was
funny anymore, you know, And he wanted to know about
the comics and who's this guy? What does he do
you know it was interesting to see that that older
generation trying to kind of understand the newer what makes people.

Speaker 1 (51:35):
And not understand because it's a huge when I look
at the landscape today and what it was back then.
But you know, times change and everything is fitting to
the time. But no one would ever think it would
get to where it is today. I mean a lot
of us musicians look at a lot of the music
that's out there go what's going on here? But you know,
he got to roll with it and understand it and

(51:56):
not be too judgmental.

Speaker 5 (51:58):
Yeah, that's true.

Speaker 6 (51:59):
I don't think Rickles could have an act now that
people would you know, approve.

Speaker 1 (52:05):
Him definitely, not that they'd be on him within his
first ten minutes.

Speaker 3 (52:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (52:10):
I think Brad Garrett is probably the closest to that
now and he kind of gets oh yeah, he's very Uh.

Speaker 5 (52:16):
He reminds me of Don Rickles a lot.

Speaker 1 (52:17):
Well, you know who a lot of that was lifted
from was a guy named Jackie Leonard.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
Do you remember that name?

Speaker 5 (52:23):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (52:23):
Yeah, well Don, it was down and Jackie Leonard and
Jackie was doing the same kind of stuff that Don
was doing. Don just took it do another.

Speaker 6 (52:32):
When I first started out Paul I was opening up
for Jackie Vernon.

Speaker 1 (52:36):
Oh sure, big Jackie, Jackie, you're open for another comment
that's wild.

Speaker 5 (52:40):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's how it works.

Speaker 6 (52:42):
And he would do that slide show thing, you know,
there was a make believe slideshow and every day we
were like in Houston. I remember, he would call me.
He goes, come on, let's go. We'll go to a pharmacy.
He loved going to pharmacies and he get a shopping
cart at the pharmacy. And he would take anything by
anything if it came with something free, you know, like
if cologne comes with an.

Speaker 2 (53:03):
Umbrella, I'll get that.

Speaker 5 (53:05):
I'll get that.

Speaker 1 (53:05):
Well, you know when I started, you know, back in
the fifties and we started doing the circuit, you know,
it was Copa, it was Vegas Fountain Blue. We had
to have a comic on the show, I mean whatever,
and whoever wanted it. So I went through everybody, I mean,
Joan River's name and then Jackie Mason. They threw that
out of me. I said sure, And I was opening
at the Copa and I was there during prom time,

(53:26):
which is like three shows a night, and they're lined
up around fifth avenue these kids. So on opening night,
Jackie and I are, you know, getting ready to our
opening show, and we'd do it. It's a huge hit,
a rave reviews everything else, and Jackie was what he
turned out to be, you know, very aggressive and very
right on it. And the next night he decides to

(53:48):
walk through the front door of the Copa with the kids. Now,
normally not many people remember the Copa. It was a
side entrance that you'd go up into a hotel, dress
in a hotel and come down into.

Speaker 2 (54:02):
The club because there was no dressing rooms.

Speaker 1 (54:04):
So Jackie decides to walk in the front door with
at least a thousand kids, and he's walking past them,
you know, he's all puffed up because he was a
hit the night before, and mister Podell, Jules Podell, who
was the guy for the mob, sat at the chair
at the entrance in the lobby watching everything. So Jackie
walks in, he's there with the kids, and he walks

(54:27):
by Podell who's sitting there. He says, hey, mister Podell,
good to see you. Potel looked at and said, get
back in fucking line.

Speaker 2 (54:34):
Kids.

Speaker 1 (54:37):
He didn't know who the hell Jackie was from whatever,
but I'll never forget that. Jackie and I always used
to laughter that get back and fucking wank. But the
Copa was the place, you know, it was like a basement.

Speaker 2 (54:48):
It wasn't anything like we see today.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
But all the comics started to see, all of them.

Speaker 6 (54:54):
It seemed like it was a very accepted practice to
work with the mafia.

Speaker 2 (54:59):
Back choice.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
You had your choice, we mean, except yeah, anywhere we worked,
whether you had a record deal, anything in show business,
right down to getting cement in New York, you worked
for the guys. When I first met Sinatra, you know,
it was always write me a song, Write me a song.
But I was intimidated, you know me. I was on
Puppy Love and all that crap. And we were at

(55:22):
the Fountain Blue in the late sixties working for the boys,
and it was a lot more glamorous at that club.
But Frank was he was in town doing a movie,
and I was singing in the Lauren Room, and he
was in town doing a film Lady in Cement, which
with the people we worked for, could have been a documentary,
you know. So we constantly, we constantly were working between

(55:48):
those three places, and the boys would show up, I
mean after my show, I'd sit with Mari Lansky and
his wife. I'd finished the show to go down to
the barn. I'm sitting with Mari Lansky and loved it.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
You know, it was a very.

Speaker 1 (56:00):
Gracious to me. But it was always the boys. You
worked for them, that was it, no choice.

Speaker 5 (56:04):
How about Joey Gallow Do you ever mean.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
That the Gallows? I met him in New York once.

Speaker 5 (56:08):
Do you ever read You ever read Johnny Carson's lawyers.

Speaker 2 (56:11):
Pushkin Henry Bushkin? Yeah, I knew Henry.

Speaker 5 (56:14):
He wrote a book about Johnny.

Speaker 1 (56:15):
No, it was you know, there was some friction there
at the end. But if Henry was good, he was
his lawyer, and I knew them very well. We were
all in the same office and he did very very well.
By by by Johnny. I think they're they're big turning point.
They bought a TV station in Las Vegas, and I
think it was Channel five. But you know when they

(56:36):
first bought it, you know, back when TV was in
its infancy stage in a sense, when when Howard Hughes
took over Las Vegas and we were all working there, Uh,
the only channel we'd watch after the show was this
Channel five that was the only channel estayed on late.
We'd watch movies and hang and so when Hughes took over,

(57:00):
we never knew when he was in town. Nobody knew
it'd sneak in. It's upstairs, downstairs. So one night we
all go back and we're watching television and they started
playing this film on Channel five, the one that Carson
later bought years later, and it was ice Station Zebra,

(57:21):
remember that with the English actor. We watched it and
about ten minutes later the film couts back on again.
And then the next day, you know, we finished kibbitzing
in the casino and drinking, we go back and the
goddamn films on again, Ice Station Zebra. Timus later it's
on again. So we all said, going on, justinadra all

(57:43):
of it. One of the ice pas Zebra, and we
started checking on it. When Howard Hughes came to town,
and every time he was there and he were sitting
up in his room, that was his favorite movie. And
he bought the channel and he called the kid that
was on doing it and say play it. I get
play it again my stations. That's how we knew he

(58:04):
was in town. And then Johnny later bought the station.

Speaker 2 (58:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (58:08):
Yeah, he was a character, Howard.

Speaker 6 (58:10):
I just remember all the stories about him just being
you know, was held up in his room with the
long aisles.

Speaker 5 (58:18):
And the long well.

Speaker 2 (58:19):
I knew him.

Speaker 1 (58:20):
I used to see him walking at the Beverly Hills
Hotel and my friend Ben Silverstein who owned it. You know,
they have course catered to him and I was in
the bungalow next to them, and you know, you'd see
him at night and he went back door the restaurants.
But Ben's bitch all the time was his hues would
wake him up, like it three or four in the morning,
say I want a banana cream pie in one hour,

(58:42):
and they'd have to go out and get him a
banana creep pie.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
So, Kevin, just just one last question. So you've been
on TV seemingly NonStop for over thirty five years, which
is extraordinary, and yet you're still incredibly active on the
stand up circuit. So I'm just curious, how does that
continue to fulfill you doing stand up when you've had
this extraordinary career on television. What is it that is

(59:08):
that that keeps you going? I know what keeps you
going doing television series whatever, But what you know, why
does that, why does that motivation?

Speaker 6 (59:16):
Well, stand up comedy was my first love. It's all
I ever really wanted to do. And the acting is
kind of secondary that came that came along, and you know,
I was open to it, but I never stopped doing
stand up. I always love doing that. So when I
continue to do that, and if I don't do it,
and I'm sure that, like Paul was saying, you feel like,
you know, you're really you're.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
Missing, out of touch, out of touch, not fulfilling yourself.
The passion is not being fulfilled. Very true, dark hole
between the artists and the audience, even you know, with music,
even comedy, which is your love. When you're with them
and they're giving you all that love back, it's there's
nothing like a skip.

Speaker 2 (59:55):
So that's why, that's why when comedians that performing readibly
large venues, you see them just in a little comedy club,
you know, trying out stuff and whatever. It's just to
keep it going all the time, stay fresh, right.

Speaker 3 (01:00:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:00:08):
And there's a lot of a lot of singers, for example,
write songs about being on the road, and as much
as they say they hate it, it's their life and
they're used to it.

Speaker 5 (01:00:17):
And I think that is part.

Speaker 6 (01:00:20):
Of the passion that comes with it, and being with
all the guys you know, and the girls and traveling,
and it's a lifestyle for sure, and when you stop
doing it, you really feel.

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
The only thing you have to be careful back then
was the messing around when you finish the show and
got in trouble. So my rule was do the show
and go back to your.

Speaker 2 (01:00:38):
Room, hell alone.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
Exactly the temptations out there. You know, as a teenager
when I started, they weren't reporting all that stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:00:51):
It was insane.

Speaker 1 (01:00:52):
It was insane when you go from a little town
in Canada, you hang with the rat pack in Vegas.
You know, the show was the fun thing, but then
the real fun started after the show. So I tried
to tell everybody that was up and coming, do your
show and go back to your room.

Speaker 2 (01:01:09):
Watch channel it's around. I love it when Paul tells
me that when he was young, the girls used to
throw their underwear up on the stage, and now they
throw their canes.

Speaker 1 (01:01:19):
No, they throw support stocks of course.

Speaker 5 (01:01:21):
Talking let me ask you this, Paul, if you were.

Speaker 6 (01:01:25):
Your compression socks inside out where your feet can explode
or else?

Speaker 1 (01:01:31):
Okay, close, I just don't wear shoes. I'm giving any
one barefoot from now on.

Speaker 5 (01:01:37):
No.

Speaker 1 (01:01:37):
But you know, you start to realize, you know, I'm
eighty two the people that you had at your audience
last year. You know, we try to do account who's
not here anymore? Let alone. I send my production manager
out and say, okay, how many wheelchairs are here tonight?
Things have changed.

Speaker 6 (01:01:55):
Sometimes I go out on stage or i'm behind stage,
I'm looking out the audience and I see all these
old old people. Oh man, these people are so old,
and I think, wait a minute, I'm older than they are.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
This has been a blast, Kevin. You're just such a
super guy to do this, and we'll love being with you.
And I can't wait for more hiking with Kevin. I
think it's just the greatest.

Speaker 5 (01:02:17):
I just love it. I'm addicted to it.

Speaker 2 (01:02:20):
I'm fit, Kevin. I'm fit.

Speaker 5 (01:02:21):
Yeah, you are fit.

Speaker 2 (01:02:22):
You look I'm fit on my camera.

Speaker 5 (01:02:24):
I don't know what you're fit for, but.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
We'll find something.

Speaker 5 (01:02:28):
Yeah, I'll find out trail.

Speaker 2 (01:02:30):
It's downhill, Okay, we'll start at the bottom. Thanks keV,
appreciate it, man.

Speaker 3 (01:02:35):
Thanks a million.

Speaker 5 (01:02:36):
All right, guys, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
Our away with Paul Anka and Skip Bronson is a
production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (01:02:49):
The show's the executive producer is Jordan Runtogg, with supervising
producer and editor Marcy Depina, who.

Speaker 1 (01:02:56):
Was engineered by Todd Carlin and Graham Gibson and mixed
and mastered by Doug bum.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
If you like what you heard, please subscribe and leave
us a review.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
For more podcasts on iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite children