April 23, 2024 • 19 mins
KEVIN NEALON IS A FUNNY MAN And he's performing at Comedy Works this weekend so buy your tickets today as the early shows are already sold out. Find them here. He also has an interesting web series called Hiking with Kevin and the episode with Nick Offerman is a great one. He also has a book out and you should buy it here!
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Mandy Connell, you might have heardof me, and I know you've heard
of my next guest, Kevin Nielan, who I just chatted with on the
break and I'm pretty sure we're bestfriends now, Kevin, are we best
friends? Can we? Can wejust make a course? Can I?
Can I be in your next bookwhere you talk about all of your friends
and go from there? Yeah?Yeah, You'll be my best seat for
(00:21):
sure. There you go. Kevinis going to be in town this weekend
at Comedy Works, And as Isaid earlier in the show, if you
want to go to the early show, first of all, that means you're
my age. And those shows aresold out, so you've got some tickets
left for the nine forty five showson Friday and Saturday night. But Kevin,
you've been in this game for afor a hot minute. You've been
around for this a little bit.I have been around, I have,
(00:46):
I have. I have been aroundquite a bit around the country, the
world and around the world of standup comedy. And I love doing it.
It's all you ever wanted to do, Mandy. You know, I
started off wanting to be a standup and Saturday Night Live and weeds and
those Adam Sandler films. That wasall secondary and I welcomed it, but
(01:06):
I never stopped doing stand up man. I continued to do it to this
day. Well, the the moviesthat you did. My producer Anthony is
much younger than I am, andthe first thing he said was, oh,
my gosh, Kevin Neilan has beenpart of every great movie that Adam
Sandler's ever made. And I'm like, oh, Kevin Neilan has so much
stuff. Well beyond the Adam Sandleryears, you were part of Saturday Night
(01:29):
Live during its I think glory years, most recent Glory years, and you
created some incredibly iconic characters during thattime. What was your favorite character that
you ever did during that time orsince what has been? Is there any
that you look back with special affinity? Well, of course, I you
(01:52):
know, I have a special affinityto the real popular ones like Hans and
Franz or Mister Subliminal or the WeekendUpdate character. But you know when you
say character, I guess that wouldinclude just doing one sketch with that character.
And for me, this is theone that kind of really capsulizes my
whole kind of comedic persona. Andit was called the bathroom attendant. And
(02:15):
it was with Harvey Kaitel coming intoa very very small bathroom with just a
toilet and no stall, and Iwas the bathroom attendant with a tuxedo.
And yeah, he thought that Iwas using the bathroom, but I had
to assure him that I was thebathroom attendant and I worked there, and
so we didn't went through the wholeprocess. He'd sit down and I'd be
(02:36):
offering him cologne. We have newspaperswith the New York Times, we have
the daily News, and just wentthrough that whole thing, and it was
very uncomfortable for him, you know, as that character. And he even
started laughing through it. So Ithink for me that was probably one of
my favorite sketches. At least isit because he was so uncomfortable. I
mean, is it better for youwhen your comedy makes people slightly uncomfortable or
(03:01):
is it more about the laughs.I think it's about the laughs. I
mean, it's not about him breakingcharacter. I mean you didn't really see
it too much because he was holdinga newspaper over his head, and but
I you know, I think Ireally like the sketch to work on its
own and not have people laughing becausethe characters are the actors are breaking up
(03:23):
so and I'm really good about that. I don't think I've ever broken character
like I think a lot of theactors in the last few decades tend to
like to do. And the audiencelikes it, of course, but it's
a real disservice to the writers whowrote the sketch. So yeah, I
would. I would see. TheBathroom of Tenant was really one of my
favorite sketches, you know, Iam. I grew up on Carol Burnette,
(03:46):
The Kroll Burnette Show, and breakingcharacter was like the specialty of Harvey
Kaitel and that was so absolutely hysterical. But I get what you mean though,
because if you can do it straightto me, that makes the whole
thing funnier. But that being said, who are your comedy icons? Who
were the people that when you wereyoung, you you looked at and said,
man, that's what I want todo when I grow up? Well,
(04:11):
there was different phases for me.If you're saying when I grow up
that that could mean anytime, thatcould mean last week. But when I
was a kid, I loved alot of different comedians, and I would
there was be a section in thenewspaper called my Favorite Jokes by whoever was
the popular comics back then, andI would memorize those jokes, and then
I would go to neighborhood parties andI would tell them as if things really
(04:33):
happened to me that were these jokes. I'd say, for instance, Hey,
did you hear about this guy downtownhe stole a fire truck. I
stole a fire truck. And theywere it was incredulous. They all thought
I was telling the truth. Theysaid, O kidding. What happened to
him? I said, well,he was arrested by about an hour later
by some guy who stole a copcar. You know. So that's kind
(04:54):
of where I learned how to formulatechoke and you know, craft jokes.
And but some of the comics backthen were people like, you know,
Johnny Carson I liked, and Iliked. There was a guy named Stanley
Myron Handleman I liked, and ofcourse I liked Woody Allen and Richard Pryor.
But I remember one of the reasonsI decided to go to Los Angeles
(05:15):
to really get into it was andthis is the weirdest thing, but I
was raking leaves at my house inConnecticut, out in the yard, and
I had the radio on, andthen there was a news break saying that
Freddy Prince had died, and Irealized what an impact that had on the
world and how important stand up comedywas in comedy in general. So I
thought, that's really calling me,and I went to Los Angeles and started
getting into it and doing open micnights. How long did it take you
(05:39):
from your first open mic night towhen you started to be getting booked,
when people were like, wait aminute, this kid has something. Let's
see. Well, I did theTonight Show six years after I started,
which is pretty good, pretty impressive, I think, and I got called
over to do a panel, youknow, couch with them, which is,
(06:00):
you know, very rare. Sothat's I think back then, that
is the show that really validated youas a stand up and I started working
quite a bit after that. Butbefore that I had done the David Letterman
Show and some of the earlier showsthey had, like MERV Griffin in the
afternoon, So it really is onlya couple of years. It really really
happened pretty quickly for me. ThankGod. Well, you know, I've
talked to a lot of comedians,and they talk about those formative years when
(06:24):
they're really trying to work things out. What would you say is different about
the way you approach comedy now thanit was when it got started? Or
is it the same? Well,comedy is always evolving For me my stand
up act. When you first start, you're always emulating somebody. All the
comics are when you go into aclub, and at that point, there
(06:45):
weren't a lot of people doing standup. It was a novelty thing.
Most most of the audience had neverbeen to a comedy club before. They've
never seen a live stand up comic. And I knew pretty much everybody's act
from being in the club. Iknew Jerry's tifelzact by heart. I knew
Hawy Mandel, I knew all ofthe commics, Jay Leno, Letterman,
I see them all, Rob andWilliams. And then all of a sudden,
(07:10):
I go off to New York andI'm doing you know, SNL,
and I'm doing other shows and I'mnever giving up stand up. I'm still
doing it, but I'm not livingin the clubs anymore like I used to
it at the Improvment Hollywood, andnow at this point, it's accessible to
the world and there's everybody doing standup now. There's you know, Iranians,
there's Pakistanis, there's you know,people from China and all over the
(07:35):
world, and which is great becauseI think we can never have enough stand
up comedy. But for me,it's always a growth for me, and
I'm always looking to find ways tobe different and to keep myself interested too.
So as I get older, it'smore about my life and my observation
(07:55):
of different things. And it's alsokind of grown a little dark too,
getting older. And you know,I've been in radio. I've had my
own show for almost twenty years now, and I'm choking on that as I
say it. And I found thatmy sense of humor has changed because I'm
kind of immersed. I'm drinking politicswith a fire nose every day, and
(08:16):
it's kind of hard to keep thatkind of slap dash sort of humor that
I know I had when I wasyoung. And I'm kind of sad about
that. I don't mean to getmelancholy, but the things that used to
make me laugh uproariously when I wasyounger are maybe not as funny to me
now. Is that like a naturalevolution or have I just ruined my life
with this job? Yeah, Imean I think you did become a little
(08:41):
hardened to different comedic situations where you'veseen it enough where it's not that,
you know, it's not that shockinganymore. You know. It's like when
I like to go on YouTube andI watch, you know, these kids
that are shredding them with the guitaror the piano when I'm like six years
old, you know, because theywatch other people on YouTube, and it's
(09:01):
like, to the point now,it really doesn't impress me that much.
What do you what do you Yeah, you're being a fiddle or something.
You know. Let me ask aboutyour book. I exaggerate my brushes with
fame because you've actually written because somebodysaid, do you have any memorable moments
of Norm MacDonald? Because you've workedwith I feel like you're kind of at
(09:22):
the point now where it's like,oh, yeah, you're wonder we can
do seven degrees from Kevin Nealan atthis point because you've worked with so many
people. So do you have anythingto share about Norm or some of the
other people you've worked with. Well, I have a lot of stories about
Norman They're included in my book calledI Exaggerate My Brushes with Fame, Right,
(09:43):
I just do a lot of celebritycaricatures, and a lot of them
are the people I know, likeNorm McDonald or Chris Farley or Dana Carvey,
Steve Martin, and we the NormMcDonald Norman. People love Norman.
Norma is so likable and and yethe was kind of he was kind of
had trouble keeping himself together, youknow, really, to say the least,
(10:05):
he was kind of always late andhe couldn't find his passport. Oh,
he couldn't remember when you told himsomething, and he kind of needed
a handler almost they up babysitter,right. And also he loved to gamble,
and he also loved not to payback loans if you loan the money.
So he was the hard way.Didn't want to didn't necessarily want to
(10:28):
be in business with him, perse, is what you're telling me?
No, no, no, Buthe was hilarious and he was certainly unique,
and like I said, people didlove him. Well. You've also
in your book you write about youmentioned Chris Farley as well, And I
asked, so you only write aboutdead people, So there's no, you
know, possible litigation on that.Have you gotten blowback from anybody that you
(10:52):
wrote about in your book? No, not writing about but the paintings one
of them. I've gotten some blowbackon the paintings throughout my book on all
the talk shows about a year ago, and as a courtesy, I wanted
to ask some of the people thatI painted the subjects if they wouldn't mind
(11:13):
me taking their painting and using itto just kind of give an example on
the talk shows. And Steve Martinwas fine with it, and you know,
Jim Carrey, a whole handful ofpeople are fine with it. But
then Christopher Walkin didn't like his sohe he said on the most cucking Statics,
can you use this all your book? So I didn't use his painting.
(11:33):
So you're also a which is oneof my favorites. But you're a
renaissance man. You do a littlebit of everything. When did you start
painting. I've been doodling since Iwas a kid, but I only started
painting about a year before the pandemic, and then I did that all through
the pandemic, So I stayed prettybusy during that period of time. But
you know, I am. Maybeyou can call me a renaissance man,
(11:54):
but I'm not. Aside from thepainting, I'm not really good at it
any one thing. You know.I spread myself thin. Like I played
the guitar since I was ten andI'm still not that good at it.
And I played the five string banjosince I was eighteen, not that good
at it, you know what Imean. But I enjoy what I do.
I'm never bored. I always havesomething to do, which is great.
(12:16):
You also have a YouTube show thatI was unaware of. I could
blow smoke and tell you that Iwas a faithful viewer, but until this
morning, I didn't know that Hikingwith Kevin was even a thing. But
it's oddly interesting to watch you.And I just watched half of your episode
with Nick Offerman. As a matterof fact, I put it on the
blog today so people could see itif they wanted to watching two grown in
(12:37):
huffing and puffing through the interview asyou're hiking in some place beautiful in California.
Wherever you're hiking is absolutely gorgeous.How in the world did you come
up with that idea? Well,I do hike a lot in California,
mostly in the canyon is around LosAngeles and Malibu, although I have hiked
out the places like Nashville and theSmoky Mountains, and I've even done some
(12:58):
promos from Louise and Canada and Ireland. I was in Ireland last year I
hiked with Paul Reiser. So Icame up with it because I live in
California. I live near a lotof these canyons with are great trails.
And I called my friend Matthew Modine, who used to be in He was
in full metal jacket and he's inStranger Things now, And like I said,
(13:20):
we've known each other for a longtime. He had hosted SNL one
week and we became buddies from that. And I said, Matt, you
want to go for a hike.He goes, yeah, sure, we'll
catch up. And we're hiking andit's a pretty steep terrain and we were
both so out of breath. Youwouldn't believe how out of breath we were,
and it was difficult to converse witheach other because we were there's so
much you know, huffing and puffinggoing on. Like Matt came to California,
(13:46):
did you? And I thought thatwould be a funny bit to post
on Twitter. It was just atwo minute thing, and I would do
all these interstitials like two minutes,and then I started asking other friends,
and then I eventually ran out offriends to ask, so I started ending
uh letters to publicists to try toget their clients. But you had good
luck with that. I'm still doingit now. I'm just gonna say,
(14:09):
if you want to, if youwant to, like hike with enormy,
just a normal, not famous person. Hiking happens to be one of my
favorite things. I asked Kevin ifyou wanted to go hiking this weekend because
you're going to be in beautiful Coloradoand there's some great trails really close to
the comedy work south where you're goingto be. I'm just throwing that out
there. We do have a littlebit more altitude than you have in California
(14:30):
that you have to deal with.Yeah. No, this is real hiking
here and real hiking in Colorado.This what I do here. You could
call it strolling, maybe strolling ona little incline. I'm not even wearing
hiking boots. I have sometimes Ihave thongs on. If you have on
flip flops, you're not hiking.I have news for you. That's not
(14:52):
that's not a thing that those twothings do not go together. I know,
have you done any hiking. Iwas thinking about that, but I
do wear I do wear sneakers.Though. Have you done any hiking in
Colorado at all? Because I gotto tell you it's beautiful out here.
I have done hiking in Colorado overthe years, but nothing really serious,
not a trail that I might getlost. But I have hiked in a
(15:16):
lot of places. But again,I'm not a serious hiker. I don't,
you know. I don't own youknow, grappling hooks and rope and
stuff. You know. I justlike a day hike where I could just
go out and there's some you know, there's some altitude and some nice views.
I like views. That's what Ilike. That's why I hike as
well, for the views. Idon't do any of that grappling or the
(15:37):
or the or the you know,I don't do that. That just seems
like a lot of work. Youwere going to be at comedy Works this
weekend. I'm sure you've played thisclub before. Yeah, I love that
club. Yeah. I did mylast special there. Oh, very nice
what is it about Colorado audiences.I'm not really sure. I think that
there's a couple of places. Andthere's a reason why I picked Comedy and
(16:00):
Dever to do my special because somehowthe audience and I really connect. And
the other place where that happens isWashington, d C. And then also
the state of Washington itself up aroundSeattle, and I don't quite know what
it is, but I tend toget a kind of a sophisticated audience.
They're a club owner said, whenyou're coming to our club, we have
(16:23):
to order extra red wine and whitewine because that's the kind of audience that
you bring it. You know,other comics, like some of the like
the blue collar comics, you've gotto order you know, beer and chicken
wings for them, and the samewith some of the urban acts, you
know, Squavasier and chicken wings orwhatever. So that's kind of my audience
right there. Are there any comediansworking right now, young up and commers
(16:45):
that we should look at that youthink are are these people are getting it
done? Well, there's a lotof comics out there, and it's like
I said, there's you know,it's it's not such a novelty anymore.
Everyone from all walks of life aredoing up comedy, so it's kind of
hard to pick out one stand upcomic that that you're really loving. And
(17:07):
I try to watch these Netflix specials, but it's just so hard to keep
up with it all. Yeah,and I'm I'm not really as much into
other stand ups now as I usedto be. I was always interested in.
It's just kind of overwhelming sometimes theamount of stand up. But if
somebody is really good and different,it's all about being unique now because there
(17:29):
are so many stand up comics,you have to be so original and unique
so you stand out from the rest. Or you just have to be Kevin
Nealing. That's really all you haveto do if you want to go through
where you just have to be KevinNeil. Yeah, there you go.
If you want to go to theshow. The early shows are sold out
to the white and red wine crowdthat has to be in bed by nine
p thirty eight like me. Andthey do have a slast for the nine
(17:49):
show, so you you late nightdenizens can go see Kevin at the Comedy
Work South at the Landmark in GreenwoodVillage. He's going to be there on
Friday and Saturday night only, Soget your tickets today. Kevin, it
has been absolute blast talking to you. I've been a huge fan for a
long time. And if you everneed anore me to go hiking with you,
we can make that happen. I'mwildly entertaining on a hike, and
(18:11):
I always bring snacks. I'm sureyou are anywhere. Yeah, there you
go, Kevin. I appreciate youmaking time with us this morning. Have
a great weekend in Colorado, andmaybe, uh, maybe take a brisk
walk instead of the uh, insteadof the full hike. I might just
(18:32):
do that. I love brisk walks. All right, Kevin Neilan, thanks
for your time. We'll talk toagain soon, my friend. All right,
thanks, loving you. That isKevin Neilan. He will be at
comedy works this weekend. And uh, like I said, theo's tickets are
going fast on the blog. Inot only have that episode of hiking with
Kevin with Nick Offerman, I alsohave a link to buy his book called
(18:56):
uh, I Exaggerate My Brushing withFame. It came out in twenty twenty
two. So go see Kevin Nealonthis weekend.
Mandy Connell, you might have heardof me, and I know you've heard
of my next guest, Kevin Nielan, who I just chatted with on the
break and I'm pretty sure we're bestfriends now, Kevin, are we best
friends? Can we? Can wejust make a course? Can I?
Can I be in your next bookwhere you talk about all of your friends
and go from there? Yeah?Yeah, You'll be my best seat for
(00:21):
sure. There you go. Kevinis going to be in town this weekend
at Comedy Works, And as Isaid earlier in the show, if you
want to go to the early show, first of all, that means you're
my age. And those shows aresold out, so you've got some tickets
left for the nine forty five showson Friday and Saturday night. But Kevin,
you've been in this game for afor a hot minute. You've been
around for this a little bit.I have been around, I have,
(00:46):
I have. I have been aroundquite a bit around the country, the
world and around the world of standup comedy. And I love doing it.
It's all you ever wanted to do, Mandy. You know, I
started off wanting to be a standup and Saturday Night Live and weeds and
those Adam Sandler films. That wasall secondary and I welcomed it, but
(01:06):
I never stopped doing stand up man. I continued to do it to this
day. Well, the the moviesthat you did. My producer Anthony is
much younger than I am, andthe first thing he said was, oh,
my gosh, Kevin Neilan has beenpart of every great movie that Adam
Sandler's ever made. And I'm like, oh, Kevin Neilan has so much
stuff. Well beyond the Adam Sandleryears, you were part of Saturday Night
(01:29):
Live during its I think glory years, most recent Glory years, and you
created some incredibly iconic characters during thattime. What was your favorite character that
you ever did during that time orsince what has been? Is there any
that you look back with special affinity? Well, of course, I you
(01:52):
know, I have a special affinityto the real popular ones like Hans and
Franz or Mister Subliminal or the WeekendUpdate character. But you know when you
say character, I guess that wouldinclude just doing one sketch with that character.
And for me, this is theone that kind of really capsulizes my
whole kind of comedic persona. Andit was called the bathroom attendant. And
(02:15):
it was with Harvey Kaitel coming intoa very very small bathroom with just a
toilet and no stall, and Iwas the bathroom attendant with a tuxedo.
And yeah, he thought that Iwas using the bathroom, but I had
to assure him that I was thebathroom attendant and I worked there, and
so we didn't went through the wholeprocess. He'd sit down and I'd be
(02:36):
offering him cologne. We have newspaperswith the New York Times, we have
the daily News, and just wentthrough that whole thing, and it was
very uncomfortable for him, you know, as that character. And he even
started laughing through it. So Ithink for me that was probably one of
my favorite sketches. At least isit because he was so uncomfortable. I
mean, is it better for youwhen your comedy makes people slightly uncomfortable or
(03:01):
is it more about the laughs.I think it's about the laughs. I
mean, it's not about him breakingcharacter. I mean you didn't really see
it too much because he was holdinga newspaper over his head, and but
I you know, I think Ireally like the sketch to work on its
own and not have people laughing becausethe characters are the actors are breaking up
(03:23):
so and I'm really good about that. I don't think I've ever broken character
like I think a lot of theactors in the last few decades tend to
like to do. And the audiencelikes it, of course, but it's
a real disservice to the writers whowrote the sketch. So yeah, I
would. I would see. TheBathroom of Tenant was really one of my
favorite sketches, you know, Iam. I grew up on Carol Burnette,
(03:46):
The Kroll Burnette Show, and breakingcharacter was like the specialty of Harvey
Kaitel and that was so absolutely hysterical. But I get what you mean though,
because if you can do it straightto me, that makes the whole
thing funnier. But that being said, who are your comedy icons? Who
were the people that when you wereyoung, you you looked at and said,
man, that's what I want todo when I grow up? Well,
(04:11):
there was different phases for me.If you're saying when I grow up
that that could mean anytime, thatcould mean last week. But when I
was a kid, I loved alot of different comedians, and I would
there was be a section in thenewspaper called my Favorite Jokes by whoever was
the popular comics back then, andI would memorize those jokes, and then
I would go to neighborhood parties andI would tell them as if things really
(04:33):
happened to me that were these jokes. I'd say, for instance, Hey,
did you hear about this guy downtownhe stole a fire truck. I
stole a fire truck. And theywere it was incredulous. They all thought
I was telling the truth. Theysaid, O kidding. What happened to
him? I said, well,he was arrested by about an hour later
by some guy who stole a copcar. You know. So that's kind
(04:54):
of where I learned how to formulatechoke and you know, craft jokes.
And but some of the comics backthen were people like, you know,
Johnny Carson I liked, and Iliked. There was a guy named Stanley
Myron Handleman I liked, and ofcourse I liked Woody Allen and Richard Pryor.
But I remember one of the reasonsI decided to go to Los Angeles
(05:15):
to really get into it was andthis is the weirdest thing, but I
was raking leaves at my house inConnecticut, out in the yard, and
I had the radio on, andthen there was a news break saying that
Freddy Prince had died, and Irealized what an impact that had on the
world and how important stand up comedywas in comedy in general. So I
thought, that's really calling me,and I went to Los Angeles and started
getting into it and doing open micnights. How long did it take you
(05:39):
from your first open mic night towhen you started to be getting booked,
when people were like, wait aminute, this kid has something. Let's
see. Well, I did theTonight Show six years after I started,
which is pretty good, pretty impressive, I think, and I got called
over to do a panel, youknow, couch with them, which is,
(06:00):
you know, very rare. Sothat's I think back then, that
is the show that really validated youas a stand up and I started working
quite a bit after that. Butbefore that I had done the David Letterman
Show and some of the earlier showsthey had, like MERV Griffin in the
afternoon, So it really is onlya couple of years. It really really
happened pretty quickly for me. ThankGod. Well, you know, I've
talked to a lot of comedians,and they talk about those formative years when
(06:24):
they're really trying to work things out. What would you say is different about
the way you approach comedy now thanit was when it got started? Or
is it the same? Well,comedy is always evolving For me my stand
up act. When you first start, you're always emulating somebody. All the
comics are when you go into aclub, and at that point, there
(06:45):
weren't a lot of people doing standup. It was a novelty thing.
Most most of the audience had neverbeen to a comedy club before. They've
never seen a live stand up comic. And I knew pretty much everybody's act
from being in the club. Iknew Jerry's tifelzact by heart. I knew
Hawy Mandel, I knew all ofthe commics, Jay Leno, Letterman,
I see them all, Rob andWilliams. And then all of a sudden,
(07:10):
I go off to New York andI'm doing you know, SNL,
and I'm doing other shows and I'mnever giving up stand up. I'm still
doing it, but I'm not livingin the clubs anymore like I used to
it at the Improvment Hollywood, andnow at this point, it's accessible to
the world and there's everybody doing standup now. There's you know, Iranians,
there's Pakistanis, there's you know,people from China and all over the
(07:35):
world, and which is great becauseI think we can never have enough stand
up comedy. But for me,it's always a growth for me, and
I'm always looking to find ways tobe different and to keep myself interested too.
So as I get older, it'smore about my life and my observation
(07:55):
of different things. And it's alsokind of grown a little dark too,
getting older. And you know,I've been in radio. I've had my
own show for almost twenty years now, and I'm choking on that as I
say it. And I found thatmy sense of humor has changed because I'm
kind of immersed. I'm drinking politicswith a fire nose every day, and
(08:16):
it's kind of hard to keep thatkind of slap dash sort of humor that
I know I had when I wasyoung. And I'm kind of sad about
that. I don't mean to getmelancholy, but the things that used to
make me laugh uproariously when I wasyounger are maybe not as funny to me
now. Is that like a naturalevolution or have I just ruined my life
with this job? Yeah, Imean I think you did become a little
(08:41):
hardened to different comedic situations where you'veseen it enough where it's not that,
you know, it's not that shockinganymore. You know. It's like when
I like to go on YouTube andI watch, you know, these kids
that are shredding them with the guitaror the piano when I'm like six years
old, you know, because theywatch other people on YouTube, and it's
(09:01):
like, to the point now,it really doesn't impress me that much.
What do you what do you Yeah, you're being a fiddle or something.
You know. Let me ask aboutyour book. I exaggerate my brushes with
fame because you've actually written because somebodysaid, do you have any memorable moments
of Norm MacDonald? Because you've workedwith I feel like you're kind of at
(09:22):
the point now where it's like,oh, yeah, you're wonder we can
do seven degrees from Kevin Nealan atthis point because you've worked with so many
people. So do you have anythingto share about Norm or some of the
other people you've worked with. Well, I have a lot of stories about
Norman They're included in my book calledI Exaggerate My Brushes with Fame, Right,
(09:43):
I just do a lot of celebritycaricatures, and a lot of them
are the people I know, likeNorm McDonald or Chris Farley or Dana Carvey,
Steve Martin, and we the NormMcDonald Norman. People love Norman.
Norma is so likable and and yethe was kind of he was kind of
had trouble keeping himself together, youknow, really, to say the least,
(10:05):
he was kind of always late andhe couldn't find his passport. Oh,
he couldn't remember when you told himsomething, and he kind of needed
a handler almost they up babysitter,right. And also he loved to gamble,
and he also loved not to payback loans if you loan the money.
So he was the hard way.Didn't want to didn't necessarily want to
(10:28):
be in business with him, perse, is what you're telling me?
No, no, no, Buthe was hilarious and he was certainly unique,
and like I said, people didlove him. Well. You've also
in your book you write about youmentioned Chris Farley as well, And I
asked, so you only write aboutdead people, So there's no, you
know, possible litigation on that.Have you gotten blowback from anybody that you
(10:52):
wrote about in your book? No, not writing about but the paintings one
of them. I've gotten some blowbackon the paintings throughout my book on all
the talk shows about a year ago, and as a courtesy, I wanted
to ask some of the people thatI painted the subjects if they wouldn't mind
(11:13):
me taking their painting and using itto just kind of give an example on
the talk shows. And Steve Martinwas fine with it, and you know,
Jim Carrey, a whole handful ofpeople are fine with it. But
then Christopher Walkin didn't like his sohe he said on the most cucking Statics,
can you use this all your book? So I didn't use his painting.
(11:33):
So you're also a which is oneof my favorites. But you're a
renaissance man. You do a littlebit of everything. When did you start
painting. I've been doodling since Iwas a kid, but I only started
painting about a year before the pandemic, and then I did that all through
the pandemic, So I stayed prettybusy during that period of time. But
you know, I am. Maybeyou can call me a renaissance man,
(11:54):
but I'm not. Aside from thepainting, I'm not really good at it
any one thing. You know.I spread myself thin. Like I played
the guitar since I was ten andI'm still not that good at it.
And I played the five string banjosince I was eighteen, not that good
at it, you know what Imean. But I enjoy what I do.
I'm never bored. I always havesomething to do, which is great.
(12:16):
You also have a YouTube show thatI was unaware of. I could
blow smoke and tell you that Iwas a faithful viewer, but until this
morning, I didn't know that Hikingwith Kevin was even a thing. But
it's oddly interesting to watch you.And I just watched half of your episode
with Nick Offerman. As a matterof fact, I put it on the
blog today so people could see itif they wanted to watching two grown in
(12:37):
huffing and puffing through the interview asyou're hiking in some place beautiful in California.
Wherever you're hiking is absolutely gorgeous.How in the world did you come
up with that idea? Well,I do hike a lot in California,
mostly in the canyon is around LosAngeles and Malibu, although I have hiked
out the places like Nashville and theSmoky Mountains, and I've even done some
(12:58):
promos from Louise and Canada and Ireland. I was in Ireland last year I
hiked with Paul Reiser. So Icame up with it because I live in
California. I live near a lotof these canyons with are great trails.
And I called my friend Matthew Modine, who used to be in He was
in full metal jacket and he's inStranger Things now, And like I said,
(13:20):
we've known each other for a longtime. He had hosted SNL one
week and we became buddies from that. And I said, Matt, you
want to go for a hike.He goes, yeah, sure, we'll
catch up. And we're hiking andit's a pretty steep terrain and we were
both so out of breath. Youwouldn't believe how out of breath we were,
and it was difficult to converse witheach other because we were there's so
much you know, huffing and puffinggoing on. Like Matt came to California,
(13:46):
did you? And I thought thatwould be a funny bit to post
on Twitter. It was just atwo minute thing, and I would do
all these interstitials like two minutes,and then I started asking other friends,
and then I eventually ran out offriends to ask, so I started ending
uh letters to publicists to try toget their clients. But you had good
luck with that. I'm still doingit now. I'm just gonna say,
(14:09):
if you want to, if youwant to, like hike with enormy,
just a normal, not famous person. Hiking happens to be one of my
favorite things. I asked Kevin ifyou wanted to go hiking this weekend because
you're going to be in beautiful Coloradoand there's some great trails really close to
the comedy work south where you're goingto be. I'm just throwing that out
there. We do have a littlebit more altitude than you have in California
(14:30):
that you have to deal with.Yeah. No, this is real hiking
here and real hiking in Colorado.This what I do here. You could
call it strolling, maybe strolling ona little incline. I'm not even wearing
hiking boots. I have sometimes Ihave thongs on. If you have on
flip flops, you're not hiking.I have news for you. That's not
(14:52):
that's not a thing that those twothings do not go together. I know,
have you done any hiking. Iwas thinking about that, but I
do wear I do wear sneakers.Though. Have you done any hiking in
Colorado at all? Because I gotto tell you it's beautiful out here.
I have done hiking in Colorado overthe years, but nothing really serious,
not a trail that I might getlost. But I have hiked in a
(15:16):
lot of places. But again,I'm not a serious hiker. I don't,
you know. I don't own youknow, grappling hooks and rope and
stuff. You know. I justlike a day hike where I could just
go out and there's some you know, there's some altitude and some nice views.
I like views. That's what Ilike. That's why I hike as
well, for the views. Idon't do any of that grappling or the
(15:37):
or the or the you know,I don't do that. That just seems
like a lot of work. Youwere going to be at comedy Works this
weekend. I'm sure you've played thisclub before. Yeah, I love that
club. Yeah. I did mylast special there. Oh, very nice
what is it about Colorado audiences.I'm not really sure. I think that
there's a couple of places. Andthere's a reason why I picked Comedy and
(16:00):
Dever to do my special because somehowthe audience and I really connect. And
the other place where that happens isWashington, d C. And then also
the state of Washington itself up aroundSeattle, and I don't quite know what
it is, but I tend toget a kind of a sophisticated audience.
They're a club owner said, whenyou're coming to our club, we have
(16:23):
to order extra red wine and whitewine because that's the kind of audience that
you bring it. You know,other comics, like some of the like
the blue collar comics, you've gotto order you know, beer and chicken
wings for them, and the samewith some of the urban acts, you
know, Squavasier and chicken wings orwhatever. So that's kind of my audience
right there. Are there any comediansworking right now, young up and commers
(16:45):
that we should look at that youthink are are these people are getting it
done? Well, there's a lotof comics out there, and it's like
I said, there's you know,it's it's not such a novelty anymore.
Everyone from all walks of life aredoing up comedy, so it's kind of
hard to pick out one stand upcomic that that you're really loving. And
(17:07):
I try to watch these Netflix specials, but it's just so hard to keep
up with it all. Yeah,and I'm I'm not really as much into
other stand ups now as I usedto be. I was always interested in.
It's just kind of overwhelming sometimes theamount of stand up. But if
somebody is really good and different,it's all about being unique now because there
(17:29):
are so many stand up comics,you have to be so original and unique
so you stand out from the rest. Or you just have to be Kevin
Nealing. That's really all you haveto do if you want to go through
where you just have to be KevinNeil. Yeah, there you go.
If you want to go to theshow. The early shows are sold out
to the white and red wine crowdthat has to be in bed by nine
p thirty eight like me. Andthey do have a slast for the nine
(17:49):
show, so you you late nightdenizens can go see Kevin at the Comedy
Work South at the Landmark in GreenwoodVillage. He's going to be there on
Friday and Saturday night only, Soget your tickets today. Kevin, it
has been absolute blast talking to you. I've been a huge fan for a
long time. And if you everneed anore me to go hiking with you,
we can make that happen. I'mwildly entertaining on a hike, and
(18:11):
I always bring snacks. I'm sureyou are anywhere. Yeah, there you
go, Kevin. I appreciate youmaking time with us this morning. Have
a great weekend in Colorado, andmaybe, uh, maybe take a brisk
walk instead of the uh, insteadof the full hike. I might just
(18:32):
do that. I love brisk walks. All right, Kevin Neilan, thanks
for your time. We'll talk toagain soon, my friend. All right,
thanks, loving you. That isKevin Neilan. He will be at
comedy works this weekend. And uh, like I said, theo's tickets are
going fast on the blog. Inot only have that episode of hiking with
Kevin with Nick Offerman, I alsohave a link to buy his book called
(18:56):
uh, I Exaggerate My Brushing withFame. It came out in twenty twenty
two. So go see Kevin Nealonthis weekend.
The Mandy Connell Podcast News
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