May 16, 2025 • 14 mins
Kevin Nealon joins The Show and talks SNL, what shows we are watching and building his comedy set
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
We are very excited. Today is Free Comedy Friday, and
we have a true legend sitting in here with us
right now, joining us. He's performing at the American Comedy
Company this weekend, a couple of shows tonight, a couple
of shows tomorrow night. The Great Kevin Nelan is in
the studio with us this morning. How's it going, Kevin, Well.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is usually where they have the pre taped audience uplan.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah, we'll do it live. We'll do
it in studio. Audience very excited.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Well, it's nice to be legendary. Yes, you know what
legend you are. You are a true, true legend. What's
the difference is it legend? You have to be dead,
don't you No, No.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
You're a living legend, living legendary, legendary.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It could be possibly a legend. Okay in that ILK Yeah, yeah,
I agreed, agreed, so Kevin. Yesterday we had Anthony Michael
Hall on the show. Yes, yeah, it was really cool.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
From the club, yes yeah. And Saturday Night Live he
was on that one Crazy.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Sea Crazy season you know, before your cast. Yeah, it
was actually yeah, right after that cast. During that cast,
the show is at the lowest point the native of existence,
and I think they were getting ready to pull the
plug out. Yeah, and so when we came on, we
were all living out of our suitcase. We were not
unpacking each Oh wow, really, maybe it would get canceled.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
No kidding, We never unpacked, by the way. You never know, yeah, yeah,
you never. It's got to be prepared.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
So, yeah, that he was talking about just recently being
at the Saturday Night Live Big Fiftiest show and all
that stuff and saying how cool was to see everybody.
You obviously were there too, Now, how how was that
show for you? What was that experience? Like, well, it's incredible.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I never thought they'd be able to pull it off
fifty years of and of course they weren't able to
get everything on there. Yeah, yeah, but I liked it.
I loved the musical night, like from all the bands,
like a couple.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Oh yeah, that was really cool.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh that was just amazing.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
And then and yeah, it's like he said, you see
all of these people, it's like being in the Hollywood
and Whack Museum or something.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Well, you know, you look in the audience even and
in the audience it was so many stars. I mean,
and we're talking like big A listers, you know, like yeah,
like the legend, like the legend Kevin Neelan, you know,
one hundred percent. And so when you go look back
at the cast of all these years, I don't know
how they were able to get everybody a piece of it,
(02:22):
you know, I mean you, because there was obviously you
got Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, you everyone, I mean, Will
Ferrell and they all everybody seemed to get a little
piece of the pie, which was cool.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, the only piece I got was Bill Murray saying
I was number nine. I was waiting to.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Ask you about what you thought this weekend up date.
I'm sitting there in the audience.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Now we've rated all the but and then he pulls
the first one, always calling quinnere you like, thank god,
I say, please, don't be I know, but that was
a bit, you know, because there's like a lot of
wee get up the host they didn't even include in that. Yeah,
those people, it was really fun. Then Brian Doyle Murray
(03:05):
was the best. Yeah, yeah, you know who who knows
who he is?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Did you?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
I thought it was a great Did you try to
get in there and say, you know, I'd like something
or did you know that was coming? Oh no, I
mean as far as the skit like, oh, try to
get involved, I would.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Think that they would do Hans and Franz or mister
Subliminal or yeah whatever. But I think I might have
been a a second of the Weekend Update the Spinning Hour.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Did they ask like or do were there things thrown out?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Or how did they know that I know of. I
mean there's there was so many casts.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
Yeah, yeah, there's so many special like bits that they've
done over the years.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, spent a lot of time. I did that show
back in the nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
That's how you get legendary status. It is crazy.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
But yeah, so there's so many people on that show.
I don't know how they pulled it off to begin with.
I mean there's a lot of people that they weren't
even mentioned. Yes they got mentioned.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, I wish I knew he was there.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I probably wouldn't have recognized that when he was on
that show.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
He's like seventeen, honestly, yeah he was, and he was
scrawny and like, you know, he looked like Anthony Michael
Hall from the eighties, but now he's like a completely
gah when he was on this season of Reacher. I
didn't recognize him. I didn't know that. I didn't even
know it was him at first. And I loved all
his movies from back in the day. Did you watch Recharch?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
You know what? Reach? No, but I always know that
he was a Reacher. I've heard that I got so
many shows I want to watch, and I just heard
the Studio is good.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
So I just I just watched the Studio with seth Rogen.
It's phenomenal. It's fast paced, like and it' shot like
old school. Everyone's in it. I don't know how they
got like everyone in it. Scorsese's in it, and like
they just recreated the Golden Globes for an episode. It's
really funny and it's it gives you like an inside
look of how things are done and how everyone just
wants something.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Was I in it at all?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
But I haven't seen the new episode. Okay, I don't
know next one.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
So that one I heard is good. Secession. I haven't
watched that. I just watched Severance, That's what I mean. Sessions.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Yeah, the Severence is insane, and White Lotus was great.
Emily watches White.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
TV.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
That's just so much. Man, it's you know in my day,
you know, you say, has nothing on TV anymore? Now
it's too much. Too much's too much content.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
You can't watch it all.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
It's you gotta have like five TVs.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Honestly, that is.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
What's good about having friends is that you'll hear. Okay,
So I watched Severns because he's told me it was good,
because otherwise I don't know how I would narrow it down.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Here's how you would do it. I just thought about this.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Say you want to see five shows, you only have
a week, see all five binge, watch them, go to
the next to the last episode the last season, watched
the recap the whole season, and then go right into it.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So you're just watching one episode and a recap. Yeah,
that's brilliant. I feel like I'm going to miss something probably,
But you don't do that with the studio. Severance may
be tough, which she may be watching. Yeah, good advice.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You know. Here's what happened to me lately. I watched
with my son.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Yeah, and we start watching like around nine thirty, ten o'clock,
and I start watching it and then all of a sudden,
I'm like that you're wake should we just.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Turn it off?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I fall Asleepeah, I'm the exactly good old dad. Yeah.
Well we wake up super early, so I mean my
nine o'clock my eyes start getting heavy.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I know.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
I'm like, I better turn this off because I'm going
to miss the whole thing. It's like reading a book. Yeah,
then you gotta start all over from the beginning. It's
the worst.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I did that three times with and Or.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
It can be a little slow at times, so I
get the exact same thing of like I start to
get the heavy eyes.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I say that a lot on my act.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Yeah, all of a sudden the eyes start falling down
late nine thirty. Stop that. Pick a little coffee beforehand.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
The best.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
A lot of times I will sell out my shows
and they have to add a show congression. They will
add like a five o'clock show or Matta two.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And I love that.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I come right from my nap and right vinfore at
the American Comedy Company. Now, what is your What is
a Kevin Kneeland stand up show? Are you telling stories
or are you telling jokes or what both? What's going
on there?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
First of all, that's a great question.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah, thank you. I don't know what I do. I
really don't know, just like, well.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
You know, my.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Stand up is very conversational, very you know, it's not
laid back, but it's I'm not one of these in
your face comics. You're very controversial, you know, although my
wife and my son only see me like maybe three
times in my career really because they're so afraid I'm
going to get canceled. Because there was that nervousness for
a while. Yeah, and so like, you know, I have
(07:49):
three jokes left. You know, you can't mention paper because
there's a paper strike.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Strike.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Yeah, but they meanwhile, so yeah, so my my act
is kind of a kind of a dark, kind of
a twist to it. I like dark humor and a
little bit silly. But I did just shoot my third special,
Like what comic hasn't. Yeah, I went on Netflix to
see backgrounds, you know, like what they were using for
backgrounds on their set. Because I was trying to take something.
(08:18):
I scrolled down a Netflix. There's gotta be at least
a hundred.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
When I was when I was a kid, there was
Comedy Central was like you had like a thirty minute
special or you had the big one, a HBO.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
You're cute. When I was growing up, you would have
like the Eddie Murphy raw tape. Yeah, like you didn't have,
you know.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Now it's every comic has a special. Now we're talking
about the eighteen hundred.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah that is d c R. Don't you want to
get in?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You know?
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Anyway, I'm about to shoot the special. I'm looking at
the backgrounds and I see David Spade special, you know,
after looking like ten of them just for the background,
and I see Spade doing it and it's like a
year ago. Have a long o, yes, And I said,
I'll just watch the beginning of his act to see
what he's doing pretty much the same joke I was
going to start off with. You know, he made it
like a five minute hunk. I just had a one
(09:11):
hit and run.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So I had to get rid of that.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
And that was my tone setter for my I was like,
that gets everybody on my side, you know, and then
I just coast after that, I go to the air Britishly,
so I had to replace that. Then I had to
shift the whole beginning and then there was another and
then I start watching other people people are doing like
the same areas that I'm doing, whether it's a bidet
or you know whatever. Yeah, and I'm like, God, after
(09:36):
this special, man, I got to like do something where
nobody else is doing my kind of comments, you know,
and I don't know what that is.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Okay, well that's that's gonna be tricky.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Good thing to watch, that Spade thing, because then people
would have been like, you know, Kevin Neil and stealing
space or whatever.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
There was another joke a friend of mine gave me,
and I thought it was his joke, and I come
to find out it's not his joke.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
It was a joke. Well, here's the joke.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
People, you know, have to be look at things in
perspective sometimes, Like I know of a guy he has
sex twice a day, he reads three books a week,
and he's always working out, and yet here he is
still complaining about being in prison.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
I love that joke. Yeah, I was gonna do that,
and I just just a double check.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
I googled it and some guy, god, I forget his name,
but he was in prison for a while, so his
whole act is about being in prison.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Similar joke. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Oh wow, man, Well it is tough, I guess, you know,
because I mean there's so many different comics out there that.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Yeah, I think you got to make it as personal
as possible, because no one else is going to be
doing a joke your wife, unless.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
That's my wife you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, you can see the act again. American Comedy Company,
A couple of shows tonight, a couple of shows tomorrow night.
Right before we went on the air, you were telling us,
uh that, you know, speaking of the old VCR, you
would record all of your episodes of Saturday Night Life
on VCR tape yea, like on videotape.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
I would be on Saturday morning before I went into
thirty Rock. I would set the VCR.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You had to set the timer timer.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
A lot of people don't know what the hsdhs, but
it's it's antique.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
And then what would you do with you would you
go back and watch all your critique yourself, like watching
watching myself.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
I just wanted to have it just in case whatever,
for you know storage. Yeah, not that I like the show.
I love the HS tape.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I collect them. Oh that's so cool, what a cool
thing to have. I watched that.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
I watched that SNL documentary on Peacock and it was
like they did a day with the new SNL writers
and like I think it was the Monday at or
the Tuesday where they have to go in and write
everything and they're all up till minute. It seems like
the most stress Yeah, on the pitch and like the
writing everything, it seems like the most stressful thing I've
ever seen in my life. Did you have like a
million ideas or were you literally just like it was
(11:58):
two am and you're still to think of something and you.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Well, first of all, that was the most ridiculous schedule ever.
I mean it came from the original years when they
were doing coke and all that, and.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
They still have They still have that same schedule. It's
so weird.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
The sketches would be so much better if they came
in at say eleven in the morning. Yeah, worked until
maybe eleven at night if you want to get a
long way, and instead it's like you're like it, I
never stayed that late.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I would say maybe two o'clock.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
What is the schedule? Because I didn't see the special,
Like what is it? How late is it? It's all yeah,
it's all night.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
You got you got to get your sketches to the PA.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
So they can type them up at the time and
and then get them ready for rethrow, and then everybody's
exhausted or rethrough. I think it's more of a it's
a traditional thing, but they really need to.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Make a passage right almost. Was there anyone?
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Was there anyone in your cast that just couldn't handle
the stress and when freak because I know, like Larry
David always talks about how when he was on Starting
Alive he quit because he couldn't take it anymore, none
of his touches were getting in, and then he tried
to come back as if he'd never quit.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So like, was there anyone on your cast that was
like that? Well, I'm reading that book now called Lauren.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, oh yeah, my wife read it and coming down
every morning saying, oh did you know that Jim Downey
the head writer, blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yes, I did know.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
I was there, but you know, as far as there
was a lot of people that just couldn't handle it,
I mean throwing chairs and oh I got imagined because
a lot of people wanted to become stars overnight. Yeah,
I didn't care. I just was happy because I was
a stand up comic. I didn't do any sketches or
characters or accents. The only British accent I could do
(13:40):
was John Lennon. You know, when it came around the room,
everybody's doing a great British accent. Whether mine's from South Manchester,
mine's you know, and I mine is like from Liverpool,
John Lenon, you know. And so there were some people
that wanted to be stars overnight and they were impatient,
and for me, I was happy to have that job.
I don't know how I got that job. People asked
me to say, how did you how did you get
on Saturday Live, although they phrased them like this, how
(14:00):
did you get.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
The emphasis on a certain work? Different questions like that.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
So I've seen quite a few people come and go quickly. Yeah,
it's like kind of like I felt like a convict
in prison. Come new people coming in. Yeah, yeah, it's
not going to last long.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
More prison jokes. Be careful, Kevin. Awesome that you're in town.
Can't wait to see you this weekend. American Comedy Company.
Go see Kevin nealand a couple of shows tonight, a
couple of shows tomorrow night. Great seeing you again. Yeah,
you guys, thinking it's been nice
We are very excited. Today is Free Comedy Friday, and
we have a true legend sitting in here with us
right now, joining us. He's performing at the American Comedy
Company this weekend, a couple of shows tonight, a couple
of shows tomorrow night. The Great Kevin Nelan is in
the studio with us this morning. How's it going, Kevin, Well.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
This is usually where they have the pre taped audience uplan.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah, we'll do it live. We'll do
it in studio. Audience very excited.
Speaker 4 (00:34):
Well, it's nice to be legendary. Yes, you know what
legend you are. You are a true, true legend. What's
the difference is it legend? You have to be dead,
don't you No, No.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
You're a living legend, living legendary, legendary.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It could be possibly a legend. Okay in that ILK Yeah, yeah,
I agreed, agreed, so Kevin. Yesterday we had Anthony Michael
Hall on the show. Yes, yeah, it was really cool.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
From the club, yes yeah. And Saturday Night Live he
was on that one Crazy.
Speaker 4 (01:02):
Sea Crazy season you know, before your cast. Yeah, it
was actually yeah, right after that cast. During that cast,
the show is at the lowest point the native of existence,
and I think they were getting ready to pull the
plug out. Yeah, and so when we came on, we
were all living out of our suitcase. We were not
unpacking each Oh wow, really, maybe it would get canceled.
Speaker 3 (01:20):
No kidding, We never unpacked, by the way. You never know, yeah, yeah,
you never. It's got to be prepared.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well.
Speaker 1 (01:28):
So, yeah, that he was talking about just recently being
at the Saturday Night Live Big Fiftiest show and all
that stuff and saying how cool was to see everybody.
You obviously were there too, Now, how how was that
show for you? What was that experience? Like, well, it's incredible.
Speaker 4 (01:41):
I never thought they'd be able to pull it off
fifty years of and of course they weren't able to
get everything on there. Yeah, yeah, but I liked it.
I loved the musical night, like from all the bands,
like a couple.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Oh yeah, that was really cool.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Oh that was just amazing.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
And then and yeah, it's like he said, you see
all of these people, it's like being in the Hollywood
and Whack Museum or something.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Well, you know, you look in the audience even and
in the audience it was so many stars. I mean,
and we're talking like big A listers, you know, like yeah,
like the legend, like the legend Kevin Neelan, you know,
one hundred percent. And so when you go look back
at the cast of all these years, I don't know
how they were able to get everybody a piece of it,
(02:22):
you know, I mean you, because there was obviously you
got Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, you everyone, I mean, Will
Ferrell and they all everybody seemed to get a little
piece of the pie, which was cool.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Well, the only piece I got was Bill Murray saying
I was number nine. I was waiting to.
Speaker 3 (02:39):
Ask you about what you thought this weekend up date.
I'm sitting there in the audience.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
Now we've rated all the but and then he pulls
the first one, always calling quinnere you like, thank god,
I say, please, don't be I know, but that was
a bit, you know, because there's like a lot of
wee get up the host they didn't even include in that. Yeah,
those people, it was really fun. Then Brian Doyle Murray
(03:05):
was the best. Yeah, yeah, you know who who knows
who he is?
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (03:10):
Did you?
Speaker 1 (03:11):
I thought it was a great Did you try to
get in there and say, you know, I'd like something
or did you know that was coming? Oh no, I
mean as far as the skit like, oh, try to
get involved, I would.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
Think that they would do Hans and Franz or mister
Subliminal or yeah whatever. But I think I might have
been a a second of the Weekend Update the Spinning Hour.
Speaker 3 (03:29):
Did they ask like or do were there things thrown out?
Speaker 2 (03:33):
Or how did they know that I know of. I
mean there's there was so many casts.
Speaker 5 (03:36):
Yeah, yeah, there's so many special like bits that they've
done over the years.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Yeah, spent a lot of time. I did that show
back in the nineteen hundreds.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
That's how you get legendary status. It is crazy.
Speaker 4 (03:50):
But yeah, so there's so many people on that show.
I don't know how they pulled it off to begin with.
I mean there's a lot of people that they weren't
even mentioned. Yes they got mentioned.
Speaker 3 (03:57):
Yeah, I wish I knew he was there.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
I probably wouldn't have recognized that when he was on
that show.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
He's like seventeen, honestly, yeah he was, and he was
scrawny and like, you know, he looked like Anthony Michael
Hall from the eighties, but now he's like a completely
gah when he was on this season of Reacher. I
didn't recognize him. I didn't know that. I didn't even
know it was him at first. And I loved all
his movies from back in the day. Did you watch Recharch?
Speaker 4 (04:21):
You know what? Reach? No, but I always know that
he was a Reacher. I've heard that I got so
many shows I want to watch, and I just heard
the Studio is good.
Speaker 5 (04:33):
So I just I just watched the Studio with seth Rogen.
It's phenomenal. It's fast paced, like and it' shot like
old school. Everyone's in it. I don't know how they
got like everyone in it. Scorsese's in it, and like
they just recreated the Golden Globes for an episode. It's
really funny and it's it gives you like an inside
look of how things are done and how everyone just
wants something.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Was I in it at all?
Speaker 3 (04:55):
But I haven't seen the new episode. Okay, I don't
know next one.
Speaker 4 (04:58):
So that one I heard is good. Secession. I haven't
watched that. I just watched Severance, That's what I mean. Sessions.
Speaker 3 (05:05):
Yeah, the Severence is insane, and White Lotus was great.
Emily watches White.
Speaker 2 (05:13):
TV.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
That's just so much. Man, it's you know in my day,
you know, you say, has nothing on TV anymore? Now
it's too much. Too much's too much content.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
You can't watch it all.
Speaker 2 (05:23):
It's you gotta have like five TVs.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Honestly, that is.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
What's good about having friends is that you'll hear. Okay,
So I watched Severns because he's told me it was good,
because otherwise I don't know how I would narrow it down.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Here's how you would do it. I just thought about this.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Say you want to see five shows, you only have
a week, see all five binge, watch them, go to
the next to the last episode the last season, watched
the recap the whole season, and then go right into it.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
So you're just watching one episode and a recap. Yeah,
that's brilliant. I feel like I'm going to miss something probably,
But you don't do that with the studio. Severance may
be tough, which she may be watching. Yeah, good advice.
Speaker 2 (06:02):
You know. Here's what happened to me lately. I watched
with my son.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Yeah, and we start watching like around nine thirty, ten o'clock,
and I start watching it and then all of a sudden,
I'm like that you're wake should we just.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
Turn it off?
Speaker 3 (06:15):
I fall Asleepeah, I'm the exactly good old dad. Yeah.
Well we wake up super early, so I mean my
nine o'clock my eyes start getting heavy.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
I know.
Speaker 3 (06:23):
I'm like, I better turn this off because I'm going
to miss the whole thing. It's like reading a book. Yeah,
then you gotta start all over from the beginning. It's
the worst.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I did that three times with and Or.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
It can be a little slow at times, so I
get the exact same thing of like I start to
get the heavy eyes.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I say that a lot on my act.
Speaker 3 (06:39):
Yeah, all of a sudden the eyes start falling down
late nine thirty. Stop that. Pick a little coffee beforehand.
Speaker 2 (06:50):
The best.
Speaker 3 (06:51):
Uh.
Speaker 2 (06:52):
You know.
Speaker 4 (06:52):
A lot of times I will sell out my shows
and they have to add a show congression. They will
add like a five o'clock show or Matta two.
Speaker 2 (06:58):
And I love that.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
I come right from my nap and right vinfore at
the American Comedy Company. Now, what is your What is
a Kevin Kneeland stand up show? Are you telling stories
or are you telling jokes or what both? What's going
on there?
Speaker 2 (07:17):
First of all, that's a great question.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Yeah, thank you. I don't know what I do. I
really don't know, just like, well.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
You know, my.
Speaker 4 (07:27):
Stand up is very conversational, very you know, it's not
laid back, but it's I'm not one of these in
your face comics. You're very controversial, you know, although my
wife and my son only see me like maybe three
times in my career really because they're so afraid I'm
going to get canceled. Because there was that nervousness for
a while. Yeah, and so like, you know, I have
(07:49):
three jokes left. You know, you can't mention paper because
there's a paper strike.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Strike.
Speaker 4 (07:57):
Yeah, but they meanwhile, so yeah, so my my act
is kind of a kind of a dark, kind of
a twist to it. I like dark humor and a
little bit silly. But I did just shoot my third special,
Like what comic hasn't. Yeah, I went on Netflix to
see backgrounds, you know, like what they were using for
backgrounds on their set. Because I was trying to take something.
(08:18):
I scrolled down a Netflix. There's gotta be at least
a hundred.
Speaker 5 (08:23):
When I was when I was a kid, there was
Comedy Central was like you had like a thirty minute
special or you had the big one, a HBO.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
You're cute. When I was growing up, you would have
like the Eddie Murphy raw tape. Yeah, like you didn't have,
you know.
Speaker 4 (08:39):
Now it's every comic has a special. Now we're talking
about the eighteen hundred.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Yeah that is d c R. Don't you want to
get in?
Speaker 2 (08:49):
You know?
Speaker 4 (08:49):
Anyway, I'm about to shoot the special. I'm looking at
the backgrounds and I see David Spade special, you know,
after looking like ten of them just for the background,
and I see Spade doing it and it's like a
year ago. Have a long o, yes, And I said,
I'll just watch the beginning of his act to see
what he's doing pretty much the same joke I was
going to start off with. You know, he made it
like a five minute hunk. I just had a one
(09:11):
hit and run.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:12):
So I had to get rid of that.
Speaker 4 (09:13):
And that was my tone setter for my I was like,
that gets everybody on my side, you know, and then
I just coast after that, I go to the air Britishly,
so I had to replace that. Then I had to
shift the whole beginning and then there was another and
then I start watching other people people are doing like
the same areas that I'm doing, whether it's a bidet
or you know whatever. Yeah, and I'm like, God, after
(09:36):
this special, man, I got to like do something where
nobody else is doing my kind of comments, you know,
and I don't know what that is.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
Okay, well that's that's gonna be tricky.
Speaker 1 (09:46):
Good thing to watch, that Spade thing, because then people
would have been like, you know, Kevin Neil and stealing
space or whatever.
Speaker 4 (09:52):
There was another joke a friend of mine gave me,
and I thought it was his joke, and I come
to find out it's not his joke.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
It was a joke. Well, here's the joke.
Speaker 4 (10:01):
People, you know, have to be look at things in
perspective sometimes, Like I know of a guy he has
sex twice a day, he reads three books a week,
and he's always working out, and yet here he is
still complaining about being in prison.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
I love that joke. Yeah, I was gonna do that,
and I just just a double check.
Speaker 4 (10:23):
I googled it and some guy, god, I forget his name,
but he was in prison for a while, so his
whole act is about being in prison.
Speaker 3 (10:30):
Similar joke. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Oh wow, man, Well it is tough, I guess, you know,
because I mean there's so many different comics out there that.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
Yeah, I think you got to make it as personal
as possible, because no one else is going to be
doing a joke your wife, unless.
Speaker 3 (10:47):
That's my wife you're talking about.
Speaker 1 (10:51):
Yeah, you can see the act again. American Comedy Company,
A couple of shows tonight, a couple of shows tomorrow night.
Right before we went on the air, you were telling us,
uh that, you know, speaking of the old VCR, you
would record all of your episodes of Saturday Night Life
on VCR tape yea, like on videotape.
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Yep.
Speaker 4 (11:07):
I would be on Saturday morning before I went into
thirty Rock. I would set the VCR.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
You had to set the timer timer.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
A lot of people don't know what the hsdhs, but
it's it's antique.
Speaker 3 (11:19):
And then what would you do with you would you
go back and watch all your critique yourself, like watching
watching myself.
Speaker 4 (11:24):
I just wanted to have it just in case whatever,
for you know storage. Yeah, not that I like the show.
I love the HS tape.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
I collect them. Oh that's so cool, what a cool
thing to have. I watched that.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
I watched that SNL documentary on Peacock and it was
like they did a day with the new SNL writers
and like I think it was the Monday at or
the Tuesday where they have to go in and write
everything and they're all up till minute. It seems like
the most stress Yeah, on the pitch and like the
writing everything, it seems like the most stressful thing I've
ever seen in my life. Did you have like a
million ideas or were you literally just like it was
(11:58):
two am and you're still to think of something and you.
Speaker 4 (12:01):
Well, first of all, that was the most ridiculous schedule ever.
I mean it came from the original years when they
were doing coke and all that, and.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
They still have They still have that same schedule. It's
so weird.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
The sketches would be so much better if they came
in at say eleven in the morning. Yeah, worked until
maybe eleven at night if you want to get a
long way, and instead it's like you're like it, I
never stayed that late.
Speaker 2 (12:23):
I would say maybe two o'clock.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
What is the schedule? Because I didn't see the special,
Like what is it? How late is it? It's all yeah,
it's all night.
Speaker 2 (12:32):
You got you got to get your sketches to the PA.
Speaker 4 (12:37):
So they can type them up at the time and
and then get them ready for rethrow, and then everybody's
exhausted or rethrough. I think it's more of a it's
a traditional thing, but they really need to.
Speaker 3 (12:48):
Make a passage right almost. Was there anyone?
Speaker 5 (12:51):
Was there anyone in your cast that just couldn't handle
the stress and when freak because I know, like Larry
David always talks about how when he was on Starting
Alive he quit because he couldn't take it anymore, none
of his touches were getting in, and then he tried
to come back as if he'd never quit.
Speaker 2 (13:05):
So like, was there anyone on your cast that was
like that? Well, I'm reading that book now called Lauren.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
Yeah, oh yeah, my wife read it and coming down
every morning saying, oh did you know that Jim Downey
the head writer, blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
Yes, I did know.
Speaker 4 (13:20):
I was there, but you know, as far as there
was a lot of people that just couldn't handle it,
I mean throwing chairs and oh I got imagined because
a lot of people wanted to become stars overnight. Yeah,
I didn't care. I just was happy because I was
a stand up comic. I didn't do any sketches or
characters or accents. The only British accent I could do
(13:40):
was John Lennon. You know, when it came around the room,
everybody's doing a great British accent. Whether mine's from South Manchester,
mine's you know, and I mine is like from Liverpool,
John Lenon, you know. And so there were some people
that wanted to be stars overnight and they were impatient,
and for me, I was happy to have that job.
I don't know how I got that job. People asked
me to say, how did you how did you get
on Saturday Live, although they phrased them like this, how
(14:00):
did you get.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
The emphasis on a certain work? Different questions like that.
Speaker 4 (14:07):
So I've seen quite a few people come and go quickly. Yeah,
it's like kind of like I felt like a convict
in prison. Come new people coming in. Yeah, yeah, it's
not going to last long.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
More prison jokes. Be careful, Kevin. Awesome that you're in town.
Can't wait to see you this weekend. American Comedy Company.
Go see Kevin nealand a couple of shows tonight, a
couple of shows tomorrow night. Great seeing you again. Yeah,
you guys, thinking it's been nice
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