November 20, 2025 • 8 mins
Bret met comedy legend Kevin Nealon for the first time ever. They got along well and discussed Norm McDonald, vegetarianism and being bad at guitar.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hi, I'm Brett Sanders. It's been a minute. Let's welcome
Kevin Kneel into the microphone on this week's Brett Sonders Podcast.
I talked to Kevin the week of his seventy second birthday.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Oh the CDs you have, I know it. So that's our.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Wall of CDs. That's really the CDs are still there,
but it's a prop. We don't play them anymore.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I know, but nobody does. But you know, I kind
of miss all those physical things. You could hold it
in a hand, like an album or instead of a
link back then you can hold an album.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I remember where I was when.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
This came out and this the you can't look at
a link now go oh that Colin and that's forward slash.
I remember where I was when I first saw that hhtps.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And remember your friend Phil Hartman did album covers. He
did did Asia by Steely Dan America? Yeah, did that
famous America one the funniest dude. You know him from SNL,
you know him from Happy Gilmore's and I mean just
so much more. And it's just a thrilled to meet
you in person.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Thank you, right, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I was telling you before I turned the MIC's on
that We've talked maybe ten times.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah, never actually met on the phone. Sometimes we would
be close to each other, but we wouldn't look at
each other.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
We just talk.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Right now, we're actually looking at each other.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, ye, and yeah we were very very uh, very
shy at that time.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
A couple of days ago on social media, you posted
a photo of Norm MacDonald and Bob Saggott and you
just said, love these guys.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I loved Norm McDonald. I knew him a little bit,
and there was nobody like that guy, or Bob Saggott,
who was also really completely amiable dude.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, both great guys.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
A friend of mine, Jed Appatov, was doing a documentary
now in Norm McDonald. Yeah, so I'm looking forward to
seeing that one.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah. Norm was he was a special guy. He was
so unique. I remember, uh. I remember.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
They would try to get writers to write for a
weekend update when I was doing it, and nobody really
wanted to write for a weekend update because it was
you know, it wasn't a glorifying position. Nobody on Monday
would go, hey, that that joke about such and shuts
that was good.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
They wanted to talk about characters and accents. So Lauren Michael's,
the creator of the show, would put out a hot
buffet spread up in the writer's wing on Saturday morning
to try to get writers to come up and write jokes.
They put all kinds of newspapers on the table and
ap photos because there's no Google at the time. It's
back in the nineteen hundreds, and so the few people
(02:24):
that came up with Al Franken because he was a
political pundit at the time, and his partner Tom Davis,
and maybe a couple of new writers who weren't that good,
and then Norm would come up just to have breakfast
and read a paper.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
He wouldn't write anything.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Norm did Weekend Update after.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, after me.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
He offered such a unique perspective on things, kind of
twisted and dark and without a care what you thought
about it. You know, it's almost like he reveled in
the joy of you being squirming.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
That's why he was the best. Yeah, Kevin Nealan, it's
your birthday on Tuesday, by.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
The way happens.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Oh, she's it's right. I forgot about that. Yeah, congratulations,
thank you, thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Beautiful career and still a young man.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
A lot of time. I got a lot to be
grateful for.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
The tour is Loose in the Crotch. That's the name
of the tour.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
It's also my special, the special I have coming out soon.
I'm not sure what platform is going to be on,
but I haven't done a special in seven years. Last
time I did one was actually here the Comedy Works South.
Because it's just a beautiful room. I don't know if
everybody's anybody has been there, but it's uh, it has
laid out perfectly. It's one of these rooms where they
(03:33):
there's no obstructions. They got a balcony and only seats
ten people, so that's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Have you noticed that there is a difference. There are
certain towns where the comedy audience is a little more
tuned in, and I'd like to think that Denver is
one of those towns.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
That's why I did my special here because somehow I
connect with the people in Denver. I don't know what
it is, but we think a lot alike. And there's
a couple of towns like this.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
It's a DC.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Oddly is another good town for me in San Francisco.
Smart towns, all smart towns were kind of dark. They
like the dark stuff, you know, twisted stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
You're a vegetarian mostly, Yeah, does that make you funnier?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
No, No, I don't. I had to think about it.
I had to think about it. No, I don't think so.
It's you know, sometimes people say that people were vegetarians
or you know, they if they eat meat and then
become a vegetarian. I would hear this a lot. And
do you feel better? You feel a difference? I am
not really maybe price wise at the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
It was kind of a big move for me to
become vegetarian and not be sanctimonious about it. It took a
couple of years to get there, to be completely honest.
Oh yeah, no, I'm not in everybody in my family
eats a big steak or Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It's hard.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's hard to be around people and I plot them
and I'm but vegans. I mean, God bless them. I
don't know how they do it.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
No, No, I can't do that either, because I got
to have a little bit of dairy.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I mean it's also when you go out to eat
at a restaurant, is there a chicken stock in this?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Right?
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And so does this have butter in it? And it's
kind of like, oh, come on, why not eat home?
We should just eat at home?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
You know, I know, I'm jumping all over the place here, Kevin.
You were a guitarist when you were a kid. I'm
a guitarist. You're still a guitar.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, you play the guitar. No, I'm not good at all.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
I've been playing since I was ten, and I never
got good at it. I also played a five string
banjo poorly. I don't even need the five strings. Four
is enough for me. So my problem was I took
lessons when I was ten until I was probably fifteen
or so, and I would never play outside of my room.
(05:58):
It was always in a room we're playing with other people,
and that's where I should have done it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
It's like a language.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
You could study all you want, a language, but it's
quicker and easier to be a meshed in it, like
live in a Mexican city or somewhere in Spain.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
You know, you can't live in a guitar.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
You can't live in a guitar. I've tried, you have tried.
You can stick your head in there maybe, but that's
about it.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Oh, I wanted to plug one more thing before you go,
and that is your fantastic YouTube show where you take
comedians hiking.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Oh yeah, yeah, it's called Hiking with Kevin. It's on YouTube.
I hack with a different celebrity every hike, and it's
everyone from Colin O'Brien to Tom Hanks shoul Crow, mostly in
the canyons of Vla. And it's just I love doing it,
you know, it's fun. I also have a documentary that's
really released today on Apple TV. It's just called Come
(06:50):
See Me in the Good Light, and it's about these
two poets. One is a poet laureate Andrew Gibson. They
actually live right here in Boulder, and Megan Folly, and
it's just a beautiful, beautiful documentary.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It kind of.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Highlights their relationship and how Andrea comes down with a
terminal disease and it's inoperable. And but it's not one
of these movies about cancer, you know. It's so it's
actually really funny in a lot of parts and very moving.
It kind of changes your life and how you look
at the world. I really encourage people to see it.
(07:29):
It's on Apple TV, Apple TV today.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Brilliant and you know everybody's watching Pluribus right now, so
they can watch your thing too.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
That's right. I saw Pluribus?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Is that something?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah? Also very moving, will change your life.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I don't know what's going to happen next, and that's
why I like it.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, yeah, I like all those movies like The Walking
Dead and what is the Last?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
The Last of Us? Sure you know, but yeah, when's
the next one coming.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Out tonight so you can in between shows?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Right?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Clear? I love it. Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Quality entertainment, not just entertainment, but thoughtful enlightenment. Thank you, Kevin,
my pleasure. Thanks for having me, and thank you for listening.
I'll see you next time, Okay,
Hi, I'm Brett Sanders. It's been a minute. Let's welcome
Kevin Kneel into the microphone on this week's Brett Sonders Podcast.
I talked to Kevin the week of his seventy second birthday.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Oh the CDs you have, I know it. So that's our.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Wall of CDs. That's really the CDs are still there,
but it's a prop. We don't play them anymore.
Speaker 3 (00:17):
I know, but nobody does. But you know, I kind
of miss all those physical things. You could hold it
in a hand, like an album or instead of a
link back then you can hold an album.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
I remember where I was when.
Speaker 3 (00:29):
This came out and this the you can't look at
a link now go oh that Colin and that's forward slash.
I remember where I was when I first saw that hhtps.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And remember your friend Phil Hartman did album covers. He
did did Asia by Steely Dan America? Yeah, did that
famous America one the funniest dude. You know him from SNL,
you know him from Happy Gilmore's and I mean just
so much more. And it's just a thrilled to meet
you in person.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Thank you, right, thank you.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
I was telling you before I turned the MIC's on
that We've talked maybe ten times.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
Yeah, never actually met on the phone. Sometimes we would
be close to each other, but we wouldn't look at
each other.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
We just talk.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Right now, we're actually looking at each other.
Speaker 3 (01:10):
Yeah, ye, and yeah we were very very uh, very
shy at that time.
Speaker 1 (01:15):
A couple of days ago on social media, you posted
a photo of Norm MacDonald and Bob Saggott and you
just said, love these guys.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
I loved Norm McDonald. I knew him a little bit,
and there was nobody like that guy, or Bob Saggott,
who was also really completely amiable dude.
Speaker 2 (01:32):
Yeah, both great guys.
Speaker 3 (01:34):
A friend of mine, Jed Appatov, was doing a documentary
now in Norm McDonald. Yeah, so I'm looking forward to
seeing that one.
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Yeah. Norm was he was a special guy. He was
so unique. I remember, uh. I remember.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
They would try to get writers to write for a
weekend update when I was doing it, and nobody really
wanted to write for a weekend update because it was
you know, it wasn't a glorifying position. Nobody on Monday
would go, hey, that that joke about such and shuts
that was good.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
You know.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
They wanted to talk about characters and accents. So Lauren Michael's,
the creator of the show, would put out a hot
buffet spread up in the writer's wing on Saturday morning
to try to get writers to come up and write jokes.
They put all kinds of newspapers on the table and
ap photos because there's no Google at the time. It's
back in the nineteen hundreds, and so the few people
(02:24):
that came up with Al Franken because he was a
political pundit at the time, and his partner Tom Davis,
and maybe a couple of new writers who weren't that good,
and then Norm would come up just to have breakfast
and read a paper.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
He wouldn't write anything.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
Norm did Weekend Update after.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Yeah, after me.
Speaker 3 (02:42):
He offered such a unique perspective on things, kind of
twisted and dark and without a care what you thought
about it. You know, it's almost like he reveled in
the joy of you being squirming.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
That's why he was the best. Yeah, Kevin Nealan, it's
your birthday on Tuesday, by.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
The way happens.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Oh, she's it's right. I forgot about that. Yeah, congratulations,
thank you, thank you, appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
Beautiful career and still a young man.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
A lot of time. I got a lot to be
grateful for.
Speaker 1 (03:09):
The tour is Loose in the Crotch. That's the name
of the tour.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
It's also my special, the special I have coming out soon.
I'm not sure what platform is going to be on,
but I haven't done a special in seven years. Last
time I did one was actually here the Comedy Works South.
Because it's just a beautiful room. I don't know if
everybody's anybody has been there, but it's uh, it has
laid out perfectly. It's one of these rooms where they
(03:33):
there's no obstructions. They got a balcony and only seats
ten people, so that's pretty good.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
You know.
Speaker 1 (03:41):
Have you noticed that there is a difference. There are
certain towns where the comedy audience is a little more
tuned in, and I'd like to think that Denver is
one of those towns.
Speaker 3 (03:49):
That's why I did my special here because somehow I
connect with the people in Denver. I don't know what
it is, but we think a lot alike. And there's
a couple of towns like this.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
It's a DC.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
Oddly is another good town for me in San Francisco.
Smart towns, all smart towns were kind of dark. They
like the dark stuff, you know, twisted stuff.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
You're a vegetarian mostly, Yeah, does that make you funnier?
Speaker 3 (04:20):
No, No, I don't. I had to think about it.
I had to think about it. No, I don't think so.
It's you know, sometimes people say that people were vegetarians
or you know, they if they eat meat and then
become a vegetarian. I would hear this a lot. And
do you feel better? You feel a difference? I am
not really maybe price wise at the restaurant.
Speaker 2 (04:40):
Yeah, it's.
Speaker 1 (04:43):
It was kind of a big move for me to
become vegetarian and not be sanctimonious about it. It took a
couple of years to get there, to be completely honest.
Oh yeah, no, I'm not in everybody in my family
eats a big steak or Yeah.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
It's hard.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
It's hard to be around people and I plot them
and I'm but vegans. I mean, God bless them. I
don't know how they do it.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
No, No, I can't do that either, because I got
to have a little bit of dairy.
Speaker 2 (05:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
I mean it's also when you go out to eat
at a restaurant, is there a chicken stock in this?
Speaker 1 (05:15):
Right?
Speaker 3 (05:16):
And so does this have butter in it? And it's
kind of like, oh, come on, why not eat home?
We should just eat at home?
Speaker 1 (05:25):
You know, I know, I'm jumping all over the place here, Kevin.
You were a guitarist when you were a kid. I'm
a guitarist. You're still a guitar.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Yeah, you play the guitar. No, I'm not good at all.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
I've been playing since I was ten, and I never
got good at it. I also played a five string
banjo poorly. I don't even need the five strings. Four
is enough for me. So my problem was I took
lessons when I was ten until I was probably fifteen
or so, and I would never play outside of my room.
(05:58):
It was always in a room we're playing with other people,
and that's where I should have done it.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
It's like a language.
Speaker 3 (06:04):
You could study all you want, a language, but it's
quicker and easier to be a meshed in it, like
live in a Mexican city or somewhere in Spain.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
You know, you can't live in a guitar.
Speaker 3 (06:18):
You can't live in a guitar. I've tried, you have tried.
You can stick your head in there maybe, but that's
about it.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Oh, I wanted to plug one more thing before you go,
and that is your fantastic YouTube show where you take
comedians hiking.
Speaker 3 (06:30):
Oh yeah, yeah, it's called Hiking with Kevin. It's on YouTube.
I hack with a different celebrity every hike, and it's
everyone from Colin O'Brien to Tom Hanks shoul Crow, mostly in
the canyons of Vla. And it's just I love doing it,
you know, it's fun. I also have a documentary that's
really released today on Apple TV. It's just called Come
(06:50):
See Me in the Good Light, and it's about these
two poets. One is a poet laureate Andrew Gibson. They
actually live right here in Boulder, and Megan Folly, and
it's just a beautiful, beautiful documentary.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
It kind of.
Speaker 3 (07:06):
Highlights their relationship and how Andrea comes down with a
terminal disease and it's inoperable. And but it's not one
of these movies about cancer, you know. It's so it's
actually really funny in a lot of parts and very moving.
It kind of changes your life and how you look
at the world. I really encourage people to see it.
(07:29):
It's on Apple TV, Apple TV today.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Brilliant and you know everybody's watching Pluribus right now, so
they can watch your thing too.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
That's right. I saw Pluribus?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Is that something?
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah? Also very moving, will change your life.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
I don't know what's going to happen next, and that's
why I like it.
Speaker 3 (07:44):
Yeah, yeah, I like all those movies like The Walking
Dead and what is the Last?
Speaker 2 (07:49):
The Last of Us? Sure you know, but yeah, when's
the next one coming.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Out tonight so you can in between shows?
Speaker 2 (07:59):
Right?
Speaker 1 (07:59):
Exactly?
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Clear? I love it. Oh, I love it.
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Quality entertainment, not just entertainment, but thoughtful enlightenment. Thank you, Kevin,
my pleasure. Thanks for having me, and thank you for listening.
I'll see you next time, Okay,
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