Written by: Brooke Herron Design & Layout by: Chelsea Coolsaet


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n early March 2011, Kevin Nealon visited Capt. Brien’s Off the Hook Comedy Club on Marco Island for a two-evening, four-show, live performance. Pulse Magazine SWFL had the opportunity to speak with Nealon about his 30-year plus career in the entertainment industry.


While actor and comedian Kevin Nealon can currently be found


playing “Councilman Doug Wilson,” a pot-smoking politician on Showtime’s hit series Weeds, he hasn’t forgotten is first passion – stand-up comedy. “I got [my career] started in stand-up comedy,” says Nealon. He credits his bartending gig at the Hollywood Improv as an early learning experience – he met and watched great comedians like Robin Williams, Steve Martin, Andy Kaufman and Richard Pryor perform.


biggest feat was doing the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. That was probably the highlight of my career to this day – once you do that, it’s really validating you as a comic.” His advice for aspiring comedians is to be as original as possible, get up on stage whenever you have the opportunity, and to be prepared for the long run – nothing happens quickly.


One of his career defining moments happened early on: “My “You don’t really have a style when you first start doing stand-


up comedy – and it can take comics a long time to figure out what they want to say,” he says. For his shows, Nealon says that he pulls material from what’s actually happening in his life, then twists and exaggerates it a little bit, adding, “you get a pretty good feel for who I am after seeing my show.”


Nealon joined the cast of Saturday Night Live in 1986, portraying


memorable characters like Franz (“Hanz and Franz”), Mr. No Depth Perception and Mr. Subliminal, plus anchoring the “Weekend Update” segment. During his nine-year SNL stint, he notes one his favorite sketches (that he also wrote) is “The Bathroom Attendant,” with Harvey Keitel, where he plays a bathroom attendant in a very small bathroom – think one toilet, no stalls.


Nealon says that his career has always taken a “gradual evolution”


– a slow and steady, but healthy and reasonable climb. Over the years, he’s generated an impressive collection of comedic movie


roles, starring in films like: Happy Gilmore, The Wedding Singer, Daddy Day Care, Grandma’s Boy and Anger Management. And while his roles are mostly in the comedy genre, Nealon played a more dramatic role in the series, The Outer Limits, and would welcome a similar opportunity if it were the right project. Currently, he can be seen playing Adon, a plastic surgery junkie married to Heidi Montag, in Just Go With It. “I spent anywhere from three to six hours in the make-up chair [getting prosthetics] every morning,” he says.


Less time is spent in the makeup chair for Weeds – of which Nealon


movies: And They’re Off with Sean Astin and Jack and Jill with Al Pacino and Katie Holmes.


says, “It’s a well written show and it’s warmly accepted by a lot of people.” The series’ seventh season will premier in June. He


also recently wrapped two


During his trip to Southwest Florida, he plans to throw the opening pitch in a Red Sox warm- up game. And as an avid golfer, he also hopes to spend some time on the area’s plentiful courses. He’s also looking forward to performing at Off the Hook: “I know that Floridians like to be entertained. I’m prepared to smell a lot of sunscreen,” jokes Nealon.


PULSE MAGAZINE


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