Photo: Courtesy of Brillstein Entertainment Partners
Kevin Nealon
“My act is always evolving, and I’m always trying to look for new avenues of comedy and originality,” Kevin Nealon tells
Pittsburgh City Paper. Nealon, who is appearing at City Winery Pittsburgh from Fri., Aug. 9-Sat., Aug. 10 for three shows, says to expect to see material about himself — and notes that his comedy has gotten a bit darker over the years.
“It’s also conversational, and not in your face kind of stand-up comedy or ranting,” he adds. “It’s kind of a red-wine comedy.”
Nealon, a former
Saturday Night Live cast member and actor in movies like
Happy Gilmore and
The Wedding Singer, was also on Showtime’s
Weeds, which ran for eight seasons. Now 70, he also published a book in 2022,
I Exaggerate: My Brushes with Fame, which is a collection of full-color caricatures and humorous personal anecdotes about his famous friends. Nealon, who is a talented caricaturist, made the approximately 60 caricatures mostly during the pandemic.
“It’s a hardback. It’s not a coffee table book, but you can put it on your coffee table if you want to,” he says.
Nealon has had four or five gallery showings, as well as a book tour that included appearances on
The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon and Conan O’Brien’s
Conan.
“I wanted to get approval, just as a courtesy from some of the people I painted,” he says. “Steve Martin was fine with it, and Jim Carrey was fine with it.”
Nealon explains that some people find it hard to look at a caricature drawing of them because they start getting insecure about their nose or chin.
“I did one of Matt LeBlanc and he texted me back ‘I’m honored … I think,’” Nealon says.
Photo: Courtesy of Brillstein Entertainment Partners
Kevin Nealon
In addition to his comedy tour, Nealon is looking forward to the 50
th anniversary of the premiere of
Saturday Night Live in February of next year. His stint on the show began in 1986, 11 years after the first episode aired with the infamous “
Not Ready for Primetime Players” in 1975.
“It’s amazing that it’s 50 years coming up,” Nealon says. “I can remember vividly walking into the lobby of 30 Rock and getting off the elevator and everything, even where my papers were placed on my desk.”
The reunion is set for February 2025 at Radio City Music Hall and in the studio at 30 Rock.
“I do still keep in contact with Adam Sandler, David Spade, Dana Carvey, and Rob Schneider,” Nealon says. The group from '90s
SNL is doing a sequel to
Happy Gilmore this fall in New Jersey.
While Nealon is not as familiar with the Pittsburgh area, something that stands out to him after visiting several times is the bits of the past that still exist today.
“I remember driving along this old neighborhood with a lot of different bars and visualizing all the workers and employees who worked in the steel mills, coming out of that grime, soot, and hard work, stopping at some of those bars on their way home,” he says. “The life they led was such an important part of our country and industry.”
Nealon also filmed a commercial in Latrobe with professional golfer and area native Arnold Palmer.
“I hung out with him for two weeks and chatted a lot, we became good buddies,” Nealon says. “We went into his clubhouse every day, and I sat at his personal table with him.”
One day, Palmer ordered an Arnold Palmer, the mix of iced tea and lemonade cold beverage named after him.
“The server asked me what I want, and I said a Kevin Nealon,” Nealon says. “Arnold asked me what a Kevin Nealon was, and I said, it’s exactly like an Arnold Palmer, but a little taller and better-looking.”
Kevin Nealon.
Fri., Aug. 9-Sat., Aug. 10.
City Winery. 1627 Smallman St., Strip District. $47-$67. citywinery.com