WEBVTT - Kevin Nealon 0:00:00.120 --> 0:00:01.560 So he goes off to New York, and I'm really 0:00:01.560 --> 0:00:04.040 proud of him, and I'm excited. I never knew anybody 0:00:04.040 --> 0:00:06.160 that was on that show. Two weeks later, I got 0:00:06.160 --> 0:00:08.840 a call from him from Laura Michael's house. He goes, 0:00:08.920 --> 0:00:11.760 Kevin'm in the back bedroom Laura Michael's house out in 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.600 the Long Island. I guess who's in the kitchen, Bill Murray. 0:00:14.680 --> 0:00:17.600 I'm like, no, no way. He goes, yeah, anyway, Lauren 0:00:17.680 --> 0:00:19.680 is looking for one more cast member. I told him 0:00:19.720 --> 0:00:21.760 about you, and I think he's gonna want to see 0:00:21.760 --> 0:00:24.640 your audition tapes. And I'm like, Bill Murray's in the kitchen. 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:28.480 I wasn't even hearing that other shoff. You know, I 0:00:28.480 --> 0:00:30.640 wouldn't even believe. I didn't even want to acknowledge it 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:32.280 because I knew i'd never get on that show because 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:34.360 I don't think characters are accents. I'm just to stand 0:00:34.400 --> 0:00:44.159 up a really really good stand up. Hi. My name 0:00:44.200 --> 0:00:47.519 is Kevin Neelan, and I have a real sugar addiction. 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:57.280 I'm not kidding. Hello, friends, and welcome back to another 0:00:57.360 --> 0:01:01.840 episode of Off the Beat. I am your host, Brian Baumgartner. 0:01:02.120 --> 0:01:07.280 As you just heard, Kevin Nilan the Kevin Nelon is 0:01:07.319 --> 0:01:11.000 my guest on the podcast today. Kevin happens to be 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:15.920 a good friend and one of my favorite golfing partners 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:19.039 of all time. Now, not only does he have the 0:01:19.120 --> 0:01:22.920 same name as the best character on the Office, Kevin Malone, 0:01:23.520 --> 0:01:26.920 but he's also had the career of a lifetime starring 0:01:27.000 --> 0:01:30.399 on s n L Late Night with David Letterman, Man 0:01:30.400 --> 0:01:35.560 with a Plan, and of course Weeds. Plus he's recently 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:40.200 become quite the YouTube star with his hilarious web series 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:44.600 Hiking with Kevin. From his open mic days to now, 0:01:44.640 --> 0:01:48.840 We're going to dive into Kevin's incredible career as well 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:51.840 as some of his hidden talents. Did you know that 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:56.600 he is an extremely talented caricaturist. I would say that 0:01:56.640 --> 0:01:59.880 I'm surprised, but I'm honestly not. If you are Kevin Neilan, 0:02:00.200 --> 0:02:04.280 you really can do everything. I won't keep you waiting 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:14.120 here he is Kevin Neil. Bubble and Squeak. I love it. 0:02:14.600 --> 0:02:21.440 Bubble and Squeak, Bubble and Squeaker cookie every month left 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:37.520 over from the Natty People. Hello, Kevin, how are you? Yeah? 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:39.440 I love you. Got a big staff working for you. 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:43.320 I mean, listen, this is what happens when you're a Kevin. 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:47.080 I guess right, No, I know it. Don't you have 0:02:47.120 --> 0:02:52.920 a big staff. I don't. I'm self contained. I just 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:55.880 don't know that I need it. I definitely do, there's 0:02:55.880 --> 0:02:59.600 no question about that. I can't here if I've ever 0:02:59.639 --> 0:03:03.200 told you before. The very first time that I met you, 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:07.520 we were playing golf together. I think we're playing in 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:10.680 the same tournament, in the same tournament. This is circa, 0:03:10.960 --> 0:03:14.200 not circa was actually two thousand and eight. I looked 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:18.440 it up fifteen years ago. Fourteen years ago, you and 0:03:18.560 --> 0:03:23.079 myself and Charles Barkley, we were playing in a threesome 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:27.440 together in Lake Tahoe. We teet off and we had 0:03:27.880 --> 0:03:31.120 well because of you and Charles. Mostly we had a 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:36.240 large gallery following us. I was very nervous. We teed off. 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:38.840 All I know is we didn't hit our balls in 0:03:38.880 --> 0:03:41.200 the same place. They were definitely in different areas, and 0:03:41.200 --> 0:03:45.880 we were walking not together, down the fairway and a 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:51.760 bunch of people started yelling Kevin Kevin. Me being me, 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:54.920 of course, assumed that they were yelling Kevin at me, 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:57.680 because at the time especially everyone called me Kevin. And 0:03:57.720 --> 0:04:01.560 I remember turning around big Aisle on my face and 0:04:01.640 --> 0:04:05.960 waving graciously to the gallery and they were fully talking 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:11.040 to you. I remember being so humil so so humiliated, 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:14.320 and filled with like self loathing, like, of course they're 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:16.920 talking to Kevin Neil and not me, what are you thinking. 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:19.680 I probably didn't even share that with you at the 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.840 time because I was so embarrassed and nervous about it. Well, 0:04:22.880 --> 0:04:24.520 I will tell you you don't have to be embarrassed 0:04:24.520 --> 0:04:28.039 because that group of people were probably my family and 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:29.680 my friends, and they wear their team meal and T 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:32.880 shirts and they will do that on occasional holes. But 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:34.840 I will tell you I was. It took me like 0:04:35.080 --> 0:04:37.640 five years of that tournament to get over being nervous. 0:04:37.880 --> 0:04:39.919 I couldn't even hit the ball. I was like duffinite, 0:04:39.960 --> 0:04:42.240 you know, taking big divots out and when the camera 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:44.720 was on me, I was just a mess. It truly 0:04:44.760 --> 0:04:46.919 is my favorite week of the year. I try to 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:51.800 get better. It's always embarrassing, but you know, it's it's 0:04:51.920 --> 0:04:54.719 incredibly humbling for sure to be out there. I love 0:04:54.760 --> 0:04:58.160 it all right, Enough about golf. Uh, You grew up 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.719 in Connecticut and I read as a child. You lived 0:05:01.720 --> 0:05:05.760 in Germany for a while. I did relocated there or 0:05:05.839 --> 0:05:08.400 was that a life choice, sir. Yeah, my father worked 0:05:08.400 --> 0:05:10.600 for a helicopter companies, the Course Keys, and they had 0:05:10.640 --> 0:05:13.279 a deal with a German I guess my father calls 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:15.520 it a German outfit. For the longest time, I thought 0:05:15.520 --> 0:05:19.440 he worked for later Housing, you know, but it was 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:22.480 another helicopter company. And unlike a lot of the military 0:05:22.720 --> 0:05:24.440 who lived on the army base, we lived in a 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:27.440 German neighborhood, so my friends are mostly German. So I 0:05:27.480 --> 0:05:30.440 picked it up pretty quickly. And you became fluent in German, 0:05:30.880 --> 0:05:32.560 you know, in just four years. And I was six 0:05:32.640 --> 0:05:34.320 until I was ten. I mean, those are the years 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:38.880 you absorb everything. Right. My sister and her husband and 0:05:38.920 --> 0:05:41.440 their two kids actually right about your age. They just 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:43.960 did the same thing. He got moved over there through 0:05:44.000 --> 0:05:46.960 his work, and their kids were about the same age. 0:05:47.000 --> 0:05:50.719 And we're located in Stuttgart for three years. Do you 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:53.000 feel like that change you as a child, to that 0:05:53.080 --> 0:05:55.800 give you something you feel like? Yeah, it was amazing. 0:05:55.839 --> 0:05:57.680 I don't remember at the time if I left friends 0:05:57.760 --> 0:06:00.200 in Connecticut and it was bummed out, but you know, 0:06:00.200 --> 0:06:02.000 it was the first throw one on an airplane, and 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:03.800 you know, Europe is not that big, and there's so 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.680 many countries there. So during my father's vacations, we would drive, 0:06:07.760 --> 0:06:09.320 like to Paris, or we drive. I learned how to 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.119 ski in the Alps. I learned how to swim in Greece, 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:14.039 and it was like probably the best time in my life. 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:16.520 You know. I could ski in my front yard. You 0:06:16.520 --> 0:06:18.719 know they had apple orchards and I put on a 0:06:18.720 --> 0:06:20.480 pair of skis and skied down and walk up the hill. 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:24.480 It's great. Yeah. My sister did the same thing, traveled 0:06:24.480 --> 0:06:26.640 all around yeah, and skied and the Alps and exactly 0:06:26.640 --> 0:06:28.800 what you said. And I mean to be exposed to 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:32.080 so many different cultures and countries and languages at such 0:06:32.120 --> 0:06:35.320 an early age, that's an incredible life experience, right, it 0:06:35.360 --> 0:06:38.320 really is, It really is. I got my Irish passport 0:06:38.360 --> 0:06:40.560 a couple of years ago because I thought it'd be 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:42.240 great to live in Europe for a while. I wouldn't 0:06:42.240 --> 0:06:44.320 meet a visa and I could work there and bring 0:06:44.360 --> 0:06:46.880 my family. That's my bucket list. So I might do that. 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:49.680 Maybe after my son goes off to college, my wife 0:06:49.680 --> 0:06:51.479 and I will go there and then he'll come in 0:06:51.480 --> 0:06:54.919 the summer. You have dual citizenship, I do, yeah, because 0:06:54.960 --> 0:06:58.839 my grandparents are from Ireland. They came over from Ireland, 0:06:58.839 --> 0:07:00.839 so that made me eligible. But I had to jump 0:07:00.839 --> 0:07:02.920 through a lot of hoops to get that passport, a 0:07:03.000 --> 0:07:05.000 lot of paperwork, had to get a lot of certificates 0:07:05.160 --> 0:07:08.080 to gret My to get my grandfather's death certificate, which 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:09.760 was not easy because first I had to kill him. 0:07:09.800 --> 0:07:18.320 You know, come on, and those Irish guys, they don't 0:07:18.320 --> 0:07:23.160 go down easy. No, no, they don't. I am going 0:07:23.200 --> 0:07:26.080 out of order here, but I just went back and 0:07:26.200 --> 0:07:33.040 watched several of your earliest appearances on The Tonight Show 0:07:33.200 --> 0:07:38.280 with Johnny Carson. I did, and it kind of cut off. 0:07:38.320 --> 0:07:40.200 The video was kind of cut off. It seemed like 0:07:40.200 --> 0:07:43.360 he was almost mid sentence and said something and said 0:07:44.000 --> 0:07:48.040 a man with a very interesting sense of humor or 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:52.080 something like that. Absurd, I think, absurd, Yeah, absurd sense 0:07:52.120 --> 0:07:54.520 of humor. Yeah. Well, you know, I gotta tell you 0:07:55.040 --> 0:07:58.240 I auditioned for the part of Michael in the office. Yes, 0:07:58.320 --> 0:08:00.920 and apparently I got I'm told, like close to getting it. 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:04.239 You didn't get it. You weren't, Michael Skote. No, No, 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:07.680 maybe I was for half a second, but yeah, I 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:09.800 mean that would have. I used to go on auditions 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:13.800 against Steve Carrell a lot, and he would always get it. Yeah, 0:08:14.320 --> 0:08:16.960 what what do you remember about that audition experience? I 0:08:17.000 --> 0:08:21.440 remember going into the Bungalow Universal Greg Daniels, who I've 0:08:21.560 --> 0:08:23.920 known from SNL. He was a writer on SNL. I 0:08:23.960 --> 0:08:25.720 sat down to a chair and I did my part 0:08:25.840 --> 0:08:28.600 and he goes, thank you, like we didn't even know 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:31.680 each other, thank you very much. And I left and uh, 0:08:31.840 --> 0:08:33.520 and then here back. I didn't hear back at all. 0:08:36.040 --> 0:08:37.560 But you know, I was up for a show when 0:08:37.600 --> 0:08:39.120 I first moved to l A. If we could talk 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:41.199 about me for a minute, I was in l A 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:44.280 maybe two or three years. I was twenty seven by 0:08:44.280 --> 0:08:47.080 that time. And I got an audition at Paramount and 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:50.600 I got five callbacks, and I thought, oh, this is it. Finally, 0:08:50.640 --> 0:08:52.880 after toiling for three long years, I'm going to get 0:08:52.880 --> 0:08:56.240 a show. And the producers after the fifth time, they 0:08:56.240 --> 0:08:57.600 look at each other they go, well, we're not get 0:08:57.679 --> 0:09:00.439 any closer than this. And I walked outside of at office, 0:09:00.440 --> 0:09:02.120 I looked at Paramount. I thought, well, it's gonna be 0:09:02.200 --> 0:09:05.040 my new home. Week goes by two weeks, I don't 0:09:05.040 --> 0:09:06.679 hear anything, and then I hear they're looking for an 0:09:06.720 --> 0:09:09.400 older actor for the role, and that part was for 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:14.680 it was for Sam and Cheers. Really, yeah, you auditioned 0:09:14.760 --> 0:09:18.160 for Sam Malone on Cheers and for Michael Scott on 0:09:18.200 --> 0:09:21.080 the Office and got neither of them. That's right, But 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:24.160 I did get other things, so I can't complain. No, 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:27.839 you can't know. It's funny, you know the Coursier life takes. 0:09:28.000 --> 0:09:30.600 Had I gotten that show, I would be probably with 0:09:30.640 --> 0:09:34.920 my same wife here. I wouldn't be on my second marriage. 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:41.439 But enough about me. Where are you from? I'm from Atlanta, Georgia, 0:09:41.480 --> 0:09:44.320 and I didn't live in Germany. I didn't. I certainly 0:09:44.320 --> 0:09:50.080 didn't audition for Sam Malone on Cheers. You wanted to 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:52.240 be a stand up? Is that what you wanted to be? 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:53.920 That's all I wanted to be. It was a stand up. 0:09:53.960 --> 0:09:56.079 I went to school for marketing. I have a BS 0:09:56.160 --> 0:09:59.040 and marketing, but stand up was really what I loved. 0:09:59.080 --> 0:10:01.480 You know. I would watch every stand up comic on 0:10:01.559 --> 0:10:03.920 every talk show from merv Griffin to the Tonight Show 0:10:03.920 --> 0:10:07.000 with Johnny Carson, and I would highlight their name and 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.439 the TV guide and you know, be sure to watch them, 0:10:09.440 --> 0:10:12.000 like you know, George Miller and David Letterman and and 0:10:12.040 --> 0:10:14.440 I thought, that's the coolest job. But I remember, I've 0:10:14.440 --> 0:10:16.400 never been to California, but I went to New York 0:10:16.440 --> 0:10:18.800 or check out the comedy clubs. That terrified me because 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:21.400 the audience was so brash and tough in the comics 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:23.160 like Richard Belzer would come out and they were like 0:10:23.200 --> 0:10:26.360 real New Yorkers. So I decided to go to l A. 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:28.960 And the day I remember I made that decision, I 0:10:29.000 --> 0:10:31.800 was raking leaves in my front yard at my parents home, 0:10:32.360 --> 0:10:33.880 and I had a radio out there so I could 0:10:33.920 --> 0:10:35.679 listen to the music. And then the news came on 0:10:35.800 --> 0:10:39.000 and said Freddie Prince, the comedian from back in the eighties, 0:10:39.080 --> 0:10:42.280 had killed himself. And for some morbid reason, I thought, well, 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.360 there's an opening in l A. You know, first stand 0:10:45.400 --> 0:10:50.480 up it is because it was really it wasn't because 0:10:50.520 --> 0:10:52.480 of that though. It made me realize how big of 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.800 an impact comedy could have on the world. But anyway, 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:59.520 I thought, that's that's really um my impetus to go 0:10:59.559 --> 0:11:02.600 out there. And also I get to see California, right, 0:11:03.000 --> 0:11:07.599 it's interesting to me. Obviously, you became famous on s 0:11:07.679 --> 0:11:10.280 n L, which is known for much more of the 0:11:10.320 --> 0:11:13.400 improv people from Second City and whatever, and that that 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:16.960 stand up was really your focus and wanting to do that. 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:18.959 Did you want to be an actor even or was 0:11:19.000 --> 0:11:21.280 it really about making people laugh or being on stage? 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:23.400 And be All I wanted to be was a stand 0:11:23.440 --> 0:11:26.839 up I loved Steve Martin. I discovered Steve Barton. A 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:29.800 lot of people don't know that, but I knew him 0:11:29.840 --> 0:11:33.160 from doing his you know little bits on SNL or 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.280 The Tonight Show, and nobody else had heard of him. 0:11:35.480 --> 0:11:38.640 And then people started like hearing about him. I thought, no, no, no, 0:11:38.679 --> 0:11:42.040 that's my comic, that's mine, you know. But stand up 0:11:42.040 --> 0:11:44.240 was what I really wanted to do, and I'm still 0:11:44.280 --> 0:11:46.760 doing it, like forty three years later. And as far 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:48.719 as being an actor, I really had no intention to 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:50.520 be an actor. I remember I was sitting at the 0:11:50.520 --> 0:11:53.240 bar at the improv and Mark Lano, who was teaching 0:11:53.280 --> 0:11:55.800 an acting class and he was but Freeman's partner. Eventually, 0:11:55.960 --> 0:11:58.600 who wants the improv? He asked me? If I thought 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:01.360 about acting? You said, not not really, I just wanted 0:12:01.360 --> 0:12:02.840 to stand up. He goes, well, even if you think 0:12:02.880 --> 0:12:04.520 about it, you know, take a lesson. Maybe I teach 0:12:04.520 --> 0:12:07.079 cold reading and sometimes these casting agents come into the 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:08.520 room and they'll see a comic and they want to 0:12:08.600 --> 0:12:11.080 come in for an audition. I thought okay, and so 0:12:11.120 --> 0:12:13.360 I took some acting classes around l A and went 0:12:13.360 --> 0:12:14.920 through that whole I don't know if you went through this, 0:12:15.040 --> 0:12:18.040 but that whole rigular role of auditioning. You know that 0:12:18.200 --> 0:12:21.439 the nerves that come with that, and the humiliation, it's 0:12:21.480 --> 0:12:26.720 so difficult, and it's so it's so antithetical to what 0:12:26.760 --> 0:12:29.400 we actually do right, whether it's performing on stage or 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:32.319 being in front. You know that, like five people sitting 0:12:32.320 --> 0:12:35.240 in a room staring at you not laughing, is so 0:12:36.080 --> 0:12:40.319 it's unnatural and difficult, and you feel like, just give 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:42.600 me a camera or tind me a real audience. It's 0:12:42.800 --> 0:12:45.840 so difficult. I remember I had an audition for McDonald's 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:49.480 commercial ones. The part called for somebody so upset about 0:12:49.480 --> 0:12:51.480 the Big Mac. They had a cry and I had 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:53.840 just broken up with my girlfriend or she broke up 0:12:53.840 --> 0:12:56.600 with me, and I was devastated. I was so depressed 0:12:56.640 --> 0:12:58.920 I couldn't get out of bed. I pulled myself out 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:01.320 of bed into this commercial and I got in front 0:13:01.320 --> 0:13:03.360 of them. Was like the judges on American Idol, sitting 0:13:03.400 --> 0:13:05.560 behind the table. When it got to the part where 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:08.640 I had a cry, I let loose and they're looking 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:11.760 at me so sympathetically, and oh that's poor, you know. 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:15.240 And uh, after the audition was over, they just sat 0:13:15.280 --> 0:13:17.439 there like an awe and just you know, like, oh 0:13:17.480 --> 0:13:20.200 my god, this guy is amazing. Two or three weeks later, 0:13:20.240 --> 0:13:22.000 I got a call back. But now I'm kind of 0:13:22.000 --> 0:13:25.000 over the girl, so I can't bring the tears, you know. 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:28.880 So I brought my answering machine tape. At the time, 0:13:28.920 --> 0:13:30.719 they have those little tapes and the answer machine. I 0:13:30.840 --> 0:13:32.840 brought that and I sat in the car outside with 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:35.920 her eight by ten headshot and I played her breaking 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:38.520 up with me over and over, and then I went 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:41.080 inside and I still couldn't. I couldn't bring the emotion. 0:13:42.000 --> 0:13:47.439 So she screwed me over twice. Uh, you didn't get 0:13:47.480 --> 0:13:49.839 the job, I'm guessing No, I did not know. I 0:13:50.720 --> 0:13:52.600 came really close. They said, we're not getting any closer 0:13:52.600 --> 0:13:53.839 than this, and then I heard there going with it, 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:58.600 older guy. Do you consider your big break? Johnny Carson 0:13:58.880 --> 0:14:01.320 probably the highlight of my more souther than Saturday Night 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.280 Live or Weeds, because it's what I aspired to do. 0:14:04.360 --> 0:14:06.040 I used to go watch that show. When I first 0:14:06.040 --> 0:14:08.320 moved to l A, I would they gave out free tickets. 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:09.960 I can around three in the afternoon and I would 0:14:09.960 --> 0:14:12.280 go around five, you know, right before the show started, 0:14:12.320 --> 0:14:13.920 and I knew if I went up and down the line, 0:14:13.960 --> 0:14:16.640 and I sympathetically asked people, do you have an extraal ticket? 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:18.400 And I would always get one. And it was like 0:14:18.440 --> 0:14:20.600 a Vegas show. I'd go in there and I see 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:22.800 Johnny would come out, and then Paul whoever the guest 0:14:22.920 --> 0:14:26.040 was comics, Paul McCartney and the band, and I remember 0:14:26.080 --> 0:14:28.640 everybody in the band and the instrument they played. So 0:14:28.680 --> 0:14:31.400 when I finally did that show, I knew exactly what 0:14:31.440 --> 0:14:33.440 was going on. I knew that the band was right 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:35.000 there to left. I knew that guy that played the 0:14:35.000 --> 0:14:37.720 troumbone and the curtains open up and I walked out 0:14:37.720 --> 0:14:39.840 to my On the way out to my spot, you know, 0:14:39.920 --> 0:14:43.120 Johnny Carson gives you a wave and Ed McMahon, and 0:14:43.280 --> 0:14:46.200 I had totally forgotten my act. I couldn't remember it. 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:48.080 And I got to the spot and by the time 0:14:48.120 --> 0:14:51.360 the audience stopped clapping, it finally came to me. I 0:14:51.440 --> 0:14:53.840 was so relieved and it was probably. Yeah, it was 0:14:53.920 --> 0:14:56.880 such a natural high to do that show. I was 0:14:56.920 --> 0:14:59.080 outside of my body. I was saying to myself as 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.280 I'm routinely doing my suset, I'm doing the tonight show. 0:15:02.640 --> 0:15:06.200 I'm doing the tonight show. Finally, that's amazing. Was this 0:15:06.320 --> 0:15:09.200 with the map? No? No, this is the thing called 0:15:09.240 --> 0:15:12.440 the Choices? And it was like, you know, things you 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:13.800 kind of do as a kid. I said, you know, 0:15:13.960 --> 0:15:15.960 it's hard to make decisions in life, that isn't it. 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:18.520 And uh, I go, you know, like, would you rather, 0:15:18.840 --> 0:15:21.480 you know, have a super salad? And they go, Sue, Yeah, 0:15:21.480 --> 0:15:23.200 I mean too. That was easy, all right. Let me 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:25.400 think of a better choice. Okay, would you write about 0:15:25.400 --> 0:15:28.320 headache or a stomach ache? They go headache? I said, yeah, 0:15:28.320 --> 0:15:30.320 me too. I don't want to throw up. These are easy. 0:15:30.360 --> 0:15:32.240 Let me think of a better one. Would you rather 0:15:32.280 --> 0:15:34.600 be buried into your neck up to dirt and then 0:15:34.640 --> 0:15:36.760 have your head painted like a soccer ball and have 0:15:36.840 --> 0:15:40.880 some Brazilian kids started hanging around? Or would you rather 0:15:41.000 --> 0:15:42.880 get your fingers slammed in a car door and have 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:46.520 the guy drive away through a car wash? Soccer ball? 0:15:46.560 --> 0:15:48.080 Yeah me too. They might use hot wax in the car. 0:15:48.240 --> 0:15:50.480 So I was doing that and Johnny Carson loved it. 0:15:50.560 --> 0:15:52.560 That's what got me on that show. And that's why 0:15:52.600 --> 0:15:54.400 he said the second time I was on and this 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:58.080 this guy has an absurd sense of humor. Okay, that's amazing. 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:02.320 I watched this morning the uh the Map, which is genius. 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:07.440 I mean it's still today, it's genius. Um. If people 0:16:07.480 --> 0:16:12.480 have not seen it, I don't know, google it. Kevin Neilanson, 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:16.400 it's amazing. You went on to do Dave Show a lot. Now. 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:19.520 Did you know him David Letterman? Sorry, I don't know 0:16:19.520 --> 0:16:22.080 why I call him Dave like we're great friends. Did 0:16:22.120 --> 0:16:24.720 you know him from the stand up scene prior to that? 0:16:24.760 --> 0:16:27.640 I did know him when I first moved to California. 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:29.520 I lived in San Diego for like three or four months, 0:16:30.040 --> 0:16:31.840 and I would go to the comedy store in Lahorea 0:16:32.080 --> 0:16:34.280 and there was two comics that I really liked, and 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:37.120 I didn't know which one was which one of them 0:16:37.200 --> 0:16:39.480 had a gap between his teeth and the other one 0:16:39.480 --> 0:16:42.000 had a big chin. Whatever their name was on the marquee, 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:43.320 I couldn't. I didn't know who I was going to 0:16:43.400 --> 0:16:46.720 see and was Ledderman at Leno? Yeah, but I think 0:16:46.720 --> 0:16:49.640 I did let him in before I did the Tonight show. Okay, 0:16:50.080 --> 0:16:52.360 you probably no better than me, because I forget. I 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:54.400 can't remember the names of any of my characters and 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:56.160 the stuff I've done. You know, I watched reruns of 0:16:56.280 --> 0:16:58.240 SNL and I'm in a sketch and I have no 0:16:58.320 --> 0:17:00.960 idea what that sketch is about. I'm watching it. I'm 0:17:00.960 --> 0:17:02.960 figuring what where are we going with this? You know, 0:17:04.200 --> 0:17:07.720 who's your favorite stand up you ever saw yourself? Well, 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.320 I think it would have to have been Steve Martin 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:13.120 at the Universal l Ampitheater with the Blues Brothers opening 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:17.639 up for him, probably in nineteen eighty one or something. 0:17:18.200 --> 0:17:21.320 It was just the energy and that stadium and everybody 0:17:21.359 --> 0:17:24.120 with their noses and their glasses, you know, the fake 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.400 noses that he wore, and the arrows through the head. 0:17:27.960 --> 0:17:31.000 I thought, this is incredible. And I've seen other comics 0:17:31.000 --> 0:17:33.720 too that we're really impressive, like eddiez Are you know, 0:17:33.760 --> 0:17:35.360 he would come out it's like a rock show. It's 0:17:35.359 --> 0:17:37.640 like a rock and roll concert with a smoke and everything. 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:42.520 And Robin Williams, Oh my god, probably the most incredible 0:17:42.520 --> 0:17:44.919 impressive comic. I used to be. You know, hang out 0:17:44.920 --> 0:17:47.879 at the Improv all the time. Melrose in Hollywood. I 0:17:47.960 --> 0:17:49.520 was a bartender there for a couple of years, and 0:17:49.520 --> 0:17:51.159 this is as soon as I moved out here, and 0:17:51.200 --> 0:17:53.320 I was there almost every night. You know, I started 0:17:53.359 --> 0:17:55.919 getting on and doing open mic nights and and the 0:17:55.920 --> 0:17:58.679 amount of people that would come into that bar area 0:17:59.040 --> 0:18:02.199 and then perform, I mean everyone from you know. I 0:18:02.200 --> 0:18:04.159 got a when I was bartending at a phone call. 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:06.359 It was Steve Martin who was wondering if Bud was around. 0:18:06.440 --> 0:18:07.800 He wanted to come down and do a set. I said, 0:18:07.800 --> 0:18:10.080 you come down to do a set right now. And 0:18:10.240 --> 0:18:13.080 Albert Brooks would come in, and Andy Kaufman was always there, 0:18:13.119 --> 0:18:15.159 and I'd see Robin coming after Mork and Mindy with 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:18.399 the same outfit on with the suspenders, and it was 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:21.000 pretty magical just being in that room. And I would 0:18:21.040 --> 0:18:22.800 watch I go up to the office upstairs and look 0:18:22.840 --> 0:18:26.320 through the people because it was so packed. And Richard Lewis, 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:27.960 you know, he was such He was a lot of 0:18:28.000 --> 0:18:31.479 expatriots from New York, and Richard Lewis really connected with him. 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:33.880 Just everybody would kill it in that room and it's 0:18:33.920 --> 0:18:36.240 such the energy. And then out in the bar area. 0:18:36.600 --> 0:18:40.359 In the eighties, it became like this most popular place 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:42.840 to go to dance and to hang out with people. 0:18:43.359 --> 0:18:46.240 And I mean I've seen everybody coming there, from Timothy 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:51.040 Leary to Bob Fosse, you know, every actor, and it 0:18:51.119 --> 0:18:53.840 was such a famous place to be and people would 0:18:53.840 --> 0:18:56.080 and they had a jukebox there, and it got to 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:59.680 a point where it became like a dance club. But yeah, 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:21.320 it was pretty magical. You're in l A. And I 0:19:21.400 --> 0:19:25.560 understand Dana Carvey who was a roommate of yours right 0:19:25.880 --> 0:19:28.879 in l A. Well, I lived in a rental house 0:19:28.920 --> 0:19:30.720 in the Hollywood Hills that a friend of mine turned 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:32.719 me onto. He was he had found it and then 0:19:32.720 --> 0:19:34.560 he was trying to get some guys to rent it out. 0:19:34.680 --> 0:19:37.560 So I rented a bedroom there, and then a friend 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:40.520 of mine, a writer, rented another bedroom. And then Dana 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:42.399 was coming down from San Francisco a lot and we 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:44.159 told him that there is a studio apartment over the 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:46.480 garage if he wants to rent that one, he's in town. 0:19:46.560 --> 0:19:48.800 So he did that. So yeah, we all kind of 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:52.520 lived together for a while, Okay, and he gets cast 0:19:52.920 --> 0:19:59.359 on SNL. This is circa eight six. Yeah, so he 0:19:59.400 --> 0:20:02.439 gets cast. I was so excited for him because he 0:20:02.480 --> 0:20:05.800 does impressions and characters and accents and and so he 0:20:05.840 --> 0:20:07.479 goes off to New York and I'm really proud of him, 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:10.000 and I'm excited. I never knew anybody that was on 0:20:10.000 --> 0:20:12.080 that show. Two weeks later, I got a call from 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:14.840 him from Laura Michael's house. He goes, Kevin'm in the 0:20:14.880 --> 0:20:17.800 back bedroom Laura Michael's house out in the Long Island. 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:21.040 I guess who's in the kitchen, Bill Murray. I'm like, no, 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:23.560 no way. He goes, yeah, anyway, Lauren is looking for 0:20:23.600 --> 0:20:26.119 one more cast member. I told him about you, and 0:20:26.160 --> 0:20:28.080