Kevin’s interview fell prey to a design decision to create a Saturday Night Live sequence of portraits as a color insert in the book, which meant that his interview had to be cut. But we in El Mundo de Satirsitas love Kevin, and we wanted to share his interview.

Kevin Nealon

Today, Kevin Nealon has staked out a career as a delightful, dependable, if morally questionable, character actor in films such as Happy Gilmore and on the television series Weeds. But it’s no surprise that he first became known on Saturday Night Live for his recurring character Mr. Subliminal, who subtly planted manipulative thoughts in people’s heads to try and get his way. Nealon’s comedy is so dry, subtle, and esoteric that you might call his whole routine subliminal, slowly working its effects on audiences as they drive home. When he took over Weekend Update from the caustic Dennis Miller, Nealon brought his own style to the desk with no apologies. Here, he talks about his days satirizing the news on SNL, how it earned him at least one death threat, and why a laid-back approach comedy is what’s always worked for him.

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PAUL PROVENZA:

Do you consider yourself a satirist?

KEVIN NEALON:

I don’t even think of myself as a comedian, but I think I could be considered a satirist, if people want to use that word. Especially on Saturday Night Live, we satirized a lot of people. I think maybe people in the literary world enjoy the word satirist more than just your common man.

PAUL PROVENZA:

We just had a big conversation, Dan and myself, about Steve Martin, as to whether or not he would be considered a satirist. And in a lot of ways the answer’s yes, because he satirizes comedians. While his material isn’t necessarily satirical, his entire character is. And I think you’re on that same end of the spectrum.

KEVIN NEALON:

Yeah, I think so. I think if you want to cut it in percentages, you could say that I’m 20 percent satirist and 60 percent comedian, and then 20 percent serial killer.

PAUL PROVENZA:

The interesting thing about your time on Weekend Update was you did what nobody had done since Chevy Chase. You really, truly committed to the idea of a newscaster. When Dennis took it over, when Norm took it over, it got very arch. They’d break the character of the ‘newscaster,’ whereas you stayed straight on.

KEVIN NEALON:

Yeah, I didn’t dislike the way Dennis or Norm did it, it’s just that I just liked the way Chevy did it. That’s the way I thought I would like to do it, as more of a dead-on newscaster without breaking that fourth wall. I don’t like calling attention to the fact that that I’m making a joke. I just like the fact that this is the actual news story and I’m the newscaster. I’m not kinda laughing at it on the side, saying what a funny joke I wrote.

PAUL PROVENZA:

I think that made it a lot richer and a lot more pointed.

KEVIN NEALON:

Yeah, but other people have different opinions about that. They think that it’s not as interesting. You don’t see too much of me as a person, but that was just the choice I made. With comedy you have to make a choice and just go with it

I got a death threat letter when I was on Weekend Update—my first one, by the way. This guy said that was going to put a bullet in my big, fat, mick head. He didn’t know when I became so unfunny, but he was going to put a bullet in my big, fat, mick head. My days were numbered. So I was really paranoid for the next week. I went around the offices at Saturday Night Live asking everybody, “Do you think I have a big head? Is it is it a big, fat mick head?” I don’t know if he meant “mick head” like me being from Ireland, or maybe a “McHead” like something on a McDonald’s menu.

And he never said what it was that made him write the letter. He just said that I had become unfunny.

PAUL PROVENZA:

Do you think the show has lost its edge?

KEVIN NEALON:

I haven’t really seen it that much lately, but I think that it will always have some kind of and edge to it. It’s Saturday Night Live. It’s an institution, and it’s got a good reputation.

When I was doing Weekend Update, I’d hit both sides. I didn’t care if they loved me or not, I just wanted to cover all the bases. For me it didn’t matter what I was making fun of as long as it got a laugh. It didn’t matter if I was a staunch liberal or a staunch conservative. I’d still do a joke on it. A laugh is more important that my beliefs.

PAUL PROVENZA:

Even on Weekend Update? How could you not feel you had to take some sort of position?

KEVIN NEALON:

I think it’s just the attitude that I took: It was all nonsense, and I was looking for laughs. The bigger my audience was the better, so if I did stuff about the left and the right my audience would be bigger. I remember one time we took a picture of someone in a fur coat. Patti Labelle or somebody. And I took out a can of spray paint, and I just spray painted the picture, like I was spray painting her coat. So you can have your opinions about things up there, too, and then still make fun of it at the same time.

PAUL PROVENZA:

When you spray painted the coat, what’s the point that you were making? Which side were you taking there?

KEVIN NEALON:

It could go either way. It could be a parody of these people who spray paint or throw blood on fur coats, or it could be me saying you shouldn’t be wearing fur and bringing attention to the fact that she wears fur.

PAUL PROVENZA:

Exactly, that’s my point. Which  was it for you?

KEVIN NEALON:

For me it was bringing attention that she wore fur. I was doing some animal rights stuff back then.

PAUL PROVENZA:

So even though you had a point, the point you personally were making was not necessarily clear?

KEVIN NEALON:

No.

PAUL PROVENZA:

And you didn’t care?

KEVIN NEALON:

I didn’t care, no. But I did get a little flack for that one.

PAUL PROVENZA:

In your stand up you don’t do too much political or social comment at all. In fact, if it’s rather absurdist stuff, but I do believe that the absurdist stuff that you do is satiric anyway, regarding a bigger picture than politics, but that’s a whole ‘nother book. But having chosen not to do social comment or politically engaged material yourself, do you think that kind of work has value? Or is it just pissing in the wind?

KEVIN NEALON:

Oh, no. I think the people that do that kind of satire have great value. Chris Rock does a lot of social commentary, and it really makes you think. I saw him a few weeks ago, and I’m still thinking about some of his material today. Whereas if I went to see somebody who was just an absurdist, I probably wouldn’t be thinking about it. I would enjoy it at the time, and maybe the next day, but it would kind of leave me pretty quick. So I think his type of act has a big effect on people, and I would probably do it, too, if I had some opinions about anything.

I don’t really follow politics that much because I know they’re all just a bunch of salesmen. They’re just looking for votes. They just want people to enjoy what they’re saying and reach as many people as possible.

PAUL PROVENZA:

They sound just like comics when you put it that way. But do you feel disconnected from that process like I do? I’m not talking about as a performer, but as an American. I feel like this whole system needs to be overhauled. It just needs to be hosed down.

KEVIN NEALON:

I just avoid it all because it all seems hopeless. I think you always have to vote for the best person out of the group even though they’re not too good. But we’ll never have a president that is the best president for our country. The best president for America  is running some corporation somewhere and would never want to be president. And until it’s fixed we just have to put up with it and make the best of it.

PAUL PROVENZA:

What else are you particularly active in besides animal rights?

KEVIN NEALON:

I’m active in Accountants Without Borders. I’ve been a big fan of them for many, many years. I’m also a big supporter of the Hermaphrodites Without Partners. I’m also heading the drive for Panties for Britney Spears.

PAUL PROVENZA:

What was your motivation starting out in comedy?

KEVIN NEALON:

My motivation starting out was to impress a girl that I had a crush on in high school. She was always dating these guys that were already out of high school and had the five o’clock shadow. But I was very quiet in high school, and shy and I never said a word to her. I got into stand up, for the most part, to impress her. I came out to Hollywood and after a couple of years I got on the Merv Griffin show, and I did the Big Laugh-off on Showtime. And this girl just happened to be in her kitchen and heard my voice on TV, and then she got a hold of me, and she said how impressed she was that I was on TV. My stand up plan had worked.

PAUL PROVENZA:

How many years later?

KEVIN NEALON:

This was like eight or nine years later.

PAUL PROVENZA:

I guess in a very particular way that kinda speaks to the power of stand up.

KEVIN NEALON:

I think it speaks the power of sexuality. No, I think comedy can be really powerful, even when you’re not doing overt social commentary, you’re saying something. I remember somebody told me once there’s comics that have something to say but don’t know how to say it, and then there’s comics that have something to say and know how to say it.

PAUL PROVENZA:

I think there’s a third comic, too:  People don’t have anything to say and don’t know how to say it.

KEVIN NEALON:

That’s true. There are a lot of them, aren’t there? Anyway, for a long time my act was based on that. I would keep changing what I was trying to say. This is what I’m really trying to talk about, and then I’d come up with something later that was a joke and I’d say, “Forget about what I was talking about then. This is what I’m really trying to say.” But even that is kind of like saying something. It’s saying that you’re trying to say something.

PAUL PROVENZA:

As nutty as that is, there’s a certain intelligence behind it as an approach. That’s what made Steve Martin’s stand up so spectacular, actually. Initially he was just going for laughs and just trying to fill time and be an entertainer and then other influences on him made him realize that he needed to be an artist.

For me, I just wanted attention. I wanted somebody to fucking listen to me for a change, you know? And eventually you get all those skills, and everybody is listening to you.

KEVIN NEALON:

I think that’s why a lot of comics like it. Because they feel like they’re not heard in life. And maybe this—um, you know, this would be a much better interview if we had wine. And maybe candles.

PAUL PROVENZA:

Should have brought some.

KEVIN NEALON:

Yeah, but I think overall, stand up is just a really cool art form. I did it for almost twenty-seven years. I remember when I was telling people I had only been doing it for three or four years. Now it’s twenty-seven years, and there’s no excuse not to be funny now. You can say “I’ve only been doing it for two years,” but you can’t say “I’ve only been doing it for twenty-seven years.”

PAUL PROVENZA:

I think you reach a point were it’s almost impossible not to do well. It’s like any other business where you go to work and you know what you’re doing. You have a job to do, you have the skill set, and it just comes naturally. I mean, when was the last time you didn’t do your job?

And that is one of the things that I think is so powerful about it. You can say anything and do anything, which is why I’m interested in people who are saying or doing things either that are risky or challenging or even off-putting. The Upright Citizens Brigade people, in particular, were talking about how sometimes they don’t even care what the reaction is as long as they get some reaction that’s not complacency. Which is reminiscent of Andy Kaufman’s approach.

KEVIN NEALON:

I loved Andy Kaufman. For me it was Steve Martin, Albert Brooks, and Andy Kaufman. Those were the ones that really inspired me. They were like the scarecrow, the tin man and the lion for me. I took a little of each of their style when I was starting, until I developed my own style.

PAUL PROVENZA:

So Weekend Update was a real departure for you.

KEVIN NEALON:

Yeah it was. I had to start on Thursday or Friday buying like six different newspapers to go through them all and try to start writing jokes that were topical or political. I had to learn who the leaders of the countries were.

PAUL PROVENZA:

And how to pronounce them.

KEVIN NEALON:

And how to pronounce them.