Kevin Nealon has carved out a fine post "Saturday Night Live" career, primarily on TV with two major gigs: pot-smoking Doug Nelson on Showtime's "Weeds," now entering its sixth season, and host of the annual TBS "Funniest Commericals of the Year" special.
The commercials special isn’t exactly the Oscars but Nealon has provided an easygoing dry wit to the proceedings.
“I’ve really lost count how many of these I’ve done,” he said. “Five or six.” He taped a two-day shoot in New York City for the special earlier this month for airing December 15 at 10 p.m. on TBS. Much of it was done in an empty Wall Street office space. “Appropriate, eh?” he said.
Fred Willard ("Best in Show," "For Your Consideration" "This is Spinal Tap," "Everybody Loves Raymond") makes an appearance on the special as an uncle running an ad agency down on its luck and he trades quips with Nealon.
Nealon thinks commercials have gotten racier over time. “I don’t know if it’s good or bad. That’s the way the world is. It takes a lot to shock people nowadays.” One of his favorites is an Axe deodorant commercial out of Argentina. Nealon found the use of those pixelated squares “not so much funny as it’s clever and interesting.”
You can view more of the ads here.
During the past season of "Weeds," his character Doug opens a medical marijuana dispensary. At one point, he loses a bet and slams his own penis into a desk drawer. "We did seven takes," he said, "with a stunt penis. We had all different closeups of me screaming and passing out and drooling in agony. The one they ended up using is a reaction shot in the store next door of me screaming. You can just imagine it!"
Nealon started his career as a standup prior to SNL and recently had a comedy special on Showtime. He will be at the Punchline March 26 to 28. “I haven’t there in a long long time,” he said. He admits that “a lot of people don’t know I do standup.” He describes his style as “unassuming, conversational, nonthreatening.” Over the years, he’s tried to make his comedy “more truthful and honest, more reflective of my life with just a few twists and exaggeration.”
I informed him that Howard Stern ranked his interview with Nealon as his 34th favorite moment of the year. Nealon was flattered. "Just to be in that group is an honor," he said. "I kind of avoided the Howard Stern Show for years because he puts people on the spot. I"m at the point in my life, I can answer anything. I had a great time. He was really nice to me. Not often do I walk out of a talk show and feel like that was fun. He was digging on me." He talked about his love life with his wife Susan but "not too much."
He recently helped out a family he met at a gas station sleeping in their pickup truck. The oldest person was 97 years old. “That kind of hit home for me,” he said. “I gave them everything in my wallet and paid for their gas. The two sons knew who I was.” He helped hold a fundraiser for them with the owner of the Laugh Factory and get them into a shelter in hopes of eventually procuring permanent housing. Soft heart, that Kevin Nealon!
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