>> >> funding for overheard with evan smith is provided in part by msi foundation, improving the quality of life within our community. and from the texas board of legal specialization, board certified attorneys in your community, experienced, respected and tested. also by hillco partners, texas government affairs consultancy, and its global health care consulting business unit, hillco health. and by the alice kleberg reynolds foundation and viewers like you. thank you. >> i'm evan smith, he's a comedian and actor who spent nine years on saturday night live, including three as the anchor of weekend updates and seven seasons in the cast of the showtime series "weeds." he's kevin nealon, this is overheard. >> i guess we can't fire him

now. >> i guess we can't fire him now. [laughter]. >> it would be nice that i win an emmy. >> being on the supreme court was an improbable dream, it's hard work and it's controversial. >> without information, there's no freedom, and it's journalist who's provides that information. >> window rolls down and this guy says, hey, he goes till 11:00. [laughter]. >> kevin nealon, hello. >> hello. >> thank you for being here. >> we've caught you here in the middle of tour, you do a fair amount of standup touring. >> yeah. >> how much of that would you say you do in the course of a year? >> you know, i never like to think of how much i do in a year, because i like to be home. >> yeah. >> but i think it's almost every weekend. >> is that right? >> so there's 52 weeks in a year, so i'd say maybe 40 weekends. >> you're out on the roads touring this town, that town. >> yeah. and i'm trying to come up with a

name for my tour. i've never had a name for a tour. >> ever? >> because i never like to think i'm on tour, i'm just doing this and i'll be back home. but i've got to come up with some sort of a name for it. haven't thought of one yet. but i will eventually. >> you will eventually. >> like i did weekend updates, i couldn't think of a sign-off thing, and that's news to me. and the second week i different have a sign off, and the second week i'm laying in bed on saturday morning, it just came to me. i'm kevin nealon, and that's news to me. >> you started doing standup all the way back in college; is that right? >> no, that is incorrect. >> we're getting off to a good start. >> let's just say i did do it, but i wasn't paid and it wasn't in the format -- >> i met it in the sense of actually doing it. >> i started performing jokes when i was, you know, in my teens i guess, or even earlier than that. i would memorize the jokes in the back of the parade magazine,

they used to have a segment called my favorite jokes with different comic that's were popular at the time and i would personalize them as if they were my jokes. i'd go to neighborhood parties and say, come here, did you guys leary about this guy, he -- hear about this guy, he stole a fire truck. this morning it happened. they're like really? yeah, yeah,. >> well, he was arrested two hours later by some guy who scoal a cop car. -- stole a cop core. >> got huge laughs. >> if it was parade magazine, you know they were hilarious, right? so my point in asking when you started really and thinking back to then, is this has been a long time that you've been doing this? >> it has been a long time, itch since the first time i got up at the improve in hollywood, back in '78. >> i think if i remember correctly, you debuted on the carson show in '84? >> '84 so that would have been

30 years ago as we sit here. amazing. >> i actually did a few tv shows before that that weren't as popular, did the letter man show, i did mer f griffin, and johnny was the first big show. >> and carson was and in the mines of people still, that was sort of the high point. >> oh, yeah. >> if you strarted the career, you always peg it, was i on the carson show, how did he treat me. >> it's kind of like passing the bar exam as a lawyer do the tonight show. that validates you. >> we're sitting here on a moment of transition from on the tonight show, the baton being passed to jimmy fallon, i guess that show has undergone a lot of changes but it's still the big brand in late-night, right? >> it is. it's interesting watching the landscape of these talk shows. which have so many talk shows, when i started out there was just the tonight show, johnny carson. it was the only show to do. other shows came along like letterman and ar seenio hall,

and now there's a plethora of talk shows. >> it seems like half of them hosted by people who used to do weekend updates. >> fallon. meyers it's about to start. lots of opportunities for you to sit on the couch. >> that's right. yeah, i've been on a lot of keuchs in my life. i went from laying on couches at friend's homes to sitting up on couches. >> sitting up on couches. saturday night live and specifically the weekend update, a brand that you're associated the with is a small club, but if you're in the club it's a good thing. that conveys going forward. people still all those years later think of those in those -- >> it is kind of an exclusive club, i think. it's getting larger and larger, they're coming up on their 40th anniversary in 2015. >> right. >> it just seems that there's more and more people that have been on it. and there's a lot of people that have been on that show that you don't even remember were on it for like a year or so. q. they come up with the stories of significant -- i don't even remember joan cue sack, ben

stiller, silver man, chris elliot, an a lot more. >> people forget. you were on for nine years which i think still makes you one of the longest tenured -- >> people still forget i was on the show. but i think the weekend update thing is actually -- it's hard to stand out in that cast, usually, but if you're the person that does weekend update at any given moment, just by definition you're kind of a brand on that show. >> yeah, that's kind of the centerpiece on that show. it comes on at 12:00, and then you have before weekend update and after weekend update. >> people go to bed sometimes after weekend update. >> they're very dry. >> you got on the show in part because of dana car vi. >> dana and i new each other from the standup circuit, and dana was also renting a room over the garage of this house i was renting with some other comics in the hollywood hills when he came down from san francisco, he would stay there. >> yeah. >> and we would kind of jam in

the driveway with different kind of character stuff. i wasn't a character impression nis or anything i was a standup. but dana was into all that. >> that was his big thing. >> so dana got the the the show in the summer of '86. i'm dating january hooker at the time, we were friends for about six years and then we started dating, which is the best way to do it. but that didn't last. >> she was on the show at that point. >> she was not on the show. >> she was not orch the show. i was excited for dana and for jan because they were up for saturday night live. and i'm reading backstage live, saturday night live and excited for them, never thinking that i would ever be on that show, because i didn't really even have the representation to get me an audition. and i didn't do characters, i never did an improv, i wasn't brought up in the improv ranks, and so dana called the me from new york that summer and said, i think they rary still looking for one more cast member, i told

them about you and i think they might want to see your tapes. i'm out at warren michael's house right now in the back room. >> calling you? >> yeah. guess who's in the kitchen, chevy chase and paul simon. i said you're kidding me? no, no. but anyway, i'll let you know. >> yeah. >> so i sent in my tapes and a week later he calls me, back out at warren michael's house, guess who's in the kitchen, dan ak kroid. you're kidding me? >> i think they liked your tapes. really, dan akroid's in the kitchen. yeah. they flew me in for an audition and i never thought i'd get it because i'm a standup comic. so many peach people. it seemed like the whole plane was full of people going to audition. itch the pilot came out of the cockpit, hey, you guys think this is funny for my audition. and i'm the only one that's nervous because i'm not going to

get the show, but, you know, i go in and i audition and studio 8h where they shoot the show and i'm in front of warren michael's and dennis miller and dunn who was the leftover from the year before, dana, john lef itz, and i just do some of my stand up, you know, the tonight show and some of the characters dana and i used to do together in the driveway, and i left thinking, well, you know, that was a fun trip. >> that was fun. we can tell people about this one day. >> yeah, yeah,. >> yep. >> and i get home and like a week later, i'm meeting with warren michael's at my manager's office, and he talks about an hour about saturday night live, and i'll just kind of nodding. and he offers me a job as a writer and a feature player. and he leaves -- he excuses himself to go to the restroom, and when he's gone, my manager who was also his manager, he says, let's tell warn -- warren we'll think about it over the weekend.

and i've like -- >> are you kidding? who does that. >> right. it's almost like it was planned out by these guys. in hindsight, now that i know he manages both of us. well, what do you think. i said, warren, let me think about it over the weekend. and he said all right. well you think about it over the weekend and we'll see you in new york on monday. >> by the way, you do at least one character, warren. that was pretty good warren. >> i do character ts that are kind of easy to do, like they had me do brent muffsburge rerk, so you would look like him. >> but then they saidal franken said why don't you just take your fingers and hold it like this the whole time. >> it would be hilarious. >> and that's what i did. >> it was a transformational show to get that show, for everyone who's been on that show, even the people who had bad experiences on that show will say that being on that program transformed their careers. >> i guess so. bless you. for me it happened so quickly

because i had like three days to get to new york. i have friend who's didn't even know i was on the show. >> right. >> but it is -- it does change your life, you know, just to be on that show, to be in new york. >> yeah. >> and i enjoyed it. i liked it. a lot of people complained about the schedule and the stress, but i new, for me, it was a theirra thon, it wasn't a -- marathon, it wasn't a sprint. >> hours were so bad and everything was so difficult. >> yeah. i enjoyed it. i loved it. i didn't stay up late like a lot of people. the original cast would stay up tuesday night all night long and write sketches for the next day, and that's because they were doing drugs back then. you know, and when i came in on the show, nobody was doing drugs, i came in with phil hartmann and dana car vi and jan hooker, everybody was pretty responsible. it was sensible hours for me and i got to meet some of my idols that i grew up watching or listening to, paul mccartney,

mick yager, all these people that i loved and got to be foreigns with. so i loved the -- friends with. >> you lived through a period on that show, i suspect, when people say the show's not as good as it used to be. there's always those saturday night dead stories, women, the show use toed be good in the old days but now not you just don't pay attention to that stuff, right? >> the first time i ran into chevy chase, he was talking about the show. a lot of people don't realize this in the original years we had about one out of three shows that was good. they don't remember that. >> they roman ta size the. >> probably like the beatles, a little bit now, people say well when nealon and car vi and those guys, that was funny then, this is not funny. >> always going to be that. >> oh, you guys were the best, you know, because they're people my age. >> right. yeah. exactly. that's what they remember. i will say, though, you know, they run increasingly these best of shows. >> yeah. >> and, you know, there's still

stuff, hans and franz is something that you and car vi did that everybody remembers. >> hear me now, believe me later, you took your vest off you caused a flabalanch. >> i think thinking about the show at christmastime, you and phil hartmann in love with this franken stein, har san and ton to, it's all that funny. >> that was such a cerebral sketch the head writer came up with and we did it many times for different holidays. >> cracks you up. >> yeah, it really does. >> i never really broke character on that show. i think phil really had trouble holding it together. >> try not to laugh. >> migratest challenge came with a chris farly sketch where he was a chip and dale dancer, and he was dancing with patrick sideway see, and i was one of

the judges like sitting in a stainl with you and they're dancing in front of us. the audience was going crazy, a lo of times i had to look down at the table because i couldn't look or i would start laughing. and a lot of times i would focus just on the stretch marks to keep from laughing. i would be building like little patterns for the stretch marks in my head. >> i want to ask you about weekend up dates specifically. the show is now going through a transition as it has a couple different times. you know, she's talked about the challenge and the pressure, you know, having to step into those shoes, what it's like. you know, you were three years in that chair, you did a great job, people remember that time very fondly. can you talk about what it was like? because it is really not being a regular cast member? >> right. well, it's added responsibility, especially if you're doing sketches as well. i mean, dennis did a great job up there but he wasn't doing

sketches. >> tina fey, but she was not doing sketches. >> it was hard for p people to write jokes for weekend update because it wasn't a glorifying position. people on monday weren't talking about weekend update jokes so much, they're talking more about characters or whatever they saw, so they would try to entice writers to come up to the 17th floor at 30 rock on saturday morning because you couldn't really write jokes before that because all st. late-night -- the late-night talk show hosts would lr do those jokes. so they would put out a breakfast buffet and newspaper and ap photos, there was no internet or google at the time, and a lot of the write writers would come up just to have breakfast and read the paper. an some of the younger writers would come up to try to write jokes, but they mostly wrcht good. and then there was al frank

lynn, who was a political junkie, and then i would get maybe three or four jokes on a week. and i would pay out of my own pocket to have friends fax me in jokes. >> comedy writers. >> and we could get about 20 jokes out of all that, but it was a fun -- it was a fun job. i was a fun, you know, thing. nice change for me after being on the show for five years. >> yeah, mix it up. and probably it's why you lasted as long on d show as you did. >> i guess so. >> when you left -- you've done a number of movies over the years you've got a couple coming up. and you eventually got "weeds" as a regular program. it's got to be one thing of being a cast member of saturday night live, it's not unscripted exactly, but it's largely more comedy than acting, and then to suddenly transition from being an actor for tem vision and -- television and film.

talk a little about that. >> that's also one of the reasons i staid there so long, it's like school, well, if i leave here, i have to get a job. >> i have to get a job. >> yeah, i have sto get a job. yeah. so i stayed ases long as i could. and, you know, i just kind of kept quiet, and, you know, watched people leave. it was kind of like being in prison, like you see new inmates coming in. >> he got it. >> yeah, we had aryan gangs, you know, running around and stuff [laughter]. >> so when i left when i was offered a sit com that dream works was doing it was their first sitcom, it was written and created by gary david goldberg who did family ties, i thought this is a pretty good stepping off point. >> soft landing. >> yeah. an also i had kind of run my course on the show, i knew i was going out to do sketches and i still had food in my mouth from the craft service table that i really wasn't taking this

serious any more, like i'm doing a sketch, i'm picking food in my teeth, my friends in my dressing room making margaritas. i wasn't as focused as i should have been. so this sitcom came along with timmy busfield and a few other people an myself and i had high hopes for it. this is when i learned how difficult it is to get a sitcom on tv and have it stay on. it was in one of the highest-rated time slots for abc, i think it was. >> all that pleens is more pressure. >> and when that happens it's just too many cooks in the kitchen, and it kind of got -- it didn't turn out to be what it should have been, and that got canceled after about eight episodes. >> yeah. >> so i'd do more things. the whole time i'm doing like adam sandler films, and then i'm doing these sitcoms sh and there's another one that came along in '87 called hiller

diller. and that one should have been a really good show, but again, that got kind of watered down and then "weeds" came along after that. >> a it was really one of the earlier shows to succeed on cable, really now sort of everyone has a show on cable it seems like. >> yeah. >> but lib rated sphr a lot of the ratings pressure, lib rated from the network standards, obviously, much more like film than television, and really television has been transformed in almost every way by the new distribution channels and by these separate productions. >> and even now you're seeing a lot of new platforms coming around like netflix. >> and amazon. >> amazon. >> lego. >> no. >> listen, if somebody had a piece of that lego movie going in, they've made a lot of money coming in on the other side of it, you have to say it. >> that is true. >> so how did "weeds" come about an what was it like on that program for those seasons. >> i saw the tight m, -- title,

i thought, oh, this just another stoner show. then i read it, this is really good, the writing is good and the characters are well-written. so i auditioned for it. it never gets easy in this business. you can be on a show like saturday night live for nine years and do a lot of other stuff you still have to audition for shows now. that's the way it is now,. >> it didn't used to be that way but now it is. >> so i go in and audition for it, which is fine, and it's funny, you're sitting in a room with people that just got to hollywood become actors, and then people that you've seen around forever, other actors in the room auditioning for the same role. >> yep. >> and you just go in there and you do it. you know, it was a pit -- fit for me, they liked me, and they hired me on as a guest star in the pilot. nobody really commits to me in the beginning. the second year he told me i could be a cast member. and then it got picked up and it bhaim a -- it was fun go doing that show, because i'm not a pot

smoker, but i kind of felt like i made up for it on that show. you know, it's not even pot, it's a honey rose herb that people smoke on tv shows and movies, but still if you're not a spoker, it makes you a little lightheaded plus we get it from the honey rose cartel in columbia. >> which is premium stuff, right. >> yeah you don't mess with those guys. they will slap you silly. >> characters kind of be actually like your per sauna, it seemed like you're playing a version of you. >> well, i hope it wasn't a version of me. you know, this was actually a character that i could kind of live through vicariously, because it was a guy who really had no -- he wanted to do what was right for him, and not what was right for the world or, you know, what was going on around him. >> yeah. >> and so i'm very responsible in real life. didn't i show up on time here? >> you did.

>> the character wouldn't have showed up because he would have been tanked out and smoking somewhere. >> i loved doing that show. the actors were very good on it. i always feel like the george clipton when i'm doing stuff, i'm always considering like i'm putting myself in another job do see what those goes through. jan hooks, probably one of the best comeet yen sketch at treks i've ever met. >> and then to work with mary luis parker on wides. >> elizabeth perkins. >> yeah, all those people. i just felt like, you know, when are they going to fire me. when are they going to realize that i'm just -- >> good opportunity and very pioneering in the sense of what we have now come to take for granted on cable. >> oh, yeah. >> we've got a few minutes left. you've got a few more movies coming up this year. you seem very placid, very happy about this. you have a film with elizabeth banks coming out in a couple

months. >> yeah, it called "walk of shame." i play parker steve. i'm the helicopter traffic reporter, and i'm not a fan of helicopters in real life. because i used to work making helicopter blades at a factory in bridgeport, connecticut. my father was also an arrow nawtic engineer and he worked at the same factory for eight years and he even warned me about getting into helicopter, not the safest thing in the world. my thing in this movie is to take off from a rooftop in la from a helicopter -- i'm not flying it. i had to go up in the -- i'm afraid of heights, too. we took off and we had all new lines the director just gave me at the last minute, so i have those between my legs where the camera can't see them and it's all glass in the front, i'm sitting in the front of a little helicopter and just as we're taking back, the director said, all right, you want to run those

lines with me, practice them. i said i cannot even talk to you right now. i've got to focus on how -- where we're going to land and hit the ground, you know. >> yeah. >> but in hindsight, it was a great experience, just flying over the 405 and dodger's stadium. >> if you could landal it, it would be great. >> oh, yeah. after a half hour, i said to myself, okay, this is fun. we did it. i'm glad we're going back now. >> right. don't have to do it again. >> walk away from the blackjack table. that's it. done. >> see you later. and you have another movie with adam sandler that you shot. >> right. my 12th movie i've done with him. this one is called "blended" and we shot that last june in south africa. >> sandler, drew berry more? a. yep. >> and if you're going to associate yourself with somebody, sandler, it may not be the highst brow of movie making, but people love these movies. q. there have been somewhere i say this is where i draw the

line and sandler always offers it to me. but grandma's, no, i'm not doing that. >> too low brew actually. >> this was when he was first producing and he called me, neil, i -- nealon i rel hope you're going to do this film. >> i said okay. i guess i'll do it then. it didn't do well. it became a very big cult classic. >> which in some cases will happen. >> yeah. >> good to see you. nice to meet you. glad to see you're career is going along well. >> it's going great. i'm very lucky. >> kevin nealon, good to see you. kevin nealon. thank you. [applause] >> we'd love to have you visit us in the stoo do visit our websited invitations to interview, archives of past guests and past episode. >> the writing is very good.

i think they know how to lay in it a little bit and i guess i add a lot of stuff to it. and i think you see that side of doug wilson that's kind of sad, you know, i think people feel some empathy for him. >> funding for overheard with evan smith is provided in part by mfi foundation, improving the quality of life within our community and from the texas board of legal specialization board certified attorneys in your commune tirks experienced, respected and test dz. also by hillco partners, texas government affairs consultancy and its global health care consulting business unit, hillco health. and by the alice kleberg reynolds foundation and viewers like you. thank you.