Kevin Nealon on ‘SNL,’ Lorne Michaels, Dana Carvey and More

The Last Laugh

The Daily Beast

Comedy Interviews, Comedy, Interviews, Tv & Film, Society & Culture, Tv, Movies, Film

4.6 • 661 Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2025

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

30 years ago, Kevin Nealon was anchoring “Weekend Update” on ‘Saturday Night Live.’ Now he's walking the woods with his famous comedian friends on the YouTube series Hiking with Kevin. In this episode, Nealon talks about how that show got started and looks back at his ‘SNL’ days, including how he got hired, when he knew it was time to leave and shares some hilarious stories about Lorne Michaels, Dana Carvey, Chris Farley, Al Franken, and more. And ahead of the big ‘SNL50’ special this coming weekend, Nealon reflects on sharing the stage with fellow “Update” anchors Norm Macdonald, Colin Quinn, and Seth Meyers at the show’s 40th anniversary event in 2015.

This episode was originally published on September 10, 2019.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm always up before the birds and the kids.
0:02.9	Good thing Costa Express is always up too.
0:07.0	Early starts are easier with great coffee.
0:09.7	And if I grab one for Bob, I might even get some decent company.
0:14.5	Large cappuccino for the bloc who's half asleep.
0:17.2	Oh, you legend.
0:19.6	Now that's a proper coffee.
0:21.3	Should kick in Justin Samfut to remember which end of the screwdriver to use.
0:25.1	Hmm.
0:26.3	Costa Express.
0:27.8	Quality coffee every time.
0:32.4	This is the Last Laugh. I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast. This is The Last Laugh.
0:39.2	I'm Matt Wilstein from The Daily Beast.
0:41.6	So, this coming weekend, we finally get to see what S&L has in store for its massive 50th anniversary special.
0:49.7	Last week on the show, I talked to Carol Leifer, who was a writer for one quote-unquote weird season
0:55.2	40 years ago. And next week, we have another new episode with a current member of S&L's
1:00.0	writing staff. But this week, I thought it would be fun to revisit a conversation I had with a cast
1:05.6	member who joined the show as it was struggling for relevance in the mid-80s and then stayed
1:10.3	all the way through the heyday of the mid-90s, Kevin Neelan.
1:14.8	Kevin was, and still is, a great stand-up comic,
1:18.2	who started out as a sketch player on the show in 1986,
1:22.2	but then really found his calling when he took over as Weekend Update anchor
	...

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