Comedy

‘SNL’ alum Kevin Nealon plays it weird at the Suncoast

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Mr. Subliminal: Nealon flashed back to SNL during his Suncoast set.
Bill Hughes
Jason Harris

Three stars

Kevin Nealon February 21, Suncoast.

You know those trainwreck sketches on Saturday Night Live? The strange ones toward the end of the show that just don’t connect with the audience? The bad news for fans of SNL alum Kevin Nealon is that his Saturday set at the Suncoast felt a lot like one of those. The good news is, like those oddball sketches, it was a memorable and entertaining event, however awkward it might have been.

To be fair to Nealon, the older, suburban crowd was not as ready to laugh as a typical club crowd. Nonetheless, it’s never a good sign when 12 minutes into an hour-long set, the performer has to query about his greatest hits—asking if the patrons were fans of SNL or Weeds. The shame of it is, the former Weekend Update anchor can be funny and absurd. “When I see an adult wearing braces I smile, because I know they have hope for the future and I know they’re going to look good when it happens.”

His clever barbs—“I have an electric car. It’s in the shop. We’re putting a gas engine in it, because gas has gone down so low”—often have a Steven Wright quality to them. But on this night they didn’t hit home like his local humor. “Summerlin. For people who like Vegas but just don’t like Vegas.”

Before the halfway mark, Nealon abandoned his set altogether and went with a story-time approach. He opened the floor to questions, with drunken audience members asking about his favorite SNL host (Steve Martin) and what’s currently wrong with Chevy Chase. It’s too bad it went this way, but at least it was interesting. (I never knew that Nealon almost got the part of Sam Malone on Cheers.) In that regard, it became more of “An Evening with Kevin Nealon” than a typical stand-up show. It kinda worked for a guy who’s starred in a storied late-night franchise, a cultish Showtime series and countless Adam Sandler movies. I guess the lesson is that if you have to rely on your greatest hits, it helps to have hits as great as these.

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