‘SNL’s Kevin Nealon Is Toxic, According to Bill Burr
Why does Kevin Nealon have a reputation as a good dude? Bill Burr, Nealon’s guest on Hiking with Kevin, says the Saturday Night Live alum is anything but. “I find your personality fascinating because people think you’re a nice guy,” Burr said. “And you’re not.”
Come on, Bill Burr! What would make you diss poor Nealon like that? “What you do is, you draw information out (of people) and you find out what they’re good at and then you shit on it,” Burr explained (after confessing that he likes to play guitar and the drums). “And then when the person reacts to it, you turn around and put it on them. It’s very toxic. Very toxic.”
Nealon laughed without denying the accusation. Burr sees the passive-aggressive act going way back in Nealon’s history. “I feel like there’s a bunch of women that you used to date watching this right now going, ‘Yes, yes, yes! That was exactly the Kevin Nealon experience!’”
Don't Miss
Whether or not Nealon was shitting on Burr for being that middle-aged dad who sits in with local bands, Burr wasn’t shy about music’s influence on his comedy. “Music is the thing for me,” he confessed.
Sometimes that gets in the way, like when he did stand-up at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Burr boggled at the rock-and-roll heroes who stood on that stage before him, classic English bands like Led Zeppelin and Cream. “You look around and you can’t believe you’re there,” Burr said. “And I have to be honest with you — it’s the only thing about stand-up that sucks. People go, ‘Yo, you make sure you take it in.’ And I can’t. The timing has to keep going. I can’t drink this in.”
The comic loves the way that musicians’ extraordinary abilities are so evident — at least compared to comedy. “It’s hard to tell like how good you are as a comedian, right?” he asked Nealon. “You don’t know. People say you’re good or whatever. What does that mean? Does that mean they think you’re good or that they want some work on the road? You have no idea.”
With musicians, it’s much easier to tell whether or not someone has the goods. “I always wish that someone could just pick up a guitar and play at the level comic I was so I could tell where I was,” Burr lamented.
Er, that’s confusing. Please say more? “It’s like, would he be playing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,’ looking at his fingers? Could he play without looking? Could he play what he feels? That’s like the highest.”
The comedian equivalent of the guitar player whose emotions flow through his fingertips, according to Burr, would be Richard Pryor. While Burr has a long list of comedians who influenced him, including George Carlin and Sam Kinison, Pryor was the one who could jam like a musician: “Richard was the one that showed me that all emotions, everything is open for you as a comedian.”
