Kevin Nealon, performing this weekend, still following his passion for stand-up

Kevin Nealon wants to assure fans that he won't just be repeating his act from this month's Showtime special, "Whelmed But Not Overly," when he performs this weekend at The Orleans.

"I'm working on new material now, but there will be some of that in there, too," he says of his "Whelmed" set. "But I do it in a different key. I think the special is in the key of F, and I will be doing it at The Orleans in the key of G."

Nealon doesn't like sticking to a script when he's on the road. Look for him to tweak some of his newer observations while relying on "some tried-and-true stuff and just riffing onstage trying to come up with new stuff."

The actor, who spent nine seasons on "Saturday Night Live" and just wrapped up his eighth and final season on Showtime's "Weeds," says he still encounters people who are surprised he never stopped doing stand-up.

"Some people are, because they think, 'Why would you wanna do stand-up because you're working on TV?' But it's really what I started off doing. It's my passion. It's my forte. All I really started out to do is be a stand-up, and then the acting kind of came secondary."

Nealon has been doing a bit of both as a special correspondent for "Ellen." Earlier this summer, producers for the daytime hit took to the Internet to have him ordained, then sent him to Caesars Palace to troll for a couple willing to get married later that day. Nealon then presided over the ceremony at Little White Wedding Chapel with the help of Carrot Top and the shirtless guys from "Thunder from Down Under."

"I think I don't wanna really be known for that, because then everybody will want me to marry them," he says. "And then they'll blame me when the marriage doesn't work."

He's been spending "quite a bit" of time in the valley over the past few months, including a getaway with his wife that involved seeing Donny & Marie, doing a guest spot at Brad Garrett's Comedy Club and touring the Titanic and "Bodies" exhibits. "Saw the BODIES exhibit in Vegas," he tweeted. "Can't they work the Cirque du Soleil into that somehow?"

Once known as a poker enthusiast, Nealon has scaled back, confining his play to $100 buy-in home games.

"I've never played poker in Las Vegas, except for, like, the 'Celebrity Poker Showdown' stuff. I mean, to play in a real game, it just terrifies me," he admits. "You don't know who you're playing with. I think I think of the old Westerns. You know, someone's gonna push their chair back and call me a cheater."

Now that he has more free time, Nealon says he's looking to write another book. His first, "Yes, You're Pregnant, But What About Me?," was written for expecting fathers. He jokes that he'd like to pen the companion piece, "Yes, You Had the Abortion, But What About Me?" But he's hoping to compile a memoir of his stand-up career.

And he's written himself the lead role in a comedy pilot - "kind of loosely based on my life with some exaggeration and spinning" - that he calls a mix of "Curb Your Enthusiasm," "Modern Family" and "Louie."

But for now, he's still saying goodbye to "Weeds," the dark comedy starring Mary-Louise Parker as pot-slinging widow Nancy Botwin.

"I think it really wraps it all up," he says of the Sept. 16 finale, "and I think it's very satisfying."

Nealon's scene-stealing character, Doug, began the series as an accountant and city councilman before devolving into a pot-and-sex-obsessed vagabond, following the Botwins all the way to Copenhagen and back in their seasons-long flight from a Mexican cartel.

"Doug Wilson had such a damaged moral compass," Nealon reflects. "He didn't have a lot of positive things going for him, but he did enjoy life, which I think a lot of people miss out on."

Ask him what he'll miss most about the series, and he deflects - "probably the paycheck" - before praising the other actors, the writers and the crew. "We kind of became a family after eight seasons."

One thing he won't necessarily miss, though, is "Weeds" fans who give him unsolicited pot.

"I was in Haight-Ashbury a couple of years ago, and I must have walked out of there with two pockets full.

"Or they'll come to a show, and they'll say, 'Hey, dude, you wanna light up a blunt after the show?' And I don't smoke, so I tell them I appreciate it, but I don't smoke. And they say, 'No, dude. I've seen the show. I've seen you. You smoke a lot of pot.'

"And I always tell people, these are probably the same people that go up to the actors from 'The Sopranos' with, like, a .38 caliber and say, 'Hey, you wanna whack a few people after your steak?' "

Contact Christopher Lawrence at
clawrence@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4567.