Kevin Nealon keeps ’em in stitches at the Rio in Vancouver

By Danny Newton

Last night, me and Pops went to see Saturday Night Live alumnus Kevin Nealon at Vancouver’s historic Rio Theatre, an event put on by Got Pop? Concerts, the event promotion company based out of Nanaimo. After a meal and a couple of brews at St. Augustine’s Craft Brew House and Kitchen, a five-minute walk away from the venue, we sat down for the show with some cold ones.

Local comedian Colin Sharp warmed up the audience with some local content, featuring a bit on the stressors of traffic in the city, before Nealon casually stepped onstage to an eruption of cheers. His set had many different elements to it, namely his love of a certain heated toilet seat, annoyances with the self-checkout machines in grocery stores, and his experiences as a family man–all while sprinkling in an appropriate amount of crowd work to keep everyone engaged.

In response to some shouts from the packed audience, the 71-year-old comic looked back fondly on the quirks of his beloved former SNL castmates Chris Farley and Norm Macdonald. Other crowd requests had to do with his time on the black-comedy series Weeds, and his recurring role on SNL as half of the Austrian bodybuilding duo “Hans and Franz”.

Over an hour after hitting the stage and ruling it with confidence, it was no surprise that Nealon earned a standing ovation for his hilarious set.

Check out Danny’s previous reviews of Vancouver standup-comedy shows by Tim Dillon and Roy Wood Jr.