Headliner Kevin Nealon has established himself as a great stand-up comedian, actor, writer and artist. The excitement of seeing Nealon in the element in which he started out was surely felt throughout the theater.
All 575 seats were filled in the theater as the opening act, Chris Harvey, a comedian from the Akron, Ohio area, started the night off. It did not take long for the crowd to start responding to this down-to-earth comedian.
Harvey did a fantastic job warming the crowd up with his jokes about growing up in the Akron area, traveling for the first time, dating and dieting. The laughter of the crowd grew louder as Harvey continued his routine.
The crowd’s applause was much louder at the end of Harvey’s set as he had won them over and successfully led the crowd to receive Nealon.
Nealon walked onto the stage very casually, almost as if he was lost. He interacted with several couples in the front row, and throughout his show he went back and incorporated them into his jokes.
When Nealon picked up his book “I Exaggerate: My Brushes with Fame,” he began to flip through it silently, nodding and laughing without saying a word. When he finally turned the book around, he showed a caricature drawing of his good friend and fellow SNL alum, the late Chris Farley.
The crowd gave a sentimental “ah” for the late comedian as well as caricatured drawings and stories of Carrie Fisher, Norm Macdonald, along with several others, showing how beautifully Nealon can balance comedy with sentimental stories of his friends that have passed.
Nealon finished the night off strong and the crowd responded with a standing ovation and thunderous applause. Many in the crowd were still chuckling as they left the building.
Nealon came to pump us up and he accomplished that mission.
