Kevin Nealon on His Career in Comedy!

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Kevin Nealon on His Career in Comedy!"

Release Date: July 27, 2025

Introduction

In this engaging episode of The Al Franken Podcast, host Al Franken welcomes comedian Chris Rock to discuss their shared history on Saturday Night Live (SNL), memorable sketches, personal anecdotes, and insights into the comedy world. While the episode's title references Kevin Nealon, the primary conversation centers around the dynamic between Al Franken and Chris Rock, reminiscing about their time on SNL and exploring various facets of their careers and personal lives.

Memories from SNL

Al Franken opens the discussion by reflecting on his favorite moments from SNL, highlighting the collaborative and creative environment of the writers' room.

Al Franken (03:28): "Your job is to write sketches for that Saturday show and in the middle of the night you're hearing everybody else's ideas just flying around."

Chris Rock adds his perspective on the experience, emphasizing the camaraderie and intense work ethic.

Chris Rock (03:34): "That's as thrilled as you get. It doesn't look thrilled at all."
Al Franken (04:16): "Yes, that's right."

The duo shares humorous anecdotes, including their impressions of fellow cast members like Jan Hooks and Norm Macdonald.

Notable Sketches and Creative Process

A significant portion of the conversation delves into the creation of iconic SNL sketches, particularly the beloved characters Hans and Franz, portrayed by Kevin Nealon and Dana Carvey.

Chris Rock (34:33): "So Dana and I came up with Hans and Franz. We were doing standup and writing those characters together."

They recount the inspiration behind Hans and Franz, inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger's accent, and the laughter it brought during their tours. Chris Rock vividly describes their first meeting with Schwarzenegger, underscoring the mutual appreciation for humor.

Chris Rock (34:43): "He loves them. He used those characters things for a long time, like all the phrases we had still does to this day."

Al Franken also reminisces about their collaborative efforts in writing sketches and the intense, yet rewarding, creative process.

Personal Anecdotes and Life Beyond SNL

Transitioning from their professional lives, Al and Chris share personal stories, including Chris Rock's experience hosting his hiking show and his brief stint in college football.

Chris Rock (44:11): "I was the quarterback for a club football team at Fairfield University. It was a wild experience."

Al Franken relates his own experiences, such as working in a factory post-college and balancing work with his passion for comedy.

They also discuss the challenges and joys of touring, maintaining personal lives, and adapting to changes over the years.

Insights into the Comedy Industry

The conversation touches on the evolving landscape of comedy, the importance of improvisation, and the impact of large casts on shows like SNL.

Chris Rock (60:18): "I can't imagine with all the cast members they have now, and if you're sitting on the bench too long, you're gonna have to get in there."

Al Franken and Chris Rock critique modern comedy shows' structure, comparing it to the more intimate and collaborative environment of earlier iterations.

Reflections and Closing Thoughts

As the episode draws to a close, Al Franken and Chris Rock reflect on their enduring friendship, the legacy of SNL alumni like Farley and Jan Hooks, and the personal growth they've experienced since their days on the show.

Chris Rock (65:35): "The right kind of attitude. Because I'm the attitude guy."
Al Franken (65:50): "Well, I hope you enjoyed listening."

They express appreciation for each other's talents and contributions to the world of comedy, leaving listeners with a sense of nostalgia and admiration for their comedic journeys.

Notable Quotes

• Al Franken (03:28): "Your job is to write sketches for that Saturday show and in the middle of the night you're hearing everybody else's ideas just flying around."

• Chris Rock (34:33): "So Dana and I came up with Hans and Franz. We were doing standup and writing those characters together."

• Chris Rock (44:11): "I was the quarterback for a club football team at Fairfield University. It was a wild experience."

• Chris Rock (60:18): "I can't imagine with all the cast members they have now, and if you're sitting on the bench too long, you're gonna have to get in there."

• Chris Rock (65:35): "The right kind of attitude. Because I'm the attitude guy."

Conclusion

This episode of The Al Franken Podcast offers a heartfelt and humorous exploration of the careers and personal lives of two comedic legends. Through shared memories, insightful discussions, and amusing anecdotes, Al Franken and Chris Rock provide listeners with an intimate look into the world of Saturday Night Live and the enduring bonds formed within its vibrant community.

Transcript

[Kevin Nealon]

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[Al Franken]

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[Kevin Nealon]

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[Chris Rock]

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[Kevin Nealon]

Terms and conditions apply Meet Olivia Hey, Olivia dreams big. I want to go back to school.

[Al Franken]

And get a pet and buy a.

[Kevin Nealon]

House and save for retirement and travel the world. That's quite the list.

[Chris Rock]

Thank you.

[Kevin Nealon]

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[Al Franken]

Really? Yep.

[Kevin Nealon]

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[Chris Rock]

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[Kevin Nealon]

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[Chris Rock]

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[Kevin Nealon]

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[Chris Rock]

Hey everybody.

[Al Franken]

We got a great one today. You know, for a change, Kevin Nealon, my old SNL buddy, is my guest. Now, most of you remember Kevin from our SNL days together. After that, he starred in the TV show Weeds and has been hosting his own program, Hiking with Kevin. I did an episode of that a few years back and you can watch it on YouTube. Kevin also tours and for my money is one of the best stand ups around. It's always fun to have a comedian on the show to take a break from our usual episodes. So I was really glad to get in the studio with Kevin for this one. You know, I'm often asked what my favorite part of working at SNL was, and I always say it was those Tuesday nights, Wednesday mornings when the first draft of the show got written. Your job is to write sketches for that Saturday show and in the middle of the night you're hearing everybody else's ideas just flying around. I'll never forget Kevin and Dana doing Hans and Franz for the first time for the rest of us, and we were falling on the floor laughing. Hans and Franz were the broadest characters. Hear me now and believe me later. Oh, I can't do them. But they were the broadest, stupidest characters. And Kevin to me, was always the best attitude player in the cast. Not that they weren't all great attitude players in that cast, but Kevin was the best. Well, let's get right to it. We've got a great one today. You know, for a change, Kevin Nealon is our guest. And I know you'll enjoy. Okay. I'm so thrilled to have my friend Kevin Nealon.

[Chris Rock]

That's as thrilled as you get. It doesn't look thrilled at all.

[Al Franken]

Oh, you're right.

[Chris Rock]

It's almost like you're waiting for a.

[Al Franken]

Bus, you know, I'm so thrilled that this bus.

[Chris Rock]

You gotta have a smile at least. Have you ever been thrilled before? Be honest with me.

[Al Franken]

Have I ever been thrilled? Yes.

[Chris Rock]

When was the last time you were thrilled?

[Al Franken]

Well, that's none of your business.

[Chris Rock]

I was gonna say that when I came in.

[Al Franken]

Okay. I'm thrilled to have you.

[Chris Rock]

I believe that now.

[Al Franken]

Yeah. Yeah. And Kevin, one of the funniest cast members we ever had on SNL during the whole 50 years. Can you believe that?

[Chris Rock]

Oh, man. But, you know, for me, it was over 30 years ago. I was on that show. Isn't that crazy?

[Al Franken]

Yeah. I get. And I left. Same for me, because that's when I left it.

[Chris Rock]

And you were there for a long time.

[Al Franken]

I did 15 seasons.

[Chris Rock]

You did 15. And didn't you run the show at one point?

[Al Franken]

I did.

[Chris Rock]

Was it the weird year?

[Al Franken]

That was the weird year. We had a year where, you know, I don't want to blame Lorne for his casting choices, but we had a very young cast.

[Chris Rock]

Lorne had something to do with that. I thought that was before he came back.

[Al Franken]

No, no, that was the year he came back.

[Chris Rock]

That's right. Yeah.

[Al Franken]

Yeah. And we had Anthony Michael hall, who.

[Chris Rock]

Was all good actors. Robert Downey Jr. Yeah.

[Al Franken]

Won an Oscar. No, he's great. But he was 19 at the time or something like that. And I think hall was, like, 17, maybe. And, you know, we just couldn't have them play senators. We couldn't do a Senate hearing.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. And you couldn't stunt cast back then.

[Al Franken]

Yeah. And so the next year. And that the network was threatening of canceling the show. Can you imagine that? Because 35 years later, what a dumb move it would have been to cancel the show. But anyway, so Lorne. Then we picked a cast. Dennis Miller was Dennis in the first.

[Chris Rock]

He was there in that weird year. Dennis Miller.

[Al Franken]

He was there. The weird year.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, that's right.

[Al Franken]

Nora Dunn, who worked with you with Victoria and Jan. Jan Hooks. Yeah, Jan Hooks. Did you. You work with Jan before snl? I read something somewhere that you had worked with her like a year before that. You came to snl or did you know her before?

[Chris Rock]

Jan and I were great friends for six Years. I met her at an audition for some sketch show at 20th Century Fox, and we had some time in the waiting room to kind of converse. And I really liked her. I really fell in love with her talent. She was so talented.

[Al Franken]

Unbelievable. Yeah, she was. You know what? I watched the Bush Dukakis debate recently with, of course, Danez Bush and Lovitz's the Caucus. And she was Diane Sawyer.

[Chris Rock]

That's right.

[Al Franken]

And she just made me laugh so hard in that. Cause she was very. She tried to be a little sexy.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, yeah.

[Al Franken]

Buffing the hair and a wink here or there while completely boring into both of them. So, I mean, she could do shit like that.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, yeah. I did see Diane sawyer at the 50th anniversary.

[Al Franken]

She was there.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. She was.

[Al Franken]

Well, yes.

[Chris Rock]

Acting kind of sexy. Winking.

[Al Franken]

Well, she had been a friend, a good friend of Mike Nichols.

[Chris Rock]

That's right.

[Al Franken]

And Lauren and Mike Nichols were tight.

[Chris Rock]

That's right.

[Al Franken]

So how did. How did it happen that we had all this? So I get a call, like, from you on Sunday saying, I can't do it on Tuesday. Today is.

[Chris Rock]

You're talking about the podcast.

[Al Franken]

Talking about the podcast now. I'm talking about you putting me through. I had to call my team. We had to reschedule. People had. It was Peter on the east coast in Baltimore, who's my producer. I had sheer. Here. It was.

[Chris Rock]

You're a NASA space center in Houston.

[Al Franken]

No, I don't.

[Chris Rock]

Okay. I was just feeling it out. Well, let me tell you what happened. First of all, I've never been in that position before where I've kind of created havoc like that kind of diva havoc before something. But on this particular occasion, I did panic because I looked at my schedule and it showed our podcast day as yesterday. And I thought, that is crazy, because I have this scheduled an hour and a half away, and I'll never be able to get back from Melrose in time. And my wife was not happy about it. And so I said, well, I'm going to call and see if we can move this. So I was panicking. I was calling from Richard Lewis Memorial.

[Al Franken]

It was a memorial, Richard.

[Chris Rock]

It was. Yeah, A year later.

[Al Franken]

Oh, wow.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, it was amazing.

[Al Franken]

I'm sorry that you had to go through this during that.

[Chris Rock]

I apologize to Richard Lewis. So anyway, because I didn't want to leave you high and dry, because I've been in that position before where people are just really impossible. So I'm thinking, oh, now here I'm that person. I'm being impossible. I'm. You know, last minute, because we double booked. Not double booked, but we double confirmed that this was the date because we just had to push it back a little bit. Anyway, long story short, I found out that my iPhone calendar was splitting a day so I could see half of what's on the next day. And your name was half on the next day. You know what I mean?

[Al Franken]

I kind of got it.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, just like there was two.

[Al Franken]

It's a great cover story.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, well, there's a lot more good stuff here. So, anyway, I panicked, and then I finally realized, wait a minute, I'm looking at this calendar wrong. So I had to call you back. And Peter. And here's the funny thing is, I left a message, a long message from Peter and never heard back from him. And then I get a text from Albert Brooks saying, hey, did you mean to call me on this one? I don't know who, really. I want to make sure that this guy gets the message somehow.

[Al Franken]

You called Albert Brooks?

[Chris Rock]

Called Albert Brooks by mistake.

[Al Franken]

You're having a rough period. Does this have anything. Can I ask you about how your MRI went yesterday?

[Chris Rock]

I had to cancel because of my cold. There's one thing I didn't cancel because of my cold. You know what it is?

[Al Franken]

This.

[Chris Rock]

This. Oh, and I gave you a forewarning, too. I said, hey, we can always reschedule this if you want, but I have really bad cold. And as you slide back a little bit further.

[Al Franken]

Yeah, I slid back. Chest.

[Chris Rock]

I mean, it's not in the chest. It's just congestion, you know?

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

Here's. First of all, here's what I had to cancel the last two days. An MRI on Monday, and this morning, root canal. Oh, I've had this cold for two days. I got back from the road. You know, you always get it on an airplane. Yeah, it might be Covid. I don't even know.

[Al Franken]

You know, there are tests.

[Chris Rock]

Well, they're saying now that, you know, if they don't even ask you if you have Covid, if you're doing a job, like in a movie or something, they don't even ask you because it's like a cold now. That's all. There's no side effects or threat to dying.

[Al Franken]

What, you can give it to somebody else. Yeah, but they're not gonna die is what you're saying.

[Chris Rock]

No, they're not gonna die. Get rid of it.

[Al Franken]

What if you're doing a movie with a lot of, like, 90 year olds?

[Chris Rock]

Doesn't matter.

[Al Franken]

And you have Covid.

[Chris Rock]

Doesn't matter.

[Al Franken]

I think it does well, because you're 90. I am not 90. I am older than you.

[Chris Rock]

Wouldn't be great if you could give away your cold and then you wouldn't have it anymore.

[Al Franken]

You mean. I see, is giving someone a cold would be mean? You. Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

You no longer are congested or have the cold.

[Al Franken]

Well, they're working on that.

[Chris Rock]

That would be great, man. I know a lot of people I.

[Al Franken]

Want to call to.

[Chris Rock]

Is it John Hopkins or is it John Hopkins?

[Al Franken]

It's Johns Hopkins.

[Chris Rock]

For some reason, I always get that wrong. Johns Hopkins. It's almost like he owns the Hopkins. Right? It's Johns Hopkins.

[Al Franken]

I guess that's what it's from. So can I ask you about. What?

[Chris Rock]

You can ask me anything you want. Except things that I don't want to answer.

[Al Franken]

Okay.

[Chris Rock]

Well, yeah, you could ask me the MRI. I get MRIs once a year, starting a couple years ago because they discovered I had a meningioma tumor. Not in the brain, in your head. Between the skull and the brain.

[Al Franken]

Between the skull and the brain.

[Chris Rock]

It's benign.

[Al Franken]

It's benign.

[Chris Rock]

So it's not.

[Al Franken]

That's what that life threatening? What did you call it again?

[Chris Rock]

Menegioma.

[Al Franken]

And that is always benign?

[Chris Rock]

No.

[Al Franken]

No.

[Chris Rock]

Oh, I don't think so.

[Al Franken]

Okay.

[Chris Rock]

No.

[Al Franken]

And how big is this thing?

[Chris Rock]

You've seen my car, right, When I pulled in? It's a lot bigger than my head, I'll tell you that. No, it's maybe an inch by a half an inch.

[Al Franken]

And there's no danger to you if it doesn't grow. But if it grows, then.

[Chris Rock]

Well, that's why I get an mri. But it hasn't been growing in the last couple years, so I wasn't even gonna go get one, but then the doctor goes, hey, you should go get one. Just to be on the safe side.

[Al Franken]

You should do it every year.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, but the crazy thing is, listen to this, Al. My wife has one the same size and the exact same location.

[Al Franken]

Are you kidding me?

[Chris Rock]

No.

[Al Franken]

Susan has the exact same tumor.

[Chris Rock]

Menoma tumor, same size, benign. And I don't know, maybe we're soulmates. Maybe that's the way you could find out. Your soulmate. I don't know what it's from. Is it a cell phone or what? Okay, what do you have? How many tumors do you have?

[Al Franken]

Well, I've won. Sticking out here. No, I've been fortunate. Knock on wood. It's nothing to joke about.

[Chris Rock]

No, it's not.

[Al Franken]

But a benign meningioma. Is that what you call it? Yeah, that's if you're gonna have one. That's the kind to have, right?

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. So if you're listening, try to get it. Just try to get it, because it is the best one. It's not really a joke. It's more of a point of view, attitude.

[Al Franken]

It's like you. You do attitude.

[Chris Rock]

I asked you once, I said, al, do you think I was the straight man on snl? And you said, what?

[Al Franken]

No, it's all the attitude. That's. You were, I'd say, the best attitude player ever in the history of the show.

[Chris Rock]

Well, thank you.

[Al Franken]

I mean, kind of by far.

[Chris Rock]

I was never one for broad comedy because I never did sketch work before snl. It was always stand up. And I'm also a good imposter, but a good.

[Al Franken]

Right.

[Chris Rock]

With the bs. So I could, like, take. Yeah, I'm like a. I'm like a chameleon in that way with the attitude.

[Al Franken]

You are a chameleon.

[Chris Rock]

So I think that's where the attitude comes in from.

[Al Franken]

But that's where that comes in. Helpful in being on a cat in a cast.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

So you didn't do any Groundlings or anything like that? You did stand up.

[Chris Rock]

Stand up. You know, people always say, hey, you've never improvised before. But the thing is, we all improvise in our life.

[Al Franken]

You're one of the greatest improvisers I know.

[Chris Rock]

Well, it is documented. Yeah, that is true.

[Al Franken]

Well, no, but I mean, your mind is. I think of you as a great improviser.

[Chris Rock]

Thank you. But maybe in a certain.

[Al Franken]

Now that would be a good time.

[Chris Rock]

For a great improvise. Yes. And in a certain respect, I probably am. But I cannot like these great improv players at the Groundlings or Sex City. You give them a film type, film noir and this and that, and then they go, right.

[Al Franken]

Well, that's a training and a skill that you don't have. But I'm talking about.

[Chris Rock]

I'm able to roll with stuff.

[Al Franken]

Yeah, but your attitude. You're an attitude. I called you also an attitude player.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

Like in Chippendales.

[Chris Rock]

Right.

[Al Franken]

Okay.

[Chris Rock]

Keep in the straight face.

[Al Franken]

Well, you just lay out the premise, which is. This has been a really hard.

[Chris Rock]

Believe me, we have been struggling up here to kind of come to a decision. And I'm sorry, we're going to have to go with Patrick Swayze or whatever his name was.

[Al Franken]

It was. God, he had a name. The character had a name.

[Chris Rock]

Do you know who would know that name right away? Jim Downey. Jim Downey wrote the piece, but he knows everything about Tim Downey was one.

[Al Franken]

Of the great writers on the show. Not the greatest thing. And he wrote Chippendales. I had one line in it. Mike Myers line, this is the part of the job I hate.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. That's funny.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

When it comes to judging.

[Al Franken]

Well, that was it. So my name was on it. And at Read through, they put the names of the writers on it. So it was Downey Franken. But I had written one line. I just kind of sat with him while he just conjured this whole thing.

[Chris Rock]

Well, that was smart on his behalf because if you put a good writer's name on a script, that's more likely to get on because Lorne will see it and go, oh, Al's probably one of the writers here. Let's take a close look at this.

[Al Franken]

I think he did it out of an ethos of I wrote a line so Al gets his name on it. I was a little embarrassed because I literally wrote. But that's a good line, right?

[Chris Rock]

It's a great line.

[Al Franken]

Yeah. This is a part of the job I hate. And basically you were saying that you've had so many tryouts and it's just impossible to choose between these two. And you're going to do one last. And as everybody's working for the weekend as a song. And Swayze was a dancer and had a perfectly chiseled male body, even though.

[Chris Rock]

He told me he never works out.

[Al Franken]

Is that right?

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. It must be from dancing.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

Well, but I like the way Farley wanted to keep going. And we were. No, no, no. I'm sorry.

[Al Franken]

No, no. Well, that's when he. He adopts like a. You've told him that you've. Swayze is the guy. And at one point he starts trying to look sultry.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

And you have to go, no, no, I'm sorry.

[Chris Rock]

It's been decided.

[Al Franken]

Barney.

[Chris Rock]

Barney.

[Al Franken]

I'm sorry. Barney. That's the other thing I named Barney. I think Swayze was Adrian.

[Kevin Nealon]

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[Chris Rock]

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[Kevin Nealon]

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[Richard]

I'm gonna put you on, nephew.

[Al Franken]

All right, unk. Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order, miss?

[Richard]

I've been hitting up McDonald's for years. Now it's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back.

[Chris Rock]

Isn't it funny? Like 35 years later, you still remember because you put so much work. We put so much work in writing these sketches, and you're up all night sometimes. And so 35 years later, that, to.

[Al Franken]

Me, by the way, was the funnest anyone ever asked me. What's the funnest thing you've ever moment. If you want to crystallize a moment on snl. Working on snl, you. It was Tuesday night, Wednesday morning, three in the morning, and you're falling on the floor laughing. You know, whether it was you guys coming in with your Hans and Franz, you know what you've been writing, right? But you know how when you. I mean, our job is to make.

[Chris Rock]

The show funny, right?

[Al Franken]

And on a bad night and you're not writing anything funny, it's horrible. But on a good night, when you're clicking and things are flying back and forth and everyone else is making you laugh, nothing is more enjoyable than that.

[Chris Rock]

That's right. That's right. Well, I will tell you, I'm not a night person, so Tuesdays. Very rarely did I work through the night. I would start writing earlier on Tuesday So that by 1 o', clock, 2 o' clock in the morning, Tuesday morning or Wednesday morning, I would be done.

[Al Franken]

Well, that's good. That reflects a good work habit as the rest. As opposed to the rest of us.

[Chris Rock]

Do you know who had the best work habits?

[Al Franken]

Who? The Turners.

[Chris Rock]

No. Jack Handy.

[Al Franken]

Oh, my gosh.

[Chris Rock]

He would come in with his briefcase. What, 7:00'? Clock?

[Al Franken]

Well, we should say what Jack Handy wrote, the caveman lawyer, since it's the cat.

[Chris Rock]

So many of those off the wall kind of. I remember literally off the wall. Johnny Canal. Johnny.

[Al Franken]

Johnny Canal. He's the guy who wants to connect every city in America. This is in the 1830s or something with a canal.

[Chris Rock]

How about the Jack Candy sketch where it starts with a mounted head on the wall and it keeps going down to a mouse's head that's mounted a little bit more, a little bit more, until it's like a, I don't know, grasshopper head mounted on the wall and somebody's Just talking about each one. But he was great. And also he had those handy. The sayings, you know, Deep thoughts. Deep thoughts. Yeah.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

That was great. So he was the one who had really, the best discipline.

[Al Franken]

One was about a jumbo shrimp that you could ride it during the day and then eat it at the campfire at night.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. By the way, my voice is not always this deep or sexy. It's part of the.

[Al Franken]

It's very sexy.

[Chris Rock]

Well, this is the other half of that thing. I texted you this morning and said, I know Ally got a cold.

[Al Franken]

Well, thanks for coming in.

[Chris Rock]

And I know you thought that maybe I was trying to squirm out of it still.

[Al Franken]

No, no, no. Because you could have done it at home. You would have done it at home.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

But I wanted to see you.

[Chris Rock]

Thank you.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

I've been seeing a lot of you lately.

[Al Franken]

You have?

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. Maybe a little too much. You think?

[Al Franken]

Well, I don't know. I doubt it. I'm not that. Where did you see me?

[Chris Rock]

I think you.

[Al Franken]

Some cable news show or something.

[Chris Rock]

Probably C Span. You introduced everybody to C Span. Nobody knew what C Span was.

[Al Franken]

That was one of the gifts I gave the show.

[Chris Rock]

You and Bonnie and Terry Turner, you know, I think they were into C Span as well.

[Al Franken]

And Downey.

[Chris Rock]

And Downey. But you and I wrote a lot on different things. I would tell you, I think, because you got my attitude or whatever. But I remember when we were trying to get people to write for a Weekend Update when I was on there, nobody wanted to write because, you know, it's not as glorifying as having a sketch or a character you've created for Monday that people talk about.

[Al Franken]

And there was a. There was an update breakfast, and barely anyone.

[Chris Rock]

So Lauren put together a weekend an update breakfast that Saturday morning because you can't write jokes before that because the late night talk show hosts do them all. So this is before Internet back in the 1900s. And Lorne would have someone put all the newspapers on that big table and AP photos. There was no Google, you know. And then he would hire. He had this caterer come in that had a warm breakfast and everything. All a great, great breakfast.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

And the only people that would come would be you, because you were kind of a political pundit. You love politics. And then Tom Davis would come to sip. My partner. Yeah, your partner. And then a lot of new writers would come. Not a lot, but some. And they weren't that good because they were new and they're still kind of feeling their way. And then Norm would come up and he would get breakfast and just read a paper. That's all he did. He didn't write anything. He just wanted to come up and have breakfast and read a paper.

[Al Franken]

That's crazy because Norm did Update after you left.

[Chris Rock]

Norm didn't even know who anybody was. Like, he's from Canada. He didn't know a lot of the people in the news, because I remember one day he asked me who somebody was, and I forget who it was, but it was somebody that was high up in the government.

[Al Franken]

Well, he ended up doing Update. I competed. When you decided that you were going to leave.

[Chris Rock]

Really?

[Al Franken]

I competed with Norm for the update position, and he got it. And I think it was because I was so known as a liberal, common, you know, shown where I was and Norm hadn't. And I thought Norm did a terrific job.

[Chris Rock]

Great job. Yeah. He had a certain talk about attitude. He had a certain kind of a disposition or personality that was kind of just. You knew that he was having fun and he's walking down that line and.

[Al Franken]

Didn'T really see him always on the line. And of course, Don Ulmeyer was the president of the network at the time, and he was a very good friend of O.J. simpson's. You knew that. Yeah, yeah. And like a good friend, he didn't let the fact that his friend murdered his wife and a guy end that friendship.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, yeah.

[Al Franken]

But I guess the appeals. I don't think this was. Was this during the trial?

[Chris Rock]

I think it was during the trial. And maybe afterwards, too.

[Al Franken]

Yeah. And afterwards Norm would do an OJ Joke. What were some of those jokes like? It was.

[Chris Rock]

Was a lot of the high speed chase or the slow speed chase thing, and about looking for the killer, you know, maybe he's on the golf course somewhere, you know, that kind of stuff. But, you know, I. I did not decide to leave Weekend Update. I was. I was pushed out as well.

[Al Franken]

Was that Allmeyer?

[Chris Rock]

I think it was. From what I've heard, it was all Meyer.

[Al Franken]

Well, he pushed Norm out. He ended up pushing Norm out, who was amazing.

[Chris Rock]

And you know what's crazy? I've always wanted to golf at Bel Air Country Club. I was at a party, a wrap party for this show that was run by the same guy that created 24 with Kiefer Sutherland.

[Al Franken]

Oh, I know.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. It's kind of a conservative guy. And he was good friends with Almayer and with Rush Limbaugh. So he comes up to me and he goes, hey, do you want to golf at Bel Air? I said, yeah, I've always been yeah. Are you kidding me? Sure. And he goes. And he comes back to him and said. And he goes, okay, you got nine o' clock tee time on Saturday. You'll be golfing with Don Ohlmeyer and Rush Limbaugh. So I thought he was joking at first. So I had to weigh the pros and cons, and I really wanted to golf there. So I end up going there and I'm golfing with Rush Limbaugh and Donald.

[Al Franken]

I would have done that, although I don't think I would have been invited.

[Chris Rock]

But I don't think there was one sentence directed at me. The only interaction I had was on the ninth hole when I hit the ball. It was landed right by the hole for a birdie, and Rush Limbaugh gives me the finger.

[Al Franken]

Well, that was funny, right? It was, yeah.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. But that's the only interaction I've had with him.

[Al Franken]

So are you a good golfer?

[Chris Rock]

No, but I got lucky in that shot.

[Al Franken]

But you like. You like playing.

[Chris Rock]

I used to like playing golf, but now it's, you know, it's. Here's the thing for me, Al, when I'm working on something or, you know, I'm busy doing things or I'm tired of doing things, I think, man, I sure would like to be golfing right now. And then I go golfing sometime, and I think, boy, I sure would like to be home editing this thing now. You know what I mean? I think it should be only nine holes because I get bored after nine holes. I really do. I get bored from hitting the ball.

[Al Franken]

So can't you do nine and just come in?

[Chris Rock]

Well, I'm at that point because the.

[Al Franken]

Ninth hole is usually by the clubhouse.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, yeah, you're right. Yeah. But that's what I'm doing from that point.

[Al Franken]

I used to caddy when I was a kid.

[Chris Rock]

What did you make per bag?

[Al Franken]

You know, I can't really remember, but it was. At the time it was actual real money. It wasn't that much.

[Chris Rock]

It wasn't bitcoin?

[Al Franken]

No.

[Chris Rock]

Now they tell you, okay, I'm giving you 20 bitcoin, and you never see it. You think, oh, that guy was nice. 20. That's a lot.

[Al Franken]

Wait a minute. Bitcoin is actually being used by people as remuneration?

[Chris Rock]

Well, it's a great way to tip somebody when you never really have to tip them just because you can't see a bitcoin. And you say, I'm giving you 20 bitcoins. Do you know what I'm saying?

[Al Franken]

I see. I see.

[Chris Rock]

Any way to get around being cheap. I try to investigate. So, yeah, so $5 I got per bag. And I would do double bag sometimes.

[Al Franken]

Yeah, I double bag all the time.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, yeah.

[Al Franken]

And they'd go on the cart and you'd catch up to them, and you were responsible for finding the balls they hit way into the rough.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

And did you ever have troubles finding them?

[Chris Rock]

Oh, yeah, yeah, all the time. Sometimes I would be looking for them. I can't find them. So I just leave the bag there and I continue home.

[Al Franken]

No, I got a string of not being able to find him. And I had a guy say, you must be the worst caddy in the world. And I said, no, that'd be too big a coincidence because I was 12.

[Chris Rock]

But that's how you made money in the summer and then in the winter, of course. You grew up in Wisconsin.

[Al Franken]

Minnesota.

[Chris Rock]

Minnesota.

[Al Franken]

You shovel snow?

[Chris Rock]

You shovel snow, man, I would make so much money, or I thought it was a lot of money back then. But in California, in the winter, my son had to do this thing for school. It's like being an entrepreneur. So their first thing they were going to try, him and his buddy was window washing. They know nothing about window washing.

[Al Franken]

Right.

[Chris Rock]

They have a bucket of water they bring with them. Like it's going to clean the hell.

[Al Franken]

Out of a squeegee kind of thing.

[Chris Rock]

A squeegee? That was a very narrow squeegee.

[Al Franken]

Not big enough to really do windows.

[Chris Rock]

Not big enough. And it wasn't, like, broken in, so it was hard. You had to push it down really hard. And then they had, like, one cloth, and they got $30 to wash these windows in a business in Westwood, a pet store. Like five big windows. $30.

[Al Franken]

How long did it take?

[Chris Rock]

They thought it would take maybe an hour. It took four hours.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

For 30 bucks. And. Yeah, so that was their.

[Al Franken]

That was 30 bucks for four hours. Would have been fine when I was.

[Chris Rock]

In, you know, shoveling driveways.

[Al Franken]

1963 or something like that, when I was 12.

[Chris Rock]

And I. Yeah, because 30 bucks back then was like $2,000, something like that.

[Al Franken]

I tell them I filled a tank of gas yesterday. It was 70 bucks.

[Chris Rock]

Oh, you know what? When I drove out to LA from Connecticut with a buddy of mine, week is 1976. We kept track of our gas because we were going to split it at the end. So I'm looking at, like, you know, in Boise, Idaho, we filled up the tank for $7.60. I think the entire trip was like $200.

[Al Franken]

What year is this?

[Chris Rock]

76, 77. But I was getting back to when you live in California, there's no shoveling driveway. So I thought of a great idea. Once in a while, guys will come by your house and they want to paint your address on the curb in front of your house. And they say it's, you know, there's no charge for it. You could tip if you want. Usually get like 20 bucks or whatever. So we had it done. And those guys make a lot of money. And it takes like maybe 20 minutes.

[Al Franken]

Yeah, it's a stencil.

[Chris Rock]

Can of white spray paint and a stencil.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

That'S it. A lot easier than shoveling drivers for $20, you figure?

[Richard]

So I'm gonna put you on, Nephew.

[Al Franken]

All right. Un. Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order, miss?

[Richard]

I've been hitting up McDonald's for years now it's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap, Mr. Richard? Turn to something great. Snack rap is back.

[Al Franken]

I want to talk about some of the stuff you did on SNL, Mr. Subliminal.

[Chris Rock]

That was the first sketch I ever did. I remember right before it went on. And we wrote that together right before I went on. It was like 10 seconds away from the commercial coming back. Lorne puts his hand on my shoulders, and he said, are you sure this is what you want? But that was something. Oh, my God.

[Al Franken]

What a confidence builder.

[Chris Rock]

That was something I did in my act, and I called it tagging, where you just slip a word in there like nobody heard it. And then you and I got together and you had the idea of making a subliminal advertising thing where I get my way. And we both pounded that out. And it went well. It went well. I mean, the next day, people are recognizing me on the street, and nobody could say subliminal. They don't know how to say it. It's always, hey, I love that but it's subliminal thing that you do. The saloon then, though, I remember one.

[Al Franken]

Of the things you was push up bra.

[Chris Rock]

That was one of the insertions there. The words. You're looking really great today. Push up bra. I like what you're doing, but that's like two conversations going on at once. So to have that as a first sketch was kind of intimidating. And you can't really read that off the cue cards. And I memorized that. I had that down in my head. I worked on that as a first catch.

[Al Franken]

Right. You were good with cards. Right?

[Chris Rock]

I was good. I was good with cards. I think a lot of our cast was good with cards. Unlike some of the other casts where they never leave the cards, they're always on the cards. Like Charlton Heston was always on the cards.

[Al Franken]

Well, he's Charlton Heston.

[Chris Rock]

Can you believe we work with Robert Mitchum, Charlton Heston, Roy Orbison, William Shatner, I mean, all of these.

[Al Franken]

Shatner is still with us.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, yeah. And I thought he was old back then, but I think he was like 56.

[Al Franken]

No, no, no, he was pretty old. He's older than you think. Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

Well, no, he looks good. 120, isn't he?

[Al Franken]

No, he's in. I'm sure he's in his late 80s now.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, but that was 30 years ago. Was it that we were on or 34 years ago.

[Al Franken]

Shatner did. Okay, maybe you're right.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Al Franken]

Okay. So tell me about Hans and Franz.

[Chris Rock]

So Dana and I came up with Hans and Franz.

[Al Franken]

Yes.

[Chris Rock]

We had been on tour with Dennis Miller. Right after the first year, we were on snl. So this was an SNL themed tour. We were doing standup and in Des Moines, Iowa. Dana and I were staying. We were all staying this Red Roof Inn. And I was watching Showtime up close and personal with Arnold Schwarzenegger. And we all love his accent. And he was talking about how they asked him, what does he do when he is on the road and comes into a town? Well, you know, first of all, I like to slip into the nice light cotton shirt. And then, you know, I go into town and, you know, have some fun. I come back to the hotel room and I slip into the nice light cotton sheets, you know, and I told Dana he should watch it. So the rest of the tour, we're talking like Arnold Schwarzenegger. We laughed so hard writing those characters. I've never laughed so hard with somebody because they're so pathetic and defensive and they never lift a weight in their life and they're so. Their sweatsuits are outdated and, you know, it's always about, you know, hear me now, believe me later, you know, if you think you could do better than the nuns, then, you know, you've got a different thing coming to you. You know, I could stretch your love handles into a bag and you could climb into the bag and kill yourself out of the trash, because that's where trash belongs. Nice one, Hans. Yeah, thank you. Thank you, Hans. You know, you could. If you take your belt off, you cause a flabber lunch. So we would write that stuff and it was just so. We laughed so hard because they were such pathetic charact.

[Al Franken]

Again, that was a memory of mine. On Monday nights, you guys coming up Tuesday nights, and you guys telling us what you were coming up with.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

And falling on the floor laughing.

[Chris Rock]

Oh, yeah, it really was funny. And then eventually Arnold. And eventually we got help from other people, too, like Smigel a lot and Downey. Robert Smigel was great. And then Arnold wants to come on the show, and Dana and I are, like, flummoxed. Well, why would he want to come on the show? We're making fun of him. We thought maybe he's coming on to kill us or something, you know, or to break our legs.

[Al Franken]

Everybody's flattered.

[Chris Rock]

I know it. I learned that later, you know, just to have their name mentioned on there. It doesn't matter what we're doing about them.

[Al Franken]

You guys were trying to emulate.

[Chris Rock]

He was our distant cousin. Yeah, yeah. So he comes, you know, they get us on the set. They said, arnold's in his dressing room. He wants to talk to you guys. We were like two kids going to the principal's office. We were blaming each other. You came up with, no, you did. I said, don't do the Austrian accent. He's going to know. Or the Gap. So we get to his dressing room, and his name is on the door. His name was so long, it went onto the wall a little bit. You know, we open up the door, and I'll never forget this. It was full of cigar smoke. And he's sitting on a chair across the room. We could barely see him through the smoke. And he's got a cigar in one hand, a big old stogie. And in the other hand, he's got the script that we wrote for him. And he looks up through the cigar smoke and he goes, hello, fellows. Now, how am I supposed to do the accent? So right then we knew we had a good sense of humor, but he loved them. He used those characters things for a long time, like all the phrases we had still does to this day.

[Al Franken]

That's great. Do you remember a sketch that I wrote, I think, with some other folks, when it was you were an advertising executive who bought commercials for tv, and we brought a. Or whoever was in the cast was selling, trying to get you to put on the Country Music Awards a toothpaste called sparklebright. Do you remember that piece?

[Chris Rock]

Vaguely.

[Al Franken]

The whole joke in it was when.

[Chris Rock]

By the way, Al, let me just stop. I'll be watching reruns of that show. Sometimes they just come on TV and I'm in the sketch, and I have no idea. It's like I've never seen that sketch before, I think, what is gonna happen here?

[Al Franken]

Well, that, you know, to me, that was the advantage of not having a huge cast.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

Haven't you been struck with how large the casts are these days?

[Chris Rock]

Incredible. I mean, it's like a 20 minute intro.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

It's like 20 people featuring and then featuring and also. And also a guy we got off the street, you know, that had a good bit.

[Al Franken]

I mean, you guys basically. Who was in your cast?

[Chris Rock]

There was eight of us.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

And then there were some peripheral people like you and aa.

[Al Franken]

Well, we were writers.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

Yeah. So that's.

[Chris Rock]

In the old days, Conan would get on.

[Al Franken]

Now I can. Yeah. Now I complain like an old man. But in the old days, in the first iteration of the show, we had seven cast members. Jane, Lorraine and Gilda, Garrett, Chevy, Blushy and Danny.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

So seven people, which meant they all got on every week.

[Chris Rock]

Right.

[Al Franken]

And that gives you confidence, right?

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

Because you're just on and you now can't remember a sketch you're in. That's because you were probably in so many sketches.

[Chris Rock]

Also because once you finish a Saturday night of sketches, you completely wash it out of your head and you make room for the next week. You know what I mean? And plus, you're not really spending a lot of time memorizing lines because they're on cue cards. So subsequently, it's not like that's going to stick in your head unless it's a sketch you really liked and you remember. Right. For me, it's like the bathroom attendant with Harvey Keitel. Do you remember that one?

[Al Franken]

I have that written down here. I wanted to talk bathroom attendant with Harvey Keitel. It was a solicitous, invasive bathroom attendant. Is that a right description?

[Chris Rock]

That's it.

[Al Franken]

Folding toilet paper. Like you pull off some toilet paper squares. Toilet paper squares and fold them up for them and hand them to him. You gave him a newspaper that he could read.

[Chris Rock]

Well, I've always had a problem with bathroom attendants. It's like, we don't need help. We've been training all our lives.

[Al Franken]

This is like the perfect. Okay, I'm going to do a bathroom attendant. But carrying it to its extreme, right?

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

And Harvey Keitel was sort of the perfect guy.

[Chris Rock]

He was the perfect guy. So, you know, I've seen all these bathroom attendants and what they do, it's unnecessary stuff, you know, here's your towel. Let me dry your hands for you. You know, and then there's some candy up here. And then they have a tip jar, you know, So I took it to the extreme, where it's a very small bathroom and just enough room for a toilet. No stall at all. And I'm in a tuxedo and very proper. And he comes and he thinks somebody's in there using the bathroom. I said, oh, no, no, I'm sorry, sir. I work here. And it kind of startles him. And he goes, okay. And I say, would be going number one or will he be dropping anchor? And so, you know, we go through the whole thing. He's unbuckling his belt, and I. Let me get that started. No, no, no, that's all right, that's all right. And then he sits down, and I say, we have the New York Times, we have the Post, we have the Wall Street Journal. We have High Karate, we have Calvin Klein, colon. We have Brute. And then he goes, no, no. And he takes a newspaper and he holds it over his head because he's laughing. And then in the meantime, I'm folding toilet paper, putting it on the sink, getting ready for him to use it, and the spray, the room spray. And finally he goes, he's done. He's done. He gets up. I'm trying to help him pull his pants up. No, no, that's all right. That's all right. I got it. And then I'm brushing him off the cat roller and stuff, getting hair off of him. And then I kind of hold the tip basket out just nonchalantly, and he puts money in there. And I go, oh, thank you very much. As if I wasn't expecting it, as.

[Al Franken]

If it was a surprise.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. And then he leaves. And then Farley comes in. Oh, hey, Jack. Good to see you again. He's my regular.

[Al Franken]

No, that was a brilliant sketch. So many of your sketches were attitude, Your attitude. Whenever you have to decide something. That's obvious.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, yeah. Well, another sketch that some. I forget his name. Dan, was it? He was a guest writer. I think he wrote Pipi. Politically Incorrect, Private Investigator. Do you remember that?

[Al Franken]

I remember the premise. Who was in it?

[Chris Rock]

Oh, it was me and Catherine o' Hara and Tim Meadows. And basically, I come in with a trench coat, like a Colombo kind of a guy, and it's, you know, it's a classroom, and Catherine o' Hara is distraught, crying over this body of a dead man. Who was Tim Meadows, I think. And I come in and I say, what's going on here? I pull out my pad and she goes, the professor was just killed or something. And they take the sheet off of him and it's. I think it was Tim. We go how could. This is not a professor. He's obviously, you know, he's a black man.

[Al Franken]

Right, right.

[Chris Rock]

He's like a politically incorrect private investigator and everything. There was a doctor. So. And so that's a woman. How could that be? I thought you said it was a doctor. Yeah, it's a woman doctor. So that was. That was another one that kind of walked the line back then.

[Al Franken]

Reminds me of something you recently put up on YouTube or something, which is talking about. You're in Colorado and talking about skiing.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

And going to.

[Chris Rock]

I don't know, it was learning how to ski and understanding how they label the trails.

[Al Franken]

And you had no clue what the trails were?

[Chris Rock]

No.

[Al Franken]

And you stopped off at some place.

[Chris Rock]

Well, there's green, you know, that means the easy trails, and then there's the blue intermediate, and then there's the black for very difficult trails, you know, Black diamonds.

[Al Franken]

Right. But you weren't aware.

[Chris Rock]

I was not aware of that. And I asked the guy at the Pulled over at the convenience store, and I asked the guy behind the counter, I said, what's the best mountain to go skiing around here? I. I don't know anything about these mountains. He goes, well, you know, I like Copper Mountain, but a lot of people don't like the ski there because they're afraid of all the blacks. And I don't know that there's black diamonds, you know, he's talking about. He goes, but I don't mind the blacks. I have a lot of fun with them. And I'm thinking, this guy's a racist, man. All. You know, I can't believe this. And he goes, but you know what? Some of them not very well groomed. And he said, but, you know, if you want the good white powder, that's where you got to go. So that was essentially the bit, you know.

[Al Franken]

So you've been on tour a lot, I take it?

[Chris Rock]

I am on tour. And people can find out what my touring schedule is by going on my website, KevinNealon.com.

[Al Franken]

You'Re hilarious.

[Chris Rock]

Quite.

[Al Franken]

So you did me a favor and opened for me when I did a thing in Hollywood.

[Chris Rock]

That's right. Oh, yeah. That's right.

[Al Franken]

And you killed.

[Chris Rock]

That was a good crowd. I think we have the same crowds.

[Al Franken]

Yeah, it was a good full house. And you just killed Bubba Wallace here.

[Chris Rock]

From 23 Xi Racing.

[Al Franken]

Funny thing about being fast, you end up waiting a lot. First to show up, first in line, then just waiting.

[Chris Rock]

Me, I rev up Jumba casino with.

[Al Franken]

Over 200 social casino games. No slow lanes here. Why sit around when you can spin, I'm already racing. Your turn. Play for [e-mail].

[Chris Rock]

Let'S Chumba.

[Kevin Nealon]

Sponsored by Chumba Casino.

[Chris Rock]

No purchase necessary.

[Kevin Nealon]

VGW Group Voidware prohibited by law. 21+ apply.

[Richard]

I'mma put you on, nephew.

[Al Franken]

All right, unc. Welcome to McDonald's. Can I take your order, miss?

[Richard]

I've been hitting up McDonald's for years now. It's back. We need snack wraps. What's a snack wrap? It's the return of something great. Snack wrap is back.

[Al Franken]

A couple things. Football. In college, you were the quarterback for your football team.

[Chris Rock]

You were always so, I think, impressed with my history in football because we would play in Central park, you know, and you were a bruiser. You would come in really hard. You know, you don't want a lot of elbows and stuff. You don't want to be near Al Franken when he's rushing in at you. He's very, very, very tough player. So, yeah, so I'm short.

[Al Franken]

I'm short. I have.

[Chris Rock]

But you're like a bulldog.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

You know, so when I was growing up, I love sandlot football. We always played football, and. And we had helmets we wore, and shoulder pads. And really, we would play the gangs.

[Al Franken]

You're playing tackle.

[Chris Rock]

Tackle. We would play the gang, this gang. I mean, a real gang across town. And some of them had helmets, some didn't have helmets, but we all had helmets. And we would play at the football field when it was empty on Sunday and we had no refs or anything. It was just all out football. So we were pretty tough. And I had a good arm. And I was a kicker, too, and a punter. And so when I'm graduating college, my friend Bill comes up. I never played in high school, organized football, or college football. My friend Bill, who used to lifeguard with me, came up, and he always wanted to play football, too, and so did I. He goes, hey, I found out if we take one class, a night class at Fairfield University, three credits, that'll make us eligible to play on the football team. They have a club football team. So we signed up for criminology. It was a night course, and I think we went to three of those courses, but we were eligible to play football. So we went out there, we got the uniform, the helmets, and these guys weren't very good. They never won a game in, like 10 years. So the starting quarterback gets hurt.

[Al Franken]

It just gets less impressive.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, less impressive. But it didn't matter to me what it was. I just. I was Happy to play. So, you know, we had some serious coaches there, too, and good managers. And I remember trying out, and the coaches were really impressed with my arm. And then I start kicking, and they're looking at each other like, who is this guy? You know? And I kept going back further and further to kick to the field goal, you know, place kick. And then they started betting. They wanted to bet on whether I could get 10 yards out or 5 yards more. And so I think I won about 20 bucks on that tryout. So, yeah, so the starting quarterback got hurt, and by the end of the season, I was voted mvp and my friend Bill was nominated All American. So, anyway, I love doing that. I love playing that. And I was working in a factory at the time, too, because I was just out of college. And I remember going to. I was in helicopter factory, Sikorsky Aircraft, where I worked for two years after college. And I would go to work. I mean, total contusions all over my body from getting hit and, you know, running. And, you know, I ran a lot, too, with the ball. But, yeah, I would go to this factory, and people go, what. What happened to you? I said, oh, I was playing football over the weekend or whatever. And so I worked in that factory for two years. And the reason why I quit, I had BS in marketing, where I learned about subliminal as well. And the foreman comes up to me. He goes, what's a young guy like you doing working in a place like this? And I thought about it, and the truth was, I said, well, I'm just working here enough to pay off my college loan and to get some traveling money for Europe. And he looked off, and he kind of smiled, and he goes, yeah, that's what I said 20 years ago. And it scared me so much. I think a week later, I quit.

[Al Franken]

Yeah. Now you live in the Pacific Palisades.

[Chris Rock]

I lived in the Palisades. No. So I was the honorary mayor of the Palisades. I lived there for 12 years. And so many memories from that place. My son pretty much grew up there.

[Al Franken]

How old is he now?

[Chris Rock]

He's like. He's 18. Yeah. Yeah. So I moved out of there two years ago. We sold our house for that very reason, because we were afraid of the fires and also the rattlesnakes, because we lived up in the Highland area, and it was very dry.

[Al Franken]

So you got out of there before the fires?

[Chris Rock]

Before the fires. Although there were fires when we were there, I would see fires from my balcony that were like, maybe a quarter mile away. So anyway, yeah, so we moved away from there and our house that we lived in was totally destroyed. And all of our friends, everybody there lost their homes. We had a lot of friends there. You know, Martin Short lived there, Billy Crystal.

[Al Franken]

And what's going to happen to that whole area?

[Chris Rock]

Because they're going to rebuild it. And I think they're going to have some kind of a composition of these homes that are fireproof. But, you know, it's not just the material burning. It's what gets into the house and it's the toxic fumes and all that. So I don't know what they should do with that. Make it maybe a KOA campground or something. But I think people do want to move back. That's always kind of amazed me in California, whether there's mudslides or fires that totally destroy this area, that people, they have that desire to go.

[Al Franken]

So where'd you move to? Where'd you move?

[Chris Rock]

We moved by ucla.

[Al Franken]

Okay.

[Chris Rock]

We live in a dorm. No, I live near ucla. But we were in the evacuation red flag zone, so we almost had to move out of there. And it's interesting when your house is being threatened. And I was out of town at the time, so I called my assistant, I said, would you please go back to the house? Because it's about to, it may be burning. And I need some valuable things out of there that I didn't know I would need to take. And it makes you realize what is really valuable to you. For me, it was external drives that had a lot of pictures on them and other business stuff. And then I had a guitar, a nice Gibson guitar that I wanted him to take. So a few days go by and the fire hasn't hit us yet. And I'm thinking of other stuff now, other stuff that I could need to get out of the house. So I send them back. It gets less and less each time you go back. And eventually it was. Could you get that mechanical pencil that's on my desk? It might be near that eraser. Grab the eraser, too.

[Al Franken]

And nothing happened to your house?

[Chris Rock]

Thankfully nothing happened, but it kind of put a scare on us living in the canyon and having everything so dry.

[Al Franken]

I want to ask you about how many shows you do a year.

[Chris Rock]

People have asked me that before and I don't know. By shows, do you mean cities I go to or actual shows? Like, I could do five shows in one weekend in a city.

[Al Franken]

Well, how many cities do you do?

[Chris Rock]

Well, this year and last year was a lot more than typically, I would say probably I would do like weekends maybe 35 weekends. Maybe 40 weekends.

[Al Franken]

And how often do you change your material?

[Chris Rock]

It's constantly changing. Constantly changing.

[Al Franken]

Do you remember the piece? And I wrote this about Interested, Interested.

[Chris Rock]

The porn review, which was a big, big thing for my. To this day, people say, oh, my God, that porn review thing you do, it was so funny.

[Al Franken]

Do you still do it?

[Chris Rock]

No, it was either between that or the black ski thing. Those are my two big crowd pleasers right there. No, I don't do it anymore because like I said, I'm always evolving. And I did that for a long time.

[Al Franken]

Can you do it for us? You remember?

[Chris Rock]

You want me to. You wrote it.

[Al Franken]

Yeah, I wrote it.

[Chris Rock]

Okay. I don't remember.

[Al Franken]

I wrote this for you on an update.

[Chris Rock]

Right? We can update.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

And it's evolved a lot since then.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

Okay, here's the crazy thing, Al. I get it. I get a call from Hustler magazine and they want to know if I would review three adult films for them and do a little write up for their magazine.

[Al Franken]

These are adult films?

[Chris Rock]

These are adult films. Yeah. And, you know, it's not really something I do, and I don't want to really have that reputation, but I love to write. I really love to write. So I said, yeah, sure, go ahead and send them on over to me.

[Al Franken]

That's a good premise and a wrinkle.

[Chris Rock]

So, okay, so the first video was called Wanda Whips Wall street. And this is starring Jessica Jameson. Very attractive. Found myself interested right away. Then I got more interested, more interested, very interested. And then suddenly, no interest at all. The second video was called Delivery Boy. And this was starring Tina Wadsworth. Great story, great production value. Interested right off the bat. I got more interested, more interested, very interested. Suddenly, no interest at all. I left the video running. I went into the kitchen, I made myself a sandwich. I had a Diet Coke, some potato chips. Came back into the living room, the video was still running. Found myself interested again. Interested, more interested, very interested. And suddenly no interest at all. Okay, the last video was called Rick and James Playday. Very skeptical at first. You know, very skeptical, very skeptical.

[Al Franken]

Rick and James.

[Chris Rock]

I said, you know, I gotta be honest with you. I was very skeptical about this video. Skeptical, skeptical, more skeptical. Very skeptical. Somewhat interested, interested. More interested, very interested. And then suddenly, no interest at all. Then ashamed, concerned, sad, disappointed, angry, mad. Someone interested. Someone interested, more interested, very interested. Then suddenly, no interest at all. Then I rolled over and went to bed. That was your bed?

[Al Franken]

That was my bed.

[Chris Rock]

And I killed it.

[Al Franken]

Talk about now. We did talk a little Bit about Tuesday night and how much fun it was. You got tired early, you went out at 2.

[Chris Rock]

Tuesday night wasn't as much fun for me as it was for you or some other people in that space. That whole routine of writing All Night Tuesday was based on the original show where people were doing coke all night and able to stay up and would bring the sun up every morning.

[Al Franken]

When I ran for office in Minnesota, the first interview I had from the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the guy asked me, when you were at Saturday Night Live, did you ever do cocaine? And I said, yes, but I only did it so that I could stay awake long enough to make sure that Belushi didn't do too much. He wrote it up as Al Franken acknowledged doing cocaine at Saturday Night Live, but only so he could stay up to make sure that actor John Belushi didn't do too much. Belushi later died of a drug overdose.

[Chris Rock]

Oh, man.

[Al Franken]

That was my first brush with political reporting.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. Yep.

[Al Franken]

So we've done talked about Chippendales. Your hiking show is still. Are you still doing the hiking show?

[Chris Rock]

I still do that. You did one of them. As a matter of fact, as my guest, I've been doing for, you know, minus the COVID years. Seven years. I mean, five years total of actually hiking. I've done like 150 of these hikes, you know, over the. Over the period of time. Everyone from, you know, you, Conan o', Brien, Tom Hanks the other week, Paul Rudd, Sheryl Crow. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. When I first started, it was just with a cell phone. I would hold the cell phone out. I was hiking with Matthew Modim, you know, just. We were both.

[Al Franken]

Then you got one of those. What you call it.

[Chris Rock]

Then I got a selfie stick with a GoPro at the end of it.

[Al Franken]

So that was high tech.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. My material, relatively. Yeah. Yeah. Well, GoPro has had different generations that got better and better, but all of my technical stuff got better over the years. So if you start watching from the beginning, you see it. I even went to a drone. I have a drone now that I fly. But I would edit. I edit myself.

[Al Franken]

You have a drone? So the drone catches you guys?

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, I'll take the drone up from the sky. From the sky. Or I'll have it in the woods. You know, when you see us walking by. I've crashed about seven of these drones, and I send them back to the company. I fix them and send them back. But it really adds a nice element to it. You know, I've Gotten really good at it. Like, it'll come down the trail, go right over our heads.

[Al Franken]

Wow.

[Chris Rock]

It'll be a shot down thing. We're walking under it. You see the top of our heads or whatever. I mean, it's. I think I'm at the top of my game now, but the editing takes a long time. I had to learn how to edit. I had to learn how to fly a drone.

[Al Franken]

So you don't have someone at it for you?

[Chris Rock]

No. In fact, whenever I show up for a hike, they'll say, people normally say, where's the rest of the crew? Yeah, I said, I'm the crew. Here, let me put this mic down your shirt. And it's been fun to do, but every time I decide that it's too much work, I'll say, okay, I've done enough of these. I want to have time to do other things too. Somebody will come up to me and go, dude, I love that hiking show. Who's on next? You got. Oh, man, don't ever stop doing that thing.

[Al Franken]

There you go.

[Chris Rock]

There you go. I remember we were hiking Will Rogers State park, which is no longer there, that burned down. And there was a guy coming down from the other end of the trail down the hill from Canada. He was from Canada. And he said how much he loved the show. I think, wow, you walked all the way from Canada to tell me how much you liked the show? That's a fan right there. But yeah, it's been on for a long time and people do like it. And sometimes in a club, I'll talk about this hiking show. And you know, at first it was just a smattering of applause and then it became. It's like maybe a quarter of the room now has seen it and it entices them other people to go home and watch it.

[Kevin Nealon]

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[Chris Rock]

We're prohibited by law 21+ terms and conditions apply.

[Al Franken]

We talk about Farley for a bit.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

Remember when. When we played basketball.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

And it turned out Farley was actually quite A good athlete.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

And graceful.

[Chris Rock]

Very graceful. That was the thing that shocked me. Well, first of all, you gotta remember he played rugby in college, and he wasn't always the weight he was. I'm always amazed at someone carrying that much weight when they're agile like that. It really doesn't make sense to me.

[Al Franken]

Right.

[Chris Rock]

Because it's not often you see that even he did the skating routine in 30 Rock and how good? He was great. Good at falling, but, yeah, he was amazing. But a train wreck, as we know.

[Al Franken]

Yeah, well, he was brilliant.

[Chris Rock]

He was brilliant.

[Al Franken]

And he evidently had his issues.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, he did have his issues. Did you hear the story about. I think Jay Moore tells it the best. Farley comes into. Up on the 17th floor. The writer's wing in Sandler's office is there. He shares with Tim Meadows and Spade, and Chris Rock is nearby. And Farley comes in and he goes, hey, guys, I'm gonna drop my pants and stick my. Making this nicer. Stick my butt out the window and take a big old dump down on the 50th Street. And they're egging him on. They go, do it, do it. So sure enough, he drops his pants, he sticks his butt out there, and he takes this big old dump, but he's not out far enough. So it lands on the windowsill, and it's still there to this day. It's a big stop on the NBC tour.

[Al Franken]

That was Farley.

[Chris Rock]

That was Farley. Man, he was amazing. Yeah, people love him. They still love him. Him and Norm. I just wish Jan Hooks got more accolades than she does. I think Jan was right up there with at least, you know, the top three.

[Al Franken]

Oh, Jan was amazing. You said she was very insecure about how she was.

[Chris Rock]

She had stage fright. I mean, immense stage fright. And Friday nights, often I would be with her, trying to assure her that she's going to be great, because she is great.

[Al Franken]

And she was always great.

[Chris Rock]

And she'd get out there, and all of a sudden it's like she had no stage fright at all and she would kill it. And then it's the same thing over and over every week. Wow. So, you know, it was kind of torture for her, but yet she must have been. It must have been gratifying in some respect. That show is not for everybody. You know, there's a lot of great improv players that just could not handle that schedule. Whether it's writing all night on Tuesday or, you know, the quiet competitiveness that goes on there. People always say it's competitive, right? Yeah. But In a quiet way, I also.

[Al Franken]

Think the cast members, you know, 20 cast members or whatever they have now is. Makes the competition ridiculous.

[Chris Rock]

Oh, my God, I can't imagine.

[Al Franken]

And it means that not everybody gets on every week. And when you had seven like we had, or eight when you, like you had. Everybody gets on, everybody gets to do stuff. And you stop being nervous after if you're doing enough stuff.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. After the first year, we all decided we should unpack our suitcases. We're staying, you know, because we were living out of our suitcase the first year we were on. But, yeah, I can't imagine with all the cast members they have on now, and if you're sitting on the bench too long, you see what's in the cards for you. You're gonna. You gotta get in there. You gotta get in there. And sometimes I remember Bernie Brillstein once told me, as it was near the end of my career, he said, wait a minute.

[Al Franken]

Not at the end of your career at snl?

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, I thought it was the end of my career. But anyway, it was the last season where I was taking off Weekend Update, but Bernie Brillstein was able to get me another year on there. But he goes, you gotta be, you know, you gotta really work hard. And I always worked hard on that show, so I didn't know what he was talking about. And so somehow, because Bernie Brillstein was also Loren's manager, and he kind of, you know, he was inspiration, inspirational in getting that whole show together, I think, because he managed Lorne Michaels. So he got me that extra year, and he said, but you gotta be really get in there and do good work and get up, you know? And I said, okay, Bernie, I'm gonna keep doing what I always do because you gotta be more of a squeaky wheel. And I didn't know how to be a squeaky wheel. You know, I'd be more passive aggressive than just sulk, you know, walk off.

[Al Franken]

Yeah.

[Chris Rock]

So the only thing I could do is close to a squeaky wheel was like an annoying wheel, you know, like the nails across a chalkboard. Yeah. So I don't think maybe that was the next to last year.

[Al Franken]

So you did a year after you left Update?

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Al Franken]

Okay.

[Chris Rock]

Only because of the pull of Bernie Brillstein. But there was also a period where Loren was hesitant about asking me back for. I can't even remember why, but I had to wait a long time that summer before I was invited back.

[Al Franken]

Oh, and that stuff stings.

[Chris Rock]

Well, you know, it's a good base to start Forming some neuroses and insecurities. You know, I mean, I. You know, I had a great childhood growing up. My parents were great. And I know some of the actors on there didn't, unfortunately. So they looked to Lauren as a father figure. And even without looking to him as a father figure, you know, he's great at what he does. And, you know, I like Lauren a lot. To this day, 30 years later, I could be tying my shoelaces. And sometimes I'll think, I wonder if Lorne would like the way I'm tying my shoelace right now. Or do you think I should do, like a loop, two loops and then tie it? Or are these shoes the right shoes? You know?

[Al Franken]

Yeah, well, he has that kind of effect.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah, he's really good at what he does or the position he's in. And he hires the right people, mostly. When I left snl, my time was up. I was ready to go because I think I was bored. I was bored. I was going out and doing sketches with food in my mouth from the craft service table. I was still chewing it as I was doing my sketches. And I had friends in my dressing room, crowded in there who were, like, talking about. And they had the TV on, but they were watching something else. And I could almost hear the blender from out of the stage. I thought it might be time to leave, you know.

[Al Franken]

How many years did you do?

[Chris Rock]

I did nine years. Nine years. And then I thought, would there ever be anything better that I'll be going to after this show? It didn't matter because I was ready to leave. And then Weeds came along on Showtime. Weeds with Mary Louise Parker. And that ran for eight years. And that was a. That was also one of the highlights of my career, aside from doing the Tonight show with Johnny Carson and also doing snl. But that show was really such a great stepping off project for me from snl, even though it wasn't live.

[Al Franken]

And I think you were the cast won an Emmy for the whole cast.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, the funny thing about some of these shows, it's like that show, the Bear. Is it called the Bear or Bear? And it's the same with Weeds. They're in the comedy category. And it's really difficult to win a comedy award when you're up against real comedy shows, and instead of having these dramatic shows that have some comedic instances in them. So I think we could have won a lot more if we were put in a different category. But I'm not big on awards. I even asked you, I said, do we win an Emmy ever on snl? Because I couldn't remember.

[Al Franken]

No, we did. So there. You didn't put them up on your mantle?

[Chris Rock]

No. I don't even know where it is. Do we all get one or a copy?

[Al Franken]

Yeah, it's one of the. You could get an Emmy for. And I don't think they did it by an episode. They just. It was about. For the year.

[Chris Rock]

Yeah.

[Al Franken]

But. Yep, yep, we got Emmys. We all got Emmys. Well, thanks.

[Chris Rock]

Oh, thank you.

[Al Franken]

Thanks for coming here with the Coles. I know you could have done. I. I could have done it at home, but I asked you.

[Chris Rock]

I came here with a cold and. What else? An attitude.

[Al Franken]

The right kind of attitude.

[Chris Rock]

The right kind of attitude. Because I'm. What? The attitude guy. I could play any attitude that's right. Like, right now, I'm playing an attitude. Like, I'm really having fun. No, this was great. Thanks, Al.

[Al Franken]

Well, I hope you enjoyed listening. That beautiful music is by Leo Kotke, the great Leo Kotke. I want to thank Peter Ogburn for producing this podcast. We'll talk again next week.