And now: career update, with Kevin Nealon

LOS ANGELES — Kevin Nealon started doing comedy by stealing other people's jokes.

As a kid, he would memorize the jokes printed in Parade magazine and try telling them at parties, coloring them with his own personal style.

Fast-forward a few decades and Nealon is a comedian of all trades. He writes, does standup and performs in film and on TV.

Nealon was on "Saturday Night Live" for nine seasons. During that stretch he anchored "Weekend Update" and was the Subliminal Man and half the Hans and Franz musclemen duo.

The comedian's latest TV gig is on Showtime's "Weeds," starring Mary-Louis Parker, where he plays pot-smoking city councilman and all-around slacker Doug Wilson.

But he still makes time for standup. Nealon, 52, chatted about comedy and his memorable moments in show business:

Q: What's it like working with the cast on "Weeds"?

A: Oh man, it's so much fun. They're so talented, these people. Just to be in a scene with them, I'm thinking to myself [that] these people are such professionals and they bring so much to the table with them. It's amazing. The writing is real sharp. It's clever. It's funny. There's a lot of heart in the writing, which is, I think, one of the reasons why the show is catching on so much.

Q: What kind of research did you do to prepare for this role?

A: Well I play an accountant that likes to smoke pot. So I'd hang out with a lot of accountants to figure out how to balance checkbooks. I think my research came from just growing up, you know, going through college and going to concerts. I probably inhaled more second-hand pot from concerts than the average 20-year-old kid these days.

Q: What was it like working on "Saturday Night Live"?

A: It was kind of a camp. You threw yourself into it all and you were there for most of your waking hours and some of your sleeping hours. It was quite an interesting compound. You really learned a lot about everybody pretty quick and you're just surrounded by talented people, so that was fun. And you created lifelong relationships with those people. You are kind of forever bound to those people.

Q: How did that job prepare you for what you're doing now?

A: "Saturday Night Live" to me was kind of like a boot camp for show business. You would create and write your own sketches, produce them, cast them, do the costumes, figure out what you wanted and then get the sketch on its feet and running and see it all the way through to the end. So that really prepared you to go out there and tackle anything else, especially since it was a live show. The pressure doesn't get too much heavier than that.

Q: Do you have a dream job or a dream role?

A: I would like to do a really good romantic comedy film — write that, direct it and be in it. But not your typical romantic comedy. Maybe something a little on the dark side. I'm on the rewrite on it right now. It's hard. Just to get through writing a script is really hard but that's not even half the battle. Then you have to get a studio to do it, get it done, cast it, market it and distribute it.

Q: Did you always want to be an actor and a comedian?

A: When I was a teenager I wanted to be a musician. I thought maybe it would be fun to play in coffeehouses and stuff, the guitar, but I was too nervous to get up on stage and sing. Standup seemed to be an easier route for me.

Q: What do you do when you're not working?

A: I'm married. I don't have a family yet, but we have one on the way. We live down by the beach, so I love flying kites in the afternoon. I play the five-string banjo and the guitar. And I like to golf and just hang around. ... I like to paint and go to the movies and spend time with my wife [Susan Yeagley].

Q: What's your most embarrassing showbiz moment?

A: Well I think it was when I was on "Saturday Night Live" and my parents came to the first show to see me ... . I had to play a narcoleptic Chippendales-type stripper. So I had to be seductively dancing in cutoff jeans with a mullet haircut and big mustache and then fall asleep in the middle of the dance, with them watching.