When Kevin Nealon interviewed for “Saturday Night Live,” producer Lorne Michaels was so impressed with the comedian’s clever sense of humor, he offered him a job on the spot.

Nealon responded by telling Michaels he would think about it for a few days and let him know his answer the following week.

“He told me, ‘OK Kevin, you go home and think about it, and I’ll see you on Monday,'” Nealon said Wednesday from his home in Lake Tahoe, Calif. “He could see right through me.”

“Live from New York…”

It is easy to see why Michaels was so confident Nealon would accept the job. A gig on “Saturday Night Live” is a dream come true for every comedian.

“‘Saturday Night Live’ is the bootcamp of comedy,” Nealon, who holds the record for being the longest-running cast member in the history of the show, said. “It really prepares you. If you can do live TV, you can do anything.”

Nealon heard about the opening from a friend who he had lived with for a year in Hollywood Hills — cast member Dana Carvey.

When Nealon joined the comedy team, he and Carvey were quickly paired up as buff weighlifters “Hanz and Franz,” creators of the catch-phase “We’re here to pump you up.”

In his nine years on the show, Nealon played such memorable characters as “The Subliminal Man,” “Weekend Update Anchorman,” “Mr. No Depth Perception,” “Sam Donaldson,” “Larry King” and “Ganon P.I. P.I.”

Nealon left “Saturday Night Live” two years ago to pursue other television and movie opportunities.

“I don’t really miss it,” Nealon said. “I was there a long time and had my fill of it. It’s fun to watch it now because I know the exact process they are going through — what’s going on in the dressing rooms — that kind of stuff.”

Although he no longer sees them on a regular basis, Nealon said he still keeps in touch with his closest “Saturday Night Live” friends — Carvey, Adam Sandler, Phil Hartman and John Lovitz.

Department store Santa

Nealon was a teenager on spring break in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., when he first experienced life as a comedian.

“I was in this T-shirt shop that would take an image of you from a TV screen and put it on a shirt,” Nealon explained. “The store was pretty much empty, so I sat down on the chair in front of the camera and just started making goofy faces.”

A few minutes later, Nealon noticed a crowd forming around the screen. “It was the first time in my life strangers were laughing at me,” he said. “It scared me.”

Nealon did not live the typical comedian childhood. He was shy in school and only considered himself a class clown among his close group of friends.

“I always loved reading the jokes out of the paper every Sunday,” Nealon said. “I memorized them and then personalized them with stuff going on in my life.”

In high school, the Bridgeport, Conn., native devoted much of his time to art and sports. He got his first taste of performing as a guitarist in a garage band.

Nealon went on from high school to earn a marketing degree at Sacred Heart University. He spent the next few years of his life traveling around the world, finally settling in Los Angeles, where he worked for a car leasing company, a moving company and as a department store Santa Clause.

In 1978, Nealon landed a job as a bartender at the Improv in Hollywood.

“We had a lot of open mic nights, and the manager would have me go up there if someone didn’t show up,” Nealon said. “I would come off the stage, and there would be people waiting for their drinks at the bar.”

It was during the next few years when Nealon decided to pursue a career in comedy. He took his stand-up routine on the road and hasn’t turned back since.

King of the Cameo

A little over a year ago, Nealon dropped in on the set of “The Wedding Singer,” where he was written in to play Sandler’s banker.

“It was a scene that should have taken maybe an hour to film,” Nealon said. “But we just couldn’t look at each other without laughing. It was out of control. We ended up wasting three or four hours on a two-minute scene.”

Had Nealon stuck with music, he would be competing with Puff Daddy for the title of King of the Cameo.

Since Nealon’s debut appearance in “All I Want For Christmas” with Lauren Bacall, he has popped up in “Roxanne,” “Coneheads,” “Happy Gilmore” and countless others.

“It’s pretty fun,” Nealon said about cameos. “Directors are pretty loose with it. With ‘Happy Gilmore,’ I didn’t know what the movie was about until I showed up on the set.”

While Nealon has done well entertaining movie-goers as the overdramatic golfer and the overfriendly banker, he said he plans to move out of cameos and into lead roles in the near future.

“I have a couple of ideas in mind,” Nealon said. “I’d like to do drama. I would say that’s probably my fort‚.”

Meanwhile, Nealon has tried his luck with sitcoms. In 1996, he starred in Dreamworks’ debut sitcom “Champs.”

Last year, Nealon took on the role of a TV comedy writer (hardly a stretch for a comedian who wrote most of his “Saturday Night Live” material) in “Hiller and Diller” with Richard Lewis.

Unfortunately, neither show lasted past its first year.

“‘Hiller and Diller’ was a good show,” Nealon said. “It had all of the perfect ingredients. I just don’t think the writers kept the edge they wanted to with it. They made a mistake when they tried to cater to the polls and make it more family-oriented.”

With both shows, Nealon has learned a lot about television.

“I wouldn’t do another sitcom unless I had creative control,” he said. “I think in my years in this business, I have developed my own style that I like to do things in.”

Quirky things

While comedians like Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld and Gary Shandling make Nealon laugh, he said he prefers a different kind of humor.

“For me, there’s two different kinds of laughing,” he explained. “There’s intentional processing, where someone is making you laugh. And then there’s uncontrollable laughing, which I think is the most satisfying.”

Nealon defined uncontrollable laughing by sharing an incident from the set of “Saturday Night Live.”

“Chevy Chase was guest hosting with me on ‘Weekend Update,'” Nealon explained. “And he must have forgotten to put his contacts in or something, but he kept stumbling over the cue-cards and we were just laughing at everything he would try to say. “

Uncontrollable laughter is usually at someone else’s expense, Nealon added. “Like when I was a kid and my friends and I would just laugh at each other all through church.”

While Nealon has ventured in and out of both movies and television since he first leaped into show business 20 years ago, he has always reserved time to travel the country as a stand-up.

Which element of comedy he prefers, however, is a toss-up.

“In acting, you have the ability to create a character and draw from people you know,” he said. “In stand-up, you get an immediate response. You don’t have to wait a year to see if something’s funny.”

On his current stand-up tour, Nealon can be heard mixing a few of his “Saturday Night Live” characters with new material about his own point of view on life. “Off the wall, quirky things,” he assured.

Nealon will be performing tonight at Dew the Rec at midnight. Tickets are $3 in advance or $5 at the door. A $5 advanced ticket package for Rock Veishea and Dew the Rec is also available.

Tickets are on sale across from the food court in the Memorial Union and are limited to Iowa State students, faculty and staff, alumni and the Ames community.