Kevin Nealon likes to people-watch. If he had been doing so before his appearance last Friday at the 2005 Mustang Stampede Comedian Concert, he would have seen McFarlin Auditorium quickly filling up with a myriad of people. From freshman girls in groups of twos and threes nervously deciding where to sit, to students of all classification showing just how far along the “Kanye West Collar” has come, to the now all-too-common occurrence at public events: the two guys on their respective cell phones waving at each other from across the room. Good people-watching indeed. Mustang Stampede, a two day series of activities that celebrate the start of a new academic year, falls under the umbrella of New Student Programs and traditionally includes a nationally known comedian, which brings us to the reason why Kevin Nealon was in McFarlin Auditorium in the first place.

Invited this year to come and share his comedic genius, Kevin Nealon proved that he is indeed a funny guy. Currently starring on the acclaimed Showtime series “Weeds” and best known for his work on “Saturday Night Live” from 1986-1995, Kevin Nealon has always been known for his deadpan delivery and dry wit. This of course of begs the question: Did anyone in McFarlin Auditorium even know why Kevin Nealon is famous? Sure, some might have caught a re-run of “Saturday Night Live” on E! after an episode of “E! True Hollywood Story,” but the answer became painfully obvious after a segment where Nealon brought a student on stage to help assist him in a re-enactment of his supposedly infamous “Hanz and Franz” act. Following Nealon guiding this student through the standard “girly men” banter and stating that the audience was a “sea of flab,” he went on to clarify that what he had just done was from a skit that he and Dana (Dana Carvey he further explained – does no one remember “Wayne’s World”?) had developed on “SNL” called “Hanz and Franz” that made fun of Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The best moments of the performance certainly occurred when Nealon interacted with the audience as he had done with his “Franz” assistant. His straight-faced delivery consistently put audience members on the spot and the results were memorable. After his opening monologue, Nealon declared that he always wanted to have a talk show and decided that there was no time like the present to create one. He then caught two unsuspecting people in the front of the auditorium and invited them to be on his “show.” After the obligatory major questions such as asking names, he enlisted the help of another audience member to “play trumpet” in between the “commercial breaks.” In what was hands-down the most priceless moment of the evening, this good sport of an audience member did what had to be the best improvisational voice trumpet heard in the history of SMU. Not afraid to be upstaged, Nealon rolled with the situation and his normally expressionless demeanor cracked at the solo that seemed to last forever.

Nealon’s routine was fairly generic overall and rapidly jumped from topics like strip clubs, the war on terror, the weather, Michael Jackson, having sex with cats, Jennifer and Brad and his contact lenses. In the end, though, he made people laugh. To quote his favorite phrase, “Whadya gonna do?”