Great Gen X-Pectations

’90s icons and Saturday Night Live alumni Kevin Nealon and Janeane Garofalo perform standup comedy in two separate runs of shows at Olsen Run Comedy Club & Lounge in Eugene. Garafolo performs August 18 and 19, and Nealon does a three-night stand August 21 through 23. Garafolo is an actress, author, comedian and podcaster, perhaps best known for roles in movies like Reality Bites (1994) and Mystery Men (1999). In the early 2000s, she co-hosted The Majority Report with Sam Seder, a liberal-leaning radio talk show on Air America. She was briefly on SNL during the 1994-1995 season. Garafolo’s since kept a lower profile, but lately, her standup comedy is just as biting, with relatable observations delivered from her trademark notebook she holds on stage, profiling Gen X in its 60s. In a recent bit, she describes her hilarious refusal to “strengthen her core” and how she’s a “late adopter” of YouTube (“I hope I’m saying that right,” she adds). Nealon, meanwhile, is more closely associated with SNL, hosting Weekend Update — the show’s legendary news parody segment — for nine seasons in the mid-1980s to early-1990s. Since then, he’s had roles in Weeds, which premiered in 2005 and ran for eight seasons, and in movies like Happy Gilmore (1996), and this year, Happy Gilmore 2. He now hosts a YouTube talk show called Hiking with Kevin, where Nealon and celebrity guests hike a trail and have a conversation as best they can while out of breath — the kind of discomfort Nealon likes to maximize in his comedy. In one classic episode, Jack Black is Nealon’s guest, and he keeps getting recognized on the trail while no one notices Nealon. These days, Nealon’s average-guy perspective is intact with takes on marriage and fatherhood, while deftly managing crowd work, letting the audience fall into the traps he’s created. In one recent bit, he discusses people who say, “Hey, boss” as a greeting. “Do I own a company?” Nealon asks, incredulously. — Will Kennedy

Janeane Garafolo performs 7 pm and 9:30 pm Monday and Tuesday, August 18 and 19. The 7 pm shows are sold out, but tickets ($30) are still available for the 9:30 performances. Kevin Nealon’s Loose in the Crotch: The Tour is 7 pm and 9:30 pm Thursday and Friday, August 21 and 22, and 6 pm and 8:30 pm Sunday August 23. The Sunday shows are sold out. All shows are 21-plus at Olsen Run Comedy Club & Lounge, 44 East 7th Avenue. Tickets begin at $35 and are available at OlsenRun.com.

A Note From the Publisher

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