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TV comedian and actor on the stand-up circuit The real Tim Meadows
By John Benson
Tim Meadows first made us laugh as a “Saturday Night Live” cast member. These days, the funnyman remains busy with an acting career that includes recurring roles on ABC’s “The Goldbergs” and Fox’s “Son of Zorn.”
When he’s not working in front of the camera, Meadows is also pursuing a stand-up comedy career, which brings him to the Mahoning Valley for two shows tonight at Hollywood Gaming’s casino in Austintown.
“I’ve been doing stand-up about seven years now,” said Meadows, calling from Chicago. “I was looking for a way to express ideas I had that wouldn’t take writing a movie or TV script. I figured one way I could do it is to get on stage and start doing monologues.
“I guess the hardest part was being on stage by myself. I’ve been on stage doing improv with other people where you can always depend on them, usually, to help you shape an idea. So the biggest thing was just figuring out how to do this on my own.”
There are plenty of Meadows’ peers who ventured into the stand-up world after their Hollywood career started to fade. In fact, many “Saturday Night Live” alums would use their time on stage telling funny stories and mildly amusing anecdotes about their past without really honing their comedy skills.
That’s not the route Meadows wanted to go. Sure, he could have returned to his popular “Saturday Night Live” impressions of O.J. Simpson, Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods and Oprah or “The Ladies Man” Leon Phelps, but instead, Meadows didn’t want any shortcuts. That’s why over the past years he’s worked up enough original material to tour the comedy club circuit whenever he’s not acting.
“I tell jokes, do conceptual bits and also talk to the audience,” Meadows said. “I don’t do impressions, even though I could. That’s not what I wanted to be known for. I talk about a lot of stuff – being divorced, having kids and dating after you’ve been divorced.
“I do talk about things going on in the world. And yeah, I talk about myself. The audience doesn’t really know me. They know me from seeing me in movies and stuff like that where I’m doing characters, but they don’t really know who I am. This is really the first time the audience sees me talking directly to them.”
Regarding his acting career, Meadows recently shot a pilot for a “The Goldbergs” spinoff centered around his funny character Andre Glascott, the disillusioned teacher and guidance counselor who for extra cash also delivers pizza and gives guitar lessons. Now Meadows is waiting to see if the show will get picked up. He’s been here before with pilots, so the veteran is keeping it cool.
“One piece of advice I got from a friend of mine was to keep your nose to the grindstone and don’t look up and worry about things that you’re doing,” Meadows said. “Just keep doing it. I mean, it’s nice to have a pilot, but I don’t get too overly excited about it.”
It’s not a stretch to suggest that working actor and comedian Meadows is similar to his “Goldbergs” character, who is also doing whatever he can to make ends meet. That thought yielded this priceless response from Meadows.
“Yeah, doing stand-up comedy is sort of like delivering the pizza,” Meadows said. “It’s me bringing entertainment to people out in the neighborhood instead of watching it on TV.”
He added, “But it does pay more than delivering pizzas.”