UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 39, Page 1
August 19, 1993
Comedy & rock set to roll in Carpenter Center next month

     Cutting edge comedy and state-of-the-art rock 'n' roll will take the
stage at the Bob Carpenter Center in September, as the schedule of events
begins for the 1993-94 academic year.
     Kevin Nealon, a Saturday Night Live cast member since 1986, will kick
off the semester with a performance on Thursday, Sept. 9, and rock star
Lenny Kravitz will bring his Universal Love Tour 1993 to the Carpenter
Center on Tuesday, Sept. 28. Both shows begin at 8 p.m.
     Tickets for the Nealon show go on sale at 10 a.m., Wednesday, Aug. 25,
and tickets for the Kravitz concert go on sale at 10 a.m., Thursday, Sept.
2. Tickets will be available at the Carpenter Center box office, by phone
through Ticketmaster and, as a special convenience for students, at the
Mitchell Hall box office from Aug. 31-Sept. 2. (See accompanying box for
additional ticket details.)
     Kevin Nealon, who anchors "The Weekend Update" segment on Saturday
Night Live, is well-known for such comedic characters on the show as Franz
of Hans and Franz and the Subliminal Man, as well as his lively
impersonation of Sam Donaldson. He has appeared frequently on both Late
Night with David Letterman and The Tonight Show and performed in the films,
Roxanne and All I Want for Christmas.
     A native of Bridgeport, Conn., he graduated from Sacred Heart
University with a degree in marketing and then traveled throughout Europe
and the United States, eventually settling in Los Angeles.
     While bartending at The Improvisation, he started breaking into comedy
clubs. From there, he began appearing in TV commercials, on talk shows and
in primetime series.
     Nealon, who cites Andy Kaufman, Albert Brooks and Steve Martin as his
biggest influences, continues to perform stand-up comedy at clubs and
concert halls around the country.
     Rock's renaissance man, Lenny Kravitz combines his creativity, his
proficiency on many instruments and his skill in the recording studio to
produce music that combines rock 'n' roll, r&b, folk and fusion.
     "It's about music," Kravitz says. "That's my life and I do it because
I love playing music, I love the art of recording, and I love the studio.
It's a wonderful thing to be able to mold your emotions into sounds and put
them on tape."
     His third album, Are You Gonna Go My Way, examines themes of love and
liberation with a mix of styles ranging from Philly soul to psychedelia. On
his two earlier albums-Let Love Rule and Mamma Said-he handled almost all
vocal and instrumental work himself, but on Are You Gonna Go My Way, he is
joined on about half the tracks by guitarist Craig Ross and bass player
Tony Breit.
     Half-Bahamian and half-Jewish, Kravitz grew up in a cultural climate
that exposed him to all kinds of sights, sounds and ideas. His mother Roxie
Roker is known for her role as Helen on The Jeffersons, and his father Sy
Kravitz is an NBC producer. Surrounded by the music of Bobby Short, Cleo
Laine, Count Basie and Ella Fitzgerald, he sang with the California Boys
Choir for three years, performed with the Metropolitan Opera and recorded
Mahler's Symphony No. 3 with Zubin Mehta. This training is evident in his
melodic sense and in his string arrangements.
     Recently, Kravitz performed a duet with Mick Jagger on Jagger's new
solo album, and he co-wrote a song with Steven Tyler for the new Aerosmith
record.
     For more information, call UD1-HENS.