Hear our full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.”
You know him from “Saturday Night Live,” “The Critic” and “A League of Their Own.”
Comedian Jon Lovitz performs at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races on Friday.
“The show is smart, silly and immature, which is basically me,” Lovitz told WTOP. “It’s not really political, but all the stuff about words you can’t say and social changes. To me, it’s changing so much. In the 1960s, they called it The Generation Gap between the parents and the kids. It was just a massive change, and I feel like that’s happening again today.”
Born in L.A. in 1957, Lovitz gained fame as a member of “Saturday Night Live” (1985-1992), playing “Pathological Liar” Tommy Flanagan with the signature line, “Yeah, that’s the ticket!” He invented the character as a member of The Groundlings improv group.
“A friend of mine, a girl I liked, said, ‘I like a guy with a fat wallet,’ and I go, ‘Well, my dad just had 15 oil wells come in,'” Lovitz said. “You say your name and what you do, so mine was, ‘My name is Tommy Flanagan … I’m a member of Pathological Liars Anonymous.'”
After “The Simpsons,” he voiced the animated lead role in “The Critic” (1994-1995).
“Jim Brooks went to Al Jean and Mike Reiss, who ran ‘The Simpsons,’ and they said they wanted to do a show with me,” Lovitz said. “They created the character, but they wrote it for me. I remember going in to meet them, and I go, ‘What’s the character?’ and Al goes,’ You.’ I said, ‘Is this the character?’ And I just went, ‘Hello,’ and they went, ‘Yes.'”
He also appeared in some of the biggest comedy movies of a generation with “Jumpin’ Jack Flash” (1986), “Three Amigos” (1986), “Big” (1988), “A League of Their Own” (1992), “Coneheads” (1993), “City Slickers II” (1994) and “The Wedding Singer” (1998).
“People say, ‘What are your best movies?’ As far as doing a character, I’d say ‘A League of Their Own.’ … I remember reading that script and going, ‘I have to play this part, this is hysterical,'” Lovitz said. “As far as just playing yourself [it’s] ‘City Slickers.’ … Playing Billy Crystal’s brother was great. … Doing a movie with him and Jack Palance was fantastic.”
His most underrated is the “Lethal Weapon” spoof “Loaded Weapon 1” (1993), with Samuel L. Jackson spoofing Danny Glover and Emilio Estevez spoofing Mel Gibson.
“Jeffrey Boam was the screenwriter of [‘Lethal Weapon’ 2 & 3]. He said, ‘I wrote that part for you,'” Lovitz said. “I was spoofing the Joe Pesci part, spoofing a role that was originally written for me. … There’s a scene where Emilio and I are looking at this boat, and I added this line, I go, ‘Look at that engine. There’s kind of like a sheen on it.'”
Hear our full conversation on my podcast “Beyond the Fame.”
