Tim Allen proves there can be a second act in life—and perhaps a third. After becoming a successful stand-up comedian and sitcom star in the ’90s, he conquered the silver screen with movies such as The Santa Clause, Toy Story and Galaxy Quest. He’s repeated his television success with ABC’s Last Man Standing, and took time from working on the fourth season to talk to Las Vegas Magazine's Matt Kelemen about comedy, career and The Mirage, where he will make five appearances as part of Aces of Comedy this year. His first will be Saturday, Jan. 31.
This is kind of a big night for Last Man Standing, with [former Home Improvement co-star] Patricia Richardson guest-starring. Is this a night you’d watch the show at its network time slot?
It was real fun but kind of sad. It’s just a strange business that we work in, so many years on … I really like doing the things I’ve been able to do. I really like doing the concerts, really like working Vegas. Never thought I’d do another TV show, and the creators who worked on the show with me came up with an idea that I liked. Actually, I presented an idea: Just redo Home Improvement with three daughters and a different … it’s really pretty much what I’m comfortable with. Some good acting, great writers. Having some of the actors who show up from Home Improvement was a risky thing because it could come off as a stunt. But Pat herself is a great actor. Whenever we get together its kind of Tim Taylor and Jill Taylor again.
Was it strange having her in the room with your current co-star Nancy Travis at times?
A couple of times it was, but they loved each other. They really know each other and she was a good sport. I was so grateful that she’s come on and [Richard] Karn’s come on. It’s never been in my comfort zone to forget Home Improvement. I loved every day I worked on it. I love this show, Last Man Standing, in the same way you love another child or something else in your life. You never thought you’d feel the same way, but I really adore being with these people. The crew is some of the same crew. The production people are wonderful. The writing is just great. Right now we’re in a sweet spot. We’re kind of in a Friday-night slot that is off the beaten path if you will, so it is all this pressure to stay up. Our ratings have been great. We’re doing everything we’re supposed to be doing.
The series is in its fourth season now, which seems to be a time when long-running TV shows hit their stride, with characters well established and writers firmly immersed in the story arc zone. Does it feel that way to you?
I feel that, but this is an age where people have so many choices, so much that people can decide on. I’m grateful every day to do this show as the networks struggle for relevancy, and I think they’re genius for the fact that they’re streaming live. People don’t even realize that for the most part network TV is running it live [online]. You’re not downloading it. It’s happening as you see it. That’s one of the reasons I love going out in front of a 300-seat audience. I love the fact that it’s immediate. There’s nothing like network TV. I’m really grateful for the staff and everybody, and I’m just going to keep saying it because I really love what I do.
Do you look at Last Man Standing as kind of an allegorical series?
Yes. When I came up with the idea it was really to do what I loved about Home Improvement, which was really the structure of it. That you have a fourth wall that I break with these monologues I come up with. So I really like that I’m able to do something live, to just look at the camera, which I love, coming from my comedy roots.
Home Improvement’s Tim Taylor was a bit of a reaction to what was going on at the time, as far as men expressing … feeling like men, basically. Now things are so different.
I always felt that as I grew up with men mostly … except for my two sisters, but there were seven boys. Now I have only girls, and I still depend … I don’t look at it as so sacred as “men have a right to be men,” but there is no alternative. A guy can’t be what media wants him to be. Especially out here in California. You get all this presupposition of what men should be based on some outside standards of what “politically correct” should be.
It seems like there’s more more group pressure to get men to behave in a certain way than there’s ever been. It’s almost like a minefield out there now.
I think it is, believe me. I see that. That’s why, under great pressure from one of my brothers and my wife, I went back and did a two-year … it was three years ago when I started to evolve. I couldn’t do the same act that was [related to] Home Improvement. I went and did a whole new act. And I’ll tell you, it wasn’t what I thought it would be, but there was a payoff. I’m probably closer to my anarchistic self on stage now. I’m not going to shock people, but as I explain a couple of times in the show, at The Mirage anyway, I’m a combination of all these characters that I’ve developed or have been brought out of me as an entertainer. But in Las Vegas it’s a showroom, so I’m able to be kind of a core person, the authentic guy.
I watched a lot of interviews with you, some I had seen before, and my takeaway was in many ways you’re still, to quote your Twitter bio, “a wisecracking kid from the Midwest, looking for answers to life’s big questions.” Do you still feel that way?
Yeah … it’s funny, I have a Facebook account both for personal and for business, and I have a Twitter account. Five years ago I would have said all sorts of crap on there just to keep the accounts going. But really, showing people what you ate or something, it’s just pabulum to me. … I don’t say that much [on social media] anymore. I don’t say everything I think because it’s not that important. I’ve heard younger performers start to say stuff, and in this world you say that stuff and it’s out there forever. I realize that, because I’ve made some mistakes in saying what I thought in the moment and it doesn’t mean I think like that all the time. On the Internet it comes back so you keep saying it. You don’t just say it once. I have stuff that I think. I have stuff that I feel. I have stuff that’s important to me, but is that really valuable to all the rest of you? No.
I’ve disseminated a lot of information, and because God gifted me with a sense of humor I’m able to do that at The Mirage for an hour show and be funny about it. That takes a lot of work. It gets pretty intense.
I’ve studied physics and religion, and I can’t simply condense it. I went through this last night when I did the comedy club, the Laugh Factory, here in Los Angeles on the Sunset Strip. I would love to make sense of these cowards that shot all these people in Paris. I’d love to make sense of it, and get it to the point where I could make fun of it. I know that sounds cold, but that’s what comedians do. Sometimes it’s too soon and sometimes it’s just not funny. I was talking about it with two other guys. It becomes a philosophical argument between religions. And it is not funny, and there’s no way to make sense of that shit. The best we came up with is: It’s bored, angry children. This is not a representation of whatever Islam is. It can’t be that. You can take the Christian Bible and validate all sorts of horrible behavior if you want to. I have not read their holy book [the Koran]. I have read nearly all of the King James Bible. I don’t think that issue—those cowards and their behavior—is anything other than cowardice. How can you justify that sh*t? And so we start talking about that, and eventually you’re supposed to put that in a tweet?
I think your sentiment is echoed by a lot of people who don’t want to talk a lot on social media anymore.
You’ve got to be careful of what you say. Sometimes these things can’t be said in a tweet. And the horrible things people say on Twitter. I monitor these things as best I can, but I get very silent because there’s not much I can say in three sentences.
And it’s not about you. It’s not about me.
I am still looking for answers. As I get older, I find that people I respect don’t say much. There’s great, great guys I know in the hot rod restoration business, and their world is going away. Electric cars are probably going to be the new hot rods when people start designing those, specifically. This generation that’s 10 or 20 years older than me, they’ve been through a lot, and their silence is golden. Their experience is a treasure. When they do speak they say something that’s real, and now I aspire to be more like that. But, that said, I’ve got this beautiful gig in Las Vegas that I love so much. For me, to be in Las Vegas now, I really appreciate it. I love the place, and have been coming since The Mirage was made. Now I’m telling jokes there. It’s a big move to The Mirage, from a 700-seater to 1,400, which is what we wanted—a bigger venue. I now have what I’ve worked hard at for the last two or three years to get. It’s some of my old show, with some material on tools, but it’s morphed into more of who I am. It’s so wonderful to be able to do that. I love comedy, and it’s so great to be able to do it on the stage.
What is inspiring your current direction?
Well, it was always … I just loved watching Richard Pryor and his pacing. It’s more about how you do comedy. I’ve never had anyone entertain me like Pryor did when I saw him in concert, and I aspired to be that type of comedian, whatever my material is. I don’t believe it’s as smart as his, but I think that’s what I want to do. It’s more about all about giving people a good experience, having a vision. I just murdered the other night here in Los Angeles. I had a couple of people that I love that ended up tweeting, that brought their phones in the club—I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that; in Vegas you don’t want to do that. But one of the guys said, “It’s one of the best comedy experiences I’ve ever had.” It was a hot show the other night.
I saw that. I saw that tweet.
I’m using all of my skills to make you laugh your pants off for an hour. And it doesn’t always succeed for some people. In Las Vegas I plan to calm it down a little bit because it’s an elegant club, it’s a great showroom and I don’t want to offend anybody. But we’re adults. I slip up sometimes. I was always a precocious kid, and I haven’t changed a bit.
The Mirage has become one of the preeminent comedy spaces in Vegas, and you’ve always been vocal about how much you like performing here. How would you characterize your history of doing stand-up in Vegas?
Personally I like the old school, where they had a band up on the set. I started at Caesars right at the end the era of the bands, when they’d strike up when you came on stage. And I like wearing a suit. I went from Caesars to the Trop, lately The Venetian and now The Mirage. Right now The Mirage, like you said, is preeminent with the Aces of Comedy. It’s very talent-centric and professional. Nobody does theater like New York, but nobody puts on shows like Las Vegas. There’s a certain amount of professionalism on every level. They’ve added a whole level of food and shopping that my family just loves, and now we know how to handle it to avoid huge crowds. There’s really nothing like it, the experience in Vegas.
Is it different for you to perform here than in other cities?
There’s nothing like it because in other cities it’s like you’re the only watering hole. You do concerts in some cities that don’t have a lot of other options. But you’ve got to work. You can come in there on a Friday for two shows, or Saturday—you gotta work. You’ve got to respect that people flew into that place and there’s money in there. This is no joke. It’s an honor to be on stage, but I want to murder them. I want them to come out of there tired going, “That was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.” That’s my goal. In Vegas it’s not the young crowds that pay eight bucks on the Sunset Strip, and certainly not like the bigger casinos around the country like in Minnesota. It requires pinpoint accuracy. You don’t screw up. There’s a lot of respect you’ve got to earn in Las Vegas.
Two last questions: Your participation in a fourth Toy Story movie is assured, right? I think there was some buzz out there that it wasn’t firmed up that you and Tom Hanks would be part of it.
It is assured, yes. Tom and I are resurrecting our roles.
And what vehicle do you drive the most, and is that the same as the one you like to drive the most?
I drive a Cadillac ELR. I was involved in the voice-overs for Chevrolet for a couple of years and when I moved on one of the parting things was a vehicle, the Cadillac version of the Volt. I love computers and techy toys, and this is like driving a beautiful android. It’s really an interesting car, but no it’s not my favorite. My favorite is a ’55 Ford with a 620-horsepower Ford GT motor in it and a 427 ’68 Camaro, which is in Jay Leno’s garage. Those two cars I built over the past eight years, each for a different reason. Those two are the highest-end hot rods that I’ve ever built, but you can’t fit a baby seat in them and there’s no coffee [holders]. You just can’t run errands in them. The ELR, as much as I don’t like to admit it, I can’t get out of it.
The Mirage, 10 p.m. Jan. 31, $59.99 plus tax and fee, 16+. 702.792.7777
