The four “S”’s of comedy hit the Santa Barbara Bowl Sunday, May 22: Adam Sandler, Rob Schneider, David Spade, and Nick Swardson. For comedy heads, the bill is a treasure trove; a grand return to stand-up for these longtime friends and collaborators.
Sandler, of course, is the long-reigning box-office comedy king. Saturday Night Live alums Sandler, Schneider, and Spade make up half of the two Grown Ups summer blockbusters (Sandler’s most successful recent comedies). Schneider, backed by Sandler’s Happy Madison production company, had a string of hit comedy vehicles in the late 1990s/early ’00s, including two Deuce Bigalows, The Hot Chick (“I think that’s my best picture,” Schneider said), and The Animal. Schneider has also played in 19 of Sandler’s films plus had a role in Swardson’s 2006 cult favorite, Grandma’s Boy.
This nationwide stand-up tour has taken the four of them to San Diego, Portland, Seattle, Denver, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and, earlier this week, San Francisco. “It’s been nuts,” Schneider said in a recent phone interview with The Santa Barbara Independent. “You have people who saw us in college on SNL and then they bring their kids.”