Nelson began doing stand-up in comedy clubs while a theater student at Nassau Community College in the late 1970s.
"[1] Nelson was also in a comedy group called "The Identical Triplets" with Eddie Murphy and Rob Bartlett.
In 2008, Nelson relocated his family and his show to Branson, Missouri, to take a break from the road, where he performed locally for three years.
[2] Nelson won an Emmy Award in Philadelphia for a children's show he wrote and starred in, called Double Muppet Hold the Onions, in 1983.
He also starred in the film Brain Donors, the 1992 update of the Marx Brothers' comedy A Night at the Opera.