At any given moment, Dana Carvey might be wearing women's clothes. 

"I am in full Church Lady drag right now," Carvey said during a phone conversation last week. "Wig and everything." 

OK, he might have been joking. After all, it's hard to know who is on the other end of the line after hearing the voices of the aforementioned religious prude, two presidents, Jon Lovitz, Regis Philbin and several others during the half-hour interview. 

Carvey burst into the limelight in the late 1980s for playing numerous characters on "Saturday Night Live," including The Church Lady, the most excellent co-host Garth of "Wayne's World," German bodybuilder Hans of "Hans and Frans" and for his imitations of the first President Bush, presidential candidate Ross Perot and many others. This man of a thousand voices will bring his newest material to John Ascuaga's Nugget for one show on Sunday night. 

Born in 1955 in Missoula, Mont., Carvey grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area. He credits the view of Reno driving east through the mountains and seeing guys like Sammy Davis, Jr. perform in Lake Tahoe with putting him on the path toward a career in entertainment. 

"Reno introduced me to show business," Carvey said. "My family would drive through on the way to Missoula and I remember thinking to myself 'God, show business. That's so cool.' " 

Joining the cast of SNL in 1986, Carvey was a member of the generation of comedians that included the likes of Mike Myers, Phil Hartman, Chris Farley, Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Jan Hooks and Dennis Miller. Carvey's debut on the show also coincided with the return of the series' creator, Lorne Michaels, who left the show in the early 1980s after much of the original cast had departed. The show at the time had a mix of newbies and experienced comedians and actors, but it was the talents of the new faces that shone through, highlighted by Carvey's impressions and zany humor. 

A year ago, Carvey told talk show host and former SNL writer Conan O'Brien that his most requested character from his SNL days was the Church Lady, but he said last week that he'd say she is neck in neck with Garth since the latter receives so much replay. ("I remind all your young readers that Wayne and Garth never did any alcohol or drugs," he added, agreeing with the description of the pair as dopey but sober). For good measure, he demonstrated that the Church Lady is alive and well and paying attention to the evil in today's world. 

"Ashton Kutcher has one million followers on Twitter, Jesus has billions of followers," the Church Lady said, grabbing the phone from Carvey. "Guess who is the real celebrity?" 

It has been 18 years since Carvey left SNL and though he has not shot to the top of movie stardom like some of his fellow co-stars (a la Myers' "Austin Powers" franchise), he has not faded away. After enjoying the success of the "Wayne's World," he got a shot at his own sketch-comedy TV show in 1996. It was canceled after just six episodes, but gave a nice asterisk to his career as it provided a launching pad for two other future big stars: Stephen Colbert and Steve Carrell.  Carvey has made a couple of movies that spotlight his talents around contrived story lines and has done a couple of HBO stand-up specials, most recently 2008's "Squatting Monkeys Tell No Lies." He has made several TV appearances in the last year and playing about 40 stand-up shows a year. 

Keeping with his tradition of presidential impressions, Carvey has been working on incorporating President Barack Obama into his act. He said the Bush presidents gave him lots of comedic ammunition and that he is just starting to get Obama, who Carvey describes as having elements of Walter Cronkite and Mr. Spock in his voice. 

"You try to find those rhythms and it only started to work for me in last couple of months," he said of his Obama impression. 

Once those rhythms are found, the comedian takes over. 

"Let's go back to beginning of foreplay when man would take off the bra," Carvey said in his Obama voice, nailing the pauses and inflections that make him sound like the current president addressing a convention of horny men. 

Speaking of horny men, Carvey's new routine has what he calls his "Tiger Woods sex addiction chunk" and his "John Edwards love child chunk." Carvey's current comedy touches on sex, relationships, child-rearing (he has two sons in their teens) and politics. 

In conjunction with TV comedy writer Spike Feresten, Carvey is currently working on a new TV show pilot for the Fox network. He says he likes what he calls the "Britney system" of doing 10 shows and moving on, but that when the material is working performing on stage is the best venue for his talents.

"On stage when it's really going good is the most pure in-the-moment fun," he said. "Creating on the spot with a live audience, there's something very immediate about that and that's nice."

It's that kind of interactive magic Carvey hopes to bring to Sparks.

"Just to try and do greatest comedy show of all time," he said of his plans for Sunday night.

"And," President Obama added, "we will work together to make these things come true." 

Dana Carvey performs Sunday in the Rose Ballroom at 8 p.m. Tickets are $49 and $55 and are available by calling (800) 648-1177 or 356-3300 or by visiting www.janugget.com. Dinner and show packages are available. 

For information on Carvey, visit his fan site at www.danacarvey.net or to see many of his famous SNL clips, search "Dana Carvey" at YouTube.com.