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Funny man Richard Kind is bringing his notable comedic talent to Toledo on Wednesday.

He’s also packing his golf clubs.

No, there’s no tournament ahead for this star of TV, movies, stage, and radio.

Kind is coming to appear with the Toledo Opera in its Golden Anniversary celebration — the first-ever local professional production of Leonard Bernstein’s Candide.

But he’s heard about the Inverness Club golf course and wants to be ready, just in case.

“I play whenever I’m invited and wherever,” he said from his car, returning to his home on New York’s Upper West Side after a sunny day on the links.

Still, if such an invitation materializes, it will have to fit around rehearsals.

It’s Kind’s first opera and he’s already clear about one thing: “You never want to call me an opera singer.”

In his role as Narrator, he’ll be surrounded with a large cast of people who do call themselves opera singers: Audrey Elizabeth Luna, Ryan MacPherson, Marco Nistico, Abby Powell, and Benjamin Warschawski, among others.

All will be part of this historic performance at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle.

The Toledo Symphony and Toledo Opera chorus will share the stage with the cast in a semi-staged production directed by Marc Verzatt and conducted by Thomas Conlin.

“It’s a huge props show,” says Toledo Opera director Renay Conlin. “We’re using a lot of hats, accessories, and various things that conjure up the characters.”

Although Kind says he can sing and move — not dance, mind you — the actor beloved for TV roles in Mad About You, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Spin City, plus performances on and off Broadway, movie appearances and voice-overs, says he jumped at the chance to be part of Toledo’s production. (Kind launched his opera career in a 2008 production of Candide by New York City Opera.)

What a way to celebrate five decades of presenting fine live opera to northwest Ohio. And what a smashing ending to a season highlighted by outstanding productions of Rigoletto and Salome as well as a Verdi-full gala.

Written in 1953 by conductor/composer/humanitarian Bernstein and writer Lillian Hellman, Candide offers sharp social commentary told through a surreal fable set to brilliant music.

Voltaire wrote Candide in 1759 to protest the Spanish Inquisition. It became the French writer’s most famed work and entered the academic canon.

In the 1950s, as then-Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R., Wis.) and his House Committee on Un-American Activities investigated liberal and progressive artists in search of Communist-oriented dissidents, Hellman and Bernstein collaborated on what would become one of several major works fomented by government activities: the play and film Cradle Will Rock, and Arthur Miller’s play and opera The Crucible are others.

Candide opened in 1957 for 73 performances on Broadway.

Since then, Hellman’s bitter libretto has been replaced by more comedic versions by Hugh Wheeler with input from Richard Wilbur, Stephen Sondheim, John LaTouche, and Bernstein himself.

Sung in English, it is a hybrid form of the liveliest aspects of opera, musical theater, and operetta. Its 30 musical numbers range from solos and ensembles to choral and orchestral segments written in a wide range of styles — from aria-like duets to campy burlesque numbers to sober chorales.

For coloratura soprano Luna, who portrays Cunegonde, it’s an opportunity to perform a role that includes one of the most famous and difficult arias of all, the bittersweet “Glitter and Be Gay.” Luna, just starting her career, has already won raves for performances in The Magic Flute, Elixir of Love, and A Little Night Music.

Tenor MacPherson, with undergraduate and graduate degrees in music from Yale, calls himself, “An opera singer with a penchant for Heavy Metal, Motorcycles and Haiku.” He appeared in a Toledo Opera production of Cosi fan Tutte, and portrays Candide in this production.

Kind says loves the variety of his career right now. “I’ve done seven plays in the last 15 months. Some of them are big, some are one or two-week runs.”

And though known for his affable comic performances, he also does drama, including a play by Clifford Odets, The Big Knife.

“It’s very enriching,” Kind said in a phone interview last week as he tried to make his way back to Manhattan over unknown roads. “I’m a very lucky man to have the career that I have to go from TV to movies to stages.” He prefers stage to TV and the movies, he noted, because multiple rehearsals allow real character development.

“In a play, by the time you open, you should be the best you can be,” Kind adds.

The Toledo Opera will present “Candide” at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in the Toledo Museum of Art Peristyle. Tickets are $20-$90 for adults at toledoopera.org. Groups of 10 or more enjoy significant discounts; please inquire about group rates at 419-255-7464. Student Rush tickets are available at the door half an hour prior to curtain for $10 for holders of a valid student ID.

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