Jason Priestley on Hosting SNL, Hockey with Mike Myers, & Directing TV

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2:58When you tell Shannon to, you know, not block the other girl with her shoulder, does she go, just relax? They say you answer 400 questions a day. That sounds about right. It's a real thing, right? Question fatigue, right? you just clean them at the end of the day you're like I don't f***ing care I do I ease everybody into it I say okay okay everybody ready and action

3:24Dana Carvey:I get very easy you go down action wait a minute hey guys hey this is a first for us you are you're oh this is great you were just awoken and said go on a podcast is that right I mean no not quite I was I'm in the middle of a whole I thought we were just doing a pre-interview today. Because aren't you guys sending me a hat? And I'm supposed to wear a hat? We never knew about a hat. We've never done a pre-interview. You're fine without the hat. I don't even know what that is. I thought this was later, guys. I'm sorry. Jennifer, I'm on with the boys. I'll talk to you later. Jennifer, be cool. It's all happening.

4:05Oh, my God, guys. I'm so sorry. Jennifer, he's fine. What is the deal? Trust me.

4:09Dana Carvey:Hey, guys. I haven't seen you guys in the years. Jennifer, I'm hanging up. What's going on? Not since 1992. The cold open You were Now that I was a double right Most of the time or do you skate I skate But most of it was a double I did a little bit of stuff but The double did most of it for me The cold opening on Saturday Night Live I just so people understand In 1992 Jason came on But it was a pretty good look alike And it kept the shot wide You're built the same And then when you came in at the end to all beat the shit that was really funny just like could barely talk yeah it was that was a good i love the life that that uh that that piece has had oh you know every winter olympics it seems to come back around right they throw it back yeah yes that's true yeah it's become a thing we had kerrigan on and that was in rotation for a while because uh she got to skate with farley were you guys over rockfeller is that usually we did our stuff no we did our stuff up at sky rink which is what the heck somewhere in manhattan somewhere in midtown manhattan at the top of a skyscraper there's an ice for real yeah oh how cool is that it's hilarious don't fall so what what i mean since we're on this topic we just bounce around so we don't have any rehearsal like okay so it's just all a pre-interview it's just longer it's a little bit like a fever dream You know, you're acting and you're doing well, you're doing things.

5:39Dana Carvey:You started pretty young. And then 90210, rocket ship comes on and it explodes globally. And then it's like, hey, how about coming on SNL and hosting? Then that's where we saw you in 92. So right at that point, and you didn't seem to have anything but nice. You know, you're Canadian, right? So it wasn't like, hey, you know, guess what show I'm on? Vancouver. you know it's like yeah so just talk us through that real way if you want to just the experience of the you know going on snl and you're like 22 or something yeah i was i was maybe i was 22 or 23 years old um i mean for me having the opportunity to come and do snl with you guys was unbelievable i you know i'd watched snl my whole life um so for me to have that up i mean i definitely understood the importance of that uh opportunity and it was and it was definitely uh definitely an experience that i'll never forget that was that was one of the most fun professional weeks of my entire career which has been very long at this point in time it has congratulations he got a fat cast too dana because yeah 92 was my i was still really new just mostly yeah he wasn't he wasn't but you had you guys yeah he had you and mike and uh and farley probably jan farley and sandler was there that they were there yeah oh that was the crossover that was a good year that was a big really fun did mike myers take you under his wing kind of at being a fellow canadian i'm from canada too you know hey how you doing hey you know it's funny we i for a few years yeah i I did a lot of stuff with Mike.

7:21We played hockey a lot together. Oh, yeah, you do hockey too, yeah. A lot of charity hockey games and stuff. Oh, okay. But then also he would invite me to, you know, he was doing a table reading of something in Los Angeles. He would always call me and I would go and be a part of the table reads and stuff that he was doing, you know, trying to get all his projects off the ground. Yeah, it was great. It was really cool. Mike's a great, I mean, you guys know better than I do. He's an awesome guy. He's just fantastic.

7:45Dana Carvey:yeah i mean canadians just have a vibe you know i don't know what it is a humbleness not fake humble but also you know have their own ambitions and talent but there is sort of a polite carefulness that i find with canadians maybe that's a cliche but dana and i are fake humble my wife's canadian yeah david's ego was sort of i don't want to say this out of control but he's caught i had a big ego i wasn't even on 90210 i was like a writer on snl i was peacocking around like i did anything yeah he goes what's up with this jason guy he says to me day two jason jason priestley from 90210 what do you mean what's up with him i don't know what he meant by that i made that up wait who was your music it was uh it was it was a band called teenage fan club oh yeah some of those come and go but um you know you never know and they're big when we get them and I remember they were really pushing hothouse flowers on us and then they finally did it and they disappeared later that night I think same thing happened in Teenage Fan Club they just disappeared it's so funny because then you get Nirvana the next week then you get Pearl Jam and you just don't know we break new people we put them on the stage then we see if it like sticks that was a pretty good Lorne Michaels impersonation that was pretty good what it is Jason Priestley's here I think he's going to be very game oh you're happy so far Jason there's only three people in North America that don't do a Lorne Michaels impression they've hunted them down and there's three in both Canada it's too far did you have Norm MacDonald on when you were there?

9:34yeah Norm was there oh great you got everybody I was super lucky. I had an unbelievable cast.

9:41Dana Carvey:It was a great show. You did the, you did it with, was with Chris Rock doing the RC new hall show. Yeah. On the, yeah. Oh, you did. Wasn't that part of our whole backstreet boys thing where we, where we all, Oh no, it wasn't new kids on the block. That's what we all played. And that was on the show, right? right oh my god so you're saying look at that stuck in my shirt i got on for you and what was the angle on 90210 nice yeah oh he does have that hey he's a bare naked lady guy no no i love it it's true i do love bare naked ladies there's room for in what's not to love about them there's always room you guys were probably huge stars crossing over like did you ever see those guys in sync uh yeah occasionally um vmas yeah yeah yeah i knew those guys a little bit um i would see uh i would see the new kids on the block out more often than more often than other bands though like i always i always found myself in an elevator with the new kids on the block which was yeah i'm not sure why i don't know how i can two two times i remember perfectly one was in miami and one was in vegas and i like i'd step on the elevator and the whole band would be in there and i was like you could blend right in did you ever audition for that no did someone did some producer somewhere because you're on this rocket ship and you're a teen idol kind of go can you sing oh yeah you know oh yeah oh they tried to make an album with him did they make it out.

11:24Other ways of making money.

11:26Dana Carvey:Well, tell us about that. What did they say? Oh, no, I never did it. I never even entertained it. I was like, yeah, thanks, guys. But who do you think I am? William Shatner? There's only one Shatner. Yeah. Another Canadian. I can't believe you brought him up. Rocket man. He'll bring up Shatner. It's a Canadian thing. You got a lot up there. You got a lot of stuff. So everyone's got a Shatner. Everyone's got a Walken. Everyone's got. yeah walkin is really the do you have a walkin? yeah who doesn't? you gotta have it ready and willing at all times oh you got the growl too here's walkin sees a sees a UFO wow that's it David you're up oh you're gonna do the act of cat no he just tells me he goes you know act of dog's a smile You know, he goes under sometimes He does, he does He goes grab him as this Oh, he's a friend, and we're hoping he hosts this year Is he a Canadian?

12:35Dana Carvey:So what You probably never asked any of these kinds of questions But so that 10 years on that show Yeah So huge What, you know, what year in Did someone think maybe you were going to change because you're mobbed at shopping malls and stuff. I mean, you went through like a Beatlemania thing in a sense, right? Yeah, yeah, very much so. What the hell? And you're so young. Were you Canadian smart and kind of kept level or did you spin out a little bit or did you have the time of your life? I tried to stay level-headed and to not let it really affect me. And that was easy for me because I was at work all the time because I was number one on the call sheet of that show.

13:22So I was at work all the time. So it was easy not to. Just work and work. Yeah, just, you know. And after a while, you know, and we did so many episodes of that show every year that, you know, after a while, I just felt like a hamster on a wheel. And I had to keep running as fast as I could or it would, you know, spin me out. Those shows shoot like a movie, right? They're just nonstop shooting. It's not a sitcom.

13:43Dana Carvey:And how many, what was your peak episode count? Was it 22 was average, but maybe more? We would do 32 a year. whoa you fucking er wait a minute and it takes five to eight days to shoot to shoot it that's the whole year well that's like that's a year and a half for a year that's like 240 days of shooting or something i don't know i went to junior college do you remember anybody that was in the cast before can you remember any of the names yeah no i'm kidding um what about jason when you get on the show so everyone's at a different level probably pretty new how do they decide like who gets the most money someone who has a microscopic quote or some way how do you end up number one in the call sheet or is it just random uh no i i was number one on the call sheet just because i think that uh brandon you've done stuff i've done stuff like i i was just coming on a series that was on nbc and you know my and you know i mean shannon had done lots of stuff too before we started you know she's on little house on the prairie for christ's sake so whoa you know we we'd sort of been around for a while and i think so shannon and i had the highest quotes uh if anybody was she number two yeah yeah she uh she hosted after that yeah she did and luke and luke did too as well right oh yeah luke did too yeah luke hosted as no god rest his soul We love Luke.

15:09Dana Carvey:And he really stood out as well as just one of the nicest people I've ever met. And the most centered. I don't know. He really stood out. I mean, there was you guys. There's something pretty magic. Three from the show is a big deal. That was a big, chunky show that we could pluck off of. Yeah, he was. Luke was Luke was an incredibly kind, generous, smart, funny guy. He was. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Sure, sure. He's smart. the show so you get there he what what number was he three he was number Luke's number seven on our call sheet oh yeah and when you go seven when you go back and watch the show though he really like Dylan McKay was sort of like this you know sort of like this mythical cool guy he's a little Fonzie comes in and out you know and then hey guys yeah it's like James Dean kind of yeah exactly All of us would trudge along Doing our, you know, whatever And then Luke would breeze in And Dylan would be there riding his motorcycle And hey, kids Dylan's like, do we have to eat at the Peach Pit again?

16:15Yeah, exactly

16:15Dana Carvey:Yeah, that sounds like the fun part, in a way What Luke was doing In the new breezy mystery series Private Eyes West Coast Jason Priestley stars as former hockey player Matt Shade along Cindy Sampson as private investigator Angie Everett. Now married with a baby, this husband and wife crime-solving team has traded late-night stakeouts for late-night feedings and faces its most unpredictable assignment yet, parenthood. Shade and Angie move to the West Coast for a fresh start, but when their date night becomes a crime scene, these new parents put their private eye skills back to work from missing hikers to mysterious murderous mermaids.

17:00They'll uncover secrets, catch killers, and try to make it home before bedtime. Between babies, bad guys, and barely any sleep, Shade and Angie are soft on parenting, tough on crime. This fall, watch closely because Private Eyes are watching you catch the Private Eyes West Coast series premiere Monday, October 5th, 8, 7 central on The CW. Next day on The CW app and the Roku channel. Fly on the Wall is sponsored by Bluetooth, the number one brand for better sex.

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19:02Dana Carvey:one thing I'm curious about is like as you guys went along and the show got bigger and bigger you kind of at lunch go hey uh did you get a bump last year I mean did you know what everyone was making because in friends didn't friends decide you probably had a bigger cast but friends decided quid pro quo everyone gets the same right yeah at one point yeah did you guys but you were you were before friends so yeah no uh we were we were before friends and then and then you know and then after with with alongside our friends um uh it we didn't we we all didn't talk about money very much and we didn't all collectively get together and and negotiate yeah as a group you know i don't know in retrospect that might have been it might have helped or it might not I really don't know what the right answer is on a show like R.C.

19:54I'm sure you guys did fine, though, right? Oh, yeah, yeah. You always get those bumps to shows they hit.

19:59Dana Carvey:Oh, yeah. It is interesting. Sometimes on shows, I don't want to know what anyone else gets. I couldn't tell you what anyone on Just Shoot Me got at a show I did. Grownups, I never know what anyone else got. So I would rather just not know in a way because it can lead to mental craziness. Well, it was the analog world, too, where if a TV show's on, it gets massive. I was canceled on a sitcom in 1981, me, Mickey Rooney, and Nathan Lane. And I was told we were getting 24 million people. Get that. Take your 24 million and get the fuck out of here. What? So I'm sure your numbers kept growing. And yeah, the 90s, it was just everybody knew about 90210.

20:42Dana Carvey:Yeah, sure. It was a different time, right? It was appointment television time. It was all that stuff, right? All the things that are gone now. Mm-hmm. Yeah. It was definitely a different time. Ah, yeah. Now they said, what if Paramount goes away? I just heard that today, Dan. I'm like, oh, if that moves out of town, I don't know what's going to happen. Paramount might move to Tennessee. Might move to Nashville, Tennessee. Yep. God dang. And that's maybe where you live, ironically. Yeah, I live in Nashville. Oh, do you? Yeah. Oh, nice. Nashville's a nice town. It's a great town. When did you move?

21:15We moved here about five and a half years ago. there was a private school here in West Nashville that we wanted our kids to go to. And so we, they got in, they got accepted and so we moved.

21:27Dana Carvey:Well, what I, cause everybody in Hollywood or everyone out on the West coast occasionally will mention Nashville or Florida or Texas, or maybe Georgia or places where this is a little less tax heavy. So your expectations in Nashville and then, and then what is, what's it been like? What are the upside surprises about living there? If there are any. Absolutely. First of all, it's a beautiful place. Tennessee is a gorgeous state. Oh, I'm sure you have. Sure, I love it. I think the thing that surprised us the most is the group of friends that we've assembled here. Some of the most dynamic, interesting, driven people people i've ever no i'm not hanging out with jelly roll he lives on every street donut hole is now also like the mayor walking around donut hole donut hole has an album out oh that's a new guy yeah that's not jelly roll but donut hole has that he's i love that guy is it hotter than you think or colder than you think it was it's hotter than i thought in the summer and colder than i thought in the winter it's both of those things well that's where California comes out ahead, but after that, it gets a little murky.

22:46Dana Carvey:Well, we get shakers. Do you get twisters or tornadoes? Not where I live. No, I live in, it's hilly where I live, so we don't get any twisters here. Okay, so there's no... Occasionally in other parts of Tennessee, yeah. That's usually more for like the, you know, Oklahoma and places like that where it's super flat, right? More mid. So one thing that I found kind of interesting, I'm just jumping around here, but that you, while you were doing 90210, you were already directing episodes. You're already having this other career, which was just really smart of being a director, producer, writer, making things.

23:21Dana Carvey:And so that you've done a lot. I have. Yeah, I do. I spent a lot of time behind the camera and I have done for the last 25, 30 years, which is great. I mean, you guys know what it's like being a performer. Your focus is very finite, and you only have to worry about you and the character and what you're doing. But I enjoy being the director and having a more macro vision of what's going on and having to solve - It's such a puzzle. Yeah, and film acting or TV, it can be, if you don't have chemistry with the director, you have a different sensibility about, you know the puppeteer in this particular project is probably hurting the project and you can't get out of it but if you're the puppeteer you go you're gonna try to make it like you want it yeah exactly right yeah and i and i enjoy when do you get to come to them and ask like are you i'm sorry but you're like newer you wait a year you wait two years and then it strikes you like i could probably figure this out i started uh bug and erin at the end of the first season i started you know oh wow that yeah i started hammering him to to let me direct it and yeah by the end of the third season he did he gave me the he let me direct my first episode and by the end of the show i directed 15 hours of it like i directed a lot wow great that's very cool that's real did anyone else make that move on the show anyone else direct uh i you know in in the in the 10th and final season i everyone you know they gave everyone a shot to direct an episode oh really but uh yeah The other guy who directed quite a few episodes was James Eckhouse, who played my father on the show.

25:06He directed a bunch of episodes. Right. When you tell Shannon to try to not block the other girl with her shoulder, does she go, just relax? The cast revolt. You know, I was super lucky in that everyone was always very supportive of me wanting to drink. Oh, that's good. Yeah, I was. That's actually probably more rare. I think so. Certainly nowadays. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's funny. Wow. Yeah, you have directed a shit ton. It's great. It's harder than you think. I mean, people say you ever direct to me and I'm like, I wouldn't even know where to start. It's so complicated. you have to really like be shadowing and really opening your eyes to what's going on in the set every day.

25:54Yeah, very much so. Yeah, it's a lot because everything's your problem. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, right? Yeah.

26:00Dana Carvey:Well, it's how big, I mean, it is big. Just tell your experiences with having a DP or director of photography kind of going, I'm thinking maybe this pan shot here and we come in and then you talk with them. I mean, if you have a team around you a first ad whatever that seems to take the workload off a little bit if you're in sync you know if you're so you can focus on the performance and the narrative yes you know yes but i but i i you know me as a director i like to be involved in all of it i like to you know i do i like i like to talk you know let's talk about how we're going to shoot it unless it might and then you know i can adjust the actors accordingly um and i think that's that that that seem to work the best.

26:42Well, people don't realize also the whole day you're looking at the monitor, someone's walking up going, which dress do you like better? This one or this one? Which carpet squares for the next scene? You like this carpet or this carpet? And you're like, ah, plush. Okay. And you're like, I would never, that's the part where I started going, oh my God, it is just nonstop questions all day. It is. Because that's the final answer. That's right. And they say you answer 400 questions a day. That sounds about right. It's a real thing, right? Question fatigue right you just you know like i don't fucking care dude and every actor i mean i'm on a movie right now and people all have so many questions and it's honestly like the energy to take to just respect the actor's questions and try to and some ask more than others and it just gets to i could just see at a certain point i gotta i go let me just save my questions for when they're

27:34Dana Carvey:very important i would assume you being an actor a lot of times that's a great director because you would kind of have experienced over direction like i've seen people melt down when there's like and do it like this and this and do this it's like seven seven notes readings yeah it seems like an actor would kind of know uh just a little more on for you know make it simpler that's my impression of it. Knowing I don't need five notes in my head. No, no. And I am pretty good with that. And I'm very sensitive to that always. And I do. Like being an actor, it's shorthand, right? Just do it slower. Take 10 % off of that.

28:16You know, like it's easy stuff like that. And like actors know how to talk to actors and get their point across.