RE-RELEASE - Dan Aykroyd

20:28But the sweetest, sweetest, sweetest guy. Just a sweet, sweet man. Just Zelensky. The name came back this year. Big, big, yeah. I have a question. You were the first.

20:41Dana Carvey:He did such great stuff with his pants. Yeah. Pulling his pants up. He was so respectful and polite and a church going, you know, church goer. Yeah. Yeah. yeah we had a blast we had a blast on Tommy Boy I remember one night when you we were in like a I think you were showing us is it where Rob Logue gets hit in the balls I don't want to give the whole movie away but when we we're in like we shot like 24 hours and we had some factory in Toronto we got to go up there and we were getting tired Magna Magna Auto Parts and you had the there was the the air freshener show so many things and then just to have you from The guy we love to be in the movie, and then the movie worked out.

21:24Yeah, it did. Oh, so much fun. That's a good picture. That's a really good picture. It is. The deer scene. Oh, God. That happened to Franken and Davis, you know. Oh, is that deer came in alive? A car, it went through the windshield. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that happens a lot. Yeah. But I don't know how many times deer comes back alive. But what was the other? I think in their case, it might have. Oh, wow. Yeah. Frank was like this.

21:49Dana Carvey:Well, we got a deer in the back of the car Well, you've got to be here, we've got to show We'll take care of the deer later Oh, I've got to tell them We had Michael McKeon on, remember Michael McKeon Of course I know, his resume, it's like yours It's like exhausting in a brilliant way And they're making Spinal Tap again, I hope Oh, I don't know There's rumors of that We don't ask the good questions We just fawn But we were talking about Conant's He was my partner in Conant's And I was telling Dana that we were the immigration guys. Yeah. Kind of the bad guys, whatever, you know. And it was peppered with, we didn't mention it, but I think Sandler was in the movie.

22:27Farley had a big part. It was his first movie appearance, Sandler. Oh, was it? Billy Madison. Yeah, he sold the - His car mine or something? He sold me the ID. Oh, that's right. Fake ID. Yeah. Right? Yeah. And we had Ellen DeGeneres, Drew Carey, Sinbad. I know. Every dealer peppered that place. If you watch it, you go, whoa, hey, look who that is. It was a very good, serviceable family comedy, and it certainly endures today, no doubt about it. Serviceable. I think that wasn't in the pitch. They, well, you know. Studio's always on the for a pair of things. No, I love Coneheads. I told Dana and Michael that.

23:01Michael didn't know this. So, you know. It was supposed to come out at Halloween. They rushed it. Oh, is that what happened? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stanley Jaffe there at Paramount prodded Lauren to get it ready, and Lauren and I were thinking, Halloween, Halloween. But no, we need it now. we need it now so it would have done better at Halloween but it didn't as all of these things have a life now listen they stay they people wind up seeing them and uh yeah and when you're smoking

23:27Dana Carvey:weed and watching Saturday Night Live in 1978 they come on and they're they're called the cone heads and their heads are like cone heads when I mean when I spoke weed and wrote the thing yeah they're the cone heads yeah no that's good that yeah I didn't tell I don't know if Danny them yesterday that uh right you were probably narfling the garthock at this point but we were narfling the garthock we were uh michael and i were in t-shirt and boxers to do a scene and i was in the in my trailer and i said the ad because i was so naive and so adorable and cherubic and i said hey don't tell anyone and i can still work say i do have chicken pox and he goes you have chicken box and i go uh yeah but it's oh it's here where my shirt is and it's on my legs and you can't see it and i'm in a scene with you and could have infested the whole every oh yeah and he goes okay hang on and they go shutting down the set i'm like what's going on i didn't even connect it to me and so they sent everyone home and uh i don't even know if you're working that day but i was like oh my god and so and then someone goes oh that's gonna cost the studio you're in trouble Everything was terrifying me to get fired, but wound up being a blast.

24:39But that's remembering you have a chicken pox way late.

24:43Dana Carvey:Yeah, I know you didn't get it as a kid. No, and I was such a weak little puss of a kid. I got a measles knock now for three weeks, which was abnormal. When you were 37? No, that I got when I was a normal kid. Okay. But I was very frail. You can't tell this athlete that sits in front of you today. No, that's right. Marathon runner. Marathon runner. Dana's a marathon runner That was such a fun picture Conehats And we had a great cast Yeah Yeah I'm proud of that one I like that one I love it I mean this is just Fan type questions Like when you look at You will be spared You take a drag net You take a You will be spared You will be spared You will be spared I will place both of you On the protected roles Say no more of it Goodbye Remember I was behind Dave Thomas At the end they brought me in for an extra scene and I go, it's too bad.

25:36Yeah, that was so good. I was just mocking everything he said. I just said whatever. You were perfect. I turned and went with the Coneheads at the end.

25:43Dana Carvey:So you can order this on Amazon for like three bucks, right? For just people listening now. Just to shrink when you see a celebrity. Were there two Conehead movies or just one? Just one. Hey, listen, I would do that character in a second. In fact, I have a story idea, but you know, I'm too busy now. You are busy. No one's going to listen to a story idea. How do you sleep at night? At Coneheads. No one's going to want another Coneheads out there, Paramount Plus? No. Paramount Plus? Hulu is waiting. I know the guy who runs Hulu. Crystal Vodka, the movie. I'm going to text him. Yeah, no, no. I was on Hulu there.

26:14I did a little show called Zombie Town and R.S. Stein, you know, the Goosebumps author. Yeah. So it's on Hulu now. It's called Zombie Town. And it's like, okay, now, children of America, you're going to have to learn about zombies. This is an introductory movie about zombies for you. Gentle and soft and kind of funny and a little scary. so that you can step up to the world of Z. What's that Z? World War Z.

26:41Dana Carvey:I remember Loren asked me when his kids were little and goes, I don't really understand Scooby-Doo. And I said, I don't really get why they love it. And to your point, it was the first time when they're a certain age, it's a little scary. The mask comes off, there's a haunted person. So that was the rocket fuel for that. You step them up to the exorcist. That's right. That stepped him up. I saw it at 17. Still haven't unseen it. I know. 17 is even too early. Yeah. Well, we went in. I've never seen it. Don't see it. I'm too scared. I guess it's brilliant. It's brilliant. I believe in that shit.

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28:24Dan, you believe in UFOs. I believe that they're real. I know they're real.

28:30Dana Carvey:Everyone believes in UFOs. It's just where are they coming from is the only, but of course there's. I know they're real. You can be a skeptic and say, oh, well. I'm not a skeptic, but I do have a question for you. Where are they coming from? All different species. There's probably dozens of them. Do they come from the ocean? There may be bases there. And go ahead. I love it. No, the question is, look, I'm totally, because whenever I'm thinking about supernatural stuff, I always go, we're here. So the greatest supernatural thing is that we exist right now talking here. How did we get here? What are we doing here?

29:02Dana Carvey:So I'm open-minded to all of it. What I was curious about the United States Air Force, that the sightings of the UFOs seem to be stuck in kind of a black and white, herky-jerky 1950s motif. Can't they get more sophisticated cameras on these suckers so we can really? Well, there's more footage coming out. And it is all governed now by the new office at the Pentagon that handles this. And it is called the All Domain because they go in water. They fly through water 1 ,000 miles an hour. So space, sky, water, All Domain, anomalous. You don't know what it is. Resolution, because they have to resolve.

29:41They've got military craft and equipment being exposed. So it's the All Domain, anomalous, resolution office to figure out what they are. And so that's, we actually have a Pentagon department now that's working on that or a branch that's working. And, you know, all those sightings will be brought in by the military and brought in by civilians and analyzed there. So it's real. They're there. Again, your question, who, where, where are they coming from, why? I think a lot of them are just tourists. I think it's not as scary a little bit because they, and I'm scared of them, even though I do. Is it dimensional?

30:18It should be. I think they would have done whatever they're going to have done. They're already here. They've been here a million times. They can take us out if they want. That's why I feel a little easier. I don't think they're a threat. However, if you talk to some of the aviators down there in Marina del Rey with the fire department, the police department, the sheriff's department, helicopters and such, they see them all the time. I know. And they seem to be bugging them and flying around and challenging them.

30:47Dana Carvey:do you feel in a way dan you were ahead of your time in a sense because now it's going more mainstream yes you were with the pentagon and it's more acknowledged and you've been talking about it for a while and my mother we've seen two here unidentified yeah yeah so then and my mother saw one you see that was why i got interested in my mother saw one in 1947 and she worked in the aircraft production uh ministry in world war ii uh at that with uh in ottawa during the war and aircraft production for the fuselages on the hurricane so she knew aircraft and she's in 1947 she saw one on uh uh the sparks spark street there in ottawa they're going to ottawa now yeah back then they worked yeah yeah they kind of buzzed by everywhere yeah i don't i don't think they want a formal relationship with us but they will take advantage of us using their flirty well do you Do you have any sense of being connected to 2001 A Space Odyssey?

31:42Dana Carvey:Just the idea that we were seated here by an alien race still seems of fascinating potential. Yeah, you know, one of the favorite movies of a lot of people at NASA is the movie that was made, Mission to Mars, with what had the face on Mars in it. That was with Gary Sinise? Yeah, I think so. Mission to Mars. It wasn't the one with Matt Damon. No, no. no it was one of the gary's this postulated that we were seated here and there was some help was was uh you know there was some help yeah and so a lot of nasa personnel uh see that as a kind of a viable concept from what i've you know what i understand well of course and everything's on the table unless someone has all this figured out have you seen any aliens because they have pictures of them they have i don't i never know never seen but you know they're out you know that people have seen pictures yeah sure sure no all kinds of shapes and you know my poltergeist or whatever you call them experiences that are yeah um yeah you really went through that yeah and it was annoying to you that your experiences it wasn't something you enjoyed right it was no what well the one that was the well there's there's many of them but in this house we have up in northern california it was built in 1912 there's three bedrooms upstairs And so one night, and I didn't know what white noise was at this point, believe it or not.

33:08Dana Carvey:It was the 90s or whatever. So I wake up to this, like an FM radio between channels, right? I'm going, why is everyone sleeping? So I walk around, and by the time I get in the room, I don't hear it. But it was not a waking dream state. It wasn't like a nightmare. It was just like, what the heck? And so that room, I also had some, when I slept in there once because company's over. I had an experience there, but I've become less afraid of it because if it starts to happen, I just sort of go with it now. Yeah, well, it happens to millions of people. Hans Holzer, H-O-L-Z-E-R, he was a great Ghostbuster, and he has a great number of books upon dealing with all of the things that he dealt with in his career.

33:52Is that how Ghostbusters started, is you just got into all that? Well, my family was into it. my great-grandfather was a spiritualist researcher, and all around the house, in the cottage there that we had in the summers, which was the summer house where he lived, was full of journals and books and his writings. And so I was sitting there flipping through a journal from the American Society for Psychical Research, and it was an article on quantum physics and parapsychology. And I just went, okay, parapsychology, quantum physics, the real terms, the real vernacular, the real research that's being done, marry that to an old-style comedy like Abbott and Costello, Bowery Boys, Bob Hope, and Bing Crosby, who did ghost movies.

34:38In fact, Hold That Ghost, I think, is a movie with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, and it's the first use of the term Ghostbusters. Somebody asks Dean Martin, who are you guys? We're Ghostbusters, he says. Oh, they sound right. And by the way, just as an aside.

34:52Dana Carvey:We're Ghostbusters. He says, yeah. So that was the first use of the term. And it was a great tradition of ghost movies in Hollywood. I thought, let's marry the real vernacular, the real science, the real fact that people are seriously into this research with an old style comedy. Now, as an aside, that movie Hold That Ghost with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis does a walk down the stairs in the old castle set that defies physics. The way he comes down those stairs and doesn't kill himself is amazing. He was spectacular. Was he trying to be? He was just coming down the stairs. Oh, just being.

35:31As like clumsily coming down the stairs. Not possessed or something. No, no. Just clumsily walking down the stairs. And he, I don't know how he didn't kill himself. So he was a masterful physical comedian. Absolutely masterful. To your point. You hung with him. You must have known. Jerry Lewis? Yeah.

35:46Dana Carvey:Not really. I met the woman who played the ingenue in Cinderfella. Oh, yeah. Cinderfella. And then I went and looked at a scene on YouTube of Jerry Lewis. There's a centerpiece where he's dancing around with the stairs. To your point, the physical comedy is breathtaking. Yeah. And it went on and on. He was directing it. You must have met him. I did. Well, actually, I talked to him on the phone. Schaefer hooked him up on the phone with me one day. Hello. And Jerry and I said, Jerry, can you give me a ngang? Give me a ngang. And he on the phone, I'll never forget, over the phone, I heard, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang, ngang.

36:27It all comes from the Jewish Yiddish theater of the Lower East Side, the Catskills, all of that humor, the ngang, the shoulder take, the spit take. Like the fork drop. Have you ever, the fork drop's wonderful. You're sitting at dinner. Somebody says something and bink. Yeah. The fork. That's all a comedy from the Yiddish Lower East Side. You know that there's a wonderful expression for your show in Yiddish, the fly in the wall. And it goes, it's the flik oiftervant. That's how you say fly in the wall in Yiddish. The flik oiftervant. Let's get this so we have this for our promos. The flik oiftervant.

37:06That sounds like he's making it. it's poetic. So that, the ngong, he gave me a ngong and all of that comes from that rich, rich tradition. Did you have other

37:16Dana Carvey:like heroes, like did Cary Grant ever reach out to you or other super, in the 70s when you guys were exploding because Tim Leary and Davis were good friends. Timothy Leary? Yeah, Timothy Leary and Davis were good and I bought him and our friends, I bought the last steak dinner that he ate before he died at the Marmont over there at the restaurant. And what did you put in it? Really? It was already taken care of. And now everybody's doing it for mental health reasons. Timothy Leary. I met Jimmy Hoffa. That's a big one. Giant Stadium? That's the last I heard. Yeah. Well, you saw that movie with Al Pacino.

37:55Met him. Lauren Bacall. I worked with her. I worked with Jim Garner. And Jack Lemmon. I worked with Jack Lemmon in a movie called American President. and Lauren McCall was in that that was wonderful was that Pete Siegel? yeah Pete Siegel yeah and I worked with all great veterans like that yeah that's what I was curious about I assume you intersected so neat so neat it's something special when you left SNL was there so Chevy came we had Chevy on here he was perfectly bananas the way we wanted that's amazing he was non-stop we're so mad we didn't film it

38:34Dana Carvey:it was so funny He was doing shtick and stuff No, his Shticks and stones His work with his fingers If you never saw any other part of him The work with his hands I remember he did something just like You know, he's like He's got the fingers walking And then all of a sudden And it starts to Just hilarious, the control Yeah Well, we had this here Which is like ten bottles on a tray And he just waited And at a given point He just put them all down He reached for it It was just like they were flying. Like bowling pins, yeah, perfectly. But he waited. He knew. You could tell he knew early on. That was his go-to.

39:12Dana Carvey:No, I love Chevy. No, we do too. And you stayed straight through. Like, he was the first year of SNL, and then you stayed, how long did you stay, five years? Four. Four years? Yeah, and the reason we left was purely and sorely because we had to finish the Blues Brothers. Oh, really? We thought maybe it was a possibility we'd go back, you know. We went to Chicago, then the movie went sort of early summer. late summer autumn and you were shooting and we were shooting and we had to go back to LA to shoot some of the stuff inside the church scene the uh soul food restaurant all that would be done in LA and we knew we couldn't go back so I made the call to Lauren saying we weren't going to return no how hard was that it was a little it was made a little easier because when uh Animal House was being done they wanted me to play d-day and they wanted me to join landis and and uh reitman and oh yeah you'd be great and and uh you know uh john in in oregon to do that movie and i i just looked and i just john's gone man i just looked and i thought you know how can i can't leave lauren here without another without a writer or an actor you know so i told him i said i'm gonna stay and i stayed on then so when we left for blues brothers it was a little easier because i did stay on and I didn't leave for Animal House.

40:31Yeah. Yeah. And there's like somebody, some analyst somewhere, some pundit or something said, oh, Lauren forced me to stay. Or was it, you know, you forced the contract. Lauren is not a dictator slave driver. You want to go, you go. He's not like that. No. He encouraged us. He wouldn't want to look thirsty like that. He would say,

40:51Dana Carvey:we'd love to have you, you know, but if you need to go, you know, that would be his thing. Yeah, no, racist Canadian. Yeah. And then you fell in love with his cast members. He did. To this day, he loves comedians. He's good. My boys and my girls, he calls them. Yeah. No, he loves them. Expedia and Visit Scotland invite you to come step into centuries of history that await in Scotland. Castles steeped in legend. Walk along cobblestone streets. Come share the warmth of stories passed down through generations. This is a place with a past that is fully present today and all yours to explore. Plan your Scottish escape today at Expedia.com slash VisitScotland.

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42:36Dana Carvey:When I came in in 86, because he'd had that five-year hiatus, constantly references to you guys, and it was so intimidating to me. and it was like Danny did it because I'd come up with an idea Danny did that season two Chevy believes but you guys are the originals so there is Billy, Chevy, Danny never the last name never said Dan Aykroyd never said Paul Simon never said Paul McCartney and look how the show is going now so current so relevant and so extraordinary when you did Blues Brothers which is one of my all time great ones and I know you opened for Steve Martin at the Universal I heard that's a show of the century that's why there is a Blues Brothers because John recorded the record from there.

43:17Goddamn. How do you get Carrie Fisher? Was she Star Wars or was she right around? My girlfriend, you mean? Yeah. Oh, let's get into the Dan Averroid love line. No, well, because... It wasn't the Barbie part for her. She was good friends with John and just good friends with Penny Marshall and John. It was a whole... She was Penny's buddy and we just asked her to be a part of it and she was a part of it and then we fell in love and we almost got married. We had blood tests and rings exchanged and everything. And I was ready to spend the rest of my life with Carrie. And after we wrapped the movie, we got into a Lear 24 with John and Judy.

43:58And we flew to Martha's Vineyard. And we flew to this house that Judy had bought me in the vineyard to be near John to plan future projects, right? And I said, Judy, just buy me a house. I don't care what it looks like. It was our first check from Atlantic Records. And she bought me a house and said, you're going to see your house tonight for the first time. And you're bringing Carrie home. So I brought Carrie home to this house I'd never seen. And it's night and fog is like down and low. And we go in and walk in and they flip the lights on. And I could just tell that it was not to Carrie's design sense at all.

44:32It was a mid-50s, a lot of modern furniture, very, you know, Eames chairs and stuff. So that night was a difficult night. And then in the morning, I heard her talking to Paul Simon, her boyfriend at the time before. And I could hear her talking and hear, well, I'll be there and I'll be in New York tomorrow or today. And I thought, oh, she's leaving. So I said, you know, Carrie, the view is supposed to be beautiful in the south. You should stay. No, I have to get back. I've got to go back to Paul. I've got to go. I'm going back down. Please take me to the airport. Nothing rancorous or very amicable.

45:06I thought it was we thought we were getting married. is i go i drive her to the airport get her on a plane kiss her goodbye and say i'll see you soon we'll hang you know i love you i love you and and you know she flies off and i drive in the jeep back to the martha's vineyard house and i'm kind of despondent and i walk i drive up to the house and the fog has lifted and i've got a 275 degree view of the ocean the islands and that this beautiful beautiful promontory that the house was on i thought you know she'd saw i saw that

45:41Dana Carvey:she might have she saw it we would have been married today it's like manhattan socked in oh it's the only time we went is it always foggy no no no and so yeah that means but we we were good friends all the way right to the end of her life of course and blues brothers i think it's one of those where a lot of people want to be around funny people and she's like if i and she's a big star but it's like hey funny herself yeah hilarious yeah she's great in that yeah she's great we had a ball of course you know because we we were making a movie and we're in love you know maybe you're making a movie with someone you love you can go to work in the morning with i can't imagine the rocket ship you know i had my own little success there too wayne's world anyway um but you guys um i'm doing a david there blues brothers when i first saw that I was like, this is so electric on every level.

46:31Dana Carvey:Like you're enjoying it, you and John, the dancing and the energy of it. It was like, well, this is something new. So different. This is like really musical too. Like the band was kicking. And then you guys were just so funny with all the shtick. To me, again, just fantasizing about being on Saturday Night Live. Just those characters. Don't get me started with wild and crazy guys. Don't even start with that. Come on. I don't think I can do that guy no more. No, you can't play around with accents anymore. You can't have it. And you can't even talk about the parts on a woman. And we look, they love our American bulges or what was it?

47:11Dana Carvey:Yeah, the bulges. Yeah, please. You will be shocked by my great bulge. You know, you kind of watch it these days. I mean, I was so influenced by you guys, rhythmically, musically. What about you at Aretha Franklin? Oh, she was astounding. Aretha, I think, that is one of the greatest things. Yeah, she was astounding. Is that the one you're talking about inside? She looked so cute in that waiter's outfit. She didn't want to wear the waitress's outfit. No, I can't. I can't. Oh, she's great. And then Debra Ndoolman, Landis' wife, the designer, designed this beautiful waitress's outfit that made her look great.

47:42Yeah. Yeah. It was even funnier that she had that. So supportive of us all the way through. She always was, and so was Ray and everybody. Yeah. And John Candy. Yeah, we had Candy. Another legend. Yeah, yeah. And then we had Cropper and Dunn, who were Otis Redding's guitar players. So that made it happen. Now I still play with Jimmy, John's brother. We go out and we have an active concert schedule. We go out with a band that we got here from California and Texas that we put together over the years. And we got a couple of gigs going on. What's more fun than that? No, the music. I mean, nothing, right?

48:16And I hear that guitar and hear just the organ and, you know, moving. And I've got, you know, 78 % of the moves left. So, you know. That's pretty good. Yeah. Last week it was 80, but it declines. Yeah, I'm in the low 40s. I don't know. Yeah, it's not all clicking. Or it is clicking. That's the problem. So you're going along.

48:38Dana Carvey:There's Trading Places. There's Blues Brothers. There's all the stuff we get on Saturday Night Live. Yeah. And then what's Dan going to do now? And then I don't know what the trajectory was, But then Ghostbusters was like probably equivalent, inflation adjusted, almost like Gone with the Wind or something. It was like$300 million in 1984. That's right. So like$800 million now or a billion. Oh, my God. So what? Titanic. And you thought of it. That day at the farmhouse where the seances took place where my great-great-grandfather had seances from the 20s and that. And I was sitting there reading that journal and I just thought, old style Abbott and Costello comedy with the real science.

49:23Marry it up. It's brilliant. But who's the first person you told? Well, that would have been Bernie Brillstein, I guess. Oh. Yeah, Bernie. I love it. And then Ovitz. And then I turned a draft in to both of those guys. And then we went to Ivan and Ivan got it, how it could be fixed and made what it was.

49:43Dana Carvey:You wrote it fat, right? Well, not so much lengthwise, but it was a little darker. It wasn't the movie you saw, but it certainly had all of the stuff in there that became the movie. All the elements were there. And then Ivan looked at it, and then Ivan said, let's go to Harold. And Harold looked at it and understood what I was trying to do here with it. And then we decided, what do we do about Cass? And Harold and Ivan looked at each other and said, well, if we can get Murray, we'll give it to Murray. I mean, and so he carried the ball for us. He was the master of those lines, those throwaway lines, his style.

50:21Probably the greatest comedy romantic lead of our generation and maybe many.

50:26Dana Carvey:And him and Sigourney Weaver. Yeah. Very cool. Which is so brilliant together. Beautiful. It all came together. It was just magic when a film works, any film. But when something like that, that's old and new, and then just connects so strong. I remember going to, you know, it was like Jaws in a way. Huge lines, theater packed. Oh, yeah. It was a cult phenomenon. How fun to have that hit. And because you could have screwed that movie up easily. I mean, it's a great idea. But everywhere along the line, you know, any movies, you go in where it's good and you go, God, where did we go wrong? The editing, the this, the casting.

50:59But to get it every step of the way and it comes out. Well, look at who was on it, right? Harold. Great people. Rick Moranis had his great part. Asterical too Rick Moranis No, Moranis was wonderful Wonderful I invite business people Him and Sigourney And Ken Him and Sigourney Are big parts of Why that movie works Sigourney is great Yeah, yeah, no Zool Yeah, no, yeah Well, and I love I was on IMDB today Because I I could not remember Who Dan Aykroyd was And so I looked him up And even Ghostbusters There's like 80 iterations It's like a cartoon Of this There's so many Yeah Because there's probably I think there's a new one coming out Well, there's a new animated cartoon that they're working on right now Okay, but is there a movie movie or not?

51:44I don't know what the status is with strikes and all that Strikes are over Is it really? Yeah Well then, in March, Ghostbusters, Frozen Empire With McKenna Grace, Finn Wolfhardt, Billy, myself, Ernie And Patton Oswalt, thank you very much, and Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon. You've already got a cast. And yeah, we are ready to go in March with a spectacular new release, a great new story, and it is going to be hot and really fun, scary, whole new generation, handing it to the kids. Really excited. We completed it in England, and it's going to be coming out in March. Oh, so you did do it. It's done.

52:32It's done. It comes out in March. I just couldn't talk about it until this instant.

52:35Dana Carvey:I read about this And then I thought Maybe something happened We have a We have a Yeah gave me that Blank stare We have a scoop Right now Fly on the wall Am I wrong It's our first real scoop It is I'm talking about it For the first time In any media right here Yeah Okay so you have Paul Rudd You've got Kelly And Patton Oswalt Yeah Finn from Stranger Things How about that As a genius And a great Great comic actor Oh yeah Serious actor too Yeah he is Great delivery Yeah Always, yeah. Any name ghosts? We got the Tic Tac Ghost from the Navy video. What's the plot, Dan? Oh, yeah, what's the plot? Or can you tell us?

53:14Well, leave us to say that, you know, an entity is found in a psychometrically charged object. Too much. Thank you. That's all. I figured the whole thing out. Okay.

53:29Dana Carvey:I love it. I'm excited. Oh, no, it's good. It's really good. And it's Jason Reitman? I'm going to do a pre-order right now online. Gil Keenan directed it, Jason's partner. I love it. Jason did Second Unit, and they co-wrote it together. Great guy, Jason. And, of course, the kids are wonderful. Oh, yeah. McKenna, Finn. And you do? You're a guy? I do. You know, the enthusiastic, you know, wants to believe everything, you know. Yeah. Kind of a little kind of resentful that, you know, things have passed him by Ghostbuster in this one, you know, because he's no longer licensed. You always have that skill set of putting a lot of words together, really.

54:08Dana Carvey:That is true. Like as a comic concept, you know. But, you know, is that something you did as a kid? It's like Danny Kaye or something. My mother was French-Canadian, and I grew up around French-Canadian. And French-Canadians, they speak very fast like that. They speak very fast like that. No, no, no. They talk a lot, a lot, a lot fast. Bring me that right now. Give me the salt, give me the pepper, give me the steak, give me the potato, You want some wine? They talk like that. They're fast, the French Canadians. So I had this always, you know, and plus, sitting around the table, there'd be 14 family members.

54:42And, you know, you couldn't get a word in unless you interjected it, injected it in there.

54:52Dana Carvey:So how did you go from like a 14-year-old, 15-year-old? And then you were really, were you on SNL 21 or 22 or something? Well, I was 23 the first year. So young. Yeah. So just quickly, I mean, for your family. Second City at 21 and 22. Wasn't it your late teen years? And Lorne Michaels at 19. I worked with him on a CBC special at 19. And his show, Heart and... The Heart and Lorne Terrific Hour. You were on that? It was on an offshoot of that. That's right. So you were like 18 or 19. You were on television in Canada doing sketch comedy. That's right, that's right, 19. Okay, it's called a savant.

55:24Yeah, well, it was called... It's called a savant. An early adopter. It was being steeped in improv. My parents sent me at 12 years old to Ottawa Little Theater improv class. And so I was already doing it sort of back then. It just came to you.

55:40Dana Carvey:It's like Larry Bird. He said when basketball, he first got a basketball hand. He said, the game came to me. So it just came to you. It was, it was, it was. And then you worked your ass off, of course. Well, I was encouraged to pursue it. And it was fun to do improv in that. And then at Second City, I was learning all the techniques over again that I'd already known at 12 and 13 years old at the little theater improv classes. Yeah, so started early, you know. It seems to me that in your part of this, we were talking to Michael McKean and, you know, the Beatles and all the music of the 60s. Yeah.

56:13Dana Carvey:And then the trundling along with Peter Sellers, and then you all kind of knew each other from 70 or 75 or, you know. It's very interesting because you were like the Beatles of comedy to me, the SNL cast. Well, you had the Lampoon crew. You had Chevy, and you had Chris Guest, and Harry Shearer, and you had Johnny Belushi, and then you had Gilda eventually, because Belushi stole her away there from Second City. Then you had the Canadian crew, Levy, O 'Hara, myself, Candy, Moranis, Thomas. Yeah, that was SCTV. And the Venn diagram kind of crossed, and some of those people ended up working with each other on various things.

56:56um yeah but i think my first the first time like for us like getting interested in entertainment okay i'm in grade three now what the hell in grade three i'm like i'm five years old maybe four eight eight i'm grade uh grade three so i go uh you're 17 i was i was i was you know i was you know five or three or four or five i guess in grade three or something yes so what and so So they were doing an Irish St. Patrick's Day concert, and they compelled me to learn McNamara's band. You know that song? Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-dee. Oh, Hennessy, Tennessee, tootleta-flute, the music was something grand.

57:41I've never been something grand. McNamara's band. I know the melody. So they put me in a green bowler and a green vest and a green pants and leprechaun shoes, put me out on stage with a sync track, and I you know they made me learn it they made me stay back from school to learn it and so this concert comes and and we go I go to the concert and I start singing and I'm like oh I'm just gonna get through this god I remember it vividly oh god and I get to the end and I and finish and give the tap dance finish and howling the crowd whoa really you like that that much and i'm thinking to myself oh wow that's good and so i was the big applause and they take me off stage into the wings i give back my bowler and i'm thinking oh man that wow that that was very very interesting and then two of my friends ricky uh and greg come up rick hollingsworth and greg chidavis and they come up and they say hey yeah that was nothing man like the like the the bad uh the bad donkeys and bad donkeys and over and uh you know in the uh in in Pinocchio you know the bad bad yeah you're not so good yeah yeah yeah you think that was good you think that come here come on with us let me show you something let me show you this let's let's show you this they take me across the street to the funeral home across the street from the church hall where I did the concert so I go from the elation of singing McNamara's band and getting cheered yeah to two minutes later walking into the funeral home where seven bodies are laid out what a family that had drowned in a car the night before seven the father the mother the sisters the brother don't want you to be famous look at this look at this and i walk in i'll never forget that as long as i like he'd rolled his car in the in the gatineau river and drowned and so they bring me from you know my performance street euphoria to whoa but are they jealous i didn't well that was hey yeah yeah yeah it's You have Namby Pamby singing, and they look at these dead people.

59:41So they go over, and there were the seven on a baby coffin too. Jesus, great crew. I didn't do any jigs for years and years afterwards. That turned me right off any kind of performance. That's a true story. Isn't that weird? Oh, wow. It's horrifying. Seven bodies. The family, and all beautifully preserved. Never forget the dark eyebrows of the mother and father. I'm still processing this story.

1:00:04Dana Carvey:The baby outfit. It's so hilly. Exhilaration in the, yeah, yeah. At age five, six, they ruin it. They ruin it, yeah. So I didn't dance or sing for years afterwards. Weirdly, my first gig was in a funeral home. But that's a whole other story. David? I played a dead body in that scene. No, on SNL, so you get there. What's your first big sketch that works? Is it just the very first show? Bass-o-matic. Oh, the first sketch that works was the one that Garrett and I did as home invasionists to prove to the homeowner that their house was vulnerable. And so we break into their home to prove it was vulnerable, yeah.

1:00:42And then pitch them on an alarm system. Is that first show? That was the first sketch I was in, yeah. First show, yeah.

1:00:48Dana Carvey:And that was the Wolverine one? Well, a cold opening was John, the Wolverine with Michael O'Donoghue. And then we had the home invasion sketch, yeah. You were after the monologue? After the monologue. When was it? Oh, that's a good spot. That's the home run spot. Who was the host of your first show? George Carlin. George Carlin. George Garland. I waited on him once at a Holiday Inn. I brought him oatmeal. He goes, oatmeal, drop the O and you have that meal. Did he really? Yeah. Why is there no blue shoes? Look at your shoes. Big shoes. Little shoes. Brown shoes. Girls shoes. He was working on it.

1:01:21Dana Carvey:Don't tell me about Richard Pryor, too. I was a waiter at the Holiday Inn. I waited on all of them. Oh, because it was next to the Circle Star Theater? Yep. Waited on Rich Little. Everyone said, go to you. Which Holiday Inn? On the Highland? No, this was on the Peninsula. It was a theater in the round. like be near Michigan no no peninsula south of San Francisco oh I saw yeah I see right and they all stayed at the holiday yeah yeah so they were you know I gave Richard Pryor Dan Brombley stuff like that you know yeah well the you know the I find the great people are really nice the ones that were really great are nice and the medium talent people aren't so nice you know I've kind of I think that's true you know I know he was a great Richard uh well Pryor and and Carlin they They were both, yeah.

1:02:04And they would have been gracious to you. Very nice.

1:02:07Dana Carvey:I did a movie with Pryor. Oh, yeah. He was very sensitive and sweet and vulnerable. Did he host when you were there? What's that? Did he host? Richard Pryor hosted. Sure, I remember helping to write that show. All right, sir. Fair enough, sir. Yeah. What's that from? That's right. Yeah, Tom. Yeah. That's Tom Snyder. I think I was doing Harry Shearer doing Tom Snyder. He did a great Tom Snyder. Oh, really? Outstanding. Outstanding. ah tom everybody i remember saying i love tom's that i was a kid i didn't know dan i'm so young um no i'm not but uh i was watching it going i never thought of being on center live i just was every kid loves comedy and i was like oh my god and this tom's not i was just starting to get why it was so funny i didn't really get the depth of how funny it was i'm like that's like the guy i just saw and it was so good it was like that dumb little studio and it's a little lighting and he didn't have a cigarette and all that stuff.

1:03:01I mean, Fred Garvin, was his name Fred Garvin, male prostitute? That's right. Little lady.

1:03:08Dana Carvey:Say for the lady? Yes, little lady. The name is funny at the time. Fred Garvin. Because that's his title and he announces himself that way. But, you know, the copycats and Rich Little in that generation, Frank Gorshman. Gorshman. Those are the shows I was watching. Oh, I love those impressionists. Rich Little, Fred Travelina, Gorshman. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Extraordinarily gifted. Yeah, they were great. That was like magic to me. But when you guys came in and did them in a different context, it was just postmodern. Yeah. A lot of great impressions on the show. Hartman was spectacular. And we've referenced you and Phil.

1:03:46Dana Carvey:There's a connection personality-wise. You both have so many interests outside of being quasi-effortless performers and then would go read these journals. He was a pilot. Yeah, he's a pilot. He was sailing. He was... I loved him. I loved him, too. He was wonderful. You did Bilko with him, right? Yeah, that's right, Steve Martin. Yeah. Yeah, here's to Phil. Yeah, here's to rest his soul. Chris, John. And a lot to be thankful for at this time of year, Thanksgiving and Christmas. And the old vodka there in the Skulls is available in stores all over the nation. All over the world. If you want to get a gift out to friends.

1:04:26The coolest bottle you'll ever see. Well, it makes a great gift. That's why I'm on this kind of little tour here, because it's gift-giving time of year, and we want to remind people that Thanksgiving and Christmas, there's a gift you can bring home. And, you know, everybody wants to get a head. Get head. Or get a head. But where do you get it? Is there a website? Worldwide web, crystalheadvodka.com. It's in most liquor stores across the country, chains and otherwise.

1:04:53Dana Carvey:Crystal Head. And I think it's got a pretty big brand name. Yeah. I think people really are aware of it. But it's always good to stir the pot because there's a lot of people. A lot of room to grow. So, yeah. See? The bottle should be on your shelf if you have liquor. It just looks cool. Yeah. It tastes good. It should be on every bar in the world. And Crystal Head, just a few seconds before we get out of here, how'd you come up with that name? Well, it's based on the legend of the Crystal Heads, which... From Indiana Jones? It was referenced in the Indiana Jones movie, and they made a movie about it.

1:05:28In fact, we were developing the concept kind of right in parallel, and I find out that Stephen's doing this movie about crystal heads. So I actually called him to take a meeting to tell him, you know, we're not copying your enterprise here. We started at the same time, and it takes two years to build a project like this. And so I said, you know, when your movie comes out, we will be out on the marketplace. We will have been out a little before. But I explained to him that it wasn't kind of a plagiarism. And it wasn't really. Crystal had, there were 13 of them. What if he stole it from you? No, the lead time doesn't work out in terms of like when both projects came to fruition.

1:06:12But the Navajo, the Aztec, the Mayans were supposed to have had these heads. and they were used for crystal balls. And so we decided we were doing this vodka that had no fluids that were pollutants, glycols, sugar, lemonane, clean. And so we wanted to sell the idea of enlightened, purified drinking of beverage alcohol. And this was the perfect package to put it in. Yeah. Very creative. Yeah, it came from that. I have one more question before this young man takes off. During that, when you leave SNL, You did a lot of big movies. You probably got offered so many ones that you wish you did, or are there movies that you got offered other than James Bond?

1:06:56Yeah, I would have liked that. Spies Like Us? Oh, Spies Like Us was so fucking great. I don't know that I was offered anything that I turned down and it became. No, I don't think so. No regrets where you go. I should have done that one. Spies Like Us was unreal. That was you and Chevy. Yeah, I did audition for things that I didn't get. Oh. The People vs. Larry Flint. Oh, really? I auditioned for the part of The Lawyer, played by Edward Norton. Oh, okay. And I auditioned for Milos Forman. You know, and I read it a couple of times. Dan, Dan, do you work with him? I auditioned for Amadeus. Oh, did you?

1:07:32Yeah, Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan. Stop acting. Oh, really? Stop acting. He goes, stop.

1:07:40Dana Carvey:He was too bored with me. I don't know what he just said. I think we're ready to move on Yeah yeah During yours Well I didn't know what I was doing But I saw the movie and I go okay I see They wanted a blonde haired cherubic guy Boy genius Did you go off script and do Chopping Broccoli? No but I I wanted to be on Saturday Night Live Yeah I know And you guys did and you were great And you know today your stuff endures Just as strongly as anything That we ever did in that first cast You know if you look at church lady and all your impressions and uh you know and everything you know and your flight attendant of course oh yeah a classic a classic oh yeah all of it all of it great my theory is this is that music and comedy just have to reflect the times and so we were for our time yeah and then i don't ever want to be a grumpy old man about taylor swift she's no john lennon you know that kind of thing i said and tried to really do a deep dive into taylor swift because i want to No, and she's incredibly skilled.

1:08:42Dana Carvey:And same thing with Saturday Night Live now. This is their era. And they're great. And they're great. And Higgins said, Steve Higgins, he said, Lorne wrote the Constitution. And then everyone interprets it for their time, for their era. No, the show's been really great. The Halloween show was outstanding writing. Really, really very smart. Is that named Gerbazi? Gerbazi. Yeah, Gerbazi. We had him on the podcast a couple days later. Yeah. He was a great comic. He's a really good writer. Really sweet guy. He's so excited about that. He'd only done talk shows. Quality. Quality work. Yeah. That's nice.

1:09:20You still love the George Washington. Oh, yeah. Well, when I'm awake, I mean, I live a very, very quiet life right now. Very quiet. Good. I'm not in the cities. I'm in the country. That's where I want to be. I used to have a Grand National that was pretty sweet. Yeah, right. I like that. Yeah, the old Black National, yeah.

1:09:39Dana Carvey:Oh, yeah. Yeah, Black Grand National. You have a little country store you go to and everyone knows your name kind of thing. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Go in on the motorcycle or take one of the old cars in. It seems to me, just from afar, you've always had one foot still in whatever you call regular life. I would say so, yeah. You motorcycle friends, get a steak. I don't know. I've heard things, but it seems like you've always kept that. Oh, sure, sure. Well, of course, for sanity, yeah. But I don't like living in cities anymore. I prefer to live in the country just because I have tinnitus, you know, the ringing, and also to sleep at night, the blackness.

1:10:13You need the blackness to sleep.

1:10:14Dana Carvey:And where I have a place, the mountain air is coming in, and I can open my eyes or close my eyes. Black. I'm still black. Black. Yeah, yeah. And dead quiet. All here is the coyotes sometimes throw a party. But it is so. So good. The deep sleep you get there. It'll prolong life, that sleep. It really will. Mine's being short and I'm about 40 feet from sunset.

1:10:41It's quiet and this is a fortress here, David. I just hear, bam, bam, bam.

1:10:45Dana Carvey:This is where I want to be during the Great Reset. Plus he's got a lot of food. He stocks a lot of food. This whole thing. Dan, first of all, we've all looked up to you. You're a lovely guy. You're always nice to me. I interviewed you for Spin Magazine when I got an SNL. Yeah. And you're so cool. and just the fact that you still generous everything and talking to us. Oh, I love hanging with you guys. We love just bullshitting about the old days. Yeah, you know, there is an expression, Canadian nice. Yeah, it's true. And I went to Canada once and did a gig, and there is Canadian nice. There's Minnesota nice, but Canadian nice was like, I was just at a table before I was going to go out there, and a guy was like, he saw me look at some water.

1:11:24Dana Carvey:Hey, would you like some water there? I can get some water for you. So there is Canadian nice, and Mike Myers yourself, and it's very sweet and my wife's Canadian so I'm impartial. She's very nice too. She listens to the podcast. I just did Calgary last weekend and it was nice. Yeah, Canada is just a cool country. It's not a rumor. It's real. Thank you, Danny. So anyway, Dan, it's been such an honor and a pleasure. You've been a big part of the puzzle of our little project here and we're so glad to have you. We'll hang again soon. Yes. See you around campus is what I say. Okay, take care. I'll slam my crystal head just for you.

1:12:00Dana Carvey:David has quietly gotten drunk during the podcast. David is hot. David is messed up. The stuff works. Boom, boom. Hey, guys, if you're loving this podcast, which you are, be sure to click follow on your favorite podcast app, give us a review, five-star rating, and maybe even share an episode that you've loved with a friend. If you're watching this episode on YouTube, please subscribe. We're on video now. Fly on the Wall is presented by Odyssey, an executive produced by Danny Carvey and David Spade, Heather Santoro and Greg Holtzman, Maddie Sprung-Kaiser and Leah Reese Dennis of Odyssey. Our senior producer is Greg Holtzman, and the show is produced and edited by Phil Sweetech.

1:12:45Dana Carvey:Booking by Cultivated Entertainment. Special thanks to Patrick Fogarty, Evan Cox, Maura Curran, Melissa Wester, Hillary Shuff, Eric Donnelly, Colin Gaynor, Sean Cherry, Kirk Courtney, and Lauren Vieira. Reach out with us. Any questions to be asked and answered on the show, you can email us at flyonthewallatodyssey.com. That's A-U-D-A-C-Y dot com.

1:13:17Thank you.