RE-RELEASE - Jon Hamm

18:56I forget who started it. But there was a, it was always like that you could do Brad Garrett and Ray Romano. Very like having a conversation. You know, Ray's back here. Oh, come on. And then, and then Brad Garrett is Raymond. So it's just back and forth. Come on, Raymond. Come on. It's Mice and Man. Yeah, it's really Lenny and Squiggy. There's different versions.

19:24Dana Carvey:That's it. See, I love micro impressions where it's just the essence. You don't need to say anything more. I love Ray. I mean, everybody loves him. It's been established at this point. They named a show after that concept. But yeah, he's awesome. Super sweet. Here's my Barney Fife. And? So that's only one word. That's all you need. Barney Fife. Whoa, Andy. the hill range here's my uh christopher walkens sees a magic trick quick wow that's it we're done hey dana did i tell you and john you can listen when i um when akroyd said we should do mayberry me and him i should that was back after conads he goes you know maybe we should do uh mayberry rfd i play andy griffith you play uh you gotta save the money you know you gotta to save the money.

20:17He was always very business. We went off about aliens. But yeah, I love Danny Aykroyd and that we should have done it.

20:23Dana Carvey:Well, let's think for a second of a Jon Hamm, David Spade. That is too late, I guess. Can we put you two Oh, me and not Jon, yeah. in a series live streaming we call Ted at Netflix. Ooh. You're already on FX, Hulu. You're everywhere. But by the way, on Sequitur, I love the Apple commercial. Oh, thanks. What about Jon Hamm or what happened? yeah everybody but jonaham uh i mean that is so that was the name of the commercial was that the name of the commercial yeah that was the name of the campaign i love it because they say it on the top in quotes when you get your like call sheet everybody but jonaham the hammer the fucking that's just like a great a great commercial yeah you did a good job that and just the way you played it it was funny too like my friend a guy who i've known who's a buddy of mine you guys may may not have met my my tall my very tall friend named tall john who is the comedy writer he used to write for sarah silver yeah yeah yeah yeah i think you've met him at largo and uh it's hard to he's hard to miss he's 6 10.

21:24but uh he uh he used to write promos for the wb back in the back in the day he and drew goddard and this guy wayne mcclamie who was directing it he used to direct the promo so it was like we used to all go out and get beers and stuff and hang out in the late 90s in la when we had no money and we would go to largo or we would go see comedy or what have you and uh and now uh it was very strange to like see that dude on a on a set of a commercial that that uh i was sort of nominally the star of which was was pretty cool well the tall guy he would be at um sarah soberman's roof party he would actually stand on the sidewalk and we'd be on the roof um but uh you know you would go to largo would you go to largo a lot because i know you like comedy and you'd go see stuff i did yeah that was my that was my entree into sort of cheap entertainment because uh great la even back then was expensive i did not have much money and so for you know whatever two five dollar drinks or whatever it was and and i i didn't have to wait in line because i usually knew somebody and i got to know flanny and and the gang the gang nicest club owner yeah he's great but it was a pretty it was a pretty hot moment in time the late 90s and you know it was everyone from you know zach was just starting up he had had that weird show on vh1 oh yeah that's right yeah yeah odd fit and then and then guys like you know bob odenkirk and sarah and tenacious d and paul f and doug benson just all all those guys now that are sort of the the eminence grease of of uh of of la comedy is is uh that's when they were all going it was five bucks it was like it's great it's still i don't think it's that expensive it largo is still a great place to go run stuff or go just jump on somebody's show or i think the last time i saw you was that was that oh yeah sarah i think so there's a photo of you me and sarah did we take a picture

23:11Dana Carvey:yeah all right oh okay post it i bombed at largo a lot uh i tagged the shit out of you in that picture i think um anyway can we for a second talk about like just right before madman and snl because that's really interesting because people are listeners may not know this so you literally were still you came to la you were still not working making a living as an actor till 29 or 30 so you had years of waitering i mean i was just yeah how long that that go on because uh well when i got to la i moved out to la in 95 so yeah and i and i didn't stop waiting tables until i was So I had about four years of, of kind of roaming the desert, so to speak.

23:55And weirdly enough, I got, I got a text from a number that I didn't recognize, uh, about a month ago saying, Hey, is this, is this John Hamm that used to work at this restaurant that I used to work at down in Venice? And I said, okay, I haven't, yes, this is, but that's a very weird way to refer to me, but okay. Yes.

24:14Dana Carvey:Yeah. And there were, it used to be owned by Dudley Moore and Tony Bill. Uh, it was called 72 market street. it's not there anymore um but it was like a really cool venice restaurant you know sean penn and angelica houston and robert graham and all the cool west side folks would would hang out there and i was a waiter there and so uh that was the first time i ever saw paparazzi richard gear came in with uh someone who wasn't cindy crawford who's broken up with cindy crawford and it was like crazy yeah um so anyway they're happy they were having a reunion of this thing so they're trying and get everybody that used to work there and uh yeah fun fact the guy i worked with at that restaurant left the job to go to juilliard and i didn't see him again until the pilot of mad men where he played the young tobacco executive like the the younger version oh wow did you wait on famous people like that you admired and stuff did you wait on famous i you know the only time i really waited on anybody famous was Don Henley once oh okay couldn't have been nicer there was a run there when Mitch Glazer who you probably know Dana or maybe you do Kelly Lynch and Kelly they're neighbors now and I used to go and run catering at their house which was very weird wow I heard you worked on porn sets as a fluffer did I read that right what is it what does that do what does that mean uh that was my first question certainly there were no uh genitals touched i was uh i was in the art department there's an art department yeah i mean it was soft core it was like you know skin was it emmanuel late night whatnot we shot in these dismal dingy places down in la downtown i love these stages was it like i like really like skinamax like they'd have they'd be kind of naked but they weren't like some dude in a in a sock and a lady with patches on her whatevers and uh and it was go time and then you know then they'd have like these ridiculous scenes of like what do you mean you're you're lost

26:26i was just walking by and and i happen to have a boner but right here i got an extra one I'm like, do you want to borrow one? Oh, shit. What? Yeah, no, I got the job from a girl I went to college with who was like, she was like, I can't do this anymore. It's like soul crushing. And I was like, I'll do it.

26:42Dana Carvey:Soul crushing. I'll do anything. How about entertaining? Yeah. Kevin Nealon and I did a bit on SNL where we sat in chairs like we were porn stars and we were bare, like we were naked. You can't see. And we had people attending to our crotch. It was like, yeah, yeah. Power it up nice. Yeah. Make it nice for the people. Yeah, put a little fence around it. I mean, we went nuts. I remember that one. You remember that? Put a little fence around it. Yeah. John knows SNL. John is, I watched the monologue this morning where you were an ad guy. Of course, you knew you're going to have to do an ad one. I thought it was funny.

27:18And Bill Hader, you kept saying, no, ma 'am. And then he goes, I'm not a ma 'am. And then you go over here and do something. Then you come back to him. And then Andy Samberg trips you up. But I thought that was funny that you can actually think of them on your own. No, that was funny.

27:35Dana Carvey:I've hosted three times as well, John. So we should talk to Lorne. If you want to have a three-timer club, we could do it. It's fine. You know, it didn't mean as much. Everyone's got a Lorne. Go ahead. John, which one of the 18 Mad Men sketches were you sort of gravitating towards? John, you can pick one, maybe two. Three is too much. I just feel like maybe one after update. One maybe. Maybe a commercial parody. Yeah, the three-timers. Not as much play, the three-timers. Three-timers don't get anything. One thing I'm curious about as we go into your SNL experience is like, so Mad Men comes out.

28:13Dana Carvey:It's only on like a year or a year and a half. I mean, so you get that. You're starting to feel you're riding this rocket. Your whole life's changing. And then you get the call. You weren't even on Mad Men that long. That's my curiosity. before Lauren, who loved it immediately, told me about it. Now you go, you're going to host SNL. It just seemed like a rocket ship. Yeah, in fact, I remember when my agent said, they want you to host SNL. It was in New York City. It was at like a, you know, back when they had magazine things. It was a magazine cover that I was on a party for it. and uh my girlfriend at the time and i were about to leave the country to go to this trip we had planned i'd been working all year we were like let we have to book this trip and it'll be great and it was the week that they wanted me to host snl so i had to say no um and i said no to snl yeah to go on vacation well that'll be the end of that i guess i'll never get asked but at least i was asked you know blah blah blah and immediately came back it came back well how about the following week and uh okay that that sounds great like sure and not having any any idea of what it entailed at all other than knowing the show and knowing you know kind of the some of the people at that point i knew i had met amy and and um oh is that circa and yeah yeah that crowd great one um so there there were a couple of people that I knew that, that were, that had been there for some time, but yeah, it was, it was a, it was a real, it was a real eye opener to the first time to say the least.

29:55And that was also happened to be the episode that Amy Poehler was wildly pregnant and then had her baby Saturday afternoon. So we had to completely read. Oh, wow. Retool the lineup.

30:08Dana Carvey:And is it true that she found out during rehearsal that her doctor had died and then you calmed her down? I'm sure you've told that story. and then she laughed her ass off go ahead tell us i uh i was sitting next to her we were shooting a thing with jimmy signorelli yeah uh the late night it was late but the late great so to speak uh filmmaker who did all the tapes yeah and um we're sitting there we're in some weird office space in midtown um and amy is you know nine months pregnant and i'm sitting there and it's like a it's a man it's a Don Draper. Here's how to like, here's how to pick up ladies.

30:43Rule one, be Don Draper. Like, okay. And so it was really funny. Like Fred Armisen is playing the guy. I was like, Hey, maybe you want to go on a date? And they're like, get lost weirdo. And then I'm like, Hey, how about it? And Polar's line is let's get me out of this skirt.

31:01Dana Carvey:I want to have that career. Can I go back in time? So it was really funny, but we're sitting there in the makeup chairs, you know they have the kind of temporary thing with the with the lights and the mirrors set up and i don't know really anybody uh especially the the makeup artists or the hair people or anybody i'm just okay and um kind of going along and then um polar gets a call and uh hello um yeah i can't what what i mean you gotta be kidding me and then immediately starts to like get emotional and sob and stands up and walks kind of behind a you know a thing and i'm hearing now i'm hearing like sobbing like like and i'm like looking at the hair the makeup person is like frozen i'm like do you what uh what do we do and what do we do like we do go home like what's happening to a recast so it's like this all takes place in about 35 seconds and she comes back from around the little fake wall and has clearly been like crying and everyone's like amy oh my god is it what's happening she's like you won't believe this i just found out my my my ob-gyn who's been with me through this this is her first child has been with me for this whole trip he just died god damn like no way like no way did this happen and i was like oh my god amy that's terrible um but this is like a really big thing for me so can you pull your shit together and she immediately was like like laughed like cracked up so i was like thank god that landed nicely my question for you about jim signorelli is if this you're shooting something on a Saturday or was it during the week?

32:56It was during the week. Okay, good. That story started to not check out. Yeah, okay. I think people at home don't realize when you do SNL, and if you're a host, you for sure probably don't get like the first night is kind of easy. You meet Lorne. You go to a Monday meeting and everyone kisses your ass. And you're like, this is Jon Ham. And then everyone politely applauds. And they go, next week Sharon Stone. Everyone goes, yay! And then you immediately feel like an asshole.

33:23Dana Carvey:It's like the inside joke every inside joke we do every week and then but then you kind of go to dinner at or so or i don't know what you do or you just leave and then you go this isn't too hard and then tuesday you come in and it's writing day is where it's yeah yeah it's the crazy day yeah tuesday's the tuesday's or so dinner night and the host comes back after yeah and then and then writes and hangs out and i think that's when even when i went back to host twice not three um that uh which they're really not giving parties for the two-timers for sure so i go and they go uh and even knowing the drill i'm in or so nervous going i don't i think i gotta get back there like i want to get back there and just go over everything because i'm fucking starting to freak out uh that i'm not because even tuesday day no one does anything and then no one's even written you're like guys we have all this time we're wasting but every day every week pizza it's just hanging out wasting time wasting time the entire system is based on procrastination coming from add you can't really focus until there's a hard line we got to go now yeah you know that's so when you walk in there do you were you more okay you did it three times what was your nerve rate coming into that office on monday sitting there with all these sketch players what where were you were you at a 10 were you or were you sort of naive like maybe this will be fun or what were you maybe it'll be fun adventure it's true you go maybe this will be fun and easy and then he quickly turns you go god damn well david's right though like there's nothing on monday that is really if you haven't done it before that that suggests this is going to be terrifying yeah so they start you out slow everybody's like calm and relaxed and they're pitching ideas that'll never make it the first time the first time i i came in and we had the meeting on monday the writers all came in dressed in 60s gear oh really that's cool everyone from paul appell to john malini to colin every everybody was like just as a salute to madmen yeah oh wow i've never heard him do that lutz was dressed up like joan like it was it was amazing like they all just raided the costume department and came in like that so they're in awe of you at this point which is nice okay well they would love to be able to comedians want to be able to do it what you do you do comedy and that but yeah we kind of respect so but it was it was we it was you know there's nothing to suggest like oh this is going to be terrifying until wednesday when you have a packet of you know 25 sketches that you have to read at that table and try to get laughs and you've seen them for exactly you know maybe an hour or two to kind of go through you can't i'm sure you don't even get to all of them there's no way no not at There's no way.

36:12I mean, it's a phone book size thing. And writers come in just to tell the crowd. Hey, can you do a thing where you do a voice and it sounds kind of like, okay, do that. Right. Which one is this? I'm sorry. Right. And then you're kind of Russian in this one, but not Ukrainian. Just play that a little bit. And then you're like, okay.

36:30Dana Carvey:You don't have to sound exactly like an elephant, but just do whatever you can to feel like. Right. Your head's spinning going, and then Lauren's like. It's every five, six seconds for about an hour until you go in that packed room with a low ceiling and everyone waits for Lorne. And then he comes in and regally starts the read through. And it's like four hours of cold reading, essentially. Cold reading. Yeah. Solid BO, like off the charts. Everyone in there is sweating and grossed out and there's no vent. Someone goes, crack. Lorne will go, crack the window. And then someone reaches back. I got it, Lorne.

37:03That would be me usually. I got it.

37:05Dana Carvey:fain and david is a waiter uh in an italian restaurant david goes to the table david puts down the water i wrote this stupid one for farley when we had no ideas i wrote goo goo in the honeypot and where he was a uh so stupid but it was like an eight foot honeypot and then he he gets in there and he's stuck in honey in a diaper and he keeps he keeps crawling out and he's covered in honey and they go goo goo were you in the honeypot he goes no i go i saw you in this area but he's perfect for farley yeah and he goes david you think we can do it i go it's just stupid enough it might work so i hand it in knowing i'm light that week and then lauren gets through and he goes goo goo in the honey pot and then he turns the whole sketch over and goes wayne's world cold opening i go oh he skipped it i've never heard him skipping it unheard of He didn't skip when I did Funny Little Poopy Head.

37:57Dana Carvey:He should have. I did Funny Little Poopy Head with Jan Hook. She was Mrs. Funny Little Poopy Head. And I had massive stage direction where Lauren had to say Funny Little Poopy Head over and over again. Funny Little Poopy Head is sad. Funny Little Poopy Head sits down. It's like that thing with Funny Little Poopy Head. But he bailed on your sketch because that sounded funny to me. And he never mentioned it. I know. Farley would have crushed it. I think Sandler later wrote one. It's like not even writing. And that one he isn't even really writing either. But I think he put one where it's a film piece like for Signorelli where he's in a pool and he just puts all this suntan oil on.

38:37And then he just tries to get on the raft for about four minutes. He can't get on the raft. And he's going, oh, God. Which, you know, we've gone to that well before, but it seemed to work.

38:47Dana Carvey:Never done. Never not funny with Farley. Yeah. And then I think that one even got like at least read. And then the sketch is like one paragraph. And then Farley struggles and screams for 45 minutes. Farley falls down. Dennis used to go, hey, Farley, you got Farley Faller. Farley falls down. Anything else in the tank? Anything else for us? Any other moves? Dennis would just lay waste all the junior varsity. You know, Sandler, they're not buying the kooky guy, okay? Spain, wait till Carvey leaves, because David would sit behind me, and Lauren would go, David's ready at any time, or you're not. Hmm, summer.

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41:14Dana Carvey:But back to our guest, something that I love, that I love this. Yes. I love Bill Hader and love his Vincent Price. And then you came in and did James Mason. And you must have loved that because you did it great. And every line killed with James Mason. First of all, that sketch is so, talk about so weird and specific. And it crushed, like a sketch should not kill that hard when it's that. Especially a sketch about a relatively obscure 50s, 60s horror guy. Totally. Very obscure to the young audience. Tell me, Dane, I didn't see it. Because clearly nobody knows who Vincent Price is in the audience.

41:54It's just a funny character.

41:55Dana Carvey:He's got a fake bird and it's all black and white. And he's like, I don't even know if he's really trying to do a really accurate, but it's just a funny, hello, I'm Vincent Price. Yeah, it's just kind of off-putting. And then Fred Armisen as Liberace is... Yeah, it's just, and Fred could all do all that all day. Very musical. And then it's like a TV show, and it's going badly, and he's getting frustrated. The whole trope of, like, you know, bringing in special guests. I mean, now we have our special guests. Yes, isn't this a great show? Gloria Svonson. Again, like, no one has any sense of who that is, except that she's a weirdo.

42:32Dana Carvey:But it's got a lot of views. I think people, those get passed around. I had to you know we did that for Dress and it was Dean Martin at Dress and it kind of fell flat but I guess my Dean Martin wasn't very good but also Lorne was like well here's the problem it's a drunk playing a drunk and it's a hat on a hat hat on a hat hat on a hat that's very long who else can you do right then like 10 30 on saturday night the show's on in 45 minutes yeah come up with another obscure impression that will make sense and weird and you can you can get a 10 out of 10 on it and nearly nail it uh and so hater comes in my dressing room and he's like uh hey man yeah uh i don't know uh i said i said this is gonna sound weird i said i can kind of do a james mason he He goes, no way, no way do it.

43:29And I was like, perfect. Well, Joe, I don't know. And, and, uh, and we, and he goes, perfect. That's it. That's done. And I think he and Malini had written the sketch the other side. I can't remember who wrote it with him, but, um, but then we did that. Like, and again, it was, that was at like, yeah, 10 45. So, you know, we're all up in Lauren's office. Like, so, uh, uh, John's gonna do, uh, was it James Mason? Okay. John's gonna, that's gonna change from Dean Martin to James. So get out on the cards. none of the lines changed it was very casual it's always that he was an alcoholic right he was drunk

44:01Dana Carvey:and lascivious it was just funny you know sexually inappropriate yeah it was just hysterical but that is that's impressive the reason i could do that is because that we me and paul rudd growing up would we loved the movie um heaven can wait and oh yeah i saw it james mason plays the the angel who kind of shepherds Warren Beatty's, you know, journey, whatever it was. Yeah. But his line is, you're dead, Joe.

44:30And so that's what we would always say to each other randomly. How you doing, man?

44:33Dana Carvey:Charles Grodin and Diane Cannon. Diane Cannon. The whole freaking movie is perfect. Fucking great movie. Jack Warden. Jack Warden. Oh, yeah. Hey, Max. So that was that your - Jack Warden has one of the best lines in all of cinema, I think, in a little movie called Shampoo. Oh, wait a minute. I saw it a month ago with my wife because we see it every year. The movie's so good. And the line is? The line is, now that's what I call fucking. So he catches Warren Beatty. He doesn't realize it's Warren Beatty fucking his own girlfriend. His own girlfriend, Julie Christie. But he sees him through a doorway and he goes, that's right.

45:14Dana Carvey:So you're a Warren Beatty, 70s Warren Beatty, You know, shampoo, having to wait, the parallax view. There's nothing better. The parallax view. Wow. I've gotten to hang out with him on quite a few occasions. He's a great guy. I mean, the stories are, you cannot have a dinner that's less than three hours with him. I hung out with him once. Yeah, he's very bright. Let's see if I can find it. Yep, there it is. Oh. Oh, wow. So what year was that? were you probably 2016 he just showed a picture everybody did he reach out to you or how do you guys have dinner or did mutual he was a fan of the show um oh yeah he would have loved that show were you getting cold calls kind of yeah sometimes and then he uh he and annette had some friends that like one of them was a guy named bill pope who was the director of photography for baby driver so i think that was probably around baby driver let's not forget baby driver i think that yeah that that makes sense because he was probably 30 or something when 1960 hit and that the end of that era of you know slapping him on the bottom and all that pre-feminism yeah i mean you know uh his first movie was like barefoot in the park maybe or was that robber redford i can't that was Redford.

46:35It was 58. But didn't he do the play?

46:38Dana Carvey:He might have. Yeah, he might have. He did wearing shoes in the park. Huge Redford fan. I tried to convince my sons who are with me up here in California to watch Three Days of the Condor with me. We watched Woodcastle and the Sundance Kid and they loved it. It doesn't get much better now. How about The Sting? The Sting, I was about to say. All the President's Men. don't get me started the horse whisperer whatever he's amazing the electric horseman I think you mean the horse whisperer oh he had the electric horseman and then the horse whisperer later in 98 John do you have any parts that they came to you and you had to pass up on that you didn't do that you would like to um I couldn't other than me and grown ups other than my part of the grown ups i i have i've had pretty good luck honestly of of of the things that i've i've turned down or not been able to do have not come back to kind of haunt me or or anything like that i was i was sort of loosely attached to gone girl at one point there was a there was meant to be a situation uh and then it was because madman was shooting it was like oh okay i can't do it like that's that that's the way that goes but i really liked that book and like the guys fromst louis and they did a good job with it yeah ben did a great job ben's phenomenal i love that's great those uh you know but i haven't had very many of those those are like uh few and far between which is which is nice like you don't i don't have a lot yeah you've done me uh but yeah like you said grown-ups that was when you said no to grown-ups um no but you now when you get involved with something like curb your enthusiasm is that something because you know larry or he just likes you and says hey do you want to come on beep bop boop pop by i had done a weird little movie with larry that was for hbo i think called clear history where he invents uh a car it's it's a very convoluted setup like most of his setups yeah uh and he uh invents this car and it goes sideways and he forgets about a lot of the guy that owns the car company like you know elon musk or whatever and uh we had a really good time we shot it in boston with greg mottola and had a great time doing it and made each other laugh so much we had so many great people in that film too and michael keaton we had hater um jimmy tingle i mean like all these boston comics jimmy tingle wow what a great name yeah stand up yeah yeah we had all these like boston comics that were that were bopping around coming in and out and um it was it was really fun and funny and and and we got to know each other a little bit and played a little golf in Boston.

49:23And, and, uh, ever since then, he's kind of kept me in mind for, for stuff. And, and I've been able to do the show a couple of times. It was always really fun. Yeah. Yeah. That's cool.

49:33Dana Carvey:He's kind of a genius, I guess. I don't know. He had some, some frequency of all his own. You know, I've been watching a lot of old Seinfelds too, like which, which, which hold up so remarkably well, like other than kind of the fashion, which stands out a bit, but the jokes and the stories, and you can so clearly hear Larry's voice in George Costanza, not only that, but just in the stories, like the setups and the particular kind of annoyances of, you know, the one that was on last night was the parking garage, where they just get stuck in the parking garage for the entirety of the episode. Yeah.

50:11Dana Carvey:It's those little observations, little standup observations, but extenuated and just shot well, or there's a liveliness to him. I mean, Larry, when I was watching your episode last night, the two Larry Dave, it feels like he's not breaking, but he's enjoying it so much. He's kind of smiling a lot in a lot of his lines, even when he yells. Jerry had that too on Seinfeld. You could see it. Jerry absolutely had it. And Adam in his early films had it a little bit. It brings a lot of charm to those. It does, because it's like, I'm enjoying this. Yeah. We know it's funny. It's funny. you know john did you have this experience so i did a curb where where um they i i guess this is how they do it they have a loose script yeah which was this was the fun for me because i don't improv a lot i mean in these movies we do a couple things but a whole scene where they go okay you're leaving the la you're leaving a lakers game you run into larry and they go you are going to defend yourself with whatever he's going to say to you and then they go over to him and they talk to him and I go, what's he going to do?

51:14They go, you'll find out. So that's all we got. And then they come, we meet with a crowd and then he's, we both have a friend with us and then he starts going after me about something and I start defending myself and then we cut and then we go back and they go, now brag about what you're doing. And then they go, and then he's going to do something else. And it was so fun because you got to be on your fucking toes and he's great. And everyone's, everyone in the scene is always good because they're going to hire everyone good. but is it like that kind of? That's pretty much it. I mean, the last one I did was with Albert Brooks and Laura Keitlinger and JB and so many, everybody at that point kind of knows what they're doing on that set.

51:55And you just kind of, it's not unlike SNL. You just want to try to stay out of the way and understand that the process is going to be the process and it's going to work and you can contribute where you can. And that was my, you know, I was able to do that and pitch ideas and say like, what if I'm this or what if I'm that?

52:14Dana Carvey:So what kind of ideas would you pitch? And were they... I had that my idea for this last one was that my character, I'm about the least Jewish person in the universe. Like I'm a Roman Catholic from St. Louis, Missouri. Lutheran. But I said like, you know, what if I'm just like understanding, like I'm trying to like pepper my conversation with like Jewish phrases and words and you know but I get them wrong or I'm almost right with them or and they thought that was a pretty funny and they don't really it rubs them wrong a little bit kind of like what do you that's not what you're gonna say like yeah yeah but but delivered with like the ultimate confidence like most you know the that thing in LA of people that 100 % wrong but but saying it out loud and proud my life that's my whole life I know it's amazing people have no information Yeah, fake it till you make it.

53:33last ends june 30th terms at aka.ms college pc what's the one thing of the madman what are the couple things that people stop you and they know you from what's the town oh the fucking town guy it's great movie i love the town i get that in boston and i get that in airports uh the tsa love the town yeah the tsa yeah i see the town and that's one when it comes on unless one of my movies is on if it comes on i watch the whole thing unless ben schwarmers is on and so i the town is such a badass movie and uh i love it's all boss it's all fucking weird uh not weird it was just it was a really fun one to make cool like we were all kind of everybody was you know renner was just coming off of Hurt Locker and Rebecca Hall had, I think she was in Iron Man or something.

54:27Like everybody was kind of coming off their own thing. And it was Ben's second, uh, directorial effort when, and his first one was so good, gone, baby gone. So it was really kind of fun and exciting and, and Warner brothers like left us alone really like this thing. And, uh, it was, it was great how it all, it was like kind of this weird, perfect storm that the other guys in the, in the crew with ben and jeremy were these kind of local guys that were just kind of scary enough to be believably you know kind of low-level criminals and yeah sure uh it was fun you know it was just fun we got really really lucky we got to shoot in boston in the fall and it didn't snow or rain or any of that stuff we got to bang around uh fenway park you know yeah it seemed like you

55:13Dana Carvey:had run of the town how has been been um as a director like um how how did he i mean he's great and like i i i i fell for him obviously it's like that's the hardest job on on the set especially when you're also the lead of the film um yeah and yeah and he's also in boston like everywhere he goes he is yeah remarked and he's a he's a big dude like he's probably six four six five like he's a tall guy he's not like he's not hiding in plain sight right um so everywhere he goes he's jesus you know hey guy what's going on guy hey he's fucking ben afric get over here give me your fucking hug too good for us and that's his mother ladies and gentlemen i gotta tell you thank you god damn but yeah so it was obviously it was he had a lot on his plate but he he pulled it off and he did the smart thing which i think the lesson to be learned from that is is like he hired amazing department heads like our our director photographer was this guy robert elswood who shot there will be blood among other things and you know one is fair share of hardware and he had really really talented camera operators and art department people and stuff guys and second unit and it was but you guys seem to like block off chunks of the city and get to drive all over and do everything it's it's fun on a movie you're like you you run the whole town it's great yeah And especially that guy in that town.

56:39That's for sure. Yeah, sure. You know, do a movie with me in Scottsdale. Let's see what's going on. Yeah, in August. You'll see what's up, yeah.

56:46Dana Carvey:We shoot in the afternoons. You'll enjoy it. We shoot at dusk for one hour. It's called sunburn slash windburn. I always watch movies to see how many nights they shoot, to see how much complaining I would be doing. I'm like, look at all these fucking nights, man. Why do you even say anything? What if it's vampires? I could never. But they hate the night. Daytime, yeah. The daytime guy. They don't drink blood. Ruins the whole movie, I don't care. I'm like, it's easier to shoot. Do you have a wish list of like, if you got a script across your desk, I mean, do you like to do something way, way comedic?

57:21Dana Carvey:Or, you know, like I've been told by a prosthetic makeup artist that everyone wants rubber on their face ever since Churchill with, who won the Oscar. Sorry, one of my favorites. it's Gary Oldman Gary Oldman yeah so now everyone wants some prosthetics because that's how you get at least a nomination like for you to hide Jon Hamm yeah you know I mean would be kind of interesting I hate sitting in the makeup chair like I cannot stand it and uh there goes your Oscar yeah there goes my Oscar but uh let's be honest it wasn't happening anyway uh did you wear a bald cap on SNL we're jumping around oh yeah for sure oh yeah they're popping wigs on you on top of it so the one of your own hair is always like a little wrong and you're exactly like this is me and my own hair in the monologue and you still got a bald cap on everyone's like that's me yeah uh but at least i'm now sweating from my dome of my head all the way down my head is wet yeah no any you know the fun thing for me would have been to be a part of the star wars stuff but that's i think that ship has sailed because i was such a huge star wars fan back when i was little um and i you know i remember being like in third grade or something and and and star wars coming out and and it you know it starts with the big crawl right and it's episode four and you're like episode four like what did i miss yeah what did i miss like there must there were three episodes that just didn't exist it's so weird they started like that and yeah a new hope episode four and so then then like the rumor mill started among the third graders of like well you know there's there's nine of these there's meant to be nine of them they read it in like fangoria magazine or something you know and like you that you thought wow nine nine more star wars that's going to be amazing uh and they're not meant to be completed until 2019 which back then was you know 40 years later you're like what i gotta wait 40 years for these like no way they go and two are going to be good so you don't know which two did you literally at your age you you might have had star wars little uh figures oh i had figurines i had a poster i had sheets i had the whole deal uh it was it was a big part of my life so i had the little darth vader shaped case that you kept your little guys in um yeah so anyway but yeah i didn't i never got the call for that one but But I don't know.

59:53It's never too late. We shot Fletch, which we were rebooted. Oh, you did? I knew you were Fletch. Whoa. Oh, I love it. That was pretty exciting. We were going to ask you about Fletch. We got to do that. That was in Boston again. The third book in the series takes place in Boston. Hey, Fletch guy.

1:00:13Dana Carvey:How did you, I mean, obviously you've been asked this question, but like how did you evolve it to match, you know, Jon Hamm? Yeah. Did you? Well, part of it was, you know, obviously I looked at it kind of like, and Greg Mottola, who I worked with on this, we both kind of were like, it's kind of like a cover song, right? It's a cover version of a song. Yeah, yeah. We already have Hey Jude. Yeah. So why would you do it just like Hey Jude? Like maybe mix it up a little bit. And so we were very cognizant of not doing Chevy. Yeah. and not doing, you know, teeth and wigs and this is and that's. And we wanted to still make it funny, but we wanted to keep it more in line with the tone of the novel, which is almost more of like a whodunit.

1:00:58And he's still a wise ass and he still gets himself into trouble and has to talk his way out. And it's still funny and there's still jokes.

1:01:05Dana Carvey:It seems really, really fun to play. It was. It was super funny. And John Slattery's in it with me. and I got your bandmate former bandmate you guys have a lot of chemistry we got the band back together in some way so we had a great time there's it was a blast it was a that was another character in my youth where we all oh yeah huge movie and Chevy was great enjoyed that did you do characters in it where you're undercover like with a mustache or something did you do any of that or we didn't we kind of shied away from that we thought that that was a real good way to get in trouble in trouble with whoever and probably sued by Chevy.

1:01:43Dana Carvey:It's fun to be the guy talking your way out of something and lying, basically, as an actor. It's really fun. That's hard to do in real life. That's not my car, that kind of stuff. Yeah. I just came by to say hello. And if you give me a second. We had another part that was really fun for me because I don't really get a chance to do this a lot was like developing the script and then having like Zooms like this, but with comedy writers and having everybody pitching. Oh, wow. ideas and thoughts and we had like we had like murderers row we had paul appell we had bill hater we had so many great robert carlock we had so many great minds that were kind of throwing out ideas and one of the best ones was and i won't ruin it but it's i want to hear it basically the end of the movie that bill hater came up with i was like he's like i've never seen this but what if you do this and he explained it to me i was like that's a great idea and we immediately stole it and put it in the movie what was it he can't tell you oh you can't tell us let's guess okay i'll be bill hater all right what what if like uh all right at the end of the movie right you go uh hey uh you wake up hater right there you wake up right i'm doing i don't know where you say it's a medium hater yeah it's a medium one thing that's unique about bill he's so brilliant and a lot of times comedians aren't an audience but man does he laugh he laughs he's a good laugher everybody laughers are so important in comedy people now that's a must see we can look for that so john was i have one question i know we gotta let john go soon but he's got to go to the airport a lot of the female fans asked if you would wear sweatpants to the airport i don't even understand that question uh i tend to dress up for the airport thank you very much i think it's my grandmother taught me to wear nice clothing to the it's a big wiener question i think that's what they're getting at i have a feeling it was um i like it you were we're about to say wham bam thank you ham to this guy i was waiting for that one i stole it from your monologue uh yeah wham bam thank you ham that was exactly the same one yeah that was you said hey they called you the hammer or hammer time or something what is that uh skateboard deck behind you john finally someone fucking asked me the tough questions dana doesn't care this is what that this is no that's how i paint that's that's like what i do go ahead this is uh there's an artist richard prince and this is a skateboard deck because i used to skate i still milk it out i'm not any good but my brother gave me that because he's big into art and uh but i didn't know what to put in the background john's like oh i have louvers i want everyone to know i'm rich i have a skateboard deck that was signed by tony hawk somewhere in here i think oh tony hawk the best Which one?

1:04:22Dana. The best one. The best skater.

1:04:24Dana Carvey:So, guy, you're going to Switzerland. We've never had someone on the podcast who was leaving to Switzerland. You skipped the fact that Tony Hawk was my stunt double in Police Academy 4? Was it? Dana? Your skate double? And he was about 6 '10". Yeah, he's a little. And he rides goofy. No, I ride goofy. He rides regular. I ride goofy. Yeah, John, we could tear it up. Fucking Melrose. Let's do it. Going to Belmont. William Morris drops you and then you become John Ham. Do you ever run into those guys and you get up in their face a little bit? Oh, hi, William Morris. Remember me? Yeah. Don't you think there should always be one person working for WME whose name is William Morris?

1:05:05So that you could go and be like, you're the guy. You're the guy.

1:05:09Dana Carvey:You're the origin of this whole thing. It's literally like some schmuck in the mailroom like, what? I just, I, what? I didn't even want to work here. They just made me. I went over there when they, I started with Endeavor when they started. that's how old i am and then they merged this is yeah i'm boring the audience again uh okay you know what people love to talk about yeah agencies well they love to talk about people who doubted you then you made it and then you shit all over them they like that revenge of the hey william morris you were you you were in a super bowl commercial but uh seth rogan in one with your precious paul rudd were you jealous that you weren't the other guy and it wasn't you and paul rudd i you know i think that uh yes the the short answer is yes yes that's the right answer and uh knowing probably within the ballpark when he got paid for that i'm really jealous but uh yeah you know i think that that you know the the the the fun thing about commercials now is that no one gives a shit it doesn't matter in 15 20 years ago like george clooney did an ad or brad pitted an ad everyone thought the world was ending yeah like yeah well we're allowed to do that now like cool you could also do them over in europe and they didn't know about it but now like mel gibson selling japanese whiskey or something yeah now you could do them you could do commercials there's no you can be proud of it live streaming and movies everything is just when i started on only fans everyone's all right well let's let john go he's got a flight isn't it only fan no mine does pretty well i do pretty well a month yeah gross though look at dana i'm rich i have stairs oh people can't see his house shit and a and a dark room under the stairs where are you and what if my wife came out of there with handcuffs on yeah that's just uh this is that where harry potter is lovely bones this house was built in 1912 and yes it has ghosts and they visit all the time.

1:07:09Yeah. I bet. Are you in the San Francisco area? Yeah. Yeah.

1:07:13Dana Carvey:Northern California. Russian Hill. Redwood trees and stuff. We're the exact same heights. Yeah. Just my wife grew up here in this town. So just have a house here. It's a lovely town. It is. I got to go to the Lucas Ranch over in the Presidio. Oh, you did. That was pretty neat. That was pretty neat. That was as close as I got to being on Star Wars. Well, guess what? I kind of know George Lucas. That was really neat. Keep your phone close because you should definitely be in a Star Wars movie if you want to. They're going to keep making them. Oh, no, they had to take a break because they got greedy and did one every three months and everyone needed, we need two or three years.

1:07:50Dana Carvey:Oh, yeah. Did you go to the kennel where they keep the baby Chewbacca's? All right, I'm out of jokes. I got to go. First comes a joke. Then comes no laughter. Then comes failure. First try joke. Joke not work. Not try, dude. Then comes unemployment. It is no try. B-b-b-b-bits, b-bits. It is no try. Only have... I don't want to get blue. Anyway, I'm going to sing... Green. We always close off with a song. Thank you, John. No, we don't. It's Mad Men. I would have gone with it. It's raining Mad Men. Well, we got to thank John for being super cool. And whenever I see you out, you're always nice. It's fun to talk to you.

1:08:31It's always a good laugh. It's a great pleasure. And thank you for having me.

1:08:39Hey, 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, or 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.

1:09:06Dana Carvey:Our senior producer is Greg Holtzman, and the show is produced and edited by Phil Sweetech. 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 flyonthewall at odyssey.com. That's A-U-D-A-C-Y dot com.