RE-RELEASE - Laraine Newman

28:10Dana Carvey:I'll let Dana do it. He's the guy. The problem with the critics, they're like really into their own thing. It's that thing of like, you know, you have to be really light on your feet. It'd be nice if this sketch was like, you know, funny would be a good thing. We love Lauren's sarcasm. Did he overcome saying things like, absolutely or no no no no no no no no we definitely have no no no no don't misunderstand me mostly would be exactly if you were telling him something exactly well you know he was always the same but uh now that we we have data now we have almost 50 years this show it's hard to imagine another human individual navigating it like lorne he was so good with the network and all that part of it he was very good with the hosts and he also was i think because he's a very very smart guy he could get all those ivy league guys to come in and respect him you know the harvard guys and you know because i went to san francisco state but everyone you know they would all giggle when i would mispronounce a word and read through and i go you fuckers i'll get you on the stage that was intimidating i don't know that you guys you guys had great writers lorraine but it got it got very Harvard-y when I was there from Scottsdale Community College.

29:27And I could just tell it was very clear. I was in over my head. And it takes a while to figure out, like, I don't know if you wrote, but I think you did, but how to write a sketch or how to fit in with these guys and just get to the level. I just want to go and read through and say, I don't want everyone to go, what the fuck? Who wrote this? I just want it to be like, oh, we're not doing it, but it's sort of mixed into the bunch, you know, because sometimes I would write something and I didn't know how to write and I just got that yellow pad and they would be like that's eight pages too long I'm like well no one is talking to me I don't know no one tells you

30:02Dana Carvey:anything was that the same when you were there in the 70s we have to you have to learn it yourself or ask other cast members absolutely yeah nobody tells you anything and um I didn't quite get that it would be good if I were to align myself with a writer who could really get me but fortunately it worked out that way anyway. And O'Donohue and Schiller and Rosie Schuster, they really wrote beautifully for me. And, you know, I brought us some of the material that I had done at the Groundlings, I brought there, but that was basically how it worked, because I did not know how. The things I did in the Groundlings were what we now call in ones or down lefts, which were just character monologues.

30:44I am a shitty improviser. Shitty. You know, so, you know, I don't know how to write a sketch.

30:52Dana Carvey:People think we improvise on Saturday Night Live, but you don't improvise. No. People think you do, yeah. But backstage you do. You know, just for a second, Rosie Schuster came back, Lauren's ex-wife, one of them, and she was assigned to me. I'd just done this character in my stand-up. I didn't do it all day long. I never wore a dress with this church lady person. Oh, my God. So we sat for a couple of weeks, you know, making the talk show out of it. And she was the one who said, ah, church chat, you know, and she was very, very good. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What a good writer. Yeah. Really beautiful. Yeah.

31:26Dana Carvey:So that Lauren loves that when the writers in the cast get together. And I actually talked to a young cast member recently who wanted to talk to me. I won't say, you know, who it was, who's currently on the show and struggling a little bit with the process. I said, well, whatever your rhythm of your character is, you know, collect your hooks or what makes it funny and crunchy to you. Seek out a writer that has influence and maybe would want. So at the ground floor, while the sketch is being written, your rhythms are being integrated. Don't wait where they've written jokes and you're trying to put your character into it.

32:01Dana Carvey:Exactly. Make sure you do it together. So it sounds like you had that with Michael Donahue and Rosie and all the rest. Yeah. Yeah, that's one. Lauren loves that thing, too. It's like the Congress and the Senate are getting along or something. He doesn't want one side to dominate too much. Yeah, well, Conan O 'Brien talks about not knowing how to write a sketch and how he really started out by just like telling somebody stories. And people say, yeah, you should write that as a sketch. Yeah. But, you know, the idea that any writer would come there not knowing how to write a sketch. Well, I auditioned to be on the show.

32:36And then they say, me and Rob Schneider, and they go, you're hired, but you're, they liked your standup, but they liked the writing of it. So, which is not, which is good and bad news because they go, he wants to be a writer performer. And then they go, oh, maybe Chevy was, I don't know who was, but I go. He was just hired as a writer. Chevy was just hired as a writer. Yes. That's Simon. Garrett and Chevy were hired as writers. Oh, I did not know that. That's cool. Yes. Now, how long till Billy came on? Was it three years? No, actually it was second year. Yeah, because Chevy did like one and a half seasons, whatever.

33:13Dana Carvey:He was on the cover of Time or whatever he was. He just blew up from the show. Yeah. And then he always regretted leaving. You know, when he would come back and host, he talked about wishing he'd stayed longer. Sure, for sure. I mean, it's hard to get that again. I think once you leave it, you can never go back, you know. Once you what? Once you leave SNL, you're never going to do. I thought you said once you diva. You never come back. Oh, funny. I was thinking that's good. That's better than what I just said. So I did say that, Lorraine. Once you diva, but once you leave, you can't go back to that experientially.

33:48Dana Carvey:And it haunts your whole career or life in some ways because it's New York. It's the grease paint. There's a horse in the show and someone's juggling and it's all chaotic and weird. And there's just nothing quite like that intensity of S &L. Or how hard it is. And you go, I could do that. And then you leave. I'm sure Chevy after years, like, and he sees the show stays huge and even huger. And you're like, fuck, that was fun. I was in that. I was in the mix. Yeah, that's the thing is sketch comedy is so fun. Yeah. You know, I mean, when I was back for the 40th, just doing sketches. Oh, right. So goddamn fun.

34:27Oh, yeah. And the people you get to work with are always super sharp, funny. Yes. You get to look around and go, God damn, all these people are great. And then they go on to do great things and you go, shit, everyone was good. I was not wrong.

34:40Dana Carvey:it feels like it's more pressure now but you guys did you when did you for yourself lorraine so you're on the show and the show's not the show yet but you're becoming rock stars when did you know i think the audience starts to discover and they discovered chevy first probably because he was on update and had an in one at home base it was like very potent chevy but when do you feel like when did you personally get comfortable you feel were you comfortable right away it took me i feel like 60 shows 60 to get I'd say I was better after the third season fourth season it took you know I mean to be really having fun to go back full circle to like just enjoying it because everything is picking and wigs and going and then the cards and changing to get relaxed how did you feel you had a breakthrough with a certain character I mean was it the cone heads or any sketch you remember where I've got this we're winning we're a winning team we're rock stars or maybe it was immediate for you guys.

35:36No, I was very young and I was very inexperienced. You were like 21 or something? No, no, I was 23, but I was a very young 23. That's young. I was a young 23. That's what I have to say about that. But I was very inexperienced and I did not have a lot of confidence. And so I can't say that I ever got to a place where I felt comfortable. When I was doing something either that I wrote or that I really had an affinity for and felt like I could score with, those were great times. I mean, Marilyn Miller wrote this Barbra Streisand song for me. And I was just thinking about it the other day because someone was talking about, I think it was the documentary on Mr.

36:21Kelly's and that Barbra Streisand does the intro on that. And I was thinking, you know, it was a complicated song. I was the only one who could sing a little bit better than everybody else of the girls. And I just remember afterwards that kind of explosive applause when it was over. And as I'm bowing and my legs are shaking, you know, it was such a great moment and experience to have. But I didn't have a lot of those, you know.

36:52Dana Carvey:Did you like singing? Did you sit with someone? We had Cheryl and Mark Shaman. We had Cheryl and Mark Shaman. Mark Shaman worked on the show? He did. Well, I was there for a couple of years. Then he went off and did movies, but he was there with Cheryl. I didn't know that. This is just for people listening. If there's a musical number, it's so much fun to sit down. Let's just say Cheryl was so wonderful. She could just play anything. and you had a song you wanted to do. I think she said she did Black Magic Woman. Is that Santana? I don't know who did that. Yes, it is. She played the chords backwards for the church chat theme.

37:33Stuff like that. Oh, my God. How brilliant. Wow.

37:36Dana Carvey:But she would help you with notes and know we're going to harmonize. We're playing Cowboys and we're harmonizing Woody Harrelson and she would help you. And I'll speak to you. I want to hear your experiences. I had one freaky thing of I was in a booth with Willie Nelson. He had his old guitar. And then he was learning a song, maybe I didn't, and I'm seeing him learn it in real time. Oh, wow. But you have those kinds of moments. In terms of the movies, the hosts that came along in those five years, does anyone stick out? Oh, the hosts? The hosts, because then you're meeting, like you had a lot of - You had the monster stars come through.

38:14It's unreal. Richard Pryor. Yeah, Richard Pryor. I had met Richard Pryor when I was 14 because he was friends with my sister.

38:22Dana Carvey:Oh, crazy. And he was playing the Troubadour guys, the Troubadour. He was playing the Troubadour. West Hollywood. Yeah. Yeah. So I met him when I was 14. So when he came to host the show, I was like, I'm Tracy Newman's little sister. Do you remember me? And he was so great to me. He was just... Fucking Richard Pryor. He was sweet. Always. Like there are three people who were my main influences. Eve Arden, Madeline Kahn, and Richard Pryor. Those are like the holy trinity for me. Madeline Kahn's another monster. Did she come host? Twice. Oh, how great. Oh, yeah. So that's the exact example of what happens to you on Saturday Night Live.

39:03Dana Carvey:You have this mentor who doesn't know, and now you're in a sketch with them. I know. It's killer. It's all surreal, right? It's so great. Dana, what about, Lorraine, did I read that you were stopped? I mean, this is where your career just hits a zenith when you got stopped by John and Yoko. Is that true? Yeah, I was coming from a photo session with Francisco Scavullo. Jesus. I was in full makeup for the read-through with Jill Clayberg. Jill Clayberg. I'm walking through the lobby of 30 Rock, and through my peripheral vision, I see these two forms, and they come into focus. Holy shit. It's John and Yoko.

39:43God damn. And as they pass in front of me, John goes, hi, Lorraine. You know, not hi, hi, Lorraine, you know. Wow. And I was like Lou Costello in those series, you know, like Frankenstein. I was like, exactly. Yeah.

40:01Dana Carvey:Yeah. That's exactly what I was like. John, I always, you know, there were so many intersections that happened to have my cast with different people and Paul McCartney and so forth. But yeah, it was always bittersweet. I would love to have met John Lennon. Oh, my God. Yeah. Would love to have met him. Well, Christopher Lee was the person that I was very excited to meet. I had lobbied for him to be a host for three years, but it wasn't until he was in a James Bond movie that he hosted. That they put him in. Interesting. And God, was he a great host. Of course, he immediately said, I do not want to do Dracula.

40:37He was like, oh, fuck.

40:38Dana Carvey:Wah, wah. He's your Steven Seagal? Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to play Coco the Clown I don't want to do Dracula Lorraine I was just saying that because when Steven hosted I think I got a bad rap of being quoted in sometimes these stories that that's our worst host but the truth is I did like Steven Seagal and I liked his movies and I was just trying I was saying he was sort of known to others as a bad host he wouldn't roll with the flow and I think both of you know that the best thing to do if you're a host is to just put your hands up and go, what do you want me to do? And if you're Christopher Lee, we'll make a track that we won't make you look like an asshole.

41:16This will be a funny version. People like it. And he wouldn't do any karate monologue. And we wanted to do Kung Fu fighting or something stupid. And he just was latching on to wanting to be cool. And I got what he was saying. He's like, I have an image. And it was just too hard to trust us and talk him out of that. That's all. He wasn't a bad guy to me. Well, I didn't mean to imply that he was difficult. He was absolutely great. Sure, but a lot of people don't want to do that. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. A lot of people just say they get on there or the music. We had that a lot. The music doesn't want to do their hit song.

41:54You want to go, you get two songs. You could do whatever you want on the second one. But the first one, can you please do your hit?

42:03Dana Carvey:It's kind of when a host comes in like there's an athlete or we had George Steinbrenner, a billionaire owns the New York Yankees. So George Steinbrenner, so he's got kind of, you know, he's a billionaire. He's George, and Al Franken pitched him something to the effect. In the sketch, he would be on all fours in a diaper with a dog collar. It's funny. Just, you're like, Al, he's not going to do that. Well, I think it's really funny. Remember Conan was saying at dinner, We saw Conan, he was saying, he and Bob Odenkirk had to go pitch to George Steinbrenner, and he fucking hated it and said, I'm not doing that shit.

42:45Get out of here. And they leave, and Lorne goes, give it another try. What? Go back in? Yeah, Lorne was -

42:51Dana Carvey:We have to go back in. Oh, my God. I did a sketch once. It was during Matthew - Broderick? Married to Sarah Jessica Parker. Broderick, yeah. Broderick. Matthew Broderick. So, we were all bare-chested in diapers in the sketch. and so the sketch bombs I mean it really bombs I mean it's dead quiet and then you have to walk off, it's too busy no one puts a robe, you're walking through 8H, through the audience with a big diaper on and a sketch that just shit itself and then I looked at an audience member and did a little like, hey how you doing? a little wave and they looked away they were like embarrassed for my first season they looked away oh the pain of pain i know it's like we're talking about humiliation that's what comedy is in a sketch if it's bombing it's the grossest feeling to sit there looking at the you're looking at the cards your near next line's coming you're like we should end it right now it's going nowhere it takes your chances the sickest if it kills a dress and then on air you're like what happened i know that's the worst well that's the alchemy of the show you know shit Well, sometimes the dress show is so hot, and you're like, I don't like this.

44:07Dana Carvey:Yeah. Because then the air show is not so hot, and a lot of invited guests, and then all of a sudden the same, and it's half the laugh, and then you've gotten spoiled with the dress show. But sometimes the air audience was the best, so you never knew, but it was a high wire act.

44:25Lorraine, I don't want to keep you forever, but do you ever get mad and say MEPs? say what mebs mebs what do you say in coneheads maps it's mebs m-e-b-s mebs m-e-b um i've been saying it wrong i've been saying it wrong every time i stubbed my toe that's all right i was in coneheads i was in the coneheads really yeah i played that's great that's right i played you

44:51Dana Carvey:were in the call i wasn't in that one but i i just dana it was almost jury duty it was everybody it It was Ellen DeGeneres, Phil Hartman, Sinbad, Schneider, Sandler. I was too big at the time, and I had a beach house, and I didn't really. I was turning down a lot of things. I'm just processing this idea of when it came out, the idea that the character's name was what the character was. So the Coneheads had Coneheads. So I always loved that. And that's why I said the church lady is the church lady, you know. Or people would probably call it. You see a sketch where he plays like a church lady. Right.

45:31Dana Carvey:Well, did that, I mean, did Carol Burnett and Flip Wilson or whatever, did they do that? Because that was the first time I saw it. It's a certain knowing dry silliness that the character's name is what the character is. It was that predate SNL. But I love that about Coneheads. I don't know. You don't know is the answer. I don't know, Dana. I don't know what happened with Flip Wilson. Exactly. I love all those variety shows They were great Lorraine do you laugh when you're going to do Coneheads in rehearsal Does it kill at the table or is there any Weirdness along the week going What if this just does not work I adored Danny's writing I absolutely adored it And he could do no wrong As far as I was concerned Even if it was like something really Subtle and tasty that I knew the audience would not get.

46:26That was fine with me. That is fun too. Because you know, some of those sketches you're like, I don't care how it does. I love it. We need to do it. And Loren's good at keeping stuff like that on. He's like, I don't care if it doesn't work. This is what we, this represents us. That's a good sketch. Jack Handy used to write a lot of really weird ones and we all loved him at Read Through and he goes, put it on, put it on. That's part of the magic of the show

46:47Dana Carvey:is that that sensibility is allowed even if it doesn't kill. And yeah, Dan Aykroyd would write these long, He would talk really super fast and have all this language coming out of him. And you'd have to just figure out later what he was saying. But the Coneheads was silly and it was, I mean, how many times did you think you did that? It seemed like it was on a lot. Gosh, I do not know. I just know that the one time that we did an extended version where we filmed us going back to Remulac. Remulac. Yeah. We had never been in the Cones longer than the length of a sketch. but this was like a whole day and the spirit gum started to burn you know this is where it was anchored here unproven yeah oh my god and so you know jane and danny were in the front seat and they just started smoking weed and i was in the back seat and we were on location or something yes we were shooting on location oh i'd be terrified all improvised too because you know know we didn't get permits we went to a gas station to fill the tank and danny did a bit of drinking the the gasoline but you know it was like gorilla because you got no permits or anything like that and you're in your outfit you're a giant head and everything walking around i got a question when you do coneheads uh did you have to do it either cold open or after update because there's so much it was always at the top of the show when i did gap girls it was so much work they could only put it first or after update because that's the biggest chunk.

48:22You have update and music and that's like 12 minutes or something.

48:25Dana Carvey:And did you get stoned that day then? No, I didn't. I never was able to perform high. I mean, I tried it with a couple beers once out of nerves. To work and do, yeah. Well, you know, heroin is good for doing sketch work, dear. I think the new thing about fentanyl is what makes James Wood. it's the meth is what informs his choices marcy please more popcorn anyway um you know that thing that you said about lauren is very astute because that is what causes an audience to come to you you know it's like you you don't write for them you let them come you write for us yeah and you let them come to you and some things like like cheeseburger cheeseburger one of those like they that might not work the first time there's a lot of sketches that might not work and by the time it comes on you don't realize they really did like it they had to watch it and think about it and then their friends talk about it and you go that is good it gets it's kind of hooky or even if it's not a catchphrase just a smart bit and then you go oh fuck that's bigger but also that was active and high energy and i've said this before but for me personally when i was doing johnny carson on the show and sort of a new way great impression by the way thank you my kind of my favorite thing because i did i thought i enjoyed it so much and i had phil of course there um that the drafts i didn't forgot he did god i forgot he did anything you are correct sir you are correct sir those of you at home who um you're watching a television and um that's how you're seeing the pictures we are not actively in your living room you know the i how johnny would include everyone in the country and on stuff and i didn't care and i was in my sixth season or something but i wasn't thinking whether it was going to get a laugh because i intrinsically knew it was so fucking it was almost too funny some things that i'll watch sometimes are so funny that i know i'm gonna i can't even laugh as hard as i want to laugh i'm gonna laugh later because you want to hear it i want to hear it and it hits you so hard but the rock and roll sketches are easier it was or you look at an old sketch like even from lorraine's uh seasons and you go i didn't even really get that back then like how funny it was like I was too young and now you look back you go holy shit that's so well done or smarter because I was just like looking for the easy jokes I'm younger you know and then it then you get older and you start to like different stuff but you go back and go oh fuck that was so good yeah that's an interesting point I've experienced that too yeah did you go on update a lot and do characters um I did it a couple of times uh when um When Sid Vicious murdered his girlfriend.

51:10There's a hilarious topic. Go ahead. I went on as his mother, saying that he was a good boy. I think Brian was Sid Vicious. He just had the wig on and he just looked completely mad. I was just going on, I did my best.

51:31Dana Carvey:I did my best I don't know I don't know, we've had a great time here Oh my god, Michael Caine And I don't know But then of course I did the reporter You know, Lorraine Newman Which was kind of in that sort of Reporter dialect in a sense A language of breaking news Right now, this at the whole That kind of thing I'm standing here I always had heard I heard that song And, you know, you know what I'm talking about, Dana, the song that they do that that is a newscaster song. Oh, right. That. Well, no, the song in their voice. Yeah. Oh, got it. Yes, it is. You know, it's it is a song. I did it in stand up and I don't know if I got it from Robert Klein, but it was a newsman ordering dinner with his wife.

52:26Dana Carvey:If I can remember, it was like a surprise kind of on my wife tonight. He's at a restaurant. She'll have the steak medium rare and a cup of black coffee instead of the traditional cream and sugar. I saw that bit. You did? I must have done it on a talk show or something. I could have done it on a talk show or stand up. That's a great bit. I'm like you. I love all voices. I love all dialects. And I so enjoy when I see people do them on Saturday Night Live. The new young cast member does a Trump that is so brilliant. Oh, my God. And so, and I just, that's like so funny and so brilliant. I, you know, I have to like watch it later almost because he's doing so many hooks.

53:07Dana Carvey:Excuse me. And the people, a lot of people that are saying many, and he's doing all that stuff. His Biden is great too. His Biden is just, his debut. Come on. This is good stuff. We can do this. We can do it. No, here's the deal. My father lost his job. I'm not kidding around here. We can in fact do better. We can. It's because I'm out of my mind. Let me smell your hair Biden is an interesting one You know, the evolution of doing a president Is that the country still has to get used to Biden The kind of defensive guy has come out A little bit angry And then befuddled all the different flavors he has But we're still discovering him The whisper thing And then he goes kind of loud And sort of my dad would do that when he was 90 It was kind of a patronizing whisper Because I know what I'm doing Oh man That's right We can do this Come on Number one The one part Number two What the guy said Number three Come on folks He's always admonishing us For not understanding It's not rocket science There's some really Really interesting New cast members Yeah Chloe Fineman She's a groundling She's a friend Of my daughter Hannah's Been telling me About her for years So I watched Your daughter today She's She's really Really funny And talented Thank you so much I just saw her on Colbert because I knew I was going to be talking to you.

54:28Dana Carvey:And she reminds me of you. There's a droll drive. Yeah, I mean, there's just a – well, I would just say this. Her stuff is very smart, you know. Thank you. Yes, we're just, you know, beside ourselves. She belongs there. I mean, she's going – she is having a career. She's on Hacks now. Yes. She's just really good. And so I can't imagine what that must feel like to have someone have success because you look at her mom and now you're the daughter and following a big act to follow. And she's doing great. Well, her talent is completely different than mine. And my older child's talent is also they're also they started doing stand up when they were 15.

55:12And they're on Losa Spooky's, Julio's show. and they both their talent is completely different than mine and that is exciting to watch but you know my only contribution really was when this is so inappropriate but when i was driving when i was driving them to school i mean this is like grade school i would play the sklar brothers and maria Bamford and Patton Oswalt, you know. Okay. Maria's story. Because mommy needed to be entertained, damn it. You know, I was not going to listen to radio fucking Disney another second, you know. You gave him some good stand-ups. Wow.

55:54Dana Carvey:Yeah. But your daughter, when she came on Colbert the first time, this is Hannah, she did kind of like a little story about her mom and dad and sperm donors and stuff. And it was very, very sketch. That's why it wasn't traditional stand-up. That's why it reminded me of your style. Yeah, she's very different. And I saw her set at Dynasty Typewriter this last Sunday, and it was pretty much new material and 40-minute set, and it was so good and so interesting. It was like, how the hell did you come up with that stuff? Interesting. Wow. Well, that's a great way to close the podcast because that's like this gigantic, perfect, full circle.

56:36Dana Carvey:Yeah. Talking about that and, you know, the apple does not fall very far from the tree. You'll find. But anyway, that's very sweet, Lorraine. I'm so happy. I think I met one of your daughters or both of them at that Al Franken thing we did. It was probably Hannah. Probably Hannah. Yeah. She's, you know, whatever, just a sweet little girl. Yeah. But now she's, that's cool. Well, I've really enjoyed this a lot. I hope you did. This was so fun, you guys. I really did. And thank you for having me too. And good luck with it. I know it's a really fun thing to do. Hey guys, if you're loving this podcast, which you are, be sure to click follow on your favorite podcast app.

57:17Give 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. Mattie Sprung-Kaiser, and Leah Reese Dennis of Odyssey.

57:39Dana Carvey:Our senior producer is Greg Holtzman, and the show is produced and edited by Phil Sweet-Tech. Booking by Cultivated Entertainment. Special thanks to Patrick Fogarty, Evan Cox, Maura Curran, Melissa Wester, Hilary Schuff, 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.