RE-RELEASE - Tony Hawk

13:45Dana Carvey:skateboarding because in arizona it was that yeah well skateboarding is a culture too which

13:50Tony Hawk:we'll talk about i mean it's more than sure and then once i started doing it i kind of fell in love with the misfit aspect because i never really felt like i fit in with my school so are you

14:01Dana Carvey:saying to me that are you saying tony that you may not have absolute physical gifts like someone who could just larry bird got a basketball and just like came right away eddie van halen got his son his son his brother's guitar sat on the bed at 8 a.m and played till midnight right it just spoke to him so when you got on the board it just spoke to you and it spoke to me but but in no way

14:26Tony Hawk:was i a natural a natural you you would do that i would just do it but i would just do it endlessly like i would go i would go from school to the skate park stay there until my mom got off work at the, she worked at community college at 8 or 9 p.m. and then she'd have to drag me away until they turned the lights off. Did you ever annoy them

14:46Dana Carvey:because bad skateboarding kids are really loud. Like they're constantly falling and banging. It's not a very relaxing thing as a parent watching bad skateboarders. You didn't have steel wheels. You weren't that far back, were you? Not that far back. Did you have a yellow freeform with a split tail?

15:00Tony Hawk:No, but. Geez, what's going on, man? He's flexing. Or a bane. I did have a, bane was my first board. Okay. Okay.

15:08Dana Carvey:You like that, Dane? What? You like that shit? Bane? Yeah. Okay, let me go back to - This guy's legit. Let me go back to more Larry King type stuff. Yeah, I do. So there you are. No, I have a psychological -

15:17Tony Hawk:But we want to get into the weeds of urethane and clay wheels. We have a psychological question for him.

15:22Dana Carvey:My son had a - When I was just talking on the way over here, he just had a comment. He wanted you to comment on, this is jumping ahead a little bit, the turf war at a skate park between the BMXers, the rollerbladers, and the skaters, even though it's called a skate park. So, okay. So what, what do you, uh, will you comment please on that? Mr. Mr. Hawk. I'd say rollerbladers lose.

15:44Tony Hawk:I got lucky in that I was a sort of a generation before that was happening. And at some point I got very lucky that I was still skating when rollerblading started to be on the rise because I was struggling to make a living at skateboarding. And I got to be the special guest at rollerblade shows. this is a rollerblade show but we got special guest skateboarder tony hawk here and thank god that was paying my mortgage literally so i never had the beef i saw it i under you know i saw it playing out and people were whatever having bad stereotypes with everything yeah um but i love everyone you're like the godfather though so if they see you do you win because you're a skater and they're like oh the fucking king is i don't i is more that i grew up i grew up to not that grew up but but eventually i was in all the x games and doing all that and then we were all sort of brethren the bmxers even the inliners um and the skateboarders because we rode the same terrain and we were all sort of coming up together yeah so i i didn't feel that turf war like you said um i will say that it's tricky when you have a lot of bmxers and a lot of skateboarders a skate park because bmxers are silent and you can't see them coming you get hit you don't hear them coming right because the rubber tires and everything yeah yeah so that that can be an issue and so i i think that there's a good some skate parks assign certain days for bikes and certain

17:18Dana Carvey:days for skateboarding i think that helps it seems to me as a layman that the rollerblader has the device attached to his feet the bmxer is hanging on to the device right and the skateboard guy has to stand on the fucking thing. And it's like seemed much harder. Yeah, there's some apples to oranges there. I gotta say. I guess. I mean, I would, I was such a baby. That was when there were steel wheels back in the 60s. A really steep hill. Yeah. I'd sometimes just sit on the fucking thing. Stand for a new, yeah. We used to catamaran down some hills. Oh, yeah. At the wedge in Arizona. And big wipeouts at the end when you catamaran.

17:54Always. With your friend. And then it's almost fun to wipe them.

17:56Tony Hawk:Yeah, we would do it down really steep grass hills just so that we knew, because we knew we were going to wipe out. And then we just come up. So you might live. Yeah. Exactly. I actually wiped out at High Roller. I'll tell you that in a second. High Roller skate park.

18:09Dana Carvey:Can we just finish off this young Tony for a second? Just you're just a quirky kid. You weren't a natural athlete. You got a hold of a skateboarder from someone in the neighborhood or you're nine years old? Older brother. Yeah. And then it just spoke to you. You became possessed. Yes. And then with the zest is good. Yes. Within three years of that, you were world-class or where were you? At 12, it was something or 14. You were such a quantum leap.

18:37Tony Hawk:I started skating around age 10 and then got really into it. As I dove into it completely, it took a downturn in popularity. So it was sort of like at the time when I was really starting to come into my own and fall in love with it, it was all the world was crumbling away around me. And so I got sponsored at age 12 by Dogtown Skateboards, which didn't really mean a whole lot. It just meant that sometimes they would send me free skateboards. That was pretty much it. And then I moved up - So no money. No money. Sponsor, I never knew what that meant, but I thought Dogtown was the coolest one. Free gear.

19:18Tony Hawk:Free gear. And then that moved me up to the sponsored division. And that kind of lit a fire because suddenly I was skating with people who are much more advanced and I had to figure out how to navigate that. And then I rose to the top of the amateur ranks within two years. And then I actually turned pro at age 14. But when you turn pro, like what that means is I was filling out an entry form to the competition and there's your name and address. And then there's a box that says amateur and there's a box that says pro. So I checked the pro box. That was the only difference? That was it. Do you remember the first time you made money?

19:54Tony Hawk:Or sorry, go. That was competing for$100 first place. Okay. 75 second 50 for third i got fourth so no money no money do you remember your first check for

20:04Dana Carvey:doing this or my first check was 50 bucks when i got third place 50 bucks yeah i got paid three dollars for my first set oh yeah money for your first set that's pretty rare robin williams was there i think we it was ten dollars i think he took seven i took three her her 70 30 oh seven seven dollars do you want to be famous i asked him oh i just want to play for the people never forgot that oh you're playing pretty well god rest his soul good friend anyway tony that's remarkable how are your parents reacting to this and your brother are you is there a sibling thing

20:34Tony Hawk:like tony's a superstar well he was he was um he is 13 years older than me so okay so he was in college and uh just kind of watched it well he was there sometimes but my parents i think they saw what it provided me just in terms of my sense of self and self-confidence and finally kind of focusing all of my energy and frustrations onto that instead of them so they were thankful and they were supportive and there were many very few parents were supportive because of the danger

21:08Dana Carvey:of it or or just that because of the culture of it like you're a surfer dude and you weren't going to go to school yeah even though there's a rumor you're smart but we have no proof it says here your IQ is 144 144 maybe at one point you're at least half as high as that mine's yeah mine's incredibly smart he's a chess champion that was his thing that's that's what I got off of that to go into skateboarding which was a mistake some of us didn't go pro Tony and didn't get fourth place

21:35Tony Hawk:so you got paid $50 yeah and then eventually got my own skateboard model and that's when I started receiving real checks royalty checks for between four and five dollars a month Four and five a month? That's not too bad. $4.85. Did you design it? How did you get your own model? I designed the shape of it, and then my sponsor, Pal Peralta, they designed the graphics of it. Oh. But then something happened in the mid-'80s where suddenly skateboarding kind of came around again, and I found myself in high school making six figures from royalties on those skateboards.

22:08Dana Carvey:So you're already an entrepreneur. You're a businessman already as you're a superstar athlete. Yeah, I didn't see it that way. But were other kids doing it as well? Did you have other dudes or women in the school that were doing it? Not at school. No.

22:23Tony Hawk:That was the weird thing is that there was this resurgence of skateboarding. It was popular, but not a mainstream or widespread popularity. So I was still the outcast at school. I literally would hide my skateboard in the bushes when I go to school because people would hassle me if I carried around. They would yell skater fact. Skater what? I was pro. So I was pro and I was traveling to places like Florida, to places like Phoenix to go to these big events and sign autographs and then come to school. And I was a ghost.

22:53Dana Carvey:Can I ask you just a technical question? Yes. Because it would seem to me when I watch gymnasts and stuff that you growing to six foot three, is that an advantage, disadvantage or neutral? In terms of doing upside down flips, you have to have a bigger range. The math of that. When did you get to six three? Not till I was in my late teens. So you're becoming a brilliant skateboard and you're growing. And so you're adapting your revolutions to that height. Yeah.

23:23Tony Hawk:And I was still very flexible when I got tall. So it was to an advantage because I finally was able to get speed and get more height. And because I could ball up, I could still do those spins and things, but at greater heights. So your height begat the speed. Yeah. I can't say it's helped me into my older age, but it definitely helped me. Interesting. Okay. David? Okay. Mike, psychological question. I'm the layman. He's a skateboard. Now, when you grew up in San Diego, and what was the park in Carlsbad? Was it Big O? What's that? So there was Oasis Skate Park in San Diego. And then that closed.

24:00Tony Hawk:And then Del Mar Skate Ranch was the last park in that era. Okay. So let's say Tony's -

24:06Dana Carvey:Do you remember Vans? Do you remember Vans? Vans Skate Park? Yeah. Yeah, that's much later. For one of my kids' birthdays, I bought the place. Which one, Ontario or Orange? It was like Milpitas or something. It's South Peninsula. Yeah, that was... Vans. That made him the coolest kid in school. That was a good part. Yeah. You know what, David? Spring always makes me think about simplifying my closet. You like that? Keeping fewer pieces, but making sure they're actually worth wearing every day. that's why personally I keep coming back to Quince their clothes feel thoughtful well made well made yeah and uh what I mean the pricing makes sense that's right their men's linen pants and shirts are lightweight breathable strike the perfect balance between relaxed and polished I was surprised how comfortable they are while still looking you know pretty put together there that's right and their flow knit active wear don't get me started so soft moisture wicking and anti-odor gosh it's the kind of active where you actually want to live in the best part is you're getting premium quality without paying a premium brand markup quince works directly with ethical factories and cuts out the middlemen so you get pieces built to last at prices 50 to 60 percent less than similar brands everything is designed to make your wardrobe easier and better refresh your wardrobe with quince go to quince.com slash fly for free shipping and 365 day returns now available in canada too go to q u i n c e.com fly for free shipping and 365 day returns quince.com slash fly.

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26:52now let's say because i did get to golf with tiger woods let's say he's the best in golf that's sort of generally known and you are let's say generally known as the best skater uh is it is it something in you that makes you not want to give up number one because you still skate you don't really have to skate anymore you could stop and yeah well i never did it for fame or fortune

27:13Tony Hawk:You still like it. But those things weren't even dreams. No, I had the same.

27:19Dana Carvey:I asked my wife, did I ever talk about being rich or famous? Never. I was in the club and I just wanted to be the best guy in that club. So I totally relate to that.

27:26Tony Hawk:But in skateboarding, no one was rich or famous when I started. No one could aspire to that. What do you aspire to? I don't know. I'm going to be pro. No one's making money. You get that$100 check and your picture in the magazine. And so that was never the motivation. And so having come this far and having success I would have never dreamed, I still just want to skate. I mean, it really is what you want to push it that hard. You're the first superstar of skateboarding. I think I've turned a corner on that, to be honest. I mean, you've proven everything, but I guess it's still fun to be like, you're still as good as everyone.

27:57We go to comedy clubs, you still want to do as good as these guys. You know, it's the same thing.

28:00Tony Hawk:Sure, yeah, I can't. That's the thing though. I can't phone it in. And everyone's watching you. I can't, yeah. And so if I were to feel like I'm not really of a professional level, I wouldn't do it in public or on camera. Yeah. But I'm, I'm just like, I still walk the walk.

28:17Dana Carvey:I totally relate to what you're saying. You know, when I go to do a day, I can't help, I just want to dominate, but it's, it's not in an unfair way. Like you have your peers. Just to do, but to do your personal best.

28:29Tony Hawk:Yeah. Yeah.

28:30Dana Carvey:And not because you want to destroy everyone else. No, no, but it's, it's, it becomes a de facto comedy competition sometime. And there's a lot of subjectivity to it when 10 guys go on and we're supposed to be just hanging out at the comedy store doing our sets, but it's always like, you're the best setter. He couldn't follow you. It's a gunslinger thing. Right. But it's not as much with David and I. Well, I did enjoy you guys after Chris Rock. Oh, you saw that? I saw that, yeah. Did you sense the awkwardness? Because we were Caucasians. Neither of you guys handled it very well. I didn't want anyone to figure that out, but they did right away.

29:03Dana Carvey:Well, they were, yeah, it was good. We were there to facilitate, but I can't join in on those conversations. No, but I thought you guys did a good job moderating it. Well, we wanted to joke. First of all, we liked everybody there. The panel was cool. We hung with them all day. I love JB. JB's funny. He's hysterical. He came out of his shell that night. You know what? For the first time, he lit. He finally opened him up. He was poking and prodding. Yeah. He lit his cigar backstage. He'd held it for 20 years. That's right. The whole day. That went so good, I'm going to light this up. I said, JB, you are smooth.

29:34Dana Carvey:Because that's my name. Arsenio's smooth. He was nice. And we've known Chris. David's especially close with Chris but known since 1990 yeah and uh that was sort of how it came about like we had a podcast we're always together we're together anyway SNL it's Chris we're all buddies let's put a panel together let's I guess they want to make the event bigger so why not we'll talk about it but there's some stuff in there if I had some heavy controversial opinions I would say them but I didn't really I just watched the jokes liked them said a few funny things but when it got really heavy things i don't want to comment i mean i want to let them talk and that was why we're all there the same thesis but it happened to chris and he owned it and expanded it but i thought it was always about something else that anger right with the wife i mean it was pretty obvious but he laid it out perfectly and what was fascinating to me is that very rarely does the world watch quote unquote the world and we all know the story oh yeah we all saw the slap and all the reaction and then a year later we have a guy who got connected to it in such a way because chris doesn't flub lines but i think the emotion was so strong at that moment which made it better because it was live and real yeah that this was a more than a mic drop he was working some stuff out and um it you know i he just wondered casually is this is this over now or i mean me another special next year we've all been bullied me and chris used to talk about i was pushed around arizona i was always a pipsqueak and i hated it and chris hated it and uh i'm sure dana got a little bit of it well no no way more i got no i got bullied by a grown man family knocked out and shit yeah yeah and so when you get like that i can see when things like that set you off road rage shit because people try to fuck with me they'll hit on a date right in front of me they'll go oh this guy gonna say anything or they'll say that you're not gonna his shit and that anger builds up over your whole life and so chris getting that on stage at the oscars in my head i was like i don't know if i could continue life it'd just be it's so humiliating and then you don't fight back should i have shit so you go on and on and will i thought got off pretty easy because banning from the oscars is one thing but banning from getting an oscar is i thought should be stronger for a couple years he doesn't have to go to the silly show who cares go to the vanity fair party just wait and watch people walk in they'll bring it in on a platter Yeah, I saw him there after the Vanity Fair party.

31:57And then I saw Chris at Gallo's.

31:59Tony Hawk:And Chris was pretty cool. So I saw Chris the next morning. Where were you? I was staying up here and I saw him at breakfast. Oh, you did? Yeah, and he was alone at a table. And I just came in. He's always alone. Well, tell us what you said to him. I just said, I thought that you handled that like a maestro. And he said, yeah, I don't think that had anything to do with me. But he already had a clear piece of, you know.

32:23Dana Carvey:Yeah, he has his own history with that family. Sit on it for a year. It's God driving crazy, but at least he let it all out. It was great. I feel like he's. I think that was a literal mic drop. I don't think he got it all out. I don't think he has anything else to say. Right, right. But I hope it continues. People have said to David and I, if we had a real feud, this podcast would blow up. No, we're trying. I'm trying to find a way to get mad at him, but he's pretty mellow. You want to be part of it? It's a wedge here. let's see he's pretty mellow i'm trying to work up anger but i just can't i want to have credit

32:57Tony Hawk:for that no but what you say about bullying i mean and in our day it was you just you got picked on yeah i just they're always picking on me that you know we pick on him and that that was totally accepted yeah and there's no there were no resources a lot of it is not grandiose like a lot of it is

33:13Dana Carvey:just the uh the guy in the locker room just takes the back of your neck and just just quickly just pushes you down to the floor. They used to know you're going to do nothing.

33:23Tony Hawk:Because I was so small, they would pick me up in the hallway and spin me around once. By the way, nothing more humiliating.

33:28Dana Carvey:Now that's why you were so great doing 360. You got to thank the guys. Let's go, wait, let's go two

33:34Tony Hawk:and a half this time.

33:37Dana Carvey:Tony Hawk became brilliant because of bullies who would flip him, throw him in the air, throw him across the room, roll him down the hill. By the time you got a skateboard, you go, no one's trying to hit me. I don't think you get picked up like I do. When people pick me up at a party, I fucking flip out. And to this day it happens. I go, if you pick me up, we're dead for life. We're not friends ever again. Oh my God. It's like the most humiliating asshole move. I would get picked up too. Yeah. And they'd throw you against the locker. I had a girl pick me up. And that was my mom. That's it. That's it.

34:04After I came to my pants, I said, this is over.

34:10Surprise ending.

34:12Dana Carvey:A happy surprise. So Tony. Well, Tony. Tony, um... You know, let's ask him about the movie we did. We have to talk about that. Oh, yeah, okay. Well, I just... Oh, go ahead. You got something else to point out? I'm still so fascinated how... Well, just to make one casual observation. The sport went fallow for a while. You come up, you're emerging right as the sport is going. And so you're the first. I don't know if there's a second or there are these after superstars, but to the casual observer, you are skating. you're who how many people their name is a brand it's funny because i don't know i you know i know skating i know some names but it's synonymous tony with tony is at that level yeah well i i can tell

34:54Tony Hawk:you i i credit a lot of that for a successful video game oh that's right because your name because our our game in huge letters had had huge success they're gigantic yeah that was where you made the most money right oh yeah and so people would would see my name synonymous with a successful video games. So that kind of added to the recognition factor.

35:16Dana Carvey:Well, that's the cool thing is that you're the video game guy and then you're still actually the best guy who can physically do it. Doesn't always happen. So that's so much power. So how did the video game quickly, how did that come about? They approached you, you got to a certain level and a company approached you and were you in on the design of it and so forth and so on?

35:34Tony Hawk:So I was actually working with a PC programmer who came to me and said, hey I have an idea for a skateboard game. Nerd. What's that? Nerd, nerd. We were two nerds. Nerd alert. Literally knocking on doors. We were going to console manufacturers, we were going to software companies and saying, How old are you? So this was like around 97, 96, 97.

35:59Dana Carvey:So you're huge at that point, right?

36:01Tony Hawk:Yeah. Well, there was sort of a gap in skating's popularity in the early 90s. so it went underground very much so and that's kind of when street skating emerged okay so this game they don't come to you fully formed they say do it with us well no what happened was this he and I went to meetings and we just got shut down everywhere we went they said skateboarding's not popular classic why would anyone want to play a skateboarding game okay and at the time there weren't that many home consoles there were there were some but not it wasn't did you go to Nintendo or Atari no so he gave up he got frustrated okay And he actually told me, he said, look, I got to find a job, but I feel like we've made some headway in terms of putting your name out there that you're interested in doing this.

36:47Tony Hawk:And then maybe something will come of that. I remember thinking, yeah, okay, buddy, sure. And then almost a year later, Activision called me and said, hey, we heard you want to do a video game. I said, well, yes, very much so. And they said, well, we are doing a video game of skateboarding and we'd like your input or to see if you want to get involved. So I went up to Activision and they were working on this game that was based on an engine that they had already made for a game called Apocalypse starring Bruce Willis. Okay. It was the first game that had a celebrity lookalike. Oh. Mm-hmm. You know.

37:21Tony Hawk:Avatar, I guess they call it. Avatar, sure. Not the movie, but just literal. And his voice. But it didn't do very well. But the engine was perfect for skateboarding. The engine means the motion. The motion in the game. So the first time I ever played what became Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was Bruce Willis on a skateboard with a gun on his back doing kickflips. Okay. Like through a desert. And it was Bruce Willis? That's hysterical.

37:46Dana Carvey:Yeah, that was it. Was there a breakthrough moment or an epiphany like how to make a skateboard thing as exciting as a war one or something?

37:55Tony Hawk:Well, when I played the game, I knew then like this is the way it should. Because you're feeling it. I'm feeling it and it was intuitive. but suddenly I was doing tricks right away. So I thought with my resources, we could probably make something that is legitimate. I wasn't thinking it was going to go gangbusters because I still heard those voices saying, who would want to play a skateboard game? And when I told them, I had a Nintendo 64 at the time and I said, oh, we're going to make this for Nintendo 64. And they go, no, we're making this for PlayStation. There's a million PlayStations out there.

38:26Tony Hawk:There aren't a million Nintendo 64s. And so I went along with that, obviously. Another smart idea. Not long after, when it had success in the beginning, they called me and said, you get your wish. We're going to do Nintendo 64. Great. I was like, cool. And then we ended up doing all the systems. Wow. And did the first guy, you wet the beak on him a little bit or not? Did he go away for good?

38:47Dana Carvey:Show business term, wet the beak.

38:49Tony Hawk:Give him a little taste.

38:50Dana Carvey:A little taste.

38:51Tony Hawk:No, I felt bad for that guy. Oh, he's totally.

38:54Dana Carvey:Well, so you had gross points. I mean, I don't know whatever, but you're an owner. You're an owner. And so being an owner is king. and um oh yeah i mean it changed my life so it just starts rolling in and then it gets bigger

39:06Tony Hawk:by the time the fourth game no i remember my first i remember writing my first check to the irs and thinking this is more this is more than the money i'd ever think i'd made in my lifetime it's interesting to the irs so the rich do pay the fair share the only one who did it was tony hawk

39:26Dana Carvey:Tony Hawk I'm this yeah I could have forgotten the loopholes that was Joe Biden sorry I got it he gets it anyway well everything seems to be going well at this point in your existence the game has kicked ass you've won so many X Games world champion done a lot of commercials you land a 900 at some point how long did it take you when I saw that whole video how big a deal was that for you

39:51Tony Hawk:that was well that was for me that was my best exit from competition.

39:58Dana Carvey:So you were thinking, I'm going to land this. No, there was no plan.

40:02Tony Hawk:Oh. It was all spontaneous that night, honestly.

40:06Dana Carvey:So you just thought, so just because I was trying to explain it to my wife and my sons, you're going up in the air really, really high. You're going a full revolution in your body, another full revolution, and then a half a revolution, which, you know, 360, 360, 180, and then hit it. Right. And that was a little Mount Everest kind of thing?

40:29Tony Hawk:For me at that time, yeah, because it's something that I had been trying off and on for 10 years. I did the first 720 in 1985.

40:39Dana Carvey:And that was huge at the time. Yeah, for sure.

40:43Tony Hawk:I mean, in the skateboard world, but the skateboard world wasn't huge. Oh, okay. There were no X Games. There was no social media. Okay, so no one really did. Does it have to be filmed or do they take your word for it? I got a sequence of it. I mean, back then there was, Bones Brigade videos were out, kind of, but really it was more about, did it get in the magazine? So I got a small sequence in Thrasher. Oh, deech, deech, deech, deech, all those photos like that? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a small sequence in Thrasher doing a 720. Fuck yeah, I probably saw. On a backyard ramp in Sweden.

41:10Dana Carvey:So when you landed the 900, what competition were you in? That was at the X Games. At the X Games. That was global television. What? I said, what kind of pussy did you get? I thought that's what you were saying. From mature audiences only. Is that on the video game? I thought that's where you're headed. Not quite. No, so you do the, I get all serious. So what, so you do the - So about 100.

41:29Tony Hawk:You're asking - To answer your question. Well, he's famous. He's out there in Sweden. To answer your question, I was trying it off and on. I couldn't figure it out. I got hurt a couple of times doing it. And then when that event happened in 99, it was the best trick event. And I had one trick planned for that event, which was not the 900. It was a variation of a 720. And I made that early on. so I had 10 minutes to kill in this event and the announcer the live announcer for the audience that was there said why don't we see one of those 900s and I was like great now I'm on the spot crowd okay so I'll try it

42:07Dana Carvey:yeah I watched this last night this isn't the one where you kept trying it is that the one I kept trying it yeah that's one where you go over and over and over like your 10th one and then they all and everyone almost gave up and then you kept doing it

42:19Tony Hawk:well I was I think I think after my third or fourth attempt, I realized that this is the closest I've ever gotten. So there's no way I'm going to give up. It's either I'm going to make this or they're going to take me away. Are you going to get hurt or something? What do you think? Are you thinking right as you take off, like to get height, right? To get as high. There's a bunch of elements, but speed for sure. It's got to be a certain height to get that much spin rotation. the snap is when the moment you leave the ramp you gotta have a snap where you hit your tail and you grab the board at the exact same time and if that doesn't happen your board just flies away immediately and you're stuck kind of spinning in space

43:02Dana Carvey:right as you're about to go you gotta grab your board so you're attached to it

43:06Tony Hawk:and so if you get a good snap then somewhere in the middle of the spin you have to shift your weight towards the front foot that was the part that I couldn't figure out all those years whoa oh interesting and so i mean sorry not not the towards towards the back foot so you spinning if you if you just spin the way that you take off and try to land you're too top heavy so i had to figure out how to sort of shift my weight to the back foot mid spin and that's what you see me working out you mean when you land you'll go face first you won't i did go face first the first time i ever tried to make it so that's why you go i gotta be i gotta with the

43:40Dana Carvey:weight on the back foot it seemed like when you did do it you did sort of a squat and it you Yeah, well, that was me overcompensating. Right, but you didn't leave the board. You set the record. But that was like, yeah, interesting. Wow. Yeah, you know, because when I used to skate, it's fun to watch once I quit because you sort of know a little bit about it enough to know which tricks are hard. So when I see Instagram and I'm like, God damn, like it got so beyond what I could ever do.

44:07Tony Hawk:It's video games now. Like the tricks that you see on Instagram or the pros that you see out there, especially street skaters. it's the kind of thing that we did on our video game and combos as a joke. Because you know, you can never do it. Yeah. No, no one will ever do this. Right. And now they're doing it.

44:22Dana Carvey:Has the equipment gotten better then?

44:25Tony Hawk:The equipment hasn't changed.

44:26Dana Carvey:It's about the same. It seems about the same. I think they have like, they have, you know, plates on track shoes, people running four minute miles, high schoolers, you know, carbon plating. Okay. So it's, they're all about the same weight. They're all about the same wheels.

44:41Tony Hawk:Like when you think about the generations that have come before, they, the generation coming in now establishes that, oh, a 900 is possible. Or these, these tricks, these combos are reality. So that's the baseline of which to start. You could even go crazier. Yeah. You know, they used to have these things, Dan, they're called sky hooks. So if you, if I was like, it was hard for me to, when I got to doing aerials at the old high roller skate park in Arizona. And so when you have to leave the top of the pool, that's being a colossal pussy. This is a doctor telling me this.

45:18Dana Carvey:That's three pussies on this. No, that's just saying I am not tough. All with different connotations. It's a fear. Yeah, totally different meanings every time. It's a fear thing, Dana. Once you leave the top of the ramp. Oh, come on. Don't be a baby. I'll be my dad for a second. It's too scary. And then so I wiped out a high roller trying to do an aerial axle stall. I think I've told Tony this before. And so I. Which to his credit is a pretty gnarly trick. It's a hard trick. It's hard.

45:40Tony Hawk:And it's dangerous. And so you go up, I think David Andryke, someone did those. You get speed, you go up off the pool. You go up out of the pool. It was a pool at the skate park. And you go up and you land on your axles and then you drop back in. Landing is the hard part. Dropping in I could probably do, but I missed it and I wiped out and I fell backwards into the pool and broke both wrists. Now, everyone, all the concerned skaters go, get the fuck out of the bowl. Yeah, yes. Because I was laying there. And you had two broken wrists. I had to drag my board up. And it's hard to walk up from the deep end of the shell.

46:12It's like slippery. So I get out and I'm laying on my brother's. We had the Lee car and Andy got mad because we just got to the skate park. We had two hours. And so I'm laying on the car on the windshield and Andy, they go get Andy, my brother, because he saw me. He goes, I'll just go in the car. We're out of here in two hours. And so the skate park person saw me kind of shaking on the car. I didn't say anything. I knew I was in trouble. And then they went and got Andy and he comes and throws his helmet. He goes, what the fuck? You're fine, right? And I go, yeah. And they go, no, you got to take him home.

46:44You can't stay. And he goes, fuck. So he throws me in the car and he goes, I'm going back. So he dropped me to my stepdad. Oh, and he went back to the C-car. And he went back, yeah. And then I sat there and then my stepdad was buzzed because it was night. He was just drinking. It was morning. And he took me to his clinic and x-rayed him. And I saw a crack down both of them around his corner. I look around the corner. I go, hmm, I didn't even go to med school. I see something going on. did they suck the looks off he goes let's sit on this he was drunk i go what are we waiting for so i lay down and i don't you know we don't have vicarins back then we don't have anything so i'm just lying there sort of whimpering i was whimpering and then uh the next day my mom was take a man and do something so he just gave me splints so then the first day of school i went as a freshman i had two splints but i looked like a badass i had my quicksilvers i had my like an OP shirt carrying Skateporter magazine I didn't

47:37Dana Carvey:we got injured in different ways like my brother popped the wheelie that's what we do pop the wheelie the wheel comes off chips his teeth oh yeah the forks go down you go uh oh this is just a way so he's like got fangs for a while they finally got him you know caps on him and then he's doing a Duncan Imperial going with the yo-yo boom broke him again I'm so old that's pretty sad that's twice you guys were daredevils then he got slinky then he got a slinky and he lost an ear look I don't want to go into the car we were rough and tumble 60s kids it wasn't nothing was

48:11Tony Hawk:nothing was safe trust me I knocked my teeth out my front teeth five times god dang are you really? yeah but the cool thing about that is every time you knock them out you can choose the size and the color oh the only ones you have a very positive but in your adult life that's a thing right so how many bones

48:31Dana Carvey:do you have broken in your body

48:32Tony Hawk:everyone wants to know uh everybody for officially for officially yeah my pelvis my elbow uh my femur and um well i broke my thumb basically concussions how many bruises roughly

48:46Dana Carvey:concussions i had i had many my son did he used to do ramp rats ramp rats with vmx bike i you know you find out later but he was out cold for three minutes once yeah well concussions weren't talked about a lot in the old days no no you just hit your head hard

49:05Tony Hawk:they didn't know bell rung yeah you got his bell rung shook up but they say multiple hard hits is the hardest thing on your brain uh well or in the hundreds in in succession yeah yeah where it's one after the other the end of short time yes absolutely and and um i've been proactive in that and i've i've had the tests and to see if i'm at risk for alzheimer's and it seems that i'm ride. I see a lot of dudes on these Instagram with no helmets doing some gnarly stuff. A little scary. It's kind of a skateboarder cool thing to do, but it is not the smartest. They were trying to, when they put skateboarding in the Olympics, there was a movement, which I found odd, to not have helmets in the park event.

49:47Yeah, you can sing. In the park event where

49:49Tony Hawk:people are flying. Yeah, you're doing rail slides. That's it when it's flat, you're saying? When it's just street stuff? Not when it's street, they're not. But what they were saying in the park event we shouldn't have to wear pads and I was like you guys are I was not in the conversation but so you guys are flying 10 feet above 10 foot pools that's I don't think it's going to go well for the general audience yeah you know it's not like it's supposed to be kind of a fun game I picture parents going yeah you're never going to do that you know we're supported by Ring everyone knows Ring with Ring it's protected look a lot of our shopping happens online an alarming amount an embarrassing amount i'm talking everything from late night snack halls to random gadgets we absolutely don't need but some i have to have and when you're recording or just out and about the last thing you want to be wondering is did my package get delivered or adopted by someone else that's a ring comes in the battery doorbell as you keep track of packages and actually see what's happening in front door no guessing no stress and if you want to really level your setup the outdoor cam plus has a wide field of view with that crisp retinal 2k video so even at night your yard isn't getting away with anything you can even upgrade to 4k cameras

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53:17Dana Carvey:does the skateboarding culture does it overlap with surfing in a way or is that a bad vibe that

53:22Tony Hawk:it also it's not necessarily a cannabis culture it was kind of oh uh well i i'd say skateboarding is so diverse now that i wouldn't just zero in on something like that i i feel like this definitely has been associated with skating they had the phrase surfer bum do they have skater bum um skate rat i think skate rat is more like to someone who yeah but i think on the outside especially in the in those days when skating wasn't very popular there was a there was a sort of view of skating that was oh they're slackers they're wake up late they're stoners right and i guess you could view it like that but i feel like skating requires so much discipline

54:03Dana Carvey:that that was sort of being ignored it's very technical that's true we were we were sort of outliers because you didn't fit in anywhere at our school so my brother and i we took my kids to europe and they because we were middle class kids got some money we're in italy but all they wanted all they talked about was statues and monuments i could catch so much air off that oh yeah everything

54:23Tony Hawk:was about what they could skate off of you know kind of any angle and i remember when one of the palaturas went to the vatican and i tail dropped off one of the sculptures and i'm sure they love

54:34Dana Carvey:people didn't really like that yeah wait a minute you you were in the vatican and skateboarding

54:38Tony Hawk:in the vatican city in the oh in that area yeah yeah we we were just skating that's that was the thing in those days all we cared about was skating so it was anything yeah yeah the sightseeing was just more incidental to us getting to skate that day uh stairs what was that what would you get

54:53Dana Carvey:most excited about just in sort of urban back in those days anything that resembled a ramp or a

54:59Tony Hawk:bank or like a reservoir. Even Kettner School here, I used to see in Skateboard Magazine. So when I came here, I had to go find it. And it was kind of lame. It was just slight banks on asphalt, but it was something. That was the early days. Yeah. Do some Bertelmans. You know, show off a little bit. Bertelmans? Oh yeah. Just a little. That's a surf term. Is that right? I do little tail blockers because there's really no danger to it. You just turn around. I have a photo. I'm representing the audience at home. In the first Bones Brigade newsletter, I had a photo doing a Bertelman at Cantor Banks.

55:32Oh, for real? Yeah. Jeez. We used to go to Bertelman's Deli for bagels. A good thing is, if Tony's a photographer across me, if you go up to him and there's a camera low and you do a tail block, put your hand down. Oh, yeah. That's a good picture. That's the hero angle. Yeah, that's a good one. Let's talk about the movie. Oh, well, you were in Jackass, too, before we get to Police Academy.

55:50Tony Hawk:All of them. You were in all of them? Yeah. And did you do, Dane, have you seen when they go full circle? Some kind of blown up suit. Full pipe. Yeah. Did you do a full pipe in a chicken suit or something? I did, yes. I was about to say, it sounds like possible. That's Johnny Knoxville. I did that for Jackass with Matt Hoffman. The TV show? The TV show. He and I worked. Oh, he was a BMXer, right? Yeah, and we did a loop in Orlando. And then after the loop, we jumped into this lake. Oh, that's fun, yeah. And then I was on Wild Boys. And we were skating in gorilla costumes. It's never easy. We were also skating with an orangutan.

56:33Tony Hawk:So that was the whole vibe. There was an orangutan that skated. And then Bob Bergquist and I dressed up in gorilla. Did the orangutan think you were gorillas? No, but it did not like if we got ahead of him. So we learned very core to it. He's in it to win it. And we're going to stand behind. Because you don't want him coming after you. We ended up skating. They chew your face off, I heard. Yeah, yeah. We ended up skating. Side note. Just to fill the content. And then we went and did, Bob had his own loop. And we did Bob's loop. And Bob's loop was very slow and weathered. And I didn't take that into consideration as I went down to it.

57:12Tony Hawk:And then I ended up paying the price. Did you not get around the whole thing? You're saying - I fell from, what happens, I fell just around 10 o 'clock going up. and that makes you go all the way to the top and then fall. So I fell 16 feet. That's when I broke my pelvis.

57:30Dana Carvey:And were you in the orangutan suit at that point or some other suit? Was the orangutan suit - That was for Wild Boys. Was it padded? Not worth it. No, that was extra. We don't got any budget.

57:40Tony Hawk:And I was wearing the mask so I wasn't wearing my helmet. So that was a good problem. I got a concussion. But a loop - Fresh my skull. For people at home, you just go straight down fast like Hot Wheels and then you do a whole loop. and you lose all your momentum at the top and you want to bail, I'm sure. But if you just hang on, you're fully lightweight. I'm sure you're full. If you have the right amount of speed, you just hold steady and it works. And it will stay on. Yeah, but the problem with Bob's is that it was so weathered, you couldn't get that amount of speed. So I tried to compensate by using my legs and if you use your legs, then you end up completely straight leg with nowhere to go.

58:18Dana Carvey:Have you ever studied geometry or physics? because it sounds like you're really, you got to know speed, it's wind, it's like angle.

58:25Tony Hawk:Well, the first time I ever did it, I did go, I actually like did a Hot Wheels and tried to measure that and do the ratios of how that would work. And it worked the first time, but this time it didn't work.

58:38Dana Carvey:It seems like there's a lot of thinking that goes into these tricks that maybe not every skateboarder has. Usually it's just intuitive. No, it's just try. Right. I don't like they gave you a shitty rant. If I get here, I'm going to fall there. I got to get speed to get this velocity and this angle. I don't know. It sounds interesting.

58:54Tony Hawk:We're just kind of going off of feeling. We didn't have foam pits or training grounds. Right. So it's like David, like he, he tried to air it. Axel stalled and came down hard, broke his wrist. Yeah. When we, by the way, we did this movie in the old days. I, I was trying to jump the simple thing of stairs.

59:10Dana Carvey:Just seeing if your wrist has a bump. No, I actually, I actually broke my wrist again after that. Skating? Yeah. And then my mom goes, you shouldn't skate anymore. I go, cause it's too dangerous. She goes, no, you're horrible at it. We have to keep you in school. You keep getting - We're mortgaging the house. Yeah, I just, it got too hard because it was too, you know, I could do the desert pipes. We did those. I could do, you know, and just go to vert. I couldn't really do that much.

59:37Tony Hawk:Those are famous.

59:38Dana Carvey:Could you do, what is it? The pineapple reverse squat? Do you remember that one? The old dipsy doodle. No, I could do front side grinders. I can do stuff, but it gets scary, Dana. And it was just, when it gets too hard and what they were doing, it just, it separates. I had a hard time looking at it. My kids coming down steep hills. Yeah. Didn't want to wear helmets, but kind of put the helmet on, put the helmet on. And I, because of childhood trauma, I had to look away. My wife could just watch them, but I would just, I would just look away. Oh, they made it. You know, we had 23 ER visits between the two sons.

1:00:12Tony Hawk:Oh, wow. Yeah. Yeah. I actually have the cell number of the head of the ER, my down there by you in your secret location. They have a special lane. Tony, he's coming in on Tony drive.

1:00:25Dana Carvey:Okay. Put him in a Hawk one.

1:00:26Tony Hawk:We have several children and they all went through their share of injuries because they all skate. So that too. And is Riley a pro? Riley, my oldest son is pro.

1:00:35Dana Carvey:Yes. Yeah. He's good. He's cool. Oh, that's cool. So do you think when you see him becoming that good, you, do you see yourself in him intellectually or?

1:00:43Tony Hawk:I see his determination and his drive to keep trying to outdo himself. Yeah. Very much so. He's more of a street skater, so that is not my wheelhouse. But I do see the same sort of motivation that he has that I have. It's kind of true of all successful people. It's hard that he's that good because he's got this guy as a dad. And it's hard to be good anyway. He kind of shied away from skating when he started getting good because of that. It's weird. It's definitely weird. But came back to it because he had so many close friends that were just hardcore skaters and kind of found his own path after that.

1:01:21Dana Carvey:Well, once you're making a living at something that's a passion, it's kind of a very nice thing. So he is professional.

1:01:28Tony Hawk:He is.

1:01:28Dana Carvey:And I always wanted to make the same amount of money I could as a waiter, like maybe$1 ,500 a month. Right. And once I got to$600 a month, I was able to put down the apron. I made$600. We made$600 on this podcast alone. By the time you finished that sentence. i'm telling you two jokes no it's the life's been good but um to your point and it's for everybody who who excels at things the passion has to come first and and just wanting to get better at it

1:01:59Tony Hawk:you know wanting to get better i do see i i have seen skaters come and go because their motivation is is fame and fortune and if they get a taste of it then they don't want to skate anymore or they don't want to push themselves.

1:02:11Dana Carvey:And also, if that's your moniker, it's like Lorne Michaels, one of his, the minute you're hot, you feel yourself getting less hot. It's hard to stay. So in other words, if you're a fame whore, you're just like, ah, you know, I don't, I like to stay home. I don't want to go anywhere. Dave's a man about town, but we're different. That's why we, we have a chemistry, but yeah, I'd much rather watch Friday night lights at home. I have to extract Dana out to dinner once a week.

1:02:38Tony Hawk:Oh yeah. I feel you.

1:02:40Dana Carvey:But he has a steak dinner and mashed potatoes waiting for him when he sits down. And then he'll have a small cocktail. I go, are you feeling anything with that two pounds of T-bone in your -

1:02:52Tony Hawk:Middle micro buzz. I'll get a glass of whiskey at night. Dana, why aren't you asking him about the movie you don't care about? It's Police Academy 4. It's where we met.

1:03:01Dana Carvey:Well, this is for our listeners. No, well, I have some questions after this. But this is the axis of connection between these two. The movie, Police Academy. Four, the good one. David's in it. Tony's in it. Go, guys. I set it up. So I got hired just doing improv. I wasn't a good actor. The way I lucked into that, Tony, is I went in. I was very new. I was 21. And I just started doing sets of the improv. And there's casting people peppered around. You just don't know. And then when they called me in and they said, we got a script. Can you come in and audition? I didn't know what I was doing. I would have literally, because my next audition, I just read it off the page.

1:03:38They go, we want you to read. I go, oh, I can read. And then I just read the script to them. And they were like, you don't know what you're doing. And I go, nope. So the only reason I got that is because they go, can you skate? And I said, yeah. Because I auditioned for North Shore, a movie. And I said I could surf. And I could not.

1:03:53Tony Hawk:But did they discover that? Yeah, did they test you? Well, I didn't get it. So I got down and Matt Adler, a buddy of mine, got it. And he could surf. So it was about a guy from Arizona. And I go, I have all the components. I can't surf that good. so I do I think you dodged a bullet with that one yeah I would have fucking drowned surfing is no no but I'm just saying that is one of the most quoted ridiculous surf movies oh yeah it was kind of goop was it kind of goopy is that what you're saying yeah kids in Arizona that rides there's some one liners in there that endure that live on which movie was this it's called North Shore North Shore yeah and who was in it Matt Adler is a buddy of mine okay Laird plays the protagonist oh he does Laird Hamilton is the guy that pulls his leash he would have drowned me.

1:04:35Oh, Laird Hamilton? Yeah, he's a trip. He's the bad guy. If he knew I was not good. So anyway, so I auditioned for Police Academy. But when I get there, they go, we're getting a new script in. It's not here yet. And I go, oh, and they go, shit, you're here. Do you want to just... Oh, perfect. Do you want to just ad lib stuff? You're just a smart ass kid. And there weren't lines that were so stiff. Anyway, I would have bombed. So I just started making up stuff. That's good. And it was so lucky because they go, oh, he's not bad. Because I was just free forming. That's so much better. So I get hired.

1:05:02I go there I'm making so much fucking money I think I'm making $2 ,500 a week that's a movie I was in a movie in Toronto and they go you're part of a little skate gang of misfits and they go oh we're gonna get and of course I knew the Bones Brigade I knew everything from Arizona and then they go this guy Tony Hawk I think it was Guerrero and Cavallaro and Mike McGill Lance Lance Mountain and so they all came out and I was so excited because they were rock stars do you remember

1:05:28Dana Carvey:your first impressions of David Spade

1:05:31Tony Hawk:um i thought it was super funny yeah so you started it was one of those things where i got where you go oh you're you're really funny you should be a comedian that was lucky because you know tony the one problem we had was tony he was taller than me and he was uh were you goofy or regular foot i'm goofy footed and so we had chris miller well no i can i interject yeah go ahead so yes so we all read for this that part oh is that right we all read for the part that's Right. Oh, okay. Or the, you and the, who's the guy from Fast Times? Yeah. Brian Backer. So we all read for those parts as the Bones Brigade.

1:06:04Tony Hawk:And they're like, yeah, you guys are not actors, but you know, we'll, we'll consider you in the gang or whatever. Okay. And then they, I didn't know that. They singled out when they hired you guys, they singled out Lance and me as the doubles. Yeah. I went through a gross spurt from the time we tried out to the time we got there. And so for the first week, they were like, I think that guy's too tall. and I remember the director saying like you know he's a pretty good skater but he's a bad stunt double and so then Stacy kept telling me like stay low or crouch stay low oh Stacy Prolton yeah and I go I I don't know I was trying I was trying and then and they just quietly sent me home basically I got fired oh and then they sent in Chris Miller who looks like you looks a little and is is the same stances well you're you're I'm goofy but he was closer it was a tough decision because you're goofy and he's regular.

1:06:58Sorry, what does goofy foot mean? I'm goofy.

1:07:00Tony Hawk:Oh, that means - He stands with his right foot forward. So do I.

1:07:04Dana Carvey:And that's called goofy? Yeah. And left foot is called - Regular. Regular. Okay.

1:07:08Tony Hawk:And so when I got higher, you remember that was part of the thing. It was like, oh, you're goofy footed too. That's what David is. So I went. So in long story short, they sent in Chris Miller who looks more like him, but is regular footed. Oh, okay. So in the skate sequence, his stance keeps changing. It's so crazy. Wow. I'm going to watch this. so unprofessional but you had a legit skate part like going through the mall I could skate I could skate and then when I go one time I go Brian Backer could not skate he was he was very much against it

1:07:40Dana Carvey:yeah

1:07:40Tony Hawk:to the point where he's making us very uncomfortable

1:07:42Dana Carvey:as part of the movie or

1:07:44Tony Hawk:he just didn't want to even pretend and they needed establishing shots of him skating okay even if they had to pull him on something he didn't want to be yeah but at one point they did try to get him on a skateboard and he was very upset about it. He was kind of complaining to us and we're like, well, we just work here. Yeah. But we can help you. Stacey Peralta was a great skater and a great director and one of his bosses because he's from Pal Peralta, Bones were great, all this stuff. Yeah, I mean, he's the one who put us together and he was the one who got us the audition. And he did second unit.

1:08:14Tony Hawk:Yeah. So he directed us in a lot of those skate scenes, if not all of them. And one time I go, Stacey, he goes, you can skate a little bit, right? I go, yeah, yeah. I go, listen, on this one, I'm read a pink Bones shirt, didn't I? and I go we're just rolling through the city at night so I go and then they go you go over these steps and I go what is it five steps I go I can do that and he goes okay so I could do five steps seven out of ten times so but when the pressure so they're all behind me I don't know if you remember this anyway I'm in front woohoo making noises we looped later and then we go in and I do the first steps and I fucking wipe out and then everyone has to wipe out on top of me because they're all like two feet behind me oh yeah there was no but there's the camera rolling.

1:08:55There's no adjusting. That's like slapstick. And I'm like, and they use that. No, I think they just go, Tony,

1:09:02Dana Carvey:just do it. And then you need to get one right. As a stunt double. Yeah.

1:09:06Tony Hawk:As a stunt double.

1:09:07Dana Carvey:Five, five steps. Was it nothing for you?

1:09:09Tony Hawk:Oh, not nothing, but it was doable.

1:09:12Dana Carvey:It seemed to be a lot for David. It seemed to be very difficult for David. Yeah.

1:09:15Tony Hawk:But what we learned in, in that shoot is we learned about stunt pumps and we didn't know anything about that. So if we pretended like something was really hard, it would get us extra money. You did jump a police car.

1:09:28Dana Carvey:You're talking about two stairs. Are you nuts, boy? I've got a fee for that one. Yeah, I got you. There was one.

1:09:34Tony Hawk:It was when we jumped the fountain. Okay. I don't think you were there for that one, but we jumped a fountain. They set up this big ramp, and it just was so janky, the whole thing. And the landing zone was terrible, and we were just sitting there sweating it, and they're like, we'll give you each$500 to do this. We're like, what? Oh, yeah. Oh. Oh, the ramp got a lot better. Yeah, every time. We're going to back. Let's keep going. And that's when we learned that.

1:09:58Dana Carvey:Interesting. Yeah, stunt doubles. I've been next to guys that were about to take a car hit on my behalf, talking to them. How you doing? Pretty good. And they never say they won't go again because they get another. I guess they get more money. Junk. Yeah. Yeah. So every take they do it, they get a bump.

1:10:14Tony Hawk:Right. Right. Yeah.

1:10:15Dana Carvey:So there's only one time I had a stunt man tap out and I took over. You took over? What was it? Weird. Well, it was going inside this big vat of goo. Big wooden thing. And Anthony Hopkins was the dad. And he was there. And it was supposed to go under it. And then the goo fills everything. Scary. And I guess a little claustrophobia. The guy was a great stuntman, but just got him shook up. So I did it. You did it? Yeah, I got underneath the thing. It's terrifying. I go, well, fuck, I'm a little guy. I can't skate. I can't do anything. But I'll stay down in this fucking goo. I come up from the goo and there's Anthony Hopkins or Tony as I call him or Hoppy we were close anyway he's playing my dad so anyway I have questions yeah give him the questions I just we do this sometimes for fun let's see what I got here

1:11:10Tony Hawk:I do want to say though to end that I get asked about that all the time I do too all the time oh yeah please count on me four

1:11:16Dana Carvey:it's kind of it's just one of those comedies of the 80s Everybody knows. From then on, we stayed friends. He would always give me a board. He would always, if I asked for something, we went and skated McGill's Ramp once, which I was not good at. And I'm so brittle that I can't believe you still will risk falling because every time I fall, it really rocks me.

1:11:35Tony Hawk:I think I got accustomed to the slight pains of skating. But now, as I grow older, things linger more. But I do find that if I stay active, it's easier. because when I did, but Dana, when I did that thing with Tiger, I was comparing them because they're both like the number one in their field. Tiger is so driven. So we played golf that night and he was visibly hurt from his back operations. He wasn't, he's super cool. He's great. He's reading putts. He was having fun, but I could tell he's in pain. I even asked him, would you, do you think he'll ever play golf again? Cause he just got an operation and I thought maybe this is it.

1:12:09Why I asked him, I don't know. That, that night, next morning he gets in the car wreck, right so he crushes his feet everything he may never play again and he starts to swing and within a year he he was better than me within minutes i go there was a while there was better than him because he couldn't pick up a comb glove and then he goes i can kind of i'm better than you and i'm like well how is it that i thought it would take years yeah and and he's so good at it that once

1:12:34Dana Carvey:he can just stand up on two feet he's like he's playing on one leg now and he was also great uh Made the cut and was doing badass stuff like a week ago. It's infuriating. Go ahead. You know. Have you ever been like upside down on your skateboard and had the thought in your head like, this can't be good? Or this isn't going to end well?

1:12:55Tony Hawk:The first time I tried 900. Yes.

1:12:57Dana Carvey:In your brain, you went, this isn't going to end well?

1:12:59Tony Hawk:I was like, I don't know where I am. When am I going to hit the wall? Oh, there it is. Did you ever been upside down on your skateboard

1:13:06Dana Carvey:And thought Why did I ever really Did I ever really like this I think that when I first came back to the ramp

1:13:19Tony Hawk:After breaking my leg There was a moment of that Have you ever been upside down on your skateboard

1:13:25Dana Carvey:And a thought popped in your head David Spade was really funny And please scan me for it Almost every day Have you ever been upside down in your skateboarding and gone, my IQ is 144. What the fuck am I doing? Ramming my thighs. I had a BMX guy who was pro for a while. Chris Duncan say that to me, that he was upside down once and he said, this can't end well. Like he just knew he was out of sorts.

1:13:50Tony Hawk:And also you just anticipate that hit where you're like, I know that I can't prepare for it this time. So when is it coming? And please make it soon.

1:14:00Dana Carvey:Have you ever gotten kind of An endorphin high Like distance runners do from skateboarding Like a real buzz

1:14:07Tony Hawk:Oh yeah, all the time

1:14:08Dana Carvey:When you land something great

1:14:10Tony Hawk:Anything that I land new to me It's like new jokes for us, no joke It's like if you do a new joke At this stage of the game New joke

1:14:22Dana Carvey:Have you ever been on your skateboard Going fast, had somebody else Push a skateboard five feet away next to you and tried to jump on that skateboard.

1:14:30Tony Hawk:Yeah, that's not as amazing as you would think. Oh, wow.

1:14:34Dana Carvey:I thought you were going to go, no one could do that. Dana, I saw a guy on Instagram the other day. He hits like a bump in a skateboard on the other side. He does a flip in the air. Oh, I've seen that. That's pretty. Yeah, that's pretty wild. There's so many ways I can go wrong. Okay, go on. Has anyone ever used the pun to you? You're just skating by. Has anyone ever said that to you? You're skating through life. Hey, Tony. Skating through life. Skating by, huh? Okay, I'm just curious. Skating by. what makes a prodigy uh

1:15:00Tony Hawk:I guess it's determination I think a lot of determination discipline um and it's just you know it when you see it Mozart right John Bonet yeah all the big ones

1:15:14Dana Carvey:um the biggest mistake beginning skateboarders make Tony Hawk biggest mistake

1:15:22Tony Hawk:beginner skateboarders make um getting ahead of themselves skill wise where they think that because they can ride a skateboard that suddenly they can do some big stunt a big set of stairs a big handrail and they do not have all the required elements to that and it goes horribly because it looks good discouraged then it looks easy on instagram yeah when you see someone make a trick you don't realize they fell 30 times fill in the

1:15:48Dana Carvey:blank. Tony Hawk is... You don't have to answer these.

1:15:54Tony Hawk:A skateboarder, a husband, a father, and a philanthropist.

1:16:00Dana Carvey:Okay, David Spade is... You can say all those same ones. A philanthropist. A funny skateboarder. Not so good at a skateboard, but incredibly funny. No.

1:16:15Dana Carvey:Let's see. Do you think Evel Knievel could have made some noise in the skateboarding world. Noise.

1:16:24Tony Hawk:He was a daredevil. He was an inspiration to me, so by proxy, yes. So you'd watch him on TV going over cars with his car? Yeah, I had the windup. SSP, yeah.

1:16:36Dana Carvey:Which one? Oh, okay. I know you've landed the 900. I'm just throwing this out. It's going on record. This is going out all over the world. 1 ,200. uh

1:16:47Tony Hawk:Michy Brusco uh a current pro skater has done a 1260 was he young is he really young uh Tom Schar you're thinking of Tom Schar he did Tom Schar did the first 1080 he was very young oh yeah yeah uh this is on a bigger ramp so more air time people somehow think that's easier I don't think that's easier cheater asterisk but uh no it's hard Michy Brusco did a 1260 so he did three and a half god dang uh

1:17:12Dana Carvey:I can't put that in my head it's hard brothers it's amazing the humans just want to keep it's amazing if you if you look that up find the clip it's worth watching because in track and field and sprints it's like a hundredth of a second world record by point oh oh one it no this is a full spin yeah that that is extraordinary where uh these these are just random ones like fear where does fear come into it and how do you deal with it right before you go on off you want to be in an attack mode or i treat fear in more

1:17:44Tony Hawk:Or that I feel confident that I have the skills to do this. The preparation. Hope this works. Hopefully I can land it. Yeah. I don't know what's going to happen. It's more like I have all the pieces to this. Let's put them together. And I approach it with more confidence than fear.

1:18:02Dana Carvey:Have you ever done a rope swing into a lake? And you were the kid who would do like all kinds of triple somersaults.

1:18:09Tony Hawk:No, but I was little. I would go off the high dive. Did you have vertigo at all?

1:18:13Dana Carvey:Did you look down and go?

1:18:16Tony Hawk:Yeah, but I think I just knowing that other people have done it. Yeah. Gave me some sort of.

1:18:20Dana Carvey:Seems like you would have been a good high school diver probably with this sort of.

1:18:23Tony Hawk:I don't think I'd be that accurate.

1:18:26Dana Carvey:You know what I mean?

1:18:27Tony Hawk:Like I'm down to do flips, but I don't want to pencil in and splash. Yeah, yeah. You'd hit the water, but maybe. Pencil in. I like that. I'm going to make it look like a hyena.

1:18:37Dana Carvey:I just ask people this anyway. did you as a kid movie or television show blow your mind make you happy um shoot for ben stiller it was the poseidon adventure i always give that as a good example for me it was jason the argonauts oh for a for a tv show or those are movies tv show would have been a little house in the prairie that's dave's favorite yeah i did like i had a huge michael landon fan has this once mary got blind i was like she couldn't realize I'm a six. Yeah.

1:19:10Tony Hawk:That's a good question. That's all right.

1:19:12Dana Carvey:You can pass.

1:19:13Tony Hawk:I think I really, I enjoyed Greatest American Hero. The movie?

1:19:19Dana Carvey:Okay, that's the new best one. Oh, it was kind of, okay, so more. You know what I mean? It was like a regular dude

1:19:23Tony Hawk:that had superhero qualities and it just didn't fit. That was fun, yeah. And he would run into the walls and stuff like that?

1:19:28Dana Carvey:Okay, that makes sense.

1:19:28Tony Hawk:My favorite movie back in the day was Fast Times.

1:19:31Dana Carvey:Fast Times of Bridge Monarch.

1:19:32Tony Hawk:Yeah, because it summed up high school. Well, that says it all. That's perfect.

1:19:36Dana Carvey:You were right at the age to hit that. Yeah. And Sean Penn's Stunner Dude. That was probably 82 or something. That was great. Yeah. Great movie. Tasty Waves. Yeah, that was a big comedy.

1:19:44Tony Hawk:I got to actually clarify a line from Fast Times with Sean Penn, so that was a big deal.

1:19:50Dana Carvey:You did? Well. It's coming of age. What was it?

1:19:53Tony Hawk:People think he says, all I need is a cool buzz in Tasty Waves. He said, cool buds. Yes. Yeah. And that's how I heard it. Yeah. I got to clarify it with him. He thought he said buzz? No, he said buds. He had to think about it. People think he says Buds. Because they don't know what Buds means.

1:20:10Dana Carvey:I remember that line and it was Buds.

1:20:13Tony Hawk:Yeah. Thank you. Well, Tony, Tony, thank you for talking about SNL for an hour with us.

1:20:18Dana Carvey:Well, no, that's part B. We'll talk Tony's audition for SNL. He skates on to 8H. Lawrence, like, what do you have? Do it! 13 million.

1:20:28Tony Hawk:I got to say, it was a dream come true. And it only happened recently. And I was so thankful.

1:20:35Dana Carvey:And you came out and did a cameo. What did you do?

1:20:39Tony Hawk:So I was here in LA doing our podcast, Hawk vs. Wolf. Hawk vs. Wolf, wherever you can find podcasts.

1:20:47Dana Carvey:And it's also on YouTube. Yes. Hawk vs. Wolf.

1:20:50Tony Hawk:And so I was staying here doing this for a couple of days in the studio in Santa Monica, driving back to my hotel. It's like 6 p.m. And I get a call and they said, hey, can you make it to New York by tomorrow night? they wrote you into a skit on SNL. It's Thursday. And I'm... Fuck yeah. Yes, I can do that. Let's do it. Went, stayed there, did my podcast with Seth Rogen and went straight to LAX. I live in San Diego. I'm not even prepared to travel at all.

1:21:22Dana Carvey:Right.

1:21:22Tony Hawk:And went there, bought a jacket upon landing and they had written me into a script. Literally all I was going to do was say my name.

1:21:33Dana Carvey:Not skating at all.

1:21:34Tony Hawk:You can handle that. Sure. Whatever it takes. It was a skit about the, you know, that whole thing went viral with the Miss Universe. France! Yeah, yeah. Oh, you were in that. Yeah, that's right. I was going to be one of the judges of that pageant with the Property Brothers. And when it came to me to ask who won, I just say my name. And honestly, when I saw the script, I thought, this is it. I'm flying out here.

1:21:58Dana Carvey:This is a long way to go.

1:21:59Tony Hawk:But also, this is my big break to SNL. and then they loved it in the rehearsal so much they added a line for me

1:22:09Dana Carvey:we're adding a line for you Tony it'll be on the cards

1:22:12Tony Hawk:did you say Lauren so do I have the it quality should I stay and be a cast member at the after party I got to actually sit with him for a few minutes he's quite a brilliant character he just says

1:22:26Dana Carvey:really interesting stuff all the time

1:22:28Tony Hawk:Tony's like I know who you are

1:22:29Dana Carvey:ah yeah he would be that yes he would be very very yeah i i know success when i see it david dana didn't know how to monetize but tony did well thank you tony tony's a very cool guy um uh just to sum up yeah your podcast is great thank you and um all your business endeavors and i think this will be an inspiring episode And it doesn't matter what your passion is. You just have to apply yourself and focus. I always say to people, look at your feet. Don't look at the fame, the money. Just look at your feet, literally with skaters. Yeah. But just like, am I better today than I was yesterday? And what can I do to get better?

1:23:12Dana Carvey:No matter what you're trying to do. That's what I take away. David, your takeaway is? Same thing.

1:23:17Tony Hawk:You know what he said. All right, Tony Hawk. I'm talking to Tony. It's good. He's a philanthropist. Does a skate park build them? and I think that's all great. You have a foundation called The Skate Park Project.

1:23:27Dana Carvey:Oh, that's right. For public skate parks.

1:23:29Tony Hawk:Safe skate parks or that. We help build parks in underserved areas. Yes. Yes, that's great. Going for 20 years now. Wow. So you're touching skate parks that's sick. You make them better? I don't understand how it works.

1:23:43Dana Carvey:All right. Thanks, Tony. Tony Hawk, everybody.

1:23:52Hey, 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.

1:24:19Dana 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 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.