REACTION - SNL’s Big Cast Shake-Up

0:00All right, Dana, it's David Spade and friends.

0:05Dana Carvey:Welcome to an episode. Thank you. I'm happy to be your guest. I got a great story for you right off the bat. Okay, but first, let's just say there's a lot of stuff going on at our alma mater. Old alma mater. A lot of stuff, a lot of cast changes going, some personal things out there, people we know, what's going on. So we're going to go over that comprehensively. Piece by piece. Piece by piece. And it's going to be a barn burner. But first we're going to do a little catch up because I haven't seen him in eight hours. First of all, the SNL stuff, lots of rumor, lots of innuendo. Intrigue, palace intrigue.

0:51Dana Carvey:Who comes, who goes, why, why? Who, what, where, when? What do we do when the world asks why? Exactly. You know that was JFK senior? During the Cuban Missile Crisis. Yeah. No, it could have been Bobby Kennedy Senior during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Was it Bobby Kennedy? That said that, I believe. I believe. What do we do in the world? Ash, why? But it could have been Jack. Anyway, back to your weekend. You'll never guess who killed Bobby Kennedy in the kitchen at the Roosevelt. No, I will never guess Sirhan, Sirhan, isn't it? You're kidding, you're kidding Is that his name? Yeah I wasn't even doing this joke I was saying he was a busboy there And then I was going to promote busboys Oh, well, that's a stretch I know, I was really trying to link it together God, my hair's getting long, dude I know, I don't know what's going on I don't either You're turning into me Well, I'll start this with this This is a hat from my gig I just did.

1:59It's black though. What does it say on it?

2:04Dana Carvey:It's Alaska. Hmm. Do you know where Alaska is? Nebraska's a corn husker. What's in Alaska? Alaska are the blubbers. The blubbers? That sounds... That's their NFL team. I bought it hook, line, and see. The blubbers. I had a gig up there. It's the Keystone State or something to do with mining Is it? Heather, see if Alaska is the Keystone State I don't know if it's that, but it's something to do with Heather jumps off TikTok quickly Her TikTok is rocking Okay, go ahead So Dana, I have a gig of Pennsylvania Oh, Pennsylvania is the I was close What's Alaska though? No, another question Alaska is just the You know, at the Grizzly or something to do with the, yeah, I could get on the tip of my brain.

3:00I think it's called the Bring a Coat State.

3:03Dana Carvey:Is it really that cold? So why, I mean, while she works on this, why would anybody go to the trouble to play Alaska? Like if I could beam to Alaska, I'd play it there tonight. Right. It's called Fan Interaction and the People Matter to Me. are you are you i'm just gonna say this because you can't say it are you gigantic in alaska i mean is that your i will say are you jane gillis in alaska yeah they're appreciative when you come up there because listen the gig i did was a state fair these are things as a comedian you know that watch for these early warning signs state fair equates to I've done them kids one problem with state fairs Alaska is the last frontier okay that makes sense and it's true so state fairs I did one with Gary Shandling open forum RIP that one of the greats uh we did it in Arizona where I'm from and it was one of those things where it was one of the events so it was come one come all everyone could trickle from the corn dog hut into there from indian fry bread from the tilt to whirl they all go in all this and so it was kids all ages and i was like but it was probably 3 000 people i proceeded to bomb unsurprisingly but gary did pretty well but he's he's pretty clean i think remember you got to clean it up in your window but but clean yeah yeah so this is you would have killed um yes and but State Fair I thought it was intriguing because it's a State Fair but then they said it's three in the afternoon I go on now it stays light till about midnight right and I didn't know it was outdoors I didn't really think of that part so it's very challenging I kind of liked the challenge of this is a lot so when I get there about a week ahead I put it on my weather on my apps and it says where I'm performing is and 70 % chance of rain.

5:13I was like, oh, I forgot about rain. So anyway, long story longer, I go, you have to go through Seattle, lay over, bleh. Not direct, huh? And you know what I hate to say? An unnamed, this happens to all airline. I just want a TV to veg out. Just kill time, right? They say, oh, this flight has TVs. I said, thank God. I get there. It hits me. There's no TVs. And I go, where's the TV? And they go, it's on your phone, silly.

5:49Dana Carvey:So they announced that they had TVs, but they meant it was because you were carrying a portable TV, i.e. your phone. I think that's false advertising. I'm going to call bullshit on that. What's the name of the airline? Let's get sued or sue. It's also called being rat fucked. So I don't want to look and download 18 apps and then get on Wi-Fi. It's just too much. So it's like taking a date and you go to a drive-in theater and she goes, where's the screen? I go, it's on your phone, dipshit. You thought, why would you think it's there at the drive-in on the screen? That's funny. Drive-in theater with a big screen?

6:25Dana Carvey:What era did you come from? When were you born? I go, if you want to hold it out like this. We go to a field and we look at our phones to hold them out. And we cuddle up and watch TikToks. Cuddle up. There's some marshmallows, maybe a thing, and you go home. Woo, woo, woo, woo. All right. That's coming off because people got to see the scary hair. So that happened. Anyway, question for you. Also, they have to go ahead. Ambient sound. So when you're on there outdoor, there's a thunderstorm. Cause when I did one for a second, I heard a country Western band kick into the point where the whole amphitheater I was in outdoors could hear them playing.

7:03Yeah.

7:04Dana Carvey:So I'm doing my acting. And then the rodeo across the way, it was huge. Billy Nockno now is on this thousand pound bull. So all this ambient noise. And I'm going, well, isn't that special? Nah, God. You're trying to be louder. Well, I just broke down the show and started singing with the band or pretending. But did you have ambient sound? Was sound okay? Well, I had Bobby and Dan Levy with me. God, you're like, that's incredible. We have two openers. Well, because, and I have to do an hour, but they, when I, before I left, I said, Hey, Alex, uh, manager, this feels like a clean show, right? That's a little harder.

7:45So I got to go through everything and really, he said, no, they said no restrictions. I go, are you sure? Cause kids are at the, so anyway, we go there. I go over to the petting zoo. They have a little petting farm, pet the goats and, uh, did you get a snow cone? Now I got a reindeer dog And it started to back up on me About two hours later I go, I think Christmas came early A corn dog is called a rain dog

8:11Dana Carvey:Is that it? That's a corn dog Reindeer dog Oh Because by the way up there They're like, you should have a bison burger The reindeer skewers I'm like, I don't know I'm not here to experiment I think you go on a You know, kind of a state fair tour Because obviously you took to it And you crushed you know i wound up when bobby went on it was so sunny we weren't worried about the rain he had to wear sunglasses because the sun was setting and jim gaffigan had did this gig and he said he had to wear sunglasses and so i guess they understand it and then when dan went on it was getting cloudy so he was okay when i went on the first thing i said i went up and then someone put on their poncho and i go look at this guy put on their poncho it's not even raining and they all go it is raining I was like, oh, it started raining.

9:03Joke one.

9:04Dana Carvey:So the audience is getting wet, but you have a thing on top here, like a pavilion, and they're all getting. It's getting into one of the worst. I did Laughlin, Nevada, same thing with the raking light with like 40 people in a 2000 seat amphitheater with Chris Kattan and Tim Meadows. What's a raking light mean? Raking like right in your eyes, like the sun was trying to go down. It was like just blinding. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. well i said and and it was raining on him so i said the guy backstage who runs it told me uh it might rain i said well if it rains they're gonna start to leave and he said no in alaska we're not a bunch of pussies and i said that the crowd went they loved it they loved it were they by the way not one person left they got rained on they didn't It's Alaska.

9:56Dana Carvey:That's what they, they're Alaska tough. They're tough, man. I like those people. So I had a good time. The only last thing I'll tell you, and then I'll tell you 20 more things, was when I was sitting at breakfast waiting for those guys, I'm on like a bench seat along the wall. The hotel's packed with the fucking gills for some reason. And then this woman next to me, she goes, she's staring at me. Oh. And I just keep like reading the menu. And she goes, ho, ho. I hear her making noise. And she goes, Dana Carvey. Oh, wow. Classic. I go, close. Then I keep reading. She goes, you're Dana Carvey. I go, I'm not.

10:42But yes, I know, Dana. I know what you're saying. And we used to work together. We used to have the same job. Then she goes, but you're that guy. And I go. And then she goes, I don't have my phone because I left it in Vancouver. I go, what? Dude, if I left it in my room, I'd be fucking flipping out. Three minutes ago, I'd be like, glitch, glitch, glitch.

11:12So she finally goes, I could tell by your voice, you're Dana Garvey. She kept hammering. And everyone now in the restaurant is like, it's not him. But anyway, I finally have to say, no, no, I'm a different guy. And then, well, will you sign me something? Because I don't have my phone. So I sign it, David, but I put not Dana Carvey on it.

11:38Dana Carvey:I had an interesting experience. We went to Hertz Castle again. We were gone a couple of weeks ago. Whoa. And they have this thing with these giant buses, big, heavy, eight-tire buses. and they go up the 1600 feet incline around hairpin turns up to the castle. Then you see the event and then you're coming back down. So we sat in the very front and I'm watching the guy downshifting. It looks like you're going 30, 40 miles an hour right at a hairpin turn. There's no guardrails and he's kind of like straining to turn. If one tire gets out, we're trundling down. Trundling. And right before we got on the thing, the guide, we have been guided the whole way through a very nice woman.

12:22Dana Carvey:She goes, hey, well, isn't that special? I gave her a hug. And then going down, I was really nervous. My palms were sweating. I was watching the driver. He had a cloth and he was wiping off the sweat. So then I came up with this idea. Just hit us like a ton of bricks. I don't think it'll be funny on the podcast, but I just did a news report. Ladies and gentlemen, at this hour, the church lady is no more. as if I trundled off the thing. No, the church lady went to heaven. The church lady is no more. I don't know where that phrase comes from. And the church lady is no more. But anyway, it was a fun trip, but you should go up there.

13:01Where is that?

13:04Dana Carvey:Central California. It's near south of Monterey, north of Papadaba, near Paso Robles. It's about a guy with a billion trillion dollars who just kept building and building this giant thing. Charlie Chaplin was there. Winston Churchill. They were there this weekend? Yeah. Cary Grant came by. I couldn't believe it. I told you that the other day that I use old-timey movie star voices when I'm calling Comcast. Yeah, I like this. And they're like, so have you tried turning on off your machine? And they don't know who Cary Grant is. So the whole time I'm just going, yes, I did. I turned it on and off, but nothing happened.

13:43Dana Carvey:And I'll turn it on and off again, but nothing's happening. Well, they go, well, I don't know. Let's see. Do you want someone to come out? Well, that'd be very nice. If you could have someone come out and take care of my gum cast. I used to have TiVo that I have SpectraVision. And they don't say, who is this? Are you making a fun? This is the way you talk. They just accept Cary Grant completely. We should bring back that talk again because it sounds cool, actually. It is kind of a very strange accent. And sometimes I kind of do Henry Fonda. I'm trying to watch the game I'm not getting any kind of reception here And they don't say Hey, are you Henry Fonzo?

14:23They just work with you

14:24Dana Carvey:Yeah So anyway, that's a little fun A little side note No, that's it Other than that I would not go to that place It's not far enough for me I like to go super effing far I got confirmation Because I said to our mutual manager Mark Slurwitz book me where David went and I am going to play it in the dead of winter. They would love you. February 1st. It's called the Ice Bowl that day. Actually, Alaska was really fun and it's fun to see a place that you never, ever go. And it was a good reason to go. And then we drove around and we ate and everyone kept pushing the salmon on us. Have you tried that salmon?

15:05The funniest part was everyone...

15:08Dana Carvey:They all have like a Canadian accent kind of? Kind of. I'm sort of cheating it, but everyone has either New Balance or Rokus or snow boots or just boots. It's all boots. And then we leave the hotel. We see the guy in an empty room, the shoeshine guy. And I'm like, who's got who? Not one person had hard shoes in that hotel. He's just a broke shoeshine guy from another era. Yeah. I want to go there. I honestly, I would love to go to Alaska because I'm from Montana, which has a lot of that. But Alaska is like 2.0 as far as underdeveloped grizzly bears everywhere. You saw the grizzly man guy. It was it was in Alaska.

15:51Dana Carvey:The guy just got killed by the grizzly bears because he loved them too much. I've decided I could maybe beat a bear in a fight if they were declawed. Then to make it even. Couldn't they just go like that and you'd be dead? I don't think they need the claw. No, because we would grapple a little bit. Right. And then it would be fair. And then also they'd have to be roughly in my weight class. So. You would, they would know they were in a fight, a grizzly bear versus you, D. Claude. They would know they're getting something. You would make your presence known as a physical being. They would try to make themselves bigger.

16:30I go, oh, to scare me? That doesn't work with me. It works the other way around. It doesn't work with me. because I hit a fly in the shower. I shouldn't even tell you this. I was getting in the shower. Where are we? Okay. I'll save this for next episode. It's too good. Okay. We have pressing news. Yeah, we have pressing news. We have pressing news about SNL.

16:51Dana Carvey:Beep, beep, beep, beep. We're the last people to report on this. And we're the SNL. We were just there. No, it's happening live in real time. So basically, we can do these in different chunks. There was two big things that caught my attention. Well, three big things. One is the people that they let go. They're not coming back. Two is the people that they hired. And then the fact that please don't destroy. Please don't destroy. Please don't destroy. So that was disbanded in a very unique way. Please don't destroy. And they asked nicely. um the exit people Heidi Gardner Devin Walker Emile Michael Longfellow yeah yeah yeah Heidi Rosebud Rosebud Baker as a writer yeah we had on the pod right before that and she did feel a bit waffly right yeah a little bit you know I I just say there's two lanes there's one lane where you're a little iffy is this the right thing for what i should be doing with my resources my personal talent am i getting paid enough to make it worth my while if you're if you're the tip of the spear if you're on the show all the time and you're really killing it then you don't you you want to stay you know so and also like rose but there's also not just her but there's a mental aspect of like can i take it another year i mean you know like that sinking feeling you don't know it i know the sinking feeling i had a weird time when you're not in re when you don't get anything past read through and that is the longest week because you get out at wednesday and you're like just staring and you're just invisible because everyone's like all right i gotta direct my sketch i gotta meet with keith i gotta put this uh set dressing together i want to go to wigs figure that out hair and makeup and talk to the cast and everything's happening around you now you got to start on wednesday night thinking about the next host going what can i write for next week because i didn't get anything on as a writer or performer and i think some of these guys had that problem that if you're a cast member and it's just like such a mind effort to sit there and wait and wait and watch it when to be happy for it and cheerlead because you want to be part of it and then you just go shit i'm not really part of this week and then all saturday and watching things kill and that's tough well the first time that when i went on years ago there was just three main male cast members um it was me and phil and john lovitz left over from 85 right and so and then we had kevin nealon and feature a whitney brown and so forth and they they became maybe, but it was, um, it's very interesting how for a long time, it's 17, 18, 19, 20 people.

19:49Dana Carvey:And so there's some people, if you don't get on the show, Devin Walker had told me this cause I was just out there. You were out there, Hunter Biden, you became Hunter, you became Hunter Biden. There was no more David Spade. It actually was a great look. Um, and you were great. but um devon had told me um that when you don't get on the show a lot to your point then when you get out there and you have a moment you're not just sort of relaxed because it's like if you don't score here you go back in line so it's it can be emotionally violent depending where you are in the show or it could be a magic ride nothing likes killing on live television um we can bounce bounce around again but the one that got my attention the most was the please don't destroy because it seemed to me they're really popular they were which is the group of three sorry the group of three guys ben marshall john higgins and martin hurley he yeah um and they do these short films kind of esoteric ones that you know it's you know timothy chalamet or whoever they're in Taylor Swift has been in them.

20:58Dana Carvey:They get big stars in them, yeah. So that really surprised me. And on a human level, I was surprised that they kept some of the... So John Higgins is not going to be part of SNL. Wait, yeah. Yeah, Steve Higgins' son is... He's not at all? Not at all. Ben Marshall, the taller guy with the fair hair, he's going to be a feature player. and then Martin Hurley, Tim Hurley's son, in fairness, he is going to be a writer. But John Higgins' dad is Steve Higgins, who is the sidekick to Jimmy Fallon, the announcer, and also writer, producer, been on the show in and around this world. Is he the head writer?

21:43Dana Carvey:I don't think so, but he's just been a producer, writer there for like 20 years or more. I don't know. And that's his son. And I don't know how the decisions are made, but that's just on a human level it's sort of like you know um it's don't don't know i mean um you know that didn't hit me that if they pick up one as a cast member it immediately breaks them up and now they're not on the show because they were only really in those things they're once a week they were they were writing sketches oh okay writing they were writers and then that was the thing they did it wasn't on every week please don't destroy me short film but i was on consistently it seemed me you seemed to me eight to ten episodes a year sure um so you know as far as you know martin hurley he his dad's a great writer tim hurley wrote is writing stuff with sandler all the time and did write a lot of classic movies so but these are they would call Nepo people, but they're really talented.

22:47Dana Carvey:All three of them work together. I never saw that one was above the other. I thought it was very, they had a lot of chemistry. And so that was kind of surprising. How mentally tough. That really is drama. I mean, my gosh. Because it's so tough there anyway, and they were making some headway. And I think they did a Please Don't Destroy movie. They did. And I do think, I'm not sure, but I think they do own Please Don't Destroy. And I think they're currently doing some dates. So we'll say they probably have deals, but I don't know. Oh my God. So the one guy has to say, I'm going to take this. I'm going to be a cast member.

23:31It's fucking awkward for sure, right?

23:34Dana Carvey:It's just weird. Yeah. It's like the three stooges and they take Moe Howard, but then, you know, Shem doesn't get anything or i it's not literally like i'm trying to think of a trio the marx brothers were taking groucho but not harpo i'm not saying it's that but it is different they have a fan base i mean they definitely sometimes they would wait a week for a host or something like yeah they would write something and go oh when john ham comes i'll do this you know and and then to write for the show but it so one is going to be a performer probably still a writer one is going to be a Writer, Martin Hurley.

24:11Yeah.

24:13Dana Carvey:And Higgins. John Higgins. He's good, too. He's very good, very funny, is just not with the show anymore. You know, so it must be just awkward for his dad and everything, you know. So, I mean, he's very talented and they're all talented. And, you know, everyone at one point is an ex-SNL cast member or writer. you're always going to be post SNL way longer than you're on SNL. So it does happen eventually. And he's got a good foothold as far as being seen as a great writer, great performer, along with his two friends, you know? Right. He could be thrown in movies. I mean, any of them, I think some, one of them was in happy Gilmore too, I think.

24:59Probably. But I don't know if that has any bearing on who stays, who goes. Yeah. So that's just a one. On top of everything else, on top of just that, you know, it's already a full cast. And Heidi, do we know, did she leave or was she -