In short
Sam Morril discusses mockumentaries and filming specials, how he writes and tests jokes in different comedy clubs, and working with major actors (including Brian Cox). He also talks about recording logistics (stools, cords, set lists), topical vs evergreen material, and the “kill box” effect of certain venues. He touches on AI “slop” content and modern media feeds, plus favorite older movies and noir/dialogue-driven films.
Guests
Sam Morril (stand-up comedian from New York; works with Mark Normand; known for edgy club comedy; appeared on/works with The Colbert Report during college summers; has a Netflix special “Incorrect,” filmed in Florida at the Tampa Theatre, releasing Sept 29; co-wrote/acted in a mockumentary about his tour; hosts a podcast with Mark Normand). Other voices: Dana (co-host) and Mark Norman is referenced as Morril’s frequent collaborator/podcast partner.
Key claims
Morril says he focuses on jokes/material over venue details; he prefers shorter specials (around 47–48 minutes) and hates overlong runtimes. He believes topical jokes should be brief “tent poles,” while personal/non-topical material lasts longer. He describes Brian Cox as intimidating and “cuts you to ribbons.”
Notable examples
“Incorrect” (Netflix Sept 29); filming in Florida/Tampa Theatre; mockumentary shot cheaply in NYC without permits; “kill box” rooms like Omaha Funny Bone and the Comedy Cellar; opening with a dating-profile joke (“I’m fragile like a bomb”); references to classic noir films (Double Indemnity, The Maltese Falcon, The Third Man).
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VOComedy Insights and Stories
1:00 to 1:55
Sam shares insights into the comedy scene and personal experiences.
“Have you ever noticed despite eating well, staying active and getting a full night's sleep, you still drag yourself out of bed exhausted?”
Comedy Insights and Stories
4:04 to 7:00
Sam shares insights into the comedy scene and personal experiences.
“Sorry, we're just Dana's doddering, you know, older gentleman.”
Sam's Comedy Special
7:00 to 9:55
Sam discusses his upcoming Netflix special and the challenges of stand-up.
“You do have kind of a Sam Elliott thing going on.”
The Pressure of Performing
9:55 to 14:00
The hosts and Sam discuss the pressures and realities of live performances.
“what tunnel i don't even know i lived in new york for off and on six years i didn't have any geographical knowledge of where I was and Jersey was whatever.”
The Struggles of Performing in New York
14:00 to 18:23
Sam shares his experiences with performing at various comedy venues in New York, highlighting the challenges and pressure of following younger comedians.
“But I would say like the cellar, like I see you on clips.”
The Struggles of Performing in New York
19:46 to 21:08
Sam shares his experiences with performing at various comedy venues in New York, highlighting the challenges and pressure of following younger comedians.
“Well, our guest today is the great Bob Odenkirk.”
Jokes and Topics in Stand-Up Comedy
21:24 to 28:00
Discussion about the relevance of jokes, topical humor, and the evolution of material in stand-up comedy.
“Upfront payment of$45 for three months,$90 for six months,$180 for 12 months.”
The Joy of Short Movies
28:00 to 30:44
Discussing the appeal of shorter films and favorite movies.
“see a 95 minute movie i'm like oh thank you i'll like it no matter what yeah when i see a movie and I go to the theater and he goes, 220 minutes?”
Old Movies vs. Modern Filmmaking
30:44 to 32:26
Comparing the pacing and style of old movies to today's fast-paced films.
“The original Invasion of the Body Snatchers is stunning, I think.”
Technology and Content Creation
32:26 to 34:55
Exploring the impact of technology and AI on content quality.
“and it's just turned into late night infomercials all day on your phone.”
Show all 22 chapters
The Challenges of Filmmaking
34:55 to 37:30
Sam Morril shares insights on the difficulties of filmmaking and editing.
The Mockumentary Approach
37:30 to 39:45
Discussing the benefits and experiences of creating a mockumentary.
“It's not a big move, but, uh, No, but you feel weird looking at that.”
Comedy Clubs and Performance
39:45 to 42:03
Sam reflects on performing in clubs and the dynamics of live comedy.
“It's a little more inexpensive and you have a lot of control.”
The Dynamics of Comedy Venues
42:03 to 49:08
Exploration of how different comedy venues impact performance and audience reactions.
“But no one would shoot a special in a kill box.”
The Dynamics of Comedy Venues
49:17 to 50:59
Exploration of how different comedy venues impact performance and audience reactions.
“Z-Biotics is free alcohol probiotic drink, and it's the world's first genetically engineered probiotic, engineered by a PhD microbiologist to break down.”
The Dynamics of Comedy Venues
51:02 to 51:12
Exploration of how different comedy venues impact performance and audience reactions.
Navigating Audience Expectations
51:39 to 56:01
Discussion on the challenges of performing for familiar audiences and the pitfalls of comfort in comedy.
“And I was like, yeah, it's like a magical room.”
Navigating Comedy Specials
56:01 to 58:23
Learn how comedians approach the process of creating and performing specials.
“That's the, that's the problem is like, if you're in the room, it's hard to leave if someone's killing it.”
Audience Expectations and Hit Characters
58:24 to 1:00:19
Understand the dynamics between audience expectations and a comedian's signature bits.
“I immediately know I fucked up something.”
The Evolving Landscape of Stand-Up
1:00:20 to 1:02:40
Explore how the comedy industry has changed over time and the pressures faced by comedians.
“I mean, it's always like you'll see what happens.”
The Science of Jokes
1:02:41 to 1:05:15
Discover insights into the mechanics of joke writing and performance from seasoned comedians.
“Yeah, you go to the club and you tell your jokes and they give me a check.”
Reflection and Future Plans
1:05:16 to 1:07:39
Hear about upcoming projects and the continuous journey of comedians in the industry.
“And Seinfeld is something about, he's so meticulous with those jokes.”
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00Hey, before we jump back into the show, let's take a quick break, all right? Not just any break. This is a refreshing break with Snapple. We all know about Snapple's iconic real facts. So let's take a minute to go over some of my faves.
0:13Dana Carvey:Snapple real fact 455. Movie trailers used to come on at the end of the movies, but no one stuck around to watch them. I've heard that. Snapple Real Fact 831. Adults laugh only about 15 to 100 times a day, while preschoolers laugh an average of 300 times a day. Snapple Real Fact 1983. The first player drafted to play pro football never played in the league. That's interesting. Snapple Real Fact 1274. Kickball is referred to as soccer baseball in some parts of Canada. of. Hmm. So grab a Snapple. Take a second. Enjoy the moment. Because let's be honest, this might be the most refreshing part of your day.
0:57Snapple, make your break more interesting. Have you ever noticed despite eating well, staying active and getting a full night's sleep, you still drag yourself out of bed exhausted? We spend so much time fine tuning our diets, workouts and daily schedules, yet we completely ignore the single biggest factor behind our focus, patience and productivity. Genuine sleep quality. Poor sleep quality undermines all the hard work you put in your health during the day, especially if you or your partner have noticed heavy snoring or sudden gasps for air.
1:25Dana Carvey:Instead of struggling through brain fog and endless fatigue, Sleep Doctor provides a seamless path to real answers. The home sleep study is a simple alternative to a sleep lab and can be completed in your own bed over one night. You get clinical grade diagnostic insights into what is actually happening while you sleep, completely avoiding cold, sterile clinics and inconvenient hospital stays while giving you clear, practical next steps toward deep, restorative rest. Visit sleepdoctor.com to take the first step toward waking up rested and ready. Now accepting most insurance, check and see if your insurance is eligible.
2:04There was a guy who used to pick us up at this comedy club, SideSplitters, in his convertible. he'd be hammered just bombed and he would pick you up singing uh big girls don't cry i'm like this is the last thing i'm gonna hear as he flips this car off the highway you look like you're in the middle east right now in a hostage video with that lighting that's only for the next 13 weeks oh it's like the weeds yeah he killed the guy with uh you know mad about health insurance i saw amazon was doing discount checkups and i was just like oh that's how you know we're when amazon is like helping. I think we're like, we're like four months away from, Hey, what's your health insurance?
2:43I'm with a draft King silver leaf premiere.
2:49Sam Morrell, Dana, I love having comics. Uh, I'm not going to say club comic, but I do know that he is a very, very good club comic from New York. Deep voice, cool guy. Very funny. Very edgy. Cool voice. Works with Mark Norman a lot. And they do a podcast. He just did a movie about stand-up, a documentary that's coming out. And I know he wrote a movie with Mark because my old director was maybe going to do it. So this is a great one where it's just jokes, breaking down stand-up, breaking down the clubs, and all the stuff. If you like comedy, it's fun to hear.
3:29Dana Carvey:Yeah. It's a very interesting story. It's nice to get to know him on because I wasn't that familiar with him. But he's a very sweet guy, thoughtful about his stand-up and loves stand-up, which is great. Maybe pure stand-up. And he likes the movies. This is the place we like to kind of introduce everyone to comics that they may or may not have seen. Our crowd is very comedic. Right. Generally speaking, people who come on our podcast that are playing clubs are soon playing stadiums. I don't know why that is, but it's a pretty common refrain. We help. Here he is, Sam Morrell. Yeah, what's up? Oh, he's here?
4:15Hey, guys. He's here? Hey, buddy. What's up, dude? Sorry, we're just Dana's doddering, you know, older gentleman. He's over there. He doesn't know what's going on. Oh, nice. He's wandering around. He's wandering around like Gladys Knight. wait a minute you got five hour energy holy shit you can't you can't even see it you won't even be able to see it that's a lot hey Dana Dana get your earphones on our fucking guest is here Dana that sound I know
4:50Dana Carvey:we didn't know if we're supposed to put our sponsors thing in the background I guess we did Dana puts it in the back I put it like quick selfie for Instagram and yes. No, I didn't do that. Sam, so nice to see you, meet you. I guess we've, have we run into each other? No, we've never met. I've always wanted to meet you, man. Thank you. I've always wanted to meet you too. Look at the research. We don't phone it in here. Oh, shit. We don't fucking phone shit. Is this what you guys do on yours? No. No, no. We phone it in. It's called the phone-in pod. That shit, that's a great name for a podcast. And by the way, ignoring this, remember craig ferguson he'd have the notes and then he'd go just rip it up i don't remember that you know sure because who cares i you know i've seen enough of you that to know that you will not be like so i uh what do you guys want to talk about yeah uh yeah dude we we had opportunity notch was it was a staple in the household growing up truly we i probably watched it i texted my brother i was like how many times did we watch that growing up and he was like probably 15 at least i don't know if you had war have you had any war stories you must have war stories with whatever and that was that was uh very awkward i but i i fought for it yeah it was unreleasable uh the first thing and then i said well let's have him crawl through the audience you know to born to be wild and then we brought in a choreographer and then it was enough to get released but you were probably at the right age you were like three and a half and you're in diapers like me like funny voices i like fart guy anyway uh you're yeah wait listen dana i was telling him that he that you were doddering around the room without your headset on like gladys knight on stage did you see that the other night it's so rude they bring these performers out and like Frankie Valli you've seen that video oh yeah where they're like you're just you're good to be true and he's like and I go is he moving his mouth they're just playing me but they're so old that they try to get them on stage and everyone else gets paid they want a tour and he's just like and you go this guy has no idea where he is so they got fucking Gladys Knight now and she's the backup singers are doing all the good notes you know what I mean and she walks and she's just facing them like this and they're going toward the audience and she's like oh where's my she's looking for the refrigerator they're like you're not at home and you go just please let's relax on the touring it's too late now it's not too late for dana that wasn't what i was saying i was just saying i'm i'm near near that and it is a week away now i saw the the frankie valley thing because i was playing ac the same night as him and i was like dude frankie valley i gotta go see Frankie Valli and then I saw a YouTube clip of him lip syncing I was like I think I'm good yeah I think I feel bad that I'm going to make him go on stage he's like there's someone here I gotta go on fuck this what was the name of that Broadway show I saw it in London Jersey Boys oh yeah it was so brilliant and I've seen it in London and uh the English fans were like that was their Beatles I mean they just were standing up going crazy yeah yeah yeah if you had to right now Sam sing three or four words as Frankie Valley, could you do it?
8:11Dana Carvey:You don't have to do it. No. Listen to this voice. I'd have to be a new one. You do have kind of a Sam Elliott thing going on. You can just do Sherry. That's it. That's good. That's just that false setup. There was a guy who used to pick us up at this comedy club, SideSplitters. In his convertible. He'd be hammered, just bombed, and he would pick you up singing big girls don't cry. I'm like, this is the last thing I'm going to hear as he flips this car off the highway. Side splitters is one of the funnier. We laughed out loud at that one. Yeah. I played rib ticklers. That's the, in Minneapolis.
8:55Gut busters. They're all real. We should say which one's the fake one, but I have to say it's all around the general stomach laughing area. I think that's part of it. Oh yeah. That's where they come up with
9:07Dana Carvey:The general laughing stomach area Yeah, like they go, there's your ribs They're tickled, your stomach is Oh, I see what you're saying And people are unsafe in these places Rib snappers, fucking throat crunchers He gets away from the comedy This is an attack On a lot of the B rooms right now It really is By the way, Sam, I'm in New York City, Hoboken but uh basically adjacent yeah you look like you're in the middle east right now in a hostage video with that that's only for the next 13 weeks now i'm doing a major motion picture now i'm working out here and i don't really know where i am but i'm out across the tunnel and i'm like cool what tunnel i don't even know i lived in new york for off and on six years i didn't have any geographical knowledge of where I was and Jersey was whatever.
10:04And I didn't know how to get there or go there unless someone took me. So now I'm like Norm MacDonald going, what? Norm's another one on stage would be like, what? He was so lost. Yeah, he was always like, what? Everything was what? Norm, you're going on now? What? Quit acting so perplexed by the most normal question that you already know the answer. Kevin Nealon, sorry, go ahead.
10:28Dana Carvey:But Kevin Nealon very quickly toured with Norma. Norma's always like, how do we kind of get back to our rooms now? Where do we go? Norma's obviously just playing a character as if he was kind of completely lost and confused. Like, where are we going? What are we? But anyway, back to our guest, Sam. No. Oh, yeah. Do you have romance around those B rooms? Do you have any kind of romance about your early days? Oh, yeah. I like, yeah. I just want to hear some juicy stories with whores and horrible promoters and waitresses. There's more of those than whores for sure. I just threw that out. I don't normally swear on the podcast.
11:10I'm breaking out the whore stories for you too, man. I got McGubies. That's a rough name. I'm going back there. You're going to McGubies? It's a big room. It's like 400. Where's McGubies? It's a little outside Baltimore. Isn't that a detective from the 70s? it was on after colombo yeah and mcgooby mr mcgoo's nephew yeah it was mcgooby good night yeah i love dude i love those rooms yeah you because you you kind of bomb in the shadows that was kind of my whole thing is like i don't want people to see me bad and you're turning over those hours you gotta you gotta you gotta turn it on those special hours yeah yeah yeah i know you have a secret special we're not going to talk about it but i know no you can talk about it because This is now for a month.
11:56You can mention it. I thought it said confidential. So we've never seen that. I'm like, do not mention you can dance around it. You can hint at it. Do not. I'm like, I thought it was kind of cool.
12:11Dana Carvey:Like Beyonce dropping something at midnight. Yeah. You dropping it at midnight. Like all of a sudden you've got a Netflix special called. I got a good publicity team. They're like, don't mention the special coming out. Thanks guys. But do a lot of podcasts. to a ton of podcasts for no reason it really came and went i couldn't talk about it on any show i went on uh yeah no it's on netflix september 29 uh it's called incorrect filmed in florida at tampa theater fun fun special i hope you guys like it the you know it's like two years of work every time and then you're just like such a beating now okay we'll do the same stuff we ask people because i'm always stressed about this you do this special you taped it when six months ago three months ago two yeah six months ago a charlie kirk joke still funny i don't know we'll see was he open uh yeah i mean i almost opened on one and then i was just like yeah i'm like let me earn this and put it at minute nine you know let me uh let me build to this maybe put the feelers out 65 seconds in not yet you just like are luigi jokes still working who knows We'll see.
13:17But yeah, I filmed it in February. And I love when they push the release because I'm just like, oh, cool, more time to write new shit. But yeah, it is so hard to keep coming up with jokes, especially most of my jokes are pretty short. So it's just like, oh, my God, every time. I want stories. I want one 90-minute story. I want to have fucking American Pie. I want one long one. That's the best. Maybe you don't, because those specials are going to put you to sleep. That's the thing. You need to inject. Well, they have to have tent poles. So you have to have laughs throughout or you're fucked. You can't wait till the end.
13:59But when you do it, so now you're starting to do. But I would say like the cellar, like I see you on clips. Cellar is a tough place. When I go there, I almost throw out anything new because I'm rarely there. And I don't want comics in the background. going this fucking guy's got zilch man what the fuck well how did he get anywhere so i have to go but where do you go that's safe anywhere new york i went to gotham i go around i go there's somewhere everywhere everyone's like where do you practice yeah it's uh i just kind of do it the cellar and i just kind of take a beating in some of those rooms but yeah you're following you follow some young guys where you're just like oh this is his first hour he's fucking killing is so good some of these young comics are there who are so funny and and you just follow them with like uh let me break out the notepad you know let me see if they're cool with this but yeah you take a you take a beating something i leave some nights being like wow i wish so much of my self-worth wasn't attached to that for sure but it is a hundred percent of mine is unfortunate i would i wouldn't
15:01Dana Carvey:do that what do you what have you like is your fifth one special maybe i think six or seven god dang because i didn't yeah i put out too many probably the first one was like a half hour with an audio out you just keep putting them out you're like i don't know what else to do so oh my god i remember that show mtv half hour did you do that or are you too young i i don't i didn't know mtv had comedy that's how you know what mtv is it's over it's done and you have no corporate loyalty you did comedy central none and 2018 then you switched to netflix 2022 then you go to amazon 2020 youtube in between all that you know so you just jesus yeah i don't but i just wondered if you feel because i did three and they sucked it's kind of like it doesn't matter there's a real special your special did not suck dude shopping broccoli is a classic and an opportunity knocks does not suck i will hear no trash okay i'll accept it i'll take it i know take a compliment because the people that like it love it when people talk to me about i don't mind it i love this and i liked uh i don't mind it but i was just wondering for you is how do you like each special and you're like okay you're trying to get better and better or looser and looser or more present or more so it seems like like for this one was it did you have any kind of the knowledge from the the past six like you're bringing it like i want this theater i want this time for the show not not you know that kind of stuff oh god no no i'm so unorganized i remember i was with this comic mateo lane in chicago and he was playing the chicago theater friday and i was playing a saturday and i was just there and i was like oh we'll just do spots on each other's show this is fun and he shows up at like 3 30 he's doing sound check i walk in at like 7 15 i'm just like i don't know i don't think any of that shit i just i'm like i the mic's gonna work i figure so even when you're shooting a special you just kind of i kind of feel the same way i want to work on the jokes i don't give a shit about the the venue you know i i or the time i just want to yeah so i um i'm yeah i'm worried about the material am i gonna have like maybe a topical joke for the city or you know or something about the city i just yeah i i I don't care about any of the other stuff to be honest.
17:22Honestly, when I did mine, I had probably 75 emails about what color curtain you want. I go, I don't give a fat fuck. No, one's going to talk about the curtain. I'm not an interior decorating. I'm telling jokes. What the hell? What are the sconces? Show me some options.
17:35Dana Carvey:I know. 20 minutes on the stool placement. Where do you want a stool? Like, would you like a Coke near it or on top? Or just kidding. I know, but every time they, then you're like, yeah, I don't give a shit. And then you get up there and you're like, where's the stool? I need a stool. You put it on the roof. I can't do this without a stool. Yeah. Where am I going to put my water or my notes? I like when they go, we got everything you need. And I'm on the side. I'm about to be introduced. I go, where's the stool? The mic stand. They go, do you want one? I go, I mean, what do I have? Just holding.
18:04I mean, I got notes in my hand and I still use a set list. And that was a big problem. They're like, do not have a set list up there. I go, I do it all the time. I don't even, I just want to do it like I normally do it. So I, there's no big changes, you know? I've been making an effort lately to choose products from my home that are built to last. That's why I'm excited to share today's sponsor, Avocado Green Mattress. That's right. Wouldn't have thought it was a mattress.
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21:59Do you have a set list up there or do you use a monitor? Yeah, but I don't really look at it usually. It's more of like just I know it's there if I lose something. But if I'm doing new, like right now, I'm like probably doing like half new, half old because I'm trying to build back up. And, yeah, I feel like it's I got to look a little bit just with the new stuff.
22:18Dana Carvey:Oh, yeah. Carlin had a cheat sheet there and he'd had water around it. So he'd go for the water. Yeah, I do that fucking scam, too. You know, there's no food. OK, here's a question for you. I'm just randomly curious. Cordless for the special or cord? Is this going that badly? Think about it. Think about it. No, I'm fascinated. I'm fascinated by this. Think about it. I like a cord. All right. We can move. Who am I? Tony Robbins? Cordless. What are we doing? Speaking of cord. No, I want a cord always. I kind of like it too. You kind of whip it around. And, you know, back in the 80s, people would take the cord and refer to a TV western from the 60s.
23:03Dana Carvey:They'd wave it and go, move them, move them, move them. Keep them doggies moving. You know, yeah, those hack things. Anyway, go on. There's so much. What are your, I don't want to weigh in on the cord debate. I'm having problems already. She's trying to clip this microphone. It was over there a little more. Is the mic, is it animated? I mean, was it attached to some? I'm taking it off. It's like a python. My question. Sam. What? All kidding aside. And cord gate aside. We've never asked that question. It's going to blow up. The only joke that worked in my last special was when I fucking trashed Amazon for giving me a special with a cord.
23:44I said, you guys can't fucking. You got a cord off Amazon for an Amazon special? It's 37 feet long. It weighs 22 pounds. I'm like this. was your special was your last special on amazon too i'm doing like you no allegiance yeah hired gun fuck it really i trash amazon i think out of the gate in this special i think i had a joke about like it was something i forget the word it was something like uh the uh but we uh fuck it was something like uh luigi oh it was like the luigi yeah he killed the guy with uh you know mad about health insurance i saw amazon was doing discount checkups and i was just like oh that's how you know we're fucked when amazon is like helping I think we're like four months away from, hey, what's your health insurance?
24:26I'm with DraftKings Silverleaf Premier.
24:32That's a joke that won't work anywhere but America. You try that one in Canada, they're like, what's DraftKings? No shit. My whole act doesn't work anywhere. Now, when you were writing stuff on the new special, how long? Because I remember writing something that was just, it was good right after my special came out, a new one. and now I got to wait. And by the time it gets on, it's a little fucking dusty. Are there any stories you can talk about that are topical or is there just subject matter? You know what I mean? How long can it hang in there? I think you do a little topical stuff just to have it, to show that you're current.
25:08But yeah, I don't want to hold on to stuff for too long. I feel like, what are you going to be like? Lorena Bobbitt, guys, what do you think? I know. I go, do you remember this person? That's how I start every joke. do you remember the snl crisis savings alone remember john edwards that senator they're like remember you remember they were on a boat you remember you know last here's the joke no i yeah i just personal is better because it's just not gonna uh no one's gonna step on it and no one's gonna uh and it's gonna last longer and then you and then you could build in chunks but i always find like i have jokes i get real annoyed where a joke will kill out of the gate and then You're like, I got it.
25:49And then two sets later, it never works again.
25:52Dana Carvey:That's sickening. It's painful. It happens all the time. It's so great when you stumble on a new one and you go, oh, shit. And the real horniness is when you've got a joke that's doing so well, you go, I might move it up to my closer. And all the other jokes are like, what the fuck? I like the voice. You're cutting in line. And then if it works as a closer, you're like, oh, now my closer gets moved up and it's a little tentpole now. and then you do a special and throw them on the fucking garbage and you're like start over it's amazing how yeah and then you start every new hour with the shit that didn't work in the last hour you're like you're like let me pull into this city with the first 10 minutes of just just garbage that's on the cutting room floor yeah this is how i'm opening my shows yeah that but you know you you sneak in enough old it ends up being i was in braille last week and end up being good shows because you sneak in enough old and you that work could you cushion the new and then yeah but and you build enough confidence but it's uh yeah it's enough every time it's like i i every time i see david tell he's like this is my last hour and i'm like no you're not you're gonna do another and he's like no and i'm i'm at the point now i'm like no i get that i get that yeah sure like we know that don't want to get 35 we we talked to him on this podcast and it was about 35 it was 18 and then he filled it with crowd work or something but you know and I love watching it.
27:15Dana Carvey:I love that. It was just like, well, of course he's brilliant. Like every take was like, but it's like 35 and it's over. I don't know if we have to always do an hour. I mean, what's wrong with a 35 40. I mean, please God. I'm with you, man. I love it. I love shorter is great. I don't think I'll ever put out an hour special. I'm always at like 47 or something, 48. I, right. I was sitting with movies. It's like, you see a movie runtime, it's like three hours 15 you're just like fuck you dude the odyssey is like do you have to i know the odd yeah it's like an 1100 page book i'm like you could you could fit it to 90 minutes i see some trends well i love the actual anger at the people i'm made the long man yeah fuck you guys and you're 195 minutes i'm out of here if it's worthy of it but don't you feel a little intimidated i when i see a 95 minute movie i'm like oh thank you i'll like it no matter what yeah when i see a movie and I go to the theater and he goes, 220 minutes?
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28:09What the fuck is that? I'm like, that's nine hours. Wait a second. I got to get out of here. I can't figure that out.
28:17Dana Carvey:60 goes into one. Okay. I saw a 90-minute movie last night. I loved it. Midnight in Paris. Woody Allen. That's a good movie. It's just a feel-good movie. It's in Paris and Owen Wilson is by far the best surrogate Woody. He's actually almost said the perfect tone no we could just stay here you know i think you know that kind of thing because what he's like you know because you know i'm thinking and oh it was so perfect in that movie and you know why don't we just stay here in paris you know we could see ernest hemingway was here i it's just amazing i don't know what's your what's your favorite movie you're a you're a movie you're a profile i watched i watched bullets over broadway last night actually speaking really get woodies because you got john kuzak in there but uh yeah i don't dude i've watched so many movies i i yeah that's like i bring dvds on the road sometimes i just like i want to calms your brain down it calms your brain down right or watch i love comedies yeah dude uh all the time but uh i like i like film noir like old-timey you know detective stuff i love like i mean jesus christ i got like out of the past right there i got out of the past we got mitchell Wow.
29:35What do we got there? That's Third Man, Orson Welles, Laura right next to him. Yeah, I love old movies of that era for sure. I love the dialogue and that it's tight. I mean, out of the past. Double Indemnity. I have that one over there too. That's one of my favorites.
29:52Dana Carvey:Notorious, Treasure, Sir, Margaret, Maltese Falcon. Yes. A lot of that Hitchcock stuff. I love that. I love all that stuff. yeah but i yeah i love like any i mean comedies i grew up on your you guys and sandler and the fairly brothers and stuff for sure so i i loved all that i wasn't really only gonna ask you about comedies because it couldn't be a dumber question than the microphone question but i was gonna say obviously you probably like comedies but is there any other kind and you just told me you just said that's interesting you like all those kinds because a lot of people don't go back that far A lot of people just breeze by whatever movies are out and they don't dig.
30:30But if you dig back, I mean, maybe we're all crazy, but they're so fucking cool to watch old movies that are just interesting and slower. And you just go, fuck, they don't do this anymore. But man, it was a little hate.
30:44Dana Carvey:The original Invasion of the Body Snatchers is stunning, I think. I got to watch that. I've never seen that. I know what it is. but what how it feels and what the other one was kind of cool too uh in the late 70s but the original one just has this atmosphere and it's so emotional and and just i don't i would check that out you look at kids movies now you see these trailers and all the characters like like it's like non-stop and like then you watch a kids movie from like the 90s or 80s and you're like oh it's chilled it's like yeah it's it's mirroring the anxiety of these yeah yeah it's now and like used to watch a movie and it would breathe a little and now it's just like i like tight but i also like you know we say we like walking two shots where they're not cutting a hundred times for people it's like totally just give us some air here we can just kind of relax watch along and cuts started coming later and later where it's like not more recently but it just slowly got more cuts more cuts more coverage more coverage once digital came in which is great for improvisation because they're not running out of film, but it's so easy to cut.
31:53Dana Carvey:I was back in the 90s. They'd get the spool of the film, and to make a cut was like three hours of... Like a fire hose. Maybe, but now you get bored and you cut. But when did the word slop become really big? Like AI slop or slop? This year, I think, or maybe not last year. Is it a type of porn? That's why I think there's so much content that a lot of it is just like, How did this get made? How is this movie existing or TV show existing? It's such - Well, as you look at your phone now and you just swipe up this For You page, and it's just turned into late night infomercials all day on your phone.
32:31You're just like, oh, this is what you watched at 2 a.m. when you were a piece of shit. And this is just my whole life now. Yeah, basically. I don't like this. There's so much AI on the phone where there's ones that the joke of your mom asks you, is this AI? and it's like a cat in a car driving away from the police. And she's like, is this AI? And you go, well. And then there's really tricky AI where they're showing, like I saw one the other day where a cat was friends with like a walrus and they were palling around. It was believable enough to where they had a whole side of it. And I go, oh, this is all fucking fake.
33:06This is all. And that's what you're wasting AI on?
33:12Dana Carvey:I think you can identify it still for the most part. But obviously pretty soon There'll be a new John Wayne movie It'll be just like John He's gonna be woke He's not gonna call them Comanches He's gonna be like, uh, settlers Of course, you seem like These are Native Americans, Pappy He starts the movie saying I call them Indians, dude This is stolen land What's that thing? I'm excited for woke John Wayne Yeah, no, you can't I mean, it's like, you're right It's always used on like cats in a cart, but soon, you know, more and more is going to be used for like, as like a thing for war where you're like, did we nuke Iran or was that fake?
33:53I don't know. Or a gorilla holding
33:55Dana Carvey:a baby or something. So there's a lot of stuff that looks really scary. That could just be a parent in Florida, letting a gorilla hold their baby though. That could be anything. Has to be in Florida. Florida, of course. Takes another kick in the nuts. Yeah. Let me see here. We get Sam. I like that you worked for the Colbert Report. Was that a long time? Oh, that was like a college thing. I was in college, and I was just doing them the summers and stuff. Yeah, that was fun. That was a great show, the Colbert Report. That was a fun job. Great show. Yeah, he was a cool boss. I did the show, and he pretended to remember me, but I was like, you don't fucking review.
34:34You don't have to. For a summer, yeah. But yeah, it was very nice. Yeah, did you? You were in Roommates, too. I just saw this. roommates is netflix i'm watching roommates this week oh yeah i haven't seen it yet but uh yeah yeah it's doing great fun is it yeah it looks fun i gotta watch it i feel weird thing about
34:52Dana Carvey:watching stuff that i'm in i don't want to see oh i can't see anything way too ever it's really really hard except if you're editing a special i think is the most painful painful to sit there with your special it's over and over again and you're like well maybe we should uh but you don't sit in on an editing session you just look i made a movie for that's gonna be on netflix next year that i just self-financed it's about it's like a mockumentary about my tour and editing it's been a nightmare i hate watching myself i hate i hate being a part of this but it's you already get it you already got it out there though you already got someone to get it now that's like you said oh that's great but that's it's gonna be early next year but uh yeah i'm still hard to do good job yeah it's uh it's fun it's a fun movie but uh i also can't tell if i made a piece of shit or if it's funny to me but uh you know it's well i tell young i tell the young filmmakers you know a mock documentary so inexpensive on the fly not lighting not no takes just capturing capturing capturing so uh it already think it's a success personally when i hear about it i already think it'd be fun to watch these movies now like obsession you got to respect that they do it on a budget and just like i i think that's i think it's so cool man yeah so we just i just put up my own money for it and we just were like because i've had all these things i think david and i were talking about this on our pod but you feel weird talking about anything because you're like is it going to see the light of day right but i spent like three years on a show with brian cox and i i think it's going to see the light of day someday but like you get brian cox you figure like you're good to go you know that guy's a stud yeah he's just so good was he kind of scary yes yes he's fucking scary seems like he cuts you to ribbons is he the guy that makes fun of other actors he goes this guy's yes the method do your fucking line horrible horrible it's cool to be actor-y but also kind of a badass at the same time yeah i see that a lot but yeah he's uh yeah he's intimidating as hell you're like this is but yeah we just uh well wait a minute you filmed it for three years and it never got released no no no we like we're pitching it for developing developing for three years it was a tv show so it was just forever and then uh and we we wrote it for Brian and, and he agreed.
37:08And we were like, this is crazy to get Brian Cox that he's attached, but still you haven't done it. And you're like, God, I'm running out of time. No, I know. I mean, we're on it, but, uh, he, uh, we got independent money now, so I think we can do it, but it's like, you know, it takes like, you're like 37 in the script and you're just looking at, you're like, I'm about to be 40. All right, cool. I'm aging out of myself. This is fun. I think you'll be okay.
37:33Dana Carvey:37 to 40. It's not a big move, but, uh, No, but you feel weird looking at that. You're like, wow, this has been a while. What about that thing with Mark Norman, who does your podcast? Well, Mark and I made a movie. Yeah, and we were supposed to film it in October, but that might be moved a little because we got the money to film that. We got all these independent financers to give us some money to make this movie we wrote. And then the director dropped out like a week before. We were supposed to. He was like, I want more money. And we were like, all right. Well, we don't have more money. So we tried to keep him, but it's all good.
38:09And, you know, we're on good terms and everything. You know, you got to do what you got to do. But so we met with like five other directors and we're kind of we're figuring that out. But yeah, it'll it'll it'll happen. It's complex. I mean, Dana knows I know. And we just did that little one. And it's just like so many things that you don't see. I'm on one now that I'm just hired on. And it's so much better to just roll in and up. There's your trailer up. They have lunch. and then instead of people going, should we feed everyone lunch? What do we do? Do you want a trailer? Are we going to give people a trailer?
38:40Why am I deciding? I don't know, I guess. Yeah, but when you have to decide every fucking thing and everything costs something or it's coming out of your pocket or you have to clear it, that's when to physically make a movie, permits, all that stuff. And like you're saying, the drop of a hat, there was something that happened with Theo, we had to push it three months and then something happened with director and then I got something And we're like, this is just getting kicked down the road where you go, fuck, we need just a chunk of time. Everyone's got to clear. And it's not number one priority usually for everyone because it's, you know, it's just like you're doing it for fun.
39:16Passion project. Well, the mockumentary, I didn't even get permits. I mean, that was a thing where like I was just shooting in New York City. I had a friend of mine play a doorman in a doorman outfit. And I was like, yeah, let's just go in that building right there. And the actual doorman came out like, do you have a permit? and I was like, no, but we already got it. Sorry. Did you have like two cameras following you?
39:37Dana Carvey:Yeah. It was like with a little sound person, just super. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I like that idea because it's just a little different. It's a little more inexpensive and you have a lot of control. You can shoot whenever you want. And if you have like a little idea and people can follow it, then those are cool. I mean, you're a funny guy. It's almost like, just get a camera on me. I'll be funny. and whatever. We wrote a script. We wrote a script. Oh, you did? Okay. It was like a 60-page treatment and then we kind of turned it into like, we just write sides every day. So we'd riff, but yeah, I wanted a story too.
40:12You knew where you were going, like A to B. You had to go here, you had to go here. Okay. Yeah. Well, as long as you're
40:17Dana Carvey:a co-director, even if it's not credited, because the sensibility in the moment, you got to go with the comedians. If you have a director that feels like they're an artiste and they want to, I've had that situation so as long as you guys are in charge yeah whenever you hear a director say on my set and you're like relax dude we're making fart jokes here you're not orson welles all right not on my set i know that you find out the guy didn't even want to do it they're like uh he goes i'll do this shitty comedy then i'll get to do something i want news flash boss you're no christy christy mullin all right you know you know you're way around a camera but you couldn't find a joke if you were at a garage sale in Temecula.
41:02Dana Carvey:All right. Temecula. Holy shit. Oh, when you do Dennis, you always do asymmetrical words. That's good. That's good. Jesus Christ. This guy's got some chops here. You know, I didn't know that Sammy Morell was such a hot cat out in the industry.
41:22Sam, you're coming out of the special. And then what do you do? Do you, is the next plan to hit the road again and do a tour? back in clubs and just try to build back up and uh and i i dude i love the process of it i think it's fun and it's i i still i took enough time off uh to really kind of uh you know look forward to the road again i took a lot of the summer off because i just hit too many cities last year just on a bus you could you could knock out like 16 in a row you know so uh so i i'm pumped i'm loving going back to clubs and i'm loving just the pace like i'm lucky i have an audience that's really patient with me so if i'm like hey can i try some new ones they're like please it's it's great do
42:08Dana Carvey:you have a club where you kind of you know you're like yeah i'm just better here i mean like a favorite like because of the feng shui of the room or the audience or there was clubs i played nearly days where i would just kill because it was the intimacy of the room or something yes others were tractor pulls i mean i think the bray improv is pretty hot those that's pretty nice i love that one kind of on top of you everything all the energy's floating around so so good yeah but the problem with those rooms are you like i don't trust them if i'm killing too hard i'm like then i take it back to new york i'm like oh this joke sucks they were laughing too hard yeah you know like for some reason the old omaha funny bone like it's just a kill box madison i mean you because it's just so tight.
42:52I like it. I like it.
42:54Dana Carvey:But no one would shoot a special in a kill box. They got to go to the giant. I would. Part of me is like, wants to do a comedy club again. I'm kind of annoyed. Yeah. Because you hear these theaters and then you're like, I was doing way better than that. What the hell is with that audio? Oh, there's nothing like a small theater, the compression of the sound. And I think for me, since I like to kind of be playful with a character, I don't really have any jokes. It's just oxygen for me, you know, to have that intimate reaction. god Ontario improv is like an hour outside of LA but they have a low roof and it just yes it always seems to be good sets and you're like fuck am I wrong and then you go somewhere and fucking eat it a week later you go or you get too cocky I go you know you're not as hungry you're like these are working and then you do them and you're like oh that didn't work out which one do I jump to and I start scrambling my set and everyone's like uh-oh we smell blood this guy this guy thinks he's bombing oh dude i i get coming back from like comedy on state of madison i'm like i got 10 new minutes and then it's you start doing it in like the cellar you're like i got a minute and a half yeah yeah maybe 45 seconds yeah you start to feel like you start to feel like a bum immediately yeah they're too hot some of these rooms you know i always find that way like yeah a lot of those like if i'm in dc they're so high pop in the dc improv they're so hot they're just so good kill box you're like yeah all the boston i feel like it's always hot you know but doesn't it tighten up the timing with you because they're so hot and it's immediate your everything changes right i mean i don't know why i want you to shoot your next one in one of those kill boxes i kind of wanted i maybe i'll call it kill box i think call it kill box and say i'm not this good you know that'd be and then just destroy it's only the room it never seems to matter like i think was Attell even actually at the cellar?
44:44No,
44:45Dana Carvey:Attell was at the, in San Francisco at the, a comedy club. But Attell's, oh, maybe a Z. Attell's famous one, Skanks for the Memories, was, that was at Denver Comedy Works, which is like notorious, just amazing. Kill Box. Kill Box. The one outside of town is really juicy. I like that one. It's on, there's two comedy works and I always do one that's not in town. It's fucking KB. That's what I call Eileen Wuornos, a kill box. Wuornos. But skanks for the memory. It's so silly. It just makes me laugh. Maybe Aziz. I won't let this go. Did Aziz do the cellar? And so did Ray Romano. A few of them have done the cellar.
45:30Oh, and he walked around. Ray's hook was he did all three rooms, right?
45:34Dana Carvey:Cellar's good, but it's not like a kill room because it's in New York. The main room is a great room, but the other i i i bomb so hard in the village underground their satellite room it's like a little more space is that bigger right what it's a little bigger but the the acoustics aren't quite right it's funny because i did my most viewed specials in that room but it's when it's your people i guess it's different but when it's taurus i opened on a joke i probably shouldn't open on the other night can we hear i just yeah i said i was on it i saw a woman on a dating site and her profile said, I'm not fragile like a flower.
46:07I'm fragile like a bomb. And I was like, oh, okay, that's worse. I wrote her a message. I'm not a good catch like a fish. I'm a good catch like a lump under your armpit.
46:19And so I opened on that and I heard a woman just go, oh. And I was like, maybe I should have waited for five minutes in to do that one or something. I don't know. Yeah, that's at 5.06. 5.06. but I had to, it was like eight minutes to get them back. You dug out of a grave. I had to dig out of a hole. I was like, well, that was not worth the$40. Or whatever the hell. Dana football is back. As you know, prize picks is making the start of the season. Huge with stacked September prize picks is a simple skill based daily fantasy app. You know, I like fantasy.
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51:12yeah so you have those bombs in that room whereas like the smaller rooms they have they're about to have a fifth room but those small rooms in there are kind of great because you can just throw shit at the wall and you know yeah what does the cellar hold that skinny room i think it's the main one where it's like eight feet deep and then it's kind of wide maybe like 150 it's pretty small which is great i 150 is a great number and that yeah it's a little bigger than the other oh dude the mcdougall room is just the greatest and uh that's my favorite room maybe in comedy and then uh but yeah there's some theaters that just shock you like i remember i was talking to jim norton and he said i'm doing this he's like oh i'm going to knoxville and i was like the bijou theater and he goes yeah like that's like the best room for some reason yeah some actual tennessee really and and he texts me like he's all cynical going in he texts me goes holy shit that was like one of the best sets I've had.
52:04And I was like, yeah, it's like a magical room. For whatever reason, Norman always says, Blue City, Red State, great combo. You just kind of get everybody.
52:13Dana Carvey:How big is that theater? I'm just curious. It's not that big. It's probably like 700, but they're just hot. And yeah, certain rooms you just, they're just magical. I don't know why. Do you ever skip this? Because I do these, like I do a random theater. I haven't played. I did one up by where Dana's from and San Fran area. And I hadn't been there. and I'm like, this should have been my special. In the middle of it, I'm like, this is exactly what I won't want for a special. Then I go do my special and the cameras are blocking and people are pissed. Yeah, people are looking around and the lights are on them.
52:46I do that, but then I just tape my next special where I felt that. That's literally why I did the Tampa Theater for this new one because I had a really good set there and the vibe was fun. And Tampa is like, there's something about Tampa people where you just can't defend them. They're inoffendable. yeah i like it no one in tampa has ever grown to the joke in in the history of their life so it just the theater felt right the vibe felt right and then but then there's one in seattle i love called the more there's a few that you're just like oh i should tape one here at some point
53:13Dana Carvey:so at this point ever people know you i when they come obviously they they're ready for your style of comedy what you do and your edge mostly but that's a but that's a bad thing to fall to like that's why i want to go i'm not known yeah it's forgiving but you know i mean how people that just keep they get too comfortable with their crowd and before you know it it's like they're just speaking like this one to this one type of person and they become it's just kind of it ruins their comedy i think it's like it's like when you see comics who kind of pander and you're like i think gay marriage should be legal and you're like oh cool it's manhattan i I think most people think that.
53:52It becomes kind of a defecto rally. Yeah, edgy bit. These people just pandering to their people and you're just like, I'm so bored watching this guy. Or they're doing just – it's claptor. You're playing to your base and they applaud the setup and you're like, I want the opposite. I want to put them off in the setup. I love when Chris Rock would do bits where he is offending people in the setup and then he sticks the landing. to me that's like so much cooler he gets him back yeah yeah yeah yeah like when he used to do that bit a man is as faithful as his options and women are furious in the crowd and and then he still sticks the landing like that to me is so much more exciting yeah there's a lot of wisdom in that that phrase i you know i have to go up and i want to go up with the with the pad sarah silverman used to do that a lot but i always thought it's kind of a cheat because they like to be a part of the process so you go and also how many of these comics are doing that with like four-year-old bits so like let me try this one like i think that was your closer in your last special closer
54:58Dana Carvey:yeah what do you think what do you think of this sorry go ahead oh no it's it's it's fine to do on like a new joke show but it's definitely like it's not a great look they would just be reading off a pad right it's that they paid for a ticket well sometimes two things they pay they pay for tickets you owe them something that's why sometimes when i'm working the new hour you go back to some of the old ones because the people that never saw the special you know you hear from netflix well the average watching is nine minutes i'm like what the fuck i know so you go is that what i'm glad i put all my good stuff at the end yeah thanks for telling me that yeah that's you start open with your clothes that's what rock told me once he goes see what happens i go it didn't work um yeah see what happens i couldn't follow my clothes i couldn't follow my best joke yeah there's a reason you don't open on free bird exactly thank you everyone good just leaves so trying it sometimes gives you a false confidence of they're laughing at the whole fun of it all and then you put it in your act in like a and then like an unstable position in your act and they're like fuck that one you're like no they liked it last week i read it to them but i guess you're supposed to shoot a special as if you're in a room and people are starting to leave as time goes by or a few jokes don't work they're leaving so yeah i i start every joke with up up up up up wait wait oh how are you leaving when you watch a friend special or a special do you watch a special all the way through i never make it all the way through but a few times i have the first time i first time i saw sebastian i didn't know anything about him you know they're over there you know so it was it was so new toenails toenails clipping toenails the poor i'll watch this guy you know i know you go what yeah i know it's hard it's hard to make it through right i mean it's it's the ones like a tell that i always make it through because they're short and you always want more and it's tough to make it through a full special, but, uh, yeah, I mean, it's comedy, just better live.
57:10That's the, that's the problem is like, if you're in the room, it's hard to leave if someone's killing it. But if you just throw it on, it's, well, it's gotta be great. It's gotta be great for me to go.
57:20Dana Carvey:We've talked to people who are self financing and we, he was doing the celebrity theater and Phoenix. So he kept adding the shows and using the door to add the show. So I always, I always had one show. you know just one taping one show but these guys are doing five somebody did 10 i read recently oh my god when you do a special how many do you do yeah is it more than one hopefully when i did my first netflix when i did seven like an idiot and i just would get drunk after every show like we got it and then hung over like fuck i gotta do i gotta do more of these all right and be stressed again i should have immediately smashed every day we did it and then and then the last one I did three I think I think three is fine three is hard to get though oh you want to do more you mean no I'm saying if you I think the norm is you sign it to a special two shows one night I mean one is crazy Dana I don't know how you do it because I I will inevitably flub something and I'll deliver it I'm like I get off like fuck I should have delivered it like in this way.
58:27I immediately know I fucked up something. Well,
58:30Dana Carvey:there were technical issues with the first taping. So that was not going to work. And then, but see with me and it's not a problem. It's just sort of a unique thing is that the people come see me just, if I start to do an SNL character, like George Bush senior or Hans and Franz or church lady, that's what they really want to see. You know, they don't want me to. So it's kind of like give them what they want. Hey, dogs are funny. And they're like, Are they? Boo! Or Franz, or both. Get fucked! Get fucked! Yeah, but it's a good problem to have. I always say the only worst thing in having hit characters is not having hit characters.
59:15Sure.
59:16Dana Carvey:Do people yell out some of your more... Do you have these bits that people yell out from your specials? I have a couple of them. If I like a bit, I don't mind hearing it again. I love it. I don't know. I honestly, the worst part is I don't remember how to tell a lot of them. Like they're just, they're many specials ago. I don't remember the wording. You just kind of have to lose it to make room for the new stuff. But yeah, I have a bit of called the white night about this Cleveland vigilante who saved me, uh, from getting my ass kicked. Some crazy guy saved me from another crazy guy, uh, over a girl, which most of my stories end up with me drunk.
59:50and I'm just like, oh, I made a stupid decision. And something bad almost happened, but it usually doesn't. But yeah, people want those bits. But I just kind of tell them, I don't know it. I'll do a new thing. Do you think you have any, and I'll let you go in a second, but do you think you have any, does the podcast clips help bring people in or can you not tell? I think podcasts help. I think it does help. like i see you with your act oh thanks man yeah i mean mark is so easy to be funny with because yeah yeah you guys are very good i also i can't i can't top what mark's doing so sometimes i just have to be like i'm gonna be this straight man in this clip because mark just farted on a guest and i can't go further than that so let me just let me just sit back and let this happen but uh someone get mad at you about farting was there some i don't think nate bargasi loved when mark farted on him.
1:00:44I mean, it's always like you'll see what happens. Yeah, and there's a clip of Nate just like, he wasn't even mad. He was like more disappointed. It's a sad state of affairs. Because Mark will ask a personal question and someone gives a vulnerable response and then Mark just farts midway through. And I'm like, all right. Yeah, I mean, I love hanging out with Mark. It's fun though, right? It's a great podcast. It's very fun. Look at this. We get to hang out with you. You got to come on, Dana. Dana's got to go on. You would like it, Dana. I did it with these two morons. It was great. I was watching it this morning.
1:01:22Dana Carvey:It was great. It's just a fun, fun, funny podcast. Yeah, they're nice and both funny guys. You know, we, yeah, I love it, but I think the podcasts are like, Mark and I talk about this all the time. You know, when we were young comics, all we did was write jokes all day. And then you get to a point where it's like, podcast. Oh, we want a script now. Oh, this. And you feel like, oh, man, it's so much extra work to make sure your act is, uh, like a lot of us got into this cause we were kind of fuck ups in a way. And, and then, and now they're like, you gotta have the, you know, you gotta have the discipline of someone in medical school to stay on top.
1:01:55And you're like, those were words I used to be described. Yeah. We were, we were the idiots in class that would make jokes. And now they're just like, yeah, you gotta have a social media team. And we're like, we don't know what the fuck you're talking about so uh staying on top of stuff has gotten yeah it's gotten much more difficult than we ever thought and and we we got lucky that people championed us early on and helped us like amy schumer produced both of our first specials david tell took me on the road yeah uh all these people helped us out but uh and and and we were just like in love with the stand-up part of it and there's and that's kind of what we always are going to hope to just stand up because they don't want a real job sometimes you know and then it turns into a very hard job these other worlds you have real bosses you're like there's like a chain of command which shows there's other stuff stand up you just show up and you're like yeah but it turns into you're doing jobs you're working for netflix you got people you're on email chain you're like i have zoom meetings you're like
1:02:55Dana Carvey:this is different than when i started very very very different i think jay leno and jen steinfeld never got past. It's like a bank eyes to them. Yeah, you go to the club and you tell your jokes and they give me a check. And Jay is just like this savant about the emotionality of stand-up. Hey, someone stole my joke. What do I do? Write more jokes. I love that. I heard a tell say that to someone. Someone was complaining and Dave just goes, get funnier. I was like, oh my God. It's so zen. He didn't mean it to be a dick either. He meant it just like, uh what else are you gonna do well this was jay's thing i you probably have heard this and then you write joke tell joke get check that's all right joke tell joke get check so he never got past it he was a fully blown stand-up why he hosted the tonight show i'm a stand-up comedian and i and i do the tonight show yeah i think he made his monologue just a longer it was longer with jokes it wasn't johnny's length it was like let's go longer because this the funniest part oh no jay don't want to interview people it's no fun so he's a scientist you know i do 13 jokes up front you know dave does six but that's fine you know i got 16 lpms money i you know i get the numbers he gets the money but it's all right you know jay was a scientist about about you know the guy you want to talk to about stand up because it's always positive you know always well you know it's interesting because that time was so different those monologues didn't feel like the country was as divided it felt like yeah true and and i feel like the only one who kind of kept it that way now is conan where conan's monologue was still just silly and not too political yeah yeah really no but we talk about current events but it wasn't so like you're either with me or you're against yeah it wasn't applause baiting you're not preaching to whatever choir it is or they're not really laughing but they're like yeah yeah they're like it's just a rally after a while you go just around is there anything else happening in current events other than this stuff like yeah i agree it was it was it got a lot yeah but i love how jerry dissects stand up and his obsession with it and even if i disagree with some of the stuff i'm just like i like hearing jerry talk about jokes and i i've always liked it and uh he is great he's funny the advice he always gives yeah the guys like me he's like you don't move around enough you don't move around enough on stage and uh i was like i try to move it doesn't feel natural to me i don't know you gotta you gotta mark your territory that's why he says you got at one point mark your territory so you have to cover the whole stage yeah yeah so it's such alpha shit i'm like i'm a coward i'll just i'll stand here i do like that jerry is so good everyone will take his advice he's so good jay and jerry the two jays yeah i listen to those two guys i listen they hate complaining they think you're you've got the golden horseshoe of life if you can do stand-up make money this way so they treat you better if they like you as a stand-up yeah they have no time for the rest of the world almost it's fun i've only met leno once and it was on the phone he called me after one of my specials and i was like oh that's kind of nice Yeah, he was a very nice dude.
1:06:14Dana Carvey:Yeah, it was really good jokes. You got a laugh every seven seconds. Yeah, it was just a good special. I just wanted to. I really appreciate the effort. A lot of people don't write good jokes. You just have some great jokes. Yeah, he was a cool guy. And Seinfeld is something about, he's so meticulous with those jokes. I love just the obsession with words and everything. It's great. That joke is two words too long. And you're like, it is. I heard he has a tuxedo bit idea that he's been working on for 10 years. He still hasn't got it right. Combo buns. That's a combo bun. I believe it, though. He is a massive scientist.
1:06:58He came to my show at Carnegie Hall, and I was in my head. I was like, I should probably wear a suit. It's Carnegie Hall. And then first thing he wrote me, he's like, love the suit. Oh, you did wear a suit. I did. For a big show, sometimes I'll throw on a suit. Interesting. It feels like old school, but yeah.
1:07:13Dana Carvey:They think we should wear suits. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, let's see. Let's wrap it up with this young man. We Might Be Drunk, the podcast I really like. It's with Mark Norman. And Sam Morel Incorrect, right? September 29th. 29th. On Netflix. On Netflix. Sam Morel. Here, lots of laughs. Always funny, edgy, and great to talk to you finally about it. Yeah, that was fun. I enjoyed this. It was cool. That was fun, man. Thank you, guys. All right. And it's one of these days I'll come on your show. Please do. We would love that. Now that I know you both, and I know your hooks, I know your attitudes, I'm going to come in and dominate.
1:07:50Yeah, take over.
1:07:57All right, listen, if you're enjoying The Fly on the Wall, of course, hopefully you are, click follow. We don't want to be desperate, but obviously smash that goddang button on your favorite podcast app. Leave a review, a good one. Leave a five-star rating, nothing else. Whoops. And maybe even share an episode with a friend. If you're watching this episode on YouTube, please subscribe, Dana. What do you think?
1:08:21Dana Carvey:I'm going to tell you this right now. Hear me now, believe me later. Fly on the Wall, believe it or not, is presented by Odyssey. And executive produced by, hold for it, Dana Carvey and David Spade. Or David Spade and Dana Carvey. We don't write this stuff. Heather Santoro. Greg Holtzman and Leah Reese Dennis. The show is edited by Evan Cox with production support from Phil Sweetech. Talent production and booking by Sophia Lepore.
From the publisher
Sam Morril joins the podcast to talk what it’s like to work alongside Mark Normand, making independent films, and his new Netflix special Incorrect. Also, Frankie Valli, putting together a project with Brian Cox, and Sam’s love for Dana’s movie Opportunity Knocks.
