00:00:00
One of my favorites, Dana, all time. First ballot hall of famer, Will Frell. We had such a blast with him. One of the greatest. And actually, this one was fun because we did it live at
00:00:11
the Largo. Yep. Such a crackup. And uh Will is um you know, just funny. I mean, just listen to this, you'll laugh. You know, there's a big audience there. And you know, he's always upbeat. He's game for
00:00:24
anything. He's the same as we are. He comes, he's not walking through it like when we had Sandler. He's trying to get
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laughs. He's cracking up. We're all cracking up, making fun of each other. These are the kind that are.
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I like the super fun just goofy, stupid [ __ ] We talk about SNL obviously, but it just is the crowd likes this. And we go a little long, but it's great. It's worth it. It's worth the ride.
00:00:48
Yeah, it was definitely fun. He's very sweet. The first thing he said when he got there goes, "Hey, man. Sorry, I I've
00:00:53
been really busy that I haven't been on your podcast till this long or whatever it was. I go, "No, it's fine. We're just
00:01:00
uh thrilled." And that's night. He got smothered with autograph people out back signing [ __ ] Remember? Oh my goodness. I got mobbed because he
00:01:07
he had a system to get out. Then you drove by. You guys drove I was the last celebrity
00:01:14
with a small C there and cut it out, man. And I was in a myasma of young people. Uh like it was like a
00:01:22
rave off and I was in the center of the and they were crushing each other. Shut up, dude. [ __ ] you, man. Like
00:01:28
come on. Sign this. The show is great, but that's not on the this next podcast. All right. Here he is with with no
00:01:34
further ado. And no notes. We just winged it. Will Farrell David sitting in a tree
00:01:55
were just a fly on the wall down the hall of SN. It's pretty good. SN L SN L D. They got it. They know. Oh, they're cute. Hey, Dan. How are you?
00:02:33
That was Jimmy Fallon on our podcast. Got an acoustic guitar and made up that song as Neil Young. So, yeah. Now, can we play it again? Okay. Um, listen, let's let's uh get
00:02:44
Thanks for coming. Let's get our buddy out here. We got a good crowd. They know the show. They know Largo and they're uh
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they've been waiting. They just heard the Gettysburg address read to them. So, uh they're excited. Um
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a lot of rules. Ready for some jokes? I talked to this guy backstage and he's not really on
00:03:03
tonight, but you know what? Dana and I are gonna cover for him. We're gonna he's gonna come in the hot
00:03:08
seat. That's one of the uh I hate to say all time greats, first ballot hall of famer,
00:03:14
John. Here he is from SNO. Yeah. All right. A little more applause than we got, but who cares? There he is. I'm going to go a little
00:03:36
sideways. One. I'm kind of in front of you. Check one. Well, this is Did you like they got my
00:03:43
chair from a [ __ ] yard sale? I was like, that chair was put together like 15 minutes ago.
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I'm getting a better I'm getting a worse uh Okay, this is a good angle, too. I know. It's weird.
00:03:57
To try to talk. So, will were you impressed when you first met me? If Well, if I lay back enough, I can catch both of you guys.
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I can't even see you at that. I said, "Come on, he's not that tall. Get him a 5'8 seat." Now, he's got a bad
00:04:16
back. Listen, I remember the night I got spinal bifida. Is that Largo? Spinal who? Oh, that was a great heavy
00:04:22
metal band from the ' 70s. So, listen, we got time for one more. When was the last time you heard a
00:04:29
a spinal bifida reference? I don't know. I just think I just said it and then I felt like it's mean
00:04:34
because it's very Dennis Miller. Spinal bifida. Okay. The starting linebacker for the Detroit Lions. All right. Also, too, if anyone's worried, I
00:04:46
brought my wallet. I don't know why. Look at how fat it is. You richer. Damn, that's a fatty.
00:04:52
That's a movie star wallet, right? That's just from Al. Do you carry cash? I still carry cash. You never
00:04:58
carry cash. There's going to be a fun giveaway tonight. Cash. I'm just handing out cash. I didn't know there's an ATM here. Spinal biff of the night in the theater.
00:05:13
Would you like some gum? Come and get home. You don't have to have it. I'm just Is it a trick? Is it a trick?
00:05:18
No, it's nothing. Dana, all kidding aside, let's get to uh the serious. Let's see. Um where you like where I'd
00:05:26
like to start. Yeah. Hold on. I know. I can't see you at all, but it's I know. I'm going to do this. Do you mind holding it?
00:05:32
Yeah. I'm I don't mind. Thank you. I feel like Yeah. This is more Tony Bennett kind of
00:05:37
the best is yet to come. I feel fine. Didn't you do Tony Bennett on the show? I did not. Oh. Anyway. Anyway, let's go to questions. Robert,
00:05:49
I did Robert Goule. Robert, what did he sound like? Alec Baldwin did Tony Bennett. That's right.
00:05:54
You did a great Tony Bennett. Uh, okay. No, I did Robert Goule. Bob. Bob Goule. Yeah. And he just
00:06:04
had a very deep voice and referenced his appearance in Camelot. Came a lot. Uh, and we just write him in weird
00:06:19
scenarios. I think he did a a rap album with Jay-Z. We did a sketch with Jay-Z. That makes sense. Yeah. And we he uh we also did a a bit where it was Robert Goule's musical
00:06:30
called Red Ships of Spain where he didn't realize he was making out with his daughter, his real life daughter. Uh Anna Gastar played his daughter at
00:06:44
very Anna uh played his his love interest and uh in Red Ships of Spain, it turns out was
00:06:52
his daughter the whole time. You can't write this stuff. Oh, you did write this stuff. Okay.
00:06:57
Uh well, let's go back to the beginning. Will, let's go back to the beginning. Can I do a childhood chunk to get us all
00:07:03
warmed up? Oh, cuz I want to take Will to 10 years of age. Dance here. Okay. But hold on. I just want to say yes. Yeah. It's a pleasure to be here. Thank you. Thank you.
00:07:14
Great to be here. You guys very nice. Thank you, Dana Carvey. One of my all-time
00:07:20
favorites. You can't tell me. Great sketch players of all time. David, you did stuff too that was interesting. But
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thank you, Will. You're on the Mount Rushmore. We're going to the afterparty together.
00:07:36
Spade little train that could you know I Charlie Hustle award every year at the banquet.
00:07:50
Give it to Spain. I Charlie Brown. You always for him. But in all honesty Dave was uh you were still with the show when we all got
00:08:02
hired and you were you were like a big brother to us. you kind of showed us the ropes and uh we had a year overlapping.
00:08:07
A year overlapping. You were super cool to me, especially to all of us. Took me to dinner multiple times, hung out, gave
00:08:14
us words of wisdom. Do you remember one time I invited you over to the Upper West Side to have
00:08:20
lunch and then I ate before you got there? Yeah. Isn't that funny? Isn't that funny? Why I remember that?
00:08:25
But you always eat before. I know, but he wasn't even late. It was not even his fault. I just It was weird. I don't think I was late at all.
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No, it wasn't. It was my fault. Uh, but that was just uh maybe I was nervous. He's eating a meal when you walk in.
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I guess I think I was finished and I used to back Wait, sorry, what? No, no, no. Back in the days where I was thinking,
00:08:49
do I want to get into comedy? Can I even get into comedy? Do I even have the guts to even try this stuff? I would go to
00:08:57
open mic night at the Irvine Improv. Oh, I love that place. and uh almost get the guts to sign up, but sit in the back of the house. Okay. And just watch the comedians and and go,
00:09:11
"Oh, I'm funnier than them." Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I'm funnier than that. Ooh, no, not that guy. That guy's really good. But
00:09:16
SP, you hosted one. I watched you host Open Mic. Great. And uh next thing I know, you're on SNL
00:09:22
and you're like, "What the fuck?" I was like, "Really? I guess anyone?" Well, then anyone could get on SNL, but
00:09:29
you were super funny and relaxed and I was like, "Oh, man." You know, uh, when I saw you on SNL and
00:09:36
you guys, Farley, Sandler, those kind of guys, that whole team that I was with left one year, I heard they got fired. I did not know they got fired. Did you hear that? I heard they got fired.
00:09:46
I want to meet the guy who fired Farley and Adam Stanley. They got to go. There's nothing left there.
00:09:53
What? No more gas in the tank, Chris. Funny. Period. Get him out of my sight. I don't see a track record. I don't see it. Nothing there. Lauren was like, "Chris, come to my
00:10:06
office and clean your locker." Uh, but we I stayed an extra year, which I don't know if that was good or bad,
00:10:12
but I stayed. And then I think maybe you and Sher Terry and uh maybe Molly, they
00:10:17
all came in. the first show that you did cuz I felt like sort of went to college
00:10:23
but came back and sat on the wall in high school like I I should have just left with everybody, right? But I stayed and did like I had five
00:10:29
minutes a week to do my own thing. Some more glory, but yeah, a little bit. I was milking it some to the kitty.
00:10:36
So then I said, "Okay, I think the first show you did that I remember you did get
00:10:41
off the shed. Is that is that true? The first show?" Yeah. And that was uh one I didn't know. I
00:10:47
didn't know your audition. I didn't know anything. And I thought, uh, this guy's got some [ __ ] game because it was
00:10:54
such an oddball. Didn't see it coming. Didn't know where it was going. Sketch. And then I think Did you think
00:11:00
it's what I auditioned with actually? You did get off show the audition cuz I saw I saw a clip of uh you doing the
00:11:06
cat. Yeah. And uh maybe that's sort of a viral clip. Dead silence. Am I crazy? It was It didn't do well.
00:11:12
Yeah. No, it was the cat one again. Just it was just a guy in his office who was
00:11:17
like you didn't give my set by the way. No, there's no there's no setup. I want to know what played to silence. So Lauren Michael sitting there. Have you got anything else? And you pull this out.
00:11:28
Well, we we've heard the shed thing, but is there something else? You're in 8H. Yeah. With a spotlight on you. Horrifying. No one else in there except Lauren in
00:11:40
the back smoking a cigarette. Just his little ember of a cigarette. holding that.
00:11:46
Yeah, a tipperillo. Uh, it's funnier when you say and and the premise literally was I think there was a table and a chair
00:11:57
and a phone, maybe a prop phone. Okay. And it was like, please uh hold all my calls. Yeah. And then I just started playing with cat toys. Like an adult on the ground like hitting
00:12:08
a toy like that. Yeah. And then the secretary would buzz again and I'm like, "Uh, yeah, tell him
00:12:14
uh I'll call him back in 20 minutes." And I go back on the ground, but it was to dead silence.
00:12:19
I I was shocked. And I remember thinking in my head like, "Well, this is going to be a really good
00:12:26
story when I go back to LA." And they're like, "What happened?" I'm like, "Well, I I I thought that would be funny to
00:12:32
play with cat toys on the ground." They're like, "Wait, you did that in your audition?" You're like, "No, it was
00:12:37
funny. I the guy who fired Sandler and Farley loved it. He loved it. That's now that's comedy cuz the guy doesn't play with cats. I think walking a little bit. Sorry.
00:12:50
It was cat toys. He like lays on the ground and bats around like a piece of yarn and plays it like that. And very
00:12:55
funny. And I was watching it cuz it was like it was like on Yahoo News. I'm like they're like Will Frell's first
00:13:01
audition. I go oh I don't think I ever saw this. And then you do that and it was like crickets. I go
00:13:06
who's who's there? Marcy and Ken Among. And that's it. That's it. Because no one not you're not required
00:13:11
to go to auditions. I don't think I only went to Louis was like Bobby Van Ry going get him next time
00:13:17
guy. Yeah. Yeah. Stage manager. Nice kid. So you do that you do get off the shed. Did anything
00:13:24
do well? No. Because there there were no laugh he I think Lauren did they tape it and watch it or something? They would tape it and watch it. It was being beamed back to like Burbank at the
00:13:35
same time. It was be it was beamed. He's at Hamburger Hamlet. I watch you. I'm using the technical term beamed.
00:13:41
Yeah, it was beamed. You're being beamed. But Molly Shannon told us something about you very specific that I love. She said that when you were in a sketch on SNL and it started to tank. We're all
00:13:54
being is that you would triple down. You would be harder at it like commit. I'd either commit or slow it down even. Yeah.
00:14:06
I take longer pauses in between to torture them lines to where the point Wall-E the qard wallally qard
00:14:16
uh would be pointing you have more so sometimes if the qard if the qard guy thought you weren't seeing your line they would point at it at the line
00:14:28
frantically so I took like a 15-second pause before I delivered the next line while he's
00:14:33
Yeah, you're in blue. That's you. Uh, but yeah, we would we would I it's I don't I had this perverse thing of like,
00:14:45
okay, audience, you don't like it now, you're really not going to like it. I'm going to punish you for hating this sketch
00:14:56
even more. Break out in a cold sweat. You had some kind of confidence. But I want to talk about when you I first met you and I
00:15:03
knew I would like you because you did something. Yeah. I was coming back hosting, you know. Hey, watch out. Hey kids, I had a couple
00:15:10
nominations. How are you? You were super nervous. And but you came up to me. Yeah. And you had a shirt. I No, you had a
00:15:16
shirt with a zipper, I think. And you just got really close to me right in my space, unzipped it, and had this
00:15:21
massively hairy chest and just leaned in with a smile. Hi, I'm Will. You know, it was just
00:15:29
I didn't quite re in real time I realized, okay, he's doing stickick, but for a second I thought, does this guy
00:15:34
have spatial problems? You know, he just just let him do his thing. And uh just he's leaning in and came down a little more. A little more. And then the belly wants you to get his scent and
00:15:47
then he'll relax. Musky. But that was that was fun. And that was when we did, did we did I do
00:15:54
Ross Bro and you did um Larry King? Cuz Lauren Michaels talked about that. I did a fabulous Larry King.
00:16:00
Lauren Michaels called you out. That sketch was great and you were great as Larry King.
00:16:06
Oh, I was so terrible. Was it Dana? You were like, "Don't worry about it. I'm going to carry the whole thing." Well, I had an ace in my pocket by the
00:16:17
name of Ross Perau, so it's the easiest laugh I ever got in my life. I was like, all I could do is like, I'm
00:16:24
Larry King. Here we are. Roso, Ross Perau, what are you? That's all I think you carried it beautifully was a
00:16:30
precursor to Alex Tbeck playing the sort of straight line. That was good. People know your cues, but being funny with the straight line, you know. But
00:16:40
anyway, that was fun. But I think we did Bush and Bush Jr. with the I had the antlers. I kept banging the antlers.
00:16:47
Oh yeah. Yeah. That's So I'm doing George Senior who's 64 and W's 5'11. So I had Herman Monster shoes like to here and they patted me up. He's coming in as
00:17:01
my little baby son basically. So at one point Will plops on my lap. Yeah. There you are son. How are you? And yeah, if you play it back on YouTube, you hear me go,
00:17:12
we're on a deer hunt or something. I tried to Yeah, there was rattling the antlers. Another time we were out hunting and I told you to go out so that I would get
00:17:23
taken care of. Yeah, it was clear. Keep keep going into the woods. Keep walking.
00:17:29
And then daddy, it was of Moment. Yeah. Right, right, right, right. Yeah. Well, I played Ross Pro in a rehearsal.
00:17:42
Uh, he was in the wide shot. I was in a wide shot as Ross Pro. Do you remember playing Woody Allen?
00:17:49
Do you remember? We did a sketch when you Yeah, you did Woody Allen. Was it the Woody Allen uh
00:17:56
in a classroom scene with Seinfeld or Jason Alexander or was I just playing him in something? I think you were just playing him. Did you? I I don't even mean to be didactic or facitious, but Andre Preven.
00:18:09
Yeah, cuz I was playing the actor, the actor who was his buddy. I forget which film. It would just go Max
00:18:16
Max you're crazy. Yeah. Yeah. It was some Smiggle sketch. I did it once once a cold opening where Rob Schneider was playing Suni. Yeah.
00:18:27
And I can't I know it was the early '9s, right? So I come out I'm going to do a citizens cancel. I come out live
00:18:37
and there there's no Rob Schneider playing Suni and the QAR guy's going like this and I'm like I can't even, you
00:18:44
know, she's not even here. You know, I don't know what I'm going to do, you know, because I can't. So, I had to just do that.
00:18:49
He's in makeup stuff. He was in the makeup chair. Sorry. Sorry about that. No, Woody. I'm
00:18:54
sorry. I thought it was gap girls. Sorry. Go ahead. We're We do a lot of characters on the show.
00:18:59
Yeah. No, but when I when I came back to host, Will, no applause. Um, when I came when I No, I'm just saying you picked your spots.
00:19:10
They're hanging on your every All I remember listeners. All I remember was I think there was an army sketch and
00:19:21
then you uh had a hard brim hat. Do you remember the idea of the sketch and then when you came up to me in air, you were
00:19:26
poking me in the face with your hat brim? sensitive. Steven Craig wrote that sketch. Oh,
00:19:32
yeah. Yeah, it was. What was the story you were drill sergeant? Okay. But I I barked out all the commands, but it was all loving uh therapeutic advice.
00:19:44
Yes. And then when you got up to me, you hit me in the forehead with your and uh of
00:19:50
course it threw me. It was like an old uh what Farl used to just start to make you laugh on air. But uh it was really
00:19:56
just fun being in a sketch with you because when I did my year where I stayed too long is what we're calling it
00:20:03
now. Uh but I had my own five minutes and then I but I didn't do sketches. So I felt a little weird because you guys were doing stuff. So we weren't super connected but I would like to see you
00:20:13
guys and stuff. But coming back to host we were all part of it. That was fun because all the whole thing I remember
00:20:19
hosting was that one sketch with him and because you know some work some don't obviously right and uh I think
00:20:26
that one is where when I hosted Sandler was going to be in my monologue remember he did audience member
00:20:32
oh what are you doing you're so mean he would stand up and so we had a whole monologue that what are you doing
00:20:38
no he was like a very timid guy with glasses and called audience member and then he had
00:20:44
done it a few times and so he's doing it when I host and And then that morning, Water Boy opened or something. He had to fly back to LA. And then they go, Lauren
00:20:51
goes, "Well, it looks like Adam's out." I go, "Out of the monologue?" Why don't monologue? And he goes, "Well, aren't
00:20:58
you a standup?" And I go, "I mean, sort of. I I don't really do it anymore. I work at this [ __ ] dump. 20,000 hours a week. I
00:21:10
haven't done a set in eight months." And he goes, "Maybe just seven minutes. That's all you need." I go, "Yeah, but I
00:21:17
need it polished. I can't run to the a comedy store. I can't run anywhere." So, I put together uh I don't know how we
00:21:23
got It sounds like a fun challenge. It was a challenge and it was uh I did a bit about a polar bear and I did a bit
00:21:28
about something else, but it was kind of fun and terrifying and uh and then I remember your sketch. So,
00:21:34
thus that was great doing it with you. That's all. Every moment of SNL fun and terrifying.
00:21:40
Yeah. Very scary. Do you remember? Have you ever said no to a Tuesday dinner at Oro
00:21:45
with the host with host and I think I finally over because I remember you guys talking about this in in one of your one of the podcasts that
00:21:57
you finally work up enough courage to say no. But I think it took Yeah. Cuz I remember you saying, Dana, you saying true
00:22:09
five seasons before it felt like it was like your home gym or before you stopped.
00:22:14
And I literally remember your words. It literally took me five years before I didn't feel nervous every single second.
00:22:21
And uh you you had the same experience. Same experience. And so by year six and seven, yeah, I think I was I I finally
00:22:28
had the guts to be like, I'm not going on a Tuesday. Usually local Tuesday by then you I think somewhere you you went
00:22:35
to this other gear. I don't know what when it happened, but you got good. I think it was the last
00:22:40
week. The last week of my Yeah, your last show. Cowbell and then I think you left right after Cowbell, right? Every every best of sketch is in my last show
00:22:53
of the seventh season. I heard on fire. You asked them to do nervous then because Bill her told us that he was having panic attacks the whole time. I never was able to see it.
00:23:05
like literally panic attacks in the bathroom by himself crying and but you controlled it but were you
00:23:12
it never got that bad but there were um there was just you know it it it got less and less with each year. Yeah. And it but it would always surprise me uh especially after that
00:23:24
first year where you're you're like okay I think I've gone through everything you're going to go through
00:23:30
where you potentially are going to get thrown. Yeah. It would just come out of the blue. Yeah. Where it would be, I don't know. It
00:23:38
wouldn't even be like the first show of the season. It'd be something like the seventh show. It's like, why do I don't have a good
00:23:45
feeling. This is not going to be good. It's an anxiety. It would just come out of just come out of nowhere. Yeah. And uh and then it' be
00:23:52
fine the rest of the year. But it's inexplicable. It's it's two things happen. I think there's people like Eddie Murphy was a
00:23:58
savant, you know, basically at 19. But I think for most people, you get a little
00:24:04
more confident and then the audience starts to see you and then you get a little more confident and then finally when the audience sees you come out,
00:24:10
they're kind of excited and then and then it builds on it. I've seen it happen with a lot of cast
00:24:15
members over That's why Lauren says do you know well with me I was newer but like a feature player but do a few lines
00:24:22
here a few lines there just to get them to see your face and know you're part of the situation so then they know okay
00:24:27
he's one of these guys and then they will buy you when you do a full sketch but you came you were one of the ones
00:24:33
that like Dana where you came out and you had to be a full Were you a full cast member when you started Well we were we were we were really
00:24:39
lucky because that year before Yeah. Uh got rid of all that when they got rid of the dead Sandler.
00:24:46
Farley Sandler. Get rid of him. Cleaning out the Deadwood Meyers. This clown Myers Dana. Yeah. Uh, good. Phil Artman.
00:24:58
I was hanging out of the door like Titanic. Love it. You know. Yeah. Fumigate the place. Start over. So, we had a brand new We had eight brand
00:25:10
new cast members and a brand new writing staff. Very weird. So, we didn't know any better. We we
00:25:15
were like it wasn't that because I've talked to past cast members who were added
00:25:21
one at a time like by themselves and that's super or mid-season to try to break through
00:25:27
that way. In fact, Molly was midseason the year before I got there. Oh, she was there. Okay.
00:25:32
And we were laughing cuz she was like, "What is this? You guys get like qard training and and you get shown where all
00:25:41
the here's the wardrobe department. Here's your quick change area." I didn't get any of that.
00:25:47
My god. Yeah. And and she was just laughing going she was like I was a little mad actually.
00:25:53
You guys got to Did you get trained on the cute? Did you do you remember anything like that? No one even talked about just terror. I mean my thing was freaky
00:26:00
because I in the first show I was in the cold opening and I didn't know it was the cold opening. I was just in it. I
00:26:05
didn't I knew it was my first time doing sketch comedy. It was hard for me not to look at the audience like a standup, you
00:26:11
know. And then the church lady popped and came in and I had Sigourney Weaver and Phil and Jan and so then that took
00:26:17
off crazy. So I was just in oiled in water immediately and then chopping broccoli. But no one no one chopping broccoli.
00:26:24
Chopping broccoli. Jeez. Yeah. Which that was on my first show. That's your first show? Yeah.
00:26:30
Oh my god. The cutaway to Phil by the way. Oh yeah. Just him and Jo everyone just going this
00:26:35
is the worst song ever and then Phil Hartman just going yes. Yeah, Phil Hartman. I'll give you as great a compliment as I can. You remind me of a lot of people. Peter Sers and you also
00:26:48
remind me of Phil. Well, thanks because you were you were Alex Tbeck. That would have been what Phil would
00:26:53
have played that day. Phil Hartman and Dan Akroyd were like my guys I looked up to. I just loved how
00:26:59
they could swim and they could be the main guy or be the background guy. I I that's what I loved about ensemble
00:27:05
comedy. Yeah. And you know, everyone is who knows them both just said they're they're kind of scientist comedians. So
00:27:12
they would just Phil would read, you know, books about Evan Rude motorboats on the set and then pick up a script,
00:27:19
kill it in the rehearsal, come back and Acro's the same way. He's interested in science and astronomy.
00:27:24
Came to host when we were I don't know if it was that first year or the second year. He comes he comes back to host
00:27:30
and I'm in the room. I think it was with Tom Janice and Adam McKay and Kekner and I just can't I don't know what to say to him. I'm just sitting in the chair and I'm just like
00:27:42
that's Phil Hartman. And uh he finally picks up on he's like what gives with the pharaoh kid cat got your tongue
00:27:58
and it's like do I walk out of the room? I was like and I just like no I just what these guys said. Just uh yeah I mean
00:28:09
I'm I'm writing the thing that they're going to write for you, too. And uh but he was just ah what a great guy. Yeah. There was just something about him and he he was so effortless and he
00:28:21
didn't care and he was so unassuming about it. Yeah. And uh we that's why we nicknamed him the glue. He was just somebody who was
00:28:27
always there. But God, he picked up on the fact that I just I wouldn't I couldn't speak. Yeah. God, that's so interesting because
00:28:34
now we have data of where you went and where where you're still going and to hear this stuff very human.
00:28:42
Yeah. Stopped. Do you remember when I ran when I ran say it? I I see I hadn't seen you in a while. I run into you at the Laker game. You're like, "Oh, hey, Will." Hey, hey, hey.
00:28:56
Sorry about the career. Oh, I I can't hide my jealous rage. Yeah, you're like, "Hey, by the way, good to see you. Sorry about the career." Yeah. Sorry, everything went up on a
00:29:10
[ __ ] rocket ship. Uh, no, because the first time I saw you was at Butterfield and Butterfield. Oh, yeah. You heard me.
00:29:21
Oh, man. We worked at an auction house that was is Christy's now, I think, on a sunset.
00:29:26
And I was buying Elvis memorabilia. And I took my Oh, Elvis credit card new money. Yeah. And I was I bought an Elvis set list. Joey Espazito, who is Elvis is one of
00:29:38
his buddies, was there authenticating stuff. I got a set list. Then he wrote out his handwriting and I loved Elvis. I
00:29:44
bought a uh one of his guns and then I bought a um heat and I thought it was cool as [ __ ]
00:29:51
And then you worked there. Yeah. And then you I had my Land Cruiser, which I still have tonight. And I you
00:29:57
walked me out and uh that's where I met you and then I when I saw you at Snow I think we remembered that you worked there, right? You didn't work there. Oh my god. Yeah. No, I worked there and my my then
00:30:09
good friend and that was the last time I was funnier than later my wife. Oh yeah, she worked there. Oh yeah. She was the auctioneer.
00:30:16
Oh hey. Yeah. Oh, exactly like that. Hey, can you yell at a number? you keep saying hey better hey better we can't follow the bidding
00:30:31
but uh it was interesting seeing you there and then uh obviously we we we joke around but the the the the monster
00:30:38
movies after that I mean we could talk about SNL because I was going to ask you before we get to all these movies um
00:30:43
your uh what was your favorite commercial parody you were in do you remember commercial parodies did you do a lot or not
00:30:49
yeah I didn't I was I was a little bit bum when I first started I wasn't in I I don't think I was in any of those
00:30:56
initial commercial Yeah. parodies. Uh, and usually it was sort of like jury duty
00:31:02
because it takes you away from the show a little bit because you have to dedicate a full day to shooting it during the week. And now they do a lot
00:31:08
of pre-tapes during the week. You see the host in a lot of I mean they beat the [ __ ] out of them. But you come sometime in September to
00:31:15
start. You can go do them early. Oh yeah. We go do them early before that first show. I wasn't in many of them. Knockout one.
00:31:21
It's Yeah. One thing I'm just quickly very interested in because I, you know, you think everyone knows everything about you, but what was that transition from
00:31:33
USC to being to the Groundlings and then how long at the Groundlings till you got on SNL? How fast did you get on SNL from
00:31:41
when you started trying to be a comedian? I graduated SC in 90. Um, moved home immediately, which was great. Back to Orange County.
00:31:53
Back to Orange County. Okay. Good move. Everyone was super psyched. So that's in 1990.
00:32:00
Uh that was 1990. I'm back, Dad. Yeah, I'm back. Thanks for the education. Yeah, thanks for the thanks for the degree. Um
00:32:12
and uh I I I then was I was going to try to be a sports cer. That's what I studied at SC. I was going going but at the same time I I thought ah I better I
00:32:24
better try this comedy thing if I'm going to give a shot because that was from a childhood sort of in
00:32:29
prankster and all that always liking it but too afraid to try it and uh and that's when I started taking classes
00:32:36
the Growlings uh trying some standup comedy pretty darn good. Yeah. Did you ever play the canery down in Newport or the San Juan depot where a
00:32:48
actual train goes through? You're set performing official had that. Yeah. But I don't think I was in like Shakys in Long Beach, an Italian restaurant.
00:33:00
I did not. Yeah. All the big spots. I I did. Yeah. Uh Sir Laughs a Lot in Glendale.
00:33:07
Gotbusters. Yeah. Uh the Rib Tickler. I played that's real. But I was doing some standup. I was doing and groundings you have to you
00:33:18
work your way through the school. Yeah. And but it the the courses are so booked
00:33:23
up it t you'll finish one level and you got to wait six months before the next one opens up. So then I was just back at
00:33:30
working odd jobs. I was a bank teller. I was And this is in ' 91 91 92. You're still doing odd jobs. And then I think 93 I get into the main company
00:33:43
uh at or the Sunday company at the Growlings. Did you have a character that you had developed at that point that got you to
00:33:49
that? Was Harry Kerry around or Harry Kerry was in the main comp? Yeah. So the Sunday shows like their B team,
00:33:56
like their minor league team. And then you get into the main company and um and that's when uh uh get off the shed sketch I I had done and I done I started doing Harry Kerry.
00:34:09
That was during the baseball strike one year inspired character and and I thought
00:34:15
uh oh baseball there's no baseball games right now. Wonder what Harry Kerry's doing with his with his days. I thought it'd be funny. I wish I should set him in like a acting class doing a
00:34:26
play reading of a super dramatic play. Perfect. And so I wrote this sketch about Harry in a community theater uh rehearsal
00:34:37
space and you know I was like okay let's take the scene from the top and you know
00:34:43
right and then it was Harry Kerry doing like damn it Carol what happened to us? I look in your eyes and I don't see the love anymore
00:35:00
and then you disappear. I literally you're faced from this angle. Funny. I didn't see Will for a second. It was I remember Maggie Baird who was she she played my wife but they the other act
00:35:11
they had to play I said you guys have to play it really like if you can make yourself cry do it. So, they're reading
00:35:16
the lines like, "I don't know. I just We're distant." And she's like getting herself to cry and then I'm playing off
00:35:23
of that. It was It was madness. But the audience I knew it was working when the audience was laughing at the without any knowledge of who Harry Kerry was. They'd just be
00:35:34
like, "Who's that crazy guy you do with Yeah. Yeah. They just sounds funny." Um, but so I had done that and by that
00:35:42
spring of 95 that was when we had heard SNL's looking to recast. Uh, so was it was pretty fast. It was like two years. Did you have anybody in a position of authority, a mentor or someone at the
00:35:55
ground or someone who pulled you aside at one point said I I think you you really can do this or
00:36:01
it was a really supportive I mean was everyone sort of giving you feedback? Was it more supportive than SNL?
00:36:07
Well, I would say typically yes. But we the group we had at the show, we were kind of like we got kind of lucky. We got lucky. Who was in that group?
00:36:19
That was that would have been Molly and myself. Uh Chris Katan. Chris Katan came later. Um Anastaser. Anna came the next year. Sherry
00:36:30
Oh, Sher Terry. Were you Norm was doing Meadows? So Tim, uh, Jim Brewer. Wow. Everyone went on from there. Steve
00:36:44
Carell's wife, Nancy Walls, who was on and it was a lot of people who had done sketch comedy, so everyone was just kind
00:36:50
of like pulling for each other in in a very way because we knew like, ooh, the show's about to get cancelled. Not to mention everyone in network television
00:37:02
uh saw there was blood in the water. So we had to go up Mad TV premiered. Oh yeah.
00:37:08
Howard Stern had a sketch comedy show. Oh really? Your first year all that was on Funny. But I think you and you did your show
00:37:15
in 96. Yeah. That first prime time. It went made half an episode. They pulled us out. But you were you guys doing it on a Friday night? Um, I wouldn't I think
00:37:26
though it was right after Spin City or Home Improvement and there was a fourth there was a fourth there was four or five different
00:37:32
sketch comedy shows that whole year and then Living Color might have still been on too. Yeah. The state maybe. Uh,
00:37:38
so anyway, so we were we were like actually pulling for each other sort of friendly. Uh, was was cheerleaders that first year?
00:37:45
Was that first year? So you had a couple that really worked. There was no danger. No. No. There was Yeah. No, no,
00:37:53
don't don't ruin the flow. You're getting it wrong when I say my stuff. Yeah. Um, no, no, no. But cheerleaders must have I think it crushed from immediately and then you
00:38:04
did it a few times that year. So, you were in no danger feeling down deep you might get fired or anything. You were
00:38:10
doing well enough that first year to go, I'm pretty except except they they did a thing
00:38:15
where I think we were signed for the first nine shows and they picked up then a pickup. Gross. But then,
00:38:22
but then was a gross pickup. I mean, it's just But then they, dare I say, they broke
00:38:28
the contract and they said, "Nope, you're just picked up. You're picked up for just five more shows."
00:38:34
Wow. And then we'll see if you're picked up for the last five. This is your first season. Just getting
00:38:40
these little pickups. That's what happens when I date girls. They pick me up for two more dates and
00:38:45
then they go, "We'll see how it goes after that." I'm sorry. You don't have to laugh. No, no, you don't have to.
00:38:51
It's It's all right. They thought you said it, so they started laughing. Yeah. Uh, no.
00:38:56
So, but it was still So, it was still harrowing. It's by the way, I don't think you're
00:39:02
ever relaxed there going, I got it made here. So, I don't think that's ever a feeling if you're new. Even if you're
00:39:07
doing except those last couple seasons, I really felt like but I did have a fantastic so when my
00:39:15
arbitrarily that my last year when I just decided that would be my last year for seven season or whatever just felt like the right amount of time. Lauren took me to dinner to talk me into
00:39:29
staying Chili's. Mhm. Uh Houston's I can get us in. I can do Hillstone. Houston's at 9:30. Does that work?
00:39:41
We after the rush. Yeah. Um, these dinners are very interesting. So, will you're going to stay? That's what how he does it sometimes. You'll stay another two years. Oh, yeah. Just tell you.
00:39:53
He'll tell you what's going to happen. I think it was at pastis. Oh, yeah. Okay. But how awkward because you you want to
00:39:59
say no, you want to leave, right? Well, well, you'd already filmed old school, but we'll get to that. Right. during the
00:40:05
Yeah, that was in the can. That was in the That was in the can, but no one knew. You didn't know where it was.
00:40:10
That was in the can. That's a term for It's been filmed. It's edited, but they haven't shown it because they used to have cell. You did
00:40:17
that in a summer and then you came back and did I think I did it partly through part of that the fall of that that seventh season.
00:40:24
Okay. So, well, how did Lauren pitch you? Lauren said the most. He said, "So, I understand you're thinking about leaving, and I would just suggest this. You're at
00:40:36
a you're at a high point right now, but you want to start just to begin to dip and then you should leave." And I was like, "But Lauren, that seems
00:40:52
counterintuitive." Like, and then work for John. Love it. When Lauren doesn't really want to hear an answer, he always goes, "Just think about it." Yeah. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Just think
00:41:04
about it. I'm going to draw the chart on a napkin. And I going, "Yeah, let me let me just
00:41:11
think about waiting for me to dip and then leave. I will think about that." And you just said, "I'll think about it." And then we never talked about it ever again. But it seems like, you know, you
00:41:22
did Molly's movie, you did a lot of you did the movie with Chris and you, you know, you were kind of and then you'd
00:41:28
done Cowbell and everything else. It seemed like your timing was impeccable. I mean, you were ready, but you could
00:41:34
have killed for three more years on the show. I mean, if No, if if anyone had put a
00:41:42
show biz gun to my head and said, "This is all you get to do," I would have said, "Great."
00:41:47
Yeah. It was the hardest, most fun job I've ever done. Most exhilarating, bizarre,
00:41:53
right? Yeah. Yeah. Uh, but yeah, we I couldn't hear you. Did someone put a gun to your head? There. Someone put a gun. Elvis, one of Elvis's
00:42:04
old guns. Oh, god damn. Bought an auction to my head. Don't use mine. Right back on.
00:42:11
Comes around. Comes around. This crowd does not know what to do because I think I was in a dark nightclub in Scottdale
00:42:17
where I'm from Camelback and 54th when you did so in the in the summers you did uh that's what we would try to do as a movie in the summer. So you did uh what was the first one? Was it
00:42:29
Superstar? Were you in Superstar? I was in Super The first one or was it Roxberry? I think the first one was Roxberry and
00:42:36
I heard the original title was called A Day at the Roxberry. Then he goes maybe night. night.
00:42:43
Uh, we're doing Bur uh this month. Is there any way you could still shake your neck like that or No,
00:42:49
it's too hard. I don't know if I can't I don't know if I remember what the motion was. It was It was
00:42:56
Is this love? If I did it now, I would just hold my head still and go try to trick the audience.
00:43:08
Like a little cardboard cutout. Actually, that's a sketch Katan and I would do at the Growlings. Oh, you brought it in. So, we brought
00:43:14
that in. But yeah, uh I'm sorry to interrupt you, but for the audience, if they don't know, but we say it
00:43:20
sometimes when you come on, when I was there, you would uh say what sketches you had when you came
00:43:26
in or what characters, right? And then you own them even if you did them on the show. I think Mike owned Wayne's world. Uh and then
00:43:33
not sure. I was just No, I don't know. They were pretty tricky about that. I I don't know. We
00:43:40
We'll own it even if we don't own it. Maybe 50/50. Uh and then and then whatever you came up with in the writer room, they own, right? Is that how it work?
00:43:50
Yeah. So if you came in with uh that and then I think it's more incentivizing if
00:43:57
you would think if if it was a sketch they owned, you know, because Lauren was doing a lot of sketches for a while.
00:44:03
Like even Tommy Boy was sort of us at the office based on What was that movie you guys?
00:44:10
What was Tommy Boy about? I get the top of the hand. Um on top and then Wayne's World and let's get some box office numbers out here. Roxbury versus Tommy Boy. Tommy
00:44:24
Boy pulling coin down. We weren't a big hit though. We rockberry maybe made 30. We barely we made probably 35. We barely really Yeah, Wayne's World was the big hit. Yeah, I thought
00:44:39
Tommy Boy made like 50. No, it it just made it What about Black Sheep? What about what? Black Sheep. Black Sheep made about the same. it uh but they sort of did better in uh as it
00:44:52
went on like on video but but um some movies like that in hindsight you probably thought they made more but it didn't it opened number one and so did black actually but it wasn't like a huge killing but it just sort of
00:45:05
resonated over time which helps because a lot of them do better and then they don't resonate you know how it is you
00:45:10
got a lot of movies life actually all DVD yours did well but cable but to other people not really
00:45:16
DVDs are huge huge are coming back, by the way. Oh, yeah. Live streaming is Let's find one that didn't work. Let's get some hardware going. I want to put it in a slot. No, it was like I remember Walmart said
00:45:29
every time people throw in uh Tommy Boy or Jod when they come by in the aisle and it doesn't go down every week. They
00:45:35
get the same amount of people just go, I just throw in I just throw it in. So, that made money, I guess, for them. Uh
00:45:41
but not really me. But, um I like those ones that kind of live on. There's not that many. Uh but uh when you came out
00:45:48
so old school was uh such a monster was your idea to be naked and streak because
00:45:54
you did that before or or there's always you wanted to treat America got a comfort level of using your body you know in a very funny way.
00:46:05
I had a comfort level. Yeah. I had you would streak in college, right? Or is that made? Uh I had Yeah, I had
00:46:14
My dad's in the audience tonight. Dad Oh, yeah. Are you trying to overthink your answers? I I stre in college. Dad,
00:46:20
your dad is out there right here on our audience. Mr. Yeah, but yeah, that Well, I was always that
00:46:28
was the thing I loved about Chris Farley. I mean, I I just remember I remember thinking,
00:46:34
okay, I'm going to meet people that are just as funny as me and people that are much funnier than me, but the one I'll
00:46:39
just they won't be able to outcommit me. It would be it was like my promise to myself. you you fulfilled that promise.
00:46:46
I don't think anyone committed hard. I uh I was I had no problem taking my shirt off during sketches and things like that. And but I do remember reading the the script
00:46:57
for old school and reading that joke, reading and there's sometimes a disconnect that you read it and you go, "Oh, that that'll be funny." Until the day you actually have to perform it
00:47:09
and you come out of your trailer. What are you wearing? a robe or what do you how do you come out of your trailer? Shoot this. Um
00:47:16
and we were marble. It's time for the run down the street. Little little marble little marble sack.
00:47:22
Yeah, as they say in the industry. Yeah. Um and uh yeah, we shot it here in Montro. Anyone from Montro here tonight? I've only heard man Montro.
00:47:37
Uh but yeah, we shot that right out here near Altadena. And I just remember we were shooting in in in front of a bunch of stores, storefronts, and there was
00:47:48
like a a local health club and there was all these yepy people working out, getting their power walking in. And I said to the PA, like, does anyone has anyone told them what's about
00:48:01
to happen? cuz I'm in the robe and I got the marble sack attached to the crucial area and uh
00:48:10
does anyone know I'm about to drop the robe and like do do we want to tell you know some kid on a headset like what huh
00:48:17
I don't know we want to get real reaction okay back to one get I think we're going to film it now we're ready
00:48:23
that first take I'm running and I'm trying to come I'm like honey we're all going straight I'm hearing off in the distance through the window of the health club oh my god
00:48:40
Hey, hey, hey. So many pubes. And then we shoot it. We cut. We reset. Another take.
00:48:52
He's not going to take another take. There's like one old guy in there still power walking
00:48:58
extra. By the third take, health club totally cleared out. No one wanted to watch me run naked
00:49:04
sit down the street. How many takes? It was It was probably more than we needed.
00:49:09
Camera from behind and from behind. Crane crane change. Got to bring in the the Super 50 techno. Yeah. Um Yeah. Side shot.
00:49:20
Yeah. And then camera in the car where I go in butt first to sit down. So yeah, bunch of shot bunch of things. Dana, I know this is supposed to be about Will. I remember that movie. D. I mean, well, can I tell you one
00:49:31
embarrassing story? Oh, this remind me of I I have to move for this. It's not worth it at all.
00:49:36
But we'll take it out later. So, this is embarrassing because one movie I did called Warning Shot. It was sort of a drama and there was gun.
00:49:45
Thank you. Warning shot. That's when you played the Kingpin, right? I Yeah, I was a bad guy. Drug lord. So, I was a drug lord. Uh Dana, I knew you'd see the trailer.
00:49:58
So I you sent it to me. So there's Dana know we're taking this all out anyway. Doesn't matter. It's all being I gotta watch warning shot. So we'll watch it on the plane.
00:50:10
Put it in my notes. So here I am and you got to know for sure. Warning shot. Warning shot. Okay. And uh I don't want to give the whole thing away cuz everyone's going to run
00:50:21
home. Directed warning shot. Uh I don't know if we had a director. Um, I realized halfway through we were just all talking AI directed it. So they said there's a part where I get
00:50:34
squibs lingo. So there's a uh gunfight. You're going to get shot. So they have to ling me they have to fake blood. Squib me up. So they put like little uh you know pepsid ACs on you that blow up.
00:50:46
You know what I mean? Like whatever. But they have to I don't know if it's electronically.
00:50:52
and they actually tape a couple here uh to my bird chest and then but I'm at lunch eating a burrito and then they go hey uh shooting after lunch I go okay
00:51:10
and but like you I don't even think about it and then I go oh wait I have to uh this guy's coming in here so the a
00:51:16
special effects guy he's got like a ponytail you know this guy he comes in a It's like it's like a sound that's in
00:51:21
your face when it goes. Yeah. He goes, "Uh, we're going to do these and you might feel a spark. Uh, and if there's a full fire, we'll, you know, we'll address it then." And I go, "Okay."
00:51:33
Which means it's happening. Yeah. Which means it's his first day. So he goes, "Uh, they just pulled me off
00:51:40
this other thing. Home Depot." Yeah. So, uh, so he goes, "Okay." So he wires me up like shirt off and then they go 1 2 3 4 let's say and then they tape down and
00:51:52
now they stick them on and now they have to go down my pant leg and then you know what I mean like out the back the wires
00:51:58
and then the guy has like a little blow up plunger. Yep. So I I so I have to put my pants on over
00:52:04
that. So these are on here and they go back like six feet to him and he's like got it. And then in my trailer and I
00:52:10
delicately put my shirt on. They go ready for you. So I start to walk out. He's following me and then I start
00:52:16
drifting off on the way to the set going, "What are my lines?" Blah blah blah. Take that, Dagnabbit. Or whatever
00:52:21
I'm saying. And you were playing like a macho bad. Yeah. Like I'm a tough guy. So I'm just I'm dri This is the embarrassing. I'm
00:52:28
drifting off and then I go and then three tootses in a row just to myself. I don't care. I'm just walking. Yeah.
00:52:39
And then I hear behind me, "Hey, come on, man. I forgot he was I forgot he was 6 feet and already leaning over.
00:52:52
Hey, come on now. Because I'm first team, the worst thing you can say is come on. He wanted to bust my [ __ ] head. But
00:52:58
and I go I go. He goes, "It's cool. It's cool." But it wasn't cool. It was so horrible.
00:53:03
I I couldn't apologize, but I had to laugh so hard first because it was so uncool. And then he's walking through.
00:53:11
Oh, and then uh guess what? The squibs went wrong after that because the squibs were a relief after that. I just walk on the set, I go, "Are we ready?" And he's like, "Blam." And I'm
00:53:22
like, he's like, "Oh." It's usually the indignant special effects person. Yeah. Who they get mad at you even though they
00:53:34
didn't have it hooked up, right? And so filming a night at the Roxberry, we one of the gags was we're driving, we're doing the head thing. Yeah. And then Katan smash does it so hard he
00:53:48
smashes his side his the window his passenger side window with his head and it explodes. But that's all squibbed up. So that's supposed to just crack. Smash.
00:54:00
That's supposed to crack with the aid of technology. timing wham right when he touches it. Bam.
00:54:06
Special effect guy. Same same guy. Yeah. He's waiting by the console. You know, going hot. Going hot on effect. Cool dialogue coming in hot. Yeah.
00:54:17
You're timing it out. You're rehearsing how many head. Okay. We'll do it on the fifth one. And on the fifth one, Chris will go like this. So, we're doing, you
00:54:24
know, what is that? And we're doing our thing. And Chris, one, two, three, four.
00:54:31
Whack. side does nothing. The side went doesn't break. Doesn't break at all. Guy comes in. It's like I don't It's all checked out or
00:54:42
something. Wasn't plugged in. As if we're supposed to go, "Oh, great. No problem." Oh, [ __ ]
00:54:54
But Katan's got like a shiner weld. Yeah. Then he's like, "Do we do we trust him?
00:55:01
Do we do it again? He goes, "Are we doing it again?" But it's They get so excited when they
00:55:07
discover their their issue. Yeah. Yeah. He's like, "It wasn't my fault. It wasn't plugged in." You're like, "That's still your fault." Isn't it funny? It wasn't plugged in.
00:55:19
Can you believe it? Hysterical. It wasn't plugged in. Uh, show business is difficult. That's
00:55:25
all we're saying. It did. So, you do love the guy. Like, come on. Come on, man. Oh, he just kind of
00:55:31
come on, man. He did the the harshest he could go is, "Hey, come on, man." Like,
00:55:36
and then I was like, "Oh my god, he can't yell at me. It's so because he just But we always found that with the
00:55:42
effects guys on SNL that like if you if you had a gag bar for something like please, we need so much blood. It's
00:55:49
supposed to be over the top amount of blood. You got it. It's going to be so much blood. Dressers will show like one spot.
00:55:59
And you'd look over and the guy would be like, "I don't know what h I'm sorry. I don't know. You want more than that?" You're like, "Yes."
00:56:04
Yeah. I want the funny version of the blood, the funny version. And like then add 100% to that.
00:56:10
We did it with Alec Baldwin and we were uh and Jay Moore, we were all like every
00:56:16
cop that came to a set goes I think Phil comes up and he goes, "This is the sickest, most gruesome set, you know,
00:56:23
I've ever seen. Car crash." He throws up and then he goes, "Captain, captain, what's going on?" and then he throws up
00:56:28
and it was just a joke of we all throw up and like me and Jay by the time we got there we were newer and we had two
00:56:34
lines but the throw up wasn't working as well and it goes it's same thing up your leg up a hose and a guy m going
00:56:42
and then at rehearsal we're like guys more the same thing yeah please funny throw up it's got it goes
00:56:47
everywhere and it's too much no one's mad it's too much is better and I think by the time we did it
00:56:54
uh it was either a leaky faucet you know it just barely and you're like and then It's funny cuz you're like it's just a little
00:56:59
cuz it's coming out of your arm act like you're barfing and it goes like right there's spray my whole face spray
00:57:05
funny. Anyway, that's not that's neither here nor there right now. No. No. But but uh do you have any other stories you'd like to share with that? Did you do Were you an anchor man? Cuz I
00:57:17
didn't read everything. I know you were in No. Um I auditioned for who was the guy Ron Flurg was Burgundy that wasn't something from SNL right that was something you thought
00:57:29
of after that was uh after yeah that was after the show was that one of your first you left SNL
00:57:35
was that one of your first uh left starring in movies old school old school came out came out after I left crushed while we were filming
00:57:48
yeah so I left and I didn't Is that the only way? Old school got this film, but they held
00:57:53
on to it, which is usually a bad sign. They didn't release it until later. And after anchor man. No. No. Well, before so it was old school.
00:58:04
And then I we were working on this script about an elf. Oh, elf was back then. That did that was not uh
00:58:10
enough. That needed a bunch of work. So when I left the show, there wasn't I didn't like have this stack of scripts waiting
00:58:16
for me. But holy [ __ ] to come out with those three. Old school and anchor man were the first
00:58:21
movies I did after I left the show. That's unreal. Uh old school you go, you're crazy. Is that is that what you
00:58:27
say? That after the train start. Yeah. Yeah. Hysterical. So many parts of Old School
00:58:32
were great. Uh when Vince Van goes, "Hey, you need some sand? I got a sand guy." Uh everything about Old School was
00:58:38
funny. Love that one. Um, Elf obviously was such a huge home run hit and uh still to this day but Elf was Elf was uh Brothers that was that was a little scary only
00:58:51
because I'd come off of SNL and well old school known probably for doing more PG-13 edgier stuff and then you're in a and then I'm in this family
00:59:06
family thing that's risky going. This could be it. I don't know. I'm just sitting around
00:59:13
running around the streets of New York in yellow tights. But your your your style, I guess I'd say, is you just you never wink and you commit like the dramatic actor.
00:59:27
Yeah. And that's that's what kind of holds you up. Well, Elf, all those things. Thank you, Dana. Yeah. I also I say the same.
00:59:35
I said it before you got here. It's Dana. You can do a trick that Kevin Nean can do. It's you can lower your IQ
00:59:43
just 20 points, right? Just with your eyes, very subtly and it's genius. But every time we were doing Hans and France, cocky idiots
00:59:55
and we were talking and they go 5, four, three, I'd look at Kevin and he would just his eyes would just go really dumb
01:00:01
like Yeah. Yeah. He could lower his IQ like 40 points. But you you have that skill set of being able to just take IQ off your with just just something about
01:00:13
your eyes. You think that's good? Yeah, it is. Yeah. Yeah. Kind of like a guy. What was his name?
01:00:19
Sounds uh Sellers. Peter Cellers. Peter Sers. Kind of like that guy. Pete Cell. I call him Pete Sellers.
01:00:26
Did because you do have some symmetry with him. A lot of comedians want to claim Peter Sers, but I do think you
01:00:32
have something in, you know, that cocky idiot character that that also is very dry, extremely bizarre word packages with a lot of physicality.
01:00:44
Anyway, I just I've been researching you for But that's uh that's how started thinking of the Ron Burgundy character
01:00:51
because I was watching footage of this news anchor who had been retired for 20 years, but he still talked like this. Yeah. And I walk through my local market and
01:01:05
and I'll be ordering, you know, I'll be buying my groceries and people will hear my voice and they'll know. They'll ask
01:01:11
me, "Were you in news?" And I say, "Yes, I used to be." Uh, and I I thought, "Who talks like that?" Like, "What? You're
01:01:19
not a news guy anymore?" And I thought, "Oh, that's funny. Someone who never lose his that affect." Yeah.
01:01:26
Yeah. But all the stuff writing that San Diego's funny. Uh, casting it right. There's so many ways to do a movie wrong. Even if you have a funny character, like you got to get it directed well, uh, written well, perform
01:01:38
it well, edited, there's so many ways to ruin it along the way. And that's why sometimes you sign up for a movie, it's it just doesn't come out because there's
01:01:45
so many ways to mess it up. But to have all those work all the way through is very very tough to do. And uh
01:01:52
Anchorman is one of those that just hit on all cylinders. And then the sequel, I was watching the fight scene from the sequel today. And
01:01:59
it's so [ __ ] funny where you're thinking of different ways to have different news people and uh and then
01:02:04
everyone's playing it is funny and all they keep coming in their different groups. All that was funny. And topping the first one was hard, but
01:02:11
you did that with that. And then also two days with Kanye West. I I figured out that was Kanye. I'm like
01:02:16
Kanye made this cameo, but he he filmed his thing and then he just hung out the next day. I just stayed. Yeah. Playing Yeezys for us over and over
01:02:27
again. Yeah. Yeah. Whether you wanted to hear Yeah. That's demo jail. Yeah. That was wild. Interesting. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. I used to be Yeah, whatever.
01:02:41
I had a guy like that and he would play his album over and over and Yeah. in the car and then in the house and then you didn't want to say, "No,
01:02:46
you you already played it for me, but I I'll listen to it again." Give you another shot at it. Yeah.
01:02:53
That was funny cuz I saw Kanye. I was like, "Oh my god, is that Kanye?" Like, was he around back then? I guess he was.
01:02:59
He must have been pretty new. No, he was It was Yeah, he was pretty old. I think
01:03:06
whatever it is. Yeah. whatever the answer is. But you also your bandmates on that
01:03:11
which you've worked with a lot. Paul Rudd. Yeah. Who's awesome obviously. Yeah. Steve Carell.
01:03:17
Carell. Carell was so funny. Got a great funny part. Yeah. Yeah. It was a great group.
01:03:24
Um and and McKay who we' met at SNL. And so it was it was a you guys just really knew what you were doing. We just felt like we were playing with the house's money and you know they
01:03:36
had DreamWorks had said no to it initially and then later came back and Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah. They had a bunch of people had passed on it. Uh I think we had 10
01:03:48
or 15 different finance years or studios passed on it in one in one day. It was great. It was a great day. That's a horrible McKay and I call. Did you hear about this one? Yeah, that's a pass. Okay,
01:04:00
good. But you go excitedly pitch it to everyone and then you just hear pass pass. You just hear the call should be coming
01:04:06
in. Pass pass. Oh my god, that's sickening. It almost doesn't ever work after that. If one
01:04:12
passes, it gets like a stink to it. Like the other one's here and they go, "Oh, oh, something's bad about Oh, we don't want it either."
01:04:17
So you do that. Is it what happened? Elf came out or something and they go, "Oh, well, we we'll risk it now."
01:04:23
No, it was old school. Old school came out and they thought, "Oh, wait. We have this other script
01:04:29
with him. We should do something. We like it. We like it. Hey, that made money. Let's Let's do a
01:04:36
chart and then we take it back. We take it back. We like the thing about the newscasters. Um that thing,
01:04:41
but we were trying. They just couldn't wrap their heads around it that it'd be funny. And I was trying to say it's it's it's kind of what Austin Powers will be
01:04:48
to the spy genre, you know? It's like uh But anyway, so when we finally got to make it, it was we were like, "Let's just hurry. Let's just shoot what because they may shut us down at any
01:04:59
point. When movies do the best feel like that's and then it was one of those where I'm
01:05:05
guessing, you know, the last couple takes do whatever you want. Just keep doing [ __ ] Just act stupider and stupider and then
01:05:12
someone's got to pick the one that's that you live with forever, but then you go, "God, there was five other ones that were just as
01:05:18
ridiculous." Did you ride that way? I mean, cuz were you on 35mm film in the '9s and then you
01:05:25
get on the Anchor Man set or whatever and you got digital for the first time or No, when did digital come?
01:05:31
Not till Anchorman 2. Yeah. Well, because then you could improvise for 20 minutes, but we would we would do it anyway. Run
01:05:38
out. Yeah. Because it's expensive, but you just Yeah. Okay. And uh uh but yeah, we would just
01:05:46
we would just go until we heard that film run out and and go to the line producer and just say, "You got to, you know, can you give us cover here? We just need more film stock. I don't know
01:05:58
what else to say." Uh and luckily they they the studios usually once you got going, they were
01:06:04
they were okay. Or they see the dailies, they know something's happening. Yeah. And uh Tallaladega Nights is another
01:06:10
monster. So remember that that one no questions just wanted you to get the applause.
01:06:15
Yeah. And um Blades of Glory Riley was that one of the first with Riley or he was also in I saw anchor.
01:06:21
No. So, John John did uh the table read for Anchor Man and we really wanted him to be in it and he was doing he had to go do Gangs of New York or something, you know, some
01:06:34
some [ __ ] [ __ ] scorsy thing and uh yeah and uh here preached. So, but you know it's good you guys w up in that. Oh, and step brothers. So you guys round up in those and uh
01:06:48
so these are consistent successful comedies which is an easy very very hard to do.
01:06:55
Yeah, it's been uh it's been good which is why it's just fun to use your guys podcast to announce my retirement. Yeah. And uh Yeah.
01:07:07
So should we be honored or do you feel like you're hogging all the good movies or something?
01:07:12
Give someone else a chance. Yeah, I want to I want to let I want to do we should do a remake of uh
01:07:20
already forgotten it. The farty blood guy. Warning shark. Warning shark. Yeah. Your your joke. I didn't Yeah. Warning shark. Yeah. Yeah. Um I mean do a shot forshot remake of
01:07:34
warning shot. We could put a little more money. Get a director. Get that same effects guy.
01:07:40
That guy's still around. It's You ever have the sound guy get in your face? Hey, man. We're just going to
01:07:45
wire you up here. I'm like, "Sir, sir, I I got it." They're like, "It's going to go right down your pants. Go up your Where does it need to go?
01:07:57
You want an You want a waist? Do you want an ankle? What do you want? What do you want? Ankle? What do you like?
01:08:02
Can I tape this to your chest? Is that all right? Do you want it up the bee hole? You know what that is? Do you mind holding sound
01:08:10
microphone? Do you want to just Do you want to put it in your beard? Bury it in your beard. Do you mind swallowing this microphone?
01:08:17
It would help. It would help production. I want to get the the sound of your car
01:08:22
juices. Can you learn how to use this boom mic? Take it home with you on the weekend.
01:08:29
Can you hold it just out of frame into your own boom? Yeah. It's a good arm exercise. It would help.
01:08:34
Yeah. I used to feel sorry for those guys with the 40ft boom. Oh, for like just shaking shaking like that.
01:08:40
And I'm like, I got another funny idea. And they're like, [ __ ] Yeah, keep it rolling. I'm guy's triceps.
01:08:49
And they'll cut. And the guy's like lays down inions. Yeah. Yeah. We got it easy. God damn it. I have a question.
01:09:00
I know. But don't you don't you feel this? You'd be fired from every single job on a movie set except for the ones that we get to do,
01:09:11
right? Oh, like a real movie. That's what I feel like. Well, I mean, it seems like you were all
01:09:16
most of the time working with like-minded spirits and No, no. I mean, as an actor, all the other jobs are so much harder than just
01:09:23
Oh, yeah. totally goofing around, right? Yeah. I would rather just goof around and have
01:09:28
someone shoot it than I could never do a real job. Is that I'm No, wait. I didn't know you. Doesn't my question make sense? Yeah. No, I'm just saying between like
01:09:39
camera, director, all these other jobs. Yeah. To be an actor, it's like that's the easiest one. Well, that's why they all hate us
01:09:49
because they go look at you and they go look at you coming in here. Tra la. Oh, do you have to memorize three lines?
01:09:54
Yeah. And they're like I'm like give me a minute. They're like, he's coming. You know, it's all that stuff. And they're
01:10:00
all waiting. And then you walk out. Can I get a quick spritz of final net? All right. Ready? Final net. Final net. That goes with Isn't that
01:10:11
my mommy's final net? Yeah. Okay. Are you Is that one of your guys sponsors? Final net. Yeah,
01:10:17
we have our sponsors are here. I think show of hands. Now, when you I'm I'm jump I'm going to
01:10:24
jump around here. I'm going to jump around here. Jump around. Rapid fire. Uh and uh any
01:10:30
Norm was in Jeopardy with you a lot. Yeah. Any funny Norm stories or anything about Nor?
01:10:35
Yeah. My god. Because uh that was Jeopardy. Again, one of the big sketches that big sketches everyone remembers. Always funny. Daryl was funny at Norm. Was great. Yeah. The best Norm story was uh I think
01:10:50
it's the one where he's wearing he comes back. He's wearing a big foam cowboy hat.
01:10:56
I was like, "That's funny, huh? What? Wearing a cowboy hat." And anyway, there's some beat where I where I have to be super exasperated with him and I
01:11:07
yell at him and we and we get out of the sketch and Norm comes running after. He's like, "Hey, well, everything okay?" I go, "Yeah, why?" He's like, "You you
01:11:19
seem kind of mad at me out there." I'm like, "No, Norm, I'm act we've done it. This is like the fourth time we've done the sketch. No, but that time it just seemed like you really were mad at me for some
01:11:31
reason. No, we're good. That's very That's very Norm right there. That's his sense of humor. Yeah,
01:11:37
he seemed kind of mad there for a moment, right? But he was not I don't think he was doing a he wasn't doing He might have been
01:11:44
serious that you was very sensitive in that way. Very shaken. Yeah. And then uh cuz you can commit hard and you probably scared him. Another norm, another great Norm story has nothing to do with Quebec
01:11:57
was, and Katan told me about it. They were on a flight together back LA to New York.
01:12:03
Uh Chris had taken off his shoes. Uh and he can't find his shoes. They're about to land. Can't find his shoes. He's going to the flight attendant. Have
01:12:16
you seen my shoes? I took them off. He's like, "I don't know." He's like, Katan's like, "Norm, come on. You took my No, I
01:12:23
didn't. I didn't take your shoes. Why would I take your shoes? That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I've never take I would never." He's like,
01:12:29
"Come on, give me back my shoes. I know you took them. I know." Norm's like, "I don't know what you're talking about."
01:12:34
Katana has to walk through JFK with no shoes. With no shoes, just in his socks. An entire season goes by. And then Katan and Norm are jousting
01:12:51
back and forth about something. And then Norm finally goes, "Oh yeah, and one other thing. I did take your shoes."
01:13:00
That flight in November. Flight November. I took them. I threw them in the trash
01:13:05
can, just so you know. Yeah, cuz I I saw his shoes there, right? And I just I got to grab his
01:13:12
shoes. So yeah, you were right. I I had to You used to give Katan so much [ __ ] My god. Yeah, he was tough.
01:13:19
Um, okay. Let's see if we have anything else. Well, before we let you go, the other the other thing I was thinking
01:13:25
about today. Mhm. Downey used to give me the great I love Jim Downey. Sorry. Jim Downey, legendary writer who came up with Strategery. Um,
01:13:37
oh, he did. I had the A team too writing for me on, you know, with Al Franken and
01:13:42
Jim Downey. Totally. Yeah. But Downey, I loved being in Downey sketches for a number of different reasons, but the best was between Dress
01:13:50
and Air. And he'd do it every single time, and it I would laugh hard every single time. He'd go, "Great job. Take it down about a,000%."
01:14:03
And then I would just Yes. And I'd be like, "Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay." And he's like, "I don't know what happened. You must have gotten into your big juice or
01:14:10
something." But he would literally tell me to take it down a thousand%. Worst advice. Yeah. Did you? Made me laugh every single time. And he would never say he's joking.
01:14:22
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I remember one time I did a joke on Hollywood Minute about jokes, you
01:14:28
know, they had some some had a little more of a some were clever, some had a little mean streak, but I did a Jim Carrey one. The funniest part is I liked
01:14:35
99% of the people I made of course and Jim Carrey I was just trying to get foot in the door at SNL and uh whatever it
01:14:41
took but Jim was doing these you know the movies that I loved but I said and they would always prod me to go farther right because it was like through them I dare you you know so I said oh Jim Scary
01:14:53
after this one of his movies was rushed to the hospital after an overdose of uh uh overacting pills with play it too big juice and uh and the crowd just stared
01:15:05
at me and it was it was too soon. Don't that don't mess with our [ __ ] guy Jim Carrey and I was like no I love you know and anyway that was cut after Dress but uh
01:15:16
but Dress Harrison was a good but that was those guys and they they would write me the roughest
01:15:21
oh Hollywood Minute jokes at like the rewrite table they go Jim would be like no you would never
01:15:27
well no you're too much of a [ __ ] and I go no I'm not what and then he'd tell me
01:15:32
I go yeah I'm too much of a [ __ ] you're I'm not saying that he goes of course cuz you're a [ __ ] and I go. Why? And
01:15:39
but it was all whatever he wanted to say and get the anger out and get to me. Well, then they hide behind the whole
01:15:44
thing. I know. It's so funny. They get to say whatever they want, but I would have to sort of temper it, but
01:15:49
always funny. I mean, they're always just they're just [ __ ] Wait, one last Nor McDonald story. Sorry. Love them.
01:15:54
Uh, do you remember the Mama Celeste frozen pizza commercials? No. Yes. No, I don't.
01:16:00
And it was this and she would say aanza. Abundanza. Yeah. which is a madeup marketing word. There's no there's no word in the Italian language.
01:16:11
I thought that was genuine Italian. Yeah. And one day we're sitting around in the writer room having lunch and
01:16:18
we're doing a bit where I'm like, "Hey guys, this lunch is pretty good." Abundanza, right? And everyone goes,
01:16:24
"Yeah, abundanza." And Norm's sitting there like, "Norm, come on, just say it. Say abundanza." Like, "No, I'm not going
01:16:32
to say it." I'm like, "Come on, Norm. Just say it. Abundanza." I won't do it. I'm not going to say it. We get like 15 of us like, "Come on, Norm. It'd be rude." Now, every We've
01:16:43
all said abundanza. You should just say abundanza. No, I don't want to say it. I'm not
01:16:49
going to say it. I won't say he never would say it. Anyway, that's the end of the story. But
01:16:56
he Yeah. All right. Well, I think I think we were going to have a few people the question. Hey, a penny saved is a penny earned. They say, right? That's like a 100%
01:17:08
return. You can't get that anywhere. Is that what he said? I was just talking on the phone with
01:17:14
Norm. You know, you know, you should bury some money, right? Cuz then later on, your relatives will dig it up and
01:17:20
they'll have money, right? He just had the driest, funniest. I didn't have a TV the first year when I
01:17:26
was on the show cuz I just didn't buy one cuz I thought I'm never going to be in my apartment. So, I'd go and watch
01:17:32
the NBC Sports feed uh on like a Sunday. Norm of course is in there and uh Norm enjoyed gambling on sports and uh we were watching some game and I'm like,
01:17:46
"Ooh, got to watch out. You know, University of Cincinnati, they're uh they're pretty good in the mud." He's like, "Really?" And and
01:17:59
I go, "Yeah, I think they're like 750 winning percentage in rainy games." Ah, I didn't know that. Yeah. Okay. Loggs it away. I think we're doing a bit. Right.
01:18:12
Right. Right. It's no way. How do I know that stuff? Yeah. Week later, no one's like, "You cost me 35 grand."
01:18:25
I'm like doing what? What do you mean? Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati. And I'm like, what? You said they were really good and rainy rainy. I'm like, you bet on I was joking.
01:18:38
Can you bet that much? Yeah. Yeah. Why are you telling me that amount, too? That's like when Norm asked Love It for give me give me $200. They're playing a casino. That's funny. You know, he's
01:18:51
like John's like, "Okay." So, the next day John. Huh? Lend. Land. And he goes, "Yeah." Yeah. And then Love's like, "Can I get my money back?" And he goes, "No, no, I lost I lost all of it." He goes,
01:19:03
"Why are you mad? I lost $8,000." Yeah. He goes, "You only lost 200." You only lost 200. Yeah. We love Norm. There was only one Norm and a comedy genius.
01:19:17
Will Frell Dana, I think he want they want to ask a few questions from the audience, then we'll get we'll get Will of his limo. I
01:19:23
was just gonna butter up Will. I was gonna say to Will because he loves sports. Like if I was gonna do a sports
01:19:30
team of SNL stars. Yeah. You know, I put you at the power forward. Oh, okay. And maybe an Acroy or Phil at the center. Maybe Bill her after that. It's
01:19:42
I I never try to pick SNL people because then I go [ __ ] Adam Sandberg. I miss him. But I would you Lauren said that about
01:19:49
you. No, he's he's a top two at least. Top two. Well, is he possibly one? I I'm not
01:19:56
going to say, but he's a top two. Top three. Top three. Where in that three? I don't know.
01:20:01
We don't know. I feel I feel like the general consensus is me, Dana, Will. In the history of SNL, I think it's And sometimes it mixes up. Dana,
01:20:13
will Dana me. Yeah. Yeah. But we're up there, man. It's lonely, but it's we're up there.
01:20:19
No. Yeah. Now, I was sort of the an intern there for six years. David Spade plays the little engine that could, but you had an incredible career. Who did World Missy? 800 million
01:20:32
minutes. Yeah. 800 million minutes. That's how it goes now. 6 billion minutes. Such a hit. That feels good. I don't know. It sounds like a lot of minutes. Yeah. 6 billion.
01:20:42
Biggest film in Chile. Oh, yeah. They love you in Uruguay, kid. You I can't step foot in Bulgaria.
01:20:53
Lower Mongolia. Go out there. We're going to ask Will. We'll get four questions from the
01:20:58
audience and then Will, you don't even have to answer if you don't want. Just make them feel stupid.
01:21:07
All right. Does anyone have a question? And then he'll run out there and then Oh, we got one over there. Let me see.
01:21:13
Oh, wait. Too late. He was over there. Oh. Oh, no. I'm over here. Hello. Um, uh, do you guys have a favorite sketch that literally just never made it even past pitch? Like, not something
01:21:25
that got cut for time or cut from rehearsal, but you pitched it and you thought it was great and it just did not
01:21:30
go over. I I I had a sketch that um that tops my list. Uh, I had written a sketch about a guy who looks exactly like Gabe Kaplan
01:21:44
from Welcome Back Cotter and Col he's he's a super and he works in an insurance uh he works the insurance company he works for he knows
01:21:55
that Gabe Kaplan is a client and it's the day that Gabe Kaplan came in to renew his insurance coverage but no one told him no one told my character that
01:22:07
Gabe Kaplan was there and uh I was How did this not get on? Are you sure this didn't get on? It got on. No, it got on to dress, but
01:22:19
it was so silent. At one point there's the smallest laugh in the world like kind of in the upper deck there. You just hear but it died so hard. So that was it. It
01:22:33
it but it worked great at the table. I have one quickie which was a guy I'm sorry buddy uh Kurt he was obsessed with
01:22:40
Kurt Cobain after his death and I worked at BaskinRobins and I wouldn't wash my hair and Bob Odenkirk and I wrote it and
01:22:48
it was uh Kurt every time I was trying to name ice creams after him and then when people come in they go my manager
01:22:54
goes you got to wash your hair I go no Kurt he Kurt and Dirt you can't wash him away and then uh again crickets but that
01:23:02
was crickets at readthrough with Odin Kurt He was a great writer and uh it was a fully formed sketch and it just uh on season two we do we're doing a press
01:23:12
conference and they said do you have any new catchphrases to me? So I just said my new catchphrase is I got to got to
01:23:18
got to go right. So I wrote a sketch called Funny Little Poopy Head and I was Mr. Funny Little Poopy Head. Jan Jan Hooks was Miss and
01:23:30
it was really if it had gotten on I would have enjoyed it but it was just to hear Lauren say funny little poopy head.
01:23:37
So there was so much stage direction and Lauren Michaels had to say that poopy head is sad funny little poopy head walks across the room that kind of and
01:23:47
my and then he goes I got to got to got to go and then Jan hooks his hook was and I'mma go on with them.
01:23:55
Never made it to only at the Largo. Yeah. Yep. All right. Next one. Greg, anybody?
01:24:03
They're slow to the uh Yeah. Hey, uh you did a college game day in 2010 with Lee Corso. What was he
01:24:12
like? Is that for me? I don't think I did. I don't remember I being in it. So, was that you?
01:24:22
Oh. Uh, it was a film called College Game. Would that have been outside the Coliseum? Yeah, that was Oh, before the SC Oregon game. Yeah.
01:24:36
Oh, easy rain, man. Are you wearing an N95? Yeah. Yeah. Definitely outside the coliseum. Yeah. Yeah. Course. Course. I'm an
01:24:49
excellent driver. I don't remember having much interaction with Lee Cor. I'm sure he was nothing but lovely.
01:24:57
What about Lee Van Clee? Did you ever do anything about Van Clee? All right. Lee Van Clee and I was this guy.
01:25:05
This young man, you've had your hand up for so long. Go ahead. I think for the podcast. Yeah.
01:25:12
Thank Thank you. Um, hi. Uh, Will Dana. Uh, do you guys were a part of a video where you played uh the Bushes? Oh, all the presidents. For all the presidents for Ron Howard.
01:25:24
Do you guys have any stories about that? And David, will there be a uh sequel to that movie?
01:25:30
Don't make up a question for me. You love these two. He's huge and chilly. And David, are you taking an Uber home? First of all, that was with Funny or Die for Funny or Die. for Funny or Die about
01:25:45
passing legislation. Legislation and I remember we just did our characters one at a time. We had all everyone who'd played a president on SNL. Yeah, we even had Dan Akroyd do Bob
01:25:58
Dole, I think. Or I know he was there. Bob Dole. Akroy. Or was it Akroy did Jimmy
01:26:05
Oh, Jimmy Carter. Jimmy Carter. Oh, yeah. Probably Jimmy Carta. Oh, did he do Nixon? Oh god, he did a lot. Yeah, I'll just do all me.
01:26:15
Chevy did Ford. Chevy did Ford. Fred did Obama. Yes. Wow. Oh, wow. Did Carrie I just remember when I was doing something and and you said you
01:26:27
liked it afterwards. I don't I was just ad living as George Bush senior and the phrase came out. He went full feal.
01:26:36
I don't remember what it meant, but I remember it came out after him like the full feal part. I just you just remember
01:26:42
things and full got to do it falcation. Yeah, I'm getting more relaxed all the time. I know.
01:26:54
Yeah, we're finally relaxed. We got one more question. All right. Mhm. Um, hey, this is Fwell. Um, whenever you were on SNL, you would often go on Conan
01:27:06
as different characters. You would never come on as yourself. Yes. Um, was Conan aware of this? Cuz I feel
01:27:12
like he was not in on the bit and he was often surprised when you would do this.
01:27:17
No, he was just very good at acting and playing along because they that I mean, did you ever try to surprise him with anything? I forget.
01:27:27
But then you would add live and stuff. It might have been because Conan and that whole st they were so into please
01:27:35
do whatever you want. Yeah. Yeah. They that was like the greatest show to go on that early Conan because they were just embrace any sort of bit. It it was like
01:27:47
I got you know I have an idea where I want to get in a drum off with a kid drummer and he's going to be much better than I am and then I'm going to chase him out of the stage, you know, and
01:28:01
they're like, "Yep, let's do it." Uh, okay. Okay, I have another bit where I want can you can you set up a pull-up
01:28:08
bar and I want to do um I want to do a setup where I'm going to do as many pull-ups as I can do and I'll give
01:28:15
$10,000 to charity and I can't even get one pull-up, you know. Uh for every pullup you get, every pull I'll give uh and I just struggle
01:28:30
like 15 seconds. You're like I did 30 yesterday. What's wrong? can't get one. Oh well,
01:28:36
too bad. March of dimes, you know, whatever. But no, they would they would go for everything. And it seems like you always had a gear where a lot of your stuff if the sound broke, I call it funny with the sound
01:28:48
off, it would still work, you know, just because like like the cowbell guy, just the way you were dancing around
01:28:55
like just all that and walking was good in that too, right? Oh god. Yeah. Yeah, he's Do people know, is this true that you
01:29:02
you tried it out with different hosts and it never got on until Walking came around? I tried it. Uh well, it's funny. It was
01:29:08
the the season before was Norm's last season cuz you guys were talking about it with Downey.
01:29:14
Okay. The whole Norm getting fired. Mhm. And uh and then strangely enough, he comes back the next year to host. Oh, yeah. Yeah, but I tried it at the table with Norm as
01:29:27
the record producer and it worked fine, but it just didn't get it picked and then I brought it back later going, "Oh no, I'm going to rewrite this
01:29:34
for Walking." It's hard to do it twice. It's hard. Yeah, I was there that night. I was doing I
01:29:40
was doing a guest spot of something. Okay. And I remember that destroying and Yeah. And we were way over. And Will, where were you? I was about to say you weren't dead center. No, it was way in the corner. The dead corner there.
01:29:51
[ __ ] People don't know that's Do you remember what was the I mean how did that come out just just
01:29:56
suddenly? Cuz it's such a bizarre incredibly inexplicable idea. That's why it's it's just as funny now. You could
01:30:03
watch it 20 years later. It's a weird song. Yeah. Listening to Blue Oer Cold on the
01:30:08
radio. Yeah. It was just that faint cowboy going does that guy have any friends? You
01:30:14
know, is that the only song he ever got to play cowboy on? Yeah. And then I'd always I'm like I'm going to write that as a sketch. It's not nothing you can pitch.
01:30:25
Yeah. And so I write and I rewrote it for for Walker and I'm just like oh I know that
01:30:32
if Christopher Walkan says I have a fever. Yeah. And the only prescription is more
01:30:38
cowbell. Only he can make get a laugh off of that. You you can't lose cuz the stiffer he
01:30:43
does it the more he's married to the qards. I have a fever. Yeah. And they all and you're like
01:30:49
you're like phonetically almost getting through it and it's so [ __ ] funny. And I remember I remember is Kevin
01:30:54
Pollock here? Could you do Christopher Walkin? I think he is he here? Oh, is he here? No. Oh, Kevin. This is the world's greatest Christopher Walking impression.
01:31:05
Oh [ __ ] I have a fever. The prescription is more cowbell. Kevin Paul you Kevin Paul Kevin
01:31:22
Pollock happened to be here. But you would you would say to walk and you go hey Chris uh you're just killing it. You're so funny. Everything you'd be like we should have Kevin do it. Really?
01:31:36
Because I have to the party. Yeah, I have no idea. I just say the lines. He doesn't even get the sketch. And I was like, well, you're doing great
01:31:50
if you say so. Okay, like I got in trouble for Cobbell. I'm just doing Kevin now. But
01:32:02
yeah, but yeah, there was something magic about that thing. Anyway, that was something special. I like those ones
01:32:08
that live on forever. Those are great. Yeah. So, Will Frell, you are one of the all time and you you're you're still
01:32:14
going strong. I don't know what you're doing next, but I was going to ask you, what's the longest break you've had in
01:32:20
the last 25 years from doing show business? It seems like you've been Did you have six months off at one time or
01:32:26
Oh, sure. So, you take breaks. And what do you do during your breaks? You ran three marathons.
01:32:31
Long time ago. Um, yeah. That was just a passion. Yeah. just wanted to run. I retired in '
01:32:38
03 and uh Lauren wouldn't take you back, right? Are your kids a lot taller than me yet?
01:32:45
Oh, they're my 13-year-old dominate. Yeah. Yeah. I know. Kids are 11 when they're taller than me. I'm like, I just they just hang out. I'm I love I'm Uber driver for my kid.
01:32:58
You know, a sophomore in high school go to school. kind of fun when they're like 10, 11, 12 and you're driving them to
01:33:05
school and I play a day in the life for them, right? You know, and they play me hiphop and stuff, which is a fair exchange. But
01:33:11
it's a lot of fun and cool bonding cuz I was noticing my kids weren't talking to me in the car on at a given age when I'm
01:33:19
driving them to school and then I would put on AM News Radio and a man was killed today and shot
01:33:26
blood was flying and they're like dead. What was what was that? What's going on? So that really would open them up. But
01:33:31
you must have had experiences like that. Maybe it was. But truly, you must have made them fans. We and we we've made a concerted effort to just take the whole summer off every
01:33:42
no matter what I'm working on. So we go uh we go I do that, too. We go to Sweden of all places every
01:33:48
summer. So we have my wife's Swedish. We have a place out there. The boys all speak Swedish. They hang out with their cousins.
01:33:53
God, that's too cool. So they're just bonded with Sweden. That's hip. Yeah. Isn't most of life just I I feel
01:34:00
like even really busy people, most of life is hanging out and talking kind of. Absolutely. I mean, isn't that what we
01:34:05
do most of the time? I mean, we work and stuff, but you're just and trying to watch something on TV with your wife. I mean,
01:34:11
that's Do you watch live streaming? Pleasures. Yeah. Do you watch All Creatures Great and Small? If you want Liquid Xanax,
01:34:18
this is this brilliant show that's just so I thought the Beatles documentary was
01:34:24
that too in a way. Oh my god. get back. Unreal. Well, I you know, it's nice of you to
01:34:30
say that. We, you know, I do a bit older now. You know, we appreciate we appreciate that
01:34:37
you like it, you know, but we were just lads plunking. I don't know. I don't know who that is. Is that Billy Preston? It's Billy Idol.
01:34:49
Did you meet McCartney, Will, when you were on SNL? Did what? Did you see McCartney? Was he on when you were on?
01:34:54
I don't know if he was. I think he was 93, right? He was on I know when I was there with
01:34:59
He must have been I know MC Jagger. Oh, Jimmy did that MC Jagger. MC Jagger. Oh, I came in Lauren's office. This happens to you at Saturday Night Live once. Lauren's office in 8H just during
01:35:11
the and just walked in and no one told me and then just McJagger's just sitting there with a little sweater and corduroy
01:35:18
pants on and combed hair. You know, Lauren likes to blindside you with a big star. Yeah. Well, he likes to collect
01:35:24
china in different coffee cups. Tell them about your stamp collection. M. He's very what you would call aerial
01:35:30
dite. The the dinner the dinner where Lauren tried to convince me to stay longer. Yeah. Who was there?
01:35:36
He kept saying Mick may stop by. And uh I'm like, "Okay, that's what I tell people, but he never
01:35:43
stops by." All right. And we keep talking. He's like, "So Mick, you know, he could because they produced some movie
01:35:48
together, right?" And uh I'm like, "Yeah, fine. Okay." And then all of a sudden, Lauren's eyes go wiser. He's here. He's here. Okay. You You sit
01:36:01
there and I'll No, no, no, no, no. I'll sit here. I'll sit here. I'll sit like this. And you sit over there. No, no, no. You sit. Hi, Mick. Hello. Hi. Yes.
01:36:12
And I sit. So, he wants your seat. Move. Yeah. Move. Move. Be an idiot. Did you always have to guess when he said Paul? Cuz there were two Pauls. Paul, Simon, Paul McCartney. Paul's coming over.
01:36:23
Which one? That be McCartney? I sat there awkwardly for 45 more minutes with MC. No. He showed up
01:36:30
and I didn't know what to once again. I didn't know what to say. Yeah. And then the next day at rehearsal,
01:36:36
Lauren was like, "Wasn't that the greatest dinner?" And I think he was just excited that he
01:36:42
said a celebrity was going to show up and they actually showed up. What was your most Star Trek moment? You
01:36:47
know, I for me like meeting Charlton H was a big deal, you know, like whoa. You know, cuz you meet these hosts and
01:36:54
they're sitting down there and then they go, would you like to go say hello to Robert Mitchum? Sure. You know, it's
01:36:59
like you're walking down the hall. Marcy would come in. Get in there. Sharon Stone. No one's in there. I'm like, okay. And then you go in,
01:37:04
she's alone. She needs help. It's Marcy. She's reading a magazine. She's like, what? I'm like, I'm supposed I don't know what
01:37:10
you know what I mean. You know, Mark with uh George W. They called me. He was in the studio cuz they were going to tape one of those election specials and they had Gore do his part.
01:37:22
Yes. Clear the studio. Then they bring W in there. They call me at home. They're like, "Get down here.
01:37:29
W's a huge fan. Wants to meet you." And I just started doing the impression and I was like, "Okay, uh uh okay." I go down to 8h. There's 100 reporters,
01:37:40
everything. Yeah. And they're it was like Ayala and Marcy like go up there. Just go and talk to him. And I'm like, even the QC car guys going get up there.
01:37:51
Hi, I'm Will. I could tell he's has no idea that I'm the guy who plays him cuz you hadn't done it during the debates. Exactly. We hadn't even got it was fledgling. And then
01:38:03
uh he doesn't know me from ad. He could care less. And uh you got bamboozled. You both just did this to each other. You did Roxberry. How did you
01:38:13
Yeah, we did Rockberry. Did you awkwardly say awkward? I go, uh, thank thanks so much for doing this. Yeah,
01:38:19
this is uh you got a lot. Is this a hectic work week for you? Like, yeah, it's it's a busy week. Seems like a lot. Yeah, but you could
01:38:33
tell he was stressed to be there. It was just like And Al Gore was there too, right? Al
01:38:39
Gore was there. Yeah. And commanding the room. Oh, yeah. He He seemed We're going to put it in a log ball. So, he was like totally presidential was
01:38:51
But then when they debated it flipped? Yeah. Well, W. Yeah. Well, whatever. But how did like
01:38:58
was um did you have to study tapes or you just kind of got it just by watching him? Watching Daryl helped me a little bit.
01:39:04
Tightening the neck, right? that and eyes squinting. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But you could you did you did kind of look like him when you got a little gear on. But I think it and it got better over
01:39:16
time, but at first it was not Same with me. I didn't push Senior at all. Only Ross Bro was quick cuz it was such a
01:39:22
cartoon right away. Can I finish one time? Can I finish one time? Can I finish one time? Yeah, that's all it needed. Just that James basically James Brown.
01:39:39
Can I Can I do it on the one? Great. Can I do it on the one? Yeah. Get on up like a sex machine.
01:39:46
Sorry. Just stick Phil Harman playing Admiral What's his face? Whatever. That guy. Which one? No. Stockdale. Is that it?
01:39:57
Stocktail. I don't want to hear that. Was driving him. You did. You guys did the driving.
01:40:03
Yeah. And then um Yeah. Why don't you take a walk over there? And then he's just going,
01:40:09
"Yeah, who am I? Who am I? Where am I?" He was doing Scottdale. Was confused. Politics is fun. All right. We got to let Will go. We should let We do. He wants to go on.
01:40:20
What do you want to do? All right. Can we do three questions? Favorite toy as a kid.
01:40:27
Don't think too hard. Uh, probably Legos. Legos? Yeah. Wrong. because of his was stretch Armstrong Micronauts. Did you have a bicycle that you really
01:40:39
liked? Yeah. Schwin. Uh Schwin Stingray. Stingray. What was TV show or movie? Why is that funny? Cuz I think he said then he said, "Yeah, yeah, that one." Yeah. Yeah, that one.
01:40:52
Well, the twin was famous. Some people there was only one bike front loader. My parents ran out of money.
01:40:58
Yeah. So, you're a little kid. You're like 8, 10, 11, and there's a TV show or a
01:41:05
cartoon or a movie that just made you love show business or just blew your mind. I'll give you an example. Ben
01:41:12
Stiller said it was the Poseidon Adventure. Like, that made him want to be a filmmaker.
01:41:17
That was a cool movie. Gene Hackers. Well, I always love Shelley Winters. Yeah. Um,
01:41:22
she sure had a figure. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I would say Poseidon Adventure, too. Poseid Jean Hackman is unbelievable.
01:41:34
He was great. It's a bear. That's how we'll live. A bear one inch thinner. Try Kevin.
01:41:42
I'll remember the real answer driving home after this. But the one thing I saw, Jason, the Argonauts. It could be,
01:41:49
you know, I saw those and Wild Wild West was kind of my age group. Like Land of Lost. Land of Lost. I loved
01:41:56
but that didn't make me want to go into show business. Little House on the Prairie made me want
01:42:01
to go into No. Um, what made you want to Well, I loved We're not leaving. God, no. This is We went past it. Pressuring partner. The pressure is building.
01:42:13
It's a nineparter. I love Okay, these are the shows I loved. I loved Happy Days with Vern and Shirley. That block on Tuesday nights.
01:42:19
Yeah, Tuesday by the way. And then I love Saturday night was fantasy on a love boat. [ __ ] And me too. Me too. See those are so relaxing. We need shows
01:42:30
like that. Just But I wanted to I wanted to live on the love boat. I wanted to be
01:42:36
happy calm and calm. Fun guests every week, every And Julie that coked up uh cruise
01:42:44
director. Yep. She was great. Yeah. I I watch that same block. Lever Shirley, happy days. And
01:42:49
Lever Shirley, Fona jump, literally jumped the shark. I remember watching that. I made my mom watch it with us. I was like, "Watch."
01:42:55
Isn't it funny to think that Henry Winkler, he was the coolest guy in America at that point in time.
01:43:00
Couldn't believe it. It was so cool. Yeah. And the toughest guy. I knew people thought he could beat up any. The FS could beat up any.
01:43:06
He never really got in a fight to be honest. It was No, he just he was he snap his fingers and he'd run or something. I want I don't want to date myself, but
01:43:12
mine was Danny K. Didn't he never could say he was sorry, right? Or is that what it says?
01:43:19
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I thought he couldn't say Yeah, he couldn't say something. Maybe I love you. Maybe. Sorry.
01:43:24
Let's call Hank Winkler. I don't know. He's great and Barry, you know what? Let's look at a clip.
01:43:32
Hey, no clips. What do you almost got it? Biffida. You just got a little touch of bifida. I did. Spinal bifida. That's what we're going
01:43:44
to name this episode. That's going to be in the It's like not funny. I don't know why we keep saying it. Hey, let me let me take it down. Take it
01:43:51
down as Danny Miller. Okay. Christ sakes. We heard from the spud man with the raspberries and the uh sound effect guys face. Frell the ride home.
01:44:03
The feral cat brought it heavy today. Yeah, you did bring it, man. You're funny as [ __ ] My Lincoln Town Car is waiting for me.
01:44:10
Yeah, I always request a Lincoln Town a late model Lincoln Town Car. Did you buy Did you buy something when you first got a million dollars? You buy a crazy car or anything?
01:44:22
I I bought a um uh something from the Elvis store list. I was sorry. I didn't want to jump. I don't want to be the joke of the thing. It's all good fun, Dave.
01:44:35
Okay. I bought one of Elvis's guns and I looked into the Providence and it realized faded was a previous owner. By the way, when he worked at there, he was you were very polite. You're very
01:44:46
nice. I don't think you said you were in comedy at all. I don't think you told me that. Uh but
01:44:52
in fact, I still worked I got hired at SNL, but you know, they don't pay you till you show up. I had bills to pay. I
01:44:58
was still answering the phones for like a month and a half. Did you have it transferred to your
01:45:03
office? At where? At here in LA at the art auction house and and my co-workers were like,
01:45:09
"Didn't you get on Saturday Night Live?" I was like, "Yeah, but I don't leave till August, so I'm here
01:45:19
and they don't pay you anything." I got it. They I read it said you were the highest paid cast member ever. Is that
01:45:25
I don't think so. They said it was But to What did What was your starting salary
01:45:31
like when you first got on? Do you remember? Because there's per show. It was per show. Yeah.
01:45:37
Uh I'm guessing 6,000. It was something like that. Okay. It was 55 or six. Yeah. 4500 times 20 90 grand keep 30 broke
01:45:49
even easily. Star Night Live breaking even man. Yeah. I mean 900 a week to write 1,500 to bump if I got on update or something.
01:46:00
Yeah. Yeah. And uh but the male prostitution paid the bills. Yeah. I ran a glory hole on 18.
01:46:08
We don't want to go all that specific. It was just you were a friendly guy. I never got that reference cuz they'd be they'd be if you ever scored they'd be like, "Ah, that was a real glory hole."
01:46:21
I be like, "What does that mean?" But yeah, never mind. Ask Spade. All right. All right. We're going to take a break
01:46:27
and come back um with our guest today, Will Finineas. Second half will be better. Second half
01:46:33
of the show. Second half of the show. Let's give everyone a second half will be better. Take five. See who stays.
01:46:39
I'm going to talk with a Swedish accent. The risk is off the accent. That is really authentic. I'm Nor Yeah.
01:46:46
Is a lot Norwegian getting We don't like the sweets. I know. That's a That's a bad rivalry.
01:46:52
Mhm. Well, yeah. is a Swedish chef get a lot of puntang in Sweden to be honest. The muppet character. Yeah.
01:47:04
Who else? Sherna scarna with the human hands. Yeah, he was that guy was talented. I knew that when I watched that guy was talented.
01:47:16
He could cook. Yeah. And he was he had a That made you want to be in show business. That character. That's the thing.
01:47:21
God, that's your answer. trying to help you. Sesame Street. Yeah. All right. Good luck. Well, they're turning the lights off.
01:47:28
Okay, you guys. Thank you so much for hanging with us audience. The great Will Frell. Thank you very much. Hey guys, if you're loving this podcast,
01:47:38
which you are, be sure to click follow on your favorite podcast app. Give us a review, fivestar rating, and maybe even
01:47:45
share an episode that you've loved with a friend. If you're watching this episode on YouTube, please subscribe.
01:47:50
We're on video now. Fly on the Wall is presented by Odyssey, an executive produced by Dana Carvey and
01:47:56
David Spade, Heather Santoro, and Greg Holtzman, Mattie Sprung Kaiser, and Leah Reese Dennis of Odyssey. Our senior producer is Greg Holtzman. And the show is produced and edited by Phil Sweet
01:48:09
Tech. Booking by Cultivated Entertainment. Special thanks to Patrick Fogerty, Evan Cox, Mora Curran, Melissa
01:48:17
Wester, Hillary Shuff, Eric Donnelly, Colin Gainner, Shan Cherry, Kurt Kourtney, and Lauren Vieiraa. Reach out with us any questions to be asked and answered on the show. You can email us
01:48:30
at fly onthewallsey.com. That's audacy.com.