00:00:00
foreign Russia has a great national anthem and that's the only good thing over there oh
00:00:11
and NATO got a little aggressive I was at the Russian improv once and there was a it was a tough I was co-headlining oh yeah yeah Yakov Smirnoff yeah yeah you had a uh Spade
00:00:24
stroganoff special you know I will say this when who are we talking about when I and I know that Rush has been in the
00:00:30
news lately and I won't say why but give us a hint when I did ask now my first update bit
00:00:38
was um Yakov Smirnoff it just sounds like some illicit sexual activity what what happened later in the shower knockoff Smirnoff I mean I got yanked
00:00:49
off and so yaakov Smirnoff was like in Russia everything's crazy you know remember that he was a Russian comedian
00:00:55
from the 1980s yeah and everything was I do not understand faucet yeah he goes what comes out of us water come in Russia bullets like does it
00:01:08
take bath if once a year America's shower all the time what's up with that now give me a it's so true by the way Dana my rubles
00:01:20
are really [ __ ] I have so many rubles I invest in it's so dumb you bought rubles oh yeah I thought they
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were your next big thing don't play the market come on SO Yakov that's a crypto choice so Yakov Smirnoff was a Russian
00:01:34
comedian and that reminds me of John no I have to tell you I did SNL and my first thing was like big beard and I was on with Dennis Miller on update and I was like this in Russia and then me and
00:01:47
Des were going back and forth I was doing stupid jokes and he's like hey hey it's not really it's not like that
00:01:52
anymore you know and I'm like but in rush it like it's all my hook of my whole life and you have a funny name as
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like a Russian comedian no I think I was yaakov oh you were you were doing Yakov Smirnoff okay got it now and people
00:02:03
understood because I did open and go I'm yaakov yeah you say it I am young it depends how far you want to go with Russian accent I I don't really do I don't need anything and so I just did it
00:02:15
the most stock version and then I get off and it does okay and then they go into the meeting after dress
00:02:22
and to see what's on the air show so it's at 11 at night you're finding out if you're on and [ __ ] Dennis is the
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first one out and he goes hey Spotlight we can take off the beard because I'm sitting there my whole Yakov
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outfit waiting to see if I got it I'm like this because it's your whole life and you
00:02:40
walk into the room at like 10 45 and you see which cards were part of the outline
00:02:45
of the practice show yeah and then the ones who've been placed off the main area so if you see Yakov Smirnoff over
00:02:53
to the right then then use salt right the cat summer who's cut just it would have been nicer if Dennis just ran out
00:03:00
and started stabbing me that's exactly the pain because I've been looking and I go okay Church Lake cold opening Wayne's
00:03:06
World okay well I'm just telling you let me finish I was scraping my update piece wasn't even over to the side it was like way over here Franken put away over here now
00:03:17
all right Judd Apatow is on the show and Judd is an old stand-up buddy from the valley before SNL I knew yes from uh born and raised in Northridge I believe
00:03:28
I just made that up yeah but he's from the valley but we're going to tell you a lot we used to hang out a little bit do
00:03:33
stand-up out there oh he has an interesting voice I've never tried to do it but for for this intro
00:03:39
I'm going to try Judd Apatow ladies and gentlemen there we go Judd Apatow that's Kermit the Frog I know no that's fuzzy bear look this is inside baseball for an impressionist I normally when I
00:03:52
start I suck and then give me time and I will Master Apatow yeah but that was an appetizer oh that's mine space I'd have to see a special
00:04:04
right before I came in here anyway Judd Apatow that was a brilliant uh director he's directed a lot of great
00:04:13
movies uh 40 year old virgin yeah I don't want to judge Apatow all right here he is Judd Apatow
00:04:19
[Music] Judd's got the most to go over not the most in SNL that's a little wispy but we
00:04:31
Judd's got so much and so much in comedy that it's perfect can we go back to go back and lead into this because uh confidence okay this is what I think
00:04:43
of you I think of here how I think of dysfunctional comedians yes wounded upset dramatic dysfunctional make the
00:04:51
wrong decisions or as Leonard would say never stop they do stop they whine they're you know when I think of someone
00:04:57
like you or Sandler it's just Full Speed Ahead I mean did you in those early days I mean how did you like we remember when
00:05:03
I hosted the 15th annual comedians yes I told you the young comedian said one word Judd Direct well that was a big deal because that
00:05:17
was the show we all wanted to get on to me that was like getting on The Tonight Show the HBO comedian special everyone broke off of that you were on it yeah I
00:05:24
went to the taping and saw you and Schneider do it and Dennis Miller hosted it he hosted it and in the crowd was David Bowie yeah and that seemed like the most pressurized situation yeah to
00:05:38
do a set with David Bowie in the corner look like Star man it was a really exciting night in Santa Monica at this
00:05:44
little theater that is now a bookstore and Drake sather had an incredible set there yeah yeah mine uh and Drake was great yeah and then I auditioned for it in New
00:05:55
York at stand-up New York Jon Stewart was also auditioning for it I brought all my friends from high school
00:06:02
John Stewart murdered so hard gets the show I go on after him you couldn't bomb worse no in front of
00:06:10
all of my friends that's the worst and if you stack the crowd of it I stacked the crowd and even my friends were like
00:06:15
I don't know where to left how did you deal with afterwards in the faces that go that was good good where
00:06:23
they changed the review midward there was nothing there was no way for even them to fake that that went how long did
00:06:29
that affect you like a week or I could wake up in the middle of the night right now and be like oh well because that was
00:06:35
a big deal that was there was nothing really going on and it was HBO yeah and The Tonight Show and I tried to get on the young comedians every year and I kept barely missing it and I was a young
00:06:46
comedian and they go oh we gave it to Richard Belzer this year I'm like well isn't the 80. well didn't we have we had
00:06:52
Janine Garofalo on the 15th annual oh that was yours he was the one who stole it and even
00:06:58
when we were shooting these like interstitial interviews I don't even know if they used much of it we all went
00:07:04
oh my God Ray Romano's gonna be a star like he's himself yeah in that moment is Regis but he really wanted me to anyway wait
00:07:15
if that's so many that this I know we're going to talk about so many things I love the young comedians because the
00:07:21
lineups are interesting and the interstitials were interesting because they go HBO said just talk the camera
00:07:27
for a minute about whatever and that was looking back it really showed you had no direction on hours yeah me
00:07:34
too so what did do you remember what you even did don't remember I just remember watching Ray do his and he was eating an
00:07:41
apple while talking and just was already a master and I think I I just thought oh
00:07:48
this is another level of how you do it I love it and I thought I had a pretty mediocre set and I made a very big
00:07:55
mistake in doing a set which is I had never been on HBO I'd only been on like comic strip live and even at the Improv where you're never allowed to curse and I said I'm gonna curse
00:08:09
and then if you watch my ACT I think I just added [ __ ] everywhere just to be edgy and none of them were punch lines they have to bleep all the curses so
00:08:23
it's just a very I always tell a young comedian save the [ __ ] don't just go I went to the [ __ ] store the punchline
00:08:30
in the future felt you'll fight the line for a year to get the [ __ ] out it's hard
00:08:36
to follow a dirty comic also and now Jon Stewart last question do you look at the lineup and are you
00:08:42
worried about following Jon Stewart are he kind of Blindsided you total Blindside I don't think I knew his act
00:08:48
that much back then because that was 1992. so I I wasn't on the East Coast much so I didn't know what what was happening I don't remember who else was was on that night but then I got it the
00:08:59
next the next year and Andy Kindler was on that and Gene Garofalo and Bill Bellamy Bill Bellamy yeah and that was
00:09:07
like the week we started doing the Ben Stiller show so I had to go to Arizona and shoot it and then come back and we started you know how did you know Ben at
00:09:19
that point I met Ben online at Elvis Costello unplugged okay online 91 91 in line online that's it
00:09:30
you were physically in line Seinfeld bet uh yeah I I was in line online and then
00:09:36
uh Dana Gould was there and he enjoyed my name and he introduced me to Ben and then we were chatting and he very quickly mentioned that HBO wants him to do a sketch show and I was like oh we
00:09:50
should get together and kick that around and we did like a day or two later and then sold it like a week later and
00:09:56
everyone thought we knew each other for years and we literally had just met the week before and then Adria was what were
00:10:03
your credentials at that point that he would say okay you're good enough to do this I you know I had just like they
00:10:09
were like stealth credentials that seemed better than they were so I would help people write their acts and then
00:10:15
they would throw me a co-producer credit so I did that for Jim Carrey and Roseanne and I did a special which was a
00:10:23
funny special with uh Dennis Miller it was the pregame show for Paul Simon Live in Central Park all these funny shows right and so he didn't half hour where they
00:10:35
showed clips of Paul Simon before and so I wrote you know the pregame show with him when you ride with Dennis basically you're transcribing because he's so funny and you're just organizing
00:10:46
a cat got some lines for me here okay but my favorite joke I wrote for him was uh we're about to start the show where Paul Simon along with his with 20 along
00:11:00
with because coming up next is Paul Simon and the 27 musicians it took to replace art
00:11:11
Paul Simon and the 27 musicians that took to replace art okay but I uh he used to do that too I whispered to his friend he means
00:11:23
Garfunkel see it's the jaw I mean Carson's the job 99 of impressions are job-based job well
00:11:32
Dennis uh so I did that with Dennis and so that made it appear so I had a bunch of those credits I did like three Tom
00:11:37
Arnold's specials that were like kind of like reality comedy and it gave the appearance that I was a producer but really I wasn't producing would you were you actively in a very healthy way
00:11:51
unafraid had an inner confidence and sort of self-promoting in a normal way like I like a sense I can do this or
00:11:58
you're like Ben so did you ever have ins where were your insecurities I was terrified you just fought through them
00:12:04
huh I just well I mean I've talked about this before but it's interesting to talk about it with David this podcast is huge
00:12:11
yeah believe me no one's heard it before this is global but you know David lived down the street when I lived in Sandler
00:12:18
Rob's trying to lived across the street Drake say they live close by Drake say they live close by I was writing jokes
00:12:24
for Jim Carrie who lived over the hill and that was right as in color was starting and I just Kerry was like Apple stock you got in way early on that one exactly like the Tesla stock I thought I
00:12:37
shouldn't buy because he was stoned us yeah just like they don't got nothing and I I definitely had that sneaking
00:12:44
suspicion oh I'm not as good at this I'm seeing guys that are better than you and then just surpassing them basically well I just thought this isn't my move
00:12:57
in the way that it's their move I mean when I remember David when you came to town with your leather jacket fresh from
00:13:04
us during the Arizona Surfer and Sharon Stone in the police academy movies there's a new guy in town and I wasn't even in at The Improv I would go to the
00:13:16
valley improv and wait to see if someone didn't show up and then I would do that spot oh cover oh yeah the manager Joe
00:13:22
Drew was always cool and you I literally remember day that you came to town and it was like oh Jesus Christ you you
00:13:30
could feel like oh this guy's gonna do great and he's great he's got an attitude and then Schneider
00:13:38
came from why not come on he's doing that gym teacher bit yes set your clocks back
00:13:46
yeah he's doing that bit and and then Sandler was doing Elvis in the refrigerator and and everyone seems to
00:13:53
be ridiculous you know yeah because you're like this kind of isn't what we saw when I used to look at that Improv
00:13:59
uh chalkboard it used to be it would say like this is dating me but it would be like Leno Paul Reiser Jeff Altman Ellen
00:14:08
maybe Seinfeld yeah Seinfeld and you're like it was such a like first ballot Hall of Famers you go Jesus and you but
00:14:16
you didn't really realize it then just everyone was good you know yeah and then but they all kind of were around this
00:14:21
same age same look so that I got in 60 because I looked you know 17 and I had wired you always had kind of confidence or you were faking it you were like 21 and I was like this guy seems like he's
00:14:34
got it all again it was completely wrong but then he passed out a Jack In The Box
00:14:40
do you remember when I whenever in high school said jack off in the box and that was the big joke for the guys in the
00:14:47
Volkswagen and you know I could go National with this joke jack off in the Box jack off in the Box hey wait a
00:14:53
minute it's called Jack in the Box hey that's a sexual ass no Judd what about come on what about when we were you
00:14:59
there when when I passed out at Taco Bell well I was I didn't see it yeah but it was a thing where like no one saw it
00:15:06
suddenly David has this thing where if he doesn't eat he's going to he's gonna go unconscious in public spaces and then
00:15:13
it happened at Saturday Night Live right where they had to like wheel you out on a stretches that was pretty much every
00:15:19
other week I'm like stressed yeah we were gone we were meeting to play tennis I think Adam I think everyone's supposed to play tennis and then I stopped by Del Taco what everyone does before they do
00:15:31
activities I think it was a combo but I was waiting in line I hadn't eaten and I started to
00:15:36
feel and and maybe there was a dog tooth in my burrito something about it was like this isn't working and then I go I
00:15:43
think I just laid down on the floor and talk about no friends nothing no one helped me and I'm like uh Sandler's not
00:15:49
even famous not yet that's not gonna help me and uh you knew he was going to be famous now I know he would have sent
00:15:54
a chopper were you a delegate that's when we we found out you were delicate did you hang
00:15:59
out with you and your eyes get real big and you go I gotta go I gotta go I've just just got here let's go back to Judd
00:16:06
for one second like exploring hypoglycemia and an adult page one but anyway so that was you know
00:16:13
the environment as a fan of Comedy always a giant fan of it I was smart enough to you know to meet someone like Norm Macdonald and go like again another this is another level of this but I
00:16:27
could sit I used to write jokes for Roseanne with Norm like we both got hired to write hurts
00:16:33
together and John rigi and me and Norm I remember going to Roseanne's house and we would sit there with legal pads with
00:16:39
Roseanne and you know she would say like I want to do a bit about how it's it's better to suck [ __ ] than to kiss ass because at least when you suck [ __ ] it's like a
00:16:52
it's a deal I'll suck your [ __ ] and then you'll give me something when you kiss ass you're doing it with the hope that
00:16:57
you'll get something and she would like to she'd tell us some like Theory she had and we would like write it down and
00:17:03
try to make it into a and so Norm was to mirror in a way and like just trying to please
00:17:09
yeah yeah there's something there yeah how about that joke you were smart because you were like noticing early on if you didn't think which you did make
00:17:25
it as a comedian but early on you go you were like it was Bitcoin producer credits they were like worth so much you
00:17:33
didn't know it and then later they just start paying off and reruns and well you guys never wanted to help other people
00:17:40
that's what it was the city center sharp elbows [ __ ] follow that yeah but you're never gonna write like jokes for other people for money I had
00:17:55
no money and I was really afraid of being broke so I thought no one seems to want to help anyone and if people were
00:18:02
like oh yeah they'll give you 50 bucks a joke or a couple hundred bucks to sit with them for a few hours so I did that
00:18:07
with George Wallace and and Taylor Negron everybody great you know what that you're so right going back to
00:18:14
dysfunctional Comedians and if they meet a guy like you who's smart and funny also disciplined and it's gonna kind of
00:18:20
tease out the best of them so David actually wrote jokes for me for a short period of time remember the grumpy old
00:18:25
man Joe came out oh no good deal something like am I Dave we didn't have latex condom Dooms Let's see we would
00:18:32
take a bare skin and wrap it around our privates and tie it off with a bungee cord
00:18:37
same one very brief time before no I think it was because SNL I was I talked to San this one because you were coming on and uh I
00:18:49
was saying well do you remember the sketch I wrote for Julius Sweeney because we had talked to her and we started talking and I wrote the sketch
00:18:55
for her and she was surprised because I wasn't in it and he goes yeah well you're a [ __ ] writer and I go oh
00:19:02
that's right because we are so selfish that at the end of the day my job was to write so with Sandler so you're not supposed to really write for yourself there and uh so I wrote uh for someone
00:19:14
else and then I guess because Dennis would ask me for update jokes you if I wrote for grumpy old man I thought that
00:19:20
was such a funny hook if I could throw some [ __ ] in yeah you know you've got great guys all around you like if I had
00:19:25
a rewrite table it was magic for a comedian who's written all their own stuff and knows how hard it is and you have your few hits you repeat them over
00:19:31
and over again and then someone like Bonnie and Terry Turner or David or Robert Smiggle hand you something I'm
00:19:37
like because I had written a sketch and I left it early on in SNL I left it and Robert said can I take a look at it I'm
00:19:43
like okay who's this guy right what is this I thought I'd already got it and I came in it was like oh I'm like oh my
00:19:49
God it's so much better the [ __ ] writing so it's it's it really makes sense how comedians would gravitate toward you
00:19:55
well Sandler you know was really smart and that's what he did yeah because I remember first of all I remember when he
00:20:02
went to audition for the show he flies to Chicago at the time his act is all just like mumbling so in the world
00:20:09
Chamberlain bit and he was he was in the clubs like we loved it we would sit in the back and just sure love it and but I I remember going to gigs with him where it did not go well it was
00:20:22
not a consistent situation we all knew he would make it big the last time it did not go well for Sandler yeah yeah I
00:20:29
remember going with him to San Diego to the San Diego improv and Dave Becky who ran it at the time oh you got to let Sandler headline like on a Monday yeah and Sandler bombed so bad for an hour he
00:20:41
put his back against the wall and just ran it just said the jokes yeah annoyed and so when he left to do the audition I thought I mean what does Adam do I mean he
00:20:52
doesn't do characters I mean what is he gonna bring to the show and then he gets it and suddenly like he's gone and I'm
00:20:58
in this shitty apartment living under a stripper in the valley and he doesn't bring his clothes his ID I literally
00:21:05
have his ID and his driver's license like he took nothing with him I lit up a box you could bring Dynamite on the plane back then you could do anything
00:21:16
like that and so so one time I forgot what this it was leading into okay and he's trying to get on on the show and his strategy was to write for
00:21:27
you so he would he would write you an amazing sketch would someone usually somebody I don't know what it was and
00:21:34
like in his head so he'd write like whatever I think he was part of maybe the pepper sketch oh pepper boy
00:21:41
and smog will probably get it on that too yeah and the other one was the one where you're the host who keeps making
00:21:47
out with the people walking in the restaurant yeah that was when I was still on SNL the
00:21:54
other one was hosting but Sandler Schneider went in there who can Troy was a [ __ ] hit was that Christy alley was
00:21:59
the host or was it uh the other one was like uh you lack of the juice but yeah El Cantore was the one where I had Victoria's off like lights up in the air yeah and smile trying to say don't
00:22:12
do that and I'm like that was one of the biggest that I was just writing yeah physical gag but yeah they would give
00:22:18
himself with like one joke in it but a good joke yeah and that's how he tried to get himself exposed which is to let
00:22:24
other people like you murder but give himself a key thing where I think he came out in his underwear yeah it was
00:22:31
ripped fit man he came out as uh don't you forget about the Macho Man yeah but I oh yeah it sounded funny and charming and and he did have a few a few
00:22:42
months of connecting with the audience Opera man it was so awesome I just loved it the silliness of it but
00:22:50
when he hooked they went with him boom I don't think Franken loved it well let's get back to you so you remember been
00:22:55
telling me about Frank and not liking it he would like tell me that because I would always be like how's it going
00:23:01
because I was you know this was my dream to get it right so when sailor got in there like oh my
00:23:06
God someone got in I think they're gonna pull me in at some point and we would all be on the phone with Adam trying to think of uh ideas for him and Schneider
00:23:14
yeah I don't remember you calling asking for anything but I remember talking I was crying in my office passed out
00:23:20
sensitive naked man was one of those Schneider he was trying to figure out yo how do you how do you get on the show
00:23:26
how do I get my personality through and I remember he said that one day he knocked on Lauren's door and franken's
00:23:35
in there he says he's in his underwear he put a hammer in his butt like he was holding a hammer in his butt this is Al Franken no this is Sandler
00:23:46
he just like knocked the door open the door and went like it's hammer time and then they did not look amused at all and then he walked away like he was just trying to find a way that's just the
00:23:58
ballsy that's very similar right [ __ ] who wouldn't happen who's like New York guy and like upper going to Orso and and Franken and then a guy walking over there but it was Hamilton and not The
00:24:11
Changing of the Guard but it was like a bunch of guys going can we try all this kind of stuff that
00:24:16
was I was a little different Adam was different that way and so it just was a new way I don't know of thinking but you
00:24:23
were right along our lines so I get on with Rob Sandler gets on uh yeah I don't think he knew Farley and rock back then but so so then you are very close to the
00:24:35
show in that respect and then you like it too uh do you and you eventually start writing you write you have you
00:24:41
been brought as a guest writer well I I would talk to Adam on the phone all the time I think in the earlier as he was talking to Hurley who wasn't on the on the show at that point yeah right and we
00:24:51
were all just trying to help load them up so yeah I remember I remember like working on the Denise
00:24:59
show sketch yeah that was a big one with him and I remember the other one I kicked around with him was the first uh
00:25:06
cheap Halloween costumes [Applause] that was one of the first times he really went full Adam where yeah that
00:25:18
was total connected yeah and and then one day I said to Adam can I give you a sketch and just hand it in don't touch it I just want to know if I was good enough oh yes
00:25:30
another read through file I don't remember what the sketch was about at all but it was a Dennis Quaid sketch and
00:25:37
it was it went on really early in the show and they did it was like you got it on it was like a a dinner table sketch
00:25:43
argument of some sort and it got on like in a key place and I think did reasonably well and I thought okay I I
00:25:50
can do this but then I never could get the job there like I had the packet as close as I got was one day Adam called me and he said hail he said uh
00:26:06
you know what I had your packet and Dave and Downey after months was holding your packet and talking to me and Schneider
00:26:13
and he was asking about me and I was telling him that he should hire you and Schneider said I don't think he's ready
00:26:18
shut the [ __ ] up seriously yeah he did yeah and so I was like what they shovel writers it's a tryout but then I was like
00:26:29
thinking about it come on and of course at the time it was very annoying and then I thought later almost every good
00:26:36
thing that's happened in my life is a result of those four words like you're not ready just not getting in there was why I met Stiller and did
00:26:46
the Ben Stiller show I I can literally blame everything in my life to Rob Schneider saying he's not ready meeting
00:26:54
my wife my children like none of it would exist interesting if Jesus at that time [Music]
00:27:05
but later on Roseanne hosted and I was writing drugs first so I wrote her monologue and I guess wrote that week
00:27:11
which is mainly the monologue yeah it's really fun that's always weird because it's not weird but sometimes they bring
00:27:17
guests I think Martin Lawrence was the first one to do when I was there and he brought some guys and I was like oh okay
00:27:23
it's almost saying you guys are bad yeah but it's more just like a trust issue because now I would love to have someone
00:27:30
that wrote well for me around just just to be because you're so alone and to go is this [ __ ] any good because you might
00:27:35
think it's good and they go why would you do that and I go well no one's around to ask it's literally 85 people
00:27:41
against you and they're on your team but you don't know and you're scared and they might be trying to talk you into
00:27:46
something it's hard to go back when you when you're lucky enough to have hit characters and you know and every time it was like in the 90s when I would
00:27:52
Guest House you know you know Junior and you know and then it was like you'll do church lady and it's like 2012. I'm getting
00:28:03
close to her age at least all my characters are old I'm still younger than Church lay news flash kids you're
00:28:09
aging into it hey Adam Sandler is listening right now how you doing buddy yes didn't repeat characters when he hosted
00:28:19
I think that is sort of par for the courses same with Opera man maybe what did he do I think that may be the only
00:28:26
infomercial that crushed he did The Farley song The Italian uh the the Italian vacations guys yeah uh was maybe
00:28:35
the one I think my daughter loved that to me I I thought well I I haven't been able to float this Theory out but since
00:28:40
we're on Adam for a second 2019 the year of Sandler I've never seen anyone break show business that hard because first of
00:28:48
all his special was kind of Supernatural because my favorite word because of shooting so many times and being so
00:28:54
relaxed and so playful then he comes out with um yeah on cup jams then he host Saturday Night Live and he destroys so those three kind of broke and he won like the
00:29:06
Indie Spirit award and he gave a speech that if anyone out there wants to Google something that is as funny as anything
00:29:13
can be Adam gave me a speech to all the you know snobby independent film people yeah they cheer him like he is their
00:29:21
favorite person has always been and then he attacks them in the most hysterical way it was a a perfect speech it just sort of was Full Circle because back in the day I remember Sandler just casually
00:29:34
would say to me they hate me Carvey you know the critics would thought he was they didn't get him and now since it's
00:29:39
turned it's kind of interesting to see it all right back to Judd Judd is that's all you get Adam Judd is a I I had
00:29:46
actually heard you or you would offered head writer at one point but that maybe that's not true I there was some of the
00:29:52
sniffing around some grumblings yes maybe it was was it too late in the game he had too much going on well at the
00:29:59
time I was about to make a movie and I felt bad about bailing on the movie that was one thing and then I was also probably nervous about what I could accomplish at
00:30:13
the show yeah you know what you know what can you really do to the show because it's so locked in it's locked
00:30:19
into and how it's made and I I wasn't sure I had something that I could bring to it unless I could really change it and it shouldn't be changed but look what's happened since then yeah I mean
00:30:31
it's just gone on and just gotten better and greater and and it did everything it should do and so it just didn't feel
00:30:37
like it it informs me right now just because I was on it and it's still on in this huge franchise I'll show you you
00:30:43
know I get to ride that wave but I'm just curious did you have Wilderness years at all after Ben Stiller you have
00:30:50
a couple years or you lost your confidence nothing's going on or was it pretty much then you got with Shan Lane in that whole ride or was there times
00:30:57
or we can talk about your Gary channeling experience because I'm really curious about that and how it informed you as a filmmaker well I asked the
00:31:04
questions yes well I was bouncing back and forth to a lot of projects that weren't
00:31:10
necessarily connecting in uh Mass success way but I like them so I got to make a movie with Steve Brill which Stiller was in heavyweight it's a Disney movie you know it cost 10 million and
00:31:23
made 20. so it didn't sink my career right and we loved it but you would it wasn't considered successful in any way and weirdly now people really like it yeah um and then the Steeler show we
00:31:36
loved it but it got canceled won the Emmy for best show though before yeah for writing and so that was exciting but
00:31:42
depressing and then uh I did Sanders for a bunch of years and I was for me like oh I need to learn how to do this and if
00:31:53
I'm here with Gary I'll learn how to write and that and that is I I think what happened it's just watching were
00:32:00
you with the show when I came on because I can't Gary asked me to come on before it had gotten on television yeah and I
00:32:06
was doing the host thing yeah and I so remember that moment because you did the Smiggle sketch where you did an impression of Gary yes and it was hilarious but not necessarily something
00:32:20
that Gary would enjoy because there was a lot of whining what was the impression what the it was hard with Gary and when
00:32:26
he asked me to do it I said you want me to because he wanted me to come in and do the impression to him he goes oh yeah I love it I think it's kind of like you
00:32:33
know Leno goes like this sometimes yeah but almost never talks like that Gary and every comedian has their hook to
00:32:39
Signal the audience that I'm having a great time and this is really funny so I noticed that Gary went talking like this
00:32:45
but then when something was really funny he would go into this pitch and I told my dog that he shouldn't pee on the car
00:32:52
really like that so he wouldn't go to that gear all the time once in a while he just go off here it's like he's
00:32:58
having a party in his brain it was a great move so I just did that when I had teeth and it was grotesque you had a big
00:33:05
hair yeah Gary I mean it was it was really almost the definition of Gary wanting it to make more fun of him no that he's
00:33:16
offended on some level by it because it just goes right to the heart of maybe whatever he might think is the cliche
00:33:24
way of of looking at him or like he's just too boiled down right right with everybody though yeah so he's whiny
00:33:32
guy or whatever so I mean he's not he's not mad about it but he's like not having it yeah and then you call him at
00:33:40
some point and say hey I didn't write that Smiggle wrote it I hope you don't feel bad and then Gary's response was
00:33:46
well let's just do an episode about it and then he had the writers write the episode where you guest host and you just keep doing an impression of him on the show and how annoyed he is at you
00:34:00
and that was like the meta version of Gary you know he he has uh his girlfriend at the time Linda yes do an
00:34:06
episode where she's in Playboy magazine mean suddenly we're shooting with Hugh Hefner and then on the set Hugh Hefner
00:34:12
asks Linda to be in Playboy and now Gary in real life has to deal with the fact that his girlfriend is going to be naked
00:34:19
in Playboy magazine and then the next thing you know we're all at at the Playboy Mansion at a cocktail party
00:34:26
where they have big pictures of her naked right oh look at oh wow Gary's got to be there and that's what would keep happening
00:34:37
with every person do you remember the hervey villages was on that episode the plane deplane you know and he didn't
00:34:43
know it was a fake talk show because it hadn't aired yet yeah but anyway that was funny here's the thing I find very
00:34:49
very interesting first time like I've been really bad in the two movies that I did um because 125 takes 300 rehearsals you
00:34:56
know and it'll come to the way you do films but Gary we get on the set there's that was pre-digital so his three guys
00:35:02
was 16 millimeters so they're covering me covering Gary covering the two shot and Gary's going I'll say that this you
00:35:09
say something like that never experience anything like that so when I watch it I go well I'm actually looks like I'm
00:35:14
really acting so that was also a genius part I mean he spawned a world in Industry well because you have to be
00:35:20
very loose yeah he liked going deep emotionally it's a little bit cringe comedy which I think people picked up
00:35:26
curve is a little bit like you know and so after that you know when you got what was the first film that you directed I directed uh The 40-Year-Old Virgin and we would do table reads uh to
00:35:40
try to crack it and Gary would always come he was so nice and he would he would pitch the fix so I said to Gary
00:35:46
what do I do about masturbation because when he just masturbate all the time so we're in a room with like Anna McKay and all these great writers and Seth and
00:35:58
we're trying to go what would he do and how do you not talk about that and how do you keep it Steve Corelli so he's not
00:36:04
cringy with him because of his likability and then Gary just goes maybe we just see his preparations for
00:36:11
masturbating I didn't carry [ __ ] out he puts on his favorite bathrobe he takes a shower he puts out his tissues
00:36:18
and his creams and and then we put on like Lionel Richie Hello underneath it and uh and that was the scene and Gary
00:36:26
would do that all the time he he would tell you the great joke and the emotion you know because he did say to me once I think the show I think that that movie is about people who love each other it's
00:36:37
about love and it's about when your friends are just trying to get laid but you're looking for love yeah and that
00:36:43
was his genius yes absolutely Pathos and comedy yeah like other Geniuses so when
00:36:49
you uh I I just hear things about the way you direct and I don't know if you did it on that one but you kind of you're running a lot because you're on
00:36:56
digital so you're running long long takes which you couldn't do with not back then not back then but I don't know
00:37:02
when you started that and you're kind of like tilting people out of their preconceived choices by sort of yelling
00:37:08
out things do it like this do it like that when did that start because that seems great for comedians who can improvise well it started with Stiller
00:37:14
at the Ben Stiller show oh you were doing it then yeah because Ben you know a lot of times we'd just be shooting a
00:37:20
single of band doing like a Tony Robbins impression and we would have a script but then Ben would just talk for like
00:37:25
another 20 minutes off the top of his and you just run it on film and we would just run it on film and and then
00:37:32
sometimes Ben would play this agent character and he would be pitching bad career advice to people like Run DMC or
00:37:40
something like that but he would get afraid to say it to their face so he would do a soft version and then he would tell them they were rap for the
00:37:46
day and then he would redo his single with harsher jokes and then we would just rip and Play What Else yeah yeah and then when we started doing movies we
00:37:56
we thought oh you could do that in a scene you can do that in the middle of a scene even for emotional stuff right not
00:38:02
just jokes and we did that with David on love where we just kept it loose and it's not always punchline driven I would say that for anybody when you're discovering it like sometimes when you
00:38:14
think of a stand-up bit the best you do it is the first time you do it yeah and then you try to get back to that exactly but when you're discovering something
00:38:20
the camera's rolling and you're doing it for the first time it's just a lot of times gets a lot of Pop I think that's
00:38:25
what Brando is always trying to do by hiding notes and oranges on the ceiling so he just would experience it so I think that's all I got David yeah and I think some of the best of philosophy
00:38:36
some of the best stuff I've seen just as a viewer on set is like Will Ferrell uh
00:38:42
on set just doing a run of alternate lines yeah I was going to ask you that about someone who and probably Will
00:38:49
Ferrell will be one of them where you're sort of watching greatness in a sense yeah you know and I I was envious that
00:38:56
he would get these long takes to do to show that you know it seems like so much fun I mean what I was thinking about one
00:39:02
was milk was a bad choice you know I'm in a glass case of emotion and Anchorman that scene yeah is just him and Adam for
00:39:11
maybe it's just 15 minutes they know they need one line and they get to go 15 minutes to get that one magic mom just going crazy Adam's yelling out stuff Will's improvising yeah they've written
00:39:23
a bunch of stuff beforehand there was one where I think it was a red punches will in the face in Anchorman 2 and they just wanted to get funny reactions from Ron Burgundy getting punched in the face
00:39:35
and Adam yells out after he hits you he hit you so hard you speak in a foreign language after he hits you yeah and then
00:39:44
it turned into after he hits you he hit you so hard you're now five years old and will we just go on run after run
00:39:52
yeah I would see that you know at the end as many of those there's never too many for me uh just to show that and I always try to get Adam to do outtakes because you know like on grown-ups it's
00:40:04
all funny people yeah come on we're all [ __ ] around the whole time I'm sure there's something in there funny there
00:40:09
better be yes just and you know because we do the same thing it's like what are we doing this thing and we would even
00:40:15
huddle up in between and takes and and I'm a hoarder so like I actually feel bad if I don't find a way to get those alternate jokes out somewhere on the I mean it used to be on the Blu-ray and
00:40:26
the we would do we used to call them Lino ramas and just make five minute reels of the alternate stuff because if
00:40:34
I'm like I when I worked with Adam on funny people if if he's riffing I actually think it's gold and the fact
00:40:40
they would just go in the toilet I find unbearable I agree we may have lost minutes from our wraparounds right Greg
00:40:47
not to compare you're a feature film [Music] this is just a basic questions I'd ask someone to do and what people uh the film that you were producer directed you
00:41:01
had a vision of it that was most realized it um I mean yeah I mean I do think that I didn't
00:41:12
think that the king of Staten Island uh I mean there's Pete Davidson with Pete that I do think like
00:41:17
for what what was difficult about it yes you know can you tell a a fictional version of historian what he's been through and make it funny but make you really feel it uh like that tone for me
00:41:31
which maybe is a little more of a Hal Ashby tone which I'm always trying to figure out the fact that that movie
00:41:38
works I'm really proud of because it's it's balancing like grief and pain but still trying to figure out how to make
00:41:44
people like Peach B movie or do you reference in your mind I always think about the Last Detail
00:41:57
that's a reference with my friends and with my sons we are the [ __ ] Shore Patrol [ __ ] yeah I mean that
00:42:05
energy yeah where like that's a pretty long shot with no edits and it just the whole movie feels so real it feels like
00:42:11
a documentary and I'm always trying to figure out can you do that with hard comedy and have that aliveness
00:42:17
interesting yeah good coming home did he do that too he didn't coming home coming home is crazy an amazing seven coming
00:42:23
home where they're at meetings with veterans talking about their problems and he did a lot of it with real people
00:42:29
and improvised yes and and it's some of it is remarkable and very moving so I always think about him and I think about Paul Reiser in in diner because he made up most of his stuff and they threw him
00:42:42
into it and he created it it's so good when you don't know for sure what you're gonna say or they say you know I get on some of these things even in sitcoms they go uh
00:42:55
uh all right let's do another one and just Spade this time dealer's Choice whatever you want yeah and then and you
00:43:01
have five seconds while they walk back the camera and say rolling and then you go uh and then you just try something
00:43:06
but it's like a movies too just do one let's do one for you yeah and then sometimes they will keep rolling maybe you do that and sometimes they do one at a time uh I don't mind keep rolling and and
00:43:19
sometimes there's a guy there like there's some some movies usually on atoms we have Swartz Center Steve Corners I mean it
00:43:26
sits by video Village it's a tough job it's grueling yeah to just to be pitching jobs
00:43:32
I did that with Paul lapel on a bunch of movies I mean yeah from Saturday Night Live she's remarkable and you get some
00:43:40
money to have her on this podcast yeah sure yeah she gets uh speaking of us now what would be your dream team this is a [ __ ] tough question you know I I think I'd like to think of the
00:43:53
uh what might have been team you know like like people that didn't get to full fruition in that space you know okay the Gilbert God freed uh Robert Downey Jr
00:44:10
um right uh Robert Downey was almost a blessing in disguise that he left same kind of thing with you and she was 84 or
00:44:16
five is it one year one year yeah um you know who else was really funny I mean Terry Sweeney was so funny yeah on on the show Michaela Watkins you know people that were there for a year like
00:44:28
keckner I mean Stiller was there for like four episodes Bob Odenkirk was there for a
00:44:40
few seasons but never really could get on as a performer I was thinking about people who are amazing
00:44:47
together an A-Team Kick-Ass SNL Conan and Bob were writers with us and um they were feature players they're writer feature players and I didn't even know it for probably two years because
00:44:59
I was told you know don't you know like Shoemaker or Marcy or someone says don't write yourself in right away you know you're here for a job and I was like lucky to be there but didn't like you were saying
00:45:12
earlier writing for other people not that I didn't want to really I just don't didn't know how to I only barely knew how to write for my own Persona
00:45:18
whatever that was and so I'm trying to think for Dana or think for you know whoever else so that was hard and then
00:45:25
you get um I don't even know what I'm talking about I just forgot in the middle that's all
00:45:31
right it's okay I'll cover for you so Conan oh yeah those guys should have been on and they were and then when I
00:45:38
heard their future I go you're not on and they would once in a blue moon write something and it wouldn't get on or just
00:45:44
give themselves three lines and I was like wow this they're just getting shot out so but what do you think the difference was because I certainly I
00:45:51
know that when you and Robin Dave uh I mean you and Rob and Sandler uh got there you were intent on getting on it wasn't like well maybe I'll be a writer and hopefully I get on I mean there was
00:46:04
real energy like I am here yeah Adam for sure from day from day one he had such confidence I was more embarrassed to do it and they were doing it Rob was doing it a lot and I was like
00:46:16
it's all that is it fair and then he got copy machine on which wasn't even I was getting them saying don't do an update
00:46:23
piece this week oh you know you're here to write for people put that person as instead of you and I'm like all right I don't want to get fired and Schneider
00:46:29
just had balls sorted out him they put [ __ ] in put [ __ ] in and warmed out I remember Chris knighted to Jerry's Deli
00:46:36
after the copy machine oh really hit and he was as big a star as there is I mean
00:46:42
it is a moment and it was hilarious I mean I also love the uh making copies you put
00:46:49
your you put your weed oh that was a big one too put your weed in there but you waiting there and so like Schneider was the first one who really yeah yeah on
00:46:56
the show what was the sketch that broke you that where you thought I haven't broken yet yeah
00:47:01
um a little thing I like to call him that one or uh-bye that's why I was more overnight where I flew the next day and I heard it every day for at least 10 years like
00:47:15
every flight for sure everything really funny Iraqi Pete Iraqi was kind of an incredible swing to have that kind of moment that didn't work it was like during the Gulf War and
00:47:29
it was just funny man and in Adam's defense I don't think he wrote I think it was Frank and gone all right beaten and we could have some clown like Sandler come out in a speedo
00:47:40
or something and it was like okay I was one time humiliated because I was not on for probably like 10 shows
00:47:47
and then I just you know people in Arizona are like you're not even on you're [ __ ] obviously bombing they're just kind of
00:47:54
true and I was like no what I was and then uh one day after I passed out I was like walking down the hallway after my morning
00:48:05
and then I should have faked it more during read through just to get Lauren to go oh and someone carry him out and
00:48:11
give him a sketch so uh I go sketch what do you need a sketch you were were you I
00:48:18
don't remember being that precarious no I wasn't but anyway I'm sort of repainting you all toured with me
00:48:24
Sandler toured with me you toured with me opening for Dana it was [ __ ] yeah Jon Stewart open for me Dave Chappelle
00:48:30
that was a good shows uh yeah I knew yeah you could tell right by the way Dana had no trouble following me I would
00:48:37
go on and I would do pretty girls go in that special in those days and then he'd walk out and they go push me in the wall
00:48:44
to be honest Dana is still way better than all of you by far wow like it's not even a question is this going to be recorded this is I haven't watched it all I mean you guys all killed at all
00:48:58
Dana it's other it's a Beatles explaining technology it doesn't get funnier than that well you know you know the thing is the thing about Judd you know he's a filmmaker
00:49:10
pictures everybody's happy left left and then a little bit of a tear you want to see it again a week later sorry I love being a beetle yeah I would never follow it
00:49:25
that's like if you go we're gonna do this show and these people are going on again that was my one move once I got
00:49:30
there after failure before and after but I have a great blessed life when I got there after a little bit of time I thought damn I'm a fish in water now I'm like this this really it's what I do the
00:49:42
clubs was even tough sometimes because I had no jokes yeah I literally had not one punch line it was all Rhythm before
00:49:48
you got yes no but but when I got there all they want characters Impressions and catchphrases yeah I got that when you
00:49:54
remember seeing good igbies yes and uh and that was a great small club that's now a strip club and I remember seeing George Carlin perform there great I'll tell you I mean
00:50:07
watching you reduce like a person to what the impression was was always amazing like what is your take on it but
00:50:14
the Biden that you do when I saw you do Biden maybe it's on Colbert or something and I thought oh my God Dana quietly has
00:50:21
a better Biden than everybody come on here's a deal that's good and guess what guess what we did those things as
00:50:28
America I'm gonna do better we're gonna do better I like the yelling button now and then the whisper we know how to
00:50:34
reduce the deficits of people come on folks number one what the guy said number two the two part number three you
00:50:40
know the drill it's not rocket science come on we can do better we'll do it what about he's I'm still learning him
00:50:47
what about when Kamala Harris is in this I just saw a cliff of her and she starts she always has a nervous laugh she's
00:50:53
like the Joker she's like they're like they're bombing Ukraine she's like she's like she wouldn't get it
00:51:01
I just wonder what it'd be like to be married to her because she's she's very attractive and she's so cheerful be like
00:51:08
hey Kamala we're gonna have breakfast it seems like a really nice laughing is troubling it's troubling troubling thing oh wait let me go I'm
00:51:22
skimmed down here come on everybody shut up let's get some questions this one's funny 2007 entertain weekly the smartest
00:51:30
people in Hollywood and guess what Judd got number one yeah what the [ __ ] who was number two I think I beat Will Smith
00:51:36
that year I'm sure you beat it well you beat everybody but you beat everyone in Hollywood this is unbelievable you're
00:51:41
going really deep in research that because that's the kind of thing that happens and you go God I wish people talked about it more like no one talks
00:51:48
about that in 2006. it seems like you're like we had it with Ben Stiller too when we looked at his IMB in his icon you're
00:51:54
kind of like whoa you have kind of the same thing like oh he's there he's producing he's directing it's like the resume is so big I had to take a nap
00:52:01
after I read it I have a question no I have a question not about Judd this will be great okay Judd your daughter mod who
00:52:09
you might not know this she's on a show every time I watch it I think I know Spades watching it around I am I watch one and I was
00:52:23
horrified judge yeah I haven't seen how many naked wieners since my fraternity hazing I was watching it and I was like what this is what they're watching what
00:52:34
happened to Laverne and Shirley yeah and where is the simpler it's all gone I think it's all Silver Spoons but first
00:52:40
of all huge deal that mods I saw her on that and I saw um Iris was in the bubble and Iris is in the bubble the bubble which comes out April 1st on YouTube yeah
00:52:53
the bubble is uh my new friends to do something during the pandemic so what point of the pandemic did it hit you when did you start shooting it because pandemic you
00:53:04
wouldn't even be allowed to shoot it well now I look back and I think it's almost like
00:53:10
uh a nervous breakdown to want to make something during it because the pandemic started in March yeah and by a year from there I was almost done filming the
00:53:22
movie and so you got it going that fast yeah it was a very I think maybe I had a
00:53:28
manic episode were you leading with the protocols then yeah the green light for films that's an actual bubbles yeah we
00:53:34
were inventing it as you went along in a way we were making a movie about making
00:53:39
a movie in the bubble while making making fun of the protocols but also doing the protocols yeah and making fun
00:53:47
of the need to make a movie due to Your Ego or your Madness like that no one needs a movie there's something more important happening and who are mocking people who feel it's necessary while
00:53:59
actually doing it the whole thing is very hypocritical can we make sure we edit that out and put it on Instagram
00:54:05
because that's the most meta that's like hyper meta like we have a fake uh covid
00:54:11
supervisor in the movie who gives terrible advice and then does he's a real covert advice I mean the real coven
00:54:16
advisor is giving the same speech five minutes before the fake one before that is shot for them and you say look at
00:54:21
this clown that we're making fun of and then you go well let's bring out the real guy who's exactly the same we're
00:54:26
all wearing masks and then the actors are like chewing their masks in the scene and not wearing them on their ears and we're making fun of how no one's
00:54:32
wearing the mask and so the whole experience was strange that way but it started because I was really getting
00:54:40
stir crazy and I was walking on the beach a lot with my friend uh Brent Forrester who wrote for The Simpsons in
00:54:46
the office and one day we were like we should just think of stuff like we're walking for hours every day wasted
00:54:52
thinking and walking yeah so we started talking about the NBA bubble and that started making us laugh like oh those
00:54:58
guys are stuck in that hotel what is that like in that hotel and then then I thought oh this is
00:55:05
almost like a Christopher Guest movie Yes you know where all the actors are stuck in a hotel trying to make a movie
00:55:12
and having a nervous breakdown and then they're making a flying dinosaur action movie and they think it's important they're not tuned into what's happening and they're having nervous breakdowns
00:55:23
and having sex with each other and doing drugs and how is it received when you who'd you pitch it to and how do they receive it especially all the CGI and
00:55:30
all the big stuff and I mean Netflix and Ted sarandos our best friend I told us and he certainly got the joke and said let's go do it and I said I'll write a
00:55:44
script but I'll need to be rewriting all through it because it happened very fast and I hired people that I thought could
00:55:51
change who's the young lady that was in uh Sasha's last movie Maria bakla was in
00:55:58
Karen Gillen and Keegan Michael Key and Leslie and Iris and uh yeah she plays the head of the studio so every time she checks in to see how it's going she's on Safari or she's skiing
00:56:15
and she's just around the world she's a lot of rich people that like sort of is skipping the whole quarantine exactly and so um but we didn't have any cases
00:56:23
the entire shoot interesting you didn't we just you know because it was only two
00:56:28
sets it was a green screen Sound Stage and the hotel when did the vax come in by the way when during the filming or
00:56:35
when did the vaccine emerge were you already filming did you have two shots and a booster I never got vax because I
00:56:41
was in England and I couldn't get it in England but around February in the middle of the shoot you know people
00:56:47
would walk up to you and say I got a call that I can get a vaccination at 10 tomorrow so I'm not coming in oh and
00:56:53
that's how it works in England you have an appointment and you just go it could be like that you know the cinematographer was like yeah I'm not here tomorrow and then slowly and then
00:57:00
I'm gonna feel like [ __ ] for a while like that I'm not going to get to do I get the job of tomorrow
00:57:06
I'll just do it as long as you guys as long as he smiles he's giving us so much joy it's Lenin different than Paul Lennon is very very cryptic we're down here how is it Paul who's great you know
00:57:19
we're having a good time down here how are you I don't know you know just looking around whatever I don't want to do anymore I like it okay you know my
00:57:26
one where he talks about how would Paul explain uh to talk to John it's very short little clippy things you know when people put something on funny and they dance around takes about 10 seconds and
00:57:38
if you do it you're a star all over the world we did Abbey Road we did the White Oak what's going on but you know it's
00:57:45
like Kanye West who's that he's sort of a talky singer he's a bit maybe crazy I don't know who was that who was he who did he have a woman he had a woman in Kim Kardashian
00:57:55
for a while what did she do oh you know she take pictures without him you know how did she take pictures of a bottom oh the little a little you know we have a little television camera
00:58:07
in your pocket called an iPhone we should have to go working she took a bottom out and she took a picture of him doing the whole bit
00:58:14
what's so special about her bottom it's it's it's not a normal bottle it's a bottom 2.0 it's like God made a Fanning
00:58:21
an attached to person the whole family's doing the old showing the Bottom's taking pictures one man got
00:58:28
so frustrated he became a woman we don't have to keep it in here but I like to entertain the Entertainer I'm here just for us this is the place one of the great things I watched in the
00:58:39
last few years pre-pandemic was you uh and Bill Hader and mullaney at Largo doing an unproduced sketch all right yeah which was uh Casey Kasem and his
00:58:51
son who don't get along what was the premise yeah they don't get along we all did her first yeah yeah yes and
00:58:59
it completely bombed on Saturday Night Live Like Dead Silence yeah and then we just got revenge at Largo by doing the
00:59:06
exact same son you're a waste of space you don't really do much with your life at all do you dad I know you're right
00:59:12
about that you know it's that kind to think back and forth laid there at SNL killed in front of 300 people but I
00:59:20
remember that dinner and I remember that where the check came and we were looking around who took it we checked celebrity
00:59:26
net worth and did you did I pay or did it you paid but I almost saw you did so I was I was kind of I have a picture of us from that night let's look at the clip yeah let's put that on Instagram
00:59:39
maybe it was it should have been it was a pretty solid thing it might be kind of awkward but I'd like to do another long
00:59:45
McCartney yeah go ahead I'd like to do the last 15 minutes of my special the uh the other thing I did want to mention because uh I do have to promote something as I I put out this
00:59:56
book for charity I had a the first book in the head and the money goes to 826 which is a a charity that gives free
01:00:04
tutoring to kids like kids could just walk in this place and they get free tutors
01:00:11
yeah and when I was doing SNL she would tutor kids downtown how in the hell do you know how to teach someone English because she went to a good Catholic school I mean Could you
01:00:23
teach English to a kid a five-year-old a three-year-old I mean I built the grammar and know what a dang the
01:00:29
participle is I barely got my kids through through anything school-wise and there were many many tutors involved so
01:00:36
this book pays for these centers we give all the money away and so the new book's sicker in the head yes has like uh you
01:00:43
know Sasha Baron Cohen and Nathan Fielder and Whoopi Goldberg and Letterman so what's the general
01:00:48
narrative yeah The Narrative of is that during the pandemic I realized that everyone was home and available to do
01:00:54
this yeah so all these people that I thought wouldn't normally do an interview with me had no excuse to say no because I knew they were homes that's
01:01:00
the thinking yes and so I called you know lin-manuel Miranda and Letterman and people like that that might normally
01:01:06
be too busy and they have no excuse yeah and also it's kind of an emotional interview because everyone was really
01:01:12
thinking about their lives at the time so that would be more vulnerable did I make an observation yeah during the pandemic uh I did the sourdough I did the puzzles I did Scrabble watched a
01:01:25
lot of movies yeah you made a movie and wrote a book yes should I see it should I talk to a therapist I mean I think I had two years to do something yeah I realized that at least because I'm
01:01:36
promoting the book the movie and then in May me and my friend Michael vonfiglo made a two-part George Carlin documentary page you did so I thought maybe I had a nervous breakdown for two
01:01:48
straight years and one and work was the way to deal with I guess because at the time it didn't feel like I was working
01:01:53
that much but probably you were busy you seemed yeah and and to stop in your tracks on a dime like one day we were working that show lights out and they go just going for the weekend and we're
01:02:06
gonna have a no audience on Monday which we thought was weird and then it even that fast by Monday yeah don't come back
01:02:12
in you know we have a two-week lockdown and we're in the third year of our two week lockdown so and I used to listen to all
01:02:18
of your interviews with the cast of Tiger King oh yeah that's right because you you got everybody I know it's so
01:02:24
weird and you got that reporter who had all his tapes burned oh yeah that was an incredible interview with that guy he he
01:02:30
was like this stuff actually isn't funny they're really just yeah and he he was the only one who really
01:02:37
told the truth Dana you don't even know I did a deep dive I was the wolf Blitz yeah it was just sort of uh I just hit
01:02:44
him up on Instagram some of these people we just found him and said you wanna do it and they go it was mostly because of Joe Dirt yeah oh because you really like
01:02:51
Joker yeah I'm one of them and I'm not gonna go after him and I didn't really I let them tell their story is huge in sort of the whatever you call that part
01:03:03
of the world the world yeah while I'm in your house something paid off well you know because
01:03:09
I have seven Joe Dirt posters on the way to the podcast so the Tiger King himself loves Joe Dirt I that's what I've heard
01:03:16
yeah yeah but uh I I never really chased after trying to play him because it was
01:03:22
kind of like joder and it didn't seem that fun or appealing but it was so fun to watch it during then and be a part of
01:03:28
it all and it was such a it was like the first big thing during the uh have you seen the new one I mean one just came out with Kate mcginnon and John Cameron yeah Mitchell I haven't seen it I don't
01:03:39
know I haven't seen it yet I want to see it I I yeah it's that's fascinating but I actually really enjoyed those
01:03:45
interviews because you went deep with everyone so we watched this thing which always felt watered down when I watched
01:03:51
it I always thought this is so much worse than this yes you would get real conversations with people where they laid it out so I implore everyone to go down that that's a good YouTube well to
01:04:03
watch yeah they were nice I'm like when that tiger chewed off your arm did you feel that were you allowed to take a
01:04:09
lunch break out she went back to work after that she did she went back that was interesting I was like yeah it's
01:04:14
interesting how things become such cultural phenomenon so like a wildfire like squid game after that yeah I'm
01:04:20
talking about Netflix now just like boom everyone has to see it everyone talks about it a fury frenzy and then yeah can
01:04:26
I ask you a question yeah yes because I'm such a fascinated by George Carlin what did you do in the documentary okay
01:04:32
bubbles when uh bubble come out the bubble April 1st April 1st the book is out now the book you can okay and then the documentary which about George Carter maybe like 20. what did you take
01:04:44
away from that what did you discover about George Carlin that you might not have known what was your sense after doing a deep dive on him I didn't really
01:04:51
know that much about him because he never mentioned his family in his act he had no jokes about his wife or his daughter yeah and so I thought well how
01:04:59
I don't know him sure how could I even or was he pretty normal well he was a guy that grew up in New
01:05:07
York he his dad used to you know beat up his older brother and and there's a lot
01:05:14
of alcoholism and the mom ran away with the kids and moved to Upstate Upstate New York in the 50s and maybe even the late 40s and then she had
01:05:29
to raise him alone and then he loved like radio and Danny Kaye and got into everything through that but the fascinating part is you know he had a very corny career in the beginning
01:05:39
very variety show for a while yeah and then at some point like Richard Pryor he just became himself and grew a beard and long hair and got got very edgy then he
01:05:51
kind of ran out of gas and got soft again had a heart attack yeah and and talked about his stuff and that those
01:05:57
bits were great but also very soft and then he saw Kinison and this is the thing we learned always Kenneth in the
01:06:03
hook that he saw Kennison and he said I'm not going to be soft compared to him and then he went for the rest of his
01:06:09
life he just Alex you were all diseased is it yeah are you talking about post like uh the seven words he he went really I didn't even know it
01:06:22
was still funny at least you were all diseases really really dark but also the reason why we made it was because if you go online whenever anything happens in the news George Carlin Trends and it's
01:06:32
people are putting up clips of his bits about America or about big farmer yeah you know abortion or Corporate America controlling politics and you realize unlike most people whose acts age out
01:06:44
and they don't really work anymore no one listens to Lenny Bruce anymore his stuff gets better and he kind of
01:06:50
predicted everything he's smart that's happening yeah I saw him at 14. you know he used to Listen to album Steve Martin and everyone yeah and then George Collin
01:06:58
was in the mix and I was like this guy's [ __ ] funny no no aspiration to be a comedian yeah it was too high up too
01:07:04
good it was just more I saw him kids like comedy you know here's an example of a line or just of hitting it like
01:07:09
everyone's into the children we've got to save the children we love the children you know what I say [ __ ] the
01:07:15
children [ __ ] the children you go in the classroom there's one winner and a whole lot of losers I mean it was just so
01:07:22
Politically Incorrect yeah check it out you're all diseased another line of that
01:07:27
is like uh have you ever noticed that everyone who's against abortion is someone you wouldn't want to [ __ ]
01:07:34
you know these [ __ ] these stinky [ __ ] in their [ __ ] tank tops let's get him out of get him
01:07:40
in a field put them on a pet install and shoot him in the [ __ ] head you would say that stuff like that I'm Loosely
01:07:46
paraphrasing he went hard and in the documentation debates did he go too dark and did it get to like just an angry guy
01:07:54
as opposed to the anger guy being funny I mean and some people love it and and there are people in the documentary
01:07:59
comedians some who say they like and some people say I think I think he he lost that first and he passed away yeah
01:08:05
I mean he he'd had heart attacks and he had a lot of heart problems and I think he did a lot of cocaine for a long time
01:08:13
it feels like maybe he had some sort of uh strong OCD or attention issues that led to the fact that he would do a lot of cocaine and not hang out with people he would just write he loved to write He
01:08:28
Loved Words and he would listen to music but there were a lot of years where he was doing that I mean we have audio of
01:08:35
him talking into tape recorders in the middle of three day binges by himself that's uh wow that's pretty scary people
01:08:42
would sometimes go up to him and go any advice and he would just say write everything down that was that was it
01:08:48
yeah because he was a master of word for word yeah he didn't like Riff on stage he didn't play on stage he was poetry it
01:08:54
was like yeah like he wrote like a show and had to memorize it when I saw him he would just sit before the show just
01:09:01
trying to memorize it and do it perfectly and if someone yelled something out he was not cool with it he he wanted to just keep going his lists
01:09:08
his hooks big shoes little shoes brown shoes black shoes boys shoes girls shoes shoes everyone needs shoes tall shoes
01:09:15
boots he would make these crazy lists and he's in his 70s had a couple strokes and he's
01:09:21
just like so articulate and Brilliant you know you know what is it a hernia and a she oh I know I know that you're you're talking yeah should be called a hymnia yeah
01:09:33
what we saw was that there was a period where people got bored of him for a little bit and so on Second City TV Rick
01:09:40
Moranis would do this brutally mean impression where he would say things like that and do like you know George
01:09:46
Carlin starring in Death of a Salesman and they were in front of that dude make fun of him and there was a moment where
01:09:53
she from Cheech and Chong said uh George Carlin's over all he talks about is things like peas
01:09:59
well eating your peas and then that really bothered him and it made him redouble his efforts
01:10:05
he just went hard and said okay now I gotta show you all I waited on him at the Circle star or at the Holiday Inn
01:10:12
near the circle Star Theater wow brought him a bowl of oatmeal put it in front of me and goes oatmeal drop the O and you
01:10:18
have at meal I said give it a rest Jordan but he did there's no balloon of oatmeal there's blueberries oh yeah
01:10:25
blueberry strawberry there's no blue foods all right scratch that one you know I just have that theory that eventually almost everyone becomes a caricature of themselves
01:10:37
you know like Johnny Carson had kind of or you'd watch someone and go is that an
01:10:42
impersonator or the person because you have your Hooks and you have your things and then eventually you get exposed
01:10:47
that's when I pounce later on when they're sad used up then I rub it in their face but at least I'm honest
01:10:52
waiting left for apatel I have one no one last question how do you spell Apatow because I worked for the IRS
01:10:59
no yeah why did I think jet appetizer that's what I would have said yeah then I remember they call me the nose oh good
01:11:19
job when every single kid in your high school is Jewish but they're still anti-semitic
01:11:25
that's the longest ticket I'm a self-hating white person yeah everyone can't help bullying it's so funny about
01:11:32
bullying is uh The Bullying is worse than it's ever been and all the data is in it's bad you
01:11:37
know like we think I guess we fix it it was Stronger that's good for you kids I just wonder if I was a kid I was like
01:11:45
10 11 years old and like Twitter existed why would I be one of those [ __ ] kids
01:11:50
just trying to give everyone [ __ ] because if I go on it there's always like people who are trying to find my
01:11:57
wound yeah and and to get your response yes and if you do respond there was like oh my God I'm your biggest fan no matter
01:12:03
yeah would I have been one of those kids because I think I would have found it funny potentially to just give people [ __ ] I think you might have been until you thought it tipped a kid over into
01:12:15
self-harm I don't think you've seen my two nights no I mean attacking like a like someone in the public sphere oh I
01:12:21
see people say mean things and if I block them someone will say hey don't block my friend he loves you and you go it was the meanest and they go he's being funny but you can't even tell when
01:12:32
people are funny that your friends are texting you you can't tell the tone sometimes so you don't know what's going on and then when someone you don't know
01:12:38
is like hey [ __ ] you you suck and then you go oh okay well I don't need that guy what's that just being funny yeah
01:12:45
what's the general meanest thing they say you know if anyone can find tape of Dana Carvey being funny I'd like to see
01:12:51
it you know there's certain Generations put Downs for comedians no but there's this podcast
01:13:00
uh I'll watch it if it'll cut an hour out of it this is the bubble yeah which is out when solid two hours okay two hours an
01:13:12
hour some people want 90 minutes but the other 30 is the same price I did Master the skies and then we had to cut it down
01:13:17
to 58 minutes it didn't even make sense it wasn't even a language because because you you bailed out you were
01:13:25
gonna do a Sandler film called Mr Pete or Sneaky Pete or something oh pooka puka Pete and then you got mad at so no you were Fred Wolf had a falling out so then I was in in line so I did a read
01:13:37
through and they go Carver you got to go on a week but anyway I go it's not even a movie it just words on a piece of
01:13:44
paper count to 58 minutes and then it has 12 minutes of fake well outtake so it made
01:13:52
the it had to be a certain length anyway that's my experience with film but the bubble comes I like to promote May uh
01:14:08
uh two nights ago I shot no I got [ __ ] I didn't want to tell bum I really sat down to watch it
01:14:15
last night I had it on the Netflix pin number yeah and couldn't find an email talk that's what happened 90 of the people we send it to but you were able to watch it you got in and what did
01:14:27
you listen I'm gonna enjoy it I did a Wordle and under two hours yesterday did he get through it I got through it no
01:14:32
did you get through it David yeah gave me anything do you have any notes yeah what about the ending what'd you think of that trick ending yeah oh where
01:14:39
everyone was at yeah I just started to say the word helicopter I said a couple things no but they uh I like Keenan I thought Kina
01:14:51
Mike he was funny I thought uh your daughter did a great job and she would have played your daughter in love yeah
01:14:57
yeah she was great which is very fun on the set and very non-bratty and uh she plays she looks totally different she's very actually different hair different hair cut plays a tick tocker and has
01:15:09
millions of followers they're all stuck in the bubble that looks like a castle is that a hotel I mean where where did
01:15:14
you do that it's called like Clifton I guess that's a famous Scandal there where like someone in the government had
01:15:19
an affair there there's like a you grant haunted the beetle shot helped there really yeah you did over there full
01:15:26
circle yeah oh who is the first ad that looks like James Bond a little bit Daniel Craig the first A.D that looks
01:15:32
like no he's a studio guy who's the guy that comes in he's always standing in everything you do Sarah finowitz okay oh he's hysterical he played the tick in
01:15:39
that TV show that was the answer to my uh Wordle question is another jaw impression show anyway
01:15:45
Patrol is here you know what there's a there's a lot of great movies um a lot of drinks Bruce is right I would have
01:15:52
read all your movies but everyone knows them they're all funny if there's a pandemic or an earthquake he just goes right into work mode I don't know what
01:15:58
it is he calls Scott super after the big one we should do an earthquake movie he's like well nothing works right now judge uh pleasure thank you for coming
01:16:05
thanks for coming and being in house we're in Spain's house you know where I came last thing because I don't like hearing this Zoom sound let's get people on a real microphone so we've got two
01:16:17
years to figure this out that's a that's a director that doesn't really knows it's a little bit like comedy
01:16:22
waterboarding when you do it on Zoom you're not camping you guys I want to show you one of my phone
01:16:27
that's it let's go hey what's up flies what's up please what's up people that listen we want to hear from you and your dumb questions questions ask us anything anything you
01:16:39
want you can email us at fly on the wall at cadence13.com hey Dana hey David Spade the question is this is from uh uvaldo you're Aldo
01:16:52
Garcia my question is is there a common denominator to which SNL Alum go on to be Mega stars and which don't or is it as simple as having great characters that capture America's attention or is
01:17:04
it something deeper this is a 12-parter well first of all if we knew how to become Mega Stars we would be Mega Stars
01:17:11
you think we're holding back on that one yeah we went to the Megastar uh you know
01:17:16
Symposium with Tony Robbins was teaching it you gotta get it in his hands were as big as my whole body I accidentally went
01:17:22
to the mega store Costco and um yeah I would just say that there's an intersection between talent and the marketplace and it's uh you when you're when you're young and naive you go well
01:17:33
the best band will be the biggest band that only happened once and that was the Beatles and the best the funniest guy
01:17:40
will also make the most money so get rid of all that yeah and see three people funnier than me it's just and they're not doing as well as me as showbiz-wise but it just it it's a it's a combination
01:17:51
of a million things so if you're doing well it's it's in a lot of its luck but you I think you have to bring it over
01:17:57
and over and over because everything's a [ __ ] audition people can lose faith in you somewhere along the way and go you don't got it oh
01:18:03
yeah now people go live streaming movies and no one knows if it bombed or whatever but back in the day a movie star if if that person had two bombs in
01:18:10
a row you kind of had to go back in line and then wait a lot of years but but again all you go back to is trying to do
01:18:17
a good job at whatever you're doing but a Megastar um has a mega mansion there's not that
01:18:22
many left it's me Dana and then I can't even think of anyone Mega stars have they don't talk about the security cyber
01:18:29
security physical security uh everyone treats them weird I don't know about the goal of Megastar as opposed to like just being funny and employed I don't know did you ever dream about being an I feel
01:18:41
like has a tough life and he would never say it himself but I feel like just everywhere you go if you connect eyes
01:18:46
with someone they go that's a [ __ ] Brad Pitt and they don't know how to act and they get weird and even when he meets other celebrities they freak out
01:18:52
so that's being a mega when you're in room with other that's it's a lot it's too much energy in the room and and I'll
01:18:59
get star struck by same I mean with Brad Pitt you know um if I met him he'd go we're going to
01:19:05
go over here and get a get some pizza I go it's a good plan I like what you're doing I like being on your podcast David
01:19:12
because you got good witticisms I'm Brad Pitt I'm chiseled I'm tan no but being a
01:19:18
sex being a sex symbol and I'll let David speak to this being a sex symbol has a different energy there's a mega
01:19:24
star just goofy comedian but then there's a mega star who's who's a sexual star then you get guys or weirdos in
01:19:32
your bushes hiding out it's it's for women especially I'm so glad that I never reached Mega star status that's
01:19:38
all I'm saying I hate that I reached it so go to the grocery store no one cares I take the mask off the hat off I go hey
01:19:45
everybody I win this actual Stars route which was stupid early on he was a porn star and then wee bit of time and then I went back to I just want to
01:19:57
see what I don't remember what my old life was I'm gonna be a busboy again no I don't
01:20:03
know that's a stupid answer but thank you for asking a question and uh yeah we've been Dana and David and we've been
01:20:08
dumb [Music] fly on the wall has been a presentation of cadence 13. please listen then rate
01:20:22
review and follow all episodes executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade
01:20:27
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