00:00:01
Fred Armisen uh when I think of Fred I think of uh sweet and nice yes when I think of David porcupine I'll get back to you look at this I got on my phone
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what's up it's just hello audio is I gotta take this I gotta take this yeah uh-huh oh a
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million Deutsche marks no Bitcoins no flip it for polka dot okay sorry I had to take that
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you gotta get it Fred Armisen you better get a show on Netflix you got a lot no everyone makes fun of my phone because
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it has that so I really stepped into it and just said no I owned it Fred armor said sweet
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guy I just saw a sketch of his I'm going to ask him about but I just saw a sketch of his it's hysterical he's got a uh and
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he was in the bubble Fred's in the bubble and I didn't recognize him because he's wearing a wig and I said oh
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are you playing a character I don't know how acting works anyway Fred is uh extremely versatile
00:01:00
and his his thing is music he was he's a real musician and he's a real drummer oh yeah
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he would sit in on Seth right his comedy is always very rhythnic and Musical what about mine um yours is off to be the king of snark that's it after all this time it's a
00:01:22
brand of Comedy snarky yeah you know um Dan Aykroyd said snarky and I never had heard that term I mean either I don't know when it comes and that was way way back into the show he goes you got snarky down kid and I
00:01:34
was like snarky I thought it was a Canadian word I didn't know I like when an adult he's like 18 months older than me listen to me kid
00:01:40
he seems older because he was such a legendary we we took over Spin Magazine for a month at the oldest Helen I got to interview Danny ackright oh yeah all right sir fair enough sir and uh talking
00:01:52
about live rallies and all the cool things I liked Fred Armisen Fred Armisen uh um we keep getting drifting off was every dialect he does every musical style
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and he's just everywhere he works like crazy he's always in stuff yeah you know and uh we got to sit down with him and
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now you get to so plug it in crank it up and break it off squeeze it hone It Shine it pluck it wax it and smack it on my arms
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Freddie armeson Freddie armeson go [Music] it feels like Fred you're the First cast member are we starting or is it we're starting with this [ __ ] wait can you
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hear me okay like is the mic working okay and all that stuff I can hear you unfortunately yes can you hear me Fred
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yes Crystal Clear can you hear space can you can you me now oh God I can't trick a trickster [ __ ] uh of all the cast members of SNL you
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were at the widest range of uh ethnicities or whatever the word would be that you could play like you could
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play like any anything from all over the world what was that about it's just that um keep your answer to one hour exactly
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my mom's Venezuelan so uh and my dad is um half Korean and half German so I think that they're you know they're they're immigrants so I think somewhere in there as far as the DNA goes that's how it
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works you're all over yeah but you're not offending anyone because you're you're a part one percent of something
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yes so yeah yeah that's a good idea and it just that's just how it worked out and you know how it is over there like
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when they have you know a role for you in one of the sketches you just you know try to do it you know I play Tony
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Montana in a sketch you know I don't know if I can do that now I was I whenever I do that or because I enjoy
00:03:57
doing Scarface the Tony Montana accent I go I'm doing Al Pacino's bizarre Cuban accent and that seems to relax people like I'm not making a statement about right people from from Cuba it is it is
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tough if you're just trying to mimic something or mimic a look which is the whole thing and some are offensive and
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some aren't when you're just going I'm just trying to do my best to represent that person whatever that is voice hair
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face wigs and then sometimes a wig will be counted as offensive or something about it will be offensive and then more
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and more as time goes on with me and Dan not not as bad was you maybe it was a little tougher a little but then I think
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it just got tougher as the casts were really going so as the years kept going that kept changing and it probably will
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keep changing I'm just getting tougher for sure I think so but I think there's stuff I've looked up with uh other I
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call them band mates your band mates yeah from you know that era with uh you know line them up it was as good as any
00:04:58
cast by far I mean you had Maya you had Amy you Seth yeah you had you had Billy hater yeah you had yeah Jason Sudeikis so you had an All-Star Andy Samson and
00:05:10
you guys could get away with a lot in 2005 I think yeah not so-called getaway you could you could expand your your comedy appetites and then it did evolve
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into wherever it is and get away with stuff and get away with it sounds kind of negative David no but listen first of
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all I apologize my voice is so sexy but I think I might I don't know what you may have covered no I don't I don't know no Fred stop spreading the rumor
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I have I went to James Corden yesterday and they gave me a test so I don't have but I just feel you know what I just I'm a hard worker that's my crime oh I work so hard I'm gonna do my Fred you get it
00:05:51
my Kristoff Waltz I'm doing my new Christoph Waltz impression talking about that so you are a hot one
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people would say I look like a crazy person on the street this is just him in real life he's not even he's like you're like you're kind of like him Fred in a way like you you hit these rhythms you
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do stuff that makes me so happy and and I you know I don't like rankings anymore because people ask us what's the best
00:06:21
what's the second I'll just say you're one of my favorites because your you never pushed they're all such
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quirky stuff and even you and and Bill hader's Italian a fake Italian guy which I love that sketch just how you you just you're playing it so real it just says
00:06:40
the guy eating like I could listen to that forever but shall we go back to the beginning but Dana coming from you I mean you know
00:06:51
but like Walking The Halls of of SNL you just came up all the time as like the the Stan the gold standard of uh how to
00:06:59
have like an incredible first year I cannot believe even your first year oh yeah he came out of the gate we got cold
00:07:05
open and never looked back once I had the late once I had the lady I I was I was okay but uh you came in as a feature player so and also it was different back
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then that the show there was only six of us no wonder you got fed six little birds in the nest ah yeah
00:07:31
you got so many worms we Michael Winslow and you [ __ ] made in front of me on camera I'll talk to you afterwards I did it once because
00:07:44
you're you're a fan favorite on Kimmel and then every time I did it they laughed so you know I'm a comedian so
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I'm like it's like okay I go I'm David's I'm sad that's pretty good actually anyway back but David I did not mean I also I I
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doesn't I didn't want to overlook the fact that you how great you were on SNL as well I didn't mean to swinging back
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just you didn't want to gloss over that no thank you buddy but I will give it up the data was the gold scent when I got
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there he was already crushing it and then he just with character needed to the mow down yeah yeah thank you we're
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recording right this is recording okay put it for your clip reel this is called gold no but uh I don't know where to start with you and I want to get to a lot of things I hope you don't have much
00:08:33
to do today um I have like I think four minutes and then we gotta we gotta wrap it up oh you
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got a hard fast I have a question for him Dana before he gets before you get to really young stuff yeah he hasn't
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really answered anything yet uh we just talk over him but Fred one of my favorite things that I did not see live
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but I saw today was such a great monologue when you when you acted out you doing a play about how you got SNL yeah like I want like a one-man show
00:09:03
yeah it was so it was so weird and quirky and interesting and I I loved how you Dana he does Lauren's voice in it and of course he does it really horribly and nothing like Mulan yeah like a Mafia
00:09:16
Boss or something yeah he goes I went in his office [Music] that's all written by Seth Meyers that
00:09:23
that monologue oh for real talked about it right he just oh it's great because I thought I just you know when you do that
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I picture it it reads you sometimes monologues for people at home don't get put up at read through because they're
00:09:34
not even written until Friday right uh but but if you do it it read through I was thinking [ __ ] he's got to move around and stand up that the read through is where you move around are
00:09:44
tough yeah you can lose the crowd quickly also Dana and the performance on Wednesday but Fred would go because you walked off the stage and you went for someone in the audience yeah what did
00:09:55
you ask her uh uh oh I don't answer it uh you know like what do you think yeah what do you think what do you think what
00:10:00
do you think just a as a real person right yeah that was a real person yeah yeah and she doesn't want to say so she
00:10:06
finally goes you could think I'm blind you think I'm blind shoes no and you go don't answer please part of the show and then you keep asking her and then she
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just said something else and you go God damn you ruined it you walk back all that was so funny if you want to look it
00:10:18
up um thanks but what I was gonna ask you guys is where it at read through what space did you go to to do stuff
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where you had to walk because you know how difficult it is around a table where where were you when you had to sort of
00:10:31
act something out it was kind of over by Cheryl Harbor on the piano there was just a little wedge of a space there yeah and I did one once I I really didn't like to do it because it felt
00:10:43
like you're trying too hard but once with Ben Stiller playing Bono I was playing The Edge and Dolly Parton had to stand up and we stood and did our little sketch there you know that was the one I
00:10:56
remember for you did you stand up a lot or move around in the I I'm the same like I did not like to do it because it
00:11:01
was just also you know of three sketches before you're sort of thinking okay where do I have to go where do I have to
00:11:06
walk through and like um but uh it was sort of over um by kind of by the piano but in
00:11:13
between those door there's like a main these two main doors before you go into that that writer's room in there looked
00:11:19
like looked like a little bit of a stage kind of yeah but God oh the entrance to
00:11:24
the writer's room yes kind of kind of in front of it towards the table but we had so many [ __ ] people jammed in read
00:11:31
through room I mean it was if people at home can picture like a big sort of square where everyone sits around all the main casts and Lauren and the host
00:11:37
yeah host and Lauren were by the window I got to sit next to the host when Dana left but before that I think I sat behind Dana and then do you know where you were in that thing because it was
00:11:48
like three deep like people were stacked in there at the table I was diagonally across to
00:11:54
the left and I think I was at the same place every year which I liked I like yeah it was like once you pick a place
00:11:59
you kind of stay there and and you know for people at home again it's uh it's like three or four deep and you have
00:12:05
every Department you have a rep from every department so Wigs will be watching a sketch like you do and you see them scribbling on oh this is gonna
00:12:11
[ __ ] suck this guy needs eight wigs in here and then music if you need them Cheryl hits the piano or maybe ge's in
00:12:18
there and they help a bit but you're right it get it you know what it you don't want to be sweaty no and so if you
00:12:24
get up to do a bit everyone's like this better be three times as funny as we're not sitting down yeah because you've got to walk up to that spot that's the hard
00:12:31
part you've got like a five hour read through and everyone's like what do you get that one because you're snaking through with your little script and oh
00:12:38
he's moving up there now excuse me with the ukulele and oh it's it's if it bombs it's even 10 times more sickening awful Dead Silence yeah that was on a
00:12:51
nerve scale of one to ten I mean where was read through compared to the actual show I mean had its own terrorism I mean
00:12:58
you know it went so long that um sometimes it just got you know you just get sleepy as it's going five hours yeah
00:13:05
yeah four or five hours that kind of dissipates after a while but it's the build up up to your sketch that you know
00:13:12
oh you see it coming and you're like oh no and then something kills right before it oh my God it just [ __ ] me oh my god
00:13:18
oh yeah I'd see like right before it's like Adam's new song I'm like no Orem on give me a chance you think it's brilliant something that you think is
00:13:30
brilliant and then when you get there it's the exact opposite and silence is is the worst yeah when they don't bite
00:13:36
in the first joke that you think is really great you think the premise has been set up your first thing and it's
00:13:44
it's less than nothing no there's there's disdain subconsciously in the room waiting on nine pages of pain yeah
00:13:52
when it Tom Davis well-known names but when Tom Davis would write like a 17 pager and and some of them really worked
00:14:00
and if it doesn't work by Page four and you feel the whole wave just tap out everyone leans back yeah and you just go
00:14:07
oh and if you're in it or if you wrote it and you're like please God let me just Lauren just go to the next one don't even don't do this to me because I
00:14:15
don't want to be like yeah dude just swinging hard and yeah everyone already just said no not on this one no nobody
00:14:21
even your best friends are like it's not clicking and they kind of were quietly going yeah so Fred you since we're on
00:14:28
SNL because you were on it so you come in as a feature and then in two seasons they you go to the main company like
00:14:34
yeah how is that Journey how did that change and what what what we got that I I felt lucky to even be there at all you
00:14:43
know even that first show I didn't know that I was gonna get on you know so um whatever it was I kind of liked there
00:14:51
was like less pressure to be a feature player this is kind of like it's okay to find a couple of shows like playing Elf
00:14:56
or something right um so well you're not on at all that that happened that happens a lot yeah and we had a lot of cast members so it's kind of nice I kind of liked sort of easing into it and then
00:15:07
you know however many that was like two years later uh it was like a nice I don't know it's like it's a good feeling
00:15:13
to oh I guess this I'm actually part of the cast but it all felt like uh just a lucky break every step of the way you know even and and not exaggerating even the audition even the audition
00:15:26
just being there up on you know just at the you know the where people do the monologues even I was like I cannot
00:15:33
believe I got this terrifying can't believe that like I I'm actually on the stage in front of Lauren Michaels I was
00:15:39
Starstruck by when Michaels and they sit in those little seats like where the audience at home sits during the
00:15:44
monologue and the little chairs in the front yeah in the theaters empty the studios yeah empty and it's a death
00:15:50
march what were the like I I don't really know your journey uh just to go back a little bit well because I want to
00:15:57
talk about your music career and your your music musicianship I just had a little pop earlier he's a musician and a
00:16:04
drummer and and then you start did you how did you get your stuff together that ended up auditioning were you going to
00:16:10
theater groups for three years or what was that Journey music comedy I was doing music for a long time like all through my 20s I was in a band and that's all I was gonna do we broke up
00:16:22
and then I started making videos of me interviewing bands and stuff as uh different characters yeah I'm sure they were weird it was weird and you know and I knew the band so it was just a little
00:16:34
it was kind of uh and all of a sudden that video and it was on VHS like sort of made the rounds and I started to um uh I would be asked to be on some
00:16:46
variety show you know some like Cornelius Cornelius Street you know something where there's a couple of
00:16:51
Comedians and some music and um I just started doing characters I just uh I did this uh one character who I auditioned with felicito like a timbale player yeah yeah and uh yeah yeah that one and then
00:17:06
uh somewhere in there like it it fit into stand-up shows so they would be like all these regular stand-ups and in it there would be this one weird thing I would just you know do a character I
00:17:17
don't think there were any jokes and that was something that I could um sort of use as an act and then Bob Odenkirk so I started doing this at Largo in LA and I went to Freddy Sito I did this
00:17:30
self-defense expert I did a bunch of um characters and you know this scene was like where like Zach Galifianakis was Nick Swardson oh Lord it was great yeah is amazing it was kind of like the
00:17:42
only place I performed at and then Bob Odenkirk uh had me on a a pilot for a variety a sketch show called Next for Fox it was just a pilot and I did these
00:17:54
characters and you know there were sketches without you know everyone there was like you know a cast and everything
00:17:59
but I had enough the pilot didn't go but I had enough video to send to SNL so we
00:18:06
sent to Odenkirk help you with that because he's a big deal in us now he really he's responsible for me having
00:18:13
all that all of that together before that I was just just at Largo he was the one who sort of made the work that I did
00:18:19
legitimate to be on a fox pilot sure and uh he could spot that you were good he yeah he was he's great too he's amazing [ __ ] and he's amazing goes and
00:18:30
does like three other great sketch shows yeah incredible yeah and then from that
00:18:36
video this um we sent it into SNL and uh Marcy Klein saw it she started to learn
00:18:41
and then next thing I know Marcy uh who's gonna be on our podcast is coming on yeah she knows where all
00:18:48
the bodies I mean she really you know made sure that Lauren saw it the video Yeah and
00:18:55
from there then I just you know came into audition and I just did this was that like five years sorry just that timeline of what between and four it's
00:19:03
like four four so let's let's of yeah something like that was 2002 is when I got on the show and then uh 99 is like kind of how I was making those
00:19:15
videos like 98.99 so yeah whatever that is and then were you ever a a straight I'm sorry for a straight stand up or was it always like never you just came on I don't want to say variety acts that
00:19:26
sounds like you're reducing it too much so as characters you'd go on and do but that's hard to find stage time if you
00:19:32
don't go in and say I'm a stand-up they don't know what to do with you right yes but there are venues and shows going on
00:19:39
that where it works for the show so if there's like if you know Patton Oswalt and Paul F Tompkins and Karen kilgara
00:19:46
for doing a show oh okay it's like the one little weird thing at the end that kind of works with the rest of the show
00:19:51
so that was like my little paprika at the end yeah yeah that was like my sweet spot so so I did
00:19:57
the audition as fedicito that tamale player and I did him doing impressions and characters so this way yes there's
00:20:05
like a way in it does Liberace yeah yeah yeah um I did I did Sam Waterston from Law
00:20:12
and Order and can we hear a time yeah I can't even picture that's such a subtle one the trial judge heard the testimony why didn't you call 9-1-1
00:20:24
call the police like this you know oh yeah that's that's awesome he just has something like his teeth or something there's the way that that it's in his suit it's in like his it's very trebley
00:20:37
too almost garbly yeah I love it I kind of want to ask you because these are things that popped in my head it's like your musicality and your all that how I
00:20:48
mean it's obvious it's informing your comedy and is that uh how do you find that connection like when I when I was a
00:20:55
guest host you wrote a really funny musical thing we're in and I was watching you just tap it out on some
00:21:00
little computer and yeah just like I don't know if there's been a cast member who's really a musician like you were
00:21:06
and a brilliant drummer I thought we'll get to that later but how does that inform your your stuff or is it just a
00:21:13
completely separate part of your brain no no I think it's just intuitive it's it's completely it was the the only
00:21:19
thing I knew you know like being in bands for that long that's all I knew was music and you know I did have
00:21:26
aspirations to you know I I definitely had ambition to be on TV but uh I was just in in bands for so long that that's the only that's all I had was you know I
00:21:37
could do parodies of of songs or of a style the one that we did that you're talking about was like a parody of just
00:21:43
like New Wave Music the sketch was that yeah there's a super Bowl party they're watching the Super Bowl and then they
00:21:49
pause it because like let's let this New Wave band play so everyone's really upset and it's really new wavy and super
00:21:56
wavy kind of like uh yeah Soft Cell or the Pet Shop Boys or something um but it's just all I knew and in just the same way that some people you know could talk about their families or
00:22:07
whatever or do impressions for me it was just music is is like a crutch it's like
00:22:12
my my only way in it's a big Plus on SNL if you can weave in music into something they love it yeah but like you're Sam
00:22:19
Waterston is kind of musical you know it's extenuating him into these musical rhythms you know that's a rim shot and he's like doing a speed you know he's like
00:22:30
performing for the the court you know yeah but picking that out it's like you're playing a cowboy that's one of those Impressions where you don't know there's an impression and then you
00:22:41
do it and everyone goes all right okay yeah those are good because it's hard to break it's hard to break ground and
00:22:46
Impressions and just come up with a new one but I think that like uh Lauren is a really musical person in fact it's like
00:22:53
it was like the first oh like oh hello it's it's the uh hello Fred hello hello do you mean as an impression of him or as a person no as a person
00:23:05
as a person I think he's such a music fan that oh yeah that's where it was easiest for me to connect with him as a person so for me to talk to him about all the musical guests he's had on the shows interesting it's a such a quick
00:23:18
easy conversation to talk to him about all those music which I love talking to him about you know the bands that he
00:23:25
booked and it's just easy and he's into it like a lot of those were his decisions booking a lot of those bands
00:23:31
Fred what do you think of Eagle Eye Cherry should we do it I don't know if the year but yeah I did uh when I hosted it was
00:23:38
eagle-eyed Sherry and I go Marcy why do I get I mean not no offense but I didn't know who that was and then the next time
00:23:43
I didn't and they go the formula is Big host we don't need a huge music act are you saying I'm a big host they're like well in this situation it's a little different no way no no I like the first
00:23:56
I don't want to be the exception to the rule no so yeah it's fun to have I want I always wanted a big band but
00:24:03
I remember when both both of you hosted those are both really did we do something with me you and Maya and we
00:24:09
were like and we were dressed like very snooty and I came to your house or something and yes we were you we were these this
00:24:16
design couple yes like this Danish design so we had all these chairs and the whole job everything's uncomfortable
00:24:22
design of the chairs [Laughter] Maya Maya and I did a song Too who cares um but back to Fred Fred you're gonna get to talk to her at the end of this but great um I do have another sketch I like Dana
00:24:36
I'm gonna tell Fred just to you know boost his ego yeah uh have you ever had someone zone out a
00:24:44
couple uh yeah we've a couple of no I don't think so I I we always have to scream at them for interrupting me and
00:24:50
Dana talking when it's their show so you had one called code check but was that really cut is that really wasn't on air
00:24:57
yes that's a cecially strong one that's a great but but but they put it online which is kind of the same thing oh it's
00:25:03
great I mean I wish we had [ __ ] online oh my God I know I wouldn't have forgot about stuff getting can you I
00:25:09
used to joke about best of dress oh that'll be on best of best because yeah it never gets on but she was your
00:25:15
girlfriend yeah it's so good girlfriend oh okay remember when she kept saying that you go hey we're a couple now she goes couple wow okay it's so good that
00:25:28
was a really weird one and it was perfect because it was pretty simple and you and Dana he kept asking for his coat it's hard to explain yeah I'm like this is not my coat I would wear God
00:25:41
damn you know how it is I mean but it would seemed like it was working but I do feel like it made its way on I
00:25:47
mean oh well the fact that I saw it like that's great if anyone can just see it yeah and they I think they put it online
00:25:52
the next day or something so it's cool it hasn't had its own life for sure but it was brilliant sometimes dresses are a
00:25:59
little rougher on the edges because you don't even know the [ __ ] lines you haven't done it since Thursday or something or Friday no you don't and
00:26:05
you're just doing it live you're like I didn't I rehearse this once two days ago and we're already in front of a crowd it's dress but you're still like
00:26:12
figuring it out you're remembering the blocking the air you kind of go okay I know it a little better yeah yeah
00:26:17
that's fun that's the fun address I like that um yeah so I mean there's also there are those times where you don't quite
00:26:23
understand what what's happening in the sketch like where am I what am I in this yeah do I have an accent happening I did
00:26:31
a Jack Handy sketch with Robert Mitchum and neither of us knew what the sketch was about he was a beekeeper and the Himalayas or something Jack candy you know did Jack can't really stay around
00:26:43
for you guys or no no he was gone already have you heard about him yeah I mean also his Deep Thoughts work is
00:26:50
amazing you know that really stood the test of time it's almost like a fake guy you hear deep thoughts of Jack handling
00:26:56
people go wait is that a real guy that's what I thought when I got there [Music] oh your camera went uh yeah David your
00:27:08
camera went dark I know David what are you what are you doing Heather did you like did you like work out front they probably cut through the [ __ ] oh there you are you're like you're like fading in but your sound is good Jesus
00:27:22
made it worse wow oh there you go there you go federicito I didn't think that was possible you know what hashtag Mansion
00:27:33
probs hey Fred did you what was your um uh your team stuff what was your favorite uh like you know I know you had The Californians which I was watching
00:27:47
that I got maybe three weeks ago and you came in and there was you did it so earnestly
00:27:53
yeah your guy and it just uh I don't know that sketch really kills me and you did others do you remember do you remember the email I sent you Dana I I do I I still can't I I David this is you
00:28:07
you're gonna like this oh this is a good this is a good story and I've told it before but it's it's it's really good
00:28:13
you know The Californians it's all about get finding directions everyone talks about directions right but I had seen Dana I was with him and
00:28:24
we did a stand-up show in San Francisco and Dana was telling me about his son and he's talking about his son he's just
00:28:31
like you know it's hard to be mad at him because I think he got pulled over or something yeah he does this impression
00:28:37
of his son and he goes no but no dad no you don't you know yeah and from that as we were trying to do like uh uh a California accent as we're
00:28:48
writing the sketch that kind of came up it's like no but dude dad and it's kind of the way that he talks is based on Dana's impression that's unreal so I
00:29:01
sent him an email before before it aired I was like hey just so yeah there's you know we're gonna do this sketch called
00:29:07
The Californians and uh that's it comes from your impression of your son will you do it how was your son like do it I've done different incarnations of it actually but no I'm trying to think Dad
00:29:18
uh uh but is this uh pretty much all we're gonna do today you know that's him in the Roman Coliseum you know why are you getting I like it when young
00:29:29
people now say why are you being so extra that's the latest oh yeah wait don't be so extra that's a beautiful use
00:29:36
of language but that I I guess the arbitrariness of that like I think Bill said you got on the soundstage and
00:29:41
suddenly you were doing that guy AI or was it in read through it's a it was like a comment it was really it was a
00:29:48
bit also we would do at the table you know that moment before you're actually reading the sketches we did like we
00:29:54
would you know everyone goes to LA in this summer so when we came back we would just start talking like where were
00:30:00
you were you oh I was in LA like did you go borrow them did you make a left on the and then that sort of you know oh
00:30:06
yeah built up and built that's what we kept doing it and then I worked with this um writer James Anderson and I was
00:30:13
like what do we do with this Californians what can we do with these directions and he was simply like why
00:30:18
don't we just make it a soap opera and so it's such an odd call though I know but that's kind of like the magic of oh
00:30:26
this is so corny it's the magic of working with writers that like I never would have thought of that and just to
00:30:31
have someone say let's make it a soap opera and then it's done but um so for for stand-ups who write their own material for uh utterly and when you get on SNL and suddenly some somebody is
00:30:43
handing you something and you go wow this is great yeah yeah and it just got handed to me that was ramatory to me like wow or or taking your idea and
00:30:56
greatly improving it like oh this is so much better yeah so it was uh exhilarating really yeah anyone's door and you go will you read
00:31:07
this once we have a second and they go even down he goes you know what I might what I might do is at the end there's
00:31:14
something funny about if you just don't ever say that and I'm like oh okay yeah yeah and then that's all you get and
00:31:21
then you go and you figure it out but if they can give you any anything just fresh eyes you know and they're all
00:31:27
smart so they're all thinking what's the best for this that's such a gift it's something to give people the right way and they care they care about the peace being good right so their their advice
00:31:38
is always the best advice oh I'd see them if if you came off something that someone else had written and it worked
00:31:43
there was like a little quick little party yeah backstage like yeah yeah again oh man crushed it so that was a
00:31:50
real high for them and I didn't really realize till later that at least back then at least half the writing staff
00:31:56
wanted to be performing as well yeah they were they were in The Writer's box for a while and then they you know like
00:32:02
Bob odakirk you know yeah and then he got to go out of that yeah they were both on our Conan Conan as well they'd
00:32:09
write themselves in just little things in it it wouldn't seem to work work they would just not that they weren't good but they would be replaced maybe we had
00:32:16
too many cast members and it was very hard it was because I was a feature player very hard to get on
00:32:22
we had too many miles to feed and I think that's sort of the norm now just too many how many were in your cast
00:32:30
you've ran like different casts I feel like you were yeah he was you like overlapped a bridge yeah yeah it was
00:32:36
tough when I got there because these guys are everyone's a [ __ ] you know first ballot Hall of Famer and
00:32:42
and so you got you know you're gonna do something instead of Phil Hartman no chance you know Lovitz was even there
00:32:49
for a little bit Dana and Dennis Miller and Jan Hooks and Nora Dunn were both unreal
00:32:54
so and then they influxed Farley and sailored Schneider's very good sketch guy and Chris Rock Chris Rock and Tim Meadows so you know it's just not enough
00:33:07
to go around it's just but but that's that's your memory of it as a viewer I never thought of that I was never like oh David Spade isn't getting enough I was like I was always like did you see
00:33:18
the thing that he did on update yeah there's something for them to remember yeah yeah and then that's like the yeah
00:33:23
that's the main memory from it never did it's better to be in almost less than just make them try to work because I
00:33:29
told Dana that the first show I came into they brought you in a day early and to watch the show and love it was
00:33:35
all depressed he's only in two things and he goes well Dana's in six and I go I said what you said I said I've never
00:33:41
seen this show and thought someone was light still I just think there's that guy look oh that's funny he's in that
00:33:47
yeah couldn't even was never counting lines or sketches and then when I got there I fell right into it I I preferred
00:33:54
personally like to be in two things maybe totally you know or a third as a supporting character yeah but to Shepherd a sketch even one where you're kind of the uh executive producer of
00:34:06
your sketch yeah it is very nice that's why and I was going to ask you about when you hosted SNL the difference in
00:34:14
that because you you have to really let it go there's you're you're kind of in have to prepare 13 or 14 sketches six or
00:34:22
eight get cut so what was that like emotionally for you when you you came back you you let you did 11 Seasons at the time as
00:34:30
long as anybody right yeah huge run yeah and then you come back and host and you
00:34:35
come out and do your monologue and they're screaming it's surreal isn't it how did you feel about it I mean we I mean I loved it so much you know like
00:34:44
what a highlight in life just in general yeah um but the experience you know of handing everything over like I really was like I was still in the mode of like oh man I got to take care of all these
00:34:55
sketches make sure I write this much and you're doing so much other stuff that everything is taken care of for you so
00:35:01
all these writers are coming up with stuff I didn't even have time to think and then then it it just turned out
00:35:07
great on its own so I I really like that part of it of just trusting everyone and then that worked out I'm laser focused
00:35:14
on you yes and they know you they know what you like to do and what you know what's
00:35:19
going to work it's such a big transition on the show when you the audience starts to be familiar with you and I don't know
00:35:25
how many shows it takes but I you see people all the time who come on unknown and then they they turn it turn it better better better the audience goes I like you man or woman yeah and then it
00:35:38
gives you so much more confidence yes because you can feel that they're on your side already as opposed to is this
00:35:44
guy gonna make it or is this woman going to make it on the show and so when did you start to feel that like four years
00:35:50
in three years in Ah that's what I was gonna say I was gonna say like three or four years in
00:35:56
um I did this judge uh what was his name judge sidelin or something uh and something he was like the Anna Nicole Smith judge you know oh yeah uh something in there felt like I had to
00:36:10
work less meaning like I was like oh please please like this it felt a little little more like I could come out an
00:36:17
update and it was okay and they're happy and you're right like there's a feeling of there's like of being familiar that I
00:36:23
really liked but something in there I don't know three years or something yeah that that I think is that's pretty
00:36:29
typical and when you were out there with your different band mates uh uh I it seemed like you you know obviously had Garth and Cat with Christian who's yeah Supernatural guest performer and then
00:36:41
you and Bill Hader just to me just had a symbiotic thing as well we did just mixed really well and we see someone new when you got out there and the band's playing you get they're doing your tie
00:36:52
or whatever it is and you see Bill he calms you down I mean how where were you on the nerves scale I was kind of okay
00:36:58
on the nerve scale uh I don't know why I just you know I just enjoyed it and had
00:37:04
such a great time but being with Bill um really felt like uh I was really with my friend like we made each other laugh so much and we just identified with each other supported each other something
00:37:16
there was something in that relationship where it just was uh really supportive and fun all the way God he made me laugh all the time I mean everybody did but there was something with him that I felt
00:37:27
like we were going through uh I don't know the same experience you know being yeah
00:37:33
um do you have a favorite writer James Anderson because we wrote so much together we wrote we just always ended up writing together um but you know someone yeah yeah but
00:37:44
you know uh but when you're there I mean there's so many people who are so prolific I remember when I first got
00:37:50
there seeing Tina Fey's work ethic was incredible that changed just to see how focused someone could be on writing uh without ego uh that was like a real uh
00:38:02
it kind of I was like that's the way to be that's the way to be a writer she was God she was so good she can Churn it out
00:38:09
she can just write great jokes just one after yeah I don't know she has some kind of frequency that just they come to her she reminds me of Steve Martin in many ways I don't know why I just kind
00:38:21
of put them together in some ways you know they write great books and yeah their their intellectuals but they don't
00:38:26
wear it on their sleeve at all you know no there's a humility to it yeah but it's still effortless somehow they just
00:38:32
sit down and then all of this stuff starts coming out week after week I I I couldn't believe it so yeah but everyone
00:38:39
Seth Meyers is uh also right um sort of uh selfless and and works really hard like he would just work throughout the whole night were you hired as a writer performer no on I was
00:38:53
just feature players just feature player but you know how it is we just sure I'm just saying because Dan and I we asked
00:38:59
people because I was a writer performer I didn't want to be a writer and they wanted me to be more than they wanted me
00:39:06
to be a feature player and Schneider same thing we hired together but Dana was hired straight gas because he's such a home run hitter and then but no writing but that kind of sucks because
00:39:18
everyone writes yeah so yeah who decides it's a weird decision to go you're not a
00:39:23
writer especially feature because you're just scrambling to get on so you have to write an update or something no one even knows you yeah we just accepted it I
00:39:31
mean it's really just uh the pla the platform of being on SNL if you were a main player uh only Phil did get a
00:39:38
writing credit because he had written peewee's big adventure with PeeWee Herman um I never added that a problem with it but I what one oh everybody goes I'm a
00:39:51
bad bad apple right into the core oh yeah he was in jail all the time [Music] so do you mind if we go back a minute and just talk about your drumming
00:40:05
because I I'm just a big fan of drummers and I have favorite drummers and uh I loved your special um stand up for drummers for drummers
00:40:16
where you just go through at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco yeah and all the set kits set up and you
00:40:22
did all the Styles yeah so so great do you get a lot of feedback from other musicians and drummers about how it's
00:40:29
like exactly first of all thank you that's very very kind of you and um you know I I love drumming so much it's like the biggest part of my life and you know that's how I got into and whatever
00:40:41
Showbiz or entertainment yeah I just still love watching drummers I still love playing and um the the things people have said to me it's it's like that was my goal I was
00:40:52
like I just want something where like drummers can come up to me and feel like they're part of an inside joke that they
00:40:57
can you know have like a really heartfelt conversation station about like oh man I'm a drummer and I know
00:41:03
exactly what you're talking about and it's really that's really gratifying and that um that whole thing with the drum
00:41:08
kits um was just like it visually looked cool just to have all the results and play all these Styles I mean it's such a singularity as a stand-up
00:41:21
specialist yeah yeah completely its own thing but thanks thank you I I love the way you play I just would call you just very musical you have a heavy foot
00:41:31
um you're you're very light on it you're very organic with it I just like to watch you play some drummers you can
00:41:37
kind of work with them a little bit like are they gonna make it with you I feel very relaxed I mean what a thing to say
00:41:44
that's so so I just all sincere I I just wondered the drummers that uh inspired you stood out for you I mean people Pepsi Coke it's always for my generation with a friend of mine it was Ringo Starr
00:41:56
or or uh Rolling Stones uh Charlie Watts Charlie Watts are you I like you like you have to be one or the other you're either Charlie Watts or Ringo Starr that was like back in the 70s and who some of
00:42:09
your favorites well my favorite like the the guy who like I really emulated was uh Clem Burke from Blondie and the first time I ever saw him was on SNL whoa and he's because he's like because you know
00:42:20
he's um he dresses like in a little suit like he looks like a mod and his drum kit is set up like it's like this red
00:42:27
sparkle like a very flat yeah and so the Aesthetics of how he was I was like that's a great way to be so he was like he's like my favorite drummer but to your point I love Ringo I think
00:42:39
I think everybody loves Ringo I think there's like a myth that like there's some country that's about a bad rap
00:42:45
right he doesn't wrestle he's not good what's the myth no the myth is sort of like well you know he's people talk
00:42:50
about him like you know he's actually a great drummer every drummer I know loves Ringo even privately they'll go no those
00:42:57
are expressive fills he's oh yeah everyone loves him you you put on She Loves You on YouTube yeah a live remix and the way he goes to the lower Tom I
00:43:09
know he's a lieutenant drummer yeah just this little Phil yeah like he did these little fills and they were so electric
00:43:15
and he gets shinier and brighter just like the whole band does yeah for me personally I think that it was such a a
00:43:22
wave that is still hitting the the sand we're trying to comprehend why and how that happened yeah that much great music in in 72 months with these four guys
00:43:32
yeah he was perfect for them and everyone knows that sound everyone knows you just you can picture you can hear
00:43:39
his drumming in your head when you think of any of their songs you know yeah he stylized to the to the to the song So
00:43:45
when you're playing with your bands and you came up learning you know kind of Devo Clash yeah yeah yeah all that type
00:43:51
that type of sound yeah and what is it I'm doing it and you're you're kind of probably a ride the pocket guy with with with some fills or you just no how would you
00:44:05
describe yourself hide the pocket right well the ride the pocket is uh yeah like fewer Phil there's this thing go alert so again you integrate the fills into
00:44:17
the beach um yeah that's yeah that's exactly what I was going to say that in New Wave and in Punk they had this thing
00:44:22
where like they would do these busy beats these beats that were like that had Toms in them yeah you know
00:44:28
throughout yeah so it wasn't a fill it was just like so the toms were in it without like a
00:44:36
crash at the end of it it was just like that's what the beat was and that's how I learned um Alan Myers from Devo played like that
00:44:43
um so yeah it was just it was just part of the beat so but it was all none of it was complex uh time signatures they were
00:44:50
all four four so I'm really into like four on the floor just keep the kick drum going I like the Simplicity of that but um yeah it's like busy but those
00:45:00
aren't fills can you play to a a click track in a studio does it throw you or does it help you it it helps it's frustrating I'm like I I actually I
00:45:11
don't think I'm great at Tempo I think I speed up um so sometimes I have to especially uh
00:45:17
during the pandemic there's like a lot of stuff that I had to do to a click but now I'm used to it so it's frustrating
00:45:22
people don't know it's like that that in your headphones and on the fourth beat you come in yeah and it sounds like this
00:45:28
on the headphones like looping is so that you don't lose the the tempo you know Lederman over there at stuff
00:45:39
yeah yeah yes he's like the producer do you find yourself drumming uh like if you're driving a car or just drumming with your mouth [Music]
00:45:58
yeah yeah who what about you who's your your favorite drummer I don't know I think over time there is a the most mesmerizing thing I watch a
00:46:10
couple times a year there's so many Buddy Rich solos there's one I think it's in black and white whatever to me
00:46:17
uh his just technical skill is so mesmerizing yeah and that solo that he does and he did it over and over again but it builds to a certain way and he's got the snare going from super fast to
00:46:29
like just down to nothing and then right back again and then he's doing all the fills and all the stuff
00:46:36
um but you know I was listening to Fleetwood Mac the other day because I have a car stereo that blows my mind and
00:46:42
I just go man I love Mick Fleetwood he has a sound and a pocket that's so simple but it it really weights all that brilliant Melody
00:46:54
yeah it's so Bassy I mean obviously John Bonham everyone says him I still don't understand him I don't know where he got his sound like his Kick Drum the the
00:47:05
value of that with his snare blows my mind you know just the sound of it and how it was mine I know you know people
00:47:12
can't catch Led Zeppelin people keep trying to explain him his his style to or how he got that sound and I've heard so many different explanations so I've heard people say well he's actually very
00:47:23
Jazzy and he plays lightly it's the way he tuned his drums and I have no idea I I I'm the same I have no idea how how he
00:47:30
got to be that way um Keith Moon I love Keith Moon I could listen to Forever Love Keith Moon uh
00:47:36
just uh couldn't imagine anyone better uh yeah who's who's next the way he is so busy but it it's it's so part of the music yeah he's like a genius he's fun he's like it's fun to listen to him
00:47:49
playful and fun yeah oh David I feel bad we won't talk about drummers this I just
00:47:55
I'm sorry jeez let's talk about Tinder and how to meet again I'm looking at it but it's Google fear of heights and he feels bad for everyone he's gone out with I think I have one of
00:48:07
those are those are those your quotes yeah fear of fear of I can't feel bad for him not anymore I feel less that way I mean that question a while ago so I feel less that way as you know as time
00:48:22
has gone on I feel like I'm not married so I feel like I'm not nailing it somehow along the way that's not true
00:48:29
that's a uh that's that doesn't have to be the end point because some people do get married and it doesn't work out yeah
00:48:35
I know so so go easy on yourself on that I thank you because it is tough because it is it is if you really think about
00:48:41
it's very hard to sync that up perfectly it's very hard but I would say that's true yeah and Dana did it right and that's why I gotta deal with Dana because he he's had the same beautiful
00:48:54
wife I was a terrible single person I was just I would feel so sorry because that no woman who wanted to be with me was carnal about it if they wanted a boyfriend he's cute yeah and if I was
00:49:09
there for other purposes but um I I really enjoy being married I like having a friend you meld into each other we're very she's she listens to the podcast yeah she's ours she's our eyes
00:49:21
and ears she's my uh Confidant like I run everything by her just because she knows
00:49:27
me since 1979. oh that's so nice you know and she enjoys this podcast and I go really because I can't listen to myself blow V8 but Fred can I you're below V8 then you're uh you're a an
00:49:40
emotional character and your sensitive character and I remember you like we all are we're clowns that are wounded but
00:49:47
whatever whatever it came from but I want to ask you first you you sent me an email after you left SNL and you kind of
00:49:54
said how do you process no longer being on the show speak to that yeah because like like I
00:50:02
I like the experience of being an ex-cast member because we all get to go back and do stuff but yeah you know
00:50:08
that feeling I because I used to are still do admire um uh ex-cast members I like how they go
00:50:16
on to do other stuff uh you know I there's something about that tradition whatever it is movies other TV shows I
00:50:23
was like what is that life like and you know just seeing how Molly Shannon was afterwards and she didn't keep working
00:50:29
on stuff and then uh just watching your career same same thing I was like what does Dana Carvey do afterwards and then every year there's a new feeling like
00:50:41
okay I'm still kind of there I know a lot of those cast members then another I'm talking about SNL right and then it
00:50:47
just turns couple couple more cast members and in about four or five years all of a sudden it's
00:50:54
all new people and you there's you start to see people you do not know and so um that feeling that's what I was asking you about I was like what is what does that look like what does that feel like I I kind of like it but every year that
00:51:07
goes is just like you're further and further away you know yeah from from like the the
00:51:12
actual you know the blood the meat of the of the show well how about hosting when you don't know anyone it's just so
00:51:19
much different because you go I wish I could host when things on the show and you go I know right this thing works I
00:51:24
know everyone is and be perfect first of my hosted I knew a few people I think the second time I didn't know one person
00:51:30
and then you feel scared like oh I feel like a real host for it what does everyone do who's that person you know
00:51:35
people talking to me I don't know if they're a cast member I don't know if they're a writer how how do you handle it friends when um people or other
00:51:44
performers or people come up and sort of you know uh tell you very very flattering sincere things like you're in that mode now I'm sure if you run into cast members now somewhere they would be
00:51:55
Fred Armisen I gotta tell you that sketch you did and it's all it's all a surreal Circle and it's still going and
00:52:03
the fact that we're we're part of the Continuum is sort of where the Gratitude comes in but how do you handle people
00:52:08
just Fred Armisen get out and people are really kind people are so nice about it they say all the right things to remember all the sketches that that I love they love doing deep Cuts
00:52:21
someone will mention you know a dress rehearsal yeah I love it because that's the way I was when you know I got to meet whoever's have you chase you know whoever it is the
00:52:33
um Lorraine Newman I'm the same way so I I like that I like a tradition and just people are just are cool I don't know
00:52:40
what it is when they get excited also they're they're while they're talking they're figuring out other things you've
00:52:45
done or other sketches oh yeah because when they walk away they go oh I didn't even think that but
00:52:51
that's cool like I just saw your new girl you you new girlfriend sketch where you played Regina or something yeah yeah
00:52:57
yeah God damn that was also with with James Anderson that was like an intellectual I just like you know someone it's that's that's
00:53:03
um people who don't like to do small talk like every conversation has got to be deep yeah exactly like that that
00:53:10
premise is just so great and it's well done rather than just church ladies out there no it's fine I mean every era has its own yeah yeah it's just Evolution once
00:53:23
you get to SNL even back when I was there you're going [ __ ] every sketch has been done you think in your head right
00:53:29
and then it's been 20 more years of just news sketches but it's hard to crack the code it's like writing a song you go
00:53:35
this is kind of like that one they did this is kind of uh you know it's hard I know in the game the game of which cast was the best and you know never forget all that is yeah the current cast this
00:53:47
is the is always the best I I agree and also for every cast there's always great
00:53:52
enough people in it that you could pick out stuff that is you know yeah that's fantastic and I still love great writers
00:53:58
they still I look at I Know Dan Bull is a writer there that's the only one I think I know but these guys come up I watch the sketches
00:54:05
even if somehow it doesn't work I I look at the writing and go [ __ ] man that was a good idea you know they did
00:54:11
it pretty well or they're still good stuff and they probably get hammered right now about it like there's like every present cast
00:54:18
because the old one's gone yeah but I I I watch all the time if you can do like you were kind of like a jazz player I'm just using words Loosely but if you can do dry smart stuff
00:54:30
and make it kill with like huge laughs you know that's always a real Rush some things are more rock and roll and more high energy yeah bass and pushed and some are kind of subtle and a little
00:54:43
different but when the when you hook the audience on SNL one of those it's really fun I I got it with Carson that was it
00:54:49
was a very for my part in that sketch was very dry did you have some favorites kind of it's hard to ask people their
00:54:55
favorites okay I don't mind like um the way you envision it the way it turned out you know I think because the thing
00:55:03
is like as much as I could take credit for it I gotta give credit to Lauren that's why it's easy to talk about he's
00:55:09
he's the guy who you know on paper it looks like it's not gonna work and he's the guy who goes let's put it on and see
00:55:16
if it's it's gonna work out and for me it was like this comedian I used to do on update who had you know had no punch
00:55:23
lines like he just would open up a newspaper and just point out the headline can you do that on command
00:55:29
could you do 10 seconds over all right it's just kind of like you know you pick up the New York Times he interrupts himself yeah and it's just it's just him
00:55:36
going like like look at this Congress is going to donate it's gonna have like eight billion dollars for the
00:55:42
Ukraine dude you can't what you can't there's no uh on any other day if any of us and he just keeps going until yeah there's no you know there's no but this
00:55:55
is there's no punchline it's just pointing things out and being outraged that's very really fun another then another headline anyway it sounds like
00:56:03
I'm I don't mean to PAT myself on the back about it I no I feel bad like you gotta like some of them come on no that
00:56:08
that's a skilled thing if you try to do it yourself it's it's difficult to get a
00:56:14
weird bit like that and get it to work it's [ __ ] huge Victory yes and yeah and the fact that they put it on update
00:56:20
I just feel like that would there's no jokes in it and then you know and but we you know we do uh give Lauren credit for stuff like you just said that he will go for the really weird dry things
00:56:32
sometimes he likes to rock and roll things he likes a mix he likes big laughs but he also let's just see if it
00:56:38
works everyone has a lower impression officially what what what's your take I like doing the one
00:56:44
I like doing the one of the of like the warm greeting so like if if everyone comes out to dinner you know uh there's this thing that he does where he sort of uh is super polite and if he saw you
00:56:58
he'd say like hello Dana Alone David yeah like I'm very warm um that's a frequency I've not heard uh-huh yeah we're always just doing this no no
00:57:14
no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no you know yeah that's that's an exaggeration of Lauren
00:57:20
backpedaling because you misunderstood what he was saying yeah all I'm saying is that this and that well you mean we
00:57:25
shouldn't put it on no no no no no no no no no no and then you get them back and then you get them back but you can't
00:57:33
imagine SNL without Lauren I just think he's the uh he's obviously the linchpin sensibility wise I think the the ivy league guys come in and they respect his intellect they
00:57:45
respect him as a smart person yeah and he has that and he also likes you know stand-ups that kind of shoot for the fences yeah um before we go I always and no we don't
00:57:56
have to wrap up because I'm having so much fun but I always like to ask our guests three things sure just just I
00:58:03
like to put Fred I'd like to put you at like you know eight ten eleven years of age so a toy the and you don't if you
00:58:10
don't have to answer you don't have a toy that you remember that you really liked as a kid a bicycle that you might
00:58:15
have got and any music or television show or film that really rocked your blew your mind uh in those formative years so you're saying well like what
00:58:27
grade is that well I I always say five to twelve is the formative so like kids like like oh like yeah little kids yeah
00:58:33
I had Rock and sock and robots to get you started that they didn't last long but that really blew my mind
00:58:39
I would say uh I think I really liked I had like 6 Million Dollar Man action figure yeah there you go it had so many um details too like you could add something to it yeah yeah like put on
00:58:52
little helmets Yeah Yeah little helmets in the eye and the eye you know exactly what I'm talking about the eye like you could look through the eye and it sort of like blinked and it had like a it
00:59:03
didn't have a light but like a sort of lens and then if you rolled off his skin off of his left arm there's the
00:59:09
mechanics of his bionic arm yeah it was it was really cool and you were like it took a lot of imagination because it
00:59:15
looks cool but it doesn't really do much so you've got to kind of make your own scenarios in your head which is good would you yeah put it in dirt and stuff
00:59:22
and make a little trench or yeah it would be like a little I can't I don't know a rocket ship or some some rocket
00:59:29
he was in you know I don't know yeah some some vehicle of some kind so there were a lot of things you could get for it that I really liked um bicycle I had like uh I'm thinking of
00:59:40
the word Apollo I had an Apollo something like a a yellow one with like a banana seat banana seat yeah um I grew
00:59:47
up in the suburbs of New York and uh I remember endlessly riding with my friends and I was really young but there was no sense of like hey be careful none uh tell us right it was just not a
00:59:58
helmet in sight nothing yeah you know main streets like with traffic and uh me and my friends would
01:00:05
just ride around and forever all afternoon not even be careful nothing oh yeah nothing nothing wipeouts you just had to get home like squeak squeaks yeah your legs bleeding yeah was it if you
01:00:18
can look back at in a sense memories way when you had your I had a stingray kind
01:00:23
of a knockoff but you get on your bike in Saturday morning and you start going and the wind is in your ear and yeah
01:00:30
you're you're pedaling this bike and then if you go shoot hoops or run around a park or a school your bike's just
01:00:36
tilted over and you go and you get your bike with your friends it's just sort of magic yeah yeah and the aimlessness of
01:00:43
it like also being with your friends and you're just yeah you know yeah yeah going up hills and yeah yeah that's it
01:00:49
just like laughing with them when it's not a school day and you've got the whole day to shoot anything it's getting
01:00:55
dark I remember the getting dark part that's kind of like yeah all of a sudden it's like there's no lights and your
01:01:01
friends look different in the light you know you gotta get home you need to get home and it's getting darker and darker
01:01:06
yeah yeah the best the best it's funny that there's dirt involved I feel like there's a lot of dirt like Fields yeah
01:01:13
yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah a park where there's mud someone made a little dirt jump yeah I could do it really I could
01:01:19
do really for like a quarter mile I was a skateboarder too I don't know if that helping I could do goddamn wheelie and I was I thought it was King [ __ ] I had a medium Dick Energy King [ __ ] was
01:01:38
that a doll that you had too and when you were 10 you know like King [ __ ] that was a great doll
01:01:46
[Music] so Fred also just um I like either TV shows or movies that blew your mind between it I think I think 12 whatever I don't know if this was eight and twelve I think it might be
01:01:59
it might be it could be 13. there's no heart it's just a conversation starter for some reason uh Planet of the Apes
01:02:05
jumps out at me as like yeah of like the idea that like I thought about Planet of the Apes all the time so there was there
01:02:13
was a movie but there was just sort of there was still like in my head I'd be like wow the Statue of Liberty and they
01:02:20
took over and you know there were these intelligent dude Statue of Liberty at the end where you're like what the [ __ ] yeah that was Unreal I was like this no
01:02:31
way where are they I know Rod Sterling I guess came up with that did you notice after the spaceship crashed that they
01:02:38
they walked across the desert for like 20 minutes having philosophical arguments Jordan Heston and the two
01:02:44
astronauts and then they reveal the uh the monkeys riding horses that was you know Bill Hader you're a band mate he mentioned his one was Taxi
01:02:58
Driver what as the movie that blew his mind he saw it when he was young I mean I did
01:03:05
not very dark no I saw him I wouldn't understand how crazy that was I didn't know it made me scared or sad or something yeah 10 years old or something but he always
01:03:20
you know I was like louder you know I'm like very sensitive so I couldn't handle those movies yeah I saw a taxi driver I
01:03:26
can't blew my mind Bill Hader yeah I know yeah I don't know his voice is so interesting
01:03:40
and then he and he went into a Daniel Day Lewis in uh There Will Be Blood that was his voice was so transformed because his speaking voice you don't wouldn't imagine he'd
01:03:51
have such a range that he has yeah because he's just kind of literally basically how are you yeah
01:03:58
it's not an authorized but um what do you think goes on in in in Bill's skull like where why can you do that like what can why can he do that with his voice that he can go that deep but he talks up
01:04:13
here yeah uh that's uh unique I think that's kind of unique it's a real physical it's like it's talent but there's something physical going on like something's wrong
01:04:24
with them yeah yeah because yeah he'll he can go into Howard Stern like really deeply yeah like he he goes yeah really basically I found that really hard and I felt I found which a guy you did too
01:04:36
Obama difficult for uh the basiness but I finally got it that's what we got to do think about Obama you got to stay calm that's we're gonna be fine there's no reason no one's gonna do
01:04:49
a thing so I finally do them now and now I feel like I got him but back in the day it was like
01:04:54
down here we didn't know very well I guess no I when I first four years I did them didn't work at all even his second term a little more but I can do him now and everyone yeah successful we love him
01:05:06
he's he's no drama Obama so he's just to me no dramaless guy that's what he was save the drama for Obama did you watch any uh for music since you're a musician one last question what
01:05:18
was your first like record you bought or the love you mean as a little kid as a little kid
01:05:25
I bought do you want to know a secret as a 45.60 yeah because I want to hold your
01:05:32
hand with sold out yeah it was do you want to know a secret and I don't know if it's please please me I don't know anyway 45 yeah we listen
01:05:46
where did you grow up I I from Montana but I grew up in the peninsula uh San Carlos 20 miles south of San Francisco and the Beatles came on Ed Sullivan and
01:05:57
I went down to this little record store I must have stole some quarters from my dad's store from I don't know where I
01:06:04
got I think it was 50 cents for a 45 and I remember it was I was disappointed because I wanted I want to hold your
01:06:09
hand and I saw her standing there you know but I had three older brothers so they probably had them already I don't
01:06:15
know why for you I picture you buying LPS for some reason later yeah in the very beginning I I we were buying both but all all of us were buying albums uh later and my brothers were they were
01:06:27
older than me so but in the beginning it was a 45. wow kind of hip I know I'm I'm
01:06:34
so old Fred I'm I'm really you wouldn't believe it I go way back don't let this face fool you oh wow so you were getting 45s I in early days and I we bought we I
01:06:47
bought a Beach Boy album with my brother and we had a band called The Surfers and my kick drum was a clothes hamper and my
01:06:53
hearty boys book was my snare drum and I stole drumsticks from Mickey Hart's Drum store the guy was in the Grateful Dead
01:07:00
wow yeah welcome to my podcast where did you get what's your first drum set by the way um uh like like a a weird mix I think a
01:07:13
japanese-made uh sort of I think it was like a knockoff of a Grinch so it had that sort of uh you know Pearl inlay to it but it was like
01:07:24
fake and cheap but it was it was but it was great I loved it I loved my kid it was like a you know we got it used my
01:07:29
dad got it for me and first record I think my parents got me the Candyman by um Sammy Davis Jr oh really yeah yeah that's like the first memory of like I
01:07:40
mean I think it was really little but I can't do that yeah it's a great one though yeah it is great yeah yeah oh
01:07:48
yeah Sammy Davis was genius if there's a documentary on him you know just and so such a great drummer and great yeah
01:07:54
dancer talk about Entertainer and then my parents would get me um Beatles albums and during the 70s like they were
01:08:01
already broken up but then I'd get solo albums and stuff like that I remember which one rocked your world Ram yeah
01:08:07
Paul McCartney ram ram Ram is that's my favorite album ever really that's a masterpiece yeah wow yeah it is brilliant that is probably his best McCartney
01:08:19
I think he had gems on every album I never even know RAM and I love McCartney it's in 19 this 1971 album that is boy that blew my mind
01:08:29
still listen to it it's like a weird it's like a hip it's like a weird like country-ish hippie uh kind of uh it's an
01:08:38
experimental album I would say and he won't play those on his tour right now I don't think I've ever heard
01:08:46
one song from an album are you familiar with uh Arrow Right Through Me from Back to the egg I think that's I think
01:08:55
it's one of his best songs because that's um the horn part at the end is insane wow this is making my day friends
01:09:09
because it turns around weird like it doesn't land on us yeah yeah arrow through me God it's so so good oh got it
01:09:16
Fred you made my day someone else knows back to the egg and error geez that's awesome this is the greatest podcast ever anyway Fred we love you we
01:09:29
we just say that now I'm old enough now I just say I love you too man I love the both of you I admire the both of you I
01:09:35
look up to both of you and I love hanging out with you guys and uh thank you for chatting buddy it's a lot laughs
01:09:41
and let's uh let's have let's have let's have let's have a a lazy dinner one of these nights in L.A somewhere yeah we'll run into it Largo yeah I feel like we I feel like the three both of you I feel
01:09:54
like we do run into each other once in a while through Largo yeah and this says sushi
01:10:00
restaurant we go to right near Largo it doesn't matter well I don't know if I'm supposed to say it I I there's no one
01:10:07
there if you go with Sandler or Conan there's nobody on the street with cameras it's just very it's mellow great
01:10:13
place to have a conversation and hang out so Fred will go and Dana will buy [Music]
01:10:27
oh I love that part yeah so much fun Fred thanks thanks for asking me to do this this was awesome all right love you okay bye-bye
01:10:38
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
01:10:43
questions ask us anything anything you want you can email us at fly on the wall at cadence13.com this is from Chris height question for
01:10:55
us thank you Chris if an SNL bit is cut from the show or is passed up can you resubmit it the next week is a good question because this uh thank you Chris
01:11:08
you know what it is the truth is you've got to be careful when you submit because if it doesn't get on it's got a stink on it and it's just loses about
01:11:21
30 percent of its punch for the next time because a resubmit what they call it are you resubmitting this it's
01:11:28
already got a negative connotation I did receptionist I don't think it got on oh because David Bowie oh right yeah and
01:11:36
so um so I resubmitted it but got it on with MC Hammer and then uh I got on with
01:11:43
Roseanne but he's kind of talking about did you get uh cut from the show or just
01:11:49
didn't get it off no it got lost actually it was different it got on okay and made it to read through and then David Bowie wanted to switch parts to me
01:11:56
and that's when I said I don't think I can and then it dropped yeah yeah rough so I grounded Mr Spade called called me
01:12:05
in the hotel room I called him this is the things of SNL honestly just when I hear it David he taught me how to do
01:12:12
this dance move once One Night in New York with Dennis and John he is I don't know I say no one cooler than David Bowie was [ __ ] hey what is this just
01:12:25
such an artist and was pretty pretty [ __ ] cool dude like uh very nice charm lights comedy oh yeah was it my young comedian special not because of
01:12:36
me but he was in the audience really that would make me nervous [ __ ] bananas Gandhi's in the second row how
01:12:43
do you feel about it he's like I like that Rob Schneider Schneider was on it with me Drake say there Jan Karam we had
01:12:49
a [ __ ] big Stoller we had a great uh run there with Dennis hosting my [ __ ] kid what did my glaco
01:13:02
people think he's funny let's see if it's true or not this Tides into uh Schneider he was there we got the age uh
01:13:09
HBO special that got us got seen by Lauren's office if something's cut from his show and you
01:13:15
resubmit it or recast it yeah to give it if a new host comes in I think cowbell might have
01:13:21
been cut or didn't make it until walking came and made history I got a fever a more cowbell that's probably a top 10 sketch yeah I think yo yeah that's uh
01:13:34
and so yeah resubmissions are tough but eventually hopefully they get I actually wrote in when Seinfeld's host
01:13:40
McCartney coming in as a receptionist show and uh it didn't get on so they didn't they didn't even give it to him you know what I mean it has to get on first then they go to him and say will you do it but it
01:13:52
didn't get on so you guys thank you for your questions [Music] this has been a podcast presentation of cadence 13. please listen then rate review and follow all episodes available
01:14:05
now for free wherever you get your podcast no joke folks fly on the wall has been a presentation of cadence 13. executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade Chris
01:14:16
Corcoran of cadence 13 and Charlie finan of brilstein entertainment the show's lead producers Greg Holtzman with
01:14:22
production and Engineering support from Serena Regan and Chris Basil of cadence 13.