00:00:00
okay Dana I'm wondering why no comedians have their book named always on right
00:00:05
because almost all comedians are not always on Buddy Hackett would cry himself to sleep every night
00:00:11
Sid Caesar would go to the beach and go should I swim out boys no Canadians does
00:00:17
that mean kill himself the ones are always on cry themselves to sleep let's put it that way we do have a
00:00:23
rap we comedians as being like sad sex and like obviously damaged but it's it's
00:00:29
I hate it it's sort of a running theme it's not not true yeah I don't know I mean I think uh you
00:00:37
know having a rough childhood maybe being on the kind of a little kid in school you get a big old chip having a
00:00:43
chip on your shoulder is good for the Arts yeah I'll show you [ __ ] well there's a couple that come to mind
00:00:50
that are very like internal in real life but I have to say you at least I like to hang out with the ones where I don't
00:00:55
have to extract the comedy from them like you're just very sort of the way you are anyway I think I'm like that and
00:01:01
uh I like that easier than like pulling teeth to get someone to say something emoticum of humor it's it's very
00:01:10
interesting the relaxation and confidence like what is it kind of about like if you walk in a room and it's like
00:01:16
say it's Lauren and Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin and maybe just throw in Obama and you take a chair you know
00:01:23
obviously no I'm putting a a table that might intimidate you and then how much
00:01:28
can you be yourself no it is hard but sometimes I turn nervousness I I goose
00:01:34
it up and watch extra Clowny it's it's really David Spade um was that as good as it gets or what
00:01:40
was the name of that TV show I thought you were the funniest guy in it Lauren goes like this you know David Spade and
00:01:46
then they all look and I go let's go right into go right in I don't even go ahead man I go like this
00:01:52
isn't that special I love the ball yeah Dana calm down you don't need it pull my
00:01:59
strings just be just be just be Michelle be yourself Alec Baldwin I'm excited
00:02:05
about Alec was in the room you just mentioned that uh
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scary room Alec Baldwin is is a force of nature man he is uh a very you know he
00:02:17
played football in high school he's he's a big guy he he he's built strong he's one of 37
00:02:24
Brothers I know Billy Baldwin I know Daniel Baldwin yeah Stephen Baldwin yeah
00:02:30
and there's uh if you go to the town they grew up in and you just meet people at the store I'm a Baldwin too I know
00:02:36
about one when I when I open my show I go any Baldwins here a couple in the back
00:02:42
um Alec Baldwin so we're really happy to have had him on the podcast because he
00:02:47
has his own lane I love that phrase with his history of Saturday Night Live
00:02:52
going for movie stardom and loving Saturday Night Live and hosting it 17 times he has the record and then many
00:02:59
guest appearances just regular cameos they did and then he also did Trump for
00:03:05
four years we thought he's like I okay I like this word a de facto cast member he
00:03:10
has a huge history with SNL and we wanted to break that down I'm also fascinated by the Baldwin brothers and
00:03:16
where they came from and how do you have four Sons like that they're all kind of cool looking and they have really cool
00:03:21
voices I like to meet the dad yeah my kids feel fine I don't know where they came from you know genetics is strong am
00:03:28
I doing this
00:03:34
yeah he's cool hey uh he was my third show Dana how many shows were you on
00:03:39
with him do you think I think he hosted at least twice it seemed like he was in the studio a lot too doing guest spots
00:03:46
so he was just around and he will talk all about how he made that pivot from he still is a movie star
00:03:53
but he really really loves sketch comedy he said I want to do this yeah and he ended up being brilliant at it so he was
00:04:00
doing benef
00:04:10
he was doing the hunt for at October when he hosted and that's what he was he was promoting that or Miami blues or
00:04:16
something but it was great to meet him yeah and watch him just uh be better than me immediately as
00:04:23
a as a sketch player I know his Tony Bennett is amazing yeah he as Lauren
00:04:28
would say he knows how to land and laugh you know he knows his way around that did I even comb my hair today
00:04:34
it's called I did David there's four right there God damn it just don't just punt on it you know just let it go I
00:04:41
just get my comb look I'm not gonna show this it's in the cold room kids would cry it's slow even run away why daddy
00:04:47
why is this hair like that Daddy God damn yours is maybe worse but you have a
00:04:52
hat smartly well you know I work out and I sweat it's a long story I don't want to go into it now they did the whole
00:04:59
thing like that listen Heather get the 12-way mirror yeah get this this special
00:05:06
get the special Spritz and I can tease that up I know it's maybe it's only me
00:05:11
and uh James Cameron have one he practices Avatar in it
00:05:16
I don't like to see myself how do you practice how do you see how they all look from every angle they're
00:05:23
like I don't know what I'm saying they're in the water well we had a very a lot of interesting things were said
00:05:29
today so yeah I just wanted uh Alec is not shy about having an opinion about
00:05:35
everything in life he's very interesting to talk to and it was great to revisit
00:05:40
all Saturday Night Live stuff all those great movies he's quite a talent an American original and it was so much fun
00:05:48
talking to him I would listen to this one if I were me to sum it up I've been to Aspen says on my shirt why are you
00:05:55
what are you getting for that a hundred dollars
00:06:01
uh now I just like to let the world has been you had an H to that that's that's stinking thinking you're good enough
00:06:07
you're strong enough and gosh darn it people that's like a rose joke I think I saw you in has been
00:06:13
what's the name of your special again personal lives uh nothing personal or nothing personal
00:06:19
was uh yeah so anyway Alec Baldwin ladies and gentlemen um here he is
00:06:25
[Music]
00:06:30
I feel like I died went to Comedy Purgatory here this is great it's Heaven comedy Purgatory okay
00:06:38
we're on the jury's out the jury's out yes we shall see we shall see but it is
00:06:44
by the end of this show you two get to see you yes good to see you Alec um you
00:06:49
too all right I've been listening to the show and I uh um I listened to the show when
00:06:56
you guys do the Promos in the beginning Spade you're very good you're a very good pitch man oh yeah you're a wonder
00:07:02
your voice is clear you have the right emphasis you're you're a born salesman oh [ __ ] yeah I have told him that from
00:07:09
the beginning he thought I was kidding like he has a voice and it really cuts through that's why I let him do mostly
00:07:14
he does he should just stay away from he should just stay away from hair products that's what he should say don't even
00:07:20
look at my hair today I can't I can't your hair is like a boating accident I don't know what's wrong it's like
00:07:26
fiberglass shards sticking out like spider web yeah I know I was jealous I
00:07:33
was jealous of Alec Baldwin's hair um pretty much from the get-go Alec I was just looking online to see first of
00:07:40
all who you were and secondly what um what I think you were my third show I
00:07:46
was a writer and it was your first show and so it was either it was either my
00:07:52
third show I think the second one was Dice Clay and I think you were third do you remember this does that make any sense I just remember when I met you I
00:07:58
was terrifying when I met you I was terrified well because you come you you come from
00:08:04
that school of um like Letterman and other people who are if you get into the
00:08:09
comedy uh thing it's like log rolling if you try to be sharper than them or as
00:08:14
funny as them or you try to like battle wits with them you know who's going in the water I'm going in the war oh that's
00:08:20
nice and you're so and you're so clever like Dana is uh warm and and uh and
00:08:26
again kind of does all these silly characters yeah and Spade you you terrified me whatever you would walk in I would like stiffen no that's so wow
00:08:35
he's gonna dine out on that but he's gone I said I'm going in the water today well they see right he's like a
00:08:40
combination he's got some Dennis in him that sort of wit and kind of Letterman
00:08:45
from love that went to generous yeah sure it is true I am uh I am yeah I
00:08:53
agree thank you Alec I I when you came to host I was very nervous just because first of all honestly you weren't the
00:08:59
biggest star there because you were starting out but we had just seen hunt for October they also uh sequester the
00:09:06
writers to see a new product from the host and that was I think Miami Blues right and we watched that and so you
00:09:14
just could tell I've said on other podcasts you knew Alec was a star you walk into that meeting and then get a
00:09:20
black turtleneck good looking good hair which I'm incredible hair yeah and then
00:09:25
good voice just too much going on angered me and then um very cool
00:09:33
yeah I really laid down on that one attacked well in the first week I never
00:09:38
said this before uh Victoria Jackson then the second time you hosted I've
00:09:44
never said it to Alex she said I'm I'm not gonna do it this week I'm not gonna do it this week and I said well what
00:09:49
talking about I'm not gonna fall in love with him speaking of you and then what's
00:09:55
funny go ahead but by Friday she said he looked at me with those blue eyes I fell in love again
00:10:01
but she didn't realize she didn't realize her already fallen in love with heartman I wasn't like yeah
00:10:07
the great thing you know what's funny is as you know is that when I first came on you have to make a decision or you have
00:10:14
to you have to recognize something which is either you come on and your career is so iconic like Stallone or
00:10:20
Schwarzenegger where they're going to make fun of you as you or you do your best I mean with varying degrees of
00:10:27
success to just become a member of the company and do the sketches and it's not really about you and sending you up it's you
00:10:33
need to be a part of a group and so when I came on that's when I realized that I'm not Schwarzenegger new king Lampoon
00:10:39
my Essence so I just thought I would try to be uh you know one of the gang there and I
00:10:46
always came back people said why did you host so many times I said because that was really
00:10:52
in the beginning the Heyday of me doing films and mostly like all the 90s I did movies yeah and uh and I said movies are
00:10:59
challenging movies can be challenging but they're so [ __ ] boring it's unbelievable to death and I said I went
00:11:05
back to SNL all the time because it was fun I want to have fun and it was fun yeah I think maybe that comes from him
00:11:11
doing plays Dana because uh I think yeah like I've read you really like doing plays and that's another version of
00:11:18
doing a play in a way you're live you're with other people you're playing off everybody it's happening right then
00:11:23
but now that I have seven children between the ages of of nine and eight months and eight I'm dying I'm gonna
00:11:30
sign a deal to do uh a play for like the next 10 years so I'm gonna be gone every night I'm sorry I'm in the car five I
00:11:38
gotta be at the theater earlier you do have a bit of a Cheaper by the Dozen Vibe going uh it's crazy that's good but
00:11:45
you came from six so it's it's thematic in a sense do you come from a big family five you're one of five and you grew up
00:11:52
again where did you grow up uh Sausalito from Montana but then grew up grew up basically on the peninsula you know
00:11:59
South of San Francisco yeah we're from the Bay Area yeah middle class stacked
00:12:04
kids two years apart like the Baldwin boys pretty much or is that you you you I I guess that kind of because you do
00:12:10
have a very four one five five I think you are you have that Vibe I
00:12:18
don't know Harris I'm laughing like Kamala but you said
00:12:23
here to your point a second ago when you came on the show to me you were a star
00:12:28
already yeah and and but you acted exactly like we have a new cast member
00:12:34
this week and you said to me because you've done the big submarine movie and and I said you were kind of going I
00:12:40
don't know about these movies and you go uh I uh I go what do you want to do I just met you we're on the Sound Stage
00:12:46
rehearsing I want to do this I like doing this you think I want to be on a summary and go I I captain for the rest of my life [ __ ] that you know so yeah
00:12:53
well the [ __ ] with that is I always just say oh I'd love to be in the cast I'd love to be in the cast this is the most
00:12:59
fun and then when the Trump thing came and I was in the cast yeah yeah I was I
00:13:04
was in and out in five minutes I was in and out in the first five minutes but I was there the first two seasons like the
00:13:09
first season I did every show second season I did nearly of the show third season Wesley second season yeah but
00:13:14
like that period I was there I was like boy do I regret wishing I wish came true
00:13:20
well that's with kids on a Saturday night that is a big a big deal because it it gets you on that late schedule
00:13:26
you're gone all day on that Saturday rehearsing so yeah that's that's I think I think I think I think when I finished
00:13:32
SNL with Trump being in 2020 when he lost I I still had three less children
00:13:38
than I have now I've had three children since then so the other kid every Monday well do you want them do you want to
00:13:44
make an announcement speed is like no no wait do do either of you have kids
00:13:51
you have kids two boys yeah I have one daughter and I grew up with
00:13:58
two brothers and Dana you only had brothers too right no I have a baby sister Fuller Brothers I don't even know
00:14:05
that Dennis Miller would say something like Christ sex I can't get the progeny
00:14:11
is increasing in an exponential raid in the Baldwin house all nice yeah it's
00:14:16
crazy but yeah it's it's like this is my project I really mean that this is the
00:14:22
thing [ __ ] I get a job and I'm like you know if it's a week if I come to Vancouver shoot a movie your character's
00:14:30
dead on page five of the movie I'm like great I'm there can I do 10 weeks so it's kind of like a
00:14:37
flip but have you seen so far that the siblings are raising each other it's a
00:14:43
it's a clan it's a brood and there's the mom and the dad but the siblings as they go along are doing a lot of shenanigans
00:14:49
and play I mean it's it's a pretty incredible Dynamic to watch we had a girl and then we had four boys in a room
00:14:55
wow then we had two girls and the boys are you know I mean it's they're boys
00:15:01
man so it's like you come in their room and one of them's standing there out of the shower going I'm not peeing it's not
00:15:06
a pain it's my penis that's what I do and not only are they singing a song about it
00:15:12
by the way I think they're still young they're not really pulling their weight yet right they're not doing as many
00:15:17
chores and and uh babysitting as you'd like well I love the line when you guys were
00:15:23
talking with Sherry on Terry and uh and and and and Spade says you know we
00:15:28
didn't get cars on the show like you Dana you know your whole you're being carted around like Meghan Markle
00:15:34
he is our Meghan Markle cheese I love this guy and my kids and my kids gotta have a little Meghan Markle code they're
00:15:41
getting crazy yeah it's hard to stay rich though with so many kids I have you know It's just
00:15:46
tough out there because every everyone's uh in this more spoiled world than we
00:15:51
grew up in because when I was a kid you know I would think oh in the summer in
00:15:56
Arizona I bet everyone's having a lot of fun they drove to San Diego or something but now on Instagram you have concrete
00:16:03
photographic proof everyone's having more fun than you it leather like in Ibiza in Italy I'm like wait they're in
00:16:09
Europe now like everyone I think the change for me is going to be that um like next summer we're gonna start to go
00:16:16
overseas and go away as opposed to our standard you know we have a house on Rhode Island and
00:16:21
we just kind of places in Vermont and uh I'm like I don't want their Summers to be just like tennis camp and all that
00:16:28
[ __ ] so we're going to take them overseas next summer for like five or six weeks and rented house we did that
00:16:33
we did that in Italy where'd you go where San kashano de banye it's about
00:16:39
it's in Tuscany uh it's about 90 minutes outside of Rome I guess and uh
00:16:51
Spa there with just I'd never seen a spot like that with hot water coming down on you but I'll be honest with you
00:16:57
it was a bit rough on the kids at a certain point they were not excited all they wanted to do was Catch Air off
00:17:03
statues and stuff like skateboarding Tony Hawk stuff I could catch so much air off that and when they saw the
00:17:09
statue of David they they turned purple just this giant naked statue they just
00:17:14
thought it was the funniest thing so there was a bit of that but I think getting them out there is cool I think that the girls might appreciate it more
00:17:21
than the boys I don't know we're gonna go we're gonna go overseas to Europe next summer and uh we're gonna plot that
00:17:26
out because obviously it's a big crowd and where are you going because I want to tell the paparazzi can you just hit
00:17:31
me with your I-10 yeah I'll text you I'll text you sit CC me thanks I'll see you oh yeah but I want to before I
00:17:38
forget this which is it's so funny to talk to you two guys and Dana people would say to me you know years ago 2016
00:17:45
and that's seven years ago so I started doing the Trump thing uh and uh of course Lauren says it's going to be
00:17:51
three shows oh three that's Lauren yeah
00:17:57
he said there's three shows in the South because he's gonna lose so I come in I do the three shows I'm
00:18:04
laying in bed uh we fall asleep we don't have a TV in our bedroom but I got my computer and we
00:18:09
fall asleep and I wake up to three in the morning I'm checking since Trump went one he won oh boy and I wake my
00:18:14
wife up and I go Trump won Marvel literally groans and rolls over goes
00:18:19
back to sleep and I sit there and go now I gotta do this [ __ ] thing for the next four [ __ ] years but you Dana I'm
00:18:28
not just saying this to be polite I mean you were a huge inspiration for me because I would watch I'd show people ah
00:18:34
Bush I'd show Bush and I'd say now watch this and you'd be like nagada you know
00:18:40
you do all that phonetics yeah you did those insane phonetics with him and I say that's it you make your own
00:18:46
character yes it doesn't have to be some precise no I mean I do I do the worst Trump impressive impersonation of
00:18:51
anybody in America but the idea was I thought to myself what does he deserve he doesn't deserve I'm a Brendan Gleason
00:18:59
doing the Comey movie he's doing the combi movie with Jeff Daniels it's like
00:19:04
but you know I I could do until next not even literal pencil next but I could do Bush senior and I could do Perot but for
00:19:12
Trump it'd be hard but you did have this you brought this hulking trumpism to it
00:19:18
you know that was just innate uh so what did he deserve he's a two-dimensional
00:19:23
guy and I said and everybody doesn't understand that you know you know infinitely better than I do that you're
00:19:29
firing the cannon on a live show oh yeah I'm in front of a live audience and TV cameras yes and I just left to myself in
00:19:36
acting school they'd say watch the performance with the sound off yeah we watch The Sound of and you'd see
00:19:42
the person you were imitating or emulating in whatever way with the sound of with trouble is always like stick
00:19:47
your mouth out like you're gonna suck the windshield out of the car hold your hands up like you're waiting for someone
00:19:53
to hand you a towel I mean like they're like this yeah and uh but a lot of what I said I showed people your bush I said
00:20:00
look at this I said he's doing his own thing he's come up with his own thing you know well because we didn't know we
00:20:06
didn't know what there was after Reagan bumbling Reagan we it was like a technocrat it was like a flat voice
00:20:11
there was nothing there and then kept teasing out little rhythms going in that area that thing and then taking it to
00:20:18
from not gonna do it to nah God do it but the audience took it with me but I
00:20:23
wanted to ask you the the terror until you get used to it of the whole studio is the only time it's quiet is right
00:20:29
before the cold opening everybody's freezes and the other sketches there's movement and slats moving around of
00:20:35
course yeah nine seconds and then you have all these jokes to land so I
00:20:41
remember at one point to myself I said think of the script as suggestions because I would get I I and when the
00:20:48
script was too long I'd say I feel like I'm doing homework now Al it's too many jokes I would rather do less and be
00:20:55
playful but how did you deal with all that pressure because it's all quiet and here comes Alec doing Trump you know
00:21:02
it's it's scary that dude I mean I'm standing there on the stage and we're
00:21:07
gonna do the we're gonna do the dress and I'm not I'm not saying this to be amusing or whatever we're standing there
00:21:13
to do the dress and I go I have no [ __ ] idea what no money all I know is I gotta stick my mouth out
00:21:21
like this yeah put my hands up and say and I'm trying to just do the whole and
00:21:26
he's a guy who back then in the early days we had this gag was like he was a guy who was always groping
00:21:33
for a stronger word than he never found so he'd say I spent I went to this event with this crowd it was a fantastic crowd
00:21:41
this crowd was truly truly fantastic you know we're looking just
00:21:46
Loops back he's not he's not a lot of verbal muscularity he had he never runs
00:21:52
into a ditch because he has these little phrases many people are saying many people you're going to see it we're going to do it because we know how to do
00:21:58
it we know where we're going and a lot of people don't want us to do it but we're gonna do it anyway
00:22:05
[Music] when you did your TV show how many
00:22:11
seasons was just shooting how many was that just shoot me was uh 148 episodes I
00:22:16
think it was six full seasons six full seasons that's great I would love to do another TV series that's right thank you
00:22:22
for pulling it back to me because when Dana showed me it was in his dressing
00:22:28
I just wanted to say about 30 Rock because I wanted this is something I I just didn't really know the the breadth
00:22:33
of the awards for sweet Alec for the 30 Rock 3M he's three Golden Globes and
00:22:40
seven seconds two minutes most in history I think it's a little over the
00:22:45
top but I mean that yeah that is that's insane seven seconds one like the fourth
00:22:52
or fifth time I mean like we're next to teen around the table you're with your cast at the table they go and the winner
00:22:57
is Alec Baldwin I like the team I was like nah come on where's that where's the originality in
00:23:04
this battle well it's also your peers I mean I don't I got one Emmy but a sag award that's all actors giving you the
00:23:10
award is that the did you feel kind of okay guys I mean I appreciate you I was
00:23:15
very grateful you know 30 Rock was something where the first season I I didn't want to do a TV series up
00:23:21
because I wasn't sure uh you know it was like as we all know it's like what's going to come up six years if it runs
00:23:27
six seven years from now so but I did it uh I did the pilot and I go well you know this isn't bad you know and and I
00:23:34
knew I wasn't funny they're funny because they're right to me I've never said I was funny or a comedian because I
00:23:40
don't write you're a comedian when you write your material you're funny if you run like Tina and Carlock and bgm and uh
00:23:46
um but I went in there and just uh tried to play people said it was Lauren it wasn't
00:23:53
really Lauren because this is a guy who um this is very unself-aware I wanted to
00:23:59
play a guy that was completely unseparable and he walks into a room and doesn't realize how he's coming across it didn't strike me as much Lauren
00:24:06
you're right and also those TV shows yours uh first of all it's in town which
00:24:12
is a gift um you don't have to go to La second you probably wouldn't have done it if it was not no and uh New York but
00:24:18
mine was a sitcom which is easier hours yours is a is like shot like a movie so
00:24:25
some of those days can get really hard yeah it was very tough on the crew but we kept it pretty cool it was because
00:24:30
you know the joke was that Tina wanted to shoot everything she wrote so if your
00:24:35
character sitting down there and Jake Makowski says what was your date like last night she go well whip show the
00:24:43
date you don't describe it we don't describe anything we shoot everything we should we show it we don't tell the show now when you when you did your when you
00:24:49
did your your uh four camera what studio were you at where were you I was at CBS Radford in the valley you got Radford
00:24:56
yeah yeah Will and Grace came on a year after us uh or two years after us then they
00:25:02
then they followed us on the schedule but we were around when it was very tough it was Seinfeld it was ER it was
00:25:08
friends Frazier Will and Grace so it was tough Veronica's Closet was the only one
00:25:15
we were beating I think because we we were still in like the top 15 but you can't you can't keep love right you
00:25:22
can't keep up with Seinfeld these shows are monstrous even years later so we did
00:25:27
a good job I thought and I really liked it and it was a super super fun experience but um it's hard to get that
00:25:34
again I think I think we got canceled because we only had about 40 million viewers or something well the other
00:25:39
thing is I would tell people like when you have a fantasy I'll never forget I was I was parsing myself and I was we
00:25:47
were talking about a fantasy work situation and this guy and I start to go well and I'm hedging a guy goes Alec
00:25:53
it's a fantasy you haven't he said have it exactly the way you oh yeah make it up and for me my fantasy is I'm doing
00:25:59
the jacket relationship I'm coming out there me and Audrey Meadows come out we blow a kiss to the yard so how's
00:26:05
everybody doing tonight everybody good understand we have a birth
00:26:12
candy year old lady in the front row Mrs McGillicuddy everybody join me happy birthday we sing she blows out the cake
00:26:19
now the following week we do the same [ __ ] thing again with Mrs McGillicuddy is there it's her birthday
00:26:25
again I just wanted to have like a like like a good time I want to have a good time and I don't want to do before Camp
00:26:31
so I went off to go do the thing with Kelsey we're gonna do this sitcom uh with Kelsey and I remember standing
00:26:38
there I'm literally standing on the edge of the set with Chris Lloyd and volley uh Chandra shaken and uh and uh Kelsey
00:26:46
was nearby and I go do you guys notice something about this scent and Chris Boyd goes what I go well this
00:26:55
guy has a lot of money his wife has a lot of money and his wife just left him and I said it was in a feminine touch in
00:27:01
this whole room and everything looks like it's from West Elm it's all very inexpensive [ __ ] Westdale at Christmas
00:27:06
and when Chris was like yeah that's interesting that you're saying that I thought
00:27:11
[Laughter]
00:27:21
this looks a little too Crate and Barrel to get picked up I've been in a lot a lot of bombs have you oh yeah I did a
00:27:29
lot of Pilots I did a pilot with because I was thinking about that comedian thing I folklore has it that Lucille Ball
00:27:36
didn't really really write much but you'd give her something and she'd create Magic obviously but I did a pilot
00:27:43
with Desi Arnaz Jr called whacked out and we're shooting the pilot and we're bombing and then all
00:27:50
of a sudden I hear a voice on this side of the studio going what's wrong with you people this is funny and it was
00:27:56
Lucille Ball in her later years so Desi just kind of went okay mom's here and
00:28:02
then a huge line form so that people could get her autographed but the pilot didn't work but he was very proud of his
00:28:08
dad a super nice guy Desi Arness now you both you live in L.A you're both in L.A
00:28:13
right now yes sir yeah yeah I have a I have a I'm well right now I'm at a um
00:28:27
yeah here's your quiz what movie is that that's red so I just watched it the other day jeez the other day I love that
00:28:35
yeah I just watched Reds the other day you did I had and not only did I watch res the other day here's I'm being very
00:28:41
rude now the moment I finished watching the movie I hung up the phone and I called Lauren and I talked to him about it for an hour well why is that rude
00:28:48
that sounds amazing no I mean I'm not a much of a star [ __ ] named dropper but it was like so mellow he's so he's so
00:28:56
rich his mind you know I mean he's really really brilliant how did you like
00:29:01
you saw when it came out how how long it had been since you'd seen it and how did it affect you this only seen it one of
00:29:06
the times since it came out in 1980 I'd seen it before because I was always hooked on I was really hooked on the
00:29:12
Witnesses on the testimonials I love that technique where they had the real brilliant talking then they come to cut
00:29:18
through the dramatization and um you know I'm watching movies now where it's like I don't mean to be so cliched
00:29:25
about it but it's like things you're just never gonna see it again it's like movies now are like I mean every movie every movie I do now
00:29:31
is like you know me and Marlon Brando trapped in an elevator for now no sets
00:29:39
I don't know if this is true I don't know if this is true but I was told that Jack Nicholson wrote a very he had sort
00:29:46
of a thing for Diane Keaton and he wrote a very very personal revealing
00:29:51
a letter and he puts it in the book that he gives to her in that scene to
00:29:57
create all this sort of tension but I thought he really stands out as Eugene O'Neill the whole movie is is brilliant
00:30:03
who would make a movie like that about the silver I was told I was told he was in a wardrobe fitting and he
00:30:10
dropped the Spence said my penis my penis
00:30:18
what is that hat you're wearing oh it just says uh midnight toker it just got too bright I don't know why it got pick
00:30:24
up right in here midnight toker Alec you know that song yes yeah it's just stupid in a midnight Joker but anyway Reds we
00:30:31
have not talked about Reds on this podcast so that's that's a bucket list for me let's talk about movies give me
00:30:37
five of your favorite performances male or female what are five movies were the
00:30:43
acting to you is so uh uh um
00:30:54
no I'm not kidding Alec no no no that's I'm not Elizabeth Dana I mean I mean I
00:31:01
mean I mean David you're being very sensitive Chris I was gonna say Veronica's Closet Veronica's Closet is
00:31:06
Veronica's Closet there's a movie there yes yeah no Joe go ahead Danny you first
00:31:12
give me give me three three performances men and three by women give me three by men
00:31:18
essential essential uh I was just saw a documentary on Katherine Hepburn so on a
00:31:24
Golden Pond she she got me very I was very emotional about her performance in that I heard your Henry Fonda
00:31:31
impersonation by the way the other day on the concert what show is quite a few shows on this show I didn't even I don't
00:31:37
remember doing it on this show do you remember I feel like yeah like
00:31:42
I'll name him one great film performance yeah yeah two great male performance is embedded in one film
00:31:49
12 Angry Men incorrect okay all right but a good guess all right that's 12 good
00:31:56
performances the fails say that Larry and Hagman oh God what a brilliant movie yeah
00:32:03
I want to know what he's I don't want to hear what he's saying I want to know what he's thinking they're trying to
00:32:09
prevent a nuclear war and Larry Hagman is the The Interpreter do you know the movie David I do I think they redid it
00:32:15
yeah but then it probably wasn't very good I think somebody I want to ask Alex well go ahead I don't mean to interrupt
00:32:22
let's finish our list I just want to insert one thing here my wife and I have a really
00:32:27
uh a love affair with a few movies with one actor he's not considered a great
00:32:34
actor but the movies are touchstones for us three days of the Condor
00:32:40
All the President's Men right yeah and I think the way we were those movies are
00:32:46
movies you can watch a lot I also loved you know ordinary people that he directed I just sort of have a red first
00:32:52
thing about Robert Redford as a producer too and Alex not giving it up at all no
00:32:57
he no no but I mean Redford of course is of a certain stripe where they where it was
00:33:03
discouraged it's like it's like cruised away Magnolia Cruz does not know you he blows everybody away he's nominated for
00:33:09
an Oscar I believe he doesn't win yeah but I mean everybody knows a cruise in Magnolia is the greatest actor he's ever
00:33:16
done yes give it up and then when he's done and then when he's done with that what he's done with revealing these darker edges of himself his agents and
00:33:23
producers and his I mean this is my uh position they sit him down and they're like okay are you done now can you get
00:33:30
out of your system for sure are you happy now it's like Julia Roberts it's
00:33:36
like Julia Roberts in Mary Riley someone sits her down with uh um
00:33:42
uh um they do the back they do the uh origin
00:33:47
story of uh uh Jacqueline Hyde and she does Mary and someone sits her down and says now whatever you do this patented
00:33:54
signature smile of yours you're not going to slide out or laugh one [ __ ] frame of this movie don't you dare right
00:34:00
we're gonna go to completely so they do the movie and same thing she's in a hotel restaurant they're going are you
00:34:06
done now okay you finish let's get back to bring back those 200 teeth and we're gonna
00:34:12
go dude John Wayne now John Wayne played Genghis Khan for one movie
00:34:18
that oh that's all you need to know about let's say hey Duke uh we're gonna go get back from the saddle here okay
00:34:24
all right look I got one uh it's courtroom the verdict
00:34:29
okay there's Paul Newman again so there's a good one right there's Newman there's Newman we can do maps who I mean
00:34:37
I just came today I drove up to Vermont yesterday came back from Treat Williams memorial service because of retreat done
00:34:42
I know as you probably know and uh and I was talking to the crowd there and I said here's a guy who you know you go
00:34:48
watch hair and here he is the dionysian love God The Rock God he's dancing on
00:34:54
the table he's so [ __ ] amazing and within a couple years he does Prince the city and uh and and I said you're going
00:35:02
to understand movies in New York especially in the map of the great great film directors at the peak of their
00:35:07
talent I said we're in Vermont and I go the line of actors who wanted to be considered to play the
00:35:14
lead in Prince of the City or any great male role in a little medicine well that line goes all the way to [ __ ] Albany
00:35:20
everybody in New York wanted that part everybody and drink up there well and
00:35:25
and with Newman he knew like there's my chance to dig down now the Oscars were
00:35:32
83 I drove cross-country for the first time two live in L.A my drive to La
00:35:37
we're there we have an Oscar party and Ben Kingsley wins for David's going to
00:35:43
go no no Ben Kingsley wins for God and I've
00:35:49
always said that those people who win for biographical films of living people they bring the the mantle of that person
00:35:56
into the room too so I'm not as excited you know what I mean are you giving an Oscar to Ben kingsley's performance are
00:36:01
you giving an Oscar to Gandhi so when Newman lost in the verdict which I think is one of the greatest 25 performances
00:36:08
of all time we like threw our beer cans at the [ __ ] TV room like screaming and and
00:36:13
outrage but that's a great right the verdict great [ __ ] and then uh uh and
00:36:19
James Mason
00:36:26
[Applause] yeah well what do you think of De Niro and Raging Bull just as a performance
00:36:34
um that that's a pretty well De Niro is someone who is a he's got a bunch of
00:36:39
them but yeah well he's very gifted but he also has the great I mean he'd be the first to say he has the great Good
00:36:45
Fortune especially during the the Genesis of his career of being part of the battery with a great director Raging
00:36:52
Bull wasn't raging book is a bob Beijing book was raging because of Bob and Marty oh yeah Michael Chapman I mean the way
00:36:58
they shot it the way they cut it yeah I mean Marty is uh I did a small part in uh um with the departing I did a small
00:37:04
party oh yeah The Aviator with Leo and uh uh uh I mean you know you're just so
00:37:11
you're like high you're so [ __ ] thrilled with being um departed by itself what what what's that uh could
00:37:18
you describe for a second what it's like to be on a set with him is it just because he's so focused so likable what
00:37:23
is it about being around him and being directed by him well you know you get from him
00:37:29
uh I may be I'm superimposing this like he kind of telegraphs to you that we're going to do your scene here where you're
00:37:34
outside the door I'm not gonna pipe and I'm just talking to Leo through the door I got what it's wrong
00:37:40
and he's naked and he's pissing in the jars and he's in the other room and you know with Marty that you're smart enough
00:37:45
or at least you you're smart enough to know it ain't about you so let's get four or five good takes get your pipe
00:37:52
lit get your lines down get your angle to the camera how are you going to play your kind of the door is here if you
00:37:58
don't talk to a door because it's not the person so you're kind of playing uh and you're doing everything you need to do and you want to get it over with
00:38:04
quickly because you know that Barney wants to get in the room with Leo for the rest of the day
00:38:09
Leo naked pissing in the bottle Leah with the matted hair you you you get it
00:38:15
it's not about you it's not about you so you want to be efficient and then they
00:38:21
go off and they go like with the Departed we did The Departed and uh you know it was like uh Jack and uh uh math
00:38:28
and those guys they were the stars to film I just came in and I played my little notes you know what I mean that's it just like a rat like a rat I remember
00:38:36
when Nicholson went for that rat face it's very bold in that moment in The
00:38:42
Departed but what's your favorite Nicholson movie um hard to say but I got one go ahead
00:38:48
boy go let me hear yours maybe about maybe I'll
00:38:54
um if you're right there now that I was going to say I'll tell you if you're right uh
00:39:00
well she will of course um what is the name now I'm blanking out
00:39:06
because of you guys Five Easy Pieces no no that's close I like that um and not Chinatown although I love you
00:39:13
not Chinatown I love China how much more how much better can you eat what can you have you don't already have the future
00:39:18
Mr Gibbs John Houston impression from Alex my
00:39:24
favorite story he told me Jack was that he's on the set and it's milansky and Houston and and
00:39:32
Jack and they're shooting these scenes between the three and he said that there's Polansky holding forth and he's
00:39:38
talking and talking and talking finally um he's finished talking and uh he said
00:39:45
that Houston could pronounce his name Roman he called him romal
00:39:50
and he said that Houston he said that Houston looks at the mask and says he looks at Polansky and says now Ramon
00:39:57
there are really only two directions a little more and a little that
00:40:03
and I thought you wanna know something you're [ __ ] right you're [ __ ] right yeah wait let's let you guys say
00:40:09
something while I look at this uh yeah I got I got in my offshoot one while you're Googling um you tell me if it's
00:40:14
me with me go ahead no this is a different one this is uh poba Greenwich Village with I ain't gonna be a [ __ ]
00:40:20
T boy a bed bug Eddie that's a good performance it's a little
00:40:28
not the obvious obvious one right my favorite my favorite uh don't skim it
00:40:33
you're skimming me you know how about deer I'm a deer hunter for him and walking Deer Hunter for De Niro and
00:40:41
welcome this is this you do a great DeNiro my favorite my favorite my favorite Nicholson is Ironweed iron weed
00:40:48
with Meryl Streep favorite Nicholas yeah he probably makes me SOB every time I cut I'm gonna watch that tonight I'm
00:40:54
gonna watch that tonight I was gonna see it but I was sick that day uh dude De Niro no I'm not gonna do De Niro because
00:41:00
you're probably doing better no no I don't do it I don't go in places where someone's oh you know
00:41:07
you're the one that was doing a little bit a little bit
00:41:12
my favorite was when we did the uh Joe Pesci show we did we did the mock uh we
00:41:18
did that on pastry but the other thing was the mock opening of Goodfellas I mean I love going home to my
00:41:24
neighborhood in Massapequa I didn't do dinner I go my own neighborhood of mass people and it was Frankie the fish and
00:41:29
it was Louis the the Louis the the limp and then the guy that goes and it was Tommy six times because he said
00:41:36
everything six times I'm gonna go get the papers get the papers get the papers get the paper [ __ ] I was in that cold opening I was
00:41:44
out of focus Jimmy you were out of focus Jimmy oh my God I remember I just saw
00:41:50
this on like Instagram uh they were pan they pan around like every [ __ ] person the cast is in it and they go
00:41:57
around everyone's got a different bit to do well the um uh when I go back archively
00:42:03
and watch stuff oh I mean I watch uh you know I watched when I first came on there and it's like you know uh um very
00:42:11
little bit stuff I'm in uh except when we did uh uh we did this stupid thing the only time I ever
00:42:18
cracked when we did the show and I think this was really the only time it was mccartan and we did this thing called
00:42:24
the environmentally sensitive one which was a book which was a take on uh
00:42:29
uh the wild one and I played this Marlin band and one thing one thing I do is Veronica uh Victoria Jackson's there and
00:42:37
they had her old address where her boobs are like two garbage cans sticking in your face and she has she has a little
00:42:43
uh a little sweater on and I walk up to her and she says can I come with you Johnny I take her sword
00:42:48
and I go I'm gonna pull it down and I go
00:42:56
but then in the end uh Hartman had played the lines like every masterful
00:43:02
actor who played the ones and threw them away until the take until the end and we do this that we do the air episode and
00:43:09
the guy says boss we gotta go I'm just gonna ride over this daughter into the sunset and he's owns the chemical
00:43:15
company and this his henchman comes and goes boss we gotta go tank number seven
00:43:21
is blowing two and all of a sudden Hartman who'd thrown the line away turns around with this perfect wine in his
00:43:26
voice and grandfather goes take me with you
00:43:34
for a second that's really take me take me with you he just did this this
00:43:40
horrible wine and I literally [ __ ] cracked up so good yeah he wasn't don't
00:43:46
you love him oh oh we're going to we're gonna do a tribute show to Phil to talk
00:43:51
about uh in September it's one or two dates at the Groundlings but you could zoom in
00:43:57
and talk to us about them nice Bill Hader and Will Ferrell so many
00:44:02
people have mentioned him as a touchstone and just the guy who could do anything and we miss him and so I just
00:44:09
heard him for a second and I got a little emotional like I mean you captured it the Sinatra report oh oh yeah I got
00:44:17
chunks of stool bigger than you guys or whatever it was just Luther Campbell he tried to Croissant can't understand the
00:44:24
word I'm just getting pops and bangs over here or something like that yeah but I I
00:44:31
I I mean that what when I go back and look at the show that's what I look at I look at this [ __ ] boy but guys who
00:44:38
could really really you know will and Sherry and uh you guys Hans and Franz my kids love
00:44:45
Hans and Franz and they think that's [ __ ] a story that's very flattering at this point no they do oh my kids I watch my show my kids yeah I feel like
00:44:52
that look at this stuff uh what about you with this fake with the bad soap opera guy you've got canker
00:45:00
um remember this is the biggest this might be the first show you were on because I remember bad soap opera green
00:45:06
hilly where yeah you're kissing everyone yeah yeah and uh
00:45:11
well canteen boy was probably later was that that was early on or no
00:45:16
it was a while ago soon maybe 90 91. it was probably early on because Sandler came on yeah not your first show he came
00:45:23
on probably by the time you were there second or third show uh canteen boy was a [ __ ] hilarious one that we all
00:45:29
loved you were cool for doing it even though it took some uh back then it was only letters you could you could ignore
00:45:35
them better it's not true yeah yeah a lot of we got a lot of letters about that what was that woman's name who was
00:45:41
this the uh standards person she had like an English accent it was hurt
00:45:51
yeah I don't know if she was uh exactly standards but was it truly Dickman
00:45:57
Audrey pert Dickman and she was quite a character lovely lady well I love machine I love when she would walk in in
00:46:03
my earliest days I found the process so funny she came into Lauren's office or
00:46:09
wherever they were for the uh for the notes and she's been like and now you can you can't say bowls but you can say
00:46:16
uh uh you can say [ __ ] and you can't say yeah yeah you can say scrotum but
00:46:23
you can't say dick she'd have a whole list yeah and it was this woman like right out of Mary Poppins yeah you can't
00:46:29
say suck or blow but you can say fellate you could say gobble the goo you can't
00:46:35
say split doodle you can say fisting but you can't say anal digits sorry you
00:46:43
can say streaming ropes of jizz yes you can say fisting but you must cut the
00:46:49
back half of the line up to the shoulder good you can say squirting but no you
00:46:58
can't say squirting but you could say squirt so if you're sweaty balls that you give you notes for sweaty balls I
00:47:04
mean that that sounds nice I just wrote in their wake I mean I get in there with them and I thought I don't want
00:47:10
literally I'd sit there and keep the stone face and do it and people say oh they love that sketch I just thought I
00:47:16
just have to go with them I have to I have to get into their frequency and they were so soft and so sincere and
00:47:21
everything just imitate them get into the vibe of the show and because sometimes you do sketches and you lose
00:47:29
the Rhythm between the live camera and the awnings one minute you're acting for the theater you know and when the next
00:47:34
minute you're not I remember one time I played a guy who gets shot the pieces in a in a in a foxhole it's like a World
00:47:41
War One movie and I grabbed this guy and I'm like I'm like you know Jimmy I want you to do me a favor tell my wife and my
00:47:47
kids tonight he's like I will I will Captain I will and he goes to walk away going Jimmy like pull them back and
00:47:53
everything I say is progressively more absurd I'm like yeah Jimmy I won't even tell my brother-in-law that a man
00:48:00
Airlines can never be more than half a man you know and it keeps escalating yeah oh
00:48:07
it keeps going so bad like things you could never do you I mean do you focus on that which is cancellation now and
00:48:14
things you could never do like that oh yeah I did an Asian character in 86 I had no idea it could never fly now but
00:48:21
on the third time we did it Candace Bergen was the host and then we addressed it and she said well you are a
00:48:27
bit of a racial stereotype to me in character as this Asian girl this was 86
00:48:33
and uh even back then it did get a little bit of noise but I lived there you know in San Francisco I live near
00:48:39
Chinatown so I'd known this guy I talked to him occasionally he had a pet that's not an excuse okay
00:48:45
I live near Chinatown and 40 years ago folks did you do the
00:48:52
one where you were a cop and you were sickened by a car which you threw up and
00:48:58
they ran the hoses across yeah yeah yeah up our pants like me and Fallon and up
00:49:03
my arm and I said kid listen uh you have to get used to uh bodies like this or
00:49:08
whatever the [ __ ] it was and Jimmy and Jimmy of course was at the height of his cracking up in the middle of the stuff
00:49:14
yeah and so he's like snickering and sickering and finally so he sees the body and they had us hold our hands up
00:49:20
in this very theatrical way because the little nub the little nib of the pipe was coming in the Palm so Jimmy was
00:49:26
going like this and then this huge like garden hose projectile vomit spray would come out and then him vomiting makes me
00:49:33
bomb you know what I mean so yeah but I want to say back to your Asian stereotype yeah that I want I apologize
00:49:38
thank you no no no no no it's okay um but I'll never forget like one of the
00:49:44
depthest most unbelievable things I saw on the show was when we did the Japanese game show with Chris oh my God
00:49:51
and [ __ ] Mike Myers comes out and plays the Japanese game show host I was
00:49:57
like I remember sitting there going this is really speaking God it was really good yeah he nailed it
00:50:04
phonetically like actual Japanese language he was like he was like he was like Olivia he was so brilliant in that
00:50:10
part and Chris I came here oh [ __ ] to see a game show not be on a game show
00:50:46
lose me chop our fingers off the hand is the ceremony on that yeah and and you see you see we're here and Farley he was
00:50:54
like he was like oh god
00:51:00
dude that's what's a good all-time schedule that is such a great one
00:51:06
it is potent man I mean it just lies some sketches are like that just like can't you can't take a look away
00:51:15
yeah now do you guys I mean this is not uh don't answer this question if you want
00:51:20
to do you tune in every now and then and watch it I mean as alums do you watching every now and then I watch most shows
00:51:27
I'll be true confessional Sunday morning when I'm having coffee and then they're
00:51:32
they're all stacked and I'm able to watch I watch the show that way so yeah I mean I'm honestly you got eight kids I
00:51:39
have seven kids so what are you up yeah you're not you're not up there you can't afford a TV yeah I'm gonna sleep at 10 30. I can't afford an iPad no I Alec I
00:51:47
actually watch either Twitter or Instagram one of them I follow SNL and what they do smartly is
00:51:53
every sketch as it comes out it pops on your Twitter like the full sketch so the next day you can sift through and you
00:51:59
just can watch the whole one or a chunk of update or someone's bid on update so it's it's very convenient and it still
00:52:05
counts I mean you still get to see it I wish we had that back then if you missed the show you had to wait for a rerun for
00:52:11
six months I believe oh sorry to interrupt just in terms of the ratings I think it's the highest rated
00:52:17
show on on NBC I mean in in prime or late night once they move once they did
00:52:22
that live the uh prime time thing on the west coast when they move that to Prime Time yeah and they do it live both
00:52:28
places simultaneously 8 30 in LA and 11 30 in Europe that changed everything I
00:52:33
mean they're printing money and they're getting like no one couple Billion YouTube views or 1.6 billion last year
00:52:38
so and as you know isn't it funny how over the years I mean I'm always going to
00:52:44
uh uh you know exalt Lauren and um he's a dear friend of mine but it's like how
00:52:50
many people have tried to take him down I mean how many people have tried oh Saturday
00:52:55
to shoot Saturday night and get rid of Saturday Night Live and kill it off and have somebody you know another Network
00:53:00
and next season season's 49 he's a year away from his 50th season
00:53:06
there's no other personality that I know of before we get to the book silly book
00:53:11
uh when you're at this point looking back you go only Lauren could do all
00:53:17
those frequencies the Harvard people respect his intelligence he knows how to talk to network people so many there
00:53:24
must have been so many times like let's do this pre-tape turn it into an hour we should change the theme it's getting
00:53:30
boring I mean he's held to this brand all these years and that's what makes it such a seminal show in the history and I
00:53:37
I just his understanding was very his understanding of certain things was frequently maybe not every instance but
00:53:45
his understanding of the situation was frequently so pithy like like when I did 30 Rock I knew one thing very early
00:53:52
because I'd done movies with people and I've been and I did movies back in the days when you had a 10 or 12 week
00:53:57
schedule yeah it's not like shooting a movie in five days like now and uh and I
00:54:03
was there on 30 Rock and I knew what something I said she's my co-star she's the creator of
00:54:08
the show she's the head writer but I'm on camera so if I have any issues about the writing I can't talk
00:54:15
I need to go that's why I signed Carlock that role in beach and I'd be going my room and I said well I don't think I
00:54:20
want to say that I don't think I will let's say this a little less harshly let's say it's a little differently and
00:54:25
um there might have been one instance where uh she said to me well I really want you to do this instrument and um uh
00:54:32
and or something where it wasn't like a problem it was like it was it was like a one moment of a of uh of debate about
00:54:40
something and I'll never forget we're talking one day later on and Lauren goes remember she's German
00:54:46
Faye is German yeah because remember she's German yeah well you'd always say things like that
00:54:52
remember Lauren like a lot of smart people would take a giant subject and get it down to
00:54:59
like four or five syllables you know like something like that that's it he's not gonna give you a 10-minute speech
00:55:05
about temperament or whatever remember she's German and that's all he's the master of the you send you flowers send
00:55:11
you a present it's always a one-line joke yeah what's your favorite laurenism or ones that most people know because I
00:55:18
have one that I don't think everybody knows but there's oh the the classics are right or exactly you know those are
00:55:25
the simple ones mine is you'd be sitting there and having dinner with his house and he'd be talking and you know regaling you with stories of his real
00:55:33
friends because his real fans are the ones from the original days Steve Martin you say Steve Steve and Paul there's two
00:55:39
Paul Paul yeah the other ball uh uh yeah left-handed Paul Marty Marty uh Marty
00:55:47
and Steve came by and I would say that you're into that Posse too
00:55:57
his recall mechanism his groping thing which we all have we have a thing we use to to read what I call a recall message
00:56:04
so he's telling a story as he goes to recall he go well it's you know it's it's like that thing where he said it's
00:56:11
like that thing yeah and I was gonna call my podcast which is called here's the thing yeah we were going to call it
00:56:16
it's like that thing but then we thought we thought our own show now but let me ask you this you guys started this how
00:56:22
long ago you could do this how many years now no year and a half was this a covid-born thing or no
00:56:29
not really it was just that the podcasting world had gotten so it had this bubble it grew and it was going
00:56:35
crazy and then I had a little off label podcast I was I had no network or any I
00:56:41
was doing David came on radio and so David and I riffing and then our mutual manager Mark kevitz he does a good
00:56:48
impression hi Mark if he's listening said you guys should do a show a podcast so we just thought we'd try it you know
00:56:54
because we liked hanging out I moved back down to La after raising my kids up Northern California and I kept seeing
00:57:00
David going out to dinner with David and stuff so so then we thought we'd try it and then because we attached the SNL
00:57:06
theme we don't really know why but for our purposes it kind of got really big we're like damn yeah you know I looked
00:57:13
at the guest list I'm blown away and he used to you two I mean I had an address a different addresses rental married to
00:57:20
my ex-wife blah blah for 30 years from 1983 to 2013. then after 2013 when my
00:57:26
daughter on Ireland turned 18 uh I didn't have a place there anymore and I haven't had a home there we would go out
00:57:31
there and hotel it for a while when we had we only had a couple of kids and my point is I haven't been out there in
00:57:37
Forever how is it out there now what's it like it's it's a it's a little rough
00:57:42
around the edges David as you would say I mean there's a huge homeless problem and a huge crime problem and so it's you
00:57:49
have to really watch yourself they say come for the taxes stay for the crime
00:57:55
it's finally sunny today it hasn't been Sunny Alec for six months and if if all
00:58:02
these other things are going on at least give us some sun it's a little different I mean I just like I'm from Arizona so I
00:58:07
like this side of the country I wasn't ever like an East Coast guy but it's getting a little trickier did you
00:58:13
struggle did you struggle in New York you didn't like it I liked it it was interesting but I didn't really feel any
00:58:18
Roots there any home so when we had weeks off really Farley would go to Wisconsin Adam would go to New Hampshire
00:58:24
Chris Rock would go to Brooklyn and I would just sometimes fly back home to LA and come back but uh you know my brother
00:58:33
was there for a while and so I'd see them uh one time I saw Alec Baldwin outside I think it was by Ollie's in the
00:58:39
uh west side and uh it was only after I met you once on the online
00:58:46
no I I you were a superstar and and and some guy goes hey squeeze squad or you
00:58:51
said something funny from my act and then you pulled your pocket down and you
00:58:58
put your dick out no you pulled your Parker down yeah
00:59:06
Dana this is a tear-jerking story oh sorry go ahead anyway so you started jerking off and um no you uh you pulled
00:59:13
your your parking at you go hey it's me Alec from the show I go well I know Alec
00:59:19
why do you know me so I it was very I actually wrote on that for a while gave me a little uh street cred you know
00:59:25
what's funny was because I was there was when Stern and his wife uh uh had that benefit oh were you there
00:59:33
I was there and you [ __ ] killed you were so funny thank you you did a
00:59:40
stand-up thing for the benefit and you were so [ __ ] funny I didn't even know you were there the scary thing you you
00:59:47
were fantastic was it a tough crowd in your mind David or did you remember you know it was
00:59:53
pretty nice because I started it was it was very small it was for Beth the Stern's uh animal uh foundation and so
00:59:59
it's kind of it was kind of it was really fun to do but you know I think Bon Jovi John was there maybe uh I don't
01:00:05
know if you saw him but a lot of our neighbors it was all it was all a little Squad out there and it was nerve-wracking because it was mostly
01:00:12
these kind of guys and it was it was more fun oh yeah by the way Lauren of course throws you off because they go
01:00:19
there's gonna be an empty seat next to Lauren for Jack so Jack might come and sit directly in front of you in the
01:00:25
front row and so that makes me feel sick because you know we've all seen Ironweed so I um anyway
01:00:32
I do my ACT I joke around with Beth I make fun of her I make fun of and then and then I sort of got in the act at
01:00:38
about 30 40. but it was super fun and got to go to Lauren's after and uh what was the joke you made about drugs it was
01:00:46
something you said about scoring drugs or something you say maybe which I literally I literally like sharded when
01:00:52
you said that I don't know I'll say it then you'll be like no wasn't that no it was like I said whenever I take drugs my
01:00:58
loser friends always whenever I take any pill out of my pocket my buddy goes give me one I go you don't even know what it
01:01:04
is he goes come on dude I'm married I go what does that mean I go this one's for a sinus infection
01:01:09
it gives you cramps he goes come on dude I got kids I'll take anything so I give it to him and because he wants it to be
01:01:16
a bike then and uh and then I see him cramped over a half hour later and then he gives me the thumbs up it's different
01:01:22
I'll take it um so anyway Alec it's not that joke but there's a whole thing it wasn't that
01:01:27
joke actually I'll send you a link it was a better it was a better [ __ ] [ __ ] I knew you're gonna say that no
01:01:33
matter what I said I fell into that David has called our guests my log relative
01:01:39
um the the um uh so la where I lived every I mean I lived in Venice I mean I
01:01:46
remember uh you know you don't know Venice man I remember Venice yeah
01:01:54
I was on roller skates yeah Sid Sid I got you Sid I got your [ __ ]
01:02:01
yeah and we were we would hang out there I remember it was like Bright Lights big city literally it was Jay McInerney's my
01:02:07
neighbor and it was like right like big city because I would be so [ __ ] wasted remember I always say tell people
01:02:13
because I'm 38 years old for a while right so you party
01:02:18
but the point is that in New York as we always discuss with people is in New
01:02:23
York somebody else is doing the driving you're on you're back in the 80s you're on your feet you walk everywhere 10 bars
01:02:29
every stream yeah yeah uh uh uh taxis no Uber then Subway a lot of setup way and
01:02:34
we would be [ __ ] shit-faced every every night I go to La and I start making money and I'm shit-faced every
01:02:41
night behind the wheel of a car and I get to like the second year of me doing I think I had a five
01:02:47
liter Mustang I met Warner Brothers and I want to go home because I'm tired it's two o'clock in the morning and I'm at
01:02:53
Warner Brothers and I live in Venice and by the time I get to the time freeway going West toward the beach so I get
01:03:00
near uh like uh you know uh one of those streets there um sentinela or whatever
01:03:07
and I'm gonna flatten out I go everybody tells me this car will do blah blah and I flattened this car out and I'm doing
01:03:13
135 miles an hour on the Santa Monica freeway at two o'clock in the morning remember I
01:03:19
literally thought for a moment I stopped and I thought if I had a car accident now I would just turn into a pizza I'd
01:03:24
just become a pizza and I said I gotta stop so I stopped I slowed the car down
01:03:30
got sober gave the car to a friend I gave it away I said you can have a friend's kid and um and the point is
01:03:39
is that you know I lived out there and I lived everywhere I lived in the valley Beachwood Canyon every and uh
01:03:45
it's just so weird you were such a huge part of my life and I never go there and never never get off for work because
01:03:51
you're in New York yeah because here in New York it's easier here because in New York we've been stepping over bodies for
01:03:57
decades yeah it's no big deal to us I mean look at this you guys are all a little we got a bit of Venice is really bad for that I mean yeah I'm not making
01:04:04
fun of homeless people they're great you know they're not great but they're I'd be up I'd be up all night and the sun's
01:04:09
coming up and then you hear you hear the sand graders out of the beach
01:04:15
then you'd hear the power washers where they would wash all the filth off the benches on the Ocean Front Walk in a
01:04:21
truck with a tank on it and by the time you woke up a Monday afternoon because you've been sleeping all morning because
01:04:26
you were so [ __ ] up you'd go out on the beach and everything was gleaming it was like the little window Monday afternoon and Tuesday during the day
01:04:32
that Venice was like fresh and new you know what I mean and I loved living it much love people yeah because people
01:04:41
still I mean there's no we're not getting smarter not getting specific where are you are you West are you East I'll just give you the center
01:04:48
centralized I'm uh I'm pretty much in Hollywood uh in the hill a bit just I used it's
01:04:56
not even Beverly Hills anymore as my dad said kind of sliding down the old Fame ladder huh if you were but my dad is
01:05:03
supportive uh Jason Schwartzman had the best line I did a commercial with him it's absolutely a horrible commercial
01:05:09
and I fell in love with him he's such a sweetie that we did it we did it we did a commercial for Amazon Alexa and it was
01:05:15
the biggest [ __ ] waste of my time but I loved him and I turned him and I go and I and I forgot I mean I knew who his
01:05:21
mom was but I just it went out of my head I'm like where did you grow up and you saw this pause like you were the
01:05:26
kind of Shame and it was kind of awkward I go where did you grow up this Apostle he goes uh Westwood north of Sunset
01:05:34
yeah you got to clarify I'm in uh Sunset Plaza which is fully [ __ ] I know
01:05:40
Sunset Plaza yeah it's nice I mean parts of it I have a tenth of an acre I'm not doing
01:05:46
too bad it's actually well it's it's quite I like land it's a nice house yeah
01:05:52
but that's good Alec what about that what did he I don't know if he knows about that book Burn It Down did you
01:05:57
hear that uh yeah I mean yeah the one where the the woman is attacking everybody listen
01:06:02
I mean I've been attacked you know I've had people attack me oh yeah and it's
01:06:08
always the same tired and I mean let's face it as you as you get older you realize some of it I brought on myself
01:06:14
some of it not and you must always tell yourself it's hard but you must always
01:06:19
tell yourself that tired Trope which is considered the source
01:06:27
if Ellen DeGeneres somebody out of mind Chris Rock made fun of me then I'd really be upset I'd be sad but some of
01:06:34
the people that over the years especially recently that have attacked me are people who I don't think are funny they don't have any Talent they're
01:06:40
just a bile duct of hatred for people online and so forth so it's it's like I
01:06:45
really doesn't bother they're not anybody who I give them too much because I've been around people when I gave that image to you David of the log rolling
01:06:52
thing you know I did early learning I did Letterman when he was doing the old show on NBC late at night and he could
01:07:00
just gut you he was so clever and so quick yeah and uh you and you were very
01:07:05
very uh you know what everything you said was what I call a red wire green wire because it's like in the old
01:07:11
episodes of Mission Impossible where it's like the guys here he's like which wire do I cut the red wire or the green one to Defuse The Bomb when you're
01:07:18
caught with a decision a quick decision that could be fatal we always say red wire green wire uh my friends and I and
01:07:25
it's like with Letterman it was like you know don't he's gonna kill you he's in a log Road and uh uh there's a handful of
01:07:32
people I've met uh who are just that witty and that quick like Spade I mean Spade is so quick you know and uh uh
01:07:39
it's a netina you know and uh it's just uh uh but when so those people did me in
01:07:46
it's a little bit more disconcerting but there's a lot of them where you sit there and go is that all you got you
01:07:51
know what I mean it's like well something weird from a fun place and some feel really going after and and
01:07:57
that's the difference like well I've made fun of people on Hollywood minute and stuff I and I like 99 of them uh I
01:08:04
don't do it as much anymore but when I make fun of people it's usually with more of a spin and fun but sometimes it
01:08:11
feels too rough you know and you go that one is sort of directly at someone and
01:08:16
that's tougher to take because go ahead people no I'm just saying when
01:08:23
people make fun of me I don't like it as much as when I make fun of them well it's funny how we all know we're
01:08:30
all we're all old enough to know especially me I'm a bit older than you guys or no no I'm older than you but
01:08:36
we'll get to that later I'm 65 how old are you 68 you're like a kid no are you
01:08:42
[ __ ] kidding me you're like a kid to me you're like a baby in a crib you're like a high school but you sound like a
01:08:48
child I mean you sound like a child all the time you should see his wiener hi
01:08:56
[Music] yeah do the Asian child how do you know
01:09:02
but you guys know looking back because we all started devouring content whatever it was I started devouring the
01:09:09
old Warner Brothers gangster movies when I was 10 years old yeah I watched Dean Martin Rose I wasn't going to watch I
01:09:15
mean I watch TV up to a certain point I watch series TV until a certain era I
01:09:21
watched The Munsters at Gilligan's Island and The Beverly Hillbillies and all this other [ __ ] and I watched uh you
01:09:27
know Mr Ed and the Ed Sullivan Show and candid camera when I was a little boy yeah when we get to what I call the
01:09:33
Aaron Spelling Epoch I turned off TV I didn't watch it I watched one show Love
01:09:39
Boat oh that's the hotel which I was on actually but the hotel with uh James
01:09:44
Brolin but the gag is that um you know I watched one show when I was
01:09:50
like in high school when I was a I was a teenager I'd smoke a big fatty out the window of my bedroom and I'd watch uh
01:09:56
Mary Hartman Mary Hartman I was addicted to that show so I started getting me more into movies but my point is is that
01:10:01
we all know from watching Dean Martin Roose and things that when Rickles would attack people everybody was in on the gag and he
01:10:08
always ended it with a little dollop of Love A Little P.S I love you you know I mean when Joan Rivers would do her thing
01:10:15
which she could just eviscerate she did a lot of it to their faces like there's a clip online of her just pissing in the
01:10:22
face of all the hosts of The View and saying things about them it's the funniest thing you've ever seen in your life but the same with her she knew they
01:10:28
were in on the gag and sometimes not but she was uh um she was good at it but
01:10:34
there's other people now uh who I've seen recently uh a couple uh lately where it just uh there is no problem I
01:10:42
mean there is normally there was a bottle and now there is nobody they will say anything they will say anything that's kind of so we're in the era of
01:10:50
this is maybe the biggest cliche but if it's outrageous it's contagious so
01:10:55
people you know how do you be outrageous how do you get attention how do you Trend how do you make noise you know and
01:11:02
it kind of dovetails into these things criticism this is why I'm quitting I'm retiring
01:11:13
I've got a couple projects that I'm attached to yeah and I'm gonna do these projects and then I really I realize
01:11:19
I've gone from covet and then of course a very difficult period of what happened in New Mexico where I was kind of
01:11:25
cloistered I have I have uh been home with my kids and left I either shot in
01:11:33
New York we filmed in New York where I went away almost never I go like a week I'd come back maybe twice a year I've
01:11:40
been home with my kids and I drive my kids to school every day my four oldest ones go to school together around in
01:11:45
Brooklyn they go to a full language immersion program in Brooklyn in Spanish and I'm with my kids and it's like I've
01:11:52
rode my kayak into this current and I can't get out
01:11:57
like I don't want to miss being with my family being with my wife being with my
01:12:03
kids when you got to offer me the check uh uh or or you got to give me the uh
01:12:09
towering creative opportunity like I've done acting is something which
01:12:15
I don't have the same feeling [Music]
01:12:21
my kids all have a very very uh my kids are New Yorkers you know so there's a
01:12:26
really kind of a it's a peshy-esque de niro-esque machino
01:12:34
my son uh Romeo who's the most beatific I mean if I I used to look at pictures
01:12:40
of my son Romeo online he's absolutely the most beautiful boy you've ever seen and we're in the last summer we're in
01:12:45
the playroom and I say listen power we're gonna go have dinner and go leave the toys here to leave the puzzles of
01:12:51
the toys here we're gonna go have dinner and then because when you bring the toys with the you don't eat so let's leave the toys here and then after dinner
01:12:58
we'll come back and he stares me it's like an Eastwood he the stares me goes
01:13:03
you're a [ __ ] and I literally start to hyperventilate I started I started to grab my chest and
01:13:11
I go what did you say and he doubles down he goes I'll call you a [ __ ]
01:13:17
like you know I'll see you a [ __ ] and I raise you one [ __ ] I call my wife in
01:13:23
the room and you realize they get all this on YouTube so we we have their paths filtered but if they get a hold of
01:13:28
my pet and they go on my Safari and they go and watch you know uh uh they're you
01:13:34
know they're watching you a [ __ ]
01:13:41
I've seen that new series on Netflix you're a [ __ ] I call you a [ __ ]
01:13:47
yeah so he sees that somewhere and now he's using with you which is very ballsy sorry but what age and what size is this
01:13:55
human being when he calls can you take him he's a little he's the size of the Tootsie Roll
01:14:00
he's a [ __ ] kid yeah I have things for dinner bigger than him it's like he's no but my son my sons are my son
01:14:08
Raphael just turned eight he's getting okay here my son uh Leah was seven my son Romeo was five and my son Eduardo is
01:14:15
two and a half he'll be three in September but my point is is that it's like watching human development in real time
01:14:23
being around and watching them change watching them try to tell a joke yeah for the first time trying to be funny oh
01:14:30
yeah to watch when they have some real generosity between them you know when they're really together as a unit and
01:14:36
they love each other when they're not you know when it's not uh uh uh Hagler Hearns here uh on Friday night you know
01:14:42
the um it's just something that's very hard for me to uh to give up so I mean I
01:14:47
want to I want to work but I hate to leave those are nice moments yeah it's getting to know a human being from the
01:14:52
inside out now Spain you have you said you have a daughter how old is she 14. was it 14. yeah yeah and you're raised
01:15:00
you're in L.A no she's in she's in the Midwest she doesn't live with me
01:15:06
we'll do a side chat uh she's live with me but we uh you can dance great and I'm
01:15:11
seeing her next week so I see her a lot it's just it's not the perfect typical
01:15:17
situation you know what I mean so my daughter Ireland just had a baby so I I
01:15:22
I I occupy her space I don't know Ireland had a little girl named Holland and uh uh uh that's a tradition in my
01:15:29
family naming her children after countries and beaches of the world you know Alec I talked to Ireland once I
01:15:35
think she's about eight um this isn't she called you a [ __ ] this is a [ __ ] she called me and then she
01:15:41
hung up but I had caller ID uh no she uh no Kim I worked out where Kim did and
01:15:48
she had just seen The Emperor's New Groove an old cartoon movie I did and she said would you call Ireland as the
01:15:55
llama I was played a llama it's online I'll send you a link so I I
01:16:01
call because Ireland's just a little kid that likes that movie so she talked to me uh uh like I don't even know what I'm
01:16:09
saying but anyway you get it it's called I'm a great guy whatever that's the morning don't you love don't you love
01:16:14
doing animation oh yeah I'll say this without an ounce of irony or sarcastic
01:16:19
people say to me what do you think is the greatest movie you ever were in what's the best movie you ever made
01:16:25
without hands and I go boss baby boss baby oh yeah I had more fun those guys because as you
01:16:32
know the the the the the the the the uh the concept the one line on it is an
01:16:39
animation is so thrilling because you had your imagination keep up with technology and that because you can do anything
01:16:45
anything what have you got so great you know and I would do Tom McGrath who directed and do those things and does a
01:16:51
lot of voices in Madagascar did the Penguin and Madagascar I mean Tom McGrath he made me [ __ ] cry and I
01:16:58
would do but I had more fun doing the first boss baby and the second one too but the first one was like the first
01:17:03
ones that were so great and I love doing animation love love love love love I
01:17:08
think boss baby was funnier than it was supposed to be because I heard so much about it it was like you never know what those things you know you do it and uh
01:17:15
but the art I remember sitting in this room I'm in my kids playroom I'm in my kids playroom right now because the only
01:17:21
room is quiet because they're not here and um I remember doing boss baby and
01:17:26
like a year later because I never watched my own films I can't stand and watch my films and I almost never do and
01:17:32
so but I'm sitting with my kids and they want to watch boss baby and I watch it and I can start getting tears in my eyes and I called Tom I go Tom this movie is
01:17:41
so beautifully done like the artwork I mean yeah and the artwork is so I mean those guys they blew my mind you do
01:17:48
still do a lot of that Dana any uh I did a couple secret life of pets uh the first one was was huge second one didn't
01:17:55
do so good but I have a ride at Universal I play they basically asked me to do the grumpy old man as a dog I
01:18:02
don't like the way things are so I was a basset hound and I had wheels for hind legs he was sort of crippled but I just
01:18:10
randomly this is a complete non-sequitur two of my favorite performances of movie stars and they're very operatic they're
01:18:18
theatrical what one is Robert Shaw as Quint and Jaws the book The bookend is
01:18:24
Al Pacino as Scarface yes those are both operatic
01:18:30
rhythmic things that just really have always stuck with me in both movies by the way too RJ now your boys
01:18:37
um you have two boys two boys yes and how old are they now uh 29 and 31. and
01:18:43
there are any of them in the biz one is uh it has a production company and he's
01:18:48
doing stuff I've done stuff with both of them a scripted podcast called the weird place so they've been trundling along
01:18:54
they've done some stand up I think my youngest is really um it sounds it's it's he wants to be a
01:19:02
farmer which I love I mean really cross cross pollinating and growing where is he
01:19:09
where is he he's up here in the at the farm yeah he's at Farm Aid he's at the
01:19:14
farm where uh you like you're into location we are exactly
01:19:21
no he Alec knows LA and he misses it he has to come out could I just on this I miss yeah good yeah I just want on this
01:19:28
subject because I love movies so much but I just want to say a movie of yours that there's two here that are on our
01:19:35
dial for my wife and I the The Edge anytime relatives come oh we're gonna
01:19:40
watch it we're gonna watch a movie and if they haven't seen the edge because you and Anthony my favorite movie my
01:19:46
favorite movie my favorite movie to shoot because when I was in I was on vacation with my ex-wife I'd flown to LA
01:19:53
and done a read through with Mamet and Mamet wrote the script it was called Bookworm originally it was much more
01:19:59
um it was much more uh Baroque before they changed it and David wrote the screenplay and we go to a reading and De
01:20:06
Niro was gonna play the lead oh and the character is named Charles Morrison he's the Scion of a very
01:20:11
wealthy uh uh uh English family or whatever very rich guy and I think that De Niro will realize that he was more
01:20:17
stop roasting the Arcos than he was Charles Moore so he was on a uh off the Mayflower one time so he bowed out
01:20:24
and I'm on vacation with my ex-wife and the phone rings and they said they got Tony Hopkins to play with me and I burst
01:20:30
out of something I thought my greatest dream uh to work with Tony so we go off to the Canadian Rockies and we should
01:20:36
have been banned and I have so many memories Harold Perrin who was in Lost he played he there were two great lines
01:20:43
uh none of them by me but so Harold parano gets the rehearsal and he sits at the table we're going to rehearsed in
01:20:49
this uh this hotel Ballroom thing they had conference and Harold paralysis here
01:20:55
he goes Anthony Hopkins Alec Baldwin and me I wonder which one the Bears gonna
01:21:00
eat first and he was fun and then Tony and I
01:21:06
because he's from the same town as Burt and of course it's a great will Richard Burton with that yeah yeah he's great
01:21:13
with everyone else he has a great Welshman raised and trained by the at the foot of Olivier the national he
01:21:20
could do his so he would do dueling Birds we do dueling impersonations of Richard Burton oh and Tony and Tony won
01:21:27
he he the crew applauded him at the lunch table as he did his we would go
01:21:32
back and forth sometimes and finally he got it down to a haiku and he and and he looked at me he did he
01:21:38
looked at me he goes he goes I can't do it Elizabeth no he didn't literally he goes he goes
01:21:44
Elizabeth Stones he was Elizabeth wobbles and Stones like wine my beer that's what
01:21:54
it's like and then he plants his face and it's where he passes out into his lunch Trail and uh and everybody would that's it
01:22:00
it's over he's the winner he's the victim I had the same thing with him I did a movie that was not well received
01:22:05
road to well what'd you do we're all dewellville with Anthony Hopkins and we did a love road to wellville it was uh
01:22:11
it was unique interesting I loved it I was The Nair to well son but I got to hang out with him and do stuff with him
01:22:18
and loved him love him now Parker Parker right yeah yeah Alan Parker Alan I love
01:22:24
road yeah I love it when I was used to embarrass myself whenever you love a movie that the star considers a misfire
01:22:32
um yeah and I always say that whenever I see Hanks I say I love Joe Versus the Volcano and was it yeah fine and and he
01:22:39
and he and he's like oh okay like he doesn't really know how to what to do with that but what was the other movie you were going to mention the edge and
01:22:45
what well the edge and then another one that just uh uh is it's complicated we I decided I
01:22:52
thought you were just so funny in that I mean you really went I mean I it was hysterical
01:22:58
Nancy Myers asked me to do that she said to me um
01:23:04
she said do you care that Meryl is nine years older than when you prepared to play her love interest in a film and she
01:23:10
goes because the men do it all the time the men uh have leading ladies that are far younger than them and they seem to get away with them and she's going on
01:23:16
and on and on about and I go I said Nancy I said my character doesn't want to bang his ex-wife
01:23:23
I said my character's still in love with this next one so that's a huge difference and I said and so to fall in
01:23:28
love with Meryl it's probably the easiest thing I'm ever going to do I mean like I'm going to steal your money
01:23:34
and I get on the set and Meryl really was like like among the most amazing
01:23:39
people I've ever met she's sexy now both of you named someone before we run out of time here we run out of time here
01:23:47
um no God what's your question would name somebody you both worked with
01:23:53
that really was just a joy in any venue movies TV oh that was a joy did you love
01:24:01
George Siegel I did love George I love him I love him he can't help but he had everyone yeah
01:24:07
on his fingers you know yeah such a luck out and he used to make so much fun of me because when if I would miss a line
01:24:15
or something he'd look at the audience and go you know I used to do movies with Elizabeth Taylor now I work with this
01:24:20
[ __ ] up exactly so funny that's like that's like
01:24:25
Mickey Rooney uh Mickey was it was eccentricular stuff I would say just where I was in my life being cast as the
01:24:34
third lead with Bert Lancaster and Kirk Douglas's last movie not a great movie but to hang out with them in this movie
01:24:42
it's called tough guys I know you did you ever hear my story about that movie no for sure you have stories about tough
01:24:48
guys uh Spade what do you mean a dog biscuit or a Girl Scout cookies if you're telling a story
01:24:54
but he's hypoglycemic so he's got he's got to eat everything out
01:25:00
like no wait like Sherry said in the podcast yeah it was your turn to pick your turn to paying fiorellos and wait
01:25:07
and the waitresses your friend is passed out in the bathroom yes Sherry yeah so
01:25:15
um go ahead the famous story that uh the guy brings the stack the PA brings
01:25:20
the stack of glossies knocks on the door uh uh hands and stack glossies to Bert
01:25:26
Lancaster hands him a pen bird Lancaster signs a glass he goes that doesn't look very good but you have another pen I
01:25:33
have a shoppie and the guy pulls a yes so he signed Bert Lancaster and he
01:25:40
signed all the glasses and so the guy takes the pen the regular pen trucks over to a a a
01:25:46
Kirk Douglas's Trail and hands in the glossies he signed to Kirk Douglas and he sees how strongly it is next to
01:25:52
Bert's name and he goes he goes do you have the other pen could he go get the other pen for me and he goes running back to Bert Lancaster knocks on the
01:25:59
door and blanker comes out Lancaster comes to the door with the Sharpie and says I suppose you're looking for this
01:26:04
he knew yeah they had a competition they knew each other they knew each other I
01:26:10
saw him when they did the concert version because here for years they've got great success at city center with uh
01:26:16
uh uh um uh on Cooks The Encore remember where Chicago was birthed from there and
01:26:22
they do all the shows concert style they're not going to get a full production in New York again the voice
01:26:27
of Syracuse fiorella all that's business of the seasons for years and years and years now I used
01:26:33
to be on the board of city center with Joanne Woodward she Corral I mean to do that her and Paul and
01:26:39
um uh the season so they decided to try to do that in L.A and it was called reprise and they did this beautiful
01:26:46
wonderful uh uh a musical rendition of uh All About Eve and Stockard Channing
01:26:51
play uh the uh Stockard Channing played the Margot Channing the Betty Davis Calista
01:26:59
flockard played uh Eve um uh uh uh uh what's his name
01:27:04
Ali McIver
01:27:14
he played the uh uh George Sanders role I mean the cast was [ __ ] unbelievable
01:27:20
but the opening of it was this big gigantic tufted uh I want to say Chez or
01:27:26
a bed and the curtains part and the thing is moving toward the audience and it's Kirk Douglas is the narrator wow
01:27:33
sitting on this bed and what a way to open a [ __ ] show and he had already had a stroke he'd had a stroke so his
01:27:39
voice was not that bad but he was impaired but you didn't care you're just sitting there going oh my God the
01:27:45
opening of the show is [ __ ] Kirk Douglas who I worship worshiped I worshiped he was one of the few
01:27:51
movie stars it was also a great actor those guys had their own production companies they do their sort of art film
01:27:58
and then they do the the studio film I mean they were really for and just
01:28:03
sitting listening to them and the way they teased each other it was very uh it
01:28:09
was just it was that was me out of body like I'm in a movie with Kirk Douglas in Berlin it doesn't make sense this was a
01:28:15
year before anybody got Sno you know my other favorite Kirk Douglas story is he apparently he's on the set of like the
01:28:20
whatever the movie was him and Wayne uh with John Ford uh uh the war wagon
01:28:27
something I'll look it up the war way and Kirk Douglas walks up to John Wayne and he says the Warwick I think I think
01:28:35
it feels so proud it wasn't at the war wagon they started or was that William Holden so I know it was Kirk Douglas I
01:28:42
thought we're gonna look it up look at it look it up the war wagons you're making me uh John Wayne Alex still
01:28:47
trying to figure out how to spell Nicholson yes he's Googling again everyone he's gonna
01:28:53
log does this I'll say Dana he's the only
01:28:59
one of two people with a standing invitation every year to host SNL not
01:29:05
anymore why not not anymore now those I mean once I did the uh it's war wagon you
01:29:11
little [ __ ] you little [ __ ] we watched call you a [ __ ] we watched a
01:29:17
lot of movies in our house Alex lots of movies
01:29:28
what the plot was it was a war you could put stuff in it it was impenetrable no one could who directed it who
01:29:34
directed In Harm's Way premature premature yes I saw that recently Jesus we're going back I'm too young for this
01:29:41
convo could I just answer while you keep looking here because this is just to embarrass Alex
01:29:48
philanthropic uh based on what I read in terms of
01:29:53
really being incredibly generous with his money uh so anyway that's just something it's nice to say yeah not that
01:30:00
you well you know I would do shows I did jobs which the whole purpose of doing them were as reservoirs of money through
01:30:06
my Foundation like when I did Match Game did I want to host a game show no I went
01:30:11
in there and did the show we did three seasons and they paid me a lot of money they paid me so much [ __ ] money I
01:30:17
love hearing been in my foundation for me to put the money in the Thunder I did five years of Capital One credit card
01:30:23
they pay me a lot of money over five years a ton of money gave all that away did Amazon I would always look for gigs
01:30:28
like Amazon Alexa they pay everything where they pay me of these gigs and that goes into the foundation what is the
01:30:34
foundation's purpose what's it named what's the Arts related I mean we have some environmental some alma mater my
01:30:40
wife and I both went to NYU but predominantly it's Arts The Hamptons Film Festival New York Philharmonic or
01:30:45
Philharmonic NYU Tish where I went to school but the point is is that uh
01:30:52
I'm assuming either one of you guys you know when you have a good time it doesn't [ __ ] matter you can be
01:30:58
ringing the bell with a bunch of guys and playing Santa Claus for the Salvation Army on the corner if you're having fun you're having fun and I went
01:31:05
to go do a match game and some guy writes on the internet he writes the final nail oh like it was that money
01:31:11
yeah yeah the final nail and Alec Baldwin's career coffin Iraq
01:31:17
and I went to do Match Game Jen Mullen who runs uh um uh Fremantle but they
01:31:22
were the producers uh uh and Scott the other producer all them I went to do magic I had more fun
01:31:29
doing a match game than you could possibly [ __ ] no we had a ball yeah we had a ball and it was like SNL I mean
01:31:35
SNL is a different animal because it's much more when I first did SNL I'll never forget like you're kind of high
01:31:41
but kind of is blurry and then finally uh Adana the dresser grasped me and she throws me in the booth and she says we
01:31:48
gotta get you dressed for good nights and I go what she goes it's over and I go it's over it went by like it was 20
01:31:54
minutes oh yeah it was such a blur it was so insane and then so but other than
01:32:00
the the intensity of that uh uh uh Match Game I had so much [ __ ] I
01:32:07
can't find them you know we have people coming uh Horatio was my I always say with the edge of the Deus so three of
01:32:14
them on top three on the bottom and the two closest to me they're my wingman Carol Ira Horatio I mean I had people
01:32:21
there with my weight I mean I could always throw the play off of yeah exactly they'd always come up with something light and fun and keep the
01:32:27
ball in the air and I had and then there were people on the show who were like and we just made
01:32:33
fun of them they give us an answer and I'd be like I don't want any names but you can just watch the show they're looking at me and be like on the air I
01:32:40
go you've got to be [ __ ] kidding me are you [ __ ] kidding me we would just
01:32:46
smack them we can't aren't we living in the age we can do anything like I turned down a lot of commercials in the 90s
01:32:52
because it was you know uh wasn't considered you're not supposed to do commercials I mean Jay Leno did Doritos
01:32:58
other than that but it seems like everyone does commercials everyone does game shows uh everyone we're in the age of everyone
01:33:05
does everything and also people talk about money a lot more and their brand and protecting them when I when I
01:33:11
started in this business you didn't sell you didn't sell alcohol no you didn't sell alcohol I I I don't
01:33:18
care if you live in a castle in the northern part of Italy you didn't sell alcohol you know I mean I I you no
01:33:23
alcohol sales no tobacco sales remember they used to fly movie stars would fly they pay you a million dollars for one
01:33:29
day to fly to sell Centurion whiskey in Japan you never sold that United States yeah no alcohol no tobacco and all that
01:33:36
kind of stuff and now uh I mean I did Capital One a long time when we were doing 30 Rock now when
01:33:42
you're on TV they want you to be on TV more you know when you're on TV you get invited to do every talk show when you're not on TV you don't yeah so I got
01:33:49
invited to the Capital One thing when I was on 30 Rock and uh uh I'm not saying I'm a Pioneer I'm not
01:33:56
saying I'm like you know [ __ ] Magellan here of commercials for actors but now the dam is broken everybody does
01:34:02
well and they get their own brand they they make their own tequila it's huge hundreds of millions of dollars uh you
01:34:09
know these these actors becoming entrepreneurs in sort of multi 100 million dollar generational billion then
01:34:16
there's people then there's people who like if you're not careful you can't remember what it is they're selling because they're selling like Ryan
01:34:21
Reynolds you like to do a T-cell party balloons or does he sell oh
01:34:27
stone or phone case or a phone or brand muffins or what does he sell I forget he's an entrepreneur he's an
01:34:34
entrepreneur he just does he just does everything but the problem is we're just we're just jealous well did you I'm just
01:34:41
curious for a second you being philanthropic at that level um
01:34:47
I don't know how much money you had at the time but it seems this is something from your childhood or being raised
01:34:52
Catholic or is it is it a familial thing or where do you think this comes right I've never the numbers I've seen are
01:34:58
just extremely generous like extremely philanthropic so well I mean
01:35:04
philanthropy becomes something you're addicted to and you can make a big mistake I went to a philanthropy
01:35:09
conference the Credit Suisse held because Credit Suisse was a huge underwriter of the full harmonics they invited and I went to this thing at a
01:35:16
hotel here in New York and was it an evening and I sat with all these guys and the guy said remember philanthropy isn't about you giving me a million
01:35:21
dollars this year philanthropy is about me being able to make plans you're going to give me 50 000 for the next 20 years
01:35:28
right I need to be I need a reliable Reservoir reliable pipeline of money to make I got
01:35:36
to be able to make plans so don't give me a big check once give me a nice check for 20 years welcome and that's the
01:35:44
mistake I made we gave million dollar checks and I kind of got drunk on philanthropy you know I mean it's a
01:35:49
great you kind of get high yeah yeah yeah let me tell you something folks my kids are going to come charging through the store any minute now no Alex do you
01:35:57
have one do you have any final statement anything further out what exactly IV I
01:36:02
want to say um I want to say uh uh Dana um uh I owe you for my trump I totally
01:36:09
stole your uh nagada I told that school of impersonation no no no no no you're you're a computer
01:36:15
you're Tony Bennett is one of the best pure Impressions you know the only one that worked great was when he came up
01:36:21
wasn't that fun I watched it today he's such a likable character and you
01:36:27
guys are right but that he's he's it that's a brilliant impression and my last thing to Spade is uh thank you for
01:36:34
not long rolling me and I'll call you a [ __ ] okay no I had a blast dude I love
01:36:40
talking yeah like this was one of the easiest podcasts I've ever done I just love listening to your stories great
01:36:46
really really fast thank you so much stay safe stay safe [Music]
01:36:52
this has been a podcast presentation of cadence 13. please listen then rate review and follow all episodes available
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now for free wherever you get your podcast no joke folks
01:37:05
fly on the wall has been a presentation of cadence 13. executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade Chris
01:37:11
Corcoran of cadence 13 and Charlie finan of brillstein entertainment the show's lead producers Greg Holtzman with
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production and Engineering support from Serena Regan and Chris Basil of cadence 13.
