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hey guys it's spoodle uh you can always go to Davids spade.com to look at my
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tour dates because I bless a lot of cities in America with my hilarious standup act or you could not go to it
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and get on my enemy list up to
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you what we have here today is Michael mcken and a lot of people know him he's
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in so many things I have a a a thing with them because we did do some SNL together we
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did do a few years together or maybe one year but we talk about that I think he clarifies that up because I'm stupider
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than most people and we also did the Coen heads movie oh Applause a few people in the
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back remember it the Conan's movie which had so many cameos in it of SNL people
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you cannot even I'm not even this SNL just Stars uh we talk about that he was on Better Call Saul did that he's
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everywhere and and of course the headliner is he does a spinal tap this
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is spinal tap if you don't know is one of the all-time great comedies of all
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time I think that's fair to say it's one of the one of the biggies and we do have some laughs he's a great
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dude and I had a uh great conehead story for him that he did not
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know and that's it so listen in you'll know
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him when you see him if you don't recognize the name right off the bat but he's done so much more than all of us put together uh here he is Michael
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[Music] mcken Dana I'm going to start with
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Michael and I'm going to ask him a question that he gets too
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much because he's been in a lot of stuff but of course people focus way too much
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on Cone Heads now when we we were so sure you going to say
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spinal tap damn so nice we were in cone heads together Michael was a lovely man
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to work with and it was one of my first movies and uh it was a lot of fun I had
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a lot of fun in it because it was new Michael done so many things but I think he still had a good time I did have a good time and do you remember anything
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uh anything from that experience other than there were a lot of celebrity cameos if you look back well we weren't
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there for most of the celebrity cameos right uh you know I I I had mostly I had
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scenes with with you and Dan and and once we got to the planet we were you
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know in our underwear with the little the collars on our necks and stuff right
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yeah yeah they it it it was an immigration movie that I never even picked up on that part of no no no me
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neither but uh it was just we were the we were the NSA guys I think it's a pretty funny movie actually I think some
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great stuff in it I I think Dan's Dan's commission to that character was so
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total and so you know we kind of knew him from the TV sketches but he was really that guy in so many ways because
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he was Dan is kind of an kind of an an anal retentive I think you know he's
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really attention to detail not in a bad way I mean in a very very good way and
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uh I just remember shooting one scene where we had just landed on the planet and he was telling his uh he was telling
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his you know his superiors uh Dave Thomas and the rest of them telling him about you know so so and so and we shot
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it all morning and we went to lunch and we came back and we continued shooting
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this coverage of the same scene the same speech and about an hour and a half in
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he goes oh God damn it oh godamn it I'm not wearing the gloves oh I'm not
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wearing the [ __ ] gloves Robert and suddenly we got oh well we just flush
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two two hours down the toilet and he was like he was so apologetic about it and everything it was like dude okay you
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know go again but I remember that guy it was really he's a such a cleare eyed guy
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you know and uh it was a very atypical moment like he wrote draget right yeah
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funniest thing in Dragnet is uh Kathleen what's her name they go to interview
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this woman it's like the wife of this guy who's disappeared oh my God or the land lady
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do you know I'm talking Kathleen Freeman and she has one speech okay and it's the
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funniest thing in the movie by such a long choke I I look for it when I can it's great anyway I'm a living non
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sequor here you guys are trying to you're trying to Corral me into not at all we're we're just trying to get our
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touchstones with you here's one of mine very very quickly okay okay so like early 80s for some reason Billy Crystal
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and I had the same manager I don't know how it happened but I went in to meet
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with Rob Riner you Harry Shear Christopher Guest to play the drummer in spinal
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tap okay you probably don't remember but here's what happened I came in and I was
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nervous obviously and you guys were so comfortable with each other and I go
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this is not awkward I'm coming here is the lone wolf and you guys are all friends and I have to walk in here and
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so I think maybe it was you who just said okay let's go so then you all immediately left the office everyone
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cleared it out and I sat in there for like a minute and then you guys came in that's just a gag that you know now
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you're entering my world I don't remember you couldn't remember it but that happened do you
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remember me in the movie I played a mime waiter oh I I remember the meeting and I remember I thought you were coming in I
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I had remembered that you came in to be this tap fan who follows us around
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around the country that was a c a part that we were casting and we thought you
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came across as a little intelligent a little sophisticated and not not goony enough so we said we said well we
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started doing the other no listen we let me tell you who we did cast and then not used was Eddie de
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ring any bells Eddie in Greece the Eddie de the Eddie de and he uh when he found
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out that we didn't have a script and that he would have to improvise he said uh pass so we pretty much cut the
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character but you were you we impressed you were very very impressive and so we
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said this guy's really funny and when we were putting together the uh you know Billy's the the mime
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thing um which you know which was something that was written in so can he be one of the mindes he'd be great and
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so that's what we did we did that a lot we saw a lot of people and they they didn't you know we didn't quite we're
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shooting blind but we also we found a lot of the characters that weren't even in you your character didn't exist until
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we saw you put it that way that's a good thing uh those things
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are memorable at that age you know the kind of a thing that intrigues me was uh
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the different British accents you guys did and how accurate they were or like Kevin poock and I we did a British
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accent for like years whenever we see each other we played blackjack and Tahoe
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and tried to trick the dealer doing some combo yours is very specific
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Christopher's very specific and Harry but how did you come to yours your guy
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because I was I've been looking at some you uh YouTube videos of spinal tap and it's immaculate
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Chris's is uh legitimate because he grew up his father was British and he spent a
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lot of time it was like every summer they would go to uh they would go to the UK and he he kind of you know he he he
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knew those he's got a great ear anyway so I just kind of fell into the same line as him I we you know he would he
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would go on and then we would we had a lot of time to prepare you got to understand when we started working on
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this thing it was 1979 we didn't shoot until 82 and during
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because we kept you know running out of studios and so by the time we actually shot it we had had a real good run at
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rehearsing how we sound and Harry brought something different Harry's you know he's kind of a a fictional uh
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northerner you know somewhere unspecific we always said well we're south London you know that's kind of what we were
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going for so we just it's just kind of getting getting good with it um um I'm
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really rusty at it now never breaking you you would just do it all day right no you just go in and out but
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I remember when you guys walked on the set and I had not seen you in the full regalia and you were all walking around
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doing your accents and it was pretty stunning it's like oh oh they're those guys you know it was pretty potent to
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three of you you remember that we had some actual Brits on the set or one anyway who was uh well the two guys in
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the band The you know um uh Mr shrimpton and uh Mr Mr CF yeah uh
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but we also had Patrick mcne the amazing Patrick mcne is he from
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from the is he from The Advengers Avengers oh yes M that's
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another yeah yeah yeah he's eating hog as they
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say love he your boss or something Dennis hog he's the guy who runs the studio yeah so uh yeah and and who was
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your manager was he really English yeah oh Tony Hendra Tony Hendra is a really
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interesting character he's he's was with Cambridge circus and he and got another
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Englishman named Nick ullet used to have a a a you know a two-hander act and then
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he worked he worked for the Lampoon he a lot of the Lampoon stuff uh radio dinner
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and and uh a lot of those the broadcasts and on the magazine a difficult man in a
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lot of ways he he died about five years ago yeah oh we can talk about him you
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know uh you know I was watching it last night again obviously Michael everyone's
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seen it that's has anything to do with comedy and one of those ones everyone pretty much worships um I won't make you
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say it I'll say it they all worship it we can say it for you the first time people improvise on film in long form
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was spinal tap it spawned an entire industry which because it's so yeah I
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mean obviously it's probably a combo but you can tell scenes that go along into where you probably just [ __ ] for a
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while and take out what works I'm guessing but godamn some good stuff well
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they they rob liked a rule of three if you don't get it in three and that's you
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know three times improvising a scene kind of knowing what worked last time
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and know going there and then Rob directing the the camera around a couple
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of different angles and so that it's it's cutable and that's kind of the way it worked and uh some things we never
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heard we never saw coming and they just you know when uh when Ian says that uh
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says that Janine dresses like an Australian's nightmare we just said that's a brilliant line no one could
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have written that line it was just it was just you know yeah you got me thinking about Tony see I saw my our
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boss uh Fran drer you remember that day at the beginning franer was PR she was great yes yes I do of course
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she was Bobby fleckman and uh yeah once you give a character a name
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then they become real it's just gotta have the name right you know but to this
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day the one reference I always have and David probably has when you're go playing a gig doing standup and you get
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lost backstage which is more common than you think and I I go this isal we're in spinal tap right now y happens a few
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times a year that was an inspired scene as well just because it's happen so many
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times where's the stage Jeff Beck told us that he did a gig with at the Apollo
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it was BB King's 75th or whatever the the thing was and that Beck and Clapton
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got lost under the stage at the Apollo and they did have that moment where they looked at each other well we're in that
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[ __ ] movie now so any story that starts with Beck and Clapton I could listen to a for a long
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time yeah we just saw can we talk about your music I mean you just saw CLA in um
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no I we saw uh Chris and I went to see Jeff Beck about a year ago it was right
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before he died M and uh he played a a gig here and it was you know I had seen
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him a bunch of times and I was old enough to be a Yard Birds fan you know all through all three of their
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guitarists and uh so I you know these guys uh it was it was amazing to see him
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and he just he just got better and better invented his own ways of playing the guitar and it was pretty cool I'll
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send you a cool snap of me and Chris and Jeff and uh Johnny Depp who also was on
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the on the bill that night it was kind of a cool yeah so be Beck put down the flat pick
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played with his thumb and then used his index finger to do the vbr and uh my I I had a brother who's a
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fanatic for Beck so he we were seeing Beck me and my friends in the 70s all the time Beck Boger and Carmen appy that
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was an intense Trio you know those yeah that was three guys going at it you know
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but with you it's it's a just a lane that you're in as a as a songwriter
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musician and you won an Academy Award for Mighty win right that was the I want not nominated a kiss at the
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end of the rainbow was nominated that I wrote with Annette how did that song Come about because for anyone listening
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wants to look that up on YouTube a kiss at the end of rainbow it's honestly it's so beautiful I mean the melody is
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stunning I mean you did you start with just guitar chords and then have Anette
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come in and sing the Mel how do you get a song like that because it's well we were it was kind of an it was kind of an
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assignment because we had written uh Annette and I had written a song for the movie called potatoes in the Patty wagon
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which the uh new Main Street singers do and um of course and uh so Chris said
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yeah that's great and we Chris and I had been writing songs and Eugene and and Chris and I have been writing songs and
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everybody individually writing and um so Chris said you want to have a crack at
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this we need a love song that maybe has a reference to a kiss in it because it's going to be this whole thing about these
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this couple the Mitch and Mickey couple and and are they going to get back together again and they had this famous kiss thing they did so we just kind of
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started started working on it we wanted something that sounded like uh it could have been a really old
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song that it could have been from hundred years ago or written by you know
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Tin Pan Alley folk song writers uh but it was sort of you know kind of
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inspired by just the Simplicity of it and so we we we played it for Chris and
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he said yeah I maybe kind of wanted something that has more like a joke in it has you know that's kind of a funny
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this is very straight and he really liked the song but he said and and so jimie heard it his wife Jamie and she
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said no no you're using that one that's that doesn't need a joke H it it has a
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life and it Chris used it beautifully in the movie and uh so that was great um yeah so we just we work in a
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lot of different ways there's a sincerity and a sweetness to that film well I I agree I agree you know Chris
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and I are are roughly the same age and when we were 13 14 that's when the folk
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thing kind of hit and we all got guitars and Chris got a mandolin actually I I
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didn't know him at this time but uh I've known Chris since since 19 holy [ __ ]
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I've known Chris since 1967 and we actually roomed together for
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a while because he's he's enigmatic and and um in many ways but go ahead I just uh
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you're friends with him so I mean he's yeah no we've been he's good friends for a long time he's he's an unusual he's an
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unusual guy and it's kind of one of the things that's great about him is that he's exactly who
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is uh he's not I don't know he's not
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terribly uh he doesn't go out and promote himself you know if he has something to sell he'll find some way to
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really kind of subtly do it he's just not that that that guy he's the funniest man in the world but you kind of gota
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either be on the set with him or you know or know him he's just uh yeah no
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he's just he's a remarkable guy very intelligent he's got this same obsession
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with shitty old show business that I do and I'm sure a lot of a lot of my friends do uh you know era well any era
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really and that was the trouble we've been working together the four of us been working together last year we did a
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lot and then the strike happened we had to kind of settle down so we started working on this new project and we
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figured we spent about 85% of every day just looking up the Eddie caner gift
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shop in enino you know all this [ __ ] it's just like it's an endless supply of
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old crap show business it's uh it's just wonderful so he shares in that and uh
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and he's uh he and I are kind of co-religionists as far as that goes um
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yeah yeah he's [Music]
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something are there old actors that you guys are obsessed by old actors like
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John Wayne or uh Errol Flynn or like which which are the ones that um because
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I'm obsessed with John Wayne with a friend you know yeah I've I've always been a Boris carof guy I always thought
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he was great I always thought he didn't he didn't get much recognition as being
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a really good actor and he really was it was just his you know his Groove was
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kind of on the limited side but he was he was great I loved him he played Frankenstein right he was
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the original Frankenstein he was the original Frankenstein monster and he did it in Bride wasn't that big as a person
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was he yeah he was he was probably six he was probably six feet but they they
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jacked him up on those boots you know he yeah because he's immense yeah fire B so
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I could play Frankenstein uh no here my question for Michael was he was on the show uh SNL
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we're jumping back to SNL you were on I think my year I I think Dana was gone
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but you did one full year and I also saw a monologue from 1985 it was really
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funny oh yeah with with Dana he he comes out and and you're hosting and you go I
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don't really do all this stuff so I just thought I'm not really a standup comedian so I thought I would do an 18th century Scottish Acappella durge so he
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starts singing and he starts getting heckled and uh and remember weird one
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that uh no they didn't show it did they yeah it's Larry
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David oh it was yeah I didn't see that because it went away oh because at the
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end he goes hey Hamlet where's Squiggy yeah yeah I thought this is such
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a weird one oh I love it because I go I thought it was Squiggy or someone I thought oh who's gonna be yelling and uh
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that's great by the way I grew up on goddamn is it true right in that era that you were offered to go in there
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when with Billy and those guys did their year uh with Martin Short Christopher
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Guest and you and you you turned that down or yeah at the time yeah yeah I had
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just uh I just well I you know what it just wasn't wasn't the best time to be
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moving to New York yeah yeah and uh you know I I I kind of wanted to do movies
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more and I started doing films uh I listen I had many many second thoughts
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about it but my my then wife had a child on the way we had just bought a new
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house and it was just not the time to be spending weeks and weeks it's not it's a disruptive show it's not yeah yeah yeah
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yeah yeah no I was I was a working actor you know I I think in 1985 when I did
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host and we did the folksmen for the first time which you know we later expanded into the Mighty Wind stuff um
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I I think at that time uh one time was really fun and I
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don't know whether that season would have there were so many people on that season I mean it was Billy it was um
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Rich Hall it was uh you know I mean there were just it was a huge cast you
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know and Marty rightfully so was the the breakout guy there and you know but
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other things happened it was there were a lot of there's a lot of angst in that uh in that season I'm not sorry I didn't
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do it and I'm glad I did when I did it was a really interesting time I knew in 1994 that I was being hired because Phil
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Hartman was leaving the show and they needed someone to play uh well David Spade's dad
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his they needed someone they needed someone who was remarkably older than
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these these hungry kids I was surrounded by so I you know stern was very good I
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remember oh yeah yeah yeah was that was that was fun because you know you did with Stern which I hadn't heard you
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laugh like this it's a I haven't done it in a while yeah yeah
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it's a good one I remember I think talk about it because of course he was freaked out it's kind of a long island
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GAA you know you got you got of grow up on Long Island you get to
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yeah yeah there it is it was kind a new one from Tom they say you did Tom Scar from
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you from Alien [ __ ] scar I didn't was he in yeah he was well I you're listed
00:23:41
you're listed as doing Adam West I don't know if I did do Adam West one time I got this list that was the
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only time I was on update oh you did on update the only time I ever did Adam West this was the only time I ever did
00:23:53
update I had pitched another character who was a guy
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who was a kind of a spiritualist to the stars and talked about who's who's
00:24:03
having sex in heaven it was my thing I made I made a mistake no it was
00:24:12
actually pretty funny I did at the table and it was it was it was kind of good uh
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but I I mentioned Hume Cronin who had been married to Jessica Tandy who had
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just died so I did a Jessica Tandy joke and Lauren and Lauren was like to soon
00:24:30
well he was kind of too soon but he's also Hume cronin's a friend of his because he's Canadian and in show business so anyway I he told me he says
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I you know if you haven't got a better joke maybe we'll do it another time so we we blew it off anyway whatever never
00:24:45
never take that deal how well did you know Lauren how well did you know Lauren when you came on in 94 well I had met
00:24:52
him in 75 casually or well in 1975 when they were putting together the original
00:24:58
show we uh I knew I knew Chevy and I knew we knew Franken and Davis and the
00:25:05
credit when I say we was The credibility gap me and Harry sheer and David Lander and we were in town doing the doing The
00:25:13
Tomorrow Show the Tom Snider show Harry did a brilliant Tom Snider so we were on the Tom Snider show doing our doing our
00:25:20
Tom Snider sketch and so around that time they were just getting started with
00:25:26
um with SNL we knew some of those guys so we hung out and we you know kind of
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met all these people um I knew a lot of people who knew Lauren at the time but I didn't
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work with him until cone heads and uh welcome
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aboard that's right yes myor we go on yeah go ahead no say
00:25:52
my favorite thing was there is that that extra mile that Laur I don't do a Lauren
00:25:57
Michaels but there's an extra mile he goes sometimes to make sure you know who you're talking to and it's very subtle
00:26:06
it's very subt he was always very sweet to me and I I you know I I got nothing but good stuff for him but he did do
00:26:12
this he um I was up for another show I had
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offered been offered a show which was a spin-off of the um Murphy Brown Show
00:26:26
okay you got to stay with me and Diane somebody who was the creator
00:26:31
of of the Murphy Brown Show English Diane English thank you very much she had this new show and she want she
00:26:38
wanted me to do it and so I had an offer for that while I was you know talking to
00:26:43
the SNL people and so Lauren called me directly and he told me he said now what
00:26:51
about this other show this this it was a messenger service show what about what
00:26:57
are you going to do about about that and I said well how did you know about that and he said Lou ma told
00:27:03
me now Lou ma this French filmmaker who was married to Candy
00:27:09
Bergen all right who was doing rury Brown so it's like he he kind of went to
00:27:16
Europe for the for the killing yeah Lou it's all Louie can talk about
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is you knowel we not hearing good things about yeah anyway might not be so I said I've
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heard it's got some problems I said I want to do SNL and he said okay that was
00:27:41
bad okay so I'm jumping back to The Cone Heads we didn't finished talking about it enough for me but what happened was
00:27:49
there was a story that Dana doesn't even know I don't think where I was nervous
00:27:54
new movie uh you know we're in our boxers and t-shirts for we play NSA
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agents Dana I don't want to give the whole movie away but we play NSA agent because I'm I've teed it up for
00:28:07
tonight's entertainment yeah and uh the cone heads are immigrants so we're trying to get them deported I don't know
00:28:14
I don't even I don't understand the movie but so I just do my lines and uh
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so one day M Widow you know I'm scared on this movie and I got Michael and
00:28:24
Michael's uh great fun to work we were team in it we were yeah agents together
00:28:30
so Michael one day I'm in the trailer and uh you know I have to wear my boxers
00:28:36
and the t-shirt and I said to the PA I go hey man when he came to get me I said
00:28:43
don't tell anyone this but this is so nuts this is pure innocence I go I do
00:28:51
have chickenpox but I it's covering my shirt
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my shirt and boxers are covering it so I can still do the scene I just don't want everyone to weird out about it and he
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goes oh cool hang on a second two seconds later Boop shutting down the set everyone go home I was like what's I
00:29:11
didn't know what's going on I'm like why what happened the original Co God damn wow chickenpox folks you didn't get it
00:29:18
as a kid you're in your 30s getting the game I was 27 I think and I and I have
00:29:24
you got your shingle shot or uh no it'll come back it's dormant we'll talk later
00:29:32
it was so weird that I had it Michael and I are up to speed on that oh yeah anyway I didn't really I probably
00:29:37
infected everyone that was too late but we lost the day of production and someone told me that was $100,000 it's
00:29:43
my fault I don't remember that I do remember when when they wouldn't let uh
00:29:49
Dan's uh Dan had a couple of friends on motorcycles come to hang out of the set
00:29:55
and they wouldn't let him in the gate cuz they didn't have the whatever you know and so they called he's on the set
00:30:02
and they called him you know and they said yeah I'll say yeah they're okay they're okay come in and then they
00:30:08
called again he said they won't let us in they won't let us in so he tore off his head he tore off his no yes he did
00:30:16
and he shut yeah yeah he was just like he really really lost and he went out
00:30:21
there to the booth in his ripped off head and bered the hard it was it was a
00:30:29
great day you let these Hell's Angels in right now
00:30:36
okay I mean God I gotta tell you you love I mean we we love Dan a but one
00:30:41
thing so interesting about you is how much stuff you've done and they you just keep going because I dare anyone to go
00:30:48
on YouTube put in Lenny and squeegy from Lever and Shirley yeah and you'll see
00:30:53
Michael mcken and then put put on uh Chuck McGill the quote worst man in the world
00:31:01
on better call saw the ranges even to you you must look at and go it's Prett
00:31:07
yeah which one is your adoring Touchstone between those two uh I'm assuming currently better
00:31:15
call SA is pretty recent I'm like Spade I just I do my lines the fifth no no and
00:31:20
you get out of that that's true no really early on I I liked I liked
00:31:28
people who came on a different way for every show everything that they did people who had you know who
00:31:35
really uh you know Le you see a lot of a lot of great entertainers are people who
00:31:41
can be a lot of different things Jim Carrey can be the broadest comic in the
00:31:46
world but he can also work real small and he's a good dramatic actor you know
00:31:51
it's it's just because he's he's clear on what he's doing uh so anyway I just
00:31:57
try and I try and stay clear without the use of Scientology uh you know when they say
00:32:03
like Lon Shirley Michael they go I can't believe we have all this stinky garbage and then hello you guys walk in I was
00:32:10
like are they doing this on purpose they keep walking in at the worst times and
00:32:15
because I was a kid I'm like this this is accidentally really funny that they say something horrible and then these
00:32:22
two idiots well they were so aggressive and and sudden it was always a laugh like they're so sure of themselves they
00:32:28
would come in and just wreak havoc and then leave there was no real I mean that
00:32:34
that's just broad you know that show really popped as they say I mean it felt
00:32:39
Lively well it was and funny and we only shot it once we only shot it once a time
00:32:46
one one never yes and it was because it was on film it was three cameras and
00:32:52
they didn't even have monitors they weren't even they didn't even have the six-pack that they that they do now or
00:32:57
the four pack oh it was literally the only guy who saw it the only guy who saw
00:33:03
it saw something like a forpack was the camera coordinator and everyone else is
00:33:09
just these people who grew up and they you know Sheldon Sheldon Leonard the guy who kind of sophisticated the three
00:33:16
camera system after Desi arnes and Carl friend invented it that's RS yeah yeah
00:33:22
yeah and we were on those stages so it was all based in those days on just
00:33:27
being funny Lively and they just knew they had it and do that just went for the feeling of it rehearse rehearse it
00:33:33
like a play and do it like a play and you know the last pilot I did uh the
00:33:39
last pilot I did never again uh was about 15 years ago and we literally shot
00:33:48
the first scene of the pilot nine times in front of a studio audience shot it
00:33:55
nine times while the development people were going I got a better one I got a better joke here how about you do so
00:34:03
you're having these mini rewrites on this thing as you go and by the audience
00:34:08
never wants to [ __ ] see you again after nine nine takes of that and we shot until 2 in the morning and we wound
00:34:15
up paying our extras for another day to sit in the audience and laugh at the
00:34:21
stuff that we were doing for the said you can't make anything good
00:34:26
that way it gross yeah so what we Cooks yeah no no
00:34:31
would strangle it horrible horrible I only did one movie without playback wor
00:34:37
and uh and it was sort of I didn't realize it was the last of kind of the good old days they watched it it was in
00:34:44
frame and they had they didn't know if there's a light flare they didn't play it back they just said that felt good
00:34:49
let's move on and you're like got it and it seemed to work and now it's almost too much going back too much replay too
00:34:55
much let's look at it again let's look at it absolutely yeah because everyone gets a vote especially if it's a pilot
00:35:03
uh everyone you know says hey do one for the assistant here yeah yeah yeah and
00:35:08
maybe they won't let us say Jesus we'll just get it ever we'll get oh yeah do a different do an ALT well I was on a show
00:35:15
called Dream On which was kind of a titty show on on HBO and uh I did a I did a a number of
00:35:23
those show well that's what it was that's why I watched it I didn't know I didn't know I thought I was alone yeah
00:35:29
no no you probably were alone when you were watching it most people yes that's true would you lock the door thank you
00:35:38
um but uh leave the ice cream out there we used to do we used to do alternate takes and there was one my character had
00:35:45
only one ball and there was an episode about that about his inad feelings of
00:35:51
inadequacy because and so I was ranting about I said you know I I said the kids
00:35:56
it's School they'd say here he comes here he comes Johnny one nut and that was the line that was going to go in
00:36:03
they said no we need an alternate so they wrote me an alter and I looked at and I said that may be funnier but I
00:36:09
didn't tell Bri I didn't tell Brian benb Ben the guy I was working with I didn't tell him it was coming up so we're gonna
00:36:14
do the alt take and I said well here he comes Mr Singleton which was arguably funnier
00:36:22
than Johnny W that little yeah he he fell apart it was it was good laugh but
00:36:27
we couldn't use it was Wendy Malak on with you Wendy was great greatest eyebrows in Show Business oh Wendy's
00:36:34
fantastic oh she's awesome Bo I agree with that yeah yeah who um is Fred
00:36:40
Willard um just one of the funniest performers of all time or don't like him
00:36:47
no I adore FR there's something quirky about him almost like nor McDonald you can't quite put your finger on
00:36:55
what what is going on there you know it's brilliant but it's just sort of like tilted I remember Fernwood tonight
00:37:02
was the first time I got familiar with Fred Willard OH man and it was just something about he's all the character
00:37:08
of Fred was smiling a lot and had this I don't know why how it must have been fun just hanging out with that guy he was
00:37:14
great well in 1975 loved you in 1975 uh there was a a a group called the
00:37:22
ace trucking company and it was Fred Willard Billy saluga Mike MLA and George
00:37:27
mamaly you can find some of their stuff not a ton of it online but you can find some of it and um I George and well the
00:37:37
group broke up they still had three dates in the midwest that they wanted to get if they could so Fred and George
00:37:44
Mily hired me and David and Harry who were the credibility gap at the time
00:37:50
hired us to go on the road do some of our stuff and learn some ACE Trucking Company stuff and
00:37:57
kind of make it like it's a whole act so we were kind of in the ice Trucking Company there for a little while and
00:38:03
Fred was he's not like any other guy he's not like any other guy he said one
00:38:08
time he said we were checking in to this hotel in Chicago and he said to the guy he said yeah uh it's not near the
00:38:15
elevator is it and the guy said no no your your room is not so we're going up to the rooms and I said you you why do
00:38:23
you specify not near the elevator is always the bell I when the bell goes off
00:38:28
you know when the elevator hits on the floor I can't stand that I have really good hearing I can't sleep with that
00:38:34
Bell going every night and I said oh that's that's he say yeah well sometimes if I get a room near the uh the Bell
00:38:40
near the elevator I will go and disable the bell I said what yeah I know how to
00:38:47
do I I travel with tools so he has this little toolkit and he would disable the bell and he would rehook he would hook
00:38:54
it up again when we left in the morning and I said do you really do that every time they he says one time he said one
00:39:01
time I had to disable the one on the floor above and the floor below because I could still hear
00:39:06
those so he's a man in control of his own life and he also had a window he had
00:39:12
a window on a whole another world that we just can't see from here he was really [ __ ]
00:39:18
awesome yeah he's that dude crack funny he must have looked around almost like a
00:39:24
Peter sers movie when he had the tools like looked around the hallway to make no one had to get the elevator to stop
00:39:32
to get in there I mean it was a James bondan or some kind of yeah yeah there's a whole Le Mission Impossible yeah
00:39:40
what's the quirkiest thing about you David David Spade oh we get a get a pen
00:39:46
I'm so nuts but um I think Michael got me at a Michael got me at a pretty crazy
00:39:52
time because SNL I was probably losing my mind a little bit and and then I go into Cone Heads which was a little more
00:39:59
contained one time Michael we had a why do I keep having all I remember is Con
00:40:06
but one time yeah you were in underwear right oh and you had chickenpox no I'm
00:40:11
running around obviously had chickenpox probably the whole year and they said obviously they go uh you have an extra
00:40:18
scene in Cone Heads where you're in a van listening maybe Michael wasn't in it but it was during a show week and they
00:40:25
said you have to fly back for it so I do like read through and then Thursday I
00:40:33
fly uh a red can I take a red eyee to La I took a red eye somewhere anyway I took
00:40:38
a red eye because Letterman was on my flight and he said part of the story is the story's long he said they the the
00:40:46
stewardess goes should I wake you for uh honey buns and I said no I'm going to try to sleep and I didn't know Letterman
00:40:52
and then he went to the bathroom and when he came out he goes should I wake you for honey buns I never talked in my
00:40:57
life and uh hilarious and then I get there I go straight to the set word
00:41:04
maybe no I think it was a 6 amm flight anyway so I fly out there I sleep on it I get up I go in I drive out to Disney
00:41:11
Ranch I do this scenes whatever kill get big laughs then I um then I drive back
00:41:18
to my apartment in Studio City order a pizza because I'm going home the next day and I finally finished the day and I
00:41:24
got my hair all greased back and mik Shoemaker calls me goes hey Lauren wants you back and I go I know I just finished
00:41:30
shooting I'm coming in the morning because it was a Lauren movie I go I'm coming back in the morning he goes no he
00:41:35
wants you on a Redeye tonight there's a car out front I go shut the [ __ ] up I just got a pizza so he goes you better
00:41:41
go you don't and the whole life at SNL you don't want to get fired so I take a few bites get back in the car go back to
00:41:48
the airport they need you at the studio at 10:00 a.m. so I land I go to the
00:41:53
studio it's a John Goodman show there's no one in in the stud I go wait no one even comes in till one what am I [ __ ]
00:41:59
doing so I just walk around then I go back home and then no one ever mentioned it and I'm like What's Happening you are
00:42:06
a Christian M story we no we'll cut it out um I tried to talk them out of that
00:42:11
I was in New York at the office I go don't make David come all the way back for that no it was you on the phone
00:42:17
acting like Shoemaker I I was trying to help um David will come back and then
00:42:23
he'll go back um and then he'll come back again hours called
00:42:34
Trifecta Michael mcken is um humble so I I know how what it's like to get
00:42:40
compliments but I have to say this scene that you did because I looked it up on the on the stand we have Chuck McGill
00:42:48
with the electric magnet paranoia thing and you're I mean you I mean that that's
00:42:54
as good as it kind of gets I think for film acting I mean what did you think of that scene did you ever look at it did
00:43:00
you know you were in the pocket did oderkirk try to ruin takes that were really good you know how Bob is that's
00:43:06
yeah that's no he's going too fast wow you're so good no it was uh I
00:43:14
knew I I got called I was in New York I was in New York and I got I I was doing
00:43:20
a a show a play in New York no I wasn't at this point but I was in New York and
00:43:25
uh the director of the show Dan sackheim the director of that episode called and
00:43:32
he says you want to talk about this and I thought oh is that mean it's gonna be hard and he said well have you looked at
00:43:37
I said yeah it's a ton of stuff and it's it's a big it's like a four-page speech basically and he says well how do you
00:43:44
want to shoot this and I said no I don't know I just what's good I I didn't kind
00:43:49
of understand what he was asking me he says because it's going to be some long days and then I realized well that scene
00:43:55
is going to take like 3 days and so uh we it listen it it it worked out cuz I
00:44:02
you know I I learned the lines beat myself up and got the lines down but I'm I'm not too bad about lines and then I I
00:44:09
knew what it was that Arc typle if that's a word yeah you melt down you take
00:44:15
yourself from being fairly together like Captain que you know and then and then you lo
00:44:22
you you're losing it slowly and pacing it so I'm just my question is how much is technique and how much is just you
00:44:29
you you're the guy and you're not really thinking you're just being playful because it sudden seems like it'd be
00:44:34
hard to break all those moments down yeah when they're filming you just have to be you just felt so in the pocket I
00:44:41
don't know it's just my thing I liked it a lot that's all thank you very much thanks no no it was it was a really good
00:44:47
uh it was a good show it was a good experience and uh you know Bob is kind of heroic and I met Bob when we were
00:44:55
doing SNL uh and it was I me he was just there occasionally he wasn't writing on the
00:45:01
show but he was I think he was seeing Janine is that possible anyway there
00:45:07
were some oh I I don't Tails out of school uh but no I knew I think they
00:45:13
used to go out I don't know but I met him a couple of times there but I never really really worked with him until this
00:45:21
MH until Better Call Saul and when you know when they cast me in it he called
00:45:26
me up and he said this is great news we're going to have such a good time and we did we uh we kind of fell right into
00:45:33
it into this relationship and what we did was informing and we didn't know it
00:45:39
was informing the writers and it kind of gave them a lot of inspiration hey you know what could happen here and they it
00:45:47
it helped them find a way for those characters to become to to to get into a
00:45:54
genuine conflict um anyway smart writers you work with smart writers they're wide
00:45:59
open to everything yeah and Vince Gilligan and and Peter Gould and Tom schn and Jennifer uh um last name um
00:46:08
yeah Hamilton think Henderson that's her that's her last name Jennifer last name Jennifer last name story Bob said one of
00:46:16
the maybe you can relate to this um Bob said the funniest the hardest I've ever laughed on this podcast about SNL and
00:46:24
stuff is that you know you know people when they're younger and Bob was just a fledgling writer in the 80s and um but
00:46:31
we wrote a movie together called Tucson a comedy western stuff like that so and Bob is going along with with his career
00:46:38
and then and then Breaking Bad comes and then better call saw and when he came on
00:46:44
the podcast he goes he goes then he does the action movie Nobody which is awesome
00:46:49
yeah and he thought to himself if this if this lands because we know Bob as the
00:46:54
the fledgling writer in the ' 80s that at our court he goes he said to us I know if this landed you guys would be
00:47:01
sitting at home going what the [ __ ] now he's an action star he's not
00:47:08
only an academy award-winning type actor now he's an action star that made me
00:47:14
laugh so hard well if you could you ever play that the the time machine game the time machine game where you see somebody
00:47:21
on the screen and they're doing something kind of second rate and you know that their career is about to take off you want to get in
00:47:28
a time machine and say don't worry this is going to be fine you're going to be you're going to get Martin cesy is gonna
00:47:35
put you in a movie it's gonna be amazing and I play that game a lot uh but there
00:47:40
was a movie called oh god oh what was it called Capricorn one and it was about
00:47:47
the faking faking of the moon landing so if you could go back in time yeah OJ
00:47:52
Simpson OJ simp go back in time and you say Okay Jim Brolin you're going to be
00:47:59
married to the ex-wife of Elliot Gould who is standing right next to you in
00:48:05
this shot and OJ oh OJ yeah yeah we'll
00:48:10
get back to you later OJ yeah yeah you'll you'll see It'll be exciting keep
00:48:15
doing what you're doing no one will talk about anyone but you for years you're going to be so famous oh
00:48:23
yeah so famous yeah man all right well Michael thank you unless Dana has something else to tell you we might let
00:48:29
you go you've been you've struggled with us enough it's very nice of you well you guys are very important to me I love
00:48:35
your attitude you're important to me because I'm very important to you yes because it you're proof that blondes can
00:48:41
be funny we all are right it's true three Blondie well that blonde
00:48:48
blonde blond blond on a tow head as a child H it was hard to tell because I
00:48:54
always had a crew cut I was a brisly little blonde crew cut yeah pretty
00:48:59
sad me too hated it hated having to crew cut in the 60s studly in that SNL
00:49:06
Monologue in 85 killed no he bet you it wasn't my sweater skinny good job I
00:49:11
don't say this with all of our guests but some but what I would say to you is
00:49:16
what can't he do yeah what I don't know I can't sleep he will host a show he
00:49:23
will he can't sleep Dana no it's called ambient hello I got it
00:49:30
listen yeah half an ambient is fine I that's what I do at night yeah not a whole one come on no a whole one then
00:49:36
you got to deal with the rest of the day your mind's going like this right I mean I the creative juices then how do you
00:49:44
sleep so hard to sleep for me thank you for coming on our our humble show Michael listen it's been very been a lot
00:49:51
of fun and uh I had to get up anyway so here I am now shifting our little
00:49:56
pictures around all right boys thank you bud this has been a presentation of
00:50:02
Odyssey please follow subscribe leave a like a review all the stuff smash that
00:50:07
button whatever it is wherever you get your podcast fly in the walls executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade
00:50:14
Jenna Weiss Burman of Odyssey Charlie finan of brillstein entertainment and Heather Santoro the show's lead producer
00:50:19
is Greg Holzman
