00:00:00
how long did you work with Julia Sweeney you know you might think probably three
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yeah or four she kind of like so we had Nora done and Jen Hooks and Victoria
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Jackson as our primary female caterpillar some killers and they were
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great and then when I think when Jan and Nora left then Julia came in and took
00:00:25
that primary role of doing a lot of stuff with the Department she could her
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range is incredible and then we do talk about on this podcast really interesting her character It's Pat Uh about a kind
00:00:40
of a woman that no one knows whether it's a man or a woman this was 1991 or two but she talks all about her reaction
00:00:47
to that what she feels about it we also talk about she brings up a sketch I wrote for her when I was alone yes and
00:00:52
that was that even shocked me and I did not remember and it was great to hear it was very real reaction from you I always
00:00:58
say to people like take away David Spade all the fame The Bachelorette all the shows all the movies all the world Missy
00:01:04
he was a Dandy little sketch writer I like that I'll take that over
00:01:09
everything but you wrote some jokes for me once you were my opening act we did a little tour
00:01:15
and I would give you subjects and you go sure boss and you had you had a pencil in your ear and a little a little
00:01:20
notebook right away boss here's a joke Dana did today why do they call them neat freaks why do you have to
00:01:26
be a freak if you're neat that's yours can't you just be tidy that you're a neat freak I'm fat to me why am I just
00:01:33
freaking freak I am not a freak I'm just vacuuming freak
00:01:39
get away from the freak put the cat away
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that's Dana's new one here we go Julius me
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[Music] so you were saying about religion
00:01:58
you've done two or three one-woman shows based on
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well really just one letting go of God was the yeah that's the religion man the
00:02:09
other ones are other things God said ha yeah I got it but the really so you're an atheist yes although I really it
00:02:17
sounds so negative but it's just saying yes well no because to American ears atheist sounds like um I hate puppies
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and flowers
00:02:30
yeah even though the Nazis weren't atheists but I which I'm always explaining to people okay but anyway
00:02:35
well it comes from Catholicism um but um yeah I yeah I mean I've had a
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yeah I don't believe I don't let me put it this way I don't live my life under the assumption that there's a deity
00:02:49
watching what I do right I guess that makes me an atheist yeah I guess uh I
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don't know what I I keep coming back to this like I can't comprehend Infinity that there was no beginning or end to
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this whatever why why do things exist and when did they get here so I keep
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going around with that I I did know a Jehovah's Witness once who who told me he could understand Infinity I said so
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you can think of a God who never was not here was always here he looked up and
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goes yeah I got it yep yep happy I want to say to the record I like puppies
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and I like flowers I think Julie what people is the it hits the ear like if
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you don't believe in that then you don't believe what we believe is that that created those things so you're against
00:03:41
everything is that kind of what the vibe is yeah that's it and it's like a very I used to think I could
00:03:48
I don't know what I thought I guess I thought doing my show I would change people's mind I wasn't doing it to
00:03:54
change people's mind actually the reason I did the show is because for me it was a huge huge the philosophical
00:04:01
transformation I wasn't particularly religious before so I was about age 40
00:04:07
that this happened well I was religious I wanted to be a nun in high school I was completely committed Catholic but I
00:04:13
let it kind of go away and then I had a crisis in my life that made me believe
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more like I really felt you know like I had religious experiences and then after
00:04:23
that I started trying to think well what was going on with those experiences and then as I learned more and more about
00:04:30
the brain and how we evolved then I finally read the Bible I you know and
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then over two years I realized that I could explain it psychologically or
00:04:41
naturally or you know like I didn't need a God to explain what happened to me and
00:04:47
then so then I wanted that was a big dramatic change in my life and I had been doing these one person shows about
00:04:52
things like that so I thought oh that's a good challenge to kind of do a one-person show about a change of mind
00:04:59
that all the dramas all takes place in your head and that was really hard and I didn't
00:05:05
necessarily achievement achieve it I had to make stories and you know like I had to conform to normal dramatic structure
00:05:12
but I did it and it was probably my most popular show and
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but I wasn't thinking I'm gonna convince people to be an atheist it was more like they'd have comedic tones I'm sure oh
00:05:23
yes it was actually I felt defensive about it because I felt like I was getting as many laughs per five minutes
00:05:30
as comedians were but because it was a difficult topic I wasn't considered a stand-up you know like right and well
00:05:38
it's a brave topic and that's harder and stand up it's more respected in a way to try to Circle things instead of 7-Eleven
00:05:44
which I tackle about 12 minutes of it I thought it was
00:05:50
really charming and the way you walked yourself into it was very disarming for the audience but yeah did I ever believe
00:05:56
in a magic God and all that stuff no I'm with you on that I mean I never never bought it and no one bought it in the
00:06:03
Lutheran Church even the pastors you could tell oh sure I fully believe now that all everyone no one really believes it I
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mean like I think about tribalism and history and of affection for the ritual
00:06:15
and affection for the way of life and so it almost is like it was useless
00:06:21
to try to argue rationally with someone about it it isn't a rational Choice it's usually you're born into it or you have
00:06:28
an emotional thing that makes you join something because it helps your life like and you know I don't care that's
00:06:35
fine with me with people like I'm not you know so I I went back to the Catholic church with my wife and I found
00:06:42
it just interesting because they were talking about Pontius Pilate and stuff you know and it's like wow they're still doing it it was like a be going back in
00:06:49
time but I'm still doing these bits yeah but you know the whole material
00:06:56
um David yeah now I kind of as a hobby followed these right-wing Catholics
00:07:02
interesting right wing okay oh yeah there's a huge
00:07:07
Schism coming in the church I think oh that makes sense there's the Latin massers and they're the people who were
00:07:14
Pope Benedict and not with Pope Francis and they think Francis is the anti-pope
00:07:19
did you say Pope Benedict or Pope won a dick good night
00:07:25
I canceled I'm sorry I'm canceled every five minutes I like that one I just made it I just made it up anyway
00:07:32
um so we talk about your other Supernatural experience meeting David Spade in 19.
00:07:39
when you got my question for Julia is okay then we're gonna get to me and Julia of course uh when she I think you
00:07:46
came from growling so when they're when when that happens and you can explain
00:07:51
how it happens is there any jealousy when someone gets plucked out of Groundlings well it's so funny I think I
00:07:58
was so naive I didn't think anyone was jealous of me and I wasn't jealous of other people but now I understand that
00:08:05
most people get really jealous of those things I mean so I was just kind of oblivious about it
00:08:11
towards me and and the people who got on before me um like Phil Hartman and John Lovitz who
00:08:18
I only didn't know well but I I knew Phil a lot better than John but um I didn't feel jealous I just thought
00:08:25
wow that's so exciting you know like I didn't but there's something wrong with me that I
00:08:32
don't feel that way I actually don't feel that way it's an innocence a nice it's a nice innocence that you might you
00:08:40
learn later like oh [ __ ] they're mad at me because of this or I start to feel those tingles
00:08:46
of jealousy and SNL to be honest and Anderson
00:08:51
yeah well Groundlings everyone's good too you know but SNL is just a whole other level like going from college
00:08:57
probably to uh oh yeah I mean my experience at the growlings was all for one and one for all and if someone gets
00:09:03
it they were all happy and then at SNL it took me a long time to understand how to be competitive you know like I didn't
00:09:12
it was really brutal yeah I was really kind of a lamb fed to the sharks in certain ways but I did adapt
00:09:23
and she's so sweet and so Southern and she talked about that the difference the stand-ups were kind of trained to kill
00:09:30
yeah and Destroy elbow out right and seemed like the Groundlings were sweeter
00:09:35
and nicer overall oh wait I mean I'm sure I was naive and I was and frankly I
00:09:41
was succeeding so much I didn't know that sounds arrogant to say but at that
00:09:46
moment I was succeeding enough that I didn't have any awareness of the competitiveness of it I was just thought
00:09:52
we were all doing it and but then when I got to SNL well actually and I feel like I had mostly really good
00:09:58
experience there but now that I'm older um and I look back I think I I really
00:10:04
didn't understand what was going on I didn't understand how hard you had to compete I thought we were all just going
00:10:11
to look out for each other yeah well when when Nora and Jen left
00:10:16
and you came in it seemed like you had a lot of you were very active initially you were doing stuff before I was beaten
00:10:23
down well you became the go-to-wife solid utility yeah you were just in every sketch in a sense you and Phil had
00:10:30
that sort of a lot of sketches together right and you were very active your first yeah I mean he was with Jan was
00:10:35
mostly his wife but I was like I was the B Team wife but then Jen left the show and there he were and then you came in
00:10:42
yeah you were the alternative wife did you and Jan overlap a year and maybe one
00:10:47
year okay a year yeah and Nora not at all no because I think I replaced her if
00:10:53
you think of it like chased her out is what we call it
00:10:59
there was several shows sharp elbows got some sharp elbows
00:11:04
Sweeney yeah don't play it but that's a good SNL book title yes sharp elbows
00:11:09
well yeah Julia so you come in you get plucked from the Groundlings was anyone else with you
00:11:16
or was Phil and John already there but you got plucked solo yeah and you know it was between me and
00:11:21
Lisa Kudrow oh and when I got it I thought you know I hope Lisa gets
00:11:28
something Oh serious like me yeah bless her heart
00:11:34
and I hope she you go I hope one day she makes someday she can tell you you know because she you know what she deserves
00:11:41
it you know what's funny I'm not saying I if there was room for two women and
00:11:46
I'm saying back then it was probably a lot tougher where they wouldn't even consider that I know but you and Lisa
00:11:52
would have been such oh yeah I mean wonderful I mean yeah so I mean it was
00:11:58
it did I kind of bought into that culture too like you have three women and seven to ten guys way too many women
00:12:04
that's right yeah it was a good ratio 12 guys and three women I really enjoyed that In fairness it was true that there
00:12:12
was you know talk about not enough for the women and it was true and so and it's very
00:12:19
it it's I think nowadays they're more cognizant of it because there's a lot of great women have come through there and
00:12:25
yeah I think I think you paved the way they changed everything I think she revolutionized us now yeah and doing
00:12:31
update and and writing and bringing women in and yeah and pointing out that there's no reason not to have the women
00:12:38
that if all the sketches are so male focused that there's only women as weird
00:12:43
archetypes and sketches here and there it's like you're never gonna get the women used you have to really change
00:12:49
your whole point of view and I don't I wasn't there but and I don't even know Tina Fey but I I sense that there was a
00:12:57
huge Revolution took place that was a good one you know it's funny when Tina was there that was that sounds crazy that might
00:13:04
have been the first time when there's like a sketch with all women yeah where people would be like what well she wrote
00:13:09
about that in her book I mean not about the sketch but just about why you couldn't have a whole sketch group that was all women or like why can't why
00:13:17
wouldn't you be able to think up a lot of sketches for a lot of women that didn't happen to have a man in it you know like and and I was I had that
00:13:26
prejudice myself like I really thought oh yeah you think of something for a guy to do
00:13:33
and then you think how you could come in you know like it it took a long time for
00:13:38
me to see how much the sexism was even in myself yeah that that was sort of the way it
00:13:44
was we were all there around the same time and I remember it was just the way it was thought of good or bad it was
00:13:50
just the way it was thoughtful yeah it's amazing how you don't even question certain things like
00:13:57
self is a liberated Progressive person and yet I didn't I thought oh yeah it will always be three women and ten guys
00:14:03
well also the uh Sarah Palin came in as a vice presidential candidate so that
00:14:09
was and then Hillary later so that gave to political parts that were you know
00:14:15
um I don't know who you could do back then really I mean Senator Feinstein she was there oh you did Chelsea did it say
00:14:22
that you that she had that rubbed somebody wrong yeah Hillary [Laughter]
00:14:32
and then people were saying how unattractively I was playing Chelsea and all I did was not wear makeup and put
00:14:39
braces on it's like if you say that you're saying I'm unattractive like which maybe that's
00:14:46
so but it's like that's like I wasn't trying to hilar unattractive
00:14:52
with all that Prosthetics you made her look horrible you're like I just went I just washed my face and then I walked in
00:14:57
yeah I just didn't wear makeup and put on braces that was it in a wig a long wig you know curly wig but anyway but I
00:15:03
understood what Hillary was saying especially now that I'm a parent sure like it's like yeah [ __ ] off you know I
00:15:09
mean don't play kids I mean that was wrong she was right that was
00:15:14
wrong what about when uh Farley plays show apology who was the mayor or was it whose kid
00:15:21
did uh Farley play they played him like such a [ __ ] jumping all over his dad and while he's giving his speech do you
00:15:28
remember oh yeah was it Phil was it Giuliani I can't remember
00:15:33
yeah boy yeah yeah and he would just wear a
00:15:38
suit and grab and eats hamburgers and yeah if I was I would have been Furious of course uh if you had to watch that as
00:15:45
your own kid yeah we did a lot of the things that we couldn't do now you know I was in Lyle
00:15:52
pull up the effeminate heterosexual I know but I can't people mention that to me so often I mean look people love
00:16:00
that that describes the type of person and behavior that is recognizable that
00:16:05
hadn't been labeled yet I mean like that was at least in a pop culture sense so I feel like that
00:16:11
and I think that's true that is true there are people who are feminate and heterosexual who are men yeah that's
00:16:18
a true thing I mean like I don't see how people could be offended
00:16:24
by it well what I found out later that that uh pained me was that I think it
00:16:30
was the mixer in the booth the gentleman at the time was gay and when that sketch
00:16:35
came on he recused himself oh really someone else worked the lever so and why
00:16:41
does he think that being um a feminate mannerism is
00:16:46
um pejorative towards a gay person I mean like it goes both ways you're right you know like I guess
00:16:52
I don't yeah I find it hard to understand some of the stuff that people object to but anyway uh I'm with you
00:16:59
we're we're Comedians and we're not very offendable and we want to say the thing you're not supposed to say it's just
00:17:05
instinctual do the thing you're not supposed to do and so we're not normal and then but that one I couldn't do
00:17:12
today and I did an Asian character too um making our way to a character called Pat
00:17:19
two which is has had a Resurgence in notoriety in the last few years I mean
00:17:26
there's been a lot of talk about we were way ahead of the game on that we're behind that's right I yeah
00:17:34
I mean I the thing for me is that I always thought the joke was mostly about the people who were around Pat who
00:17:41
freaking so flummoxed who are frozen freaked out which I thought was Christine and I at the beginning because
00:17:47
we wrote all those sketches together Xander oh Christine Zander as we said at the beginning the jokes are not on Pat
00:17:54
except that Pat looks weird and drools and is annoying it's not because people
00:18:01
aren't gonna laugh at Pat from Pat's androgyny what we're laughing at is the
00:18:07
people around Pat how do we understand it that Pat's androgynous so to me it
00:18:12
makes them frustrated yeah and so but that's a subtle comedy thing you know
00:18:17
that people yeah there's people yeah there's a lot of people upset by Pat and it's yeah and
00:18:23
the truth is I wasn't thinking of androgynous people as an SNL audience you know what I mean I was doing a
00:18:30
character like we're laughing at this idea if I if I thought the audience was
00:18:36
filled with androgynous people I probably would have played it a little differently you know what I mean like we
00:18:41
didn't think of those people as our audience but now you would now you would you would be aware of them but then uh
00:18:48
to me to me the character forget that it's Pat and no one knows whether it's a man or a woman is just a funny character
00:18:56
I I you know I mean it the way she moved the way she talked it was just a funny character Goofy yeah I guess if I did it
00:19:03
again I would make Pat more enigmatic and make it clear that it was about the other people and not Pat almost more
00:19:10
Charlie Chaplin asked like just people not talking much just just about everyone else's
00:19:16
reactions yeah but anyway no one's asking me to do that so no it's never
00:19:23
too late for a it's uh Pat to you know I think it's time for another one we do it
00:19:28
for eight million at Warners that a story okay
00:19:33
I was going to I was going to New York and I was going to go to SNL and bring my daughter who hadn't got I guess we've
00:19:41
done twice in her life but this was one of those times and the Supreme Court had
00:19:46
just had a case where they had brought up Pat at the Supreme Court during the case and Alito didn't know who Pat was
00:19:52
and then there were these jokes about it and Lauren and I had been emailing each
00:19:59
other for something else I think I had to get permission for something anyway we had had this email and I and
00:20:06
either here I was like oh it's not funny that the Supreme Court joked about Pat and who on the Supreme
00:20:12
Court knew who Pat was or whatever and then he said when you come
00:20:19
to the show next week bring your pet outfit with you to New York because maybe you know I don't know who knows
00:20:26
you know maybe we'll do something out of the Supreme Court thing but then the actual Act of this sad fact of me you
00:20:33
know like at 58 not it really like packing my bad outfit
00:20:39
in a suitcase and bringing it hoping that maybe we do a passage like
00:20:45
it was really and of course no one even mentioned it and the whole like I had to bring the [ __ ] cat suit and it was so
00:20:51
it was such an offhand comment and then I took it I shouldn't have oh God every
00:20:57
time was it on a hanger or did you show up with it on a hanger here's my outfit yeah it's a really funny
00:21:04
or is it an update piece and everyone's like is what no no no one even mentioned
00:21:09
it and then it was like in front of my husband and daughter y'all just took carry on it's like no I have to check my
00:21:15
my pants and then and then it's like oh well I guess I I really didn't need them how
00:21:21
come how come church lady never got together with Pat why was Pat not on Church chat that seems I know we should
00:21:28
have done that God I always travel with my Tom Petty hat
00:21:33
he did it no matter where in the mutton chops right pork chops yeah pork chops on the side and just you know you never
00:21:40
know when someone is going to want it at a birthday party or something oh my God
00:21:47
[Music] when you when you came on you um
00:21:52
well you started I started for four weeks of the end of a season with Schneider
00:21:59
and then I think you started with rock and Farley right there I came and visited the show
00:22:06
when he did his um Patrick Swayze sketch oh I finished that
00:22:12
show from the audience but I wasn't on the show yet so you came in mid-season probably well no it was just I think it
00:22:19
was the next episode oh okay maybe I knew I was gonna start but I wasn't in that episode yeah I came the week before
00:22:25
to look at a show they said why don't you come early and I think that maybe what they do to us but and and you watch
00:22:31
it and going oh my God I'm gonna be part of this [ __ ] it's moving so fast I have no idea what's going on I think it's
00:22:36
scary watching a practice show knowing projecting yourself out there a week later how will I be out there but you
00:22:42
guys are you're because you guys see to me it wasn't but it wasn't scary to me but that's not saying that it shouldn't
00:22:48
have been scary but um I think because of doing sketches at the Groundlings like I it was just like
00:22:54
I was in so many sketches and you had to learn it was very similar to being at the ground yeah yeah you're right that's right that's different for me and Dana
00:23:00
because so it didn't seem scary I just I actually had the opposite like I thought as I watched it I thought oh I can do
00:23:06
this I can do this oh good yeah wow so you come in and you see all of us so
00:23:11
Phil you knew and you have great uh admiration for Phil and you guys were you've been my teacher at oh teacher
00:23:20
yeah God who's better to teach he's so good oh my God no he changed my life
00:23:25
with his teaching he was such a he could really not very many comedians um can explain why they're funny and how
00:23:30
they do it and he could you know funny thing about Phil seeing around the
00:23:36
office is how Dana knows him way better but how uh unassuming and how egoless
00:23:41
and he's always thinking about other things at work when I'm only thinking about Snell because I'm so but he's so
00:23:47
good he would be like hey I might go fishing this weekend or hey and then you think how are you thinking of one other thing this is driving me mental to try
00:23:54
to but he's just remember how organized he was he's got his folder all the sketches all the lines he really made
00:24:01
sure he knew his lines it was so good yeah he took it so seriously yeah and then he was he was so disciplined around
00:24:07
it and then he would have a Popular Mechanics or some kind of motorboat Today magazine
00:24:13
schematics of an Evinrude and then he'd put it down and then he'd go in a rehearsal scene nail it perfect go back
00:24:20
out I think he had that red hardcover that says Saturday Night Live in the corner in that Circle and then it was
00:24:26
like a red hard notebook and you'd open it up three-ring binder and you put it that's right yeah I'd put my two pages
00:24:32
of script for that week in there and open it's a consistent theme with David he
00:24:38
had a rough time I keep saying it uh and then so you got along pretty much like
00:24:44
you knew what were your first first thoughts of like an atom or something
00:24:49
what's my first thought about what about like Sandler or Farley
00:24:55
um Sandler came a little later I think oh right maybe a year later I think he wasn't there right away um Ellen
00:25:02
Cleghorn was with you uh chiffon Fallon yeah
00:25:08
Melanie Hutzel and bathroom that's Beth for each season Beth Cahill yeah those
00:25:13
were kind of your Prime I didn't really know Beth very well um they were she was just there for one
00:25:19
year but um yeah I mean it was exciting I mean of course it was the most exciting thing
00:25:24
you're at the center of the universe and you're at the top of what you would want to be for your you know your skill set I
00:25:32
mean like it's the best I mean it was the greatest most thrilling thing I would say it was completely great till
00:25:37
the last year and um at first what happened the last year
00:25:42
well I for one thing the sketches changed they were more bro sketches
00:25:48
um and who would be doing that I wasn't there was no place for me in
00:25:53
those sketches I mean like there was no and I wasn't getting my own stuff on and no one was casting me and
00:26:00
Christine had left that was the big thing so we had written together every week and she'd gone to work on Third
00:26:05
Rock From the Sun with Bonnie and Terry and Xander um and I I just was lost without her
00:26:13
frankly and and I felt like the sketches were more um
00:26:18
I remember something I mean this might it was kind of terrible there was some sketch where they had to have a beautiful woman and I was listening to
00:26:25
everyone talk about how none of the women who were on the show could oh beautiful yeah yeah and they had to
00:26:31
bring in a model because there was literally no one there
00:26:36
that even with makeup and everything who could pass as sexual like and so and then I was like
00:26:44
wow I'm oh my god really have I mean not that I would have necessarily been that
00:26:49
choice anyway but it's like that point of view there just was no
00:26:55
room for me now looking back I think I should have pushed harder of my own comedy and I should have
00:27:00
you know Shoulda Woulda Coulda but everybody does but well Xander and the Turners who of people listening Bonnie
00:27:08
and Terry Turner were great writers together Christine Zander was wonderful so so having them in your corner or at
00:27:15
least a piece of it or something yeah it really takes a chunk when you need every piece to keep going and if you have a
00:27:21
little bit slipping and I knew it would be harder but I didn't know it would be devastating you know I didn't know that
00:27:28
it would be I thought bottom would drop out yeah the bottom really seemed to drop out and so
00:27:33
there were for the first time there were sketches I have shows I weren't wasn't even in it you know like and
00:27:40
um yeah that was hard it was really hard I could hardly wait to leave at the end of that year but up until then though it
00:27:48
was fantastic yeah sure it really was very exciting yeah it seemed like you I was there three three years with you and
00:27:54
it just seemed like you were really really active in the show yeah that was a big part was my youthful enthusiasm
00:28:02
and also Christina yeah Christine who wrote the reconciliation sketch it was
00:28:08
such a uh that actually I had written that sketch well Christine and I wrote it together
00:28:13
um but I had had the idea and done a kind of early form of that sketch you
00:28:20
want to describe what it what it was I mean uh well it was now I'm thinking is that really true
00:28:26
well then it's the one without going to play anyway priest it was Alec Baldwin came on and he's so hand and you know
00:28:33
he's just he's like he's one of those guys who's handsome and funny as you know blah blah yes and I was telling
00:28:39
Christine that in my Catholic High School they had changed confession and that now called it reconciliation and
00:28:45
you looked at the priest in a room instead of going to a confessional and that at our high school I went to an all
00:28:51
girls catholic high school and the priest was father Boley and he was so handsome that people would get so
00:28:57
distracted telling them their sins they couldn't like he was so handsome father
00:29:02
Baldwin and then I would go in and start flirting with the prison then it was creepy you know
00:29:08
and that I would start making up sins just to stay in the confession you know like just so we could keep this
00:29:14
conversation going yeah and so we wrote that with and Alec came in and wrote it with us I mean at least parts of it with
00:29:21
us and God that was really fun it was so much fun very very funny he was perfect
00:29:26
casting and then you were you played it beautifully I mean it's just and then the best thing about that we had written
00:29:32
a line at the end where because I'm like I I cheated on my diet and he's like well that's not really a sin and I'm
00:29:37
like oh and then he goes um but I know I know what it's like to
00:29:43
you know try to go on a diet um what did you cheat with and I go I ate a whole box of Oreos and he says oh
00:29:49
do you like to unscrew it and eat out the creamy center or something
00:29:54
like that there you go and then the standards and practices like you can't say eat out the creamy center we suggest
00:30:00
you say lick out the cream they always get it more pornographic it's so funny
00:30:06
every time classic okay really wow good can you say go down on the Oreo I think
00:30:14
that would be better yeah exactly this is just a Catholic uh 22nd story my
00:30:21
wife and I were married in a Catholic Church the priest we went to dinner with him this and that they usually have a
00:30:26
few pops you know what I mean and uh my wife drinks very pretty 23 at the time
00:30:32
gets up goes to the bathroom with her tight jeans he looks and says if you don't marry her I will that was that was
00:30:38
the priest good night that's all I got David Julia dude Were You There When
00:30:44
Alec I'm just looking at your thing where it says you're a uh you brought up Alec and then yeah uh it says she
00:30:51
demonstrated an early talent for mimicry uh what is that is that like on IMDb or
00:30:56
something characters awesome by the way I was not good at Mercury and
00:31:04
people would often have you know assigning me famous people to play and I've I feel like I really really was
00:31:10
like C C minus in that like it just feels like more special skills at the
00:31:15
bottom mimicry I heard you're good at mimicry and you're like you're a mimic in third grade do you remember Dana I
00:31:21
don't think Julie was there but Alex first show was my like third one and he did a sketch called the mimic unless he
00:31:27
did it later oh I think we have done it when he came he had already done that
00:31:32
this is the stupidest catch and he was so funny goes the mimic and he pick up a phone and go hello he goes he can do
00:31:39
anything and then he was like kind of bad at all of them and uh because he actually is good at all these accents
00:31:44
and stuff but they just and he dressed all black the mimic well the classic was Frank gorsh when he was a brilliant
00:31:50
impressionist on Ed Sullivan in the 60s and he would do the classic turn turn away from the camera and kind of [ __ ]
00:31:56
his hair up and then come back which is like look at me now you know oh so I like that I like that kind of impression
00:32:04
uh yeah we could do voices
00:32:10
[Music] so Dina do you you live in L.A now not in Mill Valley anymore
00:32:16
um I was just in Mill Valley uh the actual address is no uh yeah I was just
00:32:21
there we have the 1912 haunted house up there and I've experienced I don't know
00:32:28
if I believe it but Poltergeist up there what and I told Dan Aykroyd about it and
00:32:33
he says I got to get someone in there to check it out it's in one particular bedroom and at night I would hear White
00:32:39
Noise because my son had moved out of that bedroom and moved in with his brother because he felt and I would hear
00:32:44
White Noise because there was a portable radio there so I would walk in and then the white noise would stop all that okay
00:32:51
and it happened you know a couple times a year and I saw some things anyway I'm
00:32:57
gonna happen to know the top yeah paranormal debunker in the United States
00:33:03
so if you're interested I don't necessarily believe in it I've had the nightmare where you feel a pressure on
00:33:09
your chest even though you're in a waking dream state and that made me leave the San Ysidro Hotel one night
00:33:15
with my wife I woke her up and said we have to go now because I felt the
00:33:20
pressure on my chest when I'm sleeping and bouncing up and down on me and then I went and used the bathroom thought
00:33:26
okay that's uh I was dreaming then I laid back down and I felt like I was awake as I am right now and then massive
00:33:33
pressure that felt angry pushing down on me and I was just couldn't move and then asked me didn't you have heart issues
00:33:41
physical explanation for that yes I had seven stents and a botched bypass 25
00:33:48
years ago Look at me now those are my issues let me charge no but I mean there's I mean
00:34:01
they should meet your debunker uh Dana I get scared at my house because
00:34:07
I just moved and I don't want to hear that story because I hear like clicking in the house settling in quotes but it's
00:34:13
like and Julia will say it's a house settling which I say because I can't in
00:34:18
the middle of night when it's dead silent you're so scared you're like I have to think of a reason what's going on because it's always scary but I
00:34:25
haven't felt pressure or anything like that I would [ __ ] freak out oh I read it out since I became a person who
00:34:32
doesn't believe in Supernatural in anything like that exciting us yeah
00:34:37
um I never get scared I mean I get scared when I think there's a reasonable chance that something's truly wrong but that
00:34:44
kind of stuff doesn't even I just think there's some things making the sound yeah I'm not I'm not frightening of it
00:34:51
at all I because I never got hurt it just flipped me out the first time but I I don't know if I said this but I Mike
00:34:57
Myers who kind of read the encyclopedia as a five-year-old you know nightmare is is a from the word you know it's some
00:35:03
medieval Latin prefix or for a mayor and I eat a horse feels like it's laying on top of you and it's just a waking dream
00:35:10
state I read about it in the New York Times the brain disconnects David you're fine I believe that scared me and I've never
00:35:17
heard about the horse part but I like it um Julia you were in Coneheads no we we
00:35:25
should you wearing Conan's weren't you that was sort of a sign what was it or no
00:35:31
I remember thinking I'm playing the principal and Chris Farley's playing a high school student and we're only like
00:35:37
four years apart in age
00:35:42
um yeah that was fun I don't remember that much about it yeah I mean I I was
00:35:47
in it too believe me we were all in it I think as I think Lauren just said David you'll be reporting to Coneheads and I
00:35:53
was like oh yes sir I think it was something like it was like you just were told that you were going but David you know what I remember is that sketch you
00:35:59
wrote not necessarily for me but I got to be the main comedy driver of it I always bring that up in the sketch
00:36:05
remember the sketch where I go on the date and I just keep ordering expensive food and then I start talking about it I'm not gonna put out
00:36:11
he's trying to push me towards the more cheap the cheaper food do you remember that I don't that's hilarious and you
00:36:18
came to me and said I have this idea for you I'm gonna write the sketch and it was wow I'm forgetting who the guy was
00:36:25
um but it was some handsome guy and I'm just and the whole thing was like me like oh it's not happening oh lobster
00:36:30
and steak that's what I'm gonna get and then it's like I just want to tell you that I don't ever have sex with anyone
00:36:37
here and then it kind of goes I mean it wasn't that obvious but it was really well written and when people say
00:36:45
um those guys at SNL they were so you know together and not you know really into the women that much I say David
00:36:51
Spade wrote a sketch for me that was one of the best things I ever did that's so great he wasn't even in it he just wrote it
00:36:58
you know like I can't believe yeah it was a very lovely love to do I don't know how much it meant about me but I took it at the very
00:37:07
great as you right I know you're good and uh it's fun to have a a sketch and
00:37:16
you got probably had the host in there but when you get the funny parts because it's really hard yeah I mean because
00:37:21
usually you're not getting to be The Driver of the comedy and you real and that this character was I mean it was
00:37:26
really the host was kind of just reacting to me and you had just written it and it was just the most wonderful
00:37:31
gift I mean it was just an incredible thing I and I bring that up at least once a month I'm telling people that and
00:37:38
David's so nice and David doesn't remember I said that's the most baffling part of the sketches I wrote I didn't
00:37:44
write that many that's crazy yeah well thank you and I'm glad you did it and I'm glad you remember it and say it
00:37:50
that's great um I don't want to talk about me forever which I but I like you want to talk about not many people this will go full
00:37:58
circle got a movie out of a character like and you did there was no church
00:38:04
lady movie there was a Stuart Smalley movie there was a pat movie in the 90s with anybody else
00:38:10
of a character I think those were the two those two should have been in the movie together they would have been
00:38:15
great I knew it but is that a Bittersweet memory or is it a good one
00:38:21
Bittersweet I had such a good time making it we didn't know what we were doing I didn't do it with Lauren I
00:38:26
didn't understand the politics he wanted to do it but then oh didn't he own the character because no I
00:38:33
was one of the people when I came in my lawyer got me to own patterns okay it doesn't matter I mean got it so you
00:38:40
owned it and did it outside the city so I could have because I had done that
00:38:45
character at the Groundlings I I don't know why anyway so he did so it was my choice and I
00:38:52
think I made a dumb choice not to have learned be the producer of it because all all kinds of awful things happened
00:39:00
aside from the fact that we didn't write a good script I mean like you know so I don't know it was it was
00:39:06
really fun to to um do it and it was really fun to make it oh my God
00:39:12
it was so much fun and um I learned so much and then it was really a big bomb and
00:39:19
but I always felt grateful for it and I am I wrote to Eisner afterwards and said
00:39:26
how I know I made it I know I just wasted eight million dollars of your money really but I learned so much and
00:39:32
had a great time and I know that shouldn't compensate for it because that's a lot of money but I just want to say everything about it was really great
00:39:39
and thank you I'll never forget that obviously and then he sent that letter around Disney
00:39:45
it's like here's somebody who's grateful for a failing yeah you know Julia I did that with a movie
00:39:51
once and I I think that's so cool you did that I I felt so bad after a movie I called the guy and said uh
00:39:58
I appreciate you doing it I'm just so sorry I didn't do what you wanted kind of thing and I don't think he wrote me
00:40:03
back but uh I do think for myself I felt like that I mean you realize like now of
00:40:11
course everything's so different now but I I I don't know how I would have done it
00:40:18
differently and maybe I wasn't really up to the task of turning that into something successful but
00:40:24
it wasn't and um and you know yeah but I got the chance I
00:40:30
mean I got the chance but Julie is it hard to take a sketch I'm sorry Dave yeah no no take a sketch difficult and
00:40:37
and and you've done a sketch and you feel like a lot of the good jokes is the reason the sketch is doing well and then
00:40:43
you you're not really starting from scratch but to fill the whole yeah no I
00:40:48
think it is I mean actually it wasn't until late I didn't watch all the Charlie Chaplin movies till um much later in my life and when I
00:40:56
watched them I realized not that Pat is any the character of Pat is anything
00:41:01
like the Charlie Chaplin character but the the way he was enigmatic and let
00:41:08
everyone else be reacting to him while he was doing physical things would have been the way that I think it could have
00:41:13
succeeded but I didn't know enough to know I was in some very shitty movies
00:41:19
but I never felt like I was driving the boat but I do think that funny with the sound off like if the sound broke on a
00:41:26
pat movie it would be nice to think it could still work but that to solve that
00:41:31
dilemma especially you know Stuart smaller these are quirky characters they're not yeah I think Wayne and Garth
00:41:36
just followed Bill and Ted and they're like dudes you know party on they're very accessible and to make Pat yeah it
00:41:43
might be a challenge because such an eccentric character but well actually it's Finance it's sort of like a more
00:41:50
for adults and Wayne and Garth could be for adults or kids you know they can get into it too yeah because
00:41:57
it's like very good because you know Stuart Smalley I watched I did I when I lived in Chicago for 10 years and I was
00:42:04
helping to teach at the Harold Ramis film school they have this film program that I was teaching I was really not
00:42:11
teaching it was a friend of mine teaching it but I kind of helped for one semester and we were watching some
00:42:17
Harold Ramis movies and he directed Stuart Smalley and so we watched it and you know what it was I liked it I
00:42:24
thought it was a successful film I you know I mean it it was it's
00:42:29
it's a really quirky movie but I was really unlike Pat when I watched the pat movie I was like yeah this doesn't work
00:42:35
I mean this really didn't work but Stuart Smalley I thought worked yeah I mean yeah Harold Ramis is so talented I
00:42:42
think uh I was talking Al Franken I think he's going on Fallon soon and I told him he should he should do Stuart
00:42:48
Smalley and for the young audience and and hold Jimmy's hand make it all about Jimmy
00:42:54
um you know good enough strong enough you know that kind of thing so oh my God you know I almost canceled myself except
00:43:00
that no one cares if I'm canceled um uh because after Al franken's debacle and
00:43:07
demise from the Senate I was so angry and upset I was so angry I couldn't
00:43:13
sleep for a month I was so angry and then I wrote a one-person show about it
00:43:18
and did it for like five Saturdays at the Groundlings small theater until people came up and said Julia
00:43:25
first of all this isn't even funny in any way it was just me I was all I did I went through all the allegations
00:43:31
allegation number four you know like I was I was crazed with anger at how the
00:43:40
metoo movement had been twisted up in the worst possible way to go after this great guy in my opinion and complete I
00:43:48
was so angry you guys and then I had somebody come and say you know you'll never work again if you open the show
00:43:53
because it's really just even though I'm a metoo supporter but in when it came to Al Franken I just could
00:44:00
see how that all that [ __ ] went down and it was [ __ ] and it was and then
00:44:05
people weren't talking to me and then I finally just dropped it because I couldn't make it entertaining enough it
00:44:11
really was a show of me for 90 minutes talking about each allegation against Al Franken and why am I bulletin board and
00:44:17
this and why and why and why and um I think that's when I really had went
00:44:23
over on the other side of the culture because I felt like okay
00:44:28
this I'm so angry about this it's so unfair and
00:44:34
and yet the culture is you know I'm not I can't influence the culture and I'm
00:44:40
just gonna wreck my own career and health over it so I kind of just dropped it and then I
00:44:46
also realized I didn't really have the standing for anyone to care
00:44:51
um about it you know what I thought about it so I couldn't really even help him and then later I finally saw Al
00:44:58
Franken and then I realized he didn't really care if I was doing that either
00:45:05
what about you and he's like oh oh thanks no you don't have it's kind of scary because anybody if someone from
00:45:12
high school said I looked at him wrong in 1973 or something exactly that's like
00:45:18
whoa I mean you know there's there's the other the the big players we don't have to name them where it's pretty obvious
00:45:23
yeah exactly it's a lot of people that maybe behaved a little boarishly or something but to be canceled for life is
00:45:30
just a bit much no it was really that was really anyway I didn't mean to take us into sad territory but that was
00:45:36
really really really just [ __ ] got my goat I just couldn't
00:45:42
believe it I couldn't believe it and I wanted I just couldn't I couldn't think of anything else and it took a long time
00:45:48
to just except that's how life goes in an unfair way sometimes for the some people and
00:45:54
that's how it's always been I mean like not for everyone obviously not for
00:45:59
everyone but sometimes you're at the wrong place at the wrong time it's all I kept thinking it's almost like there was
00:46:05
a huge pile up on the road and Al Franken was driving on the outside of the road and his Fender caught it and he
00:46:11
just caught up in it you know like one thing about Al you can rest assured he's he's uh very resilient obviously oh yeah
00:46:19
yeah no no when I saw him he's already had a million I do yeah yeah
00:46:26
[Music] all right I have a sky of a gear change question for Julie you have a what a
00:46:32
game okay yes I'm sorry no I don't care we love all we love all of it we love
00:46:38
all the questions I just before I got off I wanted to ask you if you it I read that you felt badly that you might have
00:46:46
cracked up during motivational speaker and I never thought of that of you I never thought anything negative about
00:46:51
that I thought I did I did I do have a problem controlling laughing during sketching I didn't ever think that of
00:46:57
you oh yeah I I [ __ ] that SketchUp me and Christina ruin it but we were just laughing which didn't really ruin it it
00:47:03
was just it just it was it was so rare to happen yeah it was really just seeing the funniest thing and you knew that he
00:47:10
was going to live forever and you're in the middle of it and you have the beaten house and I can't stop laughing like I I
00:47:17
like to get Farley in that character I said it on another podcast I think that's the most I don't know most potent
00:47:24
thing someone has ever done maybe it just the way he squatted and got ready for his next line it's very crisp moves
00:47:30
they were just it was like it was like chaplain s he's just gonna get squatted get set with his body before he yeah I I
00:47:37
that might have broke me if I was in it I don't think so yeah Phil might be the only one that didn't laugh I know Phil
00:47:43
is so good he could really I couldn't control it I couldn't control myself we all started to break and that's the
00:47:50
problem is that we and back then I think they do it more now they crack up a lot but yeah it was definitely a No-No no it
00:47:57
was terrible to do that you were being like Yeah The Carol Burnett Show now
00:48:03
yeah we didn't have as much fun as we could have had a little bit you know because I was just thought you'd get fired I mean when Phil finally broke
00:48:10
Phil finally broke doing Tonto Tarzan and Frankenstein and he's Frankenstein
00:48:16
he crashes through the thing or whatever and then that first time I filmed broke Phil was done fire bad
00:48:24
and then he was I was toast and I thought wow this is amazing is he gonna be in trouble
00:48:30
there's always fear on that yeah there was I wonder what it's like now because I was thinking you know Lauren is so
00:48:35
much older now than the people who are performing than he was from our age you know like for us he was kind of an older
00:48:41
guy but now he's a much much older guy yeah 76 and then a new cast member is
00:48:47
like 22 and that's right that's a whole Lane I mean I wonder what it's like I
00:48:54
don't know the meetings are like who's your favorite rappers
00:48:59
rap singers right is Dr Dre really a doctor does anyone know
00:49:06
please I think they always seem to find a way that show to find great people you know
00:49:14
Chris you know it's an incredible success that I didn't I didn't think I thought oh it'll go for a few more years
00:49:20
but you really have to hand it to him I mean like it's really incredible he is the show
00:49:26
and he never panicked because there were so many years of like we got to do it taped or we got to change the name and
00:49:31
change the man and he knew he had an incredible brand and he just stuck to it and yeah like Steve Higgins said Lauren
00:49:38
wrote the Constitution of the house and then let's it's a it's liquid form it
00:49:44
can be whatever it becomes because now going full circle with women they play a lot of men on this right you probably
00:49:52
would have done George Bush or Ross Perot yes well the reason I played Pat at first is I was trying to play a man
00:49:57
but I didn't feel like it was very um convincing and so I thought oh I'll
00:50:03
just make a joke that you don't know if it's a man or woman to kind of cover from my lack of acting ability but now I probably wouldn't think that
00:50:10
I'd think I could just play a man if I wanted Julia can we just get up because we need something the trend you know
00:50:15
we're we're behind smartless uh but we're getting close um
00:50:20
inside your mind have you ever thought to yourself was Pat a man or a woman just internally
00:50:28
to yourself do you know the secret I'm sorry there isn't a secret there's no secret
00:50:35
I wish I could so you had a little sound bite you could yeah I'd be lying making fun of sound bites
00:50:41
here's a sound bite church lady wasn't religious no I don't know we could have done a church lady becomes
00:50:48
an atheist that would have been funny oh I do think church lady with Pat
00:50:54
you know what I think is that they just live together and you just don't ask questions about that relationship they
00:51:01
moved in together you think I just think it'd be funny if they just like you find out that they've lived
00:51:06
together for 35 years in separate rooms you know but it's just good yeah
00:51:11
everybody just says we anyway that would be your thing we like to get dressed don't we in our clothes
00:51:18
wow we have our special clothes on the fit us in a certain way so we can't tell
00:51:23
quite what we are under that way anyways anything else for the lovely Julius
00:51:29
Sweeney to ask her um so you guys are both mainly living in L.A no I'm living in L.A are you
00:51:36
actually comes back from Chicago and okay so I bought a house in 1992 that I
00:51:41
thought was going to be a starter house but it's an Ender house and
00:51:46
um prices have gotten pricey no because I couldn't afford to live in this neighborhood there's no way no it's yeah
00:51:53
um so now we're my husband I just married about 15 years ago and my husband and I 15 um yeah yeah he's a
00:52:01
good guy go ahead and he we're remodeling that house it's a small house but it's perfect for two retired people
00:52:08
and um so we're remodeling it and we're living next door while it's being
00:52:13
remodeled and it's supposed to be done in about a year it's supposed to be done in 10 and a
00:52:19
half years so are you it takes a while so when it's done I want to have you guys over that's more like it it'll be
00:52:25
really pretty and we can sit in the backyard and um I would love it
00:52:31
but will you invite us as possible do you have my email or Greg will give it
00:52:36
to you no Greg you give me both your emails yeah I think I saw you David at
00:52:42
um somebody's who was it some a party anyway David at
00:52:48
a party yeah that's crazy those are the good old days but I still
00:52:55
go out if it's someone's dinner or some small thing like that yeah yeah this one I used to have big parties all the time I used to have a Sunday night party that
00:53:01
was huge every Sunday I think I was young yeah but now I like four to eight small the right people
00:53:09
nice food early
00:53:22
yes yes early fun maybe Sunday four to eight boom get in get out yeah maybe
00:53:28
four to seven and you're an atheist so you won't care it's a holy day sorry
00:53:34
I am too now I'm an agnostic I'm pretty sure I'm not an atheist I don't know whatever joke to come
00:53:41
Julia send us a mass uh email and uh yeah get Dana and ion Julia Sweeney one
00:53:48
of the all-time great cast members of Saturday Night Live thanks for having me it's really nice to see you again we
00:53:54
will see you and if we don't see you then we'll see you at the 50th and my hair is going to even be more weird I
00:54:01
guess it's pretty close to that now right oh yeah 2025. get the pat outfit a few little things
00:54:08
done right as of right before I go the last one I really cared about being there and it was really important for me
00:54:14
my identity that I was on SNL I'm in such a different place now I don't even know if I'd go because I just feel like
00:54:20
oh yeah okay I know I want to fly you just yeah I know you can't it's it's
00:54:26
it's really it's really about Lauren you know kind of well no I mean it is fun but you don't it's not like you can
00:54:32
really talk to people I mean like you just kind of be in the end you're going hey there's there's
00:54:37
Bill Hader or there's there's Melanie Hudson yeah I know it's everywhere but nowhere I like a small party 16 people I
00:54:45
think and I'll just I'll have it after you guys go I'll have my dinner party and I will tell you all the juice yes
00:54:51
yes Juice It Up your emails yes get our emails we love
00:54:58
to keep in touch and so great to see you this is a fun part of this podcast just kidding getting reconnected with old
00:55:04
friends awkward [Music]
00:55:11
this has been a podcast presentation of cadence 13. please listen then rate review and follow all episodes available
00:55:18
now for free wherever you get your podcast no joke folks
00:55:24
fly on the wall has been a presentation of cadence 13. executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade Chris
00:55:30
Corcoran of cadence 13 and Charlie finan of brilstein 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.
