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Hey guys, so we have got the one and only David Cross, an old buddy today.
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Dave, you know half of Mr. Show with Bob Odenkirk, another extremely gifted comedian.
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Those guys, those sketches were so interesting, so funny.
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Along with Arrested Development, we talk about the specials he s doing.
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He s got one coming out.
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Dana, you had some good chats with him.
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Well, I had listened to his album once, I think, and I asked, I couldn t remember the title.
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It was so funny.
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And I think it was Shut Up, You Stupid Fucking Baby or something.
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And it was like 2002, but he s kind of like with, and Bob Odenkirk, they re like Batman and Robin, or I don t know which one s Robin, which one s Batman, but they have an amazing sensibility.
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We talk all about their friendship.
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And Dave is just one of those comedians that is always,
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goes outside the lines, does whatever he, I mean, he s very thoughtful about what he likes in comedy, and he and Bob.
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That s why Mr. Show is so great.
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And we even make him talk about the Chipmunks movie, especially the second one, The Squeakquel.
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Dana thought I was making up the Squeakquel.
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Which we brought, we bring up the trilogy of the chipmunk movies that he was in.
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And I thought Dave was kidding the second one, but it was called the Chickquel, what was it?
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The Squeakquel.
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Yeah.
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Because they squeak.
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Yeah, so we laugh and you ll get to know David Cross, the one and only David Cross.
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And I like him because he s on Just Shoot Me, and he did one of our best episodes ever, which was Slow Donnie.
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And so fun, so we get to talk about that.
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Okay, well, here you guys go, on a platter, David Cross.
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Should we call him David Cross, or David s, because I m gonna keep- Just, how about DC?
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Just DC, that should, that should fit.
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Well, that s my initials, now it s- That s why I said- Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa.
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There s the joke.
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There s two DCs, two Davids, do we have a third?
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What s your middle name, David?
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Just call me Spade.
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Just call me Spader.
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I ll call Spade Sparky.
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Sparky for just today s podcast.
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I ll call Spade Sparky.
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Do you mind that?
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I m just gonna jump in.
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I m looking at your whole everything to see where to jump in.
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I could easily jump in with my ease.
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It s good to know that you guys have really dug your hole.
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Look at that.
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Look at Dana.
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There s too much stuff.
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There s too much.
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I don t know where to begin.
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And Spade s over there Googling.
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All right, let s see what we got here.
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I actually do my stuff.
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Right before they go, you ll know him when you see him.
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And I go, okay.
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So we, Dana, you don t know about this.
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I did a sitcom in the old days called Just Shoot Me.
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I was a guest.
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You were a guest.
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Oh, I can t say the next thing then.
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And DC was.
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I was gonna say DC was probably our favorite episode.
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But Dana, you were second.
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You were so close to second.
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I can t do comedy acting like that, David.
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David Cross, he s brilliant at that stuff.
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All right, put a wig on me.
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I ll do a voice.
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David, do you remember this bit we did on Just Shoot Me?
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It was perplexing to me how, to this day, that slow Donny thing was as popular as it was.
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I mean, what is that, 30 years ago?
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25 years ago, something like that?
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Easy, easy.
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I mean, I still get people, still to this day, saying Chicken Pot Pie or Green Quarter.
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Green Quarter, yeah.
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Green Quarter, I get.
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Dana, just so you know, he was on as Slow Donnie, and I think you were Elliott s brother.
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I was making fun of Todd s.
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Yeah.
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It was all funny stuff back in the 90s.
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He made fun of Todd s.
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Yeah, he was a challenged individual.
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Oh, and he was one of the cast members brothers and then he wanted to date Laura and he was hitting on her and she didn t know what to do because.
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I don t know why he was mentally challenged.
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And did you use a Boston accent for that?
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No.
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Oh, okay, because that was pretty funny when you just did it.
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No, I, it s the only way you re allowed to say the word retarded in context is to do it like you re doing an impression of a Boston guy.
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Because it s so normal.
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Up there, yeah.
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It doesn t sound aggressive.
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It s just, I thought you were talking about- That s just how they talk, you know?
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Yeah.
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But,
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The guy, the character was pretending to be mentally challenged because he was getting a free ride.
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And then he showed him the real self to Laura s character and then, you know, gas littered the rest of the show.
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How did you affect kind of a voice or a character or you play it like yourself?
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Oh, I mean, I don t know.
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It s a, you know, sitcom for a network.
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So I just did it as broad and dumb as, you know, it s just like, you know, Donnie wants to do this.
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What?
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I can t remember something like that.
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It s only 30 years gone.
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I remember when when he s with he s just screwing up his household his whole life.
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He s getting taken care of his whole life.
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And his mom s all beat up.
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And she and he goes,
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I love you mommy and she goes see that makes it all worth it then he goes I love you table that s the table and she goes well but with Laura he s hitting on her and he s like and then when they get quiet he goes listen baby I think we I know a great sushi place we can get out of here and she s like wait what can you talk normal and he s like no I m Donnie
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And then he accuses Laura.
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It s all great.
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The great thing about the sitcom world is that you would be sharing all these experiences with a coworker that you re extremely close with and yet never know, until that episode, that was never brought up again, that he had a brother that was mentally disabled.
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And then never brought up in any other episode.
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Never brought up again.
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Every show I should have gone,
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Where s that fucking scammer slowed on?
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Yeah.
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Don t bring him.
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Yeah, he was funny and Maya, Laura was Maya.
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And God, we laughed.
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We talked about that forever.
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We always, everyone s like, that s the one that was.
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But anyway, good job, David Cross on that.
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Thank you for that.
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Okay, we re pretty, pretty much did that one.
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That s a good one.
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It s a perennial wrap up.
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We re always on the edge of wrapping up.
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But do you want to talk about your current stuff or your canon of work?
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Oh, I don t care.
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I mean, there s not, I know, I mean, if we re talking about stuff to promote, I do, I have a special that I shot last summer during that tour that I think is February, it s in mid-February, I should know this, when it s coming out.
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Is that world s worst?
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Yeah, the worst daddy in the world.
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Worst daddy in the world, yeah.
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That s not, okay.
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So that shoot, when you shoot that special, did you partner with a corporation or do you do it yourself?
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Is it like Louis C.K.
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kind of thing?
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Yeah, I did the last one before that myself.
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I just produced the Out of Pocket with some good local folks, shot it in New York.
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I did that because of COVID, because I was going to go on tour, but I had to cancel it.
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And I figured I ll just shoot this anyway.
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It s fairly topical and relevant.
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So when it came time to do this, I paired up with 800lb Gorilla out of Nashville.
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They re great.
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And just shot it in the middle of the tour in Chicago.
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And they were great.
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I m pretty psyched about it.
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It s good.
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It was a very fun tour.
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And yeah, I did it all myself.
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It ll be out.
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I ll distribute it with them, and that s it.
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So can I ask you a question?
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Because I think the last one I did, it was with a corporation.
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And anyway, I think they said it was like something like four to $500,000 to shoot this special for the two nights.
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Is there a way when you re doing it yourself to bring that price point down a little bit?
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I mean, it seems exorbitant.
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I m not anti-union, I m just saying.
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No, absolutely.
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I had 17 cameras were on me, I think.
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It s like crazy.
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Yeah, I mean, absolutely.
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I did this one.
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This was even less expensive than the one that I did myself, where I was kind of scrambling a little bit.
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And that s part of what, small part, but a significant part of what made 800-lb Gorilla so great to work with.
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And everything s in-house, so I didn t have to get a separate editor and go find one and everything.
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When you re communicating with them,
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through the pre and the actual production and post-production, it s all in-house, it s all one place, and it s just a lot easier, and they re all good at what they do.
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And it was relatively cheap.
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Impression with you is you wouldn t be someone who would get nervous, but do you get nervous either shooting specials going on talk shows?
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Are you because you do seem pretty calm or at least together?
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I don t like shooting specials because usually it s here you go.
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It s your one shot.
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You worked on it for a year Better make it work, you know
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Well, I think that s, I don t get nervous.
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I definitely am aware of stuff and everything s kind of heightened a little bit.
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But I, I always shoot always in the middle of a tour.
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So if I m doing, let s say 80 dates, right, in a calendar half year, whatever it is, and
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I always look at the calendar and the routing and stuff, I go, okay, I m going to shoot my special right around there, somewhere, give or take a few shows around show 40.
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Then I always record the audio during the last or second to last show, because it changes, it evolves as you go on.
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And by the time I shot it, it s, you know, I mean, that s my 41st time.
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done that set, and so I mean, I ve got it, it s down, and I always, you know, I ll take two episodes, so it s, if I fuck something up, I got one more.
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Do you do retakes during your special?
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I know there s a comic I know I work with a lot, and they stop, and they redo their line a bunch of times, even though they have two shows.
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So that s one way that I have not heard of, but I mean, it would mess with the momentum for me.
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Oh, for sure, yeah.
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Unless you totally mangle it, I mean, I don t think I d do it.
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No, I m not doing it for the TV audience or the audience at home.
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When I m doing that, I m always, it s always about the people in that room and hopefully that translates.
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And if I fuck up, I ll say I fucked up and whatever and address it.
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But I m very much in the moment and, you know, it s,
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I m not trying to cut it so much so that it looks, I want it to look as spontaneous as it feels when you re in the audience, you know?
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Sure.
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Do you think that when you do it in the middle, which I think, I m trying to figure this out for myself because I sort of got off, caught off guard.
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My first special was probably, you know, way back around, Just Shoot Me.
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And, uh, and then it was on HBO.
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So it kind of, people were traveling with an hour,
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for 10 years, you know, that was just the old way it was done.
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And then when I thought about doing another one, I did it for Comedy Central.
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And I don t think as many people saw it as right before Netflix was blowing up.
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And so I felt like, God, all that material, and then you have to get rid of it, I guess.
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And then after my last special, they re like, now, once it aired, the next stand-up I m doing at a theater, they re like, well, ideally, it would be all new.
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And I m like, all new?
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A whole new hour?
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It took me so long to get this one.
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So what I m sort of getting at is you do it in the middle, which might be smart, because toward the end, you have free reign to sort of start screwing with it, because you already got it.
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Then by the end, you might have another 20, half hour, you don t know.
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It might evolve into something.
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That s exactly what happens.
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What I do, and I ve done for the last four specials, this will be my fifth time doing this thing, doing it this way.
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I just started a couple of weeks ago.
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I do these shows in Brooklyn, where I live, and they re called Shooting the Shit, Seeing What Sticks.
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Everybody knows what the premise is.
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I m going up there with just a handful of notes, and kind of, Dana, like what you showed, and just scribbles, you know, and I go, oh, what do I want to work on?
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What do I think is funny?
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And I have guests so that they re not watching a guy for an hour and 15 minutes just dicking around.
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The beginning of it, I will have some kind of fresh anecdote, which I do now, currently, about a surprise hand job.
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And then I have a guest, and then I get to, and that s a thing like, oh, this just happened, but I think there can be a story here.
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And then I get to,
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just kind of some ideas that I m working on.
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And sometimes it hits, sometimes it doesn t.
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And then I have a guest, and then I ll just do stuff that I dropped out of the last special.
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So every single special or tour that I do has anywhere from like 5 to 15 minutes of stuff that I did on the last tour that
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I m not going to put in an hour and a half of material, you know, not doing a special for, I m not going to make it a 90 minute special, which means I ve got to cut something because the shows are that long.
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And then the stuff I cut out of both the audio and the video special is stuff where I go, I know I can work on that and make that better.
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And so I ll work on those bits and try to find a different context for them and, and
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I don t want to give it away, but there s the closing bit of this last special, which is really strong and a pretty good punch.
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That whole bit was something that I riffed
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just before I shot the last special before this one, where I took it out, I cut it out, and I was like, I know I can work on this.
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And I worked on it and it became the closing bit.
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So I have that stuff ready to go.
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So it s like a sourdough starter, you know?
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You take a little bit.
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Yeah.
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Have you noticed what happened on my last one was I had stuff that was very new that I, you know, I always fall in love with newer stuff and I threw it in
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and it was undercooked and then now I would work on it.
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So I m like, I really can t put it in because the premise is the same one, but now it s five minutes long and way better and more polished.
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I m like, shit, I kind of wasted it.
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Like you just said, you didn t waste it, which is smart.
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Well, there is, I mean, yes, but also there s stuff that, um, which is partly why I do the audio at the end, because there are things that were definitely fresher in the middle of the thing that I
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I was like, oh, I can, I just started working on it.
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And so the audio version is a little different and tighter and even expanded, but it s more of the idea, like it addresses the idea as opposed to this kind of throwaway, funny idea that I did.
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And then I found some, somewhere down the line, I found a context for it.
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When you say your strongest bit is at the end, the last time I did one, I went in, I won t mention the live streaming.
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It wasn t anything negative, but went into a room with all these people and they just talked about audience retention.
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They showed me posters of the special.
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We said, this does well in the Netherlands.
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This does well in Brazil.
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And then I thought, well, you should do a special as if the audience could start leaving at any minute.
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In other words, you know what I mean, because that s what happens when they re in the living room.
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There s certain people, I ll go to the end, but I m a comic, 15, 16, so they really look at that.
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You have 18 minutes of retention by 65% of our audience.
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I don t know if you think of that or have experienced that.
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It sounds like something you wouldn t like as an artist.
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I never think of that and hopefully never will.
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But you know, I m not you know, I m not I m not I m in it to do fun good shows and I don t care I m not You know, I m not looking to Get a 40 million dollar paycheck or I mean those days are over obviously, but you know, I m not that s not my interest I I really really really love doing stand-up and
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And it s just a fun process.
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Every part of it is fun, except for traveling.
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I don t like to travel so much, but everything else- Do you know any standup that does like to travel?
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I just did it.
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It was rough.
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Unless it s a G4 rocked and loaded, and I don t know.
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Yeah, yeah.
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There s some people that have their own bus, I know that.
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I went if a bus is good.
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You know, I did, I, I ve done it in a plane when I jump on with Sandler it s, but it, it s great, but it s still delays.
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It s still, I mean, it couldn t be better, but you re still like we re in Florida.
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It s 85 degrees.
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Now we re going to Canada.
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Now we re going to Nova Scotia.
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Now we re dropping down and you still manage to complain.
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SPEAKER_02
I do.
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I find a way.
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SPEAKER_00
Wait, I want to go back.
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SPEAKER_00
So you did Canada and Nova Scotia?
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SPEAKER_02
Dave, what happens is I just talk off the top of my head and it always makes no sense.
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SPEAKER_02
That s a weird route.
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SPEAKER_02
Nova Scotia, is that still down by Australia?
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Because I don t have it in front of me.
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They just moved it a couple months ago.
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They ve been talking about moving it forever.
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North of Scotia.
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It s north of Scotia.
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You ve been to Scotia, hopefully.
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Or had it.
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SPEAKER_02
I go to Canada only because I enjoy the extra taxes.
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Okay, so if we re into the process, just one more thing I want to ask you.
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I like this.
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Your comedy albums, do you feel like when it s recorded on video now, is there anything that changes it at all?
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Because I ll just say for myself, one night I was driving late night, I got a hold, I don t remember, I don t know if it was your first album, it was probably 20 years ago.
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SPEAKER_01
But it was so brilliant.
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You had a thing where you thought, maybe I ll get a drink.
2
SPEAKER_01
And next thing you were, you were in your hotel room and people were pounding on the door.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, yeah, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
And then the Ricky Henderson thing that you took so far.
2
SPEAKER_01
What album was that?
2
SPEAKER_00
Shut up, you fucking baby.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that s what I thought.
2
SPEAKER_00
Shut up, you fucking baby.
2
SPEAKER_01
That s going places.
2
SPEAKER_01
I don t know how to describe that.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s such a cliche, kind of Monty Python-y, but also, I look back at how you made that thing work, just verbally.
2
SPEAKER_01
You had to have, you re waking up in a hotel room, you don t know anything, you re stacking words together.
2
SPEAKER_01
Was that, I mean, those albums seem very free.
2
SPEAKER_01
I don t know, especially free.
2
SPEAKER_00
For sure, and I was drinking way more during those.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
It feels like that.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, it s messy.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s definitely messier.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s like crackling though.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it was fun.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, I put that out on Sub Pop.
2
SPEAKER_00
That was my first comedy album.
2
SPEAKER_00
And that was a real story.
2
SPEAKER_00
I believe I was in Kansas City.
2
SPEAKER_00
where the guy s knocking and saying, answer your telephone.
2
SPEAKER_00
But it was pitch black, pitch black in the room.
2
SPEAKER_00
I d been traveling.
2
SPEAKER_00
And when you re on the road, you don t know where you are.
2
SPEAKER_00
You wake up and you have no fucking clue.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I had been out drinking heavily the night before.
2
SPEAKER_01
And what do you drink?
2
SPEAKER_01
Sorry, just real fast.
2
SPEAKER_01
What were you drinking?
2
SPEAKER_00
I m guessing beer and tequila.
2
SPEAKER_00
Not together, but beer.
2
SPEAKER_00
Just wanna put that together.
2
SPEAKER_00
Followed by tequila, followed by beer, followed by tequila, followed by beer.
2
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
2
SPEAKER_00
And then a slice.
2
SPEAKER_00
And yeah, it was a bizarre, it was just, it was panic.
2
SPEAKER_00
It was like little kid panic.
2
SPEAKER_00
You know, even though you re an adult, there s a few seconds where you want your mommy, because you don t, like nothing is making sense.
2
SPEAKER_00
You re also in trouble.
2
SPEAKER_01
Pitch black and pounding, and yeah, out of the blue.
2
SPEAKER_00
And you don t know where you are, and you can t see anything, and there s this disembodied voice saying, auntie, your telephone.
2
SPEAKER_00
Knock, knock, knock.
2
SPEAKER_00
Auntie, your telephone.
2
SPEAKER_00
I like their right there, and they re telling you to answer your phone.
2
SPEAKER_02
Doesn t make it so weird.
2
SPEAKER_00
But you don t know where you are.
2
SPEAKER_00
What telephone?
2
SPEAKER_00
Who?
2
SPEAKER_00
Who are you?
2
SPEAKER_00
Who s talking to me?
2
SPEAKER_00
Are you Angel Moroni?
2
SPEAKER_00
What s happening?
2
SPEAKER_01
Auntie, your telephone.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s like a Kubrick moment, basically.
2
SPEAKER_00
It was very bizarre.
2
SPEAKER_01
Anyway, that was like a 20 minute bit or something, but it was brilliant.
2
SPEAKER_02
I have those old Steve Martin albums, David, and as a kid,
2
SPEAKER_02
I mean, now it s all specials and stuff and video, but it was pretty fun.
2
SPEAKER_02
Cause he had a few screw ups, like even when the sound goes out like that, or he s like more wine and you re just, and you re just picturing in your head, oh, it s so funny, whatever he s doing.
2
SPEAKER_02
And he does a bit, everyone laughs.
2
SPEAKER_02
I m like, fuck, what is he doing?
2
SPEAKER_02
But I kind of liked it.
2
SPEAKER_02
That s all I had.
2
SPEAKER_02
So it s, it s, but I, I would like that scratchiness and that kind of fun of the old.
2
SPEAKER_02
stuff like that, and there s not that many.
2
SPEAKER_02
I think some specials come out as also a CD or an album, but they...
2
SPEAKER_01
They ll never get back to the sound of those 60s albums.
2
SPEAKER_01
I mean, it just feels crackling.
2
SPEAKER_01
I think it s one mic hanging overhead in the club.
2
SPEAKER_01
You hear your individual laughs, that crackling thing, and now it s all stacked and remixed.
2
SPEAKER_00
There s one, I don t know which one it is, but of the different comedy channels on Sirius XM or whatever, one of them,
2
SPEAKER_00
95% of the clips they play, mostly from people you haven t heard of, but they re definitely in a club.
2
SPEAKER_00
And they sound different.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I appreciate that, you know, you hear the people.
2
SPEAKER_00
Such a familiar right up on you, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah it s it s cool when you re going across the dial there is a word and you know you got the netflix is you know one and got.
2
SPEAKER_00
Comedy central and and the and raw dog whatever the you re listening to it and they.
2
SPEAKER_00
It just sounds slicker it s it s the sometimes money hurts comedy put it that way oh yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know, just if a guy doesn t have much, can t afford many mics, he s got, he can only do it in a little club.
2
SPEAKER_01
He s not very popular, but it has a crackle to it.
2
SPEAKER_02
You got Rick Rubin in there fixing every mistake.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
You know, you want it a little messy and that s what I like.
2
SPEAKER_02
I like, I like mistakes in a lot of things and I like them in songs when there s, they say something different than when the guy sings it in concert, you kind of want that little mess up cause you know where the mess up is and all that stuff is sort of character.
2
SPEAKER_02
gives it something different than Super Polished, which is the name I knew special, Super Polished.
2
SPEAKER_01
Hey, Neil Young releases whole songs that are out of tune.
2
SPEAKER_01
See, I like it.
2
SPEAKER_01
We got it, we don t do it again.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s all going for the feeling of stuff, so.
2
SPEAKER_01
You know, it says here.
2
SPEAKER_00
Go ahead, David.
2
SPEAKER_00
I love that, not a story, but like the, when,
2
SPEAKER_00
the different actors who work with Clint Eastwood when he s directing will do a take and they ll be like, hey, can I get one more?
2
SPEAKER_00
Like, no, we got it.
2
SPEAKER_00
What?
2
SPEAKER_00
But I, no, no, we re good.
2
SPEAKER_00
We re moving on.
2
SPEAKER_01
Oh, but I- I just worked with David Fincher.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, he worked in 40.
2
SPEAKER_01
He said to Matt Damon, he was working with Matt Damon, he goes, can I do another take?
2
SPEAKER_01
And he goes, yeah, if you want to waste everybody s fucking time.
2
SPEAKER_02
One take Eastwood.
2
SPEAKER_02
Oh, great.
2
SPEAKER_02
I like these movies where they go, oh, I did.
2
SPEAKER_02
I mean, they were this director so good.
2
SPEAKER_02
We were doing 40 takes.
2
SPEAKER_02
I m like, maybe he s not that good.
2
SPEAKER_02
I mean, come on.
2
SPEAKER_02
I mean, so 39 were horrible.
2
SPEAKER_02
Like, come on.
2
SPEAKER_01
I had a guy drop bullets.
2
SPEAKER_01
It was a scene where someone had out of frame, just drop bullets and then catch it.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m going to say 60 takes.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I realized he was a child in a sandbox.
2
SPEAKER_01
He could not see the forest for the trees.
2
SPEAKER_01
He just wanted to hit the bullets.
2
SPEAKER_01
Perfect.
2
SPEAKER_01
Anyway, David.
2
SPEAKER_02
Wait, I have another one.
2
SPEAKER_01
David Cross.
2
SPEAKER_01
I ll call you your full name now.
2
SPEAKER_02
I had one that had rapophobia.
2
SPEAKER_02
We had a rap party on the last day and we only had like two scenes to do so we could have this party.
2
SPEAKER_02
And he kept shooting and everyone s like, oh my God, he s got rapophobia.
2
SPEAKER_02
He knows it s over now and he won t let it end.
2
SPEAKER_02
And we went till midnight.
2
SPEAKER_02
We canceled the party.
2
SPEAKER_02
We re like,
2
SPEAKER_02
What are we doing?
2
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
2
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_02
But okay.
2
SPEAKER_02
It also says, says David, you, it says here, no, Steven Wright, it says is one of your favorite comics.
2
SPEAKER_02
Now, if that s true, I think he s kind of underrated and, uh, God, he had a real run there for a second when I was starting out.
2
SPEAKER_02
That was so good.
2
SPEAKER_02
And, uh,
2
SPEAKER_02
I don t know.
3
SPEAKER_03
material, a comedian who works like that.
3
SPEAKER_03
I went to a 24-hour convenience store.
3
SPEAKER_03
I went there.
3
SPEAKER_03
It was closed.
3
SPEAKER_03
He said something about nine in a row.
3
SPEAKER_01
He s locking it up.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, he s locking it up 24 hours.
3
SPEAKER_03
Well, not 24 hours.
3
SPEAKER_03
But he ll... You ruined that one.
3
SPEAKER_03
He s like... I know, I m horrible.
3
SPEAKER_03
I can t even explain.
3
SPEAKER_03
It s like the movie Airplane, where it s just so much blending.
3
SPEAKER_03
And, you know, Steven s like that.
3
SPEAKER_03
And you kind of... It s like a magic trick.
3
SPEAKER_03
I really... And also the lo-fi talk that s soft and strut around on Tonight Show, only on your material.
3
SPEAKER_03
But you re friends with him, David Cross?
3
SPEAKER_03
Or is he just one of your favorite comics?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I haven t seen him in quite a while, but he is...
3
SPEAKER_01
a key part of, key reason why I m at the place I m in right now, because
3
SPEAKER_01
Did you all know Lauren Dombrowski by any chance?
3
SPEAKER_01
Boston Comics.
3
SPEAKER_01
She was a producer, head writer for MADtv for a while.
3
SPEAKER_01
She was in this comedy group I had in Boston and a good friend and an awesome person.
3
SPEAKER_01
Unfortunately, she passed away from cancer a while ago.
3
SPEAKER_01
She was good friends with Steven, brought and said, there s this guy I think you d like, you should check him out.
3
SPEAKER_01
And brought him to see me do standup at Catch in Cambridge.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then he told his manager, of whom I think he only had four clients at the time, maybe three,
3
SPEAKER_01
to come up from New York and see me, Tim Sarkis, and then Tim signed me.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then the rest, as they say, is history.
3
SPEAKER_01
So he s in no small way a big part of that.
3
SPEAKER_02
To have some powerhouse like that say that about you.
3
SPEAKER_03
It s such a nice legacy when you hear that about someone like, hey, check him out.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_03
Help him out.
3
SPEAKER_03
It s such a it s it.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_03
Steven is a very sweet man.
3
SPEAKER_03
Many times.
3
SPEAKER_03
A few times I ve met him.
3
SPEAKER_03
I hung out with him.
3
SPEAKER_03
That doesn t surprise me.
3
SPEAKER_03
Pay it forward.
3
SPEAKER_01
There you go.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, it s I don t know if he s aware of that, but yeah, it was hugely important.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, when I saw him the first time I, it was, I was newer and I had not seen, you know, it s hard to see somebody that kind of comes out of left field because you ve seen such similar comedy and you just go, Oh my God.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I had a guy in Arizona.
3
SPEAKER_02
that started trying to do Stephen Wright.
3
SPEAKER_01
And it was like- Oh, there s tons of them.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I saw overnight, he s like, I had a dream.
3
SPEAKER_02
I was a kite, I woke up in a tree.
3
SPEAKER_02
I m like, no, it s not the same.
3
SPEAKER_02
I m gonna just write that down, hold on a second.
3
SPEAKER_03
I m not good at jokes.
3
SPEAKER_01
You see that kind of delivery and it s often like the oddball, you know, they affect this kind of oddball persona of like, so here s an interesting idea.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s like, no, you re not, you know, that s not how it works.
3
SPEAKER_03
The only one who did it well, it was slightly different was Mitch Hedberg.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, but Mitch also.
3
SPEAKER_03
But different, you know?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, he had a joke structure that was similar, but his whole cadence was and persona.
3
SPEAKER_03
Kind of Southern or some sort of weird twang.
3
SPEAKER_03
But it was kind of real, right?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, and he was always smiling.
3
SPEAKER_01
Mitch would be smiling and there d be kind of jazz playing behind him sometimes.
3
SPEAKER_01
And to the best of my knowledge,
3
SPEAKER_01
Stephen Wright was never a junkie, so there s differences.
3
SPEAKER_01
There s differences.
3
SPEAKER_03
They don t have the same first name.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_03
Well, I have to say that- When I think of you, David Cross- Go ahead.
3
SPEAKER_02
I have a compliment ready whenever you want it.
3
SPEAKER_03
I was going to go for something metaphysical.
3
SPEAKER_03
Well, I just, your career, it seems like you ve stuck to your guns.
3
SPEAKER_03
I m just curious about, you ve talked about the Chipmunk movie, but it seems like you do what you want to do.
3
SPEAKER_03
Have you been tempted at times in your career to do a commercial or something that the money was good, or did you ever get into that trap, that world?
3
SPEAKER_03
Or did you regret?
3
SPEAKER_03
The world that I live in?
3
SPEAKER_03
I don t know, but it seems like you just,
3
SPEAKER_03
Seems like your career seems fun because you re always doing exactly what you want to do the way you want to do it, or you wouldn t do it, which is sometimes difficult.
3
SPEAKER_01
I would not say no to some, even if it was another Chipmunks movie, which I did.
3
SPEAKER_01
Not necessarily for the money, but at that point when it came around, I hadn t worked for six months, which is, you know what happens internally in your head when you re like, after like two months, you start going, I d like to get some work.
3
SPEAKER_01
And when two becomes three and three becomes four, and you re like, am I ever going to work again?
3
SPEAKER_01
Do people hate me?
3
SPEAKER_01
What s wrong?
3
SPEAKER_01
Four becomes five, five becomes six.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I jumped it.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was like,
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I ll do whatever you want.
3
SPEAKER_02
Somebody wants you, somebody likes you, and you re like, shit, I ve been in that position for sure.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
And nobody had any idea that that movie was going to be as phenomenally successful as it was.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I was contractually obligated to do two more.
3
SPEAKER_01
And the first two were fine.
3
SPEAKER_01
I had no issue with it.
3
SPEAKER_01
And the third one was just a terrible experience for whatever, I don t know why they
3
SPEAKER_02
Was it Chipwreck?
3
SPEAKER_01
It was Chipwreck, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_02
Dana, they had me at the fucking Squeakquel.
3
SPEAKER_02
The funniest name for a sequel is the Squeakquel.
3
SPEAKER_02
And I was like, I m in on that one.
3
SPEAKER_02
Chipwreck, it s still cute.
3
SPEAKER_02
It wasn t Squeakquel.
3
SPEAKER_01
But yeah, it was, but I mean, I get to do, and you know, I kind of supplement doing all the stuff that doesn t pay well with a couple of
3
SPEAKER_01
big things.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I get, you know, you get these really cool, really cool opportunities, Spielberg film and a Todd Haynes film and work with Michelle Gondry and all these people and that doesn t pay shit, you know, but you know, it s all balanced and like,
3
SPEAKER_01
the increasingly poor decisions of Todd Margaret, you know, I mean, that didn t mean anything.
3
SPEAKER_02
Well, you also have respect and like, I mean, going back to Mr. Show, like with Odenkirk, like Mr. Show coming off of SNL was just going, oh fuck, they re doing whatever they want.
3
SPEAKER_02
It was really, this is a compliment, I was just saying, it s so bananas and they put out so much stuff, it s all clever, I was really,
3
SPEAKER_02
I really got into that one.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it was fun, man.
3
SPEAKER_01
It was, uh, you know, and it was all new.
3
SPEAKER_01
It was new.
3
SPEAKER_01
Uh, you know, Bob, neither Bob or I had run a show before and it was, and we were at HBO was in its infancy basically.
3
SPEAKER_01
And they were just like, do whatever the fuck you want.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, we need you to, to get attention.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
We need you to, to not be, uh,
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, network, TV, we need you to stand out.
3
SPEAKER_01
And here s $25, get back to us at the end of the year, see what you can do with it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Do whatever you want with it.
3
SPEAKER_01
That was fun.
3
SPEAKER_02
I got two slinkies and a Slim Jim.
3
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, again, I hate to use the word smart, but it was so dry and weird and clever.
3
SPEAKER_03
I don t know whatever words people use for it.
3
SPEAKER_03
And you guys obviously didn t have a big budget with
3
SPEAKER_03
sort of part of the charm, just the sets?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, well like you said earlier, comedy often gets hurt.
3
SPEAKER_01
Money is the enemy of comedy.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, often, you know, hurts the comic idea, you know, that s in there.
3
SPEAKER_02
Well, Dana, you have to say, I think David did audition for SNL.
3
SPEAKER_02
We ll go through that briefly.
3
SPEAKER_02
I don t know how.
3
SPEAKER_02
Just give us the sort of bullet point.
3
SPEAKER_02
Is it a sore subject, David?
3
SPEAKER_01
No, no, no.
3
SPEAKER_01
I didn t do the traditional audition where you come in and you do some characters and you do all that on the floor.
3
SPEAKER_01
But the comedy group I had in Boston had really started to make a name for itself and there was a little buzz and people all of a sudden in New York were aware of it.
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, it had a lot of people that went on to great success across the board.
3
SPEAKER_01
As I said, Lauren Dabrowski was a producer, head writer for Band TV.
3
SPEAKER_01
Jonathan Groff was, oh, you know Jonathan, Dana, at Conan.
3
SPEAKER_03
Oh, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Was a head writer for Conan.
3
SPEAKER_01
John Benjamin, you know, does all that amazing voice work and Sam C. There was just a lot of folks coming out of there.
4
SPEAKER_02
And we got an invite to go to showcase for SNL.
4
SPEAKER_02
We did it at Caroline s.
4
SPEAKER_02
And I know Al Franken was there and James Downey.
4
SPEAKER_02
Frank and some other folks.
4
SPEAKER_01
Smigel?
4
SPEAKER_01
I don t know.
4
SPEAKER_01
I don t know if Smigel would go there.
4
SPEAKER_02
Jim Downey and Frank, and then a handful, maybe... Maybe... Lorne Michaels?
4
SPEAKER_02
The Farley era?
4
SPEAKER_02
No.
4
SPEAKER_02
I don t know.
4
SPEAKER_02
There were a handful of people who came down.
4
SPEAKER_02
Who was that?
4
94?
4
SPEAKER_02
No, like 92?
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, okay.
4
SPEAKER_01
Maybe we ll trade him for Spade.
4
SPEAKER_02
And we did the show and it was a fucking disaster.
4
SPEAKER_02
And we started like 40 minutes late.
4
SPEAKER_02
Somebody came in, I can t remember who it was, and they wanted to do time, and they did a bunch of time with some bigger person.
4
SPEAKER_02
Oh no.
4
SPEAKER_02
And we started really late.
4
SPEAKER_00
No.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then it just, yeah, yeah, really late.
4
SPEAKER_02
Terrible.
4
SPEAKER_02
And it was a disaster.
4
SPEAKER_00
Someone bumps you on your fucking arm.
4
SPEAKER_02
And there were some people in,
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
And we had a showcase.
4
SPEAKER_02
It wasn t like five minutes.
4
SPEAKER_02
We were doing like a show that had a beginning, middle, and end, and it had tech to it.
4
SPEAKER_02
And it started at least an hour late by the time we eventually went on.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then there were a couple of people in the group that were just pushing too hard.
4
SPEAKER_02
You could tell they were being naturally as funny as they were.
4
SPEAKER_02
Bits we d done a million times, and they were just pushing too hard.
4
SPEAKER_02
It didn t work.
4
SPEAKER_00
Super Bowl.
4
SPEAKER_02
And I think Frankenleth is fine, grumbling all the way out.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then, but I, but I did get an open invitation to write for SNL, to come on and write.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then I, about a year or two later, I met with Lorne,
4
SPEAKER_02
And I ll do that impression for you very quickly.
4
SPEAKER_01
Excellent.
4
SPEAKER_02
I think Julia Sweeney had, Rob Cohen, if you know the writer director Rob Cohen.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yes.
4
SPEAKER_02
Rob and I were brought to New York to meet to be a writer with an eye towards women.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s the female cast.
4
SPEAKER_02
All right, whatever.
4
SPEAKER_02
So Rob had his interview.
4
SPEAKER_02
I went in, and everybody, all our friends, because we had tons of mutual friends, we knew a lot of people at SNL at that time, and they were all excited for us, and I went in, and I met for about, I want to say like 40 plus minutes with Lorne in his office, and here s my impression of how that conversation went.
4
SPEAKER_02
In a nutshell, I ll be Lorne, one of you be me, I ll ask you a question, just start to answer it.
4
SPEAKER_02
So David, what is your idea, what do you like best about sketch comedy?
4
SPEAKER_01
Well, it s, you know... Because I ll tell you what I like.
4
SPEAKER_02
I like it when, and it was that.
4
SPEAKER_02
For 40 minutes, I would start to answer, and then he would answer his own question.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then I left, and I had no idea if it was good or bad.
4
SPEAKER_02
And everybody was like, wow, you were in there for a long time.
4
SPEAKER_02
Holy, this is going to be great.
4
SPEAKER_02
I think you nailed it.
4
SPEAKER_02
I was like, I don t know.
4
SPEAKER_02
I have no idea.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then neither Rob nor I were hired.
4
SPEAKER_02
And that was that.
4
SPEAKER_02
Not a bad story, not a bad experience, but just weird, kind of bizarre.
4
SPEAKER_01
There s so many people have weird stories around that.
4
SPEAKER_01
Now it s so mythic to be in a room with Lorne Michaels.
4
SPEAKER_01
I mean, that was 92, but he is, I don t know what you call it, iconic now with The Godfather and whatever.
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
I can t imagine people going in there now.
4
SPEAKER_01
I talked to him last night.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, the one that really got away was David Cross.
4
SPEAKER_01
It was that thing of, like, I answered every question I didn t know.
4
SPEAKER_01
I had a little toot right before he came in.
4
SPEAKER_00
A little toot.
4
SPEAKER_01
I was sort of amped up.
4
SPEAKER_01
But he s, like, really, really good.
4
SPEAKER_01
That s all I got for you.
4
SPEAKER_00
It does check out, because they were saying, write for women, like, to us.
4
SPEAKER_00
And it was sort of a problem then.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I think they ve fixed it.
4
SPEAKER_00
There s so many great women on there.
4
SPEAKER_00
At that time, exact time, it was a lot of like, it was so dude heavy there.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I think this would have been about 90, I want to say 94, maybe?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, that s exactly.
4
SPEAKER_02
Somewhere around there.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I don t know.
4
SPEAKER_01
It seems like it s dodging a bullet in some ways.
4
SPEAKER_01
You did fine.
4
SPEAKER_01
I don t know, go ahead.
4
SPEAKER_02
I went to visit, I know when Sarah Silverman and Dave Attell were writing there and I was in New York for doing something.
4
SPEAKER_02
and I went to visit them.
4
SPEAKER_02
I might have had a friend who was the guest that week.
4
SPEAKER_02
I don t remember, but I was in town, and I went to go visit them, and I remember kind of walking in past some receptionist type of desk, like assistant desk or whatever, and then there was this big room with a glass thing and a big, long table,
4
SPEAKER_02
And the writers when they re and I went in, oh, there s tons of like pizza and Chinese food, like delivery.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then I remember walking in and and seeing everybody and everybody kind of felt like they had 50 pound weights on their like their necks.
4
SPEAKER_02
They were just slumped over and there was no energy and no joy.
4
SPEAKER_02
And I remember, I had been coming from Mr. Show at this point, where we just had a blast most of the time.
4
SPEAKER_02
I was like, oh boy.
4
SPEAKER_00
You walk in, hello my baby, hello my bitch.
4
SPEAKER_00
We re sitting there in those fluorescent lights.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s funny.
4
SPEAKER_01
Hello, I m from the 22nd century.
4
SPEAKER_01
How are you?
4
SPEAKER_01
You guys do like 20 minutes, you know.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m from the 23rd century.
4
SPEAKER_01
Hey, I just did a Mr. Show kind of template of what made me laugh so hard.
4
SPEAKER_01
Bob Oedeker, can you have this sort of Lennon and McCartney thing of friends?
4
SPEAKER_01
I don t know, it just seems you have a shared sensibility in so many ways.
4
SPEAKER_02
We do.
4
SPEAKER_02
It really works so phenomenally well.
4
SPEAKER_02
quite different people and with different backgrounds and approach comedy from different ways.
4
SPEAKER_02
But when we do it together, it s just, and we knew this from the very, very, very beginning, first thing we ever started doing.
4
SPEAKER_02
And, you know, it was like effortless and it all made sense.
4
SPEAKER_02
And the strengths and weaknesses I have balanced out his strengths and weaknesses, which were different.
4
SPEAKER_02
And, you know, it s been a highlight of my life, you know, to be able to work with him and, you know, call him my best friend.
4
SPEAKER_02
And, oh.
4
SPEAKER_02
Is that my daughter?
4
SPEAKER_00
There s a cat.
4
SPEAKER_01
She s pretending to be a cat.
4
SPEAKER_01
Marlo.
4
SPEAKER_00
Marlo.
4
SPEAKER_02
Are you out there?
4
SPEAKER_02
Where are you?
4
SPEAKER_02
Oh, you re at the door.
4
SPEAKER_02
Oh, Jesus.
4
SPEAKER_02
Oh, that s my door thing.
4
SPEAKER_02
She s on the roof.
4
SPEAKER_02
I m in my office.
4
SPEAKER_02
Where are you?
4
SPEAKER_02
You re on the door, talking box.
4
SPEAKER_02
Wait, what is it?
4
SPEAKER_02
All right.
4
SPEAKER_02
On the talking box.
4
SPEAKER_02
Okay, sorry about that.
4
SPEAKER_02
Typical.
4
SPEAKER_02
I thought I had my phone on silent.
4
SPEAKER_02
That s funny.
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
Marlo, what was up with Marlo?
4
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I don t know.
4
SPEAKER_01
What was up with that?
4
SPEAKER_01
By the way, before we- I find that really interesting.
4
SPEAKER_01
Bob Odenkirk, oh yeah, he s so fun to work with and he s just effusive.
4
SPEAKER_01
I don t know if he is all the time.
4
SPEAKER_01
No, this is going to be great.
4
SPEAKER_00
He s a great laugher too.
4
SPEAKER_01
But I ll tell you this one thing which I want to ask you about.
4
SPEAKER_01
This is a very human Bob.
4
SPEAKER_01
So we know him in the eighties and he s just coming along like that.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then he goes through all his stuff, Mr. Show and everything.
4
SPEAKER_01
Then, then he s on Better Call Saul.
4
SPEAKER_01
Uh, so at first he s on Breaking Bad, then he gets that show.
4
SPEAKER_01
So he s on our podcast.
4
SPEAKER_01
And one of my favorite moments, and he goes, he goes, I knew if this action movie worked, you guys are going to go, what the fuck?
4
SPEAKER_01
Now he s a movie star.
4
SPEAKER_01
It really made me laugh.
4
SPEAKER_01
Like, what is going on?
4
SPEAKER_01
Because, uh, so with you and him, like I was pulled out of a movie theater once in the late nineties by people didn t know I was ever on TV.
4
SPEAKER_01
And they just said, someone told us that you knew Adam
5
SPEAKER_00
Adam Sandler.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s just sort of a weird, the trajectory of comedy and ego and stuff.
5
SPEAKER_00
I had that happen this morning.
5
SPEAKER_00
But Bob just the kind of, as he s a comedian and first and foremost, so he knew how funny it was.
5
SPEAKER_00
So anyway, how do you navigate that?
5
SPEAKER_00
Like your partner s in crime, now he s going off on this thing, you re still talking all the time, it doesn t affect anything with you two personally, right?
5
SPEAKER_02
Well, I mean, the the one of the greatest things about Bob as a person and as a sketch writer, comedian, actor, artist is he has no ego.
5
SPEAKER_02
There s no real ego, you know, and we zero.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
And we it s hard to hate.
5
SPEAKER_02
And I don t have that ego.
5
SPEAKER_02
I don t have that ego either.
5
SPEAKER_02
And it really helps to collaborate that way.
5
SPEAKER_02
And, you know, I
5
SPEAKER_02
want for him and wish for him nothing but the best and all the success in the world and him with me vice versa and he s a big supporter.
5
SPEAKER_02
He s at every show I do if I m in LA or Chicago, he s there.
5
SPEAKER_02
And we enjoy the whole process.
5
SPEAKER_02
And I also knew early on, because he demonstrated it in certain sketches, he s a really good dramatic actor.
5
SPEAKER_02
I knew that was there.
5
SPEAKER_02
And it s always bothered me when people
5
SPEAKER_02
kind of make an assumption, it s just lazy that, oh, it s a, usually it s like, wow, I had no idea Robin Williams could really act, or, oh, Jim Carrey really surprised me, or, you know, when a comic shows humanity.
5
SPEAKER_00
Captain Kangaroo has some chops.
5
SPEAKER_02
You know, I mean, it s just lazy thinking, and so people are like, wow, Bob Odenkirk, who knew?
5
SPEAKER_02
Like, well, all of us, who knew him?
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s the same thing like, well, a writer, well, he s just a writer.
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, a writer can t perform.
5
SPEAKER_01
Or direct, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
That s insane.
5
SPEAKER_00
They re just a writer.
5
SPEAKER_00
But yeah, the Bob of 2023 when we saw him, yeah, there s literally no ego and no change of anything.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s like you could not talk to him for a decade and it s exactly just right there.
5
SPEAKER_00
And so you guys share that and I guess that s why it s such a great friendship.
5
SPEAKER_00
He did say when he got his star Walk of Fame that you were funnier than him.
5
SPEAKER_02
I was, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
He said, I m funny too.
5
SPEAKER_00
It wasn t a false compliment, but yeah, David s a little bit funnier than me.
5
SPEAKER_02
In that moment.
5
SPEAKER_02
In that moment.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_02
If you watch it, which I didn t, I was there doing it, but when I gave my little thing,
5
SPEAKER_02
in which I think I ve referenced you David Spade and I saw that I was and then you can watch watch Bob leaning over my shoulder at the Script and you could just imagine him like punching it up in his head and making notes Maybe Ted cut that out and maybe focus on this
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, the idea, I mean, the initial broad-based idea was you started reading an article from Hollywood Reporter or something that had nothing to do with... Oh, it was the Variety... It was... Oh, some guy, what s that fucking guy s name?
5
SPEAKER_02
The DJ, DJ Khaled.
5
SPEAKER_02
And, you know, who s everywhere.
5
SPEAKER_02
And like, what?
5
SPEAKER_02
What have you done?
5
SPEAKER_02
Okay.
5
SPEAKER_02
And so it was an issue dedicated to DJ Khaled.
5
SPEAKER_02
It was on everybody s chair.
5
SPEAKER_02
The reason that I did it was they put it on everybody s chair there.
5
SPEAKER_01
Nothing to do with anything.
5
SPEAKER_02
And you want to hear a great, this is great.
5
SPEAKER_02
This is so present day Hollywood.
5
SPEAKER_02
So we were on Vine, right?
5
SPEAKER_02
His star is on Vine just north of Hollywood Boulevard.
5
SPEAKER_02
And we were all set there on the side, like, kind of facing the sidewalk, abutting the sidewalk.
5
SPEAKER_02
And, you know, there s Hollywood royalty, there s Carol Burnett, and there s, you know, all these people and dressed up.
5
SPEAKER_02
And at the top, and it s on an incline, right?
5
SPEAKER_02
And we re about halfway down.
5
SPEAKER_02
And then, and it s disgusting, right?
5
SPEAKER_02
There s the smell of human pee, and it s hot, and it s just a disgusting, awful place.
5
SPEAKER_02
And I don t know what, where it came from, or what business was releasing it or whatever, but this
5
SPEAKER_02
gush the stream, I want to say a good inch and a half to two inches thick, of water.
5
SPEAKER_02
And people have open-toed, like the women have open-toed high heels, and it s brown and dirty and oily and everything that s Hollywood.
5
SPEAKER_02
And it just comes rushing down.
5
SPEAKER_02
And so while this celebration of Hollywood is happening, people are like, oh God, oh my God.
5
SPEAKER_00
And it was just a perfect little... If it was on Mr. Show, it would have gotten higher and more covering people s heads, right?
5
SPEAKER_02
It would have been just like... And then they would have ignored it and they would just be like, I don t know, nothing s wrong.
5
SPEAKER_02
It just kept going on.
5
SPEAKER_01
Well, when there s fame going on, you re willing to, I m willing to look the other way.
5
SPEAKER_01
I just get so focused on the fame of it all and the fun.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m on fire.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m like, but I m here.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s a blast.
5
SPEAKER_01
My star is down near El Segundo, if you know where that is.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s by El Pollo Loco, that s not on the map.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
All right, anything left for Dana Cross, Danny, David Cross, David, Dana?
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, unless he comes back another time.
5
SPEAKER_00
Well, I have so many things.
5
SPEAKER_00
We didn t touch Arrested Development.
5
SPEAKER_00
We didn t touch Minion Megamind.
5
SPEAKER_00
We didn t touch... What s up with Jason Bateman?
5
SPEAKER_00
What s the deal with that guy?
5
SPEAKER_00
What s his deal?
5
SPEAKER_01
Trash Will Arnett.
5
SPEAKER_00
What s his deal?
5
SPEAKER_00
Don t pull, don t pull any punches.
5
SPEAKER_00
What s the deal?
5
SPEAKER_00
Will Arnett.
5
SPEAKER_00
I love those guys.
5
SPEAKER_02
I love those guys.
5
SPEAKER_00
No, no.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
I want you to hear the people you want to see in a restaurant and they wave you over to their booth.
5
SPEAKER_02
Oh, Bateman s a pro.
5
SPEAKER_02
I mean,
5
SPEAKER_02
He, so many of the people I know that are the most down to earth, most equitable, gracious, gracious and caring people.
5
SPEAKER_02
in the world of Hollywood.
5
SPEAKER_02
Were kid actors or born and raised in LA like the assholes when people think about asshole, Hollywood, those are all people moved there.
5
SPEAKER_02
But the people I know that were born and raised into it with kid actors are just super sweet, nice, genuine good people.
5
SPEAKER_02
And Jason s one of those.
5
SPEAKER_00
I do think the longer you re in it, you don t get tricked out by it much.
5
SPEAKER_00
So I assume if you start as a kid, you see this kid got the Lassie show, and all the emotionally violent aspect to it starts to kind of tamp down.
5
SPEAKER_02
You see the sausage being made, as it were, and you know for a fact it s not as exciting and glamorous, and it s a job.
5
SPEAKER_02
People seem to forget that, but it s a fucking job.
5
SPEAKER_02
I mean, my wife was a child actress, and she has a lot to say about it.
5
SPEAKER_01
There s a really good movie about that, Dana, if you get a chance.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s called Dickie Roberts.
5
SPEAKER_00
Oppenheimer?
5
SPEAKER_01
Anyway, by the way, Jessica Walters played my, she was in a movie called PCU, one of the first movies I ever did.
5
SPEAKER_01
So I would follow her and things she did.
5
SPEAKER_01
So it was fun.
5
SPEAKER_01
She was kind of fun on that movie.
5
SPEAKER_01
She was pretty sweet to me.
5
SPEAKER_01
And the cast is huge.
5
SPEAKER_01
Everyone loves, everyone loves Arrested Development.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then it got another life on Netflix, right?
5
SPEAKER_01
Is that right?
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
Good job.
5
SPEAKER_00
I just was curious, because I was looking at that.
5
SPEAKER_00
Did that predate the American version of The Office, or was there any... Were you in America?
5
SPEAKER_02
I think Arrested predated the American Office, but not by much.
5
SPEAKER_02
It couldn t have been by much, because I know the
5
SPEAKER_02
I don t know, but I think it did, but it couldn t have been right too long.
5
SPEAKER_00
They re different, but there s a certain Barista.
5
SPEAKER_00
I don t know what she was.
5
SPEAKER_00
Cinema Verite.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, the documentary style thing.
5
SPEAKER_02
Although we never, the camera, the characters never acknowledged
5
SPEAKER_02
the camera or the, quote, crew, which they did in the office.
5
SPEAKER_02
I mean, they went to the well on that thing like 20 times an episode.
5
SPEAKER_02
Somebody looking over and going, brr.
5
SPEAKER_01
That s a great way out of a joke.
5
SPEAKER_00
Steve Carell.
5
SPEAKER_00
Steve Carell, what s up with that guy?
5
SPEAKER_00
You tell me.
5
SPEAKER_02
I don t know.
5
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, Dane is your best friend.
5
SPEAKER_01
I just didn t mean to say that about anybody.
5
SPEAKER_02
David Cross, what s up with that guy?
5
SPEAKER_01
It s a good way to sound.
5
SPEAKER_02
Another very talented comic who s an extreme.
6
SPEAKER_02
talented actor.
6
SPEAKER_01
Steve Carell, you never would have thought never in a million years he d be any good at anything.
6
SPEAKER_00
That guy s a silly clown.
6
SPEAKER_00
He s a clown.
6
SPEAKER_00
What?
6
SPEAKER_00
Oscars.
6
SPEAKER_00
No, he s and he s another person.
6
SPEAKER_00
It sounds like we re doing Merv Griffin or something, but it s like that s such a lovely human being and so unpretentious.
6
SPEAKER_00
Even after he was huge, he would go to the mall.
6
SPEAKER_00
His wife, Nancy, told me just as, you know, didn t think it d be a problem.
6
SPEAKER_00
You know, then people were mobbing him.
6
SPEAKER_00
So I like the good ones.
6
SPEAKER_00
Let me tell you that.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
David, thank you for spending some time with the dysfunctional couple of me and Dana.
6
SPEAKER_02
That s great, I m glad to see you guys, you know, the therapy s working out and you seem to be copacetic.
6
SPEAKER_00
Well, I just want to newsflash, we have a talk over meter and we re up at 60% of the time you tried to speak, we talked over you.
6
SPEAKER_00
That s good.
6
SPEAKER_00
That s about an average.
6
SPEAKER_00
It s right in the middle.
6
SPEAKER_00
Steve Martin was slightly higher.
6
SPEAKER_00
Anyway, we have to be careful of that, this new technology.
6
SPEAKER_00
One day.
6
SPEAKER_00
I ll just leave you with this.
6
SPEAKER_00
If you re watching TV with your wife and a very handsome man comes on and she goes, oh, and you go, what?
6
SPEAKER_00
I don t get it.
6
SPEAKER_00
What are you talking about?
6
SPEAKER_00
That s what I do.
6
SPEAKER_00
That s my defense fallback.
6
SPEAKER_00
That s it.
6
SPEAKER_01
That s your closing words?
6
SPEAKER_00
Brad Pitt.
6
SPEAKER_00
I was just doing this to try to make him smile.
6
SPEAKER_00
I didn t work this bit out.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I should.
6
SPEAKER_00
But I think it s funny.
6
SPEAKER_00
Brad Pitt comes on television and you go, I don t get it.
6
SPEAKER_00
What s the whole whoop-de-doo about this guy?
6
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I see.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I see.
6
SPEAKER_00
It s a little reverse.
6
SPEAKER_00
Because you re threatened by the handsomeness.
6
SPEAKER_00
You re like, I don t get it.
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I do that when I see Bruce Valanche, but maybe it doesn t work that well.
6
SPEAKER_01
That s the one I get.
6
SPEAKER_02
That s just for you.
6
SPEAKER_00
Look up Bruce, nothing against Bruce.
6
SPEAKER_00
That s just for you.
6
SPEAKER_00
But look Bruce up.
6
SPEAKER_00
Brad Pitt, Bruce Valanche.
6
SPEAKER_01
All right, thanks David.
6
SPEAKER_01
This has been a presentation of Odyssey.
6
SPEAKER_01
Please follow, subscribe, leave a like, a review, all this stuff.
6
SPEAKER_01
Smash that button, whatever it is, wherever you get your podcasts.
6
SPEAKER_01
Fly on the Wall is executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Jenna Weiss, Berman of Odyssey, Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment, and Heather Santoro.
6
SPEAKER_01
The show s lead producer is Greg Holtzman.