0
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So David, I hosted Jimmy Kimmel.
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James Kimmel, and you did a great job.
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James Edward Kimmel, who was also a state senator from Louisiana.
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You did two nights, great stuff.
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Two nights, thank you.
0
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You had Quentin Tarantino among others.
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That was a thrill.
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I so loved being able to specifically compliment someone who I really admire his work tremendously.
0
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And to see him laugh,
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when I was quoting lines from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which I ve seen 11 times over a period of time.
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Don t think I m weird.
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He just laughed so hard.
0
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He s great.
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We should have him on because he did SNL.
0
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Wait, we should have him on, say again.
0
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We should have him on.
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That s a good plan.
0
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Oh yeah, Brad Pitt.
0
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We should have him on, Quentin, because he did, oh, he wasn t there, but we did John Travolta and we did...
0
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Quentin Tarantino s Welcome Back, Cotter.
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That was a great sketch.
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I would love to have been there when he was there, but he was such a kick and so much fun.
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And I love making him laugh.
0
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And the next night you had Spade and we had a blast and- You came out dismantled with your-
0
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What was the guy, the driver was eating, the limo driver?
0
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Cheetos.
0
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Cheetos chunk was hysterical.
0
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And then something about mosquitoes.
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I ll try to find that chunk and I ll put it up on Instagram or something.
0
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Mosquitoes, we did talk about the Burger King guy getting gifts at his 27 years at Burger King.
0
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And then I was gonna tell you that when I left SNL after six years,
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Lauren gave me a gift bag.
0
SPEAKER_01
He gave me a- Oh, really?
0
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Yeah.
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Oh, I didn t get one.
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Yeah, he gave me a- David, please.
0
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Peanut M&Ms.
0
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Okay.
0
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A ticket to Cats.
0
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Actually, it was just a cat.
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It was just cat.
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It was one ticket and it was a different play.
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It was not great.
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It wasn t even Cats?
0
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No, it was Cats.
0
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That was like a little practical.
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Okay, got it.
0
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One ticket.
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Because they gave the Burger King guy one ticket to a movie.
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He s got one ticket to write.
0
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So yeah, Lorne gave me that in a slinky.
0
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Anyway, it was great.
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I was appreciative.
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I did Trump and Biden, which may be brave, stupid or fun, whatever you want to think in our current cultural climate.
0
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But my aim was to entertain and inside baseball, I didn t have my glasses and I squint as Biden and the prompter was way back.
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And I m like, man, I m fucked.
0
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We re taping I could barely see it.
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It was live.
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Yeah, then I d open my eyes and like that But you know a goofy wig I did look I did the best I could I want to tell you that Cheeto bit was some wonderful But anyway, I m test is fantastic.
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You re fantastic and Biden, you know, the thing is I did the whisper We re kind of whisper was a crush on the wall.
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I
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Because we know how to fly on the wall.
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So that was fun.
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And staff was incredible, and the writers and producers.
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Great people there at Mr. Kimmel s show.
0
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And now here s our regular intro to Ellen that s still not Ellen yet.
0
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Ellen Claghorne, Dana.
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Ellen Claghorne was on with me and with you.
0
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Yes, and she was a powerhouse from the beginning.
0
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She had just a great presence.
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She had her bandmates at the time, Melanie Hutzel and Beth Kay and others.
0
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And they all sort of came in together.
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Siobhan.
0
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Siobhan Fallon.
0
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Yes.
0
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Great.
0
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And Ellen was part of that team and she has a lot of firsts in her career.
0
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As a person, she s charming.
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Funny is smart.
0
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She went.
0
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She s a teacher right now Ellen Clegg horn has a PhD In theater arts from Tisch University, so I don t think my friend has a PhD pussyhound disease
0
SPEAKER_02
Hey, we can pair that with Jack off in the box.
0
SPEAKER_02
Hey, we gotta keep the younger viewers here.
0
SPEAKER_02
They re starting to snooze.
0
SPEAKER_02
Welcome to flies after dark.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
0
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Glowing.
0
SPEAKER_01
No, Ellen is smart and good and sketchy.
0
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She s a Zeraita.
0
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She had a daughter on the show who was five and now she s a, we can t say, it ll be on.
0
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So, we ll find out soon.
0
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Her daughter would come around, super cute.
0
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We put her in a lot of sketches.
0
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And Ellen is just a powerhouse.
0
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Just a big, big, big personality.
0
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Here she is, guys.
0
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Here she is, the adorable Ellen Claycorn.
0
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Oh my gosh, Dana, look who forgot.
0
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Look at that mask, I m naked.
0
SPEAKER_02
I m not a super spreader.
0
SPEAKER_02
Ellen is, where are you?
0
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She s at Costco.
0
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I know those eyes, that s Ellen.
0
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She s shopping.
0
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She goes, do I need volume or audio on this podcast?
0
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As long as we can see you.
0
SPEAKER_01
We can see you, Alan, we can t hear you.
0
SPEAKER_02
I m doing sign language.
0
SPEAKER_02
Let s just air this.
0
SPEAKER_02
I can t.
0
SPEAKER_01
It s too funny.
0
SPEAKER_01
The video, too.
0
SPEAKER_01
We can t hear you, Alan.
0
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Alan, you re frozen, and we can t hear you.
0
SPEAKER_01
It s funny, we hear choppy stuff like albums.
0
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My two sons are into hip hop and rap, heavily, compared to me being from the 60s, so they ve introduced me to it.
0
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And we play around with beats and do rhymes and, you know, catchphrases.
0
SPEAKER_01
Dana, do you wanna hear, I m gonna sing a rap song, ready?
0
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My name s Lamont and I was born in January.
0
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I m a Capricorn.
0
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God, Ellen will know this one if she unfreezes.
0
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I got one, I heard one called, you got a problem with this?
0
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And it s just a big beat.
0
SPEAKER_02
You got a problem with this?
0
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And it just repeats.
0
SPEAKER_02
You got a problem with this?
0
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That would work.
0
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In a dance club if I m on Molly.
0
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Really when I hear it in the gym and it s big beats and repetitive phrasing, it feels like comedy in a way, you know?
0
SPEAKER_01
That might be from Rapper s Delight.
0
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I ve talked about that before.
0
SPEAKER_02
Snoop Dogg was the first one that got me hooked on it.
0
Ow.
0
SPEAKER_01
My name s Vermont, and I was born on a jam farm in Vermont.
0
SPEAKER_01
Snoop.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, give me a word, I ll rhyme it.
0
SPEAKER_01
Dude, I saw Snoop on the dumbest ad, schnizzle.
0
SPEAKER_01
It s just like some corny, dopey ad on the side of a bus.
0
SPEAKER_01
I m like, Snoop, please turn something down.
0
SPEAKER_01
Alan, that was the funnest beginning we ve had, actually.
0
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Yeah, we re not a professional outfit, so don t worry.
0
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Well, when you guys get really high tech and stuff, then you ll have to have me back.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, we are high tech.
0
SPEAKER_02
Well, it was $13.95 to get the goods set up, and Cadence decided to spend $9.95, and you pay for what you get, you know.
0
SPEAKER_01
So, do you have any questions, Ellen?
0
SPEAKER_01
Or should we start?
0
SPEAKER_01
Okay, Ellen.
0
SPEAKER_01
We have time for one final question for Ellen.
0
SPEAKER_02
This has been Ellen.
0
SPEAKER_01
No, Ellen, let s start by saying I was an angel at the beginning when you were there, and then we ll go from there.
0
SPEAKER_00
You were an angel.
0
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You know, that s nice to hear.
0
SPEAKER_01
Because that place is so tough, it s hard to not be nice to everyone, but you re usually just walking in the hallway thinking.
0
SPEAKER_01
You re like thinking of a sketch, thinking of why I m not on, thinking of why my sketch bombed, thinking of if Farley s going to eat my lunch.
0
SPEAKER_01
You know, there s a million things going through your head, so... The answer to that is yes.
0
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The answer is always yes.
0
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And it s just hard to...
0
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You know, will you tell your side of it?
0
SPEAKER_01
I mean, you re there and you re there on one of the times we had a lot of cast members and a lot of people, a lot of mouths to feed.
0
SPEAKER_00
But you were very savvy anyway.
0
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So I don t think you would have ever done anything out untowards or whatever.
0
SPEAKER_00
You re always such a forward thinking man when I look back.
0
SPEAKER_00
And you know, you always, you introduced me to the phrase, a friend of the show.
0
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We still say that.
0
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Lauren would go, Haroldo is a friend of the show.
0
SPEAKER_02
He s a friend of the show.
0
SPEAKER_02
And then the terrorizing for the cast member, still with the show.
0
SPEAKER_02
Still with the show.
0
SPEAKER_00
I had never heard that before.
0
SPEAKER_02
You never got still with the show.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, Lauren, that was one of Lauren s favorites.
0
SPEAKER_02
I found it funny, but he s a friend of the show.
0
SPEAKER_01
You know, Alan, one time when I think, I don t know what years you were there.
0
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I was there.
0
SPEAKER_02
90 to 94, something like that.
0
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Okay.
0
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So overlapped a lot, but.
0
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In the summers, we would call to see if we re getting picked up.
0
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And he d go, I just, I don t know if David s ever around.
0
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And I m like, this is the one thing my manager hears once a year review.
0
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And that s the one thing.
0
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And it s like, you got to go, Lauren, you got to be careful what you say, because that s it for a year.
0
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He s like, are you ever going to be there?
0
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I go, all I am is here all the time.
0
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It s just, it s just like a thing to get me off my ass.
0
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I don t know.
0
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But it really like would stress me out to hear that.
0
SPEAKER_00
You had so much more contact with him than I did.
0
SPEAKER_00
As everybody makes, I said, I never even, I didn t know what his voice sounded like.
0
SPEAKER_01
Do you know this is a good impression or not?
0
SPEAKER_00
I couldn t tell you.
0
SPEAKER_00
I said, I don t know who he s doing.
0
SPEAKER_00
I guess it s Lorne.
0
SPEAKER_00
Right, how did you, what happened with Lorne?
0
SPEAKER_01
When you got hired, that s when you talked to Lorne and then that was kind of it for the run?
0
SPEAKER_00
I didn t speak to him when I got hired.
0
SPEAKER_00
Oh, you didn t speak to him.
0
SPEAKER_00
The only person I spoke to was Al Franken.
0
SPEAKER_00
Oh, really?
0
SPEAKER_00
Al Franken.
0
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I would go to Al Franken s office.
0
SPEAKER_00
And then I went into the Turner s office.
0
SPEAKER_01
Oh, Bonnie and Terry Turner.
0
SPEAKER_01
Bonnie and Terry Turner.
0
SPEAKER_01
That was it.
0
SPEAKER_01
Were they the head writers by any chance, Dana?
0
SPEAKER_02
No, they were just really pivotal.
0
SPEAKER_02
They were in a lot of quadrants.
0
SPEAKER_02
They do all kinds of styles and they helped me a lot.
0
SPEAKER_02
Church chat and other things.
0
SPEAKER_02
So Ellen, they kind of like gave you the ropes or whatever?
1
SPEAKER_00
No, they gave me no, no ropes.
1
SPEAKER_00
They just looked at me.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I saw your tape and then they just stare at you.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I m like, okay, I guess they were sizing me up to see what could I do.
1
SPEAKER_00
And Al Franken, all he did was ask me one time, he asked me if I could belch.
1
SPEAKER_00
I was like, no.
1
SPEAKER_00
And he was through with me.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, wait, what?
1
SPEAKER_00
Literally?
1
SPEAKER_00
Hey, can you belch?
1
SPEAKER_00
And that was it.
1
SPEAKER_02
And then he, then he scratched out nine sketches.
1
SPEAKER_00
As I did, because, you know, I grew up in the time when you ladies don t belch.
1
SPEAKER_00
Well, I hope there s still a time like that.
1
SPEAKER_00
She said, don t you dare.
1
SPEAKER_00
Don t you dare.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I always was afraid.
1
SPEAKER_00
I admired people who could actually belch on cue.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh, I can.
1
SPEAKER_00
I had such a low.
1
SPEAKER_00
I really admire people like that.
1
SPEAKER_02
I can, and maybe that s why I got the show.
1
SPEAKER_01
I couldn t do it.
1
SPEAKER_01
Could you guys do a spit take?
1
SPEAKER_01
I mean, spit take was kind of like with a belch.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s like an easy laugh.
1
SPEAKER_01
There s an art to the spit take, but I don t think I ever did one on this show.
1
SPEAKER_01
You know?
1
SPEAKER_00
I like a spit take when I see people do that.
1
SPEAKER_02
If it takes you by surprise, you know.
1
SPEAKER_02
You know, a good spit take, you don t see a lot anymore because I think they ran through them.
1
SPEAKER_02
But if you see them now, it s kind of funny because and it can t be a planned one.
1
SPEAKER_02
I mean, it can t be look planned.
1
SPEAKER_02
That s the worst.
1
SPEAKER_02
So, Ellen, you were doing stand up right at the beginning, Ellen.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
I got it from doing stand up because I used to be in the clubs all the time.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I think a lot of people that I used to stand up with got hired.
1
SPEAKER_01
Which which ones?
1
SPEAKER_01
Can you remember their names?
1
SPEAKER_00
Well, maybe, you know, his name is Chris Rock.
1
SPEAKER_01
Wait a minute, Chris.
1
SPEAKER_01
Let me write that down.
1
SPEAKER_01
Chris, where has he been?
1
SPEAKER_01
I mean, what happened to Chris Rock?
1
SPEAKER_02
Barack Obama.
1
SPEAKER_02
Our president, Barack Obama.
1
SPEAKER_02
I go, Rock, you say everything twice in your act.
1
SPEAKER_01
I told him when I was teaching my kids how to do standup for the clarity of the setup.
1
SPEAKER_01
I said, let s look at Chris Rock, because he was really good at- Very articulate.
1
SPEAKER_01
He nails the subject.
1
SPEAKER_01
Hits a premise, does comedy, hits it again, and it s just really easy on your brain so you can enjoy it.
1
SPEAKER_01
He obviously became a master of the craft.
1
SPEAKER_00
Masterful.
1
SPEAKER_02
So, Ellen, doing clubs back then, were you doing like Catch Rising Star or those kinds?
1
SPEAKER_02
Those are the ones I kind of knew, but I didn t know like the underground ones.
1
SPEAKER_02
I just knew like a few.
1
SPEAKER_02
I never really went on when I was there.
1
SPEAKER_00
But I ve seen, I saw you actually at Catch a Rising Star.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh, good.
1
SPEAKER_02
Go on there, David.
1
SPEAKER_02
Well, that s the only one I knew.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I think that s when I auditioned at, and then, uh, so that s the only one I could call and say, can I come down if it was now and then to do a set?
1
SPEAKER_02
Cause I didn t really know the drill.
1
SPEAKER_00
I saw you there and you used to do this bit about, um, scoliosis.
1
SPEAKER_02
I think I like girls, a little archback, a little scoliosis, I think.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
That s a funny word.
1
SPEAKER_00
That was the first time I had ever even heard of scoliosis.
1
SPEAKER_00
I was like, this is great.
1
SPEAKER_00
This comedy is educational.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh my God.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s more shocking that I still do the joke now.
1
SPEAKER_02
But I, you know, Ellen is funny.
1
SPEAKER_02
I was just telling Dana I taped a special and I don t do that many specials.
1
SPEAKER_02
No one s asking and beating down my door, but I did one and I was telling Dana that I did a joke that was offensive.
1
SPEAKER_02
You know, I sort of did it on purpose.
1
SPEAKER_02
The second show, because I felt like, okay, I sort of got all my jokes.
1
SPEAKER_02
And before I got off stage, I did when I was telling Dana, it was kind of funny, because then I sort of yelled at the audience for not liking it, just to be stupid.
1
SPEAKER_02
But here s a joke, Ellen, you tell me if it s, if it s, you see why they didn t like it.
1
SPEAKER_02
So I say, I went to Las Vegas for a show or whatever.
1
SPEAKER_02
And then look at blurry setup, unlike Chris Rock.
1
SPEAKER_02
I went to Las Vegas for whatever, and the newspaper had said that day it was the anniversary of the Las Vegas shootings, which we all had heard about, and it said, today is the anniversary of the October 1st shootings.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I asked the guy there, I go, isn t this the Las Vegas shootings?
1
SPEAKER_02
And he goes, yeah, they changed it.
1
SPEAKER_02
They got a brand expert because the Las Vegas shootings sounded too much like everyone was getting shot in Las Vegas.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I go, well, yeah, that s what happened.
1
SPEAKER_02
And he goes, yeah, but October 1st hits the ear better.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I go, oh, they hired the same people that did the Oklahoma City situation and the kerfuffle at Columbine.
1
SPEAKER_02
I didn t even get to, I didn t even get to the Sandy Hook snafu and they had already given up on me.
1
SPEAKER_02
Oh my gosh.
1
SPEAKER_02
They got it, they give up during the premise.
1
SPEAKER_02
Columbine is called schools out.
1
SPEAKER_02
Columbine was where this woman was just staring me in the front row and I go...
1
SPEAKER_02
too much? 
1
SPEAKER_02
And she goes, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I go, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
I go, you know, Netflix likes is when you try stuff on your special.
1
SPEAKER_02
You don t tell them and it could be some legal problems and you do it anyway.
1
SPEAKER_02
And so, uh, they like that.
1
SPEAKER_02
They like undercooked half-ass shit that can offend the crowd.
1
SPEAKER_02
Anyway, I m going to wrap things up.
1
SPEAKER_01
And then I did like, David s nickname is showstopper.
1
SPEAKER_02
So what was that?
1
SPEAKER_02
You know, it was such a showstopper.
1
SPEAKER_00
Go ahead.
1
SPEAKER_02
No, no, I was just saying.
1
SPEAKER_00
No, no, no.
1
SPEAKER_00
I think that it could, I really think that it could work because everybody s so...
1
SPEAKER_00
um, sensitive right now.
1
SPEAKER_00
So they have to, you can t say what it was, you have to make it sound palatable.
1
SPEAKER_00
And that s what they re doing.
1
SPEAKER_02
They re making these horrible things sound like they re not fun, but they re just like, okay, you know, it s softening.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
They re showing an old Dana Carvey commercial, uh, on the, on the gram or Twitter or wherever you did a commercial with, I think it was Pepsi Cola or something.
1
SPEAKER_00
Oh, oh.
1
SPEAKER_00
You re shuffling cards or is it Lay s Potato Chips or something?
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
You re shuffling cards.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
At a casino.
1
SPEAKER_01
Guy, I can t believe that s around still.
1
SPEAKER_01
I think that was 20 years ago.
1
SPEAKER_01
I got over my, you know, allergic reaction to doing commercials.
1
SPEAKER_01
I turned down a lot of commercials trying to be Bob Dylan or something in the 90s.
1
SPEAKER_01
But then by the knots, I m like, wait a minute.
1
SPEAKER_01
This is crazy.
1
SPEAKER_01
So I did do one.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, you gotta take it where you can, man.
1
SPEAKER_02
Shit.
1
SPEAKER_01
I mean, most.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_02
When I was with Ellen, those years, actually Dana, you were there too for this, but Ellen, I got offered a commercial during SNL when I wasn t even doing that good and I wasn t allowed to do it.
1
SPEAKER_02
And I was just so bummed that I finally would have had a little chunk of money.
1
SPEAKER_02
It wasn t crazy, but I was like, God dang, I m not allowed to, because, you know, NBC decides.
1
SPEAKER_00
Did we ever talk about how much money we were making on the show?
1
SPEAKER_00
Not today.
1
SPEAKER_01
I ll tell you what I started at, 4,500 an episode.
1
SPEAKER_01
So you keep about 2,000 a week, I guess, or 80,000 for the season, I think.
1
SPEAKER_01
Gross.
1
SPEAKER_01
Okay, I ll go.
1
SPEAKER_01
I started at 900 a week to write, and I got a $1,500 bump if I got on.
1
SPEAKER_00
I ll tell you how much I started at.
1
SPEAKER_00
Okay.
1
SPEAKER_00
$245 an episode.
1
SPEAKER_02
No.
1
SPEAKER_00
What?
1
SPEAKER_00
Nothing extra, nothing extra.
1
SPEAKER_00
If I got anything on and nothing for writing.
1
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
1
SPEAKER_00
When I left there, when I, when I left there after almost five years, I was making $4,500 an episode, nothing for writing and that s it.
1
SPEAKER_00
And no bumps or nothing.
1
SPEAKER_02
Did an agent put that together?
1
SPEAKER_02
Do you have an agent back then or no?
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, I did.
1
SPEAKER_02
I mean, it s sort of take it or leave it, I m sure, but.
1
SPEAKER_00
Exactly, exactly.
1
SPEAKER_01
Boy, I just thought there were some union thing would kick in.
1
SPEAKER_00
I ve never said it before.
1
SPEAKER_00
No, you would think there was some union thing.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, but at least give you.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, go ahead.
1
SPEAKER_00
I would ask the union and they said, well, that s union minimum wage and you only work one day a week, so what is the problem?
1
SPEAKER_00
Good Lord, Alan.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s not really true.
1
SPEAKER_01
Damn it.
1
SPEAKER_01
God damn it, I m fucking pissed.
1
SPEAKER_01
Now, what about Melanie Hutzel?
1
SPEAKER_01
What was she getting?
1
SPEAKER_01
Like 20 grand a week?
1
SPEAKER_01
She was getting 30 grand, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
Hutzel don t go down for anybody, man.
1
SPEAKER_01
She was loading it up, driving a Bentley to work.
1
SPEAKER_01
Melanie needs more money than Ellen.
1
SPEAKER_01
Now, what was Melanie Hutzel getting?
1
SPEAKER_01
You were peers at the time, and were you coming... Did you ask anyone?
1
SPEAKER_00
No, I never did.
1
SPEAKER_02
I didn t ask anyone either.
1
SPEAKER_00
How did you live?
1
SPEAKER_01
How did you survive on that?
1
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
1
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
1
SPEAKER_00
Um, no, what, what helped that was that I was doing standup.
1
SPEAKER_00
So the week, the weeks that were, um, we were off or whatever, then I would go to stand up on the road and I could make like, wow, not that much, but at least a couple of thousand dollars.
1
SPEAKER_02
It s very rare that the standup is more than the, uh, work check.
1
SPEAKER_00
Well, in this case, it was.
1
SPEAKER_02
I know, I m saying that s a very odd situation, because I got to the point where I could make some on the weekends if I went to a college or something.
1
SPEAKER_02
But, you know, the joke of it s one day a week work is we all know is a joke because it s 24 hours a day on your mind, even on the weekend when you re doing laundry.
1
SPEAKER_00
Thank you.
1
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, there s like no job harder.
1
SPEAKER_02
I mean, in the real world of like showbiz, I mean, there s jobs harder.
1
SPEAKER_02
in our little world, it s just a constant stress and wow, that s tough to hear, I don t know, I mean, and you were doing as much as anyone.
1
SPEAKER_01
When you were getting reoccurring characters, you know, Queen Shanifa, whatever her name is.
2
SPEAKER_03
And you were kicking it on the show like that.
2
SPEAKER_03
I mean, obviously they started to bump you, but it just still never went to anything that was reasonable at all.
2
SPEAKER_00
No, they didn t bump.
2
SPEAKER_00
I got, wait, one week, I got one season, the whole season, I got like $200 a week.
2
SPEAKER_00
Children change, so it came out to be like,
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
2
SPEAKER_04
I just can t.
2
SPEAKER_00
Doing Saturday Night Live, even Uncle Sam said, we re not going to bother.
2
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
2
SPEAKER_00
The next one was like $400 and something dollars a week, the second year.
2
SPEAKER_00
Per show.
2
SPEAKER_00
The third year was like, yeah, per show.
2
SPEAKER_00
Then it was per show, night, week, or week, right?
2
SPEAKER_00
Then the next one was like $750 a week or something like that.
2
SPEAKER_04
And then finally it bumped up to four thousand to like a legitimate number, like a decent number, which isn t even crazy.
2
SPEAKER_03
It isn t even a crazy high number for I believe, unless I got it wrong, that it was forty five hundred for for the whole cast, because we didn t have a big cast.
2
SPEAKER_03
So it was Phil and Jan and I and whoever was coming in, I believe it was everyone was getting the same.
2
SPEAKER_04
uh as far as i remember maybe love it and nora dunn had a little more because it was their second season but you know we all have a different situation dana because i think ellen is brought in as a maybe a feature player and not even a writer even though she wrote obviously i was brought in as a writer feature player that
2
SPEAKER_04
They wanted me to write, not really be on, so it s kind of the opposite.
2
SPEAKER_04
And you, I think, were just brought in as a cast member, but they didn t give you writing credit, even though I m sure you wrote.
2
SPEAKER_03
No, no one got a writing credit.
2
SPEAKER_03
You couldn t get one.
2
SPEAKER_03
But we all, it was just, it s not what we do here, you know?
2
SPEAKER_04
So you get used to it, but it was a little funny.
2
SPEAKER_04
I would imagine.
2
SPEAKER_04
I didn t want a writing credit.
2
SPEAKER_04
I d rather be a performer, but.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, everybody s writing, I think.
2
SPEAKER_03
You know, the only one who made a joke out of it, you two could talk, that was Chris Farley, would always say, I can t think of anything, you know, but he was a brilliant performer.
2
SPEAKER_03
But that s what he said.
2
SPEAKER_03
But almost everyone was writing to some degree.
2
SPEAKER_03
But Ellen, I m sure to stay alive, you had to write.
2
SPEAKER_04
You weren t getting thrown into anything.
2
SPEAKER_00
No, no.
2
SPEAKER_00
But you guys hooked me up, though.
2
SPEAKER_00
Be honest.
2
SPEAKER_00
No, we would try.
2
SPEAKER_00
And not just me, but me and my daughter.
2
SPEAKER_00
Every time I turn around, she was in a sketch.
2
SPEAKER_04
I think she was five.
2
SPEAKER_04
And now she s probably like seven or something.
2
SPEAKER_00
She s an oral surgeon.
2
SPEAKER_00
What?
2
SPEAKER_00
Really?
2
SPEAKER_00
And she s 11?
2
SPEAKER_00
How old is she now?
2
SPEAKER_03
Amazing.
2
SPEAKER_03
So you re a doctorate and she s an oral surgeon.
2
SPEAKER_00
Can you imagine?
2
SPEAKER_03
I can buy, I have children.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_03
No, I can t really, but that s terrific.
2
SPEAKER_03
So that s great.
2
SPEAKER_03
Um, good Lord.
2
SPEAKER_00
But here s the thing.
2
SPEAKER_00
Here s the thing.
2
SPEAKER_00
When I think of Dana, now I didn t know Dana from nobody.
2
SPEAKER_00
So, um, I grew up in the project.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I have my girlfriends and they start singing this thing that you used to do about broccoli.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
Chopping broccoli.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I m like, what are y all saying?
2
SPEAKER_00
We would just be dying laughing.
2
SPEAKER_00
They said, you got to see this guy.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s hysterical.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so we would tune into SNL and hopefully it came on.
2
SPEAKER_00
So luckily the day it came on.
2
SPEAKER_00
love.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, you used to have us all dying laughing in Brooklyn with that chopping broccoli business.
2
SPEAKER_00
And then we would just mock you, not mock you or mimic you, we would do chopping broccoli whenever we would just have a moment alone or just start acting ridiculous.
2
SPEAKER_00
We d be at a piano or something.
2
SPEAKER_00
Pretend something was a piano and we were just talking about chopping broccoli.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s how you came into my life.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so when I met you, I was like, oh, my God, it s the chopping broccoli.
2
SPEAKER_03
That is so flattering.
2
SPEAKER_03
I honestly I love madness and silliness and catchphrases.
2
SPEAKER_03
And I love that they
2
SPEAKER_03
people sharing them.
2
SPEAKER_03
I thought it was silly and stupid, but it really, even with me, it goes through my head when I actually chop broccoli.
2
SPEAKER_03
So I m like, I chop broccoli.
2
SPEAKER_03
So I don t know, there was a sportscaster when a guy hit a home run, he was on ESPN, he go, and he is chopping broccoli.
2
SPEAKER_03
So it s fun, but that s cool.
2
SPEAKER_03
Thank you, Alan.
2
SPEAKER_00
It just, it kind of frees you up to know that anything could be funny.
2
SPEAKER_00
And you could just go for it, just go for it.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s a good way to put it, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_03
I think it s like verbal, physical comedy in a way.
2
SPEAKER_03
In other words, when someone s laying out a riff like that, then you have permission as an audience member.
2
SPEAKER_03
You know you don t have to really listen anymore.
2
SPEAKER_03
The guy s just gonna say chopped broccoli over and over again.
2
SPEAKER_03
So you can laugh as hard as you want.
2
SPEAKER_03
With Dennis Miller or something, it s a very intricate kind of thing going on, so you really need to listen.
2
SPEAKER_03
With that, you just sit back.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, you have to hear every word.
2
SPEAKER_03
Go crazy.
2
SPEAKER_03
And Chris Farley with his physical comedy, you just like, you know.
2
SPEAKER_03
Do you remember, uh, do you remember, uh, remember that time?
2
SPEAKER_03
Uh, no Dana, were you in Massive Headroom Harry?
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh yes, that was crazy.
2
SPEAKER_00
I never saw anything like that in my life.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was dazed.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was stunned and amazed.
2
SPEAKER_03
Nothing I did.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was in that sketch.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was like 95 people in that sketch.
2
SPEAKER_03
The whole cast was kind of at that punch ball in that little scene.
2
SPEAKER_03
And I assume our audience knows the character, but I didn t write it, but I was wearing a prosthetic thing that looked like I had a massive head wound.
2
SPEAKER_03
And I went to a party and mayhem ensued.
2
SPEAKER_03
And a dog got hungry.
2
SPEAKER_03
That s all you need to know.
2
SPEAKER_04
Google it.
2
SPEAKER_04
That was a sketch that like was, everyone s laughing and read through it.
2
SPEAKER_00
It made absolutely no sense.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was like, what the hell is going on?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_03
Was it jack candy or what was it?
2
SPEAKER_03
There s nothing like dogs and children, I guess.
2
SPEAKER_03
And they put too much baby food on the prosthesis between dress and air.
2
SPEAKER_03
So in the air show, the dog, cause I take a nap as Massive, Heavy, and Harry, and the dog comes up and wants to eat my head, but the dog wouldn t let go.
2
SPEAKER_03
The dog went crazy.
2
SPEAKER_03
I mean, and tried to rip the prosthesis off, but I held it on barely.
2
SPEAKER_03
But that was an example to the audience.
2
SPEAKER_03
It was like an I Love Lucy moment.
2
SPEAKER_03
If I could.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, you were kind of trying not to laugh.
2
SPEAKER_03
We were all watching it and laughing.
2
SPEAKER_03
Nothing to do with me, really.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, when she s at the thing with the chocolate.
2
SPEAKER_03
Doing the chocolate thing, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_03
Any time that she s doing just physical comedy, you can just hear the audience, ways and ways of laughter, but anyway.
2
SPEAKER_04
So Ellen.
2
SPEAKER_04
Dana, I didn t ask you, I was on mute.
2
SPEAKER_04
I muted because there s a garbage truck outside.
2
SPEAKER_04
Oh.
2
SPEAKER_04
but I forgot I was on mute and I was asking you a bunch of questions.
2
SPEAKER_04
I m going to go back about a half hour.
2
SPEAKER_04
Were you, was Chopping Broccoli in your SNL audition?
2
SPEAKER_04
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_04
Oh, so it was all the way back there.
2
SPEAKER_04
That was such a good one because I remember Chopping Broccoli, one of the first things about you that I just thought it hit my ear.
2
SPEAKER_04
I was like, it was so clever and weird and then you were going, Chopping Broccoli, chop, chop, chop.
2
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, I sometimes I ll do it for ten minutes.
2
SPEAKER_04
I m doing stand-up You should have done it with Paul McCartney when he came on it would have been fun.
2
SPEAKER_02
You should make him do it You know it s very you know humorous because you know why is he singing about a vegetable?
2
SPEAKER_02
Oh?
2
SPEAKER_02
It s not, you know, I did Let It Be, you know, it s about letting go and this and that, but there s nothing really about a vegetable.
2
SPEAKER_02
Chopping it all the time, but I guess that s what the Americans find funny, you know.
2
SPEAKER_02
It s like, I m chopping a doobie doobie doobie do, a broccoli, a doobie doobie doobie do, you know.
2
SPEAKER_02
He set me up.
2
SPEAKER_03
So Ellen, do you want to talk about your hit characters or the ones that, there are two that really stood out as far as reoccurring?
2
SPEAKER_03
There was a page desk, was it Zoraida?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes, the radar I love I miss the radar.
2
SPEAKER_00
I miss the radar so much.
2
SPEAKER_00
She and I guess I m supposed to do here.
2
SPEAKER_00
You don t have to do politically correct to do it here.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, because I really do speak Spanish.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it s not like, I don t know.
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I didn t think about that part.
2
SPEAKER_00
I forgot about that, but that s fine.
2
SPEAKER_03
We can cut anything, so go for it.
2
SPEAKER_03
But I just love that you said you miss the character.
2
SPEAKER_03
I relate to that.
2
SPEAKER_03
Sometimes I ll just do characters or voices driving around or I m by myself because I want to revisit the character, you know?
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, God.
2
SPEAKER_00
I miserated so much.
2
SPEAKER_00
She had so many problems.
2
SPEAKER_04
And you d always get like the host or someone involved, right?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, the host got involved.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I mean, when I first time I did it was with Michael Jordan.
2
SPEAKER_04
Wow.
2
SPEAKER_00
And that was like major.
2
SPEAKER_00
And he was like, he thought that I was being ridiculous, but I was.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I promised that I would sue him.
2
SPEAKER_00
And he thought that was hysterical.
2
SPEAKER_00
But the thing is, is that, and I said, what makes you think I won t cut you?
2
SPEAKER_00
And because that really didn t happen to me.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was on the train and this girl did ask me, what makes you think I won t cut you?
2
SPEAKER_04
It s kind of a tough question.
2
SPEAKER_03
Is that a rhetorical question?
2
SPEAKER_03
No.
2
SPEAKER_03
But that s a classic comedian s move is that you heard that in a real situation and it is really funny because it s what, not I m going to cut you, what makes you think I won t cut you.
2
SPEAKER_03
That is really funny.
2
SPEAKER_03
And for you to take that and use it, it was kind of one of her, she always said that at some point or no.
2
SPEAKER_03
What makes you think I won t cut you?
2
SPEAKER_03
That s really, that s really funny.
2
SPEAKER_03
She did it with a Spanish.
2
SPEAKER_03
What makes you think I won t cut you?
3
SPEAKER_00
But it s not just Spanish, it s really Puerto Rican, but a little Dominican.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s like this, you know, like it s very nasally and you like got to put it in that like that.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
And it s very emphatic.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
Makes you think I won t cut you.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, it s number one.
3
SPEAKER_01
What did Michael Jordan say to that?
3
SPEAKER_01
He just laughed.
3
SPEAKER_00
He just looked at her, he just like, and then I said, oh, you, don t touch me.
3
SPEAKER_00
Don t, don t hit me.
3
SPEAKER_00
I ll sue you, you know?
3
SPEAKER_00
And he was like, okay, what the fuck?
3
SPEAKER_02
Did you have to do that, a read through with him?
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I mean, that was great.
3
SPEAKER_00
How fun.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it did.
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean, he was so kind.
3
SPEAKER_02
What a memory, you and Michael Jordan.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, my God.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, he was, yeah, that, that s, that just hitting me funny now, the idea of a host just strolling around,
3
SPEAKER_01
on 8H and then this page just starting to talk to him and threatening to cut him.
3
SPEAKER_01
And don t they can t sue him?
3
SPEAKER_01
You know, it s just no wonder it just how many times you think you did that?
3
SPEAKER_00
Maybe six or eight, six times.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it was on.
3
SPEAKER_00
I did it.
3
SPEAKER_00
I did it quite a few times, but I think it kind of bothered.
3
SPEAKER_00
The one I really want to do with was John Malkovich, but it didn t get on.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
The thing that but I
3
SPEAKER_00
I think it kind of bothered the people who were writers, you know, right?
3
SPEAKER_00
Because like, if I went to if I went to if I went to Harvard to write comedy, this little scrappy Negro from the project is over here getting shit on air.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, I would be extremely upset.
3
SPEAKER_00
And they used to tease me and they weren t very nice to me.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s Harvard.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s boys, it s boys.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, boys are very different when you compete with boys and they don t win.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, my gosh.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I think it was part of that.
3
SPEAKER_00
But that was in the past, you know, and you just got to let it go and move on.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, we talked to Conan about that.
3
SPEAKER_02
Like he felt weird.
3
SPEAKER_02
He was that had that moniker, like he s from Harvard and I went to community college.
3
SPEAKER_02
So I felt weird, like they would think I m stupid.
3
SPEAKER_02
And, uh, you know, I think everyone felt a little different about their upbringing, getting on the show and how they got there and how they would be perceived.
3
SPEAKER_02
But, you know, if you write a sketch like that and you have Michael Jordan, it gets laughs at read through.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s like tough shit.
3
SPEAKER_02
It s getting on.
3
SPEAKER_01
what makes you think I won t cut you?
3
SPEAKER_01
You could go to Yale or Harvard or Dartmouth for a long time, but not come up with that and use it in that context.
3
SPEAKER_01
So yeah, I felt the same intimidation.
3
SPEAKER_01
I went to San Francisco State, it was barely a college, sorry, San Francisco State, and I went to community college.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I get to SNL, it s just a lot of Ivy League,
3
SPEAKER_01
young men, you know, with dress shoes and tucked in shirts and jeans and short kind of waspy haircuts.
3
SPEAKER_01
So yeah, I got it, but yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
So anyway, continue.
3
SPEAKER_02
Now, Ellen, did you go to the 40th?
3
SPEAKER_02
You were at the 40th, right?
3
SPEAKER_00
Yes, I was.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I think I was in it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Was it the last one?
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, 20.
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, it was the last big one.
3
15?
3
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
I did.
3
SPEAKER_00
I did.
3
SPEAKER_00
I did.
3
SPEAKER_02
Hang on, I got to put my money in the payphone.
3
SPEAKER_02
Bluetooth connecting.
3
SPEAKER_00
No, I m here.
3
SPEAKER_00
I have all these things.
3
SPEAKER_00
None of them are working.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I do.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m sorry.
3
SPEAKER_00
I teach this class.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m teaching this class here.
3
SPEAKER_00
Actually, it s a school in Jersey City.
3
SPEAKER_00
I teach at
3
SPEAKER_00
I teach at the New School in Manhattan, but I also teach here in Jersey City.
3
SPEAKER_00
I just started teaching here, and I m really having a good time.
3
SPEAKER_00
It doesn t have the money the New School has, so I have to bring all my stuff.
3
SPEAKER_00
I have a Bluetooth speaker.
3
SPEAKER_02
What do you teach?
3
SPEAKER_00
In this one, I teach acting.
3
SPEAKER_02
Cool.
3
SPEAKER_00
And this one, I m teaching acting here at Jersey City.
3
SPEAKER_00
And the way Dana talks about comedy, I want Dana to come and be a guest at my class in the new school.
3
SPEAKER_00
I teach the theory of comedy.
3
SPEAKER_00
And Dana really seems to get it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Dana has really deep thoughts about comedy.
3
SPEAKER_00
Not that you don t, David.
3
SPEAKER_02
No, no, Dana s actually really good at articulating.
3
SPEAKER_01
David writes amazing stuff.
3
SPEAKER_01
But I am fascinated by comedy.
3
SPEAKER_01
In all ways and the phraseology and it s such a, you know, it s like trying to catch the wind.
3
SPEAKER_01
You never solve it completely.
3
SPEAKER_01
You never master it.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s always humbling what you think will kill and will not and so forth and so on.
3
SPEAKER_01
But do you mind just for a second because it s kind of I ve not met any
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, when did you decide to go and how did that manifest for you?
3
SPEAKER_01
Well, I, um, okay, so I m going to tell you in just a second.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I m teaching at the New School, and so I have comedians come in and talk to the class, et cetera, comedians and producers, et cetera.
3
SPEAKER_00
So Mike Shoemaker came in.
3
SPEAKER_01
Shoemaker, producer.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
Marcy Klein came in.
3
SPEAKER_00
Marcy.
3
SPEAKER_00
And Tim Meadows.
3
SPEAKER_01
Timmy.
3
SPEAKER_00
Came and talked to the- Nice.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I use recordings from different, like I use Chris Rock and I use different people s recordings, anyway.
3
SPEAKER_00
Many, like maybe in 2007 or 2006, I was doing a radio show with Paul Mooney and I was writing for him in New York City.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he just never came.
3
SPEAKER_00
Like the show was from six in the morning to 10 in the morning.
3
SPEAKER_00
So he would show up, you know how radio is.
3
SPEAKER_00
You start at six, it starts at six.
3
SPEAKER_00
Good morning America.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he would show up maybe seven.
3
SPEAKER_00
And then he would have been out all night.
3
SPEAKER_00
And so he would sleep.
3
SPEAKER_02
Right.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I had signed a contract with them.
3
SPEAKER_00
So when they let him go, I couldn t get out of my contract.
3
SPEAKER_00
Otherwise, I wouldn t have to pay them all that money back.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, that s not going to happen.
3
SPEAKER_00
And so I was like, so he was mad that I stayed.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, no, I can t.
3
SPEAKER_00
I got it s not going to work.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m sorry.
3
SPEAKER_00
We ll just have to be angry at one another.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I said, well, Ellen, what are you going to do?
3
SPEAKER_00
What are you going to do?
3
SPEAKER_00
Because this is going to keep coming up, you know, whatever.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I said, well, what would you really do if you could do anything?
3
SPEAKER_00
Because I had this chunk of money.
3
SPEAKER_00
I said, well, I would like to get a master s degree.
3
SPEAKER_00
from someplace.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I applied to NYU.
3
SPEAKER_00
I said, something you ve always wanted to do.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I said, okay.
3
SPEAKER_00
And plus I was also in, if I can be really honest with you, I was tired of hearing people say, you know, I have a master s degree.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, when I, when I got my master s degree and I was like, so sick of hearing people say that.
3
SPEAKER_00
I had an undergrad degree, but I guess that wasn t enough.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I said, okay, I ll go back and do it.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I went and got it.
3
SPEAKER_00
I got into the school.
3
SPEAKER_00
I applied to Tisch and I got in.
3
SPEAKER_00
So then while I was there, this girl said to me, she said, whatever you do, don t stick around for the PhD.
3
SPEAKER_00
I was like, what?
3
SPEAKER_00
Why not?
3
SPEAKER_00
Because they re going to ask you to write something.
3
SPEAKER_00
You know, these white people always want to steal your writing.
3
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, really?
3
SPEAKER_01
David and I have that problem too.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that s a good idea.
3
SPEAKER_01
I wanna read it so I can take it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Okay, well that s really practical advice.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, so I said, as a matter of fact, so because she told me not to, I said, okay, I m gonna apply.
3
SPEAKER_00
All I can say is no.
3
SPEAKER_00
So I apply and comes to find out she had applied as well.
3
SPEAKER_00
So she was trying to thin to her so that there wouldn t be any competition.
3
SPEAKER_00
You get it?
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, no, I totally get it.
3
SPEAKER_01
It says sabotage.
3
SPEAKER_01
Subtle.
3
SPEAKER_01
To be a friend.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
She s taking you out of the competition.
3
SPEAKER_01
Good.
3
SPEAKER_01
Subtle touch.
3
SPEAKER_00
Right.
3
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
3
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
3
SPEAKER_00
So then I got in and I said, OK, well, let s see what happens.
3
SPEAKER_00
And they kept saying, what are you doing here?
3
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, what does one do here?
3
SPEAKER_00
So it was that constant back and forth.
3
SPEAKER_00
So they weren t, you know, it s a very competitive business.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s more cutthroat than show business.
3
SPEAKER_00
No.
3
SPEAKER_00
And really, and people are not as yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, my gosh.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Just competing with who s more who s smarter.
3
SPEAKER_02
Why are they only give one at the end or doesn t everybody get it?
3
SPEAKER_00
No, they give they give they give out.
3
SPEAKER_00
OK, so a hundred people will apply and there s six slots.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, there you go.
3
SPEAKER_02
Wow.
3
SPEAKER_02
And you go.
3
SPEAKER_02
That s great.
3
SPEAKER_00
And the thing is, the thing is, they pay you.
3
SPEAKER_00
Oh, so it s like a salary position to be a PhD candidate.
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh, got it.
3
SPEAKER_02
OK.
3
SPEAKER_00
I mean, it s not a lot of money.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s not a lot of money by any stretch of the imagination.
3
SPEAKER_02
Is it over 245?
3
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s about even.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s about the same.
3
SPEAKER_02
The SNL people called them, she s really good at 245.
3
SPEAKER_00
She ll take 245.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s a good number for
4
SPEAKER_01
and she does very well.
4
SPEAKER_01
I think 245 would be great.
4
SPEAKER_01
Across the board, rest of her life.
4
SPEAKER_01
She really shouldn t go for a PhD because my nephew wants to get one.
4
SPEAKER_01
She d be competitive.
4
SPEAKER_01
Sorry, go ahead.
4
SPEAKER_01
So what?
4
SPEAKER_01
I love your laugh.
4
SPEAKER_01
I can t see it.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, she s got a good laugh.
4
SPEAKER_01
It hurt, you really?
4
SPEAKER_00
No, but when I hear Dana, Dana really hurts my stomach.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t know what that is.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s too silly and funny.
4
SPEAKER_00
It really makes me laugh hard.
4
SPEAKER_01
Well, thank you, Riverbottom.
4
SPEAKER_01
You re so sweet.
4
SPEAKER_01
Ellen, what was your doctoral thesis on?
4
SPEAKER_00
It was on African-American humor in social context.
4
SPEAKER_00
What is there to say about that?
4
SPEAKER_00
From the civil rights era to Barack Obama.
4
SPEAKER_02
So what was it, 9,000 pages?
4
SPEAKER_00
It was about 400 pages.
4
SPEAKER_00
Three to 400 pages.
4
SPEAKER_01
I kind of feel like, and I don t know if it s fair or not, but it feels like there s like a heavyweight crown for who s the best stand-up in the world at any given time.
4
SPEAKER_01
And I think you could say like Carlin to Pryor to Steve Martin to Robin Williams.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then I m not really sure where you went from there, but I know at one point Chris Rock was
4
SPEAKER_00
The champion, and now- Chris Rock stands the test of time.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
His stand up, and I mean, I say this because I ve been studying it.
4
SPEAKER_00
I m not saying that because I know him or whatever, but when I play it for the kids, they get it.
4
SPEAKER_00
It hits hard all the time.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I said, you know, that really works.
4
SPEAKER_02
You know, he went on the other night.
4
SPEAKER_02
I was at the Comedy Store.
4
SPEAKER_02
He came in and went on.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s still, you know, he s working on new stuff and it s just as good.
4
SPEAKER_02
You just sit there and go, wow, he put that together nicely.
4
SPEAKER_02
Like, he still knows what he s doing.
4
SPEAKER_02
He s still sharp.
4
SPEAKER_02
It s just exactly what you would think.
4
SPEAKER_02
Even Kevin Hart went on.
4
SPEAKER_02
I d never seen Kevin Hart go on and he did a great job.
4
SPEAKER_02
Everyone did a set, you know.
4
SPEAKER_02
It was kind of fun.
4
SPEAKER_01
Alan, going back to Dr. Cleghorn for a second.
4
SPEAKER_01
I always thought Chris was really great at the elephant in the room or summing up a social trend with a phrase and then working that idea for a long, long time.
4
SPEAKER_01
He seemed to be very, very good about it.
4
SPEAKER_01
I remember during the Clarence Thomas hearings with Anita Hill and all that stuff and then he did a thing about no woman ever accuses Denzel Washington of harassment or something like that.
4
SPEAKER_01
But he did it in the Chris Rock way.
4
SPEAKER_01
And it was just a funny observation.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know what I mean?
4
SPEAKER_01
You ll never find a woman.
4
SPEAKER_01
That Denzel won t leave me alone.
4
SPEAKER_02
Someone do something.
4
SPEAKER_00
I had the opportunity to meet Denzel and I went to see him on Broadway when he was doing Julius Caesar.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so backstage and I reached out to shake his hand and I m gonna tell you something like butter.
4
SPEAKER_00
His hands were so soft.
4
SPEAKER_00
Were they moist and soft like Bill Clinton or just soft?
4
SPEAKER_00
No, no, not moist and stuff.
4
SPEAKER_00
No, they were not moist.
4
SPEAKER_00
They were just soft.
4
SPEAKER_01
No, don t add moist.
4
SPEAKER_00
Like they made you.
4
SPEAKER_00
No, moist is terrible.
4
SPEAKER_00
He made me lose my voice.
4
SPEAKER_00
What?
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, so was it a little bit electric because he s Denzel Washington, you know, in a way of just meeting someone who, you know, is just really charismatic sex symbol?
4
SPEAKER_01
I mean, he is.
4
SPEAKER_01
He s Denzel Washington.
4
SPEAKER_01
Right.
4
SPEAKER_01
So did he get you a little weak in a way?
4
SPEAKER_00
Well, no, my knees did not get weak.
4
SPEAKER_00
I actually just lost my voice and all I could focus on was his hands.
4
SPEAKER_00
They were so fucking soft.
4
SPEAKER_00
I said, what is this?
4
SPEAKER_00
Maybe he s not a real person or something.
4
SPEAKER_00
No, I couldn t say.
4
SPEAKER_00
No, I couldn t even speak.
4
SPEAKER_00
I lost my voice.
4
SPEAKER_00
I ll ask.
4
SPEAKER_02
I ll DM him on Instagram.
4
SPEAKER_02
I ll get to the bottom of this.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I did write a poem.
4
SPEAKER_00
I did write him a poem.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I don t remember.
4
SPEAKER_00
I have to find it.
4
SPEAKER_00
But I did write a poem.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was doing the radio show in New York at the time.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I read it to him over the air.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I don t.
4
SPEAKER_01
Was it OK?
4
SPEAKER_01
What was it about Denzel?
4
SPEAKER_01
What would be the subject about a poem about Denzel?
4
SPEAKER_02
It s about his hands, Dana, how she got into it.
4
SPEAKER_00
Soft hands for a strong man.
4
SPEAKER_00
And he was doing Julius Caesar on Broadway.
4
SPEAKER_00
Et tu, Brute?
4
SPEAKER_01
Et tu, Brute?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, Ixnay on the, hmm.
4
SPEAKER_01
Ixnay on the Brute.
4
SPEAKER_00
Hands as soft as a baby Bute.
4
SPEAKER_01
Dennis Miller was playing Prospero in the Tempest at the Herald.
4
SPEAKER_01
How do you even know what those words are?
4
SPEAKER_01
Trying to get my inner, you know, Mickey Rooney going way back, a 1930s actor.
4
SPEAKER_01
I remember they told Mickey, you can t change your lines, the camera doesn t know where you are.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, he goes, the only writers whose lines you can t change are Bill Shakespeare.
4
SPEAKER_01
I just love when I go, Bill, Bill Shakespeare.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s like I like Mickey Rooney, Mickey Rooney.
4
SPEAKER_00
I liked him when he was in some movie with Judy Garland.
4
SPEAKER_00
But I like when I used to love those kind of movies in the afternoon on the TV because that s all they would show.
4
SPEAKER_00
And around Christmas time, he was always playing a rich guy and he was two feet tall.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I guess he played a child for a long time.
4
SPEAKER_02
And then he was a man child.
4
SPEAKER_01
They always were.
4
SPEAKER_01
It was like Judy Garland and that they were like playing like sophomores in high school.
4
SPEAKER_01
At one point they go, I know we could put on a show.
4
SPEAKER_01
And then they would all start singing and dancing and they would sing like the wind and dance and Mickey could do it all.
4
SPEAKER_01
Believe me.
4
SPEAKER_01
So Ellen, who were you at a bar?
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, I got a barn we could throw this thing together by 6 p.m.. Yeah, yeah, you ll get somebody get the cows out why uncle Willie s electrical stores We could get a microphone, and I ll put all the cows to sleep Kill them you don t have to kill them just walk them out back also some mocking it moccasins
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, those were those were those great, you know, they made like 10 of those at least.
4
SPEAKER_01
Do we have a costumer on the ranch?
4
SPEAKER_02
We do?
4
SPEAKER_02
Betty!
4
SPEAKER_02
Betty, can you make a hundred costumes by tonight?
4
SPEAKER_02
Of course!
4
SPEAKER_02
Got the train train coming in town town town.
4
SPEAKER_01
Got the train coming in, gonna laugh, laugh, laugh in the town.
4
SPEAKER_01
All right.
4
SPEAKER_01
Sorry.
4
SPEAKER_01
Train coming in in the town, town, town.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s a huge hit that.
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh yeah.
4
SPEAKER_02
Let s ask Aaron about the 40th.
4
SPEAKER_02
We got cut off.
4
SPEAKER_02
Did you like going to the 40th?
4
SPEAKER_02
Did you have fun there?
4
SPEAKER_02
And what sketch were you in?
4
SPEAKER_00
I did a sketch with Jerry Seinfeld.
4
SPEAKER_02
Whoa.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was up in the audience on the side with all the kids that I guess are not the celebrities.
4
SPEAKER_01
You got the building though, that s good.
4
SPEAKER_01
Victoria Jackson was on the sixth floor.
4
SPEAKER_01
I can t even see.
4
SPEAKER_02
Go ahead.
4
SPEAKER_02
They let Beth Kay Hill drive by and beep, but they told me absolutely no plus ones.
4
SPEAKER_02
They said, no, there s absolutely, because you re going to be in the audience and whatever, whatever.
4
SPEAKER_02
And I apologize.
4
SPEAKER_00
I brought my daughter with me.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, you did?
4
SPEAKER_00
They let you?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I did.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, they let me bring her in.
4
SPEAKER_00
She didn t sit in the audience with me, but they let her bring in the building.
4
SPEAKER_02
Maybe she was in the spillover room.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, she was.
4
SPEAKER_00
I think she was.
4
SPEAKER_02
So what happened?
4
SPEAKER_02
Did you ask a question to Seinfeld or something?
4
SPEAKER_02
Was there a Q&A?
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
I asked Jerry Seinfeld a question.
4
SPEAKER_00
How come there s no black women on his show?
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh, my God.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_01
What was his answer?
4
SPEAKER_00
He said, I m sorry, I didn t save the world or something like that.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, then I had a follow up question.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t remember what it was.
4
SPEAKER_00
But the thing that I like, the trivia part about that was that Mulaney wrote that sketch.
4
SPEAKER_01
John Mulaney.
4
SPEAKER_01
Oh.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I felt real special.
4
SPEAKER_00
I feel connected to pop culture.
4
SPEAKER_02
Do you feel like you might be the godmother to his baby in a way?
4
SPEAKER_00
At least the baby could call me auntie.
4
SPEAKER_00
The sad thing is that I follow all that crap on the Instagram.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh, me too.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s sad.
4
SPEAKER_00
I do too.
4
SPEAKER_01
There s rumors that Pete Davidson is the actual father.
4
SPEAKER_01
I don t believe any of this nonsense.
4
SPEAKER_01
I don t buy any of this tabloid stuff.
4
SPEAKER_00
That baby looks just like Mulaney.
4
SPEAKER_02
He was putting it in a crock pot or something a day later.
4
SPEAKER_02
Do you see that picture?
4
SPEAKER_02
I m like, what s happening?
4
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, he s like putting in a- You can really work a baby now.
4
SPEAKER_01
What s going on?
4
SPEAKER_01
You re doing baby bits?
4
SPEAKER_01
But he said he s paying the baby $245 a week for all the Instagram.
4
SPEAKER_00
The baby gets $250.
4
SPEAKER_00
Oh my God!
4
SPEAKER_01
The callback, the callback.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s perfect for a baby.
4
SPEAKER_01
They can get Gerber food, more diapers, maybe a little teddy.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s a perfect fee for all humans.
4
SPEAKER_01
I like the tone of this show.
4
SPEAKER_01
This is very great.
4
SPEAKER_01
Ellen, did you know that Jerry Seinfeld has a new comedy album coming out called Paperclips?
4
SPEAKER_01
Why?
4
SPEAKER_01
Such an idiot.
4
SPEAKER_00
You almost had me.
4
SPEAKER_00
You almost had me.
4
SPEAKER_00
By the way, it should be.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s funny.
4
SPEAKER_01
Paperclips, why?
4
SPEAKER_01
Because he would do 20 minutes on a paperclip.
4
SPEAKER_01
When the stapler came out, the paperclip s like, oh no.
5
SPEAKER_01
Then he comes back and he goes, I forgot to talk about Pop Tarts.
5
SPEAKER_01
He has a Pop Tart movie.
5
SPEAKER_03
Jerry, you know what?
5
SPEAKER_03
He does not.
5
SPEAKER_01
He does.
5
SPEAKER_01
My friend is in it.
5
SPEAKER_03
This goes full circle to our doctor.
5
SPEAKER_03
Yes.
5
SPEAKER_03
So Jerry Seinfeld over a period of years, and he was in the New York Times, he was trying to complete a bit about Pop-Tarts and he couldn t get it to work and he spent years on it because you know how Jerry is.
5
SPEAKER_01
Cracking the code.
5
SPEAKER_03
pop-tots because he d say all this stuff we saw a pop-tot we re 10 years old our heads exploded whatever but when I meet when I run into Jerry I want to tell him Jerry there was one fatal flaw from my point of view and we had two day old baked goods five kids dad was a high school teacher
5
SPEAKER_03
No one really liked Pop-Tarts that much compared to Hostess Berry Pies or Twinkies or Snowballs or regular cupcakes.
5
SPEAKER_03
Comment, Professor.
5
SPEAKER_03
Wow.
5
SPEAKER_00
Let me tell you, those toasted berry pies were the jam.
5
SPEAKER_01
Are you talking about the cherry apple pie, like whatever?
5
SPEAKER_01
They were magic.
5
SPEAKER_03
They were magic.
5
SPEAKER_01
Those are unreal.
5
SPEAKER_03
And the Pop-Tarts were okay, but they were a little sweet and narrow.
5
SPEAKER_03
You put them in the toaster.
5
SPEAKER_03
They were fine, but they weren t, Jerry s bit treated them like they were the greatest
5
SPEAKER_01
Dana, do you wanna hear some bullshit?
5
SPEAKER_01
Now that you brought it up, and I would never have brought this up, I would break off the crust on the edges before it got to the frosting, and I said, fuck it.
5
SPEAKER_01
I just wanted the parts that had frosting on them.
5
SPEAKER_01
Because Pop-Tarts were not all the way to the Pop-Tart.
5
SPEAKER_01
I can t believe you re revealing this.
5
SPEAKER_01
I know, and I was gonna save this.
5
SPEAKER_03
I m checking Daily Mail right now.
5
SPEAKER_03
Is this already going viral?
5
SPEAKER_03
In the UK version, you re both trending.
5
SPEAKER_01
Wow, Spain destroys Pop-Tart.
5
SPEAKER_01
I didn t even know what carbs were.
5
SPEAKER_01
I just knew that I didn t really like that edge until I got to the frosting.
5
SPEAKER_01
So just break it off.
5
SPEAKER_01
I was a fucking rebel.
5
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, but was it cherry or apple?
5
SPEAKER_03
What was your favorite?
5
SPEAKER_01
On the pies at 7-Eleven, I liked, oh, cherry or apple, that s a tough one.
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I would black out quickly after, because all the sugar, but I also liked Ding Dongs.
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Ding Dongs sounds like a comedy punchline.
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I like Twinkies, yeah.
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Ding Dongs is a funny word.
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What happened to your Ding Dong?
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You know what I mean?
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It just sounds funny.
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Oh, I thought you were really asking me, because something did happen to my Ding Dong recently.
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Ding!
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Oh!
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Ellen, you re like, why did I, why did I get on the Wi-Fi?
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All right, we ll edit this.
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And now we re back with Ellen Claghorn on Fly on the Wall.
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We just took a short break.
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We have time for a couple more quick questions.
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We re not cutting inappropriate material.
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What else did we not ask her, Dana?
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Why is she so awesome was my first question.
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Yeah, why is she so smart?
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Can I talk to you about this Dave Space?
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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Now, did you know, does everybody know that you used to ride the skateboard and you were riding the skateboard in that movie?
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The Police Academy?
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Yes.
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before SNL.
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So I m like, oh, he really had it going on.
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I was knew all about the red carpet and before.
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No, you know, Ellen, the true story is that I was I got out to L.A.
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and I from Arizona and I did skateboard.
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And the only reason I got that audition, I couldn t really act.
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But this is just the luck of the draw.
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They saw me at the improv.
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I didn t look like everyone else.
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I had long blonde hair and I was 20.
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And they said,
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Oh, you know, we need a kid to play a skateboarder, but we didn t think of it.
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But this kid could probably pull off, you know, high school.
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So I go in and they go, did you get the script?
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I go, no.
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And they said, shoot, we have one here.
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And they didn t have one.
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And they go, shit, oh, we don t mean to waste your time.
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It s just about a skateboarder.
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SPEAKER_01
Maybe you could just improv a few lines.
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And this is so lucky, Ellen, because I didn t know how to read a script.
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I didn t know how to hold sides.
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I didn t know, I would have shown how green I was and how new.
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So I just said, yeah, oh, I m a skateboarder.
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You got an attitude and the cops are coming up.
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I m like, hey, guys, I just start making up shit, you know, and saying skateboard terms.
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And they were like, oh, that s exactly what we need.
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Okay, great, you know what, let s get this guy.
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And if they would have let me act, it would not have worked, because they would have seen.
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So just improvving and bullshitting was what I was better at than actually reading a script.
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SPEAKER_01
And so I got out there, I got 25 grand, which is great, 10 weeks.
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SPEAKER_03
25 grand?
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SPEAKER_03
Yeah, so I got 2,500.
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SPEAKER_03
You take Ellen three years to get that much, based on 200 years to get that.
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SPEAKER_03
I can t even do the math.
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SPEAKER_01
I know, she can t even comprehend these.
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SPEAKER_01
She goes, you mean $25?
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SPEAKER_01
I go, nope.
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SPEAKER_03
It s your first job, 25 grand for riding a skateboard?
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SPEAKER_03
What the fuck?
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SPEAKER_01
And I get to ride with Tony Hawk and all these guys, Mike McGill.
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SPEAKER_01
So I go 10 weeks in Toronto and I get a per diem.
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SPEAKER_01
This is why people get hooked on acting.
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SPEAKER_01
So I do it, I come back with, Ellen, I cleared 10 from all the bullshit.
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SPEAKER_01
I woke up like Canadian tax and then, you know, whatever.
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SPEAKER_01
So I pay everything.
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SPEAKER_01
I give my mom three for bills.
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SPEAKER_01
I do one in bills, but I needed a car.
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SPEAKER_01
6,000 left after 10 weeks.
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SPEAKER_01
I go up and I buy a Honda Accord.
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I drive it to the Improv and it got stolen that night.
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SPEAKER_01
So I was back to zero, no insurance.
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And I just did 10 weeks on the road and I came back, I have nothing to show for it.
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SPEAKER_03
And the next night Jay Leno showed up at the Improv at a Honda Accord.
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SPEAKER_03
I never understood that.
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SPEAKER_02
You know, it s just parked.
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SPEAKER_02
You know, I usually have the motorcycle, but you know, it s got three cylinders, but it was fine, you know?
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SPEAKER_00
No, that s a bummer.
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SPEAKER_00
The improv, not the not the comedy star, the improv.
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SPEAKER_01
No, the improv was sketchy.
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Yeah, it was over on Kilkea.
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This is the street right next to the improv.
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I came out to show Tim Rose his comic.
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I go, check out this sweet pimp sled I just bought.
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SPEAKER_01
Very sensible pimp sled.
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SPEAKER_01
And it was gone.
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I go, maybe it s this other street.
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SPEAKER_01
I go, and he started going, uh-oh.
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I go, there s no fucking way.
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SPEAKER_01
No way.
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I think they followed me with a key to the car, honestly, the people that sold it to me and just took it.
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SPEAKER_01
That s an empty feeling.
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SPEAKER_01
Anyway, I was just saying that to say that is a great story.
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SPEAKER_01
It sounded great.
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SPEAKER_01
And then and then I started auditioning and I wasn t any good.
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SPEAKER_01
So I was just like bombing.
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SPEAKER_01
And I had two years of just scraping and then.
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SPEAKER_01
Then it started to pick up a little more, but by the time I got to SNL, I d already been humbled.
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SPEAKER_01
I m like, shit, this has got to work, because I got nothing clicking.
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No other movies in that gap of four years.
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SPEAKER_00
And then you hit big with all those movies with Chris.
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Tommy Boy.
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SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_01
I got lucky with that too.
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SPEAKER_01
So, and that was direct result of like the show and Bonnie and Terry wrote that first one and then Fred Wolf took over, but Bonnie and Terry worked on that first draft of Tommy Boy.
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SPEAKER_01
And then we did Black Sheep.
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SPEAKER_01
And then I wish I was really jealous of those Chris Farley shows.
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SPEAKER_01
Cause he got to have a big host like McCartney and he got to talk to him and go,
5
SPEAKER_03
Remember when you were in the Beatles?
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SPEAKER_01
Chris has some very memorable sketches.
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SPEAKER_01
Did Downey write that one based on just how he was at the office?
5
SPEAKER_03
It sounded so like Chris.
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SPEAKER_01
So real, yeah.
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SPEAKER_01
And it was hysterical.
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I don t know, Dana, anything else?
5
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What do you got?
5
SPEAKER_01
Anything you want to tell her?
5
SPEAKER_03
Just want to hang out with you.
5
SPEAKER_03
A lot of times it happens on this show because we re getting to see people that we worked with and adore and had fun with and then we don t see them all these years and so this is really fun.
5
SPEAKER_03
It s a good hangout.
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SPEAKER_03
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00
I want you to come, I want both of you to come to
5
SPEAKER_00
my class at the new school and like zoom in and teach the kids, talk to the kids, they would love it.
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SPEAKER_01
Kids, what you don t understand is the highest peak of money is $245, and this is your highest goal.
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SPEAKER_03
I m going to have a pipe and an ascot and be in front of a fireplace.
5
SPEAKER_03
What do you have to understand about comedy?
5
SPEAKER_03
It s not really comedy, it s tragedy.
5
SPEAKER_03
Tragedy posing as comedy.
5
SPEAKER_03
And the thing about... I would love to come on and talk to the kids.
5
SPEAKER_03
You mean on Zoom?
5
SPEAKER_03
I can do that from where I am now in Missoula, Montana?
5
SPEAKER_03
Is that where you are in Montana?
5
SPEAKER_03
No, that s where I was born.
5
SPEAKER_03
But no, I m in Southern California.
5
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, Dana s a redneck.
5
SPEAKER_03
Do you do guests on Zoom and they just talk to kids about comedy and stuff?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
I really enjoy you guys in person, but what I really like the most is Davis Bay doing Dana Carvey doing something.
5
SPEAKER_01
I had chopping broccoli, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
Because I used to sing that around.
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I d go, God damn, this is funny.
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SPEAKER_01
And it was sort of out of what I think like.
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SPEAKER_01
And I m like, this is so weird and goofy and just clever and smart because of its goofiness.
5
SPEAKER_01
But there s some, there s method to the madness of why it s so funny.
5
SPEAKER_01
Can we get a little chorus of it as we fade out?
5
SPEAKER_01
Chopping braca.
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SPEAKER_01
He goes low.
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SPEAKER_01
I m chopping braca.
5
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you gotta get there you gotta work up to it.
5
SPEAKER_03
Yeah, all right Ellen
6
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and thank you, hon.
6
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Can you guys provide perspective on how it was viewed to break character on SNL?
6
SPEAKER_00
Asking because Spade stands out in my mind where he and Christina Applegate, of course.
6
SPEAKER_00
We laughed on the couch during motivational speaker.
6
SPEAKER_00
And in Lauren s voice for Dana, how was that viewed?
6
SPEAKER_00
Brian Steele.
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um it s so it s if you re going to break it s that other type of joke it s it s it s like fucking carol burnett i mean it s it s really it s really not what we do so you were not supposed to break when i got there yeah and then it started to erode and then you david spade were in uh one of chris farley s
6
SPEAKER_01
his biggest moment on the show probably, and it was hard not to break.
6
SPEAKER_01
Talk to that sketch.
6
SPEAKER_01
Almost anyone would have broken it.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, that was, and we ll probably have Christine Applegate on soon and we ll talk about it, but it was, and I see here over the years we ve mentioned it to each other because it s turned into such a thing, but
6
SPEAKER_00
It was not planned, and you re not supposed to break, and you also could get fired.
6
SPEAKER_00
Dana knows it, I know it, it was the word around town, and it s not Lorne telling you that, it s other people, you know, the other people around going, oh no, Lorne does not like that, so you could get fired.
6
SPEAKER_00
And so when you do it, it s fun, but afterwards, you don t want to walk by him and go, okay, Tim Conway,
6
SPEAKER_00
I m not a guy, I wasn t even careful.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, Tim Conway, Harvey Korman, who were brilliant, and also Tim Conway, when they were on their sort of air show, live taping, would just switch stuff out, and that s how he would destroy Harvey Korman.
6
SPEAKER_01
If someone improvises outside their bandwidth on Saturday Night Live, that might make someone break, you know?
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and they did it more in the future episodes and got away with it, and it is fun.
6
SPEAKER_00
It s always fun to watch that stuff.
6
SPEAKER_00
It can t be used as a trick.
6
SPEAKER_00
If the sketch isn t doing well, you can t do fun.
6
SPEAKER_01
Right, it can t be a crutch, but if it s organic, I think it is entertaining to a point.
6
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and thank you, Brian, for listening, and thank you for your question.
6
SPEAKER_00
Where s Brian from?
6
SPEAKER_00
Probably Bulgaria, I don t know what that s saying.
6
SPEAKER_00
That s just a guess.
6
SPEAKER_01
Fly on the Wall has been a presentation of Cadence 13.
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SPEAKER_01
Please listen, then rate, review, and follow all episodes.
6
SPEAKER_01
Executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Chris Corcoran of Cadence 13, and Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment.
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SPEAKER_01
Production and engineering led by Greg Holtzman,