RE-RELEASE - Robert Smigel

Robert Smigel, Robert Smigel. Smigel. Coming back at ya. You know, we will say this a lot, but arguably the best sketch writer. There's no such thing as the best. He's among the greatest comedy sketch writers of his generation. And he's written a lot of movies with Sandler and so, and he's our friend and it was just fun. And does Triumph the dog? That's very ornish. Yeah, I think he does a lot of Triumph. And Triumph actually, well you'll see, it gets a little, it gets heated a little bit between us and Triumph. Oh, that's right. And Triumph, oh, also Smigel, didn't he, wasn't he the head writer for Conan for a while for the first show? For the talk show he did? Yeah, yeah. He was the head writer there and he's... He was one of my bosses at SNL because he was always in the room picking sketches with Frank and Downey and Lorne. So he always had a lot of pull. He does Night of Too Many Stars, I think that's for autism. Right. This is charity. He did the Dana Carvey show that lasted eight episodes with Dino Stopenopoulos. That disaster. Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert. Steve. Whoops, all stars. Louis C.K. Louis C.K. I hired as my head writer. I mean, no big. She did pretty well. All right, so here's Robert Smigel. We have a lot of laughs because we know him very well. Enjoy. All the momentum we had with the Lorne impression. We were... Oh yeah, and you were saying Lorne, you did an impression before that, before Danagas. Mark McKinney. Mark McKinney did... The only person who did it in my first year was Mark McKinney and he did like a beautifully accurate Lorne, like a well-observed Lorne and actually said complete sentences. And it was very impressive. But then the next year, I just started doing cartoony Lorne on my own and then I went into... I remember going into Dana's office and I admitting that I sort of do Lorne like, you know, I want to really show and looks... I think Dana and then Dana's like, oh yeah, I do Lorne too. And Dana starts going like, oh, what do you think of Act 3? He's had that move. Something Lorne's never done in his life. I did a lot of things he never did. It was just perfect. It was like this self-satisfied... We still have no fucking first act. I've got no fucking first act. No fucking code. Look at the book of Lorne, please. Chapter 2. Frank and Ryder Bush. Frank and Ryder Bush. Frank and Ryder Bush. See me. See me. Frank and Ryder Bush. Cool. There was a lot of Bush cold openings. Frank and Ryder Bush. Remember Robert when you made the cartoon thing where you flipped the pages? What's what was it? Which cartoon? Why was doing Bush senior so much? I didn't know that the writing staff was kind of like, again? So then I saw a thing. It's like a flip page where it was Bush taking a shit. Oh, Downey reminded me of this. Yeah, and you spin it and see me as a Bush. It was like a series of... It was like one of those flip... Yeah, flip books. And what was it? It was like, was it Frank and putting Bush cold open on the... What was it? I thought it was Bush taking a poo or something. I thought it was scatological. It could have been. I like Frank and putting the card on the lineup. I have to say, Frank and takes a beating on your show. He's coming. He's coming on very, very soon. And we will play him. Well, Sarah got him back by stabbing him in the head with a pencil. Yeah. Did you hear that one? Well, I read it through. I was not there. That was after I had left for Conan. But do you remember this spade? I bet you remember this. So one of the impressions. I was the one, I think, who started that. Like me and Conan, I used to do this thing for Conan of Al. And I feel bad because Al got me the job actually. And I love Al, but but he was tough back then. And so everybody kind of, yeah, needed to release some energy. Mine was like Al on his back and it like a snapping turtle. Flip me over. Yeah, exactly. Well, I thought that's why he would when he was running for senator, I thought he'll be great in there because Al is blunt and doesn't. He just says what he thinks. I thought that'd be good for him. It was great. But on the but well, the boy, when he was in the Senate, he was my hero because he he kind of like contained himself from being his confrontation. Like, I mean, at the show, his last few years at the show, I think. I think he was kind of unhappy to be honest with you. I mean, he was like Lee in his forties. And I don't think this is what he was dreaming of doing in his forties. And I think it was I think that's in his defense. Like he was confused as to what he wanted to do with his life. And then he started writing those books. And I think he found direction. And yeah, he's always hyper political. And that was fun writing with him and Downey because, you know, he's dreams and he's sitting next to spade at read through. And he's like, what happened? Yeah. It's like George Segal and just shoot me goes in the middle of a scene. He'd stop and he goes, he'd look at the crowd. He goes, I did a movie with Elizabeth Taylor and I'm standing next to this asshole now. Well, I remember Jan Hooks once saying to me, Shmigas, don't become one of those writers who's 50 years old and wearing blue jeans and sitting on the floor, whatever you do. It's always sitting on the floor with a no. I mean, it's just you never grow up when you're at that. And a little satay where you put your bitterness in a bitterness pouch. We're like, just keep loading things and Al's defense. Get up to show. I did six years. It gets mind numbing and it gets you're in a box of like no son and pizza and ordering in and stress and everyone else's energy. And so you did a long run there, too. You seem pretty normal, but that that was a long run. You had I did a long run that I got out when I was like 33. And to do the Conan show. And then I came back, but in a much more sane capacity, I just did the cartoons. Yeah, and all I had to do was show up on. Yeah, all I had to do was show up on Saturday. So I wasn't really a part of the the thing anymore. But Al was like, you know, there every day and he's like in his 40. A great story like Monsters Inc. Stays with you forever. And Disney Plus is where you'll find your next great story from the return of the award winning hit series, Rivals. Welcome to the naughtiest show on television to the unmissable crime drama, High Potential. Got a dead body. Got a go. A lifetime of great stories awaits this spring on Disney Plus. 18 plus subscription required. T's and C's apply. Hi, everybody. I'm Maury Povich on my podcast on par with Maury Povich. I'm going to sit down with the icons, the stars and the faces at the very center of today's big cultural moments with everyone from comedians, Josh Johnson, Dan Soder, Leigh Ann Morgan, to newsmakers, Don Lemon, Joy Reed, Aaron Parnas and so many more. So join me for new episodes every week because nothing is off limits. Great conversations. They're always on par. Follow and listen to On Par with Maury Povich wherever you get your podcasts. Close your eyes. Focus. Listen to work getting done with Monday.com. Relax as AI does the manual work while your teams are aligned on a single source of truth. Feel the sensation of an AI work platform. So flexible and intuitive, it feels like it was built just for you. Notice you're limitless. Limitless. Now open your eyes. Go to Monday.com. Start for free and finally breathe. Well, let's get back to Smigal's unbelievable career. Do you want to be a little bit? Do we want to go a little bit to young Smigal first? Would you like to go later? Young Smigal. What about can my friend come on because he thinks young Smigal's a fucking board? Yeah, let me see. Who do you got over there? He's been he's been he's been writing me ever since. This is unique for Fly On The Wall. We have a guest with a special guest. You have a guest with a guest who's just I don't know. He just thinks that he can jazz it up. You know, you better behave. Should I bring him out? Bring him out. Why not? Oh, goodness. What? Here I am. Here I am. Finally. God, Jesus Christ, what a long wait. No, this is terribly exciting. So exciting. I try. I do not make fun of this show or us trying if I didn't please. Oh, I know. I understand. Those are the ground. I have to work. No, no, no jokes about the show. No, no making fun of anyone. OK, OK. No, honestly, this is a great show. Thank you. Fly On The Wall. Not for me to poop on. No, no. Fantastic show. That's good. That's nice. Fly On The Wall. There's a lot of buzz. I hear around Fly On The Wall. Yeah, good job, Triumph. Thank you. Yeah, the same kind of buzz flies make around my ass. You see, because it's not ass is attract shit and the show is what makes sense that you see the joke. You get that took a turn. But yeah, I like it. It's it's what it's like to switch your room. Yeah, it's called a space. This is a great show. It fills a need, you know, because let's face it, Saturday Night Live, it hasn't gotten enough attention or retrospectives or anniversary shows. He writes. I mean, honestly, I mean, just the other day, I was thinking this after watching my best of finesse, Mitchell DVD. I was thinking why? Why has SNL been written about only slightly more than World War Two? Why? And today's show, my goodness, how did you land? Yes, they hand up my ass. Seriously, I'm worried. I'm I'm a little concerned. This is your first season. You've already run out of people we care about. No, Smigel's a big deal. He wrote a lot of great sketches. Hey, sure he is. Everybody stay tuned. We've got the fourth funniest guy from the Bears. And you have to explain what the sketch was to people under 60. It's trouble. It's this is what you're looking forward to. You already did, Sandler, Rock, Mike Myers. This is your future. This is pretending to be interested in questions like, tell me in coming up with Goatboy, which came first to you, the goat or the boy? Is it a boy who becomes a goat or a goat who becomes a boy? Our listeners really are 10 remaining listeners. No, there's more. We didn't get the news. No, I keep I keep the guy. Oh, he's kidding, Dana. No, no, your show is great. It's a very, very successful money grab. I mean, hit. You have like how many subscribers? You've got like 400,000 listeners, right? Yeah, I'm going to say yes. And not to this episode. That's for sure. But up to now. Now, what even now? Here the all we can hope today is to beat Allen's white bells. Numbers, numbers and who better to host a great guest? Who better to co-host this show than Dana Carvey, one of the all time greatest cast members on Saturday night. Thank you, you. And then why? Why would you say that? It's almost as if you think I'm going to hurt your feelings. No, I think it's a big compliment. Exactly. Dana Carvey, one of the all time greatest cast members of Saturday Night Live and David Spade, who was also on the show. No, Spade's everywhere. Spade is doing great. He's everywhere. This is Dana. This is actually a boost for you. You know, audiences are connecting with you again. That's what's great. I only wish, Dana, that you did this show like 15 years ago. You know, when podcasts were starting and all the people you do impressions of were still alive. Now I have lost a lot of them. Now it's like, hey, folks, what would happen? What if Ross Perot and Jimmy Stewart weren't rotting corpses slowly disintegrating into the soil? So I think it's that might go something like this. Yeah, well, you're trying to be president. Yeah, I can't finish one time. I'll just do it there. Listen to your act. It's like the audio sixth sense. I hear dead people. I'm sorry. Is this wrong? This is a podcast. You're supposed to you're supposed to be complimenting each other. That's what it is, right? I mean, yeah, that's what podcasts are. White people complimenting each other. Yeah, we need more. All night. People are pretty nice. All white people complimenting old white people. Old white people compliment. I've got a theme song for you. Harmonize with me. They are old white people complimenting all white people. All white people. Home. It's very hard to do over Zoom. I just realized. Yes. Listen, Spade. Yes. Spade. I don't I don't want to insult. You had an amazing career. Thank you. Yeah, Tommy Boyd and starring in the string of hits, it comes that no one remembers. I'm waiting for him to fake life. I'm laughing. Hey. And God bless Bernie Brillstein, right? He started the whole thing off, right? Great guy. Calling the creators of Just Shoot Me and gently coaxing Steve Levitane to hire his client. You need a comic relief. I'm so sorry. No. I didn't mean to. No, that was a. Easy. Oh, I think we got to put people. We got to let him know. That's that's showed your thing. You did your thing. Did Triumph hurt your feelings? I need to know. Not at all. Little bit. Spade. No, because I thought Triumph is a little older now and maybe he was not like that anymore. No, no. It's like it's. I'm older. That's the problem. Like I didn't give a shit about this when I started trying. I know. I like I liked old white people complimenting other people or something like that. I was we looked it up. There's two point eight million podcasts. Are you kidding me? It's like it's like COVID. It's just there's more every day and no one knows what to do and people are getting affected with it. Here's what I've observed about this one because I've listened to a few. OK. And what's very funny to me, Spade, is like you're one of the funniest persons in the world. This is an old white person. Comfort me. Yeah. Old white person. But on this show, it's all about. A life you lived when you were like in the 90s and you're kind of have to revert. It's you're always reverting to that guy at the show who hadn't made it big. Oh, yeah. Like always like, yeah, no, you guys were incredible. And I didn't know what to do. Right. It's just funny to me that Spade who's had this amazing run. Well, it does. When we throw back, everybody gets back in that around the writer's table and how fucking ordering Huxleys and all the stupid shit. It sort of throws you back to the dim lighting and I'm feeling like shit all the time. It was a stressful. Would you consider it? I would say like I love the show so much and people I met and worked with. And yet I was always stressed. Yeah. I also remember how skinny your little office was. Like, I think people thought it was some palatial place. It's these little dungeons and then I would go along the line and poke my head in to see if I get my name on anybody's sketch. Smuggle. Do you remember? Do you remember what I my affectionate nickname for you was? And now it was a spudly. No, well, everybody had spudly in the noodles. No, Chief Nottin Show. Chief Nottin Show. Because I was never in the show. It's so horrible. He was. But I wasn't in much. I think I would got in it in 93, 4, 5. I did go once Dana left. Well, that's what was weird. The thing was because you were kind of pigeonholed. I remember your audition. Yeah. And you were very funny, but you were kind of like spade light. You weren't like. Letting your whole kind of person. A person later. Yeah. And people like saw you as like this nice looking kind of blonde guy who did some impression. I think you did Tom Petty. Yeah. It was like, oh, he's going to be like a Dana Carvey type. And then and Dana Carvey was still on the show. Yeah. So I think people didn't know what to do. I think I didn't. But I also wasn't in full disclosure. Thinking I was the new Dana Carvey. I was like, are you this guy? You didn't. I go, this guy is the best guy. And he does a million things. I go, I got to find what I can do. And luckily, like even that Hollywood minute where Lauren, I was sort of teetering and then he's like, well, just do more stuff like that because that makes me a little different from Dana. And then I could find my own little niche or something. I don't know. It was tough. But that that part was tough. Even the receptionist, which was like the best sketch of that season. Oh, yeah. I remember someone in a high position saying, yeah, could Dana play that? No, she had. No, of course he could. I came in and played an alien, right? Did I play an alien in that? I felt bad because I said, you know, it's always hard to smile if you're a writer and if you're a new writer to put Mike Myers or Dana in something where they don't have a lot to do. But, you know, in your head, you're like, oh, it'd be fun. I have access to all these great people. And I don't know they're quietly going, that's not that great. But Dana goes, yeah, I'll do whatever. So I go, you come in at the end as an alien. I don't realize they're going to put them in like a three hours of makeup and hair. Remember you had a big bulb with that on? I had a giant. And I was like, oh, no, I can't put Dana through this shit. And it also makes sometimes. It's part of being on the team. Yeah, you know what? I have to say no one can play. McKinnon still gets into crazy outfits and two wines in a sketch. I liked on the 40th anniversary. Steve Martin goes in full King Tut Outfit for three lines in a song or whatever, because he's committed and it's fun. I love it. And everyone's there. And it's also like 70 million people are watching that one. Yeah, it's so different. Yeah, you're right. Everybody's yeah, yeah. But yeah, the receptionist, I mean, it's it was so exciting to see a new person kill, too. Like that's one of the great things on the show when that happens. Like that guy James, when he did Trump for the first time this year. Yeah, he's great. It was like thrilling, you know, it was amazing. Yeah. And when the audience finds it, because I had been sort of kicking around the show for a while. And that was a hard one to to get on. I think it took a few swings. The receptionist. Yeah. And then it got on with MC Hammer at five to one. And then the next time it got on first sketch. So with Roseanne, there's really there's only like three. So that's the one you remember. It's like, but by there's there's only two of them. But, you know, if they remember what they remember, you know, church lady was on more than 20 times the first season. Oh, more than they had shows. Well, you know, I would do an early chat and then I do a good night chat after Jack Candy. Carby show, we tried to sneak the church lady into commercial. Remember that? Oh, yeah. No, we did that. We were like, can we superimpose the church lady or George Bush over a commercial? Were you allowed to use that stuff on Dana Carby show? I technically, because of my contract, when I came in, I owned the church lady. That's very different back then. You could like write. You could write a list of the characters that you created before going to Saturday Night Live. And Dana had a long list. And so, yeah, nowadays, it's the complete opposite. Like they own everything and then you have, like after seven years, you have to do movies with. Just do a mandatory. I know when you do movies, you go back to the show. It is different. You do commercials and movies and you miss shows that you go back in the show. It's pretty cool for the cast. Yeah, it's really. Yeah. Now that's true now. Yeah. Leading up to this 50th, they're all they're all they all come and go. They they told me to go. It's totally my manager said right on the flight out there, write all your characters and give them to Jim Henry. And I'm sitting there with a blank piece of paper on a Delta going, I don't know. What characters are you fucking talking about? I'm a stand up. So I'd go skateboard crazy guy talks with the list. You know, I'm just like making up something in case I write it one day or in case it sounds like a sketch I do and it clicks. Anything like, yeah, you need a man or thing. But Robert, do you want to talk about some of our. Hits your big monster hits in you. Well, you know, we did together. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I Dana. So I was there for a year before Dana. And then I got in in 86 with Phyllian. I had an 86 and he was like someone I had I connected with. What I loved about Dana was that he. Spade, you'll understand this like generally like passive aggressive behavior rules at that show. Like I was great at that. Good. I could pass. No, my sketch is terrible. Don't put my sketch on. It couldn't possibly me. I'm I'm being paid. Like that's what. And then there's people like love it. So we're like, what's going on? They're anti Semitic. That's why the sketch didn't make it. You know why they cut it because it's funny. That's it. It's too good. It was too funny. That's why they didn't put it on. Yeah, I would. I was sadly a little closer to John. I was like, Robert, you have no poker face. Lauren, I remember him telling me. There were people like me. I didn't really make big stinks, though, but I was, you know, imitating Lauren behind his back, like everybody eventually. Now everybody I'm told I'm told you go literally now. Everybody does Lauren. Oh, fun. All that really, literally everyone. They all. You've seen this. Have you? Well, that's what I heard. James Austin Johnson had a good one, you know, and Bill Hader, of course, any reason. But I think people, they say that people just do around the office. Oh, just around you. You hear each other. Well, it's nice going to start. Everyone get to their seat, you know, and that's like a first. Right. But what I loved about Dana was that he had, he just came in. He had a list of impressions that he like handed out to the writers. Like he wasn't, he didn't pretend that he was above doing that, which was like so refreshing to actually admit that you care. Yeah. Without being like a throat or anything, he was just being straightforward. I just thought it made sense. I was able to do a bunch of voices. I thought, well, let the writers know because I realized you guys are just writing sketches and if someone sees Casey Casey or something, maybe they'd put him in. I don't know. Of course. Yeah, that's the best way to do it. Here you go. Here you go, Jack Handy. Here you go, Odin Kirk. The first thing Robert, you approached me with was Robin Leach doing some kind of Japanese pruning or origami. I don't know why. I don't remember. Yeah, because you'd seen his name on the list, but I had to catch phrase for that one. I'm Robert Leach. I'm yelling and I don't know why. So I had not loved Robin Leach. But then it was changed for everyone under 70. But Robin Leach was such a lifestyle. Famous. Another one of the celebrity that is no longer with us. One of my impressions. You know, Dino Staphanopoulos, who our listeners might know. Every time someone I do an impression of passes away, he texts me. Another one. Another one down. Whether it's sorry, or push, you know, you're going to kill in heaven, Dana. Someday. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't know Dino did that. I thought Robin Leach was so hilarious and he had a great hook for it. I don't know. Oh, no, everything, Dana. I thought Dana's Travolta was hysterical because it was so it was so not what Travolta sounded like in the 80s anymore. No, it's like he's basically doing an exaggerated welcome back, Colin. Maccoder. Welcome back, Cotter, for everyone listening. That if you want to do a John Travolta, just say the word weird. It's slack. So weird. Slack. Weird. Weirds. And to that. But that's. But also slack. So what's that? What's that? Well, it's like Dana would say slack. So weird. So it's like so weird. You know, you everybody should just like whatever they want. We very much connected because we liked. And doing we like doing impressions that were kind of abstract. We like creating abstract impressions. And so, you know, Dana had some under his belt, obviously. And then I tried to help them with, you know, Johnny Carson and Regis. The Regis thing was very strange because like I wrote it for Phil Hartman. I wrote it for Phil Hartman and it went to dress. Really didn't do great. And then Dana in his gentlest, non cutthroat way just happened upon me like a week later and was like, you know, Regis is kind of small and Irish. And like I had just had a total blank. I had just picked Phil because he was the oldest member. Yeah. And I thought of I thought of him as just OK, he's the old guy comparatively, but Dana was absolutely right. He looked more like Regis and then he started doing him. And well, I didn't realize when I started watching the New York, he essentially just just got on nationally. But we would get up around nine, Paula and I, and we would watch it. And we just fell in love with him. Oh, yeah. And then when I'm a guy in the world and then getting to know you. Yeah, just hanging out in your office. So we started, you know, bouncing off. Are you ready for this about a good job? This guy's crazy. And you had all the I think one of your things, very Robert Smigel or something about, you know, I'm down at the Shriders and I'm behind Broca. I can't I can't get a seat, you know. So we we barred that all that thing of like the explosion. This was something that he really did on the show. And then the yeah, because got the front row seat and I'm sitting with, you know, Patrick Swayze in the in the back. Anyway, it was a great event. He took a sip of his coffee. Anyway, it was terrific. He's got nothing else. So he just goes to the joy was there. Joy, anyway, we wish them well. Yeah, when Joy hosted that was always Regis was. But you can't let Dana around an impression. He comes circling. It's like, all right, just give it to him. He's going to figure it out. So and then his when he wrote his book, they said, we want to call it. I'm out of control. And he had to go out, you know, honest. He never said I'm out of control. That was something that Dana made up. Dana got it made up. But I don't understand. Dana Garni. But the, you know, one so we had, you know, and then Carson came around. And just I started playing around with it. I think the Turner's actually had written a Carson sketch. Did they? And I looked at it, you showed it to me. And I had just a couple of moves in my head. And then it sort of brought out some moves that you had. Like the thing that. I love Johnny Carson so much. He was like incredible voice in the 70s. When I was a teenager growing up, I used to watch him constantly. And yeah, he was so charismatic and he's still the greatest ever. But there was then Letterman came on in like the early 80s and immediately. Got some, you know, the anti-top show or whatever you want to call that. Well, he was like reinventing everything. And then Johnny, for no good reason, started feeling insecure about it. And you could see it on the show because he started trying to do things that Letterman was doing, but he didn't know how to do it the way Letterman did. Letterman would just let them happen. Johnny would be like, we're about to do something. It's a little weird. This is a little different. This is not not the norm. That's right. Yeah. You know, that was one over. We're going to take a camera and it's going to follow me. I can't do them as well as you do. But it was like, just clenched your jaw. You know, you're clenched your jaw. Thank you. Clenched your jaw and down here. The camera is going to follow me and it's going to walk out of the studio. And I'm going to go to another set. It's like, OK. Ask. We all know. Ask unusual questions to people. Unusual questions that people are not going to know is even they don't know what's going to happen. All right. So let's start doing it. Now I'm walking. You see, I'm walking across. And this is a bit. You were witnessing a bit. It's a little weird. And so I was giving him this a little while. And then I had this expression. He had a couple of things like when Johnny like calls people over to the comedians with funny stuff. Funny. I was funny, Shuf. And then you had weird, wild, weird, wild stuff. And for those of you at home, you're watching a thing called a television. You know how you would bring the audience. It became that where we just did the overly set up Johnny Carson thing. And then it was so dry. It was maybe the driest thing you ever did on the show. Dana and then, but it always Ed McMahon's Ed McMahon's rhythmically kind of acknowledging it and, you know, giving it like just like, yes, you were correct, sir, would always make it work. It was like the fact that you would say these strange things. And then Ed would kind of affirm them. Mm hmm. Yeah. He was the release button. But that was the first time. And I've said this before, but when I was on SNL and wasn't concerned with the laughs, I just was having so much fun being Johnny. And when I got the wig on, I am Irish Carson Carvey. My eyes are a little close together. And I go, God, I kind of look like him, you know. And then I could just look in the mirror and just just get into that attitude of being just this whatever that. Weren't you going to hair and makeup too? It's just really. Sent you up. And then the third rail of the ones that really had a lot of episodes, Carson did carcino. We could talk about that too. We just had a lot of talk about carcino. Well, carcino. Let's let's do that now because that was the extension of the Carson impression. We did this. We did one before that that actually did piss Johnny off. And then the I don't know if they asked you to do that late night history show, but they asked me. So I did it and I talked about it. And then they added it to make it look like we didn't really give a shit how Johnny felt. Responded to it. And we did. We were really upset about it. Like we did this sketch where our senior. So Chris Rock gets hired in like 1990. And plays our senior hall. Yeah, which he didn't do. Like I remember I that's another guy got to see audition and he was hysterical and like obviously, you know, incredible, obvious higher. But I remember asking Lauren, does it matter? He doesn't seem to be an impressionist here to our studio. It was that don't worry about Chris. He's got the hair and he can do our senior. Just remember, it's like black guys on the show always have the burden of having to do like every black person. Yes, we talked about that with Chris. Yeah, oh, you did a little bit. I think David brought it up. Yeah, it is tough because everything just gets a sign and no matter, you know, if it's even close. Okay, Chris, you're doing Al Roker this week. Exactly. Yeah, I played an Asian character. I played Tony Montana as like a Cuban character. You know, I had a bigger. I wonder if you could write that, Robert, today is like, can you write anyone to play anything but they are what they are? I don't know how they do it there. I wonder if their meetings and go, could I play this or. Oh, at SNL. Yeah, at SNL. Well, they definitely let women play men. Yeah, they still let that happen. No, I know it's it's it's interesting because like even like something like, I mean, I totally blackface thing is obviously a red flag. And it's oddly, it's something we didn't do in our era. And then it started happening at all. Yeah. The 90s were a strange time where it seemed like the floodgates opened and people were doing exceptionally rude stuff. I don't know if it's because Cable was starting and the networks felt the need to compete, but. You try too hard and you go in different directions that are sometimes wrong directions. You just don't know. And then yeah, it levels out. Yeah. But like I just did this puppet show that failed, whatever. Like and we had this guy who was going to do Obama and he had done Obama on the Conan show for like three or four years and he just sounded exactly like Obama. So I wanted to hire him and then I found out that he was white. I didn't realize I had no idea. I just knew he sounded exactly like Obama and they said you can't hire him. Did they ever call you now? Smiled to write or help or come off the bench and no, I was there when Adam. No, they never call me. They don't talk about you. I they although I actually sent Colin Josen idea this week. And didn't did your back. Didn't hear back. No, it was an on a winter idea. And I thought don't try to give him a rocky Pete. That's Adams. Actually, you would be great for this on a winter idea. Is that me playing him or Dana? No, I'm talking about spade. It's it's a very. Hey, Spade own that spade playing on a winter. The idea was that she was like an update feature where on a winter is sitting next to somebody like who's the guy? Jared Leto, he's always wearing something insane. They just had the Met Gala. Yeah, yeah, Jared Leto. Yeah, he's got great. You know, and then it was just going to be on a wind tour very quietly and dryly and very stiff, insulting, you know, Michael Chase outfit, Michael Chase suit, you know, like, is this a fundraiser for victims of fashion? And then like, you know, and then she turns to Colin Jost is like, you know, is that a suit or are you being humped by a couch? And then she starts getting rim shots and just starts walking into the crowd and start walking around. Yeah, walking around the. It's funny. He stands up and doing crowd work. But she's funny. She's completely stiff, you know, and it's just if that time was any louder, Molly Matlin could hear it. Looks like Joseph A. Bank made it tonight. What if Triumph was at the Met Gala? Yeah, what would he do? Crazy. Actually, I've tried to. I've wanted to do the right part. That's perfect. That's one of the few things I've I still want to do as. Please don't let Triumph run, Kim K. Well, she lost. Now I have like these personal relationships that I care about. Like I would never touch her because. Pete Davidson's a friend. Oh, friend of the show. No, I he's a great guy. I know him and but like Dana, this is something. Well, we never talked about the Carson thing, but this is another one that's all right. I don't know if you want to talk about this, but I'll talk about anything. We're 30 or I'm 30 or 32 or whatever you were. And Dennis gets bounced from his syndicated show. Yeah, and I have this idea to do. Dennis is now doing a cooking show. Right, which we we called Dennis and he said, go ahead, right? Did call him. I thought that I did. Maybe you called him. I didn't call him. Yeah, I still like I called him. Yeah. I don't think we. But that was like then. And I and I thought in my head, I was like, this is my duty as a Saturday Night Live sketch writer. I can't play favorites. You know, I this is my privilege to do it. He comes first. Yeah, that's how I seriously I took it. And now it's to the show. I would say by like the time I was 40, I was like, no, I would never do that. Yeah. Well, I don't think at that point, there was any sort of idea that Dennis wasn't on his way with a career like he done the Black and White Special, he had the talk show, you know, all he did after that was host an HBO show that got like 20. Exactly. So to me, to me, I thought it was so funny. And the way you wrote it, Dennis is vernacular. Yeah. In a daytime cooking show. I don't know if you could quote some of that. Maybe maybe you're right. But I feel like I still wouldn't do it now. I wouldn't be able to. I'd be too nervous about whoever's feelings it was. Sure. I just. And that I feel the same way. I like I kind of sometimes feel bad for Biden when I see him sort of lost or whatever. And so it's different doing it now. It's when you get older and life kind of kicks you in the nuts and you learn what pain is and. Yeah. You get more. Careers are so hard and up and down. You're like, I'm going to probably hurt someone's career somehow accidentally. You know, who would always hair looks like a spider web. Go ahead. The one person who would always scold me when I was even when I was younger. And I guess it's because he was sensitive to all the bad reviews he was getting was Sandler. He was like, like I was doing those cartoons and they were going really well. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and I would do a cartoon about like David Brenner or something. Yes. Being a guest on a talk show and it was fun with real audio. And I would use a real David Brenner story, but I would have him going on every talk show and each host would get bored and press a trap door button and he would fall down and go like, you know, so he starts on like the tonight show. And then trap door goes down to Conan and then it goes down to like Tom Snyder. And then hilarious. I remember that one. Yeah. And it was really funny and everybody I played it for Conan because Conan was in it and he was laughing really hard. And then I get a call from Sandler. You feel good about yourself, but you feel good about that. No. What if that guy's home watching, you know, he's like at a hard day and he's watching the show and he's like, yeah, what is this? Why? What did I do? Yeah. Why? He did Brenner, didn't he? Sandler could do Brenner on the show. He did a great David Brenner. That's right. It wasn't nearly as mean as this cartoon. No, it wasn't mean. It was a funny impression. You had Stedman hiding from Oprah in the mansion. Oh, my God. That was that was from the comedy central show. And it's interesting you bring that up because that was a cartoon I wasn't going to do. It was one of those lines that I would draw for myself, which people are always shocked. You had your lines. I did. But I like I didn't like to make fun of drug addiction. I always felt like when people are, you know, that desperate. It's not funny. You know, it's like, you know, everybody it's easy to to reduce somebody to a cartoon character. But that was one. And another one was women's looks. I really hated making fun of a woman for her looks because women are held up to these ridiculous standards and it just felt shitty. And so this Oprah one was Andy Breckman's premise. And the premise was that Stedman. Every time Oprah wants to have sex, Stedman has convinced Oprah that he's an international spy. And every time Oprah wants to have sex, Stedman pretends he's getting an alert and he has to go off. I'm not making it sound as funny as it. No, no, no. It was funny. And so I like it. I broke the rule because it was just too funny. And it it remains like one of the funniest cartoons I've ever been involved in. But it was Andy Breckman's idea. Also, one of the nicest people I've ever worked with. Andy Breckman, well, definitely had this idea that I thought was to me. Welcome to Paris, peace, seriere. Your blind date is already at the table and there she is. Cos and Brenda, what are you doing here? You're married anyway. Substitution brought to you by Paddy Power. Cos and Brenda makes me for Beth, the office crush. Oh, get in. You might not always pick the right starter, but your sub can still deliver because with Paddy's super sub, your bet rolls over to the player coming on. Paddy Power. Validant, selected leagues and markets only. Prematch and in play bets on qualifying player outcome selections only. T's and C's and exclusions apply at 18plus.com. Hey, everyone, it's Stavros Alakis, and I'm here to tell you about my podcast, Stavi's World. Each week we're joined by great guests like Josh Safty, Eric Andre, Caleb Herron and more. It's sort of an interview show, but really we're just messing around, making each other laugh and hopefully making you laugh while you're washing the dishes or grocery shopping or on a long drive. Plus, I take listener calls where we have honest conversations about dating life and everything in between. Imagine if your therapist was a vulgar degenerate whose office was in a Greek diner. No scripts, no polish and absolutely no holding bet. Listen to Stavi's World wherever you get your podcasts. Ask about the bears. The bears, the big one I love. As far as I was able to. I just want to say very quickly that I know that John McLaughlin, which you completely created, loved, loved our sketch. Oh, yeah. Regis loved it. Perot loved it. George Boursenior loved it. Yes. It was only sweet Johnny Carson got a little tweaked and I don't. Carson, we should talk about this one because it was like. So, yes. So rock comes on. I got I'm sorry. Carcino rock comes on and plays our senior rock comes on and plays our senior. And this was at this time when Johnny was getting sort of threatened by our senior's presence, our senior was white hot. That's a bad choice of words, I suppose. But our senior was like please stand on fire. Everybody was talking about him. And we did that thing of like, no, I understand. That this, you know, that would over explaining thing. But in this case, it was like, I understand you have a show. Dana, you should do it. You remember. I understand you have a show and. Each and it says here. He was like looking at his notes. It says here that your show is up against my show. Yes. And I say, I did not know that. And your ratings have actually gone up higher than mine. And mine are starting to decline. Right. That's weird. Did not know that. And now it says here, it says further that your show is considered hip. And mine, I am starting to be considered out of touch. Yeah. I did not. Did you know that? Yes. Yes. Really sad. Yes. Yes. But but the thing that Johnny got madest at Dana. Do you remember this? It was the first guest. We had a throwaway first guest before we bring on our senior. It was Susan. Susan Day, right? It was Susan Day. And I had written it for Sinead O'Connor for Jan Hooks to play Sinead. Because she had already done it and it was hilarious. And she's very serious. And, you know, you guys are just would be doing not not a lot of hair on her head. That's just that is quite a boom, you know, all that kind of stuff. A little smooth, smooth on the upper turf. Yeah. Not a hairy woman, sir. From ear to ear, not a lot going on. Lauren was like, you know, she's done Sinead. She does a killer Susan Day, which she had done once on the show, and it was killer. So Lauren suggested Lauren suggested it wasn't like it wasn't funny. He suggested what if he has Susan Day on, but he keeps wanting to talk about the Partridge family. And it had been 15 years since it had gone off. Yeah. Yes. And so that was how we wrote it. And then Johnny took it. As like, are you seeing this? That he really he said this on the show, they're saying I'm senile. He literally thought we were now calling him senile all because we had changed that opening. Well, that was the one that I thought was, yeah. Yeah. He said it on he said it as Dana or no, no, no. The real set it on his own show. He started out. Wow. Bitching about Saturday Night Live on his own show. And Dana, I heard you say this to Regis and it broke my heart because I had never heard this. You said to Regis in an interview like, I don't know, five, six years ago, I saw. You said that you heard the Johnny said. When they start making fun of you, it's time to go away. Well, he would say it yet over in Burbank, just in the hallway, the big giant studio and just yell it out. And they're making fun of me now. It's time to go. Yeah. That that that what I realized and I would take it for anyone in show business that eventually you become a character of yourself. If you're a comedian, it doesn't matter. You I don't want to name the person. You could see someone and kind of go, is that a celebrity impersonator? Is that the real guy? So you do become a character of yourself. It's kind of flattering. But, you know, for Johnny, I couldn't get on the show after that. I know. Nobody from SNL did for a year. And he really took it took it to heart. And so that was heartbreaking for us. But then then I think I also heard from you. Back then. So then we did the carcino sketch, which was basically Johnny as trying to be like our senior trying to be like our senior hall with an Afro sketch. She had the pointy hair and elongated fingers. Yeah. And he would do, do you see this head? All you have to do is go whoop, whoop, whoop. And the audience goes whoop, whoop, whoop. Do you know that a house is called a crib bed? Did you know that? Yeah. I did not know that. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Robert, I did Carson two months before he quit as standup. Oh, wow. And he came back to the back and he goes, who hates staying in a car? I go, I do. And he goes, that's my boy. Really? No, no, he didn't. He came back and said hi to me, but I remember it was very odd to get on the show. I did do it two months before he got off and he did come back, but he came back. And you were on Saturday Night Live. You broke the code. Yeah. I think I was I on. I went off in 93, I believe you were absolutely on the show. Yeah. OK. OK. For sure. But let me just say this real quick. Carvey told me that that he liked the carcino sketch. Yes. He said, what do you say? It makes fun of both of us. You know, they're making fun of our senior, as much as they're making fun of me. I mean, that's that's funny stuff, you know, that kind of thing. So so I remember feeling a lot better about and then and then he did start letting people on the show again. No, I mean, I was saying I got on somehow and I don't know, just to did my crummy act and got out of there. But stop it. He did. He weighed me over as my ex. That's amazing. And I left. I didn't go. He gave him the finger. Well, the guy backstage, McCauley said, he goes, get on there, hit your mark and get off. And I go, what if Johnny waves you over and he goes, he won't just go do it. I go, oh, my God. So I went out and turned and left and he goes, there he is. And what? Did the double tap of the wink? He goes, Martin Short was with him and he goes, have him come over. And he goes, I'm trying to, but he won't look at me. And he goes, he's too nervous. All right, there he goes. All right. Well, that was David's fate. He said that on the air. Yeah. That's amazing. And then he came backstage. Where were you? And I was there with egg. I had my shirt off. You made a fucking fool. Yeah. And it was a B.O. fucking torrential storm back in my room because I was so scared. I have my shirt off and I have Pepto Bismol and they knock and I open it. It's Ed, I think, Doc and Johnny. And he goes, I'm three of them. I didn't. Yeah, he goes, I didn't. He goes, I didn't get a chance to say, good job. I wanted to come over and nice job. And I go, oh, I didn't see you or whatever. And he goes, Pepto Bismol, I'm trying to quit the stuff myself. And then he walked away. Isn't that great? It's a fantastic story. He did a bit. He did a bit. But in reality, he was he was broken inside. And he went around the office and said, when they start not not coming over to the couch, it's time to pull you up. Who put you up for this day in a car? Me, that fuck. So it's you, Spain. Yeah. You're the one who pushed him out. Let's go. Let's go ahead. And let's go back and find him. Don't come on. Let's go. Oh, hit him high. You hit him low. Hit him low. Well, talk about McLoughlin too, because that was a great McLoughlin group. John McLoughlin ran a roundtable. Well, we got everyone know you did McLoughlin. You did the Bears. So many. You did clucky fucking gaga gagui. Hey, what did you help me with? You help me with the clucky or Schmitz gay? You helped me with one of those two. I was almost inch, Schmitz gay for a rough draft, and then it went to Sandler and Farley, which is great. That was that was Downey's idea. And it was a brilliant call to take the two youngest guys in the cast and make them the guys. That was that was I was I older than them. I originally I had it as Dana and Kevin, because I thought it was going to be the first sketch of the year. And Dana and Kevin are the guys. And then I don't remember a draft with you. I don't know. Someone maybe is a shoemaker. Someone said, I think you're in this thing. Remind me what this sketch is. Schmitz gay. Oh, oh, Schmitz gay. That was a became a film, didn't that? That was a big one. Yeah. Yeah. No, no. You're going to be ambiguously gay dual. No, I was thinking. Commercial parody. Sandler and Farley did something by a pool. Yeah, with Van Halen. It was a parody of all those. Yeah. So that that was it. You know, sexist beer commercials. It's one of the ones I'm most proud of. Oh, it's great. Asterical. But that ended up being Sandler and Farley. The gay people weren't like portrayed in a kind of like mocking way. Right. The whole joke was turning the tables on these objectifying these ridiculous commercials that associate beer with objectifying women. So funny. It just got this huge. It got one of the biggest responses. Oh, so great. It was a good name. Van Halen song in it. You all. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. Farley and Sandler doing the Tonga line. Yeah. It was amazing. Yeah. But but Spade, I thought you either helped me with that or Clark and chicken, which is my personal favorite. Oh, Clark and chicken. I don't know. I mean, sometimes I just get in there and try to help anywhere I could. But I think you threw me some jokes and maybe I threw you. Gaga, Gagui. That sounded like me. The Gaga Gagui. Gagui. How's the me? Oh, I love a Sandler's voice. And that was so funny. That was a cartoon. It was half cartoon commercial parody. Yeah. Cartoon. Yeah. Cartoon. That's how I met the guy, JJ Settlemeyer, who ended up doing the first few years on TV Fun House cartoon. Baby, baby, baby, five house. We'll go back to my show. But you put Lauren's voice in there to anyone to say anything. That's maybe the hardest I've ever laughed in my life because I became a 10 year old again. Like the way I was when I was 10, I would draw cartoons of my teachers, that kind of thing. Yeah. And when a teacher would see I would like giggle like and I remember the first time you saw the dress rehearsal that the ambiguously gay duo ran and and then this little cartoon, Lauren comes out and chases the dog, let go of my show, let go of my show. And I'm watching Lauren watch it. Oh, my. And I'm just in tears. I was like, you know, Lauren would call it you put a beanie on the boss. You put a. What is that? It's just made fun of the boss or a beanie on the boss. It's like reducing the boss to it, you know, lower status. It's like, you know, Lauren had a term for every comedy move in the world. Totally. I've seen every sketch four times, you know, so it's hard for me. Everything you've anyone's written. I've seen a version of it in one of my favorite recent Lauren ones within the last five years around funny people, people who do comedy. There's only 900 of us on the planet. Oh, really? Yeah. So a specific number like, well, maybe that's true. I don't know. We did run some numbers. It's down to 898. Yes. If you don't count Steve and Marty. Steve counts for three. Marty. He counts for 100. I think Robert, we asked them. Good. Didn't we ask William Shatner if he was OK with that sketch you wrote? I think he was, right? Oh, yeah, I pitched it to him. And he like Trekkie's sketch. Yeah, that was a big famous sketch that you wrote. That was a sketch where it resonates all the time. That's a big, big one. Well, I have an affinity for nerds because I was an SNL nerd. I was no bigger nerd as anybody. I was completely in awe of the show when I got there. I like knew who Edie Baskin and Leo Yoshimura were. Like I memorized the talk about the nerdy. I was. Yeah. So, yeah, like, you know, a lot of my most famous stuff has to do with like triumph in the Star Wars line is one of my happiest memories because I was like making fun of them. But I felt an affinity toward them at the same time that the nerds waiting online for Star Wars and Triumph. They were all like they all took it so well. They were all just comedy fans. It was like, yeah, yeah, it was like when it was like, have you guys, did you guys, I'm sure you spate a spate. You both probably got to meet Don Rickles, right? Yeah, I did. Yep. Did he insult you when he met you the first time? Do an impression of a gorilla is what he said to me. Oh, really? Yeah. You know, Smigues on one time, Chris Farley took his mom to see him on one of the breaks on the weeks off. And he goes, and he goes, I go, what happened? He goes, we sat right in the front row and he goes, Rickles comes over to him in the middle and goes, what's your name, tiny? And he goes, he goes, my name's Chris. And he goes, how much you weigh, Chris? And he goes about two six. He goes, the left side of your ass, maybe. And then he went to the next table. Yeah. Then he knew that it was Chris, right? I don't know. I don't know. It's just all funny. He's so funny. He's just like, I'm just going to treat him like anybody else. Yeah, I just go, there's a fat guy in the front, sir. Maybe go for him. He has a little bug in his ear when he got older. Fat guy three, three, three lady wearing a flower box hat. Take four steps to the right. Closer. That's him. That's him. Get him. I took it as a badge of honor. I love being ripped by. Yeah. When I met him, I was a producer at the Conan show, I think. Or no, I was doing triumph, I think. And I did it for Rickles, but I met him first. They introduced me because they wanted to make it OK, that you know, make sure he would be cool with it. And he sees me and he just says, hello, Rabbi, which I later heard was a move he had for a lot of Semitic. This is move like John Stuart told me once that that was the first thing he said to John Stuart. Yeah, he had his big tricks just to get safe, offensive across the board thing to say. Yeah, you know, we've all got our standard zingers going full circle toward the end. You think triumph never said the buzz around flies around my ass before you're sad. There's only so many mathematical ways to get it. That's Joe. OK. They can be flying around. But Regis told me once this was toward when when Rickles was still on the road, you know, honest to God, some night you don't know if he's going to bake it. They give him two eyeballs. He's rubbing his knees. Honest to God, I don't know when they play the music. He goes out and he kills him for an hour, kid. Then he lies down like honest to God. Honest to God, who's better than Robert Smigel? Honest to God, this guy is everywhere. I mean, you know, it's really is. It was really nice to me, too. I do know one time this is insane. I had an idea for a sitcom and it's one of the happiest half hours of my whole life. I got to sit in the hotel room and pitch Larry King and Regis Philbin, a sitcom where they played an old gay couple. And they took it dead serious like this is a great idea. And they had already like consulted Rickles about it. And Larry King's like, Rickles says we can do it, but we can't be too swishy. Swishy. And, you know, we would just talk about it and Regis, the funniest was Regis. He was like, so Bob, again, I apologize for my inferior Regis. But it's like, just go. If we do this, you know, I know there's going to be a script, but not not really. Right. I mean, you know, we can get out there and Larry and I can just go off, right, just play off each other. Right. Well, there's a story to the, you know, it's a sitcom. It's got to happen. Yeah. But Bob, I mean, yeah, Bob learning lines. And yeah, I mean, we have a natural thing. Rickles says, Rickles says, we just have to look natural. I'm like, when did Rickles become the Oracle of sick? Everything by Rickles. Mr. C. C. P. O. Sharky. C. P. O. Sharky. 1975. Yeah. If you have a copy that you make, can you send it to me and Dana? I don't think I ever bothered to write it. Somehow they said yes to just meeting with me for a half an hour. Well, one of the things that Smigel has, it's one of the funniest titles is the autism benefit. The night of too many stars. It's the funniest. I have done. Of course. You want it. Well, both of you have done it. You you've done it a couple of times. Dana, you did the first one and it was one of the greatest bits that it's ever been on that. We've done like seven of them. What was it? Well, how will their rest his soul? Yes. Music was an incredibly great guy who was the music supervisor. Supervisor at Saturday Night Live. And for 200 years for 200 years, he missed the first 300 and he he would help me book. He knew everybody in music. Yeah. And he would help me book the show with, you know, we had a booker who would be paid and then how for free would get me, you know, he got me Elvis Costello once he got me staying. And this particular bit, he got me Lou Reed. And it was like a surprise appearance to people in Roseland. Remember, we did this in Roseland and they were crazy. And Lou Reed comes out and it's like Jimmy Fallon saying Lou Reed, he's going to have an all star band. And then one by one, he introduces the all star band and it's all comedians. It's on the drums, Dana Carvey on the guitar, Conan O'Brien. I think Sandler was there, too. Jack Black, Adam Sandler and Lou Reed played it perfectly. Like this is the all star band. And and then they did this incredibly. Funny, somewhat disrespectful, but affectionate version of Walk on the Wild Side. I love it. And it's on it's it's on YouTube. And then Sandler literally like is right in his face, going. Lou Reed got mad at me. It was very awkward. I still remember it. That's a mad. Yeah, after the rehearsal, I didn't really have a monitor. I could hear it. He's going to walk on the Wild Side. So he very seriously, as everyone scattered, just walked over to me and just was intense Lou Reed and goes, don't do that. Don't do that. Don't do what? Whatever he thought I was doing the drums. I go, I'm a comedian and I can't air myself. Don't play like that. You know, he just got very serious. Maybe it was nerves. But then we came out later. He was totally affable. He was probably just that was the only thing he probably cared about was that it sounded good. Right. And I wanted to I wanted to I wanted to play well. I just thought my monitor and then and you did you did it. It sounds amazing. Oh, that's good. I guess I got it on the air show. We just had a brief rehearsal. Yeah, absolutely. It was kind of fun. Everybody knew Adam's an incredible Adam's a great guitarist and Conan's a good guitarist and and Jack Blacks. I mean, these are like all the most musical. They just happened to all be there. And that song is brilliant. But it is very, very austere and very simple, which is you know, taking a walk on the road. You know, it's like it was perfect. And everybody got a turn. You didn't because you were the drummer, but every all these other guys did solos in their different ways. Right. You know, I learned a few things from Smigel today. I learned that Frank and Davis hired him. Frank and Davis hired me. I learned his dad invented crest white strips. No, that's not true. OK, I invented. I heard that he did bonding. He was the he developed the whole tooth bonding technique. Right. And I and Lou Reed hates Dana Carvey. These are the only things I picked up. Another one of my impressions has gone to the stars. I have inside insight onto this involves you. Someone told me today. So Michael Gordon wants to go right for the the Conan show. He talks to Bob, Bob Odenkirk and Bob Odenkirk said, wait, wait till we get Smigel as the head writer. And then somehow you got you became the head writer. And then we're talking about the original Conan show. I thought you meant Michael Gordon wants to write for the new. Oh, sorry. This is going back in time when they but he said. Michael Gordon knew Bob Odenkirk, I think so. Or at least casually. Hey, oh, so funny. So good. Oh, my God. That's so funny. Oh, my God. No, you're not doing that. Are you? No. Was he mad about Chippin' Dose? Because there's a rumor down. He said I was really mad about it. And I wasn't. Yeah, that was something down. He read online. He read online that you. It was the most ridiculous lie imaginable that you like. Marked into Lawrence Dove. Yeah. I just like you. Pound it on his door. People. You were like, you've been there for like four weeks. Yeah, I go. And you know what? Marcy would have tackled me. Well, for the last part, you could have been there for five years. You never would have pounded on Lawrence Dove. Yeah, that was clearly made up. But there's a lot around. Was that exploitive of Chris or not? People have their different opinions when he did the Chippendale sketch with his shirt off. I thought that I thought the opposite, which was, I mean, I just have an inherent. I thought the people were not laughing at Chris. I didn't see it that way. I thought because there have been a million fat comedians who, you know, exploit their bodies in some way or another. Playoff being heavy. Jackie Gleason. The thing that I saw that night was an audience fall in love with Chris. Yeah, because he was so committed and he was such a good dancer. He's a great and he wasn't like he wasn't remotely ashamed of his body, you know, that whether that's, you know, obviously not necessarily the truth, but that's what he projected. And to me, it was like, if anything, they didn't use the word empowering back then. But to me, that's how it felt to me. Like, you know, the way somebody like Bridget Everett, where the person is. You know, completely unselfconscious about. Their body at least it played that way to me. But, you know, I would say this, I would say if you saw that in Chris, if you felt that that was happening to Chris, then maybe you should have talked to Chris about it and made sure it was cool with Chris instead of just saying, Tut, Tut, this is no good. I just saw a young cast member. Yeah, I barely knew. I did not. Look, there's different levels. This was young Chris. I saw a guy very athletic. I think anyone next to Patrick Swasey would look kind of chubby. And so Chris was moving really like a chubby guy, not like a next level. He was not even that big back then. No. And I saw a guy killing with physical comedy. But if he was sad about it inside, I was clueless to it. I was clueless, too, if he was. But I mean, he when I saw him at Second City that summer, he was another person I had the privilege of seeing audition back then. And he what struck me about him at Second City was how graceful he was. Like he was the opposite of how he falls down. Who got who gains some weight. He's an athlete. Yeah. Yeah. And he was incredibly graceful and that's what separated him besides, you know, his incredible characterizations. Like, but, you know, so to me. That's the sketch was the only thing it was exploiting was his incredible was what made him special. I would go by David's point. Only because David was probably the closest to Chris. Remember any problems? I don't think David was the closest back then. Maybe not back then, but after they did their movies and stuff. Well, right up there, right? Different. By then, Chris started to get like. Like, you know, in the motivational speaker sketch, I remember adding I had one contribution to that sketch because Bob was no longer there. Oddly enough. Yeah. Bob wrote the entire sketch and spade, you know, this. I added just that little part at the end where he's like, Matt's going to shade you. You're here. Matt's here. You're, you know, that, you know, you're Matt's here. Yeah, that's great. And he knocks over the coffee table. Yeah. And that was like, I just felt it needed like a physical topper at the end. Yeah. Yeah. You put it in and it worked. And then I feel, though, that it did lead to like this slippery slope of partly knocking things. Oh, he's going through walls and ceiling. Yeah, it started. It started something that I did not intend to to happen. Well, they're kind of waiting for it after that. Every sketch they're like, what's he going to hit? What's he going to fall through? Well, certainly with the Matt Foley ones. Yeah. But it started happening in other sketches, too. He just walks in and falls through walls. He falls down. That's all he got. Farrows. I would call it. Then we started getting cynical about it. Like Chris, you know, we would just come up with different means. But that Nancy Kerrigan sketch, she was a great ice skater, too. Oh, that's true. There you go. Yeah, he could ice skate as well. Yeah. So that canceled out Ship and Dale. So we're even. I just, you know, when people say it's just very glib to like, you know, that sketch set him off. That's it's just so I just find that irresponsible, too. Well, I'd never heard him complain about it in the years to come. So I think he was just like, if you're a young cast member and that and you get a sketch that's a 10 out of 10 and he took it and it blew him up, I don't think he ever looked back and said, but I felt like no, there's so many other things got. Did he ever take his shirt off again on the show? I mean, he he fell around and stuff and walked through walls. But I don't remember. I'm not sure he did. It didn't become a thing. Let's get Chris's shirt off. So that's good, too. But I mean, there was a lot of restraint until like the later. I think it was wasn't until it was like third or fourth year. It was like people were running out of what to do with them. And if he came like a shorthand kind of cheap move to have Farley break something, you know, but he was like, oh, my God, Spade, you remember his acting in that Tom Schiller? Oh, the coffee one. Yeah, just the way his face changes when he when he hears that they've switched Folgers. How great. That was a great idea. How many takes does he get to trash the whole set? I know that was all Tom Schiller. The Schiller vision of the Folgers commercial was a real hit, but it's kind of an at a gem that not everyone saw. I put it in the best of because of that. Yeah, great one. So that people would see it because it was it was one of his greatest acting jobs ever. Yeah, I think you look it up. All right, let's wrap up. What, anything else for this guy, Dana? Let's see. Your security number just for this is just a house to be a security number. Stay on into the paperwork. We're going to jump off, but no, that's it. You did. They covered literally everything you've ever done. Well, we did a lot of SNL, but obviously, Robert and I did the Dana Carvey show and he ended up and big as we did. Talk about the Dana Carvey show. It's all right. It's a really we're Sarah. I focus, but that was you'll do a whole podcast about that. Right. We have a Hotel Transylvania podcast after this. If you want to stay on, that's what I'm waiting for. You want to stay on you? You were just a Hotel Transylvania to podcast. He did the cargo characters on Conan, which I loved. You know, the Arnold. Just the lips in the arms. Talk about it. Oh my God, we didn't talk about the Hans and Franz movie. That's a Hans and France is the part of the show where we just talk about how much better the show could have been. Hans and Franz movie. Oh, we have to have you back. That's what we saw. I wrote all your stuff out today and I knew there was no way this was going to fit into an hour. And so I know I just said it's OK. More than anything, I wish I'd talked about that. Which one? The Hans and Franz movie because. Because it's so funny and what is a sterical movie? Dana has talked about it on here because it was the whole way it got put together and then it didn't work out, but there was so many. Hans and Franz, the girly man dilemma. But it was not. It was not homophobic. It was just girly. No, it was just men without big muscles like them. You know, do you remember the part? OK, well, this is going to we can't. I was going to talk about the Ciskel and Ebert part was one of my favorite. Yeah, that was the whole story of 12 seconds. Go on. Hans and Franz were doing their movie and they're running around somewhere and they go into a room and Ciskel and Ebert are watching the movie. I mean, they're they're not they're just doing the movie. They're in the movie. They're in the movie and they're doing a cross country trip to Los Angeles because they want to be in the movies and be with Arnold. Yeah. And then they're riding a bicycle across country. And then at one point they happen upon a big a big edifice and they just walk in and Ciskel and Ebert, the most famous critics at the time, in Ciskel and Roger Ebert are sitting in the theater. And it's just like, how's the movie? You like pretty good so far. They're watching the movie. Lots of action and. And there's in this dark room, watching the exact movie that's taking place. So on the screen is them us talking to them. Yeah, it's you talking to them. They're like in their movie seats and then on the screen is us talking to them watching the movie, right? But it's like like four seconds. Four seconds. Fine, got it. Yeah, that kind of thing. Yeah. And then eventually they get kidnapped because they're girly men. Right. Like you go to check in on them later and they're gone because the evil villain has kidnapped. He's like, remember, Sonny Bono disappears and right. I can't remember who famous girly men of the bad. The bad guy had a big button that said hurt the weather. And then we cut the still look out his window. Go, it seems hurt somehow, you know, that it was it was going to be Dolph Lundgren. And he had like this kind of like final solution, villain kind of thing where I am going to eliminate all the girly man. And so well. And then he turned to the camera and said, and I'm going to hurt the environment. Well, that's what had the button that said hurt the environment. That's right. Because we were obsessed. My I desperately wanted to do like Mike Myers was my hero later because he with Dr. Evil created a character that remember all these eighties comedies, the villain, you always had to like take it seriously for like. Right. Rather than a whether it was Max Fonceto or in Strange Baru or like there, you always had to have these obligatory villains. And so we were trying to make fun of that and have the villain be as funny as the can Mike and then Mike ended up. Doing good for Mike. Good for Mike. All right. Like this is Ben Roberts, Michael, one of the one of I would say he's the greatest sketch writer of his generation. You he's in the he's in the discussion. I put him at the top, but everyone can have their opinion. Jack Candy was the guy that I. Different different lane, though. I put him in a different way. But yeah, it's a different lane. But here's what I'll say about Jack that was why all the writers, I would say if you pulled at least the writers of that era, they would have gone with Jack. And it's because someone like me wrote a lot of I'm very proud of a lot of things I wrote, but I feel like, you know, there are ideas that only I could have thought of, but there are other ones that I think other people could have. And where Jack like nobody else could have thought of almost any of the sketches Jack and yeah, any read through any read through. You'd be like, oh, my God, this is Jack Candy within three lines. You're like, everyone looks around. Exactly. He's over there smiling. People act like he was just the act seven guy, like the five to 11. But he was huge. Tootsies was the biggest character on the show for a couple of years. Like literally the biggest character on the show was a cat pup. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not doing to look out. And we don't have a frozen caveman lawyer. Yeah. Would always they would get no laughs, practically, but everybody from Lauren on down was in awe of that brilliant sketch. And so it was always it always made the show. It was never at the end of the show because we were all collectively just so proud to put it on. I am a simple, unfrozen caveman or something. I don't know. I was just a perfect use. Yeah. Yeah. Did that perfect. I don't know what's going on. Yeah, it's almost like. Well, I'm a cave simple caveman. I think it's simple. Keep I think 60 million impugnative damages feels about right. So we all love jazz. OK, thanks, Robert. Thanks, Robert. Thanks, guys. Loved it. Yeah. Hey, guys, if you're loving this podcast, which you are, be sure to click follow on your favorite podcast app, give us review five star rating. And maybe you can share an episode that you've loved with a friend. If you're watching this episode on YouTube, please subscribe. We're on video now. Fly on the Wall is presented by Odyssey and executive produced by Danny Carvey and David Spade, Heather Santoro and Greg Holtzman, Matty, Brun Kaiser and Leah Reese Dennis of Odyssey. Our senior producer is Greg Holtzman and the show is produced and edited by Phil Sweetek, booking by Cultivated Interaction Special. Thanks to Patrick Fogarty, Evan Cox, Mora Curran, Melissa Wester, Hillary Shuff, Eric Donnelly, Colin Gaynor, Sean Cherry, Kurt Courtney and Lauren Vieira. Reach out with us. If you have any questions to be asked and answered on the show, we can email us at flyonthewall at audicee.com. That's a u d a c y dot com.