Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade - Carol Leifer

Episode Date: March 12, 2025

The weird year of SNL, writing on Seinfeld and Curb, and The Beatles with Carol Leifer. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Everyone I know is on the road. They always are like, we stayed in Airbnb and that's just a more common thing you hear all the time. Hotels are great, but come on. I mean, when you can just pick everything about it, you want like, here's my hotel today. They didn't even give me my breakfast. Like Airbnb, wake up, whip it up in your kitchen.

Yeah, and get a kitchen, get a pool, whatever you want. And it's all custom and you just go online and you see how it's rated and what people like. And so I guess I'm gonna say it's just freedom. Yeah, listen, you got more space, more privacy. You can be closer to where you wanna be. Yeah, I was staying at really nice hotels that I like in this area that we would go to,

and then we found like a little house. So you kinda had a house, you know? And it was spotlessless and you just drive up and you get the key out of this thing, you go in and there's a bottle of wine and a note and it's just a great experience. Yeah, the people don't have to, I don't think, but they always seem to put little extras in there for you.

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Folks, I like that word. Folks. That's what a lot of politicians say. They go for the folks at home. Yeah, that's true. You know what? They don't say, you can't say men or women. They say for the folks at home. It's a good word for Obama.

Folks are hurting. Folks, folks aren't sure how to pay the bill. That's what folks are doing. Folks are feeling the pinch. Folks are feeling the pain. Folks. It's definitely a lot of politicians use it. It's kind of a homey thing, but folks, we have a super guest today on super, super fly on the wall.

Carol Leifer is with us. Who's, who's a mainstream of comedy for the comedy from 1981 or two. She was on David Letterman and she's worked as a standup and also David, her writing career. Huge writing career. Seinfeld. From Seinfeld to Hacks presently where they're winning Emmys over.

Curb your enthusiasm. Good friends with Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. And she has some interesting takes on their relationship. Teaser alert. She has a book out, Dana, it's called How to Write a Funny Speech for a Wedding, a Bar Mitzvah or Birthday or Any Other Event You didn't want to go to in the first place by Carol Leifer. We laughed a lot during this one because she's a stand-up that you knew in the old days.

I've known her recently and I just saw her at the Laugh Factory actually. So very funny, great storyteller, exactly what we want in this show. Yes, and also one last thing, the sort of famous season of 1985, she was there writing and she'll talk about... At SNL. Robert Downey Jr. at like 19 years of age skating down the hall and stuff like that. So it's really fun, she's super likable, I've known her for... Longer than I want to remember, 15 years.

Please enjoy the one and only Carol Leefer. You mean the set that I did for The Tonight Show? Yeah. Well, it's a bit of a saga because, you know, Letterman saw me on the big New York laugh off. Oh, the laugh off. Yeah. Because you know, in our day, that's how you got people to pay attention to you.

You, you did. And, um, he, he saw the big laugh off, you know, that's the one where Eddie Murphy came in fifth and I came in fourth. Yes. So he had seen me on the big laugh off and he recommended me to Jim McCauley, as you know, the talent booker for The Tonight Show. And then they passed.

And then probably when I saw you, Dana, they saw me again and they passed and I auditioned 22 times until I finally got the Tonight Show in 1992, right before Johnny left. Never even heard of that. That's that many times I've never heard of that. Over a decade or what's the timeframe of the 22 auditions? I would say from 1980 to 92,

but what was happening also was, it is that, you know, I was doing Letterman a lot during those years. So tonight show also saw me as a Letterman act. So that did in my way. But it just became like, I don't know, should I wear a dress the next time? Okay.

Oh yeah. Like it just became a bit of like, okay, I guess I'll go out there again. And it's always Macaulay. It was always Macaulay. Yeah. I mean, you remember how powerful he was. Of course. He put great and powerful odds.

I didn't even try. They just like, you don't, you don't, you don't got it. Don't even audition. Just, yeah. Well, I was doing characters and stuff and they like jokes. I was just going to ask you from a personal point of view, what kind of standup in your head were you in 92 compared to 1980? Well, I was much more, you know,

you have 12 years of experience as you know. I mean, you get better every year. And at that time in New York, I mean, you guys didn't come up in the New York scene, but you could do eight sets on a Saturday night. Well, I don't do that in a year. It sounds preposterous, but it's true. Yeah. I've heard that.

I've heard that, yeah. You know, with all the different comedy clubs, I mean, you'd have, you know, a 710 here, an 815 here, it just went on and on and on. So I just was a better comedian, but wait a minute, so Dana, you never did the Tonight Show with Johnny? I did, but I came out as a guest from Saturday Night Live. I never came out behind the curtain

and did that terrifying thing. What I want to ask you, two things about those days, did you ever say, and step on it, to the cab driver in New York? And did you ever get so good that like leafers here like you? Because I think confidence, you know, Eddie Murphy had peak confidence at 19. He has it now. There are certain people Sandler took me a long time, but when you get the confidence,

it's fun. Do you ever walk in and go, I'm the shit, man. Fuck you people. I've heard her say that. Okay, two questions. Step on it. I'm about to have a baby. Okay, go ahead.

Get behind was definitely something. And I learned in many different languages to communicate with all of the campers. But I think by 92, you know, I remember it was just, I had done the New Year show with Leno before, and I just feel like it kind of felt like, oh, we gotta put her on. I mean, this is ridiculous already.

It's such an omission at this point. It looks weird at this point. And who were your peers? It was Elaine Boosler. Who were your female peers at the time? Elaine Boosler was actually not my female peer. She was before me. And I got into standup because one of the big reasons was

because of Elaine. I'm sure people have talked about on your pod that. Not really enough. Not that much. She that much, yeah. She was the, yeah, the top, the female standup that when I was in those early days, she was. Yeah, she was on the cover of New York Magazine and, you know, Funny Girl, and it just kind of changed.

I was like, oh, if this woman can do it, like maybe I can do it. I remember Seinfeld and I talking about that cover. It had an impact on him in wanting to go into standup because it was a new type of woman and person going into standup. Yeah, the 70s is when it all kind of shifted in what was allowed.

And then lately, I don't want to jump too far ahead, but we have a lot of our great women comedians or column comedians. Comedians. It's all about the same now, but it was more differentiated. And there's a liberation of really being as hardcore as the men. It's just been a shift where the audience,

the women are more, they can be sexual, they can step outside the lines. But you were kind of riding that wave and you had Phyllis Diller, but not Phyllis Diller, she's a little more back there. Joan Rivers. Yeah, hello. She was sort of the body and intense.

Yes. Joan Rivers was great, but I think what differentiated her from my generation was, you know, it was a very like, am I right, ladies? Can we talk, right? Yeah. Can we talk? Elizabeth Taylor dog.

She said five facelifts and a boob job. Can we talk? Can we talk? Barbara Bush is not sexy. Can we talk? Barbara Bush is not sexy. Can we talk? You know? Barbara Bush, was Rosie O'Donnell around then or was that a little later?

Rosie O'Donnell came a little after me, but you know, my peers were like Rita Rudner and Paul Edmond Stone. But I remember with Rita, because we went on a Catch Rising Star together, you know, in those days, they wouldn't put two women on after each other. It was like, that.

Yeah, a horror film, a horror film. Yeah, you know, like, okay, there's the singer, then the ventriloquist, then one, then the monkey act, then maybe another woman. You know, it was just. How are two women on the same show? That's revolting to the audience. It was revolutionary.

I work with Rita, she was a linesmith. She could write great jokes. It was just boom, boom, boom. Yeah, she is one of the all time best joke writers. A really good joke writer. Maybe underrated, because I don't hear about her enough, because I worked with her for a week, and I was new, and I just kept going,

wow, this is, you know, really what I was like, it is just bam, bam, bam, bam. Interesting delivery, you know, interesting persona. Yeah. Yeah. She works a lot. She gets a lot of the corporate gigs that I want to get. Oh, sorry, we got Rita.

All right. Let's put that out into the universe. Corporates are fun. Yes. Juicy corporate. She's clean. She's funny that out into the universe. A creeper with like-abundle. Corporates are fun. Yes. Juicy corporate, she's clean, she's funny, she's likable, and she'll go for pictures afterwards without any complaint. CEO's kid, even if it's not part of the deal, can we take a quick picture? Yes.

You're kind of like, this lame, because you're still here and you started there and you're getting more famous than your resume like I only found out this week and I want to talk about it because there's a whole documentary briefly just about your your work as a writer while you were being standard and I don't know what your one was before the 85 season on Saturday Night Live which did you okay so let's just talk about that a little bit how you got the job and have you seen the documentary about? I have seen the documentary. What is affectionately, unaffectional,

they call it the weird year of SNL. When Lauren came back and I remember, I auditioned at the comic strip to be a performer and Al Franken, the great Al Franken and Jim Downey, as you know, famous head writer came to first showcase and I did well and they came over to me afterwards and they were like, would you want to think about being a writer? And I was like, what do I want to say? Yeah. So I lived in California and they said, well, come in and have a meeting with Lauren. So I came into New York. So I'm ready for my, you know, I had it all had it all planned, an hour of what I could say to

perspective questions, blah, blah, blah. It was literally, Lauren was auditioning talent in that big studio room in Broadway, I don't know where they held the auditions. It always looked like where they would audition dancers for like a chorus line. And two, three, four. And they said, okay,

the Lauren's going to meet with you now. He came outside the door of the audition room. And he said, they've said very good things about you. I said, oh, thank you. And you know the job I don't do a good Lauren impression. So somebody could do this for me, but Let's guess we said the job is not easy but you you'll find it's exciting It's that thing of like you're gonna find your voice this year

And then you'll go on to like much bigger things. We'd like you, go ahead. How do you like New York? Well, it was almost exactly like that. You have been told that Tuesday nights are late and you work very late. I went, yeah. And they went, okay. So it lasted about a minute. A minute long meeting. And then I was hired. Yeah, it was a crazy, I love that documentary about the year because it was crazy and it was nutty. But I still, you know, I always like to tell young people, you know, we wrote longhand on yellow pads. They didn't give it to us.

Yeah, me too, me too. I say that all the time. Yeah. So that was it. And then I was really the only woman writer that year, but it was amazing, like murderers row of writers, like Smigel was an apprentice. Whoa.

Yeah, I always teased him. Apprentice means you need to wear goggles in the writer's room. You know, John Swartz welder and Jack Handy and George Meier and Don Novello. And it was just amazing. But I've heard a lot of stuff on. I have to say I look back and it was like, I got, you know, I wrote a lot with Franken. We did this sketch. Quirky.

Yeah, this Tom Hanks sketch, you know, a lot of people don't know, as you guys know, you can write a sketch and have it at read through and if they pass on it, you can bring it back a few more times. It's a little stinky, but you bring it back. Yeah. And then Tom Hanks finally, yeah, put it over the finish line. Who was your cast?

I can't remember. Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit for people who don't know, but this pivotal year was the first year that Lorne came back after leaving with the seminal cast of All Time in 1980, it was first year back, so a lot of pressure. Lorne is back, we've had the Billy Crystal, Martin Short,

Chris for guest year, we had the Eddie years with Joe Piscopo, and now Lorne Michaels is back. So who was on that show? Cast. Well, it was Dennis Miller, of course. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Cast. Well, it was Dennis Miller, of course. Yeah. OK. Thanks for the call. Shout out, Leif. OK. Good. You know, was Nora Dunn,

Joan Sack, Deneetra Vance. Then the guys, was it Terry Sweeney? Terry Sweeney, it was Randy Quaid. Anthony Michael Hall. Anthony Michael Hall, Robert Downey Jr. who I just saw at the Oscars. He remember, I mean, but surely he did, right?

Oh yeah, yeah. He goes, hey, Carol. It's like, I remember you skateboarding down the halls of the 17th floor. Yeah, no, it was, you know, they talk about in the documentary, Lauren hired actors more than comedians. And it's that sort of, oh, and Lovitz,

Lovitz was a cast member and he did really well that year. I think he and Dennis and Nora were the only people that were brought back after that. Survived the fire? Yeah. Yes. Do people know this? At the end of the season, some sketch,

I was watching it live, and then all the casts had to go into a fire, except three of them didn't have to go into the fire? I mean, it was really sad. Who wrote that, Al? Are you an Al? I wish I remembered who wrote that. Yeah, it was.

And then do you remember when Madonna came back the next year to host? He apologized for the entire 85, 86 season. Oh, like a Dallas kind of thing? My first time in the studio. She was our cold open. Oh, and you were there, Dana. Yeah, that was your year. So was you auditioning in one of those chorus line rehearsal rooms like I saw them? No, I just, real quickly, I had auditioned at the Comedy Store in like 20 people with no MC in the original room.

And I followed Kennison at midnight before I went on. They said SNL is here. I don't think it was Lauren, but SNL is here. I bombed so bad. And I Al Franken saw me at the punch line. I just bombed and bombed. And then it was show came around again real fast. I just went to Igbeys.

You remember that little 100 cedar? Yes. Rosie O'Donnell was headlining. I got a hold of Jan Smith. I said, I, I, Lorne Michaels will come see me. Cause we had the same, my manager was managing him. I was with Bernie Burleson and Brad Gray. So then I met Rosie who seemed like just like

so confident in New York and everything. I can't believe how young we both were, but I got to do 40 minutes. Lauren came, brought Brandon Tartikoff and then Cher. And I got 40 minutes in front of a regular audience instead of five following Kennison. And that's kind of how I got the show. Wow.

Did Cher do Five? How was her set? Cher came out and she had like a sequined dress on and she goes, half funny. Half funny? Instead of half green, I don't know. I like it, yeah. Do you believe I'm 74?

Jesus, kind of reaching with the leaper pod. I don't know what's going on. She gets it. Dana, it's the season to shop new styles, electronics, and definitely a holiday trip. And what if each time you made a purchase, you got a little something back? With Rack-A-Ten, you can. Yes. Earn cash back on just about anything you buy from over 750 stores. So if you're asking me and if you're looking to buy a new phone, clothes, skincare or a getaway,

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or get the Rakuten app. That's R-A-K-U-T-E-N.CA. I'm Joanne Robinson, host of the new podcast, The Women's Hoop Show. Each episode, I'll be joined by a rotating group of women's basketball experts to talk WNBA, college hoops, the new unrivaled league, and the shifting landscape of the sport. The game is growing and so are we. Listen to and follow The Women's Hoop Show and Odyssey podcast, available now for free on the Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.

["Women's Hoop Show and Odyssey"] ["Women's Hoop Show and Odyssey"] When did you audition, Spade? When was yours? Thank you. I'll take this question, Dana. Yes, Spade. I'm gonna stay quiet,

because this is riveting. Well... Funny story, I was born in... No, I'm gonna stay quiet, because this is riveting. Well, funny story. I was born in, no, I'm kidding, going too far back. I went with Schneider. It's funny, because you were mentioning New York clubs. I've never played them, and they had us audition off a young comedian special. They brought us in to audition at Probably Catch a Rising Star,

if that sounds familiar. Yeah. And on a tough night, and they all us in to audition at probably Catch a Rising Star, if that sounds familiar. And on a tough night, and they all came in, from Downey to maybe Smigel to maybe Frank, to not Lorne. I don't think Lorne is there. But I remember it was me, Schneider, Tom Kenny. I always say this like it's negative to Tom Kenny. It's not negative Tom Kenny. He was a San Francisco act that was very just broader.

I knew him well, Spongebob. Yeah, killed. Spongebob and he owns most of Nevada. Yeah. But anyway. He's so rich. But Dennis Miller was there too and he was helping. And you know, before I went on, he goes, I tell Dana,

he goes, Spud, you don't wanna kill too hard. They don't want some polished fucking road hack. And I go, so don't do good? He's like, all right, three, two, one. I'm like, wait, Dennis, what? So anyway, I took his advice, did not do well. His advice was the right thing, it just in the whole complexities of it all.

I didn't really get it. They were just really looking at the writing of the jokes for me to be a writer, maybe a performer later. I thought I was to be a performer. So I'm like, yeah, da da, give them the whole JonBenet routine, really amping it up. And then afterwards I got off early because I said, I think I was supposed to do 20, I did 12 maybe.

I think Schneider went off early. But Tom Kenny did do very well, but Rob and I got the call to come in and write and perform. Oh wow. But you thought that night you hadn't done well, right? I just knew it was a tough night, but it was pretty sparse, you know,

and it was probably half, it was probably 15 from SNL and 15 people, so, regular people, so they don't laugh a lot, but they're just looking at sort of, you know, it's the same way I am now, I can watch a comic, and even if not killing, I almost don't hear it, I just go, ooh, that was a good one, ooh. You know, like I like it, who cares if they like it?

I was like, I think that's good and well written, or something about it, you can tell like a name that tune in two jokes. You go, I think this guy's got some game. Yes. And so you know how it is. So at a certain point, you know that, but at that point I didn't. But luckily some of the jokes,

they kind of liked how I put them together. And that really got me in as a writer that was not ready to be a writer with my legal pen. Would you have liked to have been a cast member, Carol? Did you ever think of that for audition for? I think, well, you know, the weird year, it was like, I don't know that I want to be a part of. Well, what do you say?

Just throw yourself in the fire at the end. But, you know, I feel like that year I had one foot in and one foot out, because I really wanted to concentrate on my standup. So, yeah, I don't think I, I just on the weekend, you know, weeks off, I'd be doing sets and all that. So, yeah, no, certainly maybe if I had been on a more successful year, I would have dreamt about it.

But- Did you ever take, do you ever feel weird about taking a stand-up bit and putting it in a sketch? You feel like you're kind of wasting it and it's a selfish decision to go, do I try to get this on there and then I can never use it again, but it would help here? Yeah, I didn't really have that fear

because as you boys know, you know, you got to get stuff on. Yeah. Or it's a very bad feeling there, you know. That's a good way to put it. I'm not getting things on. And people start ignoring you and it's like, oh no, they go, you're not even a formidable opponent here. You're just, yeah.

Yeah. You want to get on. So it's of course goes into the show if it can. Exactly. So I always felt like if I had to take for my act, dig away. Yeah. If it keeps you alive at the show.

It's a hundred percent. Yeah. That's so crazy, but people don't think of that, but it is a weird thing goes through your head. You're like, cause you're running out of ideas quickly. Yeah. Every host looks the same and you're like, wait, I got a,

I got this guy and the next week it's Corbin Berntzen. And then it's, you know, I think I had Corbin Berntzen was there when I did it. Yeah. He was, I think he was an overlapping one. I think it was the third host. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And funny. And I just, sorry, I'm show dropping the Oscars a couple of times.

Please do. John Litho was presenting this year and I saw him, the writers hanging out in the green room and I saw him and I said, you guest hosted the year that I wrote on SNL. He was like, well, he was very sweet. He was like, you must have been a young child when you worked there. I said, yes, of course, child labor.

But no, I told him that he was such a great host. He learned every writer's name that week. And he was incredible. And he remembered the sketch that we had written for him. That got on. Yeah, yeah. So he was he was amazing and still is. Did you ever so what other can you tell us about the Oscars? You were at the Oscars? I wrote on them. Yeah, I wrote on the Oscars. And you wrote, so Conan's team brought you in or whatever? Well how does it work? And then, this is my 11th time, I was part of-

Is there writers to come with the show? That's what I figured, you wrote a lot for the Oscars over the years. Yeah. Yeah, you baked in and then Conan can bring some extra people, is that how it works? No, Conan has his own team of people and then there's a show team that I'm part of. Okay. I don't know if you guys know this guy, John Maxx, he's the head writer of many, many great, he's the guy to go to for your award shows. And yeah, and then we-

Is Valanche in there? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no Would you write for Billy? Did you write for Billy? Yes, I wrote for Billy a couple of times. Billy's great. I'm going to say on this podcast, they've all been great. I love Billy's Broadway songs about the current movies. Anora, Anora, she's annoying, Anora, I'm a wicked man. You know, I mean, it's so, Billy was just great, great host. I don't know if he was the first one to go into the movies

and be like, they'd use the actors or the real movie, he'd be inside of them. Yeah, he was gonna never play inside. That was funny as shit, yeah. Yeah, well, Troy Miller used to direct. All right. Yeah. Yeah.

And I loved Conan's substance parody. How funny was that? That was because for people haven't seen the movie, a crawled out of in the movie, the me more sort of becomes a wake, a walking corpse or like a monster. Anyway, climbed down of her backside. I mean, to start the 119th Oscar show. His head is, I mean, it was definitely catching.

It was like, okay, we got something different here. Yeah. But even, I loved his, his musical number was a lot like, it reminded me of the Great Billy stuff too, like that. He was, I thought he was great. I thought for Conan, it was a little edgier than normal for him to say like, it's halftime. Usually Kendrick would be calling Drake a pedophile.

I'm like, a pedophile joke is kind of a lot for the Oscars and Conan. I was fine with it, but I thought, oh good, at least he's out of the box a little bit. Yeah, yeah. Look, funny is funny, but I agree that. I'm saying, I'm just surprised. Sometimes they don't, they tamp down a few things

at different shows. You know, they go, ah, I don't know if that's what we do here, that kind of thing. But at least they're saying, hey, it's getting harder and harder to get people to watch, let's just go crazy. Some of these things pay off these days. Like get out there and shake it up.

Exactly. It's fun to have more free reign. It's hard to get jokes killed. It's like, ah, come on, come on. So just so the people familiarize. So you wrote 12 times for the Oscars. You wrote up for Seinfeld. I mean, can we talk about that a little?

Has Jerry changed? Has Jerry changed? We know him pretty well. We had him on the podcast. Yes, I heard it. It was great. Yeah. Jerry.

Jerry. He is a great guy. He made all my dreams come true a couple of weeks ago because I was in New York. As you can see, I'm a big Beatles fan. Don't get me started. Did you go to the Bowery or something? Yes, yes. Oh, wow.

Yes. Oh, great. Yeah. And not only did we, I go with him to see McCartney at the Bowery Ballroom. But afterwards, there was a little after party and he introduced me to him. Ooh, that's as good as it gets.

Yeah, and he said my name, he said, hello, Carol. And kissed me on the cheek. Whoa. He kissed you on the cheek? Kissed me on the cheek, yeah. He doesn you on the cheek? Kiss me on the cheek. Yeah. He doesn't do that too often. That's pretty huge. I haven't seen it.

I know. You seem like a really nice lady, you know. So I get a little, I give you a peck on the cheekies, you know, just to kind of cheer up the whole room, you know. Then David's bed came over. I just gave him a fist bump. Kind of buzz killed it. Not as impressive as Carol.

Well, you guys, I have to say, this is, would you say that as far as musical living legends, I'd say McCartney, there's Mick Jagger, there's, I mean, there's a couple, but those two definitely could be the top two, or I'm sure I'm spacing on some people, but Ringo. I mean, if you're in The Beatles, you're up there, of course. Yes.

And Mick is such a, just a worldwide phenomenon of, you know, legends. So who else is up there like it's still, cause when you see Paul, you just get like shook a bit. Yeah. I'm gonna ask you, I'm gonna ask you about your introduction to the Beatles and your lifelong love affair, because we're in the same age group,

and then to meet him later on. But to me, I'm sorry, there's just the Beatles, and then there's incredible bands, Zeppelin, Stones, Pink Floyd, and then, you know, go on and on, Eminem. But there's just one Beatles because there's just too much music and too much revolutionary things going on. So were you a classic, I wanna hold your hand, in 64?

Or when did I see you? Yeah. Yes, yes. I mean, I was lucky that... Yes, yes, yes, the whole ride. As a little, little, little girl. As a little, little fetus. Yeah. I was introduced, no.

I have an older sister who's five years older and a brother who's 11 years older. So I heard their music a lot as a kid and remember the Ed Sullivan show, them coming on, going crazy, what a happening it was. It's hard to explain to people how revolutionary their haircuts were. I mean, it was like, what, what?

Just the haircuts alone, shot him up the chart. Just the haircuts alone. But then I was lucky enough in 66, yes, 1966, my brother was home from University of Chicago. And the night of the Beatles concert, he said, because we lived on Long Island, hey, hey, squirt, you want to go see the Beatles? And I was like, yeah. And drove to Shea. We got tickets that night.

My sister, who had gotten tickets six months before, she was like, four rows in front of us. It's like, how did this happen? And saw the Beatles at Shea Stadium. At Shea Stadium. That's a legendary. Big thing for a band, rock and roll band, to play a giant. They have two PV amps. Right.

Dana, wasn't it some shitty sound or whatever? I think they only did 30, 35 minutes. TV amps. Dana, wasn't it some shitty sound or whatever? I think they only did 30, 35 minutes. They couldn't hear themselves. The roar of the crowd, they just couldn't, you know. Oh yeah. Just not. Love it though, how great.

Oh my God, what a part of history. If you had a not famous Beatles song, like what is one of your favorites? I'll throw out some. She's leaving home and I love her. No reply. And I love her. Hard Day's Night, I Wanna Hold Your Hand,

which I think is, I think that She Loves You is a masterpiece. It's like two minutes and five seconds. But are you kind of a Strawberry Fields or are you Penny Lane Lane? Yeah five six. I kind of am very uh wedded to their early stuff because it reminds me of the mania and of first seeing them and all that so like I saw her standing there you know that early early stuff but I'm also a wings fan you know yeah me too um and I just worked with Lawrence Juber,

who was like his guitar player in Wings. So I run the gamut, you know, with McCartney. Did you tell McCartney you saw him at the Shea Stadium? What'd you say? Did you tell him you saw him? No, I was too- He would have probably freaked out. Chase Stadium? What'd you say? Did you tell him you saw him? No, I was too... He would have probably freaked out. He doesn't hear that every day. Yeah, but he was talking about, you know, they didn't...

People couldn't have their phones that night at the Bowery Ball. Oh, at Chase Stadium? Oh, oh, Bowery Ball. At Jay Stadium? Oh, oh, Bowery Ball. No. I brought my landline. 2025 is calling, Spudly. Okay. I know.

But it was great because there were, and to watch the show, because we were up in this little, you know, I mean, it maybe has like 300 people in the whole place, but to watch a concert now with people not having their phones, it was such a joy because it's like, oh right, people actually experience it and not wanting it for later. Yeah. It was incredible.

Were you sitting or was it standing alone? Or was it sitting? You get to sit. The VIPs like Jerry and his plus one were up on a balcony. So we were standing, but you wanted to stand. Everybody was standing. There was no-

Well, you stand every song anyway, cause it's a hit, so you stand up anyway. Yeah, yeah. Every song's a hit basically. Can I do a clumsy kind of forward thing? Because during the peak of the Seinfeld years, how many seasons did you write on that show? Three.

Three. I think they were on the Rolling Stone, almost like they were so, got so big. There's only the Beatles, but they were almost like a Beatleese sitcom. Yes. And I'm always interested in the dynamic between Jerry and Larry, you know, because that this partnership. And so how did you get hired for that? They just already knew you loved you. They knew you from Letterman and you were just,

was that an easy kind of... Well, we really go so far back as to when I auditioned at the comic strip along with Paul Reiser and Rich Hall. Yeah. Jerry was the MC and he put us through the audition. And then when I auditioned to Catch a Rising Star, Larry David was the MC and he put me through that audition. So I go back to my first days at these clubs with them. But what happened with Larry and Jerry was weird because I remember they,

I got a call from both of them and it was like, why are my friends calling me together? In 93, that was probably like a conference call. They had to be on the same phone, but it probably like a conference call. They had to be on the same phone, but it's like, why did they call me? They were like, hey, do you want to write on Sunfeld? I was like, yeah.

But my advantage was, and I think other writers' advantage was, they didn't want people who'd written for sitcoms before, because Larry hated all other sitcoms. So they wanted people new to the task. So I was lucky that way. So that's how I got hired. Hey, it's DJ First Dibs.

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Because while your playlist screams, I need a vacation, my algorithm suggests book before March 30th. Remember, Sunwing, save more, do more. Book with your local travel advisor or at sunwing.ca. Book with your local travel advisor or at sunwing.ca. It was such a, you know, interesting sensibility on that show, how it was kind of just about little things and everyone knows the soup Nazi in the puffy shirt. It's like trying to catch the wind.

It's even now with Curb Your Enthusiasm these last 15 years. It's like, what is that sensibility about? You know, it just, but it really pops. The cast was super likable. Um, but there's something about the writing. Yeah. So smart and subtle and, and well observed. So that's just a, I mean, that must, that's the best writer's room on a sitcom in history. I think I, I'm not shitting on Cheers or anybody else, but I think it's gotta be. As far as it worked, I mean, it just worked through the roof.

Our greatest half of our sitcoms. I think Cheers was more considered just a great sitcom and Seinfeld was a little off kilter, not just a sitcom. It was like sort of a different thing going on there. What is the thing about Seinfeld? What do you think made it go so huge? You know, in a lot of ways, it was like SNL to me because you had to pitch your ideas to Larry and Jerry. You would go in and it was set a time to go in. It was like two sentences max.

Elaine thinks the Korean manicurists are talking about her behind her back at the nail salon. That kind of thing. You would go, yeah, yeah, we're doing that. Yeah, that's a great idea, yeah, yeah. And then you'd pitch other ones, and then he had this habit of like rolling his shoulders and going, no, no, no, you know, I can see that on another show now, you know.

Does he say expand in the room, like some ideas are a little more than that? Like he'll go, I like it so far. What else is on there? Or just go write it. Yeah, he would be like, if he liked something like that, or like Elaine thinks there are skinny mirrors at Barney's. You know, he would go, yeah, yeah, I love that. But, you know, come back with like a George,

a Jerry and Kramer story, you story, that kind of thing. But it was the same thing. Like if you pitched ideas and it was a lot of, oh no, I don't know, you sort of started to get anxious about it. But when he liked something, he was so effusive about it. It lifted you to go off and do it. Right, exciting.

I do think, and let's go back to The Beatles here. I'd love to. They made the show great, was the two of their sensibilities together. I always call it kind of like Lenin and McCartney. Jerry, the more kind of pop sensibility, friendly standup. And friendly stand up and Larry being more the linen, the curmudgeon, having the edge and that together it made it lightning in a bottle. Yeah. For sure. That's interesting. That makes sense to me.

Yeah. And even working on Curb, I know Larry so well from Seinfeld, that it was the same thing at Curb. You'd go in and pitch ideas and he would love them or not like them. But when he loves something, I remember the first time I pitched him Curb ideas, I said, you know when you are with regular people, and by regular people, I mean not comedians, and you make a joke and one of them goes,

ba dum bum, you know, as how you wanna strangle them. You know? Like, you know, the equivalent of saying the N word, you know, and he was like, he loved that, you know? So when he loves something and you're on a good roll, you can-

For sure, how fun. Yeah. You wrote on so many though, I've been looking at, you did Modern Family, also Hacks, right? Yes, Hacks just won an Emmy. Hacks is a big deal, of course. Yeah. I think I saw Hannah at that party the other night.

I don't know her, but I think I saw her walk by. Is she possibly taller than I would think? She seemed like, I thought she was tiny. And isn't it amazing that she's Lorraine Newman's daughter? Yeah. I did not, you know, I didn't even put that together for so long. Yeah.

And sometimes when she delivers lines, it's like, I told her. Oh yeah. Love Lorraine. I saw Lorraine at the thing. Oh yeah, yeah. 50th, yeah. Yeah.

Montana, were you there? No, I had the flu. Oh, okay. Oh, what a subject. I've already thought about just what I'm gonna do on the 60th. Yeah. And it's gonna be great.

I thought about the 100th, what I'm gonna do. Let's keep it a little quiet. Keep it real on the. Don't start getting curious, Leaf. When people say ba-dum-pump, I literally, it's like cutting your balls off. It's such a weird move to say, this is a bad joke, you're stupid,

and that they look cool or something. Yeah, yeah. It's a weird, it's all weird vibe. And he loves all that small stuff. Like he loved, I had a pitch about, you know, you pitch something to TV people, execs, and they go, you know, I don't love it. I don't like it.

Yeah, I don't like, it's like, nah, I don't love it. And you know,'t like it. It's like, nah, I don't love it. Then, you know, that's the kind of thing he starts to, like, immediately. I felt like a story. When that's in the ether, now when I'm out and there's a situation, I almost think of Curb. I was out somewhere, and this might even be an episode, but I said bye to everyone.

It took me forever to get out to the front and say bye, bye, bye, and then I forgot my keys, and this might even be an episode. But I said bye to everyone. It took me forever to get out to the front and say bye, bye, bye. And then I forgot my keys inside, and I go, I'm not going back in. I cannot go through there again. And just that awkwardness of like, I just left, but they think I'm coming in for, I ditched them or something.

And so it just made me think, that's one of those weird things that makes you think of that show. You go, I could picture him in some awkward situation. But every episode I watch, I just think, oh, this is such a good little weird curve ball, like just everyday thing, but they make a whole meal out of it.

Yeah, when you see stuff like that, like the puffy corduroy pants, looks like he's excited. Okay, we'll build a whole episode around that. And you go, it's so simple, it's so funny. Everybody knows what he's talking about. But I'm sort of- But that story, he would totally, he would've totally made something about that, totally.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Have you talked about the SNL 50th, like ad nauseum spade? Or- Well, not really. I mean, it's funner with people that have been there because we talked a little bit about it,

but what is your experience of it? You can say anything you want. Oh, well, I wanted to know, I was only there for the concert. So I didn't see- What did you think of the concert? The concert was amazing. Yeah.

Even with my shitty seats, it was amazing. I think everyone I talked to had shittier seats than they thought they were gonna have. Yeah, I was like, hmm, maybe this was, I'd have a better view at home. I said, love it, were you at the American Girl Store for that too? He goes, no, I was at Banana Republic. That was very close to Radio City.

Jealous. Yeah, no, the 50th was a blast to just goof around. But the weekly events of that was that night, what you went to, which was, I think, more fun than people thought. And then the next night, there was like a little toast thing and then the next night was the show. So I did get a lot of it.

That's why I wasn't at the party forever the night of the show. Cause I think it was a Sunday and also I just done everything with everybody all week and I thought there's a three story party. I don't think I could do it that long. Yeah. Did you go to that thing or did you skip it all?

Well, the next night, the Saturday night was the Writers Guild Awards. Okay. And we won for Hacks. Oh. Hacks never, because doesn't kinda, don't they win kind of everything? I mean, they win a lot. They win a lot of stuff.

Well, I'll say this past season we sure did. Yeah. Where's your hardware? You got hardware back there somewhere? Yeah, you should throw it right up there in that cabinet. I do have an Emmy, but it's in the other room. I think it needs to be on camera. Also is it interesting, you go from SNL,

you go to Seinfeld and you're like, everywhere feels like it just couldn't be as good. Then you get an issue like, Hacks, it's a great show. And you go, okay, that feels good. Modern Family's a great show. And you go, okay, that feels good. Modern Family's a great show. Yeah, yeah, no, it's- It's a good streak.

Huh. So when shows are really good- What's the common denominator? There's one common denominator, but I'm not, let me just think- I wonder what it is. What would it be? Starts at Carol, Carol King, no, no, no, no.

But anyway, I mean, you must be proud of, I mean, it is pretty cool how many great shows you've worked on. So clearly you're a valuable commodity and I would like to negotiate whatever your next deal is personally. I'm not gonna push. You guys know as well as I do,

to be in a room with other funny people is just, it's just the greatest. I mean, as much as I love standup in a room with other funny people is just, it's just the greatest. I mean, as much as I love standup, and I saw you recently spayed at the image. That's right. Right? There's nothing better to me than being in a room with funny people.

It's just the greatest thing. It's like, I always think it's like, you know, you go to a foreign country and say you're there for like a month, like Italy, and you know, everybody's speaking Italian and nobody speaks English. And then like an American comes in, you're like, oh my God, you know, and you just bond with him. To me, that's like, with any comedian,

there's always this kind of just instant bond and yeah. I'm always happy if I'm at some event then I see a comedian or a comedian I know and that we're just gonna look at it all differently and try to just clown on everything going on. That was the same thing I went to some Oscar thing the other night and zip right to the comedians and then just sort of make fun of the whole situation. Exactly.

It's the only comfortable spot. That's why I like sketch is because I was a standup and then I had never done sketch comedy. So then it was like, oh, you say that I say this, we're working together. And then of course you get funnier if you're in a writer's room and people are starting to riff, your brain gets kind of associative into this, everything's funny, or how about this thing, or how about that. So I think I totally relate to that. If someone wanted to see, I said, Carol Leifert is a great standup. What would you want them to look at? I would say probably. Some of your 25 letterman or box set.

I really have a great affection for my first letterman, which was in 1982. Just because your first time like, oh my God, I'm on TV and people are seeing this and what I dreamed about. To me, that's like my most precious kind of memory because the first. Yeah, it was Furnwood Tonight. When I came out and saw that, does anyone remember Furnwood Tonight? Martin Mull and yeah, Martin Moll and- Funny it is. Yeah, kind of a parody of a talk show.

Yeah. Did you ever work with Wendy Liebman? I'm, yeah, this is like the perfect setup. I'm working with Wendy Liebman on March 20th at Comedy and Magic Club. Oh, Comedy and Magic, how great. Also with the great Kathy Ladman. So three funny ladies all together.

Yeah, I see what you mean. She's great. Are you publicizing it as three funny ladies or no? Or just as a comedy show? I think they're calling it the ladies of laughter. Oh, the ladies of the night. Dave and I go out as the pipsqueaks of funniness. The pipsqueaks twinsies.

Two little pixies with a dream. We just did a corporate together. It was pretty fun. We never done one. It was pretty fun. Right? Yeah. How much time did you have to do?

Well, we convinced them. That kind of data kind of twinked, tinkered with that. This is inside baseball, but we kind of like as a standup, well, I love being out there with a friend just riffing. So I said to the guys in charge, I said, because they wanted 45 each, you know, and it's hours in a ballroom, all that.

I said, you don't, how about we do 30 each or 25 to 30, and then we come out together and just sort of talk to the audience and they yell stuff out. And he goes, you would do that? Yeah, I'm gonna go out on a limb. I'm not gonna try to redo the deal. But we will come out without a script or our act. You know, and they're yelling out Garth or Tommy Boy.

And we have shit. It's a little chaotic, but you know, cause we threw it at them late if we could have had a microphone out there or something. But it's just fun because they just, they also want to see a picture of us together. So, you know, whatever it do out together. And it made it more fun for us to. That must have been a great gig.

Yeah, it was super fun. They'd never had comedy. And they're like, oh, this is great. So the sound was good. It's really important. You know, the sound is great. That's that is important. You don't hear muffled jokes. Brrrr. I don't go to sound checks, but Jay Farrell played the night before

at some casino in West Virginia. I go, they're gonna need a sound check. How was the sound for Jay Farrell? Oh, it was great, he loved it. So then I go out, first thing I hear is a huge slap back. Hello, hello, hello. I can't stop the show and do a sound check, so it's difficult. You think, they do a show slap back, hello, hello, hello. I can't stop the show and do a sound check, so it's difficult.

You think they do a show every night, you think, I think they know what they're doing, and then you go, oh, they don't. Yeah. In a general way. Can I tell you a great story about Joan Rivers, but that kind of stuff? We would love it.

All right. So I had a corporate gig in New York when I was coming up and they had booked Joan Rivers to just open the show and introduce me and leave. So I get there, you know, before her, obviously, and, you know, like you guys, you know, you don't travel with your agent or manager for these. So I show up and I see that there's no spotlight. So I say to the guy, the tech guy, yeah, I'm the comedian. I see you have a mic, but you don't have a spotlight.

And he looks at me like, oh, sorry, we don't have your spotlight share. I'm some diva. I was like, people need to see me. He just blew me off. It was so brilliant. Then Joan Rivers gets there, says hello to me, and she goes,

where's the spotlight? I go, I know. The tech guy was hanging his head and chin. She literally went on stage and she was like, yeah, she did a bit, you know, cue you doing your Joan Rivers impression. But she goes, listen, I'm going to bring on the next act. But you be very nice to her, all of you, because there's no spotlight and it's very unprofessional. And I mean, I mean, I love you, Joan Rivers.

May you rest in peace. We've all had these situations. I was in a club once and I asked them to turn up the mic for the second show, cause I couldn't, you know, and they just turned it down. It's like just aggression and anger. Sometimes the club owner is a frustrated standup and kind of hates you.

You know, it's like, so we turned it down. You can't get laughs out there. We're like, I don't think they can hear me. Oh, is that why? And like, yeah, that is why they can't hear me. People are yelling, I can't hear you. Did you like the clubs on, you know, touring or going on the road or did you just do it?

Or, you know, were you in condos with other guys and ventriloquists? The comedy condo was the worst experience of my life ever. I did a gig, it was in Phoenix. It was a comedy con, doing it with my friend Sue Kalinske. We get there and we go to this disgusting comedy condo and you know the other guy there and like if you want to go whatever so about seven o'clock Sue and I get ready we're getting ready to go to the gig and we yell up to the the guy well it's you know we're an hour away

from showtime if you want to come down now, we're going. And then that comes down. He's like, Oh, not a comic. I just live here. Oh my God. Never heard of that. Yeah. Had just one of their friends living in one of the rooms. I mean, if you don't call 911 then I really don't know what. Oh my God. For people just, I mean, so you'd go to these cities and instead of putting you in a hotel, they'd have a comedy condo. And there was the main room or the head room. And if you.

For the headliner. The, for the best place with its own bathroom. If you come too late, the Ventura, the course is in there with Chuck Wood. You can't look at his puppet. Chuck Wood. Don't even look at Chuck Wood. Don't even, David Strassman, I think.

No, I'm kidding. But he- Openers get the couch sometimes. They're a unique breed. It's not a joke. That is definitely like that Anthony Hopkins movie. Chuck Wood was real. You must have worked with him.

Before it gets too late, fellas, can I promote my new book? Yes, let's do it now. We're wrapping up. Oh my God, we'll put it now. We're wrapping up. Oh my God. We'll put it in the intro too. Yeah. Yeah.

It's called How to Write a Funny Speech for a Wedding Bar Mitzvah Graduation and Every Other Event You Didn't Want to Go to in the First Place. That's a good title. So come on. It's going to fly. That's a good title. I like it. So that is literally instructive and also humorous,

but actually trying to help people with that process. Okay, say the title again. How to write a funny speech for a wedding, for a MIDSFA graduation, and every other event you didn't want to go to in the first place. Okay, I like it, and I want to ask you a question. So has no one written this book? Cause I think it's a great idea. Okay, I like it. And I wanna ask you a question. So has no one written this book? Cause I think it's a great idea.

Yeah, it is. Yeah, no one has written. I wrote it with my comedy writer friend, Rick Mitchell. And no, no comedy writers have written a book like this. A lot of stiffs, you know, from the, you know, corporate headquarters, whatever have written it, but no. Not funny people.

Right, we're tired of going to events where someone just stinks up the room with their horrible speech and we felt like we could give them some help. Well, that's the number one fear, right? Public speaking, it's way up there. And most comedians' greatest fear is not speaking in front of them.

And obviously, I just want to work. If people want to get this book, you just go on Amazon. It'll be on that. Yeah, it's there. Amazon. You can just click a few buttons. Yeah. And if you don't remember the title, you can say Carol Leifer book. Yeah.

Exactly. Carol Leifer book. Very easy. Oh, I wanted to ask you Spade, cause when I saw you, I loved your bit about Amber Alerts. Yeah. I got an Amber Alert,

I think that day that was new. Got an Amber Alert Dana, and I just want to know how much investigation I'm supposed to be in charge of. What is my job here? What are my duties? If the kid isn't laying on my dashboard, I feel like the search is over. It's a cold case.

That crushed at the date. Oh yeah, I did it the other night, yeah. That's new, thank God, because I got one that day. You were killing at that point. I just said to the guy, I go, can we get him off now? I mean, I think it's over his tongue. I give him the light, yeah. Is it okay to give him a light?

I mean, I don't want to push, but yeah, because you were killing so hard. Danny goes, actually, I got a light. I'm going to run in the back room. You'd always want to sabotage your friend if you can. God, there's guys at the comedy store, they get the light and it means now start your act. Because I'm like wrapping up,

they're like, what else is going on? I'm like, there's no, what else is going on? I'm like, there's no, what else is going on? You're doing your last bit and getting off. Not like, what else is going on? What's going into the crowd? Yeah. What else? You're done. That's a good special title. What else? All right, Carol. Thank you very much. Thanks for being here. Congratulations on your career, your book. Nice to see you. You're always, she's one of the most likable people

that you know in this scene. I think you have that reputation, but I'm always happy to see you and you're very kind. I'm just gonna say it. I just love you guys. You're just so, you're both so incredibly talented and I enjoy your talent. This has been a presentation of Odyssey. Please follow, subscribe, leave a like, a review,

all the stuff, smash that button, whatever it is, wherever you get your podcasts. Fly on the Wall is executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Jenna Weiss Berman of Odyssey, and Heather Santoro. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman.