Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade - Jeff Arcuri Wants to Make Mailbox Money

Episode Date: August 6, 2026

Jeff Arcuri joins David and Dana this week to talk about doing comedy in the round, crowd work, and his new Netflix special “Nice to Meet You”. Also, the guys compare “mailbox money”, wonder if the pottery scene in Ghost is sexual, and Jeff explains why you should search for his special by his last name and not “Jeff”.

The Thursday show was like people were drunk. People didn't know you couldn't go to the bathrooms. People were like looking for the bathroom near the stage like that. There was a lot of things we messed up on Thursday. They walked toward the stage looking for a bathroom. I've had that. And they go, you go, why do you think it's up here? Somebody quoted me for over a million dollars to tape it.

I'm like, you know, that's insane. No, I'm not going to, you know, put a lien on my house to tape a couple of my special. Look at my special on Netflix. It was for the first four days. I had to tell people on Instagram, I'm like, Search by my last name. Don't type in Jeff on it in Netflix. And because you're going to get,

it was just Epstein, Dahmer. It was just all the lucky names. A lot of fun Jeffries out there. All right. Jeff LaCurry is our guest, a up-and-coming, budding stand-up who was a special on Netflix.

You know, called. Called. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. And this gentleman is a guy who's up. and coming, but he's also out there enough to sell out, like, you know, a lot of nights at the Wilbur Theatre in Boston, which is very hard to fill up, even one night. He does a couple.

He did Celebrity Theater in Arizona, his special where I'm from. Arizona. I've played. I love, I should do a special there. I love it. And it's in the round. And he got to tape five shows. He'll tell us about it. And to fill it up five times. That reminds me of Nate. When Nate went there. He did four and I'm like, you can fill that place four times in a row. Wow. What young people say, would say about Jeff is he's got Mo Motion, you know. Oh, I thought it was Moxie. I have Moxie. I know all the young people stuff. You know about looks maxing and money maxing now. So anyway, we had a great time with him. We had a couple little technical glitches, but we edited them out. So what you're not going to hear is fantastic. Yeah.

You're not going to hear it. Dick. So here he is. Let's do it. Let's do it. Light it up. Jeff's in a hotel. Oh, he is? Not cool.

Not cool. Even though I'm in one. Remember when this is really weird and like, you know. Yeah, it feels like COVID again. Jeff, are you old enough to remember COVID? Yeah, well, I'm almost 40. I don't do that. Just hang on to those 30s, man.

Just go, I'm 30-some. You don't need to know anything else. I'm turned 39 this year, and I've been saying 40 since I was like 37, just to get. I usually say it when I need to sound more serious about something. Like, come on, I'm almost 40 years old. Yeah, I'm a 40-year-old man. Yeah. I do the exact same thing.

The minute I'm in any decade, early 30s, I go, I'm almost 40. and then it kept going from there. I don't ever want to be surprised. Like, fuck, how of a sudden was I 40? You know, so you're just always kind of future. I still say, come on, I'm a 40-year-old guy. You're a special great, great, man. The show is out right now, correct?

It's outrageously good. Yeah. Thank you. That means a lot. I loved it. I mean, I never did a special like that. I, you know. So, first of all, Celebrity Theater.

That's Arizona where I'm from. That's where I used to see sticks. Boston, Van Halen. So that's a great theater. I didn't do a special there, but I've definitely played it, and it's great. I know Nate did his there. And that's a great. In the round is a whole, yeah, Louis too.

That's a whole, in the round is you sort of have to get used to it. I got a question before we get into the hilarity of it. Dana, when you do it in the round, you've done these. They came back before the show. Do you want it to spin? I don't think I had it. at spinning when I played the celebrity theater. Does it spin?

I had both. They asked me and I said, what did you last time? And they said, it's fun. I was like, oh, man, I think I will just move myself. No, Jeff, you didn't have spinning, right? It was spinning? No, no, no.

No, no, you just move around, Dave. I think they do it for a lot of bands. They have, because then you get, like, you get to see the whole band. They say, they see it more stationary. is very cool. You see behind the drums out. I mean, I did the thing where it kind of lifts up.

One side of the stage lifts up and it goes like that very subtly. And then the whole center goes up and then down. Did you do that one? That's they press button three where they go like this. Yeah, I call the Pirates. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. It's like that thing.

And, you know, if you're killing it, if you're really hitting it, I mean, that's just the laughs go double. The Venus fly trap, you go like this and it goes. and the audience can't see you anymore. Yeah. And then the greatest thing, you say, good night, everybody. And it just goes under. Yeah, that's good at the whole thing.

And then flowers are on top. But that costs like 3K or something. But anyway, those are the jokes, folks, for people listening. Is that real? Those are real. I mean, there is a movement or non-movement. I chose non-moving, not taping. But I think Nate said he took movement.

And I was like, wow, because it does. throw you a little bit. It's just not, it's subtle. I mean, not even moving was tough. I remember we did like, we recorded a bunch of shows, but the first one we recorded and I got off with a lot of notes where I was like, I need some way of knowing where I am because I would be like talking about, you know, I found out like a lot of gay people who were on the left side.

So I was like, yeah, and they gay people. And I was like, shit, where are they now, you know? And I didn't know where I was on the stage. So we figured out by putting a piece of gaff tape on the stool, we figured out where my 12 o'clock was. So whenever I referenced somebody, I'd be like, all right, they're at six. God, that's right. Oh, interesting. But why did you do it there?

I mean, was it a place you'd done once and you loved it? And then you wanted to save yourself, right? So you didn't play there for at least a year or two, I assume. But you knew it was where it was really good for you, right? Well, yeah, we did it actually just under a year prior before I taped it. I called my agent. We did three-quarter round. We didn't do the full.

We did like three-quarters. So I had a backing to me where I could kind of stay. And I just had two awesome shows. I did not want to get off stage. They were just so fun and so interactive in a way that I'm like, I called my agent. That's the first show. And I said, if I ever tape a special for anything, I wanted to be here. And I'm glad I did because I was able to do crowd work and have.

fun with the audience, but it was definitely a bit of a bold first shot at a special, just because there's a lot of things I didn't keep in mind. I'm not, you know, your first special should be on a stage that you're used to that you're comfortable with. And I remember kind of freaking out at like, oh, shit, how do I turn around now? And I was like figuring it out as I was doing it. Yeah, you got enough on your mind. Yeah, for sure.

It's scary enough with just cameras and lights and audiences acting a little different. I've done ones where I've said the same thing. You'll leave and you go, this. place would be perfect. There's one up in Santa Rosa somewhere I was, Dana. And I remember we were with the Burbank. Everybody killed and we're like, this would be great. It's not too huge. And then you go, I got to give it space because would I ever get this good of a crowd again or maybe as the crowd? But it's very hard. Because you did four, right? Four shows at celebrity, it's hard to fill. So in a year, which is good. We ended up doing, we ended up adding a fifth show, like a Thursday. And they're like,

let's just add this as a rehearsal, even if we don't sell it out. And I'm like, we got to record it. I go, if we don't record it, it's going to be the one I end up wanting to use. Right. Of course, it won't be the best show you've ever done. Yeah. So you got to record five times. You had five shots at this.

Now, was the show that we saw, like, basically one show, or did you mix and match a little bit? It was 90% of it was from one show. So I did the Thursday show, and then I was like, I remember getting, off knowing it wasn't what I wanted because I could tell by myself, but also you ever get off stage and see everyone around you waiting for your reaction? Like when you get off and then people are just like, ah? And you're like, no. And I just, I just knew it wasn't good.

They already had that look on their face that they knew it wasn't great. But I wasn't worried. And then Friday night first show is when I got 90% of it. We got like, I cried at the end of it. I was like, this is it. And we got 90% of the cuts from that one show. and the rest of it were just every now and then. That's so fantastic that you've got five shows.

I've only done two and I only had one shot at it, one for technical reasons. And then you go, okay, this, I only have one shot. It's like, you know, it puts a lot of pressure on it. And you feel like you've got to get through things. One thing I like the way they shot it and the way you used the stage, the way you circled around. And sometimes you'd look over your shoulder like you're referring to the people behind you.

You're sort of like, I know you guys. and this and the way you were moving. It was very good. I wouldn't have anything but A plus on this special. I don't know. You know, it seemed like kind of a perfect special for you watching you. I mean,

like a great set, right? It was just like the crowd work. The way you did the crowd work, you introduce a subject. You might go to them. You might not. At some point you go to them.

And then you'll re come back to the subject. It's not just all crowd work. why it's all integrated into the stuff. And so I thought that was really great too, you know. That's amazing. Thank you. Yeah, I wanted it to come off that way. Like, hey, it's, it's, I bring people into the show.

I specifically try and find guys that are maybe not wanting to be into it. And then I want to make them the kind of the hero of the show. And like, hey, it looks like you just came here with your wife, but you're now the star, you know. And I was able to do that. Like everything worked out really, really well. And it was funny because I was kind of freaking out. That first month I got the special, the first V1. I, like, went into a depression.

I didn't want to watch it. I thought it was going to be garbage. And my wife had to kind of, like, pull me out of it a little bit. And, like, forced me to watch it. And I finally did. And, yeah, I just started sending it to comics that I trusted and, like, asking their opinion of it and stuff. It's agonizing to go into the edit.

For some people, for me, I just, I keep putting it off. And, like, you've got to get in there. And I go, well, just get it rough. Let me see. And then I go in. Now, yours is a different because when you're, you know, for the audience, you do some crowdwork and you go into the audience now for people listening. So the hard part about that is you're doing callbacks and things. And so when you're doing it with four or five different crowds, when you're cutting, it's hard to say, okay, I kept this one guy.

I have to keep that runner or something, right? Isn't it a little complicated that way too? Yeah. Yeah. So there was actually a crazy edit. So 90% of the show came from one show. But in the beginning, the editor worked his magic. So the original V1 had like every crowdwork interaction.

It was like a good 10, 15 minutes longer than the current version because he found a way to fit it all in. But I'm like, a lot of this is just time killer or like nothing funny came out of that crowdwork. So we don't need it, you know. And they basically, the way I start every show is I try and find a husband that was brought by a wife. That's usually, I find that target and I make them the hero. And I found two different guys because I did one guy on the Friday show and then another guy on like a Saturday show. And I used them both as the same role, but the way that they edited it and they made it look like I talked to the two guys in a row, like not different shows. I see. And I technically, I entered the same

the conversation the same way with both of them, but they twisted the words up and made it seem different. I was able to get both guys in for callbacks the whole show because of the way they edit it. Dude, I literally asked to watch because I edit a little bit on Adobe. And I was like, can I watch you edit what you're talking about? And I was just watching him flick around and do all this stuff. And I was like, why did you cut that there? And he goes, sometimes you just feel it, man. And I'm like, all right, you're good at your job.

I'm messing with this. Well, you can cram extra jokes because, you know, you have some shows that are good. I was Chris Rock last night and he said, I've done it for how many years, 30 years? I've had eight great shows. He said, it just sounds crazy, but there's really the kind of just walk away like you got

a grand slam, you walk off, and you go done. I can't beat it. I'm up as good as everyone. And then the other ones are pretty good. They vary from fuck, there's one spot. So when you get a special, it should be the cheat code and it seems like you're getting it because you're like, I had a great

thing with this guy, but then Saturday I had a great what if we got them all in the same show? I thought you were going to say you cheated it where you talked and you heard the answer but you didn't see the guy. So you got to laugh thinking it was the same guy or something like that. You know, because you're just talking. No. But you did it better.

Yeah, that's better. That's great. Yeah. You pack it. Yeah. Everyone involved in the team, like everybody around it was really cool. Like I've heard from other people. I'm not sure if you guys have experienced this, but when they

come to taping specials, they'll be like, hey, stop, we need to fix your jacket. Hey, stop. We need to fix your hair. Or can we run that again? All right, hey, guys, we're going to run that again. I was scared of that happening because that kind of pulls me out of the conversation, like making it a conversation that I'm in control of with the audience. And so I was glad where he said, listen, we're lucky enough to do a lot of shows.

I won't tell you a single thing. Just go do your show like you normally do your show. And then I'll tell you if we're like down to the wire on things. and he said straight up, he's like, every show you did, you nailed the things without me saying it. Like, you fixed what you said or what you were going to. Who is that, Alex? Jordan Levy and Matt Schuller were the producers for this.

Okay, great. I got to say, like, his artistic direction with stuff, like the fact that I had a heckler in the beginning as my cold open, that was his idea. Like, that was all him. And that was pulled away from the Thursday show because we, the Thursday show was like people were drunk. People didn't know you couldn't go to the bathrooms.

So people were, like, looking for the bathroom near the stage like that. There was a lot of things we messed up on Thursday. They walked toward the stage looking for a bathroom. I've had that. And they go, you go, why do you think it's up here? Get the fuck out of it. So Dana, we're here to talk about Amazon music.

Yep. They have podcasts. They have audio books. They have everything in one app. You can pick from obviously Amazon's huge. You can get any kind of books you want, any sort of audiobook. And he's music, of course. So I picked,

Project Hail Mary. Project Hell Mary in the movie is Ryan Gosling. You don't know him. He's kind of a friend of mine. Oh, yeah. He's kind of funny. He's on SNL. Yeah.

He's great. And he's a huge star. Anyway, Project Hail Mary, this guy who reads it, his name's Ray Porter. He's done, he's a good voice. He's done over 500 of these. So it's good to have someone good. They get good people. They read it.

And, you know, let's say I'm moving. And I just have it on in the house. I have to unload boxes while Heather lays around in a hammock. So Project Hail Mary, first of all, it's about very interesting. He's a teacher, you know, Ryan Gosling, average guy, but very smart. I like that. They need to put him in a spaceship and go try to fix the sun. You know, whatever.

Yeah, there's bacteria. All these suns are dines. The sun's got a fungus. He has to go bring some pen of things. So it doesn't realize it's a suicide mission. They're like, we need you because you're so smart. And they're like, also it's, we only have X amount of gas. Goes up there, sees another spaceship.

I won't give it all the way, but there's an alien on that one. They buddy up. Kind of turns into a buddy movie, but, you know. But it's very well done. And it's very interesting to hear. And you don't know what's coming. And that's a good, long thing to just distract you and make you, while you're doing, you can do something else,

you know. And I like these because that's something I'm not going to, I don't pick up as books, as smart as I look and everyone's like, oh my God, you're so smart. I know. Yeah, for sure. I'm not always nose in a book, which you think. So Amazon music obviously has it covered. They have movies, they have everything. But if you want a podcast, music and audiobook app, you get on there. your Amazon music unlimited subscription now include access to these audiobooks so download the app today start listening and have some fun with it think back to the classic treats that made hot days instantly better you know the ones you would stand in line at the pool no matter how hot it was outside now imagine taking that unbelievable taste everywhere you go reimagine as a

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And I did my whole act. I still did the full hour. But I got that. There was a sense of relief when I saw. said, all right, we're not using this one. And everyone kind of laughed. And then we just, the show was better from there on out. And I was like, I need to go into it with that mentality.

Every show like, hey, we're just having fun. We're not going to use this, you know? Yeah, they're on the special too. So they're probably, you know, Dane and I talk about this. They tighten up a little bit because they see lights like, oh, my God, I don't know if I should wear this because they think they're going to be cameras on them and they don't react just like a regular great crowd. I've gone on stage and within the first minute of a special going,

I can't believe I got a tough crowd on my own special. Like, I go on the road. You know what I mean? The gigs are going great and you lead up to it. You got these great crowds. And the night it happens, there's lights are in their eyes and they're distracted and they can't get up and pee and there's no booze or anything. And they're like, ah, what the fuck are we doing here? And then you go, they're tough?

They're going to be tough? Some would argue that if you were to like the worst time to see a comedian is at a specialsaving. Yeah. You know, if you're going to see them for the first time, it should be working it out, you know. I'll start. Also, there's lights and cameras around and they know they're part of this thing. I mean, there can be attention to it.

But your attitude was so, I can tell you're legitimately really having a good time. And I think the five shows really helps. I do. You could have one and hit it like that, but you never know. But like when I watch Sandler, there's that one special, he taped it all over the country. And I go, the first time I'm watching. watching a performer who doesn't know he's shooting a special. Yeah.

It might be in the special. It might not. We're going to do 40 of them in different countries. Yeah. You had a sense of that vibe for that Friday show of just, I'm just, I'm throwing a personal party. You know,

there was no, no sense of, like, pushing because you'll see really good standups and their eyes are just a little bit tight, just slightly. Sure. You can tell they're not,

in the pocket with their set. They still got all the material. They're going to kill. But it's very common and yours didn't have that. You know what you heard probably, Jeff, is on the first, well, you, you, you did. I usually have two tapings. I think Dana also. You have an early late.

Well, I have a technical problem with one and then I have one real shot. Right. You know. So when I did my, for every special I've done, I do the first one and you go back and someone says that was you hit it out of the park we we got it so just go have fun it's like such psychological stuff to make you go oh i'm gonna relax and then later and then later we used the whole second at show yeah yeah yeah the first one's a little off and i'm like wait you told me the first fucking whole run scam i mean do some of your your peers your friends guys in your world

I was just doing a thing with Adam Ray last night. He talked about you in very positive terms. That's great. Dr. Phil thing. And I wonder. Oh, nice. Yeah, it was funny. I was just out there and he's doing, you know, his thing is a great crowd in a small club,

Oxnard Improft. But anyway, like when your generation is shooting specials, do people, how is it different? Like, does everyone shoot five? or was yours is that unique you got five tapings or no that's that's crazy our our goal was was like hey i'd love three you know and we luckily like you know we could say it was for netflix so we put it on sale and it sold really really well and then we thought hey you know we need to make the money back because the specials you lose money on them um the way the deals are kind of set up now where you're you're you're they're paying you for a special once you deliver it yeah yeah oh yeah some say

for the people at home sometimes people pay it out of their pocket and put it on if they can't sell it they put on youtube still can do well some people do it and then sell it to a streamer after the fact they pay for it which is pretty expensive and then sell it and some people get the money from the streamer keep some and use the rest to produce it so you you went the way where you make it and then sell it? Is that what we said? No, so basically they offered, hey, do you want to make a special for us? Okay.

For Netflix. And then they give you, it's public knowledge. I think I've talked about it on a couple podcasts. It was the two-for-two deal or whatever, where it's two years, they get the special for two years for $200,000. And obviously it takes more than that to tape a special. And I went like below-end. I got quoted, somebody quoted me for over a million dollars to

tape it. And I'm like, yeah, that's insane. No, I'm not going to, you know, put a lien on my house to tape a conference. Yeah. Also, you have to, let me interject, what we're saying, Dane and I are saying about one show, two shows one night is because of crew and unions. And if you even do one show on Thursday, they're like, well, that's a whole other day of they got a clock in, catering. It's just like certain rules, you're going to pay a chunk for each day so they try to get everything into one day and you get two days you got three days so you must have invested in yourself which is great actually yeah i i said let's just do it like that's why i was like hey just pay them for the extra day like we'll figure it out and uh i kind of i kind of like this

system though i mean some people would say yeah it'll be easier the way like comedy central we used to do it where they'd be like all right let's film five specials in one show in new or wherever and we'll get it all we'll take care of everything we'll pay you each 20,000 dollars, whatever it may be, and then that specials ours. And now there are comedians that can't get their own material back because, you know, it's owned by, you know, Viacom or whatever. So that is kind of cool that we get the ownership back as part of the initial deal is that in two years I can then flip it onto YouTube and for free, not even monetizing it or I can do whatever with it. It'll be mine again, you know. Two is pretty quick. I would think it would be longer.

I didn't even know. I don't know where mine are. I got to ask, Alex. I don't know. You answered my question. So it's a, it's fantastic system that you're going to own that in two years. It's great. Yeah, I didn't think they can offer you another lease. Like if it does well enough, like or whatever, they can, hey, they can do like a six-year lease or something like that, which that'd be great. I'd like that to get paid again for something I already did. I'd appreciate that. Mailbox money. I like that free money out of nowhere. you guys got a lot of that random residual monies Dana doesn't like money Hmm The only thing I got lucky with was

Wayne's World 1 That's still you know I get mailbox money from Wayne's World The first Wayne's World Why not too? Cheap Oh oh oh Two everyone everything got in two

We satirized kind of selling out In the first one where we wore all the year and it's really sad that people. Then the second one, we kind of did what we satirized in the first film. The money came in. I walked on the set and Wayne and Garth had this layer, like this $500,000 layer. We were rich and there were statues of Stalin out front. It's like too much money for comedy sometimes, you know, but running, run and gun.

But in the early days, you'd try to get up front. Your people try to get you a bunch of money and then they would just own it and they would tell you what to do kind of and how many shows you could shoot. So this is sort of very satisfying to hear this other way that people are doing it. More control, you know. Yeah. Yeah. I think we're taking that movie Bus Boys. It's going on Hulu in August and then we get it back at some point.

So it's kind of the same thing with a movie because we paid for the movie. So they get it. I think it's for maybe two years again, something like that, 18 months. And then they either could re-up it or we can take it over to TBS and push it between grown-ups one and go dirt. Whatever's on TBS that day, bench warmers. I love it, though. No, that's great.

So this is very interesting. Like, I think people are learning about specials from you because it's just sort of a blur. People are like, oh, that guy's got a special. why is it on Hulu? Why is it on Netflix? Why is it on Amazon? I've done one Amazon's Comedy Central and then two other places. Oh, HBO in the old days, yeah.

And then one more, but they're kind of floating all over the place. And I will say Comedy Central was seen by the least, including Dana. Dana kept trying to watch it. He's like, I can't get it. I can't find it. I can't try it on their website and log in and sign up. I couldn't find it. It's more hard to get.

And I'm like, this should not be the way it is. It should be so. Don't make it like Indiana Jones or something. It's not the crystal skull. We're trying to find it. Oh, yeah. You should look up my special on Netflix. It was for the first four days.

I had to tell people on Instagram, I'm like, search by my last name. Don't type in Jeff on it in Netflix. And because you're going to get, it was just Epstein, Dahmer. It was just all the money. A lot of fun, Jeffries out there. And your last name is. hardest time. I didn't remember how to spell it when I was looking up today. And I'm like, wait, how do you spell that? You know? Yeah, neither did, neither did the laugh

factory. I saw, I clicked in on Dahmer accidentally. I just watched her a few minutes. And it was surprisingly funny. He does crowd work too. Yeah. I mean, it's not as, it's not as as good as your special, but it was surprisingly had some pop to it. I don't know why I don't know this. Does Netflix allow clips? or would that be later? Why don't I know that? Like, are there, is Netflix going to clip it and,

and put it out? They gave me a bunch that they collaborated on. Okay, so that's good. Our team hired people. They just basically cut it into that format for us. And it's Netflix. And it's the first time I ever,

yeah, it's the first time I ever let somebody else, like edit my, my stuff. Every clip I posted before that was scary. Right. Edited on the road. So I was like,

I hope it does well. And they both did better than any of my clip. I'm like, all right, time to give up the editing. They know what they're doing. Well, that's good. They also look so polished and they look so good. You know, those Netflix specials look great.

And I don't think they will accept one that doesn't look great. If someone films it and wants to sell it, you're like, you have to spend money because Ted and the gang over there, Robbie. They don't want to have some shitty looking one camera in the back of the Ontario improv. Which were Jeffrey Epstein did his special, by the way, dude. The word Joseph Domew or do his special. Jeffrey Epstein did his at the Ontario Improv, but Dahmer did his at the Comedy Store in La Jolla. I thought it was punchline, San Francisco. No reason.

It was funny bones. But yeah, we're in a clip world. I mean, like, we'll get some clips sometimes that we'll go millions. It doesn't really count toward our business model or downloads. Because I'll watch a lot of clips too, you know, just this clip. So you'll probably get millions and millions. So as far as the special, what, you know, what the press is kind of teasing out is your wife's breast cancer and that whole relationship with her. So and I thought you navigated it perfectly.

But that was like, you know, obviously. Dana, what if you're the one telling him right now? I'm sorry, I have to tell you. It was cool the way you handled it. It was sweet, emotional, and it also, you got laughs out of the whole process. And, you know, so that kind of was what the news. Talk to that. Yeah, that was pretty tough because that was, I actually had, there was a filmmaker in New York called Matt Sallacuse.

He does a lot of, like, documentary and indie projects for a lot of comedies. in New York. And I had him follow me around for like the month or like the three weeks leading up to the special. And he recorded me. I did a residency at the Wilbur Theater in Boston. And so he recorded me going there every night and running the hour and then running back to the notebook and like walking my dog and then taking care of my wife and like running and doing all this stuff for the week. And I remember it was at the Wilbur Theater when I was having a hard time figuring out how to bring up the case. the cancer, how to bring this up in the middle of a set,

in the middle of a clown show, why am I doing something so serious? And he eventually, he had the camera rolling, and he's like, just talk to me about it. Like, how would you tell me? And I just told him earnestly, and he recorded it. And he's like, just say that.

And that's how, wow, what I ended up saying was I, the first time, I had, like, days prior to me taping the special, I was telling him on camera, like, I just couldn't get it or laugh. I just tried. you know, and I was crying, talking to him about it, and he said, just say that. That's real. Just say that. And so we ended up using that. And that was like, that was like a real thing. And it was fresh. Like, that's why it was, I'm not cringing at me tearing up a little bit because I'm like, that was still a new sentence to me.

If I had been touring with that for two years and then I got that part. And again, I was like, and then the hardest part, guys, like, it would be harder to sell. I wouldn't have been as emotional about it if I was. you know, I'd repeated it 300 times, you know, so it worked out really, really well. It's just then you get a chance to try it out with audiences before you tape. So you know where the beats are kind of, you know. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You know that you're going to, they're going to take that right and then it's going to,

you're going to go up again at the end, the bit at the end was really funny. You know, the sperm bank. David knows a little bit about that time. Hey, listen, speaking of repeating things 300 times, I think I'm going to go to a set tonight. What are you going to open with? I'm just thinking of it. That's a funny way to talk about your act. I did this about 300 times.

Isn't that wild though? It is funny when you start to the backup. I just look at it. No one did that. We didn't have cameras. I don't know. It's just sort of nice that you're going to the Wilbur's theater. And I guess he had a single camera on you, kind of.

But you're just seeing it what it feels like ahead of time, you know. And I don't know. We didn't. There were video. I don't think we had video cameras when I went to the first one. But it's great to see why it was so good, the amount of work you put into it, you know, and the care. And then the five shows. So it's really cool.

Thank you. Thank you. And Katie's doing okay now? Or what's Liz? Because I met her through the comedy world. She was doing stand-up, right? For a while. Does she still do stand-up?

Yeah. No, no. she's not. She's, I told her, I told her, that's my job. No,

I, yeah, so she's, she's doing great now. She's, she's been, it's a stage four, so it's forever.

It's something that we kind of get used to, but we get, we keep getting good news, and I like to think our good news is better than our bad news. Like, we're getting more good news than we're getting bad news. So we're figuring out her liberal levels, like all this stuff.

And, you know, today she called me. She goes, call me as soon as you can. And, I frigging, I woke up. I called her.

I was like, are you okay? And she goes, I got Odyssey tickets. And I'm like, you can't do that when you have cancer, dude. Yeah, yeah, that's funny. Yeah. You got to drop, but give me a hint as to what you're talking about. You can't just. Yeah.

This used to be an emergency text. Not anymore. You can't do that. But she's in great spirits, dude. I wonder all the time. I wonder how she does it because I'm like, I'd be so bummed. What are you going to say, Dana? I cut you off.

I'm sorry. No, it's just that's a funny area to talk about. notwithstanding cancer. It's just funny. You have friends who, I got to tell you something, you know, it's something like he had a ham sandwich.

Call me. It's like, call me right now. What are you talking about? The worst. The worst is when someone says, can I talk to you about something later? Or like,

they don't want to do it now. And they say, can I talk to you? You've ruined everything from now to later. Because I can't think of anything. By the way, next Tuesday at 5. Five o'clock, something I got to tell you.

Can you be nervous till next Tuesday about what I'm about to tell you? Yeah, it's at five o'clock, I'll tell you what it is. Well, tell me now, bitch. I like this bit about ghosts. I like to add bitch to any little thing. Did you remember this bit Dana where he talks about ghosts that don't have, um, where they have rules? Oh, yeah, I think it was just a clip that was supposed to like because I did another

podcast where I don't even know what I was talking about. A lot of these podcasts are coming out. And I'm like, what was I doing? What was I saying? Yeah. Yeah. But I think he asked me about like, right, it was like a podcast about morbidity. Like, whatever he was like, do you believe in like ghosts or whatever?

And that's when I just kind of went on a tangent. I was, I was high on some espresso at the time. But yeah, the ghost don't have rules, dude. Yeah. It's funny because he's saying like they can't write you a note. They can only like make a creaking noise every couple years. And you go, is that you, grandma? And then, you know, they can come in the form of a bird that flies overhead.

And you're like, I need something a little more specific. I mean, this is nice, but I would like, you know, it's a bird, but maybe drop a note. And then I'll be like, hey, I'm all good in the afterlife. But it's all very vague. And everyone's like, this was a message. And you're like, I don't know. It could go either way on that message. I don't know.

Yeah, right. I'm just doing it for him, basically. I'm ad-libbing it. But, no, I was too. I was, I was just riffing with that, dude. It makes me want to think I want to do a bit, like a bit about it, especially now that you guys brought it up. I feel like I might want to,

yeah, right. No, I think there is because even from what I heard, the idea I was like running in my head going, oh, there is a lot to kind of, not a lot, but there's something to, there's something to that. And it's not something that's been done to my knowledge. Well, yeah, ghosts have rules. It's just a good entry. Yeah.

Ghosts have rules. Yeah. That kind of gets you in the funny, like, ghosts have rules. Well, they can't talk normal. They have to go, their voice

have to have vibrato, but they could willingly go talk to you. I mean, there's a million jokes in that, but that's a nice take on that whole area. The best take on it

is the movie ghost. Patrick Swayze meets a guy that's like, you got to practice, kid, you know? Oh, right. Yeah.

I love ghosts. I remember that. Yeah. But he was actually doing pottery. He was doing some of the things Ghosts don't always do. He had to get the he had to get what's his name? The guy that looked like you remember the guy. Tony Goldwyn is it?

Oh no, that guy was a comic. Wasn't Stephen Wright, was it? Oh, well there was a guy that stabbed him for what happened to that movie and that guy's a comic I'm sure Dana knew Are we talking about ghost? Yeah, the movie Ghost. There was a comic that was in it. He played like a homeless, you know, like a scary, like guy and he ran up instead.

And then I think that's when Patrick Swayze walks up and he's like, oh, I chased the guy and, but you don't know he was already dead. Because he got. Oh, that was the main guy in the beginning, the guy that. It kills him. Yeah. Good memory. Yeah. And I was like, oh, he was a comic.

and then he passed away a couple years later. I thought he was a San Fran guy. I thought Dana would know. I think I know the guy you're talking about. I don't have his name. He looks like a criminal. Did you guys think when he was doing the pottery and then they reached around and did that,

that that was sort of phallic kind of in a way or sexual? No. No, okay. When the pottery jizzed all over them, did you think that was sexual? And it looked like it had pottery balls underneath. When the camera slips for a man. And they're huge hairy balls.

You're like, I don't know. I didn't see the hair, but I saw a complete phallus. And they were kind of going like that. And I thought to myself in the theater, like, is this? Are they making kind of a little toy ship or something? And when he said it to Demi Moore going on. He said, should we do more foreskin? Is it done, you think?

I thought that was an odd conversation to have. There's got to be a movie blog. Like, somebody is like, actually, this was representative of phallic object. Like there's probably people that wrote that in there. Someone I thought they would crack the code. They're like, oh, my. Ask chat CBT. ChatGBT right now.

Do it. Do it, Heather. And see what, see what they say. Heather already just showed me to distract me. She showed me the guy, Vincent with a kind of melting face on the subway. I think that's who you're talking about.

It looks like a dead guy. Yeah. That's a new character actor. Yeah, he was in a lot of shit. Always playing dead or almost dead. Yeah. but the fucking comic finder

I don't know cast of ghost before we hang up we have to know this it's probably on YouTube it'll be in the comments within one second and we're sitting here at Heming and Hong like Ball but I want to see if you

was it Rick Avelis that sounds like it I don't know if I know if I know a Rickavila Oh, this ruined everything. Sorry. Yeah, that's him. Okay.

Well, that was a fucking dud. If I saw that guy, I'd say, nice to meet you. No. You would say, nice job on Patrick Swayze, you prick. Oh, nice to meet you is the name of the special. Nice to meet you. Whoa, I didn't see that coming. Hey.

Come on. My favorite part was David, just, David in the back of just going, no, no, no. I know. I'm going, what are we doing here? Oh, that's right. Yeah. get the name out. So your specials out now, you're still on the road presently?

Yeah, yeah. I'm doing just a, so kind of a mix of press and road shows, but I am doing clubs for the next few to the end of the year, some theaters, and then we're starting a road trip. I'm doing a bus tour next year. Oh, wow. First ever bus tour, because I want to do it. Have you gotten a sense that this thing is going to, you know, up your tickets or up your rooms. I mean, it's starting to get traction for you.

They're already pretty big so far. So maybe. Yeah. It takes time. I appreciate that. Yeah, ticket sales have been pretty good. Like, I've been pretty dang lucky with that overall. But my wife has been the one that's like in my ear like, hey.

I know. I know. That's David's, no. He went full of spade. I have to be my type of humor somewhere. Some older comics are kind of jealous of jealous of literally everyone is on the podcast. So that's no big deal. So what does your wife say to you?

She's been like, this is going to be big. She was telling me that it was going to do really well. And it did better than I expected it. She was expecting it to do as well as it did. So she's like, hey, this is the next thing. But the truth is I love touring. We love stand-up because we love stand-up. a lot of people are asking, I'm getting questions like, what's next? Do you want to be in a movie? Do you want to do this? And I'm like, I literally just got to where I wanted to be. I just got to like doing stand-up as much as I want to if I ever want to. So I'm going to just enjoy this for as long as I can because, you know, not for nothing, I'd rather be on the road than on set. I'm just more of a guy like that. I also have never been on set. So it's very true that there's a new wave. It's a different generation where when I came.

out and maybe Dana, you're doing stand-up, but every agent manager is wanting you to do that just to be able to get in front of people so you can get a sitcom or you can get on a movie or you can't get something. And it's faded out in the last five, seven years where people like, I just want to do stand-up and that's actually the one thing you can just make money at because you can call your own hours. Whether you sell a lot or little, if you're always out there, you're making something instead of staying home waiting for an audition or how hard it is to be.

And the showbiz is even harder in the last five years since COVID and the strikes. We talk about like production is down. Everything's down, down, down. So you've got a great situation. And I do think that's going to blow you up. I mean, sort of coming out of nowhere, but you're not, but just a whole new audience gets to see you. And you've already got an audience.

So it can only just keep adding, adding. Yeah, so I'm hoping. That was the big thing that they, like the people, like helping me do podcasts as the PR people are just like, we don't want to remind your audience to watch it again. We want people who don't know you or ever heard of you to give you a chance. Yeah. And so I'm like, I'm learning the showbiz side of things a little bit, the more and more we do it. But I think that's also me not knowing about it is what maybe made this special good, like was just being myself and doing the specialize if I was just doing an hour. Um, we kind of worked out, you know, I'm, I'm just, I'm really happy right now.

I'm scared. It's going to go away. We just wanted people to know the name of your special. We want them to come see you. And, uh, you're a funny guy you can tell on here. You can tell him the clips and you can tell them the special. So go see him or go watch the special. And, uh, we appreciate you coming on.

Thank you guys. We have people come on here and kind of take off Shane Gillis. I think you're going to really, uh, get a lot of pop from this. play bigger rooms and then we'll say we knew him when it's not anyone who can do 15,000 seats in Phoenix is all many much That's huge dude

It's not like you're coming out of you Yuck Yucks in Toronto or something But this thing was really This special was special Wasn't that special You got one in there you got one from the king Got one in All right listen

If you're enjoying the Fly on the Wall, of course. Hopefully you are. Click follow. We don't want to be desperate, but obviously smash that god dang button on your favorite podcast app. Smash it. Leave a review, a good one. Leave a five-star rating, nothing else.

Whoops. And maybe even share an episode with a friend. If you're watching this episode on YouTube, please. Subscribe, Dana. What do you think? I'm going to tell you this right now. Him and I'll believe me later. Fly in the Wall, believe it or not, is presented by Odyssey.

And executive produced by Hold For It, Dana Carvey and David Spade. Or David Spade and Dana Carvey. We don't write this stuff. Heather Santoro, Greg Holtzman, and Leah Reese Dennis. The show is edited by Evan Cox, with production support from Phil Sweet Tech. Talent Production and Booking by Sophia Lippor.