Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade - Michael McKean

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

Stories from Spinal Tap, Coneheads, and SNL with Michael McKean. 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

Hey guys, it's Spadoodle. You can always go to davidspay.com to look at my tour dates because I bless a lot of cities in America with my hilarious stand-up act. Or you could not go to it and get on my enemy list. Up to you! Gently use, barely sanitize. The skate's my smell funky, but the comedy is always fresh. Catch DJ Demarers, starring in the brand new secondhand sporting goods workplace comedy One More Time,

New Episode Tuesday on CBC Gym. What we have here today is Michael McKeein, and a lot of people know him. He's in so many things. I have a thing with him because we did do some SNL together. We did do a few years together, or maybe one year, but we talk about that. I think he clarifies that up because I'm stupider than most people. And we also did the Conan's movie. Oh, applause. A few people in the back, remember it?

The Conan's movie, which had so many cameos in it of SNL people, you cannot even, I'm not even a SNL, just stars. We talk about that. He was on better call Saul, did that. He's everywhere. And of course, the headliner is he does a spinal tap. This is spinal tap, if you don't know,

is one of the all-time great comedies of all time. I think that's fair to say it's one of the biggies. We do have some laughs. He's a great dude, and I had a great Konex story for him that he did not know. That's it. Listen in. You'll know him when you see him. If you don't recognize the name right off the bat,

but he's done so much more than all of us put together. Here he is, Michael McKeein. [♪ OUTRO MUSIC PLAYING [♪ Dana, I'm going to start with Michael, and I'm going to ask him a question that he gets too much because he's been in a lot of stuff but of course people focus way too much on coneheads. Now when we were in coneheads... I was so sure you were gonna say spinal tap. So nice. We weren't cone heads together.

Michael was a lovely man to work with. And it was one of my first movies. And it was a lot of fun. I had a lot of fun. And it was new. Michael done so many things. But I think he's still a good time. I did have a good time.

And do you remember anything, anything from that experience, other than there were a lot of celebrity cameos if you look back Well, we weren't there for most of the celebrity cameos Right, you know, I I had mostly I'd seen's with with you and Dan and and once we got to the planet We were you know in our underwear with the little Collars on our necks and stuff Yeah, they it it was an immigration movie that I never even picked

up on that part. No, no, no, me neither. But I just we were the we were the NSA guys. I think it's a pretty funny movie actually. I think some great stuff in it. I think Dan's commission to that character was so total. And so know we kind of knew him from the TV sketches but He was really that guy in so many ways because he was Dan is kind of a kind of an Anal retentive. I think you know, he's really attention to detail not in a bad way. I mean a very very good way and I just remember shooting one scene where we were just landed on the planet and he was telling his, he was telling his, you know, his superiors, Dave Thomas and the rest

of him, telling him about, you know, some, some, some, and so. And we shot it all morning and we went to lunch and we came back and we continued shooting this coverage of the same scene, the same speech. and we came back and we continued shooting this coverage of the same scene, the same speech. And about an hour and a half in, he goes, Oh, God, damn it. Oh, God, damn it. I'm not wearing the gloves. Oh, I'm not wearing the fucking gloves, Robert. And suddenly we got, Oh, well, we just flushed two hours down the toilet. And it was like, he was so apologetic about it and everything. It was like, dude, okay, you know, go again. But I remember that guy, it was really, he's a such a clear-eyed guy, you know. And it was a very atypical moment. Like he wrote Dragnet.

Funniest thing in Dragnet is Kathleen. Oh, what's her name? They go to interview this woman. It's like the wife of this guy who's disappeared. Oh my God, or the land lady. You don't talk. Kathleen Freeman. And she has one speech.

And it's the funniest thing in the movie by such a long truck. I look for it when I can. It's great. Anyway, I'm a living non-sequitur here. You guys are trying to, you're trying to corral me into some of this. Not at all. We're just trying to get our touchstones with you. Here's one of mine, very quickly, okay? Okay. Okay. So like early 80s for some reason, Billy Crystal and I had the same manager. I don't know how it happened, but I went in to meet same manager. I don't know how it happened, but I went in to meet with Rob Reiner, you Harry Shere, Christopher Guest, to play the drummer in spinal tap. Okay. You probably don't

remember, but here's what happened. I came in and I was nervous, obviously, and you guys were so comfortable with each other. And I go, this is not awkward. I'm coming here as the lone wolf, and you guys are all friends, and I have to walk in here. And so I think maybe it was you who just said, okay, let's go. So then you all immediately left the office. Everyone cleared it out,

and I sat in there for like a minute. And then you guys came in. That's just a gag that, you know, now you're entering my world. I don't know if you could remember it, but that happened. came in. That's just a gag that, you know, now you're entering my world. I don't know if you could remember it, but that happened. Do you remember me in the movie? I played a mine waiter. Oh, I, I remembered the meeting and I remember I thought you were coming in. I had remembered that you came in to be this tap fan who follows us around, around the country. That was a

caloric part that we were casting. And we thought you came across as a little intelligent, a little sophisticated and not not goony enough. So we said, we said, well, thanks. You started doing the other. No, listen, we let me tell you who we did cast. And then not use was Eddie Deezin. Ring any bells. Oh, he was a grease. V Eddie Deezan.

The Eddie Deezan. And he, uh, when he found out that we didn't have a script and that he would have to improvise, he said, uh, pass. So we pretty much cut the character, but you were, you, we impressed, you were very, very impressive. And so we said, this guy's really funny. And when we were putting together the, you know, Billy's, the, the Mime thing, which, you know, which was something that was written in. So can he be one of the Mimes? He'd be great. And so that's what we did. We did that a lot. We saw a lot of people and they, they didn't, you know, we didn't quite, we were shooting blind, but we also, we found a lot. We saw a lot of people and they didn't, you know, we didn't quite, we're shooting

blind, but we also, we found a lot of the characters to more even in. Your character didn't exist until we saw you, but at that way, that's a good thing. Uh, my name is Mimic. It's very, those things are memorable at that age, you know, the kind of a thing that intrigues me was the different British accents you guys did and how accurate they were or like Kevin Pollock and I We did a British accent for like years whenever we see each other We played blackjack and Tahoe and tried to trick the dealer doing some combo Yours is very specific Christopher's very specific and Harry

I mean, some combo, yours is very specific. Christopher's very specific and hairy, but how did you come to yours, your guy? Cause I've been looking at some YouTube videos of spinal tap and it's a macular. Chris is legitimate because he grew up, his father was British and he spent a lot of time, like every summer, they would go to, they would go to the UK. And he kind of, you know, he knew those and he's got a great ear anyway. So I just kind

of fell into the same line as him. I we, you know, he would, he would go on and then we would, we had a lot of time to prepare. You got to understand. When we started working on this thing, it was 1979. We didn't shoot until 82 and during because we kept, you know, running out of studios. And so by the time we actually shot it, we had had a real good run at rehearsing how we sound. And Harry brought something different. Harry's, you know, he's kind of a fictional northerner, you know, somewhere unspecific. We always said, well, we're South London, you know, that's kind of what we were going for. So we just, it's just kind

of getting, getting good with it. I'm really rusty at it now. Never breaking it. You just do it all day, right? No, you just go now. But I remember one, you guys walked on the set, and I had not seen you in the full regalia and you were all walking around doing your accents and it was pretty stunning. It's like, oh, oh, there are those guys, you know, it was pretty cool. Well, you know, the three of you. You remember that we had some actual brits on the set or one anyway, who was, well, the

two guys in the band, you know, Mr. Shrympton and Mr. Scott, Mr. Caff, yeah. But we also had Patrick McNeigh, the amazing Patrick McNeigh. Is he from the, is he from the Avengers Avengers? Yeah, he was, oh, he's, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Patrick McNeely was another. Oh, wow. He's, uh, yeah, yeah. Yeah. He's, uh, eaten hog as they say. I love both of you boss or something. Dennis Eaton hog. He's the guy who runs the studio.

Yeah. So, uh, and who was your manager? Was he really English? Yeah. Oh, Tony Hendra. Tony Hendra is a really interesting character. He was with Cambridge Circus, and he and another Englishman named Nick Olet

used to have a, you know, a two-ander act. And then he worked for the lampoon. A lot of the lampoon stuff. Radio dinner and a lot of those, the broadcasts, and on the magazine, a difficult man in a lot of ways. He died about five years ago. Yeah. We can talk about him.

Yeah. You know, I was watching it last night again. Obviously, Michael, everyone's seen it that has anything new with comedy, and one of those ones, everyone pretty much worships. I won't make you say it, I'll say it, they all worship it. We can say it for you, the first time people

improvise on film in long form was spinal tap. It spawned an entire industry, which, because it's so, so, so. Yeah, I mean, obviously it's probably a combo, but you can tell scenes that go along into where you probably just bulge it for a while and take out what works I'm guessing. But God damn some good stuff. Well, they robbed like a rule of three.

If you don't get it in three, and that's three times improvising a scene, kind of knowing what worked last time and going there there and then Rob directing the camera around a couple of different angles and so that it's, it's cuttable and that's kind of the way it worked and some things we never heard, we never saw coming and they just, you know, when, when Ian says that, says that Janine dress is like an Australian's nightmare, we just said, that's brilliant. No one could have written that line. It was just, it was just, you know, yeah, you got me thinking about Tony. I saw my, our boss, uh, Fran Drescher. Do you remember that day in the beginning of the French dress? It was PR. He's great. Yes, I do.

Of course, she was Bobby Fleckman. And yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Once you give a character a name, then they become real. Let's just see. Got to have the name. Right.

Right. No. But to this day, the one reference I always have, and David probably has, when you're playing a gig, doing stand up and you get lost backstage, which is more common than you think. And I go, this is my answer. We're in spinal tap right now. Happens a few times a year.

That was an inspired scene as well, just because it's happened so many times. Where's the stage? Jeff Beck told us that he did a gig with at the Apollo. It was BB King's 75 for whatever the thing was. And that Beck and Clapton got lost under the stage at the Apollo. And they did have that moment where they looked at each other. Well, we're in that fucking movie now. So any story that starts with Beck and Clapton,

I could listen to a lot for a long time. Yeah, we just saw. Can we talk about your music? starts which Beck and Clapton I could listen to a long time. Yeah, we just saw. Can we talk about your music? I mean, oh, you just saw who Clapton? No, I simply saw Chris and I went to see Jeff Beck about a year ago. It was right before he died. And he played a gig here and it was, you know, I had seen him a bunch of times and I was old enough to be a yard bird's fan, you know, all three of their guitarists.

And so I, you know, these guys, it was amazing to see him and he just got better and better invented his own ways of playing the guitar. It was pretty cool. I'll send you a cool snap of me and Chris and Jeff and Johnny Depp, who also was on the on the bill that night. It was kind of a cool night. Yeah. So Beck put down the flat pick, played with his thumb, and then used his index finger to do the vibrato.

And my I had a brother who was a fanatic for Beck. So he we were seen Beck, me and my friends in the 70s all the time, Beck Bogart and Carmen Apecy. Yeah, yeah, that was an epic real, you know, those is right. Yeah, that was three guys going at it, you know, but with you, it's it's just a lane that you're in as a songwriter, a musician, and you want an academy award for my new win, right? That was the...

No, I wanted... No, I wanted... Not nominated, a kiss at the end of the rainbow was nominated, that I wrote with a nap. How did that song come about? Because for anyone listening, it wants to look that up on YouTube, a kiss at the end of the rainbow. It's honestly, it's so beautiful.

I mean, the melody is stunning. I mean, did you start with just guitar chords and then have a net come in and sing the melody? How do you get a song like that? Because it's... Well, it was kind of an assignment because we had written, and that and I had written a song for the movie called Potatoes in the Paddy Wagon, which the new Main Street singers do. Of course. Chris said, yeah, that's great. Chris and I have been writing songs and Eugene and Chris and I have been writing songs and everybody individually writing. Chris said, you want to have a crack at this, we need a love song that maybe has a reference to a kiss in it because it's going to be this whole thing about this couple, the Mitch and Mickey couple, and are they going to get back together again, and they had this famous

kiss thing they did. So we just kind of started, started working on it. We wanted something that sounded like it could have been a really old song that it could have been from 100 years ago or written by Tin Pan Alley folk song writers. But it was sort of, you know, it's kind of inspired by just the simplicity of it. So we played it for Chris and he said, yeah, I maybe kind of wanted something that is more like a joke in it has, you know, this is a kind of a funny, this is very straight and he really liked the song when he said, and so Jamie heard it is wife Jamie. And she said, no, no, you're using that one. That's, that doesn't need a joke. It has a life and it, pristused it beautifully in the movie and so that was great. Yeah, so we just we work in a lot of different ways. There's a sincerity and a sweetness to that film. Well, I agree. I agree. You know, Chris and I are roughly the same age and when we were

13, 14, that's when the folk thing kind of hit. And we all got guitars and Chris got a mandolin actually. I didn't know him at this time. But I've known Chris since since night, holy shit. I've known Chris since 1967. And we actually roomed together for a while. Cause he's, he's enigmatic and, and, and, and, and many ways. But go ahead, I just, uh, you're friends with him. Yeah. So, I mean, he's, yeah, no, we've been, he's, he's, he's good friends for a long time. He's, he's, he's an unusual, he's an unusual guy and it's kind of one of the things that's great about him

is that he's exactly who he is. I don't know, he's not terribly, he doesn't go out and promote himself. If he has something to sell, he'll find some way to really kind of subtly do it. He's just not that guy. He's the funniest man in the world, but you kind of got to either be on the set with him or, you know, or know him. He's just, uh, yeah. No, he's just, he's a remarkable guy, very

intelligent. He's got the same obsession with shitty old show business that I do. And I'm sure a lot of, a lot of my friends do. Uh, well, any era really, and that was the trouble we've been working together, the four of us have been working together. Last year we did a lot and then the strike happened. We had to kind of settle down. So we started working on this new project and we figured we spent about 85% of every day just looking up the Eddie Cantor gift shop in NC. You know, it's all this shit.

It's just like, it's an endless supply of old crap show business. It's, it's just wonderful. So he shares in that and, and he's, he and I are kind of co-religionists as far as that goes. Yeah, yeah, he's something. Get ready for lost Vegas style action at Bet MGM, the King of Online Casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas trip excitement MGM is famous for. When you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat, and Ruleck with our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online slot games, a large selection

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Are there old actors that you guys are obsessed by old actors like john wane or arrow flin or like what what are the ones that Because i'm obsessed with john wane with a friend, you know, yeah, I've always been a Boris carloff guy I thought he was great. I always thought he didn't get much recognition as being a really good actor. And he really was. It was just his, you know, his groove was kind of on the limited side. But he was, he was great. I loved him. And he played Frankenstein, right? He was the original Frankenstein, he was great. I loved him. And he played Frankenstein, right? He was the original Frankenstein, he was the original Frankenstein monster. And he did it in brighter.

I don't know that big. That's a person wasn't. Yeah. He was, he was probably six, he was probably six feet, but they, they jacked him up on those boots, you know, he's, yeah, because he's immense. Yeah. Fire back. So I could play Frankenstein.

No, here, my question for Michael was, he was on the show, SNL, we're jumping back to SNL. You were on, I think my year, I don't think Dana was gone, but you did one full year, and I also saw a monologue from 1985. It was really funny. Oh yeah, with Dana. He comes out in your hosting and you go, I don't really do all this stuff. So I just thought, I'm not really a standup comedian,

so I thought I would do an 18th century Scottish Acapella Durg. So he starts singing and he starts getting heckled. And remember who attacked on me? He attacked on me? He was an old man a weird one that I didn't show it. Did they? Yeah, it's Larry David. Oh, it was?

Yeah, I didn't see that because it went away. Oh, because at the end he goes, hey, Hamlet, where's Squiggy? Yeah, I thought this is such a weird one. Oh, I love it because I thought go, I thought it was squeaky or someone I thought, Oh, who's going to be yelling? And that's great. By the way, I grew up in goddamn life. Is it true right in that era that you were offered to go in there when with Billy and

those guys did their year with Martin for Christopher guest and you, you, you turned that down or yeah, at the time. Well, you know what, it just wasn't the best time to be moving to New York. I kind of wanted to do movies more and I started doing films. do movies more and I started doing films. I listened, I had many, many second thoughts about it, but my then wife had a child on the way. We had just bought a new house and it was just not the time to be spending weeks and weeks. It's not, it's a disruptive show.

It's not to you. Yeah. Yeah. No, I was a working actor. I think in 1985, when I did host, and we did the folksman for the first time, which later expanded into the Mighty Winstah. I think at that time, one time was really fun.

I don't know whether that season would have... There were so many people on that season. I mean, it was Billy. It was a rich hall. It was, you know, I mean, it was just, it was a huge cast. You know, and Marty, rightfully so, was the breakout guy there. And, you know, but other things happened. There were a lot of, there's a lot of angst in that season. I'm not

sorry I didn't do it. And I'm glad I did when I did. It was a really interesting time. I knew in 1994 that I was being hired because Phil Hartman was leaving the show. And they needed someone to play, well, David Spade's dad. His offer. I think he's got someone, he needed someone who is remarkably older than these, these hungry kids I was surrounded by. So I, you know, your stern was very good, I remember. Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was, that was fun. Because you know, you did it with stern, which I hadn't heard.

You laughed like this. Boo. Yes. Boo. Boo. I haven't done it a while. Yeah. Yeah, it's a good one. I remember. Yeah, I think he talked about it because of course he was freaked out. It's kind of a long island go far. You know, you got you got to grow up on Long Island, you get to. Yeah. Yeah, it is. It was kind of a new one from who does Tom's gear it. They say you did Tom's scare from

From aliens. I can scare it. I didn't What's he? Yeah, he was I you're listed. Your listed is doing Adam West. I I don't know. Yeah, I did do Adam West one time. I got this list. That was the only time I was on update. Oh, you did on update? The only time I ever did Adam West. There's the only time I ever did update. I had pitched another character who was a guy who was a kind of a spiritualist to the stars and talked about who's having sex in heaven.

It was my turn. And I made the mistake. No, it was actually pretty funny. I did at the table and it was it was it was kind of good. But I I mentioned Hume Cronin who had been married to Jessica Tandy who had just died. So I did Jessica Tandy joke and Lauren and Lauren was like. Yeah, well, he was kind of too soon, but he's also a human cronon's a friend of his, because he's Canadian and in show business. So anyway, I, he told me since I, you know,

if you haven't got a better joke, we'll do it another time. So we blew it off. Anyway, whatever. Never, never take that deal. How well did you know, Lauren? How well did you know, Lauren, when you came on a 94? Well, I had met take that deal. How well did you know Lauren? How well did you know Lauren when you came on a 94? Well, I had met him in 75.

Casually or? Well, in 1975, when they were putting together the original show, we, I knew, I knew Chevy and I knew we knew Franken and Davis. And the credit, when I say weaves, the credibility gap, me and Harry Sheerer and David Lander and we were in town Doing the doing the tomorrow show the Tom Snyder show Harry did a brilliant Tom Snyder So we were all the time Snyder show doing our doing our Tom Snyder sketch and

So around that time they were just getting started with With SNL and we knew some of those guys. So we hung out and we kind of met all these people. I knew a lot of people who knew Lauren at the time, but I didn't work with him until Ponex. And, um, well, I'm a bored. That's right. Yeah. But wait, my favorite thing Michael thing we go on. Yeah. Go ahead. No,

I'm saying my favorite thing was there is that that extra mile that Lord, I don't do a Lord Michaels, but there's an extra mile. He goes sometimes to make sure you know who you're talking to. And it's very subtle. It's very subtle. And he was always very sweet to me. And I, you know, I, I got nothing but good stuff for him. But he did do this.

I was up for another show. I had been offered a show which was a spin off of the Murphy Brown show. You got to stay with me. And Diane, somebody who was the creator of the Murphy Brown show. Okay, you got to stay with me. And Diane, somebody who was the creator of the Murphy Brown English, Diane English. Thank you very much. She had this new show and she wanted me to do it. And so I had an offer for that while I was talking to the SNL people. And so Lauren called me directly. And he me he said, now what about this other show? This this it was a messenger service show. What about what were you going to do

about that? And I said, well, how did you know about that? And he said, Louis Moll told me. Now Louis Moll, this French filmmaker who was married to Candy Burgan. Oh, right. Who was doing everything? So it's like he kind of went to Europe for the killing. Yeah, it's all Louis can talk about is. Oh, man. You know, like we're learning good things about.

Yeah. Anyway, not pizza. I said, I've heard layering things about. Yeah. Anyway, now Pete's out. I said, I've heard it's got some problems. I said I want to do SNL and he said, okay, that was bad. Get ready for puck drop at Bet MGM, an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League, from game-winning goals to spectacular saves. BET MGM gives you the chance to take those highlight-real NHL plays to a whole new level. BET MGM has something for every hockey fan, so you're sure to find a way to get off the bench and onto the ice all season long.

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please contact Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. Bet MGM operates pursuant to any operating agreement with eye gaming Ontario. Okay, so I'm jumping back to the cone heads. We didn't finish talking about it enough for me. But what happened was there was a story that Dana doesn't even know, I don't think, where I was nervous, new movie, you know, we're in our boxes and t-shirts for, we play NSA agents day and I don't want to give

the whole movie away. But we play NSA agents. I teed it up for tonight's entertainer. Yeah, and the cone heads are immigrants. So we're trying to get them to board. I don't know. I don't even I don't understand the movie. But so I just do my lines. And so one day, you know, I'm scared on this movie and I got Michael and Michael's a great fun to work. We were a team in it. We were agents together. So, Michael, one day I'm in the trailer and I have to wear my boxers and the t-shirt. And I said to the PA, I go,

hey man, when he came to get me, I said, don't tell anyone this, but this is so nuts. This is pure innocence. I go, I do have chicken pox, I don't know if I can tell anyone this, but this is so nuts. This is pure innocence. I go, I do have chicken pox, but it's covering my shirt. My shirt and boxers are covering it, so I can still do the scene. I just don't want everyone to weird out about it.

And he goes, oh cool, hang on a second, two seconds later. Boop, shutting down the set, everyone go home. I was like, what's, I didn't even know what's going on. I'm like, why would happen? The original COVID. God damn. Chicken pox. Folks.

You didn't get it as a kid, you're in your 30s. Right in the game. It was 27, I think, and I had a... If you got your shingle shot or... Uh, no. It'll come back, it's dormant. We'll talk later. No, it was so weird that I had it. Had I, have you got your shingle shot or? Uh, no. It'll come back. It's dormant.

We'll talk later. It was so weird that I had it. Michael and I are up to speed on that anyway. I didn't really, I probably infected everyone. That was too late, but we lost the day of production. I don't remember that. I don't remember that. 100,000 dollars.

That's my fault. I don't remember that. I do remember when, when they wouldn't let Dan's, Dan had a couple of friends on motorcycles come to hang out of the set and they wouldn't let him in the gate because they didn't have the whatever, you know, and so they called, he's on the set and they called him,

you know, and they say, yeah, I'll, I'll say, yeah, they're okay, they're okay, come in. And then they called again, he said, they won't let us in, they won't let us in. So he tore off his head. He tore off his no. Yes, he did. And he shut. Yeah. Yeah, it was just like a really, really lossy. And he went out there to the booth in his ripped off head and be rated the guard. It was it was a great day. You let these hell's angels in right now.

Okay. I mean, Caldame. Oh, I gotta tell you, you love, I mean, we love Dan Acquire, but one thing so interesting about you is how much stuff you've done, and they just keep going, because I dare anyone to go on YouTube put in Lenin Squiggy from LeVernon Shirley and you'll see Michael McKean and then put on Chuck McGill, the

quote worth man of the world on Better Call Saul. It ranges even to you. You must look at it and go it's pretty. Yep. Which one is your adoring touchstone between those two? I'm assuming. I'm like Spade. Apparently better called Saul is pretty recent. I'm like Spade, I just, I do my lines. Take the fifth. No, no, no.

And you get out of it. It's true. No, really early on, I really liked, I liked people who came on a different way for every show, everything that they did. People who had, you know, who really, you know, you see a lot of great entertainers, are people who can be a lot of different things. Jim Carrey can be the broadest comic in the world, but he can also work real small and he's a good dramatic actor. You know, it's, it's just because he's, he's clear on what he's doing. So anyway,

I just try and, I try and stay clear without the use of Scientology. You know, when they say, like I'm LeVernin Shirley, Michael, they go, I can't believe we have all this stinky garbage. And then hello, you guys walk in. I was like, are they doing this on purpose? They keep walking in at the worst times Because I was a kid. I'm like this is Accidentally really funny that they say something horrible in these two idiots. Well, they were so aggressive Suddenly it was always a laugh like some they're so sure of themselves And just recap it and then leave. There was no real, I mean, that, that's just broad, you know, that show really popped as

they said. I mean, it felt lively. It was funny. And we only shot it once. We only shot it once just one one take. Never never. Yes. And it was because it was on film. It was three

cameras and they didn't even have monitors. They weren't even didn't even have the six pack that they that they do now or the four pack. It was literally the only guy who saw it. The only guy who saw it saw something like a four pack was the camera coordinator. And everyone else is just these people who grew up and they we know Sheldon Leonard, the guy who kind of sophisticated the three camera system after Desi Arnez and Carl Friend invented it. With Desi Arnez, yeah. Yeah. And we were on those stages. So it was all based in those days on just being funny lively and they just knew they had it and do that's one for the feeling Not a rehearsal rehearsal like a play and do it like a play and You know the last pilot I did the last pilot I did never again

was about 15 years ago and We literally shot the first scene of the pilot nine times in front of a studio audience shot at nine times while the development people were going, I got a better one. I got a better joke here. How about you? So you're having these mini rewrites on this thing as you go.

And by the audience, never wants to fucking see you again after nine, nine takes of that. And we shot until two in the morning. And we wound up paying our extras for another day to sit in the audience and laugh at the stuff that we were doing for the. You can't make anything good that way. It can't be done. Gross. Yeah. So what we cook, yeah. Yeah. No, no, it would just sprinkle it horrible horrible.

I only did one movie without playback. It's a worse. Yeah. And it was sort of, I didn't realize this was the last of kind of the good old days. They watched it. It was in frame. And they had, they didn't know if there's a light flare.

They didn't play it back. They just said, that felt good. Let's move on. And you're like, God, it seemed to work. And now that it's almost too much going back, too much replay, too much. Let's look at it again. Let's look at it. Absolutely. Yeah. Because everyone gets a vote, especially if it's a pilot, everyone, you know, says, Hey, do one for the assistant here. Yeah. Yeah. And maybe they won't let us say Jesus. We'll just get it every we'll get. Oh, yeah. Do a different. Do a salt. Well, I was on a show called Dream On, which was kind of a titty show on on HBO.

And I did if I did a number of videos show. Well, that's what it was. That's why I watch it. I know. I don't know. I thought I was alone. Yeah. No, no. You probably. That's why I watched it. I don't know. I thought I was alone. No, no. You probably were alone when you were watching it. Most people. Yes, that's true. Would you like to know? Thank you.

But leave the ice cream out there. We used to do alternate takes, and my character had only one ball, and there was an episode about that, about his in-h, feelings of inadequacy, because and so I was ranting about, I said, you know, I said, the kids at school, they'd say, here he comes, here he comes, Johnny one nut. And that was the line that was going to go in.

They said, no, we need an alternate. So they wrote me an alternate. I looked at it and I said, that may be funny here. But I didn't tell Brian Ben-Ben, the guy I was working with, I didn't tell him what was coming up. So we do the all take. And I said, well, here he comes, Mr. Singleton, arguably funnier than Johnny won that.

He fell apart, it was a good laugh, but we couldn't use it. And when he malachon with you. Wendy was great greatest eyebrows in show business. Oh, Wendy's so fantastic. Oh, she's awesome. What? I agree with that. Yeah. Who is Fred Willier, just one of the funniest performers of all time or I don't like it. No, a door. There's something is quirky about him almost like

Norman. You can't quite put your finger on what what is going on there. Yeah, it's brilliant, but it's just sort of like tilted. I remember Firmwood tonight was the first time I got familiar with red will. Oh man. And it was just something about he's all the character of Fred was smiling a lot and had this. I don't know how it must have been fun. Just hanging out with that. It's great. Well, in 1975, I loved you. In 1975, there was a group called the Ace Trucking Company. And it was Fred Willier, Billy Saluga, Mike Mislove, and George Mammaly. You can find some of their stuff, not a ton of it online, but you can find some of it. And I, George and, well, the group broke up. They still had three dates in the Midwest

that they wanted to get if they could. So Fred and George, Mammaly, hired me and David and Harry who were the credibility gap at the time, hired us go on the road do some of our stuff and learn some Ace Trucking Company stuff and Kind of make it like it's a whole act. So we were kind of in the Ace Trucking Company there for a little while and Fred was he's not like any other guy. He's not like any other guy He said one time he said we were checking in to this hotel in Chicago. And he said to the guy, he said, yeah, it's not near the elevator, is it?

And the guy said, no, no, no, your room is on. So we're going up to the rooms and I said, why do you specify not near the elevator? And so it's the bell. I mean, when the bell goes off, you know, when the elevator hits on the floor, I can't stand that. I have a really good hearing. I can't sleep with that bell going every night. And I said, oh, that's, that's, you know, well, sometimes if I get a room near the, the bell near the elevator, I will go and disable the bell. I said, what? Yeah, I know how to do. I travel with tools.

So he has a little toolkit and he would disable the bell. And he would, he would hook it up again when we left in the morning. And I said, do you really do that every time he says, one time, he said, one time I had to disable the one on the floor above and the floor below, because I could still hear those. So he's a man in control of his own life. And he also had a window, he had a window on a whole other world that we just can't see from here. He was really fucking awesome. Yeah, he's, that's, yeah, funny. He must have looked around, almost like a Peter Sellers movie,

when he had the tools, like looked around the hallway to make no one, and had to get the elevator to stop to get in there. I mean, it was a James Bondian or something kind of. Yeah, yeah. There's an whole league. Mission impossible. Yeah. What's the quirkiest thing about you, David?

David Spade. Oh, we're gonna get a pen. I'm so nuts. But I think Michael got me at it. Michael got me at a pretty crazy time because SNL, I was probably losing my mind a little bit and then I go into Kona's, which is a little more contained. One time, Michael, we had a... Why do I keep having... All I remember is Kona. But one time, you were in underwear, right? Oh, and he had chickenpox. Now I'm running around, obviously a chickenpox

probably the whole year. And they said, they go, you have an extra scene in coneheads where you're in a van listening, maybe Michael wasn't in it, but it was during a show week and they said you have to fly back for it. So I do like read through and then Thursday,

I fly a red, can I take a red eye to LA? I took a red eye somewhere. Anyway, I took a red eye because Letterman was on my flight and he said, part of the story is the story is long. He said, the stewardess goes, should I wake you up for honey buns? And I said, no, I'm gonna try to sleep. And I didn didn't know letterman and then he went to the bathroom and when he came out

He goes should I wake you for honey buns? I never talked to me like and hilarious and then I get there I go straight to the saddement worse Maybe no, I think it was a 6 a.m. flight anyway, so I fly out there, I sleep on it, I get up, I go in, I drive out to Disney Ranch, I do this scenes, whatever, kill, get big laughs. Then I drive back to my apartment in Studio City, order a pizza because I'm going home the next day, and I finally finished the day,

and I got my hair all greased back. And then Mike Schumacher calls me, goes, hey, Lauren wants you back. And I go, I know, I just finished shooting it. I'm coming in the morning, because it was a Lauren movie. I go, I'm coming back in the morning, is no, he wants you on a red eye tonight. There's a car out front.

I go, shut the fuck up. I just got a pizza. So he goes, you better go. You don't, and the whole life, at S&L, you don't want to get fired. So I take a few bites, get back in the car, go back to the airport. They need you at the studio at 10 a.m. So I land, I go a few bites, get back in the car, go back to the airport. They need you at the studio at 10 a.m. So I land, I go to the studio, it's a John Goodman show.

There's no one in the studio, I go, wait, no one even comes into one. What am I fucking doing? So I just walk around, then I go back home and no one ever mentioned it. And I'm like, wow. What's happening? You are a Christian martyr. No, we'll cut it out. I tried to talk them out of that. I was in New York at the office and I go, don't make David come all the way back from that.

No, was you on the phone acting like shoemaker? I was trying to help. David will come back and then he'll go back. And then he'll come back again. We'll try and talk to our... It's called a trifecta. uh... and then you'll come back again we'll try and talk to our friends try fact uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh...

uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... uh... up on the on the stand. We have Chuck McGill with the electric magnet paranoia thing. And you're I mean, you I mean, that's as good as it kind of gets, I think, for film acting. I mean, what did you think of that scene? Did you ever look at it? Did you know you were in the pocket? It all recurred, tried a ruin takes. They're really good. you know, Bob is. That's, yeah, that's, oh, he's going too far. You're so good. No, it was, uh, I knew I, I got called. I was in New York. I was in New York and I got, I was doing a show, a play in New York.

No, I wasn't at this point, but I was in New York and, uh, the director of the show, Dan Sackheim, the director of that episode called. And he says, you want to talk about this? I'm going to go, oh, I mean, it's going to be hard. And he said, well, if you look at that, and I said, yeah, it's a ton of stuff. And it's a big, it's like a four-page speech, basically. And he says, well, how do you want to shoot this? And I said, I don't know.

I mean, just what's good? I didn't kind of understand what he was asking me. He says, because it's gonna be some long days. And then I realized, well, that scene is gonna take like three days. And so it worked out because I learned the lines, beat myself up and got the lines down, but I'm not too bad about lines.

And then I knew what it was about. And it's in that bark type bolt, if that's a word. Yeah, you melt down, you take yourself from being fairly together, light captain, queer, and queer. It is, Captain, queer, sure. And then you're losing it slowly and pacing it. So my question is, how much is technique and how much is just you, you, you're the guy

and you're not really thinking you're just being playful because it seems like it'd be hard to break all those moments down when they're filming. You just have to be, you just felt so in the pocket. I don't know. It's just my thing. I liked it a lot. That's a lot. Thank you very much. Thanks. No, no, it was, it was a a really good it was a good show it was a good experience and you know Bob is Kind of heroic and I met Bob when we were doing SNL Uh, and it was I mean he was just there occasionally. He wasn't writing on the show But he would I think he was seeing Janine Is that possible? Anyway, there were some oh oh, I don't. Go rap, Paula.

It tells out of school. But, you know, I knew that, I think they used to go out, I don't know. But I met them a couple of times there, but I never really, really worked with them until this, until Better Call Saul. And when they cast me in and he called me up, they said, this is great news. We're going to have such a good time. And we did. We kind of fell right into it, into this relationship.

And what we did was informing, and we didn't know it, was informing the writers. And it kind of gave them a lot of inspiration. Hey, you know what could happen here? And it helped them find a way for those characters to become, to get into a genuine conflict. Anyway, smart writers, you work with smart writers, they're wide open to everything. And Vince Gilligan and Peter Gold and Tom Schnauz and Jennifer Jennifer, last name. Yeah, Hamilton, think Henderson.

That's her last name, Jennifer last name. Jennifer last name, yeah, story. Bob said one of the, maybe you can relate to this. Bob said the funniest, the hardest I've ever laughed on this podcast about SNL and stuff is that, you know, you know, people when they're younger and Bob was just a fledgling writer in the 80s and, but we wrote a movie together called Tucson, a comedy western, stuff like that. So, and Bob is going along with his career and then, and then breaking bad comes and then

better call Saul. And when he came on the podcast, he goes, he goes, then he does the action movie, Nobody, which is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And he thought to himself, if this, if this lands, because we know Bob as the, the fledgling writer in the 80s, that are at our core, he goes, he said to us, I know if this landed, you guys would be sitting at home

going, what the fuck? We were. He's not always an action star. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's not only an Academy Award winning type actor. Now he's an action star. Yeah, that made me laugh so hard. Well, if you could, you could ever play that the time machine game, the time machine

game where you see somebody on the screen and they're doing something kind of second rate and you know that their career is about to take off. You want to get in a time machine and say, don't worry. This is about to take off. You wanna get in a time machine and say, don't worry, this is gonna be fine. You're gonna be, you're gonna get, Martin's first day's eat, gonna put you in a movie, it's gonna be amazing. And I played that game a lot,

but there was a movie called, oh God, oh, it was a called, Capricorn 1. And it was about the faking, the baking of the moon landing. So if you could go back in time, yeah, OJ Simpson, OJ Simpson, go back in time and you say, okay, Jim Brolin, you're going to be married to the ex-wife of Elliott Gould, who is standing right next to you in this shot. And OJ, OJ, yeah, we'll get back to you later, OJ.

Yeah. You'll see it'll be exciting. Keep doing what you're doing. No one will talk about anyone but you for years. You're gonna be so famous. Oh, yeah. So famous. Yeah. Man.

All right, well, Michael, thank you. Let's, Dana has something else to tell you. We might let you go. You've been you've struggled Enough. It's very nice. Well, you guys are very important to me. I love your attitude. You're important to me because I'm very important to you. Yes, because it your proof that Blond's can be funny. We all are true. Hey, three blondes. Well well that blonde blonde blonde blonde on where you would tell head as a child. It was hard to tell because I always had a crew cut. Now I was a bristly little blonde crew cut. Yeah. Pretty sad. Me too. Hated it. Hated having a crew cut in the 60s.

Studdly in that SNL monologue in 85. Kill him. No, he betcha. It wasn't my sweater. I can skinny, good job. I don't say this with all of our guests, but some, but what I would say to you is what can't he do? Yeah. I don't know. I can't sleep. He will host the show.

He will. He can't sleep, Dana. No. No. It's called ambian. I got it. I'll listen. Are you happy to ambian? I you happy? Yeah, half an ambian is fine. I that's what I do at night. Yeah, not a whole one. No, whole one. Then you got a deal with the rest of the day. Your mind's going like this, right? I mean, I see that hard to sleep for me. So thank you for coming on our our humble show Michael listen.

It's been very been a lot of fun and I had to get up anyway. So here I am now the shifting arm of the pictures around. All right boys. Thank you, bud. This has been a presentation of Odyssey. Please follow subscribe. Leave a like or review all the stuff. Smash that button.

Whatever it is wherever you get your podcasts. Fly in the Wall is executive produced by Dana Carvey, David Spade, Jenna Weiss, Berman of Odyssey, Charlie Fein and Abrilstein Entertainment and Heather Centauril. This shows lead producers Greg Holtzman.