Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade - Neal Brennan

Episode Date: May 29, 2024

Psychedelics for depression, overstepping at SNL, and retaining audience attention with Neal Brennan. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at betterhelp.com/FOTW and get on your way to being your best self. 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

This show is sponsored by BetterHelp. But you know, look at how fast we're almost halfway through the year. Crazy. Yeah. Are you proud of what you've done in 2020 so far? I mean, you always want to do more, right? When life goes so fast, David, it's important to take a moment to celebrate your wins, make adjustments for the rest of the year.

Therapy can help you take stock of your progress and set achievable goals for the next six months. Yeah. David, listen, therapy is a way to go. I did it for a while. And I think the thing that slowed me down was what they is driving to Santa Monica in traffic once or twice a week. Yes. This is online.

No, it's so it's a great idea. Very convenient. It helps you. Um, you've got coping skills, it's so convenient. It's a great idea. Very convenient. It helps you. You've got coping skills, how to set boundaries. I mean, there's so many things you can do here to be a better version of yourself. You can probably always sharpen it.

Yeah, I mean, I had a therapist in Portland and I would commute and that was a pain. I've had therapy. From here, that's a long drive. I know, it was 1300 miles one way, but you know, it's good therapist, but yeah, this one you can mix and match and your thoughts kind of control you

and you want to master them. And when you talk to someone else, they're able to kind of discern it out. So if you're thinking of starting to give therapy a try, give BetterHelp a try. Yeah, it's entirely online, designed to be convenient, flexible, suited to your schedule. You fill out a questionnaire, get matched

with a licensed therapist and switch therapist if you want to for any reason, no charge. Take a moment, visit betterhelp.com slash F-O-T-W today. Get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P.com slash F-O-T-W. The regular season is complete and the ring is set. Are you ready for NHL Playoffs? Get ready for all the action and excitement with BetMGM, the king of sportsbooks. Now's your chance to play along with all the games like never before with BetMGM, the king of sportsbooks. Now's your chance to play along with all the games

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Gambling problem? Call Connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to talk to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Well, we got Neil Brennan today, Dana, and before we start, I wanted to say our YouTube for Superfly got to 100,000 subscribers.

That's nice. Applause, applause. Wow, here we go. And a lot of nice comments. People are seeing the clips and they go over to watch it on YouTube, which is nice. Applause, applause. Wow, here we go. And a lot of nice comments. People are seeing the clips and they go over to watch it on YouTube, which is nice. You know, we have a known big fan of Superfly. Who's that?

Joe Biden. Yeah, it's a good stuff. It's the flies, it's like a fly with a Superfly away because of the David Spade, Dan the Garnet, can't believe it's not butter. Oh, that's nice that he said that. Yeah. And we got Neil Brennan today on Flying the Wall. And Neil's an old buddy, well spoken standup, has a special out right now.

He's had him out before. A lot of fun to talk to and a very sharp mind. Yeah. A lot of fun to talk to and a very sharp mind. Yeah, very thoughtful person about the human experience. He has a podcast called Blocks, we can say from both that. His podcast is about people who have mental health things they may not be aware of. He has comedians on and talks through stuff. So he's very interesting to talk to,

just about life in general. Very bright guy and has a new Netflix special. He's got a new Netflix special out right now. He'll tell you all about it. And I have a blast talking to him. I live near him, so I see him out. But he's part of the Chappelle situation, the Chappelle show, co-created that.

He's gone on to do a lot of things. He writes for a lot of people. He kind of knows everybody, I think, because he is so open, you know, about what he's thinking and what he's feeling. And for this particular episode, he'll talk about how he dealt with his depression and how it got lifted with different, uh, a method that you will find very, very interesting. That's made him a much more content person. I'm pretty tight about my craziness.

So I haven't been on blocks, but I will one day unveil my craziness to everyone. I'm doing a side podcast just called Blocks, and it's literal blocks that you play with on the floor. So it's me with Lego. I could do that one. And a guest, a guest and I just build a little Lego village as we chat.

That's nice. Well, until that airs, here's Neil Brennan with Fly on the Wall. Let's talk. I got carted legally by an English speaking person wearing a baseball cap at age 53. What? What? Or, no, do we brag about the last time we got carded?

Is that, is this a segment on? We do this with that. You have blocks. You have your thing. This is our thing. Yeah, yeah. Last time I got, I got carded in Thailand trying to buy a ladyboy when I was, I'm kidding. Not all the, so, you know, we're just, guys.

Hold on. Let me switch headphones. Yeah. Have we ever run into each other? Are we meeting right now? No, we, we have run into each other. Just really quickly. John Lovitz comedy club.

In the universal city? Yeah. Oh yeah. Yes. And the Universal City? Yeah, oh yeah. Yes, that's what I thought and so- I hope there's not another one, is there another one? Ha ha ha, it didn't turn into a chain as quickly as we thought. I don't wanna, John's a friend, but you know, as a comedian you're kinda like,

oh you gotta, it's at Universal Studios, so you park in Jurassic Park, you gotta walk a quarter mile, you got to, it's a universal studio. So you park in Jurassic Park, you got to walk a quarter mile. You go in, it's built for blues. There's a three tier thing. So people on the top level are looking down at the top of your head and talking amongst themselves. And the stage is really high.

So. And there's a lot of surfboards, right? Cause love, it's love surfing. That was his theme. Maybe it was leftover from BV King, There's a lot of surfboards, right? Cause love, it's love surfing. That was his theme. Maybe it was leftover from BB King, but yeah, John. Well, yeah, BB King, another avid surfer. He was getting out every morning at 5.30. Remarkably very funny.

Very funny. He had a good pattern between like a dog. Yeah, really good pattern. And would remember like narratives between, he'd come back up and be like, how's your date going? He knew, you know what I mean? He did crowd stuff? Yeah, knew how to do it.

Wait, let's keep talking about the universal gangplex. 18 theaters, I used to go to those theaters, because then, and also if you did the John Lovett's comedy club, when you, after you'd walk through or swim through the Jaws theme to get there, you could get 10% off at Tony Roma's Across the Street. Yeah, you absolutely could. Absolutely could.

Your primary audience that was available with North Hollywood gangs that would just kind of infiltrate the mall audience that was available with North Hollywood gangs that would just kind of infiltrate the mall. That was the audience you're drawing from. Other than that, it had good sound. John was very nice. They had good snacks. Try to think of something else.

And they love, they be like, hey, Garth, what's up, Garth? It's Garth, hey? Hey, you are Garth, right? Hey, baby, you know who this is? Baby, this is Garth. Yeah, Garth, right? Garth. I act like Garth for a minute. That's the thing. And it's a good problem to have.

But if I try to do stand up in a traditional setting, say, I can feel the audience. I guess the only thing worse than not having hits is having hits. I don't know what the word is, but they want me to do the characters they saw on SNL. So to our guest today, Neil Brennan, do you feel like you have classic bits that people yell out for at this point? I think three mics do it.

I know what's funny is I, so so I on the, on the newest, the tour for the one that's out for crazy good, the new Netflix that we're all talking about. Is that true? You saw it? Oh yeah. I wouldn't have. Yeah. So great. Great. Great. So thank you. We're going to talk about some of it. Yeah. No. Um, yeah. Well, you did some stuff I haven't seen before. We'll talk about that later. I thought was, so we're, uh, I'm assuming this will be in the podcast. We're, we're all, we're some of this, right? All of it's on the good parts for you guys. Shine. Fantastic.

Um, the, uh, the, so I go, I do a show this basically, the, this, the act that's on Netflix and, uh, a guy DMS me afterward and is like, dude, I was my birthday. I paid 150 bucks for tip, whatever, whatever. I kept waiting for you to show up. Basically he was upset that I wasn't sadder. He wanted me to be sad. Like I'd been in, uh, three mics and blocks and most of my life.

And I wasn't sad enough. I'm sad that you're not sad. No, I know it's a party's missing and we're, we're. I hate that you fix things. I want to go back and watch just stylistically or the way your shoulders are, just your physicality. It felt like it was Neil, but you say upfront, I feel good. It's almost like, whoa, I can't. So I can do two hours on this.

I know you are very aware of psychology and emotion. So for our audience that doesn't know, you've famously been dealing with depression and having this really, but having this extremely successful career in comedy and standup. So that's kind of almost illogical in a way, but- No one understands that.

Somehow that take, you made it through that, but then something happened. I've only read your Wikipedia page. So tell us how did you get less sad or kind of happy? I got less sad in a very, uh, sort of risky way, which is, uh, which is, uh, which is, which is ayahuasca, DMT and MDMA. Um, so now I will. Most of the alphabet. Yeah, thank you. Um, and, uh, the, I got into ayahuasca because our mutual friend, Chris Rock,

uh, sent me an article from the New York Times about ayahuasca and was like, we got to do this, which is, you know, you're old. You know, you're old when you get your drug ideas from the New York Times. Drug idea. Rock's like, we got to do this. Did Rock do it too? Yeah. I didn't know.

Oh, that explains a lot. No, I wouldn't think that Rock would do that. That doesn't seem like, he's very open minded to a lot of stuff. No, he's talked about it in public. I mean, he talked about it on like James Corden. I know he talked about it a few times, but, but yeah, he, we did it together. And it was pretty, we did it together twice. And, uh, it was pretty wild.

And we like diarrhea. No, he loves diarrhea and loves puking, but, uh, and it's sort of hated both his closers he calls them. Uh, and so he, so yeah, so we did it together twice and, and I kept doing it. Uh, but he, he's only, I don't, I don't know if he's done it recently, but did you like Ron White? Did you guys go to a place or just do it? We didn't.

Yeah. Ron White went to a place we, me and rock did it spade. We actually did it maybe a year old. Remember when rock was renting a place in Malibu like two years ago or during COVID, I think it might've been your old place. It's big. No, that you share. You shared with Lovitz and Ted Sarandos, but

no, that was Lovitz. Oh, that was something. Right next to Gervit. Oh, Lovitz and Gervitz. Yeah, they lived next to, I don't know, but that was the same beach. Go ahead. I just want to know, set the scene when you, yeah, set the scene. Hey Chris, are you walk, he walks into the place or what? I want to hear the, I mean, now I feel like I'm telling his, all right.

So he had a place. No, no, no, no, no, I don't, it's his, I don't get, he's talked about enough, but it's not like, it's not illicit. It's in the East. Just tell yours like Like what is it? You go in there and you have a helper or you guys. It was a guy. I got a private, a guy came and he was like a white guy and Rob was like, little Starbucksy.

He's still funny until this time. Yeah, no, you're still, yeah, you're still. It wasn't even, we hadn't even done it yet. So then the me rock and then a few friends, maybe three or four friends of mine did it in the place Rock was renting and it took maybe four or five hours. And, and it was like, it was just a very strong, have you gotten done mushrooms? I have done mushrooms, but not in only in my twenties.

Yeah. It was like, it's like mushroom. I remember comparing it to mushrooms and at one point being like, wow, like this is like, uh, to mushrooms times like a hundred in terms of intensity and terms of like what it could do. So, so, and then we did it again at another place that was more. We, it was still in LA, but we did it. It was like me and rock and 25 white, like crunchy white people.

Crunchy white people. Now you've got this rock's next special. Crunchy white people. Now you've got this Rock's Neck Special. Crunchy white people. Yeah, it was like very crunchy white people. And that was, and I would say that you would have to ask him about it, but I will say I saw Rock get his ass whooped by the ayahuasca in a good way. He got like, it was wild. The second time.

Yeah. The second time. And I have a question like 15 times since. I did mushrooms, uh, uh, Dan. I did, I did, uh, acid once just a while back. This is last Friday. I did, um, acid when I was probably what, you know, late teens and I did mushrooms back then.

It was the kind, you know, you get in a baggie, you buy from whoever and then you just eat the stems and you think they're not working. And then you start sort of hallucinating. And so I was okay with that, but I had to be with other Schrumers, my friends, because we were walking on the beach to a party. And when we were around people that weren't on it, we could not relate at all. We ran back to each other.

So my experience was I don't do them later in life because I get scared of getting out of control. Like back then I had nothing to live for. I had nothing going on. I was just like drug, drug, drug me up just for fun. I think I'd be scared now is the point. I think I'd be scared to get like out of had nothing going on. I, it was just like drug, drug, drug me up just for fun. I think I'd be scared now is the point. I think I'd be scared to get like out of my head a bit and be around people. Even though you're friends that would help, but I don't know. It'd be a little scary for me.

Yeah. Were you, was it scary at all? Were you nervous? Uh, a little bit. I don't, well, the thing of it is I don't do it. It's like, once you take it out of like a party setting, it can be just different. It'll just be like a different, it becomes like,

at the, you know, not to be pretentious, but like it just becomes more like ceremonial or something. So I did, I bet I've done, I used to do, as you're telling me this, I remember I did mushrooms with Norm, Saget, Brewer, and Chappelle one time. I like forgot about it until you were just talking. Like, it was actually, it was, we were at like the Mondrian at the Sky Bar.

It was like probably 1999 or something. It was just too, but it was too like too much energy. So yeah, so if you're gonna do it, yeah, try to do it like away from people. And what does it get you after? So you come out of it and you go. It like resets your, it affects your neurons. Like there's a thing called neuroplasticity, et cetera.

And it, ayahuasca in particular grows new neurons. It's the only substance on earth that can, it, I was in particular grows new neurons. It's the only substance on earth that can do it, that they found. You will grow new neurons. Uh, so, so you grow new ones and it's like, it changes your brain kind of, but having said that it's, it can also be like very, uh, I've seen people get possessed. I've seen wild stuff. So did you get, uh, what are you eating? Sorry.

Is it like a pill or is it vegetables or what do you, yeah, it's a tea, tea. Okay. And are you tastes like, uh, tastes like, uh, uh, espresso. And are you getting, uh, do you feel nauseous in the beginning? Kind of like mushrooms did, or I've only gotten, you get you feel nauseous in the beginning? Kind of like mushrooms did or? I've only gotten, you get a little nauseous. I will say rock generally has puked both times.

Uh, I, uh, I haven't, I'm not embarrassed. I drank too much. So what Neil? Um, good for me. Uh, yeah. Puked. Um, so, so, uh, so, so yeah, so it's, it's a little, it's a little crazy, but, um, it's, it was effective for me, but I can't say like, do it everybody. It's like, it can, it can go a lot of different ways.

I did it a lot in 2020 and 2021. And this past year I've done MDMA four or five times and that's been helpful in a different way. Why is it different? Which ones for which? MDMA is Molly XC. You ever do that, Dana? No. All right. I feel like a bully. You ever do it? And- Nerd. I feel like a bully. You ever do it? Nerd.

Yeah. That I just, it's like, that's changed me also. It's, you know what? I'm going to be honest, it's opened my heart a little bit guys. Okay. So I, I understand. That's a good reason.

That's a good place to be rather than hardened and cynical and being just organically empathetic to people and wanting to be nice. I think Dana, you are generally, you seem very empathetic. You've always struck me as very empathetic. I don't know. My wife and I saw it across at our breakfast table, took a test, personality test, 10 different types. Okay. Blink, just do the question. And then what would you come out as?

Helper, what'd you come out as? Helper. It can be toxic and the extreme, but yeah, my wife and her very much like after you, after you, people ask me, how did you, did you let people, how did you navigate the Game of Thrones of Saturday Night Live?

You know, because wouldn't you like, hey, you can do that part, you like, hey, you can do that part. But it's not to that level. I also have a really competitive streak, but I'm working on that too. I heard it. Yeah, so. The late great Warren Thomas told me a story

about you in the 90s. And he said that you one time, Dana one time said that he wants the audience to die from laughing at him. You want to kill so hard, people die. Well, I would say to people that I was in that scene in the late 70s, early 80s, and Rob Williams was there briefly and then gone. And then he would come back as a star, Morgan Mendy,

and he would create a small seismic event. And I just, I was naive. I just thought, I guess that's where you want to try to get to that, if you can. The most impossible. What do you think the hardest you've ever killed is, Dana? Yeah, Dana. And, Bade, I want to hear you as well.

Okay, I'll think about it. Oh boy, that goes back a long time. I would say for me- In anything, in a sketch, in a- I would say in the early 80s, when I was really doing a lot of standup, I had done these goofy pilots and TV shows. And then I was working at this place called The Other Cafe,

which Paula Poundstone went, and a lot of people was 70s cedar, 60s cedar with a big window. And that's where I got so confident doing eight shows a week that the late shows, I would literally just kind of go with what I wanted to do. And I had so much confidence. I was crushing in that room. And the reason is this is cause I was always a sketch player,

but didn't know it. There was no groundlings up there. So I was always trying to do characters and sketch. So in this 60 cedar, where there was no hard liquor, was really helpful. In the Haight-Ashbury, where I met my wife, by the way. Those are the best sets I've ever had. Different kind of stand-up.

Then were you doing like, what were you, were you doing like Chop and Broccoli? Chop and Broccoli came from there. Churchly came from there. I can only imagine how hard Chop and Broccoli must have killed in a 60 seeder. CB, as it's known, CB. Thank you for helping this podcast. I know, I'm helping. So I would just say that. And then what happens is you go on Saturday Night Live and you're not doing as much standup.

And then they're offering you enormous amounts of money to play enormous rooms, but you're never really in the shape that you should or could be in. So your act gets worse and the money gets bigger, but you're famous, so you're writing waves and going to your hooks. But that was the best I ever was for my headspace. And if I do shoot another special, I would have to do it in a 50 seater. That's a tight space, but you know, it's not popular to do that. What was your theater?

How big was that one? Uh, Fonda it's probably eight, 900. So that's, it felt very intimate. Oh, Fonda on. On sunset. So David, that's my story. Neil, David, when it's made, when was you, when were you crushing the hardest? I feel like it's any time I'm doing standup

where they're not filming it for Netflix. And then when they film a special, something happens where the crowd goes, I'm paying to see you, but this, it just goes back to the joke of whenever most people film a special, it's not their best night on stage. This was my Netflix that just came out was the two worst shows of the whole tour.

See, I'm telling you it's true. Dana agrees. It's something about it. I had the same thing. There was a technical issue on Friday night. Um, so that got to throw that out. So you work on it for six months and then you got one shot and the audience sees the cameras and the lights. And so it's hard to, that's why Sandler's special, because he did it all over the

place and you're watching a guy, you're watching his special and the guy doesn't know he's doing a special. So Sandler didn't know if he was gonna use all that. And so that was awesome. Cause it was just not, he wasn't doing a special, but really that was your worst set. Cause it felt, it felt pretty good. No, it was, I know it was still very good,

but it was like, and then the thing happens where you're like, you're pissed and you can't be pissed. Yeah. There's like a party. That's like, Oh, these motherfuckers. Uh, see me. Yeah. That's funny. You're like, I I'm having a tough set on my special night when they paid to see me. Is that like you popped into the comedy store? Yeah. I want to introduce a psychological problem based on this and not being able to shoot it 20 times that and It's not a good place to be in like if you you have the exact same set cameras are gone

It's just gone at Saturday night, and it's a little tight Whatever at least for me I might step outside the lines do a little crowd work Switch up my set you know try to work What's been given to me. But when you're out there and you're doing your set and it doesn't help me to be in this linear thing, I feel like it's homework. I have to get to these bits as opposed to I got a lot of bits in my quiver and I'm just out here tonight. So that's another thing to get quiver like. Quiver.

I like that. Whoops, there's more arrows. Here's some chopping broccoli. Be careful, the church lady may make an appearance. But that's why I want to be like that on a Waska. Hello. Besides this- Me and Spade don't do the crowd work.

Were there any other suggestions? I don't really do it either. I don't really do it either, but in a small room, you can really have a conversation a little bit. the king of online casinos. Enjoy casino games at your fingertips with the same Vegas strip excitement MGM is famous for. When you play classics like MGM Grand Millions or popular games like Blackjack, Baccarat and Roulette with our ever-growing library of digital slot games, a large selection of online table games and signature Bet MGM service, there is no better way to bring the excitement and ambience of Las Vegas home to you than with Bet MGM Casino. Download the BetMGM Casino app today. BetMGM

and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. BetMGM.com for Ts and Cs, 19 plus to wager, ON only. Please play responsibly. If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, 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 iGaming Ontario. ["Happy Hour"] Should we go understand?

I'm still just curious how you're happy. No, yeah, I'm just asking. Like, I can do an hour. I don't, I'll go. Anything. How you guys want, just cut it down. I don't care. Well, you know, because happiness, I can do an hour. I don't, I'll go, anything you guys want. Just cut it down. I don't know. You know, because happiness is such an elusive word.

I'm not, and you're just saying you're better. What, what? Yeah, I don't, I'm not, yes. I'm not like, uh, like, uh, you know, I'm still like the joke engine or whatever, still the same, but it's, I, it's more pleasant for, to be me. I'm not, I'm not, I realized something on MDMA, which I was like very, I was like felt very forgiving

and very open and I was like, why am I so open now? And I realized, cause most of the time my brain is just like cortisol and adrenaline. And I'm like thriving in that. I think that's my personality and that's my outlook. And then I was like, that's not even your outlook. That's just the chemicals you have. So therefore, it makes you think you're, it makes you seem cynical and cutting and biting and, and abrasive. And it's like, that's just the chemicals you have. So I figured out a way to try to ignore those chemicals and bring in more of like the nice serotonin family chemicals. It seems like a lot of things in life are a little bit like just working it, fake it till you make it, you know?

Yeah, it's just literally, you know what I've been doing, which is the corniest thing in the world is like, I do a gratitude checklist. Oh, four times a day. Yeah, but like I do it four checklist. Oh, four times a day. Yeah. But like I do it four times a day. Cause I, I feel high four feels like a lot, but because I will forget. I will forget.

Oh yeah. I just, and then I start thinking negatively about my life. Or like, I say, it's like, I write science science fiction about my life like they're out to get me and Spade hates you whatever and then you go and then I just go and then I write down like no You're a popular comedian you have three Netflix specials You co-created Dave Jamil like just things that are actually true. Like you write jokes, jokes just come to you. Your whatever the attributes of the positive attributes. You're good at your job. You do well, you know, it's a hard field. And if you can make a living in the arts or something you love at and

make a good living, that's a gratitude check off. Absolutely. I get paid to do this. I still go back to that all the time. Yes, it's very hard. I'm working right now. Yeah, it's hard to know. Well, this feels like work, but it's other stuff. It's hard to remember. It's just hard to remember the positive parts of your life because we're like kind of, it's cooler to be negative and look, look like, oh, this is hard.

And I'm like, I'm a soldier and all. It was like, no, we're all incredibly lucky. And so was it your idea to write down the four times a day or is it a therapist? It was actually, no, I mean, like I was aware of it as like a, you know, like an Oprah thing and then some, and then I was talking about Islam and I said, they pray five times a day, which is smart. Cause it's like, you got to remember.

And then Rainn Wilson from the office was like, why don't you try doing gratitude four times a day? And I was like, all right. And I've been doing it like probably four months at this point. It's pretty great. And what did ayahuasca give you? If that MDA gave you that sort of gratitude and ayahuasca gave me, it got me off antidepressants for good. Really?

Pretty big, yeah. And I was an atheist before and then doing ayahuasca made me believe in a central creation force thing. But it's not like religious or like, so therefore. Nothing wrong with that. I totally believe in that. Yeah, yeah. I think people get hung up on like, well, what religious, Therefore I totally believe in that, you know? Yeah. You know?

Yeah. I think people get hung up on like, well, what really it's like, what, what franchise do you believe in? Right. And that's, uh, yeah, it gets to me. Um, we're here. I always go back to that. Like, what are, why are we here?

Are we really here? What is our purpose here? What are we doing here, I always go back to that. Like, why are we here? Are we really here? What is our purpose here? What are we doing here? So I just emotionally have to think there's some creative designer. Some reason. Some reason because it's also more comforting

just to, you know, a lot of faith or just belief systems. If they, I mean, they asked Mel Gibson, who's a very devout Catholic, and he didn't, rather than go in defending the religion, he goes, he goes, what, what choice have I got? I did a little Australian accent. What choice have I got? So, you know, it's like, I'm going to be way more content and at peace with myself during this time, this journey. So it's sort of like, I'm choosing to be open to the, yeah, in a weird way, it is like a self-interested choice because it kind of feel it's easier if you're not, if you don't take everything so literally, like if it's like, this is

this is my only shot and I gotta make the, I gotta make the most money and I gotta succeed and I gotta honor this time, this 80 years or whatever on earth, I got to rise and grind. And you're like, or it's like, no, you're part of a bigger. That's what I say four times a day. I would say, this is my only shot. I need more money. No, I thought I believe, and I was in my late twenties, I realized there was a higher power than Lorne Michaels. No, I was at 30. And then I said, there's gotta be something about that. And now I'm in. And we're talking of course about Bernie Bernstein.

Those are two of my favorite references. Fantastic. Neil, nobody knows nothing. Nobody knows anything in the business. Now give me 10% of your money. I don't know anything, but listen to me. But we love, we love Bernie. I love Bernie.

When you did Chappelle show was let's say 2003. Does that sound right? Oh yeah, that sounds right. It is right. 2002 to 2004 or 2002 to 2005. Okay. So SNL was going and you guys, did you ever want to write for us now? Was that any, even in your possibilities?

Or you had written, yeah, like kind of like why me and Chappelle were in half baked in 97 and then, and then I kind of got, you were doing, that's when I met you, you were doing eight heads in a duffel bag. Not at the top of the resume, but yeah. In Toronto. That sounds about right. Yeah, in Toronto.

And then I was sort of, and then I met a guy named Mike Scherer who wrote for SNL and he and I wrote a couple screen, a couple of screenplays together. And then I was always sort of around and then, and then I, and then through Scherer, I became friends with like Seth Meyers and Polar and, and then all those people. Uh, so I would go to that, the parties. Yeah. So that's something.

And then I actually, when Dave. something. Yeah. So that's something. And then I actually, when Dave hosted in 2016, I wrote that week on the show and, and it was, it was, it was, I mean, it was the week Trump got won the election. So it was an insane week to be there. But, and it was an insane week to be there. Oh, wow. But and it was like, I remember being, I was friends with Joe. So I was like in Joe's office and on a exit polling conference call at 6 p.m. on the election night.

And the guy, Frank Lutz was like, Hillary's up by six. Hillary's up by six points. It's like, so then, so then- At six p.m., okay. Yeah, at six p.m., Eastern time. And then so as the night went on, you just got to see like what, like people transform. And like me and Che, Michael Che wrote a sketch about it was going to be Rick James doing

an update. I like it already. Why is it anything with Rick? It starts with Rick James. Right. Rick James doing a weekend update. Doing an update about how he realizes that he could have been president of the United States.

And like, but we did like three versions of it. Like there was like at nine o'clock, it's like Donald Trump failed at Rick James's dream. And then at 2am, we rewrote it to be like another thing. And then it and then 5am, we rewrote it to be like another thing and then at 5 a.m. we rewrote it to like, I could have been president. And then me and Joe's at like six or 7 a.m. I pitched the sketch of like, why don't we just do a bunch of people

watching the returns come in? And it ended up being like the popular sketch that week. But we wrote it, I mean, again, I'm not telling, it's all these like, it's the same heroism stories, every, all the SNL, like, I'm a hero. And then like, I punched Downey, and then we got the scripted cards. Ran the cards.

Yeah, and then Wally was like, what is this? I can't even read the, um, uh, so we wrote that sketch and it did like pretty good, it did like decent at read through, but it had like some punch and then we rewrote it. Some of those are visual and then you, they come alive when you're doing what, what, what was the, the through hook of that? Just, just the evolution of their attitude. It was like 7 a.m.

I'm really like everyone's excited. And then like, you know, a couple of lines about how shoes keep start dropping. Yeah, nine thirty. Yeah. Then like, looks like Trump won. And like them going like, what? And then Dave's watching it with them. And then Chappelle had a funny like a funny direction like Trump won it and like them going like what and then Dave's watching it with them and then Chappelle had a funny like a funny direction uh for the rewrite he goes just make it blacker

so so so the so then the direction became like white people overreacting to a bad outcome and Dave being black about it. Dave just being like, what the fuck did you like? What did you think the guy, and then rock came in, like then rock shows up at like 11, like with some food, like what's going on? And then him and Dave are just like, play a play sniper to a bunch of upset white people.

But it was a funny, it was funny, like, not real, not, I mean, like, knowing about the show, secondhand through Seth and Sher and a few people, but, so I, because I was like, with Writing with Dave, I got to go into the sketch pick thing after Reed wrote The Big Place. The inner sanctum with Lorne where- Tight club.

Each sketch is a card and some cards make it onto the outline and some don't. It's a scary place. You go in there. So I did, it's like the sanctum of sanctums, right? Yeah. It's the center of the Death Star. So I did a thing that I didn't know you can't do is I went up to the board.

Yes. I went up to the board, took a card and said, I think you should move this here. Wow. And I don't think anyone had ever done it. No, no, I never saw anyone do it. No, I think I parallelized. Yes, exactly. And I paralyzed Lauren to the because Lauren is for the many things.

He is barely passive. If you confront them, I didn't. None of this was calculated. So I, I, I basically hacked Lauren, moved a sketch up. Packed the system. Pushed him out of the way. Yeah, like get out, punch him in the, yeah. Throw him through the window.

And then after dress, dress didn't go well. I never realized how shaggy dress. Yeah. It's just really some loose ends and dress. Yeah. Like you don't know. It's like, Oh, this shouldn't be not only this shouldn't be a television. It shouldn't be on its feet right now.

This is no, this it's not a joke, but there were a couple of times my first season. I didn't know how it all worked either. I thought it was so bad and so long and so discombobulated. I just thought the show is not going to go on tonight. This doesn't help me. They're going to have to show a movie or something. Yeah, they're going to have to show like The Godfather or something or like The Lone Ranger or something.

And it's so long. You're like, this is still going, what the, we gotta do the real one in a minute. It starts at 7.30, you're like, we're not gonna be able to do the 11.30 show, this is running so long. So after dress, I, we're in the Lawrence office, which is like 75, it's a fire hazard. It's like 75 people in this cramped room.

It is a fire hazard. 20 by 20. It's like, Chappelle was actually, talk about hacking the system, he was smoking during that meeting. It's a tiny room. And I, Lorne, I think I did the card thing again. Jesus, you took over.

And then this is how, how hard I hacked this guy. During the show. You gave notes. During the show, it's like, you know, the show's going well, right? It's like, we figured it out, whatever. Cut the jokes that don't work. It was a miracle.

When you cut the shit that doesn't work, the whole thing is better. It starts to shine a little out, whatever. Cut the jokes that don't work. It was a miracle. When you cut the shit that doesn't work, the whole thing is better. It starts to shine a little bit, yeah. Yeah, and it's 12, 40, 45. There's one sketch left and there's a few on the board and I go, what's next? And Lauren goes, you decide. Ah, wow.

I got to pick the sketch, which Seth Meyers was like, I don't think anyone's, that's ever happened. Never. And the way you do it is, you have to rush the cockpit on Wednesday. You rush the cockpit, you rest control from them. And that's the only way that, and now, and then you're the

captain and then Lauren forgot your name. Cause he's so many people he's probably, uh, could we have the pin pusher card guy come in from Wednesday? Pin pusher. No, you know what's funny? I did go, I did go back because I'd had a good experience. I went back another week when I think Aziza, sorry, was hosting and me and Joe sort of sketch and, uh, guess who wasn't in the sketch picking meeting.

Yup. Good. Good. You know what? I know that since then they have someone in there that pushes a beverage cart in front of the host and his friends in the room. So no one can get to the board. I just like the balls of him going, okay, now it's the air show, we're gonna open with Dave's monologue and you hear in the back, nope.

Not this week, oh man. Sorry, that's at the end. Yep. No, I know. What do you, what do you think? Well, why? Well, that's interesting. But it was, it was, uh, it was, I've done it. I went back two more weeks.

So a total of three weeks and by the third week, it w I w I had like the classic experience of like the classic experience. I would like the sketch, you're think you're, you have to kind of get your, they don't pick your sketch. And then you, like just objected. And then some people didn't like it. And then we got it on, but it was like late. And then people objected and then it got cut Friday night.

Yeah. No, I know. It was like, oh, this is the, I was like, this is the experience I've heard of. Oh, wow. Yeah. And, uh, ugly. No, it was pretty ugly. We should take a pause. I mean, this is... And you go, I guess I don't get to pick the last sketch again. Maybe I'll pick that one. Maybe Lorne, do I need to reintroduce myself? Maybe you forgot who runs the show. Lorne, you're spinning a pin.

Lorne, I could pick it. Please. Is there a donkey's tail anywhere? This fell off the board accidentally. Yeah. So it was, I had like, I had every experience I think in three weeks. So funny. Knowing how to speak and understand a new language can be an invaluable tool when traveling,

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Redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com slash RS10 today. Because the Skip app saves you so much time by delivering stuff like your favorite cool treats, groceries, and bevies, you get to spend the summer doing what you really want. Like successfully cutting your jeans into jorts. Yes! Shipping the kids off to summer camp. Yes! Or winning the annual Schellenberg family water balloon fight. Yes! Suck it, Aunt Susan. Yep, definitely the best summer ever. Squeeze more summer out of summer with Skip. Did somebody say skip? So you, Chappelle, like, I mean, just in broad strokes, just for our listeners, the difference between doing sketch in that environment and that whatever protocol you guys

had, I didn't really know, but I assume it was pre-taped, not live. whatever protocol you guys had, I didn't really know, but I assume it was pre-taped, not live. It was all pre-taped. Yeah. And it was, and the staff was me and him. So it was like, it was- Wow. Well, cause we had done Half Baked in 97

and it didn't go well. And then, and then like, we just didn't get what it was. We worked with Bob Simons, who you guys have both worked with like on Half Baked and we just kind of got mauled by the process because we were 23. So what is it, if you look back at, cause I've done a lot of bombs and stuff or I was in them, but what was the, was there a flaw in half-baked

or it was tiny? I mean, I will, I'll clean up our end of the street. We should have just rewritten it more. Um, once we got green lit, we were just like, fucking we're 23. Let's get this per diem in our pockets and get to the brass rail, the strip club in Toronto. In Toronto. Yeah. What are you gonna wear to the Oscars? Yeah, I mean we were. Yeah, so like. Well, it's so exciting. You go, this is it. They bought the movie, let's go shoot it.

You don't think of let's keep policy. I do think it had a great name. Yeah. Half bank, you always remember it. Yeah, that was Brewer's pitch. So like, so we just should have kept rewriting it. And then there was just stuff, production stuff that it was like, you know, by the time we saw drawings

and renderings of the sets and stuff, it was all very bright and colorful. And we were just kind of like, is this what you thought it was gonna be? Just like we didn't, I think Bob had like the, the Billy Madison, Billy Madison lens on it. Yeah. Like the Billy Madison color palette. And I, Dana, I didn't see master disguise, but it looked like you had that. We had it.

Uh, Adam had it less than happy Gilmore cause it was more exteriors, but he got sort of further away from the sort of the kindergarten color palette. Cheerful, family oriented film. Exactly. Yeah, we were doing a weed movie so it was kind of like not exactly right for that. So it was just stuff like that.

So the authenticity quotient went. Yes, yes. And by the way, we should have rewritten it more. Neil, you can even get burned on posters because there's a whole arts like a blue background. Like, and I think Tommy boy has one. A lot of them, there's a system where there's certain colors that make it look like a fun, happy family movie.

And there's some that look a little grainy or even on the poster. Yes, that's exactly right. And then, but then also were you in airheads? Spade? No, no. Uh, sorry to put that on here. Um, yes, but like airheads was a little more indie looking half baked had the

bright blue background, grass, Dave and Jim, you know, it's like, you're absolutely right. Like there's just a bunch of stuff. And I'm not saying like that it was wrong. I'm not saying I'm, I'm, I kind of feel like what wasn't quite right for us. And by the time we were just, we didn't have any power to go like, no, I didn't know that you can walk up and take the index card. Yeah. You should have.

It's not, it's not actually all the time, anyone's fault or a conspiracy. It's just. No, exactly. There's subjectivity to it. But I, you know, I'm not saying that it was wrong. I'm not saying that it was wrong. I'm not saying that it was wrong. I'm not saying that it was wrong.

I'm not saying that it was wrong. I'm not saying that it was wrong. I'm not saying that it was wrong. I'm not saying that it was wrong. I'm not saying that it was wrong. I'm not saying that it was wrong. I'm not saying that it was wrong. I'm not saying that it was wrong. I'm not saying that it was wrong. I'm not saying that it was wrong. I's not actually all the time anyone's fault or a conspiracy, it's just that- No, exactly.

There's subjectivity to it, but I think if there's a through line, let's say you and Dave rewrote it and you had complete control over it, essentially, like the way Adam Sandler does, then all your standup would come into play, like, well, what's working, what's working? But if it gets muted-

That's exactly right. And also, what's working, what's working, but if it gets muted, and also we were, I was 23 day was 23. We didn't. So then once we got to Chappelle show, then it was every single decision comes through one of us. Yeah. Yeah. And that that's why I mean, for better for worse, at least you can take the credit or live or die with it. Yeah. And, uh, and so, so like that was, so it was me and him, we would write, we would people, a couple of people, a guy named Brian Tucker who went on to be

a great SNL writer would pitch, pitched us some sketches, uh, but it would mean that it would always write them ourselves. And, uh, so it was, you know, we, it was just a two person sort of black hole operation of like, how many sketches did you need? Cause they were half hours, right? Yeah. It was, it was commercial. Yeah. It was 22 minutes, one a week. No, it was 22 minutes. Uh, my, once we had musical guests, which would end up being about three minutes. So we ended up needing about four or five per episode. The heart, and that's very hard.

So- That's a lot. Yeah, we had to do 12 episodes, but here's the crazy part, without reruns. So we had to do 12 weeks in a row of four or five sketches. Oh yeah. So that's where you, it's just becomes like almost unbearable. Well, just you two.

I mean, come on. Yeah. Writers room is too much. Yeah. Just us. So it was, and, and like, like you guys said, for better or worse, there's some, some of it's great. The second season is way better than the first one to me. Um, but, uh, and to, I mean, just objectively, but, but yeah, it just

became like very, so there was, so the hard part was the pressure and not the, there was no backstabbing. There was no, there were no politics. Okay. It was your energy there were no politics. Okay. It was just- All your energy goes to the show. Yes, but so it's like you guys got weeks off, but the whole week off,

you're thinking about what an asshole so-and-so is. You know? So we didn't have, we had less of that, but it is just like, like so, so hard to do it that many weeks in a row and, uh, and then we get, you know, three months off for, for between seasons, but, but yeah, but it's, but it's like, you riding high. When, when did you go, Holy shit, we got a hit. Well, you know, what's funny is I, I wade pertains to SNL is, uh, you guys, did you guys read that live from New York book, the Thomas shales book?

Flip through it. Yeah. So I'm familiar with it. Yeah. Yeah. You lived it. So you're less, you're, it's more like, oh yeah. Is that what happened?

But, Oh yeah. There's a lot of stuff you go, well, that didn't happen like that. Yeah, exactly. Everyone has it. From an outsider for an outsider, it was interesting too. I didn't know. I genuinely didn't, I had never, and I love, I wrote for a sketchbook called

all that on Nickelodeon when I was like 20, um, before all that stuff. Uh, yeah, with Keenan. Quiet on the set. Uh, quiet on set. You may know, quiet on the set. Um, dude, that show is so popular. It's, it's number one on HBO today. It's been out for like a month.

Um, but, uh, yeah, it's not like, uh, I had a good joke on that guy that'll tell you guys off the air. Um, it wasn't about molesting. It was a fat shaming joke. So that's pretty cool. OK. The but so I never until I read a lot from New York, I never thought about like character sketches or parodies or premise sketches or like I never knew the

I never kind of classified them. So once so I literally read it. I, I take it to Shavala, I go read this, like before we do, we gotten picked up. And then he was like, Oh, so then we started approaching it. Like, let's do a character sketch. Let's do a premise sketch. Let's do, I mean, our, it was so disorganized. It was such a two man operation that we had, we ended up having two

distinctions of sketches, which is longies and shorties. So it was a pretty high level, high level operation, but like a level lingo. Well, there's also, uh, which is done is we used to call them on the Dana Carvey show presentational. So it's like, yeah, there's a little song or a chiron that kind of gives a joke away. Like Germans who say nice things that I did with Steve Corral is his bit. It's just two guys facing, you know, the premise right away.

Yep. Two minutes of jokes. Yes. That's, that's a, that's a, I'm glad you brought that up because the, the, I remember I went to SNL while we were doing Chappelle show. And I was like, I looked at Seth and I was like, Oh, I, I, now I realized having Chappelle on stage setting the sketch up beforehand does so much heavy lifting. Yes.

I don't, you don't need to spend 80 seconds going like, here we are at a restaurant, I hope nothing crazy happens. You don't need to spend 80 seconds going like, here we are at a restaurant. I hope nothing crazy happens. Everyone's wondering where it's going. What's going on? So he could say like, me and my wife argue about race and who does what. And then we can go like,

so we gotta have a racial draft and then toss to like everything's set up. Which again, I think there's like you guys, Dana I forgot about how great the Dana Carvey show was until you mentioned it. Congratulations again, that show was incredible. It's nice to have a doc, when you only get eight shows on the air

and you get a nice documentary, thank you Josh Trimbaum, you know, that kind of goes. Yeah. You know. Could be worse. Yeah, could be totally forgotten. Well, I was gonna ask you this question based on you asking, bringing that up because Steve Carell and Stephen Colbert, they were not them.

They weren't weren't who they are now. Yeah. You know, they're kind of insecure, but they were great immediately. And you've known Dave so long and forget how funny he is. Just his stage presence has gone to this other level. I don't know how you've watched this evolution of somebody who's that comfortable on stage and confident. Yeah, I don't think it's... Or has he always been that guy? It's almost... I mean, he's kind of always been that guy. He was good. I don't know when you guys first saw him, but I heard a story

fairly recently where Martin Lawrence, Dave's in high school on stage at Garvin's or somewhere in DC and Martin Lawrence has done like do the right thing and he's come back to DC and he's doing good and somebody's like and Dave's on stage and somebody says to Martin, what do you think of this kid? And Martin goes, I don't know, but I can't stop looking at him. Like he's in high school.

Dave also had a joke that I like telling people, one of his high school jokes, when the show Alf came out, Dave had a joke, it's a good thing Alf didn't land. It's a good thing Alf landed in a white neighborhood and not a black neighborhood. Cause if Alf had landed in a black neighborhood, two weeks later,

you would have seen brothers wearing Alf skin coats. Skin coats. Pretty good joke for a kid in high school. So like the thing of his, how natural he is, and like, I don't even think it's, I don't even compare it. It's like, well, I'm never gonna be able to do that. So it's not even worth emulating because it's like-

Yeah, not a lot of people could. Yeah. Yeah, like, do you guys know of anybody that's that? Like, I've literally been having conversations with him. Like, I don't even know when the show's starting. He's smoking, being like, Brennan, you don't know, but then, no, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, on to the stage while we're talking and get to standing ovation. Like just not, there's no separation between being a person and being the guy on stage.

Yeah. Well, two things that are interesting is to that, that I guess for a period of time post that show and everything that happened, you know, you'd start to show up in clubs and I would just hear, I would hear six hour sets or four hour sets. I don't, you know? And so that would get someone confident anyway. But this is what's interesting to me. Like Eddie Murphy is 19. He comes out on SNL. So he's, he's out of a confidence, you know, he's just there. It's unbelievable. Right. I'll take Luis CK just, just because just because it's such a brilliant standup.

It's an amazing community. And he's going through the normal thing of finding his way. Then 20 years later, he's at this level that you can't, you can only equal it as a standup. So it's interesting where people who get it so fast and so young, um, but we could get there, Neil, you could get there. I know that we start today.

Yeah, we start today. I have you booked at the West side. You're going to do a seven hour set, Neil, Neil Brennan and friends, but no one else is coming. Well, no, but that's what's funny is like you don't. I, I don't, I, I, it's like how I would think of it. It's like, I don't have, I bear, I have the material I have.

I have 43 minutes or whatever. Whereas I don't, I can't like channel or whatever. Like Spade, you seem like a very bit oriented person. Like you have the time you have. Yeah. Well, I, I also like to do longer stories now because to eat time also, and to be more personality driven bits, because some bits can be, if you do it about a subject, it might've been trampled on already, but if you talk about your own

life or your version of something that happens, that sort of identifies you and your persona. So those stories I like a lot because they can't be really duplicated. It has to be me telling them. So I like those in the act. Uh, it doesn't do well. Are there stories that you're doing that you didn't, you were like, could I do that in my, are they new stories or is it like when I was a kid? Uh, most of it's new, but I could go back and mine stuff and say, this was funny and I could make it funnier because you learn how to tell stories better.

But if it has like little tiny punch lines along the way and the little tent pole laughs, so it's not just a story. Like Norm used to tell a joke, Johnny went to school and then it's a 15 minutes and then he does the punchline. So it's, it's kind of a funny walk there through the joke, but you also are like waiting for the actual funny part. Yeah. But, but if you can keep the story going like that, uh, I do like that.

I also have some one-liners. It's really a mess to be honest, but whatever's funny. But I don't like doing long sets. I'll say that. I don't like doing hour and a half. I don't think it's necessary. I don't think people want, like my Netflix is 53 minutes. Like it was an hour and five live, but like,

I'm like, I don't- I'm with you. No, I think everyone's sharing the shorts and stuff. I think it just needs a, um, a, a tell I think was 35 minutes of standup, but he had people playing the recorder to extend it to 40. So if you go past, we were talking about this, that you can kind of. Ride a wave to maybe 40, but not anybody has to have that low. The audience gets tired if you're lucky, you know,

from laughing and then you have the low and then you have to rebuild. But what I would say about you, which makes you unique, one is the three mics thing. It's very original, incredibly fun for a comedian to watch. It's just like, oh, you know, all these styles. And then on this one, I haven't seen anyone do it, but you're just doing regular standup.

You're killing. But then all of a sudden you're talking about atheism. You, your face goes to a little corner in black and white, I think. And then this sort of commercial, this big video comes on. I do, basically I do. I do. Clutch comes on.

I do, basically I do, the premise is religions should make attack ads on each other, like politicians. Yeah, that's great. And so then I do, I basically do the voiceover in the corner and then I do like full screen. Is there a screen in the theater? No, there was no screen there.

It was, they're laughing because of your laughing cause of the voiceover. And then because this is a visual presentation for people at home, I'm like, yeah, why it's that, you know, what analogy I was used is the like television degrades makes you can film an amazing thing. And in order for it to work through a television camera and go and work in homes, it has to be so great that it can get through television, like knocks the quality down six to 40%. Right. Yeah. And the analogy I was used is SNL musical guests. SNL musical guests live in that studio,

I think we can all agree, some of the best shows I've ever seen. Or heard too. Some of the best, yes. Give you the chills. More than I made, yes. Literally, someone you don't even like will give you the chills when you watch them at eight H.

And then if you, if you're at home, you're like fast forwarding. And that's the difference between like television just makes stuff worse. Like in the room, you can feel the bass in your chest. So it's, so in terms of like standup, I tried to do more visual stuff on Netflix because people can watch anything.

People can watch Batman Return. They can watch any, they can watch Flip and Fall videos. They can watch the Zapruder film. They can watch, they can just watch, they can watch The Godfather 2. They can watch like, you know. So that Zapruder. Zapruder's bad quality. Cause that's it. No because it's not great quality, but you can, you can

see it on TV. It comes out very, but it's pretty funny and it is pretty funny. It's funny. What I was going to say was then you also did a visual effect where you're, you're like on a big iPhone talking to us. Yes, I'm talking about social media. Spade, you would like my comedy. You should look at it.

You would... And get influenced by it. Yeah. I do. I talk about girls on social media and guys on social media, the kind of hustlepreneur thing. And Danny, you know what's funny is I'm kind of doing, I'm doing Hans Brahms. I'm doing the clap.

I do the clap basically. And it took me like a year before I'm like, I'm doing Hans Brahms. I just was doing it. And then I realized like, oh, I'm doing Hans Brahms without the accent. But I cut to when I'm doing Hansen product without the accent but but I cut to when I'm doing the like what's up guys you want to make money I go to like a frame you know like the 16 the 916 frame so just trying to help myself on television yeah yeah it's and

Yeah. Yeah. It's, and, and it, it's like, it's less of a man's, it's less of a tent talk. It's less of a one man standing there, nothing happening. If you do think of that way, cause on the last special, when I went into the inter sanctum, they said that max people last 12, 15 minutes. And if you designed your standup, like the audience, the physical audience is going to start leaving. You would really front load it. And the way to win the game show is that you keep them longer than anyone else. But about your visual imagery, it's a little bit to me like when David and I talk on this other podcast we're doing where we're just sort of riffing and stuff and I'm doing a couple of

voices and then we have a gentleman, young person, edit it together and then mix in visual effects to it. Yeah. And that's your YouTube short clip. Everyone does it and it's just very potent. You know, potency is just better. This idea that like, you know, I'm like, I'm breaking the sanctity of standup. Like there's no, no,, I'm like, uh, I'm breaking the sanctity of standup. Like there's no, like I'm compete.

I want people to look at it. I don't want to, I don't like, and all this thing about like, what about the history and your legacy? I love comedy. I haven't watched Richard Pryor in 25 years. I'm not going back and looking in the like, what about it? It's like, it did, we have my Netflix, the one crazy kid was on the Netflix charts for a week. I can't believe it was on there that long.

I usually, it's like, we get about, in terms of like, Bring the Pain, Chris's special came out in 96. And I feel like it lasted culturally for three years. Do you know what I mean? Like it was like- Yeah, because analog in the 90s, yeah. Yeah, and even like Mike Myers was saying like,

this is bare, like what this is, is not the showbiz that we had all started, especially you guys who were like popular. Like Wayne, if you're in Wayne's world, this is a little different. Um, so, so even if they stark standup special, it's like at certain point, it could be Ansel Adams, you know, you just don't want to go, it looks great, but you, you want to get with the times too. So we have little clips.

You got to jazz them up or put words anything We're as I'm anything Anything yeah people are it's Dana. That's a good way to think of it is like, how do I get people to? Now knock away imagine them walking out of the burr. Bill Burr actually said He tries to make his setups sound insane So that people will be like, what? Where it's like, I'm sick of fat people crying.

And then you go, wait, what? Right, yeah. Every TikTok starts with, this is the craziest thing that ever happened to me. And then they go, let me back up. And you're like, hmm. Yeah, have you guys, you guys know about toes? Well, I still have mine.

Has that happened to you? It's incredible. Setup, yep. Yeah, so it's? It's incredible. So like that. Yep. Yeah. I got really rich with crypto. Should I hate myself? You know, yeah, that's good. Right. So bylines.

Yeah. Approaching it from like not even sensational like, or as sensationally as you can do it and not feel like a piece of garbage. Um, so like that's the, that's kind of, even sailors are good example of like guitars and I'm going to put it down and then I'm going to go over here and it's like, and he's got visuals. Yeah. He's got visuals. He's got the, his clothes are now with the, like the thank you comedy thing. Like it's like, and he said he's going gonna, he had a screen and stuff behind him.

So, yeah. Yeah, I totally agree. So yeah, like do, like I don't, I think it's silly to think that we should just do it the way it was done. Old fact, yeah. The purest would be the- Yeah, cause if I'm never,

I'm sure you guys meet people all the time who are like, have no idea who you are. And then you go, I remember there was a girl, I know, let me slow down. No, there was a girl who wrote on The Daily Show, who was a black girl who didn't know that Chris Rock had a show on HBO. Here you go.

Like easily. Easily, easily. Yeah. How, like how, and then you go, well, how would she know? She was eight when it was on. Right. Someone said, I know all your shit all the way back to grownups. I'm like grownups. That was 10 years ago. I thought I was done by the time grownups came out.

Yeah. I go, I got new juice, juicy life on TBS. My fans have jumped the shark on that. You know, they're like in their late 60s and they're like, you know, my kids sure, sure are fans of yours. They are. Yeah. They were born when Wayne's World was made.

How is that possible? But yeah. Dana, what are the, what are the bits that people bring up from Wayne's World now? That like the most common bits, obviously like Sch swing and all that stuff when it's out. But what is the what? Little ones, if you're going to spew, spew into this for me, little Garth things. Yeah, I'd say for me, it'd be the dream girl being knocked over and the Foxy Lady dance because of the Hendrix song is very potent.

I don't know if you've seen the movie, but Garth the shyest guy in town does this dance. Stuff like that. If you, to get a hit like that is so rare. Talk about gratitude. I'm going to write that down. Way's world. Way's world. And Mike Myers and I and Lorne Michaels

shared net profit on the film. And so every year we get checks from that film. Net profit. Yeah. There were no gross players. People don't know that you don't really make money for movies. Cause if there's someone in there who gets 20% of the gross, they'll never turn a profit, but we made it for 12 and it did 200 million.

And then it did a bunch on video. So that was kind of cool. I didn't want to say, but I took Iowaska right before we got on this. This is, we're timing this really well. I'll tell you what I learned from today's podcast. Sum it up, man. Before we let Neil go, I'll say- I'm trying to think of anything else we should talk about.

If there's anything I want. I was gonna say I did like that you wrote for Singled Out because I used to watch that show and Jenny McCarthy blew up. That was a cool, fun show, but was there any crazy thing you need to say? That was my first job in show business. That was my first writing job and I remember- It was a big show. Yeah, it was like she was on the cover of Rolling Stone. And Rolling Stone was a magazine that was popular. Yes, and people the Rolling Stone was a magazine. Yes.

And people looked at it. It was like, there were a few cultural hubs. Um, and, uh, they, yeah, no, I remember saying during the pilot, this is, this show is very stupid and it's going to be very popular, like I could just sort of tell like, oh, this is going to be, yeah. I'm so old, Neil, how old are you? I was, I'm so old. I was in Las Vegas the night Tupac was murdered and I ended up sitting at a blackjack table with Jenny McCarthy all night playing blackjack.

That's how old I am. I was meeting Chappelle there and he missed his flight. Is that how you mourned? Wow. Wouldn't be the first time. I wouldn't be the last time you missed a flight to meet me. And, uh, and yeah, so I'm quite aged. Yeah.

You're old. And, um, I think your next special should be called cortisol and adrenaline. It's not bad. Cortisol. Cortisol and adrenaline. Negative, negative, uh adrenaline. Negative brain chemicals. It should be called, be grateful that you're about to watch

Neil Brennan's comedy show. With a lot of extra pictures and words. Oh, if I do one, now I've been thinking this way anyway, it's just gonna be just blasting video and parodies. It should be, what's the downside? Yeah, who cares? Nobody gets one person complained, not even complain, they were just like,

it kinda took me out of it. Everybody else knows this is where we are. You gotta do it. Jerry Seinfeld didn't mention the video, you know what I mean? Didn't say, I didn't like that. It was everyone's on board. Like we, we have to help ourselves guys.

I think mine might be called wait for it because that's what every stupid tick tock says. Wait, watch till the end. No, I watch till the end. And then you go, by the way, I like when they say wait for it and it's a six second video. I'm like, I'm here.

I mean, how bad are people's attention span? Like, I don't know, this kind of time. Yeah, wait for six seconds. Yeah. And then it's very anticlimactic. I just want to quickly do a quick test to see if we can bring Crazy Good back into the top 10. This is a great special.

It's revolutionary. It has video effects. You don't believe it. He talks about anti-vax people. talks about Joe Rogan, I see. Sex couples, psychopaths, invented the world basically in drug addicts. They're very, very important. And of course, ayahuasca, we talk about on this one. Of course.

And Ellen DeGeneres. I have a joke about Ellen DeGeneres that Spade, I think you will like and I'm sure Jane will like. Can you say it right now? Yeah, I think you will like, and I'm sure Jane will like. Can you say it right now? Yeah, I'll say it right now. It's part of the special. I basically, you know, people, but like comedians are expected to be leaders now,

and like morally righteous, and people go, is Ellen nice? I was like, is Ellen nice? How many nice lesbians have you ever met in your entire life? Um. Yeah. Jim Jeffries. Yeah, I go after Jim Jeffries. Everybody gets a little something. I don't go after anybody. Everybody has approved and thanked me for them. So it's all in good fun.

Yeah, Jim Jeffries. I only think him because with his Australian accent, when he first came on in this scene, he had like a 10 minute bit. And I remember saying, Oh, I don't like lesbians. You can be having the best day of your life. A lesbian shows up, you're fucked. You know, it's something like that. But anyway, great comment. Great.

Yes. And incredible comment. Thank you Neil. And he's on the spectrum. All right. Great. I, it was a, I'm, I'm very happy to be here and thank you for having me. You were an incredible, easy guest.

People who do podcasts are really good guests, I've noticed. Yeah, I would like you both on my podcast, it's called Blocks. Spade, I don't think you're going to do it. It's a little too emotional for you. Dana on the other hand, I think is a, is a prime candidate and I'm going to send some emails about it.

Yeah. I w I have a, I have a story. I have a story. Great. Um, yeah. Most David has stories too. I don't know. That's a whole nother podcast

of whether comedians also have some struggle. We're all nuts. I mean, obviously a lot of people do, but comedians I meet seem to have stories, a lot of them. Seinfeld did it yesterday. So I feel like Letterman's done it. Letterman's done it. And now I've got Letterman and Seinfeld.

I feel like anyone who passes, I'm kind of like, okay, so you're better. Okay. Okay, buddy. Yeah, very good. All right, boys, good to see you. Thanks, Neil. Miss you, see you soon on the street. Miss you, bye.

Bye. This has been a presentation of Odyssey. Please follow, subscribe. I'll leave a like, a review. All this stuff, smash that button, whatever it is. Wherever you get your podcasts. Fly on the Wall is executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Jenna Weiss, Berman of Odyssey, Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment, and Heather Santoro.

The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman.