Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade - RE-RELEASE - Taran Killam

Episode Date: August 12, 2026

One of the slept-on SNL greats!

Hey, David, Taryn Killam. Taryn Killum is an S&L alum. Alam, All-Star, great, great cast member. We honored into our show, and we had a lot of laughs with the dude. I just saw him. I think I saw him at the 50th for sure. And you see him on a lot of stuff out there. We had a great chat with him.

I mean, you might have, were you there? He wasn't there when you were doing all the Biden stuff. No, I think he was just left. I was visiting in, and I think he might have done a Trump. Like, people were doing different Trump impressions at that time. Then Daryl Hammond came and did one on church chat. Oh, right. But Taryn is a great impressionist, great actor.

Yeah. And singer. He's on Broadway a lot, does a lot of stuff. And he tells us his story. Yeah. And it's always an interesting thing to find out how someone got on SNL, what happened on SNL, and how is his life now. Yeah, and we'll let him tell you. Here he is.

Taryn Killem. You look great. You look wonderful. Thank you. They pulled me from hair and makeup. I love authentic spade is my favorite spade. Yeah, look at me. Yeah.

It's awesome. It's a little dark. Sharp, good. No, there's texture. There's contrast. Taryn looks the best. Dana looks like a best because it's bright. Yeah.

Do you have the blur background, Taryn? Uh, no, it's a good camera, but I do have the touch up filter on. Yeah, you, no pores. So I don't know. Yeah. We're, if we can videotape this, I mean, your new nickname is high school senior. Yeah. I'll take the beard and go out.

Just go out. Yeah, the beard is fake so I can get booze. He was a family man that went back to high school. He had a beard when he was 13. invest in Apple trust me yeah damn that's too close to home

I was told to do that in 2003 and I told the guy to fuck off I said no take your apple stock ideas it will never work Dana you're the anti-forest gum yeah you go back and get bad advice

what is that obvious now you know what's what's the we can't tell right now because everything's just like whoa it's gonna exactly it's gonna be a tech that I don't even understand.

I got all my money in female space missions. Okay. You're doing very well. It's a big week for you. Oh, that's right. Well, we can talk about that if you want, but we'll... I just went straight into the divine feminine. Just all divine feminine.

That's the future. No, I'd go to space. I'd go to space. Wouldn't you go to space? Sure. It's seemingly like the uproar is like how they talked about going to space. Like, they weren't. They weren't acknowledging of the jet fuel enough, but I'd go to space.

Well, the tension is that any rocket could blow up any second in the takeoff phase. That would make me nervous. And that's the, you know, oh, sorry, it was a fuse. We didn't trade it out, you know. So if we lost Gail that way, I'd never forgive us. You never. Can you imagine if Oprah just went full Oprah, if that thing exploded and she started beating the shit out of Bezos?

That's her like John Wick movie. She becomes a one Oprah army. They try to pull her off. Anybody who drives a cyber truck suddenly ends up dead. You want some of this, Oprah? But anyway, I like the Jeff Bezos. Everything in his whole ecosystem

looks like a dick. Like the spaceship does. The swoop on Amazon does. His head. His head. His own head. Sorry. I don't.

His weener surprisingly doesn't. It is. No, it's more square. It's more chode-like. They're rich and famous. It's fun to shit on them. They're fine. They're fine, man.

But seriously, would you go on the rocket? Yes. Because we could do an S&L alumni rocket. Oh, yeah. That's what we should do. All right, troops. Fred Armisen, you'll be in the blue chair. Who's your dream cast?

Like, no, who's your dream SNL astronaut? Yeah, who's your dream rocket cast? Yeah, yeah. Actually, I would cast you as an astronaut. I'll take it. You can act and you could play it and you could play that kind of whatever you call that astronaut vibe. I'll take it. Dana, I didn't know this is going to be an hour of my heroes complimenting me, but I would have signed up faster.

It is. Well, we just, yeah, you can run, but you cannot hide. Sorry, 10, Killiam. We're about to put a bookmark. You could use your bland bachelor sort of character to go up in space to be the every man. Exactly. I just watched Blan Bachelor. What was it called?

The Selena Gomez? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that. How often does it happen where people bring up sketches that you have no memory of? It's never not happened. It's funny because I said, I will remember everything I did on SNL. And I wasn't like super sketch guys. So I was in like one or two a show and I still cannot remember half of them.

Yeah. I remember my first week very well. and Seth being at the table talking about seeing an episode on VH1 or whatever and he's like, it turned it on and Amy Puller was in it and I was like, oh, I must have been

changing backstage. I don't remember this sketch and he walked onto the screen. He was in the sketch and I remember thinking to myself that'll never happen to me. There's no way. I will remember every second of this.

Well, 127 shows is the main metric that I read. So probably because you were ubiquitous on the show, 400 sketches. Yeah. Probably maybe 500. Half of those high school astronauts. The high school astronaut, that's a...

I have some film ideas for this dude before we get done, but let's go through his... Listen to my identity. We didn't transition to do a pitch meeting. I was at the Good Nights. I saw a clip the other day. And it was when Nirvana was on either... I don't know which time, but I guess Kirk Cobain had purple hair, and he turned around and started making out with Chris Nolvesacker, Dave Grohl. and it was a big story.

And you pull back and I'm standing right there, you know, in the back waiting to hug someone or get it over with. Not really watching them kiss. And I'm like, I do not remember being on the good nights. And I do not remember seeing them kiss. And that was scary because that was actually something that happened instead of just being in the background of a sketch or something.

So I realize it does happen. It's very real what we're talking about. It is. We're getting deep heavy and real. But I, yeah. Keep heavy and real, Dana's new special. Deep heavy and real. No, I know someone says that.

You know, when you hug people on the good nights, it's kind of interesting. There's a traditional amount of hugging and hugging pressure. And then there's more pressure and longer and like, geez, I didn't know you felt this way about me. It's like Heidi Gardner. It's fascinating to like. Heidi Gardner. She feels that way about everybody. She's a lover.

She is. She's a lover. It's fascinating how people project onto the good nights, you know? The only thing I would do is that when the when the beat would drop in the drums, I would like jump into the air and people caught onto that. But that was like a fun tradition. Oh, that's cool. Yeah, it was nice.

And not always on camera. So sometimes you just see a shoulder hopping into frame or whatever. But it's so funny how people read into it like, oh, look, they didn't hug. They're angry. Yeah, they skip. The host walks right by you to hug someone next to you. Oof. On camera.

Burn. Burn. Shame. So you would go to the back and then snake your way toward the lens? Or would you- Snake? I, it depends. I wish I would, like a regret is, I wish I'd stayed in costume more because those are my favorite good nights to see.

Oh, yeah. Especially when the 10 to 1 got cut and you're just like, oh, yeah. You're, why is there some like robot clown on? Holding a hot dog and it doesn't make me. What did that? What was that going to be? You're dressed like a llama. The best part is, when you're still in your cost.

him, you're like, barely made it to good nights. Yeah. Just to show them it's live, folks. Yeah. I do. I love it. Yeah, but in terms of like any who hugged me who didn't, like so much of, I'm just speaking for myself, like, I'm in my own head about my week.

Like, I literally don't care about anybody else. Who did you hug the most, though? Was it the host or was it? That's a good question. Was Kristen Wig there? Oh, Vanessa Bayer. Yeah. Kristen and I overlap.

Kristen and I knew each other before the show, too. so she was always very kind to be. Oh, at the good, good, good, groundlings. Mm-hmm. Yeah, big G. You're the coolest. The groundlings are the coolest because they just come and loaded. They've already done sketch comedy.

That's nice. We're stand-ups. We're playing greasy spoons and shit boxes. It's literally cheating when you go to read through the first day and I go, this guy will suck. And then they got a fucking perfectly buffed out groundlings. Like a perfect sketch. You can take it from groundlings and put it on 8-H and old Jed's a millionaire. it is the best training in terms of like the structure like there is no other comedy platform

you know second city is is pretty close and similar but brownlings especially the sunday company is like new show every sunday pitching ideas but i love i love what chris rock says about it and that like stand-up people come in and they know how to write jokes that is the difference that's the difference is that like the joke i i that was something i structured i struggled with um brownlings are our character base. So it's behavioral comedy, right? Like to pare it down. And the stand-ups, I was always so envious and covetous

of just knowing. I'm bad. How to get laughs. How to get laughs. That was, that's helpful. I don't know. I write jokes. Spade's a great joke writer, monologue writer. But he's telling a story and then he has all these laugh points, you call him. But you have a little tiny tent poles

trying to. You are my... sketches are tougher. Go ahead. Well, the way, what what you lean in on is what I still find my favorite where it's like I did see one I went through because that's the cool thing you two best of a tern you know so I will go into a lot of them but the one with Justin Bieber where he says Glyce and you're you're totally carrying this sketch with attitude of the asshole brother who's really fucking with the date of his sister aggressively and played all the beats and committed so hard that it was just so much fun to watch

Oh, thanks, man. Yeah, that that was a groundling sketch for sure. Oh, it was? Yeah. And tell me about it because I didn't see it. Yeah, just explain it and do a little bit of the attitude. But no. Yes.

So the premise is that Nassim brings home a boyfriend from college, Justin Bieber, and he has to meet her older, like, way past his prime, still living at home brother, who like tries to act intimidating, but is pretty pathetic. and Justin's first line is like, it's Glyce to meet. Sorry, it's nice to meet you. I meant to say, I'm glad to meet you and it's nice, but I said Glyce. And then my guy's like, Glyce, what the hell is Glyce? He sounds so stupid.

And then throughout the sketch, all these details about my life. It always comes back to Glyce. And then he can't let go of it. He can't let go of the one thing he has against this beautiful, charming young man who's come home. Of a jerk and the rhythm in there, it's like a joke in a way that you're going Glyze and all that. And then you kind of break it down again. Oh, no, I'll give me wrong, man.

You're a cool brother. Yeah. There's like a big laugh in it that was just me saying remember. Like I said Glyse and I say remember and it had happened 30 seconds ago. Yeah. He seems pretty cool though. Was he fun that way? He was, yeah, he was young.

He was young and he was, he's entering a phase, but I had, I had good experiences with him. Whatever that means. That's a good cloaked. He's, yeah, he's, it was, it was like, uh, I, feel like it was pre-roast, post, you know, post-belieber documentary. Right. But yeah, but, but, but, you know, it's so interesting, like, the currency in SNL where I'm so desperate for last, speaking of laughs, but in many ways, it's better to get like a whoop, like a, to get like the girls screaming, you know, that was like a big, big part of

like Timberlake's currency and stuff is like, they're not necessarily howling or side-splitting, but they're just like when they would scream for justice did you wave also like yeah exactly some of it's for me it's for me it's kind of a split crowd i won't point to which ones because i'm humble but part of this is for me for sure yeah um all right well did you and b borgas oh sorry i got all these lists i've been on a commercial for the last 12 minutes we're gonna record we're gonna start recording this is called our warm up now you should have talked to beber about what it's like you understand the quick fame. Yeah, yeah.

Let me let me let you get you out for you. Man, I've been there, dude. I just want to give you some advice. Yeah. I mean, I started on the show a little bit older. Like I was 28 when I started, which is, but I know that Pete and he, Pete Davidson and and Bieber connected and were like, we're friendly for a while. But I was, I was already a dad when I started on the show.

So weird. I wasn't very good at like the hang, the post hours hang. Weird. Yeah. Weird, man. So who did you overlap like you went in in 2010? So Hader was still there. Yeah.

And Sedakus. Yep. So when did they? I was there for, I was there for two seasons with Wig and Samberg. And then they left after my second season. And then Bill, Jason, and Fred stayed one more season. Right. And then I did another trip.

That long ago, Kristen Wigg was it, 212, you're saying? 2012. Yeah. That was when she left? Yeah, yeah Shit. Hey time flies, man. I mean, my God, I left in 1888, so I guess it's all relative.

Yeah, I can see the musket on your wall. Right after the Constitution came out, we had one bit about that, and then I split. So. And live from New York, it's Saturday night. Reload! I like when people quit the show for like, they got a commercial, and they're like, I'm out. I hit the big time, and you're like, well. That's it.

Well, now they do commercials of sketches while you're watching the show, and I'm only envious. Oh, yeah, the California. They have the Californian sketch. I go, right. We will, we had to. Kevin Neal and I were forced to turn down a Nike campaign. Just do it in 1988. It was going to be jazz do it.

So now they're like doing it. I mean, I'm so, I'm jealous, but I'm happy for him. Can you ask them again? Can you hit up Phil Knight and be like, hey, hey, man. We're still pissed. We're still funny. Yeah, let me tell you something. We still have the sweatsuits and pillows.

They still fit. Hey, man, those guys are evergreen. I wanted to go on the 50th before I got the flu as Hans and Franz. And I just, it would have been awesome. You were so missed. You were so missed. I think you guys were fully loaded. But thank you, Taryn.

I thought you. No, dude. I mean, you are a legend. I don't know about that. So it was felt. It was felt. It certainly was. Did I host the show when you were there,

you did a Harrison Ford at readthrough, which kind of impressed me. Yeah. The attempt is, I go, who is this? Who is this kid? We got it on. We got it on. You did host, and I got to be in a church lady, which was a highlight for me. And as Ted Cruz, less of a highlight for me.

But then I got Harrison Ford on, and I'm such, I'm a really big Star Wars nerd. J.J. Abrams reached out, and he was editing the first new Star Wars. like the one that they brought back. And he said, hey, will you do me a favor? I need a line of dialogue off camera by it from Harrison. Oh my God. And I can't get him for two months. So we just want it for the real so that it doesn't take you out of it.

It's like a special effects thing. Will you do it? So I got to report. You take care of truly. You get to the fountain. And like, I got it. And he used, he said he used it up to literally the final mix.

Oh, wow. Wow. And Harrison went, who the fuck is this? Oh, fuck. My house. He gets out of my house. He's the coolest, man. He's the freaking, he is the movie stuff.

He goes, get off my plane. Then he goes, get out of my ship. And he goes, leave my coffee shop. Give me back my whip. Stop sharing my parachute. Don't even share my password. Stop being a working girl. That was it going.

Oh, I. You were a whole. And more and milk money. Yeah. Why stop being such a witness? Can I get a witness? And of course, the iconic, Chewy, get me out of here. Joey, Joey, take care of Chewy.

Yeah. Chewy, your fleas are getting on me. But you were great, Danny. You were a great host. And Spade, you've always been so kind to me. Thank you. The first time we met was like the day that the Sandman, and I haven't earned saying that, but I like to say it because that's what everybody calls it.

I love that. On grown-ups 2, we came out for a day. Oh, with the car wash? The car wash scene. Oh, it was one of the best scenes. That was such a fun day, and you were so nice to all of us, and Schneider was sitting that one out. You were sort of filling us in on why, and you were so cool.

He was sitting at Gron Ups 2 out. He sat that one out. Oh, I know. And then, and then, I don't know if you remember this, David, but at the 40th, you were in the end of the Californian sketch. Oh, that's right. We did the device. And it was Saturday rehearsal, and you and I got to talking,

and you and I walked up to like the Rainbow Room, to the party together. And you were telling me, like, beat for beat, the Eddie Murphy exchange. Oh, yeah, did I? And you're telling me that. And you're like, yeah, and I, you know, it was stressful. And we're sitting at top of the rock. I don't know if you remember this, but I couldn't believe it. It was like, we live in a scenario.

We live in a universe. Like, we live in a, like, a, like, a. a matrix like made up, yeah. You're telling me the story. You're telling me basically the end of the story. Like, Eddie came and then, and he walks in with Brett Ratner. He walks in over your shoulder and made a beeline for you and shook your hand.

And you were so gracious to each other. And it was such a cool moment that, like, clearly you made peace and it was all good. But I couldn't believe it. I was like, I'm watching like the made for TV movie. I love it. Simulation. I saw him at this one too. And he was nice again.

So I'm sure he's annoyed by that story. It's so dumb, but it's a kind of a good little juicy one, even though it's too far back. Is it done now? Is it really done? Or is it still? It's still. It still came up like a few months ago. Don't be surprised if you see the two of us in a spaceship going somewhere.

Yeah, yeah, flying in the rocket together. It was so cool in that moment, like at the 40th. Like you were the first person he walked up to and shook your hand. He was so cool. And it felt good. It was like, oh, Brett Ratner's here too. You got excited about Brett Radio. Not quite as excited, but, you know.

Tell me everything about Rush Hour. Oh, yeah, Rush Hour. God, he had it made Rush Hour. Rush Hour. He's got back end. Chris Tucker to stand up. I just saw Chris Tucker was going to be like Yamava or something in Palm Springs. I'm like, I would love to watch Chris Tucker do stand up.

I don't even know what his stand up is like. Let's have them on this podcast because he's interested in him on here. He did three. Jackie Chan movies, 20 million each for the last two. And then he's been a little mysterious in his own lane, but then he came out recently and is doing something. Yeah. Kind of an interesting move to turn down 20 million for something, for literally anything. And then my only fans, when it hit 20, I thought I'd stop, but I'm addicted. You get, now you just do it for the passion. No, I just do it. Oh, you know who's on Amanda Bines? You know Amanda Bines? I was on the Amanda show back in the day. I know that was a trick. question. I'm only telling you this because she announced it yesterday, but she said, which is smart up front, it's not going to be sleazy stuff. Sure. It'll be my day and stuff like that, which is still interesting because she's very interesting. But it's 50. So I did a little stutter step. Yeah.

Is that a lot? Or I don't know Only fans as well. I would say that seems high. Hi. Now, you wonder why they're all making $20 million. I don't know how, but it must be a volume thing. Oh, yeah. Amanda, who you worked with Wayne. How old were you guys then? Yeah, it was my first job, literally the last week of high school.

I got cast on her show. And so we worked together for like three weeks then. And then I went away to college and like I didn't have an agent anymore. I was focused on school. and they called me back to do more. And they helped me get an agent. Like being on the Amanda show kind of like started my, my grown-up acting career.

And we were friends. And then we did a movie together, Big Fat Liar. And she was the best. She was a very important relationship to me in my life. And yeah, she's, I. Was she like, how old were you when you start? What's the Amanda show?

Is she like 11 or like really young? She's, she's 14, 15 when she was doing that show. And then she got movies. And that was. one of the movies she did were like, She's the Man was one, of course I remember. Is that what's called She's the Man? The soccer one?

Yes. Yeah, exactly. Channing Tatum. And hilarious. And I always thought she's so great. So she's one of the most talented people. I think she's one of those people everyone pulls for like Brittany. Like, Brittany, like, it's a very tough world out here in showbiz, whatever level.

And they are at, they were at a high level. And, uh, yeah, she seems like that age too. Like to be at a full like Lucille Ball, Carol Burnett dynamic. and had the good, you know, she's truly one of the best. Right. She's good at it. Good at it, funny, very cute. Yeah.

And it's just such a weird world out here that we're. And when they're young, you're right. You just don't know. Arianna Gronde, Timberlake. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Just talent. Well, I was going to ask you because you think, okay, high school senior, and then you

go do that. Like in the sort of neurosis, fear, paranoia, whatever, how are you mentally navigating in show business. Like, were you super scared getting on SNL? Or are you done so much that you maybe were more confident? I'm just curious. Yeah, like, I started auditioning

very young. Like, I think I was five years old when I did my first commercial audition. And fortunately, was not successful at all. I'm Taryn. Sag after. I love milkshakes. Yeah. Your mom took you.

Your four, six, sag aftra. Slate please. Buckwold and Associates. That was Buckwall. Is that really what it was? Yeah, yeah. Sudden, Barth and Benary. But, but, so, like, was always adjacent and enough exposure, but, but without any of the

trappings of success, thank goodness. And then all the hassle. No worry about fame. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then in high school, I went to the Performing Arts High School here in L.A.,

Loxa. And so started doing theater and really loved musical. theater in particular and was going to college for musical theater. And then in that sort of like reconnection with the Amanda show and getting representation, I started auditioning again. And on a flute got mad TV when I was 19. Oh, that's right. Yeah. Like just like doing lots of impressions of WB stars and stuff like that. And then my characters were just impressions of my teachers that I didn't like. Now, who's on with you that we would know right around that? I was there for Sassos last year and Alex Borstein.

And then I was with Mo Collins and Michael McDonald and Stephanie Weir. Already Landry. Andrew Daly. Already had come and gone already. I was like the seventh season. So I was like kind of deeper, deeper in. And it was just in way over my head and like, what is this? And sketch God, I'm a theater actor.

And then loved it so much. And so many of the people, particularly on the writing side, that I love, like Michael Hitchcock and Jennifer Joyce were Groundlings people. So I left Mad TV and started taking classes at Groundlings and kind of then had my eye on the prize for SNL. Oh, and did that help you knowing a little bit about it? Was it similar? Yes.

SNL and Mad TV in that they're like, yeah, just in that they're sketch comedy shows. But I think, you know, where Mad TV probably had a lot more chefs at the top level, SNL has Lorne, you know. And I think that that's probably the biggest difference of all. He's got an aura. I just have to back up for a second. So you're going high school. You tell your parents, well, yeah, I'm going to go to high school.

And you were living in Big Bear, right? That's right. Okay, great. Where you want to go? I want to go to a performing arts high school and I want to pursue musical theater. And you knew this at 17, 18. And they went. It was, yeah, I mean.

And they were in support of it. No, if anything, my mom was encouraging of it, she, she kind of, you know, her great uncle was Robert Stack and her cousin David Bow is an actor. She knew, she knew, we just know,

February 27th. If you can't do the. Yamava Studios. Chris Tucker turns down 20 million. No one knows why. Yamafas studio. But I love anyone who does an impression, not well,

and just says the name. I'm Robert Steck, you know. You kind of hypnotize people. I guess that's, I guess it's good, you know. Why are we saying it like that? That was Will Forte.

That was Will Forte. I'm Robert Stack. He did that in his audition. He said one of his audition moments for S&L is, hello, I'm Martin Sheen. And if I don't sound like myself, it's because I have a cold. But if you do think I sound like him, great. And that was the whole bit. Well, that's funny.

Will Forte has his own lane at S&L. That's a good one. He's the potato chip sketch. He was surprised how big a fan I was of that. sketch where him and Siddakas go shit house over a bowl of potato chips and just full tilt commitment to drama and crying

because he thought he took one of his potato chips. It's anyway, it's just Phil Ford. The best perk of the job is going on the server and seeing like cut for time sketches and he had a sketch called Finders Keepers. It was a season finale and how like Baldwin was the host and Baldwin is

coming back from the beach and he's like, where's my car? I just parked my car here. And Forte has a metal detector at the beach and he's sitting on the hood of his car that's covered in sand and he's like, sorry, buddy, finders keepers. And Alec goes, what are you talking about? That's my car. Get off the hood.

And I think there's three lines of dialogue in the full exchange. And then Forte launches into a full song called Finders, Fingers Keepers, losers, weepers, it's the law of the beach. And the whole sketch is just this song explaining the rules of finders keepers at the beach. And is he like crickets? It gets me so much joy. And it was... It was pretty quiet, I think.

Thank goodness. The nice thing about a musical sketch is the music's playing. It seems loud like things are happening. There's some decibels being achieved. Some decibels happening. How sickening when it doesn't work. The worst is when you go in there like, that's for a sure cut, but you still walk in the room like this.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. One percent of all right. Do they think it was so funny that no one laughed? They should do a short film of people coming in. because now they're back into Lauren's office and they glance over and you can tell by their attitude that their sketches to the right and not a camera in the wall Dana. Yeah. When we walked in and my first time they opened Lauren's office, I don't know how they do it now,

but we wait outside. It's so thirsty and gross. And I had my Yakov smear enough outfit on my first update and Dennis was in there. For some reason, Dennis was in there and they opened the door and I see like down and I'm all pouring out and Dennis puts his hand to me. He goes, you can take off the beard spud. And I was like, and I walk in there. It's my thing is moved it over.

Is that helpful? Is that a nice thing? No, I would have found out in three more seconds. You can lose the facial hair at this point. Just no one connecting eyes tells you something. I never housed more handfuls of popcorn than with a cut schedule. And small talk. So who's the oldest next?

weeks. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, act like you're not hurt and kind of clapping. You don't care. Yeah. Great. Yeah, part of the process. Not personal.

Part of the process. Way's World Cold Open stayed in. Oh, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good. Yeah, I got cocked. If my stuff was cut, I just walk slowly over to Lorne, get right up into schnaz and go, seriously, dude, I don't think so. Come on, man. Let's move it back over.

Worst mistake. You know, that reminds me when I tried to get a man and a man and, reminds me of that scenario. And I got Gervitz. But back then, Dana, we have the same manager. And back then, it was between him and someone else. And he goes, and do the right thing. Just call him.

You know, it's always do the right thing. By the way, I never want to do the right thing again because the right thing never is like the fun thing. And he goes, I wish I could have texted him. But now he goes, just call him. He's a big boy. You know, and just, hey, it went another way because you never know. you know, I said, hey man, you know, it didn't work out.

I want to try out of this other guy who knows he might suck. And, you know, the guy goes, you just made the worst fucking mistake of your life. And I was like, God, dang. And that scarred me forever. I was not ready for it. And I was new in showbiz going, I don't want to make any enemies. He goes, he's a big boy. He was not a big boy.

He's a small boy. I still feel guilty about that reaction I had with you. That manager was Dana Carney. It was those breakups are hard. I had one of those too and I got what I got was like well yeah hey you know like like

I had to break up with someone I'd been with and he's like you know listen people get jobs and they like to move on and shake it up and some people stay loyal and that's okay that you didn't want to go back Oh he threw that in and they throw in we just had a kid

I have children to be Am I going to be here? Have you seen a picture of my baby That's my responsibility and my house Here's my child Yeah. Yeah.

And here's my chart from my doctor. I'm going to put him on. It's bullion. Yeah. Tell him. You tell him. I can't break his heart. Hello, Mr. Spade.

I love you. Oh, thank you. Listen, I'm out. Never miss an episode of Lights out. I would just say. Oh, you like Lights Out? That's funny. Everyone loves Lights Out, but I said, never name a show that makes it easy to cancel.

Hey, Lights Out. Sure. You know. Lights out for good. You want to do a show that's not. like seventh season. Are there, are there versions that have worked

of like a negative sounding title that's been successful? No, Dana's positive. Deadwood? Deadwood is good. There should be one called dead on arrival. That's a good one. A.

Yeah, yeah. DOA got resuscitated. Dana's got critics choice. Critics choice. My, uh, my special from the 90s. I just called it critics choice. There was no,

no online, nothing. And so my sister would call me and be in the TV guide or wherever you got Critics' Choice again, man. Congratulations. That's awesome. You got Critics' choice, four stars. Me and my siblings know the Ross Perot scat like, da, da, da, da finesse.

Can I get a tuna fish? One time. If you want to make it, I distill it, I distilled it to Ross Pro is James Brown. Can I come in on the one? Can I come in on the one? Can I come in on the one? Yeah, it is just a song.

But, you know, to that, one of my favorite impressions all time is your Matthew McConaughey. And I felt the first time I saw it in the second time. And then you were so in the, well, because it's, it's, it's, praise for Caesar. Praise from Caesar. Sorry, Daniel. No, it's better than even a great impression. It's like a character. It's an extrapolation into a character, and you had so many hooks, and I wish we could

just play it right now because... Oh, thanks. Don't you get reaction to that? I haven't seen anyone to do that. People like that. Yeah, people like that one a lot. That came out of... Because everybody has, McConnor, hey, like, it's pretty overdone.

Not like yours. You kind of... You own it. I mean... It was watching... True Detective. I was obsessed with that first season of true detective. I know he was so indulgent out there in the stars, celestial, Bing Bang, Shoot, Round. What do we do when we're cosmic light? You know, it's just like him just like riffing on. Yeah, that he's all these hippie references

and all these little sound effects. Yes. And it's and when he won the, when he won the Oscar, maybe for Dallas Byers or whatever, he's like, talking out there to my wolf pack. Yeah. Hunting groups of us, primal getting the meat roasting on the spit on the fire but there's plenty of spots for people to come around. What are you saying? What are you saying? It's fun. But like he's always so positive too.

I always like doing like positive energy ones because like I would struggle if it was a criticism, you know, or if you were like, no, it's if it was a takedown. It's a little bit harder. And that was so fun because he was just being full, uncut, authentic McConnor. And I remember writing that one. That's one that like, you know, you sat down for 30 minutes and improvised 50 different wild lines and like people responded to it and then spent six hours and didn't go home and slipped on the floor for my rape stomping sketch or whatever. And of course, that tank's at the table. Yeah, I heard about that.

It was a bad one. It was infamous. It got out here. I was terrible at pitching too. I was really bad at the pitch. And I actually did, because I have like a small role in 12 years of slave, which doesn't make sense to the career trajectory of a sketch performer. I remember that. It was like, I'm Darren.

Cameo. Hey. Did you had a. All right. What are we doing here? We're stealing liberty. We're entrapping people. Regressing, making America great again.

No, but I, so I did a bit for almost an entire season where I would start to pitch the host on an idea. I was like, well, you know, I know. I know you're in a movie with a plane, so that's great, and I thought we could play pilots. Because, you know, when I was in 12 years of slave, what I found about the process that was most rewarding,

and then I'd go really indulgent, and it got some chuckles at first, and then it was terrible, and then Brian Tucker had to tell me, he's like, don't do that anymore. Don't do that. Don't do that anymore. Why is he doing it?

It's funny. I mean, since I don't understand all that. That place could be a little weird. It made Chrissy Teigen uncomfortable. By the way, when you did Ted Cruz, I don't think I was hosting that time. I think I was doing Fallon. And then Lauren said, you'll do church lady. You know, he tells you it's a Thursday.

I thought I was flying tomorrow. You'll be in the outfit. You'll wear the church lady wig. You wear the dress. You'll wear it on the flight home. You'll do clever put downs. Lauren, I can't. I know how to do it, Lauren.

But the interesting thing about that was that Daryl came on and did the Trump that we all knew before the new Trump. Yeah. Which was great. I love. And Darrell was Trump, looked like Trump, incredible Trump, but then Trump in 2016, just came in with all these different hooks, you know, and all the stuff we see today. And so that's why he didn't, he sort of felt bad that he didn't get to do Trump.

Well, it was old, it was Trump from the 90s, you know. It was just very, yeah, it was none of the, we're going to do this, all these different hoax. And we got it. We're going to do it. We're going to do the bragging, you know, it was all kind of new. Yeah. My favorite Darrell one was the Domino's Pizza commercial. He would do this commercial one.

Yeah. Like, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to tell you the thing. And they say, oh, Mr. Trump, can you focus to camera? I think I'm going to focus to camera. I think that was a good idea that I had. Like, it was all that bluster. And James, which I just like, I think James Austin Johnson is just a full genius.

Like it's a, I would watch his videos before he was hired. Me too. I saw it on like. and stuff. I would say for people might get the reference, he's the Miles Davis of that impression. It's better than an impression. It's got so many, it's like jazz that you're missing all the hooks.

But Daryl's. We did a charity event together where he did karaoke as Trump and is just freestyling in between versus. And it's amazing. He's good at improvving with Trump. He's so good. Very hard to do. Yeah, you can give him any TV show from the 7th.

when he was on our podcast live in Texas, he just, any, any, the Brady bunch. And then he's right on Trump. He knows that so well. Peter Brady. Peter Brady. Yeah. likes to criticize himself.

He's doing it to get friends. I don't need to do that. No one wants to criticize Trump. Yeah, yeah. But Daryl's feelings were hurt because they went with Alec Baldwin. But I said that's just a totally different idea and choice. Yeah. So it wouldn't be, it wouldn't be a competitive thing.

It's just like that was just, you know, I think. But what a weird thing. Start off with a cast member or start off with a big star. I think that's when Lauren finally was like a cold opening with a big star guaranteed that's not the host is helps. Yeah. Is it fair? We don't know. But it helps.

Well, did that start? Because I just went into Biden. And before I did it, I made sure it was Steve Hook. And this, I swear to God, I would have backed out. I said, does anyone want to do Biden? on the cast and be honest with me because Mikey Dave was doing whatever and he said no

no one wants to do it trust me so then I did it but this thing this thing of like you know older cast members and movie stars coming in did you have some of that or when did that start it's gone it's gone beyond a launching

platform it's now an institution and you have to maintain an institution and there's a quality to that right I can have Bob Lilfie do the state attorney general, or I can have like Matt Damon. Lisa, I mean, there's so much to speak to the brilliance of Lorne. You know, having just celebrated the 50th, which was like such a joyful weekend other than your absence.

That was probably the biggest blemish. Hey, man, I'll just say it. I'm just going to say it 60th. That's all I'm going to say. You already booked hotel for tickets. We'll use filters. You'll get your neck will be taped back. You have to use real glass.

That's the truth. But yeah, I maintain just to start the conversation that no one else could have done what Lauren's done. And there were so many episodes of Saranite Live intrigue or whatever where the master's in charge basically would say you got to do an hour. You got to pre-taped it. You got to change the thing. So Lauren stayed with the brand, but also was very flexible with the brand. You know, as it changed, the culture changed. So go ahead.

What were you going to say? No, I completely agree with that. I think that's right. And I think that one of the many aspects of his, of his insightfulness as a producer is, you know, you've got to get people talking about you. And if they're not talking about it, then it's wasted air a little bit. You know what I mean? So I think, like, a Baldwin hire gets people talking about it. gets eyeballs. Now you get it.

Yeah. Too late. Way too late. We were in the analog stage, early analog, that it was just a small bolton board with a few letters on it. And now it's blasted on YouTube. So yeah, the paradigm is shifted. It will revolve with the moment. Yeah. Well, I mean, something I love about your podcast and any sort of like SNL-focused podcast is it's this free therapy. You know what I mean? To be like, was I a weirdo?

Was I? Okay, no. There's at least five more people that had a similar feeling or experience. And then also inversely like, oh, no, I was probably a weirdo about that aspect of the show. But I'm really enjoying the Lonely Island Seth Myers podcast too, because I, for the same reason, but I also feel that those guys, the Lonely Island, will never get as much credit as they really deserve for adapting the format for a new generation. Right. Yeah. That's probably the biggest change speaking to what you were talking about, Dana, of like, you know, maintaining quality, maintaining its brand identity. And yet now there are four guaranteed pre-tapes per episode. There's a full studio.

And they'll get the host. We'll do pre-tapes on all day Friday. Get them up at 6 a.m. and do a whole pre-tap all day. It is hard. For one sketch. But so that is, yeah, and Andy and, and the, oh, yeah. his Lazy Sunday was the beginning of going, wait, what is this? And then, and you realize right away, oh, my God, this is what, plus he's a good looking

dude. Everything hit. It was like, cool, good looking video. Then people start watching it. They're watching it where? Like, that was beginning of YouTube. I think. Yeah.

No, I think you're exactly right. In terms of like an injection of relevancy, no one has had a more direct effect on the show. It tilted the show. And I got to get to know, Andy, better just doing the... It was like a Pete. You know, you need a good looking dude in there that younger people kind of go, oh, why would I watch SNL? Oh, okay.

Yeah. They need a reason. It's just really smart. I do love musical. I would love to be in one. I just do love when Andy's, even the stuff he did recently. Not even. The stuff he did recently was fantastic.

And it is something fun. Were you in one of those pre-taped? The anxiety video is so. smart and he did it for the 40th. It was great too. The breaking video about people who break. They're incredibly smart and joyful. I love those guys. I respect them so much. And I got to, I think like my first week, it was like, I'm going to be in a digital short. I have made it. I've arrived. And I had like one off-camera line in a video called Booger Man. There you go. That's SNL.

You know? I was like, okay. All right. They're not all lazy sundaers. I'd read for better, man. Taryn, when you, when I left Estenal, it was sort of decided toward the end of the season. When Adam and Farley left, it was a little weirder, like, vague. Yeah. Where I had heard later, they were fired. I didn't even hear it from them. I heard it like two years ago.

And when you left to show, what is the way you get information? Is it direct from Lorne? Is it an agent calls an agent or business affairs? How does it work? Yeah, my manager at the time called me, but they were doing the Marty and Maya variety show during this summer. And I was directing a film that summer. So I was in Canada. And I was wisely or unwisely, like ready to move back to L.A., ready to be with my family, ready to kind of be done with the schedule of the show.

And I think probably have made it known not always in the most gracious of ways. And they asked for like an extension that summer. They said, hey, we need more time. We're producing Marty. Am I before we made our decisions? And I pushed back. I said like, no, tell me now or let's be done. And through people, it was like, no, no, no, no, no.

They're doing it for everybody. They're doing it. And so we said okay with some caveats of other jobs and like clearing my post. schedule for editing the film and blah, blah, blah. And they, so we said, okay, two week extension. And then three weeks goes by and you don't hear anything. And then like in the fourth week, my manager calls and goes like, I think I've got good news. And they've decided not to pick up your contract.

You're not going to. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's how it was phrased to me. I mean, at least you're ready to go and you're not totally blindsided, like moving back to, like, I would move home every summer back to L.A., lose the apartment and everything because they just would not tell you. And they wouldn't say, of course, but it's a technicality. They were like, we have no idea. And they wouldn't, you know, encourage you to say, you're coming back. Just let us, you know.

So, but that is a weird process because Dana, I mean, I don't think Dana had this exactly. But they. Dana still has rose petals stuck to the bottom of his steam. Oh, my God. Once the bitch came out, you know, it anchors the show. I mean, you know, but anyway, I just wanted to say that, um, We talked to people recently who just auditioned two or three times. And these are great comedians to get on SNL and really feeling such regret that either they pushed at their audition.

And so then when you look at you with a baby and a movie and you're already in the Hall of Fame in my money six seasons, you know. So it was just odd because you probably would have maybe maybe done one more or not. but it sounds like you were on the fence. And so six was enough for me. I mean, everything you just said, Dana, means a lot to me and I'm very grateful to you for saying it.

I've done the work. I've made peace. And I've also really been able to take more responsibility for my participation in that, in that I got what I asked for, quite honestly. And it's not fair of me to go like, yeah, but I didn't want it in that way.

No, because the truth is, If it's between like two cast members and they're like, you know, this would kill the one guy and you have one foot out the door. They're like, I think he'd be fine with it. Yeah. And we just move on. It makes it easier and no way. I do think.

I think so. There is sort of, well, it's a very, it's such a bizarre psychosocial dynamic just for every reason. And Lauren's said that part of his aloofness was to protect himself, you know, because everyone would want to go in and what about this and that and so forth and so on. So, but I just see it run as a total success, obviously. Oh, thanks. I don't even, I mean, how many people really got on there really landed and had reoccurring characters and it's hard. Do you take, you know, I would imagine, kind of happened with me where you're so burned out,

but after a month or two when the show's back on, you get your legs back and you're like, it would be fun to go in. But you also, you realize, don't think like that because it's the day to day. new host, what are you writing, what do you got? If you could pick and choose when you came on, that's different. But man, every week is just such a stressful growing. Well, I would put this in the ether because you were just there. And I think you should come on and do Matthew McConaughey for a reason that he, you know,

whatever. Lit off a firecracker or something. You know, I think that. Yeah, I mean, being back for the 50th was truly like healing and joyful. Like it was really positive. And I have to assume almost everyone like me went in with your defenses up, like your duke's up a little bit. And from word one, it was just like appreciation and reflection and gratitude and, you know,

swapping stories. And then Malaney put me in his musical piece for one line, which I was not expecting. And that felt lovely and great. What was the costume? Yeah, yeah, his pizza rat. Were you pizza rat? That's great. I was pizza at, man.

We were there. That's history now, man. I think, you know, Halloween is Pizza Rat one year. Spade had, and I've heard multiple people say this now, and it was true from the first blocking rehearsal. Spade had the laugh of the entire show. Oh, I love you saying that.

Well, definitely. We've heard this from other people. It's factual. It is factual because I was in that sketch. So I watched it when we're like rehearsing downstairs, not even for cameras. And I got to feel for it. Everybody laughs.

We do it in front of camera. I've got it. Every crew member laughs. And that's always the best indicator if something's going to work. Of America. Yeah. They've just seen it all. And there was not a time you delivered that line that it did not get a full

voice laugh from everybody in the room. And I watched it. I watched the show live. And I remember how funny that was. And then I didn't know if Melanie could quite hear it. But there was this other secondary laugh that's on the soundtrack. You know, the arms is, because it's, it's so dry and weird and quirky and so unexpected because the musical is so effusive. And there's one guy that's just in the stands.

And it goes on forever. We got it. It's a 20 minutes sketch. So many setups. Every part of the stage. So you're not the only one who said that. And writers, Higgins told us, all the writers, that was their favorite line of the whole 50s. So there you go.

David. To even get a line, like you said, to even be in that sketch, because you're in nothing when you land. and I said, Higgins, don't worry about me. I'm coming. I'm not. And then Malaney goes, hey, Malaney, I want to throw you in something.

I'm like, done. Whatever it is. Same thing. So to get one that actually like that was super fun and to be weird enough to go in the audience. Yeah. But also so tailor, like there isn't a cast member past, present future.

No, that could have landed it as good as you. Like it was tailored to the point where people asked me after the fact, like I'm telling you in my own life they're like so what happened did he actually leave like during rehearsal and they came up with it? I was like no, that was by design it's just David's his specialty that

you know, not pushing it's very lucky to have something like that where it would fit me because you know also the pressure of going one line they go and Wally goes you need a cute card for this and he's like rolling his eyes I go I guess I don't he's like you don't and I'm like all right I don't like

and to over dissect it like it's It's true to your voice. No, this is what we do professionally, but it's true to your voice. It also breaks the fourth wall, so it speaks to it being live. It also speaks to the generate, we're celebrating the generations and like, this is your thing. This is different from my time. It just was like perfectly constructed and layered. I appreciate it.

And always got the biggest lap. I love it. There you go. That's a pretty nice feather in your cap. Thank you. It's only the 50th. Let's end with that because that's the best. Yeah.

Yeah, it is in the end of the day, you know, it just, when we look back on our time there, you know, we never, ever want to do a military analogy. It's like being in the Marines. Forget that. But it is some kind of discreetecor because you can get humiliated on that show. You can crush. You can get any kind of emotion you can imagine. And it's hard to get on. And everyone wants to be on it in the comedy world.

And so I think, I'm sure that was the vibe of the 50 is like anyone. who did it and did it well. It's just respect, you know. I think the 50th for us, the camaraderie is more akin to like we were in the blue origin together, the space thing that just went up. We've been in space for 12 minutes. That's how tight we were, the bond. Yep.

Yeah. So it's not the Army. We were all Katie Perry that night. We were all Katie Perry. The stress, the ups, the down. You have to buckle. Yeah. You have to unbuckle.

We had the training. Well, thank you, buddy. Thank you. Nice chatting. Had a great time. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for having me. Hey, are they going to pick up that animated pilot we did together or what?

Oh, yeah. Taryn and I did. What was it called? We were in a booth somewhere doing this animated thing. And I guess it just didn't go, but it was fun. Not the Tina Fey one, is it? No, no, it goes back before that. You were like an evil billionaire.

I was an evil billionaire. Yeah. Yeah. It was pressure. so much. I was hoping that's what this was about was you telling me. The pickup. Yeah. Well, you're... But this has been great, too. Yeah. Just one last thing. You're going to be in a show on ABC for the second season. I mean, there's so much show business. Obviously, understatement of the year. But yeah, everybody works. Everyone's doing an animated thing or whatever thing. And no one knows what anyone's doing unless it's some massive, gigantic whatever, you know, so... Totally. Totally. Yeah, no. High potential ABC. Oh, high potential. Okay. Not to do spam a lot, fucker.

Yeah, dude. That was, that was. Monty Python. The best. Well, and Eric was there. Eric was there. And like, when we first started rehearsing, they're like, well, he may not be around much and stuff. And then we do like a first dress rehearsal and he's backstage.

He's like, I think we can beat that joke. I'm like, okay. Okay, Python. Yeah, just to be anything Python. And you are perfect for that. You are, you are, that is your lane. You can do that whenever you feel like it, musical Broadway. Yeah, it was a beautiful marriage of like, like, I think the first movie I ever quoted, you know, was, was Holy Grail.

Yeah. It's only a flesh wound. Yes. Nearly a flesh wound. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Was that live a boy. Yeah.

Yeah. That's Holy Grail. Yeah. Oh, great. And then, yeah, having started wanting to pursue musical theater, it was really like this perfect marriage. All right. Well, in New York. You're still incredibly young.

So you're going to have to do this for a long, long, long. time but uh great great all uh david you have a final joke no i appreciate talking to him and i had a good time today yeah i admire you both i respect you so much i've been a fan my whole life so thank you have rubbed elbows is is a great honor too and danna we should be playing the good night's music right now yeah while we always say this zoom hug do do um special thank you The Disney, Dana Carvey, Tony McCartney. All right, see you, bud. Peace out.

All right, listen, if you're enjoying the fly on the wall, of course, hopefully you are. Click follow. We don't want to be desperate, but obviously smash that goddamn button on your favorite podcast app. Smash it. Yeah. Leave a review, a good one. Leave a five-star rating, nothing else. Whoops.

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

Or David Spade and Dana Carvey, we don't write those stuff. Heather Santoro, Greg Holtzman, and Leah Reese Dennis. The show is edited by Evan Cox. With production support from Phil Sweet Tech, talent production and booking by Sophia Lippor.