Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff - Inside Late Night: Vance DeGeneres

Episode Date: March 3, 2026

Vance DeGeneres broke out on Saturday Night Live’s first season with Mr. Bill—and later helped shape The Daily Show during Jon Stewart’s earliest days as host. On this episode of Inside Late Night, he joins Mark Malkoff to talk about sending homemade films to SNL, the unexpected fallout from Mr. Bill’s success, and landing at The Daily Show just as it was finding its political voice. It’s a wide-ranging look at a career that’s zigzagged through comedy, music, the Marines, and some pivotal moments in late-night history.

From late-nighter.com, it's Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff. Welcome to Inside Laytonight. I am Mark Malkoff today. We talked to Vance Degeneres about his time on the Daily Show, Mr. Bill on Saturday Night Live, and so much more. Vance Degeneres. Thanks for being here. It's my pleasure. What is it like in, you know, 1974, you and your roommates start making these short films on I think it's 8mm camera. And then within a couple years, you're in Dan Aykroyd's loft in New York City after Saturday night live at one of these parties with all these A-list celebrities. What was that transformation like in just a couple short years?

It was truly amazing. I mean, because, you know, we were so young at that time. We're 19. And we had just started doing comedy around New Orleans. And we had a local 15-minute radio show, and we did some live comedy around New Orleans, and we had these Super 8 films that we made, and we sent them into Saturday Night Live in the first season. And they chose the Mr. Bill show. And I remember when we got the call that it was going to air, I remember being so excited that I had to run outside.

and literally run around the block. I think that was the last time I ever ran around a block for being so excited. And then how soon after did you find out it's not going to air in New Orleans that night? Yeah, well, it's always something, isn't it? So, yeah, so it was Mardi Gras when it was going to air. And in New Orleans, instead of Saranite Life, the local NBC affiliate chose to air the Endymion Parade or the replay of it. So they preempted SNL, but at least they invited us down to the station so we could watch the feed. So we got to see it in the control room there. But the rest of New Orleans

did not. How did you find out that Saturday Night Live and Lauren Michaels were inviting people to send in shorts or did you just send it in unsolicited? No, they actually on one show they said, hey, if you have some little comedy films, send them in. Maybe we'll air them. So when we heard that, it was like, okay, well, we have a bunch of these little short comedy films that we had done.

So we sent in our reel, and it probably had three or four short comedy bits, and they chose the Mr. Bill show, which was also the name the collective name of our act. When you found out that Mr. Bill was going to be selected on SNL, how soon after did you find out that they weren't going to pay you? It never occurred to me that they wouldn't be compensating you for at least a year or two

until one of your other guys that you worked with did a separate contract, but you weren't getting paid for these. No, why would we get paid? We were just doing little comedy bits. We were 19 years old. That was the farthest thing from our mind. We didn't even think about, are we getting paid? I mean, we would have paid them to be on.

We were just so excited. So, yeah, we didn't even think about money for quite a while. You moved to New York. You borrowed, I think it was $3,000. And I think it's three of you in this one bedroom apartment. What was your first trip to New York City? to the show. Was that when you first moved to New York that you started going to the show, or did you make a separate trip up to the show before you moved there? No, I think Walter and I

flew there to deliver the second Mr. Bill film up to Sarat Live. And then went back to New Orleans, continued to doing our radio show, and then decided to move to New York. And yeah, we took out a loan for $3,000. We figured that that would, you know, that's more than enough for three, three guys to live on for at least a year, right? In New York. Yeah. And so, yeah, so we drove in Walter's old Mercedes, which the engine blew up in Mobile, Alabama.

And so we were stuck there for about five days in one little motel room. And that wound up costing us about $1,000 of the $3,000. So, yeah, so we got there and we had sub-sublet a one-bedroom apartment. And then we started doing the improv on Monday nights, stand-up. And, yeah, it was exciting. Yeah, you're doing at the improvisation, Bud Friedman's club, I know Neil Levy is there, and I know ABC would show up, and all these industry people would be there. Was Neil Levy your contact person at the show?

He was, yeah, I mean, he was a contact person. I don't remember if he was the primary contact person. I don't remember. He might have been. Do you have any contact with Lorne Michaels at all? No, no. In fact, I never met Lauren. I've never met Lauren to this day. Did Walter ever, I guess Walter was a wrote for the show and got a contract?

So I guess he had, he eventually got to meet Lauren. But initially there was nothing. No, no, no. No, why would Lauren meet us? So, no, no, I never met him. I did, however, I met a guy that I know very well now, Alan's White Bell. Sure. was one of the original writers.

And I remember when we went to deliver the film, we were in the waiting area. And Alan was playing with a lighter trying to light the carpet on fire. Was that on the 17th floor? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, you eventually produced Alan and David Steinberg, the radio show. So what were those early parties like now they're at these glamorous restaurants? But back then, this would be like a Dan Aykroyd's law.

There weren't official parties, I don't think, back then, very early on the show. When you go to something like this at Acroids Loft, what do you see? Who's there? And what is that like? Well, that was the only party that we actually went to. And yeah, it was great. It was at Acroids Loft. And I guess the whole cast was there.

I remember Chevy Chase made a drink for me and did an imitation. of Mr. Hands, which was my character in the films. So I thought that was pretty exciting. And then when we were leaving, somebody asked us if we had a car, if we could give Gilda a right home. And unfortunately, our car was in New Jersey. So we did not. So no car for Gilda.

No car for Gilda. Interesting. You made your Comedy Club debut, New Orleans, on Thanksgiving in 1974. What was your original act? You weren't showing your video shorts, correct? It was just a live act that you were doing at this point. Oh, no. It was a multimedia thing.

Yeah, we incorporated the films into it. We would bring the little projector and set up a screen. And so we did some comedy. And then we would show a couple of things. our short films. And we did a little music. I played a little whorlet's electric piano and Walter played a clarinet. And that took up about two minutes of the act. But yeah, it was multimedia. The first time Mr. Bill airs on Saturday Night Live, the next week, how does your life change at all?

I don't remember changing at all except feeling like that it was super exciting that we're on, you know, the hottest comedy show on TV. And I, you know, we got, we got written up in the Times pick you and, you know, the New Orleans paper. So we certainly got more publicity. But otherwise, there was no more money coming in. It was just kind of the excitement of being on Saturday night. How long do you think it took for Mr. Bill to become sort of a phenomenon? Because a lot of times on SNL, it has to be repeated at least a couple times. And, you know, eventually it's TV, merchandise, mugs, T-shirts, books.

But how long did that really take for it to get over in your estimation to the public? Well, it was, I mean, right away, it certainly got attention. It was probably the second season. It got really popular. And after the second season, I decided to leave the act. And then it continued on without me. Why did you move back? It was 1977.

I believe that you moved back from New York back to Louisiana. What was the reasoning for that? I was not really getting along with my partner. my original partner. And I just made the decision that I'm going to go back and I'll do comedy on my own. So that was probably not the best decision I could have made at the time, but it was an emotional decision and I did it. Was it an emotional decision when you moved back and you were a radio DJ and then you joined the Marines?

Was that kind of a spontaneous thing? Well, I went back and I decided to write a half-hour sketch comedy pilot. So I spent some time doing that and I cast it. And I got Loyola University. They've got a communications department at a TV studio. And they were kind enough to allow me to use their studio to shoot the pilot. But I only had 12 hours from, like from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Then the next day, they were going to be tearing up the studio to refurbish it.

And so we got one of the sketches shot. And then there was a power brown out on the Loyola campus. And that was the end of the pilot. So it was a lot of work that went into it. And when that happened, I got really depressed and eventually just thought, you know what? I kind of, I need something different. Say, hmm, what would, what would be different? What would be the Marines? That would be different. And I joined the Marines looking for another challenge. So you get to Yuma, Arizona, and you're a Marine. What did your

family think of that transition from comedy and suddenly you're in Yuma and going into the Marines. Yeah, well, I actually went to San Diego, Marine Corps Recruit Depot. That's where you go to boot camp in Camp Pendleton. And then after boot camp, I went to Yuma, Arizona. I was stationed there. There's a Marine Corps air station there. My family did not love the idea. All my friends questioned the idea. But I wouldn't change it for anything, though. Yeah, and then, like, you've had such an interest in life because you were a big rock star with, you've been in a bunch of bands. But I was reading about one of the bands that you were in. Was it the cold? Is that the band? That was the big New Orleans band, yeah.

I was reading about this in a newspaper, and you had groupies. I mean, you had thousands of people that were showing up. You needed security. I mean, it was, it was really big. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, the band did really well. It started at the very end of 1979, and it hit right at the time when punk New Wave was really taking off.

And we kind of fit right into that area. And yeah, it was the right group at the right time. And yeah, it did very well. How surreal was it in the, I think this was the early 80s, maybe in 1988, when you had to go to court to get the rights to Mr. Bill to get fairly compensated. You ended up being awarded 25% of the profits. But to have the judge rule in your favor, which is great, but tell me if I have this right, the judge actually takes a mock up of Mr. Bill and divides it up into three pieces

to show that this is how it's going to be divided. Is this true? That is true. The judge had, I guess his clerk was a big Mr. Bill fan, and she had made up this little Plato, Mr. Bill, and I gave it to the judge, and they thought it would be funny to award it that way. Was everybody laughing? I'm guessing Walter not so much, but everybody else was laughing, or maybe he was, too. But was that amusing? It was. It was. Yeah. Yeah, it was just, you know, it was, it was such an awful time to go through that. I didn't want to have to sue, but, yeah, it was a drag.

I had to have an attorney in New Orleans and one in New York, and I had to get all our friends involved. And, you know, that was not fun for anybody. I mean, you had somewhat like, like, Mori Mallow said early on, one of the camera people said, absolutely you were involved. I don't think there was ever dispute from the people that were testifying that you, and there was making lots of money with different merchandise. So that's great that you got, you got compensated. I did read in the newspaper in 1980 that you and Walter were both on a talk show in Cleveland called afternoon exchange. Do you recall that?

And wasn't that during litigation? I do recall that. And it was just me. Oh, okay. They mentioned Walter was on as well, but it was just you. That makes more sense. And were you talking about the court case at the time? Is that why they had you on?

Yeah, that's why they had me on. You and John Ritter, that's not bad in Cleveland. That's interesting. So in 1985, you moved to Los Angeles. I'm a big Johnny Carson fan. Did you go to the show when your sister Allen debuted in 1986? Were you there for that? And what stands out if you were there?

Yeah, yeah. No, I was there. That was really exciting. I was so proud of her. Yeah, her first appearance, she got bumped. And I think that was the time when Robert Goulet was the first guest. And he started singing, I think it was a song from Cat. It was those memories.

That was one of the times she was bumped. She was bumped for Jack Parr as well. She was bumped a couple times. But, yeah. Well, Jack Parr, that might have been the first. first time. It was the first time, yes. That was the first time. And then, yeah. Yeah, and then the, you know, the Robert Goulet, when he, he, uh, he, uh, forgot the words and, um, wanted to start over and Johnny said, no, we don't, we don't stop and, uh, made him go long. Um, but it was,

yeah, it was, it was great just, just seeing the whole process of how that show was done. And it was, it was, it was such a machine, you know, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, it was, work. You were a producer on the film Bert Wonderstone. Now, they actually put the entire Carson set together on Warner Brothers to recreate Johnny Carson. It was the first time ever since 1992. The entire set, the curtains, everything was put together. Were you there for that shoot? Yeah. What was that like? I know that Karell, Steve Karel, who you worked with, who you worked for, was very excited and couldn't believe that this was Carson said and everything was set up for the first time down to, I mean, every detail was right there.

Yeah. Yeah. And it was very cool. Yeah. It was great. And I, you know, I don't think I remembered that. It was the actual set. But, yeah, that's pretty good.

Yeah, that was James Commissar who owned the set was there. How did you wind up working with Dick Van Dyke on Diagnosis murder? And that was Fred Silverman. my agent called me one day and said hey would you like to write for dick van dyke oh my goodness well you know how do you turn down that gig um so i said yeah i'd love to he was doing a show called diagnosis murder which was not a typical comedy show it had elements of comedy in it but it was not a comedy show. But I went and I took the meeting and I wound up writing a couple of episodes. You know, I just thought that, you know, I know, I know Dick Van Dyck's voice from so many

watching it for so many years. So yeah, it was interesting writing that I'd never written that kind of a murder mystery. So that was a bit of a challenge, but it was fun. You've done so many incredible things from writing TV like Erie, Indiana, and then music and then, did you audition to be the original host of The Daily Show? Or did you audition when John Stewart was in the running later after Craig left, or how did that work? Well, when they were originally looking for a host for the Daily Show before it even went on the air, I got called in just to meet with him about that And I didn't get that gig. But then when John took over the show, they called me in, or they called my agent and said,

would fans be interested in being a correspondent? And of course, I was. And yeah, that was a great gig. Did you audition for John with John in the studio? No, no. I shot a field piece in, in Kemp. Canada up in the middle of nowhere. Saskatchewan.

Yes, Saskatchewan. And then they took a look at the piece as they were editing it and said, hey, how soon can you be in New York? So I was there for the very first week that John went on, my piece aired. How does this pitch work? They basically said, we're going to send you to Canada. you're going to be interviewing a farmer, a Canadian farmer, who predicts the weather by licking pig spleen. That's basically what they say, have fun, go, do this, and see how it goes?

Yeah, basically. I mean, you get, you know, you get a little more information than that. And I met, I met up with the field producer, Stuart Bailey. Sure. Stuart's one of my best friends. He's He's the nicest guy in the world, and so funny, so talented. So it was great being teamed up with him for the piece. And, yeah, it turned out well. John Stewart takes over for the Daily Show on a Monday. Your piece airs on a Thursday. The next day, would it be Madeline Smithburg or Liz Winston?

One of the two calls you into the office and says, how soon can you move to New York? Yeah. Yeah, it was Madeline. Madeline. Yeah, they said, we want you to be our new Stone Phillips. How soon can you move to New York? And I said, I can be here next week.

I flew home and put a bunch of my stuff in storage and flew right back. Did you have the sense when your first piece aired that this was going really well? And did you expect to get an offer? Or was it one of those things where you just had no idea what would happen? You know, it was going. The whole week went well. I was in editing and it was that was going really well. So, yeah, I kind of thought I would get the gig. You were there for TV history. A lot of people really say that this is the moment that the

Daily Show really was defined was the Republican debate. It was a segment. It was I think Mo Raca, Steve Carell and yourself. This was, I believe, was it John McCain with the bus? Can you set this up and what stands out? look at the time and now looking back reflecting. Really how historic this was for the, for the show and the voice of what the Daily Show became? Yeah, that was up in New Hampshire. And yeah, it was me, Mo and Steve.

And I remember we greeted John McCain when he walked in. And I remember him calling us, you scamp. And so we just, he took a liking to us for some reason. And we went backstage where the press was for the debate. And they let us ask questions of the different candidates. And I remember my question was to Steve Forbes. And I think I asked him something like, are you wealthy enough to pay enough voters to move to New Hampshire to swing the election? And so, and Mo had a different question.

Steve had a different question. And at that time, we were still flying under the radar. So nobody really knew what to expect. They didn't know if we were real or what. And so that made it, it made it so much, so much better for us, people not knowing if it was real or not. And then the next morning, they invited Steve to get on McCain's bus. That was huge. How long do you think it took John Stewart to really find his voice as host of The Daily Show?

Because it took a little bit of time and has really put his foot down, this is what the show is going to be. and we're not going to do exactly what Craig Kilbourne was doing. We're not going to do a carbon copy. How long do you think that that really took for him to define what the show has become, ultimately? Well, it was certainly an evolution. But I think right off the bat, I think John wanted to give it a little bit of a different spin than it had before. So, yeah, it definitely had a different feel. And I think as John gained more confidence over the next couple of years, it really found its footing.

It's very strange to look back on Zach Alphenakis' career that the guy couldn't get booked on Letterman. Now Letterman's going to be going to Canada interview, Mr. Gallifanakis, and I think the Montreal Comedy Festival. But I remember his debut when I had left Letterman, but he couldn't get booked with, it was Ginni Garofalo's guest host. and she had saying who would get in and Zach made his debut and destroyed. Two years later, he gets a show on VH1 and you're a producer on it. That would be late world with Zach Aliphonakis. What was that experience like? And this was still, he was under the radar.

I mean, it's really strange how long it really did take him because I thought he was really funny almost right away. But it really did take the industry a little time to catch up with him. Yeah. Well, you know, he, I mean, he's very different. He's not your typical stand-up comedian. And it was great. I was the number two on that show. And eventually it was between three different people, Zach got the gig.

Who were the other two, if you remember, or one. Who else was up for it? David Allen Greer, who. Funny man. He was hilarious. He could have been great. And I think it was Greg Barrett. Interesting.

Yeah. But, yeah, so Zach got it. And we started, we got our studio and started doing, you know, mock monologues. We had writing staff. They would write jokes. And then I would sit in Zach's office and we'd sit there for about a half hour and go through the jokes and pick out the best ones. and I would mainly just laugh with Zach. It was a lot of fun.

Back then, he was obsessed with getting on Saturday Night Live or writing Saturday Night Live. Would he talk about the SNL to you at all? No, we never talked. Never talked about that. Is there one or two particular pieces that you're proud of that you worked on on Zach's VHS, a VH1 show looking back that stand out? Well, not really because I left the show before it aired. Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah. It was not a great experience with the executive producer of the show. It happens. A better experience would be the four seasons you produced, you were an executive producer on David Steinberg's Inside Comedy. So many comedic icons were on this show that David Steinberg interviewed. Were you there for these shoots? Oh, yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. John Rickles, Mel Brooks, Robin Williams, Lily Tomlin, Who's who? First question is who, it seems like everybody said yes. Were there's anybody that actually said no that you could not get? Not that I can think of. I think I think pretty much everybody that we asked did the show. Yeah, I mean, David Steinberg had been, you know, a pretty big in the business since the 60s, and he was very well respect.

Absolutely. So, yeah, so when we asked people, they were happy to do it. Who are some of your favorite interviews that you got to sit down with? And that must have been really tough to be there and not being able to laugh. I mean, because, you know, you can't really do that for audio purposes. But who were some of the favorite people that David interviewed that you were there for? Well, no, we could laugh. Yeah.

Yeah, actually, yeah, there was no problem. It was like, yeah, if the crew wants to laugh, you can. That's nice that they could do that. I heard Steve Martin. I did hear laughed, but I just didn't know if that was like frowned upon or not. But who were some of your favorite people that you were there for the David interviewed comedic icons? God. I mean, Rickles was great.

Key and Peel was, yeah, I love those guys. They were great. It's so hard to mention a favorite because, I mean, each and every one, you know, they offered something different. and they were they were all great. Jonathan Winners, was there anybody that was really insightful, especially that you thought. Some comedians are not great guests necessarily

when they're being themselves like that, but was there anybody that really blew you away at all with their process or anything? No, not that I recall. I just remember, you know, Jonathan Winters, it was nice that we were able to interview winners before he passed on. Yeah.

But he was somebody that, He was on from the moment he walked in before sitting down. You guys, unbelievable, unbelievable. How much prep would David Steinberg do and how much prep would you give him? Like, what was your role within the show? What was your contribution? I mean, myself and Charlie Hartzach, who we were the co-presidents of Carousel productions. So, I mean, we worked with David in talking about, you know,

about the different guests. I guess, you know, we would have conversations about maybe specific things to, to ask. But David did his own research for the most part. Was there anybody that you couldn't air, anybody that you interviewed for whatever reason, that wasn't airable? I don't think so. Okay.

I don't believe so. I saw on IMDB that you had a credit on Craig Ferguson's late late show. What did you do on the show with anything? IMDB is not always correct, but did you go on this show? It was correct that time. Okay. I did a couple of appearances, just guest appearances in comedy sketches with Craig. How did that come about?

Did you know him or how did that work? No, but a good friend of mine, Hugh Fink. Oh, he's great. Yeah, he's been on the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he was terrific. He was a producer on the show. And so he just called and said, hey, you want to do this bit.

What was that like running Steve Carell's production company Carousel Pictures? I know you EP'd shows. You did films like Crazy Stupid Love. What was that experience like working with Steve? Well, I mean, that was it was the best. I met Steve when we were on the Daily Show together. And we became good friends then. And when he got the offer from Warner Brothers to start his own production company, he asked if I'd be interested in running it.

And you can't turn that down. It's great. You got to do that. People told me back in the day backstage, it's a small space. I worked at the Colbert report when Stephen Colbert took over. It's a small backstage. People would say Correll would be back there and be so visibly nervous. You would not think that he'd be.

be that nervous. Is that what you recall? On the Daily Show? Yeah, before he would go out, more than most people, at least. No, I don't, I don't recall. I don't recall Steve being nervous at all. Of course, I mean, I wasn't always with him. I mean, sometimes, you know, he might be, a lot of times he was there by himself. So he might have been really

nervous then, but I don't, no, I don't recall. He was so good. Tell me what you're doing. Is it Currently with Rick Springfield or the last couple years, how did you meet him and what have you been doing with him? I met Rick through a friend of mine who is his manager, Wayne Sharp. And Wayne called me a number of years ago, maybe six years ago or so, and said, hey, Rick is writing a screenplay. Would you read it and give him some notes? So I said, sure. So I read it, and I met Rick for lunch and gave me my notes on the script.

And we kind of have been friends since then. And then when the pandemic hit, we wound up doing a series basically called Rick Springfield in Vance DeGeneres, teach you how to co-write songs with a partner. and it was an online series where we actually wrote a song over the course of 20 or so episodes where I'd start writing the song, handed off to Rick, he'd write the next section,

said it back to me, and it was basically a comedy series. It got more ridiculous as it went on, but we actually wound up writing in recording a couple of songs and did videos for both of them and so that was my experience during COVID. So yeah, that was a lot of fun.

You did so much with music. Was the biggest thing when you were signed to Capitol Records when you were with Gina Shock of the Go-Go's? Was that probably the biggest, the top-most top in terms of music being signed to Capitol? Yeah, well, sure.

I mean, you know, that's every every musician's dream is to get signed by a major label. And so when, after the cold, I moved to Los Angeles. I met Gina Shock and she and I became partners. And Miles Copeland

was our manager and helped us get signed to Capitol. And we recorded one album that came out and it was a really good album. But it just didn't take off.

Yeah, you never know. If you had to pick one or two favorite field pieces of the Daily show, looking back, what would they be? God, God, there were so many of them. There was a tale of survival. I don't know if you remember. I did a series called Tales of Survival that was based on the NBC

or Tales of Survival series. And there was one about Blacky the cat, a cat in Chicago that had been stuck up in a tree in the winter. And it was a, it was a nothing story. It was just a cat stuck up in a tree. But of course, we made, we made a whole meal out of, out of nothing and got the fire department involved, and a vet, and made it into a two-part, a two-parts story and that was yeah that was absolutely one of my very favorite stories what was your decision to leave the daily show um i it was two and a half years in and i i was getting tired of of traveling so much sure i don't love to to fly and and then my agent said you know are you plan on staying

there for a while you get or you want to come back and create your own show and And I started thinking, yeah, maybe it's time that I go back and create something for myself. So I did. I went back and I wound up creating a show with a guy named Andy Lassner, who's a producer that wound up producing my sister's daytime show. But Andy had a deal at Fox. And we did a show called Your Local News. and I hosted that and it didn't get picked up.

But it was a funny show too. You've done so much in your life. Did Saturday Night Live invite you to the 50th? You and Walter? No, Walter might have gone, but no, I... I'm sorry. Yeah. No, no, it's absolutely fine.

I mean, look, that's a lifetime ago. And I'm really proud of having done that. But it, you know, it hasn't been part of my life in such a long time that I don't really, I don't really think about it that much. Do you still get residuals though every year for Mr. Bill? No. Oh, okay. I used to get, I used to get checks. I haven't, I haven't seen one in a while. But like I say, it's, it's something that I rarely think about. Sure. Honestly, it doesn't bother me. Yeah.

That's so generous. Thank you for talking to me. I know you don't do a lot of these, so I really appreciate it. This was fun. What an amazing collective life, Marines, music, comedy, and you're still doing such interesting things. So I really appreciate this. Oh, my pleasure.

Happy to do it. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode on Apple Podcast. Please rate it and leave a review. Be sure to go to latenighter.com for all your. late night TV news, and you can find my podcast at latenighter.com forward slash podcasts. Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next Tuesday.