WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 1108 - Dan Aykroyd

Episode Date: March 23, 2020

Dan Aykroyd has thrived in show business but he’s always been in tune with the business part as much as the show part. Whether it was running his own radio ad company or an after-hours speakeasy, or his House of Blues clubs and his Crystal Head line of vodka, Dan is always thinking of the next thing. He tells Marc how he went from Canadian improv stages to New York City for Saturday Night Live, why he was always good at doing fast-talking characters, and how his professional life became personal with close collaborators like John Belushi, Bill Murray and Carrie Fisher. This episode is sponsored by ZipRecruiter. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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How are you, what the fuckers? What the fuck buddies? What the fucksters? What's happening? How's it going? You alright? Is my tone too chipper for the pandemic situation? the fuck buddies what the fucksters what's happening how's it going uh you all right is my tone too chipper for the uh pandemic situation how how are you taking it how's everything with you how are the kids how's how are you holding up are you surprised the supply is okay and like

just a little bit of a hello to the people that are by themselves again. I hope you're all doing okay. I know there's some people that are trying to stay sober out there and they're getting into the online meetings, I guess, on the Zoom app, which I need to get. You know, stay in touch with people through this. Friends, family, check in as much as possible. There's no reason now not to text or call or FaceTime or Skype or Zoom your mom, your dad, your close friends. It's important when there is a lack of ability to sort of touch and hug and socialize to do it somehow. It's important for people to listen to people, to talk to people, to feel like they're part of a people thing if you don't do that people start to lose their fucking minds and certainly if you're putting the

wrong shit into your brains while you're isolated you're going to lose your fucking mind i mean it happened to about 35 of this population for what different reasons But isolation is something that existed before this. There are a lot of people who are, most of us are isolated in terms of how we live our lives in a way. Or else our worlds are fairly small. I mean, there are people that have always worked from home. There are people that didn't have jobs to begin with

who are shut-ins and at home. There are people that didn't even need to buy food because they'd stocked up on chips and soda. And they're still locked in a room spewing garbage online. That was before this. But isolation is a real problem. I think it's one of the issues that so many people that we know and even people that we think might be intelligent can't quite wrap their brain around what's happening. But it's happening. I mean, I'm guilty of it, man.

I mean, I'm not out in the world pretending like nothing's wrong. the real destruction and pain and death and everything else and the lack of supplies and the hardships that people are going through because of this thing, because I'm sitting in my house, I'm alone. You know, I read stuff. I got an email last week from that woman in Italy. But all of us live these sort of isolated, insulated lives, even when there's no pandemic. And just to have a consciousness of this thing. And I'm not being sort of, it's not apocalyptic thinking.

It's not overreacting. But we're in it, man. And I can't be too glib about it but i just uh i just hope people are taking care of themselves and more importantly um reaching out to people any way they can that that have been in their lives just to throw a line connect say hello and you know i'm going online i'm doing stuff yeah i'm playing my guitar on instagram you know i'm trying to it's not even have a life i mean there's a lot of what's happening now that used to be the way i lived you know as a young comic you just sit around write and think

all day and play guitar and nap and cook food and i guess the point of this is I talked to my buddy Dave and he was freaking out. He was in a rabbit hole of, you know, symptoms and statistics and who gets what and what, you know, what are the outcome? It's bad. But you can't just sit there and defeat yourself. Do what you can do in the moment that you can do it for yourself and the people around you. And don't make it worse than it already is. Just understand the reality. Understand your part in it or your place in the world.

And try to live your life and be ready to be helpful or to run. Right? Where, though? Huh? Where do you run from the bug? Dan Aykroyd is on the show today. And he's like one of those kind of, one of these guys about, you know, about the aliens. The aliens here.

It's a coronavirus. These renegade strands of RNA looking for a partner to helix with. Ourselves. They're just, they're not full bodies. They're just, they just need to be full bodies, but they can only do it with ourselves. Virus. Virus. Also, sometimes the foundation of some relationships. I'm not a whole person until I glom onto you and use you to be a full person to replicate myself and leave you a drained husk.

Dark. Dark. Right? Dan Aykroyd is on the show. He was around, so I got to talk to him before the shit went down to the point where we couldn't leave. We don't know really what's going to happen in terms of that. I read the order from the L.A. Public Health Department about what is and what isn't essential businesses. health department about what is and what isn't essential businesses. And in the media realm,

podcasts are okay, sanctioned, essential. So we do have some episodes, some interviews in the can, which we'll keep using. And I think I've got one or two interviews set up for the near future, but I can offer a fairly safe space, just me and I'm healthy and I will sit six feet away from you and I have spray and wipes. So if you come by yourself, we're good, we're golden. So we'll see what happens. If not, if people aren't going to come, we'll figure out another way. We'll figure out another way, but panic. So I had some panic. Everyone's having panic. Do we have it? Do we not have it? Am I just a carrier? Do I have it and it's not going? Is it not showing? Well, the testing, I don't have exact information on how they're prioritizing that. But it seems to be people who have been around people who have confirmed it. And I don't know. I just know there's not enough of them and it's a little chaotic and it's hard to stay isolated but want to you know check you know what if you need to go to the doctor I know but I've had panic I've woken up like why is my chest fucked up why do I why is my chest heavy why can't I breathe right and then I realized like oh that's what happens when I panic

but I also realized as some of you know or remember, when we had a sponsor here that Everly Well did the food sensitivity thing. And it happened to be all the foods I was eating at that time. Like I had a high sensitivity to egg whites. I had moderate sensitivity to almonds and yogurt and kale and cashews. Like all the healthy shit I was eating, I had sensitivity to almonds and yogurt and kale and cashews like all the healthy shit I was eating I had sensitivity to and right a week or so ago when this all started going down you know the stockpiling storing food I was like fuck it man you know I'm not really allergic to anything those sensitivities were bullshit I'm gonna get kale get kale. I'm going to get almonds. I'm going to get cashews. And sure enough, for the last week, I've had a little tightness in my chest. And guess what's a symptom of allergies? Yep. I've got no fever, got no other symptoms.

And I didn't eat almonds or any of them yesterday. And it feels better. And I've been hiking. But it is where I feel stress as well. You can manifest symptoms with your brain if you commit with panic and fear and your brain, you know, you can focus and manifest almost all symptoms. So don't fuck your head like that. All right. Try to relax. I've been writing a bit. Actually, not so much. I've been writing a bit. Actually, not so much.

I've been cooking a lot. And I've been watching some movies I haven't seen, catching up on series, watched a Cassavetes movie last night, playing guitar, spending time with my cats, and talking to you, and doing shit around the house,

and hoping for the best. But it's definitely a scary time definitely a scary time and i had this thing happen and it's been happening and i need to fucking put it out there and i don't even know if i can explain it properly to be honest with you because it makes me nervous i don't know what it is or what to do about it. Okay, I'm going to try to lay it out. Because I tried to talk about it on Tom Sharpling came over and did a an episode of the best show in my driveway where he threw a cord out his window and I hooked up one of my mics and Lynn Shelton and myself. and Lynn Shelton and myself, me and Lynn Shelton, however the proper way to say that, Lynn Shelton and I, I don't know, stood outside his car and did an episode of that, and I tried to communicate exactly what I was feeling to describe this phenomenon that's happening to me. It has to do with my phone and my brain. Okay, first off, I guess like, have any of you had a genuine out-of-body experience?

Like a near out-of-body experience where you may not have gotten far and you may not have gotten all the way out, but you just all of a sudden have this, a strange consciousness of your body as something other than you, I guess is the way to put it. Like that you kind of like your brain sort of has a consciousness of the fact that it's just housed in this thing that moves. And that's the sort of feeling, you know, obviously the brain

is in charge of the thing, but there is because the self is housed in the brain or somewhere like that. The self is sort of like, wow, I think I'm just going to cut loose here. Do you know that feeling where yourself tries to cut loose from the body, from the vessel or gets a little distance from it, even almost leaves? Well, my point is that that's the feeling i'm getting sometimes when i look at my phone too much if i'm just in my phone i'll all of a sudden realize like this like that my body is separate than me uh my brain itself is connected with the phone and somehow my hand is holding it but i've got nothing to do with that does that make sense it's happening a lot there's a sort of disassociation to it and

it's sort of creeping me out it's sort of like this is the singularity it's happening to me personally can anyone do is that making sense should i be concerned this is no time to go to the doctor to try to explain that phenomenon that i just tried to explain to you. Now, is it? No. All right. Well, look, Dan Aykroyd, he's always promoting his Crystal Head Vodka line. He's also back as Ray Stantz in the upcoming

Ghostbusters Afterlife. But he was one of the guys. He's one of the original guys. He's one of the original SNL guys. And this is me talking to him. You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. And this is me talking to him. Be honest. When was the last time you thought about your current business insurance policy? If your existing business insurance policy is renewing on autopilot each year without checking out Zensurance,

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Sure. Yeah. We're on. I love your location here in Culver City. Thanks for sending the golf cart. You know, I'm just across the road here at Sony at Ghost Co. Yeah. The Ivan Reitman-administered Ghost Co.

And so it was great to be so close to the studio and get over here that way. Thanks. We took the tunnel from the old Sony Columbia Tunnel, the one that Harry, what was his name, mayor, Louis B. Mayer had. Yeah, sure. And we took the golf cart.

We tried to make it convenient for you. Oh, it was so great. I love that. And then you come here and it's the old film tower, right? Yeah. Culver City. So we went up the elevator. elevator yeah and here we've got a beautiful view of the city and uh what a spot yeah isn't it great yeah yeah it's a no i'm you're the first guy to actually

admit where we were and uh i try to keep it a secret and i appreciate i'm sorry i knew this was a satellite to your real location which incidentally folks uh i couldn't get to because uh mark came down you know for to see me yeah and i was going to go up but you are in a missile silo yeah um that's right i think it's uh north dakota that's right yeah this is a you know i come out here occasionally to uh to interview people and they let me use this this is the only location i'll use i love the missile silo um you know my brother and i were sorry one it's beautiful yeah there's no missile in it but no but it has the whole uh the tub that the tube and it's quiet you know it's nice down there and

you know we just got refrigeration working on this on a steady basis you know it was all battery run initially yeah yeah well you know this is where some some of us have to be in the world if we're talking about things that matter uh it's great to be with you, man. Nice to be with you. You got a lot of papers. You come prepared. You broke it down. What do you got on the papers? What's the plan?

Well, first of all- Seems like you plan more than me. You're a great interviewer, and you interviewed Terry Gross. I did. I just kind of was curious, because she got me to reveal secrets about myself. She has that voice.

Did she really? She did, yeah. You know, like, you know, that I eat worms or whatever. What, you eat fried worms? Well, I don't know what I revealed, but, you know, she really gets you to talk about yourself and then you're introspective. You forget she's there.

She's not there, though. She's unbelievable. She's usually on a satellite. You didn't sit with her, did you? No, no, no. You're sitting by yourself? I got, but she put the hypno coin on me. Yeah, she's very hypnotic.

And if you listen to MPI, you're very used to her. You're comforted by her presence in your head. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so it's like it's happening. Did she come into the studio? No, I did a weird, not a weird gig, but it was when she, we did a gig yeah and she chose me she said she would do this radio uh it was a radio benefit i think show and she said if i interviewed her she

would do it so it was actually live in front of about 2 000 people that we did it yeah oh neat so it was tricky you know it was tricky because she's not really that type of show person yeah and to sort of keep it candid and figure out a way in. Yeah. But at that point, that was several years ago, and I think it's still kind of like that. People know very little about her. So you could find a way. You know, there was gaps in the small amount of information that was available that would

sort of like, what happened there? You know what I mean? Yeah. What else you got on the paper? She's buttoned up, you know uh but she's a great man you know i think she's buttoned up on the radio but she's a master broadcaster oh no she's great and you you it seems to me that your life is you have a a sort of weird deep respect for broadcasters oh well um as a veteran of uh 26 years of house of blues radio hour and my persona

is elwood blues forgive me for the cheap Chicago accent, but really, you know. Sure. I'm an adopted son of that city, so I can do it for him. Yeah, of course. So Elwood was on there on the radio. We had the House of Blues Radio Hour.

But when you were a kid, it must have, like, something about it must have planted the seed or wired you that way. Well, I don't know. You know, my dad gave my, he was 98 yesterday. Congratulations.

My dad is an old engineer there and I used to watch the black and white television, the Ud Sullivan show. And so my dad, one day, they chopped off the top of a hockey stick and he took a black electrical tape

and he made it into a microphone. He put a little cord there, made it into a toy microphone and gave it to me and I started to imitate announcers and that one. one so that's when it started it did yeah you were fascinated i love the voices i loved uh all the impressionists that were on those shows could you do ed sullivan uh i don't know too many people will remember this next gentleman who's been on the show so many times. Of course, tonight we have Wayne Schuster.

You know, he was a gossip columnist. It's close to Nixon, isn't it? No, I guess not. Down in here. And I could say some profanities, but I'm not going to. You're allowed to here.

Mr. Presley, so good to have you in the White House today. Imagine when him and Elvis met. Good to be here. But it's just great that you're going to help with the drug effort. But no, tonight, Topher G. Jair. Topher G. Jair. And the Flying Relentless. He was a gossip columnist, and there's a famous movie,

you know it, called Sweet Smell of Success with Tony Curtis. Right. And J.J. Hunsecker, who played by Burt Lancaster. Ed Sullivan was the basis for that character.

Was he? I thought it was the other guy. Walter Winchell. Walter Winchell. Walter Winchell. Both of them kind of, they were kind of muckraking gossip scandal guys,

but they parlayed their careers. Winchell into a columnist, of course. Very influential and then ed solomon into the variety show host now when winchell's memorabilia sold yeah no one bought it oh is that true did you know that i had no idea his hat his typewriters his pencils no one gave a shit no one bought walter winchell's no one cared what's that say about a tabloid reporter's life? It means people thought he was garbage. Well, Walter Winchell had a spectacular voice, and you'll remember it from... In 1932, Elliot Ness and his untouchables raided

a warehouse on the north side of Chicago. Frank Nitty was caught in, you know, da-da-dun-dun, da-da-da-da-dun. Mr. Ness, and of course Robert Stack. Coming out of the back grew up in Toronto? I was born in Ottawa, Canada

and I am a Canadian through and through and here's how Canadian I am I was born on July 1st, that's Canada that's the Independence Day of Canada when we became a Dominion of the Crown I was born grandson of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Staff Sergeant my mother was French, I knew Eddie very well and my mother was French-Canadian dominion of the crown. I was born a grandson of a Royal Canadian Mounted Police Staff Sergeant.

Did you know him? I knew Eddie very well. And my mother was French-Canadian and my dad was a high English man. And so- So he wasn't from Canada? No, he was from Toronto. So it was kind of the French-Catholic wasp marriage. French-Catholic marries a wasp. Grew up Catholic though? I was raised Catholic. My dad converted for my mom's family. Oh, my God. Yeah, I was

at my dad's baptism there, him kneeling there, and also his confirmation. That's a weird moment. When the bishops slapped him, yeah. Weird moment? Remember? It was a weird moment. The bishop slaps you even as a grown man? Confirmation, yes. Yeah, you get the whack, you know. Really? I didn't know that. Of the bishop. And as a little kid, you get

the whack from the bishop. Really? Oh, yeah. that. Of the bishop. And as a little kid, you get the whack from the bishop. Really? Oh, yeah. And that's sort of like welcome? Well, yes, because, you know, you're being, now the Holy Ghost is visiting you when you get that whack. Oh, okay. Right. And some see.

Some see the Holy Ghost. Did you? As I do today, I see the flame every day. Every day. Every day, I see the flame. But my dad was a very interesting man. He was an old kind of engineer, road engineer. What does that mean, road engineer?

He built highways. Okay. Yeah, he built highways. So he was out in the world with the navigating. Bulldozers. Yes, he blew the top off a granite mountain, and I watched him do that as a kid. He had a great upbringing.

So I'm very Canadian. Born in Ottawa, capital city. Grandson of a Maudie. French-Canadian mother. High Anglican WASP father. Brother, sister. I have aie, French-Canadian mother, high Anglican wasp. Brother, sister. I have a brother, Peter, very funny. You'll know him out there in the world as the Java Junkie.

Do you remember that clip from SNL? Yes. Do you remember that clip? Yeah. That great performance as a guy drinking coffee. Right. The film by Tom Schiller. Yeah.

Is Schiller still around? I believe so. He's a director. He does all kinds of stuff in commercials and short films. He was so brilliant. My brother's a Java junkie, so I'm Canadian. I was born in Ottawa. But the Catholic thing, how religious were you brought up? Pretty strict? and eight years old, I was getting on a bicycle and bicycling to the church and serving mass. And then I went into, I was actually a hodlwinkled to go into a seminary. I went into, I was, I attended St. Pius X Minor Preparatory Seminary for Boys in Ottawa. Were you thinking about doing the thing?

Well, the interview was very interesting. We were with Father Lunny, a great priest and a great mentor. And my mom and dad were sitting there with me. And Father Lunny looks at me. And my dad and mom wanted me to go to this Catholic school, not go to the public school. And he looks at me and says, Dan, so you are here. You're considering a vocation here. You'd like to join us in our calling. And here's my response in front of my parents and Father Lonnie.

Well, when I see my mom wants me to go to this school and my dad, it would relieve him because I was on the way to work. He could drop me off. Oh, yeah. Yes. So you'd like to be a priest. Oh, wow. So we did three years of that, and it was a good upbringing, and I learned a lot, and there were some terrific people there at that school.

Between 58 and 78, St. Pius had all boys there, and 5,000 of us went through there. Guess how many became priests out of 5,000? 400. Two. Two people? Two people. So it was just a school.

It was just an education. Well, it was an experience, you know. So I was pretty Catholic there. But you believed. You believed. Well, I believe in the cosmic engineer. I believe I didn't buy a lot of the hoogie-boogie, but I think that the words of the

Christ and the lessons of Christ could be, yeah, there's some hoogie-boogie going along. There's centuries of hoogie-boochie, but I think that the words of the Christ and the lessons of Christ can be, you know, can be, yeah, there's some hoochie-boochie going along with it. There's centuries of hoochie-boochie. I think my question, though, when I was thinking about you coming over was that I realized that if you have the foundation of believing and the ability to suspend your disbelief and believe in God at any point in time in your life, it kind of makes you vulnerable to believe in just about fucking anything. Well, here's the thing. People do believe in anything.

Catholics believe in the Virgin Mary. The Mormons believe in the Angel Marani and the golden plates and the magic spectacles. The scientists believe. And the underwear. They believe in, yes. And they believe, you know, the Scientologists believe in Zaynu, the super god. And, you know, in the Hindu religion, there's a belief of Vishnu. So what my approach to it now is okay believe yeah what you want i am not here to question what you believe if you believe that there was a zinger up in the sky that hit the virgin mary and caused

christ to come into the world and i say i i'm a fan of christ i really am a zinger uh you know if that zinger was true then you know you know, and you believe in that, fine. It's up to people to have their own beliefs and not for me to question. And really not for me to be questioned on my belief as a spiritualist. I am a spiritualist. That's an old title, spiritualist. Well, it comes from basically the 1800s. Was it theosophy? Was it a Blavatsky thing?

That was, she definitely was a part of that movement. Yeah. Absolutely. And it's a belief that not only does the energy of the soul survive, but the consciousness survives after death. We're surrounded by him. Many consciousnesses. I think so.

I think so. There was an old, I got you my dad's book here, History of Ghosts. Well, it was sort of interesting to me that you come from this, it's decades, it's like centuries of. Yeah. It is since really my great grandfathergrandfather Sam was a dentist, and he started exploring this stuff in the 20s. And in the book here, it talks about a guy named Arthur Findlay,

and he was a medium in England, and he was very good at it. He brought channel forth many, many entities. And he used to go to the theater, and he'd be sitting in the theater, just trying to watch a movie, and then all these voices would come from where he'd been channeling, and the people around him would go shut up man what he brought the entities with him yeah very funny but I was I've been here we're sitting

with you for 10 minutes and I've heard at least a dozen entities the best one is July 1932 Elliot Ness and his untouchables. Rico Rocco. That's a good entity. The best one is Robert Stack, though. Lee, Rico, bring it around. Unsolved mysteries. A man walks down a beach. A pebble hops up at him.

Who's inside the pebble? You're channeling. I love him. Now, we've lost a great man in Hollywood recently, Kirk Douglas. Yes, 103. Too young, too young. Too young. My dad's 98 and he goes to me, no more, no more.

Kirk and I shared a movie set. I was honored to have made a film with him. John Asher directed it. Yeah. John Asher's kind of Hollywood royalty himself. His mother was Elizabeth Montgomery and his father was a producer and writer. And John directed this film. What was it?

And it was called Diamonds. And Kirk played, it was about, you know, the sunset, sundowning syndrome in Alzheimer's. And I played his son, who had to put him in a home eventually. But there's this scene in there where he insists on driving. Oh, he did?

Yeah, he was 90 in his mid-90s. So he goes, he sits in this car, and he said, I'm going to drive this scene. And there he was, and he's a great stunt driver. Oh, really? Oh, yeah. On purpose? I wasn't scared at all.

I wasn't scared at all. But what a pleasure. And my dad came on the set, too, at the time. So to have the two of them sitting there. Five years apart, having a good time. Exactly right. Exactly right. So, okay, but the spiritualism and the channeling and also the idea that we don't question others' beliefs.

But you would question others' beliefs if they had a dangerous intent or violent intent. Sure. sure. Okay. Of course. Good. Of course. Absolutely. Absolutely.

I mean, and boy, there's enough malevolence in the world that we should be questioning what's going on, you know? Yeah. Have you read this book, The Uninhabitable Planet? No, but I feel it coming. Yeah. That's... How much do I need to know?

I don't know. But in our time, it was the bomb shelter. With me, I mean, I'm a little older than you. You know, I remember when I was in primary school and I'm sitting there and I put this in the Blues Brothers, by the way. They showed up one day and they put up an air raid siren, you know, a pole right there. Right. Yeah. And that was the one that was on the top of the car.

And the funny thing is, in retrospect, it would have not been helpful at all, really. No, no, no no because by the time that icbm hit wherever it was yeah it's over it would be done and i'm going under the horror of that the nuclear horror you know and uh so that was what we were living under and then there was polio but you know with the nuclear horror you know there was just a you know they there was at least a human element to it in terms of like, someone's going to push a button. And with this environmental thing, it's sort of like, I think the buttons are even pushed and no one's going to take their finger off it.

So it's different. Yeah. I mean, this guy's saying we reach close to 2.8 degrees and, you know, we're going to see planetary rises of 10, 15 feet in places. So I think, you know, the real estate industry should be really on board with this. Miami, New York, they're talking about the seawall in New York. They've got it figured out in Rotterdam. You've got to get the beachfront property in Nevada.

Yeah, or 32nd Street, too. So you're in Canada, you're not going to be a priest. When do you start sort of getting involved in the comedy? Well, all the way, how about grade 10, grade 9, grade 10, grade 11, class. Yeah, sure. You know, in class there'd be another guy there. No, no, that was bad. And then I did plays and I did sketches and stuff.

You did sketches? In high school and, yeah, all throughout high school. In college I was in a performing group and was one of the minor players. What group was that? It was at Carleton University, which is a very good university in Ottawa. Do you know any of the fellows that was in the group with you now?

I haven't seen them. They went on to great careers as directors. Yeah, directors. I know many good actresses there. Went on to great careers in Stratford and Shakespeare up in Canada. No kidding, because I didn't realize. i was recently shooting a movie in hamilton oh i love that town well i love that hammer man wow great people there when was the last time

you've been up dead in dead infrastructure you know uh no it's like it's but i didn't realize there's a thriving bar scene uh there's a thriving something scene. No, no, it's cool. They're trying to come back around. Yeah, interesting. I was there. Well, there's a pretty big film industry that's spreading throughout Canada. Of course. And Hamilton's made itself available for those dicier shoots. Were you playing a steel work?

No, no. I was playing a record A&R guy, a PR agent. What's the film? I'd be very interested to see that. It's about David Bowie's first trip to the States. Oh, neat. Okay. Yeah.

Wow. It should be interesting. It's a small movie. Who plays Bowie? Bowie is played by this guy, Johnny Flynn, who is a popular English songster. I recently played Jerry Wexler in a movie. Oh, no kidding. I knew Jerry, of course, because when we were at Atlantic with Blues Brothers, I knew Jerry

and Ahmed and Nesui. And they were all alive then. When was that? The 80s? Ahmet. I knew Ahmet good. Well, Ahmet, Ahmet, Ahmet. But Jerry was more like this, right?

Jerry talked like this, right? Yeah, yeah. Great. Wow. So that's fun, man, playing parts like that. I played, I think, I played James Brown's manager in Get On Up. Oh, yeah. I remember.

I remember. That's right. On Up. Oh, yeah. I remember. I remember. That's right. You were kind of. Yeah. But the reason I brought up Hamilton is I had no idea that it was such a big comedy sort of source. I mean, didn't Ivan go to. Ivan McMaster. Ivan McMaster.

Marty Short. Yeah, they all come from there. Right. Eugene Levy. Marty Short. Marty Short's brother is a great writer, of course. And Ivan Reitman. Yeah.

And I had no idea when I was there I was sort of like this place is falling apart but then people were like it's got an amazing history it does it does well the university

is very strong there but you didn't go there I didn't no I went to Carleton but I like the Hammer because you know I love dead technology dead technology

I love the look of it rusting vats yeah cinematic oh of course course look it's great you know there's a have you been there i performed out there at uh it's a place called the steelworks yeah in pennsylvania which was a bethlehem the bethlehem turned into a mall yeah well it was it's actually an art space yeah yeah like and and you perform and behind the stage it's all windows and there's the dead steelworks there.

Bessemer furnaces. And they light them up. That's right. They were, of course, those were Carnegie's furnaces and Phipps and those guys. So you're fascinated with dead technology. Well, I'm also fascinated with the Industrial Revolution and just, you know, how fast it's gone from coal and coke and rail steel production like 1880 to now yeah how fast we've heated up the planet and i think oh yeah that's what that's what fascinates me is the speed and the speed of innovation sure and it's so it's so exciting that we have other nostalgists uh who are currently

in power that seem to think that coal is a good idea again well you know there is a way to do it and the way to do it is you've got to have a scrubber on there that just eats up all of your profits. So you're providing energy to the consumer and you're burning coal to do it, but there's no profit in it. You've spent it all on your scrubbers.

Now, if there's a company that's doing coal out there, willing to do that, to go out there and spend all of the money so that it's clean, still in business for the consumer, but any profit that's out of it goes to keeping the scrubbers going. I think it could be feasible because a lot of countries need power. Yeah, and nuclear power scares you. How do you feel about it?

Well, I'm mixed on it. Germany has removed all of the nuclear plants. But we have a leading environmental uh cause advocate uh bobby kennedy jr saying you know nuclear may be a choice we do have it in canada we've never had an accident uh three mile island was a an interesting occurrence then fukushima pretty bad chernobyl man you know you had cows dying in oregon from pretty bad that's bad did you watch the show did you watch the series what a beautiful piece of television. No kidding, man. And wasn't, everybody was perfect. Fucking incredible.

Just beautiful. Yeah, man. I love that. I love that. That was so great. So you're doing, so when do you meet Lorne? Like in Canada? I saw you, yeah, you interviewed him.

Well, in 1960. You did two days with Lorne. Yeah, did you? Yeah. Well, pretty fascinating. One of the, probably the greatest impresario of our time. He's something, huh? Yeah. But I mean, you knew. St. Michael's College, University of Toronto. Well, pretty fascinating. One of the, probably the greatest impresario of our time. He's something, huh? Yeah.

But I mean, you knew. St. Michael's College, University of Toronto. That's Lauren. I went and went to the CBC with a friend of mine and a partner, Valerie Bromfield. And we went together. We had some written, some material as a team and we had a cable show in Ottawa. It's my belief that any talented person, if you stay in Canada, will eventually get a show.

A government-sponsored show. Yeah, exactly. That's what I mean. So that's what we were looking for, a government-sponsored show. We showed them our, we had a show called Change for a Quarter. It was 15 minutes of comedy. We brought the tape in. It had a handle on it.

It was a full-inch wide videotape, like the size of, it was a foot across, a full-inch wide, and a handle. That's how big. So we brought that in and showed it to a few executives, full inch wide at a handle that's how big that so we brought that in and uh showed it to a few executives and they said well you know it's not really our kind of thing here on this floor but downstairs there are a couple of guys putting together a new comedy thing and it's new people and it's young that lauren michaels and hart pomerantz so we got an interview yeah lauren hired valerie and i for a summer TV special called The Great Canadian Humor Test.

So in 1969, I was not still out. I still wasn't out of college. I was still at Carleton. He hired me that summer to play old men, basically. Yeah. I don't think in one character was over, you know, was under 40. So what was your impression of him like immediately? Loved him immediately.

The brilliance, the wit, the fun, the sense of being guided by a true mentor with massive knowledge of, you know, the TV comedies of the 50s. Oh, yeah? Yeah, of the Catskills. And what was Hart like? Hart was funny.

He was a lawyer. Oh. Yeah, he was funny. And Lorne had shoulder-length hair and a zapata mustache. Uh-huh. And Hart was, and they did an act together and one of their components was the great canadian humor test right and valerie and i were on there so that's when i met him then uh a couple of years later i'd been at second city and uh i you were at second city i was at second city in toronto yep 70 71 72 who was the crew? Radner, Candy, O'Hara, Levy, Jerry Salzberg was brilliant,

Rosemary Radcliffe, Martin Short was in and around there with the Godspell kids, the Second City and Godspell kids. And so the kids from Godspell kind of migrated over to Second City. And that was the first production of Godspell. It was. It was pretty famous. Yeah, yeah, that's what. Now, when I met those kids, I was driving a mail truck,

and I was on the radio at City TV. Lorne got me that job as well. He did, but you weren't working for him? Not at that point. What were you doing on the radio? I was a shot box announcer, you know, doing like fast rap kind of announcing, you know. So that's part of your blood.

It was. I worked for Moses Neimer at City TV. I was a game show announcer and a commercial announcer. In 69? 70, yeah, 71. And then I drove across country in 72 in my slush six Chevy Biscayne. Yeah. And we drove from Toronto to New Orleans to Tijuana.

Who? My friend John DeVicus. Yeah. The artist who designed all the Ghostbusters stuff. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Still around? He's still around, the artist who designed all the Ghostbusters stuff. Oh, yeah? Yeah. Still around? He's still around, the Viking.

Yeah, he's good. We drove across, and we stopped in L.A., and Lorne put us up at his suite at the Shadow Marmot. When he was out here writing for? Lily Tomlin. Lily Tomlin. Yeah, Lily Tomlin and Laugh-In. Yeah. And he said, Dan, I'm going to reinvent the live television of these 50s.

He put you up at the Chateau. He put me up in his room. Sad prophecy. And we were there, John and I, and he told us he wanted to do a Colgate Comedy Hour and the Sid Caesar Show. And he was going to recreate it in New York on stage where they did it. And he was going to do live. And he was real smart. When they offered him a pilot, he said, no, no, I want to do seven.

And he said you were in no not exactly um he said he said i wanted you know are you just telling me about the concept and i'll sort of i'll call you then i did i did have to audition a couple of times i was not accepted right away i did have to even though i knew him and i had a history i think part of the problem was that belushi and i had met and we'd already formed like the Blues Brothers and some other ideas. We met at my 505 club, the little speakeasy that I had. You had a speakeasy? I had an after hours club in Toronto. In Toronto?

505 Queen Street East. While you were driving the truck? After, this is Second City time. He came over to Second City to raid us for, to raid Gilda for Lampoon and I met him that night and we'd cooked. Oh, John Belushi. And we'd cooked up, yep. We'd cooked up the Blues Brothers by the time we got to our Saturday Night Live auditions.

Did he know a lot about the Blues? Not too much. He was born to heavy metal, but he was from Chicago. He had been to all the great places, had heard all the great artists, but he was born to heavy metal. A hard rock at that time, I would think.

And that stuff, Grand Funk. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. He loved the, you know, Grand Funk and Cream and all that. So, Lorne was afraid

that we'd met, we already had the Blues Brothers concocted, and he didn't want to cabal. Lorne looked at the two of us

and said, uh-oh, that's a power base that might be trouble there. Now, you guys, like first going back to the Viking,

when you drove to New Orleans. And it was trouble. Of course. Immense trouble. How could it not be? Look, gray hairs on Lauren's head are probably single-handedly caused by John and I.

Volusia and Eckhart. Or maybe Chase. Chase, yeah. I mean, he still causes gray hairs for people. So when you go across country, you go to New Orleans and stuff, you're stopping in to see music and is that part of the journey?

Sure, Jazz Fest, absolutely. Rockin' Doopsie, man. Love it, right? Clifton Chenier. Oh, yeah. Bozhak, the great Zydeco players. Oh, yeah, I love that absolutely. Rockin' Doopsie, man. Love it, right? Clifton Chenier. Oh, yeah. Bozhak, the great Zydeco players. Oh, yeah, I love that stuff. Professor Longhair.

Oh, I love that. Dr. John. Saw him many times, many times, yeah. Tipitina's Club, yeah. Yeah, you love it, right? Oh, I love it. You been in New Orleans? I've been there.

I haven't done the music thing much. Oh, yeah. So you and John, was it love at first sight, or how did that work? That's it, pretty much, yeah. He walked in the back door. It was a blizzard night. It was the February night. You know, we were doing the set of Second City and we were backstage there and the door flew open, which directly accessed the alley there.

And it was a step above the little pit where we were working in with our costumes and that. And John appeared, opened the door and there was a silhouette there yeah he had like a hexagonal driver's cap on and he had a white cable knit sweater and a white scarf and a pack of cigarettes and a butt going and you know sneakers and i totally underdressed for canada yeah and he came in and of course that was you know and they needed this he did the set i think he hit the wall for us that night and everything he got on stage and did the really oh yeah yeah he he hit the wall for us yeah that and everything. He got on stage and did the riffing. Oh, yeah, yeah. He hit the wall for us, I think, that night. That was his famous thing of running from the front of the stage,

hitting the wall, and then sliding down. That was his famous thing? Well, everybody did it. Everybody did it. That was a bit. That was a bit, yeah. And Tino Insana did that. I mean, many people hit the wall.

Who were the, like, in your recollection of Second City at that time, who were, like, the improvisers that you just, everybody was like, holy shit. Oh, well, Murray. Yeah? Yeah. Murray, oh, God. And Flaherty, Joe Flaherty. Oh, yeah.

And Brian Murray, you know. Oh, yeah. Brian, you know, Bill's brother. Very funny. What was it about Bill? Because he doesn't, like. Danger, danger, danger man, you know. But not.

High voltage. Uh-huh. You know, the hurricane, wow, you never knew what was coming next man you know high voltage you know the murricane wow you never knew what was coming next you know it could be verbal it could be physical it go whoo just beautiful beautiful excitement what about candy was lovely he was a lovely improviser because he was so full of so much heart and soul and wild dr tongue you know and yeah and then in tino and santa his his beautiful beautiful friend and partner. Oh, those were great times. Great, strong women, too, yeah.

Yeah, Gilda and... Yeah, Rosemary Radcliffe, Catherine O'Hara. Oh, Catherine's amazing. Yeah, and Betty Thomas, who went on to direct Broadway Betty Thomas. Yeah. And that was quite the crew. Were you involved in the Lampoon Hour as well? You know what?

I guested on a record produced by Chris Guest. I played drums and I think I did a, Was that the Lemmings record? I think it was, no, it was another Lampoon record.

Okay. But you see, that's why John came up to Toronto and he did succeed in getting Gil to go back down to New York to work on Lemmings

and work, well, work on Lampoon Radio and their records and that. But I didn't want to leave Toronto. I had a good racket going, man. I had the 505 speakeasy because, well,

everything closes at one o'clock in Toronto did at the time. Yeah. Where's a streetcar driver or a cop or a waiter or waitresses or somebody off duty? Where are they going to get a drink? Well, we supplied that for them. When we left, there was a wall high.

Uh, there was a, just a wall of bottles that went up seven, eight feet. So you just went an all-cash business selling liquor? All-cash, yeah. We did that. We did that. And then I had Second City, and I had a radio business with Dave Thomas. So you didn't want to go.

I didn't want to go. I had a radio commercial business with Dave Thomas. I was at Second City. And I was on an afternoon sitcom for kids called Coming Up Rosie. And I had the speakeasy. I had all these little hustles going. I didn't want to move. I was set up.

Yeah. You had a radio ad business? Yes, radio ads. We wrote radio ads. Okay. So companies would come to you and go... That's right. Yeah, right. It's a 30, right. It's a 60. So for Canada, you were doing great. Doing great. I was making more than the Prime Minister made one year, you know. How old were you? 22, 21? Right about that. Yeah. and so what

what eventually gets you to go to new york snl final the final offer okay you're in so i uh i there was a wonderful actor and improviser named ben gordon and i remember i had to pick something up at the the fire hall where second city ended up yeah and so i pulled up on my 1971 xopp uh harley davidson flh uh with the saddlebags all packed and i get on in front of the building there and ben gordon's there my buddy and you know he's like the last person to see me before i go off to snl and i wave to him and i hit the highway yeah on the bike on the bike and i'm riding down the highway down high over 90 then the highway 81 southbound on 81 yeah and i'm driving along and i'm thinking wow the future's ahead of me this is wonderful and i'm on the bike right

and then i see a station wagon full of like a family passing me you know and yeah and they're passing me and and they're waving yeah they're waving oh yeah oh no this is before i'm known or anything yeah and then another car goes by it's a young couple in a sports Oh, and they, now this is before I'm known or anything. And then another car goes by. It's a young couple in a sports car. And they're pointing at me and waving. What the, and then in the third, and by the time I look back at my saddlebag, I'm full on fire back there. There's flames. I had an old chessboard, you know, in my chess set.

It was a cardboard chessboard. It hit the muffler. It was burning off the muffler, the canvas saddlebag. That thing, it was, it looked like just rooster tail of flames i looked like a rocket car yeah so jeez i pull over and a couple of bikers they were from the breed motorcycle club i remember that because i wrote a paper on bikers in college but uh and you did what'd you write what was that about well just the society the culture of it was it before well no, because Hunter had already written in Hell's Angels.

Well, and Eve LeVing is a great reporter for that. But the breed, they gave me some oil, and they hosed me down, and they sent me on my way. And then I pulled into Manhattan, or to the George Washington Bridge. It was about midnight. And I come across the George Washington Bridge, and all of my electrics cut out on the motorcycle.

On the Harley? On the Harley. All of the electrics cut out. And there's no breakdown lane on the George Washington Bridge. all of my electrics cut out on the motorcycle. On the Harley? On the Harley. All of the electrics cut out. And there's no breakdown lane on the George Washington Bridge. There is no. You don't have a place to go. No. So I had to unwire the front, the headlight, and go out with pliers and a screwdriver.

And we wire the thing with transports whipping by. Oh, thanks. So I get into the city and I don't know which way I'm going. I just take the first exit. I end up in the depths of Harlem and one-way streets with people. Hey, one-way, man, one-way, one-way. And I'm driving. Finally, I get downtown and I get to a bar and I see a bar in the West Village there.

And there's all these beautiful Harleys all lined up. And I pull up to the bar and I'm back in. And I go in and I look and there's guys dressed exactly like me, black jeans, black, you know. Leather jacket. Leather jacket with, with neckerchiefs hanging out of their pockets, different colored neckerchiefs.

You know, I've got a red one there because of the change in the oil and I go in and I have a beer and, you know, and, and, uh, you know, and they, one of them said, ah, police bike and we're talking bikes and everything. And then I say, I get some change. I call John and I say, uh, so John police bike, and we're talking bikes and everything, and then I get some change. I call John, and I say, so, John,

I'm down the street here at this bar, you know, and he says, what bar is that? That's the one on the corner with all the motorcycles. Yeah, that's, like, just, that's the heavy metal gay biker bar of the city. Yeah. And I said, yeah, well, I'm here, and I'm in a beer, and I'll, he says,

so, well, come on over, and, you know, it was, I looked just like all those guys, you know. And in the end, Harley riders are Harley riders, man. We're just talking about bikes and stuff. And so that was my sort of first welcome into Manhattan. Yeah. And so how did it shift that, you know, how did Lauren decide to put you on the show? I think the basis of the audition tapes and some writing pieces and an appeal, a last-minute appeal from three people. And I would not have been on there if it weren't for the lobbying of Gilda, Radner, Tom Davis, and Senator Al Franken.

The three of them lobbied. They said, you've got to have Ackroyd. Yeah, yeah, yeah. When you started, when I talked to Lorne, and i've talked to al franken several times as well it seems like that uh you know it was sort of a very um uh engaged ensemble of people in terms of the creative process that that first season was like just crazy right staying up all night working shit out we had a schedule it was this but i don't know if it's the same there now um i'll get to the, what I feel about the show now and it's just nothing

but enthusiasm and joy. It's been so great, but we, on Monday, we'd pitch the ideas. Tuesday, go away, think about them,

write them. Wednesday, read them through, rewrite them Wednesday, then shoot them for blocking Thursday and Friday, then three shows

on Saturday, basically, a dry run, dress rehearsal and show. And the thing was, we just all gelled. We just, there were frictions and everything, but we understood each other's humor, even though we came from different worlds, you know? Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And, uh, it was just, we appreciated each other's gifts, you know, the brilliance of Schiller and, and, and Zwei Bell and Michael O'Donoghue and. Michael O'Donoghue, man. I, you know, it's like that guy, like he blew my mind mind when i was young because i was like 13 when you guys were doing that first season you've got about 11 years on me so like he was really fucking with my head and you know anything o'donoghue would do i'm like what is this guy doing precision writing he taught me

discipline in writing so he taught me precision and format and and laying out beats you know he was he was really uh but he was like his humor kind of cut deep and dark and out there man right oh yeah oh yeah absolutely you kind of do some of that stuff too i remember like i mean i got that stuff like landed in my head so hard that first season basomatic was that first season yeah yeah i don't know that that's dark humor that's just not dark but it's just like how we got letters we got letters about the fish you can't put a fish you can't do it you know how could you do that to a fish well the fact that i met her i was i was 10 years before i was 13 years old i was at my aunt's house in uh in in quebec there near

montreal and my aunt my aunt was the Julia Child of Canada. Oh, really? Her name was Helene Goujon, and she had her own shop, her own radio show, TV show, cooking show. She's your aunt? She was my aunt, yeah. She's deceased now. God, she's a wonderful woman.

She brought the first Cuisinart into Canada. And so one night, we're sitting at her place on the river near Montreal there, and I see the blender going, and I see her pop a whole trout into the blender and hit the button. I said, Aunt Helen, what about the eyes, the head, the bones?

Oh, it's a bouillabaisse. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. It's supposed to be in there. It's supposed to be in there. And that shot, I was, what? So later, 10 years later. The French use everything.

They use everything. They use. And she hit the blender and the thing liquefied. So 10 years later, I'm with Lauren and Paul Simon and Chevy Chase. We're having dinner at Elaine's. And, you know, and they say, well, you know, they're talking about he's cooking that fish up there. And he said, I hope he uses a bass-o-matic. And yeah, that's where you put the fish.

And bass-o-matic, somehow Paul, he laughed at that. Yeah. He laughed, and he laughed, and he was doubled over. I think he lost it. And I thought, wow, Paul's one of the most brilliant people alive. Yeah. And if I can get a laugh like that out of Paul Simon, I'm writing this thing up. Right.

So I wrote it up. But it seemed like you guys were having a fucking great time. It was hard. It was video commando time. You know, there was a lot of stress and, you know, it got to a point where I had to kind of get a little upset there, and I was because we were writing the show, and then the card people couldn't keep up. Now, the show is read.

If you're going that fast, you have to have cue cards. And they were coming to me and saying, Dan, we can't take these pages from the writers at the last minute and put them up. They just won't get up there. Yeah. So I led a little revolution, and we were able to slow that process down. Let me ask you a question, though since you were the front, like the cards have always

been red and, and you know, why? Because you're going fast, you're, you're cutting five cameras and you, you, and the cameras cut on cue, they cut on words. Yeah. And, and also you're, you're moving fast and, uh, and you've got, you know. Not enough time to memorize shit. It doesn't help. Some, well, it helps to memorize and people do memorize and I memorize've got you know enough time to memorize shit it doesn't help some well it helps

to memorize and people do memorize and i memorize but you know when you gotta go to the cards they're there for you yeah they those guys and and ladies they're they're just heroes on snl they're beloved and they're just it's a sharpie on a card but boy you know if you're doing a rap that has to go fast or if you're doing update or something it's, it's just a boon to have them. Teleprompters don't work because the card holders, they're human. They have control. They can hear you. They can feel the rhythms.

They can see you. They feel when you're going to get to the end of a line and the card is whipped away. They can feel when you're approaching the top of the line. You're at the middle of the line, the card can be moved. They feel the rhythm of the whole piece. And they get that about the actors really a wonderful interplay yeah and to make it happen but when you and like it wasn't like you were on camera with belushi a ton that first season of the first two seasons right but you guys were pals right oh yeah and did you share

a dressing a writing room or did you share we shared a we shared a room with the bunk beds and a couple of desks yeah oh yeah we shared a writing room and and then i was living for almost the whole of the first year well let me say at least four months with john and judy so yeah they let me stay at their place oh that's great yeah she's still around right oh yes judy's my partner and blues brothers uh stuff and yeah yeah she's in town here just saw her yeah yeah she's doing all right she's doing okay yeah she's doing okay i mean you know that was that was a tough thing they were high school sweethearts i know and it's so like when when you guys are working together and you see the culture that's sort of happening there uh with drugs and whatever but you never you weren't that one in

your bag huh well i mean back then the greenie was plentiful. Yeah. Right now, if we lit one up, I'd sneeze. The ironic thing is the terpenes that give it the taste is what I used to like about it. But if I, I would be sneezing here. You wouldn't believe that I'd be so loud. The weed's too much now. Well, I would, the terpenes have produced some allergy in me. Oh, really? Ironically, you know, because back then, never was, you know, back then um never was you know back then it was

kind of fuel the greenie but yeah never was into the coke or the or the uh the powders of the pills that wasn't my thing booze um i've never had a problem i was always been able to moderate my my alcohol consumption and i am in that business now i have a vodka line called Crystal Head Vodka. The Skull Head. The Skull Head, yeah. Now, my brilliant manager, managing partner, Jonathan, he went to the Schulich School of Business at York University

in Toronto. Wonderful. He said, you know, come on and go on to Mark's show and talk about the head, talk about the head. Well, I'm not going

to talk about the head. No, no, just to wind him up. I will say that it's Crystal Head Vodka. It's the zero additive vodka. If you want to have a vodka, it's the cleanest one on the planet. I know brown spirits are huge. Every bartender and bar chef uses brown spirits, but every bar has to have a vodka, and why not Crystal Head?

You pay a little more for it, but it's only $0.32 more a shot. Here are the notes. Sweet, vanilla, dry, crisp, with a kick of heat off the finish. That's all I'll say. Moving on to aviation. What's the notes. Sweet vanilla, dry crisp with a kick of heat off the finish. That's all I'll say. Moving on to aviation. What's the foundation of the vodka? Is it a potato or a rye? Well, so as you ask,

it's a, we have a corn and a sunset wheat. What makes my vodka difference is we don't add glycol, we don't add sugar, we don't add terpenes, we don't add any lemonene at all. We just have the good old Newfoundland water which comes from the glacier that melted into

the province and it's sitting underneath the province and we have a pipe that goes down into a well and up it comes and it's just beautiful. I didn't realize. Vodka is a Russian word for water. So if we start with good water, we get there. Yeah. I didn't realize you can make vodka almost

out of anything. You can. Grapes, dandelion, rice. Oh, yeah. Potato, sure. Turnips. Yeah. But we like that.

Our corn is a, it's called Peaches and Cream. That's the brand of corn. Yeah. So it's called the Peaches and Cream corn. It's nice and fat and juicy. So you really involved it from the ground up here. You go to the place where they make it? Well, yes.

I've been twice. I've got to get back there. I've been traveling the world selling it for them. In Newfoundland? Yes, Newfoundland, Canada. Do you know the people there talk with a beautiful Irish accent? They're lovely, lovely people. I've never been up there.

Here it's beautiful. It is spectacular. And it's just a colorful, wonderful place. People walk down the street. They're not in their phones. You know, they're not. They're holding hands. They're talking to each other.

Yeah. So we felt that not only the water, but the love of the people, they make it. So I, I've traveled the world selling the thing. I have no problem. I'm able to consume safely, but I encourage anyone who does consume to do so moderately. You know, I mean, I make a, I, it's just like, I make a Ducati. I do. I make, I make the best, uh, vodka out there.

I believe in Ducati believes they make the best motorcycle. Ducati makes a motorcycle that goes 200 miles an hour. I make a vodka that, sure, after eight shots, you're not going to get a hangover, but I don't recommend drinking that much. It's that clean. Well, it is because there's no glycol in it. We're doing well with it.

We're having fun, and we're meeting some neat people. And again, we are encouraging sobriety everywhere we go. Well, that's a question that's a very nice segue. It's like, you know, when you saw John starting to get out of control, was there just no stopping him? I mean, I'm a sober guy. I've been sober a long time, so I know the deal. But were there attempts made?

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Many. Yeah. We flushed a lot of coke down the toilet. We intervened, but he'd wriggle away from us. All through it. Starting when?

It started basically in the first year of the show, but he'd been exposed to it before. That was the currency of the generation back then. Yeah, sure. I get it. The blow was the currency of the generation. Yeah. And a lot of people were on it.

He loved it. And he did. That was what kind of got him going. And he just had an addictive personality and uh so it's a prolonged heartbreak you have uh you know not being able to i think i think of him all the time especially when i go into a house of blues i think of him all the time because here we built these beautiful blues palaces for music and fun and he's not how many others still around uh there's 13 still yep yep Yep. It's owned by Live Nation, the great concert company.

That was a huge business thing for you. Well, I learned a lot. It sounds like you've always been a business dude. Well, I tell you, you go into show business, even at Second City, going to the Cabaret or working for CBC, you have to negotiate your deals. You have to know your value. Yeah. You have to manage the money when it comes in. It's show business. So I've been in show business a long time and it is a business.

You know, you broker your talent, you work with an agent, a broker, and you put the product out there and sell it. You know, so it's kind of, you know, my dad worked for the government. He did not have a business sense in terms of doing that. But it seems like you always did. You're running a speakeasy for cops and after hours. That was beautiful, man. The 505, it's still there, 505 Queen Street East.

Yeah. What a spot. It's still a speakeasy? No, no. I think some lawyers are in there now. Oh. Yeah. So, but it just seems like, you know, with the House of Blues deal and sort of the vodka

deal that you like making the deals. You like doing the thing. I enjoy the people that I work with because of the creativity, how smart they are. The crews, like the House of Blues staff, man, they're amazing. They love working there. And then these creative people I was involved with, with Tigrit and all the people that founded it. And then the fun of going to, for instance, the House of Blues in Vegas with the greatest

view of the Strip. Yeah. That's the foundation room at the Mandalay Bay. Sure. Going there, hanging there, ordering a vodka, having view of the strip. Yeah. At the Foundation Room at the Mandalay Bay. Sure. Going there, hanging there, ordering a vodka, having 50 people for dinner. Yeah. You know, friends and partners and thinking, wow, I mean, didn't Elvis live like this? Didn't Frank Sinatra live like this?

Staying up till three in the morning, going to shows, playing shows, playing a concert with Jimmy and going upstairs and partying at the three in the morning at the nightclub that we have an ownership in, you know, drinking fluid that we're making. Wow. How grateful I am. Thank you. Yeah, it's great. You have a great life.

I was most certainly, we all do living in the Western world. We kind of born and brought it here. Weren't you living out in Nantucket for a while? Martha's Vineyard. That's my primary residence in the U.S. Yeah. Yeah. I see my dad a lot in Canada because he's 98, as I said. But you love the vineyard. Love the vineyard. Love's Vineyard. That's my primary residence in the U.S. Are you still there? Yeah. I see my dad a lot in Canada because he's 98

as I said. But you love the vineyard. Love the vineyard. Love the vineyard. That's great. It's like its own ecosystem out there. It's own world. I love the northeast. I love the history in Boston. I love Yeah. The terrain up there is pretty. Yeah. No, it's beautiful. Love the coast. The coastline. Up in

the main even. It's great. Beautiful place. So you're on, you did SNL for like four or five years? Four years, 74 to 75. And then we wrote the Blues Brothers and we had to leave to complete the Blues Brothers. Oh, so John was there that long too? Yes. Yeah.

74, 75. Well, he left to do Animal House. So he was there gone for a few months. And Lorne, you know, John left to do Animal House. They offered me the part of D-Day. Yeah. And I just couldn't leave, ultimately. I couldn't leave Lauren short-handed, short of a writer and short of a...

I knew it would... I knew that he didn't want me to go in the worst way. And I knew it would hurt the enterprise a bit. And I knew I made the right decision there. Well, it was nice. Did Lauren appreciate that? All the time, man. To this day, absolutely.

Yeah. So, okay. So, then Lauren appreciate that? All the time, man, to this day, absolutely. Yeah. So, okay, so then you and John put together the Blues Brothers. We did, and we couldn't stay at the show then

because we were shooting. The shooting went over into the fall in Chicago. For the first movie. And then we went over into the, yeah, and went over into the, you know, kind of fall

and then, you know, kind of winter into the, so we had to be in L.A. and it just was time to leave you know and that was huge right the blues brothers did okay it was a it was a box office hit uh and uh went on to i think uh some people credit it with reviving the careers of these great artists who steve and duck and uh oh well mac guitar murphy yep and and aretha and ray who were recording and performing but it helped boost it with an audience that might have been less familiar, I think.

Was Cab Calloway with you? Cab Calloway and James Brown became one of my best friends. I say, oh, I don't know if you thought that about me, but I certainly thought that about him. He opened five nightclubs with us, and he did three movies with me. Dr. Detroit and the first blues brothers on the second so able to have a real relationship oh we had five yeah i went to his birthday party in augusta georgia and and hung with him uh many times so once john was out here and you kind of went your own way well john died in 82 right after the movie so that was kind of a blow and i didn't

know what quite what to do with that with that but uh but then i managed to you know pick things up and i remember the picture of you the writing leading the procession right right on the bike yeah had to be that had to be done i mean had to be okay just like that was such a john loved harley's he loved riding together so yeah powerful image dude sure sure that was a tough was a tough day tough day for sure yeah you know he was 33 oh my god yeah and when i do born in chicago now i sing the old nick gravenitis paul butterfield tune i i love that song i sing that song and i say and my second friend went down when he was 33 years of age and the one thing you can say about that boy he made the front page yeah he was on all the front pages i had to run from uh from our office where i was working on ghostbusters and typing a line of

his and i get the call from bernie brilstein that he was gone and i had to run i remember was a brilliant march day severe clear like they say in aviation and i ran and i there was the news it was just hitting the newsstands i had to run to Judy to let her know before anybody else did that was a long run I ran down from Fifth Avenue and 23rd Street all the way down and she heard you Martin Street no no I walked in she was just getting breakfast and I had to tell her oh yeah yeah I guess that's kind of real you know sort of oh no we all sort of if he knew it he knew he was kept going, it might go like that. But there was always a hope that he would, you know. Yeah.

I think if he was alive today, he'd be a director on Broadway. He'd be doing theater. He'd be, yeah, he'd have a production, theater production company. He'd be doing all kinds of stuff, you know, work of the hard, nitty-gritty actor, because he loved that. I was in college, my freshman year of college, when it happened, and I was devastated. I loved the guy.

I didn't know him, but I was a big fan. Oh, it was fun. We went up to Boston once to sell the record, the Saturday Night Live record, and he went on radio on that. We're driving around the town. We pull over to a corner and there's an elementary school there, a four-story elementary school.

Yeah. And John gets out and he goes to the front window, you know, and starts doing, you know, stuff. And people start recognizing him. And then second floor, third floor, fourth floor, he had the whole school screaming at him by the time we left the place, you know. Yeah. And his performance in Animal House is outstanding.

It's great. And his performance in the Blues Brothers is meticulous, meticulous. When he says to the guy at Bob's Country Bunker, I, of course, will be paying for those beers. I usually sit in the car and write the check out on the dashboard. You know, I will be right back.

You know, it's just a master, master comedian. To get to know him and be with him for eight years, what a privilege and a pleasure and an honor. That scene with Carrie Fisher in the tunnel? Oh, yeah. Oh, that's great. We lost her, too. That was a complete shock. What a brilliant, wonderful person.

Yeah. Oh, you used to be together, kind of. We were going to get married. We had blood tests, tests rings the whole thing and uh and we fell deeply in love and and then you know then uh we left the blues brothers set and we took a learjet yeah john and judy and uh carrie and i and we flew to martha's vineyard in the middle of the night and i was going to show carrie the home where we're going to live forever this is where we're going to live forever. This is where we're going to live. It's, we've, I just bought this.

I had said, I told Judy, just buy me a house there. I don't care if it's on the ocean, just as long as it has nice views. So Judy said, I found a house. It's not quite vineyard style. It's not Cape Cod. So we pull up to this house in the middle of

the night, you know, and there's Carrie and I'm sort of almost Carrie over the threshold. Don't take it. But we get inside and it's all kind of, it looks like Fred Flintstone's cousin built it. It's got, you know, stone fireplaces, but fine. And then all this modern kind of Eames furniture and stuff. And I don't know, it just struck her as wrong, wrong, wrong, you know.

And I said, well, apparently there's a beautiful view, a beautiful view. And the night went badly. And the next morning I hear her on the phone with Paul Simon and she said, I got to go back to Paul. I have to, yeah, I got to go. So I drive her to the airport. It's, I wake up at nine 30 in the morning. She wakes me up and I go to, I get in the Jeep, you know, and it's fog is set in around this house. And so I drive her to the airport and finally the fog clears and the plane's able to take off. She says, oh, it was great. Thank you. I'll call you. We'll be in, you know. She flies back to New York to Paul, who, you know, she was with after that.

Paul Simon. Yeah. And I go back and I'm, wow, I loved her and I'm a little brokenhearted, but it's kind of, maybe this is best for her and all of us. Yeah. And I drive back in the Jeep to the vineyard house and by now the fog has lifted. By now, the fog has lifted. And I get to the top of the hill, and I find out that it's a 1959 Usonian house designed by Hideo Sasaki. It's a beautiful glass-paneled walls, and it looks out over the sound, and there's like a 100-mile view. You can see the sea from everywhere from five different angles.

And I thought, boy, if she'd seen this view, I don't think she would have left in the morning. We might have gotten married, you know? Yeah. Yeah. Is that the house you still have? Yeah, yeah. I live there when I can get to it. Yeah.

Yeah, and my daughters own it. They own everything now. I've given everything to them. Oh, really? Oh, of course. How old are they? I've got a daughter, Danielle. She records and performs and is a writer and performer. And then I have a daughter, Belle, and I've got a daughter, St. She records and performs and is a writer and performer. And then I have a daughter, Belle, and I've got a daughter, Steli, who's my writing partner.

Oh, really? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, you still seem to show up in things, and the Ghostbuster franchise is still kicking. Yes, they haven't shown me a thing because they know I'll talk about it. The third one? Yeah, yeah. I'm saying, show me some stuff. Nope, nope, nope, because they know I'm going to be bragging about it.

But we're getting excellent feedback from those who have seen it. Yeah. And who are- What's your involvement in it? Just as a producer or how does that work? I was, well, let's say major cheerleader because it's the old family franchise. Sure. I suggested some ideas

uh to jason yeah and i did a little writing on it but it was basically jason direct the last one no no that was paul feig feig right yeah the women's movie was really funny yeah really good and some great ghosts and a great villain in the end with the red bow tie i just should have been watching this the dollars and cents more as a producer but in this end with the red bow tie. I just should have been watching the Dollars and Cents more as a producer. But in this one, we did watch the Dollars and Cents. What's the angle in this one? This one transfers the DNA of the first two movies to the third group. And Jason's written it, and it's really, really good, Jason and Bill.

And so I showed up to play a part. He wrote up some scenes in there, which helped feed the story. So I agreed to... Now, Jason, is he someone that you saw grow up from being a little baby? Yeah, he was on the set. He's in the second movie.

He's the one who gives us shit at the party, the birthday party. I've talked to him and Ivan. I talked to Ivan. Yeah. Yeah, it was nice. So, like, after SNL and you do, you know, the big hit was, like, it was Trading Places, really, right?

I mean, that was a huge... Well, I think that, you know, the... I love Neighbors, by the way. Yeah, that was a Thomas Berger book that was adapted, and John Aptett and I kind of turned it into a screenplay, and there's some neat, bizarre stuff in there. We should have, I don't know, we switched parts. Maybe we should have just kept the parts.

It was just an odd movie. It was odd. The book was odd. But I think that character and John's character, he was so funny and cute in that. Would it have made more money and done better had we switched parts back? Yeah.

And if I'd been the villain, if I'd been the meek guy and he'd been the villain, I don't know. I don't know. Trading Places, great collaboration with Eddie Murphy. And then we had the Ghostbusters movies and Spies Like Us, which was a wonderful collaboration with Chevy

and with my wife, Donna. Did you always like Chevy? Oh, yeah. So I love Chevy. Chevy Chevy and I when we first met in New York it got on tremendously I loved him he was so funny and he was my biggest supporter man he just he just kind of got what I was doing and and you know he was always lobbying for me and and was uh behind what I was up to there was a weird uh he was very very he was an ally of mine that's great yeah oh yeah yeah because there was a weird. He was very, very, he was an ally of mine. That's great. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. Cause there was a weird, like I, I, I, was there bad blood when he left after the first season? Nobody wanted him to go.

Right. Because he was a big star on the show and we felt that might hurt us. Yeah. Maybe there were some personnel that were happy he left, but I think that he left too early. I, I'm sorry he left. Now I'm even sorry he left. We'd have had, we'd have had fun, but what did it get us?

Murray came on then. Yeah. You see. And you knew him from back. Oh, man. We were in one of the, day one from when I got hired. Yeah. It was like, can we bring Murray too?

Yeah. And, oh, yeah, Murray introduced me to Second City. He was my chaperone when I went there. And Billy, yeah, so he came on and then look at the work he did are you still friends i hope so no we are we always saw each other on the set uh gb there and uh yeah we're we're we're as close as brothers can be yeah i guess and brothers can sometimes drift and and be close and uh but uh no there's never been a major rift with us it seems like your relationship with the snL is not only nostalgic,

but you seem to keep up with it all the way through. Yeah. What do you think of the show now? I love it. I think it's really great. Because you said you wanted to talk about that. Really great. Kate McKinnon as the devil.

That was great. I was double over how the writing is really, really sharp. Of course, they've got a lot to write about now. And no, I love the cast members now. They're really outstanding. They did, Eddie was on there and they did a spectacular scene. Oh, that was something, yeah.

The, you know, the cake making contest. Oh yeah, I saw that. Yeah, it was very funny. I mean, really funny. Yeah. All funny. It's just terrific. Yeah, it seems like it goes up and down.

It was so funny because when I interviewed Lorne, you know, I had this weird, you know, agenda because I had gotten as far in the audition process for SNL as to meet with him. And then I did not get the gig many years ago. So I wanted closure on that. And he was nice enough to walk me through what he believes might have happened then, which was great. But also he brought it to my attention, and I think a lot of people do at my age, where I said, you know, because your season, the first season or the first couple, it's sort of mythological. Like it has a mythic presence.

You know, but in his mind, as a guy who's been walking those halls for 40 years or whatever, and it's like, that was a good one, but we've had other good ones. Oh, no, no. He's right there with them. one but we've had other good ones like oh no no he's he's right there with them i would say you know he's right there today um feeling the same way he did about most affectionately and and admirably about all he loves all his children equally you think so i do i do and what about the environment all the way through like all the way through every year year there's something there that that is salvageable for him and now he he's on a real triumph with this magnificent cast that he's got in the writing. Do you talk to him?

Yeah, I spoke to him. I was supposed to go in and do something there, but I had another thing that I couldn't make it out to. I couldn't get out of it. Yeah. But you guys are good. Oh, sure. Sure. And that environment that everyone talks about, either you can cut it or you can't.

It's pretty competitive. And it always was? Yes. Yes, it always was. But in the end, we all pulled together as a team, and that's what makes it work. Because there aren't that many dissenters, oddly. I haven't talked to. Some people have chips on their shoulders, but most of the people that survive SNL think it was one of the greatest experiences of their life.

Well, I sure must say so. Yeah. And how did you figure out that you might have the Asperger's? That's self-diagnosed. I don't know. I've never really gone to a medical professional. Oh, really? I don't know. I think that's probably more, I don't know, some early trauma producing like Tourette's-like symptoms. You had that, right? I had some early trauma. I had some trauma in elementary school with a particularly abusive teacher.

Really? I think that set me to where I got, you know, I do. Did you tell your parents about it? They've sent me to where I got, you know, I do. Did you tell your parents about it? They've sent me to a psychologist. I was in therapy between the ages of, oh, my God, let's see now, 10 to 15. What was the trauma? A physical abuse with a ruler, a pointer, knuckles. Oh, really?

Mm-hmm. For every day at school? Mostly. Mm-hmm. Catholic school? Well, yes, it was. Mm-hmm. And you feel that that triggered the-

It may have, yeah, because I got tics and I got, you know, and the barkings and kind of- Yeah, yeah. And that really set me off. And, you know, I was a quirky little kid. Yeah, already. What were the beatings for you? Was he doing it to other kids?

Um, well, um, I won't say whether it was male or female. Uh, no, no, no. I was the one that was picked that year. Yeah. Holy shit. Yeah. So, and then you went to therapy and you. Um, well, you know, my, my, well, going, even going to that school, my, my, you know, my, well, even going to that school, my, you know, the old story, oh, when I was a kid, I used to have to walk three miles through the snow to get to school.

Well, guess what? I did. I was seven, eight years old. My mother would set me out the door. Yeah. At seven, eight years old, I would go out the back door into the woods, into the Gatineau Park. Yeah. Go down a path. Yeah. Where the timber wolves were howling in like a half mile away, go up under the hydro lines, down this steep, steep rocky cliff to a creek that was there.

And that creek was one that my dad, as the engineer, had built for drainage. And I said, can you put a bridge there? He said, we'll put a bridge, but not where you cross. It'll be where most people cross. So he did put a bridge there, but it was too far to walk. So I go down in the snow and then I try to get across. And there was always like a board or something. Inevitably I'd fallen into my waist. Then I go across this busy highway up into the neighborhood where the French Canadian kids picked on me because I was English. They try to grab my books.

They try to attack me. By the time I got to school, I was soaking wet, traumatized, and then I get in class, and this person goes after me physically. Wow. Yeah. Not a good day. Every day, a shitty day. It was bad in that one year, yeah. Terrible. But a diagnosis, that's my own diagnosis.

I got a lot of other things. That's my own diagnosis. I got a lot of other things. I definitely know that I'm a heterochromiac syndactylite. What is that? I know for sure. What is it? That is a person with two different colored eyes and webbed toes.

Oh, you have the webbed toes. Yeah, I'm one. There's seven billion of us on the planet now. I think there's two of us, yeah. Two that have both those things. Oh, really? I don't know. Do you know the other guy? I don't know.

I wish I could. Two people became priests out of 5,000. Yeah. Two people get the websites and the weirdos. I know that. I know that I'm not. That's special. I know that I'm not, yeah.

What else do you know? Oh, I don't know. What else? Diseases. I guess I'm pretty clear. You're doing good? Oh, good. So now getting through, like, you know, talking about, you know, spiritualism, what kind of gets you through the environment we live on now?

It seems like you're awfully busy and you've got a busy brain and you're interested in a lot of stuff. I just, I'm trying to, you know, just trying to be as loving as I can to my fellow human being. Yeah. And I'm trying to recognize that every human I meet, even if it's just, you know, getting a burger across, uh, you know, in and out, uh, you know, that that's a person with feelings and with, uh, you know, senses and that there's something going on in their lives. And if I can make a pleasant moment for that person at like, sometimes I get people come up with selfies and that I got to, how can I turn that down? That's, that's like, you know, this is a moment I want them to remember and go with the pleasant thing. What's going on in their life life i want to be treated that way that's a great

christian value be treated as you wish you you should be treated and you know i try to live my life that way i'm not a perfect man i'm a deeply deeply flawed human being however uh i think i'm on the right side of most issues morally and spiritually, and I look to not necessarily God, but I look to the cosmic engineer. I do sometimes cast my eyes to the sky and say, Lord, can I get some help here? I believe that we can all call upon that as universal energy.

Just open the top of your head to it and say, I just need a little inspiration, a little help. I'm going through a lot. Power of the universe, visit me. So that's kind of where I'm at in terms of spiritual pursuit. I don't think formal religion has done us well.

And so I'm a severely lapsed Catholic. Sure. Mixing it up. But fascinated with the Vatican, of course, and Rome and the two popes. The deep magic. The new pope and the, yeah. The deep dark magic. I went in there.

It was one of the most frightening places. Dude, there's a lot of dead wizards around. Massive. A lot of dead wizards. Pictures of the popes. the popes and i'm thinking i'm a peasant it's 1598 i'm going in i'm bringing my grain in yeah i'll bring more grain next year no that's exactly it i've said the same thing you visit those cathedrals you look up and you're like oh my god it's like how's that not going to brain fuck you into believing those the design of vatican's the king daddy place of it all. Yeah, I know. But like any of those churches in Italy, dude, any of them.

Yeah. They're all mind blown. Beautiful, beautiful. Yes, yes. And just littered with the magical corpses. Yeah. And bits and pieces of people. Yeah, sure.

Relics. Yeah. There's full on witchcraft in that religion all the time. Oh, no doubt. No doubt. Absolutely. It's all, it's hoogie boogie. It's myth. Hoogie boogie. And dogma. What are my presents? Are these my presents. Oh, no doubt. No doubt. Absolutely. It's all. It's hoogie-boogie. It's myth.

Hoogie-boogie. And dogma. What are my presents? Are these my presents? Yeah. This is a race dance Ghostbusters doll. Oh, thank you. And it's a real cute one.

Okay, thank you. That's a neat little. Yeah. I love it. And then, I don't know. I shouldn't give this to you because it's plastic. That's all right. What does that mean?

But it is. Well, it's a stay-puffed water bottle. Oh, that's great. That you can put ice cubes in. Oh, thank you. But nobody, I mean, what are we going to do about plastic? Oh, what are we going to do about plastic? What are we going to do about plastic?

You know, and here's my family business. And if you do play a record from time to time, I got an artist named Vera Sola, V-E-R-A-S-O-L-A. She's a protest singer, I could call her, and she's written a song about the extinction of the black rhino, and it's called Black Rhino Enterprises, and I know it's on Spotify, it's on Apple. Oh, I'll check it out.

Black Rhino Enterprises, and all her music on Spotify and Apple. Really powerful songwriter, crunch guitar composer, Vera Sola, V-E-R-A-S-O-L-A. Big fan of hers. Great. I'll check that out. And you consider the history of ghosts, this is the family business.

It is. It is. Yeah. Yeah, mediumship through the ages. Yeah. Is there... I'm not gifted. I'm not a medium.

I've never channeled... You are. I've seen you do 12, this and that, 15 voices. I've never channeled a thing except digestively. No, you've channeled things. You channel things all the time.

Now, but that's the question. You see how versatile you are at moving through voices and feeling beings within you, even though they're popular beings that we've all grown to love through other mediums and their impressions. But is there an element of hucksterism in this pursuit, Dan? Oh, yes. Oh, it's pointed out in the book. All the fakes are in there, too.

All the hoaxes, all the fakes. Okay. Sometimes what happens is, you know, you'd have a very gifted medium like Eusebio Palladino. She produced ectoplasm, but then later in her life, her gifts left her and she had to fake it. That's what... She produced ectoplasm? She did. What does that mean?

Well, it's in the book there. It's kind of a mucus viscous substance. It's like... It's psychic snot. And in fact, I can tell you, no one knew what ectoplasm was before Ghostbusters 1. We educated the world there. Millions of people now know what ectoplasm is now because of Ghostbusters 1. And we're going to get into it again in the third movie.

All right. It was great talking to you. Yeah. Well, thanks for having me up in the tower here. Beautiful. Now we got to get down. Let me call the guy. Okay.

Know what? Next time, let's do it in the silo. For sure. I'll meet you there. I'd love it, man. I'll rocket car in. Okay, you know what? Next time, let's do it in the silo. For sure. I'll meet you there. I'd love it, man. I'll rocket car in. Okay, beautiful. Take care.

Okay, so that was me and Dan Aykroyd. Again, you know, Crystal Head Vodka is available. And he's also going to be in the upcoming Ghostbbusters afterlife as race dance again call your friends check in with your family stay connected to somebody other than just the information on your phone reach out if you're feeling too isolated and too up into your own shit or the darkness is closing in on you yet you're still well reach out man talk to a friend okay I will now play three chords on my Les Paul jr. through my 53 Fender deluxe amp 1960 West ball jr. pretty well cranked and I'll talk to you Thursday. Thank you. Boomer lives. We'll be right back. because those are groceries, and we deliver those too, along with your favorite restaurant food, alcohol, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now.

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