Adam Scott: From Step Brothers To Severance

Summary

Podcast Summary: Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade

Episode: Adam Scott: From Step Brothers To Severance

Date: April 30, 2026
Duration: ~61 mins

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Episode Overview

In this lively and affectionate episode, comedians Dana Carvey and David Spade are joined by actor Adam Scott for a wide-ranging conversation that veers from grueling music festivals and showbiz war stories to deep dives into television, improvisation, and comedy influences. The episode’s theme orbits around Scott’s multifaceted career—from comedies like “Step Brothers” and “Parks and Recreation” to his critically acclaimed dramatic turn in “Severance”—while celebrating the camaraderie and creative joys of the entertainment world.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Coachella & Parental Music Festival Mayhem

• Adam Scott recounts his experience chaperoning his daughter at Coachella.
  • Nightmare logistics: “Once Bieber ended, we took an hour to find my daughter and her friends. Finally found them, got them in the cars, and then it was two and a half hours to leave the parking lot just to get out. So we didn't get to bed till like 5am.” (00:00, 05:05)
  • “Too old” for Coachella, observes Adam: “Way too old to go to fucking Coachella.” (04:13)
• Impressions of Justin Bieber’s performance:
  • “He was charismatic…a legacy…really a good performer and disciplined.” (07:05, 08:25)
  • Dana jokes about Bieber’s unpredictability: “There's something about him that's very…brings you in. You're like, what's going on with it?” (08:21)

2. Church Chat & SNL Legacy

• Adam reminiscences about watching Dana’s classic “Church Chat” sketch as a kid:
  • “I remember the very first church chat. I remember exactly where I was…It was so clear. This was a brand new era of SNL starting.” (11:13)
• Dana recalls behind-the-scenes moments:
  • Convincing Justin Bieber’s mom about the “Church Lady” character’s intentions due to her religious concerns. (10:03)
• Cultural impact:
  • “That Monday at school, everyone was saying ‘isn't that special?’” (12:25)

3. Severance: From Concept to Breakout Success

• Origin Story:
  • Ben Stiller called Adam Scott in 2017 about a new project: “He called me and just told me the basic idea…a chip in your head and when you go to work you have no idea who you are in the outside world. When you leave, you have no idea what you did at work. So your life is split…” (18:13)
• Relating to Covid-era work culture:
  • The show debuted in early 2022, uniquely resonating with post-pandemic anxieties about work/life balance. (15:02)
• Surprise hit:
  • Adam shares he assumed “no one would watch it”: “You never know if something’s gonna work…I just assumed people would make fun of us and no one would watch it.” (21:09)
  • “If something works, it’s almost a miracle.” – David Spade (21:29)
• Behind the scenes:
  • Establishing the show’s tone with Ben Stiller and Dan Erickson. (23:20)
  • Working with all-star cast: John Turturro, Christopher Walken. (24:32-25:05)
  • Walken’s unique personality: “If I say nothing, maybe he’ll remember me…as he walked by, he grabbed under my elbow and just gave it a squeeze and a shake, which to me meant ‘alright, yeah, good job.’” (26:53-28:28)

4. On Acting, Comedy, and Career Pivot Points

• Being typecast / range:
  • Adam discusses the challenge of being seen as “just” a comedian after “Step Brothers.” He had to prove he could do drama for “Big Little Lies”:
    • “I had to kind of prove that I could do that to get the role and was happy I did.” (45:24)
• Improvisation and Creativity on Set:
  • Describes learning curve on “Step Brothers,” arriving with jokes in his pocket before embracing improvisation:
    • “After cut, I remember we looked at each other and he was like, see there? That was fun, right?” (47:36)
  • Adam McKay would shout alternate jokes from the monitor. (49:16)
  • Digital filming expanded possibilities for improvisation—“you just fuck around and then cut together all the stuff that works.” (50:12)
• Comedy favorites:
  • They touch on Dennis Miller’s influence, tour stories with the SNL crew, and the changing landscape of R-rated comedies. (31:35, 53:56)

5. Parks and Rec & Rob Lowe’s Handsomeness

• Joking about Rob Lowe’s looks:
  • “When he went in the makeup trailer, they had to somehow take it down…bring it down about 30.” (35:34–36:00)
• Lowe’s love for comedy:
  • “He would love to put prosthetics on…He loved being on SNL all those times.” (36:09)

6. New Movie: "Hokum" (Scary Stuff)

• Adam’s foray into horror:
  • On reading the “Hokum” script: “If it's…more an intellectual thing, like, Oh, I can see how that would be super scary if all the pieces come together.” (42:43-43:23)
  • Trusting the director, Damian McCarthy, after seeing his weird, scary prior work.
  • “97% on Rotten Tomatoes” at the time of interview. (43:23)

7. Music Geekery & U2 Podcast

• Are You Talking U2 To Me:
  • Adam and Scott Aukerman made a podcast out of mutual U2 fandom: “Our wives were sick of hearing about U2…Maybe we just go through their discography together.” (55:16-55:28)
  • They actually got to interview U2 in person and in studio. (56:08)
• Love for U2 and their musical simplicity:
  • “It’s all pretty simple…post punk…You put it all together and there’s a magic to it.” (56:55–57:14)
• Dana recounts playing with U2 at the MTV Awards (via satellite). (58:34-59:02)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Adam Scott on attending Coachella as a dad:
  • “Anyway, just way too old to go to fucking Coachella.” (04:13)
• On Bieber’s longevity:
  • “He was so young when he started that I can't even imagine going through all of that at that age. But … it brought this like intimacy…with the CR. It kind of brought this, like, intimacy and kind of. I thought it was pretty. Pretty smart way to do it.” (09:13)
• On being starstruck by Walken:
  • “I would…If I say nothing, maybe he'll remember me…I remember …he grabbed under my elbow and just gave it a squeeze and a shake as he walked by, which may have just meant, would you please move out of my way? But to me, it meant, all right, yeah, good job.” (26:53–28:28)
• Dana’s advice (passed via Dennis Miller):
  • “Show business is one thing. It's all about securing rectangular greenbacks.” (34:48)
• On comedic improvisation and film:
  • “I was so…dead set on getting it right…watching these guys, it was like, oh, you just f*** around and then cut together all the stuff that works…” (50:12)
• On “Step Brothers” and its cult-like longevity:
  • “People love…they just keep watching it. And on a lot of tour buses, like athletes and musicians watch Step Brothers a lot.” (46:50)

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• 00:00–05:50: Adam recounts Coachella ordeal and Bieber concert
• 10:00–14:30: “Church Chat” SNL memories, Bieber’s SNL acting
• 14:30–24:00: Deep dive into “Severance”—concept, Stiller’s pitch, Covid context
• 24:00–28:30: Working with John Turturro & Christopher Walken; Walken stories
• 35:30–37:30: Parks & Rec, Rob Lowe’s looks and costumes
• 42:00–44:30: “Hokum” – Adam’s new horror film, working with Damian McCarthy
• 45:00–47:00: Being typecast, shifting from comedy to drama (“Big Little Lies”)
• 47:00–52:00: Creative improvisation on “Step Brothers”; the joy (and risk) of playing
• 55:16–57:00: U2 podcast origin and stories; meeting the band
• 58:34–59:02: Dana’s experience performing with U2 at MTV Awards

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Tone, Style, and Banter

• The conversation is casual, self-deprecating, and irreverent, with the hosts reveling in mutual admiration, teasing, and comic asides—much of it reminiscent of backstage comedy at SNL.
• Adam Scott matches Dana and David’s playfulness, frequently riffing, sharing industry tales, and pivoting between humility and geeky enthusiasm for his projects and musical heroes.
• Frequent callbacks to “inside baseball” Hollywood and SNL moments create an authentic “fly on the wall” feel for listeners, giving insight into creative highs and the grind of showbiz while always circling back to the friendships that underpin great comedy.

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Summary for New Listeners

This episode is a goldmine for fans of comedy, television, and the unpredictable process of making great entertainment. You’ll get:

• Hilarious war stories from the trenches of SNL and Hollywood
• Real talk about the risk, luck, and anxiety of big creative swings (like “Severance” and “Step Brothers”)
• Lots of love for fellow cast members (Walken, Turturro, Rob Lowe) and reverent tributes to comedy legends and influences
• A warm celebration of Adam Scott’s journey—from geeky U2 superfandom to breakthrough roles in both comedy and drama.

Whether you’re into behind-the-scenes stories, 80s/90s nostalgia, the new wave of TV, or just want to hear smart people laugh at themselves and each other—this episode delivers.

Transcript

[Adam Scott]

Once Bieber ended, we took an hour to find my daughter and her friends. Finally found them, got them in the cars, and then it was two and a half hours to leave the parking lot just to get out. So we didn't get to bed till like 5am I remember the very first church, Jack. I remember exactly where I was.

[Dana Carvey]

Are you serious?

[Adam Scott]

100%. Can we talk about Carcino really quick?

[David Spade]

Sure, sure.

[Adam Scott]

Because Carcino, that was deep into your run. But I remember being like, holy shit. And we realized we were both big U2 fans and no one else really wanted to talk about it with us. Like, our wives were sick of hearing about YouTube. I remember shooting a scene at a dinner table and John C. Reilly and I kind of started improvising and going back and forth and it just started sort of flowing and it was really fun, really funny. And after cut, I remember we looked at each other and he was like, see, that was fun, right?

[David Spade]

Okay, so we had Adam Scott on Dana and. Pretty cool dude. Very interesting. Obviously the big one is Severance right now, which you have watched. And I try to explain him. I thought it was like the office. It is not.

[Dana Carvey]

He breaks down Severance for us in a way that David and others of

[David Spade]

his ill. Yeah, I said, tell me. Let's say I'm a 2 year old.

[Dana Carvey]

Let's say I'm a baby and a baby.

[David Spade]

Baby with a bottle in a crib. Tell me about Severance. How would I get it? Also, obviously, famously, in some biggies like stepbrothers, does comedy, does drama, does good looking.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, he's a. He's an extra, extra nice person. Very humble and likes to laugh a lot. And, and he asked us some questions too, so we always like that. But yeah, he's an absolute delight. And we talk about big little lies. We talk about obviously Parks and Rec.

[David Spade]

We. We try to get him Parks low.

[Guest or Producer]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

In his new scary movie. That sounds really cool coming out. Yeah. And we talk about Rob Lowe and his handsomeness effect.

[David Spade]

What's his new movie?

[Dana Carvey]

Hokum. Hokum.

[David Spade]

So anyway, yeah, it is very scary. The trailer is scary. The movie's scary. We try to break down what it's like to do a horror film. Here he is, Adam Scott.

[Dana Carvey]

Are you in witness protection right now? It's fine. We've had it before. Adam. But you're. You're definitely on the run, right?

[David Spade]

Are you on the.

[Adam Scott]

Said I am.

[Dana Carvey]

Are you on the. Are you doing re shoots for Hokum?

[Adam Scott]

I thought I am. Thank you for joining me. This is Great. Hold on, I have to turn on a light.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, let's get. Let's light. Shout that.

[David Spade]

Well, let's get the union grievance. Grievance more.

[Dana Carvey]

Time to fix my hair.

[David Spade]

You know, Dana, if you move something and said it's a grievance to the union if they don't do it.

[Dana Carvey]

Ah, there we go.

[David Spade]

Always yell grievance on the set. It's funny. I like get the curtains open. Let's wake it. There we go.

[Adam Scott]

In this nice. What do you.

[David Spade]

You have earphones in or I can't see what you got in.

[Adam Scott]

I have AirPods.

[Dana Carvey]

He's a pro.

[Adam Scott]

Have you seen those before?

[David Spade]

They're.

[Adam Scott]

They're really cool.

[David Spade]

I'm not always out at the parties. I don't know what earpods are they?

[Dana Carvey]

Coachella in a pod. You go in your eye and you have a pod. That's my pod, by the way.

[Adam Scott]

I went to Coachella. I brought my daughter to Coachella. We end up first weekend. You guys didn't go, did you?

[David Spade]

Wait, this Coachella.

[Dana Carvey]

No, I want to hear about this. Yeah, I didn't go. Oh, cool.

[David Spade]

What happened?

[Adam Scott]

It is. I hadn't been in 23 years or something. Dude, it is a nightmare.

[Dana Carvey]

That's exactly what I thought it would be.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, a nightmare.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

Anyway, it just way too old to go to fucking Coachella.

[Dana Carvey]

It's like Burning man with music. Kind of. But that has music. It seems I have what, how many ouses. How many houses?

[Adam Scott]

So many. Like fleets of toilets.

[David Spade]

Okay, let's tell the audience. Coachella is at a polo field three hours out of la already starting on an inconvenient foot. Yeah. Then when I went, I went to actually old Cella, which was, remember?

[Adam Scott]

Oh, you see, I want with Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan and Neil Young.

[David Spade]

Rolling Stones.

[Adam Scott]

That sounds good.

[Dana Carvey]

Rolling Stones, but.

[David Spade]

But you're the one I went to is three nights were McCartney, Stones and the who. And then they did it again. But it was the walking alone. I don't know if it's still that way. You can't get near the fucking place.

[Dana Carvey]

No.

[Adam Scott]

And we once Bieber ended, we took an hour to find my daughter and her friends. Finally found them, got them in the cars and then it was two and a half hours to leave the parking lot just to get out. So we didn't get to bed till like 5am just after a joke, just

[Dana Carvey]

so people know it's not hyperbole. Two and a half hours. You get in your car, it's two and a half hours before you Exit the parking.

[Adam Scott]

Two and a half hours till we

[David Spade]

inching out, like, out of.

[Dana Carvey]

I know, I get it, but you think an hour, maybe 90, but three

[Adam Scott]

hours sitting still for an hour and a half and then inching along for another hour. And that was like the VIP parking or whatever, which is gross.

[David Spade]

To the best of the best.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[David Spade]

Did you stay in Madison Club? Where do you stay? Even out there?

[Adam Scott]

We stayed. We had like an Airbnb house that we actually. It was like a. Got through a friend or something, so we had like a house for, you know, bedrooms for my daughter and her friends. And it was. And then the nights we just went to pick them up and didn't even go to the show. We only went one night because we were like, forget it. Just even that was impossible, just going to pick them up.

[David Spade]

How would you ever meet someone and find where they were?

[Adam Scott]

No, and no, phones work because everyone's trying to use their phones, so phones do not work.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, really?

[Adam Scott]

So there's no way to communicate. Yeah, they just completely shut down.

[Dana Carvey]

Wow.

[David Spade]

It sounds impossible on everybody.

[Adam Scott]

Doesn't sound fun.

[Dana Carvey]

Did you. It does sound kind of fun, but did you have any moment where the hair stood up in the back of your neck, like, this is worth it? Look at this show.

[Adam Scott]

You know, I was there, I. I was really happy to see the Strokes and really happy to see David Byrne and.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, he's cool.

[Adam Scott]

He's great.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

And then the Justin Bieber show was very. Was impressive, the set, and he was charismatic. I just, you know, my daughter and wife and all her friends, they love him. So. Sure. That was. It was. I mean, so many people, like hundreds of thousands of people.

[David Spade]

It's too much.

[Adam Scott]

It's worth nuts.

[David Spade]

And they love Bieber. Did he come out in his boxers or did he put a hoodie on or what do you do?

[Adam Scott]

He had like these shorts, leather shorts and then boots. So there ended up being about this much leg between the shorts and the boots.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, I saw. I've seen that look.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, he did it, but I thought he did a great job, actually.

[David Spade]

Did you know how many songs, roughly, for Justin Bieber? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know how many I knew.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, that I knew.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, two, maybe.

[David Spade]

Lots of low pieces.

[Dana Carvey]

He's got his own charisma now that sort of like, I. There is this troubled time, I guess, or he's been around and there's a sense, like, you don't know what he's going to do. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Like, what he did at the Grammys or whatever. He just came out.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

So there's something about him that's very. Brings you in. You're like, what's going on with it?

[Adam Scott]

It was fascinating too, because he's like a legacy. It's been like 20 years now. So all these people, the audience just had feelings, you know, like these people grew up with him. So it was. And he. He was really a good performer and really kind of disciplined and charismatic. I thought it was really interesting and really good.

[David Spade]

Yeah, I thought what. He was a cool idea. And also with all the crazy stuff in coats going on, the record industry and all the things and.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

All the people involved and he was in the middle of it. Like, everyone has a sort of pulls for him going, what have you been through? Like, what is the life of Bieber? Even though he's got all the money in the world and. And all the fame and girls still love him and you think you'd grow out of that and he hasn't. They still go crazy for him.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. And he. He was so young when he started that I can't even imagine going through all of that at that age. But then also the YouTube thing where he went on a computer and like, kind of surfed YouTube with the CR. It kind of brought this, like, intimacy and kind of. I thought it was pretty. Pretty smart way to do it.

[Dana Carvey]

That's charismatic because you're just playing in YouTube like we all do at home, and yet there's a hundred thousand people out there. Hey, let's do this one. You know, and so that's also very makes.

[David Spade]

He and I have had the same sort of career. Exactly.

[Adam Scott]

Trajectory. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

I. I sometimes call him Beeps part two. You know, it's just a friendly front

[David Spade]

of my boxers on stage. When you stand up.

[Adam Scott]

That's right. With a guitar and a keyboard. Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

My 22nd Bieber story. So I think I was either hosting or whoever, but bieber was maybe 14 or 15, and he's somehow on SNL. And Lauren, would you love a church chat with Bieber? But his mom was very religious, so we had a meeting in Lorne Michael's office with Justin and myself and Lauren and. And had to kind of convince her that it's not satanic because the church lady gets a little hot and bothered in her PG13 way.

[Adam Scott]

Yes, she sure does.

[David Spade]

She does.

[Adam Scott]

That's what we're all waiting for.

[David Spade]

We want that. Adam.

[Dana Carvey]

I am a man in a dress, you understand? But we want.

[Adam Scott]

It's why we tune In.

[Dana Carvey]

But Bieber was so good at it. He. His acting was fantastic and he was funny and. Yeah. Anyway, so that's my beaver story.

[David Spade]

You know, Adam, when I watch church chat.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

And I wasn't on snl, but I'm at home, I'm always thinking, I hope this guy up and says something that will irritate the church.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, oh, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[David Spade]

So then the church lady will start to get mad and bring up Satan.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, yeah, that's. That's what.

[David Spade]

It almost always happens.

[Adam Scott]

But also, I remember the very first church. Church chat. I remember exactly where I was. Serious one. 100%. Because it was so clear. This was a brand new era of SNL starting. It was so crystal clear. I was in middle school and we were watching the brand new. Was it the very. Your very first episode? The very first episode of the cast.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, yeah. And we had Phil Hartman there and Sigourney Weaver was the. The host. Okay.

[David Spade]

So. Right.

[Dana Carvey]

And Victoria Jackson came out and did this whole. And I try. And Jesus and this and that. Pause, pause, pause. Well, isn't that special? First time I said it on TV and I got a big laugh and went, whew.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

But that was just lucky because it was at home base and it involved a lot of the cast. So it was like a perfect thing for our show, you know, because guests were coming on. Sean Penn tried to beat me up and I beat him up and stuff like that. So it was a moment in time. But I guess you were at the age where you could see it from young eyes.

[Adam Scott]

Well, it was. It was immediately that Monday at school, everyone was saying, isn't that special? And Satan. Did. Did you say. Did we say Satan was in that first.

[David Spade]

Yeah, yeah, Satan. Something like that, Right?

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

I don't know. Lauren thought the reverb was a bit much. I don't know.

[Adam Scott]

The reverb is key. It has to echo. It has to be back.

[Dana Carvey]

And for a while, Lauren. Shouldn't she have a proper name? You know, and so for one episode, she was Enid Strick. No one knew what that meant. And then that went away. And then it was. Right.

[Adam Scott]

I don't remember that.

[Dana Carvey]

The church lady. Like, I thought the cone heads the church.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Spade]

I like, they wind up and go, oh, my God. Well, I wonder where you acquired that information.

[Adam Scott]

Yes.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, could it be as the wind up? Yeah.

[David Spade]

What could it be?

[Dana Carvey]

And then the leap. Yeah. You lurch.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. There's kind of a turn towards them, right?

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, yeah.

[David Spade]

Why not?

[Dana Carvey]

And Then lurching. You know, it's hard on the director to get that properly. You know, that timing of that.

[David Spade]

Let's run it again and dress.

[Adam Scott]

Anyway.

[Dana Carvey]

Welcome to Church. Church Chat, the podcast where we go. That's right, every episode of Church Chat. My guest today is what would you like to talk?

[Adam Scott]

Okay.

[Dana Carvey]

I give you topics. There's obviously Severance. I've heard of it. I guess it's doing well.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, good, good.

[David Spade]

Let me tell him that I'm so. I naively and stupidly and adorably thought Severance was going to be like the Office.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, like. Like a comedic sort of.

[David Spade]

Yeah, like a goofy comedic. And I was watching it going, sure. Huh. Wait a second, this is different. Severance has a great weird hook. It's a smart show. I'll leave it at that. Dana, what are you doing?

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, I was doing.

[David Spade]

You're doing me watching it.

[Dana Carvey]

I love it. I mean I was, you know, look at the origins of it. And just one of the co producers or he was working in a cubicle on a show and sort of the sort of life suck of that, of what am I doing? And yeah, and it sort of came from there. In this work life balance, there's all this, a lot of interesting things beneath the actual characters, acting and stuff.

[Adam Scott]

So yeah, I think also it came out in February of 2022, right. When sort of everybody was just getting back, you know, kind of going back to work or staying home and kind of that whole culture was defining itself as the show came on. So I think it's also struck some sort of a chord with people figuring out their work life balance as we

[Dana Carvey]

were because there was. Everyone took a year off kind of in the peak of COVID it was a shutdown and then you. And then, you know, people were working from home and then, then there's been. This is going on now in corporate America. Could I get three days? Three days at home? You know, I mean I'll come in twice a week if you want, but so yeah, it was very prescient and very of the now. Yeah.

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[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, I know I was. Any, any. And Audi and implants anyway. Go ahead.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, any Audi implants. That should have been the tagline. Any Audi implants?

[Dana Carvey]

The.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, the, it was like, it was, it was January in 2017 when Ben Stiller, you guys know, obviously he called me and just sort of told me the basic idea of it, which is there's a procedure you can have done where you get a chip in your head and when you go to work you have no idea who you are in the outside world. And then when you leave work, you have no idea who you were or what you did at work. So your lives, your life is split into two separate tracks.

[David Spade]

Great setup.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, it's.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, it's such a great simple idea. It's like a great Twilight Zone episode or something.

[Dana Carvey]

Yes.

[David Spade]

And you understand it easily.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

And, and when he. So he calls you, which is. Must be very flattering.

[Adam Scott]

Yes, very. You know, I think I remember he called me and he may have been on a trip with You, David, I think you guys were. January 2017, I think you guys were, like, on a trip with, like, Sandler and those guys doing, I don't know. I, I, we might have been at

[David Spade]

the Netflix skiing thing where we all

[Adam Scott]

went, oh, maybe that's what it was. Maybe that's what it was. Well, that's which I just remember because I was at Sundance and I had to step outside to take the call, and I was standing in snow while he was kind of telling me this weird idea of this Dan Erickson's idea. And so I just, and I remember the Muslim ban had just happened, so that was on TV inside, which is why I had to sit. So anyway, it was just like a marker in time. I remember exactly what day it was.

[David Spade]

I remember because I saw him and I said, do you have any show ideas? And he said, no. By the way, do you have a phone? I need to call Adam Scott.

[Adam Scott]

That's right. So you're just an integral part of it from the very start.

[David Spade]

Nothing on your mind for anything we could do together. He goes, no, anyway, I got to make this call.

[Adam Scott]

That's right.

[David Spade]

And but how, how fun to. First of all, Ben, who's a super smart guy and proves it again, because the show, I feel like immediately was a kind of an interesting hit.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. Which was a huge surprise to us because it kind of felt like, you know, you never know if something's gonna work or not at all. And this felt like it was really weird. And we made it in a bubble during the pandemic, so we had no sense of how people were gonna react to it or critics would hate it. I just assumed people would make fun of us and it would. No one would watch it. I feel like that's a good default position. And then you're just pleasantly surprised. If anything happens, keep your low, low

[Dana Carvey]

expectations going in Hollywood.

[David Spade]

Well.

[Dana Carvey]

And then when it's a hit, it's magic.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

I've ever had anything work. You go, people say, did you know it was going to be a hit? You go, there's no idea. At this point, I know anything is anything. And also it's not edited and you're just shooting scenes and there's so much trust in the director. And then the, what edits are going to pick and how they're going to put it together. Music and the marketing, there's so much out of your control. So if something works, it's almost a miracle because. And when, when things come together like that, it's such a gift because you're doing your job very well. And then you see the cast acting like this seems cool. Everyone's good.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

It still means nothing because you just don't know.

[Adam Scott]

No, I've been in part of things. I've been a part of things where it's just like, oh, man, this is. This is really clicking. This feels. This feels great. And then nothing. Just complete silence.

[Dana Carvey]

Do you want to name that project or no?

[Adam Scott]

Well, there's also. We all have them, and there's even, like, the indies you do where you don't even hear from those people ever again. Like, the movie never even comes out. Like, you just never hear from them.

[David Spade]

Always. Good news travels fast in this business. Bad news travels very slowly. You don't even know if it's coming out. Oh, it came out a week ago. Oh, it did? Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

Really?

[David Spade]

It was good.

[Dana Carvey]

I think with severance, you know, the. The consistency of tone from the brain trust, whoever. The. You know, obviously it's Ben. And the. The brain trust kept it really consistent. Hey, should we speed it up a little bit here? I don't know if you got notes, you know, could we get the plot going a little further? Because right now, you know. But it stayed in its lane. It never patronized you. It never tried to. So that created this mystery that was so compelling, the smallness of it, you know. Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

Ben really. I mean, Dan Erickson. Yeah. Is a brilliant writer. And. And Ben really was sort of. We were kind of finding those first few weeks.

[Dana Carvey]

And you're a producer, too, by the way. Sorry to interject. You're a producer. So continue.

[David Spade]

You can say. Yeah, These stories.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. So you're with Ben and you're. You're part of that whole.

[David Spade]

Yeah, there's more than just Ben. I didn't mean to say.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, yeah. But. But at the beginning, it was really Ben spearheading, like, figuring out the tone of this place in this world and not quite knowing. And we were just kind of. It was just sort of trying stuff out until we kind of found it and it started feeling right and couldn't quite articulate it, but we knew it when we saw it and kind of felt it and just kind of continued once we figured it out.

[David Spade]

Because sometimes you get. You get hit with a good idea like that, and then the really fun is, you know, when ideas stick with you and you get excited and then you want to talk about it. And I'm sure now you're all running with a great idea, and that's one of the most fun things even in comedies like, oh, this is the setup. Okay, go. We all, oh, what, what if we did this? What if we did this and someone's kind of got to steer it, make the final call. But that's the real fun. And then when it's working, it's so fun.

[Dana Carvey]

And then you're getting John Turturro and, and Christopher Walken. You know, all that. It's crazy, Crazy. Don't know what I'm doing.

[Adam Scott]

I still can't believe Christopher Watkins and John Turturro. It's so.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, I mean, these are like iconic. Did you have any lunches with Chris? Wire any exchanges with him? Because we all, we all love Chris and we've all had funny moments with him because he's a one off acting.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, just the great. I mean, I didn't really have a ton of scenes with him. We had scenes where we were both there and I just, I'm, I, I'm just so afraid of saying or doing something that he would think is lame.

[David Spade]

Yeah, I've done.

[Adam Scott]

But you guys have worked with them. He's such a sweet person.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, yeah. SNL a lot. I, I saw him last year. I was doing Biden on snl and I ended up at a wardrobe fitting, hanging out with him on a couch. He was. Just got to talk to him for an hour and at one point I just said, do you paint? And he goes, of course. All, all old actors paint. We all paint. You know, he didn't, he looked at my phone. Don't have one. You don't. And he doesn't watch tv. I go, what do you do at night with your wife? She watches. What do you do? And he says, magazines every night. I mean, you have a.

[David Spade]

How many are there?

[Dana Carvey]

How many magazines? Magazines.

[Adam Scott]

That was Petal, National Enquirer, National Geographic, you name it. I'm looking at it.

[Dana Carvey]

It's reading, opening issue time, pages, contents, pages turning, words.

[David Spade]

What about when you got someone like walking and you go, I feel like he's giving me a break. I'm starting at 100% coolness. And everything I say to him, I'm dropping to 92, 100%. You're going to go to lunch today and it's 84, and I'm like 100% losing cool points, so I'm just going to stay. Whatever he thinks, he can't really hate me yet.

[Adam Scott]

That's right. I, I would. I. If I say nothing, maybe he'll hold me and maybe he'll just remember me. I remember. Oh, I remember one Thing in season one, I had a scene that he was in where I had a big speech that I had to rally the troops, and he was standing there, and I asked if I could go. There were a bunch of people in the scene, so they're going person by person to shoot the coverage, right? So we're doing it all day. And I asked if I could go last because I wanted to get as much practice as rehearsal or whatever as possible while they shoot everyone else. And I remember Turturro being like, why are you going last? You're crazy. You're going to be exhausted and they're gone. But I was. So I didn't. By the time I did it, it was going to be in front of Christopher Walken and John Turturro. So I didn't want it to suck. And so. And I was having trouble with it. I couldn't quite. Didn't feel like I was. You know when you're doing. Doing it and you're just like, something isn't slotting in, it's just not. And then finally, by the time they got to me, I felt like I had at least found the shape of it. And afterwards, we were. We were just hanging out, chatting, and Walken was walking behind me to. Just to get by. And as he walked by, he grabbed under my elbow and just gave it a squeeze and a shake as he walked by, which may have just meant, would you please move out of my way? But to me, it meant, all right, yeah, good job.

[David Spade]

You got it.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Absolutely.

[Dana Carvey]

It meant that. And I'm getting chills from that.

[David Spade]

I want less like that. I want those compliments.

[Dana Carvey]

He wanted to say after we did a sketch, as he got me to headlock and between the slats. And it was painful. What are you doing? Ruined it. But my. We all have stories. I have a very quick one I've told before, but you might appreciate, because it's very Christopher Walken. So we're playing aliens on snl, and it's a Jack Handy sketch. And, yeah, every time our trapdoor comes down to say hello to the earthlings, we kill one of them accidentally. But we don't know. So we come out and there's farmers. What are you doing? We try to go. We come in peace. And then he has a line where he says, like, almost like a cartoon. He goes, let's get out of here. And. And then we run back up into the cardboard spaceship and he's in my face laughing so hard, he's almost crying because he said, let's get out of here. So last fall when I was hanging out with him, I brought that up. Let's get out of here. And he was like, just kind of like. Yeah, I remember that. So then when we're saying goodbye, he's like 20ft away, and I say, see you, Chris. And then he turns and he goes, let's get out of here. And then he did his head back and laughed his ass off. Oh, that's laughing his ass off. As he walked.

[David Spade]

God, I love him now more.

[Dana Carvey]

I just want to insert something here because, you know, you're. You're an incredible actor. I just heard you tortured about that scene. I mean, you're big little lies. I mean, you are. You're.

[Adam Scott]

Thanks, Dana.

[Dana Carvey]

You're like an A actor. I mean, that's why you. You work a lot. You're. I got exhausted reading your Wikipedia page. Thanks. This guy's been in more movies than Chaplin during the war, World War II era.

[Adam Scott]

It's like Oswald and the Prison Transfer. See, I can't do it. I can't do it. Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Christ sakes, give me a topic.

[Adam Scott]

I'll try.

[David Spade]

I'll try to fill geography like that. Since the Oswald prison trans.

[Adam Scott]

That's right. That's what it is.

[Dana Carvey]

Okay, here's the guy.

[David Spade]

Owns a local strip club. He's got a gun. We let him through. Who are they turning away?

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, you're bringing. You're bringing the Scott kid into the flying the Wall. Perennialism. He's done a couple little chunks in ka Getting up in Reese Witherspoon's face on occasion as the grumpy husband. All right.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, my God. That's incredible. I remember the Off White album. Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Dude, he's a genius.

[Adam Scott]

That album was everything. Talking about the big gulp and 32o of any fluid, like you could only. You would only have that if you walk directly off the surface of the sun. Would you need that much fluid in your life?

[David Spade]

44 ounces. You can park your jet skis.

[Adam Scott]

That's right.

[David Spade]

Only drink with an undertow.

[Adam Scott]

That's right.

[Dana Carvey]

You talk to him. We'll have these conversations on the phone. And he is just like that.

[Adam Scott]

Really?

[Dana Carvey]

Yes. He doesn't have to practice.

[David Spade]

That's special. He did. I opened four Forum.

[Adam Scott]

Did you really?

[David Spade]

And I was there was that ended

[Adam Scott]

up being off White album.

[David Spade]

There was Black and White, I think was one.

[Dana Carvey]

What was on. Was that the one was the off White album recorded.

[David Spade]

I don't know if an album in a special but Black and white and Mr. Miller goes to Washington. Is that one?

[Adam Scott]

That's one, yeah.

[David Spade]

And so I opened for one because he's my favorite comic at the time. Yeah. Just mostly from the writing. And then I. And he was nice to me. And then he had Schneider open one, and. And then after that, I started going the road with Dana.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, how fun.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, God, that must have been so.

[David Spade]

Well, I got to watch these guys crush it all the time, and I'm like, turn into a research paper of all of them.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, it's just we. You get into these. When you're on the road or even a movie set or something, you get punchy and you get into these rhythms. But Dennis Miller and I both hated flying. So I'd be in front of him. He's behind me or flying. He goes, carvey, if you see or hear anything, I want to be the first to know. Okay. And then he had this thing that he would do, you know, I want to tell you guys, without a doubt, you're the Ragi Muffin bunch of knuckleheads I've ever had the pleasure to command. You know, that trope from movies. And he would do that endlessly. But we would laugh at the driest, weirdest stuff when you get punchy on those road.

[David Spade]

So.

[Adam Scott]

So you guys would. Was it just on your off weeks you would go on the road? Is that. Or was it

[Dana Carvey]

mostly. You know, I don't. You know, for us, we. I did a tour with him and Kevin did a lot of dates with Dave.

[Adam Scott]

Kevin Nealon's great man.

[David Spade]

Kevin, Neal and Dennis did the Swatch sponsored tour. And I was so jealous. I'm like, how fun. These three guys go hang out and they play like three watches where I'm from in Arizona.

[Dana Carvey]

Really cool watches.

[David Spade]

Oh, I go, I'm sorry. I'd go watch Swatches get a bad rap. But they're really. But actually. So they were killing it and making good money. And I was like, a summer. You're on SNL and then your summer is fun. I couldn't believe situation 20 cities.

[Adam Scott]

But also, you guys were just like, that was in the midst of snl. So people must have been going nuts everywhere you went. Not that they don't still, but it must have been so fun and electric.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, that was right after my first season. So we did 20. 20 cities. And I remember we were getting $5,000 or something. We. We. When we finished 10, we had made $50,000. So we call it. And we threw a little party at the hotel. We called halfway to a big bill, because to make 100,000 over a summer was unbelievable. Halfway to a big Bill Carvey. The way we're going. Just remember, show business is one thing. It's all about securing rectangular greenbacks.

[Adam Scott]

Is that real? Is that.

[Dana Carvey]

That's dead real. Even if he said it once, he said it a thousand times. Why are you turning down this commercial? Why aren't you doing this car? Yeah. This town will eat you up and spit you out. Nobody cares about you. All right. It's all about securing rectangular green. All right, back to this.

[Adam Scott]

Good advice.

[Dana Carvey]

Yes. I would just. I said it to Marcelo. I said, make sure. Sure you have a wall of money that can spit out passive income at a certain point. So you're still working, but you don't do anything for the money anymore, you know?

[Adam Scott]

Right.

[Dana Carvey]

You do it because you want to. Yeah. There you go.

[David Spade]

He was on Parks and Wrecked. Is there any. Any way you can make fun of Rob Lowe?

[Dana Carvey]

How good looking was Rob Lowe? Better. Good looking when he came out of the makeup trailer, or did. It didn't matter.

[Adam Scott]

No, they had to. They had to. When he went in the makeup trailer, they had to somehow. Somehow take it down.

[David Spade]

Take it down a little bit. 10%.

[Adam Scott]

That's right. It's a different trailer.

[David Spade]

Tommy boy. I'd say bring it down about 30. I'd whisper to the makeup.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. If you could take the handsome, a

[David Spade]

little ruddy would be nice.

[Adam Scott]

He really is a beautiful looking person. Unbelievable.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, yeah, he is. He's. He's. Yeah, he. And he loves comedy. He would love to put prosthetics on and play some weird character. You know, he loves everything we do. He loved being on SNL all those times.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. And in Wayne's world. Love being in Wayne.

[Dana Carvey]

He was so. It was so perfect. And he's just fun to hang out with. He reads a lot. He wrote that great autobiography.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was great. I love his line in Wayne's World, when he's kicking you out of the office and telling you you can validate your parking. Just what. Such an asshole. But also, speaking of the prosthetics, remember him in that Soderbergh Liberace movie? He's so great. He plays the plastic surgeon. And I don't know how. What they did, but they pull his face back and he can barely speak because his face is pulled back so tight.

[Dana Carvey]

Yes. I'm like that.

[David Spade]

Instead of going to makeup where they try to make me look better, and then I take it off the end of night and start crying. What I look like? Rob Gets to go make me ugly, but only for eight hours. And then I get to take it off and go, whoo. That's right, my beautiful self. It is funny when you person for

[Adam Scott]

a while, when you have makeup on and you kind of catch yourself in the mirror throughout the day, you can convince yourself that, oh, shit, you know what? I actually. I don't have, like, those red spots and like. And then you. And then when you wipe it off, you're like, oh, yeah. Fuck, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Didn't. Didn't. Ben Stiller. I think. I think I read this somewhere. But Ben. Ben Stiller said about you that you can, with your physicality and your act, you can play the regular guy or you can play kind of the sexy, handsome guy. You can just through your. You can change the way you look and carry yourself and transition from those two types of roles. Did you. Do you remember that?

[Adam Scott]

No, but that's very kind of him to say.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

If he did indeed say that. Yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't know. I. I don't. I. Maybe that's a. That's a very generous.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, you have a pretty stout range. You've done a lot of things, you know, and, you know. Sure, you know. No, you're terrific. It's just, you know, we want you to play the, you know, the sexy, you know. Sorry, I don't know why I'm punchy. It's early here.

[David Spade]

I feel like.

[Adam Scott]

Wait, wait, wait. The Carson. Can we talk about Carcino really quick?

[David Spade]

Sure, sure.

[Adam Scott]

Because Carcino, that was deep into your run, but I remember being like, holy shit, this is like a brand new angle. You'd been already doing Carson for a few years, and it always scored. I mean, it was always. And then Carcino with the fingers, and that was a brand new angle. And.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, that was a comment.

[Adam Scott]

And he got pissed off. Is that right?

[Dana Carvey]

It was later. You know that one, he was like, they're making fun of Arsenio as much as they're making fun of us. So he kind of was okay with that one.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good.

[Dana Carvey]

Hey, did you know that, Ed, a crib is called a bed and a bed is called a crib. Did you know that? All right.

[David Spade]

Oh, my.

[Dana Carvey]

That was what. I might be my favorite thing I've ever done because I literally. I had no sense of trying to be funny. I was just inhabiting the earnestness of you at home, and Phil was just this hysterical laugh button. Oh, my God, he's so Those kind of things. And that. That was at the time. You know, this. This is a great escalatory chapter for Carson. And call him Carcino and do the.

[David Spade]

Oh, what a funnier matchup name to fit perfectly. I know Michael or someone to go Carcino. And I was like, oh, my God, how funny.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

And the. The title card and more to come, except it's all like neon and. And like they're trying to hip everything up. There's no death turtle. Yeah. An oil painting of a. Of a mongoose. They have neon lights and stuff.

[Dana Carvey]

The one that got him upset was when Susan Day was on and it was. I didn't think it landed. Anyway, I tried to get it cut, but he. Johnny didn't know that the Partridge Family was off the air and that kind of bothered.

[Adam Scott]

Really.

[Dana Carvey]

So how many she. What she. Well, we've been off for 10 years. Yeah. You never know. But over time.

[Adam Scott]

That's so weird.

[Dana Carvey]

Didn't like that it dinged him, you know, because. Love Johnny. But I think for the most part, he liked it. For most of him, he thought it was fun.

[Adam Scott]

Oh, that's great. That's great.

[David Spade]

So now, is Reuben Kincaid a regular cast member now? No, he's. That's over. He died five years ago. That's. We don't do that show anymore.

[Dana Carvey]

Okay, gentleman joins us, Adam Scott. He's had success with a show called Separate. You know, they did. They. They have dual lives.

[David Spade]

They don't have pay channels.

[Dana Carvey]

Anyway, back to our incredible guest.

[David Spade]

And then we'll get to Hom.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

First because. Is it called Hum.

[Adam Scott]

Hum. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hom.

[David Spade]

I. I watched the trailer. Of course it's good when it says Nightmare Fuel.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, of course. That just gets you running out to the theater.

[David Spade]

Well, it does. Because the people that like scary movies are getting immune and they gotta goose a little bit. I got scared. When it goes deep in the woods, I go, I don't know. I don't know.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

Why is someone walking in the woods more than 10ft?

[Adam Scott]

Right. Anything that in the woods is scary, it really is frightening. It's. It. And I'm in it. And I found it super scary, which is. You read it.

[David Spade]

Do you get scared?

[Dana Carvey]

While you were shooting, you got scared?

[David Spade]

Yeah. I'm. Two questions. When you read a script, it's a horror movie. I don't read them. Is it scary? And you kind of like the idea. Of course. It's got to all kind of come together and if you picture it the way you read it, you probably go, this will be great if we can do it. Like, I'm picturing it.

[Adam Scott]

Yes.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

Yes. When you're reading it, if it's. It's you, it's more an intellectual thing, like. Oh, I can see how that would be super scary if all the pieces come together. But I had seen this guy, Damian McCarthy, the filmmaker. I had seen his previous movie called Oddity, which is super weird and super scary. So I knew he would be taking a side door into it and making it scary in a. In a strange way or a different way. So. So that. That really helped kind of ensure that this was going to be interesting and scary.

[Dana Carvey]

By the way, right before we came on air, I saw it. It's at 97% on tomatoes.

[David Spade]

That's great already.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. And I think the byline is the kind of movie I'd want to see. I love the idea of a writer is mourning his parents death and he's going to Dublin, right? Ireland.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

I mean, just that feels like, interesting, you know?

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. That's part of what's cool about it, is it's a real story and a real kind of character piece, but then it takes a turn and it's super scary. And so, yeah, I think it's a really fun ride. It has a lot of, you know, jokes and stuff too.

[David Spade]

So it's funny. It's great it came to you because again, there's a lot of people out there and you get like a guy. Luckily, I mean, a horror movie would be fun for me if I just read it and go, if they just did it like this, I think it'd be work. But when you already see a blueprint, this guy's already done this. Now he knows what he's doing.

[Adam Scott]

Yes.

[David Spade]

So your helps a lot more than halfway there. And then you read it. Oh, I like it too. And then you. So it's not like you're an odd choice. It's just. It's got to be someone. Then you do fit. Kind of a writery, that kind of thing. So good casting, good setup, and then you've seen it, and it's good that it's scary. I mean, that's what everyone's looking for.

[Dana Carvey]

These, I would predict there right now in Hollywood, there's people in rooms working on projects, and someone is saying, hey, do you think we could get Adam Scott? Oh, that'd be great.

[David Spade]

He's really busy.

[Dana Carvey]

I'm just saying, if you look at all your stuff, the range of it, and you're hitting it, you know, between all these shows and I mean, obviously Big Little Lies was a Smash. You know, it was one of those. Yeah, everyone has to see it. It was so well done. And your character was just kind of just heartbreaking. And it's just. It's, you know, Human. Human.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. That was one where I was like Parks and Reck had just ended and I was having trouble even being considered for anything that wasn't comedic. And I just wanted to try something different. So I heard about that and just went and auditioned and really wanted to be a part of it. So I had to kind of prove that I could do that to get the role and was happy I did.

[Dana Carvey]

So were you typecast after stepbrothers or anything where, like, he's a comedian, he

[Adam Scott]

can't act well, it's funny because before stepbrothers, I hadn't really been in. Hadn't really done a lot of comedy. I was a comedy nerd since I was a little kid, but had never. I always kind of thought I would be like a dramatic actor or whatever, but then stepbrothers and the way those guys work. After that finished, I kind of felt like I never wanted to go back. It was so fun. And Will and Adam and John C. Reilly and those guys. So that kind of changed me and it also kind of gave me a career. Like, I was able to finally, like piece a career together after.

[David Spade]

Well, that's a big one. In the all time comedies, it comes up a lot. Do you. Do people know you a lot from Step Brothers or is it more severance and other stuff?

[Adam Scott]

It's. These days it's severance, but. And there's always Parks and Rec, but definitely Step brothers a lot. Like, people love. They just keep watching it. And on a lot of tour buses, like athletes and musicians watch Step Brothers a lot.

[David Spade]

Yeah, yeah, that's up in the rotation for sure. Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

I feel like if I wasn't in it, it would be one that I have seen like 30 times, you know?

[David Spade]

Sure.

[Dana Carvey]

How much do they allow you to be playful?

[David Spade]

Were you.

[Dana Carvey]

Obviously Will. They'll put a camera on will and for 10 minutes or whatever. Were you given some license to try things? Because that is pretty heady stuff for on film, you know?

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

That playful.

[Adam Scott]

Completely. And they. They gave that license to everybody. And that's part of what freaked me out is I had never really done that before, so it took me a while to. I remember I would come to set with like jokes written on a piece of paper that I had in my pocket, and I would pull it out during scenes and during my coverage just because I Wanted to and just didn't know. Like, and then, you know, after like three months or so, towards the end of the shoot, I remember shooting a scene at a dinner table and John C. Reilly and I kind of started improvising and going back and forth and it just started sort of flowing and it was really fun, really funny. And after cut, I remember we looked at each other and he was like, see there? That was fun, right? Like. Like I had finally kind of at least started to figure it out. And. And so like I said, after that, I just kind of didn't. Didn't really want to go back. And then Parks and Rec. There is improvisation stuff too.

[David Spade]

A lot of people stick to the word of the script and they just say, that's it, Cut, move on. And. Yeah, and it feels like you're being greedy. I've been on comedies where I don't even want to be gre. Even something like grownups. When it gets to your car, you don't want to go, I'm not trying to take over here. You know, everyone's kind of throwing each other jokes, but especially if you're new to their situation, you don't want to go, here's my 18 things I'm going to say when you got to me. But you at least you start to be prepared. Going. If they cut to me, I guess I'm allowed to try stuff or at least say, do you guys mind if I say this on this one? Or whatever. And then you get more relaxed about it.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. And Then also Adam McKay would be yelling jokes from the monitors, like, right, right, right. If there was anything, they would always have a bunch of great jokes to throw you and alts and.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, I would just say that, you know, before digital it was kind of, you know, it was hard to, you know, can I do more takes or can I do a five minute take? And it would run out and stuff. It seems like 1922. And they all. Once digital came in, you could. I. I just think that. And I don't know if Brando created a way for him, the greatest ever, I suppose, to discover it while the camera is rolling. In other words, you're not rehearsing over there. And you. Oh, I nailed it. You're like, no, right now when you were improvising like that, it's right new to you. And. And how do you like the high of that right now it's happening. You don't have to act in a way.

[Adam Scott]

Totally.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

So that was the thing that turned it all upside down for me. Shooting Stepbrothers was watching these guys and their lack of preciousness, that they're just. They'll do a take or two scripted, and then they'll just screw around. And the thing that clicked for me, I was like, oh, these guys, they don't have to use all of this. They're just gonna play and use all the good parts. That's all it is. For whatever reason that hadn't, I was so, like, dead set on getting it right. And probably because I had such limited time and small roles where I was always, like, wanting to. So watching these guys, it was like, oh, you just fuck around and then cut together all the stuff that works. All the great stuff, and then you have the great thing.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, I never got to do that. I think it's. I think it's really a great thing. No, not really. Not like that. Not. Because I didn't do a movie on digital where there was, yeah, yeah, yeah, Time. Just let it run. But, yeah, you can really feel it. And comedy is exciting in the way that what you think is just a throwaway. And then you go to the preview and it gets this gigantic laugh, you know, so totally.

[David Spade]

A year after it's released, you go, now I'm hearing that these are their favorite jokes because now they've seen it 10 times.

[Adam Scott]

Right.

[David Spade]

And they like the minutia and all these throwaways. But I. I agree. It's so much fun to do that. It's very hard for the director, like McKay. The harder thing is what to throw away, because you're throwing away 100% great joke. There's sometimes when it's like, there's three, and you go, this is funny for this reason. This is better. This is more of a weird one. Two of these gotta go. And that's. Must kill you. It's tough.

[Adam Scott]

Well, I remember I went to a test screening of Stepbrothers, which was a couple months before it came out, and it didn't totally work yet. Like this. The singing in the car scene wasn't in it, and it was just different and different jokes, and they were just trying different things out. And then a few adjustments and it totally works. David, I'm curious with it, like, with the wrong Missy, which is so great. Was it. Were you guys improvising a lot on that?

[David Spade]

Yeah, especially Lauren, who played Missy, because there's Swartz and there's all these people and it's an Sandler movie. So at least we're all from that world of let's do, we can and the best is just she's more the crazy one. So I always have to be more restrained. But I would try to pitch her jokes to be. And she didn't need much help, I mean, honestly, to get someone to come in sort of out of the blue. She'd done a lot in la, a lot of improv really help when the first day we shot, we were in the first scene of the movie, really, we were on a date and she's yelling at this guy, quit. I me. And it wasn't in the script, everyone. And then when they cut, we all laugh. And then the director would go, how about a little drunkard? And then she goes, okay, but that's where you have to be good. Because it isn't a line. It's just play it like you're more. Now defend spade now. And then she goes, he'll come over there and beat the out of you.

[Adam Scott]

That's right.

[David Spade]

I would.

[Dana Carvey]

I don't even know this girl.

[David Spade]

Like, but it's always fun because it's a fun way to react against a crazy person.

[Adam Scott]

Totally.

[David Spade]

So there's like two things going on, but thank you for saying that, Ed. That was really fun. All those movies, hopefully, especially with Happy Medicine, just you try a lot when you can. And like, Dana's saying, I'd been there in movies where they go, can I try something? Like, we have 30 seconds of film left. Everyone's like, if you want.

[Adam Scott]

And you're like, sucks.

[David Spade]

Yeah, I gotta cram it in. That's different than just going, sure, you know, let's just keep going and. But we got to move on at some point.

[Dana Carvey]

That's, you know, I think that stood out because, you know, people say, well, you know, if you look back, it's Step Brothers and Tropic Thunder and the Hangover and. And there was sort of a shift and that R rated comedy with her just popped. And sometimes it just happens.

[David Spade]

Great. Just like any R rated ones out there.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, it was really fun watching you play the straight man in really, really well. You were able to be the straight man and really score and be hilarious, but also let her have all of this room to just destroy.

[David Spade]

I appreciate it.

[Adam Scott]

Really hard movie.

[David Spade]

I went off of the Ben Stiller, Jason Bateman overwhelmed guy.

[Dana Carvey]

You know what I mean? They're very good. Meet the parents, what's going.

[David Spade]

Yeah, it's like.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

So it was fun to do something that was that. Because usually I'm a ham bone. All right, thank you. Anything else for this young man, Dana, because he's got to get back to.

[Dana Carvey]

This is just research

[David Spade]

that you do bands.

[Dana Carvey]

I did want to mention that because I. I found that you and Scott Aerman do.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

These podcasts. Are you talking. REM Was the. Yeah, I guess the first one. Are you talking.

[Adam Scott]

The first one was YouTube.

[Dana Carvey]

Was you too. Okay. And are you guys deciding together, how did that happen? Like, I love you too. Let's just do a podcast where we just talk about you too.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, it was because we had. On one of his podcasts, I was just a guest on it. I made a U2 reference, like, as a joke, and he was like, oh, yeah. And we realized we were both big U2 fans and no one else really wanted to talk about it with us. Like, our wives were sick of hearing about YouTube. So I was just like, maybe we just go through their discography together and right up to. Because they were supposed to have a new album coming out, so. And then end with their new album. So we just started doing that and then eventually had the actual band on a couple of times.

[David Spade]

Oh, really? Really?

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, it was crazy. We went and saw them in New York and interviewed them in their dressing room, and then another time interviewed them at a. Like, the recording studio. It was wild. Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

I remember hearing in the Name of Love, just probably FM radio, early 80s, and went, okay. That's how I felt when I first heard the Police as well. Just like, this is new. Yeah. You know, and. No, the theatricality and. And, yeah, you know that. You know where Coldplay, they have people influenced sort of by that loose bass line they would do. You know, it was kind of a new sound. I love Coldplay too. I think they're brilliant.

[David Spade]

But how about the beginning of Sunday? Bloody Sunday went.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah. It's amazing because it's all pretty simple, you know, kind of the post punk kind of simple. No one's like shredding.

[Dana Carvey]

No.

[Adam Scott]

It's just really disciplined. But you put it all together and there's a magic to it.

[Dana Carvey]

Do you remember the bass and the drums are such a good.

[David Spade]

I'll let you go after this.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, yeah, go ahead.

[Adam Scott]

I don't need to go, you guys. I'm fine.

[David Spade]

No, you've got to go. They told us he gets stiller, but I went to U2 in Arizona. I was going after Police Academy 4 came out. Dana. Thank you.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh.

[David Spade]

Which answered all the questions from Police Academy 1, 22 and 3. And so is that your first movie? My first movie, yeah. And I went and saw it in the day with my friends in Arizona.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

And then we A little sparse in the theater. Then we drove to Utah, Arizona, ASU Stadium and two trivias.

[Adam Scott]

They canceled Rattling. Huh?

[David Spade]

Canceled because it was. The governor didn't have Martin Luther King holiday.

[Adam Scott]

Oh wow.

[David Spade]

So they.

[Dana Carvey]

We.

[David Spade]

The show was canceled. They wouldn't go on.

[Adam Scott]

I remember that.

[David Spade]

Then they came back and did rattle. They did rattle and hum.

[Adam Scott]

Okay.

[David Spade]

So I was in the audience. Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

For Rattling Hum.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

At Sun Devil Stadium.

[David Spade]

Part of it. Like they did like maybe Streets have no name or they. I don't know what they did, but yeah, I think they jumped around in Rattle hum. Is that possible?

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, but it ends with that big Sun Devil Stadium. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

As far as I remember the. Can I mention. I've mentioned this before, but we rarely talk about YouTube. But when I was hosting the MTV Music Awards where David was writing on the show, did we did a remote YouTube you were playing. Yeah. Played along with them. I didn't even know if I was staying on the beat. But that was quite a thrill.

[Adam Scott]

Even better than the real thing.

[David Spade]

That was.

[Dana Carvey]

Right? Yeah.

[David Spade]

Bucket list.

[Dana Carvey]

I know.

[Adam Scott]

That was incredible.

[Dana Carvey]

That was amazing. I got to have a, you know, a pre call with and I kept calling him Bono accidentally.

[David Spade]

What a.

[Dana Carvey]

Just from nervous. It's Bono, man. Because we're doing jokes like you. You know, Lucky Charms and all that kind of thing.

[Adam Scott]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

It's not. I'm not booked about it. I'm not booked about it at all. I'm not booked about it. Is that something you mean bugged? No, I'm not booked about it.

[David Spade]

Oh, don't.

[Dana Carvey]

I go. Should we do a sequel to Wayne's World? I wouldn't touch it. Hey you man. We'd love to have him on. So that is crazy that you were

[Adam Scott]

able to stay on beat via satellite with.

[David Spade]

Via moon landing.

[Dana Carvey]

I had a monitor and it was just on a wing and a prayer. It was kind of just a basic in the pocket thing. But I. I don't. I don't. I don't know if I ever was really in sync with him, but I guess it appeared like I was.

[Adam Scott]

But I remember watching it over and over again. That's cool.

[Dana Carvey]

She's a weed. I'm gonna watch your stuff over and over again. Watch that again. Step Brothers tonight with the wife.

[Adam Scott]

There you go.

[Dana Carvey]

So Hoco. I know it sounds like a great film. I know that. You know they're going to be like. Did you mention the movie? Yeah, we did.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Adam Scott]

Thanks you guys. Thanks for mentioning.

[Dana Carvey]

It's been a pleasure. I was so thrilled when I saw your name come up because it's just.

[Adam Scott]

Thank you.

[Dana Carvey]

I just like, I like what you do. I like the way your, your job as an actor and, and you.

[Adam Scott]

Thank you.

[Dana Carvey]

You are and seem like a perfectly centered, nice person.

[Adam Scott]

Thanks. Well, I'm such a massive fan of both of you guys, so I'm, I'm really flattered to, to be on.

[David Spade]

Hey guys, if you're loving this podcast, which you are, be sure to click follow on your favorite podcast app. Give us review. 5 star rating. Maybe you can share an episode that you've loved with a friend.

[Dana Carvey]

If you're watching this episode on YouTube, please subscribe. We're on video now.

[David Spade]

Fly on the Wall is presented by Odyssey, an executive produced by Danny Carvey and David Spade, Heather Santoro and Greg Holtzman, Maddie Sprung Kaiser and Leah Reese Dennis of Odyssey.

[Dana Carvey]

Our senior producer is Greg Holtzman and the show is produced and edited by

[David Spade]

Phil Sweet Tech booking by Cult.

[Dana Carvey]

Special thanks to Patrick Fogarty, Evan Cox, Mora Curran, Melissa Wester, Hillary Schuff, Eric Donnelly, Colin Gaynor, Sean Cherry, Kurt Courtney and Lauren Vieira.

[David Spade]

Reach out with us. Any questions be asked and answered on the show? You can email [e-mail] that's a U-A C-Y I dot com.