Dennis Miller pt 2

Summary

Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade Episode: Dennis Miller pt 2 Release Date: January 22, 2025

Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade presents a captivating second part of their conversation with the legendary Dennis Miller. This episode delves deep into the rich tapestry of their shared experiences in the entertainment industry, exploring themes of friendship, comedy, personal growth, and the behind-the-scenes dynamics of show business.

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1. Rekindling Old Friendships

The episode kicks off with Dana Carvey and David Spade expressing their excitement about having Dennis Miller back as a guest. They reminisce about their early days in comedy clubs and the long-standing friendship that has weathered decades in the fast-paced world of entertainment.

Dana Carvey [03:21]: "We're excited to have our first repeat guest on Fly on the Wall, Dennis Miller, who we both love, grew up with, and you were."

David Spade [03:34]: "Dennis is a close second [most frequently appearing guest], and it's fun to try to process the way his mind thinks."

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2. The Art of Comedy and Shared Histories

As the conversation unfolds, Dana and David recount their initial encounters with Dennis in the early '80s. They share anecdotes about performing together, navigating the challenges of stand-up comedy, and the unique comedic genius that Dennis brings to the table.

David Spade [03:58]: "His mind is razor sharp and really fun to listen to."

Dennis Miller [05:00]: "Spudly, I'll start you off by putting you on comfortable home ground."

The trio delves into the intricacies of crafting comedic bits, the evolution of their styles, and the importance of timing and chemistry in delivering punchlines that resonate with audiences.

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3. Navigating Showbiz: Insights and Anecdotes

Dennis shares insightful stories about the inner workings of Saturday Night Live (SNL), highlighting interactions with influential figures like Norman Macdonald and the challenges of maintaining comedic authenticity in a high-pressure environment.

Dennis Miller [11:03]: "I knew how to reorientate the skulls of several hundred men in Southern California. And that is if you have your legacy as one of the all-time great comedians."

Dana Carvey [59:28]: "It's so hard to do, but it was."

The discussion touches upon the dynamics between writers, producers, and performers, emphasizing the delicate balance required to sustain a successful career in comedy.

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4. Creative Processes and Collaborative Dynamics

The conversation shifts to the creative processes behind their projects. Dennis reminisces about working on films like Joe Dirt and the collaborative efforts involved in writing and producing comedy content.

Dana Carvey [38:07]: "Busboys is a movie me and Theo wrote, and it's about two losers that want to be waiters."

David Spade [40:42]: "They gave us a million downloads within two days."

They explore the challenges of adapting content for different platforms, the unpredictability of audience reception, and the resilience required to push creative boundaries.

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5. Reflections on Legacy and Retirement

As the episode progresses, Dennis opens up about his decision to retire from active comedy, seeking personal growth and introspection beyond the limelight. He discusses the influence of Stoic philosophy and the pursuit of a balanced, fulfilling life outside the demands of show business.

Dennis Miller [80:19]: "I'm just trying to see what's on the other side of that apprehension about not doing it."

David Spade [83:25]: "I'm happy to hear that."

The trio reflects on the impact they've had on each other's lives and the comedic landscape, celebrating their achievements while acknowledging the evolving nature of their careers.

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6. Honoring Comedic Legends

Throughout the episode, there are heartfelt tributes to fellow comedians like Norm Macdonald and insights into their unique styles and contributions to comedy. Dennis shares stories about discovering comedic genius and the importance of authentic expression in humor.

Dennis Miller [54:27]: "Norm was a genius from that point on, but he always sort of was on the fringe."

Dana Carvey [57:24]: "I get these Norm MacDonald pages and people sending me, and I'm like, I don't remember this joke."

These discussions highlight the camaraderie among comedians and the enduring legacy of those who have shaped the industry.

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7. The Evolution of Comedy Writing

The hosts delve into the complexities of comedy writing, comparing traditional sketch writing to the fluidity required in stand-up and podcasting. They discuss the importance of adaptability, improvisation, and the continuous honing of their craft to stay relevant and engaging.

David Spade [69:21]: "To be able to read really well is a big advantage. See a card, nail it."

Dennis Miller [62:10]: "It's hard to get rid of. I just want to explore what it's like, not do it."

The conversation underscores the relentless pursuit of excellence and the willingness to evolve as key components of sustained success in the comedy world.

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8. Closing Thoughts and Fond Memories

As the episode draws to a close, Dana, David, and Dennis share personal reflections and express gratitude for their enduring friendships and professional collaborations. They recount memorable moments, laugh over shared jokes, and look forward to future endeavors with a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect.

Dennis Miller [83:19]: "You've heard this."

Dana Carvey [84:10]: "This has been a presentation of Odyssey. Please follow, subscribe, leave a like, a review—all the stuff."

The episode encapsulates the essence of Fly on the Wall, offering listeners an intimate glimpse into the lives of three comedy icons who continue to influence and inspire within and beyond the entertainment industry.

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Notable Quotes with Timestamps

• Dana Carvey [03:21]: "We're excited to have our first repeat guest on Fly on the Wall, Dennis Miller, who we both love, grew up with, and you were."

• Dennis Miller [05:00]: "Spudly, I'll start you off by putting you on comfortable home ground."

• Dennis Miller [11:03]: "I knew how to reorientate the skulls of several hundred men in Southern California."

• Dennis Miller [54:27]: "Norm was a genius from that point on, but he always sort of was on the fringe."

• David Spade [69:21]: "To be able to read really well is a big advantage. See a card, nail it."

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This episode of Fly on the Wall not only celebrates the rich histories and personal bonds shared by Dana Carvey, David Spade, and Dennis Miller but also offers invaluable insights into the art and business of comedy. Whether you're a long-time fan or new to their dynamic, this conversation promises laughter, nostalgia, and profound reflections on a life dedicated to humor.

Transcript

[Dana Carvey]

Listen, Dana, New Year's resolutions are coming, and I know a lot of people don't do them. A lot of people do do them. A lot of people don't know what. What's. No, that.

[David Spade]

Like I said, a lot of people don't do them. A lot of people. By the time you said do do them, I'd already said nope. So.

[Dana Carvey]

Nope.

[David Spade]

I think resolutions are great.

[Dana Carvey]

Right.

[David Spade]

You know, and I think learning a new language, because Rosetta, that's a big. One of our favorite sponsors is no. Has got this. They've hacked this. They know how to do this. This is. This is where you learn language. Rosetta Stone.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. Sounds scary, but when you. When they do it so much, they learn every year what people like, what they don't like, and they just get better and better. It's. It's personal growth. You know, language learning is something you. It's. It sounds overwhelming, but think these guys know how to do it.

[David Spade]

You know, it's a cool. Whenever you meet someone, all of a sudden they go, oh, yeah, we went to Paris. You did. And they go, you know, a foreign language. It's always very impressive, you know, because everyone travels, everyone's trying to get career advancement, cultural appreciation. But let's break down what Rosetta Stone does.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. Well, Rosetta Stone, first of all, it has speech recognition. So there's a built in true accent feature that gives you feedback on your pronunciation. It's like having a personal trainer right there to help you.

[David Spade]

Right. And it's flexible. You're not driving 40 miles to go to some junior college. Nothing against them in a classroom.

[Dana Carvey]

Some ju.

[David Spade]

Anytime, anywhere. Learn on the go with the mobile app or at your desktop on your schedule. Right. David, how about the value, the amazing values?

[Dana Carvey]

I like. It's my schedule. I like. They have a lifetime membership and that is all 25 languages. So that's pretty much covers anything you would need to be in America, to be overseas, to be anywhere. All trips. Listen, that. That life. That's lifetime access to all 25 language courses Rosetta Stone offers for 50% off. That is start the new year off. Yeah. With a resolution that you can reach. This one might work to today, fly on the wall. Listeners can take advantage of this. Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off. What do you got to do, though?

[David Spade]

You got to visit rosetta stone.com fly that's 50% off. Unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. My goodness. Redeem your 50% off@Rosetta stone.com fly.

[Dana Carvey]

Today, the Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest charging Apple Watch, getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10, available for the first time in glossy, jet black aluminum compared to previous generations. IPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. So, Dana, we're excited to have our first repeat guest on Fly on the Wall, Dennis Miller, who we both love, grew up with, and you were. You knew him before I did, and you guys are great friends. And we're all.

[David Spade]

We go back to the very beginning. I remember playing a comedy club with Dennis Miller in 1981. The comedy magic. I first got to know him. He goes, he says, I got no gigs. Carfee got no gigs, no gig.

[Dana Carvey]

By the way, he's probably the second most person you do on the show. Who's number one? Is it Trump or Biden or what?

[David Spade]

I would say Lauren, because, you know. But Dennis is a close second, and it's fun to try to process the way his mind thinks. When you think of a thing, it'd be like Carvey and Spudly doing the classic intro. A little long on the keep cop. You know what I mean?

[Dennis Miller]

So.

[David Spade]

But his mind will. Anyway, you'll enjoy this because a couple years have gone by, so there's just a lot of stuff to talk about. And his mind is razor sharp and really fun to listen to.

[Dana Carvey]

Sharp. We cover a lot of bases, and we obviously just crack up. Yeah, we mostly just. So you're just laughing. You'll just watch me and Dana basically just listen to Dennis crack up, and.

[David Spade]

I will say, the one and only. I mean, his. He has a singular voice in standup, which is amazing. The one and only Dennis Miller.

[Dennis Miller]

Hey, Davey, what's said? Enter the dragon skateboard. 60. He's 60 years old now.

[Dana Carvey]

Dennis, I'm a skater at heart.

[Dennis Miller]

Let me get a hat on. I look like a man.

[David Spade]

No way.

[Dana Carvey]

We're not even. We're not even showing this part, boss. But yeah, you look good, though.

[Dennis Miller]

What do you mean? My hair looks all up?

[David Spade]

It's up to you. But, yeah, this is just audio.

[Dennis Miller]

So, Spudly, I'll start you off by putting you on comfortable home ground. As the great Jim Kelly said, ghettos are the same all over the world. And then he flipped an ollie.

[David Spade]

Okay, Jim Kelly, the quarterback. I'm sorry, who Is that.

[Dennis Miller]

No. There was a guy in Enter the Dragon, and at the beginning, he's riding a junk, and he looks around and he goes, ghettos are the same all over the world.

[David Spade]

That's fantastic.

[Dana Carvey]

And then an ollie is a skateboard trick. Dana, wake up.

[David Spade]

I know. I am waking up. Are you kidding?

[Dennis Miller]

All right, boys, let's rock this.

[David Spade]

Who played the bad guy? Who played. What actor played the bad guy and entered the dragon?

[Dennis Miller]

I don't know.

[Dana Carvey]

Kareem Abdul Jabbar.

[Dennis Miller]

No, that was it.

[David Spade]

No, it was John somebody. He had a kind of a comb over a good actor. Anyway, it was.

[Dennis Miller]

I remember Joseph Weissman played Dr. No. Who was the. And he was in Detective Story with Kirk Douglas, and I think they patterned Hong after him. Anyway, let's. Let's go on.

[David Spade]

No, this is what we're doing. This is great.

[Dana Carvey]

Beef of. Yeah.

[David Spade]

A plus podcast seen so far.

[Dana Carvey]

I auditioned for Dr. Yes, and my whole part got cut up.

[Dennis Miller]

Spade, your hair looks good, man. What are you doing?

[Dana Carvey]

My hair looks good today. Why are we on camera? Jesus.

[David Spade]

I know. He's got volume. He's got lift. He's got. He's got something going on.

[Dennis Miller]

Jesus. I'm sitting over. I look like.

[David Spade]

Okay, here it goes.

[Dennis Miller]

Everybody else looks good. I was the first one in unplugged, and they're not working for me.

[David Spade]

Okay, we're gonna.

[Dana Carvey]

We're gonna.

[David Spade]

We'll do a whole.

[Dana Carvey]

You know, we just had Joel McHale on.

[Dennis Miller]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

And his hair looks great. And he fully admits he's got more plugs in the last two minutes of Carson.

[David Spade]

Yeah. Jesus.

[Dana Carvey]

It's your joke.

[David Spade]

That's a tennis joke, a class.

[Dennis Miller]

How many times are we on the air, by the way?

[Dana Carvey]

Should I. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dennis Miller]

So I was on the Tonight show one night after I got my plugs, I was talking to Jay, and we had a fallow moment, as it were, because they had nothing to plug. So, ironically, I said, hey, Jay, I just got hair plugs. He's nice, and the hair looks great. And I said, no, I'm telling you, I got hair plugs, and I'm healed up now, and I want to show them off. So I went up to the camera, the number one camera, and, you know, put my head down. I said, I've got around 5,200 plugs here. And came back. And Jay said, you're not kidding. I said, no, no. And the next day, I got calls from some of the most famous craniums in the world asking me where, you know, I won't Betray their trust even though some of them have passed on now. But say, where did you get your plugs? And I, they said, do they have a back door? I said, yeah, but why use the back door? Just go get hair plugs if you need hair plugs. And the guy, my doctor eventually called me when I needed some more and he said, you're comped. Don't pull coin in my town. I've gotten so many, you know, recommendation heads off you.

[David Spade]

You reorientated the skulls of several hundred men in Southern California. And that is if you have your legacy as one of the all time great comedians. But this legacy we've heard about today, helping people with their appearance, their self esteem, I'm calling myself Happy and I'm glad this was, this is, well, like.

[Dana Carvey]

Any, anything like plastic surgery or something, you notice the bad ones. But there's so many people that have different things they've done that you just would never know. And they just go, that guy looks pretty good.

[Dennis Miller]

Yeah. Ellen burst and always looked great. I consider myself, now in retirement, I consider myself a not a life coach, but rather a life assistant coach where I, I don't have anything, I don't speak to the press on a daily basis. I have nothing to do with the overall organization. But I, I consider myself the strength.

[Dana Carvey]

Coach for, for I hired a life assistant coach a little cheaper. I just stole your joke, switched it and it's in my act now.

[Dennis Miller]

Remember we used to call that bit surfing where somebody jumped on a bit. I had that song on my show where you go two tags on every bit. Oh, they're waxing up a premise and taking it on down to the beach. Bit surfing.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, yeah, Y that happens if comedians are together. I think the rule is the unwritten rule. Like if you start a bit just you're talking and people kind of tag it just in conversation. I think if you tag someone, if I tag someone, they're talking and they say, oh, I might use that. I say, go ahead, you started the premise. I'll throw you whatever I can shovel on this fire and take it. Right?

[Dennis Miller]

Yeah. Jimmy Vallely was like the Red Adair that he would airdrop in on any main premise and start tagging it. Like Floyd Mayweather work in the speed.

[Dana Carvey]

Did Red Adair help cap the oil rigs that were on fire in like Iran or something?

[Dennis Miller]

Well, he would do that thing that Duke Wayne did in the Hellfire or Hell Fighters movie where if you knock the feet of the air out for just a millisecond, the whole Thing stops. So you have to get up close, dynamite it, stand behind something and have the dynamite suck the air out for a second. And then that puts the fire out in an oddly ironic way. And you have to remember, the dynamite was invented by Alfred Nobel of the Nobel Peace Prize, because his original invention had croaked so many people that he karmically worried whether he would ever get into heaven. So he came up, he made a modicum of a donation in perpetuity to have a Peace prize. The only reason he did it is because he invented dynamite.

[David Spade]

Wow. That. I. I'm speechless.

[Dana Carvey]

I did not know that.

[Dennis Miller]

Well, Carvey, you remember when we were on the road, we used to do San Jose, and you'd go to the Winchester Mystery House? Certainly. Oh, yeah, right. It was this house that had. It was like an Escher print. It had stairwells and chutes and ladders. And the reason, the woman, she was of the Winchester. She married a Winchester. So many people had been killed with the guns. She was afraid that the spirits were going to come back and get her. So she built a house was one big baffle chamber so the ghosts would run into dead ends. Because, you know, that's how you figure out how to stay alive after you're dead, is that you can't figure a fucking hallway out.

[David Spade]

So anyway, but do you remember the catchphrase of the local TV, which was in the San Francisco Bay Area, about the Winchester Mystery House? It was. It was always Winchester Mystery House, 10 miles south of San Jose, open. And then she would say, keep building, keep building. And that would crush. Did you have local Pittsburgh bits that would only work in Pittsburgh?

[Dennis Miller]

Well, to some degree, but I remember most from New York because that cat out on the island was always pushing Carvel, was always pushing Cookie Puss. And, you know, you had Crazy Eddie selling the stereo equipment, right? So that's when I was first indoctrinated into local catchphrases. And I remember SNL knocked off the most famous one, which was Thing of About played the Beatle music on Broadway and it was called Beatlemania. And. And then Jim Downey, I think one. Doesn't it trace back all roads lead to Downey. Comedically, he wrote that great bit called Beatle Mania. Mania, it's not the Beatles, but the Next Best Thing. And then he changed it. It's not Beatle Mania, but it's the next best thing. And it looked like a copy of a copy, you know, at a Kinko's or something, where the guys were even a washed out and loosely connected to the actual Beatlemania guys. So very funny.

[David Spade]

What's your. So let me try you spade first. You're playing Chicago. What's your local reference up front for a laugh?

[Dana Carvey]

My local reference up front is about Arizona. And then I realized quickly, it doesn't travel like that was the big wake up call. I'd never done S when I did snl. I'd only been to New York once in my life. So all. All my jokes weren't working and I didn't really have any clubs to go in. Once you're at snl, you're locked in that dungeon. So I didn't do much standup except for maybe on the college gigs and weekends now and then. But, man, I would do, literally, I would say streets in Arizona. I would say, hey, I was on a Camelback, you know, over with the hookers on Van Buren.

[David Spade]

Yeah, there you go. Sure fire.

[Dana Carvey]

But that's in Arizona. And then I get out there and all and I go, I'm not funny. I just know my area. It's just different.

[David Spade]

You know, I had a go adaptation that's politically incorrect. But I take the name of the city, extrapolate it to sound like an Indian name, you know, Fresno from the old Indian name Fresnaka, which means drop your shorts, we don't have much time. Crushed Beyond. Beyond. Beyond. I couldn't follow myself. I just said, thank you and good night.

[Dana Carvey]

You couldn't follow your own joke?

[David Spade]

Jimmy Stewart blowing himself next. And then I just leave the stage. I could not follow myself.

[Dennis Miller]

I remember one night Randy, Randy Quaid and I were coming out of. We were coming out of the Comedy Store. We went past that train car up there that sells burgers. You remember that joint you'd come out, what was it called? Spudley?

[Dana Carvey]

Carney's, I think.

[David Spade]

Yeah, Carney's, Yeah.

[Dennis Miller]

And we're walking past Carney's. And when you were talking about Jimmy Stewart, the original guy who did that, his name was Ron Jeremy and he was porn star who auto collated himself. That's what he was known for. He comes up and he's. He's a big fan. He's talking to Randy about. He's talking to Randy about the last detail. And, you know, Randy was so great in that. And then he's, you know, telling me some of my jokes. And, you know, we're both like looking at, oh, thank you, sir, that's nice. And as soon as he takes two steps away from us, Randy and I simultaneously look at each other. And go, that's the guy who blows himself. He wasn't even out of earshot. We couldn't wait to tell each other.

[David Spade]

Oh, man.

[Dana Carvey]

I saw him at the Rainbow all the time. Literally everyone from 1990-98 that's doing well is at the Rainbow, obviously. Me included. I was like, why was I there? Oh, but I saw, like, you know, Bret Michaels and those guys. They just. And they. You know, there's something about old people. Not old people, but people the dress the way they were when they're their most famous. So, like, they'll have the same hat or the same look or the same hair. The same exact outfit. So you go, oh, that's that guy. You know what I mean?

[Dennis Miller]

Was the Rainbow the joint, like, below? There was a private club called on the Rocks, wasn't that.

[Dana Carvey]

No, that's a Roxy.

[David Spade]

Yeah, I got it.

[Dana Carvey]

Very close, though. That's all. That same little run there where they're going to mow it down soon and make a club Monaco.

[Dennis Miller]

Well, they better not do the whiskey, because that's where the Lizard King made his name. So you've got to leave the whiskey up. It should be whiskey.

[David Spade]

Lizard King. Sorry. Who's the Lizard King?

[Dennis Miller]

Wait a second. What are you doing? You're teasing me.

[Dana Carvey]

Morrison.

[Dennis Miller]

Yeah, sure.

[David Spade]

Oh, Jim Morrison is the lizard. Oh, because of the. The leather outfit.

[Dennis Miller]

You know, I didn't. I never got Jim's curriculum vitae to see exactly why he named himself that. But, yeah, I think. I think some story about him out on a highway and he ran into an Arapahoe, crossed over and head on into a telephone pole or something and died. And he saw the guy's spirit came into him and he saw a lizard on the road. Something like that.

[David Spade]

Just another day. That was the plot of Wayne's World, too. I believe we had a guy playing Jim Morrison in the desert. But. But. Okay, fun fact, Bill T. Craig was disproportionately wrinkled for his age. And that's where the phrase Craigie came from, because Craigie is a great. How's he aging? He's looking a bit Craigy.

[Dana Carvey]

Craggy.

[Dennis Miller]

Craig. You mean Craig. Craig is not a word, Craggy.

[Dana Carvey]

He's saying it with an E. It's with an A, right?

[David Spade]

I just made that up to get that. Okay.

[Dennis Miller]

Jesus. Well, come on. Have them. Have them loosely based in reality, for God's sake. Tourette's, you know, Mr. Craigie, I'm thinking.

[David Spade]

Craigie is, in fact Craigie. That's the joke, isn't it? Ironic.

[Dennis Miller]

I'm glad we're just on audio today, because my hair, I'm looking at it now. You guys both carve. Yours looks like a beautiful, like, showering, you know, like one of those geysers goes off and runs down the side of your head.

[David Spade]

And I look at three products, and.

[Dennis Miller]

He looks like David Jansen. The. The. The line.

[Dana Carvey]

If you blew it, straight up beautiful.

[David Spade]

I know. Looks great.

[Dana Carvey]

Spudley's hair today? I did. They combed it yesterday. But I have to start something Friday. I still don't know if I'm wearing a wig or not.

[Dennis Miller]

What do you mean, start something Friday? You're doing a film.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, I don't like to talk about it. What's going on?

[David Spade]

Bus Boys with Theo Vaughn. It'll be in a theater near you.

[Dennis Miller]

Bus Boys introduced me to that. That. And I find.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dennis Miller]

Oh, that's funny.

[Dana Carvey]

I. I mean, we had a blast.

[Dennis Miller]

He is a smart guy. And remember, we sat down and we. We watched the UFC one night, and you were with him, and I thought he thought it was like a reincarnation of Phil's caveman lawyer thing, you know, he looked a little rough, but then the more I listened to him during the night, I said, jesus, this cat is hysterical, man.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. If you get into that frequency, he says the funniest shit. And. And I was in between. So it was. The fight was right in front of us, so we just. And obviously, if you get Dennis right next to you, just whispering jokes about every round, and we were just all telling jokes to each other, and it was the funnest night in the world.

[Dennis Miller]

Yeah, we did.

[Dana Carvey]

And I said, next to Dennis a lot there.

[Dennis Miller]

I haven't been in a while. Are you gonna go? Well, we'll talk off here. I'd like to go in and see.

[Dana Carvey]

That's quality talk.

[Dennis Miller]

Well, Dane is. The. Dane is the best host, isn't he?

[David Spade]

He's a good.

[Dennis Miller]

I know he's a good guy, and he always treats you like king. And, you know, you'll be sitting down front and you'll think, God, out of all the people in the world. And I see Miles Teller there a lot, too. He's a good guy. And one night I saw Mel Gibson and Lady Mary from Downton Abbey. You remember that night?

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, I didn't see. I saw Mel. I've seen him there.

[Dennis Miller]

Yeah, well, she was doing. She was doing a film with him, so they were just.

[David Spade]

Fun fact. Dana White. I am Dana White's godfather. He was named after me. I've never revealed that before, but yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Dana Craggy, love that guy. By the way, to pull it all in.

[David Spade]

Bill T. Craig is. In fact, Craigie gave me that recessive chin. Has a weak chin. These are just, these are all in Farmer's Almanac.

[Dennis Miller]

You know, it's funny is when it's like, like it's like whenever I'm with you guys, I know it's going to be such stream of consciousness that it reminds me of those times you had to do pre interviews when you were starting out. And like the Letterman pre interview was more in depth than you trying to became a citizen of the country, for God's sakes. I know they sit there with somebody and go over jokes phonetically and you know, all of a sudden you're in an office with some people. We all remember the people. I don't want to denigrate them, but some of the people that you're pitching jokes to, you're thinking, my God, if, if I was writing to their level, I wouldn't be on the, you know, you'd have to say a joke and they'd look at you. Not that one.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, you do a 45 minute pre interview. This is what people at home don't know before. You do a seven minute spot on, you know, Letterman or something. So you're like pitching and the guy's like, what's your Obama thing? And do the whole thing and sweating at the end. He's like, ah, what else? Maybe we'll push that to the end.

[David Spade]

That's the worst.

[Dana Carvey]

There's time.

[David Spade]

By the way, did you have a Tonight show first Tonight show doing stand up? I don't even know that story. Or did you skip? No, I don't think I skipped that. You came out as a guest after.

[Dennis Miller]

I don't think you really remember. There was a cat who screened people for the Tonight show and he had like a six and a half foot long Hobie cat that he would go out to Pasadena on the weekend and pitch himself as a yachtsman, you know, and then you eventually see a picture of the boat that it's, you know, your grandson's in the bathtub with it. It's so small. And that guy was omnipotent about who got on.

[David Spade]

I'm recovering from Hobie Ca that I'm still recovering from just the.

[Dennis Miller]

Do you remember that guy, baby Macaulay? Oh, yeah, Macaulay. Right, right. It was so funny. You pitch jokes to him and you think, oh my God, you're kidding me. But I never ended up doing stand up. I'm Kind of. Well, I don't know. I almost seem like I was a different person back then. When I think back on it, as I got older, I started to hedge more bets because I feel like when you're starting out, you just get in the room and you figure, I've got to get into the center of this room, so I'll take some risks. And then later, as you go along, you're in the center of the room to some degree. I'm not saying, you know, Tom Cruise is the center of the room, but you're at least in the room. And you think, I'm going to hedge a few bets here because I don't want to end up getting kicked out. But at the beginning, you're fearless. I look back and I think, I can't believe I had those cajones. But I did panel the first time, and Johnny was. Johnny was like Henry Higgins, you know, showing you off at Ascot or something. He was so good at it. It was an easy gig.

[David Spade]

Why can't a regular piece be more like a comedian? I'm trying to do the My Fair lady thing there, but why can't Dennis be more. But, yeah. This is the first time I saw the power of our former manager, Brad Gray, Jim McCauley. Me going there and my time was cut down or something. So Brad's just sitting in his chair in the green room, and he had that raspy kind of voice, and he just gestures with his finger to Macaulay. So McCauley comes over and has to bend down to Brad. And I heard Brad go, we're not happy. We're not happy right now. It was the most powerful move I'd ever seen. He really completely leveled the guy.

[Dennis Miller]

You could be having lunch with Brad at the Grill, and all of a sudden it turned in him. And the waiters like him and Mo Green or Michael and Mo Green in Vegas. I won't you ever touch my brother. And he was banging. I don't care. You do not touch my. You know, it got really Bradley own.

[David Spade]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dennis Miller]

Spudley. Was he your guy, too, or was it Girby all the time?

[David Spade]

Always Gervitz.

[Dana Carvey]

Always Gervy. Brad would just jump in on stuff, but it was all, you know. But Gerv's been straight through since day one and had different agents. But yeah, yeah, the Gervitz is always funny. We make fun of him on this show all the time. Listen, it's a new year. New year of proposals.

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah. Lots of people popping the big question. Sure. It's a huge moment. But what they don't tell you is how many decisions you have to make when choosing the perfect engagement ring.

[Dana Carvey]

David, there's. I can think of six questions off top of my head. Shape, shape, size, color, cut, clarity, carrots, you know, Damn, that's fantastic.

[David Spade]

Off the top of your head. No. There's no place better to start than bluenile.com because they know what she wants, and so it's time to learn fast.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, they do this every day. They know. They'll take the guesswork out for you guys don't know anything. I don't know anything. You know, you go in there, bluenile.com you'll create a bigger, more brilliant engagement ring than you can imagine. Price you won't find at a traditional jeweler. It's been since 1999, they've been the original online jeweler.

[Dennis Miller]

That's right.

[David Spade]

They've always been committed to ensuring that the highest ethical standards are observed when sourcing diamonds and jewelry. Their diamond price guarantee means that in most cases, they'll meet or beat a competitor's price on a comparable diamond.

[Dana Carvey]

And, you know, it's a surprise, usually. So it'll stay safe. Because every Blue Nile order is insured, arrives in packaging. They won't give away what's inside. Most cases even delivered overnight. Blue nile has a 100 satisfaction guarantee with free shipping and returns. So you can make sure the ring you pick is the one. Love can last forever. But, you know, you get free service and repairs for life, so you're covered.

[David Spade]

Wow. I mean, come on. If you're gonna make a move, you gotta use Blue Blue Nile. Don't wander downtown and have some guy. We got. Let me get that eyepiece out. You can check out the diamond. If you wink, you want it.

[Dana Carvey]

And the dick of Wyman.

[David Spade]

We got one. We got one made of wood who he jotted up twice.

[Dana Carvey]

Right now, $50 off your purchase of 500 or more with code [e-mail]. that's 50 off with code fly@blue nile.com.

[David Spade]

That'S blue nile.com.

[Dana Carvey]

Hey, I'm Ben Stiller.

[David Spade]

I'm Adam Scott and we make a.

[Dana Carvey]

TV show called Severance. Severance is back for season two on Apple tv.

[David Spade]

Before the premiere, Ben and I are going to be binging season one and putting out daily recaps.

[Dana Carvey]

Beginning January 7th, we'll be dropping an episode featuring amazing special guests from the cast and crew.

[David Spade]

After that, we're going to keep going as we recap every episode of season two.

[Dana Carvey]

2. The Severance Podcast with Ben and Adam.

[David Spade]

Listen and follow now on Apple Podcasts, the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Dennis Miller]

Well, you know, the great Brad story is. Geez, I don't know if I should tell this.

[David Spade]

We could always edit.

[Dennis Miller]

Just. Yeah, well, carve. You've heard this.

[Dana Carvey]

We can always say we'll cut it where they're.

[Dennis Miller]

Where they're in Bernie's office. Sandy who. Sandy Wernick. Ends up managing Adam to. Yeah, ultimate success. I mean, who's had a career. And Adam's Adam, you know, I mean, he's so great at it, but those two dovetail perfectly. And so it's Sandy and Brad and Bernie. Yeah. Bernie Brillstein, the avuncular head.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dennis Miller]

And Brad says. He says to the receptionist, we don't want to be interrupted. This is important. I don't know what it was about. And then around 10 minutes in, the receptionist calls and says, brad. And he's. I said, I didn't want to be interrupting. He said, it's your father. Now, Brad, at that point, you remember, they were. He and his father were exchanged, estranged for a while. And, you know, Brad looked, he goes, jesus, I haven't talked to him in years, anyway. And Bertie says, well, he's either sick or he needs money. And Sandy says, let's hope he's sick.

[David Spade]

Good line. Good line, Sandy.

[Dana Carvey]

Warning, actually.

[Dennis Miller]

Hollywood, so brutal.

[David Spade]

So.

[Dana Carvey]

But the good thing, Gervitz, Bernie, they loved comedy. That's why they have so many people that are comedians. They have. Have all the SNL guys, all the great ones, all the way back to Belushi Akroyd. And so they still have them. And that's why it's fun to go in and talk to Barney when I was a newer comic, and he go, come in here. And he goes, tell me what's going on. And then he just wanted to fucking laugh. So fun. He was funny.

[David Spade]

He gave me confidence. Brad brought him to see me at a club, and he goes, we're not gonna give you the Saturday Night Live. You're bigger than Saturday Live. My previous managers thought I was a hack. It was, you're bigger than them.

[Dennis Miller]

No, he'd always started. He'd always start his compliments off with, how's about? How's about you're a genius? How's about.

[Dana Carvey]

He told me, how's about you play Rooster T. Feathers again? I go, what about starting live? Come on, you got to stay in the bullpen a little bit.

[Dennis Miller]

You were there that week that I was at school bars with Destiny and tree.

[Dana Carvey]

What?

[David Spade]

Tree. Great stand up, right?

[Dennis Miller]

Yeah. He was a good stand.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dennis Miller]

Remember those three?

[David Spade]

Destiny.

[Dennis Miller]

And then there was the cat, Earl.

[David Spade]

He put on some weight and he went as Tree Trunk. You remember that?

[Dennis Miller]

What do you mean?

[David Spade]

He.

[Dennis Miller]

He evolved into Tree Trunk recently.

[David Spade]

He put on weight and then he named himself Tree Trunk.

[Dana Carvey]

Is this another craggy joke?

[David Spade]

I need an assist to the best joke writer.

[Dennis Miller]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

Ever.

[Dennis Miller]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

So he needs clarity.

[Dennis Miller]

So what's. What's happening on the pod, boys? I see as I looked at the thing today that it was called something else and it. Is it no longer focused on snl. Is it just sort of a free forming.

[David Spade]

That's been a problem from the get go. That. The confusion over that. We started a second podcast that's just us talking about videos and goofing around on YouTube on video. That's called Superfly Fly. Totally separate from Fly on the Wall. And a lot of people don't want.

[Dennis Miller]

A lot of moving parts there. Boys.

[Dana Carvey]

We took a confused confusion course at the Learning Annex. This is what we came up with.

[David Spade]

And this is our podcast. Harbored themselves. They. They diseased themselves.

[Dennis Miller]

Don't start a Dr. Laura's thing where you called the Fly is Down. You know, where you talk to depressed people because you're going to dilute the brand even further again.

[David Spade]

Oh, no.

[Dennis Miller]

It's.

[David Spade]

It's. We're up for the best podcast award. We're up for the best podcast award again.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, yeah, we are. For best podcast on iHeart.

[Dennis Miller]

Beautiful.

[Dana Carvey]

Not exactly the Nobel Peace.

[Dennis Miller]

Why don't you send the. Just send Sasheen. Little feather from down.

[David Spade]

That's who Brando said.

[Dana Carvey]

Is she still picking up awards for people?

[Dennis Miller]

You might look her up somewhere. Maybe she. She can go in. It would be good publicity if you guys said Sasheena.

[Dana Carvey]

I don't know if they have a literal award show. I think it's an online poll of nine people and. But I'll.

[David Spade]

We're over 200 podcasts. We just found out we've done over 200 between the two beautiful boys.

[Dennis Miller]

McCarthy, where are you at there? Are you up? Are you up this way?

[David Spade]

Yep. Beautiful on a farm. I know the Central Valley well.

[Dennis Miller]

You look like it agrees with you. You look healthy as hell, but you've always had the best health regimen. There's great hikes up that way. Are you going up in the mountains at.

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah. Keeping that V2 max going.

[Dana Carvey]

Send me another picture of your quads.

[Dennis Miller]

I remember carving. I think I went to the workout with him once when we were on Saturday Night Live, and he. He set the Stairmaster machine on the highest setting. And he was talking to me throughout. He, like, did an hour on it. You know, I'm over there doing some girls push ups. And he talked the whole hour. He wasn't even gas. And, you know, at the end, like, Sherpas were tapping on next to him. You were in the. The best fit anaerobic guy I've ever seen. And then you had the. The pump blew out or something.

[Dana Carvey]

In your heart.

[David Spade]

That was later on. It didn't blow out. I had hypochlosteremia. But, yeah, that was like a sports car with a fuel injection problem. But the engine was great.

[Dana Carvey]

Great engine was perfect. Listen, still a pink.

[David Spade]

Sorry, Dennis. It's still not. Some things never change.

[Dennis Miller]

No, I. I watched Ford and Ferrari and Carroll Shelby originally wanted to power his car with your heart. That's how strong.

[Dana Carvey]

Dude, I wanted to get the whole thing. Did you have. They did a whole thing. I mean, they go. Go in just for laughs. Get the whole scan and so I got a whole scan and I think I did good. I think I sent it to Dana because I didn't understand it.

[Dennis Miller]

All these years.

[David Spade]

Zero.

[Dennis Miller]

All these years when you've sort of floated on the periphery of social scenes, and I know you like a nice social scene, but you're always working the. What did they call it on old paintings? They called there be whales at the corner of the painting. It would point outside. Every time I've ever been in a social setting or a banquette with you, you're always floating around the outside. And then you split because your neck hurts. And I always wondered, was that just a defense mechanism to get out a scene, or did your neck actually hurt?

[Dana Carvey]

It's neck hurts. Combined with some boredom. But usually. But everything. I feel like more the people are less boring. But if you're at one of these. I was at a Netflix party the other night, and, you know, you go around, I see people. It's fun. And I see famous people you don't see for a while. So we have a few laughs. But when you're walking around with, like, now you got a plate full of crab cakes and you're just. Now it's the fourth time you're running into Miles Teller. You just go, I think I'm gonna get out of here. Because it turns into a head nod. And then you ignore them on the fifth one. And then you just go, I think I've done my job here tonight, but I. Last about an hour. I was really down to about an hour. Now with these, even if it's a great party, I'm like, I don't know. I can't just rot.

[Dennis Miller]

Well, I have to tell you one. I have to tell you one day, I know that where Spade stayed longer. And this will talk about what a mental state is. He's always sort of ethereal. He puts us on stuff. But he's the guy who's sending the bread to buy the bulletproof vest for the cops in Phoen and that. And my son is graduating. And it's. When Tommy boy is out. It's the biggest thing in the world. And I asked Spade just, I thought if he came to this grad party they had. Now imagine this. We. We pitch the grad party and we're going to show Tommy boy on a screen at this party. And it's all soft drinks and that. It's. You know, it's not like we're at Pauly Shore's house above, but it's a. Just a really sweet party. We're going to watch the film and we deliberately have the projector break or it won't function. And then I saw the kids are all, like, bummed up. I kind of, you know, they've all seen the film ten times themselves. And I go, what are we going to do to fill time? Well, one of the stars is there. And Spudly walked out from behind the screen. It was the biggest hue and cry. People went crazy, these kids. And then Spudly stayed for a couple hours. He couldn't have been nicer. He. And he didn't turn into a sniff, you know, where it was all you youngsters, you're gonna, you know, he was just cool, Spade, but framed properly. And they all felt like they met the real guy. And they still talk about, you know, obviously my son still once in a while say, remember when Spade came? And I always think, what a cool move, Davey.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, thank you. Spudly fucking wrote it out. That's a fun time, though. That's. That scenario is perfect because you're not overwhelmed. It's not too much. You know, some things are too much and.

[Dennis Miller]

Are you still with that girl you love? Effort.

[Dana Carvey]

I'm sorry, What? I'm sorry. What's going on?

[David Spade]

Alert. Alert.

[Dana Carvey]

Dennis, you're cutting out. Hey, Dennis was our guest. I like the story he ended with about the Tommy Boy stuff.

[David Spade]

This ain't no horses. Sorry, I'm going right back to the last detail. I want to do that for the last 40 minutes.

[Dana Carvey]

Guess who was brought up for Busboys? Randy Quaid. Is that crazy?

[Dennis Miller]

He was getting in there.

[Dana Carvey]

We were brought up. We were talking about casting, and we were talking about. I think it was for Theo's dad. And Theo said, what about Randy Quaid? And we're all like, oh, my God. We could dust off Randy Quaid.

[Dennis Miller]

Oh, he's the nice. He's the nicest guy. And you remember some of his work in Midnight Express and that. I mean, he's a great actor. Jesus.

[David Spade]

Really?

[Dana Carvey]

Most people know him from vacation, but he's done this, all this other stuff. But he can just ride on vacation forever because he was so good in that.

[Dennis Miller]

But I don't even know what Busboys is. Tell me, what is Bus.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, just a movie me and Theo wrote, and it's about two losers that want to be waiters. They're bus boys that try to be waiters. They can't work, and they think if they're waiters, it'll straighten out their lives. But because my girlfriend ran off of the waiter. Waiter. So. So we're like, dude, waiters got it made, dude. That's if we just get that it all come together for us. So I don't want to give it all away, Dennis. No, come on.

[David Spade]

That's pretty good. But your bus boys. And then shenanigans. Yeah, Happen.

[Dana Carvey]

Obviously happen. Dennis was there the first round of Joe Dirt, and then I remember we were doing it, and remember, we didn't have a ton of time, so.

[David Spade]

That's right, right.

[Dana Carvey]

I mean, I had my mini sides on my legs in the radio station. Freddy Wolf behind me playing the guy. I remember that tech guy and then the zoo crew guy, and then Dennis was the one. Of course, we try to write jokes for Dennis, and then they're somewhat in the vicinity, and then he just keeps adding laughs. And so it made it that every time we cut back to the radio station, it's funnier because Dennis is doing all this great stuff. Jane Fonda from Klute. That was not in the script, I guarantee you. And then I had my sides, my likes. I had so many lines, it was too hard. I'd look down, then I'd say them. Then I'd look down and say them. But we got through it spreadly.

[Dennis Miller]

Out of all the things I've done, I can't tell you how many people still come up to me, and I always wondered, why was that? I know you did a two, but it seemed like it would have been ripe for a two. Two even quicker. Than that. Right. It's such a. Yeah, that's.

[Dana Carvey]

It was so many favorite movies.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. We might do an animated version, which would be easier because then I won't have to get. Look like the old Joe Dirt.

[David Spade]

So there was a sequel a few years ago, right?

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, yeah. But I'm saying that one had to go to Crackle. Some offense to Crackle. I was gonna say, no offense.

[David Spade]

Sony bought Crackle.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, Sony bought Crackle. And they go, we're gonna make this Netflix. Which was. Wasn't a bad idea. So they said, the only way we'll let you do another Joe Dirt is if you go do it on Crackle. Now, we didn't know there'd be commercials in it. And a. Not a pay wall, but you'd have to sign up for Crackle. So all these people that want to watch it have to fill out a form and make it harder. And they said, if we can get a million downloads out of this, we'll be successful and that'll help build our library and get the word out.

[David Spade]

Out.

[Dana Carvey]

Because, you know, I could do press at nascar and I could go and talk to. So we do it. They give us a shitty budget. We do it. Actually, they cut the budget during the.

[David Spade]

Shoot, which was bad sign.

[Dana Carvey]

Not great. And then we do it. I still like it. I go out there and try to. I didn't get paid a lot. We go do it. They get a million downloads within two days.

[David Spade]

Wow.

[Dana Carvey]

And then within a. In a week, they got two million, and then they got three million, and then around three and a half. I just stopped asking. And then I. Because there was just. They.

[Dennis Miller]

Yeah, that's why. I don't understand. With all the stuff.

[Dana Carvey]

They bailed on Crackle and then it folded. So they. Crackle still out there, but they decided they don't want to put money into it to make it into Netflix. So I don't know what its purpose is anymore, but we had a good jump start.

[David Spade]

Very obscure.

[Dennis Miller]

Well, Spade, that's why I'm saying with all the adherence to the, you know, intellectual property, everything needs some sort of. Of past, you know, iteration before people bet money on it. Joe Dirt number one was such a proof of concept. I'm surprised somebody didn't, you know, to think that somebody said, let you do a Joe Dirt too, if you'll do it on Crackle. For God's sakes, why not just do it on Citizen Band Radio? They should have come in and said, let's do a sequel and push chips in like Mike did. With Wayne's World too. I bet you it would have went that high.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, I don't know. That was a tough part. We couldn't get it going. And so. So that was our thing was to put it there on the witness protection program. But. And it's shocking, it did well over there. And they got all these people signed up to fucking dog Crackle. But then they pulled the money to make it big like a Netflix. And so the head of Crackle left.

[Dennis Miller]

And well, let's face it, once, once you do the mosey through show business, Spudly, you're still in the middle of it. Dana and I a little further down the line, you're surprised you get anything off the ground. Honest to God, the great mystery to me and I don't know, maybe Carve had something to do with it, but the biggest thing in America was Church Lady. I see some of the things they make movies of from Saturday Night Live. I'm telling you, Carve, you remember when Church lady was at its peak? It was just. It was. Isn't that special? Was everywhere. And that movie, theatrically, this is way before COVID all that stuff. But I. I always thought that would come off. What's the backstory on that? Or do you choose not to show Studios?

[David Spade]

Lorne Michaels didn't get an official studio. SNL studio started after I left somewhere. And that's where they did Steward Smalley Movie. It's Pat Movie. I had an idea once that she's at a Bible retreat in Santa Barbara and then she's driving her car in a rainstorm and it breaks down in Malibu and then she goes and knocks on the door. And so it's a Malibu beach party full of celebrities and Sodom and Gomorrah.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, that was Young Frankenstein.

[David Spade]

We're not wearing any pants, are we? Know. So it just goes around. I'm the church lady is if anyone's listening. We. We can do that for three and a half million and just give you some back end.

[Dennis Miller]

I told you you should have did Church Biden on one of those SNL's. You just did a complete mashup of your Biden and you're in the church.

[David Spade]

That was your idea.

[Dennis Miller]

Church Biden.

[David Spade]

Wow.

[Dana Carvey]

Excellent.

[David Spade]

Well, isn't that special? Oh, no. More special.

[Dennis Miller]

Him. You would have figured it out. You would have figured it out. No doubt.

[Dana Carvey]

No, he gets, he gets in is one of his things and he comes into to the podium with a wig on and he thinks he's.

[David Spade]

Well, look, I mean, I don't Know if this is rumor, but I hear that with what they're planning with Biden's retirement is to build a replica of the Oval Office in the House and bring him in there every day. And then once in a while, the. The fear is that, you know, Hunter might pretend to be a foreign person. You know, who have. Next. We have the ambassador to Spain here. Yeah. Hey. Hola. Hola. I'm. My name's Sebastian. I'm from Spain. Yeah. What can I do for the country of Spain? I've always loved Spain. I. We could use, like, $100 billion. All right, let's do it. Get them. Get. Get him a check. Oslo. Vista. Whatever, Dad. I mean me. Goodbye. So that's probably like Rupert Pupkin, De.

[Dennis Miller]

Niro and King of Comedy. He's doing the talk show down in the basement in front of the placards.

[Dana Carvey]

Okay. Dana, you know, I like to gamble a bit. I'm just. I'm not like, oh, yeah, too deep in it, but I take a little bit of the Joe Dirt money now and then, and the reruns do a little this and that. But this is. This is about. At BetMGM now, you can follow and tag BETMG across all your socials, and that gets you in the mix. This is the sports book born in Vegas. They have a thing called Second chance on first touchdown scorer. Let me break it down for you. All season long.

[David Spade]

Bring that down.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, please. BetMGM is offering you a second chance. Chance on your first touchdown bet. So when a customer bets a wager on a first touchdown scorer bet, and he does not score first, but scores Second, we return 100 of their stake back in cash. This is crazy talk.

[David Spade]

You've officially gone to cuckoo land. And I hope you're coming back because you are not in the real world right now.

[Dana Carvey]

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Apple app.

[David Spade]

I bet once at the first touchdown would be the first one. And I want to afford.

[Dana Carvey]

Some of these are good offers. They're like if the touchdown is scored by even a soccer player, you win.

[David Spade]

It's like, oh, that's right. If so.

[Dana Carvey]

Anyway, good situation.

[David Spade]

The back of a Dodge Dart in the parking lot, you get. You get a pretty penny. Okay.

[Dana Carvey]

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[Dennis Miller]

All right.

[Dana Carvey]

This podcast is brought to you by eHarmony, the dating app to find someone you can be yourself with because let's be honest. Honest, have you ever. Now, Dana, you haven't dated. You've been married for a long time. But dating, you know, you remember, it's very tough.

[David Spade]

Well, you know, I had some bad. Some bad dates. You know, I mean, it was rough dating back in the day because I was a busboy. That was my pers. That was who I claim to fame.

[Dana Carvey]

That was your identity.

[David Spade]

We called ourselves table maintenance personnel managers. But it's hard to get a date when you're a busboy. And I have. My heart goes out for all the busboys in the world. But it's good to be honest. Right, David?

[Dana Carvey]

Right. Because, you know, that's a classic situation where you try to be a little bit of someone you're not just to get in there. And I've done the same thing. I've been out and caught myself saying, oh, yeah, I'm really into decoupage, too, because you just kind of want to find a connection there. But it doesn't always work because you eventually come back to being yourself, and they figure you out. So the best dates are the ones where you're with someone who's acting like themselves. You're being yourself, and it flows. And that's where eHarmony comes in. They try to help you with a quiz. You know, they want to meet people. They want you to meet people that are like you and like you for the right reasons, and that makes sense. And then you can skip all. I know they say it's. It's all games, and it's hard to avoid some of that stuff. You don't want to get breadcrumbed. You don't want to get.

[David Spade]

I think that's a great idea that they. They sort of.

[Dana Carvey]

Breadcrumbed is a good one. That's when they. You just. Someone answers your text about once a week just to keep you around, but they don't really care about you.

[David Spade]

Oh, is that.

[Dana Carvey]

That's breadcrumber.

[David Spade]

Yeah, but I think it's good. But instead of your initial thing is right with the person on the dating app. Eharmony is sort of the middle person, that kind of quiz. It get you with people already that are like you, you know, matches you up. I'd love for you to give eharmony a shot, David.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, out there, you know, for our listeners, if you're thinking about it, give eharmony a shot. You get started with their compatibility quiz for free. Then you can find someone to be yourself with. Eharmony, get who gets you?

[David Spade]

But I went to 10 Saturday Night Live party parties and stayed there till 5am every night.

[Dana Carvey]

Can you believe this, Dennis? This.

[Dennis Miller]

They must have been all coming up to kiss the ring, right? I mean, geez, you have a merit of status there.

[David Spade]

Now. Once you're around long, long enough, you do get, you do get a lot more positive feedback. You know, I remember when you and.

[Dennis Miller]

I would go to those SNL parties after we were in such an unwind thing and neither one of us were serious partiers, but that's such a pressure cooker that you would probably throw five or six beers and I'd have a couple vodkas on the rocks and then we'd share a car to the Upper west side because we lived across the street from each other and neither one of us are great drinkers. I mean, you could handle your beer. But I have never laughed as hard in my life as when we would go up, you know, the, the west side Highway. And just how from some of those.

[David Spade]

Parties that were way down, well, we get so silly. Like, you know, they flying, you and I flying together and sort of flaunting our neurosis in a funny way. But Dennis was a seat behind me and I'm in the seat ahead and we're just flying across the country. And Dennis over and over again would lean in and say, carvey, if you see anything out of the ordinary, anything, I want to be the first to know if he said that one time. He said it like 40, 50 every single time.

[Dennis Miller]

We were so frightened flying. Carvey and I were eventually grew to be good flyers. I had a good insight from Pen, Penn Gillette once of Penn and Teller. We were on a flight and it was getting bouncy and he was reading the newspaper. He didn't even look over at me. I was getting pissed off. It's one of those things where you get pissed off at somebody who's not afraid of flying when it's really bumpy. And I look over and like, are you kidding me? This doesn't scare you?

[Dana Carvey]

You.

[Dennis Miller]

He goes, what? I Get this. And he finally looks up, and now he's cognizant that we're in really bad turbulence. And he looked at me, he's. Oh, shut up. Alexander the Great would have given everything he ever done for two and a half minutes up here. Which in some weird way gave me clarity about the pragmatic nature of flying and. But when Harvey and I were on the road together, we were both so flipped out that we. We'd get plaster. You remember that night we were over the Rocky Mountains in that electrical store and we both called Bernie Broste and our manager and told him we were leaving the company Malibu on our Architectural Digest. You son of a bitch.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. Dennis used to say, we got a little light chop and a little dirty air. That's how they tone it down, down. You're like, I'm bouncing off the ceiling. We got a little light chop.

[David Spade]

Yeah. I just want to say two words about this chop. Structural integrity.

[Dana Carvey]

They always go, you know, the wings of the plane can touch at the top. I'm like, I don't know if we need to get that far and test this out.

[Dennis Miller]

Carve. Did you get better at it? I haven't flown with you in a while.

[David Spade]

I've gotten better at it. Yeah, I think so. I think you just get worn down by it. But I still do do get thirsty on an airplane, even with the little bit of packed in there. Claustrophobia, you know, I'm just bouncing around. It's third hour in and I'm kind of bored. And then it's like someone comes up very nicely and says, would you like something to drink? And I go, okay, you're not trying.

[Dennis Miller]

To pretend with me you're still on commercial air, are you? Because. Come on, are you kidding me?

[David Spade]

Well, the gross. And the net gets disturbed when you.

[Dana Carvey]

Do a gig and you take very disturbed, it gets.

[David Spade]

It gets altered.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, it.

[David Spade]

You know, they were cheaper. Now it's.

[Dana Carvey]

When it's a push, it's bad.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dennis Miller]

You remember when the Spudly. That was one of the best days of my life. We had a gig in a place called Thackerville, Oklahoma, or something. Oklahoma. We wanted to get in and out, and Norm was with us. The three of us were the headliners. And we rented a plane and we flew from Van Nuys or Burbank, I think, to Thackerville. There was, you know, you didn't even have to land in Dallas and do the drive north because there was a strip somewhere up near Thackerville, which was a nice gig. I don't want to.

[Dana Carvey]

It's like a city. Thackeray. That's the biggest casino.

[Dennis Miller]

You're right. It's. And we. We knocked the gig out, and then we split right after. So between all of the stuff, we were there, you know, together for, like, 10 or 12 hours that day. I have never laughed so hard, Norm.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, for sure. That was killing me. That was my last Norm hangout. I mean, I think because it was before COVID One funny thing Dennis did is he goes, hey, Spudley. Well, I think we each had to do 30. And he's like, you wanna. I think I might wanna go first and run. Run back to the room and take care of some stuff. And I'm like, oh, then, okay. And then Norm goes, then I should go on after that. And I go, yeah, go ahead, you fucking assholes. I have to follow these two great comedians. Oh, fine.

[Dennis Miller]

Now, did you know, Spudly, that. Did you know that Norm was. I did not know Norm was that.

[Dana Carvey]

I did not.

[Dennis Miller]

You know, he was.

[Dana Carvey]

No. And I was.

[David Spade]

I never knew.

[Dana Carvey]

Kind of mad about it because we kept setting up a dinner, and then he kept going. I go, so What? So it's 6:00, so you're heading over, and you're like, what? It's Covid. I go, norm, we've gone over this. It's nine months into Covid. You drive to my house, we sit 10ft apart at my table. What? I go, we keep. You agree to it, and then you can't.

[David Spade]

Is it actually hard of hearing, or is that just a stall tactic?

[Dana Carvey]

I didn't like it when he would text. What? I go, norm, you can't text. What? You hear me on text.

[Dennis Miller]

Isn't it ironic that Norm's true genius? And I don't know, from the first time I met him, I told you that. First joke I heard there was a new kid in LA from Canada, Eddie Feldman, my writer, said, there's a guy here. It's great. I saw him. His name's Norm MacDonald. And I said, well, where did you see me? Said, I saw him at the improv. And he did that great joke where he said, I feel sorry for the homeless guy, but I really feel sorry for the homeless guy's dog. Because, you know, the dog's thinking, this is the longest fucking walk I've ever been on. Do we eventually go in somewhere? Because I could do this on my own. And I heard that joke. I said, that is so funny. So I get on the horn with Norm and I say, hey, I know you're just here, and I'm just saying, if you want to stop gap writing job, I've got this talk show. And I said I'd hire you right now, but just the protocols dictate you send in some sort of a batch of jokes or something. And Norm said, I don't do batches, but I'll send in one joke, and you guys can make a determination. He was already hired, but I was trying not usurp the head writer and producers, you know, their office, and I didn't want to overstep, so I go, okay, send a joke. And then the joke is he reads the AP wire story of Jeffrey Dahmer's trial, and it's so grotesque and detailed. You know, the actual transcript about disembowelment and eating pancreas. And he reads the whole thing, and then he says at the end, Dahmer defended himself by saying he started it. It's like the greatest joke ever. So we hired him. And I always thought he was a genius from that point on, but he always sort of was on the fringe, and now it's so unfortunate. It's like, to me, he's like Van Gogh. You know, when you hear about Van Gogh during his lifetime, having to, you know, take handouts from Teo and that Norm was not taking handouts. But I'm just saying, every day I look now on the reels that I get, it's Norm reminded of another great job.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, 100. Because I get these Norm MacDonald pages and people sending me, and I'm like, I don't remember this joke. Like, there's a couple there I never saw.

[David Spade]

I don't know if you guys had this experience, but I was just. I had a long drive, and some reason I ended up talking with Norm, and for an hour and a half, we talked about our career issues, and he was just completely not one joke. And just sort of talking about this sitcom didn't go, and they didn't know what to do with me. And it was very interesting to be around him. The only other time I heard him like that was when his attache assistant best friend, Lori Jo had some heart issues, and they were consulting with me. She's fine for people who are listening, but.

[Dana Carvey]

Hello, Joe.

[David Spade]

And I could tell that Norm was really worried. And so he had that other side, of course. But as far as obtuse one liners, I would praise him as high as putting him on Dennis's footing. I would put those two guys. No, I'm being totally real. I mean, look, this is an example of the thing that I always quote about you. And it just kills me. I don't know why, but you were up there. You're opening for me or I'm opening for you. And you got go Jimmy cracked corn. And I don't care what the kind of hell attitude is that, you know, I mean, like, who does that? Who would do a joke like that?

[Dana Carvey]

I had to go out with this guy and I did what either black or white special. I think Schneider opened for one and I opened for one. And you have to go up before Dennis's crowd, but they're nice. And then Dennis does a killer out hour. So great. Each joke and all your cards out. Yeah, great.

[Dennis Miller]

You know, when we, when I, when I actually saw recently, sometime in the last year, I mean, by recently, our, our young comedian specialist buddy, that was quite a murderer's row of comedians when I look back on it. Freddie Stolen was good. Jan was good. I think the Carp, I think you're friends with Jan Karam, right?

[David Spade]

Or, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Dennis Miller]

She was in it. Drake, that cat, Warren Thomas, who's no longer with us, but was a killer. And you and Schneider, I mean, you look back, man, we were hit. We hit the ball that night.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, yeah, Dennis is hosting it. Brad. Brad Gervitz produced it. And what a great one. That got me at least in the vicinity of snl. And then you helped on that one, too. I remember writing update jokes for Dennis. It's so hard. God dang, it's so hard to write a bunch of jokes. It's just update jokes are a different world, too. People get there as comics and think you're going to write a sketch very easily. It's such a different muscle. It's so hard to figure out that formula.

[Dennis Miller]

You know, I see reels of the current guys who do it and I, I don't. I'll be honest, I don't watch the show and there's no grievance there. I just, it's not my. Not up at 11:30 on Saturday, but I do see these clips of them together and when they do back and forth thing where they write jokes for each other, they kill. And it is so funny. And I, I don't remember seeing reels of them years ago, so I don't know if they've grown into it or not, but I think his name's Yost and Jay are very funny together.

[David Spade]

Colin and Michael. Yeah, they started doing that maybe just a couple, three years ago, I think. But they've Evolved that with this chemistry to become one of the all time duos up there. And when I was there the last show, Michael wrote some jokes, cold jokes for Colin to read live on air. And they were extremely inappropriate, racist. And they were a lot of stuff about his wife, Scarlett Johansson. And they would cut to her in the hallway looking at it on a monitor. And that crushed because Colin lost it for real on. On live tv. Laughing so hard. Hard. Barely getting through it. That crush as hard as anything I'd seen in that studio in a long time.

[Dennis Miller]

Well, I always wanted to talk to somebody who's inside their car because I've heard that too. And sometimes these stories are almost apocryphal about things because I remember, you know, let's face facts. When you go out with Robin, everybody'd say he's just making it up as he went along. And he often made things up. But he also had a Corey worked off. Nobody's going out there with absolutely nothing. So you hear these tales and you want wonder are they actually seeing each other's jokes? You believe for the first time they are.

[David Spade]

When they do that. Yeah, when they do that. They do.

[Dana Carvey]

They don't do them because they're not that same.

[David Spade]

No one's that great an actor. I mean they, that they're. They're really shocked by.

[Dana Carvey]

I'm happy to hear that.

[Dennis Miller]

Well, you remember I. The first time I heard that was Mulaney, who I think is a genius, used to write jokes for that character. That.

[David Spade]

Yeah. Was a guy Bill Hader did.

[Dennis Miller]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

Hater with the hands over his mouth.

[Dana Carvey]

Stefan or something.

[Dennis Miller]

The single funniest joke I think I've ever heard. On Weekend. His hater would always. The template was this place has everything and. And then he did the quintessential New Yorker joke. And only people who've lived in New York and co ops or condominiums will know what this means. He said this place, everything. Doorman who. High five. Children of divorce. And you remember the doorman in your building was always like, yeah, you know, like part of the family after a couple years. And everything in your building was known by everybody else. And if there was a, you know, disturbance in the force, the guy would go out of his way to make the youngins feel good.

[David Spade]

But children true that. Yeah. Mulaney is incredible joke writer that the, you know, being on that show again, a lot of magic stuff happens at the dress show. I just anecdotally it seemed to me the dress show just had more energy and, and just so the Fact that Colin did not. They don't do those jokes at the dress show. They're just doing them live. Live show. But there's something about like I would go Dubai and yeah. And I come out of the dress show when I first started landing it. People like clapping and wow, way to go. And then I would do the air show, try to do equivalent and then you come out out of 8H and everyone's just like, you know, so there is something I, I just won. I mean, the show works the way it works. It's 50 years. Should never change it. But I wondered if Carol Burnett, if they essentially shot the dress shot show and that allowed for a lot more spontaneity, you know, because it's the first.

[Dana Carvey]

Time you're coming on take is good.

[David Spade]

Yeah, yeah, I think they did.

[Dennis Miller]

I, I think they did shoot both of them, but I think they leaned heavily towards the one on air. But yeah, if you're gonna run a dress, why not shoot it, right?

[David Spade]

I mean, well, they shoot it and the air sometimes goes higher. But I, I, it just when it got cold out there, the audience, it's a tractor pull to get into that studio waiting and late and you know.

[Dana Carvey]

You know, one of my early ones was Michael J. Fox impression and he came on the, the child actors. We were going to rob a bank together or something and that was I think a smile bit super hilarious. And so I was playing Michael J. Fox, he was playing Danny Bonaduce. And when I was doing a speech right to him, he started cracking up and dress and it was a monster. And then on air he didn't laugh because he'd heard it. And I'm like, where was this? Please God, the dress.

[David Spade]

There was a bit where someone was spraying water at Colin for the dress show and it was the first time and then it just had this magic to it. And then the air show was fine, perfectly great. But there is something about the first time you can't like top it.

[Dana Carvey]

That's why knows it's coming. Half the, I mean the cast season it once, so it's not a hundred.

[David Spade]

But it's a, it's a thing that don't peek at dress. It's a thing. Do not peek at dress card.

[Dennis Miller]

Was the, was the schedule still the same and what part did they asked you to participate in? Did you still have that Monday thing where everybody sat around Lauren's office?

[David Spade]

Because I, I came in just to do Biden. Contractually I was sort of, I was placed with Maya Rudolph and Gaffigan and Andy Samberg. And so, so they. The first show, they asked Gaffigan and I to come into the read through, which is now an 8H. And it's like a giant. There's. Oh, you're kidding me. It's a giant.

[Dana Carvey]

You know this. I didn't know this.

[David Spade]

You got place cards and tablecloths and snacks, and there's a piano. And they. They do symphony orchestra. They bring in classical music.

[Dana Carvey]

So they have those massage chairs, like at the airport, where you sit and kneel on them.

[Dennis Miller]

What? We. We were doing a circle jerk in a broom closet on. On 17.

[David Spade]

It's harder to kill there. A lot of the writers kind of missed that. Up, up on 17. The tightness of the room, it's just.

[Dana Carvey]

Disappearing over Huxley's leftovers.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dennis Miller]

You know, that meeting room on 17 really was Thunderdome, wasn't it, Man, I used sweat box. You often saw killer shots there. But there was a couple times where people overreached. I don't even want to name names because I'm old and conciliatory now, but a couple times you can remember people really going for something, and it's just, hang in there. And, you know, Lauren would say, all right, moving on.

[Dana Carvey]

The BO is breaking records. It was. That was so nervous. It was sickening. And then they. Someone would get up her. Lauren would crack the window a quarter inch, would be freezing within two seconds. Everyone's like.

[David Spade]

It's like the worst is when they do show and tell. Like you put on a little hat or you have a little instrument or something, or a vest, sweater, and you're gonna stand. Stand up and act it out. And then it's dead silence. You know, moving on.

[Dana Carvey]

I'm a Yankee Doodle dumb, sad little sailor.

[Dennis Miller]

You know, Think about how lucky it was. I mean, geez, I. You know, I look back and I was never a cool kid. And I think spudly, and you seem a little. I. I don't know of your youth as much, but I think we were all a little bit nerdly. And all of a sudden, you're in the crosshair, man. And when I look back, I just always think, wow, how lucky that was to be in that room with all its. With all its, you know, sort of Damocles hanging over your head. And if you fucked up three weeks in a row, you were probably gone. But I look back, and it was. It was the juice, wasn't it? Man, you're the Spice, as they say. And do. You really got the spice in that room.

[David Spade]

I feel for the, you know, the young cast and a lot of the people, you know, there's 18 or 20, I don't know how many cast members. And I was talking to one of them once and he goes, look, it's, it's hard to be relaxed out there because you know, if you go out there and you don't quite land it, then you're not going to be written for it, you're not going to be in the show for a few weeks. So it's hard to get loose. When we came in, Dennis, we had such a small cast that everybody got their reps in which it. Look, if I had not got on that show, I don't, I think I'm, I'm playing Yuck Yucks and Merced tonight, you know, so I, that was my ticket, you know, I was 31 when I got on there. I'd had my 10 years in the clubs and I bombed every, every pilot they put me in and the Burton Kirk film and it was a disaster.

[Dana Carvey]

Damage. Good.

[David Spade]

To your point, the luck of getting on there. And then of course you were like made out of a factory to be the update guy because you could land jokes and you're such a reader. I mean, I mean it really matters. To be able to read really well is a big advantage. See a card, you know, nail it.

[Dana Carvey]

Listen, growing your small business in 2025 all comes down to how well you can hire.

[David Spade]

That's right.

[Dana Carvey]

The first name that's going to come up is LinkedIn. That's just the way it is. Better hires start with better, smarter insights. They have the strongest hiring data. They have insights. They help you identify the right candidates, you make the best hiring decisions. I'd start off the new year right. You gotta be smart and go with LinkedIn right there.

[David Spade]

Once again, they're doing all the, all the legwork and vetting people and giving you a really good idea so you can match your needs to who they have available to hire. So I'm going to call it a no brainer. I'm just bringing that word out, out, just bringing out the big guns. LinkedIn knows hiring is a big deal for small businesses, not only because small businesses are wearing so many hats, but also because every hire is crucial for growing a company. David.

[Dana Carvey]

That's right. So small businesses is.

[David Spade]

That is a tough word.

[Dana Carvey]

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[David Spade]

New Year's resolutions are hard, right? You said you were going to go to the gym every day last year.

[Dana Carvey]

I say it all the time. I should be saving money and doing this stuff, you know, make your resolutions automatic. You know, Acorns makes it easy to start saving and investing automatically. You know what I mean?

[David Spade]

Yeah. Because you have stuff like you're going to try to paint a duplicate of the Mona Lisa and you never end up doing it. There's so many, many things that you have said is my New Year's resolution. That's it.

[Dana Carvey]

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[David Spade]

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[Dana Carvey]

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[Dennis Miller]

Yeah, Larry King said to me one night I had him on my HBO show and he said, God, you know how to read a prompter. And I, I, I, you know, some people would take that as a you're a prompter chimp joke. I looked at him and said, larry, that's the nicest thing anybody could say.

[Dana Carvey]

That is nice. It's hard to do, but it was.

[David Spade]

Let me ask you a question. This is technical for the people listening still like cue cards versus prompter. What would you prefer?

[Dennis Miller]

Cards.

[David Spade]

Me too.

[Dennis Miller]

Because it kept you listen that can go awry. There is something you were talking about first show, second show. I don't want to sound too like we don't sit there and do Oppenheimer things on blackboards about how the show goes, but half the thing is the frison of it. Fear, you know, like the surface tension when you over pour glass that tremble. That's where the whole money shot is on that show. And I always thought the cards, sometimes they wouldn't come out at the same pace and you felt less robotic about it. It could go awry. Plus my card girl was Tom Laughlin's daughter, Billy Jack's daughter. Which I always dug that because I love Billy Jack so much. So whenever I was in trouble with the crowd, I think of saying when I see what you've done to this little audience, I just go pivot to kick berserk like in the ice cream parlor. But the fact that it could go wrong a little. I always dug that feeling because then when you conquered it and it didn't always go right. There were times and boy, you were hang dog the next day if you blew, you see screwed the pooch, as they say at NASA. But for the most part you're not going to screw the pooch there because you get, you do it with some degree of alacrity. And I used to like that man, that feeling carve you when you come up and do something at the desk and we would just be howling how, how maxed out it was. And Spudly used to kill with the, you know, the guy Hollywood minute.

[David Spade]

Yeah, it was the, well we, we know the power of home base and right to camera because when I was, I was doing Church lady and David was out doing Hunter Biden and it was getting used to that idea of look, don't look at the cards. There's the Wide shot. There's the money shot. Not also kind of glance over at your guest, but don't go too profile. It's just getting used to all that. But money. You know, when I was doing Biden, normally it was just straight ahead. It's much easier. It gives me chills thinking about it.

[Dana Carvey]

When you're on that show and you're, you're in a good sketch and you do your lines and you kind of miss them. You lay down a broken bat, single, you walk back off camera and everyone, everyone kind of darts their eyes. You're like, I had two lines to get it right, I just kind of missed it. Or you fluff it and you're like, if I just had one more take, it would be better. But you do that too many. Like you said, in a row, you.

[David Spade]

It's so under rehearsed. And the director, Liz, who's a lovely person, I really got myself in her shoes. Of like, you're doing Hunter. I'm doing my thing. How long do you hold right after the laugh? Or do you cut after the line? And then of course, bumbling a line is so painful. Or not getting a laugh and realizing later the camera wasn't on you. Yeah, the cutting. Because she doesn't have that much time. Or we had Davey Wilson. It's, it's such a fly by thing, so. But when it works, it's magic. Put it that way, for sure.

[Dennis Miller]

Well, Carver, you had a nice return there, man. You hit the ball really hard. Every day I'd go, I'm golfing a lot now. And the guys at my golf course would always, oh, Garvey killed it over the weekend. So nice to know you were still putting good wood on the ball, brother. How'd your chops feel? Did it come back to you right away or. It never went well.

[David Spade]

I, you know, I'd done some Biden, just slowly but surely I was gathering a Biden up, you know, because I noticed no one was really doing him, you know, and so when I went there and read through, I didn't, I was just, just coalescing in my head. But Lauren was sitting next to me and no one had really kind of figured out Biden how to make it funny or sensitive or whatever. So I just had, I had this thing of. And guess what? What? And by the way, just that. And then I saw Lauren's shoulders go up like that and he was happy. So I knew I had a hook. And I think that I was discovering it with the audience live in real time. But yeah, it came back to me for sure. It felt I. Like I was home again, doing rhythms. And I'd had a warm up with him on, on, on this podcast and I had some clips out with him with the Biden I was doing. So I had a lot of good.

[Dana Carvey]

Honing because you got to make mistakes here.

[Dennis Miller]

Boy, when they're cutting back and forth between the shots here, Spade looks like he's in some swing, you know, private booth somewhere in a VIP booth. And then get us. You got to trick that place out a little. That room you're in. You got that table over here. It looks like the Pixar opening credits with that lamp or something. You gotta get some flowers in there or something. Get some flowers over on the left. It's like the Honeymooners. It's like Crabdon's place with the Pixar.

[Dana Carvey]

Light on top of it.

[Dennis Miller]

Spudly, what's your book over your shoulder? What are you selling there? What's that?

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, that was a John Lennon book. Because I bought the glasses. John Lennon's glasses. And that's Beatles. And this, this Dana White gave me this. Your boy gave me that Bruce Lee skateboard. Dennis, you can react whenever you're ready.

[Dennis Miller]

I thought, well, I just thought we give him an edit point there in case we're wrapped up because I got a split soon.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, yeah, let's go. Dennis, it. Dennis been hilarious. We love you. And you're one of the. I don't know if you should retire. You're still better than 99 to 100% of the comics out.

[Dennis Miller]

I'm liking being retired, man. You know what? I just. I just want to explore what it's like, not do it. You know, I did it so long that I thought, I don't even know what I'm like because when did I start it, writing jokes and staying in that. That guys maybe at 30, 71 now. And I just thought, man, you know, why don't I analyze? Hopefully I get another 10 or 20. I'm gonna just try to see what it's like being. What am I, what am I like without all the trappings of that.

[David Spade]

Well, do you find. Did you find this? Because I feel like if I go before I ever did stand up, then I start to do it just as a nobody in San Francisco. Just this little bit of tension or weight. It would come and go, but it was just there. I should be writing more material. I should be doing that at a club. And then snl, I should do that. And that movie bombed. I got to do this. And I got. And so there's still like this sort, sort of weightiness when you're connected to it and the excitement of that and making money and all that. But I just wonder when you psychologically take that away, does your relaxation quotient go way up?

[Dennis Miller]

Well, I've been reading, and I saw Seinfeld was reading this too, which is intriguing to me because I've been reading a lot of the Stoics, Marcus Aurelius and Seneca. And yeah, he, he's into that. And I'm just trying to see what's on the other side of that apprehension about not doing it. I think there's something important there. I don't want to sound too ethereal. Maybe I'll find out that I just missed doing it. Maybe you'll see me, you know, back in a walker doing jokes or something. But right now I'm thinking, okay, I always diffused that sort of anxiety or fear of the unknown by telling a joke or getting up on stage or smiling and glad handing and, and, and I thought what's, what's beyond that? So I'm just trying to sit in it for a moment and I'm finding on the other side of it, I'm kind of enjoying that lack of apprehension because let's face facts, I don't care how much you feel safe going out on stage and you do get safer over the years, I'd still getting there, the going across country and getting there and going to the place and right before you go on. And then it can go wrong at any moment. I mean, the moment you start thinking this can't go wrong, it's like Robin's old bit that he did in his first special about step inside the comedian's mind, where you hear that submarine clacks and go.

[David Spade]

Dive, dive. Yeah.

[Dennis Miller]

So I don't miss, I don't miss that part of it. But when a joke pops into my head, I often think, well, listen, I'll call Carvey with Church, Bob Biden, but not get smacked back in your face like the chemistry.

[David Spade]

I just want one quick question. Just how does stoicism relate to what you just said? Just letting go or being in the moment or not making problems that don't exist is kind of part of it, right?

[Dennis Miller]

Well, I'm trying to find out. I used to control things with my showbiz career in a way, because you can manage that. You're really managing an efficient organization to some degree when. And you're in the middle of it. And then I realized that you're not managing anything. And if the. You know, I don't know when this airs but if the Palisades doesn't remind you that. Yeah. I was just trying to get my head around the fact that really you don't. You have to balance not controlling anything except your thought processes and still leading a happy, non morbid life. You don't have to be forlorn about it. I'm just trying to find that delicate.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dennis Miller]

Where the Venn diagram taps where you really realize that you don't have any control over it. And in an odd way that should free you up to not worry about it as much.

[Dana Carvey]

So things happen.

[David Spade]

That makes a lot of sense. Yeah.

[Dennis Miller]

All right, boys. Well, you know I love you both. And I love you.

[David Spade]

It's been a blast hanging out with you. And then we also recorded it and.

[Dana Carvey]

We'Ll get paid, so check in now and then and give us some new stuff if you got jokes to burn.

[Dennis Miller]

Well, listen, you got to get rid of. I've been staring at Bruce Lee's nipple for an hour here now. It appears he only has one in that photo. And who else had one nipple in famous lore? Carvey. I'll quiz you there.

[David Spade]

Anderson, Paul Harvey. Which one?

[Dennis Miller]

Scaramonga, the man with the golden gun played by the great.

[Dana Carvey]

That guy. That guy Nipple.

[Dennis Miller]

He got Bruce Lee's other one. I just remember there was. Sorry but Areola discrepancy with Scaramongus.

[Dana Carvey]

All right, Dennis. Love you, bud.

[David Spade]

Love you, buddy.

[Dana Carvey]

This has been a presentation of Odyssey. Please follow, subscribe, Leave a Like a review all the stuff. Smash that button, whatever it is. Wherever you get your podcasts. Flying Fly on the Wall is executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Jenna Weiss Berman of Odyssey and Heather Santoro. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman.