Did Jim Downey Write that?

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Did Jim Downey Write that?"

Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade
Aired: June 18, 2026
Guest: Jim Downey

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Overview

In this vibrant episode, comedy legends Dana Carvey and David Spade are joined by their longtime friend and iconic SNL head writer, Jim Downey. The trio embarks on a detailed, hilarious, and occasionally introspective journey through four decades of comedy—from SNL's formative eras and the art of deadpan delivery to writers room antics and the anatomy of legendary sketches. Throughout, the conversation spotlights Downey's understated influence, his work in movies, and behind-the-scenes glimpses from standout SNL moments, while providing laughs and lessons for diehard fans and industry newcomers alike.

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Main Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Dry Genius of Jim Downey

• Dana and David introduce Downey as “one of the greatest writers from Harvard,” recounting that he was their head writer on SNL and a foundational architect of Letterman’s early years.
  • [04:31] David Spade: "He was our head writer while we were at SNL… he is a one of our good buddies and we have a great laugh with them and learn a lot."
• Dana praises Downey’s deadpan, underplayed acting style, likening it to Henry Fonda, Gary Cooper, and stating he’s “just on the edge of too much underplay, but like, perfectly underplayed.”
• Downey self-deprecates about his style:
  • [09:00] Jim Downey: “I don’t have the acting chops to overplay. I do dry deadpan because dry, that’s sort of the easiest thing to do... I’m idling when other people are.”

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2. Acting Career & Collaborations with Paul Thomas Anderson

• Downey discusses his transition from SNL writer to low-key film actor, working with Paul Thomas Anderson on There Will Be Blood, Inherent Vice, and One Battle After Another ("Obaaa").
  • [11:11] Jim Downey: “Every 20 years or so Paul [Thomas Anderson] calls me up and says, I want...something very specific that I need you for.”
• The trio recounts the comic dynamics on set, especially DiCaprio and Benicio Del Toro’s performances and how Downey’s roles often serve as “dry comic relief.”
• Downey and the hosts playfully riff on making a spin-off ("One Battle After Another After Another") and discuss Downey's cameo at the Oscars.
  • [16:32] David Spade: “It is weird. It’s like after the Super Bowl, the show. But... then it’s Jim’s scene. And I’m like, oh, there’s an added scene. I’ve never, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen that on the Oscars.”

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3. New Peacock Documentary: Downey Wrote That

• The group highlights Downey's career-spanning documentary, Downey Wrote That, produced by Andy Breckman.
  • [17:43] Jim Downey: “It’s called Downey Wrote That… Andy [Breckman] came up… it was his idea for a long time since, like, 2006.”
• Downey discusses his initial reluctance for the documentary—avoiding vanity, surviving COVID in 2019, and not wanting extra attention while still at SNL.

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4. Inside SNL: Writers’ Room, Cast, and Legendary Sketches

A. The Audition Process & First Impressions

• Jim recalls early encounters with cast members; insisted, contrary to myth, that he believed in Dana and David's abilities after seeing their auditions.
  • [40:36] Jim Downey: “Don’t think I thought you were losers… I had already seen you and seen hundreds of hours of tape.”
• Spade and Carvey discuss the challenging dynamic as new cast members during SNL’s "stacked" years.

B. Sketch Creation & Recurring Characters

• They explore how iconic SNL characters and sketches developed, including the infamous "Lounge Singer sings Jaws" bit.
  • [34:27] Jim Downey recalls Bill Murray singing the Jaws theme around the office after watching it in Times Square, which became the basis for the classic sketch.
  • [35:43] Dana Carvey reminisces about watching Murray electrify the crowd during SNL’s 40th.

C. Writers Room Life and Thursday Rewrites

• Spade and Downey discuss the intensity and structure of SNL’s late-in-the-week rewrites.
  • [41:36] David Spade: “Jim was my boss… Head writer came up with the idea of Thursday rewrites… grueling. Worse than the Green Berets… Harder than the Marines.”
• Downey shares wisdom on giving honest feedback:
  • [43:12] David Spade relays, “Sometimes you’re going to pitch an idea and I’m just going to say, I don’t think that’ll work. And I can’t sometimes explain why. It’s just from experience.”

D. SNL Eras, Writers, and Casts

• Extensive discussion about the most potent writing staffs across SNL’s history (Smigel, Jack Handey, Franken & Davis, Conan, and performer-writers).
  • [47:48] Jim Downey: “The writing staff that had Robert Smigel, Jack Handey, Al Franken and Tom Davis… was a pretty good writing staff.”
• Carvey notes 90-93 as an especially “weaponized” era thanks to variety and repeated characters/sketches.

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5. Punch-ups, Films, and Famous Collaborations

• Downey talks about being a popular punch-up writer because he never demands credit.
  • [31:31] Jim Downey: “...one reason that I’ve been asked as often as I have is because I never want my name on anything.”
• Anecdotes about being approached by Bill Murray to punch-up Lost in Translation—Downey advised no changes, which he’s proud of in hindsight.

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6. Eddie Murphy’s Early Days at SNL

• Rich recollections about Eddie Murphy’s emergence:
  • [57:31] Jim Downey: “I was constantly encountering Eddie Murphy... going into everyone’s office and being hilarious. I remembered going to Gene and saying, you know, Gene, there’s that Eddie Murphy guy… I think you might want to put that guy on camera.”
  • Murphy's confidence and on-screen explosion are discussed, pointing out how rare such early mastery was.

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7. Favorite Sketches: Bush, Perot, Hans & Franz

• Dana and Jim break down the evolution of recurring impressions (George Bush, Ross Perot).
  • [29:15] Jim Downey: “I think [Perot] is my favorite political character you ever did. I worked on one of them with you—the one where you were on Larry King…”
  • [24:42] Jim Downey: “...trying to feed you stuff that you would do in the character you were already developing.”
• Hans and Franz origin and room-writing dynamic are celebrated, with Carvey revealing their method was to always turn motivational content into abuse.
  • [62:33] Jim Downey: “I actually have a very clear memory of you coming to me and pitching that idea and you explaining… they’re just incredibly abusive without actually helping their clients.”

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8. Writers as Artists and Performers

• Downey and Carvey lament that SNL doesn’t give cast full writers’ credits, remembering cases like Mike Myers winning an Emmy for writing as a “feature player.”
  • [48:50] Dana Carvey: “...you don’t get a writer’s credit if you’re on SNL as a main cast member.”

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9. Classic SNL Memories: Farley, Practical Jokes & Camaraderie

• Downey shares wild stories about Chris Farley’s on-set antics:
  • [69:28] Jim Downey: “...Chris Farley is out in the hallway, and he’s completely naked. And so...I told everyone, okay, Farley’s gonna come in...it’s vitally important that no one give him anything...And he was so, so serious. Then it bombed.”
• Recounting a practical joke involving serving Farley with a fake subpoena (in cahoots with Simpsons writers).

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10. Letterman Years & Later Career

• Discussion of Downey’s foundational contributions to Letterman’s sensibility, new podcast appearances, and recurring role as an understated good luck charm for Oscar-winning actors:
  • [75:51] Jim Downey: “I’m kind of a good luck charm...Daniel Day-Lewis, best actor. Sean Penn, best supporting actor...”

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Memorable Quotes & Notable Moments

• On Deadpan Comedy:
  • [09:00] Jim Downey: “I do dry deadpan. That’s sort of the easiest thing to do.”
• On Casting Eddie Murphy:
  • [57:31] Jim Downey: “I think you might want to put that guy on camera.”
• On SNL's Writer Room:
  • [41:36] David Spade: “Thursday rewrites… grueling. Worse than the Green Berets.”
• On Comedy Evolution:
  • [24:17] Dana Carvey: “The audience took the ride with me…as I started to do what I would have done in high school, extrapolate things because I’m bored. The audience was right with me.”
• On Hulu’s Documentary:
  • [19:33] Jim Downey: “In the beginning, the first 10 years [the documentary] was being pushed, I was working at the show and I just thought it would be a really bad idea.”
• On SNL’s peak writing staff:
  • [47:52] Jim Downey: “The writing staff that had Robert Smigel, Jack Handey, Al Frank and Tom Davis, that, that era was a pretty good writing staff.”
• On Legendary SNL Scenes:
  • [34:27] Jim Downey: “He [Bill Murray] had seen Jaws…his favorite thing about it was there were guys in the audience during the scary scenes going, get him, Jaws.”
• On Chris Farley:
  • [69:28] Jim Downey: “He had his privates tucked between his legs and he’s fondling his…tweaking his nipples and going like, do you think I’m pretty?”
• On SNL’s Longevity:
  • [52:44] Jim Downey: “There have been enough of those [great eras]. It’s like the Yankees or something. Only lineups to talk about for five [years]...”

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Timestamps of Key Segments

• Introduction & Downey’s Acting/Comedic Style: 04:31 – 11:00
• Film Career with Paul Thomas Anderson: 11:00 – 16:56
• Peacock Documentary & Reluctance: 17:43 – 21:54
• SNL Writers Room/Thursday Rewrites & Ethos: 41:36 – 46:50
• On Eddie Murphy’s Rise: 57:31 – 61:20
• Recalling Favorite Sketches (Bush, Perot, Hans & Franz): 24:17 – 30:43, 62:33 – 65:39
• Chris Farley Antics: 68:07 – 72:45
• SNL Cast/Writers Eras: 47:48 – 53:06
• Letterman & Later Career: 65:39 – 76:21

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Tone & Atmosphere

The conversation is loose, improvisational, and peppered with mutual affection, self-deprecating humor, and genuine admiration. The hosts lean into their shared history while probing Downey’s insights about comedy, collaborative creation, and the demands of showbiz at its highest level.

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Conclusion

This episode is a treasure trove for comedy fans: a rare unscripted seminar from three titans about the magic, messiness, and sheer unpredictability of making cutting-edge comedy together. In the words of Spade:

“We’ll never run out of stories to ask you about because it’s too fun.” [81:10]

Catch the documentary Downey Wrote That on Peacock, and watch for more epic behind-the-scenes tales in future Fly on the Wall episodes.

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Transcript

[David Spade]

Hey, before we jump back into the show, let's take a quick break. All right. Not just any break. This is a refreshing break with Snapple. We all know about Snapple's iconic real facts, so let's take a minute to go over some of my faves.

[Dana Carvey]

Snapple Real fact 455 movie trailers used to come on at the end of the movies, but no one stuck around to watch them.

[David Spade]

I've heard that. What? Snapple Real Fact 831 adults laugh only about 50, 15 to 100 times a day while preschoolers laugh an average of 300 times a day.

[Dana Carvey]

Snapple Real Fact 1983. The first player drafted to play pro football never played in the league.

[David Spade]

That's interesting. Snapple Real fact 1274. Kickball is referred to as soccer baseball in some parts of Canada. Hmm.

[Dana Carvey]

So grab a Snapple, take a second, enjoy the moment.

[David Spade]

Because let's be honest, this might be the most refreshing part of your day. Snapple, make your break more interesting. Summer is finally here and honestly completely changes the way I look at my closet. I find myself reaching for those things that are lighter, obviously more breathable.

[Dana Carvey]

Absolutely.

[David Spade]

Pieces that feel easy but still look polished enough for meeting or a patio hang. That's why I'm such a fan of quints. They specialize in high quality essentials like soft organic cotton, airy linen. Feels nice without that staggering luxury markup.

[Dana Carvey]

I'm with you.

[David Spade]

I just got their Mongolian cashmere tea. Very soft, perfect weight for the summer evenings when the breeze picks up and I collect my thoughts.

[Dana Carvey]

You know, David, their European linen pants and shirts are also total staple, starting at just $34.

[David Spade]

Sounds crazy.

[Dana Carvey]

34 quints keeps their prices 50 to 80% less than other brands by partnering directly with the ethical factories and cutting out the middleman. They even have everything from upholstered sofas to premium bedding. If you're looking to upgrade your space.

[David Spade]

Yep. Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com fly for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. Now available in Canada too. That's Q-U I N C E.com fly for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com fly and I remembered he came

[Jim Downey]

in, he came in. He had seen Jaws at a theater in Times Square and he told me that his favorite thing about it was there were, there were guys in the audience during the. The scary scenes going, get him. Jaws, get him. I was constantly encountering Eddie Murphy. This was who was a featured player and he was just going into everyone's office and being hilarious. And I remember going to Gene and saying, you know, Gene, there's that Eddie Murphy guy. I mean, I don't think I'm this mad genius who's spotting something no one else can see. I think, really, you got. I think you might want to put that guy on camera.

[David Spade]

Camera guy up front.

[Jim Downey]

And her attitude I remembered as being like, I think he needs a little seasoning. Writer's assistant comes up to me. I'm at the head of the table and whispers to me, just so you know, Chris Farley is out in the hallway and he's completely naked. And so. And so I told everyone, okay, Farley's gonna come in, you guys. He's gotta come in naked. So it's vitally important that no one give him anything.

[David Spade]

No one reject.

[Jim Downey]

We just have to sort of go, oh, yeah. Hey, Chris.

[Dana Carvey]

What's up? Jim Downey, a real are. His second time with us. It's scintillating. A return visit with the one and only Jim Downey, writer extraordinaire from Sarah Brief.

[David Spade]

We always jump into it without saying too much because we just think everyone knows Downey, but he was our head writer while we were at snl. He was one of the great writers from Harvard. He did, I think, the first five years of snl, and then he went and did. Started Letterman first. Beginnings of shaping one of the greatest shows ever. Letterman came back to SNL and has been dabbling ever since. And I think he did a little work on Tommy Boy. I. I asked him about his rewrites and his movies, and he's a great dude. He's a funny dude, and he is a one of our good buddies and we have a great laugh with them and learn a lot.

[Dana Carvey]

Yes. Please welcome James Downey. Jim Downey. Who's better, the Rolling Stones or the Beatles? You have five seconds.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

He seriously considers.

[Jim Downey]

Reminds me of one time I was.

[Dana Carvey]

Here we go.

[Jim Downey]

I was late at night, I was watching DAV It Casey Kasem. And it was like. It was like, we're counting down the greatest bands of the rock era. Number three, the Rolling Stones. Number two, the Beatles. We'll be back with the greatest band

[David Spade]

of the rock era. Smoke those two.

[Dana Carvey]

God, who remembers that? What a journey.

[Jim Downey]

So anyway, I. I was. I was just flipping around to go. Wait a minute. Number three.

[David Spade]

Wait a sec.

[Jim Downey]

The Rolling Stones. Number two.

[Dana Carvey]

Number two, the beat. We'll be right back. What's the number one band in the history of rock and roll?

[Jim Downey]

What the would be number one. And so I waited through, like, 12 minutes of commercials, you know, and then. And then it. Finally, I was like, would you please get to the number one? And it was like, the number one. All right. Number three, the Rolling Stones. Number two, the Beatles, and the greatest band of the rock era, Queen. And I was just saying. No.

[Dana Carvey]

Was that considered a joke?

[Jim Downey]

No, I. Well, I mean, I thought it would

[Dana Carvey]

be, like, in the number one band of the rock era, Golden Pony. They came out of Scotland and, you know, Herman and the Hermits. No, but Japan doesn't ever exist.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Anyway, I love doing KCK's. What a. What a great voice that guy had, you know?

[Jim Downey]

He's a great man.

[Dana Carvey]

Did you know him?

[David Spade]

Let's. Yeah. Are you friends with him still?

[Jim Downey]

I saw him. I saw him one time at the Emmys. His wife was. There was a greater height discrepancy between him and his wife than I've ever seen within a character who was taller or shorter? Two individuals. The wife was probably six, close to three feet taller. His wife was like. Well, actually, now that I think about it, she was probably only a foot taller, but still with heels.

[Dana Carvey]

I just won a million dollars on Polymarket that you would start the podcast with a Casey Kum story.

[Jim Downey]

Well, congratulations.

[David Spade]

I can tell the audience Jim was my boss in case they don't recognize him from his star in one battle after another. I recognize.

[Jim Downey]

Well, they may not. I. I put on

[Dana Carvey]

Jim Downey is an actor. You're like a. You were in the chair. You're all Paul Thomas Anderson movies. I don't know. What is it? You're like an actor. You're like a really funny, good actor. I just thought of you as a

[David Spade]

writer, and now you're hogging parts.

[Jim Downey]

I am. I'm. I'm. I'm denying parts to two way more deserving people, and it's wrong. And all I can say is, you know, a lot of the people that we've all worked with over the years are now, like, directing and writing and things. And I guess it amuses them to have me around on the set or something.

[Dana Carvey]

No, no, no. I see the antecedents. I think that your voice work in Change bank kind of solidified this style that you have under. Well, you underplay everything. Just on the edge of too much underplay, but, like, perfectly underplayed with not nothing, no spin. And so that's its own charisma. Well, who's a famous actor that would do that? Might have been Henry Fonda, Burl Ives. Well, I Don't say too much.

[David Spade]

People say you remind them of girl lives.

[Dana Carvey]

That's always a good name to come up. You're kind of like, you're like Broderick Crawford.

[David Spade]

Do you ever get stopped in the street?

[Jim Downey]

I'm looking more and more like him all the time.

[Dana Carvey]

What do you mean?

[Jim Downey]

You look cute. Oh, well, thank you.

[Dana Carvey]

You're jolly and cute.

[David Spade]

Adorable.

[Jim Downey]

The thing is, I mean, I think the underlying thing is because I don't have the acting chops to overplay. You know, I, I, I do like I do dry deadpan. Because dry, that's sort of the, the easiest thing to do. And I think people who are capable of doing more tend to do it. You know, I'm like in, in. I'm idling when other people are.

[Dana Carvey]

So basically you are and I'm not. This is exactly who you are. You are the modern Gary Cooper. Discuss.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

On, on a, on a count. I think you're wrong.

[Jim Downey]

I'm trying to think, I'm trying to remember.

[Dana Carvey]

Come back with somebody.

[Jim Downey]

Classic Gary. No.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, it would be high noon. He says like three words at a time over a 20 minute span. Like, yes, three lines. And he's very low key. I don't think we ought to good comedy. We shouldn't be going that way. And then he doesn't talk for 10 minutes.

[David Spade]

But being dry with no jokes is different than being you're doing right.

[Dana Carvey]

You're doing it and it's funny. Like you sent me that thing of you. It was Billy Madison. Right. You gave this. So the more dry and then the speech is kind of critical or aggressive. The actual words are serious. You've lowered the IQ of every person here. But with nothing given to it is its own. I just like it. I like it. It always makes me laugh. All right, Jim down. He's been our guest, the actor. You can always look him up on Wikipedia. He wrote for some comedy show.

[David Spade]

Okay, go ahead.

[Dana Carvey]

What are you pondering?

[Jim Downey]

No, I'm just, I'm just listening to this and, and doesn't make any sense that that all this stuff happened at the same time and none of it is related to the other, you know, the, the, the Chair company.

[David Spade]

Well, the Chair company is another great comedian. Tim Robbed and hilarious.

[Dana Carvey]

Talk to all that. Talk to your late in life, quote unquote, acting career and film.

[Jim Downey]

Well, the, the, the first thing sequentially would have been the working with Paul Thomas Anderson. You know, every, every 20 years or so he calls me up and says, I want. There's something very specific that I Need you for. So like in 2006, I was in There Will Be Blood.

[Dana Carvey]

Yes, I remember.

[Jim Downey]

And then I was out sort of hanging around on the set later for Inherent Vice, which was like 2014 or 2013.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

And then. Yep. And then in. And then he, he. I got a call in early 2024 about doing one battle after another, which at the time was called the. The BC Project. And then you call battle.

[David Spade]

When you're on the set at lunch. Do you go, I got battle tomorrow?

[Jim Downey]

No. Well, I, we. We have taken the. Calling it obaaaaa.

[Dana Carvey]

That's.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah. So I was doing Obaa with btarp.

[Dana Carvey]

You would have been great. One of the most disturbing movies I've ever seen and it is brilliant. But the theme of the movie that PTA did called Phantom Thread, I loved Phantom. It's meditation on marriage is so. It's dark and just. You'd have to see the movie to understand it. But I was going to ask you about one battle after another. If you had that kind of subterfuge theme or does it have multiple themes? What are the main themes? Because it's a lot of movie to crunch on.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

There are so many different things going on.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

Movie. I mean, I, I guess we, we, the Christmas Adventurers Club were kind of the dry comic relief, whereas Leonardo DiCaprio and Benicio del Toro were. Were more. Were a little wetter, you know. I mean, I thought Benicio was hilarious in that movie.

[Dana Carvey]

Yes.

[David Spade]

Pretty.

[Jim Downey]

Or bdt, as I call him.

[David Spade]

Oh yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Or yeah, Doro Adoro.

[Jim Downey]

But he was just flat out funny. And what we were doing was, was. Was dry.

[Dana Carvey]

Dry counter. And Leo can play White Hawk.

[David Spade]

Leo, let's look at this guy.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

To calm Leo.

[Dana Carvey]

Decap was ldc.

[Jim Downey]

Ldc.

[David Spade]

Oh, God dang. It's even better.

[Dana Carvey]

Once upon a time in Hollywood, he was a white hot mess, you know,

[David Spade]

and I'm in the little dick club. Is that what you're talking about?

[Jim Downey]

No, he's. But he. Again, he, he was, he was pretty funny when he was funny in the.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, yeah. No, his range is enormous. He can do whatever he wants. He's, you know.

[David Spade]

Were you a white supremacist? Was that sort of the situation that.

[Jim Downey]

That was. Yeah, that was the idea. I mean, I'm not basing it on yourself.

[Dana Carvey]

Was it based on you, Jim, the white supremacy part? Was it based on you?

[David Spade]

Go, what? Would it be funny if we were all white supremacists?

[Jim Downey]

I went through that phase. Yeah, everybody does. That was. I think everyone does. Yeah. You know, then I, I, I, I grew out of it, then dabbled again.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

Then grew out of it the second time. And now it's been, it's been a year and a half.

[David Spade]

Get caught up in a chat room. Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

You know, you, late at night, Sean

[David Spade]

was funny, just walking crazy like this. And especially toward the end when he's already, when he wipes out his car, he's walking back like, oh, no, the,

[Jim Downey]

his face was hilarious in the, I got to see him, you know, at, at both the before and after up close. All right, cuz.

[David Spade]

Oh, you have the ending scene.

[Jim Downey]

Most of my important work in the

[David Spade]

film was A lot of the work is toward the end. You have to stick around. Well, you were at the Oscars too, right?

[Jim Downey]

We did that.

[David Spade]

I just got your text. You were at the Oscars too, right?

[Jim Downey]

I could have been, but I, I, no.

[David Spade]

Didn't you do a bit.

[Jim Downey]

Yes, we shot that. We shot that. Yeah, we shot that. I think a couple epilogue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remain. One of the most surprising things I've ever been a part of was, was the fact that that actually made it on air. Because, you know, the thing with the Oscars is always that the one thing everyone knows about it is how it's always running long. They're always playing right off.

[David Spade]

I was shocked by that.

[Jim Downey]

They. And, and I, I, I knew this had to be the very last thing on the show. And, and I, I said, look, Conan called me up, asked me to come out and do it, and I said, I'm, I'm happy to do it. It'll, this will be fun. But don't kid, don't tell me that there's any possibility. And he said, well, even if it, if it doesn't, it's going to be online and probably more people will see it online. And then when I was there, there was some representative from the academy there, and he said, oh, no, no, we're definitely doing it. This is in for sure. So, okay.

[David Spade]

It is weird. It's like after the super bowl, the show. But actually the credits are usually. Here's the winning Oscar movie. Everyone runs on stage. Thank you. Credits start and it's like. Cause that's the biggest one everyone's waiting for. Sorry we ran late. Goodbye. And then it's Jim scene. And I'm like, oh, there's an added scene. I've never, I don't know if I've ever seen that on the Oscars.

[Jim Downey]

I don't, I don't see the Oscars every single year. But I don't.

[Dana Carvey]

I don't.

[Jim Downey]

I can't imagine there was ever like an epilogue before.

[Dana Carvey]

I shouldn't admit that I enjoyed it immensely because I did not expect it. And it took me a minute to kind of process what it was. And then I saw you and I went, okay, I'm in. And you were under plane. And it's beautiful.

[Jim Downey]

Only thing I can do is

[Dana Carvey]

Spencer Tracy would kind of underplay a lot too. He was often not, you know, demonstrative. And Clint Eastwood. You're like an early Clint Eastwood. But anyway, let's get back.

[Jim Downey]

There you go.

[Dana Carvey]

Let's get on the topic of what we're. What. What you've got to get in on the podcast. You had a documentary. It's on Peacock. What's it called?

[Jim Downey]

It's called Downey wrote that.

[Dana Carvey]

That's right.

[David Spade]

Ah, that is a. That is a big phrase you hear.

[Dana Carvey]

So a highly well received documentary about your existence as a supreme sketch comedy writer. Your words, your words, not mine, actually,

[Jim Downey]

not my words there, but they're the words of.

[Dana Carvey]

Did I get that right?

[Jim Downey]

They're the words of Andy Breckman, who. Whose idea was. Yeah.

[David Spade]

Oh, Andy Breckman.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah. Andy came up writer. And I met him at letterman in. In 82, 83, 84. And. And then he went to Saturday Night Live after Letterman, and we shared an office for a year there. The year with Marty Short and. And Chris Gaston. Larry David was there. Anyway, his. Larry's. Andy's wife is a documentary filmmaker. And the two of them had sort of been pushing this idea for a very long time since like 2006. And then finally I was not anxious to do it for a variety of reasons. But finally the pressure became a little too great. Starting around like 20, 20, 20, 21. So it happened.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, I didn't ever see you as vain at all or a vanity. You were. You were actually Sarah, you were just behind the scenes. You were Jim Downey. So this is like in a. Psychologically, like all this exposure is. That was. Like you said, there were a number of reasons. Was it energy? Was it like, I'd rather just let it lay and let the world discover me or what? What was your pushback?

[Jim Downey]

A lot of it had to do with the fact that in the beginning, the first 10 years, it was being pushed, I was working at the show and I just thought it would be a really bad idea.

[Dana Carvey]

While you're there.

[Jim Downey]

While I'm there with the. You know, the. And then afterwards, I kind of wanted to get away from the thing you know, the show and show biz and everything. And then right when they really cranked up the pressure and basically said, we're going to make your life a living hell unless you agree to do this. I had, I was one of the first people to get Covid. I got, I got Covid in, in December of 2019. And I was like a mess. And I, I wasn't.

[Dana Carvey]

Was it vacation in Wuhan or what? What's that about?

[Jim Downey]

Yeah, it actually was. I was flying back from Charleston and I was waiting the night of December 2, 2019, at Kennedy Airport, waiting in the rain. And I was the only occidental in a group of like 200 people who had just gotten off a flight from Wuhan.

[David Spade]

For real?

[Dana Carvey]

Are you serious?

[Jim Downey]

I'm absolutely. Because I looked it up

[David Spade]

in Amarillo.

[Jim Downey]

I just noticed it was this, it was an odd thing. Like, Jesus, did I just walk into a, like a tour group from, from China and everyone was coughing and sneezing and blowing their nose, everything. And I'm going like, oh, man. Normally I am so getting sick tomorrow morning. And I did. And it was only a month later that, because I went to a doctor, like late December, and he, and he said, I have no idea what you have, but you have something. And then when, Remember it was like early February when you started to hear the term Wuhan and everything.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

And then I went online and discovered that there were two flights a day from Wuhan, China, to Kennedy Airport. So I, it wasn't just China, it was Wuhan, China. And yeah. So that's, so that's, and so anyway, I, I, I was not, I was not in the right frame of mind to begin with. And then. Right. You know, in the, in the thick of, of, hey, let's go, doc. Yeah. Not.

[David Spade]

Anyway, well, Jim, my question to you

[Dana Carvey]

is, we were in it.

[David Spade]

It's a lot easier, which I'm getting to, Dana. It's a lot easier if they think you're going to use your connections to go personally ask people to talk about you, which is an awkward situation. So I think it's easier. They just say, we'll take care of everything. And so Dana, me, we get a call. It's about Downey. Done. So I don't think it's that hard to extract. And maybe they knew that because some documentaries are tough because I don't want to do every documentary that comes my way. Now, Dana's doctor doc, so he does, he's done a couple.

[Dana Carvey]

I, I did, I did potus.

[David Spade]

Oh yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

With, with Jim. Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

I was a minor. That's. It's a documentary called Playing potus. Which president?

[Dana Carvey]

United States.

[Jim Downey]

They couldn't get Dana for the panel at the premiere last Saturday, but they, they snagged me and Robert. Our friend Robert Smigel was there. And Dana's great in the documentary. Highly recommended.

[Dana Carvey]

What did I see? What did I do? I told him, you got to come to me. I told him to move the panel to where I live up in the forest.

[David Spade]

You got to come standing in for you.

[Jim Downey]

It was hard to tell you.

[David Spade]

You.

[Jim Downey]

It seemed like a perfectly modern structure you were living in.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, they had lights. They were just in a rented Airbnb near my house.

[Jim Downey]

But, but you. It was very scientific. You talked. You and Daryl and James Austin Johnson all talked about. About constructing impressions. It was really interesting from that point of view.

[Dana Carvey]

But you were my co conspirator with, with Bush 1, along with Al. Because I didn't have the impression.

[Jim Downey]

Well, I, I, you were, you were way too modest about that in the, in that documentary. But I thought, I always thought your Bush was, Was very bushy. You got, you got better and not better, but you got crazier with it.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

As. As time went on, because you did. I don't know how Bush. But it was a dozen or more anyway.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, more. Way more than a dozen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's.

[Jim Downey]

Let's. Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Over four years. Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

And standard cold open. If you compared the first two to, like the last two, it was. It was crazy.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, the perfect thing with that, which I may have talked about, it's only interesting in that the audience took the ride with me. So as I started to do what I would have done in high school, extrapolate things because I'm bored. The audience was right with me. So by the end, when I think my favorite thing, and it might have been your idea, but he just. Or Al. The non sequitur of just education. That's it.

[Jim Downey]

I think that was maybe something that we kicked into it, but it was mostly just trying to feed you stuff that you would do in the character you were already developing.

[David Spade]

Run with.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. It became a song. You know, it was like a lot of musicality to all these different components. Bring it in here. Good, good. That area, doing that thing. Gotta do it, you know, so it was fun. Anyway, look for the duck, look for photos.

[David Spade]

I did like Dana when. During the week it would be. I was working back then. I was newer. And they'd say, like, there's no cold opening. And the easiest slam dunk was on Thursday to go let's write up a bush called Opening. So he probably did it a lot more than 12 because it was always like such a good go to that would work. Only use one cast member. But it was easy to put up late in the week. It wasn't a lot of blocking straight.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah, you, you said Thursday. It seems like more Friday evening, Saturday morning.

[Dana Carvey]

Sometimes trying to.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

Let the audience know.

[Dana Carvey]

But I had so many in ones which I didn't realize later how valuable that was because the studio's qu. It's just you in the frame so you can dance outside the lines because they're just locked on you. But now when they do cold openings, a lot of times it's ensemble. I don't, you know, it's like a sketch with a political figure in it. Observation. I don't know.

[David Spade]

Yeah, they populate it.

[Dana Carvey]

It's different.

[Jim Downey]

But that is true when you, when you're doing an N1 there, there's no such thing as a missed shot or. Or not something not being captured. And it is. But you were one of those people that you could just send out there with often slender, you know, material and you would, you would make it work.

[Dana Carvey]

Summer, what do you think about summer coming up?

[David Spade]

Sneaks up on me. Yeah, I know it is coming up. I'm trying to juggle plans, juggle meals and enjoy the weather. Instacart's made that easier. I can sit outside, build my car with everything I need for the week, not have to step away from what I'm doing.

[Dana Carvey]

I've been leaning on delivery through Instacart for meal prep, especially David. Like getting fresh veggies, proteins, even those perfectly ripe avocado. I set my preferences once and it's so seamless. It saves me a lot of time and makes sure I'm getting all the quality I want. And the convenience is huge.

[David Spade]

You know, when I'm busy or just don't feel like making a store run, I can order in the morning and have everything ready for the same day. And sometimes in as fast as 30 minutes. It just fits into my schedule instead of the other way around. Instacart brings convenience, quality and ease right to your door so you can focus on what matters most. Download the Instacart app now and get

[Dana Carvey]

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[David Spade]

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[Dana Carvey]

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[David Spade]

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[Dana Carvey]

I like less words. You know, I used to say, can you guys take out some of these words too? Too many words. I don't want to feel like I'm doing a homework. I just want to be taking time. But the other thing that we worked on and Smile worked on was Perot, which we didn't talk about last time, but that was just as much fun. I don't think I did it near as much, but that was just as much fun as Bush or easier really, you know.

[Jim Downey]

Well, that's, that I think is my favorite political character you ever did. And I, I worked on one of them with you. I think it was the time you hosted and it was the one where you were on Larry King and yes, Will Ferrell was Larry King and it was, you were on, you were. It was the minor party candidates and it was the female circumcision party candidates. Totalitarian.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. You know, Chris Kattan and they would do the most ornate female whatever you just said and, and then, and then Perot always go the same old clap trap. That's what I hear all the time. And it was the weirdest policy idea you could ever hear.

[Jim Downey]

That was what I loved about. It was a long run from Chris Kattan. Very, very Catan was a great, great sketch player. Absolutely had those great groundling chops. And he was doing this thing about once we mandate and fully fund female circumcision, you'll see the economy take off like old same old, you know, candy coated ice cream sundae with a cherry on top. We don't have the money, Larry.

[Dana Carvey]

We don't have the money, Larry. Can I finish one time? You interrupt me. Go ahead.

[Jim Downey]

Will was like, you have the complete freedom anyway.

[Dana Carvey]

Can I finish one time? No. That was so, so much fun. Still Kills in my stand the best.

[Jim Downey]

I, I think I might have voted for Perot in that election just because I, I, you know, he was right about nafta, I think, and it would have been fun to have him as president.

[Dana Carvey]

He was right about the debt. You know, remember he had the chalkboard and the pointer. Here's our debt, here's where it's going. We're just giving, we're giving the credit card to our kids. Prescient.

[David Spade]

Jim, David Spade here. Can you tell me if you have been asked to write or rewrite some of these movies we've seen out there, some of these comedies, or punch up. Punch up.

[Jim Downey]

You know, from time to time I have been asked to work on stuff and I, it's not, it's not my favorite thing to do. The one thing I think that one reason that I've been asked as often as I have is because I never want my name on anything.

[David Spade]

Why?

[Jim Downey]

Well, just because I don't particularly. If it's someone else's script and I'm just throwing some things into it, I don't particularly need it. And that's really important. That makes you very popular with the other writers on the project. You know, because most people, when they do contribute something, then they, they off often they start sort of messy fights.

[David Spade]

Yeah. Get their name on it.

[Jim Downey]

And then there's a guild less work. So. But it's been a long time since I've.

[David Spade]

Did you ever write one scratch. Sorry.

[Jim Downey]

Well, yes, we did. I wrote, I wrote one with Tom. Tom Davis and Al Frank and many, many years ago that, that we had some funny stuff in it, but it never, never went anywhere. It's funny. I was asked, I was asked one time Bill Murray asked me to, to take a look at a script that he was considering doing. And he said I really think it, it could use some, some of your help with this. And, and it, it, the script was lost in translation, which won best Script Screenplay. The one, the best screenplay Oscar. And to my credit, I said, I, I think this is a great script and I wouldn't change anything. Certainly I can't think of anything that I would do to change it. And so I recommended he do it and that it was good as it was.

[Dana Carvey]

It was great.

[David Spade]

So I'm sure Bill does go to advice from a lot of people. It doesn't seem so it's, oh, Bill loves you.

[Dana Carvey]

I've been in the room with you and Bill. Bill, like when you start to mention an idea, Bill gets quiet in, in a good way. He's like, what, what, what, what were you saying?

[David Spade]

Well, you guys were, if people don't know, we were either roommates or office mates at SNL or just friends. Right? During the early years.

[Jim Downey]

Well, we were first office mates before we became friends, but we, we, we were both hired at the same time, and so they put us in the same office. And over time we became very close. And I still, I talked to him just the other day.

[Dana Carvey]

He's fun to talk to.

[David Spade]

One of the most beloved dudes out there. Not you, Bill.

[Dana Carvey]

Did you, Was it your idea? It's just kind of interesting that, because people would remember this at a certain age for the lounge singer to sing the theme to Jaws. Or was it.

[Jim Downey]

Well, that. Actually, one of my earliest memories is Billy singing a fragment of that in the office. And I remember he came in, he came in, he had seen Jaws at a theater in Times Square. And he told me that his favorite thing about it was there were guys in the audience during the scary scenes going, get him, Jaws.

[Dana Carvey]

Get him.

[Jim Downey]

So that was where he started calling the shark Jaws. And, and so I remembered he would sing a bit of that around the office. And I, and I thought, we've got to do something with that someday. And we talked about it over the years that, so it goes all the way back to 1976. And then when we did the 40th in 2016.

[Dana Carvey]

14 or whatever it was.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah, 2015. It must have been 2015. Anyway, I, I really, I, I, I added more parts to it. And then we got together with Paul Schaefer and it became a thing, a very successful thing, some say in the 40th anniversary.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, no, I, I was doing, I was part of the cutting around of music. I was doing Chomp Broccoli and the piano. So I was up on the stage and so I looked right on top of Bill and watching him electrify that audience with his incredible commitment. And

[David Spade]

so you guys had to, so this is for people at home. You think of an idea like that and it's kind of wispy, but there's something there. And you're like, this is how you either make it good or ruin it. You say, how do we package this into a sketch? Like, so I think one of the first. I remember he's at a ski resort and a lounge, and maybe Lorraine's there, and he's going from table to table and he's maybe singing Star Wars.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah, I didn't work on that piece, but that was Billy. He just, it started with him just

[Dana Carvey]

having

[Jim Downey]

that kind of Vegas character that you don't see. There are no acts like that anymore, probably in Vegas, and they haven't been for a long time.

[Dana Carvey]

Loud lizard, he was always one of

[Jim Downey]

the first things he did around the office was that kind of cringy, greasy, you know, minor showbiz character. And I'm trying to remember the very first one. I think the Star wars one at the ski lodge was the second. That was the one where people really started paying attention. And then there was one they got, we would look for ever more eccentric locations. And there was one, my favorite one was on the auto train. The, the Amtrak train where you can drive your car onto.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

One of the service cars and then ride your train. You'd ride the train down to Florida with your car on, on the train. Right. And that'd be, and so I remember Billy had this great speech there where he's doing one of his, you know, I was thinking, watching him load the cars like, and like, you may drive a Dodge Comet, I may drive a Nissan Altima, and Joe over there might drive a Coupe de Ville, but yet every car on the auto train is treated like every other car. And then he gets kind of, and everyone starts and then he sings. Don't go changing to try to please me. You know. But it was, it was early. It was like early, I guess what they would call cringe comedy today.

[David Spade]

Maybe. Yes.

[Dana Carvey]

I mean, it's not.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, I, I have two questions for it. One is how do you recall something like, like that right now? The second one is watching all that original cast go through that four or five year period. It seemed like Bill Murray, I would never imagine him not being at a 10 in terms of confidence. But did some cast members, were they all sort of fully formed or who were the ones that sort of evolved? Because, just in terms of confidence, because the way Bill Murray does comedy, you have to be utterly committed to it. You can't have any kind of fear of not getting two.

[David Spade]

Seems really like.

[Jim Downey]

Oh, so, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

So those are two questions. Why do you have a photographic memory of 50 years ago?

[Jim Downey]

I don't, I don't know. I, I, I, but I, people have commented, like, as though I must be forgetting more important things because your whole

[Dana Carvey]

life, forgetting weddings and, you know.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah, I, I remember things that make an impact on me and it's, and it's easy to, if something really makes you laugh, it's, it's a little easier to remember that than, But I would say as to your question about confidence, all of These people had, like, Lorraine had come out of the Groundlings. And, and so they were there. Danny Belushi, Billy Second City. So they, Jane had done improv. Stop. And up in Boston. So they were used to live audiences. And I think Dana and you guys both, having been touring standups, that. That's the tough school, right?

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, yeah. I had to really try to. I would look at the audience if I got a laugh in a sketch. My impulse was to look at the crowd laughing, so I had to kind of go, oh, no, I'm in a sketch. First sketch I ever did not forget theater or anything on anywhere was the meteor hitting, hitting Jan on the head. I think it was Jack Handy. That was the cold opening. So I was going to ask you this question for our audience. What was your first impression? First. Even before we did anything, David Spade and me. First impressions.

[Jim Downey]

Don't think I thought you were losers. No, that's not losers, exactly. I thought, I thought you were. Well, meaning I saw you. You guys auditioned. So I, I, oh, that's right. You were funny. So before we ever met, I had already seen you and for all, you know, seen hundreds of hours of tape. We didn't just, you know, do this stuff willy nilly. We, we actually took it seriously. So. No, you guys.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

And I. Yeah, you guys can. You didn't need to impress anyone.

[Dana Carvey]

Okay, David, your first impression of Jim Downey.

[Jim Downey]

Oh, Jesus.

[David Spade]

Mine was, how can you get Dana out of here quicker?

[Dana Carvey]

David's on deck if you should fall. The funny thing is, he's there.

[David Spade]

Is the first of me not being aware of, like, you're here to, like, light a fire under Dana. I go, I don't think Dana's scared of me. I go, I don't do these impressions. He runs this whole operation. I'm just sitting here going, let me do a update. Let me do something. Let me just get out there. And. But everyone was just so good. It was just hard. I, I think I joined in a pocket when there was so many good writers and so many good performers and it was a little harder to swim to the top. So just treading water there was good enough for me for a while, but I'm just glad I got through it. And Jim was my boss for people that don't know. Head writer came up with the idea of Thursday rewrites. I didn't know that until today. And which were fucking grueling. Worse than the Green Berets. I'm not even joking. Worse. Harder than the Marines. And basically, I like Jim because He's a very pleasant guy, fun to hang out with, fun to walk down to dinners with. And he had a really hard job of feeding all the little birds in the nest, going. Then he gives you something and then

[Dana Carvey]

you go, well, the great thing about

[Jim Downey]

Jim, I love often pre masticated things.

[Dana Carvey]

Jim would do this if the people around were kind of riffing on ideas and then Jim would just look up, not say anything and just the, usually the entree was there's something really funny about.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

And then, and then this brilliant idea would follow it. It would be this weird off kilter.

[David Spade]

One time Jim told me, Dana, he goes, I think he maybe told the table, he goes, or maybe just me and Schneider when we got started. He goes, there's sometimes you're going to pitch an idea and I'm just going to say, I don't think that'll work. And I can't sometimes explain why. It's just from experience. I just don't see that working. And so that was good to know because sometimes he just said, I wouldn't write that up. I'd probably write up the other one. Because you're kind of also wanting that advice before you write and everyone wants a piece of him. And he'd maybe go work, not hide, but work in your office and lock it. And then Schneider would sleep against the door and we'd all go in there and try to go. When he comes out, we gotta, it was just constantly on top.

[Dana Carvey]

It's hard being head writer of that show.

[Jim Downey]

It was hard to, I mean the part that I, I, you know, you have to decide how much you're going to lie to people to, and sort of string them along and, and give them false hope and, and how much and, and, but I remember the, the old expression my father always used to tell me, you should always tell the truth because it's the easiest thing to remember.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

You know, and so I, very early on, I think I did, I, I, I decided, you know what I'm just going to explain to people if they come in and look at the board after read through and, and we'd have a, for, you know, the audience of the podcast. We would have our read through Wednesday and then Wednesday evening Lauren would, would slip out of the room and go to dinner and then I'd be there when, when the cast and writers streamed in and looked up at the board to see which pieces represented by little three by five cards.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

Were part of the show, at least for now. And, and which weren't. And there were there were always outrage. People like, demanding to know why A was in the show and, and their B wasn't. And, you know, I tried to, I tried to be as honest as I could, but in a, in an encouraging way, you know, and, and I, I tried to, Sometimes I actually was the only voice in the room for a particular piece that ended up not making it. And so I, I, I, I tried to avoid like, you know, doing the chicken thing. And so I was for it.

[David Spade]

It was telling me Franken hated it. When I asked about mine, Franken hated it.

[Jim Downey]

I go, but by the way, David, you were talking about the idea of, of when you, when you come onto the show, like looking for a way to emerge, you know, more clearly. But the way, the way we cast the show, and I'm not saying it was the necessarily the ideal way, but we're like those people who like, you know, go to an antique store or something and they, even though they already have a dining room table, they so fall in love with this other dining room table that they go, like, I'm just gonna buy it and we'll figure out what to do with it later. So if you've been in people's homes where they have like three or four of everything, it's, it's sort of, it wasn't well thought out. So we, if, if we saw people who were really funny, if they're, if someone else, right. We just, we just want them here,

[Dana Carvey]

grabbed them, give them their $600 a week and bring them in.

[David Spade]

It's only going to cost us 600 bucks. Yeah, running around.

[Dana Carvey]

But that was the first junior varsity era. I mean, we added Mike Myers, which was incredible for us. And then we started adding more and more. And I actually did a song about it when I hosted that 90 to 93 was very. Because we had Sandler and Farley coming up, Spade was coming up, Schneider, Tim Meadows, on and on. And we still had Phil and myself and Mike and so forth. I was going to ask you this question because it's always these just fun of best cast or best cast member, but behind the scenes, and I don't know if you want to answer this question. When was the most potent writing staff? Because I only know my era, like was because you were there in the knots of the Will Ferrell era and Amy Shirt was polar, all that. So do you have an answer to that? Or was it the original writing staff or were they all just very comparable? Well, five seconds.

[Jim Downey]

Okay. I'm not saying.

[David Spade]

And then we'll say the right answer.

[Jim Downey]

The, the writing staff that had, you know, Robert Smigel, Jack Handy, Al Frank and Tom Davis, that, that era was a pretty good writing staff.

[David Spade]

Was that Odoker? Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Conan was around Otoker.

[Jim Downey]

That's where I guess from, you know, 86 to, like the early 90s. And, and it wasn't a gigantically large writing staff. I mean, it was. The early writing staff, though, was like nine people, of whom like six or seven were. Were fairly active, you know, and nowadays, I mean, I think they have like more than 20 writers and they.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, sorry, go ahead.

[Jim Downey]

But, but, but I. The. But there were great writers, you know, at every period. The other thing is, a lot of the best writers were performers, so.

[Dana Carvey]

What do you mean? I mean, people ask me occasionally, hey, who wrote that thing? You know that. Because you don't. It's. I, I've accepted it a long time ago, but you don't get a writer's credit if you're on SNL as a main cast member. If you're a feature player, you get a writer's credit. So I remember Mike came on the show like, in April as a feature player writer. He soon went up to the main company, but then we won the Emmy. So on the plane ride back to New York, Mike had this giant Emmy. He'd only been there like three weeks. Yeah, as a writer, that happened.

[Jim Downey]

I mean, there were. We figured the longer you stay at the show, it comes out in the wash, you know. But it's true, there were some. Well, it's just there were some strange things. But, but yeah, the, the idea was, I suppose that performers are going to get the writing. Writing for themselves. Helps is good for them. That's its own reward. And if they're not paid,

[Dana Carvey]

they would have had to pay us. Right. Because I would have taken a credit without pay, but that would have been outside the union.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah, that's writers.

[Dana Carvey]

But what I told Lauren, just from my perception, and it's not just about me, but from 90 to 93, he had a lot of weapons. Like, there's not. I've heard they don't do as many reoccurring characters now, but. Except on Update or whatever. But back then you could have a Toonces or a Sprockets or a Hans and Franz or a Hollywood Minute or Sandler would do. Sing a song, you know, his opera man. And there were so many to start the show with that it just seemed like a very. And then I said that to Lauren on this podcast, and then I heard him talking about it to The New York times, the early 90s. We had a lot of weapons.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah. We have, we have a lot of variety within. We had a lot of variety within the, the comedy, the show, so that distinct flavors, you know, and so a lot of people could pick, you know, a dozen people would pick maybe eight different things as the best thing in the show, you know.

[Dana Carvey]

Yes. And we should mention. I want you to continue, but Bonnie and Terry Turner as well, because they were, they could punch things up. They were really great with the church slate and other things. So go ahead. What were you saying?

[Jim Downey]

I'm just saying that, that that era I was just identifying with. With. And I know I, I'm, Whenever I'm asked, asked questions like that, I, I, I like to worry about is people I inadvertently leave out.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. Accidentally. We're leaving out people for sure.

[Jim Downey]

But there have been every year of the show. And by the way, I, I think that we're like, there were like three or four distinct periods of the show where I thought that we were doing a lot of really great shows. Like the early years.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

And the next great. Well, the next great period was that one year with Marty Short and Chris Guest.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

And then, and Harry Shearer did great stuff that year. And, and then your era, which I, I would make like 86 to, like, 93.

[Dana Carvey]

That was the time I was there.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

Then there was the second Farley, the Will Ferrell era.

[Dana Carvey]

And what, David was overlapped with that a little bit. No, I was in there.

[David Spade]

Yeah, I was, I overlapped one year

[Dana Carvey]

with Will, but Will Ferrell was.

[David Spade]

Yeah, but he was another force coming on.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

Right. And then, and then that, that cast, that sort of the Kristen Wiig, Fred Armisen, Will Forte. Yeah. Lonely island guys. Yeah. And that. So there have been, there have been enough of those. There are enough great eras. It's, it's like a, you know, it's like the Yankees or something.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, yeah. It's only lineups to talk about for

[David Spade]

five, because there's time to think you're good. No one really told us any of us were any good until 10 years later. And then Will Ferrell said, they said we sucked. And then 10 years later said, oh, they were great. So it takes a while to look back. Like right now, you'll look back later and go, oh, these people were really, you know, that's just how it works.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

I gave up a long time ago trying to answer the question, like, if you had to pick, like an all star team, because I know it ends up being. It Ends up being like 25 people, you know.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

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[Dana Carvey]

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[Jim Downey]

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[David Spade]

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[Dana Carvey]

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[Dana Carvey]

June 30th terms at aka Ms. CollegePC.

[Jim Downey]

One of the things I, I really liked about the 50th and Dana, I'm sorry that, that you know, that you weren't there.

[David Spade]

He didn't care but there was.

[Jim Downey]

You got so many people on camera in combinations that you'd never seen before. And that was, that was really nice to see.

[David Spade]

You know I wanted to introduce something with Eddie Murphy. I thought that'd be a perfect time for us to, to get together sort of address our little fake.

[Dana Carvey]

That spat has lasted so long but I think is it finally done? David made fun of Eddie on on

[David Spade]

weekend probably because of Jim Downey.

[Dana Carvey]

Probably.

[Jim Downey]

Jim. Yeah, I. Eddie, if you're watching this, I bet against that. Absolutely. But yeah, I worked with Eddie in that. In a film that Andy Breckman, it was his thing. He directed it.

[David Spade]

Not moving. What was it?

[Jim Downey]

It was the white like me thing.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, oh, yeah, yeah. That was. You did work on that. That was during.

[Jim Downey]

That was the time. First time I was ever recognized on the street in New York was just from that brief, you know, exposure with the great Eddie Murphy.

[David Spade]

Was it no one movie.

[Jim Downey]

It was, it was a film piece and it was where Eddie was in whiteface.

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah, okay.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, yeah, I remember it.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah, that's television that Andy. Andy Bregman directed.

[David Spade]

I'm sorry, Andy.

[Dana Carvey]

The thing about, the thing about Eddie, which now that we have 50 plus years, you know, it's kind of like, how did someone get that evolved and confident? I guess at 19 he gets on the show, but he put in his dues. He started at 17 and his dad would drive. But seriously, being I. I got on at 31, I was still waitering till I was 24. I mean, just Eddie is amazing how great he was. It's not a hot take. It's just interesting in the context of this conversation.

[Jim Downey]

I remember I had recommended when. When the original writers and cast left the show in May of 1980 and Gene Demanian took over as producer. I always got along pretty well with Gene. Her office was directly next door to Billy and, and my office. And so she asked me if I had any advice and I recommended a couple of writers, one of whom became a very valuable writer for the next couple years. But anyway, when I would go to visit these people, you know, I was, I, I was at Letterman at the time, or I was doing something else, but I would, I would come by and just to, to, you know, stick my head in and say hi. I was constantly encountering Eddie Murphy, this was, who was a featured player. And he was just going into everyone's office and being hilarious. And I remembered going to Gene and saying, you know, Gene, there's that, that Eddie Murphy guy. I mean, I don't think I'm this mad genius who's spotting something no one else can see. I think, I think you really. I think you might want to put that guy on camera guy up front. And her attitude I remembered as being like, I think he needs a little seasoning. He's got something there. There's something there for sure. But I just think he's not ready to go up against.

[Dana Carvey]

I heard about him as a stand up in the comic strip. Because I was living in New York doing the Mickey Rooney show with Nathan Lane. And then a friend of mine was on Broadway with Mickey. He was a juggler, Michael Davies. And he just. We're walking around New York and he goes, there's this comedian, young comedian at Comic Street. You should really check him out. But this is why I just popped into my brain. There are certain things that are just stick with me as being really funny. And that was just James Brown in a hot tub. I don't know why, but that still would get me every time. Do you know the bit, David?

[David Spade]

Well, you can just say it and it sounds funny.

[Dana Carvey]

This is a scenario and the way he could do James Brown, how he could hit the scream after the thing. So it's one of those, why is James Brown near a hot tub? Why does he keep sticking his foot in the hot water? Why is he screaming? You know, I feel you get the five questions. It has the absurdity to last. Maybe it's a little bit like chopping broccoli. Like, why does this exist? But that was transcendent as just a full sketch.

[Jim Downey]

You guys are writer performers. But I think you'll agree with me that the show really is. Is a performer show. I mean, it has more scope for writing than most shows like this do. But it's like they always say that in, in baseball, you know, good pitching beats good hitting. It's like performing trumps the writing. And that a piece like that, that has a great premise. I mean, I'm assuming it was Eddie, but it could easily have been. Could have been anybody who wrote with him who said, like, how about James Brown in a hot tub? I mean, but it doesn't matter. It was just for the. However long that piece was, it was like flat out. Yeah, just high energy, laughs. I mean, I've never written anything that can compete with a piece like that for energy and laughs, you know,

[Dana Carvey]

I mean, you know, obviously Bob od, Kirk, but full peak Chris Farley doing or something. There are those kinds of things that are just okay, that's a kind of a one off, you know.

[David Spade]

But also Eddie went right into movies and the conference and immediately good. Like immediately. So that. That was. He was good at snl, good over there. Like, it was pretty crazy.

[Jim Downey]

Like I say he had. He was plenty confident backstage and, and I'm talking about. Yeah, 1980, 81. It's just that he. It wasn't appreciated. And then when Dick Eversole came the next season, he very quickly broke through.

[David Spade]

Oh, so he didn't blow up the first year. I didn't.

[Jim Downey]

Well, he was. He didn't get a lot of camera time his only year of struggling.

[David Spade]

I love that he got a little taste of all the shit that we all go crazy about.

[Dana Carvey]

Also, Daryl Hammond calls him the world's greatest impressionist. Not that he does a lot of impressions, but the ones that he did were, you know, he did his Stevie Wonder. I don't know if it was the first one to do that. You know, he could sing like Stevie Wonder.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

It was like he had every metric going, you know, Like Jamie Thompson also

[David Spade]

has some really good ones too. Secretly, it's like a secret weapon.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. But I still like Hans and Franz. That's still kind of my favorite thing. Only because they're so insecure. They have this cable show and they're imagining people denying them and then they're threatening to go to their house and do these really evil, perverse, physical things to them.

[Jim Downey]

Actually, I actually have a very clear memory of you coming to be and pitching that idea and you explaining that. But they're just incredibly abusive without actually helping their clients. So it's just like humiliating. They have the breakdown part really well, but not the build up.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, well, because then they bring it to themselves. And if you don't think we're properly pumped, let me tell you something properly. We could very easily come to your house, easy and stretch the flap of your back into the shape of a rope ladder so it could crawl down in the sewer. Because that's where losers live. You know, it's supposed to be a Jack LaLanne show, helping people. And they always turned it, by the

[David Spade]

way, they have one client. They've never showed them working someone out. It's just always yelling at the camera.

[Dana Carvey]

And I love that Kevin Nean, when we would be right before, right before the camera came on, Kevin would just lower his iq. I'd seen Will Ferrell have that trick. Kevin would just make his eyes go stupid. And it really made me laugh, you know, it's just. Yeah. You know, so. So Kevin and I are playing a gig together and we'll come out as Hans and Franz. We're playing it in Seattle.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

So I'm already thinking, yeah, the Puget Sound should be called Puny Sound because the jokes are so bad and they're so pleased. So anyway, I still like that. And you worked a lot on that. You're so, so glad to have you and Smigel come in at a given time with Kevin.

[Jim Downey]

That was. That was just, you know, so Easy to, To, you know, to just. We were like bouncing stuff off in the room. I mean, you guys had. You knew what you were doing. And it was another thing where it was a, A single shot so you could just go to town and. But I remember the very first time that was on, it was the last piece in the show. It was five to one. And, you know, it just shows if, if you lead the audience, you know, you bring them along, they. They might not recognize at first how much they really enjoy it, but if you.

[David Spade]

Well, they really. True statement. I mean, you know, Dana, let's say Jim was there for cheapoger. Cheap, Cheapoger. I look back at Conehead, some of the early ones don't work at all. And the audience just has to sort of absorb what's going on. And the next time they do it, like recurring. Then everyone's onto it now.

[Dana Carvey]

Yes, because I think they thought we would pick up fake barbells.

[David Spade]

Yeah, they're figuring it out.

[Dana Carvey]

You know, we're ons and fronds and I think, you know, we had padded things. I think that that's what they thought. That was never going to happen. But in that case, too, my character evolved because when I would look in the mirror and I was so much smaller than Kevin, it just became, sorry, whoops, you know, just our muscles frighten

[David Spade]

you, your stupid buzz cuts.

[Dana Carvey]

So that made me happy, you know, because I, I get bored very easily. But that was. So anyway, that was fun to work on.

[David Spade]

Anything else for Jim, who was the first five years of SNL for? People don't know. First five years of Letterman, maybe first like two. Yeah, Letterman. And then you went back.

[Dana Carvey]

Huge, huge influence on the Letterman sensibility because you were right there in the beginning. He was lucky to have you.

[David Spade]

I mean, you see him out there anymore? You talk to him a lot or.

[Jim Downey]

No, well, actually, yeah, we just did. I. I hadn't seen very much of Dave over the years except running into him now and then. But the. We did. I did his podcast, the Barbara Gaines show, which is.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, that's right.

[Jim Downey]

It's always Barbara Gaines introduces Dave and his guest. And I did that back in December and they made it a two parter, I think. And then Robert approached him about doing. Doing Robert Smigel's new podcast, Humor Me.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

And.

[Jim Downey]

And. And Dave said, let's. Why don't I do it with Jim again? So we did. We did that.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, you did that. Okay.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah, I've seen a lot, a lot more of Dave than I have in the you know, since I left the show in 1984. But, yeah, he was, that was a real case. We were talking about bringing an audience along and, and sort of training them to. It's like, it's like the first time you had sushi, if you can remember that, you know, it was a little, A little. You're not, you weren't sure about it, and then, you know, it became your favorite food.

[David Spade]

Jim, I have a last story about sushi that you remind me of. So when we were at. I lived on the Upper west side when you were there, and Farley, we'd never had sushi, and so we, Someone recommended we go to this place on the Upper west side. And so he's like, I love. You know, he's just. We were probably four of us there, and then they, they brought us out like a dessert with sparklers, and they come on. Oh, my God, though. And they go out, and when he gets close to Chris, he goes, oh, my eyes. And then he dives on the ground that the sparks got in his eyes. And then he rolls in the ground screaming, and the whole place stands up and goes, oh. And they're like, they don't know what to do. And then he goes, I'm cool and I'm full. I'm fine.

[Dana Carvey]

And they're like, what's going on?

[David Spade]

Is they still trying to get help for him? And he's like, it was a bit.

[Jim Downey]

They don't know. You had to be very careful with Farley as to what you dared him to do because it was a weighty responsibility. Because do I really want to say you don't have the nerve to pick that waitress up and carry her down the stairs or something, put her in

[Dana Carvey]

the fountain or poo out the window on the 17th floor?

[Jim Downey]

I, I, I was on record, as opposed.

[David Spade]

What about the broomstick, the liability?

[Jim Downey]

Oh, wow.

[David Spade]

Okay, table.

[Jim Downey]

That's, that's for the after hours.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, that's for the post.

[David Spade]

I think that story's been told.

[Jim Downey]

I do remember, I do remember the time. And I'm sure you guys were there in the room. We were doing rewrites, and I think it was Tara Eli, who was the writer's assistant, comes up to me. I'm at the head of the table and, and whispers to me, just so you know, Chris, Chris Farley is out in the hallway, and he's completely naked. And so, and so we had those big, heavy metal doors with that, you know, pinned in the middle, you know, and so I, I told everyone, okay, Farley's Gonna come in, you guys. He's gonna come in naked. So it's vitally important that no one give him anything.

[David Spade]

No one react.

[Jim Downey]

We just have to sort of go, oh, yeah, hey, Chris, what's up? Back to our work. And so Farley comes in and he had his privates tucked between his legs and he's fondling his. Tweaking his nipples and going like, do you think I'm pretty? That kind of thing. And then we all did the same kind of, oh, hey Chris, hey, we gotta talk about that update thing later. And he was so, so serious. Then it bombed.

[Dana Carvey]

Too bad iPhones weren't around back then. Cause you can't. It's all just in remembrance.

[David Spade]

There's some fake subpoena given to him at the.

[Jim Downey]

Yeah, that was, that was a. That started with. It was partly just a practical joke.

[David Spade]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Jim Downey]

But. But we also liked. We had been on a film shoot. It was a piece I wrote.

[David Spade]

It was.

[Jim Downey]

It was. Do you remember the show Tales of the Highway Patrol?

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, Highway Patrol.

[Jim Downey]

It was a reality. It was an early reality show, actually. It was like Cops and it was like some other network's answer to Cops. And anyway, it was. We. We did this thing and it was like 1993 or something. It was Tales of the Arkansas Highway Patrol. And so it was basically Bill Clinton, you know, just having. Engaging in illicit sex with various women in parked cars with. Guarded by Arkansas straight to state troopers. And then it ended with a scene where it's a domestic abuse case. And. And he's clearly had the beat out of him by Hillary. And so it's the. She. He's refusing to press charges and he's claiming he fell down the stairs. You know, that kind of thing. Anyway, so we had to drive to the shoot and. And Farley was deep in character. You know, that is like, little lady, I got a problem. See, it seems they gave me an expense account. Unless I spend it all, they're liable to cut me back. So he was hitting on this, this. This woman who was an extra. And Schneider and I were in the car and we finally had to like, physically jump between the two of them to prevent. To head off something. And so it began with that. But we decided to play a practical joke on him where we had him served with a fake subpoena and had some of the writers from the Simpsons act as. As process servers. And it was at the last show party and, and later I was told it was a cruel thing to do. And, and. And I'm going, come on, the poor actress who was in that car, that wasn't a, you know, picnic for her. Anyway. Yeah, that's a true story.

[David Spade]

He fell for that one. He love it slipped out.

[Dana Carvey]

What a character.

[David Spade]

Oh yeah. Anytime you don't even know what it's for.

[Jim Downey]

David, you always, you always did a great impression of Farley going from like innocent to like barking orders to his management and everything. And it turning while it would be like I don't know, I'm just, I'm, I, I'm. I'm not really reader. Listen, listen. I'm not doing it, I'm not doing it for that money, that kind of thing, you know.

[David Spade]

Tell me him 6 million or I'm out. I'll walk anyway. I'm from Wisconsin. Do you have a McDonald's here? Is it on wheels? Because we have one. You be still doing that? I don't know. Yeah, he was, he. I like when he greased his hair back like Christian Slater and wore the big glasses like Ackroyd.

[Jim Downey]

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. But he, God he, he was funny. God damn. I thought he looked cool with the hair grease back.

[David Spade]

I remember me and him and Christian Slater went down to Huxley's and he's like this hi Christian, you grease your hair back. And he's like yeah Chris, I do. And he's like yeah, it was all the Chris. When me and Dana met RINGO Star and McCartney, we were. It's always turned into the Chris Farley Show. It's the funniest thing to, to, to describe perfectly what you're doing. You're too giddy, you're excited. Asking some things and just being like oh, you were in the Beatles. Yeah, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

That was awesome. Don't want to make them angry is the main thing or, or bore them, you know.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

If you're talking to a beetle, you know, or something they've really heard that was.

[David Spade]

It's a skill set a dicey proposition to talk to.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

Super famous. Jim.

[Dana Carvey]

Jim. Anything else you want?

[David Spade]

A million things you've got going down DVD Downey wrote that which Dane and I are in and we.

[Jim Downey]

You're both in and thank you very much for that. I'm sorry I, I wasn't looking my best at the time. I was Covid did a number on some of us and, and I remember that.

[Dana Carvey]

I just remember someone. I was in the room to get ready to come out to the patio to do the three hour interview and I go, really? Three hours? It's okay. We'll be hanging out and a woman Came up behind me with just goop in her hands and just went like this.

[David Spade]

Out of your hair?

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. Without asking.

[David Spade]

Never.

[Dana Carvey]

Hey, we got something for you. I would have been like, crack, break, pile drive. Yeah. You're looking healthy. You're looking good. I mean, when you turn 65 next year, that's going to be big milestone. We're kind of the same age. I don't want to bring up numbers, though.

[Jim Downey]

Well, I'm older. I'm older than. Than anybody now.

[David Spade]

Anybody.

[Jim Downey]

Anybody in comedy that's active and still at the top.

[Dana Carvey]

You're at the top of your game, Jim.

[David Spade]

Well, I saw him at Tavern.

[Dana Carvey]

I think you are.

[Jim Downey]

I would say I'm. I'm. I'm embarking on a new career. Like we talked about. The beginning, the. The actor, performer with. With limited camera presence. But I can deliver. I can deliver a. A low energy, deadpan performance. Like nobody.

[David Spade]

Me too. I'll see at the auditions, you accidentally.

[Dana Carvey]

Every time I see something that you're in, I go, he stole it. Yeah, he stole the whole thing.

[David Spade]

Have you.

[Jim Downey]

What I am. What I am is I'm. I'm kind of a good luck charm. I mean, if you think about it. Daniel Day Lewis, best actor.

[David Spade]

Yep.

[Jim Downey]

Sean Penn, best supporting actor.

[Dana Carvey]

What's the common denominator?

[David Spade]

Have you told PTA that maybe there's a spin off and you're not pushing it, but maybe your guy could spin off and, like, do a sitcom or something?

[Jim Downey]

He's been made aware.

[David Spade]

He's been made aware you're there, you're ready to write it.

[Dana Carvey]

Was this your idea? Because it didn't sound like you, but it's been floated a sequel. And it's going to be called One Battle after Another After Another. And I thought 100 episodes, maybe make it a streaming show. I'm not sure. Seemed like it had your fingerprints on it, but I can't really tell. One battle after another.

[Jim Downey]

It sounds like it would be a funny something to do maybe on the show as a film piece. And no, it didn't come from me.

[Dana Carvey]

I made that up. Of course.

[David Spade]

I think it's in the ether. Like people. It's ready. People are ready.

[Dana Carvey]

Will there be a 60th? Last question. Will there be a 60th? And will you be at it eight and a half years?

[David Spade]

Will Dana be at it?

[Jim Downey]

I'm. I'd like to think that I will definitely be invited. And as all of you guys will, no plus ones. Yeah, maybe not at that point. By the way, do you realize I asked about this because, you know, the capacity. The seating capacity of Studio 8 horses is like, if you knock out every possible, you know, thing. It's. It's like 300 odd seats.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

And there are. At the time In February of 2025, 750 people had hosted the show.

[David Spade]

Oh, boy.

[Jim Downey]

So you kind of have to. If someone hosted the show, you kind of have to invite them, maybe hoping that they don't come, but. And then you can't exactly tell them they can't bring a guest. And then that's not involving music. And so that was a real. I did. All of us got to be inside the studio. Well, Dana, you could have been. You. You were not feeling well. I know.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, what. What did I miss? I mean, was it

[Jim Downey]

on tv? It was.

[Dana Carvey]

I watched it live.

[Jim Downey]

I thought both of them were actually pretty good shows.

[David Spade]

Some fun stuff in them all. Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

And, you know, I gotta say, you know, really, there were little things. Like, David, you had your. That thing in. In the piece where you completely changed. Change the energy of the piece for a minute, and you just sort of said, nope, I'm doing this. Then go. You can. Guys can go back and do it.

[David Spade]

It was finished, the sketch. Yeah.

[Jim Downey]

And the other thing that really, this is a crazy thing because you mentioned him. Nathan Lane. Remember, it was that piece that. I think John Mulaney was the head writer on it. It was like the history of New York in. In like Broadway or something. And it was just Nathan Lane dancing through. Did the funniest impression of a guy doing blow. That really cracked me up.

[David Spade]

That was right next to us in that scene.

[Dana Carvey]

I'll bring that up. We're gonna have Nathan on here. I don't know the timeline of these releases, but, you know. Well, we will be talking.

[David Spade]

It's always nice talking Downey, favorite head

[Dana Carvey]

writer going through that. You know, am I an actor? Am I a writer? And then Paul Thomas Anderson calls.

[David Spade]

Jim, are you going to host?

[Jim Downey]

I. I'm taking myself out of consideration for hosting.

[David Spade]

Okay, I. I understand.

[Jim Downey]

I just. I've just too much on my plate right now.

[David Spade]

Place full.

[Jim Downey]

But I will say, I did want to mention Downey wrote that down. He wrote that it's time they're voting on Emmy nominations on Peacock. I've been asked to mention that. I want to mention Eddie Michaels was great producer with. On that producer and everyone else who worked on it.

[Dana Carvey]

Yes.

[Jim Downey]

And.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, this is how I would do it as Hans Fee 5 faux farm. I smell an Oscar. No, I smell an Emmy nomination.

[David Spade]

Here it come.

[Dana Carvey]

Whoops. So Long other docks. Fly away. You no longer want it. We already have our winner.

[David Spade]

Jim's face.

[Dana Carvey]

Jim's just going. What?

[Jim Downey]

I think. I think you. I think that's. You've made some excellent points there.

[Dana Carvey]

And you should have come on. This was. I thought about randomly.

[David Spade]

Okay.

[Dana Carvey]

I thought that Jim would come on as the head of the network, so called, and do your deadpan thing of like, you know, when you do that with the audience, it doesn't really increase our numbers, you know? What do you mean? What are you talking about?

[David Spade]

Although it's appreciated.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

The Billy Madison run is always on, like a meme or on.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, that's a famous job on that one.

[David Spade]

And we'll see you on the next interview. And this might be our longest interview we did. It was fun.

[Dana Carvey]

No, the last one we did.

[Jim Downey]

Which I'm gonna be back. Right?

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, you know what?

[Jim Downey]

It.

[Dana Carvey]

When you get the nomination, you should come back.

[David Spade]

Oh, yes.

[Dana Carvey]

I. I like being a savant.

[David Spade]

We'll never run out of stories to ask you about because it's too fun.

[Dana Carvey]

No, I have my pages.

[Jim Downey]

You know, we did. I don't think we got to any of the things we were talking about discussing, so I. I don't get to. A single woman.

[David Spade]

We're the worst.

[Dana Carvey]

Dude. Did we talk about POTUS much? A little bit. Not much. Not breaking it down.

[Jim Downey]

I did, I did. I did want to mention your. Your Jerry Brown impression.

[David Spade]

Oh, that's right.

[Jim Downey]

One of my favorite things ever. I was proud to be one of the writers on that piece.

[Dana Carvey]

I know. And I looked for it because you mentioned that when we were talking yesterday on YouTube. Dana Carvey does Jerry Brown. Where is it? Because I was gonna. I wanted to.

[David Spade]

Now is not good.

[Dana Carvey]

I wanted to relearn it for this podcast because it's hard to remember the rhythm. I know. It was a thing and a theme. You know, that was a thing there. But, you know, I. I need to see it.

[Jim Downey]

I. I've got it. I'm gonna say one last thing before we sign off. A few years ago. Well, actually, 24 years ago, I. I was in San Francisco, was an event for the Harvard Lampoon, and. And we're staying at the home of. Near the Presidio of a very wealthy Harvard Lampoon alumnus who was personal friends with both Jerry Brown and with Willie Brown.

[David Spade]

Oh.

[Jim Downey]

And this was at a time when Willie Brown was mayor of San Francisco and Jerry Brown was mayor of Oakland. So we. At the dinner, we had this Mayor Brown of the of the month contest, and we got we found another guy named Brown who was mayor of some other town. And we had a. And the way we did it was I, I briefed everyone in attendance saying, okay, I'm introduced to three mayors. They're not in the room right now. When I introduce, you know, the Mayor Brown of, of Vacaville or whatever he was, you know, I want, you know, polite applause when I introduce Jerry Brown. Polite applause. And when I introduce Willie Brown, I want everyone going crazy, like standing on your chairs like, ah, ah. And so we did it. And Willie Brown, instant. And then we're doing it at the dinner, the three of them. Willie Brown instantly starts laughing because he gets a joke. Terry Brown was very upset. His feelings were hurt that he didn't get the response.

[David Spade]

Jim, did you start the one about. Welcome our host, Tom Hanks. Smattering next week, Sharon Stone. A huge applause.

[Jim Downey]

Well, that was a thing that Franken used to do.

[David Spade]

I did it immediately make the host feel like an. That's job number one at snl. They're already nervous. They're like, who's next week?

[Dana Carvey]

And they're like, it's gonna be this someone so much better than you.

[David Spade]

Funny. Always funny. They always feel like, okay, thank you, Jim. All right, listen, if you're enjoying enjoying the Fly on the Wall, of course, hopefully you are. Click, follow. We don't want to be desperate, but obviously smash that God dang button on your favorite podcast app. Leave a review, a good one, leave a five star rating, nothing else. And maybe even share an episode with a friend. If you're watching this episode on YouTube, please subscribe. Dana, what do you think?

[Dana Carvey]

I'm going to tell you this right now. Him and I'll believe me later. Fly on the Wall, believe it or not, is presented by Odyssey and executive produced by hold for it, Dana Carvey and David Spade or David Spade and Dana Carvey. We don't write this stuff. Heather Santoro, Greg Holtzman and Leah Rees Dennis. The show is edited by Evan Cox with production support from Phil Sweet tech tale of production and booking by Sophia Lepore.