RE-RELEASE - Dan Aykroyd

Summary

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Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade

Episode: RE-RELEASE – Dan Aykroyd
Date: May 27, 2026
Guest: Dan Aykroyd

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Episode Overview

On this lively episode, comedic legends Dana Carvey and David Spade sit down with SNL original cast member, actor, and entrepreneur Dan Aykroyd. Their conversation is a spirited, nostalgic deep-dive into showbiz tales, SNL history, personal creative journeys, and Aykroyd’s famously wide-ranging interests—from vodka and UFOs to improv and the origins of Ghostbusters. Expect a blend of humor, reverence, and behind-the-scenes candor as the hosts and their guest celebrate the art and business of comedy.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Aykroyd’s Curiosity, Range, and Energy

[02:10] David Spade: “He’s not rotting on his couch all day. He’s like looking for UFOs. He has a crystal head vodka company. He’s into everything.”

• Dan’s Diverse Passions: Comedy, performing, the supernatural, business ventures, and music.
• Origins of Crystal Head Vodka: [04:56, 11:10] Wanted a “cleaner vodka.” Early adopter among celebrities entering the spirits market.
• Vodka Business Insight: [11:56] Story of his collaboration with artist Johnny Alexander, rooted in their overlapping personal history.

SNL Origins & Approach

[06:22] Dana Carvey: "You guys were like badass rebel pirates."

• Improvising Pioneers: The first SNL cast felt like comedic outlaws, inspiring the next wave (Carvey/Spade) to emulate them.
• Aykroyd’s Early SNL: [61:12] His first big applause came at a grade school show; first SNL sketch with Garrett Morris as home invasionists ([63:20]).
• Mentorship & Advice: [16:00] Business is part of show business; value of collaboration and good advisors.

Working with Comedy Greats

• Trading Places & Eddie Murphy: [18:09] Did not know Murphy beforehand, but quickly saw his rare talent develop on set.
• Contributions from Jamie Lee Curtis and John Landis: [18:54] Recounts intelligent writing and directorial freedom that made ad libs legendary.
• Chris Farley’s Impact: [20:29] "The sweetest, sweetest, sweetest guy. Just a sweet, sweet man.” Played a notable role in Coneheads.
• Jon Lovitz, Michael McKean, Sandler’s first movie appearance: [16:52–23:10] Reflections and playful banter about SNL alumni camaraderie.

Ghostbusters: The Birth of an Icon

[52:01] Dan Aykroyd: “Old style Abbott and Costello comedy with the real science. Marry it up.”

• Family’s Influence: [36:02] Spiritualism ran in Dan’s family, sparking his interest in paranormal research.
• Inspiration & Development: Journals about quantum physics and parapsychology inspired the unique blend of comedy and supernatural, combined with classic Hollywood ghost movies.
• Script Evolution: [52:34] Ivan Reitman and Harold Ramis were instrumental in refining the film and shaping the cast.

Blues Brothers & Carrie Fisher

• Origin Story: [46:06] Blues Brothers live show with Steve Martin led to the film; Carrie Fisher was cast via friendships, turned love interest and near-marriage ([46:14–48:41]).
• Crossover with Music: [50:17] Bond with blues legends: Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Candy, Cropper & Dunn. Dan still tours with the band.

Business Adventures & Music

• House of Blues: [14:38] Creation, eventual sale, and survival of the franchise amid challenges.
• Creative Business as Personal Expression: [16:00] Early mentor to Carvey about mixing business acumen with creative vision.

UFOs, Supernatural & Pop Culture

[29:54] Dan Aykroyd: “I believe that they're [UFOs]...”

• UFO Discussion: Candid belief in extraterrestrials, supported by personal accounts—his mother's 1947 sighting ([32:30])—and acknowledgment of the Pentagon’s current “All-Domain Anomalous Resolution office” ([30:47]) investigating such phenomena.
• Supernatural & Early Research: [35:06] Reference to Hans Holzer’s ghost investigations.

Life, Legacy, and Lorne

• Leaving SNL: [40:47, 41:03] Left for Blues Brothers film; recounts not taking Animal House due to loyalty to Lorne Michaels and SNL.
• Lauren’s Leadership: [42:21] “He encouraged us... If you need to go, you go.”
• Comedy Continuity: [71:14] Comedy must reflect its times; every SNL generation brings something new.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Dana Carvey on SNL’s Early Days:

• “You guys were like badass rebel pirates.” ([06:22])

Dan Aykroyd on Inspiration for Ghostbusters:

• “Marry that to an old style comedy like Abbott and Costello, Bowery Boys, Bob Hope and Dean.” ([36:02])

David Spade on Working with Farley:

• “I remember one night when you... we shot, like, 24 hours... we were getting tired.” ([21:23])

Dan Aykroyd on Ghostbusters Script:

• “It wasn't the movie you saw, but it certainly had all of the stuff in there that became the movie.” ([52:35])

On UFOs:

• “There's probably dozens of them [species].” ([30:07])
• “My mother saw one [UFO] in 1947.” ([32:30])

On Aretha Franklin in Blues Brothers:

• “She looked so cute in that waitress's outfit. She didn't want to wear it ... made her look great.” ([50:17])

On Living Simply:

• “I live a very, very quiet life right now. Very quiet. Good. I'm not in the cities. I'm in the country.” ([72:11])

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Key Segments & Timestamps

• [01:48–03:53] Opening banter; Carvey and Spade’s first SNL memories of Aykroyd
• [04:56–12:36] Crystal Head Vodka—Origin, business, and the backstory
• [16:00–19:18] Showbiz advice, collaboration, and SNL alumni memories
• [18:09–20:35] Trading Places, Eddie Murphy, Jamie Lee Curtis, and improvisation
• [20:29–24:49] Chris Farley, Coneheads, on-set memories, SNL’s connective tissue
• [29:54–36:55] UFO discussion, supernatural anecdotes, Pentagon’s AARO office, personal/family stories
• [36:02–38:13] Ghostbusters origins, the blend of comedy and the supernatural
• [46:06–48:41] Blues Brothers, Carrie Fisher love story, intersecting with music icons
• [50:17–51:16] Working with Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Candy; musical collaborations
• [52:01–54:33] Ghostbusters—concept, casting, production, handing the baton to new generations
• [63:20–64:11] First SNL sketches, early show discussions: working with Garrett Morris, George Carlin as host
• [71:14–71:59] Dana’s view on comedy as a generational mirror and the spirit of SNL

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Flow & Tone

The conversation flows with warmth, irreverence, and deep camaraderie—punctuated by Sammy Hagar references, tales of producing family vodka, SNL folklore, and showbiz wisdom. Spade and Carvey alternate between fawning admiration, inside jokes, and direct engagement with their legendary guest, while Aykroyd delivers stories with crisp humor, encyclopedic recall, and a touch of self-deprecation.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

What You’d Learn:

• Dan Aykroyd’s inexhaustible curiosity and legendary place in both comedy and the entertainment industry.
• Unique behind-the-scenes stories from SNL’s earliest days, with cross-generational appreciation.
• The inspirations and real-life roots behind Ghostbusters and his other projects.
• The working dynamics among SNL cast members and the family-like connection spanning decades.
• Unexpected forays into UFOlogy, the supernatural, and improv as life skills.
• The premium Aykroyd places on collaboration, humility, and surrounding yourself with good people.

Who’d Love This:
Any fan of SNL, comedy history, music and showbiz lore, or those curious about creative entrepreneurship and the curious mind that keeps revisiting new frontiers.

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Highlights Reel

• “He was probably 35... All right, sir, Fair enough, sir.” — [01:17] (Spade, recalling his first SNL encounter with Aykroyd)
• “We’re on a mission from God.” — [13:47] (Blues Brothers tribute)
• “You will be spared. I will place both of you on the protected roles. Say no more of it. Goodbye.” — [25:54] (Aykroyd, Coneheads callback)
• “We want to remind people of that. Thanksgiving and Christmas there's a gift you can bring home and you know, everybody wants to get ahead.” — [67:14] (Aykroyd, on Crystal Head Vodka)
• “It is talking about it for the first time in any media right here.” — [55:37] (Aykroyd, on the new Ghostbusters Frozen Empire)

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Episode Legacy

This episode captures comedy history in real time, bringing together three generations of SNL stars for a frank, funny, and affectionate look at what it means to innovate, endure, and evolve while making people laugh worldwide.

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Transcript

[David Spade]

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[Dana Carvey]

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[David Spade]

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[Dana Carvey]

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[David Spade]

Quickly learn how we can find you specialized talent in finance, accounting, technology and more at Robert Half. We know talent. Visit roberthalf.com talent today. Love Danny Aykroyd. First met him at SNL when I was. He came by the office. When those old guys come out of the office, meaning the earlier cast, you know, he was probably 35. Anyway, he comes by the office. All right, sir, Fair enough, sir. He would come in and chat with everyone.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Very good, sir.

[David Spade]

That's kind of when he does Tom Schneider.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. For those of you who maybe miss this when we had him on. It's worth a listen. There's something about him that is so interesting and he is. He's got such a wide range of things he's interested into as well as comedy and performing and movies. But it's a fun, fun little listen.

[David Spade]

I would. Yeah, he's not rotting on his couch all day. He's like looking for UFOs. He has a crystal head. Vodka companies into everything.

[Dana Carvey]

Poltergeist, all the supernatural stuff really.

[David Spade]

Which got us Ghostbusters, which was a happy accident there.

[Dana Carvey]

It did pretty well.

[David Spade]

Unbelievable. I think one of the Ghostbusters was going to be Eddie Murphy. I think one was going to be Belushi and I didn't work. I think Eddie Murphy says that's the Only movie he regrets not doing.

[Dana Carvey]

I regret that they never made the sequel to Ghostbusters in a western thing called Bronco Busters. Ghostbusters.

[David Spade]

Yeah, there was some talk about that.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, that would have been great. But anyway. But here he is, the one and only my hero, one of the best of all time. On Saturday Night Live. Dan Aykroyd.

[David Spade]

I saw Chris two days ago and he said, stay at the chateau. Love, Chris. He must love you.

[Dan Aykroyd]

He came over and gave me a hug. I said I was seeing you guys. And he was. Yeah.

[David Spade]

He should have been more excited about you seeing us. But that's okay.

[Dana Carvey]

It's great when you meet someone who hasn't become a superstar yet.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Chris.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

And if you treat them normal, they never forget it. If you're just reasonably respectful.

[Dan Aykroyd]

He's pretty much of a superstar, though.

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

And just boy, from what I can gather, hasn't changed a bit.

[Dan Aykroyd]

This looks like a congressional inquiry. Answer some questions.

[David Spade]

We're sitting on a table. Like I said. Oppenheimer.

[Dana Carvey]

The podcast is actually called the Hot Seat. It's a surprise.

[David Spade]

And you are.

[Dana Carvey]

And we welcome Dan Aykroyd to the Hot Seat.

[David Spade]

Yeah, Heather, help him with that. Does he know how to do that?

[Dan Aykroyd]

I'll do the side thing.

[David Spade]

And will you bring about. So Crystal Head Vodka? Is that the one? Do you have. Do you have plain.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Do you have any fresh squeezed orange juice in the. In the house? In the house. Do you not. Do you have any. Did you ever win an award Juice at all?

[David Spade]

Any cranberry or any, you know, we might have is a. It's not juice. Might have lemon 7up seltzer.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Is that nothing juice like a hibiscus or cranberry or hibiscus. Yeah, that's all right. Put. Put some ice in there.

[David Spade]

Yeah, I will.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

I'm just.

[Dan Aykroyd]

No, no, no, no, no. Don't worry about that. No, but it's just if you. To sample it, it pops it better if it's. If it's cold.

[David Spade]

Oh, if it's cold. I'll put some ice in there. I'll try.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I'll have. Yeah, so. And please let me know. So I don't. Let me know when we're rolling so that I'll do all the politically incorrect stuff now.

[David Spade]

We don't have to use it.

[Dana Carvey]

But we're. But you always have editing capability. We'll send you the raw tape.

[Dan Aykroyd]

The conversation begins then.

[David Spade]

Okay.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Okay. Well, what you're doing there is. You're. You're pouring the. Okay, go ahead, let's start.

[Dana Carvey]

Have you won awards for this vodka?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Do you do a formal introduction or do we just.

[David Spade]

No, we do have Dan Aykroyd.

[Dana Carvey]

Who's I start everyone as Joe Biden. Get your facts straight, Jack. That's it.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. And then there was the other president. You did so well and so beautifully.

[Dana Carvey]

Gotta do it.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. You know that the way that eventually. Yeah. And it was a slur. You know, there's a Washington. It became not gonna do it. Became not gonna do it. And in Washington now there's a slur that is commonly used commonly For a word that is frequently employed in the trade. Sir. Sir. Sir. Senator. Senator becomes sir. It's Sewall. Sewell. Remember Sewell?

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Katan. How genius was that guy? Sewall. Do you remember Sewell? No. Chris. Chris Kattan.

[Dana Carvey]

Chris Catan.

[Dan Aykroyd]

He did Sewell. Because I'm talking now. I'm going to tell you, you know Sewell. That's the slur.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. People slur all the time.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. Well a little bit now I think he. A little bit. Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Can I do a six degrees of separate. I don't think that's the term. I'm in college. You're doing Jimmy Carter on Saturday Night Live. I'm recording it with a cassette and trying to steal. You know, playing at the little teeny club. Steal your Jimmy Carter. And was in awe of it. And then to use where.

[Dan Aykroyd]

What were you going with.

[Dana Carvey]

In clubs? I was just trying to do what you guys did. You guys were like to me like badass rebel pirates.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

I think of Bill Murray and you.

[Dan Aykroyd]

That's so accurate an analysis of us. It really is.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, I think. Well, we were little. Look at us. We're like little. We're tiny people. But you guys are kind of strapping all over six feet. You would punch a guy, make him laugh.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, but. And so you do you. You'd copy that, Jimmy. Well, Jimmy Carter, you know, he had that. He had that eye contact and a very soft way of approaching things. And yeah, he ended up being, you know, one of the great post presidents and really a giant figure.

[Dana Carvey]

You know what's interesting about him because I became fascinated by him because he's constantly referred to. So I read this book about him. Could not understand the idea of deficit spending. He was like, I don't understand how we take in this much money and we're gonna give out that much money. It makes no sense to me. But my Jimmy Carter. I do now, I still do all the presidents is that he had a nervous breakdown. Put peanut Butter on his head. We wandered around the White House. Sir, you okay? You got peanut butter in your head. No, I don't. I'm a peanut butter man. I got peanut butter half peanut butter soup, peanut butter Thai peanut butter shoes. I'm a peanut butter peanut butter. I'm doing you. But here's the thing that got me crazy dinner is when you, you were visiting SNL and then you praised my George Bush senior impression. So it was like 10 years later. So that just.

[Dan Aykroyd]

No. Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

You know these things are.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Carter was unbelievable. You know, he. He was a nuclear physicist and an engineer in the Navy and he helped set up Canada's reactor program. There was a, there was a captain of a nuclear. He troubleshooted, went up to Ottawa, my hometown there and troubleshooted a reactor problem. They had at one point in what year before president. Oh yeah, no, when he was, you

[David Spade]

know, just some president walks in.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Let me take a look, you know, 60s.

[Dana Carvey]

I'll get back to the economy. I'm going to reactive for the otter ones.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. But well, the deficit spending, you know. You know, look, we live in a country that is a fiat currency.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, right.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Canada as well say, you know, fiat currency is. All you do is you just print more money if you need it. And so you know, spending. You got to spend the money. People need it, you got to spend it. We're doing that and we're doing it. Yeah, we've got a, we've almost got a.

[David Spade]

Let it sit on the shelf.

[Dan Aykroyd]

No, it shouldn't. A third world debt. Debt load right now. Right, but because we can print more, why not spread?

[Dana Carvey]

It's a never ending thing. Modern monetary theory. Now we're getting close to a trillion in interest on that. Oh, a little bit of this.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It's really bad vodka. A little bit of that.

[David Spade]

I poured some for myself.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Sweet. Thank you. Sweet vanilla, dry and crisp. Made in Canada. No.

[Dana Carvey]

Can I ask you a question about this because.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. We don't have to talk about the vodka. We can talk.

[Dana Carvey]

No, no, I want to talk around. This is going to integrate into you as a performer. You were one of the first celebrities that, that made a sweet first time

[David Spade]

you taste Dan's drink his own vodka. There's a. There's a constant in the back.

[Dana Carvey]

Now David has this other vodka. I won't mention the name sometimes I'm

[David Spade]

always looking for a vodka. So Chris, go ahead and I knew about this.

[Dana Carvey]

Okay.

[David Spade]

We have here.

[Dana Carvey]

David Spade is going to take a little.

[David Spade]

Am I smelling the notes first?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Didn't you love Johnny.

[Dana Carvey]

So he's gonna have. Last night he had two slippery monkeys at the hook and crook.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dan Aykroyd]

What a great Carson, y'.

[Dana Carvey]

All. Oh, I love Johnny.

[Dan Aykroyd]

When he died, when the joke would die, that was the funniest, the way his reactions were, you know.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. The deconstruct, dry, crisp.

[Dan Aykroyd]

You did it right off the finish. It's. It's clean. It's. You'll. The sweetness from our corn there. Yeah.

[David Spade]

And I'm a vodka guy.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. Well, the thing I want, David, most of the other vodkas, I don't name names, but they put lemonine sugar and they put citrus oil, they put glycol sugar. You don't need that. No, don't eat that. You know, if you're a bartender, you're making things where you add all kinds of additives in there. St. Germain Franca, you know, all kind of Burnett franca, all that stuff.

[Dana Carvey]

Dictionary.

[David Spade]

Dan, are you.

[Dan Aykroyd]

You know. Yeah, so. So you don't need. If you're a bar chef, you don't need.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, anything. I don't know the story. How did this originate? I'm sorry, I just want to know how.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I just wanted a cleaner vodka, really.

[Dana Carvey]

What year was this? Because this has been around.

[Dan Aykroyd]

We've been in a decade and a half into this, okay? Now there have been many vodkas. Come and gone, come and gone, many come and gone.

[Dana Carvey]

And all the celebrities are doing tequila now.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, many. You know what? There's 200 sick celebrity spirits brands.

[David Spade]

Too many.

[Dana Carvey]

200 celebrities. I didn't know there was 200 celebrities. I gotta get going on this. Yeah, but weren't you an early adopter?

[Dan Aykroyd]

It seems like Sammy Hager did his tequila and then I just. I just. I just began to research vodka and saw that, you know, that they were kind of polluting it a bit. And so Johnny Alexander and I came up with the idea for the skull. Remember him? You know Johnny. Johnny Alexander, the artist? Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, the skull is revolutionary.

[Dan Aykroyd]

We met when he. When his girlfriend, or my girlfriend dumped me for him. Rosie Schuster.

[Dana Carvey]

Rosie Schuster, who developed Churchill with me.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Wrote with her a lot.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Spectacular human being.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Dan Aykroyd]

And beautiful, beautiful woman from.

[Dana Carvey]

I didn't know she was Lauren's X wife for like a year.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Lauren's ex wife. Yeah. Well, I knew. I knew and it didn't stop me, but, oh, boy, he was very magnanimous. But anyway, Johnny, I got it back because. Not that I took her away from him, that was kind of over with Lauren and Rosie at the time, but I was with Rosie and she fell in love with Johnny and dumped. Dumped me.

[David Spade]

Gave you the Heisman.

[Dan Aykroyd]

And now we're friends. Yeah, now we're friends, Johnny and I. And as Rosie said to all three of us one night at Davis Memorial, she looked at Lauren, she looked at me, and she looked at Johnny. We were all sitting there like crows on a wire at Davis's. She said, well, at least you have each other. Oh, we love Rosie. So today we have the Vodka company. Johnny and I, we're having a ball with it. It's really fun. You know, if you can drink moderately and respectfully, it's a good thing.

[David Spade]

Now, Danny, are you saying some of these, like, there's a lot of celebrities. I drink Urkel's Tequila, which is probably the best one.

[Dana Carvey]

Urkel.

[David Spade]

I'm kidding. I don't know. Yeah, it probably does.

[Dana Carvey]

Sounded real.

[David Spade]

It's probably in the works.

[Dana Carvey]

I've got Felix the Cat.

[Dan Aykroyd]

What would that be?

[Dana Carvey]

It's a lager. Beer.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Felix the Cat. You remember Felix the Cat?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yes.

[David Spade]

Oh, of course.

[Dan Aykroyd]

The bag. Do you remember Elwood Blues is partly based on.

[David Spade]

Oh, he's partly Felix the Cat.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Partly based on Felix the Cat, the briefcase that has everything in it. Oh, my goodness, I love Felix. That's got to be brought back. That is a beautiful, beautiful.

[Dana Carvey]

That was one of my first animated memories.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, yeah, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

58. Felix the cat.

[David Spade]

He's one of the Blues Brothers, Felix.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, he's black and white.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, I know.

[David Spade]

We're on a mission from God. Now, listen. Now, when you do this, you're saying the Azvodkas, they have some of those things you're saying that are in it. I didn't know all the words, but they might make for a hangover.

[Dan Aykroyd]

The glycol certainly would.

[David Spade]

Okay, so when you have too many things in it, it's not great for.

[Dan Aykroyd]

No, no, of course, no. You. You get to eight shots of this, even without the pollutants in there, you're going to. It is ethyl alcohol, so, you know, you got to be kind of.

[Dana Carvey]

One of our new sponsors, I guess, is trying to mitigate that problem.

[David Spade]

Oh, we have one of ours that says it hurts, but you know what?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, it doesn't. It doesn't have hangovers.

[Dana Carvey]

It mitigates them.

[David Spade]

It's not vodka. It's saying it helps you with a hangover.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It's not a. Yeah, well, you know, try it.

[David Spade]

Yeah, try.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I mean, now, by the way, the

[David Spade]

House of Blues, Dan, you don't know this. You were part of the House of Blues, and it was across the street.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It's so sad. It's gone.

[David Spade]

They dug up the coolest place in the world, and now it's some dumpy hotel that nobody cares about.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Live Nation bought House of Blues in 2007.

[Dana Carvey]

How much did they pay for?

[Dan Aykroyd]

They paid several hundred million.

[Dana Carvey]

Okay.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Basically to save the company because it had had many challenges, and they came in and saved the company because, okay, you know, the dotcom bomb, 2008, all kinds of things. 9, 11, all kinds of things fought against House of Blue's survival. And Live Nation came in and saved the company in 2500 jobs. And then across the street here, the leaseholder basically wanted the building back. And so they just paid Live Nation, you know, a sum to say we want to build our own thing here. And. And Live Nation looked at it economically and said, you know, we'd have to run a restaurant here for the next 50 years to make the money that was offered. So, yeah, I understood the decision, but it's too bad. They took out our beautiful bar with the steel, curved steel. And that was my office. I mean, I hung.

[David Spade]

I saw the. Go go. I saw so many.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, so many. Great spot. There's a. There's a cool one in Anaheim. Yes. Oh, yeah, there's 11 of them. And. And they are. They're rocking the one in Chicago. It's just great.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, it's a great brand. So another business thing you got into. It seems to me, just listening to you, it's a super creative expression of yourself because the first time I met you and you sat us all, you were visiting snl. It was me and Phil and John. My first season, we were at a restaurant. First thing you said was, don't be in a hurry to leave the show. And the second one was just about business and pay attention.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, it's show business, right? You know?

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, but that. I remembered that it's always great to

[Dan Aykroyd]

have great advisors and, you know, I've. Any work that I've done that I'm proud of, it's because I've been with wonderful collaborators. Any success I've had, it's consulting people who are smarter than me in many areas and just the fun of working with just great people all the way through, you know, Murphy and Murray and all of them.

[David Spade]

Jesus Christ.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. And then. And Lovett's, of course, we. We just think of him as. He's. As far as I'm concerned, he's the price of it. He's worth. The price of admission to snl generally is Lovett's Just that Lovett's was there, you know.

[Dana Carvey]

Why do you say that? I don't know where he got that character.

[Dan Aykroyd]

He's spectacular. He. I did this thing, it's going to be out in the next year. The World in Six Glasses. It's a documentary talking about all the fluids that have influenced mankind over time. And I had him on there. He came on and that was one of the most fun. Yeah, huh?

[David Spade]

I'll do it.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, he's so.

[David Spade]

Oh, no, he's just always a lot. You put him in the Wedding Singer. He's funny.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, I've.

[David Spade]

I've had him in movies. He's great.

[Dan Aykroyd]

No, he is. He is jealous. Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

That's his big one, by the way. Hey, I like your glasses. Jealous.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. Yeah.

[David Spade]

You mentioned Trading Places and I, I mean, there's too many things to ask Dan Aykroyd about. I know there's not much to ask other than to fawn over things, but Trading Places was one of the. Those movies that just hit us hard and it was an R rated movie and it was so fucking funny. And then you just so. I don't want to say did you know it going in, but you know, you get to work with Eddie and did you know him well at all or was just. Was it. Was it a gamble to put Eddie in Nobody?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, I think, you know, he did

[Dana Carvey]

the Walter Hill movie.

[Dan Aykroyd]

The Walter Hill movie and then Paramount said, yeah, he'd be good. And somehow that pairing came together. I didn't know him before we started. Of course. He was spectacular to see that talent grow and what he did in that film. And when I read the script, it was so intelligently written and I thought, yeah, this would be a great thing to play and have fun on because it was certainly different from, you know, anything I'd done before and. And then Landis directing it because we made a couple of things together. So it was, you know, all the cylinders were clicking on it.

[Dana Carvey]

Was it kind of like a 30s screwball comedy in that sense of. It wasn't so fun and easy to watch.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It was written by a pair of writers, Weingrad and Harris, and they wrote it and corresponded, I heard by fax machine to write it. And I believe they did one other film, but that was certainly their most famous and well known one and so well done and well directed with great actors in it. Yeah, that's a. AAA I'm proud of that one. Jamie Lee, she's spectacular.

[David Spade]

Jamie Lee.

[Dana Carvey]

We were loving nature.

[David Spade]

Everything was working and you eating the salmon out of your beard. I mean, I don't know if it's an ad lib or what, but those are the texture things in movies where they stick with you forever.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I think that was. I have a beard on. I see the salmon. I'm going for it. Yeah. There's the, you know, you come into the set, you know, you're looking around. Stuff you can use.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dan Aykroyd]

All the time. You know, we're desperate. How do I fill it with business? What. So I have this beard and I love. There's a salmon. Like. Oh, yeah. I don't know if it was scripted or not, but I kind of remember it being spontaneous. I'm going to pick it up.

[David Spade]

Beer, hair. I'm going to go for it. But that's great because you look at scenes and, and. And I almost forget that, you know, we did Tommy Boy and same thing. You look at a day's shoot and you go, is there anything funny here? There's a clip on with Farley. We're like, let's in the night before. We're like, hey, can he bring a. Can you guys give us a clip on just for one laugh so we can. It's all about brake pads. It was hard to make it that everything funny that reminds me of that. You get there, you see a salmon, you see a beard, you go chew the beard. And.

[Dana Carvey]

And Landis was generous with that.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh.

[Dana Carvey]

About just grabbing things. So he was smart.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, no, he. He lets the performer go, you know. You know. And you mentioned Farley, of course. Dearly beloved. Dearly beloved.

[David Spade]

You know, of course, Mr. Ackroyd.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, gee.

[David Spade]

Could he be more in love with Dan Aykroyd?

[Dana Carvey]

I don't think so.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Coneheads. He was in the Coneheads. He played the beautiful part.

[David Spade]

Oh, he was good at coneheads.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, he was great.

[David Spade]

Oh yeah. You know, when he do. He would do stuff on the set and he'd move his head and we're like, that's Ackroyd, that's Bill Murray, that's Belushi.

[Dan Aykroyd]

But the sweetest, sweetest, sweetest guy. Just a sweet, sweet man.

[David Spade]

Yeah, Just Zielinski. The name came back this year.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, big question.

[David Spade]

You were the first.

[Dana Carvey]

Great stuff with his pants.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Pulling his pants.

[Dan Aykroyd]

He's so respectful and polite and a church going, you know. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[David Spade]

We had blast on Tommy Boy. I remember one night when you. We were in like a. I think you were showing us. Is that where Rob Lowe gets hit in the balls? I don't want to give the Whole movie away. But when we. We're in, like, we shot, like, 24 hours and we had some factory in Toronto, we got to go up there, and we were getting tired.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Magna. Magna Auto Parts.

[David Spade]

And, yeah, the. There was the. The air freshener. Joe. So many things. And then just to have you from the guy. We love to be in the movie. And then the movie worked out.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, it did. Oh, that's a good picture. That's a really good picture. The deer scene.

[David Spade]

Oh, God.

[Dan Aykroyd]

That happened to Franken and Davis, you know.

[David Spade]

Oh, is that.

[Dana Carvey]

Deer came alive.

[Dan Aykroyd]

A car. It went through the windshield. Yeah, Yeah.

[David Spade]

I think that happens a lot. But I don't know how many times deer comes back alive. But that was the other.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I think in their case, it might have.

[David Spade]

Oh, wow.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. Really?

[Dana Carvey]

Frank was like, well, we got a deer in the back. Well, you've got to be here. We've got a show. We'll take care of the deer later.

[David Spade]

Oh, I gotta tell them.

[Dana Carvey]

Sorry.

[David Spade]

We had Michael McKeon on. Remember Michael McKean?

[Dana Carvey]

Of course. Yes, of course. Well, I know his resume. It's like yours. Exhausting.

[Dan Aykroyd]

And they're making Spinal Tap again, I hope.

[David Spade]

Oh, I don't know. I.

[Dana Carvey]

There's rumors of that.

[David Spade]

We don't ask the good questions. We just fawn. But we were talking about Conan's. He was my partner in Conan, and I was telling Dana that we were the immigration guys. Yeah. Kind of the bad guys, whatever, you know, And. And it was peppered with. We didn't mention it, but I think Sandler was in the movie. Farley had a big part.

[Dan Aykroyd]

His first movie appearance. Sandler.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, was it called Billy Madison?

[Dan Aykroyd]

He played. Yeah, he sold the Carmine or something. He sold me the ID.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, that's right.

[David Spade]

Fake ID.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. Right.

[David Spade]

And we had Ellen DeGeneres, Drew Carey, Sinbad. I know that's peppered that place. If you watch it, you go, whoa, hey. Oh, look who that is.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It was a very good, serviceable family comedy, and it certainly endures today. No doubt about it.

[David Spade]

Serviceable. I think that wasn't in the pitch. They.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, you know, they.

[David Spade]

No, I love Coneheads. I told Dana and Michael that Michael didn't know this, so, you know, it

[Dan Aykroyd]

was supposed to come out at Halloween. They rushed it. If it had come out.

[David Spade]

Oh, is that what happened?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stanley Jaffe there at Paramount prodded Lauren to get it ready. And Lauren and I were thinking, Halloween. Halloween. But no, we need it now. We need it now. So it would have done better at Halloween, but It did. As all of these things have a life.

[David Spade]

Now, listen. People wind up seeing them, and when

[Dana Carvey]

you're smoking weed and watching Saturday night live in 1978, they come on and they're. They're called the Coneheads. And their heads are like. Cone heads.

[Dan Aykroyd]

What?

[Dana Carvey]

I mean, when I smoked weed and wrote the thing. Yeah, they're the cone heads and their heads look like.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, no, that's good. That. That. Yeah.

[David Spade]

I didn't tell you members. I. I was telling them yesterday that.

[Dana Carvey]

Right.

[David Spade]

You were probably narfling the garthok at this point. But we were. We were. Michael and I were in T shirt and boxers to do a scene, and I was in my trailer and I said the ad. Because I was so naive and so adorable and cherubic. And I said, hey, don't tell anyone. And I can still work. Say I do have chickenpox. And he goes, you have chickenpox? And I go, yeah, but it's here where my shirt is and it's on my legs and you can't see it. And I'm in a scene with you

[Dana Carvey]

and could have infested the whole every.

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah. And he goes, okay, hang on. And they go, shutting down the set. I'm like, what's going on? I. I didn't even connect it to me. And so they sent everyone home. And I don't even know if you're working that day, but I was like, oh, my God. And so. And then someone goes, oh, that's going to cause a studio. You're in trouble. Everything was terrifying me to get fired, but wound up being a blast. But that's remembering. You have the chickenpox way late.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, I know.

[David Spade]

You didn't get. When I was such a weak little puss of a kid, I got measles, knocked me out for three weeks, which was abnormal when you were 37. Or no hat.

[Dana Carvey]

I got.

[David Spade]

When I was a normal kid.

[Dana Carvey]

Okay.

[David Spade]

But I was very frail. You can't tell this athlete that sits

[Dan Aykroyd]

in front of you. No, that's right. Marathon runner.

[David Spade]

Marathon runner. Dana's a marathon runner.

[Dan Aykroyd]

That was such a fun picture. Coneheads. And then what? We had a great cast.

[David Spade]

Yeah. And.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, yeah, it's. I'm proud of that one. I like that one.

[Dana Carvey]

I mean, this is just fan type questions. Like, when you look at.

[Dan Aykroyd]

You will be spared.

[Dana Carvey]

You take a dragnet. You take. You take.

[Dan Aykroyd]

You will be spared.

[David Spade]

You will be spared.

[Dan Aykroyd]

You will be spared. I will place both of you on the protected roles. Say no more of it. Goodbye.

[David Spade]

Remember, I was Behind Dave Thomas at the end. They brought me in for an extra scene because there will be.

[Dan Aykroyd]

And I. Yeah, that was so.

[David Spade]

I was just mocking everything he said. I just said whatever. I turned and went with the cone heads at the end.

[Dana Carvey]

So this. You can order this on Amazon for like three bucks, Right? For just people listening.

[David Spade]

Like, drink when you see us.

[Dana Carvey]

Were there two Conan movies or just one?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Just one. Hey, listen, I would do that character in a second. In fact, I have a story idea, but, you know, I'm too busy now, you know, and no one's going to listen to a story idea.

[Dana Carvey]

How do you sleep at night?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Cone heads. No one's going to want another cone heads out there. Paramount plus, no,

[Dana Carvey]

Hulu is waiting. I know the guy who runs Crystal Vodka, the movie. I'm gonna text him.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, no, I was. I was on Hulu there. I was. I did a little show called zombie town. And R.S. stein, you know, the Goosebumps author. Yeah. So it's on Hulu now. It's called Zombie Town. And it's like. It's like, okay, now, children of America, you're gonna have to learn about zombies. This is an introductory movie about zombies for you. Gentle and soft and kind of funny. A little scary, you know, so that you can step up to, you know, World of Z. What's that? Z?

[David Spade]

World War Z.

[Dana Carvey]

World War Z. I remember Lauren asked me when his kids were little girls, I don't really understand Scooby Doo. And I said, I don't really get why they love it. And to your point, it was the first time. When they're a certain age, it's a little scary. The mask comes off. There's a haunted person. So that was the rocket fuel for that.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Get them.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, you step them up to the Exorcist.

[Dan Aykroyd]

That's right.

[Dana Carvey]

I saw it at 17. Still haven't unseen it, but I said,

[David Spade]

it is even too early.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, well, we went in.

[David Spade]

We've never seen it.

[Dana Carvey]

You don't see it. It's. It's too scary, I guess. It's brilliant.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It's brilliant.

[David Spade]

I believe in that shit. I'm a paranormal guy like Danny.

[Dana Carvey]

Brought to you by Apple Card. Apple card users get 2% daily cash back on purchases made in store and online, whether it's for big ticket items or everyday purchases. When they use their Apple Card with Apple Pay now, that's a benefit that's just too good to pass up.

[David Spade]

You could be earning 2% daily cash back. When you use your Apple Card with Apple pay to buy turmeric for your signature curry. 2% back on flights to visit the family in Tucson and even 2% back on your kid's new tuba. You might even be able to get 2% back on a tuba tutor. Not an Apple card customer. You can apply in the wallet app on iPhone. Subject to credit approval. Apple card is issued by Goldman Sachs bank usa Salt Lake City branch terms and more at Apple co benefits. 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. Snapple Real fact 831 adults laugh only about 15 to 100 times a day while preschoolers laugh 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.

[David Spade]

Enjoy the moment. Enjoy the moment because let's be honest, this might be the most refreshing part of your day. Snapple make your break more interesting. Dan, you believe in UFOs?

[Dan Aykroyd]

I believe that they're.

[Dana Carvey]

I just tell us they're real. Everyone believes in UFOs. It's just where are they coming from? Is the only.

[Dan Aykroyd]

But of course there's I know they're real. You can be a skeptic and say,

[Dana Carvey]

oh well, I'm not a skeptic, but I do have a question for you.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Where are they coming from? All different species. There's probably dozens of them.

[David Spade]

They come from the ocean.

[Dan Aykroyd]

There may be bases there and. Go ahead.

[Dana Carvey]

I love it. No, I just tell you. Look, I'm totally. Because whenever I'm thinking about supernatural stuff and I always go, we're here. So the greatest supernatural thing is that we exist right now. Talking here. How do we get here? What are we doing here? So I'm open minded to all of it. What I was curious about the United States Air Force that the sightings of the UFOs seem to be stuck in kind of a black and white herky jerky 1950s motif. Can't they get more sophisticated cameras on these suckers? So we can really.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, there's more Footage coming out. And it is all governed now by the new office at the Pentagon that handles this. And it is called the All Domain because they go in water, they fly through water a thousand miles an hour. So space, sky, water, all Domain anomalous. You don't know what it is resolution, because they have to resolve. They've got military craft and equipment being exposed. So it's the All Domain Anomalous Resolution office to figure out what they are. And so that's. We actually have a Pentagon department now that's working on that or a branch that's working. And, you know, all those sightings will be brought in by the military and brought in by civilians and analyzed there. So it's real.

[David Spade]

They're there.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Again, your question, who, where. Where are they coming from? Why? I think a lot of them are just tourists.

[David Spade]

I think it's not as scary a little bit because they. And I'm scared of them, even though I, I do.

[Dana Carvey]

Is it dimensional?

[David Spade]

Well, I think they, they would have done whatever they're going to. Done. They're already here. They've been here a million times. They would. They can take us out if they want. That's why I feel a little easier.

[Dan Aykroyd]

They're not, I don't, I don't think they're a threat. However, you know, I will shoot them.

[David Spade]

No, I'm kidding.

[Dan Aykroyd]

If you talk to some of the aviators down there in Marina del Rey with fire department, the police department, the sheriff's department, helicopters and such, they see them all the time and they seem to be bugging them and, and flying them, flying around and like challenging them.

[David Spade]

I'm so.

[Dana Carvey]

Do you feel, in a way, Dan, you were ahead of your time in a sense because now it's going more mainstream.

[David Spade]

Yes.

[Dana Carvey]

You were with the Pentagon and it's more acknowledged and you've been talking about four of them.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Them.

[Dana Carvey]

And we've seen two here unidentified.

[Dan Aykroyd]

And my mother saw one. That was why I got interested in it. My mother saw one in 1947 and she worked in the aircraft production ministry in World War II in Ottawa during the war in aircraft production for the fuselages on the Hurricane. So she knew aircraft and she said in 1947 she saw one on the Spark. Spark street there in Illinois. They're going to Ottawa now. Yeah, Back then they were. Yeah, yeah, they kind of going everywhere. Yeah. I don't, I don't think they want a formal relationship with us, but they will take advantage of us using.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, do you have any sense of being connected to 2001 A Space Odyssey Just the idea that we were seated here by an alien race still seems a fascinating.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. You know, one of the favorite movies of a lot of people at NASA is the movie that. That was made, Mission to Mars. What had the face. The face on Mars in it.

[Dana Carvey]

And the theory was that was Gary Sinise.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, I think so.

[Dana Carvey]

Mission to Mars. It wasn't the one with Matt Damon. Matt Damon, no, no. It was one of Gary s. This

[Dan Aykroyd]

postulated that we were seated here and there was some help. There was some help. And so a lot of NASA personnel see that as a kind of a viable concept. From what I've. You know what I understand.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, of course. And everything's on the table. Unless someone has all this figured out.

[David Spade]

Have you seen any aliens? Because they have pictures of them. They have.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I don't. I never know. Never seen.

[David Spade]

But, you know, they're out. You know that people have seen pictures.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, sure, sure.

[Dana Carvey]

No, all kinds of shapes and, you know, my poltergeist, or whatever you call them, experiences that are.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, yeah. You really went through that. Yeah. And it was annoying to you that your experiences, it wasn't something you enjoyed, right? It was.

[Dana Carvey]

No. What? Well, the one that was the. Well, there's many of them. But in this house we have up in Northern California that was built in 1912, there's three bedrooms upstairs. And so one night, and I didn't know what white noise was at this point, believe it or not, it just had not. It was the 90s or whatever. So I wake up to this, like a FM radio between channels, right. I'm going, why is everyone sleeping? So I walk around and by the time I get in the room, I don't hear it. But it was not a waking dream state. It wasn't like a nightmare. It was just like, what the heck? And so that room, I also had some. When I slept in there once because company's over. I had an experience there, but I've become less afraid of it because if it starts to happen, I just sort of go with it.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Now it happens to millions of people. Hans Holzer, H O L Z E R. He was the great Ghostbuster and he has a great number of books upon, you know, dealing with all of the things that he dealt with in his career.

[David Spade]

Is that how Ghostbusters started? Is you just got into all that?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, my family was into it. My great grandfather was a spiritualist researcher. And all around the house, in the cottage there that we had in the summers, which was the summer house, where he lived was full of journals and books and his writings. And so I was sitting there flipping through a journal from the American Society for Psychical Research. And it was an article on quantum physics and parapsychology. And I just went, okay, parapsychology, quantum physics. The real terms, the real vernacular, the real research that's being done. Marry that to an old style comedy like Abbott and Costello, Bowery Boys, Bob Hope and Dean.

[Dana Carvey]

Bing Crosby.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Bing Crosby, who did ghost movies.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Dan Aykroyd]

In fact, hold that Ghost, I think, is a movie with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. And it's the first use of the term Ghostbusters. Somebody asks Dean Martin, who are you guys? We're Ghostbusters, he says, and by the

[Dana Carvey]

way, just as an aside, we're Ghostbusters.

[Dan Aykroyd]

He says, yeah, so that was the first use of the term. And there was a great tradition of ghost movies in Hollywood. I thought, let's marry the real vernacular or the real science, the real fact that. That people are seriously, you know, seriously into this research with an old style comedy. Now, as an aside, that movie hold that Ghost with Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin. Jerry Lewis does a. A walk down the stairs in the old castle set. That it defies physics. The way he comes down those stairs and doesn't kill himself is amazing. He was a spectacular.

[David Spade]

Was he trying to be.

[Dan Aykroyd]

No, he was just coming down the stairs as like clumsily coming down the stairs.

[David Spade]

Not possessed or he is.

[Dan Aykroyd]

No, no. Just clumsily walking down the stairs and he. I don't know how he didn't kill himself. He was a masterful, physical comedian. Absolutely masterful. To your point, you hung with him. You must have known Jerry Lewis. Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Not really. I met the woman who played the ingenue, Cinderfella.

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah, Cinderfella.

[Dana Carvey]

And then I went and looked at a scene on YouTube of Jerry Lewis. There's a centerpiece where he's dancing around with the stairs. To your point, the physical comedy is breathtaking.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

And it went on and on. He was directing it.

[David Spade]

You must have met him.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I did. Well, actually, I met. I talked to him on the phone. Schaefer hooked him up on the phone with me one day and Jerry. And hello. And Jerry. And I said, jerry, can you give me a nya ng? Give me a nang. And he.

[David Spade]

On the phone.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I'll never forget. Over the phone I hear. It all comes from the Jewish Yiddish theater of the Lower east side. The Catskills, all of that humor. The ngang, the shoulder, take the spit, take the fork, drop. Have you Ever. The fork drop's wonderful. You're sitting at dinner, somebody says something and bink the fork.

[Dana Carvey]

That's all.

[Dan Aykroyd]

A comedy from the Yiddish Lower east side. Do you know that there's a wonderful expression for your show in Yiddish? The fly on the wall. And it goes. It's the flick. Oeifter vant. That's how you say fly on the wall in Yiddish.

[Dana Carvey]

Let's get this. So we have our promos.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

It's poetic.

[Dan Aykroyd]

So that the ngang. He gave me a ngang. And all of that comes from that rich, rich tradition.

[Dana Carvey]

Did you have other, like, heroes? Like, did Cary Grant ever reach out to you or other supers in the 70s when you guys were exploding?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Because Tim Leary and Davis were.

[Dana Carvey]

Timothy Leary.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, Timothy Davis. I bought him. And on our friends, I bought the last steak dinner that he ate before he died at the Marmont over there at the restaurant.

[David Spade]

What'd you put in it?

[Dana Carvey]

Really?

[Dan Aykroyd]

It was already taken care of.

[Dana Carvey]

And now everybody's doing it for mental health reasons.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I know Timothy Leary. I met Jimmy Hoffa because I, I.

[David Spade]

Whatever happened to him, that's a big one.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Spade]

Giant Stadium. That's the last I heard.

[Dan Aykroyd]

That was. Yeah, yeah. Well, you saw that movie with help. Met him. Lauren Bacall. I worked with her. I worked with Jim Garner and Jack Lemmon. I worked with Jack Lemmon in a movie called American president. And Lauren McCall was in that. It was wonderful.

[David Spade]

Was that Pete Siegel?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, Pete Siegel. God, yeah. And work with. With all great veterans like that.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. That's what I was curious about. Intersected.

[Dan Aykroyd]

So, so neat. So neat.

[Dana Carvey]

And.

[David Spade]

Yeah, when you left, SNL was there. So Chevy came. We had Chevy on here. He was perfectly bananas the way we wanted.

[Dan Aykroyd]

That's amazing.

[Dana Carvey]

He was. We're so mad we didn't film it.

[David Spade]

It was so funny.

[Dana Carvey]

He was doing shtick and stuff.

[Dan Aykroyd]

No, his sticks and stones, his work with his fingers. If you never saw any other part of him to work with his hands. I. I remember he did something just like, you know, he's like. He's there. He's got the fingers walking. And then all of a sudden and it starts to. And you. You just. Hilarious. The control.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, we had this here, which is like 10 bottles on a tray. He just waited. At a given point, he just. Like bowling pins.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, perfectly.

[Dana Carvey]

But he waited. He knew. You could tell. He knew early on that was his go to.

[Dan Aykroyd]

No, I love Chevy.

[Dana Carvey]

I love. No, we do, too.

[David Spade]

And you stayed straight through. Like, he. He was the first Year of snl. And then you stayed how long did you say? Five years?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Four.

[David Spade]

Four years.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. And the reason we left was purely and sorely because. And we had to finish the Blues Brothers. Oh, really? Maybe it was a possibility we'd go back. You know, we went to Chicago. Then the movie went sort of early summer, late summer.

[David Spade]

Oh, it kept going.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Autumn.

[David Spade]

But you were shooting and we were

[Dan Aykroyd]

shooting, and we had to go back to LA to shoot some of the stuff inside. The church scene, the soul food restaurant. All of that had to be done in la. And we knew we couldn't go back. So I made the call to Lauren saying we weren't going to return for John.

[Dana Carvey]

How hard was that?

[Dan Aykroyd]

It was made a little easier because when Animal House was being done, they wanted me to play D Day and they wanted me to join Landis and. And Reitman and.

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah, you'd be great.

[Dan Aykroyd]

And, you know, John in Oregon to do that movie. And I just looked and I just. John's gone, man. I just looked and I thought, you know how I can't leave Lauren here without another. Without a writer or an actor, you know? So I told him, I said, I'm going to stay. And I stayed on then. So when we left for Blues Brothers, it was a little easier because I did stay on and I didn't leave for Animal House. Yeah. And there's like, somebody, some analysts somewhere, some pundit or something said, oh, Lauren forced me to stay. Or was it, you know, you enforced the contract. Lauren is not a dictator. Slave driver. You want to go, you go. He's not like that. No, he encouraged us.

[David Spade]

He wouldn't want to look thirsty like that.

[Dana Carvey]

He would say. He would say, we'd love to have you, you know, but if you need to go, you know.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, that would be his gracious Canadian.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

And then you fell in love with his cast members. He did to this day.

[Dan Aykroyd]

He loved my boys and my girls, he calls them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he loves it. He loves them.

[Dana Carvey]

Summer. What do you think about summer coming up?

[David Spade]

Sneaks up on me.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, I know.

[David Spade]

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]

groceries how you like and do it instantly.

[Heather Santoro]

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[Dana Carvey]

When I came in in 86 because he'd had that five year hiatus, constantly references to you guys and it was so intimidating to me and it was like Danny did it because I'd come up with an idea. Well, Danny did that season two and of course Chevy believes. But you Guys are the original.

[David Spade]

So there is Billy, Chevy, Dann.

[Dana Carvey]

Never the last name, never said Dan Aykroyd, never said Paul Simon, never said Paul McCartney.

[Dan Aykroyd]

And look how the show's going now. So current, so relevant, always works, so extraordinary.

[Heather Santoro]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

When you did Blues Brothers, which is one of my all time great ones, and I know you opened for Steve Martin at the Universal. I heard that, that show.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Why there is a Blues Brothers? Because John recorded the record from there.

[David Spade]

God damn, you do. How do you get Carrie Fisher? Was she Star wars or was she.

[Dan Aykroyd]

How does it go? My girlfriend, you mean?

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

She didn't get into this. She didn't do a love line.

[Dan Aykroyd]

No.

[David Spade]

Well. Well, because it wasn't the Barbie part for her.

[Dan Aykroyd]

She was good friends with John and just good friends with Penny Marshall and John. And she was Penny's buddy and we just asked her to be a part of it and she was a part of it. And then we fell in love and we almost got married. We had blood tests and rings exchanged and everything. And I was ready to spend the rest of my life with Carrie. And after we wrapped the movie, we got into Alear 24 with John and Judy and we flew to Martha's Vineyard and we flew to this house that Judy had bought me in the Vineyard to be near John to plan future projects, right? And I said, judy, just buy me a house. I don't care what it looks like. It was our first check from Atlantic Records and she bought me a house and said, you're going to see your house tonight for the first time and you're bringing Carrie home. So I brought Carrie home to this house I'd never seen. And it's night and the fog is like down and low. And we go in and walk in and they flip the lights on. And I could just tell that it was not to Carrie's design sense at all. It was a mid-50s, lot of modern furniture, very, you know, Eames chairs and stuff. And she. So that night was a difficult night. And then in the morning I heard her talking to Paul Simon, her boyfriend at the time before. And I could hear her talk and hear, well, I'll be there and I'll be in New York tomorrow or today. And I thought, oh, and she's leaving. So I said, you know, Kerry, the view is supposed to be beautiful in this house. You should say, no, I have to get back. I've got to go back to Paul. I've got to go. I'm going back down. Please take me to the airport. Nothing rancorous. Or very amicable. I thought it was. We thought we were getting married. So I go, I drive her to the airport and get her on a plane, kiss her goodbye and say, I'll see you soon. We'll hang, you know, I love you. I love you. And then, you know, she flies off and I drive in the Jeep back to the Martha's Vineyard house. And I'm kind of despondent. And I walk, I drive up to the house and the fog has lifted and I've got a 275 degree view of the ocean, the islands, and that this beautiful, beautiful promontory that the house was on. I thought, you know, she saw that she might. She saw we would have been married today.

[Dana Carvey]

It's like Manhattan socked in. Oh, it's the only time we went. Is it always foggy? No, no, no.

[Dan Aykroyd]

And so, yeah, that meant. But we were good friends all the way. Right to the end of her life, of course.

[David Spade]

And Blues Brothers, I think it's one of those where a lot of people want to be around funny people. And she's like, if I.

[Dan Aykroyd]

And she's a big star, but it's like funny herself. I mean, hilarious, brilliant.

[David Spade]

She's really in that.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, she's great. We had a ball, of course, you know, because we were making a movie and we were in love. You know, you're making a movie with someone you love, you can go to work in the morning with them.

[Dana Carvey]

I can't imagine the rocket ship. You know, I had my own little success there, too. Wayne's World, anyway. But you guys, I'm doing a David there. Blues Brothers. When I first saw that, I was like, this is so electric on every level. Like, you're enjoying it. You and John. The dancing and the energy of it was like. Well, this is something new, different. This is like, really musical, too. Like, the band was kicking. And then you guys were just so funny with all the shtick to me again. Just fantasizing about being on Saturday Night Live. Just those characters. Don't get me started with wild and crazy guys. Don't even start with that one.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Come on. I don't think I can do that guy no more. No, you can't play around with accents anymore. You can't have it. And you can't even talk about the parts on a woman.

[David Spade]

The parts.

[Dana Carvey]

And we. Look, they love our American bulges or what was it?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, the bulges. Yeah. Please, you will be shocked by my great bulge. You know, you gotta watch it these days.

[Dana Carvey]

I mean, I was so influenced by you Guys, Rhythmically, musically. What about. You had Aretha Franklin?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, she was.

[David Spade]

You had Aretha.

[Dan Aykroyd]

That.

[David Spade]

I think that is one of the greatest inside.

[Dan Aykroyd]

She looked so cute in that waiter's outfit. She didn't want to wear the waitress's outfit. No, I can't. I can. Deborah Nandulman, Landis's wife, the designer, designed this beautiful waitress. Made her look great. Yeah, yeah.

[David Spade]

It was even funnier that she had

[Dan Aykroyd]

that so supportive of us all the way through. She always was. And so was Ray and everybody. Yeah.

[David Spade]

And John Candy.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

We had another.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Candy was Legend. Yeah. And then we had Cropper and Dunn, who were Otis Redding's guitar players. So that made it happen. Now I still play with. With Jimmy, John's brother. We go out on. We have an active concert schedule. We go out with a band that we've got here from California and Texas that we put together over the years. And we got a, you know, we got a couple of games.

[Dana Carvey]

What's more fun than that?

[Dan Aykroyd]

The music. And hear that guitar and hear that. Yeah, just the organ and, you know, moving. I've got, you know, 78% of the moves left, so, you know.

[David Spade]

Pretty good.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. Last week it was 80, but declines.

[David Spade]

Yeah. I'm in the low 40s. Yeah. It's not. It's not all clicking or.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It is clicking.

[Dana Carvey]

So you're going along. There's Trading Places, there's Blues Brothers. There's all these stuff we get on Saturday Night Live.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

And then. And then. What's Dan gonna do now? And then I don't know what the trajectory was, but then Ghostbusters was like, probably equivalent, inflation adjusted, almost like gone with the win or something. It was like 300 million in 1994.

[Dan Aykroyd]

That's right.

[Dana Carvey]

So like it was 300 million now or a billion.

[David Spade]

Oh, my God.

[Dana Carvey]

So what?

[David Spade]

Titanic.

[Dana Carvey]

And you thought of it that day

[Dan Aykroyd]

at the farmhouse where the old. Where the seances took place, where my great, great grandfather had seances from the twenties and that. And I was sitting there reading that journal and I just thought, old style Abbott and Costello comedy with the real science. Marry it up.

[Dana Carvey]

It's brilliant. But who's the first person you told?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, that would have been Bernie Brillstein, I guess. Oh, yeah, Bernie. And I love it. And then Ovitz. And then I turned a draft into both of those guys. And then we went to Ivan, and Ivan got. Got it how it could be fixed and made what it was.

[Dana Carvey]

You wrote it fat, right?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, not so much lengthwise, but it was a little darker. It was a little. It wasn't the movie you saw, but it certainly had all of the stuff in there that became the movie. All the elements were there. And then Ivan looked at it, and then Ivan said, let's go to Harold. And Harold looked at it and understood what I was trying to do here with it. And then we decided, what do we do about Cass? And Harold? And Ivan looked at each other and said, well, if we could get Murray, we will give it to Murray. I mean. And so he carried the ball for us.

[Dana Carvey]

He was the master of those lines, those throwaway lines. His style.

[Dan Aykroyd]

One of the. Probably the greatest comedy romantic lead of our. Of our. Of our generation and maybe many, many.

[Dana Carvey]

And him and Sigourney Weaver.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

Very cool.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Beautiful.

[Dana Carvey]

Brilliant.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Beautiful. It all came together.

[Dana Carvey]

It's just magic. Once a film works, any film, but when something like that, that's old and new and then just connects so strong. I remember going to, you know, it was like Jaws in a way. Huge lines, theater packed. Oh, yeah. It was a whole phenomenon.

[David Spade]

How fun to have that hit and because you could have screwed that movie up easily. I mean, it's a great idea. But everywhere along movies you go in where it's good and you go, God, where do we go wrong at the editing that this, the casting. But to get it every step of the way and it comes.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, look at who was on it, right? Harold Ivan.

[Dana Carvey]

Rick Moranis had his heart.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Him and Sigourney and Ken. Him and Sigourney are big parts of why that movie works great. Yeah, yeah.

[David Spade]

No Zoologist.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, no.

[David Spade]

Well, and I was on IMDb today because I could not remember who Dan Aykroyd was. And so I looked him up and even Ghostbusters, there's like 80 iterations. It's like a cartoon of this. There's so many. Yeah, because there's probably. I think there's a new one coming out.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, there's a new animated cartoon that they're working on.

[David Spade]

Okay, but is there a movie movie or not? Isn't.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I don't know what the status is with strikes and all that. They're telling me not strikes are over. Is it really today?

[David Spade]

Today?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, then in March, Ghostbust, frozen empire with McKenna Grace, Finn Wolfhardt, Billy, Myself, Winst Ernie and Patton Oswalt, thank you very much. And Paul Rudd and Carrie Coon. And you've already got a cast. And yeah, we are ready to go in March with a spectacular new release. A great news story and it is going to be hot and really Fun, scary, Whole new generation. Handing it to the kids. Really excited. We completed it in England and it's going to be coming out in March.

[David Spade]

Oh, so you did do it. It's done.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, it's done. It comes out in March. I just couldn't talk about it till this instant.

[Dana Carvey]

I read about this and then I thought maybe something happened. We have a. We have a. Yeah.

[David Spade]

It gave me that blank stare.

[Dana Carvey]

I'm like, ghost fly on the wall. It's our first real scoop.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It is talking about it for the first time in any media right here.

[Dana Carvey]

Okay, so you have Paul Rudd, you've got.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

Finn, who is from Strangers.

[Dan Aykroyd]

How about hysterical as a genius and

[Dana Carvey]

a great, great comic actor.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Serious actor too.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, he is great delivery.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, always.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

Any name ghosts? We got the Tic Tac Ghost from the Navy video.

[Dana Carvey]

What's the plot?

[David Spade]

Oh yeah, what's the plot? Or can you tell us?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, leave us to say that, you know, an entity is found in a psychometrically charged object.

[David Spade]

Too much? Thank you.

[Dan Aykroyd]

That's all.

[David Spade]

I figured the whole thing out.

[Dana Carvey]

Okay. I love it.

[David Spade]

I'm excited. And it's Jason Reitman.

[Dana Carvey]

I'm gonna do a pre order right.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Jason Keenan. Gil Keenan directed it. Jason's partner.

[David Spade]

I love it.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Jason did second unit and they co wrote.

[David Spade]

Great guy.

[Dan Aykroyd]

And of course the kids are wonderful.

[David Spade]

Oh yeah.

[Dan Aykroyd]

McKenna Finn.

[Dana Carvey]

And, and, and you do. You're a guy.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I do. You know, the, the enthusiastic, you know, wants to believe everything, you know.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Kind of a little, kind of resentful that. That, you know, things have passed him by. Ghostbuster in this one, you know, because they. He's no longer licensed.

[Dana Carvey]

You always have that skill set of putting a lot of words together. Really like that is true, like as a comic concept, you know, but you know, that. Is that something.

[Dan Aykroyd]

My mother was French Canadian. My mother was French Canadian and I grew up around French Canadians and French Canadians. They speak very fast like that. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They talk a lot fast. Bring me that right now. Give me the salt, give me the pepper, give me the steak, give me the potato, Give me every. You want some wine? You want. They talk like that. They're fast, the French Canadians. So I had this always, you know, and plus, plus sitting around the table, there'd be 14 family members and you know, you couldn't get a word in unless you interjected it. Injected in there.

[Dana Carvey]

So how did you go from like a 14 year old, 15 year old and then you were really. Were you on SNL, 21 or 22 or something?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, I was 23.

[Dana Carvey]

So young. So what? Just quickly.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I mean, for your Second City at 21 and 22, wasn't there your late. And Lorne Michaels at 19, I worked with him on a CBC special. At 19 show, hard and the Heart. And Lauren, terrific hour.

[Dana Carvey]

You were on that.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It was on an offshoot of that. That's right.

[Dana Carvey]

So you were like 18 or 19. You're on Television Canada doing something.

[Dan Aykroyd]

That's right, 19.

[Dana Carvey]

It's called a savant.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, well, it was.

[Dana Carvey]

It was called an early adoption.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It was being steeped in improv. My parents sent me at 12 years old to Ottawa Little Theater improv class. And so I was already doing it sort of back then. You know, it just killed.

[Dana Carvey]

It came to you. It's like Larry Bird, he said when basketball. He first got a basketball in hand, he said the game came to me. So it just came to you?

[Dan Aykroyd]

It was.

[Dana Carvey]

And then you worked your ass off course.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, I was encouraged to pursue it, and it was fun to do improv in that. And then at Second City, I was learning all the techniques over again that I'd already known at 12 and 13 years old at the little theater improv classes. Yeah. So started early.

[Dana Carvey]

You know, it seems to me that in your part of this, we were talking to Michael McKean and, you know, the. The Beatles and all the music of the 60s and then the trundling along with Peter Sellers. And then you all kind of knew each other from 70 or 75 or. You know, it's very interesting because you were like the Beatles of comedy to me, the SNL cast.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, you had the Lampoon crew. You had, you know, Chevy and you had Chris Guest and Harry Shearer and you had Johnny Belushi and. And then you have Gilda eventually, because Belushi stole her away there from Second City. Then you had the Canadian crew, Levy o', Hara, myself, Candy Moranis, Thomas. Yeah, that was. So there were two. And then. And the Venn diagram kind of crossed. And some of those people ended up working with each other on various things. Yeah, But I think my first. The first time, like, for us, like, getting interested in entertainment. Okay, I'm in grade three now. What the hell? In grade three, I'm like, I have five years old, maybe four.

[Dana Carvey]

No, eight.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I'm grade. Grade three.

[Dana Carvey]

So I go, you're 17.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I was. I was. I was young. I was, you know, five or three or four or five, I guess, in grade three or something.

[Dana Carvey]

Yes.

[Dan Aykroyd]

So what happened and so they. They are doing an Irish St Patrick's Day concert. And they compelled me to learn McNamara's band. You know that song. Oh, Hennessy Tennessee Toodle the flute. The musical something grand. So they put me in a green bowler and a green vest and a green pants and leprechaun shoes. Put me out on stage with a sync track and they made me learn it. They made me stay back from school to learn it. And so the concert comes and we go. I go to the concert and I start singing and I'm like, oh, I'm just gonna get through this. God. I remember it vividly. Oh, God. And I get to the end and finish and give the tap dance finish and howling the crowd.

[David Spade]

Whoa.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Really? You like that that much? And I'm thinking to myself, oh, wow, that's good. And so I was the big applause. And they take me off stage into the wings. I give back my bowler and I'm thinking, oh, man, that wow, that was very, very interesting. And then two of my friends, Ricky and Greg come up. Rick Hollingsworth and Greg Chitivis. And they come up and they say, hey, yeah, that was nothing, man. Like the bad donkeys. Bad donkeys in. Over in, you know, in Pinocchio, you know, the bad, bad.

[Dana Carvey]

You're not so bad.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, you think that was good? You think that? Come here. Come on with us. Let me show you something. Let me show you this. Let's show you this. They take me across the street to the funeral home across the street from the church hall where I did the concert. So I go from the elation of singing McNamara's band and getting cheered to two minutes later walking into the funeral home where seven bodies are laid out. A family that had drowned in a car the night before. 7. The Father, the mother, the sisters, the

[David Spade]

brothers, the stock blockers. Don't want you to be famous.

[Dana Carvey]

I go this, look at this, look at this.

[Dan Aykroyd]

And I walk in. I'll never. That as long as I like. He'd rolled his car in the. In the Gatineau river and drowned. And so they bring me from, you know, my performance euphoria to whoa.

[David Spade]

But are they jealous I didn't.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, yeah, yeah. Namby pamby singing. And they look at these dead people. So they go over and there were the. The seven on a baby coffin too. Jesus.

[David Spade]

Great.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I didn't do any jigs for years and years afterwards that turned me right off. Any kind of. Of performance. That's a true story. Isn't that weird? Oh, wow. And then it's Horrifying. Seven bodies, the family. And all beautifully preserved. Never forget the dark eyebrows. The mother and father.

[Dana Carvey]

I'm still processing this story.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Exhilaration. And they. Yeah, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

At age five, six.

[Dan Aykroyd]

They ruined. Yeah. So I. I didn't dance or sing for years afterwards.

[Dana Carvey]

Weirdly, my first gig was in a funeral home. But that's a whole other story. David.

[David Spade]

I played a dead body in that scene. No, you went on snl, so you get there. What's your first big sketch that works?

[Dana Carvey]

Is it just the very first show or Bassomatic?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, the first sketch that works was the one that Garrett and I did as home invasionists to prove to the homeowner that their house was vulnerable. And so we break into their home to prove it was vulnerable. Yeah. And then pitch them on an alarm system.

[David Spade]

Is that first show.

[Dan Aykroyd]

That was the first sketch I was in. Yeah, first show. Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

And that was the Wolverine one.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It opened a cold opening with John and the Wolverine with Michael o'. Donoghue. Oh, my God. And then we had the home invasion sketch.

[Dana Carvey]

You were after the monologue.

[Dan Aykroyd]

After the monologue.

[David Spade]

When was that? Oh, that's a good spot.

[Dana Carvey]

It's a home run spot. Who was the host of your first show?

[Dan Aykroyd]

George Carlin.

[David Spade]

George Carlin.

[Dana Carvey]

George Carlin. I waited on him once at a Holiday Inn. I brought him oatmeal. He goes, oatmeal, drop the O, and you have at meal. Did he really? Yeah. Why is there no blue shoes, big shoes, little shoes, brown shoes, girl scoop shoes? It was. That was.

[David Spade]

He was working on it.

[Dana Carvey]

Don't tell me about Richard Pryor, too. I. I was a waiter at the Holiday Inn. I waited on all.

[David Spade]

Oh, because it was next to the Circle Star Theater.

[Dana Carvey]

Yep. Waited on Rich Little.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Everyone said, which Holiday Inn on Highland?

[Dana Carvey]

No, this was on the Peninsula. It was a theater in the round. Like be near Michigan. No, no, Peninsula. South of San Francisco.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, I saw San Francisco. Yeah. I see. Right.

[Dana Carvey]

And they all stayed at the Holiday Inn. So they were, you know, I gave Richard Pryor, Deborah, stuff like that, you know.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, well, you know, I find the great people are really nice. The ones who are really great are nice. And the medium talent people aren't so nice. You know, I've kind of.

[Dana Carvey]

I think that's true.

[Dan Aykroyd]

You know, he was a great Richard. Well, Prior and Carlin, they were both, you know, and they would have been gracious to you.

[Dana Carvey]

Very nice. I did a movie with Prior.

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Very sensitive and sweet and.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, great, great.

[Dana Carvey]

Vulnerable.

[David Spade]

Did he host when you were There.

[Dan Aykroyd]

What's up?

[David Spade]

Did he host?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Richard Pryor hosted? Sure. I remember helping to write that show.

[David Spade]

All right, sir. Fair enough, sir.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

What's that from?

[Dan Aykroyd]

That was. That's right. Yeah. Tom.

[David Spade]

Yeah, that's Tom.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I think I was doing Harry Shearer. Doing Tom. He did a great. Tom Snyder. Outstanding, outstanding. Ah, Tom, everybody.

[David Spade]

I remember saying, I love Tom. I was a kid, I didn't know Dan. I'm so young. No, I'm not. But I was watching it going, I never thought of being on Saturday Night Live. I just was, every kid loves comedy. And I was like, oh, my God. And that's Tom Snyder. I was just starting to get why it was so funny. I didn't really get the depth of how funny it was. I'm like, that's like the guy I just saw. And it was so good. And it was like that dumb little studio and it's little lighting and you have a cigarette and all that stuff. I mean, Fred Garvin was his name. Fred Garvin, male prostitute.

[Dan Aykroyd]

That's right. Little lady.

[David Spade]

Say for the lady.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yes, little lady.

[Dana Carvey]

The name is funny at the time. And he announces himself that way. But you know, the copycats and Rich Little in that generation, Frank Gorschman, those are the shows I was watching.

[David Spade]

And.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, I love them. Love those impressionists. Rich Little Fred Travelina, right?

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, extraordinarily. Yeah, they were great and that was like magic to me. But when you guys came in and did them in a different context, it was just postmodern, you know, A lot

[Dan Aykroyd]

of great impressions on the show. Far Hartman was spectacular.

[Dana Carvey]

Phil Hartman. And we've referenced you and Phil. There's a connection, personality wise. You both have so many interests outside of being quasi effortless performers and then would go read these journalists.

[Dan Aykroyd]

He was a pilot.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, he's a pilot. He was sailing. He was.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I loved him. I loved him, too. He was wonderful.

[Dana Carvey]

You did Bilco with him, right?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, that's right. Steve Martin. Yeah. Yeah. Here's to Phil,

[Dana Carvey]

Chris, John, and a

[Dan Aykroyd]

lot to be thankful for at this time of year. Thanksgiving and Christmas and the old vodka there in the skulls is available in stores all over the nation.

[Dana Carvey]

All over.

[Dan Aykroyd]

If you want to get a.

[Dana Carvey]

The coolest bottle.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, it makes a great gift. That's why I'm on this kind of little tour here because it's gift giving time of year and we want to remind people of that. Thanksgiving and Christmas there's a gift you can bring home and you know, everybody wants to get ahead.

[Dana Carvey]

Where do you get it?

[David Spade]

Is there a website? Is there.

[Dan Aykroyd]

World Wide Web. Crystalhead vodka dot com. It's in most liquor stores across the country, chains and otherwise.

[Dana Carvey]

Crystal Head. And I think it's. It's got a pretty big brand name.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

I think people really are aware because there's a lot of.

[Dan Aykroyd]

A lot of room to grow. So. Yeah.

[David Spade]

See, the bottle should be on your shelf. If you have liquor, it just looks.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

It tastes good.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Should be on every bar.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dan Aykroyd]

In the world.

[Dana Carvey]

Crystal Head. Just in just a few seconds before you get out of here. How'd you come up with that name?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Well, it's based on the legend of

[Dana Carvey]

the crystal heads, which, from Indiana Jones

[Dan Aykroyd]

was referenced in the Indiana Jones movie, and they made a movie about it. In fact, we were developing the concept kind of right in parallel, and I find out that Steven's doing this movie about crystal heads. So I actually called him to take a meeting to tell him, you know, we're not copying your enterprise here. We started at the same time, and it takes two years to build a project like this. And so. So I said, when your movie comes out, we will be out on the marketplace. We will have been out a little before. But I explained to him that we. And it wasn't kind of a plagiarism, and it wasn't really crystal had. There were 13 of them.

[David Spade]

What if he stole it from you?

[Dan Aykroyd]

No, the lead time doesn't work out in terms of when both projects came to fruition. But the Navajo, the Aztec, the Mayans were supposed to have had these heads, and they were used for crystal balls. And so we decided we were doing this vodka that had no fluids, that were pollutants, glycol, sugar, limonene, clean. And so we wanted to sell the idea of enlightened, purified drinking of beverage alcohol. And this was the perfect package to put it in. Yeah, very cool. Yeah, it came from that.

[David Spade]

I have one more question before this young man takes off. During that. When you leave snl, you did a lot of big movies. You probably got offered so many ones that you wish you did. Or is there movies that you got offered other than James Bond?

[Dana Carvey]

I. Yeah, I would have liked Spies Like Us.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I don't.

[David Spade]

Spies Like Us was so.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I don't know that I was offered anything that I turned down, and it became, no, I don't think so.

[David Spade]

No regrets. Where you go, oh, I should have done that one. Spies Like Us was unreal. That was you and Chevy.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah. I did audition for things that I didn't get. Oh, the People versus Larry Flint. I auditioned for the part of the lawyer played by Edward Norton. Oh, okay. And I auditioned for Milo Svoerman, you know, and I read it a couple of times. Don, Don. Do you work with him?

[Dana Carvey]

I auditioned for Amadeus.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, did you? Yeah. Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan, Dan. Stop acting. Stop.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, really?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Stop acting. He go

[Dana Carvey]

was too bored with me. I don't know. I think we're ready to move on.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, yeah.

[David Spade]

During yours.

[Dana Carvey]

Well, I didn't know what I was doing, but I did. I saw the movie and I go, okay, I see they wanted a blonde haired, cherubic guy. Boy.

[David Spade]

Jean, did you go off script and do chopping broccoli?

[Dana Carvey]

No, but I. I wanted to be on Saturday Night Live.

[David Spade]

Yeah, I know.

[Dan Aykroyd]

You know, and you guys did, and you were great. And, you know, today your. Your stuff endures just as strongly as anything that we ever did in that first cast. You know, if you look at church lady and all your impressions and, you know, and everything, you know, and your flight attendant, of course.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, yeah. Bye. Bye.

[Dan Aykroyd]

A classic. A classic.

[David Spade]

Oh, yeah.

[Dan Aykroyd]

All of it. Great.

[Dana Carvey]

My theory is this, is that music and comedy just have to reflect the times. And so we were for our time. And then. I don't ever want to be a grumpy old man about Taylor Swift. She's no John Lennon, you know, that kind of thing. I sat and tried to really do a deep dive into Taylor Swift because I want know. And she's incredibly skilled. And same thing with Saturday Night Live. Now, this is their era and they're great. Yeah, and they're great. And Higgins said. Steve Higgins just said lor. He said, Lauren wrote the constitution and then everyone interprets it for their time, for their era. So.

[Dan Aykroyd]

No, the show's been really great. Really great. The Halloween show was outstanding writing, really, really very smart.

[Dana Carvey]

We had him on the podcast a couple days later. Yeah, he was.

[David Spade]

He's a great comic.

[Dana Carvey]

He's a really good writer. And he's so excited about that. He'd only done talk shows.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Quality, quality work.

[Dana Carvey]

All of it.

[David Spade]

That's nice.

[Dana Carvey]

Still have the George wash?

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, yeah. Well, when I'm awake, I mean, I. I live a very, very quiet life right now. Very quiet. Good. I'm not in the cities. I'm. I'm. I'm in the country.

[David Spade]

That's why I say I used to have a grand national. That was pretty sweet.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah, right. All right. That old black national. Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Oh, yeah. Store you go to and everyone knows your name kind of thing.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, yeah. Going on the motorcycle or take one of the old. You know, the old cars in.

[Dana Carvey]

It seems to me just. Just from afar. You've always had one foot still in whatever you call regular life.

[Dan Aykroyd]

I would say so, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Circle friends, get a steak. I don't know. I've heard things, but it seems like you've always.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Oh, sure, sure. Well, of course, after. For sanity. Yeah. But I don't like living in cities anymore. I prefer to live in the country just because I have tinnitus. You know, the ringing. And also to sleep at night, the blackness. You need the black.

[David Spade]

Yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

Sleep and the. Where I have a place that the mountaineers coming in. And I can open my eyes or close my eyes. Black.

[David Spade]

Still. Black.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Black. Yeah, yeah.

[Dana Carvey]

And dead quiet. All I'll hear is the coyotes sometimes throw a party. But it is so, so good.

[David Spade]

It.

[Dana Carvey]

The deep sleep you get there.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It'll prolong life, that sleep. It really will.

[David Spade]

Mine's being short, and I'm about 40ft from sunset.

[Dan Aykroyd]

It's quiet. And this is a fortress here.

[David Spade]

David, I just hear this is where

[Dana Carvey]

we want to be during the great reset. Plus, he's got a lot of food.

[David Spade]

He stocks a lot of food. This whole thing. Dan, first of all, we've all looked up to you. You're a lovely guy. You're always nice to me. I interviewed you for Spin magazine when I got on snl.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

And you're so cool. And just the fact that you still generous, everything and talking, I love hanging with. We love just bullshitting about the old days.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah. You know, there is an expression, Canadian nice. And I. I went to Canada once and did a gig. And there is Canadian nice. There's Minnesota nice. But Canadian nice was like. I was just at a table before I was gonna go out there, and a guy, it's like he saw me look at some water. Hey, would you like some water there? I can get some water for you. So there is Canadian nice. And Mike Myers, yourself, and. Yeah, it's very sweet. And my wife's Canadian, so I'm much impartial. She's very nice, too.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Sure, sure.

[Dana Carvey]

She listens to the podcast.

[David Spade]

I just did Calgary last weekend and everyone was nice.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah, it's just. Canada is just a cool country.

[David Spade]

It's not a rumor. It's real.

[Dana Carvey]

Yeah.

[David Spade]

Thank you.

[Dana Carvey]

So, anyway, Dan, it's been such an honor and a pleasure. You've been a big part of the puzzle of our little project here, and we're so glad to have you.

[Dan Aykroyd]

We'll hang again soon.

[Dana Carvey]

Yes. See you around campus is what I say.

[Dan Aykroyd]

Take care.

[David Spade]

Slam my crazy crystal hedges for you.

[Dana Carvey]

David is quietly gotten drunk during the podcast. It's David is hot. David is mixed up Stuff works.

[David Spade]

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

[Dana Carvey]

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

[David Spade]

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

[Dana Carvey]

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

[David Spade]

Phil Sweet Tech booking by Cultivated Entertainment.

[Dana Carvey]

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

[David Spade]

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