RE-RELEASE - Tony Hawk

Summary

Podcast Summary

Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade

Episode: RE-RELEASE – Tony Hawk
Date: April 29, 2026
Hosts: Dana Carvey & David Spade
Guest: Tony Hawk

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Episode Overview

In this re-released episode, comedy legends Dana Carvey and David Spade sit down with skateboarding icon Tony Hawk for an unfiltered, hilarious, and surprisingly heartfelt conversation. The trio revisit their unlikely Hollywood intersection in "Police Academy 4," delve into Tony’s groundbreaking achievements, the ups and downs of his career, the technical and mental side of skateboarding, injury stories, and the inner workings of skate culture. Throughout, the hosts keep the mood light with signature banter as Tony shares stories about passion, perseverance, pain, and the pursuit of excellence.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Meeting Tony Hawk & Early Impressions

• Police Academy 4 Connection: Spade and Hawk recall meeting on the film set as young up-and-comers, David as an actor and Tony as a rising skate star and stunt double.
  • B: “We had a good time with good old Tony Hawk. I met this young man... he came in the studio. We met when I was 20 or 21 on Police Academy.” (00:09)
  • Tony’s memories as a skate double, the audition process, and being replaced due to a growth spurt.

The Skateboarding Journey

• Obsessive Drive, Not Natural Talent:
  • Tony describes himself not as a natural athlete but someone who became “possessed” by skateboarding:
  • C: “Honestly, it was just being obsessive and determined, to a fault… I would just do it endlessly.” (11:05)
  • Skateboarding as an outlet for a misfit: struggling to fit in at school, he found belonging in skating.
• Early Sponsorships and Pro Career:
  • First sponsorship at 12 by Dogtown; went pro at 14 by simply checking the “pro” box at a competition.
  • C: “That was it. And then I was competing… for a hundred dollars. First place. 75 second. 50 for third. I got fourth.” (17:37)
• Family Support:
  • Tony’s parents embraced his focus on skateboarding because it provided him with purpose and direction.
  • C: “My parents… saw what it provided me, my sense of self and self confidence… so they were thankful and they were supportive.” (18:48)

The Rough Ride: Skate Injuries and Recovery

• Major Injuries and Grit:
  • Tony candidly recounts breaking his femur at 54 attempting a McTwist—a trick he’d done thousands of times—and the punishing recovery process.
  • C: “I was sliding through the flat part of my ramp with my leg… just dangling… I grabbed it and put it back in place instinctually.” (06:00)
  • His bone failed to heal for months because he was “too active” on it. Eventually, a specialist reset the break, and Tony made a humble, hard-earned return.
• Perspective on Aging and Healing:
  • A: “At 24, things heal faster.” C: “I learned that too.” (09:32)
• Concussions and Culture:
  • Multiple concussions but proactive about brain health; says old culture ignored the danger (44:08).
  • Donning helmets and pads: Tony advocates for safety gear, especially as “skate cool” conflicts with self-preservation.
  • C: “There was a movement to not have helmets… You guys are flying 10 feet above 10 foot pools… that's… not going to go well.” (45:12)

Skate Culture, Status, and Rivalries

• Navigating Stereotypes & Social Outcast Status:
  • Even as a pro, Tony hid his board at school to avoid derision:
  • C: “I would hide my skateboard in the bushes when I go to school because people would hassle me… They would yell skater fag… I was a ghost.” (20:06)
• The Turf Wars:
  • In the evolution to the X-Games era, old skater/rollerblader/BMXer “turf wars” faded for Tony. As an “elder statesman,” he embraced all—yet notes the real-life hazards of mixing skateboards and silent BMX bikes.
  • C: “We were all brethren… BMXers, even the inliners, and skateboarders, because we rode the same terrain.” (14:16)

Passion Over Fame

• Never About Money or Fame:
  • Tony and the hosts draw parallels between stand-up and skateboarding—devotion as the core motivator:
  • C: “I never did it for fame or fortune… those weren’t even dreams. In skateboarding, no one was rich or famous when I started." (22:32)
  • A: “I just wanted to be the best guy in that club.” (22:39)
• On Pushing Personal Limits:
  • Tony refuses to “phone it in”—he’d step away rather than perform at less than a pro standard.
  • C: “I can't phone it in and everyone’s watching you… I can't… walk the walk.” (23:21)

The Tony Hawk Video Game Revolution

• Genesis and Struggle:
  • Tony and a programmer pitched the concept everywhere and were repeatedly shot down.
  • C: “We just got shut down. Everywhere we went, they said skateboarding is not popular. Why would anyone want to play a skateboarding game?” (31:03)
  • Success came when Activision, working off a game engine from an old Bruce Willis game, took a chance.
  • C: “The first time I ever played what became Tony Hawk's Pro Skater was Bruce Willis on a skateboard with a gun on his back doing kickflips.” (33:05)
• Cultural Impact:
  • The game’s success fueled expansion, recognition, and commercial rewards—making Tony’s name synonymous with skateboarding itself.
  • C: “I credit a lot of [my] name recognition to a successful video game.” (30:14)

Legendary Tricks & The 900

• The Psychology and Physics:
  • Tony explains the mental and physical dynamics of high-risk tricks—speed, snap, shift of weight mid-spin.
  • C: “Somewhere in the middle of the spin, you have to shift your weight towards the back foot mid-spin. That was the part I couldn't figure out all those years.” (38:36)
• Breaking the 900:
  • 10 years of attempts, injuries, setbacks; landed at the 1999 X Games in a spontaneous decision.
  • C: “After my third or fourth attempt, I realized this is the closest I've ever gotten… I'm gonna make this, or they're gonna take me away.” (37:40)
  • A: “It was a little Mount Everest kind of thing.” (35:46)

Raising a New Generation

• Skateboarding as Family:
  • His oldest son, Riley, is a pro skater, though he purposely avoided the skate scene at first to escape Tony’s shadow.
  • C: “I see his determination and his drive… very much so… found his own path after that.” (53:12)
  • The family has been frequent flyers to the ER.
  • C: “I actually have the cell number of the head of the ER.” (52:45)

Police Academy 4 Stories

• Fired for Growing Too Tall:
  • Tony, Lance Mountain, and the Bones Brigade auditioned as actors, but ended up as skating stunt doubles. Tony got quietly let go after a growth spurt made him too tall to double for Spade.
  • C: “For the first week they were like, I think that guy's too tall… I got fired.” (59:04)
• Behind the Scenes & Stunt Bumps:
  • The skaters learned about “stunt bumps”—extra pay for dangerous shots—by feigning difficulty on simple tricks (61:54).
  • C: “If we pretended something was really hard… we got more money.”
  • A: “You’re talking about two stairs. Are you nuts? I’ve got a fee for that one.” (62:01)

Injury and Failure as Learning

• Humorous Accounts:
  • Tony and Spade recall broken wrists, hospital visits, and the camaraderie of pain, as well as the humor in recovery.
  • B: “My mom goes, you shouldn't skate anymore… no, you're horrible at it.” (51:44)

Philanthropy and Tony’s Legacy

• The Skatepark Project:
  • Tony’s foundation builds skateparks in underserved communities:
  • C: “We help finance parks in underserved areas… going for 20 years now.” (76:01)
• Wisdom & Focus:
  • Tony and Dana both stress looking at your “feet, not the fame.”
  • A: “Just look at your feet… am I better today than I was yesterday?” (75:28)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Passion:
  • “I never did it for fame or fortune… those weren’t even dreams.” – Tony Hawk (22:32)
• On Injury and Recovery:
  • “I put [my leg] back in place instinctually… I knew, like, oh, I'm so fucked.” – Tony Hawk (06:00)
• On the 900:
  • “Ten years trying… realized this is the closest I’ve ever gotten… I’m gonna make this, or they’re gonna take me away.” – Tony Hawk (37:40)
• On Skateboarding Culture:
  • “I would hide my skateboard in the bushes when I go to school because people would hassle me… I was a ghost.” – Tony Hawk (20:06)
• On Fame & Identity:
  • “I credit a lot of it for a successful video game.” – Tony Hawk (30:14)
• On Parenting Skaters:
  • “I actually have the cell number of the head of the ER.” – Tony Hawk (52:45)
• On Perseverance:
  • “The passion has to come first… just wanting to get better at it.” – Tony Hawk (54:28)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:09 – Dana & David recall first meeting Tony Hawk on Police Academy 4
• 06:00 – Tony’s femur-breaking injury and self-resetting story
• 11:05 – Tony on obsessive early drive and fitting in
• 17:37 – Turning pro at 14 and early prize money
• 20:06 – Hiding skateboarding from school bullies
• 22:32 – On motivations and not pursuing fame
• 30:14 – How the Tony Hawk video game made him a household name
• 33:05 – The Bruce Willis video game prototype story
• 37:40 – The 900: Landing the iconic trick at the X Games
• 44:08 – Concerns about injuries, concussions, and safety gear
• 53:01 – On his son Riley Hawk and family skating legacy
• 59:04 – Police Academy 4: Getting fired for being too tall
• 75:28 – Tony’s takeaway: Focus on self-improvement, not fame
• 76:01 – The Skatepark Project: 20 years of philanthropy

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Tone & Style

The entire episode is loose, irreverent, and playful, yet shaded with sincerity—balancing sharp comedy, trivia, and genuine admiration for Tony’s legacy. Both hosts riff with self-deprecation and insight, as Tony responds with humility, candor, and the spirit of a lifelong learner and teacher.

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Final Takeaways

• Tony Hawk's success is about relentless self-motivation, resilience in the face of injury and setbacks, and holding tight to one’s original passions.
• Fame and fortune may follow, but excellence is driven by internal discipline and joy—not outside recognition.
• On and off the ramp, Tony continues to give back, inspiring new generations and building access for underserved communities.
• Comedy and skateboarding share the same DNA of risk, repetition, humility, and sheer love of the craft.

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For More

• Tony Hawk’s podcast: Hawk vs Wolf
• Learn about Tony’s foundation: The Skatepark Project (https://skatepark.org/)

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(This summary skips ads, intros, and outros as requested.)

Transcript

[A]

Okay. The Hawk. Tony Hawk. My Tony Hawk is back. We had to bring him back because he's the coolest.

[B]

We had a good time with good old Tony Hawk. I met this young man who's. It's always fun to know someone who's the best at something. He came in the studio. We met when I was 20 or 21 on Police Academy. For the good one.

[A]

Yeah, that's right. Your skateboarding debut. In a Motion.

[B]

I knew about him from skateboard magazine magazines and all the stuff, and getting to meet him right off the pages of the magazines. And he had Mike McGill and Lance Mountain, all these great skaters with him, and we would. What a great time. So anyway, we did that and we talked about that and also just talking about what it's like to be the best skater in the world. I mean, a lot comes with it. He's very rich, which I like.

[A]

Well, he. He breaks down moment to moment for, what was it, five flips or something in this. And you. You'll enjoy hearing that. I mean, obviously what he's doing is very brave, but he's a. He's kind of. He's an affable, agreeable personality. He's not like. Like a tough guy. He just sort of talks it through and. Yeah, really fun.

[B]

No ego talking to him, telling us, like, doing a 1080, what's it like? Yeah, you're going up and spinning and where's the ramp? Where are you in the world?

[A]

Where.

[B]

What's going through your head?

[A]

Yeah, you're upside down. Your head is an inch from concrete. What are you thinking at that moment? Barry?

[B]

I. You know, listen, I like Tony. I've known him a long time, and he's done a lot, and he has a lot to say, and he has Tony Hawk, video games. Just a lot going on.

[A]

And he has an incredibly cool, very chill dude.

[B]

Here he is, Tony Hawk. Yeah. I think for actresses, I don't think it's fair that every article, they're like Mimi Rogers, 67. They always put their name and then their age.

[C]

And I do not know why do that with men.

[B]

They do it for men, too, but I think it's mostly women. And that's when I notice it. And I go, why does that matter? And that should be eradicated because it doesn't matter. You could look it up if you want to know. Right.

[A]

I think they'll eradicate it if we look up anything.

[B]

I mean, I can't believe they're still doing that. When they don't do anything else, it's like that one seems a little more optimistic.

[A]

David. Let's put a, let's put a billboard and say, stop putting the ages of women. I got a lot of time in

[B]

life, especially in the actress world. Like if you're thinking of hiring someone that's just in the back of your head you go, oh, that's the right age. Or oh no, that feels, you know, whatever. Just it sends a weird message immediately and it doesn't need to be in an article. And I know. Anyway, thanks for coming, Tony.

[C]

Take it easy.

[A]

Thank you.

[C]

You can, you're free to look up my age.

[A]

Tony hawk, who turns 27. But he's, you know, I, I, the age thing one is always gives a sense of humor about it. And I have a dermatologist who's, I think he's like 85.

[B]

I said how old are you?

[A]

He goes, I'm 106. That's a standard answer.

[B]

That's a good way to say it, just to say it's high.

[A]

He's a guy who checked my skin and every. And he had a woman with a clipboard and he kept going, age related. He's got a microscope. Age related. Do you have to say age related? Can I have something age related?

[B]

Dude, I went to see, I've done

[A]

that on this podcast before.

[B]

Dane. I went to Chick. Tony, we might not get to you, but I'm just going to tell.

[C]

I, I, I listen to the show anyway. So I'm just here fast.

[B]

You know how it works. You know it's going to come to you.

[A]

We have so many questions for you. It's gonna, it's gonna be a two parter.

[B]

So I go to this high end restaurant, Koi and Koi, which is basically sponsored by us.

[C]

Saw you at Koi back in the day.

[B]

Yeah, they moved it when people were

[C]

like hovering with cameras.

[B]

Yeah, it was.

[A]

And then catch took them.

[B]

This guy was there and he goes, hey, this is my buddy, he's a plastic surgeon, he works in town. And, and he's already looking at me. And I was of course a little buzzed naturally because it was nighttime. So I had a little loud mouth. I go, I get that little hummingbird. So I get on there and I go. And I'm just standing at his table. So I go, the worst question woe is due to me. And he like slowly looks at me like robocop boo boo boo. I go, no, no, no. And he goes, well. And I go, no. And he goes, listen, here's, he's got

[C]

a lot of bullet points if you

[B]

want just the top nine things that are like, no brainers. These are things that are not even

[A]

nine o' clock chin tuck.

[B]

No, Dana, I'm not going to say. Because I want to go. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because we would disagree. Oh, no, no, you can't. You have to just. You have to roll with it.

[A]

You just get.

[C]

Nice work.

[A]

Good work. That's the key. Good work so people just don't know you got work.

[B]

Well, Tony, let's get.

[A]

I'm looking at you, Tony.

[B]

Tony and I are about the same.

[C]

When is that happening?

[B]

We're about the same age.

[C]

Can you. Do you have that guy's number?

[B]

No, this guy, honestly, he was like, listen, I'll do it on the house. This has to be done by noon tomorrow.

[A]

Cutters. What, like to cut. I'll tell you that. Faith guys don't go. You don't need anything. They go, we can get in there, dig around a little bit. This is all natural, my dear. Since Eisenhower's first administration, I won't give my age, but I'll just say I was on this earth with these hands and these feet since the mid-50s, voting for Calvin Coolidge. Look how good I look.

[B]

Now, Tony, let's talk about. There's so many places to ask, but I want to know just because I was talking about Vicodin and how I only get plastic surgery for Vicodin. I don't need it.

[A]

I don't need the crazy surgery. I took a Vicodin and hated it. I liked Advil much better.

[B]

Ooh, the minority.

[A]

Hey, Advil, if you're listening.

[B]

I know, like, when the doctor goes, so you broke your leg, you'll want to really pump the Advil. I go, the what?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

How fucking dare you.

[C]

Funny you say that, because I broke my leg in March a year ago tomorrow. Yeah.

[B]

This is actually a good story.

[C]

Where's the celebration?

[A]

No, no. Can I get details on that?

[B]

No, this is a good story because

[C]

I know what I did. I was laying there on my ramp with my leg.

[A]

Was it the femur or.

[C]

The femur?

[B]

Yeah. What Was the trick?

[C]

McTwist.

[B]

It's always a McTwist.

[A]

Were you by yourself?

[C]

I was not.

[A]

But my friend, especially my good friend

[C]

Kevin, came over about five minutes later with two Advil.

[B]

Jesus Christ.

[C]

I'll never forget that.

[A]

Well, that.

[C]

All right, thanks.

[A]

I might do an opioid at that point, you know, but. So was it. Was it particularly scary? It seems like a lot of times people get hurt when it's like, perfunctory but they're just not as zoned in as much.

[B]

Dude, your fucking thigh.

[C]

It was a trick that I have done tens of thousands of times, okay. And I didn't have enough speed going into it, and I knew that full well, but I was always able to figure that out, adjust for it in the air. And I guess at age 54, that's the time when you can no longer adjust for it so easily. And next thing I know, I'm just sliding through the flat part of my ramp with my leg. I could feel it just dangling. And I looked up at another friend of mine. I go, I broke my leg. And he's like, what? And then I grabbed it and I put it back in place instinctually.

[A]

I can't believe what I'm hearing.

[C]

But then in that moment, I knew, like, oh, I'm so fucked. Like, I can't. I can't move. I can't do anything. I want to rewind this whole moment in time.

[A]

But did you hear it as well or did it pop?

[C]

It was all very chaotic, the fall. So then you kind of realized how it happened. But I don't remember hearing it pop. I just felt it disconnect.

[B]

Wow.

[A]

And what did they do with that? Do you have a metal rod down your feet?

[C]

I do. Yeah. Yeah.

[A]

Okay. How much did that cost?

[C]

You know, it's funny, I looked at the hard cost of it because I thankfully have insurance. It's a. It's more than a house, really.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

By the way, who is insuring the homes in my area anyway? Not. Not where you guys live.

[A]

Who do you get insurance from?

[B]

I mean, my God, it was like

[A]

Bobby's Healing and Band Aids on Ventura.

[B]

No.

[A]

Where did you sack Zach?

[C]

Sag.

[A]

Oh, sag.

[C]

Blue Cross. So Anthem that. How long?

[A]

How is it now?

[C]

Well, through. I went through eight months of recovery and got back on my skateboard much too soon.

[B]

I watched this whole thing on Instagram

[C]

play out, and it never connected. My bone never connected because I was so active on it.

[A]

So you rushed it a little bit and it never grew together.

[C]

Yeah. And I kept thinking, like, it's going to happen. It's going to happen. And then at some point, I realized that I'm just in pain all the time. I mean, like, I would have to take a painkiller to get through an airport. And I go, this doesn't feel right. For eight months in, I went and got X rays and realized the bone had moved further away from where it was when it got.

[A]

Because you were too active.

[C]

I was too active. So I came up here to a specialist, and he's the specialist in non union fractures, which means it never formed a union. And he put it straight and sent me on my way. And I've been taking it slow, and I'm finally back on my skateboard the way I used to.

[B]

One year bone wouldn't cross union lines.

[C]

One year later. What's that line?

[A]

I'm supposed to get a hip replacement at some point. I heard that.

[B]

Let's do it. Let's do it.

[C]

I heard those are very effective and quick healing.

[A]

55 minutes. Minutes open to close.

[B]

Yep.

[A]

I. I've been avoiding it for seven years, Tony, because they take a. A saw and saw noisy.

[B]

I heard.

[C]

I heard it's awesome.

[A]

But people.

[C]

I would rather go through that than my femur issue.

[A]

No, no, yours would be much worse. But people do it. Always say, ah, I should have done this a long time ago. I like to wait and kind of suffer. It's part of my personality. David's like that too. But I'm inspired by your healing, you know, because at 24, you know, things heal faster.

[C]

Yes. But, yeah, I learned that too.

[A]

You're full court. You're full fully around now.

[C]

I'm. I'm on my way. I'm not. I can't say I'm fully.

[B]

You're not gonna push it, are you? Doesn't your wife say, don't push it anymore because you're gonna break it again?

[C]

She is concerned that I. That I am getting a little too ambitious and confident with it. So I have been taking it as slow as I can, let's put it that way. So I'm much more aware of it this time.

[A]

You're like. You're still kind of the old gunslinger in a way. I mean, you're the guy who invented the sport, basically, in some ways. I mean, everything I read, it's just Tony Hawk. And you're a icon. I mean, right? I'm not.

[B]

Yeah, everyone's sick of it.

[C]

No, I appreciate it.

[A]

Thank you, Attaches.

[C]

I was sick of it. You got a point there.

[A]

But there's a lot of people on our podcast.

[C]

When is he just gonna quit?

[A]

My wife loves this podcast and she'll know enough about you just through our sons that did that. And just for a second before we get into all the questions I have. So the beginning, because I was reading about your high IQ and you were sort of a difficult. Because I'm interested in what kind of brain, not even your physical gifts, becomes brilliant at something at age 12, 9 12.

[C]

Honestly, it was just being obsessive and determined to a point of, like, to a fault, because when I was a kid, I just was. So I wanted to do certain things, and I didn't have the body for it or whatever, but I was fired up.

[B]

Couldn't do football. I couldn't do football. Football.

[C]

Well, I didn't play football, but baseball, basketball.

[B]

I'm saying I could do a little bit of that. Like, I was thinking, what other sports are you good at? Because I couldn't do everything. And I went to skateboarding because in

[C]

Arizona, it was that.

[A]

Yeah, well, skateboarding is a culture, too, which we'll talk about. I mean, it's more than sure.

[C]

And then once I started doing it, I kind of fell with the misfit aspect because I never really felt like I fit in with my school.

[A]

So are you saying to me that. Are you saying, Tony, that you may not have absolute physical gifts like someone who could just. Larry Bird got a basketball and just came right away. Eddie Van Halen got his son. His son. His brother's guitar sat on the bed at 8am and played till midnight.

[C]

Right.

[A]

It just spoke to him. So when you got on the board, it just spoke to you and you spoke to me.

[B]

But.

[C]

But in no way was I a natural.

[A]

A natural. You. You. You would do that?

[B]

Fun.

[C]

I would just do it. But I would just do it endlessly. Like, I would go. I would go from school to the skate park, stay there until my mom got off work at the. She. She worked at a community college at 8 or 9pm and then she'd have to drag me away until they turn the lights off.

[A]

Did you ever annoy them? Because bad skateboarding kids are really loud. Like, they're constantly falling and banging. It's not a very relaxing thing as a parent watching bad skate skating.

[B]

You didn't have steel wheels. You were that far back, were you?

[C]

Not that far back.

[B]

Did you have a yellow free form with a split tail?

[C]

No, but geez.

[A]

What's going on, man?

[B]

Or a flexing Bane?

[C]

I did have a Bane was my first board.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Okay. You like that, Dana?

[A]

What? You like that Bane?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay, let me go back.

[C]

This guy's legit.

[A]

Let me go back to more Larry King type stuff.

[B]

Yeah, I do.

[C]

So, yeah, we want to get into the weeds of. Of urethane and clay wheels.

[B]

We have a psychological question for him.

[A]

My son had a. When I was just talking on the way over here, he had. You just had a comment. He wanted you to Comment? This is jumping ahead a little bit. The turf war at a skate park between the BMXers, the rollerbladers, and the skaters, even though it's called a skate park. So will you comment please on that, Mr. Hawk?

[C]

I'd say rollerbladers. I got lucky in that I was sort of a generation before that was happening. And at some point I got very lucky that I was still skating when rollerblading started to be on the rise, because I was struggling to make a living at skateboarding. And I got to be the special guest at rollerblade shows. This is a rollerblade show, but we got special guest skateboarder Tony Hawk here. And thank God that was paying my mortgage, literally. So I never had the beef. I saw it. I, you know, I saw it playing out, and people were like, whatever. Having bad stereotypes with everything.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But I love everyone.

[B]

You're like the Godfather, though. So if they see you, do you win because you're a skater? And they're like, oh, the fucking king is.

[C]

I don't. Is more that I grew up. I grew up to. Not that grew up, but. But eventually I was in all the X Games and doing all that. And then we were all sort of brethren, the BMXers, even the inliners and the skateboarders, because we rode the same terrain and we were all sort of coming up together.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So I. I didn't feel that turf war like you said. I will say that it's tricky when you have a lot of BMXers and a lot of skateboard as a skatepark, because BMXers are silent and you can't see them coming. You get hit, you don't hear them coming.

[B]

Right.

[A]

Because the rubber tires and everything.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. So that. That can be an issue. And so I. I think that there's a good. Some skate parks assign certain days for bikes and certain days for skateboarding. I think that helps.

[A]

It seems to me as a layman that the rollerblader has the device attached to his feet. The bmxer is hanging onto the device, and the skateboard guy has to stand on the fucking thing. And it's like. Seemed much harder.

[C]

Yeah. There's some apples to oranges there, I gotta say.

[A]

I guess. I mean, I was such a baby. That was when there were steel wheels back in the 60s. A really steep hill.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

I'd sometimes just sit on the San Francisco.

[B]

Yeah. We used to catamaran down some hills.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[B]

At the Wedge in Arizona. And big wipeouts at the end. When you cat always your friend and

[C]

Then, yeah, we would do it down really steep grass hills just so that we knew. Because we knew we were going to wipe out.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And then we just come.

[B]

So you might live.

[C]

Yeah, exactly.

[B]

I. I actually wiped out at High roller. I'll tell you that in a second, though. High Roller Skate Park.

[A]

Can we just finish off this young, young Tony for a second? Just. You're. You're just a quirky kid. You weren't a natural athlete. You. You got a hold of a skateboarder from. From someone in the neighborhood or. You're not my older brother. Older brother.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And then it just spoke to you. You became possessed.

[B]

Yes.

[A]

And then within.

[C]

Possessed is good. Yes.

[A]

Within three years of that, you were world class or where were 12? It was something. Or 14. You were such a quantum leap.

[C]

I. I started skating around then. Got really into it as I dove into it completely. It took a downturn in popularity. So really sort of like at the time when I was really starting to come into my own and fall in love with it, it was. All the world was crumbling away around me. And so I got sponsored at age 12 by Dogtown Skateboards, which didn't really mean a whole lot. It just meant that sometimes they would send me free skateboards. That was pretty much it. And then I moved up.

[B]

So no money.

[C]

No, no money.

[B]

Sponsor. I never knew what that meant, but

[C]

I thought it was free gear.

[B]

Coolest one.

[A]

Free gear.

[C]

Free gear. And then, and then that moved me up to the sponsored division and that kind of lit a fire because suddenly I was skating with people who are much more advanced and I had to figure out how to navigate that. And then I rose to the top of the amateur ranks within two years. And then I actually turned pro at age 14. But when you turn pro, like, what that means is I was filling out an entry form to the competition and there's an. There's your name and address, and then there's a box that says amateur and the box says pro. So I checked the pro box.

[B]

That was the only difference.

[C]

That was it. And then I was competing.

[A]

You made money or.

[C]

Sorry, that was competing for a hundred dollars. First place.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

75. Second 50 for third. I got fourth.

[A]

So no money.

[C]

No money.

[A]

Do you remember your first check for doing this or.

[C]

My first check was 50 bucks when I got third place.

[A]

50 bucks. Y dollars for my first set.

[B]

Ooh, yeah. Money for your first set. That's pretty rare.

[A]

Rob Williams was there.

[B]

I think we.

[A]

It was $10. I think he took seven. I took three.

[B]

73.

[A]

Oh, seven. $7. Do you want to be famous? I asked him. Oh, I just want to play for the people. Never forgot that. Well, you're playing pretty well. God rest his soul. Good friend, anyway. Tony, that's remarkable. How are your parents reacting to this? And your brother? Are you. Is there a sibling thing? Like, Tony's a superstar?

[C]

Well, he was. He was. He is 13 years older than me, so. Okay, so he was in college and just kind of watched it. Well, he was there sometimes, but my parents. I think they saw what it provided me, just in terms of my sense of self and self confidence and finally kind of focusing all of my energy and frustrations onto that instead of them. So they were thankful and they were supportive, and there were many, very few

[A]

parents were supportive because of the danger of it or. Or just that, because of the culture of it.

[C]

Like, the culture.

[B]

And you weren't gonna go to school.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Even though there's a rumor you're smart, but we have no proof.

[A]

It says here your IQ is 144.

[C]

Maybe at one point, at least half

[A]

as high as that. Yeah, mine's incredibly smart. He's a chess champion. That was his thing.

[C]

That's.

[B]

That's what I got off of that, to go into skateboarding, which was a mistake.

[A]

So did you.

[B]

Some of us didn't go pro, Tony, and didn't get four.

[A]

So you got paid $50?

[C]

Yeah, and then eventually got my own skateboard model, and that's when I started receiving royalty checks for between four and five dollars a month.

[B]

Four and five a month? That's not too bad.

[C]

You $4.85 design it or you.

[A]

How did you get your own?

[C]

I designed the shape of it, and then my sponsor, pal Peralta, they designed the graphics of it. But then. Okay, something happened in the mid-80s where suddenly skateboarding kind of came around again, and I found myself in high school making six figures from royalties on those skateboards.

[A]

So you're already an entrepreneur.

[B]

You're.

[A]

You're a businessman already, as you're a superstar athlete.

[C]

Yeah, I didn't see it that way, but.

[A]

But it would just. Were other kids doing it as well? Did you have other. Did you have other dudes or women in the school that were not school?

[C]

No, that was the weird thing is that there was this resurgence of skateboarding. It was popular, but not a mainstream or widespread popularity. So I was still the outcast at school. I literally would. Would hide my skateboard in the bushes when I go to school because people would hassle me if I. If I carried around, they would yell skater fag.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And I, I was pro. I was pro and I was traveling to places like Florida, to places like Phoenix to go to these big events and sign autographs and come to school and I was a ghost.

[A]

Can I ask you just a technical question? Yes. Because it would seem to me when I watch gymnasts and stuff that you growing to 6 foot 3 is at an advantage, disadvantage or neutral in terms of doing upside down flips. You have to have a bigger. The math of that. When did you get to 6 3?

[C]

Not till I was in my late teens.

[A]

So you're becoming a brilliant skateboarder and you're growing and so you're adapting your revolutions to that height.

[C]

Yeah. And I was still very flexible. Flexible when I got tall. So it was to an advantage because I finally was able to get speed.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Get, get more height. And because I could ball up, I could still do those spins and things, but at greater heights.

[A]

So your height, the gap, it helped me.

[C]

Yeah. I can't say it. It's helped me into my older age, but it definitely helped me.

[A]

Interesting. Okay, David.

[B]

Okay, Mike, psychological question.

[A]

I'm the layman. He's a skateboard is.

[B]

Now, when you grew up in San Diego and what was the park in Carlsbad? Was it big O, what's not?

[C]

So there was Oasis Skate park in San Diego and then that closed and then Del Mar Skate Ranch was the last a cool one park in that area. Yeah.

[B]

Okay, so let's say, remember Vans?

[A]

Do you remember Vans? Yeah, yeah. That's much later for one of my kids birthdays, I bought the place.

[C]

Which one? Ontario or it was down Orange.

[A]

It was like Milpitas or something. South Peninsula.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

That was Vans. That made him the coolest kid. And it's cool.

[C]

That was a good part.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Now let's say, because I did get to golf with Tiger woods, let's say he's the best in golf. That's sort of generally known. And you are, let's say, generally known as the best skater. Is it, is it something in you that makes you not want to give up? Number one, because you still skate. You don't really have to skate anymore. You could stop and tire.

[C]

Well, I never did it for fame or fortune.

[B]

You still like it.

[C]

But those things, those things weren't even dreams.

[A]

I have the same. I asked my wife did I ever talk about being rich or famous? Never. I was in the club and I just wanted to be the best guy in that club. So I totally relate to that.

[C]

But in skateboarding, no one was rich or famous when I started.

[A]

That wasn't.

[C]

No one could aspire to. What do you aspire to? I don't know. I'm gonna be pro.

[B]

No one's making money.

[C]

You get that hundred dollar check.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

And you're picturing the magazine. And so that was never the motivation. And so having come this far, success I would have never dreamed. I still just want to skate. I mean, it really is what you

[B]

want, to push it.

[A]

You're the first superstar.

[C]

I think I've turned a corner on that, to be honest.

[B]

I mean, you've proven everything. But I guess it's still fun to be like, you're still as good as everyone. We go to comedy clubs. You still want to do as good as these guys. You know, it's the same thing.

[C]

Sure. Yeah. I can't. That's the thing, though. I can't phone it in and everyone's watching you. I can't. Yeah. And so if I were to feel like I'm not really of a professional level, I wouldn't do it. It in public or on camera, but I'm just like. I still walk the walk.

[A]

I totally relate to what you're saying. When I go to do a day I can't open, I just want to dominate. But it's not in an unfair way. You have your peers just to do,

[C]

but to do your personal best.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah.

[C]

Not because you want to destroy everyone else.

[A]

No, no. But it becomes a de facto comedy competition sometimes. And there's a lot of subjectivity to it when 10 guys go on and we're supposed to be just hanging out at the Comedy Store doing our sets. But I was always like, you had the best setter. He couldn't follow you. It's a gunslinger thing.

[C]

Right.

[A]

But, yeah, it's not as much with Dave and I. We don't.

[C]

Well, I did enjoy you guys after Chris Rock.

[B]

Oh, you saw that?

[C]

I saw that.

[A]

Did you sense the awkwardness because we were Caucasians?

[C]

Neither. You guys handled it very well.

[B]

I didn't want anyone to figure that out. But they did right away.

[A]

Well, they were. Yeah, it was. It was good. We were there to facilitate, but, you know, I can't join in on those conversations and.

[C]

No, but I thought you guys did a good job.

[B]

We wanted a joke. First of all, we liked everybody there. All the panel was cool. We hung with him all day.

[C]

I love JB.

[B]

JB's funny. He came out of his shell that

[A]

night finally, for the first time, he

[B]

finally Opened him up, poking and prodding.

[A]

Yeah, the guy, he lit his cigar backstage. He'd held it for 20 years. That went so good. I'm going to light this up. I said, jb, you are smooth.

[B]

Smooth. He was nice.

[A]

We know. And we've known Chris. David's especially close with Chris, but known him since 1990.

[B]

That was sort of how it came about. Like, we had a podcast. We're always together. We're together. Anyway, snl, it's Chris. We're all buddies. Let's put a panel together. I guess they want to make the event bigger, so why not? We'll talk about it, but there's some stuff in there. If I had some heavy, controversial opinions, I would say them, but I didn't really. I just watched the jokes, liked them, said a few funny things. But when it got really heavy things, I don't want to comment. I mean, I want to let them talk. And that was why we all know

[A]

that I learned the same thesis, but it happened to Chris, and he owned it and expanded it. But I thought it was always about something else. That anger.

[B]

Right.

[A]

With the wife. I mean, it was pretty obvious, but he laid it out perfectly. And what was fascinating to me is that very rarely does the world watch, quote, unquote, the world. And we all know the story. We all saw the slap and all the reaction. And then a year later, we have a guy who got connected to it in such a way, because Chris doesn't flub lines. But I think the emotion was so strong at that moment, which made it better because it was live and real, that this was more than a mic drop. He was working some stuff out, and he just wondered casually, is this over now?

[B]

Or, I mean, me, another special next year. We've all been bullied. Me and Chris used to talk about, I was pushing on Arizona. I was always a pipsqueak, and I hated it, and Chris hated it. And I'm sure Dana got a little bit of it.

[A]

Well, no, no. Way more when you get older. I got bullied by a grown man.

[B]

Family.

[A]

Knocked out. And.

[B]

Yeah, yeah. And so when you get like that, I can see when things like that set you off. Road rage shit. Because people try to fuck with me, they'll hit on a date right in front of me. They'll go, this guy gonna say anything? Or they'll say that you're not gonna do shit. And that anger builds up over your whole life. And so Chris getting that on stage at the Oscars, in my head, I was like, I don't Know, if I could continue life, it'd just be. It's so humiliating. And then you don't fight back. Should I have? So you go on and on and will, I thought, got off pretty easy because banning from the Oscars is one thing, but banning from getting an Oscar, I thought should be stronger for a couple years.

[A]

He doesn't have to go to the silly show.

[B]

Who cares? Go to the Vanity Fair party. Just wait and watch me walk in.

[A]

They'll bring it in on a platter.

[B]

Yeah, I saw him there after the Vanity Fair. Saw Chris at Gallos, and Chris was pretty cool.

[C]

So I. I saw Chris the next morning.

[B]

Where were you?

[C]

I was staying up here and I saw him at breakfast.

[B]

Oh, you did? Yeah.

[C]

And he was alone at a table.

[A]

He's always alone. Well, tell us what you said to him.

[C]

I just said, I thought that you handled that like a maestro. And he said, yeah, I don't do it with me. But he. But he already had a clear piece of, you know.

[A]

Yeah. He has his own history with.

[B]

With.

[A]

With.

[B]

Right. It's family. Sit on it for a year.

[A]

It's.

[B]

It's gotta drive him crazy. But at least he let it all out. And it was. It was great. I feel like he's.

[A]

I think that was a literal mic drop. I don't think he. He got it all out. I don't think he has anything else to say.

[C]

Right.

[A]

Right. But I hope it continues. People have said to David and I, if we had a real feud, this podcast would blow up.

[B]

Now, we're trying.

[A]

Oh, I'm trying to find a way to get mad at him, but that's pretty meow.

[B]

You want to be part of it?

[C]

Wedge here.

[A]

Pretty mellow. I'm trying to work up anger, but have credit for that.

[C]

No, but what you say about bullying, I mean, and in our day, it was.

[B]

You just.

[C]

You got picked on. Yeah, they're always picking on me. You know, we pick on him. And that was totally accepted.

[B]

Yeah. There was no.

[C]

There were no resources.

[A]

And a lot of it is not grandiose. Like, a lot of. It's just the. The guy in the locker room just takes the back of your neck and just. Just quickly just pushes you down to the floor. There's not always knowing you're going to do nothing.

[C]

Because I was so small, they would pick me up in the hallway and spin me around once, by the way.

[B]

Nothing more humiliating.

[A]

Now, that's why you were so great doing 360. You gotta thank the guy.

[C]

Seriously. Let's go wait, let's go two and a half this time. I was working up to a 900.

[A]

Tony Hawk became brilliant because of bullies who would flip him, throw him in the air, throw him across the room, roll them down the hill. By the time you got a skateboard, you go, no one's trying to hit me.

[B]

I don't think you get picked up like I do. When people pick me up at a party, I fucking flip out. And to this day, it happens. I go, if you pick me up, we're dead for life. We're not friends ever again.

[A]

Oh, my God.

[B]

It's like the most humiliating.

[A]

I would get picked up too y and they'd throw you against the locker. I had a girlfriend, and that was my mom.

[B]

That's it.

[C]

That's it.

[B]

After I came my pants. I said, this is over. Surprise ending.

[A]

A happy surprise. So Tony.

[B]

Well, Tony.

[A]

Tony.

[B]

No, let's ask him about the movie we did. We have to talk about that.

[A]

Oh, yeah. Okay. Well, I just. Go ahead.

[B]

You got something else?

[A]

I'm still so fascinated. How? Well, just to make one observ. One casual observation, the sport is. Went fallow for a while.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

You come up. You're emerging. Right. As the sport is going. And so you're the first that. I don't know if there's a second or there are these after superstars, but to the casual observer, you are skating.

[B]

Who.

[A]

How many people? Their name is a brand.

[B]

It's funny because I don't know. I know skating. I know some names, but it's synonymous with Tony at that level.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Well, I can tell you, I credit a lot of that for a successful video game.

[B]

Oh, that's right. Because your name.

[C]

Because our game in huge letters had had huge success.

[A]

They're gigantic. Yeah.

[B]

That was where you made the most money, right?

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

And so people would. Would see my name synonymous with a successful video game. So that kind of added to the recognition factor.

[A]

Well, that's the cool thing, is that you're the video game guy and then you're still actually the best guy.

[C]

Oh, thank you.

[A]

Who can physically do it.

[B]

Doesn't always happen.

[A]

So that's so much power. So how did the video game quickly. How did that come about? They approached you, you got to a certain level and a company approached you and were you in on the design of it and so forth and so on.

[C]

So I was actually working with a PC programmer who came to me and said, hey, I have an idea for a skateboard game.

[B]

Nerd.

[C]

What's that?

[B]

Nerd? Nerd.

[C]

We were two nerds.

[B]

Nerd alert.

[C]

Literally knocking on doors. We were going to console manufacturers, we're going to software companies and saying, how would we do? So this was not like around 97, 96. 97.

[A]

So you're huge, though, at that point, right?

[C]

Yeah, well, I. There was. There's sort of a gap in. In skating's popularity in the early 90s. So it went underground. Very much so. And that's kind of when street skating emerged.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

So this game, they don't come to you fully formed. They say, together, this.

[C]

He and I went to meetings, and we just got shut down. Everywhere we went, they said, skateboarding is not popular.

[B]

Classic.

[C]

Why would anyone want to play a skateboarding game?

[A]

Okay.

[C]

And. And at the time, there weren't that many home consoles. There were. There were some, but not. It wasn't.

[A]

Did you go to an intense.

[C]

No. He gave up. He got frustrated.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

And he. He actually told me. He said, look, I. I gotta find a job, but I feel like we've made some. Some headway in terms of putting your name out there, that you're interested in doing this, and then maybe something will come of that. And I remember thinking, yeah, okay, buddy, sure. And then almost a year later, Activision called me and said, hey, we heard you want to do a video game. I said, well, yes, pretty much so. And they said, well, we are doing a video game, skateboarding, and we'd like your input or to see if you want to get involved. So I went up to Activision and they were working on this game that was based on an engine that they had already made for a game called Apocalypse, starring Bruce Willis.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

So it was the first game that had a celebrity lookalike or, you know,

[A]

their avatar, I guess.

[C]

Avatar, sure.

[A]

Not the movie, but not that.

[C]

Yeah, literal. And his voice and. But it didn't do very well. But the engine was perfect for skateboarding.

[A]

The engine means the motion in the game.

[C]

So the first time I ever played what became Tony Hawksboro skater was. Was Bruce Willis on a skateboard with a gun on his back doing kick flips.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

Like, through a dozen.

[B]

And it was Bruce Willis. That's hysterical.

[C]

Yeah, that was it.

[A]

Was there a breakthrough moments or an epiphany, like how to make a skateboard thing as exciting as a war?

[C]

Well, when I played the game, I knew then, like, this is the way it should because you're feeling it, I'm feeling it. And it was intuitive. Suddenly I was doing tricks right away. So I thought with my. With My resources, we could probably make something that is legitimate. I wasn't thinking it was going to go gangbusters because I still heard those voices saying, who would want to play a skateboard game, right? And when I told them I had a Nintendo 64 at the time, and I said, oh, we're going to make this for Nintendo 64. And they go, no, we're making this for PlayStation. There's a million PlayStations out there. There aren't a million Nintendo 64s. And so I went along with that, obviously.

[B]

Another smart idea.

[C]

Not long after, when it had success in the beginning, they called me. They said, you get your wish. We're gonna do Nintendo 64. I was like, cool. And then we ended up doing all the systems.

[B]

And the first guy, you wet the beak on him a little bit or not. Did he go away for good?

[A]

Show business term, wet the beak. Give me a little money.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

A little taste.

[C]

No, I felt bad for that guy.

[B]

Oh, he's totally.

[A]

Well, yeah. So you had gross points. I mean, I don't know, whatever. But you're. You're an owner, and so being an owner is king. And.

[C]

Oh, yeah. I mean, it changed my life.

[B]

So it just starts rolling in and then it gets bigger.

[C]

Did you evade taxes by the time the fourth game? No, I remember my first. I remember writing my first check to the IRS and thinking, this is more. This is more than the money I'd ever think I'd made in my lifetime. It's giving to the irs.

[A]

So the rich, stupid. The rich pay their fair share. The only one who did is Tony Hawk. Tony Hawk. I'm the.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

I could have forgotten the loopholes.

[A]

That was Joe Biden.

[C]

Sorry.

[A]

I got it.

[B]

He gets it.

[A]

Anyway, well, everything seems to be going well at this point in your existence. The game is kicked ass. You've won so many X Games world champion,

[B]

done a lot of commercials.

[A]

You land a 900 at some point. How long did it take you? When I saw a deal. Was that for you?

[C]

That was. Well, that was for me. That was my best exit from competition.

[A]

So you. You were thinking, I'm gonna land this.

[C]

There was no plan.

[A]

Oh, it would.

[C]

It was all spontaneous that night, honestly.

[A]

So you just thought so? Just because I was trying to explain it to my wife and my sons. You're going up in the air really, really high. You're going a full revolution in your body. Another full revolution and then a half a revolution, which, you know, 360, 360, 180. And then hit It.

[C]

Right.

[A]

And that was a little Mount Everest kind of thing.

[C]

Or for me at that time. Yeah. Because it's once you got it that I had been trying off and on for 10 years. I did. I did the first 720 in 1985.

[A]

And that was huge at the time.

[B]

Yeah, for sure.

[C]

I mean, in the skateboard world. But the skateboard world wasn't huge.

[A]

Okay.

[C]

There were no X Games, There was no social media. Okay.

[A]

So no one really.

[B]

Does it have to be filmed or do they take your word for it for it?

[C]

I got a sequence of it that. I mean, back then there was. Bones Brigade videos were out kinda. But really it was more about. Did. Did it get in the magazine? So I got a small sequence in Thrasher.

[B]

All those photos like that. Yeah, yeah.

[C]

I got a small sequence in thrasher doing a 720. Oh yeah. I probably saw on a backyard ramp in Sweden.

[A]

So when you landed the 900, what kind. What competition were you?

[C]

That was at the X Game.

[A]

At the X Games. That was global television. What?

[B]

I said, what kind of pussy did you get?

[A]

I thought that's what you're saying for mature audiences only. Is that on the video?

[B]

Thought you that's where you're headed.

[C]

Not quite, no.

[B]

So you do the. I get all serious. So wait, so you do the number

[A]

one to answer.

[B]

He's famous.

[C]

He's out there to answer the question. I was trying it off and on. I couldn't figure it out. I got hurt a couple times doing it. And then when that event happened in 99, it was the best trick event. And I had one trick planned for that event, which was not the 900. It was a variation of a 7 20. And I. I made that early on. So I had 10 minutes to kill in this event. And the announcer, the live announcer for the audience that was there said, why don't we see one of those nine hundreds? And I was like, great, now I'm on the spot.

[B]

Crowd.

[C]

Okay.

[A]

So I watched this. Yeah, I watched this last.

[B]

This isn't the one where you kept trying it. Is that the one?

[C]

I kept trying it?

[B]

Yeah, that's one where you go over

[A]

and over, like 10th one. And then they all bobbed and everyone almost gave up.

[B]

And then, Then you kept doing it.

[C]

Well, I was. I. I think. I think after my third or fourth attempt, I realized that this is the closest I've ever gotten. So I'm. There's no way I'm gonna give up. It's either I'm gonna make this or they're Gonna take me away or you're

[B]

gonna get hurt or something?

[A]

What do you think? Are you thinking right as you take off, like, to get height, right?

[C]

To get as high there's.

[A]

Or what are you thinking?

[C]

There's a bunch of elements, but speed, for sure. It's gotta be a certain height to get that much spin. Rotation. The snap is when the.

[B]

You pop the spin, leave the ramp.

[A]

The ramp?

[C]

Yeah, you gotta have a snap where you. You hit your tail and you grab the board at the exact same time. And if that doesn't happen, your board just flies away immediately and you're stuck kind of spinning in space.

[A]

Oh, right as you're about to go airborne, you gotta grab your board so you're attached to it.

[C]

And so if you get a good snap, then somewhere in the middle of the spin, you have to shift your weight towards the front foot. That was the part that I couldn't figure out all those years.

[A]

Whoa. Oh, interesting.

[C]

And so, I mean, sorry, not. Not the. Towards. Towards the back foot. So you spinning. If you. If you just spin the way that you take off and try to land, you're too top heavy. So I had to figure out how to sort of shift my weight to the back foot mid spin. And that's what you see me working out.

[B]

You mean when you land, you'll go face first? You won't.

[C]

I did go face first the first time I tried to make it.

[B]

So that's why you go. I gotta be.

[A]

I gotta. With the weight on the back foot, it seemed like when you did do it, you did sort of a squat and you. It.

[B]

You.

[C]

Yeah, well, that was me overcompens.

[B]

Right.

[A]

But you didn't leave the board. You set the record. But that was like. Yeah. Interesting.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

You. You know, because I do. When I used to skate, it's fun to watch once I quit. Because you sort of know a little bit about it. Enough to know which tricks are hard. So when I see Instagram and I'm like, God damn. Like, it got so beyond what I could ever do. I was. I was.

[C]

It's video games now. Like, the tricks that you see, I can't imagine on Instagram or the. Or the pros that you see out there, especially street skaters. It's the kind of thing that we did on our video game. And combos as a joke.

[B]

Because, you know, you could never do it.

[C]

Yeah. No one will ever do this.

[A]

Right.

[C]

And now they're doing it.

[A]

Is the equipment gotten better then, or is there.

[C]

The equipment hasn't changed. It seems about the same.

[A]

I think they have like, they have, you know, plates on track shoes, people running four minute miles, high schoolers, you know.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Okay. So it's. They're all about the same weight. They're about the same.

[C]

It's also like when you think about the generations that have come before they. The generation coming in now establishes that, oh, a 900 is possible. Or these, these tricks, these combos are reality. So that's the baseline of which to start.

[B]

You could even go crazier.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

You know, they used to have these things Dana called skyhooks. So if you.

[A]

That was Kareem Abdul.

[B]

Tony knows what it is. If you. If I. I was like. It was hard for me to. When I got to doing aerials at the old high roller skate park in Arizona. And so when you have to leave the top of the pool, that's being a colossal. This is a doctor telling me this.

[A]

That's three on this. Yeah.

[B]

No, that's just saying I am not so.

[C]

Oh, with different connotations.

[A]

Yeah. Total different meanings.

[B]

It's a fear thing, Dan. Once you leave.

[A]

Oh, come on, don't be a baby. I'll be my dad.

[B]

It's too scary. And then. So I wiped out a high roller trying to do an aerial axle stall. I think I've told Tony this before. And so I.

[C]

Which but to his credit is pretty gnarly trick.

[B]

It's a hard trick.

[C]

It's hard and it's dangerous.

[B]

And so you go up, I think David Andra, someone did good speed.

[C]

You go up off David Andreich, you

[B]

go up out of the pool. It was a. It was a pool at the skate park. And you go up and you land on your axles and then you drop back in. Okay. Landing is the hard part. Dropping and I could probably do. But I missed it and I wiped out and I fell backwards into the pool and broke both wrists. Now everyone, all the concerned skaters go get the. Out of the bowl.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

So because I was laying there and two broken wrists. I had to drag my board up. And it's hard to walk up from the deep end of the shallow end.

[C]

It's like slipp.

[B]

So I get out and I'm laying on my brother's. We had the Lee car and Andy got mad because we just got to the skate park. We had two hours. And so I'm laying on the car on the windshield and Andy, they go get Andy, my brother, because he saw me, he goes, I'll just go in the car. We're out of Here in two hours. And so the skate park person saw me kind of shaking on the car. I didn't say anything. I knew I was in trouble. And then they went and got Andy, and he comes and throws his help moment. He goes, what the. You're fine, right? And I go, yeah. And they go, no, you got to take him home. You can't stay. And he goes. So he. He throws me in the car, and he goes. He goes, I'm going back. So he dropped me to my stepdad

[C]

when he went back to the back.

[B]

Yeah, and then I sat there, and then my stepdad was buzzed because it was night. He was just drinking.

[A]

It was morning.

[B]

And he took me to his clinic and X rayed him, and I saw a crack down. Both of them around his corner. I look around the corner. I. Hmm. I didn't even go to med school. I see something going on.

[A]

Did they set the looks off?

[B]

He goes, let's sit on this. He was drunk. I go, what are we waiting for? So I lay down, and I don't. You know, we don't have Vicodins back then. We don't have anything. So I'm just laying there sort of whimpering. I was whimpering. And then the next day, my mom take a man and do something. So he just gave me splints. So then the first day of school, I went as a freshman. I had two splints, but I looked like a badass. I had my quicksilvers. I had my fucking op shirt carrying.

[A]

I didn't. We got injured in different ways. Like, my brother popped the wheelie. That's what we do. Yeah, Pop the wheelie. The wheel comes off, chips his teeth.

[B]

Oh, yeah. The forks go down, you go, oh,

[A]

this is just a way. So he's, like, got fangs for a while. They finally got him, you know, caps on him. And then he's doing a Duncan Imperial, going with the yo, yo.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Boom. Broke him again. That's twice, you guys, Guys. Daredevil, Slinky. Then he got a slinky leg. He lost an ear. Look, I don't want to go into the carvey. We were rough and tumble, 60s kids. It wasn't. Nothing was. Nothing was safe. Trust me.

[C]

I knocked my teeth out, my front teeth, five times.

[B]

God dang. Are you. Is you really?

[C]

Yeah. But the cool thing about that is every time you knock them out, you can choose the size and the color.

[A]

Oh, the. You have a very positive.

[C]

Your adult life.

[A]

That's.

[C]

That's a thing, right?

[A]

So how many bones do you have broken in your body? Everyone wants to know. Everybody.

[C]

Four officially.

[A]

Four officially.

[C]

Yeah. My pelvis, my elbow, my femur and. Well, I broke my thumb, basically.

[A]

Concussions.

[B]

How many bruises roughly?

[A]

Concussions.

[C]

I had, I had many.

[A]

My son, he used to do ramp together though. Ramp. Rats with BMX bike. I, you know, you find out later. But he was out cold for three minutes once.

[B]

Yeah, well, concussions weren't talked about a lot in the old days.

[A]

No, no, you just hit your head hard. They didn't know.

[C]

Yeah, you got his bell wrong.

[A]

But they say multiple hard hits is the hardest thing on your brain.

[C]

Well, or in the hundreds, in, in succession. Yeah, yeah. Where it's one after the other in a short time. Yes, absolutely. And, and I've been proactive in that and I've, I've had the tests and to see if I'm at risk for Alzheimer's and it seems that I'm doing all right.

[B]

I see a lot of dudes in these Instagram with no helmets doing some gnarly stuff.

[C]

Stuff.

[B]

Yes, A little scary. It's kind of a skateboarder cool thing to do, but it is not the smartest thing.

[C]

They were trying to, when they put skateboarding the Olympics there, there was a, there was a movement which I found odd to not have helmets in the park event. Yeah, you can see park where people are flying.

[B]

Yeah, you're doing rail slide. That's it. When it's flat. You're saying when it's just street stuff.

[C]

Not when the street. They, they're, they're not. But, but what they were saying we shouldn't have to wear pads. And I was like, you guys are, I, I was, I was not in the conversation. But. So you guys are flying 10ft above 10 foot pools. That's, Yeah, I don't think it's going to go well for the general audience.

[A]

Yeah, no, it's not like it's supposed to be kind of a fun game.

[C]

I picture parents going, yeah, you're never

[B]

going to do that.

[A]

Does the skateboarding culture, does it overlap with surfing in a way or is that that a bad vibe that it also, it's not necessarily a cannabis culture.

[C]

It was kind of. Oh, well, I, I, I'd say skateboarding is so diverse now that I wouldn't just zero in on something like that. I, I, I feel like this definitely has been associated with skating, but they,

[A]

they had the phrase surfer bum.

[C]

Do they have skater bum Skate rat?

[A]

I think skate rat is more like just someone who lives.

[C]

But I think on the Outside, especially in the. In those days when skating wasn't very popular, there was a. There was a sort of view of skating that was, oh, they're slackers.

[B]

They're.

[C]

Yeah, they wake up late. They're stoners.

[B]

Right.

[C]

And I guess you could view it like that, but I feel like skating requires so much discipline that that was

[A]

sort of being ignored. It's very technical.

[B]

It's true. We were sort of outliers because you didn't fit in anywhere at our school. So my brother and I, we took

[A]

my kids to Europe and they, because we were middle class kids, got some money, we're in Italy. But all they wanted. All they talked about was statues and monuments. I could catch so much air off that.

[C]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Everything was about what they could skate off of, you know? Yeah.

[B]

Kind of any angle.

[C]

I remember when one of the paltirs went to the Vatican and I tail dropped off one of the sculptures.

[B]

And I'm sure they love that. People didn't really like that. Yeah.

[A]

Wait a minute. You were in the Vatican at skateboard?

[C]

I mean, in the Vatican City in the area.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, We.

[C]

We were just sk. That's. That was the thing in those days. All we cared about was skating, so it was anything. Yeah, yeah. The sightseeing was just more incidental to us getting to skate that day.

[A]

Stairs. What was that? What would you get most excited about? Just in sort of urban environment.

[C]

Back in those days, anything that resembled a ramp or a bank or like a reservoir.

[B]

Even Kettner School here I used to see in Skateboard magazine. So when I came here, I had to go find it. And it was kind of lame. It was just slight banks on. On asphalt. But it was something.

[C]

That was the early days.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Do some bertlements, you know.

[C]

Oh, yeah, just a little one. Surf term.

[A]

Is that right?

[B]

I do little tail blockers because there's really no danger. You just turn around, I have a photo.

[A]

I'm representing the audience at home in

[C]

the first Bones Brigade newsletter. Yeah, I had a photo doing a Bertlman at Canterbanks.

[B]

Oh, for real?

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Geez.

[A]

You have to go to Bourbon Owens

[B]

Deli if Tony's a photographer across me. If you go up to him and there's a camera light and you do a tail block, put your hand down and then.

[A]

Oh, yeah, that's a good picture.

[C]

Zero angle.

[B]

Yeah, that's a good one. Let's talk about the movie. Oh, you were in Jackass too, Before we get to Police Academy.

[C]

All of them.

[B]

You're in all of Them.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

And you do.

[A]

Did you do.

[B]

Dane, have you seen when some kind

[A]

of blown up suit, full pipe. Yeah.

[B]

Did you do it? Did you do a full pipe in a chicken suit or something?

[C]

I did, yes.

[A]

I was about to say.

[B]

It sounds like.

[C]

No, let me.

[A]

That's Johnny Knox.

[C]

I did that for Jackass.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

With Matt Hoffman.

[B]

The TV show.

[C]

The TV show.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

He and I wore.

[B]

Oh, he was at bmx. All right.

[C]

Yeah. And we did. We did a loop in Orlando and then, then after the loop we jumped into this lake.

[B]

Oh, that's fun. Yeah.

[C]

And then I was on Wild Boys and we were skating in gorilla costumes.

[B]

It's never easy.

[C]

We were also skating with an orangutan. So that was the whole vibe. There was an orangutan that skated and then Bob Bergquist and I dressed up in gorilla.

[A]

Did the orangutan think you were gorillas or didn't. Knew.

[C]

No, but it did not like if we got ahead of him. So learn very quickly. He's in it to win it. And words stand behind because you don't want him coming after you in your.

[B]

We ended up.

[C]

We ended up skating.

[B]

Picture your face off. I heard.

[C]

Yeah, yeah. We end up skating. Side note, to fill the. The content. And then we went and did. Bob had his own loop.

[B]

Loop.

[C]

And we did Bob's loop. And Bob's loop was very slow and weathered and I didn't take that into consideration as I went down to it. And then I ended up paying the price.

[B]

Did you not get around the whole thing?

[C]

You're saying I fell? I fell from what happens. I fell just around 10 o' clock going up. And that makes you go all the way to the top and then fall. So I fell 16ft. That's when I broke my pelvis.

[A]

And were you in the orangutan suit at that point or some other suit? Was the orangutan suit that was for Wild Boys? Was it padded?

[B]

Not worth it?

[A]

No, that was extra. We don't got any budget.

[C]

And I was wearing the mask, so I wasn't wearing my helmet. So that was a big problem. I got a concussion. Stretch my skull for people at home.

[B]

You just go straight down fast like Hot Wheels and then you do a whole loop.

[C]

A whole loop.

[B]

And you lose all your momentum at the top and you want to bail, I'm sure. But if you just hang on, you're fully lightweight. I'm sure you're full.

[C]

If you have the right amount of speed, you. You just hold steady and it works.

[B]

And it will stay on.

[C]

Yeah, but. But the problem with Bob's is that it was so weathered, you couldn't get that around amount of speed. I like how I tried to compensate by using my legs. And if you use your legs, then you end up completely straight leg with nowhere to go.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Have you ever studied geometry or. Or physics? Because it sounds like you're really. You got to know speed. It's wind. It's like.

[C]

Well, the first time I ever did it, I go, I actually, like, did a Hot Wheels and tried to measure that and do the ratios of how that would work. And it worked the first time, but this time it didn't work.

[A]

It seems that there's a lot of thinking that goes into these tricks that maybe not every skateboarder has. Usually it's just intuitive.

[C]

No, it's. Just try.

[A]

Right.

[B]

I don't like. They gave you a shitty ramp.

[A]

If I get here, I'm going to fall there. I got to get speed to get this velocity in this angle. I don't know. It sounds interesting.

[C]

Yeah. We're just kind of going off of feeling. We didn't have foam pits or training grounds.

[B]

Right.

[C]

So it's like David, like, he. He tried air to axle stall and came down hard.

[B]

Broke his wrist.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

When we. By the way, we did this movie in the old days, I. I was trying to jump the simple thing of stairs.

[A]

Just seeing if your wrist has a bump.

[B]

No, I actually. I actually broke my wrist again after that.

[C]

Skating.

[B]

Yeah. And my mom goes, you shouldn't skate anymore. I go, because it's too dangerous. She goes, no, you're horrible at it. We have to keep you in school.

[A]

You keep. We're mortgaging the house.

[C]

Yeah, it was.

[B]

It got too hard because it was too. You know, I could do the desert pipes. We did those. I could do, you know, and just go to vert and come. I couldn't really do that.

[C]

Those are. Those are famous.

[A]

Could you do. What is it? The Pineapple reverse squat. Do you remember that one?

[B]

The old dipsy doodle. Now I could do front side grinders. I could do stuff. But it gets scary, Dana. And it was just. When it gets too hard, what they were doing, it just. It separates.

[A]

I had a hard time looking at it. My kids coming down steep hills.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Didn't want to wear helmets, but could put the helmet on. Put the helmet on. Put. And I. Because of childhood trauma, I had to look away. My wife could just watch him, but I would just. I would just look away. So they made it. You know, we had 23er visits between the two sons.

[B]

Oh, wow. Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. I actually have the cell number of the head of the E.R.

[B]

my. Down there by you in your secret.

[A]

They have a special lane. Tony. He's coming in on Tony Drop. Okay, put it.

[C]

We have several children, and they all went through their share of injuries because they all skate, so that too.

[B]

And is Riley a pro?

[C]

Riley, my oldest son, is pro. Yes.

[B]

Yeah, he's good. He's cool.

[A]

Oh, that's cool. So do you think when you see him becoming that good, do you see yourself in him intellectually or.

[C]

I see his determination and his drive to keep trying to outdo himself. Yeah, very much so. He. He's more of a street skater, so that is not my wheelhouse. But I do see the same sort of motivation that he has that I have.

[A]

It's kind of true of all successful people.

[B]

It's hard that he's that good because he's got this guy as a dad, and. And it's hard to be good.

[C]

Anyway, he kind of. He kind of shied away from skating when he started getting good because of that.

[B]

It's weird. It's definitely weird.

[C]

But. But came back to it because he had so many close friends that were just hardcore skaters and kind of found his own path after that.

[A]

Well, once you're making a living at something that's a passion, it's kind of a. It's a very nice thing. So he is professional.

[C]

He is, yeah.

[A]

And I always wanted to make the same amount of money I could as a waiter, like maybe 1500amonth. And once I got to 600amonth, I was able to put an apron. I made 600.

[B]

We made 600 on this podcast.

[A]

To finish that sentence. Yeah. I'm telling you two jokes. No, life's been good. But to your point, and it's for everybody who excels at things, the passion has to come first. And just wanting to get better at it, wanting to get better.

[C]

I do. See, I have seen skaters come and go because their motivation is fame and fortune. And if they get a taste of it, then they don't want to skate anymore or they don't want to push themselves.

[A]

And also, if that's your moniker, it's like Lorne Michaels, one of his. The miniature hotel. You feel yourself getting less hot.

[B]

It's hard to stay.

[A]

So in other words, if you're a fame whore, you're just like, you know, Yeah, I don't. I like to stay home. I don't want to go anywhere. Dave's a man about town. But we're. We met, we're different. That's why we. We have a chemistry. But yeah, I much rather watch Friday Night Lights at home.

[B]

I have to extract Dana out to dinner once a week, every week.

[C]

I feel you, you know.

[A]

But he has a steak dinner of mashed potatoes waiting for him. Him when he sits down. And then he'll have a small cocktail. I go, are you feeling anything with that two pounds of tiny little micro buzz?

[C]

I'm a glass of whiskey at night.

[B]

Dana, why aren't you asking him about the movie you don't care about? It's Police Academy 4.

[C]

That's where we met.

[A]

Well, this is for our listeners. No. Well, this. I have some questions after this. But this is the axis of connection between these two. The Movie Police Academy 4. The Good David's in it. Tony's in it. Go, guys.

[B]

I got hired just doing improv. I wasn't a good actor. The way I locked into that, Tony is I went in. I was very new. I was 21, and I just started doing sets of the improv. And there's casting people peppered around. You just don't know. And then when they called me in and they said, we got a script. Can you come in and audition? I didn't know what I was doing. I would have, literally, because my next audition, I just read it off the page. They go, we want you to read. I go, oh, I can read. And then I just read the script to them and they were like, you don't know what you're doing. And I go, nope. So the only reason I got that is because they go, can you skate? And I said, yeah, because I auditioned for North Shore, a movie, and I said I could surf and I could not.

[C]

But did they discover that?

[B]

They discovered it. Well, I didn't get it. So I got down to meet and Matt Adler, a buddy of mine, got it and he could surf. So it was about a guy from Arizona. And I go, I have all the components. I can't surf that good. So I do.

[C]

You dodged a bullet without one.

[B]

Yeah, I would have fucking drowned surfing.

[C]

No, no, but I'm just saying that was the one of the most quoted, ridiculous surf movies.

[B]

Oh, yeah, it was kind of goop. Was kind of goofy, is that you're saying?

[C]

Yeah, there's some. There's some onliners in there that endure

[B]

that live on because it's called Northshore.

[A]

Was Northshore. Yeah. And who was in it?

[B]

Matt Adler is a buddy of mine that.

[C]

Okay, Laird Plays. I remember that. Oh, he does Hamilton.

[B]

The guy that pulls his leash, he would have drowned.

[A]

Oh, Lar Hamilton. Yeah, he's a trip.

[C]

He's the bad guy.

[B]

If he knew I was not good. So anyway, so I auditioned for Police Academy, but when I get there, they go, we're getting a new script in, it's not here yet. And I go, oh. And they go, you're here. Do you want to just.

[C]

Oh, perfect.

[B]

Do you want to just ad lib stuff? You're just a smart ass kid and the lines are so stiff anyway, I would have bombed. So I just started making up stuff that's good. And it was so lucky because they go, oh, he's not bad. Because I was just free forming.

[C]

Right?

[A]

That's so much.

[B]

So I get hired, I go there. I'm making so much money. I think I'm making $2,500 a week.

[A]

We.

[B]

As a movie. I was in a movie in Toronto and they go, you're part of a skate gang of misfits. And they go, oh, we're going to get. And of course I knew the Bones Brigade. I knew everything from Arizona. And then they go, this guy, Tony Hawk, I think it was Guerrero and Cavalo and Mike McGill and Lance. Lance Mountain. And so they all came out and I was so excited because they were rocking.

[A]

Do you remember your first impressions of David Spade?

[C]

I thought it was super funny. Yeah.

[A]

So you.

[C]

It was one of those things where I got. Where you go, oh, you're, you're really funny.

[B]

You should be a comedian. That was lucky because, you know, Tony. The one problem we had was Tony was taller than me and he was. Were you goofy or regular foot?

[C]

I'm goofy footed.

[B]

And so we had Chris Miller.

[C]

Well, no, can I interject?

[B]

Yeah, go ahead.

[C]

So, yes. So we all read for this. That part.

[A]

Oh, is that right?

[C]

We all read for the part. Oh, that's right.

[B]

Okay.

[C]

Or, or the. You and the. Who's the guy in Fast Times backer. So we all read for those parts as the Bones Brigade. And, and they're like, yeah, you guys are not actors. But you know, we'll, we'll consider you in the gang or whatever.

[A]

Okay. And then they.

[C]

I didn't know that they singled out when they hired you guys. They sing it out. Lance and me as the doubles. Yeah, I went through a growth spurt from the time we tried out to the time we got there.

[A]

Really?

[C]

And so for the first week they were like, I think that guy's too tall. And I remember the Director saying, like, you know, he's a pretty good skater, but he's a bad stunt double. And so then Stacy kept telling me, like, jimmy, oh, crouch, stay low.

[B]

Oh, Stacy, problem.

[C]

Yeah. And I go, I. I don't know. I just trying. I was trying. And then. And then they just quietly sent me home. Basically, I got fired.

[A]

Oh.

[C]

And then they sent in Chris Miller, who looks like. He looks a little more. And is. Is the same stances. You're.

[B]

You're. I'm goofy. But he was closer. It was a tough decision because you're goofy and he's regular.

[A]

Sorry, what does goofy foot mean?

[B]

Goofy.

[C]

Oh, that means he stands. He stands with his right foot forward. So do I.

[A]

And that's called goofy.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And left foot is called regular. Regular. Okay.

[C]

And so when I got hired, you remember, that was. That was part of the thing, was like, oh, you're goofy footed too. That's what David is. So I went, so. And long story short, they send in Chris Miller, who looks more like him but is regular footed.

[A]

Okay. So in the.

[C]

In the skate sequence, his stance keeps changing.

[B]

It's so crazy.

[C]

Wow.

[A]

I'm gonna watch this.

[B]

So unprofessional, by the way.

[C]

But you had a legit. Legit skate part, like going through the mall.

[B]

I could skate. I could skate. And then when I go one time, I go, brian Backer could not skate. He was.

[C]

He was very much against it. Yeah. To the point where he's making us

[A]

very uncomfortable as part of the movie.

[C]

Or he just didn't want to even pretend. And they needed establishing shots of him skating.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

Even if they had to pull him

[A]

on something he didn't want to be.

[C]

Yeah. But at one point, they did try to get him on a skateboard, and he was very upset about it, and he was kind of complaining to us, and we're like, we just work here.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

But we can help you.

[A]

Stacy.

[B]

Stacy Peralta was a great skater and a great director and one of his bosses because he's from Pal, Peralta, Bones Brigade, all this.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, he's the one who put us together, and he was the one who got us the audition.

[B]

And he did second unit.

[A]

Yeah, he.

[B]

So he directed us in a lot of those skate scenes, if not all of them. And one time I go, stacy, he goes, you can skate a little bit, right? I go, yeah, yeah. I go, listen, on this one, I had a pink bone shirt, didn't I? Yeah. And I go, we're just. We're just rolling through the city at Night. So I go. And then they go. Go over these steps. And I go, what is it, five steps? I go, I can do that. And he goes, okay. So I could do five steps seven out of ten times. So. But when the pressure. So they're all behind me. I don't know if you remember this. Anyway, I'm in front.

[C]

Woohoo.

[B]

Making noises. We loop later. And then we go in and I do the first steps and I wipe out. And then everyone has to wipe out on top of me because they're all like two feet behind me.

[A]

Oh, yeah.

[C]

There was no.

[A]

Was the camera rolling?

[C]

There's no.

[A]

That's like slaps.

[C]

I'm like.

[A]

And they use that.

[B]

No, I think they. Oh, just go, Tony, just do it.

[A]

And then you. We need to get one right as a stunt double. Yeah. Five. Five steps. Was it nothing for you? That.

[C]

Not nothing, but it was.

[A]

Yeah, it seemed to be a lot. Seemed to be very difficult for them.

[C]

Yeah. But what we learned in. In that shoot is we learned about stunt bumps, and we didn't know anything about that. So if we pretended like something was really hard money.

[B]

Oh, you did jump a police car.

[A]

You're talking about two stairs. Are you nuts? Boy, I've got a fee for that one. Yeah, I got you.

[C]

There was one. It was the. When we jumped the fountain. Okay, I don't think you were there for that one, but we. We jumped a fountain. They set up this big ramp, and. And it just was so janky, the whole thing. And the landing zone was terrible. And we were just sitting there sweating, and they're like, we'll give you each 500 bucks to do this. We're like, what?

[A]

Oh, yeah. Oh, oh, the ramp got a lot. Yeah.

[B]

Every time I want to run it back.

[A]

Let's keep going.

[C]

And that's when we learned that.

[A]

Interesting. Yeah. Stunt doubles. I've been next to guys that were about to take a car hit on my behalf, talking to them. How you doing? Pretty good.

[B]

They never. They never say they won't go again because they get another.

[A]

I guess they get more money.

[B]

Junk. Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

So every take, they do it. They get a bump, Right, Right.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

There's only one time I had a stuntman tap out, and I took over.

[B]

You took over?

[A]

What, was it weird? Well, it was going inside this big vat of goo, big wooden thing, and Anthony Hopkins was the dad, and he was there and supposed to go under it. And then it's. The goo fills everything, and I guess a little claustrophobia. The guy was A great stuntman, but just got him shook up. So I did it.

[C]

You did it?

[A]

Yeah. I got underneath the thing and go, well, I'm a little guy. I can't skate. I can't do anything, but I'll stay down in this goo. I come up from the goo, and there's Anthony Hopkins, or Tony, as I call him, or Hoppy. We were close. Anyway, he gave me. He's playing my dad. Dad. So, anyway, I have questions.

[B]

Yeah, give them the questions.

[A]

I. I just. We do this sometimes for fun. Let's see what I got here.

[C]

I. I do want to say, though, to end that. I get asked about that all the time.

[B]

I do, too. All the time.

[A]

Oh, yeah, please. Academy 4 is kind of just one of those comedies of the 80s. Everybody knows.

[B]

From then on, we stayed friends. He would always give me a board. He would always. If I asked for something. We went and skated McGill's ramp once, which I was not good good at. And I'm so brittle that I can't believe you still will. Will risk falling, because every time I fall, it really rocks me.

[C]

I. I think I. I got accustomed to the slight pains of skating. But now, as I grow older, things have linger more. But I do find that if I stay active, it's easier, because when I.

[B]

But, Dana, when I did that thing with Tiger, I was comparing them because they're both, like, the number one in their field. Tiger is so driven. So we played golf that night, and he was visibly hurt from his back operations. He wasn't. He's super cool. He's great. He's reading putts. He was having fun, but I could tell he's in pain. I even asked him, would you. Do you think you'll ever play golf again? Because he just got an operation, and I thought maybe this is it. Why I asked him, I don't know. That next morning, he gets in the car wreck, right? So he crushes his feet, everything. He may never play again. And he starts to swing. And within a year, year, he. He was better than me. Within minutes. I go, there was a while there where I was better than him because he couldn't pick up a com clone. And then he goes, I can kind of. I'm better than you. And I'm like, well, how is it that I thought it would take years?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And. And he's so good at it that once he can just stand up on

[A]

two feet, he's like, he's playing on one leg now. And he was also made the cut and was doing badass stuff, like a week ago.

[B]

It's infuriating.

[A]

Go. You know, have you ever been, like, upside down on your skateboard and had the thought in your head like, this can't be good, or, this isn't going to end well?

[C]

The. The first time I tried 900. Yes.

[A]

In your brain, it went, this isn't going to end well.

[C]

I was like, I don't know where I am. When is. When am I going to hit the wall? Oh, there it is.

[A]

Upside down your skateboard. And thought, why did I ever really. Did I ever really like this?

[C]

I think that when I first to the ramp after breaking my leg, there was a. The moment of that.

[A]

Have you ever been upside down or skateboard? The thought popped in your head. David Spade was really funny, and please scan me for it.

[B]

All right.

[C]

He said almost every day, have you

[A]

ever been upside down?

[B]

Your skateboarding, gone. My IQ is 144. What the am I doing? Ramming my thighs?

[A]

I had a BMX guy who was. Who was pro for a while, Chris Duncan, say that to me, that he was upside down once, and he said, this can't end well. Like, he just knew he was out of sorts.

[C]

And also you.

[A]

You.

[C]

And you just anticipate that hit. You're like, I'm not. I know that I can't prepare for it this time. So when is it coming? And please make it soon.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Do. Have you ever gotten kind of at an endorphin high like distance runners do from skateboarding? Like a real buzz?

[C]

Oh, yeah, all the time.

[A]

When you land something great, you're just like, all right.

[C]

Anything that I land, new to me. Me.

[A]

Okay.

[B]

It's like, new jokes for us. No joke. It's like if you do a new joke at this stage of the game. No joke. New joke.

[A]

Have you ever been on your skateboard going fast, had somebody else push a skateboard five feet away next to you and tried to jump on that skateboard? Yeah.

[C]

Yeah. That's not as amazing as you would think. Oh, wow.

[A]

I thought you were going to go. No one could do that.

[B]

Dana. I saw you on Instagram the other day. Day. He hits, like, a bump there, skateboarding the other side. He does a flip in the air.

[C]

I've seen that.

[B]

That's pretty.

[C]

Yeah, that's pretty wild.

[B]

There's so many ways I can go wrong. Okay, go.

[A]

Has anyone ever used the pun to you? You're just skating by. Has anyone ever said that to you?

[B]

You're skating through life.

[A]

Hey, Tony, Skate by. Huh? Okay. Just curious by what makes a prodigy? I guess it's determination, I think.

[C]

I think a lot of determination, discipline. And it's just. You know it when you see it.

[A]

Mozart, right?

[B]

JonBenet. Yeah. All the big ones.

[A]

The biggest mistake beginning skateboarders make. Tony Hawk.

[C]

The biggest mistake beginner skateboarders make. Getting ahead of themselves, skill wise, where they think that because they can ride a skateboard that suddenly they can do some big stuff on a big set of stairs, a big handrail. And they do not have all the required elements to that. And it goes horribly discouraged.

[B]

Then it looks easy on Instagram. Dan.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

When you see someone make a trick, you don't realize they fell 30 times.

[A]

Fill in the blank. Tony Hawk is. You don't have to answer these.

[C]

A skateboarder, a husband, a father and a philanthropist.

[A]

Okay. David Spade is.

[B]

You can say all those same ones.

[A]

Funny skateboard. Not so good in skateboard, but incredibly funny.

[B]

No. Yeah.

[A]

Let's see. Do you think Evil Knievel could have made some noise in the skateboarding world?

[B]

Noise?

[C]

I.

[A]

Hey, he was a desperation to me.

[C]

So by proxy.

[A]

Yes. So you'd watch him on TV going over cars with his car?

[C]

Yeah, I had the. I had the windup.

[B]

Ssp.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Which one? Oh, okay. I know you've landed the 900 and I'm just throwing this out. It's going on record. This is going out all over the world. 1200.

[C]

Michie Brusco, a current pro skater, has done a 1260.

[B]

Was he young?

[C]

Is he really young? Tom Sh. You think of Tom Sh. He did. Tom Sh. Did the first 1080. He was very young.

[B]

Oh, yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

This is on a bigger ramp, so more air time. People somehow think that's easier. I don't think that's easier.

[A]

Cheater. Asterisk.

[C]

But no, it's hard. Mitch Brisco did 1260. So he did three and a half.

[A]

God dang. I can't put that in my head.

[B]

Ring brothers.

[A]

It's amazing. The humans just want to keep.

[C]

It's amazing. If you look that up, find the

[A]

clip, it's worth watching because in track and field, in sprints, it's like a hundredth of a second world record by point. Oh. Oh, no.

[C]

This is a full spin.

[A]

Yeah, that. That is extraordinary. These. These are just random ones like fear. Where does fear come into it and how do you deal with it? Right before you go on off, you want to be in an attack mode or.

[C]

I treat fear in more hard that I feel confident that I have the skills to do this.

[A]

The preparation.

[C]

Hope this works.

[A]

Hopefully it can land it.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

I don't know what's gonna happen. It's more like I have all the pieces to this. Let's put them together.

[A]

And.

[C]

And I approach it with more confidence than.

[A]

That's it.

[C]

Fear. Yeah.

[A]

Have you ever done a rope swing into a lake and you were the kid who would do, like, all kinds of triple somersaults?

[C]

I would know, but I was little, I would go off the high dive.

[A]

Did you have vertigo at all? Did you look down and go.

[C]

Yeah, but I. I think I just. Knowing that other people have done it.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

Gave me some.

[A]

Seems like you would have been a good high school diver, probably with this sort of.

[C]

I don't think I'd be that accurate.

[A]

You know what I mean?

[C]

Like, I'm down to do flips, but I don't want to pencil in.

[A]

And you'd hit the water, but maybe,

[C]

you know, I'm gonna make it look like a hyena.

[A]

I just asked people this. Anyway. Did you as a kid, movie or television show blow your mind and make you happy? Shoot for Ben Stiller. It was the Poseidon Adventure. I always give an example. For me, it was Jason, the Argonauts.

[C]

Oh, for a TV show or.

[A]

Those are movies.

[B]

Mine's probably Animal House.

[A]

TV show would have been Little House in the Prairie. That's Dave's favorite.

[C]

I love that one.

[B]

Yeah, I did like it. I like it.

[A]

He's a huge Michael Landon fan. Has this.

[B]

Once Mary got blind, I was like, she couldn't realize I'm a six.

[C]

Yeah, that's a good question.

[A]

That's all right. You can pass.

[C]

Just. I think I. I really. I enjoyed Greatest American Hero.

[A]

The movie was kind of, okay, so

[C]

more regular dude that had superhero qualities

[B]

and that was fun.

[A]

And he would run into the walls and stuff like that. Okay, that makes sense.

[C]

My favorite movie back in the day was Fast Times.

[A]

Fast Times of Bridgemont.

[C]

Yeah. Because it summed up well.

[A]

That says it all. That's perfect. You were right at the age to hit that.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

And Sean Penn, probably 80 years.

[B]

That was great.

[C]

Yeah.

[A]

Great tasty waves. Yeah, that. That was. That was a big comedy.

[C]

I got to actually clarify a. A line from Fast Times with Sean Penn.

[A]

So that was a big deal. You did.

[C]

Well, it's coming of age. What was it people think? He says, all I need are tasty is a cool buzz and tasty waves. He said, cool buzz buds.

[A]

Yes.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

And that's how I heard it.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

I got to clarify with him and that he thought.

[A]

He said buzz.

[C]

No, he said buds.

[A]

He had to.

[B]

People think he. People think.

[C]

He says bugs means.

[A]

Yeah, right. I remember that line. And it was buds.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Well, Tony, Tony, thank you for talking about SNL for an hour with us.

[A]

Well, no, that's part B. We'll talk. Tony's audition for SNL. He skates onto 8. 8. Lawrence, like, what do you have?

[C]

It's. I. I gotta say it. It was a dream come true. And it only happened recently, and I was so thankful.

[A]

And you came out and did a cameo. What did you do?

[C]

So I was. I was here in LA doing pod, doing our podcast, Hawk vs Wolf.

[A]

Hawk. Hawk vs Wolf. Wherever you can find Podcast. And it's also on YouTube. Yeah.

[C]

Yes. Hawk versus wolf. And so I was. I was staying here, doing this for a couple days in the studio in Santa Monica. A driving back to my hotel, it's like 6pm and I get a call and they said, hey, can you make it to New York by tomorrow night? They wrote you into a skit on snl. It's Thursday. And I'm. Yeah, yes, I can do that.

[A]

That's for sure.

[C]

Went. Stayed there. Went, went. Did my podcast with. With Seth Rogen and went straight to lax. I live in San Diego. I. I'm not even prepared to travel at all.

[A]

Right.

[C]

And went there, bought a jacket upon landing, and they had written me into a script. Literally, all I was going to do was say my name.

[A]

Not scared at all.

[C]

And you can handle that? Sure. Whatever it takes. It was. It was a skit about the. You know, that whole thing went viral with the Miss Universe France. Yeah.

[A]

Oh, you were in that. Yeah. That's all right.

[C]

I was going to be one of the judges of that pageant with the Property Brothers. And when it came to me to ask who won, I just say my name. And honestly, when I saw the script, I thought, this is. This is it.

[B]

I'm flying out here.

[A]

This is a long way to.

[C]

But also, like, this is my big break to snl.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Is that.

[C]

I get this. And then they loved it in the rehearsal so much, they added a line for me.

[A]

We're adding a line for you, Tony. It'll be on the cards.

[B]

Did you say Lauren? So do I have the it quality? Should I stay and be a cast?

[C]

I did get to. At the after party, I got to actually sit with him for a few minutes.

[A]

He's quite a.

[B]

Quite a character.

[A]

He just says really interesting stuff all the time.

[C]

Tony's like, I know who you Are.

[B]

Ah, yeah.

[A]

He would be that he would be very, very. Yeah, I, I, I know success when I see it. David. Dana didn't know how to monetize, but Tony did. Well, thank you.

[B]

Tony. Tony, Tony.

[A]

Just to sum up. Yeah. Your podcast is great.

[C]

Thank you.

[A]

And all your business endeavors. And I think this will be an inspiring episode. And it doesn't matter what your passion is. You just have to apply yourself and focus. I always say to people, look at your feet. Don't look at the fame, the money, just look at your feet, literally with skaters. But just like, am I better today than I was yesterday? And what can I do to get better? No matter what you're trying to do do, that's what I take away.

[C]

David, your takeaway is same thing. Yeah, what he said.

[B]

All right, Tony. I'm talking to Tony. It's good. He's a philanthropist as a skate park builds them and

[C]

called the skate park project.

[A]

Oh, that's right. Safe skate parks that we help finances

[C]

parks in underserved areas.

[A]

Yes, yes. That's great.

[C]

Going for 20 years now.

[A]

Wow. So you're.

[B]

They give skate parks that save you, make them better. I don't understand the word.

[A]

All right.

[B]

Safer.

[A]

Tony Hawk, everybody.

[B]

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.

[A]

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

[B]

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.

[A]

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

[B]

Phil Sweet, tech booking by Cultivated Entertainment.

[A]

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

[B]

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