Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade

Frank Sinatra wrote a book on singing if anyone's listening called, uh, uh, "Tips on Popular Singing" and he tells you how to sing and it's it's fantastic.

Oh because it didn't, yeah, you told me you're like take your upper soft palate. I'm like, let me just no, like every every singing teacher. It's your diet fam, pull your stomach in, pull it out to support the air.

Frank Sinatra says breathe in through your nose and then because if you breathe into your mouth the air goes in and dries out your vocal, the summer wind, nose.

And then yeah, you're your lungs feel the air and you feel your rib cage go out, you don't let your rib cage go back in. He's the only one that says not your stomach, your diaphragm, your rib cage. And if you do that, that's what you focus on, you automatically support it.

Well, guess what Steve Martin? Guess what in his book like he stayed out of LA completely, went on the road, he opened for people, he did Vegas, he did other, he did a lot of things and uh, he became great. So, there's more than one way to skin a Steve. Yeah.

Um, well, I think he saw that the sitcom way and that wasn't his way. So then he started opening and just working on the road. Um, two weeks before he made it, he bombed so bad, he considered just forget it because what he was back at the moment, I can't remember, you know, I don't know, I just remember in his book. He was playing some Miami gig and just if the audience didn't hook, he wasn't famous, if they didn't know hook his character, it got really grim in there, you know.

Do you want to sound we're going to lose this fluent or do you want to sound like ratatouille

I'm a catole and I thought damn that's a I mean so I'm writing a book called life is a shit show get used to it

Life is a shit sandwich take a bite

Did you ever see Clockwork Orange?

It's about society just collapsing under this in the criminal's takeover.

That's sort of what's going on quietly.

And there was a girl in there who just won Miss Guysare's and they were asking her what she was going to do next and she says "Miss Guysare's, yeah I'm gonna continue with my modeling and my actressing."

And she had on, you know, the little like, her dress and Kelly Bundy was a totally different character before that she was like biker chick and, you know, during the years and no one saw it. She was like a little biker chick, kind of tough, kind of stuff and I was like "No, we need to represent this, what this is going on right now in the zeitgeist like these girls like these rock sluddy girls and I was like "Let's go, let's do it"."

And we went the next day to Melrose to get like a bunch of those little dresses that I had never put something on like that in my life because I was a hippie, I loved Janice Joplin and The Beatles and Led Zeppelin. I was totally not that guy and low and behold, that's where the character came from.

I have those old Steve Martin albums, David, and as a kid, I mean, now it's all specials and stuff and video, but it was pretty fun because he had a few screw-ups.

Has a book coming out, Dumb Ideas. It really is insight into the intellect and the brain trust behind the Eric Andre Show and other things.

So doing the research, I became a big fan and he's fun and easy to talk to. I hear his name a lot because a lot of people are like, did you see what he did? Did you see this?

And he's got his show and the movie and now the book.

So I read the book.

Well, a lot of those are rejected just because we run out of money.

He's got a book out with a lot of great, very interesting stories. Yeah, Be Useful. And we talk about- Very positive thinking.

Go toward the pain and that's where all the good stuff is. With pain, you get stronger.

And the way he articulates, it's not his accent or anything anymore. It's just, he makes things very clean and very simple.

Oh, you have the book. Oh, fuck yeah, I do. I got questions, I got books.

The book is a lot about positivity, pretty much overall.

And then Pumping Iron came out, and then that was a big hit. And so then all of a sudden, people started saying, it was Pumping Iron actually that made Ed Pressman, who just passed away recently, famous producer, who saw me in Pumping Iron and then got the rights of the Conan rights.

Yes. And so we deep dive into that. It was very, very interesting. And Keegan and El have a very close creative relationship. It's a nice thing to see. And he's in Schmigadoon. Schmigadoon. Schmigadoon is still out there.

And in this book, he dresses like characters in the past. I think Charlie Chaplin all the way up, I think Wayne's World.

Yeah. He analyzed your Bye Bye Sketch, the flight attendant sketch. Oh, did he? Oh, yeah. He did. Yeah. We won't tell you what he said.

And on the cover of it, Keegan is doing all these eardresses, all these famous archetypal characters through the history. And there you are with Garth. So I was absolutely flattered though. Absolutely.

We did actually call Mike for permission. We didn't call you, sorry. But we did call Mike and I said, I want to do Wayne or Garth from Wayne's World because it's so iconic.

So people who just joined us, we're live. Elle and Keegan wrote a book about The History of Sketch Comedy and have a podcast.

It's not Garth's World. I'm the guy next to the guy, you know? So but that's very generous.

So basically, Chronicle is the publisher and they asked, they said, do you think you could get a couple of quotes from some people in sketch comedy?

Give a list. It's unbelievable. From Chris Rock, Mike Myers, David, of course. And then Cal Burnett, who I did call- Did you reach out to me and I blew you off? I don't remember being asked, but I would have done it.

No one can get near David Spade. I will never, even though I'm the second in command on the cover. Long before the cover.

So basically what I did is try to figure out, so there's, I kind of broke it down to 10 different sections, 10 chapters, and figure out what would make sense. So we did talk to Kevin Nealon and there are a bunch of, Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

So there are some people that talk, like Kevin Nealon talks about Lorne Michaels. He also does talk a little bit about, you are, I mean, you are, he talks a little bit about Hans and Franz.

Hans and Franz is in the book. So I probably would try to figure out what subject in the book, and I would tell you what they are, that you had some kind of relationship to.

So for example, you said you love the stuff about the early television. Yeah. So then I would ask you about something that has to do with early television and then made a little sidebar in that chapter on your thoughts.

So then that podcast that you, the Audible series came about because when COVID started, I pitched my team and agents this idea of I'm going to write this book on sketch comedy, and I'm writing it as a kind of a love letter to Keegan and my love of comedy.

And I said, sure. And then I pitched Audible this idea that if Keegan Michael Key was teaching an NYU course on sketch comedy, and it was a 10-part class, it would be a very, very crowded class, and it would be a lot of fun.

And I wanted to continue that with the book, which is why when I designed the cover, I pitched Audible this idea of what if instead of Keegan performing, what if we dress Keegan up?

And as a matter of fact, Luza Kerrion helped me with all the hair and makeup who's on Saturday Night Live does the hair and makeup.

And then the original idea for the book cover was the evolution of man, like the Cro-Magnet. Yeah, yeah. The Erectus Erectus. The classic.

Yes. The substitute teacher is ahead. It's just only because of the time. Well, I did look up that 213 million views on YouTube, another tour de force as the substitute teacher on the Keegan Peele show.

What I loved about the book when you got into naming, OK, who was the linchpin for television? How did people adapt from vaudeville to radio? I was into all that section, which I found fascinating and how Milton Berle was kind of the first TV sketch comedy superstar.

I like all that stuff. It's really cool. I really liked the variety TV. I don't know how far you got into variety TV.

And then we started doing this deep dive of every single person we could find who was on a variety TV show. Amazing, right? Yeah, it was nuts. If you think about the fact that Howard Cosell had a variety show called The Howard Cosell Show.

And then it was Saturday Night Live, right? As well. I think it was.

Then it was called Saturday Night with Howard Cosell. Everyone had every musician, Glen Campbell. I mean, yeah, it's infinite, right? Everybody had one. Everybody had one. It was amazing, right? Yeah. And then sometimes they're on ice skates, right? Sometimes Donnie would be on ice.

It was, you know, when I was watching those, of course, I loved them growing up. And Captain and Tennille. It seems like if you have one hit song, you get 13 episodes of a variety show.

Of a TV show. Anything. Everyone, they just threw them out there. Johnny Cash had one. The Brady Bunch.

The Brady Bunch. Had a variety. More. That's right, with David Letterman and Michael Keaton. Yeah, they're very short-lived. We're in the cast.

So you had to apply interviewing him and then kind of get this narrative and look up Milton Burles and kind of expand.

And then Keegan would help me and then we'd figure out. It was a little bit of a challenge because the podcast and the book are different.

There's a lot of clips from the podcast that are kind of through line. But I also, for the book, was very fortunate enough that people like the brilliant David Spade gave me a few minutes of their time.

I have this book that I that recently came out called Laugh Lines. My life helping funny people be funnier. That's the one I'm reading.

It's called Laugh Lines and the subtitles. My life helping funny people get funnier.

Well, I had written a book that was a bestseller called Bunny Bunny. It was about me and Gilda. Yeah. And it was my way of dealing with her death. And it became a successful off Broadway play.

I had a children's book called Our Tree Named Steve, which was successful, but it was also about our family.

The director, Barry Sonnenfeld. Oh, yeah. Wrote a memoir, which is hilarious, called Barry Sonnenfeld. Call your mother. Rob optioned it and they're hiring me to adapt it.

August 27th, 1991, 10 from Pearl Jam.

September 17th, 1991, Use Your Illusions 1 and 2 from Guns N' Roses.

September 24th, 1990, Nirvana, Nevermind, Line Nirvana, Blood Sugar Sex Magic, and Hot Chili's.

September 24th, 1990, Nirvana, Nevermind, Line Nirvana, Blood Sugar Sex Magic, and Hot Chili's.

I put out this book for charity. I had the first book stick in my head and the money goes to 826, which is a charity that gives free tutoring to kids.

The narrative of it is that during the pandemic, I realized that everyone was home and available to do this. So all these people that I thought wouldn't normally do an interview with me had no excuse to say no, because I knew they were home.

the book is out now. The book you can pre-buy now.