Ben Stiller
01:21:05 Share

Yes, I have actually stayed at Airbnbs from time to time. And truth be told, I do really like them. I'm being totally honest right now that I've had great experiences with them. Yeah. I mean, you can have your look at you go get your own place, get your own pool, your own living room. You're not going to walk in an elevator. You're not going to see people when you're walking around in your undergarments. Yeah.

Yes. And if you don't understand what we're talking about, you should go online. What we're saying is you have a house with a kitchen and a bathroom and it's just for you, tailored for you. You liked your Airbnb over a hotel. Yes. And I do think I've had relatives stay nearby and sometimes it's very nice for them to do an Airbnb and have a little house and they're not underfoot. The last thing you want is your house guest to say, excuse me, um,

Where would I find a towel? That's a toughie when it's because they're naked. Well, it's like the 1800 time you say on the towel rack. Yeah. Thank you. I was going to look there. People don't even think hotels sometimes just go, hey, I'll go there. I'll get an Airbnb. So you won't regret it.

Hey guys, this is David Spade and Dana Carvey, and before we get into Ben Stiller, we just wanted to share a few thoughts about the other night with the Will Smith rock situation. Rock is obviously a buddy of ours. We had him on here a little bit ago, and we have a common denominator, which is being bullied growing up. I was a certified pipsqueak and always being pushed around, and it really hit a nerve with me and

Also, and Rock had talked about it on this podcast. I could jokingly say that slap in the face was a real slap in the face for comedy. But it is true that on a serious note, this is a dangerous precedent. That was the straw that broke Will Smith's back. It couldn't have been. A medium rough joke, just bad timing. It was like a jack in the box that

You hear . And here's Chris Rock. So that was just the one where he decided to flip and not sure what Will's going through. I met him, seems like a decent enough guy. I'd love to see him in a roast. I mean, listen, comedy is rough. I just did a comedy special for Netflix and there's some stuff in there that makes me laugh. People could get offended by. It's just the way it is. I hope roasts aren't outlawed soon.

I mean, my God. I don't know. I just thought it dimmed some light on the other performers that night. You didn't really think about any other performer, anybody that won. It was just that. And they allowed him on stage again. I didn't.

I probably wouldn't have. Not a lot of defense of Chris right there and then at the show. Like other people are, people are standing up and giving Will a standing ovation. Like nothing happened. I thought that was all very odd. And I honestly just don't think he should have been able to go get his award. I hate to say it, but there's got to be some consequence because he's

You shouldn't be allowed to do that. Dana? Well, first of all, you know, I've seen real anger and experienced it. So the first thing I thought was I was triggered because everyone talks about triggers. When I saw a very large person go full shithouse physical on a person who's not small, but much smaller. And that just like, whoa, viscerally just hit me. So I saw a bully, right?

I was just taken back to my childhood. And, you know, when I entered high school, I was five feet tall, 93 pounds. You know, I look like a fetus with shoes. But my point is... Me too, dude. I'm not a psychiatrist, but I played one on TV. But this was not about Chris Rock. It was not about the joke. Something else is going on, especially the second time Will said...

keep my wife's name out of your fucking mouth. The energy and rage and anger of that was so extreme. So I don't really know, but mental health is a thing that I would just say needs help. Secondarily, where was security? Could anyone else have gotten away with that? It was very awkward. And then to give him a standing ovation,

He had 45 minutes to kind of pull it together. He had Denzel Washington talking to him, other really smart people, Bradley Cooper, but he couldn't pull it together to apologize and said, sort of doubled down, I protect women. Yeah. The word protect was heavy in there. Yeah, I'm protecting. And then the next morning he got that ring, ring,

"Hi, this is your publicist, Brian, and maybe we should talk," you know, because then there was the apology. So I just looked at it as a bully. It triggered me, and I think it was kind of horrific and just felt bad. Chris is our friend and our colleague, and I don't want to see anybody slapped like that at any time, on television especially or anywhere.

Yeah, it's funny, you know, Dana, when you get older, like us, when we were bullied, and I know Rock was bullied as a kid, a little skinny kid, and he said it really stuck with him, and it does. It's the root of a lot of things, you know, get me mad. I have a short temper. And any bullying in a car cutting me off or...

A guy, if I'm on a date, coming up to me and looking at me and going, okay, I could take this guy. And so I'll hit on this girl right in front of him. Those little forms of it are there all the time. So when I saw that obvious just walk up, hit him and walk away and almost like laughing, like, fuck you. What are you going to do about it? It made me spin out like, oh my God. So it bothered me all night.

I thought Chris was pretty cool about it, of course, but what do you do? Your mind's spinning. I'm on live TV, a billion people, what's happening? What do I go down? Do I hit them back?

I couldn't even read the prompt after that. I'd probably be going, I got to get out of here. This is too much. Chris handled it perfectly. And I give him a lot of credit for keeping it together after something like that. I actually thought Will Smith would walk up if he was staying and he's joking around laughing, which was sort of more crazy in my head or more, that's not a good word, but it was just more unusual. And then when he got his award, he,

I would have said, what the fuck was I doing with Chris Rock? That was not, sorry. Yeah, I thought that for sure. The jokes got to me. I fucking, how stupid. I'm going to go back and tell him right now. Thank you for this award. Whatever. Any acknowledgement would have just taken all the pressure out and gone. It was nuts. We'll still talk about it. But hey, something else is going on clearly. And I'm sure Chris is your friend. It just all, it was all tough to watch. So,

I don't have a ton to say about it other than what we just said. I mean, it'll all work out. Everyone will walk away, but...

Definitely an odd moment in time. You know, before that moment, of course, my relationship with Will Smith was just from afar as a very likable, up, positive person. So it's disturbing on so many levels. It gave everyone a relief from COVID and Ukraine. So the whole culture has been rotated on this moment because it was so shocking. And I really just...

I don't know. It's still going on because Chris hasn't spoken at this hour. I hope they make up. They seem to be, it seems they're friends and like him to get back to that.

and have everyone live happily ever after. It's tough to live with that hanging over your head. If you think someone's out there after you. Hey, Lady Gaga, who's beautiful, but she's always working with really old people. Like she gets next to Tony Bennett. She looks like a high school senior. Last night they wheel out Liza Minnelli, poor sweet woman. And then Lady Gaga looks like she's in eighth grade. It's a, I don't know. It's, it's, I would,

I know. And Us Magazine immediately did who wore it better and who looked better. And that was unfair. Also, Dana, Regina, one of the hosts, beautiful, lovely woman. She did a bit that I have to say as an observer, I'm for all forms of comedy. But if everyone else gets to complain...

If it's a male host bringing the prettiest actresses up to analyze them and take them backstage for a COVID test, then pat them down, it just wouldn't fly. I mean, I don't care. They're writing bits. Someone in the room should have gone, what if someone doesn't love this idea? But listen-

fine, fine, fine. I just have to say it because I don't care. Just either let everyone do comedy in general, men, women, or just don't. But you can't say, you can't do this, you can do that. That's all. Mm-hmm. You agree? Totally agree. It was...

It was really surprising. Maybe the Oscars are coming back now. If they have more fights, more politically incorrect things, and they go just ape shit, maybe it'll become a huge winner again. I don't know. I mean, the only thing that could have been bigger would be a melee. Chris fights back, and then you've got Nicole Kidman, who knows her way around the block. You've got Keith Urban coming up. You've got Costner probably with a shotgun stopping the whole fight.

Tyler Perry would have gotten in there. Joe Jonas is ripped. He would have come down. There's a lot of people that have been trained to do movies like that where they have training so they can come in and send them. I mean, I don't know if Keanu was there. He needed to be. It must have been tough for Chris to sit in the back and realize literally nothing happened. No one walked up. No security. No stop the show. No. It was just like on with the show. This is it. Standing ovation. Standing ovation. Yeah.

You know, it's hard to pull for the bully. I don't know, Will Smith, probably a great guy. Just in that particular instance, it was the bad guy to me. I've talked to people who grew up not bullied because they were bigger at a young age and so forth and so on. Or maybe their father didn't bully them. They're like, what? Yeah, they don't get it. They didn't get it. But that's what my takeaway was. But I wish everyone the best in the end of the day. So I'm not a negative Nancy. No. No.

We'll all land on our feet. All right, here's the show squad. Dana, we've got Benjamin Stiller. Ben Stiller. Yeah, he is... Ben Stiller, who's pretty much a superstar. I would say, yeah, I would say if you add up everything he's done...

By the time you get to the end, you can't even remember the whole amount. If you read his IMB, you get exhausted. He's done it all. You get exhausted. I mean, if you think of Night at the Museum, one, two, and three, right there. Right.

That's over a couple of years to do three movies that are very long. Robin Williams is in it. All these great people in them. They all crushed. They all killed worldwide. PG family movie. Check. Three, three, three. You got to have an animated franchise. Madagascar. One, two, three. How about doing a comedy with Robert De Niro? Meet the parents. Meet the what? Or meet the fuckers. One, two, three. Zoolander. One, two, three.

I'm going to call him the franchise kid. I mean, my gosh, it's unbelievable. And he's a cool dude. I saw him last year. I don't see him a lot, but I saw him last year at Sundance, which is a dance place I go to. So we went out there and people were hounding him. The guy, I think he directs a lot now, but he's got a very interesting life. He did Saturday Night Live. He did it for how many shows? Five shows. Five shows. And that's...

the riveting hook of why we get to talk to him because we want to talk about that. And we just, he's just a guy that's very cool. Big star. Something about Mary was a monster monster. I mean, you don't even get to that one and it's so big. So all these big comedies and he directs a lot and he's got the new show severance, which is cool, weird sci-fi. So yeah, all props to him. He's very unassuming person, uh, and kind of shy. Uh,

But we're going to tease him out on today's show. Oh, yeah. We'll flush him out of the brush. It's going to be interesting. Is it mano a mano? Is it a fight? No, it's a conversation. But...

Things will happen. Things will happen. But yeah, looking forward to talking to our friend Ben. I'm already thinking of how I'm going to interrupt you during the show when you're asking very good questions. Well, yeah, when I'm running out of steam, I should have a signal like, just please bail me out on this. Please interrupt me. I am winding down and I have no, you know, it's hard. Anyway, so Ben Stiller, I hope you're going to have a good time with him. An old school SNL-er that spun it out into his own sketch show.

and uh won an emmy for it but he'll tell you all about it yeah yeah revenge of uh whatever yeah he won the emmy beat out his old his old gang two years after that's such a crazy story yes crazy story i think there's a movie there it's like a comeback movie's tale of vengeance it's a bit of a rocky theme oh definitely yeah and he was he was a lightweight boxer yeah he was he was uh

I think 82 and 7 as an amateur boxer, if I read that correctly. You know, I'm super fly on the wall weight. Oh, boy. Yeah. The jokes are getting worse. Fly, fly on the wall, fly, fly on the wall. Fly? Fly. All right. Let's just get to Ben still. These people are sick of us. Ladies and gentlemen, we bring you, we give you the one and only Ben.

Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller. Yeah.

I'm okay if I gotta be. Oh shit, there's that guy. There's that guy. Yeah. Mr. Stiller. Yeah. If someone said to me, this is where I'm gonna start with, if someone said to me, you know, Ben Stiller is probably the biggest, most successful comedic influence of his generation the last 20 years. My answer, I wouldn't punch them in the face. Like I wouldn't have an argument with him. I wouldn't get mad. I would go, huh. It would make you go, okay. Yeah.

If they said Spade was, you'd go, no. I was looking over your films and I was reading them out loud to my wife and she goes, man, people, he might be underrated. I mean, it's like, it's kind of crazy. Underrated. Or lucky. I'd say lucky. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Mostly luck. Come on. Okay. Okay.

I'm just going to get these out of the way real fast. Then we're going to get into severance. Are these all the fucking monster movies? I'm not going to go to existential questions. It's two Howard's coming at you with coffee and overlapping. So you jump, you can ask us questions too, Ben. We're all, we're excited because you're here. Certain impressions I'm going to request and we'll get to that later. The last 40 minutes is about us. Believe me, Eddie Munster.

By the way, I just talked to Mike Myers about Eddie Munster on Sprockets, the very first Sprockets. That was the first one. Yeah, incredible. Okay, just real quickly, commence blushing. Okay, Night at the Museum, three great movies. Meet the Parents, got three out of that.

Then you do something. Got three out of that. Got three out of that. No, but those are brilliant. In terms of ringing movies out of a concept, I'm definitely on top of the heat. Not at the museum yet. It was so many that you got to present history people. You got to like Joe Biden.

Then you do Tropic Thunder and Zoolander, Dodgeball, Starsky Hutch as broad characters. You do something about Mary. Just to kill time. My observation for you, Ben, which maybe you've never thought of before, it's very difficult in modern comedy. What you did was play these broad characters and then have a character that could travel as Ben Stiller in movie. That's all I got. I'm tapped out. David, you go. That's all I have for the day. Okay.

I like that analysis. You'd like a 40-minute answer. I think it was basically, yeah, you know, it was basically doing what was there, you know, coming at me. And I never really, you know, look, when I was at my short, short time at SNL, I was so overwhelmed by the level of...

sketch comedy acting prowess that was there. I never ever was, you know, I never considered myself to be good at that. I did like sketch comedy. I loved sketch comedy. I liked to do it and try to do it. But I think I never felt like, I always felt like, okay, I'm kind of like

it and I can kind of do it sometimes and it's fun to do, but I never considered myself, you know, that wasn't like my wheelhouse really, even though I'd like to do it. Well, what have been curious? Cause if, if say it was a government order that Ben Stiller has to do a hundred episodes of

of Saturday Night Live. Because I felt altered after about 80 episodes. It took me to kind of, I faked it in the beginning, you know. You only did like five shows, right? So who could get relaxed? Yeah, it was so intense and overwhelming.

You know, you were there. It's crazy. You know, it's funny that it was because it is. And then you do movies, which there's makeup, there's directing, there's, you know, directing is no easy task. There's so many pressures of just being in the movies and TV. And it is true that that one hits you in sort of a different way where you get in there and you go, you're just like,

hit around going, what the fuck is happening? You know, you don't see it coming, even though you think you do. Yeah. Cause of the whole process of the week leading up to the show and, and what it takes to get to the show and what it takes to get a sketch on the show. And then to really understand how to gear yourself to, and you were both really good at it to, you know, for that 1130 show, because the thing that always happens,

Sort of was like this kind of crazy mind fuck for me was when you do that dress rehearsal and the dress rehearsal would be like, all right, we nailed it. And the dress rehearsal was like, yeah, but we actually haven't done it for real at all yet because nobody saw that. Yeah. And it's worse on air and you go, God damn it. You hate when dress goes too well. You always want, the idea was that the live show in the back of your head, if you, if that voice is talking, it's saying, this is the best you've done it all week. Yeah.

This is, I'm actually doing, it's going the best. It doesn't always happen, but I remember the intensity when we did Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise and just, you're in the slats and then the music's playing and then it is kind of like they just push you.

And all acting or comedy, it's all about getting it out of your own head. It's so surreal. And then you're giving yourself a report card. Like, am I okay? Am I doing it too much? Where's Ben? I mean, I get it. It's just, it's a ridiculous concept, really. It's a torture. Yeah. And I'm sure you guys talk about it on this podcast all the time. The, you know, the, like that feeling right before you go on and right before you get, you know, have to go out the door.

or just like the surreal nature of like your whole life wanting to be a part of SNL and then you get there and then you're doing it and then it's like, it's just crazy. The voice in your head goes, I'm on SNL and I'm doing it. We had Julia Sweeney on and she came in one show early and just watched the show, but she was so adept at doing sketch comedy, she said she wasn't nervous. She looked at it and said, oh, I can do that.

But then she got nervous later. But initially it was like, la-di-da, just say your lines. But did you guys get nervous doing it? Oh, sick. Yeah. I wasn't. When I was there, I did the same thing as Julie did. I went there a week early and watched. And I had the other reaction of, I cannot do this. Like, I was a stand-up. Now, she's coming from an improv group. So she's used to quick changes. She's used to blah, blah, blah, everything.

jumping around in characters and I'm watching it going, are you out of your mind and how fast it moves? And during the commercials, that's really all the time you have. I didn't really get that part. Like if it's 30 seconds, it's 30 seconds or they go to a fake graphic in the front. That's just to buy you some time. And then when I was doing my first update piece, I'm on the side and it's such a little studio. And when I got there that I go, so when I walk three feet,

10 million people see me and I come back and it's just some stage hand chewing gum going good job good job and they move the camera look at the other guy and I go is that it like did anyone see it that went out there

Yeah, it actually happened. Yeah, and I don't have my phone. You know, I'm not on a cell phone back then. So then hopefully somebody saw it somewhere and they tell you, but you just go the rest of the night and everyone's doing their thing. My first sketch, I never did sketch comedy. I just did stand up. My first sketch was a cold opening with Jan Hooks and Phil Hartman. And when I landed a laugh, I had to...

My head wanted to turn toward the audience like a standup. I go, I'll keep looking at Phil. He's the host of the game show. So I could show you church chats early on where she's going like this. Her hand goes up and it's wet with sweat.

You know? Sure. You were so good, but you like, that's crazy that you never did sketch comedy at all before the show. I was doing it as a standup, but didn't really know it. You know, I didn't have any jokes. I've written maybe two jokes in my life. I was doing one man sketch, but I, there was no theater group in S S F at the time. Anyway, but, but I do that, but I do think that you guys both coming from standup that did at least prepare you in a way because it's the

the live experience of going up in front of an audience, you know? And I had some of that, but I didn't come out of standup. And, you know, there's the natural sort of thing of being in front of an audience. You know, I'd done some theater, but, you know, that...

I always gravitated towards having more takes and doing it, you know, you do in a movie where you could just like, you could do it a number of times. That was really what, you know, I, I felt more comfortable doing, which is why I went running away after a few weeks. And one, the Emmy for best,

television sketch show two years later. Yeah. But I mean, I was, you know, I was like looking at that environment going, oh man, this is really hard. I don't know if I will do well. And even when I, you know, think back on the few things that I did there, I was so nervous. Even, you know, sprockets like Mike was, that was his first box. And Mike was just so like, that was such a great sketch.

That character, it was all so well formed. He was a great sketch writer right out of the box. And he was just so, you know, he understood, you know, I was doing whatever character I was doing. Eddie Munster wasn't even a character. It was just like, you know, a guy in an Eddie Munster outfit. Well, it was a very funny take on it. The outfit was hysterical. Dieter was such a like a perfect kind of SNL type character. He just understood the structure of it and everything instinctively.

Yeah, well, I get that. I mean, Mike did a lot of sketch comedy before he got SNL. That would be helpful. But still. But Ben, did you do, was it A Color of Money? Why would you do that? You did a video and what did you do that for? Is that what they saw? Is that what Lauren saw? I liked it. Yeah, yeah. I was doing a play off-Broadway.

And I saved up the money I'd made in the play to do this takeoff on The Color of Money with a couple of friends of mine. And we made this short and I didn't know, then I didn't know what to do with it. 'Cause I basically had made a short, but there was nowhere, it was pre everything. - No Funny or Die, no nothing. - There was nothing. So it was sort of like I had the 16 millimeter short that I'd made.

And that was like transferred to three quarter inch tapes. I had this like three quarter inch tape I was taking around and John Lovitz came, had come to the show that I was doing the play called the house of blue leaves. And he,

He had come backstage and I reached out to him. I didn't even know him really. I said, hey, I got this short. I'd love to get it, try to get it to, you know, somebody to see for the show. And he took it up to Lorne. He literally took the tape up to Lorne. I love the romance of that. When I hear about somebody, let's put on a show and making it, financing, making a short film and then having it go somewhere.

Because imagine all the young people now putting stuff on YouTube. But the fact, and I did watch some of it this morning. It was absolutely hysterical. They make up on you. It was all like, yeah, it was all like my friends and my parents and my grandfather. It was like, you know, the whole cast of it was just people doing favors. And the Tom Cruise impression and character was so potent and bizarre. And your look was so amazing. I mean, what? You must have laughed your ass off. It was youth. It was called youth. Yeah.

I mean, I was just doing it because I, you know, we kind of like had the idea for the movie. It was Steve Klayman, Ralph Howard, my two friends that we, and we had this idea and it was like, who's going to do cruise? Cause like we knew we had the idea, but, and, and Steve actually did a cruise too. And I was like, oh, well maybe I should do cruise. And then we had like a cruise off. We should do the best part. Well, what was your, not to interrupt Ben, but what was your end to cruise? Usually it's like one hook. You did it in the restaurant. It was just,

it was one thing. It was just sort of, yeah, that, yeah. But I, I see him in that. Yeah. Smiles and looks around. All you need is one thing. And that was it. That is, well, you, you know, you take the one thing and then you transmogrify it. No one knows what I'm doing. Yeah.

which I'd love to understand what your method is, 'cause you talk about it sometimes. - I'm trying right now with Biden. I'm still trying to find hooks. - Yeah, but your Biden is great. Where are you at with your Biden right now? - Well, the latest hook was that he yelled in the beginning. It was like, "Come on, here's the deal. My dad lost a job. No joke. Not kidding around here." That was not a joke, and he said, "No joke." And then he makes lists. Number one, the one part. Number two, what the guy said.

Number three, you know the drill. Come on. It isn't rocket science, folks. And then once in a while... Saying nothing. He gets mad. I'm not going to do this. I can talk loud. Look at me go. And he's finally had it. Do it. And then he whispers. Yeah, you just...

Yeah, no, please. The whispers are really funny. The whispers, when he comes down, you go, who's he talking to? Is there someone right by the podium? It takes a while to do someone and also for the audience to get used to that person. You know, just little hooks later on. I know more about Biden's voice now than I did six months ago. But anyway, I think it's your comedic hooks into the characters to me are always like what you choose to focus on is what makes it so funny because it's like something nobody else would think.

And then you're like, oh my God, yes, that's exactly what he does. That's the hard part. And when they thought, when you do it, Dana, and then some, someone like George Bush, like back in the day when there's only four channels on SNL that, you know, all the presidents are aware and then they almost do,

what you're doing because that's what they're supposed to be doing. It's such a weird thing that happens. I wanted to learn Michael Caine because of, was it Steve Coogan? Yeah. Those guys traveling around Europe in their car and doing impressions. Oh yeah, yeah, the trip. And they were so good at Michael Caine. That was me consciously wanting to learn Michael Caine just for myself.

Not to put on TV or anything. But then how do you do it knowing that exists? Do you just go to Michael Caine and go, I'm going to come up with my own take on it? Yeah, I realize. And what is it? I used to do it like this, and then I realized the whole hook is the nasal. You could talk like that, but if you go totally nasal, you got him there. And the hook that I do is I do Michael Caine in kindergarten. So it's Michael Caine at five years of age.

And the line is, I like to eat paste. I don't know why. I don't know why. I like to eat things in the classroom. I chew on a hula hoop.

But as far as Saturday Night Live having that focus, like it's going to be on TV Saturday. You know, I'm terribly lazy about these things. Yeah, but yeah. Anyway, you understood how to do that. And it's a definite, a specific art form that, you know, I think some people are built for and some people aren't. You know, Rosetta Stone, the most trusted language learning program.

If you want to learn a new language, which, you know, time like the present, it's always fun to learn when you get older. I know. And it's not learning a language when you're older, you know, over the age of 20 is difficult. You know, I mean, all the high school Spanish I took, grade school Spanish, you know, all I can say is hola.

and hasta luego so it goes out of your head so now you have rosetta stone david tell them about it well dana you know more than anyone trusted expert for 30 years with millions of users in 25 languages uh i mean my gosh they have spanish french italian german i don't think you can throw them a curveball i think they're gonna know what don't they have the language you want yeah

It immerses you in many ways. There's no English translations. You know what I'm saying? I know no English. You need a Rosetta Stone for English. No English translation, so you really learn to speak and listen and think in that language. That's the whole idea of Rosetta Stone is that it sticks to your head. It sticks to your brain. I learned German out of a book. It just doesn't stick as hard, so this is the way to do it. Gesundheit.

Designed for long-term retention.

There's a true accent feature. It gives you feedback on your pronunciation. Yes. And of course there's desktop app options. There's an audio companion and ability to download lessons offline. Yeah. So that's great. Lifetime access to all 25 language courses. Rosetta stone offers for 50% off a steal. And I, and I do think that the off label thing that we're, I'm ad living now going off script is,

is that when you learn a language and you learn to pronunciate the words in that language, you start to learn about the people who live there and speak that language. Sort of a subtle, intuitive way of integrating with the culture. A little different, yeah. Don't put off learning that language. There's no better time than right now to get started. For a very limited time, Fly on the Wall listeners can get Rosetta Stone's lifetime membership for 50% off.

You just visit rosettastone.com slash fly. That's 50% off, unlimited access to 25 language courses for the rest of your life. Redeem your 50% off at rosettastone.com slash fly today.

But what's the difference? So you go on there and you do, I guess it was, you said five shows, maybe Dana said that. But then you go ultimately, not revenge, but you still are interested in it. You go back and do your own show and then it works. You got to feel a little good. Like, see, it's not, it just wasn't my situation. That wasn't perfect for me. Yeah.

yeah i mean that's why i made the decision in the moment and i think it was after i made that decision in retrospect a lot of people you know including people in my life are like wow you quit saturday night live you know and which was like oh yeah geez but i i did have a specific thing that i was going to which was this mtv show which was uh jeff kahn and i were working on uh uh

this thing called it had this thing called it's your hour where you could kind of do your own thing and it was really because of the shorts and that time i wanted to be doing short films and i wanted to do what albert brooks had done on the show that was sort of my dream and and you know he'd go and make these little short films and then show them on the show and that wasn't happening back at that point and so that was i had an opportunity to do that and really i think instinctually i just felt like oh i'll be more

comfortable doing this and I'll be able to, you know, be better at it. You know, it's funny, Ben, is that to go like, you go to MTV and they go, why should we do a show with you about sketches? You go, well, my resume shows you I just quit a sketch show. And they go, no. So we should do one with you? And you go, yeah. I was at the Emmys. That's all you need to know. Saturday Night Live was having a good year. It was the political campaign, everything. And the winner is for Best Comedy Show,

the Ben Stiller show. And I remember you and Bob Odenkirk and your gang going up there and just how shocked you were. Can you describe that feeling of like, Oh, it was surreal. I mean, yeah, we'd been canceled for nine months already. I think we'd been off the air for that long. You were canceled. That's right. Yeah. We weren't even on the air. Oh, that's even more of a shocker. It was crazy. And, you know, I think there was a fair amount of,

bitterness towards Fox that we all felt because we felt, you know, we thought like, oh, our show is, you know, we were good and give us a chance, but we really didn't play our cards right with the network. It was a fledgling Fox network, you know, at that time they weren't even on

fully, you know, they were on like maybe like 12 hours a week or something. And we were up against 60 minutes. So we had awful ratings and, you know, and also we were a weird show. I don't think anybody should have really watched us necessarily, but we, we felt very slighted. I loved it.

But, you know, the head of the network, I think we did something. I really I know there was a moment when there was some sort of presentation. I think it might have been the TCA things, which is like the Television Critics Association. And you go up and you talk to everybody. And Bob and I and Janine were up there and we made some joke about the head of the network's hair. I think Bob did looking like an old timey leatherhead football helmet like that.

you know that movie Leatherheads yeah we made a joke about the head of the network's hair looking like that and that might have been the nail in the coffin for us and after that you know we were just we didn't expect that you know to win I didn't expect to win I heard Bob talking about it recently and saying that he actually thought we might have had a chance but you know which he was such a great sketch writer yeah he was amazing as a sketch writer so funny Dana it's so funny yeah yeah

He was, yeah. And he really, I think it was his, a lot of his writing was on the episode that won it, you know, for us. So it was great. And then I said some stupid thing about like, Fox, you missed something here. I was sitting next to Lorne when your name was announced or the show and Lorne just went, oh, okay.

Oh, I see. It's going to be one of those nights. Yeah. Anyway, I was listening to you guys break down the Lauren impressions of recent episodes, which I can never, you know, always entertaining to listen to different interpretations, different Lauren, I guess Rob Lowe does a good one. Oh yeah. I do. I do a copy of anyone's copy. I'm like a CC of a CC. I,

I just, it comes down. That's what I do. I'll try to do. Just noises. How does Lauren feel about it? You'd think, I mean, at this point, you know, I think he is, you know, I think he's, he's like, he's Lauren. He's aware of it all. Yeah. Right. He doesn't, he doesn't dig into it. I think he, he understands, I think he understands how it's meant because everybody always is doing it with a sense of like, Lauren is a singular entity that is created. It's like, I guess he's a celebrity now and it's like a celebrity impression.

in a weird way. And he also knows, you know, anytime he does a sketch on the show, he always knows how to do himself. He comes out. You know what I mean? Like he always can be more. He would have a glass of Chardonnay at least the first season he'd walk around the floor during the live show. I guess just to try to calm us down, you know?

But he was an intimidating figure. But then after you're not on the show, he's like your greatest friend. He's like so positive and everything is positive. I mean, you went back and hosted twice. I was just going to ask you to the nerve part of,

Did you get past that by being a host on two shows? And you've done a lot of cameos as well recently, Michael Cohen. Yeah. Has it gotten a little better just because you're Ben Stiller now? There's nothing to lose. You're already on show business. Honestly, not at all. Every time I feel that thing in the pit of my stomach, especially when we were doing the last round, we were doing the Michael Cohen ones because there were changes that were happening. And this must have happened before.

to you all the time. You know, the few times I was out there, I don't remember when I was on the show, the last minute changes, like literally like, like a minute, 30 seconds before still playing around, like things like that. And they're putting them on the cue cards while you're standing there and they're like, this will be different. And you're like, and you realize that you're just on your own. Like, it's like, whatever, like you just have to do it. Nobody else is going to do it. You have to keep it in your head. So, you know, it's fun when you can come on. I think it's,

in an unannounced moment, right? When you show up in somebody else's hosting and it's like all of a sudden, like you walk out. And I remember doing that once with De Niro and that was probably the most fun because I didn't really have to do anything. There was no pressure. And it was like, oh, people are excited to see you because they didn't know you were going to be there. Right. Yeah. Big applause. Yeah. And then you don't have to do much. But I think that, yeah, the hosting, I think is really, you know, there's nothing like that feeling when you go out right before you have to go out and

But that's the same feeling I always had, so I don't think it'll ever go away. It's chilling going through that door. Ben Stiller! And just the roar of, like, expectations really high! Yeah, and right now, it's like, then the show. I like when the host, you know, Dana, when the host has to go...

you know, ladies and gentlemen, red hot chili peppers. You know, they've dragged you all the way out there and they put you in a different outfit for that. I'm like, how about I just wear what I'm wearing? You've never heard of them, you know. Well, ladies and gentlemen, bent nerve. Yeah, it's always like hot house flowers. It is interesting to watch when you go through the old shows, like what the bands were and like which ones are actually ones you remember. Yeah, because they try to catch them right on the precipice of blowing up.

And some of them blow down. They never quite catch. And you're like, oh, fuck. And now it's a game I play with myself watching the show now to see which bands I actually know better on the show. Because I almost, I'd say like 80% of the time, I don't know the bands. Do not. That's how out of it. I think it's a typo. I go, there's no way that's a band on the show. I have never heard of them. When you listen to music, Ben, like now, today, what do you listen to? Do you listen to it in your car? Because that's why I listen to music.

Yes, I listen to music in my car. I live in the city and I also live north of the city of New York. So I kind of go back and forth. I like listening to music, but I'm so like as I get older, like I'm starting going like 80s, 70s. Yeah, except 90s. I go to the 90s and then a little fade out. I become the old guys like, what is this? What are they playing? What is this stuff? That's not music. I don't this auto tune all of it.

I mean, I like hip hop, I guess, but from like, even like my hip, the hip hop taste is much older, but I'm like, I could listen to, you know, like Elton John all day. I'm that guy. Right. I got lost somewhere around the spin doctors after that. I don't, I think I'm pre spin doctors. But isn't that interesting though? Because it really does sort of like settle in, like what you really like to listen to.

You just don't know it after a while. You just stop knowing anything. But you stop wanting to know it too. I go, I don't even try. I seek it out. I was thinking about it. If I'm listening to Elton John from 1973 right now,

That's 50 years ago or whatever, right? Pretty much. Or almost. Yeah. Yeah, right? So that's like if my dad in 1973 was listening to 1920, some hit song from 1923 all the time. You know what I mean? Yeah. You know, but I've had... You know what I mean? Yeah, totally. The one thing that happened to me was the stereos back then sucked. So I have a Volvo. It's not a rich man's car per se, but it's, you know, and the stereo in it is so insane that

Maybe three months ago I put on Oh Tiny Dancer Okay So I blast it It's 1500 watts I'm surrounded titanium speakers It's like I'd never heard the song before But then I go to the hip hop channels with my sons And they introduce me to Cardi B And I'm like wow I've never felt so old You know WAP Anyway This one's about Poon Tang And that'd be G-rated Yeah

Yeah, they're not all cheap. I'm open to it. I'm open to it, but then if I'm really being honest with myself, usually I don't get into new stuff. So, Ben, here's the question. How did you get so good at what you do, you think? Like, you're a little kid. You like TV. Like, I want two things. One are the television shows. I know Star Trek. We got to interview William Shatner on this podcast, which was a thrill. Oh, really? A crazy, lucid, brilliant...

analyzed everything, you know, asked us questions. He was like a shrink. He's a scientist. He described what a mirage is. We talked about UFOs. So I know that. And I was wondering what other films or TV shows that just blew your 10 year old Ben's mind. And then you grow up to equal or surpass your heroes as a film director. Yeah.

I don't know. Kind of surreal. It's not, you know, for me, yeah, I loved movies ever since I was a kid and was just making Super 8 movies as a kid and watching movies and television, watching movies and television, you know, in the 70s when it was...

stuff was on TV or you actually went to the movies and go see Planet of the Apes or go see, you know, Towering Inferno or Side Adventure. I had South Side Adventure 20 times. Oh, Shelley Winters. I was obsessed with it. Gene Hackman. The way out is up there.

He had a turtleneck on. He was just, it's out there. It's incredible. Life is out there. It's one inch thick, less thick than two inches. Remember that? He said they had to go up there and they go, yeah, it's an inch of steel. Up there is life. Down here is death. That's good. He gives, he gives, yeah, yes, do that again. Up,

Up there is life. Down here is death. I don't know. That's all I got. And then he gives Shelley Winters a big wet kiss. Oh, I love you, Mrs. Rabinowitz. And she swam under the water. She was the championship swimmer. God damn. And then she died. That was a great movie.

But that tidal wave, that's a great shot, right, Ben? Yes. The tidal wave. The binoculars. The tidal wave. It's incredible. That's great direction. Is that Irwin? Yeah, Roddy McDowell is the waiter who helps them. They have to take the Christmas tree and climb up it. Oh, yeah, it's so smart. I was just obsessed. Everything was upside down. Upside down. Fucking A. Yeah, fascinating. So I could have watched that all day. Okay. I remember once my parents were going to see...

They had tickets to see Lily Tomlin performing live on Broadway. She was doing one of her amazing one woman shows. And they said, come on, we're going to go see Lily Tomlin. I was like, no, Poseidon Adventures on 12th time. I'm going to stay home and watch it. Do you remember there's got to be a morning after? That's the song. Unreal song. Perfect for that. And it made me cry. Her brother dies. Her brother, the bass player dies in the.

you know, to be a morning after this, my Carol Lindley. I don't remember. Was that it? Did I remember that? Yes. That's her. The only time it looked fake is when they look through the binoculars and they see the huge tidal wave. And then when it hits, they had a crew guy throw a cup of water, a Dixie cup of water into the captain's face. He goes, Oh,

No, but remember when the ballroom went upside down and everyone's hanging from the... Are you shitting me? It was unreal. I was scared as a kid. I was riveted. I wasn't scared enough like I was during scary movies. It was sort of accidentally scaring me, but I was riveted to it. Like...

What if this happened? My sister and I snuck out when we were in LA with my parents, because we grew up in New York, but my parents would come out to LA to work and do like the love boat and things like that. And we would stay at the sunset marquee hotel with them. And like my sister and I snuck out once to see the exorcist at the man's Chinese theater. And it scared the shit out of us. We just were so freaked out by it, but we didn't tell my parents that we've gone to see it. Yeah.

So they couldn't understand why we were so... Why you were crying every day all day? We couldn't sleep, yeah. Oh my God. Yeah, go ahead. I want to hear your exorcist experience. Well, first of all, I never saw it. I still can't see it. I used to... My brother told me about it and I was so fucking scared that I would talk before I went to bed to make sure my voice wasn't like the way he said the voice was in the movie.

because I was scared I'd be possessed. And then I won't, I shouldn't tell, Dana, you don't have to listen to this, but I'll tell Ben because he's a better friend. All right, I'll mute. But Ben, I saw the movie Tommy at this huge theater in Arizona, the Cine Capri, when I was whatever age I was when it came out. And it scared me that I got like a stomachache and I had to leave when the acid queen, there was burning and it threw something that burned the guy's face. And right at the beginning, I go, what the fuck?

That movie is not for kids. I thought it'd be a fun movie. Tina Turner, right? Yeah, it was a psycho movie. I saw it later. He was like a crazy, he did Altered States too. Remember that movie with William Hurt? Oh yeah, and Babylon, Bob going, I'm on fucking fire.

Remember when this... Yeah, and his feet turned into ape feet in the shower. And it's just like he's having these crazy hallucinations. He was a really interesting filmmaker. Yeah, so I mean, those movies were so good when we were that age that I was... And I was so into them that, you know, I wanted to do that and make movies. And so that's, you know, I was always doing that. And that's honestly like part of the reason why I didn't stay at SNL and all that is because I wanted to keep...

exploring that and doing that, but I was also kind of like trying to be an actor too. And I think, you know, I just have always loved that more and probably like the last, you know, six or seven years, I've, you know, I haven't really acted in anything for a while and it's been mainly directing and I stopped acting and

in the things I was directing, which I've really enjoyed a lot more because I do feel like that gives you the opportunity to really focus on what you're doing. It's hard when you're kind of in front of the camera too. Oh my God, doing both? Like just how hard it is to either and then you got to do both? Yeah. Well, it's kind of cool that you're...

latest thing you've done is being received so it's brilliant and I'm obsessed by it my sons in their 20s are the way it's shot I don't know the set design the colors the lights the action you know it's so the music so atmospheric and as it gives you this wash of feeling it really takes you out I mean what I mean

When you watch that, how'd that come about? You know what's interesting? Yeah. I mean, first of all, it was written, it was a script that came to our production company about five years ago by a writer as a writing sample, Dan Erickson, this guy who had not had anything produced. And I read and I was like, oh, this is really, this reminds me of like,

The office, it reminds me of office space. It reminds me of like parallax view. It reminds me of, you know, Stefan Truman show. Yes. And it had all these different things going on it. I was trying to think of that other movie.

Oh, what was it? The Andromeda Strain. Do you remember that one? Yes, or THX 1138. THX 1138, yeah. Yeah, the Andromeda Strain. I just thought it was like an interesting thing he was doing with the tone, which he was taking the office workplace comedy and then sort of like adding this other surreal layer to it, which is like...

who are these people? What are they doing? Why are they doing it? But yet they're bantering like they work in an office, but they don't even know what, who they are. You know, that's like a really interesting concept. So anyway, I just, you know, it took a while to set it up. I knew Adam Scott was the guy to play it. Cause I felt like Adam has sort of like mastered that tone. Yeah. Can we talk about him for 10 seconds? Adam Scott is, I saw him on Big Little Lies. I, you've seen him around for years and then I've seen him on this. I go, holy shit. He's never made a false move.

He's amazing and he has this like really interesting quality because like sometimes he'll be like, he'll look like Tom Cruise. He'll have this like thing and then other times he'll be like sort of like this kind of regular like guy, like kind of, you know, very self-effacing and then he'll be kind of like flat and nothing going on but then all of a sudden you look in his eyes and there's some really deep thing happening and he's also like just as an actor, he just like, he just is so specific and I

I call him an acting machine and I mean that as a compliment, whatever you want. I mean, wait, you too, David, I feel like you're an acting machine. Thank you. And he has this ability to like, just change things by a millimeter, but you know, and still, you know, do what he did, but then like, as a director, it's great to work with him. So the whole thing was really interesting to me and, you know, trying to do something that I tonally that I guess,

you know, was an experiment. And then I thought, you know, well, it's fun to be able to experiment with something. We did it all during the pandemic. It's been literally like two and a half years working on it. Yeah. So we started before the pandemic and then we were about to start shooting and then the pandemic happened and we had to shut down. So it's been a long process and we were in this, you know, very oppressive situation.

claustrophobic set for like nine months shooting it. So it got a little bit, you know, like it was the show kind of like folded in on itself. And you got John Turturro and Christopher Walken. I mean, those are also just weird because Turturro, I was talking to him about doing the part and he suggested Chris Walken.

he said, cause we hadn't cast the role of this, his coworker Bert, who, you know, Chris plays. And John said, well, have you cast? I'm like, no, you know, I'm thinking about some music. What about, what about Chris? And I'm like, yeah, that'd be great. Okay. I'll reach out to you. Cause I can call him. And he literally made it happen. He's like, yeah, everyone loves Christopher Walken. I know.

I know. I mean, he's got this amazing voice, amazing face, and he just, you can't not look at him on the screen. Yeah. I mean, and he's aware, you know, he's such a sweet person. I actually worked with him in that first play that I ever did. The thing I did when I did hustler money to take up on color money. Yeah. It was in that production and he worked with my dad a lot. And, you know, he's just,

He's very sweet and sensitive guy. I remember this is a non sequitur standing next to Bonnie Raitt at a party and it was Eric Roberts and Christopher Walken. And this is in the 90s. And Bonnie Raitt said, I feel like I'm having sex just looking at him.

I don't know. You know, I wonder if he thinks, if he is aware of all these impressions and if he, it throws him off acting because, you know, that's the way he sounds. And now, and now he's like, do I sound like a cartoon of myself?

Yeah, I think he's aware that, you know, he knows that people will adjust scripts when he's in it because he's in it. You know, I think he's aware of it. But he honestly, I think, is not a guy who, you know, he doesn't really...

he's not i don't want to like say too much because of protect his privacy but like he's not a guy who engages in social media and does it you know what i mean like he really just lives his life and um he's a very genuine person like i think he loves act he's been acting since he was a like a small child

I mean, literally like five or six years old. Yeah, I have a question for you. This one is not Christopher Walken related, but it's still a good question. Can't wait. In Severance, in the first episode, I picture...

like, you know, we all get scripts. So you're reading it. I'm like, I wonder where it won Ben over. Like, you know, because I think you only read the one, right? You only read the first episode. Yep. That's right. That's right. So I'm watching. It starts a little bleak. It's got some interesting creepy music. I mean, I don't really know what I'm watching yet, you know? And that's, so I'm watching. I'm like, this looks so different and

So I'm just getting hooked in on the fact like, I don't know what's happening, you know, that's kind of fun. But I'm picturing it on the page because you sort of, you know, bring it more to life. And then in those last couple minutes, I go, oh shit, oh shit. And that's probably where I go. I bet Ben was like, oh fuck, this is great. Because it makes me go, I got to watch the next one now.

- Right, which I think is like the bottom line with TV shows. And I learned that on the last one I worked on, which is like, you just want to get people to watch, want to watch the next episode. You know, you want to have a story that unfolds. But you know, when I read it, it didn't have all that.

there was no music attached to it. Right. I was just like reading it. And it totally, I think I might've taken it a slightly different place that I didn't even know it was going to go because I really responded to the, like that, that workplace comedy thing that was in there, you know, the banter that was happening, you know, when like, just sort of like the back and forth between Adam and Zach Cherry in the beginning, when they're, they're,

workstations that seems so familiar to me and funny and like, oh, I've, you know, I've heard that. But then, like I said, it was that other layer to it. But I think the ending too, I just thought as a pilot, I thought, oh, well, this is like this crazy little thing that happens at the end with one of the characters where you don't expect it. That really pulled me in. And yeah,

But I don't know, you know, I don't know if you're like this, but like when there's something you read as that just you have a gut feeling about where you just go, OK, this is something that I really connect with. I don't even know why I connect with it, but it's just, you know, it's just pulling on something that like I read.

it's resounding with something in something inside of me, which sometimes you don't have to explain. Also, it's unique. It's a unique read. So I'm sure you see, like I get similar comedies a lot and you and Dana. And so if you see something out of that world, it's, it's already a little easier to keep your attention because you're not doing this every day. And is it kind of unintentionally, is it like I see, you know, about work from home and the great reset and people rethinking their lives because it's

It rang true that sometimes people are in a corporate situation. They're not quite sure what they're doing, which is kind of funny. No one really knows what they're doing. You know, that's the funny. That was one. That's one of the things I loved about is they have no idea what they're doing. You know what they're supposed to do. They don't know why they're doing it or what what purpose it serves. And they know they're not really supposed to question that also, you know.

Yeah. But, you know, this was all before everything that was happening. The big reset. I mean, he wrote the script like six years ago or something. So it was kind of ahead of it all. It's, I don't know, it feels like people are definitely rethinking that kind of corporate structure and, you know, just, you know, it seems like everyone in the world is really rich now because it's never been in our face as much, notwithstanding Ukraine right now, but

Just the idea of people monetizing fame or Instagram or what is it, David? Fans only. Only fans, Dana. It's a harder sell to say. I'll give you my login code. Only fans. Sorry. I had the words right. But it seems like a harder sell to get people in a cubicle for 50 years, you know, with all this other input coming at them. But anyway, just a thought. We're also being told, kids are being told like,

I see on these places where they're like, why are you working for other people when you can make millions on your own? It's like, I don't know if that's the best message. I mean, it's a good message, but everyone chasing their dreams at once might collapse everything. You know, it's very hard to say, keep one foot in reality, but always try to strive to do something better in life. But it's hard because right now they're like, quit your job.

I also think that's changed in the way, you know, in show business too. And like what you're talking about back when there was no YouTube or anything to or Instagram to post funny stuff. You know, I made my little short and was like taking it around. Now it's almost incumbent on an actor or a comedic performer to put their stuff out there and to make stuff so that you know that you have to do that really to get noticed. And then the other aspect of that is there's so much of it out there now.

It's almost the opposite where now, like, how do you get noticed within that sea of, you know, content, quote unquote. And I think it has changed the way people sort of approach, like, what are you supposed to, what do you call success? And, you know, are you,

supposed to be successful by 19 or 20. And you know, if you're, if you're putting your stuff out there, it feels younger and it feels younger when you're Kylie Jenner and you're like 19 and you have a billion dollars. Everyone goes, wait, I'm it's so much stress for kids. Like I'm so far behind. I've got FOMO from Instagram. Everyone's prettier than me. Everyone's,

you know, there's two girls at my school are pretty. And now I'm like, I'm competing against the world. If you're a woman, you know, it's like, I see every guy's life. Everyone's rich. It seems everyone's having a better time than me. It's funny that during the lockdown, it,

It almost lets you relax for a second if you're a kid to go, at least everyone's in the same spot for a second. Like, they're not on a yacht. They're not skiing. And I don't feel, because I think people feel badly over and over quietly about all that stuff. And it makes them nuts. Yeah, I feel that way. Even you feel that way. Because I looked up. Yeah, I mean. Yeah.

What? Your celebrity net worth. No, I'm kidding. No, I definitely feel that way. I took, I got off Instagram because of that. I I'm still on Twitter, but like, I, I couldn't, I was feeling all those feelings way too much. And I was like, this is, I'm too old to be getting into this. It's not healthy. I should be really concentrating and spending my time, you know, on much more, um,

positive things. And so I just made that choice for myself. The thing is, when you do take yourself out of that, right now, everybody sort of communicates that way, though, too. Even there are good parts of it, being able to stay in touch with family and stay in touch with people that you don't see all the time. But I just decided that for me, that was too much. And I think it's... I don't see the good thing. I feel like Twitter also...

I have conflicted feelings about Twitter too. - Yeah. - 'Cause I like being able to get immediate news and information and things that are going on in the world, but then I'm also, again, way too aware, I think, sometimes of things that I shouldn't really be spending my time on, you know?

Dana, the road to getting engaged can be long and full of memories. Oh, yeah. Or it can be short and thrilling or somewhere in between. But the road to finding the perfect engagement ring is straightforward path every time. All you got to do is head over to good old BlueNile.com. Good news, David, on BlueNile.com.

You can create a bigger, more brilliant piece than you can imagine at a price you won't find at a traditional jeweler. The original online jeweler since 1999, they've committed to ensuring that the highest ethical standards are observed when sourcing diamonds and jewelry. Their diamond price guarantee means that in most cases they can meet or beat a competitor's price on a comparable diamond.

Every Blue Nile order is insured and arrives in packaging that won't give away what's inside. In most cases, can be delivered overnight. You got 100% satisfaction guarantee. Guaranteed free shipping and returns. So you can make sure your ring is the one, the one you want.

And because you want that love to last forever, you get guaranteed service and repair on it for life. These are great deals. I got to say, you know, I mean, you just want to have that loved one pick up that box and go, honey, I don't know what this is. And then you say, well, maybe you should open it. Okay. And then you hear, oh my goodness. I love you. I love you. Blue Nile. She says, I love you to blue Nile.

Yeah, because it's such a nice ring. It's an unmarked thing, but then it says Blue Nile somewhere. Yeah. She goes, oh, you couldn't have. You wouldn't have spent that much. Oh, this has got to be a trick. This is too nice. Yeah, no. Right now, get 30% off. Select Lab Grown Diamonds on BlueNile.com. Plus, use code FLY, very important, to get $50 off your engagement ring purchase of $500 or more. What is it?

That's $50 off with CodeFly at BlueNile.com. BlueNile.com. If you're driving right now, take a look around. See all those cars? You can find them on AutoTrader because they have the largest selection of new cars, used cars, electric cars, even flying cars.

Okay, no flying cars yet, but as soon as those get invented, they're going to be on AutoTrader. Not only can you find the car you just saw, you can find it at a price personalized to you with Kelly Blue Book, my wallet on AutoTrader. From credit scores to down payments to interest rates, we all know that car buying requires a lot of math.

Enter MyWallet on AutoTrader, a tool that shows you exactly how much you'll pay each month for your car based on your unique info. So you never have to do your car math again. So whether you're into timeless classics or the latest trends, did somebody say solar-powered, eco-friendly, self-driving car? Or whether you just want something practical with no surprise costs, if you see a car you like...

Find it on auto trader. See it. Find it. Auto trader. Did you turn down any, uh, big commercials like in the nineties or the knots or did you do some, I mean, now that's totally changed and people talk about their brand and getting their product in the marketplace, which is great by me, but did you turn down commercials? I did a few naively. Yeah, no, I didn't. I didn't, I never gotten offered a lot of commercials weirdly, but I,

I did a Japanese beer commercial in the 90s. Acai? Nice. Yeah.

I'm trying to remember that it was like it was a crazy thing. I had to say I had to go. And I was like, oh, it's like frozen wave or something. That's it. And you got paid money. I got paid money for that. And and then not a lot of offers after that. Maybe that affected it. But I did. Yeah, I got offered one a couple of years ago.

one of those Super Bowl ads and somebody else did it and I saw it and I just felt like it didn't feel right for me. I had that happen in a Super Bowl ad and then someone else did it. I'll tell Dana later. I'll do anything at this point. But I remember Paul Newman and I don't know if he gave it to charity, but Paul Newman is like the greatest kind of celebrity in history, I think. I think he was writing a

a tricycle or something like it was a motorcycle or something but paul newman and i think meryl streep did one and then they didn't like it and they she got millions and they didn't even show it but i do think the super bowl is unique everyone kind of goes hey it's a super bowl commercial i mean also now it's become such a thing where the commercials are such a huge deal and you know everybody watches i watch them you know and see like okay what's yeah you know who's gonna do they ever ask you to direct one

Um, I directed some commercials back in the day. I have been offered commercials to direct. I'm not great at directing commercials because I don't love that process. At the end of the day, it's a little bit like I have to care about this somehow. It's like move the Doritos closer to the Chihuahua, please. Hold it up while you're talking and you have to angle it. It's funnier if the Chihuahua is chewing the bag.

It's an art form. I enjoy a funny commercial, but you have to really care about that stuff. So, Ben, how are you as a celebrity? Like your emotional temperature, I just made that up. How are you, Ben? Is like kind of unassuming, superstar. Obviously, you're not out there all the time. I mean, when was the first time you were like Mickey Rooney and the Twilight Zone? Like, I don't know.

I'm too famous. I'm too famous. What was the one that blew you up where you were like, oh shit, now it's getting... You know, there's a point where you hit critical mass. I don't know what year where it's like, you're really famous. Yeah. Where my glasses broke and I couldn't read any of the books. Oh, Burgess Meredith. Oh, that's Twilight Zone. Pager for Will Young Ben Stiller with fame that he never wanted. Go ahead.

I think it was a kind of a gradual, you know, thing for me because I was around for a while from like my, you know, my little stint in like late eighties to, you know, then getting little parts in movies. Something about Mary was something about Mary was the one that really was the first time I was ever in. Yeah, that was huge. And meet the parents and then Zoolander. That was pretty quickly. Boom.

Go ahead. Brett Favreau? Yep. Yeah. And that was after, that was like 1998 or something. And I had been doing it for, you know, on and off for 10 years and had, you know, had directed Reality Bites and directed Cable Guy at that point. And like, so I was working in show business and happy. I was really happy. And then that movie, you know, was a big hit. And I remember people going like, oh, I knew like someone who worked on it.

in my team who said i knew it was always going to happen for you i was like i thought it had happened you know i thought i was doing okay great what are you talking about come back and you're like i've heard people say come back i go come back how did you wear a hat and stuff when you went out or sunglasses yeah when you first got yeah david would just love it to be in a convertible you know hi everybody he had a yes

I mean, I was definitely going around LA. You know, I had a period of time when I acted ridiculous, I'm sure. You know, like I bought a Jaguar. Sweet. Do it. It's a fucking pocket change. Two years. It's been still around. No, I got it. It's your bar tab. A low-key ride in LA. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was...

Yeah, it was definitely like, you know, fun, but a little bit sort of intoxicating in that, you know, it's that thing where like everybody, you know, is recognizing everybody's being nice to you. And there's just a lot, you know, a lot of opportunity in all ways. And it's like, you know, weird. When there was a jizz scene, you might not remember in Something About Mary.

No, I forgot. Which one was that? Was there a discussion of the amount of jizz? Is it too offensive? Is it too far? There was. Because I don't think people have seen too much jizz on screen. The Farrelly brothers. Or since. Yeah. Um,

I had a discussion with Peter and Bobby Farrelly about that scene because, you know, I took my work seriously and I was questioning a lot in that movie. I would like question all of like the logic moments in that movie with them. And then I realized halfway through the movie that, you know, shooting the movie that I just was wrong most of the time because they were, yeah, because they're just going to do what they did. And they were so right because they knew exactly what they were doing. But I was like, okay, I'm going to make sure this makes sense to me. So my question was,

How am I not feeling the jizz on my earlobe?

Right. Why am I not feeling this? How can I, how do you play that? So I literally like said, can we somehow set up in the movie at some point in like in the past, I lost feeling in my earlobe. What did they say? Don't worry about it. It's funny. It's funny. Just go with it. It's funny. Nobody gives a fuck. I'm like, really? I think it's not going to be as funny if you think you're wondering why I don't feel it on my earlobe. So,

So I lost that argument. And yeah, I guess you're smart to say when I'm in someone else's thing, I've done that where you go, this is their thing. I'm kind of along for the ride. I did sign up and I can put in my two cents, but overall they're going to win in editing. So yeah,

I got to, at some point just got to roll it. Yes. And you have to recognize that, you know? And I think it took me, I remember we were there in Miami. It was so much fun shooting that movie too. Cause it was just like, everybody was having a great time and they cut together like the first 10 minutes of the movie. And Peter pulled me into his trailer and said, Hey, check this out. I want to show you. And I saw the first 10 minutes and I was like, Oh, this is like, it's so much fun. And it has such like,

And I think I was like, you know, I'm like kind of more of like a serious type of person or, you know, and they were just like happy fun. I'm like, okay, this is like a happy, fun thing, which I have to get used to and, you know, embrace. It's probably good for me. But I remember also after the movie, we shot the movie weirdly,

I keep saying weirdly, don't I? It's a good word. A couple of times. You have a big life. No, but I was living in the same apartment building as Cameron Diaz in LA in Larchmont. That is weird. Yeah. And, uh,

I was coming downstairs and she was going out with Matt Dillon at the time. And, you know, so we'd all done the movie together. The movie hadn't come out and he'd just seen a screening of the movie. And Matt was like, hey, man, did you see the movie? It's really, it's funny, man. It's funny. And he's like, dude, dude, you've jerked off in that movie. That's a good Matt Dillon.

yeah that is good and i was like yeah i know i did it i definitely did it um and he was like he was saying it as a compliment i think but he was kind of like you really did that and at that time we didn't know how the movie was going to do so it felt a little bit scary your balls are in a zipper dude it's great it was like a hangover in a movie that came out and just kind of changed everything for a while but i'd like to talk before we go

whenever we go about Tropic Thunder, because that hit me like a ton of bricks. And I've probably seen that three times. I mean, I just absolutely, I think, I mean, Ben thought you were going to say 30. You went full R word. You went full R word. That's why you went home empty handed. Right. It's like, it,

For comedy writing at the time, I know that you couldn't do it today, I suppose, but God, that was that brilliant, that movie. How did you fucking come up with that? But I think in today's environment now, of course, it just would never even get out of the, it would never get out of development. But that was an idea that I had had since I had a little part in Empire of the Sun in 1987. I was playing one of the POWs in that movie. Which was hilarious. Thank you.

I tried to give it a little something. And Robert Downey Jr. was in Blackface in that film too. I remember that. But I, you know, I thought, oh, at that time in like mid eighties, all the actors my age were auditioning for every, you know, war movie. It was all war movies. It was all Hamburger Hill, Platoon. And yeah, we all, and we all had to go. And everybody was going on these fake boot camps where they go out with Dale Dye and, you know, spend two weeks in the Philippines and get, you know, dirty and get yelled at. And,

Well, good, David, just for an insert, David, could you do your Michael J. Fox war thing? Just, and then go back to you. I can't do it. Hey, Sarge, you got to give me a minute on this. Hey, she's just a farm girl, Sarge. Come on, Mallory. Hey. What would, no, I have to ask you, what would Burt Lancaster be like in Tropic Thunder? Yeah.

I'm telling you, we got to get to that river. I got to cover my head. I'm not afraid of nobody. I did a movie with Burt Lancaster. That's one of my favorite of your impressions is the Burt and the Kirk Douglas Burt Lancaster interchange. Oh, that thing. Yeah. Would you like to come over to my house? I'd like to come over. Five o'clock. I'm on Cannon Drive. There's a code. Five, four, three, two.

It's a gate code. No, we're going to... Yes. We're going to wrestle, right? We're going to wrestle. We're going to wrestle Greek Roman style because I like to wrestle. I do too. Two men having fun. Doesn't mean a thing. I made it a little more PG. Yeah, no, that's good. As you know. Did you ever see The Swimmer, by the way, with Burt Lancaster? Oh, yeah. What a weird...

weird, crazy movie where he just swims in people's pools. He just drops fences. He just literally, he's in this like tight, tighty whitey, you know, speed up thing the whole time. He looks good, but it's like he's swimming in people's pools for two hours to get home and kind of going crazy. It's fascinating. Dana's like, I love that movie so much. I saw it once. I saw Tropic Thunder. I'm going to up it to five. Change it. I'm going to up it to five times. Thank you.

Okay, when you're hiring for your small business, you want to find quality professionals that are right for the role, obviously. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. Everyone knows LinkedIn, but LinkedIn Jobs has the tools to help find the right professionals for your team faster and for free. That's right. You need good people, Dana.

You do, David. And newsflash, LinkedIn isn't just a job board. LinkedIn helps you hire professionals you can't find anywhere else. Even those who aren't actively searching for a new job, it might be open to the perfect role. In a given month, David, check this out, write it down if you want to, over 70% of LinkedIn users don't visit other leading job sites. So if you're not looking on LinkedIn,

You're looking in the wrong place. Well, because they get what they want from LinkedIn. So why look around? On LinkedIn, 86% of small businesses get a qualified candidate within 24 hours. That's one day according to my calculations. That's right. And LinkedIn knows that small businesses are wearing so many hats that might not have the time and or resources to hire. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. They're constantly finding ways to make the process easier, even though it's easy already. Yeah.

They launched a feature that helps you write job descriptions, make it even easier if you want to post something, you know. That's right. Quicker. 2.5 million small businesses use LinkedIn for hiring. Listen, post your job for free at LinkedIn.com slash candidates. That's LinkedIn.com slash candidates to post your job for free. As always, terms and conditions apply.

I'm a nibbler, Dana, and I think you are too, but you always know me that I just have to keep the energy going. And I think because I learned from my dad, pistachios are a good source of just, you know, nibble, wake you up. They're always delicious. I actually named a character in a movie I did called Master of Disguise. The lead character's name is pistachio. That's how much I love pistachios. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, wonderful pistachios have literally come out of their shells. It's the same taste. It's delicious, but it's a lot less work. As you know, cracking them open can be a little bit of a job. Less cracking, more snacking is what I say. That's what I say. That's what you say, and I'm going to use that.

When my wife goes to the store. Wonderful pistachios, no shells flavors come in a variety of award-winning flavors, including chili roasted. Honey roasted.

Sea salt and vinegar, smoky barbecue. Sea salt and pepper is one I like the most. And I'm going to try this jalapeno lime. They don't have a red, red necky flavor just yet. Yeah, look at him there. Red, red necky loves pistachios. I like to crack things open and put them in my mouth.

Come and eat some. Come and eat some. You could do that. Spice lovers go nuts. It's time to get spicy with Wonderful Pistachios' newest no-shills flavor, jalapeno lime. With a wide range of flavors, there's a Wonderful Pistachios product for every taste bud and occasion. From enjoying with family and friends to taking them with you on the go, which is what I do. I always have them in the car. Savory, salty, smoky, spicy, or sweet Wonderful Pistachios.

No shells. Flavors are delicious. Snacks that consumers can feel good about. Yeah, next time you're shopping for snacks, you're craving something crunchy, something satisfying, ditch the bag of chips and grab Wonderful Pistachios. No shells. Your body and taste buds will thank us because we told you about them. Visit WonderfulPistachios.com to learn more. Now, Ben, before you go, one last one. We're not talking enough about...

Reality Bites. Yeah, man. Come on. Dana, do you know this? Spade had a little part for one day. You were in Reality Bites? I was Habitude Wiener dude. Habitude Wiener dude. Come on. Ben plucked me out of obscurity, out of a rigorous casting.

And I went in there. I don't know if I was on SNL or was I on it? I feel like I'm trying to even remember how that happened. I don't remember the year. Yeah. But Ben, the funniest part about this is I, first of all, I'm not great at acting. So I, I, I'm trying to memorize the script. I thought before I do the scene, I should know it. Cause I do that with a lot of my parts. Um, so I, I look at it and I go, I'm interviewing Winona for a job at the wiener hut or whatever it's called. And, um,

And so I'm the manager. And then, so I have, the joke is I go, whatever it is, I interview her and then I go, just, I'm going to throw out some numbers. What's, remember I tell her she's going to be a cashier. So I go, what's 85 plus 22? And she's like, $1.20. I'm like, nope. She's like $1.40. I'm like, nope. She goes $1.80. I go, it's not an auction. And so I go, but listen. So anyway, I do this and then Ben hits me with this fucking curve ball.

I picture we're sitting at a little interview table, like in the back of Burger King. And then, you know, I just go back and forth. And then he goes, okay, let's go. Now Spade seems up. Here you go. You're going to walk this way. You're going to hand a customer this. You grab a bag. You put this mop over here. I go, what the fuck? I have to walk and talk and say the lines? And you go, yeah. And I go, holy shit. And I side my hands. I'm like, woo.

This was never discussed. It's never happened in acting before. And so I go, why is he doing this to me? And so, and then Winona, all she has to do is trail behind me. That's way easier. And so I'm literally going in rehearsal going, if I hand him this, then I say this. That's how you remember it. You know, you go by blocking. So I go, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop.

Somehow we got it. But I tell you, I was scared. There was a lot of business. You had a lot of business. And I think I believe I did it as a one-er. I think it's like a one-shot deal. Which is worse because they have to get everything right. Yeah. It's like you're traveling. You're following me to the Steadicam or something. Yes. And you have to get it all right. And I'm like, ha, ha, ha, ha.

But obviously that's the way to do it. Obviously it made it funnier. And then I still love it. I love hearing people saw Reality Bites. I know. I love that you're in it too. It always makes me happy. I'm going to have to order that up on Amazon tonight and check out David's scene. And the last thing I got to tell Ben is when I did this last movie, they go, Sandler sent me this movie and he goes, you know, you're not like,

it's the wrong Missy. He goes, it's not the typical thing you do, blah, blah. But then I go, I read it and I go, oh, this is like what a Ben Stiller would do because I always like what you do in these movies where there's this craziness around you. Like, you know, meet the parents. You're not always doing that, but you're very good at it. And I go, I want to do one where it's sort of a, you know, grounded guy that's overwhelmed. Yeah.

And so everything was happening around me. Swartzen was funny. Schneider was funny. Lauren Lapkus, who was great as the Missy character. And, uh,

And I was sort of trying to keep it together, but there's, it's a hard thing to do and you do it very well. And I was like going, if I can just kind of do that part because it's an underrated thing to do in movies and it's, it really keeps everything working. If you have good reactions and do it. And then that movie was super fun wound up being, but I just wish they could tell you ahead of time if the movie is going to be a hit, it would be so much easier to shoot. Yeah.

Like something about Mary, you'd have so much more fun if you go, this is a fucking hit movie.

And hopefully react honestly. But like you have to not have the ego about like feel like I always wanted more funny people around me because I just felt like that would make the movie funnier. It helps. And I would be helped by that by being around funny people who make me funnier. How happy were you when you sat down either rehearse or shoot the first scene on Meet the Parents and you saw that De Niro was playing at full speed?

De Niro, which made it so funny the way he intimidated your character. It was just such a perfect comedy chemistry. Yeah, he was amazing. And also, I think, you know, at that point, he hadn't done a bunch of comedies, you know, he'd maybe done, I don't know if Analyze This was before or after that, I think

Oh, right. Right. He, you know, and he was one of the producers of the movie, too, but he totally got it from the beginning and, you know, was just playing that. He knew that playing it straight. And also he knew with me that, you know, he could just sense with me that I was playing

nervous around him. And so he would, you know what I mean? Like he wouldn't make it. He worked off that. He enjoyed doing that. And, you know, it was really like, there was like real, that was a real thing. Like I just remember like we'd be in the car together doing these scenes. And then like, you know, back then we were doing scenes where you actually were in the car. It wasn't like a green screen and we'd have to then take the car around to start the scene again. And then we'd have to just sit together in the car in between when we did the scene and when we restarted. So there'd be like five minutes of,

of us just sitting uncomfortably staring. Literally just, you could have just kept the camera rolling. It was the same as the movie. It just was the movie. What did he say? I have nipples. Do you want to milk me? And he said, so it's just like coming out of De Niro's mouth. You want to milk my nipples? You want to make mine nipple? Yeah. Great. That's good. All right. Well, let's let Ben go. He's been great. You guys, I love you guys. You're so funny. You're the funniest people. Great to catch up with you, Ben. Yeah.

I'm glad you're doing this. For kids who want to live stream Ben Stiller, for young people, Dodgeball, Starsky and Hutch, Madagascar, something about Mary. More than I could mention. Jesus. It's a resume. I got exhausted reading your Wikipedia. Is Severance Apple TV? Severance is Apple TV Plus. It's Apple TV Plus. That's the part you have to pay for. Yeah. And it's... Oh, that's all right. It streams every Friday. So...

All right. Pleasure, Ben. Thanks. Great talking to you. Appreciate it. All right. Talk soon. See you, pal. Hey, what's up, flies? What's up, fleas? What's up, people that listen? We want to hear from you and your dumb questions. Questions, ask us anything. Anything you want. You can email us at flyonthewallatcadence13.com. We have one from Andy Lipsy. All right. Andy Lipsy says, hi, guys. What was the first concert you ever saw live and who do you want to see that you haven't been able to? I'll start with his I Saw Heart concert.

16, I saw Heart the band. They fucking rocked it. And my brother snuck in some slow gin. You ever know what that is? It's so gross. It's like- Boone's Farm cherry wine. It's like a red, I don't know what it is, but it had booze in it. I didn't care. I couldn't be picky. Chugged, barfed. And I did like Heart. I still love them. And then did a joke about it when I said no and got in trouble.

And then I would love to see Led Zeppelin live. Dana? Led Zeppelin is the greatest. When I was 14, I was running cross country freshman high school the summer. I ran a six mile time trial at 520 a mile. So I was feeling really good. I have three older brothers. So I was 14, 16, 18 and 20. They took me to Fillmore West.

Ooh. 10 years after Cactus and Toe Fat. So I'm there, girls are bikini dancing. There's a show. Bill Graham actually came out and said, stay away from the brown acid. He actually did. Oh, that's the old joke. And they were passing joints along. I didn't have any, but all that experience was unforgettable. Then went outside and this dude, kind of like a wino, was really high. And he looked up at the marquee. He was really buzzed. He goes, 10 years after Cactus and Toe Fat. What the fuck? Yeah.

That's what I said when you just said that. Toe Fat was the name of a rock band. Toe Fat.

My brother, in 1966, he came home from Fillmore West. He was like in eighth grade. He says, I've just seen the best guitar player in the world. I said, what's his name? He woke me up. I was in like sixth grade. Jewel. He goes, Jimi Hendrix? Jimi Hendrix? For real? Yeah, it was Hendrix. It was Hendrix. I said, yeah, weird name. Probably won't go anywhere. He goes, why do you say that? Just a thought. But then we saw Jeff Beck a lot, me and my friends. With Jeff Beck...

We saw, I saw Fleetwood Mac. Jesus. A lot of Neil Young. And who would you see now, if you could pick? Snoop Dogg. Okay. Because my sons played that for me, and that was the first time I really appreciated hip hop. Snoop. Drop it like it's hot, drop it like it's hot. Thank you, Andy. When it's feeling kind of hot, drop it like it's hot. You're a bad boy, David Spade.

Fly on the Wall has been a presentation of Cadence 13. Please listen, then rate, review, and follow all episodes.