Will Ferrell (LIVE SHOW)
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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.

You know, we had one of our favorites on, Dana. Will Ferrell. Yes, he was so delightful. Really fun hanging out with him. One of the top, top

all-time lauren michael said top two as we've discussed and you know i believe it i i think that one of the guys that consistently makes me laugh hard over the years from snl to the movies to everything he does yeah he's so successful everything was really clicking on all cylinders uh we had a blast with him and uh he was as advertised he was funny he was charming he uh

We told some funny stories. I actually told one story that I was going to tell you that the point of this goofy story I told about being on a drama I did was really just saying how the special effects people were so professional. Because I was sort of making fun of the whole situation. But the bottom line was he was very cool. And you'll hear the story. Because he'll hear the story. Yeah, he'll hear the story. But you've got to hear the story. I'm making fun of me. It's a very funny story. And David didn't act out.

David didn't act out. It was very funny. And Will went with it. But so, you know, we dug into some stuff. We got Will to really tell us some cool stories about Norm. I was staying tuned for those. Oh, yeah, those are great. Those are great. Because Norm was in jeopardy with him, and that's how that whole thing started. Yeah, and at SNL and stuff. And we got some other details about Cowbell, which is everyone's favorite sketch, and the walking of it all, and the origin of that. Dug into Anchorman. That's very cool. Yeah.

Elf. And his nerves. You know, it was interesting to hear him open up just about his trajectory to superstardom.

And we overlapped one year and Dana obviously had just taken off. So he talked about that dynamic between all three of us and how we knew each other. And I had met him before in a weird place. And so I just thought that was just a big home run. I really had a fucking blast with him. In our overlap meter, I checked it after the show. It was only at 33% as far as interrupting him when he was on a roll.

Really good. I got itchy at the end, so I did it on purpose, but because I know the audience loves it.

They love when we interrupt. They love when we wear sunglasses and we interrupt. But let's get to it. Well, I just want to mention one thing, you can cut it or not. But because it's Will Ferrell, we had a lot of people outside. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're more than autograph seekers. That's 1957. They don't even like us, by the way. They're just like collecting baseball cards. They're very passionate, usually all stop. They'll be 10 or 15. Aggressive.

I drive up, there's 300 people in the alley. Okay. So I'm parked way down and just to get into the theater, it was like a spy mission. How did you get in? We were, Heather and I were, I ran into Heather on the street. She was parking. So she jumped in, dropped me in the front, which is a great trick. And they know my car.

She parked it. They know your car. And when she got back, she saw Will. Will was getting slammed. And then you got the worst of it when you left. Because you went out the front and I went out the back at the end. Well, I went out the side door. And I had someone with me from the theater. Did not work. And so you guys went front and go back because there's a special side door. We climbed up a ladder and went down a sewer hole. They have drones. They're like, we're climbing up. Split them up. Spades in back car. I'm on.

I'm in the corner and I don't know what's happening to you or Will and I'm thinking this guy we're going to walk down to my car about to cross the street they see me and it's like zombies swarming and they start and they start so suddenly I'm enveloped I can't see or hear and then the other guy starts going shut the fuck up

man shut I was at a comedy show three minutes ago shut the fuck up I can't move meanwhile I said to everyone Spade is so happy right now because you actually da da punk in your heart I drove by and took a picture of me in the middle of the scrum

Because I'm in the back and they're like, sign here. And Will was saying too, he goes, what's all the clear plastic? And you have to use a different pen for everyone. What the fuck is going on? It's these little dolls of your characters. Yeah, Funkos. You have to sign little Unkos. And they got Kuzco and they got anything from a poster to this. And so you're signing. And they also all hate me. They just are like, sign you goddamn machine robot. And then if we get Sandler to sign the grownups and you and Schneider. So.

So I'm signing a few and then whenever you stop, they go, what the fuck? And they go, my kid needs one. I go, all right. And they go, your biggest fan. Little girl looks at me and I go, what movie do you like? Who the fuck are you? It's kind of mob-like. They put drum heads for a kick drum in front of me because one time, because I was bored in Minneapolis, I drew a Garth Pitcher.

So I'm drawing and signing and signing. And I did sign your name a few times. I'm signing, sign, sign. And then one of our producers, Charlie, says, come with me. So we went down the street. Come on, go. And they're all following us. And it's just crazy. This is so funny at this time in my career. I wasn't mobbed like this during Wayne's World. And then we had to go around the neighborhood and ditch him. Are they down? I was in the back. He's not here. We found my car. Then you look back. Charlie's being eaten by them. Go. Just go. Tell my mom I loved her.

So I got in the car and I saw another guy getting out, more zombies getting out with bobbleheads. So they come, Charlie pulled up, kind of blocked him. Then I'm flooring it away. I broke the speed limit on the way home. I came in, put the gate code in. Running with a bobblehead like this. Looking behind myself. Yeah. They said baseball. I don't even know what's going on. I go, they think I'm Hank Aaron. So anyway. So anyway. Well, I think they are like baseball collectors. Yeah.

By the way, we love you guys. It was just a little bit too much. We like the fans. We love the passion, but it was just too much. But the ones that no matter how many we sign, they scream at the end. So it's like...

Whatever. Anyway, Will was taken aback. But the show was really good. You gotta listen to this. We're the biggest assholes. We sound like Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. Yeah, maybe we should cut this out. No, we love it. They love it. We're real people. We're two fucking assholes. We're real people and fragile. I got bumbled around. But anyway, Will Ferrell was one of our all-time favorites, so that was so cool to get him at the live theater. Enjoy. Here it is. At Largo. At Largo.

They got it, they know

Thank you. Hey, Dan. How are you? That was Jimmy Fallon on our podcast, Got an Acoustic Guitar, and made up that theme song as Neil Young. Yeah. Now, can we play it again? Okay. Listen, let's... Thanks for coming. Let's get our buddy out here. We got a good crowd. They know the show. They know Largo. And they've been waiting. They just heard the Gettysburg Address read to them. So...

They're excited. A lot of rules. Ready for some jokes. I talked to this guy backstage and he's not really on tonight, but you know what? Dana and I are going to cover for him. He's going to come in the hot seat. That's what it is. He's one of the, I hate to say, all-time greats. First ballot Hall of Famer. John William Farrell. Here he is from SNL. Another star. Yeah. All right. A little more applause than we got, but who cares?

There he is. I'm going to go sideways. Test one. I'm kind of in front of you. Check one. Sibilance. Sibilance. Did you like they got my chair from a fucking yard sale? I was like, that chair was put together like 15 minutes ago. I'm getting a worse... Okay. This is a good angle too. I know. It's weird. To try to talk to Dan. So Will, were you impressed when you first met me? If...

If I lay back enough, I can catch both of you guys. I can't even see you at that. I said, come on, he's not that tall. Get him a five foot eight seat. Now he's got a bad back. Listen, I remember the night I got Spinal Bifida. I was at Largo. Spinal who? Oh, that was a great heavy metal band from the 70s. So, listen, we got time for one more. When was the last time you heard a...

A spinal bifida reference. I don't know. I just said it, and then I felt like it's mean because it's like... It's very Dennis Miller. Spinal bifida, okay? The starting linebacker for the Detroit Lions, all right? Also, too, if anyone's worried, I brought my wallet. I don't know why. Look at how fat it is, you rich man. Damn, that's a fatty. That's a movie star wallet, right?

That's just from Elf. Do you carry cash? I still carry cash. You carry cash? There's going to be a fun giveaway tonight. Cash. I'm just handing out cash. I didn't know there was an ATM here. Spinal biff of the night. Yeah.

Would you like some gum? Gum against home. You don't have to have it. Is it a trick? Is it a trick? No, it's nothing. Dana, all kidding aside, let's get to the serious part. Let's see. Where I'd like to start. Yeah. Hold on. I know, I can't see you at all, but it's okay. I know. I'm going to do this. Do you mind holding it? Yeah, I don't mind. Thank you. I feel like, yeah, this is more Tony Bennett kind of.

The best is yet to come, and I feel fine. Didn't you do Tony Bennett on the show? I did not. Oh. Anyway. Anyway. Let's go to questions. Robert Goulet. I did Robert Goulet. Robert Goulet. What did he sound like? Alec Baldwin did Tony Bennett. That's right. He did a great Tony Bennett. Okay. No, I did Robert Goulet. Bob. Bob Goulet. Yeah. And he just...

had a very deep voice and referenced his appearance in Camelot. Camelot. Then we just write him in weird scenarios. I think he did a rap album with Jay-Z. We did a sketch with Jay-Z. That makes sense. Yeah. And we also did a

where it was Robert Goulet's musical called Red Ships of Spain, where he didn't realize he was making out with his daughter, his real life daughter. Anna Gastar played his daughter. Very Anna. Played his love interest in Red Ships of Spain. It turns out was his daughter the whole time. You can't write this stuff. Oh, you did write this stuff. I did. Okay.

Well, let's go back to the beginning. Will, let's go back to the beginning. Can I do a childhood chunk to get us all warmed up? Oh, okay. Because I want to take Will to 10 years of age. That far back? Okay. Okay. But hold on. I just want to say it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you. Thank you. Great to be here, you guys. Very nice. Thank you. Dana Carvey, one of my all-time favorites. You can't tell me. Great. Sketch players of all time. David, you did stuff, too, that was interesting. Thank you.

Thank you, Will. You're on the Mount Rushmore. We're going to the after party together. Spade, little train that could, you know. Charlie Hustle Award every year at the banquet. Give it to Spade.

Hi, Charlie Brown. You always know. But in all honesty, Dave, you were still with the show when we all got hired and you were like a big brother to us. You kind of showed us the ropes. We had a year overlapping. A year overlapping. You were super cool to me, especially to all of us. Took me to dinner multiple times, hung out.

gave us words of wisdom. Do you remember one time I invited you over to the Upper West Side to have lunch and then I ate before you got there? Yeah. Isn't that funny? Isn't that funny why I remember that? You always eat before you eat. I know, but he wasn't even late. It was not even his fault. I don't think I was late at all. No, it wasn't. It was my fault. But that was just, maybe I was nervous. So he's eating a meal when you walk in. I guess. I think I was finished. And I used to

Back, wait, sorry, what? No, not at all. Okay. Back in the days where I was thinking, do I want to get into comedy? Can I even get into comedy? Do I even have the guts to even try this stuff? I would go to open mic night at the Irvine Improv. Oh, I love that place. And almost get the guts to sign up, but sit in the back of the house. Okay. And just watch the comedians and go. Okay.

Oh, I'm funnier than them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I'm funnier than... Ooh, no, not that guy. That guy's really good. But you hosted one. I watched you host Open Mic. Oh, that's great. And next thing I know, you were on SNL and... You're like, what the fuck? I was like, really? I guess anyone. Well, then anyone can do it. Anyone can get on SNL. No, but you were super funny and relaxed. I was like, oh, man. You know, when I saw you on SNL and you guys...

Farley, Sandler, those kind of guys. That whole team that I was with left one year. I heard they got fired. I did not know they got fired. Did you hear that? I heard they got fired. I want to meet the guy who fired Chris Farley and Adam Sandler. They got to go. There's nothing there. No more gas in the tank. Chris. Not funny, period. Get him out of my sight. I don't see a track record. I don't see it. Nothing there.

Lauren was like, Chris, come to my office and clean your locker. Okay.

But I stayed an extra year, which I don't know if that was good or bad, but I stayed. And then I think maybe you and Sherry O'Terry and maybe Molly, they all came in. And the first show that you did, because I felt like sort of went to college but came back and sat on the wall in high school. Like I should have just left with everybody. Right. But I stayed and did like I had five minutes a week to do my own thing. You went with some more glory. Yeah, a little bit. I was milking it. Yeah. Something to the kitty. Yeah.

So then I said, okay, I think the first show you did that I remember you did get off the shed. Is that true? The first show. Yeah. And that was one I didn't know. I didn't know your audition. I didn't know anything. And I thought, this guy's got some fucking game.

Because it was such an oddball, didn't see it coming, didn't know where it was going sketch. And then I think... Did you think... It's what I auditioned with, actually. You did get off the show and you auditioned? Yeah. Because I saw a clip of you doing the cat. Yeah. And maybe that's sort of a viral clip. To dead silence. Am I crazy? It didn't do well. Yeah, no, it was... What was it? The cat one again? It was just a guy in his office who was like...

You didn't give it much setup, by the way. There's no setup. I want to know what played to silence. So, Lorne Michelson, have you got anything else? And you pull this out. Well, we've heard the shed thing, but is there something else? Pure...

In 8-H, with a spotlight on you, no one else in there except Lauren in the back smoking a cigarette, just this little ember of a cigarette. A Tipperillo. It's funnier when you say it. And the premise literally was, I think there was a

table and a chair and a phone, maybe a prop phone. And it was like, please hold all my calls. And then I just started playing with cat toys. Like an adult on the ground, like hitting a toy like that. And then the secretary would buzz again and I'm like, yeah, tell him I'll call him back in 20 minutes. And then I go back on the ground. But it was to dead silence. I was shocked. And I remember thinking in my head like, well...

This is going to be a really good story when I go back to L.A. And they're like, what happened? I'm like, well, I thought that would be funny to play with cat toys on the ground. They're like, wait, you did that in your audition? You're like, no, it was funny. I thought. The guy who fired Sandler and Farley loved it. He loved it. Now that's comedy because the guy doesn't play with cats.

I think I'm leaning in and walking a little bit. Sorry. It was Cat Toys. He lays on the ground and bats around like a piece of yarn and plays it like that. And very funny, and I was watching it because it was like,

It was like on Yahoo News. They're like, Will Ferrell's first audition. I go, oh, I don't think I ever saw this. And then you do that, and it was like crickets. I go, who's there? Marcy and Ken Among, and that's it? That's it. Because you're not required to go to auditions. I only went to Louis C.K. Bobby Van Rye was like there. Oh, Bobby Van Rye. Going, get him next time, guy. Yeah. Yeah, that's a stage manager. Nice try, kid. So you do that. You do Get Off the Shed. Did anything do well?

No, because there were no... I think Lauren... Did they tape it and watch it or something? They would tape it and watch it. It was being beamed back to Burbank at the same time. It was beamed. He's at Hamburger Hamlet. I'm using the technical term, beamed. Yeah. Local reference. It was beamed. You're being beamed. But Molly Shannon told us something about you very specifically that I love. She said that when you were in a sketch...

on snl and it started to tank we're all being yeah always that you would triple down harder at it like commit i'd either commit or slow it down even yeah i'd take longer pauses in between to torture the lines to where the point wally the cue card wally a cue card yeah yeah

would be pointing. You have more. So sometimes if the cue card guy thought you weren't seeing your line, they would point at it, at the line. Frantically. So I took like a 15 second pause before I delivered the next line. Wally's. Yeah. You're in blue. That's you. But yeah, we would, we would, it's, I don't, I had this perverse thing of like, okay, audience,

You don't like it now, you're really not going to like it. I'm going to punish you for hating this sketch even more. Most would break out in a cold sweat. You had some kind of confidence. But I want to talk about when I first met you and I knew I would like you.

because you did something yeah i was coming back hosting you know hey watch out i had a couple nominations we were super nervous but you came up to me yeah and you had a shirt i know you had a shirt with a zipper i think and you just got really close to me right in my space unzipped it and this massively hairy chest and just leaned in with a smile hi i'm will you know it's just

I didn't quite... In real time, I realized, okay, he's doing shtick, but for a second, I thought, does this guy have spatial problems? Does he...

Just let him do his thing. He's leaning in and that zipper came down a little more, a little more than the belly button. He wants you to get his scent and then he'll relax. Musky. But that was fun. And that was when we did, did I do Ross Perot and you did Larry King? Because Lorne Michaels talked about that. I did a fabulous Larry King.

Laura Michaels called you out. Really? That sketch was great and you were great as Larry King. Oh, I was so terrible.

Was it you who hosted Dana? You were like, don't worry about it. I'm going to carry the whole thing. Well, I had an ace in my pocket by the name of Ross Perot. So it's the easiest laugh I ever got in my life. I was like, all I could do is like, I'm Larry King. Here we are. Ross Perot. Ross Perot. That's all I could do. I think you carried it beautifully. It was a precursor to Alex Trebek playing the sort of straight line. That was good.

People know your cues. But being funny with the straight line, you know. But anyway, that was fun. But I think we did Bush and Bush Jr. with the... I had the antlers. I kept banging the antlers. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So I'm doing George Sr., who's 6'4".

And W's 5'11", so I had Herman Munster's shoes like to hear, and they padded me up. He's coming in as my little baby son, basically. So at one point, Will plops on my lap. Yeah. There you are, son. How are you? And if you play it back on YouTube, you hear me go...

We're on a deer hunt or something? We're hunting deer? Yeah, there was another time we were out hunting and I told you to go out. So that I would get taken care of. Yeah, it was clear. Just keep going into the woods. Keep walking. And then, daddy. It was a mice and men moment. Right, right, right. Well, I played Ross Perot in a rehearsal. Laughter

He was in the wide shot. I was in a wide shot as Ross Perot. Do you remember playing Woody Allen? Do you remember we did a sketch? Yeah, you did Woody Allen. Was it the Woody Allen in a classroom scene with Seinfeld? Or Jason Alexander?

Or was I just playing him or something? I think you were just playing him. Did you too? I don't even mean to be didactic or facetious, but Andrew Previn. Yeah, I think I was playing the actor, the actor who was his buddy. I forget which film. It would just go, Max! Oh,

Max! Max, you're crazy, Max. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was some Smigel sketch. I did it once, a cold opening where Rob Schneider was playing Sun Yi. Yeah. And I can't... I know. It was the early 90s. Yeah, right.

So I come out. I'm going to do a citizens cancel. I come out live and there's no Rob Schneider playing Sun Yi. And the cue card guy's going like this. And I'm like, I can't even, you know, she's not even here. You know, I don't know what I'm going to do, you know, because I can't. So I had to just do that for 30 seconds. He's in the makeup still. He was in the makeup chair. Sorry. Sorry about that. I didn't know. I'm sorry. I thought it was bad. Sorry. Go ahead. We do a lot of characters on the show. Yeah.

When I came back to host, Will, no applause. No, I'm just saying you picked your spots. They're hanging on your every word. They're good listeners, that's why. They're really good listeners. All I remember was

I think there was an army sketch and then you had a hard brim hat. Do you remember the idea of this sketch? And then when you came up to me in air, you were poking me in the face with your hat brim. Sensitive. Steven Craig wrote that sketch. Oh, yeah? Yeah. What was the story you were... A sensitive drill sergeant. Oh, okay.

But I barked out all the commands, but it was all loving therapeutic advice. Yes. And then when you got up to me, you hit me in the forehead with your... And of course it threw me. It was like an old... What Farrell used to do, just start to make you laugh on air. But it was really just fun being in a sketch with you because when I did my year where I stayed too long, is what we're calling it now. Yeah.

but I had my own five minutes and then I, but I didn't do sketches. So I felt a little weird cause you guys were doing stuff. So we weren't super connected, but I would like to see you guys and stuff. But coming back to host, we were all part of it. That was fun because all the whole thing I remember hosting was that one sketch with him. And because you know, some work, some don't obviously. Right. And uh, I think that one is where, when I hosted Sandler was going to be in my monologue. Remember he did audience member, uh,

what are you doing? You're so mean. He would stand up. And so we had a whole monologue. No, he was like a very timid guy with glasses and a called audience member. And then he had done it a few times. And so he's doing it when I host. And then that morning water boy open or something, he had to fly back to LA. And then they go, Lauren goes, well, it looks like Adam's out. I go out of the monologue. I went on a monologue and he goes, well, aren't you a standup?

And I go, I mean, sort of. I don't really do it anymore. I work at this fucking dump 20,000 hours a week. I haven't done a set in eight months. And he goes, maybe just seven minutes. That's all you need. I go.

Yeah, but I need it polished. I can't run to the comedy store. I can't run anywhere. So I put together, I don't know how we got it. It sounds like a fun challenge. It was a challenge. And it was, I did a bit about a polar bear and I did a bit about something else, but it was kind of fun and terrifying. And then I remember your sketch. Thus. That was great doing it with you. That's all. Every moment of SNL, fun and terrifying. Yeah. Very scary. Do you remember, have you ever said no to a Tuesday dinner at Orso?

With the host? I think I finally over, because I remember you guys talking about this in one of the podcasts that you finally work up enough courage to say no, but I think it took, because I remember you saying, Dana, you saying that it took you

five seasons before it felt like it was like your home gym or before you stopped. And I literally remember your words. It literally took me five years before I didn't feel nervous every single second. And, uh, you, you had the same experience, same experience. And so by year six and seven, I think I was, I, I finally had the guts to be like, I'm not going on a Tuesday. Usually there's a Tuesday. Then you, I think somewhere you, you went to this other gear. I don't know what,

When it happened, but... You got good... I think it was the last week when you were there. The last week of my last... Yeah. Your last show. My last show.

Cowbell, and then I think you left right after Cowbell, right? Every best of sketch is in my last show of the seventh season. I heard Cowbell. I was on fire. You asked them to do Bike Bell. So were you nervous then? Because Bill Hader told us that he was having panic attacks the whole time. I never was able to see it. Like literally panic attacks in the bathroom by himself crying. But you control it. I never got that bad, but there were...

There was just... It got less and less with each year. Yeah. But it would always surprise me, especially after that first year where you're like, okay, I think I've gone through everything you're going to go through where you potentially are going to get thrown. Yeah. It would just come out of the blue where it would be... I don't know. It wouldn't even be like the first show of the season. It'd be something like the seventh show. It's like, why do...

I don't have a good feeling. This is not going to be good. It's an anxiety cooker. It would just come out of nowhere, and that would be fine the rest of the year. But it's inexplicable. It's two things happen, I think. There's people like Eddie Murphy, who was a savant, basically, at 19. But I think for most people, you get a little more confident, and then the audience starts to see you.

Then you get a little more confident. And then finally when the audience sees you come out, they're kind of excited. And then it builds on it. I've seen it happen with a lot of cast members over time. That's why Lawrence does do, you know, well with me I was newer, but like a feature player, but do a few lines here, a few lines there, just to get them to see your face and know you're part of the situation. So then they know, okay, he's one of these guys. And then they will buy you when you do a full sketch.

But you came, you were one of the ones that like Dana, where you came out and you had to be a full, were you a full cast member when you started? Well, we were, we were, we were really lucky because that year before. Yeah. Uh, got rid of all that. When they got rid of the Farley Sandler, Farley Sandler, get rid of them, clean it out. The dead wood Myers, this Myers Dana. Yeah.

Phil Hartman. I was hanging out of the door like Titanic. John Lovitz. Fumigate the place and start over. So we had a brand new cast and a brand new writing staff. Very weird. So we didn't know any better. We were like, it wasn't that, because I've talked to past cast members who were added

one at a time, like by themselves. And that's super. Or mid-season. Mid-season to try to break through that way. In fact, Molly was mid-season the year before I got there. Oh, she was there. And we were laughing because she was like, what is this? You guys get like cue card training and you get shown where all the, here's the wardrobe department. Here's your quick change area. I didn't get in. My God. Yeah. And she was just laughing going,

She was like, I was a little mad actually. You guys got to, did you get trained on the Q? Did you, do you remember anything like that? No one even talked to us. Just terror. I mean, my thing was freaky because I, in the first show I was in the cold opening and I didn't know it was the cold opening. Yeah.

I was just in it. I knew it was my first time doing sketch comedy. It was hard for me not to look at the audience like a stand-up, you know? And then the church lady popped and came in, and I had Sigourney Weaver and Phil and Jan, and so then that took off. Crazy. So I was just boiled in water immediately, and then Chopped Broccoli. But no one... Chopped Broccoli. Chopped Broccoli. Jeez. Which, that was my first show. That's your first show? Yeah. Oh, my God.

The cutaway to Phil, by the way. Oh, yeah. Just him and Joe. Everyone just going, this is the worst song ever. And then Phil Hartman just going, yes.

Phil Hartman, I'll give you as great a compliment as I can. You remind me of a lot of people, Peter Sellers, and you also remind me of Phil. Well, thanks. Because you were Alex Trebek. That would have been what Phil would have played that character. But Phil Hartman and Dan Aykroyd were like my guys I looked up to. Because I just loved how they could swim. They could be the main guy or be the background guy. Yeah. I loved that.

And that's what I loved about ensemble comedy. Yeah. And, you know, everyone who knows them both just said they're kind of scientist comedians. They would just, Phil would read, you know, books about Evinrude motorboats on the set and then pick up a script, kill it in the rehearsal, come back. And Ackroyd's the same way. He's interested in science and astronomy. Phil Hartman came to host when we were, I don't know if it was that first year or the second year. Oh, really? He comes back to host.

And I'm in the room, I think it was with Tom Janis and Adam McKay and Koechner, and I just can't, I don't know what to say to him. I'm just sitting in the chair, and I'm just like, that's Phil Hartman. And he finally picks up on it, he's like, what gives with the feral kid? What gives? Cat got your tongue? Yeah.

It was like, do I walk out of the room? I was like, no, I just, what these guys said. Yeah, I mean, I'm writing the thing that they're going to write for you too. But he was just...

What a great. Yeah, there was just something about him and he was so effortless and he didn't care and he was so unassuming about it. Yeah. And that's why we nicknamed him the glue. He was just somebody who was always there. But God, he picked up on the fact that I just I wouldn't. Yeah. I couldn't speak. Yeah. That's so interesting because now we have data of where you went and where you're still going. Yeah. And to hear this stuff. I feel like it's very human. Yeah. Stopped.

Stopped? No. I stopped. I know I ran into you at the Laker game. Don't even say it. I hadn't seen you in a while. I ran into you at the Laker game. You're like, oh, hey, Will, hey. Hey, sorry about the career. I can't even hide my jealous rage. You're like, hey, by the way, good to see you. Sorry about the career. Yeah, sorry everything went up on a fucking rocket ship.

No, because the first time I saw you was at Butterfield and Butterfield. Oh, yeah. You heard me. Oh, man. We worked at an auction house that is Christie's now, I think, on Sunset. And I was buying Elvis memorabilia. And I took my gross new money. And I bought an Elvis set list.

Joey Esposito, who is Elvis' one of his buddies, was there authenticating stuff. I got a set list that he wrote out his handwriting. I loved Elvis. I bought one of his guns. And then I bought a new pack and heat. And I thought it was cool as shit. And then you worked there. Yeah. And then I had my Land Cruiser, which I still have tonight. And you walked me out.

And that's where I met you. And then when I saw you at SNL, I think we remembered that you worked there, right? You didn't work there. Oh, my God. Yeah, no, I worked there with my then good friend. And that was the last time I was funnier than you. And later, my wife worked there, too. Oh, yeah, she worked there? Oh, that's right. She was the auctioneer. Oh, hey, betta, hey, betta. Exactly like that. Hey, betta, hey, betta. Hey, betta, hey, betta. Can you yell out a number? You keep saying, hey, betta, hey, betta.

We can't follow the bidding. But it was interesting seeing you there. And then obviously we joke around about the monster movies after that. I mean, we can talk about us now because I was going to ask you before we get to all these movies, what was your favorite commercial parody you were in? Do you remember commercial parodies? Did you do a lot or not? Yeah, I didn't. I was a little bit bummed. When I first started, I don't think I was in any of those initial parodies.

Yeah. Parodies. And usually it was sort of like jury duty because it takes you away from the show a little bit because you have to dedicate a full day to shooting it during the week. And now they do a lot of pre-tapes during the week. Yeah. You see the host in a lot. I mean, they beat the shit out of them. But you'd come sometime in September to start. You can go do them early. Oh, yeah. We do them early. We did that for sure. Yeah. I wasn't in many. Knockout one. Yeah. Yeah.

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That's $50 off with CodeFly at BlueNile.com. BlueNile.com. One thing I'm just quickly very interested in because you think everyone knows everything about you, but what was that transition from USC to the Groundlings? And then how long at the Groundlings until you got on SNL? How fast did you get on SNL from when you started trying to be a comedian? I graduated SC in 90. Mm-hmm.

moved home immediately which was great back to orange county back to orange county okay good everyone was super psyched so that's in 1990 yeah uh that was 1990 i'm back dad yeah i'm back thanks for the education yeah thanks for the thanks for the degree um and uh

I then was, I was gonna try to be a sportscaster. That's what I studied at SC. I was going, but at the same time, I thought, I better try this comedy thing if I'm gonna give it a shot. - 'Cause that was from a childhood sort of inkling prankster and all that. - Always liking it but too afraid to try it. And that's when I started taking classes at the Growlings, trying some standup comedy. Pretty darn good.

Did you ever play the cannery down in Newport? Or the San Juan Depot where an actual train goes through your set? While you're performing? I did like official comedy clubs. But I don't think I was in that club. You're like Shakey's. Nino's in Long Beach, an Italian restaurant. I did not. All the big spots. Sir Laughs-A-Lot in Glendale. Godbusters. Yeah.

The rib tickler, Diapolis I play. That's real. But I was doing some stand-up. I was doing groundlings. You work your way through this school. Yeah. But the courses are so booked up. You'll finish one level and you got to wait six months before the next one opens up.

So then I was just back at working odd jobs. I was a bank teller. I was, this is in 91, 91, 92. You're still doing odd jobs. And then I think 93, I get into the main company, uh, uh,

Or the Sunday company at the Growlings. Did you have a character that you had developed at that point that got you to that? Was Harry Carey around? Harry Carey was in the main company. So the Sunday shows like their minor league team and then you get into the main company and that's when...

Get Off the Shed sketch I had done. And I started doing Harry Carey. That was during the baseball strike one year. Inspired character. And I thought, oh, baseball. There's no baseball games right now. I wonder what Harry Carey's doing with his days. Yeah.

I thought it'd be funny. I should set him in like an acting class doing a play reading of a super dramatic play. And so I wrote this sketch about Harry in a community theater rehearsal space. And, you know, I was like, okay, let's take the scene from the top and, you know, right. And then it was Harry Carey doing like,

Damn it, Carol, what happened to us? I look in your eyes and I don't see love anymore.

You disappear. I literally, your face from this angle. Yeah, it's funny. I didn't see Will for a second. I remember Maggie Baird, she played my wife. But the other act, they had to play, I said, you guys have to play it really, like if you can make yourself cry, do it. So they're reading the lines like, I don't know, I just, we're distant. And she's like getting herself to cry. And then I'm playing off of that. It was madness. But,

The audience... I knew it was working when the audience was laughing without any knowledge of who Harry Carey was. They'd just be like, who's that crazy guy you do with... Yeah, yeah. They just... Sounds funny. But... So I'd done that and by that spring of 95, that was...

when we'd heard SNL's looking to recast. So it was pretty fast. It was like two years. Did you have anybody in a position of authority, a mentor, someone at the ground lines, or someone who pulled you aside at one point and said, I think we really can do this? It was a really supportive... Was everyone sort of giving you feedback? Was it more supportive than SNL? Well, I would say typically yes, but...

The group we had at the show, we were kind of like our backs. You got kind of lucky. We got lucky. Who was in that group? That would have been Molly and myself. Chris Kattan? Chris Kattan came later. And I guess...

Anna came the next year. Sherry. Sherry O'Terry. Norm was doing Tim Meadows. Tim Brewer. Wow. So everyone went on from there. Steve Carell's wife, Nancy Walls, who was on us. And it was a lot of people who had done sketch comedy. So everyone was just kind of like,

pulling for each other in a very un-SNL way because we knew like, ooh, the show's about to get canceled. Not to mention, everyone in network television saw there was blood in the water. So we had to go up, Mad TV premiered. Ah.

Oh, yeah. Howard Stern had a sketch comedy show. Oh, really? Your first year? All that was on? Funny. But I think... And you did your show? In 96, yeah. That first... Yeah, that was primetime. It made half an episode. They pulled us out. Were you guys doing it on a Friday night, maybe? I wouldn't...

I didn't know it was right after Spin City or Home Improvement. And there was a fourth, there was four or five different sketch combis that whole year. And In Living Color might have still been on. Maybe, yeah. Yeah, the state maybe. So anyway, so we were like actually pulling for each other. Sort of friendly. Was Cheerleaders that first year? It was that first year. So you had a couple that really worked. So there was no danger. No, no.

There was... Don't ruin the flow. You're getting it wrong when I say my stuff. No, no. Cheerleaders must have... I think it crushed from immediately and then you did it a few times that year. You were in no danger of feeling down deep. You might

get fired or anything. You were doing well enough that first year to go, I'm pretty solid. Except they did a thing where I think we were signed for the first nine shows and then picked up. Oh, then a pickup? Oh, gross. But then, but then, it was a gross pickup. I mean, it's just...

But then they, dare I say, they broke the contract and they said, nope, you're just picked up. You're picked up for just five more shows. Wow. And then we'll see if you're picked up for the last five. This is your first season. First season. Just getting these little pickups. That's what happens when I date girls. They pick me up for two more dates and then they go, we'll see how it goes after that. I'm sorry. You don't have to laugh. No, no, you don't have to. It's all right. They thought you said it, so they started laughing. Yeah.

No, he's been. But it was still. So it was still harrowing. It's by the way, I don't think you're ever relaxed there going, I got it made here. So I don't think that's ever a feeling if you're new, even if you're doing great. Except those last couple of seasons. Yeah. Right. But you're, but I did have a fantastic. So when my, arbitrarily that my last year, when I just decided that would be my last year. Yeah. Seventh season or whatever. Just felt like the right,

amount of time. Lauren took me to dinner to talk me into staying. Chili's? Houston's? I can get us in. I can do Hillstone. Houston's at 930. Does that work? After the rush? Yeah.

These dinners are very interesting. So, Will, you're going to stay. That's how he does it sometimes. You'll stay another two years. Oh, yeah, I just tell you. He'll tell you what's going to happen. It was at Pastis. Oh. Yeah. Okay. How awkward, because you want to say no. You want to leave, right? Well, you'd already filmed old school, but we'll get to that, right? During...

Yeah, that was in the can. That was in the can. That was in the can, but no one knew. You didn't know where it was from. That was in the can. That's a term for it's been filmed, it's edited, but they haven't shown it yet. Because they used to have a cellular. Wait, you did that in the summer and then you came back and did SNL? I think I did it partly through part of the fall of that seventh season. Okay. So how did Lorne pitch you? Lorne said the most, he said, so I understand you're thinking about leaving.

And I would just suggest this. You're at a high point right now. But you want to start just to begin to dip. And then you should leave. And I was like, but Lauren, that seems counterintuitive. Like...

Work for John Lovitz. When Lauren doesn't really want to hear an answer, he always goes, just think about it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Just think about it. I'm going to draw the chart on a napkin. High point? I'm going, yeah, let me just think about waiting for me to dip and then leave it. Yeah.

I will think about that. And you just said, I'll think about it. And then we never talked about it ever again. But it seems like, you know, you did Molly's movie. You did a lot of, you did the movie with Chris and you, you know, you were kind of, and then you'd done Cowbell and everything else. It seemed like your timing was impeccable. I mean, you were ready, but you could have killed for three more years in the show. If you wanted to. I mean, if, no, if anyone had put a showbiz gun to my head and said,

this is all you get to do, I would have said, great. That was the hardest, most fun job I've ever done. Most exhilarating, bizarre. Right, yeah. But yeah, we... I couldn't hear you. Did someone put a gun to your head? Someone put a gun, Elvis, one of Elvis' old guns. Oh, God damn it.

Bought at auction to my head. Don't use mine right back on me. What comes around comes around. This crowd does not know what to do. I think I was in a dark nightclub in Scottsdale. Where I'm from. Arizona. Camelback and 54th. When you did, so in the summers, you did, that's what we would try to do is a movie in the summer. So you did, what was the first one? Was it Superstar? Were you in Superstar?

I was in Superstar. The first one was... Or was it Roxbury? I think the first one was Roxbury. I heard the original title was called A Day at the Roxbury. Then you go, maybe night? We're doing Burry this month. Is there any way you could still shake your neck like that or no? It's too hard. I don't know if I can't. I don't know if I remember what the motion was. Oh, man. Is this love? Is this love?

If I did it now, I would just hold my head still and go...

Try to trick the audience. Like a little cardboard cutout. Actually, that's a sketch Catan and I would do at the Growlings. Oh, you brought it in. So we brought that in. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but for the audience, if they don't know, but we say it sometimes, when you come on, when I was there, you would say what sketches you had when you came in or what characters. Right. And then you own them, even if you did them on the show. I think Mike owned Wayne's World. I'm not sure.

I was just... No, I don't know. They were pretty tricky about that. I don't know. We'll own it even if we don't own it. Maybe 50-50? And then whatever you came up with in the writer's room, they own, right? Is that how it works? Yeah. So if you came in with that, and then I think it's more incentivizing if you would think if it was a sketch, they own. Because Lorne was doing a lot of sketches for a while. Even Tommy Boy was sort of

Us at the office based on... What was that movie? You guys. What was Tommy Boy about? I get the top of the hand. On top of the hand. And then Wayne's World. Let's get some box office numbers out here. Roxbury versus Tommy Boy. No, Tommy Boy. Let's see who's pulling coin downtown. We weren't a big hit though. Roxbury maybe made $30 million.

We made probably 35. Really? Yeah, Wayne's World was the big hit. Tommy Boy made like 50. No, it just made... What about Black Sheep? Black Sheep made about the same. They sort of did better as it went on, like on video. But some movies like that

In hindsight, you probably thought they made more, but it didn't. It opened number one in the sort of black sheet, but it wasn't like a huge killing, but it just sort of resonated over time, which helps because a lot of them do better and they don't resonate. You know how it is. You got a lot of life on actually all DVD and yours did well, but cable, but to other people, not really. DVDs are huge. What was your biggest bomb? Oh yeah.

That's live streaming is so over. Let's get some hardware going. I want to put it in a slot. No, it was like I remember Walmart said every time people throw in Tommy Boy or Joe Dirt when they come by in the aisle and it doesn't go down every week, they get the same amount of people just go. I just throw in that is started. So that made money, I guess, for them.

But not really me. But I like those ones that kind of live on. There's not that many. But when you came out, so old school was such a monster. Was your idea to be naked and streak because you did that before or?

Or it seems to me you got a comfort level of using your body, you know, in a very funny way. I had a comfort level. Yeah. You would streak in college, right? Or is that me? I had. Yeah, I had. My dad's in the audience tonight. Oh, yeah. You're trying to overthink your answers. I streaked in college, Dad. Your dad is out there right here in our audience? That's true. But, yeah. Well, I was always...

That was the thing I loved about Chris Farley. I just remember, I remember thinking, okay, I'm going to meet people that are just as funny as me and people that are much funnier than me, but the one I'll just, they won't be able to out commit me. It would be, it was like my promise to myself. You fulfilled that promise. I don't think anyone committed hard. I, uh, I was, I had no problem taking my shirt off during sketches and things like that. And, uh,

But I do remember reading the script for Old School and reading that joke. And there's sometimes a disconnect that you read it and you go, oh, that'll be funny until the day you actually have to perform it. And you come out of your trailer, what are you wearing, a robe? How do you come out of your trailer? I agreed to shoot this.

and we were shooting well it's time for the run down the street little little marble little marble sack yeah as they say in the industry yeah um and uh yeah we shot it here in montrose anyone from montrose here tonight i've only heard about that on members of the band montrose uh but yeah we shot that right out here near altadena and i just remember we were shooting in in

in front of a bunch of stores, storefronts. And there was like a, a local health club. And there was all these yuppie people working out, getting their power walking in. And I said to the PA, like, does anyone, has anyone told them what's about to happen? Cause I'm in the robe and I got the marble sack attached to the crucial area. And, uh,

Does anyone know I'm about to drop the robe? Do we want to tell some kid on a headset, like, what? Huh? I don't know. We want to get real reactions. Okay, back to one. I think we're going to film it now. We're ready. That first take, I'm running, and I'm trying to call. I'm like, honey, we're all going straight. I'm hearing off in the distance through the window of the health club. Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!

Hey! Hey! Hey! So many pubes. And then we shoot it. We cut. We reset. Another take. He's not going to do it again. There's like one old guy in there still power walking. Extra. By the third take, health club totally cleared out. No one wanted to watch me run naked down the street. How many takes?

It was probably more than we needed. Camera from behind and from behind. Crane. Crane.

Crane shot. Gotta bring in the super 50 techno. Yeah. Yeah. Side shot. Yeah. And then camera in the car where I go in butt first to sit down. So yeah. Bunch of shots. Bunch of takes. Dana. I know this is supposed to be on Will. I remember that move. Dana. I mean Will can I tell you one embarrassing story? Oh here we go. Just remind me of a walk. I have to move for this. It's not worth it at all. But.

But we'll take it out later. So this is embarrassing because one movie I did called Warning Shot. It was sort of a drama. And there was... Thank you. Warning Shot. That's when you played the kingpin, right? Oh, yeah. I was a bad guy. The drug lord. So I was a drug lord. Dana, I knew you'd see the trailer. So I... You sent it to me. So there's... Dana...

We're taking this all out anyway. It doesn't matter. I gotta watch Warning Shot now. Well, watch it on the plane. I'm gonna put it in my notes. Here I am. Warning Shot. Warning Shot. Warning Shot. And I don't want to give the whole thing away because everyone's gonna run home and watch it. Who directed Warning Shot? I don't know if we had a director. Um...

I realized halfway through we were just all talking. AI directed it. So they said there's a part where I get squibs. Lingo. So there's a gunfight. You're going to get shot. So they have to squib me up. So they put like little, you know, peps at ACs on you that blow up. You know what I mean? Like whatever. But they have to, I don't know if it's electronically, they have to tape it to you. Right. And they actually make

It makes a spark or something. A small explosion. Right. So they tape a couple here.

to my bird chest. But I'm at lunch eating a burrito and then they go, hey, shooting after lunch. I go, okay. But like you, I don't even think about it. And then I go, oh wait, this guy's coming in here. So the special effects guy has got like a ponytail. You know this guy. He comes in. It's like a sound that's in your face. It's never their fault when it goes wrong. He goes...

We're going to do these and you might feel a spark. And if there's a full fire, we'll address it then. Which means it's happened before. Which means it's his first day. So he goes, they just pulled me off this other thing.

Home Depot? Yeah. So he goes, okay. So he wires me up like shirt off and then they go one, two, three, four, let's say. And then they tape down and now they stick them on and now they have to go down my pant leg and then, you know what I mean, like out the back, the wires. And then the guy has like a little blow up plunger. Yep. So...

So I have to put my pants on over that. So these are on here and they go back like six feet to him and he's like, got it. And then in my trailer and I delicately put my shirt on and they go ready for you. So I start to walk out and he's following me. And then I start drifting off on the way to the set going, what are my lines? Blah, blah, blah. Take that dag nabbit or whatever I'm saying.

You were playing like a macho badass. Yeah, like I'm a tough guy. This is embarrassing. I'm drifting off and then I go... And then three toots in a row just to myself. I don't care. I'm just walking. And then I hear behind me, hey, come on, man. LAUGHTER

I forgot he was six feet and already leaning over. Hey, come on, man. Because I'm first team, the worst thing he can say is, come on, man. He wanted to bust my fucking head open. And I go, it's cool, it's cool. But it wasn't cool. It was so horrible. I couldn't apologize, but I had to laugh so hard first because it was so uncool. And then he's walking through.

And then guess what? The squibs went wrong after that. Squibs were a relief after that. I just walk on the set. I go, are we ready? And he's like, blam! And I'm like, oh, early? It's usually the indignant special effects person who they get mad at you even though they didn't have it hooked up right. And...

So filming a night at the Roxbury, one of the gags was we're driving, we're doing the head thing, and then Catan does it so hard he smashes his side, his passenger side window with his head, and it explodes.

But that's all squibbed up. So that's supposed to just crack smack. That's supposed to crack with the aid of technology. Timing. When he touches it, special effect guy, same, same guy. Yeah. He's waiting by the console, you know, going hot, going hot on effects. Cool dialogue coming in hot. Yeah. You're timing it out. You're rehearsing. How many head? Okay. We'll do it on the fifth one. And on the fifth one, Chris will go like this.

So we're doing, you know, what is that? And we're doing our thing. One, two, three, four. Side does nothing. The side doesn't break. Doesn't break at all. Guy comes in. It's like, I don't know. It's all checked out or something.

Wasn't plugged in. As if we're supposed to go, oh, great. No problem. But Catan's got like a shiner. Yeah. And he's like, do we trust him? Do we do it again? Are we doing it again? But they get so excited when they discover their issue. Yeah. Yeah.

He's like, it wasn't my fault. It wasn't plugged in. You're like, that's still your fault. Isn't it funny? It wasn't plugged in. Can you believe it? It wasn't plugged in. Show business is difficult. That's all we're saying. It did. But I do love the guy. Come on, man. Oh, he just kind of... Come on, man. The harshest he could go was, hey, come on, man. Like...

And then I was like, oh my God, he can't yell at me. It's so, because he just. But we always found that with the effects guys on SNL. Yeah. Like if you had a gag. You had to barf or something. Like, please, we need so much blood. It's supposed to be over the top amount of blood. You got it. It's going to be so much blood. Dressers will show.

Like one spot. And you'd look over and the guy would be like, I don't know what happened. Sorry, I don't know. You want more than that? You're like, yes. I want the funny version of the blood. The funny version and then add 100% to that. We did it with Alec Baldwin and Jay Moore. Every cop that came to us, I think Phil comes up and he goes,

This is the sickest, most gruesome set. You know, I've ever seen car crash, right? And he throws up and then he goes, captain, captain, what's going on? Then he throws up. And it was just a joke of, we all throw up. And like me and Jay, by the time we got there, we were newer and we had,

Two lines, but the throw up wasn't working as well. And it goes, it's same thing up your leg, up a hose. And the guy in the back, and then at rehearsal, we're like, guys, more, the same thing. Yeah, please. Funny throw up. It goes everywhere and it's too much. No one's mad. It's too much is better. And I think by the time we did it,

It was either a leaky faucet, you know, just barely in your life. And then it's funny because you're like... It's just a little... Because it's coming out of your arm. A little spittle. You have to act like you're barfing and it goes like this. Right. Spray my whole face. Funny. Anyway, that's not... That's neither here nor there right now. No, no, no. Do you have any other stories you'd like to share? Did you do... Were you an anchorman? Because I didn't read everything on the show.

I know you were in... I auditioned for it, but I wasn't. What was the guy, Ron Flergaty? Oh, yeah. Was Burgundy... That wasn't something from SNL, right? That was something you thought of after. That was after. Yeah. That was after the show. Was that one of your first... You left SNL. Was that one of your first... Left SNL. Just starring in movies? Old school. Old school. Came out? Came out after I left. Crushed. While we were filming...

Yeah, so I left and I didn't release it. I had old school that was filmed but they held on to it which is usually a bad sign. Right. I didn't release it until later.

After Anchorman. No, no. Before. So it was old school. And then we were working on this script about an elf. Oh, Elf was back then? That was not... Enough. That needed a bunch of work. So when I left the show, I didn't have this stack of scripts waiting for me. But holy shit, to come out with those three? Old school Elf and Anchorman were the first two movies I did after I left the show. That's unreal.

At old school, you go, you're crazy. Is that what you say? After the train hit? Yeah. Hysterical. So many parts of old school were great. When Vince Vaughn goes, hey, you need some sand? I got a sand guy. Everything about old school was funny. Love that one. Elf, obviously, was such a huge home run hit. And still to this day. But Elf was...

That was a little scary, only because I'd come off of SNL and old school, known probably for doing more PG-13, edgier stuff. And then you're in a family film. And then I'm in this family thing. That's risky. Going, this could be it. I don't know. I'm just sitting around, running around the streets of New York in yellow tights.

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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.

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But your style, I guess I'd say, is you just, you never wink and you commit like a dramatic actor. Yeah. And that's what kind of holds you up. Well, Alf, all those things. Thank you, Dana. Yeah. Thank you. I say the same thing. I like to. You haven't said anything like that. I said it before you got here. It's Dana. You can do a trick that Kevin Nealon can do. You can lower your IQ just 20 points. Right. Just with your eyes. Very subtly.

And it's genius, but every time we were doing Hans and Franz, cocky idiots, and we were talking and they go, five, four, three. I'd look at Kevin and his eyes would just go really dumb. Yeah. He could lower his IQ like 40 points, but you have that skill set of being able to just take IQ off with just something about your eyes. I think that's good. Yeah, it is. Yeah, yeah.

You need that. Kind of like a guy, what was his name? Sellers? Peter Sellers. Peter Sellers. Kind of like that guy. Pete Sell, I call him. Pete Sellers. Because you do have some symmetry with him. A lot of comedians want to claim Peter Sellers, but I do think you have something in, you know, that cocky idiot character that...

It also is very dry, extremely bizarre word packages with a lot of physicality. Anyway, I've been researching you for those things. That's how I started thinking of the Ron Burgundy character because I was watching footage of this news anchor who had been retired for 20 years, but he still talked like this. And I walk through my local market and

And I'll be ordering, you know, I'll be buying my groceries and people will hear my voice and they'll know, they'll ask me, were you in news? And I say, yes, I used to be. And I thought, who talks like that? Like what? You're not a news guy anymore. And I thought, oh, that's funny. Someone who never loses that affect. Yeah. But all the stuff writing that, San Diego's funny, casting it right. There's so many ways to,

To do a movie wrong. Even if you have a funny character, like you got to get it directed well, uh, written well, perform it well edited. There's so many ways to ruin it along the way. And that's why sometimes you sign up for a movie. It's, it just doesn't come out because there's so many ways to mess it up. But to have all those work all the way through is very, very tough to do. And, uh, Anchorman is one of those that has hit on all cylinders. And then the sequel, I was watching the,

fight scene from the sequel today and it's so fucking funny where insanity you're thinking of different ways to have different news people and uh and then everyone's playing it is funny and all they keep coming in their different groups all that was funny and topping the first one was hard but you did that with that and also two days with kanye west i figured out that was kanye i'm like kanye made this cameo but he he filmed his thing and then he just hung out the next day yeah

Yeezus for us over and over again. Yeah. Yeah. Whether you wanted to hear it or not. Yeah. Yeah.

That's demo jail. Yeah, it was wild. Interesting. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny. I used to be, yeah, whatever. I had a guy like that and he would play his album over and over and yeah, in the car and then you didn't want to say, no, you, you already played it for me, but I'll listen to it again. Give you another shot at it. Yeah. Yeah. That was funny. Cause I saw Kanye. I was like, Oh my God, is that Kanye? Like, was he around back then? I guess he was. Yeah. It's been pretty new.

No, he was pretty old, I think. Whatever it is. Also, your bandmates on that, which you've worked with a lot. Paul Rudd, who's awesome, obviously. Steve Carell. Carell was so funny. Carell got a great funny part. Yeah, it was a great group. And McKay, who we'd met at SNL. It was a...

You guys just really knew what you were doing. We just felt like we were playing with the house's money. And DreamWorks had said no to it.

and then later came back. Oh, really? Yeah, yeah. A bunch of people had passed on it. I think we had 10 or 15 different financiers or studios pass on it in one day. It was a great day. That's a horrible... McKay and I call. Did you hear about this one? Yeah, that's a pass. Okay, good. But you go excitedly pitch it to everyone and then you just hear pass, pass, pass, pass, pass. You just hear...

The call should be coming in. Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass. Oh my God, that's sickening. It almost doesn't ever work after that. If one passes, it gets like a stink to it. Like the other one's here and they go, oh, something's bad about it. Oh, we don't want it either. So you do that. Is it what happened? Elf came out or something and they go, oh, well, we'll risk it now? No, it was old school. Old school, oh. Old school came out and they thought,

oh, wait, we have this other script with him. We should do something with him. Now we like it. Hey, that made money. Let's do a chart. We take it back. We like the thing about the newscasters. They just couldn't wrap their heads around it that it'd be funny. And I was trying to say it's kind of what Austin Powers will be to the spy genre. But anyway, so when we finally got to make it, we were like,

Let's just hurry. Let's just shoot what, because they may shut us down at any point. Movies do the best feel like that's, and then it was one of those where I'm guessing, you know, the last couple of takes, do whatever you want. Just keep doing shit. Just act stupider and stupider. And then someone's got to pick,

The one that you live with forever, but then you go, God, there was five other ones that were just as ridiculous. Did you ride that way? I mean, because were you on 35 millimeter film in the 90s? And then you get on the Anchorman set or whatever and you got digital for the first time or no? Not until Anchorman 2. Oh, because then you could improvise for 20 minutes. But we would do it anyway. Because

Because it's expensive. Yeah. Okay. But yeah, we would just go until we heard that film run out and go to the line producer and just say, can you give us cover here? We just need more film stock. I don't know what else to say. Yeah.

And luckily, the studios usually, once you got going, they were okay. Or they see the dailies, they know something's happening. And Talladega Nights is another monster. So that one...

No questions. Just wanted you to get the applause. Yeah. No. Blades of glory. And Riley, was that one of the first with Riley? Or he was also in, I saw. No, so John did the table read for Anchorman. And we really wanted him to be in it. And he was doing...

He had to go do Gangs of New York or something. Some bullshit Scorsese thing. I'm out here, priest! It's good you guys wound up in that. Oh, and Stepbrothers. You guys wound up in those. Those are consistent, successful comedies. Very, very hard to do.

Yeah, it's been good, which is why it's just fun to use your guys' podcast to announce my retirement. Should we be honored? Do you feel like you're hogging all the good movies or something? Give someone else a chance. Yeah, I want to let... I want to do... We should do a remake of...

I've already forgotten it. The farty blood guy character. Warning shart. Warning shart. Yeah. Your joke. I didn't... Yeah. Warning shart? Yeah. Yeah. Um...

Let's do a shot for shot remake of Warning Shot. We could put a little more money, get a director. Get that same effects guy. Yeah, the effects guy. That guy's still around. You ever have the sound guy get in your face? Hey, man, we're just going to wire you up here. I'm like, sir, sir, I got it. They're like, it's going to go right down your pants. Do a lot of problems. Go up your butthole. Where does it need to go?

You want a waist? Do you want an ankle? What do you want? What do you want? Do you want an ankle? What do you like? Can I tape this to your chest? Is that all right? Do you want it up the b-hole? You know what that is? Do you mind holding a small microphone? Do you want to put it in your beard? Bury it in your beard? Do you mind swallowing this microphone? It would help. It would help production. I want to get the sound of your digestive juices. Can you learn how to use this boom mic?

Take it home with you on the weekend. Can you hold it just out of frame? Yeah. It's a good arm exercise. It would help. Yeah. I used to feel sorry for those guys with the 40 foot boom. Oh. For like 20 days. On a long take. Shaking like that. And I'm like, I got another funny idea. And they're like, motherfucker. Yeah, keep it rolling. This guy's tricep. And he'll cut and the guy's like.

Lays down in convulsions. Yeah. We got it easy. God damn it. Oh, I have a question. I know, but don't you feel you'd be fired from every single job on a movie set except for the ones that we get to do? Right? Like a real movie? That's what I feel like. Well...

I mean, it seems like you were all most of the time working with like-minded spirits. No, no, I mean as an actor. All the other jobs are so much harder than just goofing around. Right. I would rather just goof around and have someone shoot it. I could never do a real job. No, wait. Doesn't my question make sense?

Yeah. No, I'm just saying, between like camera, director, sound, all these other jobs, to be an actor, it's like the easiest one. Well, that's why they all hate us. Because they go, look at you, and they go, look at you coming in here, tra-la-la. Oh, do you have to memorize three lines? Yeah. And they're like, I'm like, give me a minute. And they're like, he's coming. You know, it's all that stuff. And they're all waiting, and then you walk out. Can I get a quick spritz of Final Net? Yeah.

All right, ready. Final net. Final net? That goes with... Isn't that hairspray? Final spinata and final net. Is that one of your guys' sponsors, Final Net? Yeah. Hey, our sponsors are here, I think.

Show of hands. Now, when you... I'm going to jump around here. I'm going to jump around here. Wait a second. Rapid fire. Norm was in Jeopardy with you a lot. Yeah. Any funny Norm stories or anything about Norm? Yeah, my God. That was brilliant. Jeopardy, again, one of the big sketches that...

One of those big sketches everyone remembers. Always funny. Daryl was funny and Norm was great. The best Norm story was I think it's the one where he's wearing, he comes back and he's wearing a big foam cowboy hat. He's like, that's funny, huh? Wearing a cowboy hat. Anyway, there's some beat where I have to be super exasperated with him and I yell at him and we get out of the sketch.

And Norm comes running after me and he's like, "Hey, Will, everything okay?" I go, "Yeah, why?" He's like, "You seem kind of mad at me out there." I'm like, "No, Norm, I'm acting. We've done it. This is like the fourth time we've done the sketch." "No, but that time it just seemed like you really were mad at me for some reason."

I was like, no, we're good. That's very Norm right there. That's his sense of humor. He seemed kind of mad there for a moment, right? But he was not, I don't think he was doing a bit. He wasn't doing a bit. He might have been serious that you were screaming. He was very sensitive in that way too. He was very shaken. Yeah. Because you can commit hard and you probably scared him. Another great Norm story has nothing to do with Quebec. And Catan told me about it. They were on a flight together. Mm-hmm.

back L.A. to New York, Chris had taken off his shoes and he can't find his shoes. They're about to land. Can't find his shoes. He's going to the flight attendant. Have you seen my shoes? I took them off. He's like, I don't know. He's like,

Catan's like, Norm, come on. You took my shoes. No, I didn't. I didn't take your shoes. Why would I take your shoes? It's the stupidest thing I've ever heard. I'd never take, I would never. He's like, come on, give me back my shoes. I know you took them. I know. Norm's like, I don't know what you're talking about. Catan has to walk through JFK. With no shoes? With no shoes, just in his socks. An entire season goes by.

And then Catan and Norm are jousting back and forth about something. Yeah, they used to joust a little bit. And then Norm finally goes, oh, yeah, and one other thing, I did take your shoes. That flight in November. Flight November. I took them, I threw them in the trash can, just so you know. Yeah, because I saw his shoes there, right? And I just kind of grabbed his shoes. So, yeah, you were right. I took your shoes. He used to give Catan so much shit. Oh, my God, yeah. He was tough.

Okay, let's see if we have anything else. Well, before we let you go. Oh, and the other thing I was thinking about today, Downey used to give me the great, I loved being. Jim Downey. Sorry, Jim Downey. Great writer. Legendary writer who came up with Strategery. Oh, he did. I had the 18-2 writing for me with Al Franken and Jim Downey. Yeah.

But Downey, I loved being in Downey's sketches for a number of different reasons, but the best was between dress and air, and he'd do it every single time, and I would laugh hard every single time. He'd go, great job, take it down about a thousand percent. LAUGHTER

And then I would just, yes, and I'd be like, uh-huh, yeah, okay. And he's like, I don't know what happened. You must have gotten into your big juice or something. But he would literally tell me to take it down a thousand percent. Worst advice, yeah. Did you? Made me laugh every single time. And he would never say he's joking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, I remember one time I did a joke on Hollywood Minute about,

With jokes, you know, they had some, some had a little more of a, some were clever, some had a little mean streak, but I did a Jim Carrey one. The funniest part is I liked 99% of the people. Of course. Jim Carrey. I was just trying to get foot in the door at SNL and, uh, whatever it took. But Jim was doing these, you know, the movies that I loved, but I said, and they would always prod me to go farther. Right. Cause it was like through them. I dare you. I said, Oh, Jim's carry after this, one of his movies just rushed to the hospital. Uh,

after an overdose of overacting pills with Play It Too Big juice. And the crowd just stared at me. And it was too soon. Don't mess with our fucking guy. Don't make fun of our hero, Jim Carrey. And I was like, no, I won't. Anyway, that was cut after Dress. But Dress for Heroes was a good... But that was those guys. They would write me the roughest Hollywood Minute jokes at the rewrite table. They'd go...

Jim would be like, oh, you would never. Well, no, you're too much of a pussy. And I go, no, I'm not. What? And then he'd tell me, I go, yeah, I'm too much of a pussy. I'm not saying that. He goes, of course, because you're a pussy. And I go, why? But it was all whatever he wanted to say and get the anger out and get to me. And they hide behind the whole. I know. That's why it's so funny. They get to say whatever they want. But.

I would have to sort of temper it, but always funny. I mean, they're always just, they're just fucking real. Wait, one last Norm Macdonald story. Yeah. Sorry. Love them. Do you remember the Mama Celeste frozen pizza commercials? No. Yes. No, I don't. And it was this, and she would say, Abondanza. Abondanza, yeah. Which is a made up marketing word. There's no, there's no word in the Italian language. I thought that was genuine Italian. Yeah.

And one day we're sitting around in the writer's room having lunch and we're doing a bit where I'm like, hey guys, this lunch is pretty good. Abondanza, right? And everyone goes, yeah, abondanza. And Norm's sitting there like, Norm, come on, just say it. Say abondanza. He's like, no, I'm not going to say it. I'm like, come on, Norm. Just say it. Abondanza. I won't do it. I'm not going to say it.

We'd get like 15 of us like, come on, Norm. It'd be rude now. We've all said Abundanza. You should just say Abundanza. No, I don't want to say it. I'm not going to say it. I won't say it. You never would say it. Anyway, that's the end of the story. But yeah. All right. Well, I think we're going to have a few people. I just like his voice. Hey, a penny saved is a penny earned, they say, right? That's like a 100% return. You can't get that anywhere. Yeah.

Is that what he said? - I was just talking on the phone with Norm, you know? You know, you should bury some money, right? 'Cause then later on your relatives will dig it up and they'll have money, right?

He just had the driest, funniest vibe. I didn't have a TV the first year I was on the show because I just didn't buy one because I thought I'm never going to be in my apartment. So I'd go and watch the NBC sports feed on like a Sunday. Norm, of course, is in there. And Norm enjoyed gambling on sports. And we were watching some game and I'm like, ooh, got to watch out. You know, University of Cincinnati.

They're pretty good in the mud. He's like, really? And I go, yeah. I think they're like 750 winning percentage in rainy games. Ah, I didn't know that. Yeah, okay. Logs it away. I think we're doing a bit. Right, right, right. There's no way. How do I know that stuff? Yeah. Week later, Norman's like, you cost me 35 grand. I'm like, doing what? What do you mean?

Cincinnati, University of Cincinnati in a month. What? You said they were really good and rainy. You bet on. I was joking. And you bet that much? Yeah. Why are you telling me that amount too? That's like when Norm asked Lovitz for, give me $200. They're playing a casino. That's funny. John's like, okay.

So the next day, John, huh? Len, Len. And he goes, yeah. And then Lovett's like, can I get my money back? And he goes, no, no. I lost it. I lost all of it. He goes, why are you mad? I lost $8,000. Yeah, he goes, you only lost $200. You only lost $200. We love Norm. There was only one Norm. He was amazing. A comedy genius. Yeah.

So Will Ferrell... Dana, I think they want to ask a few questions in the audience. Then we'll get Will to his limo. I was just going to butter up Will. I was going to say to Will, because he loves sports, like if I was going to do a sports team of SNL stars, you know, I'd put you...

At the power forward. Oh, okay. Maybe an Ackroyd or Phil at the center. Yeah. Maybe Bill Hader. After that, I never try to pick SNL people because then I go, fuck Adam Sandberg. I miss him. But I would. Lawrence said that about you. No.

He's a top two at least. Top two? Well, is he possibly one? I'm not going to say, but he's a top two. Top three. Top three. Where in that three? I don't know. We don't know. I feel like the general consensus is me, Dana, Will. In the history of SNL. I think it's Spade. And sometimes it mixes up. Dana, Will. Will, Dana, me. Yeah. Yeah. But we're up there, man. It's lonely, but we're up there. No. Yeah. Yeah.

Now, I was sort of an intern there for six years. David Spade plays the little engine that could, but who's got an incredible career? Who did World Missy? 800 million minutes. Raw Missy. Yeah. 800 million minutes. That's how it goes now. Six billion minutes. That's a hit. That feels good. I don't know. It sounds like a lot of minutes. Yeah, six billion minutes. It's the biggest film in Chile. Oh, yeah. Yeah.

They love you in Uruguay, kid. I can't step foot in Bulgaria. Lower Mongolia. Go out there. We're going to ask Will. We'll give four questions to the audience and then Will, you don't even have to answer if you don't want to. Just make them feel stupid. You know, Dana, I think we have a connection. We've been friends for a long time. And for this episode of Fly on the Wall, we've partnered with eHarmony.

which isn't us. eHarmony is a dating app to find someone you can be yourself with. We are not dating. I want to clarify that. But the connection is what you want in a dating partner. Just someone like, if you found someone that listened to this podcast, that's somewhat of a connection. And then you sort of build on that. You want someone with some common ground. Yeah. It's not, look, if you want to connect romantically over, you know, super fly or fly on the wall, yeah.

It just makes us happy. You don't want to be watching The Godfather and the person next to you goes, this movie sucks. So dumb. Yeah. You want to connect on all issues and harmonize in life. Similar sensibility, similar sense of humor, and similar sense of sense. I don't like when they watch The Godfather and they're like, everyone in this movie is so old. I'm like, they're 40.

Watch 2001 Space Odyssey. Too much of this movie is in outer space. I don't like it. When do they land? When do they land? Why is that stupid red light acting so silly? Who's friends with a robot? We know dating isn't easy. That's why we partnered with eHarmony because dating is different on eHarmony. They want you to find someone who gets you, someone you can be comfortable with.

Yeah. I mean, the whole idea is you're going to take a compatibility quiz, helps your personality come out in your profile, which makes all the profiles on eHarmony way more interesting and fun to read. So I think this is the goal of dating sites, and I think eHarmony does it great. It's just finding somebody you're compatible with.

So get started today with a compatibility quiz. So you can find some and you can be yourself with. Get Who Gets You on eHarmony. Sign up today. Robert Half Research indicates 9 out of 10 hiring managers are having difficulty hiring. If you have open roles, chances are you're feeling this too. That's why you need Robert Half.

Our specialized recruiting professionals engage their skills with our award-winning AI to connect businesses of all sizes with highly skilled talent in finance and accounting, technology, marketing, and creative, legal and administrative, and customer support. At Robert Half, we know talent. Visit roberthalf.com today. All right. Does anyone have a question? And then he'll run out there and then, oh, we got one over there. Let me see. Oh, too late.

He was over there. Oh, no, I'm over here. Hello. Do you guys have a favorite sketch that literally just never made it even past pitch? Like not something that got cut for time or cut from rehearsal, but you pitched it and you thought it was great and it just did not go over. I had a sketch that tops my list. I had written a sketch about a guy

who looks exactly like Gabe Kaplan from Welcome Back, Cotter. And he's a super, and he works in an insurance, the insurance company he works for, he knows that Gabe Kaplan is a client. And it's the day that Gabe Kaplan came in to renew his insurance coverage, but no one told him. No one told my character that Gabe Kaplan was there.

And I was... How did this not get on? Are you sure this didn't get on? It got on. No, it got on a dress. But it was so silent. At one point, there's the smallest laugh in the world. Like kind of in the upper deck there, you just hear, hee hee. But it died so hard.

So that was... But it worked great at the table. I have one quickie, which was a guy... I'm sorry, buddy. He was obsessed with Kurt Cobain.

after his death and i worked at baskin robbins and i wouldn't wash my hair and bob odenkirk and i wrote it and it was uh kurt every time i was trying to name ice creams after him and then when people come in they go my manager goes you got to wash your hair i go no kurt he curtain dirt you can't wash him away and then uh again crickets but that was crickets at read-through

with Odenkirk, who's a great writer. And it was a fully formed sketch and it just didn't work. - On season two, we're doing a press conference and they said, "Do you have any new catchphrases to me?" So I just said, my new catchphrase is, "I got to, got to, got to go." So I wrote a sketch called "Funny Little Poopyhead."

And I was Mr. Funny Little Poopyhead. Jan Hooks was Mr. Funny Little Poopyhead. And it was really, if it had gotten on, I would have enjoyed it. But it was just to hear Lorne say Funny Little Poopyhead. So there was so much stage direction. And Lorne Michaels had to say that thing. Funny Little Poopyhead walks into the room. Funny Little Poopyhead walks across the room. That kind of thing. And then he goes, I got to, got to, got to go. And then Jan Hooks' hook was, and I'm going to go on with him.

Never made it to air. Only at the Largo. All right, next one. Greg, anybody? You're a little slow to the upgrades. Hey, you did a college game day in 2010 with Lee Corso. What was he like? Is that for me? I don't think I did. I don't remember I being in it. Was that you? Oh, yeah.

It was a film called College Game Day? No, College Game Day. Would that have been outside the Coliseum? Oh, before the SC Oregon game. Yeah.

Easy rain, man. Are you wearing an N95? Yeah. Yeah, definitely outside the Coliseum. Yeah, of course. I'm an excellent driver. I don't remember having much interaction with Lee. I'm sure he was nothing but lovely. What about Lee Van Cleef? Did you ever do anything with Lee Van Cleef? Lee Van Cleef and I. That guy's awesome.

This young man you've had your hand up for so long. Go ahead. I think for the podcast. Thank you. Will, Dana, you guys were part of a video where you played the Bushes. All the presidents. For Ron Howard. Do you guys have any stories about that? And David, will there be a sequel to that movie? Don't make up a question for me. You love these two. He's huge and chilly.

And David, are you taking an Uber home? First of all, that was for Funny or Die. That was for Funny or Die about passing legislation. Yeah, some legislation. And I remember we just did our characters one at a time. We had everyone who'd played a president on SNL. Yeah. We even had Dan Aykroyd do Bob Dole, I think. I know he was there. Bob Dole. Aykroyd. Or was it Norm? Aykroyd did Jimmy...

Oh, Jimmy Carter? Jimmy Carter? Oh, yeah, probably Jimmy Carter. Oh, did you do Nixon? Oh, God, he did a lot. I'll just do all of them. Mind me. Chevy did Ford. Chevy did Ford. Fred did Obama. Yes. Wow. Oh, wow. Did you carry the wrong way? I just remember when I was doing something, and you said you liked it afterwards. I was just ad-libbing as George Bush Sr., and the phrase came out, he went full fecal. Oh.

I don't remember what it meant, but I remember you came out after him. Like the full fecal part. You just remember things. Full fecal. Full fecal. Gotta do it. Fecalcation. Yeah. I'm getting more relaxed all the time. I know. Yeah. We're finally relaxed. We got one more question. All right. Mm-hmm.

Hey, this is a farewell. Whenever you are on SNL, you would often go on Conan as different characters. You would never come on as yourself. Was Conan aware of this? Because I feel like he was not in on the bit and he was often surprised when you would do this. No, he was just...

very good at acting and playing along because they... Did you ever try to surprise them with anything? But then you would ad-lib and stuff. You'd go way off. Conan and that whole stuff, they were so into please do whatever you want. That was the greatest show to go on, that early Conan, because they would just embrace any sort of bit. It was like, I have an idea...

where I want to get in a drum off with a kid drummer and he's going to be much better than I am and then I'm going to chase him out of the state, you know. And they're like, yep, let's do it.

Okay, I have another bit where I want... Can you set up a pull-up bar? And I want to do a set-up where I'm going to do as many pull-ups as I can do, and I'll give $10,000 to charity, and I can't even get one pull-up. For every pull-up you get, that's funny. And I just struggle.

It's like 15 seconds. You're like, I did 30 yesterday. What's wrong? I can't get one. Oh, well, too bad, March of Dimes, you know, whatever. March of Dimes. They would go for everything. It seems like you always had a gear where a lot of your stuff, if the sound broke, I call it funny with the sound off, it would still work, you know, just because like the cowbell guy, just the way you were dancing around, just all that. Walking was good in that too, right? Oh, my God.

Do people know, is this true that you tried it out with different hosts and it never got on until Walken came around? I tried it. Well, it's funny. The season before was Norm's last season because you guys were talking about it with Downey, the whole Norm getting fired. And then strangely enough, he comes back the next year to host.

Oh, yeah. And he said they fired me. But I tried it at the table with Norm as the record producer. Yeah. And it worked fine, but it just didn't get picked. And then I brought it back later going, oh, no, I'm going to rewrite this for Walken. It's hard to do it twice. It's hard. Yeah. I was there that night. I was doing a guest spot of something. Oh, okay. And I remember that.

Yeah, and we were way over. And Will, where were you? I was about to say, you weren't dead center. No, I was way in the dead corner there. Fuck, people don't know that's the worst. Do you remember, what was the, I mean, how did that come out just suddenly? Because it's such a bizarre, incredibly inexplicable idea. That's why it's just as funny now. You could watch it 20 years later. You look funny. It's a weird song. Yeah, listening to Blue Oats for Cold on the radio. Yeah, it was just that cowboy. Hearing that faint cowboy going,

Does that guy have any friends? Is that the only song you ever got to play cowbell on? And then I'd always... I'm like, I'm going to write that as a sketch. It's nothing you can pitch. And...

So I write it and I rewrote it for Walken. And I was just like, oh, I know that if Christopher Walken says, I have a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. Only he can get a laugh off of that. You can't lose because the stiffer he does it, the more he's married to the cue cards.

I have a fever. Yeah. And you're like phonetically almost getting through it. And it's so fucking funny. And I remember, is Kevin Pollak here? Could you do Christopher Walken? Is he here? Oh, is he here? So this is the world's greatest Christopher Walken impressionist. I have a fever. Prescription is more cowbell. You. You.

Kevin Pollack. Kevin Pollack happened to be here. But you would say to Walken, you go, hey, Chris, you're just killing it. You're so funny and everything. He'd be like, we should have Kevin do it. Really? Because I have no idea. I just say the lines. He doesn't even get the sketch. And I was like, well, you're doing great. If you say so, okay.

Like I got in trouble for a couple of them. Yeah. For cowbell. I'm just doing Kevin now, but yeah, but yeah, there was something magic about that thing. Anyway, that was something special. So I like those ones that live on forever. Those are great. Yeah. So Will Ferrell, you are one of the all time and you, you're, you're still going strong. I don't know what you're doing next, but I was going to ask you, what's the longest break you've had in the last 25 years from doing show business?

It seems like you've been... Did you have six months off at one time? Oh, sure. So you take breaks. And what do you do during your breaks? You ran three marathons. Long time ago. That was just a passion? Yeah, just wanted to run. I retired in 03. And... Lauren wouldn't take you back. Right. Are your kids all taller than me yet? Oh, they're...

My 13-year-old will dominate. I know kids are 11 when they're taller than me. I'm like, oh.

You just hang out, right? I love Uber driver for my kids. I have a sophomore in high school, go to his basketball games. That's kind of fun when they're like 10, 11, 12, and you're driving them to school. And I play a day in the life for them. And they play me hip hop and stuff, which is a fair exchange. But it's a lot of fun and cool bonding. Because I was noticing my kids weren't talking to me in the car at a given age when I'm driving them to school.

And then I would put on AM news radio, and a man was killed today and shot, blood was flying. And they're like, Dad, what was that? What's going on? So that really would open them up. But you must have had experiences like that. But truly, you must have made them fans. And we've made a concerted effort to just take the whole summer off, no matter what I'm working on. So we go...

I do that too. We go to Sweden of all places every summer. So we have my wife's Swedish. We have a place out there. The boys all speak Swedish. They hang out with their cousins. That's too cool. So they're just bonded with Sweden. That's hip. Yeah. Isn't most of life just, I feel like even really busy people, most of life is hanging out and talking. Absolutely. Yeah.

Isn't that what we do most of the time? We work and stuff. You're just trying to watch something on TV with your wife? Do you watch live streaming shows? Do you watch All Creatures Great and Small? If you want Liquid Xanax, this is this brilliant show that's just so 1940s. I thought the Beatles documentary was that too, in a way. Oh my God. Get back. Unreal. It's nice of you to say that.

You know, I do them a bit older now. You know, we appreciate that you like it, you know. But we were just lads plunking. I don't know. I don't know who that is. Is that Billy Preston? It's Billy Idol. Did you meet McCartney, Will, when you were on SNL? Did what? Did you see McCartney? Was he on when you were on? I don't know if he was. I think he was 93, right? He was on, I know, when I was there with...

He must have been. I know Mick Jagger. Oh. Jimmy did that Mick Jagger.

Mick Jagger? Oh, I came in Lorne's office. This happens to you at Saturday Night Live once. Lorne's office in 8H just during the week. And I just walked in and no one told me. And then just Mick Jagger's just sitting there with a little sweater and corduroy pants on and combed hair, you know. Lorne likes to blindside you with a big star. Yeah. He likes to collect china and different coffee cups. Tell him about your stamp collection, Mick. He's very, what you would call, erudite. Vivid.

the dinner, the dinner where Lauren tried to convince me to stay longer. Yeah. It was there. He kept saying, Mick may stop by. I'm like, okay. That's what I tell people, but he never stops by. All right. And we keep talking. He's like, so Mick, you know, he could, because they produced some movie together. Right. And I'm like, yeah, fine. Okay. And then all of a sudden, Lauren's eyes go wide. He's like,

He's here! He's here! Okay. You sit there, and I'll... No, no, no, no. No, I'll sit here. I'll sit here. I'll sit like this. And you sit over there. No, no, no. You sit... Hi, Mick. Hello. Hi. Yes. And I sat... Well, he wants your seat. Move. Yeah, move. Move.

You'd be an idiot Did you always have to guess when he said Paul Because there were two Pauls Paul Simon and Paul McCartney Paul's coming over Which one? I sat there awkwardly for 45 more minutes Waiting? Mick showed up And I didn't know what to say And then the next day at rehearsal Lorne was like wasn't that the greatest dinner And I think he was just excited That he said a celebrity was going to show up And they actually showed up

What was your most starstruck moment? For me, meeting Charlton Heston was a big deal. You know, like, whoa. Because you meet these hosts and they're sitting down there and then they go, would you like to go say hello to Robert Mitchum? Sure. It's like you're walking down the hall. Marcy would come in, get in there, Sharon Stone, no one's in there. I'm like, okay. And then you go in there. She's alone, she needs help. That's Marcy Klein. She's reading a magazine. She's like, what? And I'm like, I'm supposed to, I don't know. What?

You know what I mean? You know, Marcy. They did accept me with George W. They called me. He was in the studio because they were going to tape one of those election specials and they had Gore do his part. Yes. Clear the studio. Then they bring W in there and they call me at home. They're like, get down here. W is a huge fan. Wants to meet you. And I just started doing the impression and I was like, okay, okay.

I go down to 8-H, there's 100 reporters, everything. And it was like Ayala and Marcy are like, go, go up there, just go and talk to him. And I'm like... Even the cue card guy's going, get up there. Hi, I'm Will. I could tell he has no idea that I'm the guy who plays him. Because you hadn't done it during the debates. Exactly. So it was fledgling. It was fledgling and then...

He doesn't know me from Ab-- he could care less. - You got bamboozled. - We both just did this to each other. - You did Roxbury? - How did you-- - Yeah, we did Roxbury. - Did you awkwardly say Abu Dhanza? - I go, "Thanks so much for doing this." "Yeah, this is-- you got a lot-- is this a hectic work week for you?" Yeah, it's a busy week. Seems like a lot.

But you could tell he was stressed to be there. It was just like... And Al Gore was there too, right? And Al Gore was there and commanding the room. Oh, yeah. He seemed... We're going to put it in a log box. So...

He was like totally presidential. And W was... But then when they debated, it flipped. Well, W... Yeah, well, whatever. How did you... Did you have to study tapes or you just kind of got it just by watching him? Watching. Daryl Hammond helped me a little bit. Tightening the neck, right? That and squinting a little bit. The eyes squinting. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. But you did kind of look like him when you got the whole gear on. But I think it got better over time, but at first it was not. Same with me. I didn't have Bush Senior at all. Only Ross Perot was quick because it was such a cartoon right away. Can I finish one time? Can I finish one time?

Can I finish one time? That's all it needed. Just that. Basically James Brown. Can I do it on the one? Can I do it on the one? Get on up like a sex machine. Sorry. Phil Hartman playing Admiral What's-His-Face. Who was that guy? Which one?

Stockdale. Stockdale. I don't want to hear that. You guys did the driving. Yeah, and then, why don't you take a walk over there? He's just going, hey. Yeah, who am I? Where am I? He was doing Scotdale. He was confused. Politics is fun. All right, we got to let Will go. We do. He wants to go on. What do you want to do? Can we do three questions? Favorite toy as a kid?

Don't think too hard. Probably Legos. Legos? Yeah. Wrong. Because his was Stretch Armstrong. Or Micronauts. I love Micronauts. Did you have a bicycle that you really liked? Yeah, Schwinn. Schwinn Stingray? Yeah, Stingray. What was the TV show or movie? Why is that funny? Because I think he said, then he said, yeah, yeah, that one. Yeah, yeah, that one.

Well, the Schwinn was famous. I think there was only one bike. I had a Sears front loader. My parents ran out of money. Yeah.

So you're a little kid. You're like 8, 10, 11, and there's a TV show or a cartoon or a movie that just made you love show business or just blew your mind. I'll give you an example. Ben Stiller said it was The Poseidon Adventure. Wow. That made him want to be a filmmaker. That was a cool movie. Gene Hackman. Well, I always loved Shelley Winters. Yeah. She sure had a figure. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, I would say Poseidon Adventure, too. Gene Hackman is unbelievable. He was great. It's up there. That's how we'll live, up there. One-inch thinner. Try it, Kevin. I'll remember the real answer driving home after this. I saw Jason and the Argonauts. It could be, you know, I saw those. And Wild Wild West was kind of my age group. Land of the Lost, I loved.

But that didn't make me want to go into showbiz. Little House on the Prairie? That didn't make me want to go into... No. What made you want to... Well, I loved...

We're not leaving. No, this is... We went past this. It's two-parter to a three-parter. The pressure's building. It's a nine-parter. Okay, these are the shows I loved. I loved Happy Days with Vernon Shirley. Yep. That block on Tuesday nights. Yeah, Tuesday nights. By the way... And then I loved Saturday night was Fantasy Island Love Boat. Shit. Me too. Me too. See, those are so relaxing. We need shows like that. Just...

But I wanted to live on the love, I wanted to be- Yeah, because it was calm and fun. Always calm, fun guests every week. And Julie, the coked up cruise director. Yep. She was great. Yeah, I watched that same block. Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days and Laverne and Shirley. Fonzie literally jumped the shark. I remember watching that. I made my mom watch it with us. I was like, watch it.

Isn't it funny to think that Henry Winkler, he was the coolest guy in America at that point in time. Couldn't believe it. It was so cool, yeah. And the toughest guy. I knew people thought he could beat up anyone. The Fonz could beat up anyone. He never really got in a fight, to be honest. No, he just, he was all. He'd snap his fingers and they'd run or something. I don't want to date myself. I don't want to say he was sorry. Mine was Danny Kaye. He never could say he was sorry, right? Fonz. Yeah, he was too. Oh, I thought he couldn't say, yeah, he couldn't say something. Maybe I love you. Maybe.

Maybe, sorry. Let's call Hank Winkler. I don't know. He's great in Barry. You know what? Let's look at a clip. No clips? What are you going to do, old man? You almost got it. Biff it up. Biff it up.

You just got a little touch of bifida. I did. Spinal bifida. That's what we're going to name this episode. That's going to be in the... It's like not funny. I don't know why we keep saying it. I know. Hey, let me take it down as Denny Miller. Okay, Christ sakes. We heard from the Spud Man with the spinal bifida. Raspberries in the...

Sound effect guy's face. Farrell laid down. Farrell's going to give us both a ride home. The Farrell cat brought it heavy today. Yeah, you did bring it, man. You're funny as shit. My Lincoln Town Car is waiting for me. I always request a Lincoln Town, a late model Lincoln Town Car. Did you buy something when you first got a million dollars? You buy a crazy car or anything? I bought a... Something from the Elvis store? Elvis set list?

I don't want to be the joke of the thing. It's all good fun, Davey. I bought one of Elvis' guns and I looked at the Providence and it realized Spaded was the previous owner. By the way, when he worked there, you were very polite. You were very nice. I don't think you said you were in comedy at all. I don't think you told me that. In fact, I still worked. I got hired at SNL, but they don't pay you until you show up.

I had bills to pay. I was still answering the phones for like a month and a half. Did you have it transferred to your office? Answering the phones at where? Here in LA. Oh, okay. At the auction house. And my coworkers were like, didn't you get on Saturday Night Live? I was like, yeah, but I don't leave till August, so I'm here. And they don't pay you anything. I read it said you were the highest paid cast member ever. Is that true?

I don't think so. They said it was, but what was your starting salary? Like when you first got on, do you remember? Per show. It was per show. I'm guessing $6,000. It was something like that. It was $55,000 or $6,000. $4,500 times $20,000. $90,000. Keep $30,000. Broke even. Easily. Star Saturday Night Live. Breaking even, man. I mean, $900 a week to write.

1500 a bump if I got on Updater. But the male prostitution paid the bills. I ran a glory hole on 18. We don't want to go on that specific. It was just you were a friendly guy. I never got that reference because they'd be... If your sketch ever scored, they'd be like, that was a real glory hole. What does that mean? Aspade.

All right, we're going to take a break and come back with our guest today, Will Phineas. Second half will be better. Second half of the show. Second half of the show. Let's give everyone a five. Second half will be better. Take five. See who stays. I'm going to talk with a Swedish accent. Is this offensive, this accent? That is really authentic. I'm a lot Norwegian. We don't like the Swedes. I know. That's a bad rivalry. Will Phineas.

He's the sweetest chef. Get a lot of poontang in Sweden, to be honest. Is he Muppet character? Yeah. Who else? Hernda, Shernda, Skurnda. You watch the Muppet Show to live for human hands. Yeah.

That guy was talented. I knew that when I watched. That guy was talented. He could cook, and he had a presence. That made you want to be in show business. That's the thing. God, that's your answer. We were trying to help you. Sesame Street. Yeah. All right. Good luck. They're turning the lights off. Okay. Okay. You guys, thank you. Thank you so much for hanging with us. Thank you. The great Will Ferrell. Thank you very much.

This has been a podcast presentation of Cadence 13. Please listen, then rate, review, and follow all episodes. Available now for free wherever you get your podcasts. No joke, folks. Fly on the Wall has been a presentation of Cadence 13, executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Chris Corcoran of Cadence 13, and Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman with production and engineering support from Serena Regan and Chris Basil of Cadence 13.