Ana Gasteyer
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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. Oh, 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. Dana. Three, two, one. Adagasta.

Anna. Before. Anna Gasteyer. It's Anna Dana. Anna Gasteyer, David. You said Anna. That's not correct. You say. It's Anna. Hi, I'm Scotty Scold. I say banana. You said it wrong. Wrong.

It was Special K with Banana. Issue number two. Who's one of the best female cast members or male cast members in the history of Saturday Night Live? Anna Gasteyer. More toon teeny tiny toons on TV. Teeny weeny weeny tiny teeny. We've been here seven hours. We're very punchy. That was from the McLaughlin group. McLaughlin group. Dana doing the McLaughlin group. Wrong.

Wrong. That was kind of the catchphrase on Saturday Night Live. Anyway. Oh, let me tell you a story, Dan, about before we get to Ana. Who was wonderful, of course, and very talented and great to talk to. Yeah.

Oh, I talked to my mom yesterday, right? So my mom, who doesn't complain, my mom is tough. Love your mom. And she says, she loves Dana. And she goes, we're fans. Oh, are you doing it with Dana? Oh, he's so fun. Oh, everything. Oh, you weren't on Kimmel. No, why don't I know this? Was it on Facebook? Yeah.

I go, I think it was in TV Guide, if that's a thing. TV Guide? Yeah. She goes, is it in TV Guide? I didn't see. And I go, oh, can you find it? And I go, whenever I send her a link, she posts it to me. And I go, mom, they send me a link, but it's like a secret. You can't post it. No, I have to. So she'll post any picture, you know. So she posts a picture at a dinner, you know, like you take it. Waiter, can you, do you know how to take a picture? He's like, yeah, but I have 18 plates. Just real quick.

And so takes it. It's the worst picture of all of us. And then bing, it's on Facebook in five seconds. I go, mom, you have to run it by us. No, no, I don't.

So, I'm your mom. So, she goes, oh, I'm still sore because we went away to Newport for 4th of July. And she goes, oh, my foot. And I go, what? And she goes, I think I broke my toes. I go, you did today? And she goes, no, two weeks ago. It's so painful. I can't put up. Mom, what are you doing? Go to the doctor. She goes, I'm going, but I don't want to be complaining. So, she goes there and she goes, ooh, he put a boot on me. It's nice. It's summer. I don't mind because it's open.

And I said, oh, what happened? Oh, they were both smashed and most of my foot is broken. I go, mom, in two weeks, you're lugging that thing around? And then I go, mom, this ruins it because to help you with bills, I was going to put you on only feets. She goes, what's that? I go, it's sexy picture of feet. I was going to take a picture of yours to make money. She goes, oh, this is not the time. They look so bad. I go, first she doesn't even know I'm joking. I go, oh, but we need them. She goes, oh, give me...

Three weeks, five weeks. And by the way, they're not that great. I go, mom, I know I've seen them. I don't even know if they're feet. So wait a minute. She's 85. She really thought you were going to take pictures of her feet and monetize them online on a platform called Only Feets. But she was worried because her toes were broken. Give me a few weeks. And her 85-year-old feet wouldn't be in pristine condition to get guys to buy them.

God, that's like a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode. All she heard was me saying like, I needed you to help with bills or something. And she's like, oh, I'm sorry. I'll get them. They'll be back. Oh, in two seconds, I'll just get them going again. And I go, mom, it's fine. We're not at only feats yet. She goes, oh, okay. But I can pitch in too. I can do stuff. I go, mom, you're not pitching in. Ana Gosteyer. Ana Gosteyer. You had to struggle through those stories to get to Ana, but you did it and you're a champ, people.

So here's Anna, and I hope you like her. We had a great time with her. She is so, so funny. She can be big. She can be small. I mean, she did the PBS one with Molly Shannon. Short and bald. Yeah, and that whispery, quiet voice of hers. That's a big all-time. She's just so funny and nice. Enjoy. And a little trivia. We've both done Martha Stewart. What? Stay tuned.

Oh yeah, clear frame. Let's check it out. That's a little rocking chair to the left. Wow. Where do you think that is? Guitar. Covington or Valencia or Beverly Hills? Covington? I just made a name up. That's a good name.

That's where I shot Joder 2. Look at that guitar. Is this Guitar Center? All our references are show business reference. I don't know anything real. I wouldn't go to any city for any other reason. That was, yeah, Master Disguise. You know the story. I probably should tell it later. Wait for Anna. But that's almost too dark. We might have to cut it. Me in the turtle outfit doing a prayer. Don't say one thing until she gets here. She just left.

Oh, did that work? You look fantastic. Okay. Like everything's about to die. My computer, my AirPods. I see a guitar and a piano. Would there, you know, it's an art. It's an artistic Bohemian environment. Oh,

Are they ever touched? Yeah. I know you sing your ass off, but you play too? The piano is more for my kids and for rehearsal for me because I hate renting. I live in New York, so you have to rent a place to go and meet somebody, but I actually have a piano, so I make people come here, which is helpful. That's great. And then the guitar. Who plays the guitar? The guitar is just for drunkards.

You know, gotta have that around for drunkards. And we have a pickup. We also have a uke. And we also have a violin because I really do that.

Really? I don't know if you know this. Yeah, I did it like seriously as a kid. And then that was like my pandemic obsession is I basically I basically because so when I turned 50, I turned to my family very sincerely and said, hey, you know, I would love to celebrate somehow. And my husband said, anything you want, where would you like to go? Like, let's do something cool. You want to do a cooking class? Like, what is it? And I said, OK, I'm not joking. I want to go to country western fiddle camp with everybody. And I want you all to take clogging and I want to learn how to fiddle.

And they all looked at me and immediately said, no, we're not doing that. So I was shut down. I know, it was my birthday. So over the pandemic, I just was like, fuck it. This is my fiddle time. So I started fiddling. I started taking all these, because you could go to all these camps online. Let me ask you a question. How many years had it been since you'd really been into the fiddle when you started back? Did you just, do you play every day? I go through like weird bingey phases. Like I won't play for seven years and then like,

I'll end up having a phase where I play every day for three months. And do you make up stuff when you're doing it or very, or do you do stuff you already know?

So that's what I was trying to challenge myself to this time was because when you learn classical music, it's super anal and square and like you can't. Yeah, exactly. Is that a tiny violin? Are you playing a tiny violin for me? I just did a little teeny mime of violin. I don't even know what a fiddle is. I'm just playing along. Dana, you have to mime it bigger. They really can't see what you're doing. It has to be grander.

It has to have some vibrato. Yeah, there you go. So who would be... Is Yo-Yo Ma someone who improvises? None of those guys improvise. They're just all tech. No, I mean, the problem... It's really like... It's two different things, actually. Like, it's literally...

It's like people down in Nashville, you know, cause you play, you play, right? What do you play? I have a, uh, an electric piano and a guitar and I do a little, uh, V drums, you know, drums, but they just, uh, speak to me pretty much daily. All I'm very undisciplined about learning songs, uh,

But I learned if I fell by the Beatles and that opened up a lot of chords for me. So then I just make up chord progressions to treat my anxiety disorder. That's a good, it suits. Yeah. Well, that's the only reason, that's why I say when I go on these binges with it, it's like, it is, it's just an act of meditation. I'm not to be all artsy about it, but. No, you can be, we want to go downtown on this podcast. Let's go downtown, man. Here's what I want to know out of absolute curiosity.

And we've done it with other guests. Your formative years, which I'm labeling age four to age 12 or 13, when things impact you more, like, okay, how old were you? What are some of the movies that affected you in the 70s? You're growing up. What did you, or Broadway shows? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wait, do you guys hear weird feedback? A little humming? Yeah.

Yeah, humming. A light humming. I hear light humming. I don't. A light Tibetan humming. I feel like it's Dana's then. Okay, I'm going to let it go. I'm not going to worry about it because I just want to make sure I haven't broken something. It sounds good here. Look at that hair. I have a lot of hair.

hair's i know my wife has a lot of hair too it's crazy is this a pantene commercial or what's going on well i i thought i thought through this podcast i could maybe get a hair commercial you might um we've already we've already called prel we've already called i feel like it'll have to be a slightly senior oriented one um uh okay movies uh yeah formative year movies so um

I mean, again, we're all of an era that went to movies and movie theaters. We didn't have VCRs and so forth. We were analog. We were analog. And I grew up in DC. We didn't even have cable until like late 2000s.

in almost in like our early nineties. So we didn't even have it. So you didn't even see Carol Burnett. Do you have those traditional influences? Yeah. So for sure. I mean, yeah. So, uh, definitely I would say for me personally, Bob Newhart, like was an early, just somebody I kind of wanted to, I don't know like that. I think the timing was probably the thing I was most kind of. Yeah. Attracted to, if that makes any sense. Yeah. Um, Mel Brooks for sure. By the way, back to Newhart. I,

I like Newhart, didn't really know that it would be, now that you just said that, he was dry. And of course, as a kid, I liked goofy comedy. Why I liked him, I don't know. I was thinking it was so throwaway. And it was so over our heads. It was like in a therapist's office. Like none of it really like, I didn't know what it was about. I didn't get it either.

You're right. Like the, the, like it was just pure dry. Yeah. Very measured delivery. His timing is absolutely perfection. Yeah. It's perfection. Yeah. So I think if I had to pick one oddly, like even above and beyond Carol Burnett and all those guys, that would have been the one that I was like, Oh, I want to be like him when I grow up. And then Letterman of course too. But he said, he said Mel Brooks, which is interesting. Movie wise. And, and I think like in terms of my sense of humor now of like,

I think I grew up, so to frame it... We want to get a background. You're in Washington, D.C. Yeah, it was a pretty, like, by...

It was not a very like pop culture-y household. It was like classical music. And my mom thinks a lot of stuff is tacky. So like I wasn't allowed to belt. I had to sing legit. Like I had to take ballet. I couldn't take jazz. Like it was like everything was very like. You couldn't Aguilera and cheat? Wow. No, no. She hates an Aguilera. She thinks it's super tacky. They're cheaters. To this day. She's like, she's got to blow her voice out. I'm like, well, so far she's doing pretty well.

But yeah, so there was a little more sort of like aspirant class stuff in my family, a little bit. But also my dad's super funny and my mom's an amazing audience. So as much as they were like that, if I did bits, they laugh at them. But I certainly didn't think I was going to be a comedian. I went to college to be a voice major. I was an opera major. That's like how I went to... I didn't want to be an opera singer, but I didn't think... That was like my sideways move. You know what's interesting? Yeah.

My dad was funny, so I was trying to, and my mom was kind of funny. So I'm trying to impress, I guess. I just, it's, I'm probably a research paper of their humor, sense of humor. Yeah. My dad liked Mel Brooks, so I did. But with you, you've got music and you've got funny, two things you like, and they're sort of merging the rest of your life in a weird way. Oh, totally. Totally.

I mean, by a complete accident and people get really confused by it, but you're right. Then you reach the certain generation in your own life and you're like, oh yeah, this is all making sense. Because for a long time, it felt like road less traveled. Oh, I'm such a weirdo. Why do I let you know? And now eventually it's just what I am. You know what I mean? Right. Has there...

I mean, so you're taking lessons. I mean, what lessons did you take? Just tech? You took ballet. I was a relentless, I mean, it was so much violin. It was just, and so much, and so much. Like, I think that's why I find earnest people so funny. Like, like the delicious dish ladies that we did, like a lot of the characters that I'm obsessed with are the Bobby and Marty on SNL. They were, they were all informed by just people who would,

absolutely no sense of humor. Yeah. I love it. You know, classical music people are amazing, but they're there. It's just a real earnest, real earnest game. It's making a comeback. I think a little bit earnest. Unfortunately. Yeah. I think we're, we're stuck in it for a minute, but that's how I went to like, this is the worst of the earnestness. This is actually what, this was the, the, the catalytic event and why I finally quit violin. Um,

I, we, you know, it was like a more broke summer. So the summer before my parents were a little flush and they sent me to interlock and which is like the big, like classical music summer camp. And it was incredible. And I was like surrounded by other like violinists and whatever. And then the next summer they're like, we can't go there. It's too expensive, but you can go. And we've signed you up for chamber music camp at Gettysburg college. There's a movie. Yeah.

And I was like, crime puberty. Like literally on your day offs, you would go to Civil War battlefields. Like it was the biggest hot and like a humid, like a swampy, humid pavilion with viola players, you know, like just like the worst. And that was it. I was like, I'm out. I'm not doing violin anymore. But then I could, I could, I could.

kind of parlayed voice because I would be like the lead in the musicals and stuff. Cause you sing, you sing. It's just like what you're kind of born with to a degree. And so I was like, this is my, this might be my meal ticket. So that was your fun camp for the summer. My fun camp was at Gettysburg college chamber music ensemble. At 13. Good God. I love it. You'd rather do anything else. Anything. Toyota's national sales event is happening now, meaning it's a great time for a great deal on a dependable Toyota truck.

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Visit buyatoyota.com, the official website for deals. All new Toyotas come with ToyotaCare, a no-cost maintenance plan. See your dealer or visit buyatoyota.com for details. Let's go places. When you were growing up and going through that era, were you thinking, I'm going to be a singer? Or at some point, I want to be a comedian? And when did they meld? I mean, they just organically meld? SNL, that pays off.

At Gettysburg camp, like I was super famous for lip syncing Funky Town. Like that was my thing. Oh, really? That I was known and everybody else was like, you know, like just jamming on the Brandenburg. Yeah, exactly. And I remember this girl said to my mom, she's such a funny, she was like, she's so talented. And my mom was like, oh, did you play the Brandenburg with her? She was like, no, no, no. Have you seen her lip sync Funky Town? Not even sing.

Crushed, yeah. No, not even saying it, not even saying it, just a masterful dubbing. No, it's very clearly the roads met at Northwestern because I went to be a voice major. I hated it.

I could tell a million stories of like, again, just profound earnestness. The moment in time was in an ethnomusicology class, a lecture at eight o'clock in the morning. And Dana, I feel like this is a character that you would do. It was a man who's

like PhD level renown in the world was that he could sing overtones and he had like studied with the Tibetans. So he could sing like, and something else would like float above it. And he had no like discursive style. He had not gone to Toastmasters. He was not good at it.

He wasn't good in front of groups. And he would, but Annie had to get moved in order for the overtone to happen. So it would just happen like, you know, sometimes. Really? Dana can play Lorne as a monk. Yeah, exactly. Are you still at the show? Marcy! Marcy! Um...

Liz, so that was the moment and I actually I became unglued and I was asked to leave the lecture because I was making too much noise laughing. And at that moment, I was like, I can't be a voice major. And I met all the improv people. I met all the improv people and did improv like and and

like ended up transferring to the theater school and like found the tribe. And I did not do any voice at all. I like smoked cigarettes and partied and did improv. And you had voice locked in. So you're, you're like, I'm already good. I know. So I think singers are tricky. Singers are born. Right. Don't you think? I mean, singers, I mean, they have to train. Like if you want to do Broadway, you have to train. And that, that I did after SNL, I was pretty late to that. Cause I,

Because then I like went to SNL and as you guys know, it's such a like perma shit show that I was, I was kind of like... Perma shit show. We'll dig into that later. But it's, no, I mean, what, this is like my reductive way of saying this, but like, I feel like at SNL, you're always...

just pulling it off yeah if you're lucky and there was this part of me that's like music you know whatever wherever it came from the like sort of a student part of me that was like i want to do something well like i want to refine it nail it better yeah yeah so that's why i think i went to do theater almost immediately yeah um because we were here in new york and and broadway is like

to a fault. Wait, are you saying after SNL you wanted to do that? After SNL. Because SNL, also SNL, one problem Dana and I mentioned is

it's one take and sometimes it would be so much better if you could just start again real quick. You get off on the wrong foot and you're like, God damn. And then you're like in it and you go, I'm going and it's not working. And I think that's why it's like such a comfort to do recurring characters because you're like, you start to understand their moves and you need the nuances and you know, all of that. Oh yeah. I know that the writers don't think recurring characters are cool, but like that's where you get better at them all the time. That keeps the lights on at NBC. Yeah.

Those recurring characters are the money. I like to watch recurring characters, so I don't mind doing them as well. I like catchphrases. I like things I'm familiar with. I totally agree. What was the journey? We know you went to Broadway after SNL, and you were at Northwestern. You started meeting your tribe, and then you get to Groundlings somehow, right? Yeah, a bossy gay from college told me to move to L.A.,

I love these phrases. Yeah. You need, you know, everyone needs one. And, uh, and especially cause like, I, I just hadn't, it had never occurred to me that would be on TV. Like that wasn't like my dream really. I mean, it wasn't that it wasn't, but I, I liked, I loved comedy and I knew I was good at comedy from college. Like me didn't even consider that was a possibility. I,

I didn't. So I knew it was like saying you were going to be president of the United States in my family. Exactly. Or the first man on the moon. It was so surreal that the people on TV, Flip Wilson or whoever you want to name, was like, no, I, you know, I'm going to be doing that. You couldn't have been Flip Wilson, it turns out. Oh, I couldn't have. Geraldine, though. The first sort of drag thing. But I never wanted to be in drag, but I was, I guess, sort of. Yeah. But anyway. Why not?

Why not? Just be loose, just be happy. So then you go to LA or what's that step to the ground? Yeah, so I went to LA. I did a tour show. I did that, do you remember they did the

live performances of the Brady Bunch. Yes. Oh, wow. The real-life Brady Bunch? Yes. Mm-hmm. So I got cast in that national tour, like right out of college. It was amazing. Davey Jones was on the bus with us. Really? Oh. Yeah, from the Monkees. Oh, yeah. And we drove, we like went to every college, we were like rock stars. We would just go in and do the,

we would do actual episodes verbatim of the braid bunch and oddly i loved the braided bunch when i was a kid which i think has less to do with the fact that i thought it was funny i just found it super comforting because my house was kind of crazy and artsy too and very disorganized like i didn't know any

anybody who had like matching shit i love you know like that oh that was that was did you do the songs like a time for change or keep on or any of those they did some of those and they wrote some over i can't even remember anymore yes there was a sunshiny day hey but dana what was the name of the dog from the brady bunch alice buster go ahead did you say alice

Wow. Nerd alert. That's an old joke. Nobody knows Brady Bunch anymore. I did this event last year. It was kind of a sad event. And Brady was there doing trivia, which tells you everything. And nobody knew anything. They were literally like, what was the name of the maid? I'm like, that's not trivia. That's just like a basic fact. Can you hum...

Can you hum or sing the theme song? Because I remember that being a pretty good theme song. No, not only that, I used to tape record it like with an old school, like whatever. I had one. I had a Craig tape recorder reel to reel.

And I would tape it. Exactly. And I would listen to it in bed at night. At what age? How old are you? Maybe seven or eight. Seven or eight. I remember, I love the variations on the theme. So like, dun, dun, dun, and bah!

And then the violins would come in. Yeah, yeah. She had like a mullet too, the mom. I had a crush on her. Carol, sure. Carol was so cute. That's your next show after Sugar and Booze, I think. Just humming all those TV themes throughout history. Oh, yeah.

Suicide is painless. Suicide is painless. Suicide is painless when I hear the real song. It's so sad. You're gonna make it after. Let me tell you. I could do this all day. I want to tell you, the guy that sings that, Dana, the guy that sings that has a lisp kind of, and he goes...

that sexy look will do wonders for you. You know that guy? And they took that part out of the theme song because he said sexy. And they were right to do that. Yeah, it's true. MASH. What about MASH? You know, I actually, I'm sure you would agree with this theory. I actually think that half-hour television has been super hit by not having the theme song. Theme song was, I love them all. They don't have theme songs. Is that right? Well, except for

on hbo and all those shows are hits and and netflix but i'm convinced because it's like this little porthole like it takes you into the oh yeah you know alice was a good one there's a lot of great one cheers had a great one you're gone none of them have any more they're just like they are genius at making them catchy it's unbelievable it's incredible and it reorients you to the vibe of the show like queen's gambit when we were i watched it every time even though i knew it was coming and you skip it

Queen's Gambit. Real quickly, when you played the violin for Anwar Sadat, do you still keep in touch? Unfortunately, no. He has passed. Oh, okay. I think he was famously assassinated. Who have I been DMing this whole time? Anyway, go ahead. Where? I have to put jokes in. I

I know you do. You're right. And you're good at, you're a master. Dana just texted me and said, shut up. This is called, it's called, not just every eight or nine seconds, a little app. I go, it just says, shut up, David. Shut up. How,

How many of these have you guys done? This is our first. Yeah, we're such rookies. We don't even know what's going on. What we're finding is, like, I'm finding this, is that there's so many people that you run into. And I remember you. You're one of the first names I said, can we get Anagastar? And they're like, okay. Just because I remember when I was hosting or around just how real you were and fun. And you just were very, just, I don't know, just had this vibe about you. He had told me this.

You know, I mean, yes. I mean, it's just comedians. I like comedians a lot. I do too. I like their cynicism. I like the way they read the room. Of all of us that have been on the show, like, like I'll feel like there's some head nod that, you know, even if I don't know the people, but if they've been on the show, you automatically have something to either say or talk about it. And we talk in shorthand. I think it's fun for people to hear it.

because I have a question for you that I might know the answer, but I don't really like when I, I hosted and I think you were there, but we, you know, you did Martha Stewart and then I did Martha Stewart. I forgot. What is the protocol? If a host, I don't know if I wanted to do it, but if a host wants to do something, but a cast member does it, an impersonation. Well, I think that's like a well-known impersonation. They'll give it back. Right. Like it's, I don't know, Dana, did you do Bush at the same time as Will?

Uh, no, no. Cause he, he did W which I do in my standup, but whoever does it on SNL, uh, owns it. It's kind of does the president. That's kind of the bully pulpit of doing that impression.

Yeah, but Spade is saying that he did not get to own Martha Stewart. And I think his feelings were a little bit hurt. No, no, no. I only did it as a host. It was a one-time deal. But then I felt bad. I was like, I don't want to do something someone does. Oh, well, I don't have any memory of a sore spot around it. So that right there. It wasn't bad. By the way, my impression is basically you look like Martha Stewart.

That's the writers telling me. And I'm like, really? Yeah, blonde hair. And then I wear a wig anyway. So who cares? Anybody can look like it. Didn't even. Right. And I think I have a mustache. I'm like, well, it must have been before I was there because we did a lot of them. Like it was like a pretty like. Yeah. In fact, that's like my first. Not that you're asking, but since it's not really anything. But it was my first thing that I thought like I had. I had been on the air and other sketches, but that was the first one. I was like, oh, I'm not going to get fired.

because I felt like, oh shit, people were, we did Martha Stewart's topless Christmas and it was like a, like a breakthrough. Like I felt like it was maybe my like fourth show or something, fifth show. But you were doing it, you were doing like an actual thought out thing. And I'm like, this one's Martha Stewart. You have a wig on. I'm like, Hey everybody, I'm Martha Stewart. She was one of the things I auditioned with. Like somebody told me, Will called me, you know,

He was like, heads up. That's not a very organized audition process. Right. And all the growlings, you know, like we don't do impressions of the growlings. That's not like what they're about. But I had always, I obviously like you write what you know, like I actually read her magazines and I kind of, I grew up in this pretty, like in my high school and stuff, lots of like very patrician women. And I can kind of like, I knew what that was all about. And so I was like, oh, I can write something really brief about,

As that, because we'll call it. He was like, Hey, they're going to call you at the last minute, which they did like the day before. And they're like, Hey, do you have any impressions? And which obviously if you're not an impressionist is like a pants shitter of a question. Sure. So I did in the back of my mind, I was just like, I'm going to prep too. And then if I, if I need them, I'll have them. Were you with will at the ground? Who was on the groundings that, that. So will was a, was technically a grounding. And so was Sherry O'Terry.

But they were ahead of me. And I had done like a couple of improv sets with Will, that was it. And then I found out later that like, of course, in that way, when they, he had recommended me. He was just like, they were looking, 'cause I came in, so there was that huge turnover in '95.

And then they made like two Twizzles in 96 and they were me and Tracy Morgan. So it wasn't like a big everybody audition. It was like they were just looking for a black guy and a white woman. I think that's when I left. You left right before. I left.

I left, I did one season with Will and Sherry. Right, 'cause you did the season, right, you did the update desk. Yeah, I did like a little separate bit and then I was out. 'Cause I felt like that year was separating me from sort of my guys and so-- Yeah, your people were definitely in the crowd before, for sure. And so I was like, what am I still doing? I was sort of in between and then I just didn't know what to do and Lauren goes, "Do you wanna do five minutes a week? "Just do whatever you want." I'm like, "Yeah." Meanwhile, I have no ideas.

I go, yeah, for sure. And then I just would write stuff. But I felt separate from the crowd. I felt like Signorelli or Schiller. Like I'm not part of, you know, I'm just doing a bit that isn't really interactive with everyone else. I wasn't in sketches, I don't think. Right. So it was time to go. It does kind of push people out in a way. But now they're staying a lot longer, which is interesting. It's not a big deal to do 10, 12 years. He lets them do stuff. He lets them go do other stuff. Come and go. When the old days, you couldn't.

really do that. Right, you had to pick. I know, but we're not bitter. I mean, I'm not bitter. I don't mean it that way, but it is a different... No, no, I'm kidding, but I do notice that, that people can come and go. Then you might stay with the show for much longer if it wasn't at hand or... The other thing is, and this is like, now I'm going to just be like an old bitchy... We love it. ...

showbiz bra like I was thinking about it before I was talking to you guys and I was you know because I feel the same way like such a tight fraternity and it really is if you put it really well David of like I remember I'd never met Sandler before we were at some Broadway thing and we I think we were both gone by then and he was on down the row and he just literally did the nod that you were talking about where he was like mm-hmm yeah

got it. We were like, got it. You know, it was just like, yeah, we would, we could talk after. And Kate McKinnon and I had never met. And she was in front of me at a Broadway thing and just turned around. She was like, do you ever not know what to write? Like, it was just like an immediate, like we were the oldest friends, you know, like it was, it's wild how it like brings it up. Generationally, the fact that they don't, they don't ever have to go and that there are 150 of them. And I think also like in terms of social media and the kind of

construct of everybody being a brand now, like our generation, I think, and this is such a fucking, like we may as well be at the Screen Actors Guild home right now. But, you know, in my day, I feel like

I do feel like there was more sort of worship of the show, like the idea of like, we're here to serve the show and Lord. And now I feel like there's so many of them are like, what can the show do for me? Like how fast will my brand expand and how many things, you know, cause it's got this different, that's where they all stay around forever. Cause they, it's just kind of like show business shifted because when, when Nike wanted to do Hans and Franz, uh,

for their Just Do It campaign for a lot of money. Different time. Lauren called me. It's not what we do, you know? Because we're still tethered romantically to John Lennon or Bob Dylan or you never sell out. So when I came off the show, when I had all that heat from Wayne's World and everything-

You know, I didn't really do any commercials, but now cast members, it's transitioned. They can do all these different. Literally all of them. Yeah. Which brings us back to Prell. Could we maybe get Prell back on the phone? Can you have your producers have them get back? I could see you kind of strutting around. Your hair's all fluffed. You're singing some Broadway tune. You come off stage, right? You just, there's a curtain call. And then you go right to camera. I want to be popular. I sip the water and go, hi. Yeah, that's exactly right.

Thanks Charlie. - Hi, I haven't washed my hair in eight days, but because I washed it with Prowl, it still looks pretty fab. - I think it works. And then I try to pull in one catchphrase just to make it relevant. - Not because I'm worth it, but something in that world. - It's something from SNL. - Because I'm me. - So I go like, it's a good thing. Or say something like Martha Stewart or something.

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You know, when I was doing the show, we had the problem of doing a movie at the same time. But I think when Will Ferrell hosted a couple, about two years ago, I saw Pete Davidson went to a wedding in Miami. And I was like, I couldn't do Tommy Boy. I couldn't leave to do anything. Pete does his own thing. He's great. I mean, he's just dancing above the whole thing. There's different ways they handle different situations on the show. And I think it's just flipped one day where...

We can work around it. And it was never even, you couldn't even bring it up before. Steve Higgins, you know, he has a funny, he's really fun to talk to about the show. But Steve Higgins told me, he's like, Lorne wrote the Constitution for what is SNL. And then he lets generations do what they will with it. You know. Amendments.

I don't know. That's such a good way of putting it. It's true. I would like to, just for a second, when we always talk about, you know, the esprit de corps and we're like ex-Marines, not literally, but you know what I mean, is just the dirty greasiness of it. Like you're sweating, the wigs coming off, the pins, you're under clothes, you're being moved. You're under pinnings. I would sometimes say take a wig off.

And they'd put one on and I said, I need to see myself. Oh, I'm Jimmy Stewart now, you know? So the freneticism of it at times and the quick changes and almost falling, there is a battlefield aspect to it. It's a rock and roll kind of emotionally violent thing.

you know, Dixo five seconds. Yeah. And also there's so much noise because the band is usually playing so loud and you forget that they're going, I can't, this one is when you, and the writers looking at the notes and you're like, uh-huh. Okay. Heads up. We're short for time. Puts on the air. Yeah. I remember I was doing, I was doing Dr. Laura and we got to like the, that was the closest I ever got to,

to just like purely just like a 10 second sketch that was like cut to the, you know, broadcast stripes. Yeah. I mean, literally because they were on the floor. I remember Paula was like on the floor during this, you know, I think it was Jen or Van Rye. Somebody's like going spinning their hand in front of the camera, like ramp it up. And you're like, we just started.

You know, and they're like, you're like staring at the cards and Paul is like shouting and they're taping off. Like Wally's like rewriting. So it's just like on the cards. Oh my God. So like during the sketch, which folded from like two and a half minutes to like around 15 seconds, you know, like you're just like, welcome to the show.

- I was just driving it up. Like it was just like the fastest. - Yeah. I love that shit. - That was so adrenal. - I was doing church chat once. I had the cards and I'm running them during the commercial. And then they sat down in a chair, a seven foot man,

So while the show starts and then I can't see half of each card, the seven foot man's head. And so you're in your head going, what the fuck is a seven foot man's head in front of the cue card? And yet you have to let all that go. And who is coming in late? Do you guys still have dreams all the time? Like panic. Well, like panic. Like I feel like for everyone on SNL, like,

I actually just asked Will recently, because I hadn't talked to him in a long time, and I was like, I fucking had an SNL dream last night. I was like, I have them all the time. They kind of replace the late for the test or whatever. Yes, that's it. That you're all ready, and you're supposed to be out there, and you're not there. Yeah. I have the ones. I thought of it when you said the cue cards. I have one where I can't see the cards. My eyes are blurry, and I can't clear my eyes. Or you're trying to make it to 8-H, and you can't get through all the fucking agents. Ah.

Oh, yeah. All those guys kind of hanging around. I never will understand. How many layers of chaos can we add? Oh, I know. We won't actually have a green room where all the douchebaggery of Hollywood hangs out. We'll let them just mill around in the hallways. Find a desk at 8-H. And never clear a path. You were constantly like...

It's just the panic of getting through those doors. I'm doing something here. And then being in Lauren's tiny office. And I saw Will. And you're dressed as Raggedy Ann or something super embarrassing. You've got a bald cap on for two hours and your head is just raw and sweating. And you're in that little room. And Lauren, you look at the show. The sketches are on little cards and they're moving around. You're going, well, hopefully it'll be okay. We'll see. Or.

Or you're in a quick change area and your agent has an Amstel light and sticks his head in. What's going on here? And you're like, they're like 10 seconds. I'm like, get out of here. Hey, how's it going? Get the fuck out of my room. What's the after party again? Is it an or so? Yeah, literally. Like, can we come all of those? Like, we want to come down and support you. I remember one time yelling, like, if you want to support me, turn on your TV and stay home. Stay home. Are they still your representation? Amazingly, they are.

that's good you know it was just a lot to like when i think about because especially in the theater where you have like i mean whatever like any piece of they treat you like such a child in any other aspect of entertainment like show business you're like your call time and you confirm your call time and make a thing and somebody's moving you along and like feeding you and we were such like feral children like you know we

women, like we have so much hair and makeup and we would just, I actually couldn't believe it when the last time I went back, I was like, you have to like do all this math yourself. You have to go like, oh, right. We have to be ready for dress at eight Oh five. I better get in the chair by six 30. Like you're always like doing your own stage management. Did you have a,

I think, Dana, you lived at the Bromley. I was on 84th and West End. And I knew nothing about New York. But I did know that I thought it was odd later in show business that they didn't get me to the show. So if Saturday's show is at 1 or whatever, we have to be there.

I'm at home going, I can't get a cab. It's snowing. And I'm just walking going, does anyone give a fuck? I won't be at rehearsal. Now they would never let you. They'd be, I don't know about the show, but any movie or anything I do that we got a guy, they can keep track. Where is he? Make sure he's early. You're at Ellen. They're calling 50 times. It's a lot of executive functioning, if you will, for a lot of people without those skills. Right. It was weird. I'm like, I'm like, how does, how did Norm Macdonald ever get to the show?

I know. I think your generation had more food, but by the time we got there, speaking of Norm MacDonald, he kicked in. There was like, all we had was a one soda machine and he kicked it in the first week. Like he got mad at it and they removed it. And then literally it was just like no food. Like we would steal Tootsie Rolls from Lauren's office and popcorn from Lauren's office. The popcorn from Lauren's office. Where are my lifesavers? Yeah, exactly. It was Tootsie Rolls. Remember he liked Tootsie Rolls. And then like,

Right. And then, and booze. There was like booze around. Kind of. But like, I mean, kind of. And definitely you would steal Chinese food from his office on Saturdays. Right. You guys ever do that? Oh, yeah. Yeah. You would go in there and just. Outside of his office? Yeah. The shun li would be out there. Oh, yeah. Like forage. Yeah. He would forage his shun li. And then like, and then for a while, the Rosie O'Donnell.

uh, show was down the hall in eight H. So like the AG. And so they had food in there, like our dressing rooms. They knew what was up. There was a lot of like dumpster diving for television. The point of it is, is that you're a cast member on SNL. It is just not glamorous. Uh,

Afterwards, if you're at the Emmys or something, it's glamorous, but not the actual show. It sounds so spoiled because here you are on television, but it really is. Like if I think about how, I think there was a lot of stress around all of that, like trying to figure out where the hell, like you said, like one time, this is, this is crazy. I remember trying to get home on a Friday night. I think it was,

eventually they started calling cars for us on friday night i don't know why a lot of trouble getting cars the whole time i was there because yeah maybe but so i was a friday night it was super late and i had like it was the holidays so i had like a lot of stuff with me that i was like trying to get home and i could there were no caps because the holidays you know the minute that tree goes up around 30 rock you're screwed for the next six weeks and i was down past

the New York Public Library. So I was like 40th or 39th at this point. And I'd been walking a super long time and hailing a cab, like just walking down Fifth Avenue. I lived downtown. And so just arm up. And it was such a like out of a movie because it was my first season. And this is also a tribal moment. This cab pulls up, the door swings open and he sticks his head out. He goes, Anna, Ackroyd, get in.

- It was Ackroyd. - It was Ackroyd. And I was like, how does Dan Ackroyd know who I am? How does he seem, like it was like, you just saw this like pathetic pauper child trying to get a cab on a Friday night in the snow. I know, and again, it was just like,

The tribe. The tribe. That's so nice. Dan Aykroyd is a very generous person that way. At least he has been to me. He took me home and I remember thinking, like, do I pay? Like, what do I do? Do I pay? I know. I just thought Aykroyd and Belushi and those guys and Chevy and Bill Murray were just sort of badass pirates that would fight you or make you laugh or punch you or get... I mean...

And then when I'm cast, the only one I saw in my tribe kind of physically at the time was Martin Shore. I said, okay, maybe a wiry Irish guy can be in here. But when you get cast on that show, I don't know how you feel worthy. It was my first time doing sketch comedy. I just hoped it would work out. Never had done it before. Wow.

But I adapted my stand-up to sketch. Yeah. By the way, okay, go ahead. When we go around to this, I'm just very interested because I watched the NPR gals today and I thought no sketch that quiet and that paced has ever killed that hard.

I was about to ask about that. Because, you know, a lot of the stuff is kind of yelling and rock and roll and singing, but that was intentionally so quiet. And you and Molly never pushed, never completely in the pocket of it. And it just was, seduced the audience so much. So it's a unique sketch in that

It was at home base, right? Which helps. Good observation. Did it start at home base or did it move there out of popularity? It did start there. I, I don't think they didn't, I don't think they thought it was going to work. Um,

Exactly. I mean, for a number of reasons, whatever. We can talk gender politics or whatever, but it was a new time. Yeah, yeah. Two girls in a sketch. What are we doing here? I mean, it was just like too quiet. Yeah, exactly. But I had done it at the ground. And quiet. And I think they were, it was buried pretty deep in the lineup. Oh, okay. But I had done it before and it was weirdly relaxing because it was so quiet because it

You know, it's like Will used to always, Will really loves bombing. Like he could, he could like really like lean into the bomb, like sort of like, like a pig in a mud bath. And like that sketch has a similar quality, not that it was bombing, but that, that you would just like get to kind of surf the silence. If that makes sense. They sort of audience feels like they have to earn it. Like I have to really pay attention here and get this one. It's not being fucking thrown at me.

They have to be like, okay, this is the one where we got to find the jokes and really like stew in it. It's nice. Those are nice that they even do them.

I know. I, I thought, I think they thought it was going to bomb. And then, and really, you know, Carlock and, and Dennis wrote it with me too. I mean, Nicholas. So they're brilliant writers, obviously. I was going to say, did they, do you have help writing? Yeah. But it was always fighting like what the character would say versus what they want. You know, they were all, and they're, they're like Harvard. So they were like, and then four more robots come in and the moon landing will happen, you know, whatever. But they were brilliant. I mean, so they're structurally so brilliant that they could like,

It was the perfect, actually, I think for me, tension between a character and a premise and what kind of can move that idea forward a little bit. And I do think if you and I didn't get there just confidence wise until I happened to then do Carson, which I've talked about. But that was something that was relatively quiet compared to Wayne's World or something.

But I just knew it was so funny in my head that it was the only sketch I did where the audience didn't really matter that much to me. So it felt like you and Molly were so in the pocket and so connecting with the dry slowness and playing the pauses that there was no sense of neediness or sense of. Oh, that's awesome. I mean, that's what I'm feeling. It felt that way. I mean, it definitely felt like it was out of space and time.

And like I said, I had done it at the Groundlings. So I knew it was capable of crushing. Yeah. Because it really was a hit sketch there. But I had, you know, not a lot, but I'd done it a couple of times in the Sunday show. But I knew kind of what to anticipate. When you... I don't know. I don't know. We're not going to keep you forever, but I have another question. If you... This is interesting to me. So you have...

that NPR sketch in your pocket when you get there, but how fast do you whip it out? Or did you come out of the gate? You were doing okay. Cause sometimes you get scared and you go, I got to get on or they're going to fire me or you know what I mean? I was pretty productive. Cause you were a full cast member. You didn't come in as a feature. I don't even get that either. Like, I don't know why that happened. You were just, you got to be full cast right away. Yeah. Which I really don't know why that happened. Um, well, maybe.

Because it doesn't seem to have much of a rhyme or reason. I think it was because I was in that off year. I really don't know why. It was like I started in September or I just, I think they were like, whatever. Nobody was paying attention. Well, your audition must have helped a little bit.

I mean, I think Fred Wolf was like a real champion as I remember. He left like immediately upon getting there. Ana, Ana, can I talk to you for a second? I'm going to talk about you in a second. I just want to talk about Dana for one thing and I'm going to talk about you. You're really funny. He's funny too. Not quite as funny. Anyway, this is really good. I think this is going to be great. Oh my God, it's so funny what you did. Oh my God, I came to you. I had a few like smarty advocates and McKay really liked me early and, um,

And he was, you know, I think recent head writer there. I don't know. Like, I just, I think I had like advocates in the room that I didn't, I don't know why that. And who were, who were your primary bandmates essentially then? You had Molly, you had Rachel Dratch later and Maya later. Well, so yeah, I was going to say transitionally, like I was kind of, I was, I consider myself like a bridge cast. We were sort of the vanguard, like,

Sherry and Molly and I sort of did this thing for the reputation, you know, partially just timing of the of the gals. Like, right. We just started getting attention as a trio. But then fairly quickly thereafter, they brought in Tina as a writer. She definitely advanced that cause. And then by the time I left, it was like, you know, Polar and Maya and Rachel and like it had like a full blown. Yeah. Lady, lady vibe. So I actually spend.

a lot of time with the second half of that group of women. I mean, a lot. Like we travel together and we talk every day. So that's Maya, Rachel. It's Maya, Tina, Amy, Rachel, Paula, Tina and Amy. And Paula Pell. Yeah. And Paula Pell. And Spivey. By the way, that's a lot of home run hitters. And you say about women, but that's a lot of solid, solid talent. Oh, for sure. I mean, I don't want to speak for them and Spivey too.

Like I said, I don't want to speak for them, but I will speak for myself that for me, the sort of, you know, because the show itself is organized in this kind of racehorse fashion. And so you can't really pay a lot of attention to your tribe or whatever in house. I mean, you, it's like your fit, like you're loyal to your family, but you hate them. Like, you know, it is this weird combination of things, but then after in the sort of like,

gratitude phase yeah i got really close to those women i think kind of looking back and going like you know so few people on the planet earth understand what shaped and made us who we are and even if like you made it through and i feel that way about snl people in general but especially especially those women just because it it we were really outnumbered and you know it and uh

Yeah, I just feel like...

and we had jan hooks and nora dunn and stuff but they were incredible and they're incredible but i wanted to do the show yeah yeah i mean jan hooks just you know supernatural nora dunn i looked up to them when i got there i had like a crush on them both because they were so good i'm like they're so talented oh my god i know they're so talented and at read through you learn about people from read through and see how good they are when they grab a script they haven't seen it they're like yeah nailing it you're like what the

fuck? Yeah, Jan could do anything. It's true. That's another weird, like, right? I always say, like, we're mutants. We're sort of like, we are, we have a mutant skin. We're made a little different. I'm going to walk and plug in my computer, which is a little gauche. I like this. I know, you get to see the whole...

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But all I wanted to say was, as a casual observer of that cast, of those, your bandmates, Maya and Amy, when I've run into them casually, they're so affable, so honest. There's a humility around all performers at some basis, and then there's a confidence. So they're just fun. And I do think that the cast never went backwards after that. I think it was at least 50-50, I think.

men and women dominance and maybe more women almost. It made it, that definitely changed in the last 20 years, you know, with between Kate McGinn and, you know, all the different women now on the show too. Huge. Huge. And they're playing, they're playing men now a lot.

I mean, the culture has changed. The culture, you know... Lauren wrote the Constitution and just said, eventually it'll be a female-dominated show. It'll just happen. I mean, and that's true. I think also it's so nice to see so many Black cast members. I mean, that's a demographic shift too. That's just reflective of our... of society in general getting kind of waking up. But it's good and everyone's been scoring. Totally. And I don't have like... I feel like I got...

I did not feel screwed over. I felt very celebrated there and very fortunate, to be honest. And who knows? But like, me too. I was just speaking to the to the quality of like, when you're saying the tribe, like who people and, and I, like I said, there's so many people that I run into that I love.

pretty much anyone, but from the era, but in a really regular way, like we just sort of fell into this kind of coffee clutch where we talk all the time and celebrate each other's birthdays. And again, it's not just SNL, but it's also like, well, you know, so I have to plug it before Dratch and I actually wrote a movie together this year and that's about to come out. And again, just speaking of shorthands, talk about making something go fast. Yeah.

So much faster than it would have. She's hilarious. She's so funny. Yeah, we wrote this. As funny as they come. She's so funny. Yes. So we wrote it together. We actually produced it and we're in it. And what's it called? It's called A Clusterfunk Christmas. Oh, that's right. Yeah, I read about that. And again, just being able to write it with a fellow, you know,

So we have all that shorthand. So much shorthand. And usually the sensibility is within the same frequency. So when anyone says, both people go, oh, that's it. Oh, we're going to do that immediately. The number of times that would happen. It was like uncanny. Like just in the notes or whatever, like in the edit, we would each go back and the note would be like, oh, no, no, I didn't like what you did there either. Or yes, I like that take. There were so many things like that. And just maniacal, which I had forgotten. And it's not that I don't love all

all the other jobs that i i do you know i do i always find something fun but the maniacal like weird

hormone releasing brain laughs when you get laughing with an SNL or I don't know what it is like that writing sick laugh yeah exhausted I'm talking about where you just cry laughing and you can't that's part of the fun because you you go we just hit on a great idea we just hit on a great thing and it's such a euphoria rush it's euphoria shit we're so fun what's the word I'm looking for like the like that goes off in your brain when you when you

The happy place. An endorphin rush. Yeah, endorphins. Endorphins. Just like a crazy endorphin. And we did it every single day we were filming. And we were playing like... It's all set in the Christmas scene world. We play these horrible Mrs. Claus, like Rankin and Pass characters. It's so stupid. Anyway, we're in the same SNL style with the worst wigs ever. Yeah. Like popping... The more you laugh, the spirit goes popping free because you're laughing so hard or just crying and the makeup's coming out. It was...

It was such a joy ride to do and such a great memory of what that

And Sugar and Booze, you tour with your band, a big kind of an orchestra, and you actually sing. It's funny, but you're actually like a cabaret singer. Yeah, it's a Christmas album I released in 2019, Sugar and Booze, and I wrote a bunch of Christmas songs. It's a really throwback-y album. I feel like you guys would like it. We have horns. It's not a full orchestra, but I have a big mouth. Yeah, I saw you on Zeth's show with your, like maybe a six-piece band.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Super fun. So it's just very throwbacky, old-timey, nostalgic, holiday vibes, uplifting music to drink and wrap presents to. You're busy. You're touring there. You're making movies. You're just... Yeah. And actually, for plugging, I'm actually on a new show for NBC called American Auto. American Auto. Yes. Yeah. I saw your Wikipedia page. It sounded like a part you could crush with.

Oh my God. It's so fun. I mean, it's very, it's a very much of an NBC show. It looks like an NBC show. It's got Justin Spitzer who created it. He started that show Superstore and he wrote on Office for a long time. So he's, it's got that, whatever.

whatever you want to call it. So you're the kind of cocky executive with no intrinsic knowledge? Yeah, no, no, no. She comes from big pharma and she doesn't know anything about cars. You know, Ana, I looked you up and we'll let you go. But lastly, I want to say you, it says all these great facts about you. And then one on its own line says, she's friends with Ken Jeong.

Did you look? Is it on Wikipedia? Yeah. It's got your own line and section. Yeah, I saw it. It's got a big gap around it. That's where you know it's a crowd-sourced bio. Like, who's that person? I was like, you know what I need to add here? Hmm. Yeah. Let's give a complete package of who she is. Also, I love that because I kind of know Ken Jeong, but it's not like we have Thanksgiving together. It's not number one. He's kind of the nicest guy in show business in a way, right? He's unbelievably nice. Yeah.

The only reason they said that is I did that. He could be on mine. Yeah. I know. I'm going to say she's friends with David Spade. Yeah. Give me my own line at least. You guys both get a line now. I mean, we've spent a lot of time together now. We have. I know. All right, funny men. All right. Thanks for having me. Thank you very much. So fun to see you. We're going to run into you at the 50th maybe. Oh, hell yeah.

Oh, hell. I don't know if I can do it. I don't know. How do you feel about that when it comes up out of curiosity? What's your gut? Well, I felt like the 40th kind of was just by a wing and a prayer, but sort of turned out quasi magical, probably. More than quasi. As a mic drop for Lauren and just that. I totally agree. And Lauren had said at the time, not every one of us will be here for the 50th.

So it's a little bit like Civil War veterans in the 1930s, you know, coming out. And so I don't know. But I mean, I don't know. It seems a little bit like a bridge too far. But I agree with you. Like that was such a in all of our minds. Like most. I mean, I don't know about you. I like took to my bed after that for like a week. Oh, yeah. Right.

like the i felt like i'd been on drugs or something like the crash it was an overload of every cast member and just the intensity everywhere you turn and any and and to one place instead of some hollywood party where you feel like you sort of belong there so when you have keith richards or something go hey and they're nice because they're on your turf right you know in a weird way right and it is it's such an equalizer that's such a good way of putting it because it is true like it's you

I am very, I get very, when people say, how do you get nervous about, who did you get the most nervous about meeting? And it is weird when you're working at the show, you don't really because you're home and they're coming to your house and you want to make them welcome. They're coming to you. They're more scared. They're more scared. Yeah. It's like spiders. Not really. Paul McCartney gave me a back massage during the good nights. That was my...

I didn't get one. During the good nights, you know, and I'm off to the side and then Eddie Murphy and everyone's over in the center. And then I feel this, you know, and I look and it's Paul, just wanted to see how you're doing and, you know, just feel tight, you know. So there were three chairs watching a monitor and I sat and it was Steve Martin sat in that one. Then Jim Carrey sat in that one. We're all watching and just start laughing and talking. And I go, when are you going to be with?

you know, just in just the vicinity, wherever you stood, where you turned someone, you're like that, that guy, that girl. Plus it would be like Peyton Manning and like Diane Sawyer. Like, like it was so many levels of American culture that like, it just, it's,

I think Sarah Palin was like, it didn't stop. Everybody was famous in the bleachers. Every face was famous. All different ways. All different stripes. Like you said, they all know who you were. It was the weirdest feeling ever. No plus ones, please. I will say for myself, because you always think, well, where do I stand? I haven't done anything in a while. You can get into self-deprecation, but for myself, if I had anyone on SNL or really anywhere make me laugh really hard just once,

I'm sort of respectful and a fan at that point. You know, I don't... You are in the great... You're in the most important...

cornerstone that i think for a lot of us i think what you're saying is that same thing whatever bitterness or anxiety or therapy sessions you've had i've had your own personal journey yeah you know all of us yeah the show certainly brings those things about like that evening was this moment where and you could say like i'm i'm actually weirdly apart i have no choice but to embrace this yeah yeah i'm like part italian and part snl like whatever it is you know right it's your dna

and mutant skin. Like I keep saying, like, I don't, you know, like an Avenger or something like nobody in the real world

Like I've done theater, music theater. People are so fun. I've done TV half hour. People are so wonderful. SNL people are like straight up tribal. Like that is my, there's only one. Yeah. Screwed up. Yeah. It's crazy. It's still on live in New York and everything. It's amazing. I know. And it's fun too. When you, in my kids, now I have a 13 year old, my 19 year olds, like, you know, last year when she was like, can I please just go to the show? I guess it was, was it last year or the year before, before, you know,

It was Malini, I think. She was just like, can we go see it live? Like I'm old enough and I've never been, you know? And then the 13 year old now, like we wait, we stay up every Saturday and it's really hard. Oh, do they walk down the hall and they say, see a picture of their mom?

My 13 year old hasn't been there yet. And also, you know, they're annoyed by me because I have a lot of, you know, feedback, but also Peacock now, I bet you know this, but that's also, Oh, does it run them? Runs all of our stuff in it. You can, you can like this last summer is a, you can type in like a certain era or show or whatever. So I actually, sometimes I've been known to pour myself a generous amount.

and sit down with the children and force them to watch Mother's Material. Take a look. There's just one more. Watch and learn. You ain't going to bed, not on my side. Now, this game wasn't successful, but let me tell you something. It was ahead of its time. You think it was easy? This one was from Dress. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. All right. All right, guys, be well. Thank you for having me. Ana, we'll see you when we see you. Good luck to you. God bless. Love to hang out. God bless. Take care.

Hey, what's up, flies? What's up, fleas? What's up, people that listen? We want to hear from you and your dumb questions. Questions, ask us anything. Anything you want. You can email us at flyonthewallatcadence13.com. Hey, guys, this is a question we have from Ted Sean from Suwannee, Georgia. Ted Sean from Suwannee. Oh, my baby. Hey, guys, love hearing all the great stories about SNL over the years. Can either of you remember...

Whether it was at read-through, dress or air, the hardest you ever saw Lorne laugh. You probably have one. Keep the shows coming. Do you think Lorne would come on the podcast? We told Lorne. I think he will one day. It's all just so- Lorne is the biggest star of the podcast. We talk about him all the time. Yeah. Whenever he would like to, it's an open invitation. Can we do it between dress and air? Same thing with President Obama. Can we do it at the page desk?

It's that thing of like, no, we love Lauren. You gave up. You just started. I know. You're burnt out on doing Lauren. Everyone knows it's a movie theater and not a podcast studio. Oh, this is my movie theater. This is fun in here, though.

I'm not going to watch any movies, so we have this in here. You did live like 1.3 miles. That's the thing about LA. It's a 45-minute drive. Then you look on the thing, it's like 1.6 miles. Jesus. It's just all traffic. But then you moved from your other place, to this place, to 0.09 from my place. So when it's not 100 degrees out, I could probably walk up here. Danny, are you going to walk? He's like, no, it's 40 minutes. Okay, so here it is. The hardest you heard Lauren laugh, and then...

I'm trying to think of one. I have ones that are second tier or secondhand. Okay. Bill Hader told me that Lorne told him-

That the funniest thing he ever heard was, this is Bill Hader saying it, not me, was me doing Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas as more than friends. Put it that way. That's how you put it? Mm-hmm. Are they having sex? I do it now. I do it more like they're going to wrestle. I like to come to your house. I like to wrestle. I like to wrestle too. 49574 Cannon Drive. There's a gate at the side.

Pound 1274. I'll be there at 4 p.m. Should I bring anything?

Bring lemonade and bagels. We're going to get naked. Two men naked wrestling in the backyard. Sorry. It goes on and on. I love it. I'm not that into it. But I heard that was that. Another one I heard, and this was Rob Schneider's sketch, but I was in it. Massive head wound, Harry. They said that Lauren, because it was a dog going crazy, laughed incredibly hard. Lauren has a great sense of humor and has a violent, intense, sudden laugh.

Yeah. You know, when you're around him, just like really loves comedy. By the way, if he laughs, I can't think of a particular instance, but when he laughs at read-through and if he laughs at one of your sketches, it is so fun because you know what's getting on. He slaps the table, laughs, and it's unreal because the last three years, it was Lorne host me. Oh, that's a hot seat at read-through. So I'm right next to him and I'm right next to the host.

So they get a fucking tsunami of BO because I'm so nervous. It's like those, you know, nuclear bomb commercials where it's like everything goes flat. You know, it's like, Tom Hanks is like flat when I take off my shirt. I'll be taking off my shirt for this next sketch. I used to get spaghetti delivered from a Wally. What is it called? Oh yeah, Wally something. Not Muson Franks, it's Wally Josephs.

And Marcy would get someone to get it and they'd walk in and put it in front of me in front of fucking everyone. I'd be like, thanks. You had to be fed on a regular basis or it'd be like timber time. I mean, that gets a little bit of humidity in that room if David does not get a little bit of food in him. It's sickening. It is timber time. They crack the window one quarter of an inch. Anyway, Lorne laughed a lot at read through. That's a good question. I wish I had a better exact answer. I don't know I have a specific moment. I will say this because he's your boss anyway.

And he's seen it all. He's heard every style of comedy. When you get him to laugh really hard, it's very special. Thank you, Ted. Funny last name. And Jimmy Carter says, hello, I'm still on the peanut ranch. I'm 107 and Jesus loves you.

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.