Carol Leifer
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On your first box. Folks. I like that word. Folks. That's what a lot of politicians say. They go, they go for the folks at home. Yeah.

That's true. You know what? They can't say men or women. They say for the folks at home. It's a good word for Obama. Folks are hurting. Folks aren't sure how to pay the bill. That's what folks are doing. Folks are feeling the pinch. Folks are feeling the pain. Folks, it's definitely a lot of politicians use it. It's kind of a homey thing. But folks, we have a super guest today on Super...

Super fly on the wall. Carol Leifer is with us, who's a mainstream of comedy. From 1981 or 2, she was on David Letterman, and she's worked as a stand-up and also, David, her writing career.

Huge writing career. Seinfeld. From Seinfeld to Hacks presently, where they're winning Emmys over. Do some curvier. Hacks is always doing well. Good friends with Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. And she has some interesting takes on their relationship. Teaser alert. She has a book out, Dana. It's called How to Write a Funny Speech for a Wedding, a Bar Mitzvah, or Birthday, or any other event.

event you didn't want to go to in the first place by Carol Leifer. We laughed a lot during this one because she's a standup that you knew in the old days. I've known her recently and I just saw her at the laugh factory actually. So very funny, uh, great storyteller.

Exactly what we want in this show. Yes. And also one last thing, the sort of famous season of 1985, she was there writing and she'll talk about. At SNL. Robert Downey Jr. at like 19 years of age, skating down the hall and stuff like that. So it's really fun. She's super likable. I've known her for. Longer than I want to remember. 15 years. Please enjoy.

The one and only Carol Leifer. You mean the set that I did for The Tonight Show? Yeah. Well, it's a bit of a saga because, you know, Letterman saw me on the big New York laugh-off. Oh, the laugh-off. Yeah. Yeah, because, you know, in our day, that's how you got people to pay attention to you. You did car tips.

And he saw the Big Laugh Off. You know, that's the one where Eddie Murphy came in fifth and I came in fourth. Yes. So he had seen me on the Big Laugh Off and he recommended me to Jim McCauley, as you know, the talent booker for The Tonight Show. And then they passed.

And then probably when I saw you, Dana, they saw me again and they passed. And I auditioned 22 times until I finally got the Tonight Show in 1992, right before Johnny left.

Never even heard of that. That's that many times I've never heard of that. Over a decade? Or what's the timeframe of the 22 auditions? I would say from 1980 to 92. But what was happening also was...

It is that, you know, I was doing Letterman a lot during those years. So Tonight Show also saw me as a Letterman act. So that did it my way. But it just became like, I don't know, should I wear a dress the next time? Okay. Oh, yeah. Like it just became a bit of like, okay, I guess I'll go out there again. And it's always Macaulay.

It was always Macaulay. Yeah. I mean, you remember how powerful he is. Of course. Powerful odds. I didn't even try. They just like, you don't you don't you don't got it. Don't even audition. Just yeah. Well, I was doing characters and stuff and they like jokes. I was going to ask you from a personal point of view, what kind of stand up in your head were you in 92 compared to 1980?

Well, I was much more, you know, you have 12 years of experience, as you know, I mean, you get better every year. And that time in New York, I mean, you guys didn't come up in the New York scene, but you could do eight sets on a Saturday night.

Wow. I don't do that in a year. It sounds preposterous, but it's true. Yeah. I've heard that. I've heard that. Yeah. You know, with all the different comedy clubs, I mean, you'd have, you know, a seven, 10 here and eight, you know, eight, 15 years. It just went on and on and on. So I just was a better comedian, but wait a minute. So dating, you never did the tonight show with Johnny.

I did, but I came out as a guest from Saturday Night Live. I never came out behind the curtain and did that terrifying thing. What I want to ask you two things about those days. Did you ever say and step on it to the cab driver in New York? And did you ever get so good that like leafers here like you? Because I think confidence, you know, Eddie Murphy had peak confidence at 19. He has it now. There are certain people, Sandler, took me a long time. But when you get the confidence,

It's fun. Do you ever walk in and go, I'm the shit, man. Fuck you people. I've heard her say that. Okay. Two questions. Step on it. I'm about to have a baby. Okay. Go ahead. It was definitely something. And I learned in many different languages. With all of the camp. By 92, you know,

I remember it was just, I had done the new year show with Leno before. And I just feel like they kind of felt like, Oh, we got to put her on. I mean, this is ridiculous already. It's such an omission at this point. It looks weird. And who were your peers? It was Elaine Boosler. Who were your female peers? Elaine Boosler was actually not my female peer. She was before me. Yeah. And she,

I got into standup because one of the big reasons was because of Elaine, you know, I'm sure people have talked about on your pod that not, not really enough. Not much. Yeah. She was the, yeah, the top, the female standup that when I was in those early days, she was, she was on the cover of New York magazine and funny girl. And it just kind of changed everything.

I was like, oh, if this woman can do it, like maybe I can do it. I remember Seinfeld and I talking about that cover. It had an impact on him in wanting to go into stand up because it was a new type of woman and person going into stand up. Yeah, the 70s is when it all kind of shifted.

And what was allowed. And then lately, I don't want to jump too far ahead, but we have a lot of our great women comedians or call them comedians. It's all about the same now, but it was more differentiated. And there's a liberation of really being as hardcore as the men. It's just been a shift where the audience, you know, the women are more, um,

They can be sexual. They can, they can step outside the lines, but you were kind of riding that wave and you had Phyllis Diller, but not Phyllis Diller. She's a little more back there. Joan Rivers. You know, she was sort of the body and intense. Yes. And Joan Rivers was great. But I think what differentiated her from my generation was, you know, it was a very like, am I right, ladies? Yeah.

Can we talk Elizabeth Taylor dog? She said five facelifts in a boob job. Can we talk? Barbara Bush is not sexy. Can we talk? Barbara Bush. Was Rosie O'Donnell around then? Or was that a little later? Rosie O'Donnell came a little after me, but you know, my peers were like,

Rita Rudner and Paul. But I remember with Vita, because we went on a catch rising star together, you know, in those days they wouldn't put two women on after each other. It was like horrifying, horrifying. You know, like, okay, there's the singer, then the ventriloquist, then a woman. Well,

I'm on the act. And then another woman, you know, it was just. How are two women on the same show? That's revolting to the audience. It was revolutionary. I work with Rita. She was a linesmith. She could write great jokes. It was just boom, boom, boom. Yeah. She is one of the all-time best joke writers. Really good joke writer. Yeah. Maybe underrated because I don't hear about her enough because I worked there for a week and I was new and I just kept going.

wow, this is, you know, really, I was like, it is just bam, bam, bam, bam. Interesting delivery, you know, interesting persona. Yeah.

Yeah. She works a lot. She gets a lot of the corporate gigs that I want to get. We got Rita. Oh, good. Sorry. We got Rita. All right. Let's put that out into the universe. Corporates are fun. Yes. Juicy corporate. She's clean. She's funny. She's likable. And she'll, she'll go for pictures afterwards without any complaint. CEO's kid. Even if it's not part of the deal, can we take a quick picture? Yes. Uh,

you're kind of like you, this lane, because you're still here and you started there and you're, you're getting more famous than your resume. Yeah.

um like i only found out this week and i want to talk about it because there's a whole documentary briefly just about your your work as a writer while you were being standard and i don't know what your one was before the 85 season on saturday night live which did you okay so let's just talk about that a little bit how you got the job and it you have you seen the documentary about i have seen the documentary okay uh

What is affectionately, unaffectionately called the weird year of SNL. When Lauren came back. And I remember I auditioned at the comic strip to be a performer. And Al Franken, the great Al Franken. And.

Sorry. And Jim Downey, as you know, famous head writer came to first showcase and I did well. And they came over to me afterwards and they were like, would you want to think about being a writer? And I was like, what I want to be. Yeah. So I lived in California and they said, well, come in and have a meeting with Lauren.

So I came into New York. So I'm ready for my, you know, I had it all planned, you know, an hour of what I could say to, you know, perspective, perspective questions, blah, blah, blah. And it was literally, yeah.

Lauren was auditioning talent in that big kind of like studio room in Broadway. I don't know where they held the auditions. It always looked like where they would audition dancers for like a chorus. No, and two, three, four. And, you know, but and I came and they said, OK, Lauren's going to meet with you now. He came outside.

the door of the audition room. And he said, you know, they've said very good things about you. I said, oh, thank you. And you know, the job, I don't do a good Lauren impression. So somebody could do this for me, but. Let's guess what he said. The job is not easy, but you'll find it's exciting. It's that thing of like, you're going to find your voice this year.

And then you'll go on to like much, much bigger things. Um, we, we'd like you, uh, go ahead. Something like, how do you like New York? Well, it was almost exactly like that. You have been told that Tuesday nights are late and you, you'd work very late. And I went, yeah, no. Okay. So it lasted about a minute. And, um, and then I was hired. Um,

Yeah, it was a great, I love that documentary about the year because it was crazy and it was nutty, but I still, you know, I always like to tell young people, you know, we wrote a long hand on yellow pads. Yeah, me too. Me too. I say that all the time. Yeah. So that was it. And then I was really the only woman writer that year, but you know, it was amazing.

like murderer's row of writers, like Smigel was an apprentice. Whoa. Yeah. I always teased him. Apprentice means you need to wear goggles in the writer's room. Yeah.

You know, John Swartzwelder and Jack Handy and George Meyer and Don Novello. And it was just amazing. But I had a lot of stuff on. I have to say, I look back and was like, I got, you know, I wrote a lot with Franken. We did this sketch together.

Yeah, this Tom Hanks sketch. You know, a lot of people don't know, as you guys know, you can write a sketch and...

Have it at read through. And if they pass on it, you can bring it back a few more times. And it's a little stinky, but you bring it back. Yeah. And then Tom Hanks finally. Yeah. Put it over the finish line.

Who was your cast? I can't remember. Yeah, let's talk about that a little bit for people who don't know. But this pivotal year was the first year that Lorne came back after leaving with the seminal cast of all time in 1980. First year back. So a lot of pressure. Lorne is back. We've had the Billy Crystal, Martin Short, Christopher Guest year. We had the Eddie years with Joe Piscopo. And now Lorne Michaels is back. So who was on that show? Yeah.

It was Dennis Miller, of course. Thanks for the shout out, Leifer. It was Nora Dunn, Joan Sack, Denitra Vance, then the guys...

Was it Terry Sweeney? Terry Sweeney. It was Randy Quaid. Anthony Michael Hall. Anthony Michael Hall. Robert Downey Jr., who I just saw at the Oscars. Did he remember? I mean, surely he did, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Hey, Carol. All right. It's like I remember you skateboarding down the halls of.

uh, the 17th floor. Um, yeah, no, it was, you know, they talk about in the documentary, Lauren hired actors more than, uh, comedians. And it's that sort of, oh, I love it. Slovitz was a cast member and he did really well that year. I think he and Dennis were the, and Nora were the only people that were brought back after that. Survived the fire. Yeah. Yeah.

Do people know this? At the end of the season, some sketch, I was watching it live, and then all the cast had to go into a fire, except three of them didn't have to go into the fire. I mean, it was... Who wrote that? Al? I wish I remembered who wrote that. Yeah. And then, do you remember when Madonna came back the next year to host? She apologized for the entire 85-86 season.

Or like a Dallas kind of thing. My first time in the studio. She was our cold open. Oh, and you were there, Dana. Yeah. That was third year. Yeah. When did, so was your audition in one of those chorus line rehearsal rooms? Like I saw them.

No, I just said real quickly, I had auditioned at the comedy store in like 20 people with no MC in the original room. And I followed Kenison at midnight before I went on. They said SNL is here. I don't think it was Lauren, but SNL is here. I bombed so bad. And Al Franken saw me at the punchline. I just bombed and bombed.

And then it was show came around again real fast. I just went to Igby's. You remember that little hundred seater? Yes. Rosie O'Donnell was headlining. I got a hold of Jan Smith. I said, I, I, Lorne Michaels will come see me. Cause we had the same, my manager was managing him. I was with Bernie, Bill, Sam, Brad Gray. Yeah. So then I met Rosie. It seemed like just like a surprise.

so confident in New York and everything. I can't believe how young we both were, but I got to do 40 minutes. Lauren came, brought Brandon Tartikoff and then Cher. And I got 40 minutes in front of a regular audience instead of five following Kennison. And that's kind of how I got the show. Wow. Did Cher do five? How was her set? Cher came out and she had like a sequined dress on. She goes, half funny.

Half funny? Instead of half green, I don't know. I like it. Yeah. Do you believe I'm 74? She's just kind of reaching with the leafer pod. I don't know what's going on. LinkedIn is something we've all heard about. Dana, you've heard about it. I've heard about it. Oh, yeah. As a small business owner, you don't have the luxury of clocking out early. Nope. The biz is on your mind 24-7. So when you're hiring, you need a partner that grinds it out as hard as you do.

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When did you audition, Spade? When was yours? Thank you. I'll take this question, Dana. I'm going to stay quiet because this is riveting. Well, funny story. I was born in, no, I'm kidding. Going too far back. I went with Schneider.

It's funny because you were mentioning New York clubs. I've never played them. And they had us audition off a young comedian special. They brought us in to audition at probably Catch Rising Star, if that sounds familiar. Yeah. And on a tough night, and they all came in.

From Downey to maybe Smigel to maybe Franken to not Lorne. I don't think Lorne is there. But I remember it was me, Schneider, Tom Kenny. I always say this like it's negative to Tom Kenny. It's not negative to Tom Kenny. He was a San Francisco act that was very just broader. I knew him well. SpongeBob. Yeah, killed. He became SpongeBob and he owns most of Nevada. Yeah.

Yeah. But anyway, he's so rich. But Dennis Miller was there too. And he was helping. And, you know, before I went on, he goes, I tell Dana, he goes, Spud, you know, you don't want to kill too hard. They don't want some polished fucking road hack. And I go, so don't do good. He's like, all right, three, two, one. I'm like, wait, Dennis, what? So anyway, I took his advice, did not do well. Yeah.

His advice was the right thing. It just in the whole complexities of it all. I didn't really get it. They were just really looking at the writing of the jokes for me to be a writer, maybe a performer later. I thought it was to be a performer. So I'm like, yeah, I give him the whole job and a routine really amping it up. And then afterwards I got off early because I said, I think I was supposed to do 20. I did 12. Maybe I think Schneider went off early.

but but tom kenney did do very well but rob and i got the call to come in and uh

and write, write and perform. Oh, wow. But you thought that night you hadn't done well, right? I just knew it was a tough night, but it was, it was pretty sparse, you know, and it was probably half, it's probably 15 from SNL and 15 people. So regular people. So they don't laugh a lot, but they're just looking at sort of, you know, it's the same way I am now. I can watch a comic and even if not killing, I almost don't hear it. I just go, Ooh, that was a good one. Ooh. You know, like I like it. Who cares if they like it? I was like, I think that's good.

and well written or something about it you can you can tell like name that tune in two jokes you go i think this guy's got some game yes and so you know how it is so at a certain point you know that but at that point i didn't but luckily some of the jokes they kind of liked how i put them together and that really got me in as a writer that was not ready to be a writer with my legal fan would you have liked to have been a cast member carol did you ever think of that or audition for

Well, you know, the weird year, it was like, I don't know that I want to be a part of. Well, what do you say? Just throw yourself in the fire at the end. But, you know, I feel like that year I had one foot in and one foot out because I really wanted to concentrate on my standup. So, yeah, I don't think I, I just, on the weekend, you know, weeks off, I'd be doing sets and all that. So, yeah.

Yeah, no, certainly. Maybe if I had been on a more successful year, I would have dreamt about it. But did you ever take do you ever feel weird about taking a stand up bit and putting it into sketch? You feel like you're kind of wasting it and it's a selfish decision to go. Do I try to get this on there and then I can never use it again, but it would help here. Yeah, I.

I didn't really have that fear because as you boys know, you know, you got to get stuff on or it's a very bad feeling there, you know. That's a good way to put it. I'm not getting things on. And people start ignoring you and it's like, oh no, they go, you're not even a formidable opponent here. You're just, yeah, you want to get on. So it's of course goes into the show if it can.

Exactly. So I always felt like if I had to take for my act, dig away. Because if it keeps you alive at the show. It's a hundred percent. Yeah. That's so crazy, but people don't think of that, but it is a weird thing goes through your head. You're like, cause you're running out of ideas quickly. Yeah. Every host looks the same and you're like, wait, I got to.

I got this guy. The next week it's Corbin Bernson. And then it's, you know, I think I had Corbin Bernson was there when I did it. Yeah. He was, I think he was an overlapping guy. I think it was the third host. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, uh,

And I just, sorry, I'm a show dropping the Oscars a couple of times. Please do. John Lithgow was presenting this year and I saw him, the writers hanging out in the green room and I saw him and I said,

you guest hosted the year that I wrote on um SNL and he was like oh you know he like well he was very sweet he was like oh you must have been a young child when you worked there I said yes of course child labor but um no I told him that you know he was such a great host and every writer's name that week and he was incredible and he remembered the sketch that uh

We had written for him. That got on. Yeah, yeah. So he was amazing and still is. So what other can you tell us about the Oscars? You were at the Oscars?

I wrote on them. Yeah. I wrote on the Oscars. And you wrote, so Conan's team brought you in or whatever. How does it work? And then this is my 11th time. I was part. Is there a writers to come with the show? A lot for the Oscars over the years. Yeah. Yeah. You baked in and then Conan can bring some extra people. Is that how it works? No. Conan has his own team of people. And then there's a show team that I'm part of. Okay. Yeah.

I don't know if you guys know this guy, John Max. He's the head writer of many, many great... He's the guy to go to for your award shows. And yeah, and then we... Is Valanche in there?

No, no Bruce Blanch. But yeah, it's a good group and it's fun. You guys know it's fun writing. Of course. Well, Conan's a fun guy. Who's the greatest host that you've written for? Would you write for Billy? Did you write for Billy? Yes, I wrote for Billy a couple of times. Billy's great.

I'm going to say on this podcast, they've all been great. I love Billy's Broadway songs about the current movies. I do like that song. Anora, Anora, she's annoying. Anora, I'm a wicked man. You know, I mean, it's so... Billy was just great. Great host.

I don't know if he was the first one to go into the movies and be like, they'd use the actors or the real movie. He'd be inside of them. Yeah. He was going to know that was funny as shit. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Troy Miller used to direct. Oh, right. Yeah. And I loved Conan's substance parody. How funny was that?

That was because for people who haven't seen the movie, he crawled out of in the movie. Demi Moore sort of becomes a waking, a walking corpse or like a monster anyway, climbed out of her backside to start the 119th Oscar show. His head is I mean, it was it was definitely catching. It was like, OK, we got something different here. Yeah. Yeah.

But even his, I loved his, his musical number was a lot like, it reminded me of the great Billy stuff too, like that. He was, I thought he was great. I thought for Conan, it was a little edgier than normal for him to say like, it's halftime. Usually Kendrick would be calling Drake a pedophile. I'm like, a pedophile joke is kind of a lot for the Oscars and Conan. I was fine with it, but I thought, oh good. At least he's out of the box a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. It was, uh,

Look, funny is funny, but I agree that. I'm just, I'm saying, I'm just surprised. Sometimes they don't, they, they tamp down a few things at different shows. You know, they go, I don't know if that's what we do here. That kind of thing. But at least they're saying, Hey, it's getting harder and harder to get people watched. Let's just go crazy. Some of these things pay off these days. Like,

Get out there and shake it up. Exactly. It's fun to have more free reign. It's hard to get jokes killed. It's like, ah, come on, come on. So just so that people familiarize. So you wrote 12 times for the Oscars. You wrote for Seinfeld. I mean, can we talk about that a little? Has Jerry changed? Has Jerry changed? We know him pretty well. We had him on the podcast. Yes, I heard it. It was great.

Yeah. Jerry. Jerry. He is a great, great guy. He made all my dreams come true a couple of weeks ago because I was in New York. And as you can see, I'm a big Beatles fan. Don't get me started. Did you go to the Bowery or something? Yes. Yes.

Oh, great. Yeah. And not only did we I go with him to see McCartney at the Bowery Ballroom, but afterwards there was a little after party and he introduced me to him. That's as good as it gets. Yeah. And he said my name. He said, hello, Carol. And he on the cheek.

Whoa. He kissed you on the cheek? Kissed me on the cheek. Yeah. He didn't do that too often. That's pretty huge. I haven't seen it. I know. She seemed like a really nice lady, you know. So I get a little, I gave her a pecker on the cheekies, you know, just to kind of cheer up the whole room, you know. Then David Spade came over. Yeah.

I just gave him a fist bump. Kind of buzz killed it. Not as impressive as Carol. Well, you guys, I have to say, would you say that as far as musical living legends, I'd say McCartney, there's Mick Jagger, there's a couple, but those two definitely...

Could be the top two. I'm sure I'm spacing on some people, but Ringo. I mean, if you're in the Beatles, you're up there, of course. Yes. And Mick is such a, just a worldwide phenomenon of, you know, legend. So who else is up there? Like it's still, cause when you see Paul, you just get like shook a bit. Yeah. I'm going to ask you, I'm going to ask you about your introduction to the Beatles and your lifelong love affair. Cause I was, we're in the same age group. Yeah.

And then to meet him later on, but to me, I'm sorry, there's just the Beatles. And then there's incredible bands, Zeppelin stones, Pink Floyd, and then, you know, go on and on Eminem. And, uh,

um but there's just one Beatles because there's just too much music and too much revolutionary things going on so were you a classic I want to hold your hand in 64 or when did I see you yeah yes yes I mean I was lucky that uh yes yes yes the whole ride little little little girl that's a little little fetus yeah I was interested no um

You know, I have an older sister who's five years older and a brother who's 11 years older. So I heard their music a lot as a kid and remember the Ed Sullivan show, them coming on, going crazy, you know, what a happening it was.

it's hard to explain to people how revolutionary their haircuts were i mean that it was like what what what are you just just the haircuts alone shot him up the chart that's alone man i was lucky enough in 66 yes 1966 yeah um my brother was home from university chicago and

And the night of the Beatles concert, he said, because we lived on Long Island, hey, hey, Squirt, you want to go see the Beatles? And I was like, yeah. And we drove to Shea. We got tickets that night. My sister, who had gotten tickets six months before, she was like four rows in front of us. And

And saw the Beatles at Shea Stadium. At Shea Stadium. That's a legendary. Big thing for a band, rock and roll band, to play a giant. They have two PV amps. Right. Dana, wasn't it some shitty sound or whatever? I think they only did 30, 35 minutes. They couldn't hear themselves. The roar of the crowd, they just couldn't, you know. Oh, yeah. Just not.

Love it though. How great. Oh my God. What a part of history.

If you had a not famous Beatles song, like what is one of your favorites? I'll throw out some. She's Leaving Home and I Love Her. No Reply. I Love Her. Hard Day's Night. I Want to Hold Your Hand, which I think is, I think that She Loves You is a masterpiece. It's like two minutes and five seconds. But are you kind of a Strawberry Fields or are you Penny Lane? Yeah, five seconds.

am very wedded to their early stuff because it reminds me of the mania and of first seeing them and all that. So like I saw her standing there, you know, that early, early stuff, but I'm also a wings fan, you know? And I just worked with Lawrence Juber, who was like his guitar player and wings. So I run the gamut, you know, with McCartney.

Did you tell McCartney you saw him at the Shea Stadium? What did you say? Did you tell him you saw him? No, I was too. He would have probably freaked out. He doesn't hear that every day. Yeah. But he was talking about, you know, they didn't, people couldn't have their phones that night.

At the Bowery Ball. At Chase Stadium? Bowery Ball. No. I brought my landline. 2025 is calling, Spudly. Okay. I know. But it was great because they were... And to watch the show, because we were up in this little... I mean, it maybe has like 300 people in the whole place. But to watch a concert now with people not having their phones, it was...

Such a joy because it's like, oh, right. People actually experience it and not wanting it for later. Right.

Yeah. It was incredible. Were you sitting or was it standing alone or was it sitting? You get to sit. The VIPs like Jerry and his plus one were up on a balcony, you know. So we were standing, but you wanted to stand. Everybody was standing. There was no... Well, you stand every song anyway because it's a hit. So you stand up anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Every song's a hit, basically. Can I do a clumsy kind of forward thing? Yeah.

Because during the peak of the Seinfeld years, and how many seasons did you write on that show? Three. Three. I think they were in the Rolling Stone almost like they got so big. There's only the Beatles, but they were almost like a Beatle-y sitcom. Yes. And I'm always interested in the dynamic between Jerry and Larry, you know, because this partnership. Yeah. And...

So how did you get hired for that? They just already knew you, loved you. They knew you from Letterman and you were just, was that an easy kind of?

we really go so far back as to when I auditioned at the comic strip along with riser and rich hall. Wow. Yeah. Jerry was the MC and he put us through the audition. And then when I auditioned to catch a rising star, Larry David was the MC and he put me through that audition. So I go back to my first days at these clubs with them. But what happened with Larry and Jerry was weird because I remember they, they,

I got a call from both of them and it was like, why are my friends calling me together? You know, I mean, you know, in 93, that was probably like, you know, conference call like that, you know, be on the same phone. But it's like, why are they calling me? And they were like, hey, do you want to write on Sunfeld? It's like, yeah. But my advantage was and I think other writers advantage was they didn't want people who'd written for sitcoms before.

because Larry hated all other sitcoms. So they wanted people new to the task. So I was lucky that way. So that's how I got hired. All right, it's Quince. Elevating my style used to mean breaking the bank, but with Quince, I get high-end, versatile pieces at prices.

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Whoa, that's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash fly to get free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash fly. Everyone I know is on the road. They always are like, we stayed in an Airbnb. And that's just a more common thing you hear all the time. Hotels are great, but come on. I mean, when you can just pick everything about it you want. Like here's my hotel today. They didn't even give me my breakfast. Like Airbnb, wake up, whip it up in your kitchen.

Uh, yeah, I can get a kitchen, get a pool, whatever you want. And it's all custom and you just go online and you see how it's rated and what people like. And so I guess I'm going to say it's, it's just freedom. Yeah. Listen, you got more space, more privacy. You can be closer to where you want to be. Yeah. I was staying at really nice hotels that I like in this area that

we would go to, and then we found like a little house. So you kind of had a house, you know, and it was spotless and you just drive up and you get the key out of this thing. You go in and there's a bottle of wine and a note. And it's just a great experience. Yeah. The people don't have to, I don't think, but they always seem to put little extras in there for you for your next adventure. People listening, maybe give it a try. They won't regret it. You make the switch from traditional hotels and let us know.

It was such a, you know, interesting sensibility on that show, how it was kind of just about little things. And everyone knows the soup Nazi and the puffy shirt. It's like trying to catch the wind. It's like, it's even now with Curb Your Enthusiasm these last 15 years, it's like, what is that sensibility about? You know, it just, but it really pops. The cast was super likable, but there's something about the writing that,

It was so smart and subtle and well-observed. So that's just a, I mean, that must, that's the best writer's room on a sitcom in history. I think I, I'm not shitting on Cheers or anybody else, but I think it's gotta be. Well, as far as it worked, I mean, it just worked through the roof and. Our greatest half. I think Cheers was more considered just a great sitcom and Seinfeld was a little off kilter, not just a sitcom. It was like sort of a different,

thing going on there. What is the thing about Seinfeld? What do you think made it go so huge? You know, in a lot of ways, it was like SNL to me because, um,

You had to pitch your ideas to Larry and Jerry. You would go in and set a time to go in. And it was like two sentences kind of max, you know, like I went in, you know, Elaine thinks the Korean manicurist are talking about her behind her back, you know,

at the nail salon, you know, and that kind of thing. I would go, yeah, yeah, we're doing that. Yeah, yeah, that's a great idea. Yeah, yeah. And then you'd pitch other ones and he had this habit of like rolling his shoulder and going, no, no, no, you know, I can see that on another show now, you know. Does he say expand in the room? Like some ideas are a little more than that. Like he'll go, I like it so far. What else is on there? Or just go write it.

Yeah, he would be like if he liked something like that or like Elaine thinks there are skinny mirrors at Barney's, you know, you go, yeah, yeah, I love that. But, you know, come back with like a George, a Jerry and Kramer story, you know, that kind of thing.

But it was the same thing. Like if you pitched ideas and it was a lot of, I don't know, you sort of started to get anxious about it. But when he liked something, he was so effusive about it, it lifted you to go off and do it. Right. Exciting. I do think, and let's go back to the Beatles here. I'd love to. The show Great was the two of their sensibilities together.

I always call it kind of like Lennon and McCartney, you know, Jerry, the more kind of pop sensibility, you know, friendly. And Larry being more the linen, you know, the curmudgeon having the edge and that together it made it a lightning in a bottle. Yeah. Okay. Sure. That's interesting. That makes, that makes sense to me. Yeah. Yeah.

And even working on Curb, I know Larry so well from Seinfeld that it was the same thing at Curb. You know, you'd go in and pitch ideas and he would love them or not like them. But when he loves something, he was, he always, like, I remember the first time I pitched him Curb ideas, I said,

You know, when you are with regular people and by regular people, I mean, not comedians and you make a joke and one of them goes, but I'm bum, you know, you want to strangle them.

You know, the equivalent of saying the N word, you know. And he was like, he loved that, you know. So when he loves something and you're on a good roll, you can. For sure. How fun. Yeah. You wrote on so many, though. I've been looking at, you did Modern Family, also Hacks, right? Yes, Hacks. Just want an Emmy. Yeah.

Hacks is a big deal, of course. Yeah. I think I saw Hannah at that party the other night. I don't know her, but I think I saw her walk by. Is she possibly taller than I would think? She seemed like, I thought she was tiny. And isn't it amazing that she's Lorraine Newman's daughter? Yeah. I did not, you know, I didn't even put that together for so long. Yeah.

And sometimes when she delivers lines, it's like, I totally love Lorraine. I saw Lorraine at the thing. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, Dana, were you there? No, I had the flu. Oh, okay. No, I missed it, but I've already thought about just what I'm going to do on the 60th.

Yeah. That's going to be great. I thought about the hundreds, what I'm going to do. Keep it a little quiet. Keep it real on the. Don't start getting curious. Leaf. When people say, but dump bump, I literally, it's like cutting your balls off. It's such a weird move to, to say you're, this is a bad joke. You're stupid. And then they look cool or something. Yeah. Yeah. It's a weird, it's all weird vibe. And he loves all that small stuff. Like,

He loved, I had a pitch about, you know, you pitch something to TV people and decks and they go, you know, I don't love it. Yeah. I don't like, it's like, no, I don't love it. And you know, that's the kind of thing he sparks to like. I felt like a story that I, when that's in the ether now, when I'm out and,

And there's a situation. I almost think of Curb. I was out somewhere in this. It might even be an episode. But I said bye to everyone. It took me forever to get out to the front and say bye, bye, bye. And then I forgot my keys inside. And I go, I'm not going back in. I cannot go through there again. And just that awkwardness of like, I just left, but they think I'm coming in for, I ditched them or something. And so it just made me think that's one of those weird things that

makes you think of that show. You go, I could picture him in some awkward situation. Yes. But every episode I watch, I think, oh, this is such a good little weird curveball. Like,

Just everyday thing, but they make a whole meal out of it. Yeah. You, when you see stuff like that, like the puffy corduroy pants, it looks like he's excited. Okay. We'll build a whole episode around that. And you go, it's so simple. It's so funny. Everybody knows what he's talking about. He would totally, he would have totally made something about that. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. About the SNL 50th. Like,

uh, ad nauseum spade or, well, not really. I mean, it's funner with people that have been there because we talked a little bit about it, but what is your experience of it? You can say anything you want. Oh, well, I wanted to know, I was only there for the concert. Um, so I didn't see, what did you think of the concert? Um,

concert was amazing yeah even with my shitty seats it was amazing i think everyone i talked to had shittier seats and they thought they were gonna yeah i was like hmm maybe this was i'd have a better view at home i said love it's were you at the american girl store for that too he goes now i was at banana republic

That was very close to Radio City. Jealous. Yeah, no, the 50th was a blast to just goof around. But the weekly events of that was that night, what you went to, which was, I think, more fun than people thought. And then the next night, there was like a little toast thing. And then the next night was the show. So I did get a lot of it. That's why I wasn't at the party forever the night of the show.

Because I think it was a Sunday. And also, I'd just done everything with everybody all week. And I thought, there's a three-story party. I don't think I could do it that long. Yeah. Did you go to that thing or did you skip it all? Well, the next night, the Saturday night was the Writers Guild Awards.

Okay. And we won for hacks. Oh, never. Cause doesn't kind of, don't they win kind of everything? I mean, they win a lot of stuff. Well, I'll say this past season. We sure did. Yeah. Where's your hardware. You got a hardware back there somewhere. I mean, yeah, you should throw it right up there in a cabinet. I do have an Emmy, but it's in the other room, but I think it needs to be on camera. Uh,

Also, is it interesting? You go from SNL, you go to Seinfeld and you're like, everywhere feels like

It just couldn't be as good. Then you get on a show like Hacks. It's a great show. And you go, okay, that feels good. Modern Family is a great show. Yeah. Yeah. No, it's... It's a good streak. So when shows are really good... What's the common denominator? There's one common denominator, but I'm not... Let me just think. I wonder what it is. What would it be? Carol, Carol King. No, no, no, no. But anyway, I mean, you must be proud. I mean, it is pretty cool how many great shows you've worked on. So clearly...

You're a valuable commodity. And I would like to negotiate whatever your next deal is. You know, I'm not going to push. You guys know as well as I do, to be in a room with other funny people is just, it's just the greatest. I mean, as much as I love stand-up,

And I saw you recently stayed at. That's right. There's, there's nothing better to me than being in a room with people. It's just the greatest thing. It's like, I always think it's like, you know, you go to a foreign country and say you're there for like a month, like Italy and, you know, everybody's speaking Italian and nobody speaks English. And then like an American comes in and you're like, Oh my God, you know, and you just, to me, that's like,

With any comedian, there's always this kind of just instant bond. And yeah. I'm always happy if I'm at some event, then I see a comedian or a comedian I know that we're just going to look at it all differently and try to just clown on everything going on. That was the same thing. I went to some Oscar thing the other night and Zipf.

zip right to the comedians and then just sort of make fun of the whole situation. Exactly. It's the only comfortable spot. But that's why I like sketch is because I was a standup and then I had never done sketch comedy. So then it was like, Oh, you say that, I say this, we're working together. And then of course you get funnier if you're in a writer's room and people are starting to riff, your brain gets kind of associative into this comedy.

everything's funny or how about this thing? I'll have this. So I think I totally relate to that. If someone wanted to see, I said, Carol Leifer is a great standup. Is the, what would you want them to look at? Hmm. Hmm. Say probably some of your 25 letterments. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I really have a great affection for my first Letterman, which was in 1982. Just because, you know, your first time like, oh, my God, I'm on TV and people are seeing this. And what I dreamed about to me, that's like my most precious kind of memory, because the first. Yeah. It was Fernwood tonight.

And when I came out and saw, does anyone remember Fernwood tonight? Martin Mull. Funny it is. Yeah. Kind of a parody of a talk show. Yeah. Did you ever work with Wendy Liebman?

I'm, yeah, this is like the perfect setup. I am working with Wendy Liebman on March 20th at Comedy and Magic Club. Oh, Comedy and Magic, how great. Also with the great Kathy Ladman. So three funny ladies all together. Yeah, I see Wendy, she's great. Are you publicizing it as three funny ladies or no?

It's a comedy show. I think they're calling it the Ladies of Laughter. Oh, the Ladies of the Night. Dave and I go out as the Pipsqueaks of funniness. The Pipsqueaks twinsies. Two little pixies with a dream. We just did a corporate together. It was pretty fun. We never done one. It was pretty fun. Right? Yeah. How much time did you have to do?

Well, we kind of, Dana kind of tweaked, tinkered with that. This is inside baseball, but we kind of like as a standup, well, I love being out there with a friend just riffing. So I said to the guys in charge, I said, cause they wanted 45 each, you know, and it's hours in a ballroom, all that. And I said, you don't, how about we do 30 each or 25 to 30. And then we come out together and just sort of talk to the audience and they'll yell stuff out. And he goes, you would do that.

Yeah, I'm going to go out on a limb. I'm not going to try to redo the deal. We will come out without a script or our act, you know, and they're yelling out Garth or Tommy boy. And we have, it's a little chaotic, but it, you know, cause we threw it at him late if we could have had a microphone up there or something, but it's just fun because they just, they also want to see a picture of us together or something, you know, whatever it do out together. And it made it more fun for us too.

That must have been a great gig. Yeah, it was super fun. They'd never had comedy and they were like, oh, this is great. So the sound was good. It's really important. You know, the sound is great. That's, that is important. You don't hear muffled jokes. Oh,

I don't go to sound checks, but Jay Pharoah played the night before some casino in West Virginia. I go, do you need a sound check? How does this sound for Jay Pharoah? Oh, it's great. He loved it. So then I go out. First thing I hear is a huge slap back. Hello, hello, hello. I can't stop the show and do a sound check, so it's difficult. You think they do a show every night. You think, I think they know what they're doing. And then you go, oh, they don't. Yeah.

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Requires ADT complete pro monitoring plan and compatible devices. Copyright 2025 ADT LLC. All rights reserved. Dana, it's awards season, which means we're due for some classic red carpet combos like strapless dresses and statement necklaces or acclaimed directors and long acceptance speeches. But you know what look always pairs perfectly together? Discover and cash back.

You see, Discover automatically matches all the cash back you've earned at the end of the first year. Which is a look that will always serve. It pays to slay. It pays to discover. See terms at discover.com slash credit card. Can I tell you a great story about Joan Rivers with that kind of stuff? Yes, we would love it. All right. So I had a corporate gig in New York when I was coming up and they had booked a

Joan Rivers to just open the show and introduce me and leave. So I get there, you know, before her, obviously. And, you know, like you guys, you know, you don't travel with your agent or manager for these. So I show up and I see that there's no spotlight there.

So I say to the guy, the tech guy, yeah, I'm the comedian. I see you have a mic, but you don't have a spotlight. And he looks at me like, oh, sorry, we don't have your spotlight share. You know, like, you know, I'm some diva. It's like, yeah, people need to see me. Yeah. You know, and he just like blew me off.

It was so brilliant. So then Joan Rivers gets there. She says hello to me and she goes, where's the spotlight? And I go, I know. So, and the, you know, the tech guy was like hanging his head in shame. She literally went on stage and she was like,

And she did her bit, you know, cue you doing your Joan Rivers impression. But she goes, listen, I'm going to bring on the next act, but you be very nice to her, all of you, because there's no spotlight and it's very unprofessional. And I mean, I love you, Joan Rivers. May you rest in peace.

We've all had these situations. I was in a club once and I asked them to turn up the mic for the second show because I couldn't, you know, and they just turned it down. It's like just aggression and anger. Sometimes the club owner is a frustrated stand-up and kind of hates you. So we turned it down. You can't get laughs out there. We're like, I don't think they can hear me. Oh, is that why? Yeah, that is why. They can't hear me. People are yelling, I can't hear you.

Did you like the clubs on, you know, touring or going on the road? Or did you just do it? Or, you know, were you in condos with other guys and ventriloquists? The comedy condo was the worst experience of my life ever. I did a gig. It was in Phoenix. It was a comedy condo. I was doing it with my friend Sue Kalinske.

We get there and we go to this disgusting comedy condo. And there's, you know, the other guy there and like, if you want to go, whatever. So about seven o'clock, Sue and I get ready. We're getting ready to go to the gig and we yell up to the guy. Well, it's, you know, we're an hour away from showtime. If you want to come down now, we're going. And then he comes down. He's like, oh, I'm not a comic. I just live here.

Oh, my God. Never heard of that. Yeah. Had just one of their friends living in one of the rooms. I mean, if you don't call 911, then I really don't know what. Just. Oh, my God. For people just. I mean, so you go to these cities and instead of putting in a hotel, they'd have a comedy condo. And there was the main room or the headroom. And if you.

For the headliner. For the best place with its own bathroom. If you come too late, the Ventura LaQuiz is in there with Chuck Wood. You can't look at his puppet. Chuck Wood. Don't even look at Chuck Wood. David Strassman, I think. No, I'm kidding. Openers get the couch sometimes. They're a unique breed. It's not a joke. That is definitely like that Anthony Hopkins movie. Chuck Wood was real. Yeah.

You must have worked for it. Before it gets too late, fellas, can I promote my new book? Yes, let's do it now. We're wrapping up. Oh, my God. We'll put it in the intro, too. Yeah. Yeah. It's called How to Write a Funny Speech for a Wedding Bar Mitzvah Graduation and Every Other Event You Didn't Want to Go to in the First Place.

That's a good title. So come on, it's going to fly. That's a good title. I like it. So that is literally instructive and also humorous, but actually trying to help people with that process. OK, because the title again, how to write a funny speech for a wedding or a mitzvah graduation and every other event you didn't want to go to in the first place.

Okay, I like it. And I want to ask you a question. So has no one written this book? Because I think it's a great idea. Yeah, it is. Yeah, no one has. I wrote it with my comedy writer friend, Rick Mitchell. And no, no comedy writers have written a book like this. A lot of stiffs, you know, from the, you know, corporate headquarters, whatever, have written it. But no, not.

Not funny people. Right. We were tired of going to events where someone just stinks up the room with their horrible speech and we felt like we could give them some help. Well, that's the number one fear, right? It's public speaking or it's way up there. Yes. And most comedians' greatest fear is not speaking in front of them. How sad. Yeah.

And obviously, I just want to, if people want to get this book, you just go on Amazon, it'll be on that. Yeah, it's on Amazon. You can just click. Click a few buttons. And if you don't remember the title, you can say Carol Leifer book. Yeah. Exactly. Carol Leifer book. It's very, very easy. Oh, I wanted to ask you, Spade, because when I saw you, I loved your bit about Amber Alerts.

Yeah, I got an Amber Alert. I think that day that was new. Got an Amber Alert, Dana. And I just want to know how much investigation I'm supposed to be in charge of. What is my job here? What are my duties? If the kid isn't laying on my dashboard, I feel like the search is over. It's a cold case. That crushed it the day. Oh, yeah, I did it the other night. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. That's new. Thank God. Cause I got one that day. You were killing at that point. I just said to the guy, I go, can we get them off now? I mean, I think he's over his time. Give him the light. Yeah. Can we just, is it okay to give him a light? I mean, I don't want to push, but yeah. Cause you were killing so hard. Danny goes, actually, I got a light. I'm going to run in the back row. You always want to sabotage your friend if you can. God, there's guys at the comedy store, they get the light and it means now start your act because I'm like wrapping up. They're like, what else is going on? I'm like, there's no,

What else is going on? You're doing your last bit and getting off. Not like, what else is going on? Let's go into the crowd. Yeah. What else? You're done. That's a good special. What else is going on? All right, Carol, thank you very much. Thanks for being here. Congratulations on your career, your book. Nice to see you.

You're always, she's one of the most likable people that you know in this scene. I think you have that reputation, but I'm always happy to see you. And you're very kind. I'm just going to say it. I just love you guys. You're just so, you're both so incredibly talented and I enjoy your talent. This has been a presentation of Odyssey. Please follow, subscribe, leave a like, a review, all this stuff, smash that button, whatever it is, wherever you get your podcasts.

Fly on the Wall is executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Jenna Weiss-Berman of Odyssey, and Heather Santoro. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman.