Danny DeVito
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So we just want to let you know that Danny DeVito, who directed the movie Matilda, the great smash hit from in the 1990s, is going to be in concert with the New Jersey Symphony March 22nd at the State Theater in New Brunswick. And it's a beautiful theater. I played there before. There's a live orchestra, the movie with a beautiful print, and you'll see it live. And then Danny will narrate like he did in the movie live. He'll be there. So March 22nd in New Brunswick.

The State Theater, Danny DeVito and Matilda. If you want tickets, go to njsymphony.org slash Matilda or just call 1-800-ALLEGRO, which is also 1-800-255-3476.

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

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

Where would I find a towel? That's a toughie when it's because they're naked. Well, it's like the 1800 time you say on the towel rack. Yeah. Thank you. I was going to look there. People don't even think hotels sometimes just go, Hey, I'll go there. I'll get an Airbnb. So, um, you won't regret it. I'm a nibbler Dana. And I think you are too, but you always know me that I just have to keep the energy going. Um,

And I think because I learned from my dad, pistachios are a good source of just, you know, nibble, wake you up. They're always delicious. I actually named a character in a movie I did called Master of Disguise. The lead character's name is pistachio. That's how much I love pistachios. Ooh. Yeah. Well, wonderful pistachios have literally come out of their shells. It's the same taste. It's delicious, but-

It's a lot less work. As you know, cracking them open can be a little bit of a job. Less cracking, more snacking is what I say. That's what I say. That's what you say. And I'm going to use that when my wife goes to the store. Wonderful pistachios. No shells flavors come in a variety of award-winning flavors, including chili roasted. Honey roasted. Honey roasted.

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

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One of our old favorites who we both had worked with, Danny DeVito. He was on SNL with you and me. He did my very first, I'm pretty sure, Gap Girls. That one only had me and Sandler in it, but he played our boss. And I know he did Hans and Franz with you. Hans and Franz and Church Lady. And he's a five-time host. So he's part of that club. Loves Saturday Night Live.

He's about as likable a person as you could ever spend time with. There's something about him that is so sweet and fun. We go over his penguin character, Batman. Um, that was so brilliant and hilarious. The Tim Burton movie, um, Batman returns, I believe, uh,

And, um, Oh yeah. We talk about, uh, his early days, one flow of the cuckoo's nest, uh, romancing the stone. He had so many big, big things. And then of course we get into twins taxi. Uh, always sunny, always sunny in Philadelphia. Yeah.

Yeah, it's quite a career. Dude has done a lot and he produces and he directs. We just talk about a lot of stuff with him. And the guy is a good talker and he knows a lot about New York and when he started and he gets into all those crazy stories about Jim Carrey, Andy Kaufman. Yeah. Going to see Andy Kaufman do stand up. Yeah. A lot of fun stuff. So this is a fun one and have a good time with them.

But I was just thinking, doing this in the 1960s, we might have waited for Yul Brynner to come on. That would have been fun. Yul Brynner would be the first guest. Podcast guest in 1965. We'd follow him up with Steve McQueen. Yeah, you put him on. He does a little dance.

Does the accent. He talks about doing the jump, but he didn't really do it in The Great Escape. Didn't really, yeah. All the stuff that he does, you know. I had an apartment in New York once in the 60s. I got on the bulletin board of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts where I went to school. And, you know, I was looking for apartments. Everybody was always, you know, scrounging for like,

No money, but we had no money. So they had this bulletin board. Anyway, I went to an address and it was in the weirdest place. It was on Madison Avenue in like 57th or 8th Street. 645 was the address I remember. And yeah. Wow. And I walk in the door. It's a really shitty building. Now it's all, you know, totally turned into what New York is, you know.

And I go in the building, and the first thing I saw was a giant picture of a Buell printer. Oh, man. And it was a little shitty, yeah, a little shitty hallway-like kind of thing. And anyway, it worked out because I got the apartment. It was like the second flight up. It had an elevator, actually, in the building. A very, very, very old school. Yeah. And, of course, 16th.

It was 64 or something like that. So what was your rent? Do you remember your rent? Yes, $50 a month. $50 a month. And it was a one-bedroom apartment. And the bedroom was a living room, bedroom kind of situation. It had a nice bathroom and a kitchen. And the bedroom had windows that looked out over the tops of...

buildings in New York. So it was like one of those, it was like if you were doing a play or a movie about New York and you said like outside, like what the cyclorama would look like or today what you would put in the background of your movie.

It was all the stove, you know, the exhaust pipes and the tops of buildings and railings and all that. It looked like you could do a West Side Story on the roofs. Did people hang out of their windows going, hey, what's with the fucking noise over here? No, no, they weren't doing that. It was like more like...

It wasn't like enclosed, like if there were buildings that went up. Because in that area, you know, at that time, it was just a top. So you had a great panorama of looking east. But no, you didn't see a river or anything. I was on Madison Avenue. But to actually have that address at that time was like,

Amazing. Fucking crazy. Because I put these other glasses I see better far away. That's great. Right in the heart of Midtown, right? Yes. Right in the heart. And the thing about it is that at that time, a lot of people don't know this, Madison Avenue and Fifth Avenue were two-way streets. I mean, you guys weren't even born.

Uh, I, I go back. I remember Yul Brynner. I look, I mean, David doesn't know Yul Brynner. Yes. You remember him. Yeah. Oh yeah. I remember the King and I was a poster. But if you imagine Madison Avenue being a two way street and, uh, you know, you know, New York very well. And fifth Avenue also, I used to walk up from 30th and go to 57th or eighth where it lived.

And it was a two-way street. It was really, there weren't any horses and carts though. You'd be happy to hear. You weren't that far back? It wasn't that far. Oh, good. All right. We're in the modern. Were you walking around with Casting Call magazine? I was doing what we used to get was show business and what would they call it? Backstage.

Oh, backstage. You guys did it a whole other way. It was just, we'd buy, you know, it was never in the magazine. We'd buy these papers that came out once a week, show business and

and uh backstage and in there it would be all the casting that was going on and we would you know we would go to uh uh on the corner i think it was 47th and uh 7th was uh howard johnson's and uh everybody would meet in there it was like you're that you're going in you know take up space and have coffee

and read the, to see what the latest thing. Yeah. Yeah. To see what was going on. And, uh, Danny, did you ever find when you auditioned for these things at the beginning, I found this, that you would audition and then you would hear through the grapevine. They already have offers out to stars, but they're just looking for backups or it's always the same case.

So it's been that since the beginning of time. And the other thing about, like, I'm talking about auditioning for off-Broadway, off-Broadway, regional theater, anything that you could get. And, you know, sometimes you get lucky and get an audition at the public theater.

you know, and, you know, get a tiny part in Shakespeare in the park, you know, like it's not literally a spear carrier, but you might have a few lines. Like I played,

Once I got, I played the doctor in the Mary Weiser, the doctor's servant, sorry, in the Mary Weiser Windsor, you know, and the best, those were the best shows to get because they literally paid man. Oh, that was like, you would wind up with 190 something dollars a week in, in those in, in a Joe Papps.

It was a different contract. No strike needed there. Four months of rent. Off-Broadway was great, man. Off-Broadway was $68 a week, $70 a week. That's what I made on SNL. SNL didn't exist then.

Did it? Did Lorne Michaels exist? I mean, that's what I tell people. Existed. Well, Lorne Michaels always existed. He was a teenager. And he still exists. There is no one. When did SNL start? When did SNL start? That's a good question. 75. It was like 70-something. 75. 75, the 50th is next year. Yeah. Anniversary. Yeah. So 75, I was already...

in California by then I came, I'd gone through off Broadway and all those things, um, earlier and, and, and, you know, uh, did a children's theater in Massachusetts. I've done, you know, did all that kind of stuff. And then I, I got lucky in the, in the, in 1971 ish or two around there. And I got a part off Broadway, uh,

And played Martini in Cuckoo's Nest. Oh, applause. There should be fucking applause. Then I stayed in that play for almost a year. It ran at the Mercer Arts Center. That was cool. And then Milos saw it and everybody saw it.

And I got lucky and got a, you know, Miloš. And then I got the movie. And after the movie opened, I moved out. Wait, Danny. California. My question was, when you do a play, you're not guaranteed a part in the movie, are you? No, you're not guaranteed anything in this. Our business is, you must know this.

It's not, there's no, there are no guarantees. There's no anything. Yeah. I mean, once in a while, like for instance, you could imagine like Brando giving a performance like he did in street car. And then, you know, you've got to be a, you know, you have to have your head in the sand to not cast him in, in the movie. So, right. Same thing with, you know, Vivian. They're not going to get someone from the bachelor.

And they're not going to like, yeah, he's going to be the first choice. Yeah, I starred in Hans and Franz the Musical. I'm sorry. Go ahead. I want to hear more about Hans and Franz the Musical. Hans and Franz the Musical. What I was going to ask you, Danny, is a philosophical question. Usually when people have their struggling years,

struggling years and then have hyper superstar success, which I'm going to put you in that category. They look back at those early years and go, those are some of the best days of my life. Do you feel that? Or did it suck when you look back on the struggle? I never, I don't, first of all, I don't, I mean, unless I'm doing something like talking to,

you guys like, or something where, you know, you don't think about that as much, but you, you, you do think like, you know, those days were struggles, but not, you know, not the best. They were not the, those were the days. I, I think,

the toughest part about that getting started was, you know, like you guys got started, like when you, you know, you, you, you hit television or I don't know what your history is, but how, how much you did before, before I met you at the, when I did the church lady, you were so, but, uh, you were there, you were, you were there. Yeah.

Oh, I remember. Well, you you hosted a couple of times. Just so funny. And when I did that drum solo in the dress, you were egging me on, you know, and that was my best drum solo on television. There you go. You see, you have to have a coach. You were good. I had 10 years of anonymity before I got SNL. David had David got a movie right out of high school.

But, um, I know, but then I, Danny, thank you for asking. I did a police Academy movie, police Academy for the good one. And I, and then I came back and turn something down. I thought I was kind of a big deal. And then I lost all my heat for three years and had to grind it back. And it's so fucking sickening to even think about, but it all worked out. But anyway,

But like you were saying in the beginning, when you were struggling, I think like all of us, you don't really know any better. And you know you're taking a risk by going into this world of movies and TV and theater. So you can only really look back and think, God damn, how did I get through that? But at the time, $100 is a lot. You get a little part, it's a lot. You know, you're just sitting with your buddies at the coffee shop. It's such a long shot to make it that it's probably...

Once you make it, you look back and you go, God, that was tough. But at the time it's tough, but you don't, I didn't really notice how tough it was. You don't notice it. No, you just, well, you're, you're focused on like, you're, you're focused on getting the job. Yeah. So basically that was what, what was going on with me. I was like, I would, uh, uh, I would read those papers that, you know, and at the time, excuse me, in the sixties, I didn't have an equity card.

So I just got out of school and like the way they did it was you would read in backstage that such and such was casting something. And you go, okay. And they're casting over on 57th Street by Carnegie Hall, somewhere near one of those buildings down the block, whatever it was. And casting was, say, Tuesday. Okay, but you didn't get in.

until the end of the you got it if you didn't have an equity card they saw everybody you know they would they're because everybody's looking for the right person to play the part hopefully uh if and especially if they're not yes i mean maybe they already had the lead cast or that's the way they raised the money or then those things but you would you would wait up in the

You'd go at like 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and maybe the line was less, and you could – you waited, and then in the end, the very end, they would let the non-equity people get in to audition, and then they'd see everybody. And as a matter of fact, the first play that I ever got, I did at –

I think it was 1968 or so, seven, the first off-Broadway show. Because I had done regional theater. Well, I toured with a play once that came out of school that was kind of cast in... We went to two theaters. We went to the Eugene O'Neill Foundation where they... The playwrights thing in 60-something, 64. And...

And then like in 68, I actually did that. I went to the, to one of those auditions and where they make you wait until the very end. And I peeked my head into the, you know, I, it was this big, big door and one of those big old pre-war buildings. And the, like it was, I think it might've been on like near 57th street. And I, I walk up and it's a giant door and it was nobody there. Cause I had gone and come back. The line was really long and,

Anyway, long story short, I stuck my head in. And there was an actor, a director, and a writer, and a producer sitting at a table really far away in this big, empty room. It looked like a rehearsal room. And I just popped my head in. And, you know, you still seeing people kind of thing. And the actor, a guy named Alan Garfield,

You remember, you know, James Garfield's son. No, no. I don't know who his dad was. His name was Alan Garfield, but he was, you know him, Dave? No, I know Garfield, the cat. Okay. Anyway, look,

The guy literally at the table, like across the room, turns around and said, that's the guy who should play the part. Whoa. They were trying to talk him into, yeah. He didn't want to do this part. It wasn't a huge part, but it was a good part. And I stuck my head in the door and the guy and the actor, not the director and the producers and the writer or whatever. He said, there's a guy who should play this part.

And I backed out of the room or something, and they came and got me. And I went in and I read the lines, did the thing. I had never seen the script before. Just, you know, those things where they give you the sides. Yeah. And I got a part in a play called Shoot Anything With Hair That Moves. Of course. Huge success. You know Rosetta Stone, the most trusted language learning program?

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I just think of the 70s and the films of the 70s and Cuckoo's Nest. And of course that play. Yeah. Don't shoot anything that has hair. And the friends that you made, Jack Nicholson and Michael Douglas and your class, those 70s guys.

That all became and their lifelong friends. What's the deal with those guys? Are they fun or do you like them? They're really fun. Yeah, they're good to work with. Yeah, Jack's the coolest guy out there. Jack was like a guy from Jersey. He actually lived, we were born in the same hospital. Figured that.

Well, I'll be damned. Well, hey. I'll be damned. How about that? That's what Jack would say. I'll be damned. Born in the same hospital. Yeah. How do you like that? Me and Dave born in the same hospital. I don't do a good looking accent. Let's see. And then Michael, I met actually in the 60s at the Eugene O'Neill.

Playwrights Conference up there where that play that I was going through town with, we opened the festival that year and that's where we met. Not only good guys, but really fun to work with. Once we got going, we had a couple of shots to work together, which was really good.

But, you know, it's when people are looking out for you because the business is like very difficult. And when people are looking out for you, as well as, you know, your buddies and know that

what the scoop is, then you, you know, you'd be fortunate to have those guys as friends. You're lucky. You're all good too, because it's, it's, it's hard to help each other out or recommend someone, but if everybody's good, those, you know, all three of you. So it's not crazy that you would all be in another movie or that you would work together because you keep bringing, bringing it, which is hard to do.

It's all about work. The work. Yeah. Just keep working. Yeah. Keep having, having and having a good time doing it. Our theme here, uh, casually SNL and, uh, you hosted five times. It's very rare. I have a clock to host five times, five o'clock you and John Goodman and a couple others. When you host that show, as you know, you got a pretty much cold read, uh,

55 scripts over four hours, basically. And I remember thinking at the time when you came in in 86 or 87, damn, this guy can cold read. Were you known for that? But you were like nailing it, you know, over and over again. I don't, you know, pretty cool to watch as a young performer. Well, it was a lot of fun to sit in that room with all you crazy people and have that pile of scripts in front of you and just go through them.

I mean, that's like, you know, the opportunity to have everybody there pitching what they thought was best and what you felt comfortable with. That's the main thing. I think that's key, right, for, would you say, like for the hosts to be comfortable with all that material, you know, pick the ones that are the ones that suit you best. It's a lucky thing, like to have,

that pack of, you know,

troubadours all sitting around the table you know it's like old school showbiz kind of yeah old school you know it's like yeah i could imagine what it was like you know when the marx brothers were running around all the theaters trying out material you know that that would be the same kind of uh thing they they they just go do they suffer people through two hours or three hours of material and

and then pick the ones that they like best. Yeah, Jerry Lewis and Dean Martin did some TV shows in there, Don Pardo showed me, said to me, and they would just go up to the director and cut his tie off with a scissor. This is Jerry Lewis in the 50s. And they would both just push the piano over, like destroy the piano. They were the anarchists then, the crazy people.

But one thing about you, I have to say, so we get to it, was on Hans and Franz, when we got you in there as like a pit bull, over-the-top Austrian guy who was out of his mind, and you kept... We would berate the audience, the imaginary, and you would start berating them, and then you'd start attacking the camera, and we had to keep holding you back. That was one of the funniest...

I had on that show with you in that sketch. Yeah. Hysterical. Cause you committed so fucking hard. Yeah. I think sometimes the task of the director for me is whole, you know, sitting on me, holding me back, get me away from the, just try to turn the burners down a little bit. You know, once they get going, I guess that's what happened. Burners down.

It still happens that way. Well, that's what Arnold told me about you. He said, you know, you got to keep Danny on his feet. Keep Danny on his feet because his energy goes up. Keep him on a short leash. A short leash. Otherwise, he gets going, he gets away at the leash. And you have to follow him and get him and bring him back into the scene because the emotions get so high with Danny. It's funny about it. With Arnold, Arnold and I...

thrust together by Ivan Reitman, who just passed away. Twins. He called me and said, how would you like to be Arnold Schwarzenegger's brother? I said, I'll jump at the chance. I thought that was a great idea. Once we got together, it was like we had a great chemistry. We were breaking balls constantly. It was like a kind of like, you know, a...

You know, he's so formidable, you know, and he's got a great sense of humor. He does. Oh, yeah. Like, he's always...

doing all kinds of like you know crazy ass shit and he always had a pack of guys around him like uh franco and and uh franco colombo yeah all these guys and these other bodybuilders and so it was like a pack of it was like a pack of bros it was similar you know going into like that with the you know uh

as a host of Saturday Night Live, going into this pack of like crazy people that were always, you know, that had a second hand, a shorthand and, and, and got along the way you guys did. I don't, you know, at least when, when I was around you, we were always, you know, fucking around, having a good time. And so it was a similar kind of thing with, with Arnold. I'd go in and they would all be these guys,

Seriously pumping iron and doing shit and talking about – Protein powder. All of a sudden, a kind of a wrecking ball comes in and starts banging into – Yeah. It was fun. It was a lot of fun. Were they going to do a triplets? Yeah, we were going to do it and then two – I always go by the Super Bowl because I was in Atlanta –

doing a movie and it was Super Bowl Sunday and I was just getting over COVID. I was stuck in a room for two weeks and the news came that Ivan passed away on that day. And so this is going to be three years now that he's gone. Yeah, two years. Brilliant director. Yeah, it was a drag.

He was a lot of fun and made a big difference in my life. Yeah, I was told that. But we were going to do triplets. We were going to do triplets. We had a script going. Everything was going. And then when he passed, his family didn't want to continue with doing it. So Arnold and I are working on other things together.

That's awesome. We love Arnold. Yeah, he's a cool guy. He's a good guy. You know, Dana, I think we have a connection. We've been friends for a long time. And for this episode of Fly on the Wall, we've partnered with eHarmony.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

you know he's so funny i had we had a great time together and he was just off the charts bananas hysterical yeah i mean that energy in there was like it don't get any easier that's that you know that's the way you know the way things things things go you know like um

They, you know, you have to always adjust as like we do. Did you have the role that got away, Danny? Or maybe a conflict that you had to do another movie instead? No, I had choices that I couldn't do. I hadn't had one of those that that was really substantial that, you know, you could look back and say, you know.

I had roles that I desperately wanted and got, which I had to work hard to get. If you can't imagine how everybody holds out, you get a part and somebody says, the last minute you get a part and it's the one you wanted. And that's really the ones I think about. Once it got away, I don't know. Were you going to be Costanza? Yeah.

No, no, no. I think like, you mean like in a Seinfeld? Yeah. No, I, I wasn't. I, they, they, they just, uh, yeah. Uh, when, uh, yeah, I was still, I don't know what I was doing at the time. I, I, when, when I did a movie, I did a movie called the ratings game, which is, uh, was done for Showtime. It was the first movie that I directed. And, uh,

And I cast in that movie as a, it was his, one of his first things on camera, Jerry Seinfeld. I don't know if he had done anything before this, but I cast him as a, an agent. And coincidentally the, there were a couple of like character, really wild characters in the movie.

I cast Michael Richards in the same movie. Oh, really? Yeah. Wow. I didn't know that they would later be teamed up in Seinfeld, but this was like in, it was in 83. When did Seinfeld go on? Like 90, 93, two, three, four. I'm sorry. Something like that. So, so 10 years earlier, I did a movie called the ratings game. And, uh,

Jerry Seinfeld and Michael Richards were in it. Did Jerry ask you questions about how to direct? How do you want me? How do you want me to play this scene? Did he ever say that to you? No, I don't. He's pretty kind of serious in real life. I think, by the way, which Batman did you work with? I can't remember. Batman returns. Who was the Batman again? Oh, no. Oh, yeah.

I love my, I do. I'm not just cause you're on our show right now. I love your penguin. I loved it. You're you're Oswald penguin. I thought, didn't you have fun doing that? I mean, your, your getup was so crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I had, I had fun doing that. That was, uh, uh, that was one of the ones that I really wanted. And I, I, you know, and I met Tim and, uh, we had a great, uh,

you know, a conversation about it. And I knew he had done a lot of drawings and we sat in his office and looked at it. And I really, really wanted to play that. And the makeup was the first makeup was I was in the chair for almost five hours. And then we got it down to three and,

But we stayed around three, three and change. And it was amazing. And it was the thing about, I liked about that was, you know, like I said, I like to go big. Yeah.

And boy, oh boy, Oswald was written like an opera. He could go, you could take this guy, you know, I mean, he just, he was slapping his flippers off the walls, baby. You know, I mean, your bird is going to fly. He was the wicked witch. He was all of it, all in one. Yes, yes. Crazy character. It's hard to,

Yeah. And that was after, okay. That was after I'd work with, I did the, you know, we did romancing the stone jewel of the Nile. Great. And then more of the roses with Michael and Kathleen. And I, I was just about thinking about what we were going to do again, because I was trying to pull a Fritz Lang, you know, where you, as a director, you ask, you know, the same people in the, in all of your movies, but they play different parts. Yeah.

And, and then Batman came along and it's odd the way things, you know, emerge. Most of the movies that I've done, um, you know, came out of the blue and I was very, you're very fortunate. You know, I was, I was going to direct a pilot in, uh, I was sitting in the, in the commissary of Paramount and, and, uh,

I was just about to make the deal. I was talking to the writer and I was talking to the producer and it was at Paramount. I was directing this pilot and I had a yellow pad full of notes about the pilot script. And I knew I was getting really steely daggers from the writer who was also the producer.

And a woman, this was in the days we didn't have cell phones and stuff. A woman from the, like the commissary, I was in the commissary all the time because the taxi, we, that's where we shot taxi. She came over to me and she said, you have a phone call. It was like the old Hollywood day. She didn't bring it to the table, but I, I got up and went over to where the phone was. And I, and I, it was, it was Michael Douglas. Yeah.

And he rescued me from doing that pilot because we had shot Romancing the Stone already. No. Yes. Romancing the Stone and...

He said, what are you doing? I heard you're going to do a pilot. I said, yeah, man, I'm struggling through this meeting right now. He said, well, you can't do that. We got to go on the road, man. We're going all over the world to promote the movie. And I said, I love you, baby. Yeah, get me out of here. I love you. You rescued my ass.

All right. I got a question. Go. Did you ever go see, you were on a show called taxi. You might not remember, but did you ever see, uh, Andy Kaufman go do standup just like at the comedy store? Yeah. And how was that? And,

That was, that was bizarre. Yeah. Bizarre. Yeah. But I went to see him do that and I saw him and I went out to eat at the restaurant. He waited, he busboyed out in the Valley. It was after he was on taxi. Yeah. While he was on the show, he busboyed out in, uh, I love it on, uh, I think I'm not sure. Valley. Yeah. It was a good, uh,

Might have been Katz's. No, no. What the hell? In the Valley. It wasn't Art's belly. It was the other one. It's closed now. Jerry's? It was on Ventura Boulevard. Jerry's is, yeah. Jerry's, yeah. That might have been it. Jerry's. Yeah. And, you know, we went out. We had like a couple of us from the show. I think Tony might have been with me.

Judd might have come. We just one night went out and we knew he was working. And so we went and ate and, you know, had conversations with like you would have with the bus boy. Andy's nowhere around. Right. He's the bus boy. He was the bus boy. It was like really great. I mean, that that was that guy was like.

Uh, yeah, we had some fun. His dressing was right next to mine. We would, uh, he was, uh, he was hysterical one day, uh, somebody was delivering a package and it was a woman and he started yelling at her because she, she was, uh, I don't know, UPS. So I can't remember what,

Maybe it was the government. I don't know what the fuck it was, but she's walking in. She's got a uniform on. She's delivering a package to somebody and he tells her that she should be home. You know, she's taking a man's job and he booked her into a wrestling match. I was there for that one.

right in the hallway both of them turning red you know what i mean like being chokeholds we had a break on part a couple of times you're so slow you could do that crazy about that i don't think you could actually i mean you could do that you could do yeah i don't know there was no like

you know, again, if that was a, it was, that was today, somebody would be out with a cell phone and the next thing you know, it would be online and people would comment about it and they would say, you know, but I'll tell you the woman that he was fighting was as big as he was. And she did a good job, man. He had his ass down big time. You know, it was, it was, uh,

I don't know if Tony, I always wondered if Tony always had a little camera with him, Danza. And I was wondering if he, you know, I have one of those little, always had a camcorder. Eight millimeter. Did, were you cast before Andy? Were you cast first? Or did you have any hand in the casting? No, I think Andy might've been cast. I was, I was the last, I think I might've been one of the last members to be cast. Uh, and the, the, uh, the, the,

Story was that I was told later was that my part was actually written as a, like a voice that came over the loud speaker, like kind of like Carlton, the doorman. Yeah. I remember Carlton, all the Nat guy. And, and then ultimately, you know, I came in and did my famous audition where I, I said, I said to them,

before I, they just introduced me and I said to Brooks and Weinberger and

Dan, Stan, Danny Davis was there. All the guys sitting around. I said, one thing I want to know before I start, who wrote this shit? And I threw it on the table and it was like a split second of like, am I going to get, not even, you know, a nanosecond. Yeah. And then they just fucking piss themselves. Right. And then it was one of those auditions where you,

You couldn't say anything. You couldn't do anything wrong. I'd say, and, and I'd get a laugh. It wasn't, yeah, it was, uh, that was the, the casting director was Joel Thurm.

He said, you got to come do this. And I say, yeah, man. Okay, cool. What a fucking score. That was a score. That was. Yeah. What was weirder working with Andy Kaufman on taxi or then doing the man on the moon with Jim Carrey doing Andy Kaufman? I think we're with Jim was it was like really off the charts. That was the most fun. Like I've had fun like on.

Sure. I'm really fortunate. I had fun on a lot of the movies. I never had one of those, oh, fuck, that was awful movies. I always had these really quirky kind of things. Being on the set with Jim Carrey, sorry about that.

Oh, Jim.

Anyway, he was busting my balls constantly. And Milos is then, see, it's infectious because then what would happen, we were having fun, but Milos should go to me,

You got to go to the Maddenville trailer. I'm losing time. My car, I got to get, you know, I am the studio is going to be on my ass. Yeah. And I'm going, and, and, uh, Jim, uh, Tony, Tony, come on out. And he's gone, you know, but it was fun. It was, even though it was like, you know, and I've got a lot of friends who worked on that movie and we still talk about that experience because, uh,

Pam Abdi was my assistant at the time. She was there and knowing that I was going through what was going on. I mean, he did things like, okay, we're acting in the movie, but I'm also the producer, one of the producers of the movie. And so he would get mad at the, and he pulled his car up to my trailer and went up, you know, he's got the little,

metal steps yeah the car up put it in gear or something locked the keys i couldn't get out of my trail teamsters had to come with a crane to get the car you know it was like one of those it was a crazy crazy time i love jim carrey jim carrey is fucking great just just the fact that he committed that did he get nominated for best actor for that or no i don't know we had a really brilliant uh

It was a, he was brilliant in that part. And, uh, you know, uh, and, and seriously, uh, uh, would turn it on and off when he wanted. So that was like one of those things where whenever he came to the set, he was always in character. But if you see him like, you know, you know, off, like I went to his house or something like that for a,

You know, some thing. He was like, cool. He wasn't, you know, he wasn't like a serial killer off the... Yeah.

he's very sort of a quiet sweet guy quiet sweet guy but then turned into like Tony Clifton I love it which was like Tony Clifton is a whole other that was fucked up we shot at a place called Chasen's down on I remember that that place okay he spread there was some kind of I don't know union strike or something there was something going on he wrote like

big letters like, you know, in red ink, I mean, red spray paint, uh, all over the building. And I had, I had to repaint, I had to repaint the entire building. It's like a Farley. It's like having a crazy person on the side. Like Chris, I can't imagine what it was. I, I, I always loved Chris and, uh, because he would take it to that, you know,

Oh, yeah. He was always the one. Oh, my God. Same kind of thing. Just a lot of attention, a lot of craziness. Chris. Lovable, sweet guy like Jim. But they really liven things up. There's always a story after the fact. There's always a story.

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Zaina, I got to ask Danny about an Always Sunny question because we can't let you go without talking about Always Sunny. One question of mine is, I don't see all the episodes, but I see a lot of it on Instagram, which I don't know if you know this, but when they show TikTok and Instagram clips, they're always so fucking filthy. I'm like, are these from the real show? Are they getting away with

All this stuff? Are they filthy? I don't know. I mean, like, just they're very R-rated. And I thought, I mean, people love that fucking show. They love it. Yeah, the show is a little, you know, I don't know what you're talking about, but we have had some innuendos. Well, they're hilarious. Yeah, there's some innuendos, for sure. Yeah.

I'm not sure if they're even innuendos. They're just, uh, straight ahead. But yeah, they're, it's so funny. And, uh, it's, it's such a long run. So it sounds like a gift. I'm sure just being with fun. They all look fun as shit. I don't know that well, but no, they're all, they're all, you know, uh, uh,

when I got this show, uh, that, you know, Landgraf was my buddy and he showed me this show. FX. Uh, and then I met them and they were, you know, just the way they are. And, uh, the same cat, you know, the three oddballs. And then I met Caitlin and she's, she's like hysterical. Hilarious. But, um,

Yeah, they're a lot of fun to go to work with. It's a good job. It's been on there forever. It keeps giving. It keeps giving. And now Matilda we have to talk about. Yeah. Matilda came to me. Yeah. Which you directed the movie. I did. I directed the movie, and I saw Mara Wilson in the movie Mrs. Doubtfire.

And she was a little bit older when I met her. Perfect for Matilda. And we shot the movie and it was great. We had a great time. That was like, that was fun. That was a hundred, hundreds of kids.

There was no CG. We added kids and all that stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Real kids. It was really great. Me on the stage with a bullhorn. Yeah. Do this, do that. You know, like, and get your finger out of your nose. We're shooting. Okay. Wrangling cats. Yeah. Yeah. And so now we're doing it on.

we've taken the sound out. You know, you've seen these things. Everybody's does it with ET and does it with star Wars and does it with back to the future. I took the soundtrack out and David Newman is going to conduct the, the Philharmonic. It's a symphony. Okay. Okay. New Jersey symphony orchestra. And we're doing that on March 22nd in New Jersey.

at the state theater in new Brunswick. And it's really exciting to do because here's the thing. You take the sound out. Okay. Not just the music out, but I, I narrate the movie as well as play a part in it. So when I, when I'm narrating,

I'm on stage actually with the symphony orchestra. It's really intimidating, but it's really fun. Yeah. And, and you're watching the, you know, the streamer go by on, I got a little monitor with the movie. He's conducting the score. The people are watching the movie. I've got a brand new print and it's just beautiful. The print is like gorgeous. And, and then when the stream, when it's my turn to narrate,

talk he conducts it's like being conducted you talk over it? in the movie I play the part of Wormwood

Mr. Wormwood. And I also narrate the movie. So, cause I tried to find somebody to narrate the movie, but I, I being the egotist I am, I couldn't. Yeah. Embarrassing. Anybody else. And, uh, and it's kind of a trip to see, you know, you play the part, you're narrating the movie and I've got, uh, Ria of course plays Mrs. Wormwood. She's going to come on the 22nd.

And I've got Pam Ferris coming over from England. She played the Trunchbull. It's really astounding how many kids love the Trunchbull. Miss Trunchbull. Miss Trunchbull. She was great. Really, really tough.

By the way, I don't hear about a lot of these things, Danny. You don't hear about the symphony, maybe with a Star Wars or something, but this is a really interesting thing to do. Yeah. Fun, challenging situation. Yeah. David Newman, who wrote the score, we've done this once before. We did it once before. We did it a few years ago.

with a orchestra from the East Coast, not New Jersey. And it worked out really great. It's fun. It's a fun night because you get to, you know, but you're right. Usually it's done with more like Back to the Future-y kind of E.T. blockbuster crazy movies. This one is, it's got a lot of music in it, so it's fun. Who wrote the score? David Newman.

He's one of the, yeah, the Newman pack. As soon as the Newmans were born, the father was the head of 20th Century Fox Music, did a lot of the scores of all the old movies that we love. And his brother, they have the whole, you always see the Newman name on. And then David...

David scores, Thomas Newman, Randy Newman. They're all related. These guys, they were all like, as soon as they're born, they give them a violin or a little baby. So the first thing the Newman's do. Yeah. Even, even, uh, Eric Newman is his son. Randy's son produces Narcos, a lot of movies. So everyone's in the biz. Yeah. Everybody's in the biz.

So this should be a really good night. Sounds great. Yeah. Are you guys in the East Coast? Are you here? We are in California, but if I was out there, I'd crash that party. Yeah, crash that party because we're going to have, yeah. The State Theater in New Brunswick is new for me. I've never been there. I think I played there. The Symphony Orchestra. You did? Yeah.

I believe so. How many seats is that about? 2,000, 2,500? It's 1,800. Okay. I think I played there. Yeah. Yeah. Great theater. This would be really fun. I love live music and live symphony orchestra. And then to have you there narrating and seeing the film. Yeah. That sounds fun. Yeah. I would go see it, everybody. Package deal. Yeah.

Are you on the East Coast right now, Danny? Yeah, I'm on the West Coast. We're probably right around the corner from the West Coast. I don't know. Yeah. I'll wave. Anyway, it's been a pleasure, Danny. Good luck with this. Thanks. 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, Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment, and Heather Santoro. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman.