Yes, I have actually stayed at Airbnbs from time to time. And truth be told, I do really like them. I'm being totally honest right now that I've had great experiences with them. Yeah. I mean, you can have your look at you go get your own place, get your own pool, your own living room. You're not going to walk in an elevator. You're not going to see people when you're walking around in your undergarments. Yeah.
Yes. And if you don't understand what we're talking about, you should go online. What we're saying is you have a house with a kitchen and a bathroom and it's just for you, tailored for you. You liked your Airbnb over a hotel. Yes. And I do think I've had relatives stay nearby and sometimes it's very nice for them to do an Airbnb and have a little house and they're not underfoot. The last thing you want is your house guest to say, excuse me, um,
Where would I find a towel? That's a toughie when it's because they're naked. Well, it's like the 1800 time you say on the towel rack. Yeah. Thank you. I was going to look there. People don't even think hotels sometimes just go, hey, I'll go there. I'll get an Airbnb. So you won't regret it. Let me just say something about Alan's White Bell.
He is like a famous writer from Saturday Night Live, and he was a huge part of the first cast. And the first cast is always going to be the first cast. They'll always be the greatest, right? Mm-hmm.
And what happened, and he really breaks it down. Another thing I like to say, stay in your lane, break it down. He breaks down that when they got on the show, it was kind of innocent. No one knew, they weren't rock stars. That's why they call them not ready for primetime players. And then at a given point, I think it was John Belusi did Animal House and became a movie star. And so the entire culture of the show changes because of this, which is a fascinating thing. And he goes in detail about that. You can picture, he comes back to the set
And they're in those little tiny, he's on SNL. And now he's like so much bigger than everyone. And now he's back to doing sketches and there had to be attitudes in this. And, you know, some people were on drugs, some people weren't. But I think that once that hit, he said it changed the dynamic. Yeah. And it's also, Alan worked very closely with Gilda Radner. And that's fun to hear because she's somewhat...
american sweetheart yeah maybe the most likable i don't know she's just brilliant and he he really talks fondly about her in great detail he also he did a movie that he wrote which was such a hyped movie with a hyped cast called north and it fucking bombed and uh was john lovitz in it it's so brutal because the interesting thing about showbiz out here is that no one knows jack shit you can't
There's almost no for sure hits. And so smartest people, directors, writers, cast, and you just can't say this movie will be great. And people just say pass.
And it's unbelievable. I can't believe they didn't crack the code yet. I actually starred in a movie right after that, 1995. Nobody Knows Jack Shit. And that even bombed. That movie didn't do well? Nobody Knows Jack Shit. And it even bombed. And you played Jack Shit? Show business. On the poster? Yeah, I was Jack Shit. I looked kind of like Joe Dirt. I was kind of like, hey, I'm Jack Shit. Jack Shit and Joe Dirt should hang out. Hey, man. And Jack Shit, are you Clueless? Yeah.
I don't know. Even Jack shit. I don't know myself. That was the cold open in the movie. It was on a mountain retreat. There were cowboys. Anyway, it doesn't matter. It's on live streaming. I think it's on Pluto. Maybe Pluto. Is that a planet or a channel? It doesn't even know it's a network. That's how obscure it doesn't even qualify to be stream. It's like the real Pluto, which is called a dwarf planet because it's so tiny. Pluto doesn't count as even a streaming site because only 3200 people watch it.
Thirty two hundred. That's the latest globally. All right. Most of them in Czechoslovakia. I digress. More on that later. Here's Alan Zweibel. It's like the moon landing usually. But no, I've been blessed, Dana. I've been really blessed. Fresh. Yeah. Not too much sun. Light on the booze. Healthy diet. Yeah. And, you know, I get my basic six hours of sleep a week. So it's working out nicely.
So you're not sleeping as well. That's a, yeah, that's, that's pretty common. Don't you? Uh, well, I take a little bit of a sleep aid. Oh, I see. In the form of a pill. Yeah. Teeny bits, bits of it. It's David Spade, everybody. By the way, Al Franken asked me to ask you a question. Okay. He asked me, this is why Bella question. He said, are you, are you Jewish?
Well, that's all. That's from Al Franken. That's not a yes or no answer. I know my answer. Ask him. Ask him if he's Jewish. You think this is Nordic? No, no, no, no, no. Nordic. Oh, yeah. We are on your square. It says David Spader.
Yeah, I don't know what happened. But you can figure it out. His nickname is Spudly. That's my code name. Nickname is Spudly. Your nickname is Swibes. Okay. I don't have a nickname. All right, by the end of this, Danny, you're going to have a nickname. Okay.
My wife would like that. So you've been married a long time, right? Or no? Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God. God help us all. It's 40, 42 years. For those of you who bet the under, I'm sorry. That's funny.
Hey, man, I'm looking right at 40, I think. Really? Married in 83, 2023. Yeah, you're on the cusp of 40. Yeah, yeah.
Mm hmm. How's it how's it working out? I've been married 40 years to six different women. You know, I mean, it's. Well, yeah. No. Well, you know, it's cumulative how this stuff works. You know, you don't get any points for just one. You know what I mean? It's just how long you've been. But I don't write jokes, but this joke always kills. I have two jokes about my wife and that's it because I can't write a joke. And you're brilliant at it.
I met my wife when she was 19. I raised her as one of my own. Gets a nice little laugh. Right. I've been married 38 years. Applause to seven different women. But they kill so much, it makes me mad because I don't even like them. Here's mine, Dana. I say my longest relationship is three table dances in a row.
That was my old one. Oh, Jesus. But I'm not like that anymore, Danny. You know that. So, Alan. Yeah.
Yeah. You have so much. I've been reading your book. No, no. This is we should have allowed a lot more time. This one hour thing, you know, I don't know how that's going to work. Believe me, career is a seven hour career. We're trying to cram it into one. We could get several people off. I mean, it was it was grim. Two oh five. Finally, Jim Downey said, OK.
No, we love Jim. He came on and said nice things about you. Don't you love when people say that to you? Hey, I ran into someone, Alan. They said nice things about you. Yeah, like it's an unusual thing. Wow. Somebody actually doesn't think you're an asshole. No.
You seem very popular so far. From what I've read and heard and seen, you seem very popular. Are you a bad guy pretending to be a nice guy or a nice guy? Ooh, good one, yeah. Well, okay. People say I'm nice, but they go, I'm kind of a dick inside, and maybe Dennis Miller is sort of the opposite or whatever. I don't know.
He's really nice. He's a dick with a nice guy inside. Well, he plays that character, but he's incredibly sentimental and loyal to his friends. So what about you, Alan? I'm also a part-time therapist. I'm full disclosure. I think that I'm generally nice. I mean, I've got three kids, five grandchildren, so they automatically make you nice. As far as doing what we do is concerned, you know something? I remember all the people who were nice to me when I started.
And I also remember all the dicks and I'm going, well, I don't want to be remembered that way, you know? Right. And also, you know, all the collaboration that I've done, you know, whether it would be Shandling or Gilda or Billy Crystal or I learned to take my ego away.
and put it over here and make it just work for the work. And so that avoids, if I believe in something that I'm writing and the other person doesn't, then we have a different kind of talk, but it's about the work, you know? You know, you said your kids like you. Let's look at a clip. Oh,
Oh, they say they don't like we have a clip. I'm kidding. I find just trying to get in there. See if this relates to you guys. Dave's got a million of them. I was sitting on that for about 45 seconds, guys. Do you ever even as a non-confrontational confrontation?
Temptational nice guy. There's ways to get what you want. So if you hear someone's idea, you don't really agree with, even if they're one of the greats, do you rope a dope a little bit? Like you don't push back at that moment and you go, Oh, that could be good. And then you fight for it later. There's a dance. And one of them I learned from Shandling, you know, you can pitch a joke to him about a cow. All right. And then Gary would go, well,
Off of what you're saying, I think that Amish people, and you go, wait a second, how did the cow get to Amish people? Oh, but it includes you? It includes you as if he would never have had that thought had he not heard about the cow. Oh, before him. That's crafty, yeah. He's very proprietary. He makes sure that he was in there. He was in there, but it was inclusive, and nobody would be telling stories like this after he passed. I know.
- God, the writer dynamic, Dana, when I started SNL, Al and I was a comedian. Dana came on as a full cast member, but obviously he's a funny writer and thinker.
but he wasn't paid, you know, as a writer. He could write like, as you know, but for the people at home, like I was a writer performer. So I was sort of, when you're a feature player, the word was you write for everyone else. You don't really need to be on, you know, like start writing. And that's a hard thing, A, to write for the people. I think that's where you're good. And it's hard to not want to be on. And I think you've had a career where you were okay just being a good writer. That's a hard thing to pitch and all that. Well,
I've been lucky, David, in that Letterman would put me on as a guest and I go on talk shows, I have speaking engagements. So that part of me that has that need or that desire to have an audience
respond to me is pretty much satisfied. That being said, I just love the craft of writing too much. To me, it's I wake up five thirty every morning. I move my words around and try to make sense of it. And so I have the best of both worlds that way. Yeah. You know, I mean, Dan, I was going to say that
when, when there's so much pride, even when I was there, when I'd get a sketch on that, I started to feel so much pride in the word writer that when they were saying at other shows and comedies, you could be a producer or something. I go, and they stopped kind of using the word writer. I go, no, no writer is like the coolest thing to be proud of. Like you were saying, like, if you're a good writer, you feel so much, you get so much out of it to be called a writer. Well, you're absolutely right. And there was an older school, um,
I don't know if it's I don't think it exists now, but there was an older school where they was regarded by executives and even producers where you started off as a writer and you graduated to a producer or something like that. Whereas you go, no, no, I write. That's that's what I do.
You just pay me more to write. Don't call me something else. Yeah. Yeah. What's that? Well, I would, I would just interject this. Um,
after reading a lot of stuff about you in the last couple days like it's really valuable for a performer on saturday night live to find a writer who gets them and will incorporate their rhythms like you would i had that with smigel and you had it with gilda i guess where you would listen to her and then you would add stuff on so the it came together the writing and the performing were
were kind of created simultaneously as opposed to handing Gilda something. Is that kind of how it worked or. Absolutely. You know, before I got to SNL, I was writing jokes, jokes for standup comedians and the cat skills. And then Rodney Dangerfield, Morty Gunty was his name. Morty Gunty was the first guy that I ever wrote. And I remember that guy in TV. Yeah. In the sixties. When we were growing up, there was Morty Gunty. He had a show called the funny company. And for you, trivia buffs out there, uh,
the Dick Van Dyke show had two pilots and the first one that got rejected, uh,
Carl Reiner played what eventually was Dick Van Dyke's role. Morty Gunty originally played what became Maury Amsterdam's role in that show. But when I when I learned how to write jokes, I that's why Lorne hired me. And when I got to SNL, I had never seen.
I don't think I even heard of Second City at that point. Certainly not the Groundlings or the Proposition where Jane Curtin came from. And when I saw them assuming characters, or you get somebody like Dan Aykroyd, who all of a sudden creates this whole world in front of you. I was running for guys with tuxedos and bad teeth, you know? So yeah, you went for the Catskills. Were you writing like...
Joke jokes were for people. And then now it's sketches, which is very different. Absolutely. The only time, you know, as you know, that that joke jokes were maybe appropriate was weekend update. Yeah. Okay. But when I was writing for those guys,
I, you know, Rodney Dangerfield, you know, he had that thing. I don't get no respect. Even as an infant, my mother wouldn't breastfeed me. She said she liked me as a friend. OK, so that was so. So I captured his rhythms and whatever. But and the joke that got me the job at SNL and Lorne is the first to to admit it was
or to verify it, I should say, is I had written a joke saying that the post office was about to issue a stamp commemorating prostitution in the United States, 10 cent stamp. You want to lick it. It's a quarter. Okay. So, so,
you know, I learned how to write jokes, but when I got to S S N L aside from weekend update, where I collaborated with Herb Sargent, was he there with you guys? Oh, yes. Herb was there the entire time running update when I was, yeah, God, you know, he was the old guy in that big office. Yeah. The big,
The map on the wall. Yeah, the white hair. It was shocking. The glasses that he wore up there for some reason when his eyes were down here. And so the jokes I wrote with him, but character writing like for Gilda or the Samurais for John Belushi was something I had to feel my way around to. And with Gilda, it was...
We found each other as people. She was a little spooked out by the big city, coming to New York and living here. This is where I'm from. And we found each other. And you're absolutely right. Not only did we have this synergy where we made each other laugh, but it was like she wanted somebody to write for her and I wanted somebody to speak through. Okay. So it became a very convenient kind of marriage that way.
You started, I don't know this Dana, but I think Alan, you started originally with the original. So you met Gilda when everyone did. Everyone was like sort of merging together. You were there day one. I was there day one, yeah.
Yeah, I mean, the first meeting we had in Lorne's office, July 7th, 1975. I just remember that. Okay. And I walk into Lorne's office for our first meeting. Nobody's there except for Michael O'Donoghue, who was, I don't know if you met him, but he founded the National Lampoon. He was the darkest man.
humor guy ever. And he was by himself in Lauren's office. And what, how did I find him? I found him. He took drugs.
Big Bird, a stuffed yellow Big Bird. And he was wrapping the Venetian blind cord around Big Bird's neck. And then he pulled it. Big Bird was hanging. And he did that. Then he looked at me. He goes, do you like the Muppets? That's how he felt about the Muppets being on the show originally. And I was and I liked the Muppets, but I was scared to admit it. I go, I hate those fucking things. So
I would have said the same thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So he murdered a man in Vegas, right? Was that the rumor? No, I'm kidding. Made that up. It's always like killed a man in Reno is always that other go to thing. I was kind of interested in that joke for just a second. The postage stamp joke.
Because I realized that the language, the syllables of a writer of jokes, like it had to be, what was the punchline, the way you teased it out? If you want to lick it, it's a quarter. Not 25 cents. Not 25 cents. Quarter is better rhythm, yeah. But I have this book that recently came out called Laugh Lines, My Life Helping Funny People Be Funnier. That's the one I'm reading. I devote a bunch of pages to how I wrote that joke.
It was 1975 when I got the job on SNL, but the next year was going to be the bicentennial. So they were going to have commemorative stamps about...
things in history. And so, okay, what's a funny thing that you can have a stamp about? Oh, maybe prostitution. I can't even begin to tell you how many different punchlines I had. You know, if you lick it, it goes, ah, I had one where you took the stamp out to dinner first. It was ridiculous. And then it was, if you want to lick it, it's a lot more.
And then it ended up on quarter, but you're right. Not 25 cents, but that one took a long time to quarter. It's got a K in it.
I mean, not, not really when you write it out sometimes. Yeah. It's got that cut. Yeah. Absolutely. It's going to be a quarter. Yeah. Anyway, so that's process. So Gilda, uh, as a person, I mean, I was someone in college when you guys all came on and had never done standup when you started. So you were superstars. The whole show was ridiculous. It was, uh,
Just must see television for everyone in the dorm, you know, and Gilda Radner always bounced off the screen. I know it's been talked about so much. Her level of likability and vulnerability. I don't know if I've ever seen a more likable person on screen. It's up there with mine.
Spade also was by next person. Yeah. And I would say it's a dead heat. It's a dead heat. It's a real toss up. Yeah. And her name being Gilda was cute too. Everything about it was cute. She, um, yes. Great. She had that intangible quality that you felt, you know, you knew her even if you never met her and, and, um, Lauren, uh,
It may have been the first year of the show. What he would do is he would put Gilda on stage just sitting there and she would talk about what she ate that week. And then she would do the same thing. He would do the same thing with Belushi, where he let the people know who they were for two minutes as people. So when she would do Roseanne, Roseanne and Dana, she would do the same thing.
you felt you knew that person who was now wearing a funny wig and doing that dialect. Oh, because it's a different person. Because sometimes as a kid, I'm too stupid. And you don't even know really their characters. The first time you see someone, you go, that's who she is. Yes. You know what I mean? And that's kind of smart to differentiate it and say, hey, audience.
You don't know her yet, but here's who she is normally. That's absolutely right. So it's like, you know, if a friend of yours is doing something funny, it feels doubly good because you know who that person is. You know, that's what's happening in the podcast world. People do a podcast. People get to know them and then they tour the podcast.
And the same laugh they're doing gets double the lap because the audience is their friend and they know them. It's very interesting. Absolutely. Yeah. No, there's a familiarity as opposed to a reintroduction or having to define yourself. It's a head start. It's really it's really good. If Sinatra was around today, he'd come out, he'd take off his hairpiece.
He would go, hey, ladies and gentlemen, the summer wind went through. I don't do Sinatra, but I will do Sinatra before this podcast is over. I vow.
Yeah. Alan was, was, uh, was Gilda. She seems a little fragile to me too. Was she, or is she very tough? Well, that's a great question. There was a fragility there. Look, she had vices. Um, she's, it was publicly known that she was a bulimic and, uh, she had trouble with guys, never probably got over the fact that her dad died when she was 15, when she was 15. And she was this fat kid and all of that stuff. So, but yeah,
I think that her greatest...
I don't know if it was talent, but what she did was she didn't hide that vulnerability. Okay. She didn't try to be something she wasn't. And once again, that made her somewhat embraceable, you know, but she was strong enough to, to get through it. You know, when we did the show and I'm sure it was the same for you guys, it ultimately became a battleground, you know, within the offices. Oh, it's tough. Yeah. Yeah.
You gotta be strong and no one, I don't think anyone's ready for it. You think we're all on this team. We're all gonna have this great fun time. And then there are great, great fun highs. And then there's some tough times when you're in nothing or you walk through the halls and people are ignoring you because you had a bad read through or something. You're just like, oh, this is so weird. Were there-
It's a weird thing. Oh, go ahead, Dana. I'm sorry. I was just curious about what you just said and the alliances that get made and it is a Game of Thrones or something. There's a whole subterfuge. You put all these comedians and clowns and writers in a room and you say, if this guy gets on, I'm a clown. Phil Hartman used to go, I'm a clown. I'm a clown, yeah. That's hilarious. This guy, my friend's sketch gets on, then mine won't get on and all that psychology stuff.
that went on at least when I was there, we were all very friendly with each other, but it was, it was weird. That put it. Turning. Yeah. You know something? Um, I can, this is my own personal, uh, sort of observation when that started. Okay. I could be wrong and other people could dispute it, but, uh,
Look, when we first started, the only rule that we had, Lauren said, let's just make each other laugh. And if we do, we'll put it on television. Good idea. OK, so we had this show. Hey, we're going to do a show. And it was sort of egalitarian. And it was the show was the thing. But when when Belushi came back after doing Animal House.
It's my theory that the culture changed because now John was on the cover of, I think it was Newsweek by himself with the toga, you know, and none of the other casts were on either side of him. So now it was almost subliminal. But wait a second. This show can get us that.
OK, and it was not declared. But I do believe that that was a turning point. It was a line of demarcation there where for us the show was the end. Now it became a means to an end. Right. Yeah. Interesting. Because Chevy left early. Right. And then and then Chevy blew up and Belushi was fucking huge.
Like one at a time, it started blowing up. And I'm sure everyone's like, when is my time in the sun? Like, when do I get to that level? I'm already at a huge level, but it's not enough. And then what happened, you're absolutely right, Dave, because after Chevy left-
Bill Murray. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, and Bill not only became a hit on the show, but he did meatballs. He did stripes. Oh my God. He did Caddyshack, you know, and then he's had this huge career. My whole childhood. Yeah. Yeah. This career, you know, and so there was some people, um,
The order of succession was sort of leapt over. You know what I mean? Some people felt that, wait a second, it's my turn. Oh, right. You know, hey, I've been here long ago. You know, like I said, I never had those discussions with people, but.
I would bet anything that there was a degree of, Hey, wait a second. Why is so-and-so getting this? Not me. I've been here longer, you know, or haven't I proved my worth or that it look, Lorne threw everybody into the deep end of the pool, you know, whether you could swim or not and you either drowned or somehow you made it to the side of the pool. You were okay. Oh yeah. Lorne was Lorne was amazing. And,
Everybody in the pool. When you get used to it, Dana, is this sketch ever going to work? He was tough love. And then I felt like I had to levitate the room. I had to just...
kill on the show and then you just pass lauren on the way to the next sketch and get that little nod but so he was great that way that to earn that compliment and then in he'd review the show on monday very briefly and he'd always pick out something very obscure rather than the sketches that killed he said i i thought jan's exit off from that sketch was breathtaking
So Lauren kept you off balance, but he had a method to it, you know, to keep us all so hilarious. You know, Dana, I think we have a connection. We've been friends for a long time. And for this episode of fly on the wall, we've partnered with eHarmony, which isn't us. eHarmony is a dating app to find someone you can be yourself with. We are not dating. I want to clarify that, but the connection is what you want in a dating partner. 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, uh,
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.
So get started today with a compatibility quiz. So you can find some and you can be yourself with. Get Who Gets You on eHarmony. Sign up today.
You know something, when I went out to L.A. to do the Shandling show, and Dana, I remember meeting you through Gary. I think the first year we did the show was ABC Prospect, and I don't know if you came to see Gary, but I remember first hearing through Gary, right? I remember, and just to intersect for a second, when I went there that night to watch the taping,
First of all, I love the show. It always, it was, and his other show was Gary's brilliant, but, and you, but then Gilda came out, I guess she was doing kind of okay. And she came up behind the curtain and I, it was so the audience reaction to seeing her. Well, it was just a incredibly emotional moment. She, she, I was, I was in remission at that time. And she said, um,
asked me if I can help her make cancer funny. She, she said that her humor was the only weapon she had against this fucker. You know, she personalized the cancer. And when she came out and she was afraid that nobody would recognize her, her hair was shorter and she hadn't been on TV in many years. When she came out,
the audience not only erupted, okay? When I went to edit the show and I wanted to use the angle of her entrance, I saw that the picture was just bouncing just a little bit and I couldn't figure out why. And then I remembered the night that we taped the show, the cameraman on that angle, he was crying and
And his hands were shaking. Okay. So if you ever see it on TV, you look for it. It's subtle, but it's there. But, and David, I remember having a dinner or a meeting with you, somebody named Ray at the Brillstein company. Yeah. Ray Rio.
Ray Rio. Ray Rio. Yeah, his manager. And I wanted you to be on the show. I thought you could be Gary's friend or something. I know it didn't work out. Yeah, we talked about maybe a pizza guy or I talked to him about dating or whatever, like a guy that comes in. And I remember that. Yeah, because Bernie, Brad, Gervitz, everyone we talked about. But the show went away. It was too after that and it didn't work out. But I love just the idea of
That would have been so fun because I watched that show. It was so cool. It's, oh, so this is just back to lawn for a very quick second. So we were doing the Shanling show and I guess it was around 1989 and 90, whenever the 15th anniversary show of SNL, the reunion show was,
And, you know, it's just like going to your high school reunion and you go, all right, what have I done since I was in high school? Oh, yeah, I got a car. I got married. I got a house. I got a thing. All right. We're going to be OK. So we fly back for the reunion and the door is open on the eighth floor. And we run into Anne Beetz, who was one of the writers when I was there. She she was writing about.
the anniversary show. She was, you know, okay. And, and I hadn't seen her in many years and I go, hi, Ann, what's doing? And she just shakes her head and goes, fucking Lauren. So I go with the, not a lot, not a lot has changed here. Yeah. Oh yeah. It was always on the 40th. Um, I, that was the most,
fly by the seat of your pants show that I ever been on. I mean, we didn't get any of the run throughs or practice shows. Mike and I were back in a little room going, I don't know, look for Kanye. We'll see if we can make something out of it. But yeah, that was, it's, it's a very melancholy or weird thing when you go back there, right? When you go back to 17th floor, eight H, uh,
Yeah. It always gets, something comes over me a little bit when I see the pictures, I'll see Phil and a picture and, and Jan and for the obvious reasons, but how do you feel when you go back there? There's a lot of ghosts there for me. It's John, it's Gilda. I knew Jan, I knew Phil, but obviously I knew the other guys, uh, uh,
I worked with him for five years. Dave Wilson, who is our director. Our director, too. You want to do what? The show's in a half hour. Too many changes. No, we love Davey. He was like, wait a minute. You want to put a camera on a tomato? How am I going to get the angle?
Smigel would make changes. He goes, Robert, I've got it. It was that after dress meeting when it was so tense. Yeah. I've been Lauren's office. Yeah. They're reading all the changes. Okay. On Sweeney sisters, we're going to change this. He's like, well, I can't. It's a job that should not exist. Directing. It shouldn't exist.
But by the way, not only didn't exist, you know, I wouldn't have existed without Dave Wilson was Dunkin Donuts. He ate them like they were going to the jelly donuts. Yeah. Such a nice guy to the greatest guy in the world. And he he lived in Parsippany, New Jersey. He he commuted every night. He had a wife and kids.
And as I remember it, Lorne hired him very much because he didn't have an ego.
OK, that was stated. Right. OK, it would be. Yeah, there might be an initial panic attack, but ultimately he would figure it out because of the show, you know. Yeah. And he was really good for it. Great. But he was great that way. He was great. And I found that super useful because I was in a couple of movies here and there. And I was so bad because I was being so directed and doing hundreds of takes. And on SNL, it was great. It was just sort of get the shot.
You and when I did church lady with Rosie Schuster, you know, who was great and she thought of the name church chat. So we worked on it for like a month, but there wasn't classic direction. Like I knew the character from my standup. So it was very liberating as a performer. No, no. A character like that. I imagined that you were given all the leeway and he followed you, you know, or he gave you this much space on Rosie Schuster, by the way, I,
insist, and I know that Frank, and you mentioned him earlier, feels the same way, wrote when I was there what I believe to be the best joke of the five, and it never saw the light. Oh, wow. This is juicy. Okay. Rosie pitched a sketch of the 10 worst Hanukkah gifts ever, okay? And number one...
was the Hanukkah that they gave Anne Frank a set of drums. Now, as a writer, I'm going, wow, I live to be a thousand. You know, look, there's always this little bit of a competition. You go to read three. You go, oh, man, I should have thought of that. Oh, I could have done that. But there were certain people like when I was there, Michael O'Donoghue or Aykroyd.
Okay. I could never do bass somatic, you know, where you would drink a fish. So I would just sit back and enjoy the ride. Yeah. Yeah. That's so great. So let for a second, cause John Belushi is an overarching person in the history of SNL. So you, you wrote a lot of the samurai. So you hooked up with him and then wrote the final nine of them. How many were there? And what was that relationship like with John? There was, there was like 10 or 11. The first one was John Belushi.
auditioned for the show with that character. He brought that character to the show. Okay. The very first one was written by Tom Schiller and it was Samurai Hotel, which was with Belushi. And I want to say Richard Pryor. Okay. Which is the seventh show. Of the first season? Yeah. From the first season. Ooh, juicy. Now the 11th show, the 11th show, Buck Henry was coming in.
Lorne came up to me and said, before you got the job here, you worked in a delicatessen, didn't you? And I did. So he says, you think you can write Samurai Deli? And I went, oh, yeah, that's a piece of cake. He walked away. I go, what the hell am I going to do now? So I wrote Samurai Deli and then every all the other samurais, the eight or nine that came afterwards.
Samurai Night Fever? Yeah, Samurai Night Fever I wrote. That's what I remember because it was so hilarious and the movie was such a huge hit and it sounds funny, Samurai Night Fever. It sounds very close. Sounds funny, yes. And you know who the host was for that show and was in that? John Travolta. Buck Henry.
Nope. O.J. Simpson. Oh, whatever happened to him? Where is he? I just sort of lost track. He retired from football. He did Naked Gun. I don't know what happened there. Now, do you think Samurai? I mean, this is probably an obvious question. Could not be done in 2022. You guys.
probably had the most leeway uh maybe maybe my cast i don't know but it definitely changes a certain point i mean obviously did an asian character who didn't you know but uh no more right can't i would think you're absolutely right i mean certainly from my era roseanne roseanna dana i don't think could see the light of day oh really why because some of her jokes because it was sort of
Puerto Rican-ish. Oh, okay. Oh, that's right. Okay. And the samurai. And she was in Puerto Rico. Yeah. No. Those days are over. Yeah. So I think that
I don't know when it started, but it may have happened after you guys were there. It may have been within the last 10-ish years or so. You know, I don't have an exact, you know, when the woke thing and cancel culture and all politically correct really started. What's that? What are you talking about? No, go ahead. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it must get tougher every year because
It seems to get, but the show, you know, still has funny stuff. It's just must, it's such a landmine to get through and go, well, this could rub people wrong. And the whole idea of the show was to rub people wrong and to get laughs and to shock people. And that's, that's really where it's hard because if that's the point of it and that's the point of being good, and then you can't do that, I, I, you know, what's left is so tough. Yeah. For me, I, I, I just didn't, I, I,
The idea that I was going to hurt someone never occurred to me or the idea I would decimate somebody sitting in the dark crying. You know, I never even thought of that. So now I just do Western Europe. I can do France. I do Western Europe. I do Ireland. I'll do Britain, you know, but I don't go east. I can't do Indian. I don't. So I just say I could do put jump around. It's not the problem.
I can do all those cultures and that's where I'm, but I'm fine with that. I can still do a beetle. I can still do a Paul McCartney. So I long for the days where we all made fun of each other and then went for lunch. You know what I mean? We were friends. That's what you did, you know, and, and, you know, uh, the people who object are usually not the people who you make the jokes about it. Some other group who
who was telling everyone, no, you can't do that. You go, wait a second. And the show was, you're absolutely right. That's what made it the hit that it was. It expanded all parameters. And if you go back and if these rule apply, well,
Lenny Bruce wouldn't have been around. You know what I mean? I don't know if Chico Marx could do the Italian accent that he did. No, no, he's out. Bruce is out. Chico's out. Let's make it. Carlin, done. Carlin stays in the suit. He doesn't go hippy-dippy. He doesn't go seven words. You can't stay. He does the weather, the hippy-dippy weatherman, maybe. So, yeah, it's an interesting idea. Even in movies, you see that the bad guys are only...
Vague Russian. You know what I mean? It's somewhere over there. Eastern European. Yeah, we will take you, Mr. Bond, to this place. I'm from nowhere. You don't need to know where I'm from. I am from nowhere and I am from everywhere.
my way yeah spit on your grave i'm just bad that's all you need that's fine but so i i'm cool with it i got a lot of tools i'm fine with it but even talking about it now on this podcast fly on the wall available wherever podcaster uh it makes me a little nervous you know because uh
I don't know. Aren't we the ultimate? We talk too much. I'm scared. We're too much. We're so white that it's not even... We're alabaster. Yeah. And some of us have very nice skin considering our age, as you pointed out earlier. I don't know what you've done, and I don't judge fillers.
I don't judge. I've seen you at a lot of clinics and it's working. I don't judge. I don't judge. I don't know. You've done dermabrasion. I don't know how you've done it or why you've done it, but you've done it. And you look terrific. I do germabrasion on my wiener. Just end now, though. You're good now. No more business. You're good. You look great. So any tighter, it would be like, it would really be off the charts. Then people would start to notice. It's like Madonna, who I love, is wearing a mask. I think it actually, she actually just wears a mask. It's...
What about James Kahn? Oh, is he tighter now? Jimmy Kahn. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He's back to Sonny Corleone. Sonny Corleone is, yeah, his eyes are bulging. And are we allowed to say bulging in this year? You touch my sister again, I'll fucking kill you. That's all I remember. His bulging eyebrows. Well, I don't know. I mean, I just put on glasses, fluff it up. Copping attitude is the big part of life. You know, act young.
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Hey, Alan, you know Steve Martin, who is probably one of my all-time favorites, especially growing up, but still to this day. He's very, very good. You're tight with him because I saw you wrote on his best show ever. That was right in his fucking heyday back then, right? Oh, that was a live show that we did the night before Thanksgiving, okay?
Okay. So it was the Wednesday night. It was a live show. Okay. It was live. And boy, that was fun. You know, it was because we had been away from the show for
Oh, a year and a half, close to two years. Getting itchy. So to get that rush, yeah. Yeah. Where you can write something and a half hour later it's on television was really exciting. Yeah, it's hard to do jokes where you do them in a movie and they sit for a year and you go, fuck, I got to wait because someone could step on it. Comedy does not sit well on a shelf. It's like, you just want to get it out right then, right then. Absolutely. And now I write books and plays and movies and if I'm lucky,
If I'm lucky, it sees the light of day two years from now. Yeah, yeah.
Al Franken asked me to ask you another one. He said you wouldn't mind talking about your experience with the movie North, Rob Reiner's movie. You can pass on this. I had questions about that too. Okay, here we go. And the sequel, South. Remind me to thank Franken, by the way. Okay. So this was a film done by Rob Reiner and- Well, it started out as a book that I wrote. Oh, that was your first mistake. No.
I left SNL in 1980. Robin, my wife and I started having a family. And at one point, our son, who was around seven, I was able to tell at the dinner table, by the way he looked at me and Robin, that the kid was thinking,
I could do better than these. All right. So parents, I wrote a book about a little boy named North who didn't feel appreciated by his parents.
that declared himself a free agent and went all over the world offering his services as his son to the highest bidding set of parents. Okay. So I write the book for Random House and I got the manuscript. Now, Rob Reiner had hosted the third SNL ever. I send him the manuscript and
just for a blurb for the book jacket. And I remember the blurb he sent was, if you read only one book this year, I wouldn't call you an avid reader. Okay. That was the blurb. Okay.
But he said, you know something? I really like this book. He said, you know, I'm a director now. And I'm going, no kidding. He did Harry with when Harry met Sally. A few good men. He said, I'd like to do this as a movie. So it's music to my ears. I moved the family out to L.A. OK, and.
Two years I've spent writing this script, adapting my own thing. Now it's a $50 million movie. And Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jason Alexander. Huge cast. Bruce Willis, my old friend Dan Aykroyd, a little eight-year-old
actress uh her first job her name was Scarlett Johansson all right Elijah Wood Elijah Wood yeah hello Reba McIntyre it just went on and on now it's too big to fail well let's discuss that well I think people are interested with a guy that a career where you have so many things work this is just interesting because I've had movies that I don't
I read and just somewhere along the way, it's not what I thought. And I think it's interesting to hear from you, as you're saying, along the way, something that is working, something happens and you... Something got derailed, okay? Did you ever figure that out? No, because...
It may have been episodic. He went to about eight different countries and might have read like a series of sketches. OK, with each set of parents. But it was the night of the premiere and I flew my parents out from Florida. Boca Raton had two less Jews that night. They were in L.A. The movie.
And greatest night of my life. They, I adapted my own book. It's a 50. Then the reviews come out the next day. For those of you who don't remember, uh,
Roger Ebert's review of North. And I think this is what got in his hand, folks. It's in his hand. The review, which I took on a paper, not even online, which I took out of a wallet. OK, Roger, you keep it with you at all times. Roger Ebert was a big, big reviewer back then. Yeah. Oh, he will. He and the biggest Gene Siskel had a huge show. So let's hear it.
Okay, here's his review. Oh, boy. I hated this movie. Hated, hated, hated, hated this movie.
Hated it. Hated every simpering, stupid, vacant audience, insulting moment of it. Hated the sensibility that thought anyone would like it. Hated the implied insult to the audience by its belief that anyone would actually be entertained by it. Now on the surface,
This may seem like an unfavorable review, but if you read it again and again, you know, I was devastated. Oh boy. How long did it take you acutely to get past that? Two months? I would say, I would say about six months. We lived in LA where, as you know, a lot of people root for other people's restaurants. Our son, Adam, uh,
What Crossroads that was a private school that we sent them to Santa. And he would not only he would get taunted by the other kids who are no business kids. He would he came home and said, Dad, is it OK if we change our last name to Sorkin? You know, so it was it was it was it became difficult. But it took about it took four to six months to get up off the couch because I had given the guy the power to do.
you know, boy, you know, and it's always some, somebody who's related to you. They mean well, but my father would say, don't read time magazine. No,
Page 79, column three. I dog-eared it. Do you ever have passive-aggressive friends that would say something like, I don't know if I should tell you this, but there's this review. I don't know if you want to hear this, as if they didn't want to just rub your face in it. So what was your... I know you did Curb Your Enthusiasm. What was your... After North, what was your...
Well, I had written a book that was a bestseller called Bunny Bunny. It was about me and Gilda. Yeah. And it was my way of dealing with her death. And it became a successful off Broadway play. And that is even talk about doing it as a movie. But but God knows. Yeah.
But but Curb Curb was great fun because Larry is my old friend. And I also there was a big success. I collaborated with Billy Crystal on a Broadway show that won a Tony called 700 Sunday. Yes. No, all about. Yes, for sure. Yeah. And it was. Yeah. So Billy and you did a lot together as well. Go ahead.
Oh, yeah, we did that. And then we recently did a movie with Tiffany Haddish and him called Here Today. I thought it was great. Yeah. Thank you. I enjoyed it. Billy was awesome in that. Really. And he directed it as well. So, you know, so there's been peaks. But, you know, look, the valleys are, you know, I did when I was promoting the book.
I did CBS Sunday Morning. You know that guy, Dr. John LaPook, who is their medical guy on it? He's Norman Lear's son-in-law, greatest guy in the world. And he had one of these kind of podcasts. Oh, it was for CBS This Morning, it was called. And I was in the middle of pandemic. And the theme of it was...
failures. Okay. And I'm going, gee, I'm on with Norman Lear. And all you think about is all in the family and Maud and all that.
He named 13 shows, a.k.a. Pablo. All these other shows I never heard of before. So you look at your idols and, you know, you look at the Paul Simons. If you're going to go into music, you look and go. Not everybody was a hit. You know, there was a hundred percent never. Alan, when you did North, do you is there one point? And we'll let it go. But is there a point during that?
you see a rough cut and assembly or just clips or dailies where you go, I don't know if it's clicking because sometimes you're too close to it and you go and people are like, oh, it's hilarious. And you're like, okay, good. Because I, you can't really tell a long way until you see it all together. Yeah. And then is there one point where people started getting nervous or you started getting a vibe like, uh-oh.
Well, you're absolutely right. Like there's this old adage that no movie is as good as its dailies and no movie is as bad as the first cut. Okay. So our dailies were great because like I said, it was episodic. They were almost like sketches that we did. So you judged it that way. Strung together with a narrative. Hmm.
You go, oh boy. All right, what's wrong here? Then we played it in front of some audiences and Rob was used to 95%. 97% of top two boxes with all of his hits. And I don't know if we were in the single digits, but we weren't in the high double digits by any means. I'm sorry, I just was, because about dailies, I have a theory about that. Because modern Woody Allen,
I know he has his issues privately. I'm a fan. He started using moving master shots. So a lot of threes and fours and people moving in the frame. So when I, some of the shitty movies I did, uh,
that I wasn't in control of the dailies are pretty good. Cause there'd be the moving master or a wide shot and you would see it all the rhythm. And then you'd see it just fucking cut to pieces. And it doesn't, it doesn't go from funny to pretty funny. It goes from funny to incredibly not at all funny. And that's just a directorial directorial thing. But, uh, that's what I admired about, you know, um, uh,
Billy, when we did here today and also with Rob, I did a few movies with him. I've been lucky to work. I'm working with Barry Levinson now. Brilliant director. Yeah. I'm writing something with him. And what I what Billy Crystal did in that movie here today, where he played a character like Herb Sargent, like the senior writer at an SNL kind of show. And but he had the onset of dementia and
And since you shoot movies out of sequence, where was he in the character's progression towards getting worse? That's very hard. Okay. So, but he would come in every day knowing, okay, so it's about the script. Okay. I was here.
Now I'm going to be here. So when it's cut together, it doesn't, you know, it doesn't jump cognition or whatever, but that's what the great directors do. You know, they stay on you and say where you are and where you're going to from here. Yeah. Can I ask you some, some basic questions? Cause I think, uh,
Sure. Because you're a writer and you've had this long, long career and you're still you're writing a movie with Barry Levinson. You're 45 years in or whatever. What was it?
about you, you think? Do you ever analyze, do you ever think like, why me? Well, how did I manage this? And, and, uh, what was the main characteristic that you think you needed to get through? Is it just keep going? Or what would you tell young writers who are listening to this podcast and dreaming of having your career?
I would tell them, first of all, there are a lot of naysayers out there. I don't know if you guys ran into them, whether it was a manager, an agent, sometimes your friends, you know, college friends when they all went to med and law school and they came back Thanksgiving, they made fun of me because I was working in a deli and selling jokes to Morty Gunty. I think that, um,
I think that, look, when this book starts, I'm 21. At the end, I'm now 71. So it's 50 years. I think if you stay in your lane,
I couldn't write for, I don't think I could write for SNL now. I do miss the activity that I do. That adrenaline rush and all of that. But with the exception of Weekend Update, which is jokes, which I think I would be able, I don't think that it would sound like an old man trying to predict what the kids are laughing at. Okay. Yeah. So the movie here today,
I could not have written 10 years ago until my father got dementia, until Billy's aunt got dementia. So we lived it. So I think it's like I think there's an audience for everything that's honest. I think an audience can smell fraudulence a mile away.
You know what I mean? If we put on a hat that really doesn't fit, you know? And trying to stay, the word is relevant. That's sort of a thing of life for an older performer, trying to stay relevant. It sounds so negative. Well, yeah, if you try too hard, it can really backfire. You're trying to stay relevant. It's like, I think you are your whole career. You just want to be in the mix. That's
shouldn't be negative. It's what you want to do. Well, you guys have certainly proved that you've got longevity. I mean, how do you do it? You do... Tell me. I mean, you go up and you do what you do. Well, I remember Lorne Michaels always used to say, he says, you just keep going. You never stop. Sidney Poitier told me that. You just keep going. And it's that thing of like, you're just going. Or so, two nights ago. Love Lorne. Yeah.
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That's $50 off with Codefly at BlueNile.com. BlueNile.com. Lord would do that. You know, there was an anecdote I have in my book, and this literally happened when Shanling and I, we came back east to look for actors for its Gary Shanling show, and we went to Catch a Rising Star.
And we're at the bar was David Brenner, who I had not seen. Remember him? I flew on MGM Graham with MGM. Yeah, Graham. I flew. I'd had a flight where I was sat with David for the whole flight and he had a tank top on. He was really tan. And I go, is your life awesome? He goes, yeah, he goes on sailboats and he has lots of girlfriends. Anyway, I remember it was very likable.
He was a very, and he was always very nice to me. We walked into catch. I hadn't seen him in a while and I go, hi, David. And he goes, all right. So me and Shanley go up to him and he goes, and now he, I was hoping he was kidding. I would bet everything that he was not though, because I was looking for some sort of a wink. He said, I figured out,
what the funniest number is. So I like it already. So I said, really? What? What number? He goes, guess. And I go, David, there's lots of numbers. I don't have this kind of time. He goes, guess.
Shanley goes, well, that's the funniest number. So David looks around to make sure that nobody's no comments in earshot. Yeah. So nobody would hear this secret. And he whispers two hundred and sixty seven. And he goes, you're kidding. So we go. He says, I've tried them to two hundred sixty seven gets the best laugh. OK, so.
So Shanley and I are now worried about David's mental health. We say goodbye. We leave. And when we were writing shows together, Gary and I, yeah, we need a joke here. Gary, how about 267? Now, when I wrote this book, Steve Martin read it and gave me a very nice quote. But Steve got crazy.
I couldn't believe that Brenna had done that, that 267 is the funniest number. So to this day, I'll send Steve an email saying,
That just says, well, I'm going to make you laugh now, Steve, dot, dot, dot. Then I just write 267 and hold right back. He says, I really appreciate it, Alan, because I was having a 366 kind of day. Dana, I'm going to take a wild guess and say that you're not in your kitchen. OK, I'm just I'm in a bedroom. Oh, you mean David Spade? Yeah.
No, no, guys. I'm in a bedroom guest guest office. I do a lot of stuff here. Wow. Yeah. I don't really like to have grand things. David has a gigantic superstar Al Pacino and Scarface mansion. I have a humble townhome.
But we don't know who has a greater net worth. And that's a question the audience is obsessed. I have cocaine stucco on my on the outside of my wall. This guy got a house. You'll never see. I still do. I still do. I'm able to do Scarface when I feel like it. I say I'm doing Al Pacino's eccentric, bizarre Cuban accent.
So I'm not saying this is a- Oh, that's right. I'm just doing- You removed yourself. Yes. Oh, yes. And that's okay, man. Look at you. Look at you, man. You got a face like a baby, like a little baby. Look at that, man. Look at you, man. You don't know. So it's a really fun accent to do. That's hilarious. You put distance. Yeah. Yeah.
You put distance between you and that. That's great. Insane. I'm just doing that. I'm not doing Cuban. I think you're still going to get canceled, but good. So if you, okay, here's another one. I like, um,
You're what you could never answer your favorite thing you've ever worked on. It's either a sketch movie, a Broadway show. Oh, you'll never be able to answer this. I'm just throwing it out. No, no. But I mean, I can throw out some 700 Sundays was really great because I
It's about the process. You know what I mean? The product was successful, but the fact that my best friend trusted me with his family, who I never met, to put words in their mouths was something really honorable and glorious about it.
I think the book Bunny Bunny, because it was also from the heart. It was about Gilda. I had a children's book called Our Tree Named Steve, which was successful, but it was also about our family. So it's it's more of the personal things. So, you know, I could say any of the SNL. You know, when we started, when Gary and I started, we.
I have the fondest of memories of when we started because we discovered each other. We became good friends, made each other laugh. And we were on for 72 shows that it got, it got a little hairy towards the end. Why, why, why did it go off the rails a little bit in terms of your, well, I think that relationship kind of with the relationship also is related to the work. I was married with three kids. I was the commissioner of my son's Little League, uh,
Little Lee busy dad. And, you know, and I wanted to write about that stuff. Gary, it's Gary Shandling show. Didn't have room for that. Gary played that single guy. So I'm trying to get there. So he resented the time that I would think about something else. And I resented that I couldn't put this stuff into there. And by the time we ended the show, we weren't really talking. And it was, he came back East and,
And he was at a hotel in Atlantic City, like the Borgata, one of those places. My wife, Robin, saw that he was going to appear there. And she said, I'm bringing Alan down. I'm putting you both in a room and you're not coming out until your friends again. You've been through too much together. And that's pretty much what happened. But Gary did Larry Sanders and, you know, I did other things.
And so we weren't on the same set every day or in the same offices. So I had to be pursuant to him. There was something about him that I still wanted. Okay. I still need it. I still want it. And we got pretty close to,
getting back to it and then he died, you know? So, um, I know grudges, you know, you get wounded and show business people, people fall out, all kinds of drama. Uh, I guess it's true in every business, but show business and working very closely is tough. And especially if something is very important to both of you and it just almost inevitably, you're going to go in some different directions, writing and performing, you know? Yeah. Well, you know, what attracts you is about, um,
to have a writing partner is okay. And I'm going to make up numbers now. 360. What was it? 267. The 80%.
We think alike. Okay. That's what draws you together. But the other 20%, you each bring something to it that you couldn't have done alone. So the alchemy is one in one equals three, you know? And I had that beautifully with Gary. I had it when I wrote Martin short show, I had it with him. Um,
I write with Dave Barry now, if you're familiar with him. So there's an understanding, but it's different when you write with somebody for that person. Because if they don't believe in it, they're not going to say it with conviction. It's going to be false. So I love how much you just get up, you write every day. I mean, it seems like you're such a natural fit. Because for me, writing is the toughest part.
I find it really exhausting. I have to take a nap after a two hour. It is. Yeah, that's what that's what made SNL so great or any TV show is osmosis and the synergy of all these people coming in and out of offices and whatever. You know, I remember Lorna originally saying that the more initials that are on top of the first page of any sketch,
The more he was happy with that means that had the more sensibilities. Everyone puts their couple. You can always snag a good joke because everyone's good. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, here's something that I'm pulling out of the same wallet. Remember the playwright Herb Gardner? He wrote a thousand clowns. He talks about a writer's life. Okay.
Your days are spent making up things that no one ever said to be spoken by people who do not exist for an audience that may not come. So it's like total futility, it seems. So it's like a real force of will. I find like if you know something's going or if you're going to be on a television appearance and.
You're very, you know, you're very stimulated and very focused. But the idea of being in a room for so long and not knowing if it'll ever be seen or get made, that's the discipline of a writer. That's absolutely right. Yeah, it's absolutely right. I love it. Is this a waste of time? Ultimately, you know, is this not going to
I see it, but maybe it's not going to touch somebody the way I do in all that. Yeah, it's very lonely. To go full circle on this, what's so cool about you, now you're writing a movie with Barry Levinson.
Yeah. So pretty good shot. That'll get made. Is it live streaming or is it a, it's probably live. I think we, we, we see it as a feature, you know, but you know, who knows now? Yeah. Who knows now, you know, and there's another, another one. Um, Rob Reiner is now the head of castle rock again. And, uh, the, the director, Barry Sonnenfeld wrote a memoir, which is hilarious called Barry Sonnenfeld, call your mother, uh,
Rob optioned it and they're hiring me to adapt it. So I'll be working with two Barry's, you know, if you count Dave Barry. But yes. So in answer to your question, if you surround yourself or work with people like that, where the odds are better that it will reach fruition, you know, will materialize.
It does give you a little bit more hope when you spend all these hours by yourself. So 50 years in and you're just really in demand. It's just nice. It's great. Obviously. And I've been lucky, you know, and your book out that I've gotten halfway through because my Kindle was out of batteries. But anyway, what's the name of it right now? The one that's your current book about your life as a writer. It's called Laugh Lines and the subtitles. My life helping funny people be funnier. Yes.
Thank you for coming on, Alan. David, Dana, this was great. We really enjoyed it. This is our fans, all of them, my wife, David. I was just with Lorraine Newman who told me she was on your show. Oh yeah, that's right. She said she had a great time. She said she had a great time. She was great. Sweetheart. We love having writers on and love hearing their process. So I find it really, really, really interesting. And
And once again, there you are. You're you are Alan's white belt just overarches the 50 years in show business. Your name is always kind of mentioned and it was always in the ether. Alan's white belt is working on this or he's there. So congrats on that. It's pretty cool. Thanks for having me. I had asked to be on it when I heard you guys were doing this even before, uh,
I was, was Tom. The first one was Hanks. The first one. Yeah. Pretty much. Even before I knew about that, I, I said to Laurie Jonas, the publicist, I said, I want to be on those guys. So thank you for having me. The only thing that a little weird happens, Franken has, I let him have a feed to hear this and he I'll just quote it. It texted me. Alan's why bell is a liar. Nothing. Yeah.
Anyway. Thanks, Alan. Thank you to see you guys. OK, take care. We will. Good luck with it. We'll see you at some point. We'll see you at the 50th. We'll see you at the 50th, if not before. OK, OK. Take care, guys. Take care. This has been a podcast presentation of Cadence 13. Please listen, then rate, review and follow all episodes available now for free wherever you get your podcast. No joke, folks.
Fly on the Wall has been a presentation of Cadence 13, executive produced by Dana Carvey and David Spade, Chris Corcoran of Cadence 13, and Charlie Finan of Brillstein Entertainment. The show's lead producer is Greg Holtzman with production and engineering support from Serena Regan and Chris Basil of Cadence 13.