Joe Piscopo
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Hey guys, it's Spadoodle. You can always go to davidspade.com to look at my tour dates because I bless a lot of cities in America with my hilarious stand-up act. Or you could not go to it and get on my enemy list. Up to you!

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, you get your own pool, you get 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. 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. Mm-hmm.

Salt, sea salt, 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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You guys, today is Joe Piscopo. Now, people have asked us to have on different people. We've had so many people on, but Joe Piscopo is one of the OGs. And I hate to say, when you say his name, usually people say, oh, he was back in the Eddie Murphy days. And he was Eddie Murphy's probably best friend. And I think they're still very close.

But that was back in that era. So it was after the first five years. Then there was a couple of grumbly years and getting on their feet. But he was there when he and Eddie were tearing it up. And he was huge. He did a great job on the show. He has so many funny stories. He's just very good at telling stories. And he really brings it. He knows how to talk. He knows how to entertain you.

He used to do impressions. We do a few of those. Of course, Dana jumps in on those. And he's just a very, very likable guy and a very humble guy. And we had a great time talking to him. So without further ado, here we go, Joe Piscopo. Joe has left the Zoom. I'm here. I'm here. I'm here. I got you. I can't see. I got something saying record by staying in this meeting. Okay. I consent. Got it. Okay. There's my man. Yeah. That's right. Are we recording?

Are we recording now? We're always recording. We don't have any intro. We're not like professional. We don't say here's our guests or anything. No, we just go. Where's David? Where'd David go? I'm right here. Do you see me? There you are, baby. How are you, man? At the bottom of the screen. I don't know. Look at his stuff. Look at his stuff. I got to tell you, David, can I start? Data crushed it.

at an event on Friday night. He was out there and it was like 800, close to 1,000 baseball players who just wanted to talk like baseball. And a lot of folks have done the event and haven't done really well, great. So Danny goes, how's it going to be, Joe? And I go, it's going to be

great. I gave him one of those. It's going to be great. And you nailed it. I was off. I lost my notes. Did you find them? I lost my notes. I didn't know where I was. I felt bad about that one for a while, but afterwards...

Joe, being very nice, said, did you tell him? To our producer, Matt. He goes, everyone has a tough time here, even Seinfeld. So I didn't know the bar was low. But yeah, it was a little extremely nice people. But the room went way back. And there was a lot of chatter because it's a cocktail party. Were you playing to a pre-taping? You had a band. I was just off to the side. So you come out and sing. No, you're doing it.

A little of both. We had a live band there, but I cranked what you heard. What you heard was a pre-tape. We cranked it up to make it easier. But that's awesome. But I put the live girls on stage. David, I've turned into the Wayne Newton of comedy. Thank you. That's fine. And so I just got the girls singing with me on stage. It was a whole thing. It was fun, though, man. Listen, I love it. I've done those...

kind of corporate gig or a charity gig. I did one just up in Calgary. They wound up being very nice, but you know, it's always a crap shoot. You just don't know that they have other things in their mind. And if you're surprised while they're eating their steak, they go, it's been an eight hour meeting. And now we're going to hold you hostage for one more hour.

while we're here and they go, Stevie Nicks, David Spade. Oh, I heard it was Stevie Nicks. I always say, when did they get up? 6 a.m. for the breakfast meeting. When did the open bar start? At 4. When do I go on? 11. Okay. All right. 11 at night. So I got to tell you, David, so I always, when I MC, like back in the days when I started at the Improv 100 years ago, before you young people were born, you know? We want to know that. I would always...

Yeah, but I would always be cognizant and responsible to who's on stage because it's your job to get the crowd going and then hand it off. So I felt that way with Dana particularly. So I'm going like, okay, so we start the whole thing and it's going great. The data comes out and I go, wow, he's really working. He's working with the crowd. It's great. And now he's going to close and then we're going to start the night and the awards and we're going to close. And then he picks up his guitar, strums the guitar. It's dead as it goes. Dead.

He can't get it. I'm going, oh, man. So I'm offstage. I'm offstage. So I go to the guy with the headphones, my buddy Jordan, and I go, so I called the back of the room, man. His monitor's out. I'm not getting anything. And they couldn't figure it out. And I said, give me the mic. Give me the mic. So they gave me the mic. So I walked out on stage and I held my microphone.

Smart. Well, you know what? You helped out. Then you had a great one-liner at that point because you're kind of bending down. Actually, you placed the mic perfectly. I don't know if you'd know that to get some volume because it was a short. What I do. And then what Joe said was, this is... A career highlight for me. Yeah.

good job be glad from uncle joe i like that it was great but i'll tell you it was great it was great you know and it was fun and dang thanks yeah well thank you frank i mean joe joe uh sometimes those gigs are contractually like 60 minutes and they and that's why like if dana is short five minutes you sometimes have to go do something extra even if you're killing because you might get off

99% of the time they said, great. We didn't even need that long. You did great. But sometimes they go, we paid you for an hour. You did 54. And you go, Oh my God, it's all, it's all flipped. They said, they said 45. And then they sent me a text at the end of the show and said, really apologizing saying,

Could you do just 30? Because when Joe was backstage, he goes, what are you going to do, 20, 25? Because like I said, we're an aperitif. We're not the show. But then later they said, well, if you feel it, go longer. I don't know how long I did. But anyway, Joe was there, got to hang out. Did you? Yeah.

Did you, did you look at your phone while you're on stage? You glanced at it to make sure you had the time, right? Did you, did I see you do that? You were just, I saw you had a phone on stage. I must've lost a sense of time. I don't remember, you know, once I, cause my guitar thing is like, I'm, I'm going all over the stage. I'm in this zone. It's really loud. It's like for a, for a room that's a little unsettled, it's a big closer. And then when it's like, Oh, it happens about every one, every 20 shows, like,

Oh, there's a short. It's not going to be amplified. So I just sort of froze until you rescued me. Folks, Joe Pesco has been our guest today. And this is about an event we did. So can we go back just for a second to the how you –

Just a little out of bog. We know that your time on SNL at 80, but you're like, you're very young when you get on the show. What did, how did that happen so quick? Right. Are you, what, what, what tell us that little journey? I think it was about,

26, 27 when we hit, man. And I went to the improv. And tell me if I talk too long, man. Love you guys. By the way, with great respect. You, Dana, to you, David. Great respect for you guys because you held a great legacy of SNL and just so...

Proud to be with you here. And it's really cool to be with you, you know. But what I did, I just wanted to be a working stiff, you know. But I went to the improvisation because I heard that they have like comedy nights. Just like all of us did. This was in New York. It was 44th and 9th. It was Hell's Kitchen. It was back in the 70s when New York was a million times even worse than now. It was terrible. I mean, I remember distinctly walking from the parking lot where I parked the car.

And then I walked down 44th Street and there were like, you know, bodies and police lines, you know what I mean? And I go, oh, that's good. Somebody got whacked, you know. Shocked out. No, it was like that. So so then I said, well, let me try at least try it. So I remember I went in the first night was audition night. And and and, you know, God, you guys are young.

And it was like, back then, that is when comedy was rock and roll. I'm telling you, all of a sudden, comedy just came into its own. And I went, I got to try that. I just wanted to get off stage and then be a working stiff. Somebody hired me to do the third, fourth lead in an hour, you know, episodic. That's all I wanted to do. Get on the fucking mat walk. Great reference.

And that's exactly what I was thinking. The bar wasn't too high. What am I going to tell you? So not to take anything away from that. So I go in. I came in Lincoln Tunnel, came around, going down 9th Avenue. I looked down at the improv. There had to be 400 people jammed like it was like Times Square in Hell's Kitchen. Jammed. And I looked and I said, I panicked. And I went right back into Lincoln Tunnel, went right back home, totally chickened out. Then I came back.

And I, and when people had to just start out, we used to have to get there because everybody wanted to do comedy at the time, 12 noon, 12 noon. And at eight o'clock, roughly eight 30, the improv would come out. Judy Orbach would come out and she would hand out numbers. So to see when you would be on. So you, if you got there earlier, like at noon, you could, you could kind of go, all right, I'm on third. And then each week, me, Gilbert Godfrey, uh,

Alan Combs was there, Larry David was there, Jerry came later, but we would jockey numbers around, you know, to see when you would go on and you would get your five minutes, man, your five minutes. And it was the most petrifying thing in the world. And I did that for about six weeks

And then I finally got, for some reason, they put me up and it worked, you know? And Chris Albrecht, you know, gave me this. He got this, you know, he got me this, you know? HBO, was he the HBO? Just an agent. Yeah, one of the greatest television executives ever, club manager and owner with Bud Friedman and Silver Friedman back in the late 70s. I didn't know that. I didn't know that. And he was my agent in the 80s, Chris Albrecht.

Chris Albrecht was? Oh, I didn't know that. Before HBO. He was the guy. We used to call him the general because we used to play. Guys, we used to play. There's got to be a film or documentary about it. We used to play softball. We were all Yankee fans. We'd go to Central Park. And then Larry was there. Larry David was there. And Larry was then just the way he is now, you know, completely neurotic.

you know, and he would just be there and he would say the most brilliant thing. When Larry went on stage, when finally I became a regular and we used to have to work out and you'd get up at one, two in the morning. When Larry went on stage, everybody would just rush to the little opening that led to the showroom, which was about a couple hundred people. And we would watch Larry and he would get into fights with the audience like you hear about. It was true. So he would get in with his attitude and start fighting back and forth. But it was genius. And everybody knew Larry

It's a genius. And then I can remember distinctly we would play softball and then I was playing third base. Larry is playing shortstop. And, and then I could hear Larry and we're waiting. And you know, the, the game is on. I hear Larry going, Oh, Oh,

He's like miserable. In the middle of the game. And I got to keep my eye on the batter because I'm in the hot corner. I go, Larry, what happened? I stepped a dog shit. I stepped a dog shit. I stepped in. What did you do? I threw away my shoes. I have no shoes. This was a legitimate conversation with Larry David. An episode of Curb, yeah.

Exactly, exactly. It was exactly right. So it was bizarre. But then...

Then we heard that SNL was leaving, and John Belushi and Danny would come hang out at the clubs, particularly Catch a Rising Star. The comedy clubs were Hell's Kitchen, and then it was the Upper East Side was Catch, even before the comic strip. But they had blown up, Joe, so those are two monster stars coming in. Yeah, you know, exactly right. But we didn't know. When they first went on the air, we were all working Saturday night live. Oh, okay. We weren't working.

We were working on Saturday nights, and we didn't even know. And I remember being at the bar at Catcher in the Star, and I go, how are you doing? And nice as ever, it was John Belushi. Yeah, John Belushi, hey, I'm on a new show, Saturday Night Live, and Danny Aykroyd right there. The times were nuts, man. Patty Benatar down by the bar, you know, it was crazy. But then we heard they left.

And they were leaving and they needed a new cast. And I didn't want anything to do with it because you couldn't replace the original cast. You just couldn't. I mean, it was Gilda and Danny Akron. And it was Chevy and John. And you couldn't do it. And I didn't want to do it. So long, long story short, even longer than this. Take your time. No, there was a writer named John DeBellis. And John was hired by Gene Domanian, who was the new producer, Lauren's former right hand.

And I don't know what happened politically there, but Gene was running the show. And Gene said, I need a utility guy. And John said, I know Joe Piscopo is at the clubs. He does characters and voices. She goes, bring him up. So I went right up to the 17th floor.

And I auditioned for Gina. And she, I heard she used like Woody Allen as a reference because she and Woody were very close. So I did the audition and they go, okay, you could now do the big audition. And I go, what? And they did a sweep of that town. NBC came in and they swept the town and the big buzz.

Dana, the big buzz was like, who's going on SNL? Who's going to replace the original cast? So, and everybody was scared and they want to do it. I said, I don't know, but I don't want to do it. I want to just keep doing what I'm doing. I was doing commercials. I was doing, you know, like, like comedy clubs and I was doing great. That, that was my, that was my career idea for real. You know? So, so, so then, then they go, okay, now you got to go to the regular audition. And I go to the regular audition and it was me, uh,

And there were some great talented people. Gilbert was there. Paul Rubens was there. He was there when I was there. Yep, yep.

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That's $50 off with CodeFly at BlueNile.com. BlueNile.com. So can I ask you one question, Joe? How many years were you doing stand-up before 1980? Was it five years, six years? Yeah, four years. And you at one point knew you could do impressions and voices. You had that kind of... Yes.

Yes. Style. Yeah. So then you then you got noticed. Now you don't want the show. So but you got you're going to do it's perfect. It's perfect for the show, but you don't want it. So then what? So then what happened? Well, no, no, no. So we do the audition and then they go, OK, we want to hire you. So Chris calls me. Albrecht calls me. You've got to part. Are you going to be the utility guy? You know, and I'll go in like.

And I never argued with him because I was making good money. I, you know, I joined SAG and AFTRA and I was, I just, and I said, you can't replace Belushi and Aykroyd. Please don't make me do it. And Chris was, he was the boss back then to all of us young guys. And he, listen, he was our age too. But I said to him, all right, man, I'll go in, but I don't feel good about this. You feel like it's no win, right? Yeah.

And you know what, David? I don't want to say nothing, but I was right. We did 10 shows. Nobody's fault. You just couldn't replace America's favorite television show. One of the greatest television shows of all time. The writing of Alan Zweibel. The writing of Bert Sargent. You know, Franken and Davis. You couldn't replace that, and we didn't. But Jean Domania was great. I remember I went up. She said, you're in. She hired Gilbert. She

She hired a couple other people. And then there was a kid and he's up there on 17th floor in the back, you know, off of Lawrence office. There was a little sitting area. And I and I said they said, Joe, this is Eddie Murphy. I said, hey, Eddie, how you doing? We from Long Island. Never heard of him. Never knew him. We hit it off immediately.

And they said, yeah, they want me to audition. So I go, I go, all right, what do you want to do, man? This is exactly the way it happened. And he goes, we said, let's do the word association sketch that Chevy and Richard Pryor did. Let's do that. You do Pryor, I'll do Chevy and we'll do it. So we went, we're in an office, we're upstairs on the 17th floor. And then we had the script.

and we did the word association, you know, all as inappropriate as it was. A famous sketch where it was incredibly could not do it today, but it was Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor. So you guys duplicated that, just met, got the script from people there, and then, okay, so then what happened? Fascinating. Well, then Eddie just, like, crushed it, man. I mean, he was like, I mean, he crushed it. And I'm next to him going like,

Oh, man. So now now they wait. OK, we'll let you know, like to Eddie. And I and if I remember correctly and I went into Gene, I said, this kid's the next prior. This kid is the next prior. I said that was unbelievable. Well, we don't know. NBC thought he was too edgy. It was too edgy. We said no. So they made him. Yeah, they made him a featured player. And he's 19, right? 18, 19. Yeah. Which makes sense. Which makes sense.

Yeah, you know, so they brought him in and little by little, we did 10 shows. Gilbert was on it and it's just nobody's fault. I don't want to. And I got it. I got a big shout out to Billy Mary, the genius of Billy Mary, the heart of Billy Mary, one of the great guys ever. He came in.

And he came in on that new cast and he guest hosted and that meant a lot. And then he took us out and he all kind of brought us together, but it just didn't work. So cut to this. Tell me if I'm talking too much because I want to lay this out. We want you to talk. This is great. I knew you'd be a great guest and you are. So go ahead.

So then we go like this. We go, uh-oh, NBC pulled the plug. What happened? It's off. And we were like off the air. I thought I knew this would happen. Say, Chris, I told you. So now they're calling everybody up to the 17th floor. Now they replaced Jean Domanian. And by the way, Jean gets credit. She hired me, but she hired, even more importantly, Eddie Murphy. She hired Eddie Murphy. You've got to give Jean Domanian credit for that.

Right? So now they're bringing Dick Ebersole. Dick Ebersole, the legendary sports producer. So Dick Ebersole, we don't know. He was sort of there with Lorne a little bit in the beginning. He's an NBC executive. You guys know the history, man. Listen, Dick Ebersole was the executive at NBC that was with Brandon Tartikoff, rest his soul. Another great executive, as Ebersole was, as Mr. Ebersole was. And then I think...

Dick and Lauren were very close. I think so. That's the way it happened. So, so, so I guess they went to Lauren. They said, look, sorry, what do we do now? I get, I'm, I'm, I don't know if this is conjecture and they brought in Dick. So Dick, we went into Lauren's office, but Eversole's there and he's bringing, and we're, I'm sitting out there in the writer's wing and everybody's coming.

Coming out. And they're all getting whacked, guys. Everyone's getting whacked. Whacked. They're firing. It was like St. Valentine's Day. They bring you in to fire you.

Yeah, they bought everybody in, whacked one by one. It was like the St. Valentine's Day massacre. Listen, so then I remember Ann Risley, great talent, whacked. Denny Dillon, great talent, whacked. Charlie Rocket, rest his soul. Rocket used the F, dropped the F-bomb, done, done. Tim Krasinski, was he whacked or kept? No, no, Tim Krasinski. This was like...

Yeah, this was a preliminary. So now Gilbert to me was one of my best friends. And we came up together at the clubs. He walked out and he goes, I got fired. I got fired. You got fired. I said, you got fired. So now they go, all right, here's Cabal Murphy. Come on.

Come on in. So me and Eddie go in and me and Eddie had we had sets to do at the comic strip or wherever we were going. We were in our heads. That's where we were. So and we didn't care. And I fed off of the reckless abandon of Eddie Murphy because he just didn't care about anything. It was a beautiful thing to be a part of. So now we're going into Lauren's beautiful office. And Dick Eversole is back there like this, you know, and I sit down and he sits down and Dick goes like this.

Well, Eddie, Joe, we've we've decided to keep you and we went on there. If you get great dick, look, we got a couple of sets and we got to make a set of you. I think the cockiness helped guys, you know what I'm saying? Oh, definitely. But it was like I mean, so so that was it. And then, well, were you, Joe, were you relieved or were you sort of like, oh, no, I'm stuck on the Titanic?

Oh, no, I'm stuck. It wasn't really helping you at that point. You're like, God, we're just going to sink further in this. Exactly. Exactly. But, but I got to, but again, a shout out to, I'm sure he leaned on Lauren, but Dick Ebersole knew what he was. He said, you couldn't match fellas. The,

writing of the and the genius of the original cast. You couldn't match 100 percent. It was a perfect storm. Yeah. With the politically with the way Lauren put everything together. It was genius. And whoever was going to follow that original because they're the original rock stars. Take the comedy. They were, you know, and then it was impossible to follow. I had a buttress of years, but to follow that.

Hard. And proof is Eddie Murphy, you couldn't scout in the whole country a better guy that does well on SNL. And was he blowing up at all or was it still just people just turned the TV off?

No, no, we started to catch on a little bit. You know why? Yeah, you have to give Dick Ebersole credit because he bought in entertainment. He said, we can't match the hipness of Lauren's original show. Let's just entertain. Let's just be funny. So we took that was a great lesson. That was that. I don't know if Lauren told, you know, Mr. Ebersole that whatever it was, we went on. And then Eddie and I, out of, I guess, fear and survival, we kind of just.

joined together and started writing for ourselves, reaching out to two great writers, Barry Blaustein, David Sheffield. They were the key writers for Eddie and I. Tim Kazerinsky came in, and Timmy really was the captain of that cast. He was great. And Mary Gross came in. And we had, you know what? We started to gel a little bit, started having some fun a little bit.

And I got to tell you, I think what maybe probably made it work when Eddie and I were doing the In Ones, you know, David, I said to Dana the other night, I said the great thing that Dana always did, and you as well, is that the In Ones is what really I thought sold it. You wanted to see the church lady, you wanted to see whether for me the

Direct to camera, right? Yeah, right directly to the camera. We would write these silly, crazy Eddie sketches, you know, whatever it was. And Eddie and I would do the in ones together, or I would do it, and that seemed to gain, you know, some steam. And I go, my people, we go like this, by the grace of God, it worked, you know. Just for a second, because my brain gets curious about this stuff. So how many episodes did you do with Gene Domanian before it was?

Sort of just 10, just 10. And then there's a purge. And then the show starts again in the fall. Was there a gap of it not being on the air?

Yeah, there was a gap from it not being able to- It was really canceled. I did not know that. It was almost like a funeral and a wake for the first season, you know, the great people. And then it's like, okay, they took the hit, the first 10 shows. Now it's almost like it can't be that bad. You know what I mean? Something about it. Yeah. And then you and Eddie started, for me being in clubs and being aware of this whole situation-

You know, I felt that you and Eddie kind of were, you know, becoming stars. Obviously, you know, the two of you, you know, the famous Sinatra and Eddie doing Stevie Wonder almost as a dramatic actor, almost like it was very it shocked the audience when he started singing. And then your Sinatra, I think, is I mean, there's I got my Phil Hartman, you. But I think it's right up there with anybody.

Who's ever done it? Yeah. You know, you're, you're, you're Frank. They asked me to do the Frank Sinatra early on. I mean, we were, now we were searching, we were searching, what are we doing? How do we, how do we keep going? And we had pretty good guests would come on and then he brought on like, like Jerry Lewis came on, which was great. And then he would do, he would book Don Rickles and then Sid Caesar. And we went back and it's, that's big. Yeah.

It was like, let's just get guys that can do this. But early on, they said, Joe, we need the Frank Sinatra character. This was early on. And even during Gene's time, I said, I can't do it because it's a respectful thing and I don't want to make fun of it. I did it in the clubs. I did it for my SNL audition. I can't do it. And so I bought it. Then, in the wake of it, I wrote Mr. S a letter because I wanted to be a team player. I wrote Mr. Sinatra a letter and I said, this is done with respect.

This was all Italian, New Jersey thing, guys. That's what this is about. That's what I want to hear about because I'm from California. So this is like it's not dangerous, but you don't want to hurt Frank because for someone from New Jersey at that time, it's Frank Sinatra. You know, you don't mess with Frank and you love Frank.

That's right. It's exactly respect. Yeah, it's respected. And my father said, my father is an attorney. Rest his soul. He said, if you're not going to be a lawyer that you want to do entertainment, then look to Frank Sinatra because that's your role model. So here I am doing them. And then they asked me to do them in a satirical way. And I said, I can't.

I can't, because it's a, I'm telling you, it's hard to describe, but people, you know, would understand. It's a North Jersey, Italian-American thing, and it's all about respect. And I told that to Mr. S. So I sent it to Mickey Rudin, his lawyer at the time, and I didn't hear anything back. I said, okay, let's do it. And we did it, but I always couched it. I was respectful. Matter of fact, that Ebony and Ivory sketched.

was Barry and David, Blouse, Cedars, Sheffield. Eddie and I came up with the idea. We ripped it. They wrote it. And it was really kind of vicious and edgy. And I had to soften it just a little bit, even more, you know what I'm saying? So, and the old man I heard, Mr. S, was watching that from the Waldorf.

and saw the sketch with his daughter, Tina and Nancy, and they said, and his daughter said, Joe, why don't you go in and surprise Joe on the air, which I would have had a coronary. But I have to tell you, the old man, when I got an invitation while I was at SNL to go to a roast, to attend and be at the podium of a roast of Dean Martin, the master of ceremonies was Frank Sinatra.

That was the approval, see? And when I met him, he could not have been nicer. From the whole time, I've been with him a few times. I was never on the inside of the rat pack, you know? But he was always so respectful. Always so respectful. Did he say, maybe don't call me the old man? Maybe that's more offensive than the sketch. He was 52 at the time. He was 52. It's nice to meet an old person like yourself. He's like, hey. Yeah.

No, no. But you know what? Everybody who was around Mr. S, all the guys would call him the old man, the old man, like the captain. That's like the admiral. Okay. And this is, this is the story. So when, when he first saw me doing him, you know, you guys don't know, uh, Charlie Callis. Remember Charlie? Yeah. He was like Jerry Lewis's sidekick on a talk show. He was Jerry Lewis, like another extended version, a crazy guy.

Guy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Just to come up. David, you got to put that up. Someone told him to play it bigger and he never looked back. So Callis opened for Mr. Ed. It was Atlantic City, you know, 1980 something. And they're in the dressing room at Caesars. Mr. S is about to do a second show and they're in the dressing room about to step up to the stage.

And in the dressing room on the TV, somebody had Saturday Night Live on and I came on doing him. That's the first time Mr. Sinatra saw me doing him. And the room grows silent. Everybody goes, gosh, who's crazy enough? So Charlie Callas breaks the silence. He goes, what do you think, Captain? And Mr. S looks at me doing him and he goes, hey, he's pretty good. The little prick. Yeah.

That's the best answer. What a great line. But he didn't like it. He got that. It was respectful. And it was awkward. At that Ebony and Ivory thing, it was kind of edgy because it was based on Paul McCartney and it was about...

black and white getting together, all that stuff. And it was pretty, it was pretty edgy with Frank being the clueless, you know, but like the old Italian guy, the way they could be at that time, yo black, I'm white. You're singing. But at the very, the very last thing you had Frank say, which I'd wonder if you kind of was sort of sweet and landed it completely different. Who cares? Or what did Frank say at the end of that sketch?

You know, I got to tell you, and if folks watch, everybody's watching your podcast now, guys, I got to tell you, that means so much to me what you just said, Dana, what you just said. Yeah. Because you do things on the air, you do things on the air, and sometimes someone picks it up. Thank you for that. No, it was. I said, who cares, baby? Yeah, that changed the whole sketch, and it changed the whole vibe of Sinatra. He can do this and that, and we all know that he was a champion for basketball.

Sammy and he wouldn't, you know, he was completely not that character. So that was nice at the end. It really made a great. Thank you for thinking of that social justice warrior. He was, I mean, just for this folks don't understand when Mr. F went to Vegas at day and he was playing the main room and he was playing with the count Basie orchestra, which was an old black orchestra. He had Quincy Jones, uh, arranging for him and conducting for him.

And then, and Sammy would come on and they were staying on the other side of town. And Mr. S said, what is that? What are you going to eat at lunch with Sammy? Where are you guys staying? Where are you guys? He goes, they're putting us, they're not, they wouldn't allow the performer to walk in. People forget. And Mr. S said, Baldy goes, look, they don't go, they don't come in and you treat them exactly like you're treating me, then I'm not going on. And he really stood up to that. Yeah, he stood up.

There's a brilliant documentary on Sammy Davis Jr. It speaks a lot to how Frank was like

If you don't treat him like you treat me, I'm out of here. I'm doing you, doing him, doing him, whatever. But that's a fascinating part. So curious about that cast. Now, you and Eddie. And then who what was the cast that came in with you? I just because it was Brad Hall and Julie Louise Dreyfus. Well, they had when we first went in, we had it was mostly Timmy Kazerinsky and Mary Gross.

And then we had a guy, I think Tony Rosato joined us for a little while. There were some other folks from Toronto. Robin Duke is brilliant. Yes. Robin Duke is brilliant. She was just brilliant and wonderful. And Mary as well. But Robin and I, we did the whiners together. We could riff and she, you know, she's one of Toronto, Toronto's second city. She's great. And the whiners was one of your reoccurring.

characters that the audience would start to applaud when you guys appear. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I always said if Warren was producing, it would have been a movie. You know, I think it'll be called The Winers. We'll do it at Paramount. It'll be a 40 day shoot. Three sketches into one movie. Eddie will do a cameo and we go in June.

Really? Now let's eat. But you also had Jim Belushi as well, was in that era. Jimmy came in later and it was great. A great, great, great actor. And it was just great. But then they say we're bringing in Brad Hall, Gary Croker. Yes. We're bringing in Julie Louis-Dreyfus. Now they were three young kids and they could not have been more pleasant, more fun, more talented. They were great. But to this day,

I feel guilty because it really was Eddie and I kind of hunkered down to write for ourselves. And if you didn't write for yourself back in the day, I guess it was pretty much with you guys. You just didn't get on. You figured it out pretty quick. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Right. No one's really looking out for you. Yeah. That's right. It's just like that. And I always felt bad that...

You know, I mean, you know, it doesn't make any difference now, but like Julia was so sweet and nice and great. She was she was 19 at the time and she was great. And I always felt we should have probably got her into the sketches more, you know, but I don't think she needed our help. What did you do after SNL?

I mean, what has she really done? No, we hopefully we'll have her on as a guest too. And you know, but it's also a luck factor. Like some sketch falls in your lap or someone writes you something good, or you blow up on something. Uh, you know, Dana got is Wayne's world. And that thing blows up. He doesn't know for sure. That's going to blow, you know? And so you're in different things. Some things you really think are going to work. They don't something else blows up. I think it's hard though. If you don't write for yourself for your own moves, uh,

You have to show them. I go, I'm funny. And they go, they don't know. Oh, yeah. They're busy. You show them you can do something even around the office and you do an impression or anything and they go, we should put that in something. And then you go, okay, good. You need to help them a little bit. So you and Eddie integrated with writers. So you would instigate this stuff I do at the club, Eddie. And then you had a couple of writers who were hungry for that because when it works that way, your rhythms, your sensibility is already there.

enveloped into the sketch and then they hopefully improve it, you know? So, yeah. And Eddie is, uh, I mean, he's a force in nature, but he's a comic genius and it's effortless and it's instinctive. So we would be there. We'd be in, uh, the producer's office, uh, one of the, and one of the producer's office. And he, he was watching, um, um,

Mr. Rogers, you know? And he goes, no, I'm going to do a street version of this. And I look at him, I'm going to be Mr. Robinson. And I'm going to be, and he would come up with the concept. And he was just, and I remember one writer going, I don't know if that's going to work. And he would say, I'm doing it. Then he would say to me,

He would say to me, I'm going to do Buckley. And I go, I'm sorry. He goes, I'll do Buckley. Remember Buckley for the Little Rascals? And I would go. And I was like his older brother because I had him by almost about 10 years. And I would say, Ed, it might be a little racist. You might want to just maybe not do that. You know, bang. He didn't care. He went for it. And it was, I have to tell you, the joy of it to be next to it, to experience it.

especially to be live, to be live. I don't believe we had a delay back then. And to be next to Eddie, whether we were doing Ebony and Ivory, whether I was watching him doing Buckley, or whether we would do my favorite thing, we would do Solomon and Pudge, the two old guys in the bar, which was kind of a bittersweet thing that was just a fill. It was meant to do a fill because they needed time right before 1 o'clock.

And they would say, Eddie, Joe, just go up and do something. And Eddie and I just riffed. It was magic moments that I cherish forever. And I told Eddie this when they gave him the Mark Twain prize down there in Washington. And Chappelle was there and Arsenio was there and Georgie Lopez was there. And it was like the, you know, except for me, it was like the Mount Rushmore of comedy, you know. And everybody's going before. We're supposed to speak, you know, to Eddie at the Smithsonian the night before the event. What are we going to say?

And I remember Chappelle going, "How can you be funny? What can I do?" I said, "Guys, just speak from the heart, man. Just speak from the heart." And that's when I got up and said, "Annie, thank you for a great ride. Thank you for a ride of a lifetime." And it resonated, and we all had tears in our eyes. It was a beautiful thing. Out of comedy, you know? It's a lot of heart. People may see us trying to be funny or silly or, you know, outrageous, but I think we got a lot of heart and probably feel more than most, you know? Guys...

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Well, and also say the state, the obvious, and it comes up a lot on this podcast, just Rockefeller center, eight, eight, 17th floor live television in New York city. Me being from California, there's no more viscerally intense thing you can do in show business. And everyone even moves on to movies or whatever they do. There still is just that. And we were talking to Eric Andre the other day and he was like, how did you deal with the pressure?

The pressure. I mean, did you get more comfortable? Did you just feel good when you're out there with Eddie? Like, we're going to kick ass because you've got... Yeah, great observation, Dave. It's exactly right. I was petrified the whole time. And I...

Petrified. And I just was always worried. And a matter of fact, the writers would always bust my chops because I was always so uptight. That's got to be perfect before the show, before the show. I would say everybody be getting ready right after after the rehearsal. You know, after shooting, you know, rehearsing, it's like nine thirty and it's over. We go over the notes. I'd run down under the bleachers and I would go to a.

Al the cue card guy I would go to Kevin the cue card guy and I would just go let me see the cards which was real what a pain in the neck Pesca Paul I mean really but they did they ran you know what I'm saying David practice because you don't know where the sentence ends and you're like I want to get ready for exactly what it will be so if that looks a little weird

I want to say that now. And then maybe they can tweak it. And then you go, Ooh, could you go a little faster? Anything where you just go, it'll help. It's so scary. Do anything you can. Yeah. I agree with you. We were live. We were live. No safety net. It was no safety net. I wanted to be perfect every single time, but I think working with Eddie, Timmy Kazaristi as well. And,

that they were loose when you're loose and you can have fun like that on stage it was it was gold it was just gold like that that's where i relaxed in the arena right right in the the belly of the beast right live we had i mean look think of the numbers when we were on guys i mean you know was it eight million was it 20 million it wasn't the 30 million they had you know originally but there were a lot still very very big yeah no okay then i i worked with uh

I knew Tim Kazerinsky a little bit because we did something after that. He's a Chicago guy. And I worked with him after that and he was super cool, dude. I remember I had a great time with him and we didn't even talk that much about SNL. Oh, I wasn't, I wasn't on it yet. That's why I did it before that. Wow. But Timmy, Timmy brought us all together. Timmy was like, he was the liaison between the producer because they would say things and we would, you know, through animosity comes creativity. So,

you know, so, so if that, what do you mean? And then, and then the worst was for me when they said, okay, all right, you gotta, we want you to do this sketch. And you didn't want to do the sketch, man. You just knew it wasn't going to work, but you had to do the sketch and then you're waiting. And then, and then you do your, your dress rehearsal, you know, and then you wait and you're in that. I've just been being,

We remember being crammed in, you know, nine thirties come to 10 o'clock. Oh my gosh. We're live in an hour and a half. And somebody said, Oh, the sketches in that bad sketch that you're hitting. That was tough. You got to go. You know, but we get a question, Joe, did you have, let's say you write the whiners or you write a first draft that gets through read through. Do you have a, do you have a Thursday read through? I mean, a rewrite debt. We had a 16 hour rewrite day. You go through every sketch or did you just go off? Whoever wrote it rewrites it.

Whoever wrote it rewrites it. That's great. But there were notes. There were notes. Okay. But whoever wrote it rewrote. Whoever wrote it, if they had to rewrite, it was that. It was their piece. Right. Because sometimes when you gangbang it like that on a Thursday, it gets a little better because you've got everyone around the table giving you their best joke for that. And you pick. And then you do it. That's the way we did it when I was there. Yeah, like 16 people work on it.

with Conan O'Brien and Bob Odenkirk and Jack Handy Downey great writers I love that I wish we had it because we didn't know what to do when we first went in and now we're all there and the new cast is together and we went in the back that back writing area and then Dick Everett said alright I'm bringing back Michael O'Donoghue and he was like a legend to us yeah

Thank you. Thank you. I love the play-by-play you're doing, Dana. I'm just trying to set the table. I'm just thinking the person who doesn't know anything about this part of SNL. And also, your era is like a missing link for us. I mean, it's very interesting. Go ahead. And now Michael O'Donoghue's coming in? Oh my gosh. And he was so theatrical. So we're all waiting there. He makes an entrance.

And he's got a spray paint can in his hand. And he walks in, doesn't say a word. And he shakes it. And you can hear it shaking.

And on the wall of the writer's wing, he wrote D-A-N-G-E or danger. And he went, show. And he went like that. That's what the show lacks. And that's what we're going to do. Like that. I went, whoa, man. So then he would call us in. He would call us in. And he would, I'll tell you, these guys from that era were, and I mean this in the most respectful way, they were like off the charts crazy like that, you know? And Michael was like this.

So listen, listen, guys, he sits me in the office. Now I'm new and I, and I don't even want to be there because I don't, I've ruined the show so far. I don't want to continue. He goes like this. Listen, he said, he said, and he goes like this, just get both. Just he and I in the office, one-on-one in one of those little producers office. He goes,

I don't get you. I don't think you're funny. I don't get it. Like that. Like that. And I'm going like, okay, well, I'll leave now. Do you want me to go like that? And then I didn't, like, confront him. I said, you know, Michael, I agree with you. I don't think I belong here either. And I'm honored to see you, man. And he goes like, then he softens up and he goes like this. Well, that Sinatra thing's pretty good. I like that Sinatra thing that you do.

You do it. It goes like that. And after all that adversity, that angst, that blood, sweat, and tears, it all worked out. 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.

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When he was like, people don't understand. He was a comedy guy. He was a guy. He was it was like and I and to me, Ackroyd was my guy. Danny, to this day, I have such immense love and respect for Danny really was. He was the he was the captain of that ship, I thought. But John was so great. So we did the shows. We start to catch on a little bit and then John would come back and hang a little bit. And Danny Ackroyd came in. And these to me, man, I was in the competition.

It was, it was, it was awkward in Belushi. Yeah. And the Blues Brothers. Blues Brothers. You know, just, just every, just Kissinger and Nixon, you know, pray for me, Henry. Oh yeah. He played Nixon with a mustache. Exactly.

Exactly. And Danny was the epitome of how to execute a character. So then they go, they go, okay, we're going to an after party at Joe and Episcopal. They go, Episcopal, you're going after party. We want you to go with us. So we went down to what was the precursor to the house of blues. It was a hole in the wall. I don't know if you got, I don't think it was there when you guys went in, but it was like,

the village and it was just a dive and everybody was there. Gilda was there. Alan Zweibel was there. It was everybody. It's a Bennegan's now. And I'm going like, oh my gosh. And then Belushi comes over to me at just one-on-one and he goes, Piscopo. And he goes, come here. So he walks me over to the jukebox and there's a big jukebox there and he takes a quarter out of his pocket back in the day. He puts it in the jukebox and he punches up

Frank Sinatra, New York, New York. And he starts to sing it. And I'm doing dueling Sinatras with John Belushi at a bar in Greenwich Village. And it was that those are the things that happened. And we're singing brand new. And then to note, it became a moment at the party and everybody came around. Wow. Look at John's with Piscopo. Look at it. And as soon as that happened, it became the one.

I saw John and he just shied away. He shrunk away and got out of it. All he wanted was a moment. And I felt bad. And I understood that when you think people want to be famous, I want to be famous. It was not easy. And I saw a lot in Eddie, you know, too, when you got that big, it just wasn't easy. But I always appreciated that again. And it was the greatness that the humor, John Belushi, the boldness of John Belushi.

but I tell you, he had a big heart. He had a big heart and I saw it right there at that moment. What a great, you got Eddie, you got Belushi, Ackroyd's out there, the fucking heyday of it all. Jesus. Hey, can I, can I ask, can I ask you a question? Yeah, we have, we have no structure. We don't know what we're doing.

David, tell me about, if I may, I would be at, I went to St. Malachy's when I was on Broadway and I was across the street from St. Malachy's. And then they would tell me Chris Farley was always there at St. Malachy's. And then I'm in Beverly Hills.

And I'm out there and I'm at church more than once. And I forget if it was a Saturday night mass. And there's Chris Farley taking communion, walking like he just had partied all night. And we saw each other and went, whoa. I said, hey, how you doing? I wish I wanted to talk to him. I didn't want to bother him. I wish you did. No. I know. He would have loved it. He would have loved it. His face was... Oh, okay.

Oh, old SNL to talk about SNL code. He was completely a full-on Catholic. I mean, David knows so much better than I did, but yeah, he went to church all the time, right, David? Yeah, it was all night Saturday, wrap party, straight to church, and then back to zero. He says, I'm back to zero. He'd go in there and confess and do all the things he did, and he goes...

Five Hail Marys later, I'm back to zero. I'm all good. Going to heaven again. I go, all right, well, let's ruin it again this week. Yeah. Yeah, he was very into it. And I think he would have really respected and loved to see anyone. Messonel, especially you, did so much. Oh, yeah. At his young age, yeah, he would have been, yeah, great.

all up in your cast for sure. And you and Eddie. Yeah. And listen, it's fun for me and Dana because having you on and just hearing this stuff, it brings it all back. And we're lucky to work with who we worked with. And then you got to work with people and you're part of it all. So we heard your names while we were there. It's the same thing. Absolutely. The cast before. And I'm seeing you killing on SNL, doing characters and doing what I want to do, you know, before I was lucky enough to get there. Well,

And you know what, David, I remember we were in Hollywood somewhere or Los Angeles somewhere, and I was with my son years ago, and it was a sushi place, great sushi place, right from the Beverly Center. And you walked in, I said hi, and you were very nice and very respectful. You know, you appreciate that. And my son was, of course, great to see, you know, the great David Chubb.

fade. No, it was great. And then I remember this. I don't know why I remember this, but I told Dana this the other night. When I was in the makeup chair, it had to be rehearsal or we were doing a pre-shoot or something. And I looked in the mirror and a kid stuck his head in and went, Joe, Joe, hey, I'm a big fan. My name's Dana Carvey. Well, I don't know why I remember that. So that was before. Dana, you were doing a series, you said?

You were doing a sitcom at that time? I had a little deal with NBC. I got cast on a show called One of the Boys. Mickey Rooney was the star. Nathan Lane was the co-star. All of a sudden, I'm living in New York in 1981, and I'm shooting this sitcom on the sixth floor. And of course, I was possessed by SNL. And I did go up on Thursday a couple times in bleachers, watch you guys running stuff.

And then we had the same makeup artist. He would do your makeup on Saturday night or was in the at least working Saturday nights. And I would do my Andy Rooney and do certain impressions. He goes, you got to tell Joe. But I thought I did. Andy Rooney did it better or something. But I remember finding you somewhere. Joe Piscopo's down this hallway. You know, it's like a big lab room.

Hi, I'm Dana Carvey. I must have been really nervous because I was on this sitcom. It was a death knell. I mean, talk about it. We're driving this Scatman Carruthers stoned all day. Mickey with a .38 throwing it around the room. A revolver. They're not going to get me. So I was in a madhouse. And 72 months later, I got... You're like, hey, Joe, we're both in SAG. I wanted to say... Yeah.

But anyone who does this or anyone who's been to Saturday Night Live, you have Tracy Morgan call. He says, hey, alum, we're all alums because what is there, 160 of us? And it's almost 50 years that experience the pressure and whatever the fleany ass madness of this. There's a horse. There's people juggling. Now I'm not.

Throw a wig on me and push me out there. Well, we appreciate it, Joe. Thanks for taking some time out for us and love chatting with you. Yeah, with great respect and great love, guys. Joe, you paint great pictures. You're a great storyteller. This was really fun. Yes. Thanks for filling out. We'll see you out there. See you around campus. Okay, buddy. God bless. God bless.

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.