Since launching their popular podcast Fly on the Wall a year ago this week, Dana Carvey and David Spade have interviewed dozens of former Saturday Night Live cast members, hosts, and musical guests about their experience on the iconic show. Guests have included everyone from their close friends Adam Sandler and Conan O’Brien, to huge stars like Tom Hanks and Paul McCartney, to a rare sit-down with SNL creator himself, Lorne Michaels.
This Wednesday, when the Cadence13 podcast returns for its second season, they will flip the script as late-night host Jimmy Kimmel stops by to interview the two hosts, who share some genuinely hilarious stories about working with Chris Farley and Norm Macdonald, among many others. And as you can see from the exclusive clip below, Carvey and Spade do not hold back when talking about how different celebrity hosts have handled one of the most pressure-filled gigs in show business.
Kimmel begins by asking them about what it was like when Michael Jordan hosted SNL in 1991 when both Carvey and Spade were in the cast.
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“The really fascinating thing for me that week with Michael Jordan was that it’s a fish out of water,” Carvey explained. “The greatest player ever, but he’s got a lot of sketches and we’re about to go out on the live show.” He recalls being backstage with Jordan before a live sketch, “and had the script in his hands for last-minute jamming and I could tell he kind of had cottonmouth, he was a little tense.” Carvey told him, “Michael, just go out there and read it right off the cue card. Christopher Walken does it. Don’t even worry about that.”
“Trying to calm Michael Jordan down about anything was unique,” Carvey adds, noting that he also once had to assure Sting that his hair looked OK. Spade offers up Rosanna Arquette as the host who was the “most nervous,” and Carvey shares a story about hearing “orgasm” sounds coming out of Steven Seagal’s dressing room.
But both men reserve the highest praise for someone who hosted in more recent years, long after they had left the show.
The “secret of the show,” in Carvey’s opinion is, “When it’s good, it’s good.” But then also, “When it’s bad, it’s good.” He points to someone like the late New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner, who hosted in 1990, as someone who just wasn’t cut out for sketch comedy, but somehow it still worked.
“He sucks. Not his fault,” Carvey says of Steinbrenner. “I find that really compelling to watch live, and watch people bomb.”
This leads Kimmel to ask if they found it “disheartening” when a non-comedian like Kim Kardashian hosted in 2021 and by all measures delivered a killer opening monologue (with a little writing help from comedian Amy Schumer).
“I saw her monologue and said, ‘What the fuck?!’” Carvey replies. He added, “She landed that beautifully,” and noted that their friend and fellow cast member Chris Rock called it the “monologue of the year.”
“Yeah, it was really good,” Kimmel agrees, as Carvey adds, “And it just crushed.”
“Also, it’s out of nowhere so you get extra points,” Spade chimes in.
Ultimately, the biggest comedy compliment comes from Carvey: “She scored so hard, a part of me did die.”
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