1
00:00:02,080 --> 00:00:05,040
Speaker 1: This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the

2
00:00:05,040 --> 00:00:09,760
Speaker 1: Thing from iHeart Radio on Here's the Thing. We'd like

3
00:00:09,800 --> 00:00:14,280
Speaker 1: to draw attention to the fiftieth anniversary of Saturday Night Live.

4
00:00:15,240 --> 00:00:18,240
Speaker 1: In those fifty years, some of the most famous names

5
00:00:18,280 --> 00:00:22,720
Speaker 1: in comedy, films and television have passed through Studio eight

6
00:00:22,880 --> 00:00:26,880
Speaker 1: h at thirty Rockefeller Plaza. However, as is evidenced by

7
00:00:26,960 --> 00:00:30,760
Speaker 1: Jason Rightman's film Saturday Night the most enduring names who

8
00:00:30,840 --> 00:00:34,080
Speaker 1: performed on the show of the original cast from nineteen

9
00:00:34,159 --> 00:00:39,320
Speaker 1: seventy five Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin,

10
00:00:39,640 --> 00:00:45,000
Speaker 1: John Belushi, and Loray Newman. And after fifty years of SNL,

11
00:00:45,400 --> 00:00:48,479
Speaker 1: the one who has had arguably the most interesting career

12
00:00:48,520 --> 00:00:53,040
Speaker 1: of them all is my guest today, dan Aykroyd. Whether

13
00:00:53,320 --> 00:00:57,760
Speaker 1: conjuring the state puffed marshmallow Man, jamming an entire fish

14
00:00:58,240 --> 00:01:02,400
Speaker 1: into the basmatic, or dancing wildly to soul Man, few

15
00:01:02,440 --> 00:01:07,080
Speaker 1: people are more enjoyable to watch than dan Ackroyd. His

16
00:01:07,280 --> 00:01:11,679
Speaker 1: prolific career skyrocketed when he became the youngest cast member

17
00:01:11,680 --> 00:01:15,399
Speaker 1: of the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live at just

18
00:01:15,600 --> 00:01:20,640
Speaker 1: twenty three years old. Ackroyd's tenure at Studio eight h

19
00:01:20,840 --> 00:01:25,160
Speaker 1: Berth iconic sketches about Julia Child, Richard Nixon, and of

20
00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:29,280
Speaker 1: course the Blues Brothers, which evolved into feature films and

21
00:01:29,720 --> 00:01:34,320
Speaker 1: a touring live band. Dan Ackroyd is also the screenwriter

22
00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:39,399
Speaker 1: behind the classic comedic films Dragnet, Cone Heads, Spies Like Us,

23
00:01:39,400 --> 00:01:45,360
Speaker 1: and of course Ghostbusters. He reprised his Ghostbuster's role of

24
00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:51,200
Speaker 1: Race Dance just this year in Ghostbuster's Frozen Empire. If

25
00:01:51,200 --> 00:01:54,400
Speaker 1: that weren't enough. He's also the co founder of the

26
00:01:54,400 --> 00:01:59,560
Speaker 1: House of Blues music venues and Crystal Head Vodka. The

27
00:02:00,080 --> 00:02:04,520
Speaker 1: suttle and humble comedian he is Canadian, after all, is

28
00:02:04,560 --> 00:02:07,800
Speaker 1: an Emmy winner as well as a Grammy and Academy

29
00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:11,720
Speaker 1: Award nominee. I wanted to begin by asking how a

30
00:02:11,760 --> 00:02:15,760
Speaker 1: young and gifted Akroyd almost missed his calling and ended

31
00:02:15,840 --> 00:02:18,360
Speaker 1: up on the path to the priesthood.

32
00:02:19,200 --> 00:02:20,600
Speaker 2: Well, that's a fun question.

33
00:02:20,800 --> 00:02:23,280
Speaker 3: What happened was my parents wanted me to have a

34
00:02:23,320 --> 00:02:25,920
Speaker 3: little better education than the public school system at the

35
00:02:25,919 --> 00:02:28,840
Speaker 3: time there in the Ottawa Hall area and the Gatineau

36
00:02:29,040 --> 00:02:32,440
Speaker 3: area and on the Ottawa River up there in eastern Ontario,

37
00:02:32,600 --> 00:02:35,760
Speaker 3: at our capital city. They wanted a stricter education. So

38
00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:37,960
Speaker 3: they took me into the seminary and they sat me

39
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:41,600
Speaker 3: down in front of Father Leney, the Saint Pius, the

40
00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:45,280
Speaker 3: tenth minor preparatory seminary for boys. So in I go

41
00:02:45,960 --> 00:02:48,679
Speaker 3: with father Loney, and my mom's sitting there, my dad

42
00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:51,240
Speaker 3: sitting there. They really want me to get into this academy,

43
00:02:51,560 --> 00:02:54,280
Speaker 3: which was an excellent school, by the way, I ruined

44
00:02:54,320 --> 00:02:58,040
Speaker 3: it when I was there. But so he says, well, Dan,

45
00:02:58,600 --> 00:03:02,280
Speaker 3: in the Newfoundland accent, the Nova Scotia accent, or the

46
00:03:02,600 --> 00:03:06,680
Speaker 3: rural Ontario accent slightly Irish, those all are well, Dan. Now,

47
00:03:06,800 --> 00:03:09,560
Speaker 3: so we understand your father and mother tell us that

48
00:03:09,880 --> 00:03:13,160
Speaker 3: you see a vocation for yourself in the priesthood. And

49
00:03:13,240 --> 00:03:16,480
Speaker 3: of course I had no intention ever of doing that,

50
00:03:16,960 --> 00:03:18,639
Speaker 3: but I had to please my parents. And here was

51
00:03:18,680 --> 00:03:20,239
Speaker 3: my answer to father Leney.

52
00:03:20,960 --> 00:03:32,520
Speaker 4: Ah why yeah, yeah, yeh yes maybe.

53
00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:35,600
Speaker 3: And then after three years there, where I was a

54
00:03:35,640 --> 00:03:39,000
Speaker 3: horrible class clown and drove the teachers crazy, they let

55
00:03:39,000 --> 00:03:41,640
Speaker 3: me go in grade eleven and they wrote a letter

56
00:03:41,680 --> 00:03:44,120
Speaker 3: to my parents and it said, we believe your son

57
00:03:44,160 --> 00:03:49,520
Speaker 3: is no longer suitable for the priesthood, their loss, their loss. Well,

58
00:03:49,560 --> 00:03:51,520
Speaker 3: my mother didn't like one of the teachers who was

59
00:03:51,600 --> 00:03:53,040
Speaker 3: kind of hard on me, but he should have been.

60
00:03:53,080 --> 00:03:56,600
Speaker 3: I was a bad class mate. My mother kind of

61
00:03:56,600 --> 00:03:58,320
Speaker 3: tore a strip into him, so she was happy when

62
00:03:58,360 --> 00:04:00,240
Speaker 3: I left. And then I ended up, thankfully, I ended

63
00:04:00,320 --> 00:04:02,960
Speaker 3: up failing mathematics and having to go to a summer school.

64
00:04:03,480 --> 00:04:05,800
Speaker 3: Had I not failed in Grade eleven at Saint Pias

65
00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:07,760
Speaker 3: in math, had I not been failed by the teacher

66
00:04:07,800 --> 00:04:09,800
Speaker 3: who didn't like me, you didn't like me, he failed me,

67
00:04:09,920 --> 00:04:11,880
Speaker 3: I would never have met one of my best friends,

68
00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:14,440
Speaker 3: David Benoa, who I know today. We met in summer school.

69
00:04:14,440 --> 00:04:18,920
Speaker 3: So life takes those beautiful, beautiful turns. Yes, yes, but

70
00:04:18,960 --> 00:04:21,240
Speaker 3: no priest stood for me, No priest for me. I

71
00:04:21,279 --> 00:04:23,000
Speaker 3: got thrown out. You got thrown out.

72
00:04:23,080 --> 00:04:25,920
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, obviously you got thrown out because you had

73
00:04:25,920 --> 00:04:27,640
Speaker 1: to be liberated so you can go to your next

74
00:04:27,720 --> 00:04:31,479
Speaker 1: level of study, which was deviant sociology. You and I

75
00:04:31,520 --> 00:04:33,680
Speaker 1: have some really strange overlapping things here, which we're going

76
00:04:33,720 --> 00:04:35,520
Speaker 1: to get to. But tell us a little bit about

77
00:04:35,600 --> 00:04:39,520
Speaker 1: what you were after in terms of the deviant sociology calling.

78
00:04:40,200 --> 00:04:43,000
Speaker 3: So, after pious, I went to Saint Pat's which was

79
00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:45,520
Speaker 3: a progressive school, and it had an item there that

80
00:04:45,640 --> 00:04:47,839
Speaker 3: I had never really known in class before, and that

81
00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:52,520
Speaker 3: is the female. So we had mixed co ed school there,

82
00:04:52,680 --> 00:04:55,239
Speaker 3: and that was where I started to get into drama.

83
00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:58,720
Speaker 3: We did murder in the cathedral, we did Carousel, we

84
00:04:58,760 --> 00:05:01,880
Speaker 3: did our carnival at called and we did all kinds

85
00:05:01,880 --> 00:05:03,760
Speaker 3: of great plays. There was a teacher there named Brady

86
00:05:03,760 --> 00:05:05,839
Speaker 3: Long And I know you have an influential teacher in

87
00:05:05,880 --> 00:05:08,080
Speaker 3: your life or several, probably yes, And he was the

88
00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:11,720
Speaker 3: most influential in my life. He saved me. In Grade twelve,

89
00:05:11,839 --> 00:05:13,880
Speaker 3: I got into more trouble at that school with my

90
00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:16,599
Speaker 3: friend Harvey. We were kind of a duo there and

91
00:05:16,800 --> 00:05:18,839
Speaker 3: a little bit of a trouble mainly because of the

92
00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,320
Speaker 3: doing the acts in class. You can't do that in class.

93
00:05:21,320 --> 00:05:23,560
Speaker 3: They're not there for the entertainment, you know. We learned that.

94
00:05:24,120 --> 00:05:26,200
Speaker 3: So the drama bug bit me there in that in

95
00:05:26,279 --> 00:05:27,960
Speaker 3: high school. Then I had to figure out what to

96
00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:30,680
Speaker 3: do for a living, so I went I had worked

97
00:05:30,680 --> 00:05:34,400
Speaker 3: for the Canadian Penitentiary Service in the Solicitor General's Office

98
00:05:34,440 --> 00:05:37,560
Speaker 3: of Canada. I worked at the Penitentiary Service for a

99
00:05:37,680 --> 00:05:41,520
Speaker 3: summer as a clerk five, and so I was very

100
00:05:41,560 --> 00:05:45,479
Speaker 3: interested in that corrections and how it's done and classifications.

101
00:05:45,720 --> 00:05:49,040
Speaker 3: Now why well, because I suppose I wanted to understand

102
00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:51,760
Speaker 3: deviant behavior myself for what it was in myself and

103
00:05:51,800 --> 00:05:55,440
Speaker 3: my friends and other people. And so I loved working

104
00:05:55,440 --> 00:05:58,000
Speaker 3: at the Penitentiary Service because I got all the statistics

105
00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:01,240
Speaker 3: of every prison across Canada, how many people were there.

106
00:06:01,440 --> 00:06:04,120
Speaker 3: And I wrote a manual for the signature of the

107
00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:07,440
Speaker 3: Commissioner at the time on the deployment of weapons in

108
00:06:07,520 --> 00:06:10,160
Speaker 3: a riot by prison guards. And I thought, this is

109
00:06:10,200 --> 00:06:12,320
Speaker 3: an interesting world. So then I went to Carlton. I

110
00:06:12,360 --> 00:06:16,520
Speaker 3: took sociology, I took deviant psychology, I took criminology and

111
00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:19,640
Speaker 3: a few other abnormal psych I think too. And I

112
00:06:20,120 --> 00:06:24,040
Speaker 3: lasted at Carlton for about three years. But then Valerie Bromfield,

113
00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:26,720
Speaker 3: who's in the new SNL movie, which is great, by

114
00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:29,640
Speaker 3: the way, was my partner and she almost made it

115
00:06:29,720 --> 00:06:31,320
Speaker 3: under the cast of the show. But she was in

116
00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:33,479
Speaker 3: Saturday Night Live. She did a stand up. I don't

117
00:06:33,520 --> 00:06:36,320
Speaker 3: know whether she caught it, but Jason Reitman depicts her

118
00:06:36,320 --> 00:06:39,240
Speaker 3: in the new movie. She was my partner, and she said,

119
00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:42,080
Speaker 3: there's no way you're going to be a prison guard. No, No,

120
00:06:42,320 --> 00:06:44,920
Speaker 3: You've got a gift for comedy and that We did

121
00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:48,080
Speaker 3: stuff together. We had our own show, fifteen minute show

122
00:06:48,160 --> 00:06:50,880
Speaker 3: called a Change for a Quarter on the cable show.

123
00:06:50,880 --> 00:06:53,000
Speaker 3: We did it with robot cameras and one operator. And

124
00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:55,279
Speaker 3: that's what we brought into Lauren Michaels a two inch

125
00:06:55,360 --> 00:06:58,840
Speaker 3: thick videotape. Remember they came in a briefcase of videotapes,

126
00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:01,080
Speaker 3: So we give that to Lauren and that's what got

127
00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:03,360
Speaker 3: us hired for the special he did and then got

128
00:07:03,360 --> 00:07:06,440
Speaker 3: me known to him for when SNL came along. So

129
00:07:06,600 --> 00:07:08,680
Speaker 3: it was Valery who yanked me out of Carlton from

130
00:07:08,760 --> 00:07:10,400
Speaker 3: criminology Studies, which I liked.

131
00:07:10,600 --> 00:07:13,320
Speaker 2: I had great instructors. She dragged you to where Toronto

132
00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:14,680
Speaker 2: were New York Toronto.

133
00:07:14,800 --> 00:07:17,440
Speaker 3: We had a great duo. We loved Nicholson May and

134
00:07:17,480 --> 00:07:20,480
Speaker 3: we had some great sketches. We were hired by Second City,

135
00:07:20,480 --> 00:07:23,320
Speaker 3: we were working together. We had a big, strong career

136
00:07:23,360 --> 00:07:25,680
Speaker 3: in comedy, so she was quite right to haul me

137
00:07:25,720 --> 00:07:26,080
Speaker 3: out of there.

138
00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:26,880
Speaker 2: I don't know.

139
00:07:27,200 --> 00:07:31,040
Speaker 3: I'm finding out more about the penitentiary system in Canada now,

140
00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:34,840
Speaker 3: and it's on the surface, it looks organized, But it's not.

141
00:07:35,000 --> 00:07:35,880
Speaker 2: It's disorganized.

142
00:07:35,880 --> 00:07:38,920
Speaker 3: It's a bad world in there, in those places, particularly

143
00:07:38,960 --> 00:07:41,080
Speaker 3: the big prisons, where I probably would have ended up

144
00:07:41,120 --> 00:07:44,400
Speaker 3: working with you Ba and criminology. And then because I

145
00:07:44,520 --> 00:07:46,560
Speaker 3: was a good writer even then with essays and that.

146
00:07:47,400 --> 00:07:49,720
Speaker 3: You know, writers own the world, you know that, Alec.

147
00:07:49,840 --> 00:07:52,720
Speaker 3: And you know in professional world, in the police world,

148
00:07:52,880 --> 00:07:55,480
Speaker 3: the ones who rise up to chief in that are

149
00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:57,240
Speaker 3: the writers who could write up reports.

150
00:07:57,800 --> 00:08:00,080
Speaker 1: Right now. The woman that took you to Toronto, what

151
00:08:00,160 --> 00:08:00,960
Speaker 1: is her name again.

152
00:08:01,120 --> 00:08:03,920
Speaker 3: Valerie Bromfield, brilliant, wonderful to We had a lot of

153
00:08:03,920 --> 00:08:04,440
Speaker 3: fun together.

154
00:08:04,760 --> 00:08:08,240
Speaker 1: You worked with Lorne. You had some interaction with him

155
00:08:08,600 --> 00:08:11,760
Speaker 1: when he did Heart and Lorne Terrific Hour. Correct, you

156
00:08:11,800 --> 00:08:12,800
Speaker 1: work with him on that show.

157
00:08:13,280 --> 00:08:15,160
Speaker 2: We gave him that two inch videotape.

158
00:08:15,200 --> 00:08:17,480
Speaker 3: He looked at that and he hired us for a

159
00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:20,440
Speaker 3: summer special on the Heart and Lauren Terrific Hour called

160
00:08:20,480 --> 00:08:21,960
Speaker 3: the Great Canadian Humor Test.

161
00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:23,200
Speaker 1: And that's where you met him.

162
00:08:23,160 --> 00:08:26,320
Speaker 3: Yes, in sixty nine, that's right, and Lauren saw and

163
00:08:26,480 --> 00:08:29,240
Speaker 3: Valerie and I something there and hired us and I

164
00:08:29,280 --> 00:08:32,360
Speaker 3: played in that special. I was twenty one at the time,

165
00:08:32,480 --> 00:08:36,480
Speaker 3: and I played characters over sixty you know heavily made up.

166
00:08:36,559 --> 00:08:38,800
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, and so there Laurene put us on and

167
00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:39,400
Speaker 2: there we were.

168
00:08:39,720 --> 00:08:42,880
Speaker 1: So when you go to it seems eventually you end

169
00:08:42,960 --> 00:08:46,360
Speaker 1: up crashing the SNL audition. You say to yourself, I

170
00:08:46,400 --> 00:08:48,319
Speaker 1: can't wait in line here. You said, by the time

171
00:08:48,360 --> 00:08:50,600
Speaker 1: I do the song, it's not going to be till

172
00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:53,560
Speaker 1: seven o'clock at night. You cut the song, you go

173
00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:56,040
Speaker 1: in and do a fast routine. Correct.

174
00:08:56,640 --> 00:09:00,000
Speaker 3: Well, I said, you know, I'm just gonna scrub the audition.

175
00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:02,160
Speaker 3: I'm not here to audition. I'm here to say a

176
00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:05,360
Speaker 3: load of Lauren that I knew before before. So I

177
00:09:05,480 --> 00:09:08,199
Speaker 3: walked in and I went in and teach the line.

178
00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:08,680
Speaker 2: It's true.

179
00:09:08,679 --> 00:09:10,800
Speaker 3: There was a line as if they were lining up

180
00:09:10,840 --> 00:09:13,800
Speaker 3: for a movie tickets source pos event, and so I

181
00:09:13,840 --> 00:09:15,720
Speaker 3: walked right up and I just kind of said a

182
00:09:15,760 --> 00:09:18,360
Speaker 3: quick ColoAd of Lauren, A quick coloada Davey Wilson. And

183
00:09:19,200 --> 00:09:21,080
Speaker 3: I was in the room for no more than a

184
00:09:21,120 --> 00:09:23,280
Speaker 3: minute and a half, and I turned around and then

185
00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:25,360
Speaker 3: walked out after that, because he knew me from before,

186
00:09:25,400 --> 00:09:26,839
Speaker 3: and I said, wow, And they say, going to work.

187
00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:29,000
Speaker 3: I was with a friend of mine from Toronto who

188
00:09:29,040 --> 00:09:30,800
Speaker 3: had come down with me. And we had a song

189
00:09:30,880 --> 00:09:33,320
Speaker 3: in that and I said, this song will die. If

190
00:09:33,360 --> 00:09:35,880
Speaker 3: we do this song here, I'm telling you, we will die.

191
00:09:35,920 --> 00:09:38,400
Speaker 3: We will never work in show business. We'll be recommended

192
00:09:38,440 --> 00:09:40,920
Speaker 3: against by Lorne. And then I got the call. I

193
00:09:41,040 --> 00:09:43,559
Speaker 3: was with Candy when I got the call. We were

194
00:09:43,640 --> 00:09:47,640
Speaker 3: opening the Second City in Pasadena, California, and Candy and

195
00:09:47,679 --> 00:09:50,720
Speaker 3: I had just driven in his Mercury Cougar, his late

196
00:09:50,800 --> 00:09:55,880
Speaker 3: seventies Mercury Cougar, all the way across country and so

197
00:09:55,920 --> 00:09:58,800
Speaker 3: we made that and then Lauren said, come in for

198
00:09:58,840 --> 00:10:01,360
Speaker 3: the final round of edition here. We want to put

199
00:10:01,400 --> 00:10:03,840
Speaker 3: you on tape. And I said, well, I got this

200
00:10:03,920 --> 00:10:06,280
Speaker 3: job Second City. He said, well, you know, come on in.

201
00:10:06,600 --> 00:10:09,040
Speaker 3: We really think we could work something out something like that.

202
00:10:09,160 --> 00:10:11,760
Speaker 3: I went, I did the auditions, and then yeah, I

203
00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:14,360
Speaker 3: got the words. Some time after that, I was back

204
00:10:14,360 --> 00:10:16,000
Speaker 3: home in Canada when I heard.

205
00:10:16,400 --> 00:10:18,280
Speaker 1: I read a quote where you're walking down the street

206
00:10:18,360 --> 00:10:21,560
Speaker 1: with Chevy and he's getting assailed by people. They're all

207
00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:24,680
Speaker 1: yelling Chevy, Chevy, Chevy. And you said to yourself, I

208
00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:26,880
Speaker 1: saw what Chevy was exposed to and thought to myself,

209
00:10:26,920 --> 00:10:27,720
Speaker 1: I don't want that.

210
00:10:28,520 --> 00:10:31,280
Speaker 3: Oh no, absolutely, I for sure said I knew. I

211
00:10:31,280 --> 00:10:34,880
Speaker 3: didn't want that, and now one of the joys of aging.

212
00:10:34,960 --> 00:10:36,800
Speaker 3: I was at a restaurant the other day and the

213
00:10:36,840 --> 00:10:40,160
Speaker 3: young woman was, you know, a local student, probably about

214
00:10:40,280 --> 00:10:44,640
Speaker 3: twenty two twenty three, no clue who I was not, right,

215
00:10:44,880 --> 00:10:47,480
Speaker 3: Thank you, Thank you for that type of anonymity.

216
00:10:47,600 --> 00:10:49,280
Speaker 2: I love and I didn't want it.

217
00:10:49,679 --> 00:10:52,000
Speaker 3: And I was sort of, you know, with Chevy there,

218
00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:55,360
Speaker 3: enjoying watching him grow and watching his fame and his

219
00:10:55,480 --> 00:10:58,280
Speaker 3: talent expand. And you know, he was my biggest fan

220
00:10:58,320 --> 00:11:01,079
Speaker 3: at SNL. He was my biggest point. He was him

221
00:11:01,120 --> 00:11:03,559
Speaker 3: and o'donnau Right and Lauren as well, of course, but

222
00:11:04,200 --> 00:11:06,520
Speaker 3: those two guys lobbied for me heavily, and then Franken

223
00:11:06,559 --> 00:11:10,240
Speaker 3: and Davis as well. I highly recommend the new SNL movie.

224
00:11:10,640 --> 00:11:13,800
Speaker 3: It plays like a suspense film, does it really?

225
00:11:14,080 --> 00:11:14,280
Speaker 2: Well?

226
00:11:14,360 --> 00:11:17,600
Speaker 3: Yeah, because they didn't know where where they were really

227
00:11:17,600 --> 00:11:19,400
Speaker 3: going to go on the air at at eleven thirty,

228
00:11:19,679 --> 00:11:22,160
Speaker 3: and you know, I remember just kind of being down

229
00:11:22,480 --> 00:11:24,520
Speaker 3: among in the bleachers and before I was supposed to

230
00:11:24,520 --> 00:11:26,800
Speaker 3: go on in the home Security sketch with Garrett, and

231
00:11:26,840 --> 00:11:30,040
Speaker 3: I was just thinking, well, you know, maybe this works,

232
00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:32,439
Speaker 3: maybe it doesn't, Maybe we go on, maybe we don't.

233
00:11:32,480 --> 00:11:34,400
Speaker 3: But you know, I saw a good price on a

234
00:11:34,640 --> 00:11:38,160
Speaker 3: nice big snowplow up there where I could get some contracts.

235
00:11:38,160 --> 00:11:41,000
Speaker 3: And you know, I've got some sand on my property.

236
00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:43,640
Speaker 2: I have actually a commercial.

237
00:11:43,280 --> 00:11:46,560
Speaker 3: Level grade of sand and a load on my property

238
00:11:46,600 --> 00:11:49,720
Speaker 3: up here, and those contracts pay very very well.

239
00:11:50,160 --> 00:11:51,560
Speaker 1: You like living up there, huh?

240
00:11:51,600 --> 00:11:53,400
Speaker 2: I love it? I love it well. I'm here only

241
00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:53,959
Speaker 2: part of the year.

242
00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:56,760
Speaker 3: I'm here mostly in the summers, and then go to

243
00:11:56,800 --> 00:11:59,319
Speaker 3: Massachusetts and then I've got a home in the US

244
00:11:59,440 --> 00:12:01,959
Speaker 3: Virgin Island, or my partner as a home there that

245
00:12:02,760 --> 00:12:05,360
Speaker 3: I bunk in with her and our two kids. But

246
00:12:05,559 --> 00:12:07,720
Speaker 3: you see, with the snowplow, I'm serious, I would have

247
00:12:07,720 --> 00:12:09,440
Speaker 3: gone back because I would have had no career if

248
00:12:09,480 --> 00:12:11,760
Speaker 3: I didn't get into SNL none. I couldn't go back

249
00:12:11,800 --> 00:12:14,000
Speaker 3: to Second City. I wasn't going to go back to Toronto.

250
00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:17,760
Speaker 3: I was looking for those county contracts, you know, where

251
00:12:17,800 --> 00:12:20,080
Speaker 3: you're selling tons and tons and then you have a

252
00:12:20,120 --> 00:12:22,320
Speaker 3: fleet of trucks. And believe me, you know, I have

253
00:12:22,320 --> 00:12:24,680
Speaker 3: a friend up here who is the wealthiest guy in

254
00:12:24,720 --> 00:12:28,360
Speaker 3: the county, and it's because he builds all the cement

255
00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:31,320
Speaker 3: barriers for the highways. He has a car collection of

256
00:12:31,360 --> 00:12:34,199
Speaker 3: two hundred and he's really an archetype. He's a spectacular

257
00:12:34,280 --> 00:12:37,120
Speaker 3: human being, and he made his living with his hands,

258
00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:39,480
Speaker 3: you know. So that's where I would have been headed.

259
00:12:39,840 --> 00:12:42,600
Speaker 3: But I'm glad the rote that my life took and

260
00:12:42,640 --> 00:12:45,200
Speaker 3: I loved working at SNL. I'm so grateful for having

261
00:12:45,520 --> 00:12:48,280
Speaker 3: had a career in film and for all the things

262
00:12:48,280 --> 00:12:49,360
Speaker 3: I'm getting to do now.

263
00:12:50,040 --> 00:12:53,560
Speaker 1: Well, in four years goes by. You're there seventy five

264
00:12:53,640 --> 00:12:56,280
Speaker 1: through seventy nine, and then after four years you leave.

265
00:12:57,080 --> 00:13:00,160
Speaker 1: And there are some people in the business who you know.

266
00:13:00,480 --> 00:13:02,640
Speaker 1: You look at them and you say, you're doing a series,

267
00:13:02,679 --> 00:13:04,680
Speaker 1: let's say, and getting paid a lot of money. And

268
00:13:04,720 --> 00:13:06,560
Speaker 1: I'll tell some of my friends, I say, you ride

269
00:13:06,559 --> 00:13:08,600
Speaker 1: that horse till it drops, you know what I mean.

270
00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:10,880
Speaker 1: They're never going to have that good again. Whereas for you,

271
00:13:11,400 --> 00:13:14,280
Speaker 1: who win an Emmy for writing, You're one of the

272
00:13:14,280 --> 00:13:17,800
Speaker 1: stars of the show, and everybody admires you. Everybody just

273
00:13:18,280 --> 00:13:21,800
Speaker 1: is crazy about your talent. When you leave, was that

274
00:13:21,920 --> 00:13:25,959
Speaker 1: your decision? Did you decide it was diminishing returns, there

275
00:13:26,000 --> 00:13:27,360
Speaker 1: was no reason to stay any longer.

276
00:13:27,880 --> 00:13:31,000
Speaker 3: No, In fact, it was because Blues Brothers spilled over

277
00:13:31,280 --> 00:13:33,319
Speaker 3: a couple of months in Chicago, and we couldn't go

278
00:13:33,400 --> 00:13:36,000
Speaker 3: back to work, and we saw that we would have

279
00:13:36,040 --> 00:13:38,520
Speaker 3: to be with Blues Brothers, you know, getting it through

280
00:13:38,520 --> 00:13:40,680
Speaker 3: post production and all the things that needed to be

281
00:13:40,720 --> 00:13:43,319
Speaker 3: done to get it released, publicized and all that. So

282
00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:46,560
Speaker 3: we couldn't go back because we couldn't do both. But

283
00:13:46,840 --> 00:13:50,559
Speaker 3: we did the movie, and we knew we couldn't commit

284
00:13:50,600 --> 00:13:53,520
Speaker 3: to SNL, and we were both ready to kind of

285
00:13:53,600 --> 00:13:56,320
Speaker 3: go in a way. But had Blues Brothers not existed,

286
00:13:56,360 --> 00:13:59,800
Speaker 3: had I not written that, or had Judy and John

287
00:13:59,800 --> 00:14:02,720
Speaker 3: and I not conceived that or originated that, I probably

288
00:14:02,760 --> 00:14:04,959
Speaker 3: would have done another couple of years, if not more,

289
00:14:05,040 --> 00:14:08,080
Speaker 3: at SNL. You know, it's video commando time. You know

290
00:14:08,080 --> 00:14:10,800
Speaker 3: how hard it is. You're almost a cast member yourself.

291
00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:13,200
Speaker 3: But I did enjoy it, and I could could have

292
00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:15,400
Speaker 3: done another couple of years there, I think, right.

293
00:14:15,920 --> 00:14:18,360
Speaker 1: Come seventy six, you do Love at First Sight. Come

294
00:14:18,440 --> 00:14:21,480
Speaker 1: seventy nine, it's mister Mike's Mondo video. And then you

295
00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:23,920
Speaker 1: do nineteen forty one, you're out of there. And then

296
00:14:23,920 --> 00:14:27,120
Speaker 1: you proceed from nineteen eighty on, from Blues Brothers on

297
00:14:27,560 --> 00:14:29,840
Speaker 1: to make a hell of a lot of movies, a

298
00:14:30,000 --> 00:14:32,840
Speaker 1: hell of a lot of movies. Did you settle into

299
00:14:32,920 --> 00:14:36,320
Speaker 1: a place eventually where the movies were home? This is

300
00:14:36,320 --> 00:14:38,680
Speaker 1: what you preferred was making films?

301
00:14:39,280 --> 00:14:43,520
Speaker 3: Well, I liked playing different roles, and of course a

302
00:14:43,520 --> 00:14:45,120
Speaker 3: lot of those movies, you know, I was really only

303
00:14:45,120 --> 00:14:47,920
Speaker 3: played the principal lead in about thirty if you could

304
00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:50,520
Speaker 3: check and see that. So the others were guest shots

305
00:14:50,640 --> 00:14:53,000
Speaker 3: or like Indiana Jones and a Temple of doom.

306
00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:54,960
Speaker 2: Who wouldn't want to work for Lucas and Spielberg.

307
00:14:55,040 --> 00:14:57,320
Speaker 3: So I talked my way into that one, right, And

308
00:14:57,360 --> 00:14:59,360
Speaker 3: then there were some that I conceived of, I wrote,

309
00:14:59,600 --> 00:15:02,640
Speaker 3: I think I I had eight screenplays made in the eighties,

310
00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:05,240
Speaker 3: and wow, even today, I think people will be happy

311
00:15:05,240 --> 00:15:07,960
Speaker 3: with that that record. Some of them, you know, they

312
00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:11,000
Speaker 3: were just neat roles and opportunities to travel and work

313
00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:13,160
Speaker 3: with different directors, and I did enjoy it.

314
00:15:13,200 --> 00:15:15,720
Speaker 2: But my real home heart for work.

315
00:15:15,440 --> 00:15:18,400
Speaker 3: And as you speak of it, is the writing part

316
00:15:18,440 --> 00:15:22,000
Speaker 3: of it. I love writing more than anything. You're left alone,

317
00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:24,160
Speaker 3: you know, you do three hours in the morning you write,

318
00:15:24,520 --> 00:15:26,120
Speaker 3: I need to have lunch, and then three hours in

319
00:15:26,120 --> 00:15:28,400
Speaker 3: the afternoon, go pick up a kid from school and

320
00:15:28,480 --> 00:15:30,960
Speaker 3: write at night, and after nine hours you come out

321
00:15:30,960 --> 00:15:33,720
Speaker 3: with seven pages and then you're you're moving on so

322
00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:37,080
Speaker 3: and you you know, it's just your own devices, the air,

323
00:15:37,360 --> 00:15:39,720
Speaker 3: the air around you, and your mind and a blank

324
00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:42,240
Speaker 3: screen or a blank piece of paper. That's really what

325
00:15:42,280 --> 00:15:46,280
Speaker 3: I'd like to be doing more of and always did enjoy.

326
00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:48,120
Speaker 2: But I did like playing the roles.

327
00:15:48,120 --> 00:15:50,000
Speaker 3: I got to work with so many great people like

328
00:15:50,160 --> 00:15:54,000
Speaker 3: Robbie Williams, Robbie Coltrane and Terry Davis, the terrific director.

329
00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:56,440
Speaker 3: We worked on House of Mirth. I wor got to

330
00:15:56,440 --> 00:15:59,800
Speaker 3: work with Gillian Anderson and Laura Lenny and Anthony Naplaglia

331
00:15:59,840 --> 00:16:02,320
Speaker 3: and film, so of course I'm going to take parts

332
00:16:02,400 --> 00:16:05,480
Speaker 3: like that. It was more driven by wanting to work

333
00:16:05,480 --> 00:16:08,360
Speaker 3: with these great actors and we did some really good

334
00:16:08,400 --> 00:16:10,240
Speaker 3: work together. I got, you know, Driving This Days. I

335
00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:13,040
Speaker 3: got to work with Jessica and Morgan and that was

336
00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:14,960
Speaker 3: a beautiful five star release.

337
00:16:14,840 --> 00:16:16,400
Speaker 1: And you got nominated for that film.

338
00:16:16,800 --> 00:16:21,560
Speaker 3: Yes, sir, best supporting alongside Peter O'Toole and Marlon Brando.

339
00:16:22,160 --> 00:16:25,160
Speaker 3: They were best supporting and Denzel. Of course, we all

340
00:16:25,240 --> 00:16:27,200
Speaker 3: knew that Denzel would get it. So that I had

341
00:16:27,200 --> 00:16:29,880
Speaker 3: the most relaxed and wonderful night at the Oscars that

342
00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:32,640
Speaker 3: year because I knew that I didn't have to make

343
00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:33,080
Speaker 3: a speech.

344
00:16:33,120 --> 00:16:34,000
Speaker 2: I wasn't gonna win.

345
00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:37,080
Speaker 3: It was going to be Denzel's performance in Glory in Glory,

346
00:16:37,200 --> 00:16:41,320
Speaker 3: but then Daisy won Best Actress for Jessica and Best

347
00:16:41,360 --> 00:16:45,120
Speaker 3: Picture of that year, and so you know, Morgan and I,

348
00:16:45,200 --> 00:16:48,200
Speaker 3: even though we were both dominated, we were you know, we

349
00:16:48,200 --> 00:16:55,440
Speaker 3: were thrilled for them and for everybody else in the room.

350
00:16:55,720 --> 00:17:01,000
Speaker 1: Musician, writer and actor dan Ackroyd. If you and conversations

351
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:04,680
Speaker 1: with the incredible minds behind Saturday Night Live, check out

352
00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:09,520
Speaker 1: my episode with Lorne Michaels. When it's over, describe how

353
00:17:09,600 --> 00:17:11,399
Speaker 1: you feel after the very first show.

354
00:17:11,440 --> 00:17:13,200
Speaker 5: I was the same way then that I am now.

355
00:17:13,240 --> 00:17:16,119
Speaker 5: I only see the mistakes, and I tend to wear

356
00:17:16,200 --> 00:17:19,600
Speaker 5: that up until about the second drink at the party.

357
00:17:19,960 --> 00:17:24,560
Speaker 5: Even last week's show takes me really through midway through Sunday.

358
00:17:24,720 --> 00:17:26,200
Speaker 2: Just take me a couple of days. I can get

359
00:17:26,200 --> 00:17:27,240
Speaker 2: over it now in a day.

360
00:17:27,640 --> 00:17:30,400
Speaker 5: Because you're always hoping that everything's gonna work the way

361
00:17:30,440 --> 00:17:31,720
Speaker 5: you were hoping it was gonna work.

362
00:17:33,359 --> 00:17:36,840
Speaker 1: To hear more of my conversation with Lornemichaels, go to

363
00:17:37,160 --> 00:17:41,640
Speaker 1: Here's the Thing dot Org. After the Break, dan Ackroyd

364
00:17:41,760 --> 00:17:45,720
Speaker 1: shares how he came to play music professionally on stage

365
00:17:46,000 --> 00:18:01,960
Speaker 1: with the godfather of soul himself, James Brown. I'm Alec

366
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:06,280
Speaker 1: Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. Dan Ackroyd

367
00:18:06,400 --> 00:18:10,320
Speaker 1: is known for his iconic roles as Bell dar Conehead

368
00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:13,600
Speaker 1: and one half of The Two Wild and Crazy Guys

369
00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:17,359
Speaker 1: with Steve Martin, but his dramatic work is not to

370
00:18:17,400 --> 00:18:20,359
Speaker 1: be dismissed. You may have seen him in My Girl,

371
00:18:20,640 --> 00:18:24,760
Speaker 1: House of Mirth or his Oscar nominated role in Driving

372
00:18:24,800 --> 00:18:29,160
Speaker 1: Miss Daisy, directed by Bruce Beresford. I wanted to know

373
00:18:29,480 --> 00:18:33,080
Speaker 1: what he appreciated the most about the direction on Driving

374
00:18:33,119 --> 00:18:33,760
Speaker 1: Miss Daisy.

375
00:18:34,920 --> 00:18:38,960
Speaker 3: I loved Bruce's thoughtful way he took the actor through

376
00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:39,600
Speaker 3: the process.

377
00:18:39,680 --> 00:18:40,480
Speaker 2: That was beautiful.

378
00:18:41,160 --> 00:18:43,919
Speaker 3: You know, I can also work with someone who is

379
00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:47,000
Speaker 3: say it faster, say it's slower. You know, let me

380
00:18:47,040 --> 00:18:49,520
Speaker 3: give you a reading there, no problem, just tell me

381
00:18:49,560 --> 00:18:50,399
Speaker 3: what notes to play.

382
00:18:50,720 --> 00:18:52,760
Speaker 2: But I like it spare. I kind of like that. Yeah,

383
00:18:52,880 --> 00:18:54,119
Speaker 2: do it faster, do it slower.

384
00:18:54,480 --> 00:18:57,159
Speaker 3: Just the mechanics of it and where I'm left for

385
00:18:57,240 --> 00:18:58,280
Speaker 3: my own devices.

386
00:18:58,760 --> 00:19:01,720
Speaker 1: When you leave the show, and you go make movies.

387
00:19:02,480 --> 00:19:04,960
Speaker 1: Music is a big influences. The Blues Brothers of this

388
00:19:05,200 --> 00:19:07,359
Speaker 1: is a huge hit for you, we get into House

389
00:19:07,400 --> 00:19:10,080
Speaker 1: of Blues for you and your you know, your music

390
00:19:10,200 --> 00:19:14,760
Speaker 1: cred is significant. Did the Blues Brothers contain everything you

391
00:19:14,840 --> 00:19:17,480
Speaker 1: had to display musically? Did you want to do something

392
00:19:17,520 --> 00:19:21,159
Speaker 1: other than that? Because that was like a sketch that

393
00:19:21,280 --> 00:19:23,760
Speaker 1: became a music act Did you ever want to sing

394
00:19:23,800 --> 00:19:24,480
Speaker 1: on Broadway?

395
00:19:25,119 --> 00:19:28,480
Speaker 3: You know, we became Elwood and Jake because we were actors.

396
00:19:28,560 --> 00:19:31,760
Speaker 3: We had written scenes, sketches, and we had written this movie,

397
00:19:31,800 --> 00:19:35,280
Speaker 3: and so as actors we had to be musicians and

398
00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:39,000
Speaker 3: dancers and vocalists. So that's where we learned sort of

399
00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:41,680
Speaker 3: how to pull it off. I've always said that John

400
00:19:41,720 --> 00:19:45,280
Speaker 3: and I were great frontmen, with the real talent being

401
00:19:45,320 --> 00:19:47,800
Speaker 3: in the backup line behind us. And that's what Jimmy

402
00:19:47,800 --> 00:19:50,200
Speaker 3: and I are today. Brother Zee and myself.

403
00:19:50,680 --> 00:19:51,320
Speaker 2: We do go out.

404
00:19:51,480 --> 00:19:54,320
Speaker 3: I've got a concert next week. We play all the time.

405
00:19:55,040 --> 00:19:57,520
Speaker 3: We have a great R and B band and one

406
00:19:57,560 --> 00:19:59,240
Speaker 3: of the top R and B reviews in the world.

407
00:19:59,320 --> 00:20:00,120
Speaker 1: And you enjoyed that.

408
00:20:00,320 --> 00:20:03,240
Speaker 3: Oh my god, I think now if I can't be writing,

409
00:20:03,359 --> 00:20:05,080
Speaker 3: I think that's what I like to be doing most.

410
00:20:05,560 --> 00:20:08,000
Speaker 3: So yeah, so I had to kind of perfect well

411
00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:10,640
Speaker 3: not pfoult. Still learning on the harmonica, but I did

412
00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:12,000
Speaker 3: play on all the records, that's all.

413
00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:13,920
Speaker 2: That's all me there for more or less.

414
00:20:14,320 --> 00:20:16,800
Speaker 3: And on the movie I played, and so I learned

415
00:20:16,800 --> 00:20:19,359
Speaker 3: the harp as an actor being a harmonica player and

416
00:20:19,400 --> 00:20:21,240
Speaker 3: then a dancer and a vocalist.

417
00:20:21,320 --> 00:20:22,320
Speaker 2: But it stayed with me.

418
00:20:22,400 --> 00:20:24,439
Speaker 3: Of course, we did open House of Blues, and I

419
00:20:24,480 --> 00:20:28,360
Speaker 3: got to jam on stage with James Brown five times.

420
00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:30,439
Speaker 3: He opened five of them with me. I got to

421
00:20:30,480 --> 00:20:32,480
Speaker 3: sing with him, I got to be good friends with him.

422
00:20:32,920 --> 00:20:35,920
Speaker 3: I got to jam with Little Richard in Chicago, got

423
00:20:35,920 --> 00:20:38,480
Speaker 3: to sing with his section, and jam with and so

424
00:20:38,560 --> 00:20:41,520
Speaker 3: many other great artists. Had a great time there. House

425
00:20:41,520 --> 00:20:43,600
Speaker 3: of Blues of course, still going in eleven cities. It's

426
00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:46,880
Speaker 3: owned by Live Nation now. It is a beautiful place.

427
00:20:46,880 --> 00:20:49,080
Speaker 3: If you've never been, you know, they've got millions of

428
00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:52,560
Speaker 3: dollars worth of folk art and incredible to Louisiana menu.

429
00:20:52,600 --> 00:20:55,159
Speaker 3: And I'm a consultant, so I do brag on it

430
00:20:55,200 --> 00:20:58,040
Speaker 3: a few times, but so coming to it as an actor,

431
00:20:58,119 --> 00:21:00,720
Speaker 3: still doing it, and I don't think I'm gonna play

432
00:21:00,760 --> 00:21:03,280
Speaker 3: guitar or oregon. I don't think I have that talent.

433
00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:06,600
Speaker 3: I have minimal talent that gets me by. It's the

434
00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:08,879
Speaker 3: strength of my backup line and my people behind me

435
00:21:08,920 --> 00:21:12,159
Speaker 3: who really pull off the act. So we're ludic ridiculous

436
00:21:12,160 --> 00:21:15,879
Speaker 3: front men. You know, Cab Calloway and Mononi Harris. We

437
00:21:15,920 --> 00:21:18,080
Speaker 3: take from them. They used humor to kind of lead

438
00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:19,800
Speaker 3: the band, and that's what John and I did and

439
00:21:19,800 --> 00:21:21,560
Speaker 3: what Jimmy and I do, and you know it still works.

440
00:21:22,040 --> 00:21:25,560
Speaker 3: Nobody goes away unhappy because we do songs no one's

441
00:21:25,760 --> 00:21:30,560
Speaker 3: doing anymore, Junior Parker songs and Lowell Fulson songs and

442
00:21:30,680 --> 00:21:32,720
Speaker 3: people you've never heard of, but boy do they swing.

443
00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:34,040
Speaker 1: I envy you.

444
00:21:34,280 --> 00:21:34,879
Speaker 2: I envy you.

445
00:21:34,920 --> 00:21:37,520
Speaker 1: That sounds like so much fun. But you never thought

446
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:40,760
Speaker 1: of Broadway because you're such, You've done live, You've got

447
00:21:40,760 --> 00:21:42,760
Speaker 1: the stamina, fort you've got the strength for it, and

448
00:21:42,800 --> 00:21:46,240
Speaker 1: the power forth. There's so many great roles over the years.

449
00:21:46,240 --> 00:21:48,000
Speaker 1: I can think of you for you to have played

450
00:21:48,200 --> 00:21:51,359
Speaker 1: decade after decade, but you never did a Broadway show,

451
00:21:51,400 --> 00:21:52,159
Speaker 1: did you?

452
00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:52,400
Speaker 2: No?

453
00:21:52,480 --> 00:21:56,000
Speaker 3: But I love the form and I love seeing great performers.

454
00:21:56,040 --> 00:21:58,920
Speaker 3: And Patty LuPone I got to know on driving Miss Daisy.

455
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,479
Speaker 3: I try to see everything that she's in, so I

456
00:22:01,520 --> 00:22:04,080
Speaker 3: do love watching it. But Alec, I just don't have

457
00:22:04,160 --> 00:22:06,720
Speaker 3: the time to do Broadway. But I love the Forum,

458
00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:10,000
Speaker 3: and I admire those performers, and I've thrilled when I

459
00:22:10,040 --> 00:22:12,600
Speaker 3: can sit in a New York Broadway theater as it

460
00:22:12,680 --> 00:22:14,040
Speaker 3: can only do in New York City.

461
00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:18,320
Speaker 1: Now, the Best Supporting Actor, the winner, as you mentioned,

462
00:22:18,359 --> 00:22:22,159
Speaker 1: was Denzel and it's you, Danny Iello and Do the

463
00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:26,399
Speaker 1: Right Thing, brandawin Drywhite Season and Marty Landau and Crimes

464
00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:29,600
Speaker 1: and Misdemeanors. I mean, I can't believe the fucking company

465
00:22:29,640 --> 00:22:32,000
Speaker 1: that you're in here. I mean, you were nominating for

466
00:22:32,119 --> 00:22:34,959
Speaker 1: Best Supporting Actor with these guys who are like the

467
00:22:35,080 --> 00:22:36,200
Speaker 1: giants of acting.

468
00:22:36,240 --> 00:22:37,400
Speaker 2: I worship Marty.

469
00:22:37,240 --> 00:22:41,000
Speaker 1: Landau worshiped, and I think Danny Iyello Do the Right

470
00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:42,680
Speaker 1: Thing is one of the twenty five greatest movies in

471
00:22:42,760 --> 00:22:44,840
Speaker 1: history as far as I'm concerned. Oh, and there you

472
00:22:44,880 --> 00:22:47,000
Speaker 1: are with these guys. Did that make you feel different

473
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:50,040
Speaker 1: about movie acting? Did you want to pursue straight acting

474
00:22:50,080 --> 00:22:53,440
Speaker 1: and more or comedy was always where you were more comfortable.

475
00:22:53,800 --> 00:22:56,879
Speaker 3: Well, comedy's much harder than straight acting. Point because you

476
00:22:56,960 --> 00:22:59,120
Speaker 3: got to keep that ping pong ball above the red lion.

477
00:22:59,200 --> 00:23:01,520
Speaker 3: In comedy, you know, straight acting, you can lay back

478
00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:03,840
Speaker 3: a little bit. Yes, I was confused when I said

479
00:23:03,880 --> 00:23:06,480
Speaker 3: Peter O'Toole because he was in a movie that I

480
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:07,560
Speaker 3: made with Stephen Frye.

481
00:23:07,640 --> 00:23:09,600
Speaker 2: And again, thanks, I'm going to turn down that. No,

482
00:23:09,760 --> 00:23:11,520
Speaker 2: I'm going to Stephen Frye.

483
00:23:11,600 --> 00:23:14,800
Speaker 3: It was called Bright Young Things, Vile Bodies, Bright Young Things,

484
00:23:14,800 --> 00:23:16,960
Speaker 3: it was called and O'Toole was in that. So I

485
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:18,920
Speaker 3: was in a movie with O'Toole, even though we didn't

486
00:23:18,920 --> 00:23:21,800
Speaker 3: act together. I love the community. And of course that night,

487
00:23:21,800 --> 00:23:23,760
Speaker 3: as I say, I was so relaxed because I looked

488
00:23:23,760 --> 00:23:27,040
Speaker 3: at these other names and thought, nice to have the nomination,

489
00:23:27,160 --> 00:23:29,919
Speaker 3: but I'm not going to clinch this one tonight. So

490
00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:32,080
Speaker 3: I was so relaxed. And then I knew Denzel. I

491
00:23:32,080 --> 00:23:34,719
Speaker 3: think we all did that scene in Glory. Those scenes

492
00:23:35,040 --> 00:23:37,200
Speaker 3: were spectacular, and I got to give him a hug

493
00:23:37,240 --> 00:23:40,040
Speaker 3: and meet his mom. So no, I look, I'm nothing

494
00:23:40,080 --> 00:23:42,840
Speaker 3: but grateful for having been able to work in this

495
00:23:42,920 --> 00:23:45,439
Speaker 3: community and be with all the people that I have

496
00:23:45,560 --> 00:23:48,639
Speaker 3: worked with and just enjoyed it so so much, and

497
00:23:48,640 --> 00:23:52,320
Speaker 3: it's something I don't do too much anymore, and that's fine,

498
00:23:52,800 --> 00:23:55,399
Speaker 3: but I do really love the community. And of course

499
00:23:55,480 --> 00:23:58,080
Speaker 3: to have been nominated in that company, as you say,

500
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:00,520
Speaker 3: as I look back on it, now, wow, that is impressive.

501
00:24:00,840 --> 00:24:04,280
Speaker 1: Well, I have you in a category with a few others,

502
00:24:04,280 --> 00:24:06,800
Speaker 1: but not many for sure that you can do anything.

503
00:24:06,960 --> 00:24:08,960
Speaker 1: You can do anything. You can do drama, you can

504
00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:11,960
Speaker 1: do comedy, you can do very subtle quiet comedy. You

505
00:24:11,960 --> 00:24:14,960
Speaker 1: can do your throwing the bass into the blender. You

506
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:17,800
Speaker 1: can do stuff that's sicill, outrageous and nutty, you know.

507
00:24:18,040 --> 00:24:21,400
Speaker 1: I mean, you can play in every key. And when

508
00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:24,320
Speaker 1: I see in your work is I see someone who

509
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:27,640
Speaker 1: Then in terms of that, you decide to get off

510
00:24:27,640 --> 00:24:29,679
Speaker 1: on a little detour here and take a little service

511
00:24:29,760 --> 00:24:35,119
Speaker 1: road here into sales and products that you manufacture and sell.

512
00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:39,040
Speaker 1: Describe your forays into the alcohol beverage business.

513
00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:41,720
Speaker 3: Well, we started with I don't know if you know

514
00:24:41,880 --> 00:24:45,760
Speaker 3: the brilliant entrepreneurs, JP Dujoria, Paul Mitchell, Hair Systems is

515
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:49,199
Speaker 3: this company, and Patron Tequila. I live with a sober

516
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:53,440
Speaker 3: partner for five years now. She's been sober, so I'm

517
00:24:53,440 --> 00:24:55,639
Speaker 3: spending a lot less on wine. I've saved tens of

518
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:58,560
Speaker 3: thousands of dollars in wine. So I drink a lot less.

519
00:24:58,600 --> 00:25:02,320
Speaker 3: But I'm fortunate in that I can moderately drink alcohol,

520
00:25:02,960 --> 00:25:05,040
Speaker 3: and in moderation I don't have a problem.

521
00:25:05,080 --> 00:25:06,640
Speaker 2: I don't over abuse it. I can go for.

522
00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:10,000
Speaker 3: Days without it or weeks if necessary. And I don't

523
00:25:10,040 --> 00:25:13,240
Speaker 3: have a jones there, which enables me to sell honestly

524
00:25:13,720 --> 00:25:17,040
Speaker 3: and truly. So we have a beautiful home that my

525
00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:20,240
Speaker 3: ancestors settled it two hundred years ago on the farm there,

526
00:25:20,240 --> 00:25:22,240
Speaker 3: and it happens to be on a cliff on a lake,

527
00:25:22,600 --> 00:25:24,240
Speaker 3: and I have this dock there, and then there's the

528
00:25:24,280 --> 00:25:27,159
Speaker 3: whole culture of stopping by for sunset drinks. And I

529
00:25:27,280 --> 00:25:30,800
Speaker 3: like tequila to make a nice sunset drink with a tequila,

530
00:25:30,840 --> 00:25:34,720
Speaker 3: you know, margarita, and we could only get in Canada,

531
00:25:34,760 --> 00:25:36,360
Speaker 3: if you can believe this, we can only get two

532
00:25:36,520 --> 00:25:37,520
Speaker 3: brands of tequila.

533
00:25:37,600 --> 00:25:38,000
Speaker 2: That's it.

534
00:25:38,240 --> 00:25:40,919
Speaker 3: Now there are hundreds out there. So I went to

535
00:25:40,960 --> 00:25:43,560
Speaker 3: my friend JP owned Patron Tequila. We were at the

536
00:25:43,560 --> 00:25:45,840
Speaker 3: House of Blues bar in Los Angeles, and he said,

537
00:25:45,840 --> 00:25:48,120
Speaker 3: have you try this this tequila, And of course I'd

538
00:25:48,119 --> 00:25:50,320
Speaker 3: only tried the two brands in Canada. He poured me

539
00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:55,080
Speaker 3: a beautiful smoky, silky, satiny shot of Patron and I said, JP,

540
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:57,280
Speaker 3: how can I get this up to my little government

541
00:25:57,320 --> 00:26:00,320
Speaker 3: liquor store up there in Canada. I'll bring a few

542
00:26:00,359 --> 00:26:02,119
Speaker 3: cases for the summer. He said, well, Dan, you'd have

543
00:26:02,119 --> 00:26:04,600
Speaker 3: to bring it to the whole country. I said, well, okay,

544
00:26:04,680 --> 00:26:07,719
Speaker 3: let's do that. So he appointed me the importing agent

545
00:26:07,760 --> 00:26:11,240
Speaker 3: for Patron Tequila and we grew that across Canada into

546
00:26:11,280 --> 00:26:13,879
Speaker 3: the number one luxury brand. It still commands lots of

547
00:26:13,920 --> 00:26:16,919
Speaker 3: luxury sales up. It was bought by Baccardy there a

548
00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:18,560
Speaker 3: while back, so I'm out of it now, but that

549
00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:21,520
Speaker 3: taught me the business. So that's where it started. And

550
00:26:21,560 --> 00:26:24,200
Speaker 3: then I started to look at vodka. And I started

551
00:26:24,200 --> 00:26:26,679
Speaker 3: to open vodka bottles up and they either smelled like

552
00:26:26,760 --> 00:26:29,840
Speaker 3: Chanelle number five or they were there was no smell,

553
00:26:30,080 --> 00:26:32,159
Speaker 3: or were they tasted like a cat's tongue.

554
00:26:32,200 --> 00:26:34,360
Speaker 2: And I don't men mention other brands. I thought, what's

555
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:34,959
Speaker 2: going on here?

556
00:26:35,000 --> 00:26:38,320
Speaker 3: Why do these vodkas either taste like nothing or they

557
00:26:38,400 --> 00:26:40,960
Speaker 3: taste bad? And I come to find out that many

558
00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:45,560
Speaker 3: alcoholic beverages add three fusel oils. They add glycerine, and

559
00:26:45,600 --> 00:26:49,159
Speaker 3: they add lemonine, and they added more sugar to mask

560
00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:52,240
Speaker 3: the alcohol smell, mask the alcohol taste, make it taste

561
00:26:52,280 --> 00:26:55,360
Speaker 3: like either nothing or be odorless. And I thought, well,

562
00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:58,639
Speaker 3: what fun is that in a cocktail? So we devised

563
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:02,880
Speaker 3: with John Alexander full Package, which is our skull. Crystal

564
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:05,359
Speaker 3: Head Vodka's the name of it. We're in seventy eight countries.

565
00:27:06,000 --> 00:27:09,159
Speaker 3: We've sold millions of bottles, and we have the skull

566
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:11,439
Speaker 3: made by Johnny. And when I saw the skull, I

567
00:27:11,560 --> 00:27:14,080
Speaker 3: just went, I know what to put in this. He

568
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:16,359
Speaker 3: designed it, just drew it up one night at his

569
00:27:16,440 --> 00:27:19,800
Speaker 3: place there and he said he always thought that a

570
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:22,000
Speaker 3: skull would make a good tequila vessel, which it would.

571
00:27:22,440 --> 00:27:25,280
Speaker 3: And we went ahead and did a vodka because I thought,

572
00:27:25,320 --> 00:27:27,760
Speaker 3: beautiful skull. You can't put a polluted substance in that

573
00:27:27,800 --> 00:27:30,919
Speaker 3: beautiful bottle. So I took all the oils out. Are

574
00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,320
Speaker 3: vodka has no additives, no glycer and no sugar, no lemonine.

575
00:27:34,359 --> 00:27:36,760
Speaker 3: Bartenders love it and that's why we've been able to

576
00:27:36,760 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 3: sell so well and be still alive in a very

577
00:27:39,400 --> 00:27:42,320
Speaker 3: very competitive market because we're stripped down. We're a pure spirit,

578
00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:46,120
Speaker 3: and we have notes vanilla and ease peppercorn.

579
00:27:46,119 --> 00:27:47,639
Speaker 2: We've won metals all over the world.

580
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:49,879
Speaker 1: Where do they manufacture the crystal heads?

581
00:27:50,520 --> 00:27:53,240
Speaker 3: We have two lines of glass. We have a line

582
00:27:53,280 --> 00:27:55,240
Speaker 3: of glass in France and we have a line of

583
00:27:55,240 --> 00:27:56,080
Speaker 3: glass in Italy.

584
00:27:56,200 --> 00:27:57,760
Speaker 2: And you know what, we're having fun.

585
00:27:57,760 --> 00:28:01,399
Speaker 3: And what's fun is things like going down to Pennsylvania,

586
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:04,119
Speaker 3: getting right in there, into the warehouse, and I signed

587
00:28:04,119 --> 00:28:07,639
Speaker 3: a thousand bottles there the other day, roughly close to that,

588
00:28:08,040 --> 00:28:10,560
Speaker 3: and met some really really great people who move the

589
00:28:10,600 --> 00:28:12,479
Speaker 3: product who are down there. And boy, do I get

590
00:28:12,520 --> 00:28:15,399
Speaker 3: a sense of where a country's at or where a

591
00:28:15,480 --> 00:28:20,119
Speaker 3: society's at when I get down into where real labor

592
00:28:20,240 --> 00:28:23,399
Speaker 3: is being done by people who do this work. Because

593
00:28:23,400 --> 00:28:26,600
Speaker 3: it's all about family and so the people in the warehouse,

594
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,440
Speaker 3: I met the PCLB board the other day, the salespeople

595
00:28:30,640 --> 00:28:33,280
Speaker 3: that I'm working with. It's just great to see people

596
00:28:33,280 --> 00:28:35,720
Speaker 3: who are doing real work in an age where a

597
00:28:35,720 --> 00:28:38,360
Speaker 3: lot of young people now don't want to work. They

598
00:28:38,360 --> 00:28:47,600
Speaker 3: want it instantly. Actor and comedian Dan Ackroyd. If you're

599
00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:51,080
Speaker 3: enjoying this conversation, tell a friend I'd be sure to follow.

600
00:28:51,160 --> 00:28:54,320
Speaker 3: Here's the thing on the iHeartRadio.

601
00:28:53,520 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 1: App, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. When we

602
00:28:58,520 --> 00:29:02,240
Speaker 1: come Back. Royd reflects on the passing of his close

603
00:29:02,280 --> 00:29:14,320
Speaker 1: friend and writing partner John Belushey, I'm Alec Baldwin, and

604
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:18,120
Speaker 1: you were listening to Here's the thing. Dan Ackroyd grew

605
00:29:18,200 --> 00:29:22,120
Speaker 1: up in Ottawa, Canada, in a rather unusual home, so

606
00:29:22,280 --> 00:29:24,960
Speaker 1: much so that it inspired his father to write the

607
00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:30,080
Speaker 1: book A History of Ghosts, The True Story of Seances, Mediums,

608
00:29:30,280 --> 00:29:36,600
Speaker 1: Ghosts and Ghostbusters, which chronicles the family's interactions with the beyond.

609
00:29:37,560 --> 00:29:41,280
Speaker 1: I wanted to know if Ackroyd's upbringing an exposure to

610
00:29:41,320 --> 00:29:46,040
Speaker 1: the paranormal was influential in the conception of the movie Ghostbusters.

611
00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:50,840
Speaker 3: Oh sure, yes, my great grandfather Sam, who's profiled in

612
00:29:50,880 --> 00:29:53,280
Speaker 3: the book. It's called History of Ghosts. It's more about

613
00:29:53,320 --> 00:29:56,800
Speaker 3: trance mediumship. But yes, my great grandfather Sam. He was

614
00:29:56,840 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 3: a dentist and he was also kind of the local

615
00:29:59,040 --> 00:30:02,360
Speaker 3: reviewer of are normal acts that would come through the

616
00:30:02,360 --> 00:30:04,600
Speaker 3: town of Kingston in the late turn of the century

617
00:30:04,600 --> 00:30:08,120
Speaker 3: and then in the nineteen twenties. And in the book,

618
00:30:08,200 --> 00:30:10,840
Speaker 3: of course, we mentioned the Fox Sisters and the Bang

619
00:30:10,920 --> 00:30:14,760
Speaker 3: Sisters who were precipitated painters, and the Campbell brothers. They

620
00:30:14,760 --> 00:30:17,440
Speaker 3: were precipitated painters. They would sit in front of the

621
00:30:17,520 --> 00:30:21,080
Speaker 3: canvas about maybe a foot away and wiggle their fingers

622
00:30:21,080 --> 00:30:24,200
Speaker 3: and an image would appear on the canvas. So is

623
00:30:24,240 --> 00:30:26,840
Speaker 3: it a hoax? What's going on? Who's painting in behind it?

624
00:30:26,880 --> 00:30:30,280
Speaker 3: My great grandfather, they weren't hoaxes. Those two, those four

625
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:34,240
Speaker 3: siblings were true phenomena. And my grandfather was kind of

626
00:30:34,240 --> 00:30:36,600
Speaker 3: the vetter in town here. He was kind of he'd

627
00:30:36,640 --> 00:30:40,120
Speaker 3: see what was real and what wasn't. Levitators seances, and

628
00:30:40,200 --> 00:30:41,920
Speaker 3: that he would have saoss himself.

629
00:30:42,080 --> 00:30:43,320
Speaker 2: We had a family medium.

630
00:30:43,960 --> 00:30:46,840
Speaker 3: So I grew up in summers in this old farmhouse

631
00:30:46,840 --> 00:30:48,920
Speaker 3: where they had these seances, and they had journals from

632
00:30:48,960 --> 00:30:53,080
Speaker 3: the American Society Psychical Research lying around and Fate magazine,

633
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:56,719
Speaker 3: and you know other cottages had McLean's and Look magazine

634
00:30:56,760 --> 00:30:59,600
Speaker 3: and Colliers in these and we had all psychic books there,

635
00:30:59,600 --> 00:31:01,760
Speaker 3: which I it. From eight years old. I was reading

636
00:31:01,800 --> 00:31:06,760
Speaker 3: this stuff. And so essentially the Acroids are spiritualists. That's

637
00:31:06,800 --> 00:31:09,120
Speaker 3: my religion. If you wanted to pegny with a religion.

638
00:31:09,160 --> 00:31:12,719
Speaker 3: We are spiritualists. We believe not only that the spirit

639
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:15,120
Speaker 3: and the soul and the energy, the atomic energy of

640
00:31:15,160 --> 00:31:18,560
Speaker 3: the soul survives after death. We believe the consciousness and

641
00:31:18,680 --> 00:31:23,600
Speaker 3: identity of the being survives to reach back and communicate

642
00:31:23,640 --> 00:31:25,960
Speaker 3: with us here. And I don't know if you remember

643
00:31:26,080 --> 00:31:29,280
Speaker 3: John Edwards on CBS. He was a very talented medium,

644
00:31:29,880 --> 00:31:31,760
Speaker 3: and there are many others.

645
00:31:31,600 --> 00:31:32,480
Speaker 2: Who do it well.

646
00:31:32,920 --> 00:31:35,480
Speaker 3: So History of ghost talks all about it. But I

647
00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:38,320
Speaker 3: believe the consciousness and the identity survive and you can

648
00:31:38,680 --> 00:31:41,960
Speaker 3: reach them. They touched back sometimes to help us, and

649
00:31:42,040 --> 00:31:42,920
Speaker 3: so that's my belief.

650
00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:45,640
Speaker 2: So yes, I grew up with all of that and was.

651
00:31:45,600 --> 00:31:48,400
Speaker 3: In the old farmhouse one afternoon reading a journal about

652
00:31:48,560 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 3: quantum physics and paranor own researching, and I thought, well,

653
00:31:52,120 --> 00:31:55,760
Speaker 3: let's do an old style ghost comedy. Abbot Costello, Bing Crosby,

654
00:31:55,840 --> 00:31:59,640
Speaker 3: Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Bowery Boys, they all did a

655
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:01,720
Speaker 3: ghosted and I thought, we'll do We'll get some of

656
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:03,800
Speaker 3: the guys together, We'll do a ghost comedy. But it

657
00:32:03,800 --> 00:32:05,960
Speaker 3: will be based in the you know, in the real

658
00:32:06,040 --> 00:32:09,400
Speaker 3: vernacular of the real science taking. And Harold was not

659
00:32:09,440 --> 00:32:12,160
Speaker 3: a believer. Harold Ramis my co writer on Ghostbusters, not

660
00:32:12,240 --> 00:32:14,200
Speaker 3: a believer at all. But he knew all about my

661
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:17,520
Speaker 3: monodes dream lab, the research at Duke University, all of

662
00:32:17,520 --> 00:32:19,840
Speaker 3: the research William Roll and the cards.

663
00:32:19,960 --> 00:32:20,920
Speaker 2: That's where that comes from.

664
00:32:20,960 --> 00:32:23,120
Speaker 3: Billy with the cards, the Star of the Cross that

665
00:32:23,240 --> 00:32:25,080
Speaker 3: was from the research was doing it being done at

666
00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:29,200
Speaker 3: Deane Mercy in the paranormal department Allos. Yeah, he knew

667
00:32:29,240 --> 00:32:33,320
Speaker 3: all about you know, Zachariah Sitchen and the Sumerian gods,

668
00:32:33,320 --> 00:32:35,160
Speaker 3: so he was well versed in that. So we came

669
00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:36,959
Speaker 3: to write that he had a great body of knowledge there,

670
00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:39,480
Speaker 3: and of course I had my spiritualist side, and that's

671
00:32:39,520 --> 00:32:43,200
Speaker 3: how it all came about. The first mention of ghostbusters

672
00:32:43,280 --> 00:32:47,240
Speaker 3: in film in America is in a movie called Scared Stiff.

673
00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:51,880
Speaker 3: I think it's with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and

674
00:32:51,920 --> 00:32:54,200
Speaker 3: the woman asks Dean Martin at one point, well what

675
00:32:54,240 --> 00:32:56,440
Speaker 3: are you guys, and he says, we're ghostbusters.

676
00:32:57,040 --> 00:32:59,760
Speaker 2: So of course I remember that and that helped to

677
00:32:59,760 --> 00:33:00,760
Speaker 2: put the title to it.

678
00:33:00,840 --> 00:33:03,520
Speaker 3: I love Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in that movie,

679
00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:08,080
Speaker 3: just aside from the paranormal reference. Jerry Lewis basically he

680
00:33:08,160 --> 00:33:11,240
Speaker 3: runs down these stairs in this old castle in a

681
00:33:11,240 --> 00:33:15,800
Speaker 3: piece of physical comedy and dexterity. That is that Buster

682
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:18,840
Speaker 3: Keaton would be proud of. Just mind blowing that piece

683
00:33:18,840 --> 00:33:21,280
Speaker 3: of physical business. So yeah, there were a lot of

684
00:33:21,320 --> 00:33:23,480
Speaker 3: precedents for ghost movies, and I just said, let's do

685
00:33:23,520 --> 00:33:26,080
Speaker 3: one and use the real science and make these guys

686
00:33:26,120 --> 00:33:30,600
Speaker 3: paranormal investigators, the three of us, Spangler, Stance and Venkman

687
00:33:30,760 --> 00:33:31,880
Speaker 3: and Zetemoa.

688
00:33:32,640 --> 00:33:35,680
Speaker 1: And you wanted Belushi to play Vankman. He was your

689
00:33:35,680 --> 00:33:37,040
Speaker 1: original cast from Veankman.

690
00:33:37,400 --> 00:33:39,200
Speaker 3: Yeah, I was writing a line for him when I

691
00:33:39,280 --> 00:33:41,920
Speaker 3: heard that he died, you know. And I was at

692
00:33:41,920 --> 00:33:44,200
Speaker 3: one fifty fifth Avenue in our offices, and I was

693
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,440
Speaker 3: at the typewriter and I was in the middle of

694
00:33:47,480 --> 00:33:50,760
Speaker 3: a line. And then Bernie was on the phone there,

695
00:33:50,800 --> 00:33:53,680
Speaker 3: my agent, and he told me what had happened. And

696
00:33:53,720 --> 00:33:56,680
Speaker 3: I ran down the fifth Avenue to Judy's to get

697
00:33:56,720 --> 00:33:59,080
Speaker 3: to her before she heard it on the media. And

698
00:33:59,120 --> 00:34:01,280
Speaker 3: I passed a new star in the truck, just like

699
00:34:01,280 --> 00:34:04,440
Speaker 3: in an old movie. They dropped the wire bound headlines,

700
00:34:04,640 --> 00:34:07,520
Speaker 3: and there it was Belushi dead at thirty three, and

701
00:34:07,600 --> 00:34:09,319
Speaker 3: I had to tell her and that was you know,

702
00:34:09,400 --> 00:34:12,520
Speaker 3: And now Judy is with him. I am hoping conjoined

703
00:34:13,160 --> 00:34:16,560
Speaker 3: with their energies twirling in the afterlife or wherever we

704
00:34:16,600 --> 00:34:16,880
Speaker 3: do go.

705
00:34:17,200 --> 00:34:18,280
Speaker 2: We just lost her.

706
00:34:18,120 --> 00:34:22,200
Speaker 3: And now she's been and terred near John, and she

707
00:34:22,239 --> 00:34:24,080
Speaker 3: had to say goodbye to him too early. But now

708
00:34:24,080 --> 00:34:27,080
Speaker 3: their spirits are joined, and that gives me some comfort

709
00:34:27,120 --> 00:34:28,240
Speaker 3: because of my belief.

710
00:34:28,640 --> 00:34:31,759
Speaker 1: Now do you think that was johnsone who everyone who

711
00:34:31,880 --> 00:34:34,200
Speaker 1: was important in his life? They were kind of holding

712
00:34:34,200 --> 00:34:36,280
Speaker 1: their breath. They thought that something like this might happen.

713
00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:38,799
Speaker 1: Did you worry, as his dear friend, that this is

714
00:34:38,800 --> 00:34:40,520
Speaker 1: something like this was possible?

715
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:43,640
Speaker 3: Well, once cocaine came into the picture, which it did

716
00:34:43,719 --> 00:34:47,600
Speaker 3: so heavily in the seventies. There the cocaine that we

717
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:49,880
Speaker 3: flushed down the toilet, hid from him, took from him.

718
00:34:49,920 --> 00:34:51,920
Speaker 3: We tried to stop the dealers from getting to him

719
00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:53,840
Speaker 3: once that came in and he once he enjoyed that,

720
00:34:53,880 --> 00:34:55,319
Speaker 3: and he enjoyed it, he did.

721
00:34:55,600 --> 00:34:56,439
Speaker 2: That's where it turned.

722
00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:58,880
Speaker 3: That's where we became really really worried when the powders

723
00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:01,160
Speaker 3: came in there. And of course they were pills to supplement,

724
00:35:01,239 --> 00:35:02,960
Speaker 3: you know, to get to sleep and wake up in

725
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:06,160
Speaker 3: the morning. So it was pharmaceuticals that killed them, no

726
00:35:06,280 --> 00:35:08,560
Speaker 3: doubt over the long term. And then of course by

727
00:35:08,560 --> 00:35:11,719
Speaker 3: that bad episode at the Marmont where the woman hit

728
00:35:11,760 --> 00:35:15,360
Speaker 3: him up with a speedball, which was a heroin cocaine combination. No,

729
00:35:15,440 --> 00:35:17,359
Speaker 3: he was a smoker, so his lungs were a bit weak.

730
00:35:17,400 --> 00:35:19,960
Speaker 3: He'd been drinking. I know that she did not want

731
00:35:19,960 --> 00:35:21,759
Speaker 3: to kill him anymore than I did, and she did

732
00:35:21,800 --> 00:35:23,759
Speaker 3: some time for it, and I'm sure she regrets it

733
00:35:23,800 --> 00:35:24,680
Speaker 3: for the rest of her life.

734
00:35:24,800 --> 00:35:25,560
Speaker 2: Yeah.

735
00:35:25,719 --> 00:35:28,600
Speaker 1: Now, what about UFOs when you're talking about because I

736
00:35:28,920 --> 00:35:32,440
Speaker 1: literally I was telling my producers on my show that

737
00:35:32,560 --> 00:35:35,080
Speaker 1: I saw a UFO. I was laying on a dock

738
00:35:35,600 --> 00:35:38,359
Speaker 1: on a lake in upstate New York. And as we

739
00:35:38,360 --> 00:35:42,400
Speaker 1: were laying there, myself, my daughter, a couple of my nieces,

740
00:35:42,400 --> 00:35:44,560
Speaker 1: a friend of theirs, and all of a sudden, right

741
00:35:44,640 --> 00:35:48,160
Speaker 1: over us, I see something that literally resembles in its

742
00:35:48,200 --> 00:35:52,400
Speaker 1: dimensions a stop light. It's a black brick like you

743
00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:55,920
Speaker 1: know two thousand and one and Onnitor three large green

744
00:35:56,320 --> 00:36:00,200
Speaker 1: lights that resemble a stop light. And literally, as were

745
00:36:00,239 --> 00:36:03,759
Speaker 1: laying down, the thing moves over us. And as it

746
00:36:03,800 --> 00:36:06,319
Speaker 1: gets in our vicinity, it's like maybe fifty feet in

747
00:36:06,360 --> 00:36:09,080
Speaker 1: the air, it's not that high up, and the sun's

748
00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:11,760
Speaker 1: almost down now, and the lights go on. You literally

749
00:36:11,800 --> 00:36:17,719
Speaker 1: feel and the green lights light up over us, and

750
00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:20,960
Speaker 1: it moves very slowly over us and then it passes us,

751
00:36:20,960 --> 00:36:22,399
Speaker 1: the lights go out and it takes off and goes

752
00:36:22,400 --> 00:36:23,320
Speaker 1: shooting into space.

753
00:36:24,040 --> 00:36:25,759
Speaker 2: I saw this. I believe you.

754
00:36:26,080 --> 00:36:28,120
Speaker 3: That is a spectacular sighting.

755
00:36:28,280 --> 00:36:29,920
Speaker 2: Yeah. And the dimension of it.

756
00:36:30,160 --> 00:36:32,400
Speaker 1: I would have to guess that the body of the

757
00:36:32,400 --> 00:36:36,359
Speaker 1: object of the spacecraft was probably from what I could

758
00:36:36,400 --> 00:36:40,600
Speaker 1: tell from where I was, it was probably fifty feet

759
00:36:40,640 --> 00:36:44,400
Speaker 1: by twenty feet across or something, you know, length wise

760
00:36:44,480 --> 00:36:47,600
Speaker 1: fifty and the green lights come on and then they

761
00:36:47,640 --> 00:36:48,080
Speaker 1: go off.

762
00:36:48,320 --> 00:36:52,040
Speaker 3: That is a spectacular Alec that's a spectacular sighting.

763
00:36:52,200 --> 00:36:53,680
Speaker 2: In Ireland saw that as well.

764
00:36:53,920 --> 00:36:57,720
Speaker 1: No one would admit to seeing it. They were afraid

765
00:36:57,880 --> 00:36:58,880
Speaker 1: to admit they saw it.

766
00:36:59,600 --> 00:37:02,200
Speaker 3: Okay, well I did see that is a spectacular sighting.

767
00:37:02,440 --> 00:37:04,800
Speaker 3: I totally believe you. I've had people talk to me

768
00:37:04,840 --> 00:37:09,840
Speaker 3: about orbs, triangles, deltas. I've seen four of them myself,

769
00:37:10,080 --> 00:37:14,280
Speaker 3: vivid on ambiguous sighting. No question that this is hyperadvanced

770
00:37:14,640 --> 00:37:18,880
Speaker 3: technology operated by intelligent beings that are not from this Earth,

771
00:37:19,200 --> 00:37:22,680
Speaker 3: or this is not earthly manufacturer. We don't know about it.

772
00:37:22,719 --> 00:37:24,759
Speaker 3: There's nothing on the Earth that could do what the

773
00:37:24,800 --> 00:37:28,240
Speaker 3: objects that I saw did. There was a young Soviet

774
00:37:28,320 --> 00:37:31,239
Speaker 3: scientist named Nikolai Kardashev, and there was a meeting I

775
00:37:31,280 --> 00:37:33,400
Speaker 3: believe in this in the seventies over there at one

776
00:37:33,400 --> 00:37:37,240
Speaker 3: of the space centers, and he proposed a tier model

777
00:37:37,320 --> 00:37:41,560
Speaker 3: for three types of civilization. Type one has harnessed everything

778
00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:43,600
Speaker 3: on their home planet, all of the energy on their

779
00:37:43,600 --> 00:37:44,160
Speaker 3: home planet.

780
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:45,560
Speaker 2: That's a type one civilization.

781
00:37:45,760 --> 00:37:49,319
Speaker 3: Type two have harnessed all of the energy in their

782
00:37:49,360 --> 00:37:52,800
Speaker 3: solar system. Type three have harnessed all of the energy

783
00:37:52,840 --> 00:37:56,440
Speaker 3: in their galaxy. So what if a type three individual

784
00:37:56,480 --> 00:38:00,520
Speaker 3: approached you and said, we're here now and we want

785
00:38:00,560 --> 00:38:02,600
Speaker 3: you to operate for us on this planet. I've just

786
00:38:02,640 --> 00:38:05,960
Speaker 3: written a book with that premise because I've seen four

787
00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:08,600
Speaker 3: and it inspired me to write this book about if

788
00:38:08,640 --> 00:38:12,600
Speaker 3: you had to have contact, willingly or unwillingly with such

789
00:38:12,640 --> 00:38:15,799
Speaker 3: a powerful group of beings, what would you do? So

790
00:38:15,960 --> 00:38:19,600
Speaker 3: these things they've been coming going like taxis for centuries.

791
00:38:19,880 --> 00:38:23,600
Speaker 3: One of the British Aerospace a minister there, Lord hill Norton.

792
00:38:23,680 --> 00:38:24,200
Speaker 2: I believe he.

793
00:38:24,239 --> 00:38:26,920
Speaker 3: Said the twenty three different species and twenty three different

794
00:38:26,920 --> 00:38:30,880
Speaker 3: types of creatures had crossed his desk in intelligence briefings.

795
00:38:31,080 --> 00:38:33,239
Speaker 3: My theory is that they're tourists and this is such

796
00:38:33,280 --> 00:38:35,400
Speaker 3: a beautiful planet they come by to take a look.

797
00:38:36,120 --> 00:38:39,560
Speaker 3: You can look on your search engine sting ray UFOs

798
00:38:39,840 --> 00:38:43,360
Speaker 3: and you'll get pictures of these basically two seaters. So

799
00:38:43,400 --> 00:38:46,120
Speaker 3: I can see somewhere in another dimension or galax or

800
00:38:46,160 --> 00:38:48,520
Speaker 3: a planet, a couple with one of these in their

801
00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:52,560
Speaker 3: driveway or garage on another planet or galaxy saying let's

802
00:38:52,600 --> 00:38:54,280
Speaker 3: go down to Earth for a few hours.

803
00:38:54,800 --> 00:38:57,880
Speaker 2: It's a tourist thing. Now, there are some great books.

804
00:38:57,920 --> 00:39:01,719
Speaker 3: There's one called UFO, The Governments for Extraterrestrials Here and

805
00:39:01,760 --> 00:39:05,799
Speaker 3: out There by Garrett Graff Graff Garrett Graff UFO. That's

806
00:39:05,840 --> 00:39:08,640
Speaker 3: a great book than Lewis Alexandro's book Imminent. He worked

807
00:39:08,640 --> 00:39:11,520
Speaker 3: for the Pentagon, so did Chris Mellon his sponsor over there,

808
00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:14,960
Speaker 3: and Alexando who did work for the Defense Department and

809
00:39:14,960 --> 00:39:17,200
Speaker 3: has written this great book Imminent Debt. He believes that

810
00:39:17,280 --> 00:39:20,239
Speaker 3: this is a threat that because of their interference with

811
00:39:20,320 --> 00:39:23,880
Speaker 3: nuclear weapons over the years on our planet in multiple bases,

812
00:39:23,960 --> 00:39:27,040
Speaker 3: that they know about our nuclear capabilities and they don't

813
00:39:27,120 --> 00:39:29,600
Speaker 3: like them so much, and that they could shut down

814
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:32,880
Speaker 3: all of our weapons basically with the hit of a

815
00:39:32,880 --> 00:39:37,160
Speaker 3: button and neutralize any defense that we have so they

816
00:39:37,200 --> 00:39:40,720
Speaker 3: believe Chris Mellan and Lewis Alessando that the Defense Department

817
00:39:40,719 --> 00:39:43,120
Speaker 3: should be more alert. And right now there is an

818
00:39:43,120 --> 00:39:47,439
Speaker 3: office open for military and even civilians to report. It's

819
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:53,719
Speaker 3: the All Domain Anomaly a resolution office, so anomaly and

820
00:39:53,880 --> 00:39:57,320
Speaker 3: all domain meaning water and on air, So that exists

821
00:39:57,320 --> 00:40:00,480
Speaker 3: in the Pentagon. Now they're very seriously interested in this subject.

822
00:40:00,800 --> 00:40:03,839
Speaker 1: One last question. You look at the show, you look

823
00:40:03,880 --> 00:40:07,480
Speaker 1: at them coming to fifty years. This season is the

824
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:12,960
Speaker 1: fiftieth season, and obviously one couldn't have a perspective where

825
00:40:13,000 --> 00:40:17,520
Speaker 1: you could predict fifty seasons back in nineteen seventy five

826
00:40:17,560 --> 00:40:20,560
Speaker 1: when you started. Does it surprise you that it's gone

827
00:40:20,560 --> 00:40:21,800
Speaker 1: on for fifty years?

828
00:40:22,640 --> 00:40:27,160
Speaker 3: I guess a little bit. It's surprising, and any venture

829
00:40:27,360 --> 00:40:29,480
Speaker 3: other than soap operas for something to go on that

830
00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:33,160
Speaker 3: long in television and television venture maybe right Coronation Street,

831
00:40:33,560 --> 00:40:36,239
Speaker 3: you know, or about Days of Our Lives. But an

832
00:40:36,239 --> 00:40:39,239
Speaker 3: executive told Lauren a few years ago said, this is

833
00:40:39,320 --> 00:40:42,439
Speaker 3: like the Today Show. This is an institution and it's

834
00:40:42,480 --> 00:40:45,680
Speaker 3: never going away. And well, Lauren was gone from it

835
00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:48,480
Speaker 3: for a while, but then, of course it's his guiding

836
00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:50,680
Speaker 3: hand and his sensibilities that make it what it is.

837
00:40:51,400 --> 00:40:54,279
Speaker 3: It could clunk along without him, but I don't think

838
00:40:54,320 --> 00:40:57,440
Speaker 3: it would be what it is now, and I don't

839
00:40:57,440 --> 00:40:59,719
Speaker 3: think it would endure another ten years without him.

840
00:41:00,400 --> 00:41:02,840
Speaker 1: In the years I've gotten to know him. On one level,

841
00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:08,359
Speaker 1: Lauren was somebody who knew how to handle different regimes

842
00:41:08,400 --> 00:41:11,399
Speaker 1: of executives in NBC television, to teach them the fact

843
00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:13,520
Speaker 1: that whatever you replaced my show with is going to

844
00:41:13,600 --> 00:41:17,480
Speaker 1: lose money. LIKESNL may not be monetizing the timeslot as

845
00:41:17,560 --> 00:41:19,719
Speaker 1: much as you'd like. And there are people who I

846
00:41:19,800 --> 00:41:22,160
Speaker 1: know for a fact they view that as a pelt.

847
00:41:22,640 --> 00:41:25,440
Speaker 1: They view that as a scalp. They wanted to prove

848
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:29,040
Speaker 1: their acumen as broadcast executives, and one of the things

849
00:41:29,040 --> 00:41:31,640
Speaker 1: they wanted to do was to kill and euthanize SNL

850
00:41:31,719 --> 00:41:34,959
Speaker 1: and bring on the next great thing that could tickets place.

851
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:38,040
Speaker 1: And Louren has lasted for fifty years because he's taught

852
00:41:38,040 --> 00:41:40,960
Speaker 1: them all that that's a mistake. You know, this show

853
00:41:41,080 --> 00:41:42,200
Speaker 1: it's always going to make money.

854
00:41:42,640 --> 00:41:43,880
Speaker 2: It sure would be a mistake.

855
00:41:43,920 --> 00:41:49,040
Speaker 3: And more importantly, it is the most effective and high

856
00:41:49,160 --> 00:41:51,640
Speaker 3: quality political satirical.

857
00:41:51,160 --> 00:41:53,880
Speaker 2: Organ in the country and we need it.

858
00:41:54,160 --> 00:41:57,239
Speaker 3: And also the intelligence of the writing has always been

859
00:41:57,360 --> 00:42:00,279
Speaker 3: very high. Anything that would come after its going to

860
00:42:00,560 --> 00:42:03,160
Speaker 3: definitely be few notches below and it'll never be what

861
00:42:03,200 --> 00:42:03,520
Speaker 3: that is.

862
00:42:03,600 --> 00:42:06,160
Speaker 2: So here's too, hopefully as.

863
00:42:06,120 --> 00:42:08,040
Speaker 3: Long as Lauren wants to do it, and then even

864
00:42:08,080 --> 00:42:12,200
Speaker 3: beyond developing new talent that comes up. I've mean, I

865
00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:14,319
Speaker 3: agree with the executive to toll Lauren, this is like

866
00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:16,760
Speaker 3: the Tonight Show, this is like the Today Show, Saturday

867
00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:17,200
Speaker 3: Night Live.

868
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:19,560
Speaker 2: We'll never go off NBC. We will have it forever.

869
00:42:20,239 --> 00:42:21,600
Speaker 1: Now, are you going to make any movies? You got

870
00:42:21,600 --> 00:42:22,400
Speaker 1: any movies coming up?

871
00:42:22,960 --> 00:42:26,359
Speaker 3: I don't think I see anything on the horizon. I'm

872
00:42:26,480 --> 00:42:28,960
Speaker 3: going to do some of these concerts with Jimmy, I'm

873
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,880
Speaker 3: going to work on the brand and we're doing some

874
00:42:32,040 --> 00:42:34,839
Speaker 3: kind of a relaunch. We've all all new expressions coming out.

875
00:42:34,880 --> 00:42:36,680
Speaker 3: I'm going to go work on the road as a

876
00:42:36,760 --> 00:42:41,719
Speaker 3: humble beverage alcohol salesman happily. So I'm going to concentrate

877
00:42:41,760 --> 00:42:44,560
Speaker 3: on trying to see my family as much as possible,

878
00:42:44,600 --> 00:42:46,680
Speaker 3: all the members in the various scattered parts of the

879
00:42:46,680 --> 00:42:47,480
Speaker 3: world they are at.

880
00:42:48,080 --> 00:42:50,680
Speaker 2: And of course I have written this.

881
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:53,480
Speaker 3: Book that deals with what I was speaking about before

882
00:42:53,560 --> 00:42:55,880
Speaker 3: with the UAP phenomenon. It would have to be a

883
00:42:55,960 --> 00:43:00,400
Speaker 3: very special director or actor to approach me. You know,

884
00:43:00,920 --> 00:43:04,759
Speaker 3: if Spielberg says, hey, we're doing a UFO movie. We

885
00:43:04,800 --> 00:43:07,279
Speaker 3: want you to play an abductee or a general in

886
00:43:07,320 --> 00:43:09,839
Speaker 3: the Air Force, well I would be there.

887
00:43:10,160 --> 00:43:12,160
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for doing this meeting my friend.

888
00:43:12,480 --> 00:43:15,000
Speaker 2: I will see you at the fiftieth I assume yes,

889
00:43:15,120 --> 00:43:17,080
Speaker 2: I'll see you in February. Thank you, Alec.

890
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:24,320
Speaker 1: My thanks to dan Aykroyd. Here's the Thing Is recorded

891
00:43:24,360 --> 00:43:28,200
Speaker 1: at CDM Studios. This episode was produced by Kathleen Russo,

892
00:43:28,480 --> 00:43:32,360
Speaker 1: Zach MacNeice, and Maureen Hobin. Our engineer is Frank Imperial.

893
00:43:32,719 --> 00:43:36,600
Speaker 1: Our social media manager is Danielle Gingrich. I'm Alec Baldwin.

894
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:43,040
Speaker 1: Here's the Thing is brought to you by iHeart Radio.