Too Funny to Fail: The Life & Death of The Dana Carvey Show

You know, then there's just sort of tumbleweeds.

"Sir, do you mind if I ask you

what went on here?"

"There was a TV show,

last Sunday last.

The circus left the town."

Yeah, I remember The Dana Carvey Show.

What's your memory right now

of The Dana Carvey Show?

Oh, it's the same I always have, uh...

a failure.

Hopefully I'll watch this show

and I'll look at the clips

and they'll make me laugh,

and for a day I'll feel good about it.

Then back to...

Then back to abject regret.

I don't know why you're laughing.

We... this is as I remember it,

and I can't say

this is actually the truth or it happened,

or it may have nothing to do

with anything that happened.

Put... put that disclaimer

in front of everything I say.

Um...

Nietzsche once said...

"I...

gotta do something about this syphilis..."

"'cause I'm goin' crazy."

And I think that's what we were trying to say,

is that...

aren't we all crazy?

I'm sorry, what was the question?

All right, so before we get to the show,

what's your first memory

from growing up of being funny?

Well, since we have time, Josh,

thanks for asking that.

I was a quintessential baby boomer

raised in California,

middle-class suburb,

and I was eight.

The Beatles were being interviewed

and I heard their voices.

How do you write songs?

Well, it just depends.

Sometimes you write them on old pianos

and anything that's lying around.

And I was walking around

talking like this all the time.

You know, I don't know how perfect I had it,

but I basically... that was the first time

I altered my voice,

was just a generalized Beatle voice.

That was a big deal.

And then I kind of developed

a little... a style of my own.

- Curious? - Mm-hm.

All right, that's lunch!

And I'd love to be at a restaurant

with a typical news anchorman ordering dinner for his wife,

and it would go a little something like this.

The waitress comes up, "May we take your order, sir?"

You certainly may,

and a surprise coming out of my wife today.

She'll have her steak medium rare

and a cup of black coffee

instead of the traditional cream and sugar.

I didn't realize I was preparing myself

to be a stand-up.

You can see Dana Carvey live

in Old Sacramento at Laughs Unlimited.

He's really a talented young guy.

That's a must.

We'll all have to go see him.

I'm going to college,

and then I saw a thing in the paper that said,

"Local comedians play comedy showcase."

And I'm in this little... this little dive,

and I took a napkin out

and I started writing down my bits.

Then a guy came up

who blew the roof off the place,

and I put... I took the napkin

and put it back in my pocket.

I go, "Maybe I'm not good enough to do this."

It was Robin Williams.

That was the first night I did it.

Guy who ran the showcase

couldn't believe it was my first time.

And he talked in sound effects.

Did your dad make noises when he talked?

He'd go, "Kids, hey."

You wanna go to the store,

pick up some milk, and bring it back home, huh?

And that was the most profound moment,

was that first night,

because it's so exhilarating for me,

like, I felt like I was home,

like, wow, this is awesome.

This is my impression

of a very pretentious rock star.

I think all of us at one time in our lives

wanted to be a rock star.

All you have to do is flare your nostrils,

look like you're about to vomit.

Everything you say is suddenly terribly important.

Doesn't have to make any literal sense.

So there I am, Saturday Night Live,

and Lorne Michaels walks in,

and then I see the head of the network,

Brandon Tartikoff,

so it was, like, so much fuckin' pressure.

It's Saturday Night Live

with Dana Carvey.

- I'm Hans. - And I am Franz.

And we just want to pump you up.

Now please welcome the most excellent

Dana Carvey, ladies and gentlemen.

Who was behind the wheel

of our Lincoln Town Car

when we drove into the Crazy 8 Motel?

Could it be...

Satan?

You like the pepper?

Yeah.

Because all the stuff I was doing

on the show had so much success...

Schwing!

I almost had too much heat on me.

It was almost distortive.

Our next guest starred in

the blockbuster film Wayne's World.

Please welcome the man who put the "uckle"

in "chuckle," Dana Carvey!

Dana Carvey!

Say hello to Dana Carvey.

Dana!

I was such an SNL nerd when I was a kid,

uh, you know, in my teens.

I lived in New York,

and Saturday Night Live,

as big as it was in the country in the '70s,

it was even bigger if you lived in New York.

It meant everything.

I went to high school and I was a smartass,

and I wanted to be funny for a living,

but then I still went and became a dentist,

uh, or tried to,

because my father had a great practice.

He developed the tooth bonding technique,

which was a series of accidents.

You know, somebody had developed this material

that was designed for...

This is gonna be a big part of the special.

Fortunately, I just sucked at biology

and organic chemistry,

and then I remember just thinking about

how much I loved the Saturday Night Live cast,

and suddenly it just occurred to me

that I love them so much,

and they make me so happy,

I guess it is worth doing for a living.

That was really my dream,

like, could I be a part of that show.