November 19, 2024 • 44 mins
This year marks the 50th anniversary of “Saturday Night Live” – and while many of the “Not Ready for Prime Time Players” have gone on to achieve remarkable careers, few have had as fascinating a journey as Dan Aykroyd’s. As the youngest member of the 1975 original cast, Aykroyd quickly became known for his iconic sketches, including parodies of Julia Child and Richard Nixon, the beloved “Two Wild and Crazy Guys,” and the absurd “Bass-o-Matic.” His sketch “The Blues Brothers” not only became a cultural touchstone, but evolved into successful feature films and a live musical act. Aykroyd’s talents also extend to behind the camera, as he wrote and starred in the comedy classics “Dragnet,” “Coneheads,” “Spies Like Us” and “Ghostbusters.” Aykroyd’s career has earned him numerous accolades, including an Emmy Award and Grammy and Academy Award nominations. He is also an entrepreneur and co-founder of the House of Blues music venues and Crystal Head Vodka. In this conversation, host Alec Baldwin speaks with Aykroyd about the early days of “SNL,” the evolution of his career into music and dramatic roles, and how his upbringing helped shape the creation of “Ghostbusters.”
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the
Thing from iHeart Radio on Here's the Thing. We'd like
to draw attention to the fiftieth anniversary of Saturday Night Live.
In those fifty years, some of the most famous names
in comedy, films and television have passed through Studio eight
(00:22):
h at thirty Rockefeller Plaza. However, as is evidenced by
Jason Rightman's film Saturday Night the most enduring names who
performed on the show of the original cast from nineteen
seventy five Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin,
John Belushi, and Loray Newman. And after fifty years of SNL,
(00:45):
the one who has had arguably the most interesting career
of them all is my guest today, dan Aykroyd. Whether
conjuring the state puffed marshmallow Man, jamming an entire fish
into the basmatic, or dancing wildly to soul Man, few
people are more enjoyable to watch than dan Ackroyd. His
(01:07):
prolific career skyrocketed when he became the youngest cast member
of the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live at just
twenty three years old. Ackroyd's tenure at Studio eight h
Berth iconic sketches about Julia Child, Richard Nixon, and of
course the Blues Brothers, which evolved into feature films and
(01:29):
a touring live band. Dan Ackroyd is also the screenwriter
behind the classic comedic films Dragnet, Cone Heads, Spies Like Us,
and of course Ghostbusters. He reprised his Ghostbuster's role of
Race Dance just this year in Ghostbuster's Frozen Empire. If
(01:51):
that weren't enough. He's also the co founder of the
House of Blues music venues and Crystal Head Vodka. The
suttle and humble comedian he is Canadian, after all, is
an Emmy winner as well as a Grammy and Academy
Award nominee. I wanted to begin by asking how a
(02:11):
young and gifted Akroyd almost missed his calling and ended
up on the path to the priesthood.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, that's a fun question.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
What happened was my parents wanted me to have a
little better education than the public school system at the
time there in the Ottawa Hall area and the Gatineau
area and on the Ottawa River up there in eastern Ontario,
at our capital city. They wanted a stricter education. So
they took me into the seminary and they sat me
down in front of Father Leney, the Saint Pius, the
(02:41):
tenth minor preparatory seminary for boys. So in I go
with father Loney, and my mom's sitting there, my dad
sitting there. They really want me to get into this academy,
which was an excellent school, by the way, I ruined
it when I was there. But so he says, well, Dan,
in the Newfoundland accent, the Nova Scotia accent, or the
(03:02):
rural Ontario accent slightly Irish, those all are well, Dan. Now,
so we understand your father and mother tell us that
you see a vocation for yourself in the priesthood. And
of course I had no intention ever of doing that,
but I had to please my parents. And here was
my answer to father Leney.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Ah why yeah, yeah, yeh yes maybe.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
And then after three years there, where I was a
horrible class clown and drove the teachers crazy, they let
me go in grade eleven and they wrote a letter
to my parents and it said, we believe your son
is no longer suitable for the priesthood, their loss, their loss. Well,
my mother didn't like one of the teachers who was
kind of hard on me, but he should have been.
(03:53):
I was a bad class mate. My mother kind of
tore a strip into him, so she was happy when
I left. And then I ended up, thankfully, I ended
up failing mathematics and having to go to a summer school.
Had I not failed in Grade eleven at Saint Pias
in math, had I not been failed by the teacher
who didn't like me, you didn't like me, he failed me,
I would never have met one of my best friends,
David Benoa, who I know today. We met in summer school.
(04:14):
So life takes those beautiful, beautiful turns. Yes, yes, but
no priest stood for me, No priest for me. I
got thrown out. You got thrown out.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, well, obviously you got thrown out because you had
to be liberated so you can go to your next
level of study, which was deviant sociology. You and I
have some really strange overlapping things here, which we're going
to get to. But tell us a little bit about
what you were after in terms of the deviant sociology calling.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
So, after pious, I went to Saint Pat's which was
a progressive school, and it had an item there that
I had never really known in class before, and that
is the female. So we had mixed co ed school there,
and that was where I started to get into drama.
We did murder in the cathedral, we did Carousel, we
did our carnival at called and we did all kinds
(05:01):
of great plays. There was a teacher there named Brady
Long And I know you have an influential teacher in
your life or several, probably yes, And he was the
most influential in my life. He saved me. In Grade twelve,
I got into more trouble at that school with my
friend Harvey. We were kind of a duo there and
a little bit of a trouble mainly because of the
doing the acts in class. You can't do that in class.
They're not there for the entertainment, you know. We learned that.
(05:24):
So the drama bug bit me there in that in
high school. Then I had to figure out what to
do for a living, so I went I had worked
for the Canadian Penitentiary Service in the Solicitor General's Office
of Canada. I worked at the Penitentiary Service for a
summer as a clerk five, and so I was very
interested in that corrections and how it's done and classifications.
(05:45):
Now why well, because I suppose I wanted to understand
deviant behavior myself for what it was in myself and
my friends and other people. And so I loved working
at the Penitentiary Service because I got all the statistics
of every prison across Canada, how many people were there.
And I wrote a manual for the signature of the
Commissioner at the time on the deployment of weapons in
(06:07):
a riot by prison guards. And I thought, this is
an interesting world. So then I went to Carlton. I
took sociology, I took deviant psychology, I took criminology and
a few other abnormal psych I think too. And I
lasted at Carlton for about three years. But then Valerie Bromfield,
who's in the new SNL movie, which is great, by
the way, was my partner and she almost made it
(06:29):
under the cast of the show. But she was in
Saturday Night Live. She did a stand up. I don't
know whether she caught it, but Jason Reitman depicts her
in the new movie. She was my partner, and she said,
there's no way you're going to be a prison guard. No, No,
You've got a gift for comedy and that We did
stuff together. We had our own show, fifteen minute show
called a Change for a Quarter on the cable show.
(06:50):
We did it with robot cameras and one operator. And
that's what we brought into Lauren Michaels a two inch
thick videotape. Remember they came in a briefcase of videotapes,
So we give that to Lauren and that's what got
us hired for the special he did and then got
me known to him for when SNL came along. So
it was Valery who yanked me out of Carlton from
criminology Studies, which I liked.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I had great instructors. She dragged you to where Toronto
were New York Toronto.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
We had a great duo. We loved Nicholson May and
we had some great sketches. We were hired by Second City,
we were working together. We had a big, strong career
in comedy, so she was quite right to haul me
out of there.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I'm finding out more about the penitentiary system in Canada now,
and it's on the surface, it looks organized, But it's not.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It's disorganized.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
It's a bad world in there, in those places, particularly
the big prisons, where I probably would have ended up
working with you Ba and criminology. And then because I
was a good writer even then with essays and that.
You know, writers own the world, you know that, Alec.
And you know in professional world, in the police world,
the ones who rise up to chief in that are
the writers who could write up reports.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Right now. The woman that took you to Toronto, what
is her name again.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Valerie Bromfield, brilliant, wonderful to We had a lot of
fun together.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
You worked with Lorne. You had some interaction with him
when he did Heart and Lorne Terrific Hour. Correct, you
work with him on that show.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
We gave him that two inch videotape.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
He looked at that and he hired us for a
summer special on the Heart and Lauren Terrific Hour called
the Great Canadian Humor Test.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And that's where you met him.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yes, in sixty nine, that's right, and Lauren saw and
Valerie and I something there and hired us and I
played in that special. I was twenty one at the time,
and I played characters over sixty you know heavily made up.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, right, and so there Laurene put us on and
there we were.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
So when you go to it seems eventually you end
up crashing the SNL audition. You say to yourself, I
can't wait in line here. You said, by the time
I do the song, it's not going to be till
seven o'clock at night. You cut the song, you go
in and do a fast routine. Correct.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Well, I said, you know, I'm just gonna scrub the audition.
I'm not here to audition. I'm here to say a
load of Lauren that I knew before before. So I
walked in and I went in and teach the line.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
It's true.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
There was a line as if they were lining up
for a movie tickets source pos event, and so I
walked right up and I just kind of said a
quick ColoAd of Lauren, A quick coloada Davey Wilson. And
I was in the room for no more than a
minute and a half, and I turned around and then
walked out after that, because he knew me from before,
and I said, wow, And they say, going to work.
I was with a friend of mine from Toronto who
(09:29):
had come down with me. And we had a song
in that and I said, this song will die. If
we do this song here, I'm telling you, we will die.
We will never work in show business. We'll be recommended
against by Lorne. And then I got the call. I
was with Candy when I got the call. We were
opening the Second City in Pasadena, California, and Candy and
I had just driven in his Mercury Cougar, his late
(09:50):
seventies Mercury Cougar, all the way across country and so
we made that and then Lauren said, come in for
the final round of edition here. We want to put
you on tape. And I said, well, I got this
job Second City. He said, well, you know, come on in.
We really think we could work something out something like that.
I went, I did the auditions, and then yeah, I
(10:11):
got the words. Some time after that, I was back
home in Canada when I heard.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I read a quote where you're walking down the street
with Chevy and he's getting assailed by people. They're all
yelling Chevy, Chevy, Chevy. And you said to yourself, I
saw what Chevy was exposed to and thought to myself,
I don't want that.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Oh no, absolutely, I for sure said I knew. I
didn't want that, and now one of the joys of aging.
I was at a restaurant the other day and the
young woman was, you know, a local student, probably about
twenty two twenty three, no clue who I was not, right,
Thank you, Thank you for that type of anonymity.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I love and I didn't want it.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
And I was sort of, you know, with Chevy there,
enjoying watching him grow and watching his fame and his
talent expand. And you know, he was my biggest fan
at SNL. He was my biggest point. He was him
and o'donnau Right and Lauren as well, of course, but
those two guys lobbied for me heavily, and then Franken
and Davis as well. I highly recommend the new SNL movie.
(11:10):
It plays like a suspense film, does it really?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Well?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, because they didn't know where where they were really
going to go on the air at at eleven thirty,
and you know, I remember just kind of being down
among in the bleachers and before I was supposed to
go on in the home Security sketch with Garrett, and
I was just thinking, well, you know, maybe this works,
maybe it doesn't, Maybe we go on, maybe we don't.
But you know, I saw a good price on a
(11:34):
nice big snowplow up there where I could get some contracts.
And you know, I've got some sand on my property.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
I have actually a commercial.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Level grade of sand and a load on my property
up here, and those contracts pay very very well.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
You like living up there, huh?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I love it? I love it well. I'm here only
part of the year.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I'm here mostly in the summers, and then go to
Massachusetts and then I've got a home in the US
Virgin Island, or my partner as a home there that
I bunk in with her and our two kids. But
you see, with the snowplow, I'm serious, I would have
gone back because I would have had no career if
I didn't get into SNL none. I couldn't go back
to Second City. I wasn't going to go back to Toronto.
(12:14):
I was looking for those county contracts, you know, where
you're selling tons and tons and then you have a
fleet of trucks. And believe me, you know, I have
a friend up here who is the wealthiest guy in
the county, and it's because he builds all the cement
barriers for the highways. He has a car collection of
two hundred and he's really an archetype. He's a spectacular
human being, and he made his living with his hands,
(12:37):
you know. So that's where I would have been headed.
But I'm glad the rote that my life took and
I loved working at SNL. I'm so grateful for having
had a career in film and for all the things
I'm getting to do now.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well, in four years goes by. You're there seventy five
through seventy nine, and then after four years you leave.
And there are some people in the business who you know.
You look at them and you say, you're doing a series,
let's say, and getting paid a lot of money. And
I'll tell some of my friends, I say, you ride
that horse till it drops, you know what I mean.
They're never going to have that good again. Whereas for you,
(13:11):
who win an Emmy for writing, You're one of the
stars of the show, and everybody admires you. Everybody just
is crazy about your talent. When you leave, was that
your decision? Did you decide it was diminishing returns, there
was no reason to stay any longer.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
No, In fact, it was because Blues Brothers spilled over
a couple of months in Chicago, and we couldn't go
back to work, and we saw that we would have
to be with Blues Brothers, you know, getting it through
post production and all the things that needed to be
done to get it released, publicized and all that. So
we couldn't go back because we couldn't do both. But
we did the movie, and we knew we couldn't commit
(13:50):
to SNL, and we were both ready to kind of
go in a way. But had Blues Brothers not existed,
had I not written that, or had Judy and John
and I not conceived that or originated that, I probably
would have done another couple of years, if not more,
at SNL. You know, it's video commando time. You know
how hard it is. You're almost a cast member yourself.
(14:10):
But I did enjoy it, and I could could have
done another couple of years there, I think, right.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Come seventy six, you do Love at First Sight. Come
seventy nine, it's mister Mike's Mondo video. And then you
do nineteen forty one, you're out of there. And then
you proceed from nineteen eighty on, from Blues Brothers on
to make a hell of a lot of movies, a
hell of a lot of movies. Did you settle into
a place eventually where the movies were home? This is
(14:36):
what you preferred was making films?
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Well, I liked playing different roles, and of course a
lot of those movies, you know, I was really only
played the principal lead in about thirty if you could
check and see that. So the others were guest shots
or like Indiana Jones and a Temple of doom.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Who wouldn't want to work for Lucas and Spielberg.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
So I talked my way into that one, right, And
then there were some that I conceived of, I wrote,
I think I I had eight screenplays made in the eighties,
and wow, even today, I think people will be happy
with that that record. Some of them, you know, they
were just neat roles and opportunities to travel and work
with different directors, and I did enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
But my real home heart for work.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
And as you speak of it, is the writing part
of it. I love writing more than anything. You're left alone,
you know, you do three hours in the morning you write,
I need to have lunch, and then three hours in
the afternoon, go pick up a kid from school and
write at night, and after nine hours you come out
with seven pages and then you're you're moving on so
and you you know, it's just your own devices, the air,
(15:37):
the air around you, and your mind and a blank
screen or a blank piece of paper. That's really what
I'd like to be doing more of and always did enjoy.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
But I did like playing the roles.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I got to work with so many great people like
Robbie Williams, Robbie Coltrane and Terry Davis, the terrific director.
We worked on House of Mirth. I wor got to
work with Gillian Anderson and Laura Lenny and Anthony Naplaglia
and film, so of course I'm going to take parts
like that. It was more driven by wanting to work
with these great actors and we did some really good
(16:08):
work together. I got, you know, Driving This Days. I
got to work with Jessica and Morgan and that was
a beautiful five star release.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And you got nominated for that film.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yes, sir, best supporting alongside Peter O'Toole and Marlon Brando.
They were best supporting and Denzel. Of course, we all
knew that Denzel would get it. So that I had
the most relaxed and wonderful night at the Oscars that
year because I knew that I didn't have to make
a speech.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I wasn't gonna win.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
It was going to be Denzel's performance in Glory in Glory,
but then Daisy won Best Actress for Jessica and Best
Picture of that year, and so you know, Morgan and I,
even though we were both dominated, we were you know, we
were thrilled for them and for everybody else in the room.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Musician, writer and actor dan Ackroyd. If you and conversations
with the incredible minds behind Saturday Night Live, check out
my episode with Lorne Michaels. When it's over, describe how
you feel after the very first show.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
I was the same way then that I am now.
I only see the mistakes, and I tend to wear
that up until about the second drink at the party.
Even last week's show takes me really through midway through Sunday.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Just take me a couple of days. I can get
over it now in a day.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
Because you're always hoping that everything's gonna work the way
you were hoping it was gonna work.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
To hear more of my conversation with Lornemichaels, go to
Here's the Thing dot Org. After the Break, dan Ackroyd
shares how he came to play music professionally on stage
with the godfather of soul himself, James Brown. I'm Alec
(18:02):
Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. Dan Ackroyd
is known for his iconic roles as Bell dar Conehead
and one half of The Two Wild and Crazy Guys
with Steve Martin, but his dramatic work is not to
be dismissed. You may have seen him in My Girl,
House of Mirth or his Oscar nominated role in Driving
(18:24):
Miss Daisy, directed by Bruce Beresford. I wanted to know
what he appreciated the most about the direction on Driving
Miss Daisy.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I loved Bruce's thoughtful way he took the actor through
the process.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
That was beautiful.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
You know, I can also work with someone who is
say it faster, say it's slower. You know, let me
give you a reading there, no problem, just tell me
what notes to play.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
But I like it spare. I kind of like that. Yeah,
do it faster, do it slower.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Just the mechanics of it and where I'm left for
my own devices.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
When you leave the show, and you go make movies.
Music is a big influences. The Blues Brothers of this
is a huge hit for you, we get into House
of Blues for you and your you know, your music
cred is significant. Did the Blues Brothers contain everything you
had to display musically? Did you want to do something
other than that? Because that was like a sketch that
(19:21):
became a music act Did you ever want to sing
on Broadway?
Speaker 3 (19:25):
You know, we became Elwood and Jake because we were actors.
We had written scenes, sketches, and we had written this movie,
and so as actors we had to be musicians and
dancers and vocalists. So that's where we learned sort of
how to pull it off. I've always said that John
and I were great frontmen, with the real talent being
(19:45):
in the backup line behind us. And that's what Jimmy
and I are today. Brother Zee and myself.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
We do go out.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
I've got a concert next week. We play all the time.
We have a great R and B band and one
of the top R and B reviews in the world.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
And you enjoyed that.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Oh my god, I think now if I can't be writing,
I think that's what I like to be doing most.
So yeah, so I had to kind of perfect well
not pfoult. Still learning on the harmonica, but I did
play on all the records, that's all.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
That's all me there for more or less.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
And on the movie I played, and so I learned
the harp as an actor being a harmonica player and
then a dancer and a vocalist.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
But it stayed with me.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Of course, we did open House of Blues, and I
got to jam on stage with James Brown five times.
He opened five of them with me. I got to
sing with him, I got to be good friends with him.
I got to jam with Little Richard in Chicago, got
to sing with his section, and jam with and so
many other great artists. Had a great time there. House
of Blues of course, still going in eleven cities. It's
(20:43):
owned by Live Nation now. It is a beautiful place.
If you've never been, you know, they've got millions of
dollars worth of folk art and incredible to Louisiana menu.
And I'm a consultant, so I do brag on it
a few times, but so coming to it as an actor,
still doing it, and I don't think I'm gonna play
guitar or oregon. I don't think I have that talent.
(21:03):
I have minimal talent that gets me by. It's the
strength of my backup line and my people behind me
who really pull off the act. So we're ludic ridiculous
front men. You know, Cab Calloway and Mononi Harris. We
take from them. They used humor to kind of lead
the band, and that's what John and I did and
what Jimmy and I do, and you know it still works.
Nobody goes away unhappy because we do songs no one's
(21:25):
doing anymore, Junior Parker songs and Lowell Fulson songs and
people you've never heard of, but boy do they swing.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I envy you.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
I envy you.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
That sounds like so much fun. But you never thought
of Broadway because you're such, You've done live, You've got
the stamina, fort you've got the strength for it, and
the power forth. There's so many great roles over the years.
I can think of you for you to have played
decade after decade, but you never did a Broadway show,
did you?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
No?
Speaker 3 (21:52):
But I love the form and I love seeing great performers.
And Patty LuPone I got to know on driving Miss Daisy.
I try to see everything that she's in, so I
do love watching it. But Alec, I just don't have
the time to do Broadway. But I love the Forum,
and I admire those performers, and I've thrilled when I
can sit in a New York Broadway theater as it
(22:12):
can only do in New York City.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Now, the Best Supporting Actor, the winner, as you mentioned,
was Denzel and it's you, Danny Iello and Do the
Right Thing, brandawin Drywhite Season and Marty Landau and Crimes
and Misdemeanors. I mean, I can't believe the fucking company
that you're in here. I mean, you were nominating for
Best Supporting Actor with these guys who are like the
(22:35):
giants of acting.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I worship Marty.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Landau worshiped, and I think Danny Iyello Do the Right
Thing is one of the twenty five greatest movies in
history as far as I'm concerned. Oh, and there you
are with these guys. Did that make you feel different
about movie acting? Did you want to pursue straight acting
and more or comedy was always where you were more comfortable.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Well, comedy's much harder than straight acting. Point because you
got to keep that ping pong ball above the red lion.
In comedy, you know, straight acting, you can lay back
a little bit. Yes, I was confused when I said
Peter O'Toole because he was in a movie that I
made with Stephen Frye.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And again, thanks, I'm going to turn down that. No,
I'm going to Stephen Frye.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
It was called Bright Young Things, Vile Bodies, Bright Young Things,
it was called and O'Toole was in that. So I
was in a movie with O'Toole, even though we didn't
act together. I love the community. And of course that night,
as I say, I was so relaxed because I looked
at these other names and thought, nice to have the nomination,
but I'm not going to clinch this one tonight. So
I was so relaxed. And then I knew Denzel. I
(23:32):
think we all did that scene in Glory. Those scenes
were spectacular, and I got to give him a hug
and meet his mom. So no, I look, I'm nothing
but grateful for having been able to work in this
community and be with all the people that I have
worked with and just enjoyed it so so much, and
it's something I don't do too much anymore, and that's fine,
(23:52):
but I do really love the community. And of course
to have been nominated in that company, as you say,
as I look back on it, now, wow, that is impressive.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Well, I have you in a category with a few others,
but not many for sure that you can do anything.
You can do anything. You can do drama, you can
do comedy, you can do very subtle quiet comedy. You
can do your throwing the bass into the blender. You
can do stuff that's sicill, outrageous and nutty, you know.
I mean, you can play in every key. And when
(24:21):
I see in your work is I see someone who
Then in terms of that, you decide to get off
on a little detour here and take a little service
road here into sales and products that you manufacture and sell.
Describe your forays into the alcohol beverage business.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Well, we started with I don't know if you know
the brilliant entrepreneurs, JP Dujoria, Paul Mitchell, Hair Systems is
this company, and Patron Tequila. I live with a sober
partner for five years now. She's been sober, so I'm
spending a lot less on wine. I've saved tens of
thousands of dollars in wine. So I drink a lot less.
But I'm fortunate in that I can moderately drink alcohol,
(25:02):
and in moderation I don't have a problem.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I don't over abuse it. I can go for.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Days without it or weeks if necessary. And I don't
have a jones there, which enables me to sell honestly
and truly. So we have a beautiful home that my
ancestors settled it two hundred years ago on the farm there,
and it happens to be on a cliff on a lake,
and I have this dock there, and then there's the
whole culture of stopping by for sunset drinks. And I
(25:27):
like tequila to make a nice sunset drink with a tequila,
you know, margarita, and we could only get in Canada,
if you can believe this, we can only get two
brands of tequila.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Now there are hundreds out there. So I went to
my friend JP owned Patron Tequila. We were at the
House of Blues bar in Los Angeles, and he said,
have you try this this tequila, And of course I'd
only tried the two brands in Canada. He poured me
a beautiful smoky, silky, satiny shot of Patron and I said, JP,
how can I get this up to my little government
liquor store up there in Canada. I'll bring a few
(26:00):
cases for the summer. He said, well, Dan, you'd have
to bring it to the whole country. I said, well, okay,
let's do that. So he appointed me the importing agent
for Patron Tequila and we grew that across Canada into
the number one luxury brand. It still commands lots of
luxury sales up. It was bought by Baccardy there a
while back, so I'm out of it now, but that
taught me the business. So that's where it started. And
(26:21):
then I started to look at vodka. And I started
to open vodka bottles up and they either smelled like
Chanelle number five or they were there was no smell,
or were they tasted like a cat's tongue.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
And I don't men mention other brands. I thought, what's
going on here?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Why do these vodkas either taste like nothing or they
taste bad? And I come to find out that many
alcoholic beverages add three fusel oils. They add glycerine, and
they add lemonine, and they added more sugar to mask
the alcohol smell, mask the alcohol taste, make it taste
like either nothing or be odorless. And I thought, well,
(26:55):
what fun is that in a cocktail? So we devised
with John Alexander full Package, which is our skull. Crystal
Head Vodka's the name of it. We're in seventy eight countries.
We've sold millions of bottles, and we have the skull
made by Johnny. And when I saw the skull, I
just went, I know what to put in this. He
designed it, just drew it up one night at his
(27:16):
place there and he said he always thought that a
skull would make a good tequila vessel, which it would.
And we went ahead and did a vodka because I thought,
beautiful skull. You can't put a polluted substance in that
beautiful bottle. So I took all the oils out. Are
vodka has no additives, no glycer and no sugar, no lemonine.
Bartenders love it and that's why we've been able to
(27:36):
sell so well and be still alive in a very
very competitive market because we're stripped down. We're a pure spirit,
and we have notes vanilla and ease peppercorn.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
We've won metals all over the world.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Where do they manufacture the crystal heads?
Speaker 3 (27:50):
We have two lines of glass. We have a line
of glass in France and we have a line of
glass in Italy.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
And you know what, we're having fun.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
And what's fun is things like going down to Pennsylvania,
getting right in there, into the warehouse, and I signed
a thousand bottles there the other day, roughly close to that,
and met some really really great people who move the
product who are down there. And boy, do I get
a sense of where a country's at or where a
society's at when I get down into where real labor
(28:20):
is being done by people who do this work. Because
it's all about family and so the people in the warehouse,
I met the PCLB board the other day, the salespeople
that I'm working with. It's just great to see people
who are doing real work in an age where a
lot of young people now don't want to work. They
want it instantly. Actor and comedian Dan Ackroyd. If you're
(28:47):
enjoying this conversation, tell a friend I'd be sure to follow.
Here's the thing on the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
App, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. When we
come Back. Royd reflects on the passing of his close
friend and writing partner John Belushey, I'm Alec Baldwin, and
(29:14):
you were listening to Here's the thing. Dan Ackroyd grew
up in Ottawa, Canada, in a rather unusual home, so
much so that it inspired his father to write the
book A History of Ghosts, The True Story of Seances, Mediums,
Ghosts and Ghostbusters, which chronicles the family's interactions with the beyond.
(29:37):
I wanted to know if Ackroyd's upbringing an exposure to
the paranormal was influential in the conception of the movie Ghostbusters.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Oh sure, yes, my great grandfather Sam, who's profiled in
the book. It's called History of Ghosts. It's more about
trance mediumship. But yes, my great grandfather Sam. He was
a dentist and he was also kind of the local
reviewer of are normal acts that would come through the
town of Kingston in the late turn of the century
and then in the nineteen twenties. And in the book,
(30:08):
of course, we mentioned the Fox Sisters and the Bang
Sisters who were precipitated painters, and the Campbell brothers. They
were precipitated painters. They would sit in front of the
canvas about maybe a foot away and wiggle their fingers
and an image would appear on the canvas. So is
it a hoax? What's going on? Who's painting in behind it?
My great grandfather, they weren't hoaxes. Those two, those four
(30:30):
siblings were true phenomena. And my grandfather was kind of
the vetter in town here. He was kind of he'd
see what was real and what wasn't. Levitators seances, and
that he would have saoss himself.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
We had a family medium.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
So I grew up in summers in this old farmhouse
where they had these seances, and they had journals from
the American Society Psychical Research lying around and Fate magazine,
and you know other cottages had McLean's and Look magazine
and Colliers in these and we had all psychic books there,
which I it. From eight years old. I was reading
this stuff. And so essentially the Acroids are spiritualists. That's
(31:06):
my religion. If you wanted to pegny with a religion.
We are spiritualists. We believe not only that the spirit
and the soul and the energy, the atomic energy of
the soul survives after death. We believe the consciousness and
identity of the being survives to reach back and communicate
with us here. And I don't know if you remember
John Edwards on CBS. He was a very talented medium,
(31:29):
and there are many others.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Who do it well.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
So History of ghost talks all about it. But I
believe the consciousness and the identity survive and you can
reach them. They touched back sometimes to help us, and
so that's my belief.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So yes, I grew up with all of that and was.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
In the old farmhouse one afternoon reading a journal about
quantum physics and paranor own researching, and I thought, well,
let's do an old style ghost comedy. Abbot Costello, Bing Crosby,
Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Bowery Boys, they all did a
ghosted and I thought, we'll do We'll get some of
the guys together, We'll do a ghost comedy. But it
will be based in the you know, in the real
(32:06):
vernacular of the real science taking. And Harold was not
a believer. Harold Ramis my co writer on Ghostbusters, not
a believer at all. But he knew all about my
monodes dream lab, the research at Duke University, all of
the research William Roll and the cards.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
That's where that comes from.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Billy with the cards, the Star of the Cross that
was from the research was doing it being done at
Deane Mercy in the paranormal department Allos. Yeah, he knew
all about you know, Zachariah Sitchen and the Sumerian gods,
so he was well versed in that. So we came
to write that he had a great body of knowledge there,
and of course I had my spiritualist side, and that's
how it all came about. The first mention of ghostbusters
(32:43):
in film in America is in a movie called Scared Stiff.
I think it's with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and
the woman asks Dean Martin at one point, well what
are you guys, and he says, we're ghostbusters.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
So of course I remember that and that helped to
put the title to it.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
I love Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in that movie,
just aside from the paranormal reference. Jerry Lewis basically he
runs down these stairs in this old castle in a
piece of physical comedy and dexterity. That is that Buster
Keaton would be proud of. Just mind blowing that piece
of physical business. So yeah, there were a lot of
(33:21):
precedents for ghost movies, and I just said, let's do
one and use the real science and make these guys
paranormal investigators, the three of us, Spangler, Stance and Venkman
and Zetemoa.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
And you wanted Belushi to play Vankman. He was your
original cast from Veankman.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah, I was writing a line for him when I
heard that he died, you know. And I was at
one fifty fifth Avenue in our offices, and I was
at the typewriter and I was in the middle of
a line. And then Bernie was on the phone there,
my agent, and he told me what had happened. And
I ran down the fifth Avenue to Judy's to get
to her before she heard it on the media. And
(33:59):
I passed a new star in the truck, just like
in an old movie. They dropped the wire bound headlines,
and there it was Belushi dead at thirty three, and
I had to tell her and that was you know,
And now Judy is with him. I am hoping conjoined
with their energies twirling in the afterlife or wherever we
do go.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
We just lost her.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
And now she's been and terred near John, and she
had to say goodbye to him too early. But now
their spirits are joined, and that gives me some comfort
because of my belief.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Now do you think that was johnsone who everyone who
was important in his life? They were kind of holding
their breath. They thought that something like this might happen.
Did you worry, as his dear friend, that this is
something like this was possible?
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Well, once cocaine came into the picture, which it did
so heavily in the seventies. There the cocaine that we
flushed down the toilet, hid from him, took from him.
We tried to stop the dealers from getting to him
once that came in and he once he enjoyed that,
and he enjoyed it, he did.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
That's where it turned.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
That's where we became really really worried when the powders
came in there. And of course they were pills to supplement,
you know, to get to sleep and wake up in
the morning. So it was pharmaceuticals that killed them, no
doubt over the long term. And then of course by
that bad episode at the Marmont where the woman hit
him up with a speedball, which was a heroin cocaine combination. No,
he was a smoker, so his lungs were a bit weak.
(35:17):
He'd been drinking. I know that she did not want
to kill him anymore than I did, and she did
some time for it, and I'm sure she regrets it
for the rest of her life.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Now, what about UFOs when you're talking about because I
literally I was telling my producers on my show that
I saw a UFO. I was laying on a dock
on a lake in upstate New York. And as we
were laying there, myself, my daughter, a couple of my nieces,
a friend of theirs, and all of a sudden, right
over us, I see something that literally resembles in its
(35:48):
dimensions a stop light. It's a black brick like you
know two thousand and one and Onnitor three large green
lights that resemble a stop light. And literally, as were
laying down, the thing moves over us. And as it
gets in our vicinity, it's like maybe fifty feet in
the air, it's not that high up, and the sun's
(36:09):
almost down now, and the lights go on. You literally
feel and the green lights light up over us, and
it moves very slowly over us and then it passes us,
the lights go out and it takes off and goes
shooting into space.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I saw this. I believe you.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
That is a spectacular sighting.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah. And the dimension of it.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
I would have to guess that the body of the
object of the spacecraft was probably from what I could
tell from where I was, it was probably fifty feet
by twenty feet across or something, you know, length wise
fifty and the green lights come on and then they
go off.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
That is a spectacular Alec that's a spectacular sighting.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
In Ireland saw that as well.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
No one would admit to seeing it. They were afraid
to admit they saw it.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Okay, well I did see that is a spectacular sighting.
I totally believe you. I've had people talk to me
about orbs, triangles, deltas. I've seen four of them myself,
vivid on ambiguous sighting. No question that this is hyperadvanced
technology operated by intelligent beings that are not from this Earth,
or this is not earthly manufacturer. We don't know about it.
(37:22):
There's nothing on the Earth that could do what the
objects that I saw did. There was a young Soviet
scientist named Nikolai Kardashev, and there was a meeting I
believe in this in the seventies over there at one
of the space centers, and he proposed a tier model
for three types of civilization. Type one has harnessed everything
on their home planet, all of the energy on their
(37:43):
home planet.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
That's a type one civilization.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Type two have harnessed all of the energy in their
solar system. Type three have harnessed all of the energy
in their galaxy. So what if a type three individual
approached you and said, we're here now and we want
you to operate for us on this planet. I've just
written a book with that premise because I've seen four
(38:06):
and it inspired me to write this book about if
you had to have contact, willingly or unwillingly with such
a powerful group of beings, what would you do? So
these things they've been coming going like taxis for centuries.
One of the British Aerospace a minister there, Lord hill Norton.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I believe he.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Said the twenty three different species and twenty three different
types of creatures had crossed his desk in intelligence briefings.
My theory is that they're tourists and this is such
a beautiful planet they come by to take a look.
You can look on your search engine sting ray UFOs
and you'll get pictures of these basically two seaters. So
I can see somewhere in another dimension or galax or
(38:46):
a planet, a couple with one of these in their
driveway or garage on another planet or galaxy saying let's
go down to Earth for a few hours.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
It's a tourist thing. Now, there are some great books.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
There's one called UFO, The Governments for Extraterrestrials Here and
out There by Garrett Graff Graff Garrett Graff UFO. That's
a great book than Lewis Alexandro's book Imminent. He worked
for the Pentagon, so did Chris Mellon his sponsor over there,
and Alexando who did work for the Defense Department and
has written this great book Imminent Debt. He believes that
this is a threat that because of their interference with
(39:20):
nuclear weapons over the years on our planet in multiple bases,
that they know about our nuclear capabilities and they don't
like them so much, and that they could shut down
all of our weapons basically with the hit of a
button and neutralize any defense that we have so they
believe Chris Mellan and Lewis Alessando that the Defense Department
(39:40):
should be more alert. And right now there is an
office open for military and even civilians to report. It's
the All Domain Anomaly a resolution office, so anomaly and
all domain meaning water and on air, So that exists
in the Pentagon. Now they're very seriously interested in this subject.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
One last question. You look at the show, you look
at them coming to fifty years. This season is the
fiftieth season, and obviously one couldn't have a perspective where
you could predict fifty seasons back in nineteen seventy five
when you started. Does it surprise you that it's gone
on for fifty years?
Speaker 3 (40:22):
I guess a little bit. It's surprising, and any venture
other than soap operas for something to go on that
long in television and television venture maybe right Coronation Street,
you know, or about Days of Our Lives. But an
executive told Lauren a few years ago said, this is
like the Today Show. This is an institution and it's
never going away. And well, Lauren was gone from it
(40:45):
for a while, but then, of course it's his guiding
hand and his sensibilities that make it what it is.
It could clunk along without him, but I don't think
it would be what it is now, and I don't
think it would endure another ten years without him.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
In the years I've gotten to know him. On one level,
Lauren was somebody who knew how to handle different regimes
of executives in NBC television, to teach them the fact
that whatever you replaced my show with is going to
lose money. LIKESNL may not be monetizing the timeslot as
much as you'd like. And there are people who I
know for a fact they view that as a pelt.
(41:22):
They view that as a scalp. They wanted to prove
their acumen as broadcast executives, and one of the things
they wanted to do was to kill and euthanize SNL
and bring on the next great thing that could tickets place.
And Louren has lasted for fifty years because he's taught
them all that that's a mistake. You know, this show
it's always going to make money.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
It sure would be a mistake.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
And more importantly, it is the most effective and high
quality political satirical.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Organ in the country and we need it.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
And also the intelligence of the writing has always been
very high. Anything that would come after its going to
definitely be few notches below and it'll never be what
that is.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
So here's too, hopefully as.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Long as Lauren wants to do it, and then even
beyond developing new talent that comes up. I've mean, I
agree with the executive to toll Lauren, this is like
the Tonight Show, this is like the Today Show, Saturday
Night Live.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
We'll never go off NBC. We will have it forever.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Now, are you going to make any movies? You got
any movies coming up?
Speaker 3 (42:22):
I don't think I see anything on the horizon. I'm
going to do some of these concerts with Jimmy, I'm
going to work on the brand and we're doing some
kind of a relaunch. We've all all new expressions coming out.
I'm going to go work on the road as a
humble beverage alcohol salesman happily. So I'm going to concentrate
on trying to see my family as much as possible,
(42:44):
all the members in the various scattered parts of the
world they are at.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
And of course I have written this.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
Book that deals with what I was speaking about before
with the UAP phenomenon. It would have to be a
very special director or actor to approach me. You know,
if Spielberg says, hey, we're doing a UFO movie. We
want you to play an abductee or a general in
the Air Force, well I would be there.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Thank you so much for doing this meeting my friend.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
I will see you at the fiftieth I assume yes,
I'll see you in February. Thank you, Alec.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
My thanks to dan Aykroyd. Here's the Thing Is recorded
at CDM Studios. This episode was produced by Kathleen Russo,
Zach MacNeice, and Maureen Hobin. Our engineer is Frank Imperial.
Our social media manager is Danielle Gingrich. I'm Alec Baldwin.
Here's the Thing is brought to you by iHeart Radio.
This is Alec Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the
Thing from iHeart Radio on Here's the Thing. We'd like
to draw attention to the fiftieth anniversary of Saturday Night Live.
In those fifty years, some of the most famous names
in comedy, films and television have passed through Studio eight
(00:22):
h at thirty Rockefeller Plaza. However, as is evidenced by
Jason Rightman's film Saturday Night the most enduring names who
performed on the show of the original cast from nineteen
seventy five Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Garrett Morris, Jane Curtin,
John Belushi, and Loray Newman. And after fifty years of SNL,
(00:45):
the one who has had arguably the most interesting career
of them all is my guest today, dan Aykroyd. Whether
conjuring the state puffed marshmallow Man, jamming an entire fish
into the basmatic, or dancing wildly to soul Man, few
people are more enjoyable to watch than dan Ackroyd. His
(01:07):
prolific career skyrocketed when he became the youngest cast member
of the inaugural season of Saturday Night Live at just
twenty three years old. Ackroyd's tenure at Studio eight h
Berth iconic sketches about Julia Child, Richard Nixon, and of
course the Blues Brothers, which evolved into feature films and
(01:29):
a touring live band. Dan Ackroyd is also the screenwriter
behind the classic comedic films Dragnet, Cone Heads, Spies Like Us,
and of course Ghostbusters. He reprised his Ghostbuster's role of
Race Dance just this year in Ghostbuster's Frozen Empire. If
(01:51):
that weren't enough. He's also the co founder of the
House of Blues music venues and Crystal Head Vodka. The
suttle and humble comedian he is Canadian, after all, is
an Emmy winner as well as a Grammy and Academy
Award nominee. I wanted to begin by asking how a
(02:11):
young and gifted Akroyd almost missed his calling and ended
up on the path to the priesthood.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Well, that's a fun question.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
What happened was my parents wanted me to have a
little better education than the public school system at the
time there in the Ottawa Hall area and the Gatineau
area and on the Ottawa River up there in eastern Ontario,
at our capital city. They wanted a stricter education. So
they took me into the seminary and they sat me
down in front of Father Leney, the Saint Pius, the
(02:41):
tenth minor preparatory seminary for boys. So in I go
with father Loney, and my mom's sitting there, my dad
sitting there. They really want me to get into this academy,
which was an excellent school, by the way, I ruined
it when I was there. But so he says, well, Dan,
in the Newfoundland accent, the Nova Scotia accent, or the
(03:02):
rural Ontario accent slightly Irish, those all are well, Dan. Now,
so we understand your father and mother tell us that
you see a vocation for yourself in the priesthood. And
of course I had no intention ever of doing that,
but I had to please my parents. And here was
my answer to father Leney.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Ah why yeah, yeah, yeh yes maybe.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
And then after three years there, where I was a
horrible class clown and drove the teachers crazy, they let
me go in grade eleven and they wrote a letter
to my parents and it said, we believe your son
is no longer suitable for the priesthood, their loss, their loss. Well,
my mother didn't like one of the teachers who was
kind of hard on me, but he should have been.
(03:53):
I was a bad class mate. My mother kind of
tore a strip into him, so she was happy when
I left. And then I ended up, thankfully, I ended
up failing mathematics and having to go to a summer school.
Had I not failed in Grade eleven at Saint Pias
in math, had I not been failed by the teacher
who didn't like me, you didn't like me, he failed me,
I would never have met one of my best friends,
David Benoa, who I know today. We met in summer school.
(04:14):
So life takes those beautiful, beautiful turns. Yes, yes, but
no priest stood for me, No priest for me. I
got thrown out. You got thrown out.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah, well, obviously you got thrown out because you had
to be liberated so you can go to your next
level of study, which was deviant sociology. You and I
have some really strange overlapping things here, which we're going
to get to. But tell us a little bit about
what you were after in terms of the deviant sociology calling.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
So, after pious, I went to Saint Pat's which was
a progressive school, and it had an item there that
I had never really known in class before, and that
is the female. So we had mixed co ed school there,
and that was where I started to get into drama.
We did murder in the cathedral, we did Carousel, we
did our carnival at called and we did all kinds
(05:01):
of great plays. There was a teacher there named Brady
Long And I know you have an influential teacher in
your life or several, probably yes, And he was the
most influential in my life. He saved me. In Grade twelve,
I got into more trouble at that school with my
friend Harvey. We were kind of a duo there and
a little bit of a trouble mainly because of the
doing the acts in class. You can't do that in class.
They're not there for the entertainment, you know. We learned that.
(05:24):
So the drama bug bit me there in that in
high school. Then I had to figure out what to
do for a living, so I went I had worked
for the Canadian Penitentiary Service in the Solicitor General's Office
of Canada. I worked at the Penitentiary Service for a
summer as a clerk five, and so I was very
interested in that corrections and how it's done and classifications.
(05:45):
Now why well, because I suppose I wanted to understand
deviant behavior myself for what it was in myself and
my friends and other people. And so I loved working
at the Penitentiary Service because I got all the statistics
of every prison across Canada, how many people were there.
And I wrote a manual for the signature of the
Commissioner at the time on the deployment of weapons in
(06:07):
a riot by prison guards. And I thought, this is
an interesting world. So then I went to Carlton. I
took sociology, I took deviant psychology, I took criminology and
a few other abnormal psych I think too. And I
lasted at Carlton for about three years. But then Valerie Bromfield,
who's in the new SNL movie, which is great, by
the way, was my partner and she almost made it
(06:29):
under the cast of the show. But she was in
Saturday Night Live. She did a stand up. I don't
know whether she caught it, but Jason Reitman depicts her
in the new movie. She was my partner, and she said,
there's no way you're going to be a prison guard. No, No,
You've got a gift for comedy and that We did
stuff together. We had our own show, fifteen minute show
called a Change for a Quarter on the cable show.
(06:50):
We did it with robot cameras and one operator. And
that's what we brought into Lauren Michaels a two inch
thick videotape. Remember they came in a briefcase of videotapes,
So we give that to Lauren and that's what got
us hired for the special he did and then got
me known to him for when SNL came along. So
it was Valery who yanked me out of Carlton from
criminology Studies, which I liked.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
I had great instructors. She dragged you to where Toronto
were New York Toronto.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
We had a great duo. We loved Nicholson May and
we had some great sketches. We were hired by Second City,
we were working together. We had a big, strong career
in comedy, so she was quite right to haul me
out of there.
Speaker 2 (07:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I'm finding out more about the penitentiary system in Canada now,
and it's on the surface, it looks organized, But it's not.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
It's disorganized.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
It's a bad world in there, in those places, particularly
the big prisons, where I probably would have ended up
working with you Ba and criminology. And then because I
was a good writer even then with essays and that.
You know, writers own the world, you know that, Alec.
And you know in professional world, in the police world,
the ones who rise up to chief in that are
the writers who could write up reports.
Speaker 1 (07:57):
Right now. The woman that took you to Toronto, what
is her name again.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
Valerie Bromfield, brilliant, wonderful to We had a lot of
fun together.
Speaker 1 (08:04):
You worked with Lorne. You had some interaction with him
when he did Heart and Lorne Terrific Hour. Correct, you
work with him on that show.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
We gave him that two inch videotape.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
He looked at that and he hired us for a
summer special on the Heart and Lauren Terrific Hour called
the Great Canadian Humor Test.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
And that's where you met him.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yes, in sixty nine, that's right, and Lauren saw and
Valerie and I something there and hired us and I
played in that special. I was twenty one at the time,
and I played characters over sixty you know heavily made up.
Speaker 2 (08:36):
Yeah, right, and so there Laurene put us on and
there we were.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
So when you go to it seems eventually you end
up crashing the SNL audition. You say to yourself, I
can't wait in line here. You said, by the time
I do the song, it's not going to be till
seven o'clock at night. You cut the song, you go
in and do a fast routine. Correct.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Well, I said, you know, I'm just gonna scrub the audition.
I'm not here to audition. I'm here to say a
load of Lauren that I knew before before. So I
walked in and I went in and teach the line.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
It's true.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
There was a line as if they were lining up
for a movie tickets source pos event, and so I
walked right up and I just kind of said a
quick ColoAd of Lauren, A quick coloada Davey Wilson. And
I was in the room for no more than a
minute and a half, and I turned around and then
walked out after that, because he knew me from before,
and I said, wow, And they say, going to work.
I was with a friend of mine from Toronto who
(09:29):
had come down with me. And we had a song
in that and I said, this song will die. If
we do this song here, I'm telling you, we will die.
We will never work in show business. We'll be recommended
against by Lorne. And then I got the call. I
was with Candy when I got the call. We were
opening the Second City in Pasadena, California, and Candy and
I had just driven in his Mercury Cougar, his late
(09:50):
seventies Mercury Cougar, all the way across country and so
we made that and then Lauren said, come in for
the final round of edition here. We want to put
you on tape. And I said, well, I got this
job Second City. He said, well, you know, come on in.
We really think we could work something out something like that.
I went, I did the auditions, and then yeah, I
(10:11):
got the words. Some time after that, I was back
home in Canada when I heard.
Speaker 1 (10:16):
I read a quote where you're walking down the street
with Chevy and he's getting assailed by people. They're all
yelling Chevy, Chevy, Chevy. And you said to yourself, I
saw what Chevy was exposed to and thought to myself,
I don't want that.
Speaker 3 (10:28):
Oh no, absolutely, I for sure said I knew. I
didn't want that, and now one of the joys of aging.
I was at a restaurant the other day and the
young woman was, you know, a local student, probably about
twenty two twenty three, no clue who I was not, right,
Thank you, Thank you for that type of anonymity.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I love and I didn't want it.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
And I was sort of, you know, with Chevy there,
enjoying watching him grow and watching his fame and his
talent expand. And you know, he was my biggest fan
at SNL. He was my biggest point. He was him
and o'donnau Right and Lauren as well, of course, but
those two guys lobbied for me heavily, and then Franken
and Davis as well. I highly recommend the new SNL movie.
(11:10):
It plays like a suspense film, does it really?
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Well?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Yeah, because they didn't know where where they were really
going to go on the air at at eleven thirty,
and you know, I remember just kind of being down
among in the bleachers and before I was supposed to
go on in the home Security sketch with Garrett, and
I was just thinking, well, you know, maybe this works,
maybe it doesn't, Maybe we go on, maybe we don't.
But you know, I saw a good price on a
(11:34):
nice big snowplow up there where I could get some contracts.
And you know, I've got some sand on my property.
Speaker 2 (11:41):
I have actually a commercial.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Level grade of sand and a load on my property
up here, and those contracts pay very very well.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
You like living up there, huh?
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I love it? I love it well. I'm here only
part of the year.
Speaker 3 (11:54):
I'm here mostly in the summers, and then go to
Massachusetts and then I've got a home in the US
Virgin Island, or my partner as a home there that
I bunk in with her and our two kids. But
you see, with the snowplow, I'm serious, I would have
gone back because I would have had no career if
I didn't get into SNL none. I couldn't go back
to Second City. I wasn't going to go back to Toronto.
(12:14):
I was looking for those county contracts, you know, where
you're selling tons and tons and then you have a
fleet of trucks. And believe me, you know, I have
a friend up here who is the wealthiest guy in
the county, and it's because he builds all the cement
barriers for the highways. He has a car collection of
two hundred and he's really an archetype. He's a spectacular
human being, and he made his living with his hands,
(12:37):
you know. So that's where I would have been headed.
But I'm glad the rote that my life took and
I loved working at SNL. I'm so grateful for having
had a career in film and for all the things
I'm getting to do now.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Well, in four years goes by. You're there seventy five
through seventy nine, and then after four years you leave.
And there are some people in the business who you know.
You look at them and you say, you're doing a series,
let's say, and getting paid a lot of money. And
I'll tell some of my friends, I say, you ride
that horse till it drops, you know what I mean.
They're never going to have that good again. Whereas for you,
(13:11):
who win an Emmy for writing, You're one of the
stars of the show, and everybody admires you. Everybody just
is crazy about your talent. When you leave, was that
your decision? Did you decide it was diminishing returns, there
was no reason to stay any longer.
Speaker 3 (13:27):
No, In fact, it was because Blues Brothers spilled over
a couple of months in Chicago, and we couldn't go
back to work, and we saw that we would have
to be with Blues Brothers, you know, getting it through
post production and all the things that needed to be
done to get it released, publicized and all that. So
we couldn't go back because we couldn't do both. But
we did the movie, and we knew we couldn't commit
(13:50):
to SNL, and we were both ready to kind of
go in a way. But had Blues Brothers not existed,
had I not written that, or had Judy and John
and I not conceived that or originated that, I probably
would have done another couple of years, if not more,
at SNL. You know, it's video commando time. You know
how hard it is. You're almost a cast member yourself.
(14:10):
But I did enjoy it, and I could could have
done another couple of years there, I think, right.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Come seventy six, you do Love at First Sight. Come
seventy nine, it's mister Mike's Mondo video. And then you
do nineteen forty one, you're out of there. And then
you proceed from nineteen eighty on, from Blues Brothers on
to make a hell of a lot of movies, a
hell of a lot of movies. Did you settle into
a place eventually where the movies were home? This is
(14:36):
what you preferred was making films?
Speaker 3 (14:39):
Well, I liked playing different roles, and of course a
lot of those movies, you know, I was really only
played the principal lead in about thirty if you could
check and see that. So the others were guest shots
or like Indiana Jones and a Temple of doom.
Speaker 2 (14:53):
Who wouldn't want to work for Lucas and Spielberg.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
So I talked my way into that one, right, And
then there were some that I conceived of, I wrote,
I think I I had eight screenplays made in the eighties,
and wow, even today, I think people will be happy
with that that record. Some of them, you know, they
were just neat roles and opportunities to travel and work
with different directors, and I did enjoy it.
Speaker 2 (15:13):
But my real home heart for work.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
And as you speak of it, is the writing part
of it. I love writing more than anything. You're left alone,
you know, you do three hours in the morning you write,
I need to have lunch, and then three hours in
the afternoon, go pick up a kid from school and
write at night, and after nine hours you come out
with seven pages and then you're you're moving on so
and you you know, it's just your own devices, the air,
(15:37):
the air around you, and your mind and a blank
screen or a blank piece of paper. That's really what
I'd like to be doing more of and always did enjoy.
Speaker 2 (15:46):
But I did like playing the roles.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
I got to work with so many great people like
Robbie Williams, Robbie Coltrane and Terry Davis, the terrific director.
We worked on House of Mirth. I wor got to
work with Gillian Anderson and Laura Lenny and Anthony Naplaglia
and film, so of course I'm going to take parts
like that. It was more driven by wanting to work
with these great actors and we did some really good
(16:08):
work together. I got, you know, Driving This Days. I
got to work with Jessica and Morgan and that was
a beautiful five star release.
Speaker 1 (16:14):
And you got nominated for that film.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Yes, sir, best supporting alongside Peter O'Toole and Marlon Brando.
They were best supporting and Denzel. Of course, we all
knew that Denzel would get it. So that I had
the most relaxed and wonderful night at the Oscars that
year because I knew that I didn't have to make
a speech.
Speaker 2 (16:33):
I wasn't gonna win.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
It was going to be Denzel's performance in Glory in Glory,
but then Daisy won Best Actress for Jessica and Best
Picture of that year, and so you know, Morgan and I,
even though we were both dominated, we were you know, we
were thrilled for them and for everybody else in the room.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Musician, writer and actor dan Ackroyd. If you and conversations
with the incredible minds behind Saturday Night Live, check out
my episode with Lorne Michaels. When it's over, describe how
you feel after the very first show.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
I was the same way then that I am now.
I only see the mistakes, and I tend to wear
that up until about the second drink at the party.
Even last week's show takes me really through midway through Sunday.
Speaker 2 (17:24):
Just take me a couple of days. I can get
over it now in a day.
Speaker 5 (17:27):
Because you're always hoping that everything's gonna work the way
you were hoping it was gonna work.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
To hear more of my conversation with Lornemichaels, go to
Here's the Thing dot Org. After the Break, dan Ackroyd
shares how he came to play music professionally on stage
with the godfather of soul himself, James Brown. I'm Alec
(18:02):
Baldwin and you're listening to Here's the Thing. Dan Ackroyd
is known for his iconic roles as Bell dar Conehead
and one half of The Two Wild and Crazy Guys
with Steve Martin, but his dramatic work is not to
be dismissed. You may have seen him in My Girl,
House of Mirth or his Oscar nominated role in Driving
(18:24):
Miss Daisy, directed by Bruce Beresford. I wanted to know
what he appreciated the most about the direction on Driving
Miss Daisy.
Speaker 3 (18:34):
I loved Bruce's thoughtful way he took the actor through
the process.
Speaker 2 (18:39):
That was beautiful.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
You know, I can also work with someone who is
say it faster, say it's slower. You know, let me
give you a reading there, no problem, just tell me
what notes to play.
Speaker 2 (18:50):
But I like it spare. I kind of like that. Yeah,
do it faster, do it slower.
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Just the mechanics of it and where I'm left for
my own devices.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
When you leave the show, and you go make movies.
Music is a big influences. The Blues Brothers of this
is a huge hit for you, we get into House
of Blues for you and your you know, your music
cred is significant. Did the Blues Brothers contain everything you
had to display musically? Did you want to do something
other than that? Because that was like a sketch that
(19:21):
became a music act Did you ever want to sing
on Broadway?
Speaker 3 (19:25):
You know, we became Elwood and Jake because we were actors.
We had written scenes, sketches, and we had written this movie,
and so as actors we had to be musicians and
dancers and vocalists. So that's where we learned sort of
how to pull it off. I've always said that John
and I were great frontmen, with the real talent being
(19:45):
in the backup line behind us. And that's what Jimmy
and I are today. Brother Zee and myself.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
We do go out.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
I've got a concert next week. We play all the time.
We have a great R and B band and one
of the top R and B reviews in the world.
Speaker 1 (19:59):
And you enjoyed that.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Oh my god, I think now if I can't be writing,
I think that's what I like to be doing most.
So yeah, so I had to kind of perfect well
not pfoult. Still learning on the harmonica, but I did
play on all the records, that's all.
Speaker 2 (20:12):
That's all me there for more or less.
Speaker 3 (20:14):
And on the movie I played, and so I learned
the harp as an actor being a harmonica player and
then a dancer and a vocalist.
Speaker 2 (20:21):
But it stayed with me.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Of course, we did open House of Blues, and I
got to jam on stage with James Brown five times.
He opened five of them with me. I got to
sing with him, I got to be good friends with him.
I got to jam with Little Richard in Chicago, got
to sing with his section, and jam with and so
many other great artists. Had a great time there. House
of Blues of course, still going in eleven cities. It's
(20:43):
owned by Live Nation now. It is a beautiful place.
If you've never been, you know, they've got millions of
dollars worth of folk art and incredible to Louisiana menu.
And I'm a consultant, so I do brag on it
a few times, but so coming to it as an actor,
still doing it, and I don't think I'm gonna play
guitar or oregon. I don't think I have that talent.
(21:03):
I have minimal talent that gets me by. It's the
strength of my backup line and my people behind me
who really pull off the act. So we're ludic ridiculous
front men. You know, Cab Calloway and Mononi Harris. We
take from them. They used humor to kind of lead
the band, and that's what John and I did and
what Jimmy and I do, and you know it still works.
Nobody goes away unhappy because we do songs no one's
(21:25):
doing anymore, Junior Parker songs and Lowell Fulson songs and
people you've never heard of, but boy do they swing.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I envy you.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
I envy you.
Speaker 1 (21:34):
That sounds like so much fun. But you never thought
of Broadway because you're such, You've done live, You've got
the stamina, fort you've got the strength for it, and
the power forth. There's so many great roles over the years.
I can think of you for you to have played
decade after decade, but you never did a Broadway show,
did you?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
No?
Speaker 3 (21:52):
But I love the form and I love seeing great performers.
And Patty LuPone I got to know on driving Miss Daisy.
I try to see everything that she's in, so I
do love watching it. But Alec, I just don't have
the time to do Broadway. But I love the Forum,
and I admire those performers, and I've thrilled when I
can sit in a New York Broadway theater as it
(22:12):
can only do in New York City.
Speaker 1 (22:14):
Now, the Best Supporting Actor, the winner, as you mentioned,
was Denzel and it's you, Danny Iello and Do the
Right Thing, brandawin Drywhite Season and Marty Landau and Crimes
and Misdemeanors. I mean, I can't believe the fucking company
that you're in here. I mean, you were nominating for
Best Supporting Actor with these guys who are like the
(22:35):
giants of acting.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
I worship Marty.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Landau worshiped, and I think Danny Iyello Do the Right
Thing is one of the twenty five greatest movies in
history as far as I'm concerned. Oh, and there you
are with these guys. Did that make you feel different
about movie acting? Did you want to pursue straight acting
and more or comedy was always where you were more comfortable.
Speaker 3 (22:53):
Well, comedy's much harder than straight acting. Point because you
got to keep that ping pong ball above the red lion.
In comedy, you know, straight acting, you can lay back
a little bit. Yes, I was confused when I said
Peter O'Toole because he was in a movie that I
made with Stephen Frye.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
And again, thanks, I'm going to turn down that. No,
I'm going to Stephen Frye.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
It was called Bright Young Things, Vile Bodies, Bright Young Things,
it was called and O'Toole was in that. So I
was in a movie with O'Toole, even though we didn't
act together. I love the community. And of course that night,
as I say, I was so relaxed because I looked
at these other names and thought, nice to have the nomination,
but I'm not going to clinch this one tonight. So
I was so relaxed. And then I knew Denzel. I
(23:32):
think we all did that scene in Glory. Those scenes
were spectacular, and I got to give him a hug
and meet his mom. So no, I look, I'm nothing
but grateful for having been able to work in this
community and be with all the people that I have
worked with and just enjoyed it so so much, and
it's something I don't do too much anymore, and that's fine,
(23:52):
but I do really love the community. And of course
to have been nominated in that company, as you say,
as I look back on it, now, wow, that is impressive.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
Well, I have you in a category with a few others,
but not many for sure that you can do anything.
You can do anything. You can do drama, you can
do comedy, you can do very subtle quiet comedy. You
can do your throwing the bass into the blender. You
can do stuff that's sicill, outrageous and nutty, you know.
I mean, you can play in every key. And when
(24:21):
I see in your work is I see someone who
Then in terms of that, you decide to get off
on a little detour here and take a little service
road here into sales and products that you manufacture and sell.
Describe your forays into the alcohol beverage business.
Speaker 3 (24:39):
Well, we started with I don't know if you know
the brilliant entrepreneurs, JP Dujoria, Paul Mitchell, Hair Systems is
this company, and Patron Tequila. I live with a sober
partner for five years now. She's been sober, so I'm
spending a lot less on wine. I've saved tens of
thousands of dollars in wine. So I drink a lot less.
But I'm fortunate in that I can moderately drink alcohol,
(25:02):
and in moderation I don't have a problem.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
I don't over abuse it. I can go for.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Days without it or weeks if necessary. And I don't
have a jones there, which enables me to sell honestly
and truly. So we have a beautiful home that my
ancestors settled it two hundred years ago on the farm there,
and it happens to be on a cliff on a lake,
and I have this dock there, and then there's the
whole culture of stopping by for sunset drinks. And I
(25:27):
like tequila to make a nice sunset drink with a tequila,
you know, margarita, and we could only get in Canada,
if you can believe this, we can only get two
brands of tequila.
Speaker 2 (25:37):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Now there are hundreds out there. So I went to
my friend JP owned Patron Tequila. We were at the
House of Blues bar in Los Angeles, and he said,
have you try this this tequila, And of course I'd
only tried the two brands in Canada. He poured me
a beautiful smoky, silky, satiny shot of Patron and I said, JP,
how can I get this up to my little government
liquor store up there in Canada. I'll bring a few
(26:00):
cases for the summer. He said, well, Dan, you'd have
to bring it to the whole country. I said, well, okay,
let's do that. So he appointed me the importing agent
for Patron Tequila and we grew that across Canada into
the number one luxury brand. It still commands lots of
luxury sales up. It was bought by Baccardy there a
while back, so I'm out of it now, but that
taught me the business. So that's where it started. And
(26:21):
then I started to look at vodka. And I started
to open vodka bottles up and they either smelled like
Chanelle number five or they were there was no smell,
or were they tasted like a cat's tongue.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
And I don't men mention other brands. I thought, what's
going on here?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Why do these vodkas either taste like nothing or they
taste bad? And I come to find out that many
alcoholic beverages add three fusel oils. They add glycerine, and
they add lemonine, and they added more sugar to mask
the alcohol smell, mask the alcohol taste, make it taste
like either nothing or be odorless. And I thought, well,
(26:55):
what fun is that in a cocktail? So we devised
with John Alexander full Package, which is our skull. Crystal
Head Vodka's the name of it. We're in seventy eight countries.
We've sold millions of bottles, and we have the skull
made by Johnny. And when I saw the skull, I
just went, I know what to put in this. He
designed it, just drew it up one night at his
(27:16):
place there and he said he always thought that a
skull would make a good tequila vessel, which it would.
And we went ahead and did a vodka because I thought,
beautiful skull. You can't put a polluted substance in that
beautiful bottle. So I took all the oils out. Are
vodka has no additives, no glycer and no sugar, no lemonine.
Bartenders love it and that's why we've been able to
(27:36):
sell so well and be still alive in a very
very competitive market because we're stripped down. We're a pure spirit,
and we have notes vanilla and ease peppercorn.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
We've won metals all over the world.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Where do they manufacture the crystal heads?
Speaker 3 (27:50):
We have two lines of glass. We have a line
of glass in France and we have a line of
glass in Italy.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
And you know what, we're having fun.
Speaker 3 (27:57):
And what's fun is things like going down to Pennsylvania,
getting right in there, into the warehouse, and I signed
a thousand bottles there the other day, roughly close to that,
and met some really really great people who move the
product who are down there. And boy, do I get
a sense of where a country's at or where a
society's at when I get down into where real labor
(28:20):
is being done by people who do this work. Because
it's all about family and so the people in the warehouse,
I met the PCLB board the other day, the salespeople
that I'm working with. It's just great to see people
who are doing real work in an age where a
lot of young people now don't want to work. They
want it instantly. Actor and comedian Dan Ackroyd. If you're
(28:47):
enjoying this conversation, tell a friend I'd be sure to follow.
Here's the thing on the iHeartRadio.
Speaker 1 (28:53):
App, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. When we
come Back. Royd reflects on the passing of his close
friend and writing partner John Belushey, I'm Alec Baldwin, and
(29:14):
you were listening to Here's the thing. Dan Ackroyd grew
up in Ottawa, Canada, in a rather unusual home, so
much so that it inspired his father to write the
book A History of Ghosts, The True Story of Seances, Mediums,
Ghosts and Ghostbusters, which chronicles the family's interactions with the beyond.
(29:37):
I wanted to know if Ackroyd's upbringing an exposure to
the paranormal was influential in the conception of the movie Ghostbusters.
Speaker 3 (29:47):
Oh sure, yes, my great grandfather Sam, who's profiled in
the book. It's called History of Ghosts. It's more about
trance mediumship. But yes, my great grandfather Sam. He was
a dentist and he was also kind of the local
reviewer of are normal acts that would come through the
town of Kingston in the late turn of the century
and then in the nineteen twenties. And in the book,
(30:08):
of course, we mentioned the Fox Sisters and the Bang
Sisters who were precipitated painters, and the Campbell brothers. They
were precipitated painters. They would sit in front of the
canvas about maybe a foot away and wiggle their fingers
and an image would appear on the canvas. So is
it a hoax? What's going on? Who's painting in behind it?
My great grandfather, they weren't hoaxes. Those two, those four
(30:30):
siblings were true phenomena. And my grandfather was kind of
the vetter in town here. He was kind of he'd
see what was real and what wasn't. Levitators seances, and
that he would have saoss himself.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
We had a family medium.
Speaker 3 (30:43):
So I grew up in summers in this old farmhouse
where they had these seances, and they had journals from
the American Society Psychical Research lying around and Fate magazine,
and you know other cottages had McLean's and Look magazine
and Colliers in these and we had all psychic books there,
which I it. From eight years old. I was reading
this stuff. And so essentially the Acroids are spiritualists. That's
(31:06):
my religion. If you wanted to pegny with a religion.
We are spiritualists. We believe not only that the spirit
and the soul and the energy, the atomic energy of
the soul survives after death. We believe the consciousness and
identity of the being survives to reach back and communicate
with us here. And I don't know if you remember
John Edwards on CBS. He was a very talented medium,
(31:29):
and there are many others.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Who do it well.
Speaker 3 (31:32):
So History of ghost talks all about it. But I
believe the consciousness and the identity survive and you can
reach them. They touched back sometimes to help us, and
so that's my belief.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
So yes, I grew up with all of that and was.
Speaker 3 (31:45):
In the old farmhouse one afternoon reading a journal about
quantum physics and paranor own researching, and I thought, well,
let's do an old style ghost comedy. Abbot Costello, Bing Crosby,
Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Bowery Boys, they all did a
ghosted and I thought, we'll do We'll get some of
the guys together, We'll do a ghost comedy. But it
will be based in the you know, in the real
(32:06):
vernacular of the real science taking. And Harold was not
a believer. Harold Ramis my co writer on Ghostbusters, not
a believer at all. But he knew all about my
monodes dream lab, the research at Duke University, all of
the research William Roll and the cards.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
That's where that comes from.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Billy with the cards, the Star of the Cross that
was from the research was doing it being done at
Deane Mercy in the paranormal department Allos. Yeah, he knew
all about you know, Zachariah Sitchen and the Sumerian gods,
so he was well versed in that. So we came
to write that he had a great body of knowledge there,
and of course I had my spiritualist side, and that's
how it all came about. The first mention of ghostbusters
(32:43):
in film in America is in a movie called Scared Stiff.
I think it's with Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis and
the woman asks Dean Martin at one point, well what
are you guys, and he says, we're ghostbusters.
Speaker 2 (32:57):
So of course I remember that and that helped to
put the title to it.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
I love Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis in that movie,
just aside from the paranormal reference. Jerry Lewis basically he
runs down these stairs in this old castle in a
piece of physical comedy and dexterity. That is that Buster
Keaton would be proud of. Just mind blowing that piece
of physical business. So yeah, there were a lot of
(33:21):
precedents for ghost movies, and I just said, let's do
one and use the real science and make these guys
paranormal investigators, the three of us, Spangler, Stance and Venkman
and Zetemoa.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
And you wanted Belushi to play Vankman. He was your
original cast from Veankman.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
Yeah, I was writing a line for him when I
heard that he died, you know. And I was at
one fifty fifth Avenue in our offices, and I was
at the typewriter and I was in the middle of
a line. And then Bernie was on the phone there,
my agent, and he told me what had happened. And
I ran down the fifth Avenue to Judy's to get
to her before she heard it on the media. And
(33:59):
I passed a new star in the truck, just like
in an old movie. They dropped the wire bound headlines,
and there it was Belushi dead at thirty three, and
I had to tell her and that was you know,
And now Judy is with him. I am hoping conjoined
with their energies twirling in the afterlife or wherever we
do go.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
We just lost her.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
And now she's been and terred near John, and she
had to say goodbye to him too early. But now
their spirits are joined, and that gives me some comfort
because of my belief.
Speaker 1 (34:28):
Now do you think that was johnsone who everyone who
was important in his life? They were kind of holding
their breath. They thought that something like this might happen.
Did you worry, as his dear friend, that this is
something like this was possible?
Speaker 3 (34:40):
Well, once cocaine came into the picture, which it did
so heavily in the seventies. There the cocaine that we
flushed down the toilet, hid from him, took from him.
We tried to stop the dealers from getting to him
once that came in and he once he enjoyed that,
and he enjoyed it, he did.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
That's where it turned.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
That's where we became really really worried when the powders
came in there. And of course they were pills to supplement,
you know, to get to sleep and wake up in
the morning. So it was pharmaceuticals that killed them, no
doubt over the long term. And then of course by
that bad episode at the Marmont where the woman hit
him up with a speedball, which was a heroin cocaine combination. No,
he was a smoker, so his lungs were a bit weak.
(35:17):
He'd been drinking. I know that she did not want
to kill him anymore than I did, and she did
some time for it, and I'm sure she regrets it
for the rest of her life.
Speaker 2 (35:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
Now, what about UFOs when you're talking about because I
literally I was telling my producers on my show that
I saw a UFO. I was laying on a dock
on a lake in upstate New York. And as we
were laying there, myself, my daughter, a couple of my nieces,
a friend of theirs, and all of a sudden, right
over us, I see something that literally resembles in its
(35:48):
dimensions a stop light. It's a black brick like you
know two thousand and one and Onnitor three large green
lights that resemble a stop light. And literally, as were
laying down, the thing moves over us. And as it
gets in our vicinity, it's like maybe fifty feet in
the air, it's not that high up, and the sun's
(36:09):
almost down now, and the lights go on. You literally
feel and the green lights light up over us, and
it moves very slowly over us and then it passes us,
the lights go out and it takes off and goes
shooting into space.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
I saw this. I believe you.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
That is a spectacular sighting.
Speaker 2 (36:28):
Yeah. And the dimension of it.
Speaker 1 (36:30):
I would have to guess that the body of the
object of the spacecraft was probably from what I could
tell from where I was, it was probably fifty feet
by twenty feet across or something, you know, length wise
fifty and the green lights come on and then they
go off.
Speaker 3 (36:48):
That is a spectacular Alec that's a spectacular sighting.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
In Ireland saw that as well.
Speaker 1 (36:53):
No one would admit to seeing it. They were afraid
to admit they saw it.
Speaker 3 (36:59):
Okay, well I did see that is a spectacular sighting.
I totally believe you. I've had people talk to me
about orbs, triangles, deltas. I've seen four of them myself,
vivid on ambiguous sighting. No question that this is hyperadvanced
technology operated by intelligent beings that are not from this Earth,
or this is not earthly manufacturer. We don't know about it.
(37:22):
There's nothing on the Earth that could do what the
objects that I saw did. There was a young Soviet
scientist named Nikolai Kardashev, and there was a meeting I
believe in this in the seventies over there at one
of the space centers, and he proposed a tier model
for three types of civilization. Type one has harnessed everything
on their home planet, all of the energy on their
(37:43):
home planet.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
That's a type one civilization.
Speaker 3 (37:45):
Type two have harnessed all of the energy in their
solar system. Type three have harnessed all of the energy
in their galaxy. So what if a type three individual
approached you and said, we're here now and we want
you to operate for us on this planet. I've just
written a book with that premise because I've seen four
(38:06):
and it inspired me to write this book about if
you had to have contact, willingly or unwillingly with such
a powerful group of beings, what would you do? So
these things they've been coming going like taxis for centuries.
One of the British Aerospace a minister there, Lord hill Norton.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
I believe he.
Speaker 3 (38:24):
Said the twenty three different species and twenty three different
types of creatures had crossed his desk in intelligence briefings.
My theory is that they're tourists and this is such
a beautiful planet they come by to take a look.
You can look on your search engine sting ray UFOs
and you'll get pictures of these basically two seaters. So
I can see somewhere in another dimension or galax or
(38:46):
a planet, a couple with one of these in their
driveway or garage on another planet or galaxy saying let's
go down to Earth for a few hours.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
It's a tourist thing. Now, there are some great books.
Speaker 3 (38:57):
There's one called UFO, The Governments for Extraterrestrials Here and
out There by Garrett Graff Graff Garrett Graff UFO. That's
a great book than Lewis Alexandro's book Imminent. He worked
for the Pentagon, so did Chris Mellon his sponsor over there,
and Alexando who did work for the Defense Department and
has written this great book Imminent Debt. He believes that
this is a threat that because of their interference with
(39:20):
nuclear weapons over the years on our planet in multiple bases,
that they know about our nuclear capabilities and they don't
like them so much, and that they could shut down
all of our weapons basically with the hit of a
button and neutralize any defense that we have so they
believe Chris Mellan and Lewis Alessando that the Defense Department
(39:40):
should be more alert. And right now there is an
office open for military and even civilians to report. It's
the All Domain Anomaly a resolution office, so anomaly and
all domain meaning water and on air, So that exists
in the Pentagon. Now they're very seriously interested in this subject.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
One last question. You look at the show, you look
at them coming to fifty years. This season is the
fiftieth season, and obviously one couldn't have a perspective where
you could predict fifty seasons back in nineteen seventy five
when you started. Does it surprise you that it's gone
on for fifty years?
Speaker 3 (40:22):
I guess a little bit. It's surprising, and any venture
other than soap operas for something to go on that
long in television and television venture maybe right Coronation Street,
you know, or about Days of Our Lives. But an
executive told Lauren a few years ago said, this is
like the Today Show. This is an institution and it's
never going away. And well, Lauren was gone from it
(40:45):
for a while, but then, of course it's his guiding
hand and his sensibilities that make it what it is.
It could clunk along without him, but I don't think
it would be what it is now, and I don't
think it would endure another ten years without him.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
In the years I've gotten to know him. On one level,
Lauren was somebody who knew how to handle different regimes
of executives in NBC television, to teach them the fact
that whatever you replaced my show with is going to
lose money. LIKESNL may not be monetizing the timeslot as
much as you'd like. And there are people who I
know for a fact they view that as a pelt.
(41:22):
They view that as a scalp. They wanted to prove
their acumen as broadcast executives, and one of the things
they wanted to do was to kill and euthanize SNL
and bring on the next great thing that could tickets place.
And Louren has lasted for fifty years because he's taught
them all that that's a mistake. You know, this show
it's always going to make money.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
It sure would be a mistake.
Speaker 3 (41:43):
And more importantly, it is the most effective and high
quality political satirical.
Speaker 2 (41:51):
Organ in the country and we need it.
Speaker 3 (41:54):
And also the intelligence of the writing has always been
very high. Anything that would come after its going to
definitely be few notches below and it'll never be what
that is.
Speaker 2 (42:03):
So here's too, hopefully as.
Speaker 3 (42:06):
Long as Lauren wants to do it, and then even
beyond developing new talent that comes up. I've mean, I
agree with the executive to toll Lauren, this is like
the Tonight Show, this is like the Today Show, Saturday
Night Live.
Speaker 2 (42:17):
We'll never go off NBC. We will have it forever.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Now, are you going to make any movies? You got
any movies coming up?
Speaker 3 (42:22):
I don't think I see anything on the horizon. I'm
going to do some of these concerts with Jimmy, I'm
going to work on the brand and we're doing some
kind of a relaunch. We've all all new expressions coming out.
I'm going to go work on the road as a
humble beverage alcohol salesman happily. So I'm going to concentrate
on trying to see my family as much as possible,
(42:44):
all the members in the various scattered parts of the
world they are at.
Speaker 2 (42:48):
And of course I have written this.
Speaker 3 (42:50):
Book that deals with what I was speaking about before
with the UAP phenomenon. It would have to be a
very special director or actor to approach me. You know,
if Spielberg says, hey, we're doing a UFO movie. We
want you to play an abductee or a general in
the Air Force, well I would be there.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Thank you so much for doing this meeting my friend.
Speaker 2 (43:12):
I will see you at the fiftieth I assume yes,
I'll see you in February. Thank you, Alec.
Speaker 1 (43:20):
My thanks to dan Aykroyd. Here's the Thing Is recorded
at CDM Studios. This episode was produced by Kathleen Russo,
Zach MacNeice, and Maureen Hobin. Our engineer is Frank Imperial.
Our social media manager is Danielle Gingrich. I'm Alec Baldwin.
Here's the Thing is brought to you by iHeart Radio.
Host
Alec Baldwin
Popular Podcasts
Good Game with Sarah Spain
Good Game is your one-stop shop for the biggest stories in women’s sports. Every day, host Sarah Spain gives you the stories, stakes, stars and stats to keep up with your favorite women’s teams, leagues and athletes. Through thoughtful insight, witty banter, and an all around good time, Sarah and friends break down the latest news, talk about the games you can’t miss, and debate the issues of the day. Don’t miss interviews with the people of the moment, whether they be athletes, coaches, reporters, or celebrity fans.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Crime Junkie
If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people.