‘Isn’t that special?’ Dana Carvey joins WTOP to talk ‘Church Lady’ to ‘Wayne’s World,’ Biden to Trump
Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.”
His “Saturday Night Live” co-star Kevin Nealon “pumped us up” at the D.C. Comedy Loft over the weekend.
Now, the Hans to his Franz keeps the “flabalanche” rolling as the inimitable Dana Carvey brings his comedy genius to the Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races on Sept. 23 — live from West Virginia, it’s Saturday night!
“That’s a funny idea, [Franz saying]: ‘Oh, no, sorry, Hans, I came first!” Carvey told WTOP. “I love the name of this place: Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. I heard that on stage, the horse races kind of filter through the window.” Carvey imitated a rapid-fire horse-race announcer: “They’ll take odds on me to see who I’ll do when!”
Wagering on his next funny voice is tricky as he has so many famous “SNL” characters to choose from.
“I do versions of my hits,” Carvey said. “Church Lady [is] always fun to do because passive aggressiveness is a fun attitude: ‘We like ourselves, don’t we, Jason? We put on our little microphone, interviewing Mr. Comedian! Well, isn’t that special?’ … Obviously, Garth [from ‘Wayne’s World’] is dear to my heart. As Dennis Miller would say, ‘That character bought you a farm.'” In Garth’s voice, Carvey quipped: “The most important thing is to party on.”
It’s a good bet that you’ll hear his aforementioned Arnold Schwarzenegger spoof, Hans and Franz.
“They were Arnold’s crazy cousins, and they were paranoid, dysfunctional and maybe not too bright, and they would threaten imaginary enemies,” Carvey said. “My favorite line of theirs was: ‘Your buttocks are like marshmallows. You’re lucky I don’t have a campfire here.’ So if you ‘unpack’ that, which is a favorite word of mine, are they threatening to light this guy’s ass on fire? They were really fun to do, and I still love doing them.”
You might even hear some musical performances like his wonderfully ridiculous “Choppin’ Broccoli.”
“‘Choppin’ Broccoli,’ maybe I’ll do that a cappella,” Carvey said. “I’ll do 10-minute versions of that sometimes [and] let the audience sing. Things that are inexplicable, that should have no right to be funny or remembered — it’s a crime against comedy and humanity. Nobody knows why it’s funny therefore, it’s like trying to catch the wind. It’s the only reason that people will be happy to hear it because they have no real reason why it’s funny.”
Who can forget his iconic impersonation of former President George H.W. Bush? “Not…gonna…do it.”
“I have a lot of fun with that,” Carvey said. “Sometimes I do George Bush Sr. going off the high dive, creeping up on the stage, looking down, ‘Gotta do it, gotta do it…not gonna do it,’ then he backs off! I do tell the story of our friendship. That was a thrill to take somebody who everybody thought there’s nothing there and it took a while to extrapolate. … Just a hell of a guy and had a great sense of humor. All he wanted me to do was Ross Perot.”
These days, he’s working on perfecting timelier impersonations of more recent presidents.
“My latest with Trump is that [Ron] DeSantis said he went ‘woke,’ so I thought if Trump went woke, he would be the most woke guy ever, right? ‘We’re gonna have the most diverse cabinet like you wouldn’t believe,'” Carvey said. “The whisper to the yell is my new favorite toy with Biden: ‘The rich aren’t paying their fair share. You’ve gotta pay your fair share! Sharon Stone, Stone Temple Pilots, Sonny Liston, ‘Match Game,’ I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!'”
OK, let’s face it, transcribing these impersonations into text quotes simply doesn’t do it justice.
Just watch the zany Zoom video above or listen to the full podcast at the link below.
Whatever you do, WTOP listeners, just remember: We’re not worthy!
Hear our full chat on my podcast “Beyond the Fame with Jason Fraley.”