-Is it true -- you talked about driving across country
listening to music, listening to the radio.
You back in the day wanted to be a deejay?
This is one of your childhood dreams?
-Yeah, childhood. -Yeah.
-And childish. -Yeah, yeah.
[ Laughter ] -But there was one guy
I was hooked on every night,
and, plus, we got to listen to old-time radio dramas, too.
-Yeah. -When I was a kid,
and anything coming over the radio I love.
But, yeah, there was something about one guy
talking to you in the night.
And that's what I want-- up until I was about in college,
I thought maybe I can pull this off.
-And when did you realize that the door had shut on this dream?
[ Laughter ] -It has?
-Yeah, I mean. [ Laughter ]
It's all right. [ Audience aws ]
I mean, I can probably get you a podcast.
-Right now, this is from 1963, and we're coming in --
-That would have been really good.
-Yeah.
-Do you want to try a little bit more?
-No. -Okay.
[ Laughter ]
"The Conners" -- you have some exciting guest stars
coming up -- Katey Sagal.
-Katey Sagal is -- could be a possible girlfriend.
We don't know yet. -Yeah.
-And Danny Aykroyd was on the other day.
-That's fantastic. -Played at a poker game,
and he wrote his lines. [ Laughs ]
So it was just, "Hang on.
What's Danny gonna do?" -Yeah.
[ Laughter ] So, now, I would imagine
most guest stars on the show are not given the right
or encouraged to write their own lines,
but Dan Aykroyd, obviously, a different deal?
-Yeah, yeah.
They let him go, and it was pretty good.
-That's fantastic. So, when --
so, you and Danny had obviously worked together before...
-Yeah.
-...doing "Blues Brothers" stuff.
When is the last time you had worked together with him?
-Oh... -Before this.
-Doing "SNL." -Okay, gotcha.
-But I think it was still in the '90s or -- no, it was 2002.
-Yeah.
Yup, you guys are dressed up like postmen.
-Yeah. -In the monologue.
-To that show. -I was there. So, yeah.
-[ Whistling ] [ Laughter ]
-No, no, no. -During -- During "Update."
-You -- what was it like the first time you met Dan?
Do you remember meeting Dan Aykroyd for the first time?
-Yeah, I do. I was drunk.
-Okay. [ Laughter ]
-No, the first time I met him was backstage at the Oscars,
and I got lubricated... -Uh-huh.
-...and made an ass out of myself.
But after that, I was consciously trying to get hired
on the "Blues Brothers" sequel in any capacity.
-Yeah. -And we got to know each other,
and I think we had a good time.
-He's one of those people --
I don't know, if this the case --
when you first met him, I mean, you know,
anybody looks up to him
because of how we first laid eyes on him.
-Yeah.
-On those iconic first years of the show.
He's so gracious and kind about the things that you have done.
I find it hard to -- -Yeah.
-It's very to hard to compliment Dan Aykroyd
without him turning it around
and saying something nice about somebody.
-Which he still does. -Yeah.
-Which drives me nuts 'cause, like, "I didn't do --
yeah, but you, man, you're so great."
[ Laughter ] He -- you know,
first time you lay eyes on him, the guy's a force of nature.
-Yeah.
-And it -- equally -- equally gracious.
-Yeah, he's a wonderful guy. -Yeah.
-That's very nice that you got to do it.
And, obviously, two different styles of show.
You're doing "The Conners" in front of a studio audience.
You're doing "Gemstones" --
you're shooting that like a movie.
-People will come and see it. -What's that? [ Laughs ]
-We let -- I'll charge them 5 bucks a head.
[ Laughter ] -Do you -- Do you like
being able to do both at the same time?
-Yeah, I do. -Yeah.
-It's a -- It's a stretch, and it's -- it's just
because it's so different, you don't get bored too easily.
-Yeah. Is it --
-Never mind. [ Laughter ]
-You have -- coming from like a theater background,
is it still fun to do stuff in front of a live audience?
Do you like that feeling? -It is.
They really overhype these audiences these days.
[ Laughter ] -Yeah. Well, certainly ---
-You don't want to -- -Yeah.
[ Cheers and applause ]
-But on a sitcom... -Yeah.
-...on a sitcom particularly. Yeah.
-You're not going to be able to time any --
any jokes.
[ Laughter ]
-That's true. So, I guess at that point, yeah,
you're just trying to get them out and --
-Whooooo. [ Laughter ]
-I guess -- -Awwwwww!
-And that never happened to you on Broadway?
You were never getting those reactions?
-I had a guy -- I did a Broadway show
a couple years ago,
and the date -- the night before we opened,
they let people in the front row.
This guy says, "I love you, John Goodman."
[ Laughter ]
"I love you, John Goodman." [ Laughter ]
-Wait -- -And they had --
they had drinks on the stage.
-Oh, my God. -Yeah.
-Wait, so this is the beginning of the play
he's saying, "I love you, John Goodman?"
-Yeah, yeah. -Wow.
-Yeah. -And that is -- that's --
I mean, that's definition breaking the fourth wall.
-Yeah. "I would like to breaking his fourth neck."
[ Laughter ]
-How do you get through something like that?
-You just do it -- look at the other guys onstage,
and -- and they can see you're panicked.
[ Laughter ] We got through it.
It seemed like it was an hour long.
-Sure. -This guy doing it.
-Do you ever -- have you ever been in a case
where, during intermission, you've said,
"Hey, there's a guy in the front row saying,
'I love you, John Goodman.'
Is there anything you can do about that?"
-No. -Okay.
-Because there's nothing you can do about it.
-Yeah. [ Laughter ]
-They don't -- that's an extreme case.
They usually just talk or do their candy wrappers...
-Uh-huh. -...or text or -- you know.
-Do you see -- is it very obvious
when you see the blue light of someone's phone on their face?
-Absolutely. -Yeah.
-Yeah.
-I would imagine that would be --
I think the thing they should tell people is not just,
"Don't use your phones" -- they should all say,
"Also, the actors will know you're doing it."
-Yeah. -'Cause I think, like, that --
I think everybody thinks
they can just sneak a peak at their phone
and forget that there's a giant -- yeah.
-Yeah, they got that face going...
[ Laughter ]
-But not John Goodman -- "John Goodman is on to you."
-[ Laughing ] Yeah. -Yeah.
-"We're gonna get you."