-An Academy Award-nominated
and Emmy-winning actor and writer you know
as one of the original cast members of "Saturday Night Live"
and from the movies "Ghostbusters,"
"The Blues Brothers," and so many others.
He has recently added Crystal Head Onyx,
an agave-based vodka in a beautiful bottle,
to his award-winning Crystal Head Vodka line.
Please welcome to the show the great,
the fantastic Dan Aykroyd.
How are you, Danny?
-Ahh! A-1, sir!
Good to talk to you. Good to talk to you.
-And you're outside -- -I am here.
-You're outside with the Bluesmobile right now.
-I know. Listen, you know,
I've always looked for these old Ford Marquises,
the Grand Marquises. They don't make them anymore.
And they ride like a Rolls-Royce.
They're so overbuilt.
And I was in Upstate New York a couple of years ago, and I --
Middle of the night in a town up there,
and I just flashed by this town,
and in a car lot, I just saw a corner of this car.
And I was looking for a black one.
So I call up, and I find out that the guy says,
"Oh, well, I've got two of them."
I said, "Well, I want both."
He said, "You know your cars, man.
They're FBI cars."
So I get them home, and dig this, dig this.
Watch this. -[ Laughs ]
Seth, these -- This car wasn't an FBI car,
but it was -- it belonged to the State Department.
-Wow. -See that?
You see? Let me get it right here.
'Cause you really got to see this here.
How do we get that? Do you see?
-There you go. -There it is, there it is.
Look. See? Department of State,
Washington D.C. And it has a gun safe in it.
It had a light and siren, and they were made, you know,
for diplomatic assistants, for couriers,
you know, take to the airport.
And my fantasy is that Hillary Clinton
rode in this car. -[ Laughs ]
-And, you know, I'm going to lend it to Mike Pompeo.
I've got two of them. I'm gonna lend them to him
to pack up his family and head on out any time.
And I'll drive them myself. -That's so kind of you.
-Yeah. -Now, Dan, what happens when --
-Let's go inside. -Yeah, let's go inside.
I have to ask, though, Dan, what does a gentleman say
when he's selling two cars and he realizes Dan Aykroyd's
the one who's buying them?
-Well, I always have intermediaries, you see?
-Oh, very smart. -So I don't have to overpay.
Like, I've got -- I have two of those government cars,
and I have three other Marquises.
And, Seth, for all of these cars,
all of them, I'm into them -- I've got five of them.
My daughter has one. Our neighbor has one.
I've got those two. My dad used to drive one.
$60,000 for all of them.
-That's fantastic. -I mean, that's really good.
So, when the name Aykroyd comes up,
you know, the price will go up by seven times, so I --
-Right, and I guess you can't say you're not that Dan Aykroyd.
-No, no. Yeah, that's hard.
-Hey, I want to say this -- the last time I saw you
was at the "SNL" 40th, and this year
is the 40th anniversary of "The Blues Brothers"...
-Yeah. -...which must be even harder
for you to wrap your head around.
Is it true that you guys actually, just one day,
just lost John?
-Well, on the movie -- This is a great story.
We were shooting at the Harvey, Illinois mall.
You know, that famous mall scene.
It was an abandoned mall at the time.
The area had suffered some economic setbacks.
And we were there at 3:00 in the morning,
shooting the mall scene, and lunch had broken,
and we went looking for John.
Couldn't find him anywhere, you know?
And so I just -- "What are we going to do?"
So I saw this path kind of leading out of the --
out of the, you know, weed-strewn parking lot
into a suburban neighborhood nearby, and I thought,
"I'll just try that." And I walked down this path,
and I walked into the neighborhood, and I looked.
All the houses were dark, but halfway down
one of the streets, there were lights on.
And I thought, "Well, I don't know.
I'm gonna -- I've got an instinct here.
I'm gonna try." And I knocked on the door,
and the guy said, "Yeah?"
And I said, "We're shooting a movie over here."
"Yeah, I know, I know."
"And we're looking for one of our actors."
"Yeah, I know -- Belushi. He came in here
about a half an hour ago, he raided my fridge.
He's asleep on my couch." -[ Laughing ]
-He was the guest who never left.
You know, he'd walk into any -- anybody's house in America
and be welcomed.
You know, raid the fridge and lay down.
It's like Murray, who goes into these weddings
and goes and -- you know, they're ambassadors of comedy.
-And it's true. You know, again, you do it
for that long, and you do it at a time where,
you know, the show is obviously
the most iconic thing on television.
Obviously, its longevity has spoken
to what you guys established.
You and John shared an office.
One day, I would love to walk the halls of 17 with you,
because I believe it was an office I ended up with.
But you actually installed -- You made some calls as to what
the 17th floor needed, including a shower.
And is it true you put in bunk beds?
-You know, I bet you used that shower when you were there.
I mean, I established that shower
for the writers staying over.
Yes, I put in bunk beds, and a toaster oven and a kettle.
And, you know, it was -- it was living there.
For me, I lived there -- Like, for most of the show,
I lived there every Tuesday night.
And sometimes every Wednesday night.
So during the entire run of "SNL" when I was there.
And, you know, beautiful times and beautiful memories.
But "The Blues Brothers," we still do it.
Jimmy -- John's brother -- and I, still have
The Blues Brothers Classic Revue.
And we, you know, in pre-COVID times,
we were going out to casinos and corporate events
and concert halls and having really a lot of fun with it.
I do miss the music.
That is something that's so essential, you know?
And it's too bad that we can't perform,
all of us in the music industry or a Broadway performer.
Today, his gig is down.
All my people at House of Blues,
we have 13 nightclubs. We have, you know,
several thousand employees that can't come to work --
barbacks, waiters, waitresses.
This virus is more powerful than any CEO
or, you know, head of state.
It's just -- it's a dead zombie calling the shots.
And I have optimism, though. I think that mankind,
if we all pull together and are sensible about wearing masks
and accepting the vaccines and don't play into
the ignorance of many who would deny
what good these things are gonna do,
we'll get through this.
And I welcome you to the House of Blues in Vegas.
Come and party with us when we're back up.
-One of the things that can help people get through
while they're social distancing is, of course, some spirits.
You've got a new Crystal Skull. Are you excited about having --
And I poured myself a drink that I'm gonna join you with.
But tell us about the new -- the Onyx.
-Well, this has never been -- this has never done before,
to take the blue agave plant,
which is what tequila is made out of,
and give it a vodka finish. It's dangerous.
You're gonna like that. -It's wonderful.
-It has kind of an earthy, absinthe kind of smell to it.
What we've done is taken the blue agave fluid,
mash, and we've mixed it with the Newfoundland water,
and we have a peppery, kind of fiery, earthy vodka here
that is based -- and never been based on blue agave, a vodka.
Never has been. We're the first to do it.
Here's our Pride diversity bottle,
which comes out at Pride times.
We're very happy that that constituency follows us,
because we're a Canadian-made vodka
and not a vodka made in some countries
where gay people are persecuted, and the consumer in America
and Canada and the world is very conscious
of our identity as a Canadian product.
Did you have a sip of that? Isn't that nice?
-It's really nice. It's really -- mm.
It's just what we need. It's really great.
-Yeah. You know, some people have said
it's like a white whiskey
or a kind of a more earthy, sweeter absinthe.
And it's just exactly what --
exactly what we need -- in moderation.
I would take five people to a head, not one person to a head.
You know. -[ Laughs ]
-But in this kind of time of isolation,
a lot of reflection,
I've been doing a lot of introspection.
I've been answering a lot of e-mails.
Seth, you've really made it in comedy.
You're at the pinnacle, the peak.
You have your own show, you have your own --
you can go do stand-up,
you're gonna be producing other television.
You got to work with Amy Poehler in "Update."
You guys managed that desk, didn't you?
-Yeah. -Yeah, yeah.
-It was some of the best years of my life.
-And now it's Jost and Che,
and they're doing such a good job.
-The best. -It's just wonderful.
It wasn't a gig I enjoyed doing,
but when I saw people who could really handle it
like you and Amy, it was wonderful.
-Well, you just -- you sort of did it as a character.
Isn't that a safe way to say it? -I did, and I --
And it didn't really fit. I was trying to be straight
all the way through and not accepting the jokes.
You guys had it perfectly, especially you.
I think probably you were one of the best ever
to deliver that material. And you've made it.
And you must have young people always coming to you and saying,
"How do I get into the business?"
or, "How do I get into the industry?"
or, "How do I learn about comedy?"
Well, I have -- tonight, I've got some tips for you.
-Oh, great. -For those young people
out there who want to learn about comedy and improv
and stand-up, the first thing that you have to do
is you've got to go the National Comedy Museum
in Erie -- in Jamestown, New York.
It's in the old Erie Railway Station there.
And it takes you right from, you know, the Greek comedies --
Aristophanes, "The Frogs" -- all the way through
the blue comedy of the '50s.
You know, those blue records that women and men were making
right through to "Saturday Night Live"
and "Second City."
It is a museum of comedy and not to be missed.
And any kid in high school or college
that wants to be a writer, a comedy writer, they go there,
they're gonna get an afternoon course in comedy history.
And my motorcycle is there, the motorcycle that I rode
to "SNL" on every four -- each of those four years.
I rode down the New York Thruway,
taking my life in my hands on that Harley,
and they came to me and said,
"is there any memorabilia we can get from your time at 'SNL'?"
I said, "The bike that kept me alive for those four years."
-[ Laughs ] -So that's there,
and the story's there. The other thing is,
there's an author called Kliph Nesteroff.
N-E-S-T-E-R-H-O-F-F.
He wrote a book called "The Comedians."
It's a manual for understanding British and American comedy,
the influence of Canadians.
It's one of the best compendiums of comedy that I've ever read.
And then Steve Martin's book, "Born Standing Up,"
and his book "The Troubadour."
And then John Lithgow wrote a book called "Drama."
And so any novice there that wants to get into the industry,
wants to understand rhythm, comedy, performance,
the commitment of an actor in comedy,
I would say those are the books to read -- "Born Standing Up,"
"Troubadour," Nesteroff's book, "The Comedian,"
and get to the museum in Jamestown.
It's there because Lucille Ball's home was there.
-That's fantastic advice. So kind of you to pass it along.
Thank you so much for being here, Dan.
-Oh, absolutely. -It is always such a pleasure.
Crystal Head Onyx is available now.