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Fly on the Wall with Dana Carvey and David Spade

Denis Leary: Conan’s Comedy Cousin

26 Feb 2026

Transcription

Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.

Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?

0.031 - 5.122 Denis Leary

So that's Conan. Conan's had his own radio station. Stupid Conan?

0

5.242 - 5.623 Unknown

Oh my God.

0

5.643 - 19.432 Denis Leary

Conan needs a friend. Why? Because he's Irish? Because he's Irish and he's my cousin. Did you guys know that? And Stallone is in his Demolition Man outfit with the boots and everything. And there's a golf pro guy dressed like a golf pro.

0

Chapter 2: What memories does Denis Leary share about the Boston comedy scene?

19.452 - 19.913 Unknown

And he's...

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21.074 - 29.856 Denis Leary

driving both again and splicing again. Those cocksuckers ripped you off. They rap me. Can you say cocksucker? You can say anything.

0

29.916 - 31.62 Unknown

Those motherfuckers.

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31.64 - 33.144 David Spade

No, but you can say rap.

0

33.184 - 36.231 Unknown

You can't say cocksucker, but you can say rap.

37.895 - 49.698 David Spade

Dennis Leary. I'm an asshole, yo. That's his song. That song is so catchy that I could see why. It was like a hit song.

50.68 - 52.523 Dana Carvey

No, it was an actual hit song.

52.543 - 53.785 David Spade

Yeah, it's like a tonic song.

53.806 - 54.747 Dana Carvey

I'm an asshole.

Chapter 3: Why did Denis Leary never join Saturday Night Live?

82.15 - 91.902 Dana Carvey

And he's worked nonstop. We talk about his smoking. That kind of became his thing as a comic character and how maybe he doesn't do that anymore.

0

91.922 - 94.045 David Spade

We discovered he's going to be in a new Ice Age.

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95.813 - 97.596 Dana Carvey

Yeah, another Ice Age.

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98.297 - 100.6 David Spade

I think he's the lion. I think he's the lion.

0

101.101 - 119.947 Dana Carvey

Yeah. And he has a new show. Called Dutch. Going Dutch, is it? Going Dutch on Fox. And it's actually an interesting story about how this gets made. It's based on a real thing. And he plays the George S. Patton of the base. It's a military.

119.967 - 133.7 David Spade

Yeah, it's fun to have some old schoolers on here. Craig, we talked about the state of shooting and where people shoot their shows. It's always on everyone's mind. And here's where here's a fun convo with Dennis Leary.

133.72 - 134.721 Denis Leary

Hello, David.

134.741 - 138.585 David Spade

Oh, is it Dennis already? Yeah. Early. Finally, someone comes early.

139.245 - 140.386 Denis Leary

But nobody comes early.

Chapter 4: What iconic roles has Denis Leary played in films?

152.905 - 160.417 Denis Leary

We were just watching you like a fucking zoo animal in his cage.

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160.837 - 162.54 David Spade

Yeah, he can't hear you yet. Hold on.

0

162.638 - 167.984 Dana Carvey

So they told me to put the Superman fly. Can you see what it says, Dennis?

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168.365 - 168.605 Denis Leary

No.

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169.266 - 169.907 Dana Carvey

Oh, fuck.

170.587 - 171.969 Denis Leary

It's fine. Leave it there.

172.089 - 180.639 Dana Carvey

This is a 500 pound fucking dresser. I have no idea why I'm not that weak. It's unbelievable. First of all.

180.659 - 180.759 Denis Leary

Yeah.

181.901 - 182.341 Dana Carvey

Slow down.

Chapter 5: What was Denis Leary's experience filming Demolition Man?

196.581 - 199.045 Denis Leary

So, cause I've seen people in the studio with you.

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199.505 - 207.856 David Spade

Yeah. This is my house, Dennis, and this is a studio if we need it. And Dana lives in a mansion about three hours away.

0

208.938 - 216.648 Dana Carvey

I'm on a, I'm on a farm, but I can get there. I'm on a farm too. You're not just saying that.

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216.688 - 219.612 Denis Leary

No, I'm on a farm. I'm on a farm, a horse farm.

0

220.216 - 225.711 Dana Carvey

Oh, okay. We got a couple horses right now, long story short, but yeah. Is your wife around?

226.613 - 229.842 Denis Leary

Is my wife around? Is your wife a rider?

230.523 - 236.419 Unknown

I thought you said, is she around? I said she's in the closet. Can I talk to your wife for a second?

237.395 - 256.719 Dana Carvey

But look, if people request going into the studio live, I will almost always try to make it, you know, almost always try a lot. You are in Boston, so you would want to make the trip out. But somebody has been doing some local podcasts.

256.739 - 257.5 Denis Leary

Oh, yeah.

Chapter 6: How did Denis Leary transition from stand-up to acting?

363.755 - 365.137 David Spade

He was a big one. Yeah.

0

365.157 - 368.201 Dana Carvey

But a lot of hulking, like kind of badass type.

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368.501 - 368.882 David Spade

Yeah.

0

369.503 - 383.581 Dana Carvey

You know, rough and tumble clubs. I saw the documentary. You fight, you throw in chairs and and you were part of that wave. Yeah. Where did where's that coming from? Should I visit Boston or watch my back or what? What's all the anger?

0

384.242 - 409.962 Denis Leary

Well, I don't know. Again, that's one of those things that people constantly ask me, Bill Burr. Yeah. Fucking. they asked bobcat too because bobcat there was a lot of anger in bobcat's act zoinks uh yeah yeah a lot of i think it's just a lot of stuff yeah really i mean great scene right but some of the funniest people weren't angry people steve wright wasn't angry that was a

410.043 - 436.467 Denis Leary

No, no, it's just amazing. That was a beautiful, Christine haiku act. I mean, just an amazing act, right? Paula Brownstone, Paula was just like really so, you know, open and friendly to me. She used to sit, you know, the rest of us are attacking the audience like, Like we want to kill them. And she sits on a stool and opens up and everybody fucking loves her. So, you know, it was weird.

436.648 - 442.997 Dana Carvey

Very fast. I used to do a bit because I just thought of an angry comedian. I know this guy.

443.057 - 444.259 Denis Leary

I know this character.

444.499 - 469.007 Dana Carvey

And then this guy gets really rich. and famous but still has to find ways to be angry you know and i did this bit and people thought i was doing bill but i started thinking of it in the 90s yeah i know right yeah you know it drives me nuts yeah it drives me out of my mind meet a maids what are you driving a golf cart i need a parking ticket what are you gonna get a nine iron in that the

Chapter 7: What new projects is Denis Leary currently involved in?

582.082 - 583.504 David Spade

You've got to do a long set.

0

583.484 - 601.625 Denis Leary

Well, you know that feeling now. It's not so much nervous. It's just like at the ages that we're at, hopefully, it's more like the butterflies. Like, I want the show to start, right? Yeah. It's not panic. It's like, fuck, can't wait to get up there. Hope I remember this. You know what I mean?

0

602.285 - 627.312 Dana Carvey

Right. It's not like, oh, if I do well here, maybe I'll have a career. Exactly. Or, you know, I was bombed so hard. at the improv in hollywood yeah i went on an 805 you know i mean i mean death and i was killing in the clubs in the hinderland and then they said hey norman lear thought it was pretty funny i what the he was there you know what was that we're doing there i don't know he's dead

0

627.292 - 640.652 Dana Carvey

Well, this is a while back. We're not nervous in that sense that we're dancing for our donuts. We've had our careers and now we're continuing, which is another thing I wanted to ask you about.

0

640.732 - 665.645 Denis Leary

Well, I can see it. I usually put a young or first time person for a gig that size on the Cam Neely thing in Boston, but also at the Michael J. Fox gig. Like, you know, there'll be a person there who's doing it for the first time, a young comp. And I can see the panic that we all used to have, right? So you go like, hey, man, it's going to be fine. It's a fucking charity, whatever.

665.825 - 670.731 Denis Leary

You give them the heads up, right? So I understand that. I remember that. I mean, we all remember that.

670.711 - 691.883 Dana Carvey

i was doing one with billy crystal early 80s somehow i had the same manager and they got me on a little showtime special i had like two minutes andy coffin was the headliner i was panicked i had no business being on the show and billy crystal goes you got fin your face go outside and walk around get outside right now walk around You looked nervous.

691.943 - 704.447 Dana Carvey

He was really trying to help me, but I remember that. Did you go out and walk around? Didn't help at all. I completely bombed. What did you do? What material did you do? Oh, I did a Jacques Cousteau bit. Come on, we're going back.

705.93 - 707.333 David Spade

Dennis, don't make that face.

Chapter 8: How does Denis Leary reflect on his career and success?

773.015 - 794.369 Denis Leary

I faced the wall. But I did pretty well. So I went and I saw it and I couldn't do what he did, but I could do what Lenny Clark did. Because Lenny was like a regular guy off the street. Regular boss. And I fucking bombed. I must have bombed for fucking 10 weeks. And every time I bombed, there'd be like a tiny little laugh. I'd go, oh, that was a pretty good thing.

0

794.749 - 804.647 Denis Leary

And then Lenny would go, hey, come back next week. He would just keep telling me to come back. And I would fucking bomb. But then there'd be like two bits. And so, like, either you love it or you don't.

0

805.008 - 813.808 Dana Carvey

When did you have your first one little line or one little attitude or one bit that was surefire? Like, oh, I can always lean on this. Everything else sucked.

0

814.089 - 828.596 Denis Leary

Yeah, so I did, when I was in college, at Emerson College in Boston, a bunch of us formed a thing called the Emerson Comedy Workshop. And it was a theater group where we had to do original shows. We had to write all the material to get credit for it.

0

828.896 - 843.48 Denis Leary

So one of the characters I eventually played in that while I was in college was a guy, everything was kind of behind a fourth wall because it was the theater. But there was one character I played, we called Bill, who was a really fucking angry guy. It was basically me.

843.46 - 869.147 Denis Leary

It was a really angry guy who smoked and who just fucking talked to the audience, ranted and raved about the Kennedy assassination or whatever, right? He's literally like your parking meter guy, except it was me. So when Steve Wright was doing that thing, I was like, well, I'm just going to try to do that guy, right? That guy who was basically me. So everything wasn't working.

869.431 - 887.73 Denis Leary

But then I wrote my, like the first smoking joke I wrote, which was my sister says, you know, these things are just a replacement because my mom didn't breastfeed me long enough. And I was like, hey, if I could buy a pack of tits, I would. That was the first.

888.671 - 898.982 Dana Carvey

Pack of tits. Yeah, pack of tits is a great word package. So that was the beginning.

898.962 - 902.307 Denis Leary

That was the first joke where I went like, oh, fuck.

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