Dana Carvey

The funniest moment of Dana Carvey’s life to imagine is the moment of silence on set. It wasn’t on 9/11; the filming didn’t start until September 24, 2001. But he was indeed making Master of Disguise. They filmed in LA, thank Gods. It would be absolutely appalling to think of this happening in New York. But the first film they filmed was the Turtle Club scene. Dana Carvey was in full costume. And director Perry Andelin Blake called for a moment of silence. So there’s Carvey, in a ludicrous costume, trying to have a somber moment in tribute of people who had died in a terrorist attack. Even he knew how bizarre it was.

And goodness has Carvey been in some dreadful movies over the years. It’s a shame, too. I first encountered him as a child, right around the time he was first hired on Saturday Night Live. My sisters and I were kids at the time where there were clip shows of stand-up comedy, some even aimed at children. I think it was on one of these, Turkey Television, that we saw the “Choppin’ Broccoli” bit. And we fell in love with it. I have to imagine we drove our mother crazy singing it to each other.

Meanwhile, Carvey was making a name for himself on SNL. He started on the show at roughly the same time. His characters would become iconic, most notably the Church Lady. To the point that she was everywhere. But he was also Hans of Hans and Franz, and he was here to pump [clap] you up. He was the Grumpy Old Man, and that’s just the way it was and we liked it! And of course he was George Michael and Katharine Hepburn and Ross Perot and Keith Richards. And Bush the Elder. Oh, he was Bush the Elder, to the extent that there are phrases everyone thinks of from him that Carvey said first.

No, I’m not forgetting. How could I? He was Garth. There’s the fantastic bit where Mick Jagger was on the show and they did the bit where they asked the guest about something actually educational, and this being Mick, they asked him about economics. Cut to Garth asleep on Mick’s shoulder, the implication being that Mick has been talking for Gods alone know how long about economics. And that’s even without getting into the movies, both of which I like though only the first is truly great. But he’s great in them.

Apparently, Garth has more than a little of Brad Carvey, Dana’s older brother, in him. Brad is best known for developing the Video Toaster, a piece of equipment I worked with myself back in the ‘90s. It’s no coincidence that Garth wears a Video Toaster T-shirt at one point in the second movie. What’s more, Garth is a talented drummer because Dana Carvey is a talented drummer. He also plays guitar. The Carvey family is clearly just good at a lot of things.