Everyone has one. An impression, that is. The
ability to change your voice and mannerisms to portray another person –
usually a celebrity – for a good-natured laugh. While impressions play a
huge role in comedy television, it's rather surprising that there has
never been a reality show contest specializing in the very distinct art
form.
That is, until now. The USA Network has put together
First Impressions, a limited series in which impressionists
compete with each other for fun and exposure, and hopefully stardom.
They will take the stage at a comedy club, in front of a celebrity judge
and host, celebrity guests, and a real live audience.
When going for the celebrity judge, USA went to one
of the most acclaimed voice-men in the biz. Dana Carvey had been laying
low in recent years, but his Saturday Night Live impersonations
and characters were legendary – The Church Lady, George H.W. Bush, Hans
and Franz, Johnny Carson, Garth (from Wayne's World), George
Michael, Casey Kasem, the owner of "Toonces the Driving Cat,” and many
more.
For the show host, they pulled in Freddie Prinze,
Jr. Though better known as a movie actor (She's All That,
Scooby-Doo!, I Know What You Did Last Summer), Prinze grew up in
comedy clubs. His father was a young stand-up comedy legend in the 70s
who became a TV star in the series Chico & the Man before his
tragically young suicide. Like Carvey, Prinze Jr. has also been keeping
a low profile as far as show business was concerned, but he decided he
could not pass up this opportunity.
A few days before First Impressions made its
premiere, we were one of a group of media outlets who got to speak with
Carvey and Prinze about the show.
What about this
show made it the right opportunity to come back to television?
Dana Carvey:
First of all, it was unique because for a few years people have said,
“They should do an impression as a competition show.” I said yes, okay
but I didn’t think it could be like a six month long thing, like a
singing show. Then USA and Jeff Gaspin and David Garfinkle – it was
actually Art Garfunkel who approached me initially (laughs) –
they came up with this idea. USA said, “Here, six on the air, half
hour, shoot it over three days.” It seemed like a fun project to work
on. I love watching people do impressions and we had some amazing
talent. I got to be an audience a lot of the time too. Freddie?
Freddie Prinze Jr:
(laughs) Dana you’re ridiculous. For me this came out of left
field. I’m actively trying to be retired. When this came up it was like,
hey you’re going to basically be in a comedy club with Dana Carvey
hanging out with comedians and impressionists who are seeing who the
funniest one is that night. As a little boy Budd Friedman used to parade
me around The Improv. When I was eleven years old, past midnight. I
would get to watch like all these old school comedians do their thing. I
clearly have a soft spot for comedians. This was very much: hey, do you
want to be 12-years-old again? That was an easy yes. That’s literally
why I’m doing it.
Dana Carvey:
(in a John Lennon accent) On behalf of Freddie and I, hope we
pass the audition.
Dana, was there an
impression that you ever had trouble mastering?
Dana Carvey:
Yes, most of them. (laughs) I’d say George Bush Sr. was really
difficult. I was assigned that when I was on Saturday Night Live.
When everyone was like: Oh, man, what are we going to do with him? I was
just going, hey, if you can’t do an impression, which we joke about on
the show, you just say the name. “This is George Bush, Sr.” Basically
that one took a year to make something interesting and funny. Obama was
also especially difficult, because he has a deceptively deep voice,
(imitates Obama) very much down here. (imitates George W. Bush)
The ones that are kind of cut up, like W or Clinton, the ones that are
kind of caught up in your throat are just easier to do. It took me a
while to get Freddie Prinze Jr.
Freddie Prinze Jr:
(pretending to be Dana Carvey imitating Freddie) But now my
Freddie Prinze Jr. sounds amazing, I can just do him whenever I need to
do him. It’s like Freddie’s not even here. (Back to being himself)
That was amazing Dana, how did you just do that?
What are you
looking for in the contestants? How did you select them?
Freddie Prinze Jr:
I had nothing to do with the selection process.
Dana Carvey:
Basically it was our first impression… There were six shows. We’re doing
three each show, so there’s 18 contestants. There are thousands of
different types of impressionists. From a ten-year-old in his room doing
stuff on YouTube all here, there, and everywhere. So I think
availability and what we had in LA – we just had a nice collage of
different styles. We tried to mix it up. We got some really, really
talented people.
As you were the
mentor for the contestants, what skills did you find they needed
coaching on the most?
Dana Carvey:
There are different kinds of impressions. Freddie and I have talked
about it. Some impressions are just so eerily accurate, and Freddie is
the one that said he gets kind of frightened by them. I mean there are
scary ones, like I’ve definitely gotten frightened by Frank Caliendo a
couple of times doing Morgan Freeman. Is this sorcery? This should not
exist in nature. My style is to abstract it a little bit, have fun with
it, take it places with the detail. A lot of it is just confidence. It
was sweet, because the people on our show were not internationally
known. Some of them had different levels of experience. That would be
the main thing, to enjoy it and just have fun with it and extrapolate
it. Find little things and commit. Generally we were all jaw-dropped at
times, just by some of the writing and also the impression itself.
Freddie?
Freddie Prinze Jr:
I’m sure they’ll cut to angles where you see me in the background with
my mouth wide open or I’m on the floor laughing. I mean there’s some of
these, I say kids because some of them were literally 19-years-old who
came on the show and were so... I don’t like to throw the word phenom
around, when you recognize greatness at an early age you go: That kid’s
got it! That sounds corny, but you’ll see a couple of kids on the show
where you’re like: Oh my God, that kid has got it and I can’t wait to
see what happens next for him. Like Dana said, there are jaw-dropping
moments. I genuinely got uncomfortable quite a few times, because it
felt like the person was in the room, only it no longer looks like this.
I had nothing to do with the coaching of them. All I got to do was sit
back and enjoy it.
This show reminds
me a lot of a show that I watched growing up called the
Copy Cats on ABC.
Do you remember that?
Dana Carvey:
Oh God, yes, absolutely. I mean in the 60’s between Frank Gorshin and
Rich Little and others, yes, I was glued to those guys. And I remember
that show. That was taking like four or five well-known famous
impressionists and having them do a variety show. Was it a half hour or
an hour?
I think it was an
hour. You always reminded me of Fred Travalena in many ways, I mean that
as the highest possible compliment.
Dana Carvey:
I knew Fred. I knew him, yes. I remember seeing Fred Travalena on
television, yes, and Rich Little as far as just pure impressionists.
Then a lot of what you would call generic voices, I probably got from
Jonathan Winters like a lot of people, then later on Carlin and Pryor
and Freddie’s dad. I saw them all. I love impressionists. I’m not really
an elitist about it. I love magicians, too. I love a pure brilliant
comedian, as well. I love watching someone do an impression, especially
when I can’t do [it]. It does seem like a magic trick to me. It’s very
entertaining. I don’t know, did I meander around enough there? Freddie?
Freddie Prinze Jr: I was
negative five years old when that show was on and it was fucking great.
(They both laugh.)
Dana Carvey:
Negative five.
Freddie Prinze Jr:
(imitates Johnny Carson) That joke was just for me. That was
wild.
Dana Carvey:
That was the heyday of variety, man. There were so many variety shows on
the ’60s, all the way through most the ’70s and pretty much that was it.
I mean prime time network variety. Now we have the competition shows
like The Voice and stuff, those are kind of the new variety I
think. I don’t know, it’s all in my book.
Freddie Prinze Jr:
That’s new school variety.
Dana Carvey:
Yes, new school.
Dana, were there
any impressions that you’re most looking forward to fans seeing featured
on the show?
Dana Carvey:
I feel like if you’re asking me right now who everyone’s doing and it’s
just very interesting is Trump. I have been working on a Hillary. I
couldn’t really do a Hillary, but now I do her, because her voice got
kind of hoarse so I was able to just find an angle on Hillary. My angle
is she has an ear piece and Bill’s behind the scene, (imitates Bill
Clinton) “Big Dog to Little Hill. Big Dog to Little Hill. Come in,
Little Hill. Little Hill, you’ve got to slow down, baby. You’ve got to
slow down. You can’t empathize everywhere baby; you cannot come on
peaches n cream, baby, peaches n cream.” That makes real sense and makes
me happy. A lot of the younger impressionists, they’re doing Seth Rogen
and Katt Williams. They’re doing Sofia Vergara. They’re doing people
that aren’t from my age group, basically. Some good Mark Wahlbergs were
in there. There’s the usual suspects, but then occasionally someone
would do somebody that you don’t really expect. We had a guy do Sharon
Osbourne and did it in a way that was sort of surreal. So I’ll leave
that as a tease.
Freddie Prinze Jr:
To piggy back on that, anytime one of the impressionists was literally
able to switch sexes… and it happened quite a few times, we had girls
doing Owen Wilson, we had guys doing Sharon Osbourne… and every time
that happens it’s unbelievable, it’s magic.
Dana Carvey:
I can only do men because of my oversize masculinity. So it’s hard for
me to do women. (does the Church Lady) Well isn’t that special?
Did anyone try to
impress you with their impressions of yours, like the Church Lady and
Hans and Franz, stuff like that?
Dana Carvey:
I think they did. Did they Freddie? I mean did somebody maybe…
Freddie Prinze Jr:
Yes. Well there was some during that, but I think we have an episode
where somebody finishes strong with a Church Lady that kind of threw you
back. I think there was one like that.
Dana Carvey:
Yes I think everyone’s an impressionist on some level. I really do.
There are people with crazy gifts and then most of us do somebody
whether it’s your uncle or school teacher.
Freddie Prinze Jr:
Shoot, Dana, I grew up learning them from you.
Dana Carvey:
Right and I did stuff from everyone I could. I don’t know if I’m doing
Ma Frickert [a Jonathan Winters character] with Church Lady. I’m not
sure where that rhythm came from. Maybe it was from five different
influences. I remember once I said to Tommy Smothers, “I think there’s a
little bit of your influence in Garth, even though that character was
based on my brother.” But there’s that little hesitant nerd character.
You never know where it’s all coming from, so it’s interesting. You
steal from the best, take everything you can. Robin Williams was a huge
influence on me, because he was from San Francisco. He was like the
godfather of comedy. I tried to be him for five years until I figured
out no one was as fast as him. I had a trunk with props and found my own
style. But, yeah I was absolutely trying to be Robin. I told him that
and he says “Oh, I got everything from Jonathan [Winters].” Those
generic really classic… you’ve got to be able to do the stoner dude, or
you may do any different array of accents those are just touchstones
when you were coming up in the ’80’s you had to do those. Anyway, it’s
all in my book. Freddie Prinze Jr. at Night is the name of my
book.
Freddie Prinze Jr:
You didn’t
even discuss this with me, that’s amazing.
Dana Carvey:
I know I just borrowed the title. It just made sense. It felt good.
Freddie Prinze Jr:
It wrote itself.
Dana Carvey:
It wrote itself.
Freddie you
actually just touched on one of the things I was going to ask you but do
you do impressions? And if so who is your best impression?
Freddie Prinze Jr:
Shoot man. I’m kind of a dork. I like science fiction and was raised on
Star Wars. So like 99% of my impressions are of the Star Wars
universe. The other ones were literally just being raised on Dana Carvey.
They’re diluted versions of his sick impressions. I have one Peter Falk,
from Kevin Pollak, so there’s another diluted version of one. Like Dana
said, he watched Robin. He loved Jonathan Winters. He even mentioned my
father. My father did a mean Muhammad Ali. All mine are from that. I got
to make a movie with Peter Falk before he passed away. To have heard
that voice that Pollak did back in the day and then to hear him, the
first thing I wanted to do for Peter, as I was such a stupid young
actor, was like: “Let me do my Peter Falk impression.”
Which was nearly an identical experience to the one
my grandmother had when she met Peter Falk in the 70s with my dad. My
dad literally said, “Now ma, don’t call him Columbo. He really doesn’t
like that.” She goes, “Oh Freddie, don’t worry. I’m not going to call
him nothing. Everything is going to be fine. I’ll stay calm.” As soon as
my dad brought her to meet Peter Falk she literally goes, “Columbo, I
love you.” My dad goes, “Ma, what did I tell you?” She looks at him. She
goes, “I can’t take a chance with his last name with my…” – I can’t say
the word she said – “with my bleeping accent.” So that’s why she called
him Columbo. But everybody steals their voices from somewhere. Like my
old lady voice is my grandma Maria. No matter what voice I try to do, I
can’t do an American old woman. It’s always going to sound like a New
York Puerto Rican. That’s just the way that it goes. (laughs)
Dana you came up
in the clubs and now you’re doing this show out of a club. How have
things changed over the years in the clubs? What is it like now to be
teaching rather than learning?
Dana Carvey:
Everyone’s life is surreal. It’s just a passage of time. My sons are
both doing standup. They’re beginners and the club system is just very
different now. They’re looking for someone with some social media
followers. But then they try and they get a following and they want to
put them in the club as headlines. That usually takes a long time –
10,000 hours. If you can do it in three years – like Freddie’s dad was
pretty stout really fast. I mean like within a year I think, right
Freddie? Or two years. He was…
Freddie Prinze
Jr.: It
was super fast. At 20.
Dana Carvey:
Yes. So
there are things like that. But most of us, it takes ten years of hard
work. Just stating the obvious the nature of television, with the live
streaming, and all the channels, there’s a lot of shows that can exist
now. It’s a golden age and it’s just fun that USA wanted to do this
little show. We’re not trying to be The Voice or American
Idol, even though there’s a competitive element. It’s kind of a
celebration, really. It’s a fun little party. If it evolves, you could
want it to be like a nightclub, in the sense of Hugh Hefner or
something. We tried to make it as casual as we could and not dress it up
too much. There’s nothing not fun about it really. (laughs) I got
to hang out with my friends, too. Steve Carell and [Jon] Lovitz and
stuff.
This show is going
to be the first time a lot of these people get discovered. Do you have
any advice for them for what’s coming next as they launch their careers
in show business?
Dana Carvey:
Freddie?
Freddie Prinze Jr:
You have seniority; you get to answer that one.
Dana Carvey:
Geez, there’s so much there. Well don’t let the wealth effect get a hold
of you. Just work on being better. In show business, if you go into it
with the goal to be rich and famous… I don’t know, I think that’s kind
of a trap. Maybe for some people that’s fun. I would just say try to get
better. Try to work on your thing. Don’t take it too seriously, or take
the work seriously, because it goes up and down.
Freddie Prinze Jr:
Yes. I think that’s the most important one, what Dana just said. Don’t
take yourself seriously, take the job seriously. I would say don’t be
afraid to fail. Dana worked on this for years, I was lucky enough to
have hosted Saturday Night Live once. And if you care too much
you’re just going to suck bad. You have to have this willingness to fall
flat on your face. When you do have that willingness to fall down, you
never do. When you’re trying to watch your footing is when you slip and
fall on your ass. So be fearless. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t take
yourself seriously, but take your profession hyper-seriously. That’s
what I would say. I like piggy backing on Dana.
Dana Carvey:
When I was doing a variety show [The Dana Carvey Show] in ’96 or
’97 with Louis CK and [Steve] Carell and [Stephen] Colbert, we had Tony
Randall on. He must have been in his 80s then. He looked incredible. I
go what’s your secret? He was just like a little kid. He was like, “Well
we get to do this. We’re doing this. We get to play and we get paid to
do it.” That’s always my touchstone. I was a waiter with my last job. I
was a dishwasher, then a bus boy. We called ourselves table maintenance
personnel managers, but that’s another story. I always thought: wow, if
I make what I make as a waiter doing this...
I say stay humble and just try to be great. Try to
be really, really good. Realize the business side and all that stuff is
just this whole other track. It can get people crazy taking it too
seriously. I met a lot of people that bicker for no real reason. You
know, go to Rwanda for a month just to hang out and then come back. (Prinze
laughs) Even Letterman when he retired said he realized there was a
lot going on besides his own TV show. It’s a myopic, narcissistic
business. (imitates Trump) Can I take over here? This is Donald
Trump. Let me tell you something, this show is so fabulous. Other shows
are disasters. They’re total disasters. Complete disasters. Did I say
disaster? I love disasters. This show is so good, let me tell you
something. (back to normal voice) Sorry I just threw that in for
fun. We’re full of wisdom aren’t we Freddie? I can’t believe what we
just said, damn. We’re so wise…
Freddie Prinze Jr:
We are. I get called wise on a daily basis so I’m used to it. (They
both laugh.)
Dana, we haven’t
talked about the special guests that are going to be on. One in
particular I wanted to talk about is your old friend Kevin Nealon, you
guys go way back…
Dana Carvey:
Yes, we were living in a house in Hollywood Hills. My wife and I lived
above the garage with a hot plate. We were trying to save money to buy a
home. She was speech writer for a friend of mine. Kevin was across the
way. So, I knew Kevin before SNL. Then by freak long-story-short
circumstances I got on the show. They needed one more cast member.
Lorne, I think offhandedly said, “You know someone like Chevy, who’s 6
foot 4?” I said I know a tall funny guy. Kevin. They flew him out. He
landed the show just standing in 8H doing some standup. Now, with the
new world of show business, because of all the places to do stuff is
mind boggling. So we’re bringing out a Hans and Franz cartoon that we’ve
got a whole pilot written just to put on, wherever. Amazon, or Netflix,
or YouTube.
That’s awesome.
Dana Carvey:
It’s just a fun, interesting time to do little a la carte pieces
of work. When I came through, the two gate keepers in my business in
essence were Johnny Carson and Lorne Michaels. They were the two ways to
get in. Now it’s this blown out a lot. It’s a great time.
In identifying
what makes for a good impression there’s sounding like the person,
there’s identifying the subtle mannerisms and working those in.
Sometimes it seems like it’s dropping the person into a foreign
situation. I was wondering: am I missing anything that’s in the
ingredients of a great impression? Is any one of those more important
than anything else?
Freddie Prinze Jr:
Dana, I’ll
let you answer the last part of that. But the beginning, I honestly
think there’s one other thing – and I didn’t notice it until Dana had
said it on the show in one of the episodes. A lot of times when this
voice comes out, your face begins to take the form of the person you’re
doing. There’s even a look that’s involved as well. Like when Dana does
Trump, his face naturally begins to like mold like Clayface from the old
Batman animated series. It just like transforms into this
squished version of Donald Trump, man. That’s another part of it too. So
much so that Dana even spoke about it in one of the episodes. Because
one of the guy’s faces – or it was a girl doing Owen Wilson and her face
literally became Owen Wilson’s face, it was the craziest thing.
Dana Carvey:
Yes, it’s funny that you do hold your jaw and your mouth in a way that
helps the sound. I never personally practice in front of a mirror, but I
would see it later. You can’t do Trump without sort of making your mouth
into that… whatever… it’s like a little trumpet. That’s why he’s called
Trump!
Freddie Prinze Jr:
There you go. I always thought it was the bitter beer face, but you’re
right. It’s a trumpet face.
Dana Carvey:
I don’t know. I guess we better get used to it. It’s going to be
interesting. I don’t know if there’s anything we’re really missing. I
would just say that sometimes you add stuff onto an impression; it just
sort of feels right. It feels like it’s coming from them somehow. Even
if they maybe never said that or even did that. In other words, [it’s]
an instinctual thing. For me, I don’t know if it’s out of boredom or
whatever. Eventually, I don’t really care. Like now I just have a Trump
impression that I enjoy doing, so I’m not studying or looking at anyone
else’s Trump trying to be theirs. I just do my own. Because as soon as I
get it locked in to it, I just treat it like a character. It’s all
Trump, all the time. And Bernie. I’ve got a good Bernie, too, but he’ll
still be around, right? He’s not going down is he?
They’re all
hanging around for a while, yes.
CLICK HERE TO SEE WHAT FREDDIE PRINZE, JR.
HAD TO SAY TO US IN 2007!
