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152 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 Dana Carvey hosts the Boys & Girls Clubs of Monterey County's 26th Annual Comics for Kids Auction in Pebble Beach on April 6 at the Inn at Spanish Bay. Funds raised will help local youth. of narcissism. I am more of an empath. I want to make the audience happy and share comedy with each other. It's my way of communicating. CM: Does this have anything to do with being raised in Montana? The people there seem pretty decent. DC: The people are very nice and friendly. We left there when I was five, but we went back in the summers and I go there with my family now. It's just like a different country there. You drive on the road wondering where all the cars are. It's eerie. Who's to say where personality comes from? CM: Did you ever have any epic fails, where you didn't read the room correctly and things just bombed? DC: Oh yeah. I almost quit a bunch of times. I played a whole restaurant once and people were just eating and they weren't even facing me. It's an emotionally violent spor t. You take it personally until you have about 800 victories, and then that reverses the times you bombed. In the '70s when I was in college, there weren't comedy clubs in San Francisco so I would open for bands for 50 bucks. I would basically come up there screaming while everyone just waited for the act they actually wanted to see. In '83, we did a comedy night with no emcee at mid- night for five minutes each. I followed Sam Kinison, and he just killed it. They always called me 'Danna Glarvey.' When I got up there and they said, 'Danna Glarvey,' I said [in Gar th's excited voice] 'Par ty on!' And I got nothing. CM: What's your creative process like? DC: I take stuff and go all abstract with it. I don't worry about accuracy and I take it to a place of madness that is nonsensical. It's differ- ent spor ts depending on different rooms. A 70-seat club in LA is different than the Staples Center or a small room. A lot of it is managing the room. If the audience is drunk it's not good. If they are buzzed it's okay, but when they are drunk, they star t talking really loud. I'll have an inebriated angry woman who will stand up and star t screaming at me because she hates her husband or something. CM: Do you spend a lot of time writing, or do you just wing it? DC: I'm different than a lot of comedians because I like to do more sketches. Jay Leno will say, [in perfect Jay Leno voice] 'You've got to do more jokes.' My style is more observa- tional. I was influenced by Lenny Bruce, early George Carlin and Richard Pryor. And 'Monty Python,' which was very sarcastic and done in a silly way. It's about an attitude and sketches so clubs are a bit harder for me. CM: Is comedy more of an ar t or a science? DC: Well you can definitely teach it to some- one…Par t of comedy is surprise: when you think you are going one way and then you go that way. It's like the joke, 'I found out my 10- year-old son is visiting S&M clubs.' [Pauses a beat.] 'Well we can't spank him.' CM: Do you still bring out any of your old "SNL" characters? DC: Oh yeah, I'll bring out Church Lady. [In Church Lady's snippy, nasally voice] 'Well isn't 'My father was an orphan and grew up in foster homes and had help from similar organizations.' Photo: USA Network Media, LLC