European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 17, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse Dana Carrey docs a George Bush imitation for the president and White House staff members last month. Arc Small his Mouth rather Odd and twisting. At 37, about the character. Innocence is the key. He has features that appear somehow unfinished or Quot you know what a lot of people forgot about. Diary and pleasant like an 8-Ycar-old�?Ts that Are still Johnny Carson is that he was not always this father getting used to one another. Just when their predict figure of comedy. When he started on the tonight table lines scam to blur into a kind of sameness show he was Young and thin. He created his own something rushes from Way Back usually from be cult. 1 remember seeing him on the cover of life Dana carves out a comedy Niche of Many face by Craig Wolff the new York times f or some Lime now Dana Carvey has been cultivating this vision for himself his creative fires unleashed he is making big Bright movies a modern Day Danny Kaye or Peter Sellers a Young Jerry Lewis fast and smart a throwback bringing the �?T50s alive the �?T60s alive Blazin Gly filling up summer nights the Way his idols once did Quot huge a he says of his dream. Quot it would be and difficult to surrender. But now the door to his dressing room at new York s Rockefeller Center is closed and he is contemplating a different vision. He is sitting slightly Forward in a big Black Recliner and his tags Are up. His hair is matted As usual As if he had fallen off a sled and lost his Winter hat. Quot yeah yeah a he says slowly. Quot pm thinking about the talk and then he is off. Quot it be a talk show a he says. Quot it would be like my own comedy playhouse. It would be a blast. I would improvise go into a thousand characters a thousand attitudes. I would do my own set of characters just like Carson did his. A i would be the Guy going into the bowl of Honey. That s really neat live theater. It would be this comedy world where i could truly express myself with total control and it is late on a Friday evening during one of those mad scrambling endless nights that help saturday night live achieve the excited disorder of a show being put together no matter what. But for the moment the commotion of stagehands and writers Down the Hall on the set in studio 8h is but a far off hum to Dana Carvey. Clearly aware that he has become a subplot in All the intrigue surrounding David Letterman and Jay Leno which show each will be the Host of at what time on which network he is mulling Over the Quot left turn Quot that has Only recently appeared in his life. Abc has discussed with him the 12 30 . Position that Letterman is sure to relinquish. Quot a talk show my talk show would give me plenty of Freedom a he says but it would mean rearranging or even delaying the movie life. He has been working on a script for a movie called bad boys with Jon Lovitz a former cast member of saturday night live and was hoping that it would Start filming As Early As february the so Quel to Wayne s world the film that made his character Garth a Symbol of adolescent reverse Chic is to begin production in june. And then there a the working title of what he Calls his favorite film project Hans and ram the girly Man dilemma. There has always been about Dana Carvey a Quality that makes people wonder just who is this Guy in eight years on saturday night live he has Slid from character to character a from Church lady to Garth from George Bush to Ross Perot to Johnny Carson himself. He moves from a supporting role in one sketch to the Lead part in another and then Back again and during the shows final Good night ritual he a just one of the gang kind of slinking around with his sloping shoulders and a tucked to shirt. He has the same Demeanour he says whether he is lying around his House in los Angeles or running around the Central Park Reservoir near his new York apartment or even when he appears at the White i Louse at George Bush a request As he did last month. Carvey says it must be his face that causes the confusion. A Many people think in a just floating around and saying gee Aren t i Lucky to be Here a a he says. A but its not True. Quot if they connect the dots they la see i worked hard and put myself in this it is a face with a High Pale forehead. His Cheeks Hind the eyes to give them form and Light and the hint of Surprise. At the studio on this Friday night a it is close to 11 . A his wife Paula and Dex his 18-Mouth-old son wait and watch As Carvey moves serenely from one scene rehearsal to the next. Once Back in his dressing room where there is a sink his armchair a straight Back chair and an overhead speaker that announces the time of the next rehearsal he Springs at the slightest suggestion into character. Characters that is. He does not leave his chair. He has it reclining Back but he might As Well be bouncing off the Walls such is his sudden fever. Quot real fast now Sec Here a the Deal a Ross Perot says. Quot in be got movies. I be got to a Quot what is it going to be Quot Regis Philbin says in a Crescendo. A is this wild Quot Johnny Carson says with his Chin. Out. Quot this is just Quot wrong a blares John Mclaughlin. When his visitor in a by the Way moment lets on that he does the worlds Best Jerry Lewis impersonation Carvey reaches the Edge of his seat. Quot really Quot he says. Quot let me Quot no i done to think Quot come on Man a let it go a Carvey says and then with gentle prodding he begins to screech in his Best 1950 Jerry Lewis voice Quot Dee an and then his visitor loosened screeches Back. Quot thais the Way Quot Carvey says and he confides that he enjoys hearing other people do voices almost As much As he enjoys doing them himself. His colleagues at saturday night live say that Carvey a talents have helped redefine the show s sensibility and maybe a new comic attitude for the �?T90s the Way his forebears John Belushi Chevy Chase and Eddie Murphy once did an the Way let Terman has done Over the last decade. Belushi was angry. Chase was a Wise Guy Murphy was sarcastic. And Letterman is the cynical one persistently ridiculing the very medium in which he has thrived. Lome Michaels the show s executive producer says Carvey does not leave fingerprints. Robert Smi a gel a writer and one of Carvey a chief collaborators on the show says Quot Dana created a new kind of charismatic Persona which is about and Carvey settling finally Back into himself fully says Quot i feel alienated a Little bit from the 80s comedian the cynical hip quasi leading Man Guy who depended on pop culture references. To me its All Magazine in a Turtleneck sweater with a cigarette. He was coot. That s the Way it could be with a talk still leaving saturday night live would not be simple for Carvey because it is there that he was Able to break Loose not Only from show business tags but also from labels he had carried since childhood. His Mother called him her Little lord Fauntleroy and he would occasionally do performances in the living room for relatives. But As one of five children he had a kind of alternative existence with his three Brothers and their friends floating around san car los their Hometown in Northern California on their. Bicycles. As an 11-year-old, he would sometimes ride to a nearby mall run in to steal a Bike lock from a store go Back outside to lock up his bicycle and then run in to do More shoplifting. He says he carried on for some time like that before he was caught. He was barely known at his High school White inventing All kinds of stand up routines in his room at Home. Finally after graduating from san Francisco state University he made a Dent in the comedy club circuit first locally and then in los Angeles. And he began to gain interest from Hollywood casting agents who fed him a series of Small rotes in movies but saw him much the Way he had feared they would he was cast As a grandson of Mickey Rooney in a Short lived sitcom and As a fresh faced crime fighter in another show. There he was he says drawing standing room crowds in clubs up and Down the coast and a producers kept seeing me As Timmy from the Lassie show a finally in july 1986, lome Michaels accompanied by Cher saw him at in by a in West los Angeles and instantly recruited him for saturday night live. In Short order the shows vitality was restored As was Carvey a self Confidence. His first night on the show in the same Bland dressing room he sits in now he taunted himself in the Mirror with curses and threats. A i screamed at myself a done to fail a a he recalls. A a a be judicious a a in the dress rehearsal that night he starred in the last skit As Church lady it went Over so Well that Michaels moved him into the first position for the live show. But Carvey says that when he reviews tapes of that show he can detect the sweat on his Palms. A when 1 came Back to the dressing room after the show i knew that i had finally broken through a he says. Quot i sat Down and i sobbed like 1 never Page 8 a sunday. January 17. 1993
