Dana Thomas Carvey (born June 2, 1955 in Missoula, Montana) is a stand-up comedian and comedy actor.
He started his acting career with a few small movies, including Halloween II (1981) and This is Spın̈al Tap.
Carvey ultimately joined Saturday Night Live during its second Golden Age (1986-1993)note . Carvey's characters on SNL included the Church Lady ("Isn't that special?"), Garth of Wayne's World, President George H. W. Bush ("Wouldn't be prudent"), and numerous other celebrity impersonations, most notably Johnny Carson. (Fun fact: the same day he was invited to join SNL, he got another offer, to host Double Dare (1986)!)
After he left SNL, he starred in both Wayne's World films and The Master of Disguise with Jennifer Esposito. In 1996, he hosted The Dana Carvey Show, a Variety Show which was critically liked but had poor ratings. It also had among its writing staff future comedy stars Louis C.K., Steve Carell, Stephen Colbert, and (almost) Jimmy Fallon. He also appeared in the film Little Nicky with SNL castmate Adam Sandler.
His impersonations and their tropes:
- George H. W. Bush: Carvey's Cloudcuckoolander was a sort of Trope Codifier for other impersonators.
- He's impersonated almost every presidential candidate from the past thirty years.
Of the ones in that video, his George HW Bush and Ross Perot were used on SNL.
- He's impersonated almost every presidential candidate from the past thirty years.
- "A Grumpy Old Man": A... well.. Grumpy Old Man who reminisced about A Good, Old-Fashioned Paint Watching and When I Was Your Age... with the tag line "...and we liked it!"
- Lyle The Effeminate Heterosexual: essentially a highly Justified Mistaken for Gay.
- The Church Lady: a takeoff on fundamentalist Christians — she runs a talk show — that was quite successful despite (or because of) invocations of Poe's Law. She also drums.
- Garth Algar of "Wayne's World": a nerdy metalhead. (It should be noted Carvey based his portrayal of Garth off his own brother Brad Carvey, one of the co-creators of the Amiga-based VFX machine Video Toaster; correspondingly, Garth wears a T-shirt with a Video Toaster test card on it during Wayne's World 2.)
- Whitey Duvall in Little Nicky: A basketball referee character made by Adam Sandler.
- Hans of "Hans and Franz" ("Ve vant to pump [clap] you up!")
- John McLaughlin of The McLaughlin Group: WRONG!
His works include:
- Halloween II (1981): His first film.
- This is Spın̈al Tap
- Tough Guys
- Saturday Night Live: From which many of his characters come.
- Opportunity Knocks his first starring role (1990)
- Wayne's World: A recurring skit on SNL and two movies — he played Garth.
- Dana Carvey: Critic's Choice Carvey's first full-length stand-up special.
- The Dana Carvey Show: The Eponymous Show. The show also had a different sponsor each week with their name forced in as an homage to the shows of old e.g. The Taco Bell Dana Carvey Show.
- Clean Slate
- The Master of Disguise: Clearly trying to take advantage of Carvey's loads and loads of impersonations.
- Little Nicky: As Whitey Duvall.
- The Fairly OddParents! as Schnozmo, Cosmo's brother.
- Dana Carvey: Squatting Monkeys Tell No Lies, Carvey's second full-length stand-up special.
- The Secret Life of Pets as Pops, the resident Grumpy Old Dog
