Dana Carvey Returns to David Spade Podcast After Son’s Death: “Riffing With You Is Going to Be Very Healthy for Me as I Recover”

Abbey White
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Dana Carvey thinks it’s going to be “really cool to laugh” as he returns to his podcast and continues to grieve following the death of his son Dex.

In his first Fly on the Wall podcast episode since last November, comedian and former Saturday Night Live castmember Dana Carvey returned to the mic with his co-host and friend David Spade. The duo took time out to address Carvey’s grief, while also discussing topics like Jo Koy’s Golden Globes gig, including that Taylor Swift joke.

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“If you’re listening to our podcast right now, you probably know about my family’s loss,” Carvey said while thanking people for their messages of support. “I thought about this over the holidays and decided to come back to the podcast because I think it’s a long day when you’re not working, and you get in your head.”

Carvey viewed his return to work in a positive light, adding that “it’s going to be a great break, and I think it’s really cool to laugh.”

Spade agreed. “We laugh a lot together when we’re together,” he told Carvey. “I like leaving you messages and trying to make you laugh because just, things in life happen, but we can move on.”

“Doing this and riffing with you is going to be very healthy for me as I recover, because I’m kind of on the pain train with millions of other people on this planet,” Carvey explained about his grief. “And you don’t know how long you’re going to be on it or when it will stop or when it will get better. But in the meantime, all this kind of stuff is very healthy.”

Carvey, who is behind famous SNL skits like “Wayne’s World” and “The Church Lady,” took a moment to acknowledge the people who have been reaching out to support him, his wife, Paula Zwagerman, and son Thomas.

While “very sweet,” he expressed that it’s ultimately “me and my wife and our son’s private journey,” and not something anyone can help him or his family with. “We’re all together,” he continued. “And we do a lot of fun things. We hike; we go to church. You just want to make sure you keep moving.”

Part of that outpouring of support came from the mother of a mutual friend, the late Chris Farley. Spade revealed she had sent him a letter following the news of Dex’s death.

Spade spoke about Carvey’s tragedy in the opening of the podcast’s prerecorded Nov. 22 episode, telling viewers that “Dana is obviously going through something semi-unimaginable right now, and I can’t even put it into words. Dana is one of my best buds, and it’s hard to watch this.” He then called Dex a “great kid” before explaining the remaining episodes for the year were prerecorded or best-of.

Carvey and his wife announced the death of their oldest son at 32 on social media, writing in Nov. 16 posts that, “Dex packed a lot into those 32 years. He was extremely talented at so many things — music, art, filmmaking, comedy — and pursued all of them passionately,” the statement reads. “It’s not an exaggeration to say that Dex loved life. And when you were with him, you loved life too. He made everything fun.”

Dex died on Nov. 15 of a drug overdose after being pronounced dead at home, according to the Los Angeles Examiner’s Office. In the wake of his son’s death, Carvey announced he would be “taking a break from work and social media — trying to figure out what life looks like now that we are a family of 3.

“We will heal the best we can and carry on,” he continued. “Our darling Dex would have wanted it that way.”

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