Mornin Bitches
A cursing, foul mouth old ladies take on the present world!!! Filled with her opinions, views on current events, and special guest appearances!
Mornin Bitches
Persistence and Success in the Capricious World of Hollywood
Ever wonder what it takes to make it in the competitive world of show business? Join us as we tackle that question with our guest, the accomplished actor and comedian, Dan Baakedahl. In a riveting conversation, we traverse through his unique journey, starting from his early days as the youngest of seven in a family where entertainment was everything, to his experiences with Second City, The Daily Show, and Hollywood. Marvel at his resilience as he shares about navigating the aftermath of 9/11 and surviving the LA writer's strike before landing opportunities that skyrocketed his career.
Our conversation with Dan takes a profound turn as we enter the world of improvisation – a massive influencer in his career. From his early association with Second City. Dan’s anecdotes are both hilarious and insightful. As we wrap up, Dan shares his audacious ambitions and his deep-seated appreciation for his life and career. Buckle up for a wild ride through the vibrant, unpredictable, and exciting world of show business with Dan Baakedahl.
MORNIN BITCHES PODCAST
Morning bitches and dolls, and no one told you they love you today and I love you because you're you and I've got my friend Dan pronounce your last name because it's funny the way you said it Back at all.
Speaker 1:Back at all, back at all baby. All right, I'm very excited and I just can't hide it, okay. So, as you all know, on my TikTok Bobby thing, on TikTok, my podcast, I like to have people who inspire me and people who have trudged their road through their career, and let's talk to Dan. So, dan, tell me, how did you get into show business?
Speaker 2:I was the youngest of seven. That's probably the first part of it. When you're the very youngest of seven kids in the 70s, you either learn how to smoke cigarettes real fast or you learn how to be funny.
Speaker 1:Which one did you do I?
Speaker 2:didn't start smoking cigarettes till I was 20. I was an idiot, but yeah. So I mean I was the family mascot, for lack of a better term. My oldest sister would take me to school for show and tell when I was pre-school age and she was in high school. So I learned real quick that being entertaining was a good thing. George Carlin said it best. He was like you know he would go don't hit him, man. Bad luck to hit a guy like that, and I was like all right, that's what we're going to do.
Speaker 2:If you're just crazy enough, they'll be afraid of you.
Speaker 1:Ah, so you were already funny when you were kid. You came out of the chute, so to speak.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my dad was really. My father was very funny, and my grandfather and my mom's side was also very funny, so we had it coming and going. But it also came with the bad temper and a bunch of other substance abuse. All kinds of good stuff.
Speaker 1:All right, so where are you from? Where do you hail from?
Speaker 2:I hail from Rochester, minnesota, and then grew up in Florida and then I spent a lot of my time on the road. 10 years in Chicago. I'm all over the place, but if I was just telling my wife yesterday, I still think Chicago is home.
Speaker 1:Oh, you fell into Chicago and I saw that you were in Second City.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I got the pleasure of doing the Second City Main Stage, which is the big one. That's the one. Bill Murray and Gilda Radner and Tina Fey, on and on and on they all did that show and I got to do that. I did almost exactly one year on that stage, but I worked at Second City for about six or seven years.
Speaker 1:And then what happened, so to speak?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I got the Daily Show and that they keep.
Speaker 1:Oh, you know that, oh, my God.
Speaker 2:They auditioned. Every year they would come to Chicago and audition a bunch of improvisers, a bunch of stand-ups, a few actors, and then they'd go home empty-handed. And this one year they had a ton of writers there that were Chicago Second City folks at Colbert and at Daily Show. And this one year, I guess I prepared properly and I knocked it out of the park and I got the job and moved to New York. My plane landed September 11th 2005.
Speaker 1:Okay, December 11th by day.
Speaker 2:Well, that's the only reason. I remember it was because I was flying over New York and they had the big, they had the tower lights on so I could see where the World Trade Center had been. And I was like, oh right, of course it's September 11th. And I was there almost exactly two years. And then, when that contract was up, I moved to Los Angeles. I moved to Los Angeles thinking you can't make a living in New York, you better get the hell out of here, Go to Los Angeles. You know I'm not gonna act like I got great common sense.
Speaker 1:So we came to LA. Then what?
Speaker 2:Well then we didn't work. There was a writer's strike at the time, 2007, 2008. And so there was no work. So I just threw myself into hiking and hanging out with my family and trying to get to know the city and everything. And then it took a couple of years to kind of get my feet out here in LA and I got a few nice little breaks here and there.
Speaker 2:I did a pilot with Larry Charles. Larry was there's two Larry's, there's Larry David and Larry Charles, who were both instrumental in Seinfeld, and Larry Charles was a little further back in the scenes and he was doing a pilot that I got cast in. That was an improvised. There was a structured but improvised thing and, man, I had an amazing time and it didn't get picked up. Nothing ever happened with it. But Larry kind of kept me in his orbit and he brought me on to curb then for an episode that was shooting in New York, ironically or not. So I went back to New York and did an episode of curb and while I was there, my agent at the time was at an improv show and there was a producer sitting next to him who said, hey, who do you handle? And he told him you know this person that many goes, oh yeah, and he mentioned my name and the guy went, oh, I would love to work with him. And he said, well, he's in town right now. He's going back to Los Angeles tomorrow. And the guy said, well, if we pay to keep him here, can he do this little you know industrial film we're doing? And so I stayed and I did this you know really cool little industrial film making fun of LeBron James, which then parlayed into doing a thing with Kenny Main for ESPN.
Speaker 2:And before I knew it, I had put together like four jobs in a row after not working for a year and a half. And I put together these four little jobs. Nothing was big paying or anything. In fact I spent more money on plane tickets and hotels in New York than I made on the Caribbean Thieves, but that just kind of like work begets work. When I got home, I got the audition of a lifetime.
Speaker 2:I auditioned for a show that eventually ran on FX called Legit, which was with Jim Jeffries, who's a phenomenal standup and tremendous person and he's become a really great friend of mine, and we did this beautiful show about a twisted drunken drug addict stand up who's trying to turn his life around and the first step he takes in that journey is my younger brother has muscular dystrophy. In the show it's based on a real event in Jim's life and he decides we're bringing your brother, he's going to come stay with us in our house and that's the series. Is these two idiots trying to take care of this guy with MD? And then that just it all kind of snowballed. I did a bunch of little films with friends and the next thing I knew Veep came along. And once Veep happened it kind of put me into a new level when I would audition for things to be like hey, senator, and I go, it's Congressman, but oh wow, see, I don't know.
Speaker 1:I never know what anybody really does until, like, like, I've seen. You know, life in pieces I have watched. But I auditioned for that for a couple of different roles but didn't get it. But that's okay. I wish I'd have known that. Well, now you know it. Yeah, I did. Oh, lady, old lady, what else? What else do I have applied? And old lady.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that's the good that you know we need. Are you kidding me? I'll tell you what my favorite people to work with in the last 10 years have been three different old ladies and it sounds like name dropping, but it's I'm working with. I just worked with Carol Kane this last year. A legend, an absolute, an absolute. Can a woman be a mensher? A woman can be a mensch, right.
Speaker 1:Yes, a woman can be a mensch, of course.
Speaker 2:Yes, she's a friggin mensch Right, but you know, she and and Diane Weist and Helen Mirren, I got to work with all three of them.
Speaker 1:Oh my God. Well, I'm nowhere in that level, but I am my own thing, I'm just saying.
Speaker 2:I'm just saying you know, I love, I love the, the, the ladies that have been around and been doing it for a long time. They're more fun to play with. They just understand it in a way that they're just ready to roll man, they're ready to play.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. I love improv. I was with the groundlings in their classes for a few years 1980, 81, and mostly work. I love the groundling, mostly work with Tracy Newman being a singer. I did a lot of improvised singing, you know, which was my favorite thing to do, and Tracy Newman is a great teacher. Oh my God, amazing. She's a great person.
Speaker 2:So now I believe I was taught and I still believe that improvisation could save the world.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yes, let me say why?
Speaker 2:why, I think, and you tell me if you agree. But it's all about listening and communication and thinking hmm, what? What might they be trying to accomplish here? Can I help them get there? You know, and you know, maybe, maybe that's a bit codependent in thinking for the world outside, but you know, there are, there are ways to do it that don't don't have to go that far. And, and to this day I still I improvised. I did a show on Saturday night. I'm improvising a podcast with some friends right now. I try to improvise all the time as much as I possibly can.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, like you know, when I do my TikTok bubby, on on, on TikTok, that's improvising, different things I do, and even this to me is like I don't have a script. I bring different people in that are interesting or inspire me. You know it's my ideas and stuff and rearrange and listening is the most important thing.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. It's kind of becoming a lost art.
Speaker 1:Which actor said listening is all is the greatest actors in the world listen.
Speaker 2:Probably all the best actors have said that. I'm guessing, you know, because they're good listeners, they're listening to. Oh, you delivered a little differently that time, so now I can deliver it this way. You know, I mean in scripted work I improvise all over the place, maybe not in word, but I try, I tend to. When I'm performing, I'm trying to do it for the camera operators. That's what I'm playing for, because they're my first audience. You know they're the closest ones to me that are allowed to have a reaction and it's usually my goal, like if they're, if it's a comedy, my goal is to see them doing this, like the camera shaking, or you can just see that one eye that's not on the viewfinder, they spring it open because they're surprised at something they see. I'm always trying to play for those guys.
Speaker 1:I think that's great. I try and like, whenever, like when I was lucky enough to get the flaming hot Cheetos grandma thing, I improvise and did a bunch of different things, different, you know, things that they want me to do, or like they connected and I got really lucky with that. That director Wow, just amazing. He's a great director. His name is Nima Bond, he's just great. So you know, sometimes you fall into something. You never think that, oh, this is what I want to do, but all of a sudden you go in this direction, oh, that's what I'm supposed to do.
Speaker 2:Right. Well, you know, as a little kid we had a video camera and I saw my older brothers making a spoof of the Twilight Zone called the Toilet Zone, which was about a young boy who went to go pee in the middle of the night and there was toilet people in there and he flushed them and then he was relegated to live in the toilet zone and I didn't get to participate and I was jealous and I was mad. So as soon as they were done, I took the camera and I went and made my own version of I called it the Wacko Show. I was eight, so it was kind of a kind of an SNL or a oh God, what's the, what's the? Uh, uh, saka Tumi, come on.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:Laugh-in, laugh-in, yes, like a laugh-in. So I wrote my own sketches, I wrote my own news pieces, I wrote my own little blackouts, little jokes and stuff, and I recorded it all. I didn't have pants, so I was wearing my underwear and the whole thing. And then the reveal at the end of the whole thing was that newscasters are reporting the news and their underwear, and then I stood up and walked away in my underwear. Good joke construction for an eight-year-old, you know. But I just knew. I just knew that, like I like doing this better than anything else, I'm creating things for other people and I like to be in the room when they're watching it so that I get to be there for the laugh, which I later found out, you can do that by just being in the room in the first place and doing it live.
Speaker 2:And once I got to Chicago, my whole purpose in going to Chicago was you know, I worked with a theater company. I graduated from Florida State and then went to a repertory theater company out of Rockport, texas, that traveled the whole country and we went to Chicago and we saw the Second City and all the pictures on the wall. You know, I mean it's covered in pictures of yes, they're there too. Whoever you name them, they're there, you know. And I was like, oh my god, them too, and them, and them, and them. I gotta come here, I gotta do this. So I moved to Chicago with the express purpose of working at the Second City, and it took me, you know, I think I moved in October of 95 and I was working for the Second City by March of 2000.
Speaker 1:Hmm, wonderful, what a story. Oh my, and what sign are you, dan? I'm a Scorpio. Ooh, that's a hot sign, honey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't try to hide it, I guess I think every time I hear something about Scorpios I go, ah crap, yeah, that's probably true about me.
Speaker 1:You married, you happily married.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I've been married, for we just celebrated 20 years this year, my wife Irene and I, and we have two kids. We have a 16-year-old and a 12-year-old, and two dogs and four cats.
Speaker 1:Oh, so what do the kids really think of you?
Speaker 2:Well, my 16-year-old has just started watching everything, so they watched all of the Office and I have a bit part in one episode of the Office and they were like oh no, ew, dad, ew, like they don't like it.
Speaker 2:I have a friend who's a great filmmaker, who makes great animated stuff and feature films, and I did one of his films and my 16-year-old's favorite actor is in one of these films and I was like, hey, look, mark Proks is his name, he's in what we Do in the Shadows, the TV show. And I said, look, mark Proks is in this movie. And they were like I can't watch that movie because you're in it. And I said why not? And they said it's weird, it's gross. I don't know, it's odd. My son likes it. He and I watched all of the Goldbergs together. He started because at the time, during lockdown, adam Goldberg on the TV show at the very beginning was the same age. My son was at the beginning of lockdown, so we started watching it and he just loved it. And then I showed up and he couldn't have been more thrilled about it and then he was like where's Woodburn? Where's Woodburn? More Woodburn.
Speaker 2:So, you know they have their own individual reactions to it.
Speaker 1:And that's wonderful. My husband and I just celebrated our 20 years, all the ups and downs of our marriage, because we're seniors, so that's a whole different decades than you and your wife. So, if you would suggest anything to anybody that wants to go into acting or comedy, what would you suggest they do?
Speaker 2:That's a great question, because I always tell people look, I don't know what'll work for you, I just know that for me I knew going to Chicago and trying to get into that improv community which has changed significantly since the pandemic but is still alive and thriving but I knew if I could go there and I could compete with the people that were there.
Speaker 2:I stood a chance at getting SNL Mad TV, which was a show at the time, or the Daily Show, or we knew people that worked at Conan. We knew people that worked at the Tonight Show. I mean improvisers and actors from Second City and Improv Olympic in Chicago, going to all these shows and I thought, well, that's where you'll find out. You get in there and mix it up with those guys and you'll find out whether or not you got the chops. So that's my suggestion as always Move to Chicago, get yourself a crappy little apartment on the North side, walk to the theater, take classes, do shows, sit in with shows, watch every show you can play, every chance you get. I mean it's the 10,000 hours. I probably did my 10,000 hours in Chicago on a stage. Improv Olympic, in particular, before Second City, was where I did the majority of my work, which was just fully improvised work for drunken Chicago Cubs fans.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's so great, so I think we should wrap it up to anything that you wanna say to the world.
Speaker 2:Yeah, come on already. What the hell? That's what I wanna say to the world. You know what I'm talking about. Knock it off, let's you know. Come on man, how about that? If I ran for president, I would be like come on already. That'd be my slogan.
Speaker 1:Is that your slogan when you run for president? Is that what you're gonna say?
Speaker 2:My slogan is gonna be come on already. It'll be Dan Back-At-All 2028,. Come on already, although by then I'll be 60, so you know, do we really need another? I'm kidding.
Speaker 1:No no 60 is young compared to.
Speaker 2:I know I was-.
Speaker 1:Dan Back-At-All. I love that name. I have a new accent. All right, dan, back-at-all, thank you for coming into TikTok Bubbies whatever you want to call it, I'll be appreciated. I love you. You're great.
Speaker 2:You're gonna give me food, but no, no, you're supposed to give me food?
Speaker 1:No, no, you've got plenty of food in your house. You know you got it. You got it and I love you and I'll see you around the campus and it'll be up in a few minutes. Stand back at all. Thank you, bye. Thank you Bye.