David Spade Is Making A Comeback
For better or worse...
This article is more than 2 years old
Back in the ’80s if you found yourself watching Saturday Night Live, you might occasionally think, “you know, SNL is good and everything, but this really needs someone who isn’t so much a comic actor as he is a comedian whose act revolves around him looking and speaking as if he’d rather be doing anything but making me laugh.” At least, you might be thinking that if Dennis Miller had the week off. But with the advent of the ’90s, SNL viewers no longer had to worry about whether or not Miller had the sniffles, because David Spade joined the cast. After the hit sitcom Just Shoot Me! and Spade’s film career fizzled out, the comedian fell off most radars for a while. But things are starting to look up for the Joe Dirt star. Among other things, Netflix will soon be streaming his stand-up comedy special, Nothing Personal.
According to People‘s description of the upcoming special, David Spade will riff on everything from “his disdain for crabs to his unique approach to turning down drugs.” Nothing Personal will be not only Spade’s first comedy special for Netflix, but his first stand-up special since 2014’s My Fake Problems from Comedy Central. Nothing Personal will be directed by Ryan Polito, who recently directed Jeff Foxworthy’s stand-up special The Good Old Days.
For good or evil, David Spade has slowly but surely been making his way back into the public consciousness over the past few years. His voice is regularly heard in the popular Hotel Transylvania films as Griffin, the Invisible Man. Spade and fellow SNL alum Dana Carvey kicked off 2022 with the new podcast Fly on the Wall. He was also one of the celebrities tapped to fill in for the disgraced Chris Harrison for the realty show Bachelor in Paradise last year.
David Spade has enjoyed a number of Netflix original appearances before now. He appeared with his old buddy Adam Sandler in both The Ridiculous 6 and The Do-Over. More recently he had the lead role opposite Lauren Lapkus in The Wrong Missy. Since early 2021, Spade has hosted The Netflix Afterparty, covering recent projects from the streamer.
In the arena of film, David Spade had his heyday alongside the beloved, late funnyman Chris Farley. As well as being good friends and SNL cast members, they made two movies together — Black Sheep and the much more well remembered Tommy Boy. Spade’s role was as straight man in contrast to Farley’s hyperactive, dim-witted, and big-hearted heroes. Their planned third film together never happened because of Farley’s fatal drug overdose in 1997. In spite of rumors that there was a break in their friendship before Farley’s death, Spade told Rolling Stone in 2014 that he didn’t attend his friend’s funeral because emotionally it was too much for him to handle at the time.
David Spade: Nothing Personal streams on Netflix starting Tuesday, April 26.
