Day: June 15, 2008

Dana Carvey’s new hourlong HBO special, Squatting Monkeys Tell No Lies, debuted last night, and within a few seconds, you most likely thought to yourself…Dana Carvey? Whatever happened to that guy, anyhow? The next hour attempts to answer that question. And the answer is…He’s still here, ready to entertain you with silly voices and impersonations. Seriously, though. It had been six years since his last movie, 2002’s The Master of Disguise, came and went, so keep this in mind while you’re watching Carvey onstage in Santa Rosa, Calif., where he filmed this set in March. He’s catching up with us, and catching us up on him. In this sense, much of the hour shows us what we would have seen and heard him doing onstage over the past six years, which allows him to revisit Al Gore and delve into lengthier pieces on President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Ahnold (well, despite the hackiness of an Ahnold impersonation, he is still the governor of California). The jokes aren’t always timely — Carvey does try a quick bit on Barack Hussein Obama, comparing the likelihood of that name on a presidential candidate as Charles Manson Hitler. But then the comedian just as quickly veers back to the Clintons. The special puts Carvey in an extremely good light. Literally. He doesn’t seem as old as he is in...