Dana Carvey Opens Up About ‘Pain’ Of Son’s Death In Podcast Return

Dana Carvey is back at work roughly two months after his son, Dex Carvey, died from an accidental overdose in November.

The comedian, in a return to his “Fly on the Wall” podcast with David Spade, spoke on his son’s death at the start of this week’s episode and reflected on the “incredible” amount of support sent to him and his family.

“I thought about this over the holidays, and I decided to come back to the podcast because I think, you know, it’s a long day when you’re not working, and you get in your head. And I think it’s going to be a great break. And I think it’s really cool to laugh,” he said.

Spade, who launched the podcast with Carvey in 2022, noted “goodwill out there” before acknowledging that the late Chris Farley’s mother wrote a letter for Spade to give to his co-host.

Carvey said the support has been “very sweet,” telling Spade that the grieving process will be “me and my wife and our son’s private journey.”

Carvey said, “We’re all together. We do a lot of fun things. We really hike, go to church, you just want to be sure that you keep moving.”

He continued: “You just want to make sure you keep moving and, like I said, doing this and riffing with you, I think, is going to be very healthy for me as I recover because I’m kind of on the pain train with about millions of other people on this planet. 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 had been away from the podcast since Dex’s death in November as Spade stepped in to introduce a number of interviews with David Byrne, Dan Aykroyd, and Michael McKean.

The comedian, in a shared statement with his wife Paula Zwagerman back in November, wrote that Dex “packed a lot into those 32 years” of his life.

“He was extremely talented at so many things — music, art, filmmaking, comedy — and pursued all of them passionately. 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,” their statement read.

They addressed their son’s love for his family, friends, and girlfriend Kaylee before referring to Dex Carvey as a “beautiful person.”

“To anyone struggling with addiction or who loves someone struggling with addiction, you are in our hearts and prayers,” they wrote.

Dex Carvey, like his father and younger brother Thomas, was a comedian. He appeared in his father’s Netflix comedy special “Straight White Male” in 2016 along with “The Funster” miniseries and “Joe Dirt 2: Beautiful Loser.”

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