Dave is “bursting with gratitude” after finally removing a rotting opossum from his block and throws it in a dumpster instead of giving it a “noble death.”
Riff on opossums as disgusting North American marsupials; asks listeners if there’s a grosser animal or another North American marsupial.
Reads an Instagram message from Case/Casey: binged almost all episodes, finally joined Patreon, 23 months sober off booze and stolen meds from nursing jobs, loved Dr. Giles in Ep 550, in a diversion program, big fan of Demerol, only criticism is Dave’s Pearl Jam hate.
Dave defends his Pearl Jam disdain but says he’d gladly have Eddie Vedder on and loved the Into the Wild soundtrack.
Lays out the “daily Dopey” plan: Monday replay (Charlotte McKinney), Tuesday Patreon teaser/Reddit Roundup, Wednesday Dose of Dopey (possibly Jason Williamson of Sleaford Mods), Thursday retro episode with Chris, asks for Chris-episode requests by email.
Spotify reviews, Theo Vaughn bleep & Tim Dillon
Reads Spotify comments: Laura Ann DiPiro on Laura Ann DiPiro episode sound being fixed by Howie; gratitude message; Todd Snider and Steve Poltz love.
Comment about him bleeping a comic’s name (Theo Vaughn) while mentioning David Spade; listener jokes he’s playing it safe hoping to book Theo.
Dave admits wanting Theo on, reads comments about “Many Rivers to Cross,” NA vs AA identity language, and Sober influencers.
Clarifies his stance: loves NA but it didn’t work for him; he says “alcoholic” in meetings and admits he misquotes AA literature and breaks traditions.
Shoutout to longtime Tim Dillon booking attempts; listener thinks Tim would be a huge guest.
Steve Cropper tribute & interracial bands riff
Pays tribute to late guitarist/songwriter Steve Cropper (Booker T. & the MG’s, Blues Brothers band, Green Onions, “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay”) and tells the story of Cropper finishing “Dock of the Bay” after Otis Redding died.
Plays short clips of “Green Onions” and “Dock of the Bay.”
Riff on “interracial bands”: lists Booker T. and the MG’s, Sly & the Family Stone, The Specials, Love (probably), Black Moon, Benny Goodman, Miles Davis groups, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Thin Lizzy, Hootie & the Blowfish, Dave Matthews Band; jokes that some were better than others.
Mountainside & Link Diagnostics ads
Mountainside: detox, 28-day, aftercare, origin of Dopey with Chris, locations in CT, NYC, Long Island; shoutout to John Jones with his phone number and mountainside.com/dopey.
Link Diagnostics: boutique tox lab for treatment centers, fast accurate results for emerging substances (kratom, mushroom chocolates, designer drugs), motto “stay positive and test negative.”
Voicemail: colonoscopy & propofol
Miles from California calls about a colonoscopy: anesthesiologist slowly pushes milky propofol while chatting so he “gets a nice feeling for a little while” then knocks out, but prep is brutal “explosive water” diarrhea.
Encourages Dave to get his colonoscopy, says propofol is worth it.
Dave jokes about wanting to be “milk-ed” with propofol and wonders why he’d get it without a colonoscopy.
Orchard on the Brazos & email: using in rehab
Orchard on the Brazos ad: Dan and Brandy, family-run Texas facility, private bedrooms, 132 acres, pond, tennis, gym, chef-prepared meals, “recovery that doesn’t feel like punishment.”
Email from Dylan in Canada about using fentanyl in treatment:
At 120 mg methadone + clonazepam in three-month rehab, gets welfare deposit, cabs to hospital and secretly scores a teener (1.75g) of purple “FETI” (strongest stuff).
Smokes on foil before returning; keeps smoking in room and dayroom, nods in front of nurse for 5 minutes.
Refuses UA, makes a scene, rehab can’t find dope/foil/straws and lets him stay; he still graduates.
Now three years clean, tapering methadone by 5 mg/month from 40 mg.
Dave praises Dylan’s story, jokes it restores his faith in Canadians and wonders if Dylan is a Pearl Jam fan, promises stickers/socks.
Dave’s own “using in treatment” stories & invitation
California detox: convinces Todd to visit with cigarettes, heroin, and a needle; shoots dope in treatment dayroom and later leaves, wasting his dad’s money.
Earlier rehab: young woman gave him Elavil (downer) and he got high before discharge.
Clarifies: most satisfying thing is actually getting sober, not using in treatment; invites “using in treatment” stories via email and emphasizes he’s not recommending it.
Recovery Unplugged ad
Music-based treatment centers in FL, TX, VA, TN, SC, NJ.
Higher long-term recovery rates, accepts insurance, in-person and online.
Collaboration with manager Doc McGhee on the Elsewhere If program for touring musicians and crew.
Repeats that you don’t have to be a musician to benefit.
Main interview: Darrell Hammond
Opening: “I didn’t do as well as I wanted to”
Darrell says he feels he didn’t do as well as he wanted in his career despite being one of SNL’s longest-tenured cast members and current announcer, with a book and documentary.
Dave frames him as hugely successful; Darrell says feeling “not enough” is just his nature.
Comedy Cellar & distractions
Both talk about how distracting crowds, blenders, plates, noise, and outdoor shows can wreck sets.
Darrell describes doing the “worst show of his life” at an outdoor Hall of Fame gig next to LaGuardia with nonstop planes; he feels betrayed but powers through and emphasizes never letting the crowd feel you hate them.
First drinks & baseball curveballs
First drink at 14: stolen six-pack of Busch beers in a Southern ditch under magnolias and Australian pines; two beers turn his world from black-and-white to color—suddenly he likes himself, feels good, sees himself as a good ballplayer.
Baseball story: two doubles off an “impossibly talented” pitcher called CPR Bro after correctly guessing curveballs, practiced by hitting wiffle-ball curves—parallels between talent and intuition.
Feeling outside & impressions as entry pass
As a kid and young adult he feels he doesn’t belong and is “anxiously apart from” the world.
Impressions (coaches, parents, celebrities) give him instant entry and acceptance—especially making his mother laugh and feeling oxytocin-type relief.
Discusses the “antecedents” of alcoholism: didn’t want to face that trauma and parenting played a role, so he preferred to believe it “came from nowhere.”
Trauma, flashbacks & the doctor’s psychodrama
Describes multiple psych hospital stays and misdiagnoses (psychotic, schizophrenic, borderline, bipolar, sociopathic) before meeting one doctor who uses psycho-theater/“chair work.”
Doctor has him play both himself and his mother in a structured dialogue; buried memories come back in pieces, not all at once.
He talks about the Jekyll/Hyde element of alcoholism—rage that feels like another person—and Bill W’s line about “seemingly without provocation” while realizing he often did provoke situations.
Abuse, self-blame, and the need to protect the parent
Revisits abuse memories (hands slammed in doors, being left places) and explains how he blamed himself (“I slammed my own hand in the door”) because admitting his mother didn’t love or protect him felt like a path to insanity.
Says the brain won’t let you think something that would send you permanently over the edge, so it chooses self-blame instead.
Alcohol as problem solver & limited cocaine/crack
Calls alcohol a “problem solver” that showed up to fix terror and unprocessed anger.
Clarifies he wasn’t actually a crack addict—did coke heavily for about four months and used crack once—but mostly his addiction was whiskey/John Barleycorn.
Dave jokes that Google says “crack addict”; Darrell corrects the record.
The crack-house on 137th Street
After SNL, drunk on Jäger in Washington Square Park, a huge guy invites him to “hit the pipe.”
They go to a real Harlem crack house; the owner thinks Darrell is police, but the big guy defends him: “He ain’t police. That motherfucker’s on TV.”
A topless woman across the room recognizes him: “That’s Clinton.” Darrell calls it the happiest he’s ever been.
He notices the 11th-Step (St. Francis) prayer written on the wall and has a psychotic-feeling moment that God is speaking to him.
Sponsor’s suicide and long slide
First big sober run: 5 years and 7 months of strong program in Orlando—radio job, weight loss, gym, colorful clothes, Emmet Fox “Seven Day Mental Diet” every morning.
Sponsor is fired for being gay in a conservative Southern environment and later tells Darrell he’s in love with him; Darrell gently rejects him.
Sponsor dies by suicide with a .357, closed casket because of injuries; Darrell gets a voicemail from the man’s young daughter saying their dad killed himself.
He internalizes blame (“I partially caused this”), spirals into deep guilt, starts dressing in black and stops trying as hard at life, and then relapses; never gets past a few years sober again for a long time.
SNL, drinking, and cutting
When he gets SNL, he does not drink on “game day” because he respects the danger and stakes of live TV; he drinks during the week and after the show.
Cutting first starts at 19, disappears, then comes roaring back in his 30s and early 40s at the height of his career.
Explains cutting as:
Creating a solvable crisis that temporarily distracts from overwhelming internal panic/flashbacks.
A visible sign/billboard saying “I’m hurting; someone notice.”
He hides cuts junkie-style (long sleeves, keeping it under wraps); says Lorne doesn’t micromanage behavior as long as “the ball goes over the fence” on Saturday.
Therapy, diagnoses & acting work on meds
Talks about being misdiagnosed with multiple disorders before that key trauma-focused doctor.
Mentions acting work: Damages, Law & Order: SVU, and Criminal Intent; says he did well in some, but on Lamictal he felt emotionally dulled and couldn’t respond properly to intense scene partners like Vincent D’Onofrio.
Impressions, Comedy Cellar & finding the “funny”
Early on, NYC clubs reject impressionists as “prop acts,” which feeds his imposter syndrome.
He eventually reframes impressions as “the way God instructed me to be funny.”
Uses Comedy Cellar stage to workshop characters like Al Gore hundreds of times, learning to exaggerate like a Hirschfeld caricature rather than just “match sonar blips” of a voice.
Talks about Jim Downey walking in with a fully formed Gore take before the 2000 debates—syrupy, overbearing school-teacher vibe that finally makes Gore funny.
For Clinton, he invents the now-iconic thumb-and-lip combo at the Cellar; recognizes Clinton as someone who genuinely loves being Bill Clinton.
Shares stories of Bill Clinton’s charisma, work ethic hosting SNL, talking to grips and gardeners, and his view that what’s most personal is most general and funniest.
Stroke ward, terror, and surrender
Describes the stroke: artery blockage, six specialists working on him, feeling his throat cut open for surgery and later feeling like he’d been thrown onto bricks.
In the stroke ward he hears what he thinks are children but learns it’s adults newly told they’ll never speak again, trying to talk; that sound haunts him.
Realizes “I did this”—his thinking and drinking drove him into the ambulance and ward.
This is the event that finally makes him desperate enough to accept he’s the problem, give up his own ideas, and beg for a new way to live so he never goes back there.
Program today, “law of threes” & connection
Daily routine: cognitive therapy, exercise, yoga, meditation, meetings, deliberate connection with others.
Uses the “law of threes” from Olympic training: one-third of days feel great, one-third are okay, one-third suck—and that’s normal.
Believes connection is the antidote to whatever he is.
God, Einstein, babies & serenity
Shares a long riff on Einstein watching a girl and a train, gravity applying different force, and “God does not play dice with the universe.”
For him, whoever can hang planets, spin a water-covered Earth exactly, and create babies being born is, by human definition, “God.”
Admits he used to bargain with God for revenge, awards, and an Oscar/Emmy/Tony/Grammy/Drama Desk, but now sees what he really wanted was inner peace.
Imaginary God answer: He’s not killing anyone or handing out awards, but He can offer serenity and peace of mind—Darrell accepts that deal.
Religion & closing
Shares Mary Shelley’s line as his “religion”: “To improve myself and to contribute to the happiness of others.”
Dave runs a “This or That” game that Darrell mostly refuses to answer (too much love/respect for many choices), but he does pick: Stones over Beatles, booze over coke, Clinton over Bush, oxy over Percocet, Ativan over Klonopin, Porky over Daffy, New York over New Orleans, Depakote over lithium.
They acknowledge imposter syndrome, how impressions are God’s way of instructing him to be funny, and how recovery is built on admitting he can’t run the show.
Outro: Patreon, Safe Spot, stickers, mustard, and recovery
Dave calls the conversation soulful, sad, and satisfying; invites feedback at dopeypodcast@gmail.com and reminds listeners about Patreon (ad-free, extra shows, Wednesday recovery Zoom, monthly Patreon Zoom—moving it to Sunday because he and Linda are going to see Andrew Dice Clay).
Does a quick Dice impression: “Jack and Jill went up the hill…” into “she needed the money.”
Safe Spot plug for people wanting to get high without dying: 1-800-972-0590, Kimber and Steven.
Customstickers.com ad: fast, high-quality stickers, 20% off for Dopey fans.
Mike’s Amazing mustard and mayo shoutout as “very high quality products.”
Rant about hating social media, sucking at it, Instagram being at risk again, and the Trey Anastasio thing; says it’s stressful and not rewarding.
Reflects on sleep, Stranger Things putting him to sleep because Linda only allows watching late with lights off and no phone.
Ends with a clear statement that recovery is the best thing that ever happened to him, followed by family, Dopey, and Katz’s (order adjusted depending on who’s listening), and a Steve Cropper RIP/Blues Brothers plug.
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