Comedian Dana Carvey has found solace in staying busy, months after losing his son Dex, 32, to an accidental drug overdose.
Since announcing Dex's death in November, the “Saturday Night Live” and “Wayne's World” alum said he and his loved ones have spent time doing “a lot of fun things” like walking and going to church.
“You just want to make sure you keep moving,” Carvey said in his return to the “Fly on the Wall” podcast.
The humor and the resumption of his co-hosting duties with David Spade are a salve for his pain, Carvey said on Wednesday's episode, titled “Welcome Back, Dana!”
“I thought about this over the holidays and I decided to come back to the podcast because I think… it's going to be a break and I think it's going to be great to laugh,” he said at the beginning of the episode. .
Carvey returned to “Fly on the Wall” after a two-month break. The Emmy winner and his wife Paula Zwagerman announced Dex's death in a social media statement on November 16.
“It's no exaggeration to say that Dex loved life. And when you were with him, you loved life too. He made everything fun,” they wrote. “Dex was a beautiful person…he will be forever missed.”
Tributes to Carvey on “SNL,” including Kenan Thompson, Vanessa Bayer and Colin Jost, poured in. During a November episode of “SNL,” “Weekend Update” host Jost held a sign that said: “We love you Dana and Paula.”
In an Instagram post shared days later, Carvey thanked her followers and announced that she would be taking a break from work and social media to grieve, “now that we are a family of 3.” He and Zwagerman also share a son, Thomas Carvey.
“We will heal as best we can and move on. “Our dear Dex would have wanted it that way,” the statement said.
In a November episode of “Fly on the Wall,” Spade notified listeners of Carvey's hiatus and noted that a handful of episodes were pre-recorded prior to the comedian's absence.
Now back on Instagram and his podcast, Carvey poked fun at a variety of entertainment headlines with Spade, joking that awards season should be compressed into a single day and breaking down Jo Koy's gig hosting the Golden Globes.
“I think doing this and talking to you will be healthy for me while I recover,” he told Spade. “I'm kind of on the pain train… you don't know how long you're going to be on it or when it's going to stop or when it's going to get better. But in the meantime, all this kind of stuff is very healthy.”
Times staff writer Jonah Valdez contributed to this report.
