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The Soul Man Returns From the supernatural to slot machines, Dan Aykroyd is still connected to his roots By Melissa Fine
On the cable network Comedy Central, you can still catch reruns of the classic Saturday Night Live skits that catapulted the Canadian comic to superstar status in the ’70s. Whole new generations are discovering why Aykroyd is considered one of comedy’s great geniuses, both as a writer and as a performer. Sure, the young ones tuning in may not fully appreciate just how dead on–and dead funny–his take on Jimmy Carter was, but they are still rolling over his blood-spurting Julia Child, his "wild and crazy" Czechoslovakian brother (with Steve Martin), and his sleazy seller of broken glass shards. "The invention of silver nitrate emulsion on celluloid changed the world," Aykroyd says of his continued popularity. "A thousand years from now, Buster Keaton, Chaplin, the Keystone Cops…they’ll all be remembered and their skits will be quoted. It’s kind of a long ream of television and film history. I’m just one marching journeyman soldier in that long ream of tape and VCR and film that’s out there recording some great, great moments, and some, not so great."
"You can’t do this stuff alone," he says. "You have to be with the right people. Any success I’ve had in my career is because I’ve worked with the best. I’ve worked with people smarter than me." With respect to Saturday Night Live, he freely admits there was something unique and special about the original cast. And his list of people to thank for that is long and varied. "I think it was Lorne [Michaels, creator and executive producer of SNL] knowing where to go, to pick the talent from Second City [the world-famous improvisational comedy troupe]," Aykroyd says. "It was the training we had." His speech then speeds up, recalling more influences and rattling them off in an almost breathless succession. "I have to thank my high school teacher, Brady Long, in grade 12, for putting me in plays, and the fact that the school I went to had an in-the-round theater, like a mini Stratford, Shakespearean, Avon-type theater. Paul Sills and Viola Spolin, who wrote the book on improvisation and started the Compass Players in 1957. They started an entire generation that goes right today to Mike Myers, the biggest star we have in comedy…him and [Jim] Carey, and [Adam] Sandler. Mike Myers was out of Second City…that solid tradition right back along through Shelley Berman, through Gilda [Radner], [John] Belushi, [Bill] Murray, [Catherine] O’Hara, Eugene Levy, David Thomas, Rick Moranis, myself. There was that school, there. And then there was an incredible fostering of a community of creativity at Saturday Night Live that let us do anything. So it was all about collaboration." Collaboration and a colorful past. Throughout his life, both onscreen and off, much of what he has created can be traced back to his never-forgotten roots. From his father, who used to read journals from the American Society for Psychical Research, he inherited a fascination with the paranormal. For those of you who thought Aykroyd hosted the 1996 television series Psi Factor: Chronicles of the Paranormal on a lark, you’d be mistaken. He is, himself, a proud, card-carrying member of the ASPR. "You get into so many areas when you want to talk about the extra-dimensionality of it all," he states enthusiastically. "That we only see four dimensions, yet 11 exist. Some can be a millimeter away from us. You get into quantum physics and the states between matter and the universe and how it’s the same in the dark space. The fact that, really, matter has a body to it. That there’s no such thing as just ether or space. The anti-matter concept. All of that. I think it’s genuine. And the ASPR is the foremost body in the world that supports housing these records and books. It’s a fascinating building on 73rd Street in New York City. They are an offshoot of the British Society for Psychical Research from the turn of the century. They are legitimate investigators. Their journalists are very statistically oriented, with scientific analysis." From that interest came what was arguably the most successful comedy of the 1980s, Ghostbusters, which Aykroyd co-wrote with fellow actor/comedian, Harold Ramis. "That came out of an article I read in the Psychic Research Journal about quantum physics and parapsychology," Aykroyd explains. "And then watching the old Bowery Boys movies, the Ghost Chasers, and the old Bob Hope ghost movies, and all those comedies they did in the 1930s. And I thought, let’s try to revive them and let’s apply some of the modern technology and terminology and the real science that people actually use in trying to take pictures and hear sounds and record electronically on film, with [real] audio and visual, events and occurrences. There are drawers and drawers of videos and tapes at the ASPR." And from this, it was just a small mental hop to an interest in UFOs. "The UFO thing, I think it’s related in a way. It’s very simple to figure that out. That’s just a billion years of technology on us. These are machines. They have a spark that keeps them going. They’re made of alloys. They’ve got sensors. They are material things that just have harnessed space, time, and can skip between the dimensions. To me, some species seem to be benevolent to earth, and some do not. And I think we should assume a defensive posture there and don’t just rush with open arms into all that. "I’ve been reading this stuff for years, and I’ve had contact with experts in this field. I’ve interviewed the leading experts in most of these things. Cattle mutilations, crop circles… I’ve talked to these people, and they’re all credible. I’m a believer, just like half the world is. The other 50 percent are skeptical, and that’s good. We need the skeptics to sort out the bullshit and the hoaxes." The career connection? The classic "Coneheads" skits, states Aykroyd, were a "direct derivative" of his exposure to the realm of UFOs. From his grandfather, a career Royal Canadian Mounted Police Staff Sergeant, came an interest in law enforcement that has spanned a lifetime and led to little-known, off-screen pursuits in the field. At Carleton University, he majored in sociology, studying criminology and deviant psychology. Again, he is quick to recognize outside influences. "I had a great instructor in criminology," he says, "and some great sociology teachers. I wrote some papers on it. I’ve always been fascinated by outlaw bike clubs, so I wrote a paper on outlaw motorcycle clubs in the Detroit/Windsor region. I also wrote about the Detroit mafia welfare system." Though he left the university without a degree, the interest bloomed into full-fledged involvement with youth anti-crime education in his adult life. "Until recently, when my chief died, I was a reserve captain with a four-year citation and a citation for public duty in the city of Harahan, Louisiana, near New Orleans," he says with pride. "We did some youth anti-crime education, talking to the kids. We did a poster for awareness. Also, through my foundation, which funds law enforcement causes, I kept a couple of officers on the street a few years longer than they might have been able to stay there, given the budget. I worked with an incredible chief, J.J. Doyle, an ex-Marine, ex-FBI Academy…one of these amazing, common-sense policemen. Unfortunately, he died of pancreatic cancer last year, and my commission is in suspension until I go down there and meet Peter Dale, who is the new chief. I’m sure," he states confidently, "I’ll continue my association with that fine department and its officers." Even the highly memorable, and equally nauseating, "Bassomatic" skit was spawned from his family life. "I actually saw my aunt do that," he reveals to my astonishment, "and that’s where I got that. She was a gourmet chef, and she put a whole bass in a blender. I couldn’t believe it! She used it as a soup, and it was delicious! She did it in her kitchen in Montreal. My eyes popped out when I saw that! That was ten years before I wrote the thing. She was the Julia Child of Canada for a while."
So what, you may be wondering, does any of this have to do with casinos or gaming? Well, as a matter of fact, Aykroyd is no stranger to casinos. In the guise of Elwood Blues he and partner Jim "Zee Blues" Belushi have performed sold-out Blues Brothers concerts in casinos across the nation. And now, in a brand new show, the duo will be touring with, "Have Love, Will Travel." "[These are] some new characters," Aykroyd states, his speech once again speeding up to match his enthusiasm. "It’s kind of a crisper sound. A little bit more of a review feel to it. The Blues Brothers is a very formal show, believe it or not, if you can think of The Blues Brothers as very formal and disciplined. But it is a Chicago/Memphis fusion show, and the other show is a Texas/California/Louisiana show." Though "Have Love, Will Travel" features Aykroyd and Belushi sans hats and glasses, there are times when they "channel" other personalities. "Sometimes we are taken over by the personas of ‘Full Daddy Diamond’ and ‘Bad Daddy Sweet,’ he explains. "It’s like a trance state occurs and we become these personas. "It’s exciting, having these two big music reviews out there. One, a formal, disciplined, Chicago/Memphis fusion, and the "Have Love, Will Travel" Texas/California/Louisiana fusion, where we don’t wear the shades, we don’t wear the hats. We go out and we connect a little bit more with the audience on a more intimate basis. But people in the casino are going to get the full blown, formal music Blues Brothers show, and that is characters and that is hats. That’s the full, formal presentation, which I can tell you is quite moving because we have a tribute to John [Belushi] in that." Surprisingly, when in Vegas, the duo doesn’t normally play the ultra-hip House of Blues (of which Aykroyd is a co-founder and co-owner) at Mandalay Bay. "We’ve actually been playing at the Aladdin because it’s a bigger room than House of Blues. And House of Blues has been very, very busy, with all the terrific shows they’ve been having coming into town. So whenever we’ve played Las Vegas, it’s been at the Aladdin. We like that room. We like the sound in there. It’s great for our band, because we’re a horn, guitar, vocal band. We like the stage, and they’ve treated us really well. So that’s our home venue for the bigger concerts. Now, obviously, for things at House of Blues…it’s always fun to play the home house. We have amazing partners there–Mandalay Resorts–incredible partners there. They’ve been so great. It’s been a wonderful experience." He also confesses to enjoying the casino experience. "I like the $5 slots and I like the roulette wheel. I bet only the black or red colors and try to gauge the runs and try to dodge the zeros. It’s just fun. I don’t expect to make anything. "The best thing to do if you want to make money in gaming," he suggests, "is to buy a basket of stock like Harrah’s and Mandalay and Park Place and MGM Mirage. Buy those stocks and put them away and watch them double in ten years. You’re going to double your money in ten years in gaming stocks." Today, the casino connection goes way beyond just playing the slots and buying stock. Now, Aykroyd is the slots. Bally Gaming has just released five new Saturday Night Live-themed slot machines, and of them, Aykroyd’s characters are featured on three. There’s "The Blues Brothers," where players can groove to a "Soul Man" soundtrack while spinning for the big hit; the "Coneheads" slot, featuring Aykroyd as "Beldar," and "Saturday Night Frenzy," where Aykroyd makes a cameo as a multiplier in the guise of "Leonard Pinth-Garnell," along with Belushi as the "Samurai" and Gilda Radner’s "Roseanne Rosannadanna." (The other two slots in the series are based on Dana Carvey’s "Church Lady" and "Pumping Up With Hanz & Franz," featuring Carvey and Kevin Nealon as the dense Austrian weightlifters.) The slots came about with an approach to Lorne Michaels.
The slots made their worldwide debut exclusively at Atlantic City’s brand new megaresort, the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa. Forty of the SNL games are featured in a special themed area on the casino floor. To commemorate the event, Aykroyd and Jim Belushi as The Blues Brothers rode into the Borgata on Harley Davidsons to do a ceremonial first pull on a Blues Brothers slot. Later, they performed in the resort’s event center to a full crowd of fans. At the end of our talk, I couldn’t resist asking Aykroyd to speculate on how John Belushi and Gilda Radner would have felt about gracing a glittering slot machine. "Given today and their long history, I’m sure they’d approve," he says, adding, "In their day, I don’t know. Gilda probably would have gone along with it because she was like so many people I’ve seen at slot machines. I could just see her with a bucket full of coins. She was all about fun and getting out and laughing and doing things in life that give you a spurt of adrenaline like a slot machine does when you hit, or miss. John…well, back in the day, we were less prone to commercialize things. We could have done a lot more with The Blues Brothers, but we chose not to. But today, the history is there, and it’s good to remember things like the Samurai and the beautiful things he did. And if this is a way to bring them to mind for people, that’s great." SIDEBAR: Live, From Your Casino, It’s… The Slots!
On The Blues Brothers slot, a straight multiplier, it’s the music in the bonus game that makes the machine. The hip Blues Brothers bonus symbol, featuring Aykroyd and John Belushi in their trademark dark glasses and black fedoras, is wild with a winning combination and triggers the bonus event. Players then hit the "Spin" button for a chance to win up to 5,000 credits or from two to 25 times the winning combination. The Coneheads is presented on the EVO HYBRID platform, allowing for the fun of a reel spinner along with vibrant bonuses played out on the LCD screen. The game offers two bonuses. The first, called the "Back To Remulak" bonus, prompts players to choose one of three spaceships. The craft then lands on one of five planets, revealing a bonus multiplier. This bonus value is multiplied by a multiplier assigned to the spacecraft you choose to determine the total bonus award. While that bonus event is cute, it’s the "Senso-Ring Toss" bonus that will have you laughing out loud. You choose either "Beldar" or Jane Curtain’s "Prymaat" and proceed to try and satisfy their, um, romantic needs by tossing the furry Senso-Rings onto their enormous bald heads. The animation is hysterical and the comments as the Rings are thrown stick to the original classic skits. On both bonus rounds, the interactive element is a hoot, and the amount of credits up for grabs is enough to make you want to keep on playing.
"Pumping Up With Hans & Franz" is another EVO HYBRID SLOT. Audio clips, music, and comical cartoon animations are taken directly from the popular sketches that featured Dana Carvey and Kevin Nealon. When three credits are bet and a "Pump You Up" symbol appears on the third reel of the center payline, the video screen transforms into Hans and Franz’s gym, "The Pumpatorium." The player can then select either Hans or Franz, who then begin flexing their muscles. The closer they get to their maximum "pumpitude," the bigger the bonus, which is displayed on–what else?–the "Pump-O-Meter." Finally, the "Saturday Night Frenzy" slot pays homage to the original cast, capturing the spirit of Saturday Night Live in the icons chosen to represent the show and the colorful graphics on the machine itself brilliantly. And the game, based on Bally’s unique four-reel, three credit multiplier Bonus Frenzy slot series, is a blast to play. That fourth reel springs to life, multiplying a regular three-reel win by 2X, 5X or 10X. In addition, the fourth reel contains a "Re-Spin" symbol, which re-spins any winning combination (except the top award) from one to four times. Each of these games are available as linked progressives that reset at $10,000. However, the progressive potential is really just icing on the cake. These games are a lot of fun to play, with or without the possibility of hitting a huge jackpot. To read Casino Player in its entirety CLICK HERE to subscribe. |
