Dan Soder's PERFECT Macho Man & Andre The Giant Impressions, WWE, Roman Reigns, Stand-Up Comedy

Dan Soder (@DanSoder) is an actor and stand-up comedian. He sits down with Chris Van Vliet at West Coast Creative Studio in Los Angeles, CA to discuss his lifelong wrestling fandom, his perfect impressions of Macho Man and Andre The Giant, the similarities between stand-up comedy and pro wrestling, dealing with hecklers, possibly doing more in the wrestling world, being a massive fan of Roman Reigns' transformation, and more!

 

Quote I'm thinking about: "You can't have a better tomorrow if you are thinking about yesterday all the time." - Charles Kettering

On WWE angles in early 2000s:

"Yeah, they used to do stuff in the early 2000s where you'd go, that's just ends the story, you just killed a guy. That's blunt force trauma. The Rock promo, where he cut on nWo when they first show up, where he goes through Hall, Nash and Hogan, unbelievable. I think it's when Hogan asked to take a picture with The Rock. It's unbelievable. Those promos are so great. They had magic backstage then, the ability of the end of the Attitude Era of like, floating into a promo." 

On who was Dan Soder’s guy growing up:

"Hogan, I was a massive Hulkamaniac. I mean, growing up an American boy in the 80s, Hulk Hogan, a dad that wasn't around, you're just like, Oh, that's my dad, yellow and red, let's go drop the leg on him, brother. And then as I got older, I started really loving the way Bret Hart worked. And I thought Bret Hart was cool with the leather jacket and long hair, but I think for me, it went Hogan, Austin, and then Savage when I got older, and I would start watching his matches, being like, Oh, he's the best. He made everyone look like a million bucks."

On his perfect Macho Man impression:

"Thanks to my roommate, Vic Garcia. He's a huge wrestling fan, and he's the one that brought me back. I had like, five years of not watching wrestling, didn't have a DVR."

On how he got it so perfect:

"I think it's how deep my voice is. I think naturally I have a deep voice. Well, my back to my buddy, Vic. We used to cut promos on each other about roommate stuff, where it'd be like, [Impersonates Macho Man] ‘Yeah, electric bill hasn't been paid, gonna be a little bit of a problem. Gonna be a little bit of a problem when they shut the lights, that's the night that the lights went out in Georgia, yeah!’ It's all fingers for me. If I get the little finger wag, if I'm standing up, you'll see me grab my belt. But that's always the like, he was old school Macho Man promos. He just whispers in a whisper, yo. And that's what I always thought was funny when I was little, where he'll just be like a dad getting mad, but he doesn't want to yell in front of his friends, where he's like, ‘I told you to pick up your toys. Yeah, I told you to pick up your toys. And those are all over the floor, yeah?’ Just like that, was always was what he reminded me of, of like a parent that wasn't trying to lose his sh*t in front of company." 

On his favourite modern match:

"There are modern matches that do strike that chord with me, specifically Omega Okada. But then I loved Omega Ospreay. Those to me were what I love about New Japan. New Japan for a while felt like music in Williamsburg in like, 2006 where you're like, Oh, you don't know about New Japan? You're like, you don't know about Wrestle Kingdom? That was what Chris Jericho did going over and have that match with Omega. It just brought in a lot of fans. Where you're like, oh, New Japan is unbelievable. And then you watch Osprey climb the rankings, and then that Omega Ospreay match, I was like that might be my favorite match of all time."

On potentially doing more in wrestling:

"In my career, I've been very, very careful not to get too involved with wrestling because I enjoy it too much as a fan. There's been ideas of me hosting a show about wrestling or something, or doing something more like a structured show, and I'm a kind of always just like can I just keep that for myself. I just like going. I like watching it, turning my brain off on the road and watching. I get so excited when I know there's a pay-per-view and I'm on the road and my openers have to just sit there and watch a laptop. Well, that's what happened with SummerSlam. I'm in a comedy club green room watching SummerSlam on my laptop. And they're like, 'You're up in five.' I'm like, 'Hold on, I gotta see who gets this.' I love it. It's just like a thing where I'll love it the rest of my life."

On possibly teaming up with Will Sasso:

"Sasso’s Hogan. I'm waiting for the day we can do Mega Powers. We've DM’d about it, about doing his Hogan. I would lose it, because his Hogan makes me laugh Because what he does the funniest is he does social Hogan. He does, like, ‘All right, dude.’ He does the very like, I'm having a casual conversation Hogan. And that makes me laugh. Sasso makes me laugh so hard, because he can do them all. I can only do Andre and Macho Man. I want to learn how to do Hawk from LOD."

On similarities between comedy and wrestling:

"I think there's also a big thing about wrestlers. A lot of times we're wrestling fans, and a lot of times comedians are comedy fans. So they get into it and they go, I remember this guy doing this and this. I think there also is borrowing, you see comics take stuff that you go, Oh, he got that from this guy, or he doesn't realize he's doing this guy. Because you look at Superstar Billy Graham and you're like, oh, he was the prototype for the entire generation I grew up on, and I didn't know who Superstar Billy Graham was. And then you start watching these old promos, and you're like this motherf*cker had everything. He had the rhyming, you know, like you see a little bit of Billy Graham in Macho Man. You see a little Billy Graham in obviously Hulk Hogan, but other ones too, and you're like, Oh, this guy just took all that stuff. And I think that's similar to comedy about how, like, certain comics can influence you." 

On dealing with hecklers:

"Sometimes I think of the old school clips. There's one where a guy jumps in the ring and on Nitro, and Scott Hall beats the hell out of them with Kevin Nash, which is a great clip. But that's kind of what it is where you go, all right, I'll give you a little, I'll do some talking back and forth, kind of like when a heel is walking to the ring, and someone's yelling, and they yell back a little bit, and then you go to the ring. But then if they jump the barrier, they're gonna get receipts, then you just kick them out. You're like, I don't want you here right now, because we're all trying to enjoy something. You know how a wrestler must feel, it's like you're trying to get actually violent with me. I'm not being violent, we're having a match. Then they come over and you're like, but I could get violent with you, you know? And that's kind of what it is like with a heckler where you're like, I'll give you a little bit, but if you start messing up the show, well then now we have a problem."

On the fear of bombing onstage:

"I think it's just kind of like probably in wrestling taking a hard bump. You just take a hard bump and you go, all right, do I like it? Or do I want to stop doing it? That was just never in me. I was like, This is so fun, because when it's good, it's great. Then I also really love comedians. I like being one of the boys, like in the locker room, I really do love it. I love talking about it. I love breaking down comedy. That's why what I was saying earlier about wrestling, fandom is so important to me. I want to keep that fandom because comedy, it is hard on comedy fandom when you're in it. But I still love it. I love when a new special comes out and I get to watch it, and I haven't seen whoever's run any of that material. It must be how wrestlers watch other companies pay-per-views. I imagine people in the WWE watch All In, it was unbelievable, Hangman Page and Moxley. That finale, just matches like that, where you've got to probably watch your buddies and go, Oh, I haven't seen him work in a while. This is unbelievable! I love this."

On Cody Rhodes vs. Dustin Rhodes:

"Unbelievable. I'm an only child, and I wanted a brother at that moment more than anything. And it was that match Cody Dustin Rhodes at Double or Nothing. And Jericho Omega was unbelievable. That whole pay-per-view was great. So great. And there was a moment, we were with a bunch of comics. We were supposed to do the Ric Flair roast that weekend, but he had heart trouble, so they cancelled it, but we still got tickets to Double or Nothing. So we were like, there's a bunch of comics. There was me, Mike Lawrence, Dan St Germain, Ron Funches, and we're all hanging out. We go backstage after the pay-per-view in the meet and greet area, and we're talking. And then JR walks by, and we all get quiet. And as he walks by, you just hear Ron Funches go, 'Man, we're f*cking nerds.' We all just went quiet like the President was walking by, because we're all like, as JR walked by, but that pay-per-view Moxley showing up, which again, like you said, there were rumors, but everyone was like, I don't think so. And then he shows up. And yeah, gives I mean, DDTs omega on the casino chips. That was great. I love wrestling. It's the best we get to go and, like, we just went to the Raw after SummerSlam, and I just loved it."

On Roman Reigns:

"That's been my favorite thing is watching Roman Reigns go from being a guy that everyone was like enough to everyone being like, I can't get enough. I need more, The OTC. And you gotta give credit where credit's due. Paul Heyman, baby. You wanna make someone legendary? I was on the same flight as Paul Heyman. I was working the club in Winnipeg, and WWE had a show up there. This is when Brock was still touring. So Heyman was with Brock, and our flight was Winnipeg. There's no direct Winnipeg to New York. It went Winnipeg, Minneapolis, New York. Heyman and I were on both the same flights. Didn't say anything the first flight was very early in the morning. In between flights, I went up to and I was like, 'I just think you're like, an elite manager and one of the greatest of all time. Anyway, thank you'. And that was all I needed from the advocate. And I was just like, yeah, that's all I wanted to say. But you want to nerd out. You want to be like, can I ask you 20,000 questions? But you could just see it was like a guy traveling in the morning, but he looked great. But Heyman is the guy. Look at his career. Paul E. Dangerously, all the stuff to giving Austin the confidence to talk in ECW and cut promos and become Stone Cold like that." 

What is Dan Soder grateful for:

"Wrestling, comedy, and I get to be a fan of both."

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