Comedian Dana Carvey has found solace in keeping busy, months after losing his 32-year-old son Dex 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 hiking 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.
Humor and resuming his co-hosting duties with David Spade are a salve for his grief, Carvey said in 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 really cool to laugh,” he said at the top 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 Nov. 16.
“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,” they wrote. “Dex was a beautiful person … we will miss him forever.”
Tributes poured in from Carvey’s “SNL” peers including Kenan Thompson, Vanessa Bayer and Colin Jost. During a November episode of “SNL,” “Weekend Update” anchor Jost held a sign that read, “We love you Dana and Paula.”
In an Instagram post shared days later, Carvey thanked his supporters and announced that he 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 son Thomas Carvey.
“We will heal the best we can and carry on. Our darling Dex would have wanted it that way,” the statement said.
In a November episode of “Fly on the Wall,” Spade notified listeners about Carvey’s hiatus and noted that a handful of episodes were pre-recorded before 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 dissecting Jo Koy’s Golden Globes hosting gig.
“Doing this and riffing with you I think is going to be healthy for me as 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’ll stop or when it will get better. But in the meantime, all this kind of stuff is very healthy.”
Times staff writer Jonah Valdez contributed to this report.