Michele StuevenIt was in the gonzo era of the ‘70s that we first came to know a skinny young comedian from Canada by the name of Dan Aykroyd. It was the golden age of standup comedy when nothing was taboo. Everybody and everything was fair game. If we weren’t at an underground comedy club watching Robin Williams go off the rails, we were getting high around the record player, listening to Steve Martin Get Small on vinyl.
The Second City improvisation comedy troupe brought its talents from both its original Chicago and its Toronto companies together with L.A.’s The Groundlings in 1975 and provided many of the performers who made up the Saturday Night Live ensemble. It included Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman, Garrett Morris and other Not Ready for Primetime Players that have since passed on to the great Friar’s Club in the sky, like Gilda Radner and John Belushi. The show, whose first host was standup royalty George Carlin, forever changed the landscape of comedy and late-night television.
Day Aykroyd at the Magic Castle (Dustin Downing)
“Saturday Night Live has been consistent with cultural iconography from then until now,” Aykroyd recently told L.A. Weekly over card tricks at the Magic Castle. “They’re still doing a great job. The writers and the cast are strong. It’s as vibrant and as relevant as ever.”
One of Aykroyd’s most classic and defiant skits at the time that has gone down in SNL history was taking on the holiness of culinary goddess Julia Child in the hysterical French Chef episode. It involved lots of liver and a kitchen knife wound resulting in a fountain of gushing blood that was orchestrated by comedian and former Minnesota senator Al Franken from underneath the table.
“Everybody loved Julia Child and she was a phenomenon at the time,” says Aykroyd. “They wrote that and I looked at it thinking it was just a cheap blood joke. But I did it and looked just like my mother when I was doing it. But everybody loved it, including Julia. My aunt was Helene Gougeon, a culinary writer and food columnist in Montreal. She had her own radio show, cooking show and a shop that brought the first Cuisinart to Canada and she knew Julia very well. It was a beautiful connection.”
But as a creative force, the award-winning writer, producer and actor says that comedy is a serious business that has its own pros and cons.
“Comedy is one of the most creative arts,” he says. “The pros are that you get instant gratification and creative fulfillment from a laugh and satisfaction from an audience. The cons are you are completely rejected on a lot of projects and you have to claw your way back to the top from the bottom every time. I’ve had scripts and ideas rejected and concepts I pitched to directors during a movie that has been shut down, as well as scenes at SNL that didn’t work — many, many times. Being in a creative field, not everybody is going to love what you’re doing at all times and you have to take those risks. But they are healthy risks to take.”
Forty years ago he took a risk that paid off in spades when he teamed up as actor and screenwriter with fellow SNL alumnus Bill Murray along with Harold Ramis, Rick Moranis, Ernie Hudson and Annie Potts in Ghostbusters. To celebrate the anniversary, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, will come out exclusively in theaters on March 29, 2004, with Aykroyd, Murray, Potts and Hudson returning to the franchise. They will be joined by People’s Sexiest Man Alive Paul Rudd.
The sequel will continue the Spengler family’s story and bring the series back to familiar locations. It will see the team facing their biggest challenge yet when New York City suddenly gets plunged into a new ice age as a supernatural artifact unleashes the “death chill,” which has the power to frighten people to a frigid death.
Host Dan Aykroyd in The UnBelievable ( Luis Mora/The HISTORY Channel)
When he’s not busting ghosts or unearthing The Unbelievable in a new nonfiction series on the History Channel, the seemingly ageless Aykroyd’s truest passion when it comes to spirits is Crystal Head Vodka, which he co-founded in 2008 with John Alexander, a renowned American artist and the designer of the liquor’s unique skull bottle.
The brand routinely partners with artists and encourages the community to express creativity in new mediums, most recently with American graffiti artist Risk Rock, and 50 other renowned creatives around the world to paint bottles donated by Crystal Head Vodka. The one-of-a-kind personalized bottles were on display at a recent event hosted by Aykroyd at the legendary Magic Castle in Hollywood, as well as at Rock’s Compound Contemporary Gallery in Thousand Oaks.
Artist Risk Rock, left, and Dan Aykroyd (Dustin Downing)
Once again a pioneer in a liquor landscape littered with celebrity names, Aykroyd was the first to set up the company that originally imported Patron tequila into Canada. It was his love for tequila that inspired him to create Onyx, a unique agave-based vodka.
“Dan Akyroyd was one of the original celebrities who started a liquor brand,” entertaining expert and co-host of the event Paul Zahn told L.A. Weekly. “Something great about Dan is he is very serious about the quality of his Crystal Head Vodka and its different line extensions, but also has a sense of humor about the booze business. Exactly what one would expect from a comic legend with an enterprising side.”
Crystal Head Vodka uses water from Newfoundland, Canada, to create a pure, additive-free, ultra-premium vodka. It is filtered through layers of Herkimer Diamonds and is made from locally sourced Canadian corn, Aurora, crafted from English wheat, and Onyx, crafted with Blue Weber Agave sourced from a single farm in Mexico and is sold in more than 75 countries around the world.
“Bar chefs love us all over the world and enjoy working with our virgin product as a canvas for their creations,” says Aykroyd, whose current favorite LA bar is Mama Shelter. “We figured the best thing to sell was pure, unadulterated vodka with no added oils in a vessel like a skull, which is associated with the legends of powers of positivity in the Navajo, Aztec and Mayan communities. The bottles come in black, clear, mirrored, spatter/rainbow for Pride Month in June and an upcoming vessel in cobalt blue.
“When you start with nothing, you have to be creative or you’ll end up with nothing,” said Akroyd while sipping on a Paloma in the hallowed halls of the Magic Castle.
In the celebration of spirits and 40 years of Ghostbusters, Crystal Head Vodka shared its cocktail recipes for Stay Puft and Slimer’s Revenge with us:
Ghostbusters Stay Puft Cocktail
Stay Puft
2 oz. /60 ml Crystal Head Vodka
1 tsp /5 ml Marshmallow Syrup
4 Scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream
1 Marshmallow
Sprinkle of Sea Salt
Directions:
Combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend. Pour into a glass. Garnish with a marshmallow and a sprinkle of sea salt.
Slimer’s Revenge
2 oz. / 60 ml Crystal Head Onyx
1 1⁄2 oz. / 44 ml Pineapple Juice
3⁄4 oz. / 22 ml Lemon Juice
3⁄4 oz. / 22 ml Honey Simple Syrup
1 tsp./ 5 ml Matcha Powder
Fresh Mint Sprig
Directions:
Combine all the ingredients in a cocktail shaker with ice and shake. Strain over ice in a Collins glass. Garnish with a fresh mint sprig.
Ghostbusters Slimer’s Revenge Cocktail
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