With Season 3 of FX’s Dave now airing on FX and streaming on Hulu, Collider’s Steve Weintraub spoke with co-creator and star of the show, Dave Burd, on how far the series has come in terms of Burd’s own altered version of himself, the elevation, the themes, and more. This season takes Dave and friends on the road for in-show Dave’s Looking for Love tour, and having seen the shift in tone Season 2 took, we were curious about Burd’s writing process, and what he’s learned as a writer, showrunner, star, and executive producer.

After Season 2 explored “the psychology of making an album,” and saw Dave struggling to find balance with his social climb and interpersonal relationships, Season 3 is hitting the road to try to kill two Burds with one stone. The Looking for Love tour traverses the country in what Burd says are essentially interconnected “standalone short films.” During his interview, which you can read below, he breaks down the writers’ room, the influences for the episodes, and the process of getting the celebrity guest star cameos the series is well-known for, including Rick Ross, Usher, and the Boston Dynamics robot for the third season.

This season of Dave brings back Burd’s bawdy hilarity and, oftentimes, infuriating selfishness, as well as its main cast. Travis Bennett, Christine Ko, Andrew Santino, Taylor Misiak, and GaTa all return to accompany Lil Dicky, and according to Chase Hutchinson’s review, “Dave has never been more literally and thematically naked than he is now in Season 3.” Read on for more on Season 3, Episode 2’s tense oner, what Burd has learned as a filmmaker, which episodes were the most challenging and the most fun to shoot, “otherwordly” guest stars yet to be announced, and where we’re at on Season 4.

COLLIDER: I really want to thank you for making me laugh.

DAVE BURD: I appreciate that, thank you for saying that.

Image via FXX

I’ve seen the first three episodes of Season 3, and they’re fantastic.

BURD: Thank you, thank you. I’m excited. Look, it’s not like I’ve talked to many people who have seen this, you know? You’re like one of the 10 people I’ve spoken to who can even speak to me about their opinion. So, thank you, that’s good to hear.

Yeah, they’re very good. So, I have a lot of questions. I like throwing a curveball at the beginning. If someone has actually never heard any of your music before, what is the first song you’d like them to start with, and why?

BURD: You know, so the answer to this question is, I would – and maybe it’s not the right answer, but I would direct them to my [Sway in the Morning] freestyles online, which I think were the best showcases of me rapping. That’s usually what I would do if someone was like, “I’ve never heard of you as a rapper,” and I wanted to earn their respect. I would send them one of those two links.

I want to go back to Season 1 for a second. What did you learn making the first season that you apply to Seasons 2 and 3? In the first season of any show, you’re learning the infrastructure of what you can accomplish with the time and schedule, and budget. So I’m curious about what you learned that’s helped the next two seasons.

BURD: Oh, I mean, I could go on and on and on. But look, Season 1 is a man – me – coming into it having never done anything besides make rap videos and music videos. So I had references in mind and ideas, and I wanted the show to feel really real and not feel, like, shot goofy, like a comedy. But I wouldn’t say Season 1 I was able to speak like a filmmaker the way I was [in] Season 2 and Season 3. So I think, just on a sheer filmmaking perspective, there’s such elevation in 2 and 3 compared to 1, just artistically as far as my satisfaction level.

That’s one side of the coin. The other side of the coin is, I just noticed certain episodes ended up being my favorite when they were this type of episode. So, I ended up being like, okay, my learnings are, when I’m making an episode that’s bouncing around to five different characters throughout the whole thing equally, and they’re all over the course of a week, it’s probably less likely to end up being my favorite episode the way one period of time, I’m going to Rick Rubin’s studio and this is the 12-hour period that occurs next. You know what I mean? So it’s just things like that. So, the types of stories and the way we film those stories are, I would say, what I’ve learned the most.

So, Jeff Schaffer co-created and does the show. I’m just curious, how often do you make him talk about EuroTrip, and the song “Scotty Doesn’t Know?”

BURD: Once a year, once a year. I was a fan of EuroTrip as a boy, I remember. So it’s cool that he did that.

Oh, make no mistake, I love that movie and I love that song. When I spoke to Kristin [Kreuk], not so long ago, I made her talk about filming with Matt Damon.

BURD: Okay, yeah, yeah. No, just a legend, man. The things he’s done are crazy.

Yeah, I agree. Jumping into Season 3. So Season 2 ends, how long was it before you knew about Season 3 happening?

BURD: I don’t know. I’d be lying if I said I remember. I know that in my mind it was never in doubt. I was like, “We just made two great seasons of TV.” And I think everyone loved Season 2 and the way it ended, and I know everyone at FX was like really– The way, to me, you know [is], starting with Episode 5 last year, 5, the bar mitzvah, 6, the Doja Cat episode, 7, the ad agency episode, 8, the parents one, 9, the Rick Rubin one, 10, the finale with GaTa. That’s like six straight episodes that I couldn’t feel more proud of, you know? And I think we just built all this momentum, and then by the end, I feel as though people were crying when it went to the title card.

So I felt really good, just creatively, as far as the satisfaction level was concerned. So when I feel that way, I’m just under the assumption that we’re gonna keep moving ahead.

Oh, I’m very happy that it came back. If you don’t mind, take me through the process. You get the green light, or you sit down to start working on Season 3; how does it actually work in terms of who’s in the room trying to break down what you want to talk about? Can you sort of break down how a season gets thought of in the early days?

BURD: Yeah. So, it varies. Season 1, I think I entered the writers’ room, first off, not knowing any of these people. I hired them based off of as much time as I’m talking to you right now, and then I get in the room and I’m sharing my life stories. But I think [in] Season 1, I came in like, “I wanna definitely do these eight episodes,” like that’s this ideal. Like, I’m performing at a memorial, I’m wiring money to a rapper and the guy’s not responding. I had all these anchor ideas that I wanted to do.

[In] Season 2, I had less. It was more just like, “I want to show the psychology of making an album,” and so they pick my brain, we talk about it, and we just have conversations. Season 3 I was like, “I want to switch it up,” and I’m always looking to evolve the show and not ever get settled into Repetitive City, you know?

So I thought, “Tour,” where every single episode is a new place, and every place has a different vibe. And that means that every episode can have its own different tone. As it goes on, you’ll see [there are] episodes that feel like horror movies, [there are] episodes that feel like chaotic oners, [there are] episodes that feel like rom-coms. I think that’s the beauty of tours, that every episode, even though they’re all interconnected, they’re standalone short films. So then we start talking about different horror stories, and we just map it out. I have like a writers’ room of like 10 people, and I’ve got an upper-level staff of like four, and we just work it out together.

Image via FXX

What do you think would surprise people to learn about the actual making of Dave?

BURD: I don’t know if it’s a surprise, but maybe it is; just the level of involvement I have. Sometimes I wonder if people think I’m just like an actor who comes in. But, from the way it’s directed, the way it’s shot, the way it’s scored, every edit day, every day of the writers’ room… I’m really not just a guy who’s an executive producer checking in on things. There’s not a minute of time the show is being worked on that I’m not right there. I have no context, like, I don’t know how other showrunners or creators are in their shows, but I have been told that no one’s ever seen anyone so hands-on.

I’m beginning to think that Episode 2, with you in the music video, is pretty much what you are like behind the scenes on the show.

BURD: But sweeter.

[Laughs] Or so you say.

BURD: No, I have good working relationships, but I think people that I work with – even before this when I used to work at an ad agency and I was editing commercials – I was always very particular and had an opinion. And it’s hard to knock someone for caring, you know? So even if it’s 2 AM and we’re up late working and someone’s frustrated, deep down, I think I gain respect because of how much I care.

Look, there are some people on the Collider staff that really go the extra mile, and it really means a lot to me. I’d much rather work with people that really care.

BURD: Yeah, I agree.

So with Episode 3 of Season 3, was it harder to get the robot or was it harder to get Rick [Ross], Usher, and Killer Mike?

BURD: You know, I’m so happy you asked this question because I’m sitting in the writers’ room, and I’m writing this robot in, and everybody in my room is telling me that I’m wasting everyone’s time, that I can’t get that robot. And I said, “Why?” I said, “Why can’t I get that? I don’t understand.” Then, lo and behold, I just had to DM the Boston Dynamics and hop on a few calls with upper staff over there, you know, and fly a man out to control the machine. I honestly view that robot with a level of pride just because of the antagonism that I was met with in the writers’ room. So I view that robot being on set as, like, a celebrity cameo, as difficult to get.

Image via FX

I would imagine, and this is no bullshit, that as many people who wanted pictures with Usher wanted pictures with that robot.

BURD: That robot was fawned over. Yeah, he was definitely – or it, no gender, I don’t think, that robot.

But no, honestly, Rick Ross and Usher are two guys that I had never met who I idolized. So, it’s a lot easier for me to be like, “Oh, Kendall Jenner, my friend, you want to be in the show?” than it is like, “Usher, Rick Ross, complete strangers, you want to be in my show?” So when I get guys who I’ve never met to come on the show, it’s very validating because it’s a reflection of them enjoying my art. That’s really what it comes down to. And so, for them to decide to get on board and be in the show is a dream come true.

With the guest stars that you want to be on the show, are you picking up the phone and calling these people, or are people calling you? Because you obviously have to figure out what they’re going to do in an episode, how they can be incorporated, and figure out the dialogue, and how you can work around said actor.

BURD: I’m very hands-on, as I said, and [for] all the reach-outs I want people to hear it from me. I want them to know that this isn’t just an executive going around to anybody, calling and seeing who will pick up. I write this show with specific people in mind, and sometimes there are people that I’m like, “Of course, they’ll do it, I’m their friend,” and other times where it’s a little riskier to write these scenes around them without that knowing. And you can’t even pitch them without writing the stuff first because I don’t want to be like, “Hey, Rick Ross, you want to be in this episode?”

“Yeah, what happens in it?”

“I don’t know yet,” you know? I want to be able to be [really] clear on what we’re doing. So it’s a chicken and egg thing that requires a lot of faith and belief, from my vantage point, that I can get people to do it.

Man, later in the season, there are guest stars on the show that are so otherworldly that I can’t believe are on this show, and it took a lot of faith to write the stuff assuming that they’ll say– Like, if certain people said no, we would have been fucked. But they didn’t, and it’s really exciting.

Image via FX

How do you keep some of these guest appearances under wraps in the day and age of social media with everyone posting pictures?

BURD: I’m gonna be honest, I don’t really think about it and nothing really happens. So it’s probably just not as crazy as you think it is. I think most of the time the artists – I mean, there are a few people who didn’t think about it and they just posted a little something, but it’s not like there’s like a swarm of fans. The way our show works is, we are at different locations every day. This isn’t like a stage show where they’re always, you know. We’re on location, so there’s no real way to know where we’re gonna be.

I really loved Episode 2 and the way it takes you behind the scenes of the music video, and it also works so well because it has the emotional hook. It’s really well done, the filmmaking and building up tension through the whole episode. So how much is that in the script where you’re talking about the tension, and how much are you putting it all together in the editing room?

BURD: Fully in the script. The vibe that you see is the exact vibe that we’re going for in the exact way that it’s scripted. It was not a thing that we found by discovery in the edit room. It was like, I wanted to make an episode have a level of urgency and onery feel to it that has never happened in the show.

But man, talk about risk. That episode… There are certain movies and shows that have done things like this in the past, and I can promise you all those shows and movies have had way more rehearsal time than we had. We kind of conceived this idea as we were shooting, we were writing this episode as we were shooting, and our production schedule doesn’t afford a rehearsal day, you know? So we literally were relying on showing up on a morning, having an hour to figure something out, and then hopefully, whatever we figured out in that hour of rehearsal could translate to four minutes of TV, in one shot, and that’s like a daunting task.

Really, honestly, I looked at that morning thinking, “This could fail,” and I never really ever feel that way because there’s kind of a way we do our show that’s, you know, it’s gonna work if we just show up and act well, and we adhere to and shoot it well. But this could have really fallen on its face because none of us really had the experience of doing it.

I’m so happy with how it turned out, and it was so fun shooting. That episode was the most fun episode to shoot. Everyone had to be so alert, so on their Ps and Qs, so on their marks. One misspoken moment could really fuck the whole take up. One person trips, the take is fucked. So, it’s high pressure, but I think everyone rose to the moment.

It’s also interesting because a lot of people are now raising the game with oners. It’s great because I don’t think that the average person realizes they’re watching a oner, but you can feel the tension when it doesn’t cut.

BURD: Yeah, for sure. And I just wanted urgency. I wasn’t like, “This whole episode has to be one take when it’s not in the music video.” I’m not delusional, and that would have really set us up to fail. But also, I was like, “We’re gonna go for one take moments. We’re gonna go for three-minute chunks. While we’re doing that, we’re gonna have a B camera rolling in case…” And there are times where I cut where I didn’t have to, the tape could have kept going, but it makes more sense to cut for the story. It’s just better to be on that person’s face, and I’m not a snob where it’s like, “Look at this oner I created.” I just wanted to get that feeling of urgency, and we did that.

Image via FXX

What do you want to tease people about the rest of Season 3? And how much have you already started thinking about Season 4? Because I have a feeling you might get picked up.

BURD: Boy, I’ll answer you the B question first. I haven’t thought about Season 4 at all because I’m like in the war of Season 3 right now. It’s not like all the episodes have been locked and colored and mixed and scored, like I’m right in the thick of things. Look, rest of Season 3, you’ve seen the first three and it only gets better. I’m working on the episodes in the middle of the season, and those episodes, I’m watching the rough cuts right now and I’m thinking to myself, “These are the best episodes in the series.” I already know where it ends, where it goes to, the bottom, the last three episodes. So I feel like we’re set up to just get better and better and better as the season progresses.

So, as proud as I am of the first three episodes, buckle up because this fucker is such a ride. I couldn’t be more thrilled about what’s going on in this edit room as I edit the second half of the season.

Dave Season 3 is now airing on FX and streams the next day on Hulu.