David Spade opens up about the deaths of Kate Spade, Chris Farley and others ahead of new late-night show

David Spade’s new Comedy Central show, “Lights Out,” which premieres July 29, is billed as a “roundtable” discussion about “celebrities, entertainment and all things apolitical” on which he and “his comedian friends … break down the biggest headlines of the day.” And while many of us could use a little escapism these days, David, 55, might need more than others. In a new interview with the New York Times published Monday, July 22, the comic opens up about the losses he’s endured, from the recent death of his sister-in-law, Kate Spade (“I don’t know if agoraphobic is a word, but she didn’t like to mingle a lot,” he recalls, “she’d have people at her house and she was always so funny”) to his stepfather, who also took his own life, to late “Saturday Night Live” costar Chris Farley, whose death apparently inspired trolls to alert him to the fact they wished David had died instead. “The first couple times it was rough,” he says, “but now it’s the standard burn. I wish I didn’t get that three times a week.” Losing Chris also meant losing fans since they worked together so frequently. “But do you just stop doing what you’re doing because of a tragedy?” David wonders. “You have to go, ‘Well, I still like doing this.’ Some people won’t be interested. But I did three sitcoms after that. It wasn’t totally horrible.” Ultimately, he says he’s found a way to deal with the grief, for better or worse. “I don’t want to say I’m immune to it,” he says, “but there’s a way you just have to learn to shut off the tear valve. It’s just too brutal.”