Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - Conan O’Brien Must Go Writers Roundtable
Episode Date: April 18, 2024Conan sits down with writers Mike Sweeney, Matt O’Brien, and Jessie Gaskell and producer Jason Chillemi for a roundtable discussion about the making of his newest travel show Conan O’Brien Must... Go, featuring insights into the destination selection process, a sneak preview of a Bono-centric segment, and the tease of a special surprise narrator.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
["Fall Is Here"]
Fall is here, hear the yell
Back to school, ring the bell
Bend the shoes, walk and lose
Climb the fence, books and pens
I can tell that we are gonna be friends
I can tell that we are gonna be friends
Hello, I'm Conan O'Brien.
Today's a little unusual.
Normally, this is the slot where I talk to someone
in the world, a fan, and have a nice chat.
And I really do enjoy those conversations.
Today's a little different.
Today is April 18th, which first of all,
happens to be my birthday.
So far, no gifts.
Oh, happy birthday.
Yeah, thanks a lot.
This is your gift.
Yeah.
I'm very excited because today we are dropping
four specials that I did for Max
called Conan O'Brien Must Go.
And the format relates to this podcast.
How it works is I talk to fans,
sometimes the United States,
and often around the world who listen to the podcast.
And we decided it might be fun
as I'm chatting with these people in different countries
to maybe drop in on them and get involved in their lives
and follow up on some of the things they brought up
in their podcast interview.
And so that's what the show is.
Conan O'Brien Must Go is me going
to four different countries, Norway, Argentina,
Thailand, and Ireland, and surprising
fans that talked to me on the podcast, and then getting involved in their lives a little
bit and then moving on and exploring the country.
Interfering in their lives.
Interfering, yeah.
So joining me today are some of the people that were instrumental in helping me build
this show, Mike Sweeney.
Hello. Nice to seeey. Hello, happy birthday.
I can't believe you forced us together
so we could just say happy birthday to you.
Very clever.
Well, anyway, thanks for your help on the show
and I'm looking forward to my present.
Uh, Jesse Gaskell.
Hi, Conan.
Thank you for being here.
And Matt O'Brien, no relation.
All right, hi.
And then of course, Jason Cileemi, we call him Chills.
These are the people that were sort of the nuclear core
of helping me make this show.
And now I'll let you all speak freely
about what a genius I am.
I've written these comments for you
and they're right in front of you.
You can read them now.
We'll go in order of height.
Let me say upfront, these are people that I've been working with for a number of years
on my shows and they've worked with me before on travel shows.
And when I put this project together, I wanted them to join me and I was very lucky that
they did.
We are here today to discuss the show, talk about it, give you a little insight
into how this program was made.
We go to four countries.
The first one we went to was Norway.
And then the second one we went to was Thailand.
Then we went to Argentina,
and we finally ended up going to Ireland each time,
visiting a fan.
And I was impressed.
We did manage to surprise most of these people.
They didn't know we were coming.
And so there was a lot of logistics involved in that
because you can't take a plane ride for 15 hours
and go to a foreign country and then find out
that someone's gone on vacation or moved.
So Mike-
They're in LA.
We just don't feel like being on camera.
Yeah, so we had to, Mike, maybe you could explain
how we figured out the way to let them know
that we might need them as a follow-up
to their podcast interview,
but not let them know that I was coming.
Well, Jason was kind of-
Chills, chills.
Chills, I apologize.
Chills, we'd have to, each fan was different.
So some were like, I'm gonna be here.
We would just, you'd, Chills would reach out to them
and say, hey. We sent out feelers, yeah.
Yeah, we sent out feelers,
make sure they're going to be around.
Then it was, we came up with a construct that,
oh, you know what?
We might be doing kind of a behind the scenes
of some of our fans,
and we would just send a cameraman there
to shoot you for the day.
Shoot some B-roll, yeah.
We love your podcast, Interview with Conan,
we wanna shoot some B-roll.
Right, yeah.
And we'd leave you out of it.
Right.
Now, the problem is,
and that worked for the most part,
occasionally I would show up in a country
and it would show up on their social media
that I was around.
Right.
But then Jason would probably have to put out the word.
Chills.
Sorry, wrong of me.
Chills would have to get out the word that, no, no, Conan's in country, but he refuses
to meet with you.
Because he's an absolute prick.
Just to sort of really throw them off the trail.
He's blocks away.
He's right turn around. He's right, turn around.
He's right behind you.
Hey, I'm looking out my window.
He's two alleys from here.
Yeah, yeah, but he wants to peek in your window,
but he won't come in.
He shoots the B-roll himself.
Yeah, yeah.
People have always asked me, why do I,
what is it about these travel shows I like so much?
I love, we can, there's not much we can control.
And I've had many people say to me,
well, that must be terrifying.
And I find that to be liberating and really fun.
We never quite know what the gold is gonna be.
And random things will happen.
I'll bump into people on the street, like in Norway,
who are just perfect comedy foils.
We couldn't ask for better people.
Or there's a scene in Norway where I'm on a boat
and I'm holding something.
I'm sorry, where I'm in Thailand and I'm on a river
and I'm holding something that I've been handed,
which is quite obscene, and just then a boatload
of American family goes by.
And I quickly, but if you asked,
if you asked the greatest comedy directors in the world to try and manufacture at the moment,
it wouldn't happen.
Cause I've looked at that scene,
and you guys have looked at these things in editing a lot,
the timing is perfect because it's an accident.
Yes.
Or you lose your luggage.
I mean, that was just something that made everything, you know.
Yeah, I lost my luggage on one of the trips and had to go,
and I went across the street
and this is, I needed to buy some clothes
and right across the street there was an absurd shop
that only specialized in making traditional costumes,
Norwegian costumes that people wore like 200 years ago.
And so I- And no one's ever bought one.
No one's ever, no one has.
They were so delighted to see you.
Couldn't believe someone came into their shop. Like really?
No, and so I bought one and then I walk out on the street and the first guy I run into
is just so happy to talk to me and tell me what an idiot I am.
And not to be mean, but just to be very honest in a very, I'm guessing Norwegian way.
But it was-
Everyone there was very straightforward.
Very straightforward.
Refreshingly matter of fact.
Yeah.
Yeah, not hamming it up.
And we had a really good time.
The fans to a one were great.
The fans were, because one of the things
that I've noticed too is there's that second
where they're happy, excited to see you.
Like, oh, Conan, you're here.
That's cool.
But then they very quickly are just themselves,
which I like because then they start giving me shit.
They're not afraid to point out when I've made a mistake.
And again-
They're just hanging out.
Yeah, they're just hanging out.
And that was-
They were all funny.
They were all funny.
All in smart.
Yeah.
They were just great to play with.
And I think meeting them on their turf
makes them feel a little more comfortable.
Well, often, I mean, I think almost every time
I go into their homes with one or two exceptions,
I surprise them and then I go right into their homes and start finding things.
And start finding things.
And again, it's real and it's in the moment
and it was really fun.
And, but I have to say, you know, we've all, you know,
worked, done these remote shoots before.
All of us have worked on them for years.
One of the nice things now is we're working with Max
and they told us, we want this to look really great.
We got this incredible unit.
We have these, these women are spectacular.
Emily. Emily Topper.
She's our director of photography.
Yeah, and she's fantastic,
and Emily Strong's doing sound.
Right.
And-
Brenda.
Brenda, yes.
Is there a second camera?
Brenda in, when we were in Argentina,
at one point I'm on a horse and we needed a shot,
and Brenda grabs a camera and jumps onto a horse
facing backwards at the camera.
Completely unfazed.
Completely unfazed and gets the shot.
And I thought, who are these three Amazons?
She was unbelievable.
We're kicking ass.
She's like, I've done this before.
She goes, I'll just sit backwards
and follow the lead horse.
I'll just ride the horse backwards
and shoot you with no hands.
And we're all like,
cause we were like, do we need a truck, a flatbed?
And meanwhile, she's on the horse.
Yeah, she's already up there.
Yoo-hoo.
Yeah, I'm over here solving the problem, you idiots.
Yeah, and it's a great look.
I mean, the-
The drones, drones.
I mean, we've never had,
we've never had, we've never had,
sometimes we messed around with drones,
but we got these really good drone operators
in every country. And, you know, but we got these really good drone operators in every country.
And my thought was a really good travel show
should look absolutely gorgeous.
And then all of the other ones teach you about the country.
And it's very important to me
that you learn nothing about the country.
That's it.
That's your guarantee.
It removes knowledge.
Yes, if you had knowledge about the country beforehand
and you watch my show, I do think you'll laugh,
but it will erase any useful real knowledge
about the country.
I love the drone operators in Norway.
It was two guys.
Oh my God, they were great.
And they're like, they just did succession
and we're like, wow.
Because a lot of succession
was shot in Norway. One of them is in succession.
That's what I was getting.
Yeah.
When we came back in.
Just to remind people, the last season of succession,
half the season takes place when they go and-
Scar's guards character.
Yeah, Scar's guards character.
I meet with him and they're in Norway.
So they shot there and they had just worked on that when we worked with them.
And these guys, then we were, I was like,
oh my God, you just worked on Succession
and now you're with Conan O'Brien,
like how the mighty have fallen, but they were great.
But there's this climactic scene,
big scene in Succession, this big yard,
this giant party by a river.
And I'm watching it.
And then I see the drone guys and we're like,
oh my God, it's them.
They made it in.
And they're playing drone guys in the show.
But you know what was great is that they were salivating
for us to come up with comedy ideas
where they could pull off something really amazing.
And so that was a joy.
There was just a lot, I have to say,
it can be very tiring.
It's a lot of work to go, to fly so far.
And then we usually have to hit the ground
running right away.
But the minute we get out there and start talking to people,
I mean, Ireland, we went to Ireland to visit a fan.
It just, anyone you bump into in Ireland
is a professional comedian.
It's not their profession, but they could be.
They could be.
If there's just something in the water.
In the bones, yeah.
Oh man, yes.
There are some hilarious people you spoke to in Ireland.
The other cool thing in Ireland was
you were walking down the street
and people were just like stunned it was you.
And then they took their earbuds out
and said, I'm listening to your podcast right now.
Yeah, people, I ran into people in Ireland
who were listening to the podcast as I ran into them.
And then this made me really happy.
We were shooting something on the River Liffey,
which is the river that bisects Dublin.
It means cuts it in two, Matt.
And... But anyway, and so... that bisects Dublin, it means cuts it in two, man. And-
But anyway, and so-
Can we take that out?
Yeah.
Can you actually make it play twice?
Yeah, loop it.
So anyway-
Loop reverb.
Yeah.
So anyway, I'm standing there by the River Liffey
and this cab drives by and someone rolls down the window
and goes, there was talk of gerbils.
And one of the catchphrases from the podcast.
And I was so happy that my people left this country.
I go back to the actual plot of land that my people had,
that my great grandfather had.
We left in 1871 because, you know, we couldn't make it there anymore
and went to the United States.
And all these years later, I've come back
and my legacy is that this obscene story
about Mickey Rooney talking about Richard Gere
having gerbils in his ass.
It lives on.
Ah! The O'Brien's come back! There's talk of gerbils, I tell you. Believe it or not, that came full circle. Yeah, it really did.
I can't go into details.
But it was fantastic.
And the other thing that I think was an elevation, I hope, people, I think people will like
these, but because we got to up the ante a little bit with these, have this nice budget,
we could do these in a way that we could have a little bit of a more, you know, a little
bit of a more, you know, a little bit of a more, you know, a little bit of a more, you know, a little bit of a more, you know, a little but because we got to up the ante a little bit with these,
have this nice budget, we could do these set pieces
with real costumes and go to real locations.
So there's a lot of improvisation and me walking around
in my regular street clothes being me,
but then there are these set pieces that we wanted them,
and we really wanted them to look like
this could be from a movie.
Cinematic, yeah.
It's very cinematic.
And of course, because we have Topper and her team,
they were able to pull off the look and we had costumes.
I mean, Chills, you were a part of that,
getting me, making sure that we had everything we needed
in the country.
Right, fake mustache.
Yeah, fake mustache.
For the job.
I mean, I carry some with me, but the TSA is always-
A pipe, a pipe for every occasion.
Yeah.
The TSA is always really suspicious
when a guy comes through with 35 mustaches.
Not your business, let me through.
Ireland, we had a lot of facial hair, a lot of hair.
Yes, yeah.
I thought we were smuggling it.
There was a lot of fake facial hair we shipped in
and costumes.
And what's really fun is Scott Kronick,
who gets the wardrobe together, always comes to my house,
like two days before I leave for the country,
wherever it is.
And he'll come in
with all this insane stuff.
Options where I'm a Viking or a lighthouse keeper,
or I'm a, you know.
Soccer goalie.
I'm a soccer goalie, I'm a gaucho.
And you know, all these insane looks,
and I'm a leprechaun and whatever.
He's bringing all this stuff in
and dressing me up in them,
and invariably my wife will walk in, not knowing if this was going on.
And I'm standing there and she's just like,
oh, Jesus.
Turns right around.
Role play.
This is what I'm there.
Yeah, exactly.
Every woman dreams of a sexy lighthouse keeper.
I love that.
But-
What a tower.
No, but just getting to,
getting to recreate some of those,
do those cinematic moments,
which we haven't really had a chance to do fully before.
You get to do some acting.
I don't know if that's what it's called.
No, I'm kidding.
Different forms of shouting, yeah.
I remember the Viking makeup woman,
it's like a two hour drive to this Viking reenactment center.
And so I'm just thinking like, well, well, you know,
she can maybe start stuff on the bus.
And she's like, no, no, no, I need, we need to be in a separate room.
I need a plug in for this.
I need all this space.
And she was a real professional.
She was like, get away from me.
I'll make it happen.
Also, let me do my job.
I'll tell you something.
It's the difference between all those years
when we would do remotes and run and gun quickly.
And it was, I would be,
the mustache would be in my back pocket
and I'd be in a van.
And then I'd like slap it on and get out there.
And, you know, makeup was done very quickly, if at all.
And so this was different because we,
we went into these travel shows sometimes
with that attitude of,
wow, we can just slap it on on the bus.
And these are, these look good for a reason
because they're saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
This is, you asked for something good,
you're gonna get something good, sit down and shut up.
Yep.
And it's, you know what?
It's gonna take 50 minutes to an hour to do it.
But then when you got out of that chair,
it was like, oh my God.
Yes.
So worth it.
Fantastic.
I know, that was a big swing that whole day
cause we had really insisted,
we always worry when we've insisted on driving
for two hours to get somewhere. To make it worthwhile.
Yeah. Yeah, there's always-
The pressure, every mile, there's a pressure odometer.
Oh, the pressure's going up.
There's always the fear drive.
And it's also freezing cold and yeah.
There's, well, it's the same adage of the longer the story,
the more pressure on the punchline.
And if someone's telling a really long story,
or sometimes one can get caught and you realize,
this story I'm telling is really going on.
God damn it, this punchline better.
And that's exactly how it works
when you're shooting a remote.
If you have to drive for three hours,
it basically is how much in Europe,
how much petrol did you burn?
How much gas did you burn to get here?
What was your carbon footprint getting to this place?
And then it better really be funny.
And so sometimes we have lost that bet.
Yes.
Sometimes we've won.
Ooh, ooh.
But especially sometimes you roll out of your hotel
with a crew and you're grabbing all,
getting all this great stuff on the street.
And then it's like, all of a sudden
you're in a van for two hours.
It's like, wait a minute, why are we doing this again?
Your muscles are cooling.
Right, right.
Well, you need, I like, one of the things I'm proud of
is the team that we assembled.
People have done such a good job.
I mean, you know, unsung heroes like,
and I know this, when people say, you know,
we're listening to you guys right now.
You don't, it's, it's isn't like,
you don't need to give a speech about everybody,
but there are people like Matt Shaw
who did such an incredible job.
So many people have worked really hard.
The graphics look amazing.
Matt Shaw was our head editor.
And basically he had one other editor working with him,
which is, I think is very unusual for something of this scale.
It looks unbelievable.
Yes.
Brad Rowland.
Brad Rowland.
And then I was thrilled about the mystery narrator
we got for the show, who we have a gentleman's agreement not
to discuss.
But most people that work with me don't want it mentioned.
I agree.
He was insistent on that.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
But anyway, I love it.
I'll do whatever one can.
I love it.
I've drawn up a contract.
Yeah, maybe it's AI, who can say?
No one knows.
But I'm very happy.
And I just basically,
I always loved those travel shows that we did in the past
and it felt like we had unfinished business there.
And then when we had the notion that,
well, what I'm really passionate about now is this podcast.
I absolutely adore doing it.
It's really fun.
And it feels like the natural evolution
of what I was doing before,
or de-evolution, whatever you want.
But the idea that we married the two,
meaning it really, it starts from the podcast
and then takes off into this world
that I've explored before.
But now there's a reason to go in country.
I'm showing up and I'm visiting a pen pal.
Just, I don't know, the whole thing
has been really fun to make.
Well, yeah, and there's often a mission there too,
because people have been sharing things
about their lives with you on the podcast.
And then you show up and it's like,
oh, I'm gonna help you achieve this goal
or fix this problem for you.
And then you maybe don't.
Yeah. Or just waste problem for you. And then you maybe don't. Yeah.
Or just waste time with you.
Do you remember that dinner we had where you could choose from a prefix menu and it was like,
the appetizer was cod and then the entree was cod.
It was cod tongue.
They have a lot of, there's a lot of cod in Norway.
They're very, very proud of it.
And you specifically have to ask them not to put cod
on your ice cream cone.
You have to say it's an allergy.
Yeah.
Is this an allergy?
Okay, so what kind of cod can we use? No, no cod. We have hypoaller's an allergy. Yeah. Is this an allergy? Okay, so what kind of cod can we use?
No, no cod.
We have hypoallergenic cod.
Yeah.
I have to say, Argentina, the man,
something happened in Argentina,
and I don't wanna give away too much,
but we visited our fan who's a terrific artist,
and one thing led to another,
and it led to kind of a happening,
which since then has gotten some traction online.
And that's one of the aspects of the show
that I really enjoy is these little Easter eggs.
We don't even intend them always,
but in Ireland and in Argentina,
we helped make something happen
that ended up later on getting noticed by people we helped make something happen
that ended up later on getting noticed by people
who didn't know anything about the show.
And then suddenly it's online and people are saying,
why does this exist?
And anyway, there's, that's, I just love the idea
of traveling the globe and confusing people.
And leaving.
People who are really-
But you know, I did, this is a true story
because the thing we did in Argentina,
which the artist helped us create, we left behind.
And then I think it got picked up
and then it landed on some very prominent soccer blog.
And it got a lot of traction
and it started to pop up everywhere online
and people were sending it to me saying,
what's going on, what's going on?
And I just was- Did you approve this?
And I was kind of playing-
We were in Ireland, like it was while we were in Ireland.
We were in Ireland when it was blowing up in Argentina.
And so with my friends, I was just saying,
well, I guess you never know.
I just was playing it.
So then I get a call and it's Jake Tapper.
Oh.
Who I know.
It's Jake Tapper, but he's, and I'm thinking,
oh, he's, you know, I know Jake Tapper
and he calls me sometimes and we both love Eisenhower trivia
and shit like that.
He's calling me and I go, what's up?
And he goes like, this thing in Argentina,
what's going on?
And so like, like any of my friends, I just played it off as well. I guess you never quite know. And he goes, this thing in Argentina, what's going on? And so like any of my friends,
I just played it off as well.
I guess you never quite know.
And he went, no, cut it out, really, what is it?
And I forgot, oh, I'm talking to a journalist.
And he was like, what is it?
And I went, okay.
And I explained and he went, got it.
And then hung up.
You know?
It's like you're Banksy.
Yeah, I'm the Banksy of comedy.
Only it's not worth anything.
And we had something made in Ireland
that I just saw turn up this week in social media.
Oh, that's awesome.
And there's a sequence in Thailand that I really love
where I'm roaming the streets at night.
That was a very cinematic sequence
where I've ingested some street food
and then I have a fever dream.
A fugue state.
And that I'm not giving anything away
because you need to see that.
It's quite strange.
It feels like a weird.
It's gorgeous.
Foreign film.
Yeah.
Well, and that one, my favorite part of that shoot
was that we were going against Jeff's wishes
because he wanted us to get back.
Oh, Jeff Ross.
Jeff Ross, yes.
We had a dinner reservation.
We had a dinner reservation.
He's like, you'll be out there for like five hours.
Yeah, there was this one thing we wanted to get.
Five hours.
He was like, we have a dinner reservation.
Jeff, Jeff, we'll go and grab it
and then we'll go to dinner.
The dinner reservation's at 6.30, it took a long time to get. And Matt's very calm, he, Jeff, we'll go and grab it, and then we'll go to dinner. The dinner reservation's at 6.30,
it took a long time to get.
And Matt's very calm, he's like,
we'll be done in 25 minutes.
Yeah.
He's like, oh, okay, also by watch.
Oh yeah, I've never seen that before.
Anyway, he was disappointed when we walked
into the restaurant on time.
You could see him deflate.
The restaurant hadn't opened yet.
Yeah.
There, there it at.
There early. We're not open for four hours.
It was like, it's nice to sit here.
It's a nice place.
They have a conditioning.
It was, I think we were, we were shooting,
sadly with global warming,
this record will probably be broken soon,
but it was like the hottest it had ever been in Thailand.
108.
108.
And we were shooting and we were out on the street
and there's a part where I'm kickboxing
and we're not inside in an air conditioned gym.
We're in an outdoor facility with no air conditioning.
I'm no spring chicken and it's my birthday today.
So let me tell you, I'm only getting older.
And I am throwing kicks, punches,
I'm going as hard as I can, and at one point I stopped
and I asked Jeff Ross, do we have a defibrillator?
And he was like, what do you mean?
What do we need a defibrillator for?
I'm getting us a restaurant reservation.
And I'm like, because I know I could go down.
I'll make sure the restaurant has one. I was sweating so much during that segment. I'll make it a smaller reservation. Because I know I could go down. I'll make sure the restaurant has one.
I was sweating so much during that segment.
I'll make it a smaller reservation.
And yeah.
Well, that works.
Let me know.
They don't have a table for five,
but they have a table for four.
That works out great.
You guys happily eating.
Well, I'm in the morgue.
More family style for each of us.
I'm not gonna bring him back.
Yeah, he's gone.
We might as well enjoy.
We got enough of the boxing, right?
To at least still make it.
The funniest thing is when,
because writers always want, can you do something again?
They always want it again.
Can you give it another shot?
What if we do it from another angle?
Because I-
You mean professionals.
Sure, yeah, professionals.
Obsessive compulsive professionals.
But if you're doing something,
it's always cracked me up when I'm doing something,
especially at my vintage,
and I'm just wailing and kicking and punching
and it's 108 degrees.
And I've been, you know, I'm jet lagged and I'm,
and people are like, ha ha, that's great.
Okay, let's do another one where we put more...
Good rehearsal.
We put more lead on your boots.
And...
There are a few times too where it's like,
no one's yelling cut.
No one's...
And it's just kind of, you know...
He's just going through a training session.
And you finally just go, okay, I think we got it.
Yeah, that was-
We put you through with a physical ringer in Thailand.
Thailand was-
Thailand was a workout, but I do, I have to say,
I do come home from all these countries,
well, specifically Thailand, with,
because in some of the setups I'm getting,
I'll go to someone who makes great original Thai costumes.
Custom, and they're gorgeous.
And I put them on and they're in the show.
And then they come home with me and they're mine.
Yeah. Oh, right.
And then I'm thinking, I'll sometimes look in my closet
and I have like two pairs of chinos,
two pairs of jeans, some t-shirts,
some of the nicest tie.
And the silk suits.
Silk suits.
And I don't know where to, where can I wear these?
Yeah.
I don't know where to wear them.
I'm gonna dress like a Viking today.
Oh yeah.
I remember you bought those knit pajamas in Norway.
It was like a full body.
Oh, I've worn those.
Have you worn those?
It got, cause it does get cold in LA
and I put them on once and I came downstairs
and it's so funny.
I just look like a giant stuff.
Like a full onesie.
Like a giant stuffed animal.
And it was a boy, those.
Yeah, they're beautiful.
They're hand knit.
They were hand knit and they're the warmest,
most comfortable things I've worn in my life.
But you know what those sock monkeys, you know those?
Uh-huh, yeah.
They, I look like a sock monkey when I put them on
with a red pompadour.
Yeah, that's so funny.
Not even, cause there's actually a cap you can put on too
that just isolates your face.
I should just wear that and walk around LA
until someone photographs me.
Yeah, they'll think that you're-
I'd lost my mind.
Kanye, yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
I should wear that and then go up when Kanye's next out
with what's his lady.
Right, what's her name?
She dresses in a very provocative manner.
Anyway, the next time- I haven't Googled it.
The next time those two are out together
and she's wearing something with no butt on it
and he's just wearing an REI tent,
I'm gonna run up along-
He's photobombing.
I'm gonna photobomb them,
dressed as a giant sock monkey,
and put my arm around both of them
and see if I can get that photo out there.
Kanye's taking a second, bro.
Oh!
That'd be a great promo for this show.
Yes, gotta get the word out.
We need stunts, publicity stunts.
Conan, what are you gonna do?
Oh, I've got this knit thing I can wear and I'll find Kanye.
You already have all of Kanye's fans in your pocket.
You're right.
Talk about redundancy.
Total overlap.
You like Kanye, you'll love this show.
Do you get to enjoy yourself on these trips? Because it is work.
Oh, great question. Hey, thanks for finally,
someone asked me a question, which makes my job a lot easier.
Yeah. Thank you. Happy birthday.
I wanted to give you a chance to talk. That was my gift.
Yes, here you go. No, but seriously, because it is, you know, we let, like you said before,
we hit the ground running and then it's nonstop till boom, we're back to the airport. So-
If I think that what we're making is funny,
I am like a kid at Christmas.
Right.
And I'm very happy.
And I really do love the camaraderie.
I like, I have to say,
Jeff Ross is not wrong.
When we have worked hard all day
and I think we have good stuff in the can
and then we go out to dinner, I love that.
I love that feeling of, I think we found something today
and I'm happy with it.
We can debrief.
And now we can debrief and we can sit
and we're in this exotic country.
We're eating Italian food.
No matter where we are.
Remember, we went to Armenia once for a travel show,
for a travel show years ago and Armenian food's really good,
but it's, you know, there's a lot of like,
it's a lot of chicken, it's very good,
but it's, we kept going.
Stuffed grape leaves.
Yeah, things like that.
And so we kept having that over and over and over again, and it was really good, but then
I remember there was one night where I was like, well, we gotta break the septum, we
found out there was like a small mall in Yerevan and an Italian restaurant.
There was basically the Grove.
Yeah, we went to the Grove in Yerevan.
The one in Glendale.
Yeah, and then ordered pizzas and we were just like,
this is, we're being the ugly American,
but for the most part when we're in country,
I have to say, talk about, we shot something in Dublin
where I go looking for Bono.
I'll just tell you that it's called searching for Bono
and I go looking for him in a park and it's a,
I don't think I'm giving away too much,
but it's basically a wildlife section of the documentary.
And we had so much fun shooting that.
I was giggling the whole time.
And then everyone had great ideas.
And Jesse, you were an impetus behind this.
That's right.
Jesse Gaskell.
And then we all started thinking of different,
and I just kept thinking of fun ways
to make it sillier and stupider.
Mm-hmm.
And I was just in heaven the whole time we were doing that.
And so to answer your question,
I have a lot of fun doing these.
There are times when I get run down
or there were times where we're someplace
and I think we're not getting it, this isn't it,
this is gonna show up on the edit room floor.
And those can be dispiriting
and long van rides can be dispiriting.
I think I have a hard time in a van
because I'm very kinetic.
And when someone says, okay, that was great,
now get into this very small space and sit in the back
and don't- And sit in traffic.
And sit in traffic. In the dark. And don't- And sit in traffic. And sit in traffic.
In the dark.
And we'll poke you in four hours
and you need to be at-
Hit the ground running.
Hit the ground running.
I have a hard time with that.
I think you have-
Matt has some great photos.
Matt has photos of me having a nervous-
Of you just losing your mind.
I lost my mind in the back
and I'm doing crazy bits, faces.
I'm just basically having a complete psychological meltdown.
The courts are gonna want those from me.
Yes, that's fine.
And it's in this eerie.
No, the New England Journal of Medicine wants them.
But we had such a good time, for the most part,
on these, that those, I find those moments just drift away, I completely forget those moments
and what I remember is the fun.
And I remember the fun of, and everywhere we go,
I mean the people were, in each country,
were uniformly just so much, such a great sense of,
they seem to be happy with what we were doing.
Yeah, that's my favorite thing.
And they seem to like that, I don't know,
the joke is usually on me and they're cool with that.
And they seem to, it's fun to just go
and explore the comedic rhythm in each country
and it's different in each country,
but they're all funny in their own way.
And they're not afraid to give me a hard time,
which I love. It's amazing that you can go outside of Los Angeles and there's just hilarious people
everywhere.
I mean, we're working at more.
I actually think, yeah, because guess what?
Yeah. They're not in LA. That's, we're working at more. Guess what?
They're not in LA.
That's why you go on these trips.
There are other places and they have normal jobs.
And they're just, you know, happy to meet somebody,
meet a stranger and have a nice interaction,
or maybe they know you from TV.
They're very-
They're kind of unfazed by the camera.
I know.
They're very unfazed by the camera
and they're just so happy to go with it.
And they all seem to pick up right away on,
oh, I get it.
Yeah.
Something's wrong with this man.
The butt of the joke.
Yeah, something's wrong with this man,
but he seems harmless.
Yeah.
And...
Yeah.
It is amazing how everyone-
I think I could take him.
Yeah.
And that was an old lady.
It was an old lady in a wheelchair.
I could take him.
Wheel me over to him.
Yeah.
It was really fun to make and it's an interesting process
because we go and we shoot them.
Then we come back.
You guys do these rough assemblies.
Matt Shaw does like these rough assemblies and then you guys go in and it's, I've always said the way we come back, you guys do these rough assemblies. Matt Shaw does these rough assemblies,
and then you guys go in and it's,
I've always said the way we approach these,
whether it was a remote for the old late night show
or the TBS show or travel shows,
it's like a chef doing a sauce.
Cook it down, get the reduction, add some more broth,
cook it down, cook it down, cook it down, cook it down.
We just keep cutting and cutting and cutting and cutting
and having different screenings and reducing it.
And then you get to this final part and you look at it
and there they-
It's all flavor.
It's-
Yeah.
Ooh, it's burned at the bottom.
Yeah.
There you go.
Well, I didn't say it was a good sauce.
Yeah.
All I meant was that it was short.
In my analogy, it's just that they're shorter.
It's broth.
It's still broth.
Yeah, still dense, very salty.
Your doctor recommends you don't have it.
It ruins the taste of the food you're eating.
It is fun to see the number of hours
you start with of footage.
I know.
And then know that you're cutting it down
to under an hour.
And then even when you think you can't cut anymore,
there's still something to cut.
And yeah, it was even in the finishing room
when we would watch the final finished cut,
it was like we all had like,
oh, just one little second here, you know,
but I think that that's normal.
Oh, I was showing a clip.
I went to South by Southwest.
I went to South by Southwest and I showed a clip
from a segment in Ireland
in the gas station that was,
got this big laugh in this giant room,
and I was very happy.
And then I just saw it,
the clip went on for a couple of seconds.
A couple of seconds afterwards,
and the crowd was like,
mm-hmm, okay.
And I'm up on stage And I'm up on stage.
I'm up on stage thinking, why is that still in there?
And it's like, no, no one was thinking about it.
It was a second for someone to just take an inhale,
but I was like, why is that there?
It's a palate cleanser for the home viewer
before they jump into the next session.
We want people to be laughing continuously with no pause.
You know what I love?
So they can hear the show over themselves We want people to be laughing continuously with no pause. You know what I love?
So they can hear the show over themselves like.
Exactly.
I love, too.
Anyone listening to this who checks them out and goes,
this is nothing but fat.
Ha ha ha ha.
These guys are like, these people are like patting
themselves on the back.
We reduced and reduced and reduced till,
and then they're watching it and it's just.
Was the stove on? This should be four minutes.
There was no heat.
Oh yes, leave it on another 10 hours.
Just.
Cause there are comedic.
They shut the gas off six months ago.
There are bits where the joke is that I'm,
there are bits where the joke wherever I'm in
is that I just keep going and I refuse to stop.
And I could see anyone listening to this
or any reviewer saying, what are they talking about?
I saw some trips.
That idiot.
Anyway, it was-
Well, I think people might wanna know
how we landed on the countries that we went to.
Oh, okay, yeah.
It's interesting.
It's like you're looking for,
it's like these two circles and you're trying to see
what's the best place where they intersect,
meaning talk to people around the world.
And some people seem like,
oh, I gotta talk to this person.
Like for example, Yarla in Bergen, Norway,
who just, he's this sweet kid,
to me anyway, he's a kid, he's like 22 years old,
and he's telling me, and he's the whitest kid
I've ever seen, and he's telling me he's got a hip hop duo
with his friend in Bergen, Norway.
And so I'm, there's part of me that's naturally curious,
and then it's, you know, if he had been in Trenton,
New Jersey, I would have said, okay,
I don't think that's a show,
but he's in Norway.
And I think, yeah, Norway, I wanna go there.
So basically, is the fan interesting and seem fun?
And am I intrigued?
And is it a country I'd like to go see?
And so if you can satisfy both of those,
then I'm on my way.
But, and we've had some other fans too, that we just,
you know, we, they asked for four specials, so we did four,
but there are other fans around the world
who've got some very intriguing stories.
So, you know, if-
Well, and there's a lot of other criteria,
I mean, just in terms of what is it like to
get film permits there and can you quickly, you know, can you quickly film things?
Yeah, exactly.
There are countries where it's more difficult to get permission.
Also, another thing, we've just learned things over time, but sometimes we're more ambitious
about traveling within a country,
and then you realize you do wanna do that,
but if it's a vast country,
and let's say you went to Australia
and you wanted to make sure that you did Sydney and Perth,
but you also wanted to go up to the barrier reef
and you also wanted to get into the outback.
You realize that breaking down camera equipment
and shipping it around, you're burning time.
And so you wanna make sure
that you make the right calculations.
So yes, get on a plane and travel within country
or get on a train if you really think
you're gonna get something good.
But if you're zipping around too much within a country,
you risk, you just lose days.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So you really, it's a cost.
It's just figuring these things out.
And one of the things that is fun,
it's fun and interesting is we sit around
and Jason's a big part of this,
but we'll sit with and we'll talk to chills
and we'll say this is what we're interested in.
And then we have these conversations
where we have a map of the country
and we have lists of comedy ideas we could do.
And itineraries.
Literally like a yarn going from one pin to another.
And we're like, okay, so we'd have to go,
210 miles to get this gag.
How much do we love it?
And then we all get into it.
And then sometimes we say, you know what?
It's not that funny.
It's not 210 miles funny.
And sometimes you think,
I think it is 210 miles funny.
And you are onto me.
You know I lie. I always am like, I think it is 210 miles and funny. And you are onto me, you know I lie.
I always am like, I think it's a 50 minute drive.
Yeah, and you're just like, fuck you.
Yeah, that's my commute home.
You know, yeah, right.
It's my commute back to Brentwood, asshole.
Oh, two hours and 50 minutes.
Yeah.
But I love, it's the making of these things.
I like to make things. I like to make things.
I like to make things with smart, funny people.
And I've enjoyed working with you guys as well.
Yes.
Da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da da.
Happy birthday indeed.
Happy birthday indeed.
And he wonders why he got no gifts.
No, I sincerely, I just, we have a great crew, Chills.
We've been doing this together.
Chills has been with me on every adventure
going back to Finland. Yes, Finland.
Right? And Mike.
And Mike, you've been with me since the beginning.
Before that, because the first one was really Ireland.
A million years ago. 1998, or 99.
I was there for that too.
Yes, Chills went on that too. So we have- That was two days. I was there for that too. You were there for that.
Chills went on that too.
So, that was two days.
We were there for two days.
We shot everything in two days.
We have a good crew here,
and we get a lot of help in each country.
And that's important too.
Which is, Y'all and Jennifer and Maritza and Marcello.
All their teams, it's phenomenal.
That is worth mentioning is that we need to,
when we go to another country, we can only do so much.
And then we have to find what's called fixers,
people in country who say,
you don't wanna go here, but you do wanna go there.
Yeah.
And yeah, people say that that's funny,
but it's really- That's gonna offend people.
That's gonna, yeah.
Don't do that.
That's actually against the law.
You can't urinate in that rare book library.
Conan Pease in a rare book library,
I thought was a natural.
You can't do anything on this list.
We hit one in every country.
But those people are invaluable.
And what's funny is we meet them,
we always meet them at the airport
or right when we get to the hotel.
And then there's this second of
how are we all gonna get along?
And then very quickly, you can see that they,
they take our temperature, we take their temperature,
and then we're off.
And we get really close to these people
and we owe them a lot.
I mean, they're a huge part of how these shows work.
Well, Chills picks on, and you get it,
you like, you'll say-
You do a vibe check.
You do a vibe check.
I talk to three people, I think it's,
I think this is the one.
And then you make best friends.
I mean, you stay in touch with people.
He also has affairs with them.
Chills has children in every country.
Whatever it takes.
I know why he picks these picks.
I like this one.
She didn't seem that great.
Oh, shut up!
She's never worked in show business.
And they're all women.
She doesn't speak English.
No, anyway, it was, I enjoy the doing of it.
And then it's just extra sweet that we get these shows
out of it and I'm excited for people to see them.
And-
Me too.
Me too.
I think, yeah.
And we have shown them to a bunch of people we really trust
who like them, who have full permission to tell us
this is shit.
And have in the past told me I'm shit,
but they were getting, I have a good feeling about it.
I laughed so hard during editing that I went into labor.
That's true.
That's right.
That is true.
Yeah, and you weren't even pregnant.
That's the crazy part.
A baby came out, you made a baby, you laughed so hard.
That was my favorite behind the scenes story.
Yeah, behind the scenes stories.
We were all hanging out in the conference room one night.
Yeah, you, during the making of these shows, you-
I got pregnant.
Got pregnant, which I think involves sex.
And then-
We'll explain it to you later.
Yeah, and then, so that was part of,
it's crazy that that was part of this process is that is,
no, it was, it was happening a long time
as we were making the shows
because the shows were delayed by the writer's strike.
So otherwise we would have made these a lot sooner, but-
And you would have never even known I was pregnant.
Exactly.
I was like, but you, what was really crazy is at one point
we're in editing and you're-
I was 37 weeks pregnant.
Yeah.
And we were, you were laughing really hard in the edit
and we were joking that this laughing-
Oh, I was laughing.
I was peeing my pants laughing.
Would induce a prank as a joke,
and then we all get a photograph in the morning of you.
7 a.m. in the morning.
7 a.m. in the morning of you holding Dottie.
A baby.
Yeah. Not your baby, another baby.
No, of you holding Dottie.
And it was like the joke the night before.
No, I know. I was like,
they're not gonna believe that this is real.
I thought it was a prop baby.
Well, I really was like, oh, I'm peeing my pants laughing.
And actually my water had broken
at work while we were there.
Oh, wow.
But you've been using that excuse for years.
I need to step away.
I just wet myself because of a baby.
And then she disappeared for two months.
Yeah.
No, that was-
Oh, that made me so happy.
Well, yeah, Dottie's the,
we got four shows and a baby out of that.
We got four specials and Dottie out of this,
which is really nice.
Well, we actually got another baby from a fan.
Oh my God.
Yeah.
Yeah, well, that's part of the show too.
Yeah.
So look for that.
Anyway, Conan O'Brien must go,
we like him. Yeah. go. We like them.
We put them down.
Yeah, they're coming out, dropping right now on Macs.
Go watch now.
Plus, this is something cool.
The good people at Samsung TV Plus,
they air a Conan O'Brien show,
basically Conan O'Brien show, basically,
Conan O'Brien TV channel.
And they put together our best stuff.
They've put together a bunch of glorious moments
from my career.
And in there, they've also put an exclusive 10-minute sneak
peek of the new Conan O'Brien Must Go series.
And it's for free.
So you can see that if you check out Conan O'Brien TV Channel
exclusively on Samsung TV+.
So we'll see you there.
Conan O'Brien needs a friend.
With Conan O'Brien, Sonam Avsesian, and Matt Gourley.
Produced by me, Matt Gourley.
Executive produced by Adam Sacks,
Nick Leow and Jeff Ross at Team Coco and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at Earwulf.
Theme song by The White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy.
Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples.
Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns.
Additional production support by Mars Melnik.
Talent Booking by Paula Davis, Gina Battista, and Brit Kahn.
You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read
on a future episode.
Got a question for Conan?
Call the Team Coco hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message.
It too could be featured on a future episode.
And if you haven't already,
please subscribe to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend
wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.