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And now it's time for

1:03

Inside Conan, an

1:05

important Hollywood podcast.

1:14

Welcome to Inside Conan, an important

1:17

Hollywood podcast. I'm Mike Sweeney

1:19

and I'm here with Jesse Gaskell. Hi, Jesse.

1:22

Hi, Sweeney. Nice to see you. Oh,

1:26

you too. Oh, man. What's going on?

1:28

I haven't seen you in a bit. I know. You

1:31

know, we're still striking. Right.

1:35

And it's summer. It

1:37

is summer. So, of course, I did

1:40

take up a strike hobby. Yes. What

1:43

is that? I'm

1:45

learning how to play the accordion. Is

1:48

that true? I think it is true. Why

1:50

would you make that up? Wow.

1:54

Yeah, I'm not doing it for the accolades.

1:58

Well, is your... your goal

2:00

to bring the accordion to a picket line

2:02

and entertain pickers? Well, maybe we'll see. It's

2:05

a very hard instrument, it turns out. It's

2:08

incredibly hard. It's

2:11

basically, I mean, it's two instruments. It's

2:15

a keyboard. And then on the other side, there are all those,

2:18

the dot candy buttons. Yeah.

2:22

It's really hard, but it's

2:24

been fun. I mean, I can only play children's

2:26

songs right now. I can play Twinkle

2:29

Twinkle Little

2:30

Star and Mary Had a Little Lamb.

2:32

And then the

2:35

chorus of Aha Take On

2:37

Me. Oh, wow.

2:39

That's fantastic. That's kind

2:41

of like a baby song for baby. It is like

2:44

a kid's song. Yeah. I

2:46

don't know why I decided I just had it

2:48

in my head. Like, oh,

2:50

I kind of want to learn to play an instrument. And that

2:52

seemed like something you could play by yourself.

2:55

Obviously, in my dreams, I get to join

2:57

a Zydeco band eventually. Of

2:59

course, and move to New Orleans. Well,

3:02

that was my question. What is your musical

3:05

instrument background? In other words,

3:07

did you play an instrument in school? I

3:09

played piano for two years as a kid, and that's

3:11

it. Okay. Is that

3:13

helping at all? Yeah, a little,

3:16

I mean, a little bit. All right. I know

3:18

how to read music. That helps

3:20

a little. But that's giant, I would think.

3:23

Yeah, yeah. But it's different

3:25

between knowing what you're supposed to do and actually

3:27

doing it. Right, right, right. There

3:29

was one Conan Rider guy, Nicoleucci

3:32

played the accordion. Oh, really?

3:34

Oh, cool. Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm

3:38

sure he was much better than me. I

3:40

only heard him play once, and yeah, he was pretty good.

3:43

I just forgot, too, how long

3:46

it takes to get good at something. And it's really

3:48

frustrating to be bad at it. Yeah,

3:52

I mean, I'm learning that. It's very humbling. With

3:54

podcasting.

3:59

Shouldn't I be bad? I just tell

4:01

myself baby steps. No, but an instrument

4:04

is incredible. Oh my God. Do

4:08

you play for your boyfriend? Is he like, oh, that's great.

4:11

I love aha. Oh God, no.

4:13

But my dog is home when I play

4:15

the accordion and

4:20

she hates it. She

4:23

howls the whole time. It's

4:26

really- It's a duet. I

4:28

know, I sent a video to my mom and she thought

4:30

that she was maybe singing, but I was like,

4:33

she looks too pained.

4:34

She thought that's such

4:36

a mother thing. Like, no, darling, she's enjoying

4:39

it. She's singing to your beautiful

4:41

music, I know. So

4:43

I think she thinks that it's a fire engine

4:46

or something. She's burying her teeth and

4:48

there's saliva dripping

4:50

down. She loves it, honey.

4:52

So it is kind

4:55

of, it's fun to troll the dog with the accordion.

4:57

Yeah, I would love it if the

5:00

next time we record, if

5:02

you would even just play

5:04

one, like I'd love to hear the dog howling

5:07

and you playing the accordion. Okay,

5:09

okay, I'll make that happen. Oh my God, can you

5:11

do it right now?

5:13

No,

5:15

but I have a video of it. Here,

5:18

let me pull it up on my phone.

5:22

Then we'll

5:26

have to

5:31

extend the Does

5:46

it Okay.

5:53

But she seemed to stop when you stopped. She

5:55

does. Yeah, it's just the noise that makes

5:57

her howl. And you listen, you're being.

6:00

I've

6:00

been way too modest. That was one of

6:03

the best itsy bitsy spiders I've

6:05

ever heard. But

6:08

she does that from the moment I pick up the accordion

6:10

until I stop. So I can't

6:12

do it without her doing

6:14

that. Really? Yes. That's

6:17

amazing. Well, it's annoying. Well,

6:19

it's really annoying. I would get rid of the dog. And

6:22

you can't let anything get in the way. No, because

6:24

I'm going to be an accordion star. Yes, you are.

6:28

How do we, how do we top, who

6:30

could possibly top that? Who could follow

6:33

that? I can only think of one person in the

6:35

world. Yes. And that's actor,

6:37

comedian and writer, Sam Richardson.

6:39

Oh my God. Thank God he's on the show today.

6:42

I know. Scrooge. Unfortunately,

6:46

I actually couldn't make it for this interview. I was very

6:48

sad to miss it, but you were there, Sweeney.

6:51

You did great.

6:51

I did the best I could

6:54

with my limited skills, but

6:56

yes, when you're not there, I'm sad

7:00

and lonely. But I had a great time

7:02

with Sam. Well, yeah. What we didn't mention

7:04

was that this entire season of Inside

7:06

Conan, we're covering Conan on the road.

7:09

And that means Conan travel episodes,

7:12

remotes, all the different

7:14

events that took Conan away from the desk. And

7:17

Sam, of course, came with us

7:19

on the Conan Without Borders trip

7:21

to Ghana. He actually introduced

7:23

the idea.

7:25

Yeah. And it turns out he

7:28

is of Ghanaian descent and he used

7:30

to visit Ghana when he was

7:32

like a pre-teen and an early teen

7:34

years, and he hadn't been back since. And

7:37

he's no dummy. He was kind of free

7:39

trip to visit his

7:42

homeland. And so it was-

7:44

Well, and it was actually part of Ghana's year

7:46

of return, which was they were

7:48

focusing on black

7:51

Americans who might have some Ghanaian

7:53

ancestry. And

7:55

encouraging

7:56

people to travel to visit the motherland.

8:00

And the Ghanaian government also coincidentally

8:03

invited Conan to visit Ghana

8:06

to help commemorate the year

8:08

of return. And so it was a perfect team

8:10

to visit the country. It was, and Sam

8:13

is just such a lovely person. He's a great,

8:15

great person to travel with. He was so

8:17

much fun. He was so wonderful. And it was

8:20

one of my most memorable trips because we

8:22

got to meet Sam's family in Ghana.

8:25

Yes. And that was

8:27

an amazing insight

8:30

to the country that we wouldn't

8:32

have had otherwise. And his family,

8:34

of course, they were all so

8:36

lovely.

8:37

And don't move a muscle after that because

8:39

we are talking to John Kroteau, the

8:42

longtime script supervisor for Conan

8:45

who went on the road on tour

8:48

with Conan after the Tonight Show and

8:50

he's got some great stories.

8:52

So without further ado, here's Sam Richardson.

8:56

And we are here with the wonderful, hilarious,

9:00

very

9:04

talented Sam Richardson. I'm so happy

9:06

to see you again. Oh, so happy to see you too. Thank you

9:08

for being on Inside Conan, the parasitic

9:12

podcast that lives off

9:14

the awful provided

9:16

by Conan O'Brien. Well, listen, whatever you have

9:18

to do to get through

9:21

these hard times. Yeah, exactly. It's an ecosystem.

9:24

But thank you so much for appearing. We're

9:26

so happy. And there's a bit of a bait and switch because

9:30

the co-host is normally Jesse Gaskell.

9:32

Oh, yes. Who is the wonderful Jesse Gaskell.

9:35

Hilarious, wonderful, much smarter

9:37

and more organized than me. But

9:39

you're stuck with me. I apologize, but we'll do

9:41

that with you. Listen, how bad can it be? Yeah, maybe

9:44

it's like the Hugh Lewis song says, I'm happy

9:46

to be stuck with you. I wasn't sure

9:49

which one you're gonna pick. It's hip to be square. That

9:52

too. Back in time.

9:55

All of his songs, timeless

9:58

anthems. It's true. Well,

10:00

thanks for coming in. And we just,

10:03

you know, we have guests on, you know,

10:05

have a big Conan connection, and we

10:07

just kind of love to talk,

10:09

explore that connection and,

10:12

you know, see how it's affected

10:14

you or not affected you at all.

10:18

So I thought we'd

10:20

start in the beginning with Conan, just

10:22

your first appearance. Do you remember that?

10:24

And I was wondering, had you been

10:27

on a late night talk show prior

10:29

to that? If I'm recalling

10:32

the first time properly as

10:36

where I did a jumping

10:38

splits.

10:39

Right. Yeah.

10:44

Did that cause injury? No, luckily.

10:47

Luckily, no physical at least. Background

10:50

where you learn that you knew, that

10:53

you knew that's something you could do. What

10:55

did you do that for? I grew up doing martial

10:58

arts, like Taekwondo and Machindo

11:01

and that sort of thing. It's that or cheerleading.

11:04

It's that or cheerleading. I was waiting for you to go. Exactly. Yeah,

11:07

right. That move seems more cheerleading

11:10

than martial arts. You're right, right. But

11:12

Taekwondo, but they're similar. Although

11:14

that, I mean, that would throw off your enemy,

11:16

I think, like if you

11:17

do that, that

11:18

would make me stop. And then you could like

11:21

chop them in the nuts or something. Exactly,

11:23

exactly. You know, you do that move, everybody is distracted

11:26

and paused a second, then you wipe them up. What

11:29

is, does that move have a name in Taekwondo?

11:32

That move is like a leg split. Yeah,

11:34

it's just like jumping splits, Dick. Have

11:39

you pulled that out before? Is that like a trick,

11:42

you know, you've got like up your seat? It is, it

11:44

is. When I got to high school,

11:47

I showed that,

11:48

I started doing musicals and this was so

11:50

funny. Like

11:53

I was like doing it when we were like warming

11:55

up and the dance,

11:59

like the dance. a dance choreographer was

12:01

like, whoa, what's that? And

12:03

so then it became my trick. And every musical, I would

12:06

do a jumping toe touch, or I'd do

12:08

a jumping toe touch off of

12:11

a platform or something. So

12:13

jumping split skic became a jumping toe touch. No

12:16

matter what the musical. Yeah, no, it's like, truly,

12:18

we're doing like, the rent. He's doing it in

12:20

rent, right? You know? And it's like-

12:22

They just found out they can stay in the apartment. Yeah,

12:25

jumping toe touch. Oh, she's dying. Jumping

12:27

toe touch.

12:29

What was your favorite musical you did? My favorite

12:32

musical I did was, I

12:34

really enjoyed Damn Yankees. It

12:37

was like, that was like the first musical I

12:39

did, or is I did that or West Side Story, but

12:41

I didn't enjoy West Side Story very much

12:43

because,

12:46

you know, the premise being,

12:48

it's the white kids versus

12:50

the Puerto Ricans. So if you're not either

12:52

of those, truly, if you're not

12:55

white, then you are a Puerto Rican period. I'm

12:57

officer Krupke, I guess. You know what I

12:59

mean? So I was like, I was Chino, but

13:02

I was definitely like, they didn't get any fun

13:04

songs. Really,

13:07

they are tertiary characters. Right, right, right.

13:09

So that was my first encounter with racism

13:12

in the entertainment industry. You

13:15

wrote an angry letter.

13:16

Yeah, you really did. To Leonard Bernstein. What

13:19

the hell were you thinking? It's like, get woke. It's

13:24

all a sham. I didn't know you sang.

13:28

It's kind of awesome. Does that come up? Like,

13:30

did...

13:31

Like here and there, I do love,

13:33

I'd love to sing. I don't know

13:36

if I've done anything professionally

13:38

singing.

13:39

Your voice is hard to peg. You could be a beautiful

13:43

bass baritone or a tenor. It's

13:45

very hard. It's true. You know, I can

13:47

hit all of them. Oh my God. Oh, I can

13:49

hit all of them. Oh my God.

13:51

You know, it's... You can do all the parts. All of

13:53

them. And then the split. And then I do

13:56

jumping toe touch. You're only listening,

13:58

but you can't tell. I was doing jumping toe touch.

13:59

It was the whole time. Three jumping toe

14:02

touches, even though you only sang two voices.

14:04

Yep. There was one in between. Well,

14:07

you put English on it. Exactly. I

14:10

was in a high school musical, Oklahoma.

14:13

Oh yeah. But it was really, it was like for

14:15

Sunday school, so it was really the bottom

14:18

of the barrel and they had no money and

14:21

they begged me to go out for it because they,

14:24

so I played the bad guy, Judd. Oh

14:26

yeah. And I remember the good guy, the guy I played, Curly.

14:28

Like I was already

14:30

six three and the guy I played Curly

14:32

was like five two. Uh oh. And

14:34

he had to, so I, you reminded me, you said

14:36

choreography, they had to choreograph him killing

14:39

me.

14:40

And I remember they're like, hmm,

14:42

okay, give us a minute here. Can

14:45

we like maybe like a chair he pulls up? It

14:50

was a thing where I had to stumble and accidentally

14:52

fall on his knife. Oh yeah. The

14:55

audience is booing. He's like, no,

14:57

you've asked us to spend our belief too much. Can

15:01

he do a split? No. There's

15:03

no way he wins this fight. This guy blows. So

15:06

that was my big, yeah. I was like, I don't

15:09

know musical theaters for me. But

15:11

wait, how do we, we got onto, oh yes, high school musicals.

15:14

Oh yes, yes. And then we,

15:16

that's where the split came into

15:18

its own. I love it. The origin story

15:20

of the split. And then you're like, someday I'll do this on

15:22

a late night talk. Yeah,

15:24

first chance I got. Right. So

15:28

you were on Conan and then, and

15:30

that was great. And well, you know what? Just before

15:32

we get back to Conan, I'm fascinated by,

15:35

you know, you grew up in the Detroit area

15:37

and

15:39

I love that you went into improv.

15:41

I'm wondering if you ever did even and thought

15:45

about doing standup or you just, or

15:47

did it a little bit or I'm just curious.

15:50

It was all, it was always improv. So

15:52

I grew up watching, you

15:55

know, a lot of Saturday Night Live and

15:57

SC TV and like, you know,

15:59

all the,

15:59

the movies that, you know, those people were

16:02

in. So like, there was just like on repeat.

16:05

And so finding out there was a second city or finding out

16:07

what second city was, I was like enamored. And

16:09

then it found out there was a second city in Detroit.

16:12

So then I went to see second city in Detroit and I was like 14. Ah.

16:16

And so I started doing improv.

16:18

Then I like did an improv jam and then got on stage

16:20

and like got some laughs and I was like, uh-oh. So

16:23

like it was all about improv and sketch.

16:26

When you were 14. When I was like 14, 15. So

16:29

you saw a show and then went back

16:31

another time? Yeah. Like I saw

16:33

my friend's class show. Okay. A

16:35

friend who I was in musicals with was taking classes at

16:37

second city. And so I went to see his show and

16:40

then they had like an improv jam afterward. And

16:42

so I got up and I did the jam. Oh wow. You

16:45

know, just like a teenager who has no- No

16:48

idea. No idea. No idea the risk

16:50

involved. Exactly. It was like, yeah, it's easy. Which

16:52

is the way to do it. And like, I

16:55

had a good pop and I was like,

16:56

Whoa. Oh boy. This

16:59

is it from you're on out. That first big laugh.

17:01

That was four years ago. I

17:05

don't need that leg split anymore. You know

17:07

what I mean? I can save my groin for other things.

17:10

Exactly. So

17:13

did your parents have a sense of like, Oh, you know what?

17:16

Not entirely. Showbiz

17:19

maybe for this guy. Yeah, like

17:21

my dad is a pretty good

17:23

patron of the arts. You know, he's like

17:26

into opera. And shows,

17:30

he took me to see my first musical, which was Dreamgirls.

17:34

And so like he was like always like, Oh,

17:36

I appreciate this. It was always

17:38

very much a hobby, quote unquote, but to

17:40

me it wasn't. I was like, this is what it's going to be. So

17:43

when he got in the high, after high school,

17:46

I was like

17:47

looking at schools and I was like,

17:49

Oh, I'm going to go to theater school. So I almost went to

17:51

U of M, but my grades weren't good. So

17:55

I, and like you have audition for

17:57

the theater program. I think it was very

17:59

complicated. So I went to Wayne State University

18:02

and I got in their theater program, but

18:04

I was also doing, I was still involved at Second

18:07

City and doing

18:09

shows around Detroit, written

18:13

through improv and kind of like local

18:15

theater. So I was like managing

18:17

both. And that's how you met Tim

18:19

Robinson, right? Yes. You took, he

18:21

was your instructor in a class? He was my level A

18:24

instructor when I was like 18 years old.

18:26

That old. Yeah,

18:29

I was with a Walker, long

18:31

gray beard. Four years later. Four

18:34

years, just arthritic improv.

18:37

How big was the class? That class

18:39

was maybe about 16 people. Did

18:43

he tell everyone else to go home? He said, everybody fuck

18:45

off. I just wanna hang out. I

18:47

just wanna hang out with this. This guy is it.

18:51

By the way, Detroiters is

18:54

laugh out loud, hilarious show. And

18:57

you two are like, this

19:00

sounds corny, but I think you're like one of the great

19:02

comedy duos. Thank you. You

19:05

probably hear that a lot, but man, oh man,

19:08

you two are so just great together.

19:11

And it's,

19:12

I just laugh out loud, hilarious show.

19:15

It's such a rare thing to find, a

19:19

person who you blend with

19:21

comedically,

19:22

so

19:25

perfectly, and we found that so

19:27

early and not just comedically,

19:30

but just as friends. You know what I mean? But

19:33

because it's such a part of ourselves, the fact that

19:35

those parts meld

19:38

well means the other parts do

19:40

as well. And we both have sort of the same sort of

19:43

outlook on things. So

19:45

lock and step. And

19:48

then you have that short hand. And then we have exactly.

19:51

So then you kind of need that,

19:53

I think, because in a way,

19:55

I mean, there's probably times where

19:57

it's you guys against the world,

19:59

or just.

19:59

other outside foresters are like, we

20:02

gotta cut this, or no, we don't really

20:04

like that. And you look at each other and

20:06

probably go, oh no, no, no, no. No,

20:08

no, this is actually what the thing is. Trust me, trust

20:10

me, trust me. No, being in Detroit is kind

20:12

of important. We're not moving

20:15

it to Iowa. Yeah, I think

20:18

of things like that. Well,

20:20

that's so funny, because like

20:22

also in the notes session, when

20:24

we're like pitching it and like kind of making the

20:26

show early on, there was like a lot of like

20:29

pushback on like, oh, these guys need to be in

20:31

more conflict. We're like, well, no,

20:33

this is the bit is these

20:35

guys versus the world, internal conflict, you

20:37

see that everywhere. And like, you

20:39

can, it's, there's so many forces

20:42

that are at play. Like it's important that these

20:44

guys are, you know,

20:45

that they have

20:47

each other no matter what, you know? And then when

20:50

there is conflict between them, that's what would shake up

20:52

the world. So it can't be every episode

20:54

that's that, because then why do

20:56

they love and trust each other so much? I

20:58

love that story. Cause that seems like a classic

21:02

executive thing. Like, well,

21:03

it's like a playbook. There's got to be conflict.

21:08

And you're right. Like you two, I mean, I

21:10

think that's why you two are so hilarious. You're

21:13

both on the same wave. Like,

21:16

oh, we're gonna put

21:17

ketchup on our ties before we go into

21:19

a restaurant. Unspoken, we know it. It's

21:21

just that's what you do before a big

21:23

meeting. Okay. And

21:26

it's just hilarious. Yeah. One

21:28

of my favorite like kind of bits that we would do in

21:31

there is like, you know, if Tim is

21:33

saying something to someone, it's like just out of pocket,

21:35

you know what I mean? He's like, he's talking to the

21:37

Reverend at

21:40

the funeral afterwards. He's like, oh, I hope you didn't

21:42

think what you did there was like very funny. Those were all priest

21:44

laughs. They were gonna laugh no matter what. And

21:47

like, it's like, whoa, out of pocket or out of hand.

21:49

And then like, I come up later and like, oh, great job. I hope you

21:51

know, you didn't deserve those laughs. It's just,

21:54

they agree on everything. Right,

21:56

right, right. It's hilarious.

21:59

But then it's true

22:01

when you guys do disagree, like

22:03

when he's being a bad wing man or

22:06

you don't like the way he's doing an ad and then you

22:08

end up doing it. Those

22:11

are really fun surprises. Yeah,

22:14

that's the conflict. You can't have conflict

22:17

if it's always conflict. Right, right, right. Yeah,

22:19

I mean, some people attempt it,

22:21

but then you're just,

22:23

it's exhausting. Yeah, exactly. No,

22:25

it's really funny. Well,

22:27

I hope you didn't get any notes when you appeared on Conan.

22:30

None, not a one. Nobody even talked to

22:32

me. Oh, no one cared about our show ever. I

22:34

always live when people are like, well, you guys, you

22:36

know, you guys are getting

22:38

fucked by the exact, and it's like,

22:41

I wish we could say

22:43

that. Excuse,

22:45

that would have helped perhaps.

22:48

But no, it was all, I think as Conan's

22:50

such a strong

22:52

comedic point of view and

22:55

very large and in charge, because

22:58

I noticed it, I mean, I came into late night

23:00

and it was

23:02

like that. But then going to the

23:04

Tonight Show and then going to Conan

23:06

on TBS and just

23:08

when he's hosted the Emmys or anything,

23:11

everyone backs off. They were

23:13

just like, oh, okay. We're

23:16

not messing with this. Like he knows what he's

23:18

doing. He knows, he's the funniest man on television. He

23:21

also knows to, I think, kind of establish

23:24

that with them, like

23:27

he's smart enough to know like, okay, all these guys

23:31

and women are gonna be, they're gonna wanna

23:34

have their own agenda and push. And

23:36

like at least get a hand on something so

23:38

they can say they did something. Yes. Have

23:40

a reason to

23:41

have been there. Right, right. So

23:43

he'd make a strong, I think he'd come out of the gate

23:45

where I was like, wow, where did the, he would

23:47

just say, this is what we're doing, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba, and

23:49

then everyone would be like, yeah, right.

23:52

We'll talk to you in 10 years. Good

23:54

luck with your show and

23:57

all your guest segments.

24:18

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24:30

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of.

25:24

This one goes out to all you craft real male

25:26

lovers to the sniffers, making

25:28

excuses to run to the kitchen to open

25:30

a jar and take a big whiff. And

25:33

to the dippers, slathering their sandwiches

25:35

in velvety smooth mail and then dipping

25:38

them in even more mail. You just can't

25:40

get enough, can you? And I haven't

25:42

forgotten the fry painters. Some say free,

25:44

some say chips, but you all use that

25:46

French fried golden goodness to deliver craft

25:49

real mail straight to your mouth.

25:51

Let your mail freak flag fly.

25:56

This season on our, this is our fourth season. We're

25:58

talking about Conan on the road. We're talking about. Conan

26:00

traveling like either to cities

26:03

in the United States or some travel

26:05

shows. So of course we wanted to talk to you

26:07

because

26:08

that was one of our favorite international travel shows

26:10

was going to Ghana with you. It was so

26:12

amazing. It was

26:14

such an honor to get to go with you

26:16

guys. And it

26:19

was true because I hadn't been at the Ghana in

26:22

so long. Right.

26:24

With working, you never wanna take yourself

26:27

out of the

26:29

possibility of working. So it's like, if I go to Ghana,

26:31

that's when Spielberg's gonna call and be like, be

26:34

the new ET. Right, right, right. Sorry,

26:36

man.

26:37

Can't. I've ever marketed God.

26:40

In Africa. But

26:43

one of my first

26:44

things of

26:45

comedy, like when I'm at that same little TV

26:48

I was watching SNL on and I

26:50

was watching Conan. I watched Conan's first episode

26:52

like live. I was in my

26:54

room on this little TV. Oh wow. So

26:57

it's always been, I remember it. So

26:59

like having, for being on the

27:01

show, I was like, this is wild. But then like,

27:04

then being like a repeat guest, I was

27:06

like, oh, that's crazy to me. When

27:09

you all asked me to come to Ghana,

27:11

it was like

27:13

the best opportunity and the best way

27:16

to go and like best people to go with. Yeah,

27:19

it just worked out that I, He did.

27:21

No, and of course we're like, oh,

27:24

cause we knew how busy you were. And

27:26

we're like, and when you said yes, we're like, oh

27:28

my gosh, this is perfect.

27:30

This is great.

27:32

We were so excited. And

27:34

then it's funny you say it was like a privilege

27:38

or whatever to go with us, ha ha. For

27:40

us, like

27:42

going there and then meeting

27:44

your family and your extended

27:47

family, your cousins and your aunt Letitia

27:49

and your mom, Lydia. And

27:52

that was amazing for us. And

27:55

that was a real honor. Cause

27:57

it was such a great.

27:59

much more intimate way to visit a country,

28:02

obviously. Yes, and

28:04

they were so happy to have you to

28:07

like the red carpet full. They

28:11

were so excited, and I

28:13

really appreciated how much you all appreciated

28:15

it too. Well,

28:19

I mean, we

28:21

flew up to Kamasi at one point to

28:24

meet the Queen Mother.

28:26

And that's where, I

28:28

think it's the first time I met

28:30

your cousins, John, and

28:33

I loved your cousin, William. John's

28:35

fine. Does

28:37

he live in London, I think? He lives in London. Did

28:40

he grow up

28:41

in Ghana or did he grow up in London? So

28:44

for everybody but me, they kind of split

28:46

time. So they would either go to boarding school in London

28:49

or they'd go to the GIS, Ghana International

28:51

School, Ghana kind of between the two.

28:56

So I was the only one who, I mean, I did

28:58

go to school in Ghana for like first and second grade.

29:00

Oh, wow. I went to Lincoln Community School,

29:03

which is like an international school, but everybody

29:06

else kind of was there,

29:07

either they're at

29:11

school and they're all year long or they would be

29:14

in London for school and then be in Ghana the rest of

29:16

the time. You know, I was

29:18

there for first and second grade when our grandfather was passing

29:21

and then after he passed,

29:22

but then I came back to the States. And

29:25

it was so funny because that's when everybody

29:27

became like really Ghanaian was

29:29

over the years, but for me, I was

29:32

like not there. So like one

29:34

year I went back and all of a sudden everybody spoke Chuy

29:36

and I was the only one who didn't. And I was like,

29:39

oh, what? Hey,

29:41

you guys keep on, what's happening? And

29:47

then it just kind of like then further like

29:49

separates. Well, yeah,

29:51

if you can't speak the

29:52

language all of a sudden- Quite literally.

29:55

I'm sure they loaded that over you. Probably I'm sure,

29:58

oh, they must have tortured you. Yes.

29:59

I would have if you were like us, that

30:02

we got them right where we want them. Like

30:05

already the one who has like the American accent. So,

30:08

you know, they all have like their, everybody

30:11

in my family has an English accent with a Ghanaian

30:13

affectation. I'm the one who has just an American

30:16

accent. You know what I mean? Oh

30:19

my God.

30:20

Would they do imitations of you? They would, oh

30:23

my God. Everyone

30:25

did, in my honesty. They

30:28

would like make fun of me. They'd be like, oh,

30:30

Sam,

30:31

oh, I'm thirsty. Can I have, oh, what's

30:33

this? It's clear, it's clear. It's this, I'm

30:36

like, oh, you want a water? Water.

30:40

Oh, they'd say this water is water. They'd

30:42

beat you. They would beat me and I would fall

30:44

for it because I was a child.

30:46

And you thought that. Butter,

30:50

that was the main one. Oh, butter. You

30:53

have some butter? Butter.

30:54

Stupid, it's butter.

31:00

I love

31:01

your aunt going after you. Yeah,

31:05

he's good at it. They were probably like, what room is

31:07

he in? Okay, watch this. What time is it, three

31:10

in the morning? Wake him up. This is gonna be great.

31:13

He's really off his game. If you wake him, rock him

31:15

away. Trust me, he'll say anything and

31:17

he'll hit that hard R. Different

31:23

meeting at that time. But

31:26

I was also like my aunt's favorite. And I still

31:28

am. My cousins admit like I'm my aunt's favorite.

31:31

Oh really? By far. And you were

31:33

a back bad. I was back bad, I am now. You were

31:36

absence, cause you weren't around. You know, exactly.

31:39

How can she be more like Sal? You know, some's

31:41

here, some's here. Okay, wonderful. Even

31:44

like Julie, my cousin Julian, who wasn't there, but

31:46

that's Julian's William's younger brother

31:48

and Madeline. They're

31:51

like, there's no even question about it. You're

31:53

mom's favorite. I'm

31:56

like, yeah, I know. That's great. That's great.

31:58

Oh, so that must've been a, so.

31:59

You hadn't seen her

32:02

cousins in quite a while. When

32:05

you went back with us. Yeah.

32:08

I mean, I knew you hadn't been since

32:10

like

32:11

early high school or eighth grade

32:13

or something. Exactly, had been since. I

32:15

didn't know they liked you. So I didn't know

32:17

it was a big... Yeah, exactly. I didn't know they'd be excited.

32:20

I thought I was a stranger. But turns

32:22

out it was just they hadn't been. They still loved you. That's

32:26

great. That's great. But it was so great, because

32:29

after a day we would do the segments and

32:31

it was so much fun. And then at night

32:33

I would go and I would hang out with my cousins

32:35

and it was a sip, no time had passed. It

32:38

was like right long, but all of a sudden we're adults

32:40

so we can just go and drink and

32:41

stuff. That's even better. You know,

32:43

it's definitely better. Set these boys

32:45

up, here we go. See,

32:49

I would be, and I love that you didn't,

32:52

we're like, oh, who cares about

32:54

the thing I'm doing during the day I'm going out. That's

32:57

kind of great. Still at that

33:00

point where I'm like, I've got the bandwidth

33:02

to do both. Well, the

33:04

Conan stuff wasn't exactly

33:07

grueling. Yeah, exactly. Except

33:09

for that cooking death. Oh my goodness.

33:13

I had forgotten. Mama Amma. Brown.

33:18

Mama Brown's kitchen, yeah. I just

33:20

remember her show started and

33:22

we had to cool our jets

33:24

while she did like a 20

33:27

or a half hour opening. Where

33:29

she mentioned every product, every sponsor. Every

33:31

single one in detail. Right, and I

33:33

think it was like, hey, you know, can we get, no,

33:36

no, I've got to mention that

33:39

people make my refrigerator, my stove

33:41

top, my olive oil. The specific bullion

33:43

cube. It was so funny. And

33:46

then you and Conan got her to like,

33:48

I think start mentioning more. They

33:50

have more products. She

33:52

didn't even blink. She

33:55

didn't care whether you were joking or not. She's like, I'll say all

33:57

these products again. I get two checks that way.

33:59

Yeah,

34:02

no, that was great. And you know, the

34:04

big highlight

34:06

that's not on the show

34:08

is the last day your family

34:11

had us over for it. And they're

34:13

like, oh, come by. Like, come by, it's

34:16

a feast. A feast. I

34:18

ate everything. It was a feast. Yeah.

34:22

It was like a whole roasted fish.

34:25

And just- They did like a pig,

34:28

right? Right, yes. And like duck. Yes,

34:31

I took the pig with me on the airplane. Yeah, it's stunk on

34:33

that cabin, but it

34:36

is delicious. I knew that to bring

34:38

the fish on the cabin. I was like, oh, that's

34:40

experience, travel. International

34:43

travel. So, exactly,

34:45

yes. And you know, after that, I'm

34:47

watching season

34:49

two of Ted Lasso, and I'm like, oh, okay. And

34:53

then you came on, and you

34:55

were playing a billionaire

34:57

from Ghana, and I don't know, I was

34:59

just was, I was so

35:01

excited. I was delighted by it. Yeah.

35:04

I was like, maybe our trip helped with

35:07

his research for the character. It kind of

35:09

did, because I did meet like

35:11

a kind of an Edwin Akufu when I was

35:13

there. Really? You know, I won't say

35:15

his name, but like- Akufu

35:18

Edwin. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah.

35:22

But he, you know, like sort of like

35:24

this like very wealthy guy who's

35:26

like tossing money around

35:27

and trying to impress people. I was like,

35:29

ooh, yeah. Write that down.

35:31

Oh, I love that. Put that in my brain. And

35:33

then so like when they asked me

35:36

if I would come and do Ted Lasso, I was like,

35:38

oh, I know exactly who this is. Oh, that's

35:40

great. And then you came back in

35:43

season three, which was great. Yeah.

35:45

Yeah. Yeah. It was really fun

35:47

to get to go back and do that. And like this time, you know,

35:50

the first season two, there

35:52

is two episodes. So the first episode and

35:54

first episode and a half, he's still pretending to be this

35:56

benevolent

35:57

sort of like, you know, I don't

35:59

believe in Billy.

35:59

Nobody should be a billionaire, we

36:02

shouldn't exist. And I

36:04

want this great

36:06

thing for you and for this, but

36:09

he's just trying to collect toys and then when he's turned

36:11

down, like

36:14

that temper tantrum. So it was fun to get to

36:16

come back post temper tantrum and like the whole

36:18

time now he's just antagonistic, jerk.

36:22

Which really builds up at the end. Yeah.

36:25

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

36:27

Oh, but I never knew

36:30

that Sam, the character

36:32

of Sam was based on you because your

36:35

friend John Kelly was one of the creators. Joe

36:37

Kelly. Joe, I apologize. Joe

36:39

Kelly was co-creator of Detroiters. Right,

36:42

right. And Jason

36:44

was an executive producer on Detroiters. Jason

36:46

Sudeikas. And was in Detroiters. And was in Detroiters,

36:49

yeah. This is great. Yeah, it's Carter

36:51

Grant. Yeah, so great. But he's

36:54

great as that character. Yeah, it's really

36:56

fun. I love the way he would just stare

36:58

at you guys just like before answering.

37:02

Yeah, like those moments, like it

37:04

would give those perfect pauses, like are you done?

37:06

Perfect pauses.

37:09

Yeah, so Joe Kelly

37:11

and

37:12

you reached out to him and said, wait a minute.

37:14

Because I was like maybe like two or three episodes

37:17

in and I was like, is,

37:20

because you never wanna just like

37:22

assume like anybody named Sam has gotta

37:24

be me. But it was like enough things. I was

37:26

like, he was just like affable, buoyant sort of

37:28

guy. He's Nigerian,

37:30

but like, you know, close

37:33

to, close to gunning. Right, does

37:35

like splits. Does like, does like splits all

37:37

the time and sings. The signs are there. In

37:40

every octave. And

37:43

I was like, is, hey

37:45

buddy, great. The show is great.

37:48

Is Sam me? Oh,

37:50

of course buddy, yeah, obviously. I

37:53

guess it is obvious. So

37:55

am I gonna see any money from this? Can

37:58

you choose? This is a season to set.

37:59

This isn't

38:02

a friendly phone call. Yeah, exactly.

38:04

On the line is also my lawyer. This

38:07

is the other side of my personality. You can

38:10

maybe use that for a different character. You're

38:12

gonna rip me off for our next- Yeah, exactly.

38:14

Mm, prick. That's

38:17

great.

38:17

Plus you

38:20

got to go to, I assume

38:22

you went to London, right? They didn't shoot that. They went

38:24

to London.

38:25

That'd be great if you revealed they shot the whole thing

38:27

at Warner Brothers. Exactly. Just

38:29

one background. All green screen. Right, right,

38:31

right. But I got to go

38:33

to London. I got to see my cousins again. Oh

38:35

my God, that's hilarious. Montleticia,

38:38

I was at, so I got

38:40

to London. I

38:43

quarantined in the hotel for like, you

38:45

know, nine days, maybe

38:48

two weeks. Couldn't have been two weeks, but I don't know if

38:50

it was long enough to all the days I made themselves

38:52

in the next shot. And this was pre-COVID. That was just the

38:54

way- It was just because I- That was the way you were. You know

38:56

what I mean? I just don't like people. Exactly.

38:59

Yeah. I mean, people

39:01

can't see now, but there's, you're in a separate

39:03

room. Exactly, and in a bubble. Behind a glass booth.

39:06

And hazmat suit. So you

39:09

quarantined. I quarantined, and then I went with my,

39:15

my cousins took me out and then I went to see my auntie,

39:17

Montleticia. And she, but

39:19

it was a surprise. She didn't know I was

39:21

in town. So I, so

39:24

she was in the back room. I came in as pretending

39:26

to be a construction worker or

39:28

the contractor. And I'm like, oh,

39:31

well, can't do this, man. The

39:33

walls got to come out. It can't come out as well. It's load-bearing.

39:35

And she's like, who is this? So she came out

39:37

and she screamed. She's like, son! And

39:41

I was like, who is this Cockney

39:42

guy? Not a great accent,

39:45

but- Who says butter, but with

39:47

an American accent. She said, oh, really, hard R on that

39:49

butter. I know that R. Oh,

39:52

that's great. I love

39:54

that. That's a surprise.

39:57

And now you're, this is super exciting

40:00

and after party. Yes. Which

40:02

I loved. Oh, thank you. I know

40:04

there was, oh, sorry, go ahead. No, no, please. No, oh,

40:07

please, more compliments. Yeah, no, I

40:09

keep them coming.

40:10

No, but you know what? That was like a

40:13

great ensemble cast, really great.

40:15

But I, and again, I'm very partial

40:18

to you. I'm like your aunt Letitia. It's

40:20

like, it's my Sam. No, but

40:23

I just like, you

40:23

are just the star of that show. The

40:28

star of that show. But you are so,

40:30

but also, you know, it is such a perfect, I

40:33

think, for all your talents because

40:36

each episode is from a different point of view and

40:38

a different genre. And I just

40:40

feel like you're so versatile in

40:42

terms of,

40:43

like if someone came in here right

40:46

now and asked you to do, you

40:47

know, an interview in 10 different genres,

40:50

you'd be like, yeah, what are they? Let's do them.

40:52

No, you don't have to, I don't need to see them in advance. You just do it. So

40:55

I, did you like, did you enjoy that?

40:58

I really loved it. Cause like, yeah, the sort of like the premise

41:00

of the show being that everybody's like recalling, like

41:03

talking to a detective to recall

41:06

the events of a night of a murder. And

41:08

then everybody's

41:10

retelling is told through a different genre

41:12

of film and like through their different perspective, like

41:14

sort of Russian style. Yeah. So

41:17

with that, the fun of sort of

41:20

interpreting what their point of view is of how you

41:23

see this character but also like to like

41:25

really dive into the tropes and the genres

41:27

of these things. It's really like a fertile

41:29

playground. It's

41:33

fun to get to like do an action movie or

41:35

then like in this one, like Elizabethan

41:37

drama. And

41:39

like really you get to play pretend

41:42

like all in the same time. So as opposed to like

41:44

doing a whole other production that,

41:46

you know, five months to then put this,

41:48

you can paint these different

41:51

like, you know, coats of paint on

41:53

your character and then like put that aside

41:56

and then do another one immediately. It's like for

41:58

a person like me who's like always

41:59

if you wanted to do something,

42:02

it's like a perfect activity.

42:07

Activity playpen. Oh, that makes

42:09

me think of something I'm curious about.

42:12

So, you know, like a lot of

42:14

the scenes take place at this fantastic

42:18

penthouse on the ocean, but

42:20

also at a high school, because it's a high school reunion.

42:23

So let's just say the high school

42:26

reunion shots,

42:27

would you just be camped

42:29

out at that high school and shoot all

42:32

the episodes and all the different genres

42:34

before leaving that location? Yes, so

42:37

for the first season, it was the

42:39

high school reunion. So we had a set

42:41

for the house, but then we were in the actual high

42:44

school. I think we're in Monrovia. So

42:46

we would shoot all the

42:49

episodes, you know, and all the stuff

42:51

that was at the high school, we would shoot in the high school.

42:54

So the first half of shooting was at that high

42:56

school. And like,

42:59

you know, oftentimes, Chris Miller directed all

43:01

the episodes at first season. So you

43:03

would go back and like kind of do the other

43:06

genres. So

43:08

like the first one would be like, all right, we're doing the scene

43:10

in the rom-com style, but then

43:12

you change the lightings and then do it in

43:15

action movie style. And this

43:17

scene again, because it's all set up to

43:19

be this already. And

43:21

then we would shoot all the house stuff together,

43:24

and then like the exterior stuff like the

43:26

very last week. Did you ever get shell

43:28

shocked, like keeping it?

43:30

It was hard. Yeah, it's just a lot to get back

43:32

of. It really is. And like the hard, but

43:34

the fun thing would be when you would do

43:36

the stuff back to back because

43:39

you could like really turn the dials because

43:41

you can like remember exactly what you'd done before,

43:43

you know. It was fresh. It's

43:46

fresh, you know, but also Chris, it's

43:49

such a marvel because he keeps it all in

43:51

his head. So you can ask him, it's like, well, wait,

43:53

what was I doing here? He's like, oh, this

43:55

because of this and this and this and this and this. It's like, he's got all

43:58

the- They had it right there in his frontal.

43:59

The role right there in his head is wild. He'd

44:03

been with us for like 10 years. He originally

44:05

had written it as a movie. Oh.

44:08

And then they turned into a show because like,

44:10

you know, as a movie, you probably can't serve all the

44:12

characters. You know, it becomes

44:14

eight episodes. Like everybody gets their point

44:16

of view across very clearly. Yes.

44:20

six minutes with each person. So

44:23

for the second season, the season that comes out July

44:26

12th, Apple TV Plus. Perfect.

44:31

We shot it. There's many directors,

44:34

I believe five different

44:36

directors in 10 episodes. So,

44:39

you know, we would

44:41

be shooting two episodes at a time. So cross shooting,

44:44

but not, you know, you wouldn't be doing 10.

44:46

You'd just, you'd know that you were on

44:48

the hook for episodes one and episode

44:51

five, you know what I mean? Or episode two and four.

44:54

You know, so like, it's great to like be able

44:56

to narrow that down and like really focus. Same

44:58

time you're also shooting it out of order.

45:01

So I'm like, we're shooting episode five,

45:03

but we haven't done three yet. What

45:05

did I do in three? And they'd

45:08

be like, I don't know. No, no, it's not my job.

45:10

I'm only directing two fuckface. Yeah, my face. You

45:14

shoved me really hard in the chest. I don't

45:16

think that's a good way

45:16

to, I'm surprised I had that director. Yeah,

45:18

now that I'm remembering that. This is a problem,

45:20

I have all the grievance.

45:23

Yeah, well, yeah, at

45:26

least the first season, one guy had it all,

45:29

but that does sound even more complicated.

45:31

And the scope of everything has grown

45:33

so much in the second season. So like what

45:36

was in the first season was- It's a wedding. It's a wedding,

45:38

you know, and it takes place over the, first off the

45:40

event takes place over the course of a weekend, but

45:42

now with this one, you're meeting new characters. So

45:45

there's backstory that's being told

45:47

over the course of, some of them, decades

45:50

and like these, like depending on the genre, these

45:52

sort of like, big narratives.

45:55

So with the scale being bigger

45:58

and like it's-

45:59

more of a challenge, but a fun challenge

46:02

to kind of get to do those things. And

46:05

you're the star again. No,

46:07

but seriously, yeah, I think it's great.

46:10

Cause it is like, it's

46:12

pretty, I was wondering, I

46:15

was like, oh, are they gonna, how are they gonna bring back

46:19

a lot of these people? Like that just seems problematic.

46:21

And then I saw the

46:24

trail and I'm like, oh, okay. A lot

46:26

of new people. Yeah, almost all new people,

46:28

except for myself, Zoe Chow and Tiffany Haddish.

46:30

Yes,

46:31

and Zach Woods is in it. Zach Woods is in it,

46:33

he's hilarious. Oh, yeah,

46:35

you know what? I saw him at

46:38

a UCB once, like it was there. It

46:40

was just an improv show. And I knew

46:43

him from Silicon Valley.

46:45

And I was like, I'd love him in Silicon Valley, but wow,

46:48

was he great. I

46:49

walked out there like, you ever see somebody

46:52

perform and you're just like, I'm their fan

46:54

for life. If anyone ever says anything

46:56

bad, I will fight them. I

46:59

just was like, oh, he's really great. Top

47:04

tier talent. Like I remember I was like,

47:06

I know Zach Woods. I've seen him, oh, he's very

47:08

funny. But I saw him do a UCB show. And

47:11

I was like, wow, this guy's a Titan.

47:14

Cause like, it's unfair for him. It's unfair

47:16

because he's,

47:18

first of all, he's hyper intelligent.

47:21

He has a reference level and like his

47:23

verbiage, all

47:25

these things are just at the highest level.

47:28

But then he's also

47:31

bone funny. Like he can say,

47:34

it's like,

47:37

you don't get to be smart and like

47:39

dumb funny, but

47:42

he's both and it's unfair.

47:44

It is very, you know, I've

47:47

just turned against him. Yeah. I

47:49

wanna get him now. I

47:51

don't wanna defend him. He should be

47:53

destroyed. No, I had the same reaction.

47:55

He, you're right. He had all these

47:58

great references, but.

47:59

And was hilarious. It

48:01

was hilarious, because usually, you know, an improviser, you

48:04

know, like they sort of becomes crushed. Like usually

48:07

they stand still and like sort of spout out these

48:10

funny things or funny references. But

48:13

then like, you know,

48:15

like you're not- And it's not super organic.

48:17

It's not organic, but he's able to do

48:19

that and be organic and be present

48:21

in the thing. You're like, oh, how is it? Oh,

48:23

it's not fair. Be

48:26

dumb like me. I

48:28

don't think I want to work with

48:29

you. He

48:33

is terrific. But everybody, you know, Anna Conkle

48:36

is so funny in this show and Paul

48:38

Walter Hauser is truly

48:40

like magnificent. Everyone.

48:43

Oh, good. Well, yes, I picked him out.

48:46

And, but I, everyone

48:48

looks great and I'm excited. I

48:50

love the first one. I thought

48:52

it was such a great idea.

48:54

And I bet you the

48:55

creator, like when I switched

48:57

from being a, I'm talking about season one, from

49:00

a movie to a TV show, he's probably

49:02

almost like a Eureka moment where- I think

49:04

so. Like the way you're saying,

49:06

oh, I can really expand. Give

49:09

everything its time, you know? Like

49:11

fully realize these stories

49:14

and like really give these characters each their

49:16

perspective. And then so let's

49:18

the audience also sit with this character and like

49:20

really invest themselves

49:22

in them, which is great for a murder

49:25

mystery because now, you know, everybody's

49:27

a suspect, but then like if you empathize

49:29

with them, you don't want anybody to be

49:32

the one who did it, but then you know somebody

49:34

had to. Right, right, right. Which is great.

49:36

Well, thank you for

49:38

appearing. This is great. It was really great to see you

49:40

again. Oh, it's been so much fun. It's been wonderful

49:42

to see you. Okay. Yeah, you're late.

49:45

Thanks.

49:48

Thanks again to Sam Richardson for joining us.

49:50

And don't forget season two of the hilarious,

49:53

the after party is premiering

49:55

July 12th on Apple TV plus.

49:58

So be sure to seriously. Yeah,

50:01

honestly, I usually don't listen to you when you tell me to

50:03

watch things, but this one I am gonna watch. I

50:06

never tell you. Just

50:09

kidding, you give good advice. I

50:11

do, go home and watch all your accordion videos.

50:15

And that's an order. And now we also

50:17

have another special treat for you, because in lieu

50:19

of a listener question, we sat down with our script

50:22

supervisor, longtime Conan script

50:24

supervisor, John Croteau. So here's John.

50:27

Well, hey, thanks for coming to our podcast,

50:30

John Croteau. John.

50:36

I'm a fan of Inside Conan. Wait, really? I'm

50:38

a listener. You listen? Yeah, I haven't

50:40

missed one. Can we do medical experiments on you

50:43

and find out what's going on? John,

50:45

we wanna tell the listeners what your

50:48

role was at the show. You were at the show

50:50

for a long time. Yes.

50:53

And John, you went to, I mean, you were always on

50:55

the road with the show. You really

50:58

were an indispensable part of the show.

51:00

Did you, first of all,

51:01

were you ever sick? I mean, did you ever call in

51:03

sick? I don't even know what we would have done if you

51:05

had. No, I never missed

51:08

a day. You never missed a day. Not

51:11

once. I had, what do

51:15

you call when you get bit by a tick? Lime

51:17

disease? Lime disease. I had Lyme

51:19

disease. What? Oh no.

51:22

I had 104 fever and

51:24

I was just sitting in the control room with my

51:26

sweatshirt pulled over my head and I was, oh,

51:28

that was so miserable. Oh my God. When

51:30

was it? Where was this?

51:32

That was it, late night in New York. I

51:35

had gone tubing that weekend. My,

51:39

yeah. Well, you. Wow.

51:42

And you were there, now you're speaking at

51:44

late night, you were there for a lot of the clutch cargos,

51:47

which those were moving, the

51:51

live lips on a kind of a

51:54

static photo of a celebrity. And

51:58

we would gang right. usually start

52:00

gangwriting those the night before and then

52:03

revise it in the morning and then rehearse

52:06

it. And then there'd be usually

52:08

a lot of changes. And that, don't

52:11

you think that, I mean, that's the latest

52:13

we'd ever start was because

52:15

of the rewrites for those. No, no,

52:17

no, no. Not the latest you'd ever start.

52:20

You've mentioned it before. Jeff and Conan

52:22

started

52:24

at the moment the show started regardless of

52:26

anything else that was happening. Right. Like

52:29

it's one time. Sometimes they'd push

52:31

it. Like they'd be like, oh,

52:33

they'd, well, you know what? For

52:35

a while there they'd give like, okay, we'll give you five

52:37

minutes or something. But then

52:39

you're right. Then it was like, you know what? We're

52:42

starting on time regardless.

52:45

I remember the first time that it happened where I was reading

52:47

over cue cards and Jeff

52:50

Ross said, are you going to be ready? And I

52:52

said, no. And he said, well, tough. I

52:57

thought he was looking for information to make

52:59

a decision. He's like, no. He's just letting

53:01

you know like, well, you're not. He was just making idle

53:03

conversation. He

53:05

was just making idle chitchat.

53:07

Because the show would start, the

53:10

band would be playing and Robert

53:12

would be handwriting changes

53:14

to those cargos.

53:17

And you'd think like, okay, I have seven minutes

53:19

to the show is going. And I've got seven minutes

53:22

to get this out to the director. Right, cause

53:24

he's

53:24

probably thinking, oh, I just have to finish this before

53:26

the show starts. But then you still have all these things

53:28

to do once he's done. Yeah,

53:31

and the show had started. Conan was doing his monologue.

53:33

Oh my God. I remember a few

53:35

times. Absolutely, and he'd be doing the changes right

53:39

with the other cue card guy. Those

53:41

were my favorite times when things were still

53:43

being worked on while Conan was doing the monologue.

53:45

A lot of times it'd be editing

53:47

of a pre-taped bit. And I

53:49

would just be glaring at Steve, the stage manager.

53:53

Cause he has to give me the thumbs up when the tape

53:55

was up from editing the machine.

53:58

A lot of times like Conan. I'd

54:00

be doing his last joke in the monologue

54:02

and I'd be like, oh,

54:05

I still haven't gotten the thumbs up. And then it

54:07

would be like while Conan was walking over

54:10

from the monologue to the desk. No. It

54:13

always came through though, always done.

54:16

You know, I've

54:19

been called a Sminia apologist. And

54:21

I really- Oh, my detractors.

54:24

That sounds like an exhausting full-time job.

54:27

And I loved

54:30

it. But I did

54:32

learn from you. You even said recently,

54:34

a couple of years ago, when we were screening one of

54:36

the Conan without borders,

54:39

and there

54:42

was about two minutes left and people were all mad at you. Why

54:45

isn't this ready to air? You know, we're gonna screen it. And

54:47

you said, well, if I was given this

54:50

amount of time, wouldn't I take all of the time

54:52

given?

54:53

And so where

54:56

I've worked subsequently,

54:57

people are so irritated with me

55:00

because they're like, why isn't it done yet? And I'm like,

55:02

we're still, there's always time to work on

55:04

it. Yeah. Do you want a

55:06

worst product? Yeah, exactly.

55:09

I feel like you're just describing a procrastinator.

55:15

Well, I was always impressed, John.

55:18

I mean, you had the difficult job of managing,

55:21

keeping track of the changes. And you had a lot

55:23

of people,

55:24

I mean, especially with the writers, like

55:27

sometimes we would go off and make changes

55:29

on a different version of the script. And

55:32

you had to always keep track of what was the most

55:34

recent and

55:36

correct change. I mean,

55:38

did you have issues with like writers just sending

55:41

you something kind of going rogue or

55:43

going around you or did people kind

55:45

of eventually figure out the

55:48

system? No. No one ever

55:50

changed. I

55:54

respected every one of you and each

55:56

one of you getting to know your personalities were

55:58

different where... That was part of the job

56:01

was I won't name names, but if someone in

56:03

the morning said, all right, I'm definitely gonna do

56:05

this, and you'd think they're

56:06

not gonna do that. Like I don't have to spend

56:09

energy prepping for that because

56:12

I know them and they're gonna do this other thing.

56:16

I think that was part of it was, and

56:19

I wouldn't notice that was happening until we'd

56:21

have great interns

56:24

come in and work with the script department

56:26

every semester. And they would hear

56:28

someone say, this is happening. And

56:30

they'd say, why aren't we doing that? And I'm like, that's not gonna happen. And

56:34

that was part of it was knowing the rhythm of

56:36

each person, which

56:38

I liked. I liked working with you all very

56:40

much. Yeah, well, and

56:43

you just had a steel trap mind. Like

56:45

you, I can't, there

56:47

were so many times, like

56:50

a lot of times there'd be so many changes

56:53

and

56:55

I'd be going through it and I'd forget

56:57

some of the change. And you'd be like,

56:59

that's now gonna

57:02

be blue and da, da, da. And you

57:04

just would save the day again and again

57:06

and again. And I was always

57:10

so, I had an altar made to you because

57:13

you, no, you saved

57:15

the show so many times. And

57:17

you were always like a big hero.

57:20

And I would

57:23

always sing your praises, but still it's kind

57:25

of like, it's a

57:27

job. It's

57:29

kind of hard to point to, like

57:32

you would prevent things from blowing

57:35

up. You'd prevent disasters that you

57:38

were like a safety officer. It

57:40

was just amazing. Yeah,

57:42

and I just always relied on you to

57:45

interpret Conan's notes too, because we'd be in rehearsal

57:47

and Conan often would give notes

57:49

very quickly or there were kind of, we'd go back

57:51

and forth on something and you'd leave

57:54

and be like, wait, where did we land on that? I don't

57:56

know what he wanted. And I feel like John always

57:58

knew, like he had.

57:59

He was the cone of whisper and he

58:01

was like, no, no, no. This was the

58:03

one he wanted. No, John

58:05

was great at knowing, well, no, that

58:08

was, we were gonna do that,

58:10

but then we switched over to this. But then actually

58:12

we ended up at, you know, point

58:15

E and that's where we're at, it's point

58:17

E. And

58:19

yes, and you had great

58:21

authority. I think

58:23

it's easier when you don't have skin in the game because

58:26

everyone listens to the feedback based

58:28

on- Oh, that's-

58:29

Why did he wanna cut that joke? That was my favorite. That's

58:31

interesting. You know, he's going in a direction

58:34

that I didn't initially, but so it's

58:36

easier for me to just hear it flat.

58:39

You were the one objective

58:41

person out there on the floor. You're

58:43

right. And all the writers are like, yes,

58:46

like maybe they were half listening because

58:48

early on in the conversation, like something

58:50

they loved just got cut. And so their brain

58:53

is burning it. Like, God damn

58:55

it, they're distracted a bit. Yeah,

58:57

absolutely. That's a really

58:59

interesting observation. You were just,

59:02

yeah, totally nonplussed

59:05

by all of it. And

59:09

at the end of Largo, that last show, Conan

59:12

kicked everyone out of his dressing room. And

59:15

he said, everyone's got an angle.

59:17

You know, everyone wants me to say this or

59:20

do that. I'm just gonna

59:22

talk to you about what I wanna say. Oh,

59:24

so this is right before the show. Before the

59:27

very last show, yeah. Right before the very

59:29

last show, he kicked like all

59:31

the writers, everyone, producers, and

59:33

it was just you and Conan

59:35

in his dressing room. Yeah, so go ahead.

59:38

And just what you're saying, like I don't think I had

59:40

an angle or an agenda and

59:42

he just wanted to talk it out. And-

59:45

That's great. And have me record it

59:47

and sort of, so, and it was a great

59:49

moment. It was a nice way to catch up. That's really

59:51

nice way to end. And that was such a memorable speech

59:54

he gave too. His retirement

59:56

speech, haha, lol.

59:59

And so you made bullet points.

1:00:02

And also you, like

1:00:04

towards the last few years at

1:00:07

TPS, all

1:00:09

these crazy, you know, disasters

1:00:12

or people dying or

1:00:14

just some sort of calamity where Conan would have

1:00:16

to kind of address it at the top of the show. And

1:00:20

I think you'd often work with them on

1:00:22

that as well, right, just like working on

1:00:24

the bullet points and- Well, I kept,

1:00:27

I didn't

1:00:28

do much more than just facilitate what

1:00:30

he was doing, but

1:00:32

I had a folder of tragedy

1:00:35

addresses that he

1:00:37

had done. And, you

1:00:39

know, he kind of,

1:00:42

sort of the rhythm of what's been done in the past. And

1:00:44

then

1:00:45

he, the most recent time, I can't remember

1:00:48

what it was, that

1:00:50

was what he said. He came out and he said, you

1:00:52

know what dawned on me today? I

1:00:55

met with the person who gives me my tragedy

1:00:57

folder of things that I've said. Can you

1:00:59

believe that that's the state that

1:01:01

we're in? Oh, wow. It

1:01:04

was probably after another mass shooting. Right.

1:01:06

Exactly. No,

1:01:08

I- And so

1:01:09

that was the telling part. It was crazy

1:01:13

the last 10 years of the show that how many

1:01:15

times

1:01:17

it was like, you either don't

1:01:19

do a, things were so bad, something

1:01:22

so massive had happened that it's,

1:01:24

you either, you just have

1:01:26

to dress it up top. And even that's hard,

1:01:28

because then you have to be like a

1:01:31

five minute talk, and then we'll

1:01:33

be right back. And now here's our sketch comedy.

1:01:35

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he'd usually just, I think,

1:01:38

throw it a commercial, and then he'd come back

1:01:40

and try to wipe the slate

1:01:43

clean a little bit, but- We did,

1:01:45

we did shows in Texas on

1:01:47

the road. And I think one of the new

1:01:50

characters were two

1:01:53

squirt guns, or it was some ridiculous,

1:01:56

silly thing that had nothing to do with violence. Right.

1:01:59

Was it the-

1:01:59

gay guns. Was

1:02:03

that not the bit that aired? Probably not.

1:02:06

I don't remember. There

1:02:09

was a mass shooting in Texas minutes

1:02:12

after, not near us,

1:02:13

but minutes after we

1:02:16

finished taping. So

1:02:18

we had to do a pickup in the theater

1:02:20

and cut that part out of the show. It was,

1:02:24

yeah, that's, it

1:02:26

affected a lot of things often. Yeah.

1:02:29

We learned our lesson. No more gun humor. Yeah,

1:02:32

that's true. That week. That

1:02:34

week. No, I like, if you look at

1:02:36

late night, there were so many

1:02:40

comedy bits involving guns and

1:02:42

then, yes. Well, that was always our joke. If we

1:02:44

didn't know how to end the sketch,

1:02:45

it was like, oh, well pull out a gun and shoot

1:02:48

somebody. Pull out a gun, kill the character, get

1:02:50

a SWAT team in there, throw

1:02:52

it a commercial.

1:02:54

Yeah. So I loved that job. I loved

1:02:56

working with you all.

1:02:58

But in terms of outside Conan, I

1:03:01

went on the tour. Right. Right.

1:03:04

So after the Tonight Show abruptly

1:03:07

ended, Conan went on a live tour and you- The legally

1:03:09

prohibited from being on television tour.

1:03:11

Right. So he went on that tour. From being funny on television. Oh,

1:03:14

from being funny. Excuse me. See

1:03:16

how precise he is exactly. Language

1:03:19

matters. Has to be the right words.

1:03:21

Yes. Go ahead. What

1:03:25

a wild experience. You go into television and

1:03:27

you work in late night and then you're living on

1:03:29

a bus. Right. It's something you'd

1:03:31

never expect.

1:03:32

And I've been watching

1:03:35

Hacks, which was written by a

1:03:37

former

1:03:39

co-created and co-written by a former

1:03:41

late night intern, Jen Statsky. Oh,

1:03:44

I did that last night. Oh, she was an intern at late night?

1:03:46

Yeah. Oh, wow. And

1:03:48

so in this season, the characters

1:03:51

are going on a comedy tour.

1:03:53

And so it's been helping bring back

1:03:55

all these memories. But

1:03:57

being on the bus was a very cool

1:03:59

experience. Reggie

1:04:02

Watts, who of course went on to be

1:04:04

the band leader at

1:04:06

Cordon, was on the buses

1:04:08

with us and I was

1:04:10

on there with with Blay. And

1:04:13

yeah, what was the atmosphere? Was it a party

1:04:15

atmosphere where people just tired all the time?

1:04:17

Was it like, I don't want to talk to anybody because we're here

1:04:20

together all day, every day.

1:04:23

It got dark after a while. I

1:04:25

mean, you really, 24 hours

1:04:27

a day and it messes with your cycle.

1:04:31

The show would be done and then

1:04:33

everything would load up. It'd be 1.30 in the morning

1:04:36

and dark and you'd go and sleep

1:04:38

in a little coffin sized bed,

1:04:40

bunk. And then- But

1:04:43

you were actually sleeping on the bus. Yeah. Oh,

1:04:45

wow. On the bus. And

1:04:47

so- It would be driving from city to city. Like you

1:04:49

do a show, get in the bus, climb

1:04:51

up into your little coffin bed, pull

1:04:54

the curtain shut and

1:04:57

wake up in the next town.

1:04:59

That's a hard pass for me.

1:05:01

Oh, really? Absolutely not.

1:05:03

Yeah, no. I love sleeping on- Not

1:05:06

doing that with coworkers. I think I'm ready

1:05:08

for the afterlife because I enjoyed the little coffin

1:05:10

beds. I thought they were kind of cozy.

1:05:13

The worst part of your rhythm would be sometimes you'd wake

1:05:16

up four floors

1:05:18

underground in a dark parking deck

1:05:21

of a casino. You

1:05:24

had gone to bed at night, you pulled

1:05:26

the little curtain over and it's still pitch

1:05:28

black. You're in a

1:05:30

totally another city, you don't know what time it is. That

1:05:33

was always the most disorienting thing. And so it

1:05:35

was taxing in that way.

1:05:36

But then it's morning and then you just now have

1:05:39

to work for the day. Yeah, exactly.

1:05:41

And then do it all over again. But

1:05:44

the casinos, I

1:05:47

love this part with traveling with Conan. I'm

1:05:49

sure Sweeney, you know more about this that

1:05:51

the casinos want

1:05:54

the name there, but they don't

1:05:57

want people at the casino to go watch the show.

1:06:00

because they're not losing money

1:06:02

at that time. And so I

1:06:04

remember the first casino show

1:06:07

we had, there was Conan had one

1:06:09

at like 9.30 and then one at midnight and

1:06:11

the casino owner was saying, okay, what's the show

1:06:13

gonna be? And he said, well, it's about an hour and a half. And

1:06:15

he was like, it's gonna be 40 minutes. And

1:06:18

Conan said, well, I mean, these people paid, they wanna come.

1:06:20

And he was like, you're not going over 40 minutes, like

1:06:22

get them in, get them out. I don't want people

1:06:24

watching your stupid show. I don't remember,

1:06:27

that's hilarious. I don't remember cutting

1:06:30

stuff

1:06:31

from the casino shows, but we must have, you

1:06:33

would know. Absolutely. Yeah, okay. And

1:06:36

Conan did too. And it would,

1:06:38

the midnight show would be weird

1:06:40

people strolling in. Oh,

1:06:42

I can't imagine. They're

1:06:44

just trying to wrap their head around a masturbating bear.

1:06:47

Right, no, there's nothing

1:06:49

worse than casino

1:06:51

crowds because they're all, a

1:06:54

lot of them are comped. They're given

1:06:56

the tickets for free. They're

1:06:58

absolutely wasted. They're wasted.

1:07:01

A lot of them are, so most of them weren't

1:07:04

like, they're not

1:07:05

there to see Conan. They're just like, oh,

1:07:08

free show with the masturbating bear,

1:07:10

I'll check it out. So they just

1:07:12

come in and

1:07:14

everyone had a quizzical, quizzical

1:07:16

look on their face. I mean, obviously there'd

1:07:19

be a lot of fans in there, but it was different

1:07:22

from every, every other

1:07:24

venue was a theater

1:07:26

and it was packed with rabid Conan

1:07:29

fans, except for the casinos. And

1:07:32

it was very sobering. I

1:07:34

think it was like, let's, I

1:07:36

think he was probably happy to only do 40 minutes, you

1:07:39

know, in hindsight. Yeah, exactly.

1:07:42

And talking about

1:07:44

the rabid fans,

1:07:46

these big theaters, they're packed. And

1:07:48

of course, Robert Smigel has come up a lot on

1:07:50

this podcast and he's the

1:07:53

voice and puppeteer of Triumph, the insole

1:07:55

comic dog. And

1:07:58

before the tour, Blayart went to

1:08:01

Robert's hotel room and they filmed a thing

1:08:04

where, uh, where triumph

1:08:06

would say, hello, welcome

1:08:09

to, you know, I'm happy to be

1:08:11

in blank. And then he'd

1:08:13

insert it, you know, Jersey city.

1:08:16

You guys sure eat a lot of

1:08:19

pizza or whatever, whatever the local

1:08:21

dishes. Yeah. Yeah. Oh,

1:08:23

we had to do those every day for every town. I

1:08:26

remember it was like, ah, you know what this show's written?

1:08:28

This

1:08:30

going on tour is going to be a snap.

1:08:32

And then it was like, we wrote all

1:08:35

local commercials for every town,

1:08:37

like making kind of what we'd

1:08:40

find out,

1:08:41

like kind of the

1:08:43

quirky landmarks that everyone

1:08:45

in that town knew about. And we'd write an ad

1:08:47

for it and Andy would read it. And,

1:08:49

but so we were banging out new

1:08:51

stuff almost every day plus

1:08:54

triumph would have new lines for

1:08:57

every town we're in. So that those

1:08:59

two things, I feel

1:09:01

like kept you really busy probably.

1:09:03

Right. You couldn't just relax

1:09:06

on that tour. No, it was, there

1:09:08

was no relaxing and it was loading

1:09:11

in. And I mean, that was cool to get to

1:09:14

see the inside of these arenas

1:09:16

and theaters, you'd show up and there'd be

1:09:19

a basketball

1:09:21

court on the floor

1:09:23

and you'd watch them take the court up and

1:09:25

put the stage down. Yeah.

1:09:27

That's so weird. Or like hockey ice. Yeah.

1:09:33

And the tour manager Gus, he

1:09:35

manages the tour for the Foo Fighters

1:09:38

principally. And there's, there's

1:09:41

lore that he is the person that

1:09:44

put the green M&Ms in the

1:09:46

tour rider, which is often cited

1:09:48

as rock stars being

1:09:51

greedy and vain. Yeah. But

1:09:53

his point is that it's a 50 page document

1:09:57

with lots of safety issues

1:09:59

in it. Right. what

1:10:00

do we do when it rains? And

1:10:02

you're outside with a mic in the water, all these things.

1:10:04

And so he says, if you show up and they didn't

1:10:07

do the simple stuff, like the green M&Ms,

1:10:10

then they didn't read the doc. Oh, that's kind of a test.

1:10:12

Yeah. You have to worry about the trussing

1:10:14

and the safety thing. Right,

1:10:16

right. It was all a ruse. Well,

1:10:18

that seems reasonable. It's very

1:10:21

reasonable. And the wire is fascinating.

1:10:23

If you go to smokinggun.com, you

1:10:26

can see, I don't know if that website's still

1:10:28

around. You can Google one of the riders.

1:10:30

And is Google still around? You can do an internet

1:10:33

search of one of the riders. And

1:10:36

it's fascinating. I didn't know before going on

1:10:39

tour,

1:10:39

you really don't have life and you don't have any opportunity

1:10:42

to shop or anything like that. It's every

1:10:44

single day. And so it

1:10:47

would say, if your town

1:10:50

is hosting the Wednesday show, then you

1:10:52

have to provide 14 pairs of socks.

1:10:55

And if it's the Thursday show, you have to

1:10:57

provide 10 new DVDs for them

1:10:59

to watch on the bus. And we've

1:11:02

already seen these DVDs. Oh! And

1:11:05

it seems silly, but then once you're in it, once

1:11:07

you're doing it, you're like, I don't have a chance to go out and buy

1:11:09

socks. And I've seen every piece of entertainment

1:11:11

there is. And if you're Foo

1:11:14

Fighters and you're doing it for 18 months in a row,

1:11:16

I mean, you do

1:11:17

this thing. Saturday is the new Valtrek supply.

1:11:22

It was one fun experience on the bus. Yeah.

1:11:26

Figure out where there was a clipboard

1:11:29

with just lines on it. And it took

1:11:31

us days until one of the roadies

1:11:33

told us what it was. You could write

1:11:36

anything on the board, on this

1:11:38

clipboard. And when you got back on the

1:11:40

bus at the end of the show, like one in the morning, whatever

1:11:42

you wrote on there would be on the bus. Oh!

1:11:46

And we were like, this

1:11:48

seems like a trick. So

1:11:51

the first day we started with red vines. So

1:11:53

Scott, the costume and wardrobe

1:11:56

was like, let's try it. And then there

1:11:58

were red vines. Step in gingerly.

1:11:59

with red vines. Yeah. A

1:12:02

couple of days later, my belt broke and I put that in and then

1:12:04

by the end, it was like, I don't know, we want Patron, 10

1:12:07

bags of ice. We

1:12:12

want our own individual buses. No

1:12:18

one ever said no, it just showed up.

1:12:20

Yes, it was never questioned

1:12:22

because you

1:12:24

realize you've given your life over to this. You

1:12:26

know, at first it was like, well, I don't want to be greedy or

1:12:28

something. You're like, no, I deserve this.

1:12:30

I genuinely do need toothpaste. Yeah.

1:12:33

Where's the fucking Patron, it's breakfast.

1:12:38

Well, John, thank you so much for all of your

1:12:40

great stories and for coming

1:12:43

so prepared. Yes, thank you. I

1:12:46

had a great time. It's nice to be on

1:12:48

and it's really nice to see you. Ever since I was invited, it's

1:12:50

been fun to have all these memories and want to share

1:12:53

them. Oh, and you know what? I'll give a

1:12:55

shout out to your new job. Yeah, I know. It

1:12:57

seems like a really cool job. You're

1:13:00

producing the Howard

1:13:02

Stern Wrap Up Show.

1:13:05

Yeah, that's right. The

1:13:07

Conan Show wrapped up and a position

1:13:10

came over on the Howard Stern channels

1:13:13

and I was excited to do that. I was

1:13:15

always a fan of Howard when I lived on the East Coast. The

1:13:20

day I signed

1:13:22

my paperwork and started at SiriusXM

1:13:26

was the same exact day that Team Coco

1:13:28

announced their acquisition. Yeah,

1:13:30

yeah. That

1:13:33

they were becoming part of the SXM family.

1:13:35

Wow. So you were like, I can't shake these

1:13:38

guys. They're on my

1:13:40

tail. Yeah.

1:13:43

And it's been great. I've had such fun experiences.

1:13:46

I was working in the New York offices

1:13:49

and the Team Coco group was there and

1:13:52

Ruthie, who people know from

1:13:54

the travel shows, came running into

1:13:56

my office and she said, you

1:13:59

know, I just don't understand.

1:13:59

and we are doing this on a Tuesday and they're

1:14:02

gonna fly us out on a Wednesday. And then she took

1:14:04

a beat and looked at me and said, I totally

1:14:06

forgot we don't work together anymore. I'm sorry. And

1:14:09

turned around and walked away. There

1:14:11

was just these relationships for years and

1:14:13

years and years that just- That's great.

1:14:15

That continue, it's great. Yeah, well, that's

1:14:18

so cool.

1:14:19

It was fun to see you in your corner

1:14:21

office in the Syria Time Life Building.

1:14:25

Well, it helped me because last

1:14:28

month Conan came in, again,

1:14:30

y'all weren't there. And

1:14:32

he came into my office and he said, I wanna show

1:14:35

you a trailer that hasn't been released

1:14:37

yet. Oh, cool, yeah. And

1:14:39

when Conan comes into your office at Sirius XM,

1:14:42

it gives you, I got

1:14:44

a little bit of cred for a day or two

1:14:46

around there, it was nice. Oh, that's great. Oh,

1:14:49

he showed you the trailer for the Mac show?

1:14:51

For the travel show, yeah. I thought it was for this

1:14:54

movie he did a part in.

1:14:55

Oh. Yeah,

1:14:59

which trailer? Right, right, right.

1:15:02

Don't worry, it was the wrong edit, it was still. Oh,

1:15:04

okay, so you had notes. Right,

1:15:07

right. Well, thank you so much, John, it's great

1:15:09

to see you. Thanks, John.

1:15:14

Thanks again to Sam and John for joining

1:15:16

us. You had two header today. We know

1:15:18

that, I guess it's a double header. We

1:15:20

know there wasn't a listener question, I'm sorry,

1:15:23

but if you do have one, we'd love to hear it.

1:15:26

So give

1:15:26

us a call at 323-209-1079, or

1:15:31

you can email us at insideconanpod

1:15:34

at gmail.com.

1:15:36

And if you like the show, and we hope you

1:15:38

do, that's why we're doing this,

1:15:41

you can support us by rating Inside Conan, an

1:15:43

important Hollywood podcast on iTunes

1:15:45

and leaving us a review.

1:15:48

Mm-hmm. And

1:15:50

what else am I forgetting? I think it's time to

1:15:52

review your emotions. That's right.

1:15:55

I give it five stars and a we love you.

1:16:00

Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast is

1:16:02

hosted by Mike Sweeney and me, Jesse Gaskell.

1:16:05

Our producer is Lisa Burr. Team

1:16:07

Coco's executive producers are Adam Sacks,

1:16:10

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1:16:13

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1:16:16

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