Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - Adam Sandler

Episode Date: January 14, 2019

Comedian and actor Adam Sandler feels stunned to be Conan O’Brien’s friend.Adam and Conan sit down this week to talk about their early shared SNL experiences, getting mad at the audience, letting their kids be their conscience, remembering Chris Farley, and their comedy inspirations. Plus, Conan addresses a fruit-related incident with his assistant during the segment “True or False with Sona Movsesian.”Got a question for Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone].For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com.This episode is sponsored by Campaign Monitor (www.campaignmonitor.com/CONAN), Hotel Tonight (www.hoteltonight.com), Simple Contacts (www.simplecontacts.com/CONAN code: CONAN), ZipRecruiter (www.ziprecruiter.com/CONAN), tasc Performance (www.tascperformance.com code: CONAN), Capterra (www.capterra.com/CONAN), Away (www.awaytravel.com/conan20 code: CONAN20), and Hair Club (www.hairclub.com/CONAN).

Hi, my name is Adam Sandler and I feel stunned about being Conan O'Brien's friend. Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell, brand new shoes, walking blues, find the friends, books and pens, I can tell that we are gonna be friends, so I can tell that we are gonna be friends. Hey there and welcome to a very special episode of Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. Today I'm talking to someone I've known for a really, really long time and the truth is we are friends. We've known each other since we both got started way, way, way back in the day. And so today, a conversation with a good friend of mine, Adam Sandler. You know, we have been friends for a really long time.

I met you when you came to Seattle Live. I was working there. Yes. I remember you. You and Odin Kirk and... Me, Odin Kirk, Smigal and Greg Daniels all like shared one back part of the office. Yes. And you would come in... Very cocksure myself.

Okay, that's exactly what I wanted to talk about. You were the most confident young man I've ever been in my life. I was, yes. And I admire that. Thank you. It was just sheer driving a little mostly stupidity that made me that way, but I was. I was, yeah, certainly went for the lab. I was competing with Farley, by the way.

Yes. I remember thinking... I envied you so much because I'm a little old, I'm a couple of years older than you, but I was still young, but it took me years and years and years and years to grow my confidence. Just years and years and years. And you came out of the gate confident and you had the goods, but I remember thinking, how do you get that? How do you come from being this kid from this town in New Hampshire? Right.

Right over the border to, yep, I got this. I got this. This is what I should be doing. How did you... What did that come from? Is that your dad? Is your mom? Well, my dad and mom always were very telling me I was good at stuff.

They always loved me and had my back. They talked about how good I could be at things. My father was definitely gave me realism of what I'm not good at too, but they definitely told me, you can do this, you can play guitar, you can play, you can sing, you can't dance. So I would try to dance a little bit to be the triple threat that my grandmother said I should be and then they said to eliminate the dancing and concentrate on the... So you lost the dance. Yeah, I lost the dance.

But I was nuts. I was certainly... And I think it was just, I told so many friends in New Hampshire when I left to be a comedian that I was going to be huge. I said, I'm going to be huge, man, I'm going to be huge. And I would put myself in a corner, like it's getting bigger. People are starting to notice and no one was noticing really, but I was like saying all the stuff to my hometown kid buddies that how everyone's talking about me and they weren't

talking about me, but I just put some weird thing in my head like I got to get this done, man. See, I heard a story, a friend of mine witnessed this. A standup comedian, Ron Richards, a guy I knew from years and years and years ago when I was first starting out. And Ron Richards told me that he was in a club when Eddie Murphy was just starting out. And nobody showed up that night. There was no one in the audience. And all the other comics were pissed and angry.

And this is, you know, saying this is ridiculous. Fuck this. And they all, all of them left. Ron Richards stuck around. Eddie Murphy went out. I don't know if he was like 17, 18 and did his whole set for now out there for nobody. And when I heard that story, I was thinking about that story the other day. And I thought, I think Adam would do that.

I think you would just be one of those people of like, well, if there's one person in the audience, I'm going out there and doing it because I'm going places. I got stuff to do. Yeah. This is what they've come to see. That's funny. I think it's a level of confidence that, and in your ability to be able to say that your friends in New Hampshire, I didn't say anything to anybody.

Oh, really? No, I never said, Hey, keep your eye on me. This kid's going places. I always kept my cards close to my chest. I like that better. That's the better place to be. I know I did it out of fear and hedging my bet. Like I don't want to be able later on to have flamed out and have people say, What happened?

But that's the smarter way to do it. That's why I'm saying I was kind of stupid. I had a big mouth. I would say, you know, make comments about myself when I was so young. I was 17 when I started and I was just telling people when I went to NYU, my first year, I would tell my friends like, Yeah, we're picking up steam. People are starting to. Who's we, by the way?

That's the other thing. What I love about this is that you have an entourage in your mind. You know, me and the Sandman are picking up steam. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know. We are going places. Who did you see?

There's going to be other guys here. Just have a lot of seats available for me and all of us. But yeah, I don't know coming in. I was a psychotic because I do remember telling Lauren when I was with you in the first couple of weeks and sitting down, you know, you first get the show and then you sit down and talk to Lauren. I remember telling Lauren, Hey, I'm going to be huge. And he was staring at me like I was nuts.

I was like, you know, I was going to be the next daddy. I just came with a big mouth and, you know, I was just hanging out with a bunch of comedians at before and they were like, you never, my act was never cocky. I was never cocky. No. But I, my, my, I don't know, I positioned myself in my head. I got to do this. I got to do that.

I gave myself a ultimatum or something. So, and my father, I remember he used to say, if you don't make it by 23 or he gave me an ultimatum, he goes, you, you'll come work for me. And I remember- What did your dad do for you? I met your dad and I knew your dad, but I don't, what did he do? Electrical contracting. Okay.

He did that in, in, in Massachusetts, in Westburn, Mass. And, and I remember going, okay, good. I have that. And now, but then I, and then I would start going, oh, 23. I better hurry up. I got to get this done before I, I didn't, I wasn't upset about having to work an electrical contract. I thought, I didn't even think about that.

I was more upset about having to tell the guys in New Hampshire, I didn't make it. So that's why I was like, I got to really figure this out quick. I had a time ticket in my head. I'm going to put this in context because at the time there were all these other young people that came in, funny, talented young people and people would think of them as being hyper confident now, but at that time they weren't like, I have a very clear memory of Chris Rock. And Chris Rock, when he showed up at SNL was very quiet and very kind of, you know, tentative

and, and he'd come around at night and he wasn't sure he had the right idea and he would, he would, he would peek his head and go, Hey guys, what are you working on? You know, he wasn't the Chris Rock that we know now. He had the talent, but he hadn't built up that confident stage persona that, that he needed. And Spade was another guy who was walking around kind of asking people, what are you guys working on? Anybody have any ideas for me? Okay.

I'll go away now. Hope I didn't offend anybody. They were nice. They were, well, you know, they were, they were testing the ice to see if it would, and you were incredibly different. You were very, you know, you knew what you had, you weren't worried about it or you didn't let us think you were worried about it. Right.

Right. Yeah. I don't even think I was worried about it then. I'm, I worry more now about, Oh man, what do I got to do if I take a part in the movie? I'm terrified that I'm not going to do something right. But back then I was like full steam and just, I remember when you wrote the, that update for me about the vacation, a guy, a guy who, I did, I did this thing where I was a travel critic or something and just talked about going to hotels and never leaving the hotel.

Oh my God. Okay. You wrote that all for me, man. I couldn't believe it because I couldn't write like you and, and it was my first year and that was one of my, I think that was my first update. Wow. Okay. You, you wrote this giant, hilarious piece and I, that kind of influenced in the way

I, I started writing for myself a little odd, a little weird endings on jokes that seemed like they were going to go one way and they went the other way. You influenced me there, but, but I didn't kill with that. But I, that started making me go, okay, that's, that's the style of comedy I want to do. Yeah. Can we do another take where he says it did kill? It really did kill. It only didn't kill because of me.

Your stuff was the best because I remember Downey loved it. Everybody loved it. Yeah, I was not, I was nervous out there. You know, it's interesting you mentioned taking parts in movies. Everyone listening to this right now knows, I mean, you've been doing comedy at this hyper successful level for so long. One of the points that's always fascinating to me is you are an excellent actor. You really are a terrific actor and you told me, you were sitting in my office one night

and you told me you loved me, which is a different thing, we'll talk about later, we kissed a little, we remember when we kissed a little bit? Yeah. Yeah. And you put your hand on the nape of my neck and I was like, okay, well, there was that. No, you told me, you told me, you said, yeah, my hero, the person who I, I kind of wanted to be growing up was James Kahn. All right.

Yes. You told me that. And at the time I remembered not understanding like James Kahn, you mean from the Godfather and I'm trying to equate him with this really young super goofy guy. And then I want to say about a month ago I'm flipping channels and I saw this 1970s movie, I think where he played an assassin and you know, it's, he's with Robert DeVal and he's plays an assassin and they turn on him and then he goes after the guys that turned on him.

One of these movies and it's classic 1970s James Kahn and I'm looking at it and I'm like, I get it. That's funny. You don't have this intensity when I've seen you play serious roles. You don't have to say much, but the eye goes to you and you really know how to do it. That's cool. I loved them and I don't know if I told you, I just moved out here and I was on the Paramount lot.

Oh, I worked with MTV and they were doing unplugged on the Paramount lot. I think this, this story might be off, but they're doing unplugged. He's playing there, some giant band like Nirvana or somebody cool and I went to see him and as I'm going there, I see James Kahn. It's before Nirvana. It's because I was young. I was like 22 and I'm walking to go see him, whoever the band is and I see James Kahn and he's in the misery makeup and he's got all this bruised up face and all made up and stuff

and I see him and somebody goes, that's James Kahn and I go and I'm walking, I'm like, holy cow, about to meet James Kahn because I'm walking past him and I said, hey, Mr. Kahn. And he's nice and he looked at me and I go, hey, I just moved out here. I'm going to be an actor and he goes, oh, good luck. That's great. And I said, my grandmother, because my grandmother used to say it too, she said, I said, my grandmother thinks I'm going to be the next you and he goes, oh, you don't want to do that. Yeah, I guess because he was Jewish too, it connected with me like he wanted to be a representative.

Well, he's Jewish. He's tough. He's a badass. And he's the coolest guy in the room. And I think he slept with the most consecutive Playboy Playmates. Is that right? I think he has the record. That's fun.

I could, you know, I just want to put that out there, James Kahn, feel free to call in. I wish it was a Colin show, call in if I'm wrong, but I think he has the record for, I think he lived at the Playboy Man. And he just kept consecutive months. He just kept getting under his belt. It's funny. One of the few guys who, when Bert Reynolds would hear, he'd be like, all right, call me when he's not there.

I'm going to settle down a little bit is a, oh, here's what I want to say. The Netflix standup special is one of the finest pieces of work. I was so happy for you. It is so well put together, is so beautifully put together as a standup special. But I love the way it cuts from rehearsal to massive arena, to tiny space again, effortlessly. And you're having a really good time. That felt to me like that must have been a labor of love. It was.

It's like you right now, I'm sure being on the road again, we were older than we were. Back then I don't know if I appreciated it as much because I was so much about, you know, when I was 23, 24 on the road, I was like just trying to get stuff done, I guess. Now I'm on the wrong, I was on the road. I still try my hardest. I didn't want to do good stuff, but it was, it's less of like, oh man, if I do this, then I'll get that. I was more just in the moment more and enjoying being on stage and trying to write jokes all

night long. It was fun again. Like I would be three in the morning and I'd be writing stuff down on my phone and what I thought was funny at that moment and just trying it out that night. And that special was definitely a lot of work, worked hard putting it together, right? Yes. You can tell a lot of work went into it. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And so many songs. Yeah. I think the special is, I mean, maybe 50% music. Yeah. Maybe. And really enjoy the stand-up, but then these, those songs are all new, I think.

Yes. Yes. And some of them feel like they would take a lot of work to learn how to perform them effortlessly. Like there's some really, what's the song I need? My keys. My phone wallet keys. My phone wallet keys.

That was tough. That was tough. And I'm looking at that and I'm thinking like, okay, that would take, I wouldn't, I would never memorize that. Correct. Try and try and try and get it wrong. It would be scary to do in front of a lot of people. Oh my God.

Yes. I would actually skip that one a lot. Like I'd look back at Dan Bull of the piano player. Who's great, by the way. It was great. You guys click really well. We did it for like two and a half, three years, ran around together and got to know each other.

I love them. He wrote a song that, he wrote phone wallet keys, by the way. And he also wrote a song that I played on your show about my old chair and giving away my old chair. I did like two years ago. And I said to Sandy Warnick, my manager, who you know, was very goofy. I said, I'm thinking of doing stand up again. I'd love to have somebody young to hang out with to try to help me out writing stuff.

And he said, I, he sent me dance tape and he played that song and the, my old chair song. And, and I just thought the kid was funny as hell. And then I started hanging out with them and we would do the stuff together and write jokes and this other kid, Paul Sado, he wrote a movie called The Cobbler that I was in. He did that with Tom McCarthy and I told him, I was thinking of getting stand up going again. So the three of us did a lot of stuff. That's great.

You're mixing it up. You can tell you're working with different people. You mixed it up. You go out there and I love seeing the process of you assembling it. And then you're clearly having fun. There's one song we were mentioning and it was an old lady, an old lady and you point to the crowd. Oh, the hero, yeah.

And then, yeah. And, and, and you cut, you point to this old lady and grandma and there's an old woman in the crowd and the camera got her and stayed with her and you guys relentlessly keep the camera on her and she doesn't know what's happening. She's, that was amazing luck. But that lady was the guy who owned the place, Jamie, his class, the Hayworth theater. And it was his grandma was at the show and he said, do you mind if my grandmother watches she likes you?

I said, it's really filthy, man. He's like, no, she, she likes you. You get that? I get, this is the dynasty typewriter theater that place. Yes, yes, yes. I've been, I've been down there. I, I have to tell you, I get so nervous for my audience. If I'm going to do a show and, you know, the show that I'm doing now is pretty clean, but

some of the comics work pretty blue. I'm pretty clean, but, you know, but, but, but it's just, they're hilarious and they're doing some blue stuff and some of it can be pretty filthy and they're talking about real stuff. Right. And just before the show every now and then people will come to me in the green room or the dressing room and it'll be like, this is a, oh, Conan, it's your wife's parents, oldest friends, the Ditherworths, and they'll come by and they'll be like, we just came

by and we bought tickets and we're going to be right up front. When the girl sings about abortion, you know, and you're, you're, and I'm horrified and I want to protect them and get them out of there and I'm worried the whole time and you can't do that. And then sometimes afterwards they're just like, oh, I love the girl with the abort, you know, they will. That's funny, man. I'm, if I hear the wrong persons in the crowd, I'll have times where I'm ready to, I'm in

a good mood. You know how you find yourself in the right mood and like, well, I'm going to be good tonight cause I'm, I'm feeling like myself and nothing's making me nuts. And then all of a sudden somebody goes, so-and-so is here and you just like, and your whole mood changes. Yup. I get like that because of what I'm talking about and I don't want to know who's there. I don't like no one either.

Yeah. Right. I'm so nuts that when I was first doing standup, I would never look out before the, I'd hide before a show, you know, it wasn't like a famous thing. I was just like, I don't want to see who's there. I would look into the lights while I was on set. I didn't want to know who was not laughing or laughing or who was judging me. And now I'm so happy.

I literally will meet the crowd before the, I'll, I'll get so anxious to meet them. The lights are still up while they're filing in and then I'll walk out and be like, here we go. And then they'll be like, is that him? Oh wow. I don't see that. I'm weird. I'm weird.

It makes me feel more comfortable. I'm superstitious about seeing them beforehand. But I'm curious when you watch your own Netflix special, there's a camera that's showing these massive audiences, massive, you know, it just looks like there's a couple, there's thousands of people in there. Now you can see someone in the way in the back go, decide to go use the bathroom. And I know me. Yeah.

I'm like, I'm crazy enough that I'd be like, really? Yeah. Oh yeah. That easy. You can't hold it in? I know. Oh really? Where are you going?

When someone gets up and leaves and goes, I mean, there's a bunch of places I've played where they can go and get drinks in the lobby and I'm just like, really? Now you're getting the train. You need a Michelob light right now? I used to bring Norm, Spade, Schneider, Swartz and all these guys on the tours and they would do long each time and they would do in 20, 25 minutes each. And then when I got up to the crowd was so needing to go to the bathroom that I would throw my rhythm off.

And you became their bathroom break. Yeah, exactly. It just like makes you crazy. Exactly. But you know what's funny is no one understands, they don't think Adam Sandler would ever think about that. They think you're in a different place. They don't know you are going to notice.

I wish we could handle it better. The nights I'm light about it, I'm funnier, the nights that I get tense and jumpy, I had a manager when I was like 19 and I was at the comic strip and I was on stage and he saw me do well. And then he came back a week later, he brought people to see me and I didn't do well. I ate it like for 10 straight minutes and I came off and I was on his crowd, blah, blah, and he said, you didn't seem like you were last week. You look like you were having fun up there.

You were getting mad. You were yelling at that person for doing something and I was very sensitive back then. If I saw a crowd member not enjoying, if I got to laugh with most of the crowd and somebody didn't laugh, I'd always jump on that guy. What's the matter, buddy? All right? Can I get you something? I was psychotic.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's so much easier just to ignore it and let that guy come to you eventually and the nights I do that. It's a great show. I can't do that. When you do these giant theaters or arenas and stuff and they pay the most to be in the front row, a lot of times they're not your best audience member. No, no.

And that's the only ones you see and you're so mad at these guys for just being stiff and they're mad at you for charging so much money for those seats. So there's a little friction. We do a thing. I did a show, I do a show and I'm sure you've had this too where people, they pay a lot extra to have a meet and greet. I really want to meet. And so you meet with them and then I was doing a show.

I forget where we were. Sona, where were we? I forget where we were, but we did a show recently and someone stood up and the crowd was in the Midwest and she stood up and she said, I've always wanted to meet you, but I didn't want to pay money for that meet and greet. And so I jumped off the stage and walked past all the people that had paid. And I gave her a hug and the whole crowd was like, yeah, fuck those people. And I was thinking, and this is weird way I'm having my cake and eating it too, because

those people paid to say hi to me and now I'm totally telling them that was not necessary. All you had to do was wait, would stand up in the middle of the show or wait in the parking lot and I will spend 20 minutes with you because I'm a very needy, you're from the same school as me. If you make eye contact with me and you look like you need to talk, I'll go, yes. My kid last night, I brought Sadie. You can't get mad at your kid for making eye contact with me. What are you doing?

Don't look at me. Call Sandy Wernick. Can you have a problem? No, no, no. So last night I went to the Laker game, it was her first time sitting there and I brought her and we had a great time and then after the game, I was leaving and people wanted to take my picture and stuff and I took a few and then I knew I had to get home for school so I started passing people and my kid would get so upset, the man wants to take

your picture and he'll be all right, he'll be all right, I got to get going, no, no, and she was getting upset so I had to stop and she was being my conscious a little more, just saying take the picture, make that person happy. My son, what he does is he photo bombs all of them, that's his way of saying I own this. Which I think is actually pretty clever. I'm bringing this up because you mentioned getting angry. I noticed a long time ago that it's in your comedy through all your movies and through a lot of your act, the character that just suddenly loses it.

And I thought, yeah, it's interesting to me that you have a temper, you have a temper and you kind of turned it into this, you use it, you use it, you know, whether it's any of the characters you've played in movies or a lot of them, you can tap into it. And then when you did Punch Drunk Love, I thought, yes, this is, that's a side of you. You're able to embody both of them. I think that's why people like you so much is you're confident, but you're also kind of an act meek, you know, and you keep your lips very close together and you talk and you look down and your jokes make fun of, you make fun of yourself a lot, but you're

also incredibly over the top confident and you've got both at the same time. And I think you've also got that thing where you're nice and you're sweet, but you've got a temper and I'm curious, like, and sometimes I think like, I wonder if that comes from having a 70s dad. We had 70s dads, we didn't have, and you touched on this a little bit and you're special because I've thought about this a lot. You talk about something that I've joked about too, which is they want us in school all the time.

Right, right, right. To be with our kids and you call it, you got to be here for happy Tuesday, and we were talking about how our dads were never at school. Right, yeah. Because your dad, my dad, they came to school. It was a problem. Right, right. They weren't there to make fudge with us, you know, but I don't know, I don't know if

you tap into that kind of, my dad had a temper and has a temper and your dad probably had a temper and we have tempers, and I don't know if that's going away now or what. I think, I mean, the biggest thing I got from my dad, my dad's temper was a little stronger than mine, like, but the thing he did that I am calming down, but I've always had it was a quick to snap and go crazy full throttle and then they would go away and we were back to normal. My father used to yell at us in the house and scare the hell out of us. But then, you know, two minutes later, we were sitting, having lamb chops and having

a good time again and that kind of thing. And I do that in my movies a lot. I expect the audience to be okay with me snapping and then be, you know, well, they actually, they like it. I mean, that's the thing is whether it's in anger management, it's in, I mean, you've done all these movies where you lose it and it's seeing you fight your temper is really funny. Yeah.

It's really funny. You're about to blow. You've got to kind of keep it together and then you completely lose it and it's enjoyable. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yeah. I guess you're building an up enough that the audience says, okay, you know, you can

let them have it. Yeah, in real life, I'm getting better at that cone and trying to not snap quite as much. Okay. We'll see what happens. We're here at your production offices and I walked in and everyone didn't all nervous out there. They're super nervous.

They don't want to make eye contact with you. A lot of young people out there who love you, man, they were so excited you were coming here. Oh, that's nice. Yes. Yes. We were part of their lives. These children that work at the companies now.

It's weird, isn't it? Yes. Yes. I think he had a, yeah, he sent away for a cone and audience t-shirt from when he was really young and he was going to wear it in front of you and then he got, started feeling like he was going to be humiliated, but it's, it is funny that these, these, I would have, I would have ripped him a new one. No, I would have, I would have, would have been fun to see.

I would have been, no, I'm always touched when someone, there's also what I don't, you must get a kick out of this. You get this all the time when people come up and they've, I really like their work. They're funny. They're friends and they're, I really look, I kind of look up to them and they're great and they, and they say, oh, you know, you must meet people at the time that got into the business because of, they're watching you. And then now they're in the business.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's crazy. That's the best. Now you're James Kahn. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Now you're like, oh, aim higher kid. Yes. Don't do what I did. I am a mess. Don't be me. All right.

We're going to take a quick break here. Ready for this break. It's going to be one of our best breaks ever. Now it's time for a segment. Conan O'Brien pays off the mortgage on his beach house. Yes. This is where I get the word out on some products. Yes.

I am paid for that word. And then I use that money to desperately pay down this massive mortgage I took out. What about me? Why don't you pay me? I pay you. I pay you in food stuffs. I gave you fresh eggs a couple of weeks ago. I gave you true story or not.

That's a true story. I gave you fresh eggs. I did. Eggs. I've given you radishes. A big basket of radishes. It's not payment. Well, for most of man's history, yes, that was payment.

For 99% of man's history in that timeline, you have been paid. I can't pay my rent with it. No. Isn't that tragic? You got to talk to your landlord about that because that's good barley I gave you. Okay. And we're back. We actually here didn't take any break.

No, you don't need it. I just didn't. I really paused for a second, but you heard a commercial or something. Just enough. You know, you did something in the Netflix standup special, which again, I really loved. And then you did this thing that totally took me by surprise. I wasn't expecting it. You did this song about Chris Farley and it got to me.

It's a beautiful song and it's funny and I wasn't ready for that, which is, which I applaud you for. I couldn't wait for you to hear it, by the way, come on, man, I saw you. I saw you at something and I said, I'm doing the thing. You're going to like it. Come on. You're going to really like the ending. You probably don't remember that.

But I was psyched for you to see because I knew how much I loved Chris. Yeah. And one of the first, I, I've mentioned this to people before, but he was, remember when, if you had to get a, when, when people came in, they had to meet with Lauren in his office on, you know, right above the stage and Lauren would keep them waiting because he was always busy. Right. Remember coming in one day and there was this big round blonde haired kid with his hair

combed down and he was bobbing back and forth in his chair and his jacket didn't fit and he was waiting to meet with Lauren and it was Chris and Odin Kirk introduced me to him because Odin Kirk knew him from second city. And so I said hi and we giggled and goofed around a little bit and then I had to go and then I came back like the next day and he's still, I mean, I think he waited a couple of days to meet with Lauren and he's bobbing in his chair. And so I was like, Hey, you want a tour? And he was like, yeah, yeah.

And then I took him on a fake tour. I just walked around and I was like, see that guy holding that boom over there. That's all boomy. We call him boomy Joe. And it was all bullshit, you know, see those, hey, fellas, you know, good to see you. That's Squanto and Pronto and it wasn't their names. And I was walking around and he got that right away and he was cackling and then he was doing it.

And we were just goofing around like kids. And then he did, I think very quickly down, he wrote the Chippendales thing. And then he blew up. Yeah. That was superstar immediately. Yeah. The him and Patrick Swayze being Chippendale dancers and that was, I remember watching that, you know, like from under the bleachers and going, oh, you know, that's amazing.

But I wasn't prepared for all that footage and how there's footage of you, how young you were, you got him on my show. I saw that footage. I wasn't prepared for that. Oh my God. We were just kids. Oh my God. No.

You looked so young in that. I tell you, I was doing the Farley song on the road, just me and guitar and piano and singing it. And it was people liked it and they connected with it. And then we were talking about should we show images just to really bring in, you know, Chris to life. And then we were arguing back and forth like, well, we've been doing it without it. I don't know why we need to.

And then we started looking at footage of Chris and we were like, oh my God, it's just so much fun to remind the audience how great the guy was and how sweet he was. And yeah, I felt the same. Him on your show makes me when he covers the space and he's flirting with somebody. I forget. We were flirting with Chris and I pretended to. Was it Elizabeth Shoe or? I think it was that.

We did another bit once where Chris and I, I'm interviewing Chris and then we noticed two attractive pages over by the doors. And of course, we do that stupid old three stuges thing where we cut to the door and we had pre-taped Chris and I dressed as pages and we're doing that really corny like, yoo-hoo. And with finger waves, you know, finger waves like, sweet. And Chris was like, I like the one on the left because he's attracted the one that's him and I'm attracted to the one that's me that freaked me out because it looked exactly like my mom.

But it was just, it was really hard to explain him to people, you know. What about how good of a guy about you? He was definitely, when he walked into the room, everybody just was like, okay, here he is, the man. And but he just talked about you, Conan, he talked about Odie and he cared about everybody else. Yeah, he's sweet. He talked to the other guys, didn't think he was as funny as other guys.

Which may have hurt him, actually. I think he could have used a little more self-esteem or something, you know, you know, he, but I think it was that and also the fact that he was generally such a nice guy. He, I mean, he talked about having quick temper. He was there too. Yeah, he was. He could snap. Yeah.

He could back it up too. He was really, but he let it go quick and then would laugh his ass off at how upset he would get and he'd laugh at himself. But anyways, he did like other people's stuff and he would run up to you if you did well on the show and be like, oh my God, Adzy, that was so funny and he was so sweet. That's one of the sweet things I think about in comedy. There are people that who are very talented, but they have a hard time giving it up. Sure.

And then there are people that really can give it up. And you always notice you and Farley are two people that are both souls that see something and just love it and you can give it up. And that's a generosity, which is very unusual in comedy. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, it does, but you see a lot of comics are taking the measure of the other comic. Sure. It's a lot easier to be able to give it up.

I think when I first started and when I was 18 and on stage and I saw some other people killing, I definitely sat back like, oh, it wasn't that easy to go that guy's way better than me. I was very friendly with Colin Quinn when I was young. He kind of taught me that, giving it up to other guys. I met Colin when I was 17. He was hosting a show at the Paper Moon in the Village. He used to put me on stage and they didn't like me there, but Colin used to kind of

talk them into using me. He always would say, that was so funny when you said this and try to give me confidence and stuff. And then I guess I was like, oh yeah, that would feel good. And then I started doing that myself for other comedians, but I get the other way too. When you see someone kill with something, you can go, oh shit, I better get the work. It can inspire you. It can inspire you.

Yeah, it shouldn't just inspire you, but it also can knock you back and go, oh fuck, what have I been doing? What have I figured of shit? Right. I think you work harder than just about anybody I know. You are always working really hard and you push yourself. Yeah. What does that come from?

Who's pushing you? No, I think myself, but we've had great talks about calming down and I know it's helping. You and I have had really good talks about this. Yes. Yeah. Late night talks, maybe I can take six months off and do nothing so I can just relax and enjoy life and like three weeks in I started going, oh man, I gotta figure out what I'm doing.

Yeah. I just gotta, I can't just sit and not think, I gotta write stuff down or come up with what the next movie is or something. I just like it. Like I feel comfortable working. I got, this will make you feel better. I had a nice conversation with Bob Newhart, not podcast or anything. I just was hanging out with him.

Right. I idolized the guy. Yeah. And, and I'm talking to Bob Newhart and he told me, yeah, I mean, I think Bob Newhart is 89, might be turning 90. And he just said, yeah, I was doing, you know, I took a little time off and I wanted to take some time off because I've been doing a lot of clubs and, and, and I've been in Vegas a lot.

And so I took about two weeks off and I was sitting there in the living room and my wife looked at me and said, you're going crazy. And he said, yes, I am. And that Bob Newhart way. And so he said, so the next day I was on the plane to, you know, I'm like, oh my God, if he, I mean, there's no point, this is the thing he and I talk about is when are we going to, is there some medication we can take? I know.

Technically there actually is, I think, but is there a way that it can just, you know, why, what, what are we trying to do right now? I don't, I don't know. I mean, we just love doing it. Something we think we're good at. I don't, I don't understand why I keep wanting to push and push and push. And I don't know why I can't sit still. When I sit still, like Thanksgiving, man, when the holidays come up, I am so nervous

about my behavior and how I'm going to do at home and being there four days with my family and that I love them all so much. And I know I'm going to snap and I know I'm going to, I can't handle the rules. You're going to snap. My mother was yelling at what I wear and. Okay. Let's talk about that. Yes.

Okay. Every year you come to my Christmas party and. I'm coming this year. Okay. Let's give the address out in a second. But I live, I live so close to you. If I had a real arm, I could hitch your, your house with my house with a baseball. But I, I can't, I can't really throw it very far.

But if I was like Dwight Evans and it was 1977, I could, I could totally hit your, your house. You could rooster it all. Exactly. And so you live very close by. Yeah. First of all, I want to share one story where, you know, we live in this nice area and it's LA where people don't, they don't go up and bang on each other's doors.

No one does anything like that. And one day I'm watching, I think I was watching a Patriots game and there's really no one around. You know, upstairs, but my wife is gone. And all of a sudden my buzzer starts going, and I was going crazy. And I, and so I open up the front door and from beyond the gate, I hear, and this is like, there are, there are celebrity buses that go by that are looking for celebrities. And Adam Sandler is in front of my house with his two kids and he's like, and I open the

door and he goes like, Hey, hey, buddy, hey, buddy, how are you? And this is the thing you say, Hey, buddy to everybody. And what I've noticed is that I've seen you because our kids go to the same school. I've seen you with five year olds, five year old girls, Adam Sandler will walk up to an old man and go, Hey, buddy. And then he'll walk up to a five year old girl and go, Hey, buddy, you're looking good. Love you. Love you, buddy.

And the kid just looks up like, Hey, buddy, you're doing great. Good to see you. A fetus could just be born. Hey, buddy. Good to see you, buddy. How are you, buddy? So you're outside my house and you're yelling and you've got your two kids and you like push back.

You're like, Hey, we're coming in. You come push past me, you come in, your kids go right upstairs to play with my kids because they all get along and you're like, what's going on, buddy? And I say, well, come on, sit down for a second. You go, I can't stay long. I can't stay long. You just came in. So I get you to sit down, I hand you a soda.

We're there watching a football game for maybe five minutes. And then you're like, Ah, kids, kids, we got to get out of here. We got to get out of here. And so you get your kids down, your kids come running downstairs and their kids are like, daddy, daddy. And he goes, I know when we're not welcome. That's one of the funniest things. I think the whole running time was seven minutes.

I know when we're not welcome. And then I hear you, then yelling and then up the street. Absolutely hilarious. I go by your house every time I go by your house because we go bike riding in the neighborhood. Every time I pass your house, I just mean, go in there and my kids laugh every time. You've been in like school assemblies where the parents are there and the kids are there. And I don't even know, like Adam's sitting way in the, I don't even know he's there. And then they'll say something like, oh, we're also looking for a volunteer who can

come on the pancake day on Saturday. And then I'll hear a voice in the back, go, it's Conan. We do that stuff in front of like 800 parents. We're done with that. We're doing more elementary school together. That hurts. I know. But it's still, I wouldn't say it's the best.

You say everything's the best. No, it's the best, buddy. You also, you will show up regardless of the event. It could be a funeral for a president. Yeah. And you will show up wearing a basketball shorts, a giant balloon sneakers, a missed match to a T-shirt and a balloon, you know, vest of some kind, a puffy vest and a hat on sideways.

What's going on there? It's all about being comfortable. I think it stems from my mother making me dress nicer as a kid and I hated it and I was itchy. I think it's all from not wanting to be itchy. Because you know, you're always welcomed that way at my home. I just sometimes I think that if you were, say someday you won the Nobel Peace Prize for comedy and you were brought to Oslo and you got up on stage and all the people there

were wearing like, you know, and you would be wearing a Lakers jersey or something, you know. Yes. I'm doing better. I think I'm trying to dress better on occasion. I did that. Meyerowitz, we went to Cannes or Cannes and I wore a tight suit and I was in a bad mood but I wore it.

You were in a bad mood? Well, yes, but it was fun, but I don't love being in a suit and you handle it every night. You don't like it, do you? Yeah, I'm not going to wear a suit anymore. When we come back in January, I'm not going to wear a suit. Really? Yeah. I mean, I'll wear, I'll dress nicely, but I'm not going to wear a suit.

That's cool. I'm just like, no, I can't do it anymore. Are you going to do monologues up front? Not. I can't do long ones because I got less time, which I actually like. The whole theory is give myself less time and I might get better. I got to try something to shake it up. That's great.

It's been five years. So just kind of sitting down and talking? I think we're going to, well, no, there's going to be comedy up front. I got to do comedy. If you want to do comedy, you know, but I can't, I don't want to come out and stand there in a suit and say, oh, Trump, you know, you hear what he's acting director of Foreign Affairs said today? I mean, it's, I don't want to do it.

So we got plenty of people doing that. No one needs me doing that. Well, you've done it. I'll make balloon animals or something. I'm looking forward to it, Conan, but you're going to have one guest, just one guest. It's going to be great. Yeah. It's going to be Tuesdays.

It's you. It's going to affect your career a little bit. You can't travel. I'm just going to come in. You've got to come in. Yeah. So what do you think? We can be happy.

Can we be happy? That's the question is, can we be happy? We are happy. We are very happy me and you. And we have a good time. We like our families. We like what that we got to do this so long. I think we don't feel like we accomplished it all yet.

Maybe there's more for us to say and do. And that's why we keep doing it. I have known this guy for Jesus. I'm not even going to say how many years because it's frightening, but I think it's 30, buddy. I think it's 30 years and you are an exceptionally, the easy thing to say about you is that people know is you're very talented and you're very hardworking, but you are an exceptionally loyal and nice person.

Do yourself a favor. I howled out loud to the point where I was asked to shut up when I was watching Adam's Netflix special. It's really unique. It's a great approach. And what can I say? It's just pure entertainment the whole time and I'm really happy for you. I love you.

Thanks for the all that going on. You too, you're the man. Yeah. You're going to have to cut out all the stuff I just said and then we're going to have him just say you, the man and we're going to repeat it on a loop. You're going to sound like an idiot. All right. I'm Sandler, everybody.

Who you are. Who you are. Who you are. Who you are. Who you are. Who you are. And now it's time for a segment called Conan O'Brien Pays Off the Mortgage on his beach house.

It's time for a segment Sona does not like called true or false with Sona Movesesion. Sona, many of the arguments that we have in real life revolve around your memory or lack of memory. Is that true? I would say that's accurate. What do you think happens? I think that you ask me to do something

and then on my way to do it, I get distracted by a friend or something else and then I just completely forget to do what you asked me to do. It's incredible because I've seen it happen. There was a time on the tour we just did where I really needed a banana and they were on the other side of the room.

And I remembered saying, they were on the other side of the room near where you were. And I said, could you grab me that banana? And you said, no problem. You started to walk towards where the banana was. And on the way, you started talking to other people that were in the room.

And then you went and sat down and didn't get the banana. And the people that were sitting with me were astounded. They were astounded. And I looked at you and you were saying, what are you looking at me for, dude? And I wasn't even mad. I was more just... I didn't say that.

What did you say? You always make me sound like a dude, what? Oh, come on. Forget you, I forgot it. That's not what I do. I'm like, oh, I'm sorry. I forgot it. And then you got me.

But how do you forget from going from one end of the room to the other? Because I got caught up in conversation and it's a banana. Here's the banana. The thing is, it's so funny. I wasn't even that mad. I was more scared for you.

Okay. I really did. In that moment, I thought we have to get you a CAT scan. No, I did. From a medical point of view, I consider myself a doctor. My knowledge of medicine, my dad's a doctor. So that makes me a doctor just from being around him. I was just concerned for you.

Wait, that's first of all, that's not true. It doesn't matter what I said to you because you'll forget soon anyway. Come on. We're gonna make a laugh. No, wait, only I'm laughing. The problem is, is that when I forget to do something and I'm like, oh, I'm sorry, I forgot to do it.

That's not enough for you. You're like, I want you to feel bad for not getting me that banana. And then when I just kind of am like, I forgot to do it for you. You're like, how can you just, you basically have this like, how can you just sit there and just act like you don't care?

I don't know how you can live when you know that you didn't get me that banana. How can you continue to live? You've got to live with that the rest of your life. I never feel as bad about it as you want me to feel. And I think that upsets you because you feel bad about a lot of things. I think if I had, let's say,

I needed insulin to stay alive. Okay. And I was dying and I asked you to get my insulin the other side of the room, but you stopped halfway through because there was an episode of, you tell me. It's always sunny in Philadelphia. Yeah.

And you started watching that and I didn't get it. And then I went into shock. And then I passed away. Maybe at the funeral like, oh, he didn't get his insulin. Boo hoo, TV shows didn't get his insulin. That's not what I would do. That was probably an extreme example.

Yeah, I would say so. You dying compared to you just eating a banana? Oh, that was a good banana though. God. Well, you ended up getting up and getting it. I went and got it myself. No, it was good. I learned.

You ended up with a banana. You know, it was great. I learned that I can go get a banana by myself. Good. That was a teaching moment. That's what I wanted to do. That's why I didn't get you a banana. I wanted to teach you that you could be self-sufficient

in getting your own fruit. Konan O'Brien needs a friend with Sonamov Sessian and Konan O'Brien as himself. Produced by me, Matt Gorely. Executive produced by Adam Sacks and Jeff Ross at Team Coco and Colin Anderson and Chris Bannon at Earwolf. Special thanks to Jack White and the White Stripes for the theme song.

Incidental Music by Jimmy Vivino. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts and you might find your review featured on a future episode. Got a question for Konan? Call the Team Coco Hotline at 323-451-2821 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Konan O'Brien

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