Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer

Episode Date: March 8, 2021

Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer feel zippy and super-duper excited, respectively, about being Conan O’Brien’s friends. Angela and Jenna sit down with Conan to talk about revisiting The Office with their hit podcast Office Ladies, why it’s important to treat interns fairly, and how their onscreen proximity led to a lifelong friendship. Plus, Conan hears a voicemail from his fantasy lover. Got a question for Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone].For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com.

Hi, my name is Angela Kinsey and I feel zippy about being Conan O'Brien's friend. Hi, my name is Jenna Fisher and I feel super duper excited about being Conan O'Brien's friend. Hello and welcome to Conan O'Brien needs a friend. I am your host Conan O'Brien although you can call me just Conan. You know I'm getting very self-conscious about the intros because I've been listening I never listened to a lot of other podcasts and now I'm listening to other podcasts and they're a little more formal when they open the show and I realize that I'm not and I think that's why I just started so formally which is not my way usually I don't think about it at all and that's a better way to go. I've noticed in the first line you'd go formal right out of

the gate and then immediately lose it the next line you speak. I was gonna say I agree I think you'd start off very like hello this is Conan O'Brien needs a friend Conan O'Brien it's like you have a voice that you do and then you quickly snap out of it. Yes, yes because I get this idea in my head I when I hear other people do podcasts they start with this kind of authority and I feel like I shouldn't I don't have that I don't know does that does that make sense? Yeah you go from like 70s radio DJ to basement podcaster. Well because I forget that I'm what it is we're doing at the beginning Matt when you say okay Conan get us started you can go now three two one it's very natural that's not a natural place to start from so I go hello and welcome to Conan O'Brien

and I'm like welcome to PBS news hour we'll be talking about the ancient Incas they really have their own calendar you know and but we're not that's not us no I know it's not us but when we start and I'm on my own for about I would say it only lasts for about eight seconds but that's what I do then I realize I'm just with you knuckleheads and what are we doing and I real I remember my own absurdity as a human being and then we're the next thing you know we're just talking like this and I'm saying cockaroo and whatever whatever else but I realize just now I don't know why but this is the first time I realized that I do get into my head when I do an introduction sometimes yeah you do it so formally that it makes me feel like what wait are we more important than I know

no trust me we're not no no it goes I just you know I like every time every time you have a serious voice it makes me laugh yeah do you notice that sonan I share a look on the zoom every time look checking in with each other going he's doing it again hello and welcome but so it should just be more like hey there going on a brian that kind of thing well that's that's a little too dismissive I should just be you well see no it's it's this is man this uh you can't get in your you can't get in your head you know you just can't get in your head and now what I've heard is that's too formal and that's too informal okay now I'm in my head even further than I was when we started yeah you know let's try a couple of really right now a couple

of just give me a cup just point to me say go or action and I'll give you let's do like three or four in a row and see if we can find it sounds good three two one go it's Conan O'Brien needs a friend I'm no that's another one quickly quickly three two one go have we got a show for you quickly again three two one go hi it's Conan you know me and the same guy you've been chilling with since 1993 no that's pretty good I haven't changed uh still the guy you didn't like then and you grew slowly to like last year how about that that's not bad but I think you should just open with a cockaroo a cockaroo welcome to Conan O'Brien yeah or maybe I mean that's the other thing too is we're not we should have a morning zoo energy where you and Sona are making a lot of

noise and you have and I'm like all right you guys knuckleheads quiet down we got a lot of traffic on the 101 freeway and today we're talking to a sex therapist I have is I'm looking through the glass right now she's brought nine dildos we're getting a call right now it's it's bees man bees man's out and he's bothering women on ventura boulevard what's up bees man I just bother some ladies yeah bees man go man go let's get the sex therapist in here that's the kind of show we need to be doing well yeah somewhere near that that's pretty good all right hello and welcome to Conan O'Brien needs a friend it's because I'm excited about our guests today my guests starred as Pam Beasley and Angela Martin on the Emmy award-winning NBC series the office now they

host their own smash hit this thing's huge podcast office ladies which was named this year's podcast of the year at the iHeart radio awards they're also working on a book office bff's tales of the office from two best friends who were there which will be released next year very excited to talk to them jennifisher and Angela Kinsey welcome I am so happy that both of you agreed to come on the podcast I'm thrilled thrilled to have you here and um you know this is your chance to ask me questions I'm that's all I'm gonna do are we and wait are we interviewing you I'm so excited I'm trusting that you stayed up all night coming up with questions and go no thank you for being here thank you very much I have questions for you both normally it's weird because you do your

podcast in the same studio where I do my podcast and pre-covid I used to see you guys there and it was kind of nice and we had a little bit of that podcast energy we were podcast pals over at ear wool studios yeah we had like in the hallway camaraderie I'd be like hey Conan you'd walk by tall person walking and that's all you got is tall person why not the air crackled with a raw sensuality what's wrong with that oh you should write like lady romance novel the ones by the register at the grocery store I do I do under an assumed name and they don't sell you gotta put them on Netflix yeah I will I'll get I'll get a deal but no it's nice but now we're doing this for now over zoom mm-hmm so tell me where you guys are like Jenna where are you right now I am in

my closet yeah I was gonna say yeah this is where you you tend to podcast from your closet this is the only quiet place in my house because it's you know a tiny room within a larger room so there's many doors that I can shut to my whole family who is home with me all the time Jenna did you just explain to me what a closet is if you're not familiar I have never tiny space within a larger space I live in a giant mansion and the tiny space inside a larger space is what we call my living room no we have so much to talk about first of all I just want to say that the office is the show that is constantly playing in my house because my daughter loved the office and then my son discovered it and decided watching all of the episodes once isn't enough he needs to watch

all of them five times and I just think the fact that you're doing this podcast was a genius idea well you know we hadn't seen a lot of the episodes since they aired so we've been re-watching the show and it's really good yeah it holds up it holds up if you if you're curious it totally holds up from us it's really quite good I gotta say I watched it all the first time not a fan you know really just really down on the producing of it not I'm not a Greg Daniels fan and I really thought the lighting was off and no I loved it first time around and then what I love about the show particularly is that it's evergreen comedy well you know there was something that came up on an episode Angela do you remember when there was that whole conversation where Kelly is trying to explain

how a Netflix queue works and we had got a lot of fan mail from people they're like what is a Netflix queue what is she talking about they weren't familiar with because you know it's a whole generation new generation of people who watch it now they were not familiar with what Netflix used to be which was a company that sent you individual DVDs of things in the mail in the mail in the mail it's one of those things that pops up it's like when you're watching a movie and someone gets a call and they take out a cell phone and immediately you're taken out of the movie because the cell phone is the size of like an industrial cinder block or it's a flip phone and suddenly it could be the most brilliant piece of acting I'm like what flip phone I don't think so yeah

exactly boo and I walk out and it turns out that it won like nine Oscars uh so yeah you're right we're all trapped uh in those moments I think I think one day I don't know how it came up but I remembered shooting something the second time I did the Emmys I shot a cold open where I came in through the ceiling of the office and so I remembered having that experience of going over to your set crashing through the ceiling onto Dwight's desk and having all these interactions with you guys and it came out really well I was really happy with it so I told my kids that I dropped through the ceiling and fell into the world of the office and that it was all shot just like the office and they acted like I had been a member of the Beatles for a year you know

what I mean like it was just it blew their minds to the point that I was insulted I have a picture of you we both have photos of the day you came to set if you want us to text it to your kids and I mean not directly to your children I'm not going to text your children but I don't see any reason why I shouldn't give my children's phone numbers now and and leave it in the podcast so I'll do that now here we go my son no I remembered it being first of all it was it was really fun and this is just for office fans listening I was stunned at the neighborhood it's a really a testament to the production of this show I just was picturing I'm so used to it being Dunder Mifflin being in this part of Pennsylvania and it being snowy and cold a bunch of the time

and I remember driving to this well I'll just say it the most industrial part of Los Angeles you can imagine and I cannot impress enough on people listening right now you'd never in a million years believe that you could shoot anything outside this place and make it look like the east coast I think in one building nearby they were making airplane parts and in another building nearby they were making pornography that's what I think that's what was happening right and then there's a building where they cremate people what are those called again a crematorium thank you crematorium yeah that you don't pass that every day you can add a torium to anything and it becomes the room where that happens oh like so I'm in my closet a torium right now yes you are yes and I'm in my master

batorium so it's all did I go too far so no way yes yes yes always apologize no it's very industrial there's a gunnery we were across from like a junkyard and people would come and get in fights because their car had been towed and there was like a junkyard dog that we're really worried about Jenna remember we're like we think it needs water but we're scared of it we have an episode coming up chair model where um there's a line where Pam says we walked past a junkyard dog eating some chicken today and that was that line was created because that happened when when we walked to work it's incredible because I can tell from the camera angle whenever you're looking out the window and someone's in the office and looking down and maybe Dwight's having some

inner interaction in the parking lot or something's happening in the parking lot you can you can tell that it's this one shot that you can get that's still believable if you add a little bit of fake snow as and and everyone's acting a little chilly it looks like it's potentially western Pennsylvania but that's about it if you widened out a little bit you would see that you're in an incredibly I can't say it enough I was scared a car picked me up to take me to this shoot and it took me to it was like you're going to the side of the office and I thought well this will be cool and uh I thought I was going to get murdered I mean I remembered looking out the window and thinking I'm not getting out of the car get out of the car this is where they shoot the office

this is awful if you look in the parking lot of dunder mifflin there's a dense dense hedge around this whole parking lot because if you saw the other side you would be like lock it up there's a lot to talk about here uh first of all angela you and I have a very special connection yes uh having been married briefly it was a two-hour nasty divorce are we going to get into it it was a two-hour marriage and an incredibly nasty divorce um uh I was happy I don't know why you were so upset um no uh you were an intern on my show and there's actually an office connection because it uh you were an intern uh John Krasinski was an intern on my show um who else was uh Mindy Kaling was an intern on my show uh did we have any personal interactions we did I got in

an elevator with you one time and I was told basically not to talk to you which I know you talked about when Keenan was on like they were like don't really chat him up and I didn't and I never said that I never told anyone that they used to tell people look he's the star of the show so don't talk to him and don't make eye contact and I found out later on I just thought I had an odor I desperately wanted to chat everybody up well you were really nice you said how's it going today and I was so surprised that you spoke to me I think I really fumbled it I said something like I'm having a pleasure I don't know what I said this is really awkward I remember that that's when we that's when we moved you out very quickly yeah and then and then I became Max Weinberg's

intern right and so then I was in the studio a lot which was so fun it just was electric every night I loved every minute of getting to be in the studio not so much so fun getting everyone coffee but you know that's part of being an intern yeah when I first got started out and started in showbiz's out in LA uh Greg Daniels he and I got jobs uh working at the first comic relief I think it was in 1986 and our and we were each assigned a celebrity he got Dennis Miller and I was assigned Estelle Getty from the Golden Girls and my job was she kept sending me out to get coffee and then to get roll aids and then to get and I was like yes Miss Getty yes Miss Getty and I would run around and I wanted I mean no knock to Estelle Getty she was wonderful but I remembered there were so many

legends there and I I I just I don't know that was not the person I would have chosen myself you know my job was to ask the band if they wanted any like snacks or food or anything and then I'd go get their food that's one of the things when the band and do you remember when rusted root was there Conan we've done like 3000 episodes no I don't remember well they got a nickname pretty quickly I don't know who started it I didn't I I didn't label them this but when you open the door there was an odor and they were labeled stinky root um and that's what whenever they would come it'd be like stinky root and the interns love the joke okay it's not playing as well here well no we can add laughs later oh thank you thank you the interns really like that was it was it uh was

it a marijuana scent or was it body odor I think it was body odor yeah yeah that's that was common among me certain musicians who decided that their their own uh essential oils uh helped with them with their creativity um Michael Stipe I'll just put it out there oh my god guys we're gonna get male we're gonna he didn't believe in it he didn't believe in it and so he would come on the show and I would see uh it was it was wow it was amazing it was it was as if he had just been hella vacked out of uh being lost in the woods for like nine weeks and then dropped into the couch next to us wonderful man amazing musician and he would probably tell you himself yeah man bathing not my thing can I can I take us on just a quick tangent because it's on my mind please

please it's just something I want to get off my chest which is that I feel like this job of asking interns to get coffee for people or just any sort of I worked in admin for a long time I had to make a lot of coffees I feel like you're really setting setting the person up to fail you know unless it's like black coffee I can't sip it and see if I got the right ratio of milk and sugar it's something I've been wanting to say for a long time and and this felt like the space and this was your moment to advocate for interns Jenna I've never disagreed with anyone more about anything how many cups of shitty coffee have you gotten from an intern a lot probably a lot first of all I have a system the intern brings it to sona sona gives it to me and then I lose my shit on sona

right sona that's exactly what happened I know when you were saying interns I was like and assistance no no no assistant what I set up a system a long time ago with sona and I are secretly we're good friends we're good pals but I've decided I'll just I'll save all my rage for sona and then when I see the intern I'm like great job and if you ever you know see what I'm saying so sona sees this horrible monster this Stalin-esque figure of of rage and just arbitrary injustice and then the what they see is the person they want to see but also let's attack another issue I can't go get my own coffee okay I mean you're too busy you're busy oh no Angela that's not what I'm talking about I'm talking about people if I went outside into the world people would just lose their shit you

know what I'm saying yes I hear you on that but I'm saying and there's like a coffee pot you can walk and pour a cup of coffee no I can't I'm too important uh no you're absolutely right to get back to it I went on a long rant but Jenna you're right this is what I'm saying I've been on the giving end of the coffee I've been on the receiving end of the coffee and I just think maybe there's a tiny part of world peace that could be achieved if we all just got our own coffee okay I am going to pretend to agree to this now on the podcast you are you secretly texting someone to get you a coffee right now is not even so I can just let sona's looking at my face and she can see well actually uh I don't if I had the time to go get it I would rather get it myself

because I'm I am finicky about how much the the ratio I get finicky about the ratio and when you ask for could I get milk or almond milk in my coffee and it comes back and it's it's slightly off black it's mostly black but basically what they did is just show the cup of coffee to a cow but they didn't they didn't touch yeah and that's supposed to be the amount of milk that you get there were so many things I thought we would talk about today and I did not see this one coming I'm just just gonna tell you can I tell you something I have a complicated map I've written out of the conversation and it's like a beautiful mind over there what's happening yeah I I you think this is all an accident this is just an unprepared fool uh blithering and blathering but no I had every

intention of getting to coffee and I knew Jenna's passion you knew just how to trigger me I triggered you in just the right way you know I I think that obviously there's terrific writing on the office but I think one of the great testaments of that show and why it works so well is I can tell that uh the cast all of you are so naturally funny and one of the genius things about the office and I've known this for a long time is that you were all encouraged to be part of the creative process there's a lot of shows where they say the writers are over there they're chiseling on the tablet and then the tablet will come down from the mountain and you have to treat that like gospel and on your show there is you can tell you all have different chemistries I think and and one

of the reasons why the show is so enduring that was all Greg and um to Greg any idea is a good idea it doesn't matter where it comes from and he he wanted to hear what everybody thought you know in doing the podcast we found out this great piece of trivia that Dwight's obsession with Battlestar Galactica that came from a pitch from our editor Dave Rogers when he was meeting with Greg and Greg ran with that and we would go sit on our editor's couches and we'd be up in the writer's room and I've done a lot of shows since and I never even met the editor I don't know their name but I still trade emails with um with Dave and Dean and Claire who edited our show and it just goes across all departments I mean Angela on one of our grips built Angela a little like

cat shack for her apartment because yeah Dale built me a litter box for my cat we had this idea called the catty shack be a litter box that hangs off your window if you live in an apartment and Dale and I sketched it out and he built it but I feel like Greg started this whole environment of this creative partnership and everybody got to know each other in a way I've never had on any other show and Greg has this curious mind you know and he really chats up everybody about an idea and then he brings all of that to the page and it just trickled down I feel like to the whole show Jenna I know that you you worked briefly as a receptionist in real life over over eight years I worked in administrative assistant work yeah I had many jobs I was a a temp for many many years

but then I also you know had some full-time jobs uh all while I was a struggling actress that was my gig you know I was never a waitress I didn't work in food service really I did the admin route I had taken a typing class in high school and I was a really really good typist and so I kind of funneled that into you know how I made my dough yeah I briefly this is when I was working with Greg we were between jobs he got a gig as preparing kids for at the SAT and I got a job as a temp at Wilson's house of sweden leather just because and they kept tiring me because I was a really fast typist I sat there outside the office of this it sounds like a a porn script but this very attractive woman who would walk in wearing like red cowboy boots would walk in and I was her

young male assistant uh only um she you know she I don't think ever saw me that way did you see her that way Conan I may have seen her that way but uh I was 22 and I didn't hit puberty until I was 32 so there was nothing I there was nothing I could do but but uh I I remembered it all being oh I'm a good typist and that opens up some doors for you or did back in the day I don't know that it would anymore well yeah I mean also back in the day you know accuracy was a big part of typing and something you should know about Jenna is that she brings up quite a bit her accuracy um level um it's very important to her uh because it's it's uh you know anyone can type garbage quickly but typing actual words is where it's at okay I know I know I'm very proud of you

I finally know where it's at I didn't know where it was at that's where it's at that's accurate typing that's right wow well you know it's funny because I mean this is the the mind-blowing thing and I this is what I I really think people need to know you sat at a reception desk for eight years in the real world and then you played a person who did that on tv yeah if they had to pick up image of receptionist on tv I think it's you that's kind of breaks my brain it's it's super weird it's like I was doing this sort of secret actor prep but I didn't know it but I truly what yeah I truly was um a young girl an artist sitting behind a reception desk wishing for something more out of her life and then I was cast as a girl sitting behind a reception desk wishing to be an artist

who wanted more out of her life and I brought so much of that yearning and struggle to the character of Pam because I had lived it that blows my mind I mean even I mean I know it but when you say it out loud again it's just like very matrix you know I'm like oh my god what's real I worked at one eight hundred dentist and I volunteered to be on the party planning committee for extra money for their holiday Christmas party and the woman that ran the party planning committee was the manager that that and she took it super seriously and she actually yelled at me about how I tied a bow on a banister and so that was just crazy to me when we first did those party planning committee scenes that I had been down that road I had done that but um then I was I

was the snarky lady now yeah exactly and I want to talk about that for a second because your look of disdain Angela is one of the best I've seen in comedy your just ability to have this withering look of disdain and I'm wondering if playing that for so long and and so well has that influenced how people treat you when you walk in the world always everywhere I go I'm really chatty I want to talk to you I want to know what you got in the seasonal aisle oh my god it's 4th of July where'd you get that candle with the flag on it that's so great and I I say those things and people are like they they just don't know what to do with me when they meet me do you have situations ever where people assume that maybe you're not a nice person or that you're dour because they associate

you with that character oh yeah and you know what doesn't help is that my resting face now is just this it's just like run a podcast so I write what's happening my resting face just looks like Angela Martin is really pissed off but that's my resting face and so I've had people online like if I'm you know posting something they'll say oh my gosh you have resting Angela Martin face is what they call it but that's just my face I was at a wedding in Las Vegas having a great time years ago and I got in the elevator and the elevator is like the the mirror you know the mirror box basically elevator and an older man patted me on the shoulder and he said it's gonna be okay I thought what is he talking about I'm having the best day and I looked and my face was like Angela Martin face you're trapped

I have been in a lot of encounters with rain wilson when he has been recognized by people and he has it made because he can be having lunch and someone will come up to the table and be like oh my god oh my god are you are you rain wilson are you Dwight from the office and he'll say yes go away and people are like oh yeah yeah like they had like a Dwight encounter yes but if someone came up to me at dinner and they were like oh my gosh are you jennifish or Pam Beasley from the office and I said yes go away they'd be like well now she is just awful yeah so it but so I really envy like rain's sort of like character right thing that he's riding because he can just be super grumpy and snarky and people are thrilled because they feel like they met Dwight yes it's why you

want to be Sean Penn because if someone comes up to you and says hey Mr. Penn can I have your autograph and you punch them they're like yes I got punched by Sean Penn he gave me the old Sean Penn treatment you know how classic I'm gonna autograph my fractured face Jenna and I have been places together and they want a photo with Jenna and they want her to smile and be Pam and then they pivot to me and I smile for the picture and they say actually could you do your Angela Martin face so there's all these photos of Jenna smiling and I'm grumpy right next to her with the fan well this is not so bad it takes more energy to smile and ages you faster so you know is that true yeah oh yeah definitely true I just made that up sorry Jenna I'm I'm set

Jenna you're gonna age very very quickly it hasn't happened yet but very soon all that smiling for people was gonna it's what's I feel bad for you you connected with each other right away on the show describe that situation well a lot of it has to do with our desks the reception desk for me for example I was just all by myself sort of in a little island and Steve Carell's office was also kind of an island and he and I would actually commiserate about how lonely our desks were but everybody else had a pod everybody else had a little clump of people that they could become friends with from the beginning but besides no one the closest person to me was Angela over this little partition between our desks and very early on we would pass each other notes

and she we became just kind of like little she was like in a real office she was physically closest to me but then also we were always there all the time we were in the background of each other's scenes and so you never went back to your trailer by yourself it we were always in a group or together but Angela and I would always manage to find one another and just even just by the end of the first season we had told each other our life stories because we had just the proximity and the amount of time I mean also I really liked her I really liked you too but you also you had a tissue box Jenna I don't know if you remember you had a little tissue box and I didn't have any tissues out of my accounting clump I don't know why why they're skipping on tissues over and accounting

and I would tip toe over the partition I remember I was like can you pass me a tissue and you pass me a tissue this is so riveting but we started talking and then it just became my little perch I would just perch on the partition and we chatted up but you're interesting to me because you know there's that famous Escher drawing of a hand drawing a hand which is drawing a hand it's one of those things you see in like college dorm rooms and it just goes on it's it's infinite you're playing people that work in an office it's not real but they've constructed a realistic office to create that reality then because you two are sitting next to each other and there is a lot of tedium making a tv show people don't know that but especially like single camera show

like like the office there is a lot of getting setups getting the lighting right and you're sitting there and you're waiting and like any office because there's someone on a partition next to you you start to interact with them yeah and I think our show because of the bullpen when you have two cameras in that one big square room they catch everything in everyone one camera is going to have you in the shot so it wasn't like a show where I have a scene with Jenna and it's just the two of us and everyone else can go take a break that wasn't the case we were all there all the time in each other's background of every shot and we did we we just all became really close you put that many people in one little space day after day together and before you

know it you guys know everything about each other here are my memories of the day that I was there I'm waiting for them to set it up and Steve Carell had to be in the background and he was sitting alone in his office with his big eyes and that kind of Steve Carell smile and he was alone and no one was talking to him he was just alone in that what you said that yeah that cube and he was smiling and it was he looked like a toy that had been shut off it looked like they were like we don't sneeze Steve right now so to power him down and they they powered him down and he was just smiling with big eyes and he was sitting in there and waiting for someone to say we need you now but I thought unlike the rest of you he was not in a bullpen he wasn't in that common area

and it was a sort of a weird quirk probably of his office day it was just you sitting here in this cube until we're ready for you well you mentioned being up at the reception desk with me I felt like I was the greeter of many guests that we had on our show they would often be brought over to reception and I would had the task of chatting them up in the same way that an actual receptionist might chat up a guest as they waited you know to go into their meeting or something there were all these weird ways where the lines were blurred or where we were had these actual I don't know the the roles of what our characters would have really been like people used to leave trash at front reception like they'd lean up and talk to Jenna and then leave their water bottle

or like have a wrapper to clean it up she'd be like picking up people's trash you're one of the stars of pencils and pens and walk away with them just like real reception you never really you've played the part too well you know and uh I think that's on you but now you're having this experience of watching the show and you're both much younger than me and this is still closer to you what is this trigger for you when you watch the show can you do you remember ever what happened that day in your personal life uh what is it what comes to mind when you watch these are you able to detach yourself from what you see and just enjoy it like any fan of the office would well I think it's an interesting combination don't you Jenna it's like

sometimes now I'm watching an episode I haven't seen since it aired and I'm just an audience and it's so wonderful to watch it just as an audience and then other episodes I'm like oh my gosh I was hugely pregnant in that episode and oh our my parents visited visited that day and we all had lunch together and there's there are episodes where I'm remembering my life and that's bittersweet too I've cried a few times rewatching just you know my father passed away a few years ago and um I watched the episode that he had come to set and I didn't expect to remember that and I have photos of that day that he was there and so things just kind of sneak up on you as you're rewatching it and um it's just really been a wonderful experience I've really enjoyed

seeing the shows and audience and then also remembering all of these memories I think that's really well said and I've had the same experience I think when the episodes first came out I was so close to them as an actor that I was still analyzing my choices or wondering oh which improv did they leave in because I could have remembered the three improvisations we did as a button to that scene well I don't remember that stuff anymore so now I can watch the episodes and not kind of pick apart my performance anymore and that's really enjoyable and then also what Angela said about just remembering big life moments of different cast members or behind the scenes moments that warm my heart I'm in the section of the show now where I was falling in love with my

husband and um I'll remember like oh my gosh I remembered that you know the morning that we shot this scene I had called him or something or we we had just said I love you like you were like those little life moments do come up it used to be that people would make the show and then they would send it out into the world and it was a one-way street and now we're in this world that I find kind of much more fascinating you have a running dialogue with the people that are fans of your show I appreciate you pointing that out about the fans Conan because you know when Angela and I conceived of the podcast our goal was that you would feel like you got to go to coffee with me and Angela two of the stars of your favorite show we're not going to get your coffee you got to get

it yourself that's right but you're with us once everyone got their own coffee okay I'm out I'm not coming but that we would answer all your questions and we would just bring you in and just let you tell you everything we can remember tell you everything we know and if we can't remember we'll text Creed and find out or we'll call Ed and see if he'll get on the phone with you and so that's kind of the spirit of the podcast is that we are watching it again together with the fans and coming at it from that angle I guess right that's the other thing too is that I think podcasts in particular if if you're talking to people enough they really do get the sense of who you are Lauren Michael said to me once about my job of going on every night and doing a show

as he said eventually everything that's in you comes out meaning they're going to see who the real you is because there's no way to hide it and I think what you can do through the podcast is people really do know they're connecting with the two of you and they know that by connecting with the two of you and having you speak so candidly about the show they are then more entwined with the program it keeps it alive I mean that was really well said I know I was like that is like beautiful someone writing that down because that was really beautiful um you know for if you guys said something nice about me and how I oh god so and I help me out here you know I mean now you're on your own that's the opening for them to say like that's so nice Conan you know

come to think of it your show what you've done is like a long Greek poem bring them all together you know it's like a classic piece of literature so embarrassing but have you found have when you're communicating with the fans and talking to them about the show do you ever hear things that really surprise you I mean sometimes I mean there's people that have very very like serious beliefs on who the Scranton Strangler is right there are fans that were positive that Angela and Roy hooked up and we're like no they didn't hook up I mean I she likes big guys I don't know but um there's sometimes there's these fan theories that we come across that we're like huh but Jenna I don't know have you been stumped I'm trying to think we do find out things like fans were super like mad at

Jim sometimes for like they felt like he threw Pam under the bus or like people think that Pam was like mean to Karen there's like a lot of like people get very invested in these relationships you really believe that this is an ecosystem with real human beings in it and this is happening and I think that probably contributes to the fervor we just interviewed our cinematographer Randall Einhorn on the podcast and something he talked about was the shooting style of the office really contributing to that intimacy he said for example in standard single camera comedies or in films when there's a really intimate moment the camera pushes in and gets a close-up but on the office we pulled back and he said that he in his days of working in actual documentaries when you

want a documentary what is the word documentarian no when you want the subject of your documentary to open up if you create space they're more likely to reveal their true thoughts and feelings because they don't have a big camera in their face right yeah so we did that all the time we had these spy shots where we were spying on these characters and so these moments of their life that you were finding out about they did not feel presented they did not feel presentational or like a show or like they were scripted it really felt like we were catching Jim giving Pam a lingering look and so the people the characters feel more real I think the office in a way comes across as more real to me than a reality show because I feel like when I'm being I feel manipulated when I watch a

reality show often I can tell when they've told someone to break up with someone else or when you know it's all very ham-fested to me but but I don't feel that way when I watch the office and it's shot like someone snagged it on their iPhone which fits with how things are now yeah yeah we we've talked to a lot of people that were part of making the show and they've said that you know Greg and Ken Kuapas who directed the pilot and sort of set the tone of the show that they didn't mind if it looked a little messy like if the camera didn't land exactly where it was supposed to and then had to toggle back so to speak like it's supposed to land on Jim and Pam but it overshot and got the copier and now had to find them and maybe you caught a little bit of the boom and just sort of that

messy look so to speak was welcomed the flaw that makes the painting perfect yeah you know it's uh it's it's the small inconsistency that makes you appreciate the whole and I and I also think that it really makes you feel like you're catching something you weren't supposed to see as opposed to comedy that's kept right in the center of the camera all the time and hits on cue and a studio audience applause because an applause light went off could you imagine Jenna like walking onto our soundstage and like Dwight enters and like almost like Kramer on Seinfeld and we all have to like hold for laughter and then Dwight gives a zinger to Jim it'd be so surreal no if a couple of you guys made a sitcom style episode of the office that had that proscenium feel where you

walked in and there was loud applause and you'd start your line but then have to wait and then give your line again and then there was a big you know someone else enters and then a you know the Harlem Globetrotters enter as as the surprise celebrity guest and it's all I mean I used to it makes me crazy now shows like the office have made it hard for me to watch older TV because I'll notice how they eat lunch like on Murphy Brown they're all supposed to be the most important news people in New York City and they're supposed to be like they're 60 minutes they're giant they're huge and it's time for them to go eat lunch and there was a table and they all had to sit around it's in half an oval and they all have to cram around one half of it because it's a multi-camera

show and the they have all have to be facing the audience and they're all eating little sandwiches and you're like wait a minute you're supposed to be Diane Sawyer and you're hot you're crammed in there with like the janitor and you're all eating little sandwiches and you have to be facing out because that's where the audience is whereas you know you should do that that I know this is a huge waste of your time but make a 1970s or 80s sitcom style version of the office I'll fund it yeah you'll all get paid hundreds of dollars and I will whatever proceeds I'll sort of take off you know my share off the top and then we'll find a charity I'm in if there's anything leftover the charity um well this has been a delight this has been an absolute delight uh and I

my only regret is that we didn't get to all be in the same room when we did this because um I see you at the podcast studio and thought like oh this is a natural we should all get together and maybe someday you'll let me sit in on your podcast um silence nothing all right no no don't worry about it it's okay I'm busy guess what I'm busy too I'm busy too I got a lot going on um but it would be it would be nice to do this in person but uh I think it's you guys are doing something really interesting and cool and uh and I will tell you just in my household alone how much joy you and your cast and Greg and all those amazing writers all that joy it's just it's nice to see I love watching my son and my daughter see really good comedy the way it's supposed to be done and understand that

that's the way it's supposed to be done like that makes me so happy so well I thank you thank you I'll tell you Conan when I was growing up Cheers was the show that I watched with my mom and dad and I love it when parents tell me that they watch the office with their kids because I have these just really warm memories you know when I was a teenager I there's not much I wanted to talk to my parents about but I wanted to sit on the couch and watch Cheers with them and so when I imagine that the office might be the thing that brings a whole family together it really means a lot to me yeah it's cool and I cannot tell you I know this sounds like a funny daddy thing to say but it's really is not I there's so many times where I'm watching something with my kids that I think is

going to be cool or fine or I'm safe and then suddenly the show takes an insane turn and it's very upsetting or sexually explicit or crazy and I'm diving in slow motion towards the remote control try and change the channel and it's nice because the office is edgy and I think it does thoroughly explore all of the parameters of the human experience but I know I can watch it with my kids and I'm not going to be disappointed I'm not gonna something horrible isn't going to happen that we all have to leave the room and and leave by separate exits you know which used to happen sometimes when I was a kid or like you also don't have to pretend like you're loving a show that they love like just to bond with them because there's that too I mean I I'm a parent of young

kids so I've watched a lot of episodes of Paw Patrol where I like feigned great interest in the plot but I'm I mean listen no no dig on Paw Patrol is wow why are you hating on Paw Patrol letters I'm just saying like like the office is a thing where like everybody is genuinely enjoying it and being entertained and no one is like pretending that they love it if there's a kids show that needs to go it's Caillou oh Caillou I didn't like Caillou he's it's an odd looking boy and I the rhythm of it's wrong and something's very wrong in Caillou's world yeah and something's very wrong with Caillou and I used to have to watch Caillou with my daughter and I it's the most upsetting cinema I've ever seen I'm gonna even include cinema and I've seen some really rough

snuff films it is disturbing Caillou is very disturbing please please don't watch Caillou make sure your kids get that photo when you came to set and I will tell you guys if any of the cast of the office is hearing this if you need your soap dish moment Sally Field goes to the mall to get recognized if you need that moment just go to a middle school I mean don't be a creeper but like I had to tour middle schools with my stepson and they asked me to leave the classroom because yeah we're we're killing it in junior high guys killing it killing it in junior high I've do well in prisons we don't know why prisons prisons in anywhere where people are detoxing and clearly anywhere people get their coffee any place where someone has to get their coffee

all right Angela and Jenna thank you so much for doing this congratulations on your podcast is drawing it's killing it it's a monster as we say in Boston it's a monster and I'm very happy for both of you and happy that you could make the time for me this is cool well thank you so much we have wanted to come on your show for so long and we just Conan my gosh it's been decades I feel like you've just been this mentor in my life for so long and I'm so thrilled to be sitting here talking to you and I can't wait to tell my friends I was on your show and I'm just forever forever a fan yeah we were really geeking out when we got this invitation Conan oh that's that's that's sweet they read that just as I wrote it you tell them to say this at the end and they better get every

word right all right ladies have a great day thank you so much stay safe and I hope I hope to see you soon in person that'd be fun yes yeah all right we have a quick voicemail that I think is important let's take a listen hi Conan it's your longtime fan slash fantasy lover here I don't really have a question I just wanted to say you know it's so funny I've never I've never met this woman but I've never been more attracted to anyone she sounds was the fantasy lover or the fact that she's yelling caga well she had she intrigued me when she said I'm your fantasy lover but then when she said caga I knew that this is my soulmate and I must immediately I must immediately go and have the talk with my wife and say after 19 years you've been we've had a great marriage and I love

you very much and I didn't think this could happen but a woman I've never met just over the phone said caga to me and I must now abandon you and our children and everything that so far has been the most important thing in my life and I must find her between Kakarou Magouche and Kedekai Magouche you have your fans saying the most like the most insane gibberish yeah it's like a officially a cult now okay so here's another one I was in you know we shoot the show at the now during quarantine we've been shooting it at the Largo theater and there's a little courtyard there and because of COVID we all wear masks inside and distance and do all the things that we want to do to keep everyone safe whenever we can we go out into

the little courtyard so we're outside which feels safe so I go out into the courtyard and that's where I get some makeup put on and sort of chill in between shooting and doing zoom calls with celebrity guests and I was sitting in there and the courtyard looks out onto the street and there's a little iron gate there and this guy just walks by I want to say he was about 19 years old this guy walks by and he passes the little portal that looks out onto the street and then I see him come walk backwards and stare at me for a second and he goes Conan and I said he because he was just noticing me for the first time and I went yeah and he went catakai as God made her finally and I was like yes yes and then he was like bye

kept walking but I would love that I love that sir oh my god God bless you weren't you originally supposed to give them like a $10 bill or something or am I making that up well thanks for bringing it up asshole I don't remember what I said and you'll have to look into legal for that but um no it was just this great way to connect where if someone says to me magush or catakai or uh now it's kakaroo uh I mean I'm happy with any of it I'm just thrilled and uh who was it the other day I think it was my head writer was saying how are we going to know because we we got into the subject of people going senile or having as they get older and and mentally slipping and and my head writer Matt said how are we going to know when that's happening

to you because you act you know insane all the time and it's a constant stream of bible and babble that comes out of your mouth so how are we going to know and then he said probably when you start acting reasonably yeah and then he imagined me like we started talking about it and laughing about it but basically the writer's coming in one day and me meeting with them and uh me saying hey everybody uh it's really good to see you and I hope you had a good weekend we should probably get down to work they're going to immediately jump on a phone and call 911 and say uh there's a male here uh who's had a massive cerebral event yeah yeah and I'll be saying uh well I'm happy to go to the hospital but in the meantime please I hope all of you are well and

let's get as much work done as we can it's so creepy you know when you're pretending it's creepy off-putting it's disconcerting but then they do it then they do an emergency surgery and I'm in a coma for a while and then slowly I come out and all of you are gathered around the bed and all of a sudden I just my eyes open for a second you're all looking at me and I go and everyone's like he's back we're all hugging each other I'm a goose catakai as God made her yay Conan O'Brien needs a friend with Sonamov Sessian and Conan O'Brien as himself produced by me Matt Corley executive produced by Adam Sacks, Joanna Salatarov and Jeff Ross at Team Coco

and Colin Anderson and Chris Bannon at Earwolf theme song by the White Stripes incidental music by Jimmy Vavino our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples the show is engineered by Will Bekton 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 Conan 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 Conan O'Brien needs a friend on Apple podcasts stitcher or wherever fine podcasts are downloaded this has been a team Coco production in association with Earwolf