Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - Conan O’Brien Must Go: Season 3 Roundtable Discussion Part I

Episode Date: October 1, 2026

Conan sits down with the creative team behind Conan O’Brien Must Go (Mike Sweeney, Jessie Gaskell, Jose Arroyo) for a behind-the-scenes look at season three, discussing everything from setting up sting operations for phone-thieving monkeys in India to learning how to model in the Netherlands and much, much more. Wanna get a chance to talk to Conan? Submit here: teamcoco.com/apply Get access to all the podcasts you love, music channels and radio shows with the SiriusXM App! Get 3 months free using this show link: https://siriusxm.com/conan. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Want to talk to Conan? Visit teamco.com slash call Conan. Okay, let's get started. Hello, Conan O'Brien here, and this is a very special episode that we're doing if Conan O'Brien needs a friend because I am sitting here with the creative masterminds

behind my travel show Conan O'Brien must go. By the time this drops, all four episodes will finally be out. India, Netherlands, Morocco, Philippines. I'm very proud of these shows. I think this might have been our best season yet. I think there's a lot of funny and even some heartwarming stuff in those episodes. And I'm thrilled to be here with the team that's been with me on all of my travel shows going back to the very beginning. And I'm talking about Mike Sweeney. Hello, Mike. Hello, Conan. Well, and now we're losing... We are dropping fans by the...

Ratings drop off right there. Yeah. Hello. Jesse Gaskell. Hi, Jesse. Hi, Conan. And that was a little more sincere. And then you know him as Dr. Arroyo.

I know him as Jose Arroyo. He's an actual human being sort of. Jose, how are you? Hi. Hi, Conan. And, guys, we have been working together on travel shows going back years and years and years. The 80s. That's right. The 1980s. When we traveled to the Berlin Wall was still up. Yeah, that was us. We actually caused the Berlin Wall to fall. I was doing a bit with Jordan and we slammed into it. And then everyone was like, oh, what the fuck? Let it go. I almost said Putin, but that's historically inaccurate. It would have been Yeltsin. Conan, stop it. Anyway, let's talk about these shows. And I made this statement that this might be my favorite season. You guys can weigh in.

And I'm not just saying that in the, I think this is our best yet kind of schick. I was very proud of these. Yeah. They're all quite different. A bunch of these are countries that we always wanted to go to, and it never quite worked out. It's really the furthest flung season, I think. We've traveled far to get to these places. Yes.

Yes. And if you go by just mileage alone, these are our best shows. And it all starts with, I'm going to start us off. on India because that was the first episode that dropped. And Mike, maybe you can speak to this, but India was on our wish list for a long time. I think there were some bureaucratic difficulties, if I'm correct. Self-inflicted. Probably self-inflicted.

But Mike, why don't you lay the table a little bit for our long journey starting years ago to go to India? It started in 2017. We were putting India together. And there is a lot of red tape, a lot of bureaucracy to shoot in India. I'm sure if you wanted to start a petro chemical plant, it's smooth sailing. But to shoot a TV show, it's rough. Yeah. And so, and then it turned out, we shot something in 2004 without any permits.

and that someone dug that up and dinged us for that. So on the eve of going, we pulled the plug because we still didn't have an answer. And instead, in two weeks, we planned you going to Italy with Jordan. Yeah, I remember that. So we were going to go to Italy. But because of a kind of weird rogue remote that we did years and years earlier, Andy Blitz. Andy Blitz, very funny writer, had a very funny idea,

is he's having problems with his computer, and he's talking to someone at the call center, which, of course, is in India, and he's having difficulty. So he wraps his computer up, puts it under his arm, gets on a plane, and takes it to India, which is a very funny idea. Of course, we meant no offense to anybody, but what we didn't, because we're all wet behind the ears, and Andy Blitz, and I can say this, I don't think this is legally actionable. He's a fool. Andy Blitz.

No one got any permissions or anything. It was just sort of shot, guerrilla style. And that caused us to be put on some list. But it all worked out and our huge thanks to the government and everyone involved in letting us come to India, we had a wonderful time. It is one of my favorite places to visit. It's spectacular.

Yes. India is a spectacular place. I cannot say enough good things about our experience there. And I loved, there's one fan that really, he's one of my all-time favorite fans, and that's Rusty. Yeah. Yeah. Unbelievable. Just special guy.

I mean, from the first 10 seconds of you meeting him. I met him as the way these shows work is it always starts kind of with a random fan calling into us and I talk to them on the podcast. And you speak to this, Jesse. He was just electric right away. He came in really hot and funny doing a million bits. Yeah. And then we... Which could go either way sometimes.

I mean, sometimes people try that. And it's like, ah, this didn't work. Yeah, so trying too hard or it comes off awkward. He just... He owned it. He owned it. He was, you know, he was that great quality of he was hilarious and also sweet. And then you ask.

Yes. Then you add to that that, you know, he's, you know, been dealing with an ailment since birth. He's been dealing with this. And he's confined to a wheelchair. And he is the most sunny, optimistic, hilarious, forward thinking, live in the moment guy. Yeah, he's inspiring. He's really inspiring. And so going and visiting him and meeting his parents.

It's one of my favorite, because if you watch this episode, and I hope you do, everything that happened in Rusty's house with his family, you can't invent any of that. It is uninventable. You cannot script that. It was just a happening. Jose, why don't you weigh in, but keep it much shorter than everyone else. First of all, everything you said is true. We couldn't have planned the as Rusty is his own character

very dynamic, very funny. His father is off the charts incredible as well. He's almost as tall as you, very outspoken, has kind of a military bearing and no filter. And at one point he...

And brought his own sound effects. Yeah. And then at one point, the dad leaves the room to go get something and comes back carrying a giant. in shotgun. Yes.

And I think it's loaded and I think it's pointing at me to one time. That was one of those, like, we don't have a safe word and we probably should when you're in these situations. Yeah, yeah.

And so that was intense, of course, his mom was fantastic and sweet. And also her eyes were just, you could see she's lived a thousand lives with these two characters. Exactly. And it was...

We heard from Rusty after they watched the show and apparently his mom was grateful that we left some certain things out from the conversation. His dad was mad that we hadn't gone further. Oh, was that true? With the edit. Yeah, he wanted us to keep the whole thing in. Oh, he wanted it to be a nine-hour special about him.

Exactly. Yeah, one of my favorite things, you know, India is this massive place, as you can, as you know, it's one of the most, you know, populous nations on the globe. And one of my favorite things is we shot the thing with Rusty and his, his, mom and his dad, and his dad was this crazy character. And I think the next day we're out shooting in this really crowded area. And all the sudden, I hear, hello, Conan. And it's him walking by.

It's Rusty's dad. How can you run into a person twice in, I know literally like two people or three people now in India. And I'm out in a crowded area far from Rusty's home. And this guy goes rushing through and he's like, hello, Conan, I'm on business. I think he had his gun with him. It's a city of 20 million people. Yeah.

And of course, let's talk about the other fans. There was Nikiel, who wanted to be a talk show host and you gave him lessons on how to be a talk show. But this was a fun moment because we go to see Nikiel. Nikil was someone who was interested in maybe having a talk show in India. And I said, well, I'll give you some pointers. And we thought that'll be a good segment. We go to Nikiel's house. and he had talked to us about his colorful roommates.

Yeah, one of them was a huge fan of yours. Yeah, he was sort of arranging for you to come, surprise us. But we knock on the, and he wanted me to say hi to his roommate, who's a huge fan, knock on the door and Nikiel's there, but his roommate is not, who we were going to surprise. And so this all plays out in real time where I said, well, where is he? Oh, he's at the gym. Where's the gym? Oh, it's like a five-minute drive from here.

Let's go, and we all run into a van. And that became my favorite thing about these shows. I love the set pieces, obviously, where we've prepared. But when we are not prepared and you just have to go with something, sometimes you slip into these magic currents. Yes, magic current. And you feel like, I don't know what's happening here. We are not in control, but this is really fun.

And I think I don't, I don't know how it happens, but somehow that stardust does come through when you look at it later on in the edit. You're like, you can tell. God works for HBO. Yes. Yeah. He did work for Showtime for a little bit, but he was underpaid. And he didn't think they had the same reach. Then so that, and then I have to say, you guys.

did a brilliant job. We obviously wanted to do our homage to to Bollywood. And Mike, maybe you can talk a little bit about how that came about. We did it. We did our, a Bollywood number with the assistance of all these

incredible actors, dancers, you know, producers, you know, camera people, sound people. I mean, on this. Directors, assistant directors. They, we gave them the script and the items, elements we wanted in it, like the dancing.

And they hired a team that was expert in Bollywood productions and fast. I think inherent in Bollywood is also being able to quickly produce something. And they did a masterful job. It was incredible. I was incredible. I was floored. I was for it. First of all, I mean, the dancers, men and women are,

just gorgeous, beautiful, and so talented and funny. And, you know, the minute they saw me, they're like, okay, we get it. We'll do our best. Yeah, we'll do our best to help this idiot. And then we also got the assistance of these two actors who are incredible. Ali and Risha, they're married. They're married. Ellie Fazzal and Richa Chandra.

Yeah. And they are big Bollywood stars. They are big Bollywood stars. And I just love. And fans of yours, apparently. I think they said anything. They're like, sure, sure, we're fans. They were just lovely.

They were really funny and they played along. And again, one of my, I like to go inflict myself on another country. And then what we've found time and time again is that these people from a completely different culture, are so smart, and they're so funny, they're so good at playing along and also giving me a dig when I need one. And trust me, I'm a big pinata that needs to be fwacked regularly. And we're like, please wait until we start rolling. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That show also features one of my features one of my favorite set pieces that we went in with, which went in with, which you guys worked really hard on.

And I don't know when I've been happier to show up at a shoot. I know what you're talking about. You're talking about the monkey episode, which, by the way, was your idea. You talked about. That's why I loved it so much. I guess there's a problem with monkeys stealing cell phones. Yes, it's a big problem. Yeah, from tourists.

Yeah. And you said, well, why do we have a little mini AT&T store? and we lure the monkeys in and we do a sting operation. And so I was so. It's an outrageous premise. It was such an outrageous. My favorite thing is a completely outrageous premise that you commit to 100%. So sure enough, and a huge thanks again to Chalemi and everyone involved to, sure enough, they built a two.

Working. A to scale. Well, I was going to start with. They built an AT&T store. It's monkey size. Right. And then... Yes.

Monkey scaled. Monkey scaled. And then they built, you know, to lure the monkeys a robot monkey. And I guess if you haven't seen the India episode, if this doesn't intrigue you enough to get HBO or steal HBO or go hang out or break into a home that has HBO and watch it. Borrow a monkey's phone and watch it on your own. But I remember we were in the... the van and I do get very tired sometimes on these, you know, you're jet lagged and there's a long, a lot of traffic and which were we in, where were we?

What city were we in for this one? I was out of Bangalore. Bangalore. That's right. North of Bangalore. Long drive, we get there and usually I have to, we're getting closer and closer and I'm thinking, okay, which one is this now? And someone said, this is the monkey sting operation.

And I flew out of that van. And I was electrified. And I saw a monkey robot and a monkey-scaled AT&T store and real monkeys up in the trees. And I just felt like all of my career has been leading to this moment. Everything else is in service of this moment. So that was... In some ways, that was our sting operation, which we set up to make you happy. A monkey remote.

Yeah. At the end, the monkey robot said, God, that guy's desperate. Well, that's India, in a nutshell. It doesn't, our discussion doesn't even scratch the surface. It is one of my all-time favorite travel shows. And that's really saying something, because these shows mean so much to me.

And you guys did such an amazing job. And top to bottom, the people, the cuisine, just the whole vibe. India is one of the most different places that you can go on the planet Earth. And I just, the whole time was alive with, you know, everything was heightened because of the colors, the fabrics that, yeah.

It's a feast for the senses. Yeah, it's incredible. And it's everything. It's all the things, all at once. It was amazing. and I'm going to move us on now to the next travel show that drops in the order,

which is out now, which is, I mean, they're all out now, but the second one was the Netherlands. And this, the highlight for me, you can probably guess, was, well, we'll talk about that in a little bit. Let's talk about the fans first.

Yeah, the fans. You're a great fans in the Netherlands. Mike, as a model, who you wanted to, you wanted to get modeling lessons from an actual professional model. Micah is this absolutely beautiful woman's model, but she's also, she is brutally funny.

She is a sharp shooter. She's so smart and funny. And the minute, I mean, you could, and we could sense that in the discussion with Micah when we talk on the podcast. But then when I showed up and she, I'm waiting for her in front of her studio, and then she pulls up on a bicycle

and she walks up to me and I knew immediately this woman is going to tear me to shreds. And I'm going to love it. And I'm going to love every second of it. She was so funny. She was hilarious. She's lovely.

So she was giving me modeling lessons. I've since, when I look at our segment now, she asked me, well, what are the things you're not happy about with yourself? And I go on this long list of the parts of my face that I had no problem. I had no problem rattling off my long list of things that I don't like about my face. And at no point does she jump in and go, oh, come on, Conan.

At no point does she say, no, Conan, what are you talking about? She's nodding as I'm shredding my own face in front of her. Like, yeah, yeah, no, I know you mean. I know you mean. So. Keep going. Keep going. Yeah, keep going.

Oh, you're forgetting somewhere. Right, right, right. So, but she gave me lessons. She's just, I love that segment. She's great. Such a funny segment. Yes, yes. You learned how to, how to walk on a runway.

There was a, there was a Conan sort of look-alike model who was much more handsome than you. Right. They understand next to. Why would you say that? Well, younger. Now, let's not say better looking. Yeah. Yeah.

Me back in the day. No, you would have been. All my flaws were still there, but they weren't as egregious. No, they were, that was a really fun segment. We showed up in Amsterdam on Kings Day. And that was just kind of a happy accident. The way the schedules worked, you have to slot these things in, and you have to make sure you accommodate, oh, we're doing the Oscars, so we got to make sure we accommodate that. This is when I could go, and it had us showing up on this day, and we realized it's Kings Day when everyone puts out every piece of junk they own on the street.

That's right. And people party and they wear orange. It's the one day they can sell things without having to pay a tax or anything. So everybody does a flea market. It's a giant flea market. So I'm walking around the flea market. That's a happening because you can't script that. You guys had a really funny idea, which is there's a big problem with confiscated bicycles.

People park their bicycles illegally around Amsterdam. So you guys said, hey, it would be really funny if we went to the graveyard where all the confiscated bikes are. The Boneyard. The Boneyard. The Boneyard. So, and Sweenes, that's what I call Mike, and you should have done that by now. Sweenes, what am I, let's make sure I'm not forgetting anything else about Netherlands. Oh, there's a great fan.

Go, I think was. That was my highlight. Okay, well, we'll save that. Oh, the other fan, Lucas. Do you want to talk about the other fan Lucas? Oh. Yes, Lucas, basketball player who wanted you to teach him how to trash talk. Yeah.

So you came armed with a series of. insults that you taught him. They were, some of them were horrible, some of them were funny, and the one he loved the most was Van Go Fuck Yourself. Van Go Fuck Yourself, yes. They're the Netherlands greatest contribution. They're all Netherlands sort of based insults. But what I also loved about that segment is I like, obviously, to go in, go in with

massive amounts. My favorite thing is massive amounts of attitude. with no talent to back it up. So should I be playing basketball at all? Probably not. Should I be playing basketball with a professional? Absolutely not. But then he brought one of his friends out

who is much bigger than me. It makes you look slight. How tall is he do you think? He was around 6-8 or 6-9. He's about 5 inches on me. That's one of my favorite things, because while we're shooting the first part, I'm like, how are we going to end this segment?

How are we going to end this segment? And then we look over at his teammates. And there's Dave. Dave, who's six foot nine. Yep. And we're just like, I think. Built like a truck. Yeah.

I think Dave will be the ending. Yeah. And sure enough, I then go up and I start insulting Dave. Yes. And acting like it will be no problem for me to trash you. He, of course, immediately starts to kick my ass. And so I start karate chopping. Oh, but of course, my personal highlight was dressing like Van Gogh.

Oh, that was such a good costume. And shout out to Scott Chronic for that costume. Yes, Scott Chronic, great costume. And also, I love that, you know, Van Gogh was, I think, a redhead. So there's some similar colorings there. And also, I'm a very tortured artist. Yes. Who's my nation's greatest contribution.

And so that was really fun. I love the excitement of it because we were shooting something down by the train station. And we all just got back later than we wanted to back to the hotel. And you were like, let's do the Van Gogh, because we're right across from the Van Gogh museum. But we had to the rush to get you dressed and get that beard on. We had to do it all in like 10 minutes because the museum was going to close. Yes. We were racing the clock. So I'm quickly throw the stuff on and then I'm running to get to the museum.

And the whole idea is I want to get kicked out of the museum. These are things you want to happen, but you have no control over it. So what if I had showed up and the guards were all laughing and said, oh, come on in. Come on in. Well, that's no fun. Boy, did they do us a favor. They were not amused. They were not amused.

They were not amused. They asked you to clean. the exit area. Yeah. And the minute you, I meet opposition like that, I'm so happy. But anyway,

that was a thrill. Netherlands, really fun. With a lot of these shows, we kind of think of the facial hair first and then plan the segments around that.

Like what kind of beard or mustache could you put on? Yes. Last year, when we were in Vienna for the travel show, I was Freud. And the minute,

I'm put in costume and any kind of makeup or fake facial hair, and I get to have a stupid accent. I'm just a pig and shit. I'm so happy. And then I start to, I just free associate. I go into some other space. I go into a trance. Yeah.

I go into a trance. It's a tantric character work. Yeah. And so we got to do that with Van Gogh. I got to become Van Gogh. And I have a gripe, which is that I died in obscurity. and then all my works, which I got nothing for in my lifetime,

are now being sold for hundreds of millions of dollars of the most prized artworks in the world. And I'm bitter about it, so I want to go and get a piece of the merch. Yes. And the tourists I encounter were really fun. The whole thing was just spectacular. And here's what I think we're going to do.

I think it's going to be a two-parter because we've had so much fun talking about these first two episodes. These are all available now. on HBO and it's called Conan O'Brien Musco and I really do

these are a labor of love there's that's pretty much all I can say I absolutely love doing it and I love doing it

with this team you guys are spectacular and no it is it's just it's something that means so much to me

and I'm so proud of these ones they're out this is just part one we'll be back next week to talk about the other two episodes,

which are out now. All of them, they've been coming out once a week. They're all out now, and you can see them. This is the third season. I really love the other two seasons, too, if you want to check those out.

But let's sign off for now, unless you have anything to add on Netherlands. The Netherlands, oh, just that you were hauled into the international criminal court. Yes, which is in the Hague. The Hague is in the Netherlands, and that's where people are tried for international crimes.

And I was arrested and taken to the Hague for my various comedy crimes. Against humanity. Against humanity. And you've never seen judges at the Hague more unified. I'm apparently the one thing everyone can agree on. That was a really funny segment. They reinstated the death penalty. Okay.

Which they wanted to, they wanted sentence carried out immediately using just heavy staplers. So India, Netherlands, and next week we will talk about the other two shows, Morocco, Philippines. This is all behind the scenes gold. And we'll see you then. Conan O'Brien needs a fan with Conan O'Brien, Sonam of Sessian and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and Nick Lea. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino.

Take it away, Jimmy. Supervising producer Aaron Blair, Associate talent producer Jennifer Samples, Associate producers Sean Doherty and Lisa Burm. Engineering by Eduardo Perez. Get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at SiriusXM.com slash Conan. Please rate, review, and subscribe to Conan O'Brien needs a fan

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