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

Episode Date: October 8, 2026

Conan returns with producers Mike Sweeney, Jessie Gaskell, and Jose Arroyo for a deep dive into his travels through Morocco and the Philippines on the newest season of Conan O’Brien Must Go. 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. Hey, Conan O'Brien here, and we are back with part two. Very special two-part series we're doing. Behind the scenes look at Conan O'Brien must go, season three. And in season three, I go to India, Netherlands, Morocco, and the Philippines.

And last week, we discussed India and the Netherlands. two shows that really made us happy. And today we're going to talk about Morocco and the Philippines. These are all out now. Konor Bray must go, HBO. We're very happy with how it all came out. And I'm sitting here with three of the writer producers that have done every travel show with me.

And that is Mike Sweeney. Hello, Mike. Hello. Yep, can't be real. And Jesse Gassie, Haskell? Hi. Yes, very good.

And you know him as Dr. Arroyo, but we call him Jose Arroyo. Jose. Hi, Conan. And pretty good. The only one here with a soul is Jesse. But I can't stress enough how hard these talented people work to make these shows really fun. It's a lot. It's very labor intensive.

And I know. that anyone watching these shows just thinks, oh, that's Conan just improvising and having fun and being funny off the cuff. And 98% of the time, that's true. But you do... I was not saying that's you commenting that. Yeah, but you work very hard on that other 2%.

No, the... Since the beginning, what's the first show we all did together? Cuba. Cuba. It was Cuba, that's right. Cuba. And how many countries have we done now,

if you count, Conan without borders? plus, then we changed to Kona Bray-Muscoe for HBO, so that's 25. Yeah. Gone to 25 countries. There are 25 nations where I'm no longer welcome. 206 if you count the U.S.

Yeah, you know, when you pass a bad check, they put your picture up on the register. Yeah. I'm at the cash register of every country that we visited. And, you know, how it works is and what's really happened with Konor-Brymust-Go is it begins with a fan from another country

calling into the podcast. Conan O'Brien needs a friend. I chat with them, and if you sense a certain kind of electricity, that resonates. It doesn't happen with everybody, but sometimes we notice, oh, I've just talked to two really funny fans from Japan, and the next thing you know,

we're going to head to Japan or I've just talked to two really funny fans in India. Let's go. So once we know we're going to go, Mike Sweeney, Jesse, Gaskill, and Jose Arroyo drill down. They think a lot about the country. They try and figure out what are the fun places we could see Conan going. What are kind of the fun activities that are, you know, that this country is known for that Conan could participate in. And then you guys meet with me. I throw in some ideas. We all hash it out.

And then we take off. There's a whole other apparatus. There's Jeff Ross, our executive producer. There's Jason Chalemi, who's been with me since early days of late night. He started as an intern. Invaluble field producer gets everything done. I mean, he knows where the bodies are buried. He knows where the bodies are buried.

And he's the guy if you say, if we are on the street of Bangalore, and one of us says it would be really funny if, in this moment, if Conan was able to hold up a cuckoo clock made of caramel. Yes. We say to Chilemi, Jason Chalemi, cuckoo clock made of caramel. And he goes, hold on a second. He's like, I packed it. No, he did.

Or he goes rushing off down an alley. and comes back 20 minutes later with one. And maybe he killed somebody. I don't know. And he picks all our local producers, all our fixers. Oh, and that's it. We should also. I neglected to say that last time.

But in all of these countries, Jason finds, and he has a perfect batting average, unerring batting average. Yes. Finding these people who are so good at, what they do, they live in country, they're from that country, and they just know how things work. Right. But also have good chemistry with us. Yeah.

And they become, every time we become friendly with them, it's very emotional when we leave these countries because we have been living with these people for a week. It always starts with them being very formal and polite when they meet me. I'm coming down the escalator in one of 25 countries. and I say hello to them and they say, oh, hello, hello, Mr. O'Brien. I go, no, no, no, it's Conan. And within 24 hours, they're making fun of me.

Yeah. And then we're all joking around. We have inside jokes. And at the end, we're all crying and hugging each other. Drunk kickboxing. So let's talk about... Sometimes they're in the show, like in the Philippines. Yes, yes.

Well, let's get in it. Let's start with Morocco, because that is the third show. And the reason we're having these special podcast episodes is because all four are out now. And so season three complete is available on HBO, Conan Obraymosco. And Morocco, let's talk about it. It's funny.

You mentioned Jason Chalemi, right before we started this podcast, he came in and he said, Morocco is wildly popular on HBO. It's like the one that's really, you know, kicking it off. And... Why is that, do you think? It's a completely different look.

for one. Two, you have Sona with you on this episode. The road trip element, I think, is really fun. And the chemistry between the two of you is so strong. It just builds laughter. You should have her on your podcast. I mean, yeah, but she's such a

wallflower. No, no, you gotta draw her out. She doesn't speak up. She's so quiet. Yes, she's so. But, go ahead, Mike, yeah. I was going to say my favorite thing about this episode, when

we were planning it. We had to plan it quickly after the Oscars. And we're like, oh, it would be great to have Sona to, you know, for a different look. Sona come to Morocco. That would be great. And we're like, we're like, why? We need an organic reason. There needs to be an organic reason for Sona to come. Jesse remembered her talking about on the podcast. Yes, about argon oil for her hair. Yes. No, on the podcast. Maybe a lady knows. On the podcast, Sona has... Yeah.

Sona had talked about needing argon oil for her hair, which... And, you know, you have to get it from Morocco. And she had gone on about it. And then we thought, oh, wait a minute. This is already... This is already in the ether. She has talked about this. So that became a quest.

Sona's here to get her argon oil. Yeah. And then, obviously, I adore Sona. and she is such a good natural improviser. I mean, I hired her to be my assistant. And it just turned out that she was one of the funniest natural improvisers and also has a completely different energy background point of view from me. and she's

she is just the best. So having sewn along was magic. And then these sweeping desert shots were in like a part of the Sahara Desert. And it looks like a David Lane movie. It looks like Lawrence of Arabia. It doesn't see. Yeah.

I mean, so often we're used to seeing shots, especially in L.A., where it's like, oh, I know where they went. They went to Barstow for that. Or Lancaster. Yeah. Yeah. And this is, like,

like you can't create that anywhere. They went to Pasadena for that. I can see Gourley's house. The little Sahara neighborhood of L.A. Little Sahara. Oh, they have such good restaurants there. But yeah, so for all the reasons, Morocco is so iconic. And the fans that we talked to in Morocco were great.

And we knew, okay, they'll be good. to talk to. We'll have a good connection with them. Yasir was the guy in Casablanca, who admitted to you that he had never seen the movie, Casablanca. Which enraged me. Yeah. We're going to Morocco. Yeah, we've got to get this guy to watch it.

And, yeah, that was brilliant. And also, this is not in the show. But speaking of Casablanca and the movie, there was some snafoo at the airport. and we had to fly out of Casablanca, but there was a major bureaucratic holdup.

And we needed to get on this plane to fly to a different part of Morocco. And we couldn't get on the plane. And we were trapped in this airport for a bunch of hours. You guys were playing like a picturesnary. Yes. And everyone's, you know, we're walking around. We're stuck in this airport.

And then I realized the plot of Casablan. is people trying to fly out of Casablanca, but they can't. So, you know, really quick, I need my papers. You know, no one can get out of Casablanca. They're trapped. And so I kept going up to the customs guys and trying to say, isn't this kind of funny? Because the plot of Casablanca is that they can't get out of Casablanca on a plane.

And that's the whole thing. And now I'm stuck in Casablanca. These guys hadn't seen Casablanca. No. Didn't think I was funny. And they may be right about that. And so the whole thing was an absurdity. But that was a little behind the scenes story.

We were in vans driving. We came ready to shoot with gopros in the van. So you really see Sona and I just tooling around the desert. In a vintage Land Rover, I think. Yeah. Or the defender? Yeah, one of those sort of classic-looking desert-de-vehirt vehicle. Yeah, which by the way, and this is not

that, it just was an older truck. It was maybe a 25, 30 year old, 40 year old, 70, 100 year old truck. And it drove for shit. Well, yes, it just, it was, it was stats in the show. And I, and I, way too small for you. I mean, it. Oh, I didn't fit.

My legs were all tied up in pretzels, but also the amount of play in the steering wheel was suicidal. Yeah. It was suicidal. But that's all in the episode. And I think the owner was getting mad. You were bad-mouting his beautiful vehicle.

Yeah, well. He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He doesn't know how to drive it. Yeah, yeah. He was like, that's not how you drive it. Yeah. It's like, no, no, no, sir, I assure you, this is a piece of shit. Thank God.

You getting a sand bath with Sona being, like allowing yourself, this is where you're like the Chuck Yeager of comedy. You just put yourself in any. situation where you think there might be a laugh below, you know? It's a need. It's a neediness. It's such a neediness. But you've done it in almost every country we've gone to. You're like, let me.

We're fracking for laughs. And you'll do anything. And at one point, you're just being buried in the Sahara. And it's really hot. The sand is very, very, you know, when you step on a, you're on a super hot beach, how it burns your feet and you imagine shovels for. of that temperature sand being thrown on your bare chest. To your neck.

Yeah. But again, I'm thinking, well, this could look funny. Yes. So, and I can go get an outer layer of skin someplace else. Anywhere else. No, if someone can demonstrate to me that something's funny, I will do it and then we'll sort it out with surgeries later. That's my attitude.

So, Sweeney, what am I forgetting about Morocco? Because there's so much, it's hard to keep track of it all. There was great drama. There are these incredible shots of you and Sona on camels. Yes. Against the really large dunes. And we got delayed getting, we wanted to shoot right before sunset, and we got delayed getting there. And time is running out, and we pull up.

There are that spot there are other people on one side, like, riding camels. So we're like, okay, we're going to the left. Yeah, I was going to say, Emil Lungoria was there. Stanley Tucci was there. It's just a backed up travel shows. That's golden hour.

So we had to literally run up to the dune and get the camels up there and you guys got on the camels just in time. Yep. And we shot it just before the sunsets. And you got that spectacular, light. Yes.

Yes. And that's in the show. These were the shadows of the camels. You see them against the sand. It's very dramatic. Very cool. But that was like the country part. And then you went into the souk, into Marrakesh.

And you and Sona were finding comedy in the stalls of the markets. Oh, there was, you'll always find people. You'll always find people. There was a guy there who was very politically, Correct. Some of his comments. And to the point where I was almost choking. I was like, how is this guy not in jail?

But I leave that to the authorities. And, yeah, again, go ahead. Oh, you did a portrait with famous Moroccan artist to Sajan hajaj, which was amazing. That was fun. He has shot Billy Elish. I mean, he's had taken so many iconic photographs of huge stars and then he decided to

try Conan O'Brien. That was really fun. Yes. It was really cool to watch. Yeah. It was just sort of in an alley behind his studio, but he makes it look unique with all these Moroccan textiles that he incorporates into his work. And he got you in the mood by having a live music player there playing the Goombory or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it kind of put you in a trance. Of course.

It was really something. Again, we had this magical experience, great fixers, great locals helping us out. Great food. Food there is spectacular. Yeah. Yeah. We had pizza. We had general chow's chicken.

I love to go to these countries and we just only eat pizza. The food in Morocco. They make a pizza. It's a margarita. It's on a pita. Yeah. Marrakesh. Marrakesh, Pete.

Let's transition now to the Philippines. Because the Philippines is the final episode. And again, it is out now. And all four are out. But Philippines, we've been wanting to go to the Philippines a while because somehow, and Mike, you might remember how this. happened, we became aware that for reasons that we don't completely understand, we have a big fan base in the Philippines. A giant, giant fan base. One thing is your old late night show was broadcast there. So you had a lot of older fans, and then you had a lot of younger fans from

YouTube clips. Yeah. And so we've got, just for Conan O'Brien needs a fan, we get so a giant amount of fans from the Philippines writing in. And then when we started interviewing them, each one of them, they were so dynamic. Smart, funny, sweet. We were just like, we have to go to the Philippines. It was just kind of, we have to go. Filipinos are very funny, great sense of humor and irreverent,

and they like, they seem to love silliness and irreverence. And they, one of the things that was really fun about going, so we're in Manila, we're staying in Manila at this hotel, and every day I'd come downstairs and the lobby would be filled with people who wanted to say hello and maybe have me sign something and some of them had made gifts. And it was a love in. It was.

It was surreal. Every single day. Every single day, I would go down the lobby, and sometimes I'd say I really need to get my coffee first. Or I'd do it for a while. And then I'd say, I just got to go get some coffee. And I'd go into the restaurant to get just some coffee. And they would come with me and like sit down at the banquet. And I'd be like, okay.

But it was a great, it was just a great vibe. Yes. And they knew, I mean, this was surreal for me because it's not like I'm a, a forward-facing part of the show. But they knew all of our names. And they, you know, wanted autographs from all of us. Oh, they knew. They were like, oh, my God, it's Jeff Ross.

Yeah, yeah. You know, and then, do you want some soup, Jeff? You know, like, little side, little bits that I was doing. They would be like, oh, my God, it's, it's, it's Blay. Blay, right? They all knew you from Clueless Gamer. It was incredible, yes. So the outpouring of love was incredible in the Philippines, really right.

Yeah, yeah. And can't say enough about how. gratifying that was and how spectacular they were. And I have to say, one of the fans who had called in was this gentleman who was very interested in becoming, he's a really good martial artist. Mustafa Mustafa Mustafa. Mustafa.

The name's so good. It's so nice, they named him twice. Mustafa Mustafa Mustafa. And he was really funny. I mean, that's one of those conversations I had on the podcast where 30 seconds into the conversation, I said, I'm going to go to the Philippines and hang out with Mustafa Mustafa. So he was great. And then he wanted to be an action star. And I was like, I will make you an action star.

So we actually, and again, great fixers, great helpers, great research. And Guilie were the fixers. And they were characters themselves. These two women that were so funny, we ended up putting them in the show. Yes, yes. And then they make it into the promo for the show. And well, they were clearly a comedy. They've been a comedy team.

I don't care what anyone says. They don't know it, but they're a comedy team. So they helped us arrange to get myself and Mustafa Mustafa on this local procedural action show. Police show. And so. Sang gang dick it. Yeah. Okay, let's just watch it.

Okay, sorry. That's the name of the show. Oh, okay. I'm sorry. I thought you finally cracked. Yeah. So they, and that was fun because, again, anytime I get to wear a mustache or have, or wear a shirt that's open to my navel and be a dick,

which I get to do in my private life all the time. But whenever I get to do that in front of a camera, I'm just so happy. And then Mustafa and Mustafa was great. We get a, and so we got to be in this show together. And again, our thanks to the producers and writers of that show. Yes. Because I love hanging out with TV writers because that's how I got started. And so the next thing I know, I'm talking to the woman that wrote the episode and the guy that wrote the episode.

And they were just like, they were fantastic. They were just like us. Yeah. No, you know what's so funny? We started, I said, like, we started. A lot of complaints. Yeah, we started just bitching about. some of the things about being a comedy. God damn actors.

You didn't read the line right. Yeah. Yeah. And I was up all night and they just ad-libbed through that line that I worked all really hard on. So it was nice to know that wherever you go, there you are. Yeah. That's true. But we had...

The Philippines has some of my favorite... You had three fans. You had Mustafa. You had Trisha. Yep. And then you had Charles. And Trisha with her husband, ran. a hotel

in the Oscar outside of Manila. You offered to help them drum up business for the hotel. And I basically got to reprise

the Jerry Lewis role in the bellboy. Again, anytime I'm given the slightest bit of authority and I get to wear

a suit, a costume and a hat, and I'm given a tiny bit of authority, I become a worst guy ever. It was so much, it was such a

delight and I was so impressed by the culture, the people and we found people along the way. We found a Balot salesman who agreed to play along with us. You had a great... Describe what Balot is.

You eat it. I actually, yeah, Aaron Bairn and I wound up eating Balut, which is a duck egg that has been fertilized and is actually the duck has formed a little bit, and then they steam it, and then you eat it,

and you eat the whole thing. It's a little crunchy, because there's a little bit of bones and cartilage. And the beak. And beak and so on. But it's, you know, it's actually a widely popular throughout Southeast Asia. There's Ballouet versions in Vietnam and other countries. Yeah.

No, it's that people love to go crazy for Balot. It's a popular street food, and you found a street food vendor, and you had a great conversation with it. And then things there go kind of off the rails where I end up having an argument with a duck. A metaphysical discussion with a duck. A dog. I'm sorry.

By giving away. A surprise appearance by Dr. Arroyo. Well, sure, sure. Stay tuned for, yeah. So, so many different adventures. This one went off the rails in a lot of places. In a beautiful way. There's also the MacArthur suite.

General MacArthur had a suite. when General MacArthur was in charge of the Philippines. Actually, he lived there before the war. He lived there. I believe he returned after the war. Yeah. And he said he would return and he did. He did return.

But yes, there was, I got to be in that suite. And then I don't know what happened. You dressed up as McCarthy. I dressed up as MacArthur. Got the pipe and the cat. And then things got x-rated at one point when I'm lying on. Yeah, we realized when you lie. down, like things go to another level.

Yes. There's something about your comedy. I am so repressed that when I lie down, all this sexuality comes out of my pores that, but it's not really sexuality. I don't know what it is. It's some. No one's aroused. Why do we shoot you in that bright position?

You should only be lying down. No, the Philippines has a lot of great looks. It's got a lot of, again, we're finding that when we go to these different countries, the country takes over. You know, it's the people and the culture and the humidity in the air and the, and the smell of the food takes over and that becomes the improv partner. And then we can plan so much. And you guys, you know, work really hard at planning as much as possible.

And then it's not unlike, you know, a good quarterback. You go in with the plan, and then 80% of that time that plan goes to shit, and you need to quickly pivot. And so the country takes over at some point. And sometimes all the plan stuff works really well. Sometimes we show up and we realize immediately, but we plan to do this, but that's not happening. But hey, what's that over there?

Who's that guy? So anything can change at any moment. In every episode, there were things. That's what makes it so much fun, yeah. That we had to drop for, for one. one reason or another and we found something or you discovered something. It's always the most exciting part of any show is when things go, when we have to do that pivot. Yes.

We have to do the pivot. It's so funny because I found out, yes, there are people talk about, oh, like my favorite late night with Conan O'Brien clip, you know, or Conan Clip from TBS, whatever. Yes, there's a lot of good stuff that writers worked really hard on that they planned and that was mapped out. and it's great. And then I also am aware that so many great moments are accidents. Something kind of went wrong. But we were able to go with that because it's really fun. And people have a sixth sense audiences, fans, anyone has a sixth sense of when something is organic.

I think you can tell just from looking at Internet content. Yes. When people are faking it, it's like, drinking wine that's like it's just flat. It's like, oh, this is just a sponsored. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Exactly. But when you see something real, humans know it.

Yeah. The way like a dog can sense danger or like an earthquake's coming, humans know when... AI could never do what we do. Actually, this is all been AI. Well, those are the shows. That wraps up our two-part discussion of these travel shows. It's called Conan O'Brien must go. And I'm very grateful to my...

Season three, Season three. Season three. And this season is India, Netherlands, Morocco, Philippines. There are two other seasons. I'm very proud of these shows and grateful to you guys for working so hard and being so talented. And the whole team. I mean, everybody, it is a labor of love and so many people are involved.

but my favorite thing about these shows is that, and I know it sounds corny, but I do believe that we make a lot of friends when we go to these places. And we go in with a lot of goodwill and then we're just inevitably, always met by these wonderful people with great energy and enthusiasm.

And so it's just a joy all around. It's the best thing. I can't imagine a better job. I think penicillin's the best thing. Any kind of really effective antibiotic. But, you know, I guess that's being challenged these days. What do I know? Anyway, check those shows out.

Mike Sweeney, Jose Arroyo, Jesse Gaskell. Of course, shout out to Blay to who comes on every show. Jeff Ross, Jason Chalemi. Scott Chronic coming up with crazy outfits. And I'm sure we're forgetting people, but I want to forget some people. Our crew. Oh, my God.

That's right. What the hell? Emily, Emily and Brenda. We have this crew of Amazon's. Let's discuss them briefly because we have to. We do. Yeah, we have an all-woman crew that I love. I mean, you don't talk about it that much,

but I feel like we should because it's unique. And they're... all so good at their jobs. They chase after you and Brenda gets backwards on a horse and they, they, they're all camera woman who, no matter what we're doing, she's very athletic. She will grab this camera that weighs more than I do and she will jump on a horse and ride it backwards so that she's in front of me. Yeah.

She does stuff like that. She did it underwater. Oh, she went underwings in the Philippines. She's scuba certified and will film you underwater. Yeah. Brenda Zuniga. The last scene of the Philippine show, all the entire crew just leapt into the water to shoot it. Yeah. And then Emily Topper. It was amazing. Emily Topper is, you know, she was the first person we found in this crew and she's spectacular.

She's our director of photography. She's the director of photography and she is just, I'm just, I'm. I've never seen her once get rattled. Unflammable. And guess what? All of us get rattled. All of us. I've had to slap Jose countless time. Jose has slapped Mike.

Mike has slapped Jesse. We're all slapping each other like the three stooges and losing our heads. She never gets diarrhea. She does it. It's amazing. You know what? That was the first thing on her resume. Yeah.

Can't get diarrhea. No, she's absolutely incredible. and then Emily Strong is the last. Oh my God. Emily Strong does sound. I'm yelling at her all the time because I never want to be miced. And I have to be miced. And that is her job to mic me. And every time she's putting a mic on me, I'm saying, do I have to wear a mic?

Because I thrash around so much. And she's like, yeah, you have to wear a mic, idiot. But whether you're in the winds of the desert or in the sand bath, buried and she's off to the side and like in long sleeves and pants and she's holding the boom and she's laden down with equipment yeah no there we are i am so glad that we stopped at the very end of this episode to credit the people who it's a cliche to say we couldn't do it without if we didn't have these three women shooting the show and recording the sound there'd be no show and they are just great souls.

They are great souls. And good things. Well, while we're still here, I got to mention our editor, Matt Shaw. No! No editing. I'm sorry. Should be done. And our graphic artist Chris Weller.

Yes. Shaw and Weller are amazing. I just, you know. Brad Rowland the other editor. No! Come on, let's go. What is it? Mission creep. These people are integral parts of your show.

They are parts of your spine. William Morris and Devere. They've done a great job. Gowne was the one that got me that peanut butter commercial. No. Staff at HBO. No, no, no. I mean, first of all, anyone who knows anything about television production knows that especially, especially in comedy, editing.

Editing, editing, editing. And I know you guys work very hard on the edits, but this group, Shaw and co, they do such an amazing job. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Instincts are perfect and so fast. Fast. Yes. Fast.

I just want to mention that my brother Neil has done nothing to help me. And actually, I don't even think he watches them. No, you know what? He doesn't have HBO. He doesn't have HBO.

Do you know that? My brother Neil, who's watched every one of my, he doesn't have HBO and I keep saying to him like, hey, Neil, I'll get you HBO and he's like, I'm good. I'm good.

Don't you want to see my shows? He said, I'll catch him later. Catch them later. How? That's my brother. Anyway, we are not thanking him. Thanks to everyone. If you're listening, check out a show. I think you will or check out all four.

And then watch them again. They are really fun and I hope you agree. All right. Peace out. DuPock. Bye. Bye. 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 Leow. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Supervising producer Aaron Blair. Associate talent producer Jennifer Samples.

Associate producers Sean Doherty and Lisa Byrne. Engineering by Eduardo Perez. Get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at seriousxm.com slash Conan. Please rate, review, and subscribe to DeConan O'Brien needs a fan wherever fine podcasts are down.