Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - Get Over Myself!

Episode Date: February 27, 2025

Conan chats with glassblower Dan from Vacaville, CA about his most elaborate glass creations and how Conan pulls his own weight around the household. 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.

Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Want to talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com slash call Conan. Okay, let's get started. Hey, Dan, welcome to Conan O'Brien needs a fan. What? I couldn't remember if it was friend or foe. Hey, Dan, how are you?

I'm doing great. Thank you guys for having me on. Where are you coming to us from, Dan, how are you? I'm doing great. Thank you guys for having me on. Where are you coming to us from, Dan? Where are you? I'm in Vacaville, California. So near Sacramento, Napa Valley area. Oh, okay, very nice. And I'm looking at your background.

It looks like you're working on a nuclear submarine. I mean, there's all kinds of machinery behind you. It's very cool looking. What are you building? I mean, it looks like you're up to something. I'm a glassblower, a glass artist. So I work with, these are glass lays. So I work with glass tubing and glass rods and I create stuff out of glass.

Okay, what kind of stuff do you create out of glass primarily? Are we talking like a vase? Are we talking like a test tube? Are we talking glasses? What do you out of glass. Okay, what kind of stuff do you create out of glass primarily? Are we talking like a vase? Are we talking like a test tube? Are we talking glasses? What are you making? My main product that I make is water pipes. So I make bongs, basically.

I see them back there. Look at this. Oh, okay, someone is salivating. Yes. You make bongs. So, and was that, did you start making bongs because of your personal affinity for bongs or you just like making them or you like the shape?

What drew you to making bongs? I started in high school. So I feel like everyone in high school, kind of wanted or needed a bong. And I liked making things. So that drew me to it. I originally started, I wanted to needed a bong. And I liked making things, so that drew me to it. I originally started, I wanted to do welding, but it was a little complicated, I feel like.

So I went into glassblowing, which was even more complicated. Yeah, I was gonna say, glassblowing feels incredibly difficult. I mean, just the little I know about it, right? You have to, you gotta heat up the material, right? Get it molten and then you- I watch the show on Netflix.

Yeah. Blown away? Yeah, blown away. So I know I'm basically a glass blower. Okay, yeah. And is that an accurate representation of glass blowing, the TV show, blown away? Yeah, it is. Mine's a little different.

I use a torch, so I don't have a big furnace of glass. I have a torch that I use, and then I get these glass tubes in four foot lengths, and then I'll create stuff out of that. So I don't have a big furnace that I pull globs of glass out of. Well, you know what? I think I have more respect for you,

because I think anybody can do it with a big furnace. I do. I think anybody can do it with a, furnace. I do. I think anybody could do it with a, oh, oh, big furnace, yawn. Oh look, I have a big furnace and I accidentally made 900 glasses today. But if you're using a torch, and that takes real skill. I think that takes a real artist.

And I know I'm probably throwing shade on a huge part of the glass making community, but fuck those guys. I'm with you, man. I'm probably throwing shade on a huge part of the glass making community, but fuck those guys. I'm with you, man. I'm with you, Dan. And I say it's torch or nothing. And I'm gonna start saying that to people who say they're a glass blower.

I'm gonna say furnace or torch. And if they say furnace, I'm out. I'm just gonna walk away. And then I'm gonna smash all the glass. I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah. And I'm gonna drive by later and throw stones through their window.

And go like, You should get the torch! And peel out. Really took a turn. I'm sorry. If you use a furnace out there and you make glass, you know where to find me. I'm not afraid of you with your furnace.

Dan, I don't know what happened right there. I love your take on that. A neurologist would say it's a brain bleed, possibly. I don't know what happened right there. I love your take on that. A neurologist would say it's a brain bleed, possibly. I don't know. I'm getting faint. But this is cool. What's the name of your company? It's called Apex Design Glass. I made that name when I was in high school for a web design business I was doing,

and then I just kept it through my glassblowing business as well. Okay, and is it easy for people to find you if they want some of your custom-made torch, torch-hewn bongs? Yeah, if you look up Apix Design, then yeah, I got a website, I got an Instagram. I have a good little following of people who like my glass, so it's easy to find it.

When someone buys a bong, do they, how long does that bong last, and do they then come back for more bongs? Does a person buy multiple bongs in a year? How does it all work? What's a bong life? Such a square. Well, I'm sorry.

I want to know more of this bong culture. I took an aspirin once in 1992 and I was taken to the hospital. So I don't know a lot about bongs, but I've seen them portrayed in film. Can you, do you have some bongs there you could show us? I just wanna see some of these bongs. I don't wanna keep saying bongs.

I actually sent you guys a gift. What? Let me see. Oh my God. Oh my God. This thing is, I didn't know about this. Beautiful. Look at this.

Oh my God. Sir, I'm not all joking aside, you are an artist. Truly. That is gorgeous. Look, he's done, I mean, yes, you've got the Conan logo. You've got, oh my God, he's got the late night moon. And we're burying the lead. There's three mouthpieces here. This is like the equivalent of sharing a milkshake except for a throuple...

at a Grateful Dead show. It's a chill chums bong so you all can take a hit at the same time. It's for when the cast of Challengers wants to use a bong together. Um, this is beautiful. It's for when the cast of Challengers wants to use a bong together. ALL LAUGH Um, this is beautiful. I mean, look at the, uh, the design is gorgeous.

And then it's got this, this stopper has kind of a pompadour. It's the bowl. It's the bowl. What's that? It's the bowl. Right? It's not a stopper. That is the bowl.

No, no, this goes... I don't know the official... I don't know what the name is, it's not a stopper. That is the bowl, yeah. I don't know the official, I don't know what the name is. This isn't the stopper. This is the cap. That's where you put the weed. No, I know the weed goes in here, he said, lying. No, the weed goes into the thing you're holding.

It goes into this bowl. Right, so this, oh, I see, this is the bowl. Yeah. Yeah, okay, all right, okay, Spicoli. Take it easy. But go ahead and show us where the stopper is. I know. So what you do is you,

and then when it's heated up, you drink. No! No! No! Oh, God. Do you remember when we had Seth Rogen on the last Conan O'Brien episode and he on camera offered me one of his marijuana cigarettes?

And do you remember this? I do. and he on camera offered me one of his marijuana cigarettes. And do you remember this? I do. I put the wrong end in my mouth and people thought, oh, Conan's doing like a bit. I wasn't doing a bit. It's okay. I just didn't know. I know, it's okay.

It's not okay. I know. I've got to start doing a lot of drugs quickly and catch up. There's so much going on here. It's beautiful. It's not okay. I know. I've got to start doing a lot of drugs quickly. You catch up. There's so much going on here. It's beautiful. Is this a gerbil? What?

Those are gerbils, yes. Oh, my God. Talk of gerbils. This thing is, we need to take, Blay. Is that a butt plug? No. What? What are you doing?

How does this get in your butt with these three things in the way? What's your butt like? There's no butt plug on it. Can I just say, this is a Rorschach blot you've given us. No kidding. Everyone sees what they wanna see. I just see a bong, you two are insane.

This thing, Blake, you have to take multiple. We will, yes. Detailed photographs of this that capture. We shall. Dan, you're an artist. This thing is, and all, I mean, this is just a work of sculpture. We have Conan's doodle on there. We've got the late night moon and stars, Team Coco branding, Conan on TBS branding.

It's got a big cockatoo kind of glass... It could be a pompadour. It's a pompadour. Yeah, who knows? It's a three-way glass bong. So again all three That's the real question. Do you think we'll ever actually three? Yes, we will Yes, I think we will. Does it work? You know what our faces are gonna have to get this close. I know for the next summer s'mores. No, no, guess what?

I will we'll do it. We'll do it. Yeah, I'll get over myself. Sure You said that to me like get over myself, sure. You're telling me, you said that to me like, get over myself. I wanna like, I so. I don't drink anything. There's no drinking when it comes to Boggs. There's no drinking. You said, oh, you take a sip here.

There's no, can I just say one thing? It also looks like it would make great coffee. And you know what? I think it would make great coffee because I see where the little creamer would go in. This is incredible. It is absolutely. Really beautiful. It makes me want to relive some old days.

Yeah. Oh, girl. Slash back to last week. Last week in Pasadena. I was talking about the gerbil. The gerbil filed papers, by the way. Gerbil, gerbil,, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, way to the top. He's also made some glasses here. We have some glasses. These are- Oh, these are beautiful.

And then he made special drinking glasses for each one of you. This is really, I'm, God. Sona, this is yours here. Oh. Gorgeous. And this is for Conan. It's obviously the biggest one. Okay.

Well, you know, you got it. Oh my God. And then Matt here. The smallest one. Yeah, these little goblins. These are beautiful. These are, and what kind of glass? Is this glass?

Is it a type of glass? Tell us what this is. Yeah, this is a scientific glassware. So like you'd find in really nice, you know, Pyrex glass basically. Yeah, how beautiful. So this can be used for, you know, Pyrex glass, basically. So this can be used for, you know, it can go in the dishwasher.

It's not sensitive to heat, so you can put hot stuff in there, no problem. This is extraordinary. Oh my God. This is sweet. It's like a Sherlock Holmes pie. That is really sweet, Dan, thank you so much. A special extra gift for Sona.

Oh, that's nice. That is so, that really means a lot. Thank you very much. Which is a blue. No problem, I'm glad I could get you guys some stuff. Once I heard I was gonna be on here, I really wanted to get something made for you guys. This is, well, I'm just, I just almost said it

and then realized people think I'm trying to make a lame joke, but I am blown away. I really, I wasn't trying to make a joke. I just started to say it. You should wash it first, because it's... The way they finish it is in cyanide powder. Is this safe to drink out of? Dan, can I drink out of this? Okay.

How long did it take you to build that bong? Um, well, I mean, I got told on Thursday that you guys wanted me to be on here, and then by Saturday I was finishing it up. And then Sunday I did the sandblasting and I sent it out on Monday. So if I'm really, you know, really want to get something done,

I can do it pretty quick. I can't believe you put this in the mail because the guy who delivers my boxes shucks them over the fence. Yeah, that's incredible. You know, I'm amazed this made it in one piece. It's incredible. It's so beautiful.

I'm using my glass right now. I'm glad it made it to you guys. Hmm, wow. Did you have any question for me, Dan? Other than, I mean, look at this. I think it should be a requirement now. I was just gonna say, yeah, more fans. More fans that send wonderful gifts.

And I mean, they didn't even have to have made it, but like, oh, I went to a store and I bought you this Patek Philippe watch. And I'm like, hmm, yes, add it to the pile. This made me cry a little. It's beautiful. It's really sweet. It is, I know. And also, Sona's been through a really rough time lately.

And that's just, it's nice. And the note was very sweet, Tim. And things are coming your way now. Yes, yes, yes they are. This is beautiful. Yes they are. I'm glad you guys liked it. Mom is coming your way now. Yes, yes, yes they are. This is beautiful. Yes they are. I'm glad you guys like it. Mom's gonna be happy tonight.

It's all fixed. Why is mommy asleep? It's four in the afternoon. Quiet, Charlie, quiet, Mikey. Why is stepbrothers on all day? On a loop. Wow, Dan, I cannot thank you enough. This is absolutely beautiful.

Really, really great. And we're gonna find a hallowed space for this because we have little spaces here that are like, that are becoming installations. Like this is our Pee-wee's Playhouse and this is gonna have a prominent space here. Yeah. And we're very proud of this.

And we're proud to have you as a fan, really. Hey, thank you very much. And yeah, I had one quick question. I was curious, you know, as a celebrity. I'll handle this. You know, you. Like, when I get home, I like to do stuff around the house.

So like, I'll help my wife doing stuff or I'll, you know'll work on the backyard. And I was curious as a celebrity, is there something that you go home and your wife's like, I want these photos hung up on the wall. Like, what do you do when you get home and you're asked to do something? Do you just call someone or do you take charge

of doing stuff like that? I immediately pull rank. I say, do you realize who I am and what I've accomplished? Then I start to show her like a montage of things I've worked on over the years. No, there are a big thing for my wife, Liza, is she's very good cook and she does the cooking and I'm not good at cooking.

She really wants me to set the table and that's important to her that I set the table. And sometimes I kind of set the table, but she'll make a passive aggressive comment like, usually people use napkins. And then I'll go, all right. And then I'll go and get the, you know go and get the napkin drawer and get those. And did you put trivets down?

Cause I got to put something, this is hot. And okay, all right. Cause sometimes I try to go real minimal. Like setting the table means just there's two or three or four, if my kids are around plates. But it's important for her that I do that. And then a big knock on me is that I've gotten much better at loading the dishwasher.

I've gotten much better. But I think for a long time, and this goes back to childhood, I had this, I just, it was a problem for me, loading the dishwasher. The way you do it or just doing it in general? When I do it, it's doing it in general and then when I do it, it's awful.

Like I'll try and jam a large plate into the silverware tray. And my wife usually ends up redoing it. And so there was twice as many calories burned. So pity this woman because it's like asking an ape to help you with brain surgery. And then I just go rushing around the operating room smashing into things.

So yeah, I would say it all, most of my chores revolve around dinner, ways that I can help compliment and facilitate the serving of dinner. And so that's a little peek into my life. And yeah. Okay, awesome. Yeah, that's what I wanted to hear.

I was curious what you, you know, if you called like a butler to come help you or something. Oh. Yeah, we had a butler once. Blay, how did you like it? Still waiting for payment. Yeah, yeah. No, no butler, not yet.

That's one of those things from just old movies that I have to say it always fascinated me. It was an idea from that if someone had means, they would have a butler. Even if it was just a bachelor, there would be like a gentleman. Oh yeah, a gentleman there who, this is my man. Yeah.

You know, his name's Gordon. He'll take care of everything. And he's in the corner usually polishing a glass behind like a little cool mini bar. No, also a valet. I always thought, wow. Someone who you wake up in the morning and your clothes are all laid out

and then you have to get, we travel so much for the travel shows. I'm always running around cramming things into bags and going, where's my extra special sunblock? And- What's special about it? It was made by the government. Anyway, that's what I do.

I would say it's a fascination. No, no Butler and still no Valet. But one day it'll all come my way. But now I've got the world's only triple bong with my name on it. I can't believe there might be a point in the future where the three of us put our faces that close together. Not at all.

And you're gonna, that's where you're gonna see me up close and fall in love. Oh my God. Sweet. All right, well, Dan, thank you so much. I salute you and I love, I mean, you're an artist. You really are. You are. You're a terrific artist.

And even though we are not related, you're a young lad. So I'm allowed to say, I'm proud of you. I really am. I'm glad when I see, I really do get energized when I meet all these young people that can kick ass and do all these amazing things. You're a craftsman, you're out there killing it. So thank you so much and best of luck with your company.

Apex. Apex. Yeah, Apex Design, yeah. Apex. A-P-I-X. Apex. Cheers, Dan. Oh, there it is.

I was distracted by my own face. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. All right, shout out to Apex. Can't wait-I-X. A-P-I-X. Cheers, Dan. Oh, there it is. I was distracted by my own face. Thank you guys so much. Thank you. All right, shout out to Apex. I can't wait to see you guys use that. You will, you will. All right, take care, Dan. All right, thank you guys.

Conan O'Brien needs a fan with Conan O'Brien, Sonam Avsesian, and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and Nick Leal. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy. Supervising producer, Aaron Blayard. Associate talent producer, Jennifer Samples.

Associate producers, Sean Doherty and Lisa Berm. Engineering by Eduardo Perez. You'll 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 wherever fine podcasts are down.