Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - The ‘Couve

Episode Date: August 11, 2022

Conan speaks with Connor from Vancouver about directing animated features and the hardships of height. Wanna get a chance to talk to Conan? Submit here: TeamCoco.com/CallConan

Konan O'Brien needs a fan. Want to talk to Konan? Visit teamcoco.com slash call Konan. Okay, let's get started. Hey! Hey! Connor, meet Konan, meet Sona. Connor, it's very nice to meet you.

Hey, Konan. Hi, Sona. Hi. Hi, Matt. Hi, Connor. The first thing that pops is your shirt. You look like a low-rent Hawaiian detective. Oh, thank you.

I like it. No, it's... Magnum PI? Yeah, it's very much that. You have a nice...it's a nice shirt. It really pops. It really does pop. I think he looks like a CIA pilot that's running, like, bootleg missions into Thailand.

Oh. I'm going to stick with low-rent Hawaiian detective. All right. And because I said it twice and with force, I think I'm going to win. Your name is Connor Ferguson. That's a terrific name. What's your deal, man? Yeah.

Where are you coming from? Fellow Irishman. Well, it's not going to get crazy. We don't know. There could be all kinds of stuff in there. Where are you coming from? I'm in Vancouver, BC. Oh.

I love Vancouver. Me too. The Cove. What? Has anyone called it the Cove? Oh, yeah. The cool people call it the Cove. No, they don't.

No one calls it that. Connor, is that true? If you're wearing this shirt, you do. There we go. Yeah. No, no, no. The Cove sounds like a venereal disease. Well, it's not, too.

And the cool people call that the Cove. Yeah. I got the Cove in the Cove. What? So you're in Vancouver, which is one of my favorite cities. I've been there many times. I performed there a couple of years ago just before COVID. Maybe I started COVID.

I'm not sure. But COVID. It was, it was, it said, there's a, oh my God. So proud of yours. You're really on fire today. That's terrific, Matt. There's a theater in downtown Vancouver that's named after Queen Elizabeth. Is that right?

Oh God. Yeah, the Queen Elizabeth Theater. Is there a pause here? I'm thinking there's a, Is there a lag? I think there's a little bit of a lag because I'll say something and there'll be this awkward silence. And then Connor will say, yes, there is that theater.

But in the silence, it'll make it feel like I'm insane. It's not you. It's just, it's just technology. Connor's there for you. I'm just really thinking about my answers. I just, Yeah. Really want to win that car.

You're going to win it. We're going to get you. It's, it was the first Prius ever made and it caught fire and we saved it for you. So Connor Ferguson, tell us about yourself. What do you do? I am a director for animated TV shows. Oh, anything. That's cool.

That's cool. I know a little bit about that. What, anything that I would know, any shows or films or anything, any work that we would have seen. Right now I'm directing a kids show called Fireman Sam. It's like a fire safety show, a Welsh fire safety show for the BBC. Oh, that is so specific. It is a, it is a Welsh fire safety show.

That is the most specific assignment. Is there different fire safety in Wales? Yeah. Can't you just fall into a bog if you catch fire? Just drop and roll into the nearest bog. Yeah, it's been on since like the 80s. It's like a, it started as a claymation show, like the same people that made Postman Pat, if you've ever heard of that show, from way back in the day.

Which is that a, is Postman Pat also from? Northern Ireland. It's a Northern Ireland show. Yeah. It's a Belfast claymation show that tells people how to gargle with salt water. Exactly. But I've also worked on Go Dog Go, some Lego TV shows, the Adams Family animated movie. Cool.

A bunch of superhero shows and Sausage Party. I was on that for two and a half years. Wow. I think my wife wrote on that. She helped write on that movie, I think. Oh, no way. Yeah. This is where we find out that she didn't write on it.

She was up to something else and never told you. I'm a writer on Sausage Party. Oh, good then. Here's the credit card and I'll see you later. She also wrote on Ninja Turtles and would come home and say, instead of Shredder, she'd go, yeah, we wrote for Schneider today. She got the name of one of the main characters wrong? It's his brother.

Yeah. Shredder's brother, Schneider. He does all the administration work for Shredder. I think I've brought that up before. I apologize. That's okay. That's okay. You're costing her work in the business.

So Connor, you've worked on these. I know a little bit about animation because years and years ago I worked on The Simpsons and so I know that it's kind of fascinating. I mean, the whole process is fascinating. There's so much that goes into it. I think it's really cool that you get to do that. Yeah, it's super fun. It's such a long process.

Even like a TV show is relatively quick compared to like a feature film will take two to four years to do. But yeah, there's a lot into it. We do an episode is about 12 minutes long and it takes about eight to 10 weeks of animation to do, plus post-production and then rewrites after you animate. You go back and do it. Plus you got to put it on a boat to Wales. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's got to be shit. One of the things that I found about animation, which is a blessing and a curse, is that you're allowed to fiddle with dialogue up until the last second because often the mouth movements are so imprecise that you can be changing up dialogue. Most people would think the dialogue would be locked in. In my experience, we would be working on a script. It would go off to the animation and then up until the last minute. I mean, sometimes until maybe two days before it aired, we could be dropping in different lines.

Whoa. That's great for quality control because you can keep improving lines. But also it's problematic in that you're never quite done. And so I loved, to me, my observation was I got into, when I got into late night TV, there was no time. You did it. It was done. And if it went great, fine.

If it didn't get to work on the next one and shut up. And there was something kind of, I'm trying to think of the word, kind of refreshing about that because you couldn't obsess too much. Do you know what I'm talking about? Oh, yeah. Especially with the computer animation because you can go in and just isolate that animation in the mouth and then change that right up until it gets delivered. It could be rendered and lit and everything.

But all the time, yeah, switching lines, the client wants to change something. On Sausage Party, it was being rewritten all the time. We'd be finished something and then the writers would go back, oh, we thought of something funnier. Oh, we think bath salts are funnier than heroin. So let's replace all the heroin lines with bath salts. First of all, I want to congratulate your writers because that is not even in question. Bath salts always win over heroin.

In every way. In every way. Yeah. And even as a product, it's just a better product because you can always use it as a bath salt. That's right. Or get whacked out, take off all your clothes, run down the highway and cannibalize someone. Yeah, eat someone's face. Yeah.

So, but we're on that later. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about your life, Connor. I'm curious, what kind of life have you had? You seem like a happy, well-adjusted fellow. You also seem really cool, too. Yeah, you do. You seem real cool.

effortlessly cool. I try to be. I don't think I am. I'm a tall, lanky guy like you, Conan. So I've had the same life growing up, ridiculed for just being a lanky, tall, giant. Excuse me, I was never ridiculed for that. I don't know. Sorry, praise.

Connor, you just went way out on a limb. Well, Conan, like you, I've been mocked and ridiculed my entire life. I have the same shape face as you, Conan, and to this day, I'm a virgin. Toast in me, too. Just making, just guessing the weirdest shit. Yeah, like you, Conan, my urine stream is weak and bubbly. Come on. So anyway, how tall are you?

I'm six, seven. Oh, my God. Six, seven. Oh, wow. Wow. I see I wouldn't have picked that up at all. Too tall. No, no, no.

Well, possibly. It depends. You probably have to live in a special home that's been designed for you. Did you have an architect come in and change the doorways for you? Because I top out at six, four, which means I can still live in a regular house. Although when I was in your house, gorely, there were times where I felt like when I'd go use the powder room, I think I could tear my way into the other part of the house with just my bare hands.

That little bathroom is the tiniest bathroom. Yeah, and I put my hands on either side of my body and I thought I could just push and the whole house would collapse. We literally have to put a corner sink and a corner toilet in there because there's not room for standard versions of this. Right, right. No, I did note that and thought I got to bring it up on the podcast. You're welcome in the normal bathroom if you'd like.

No, no, no. I liked it in there. I felt, it was like one of those weighted blankets. I felt very comfortable lying in there. I just laid down on the floor and curled up in the fetal position in your bathroom. There's no room. And you went in there thinking about just destroying his house? Oh, I did.

I thought, I was there and it's very beautiful and very nice, but there's, you know, when you're a larger guy and you're in a smaller house, you do fantasize about tearing it apart. What? He's not a piece. Do you do that corner? Really? No. Oh yeah.

I recently moved into a house and I tore out walls and I got to customize it to make it a little bit bigger for me and just sort of things like doorways a little higher. You have like kaiju complex. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know what that means. Yeah. Like a Godzilla.

Oh, Godzilla. We'll just say Godzilla. Giant. Well, kaiju encompasses all great monsters. Mothra, Ghidra. Well, no, I don't have a Ghidra or a Mothra complex. I do have a Godzilla complex. You shouldn't say, you know, you should, you should specify.

How am I to know what kind of kaiju complex you have? I'd rather... Look at me. Do I look like a Mothra? Do I look like a Mothra to you? Do you really want me to answer that? Yes, I do. Oh my God.

Okay. Listen, I'm sorry, Connor. It's so embarrassing when we welcome you into our very small podcast home and you at 6-7 come in and we started fighting and you are forced to go into our podcast powder room and tear it apart. I feel terrible for you and for everyone involved. You seem like a happy, well-adjusted fellow. You're 6-7.

I think that's a great height. Yeah. Any taller and... It's too tall. It's too tall. You think 6-7 is too tall? Yeah, I can't get jeans or t-shirts a little easier. You can get them on the internet.

But I tried looking up that place that Goldblum was talking about where he suggested you go and get your jeans in LA. Yeah, Shaffer Garment Hotel. No. Shaffer Garment Hotel. Those are some Hollywood prices, though. Well, they weren't. First of all, they seemed reasonable to me.

Well, they did. You're different. You have a different scale. Yeah. I don't think so. I think $35,000 for a pair of jeans is very reasonable. I put them in the back of my Testerosa, drove to my helicopter and came right home. So my life is just like yours, Connor.

Olive Conan's jeans are insured. Yeah. Lloyd's of London ensures each ass cheek of my jeans. Well, Connor, I'm kind of fascinated with you. You're 6-7 and you look that effortlessly cool. Seeing you walk down the street must just make people's day. Yeah, I guess so. People like to stare.

I get used to it. I don't mean just because you're tall, but you present a really pleasing picture. Oh my god. I'm just saying I'm in love with you, Connor. Yeah, just falling for it. Why don't you get a room with a corner toilet and a corner sink? Look at this. Jesus.

He's a lovable scoundrel. He's got cleft chin, fine-headed Kurt Russell hair. You do look like a Disney prince a little bit. Yeah, you do. Okay. I've been looking at the bookcase behind him, so I guess something's wrong with me. Why? I'm just saying.

I always go to the books. You're like, oh, I so. Those look interesting. Oh, he's got Vonnegut. You are house five. He's got breakfast at champions. I wonder if he has that in another room. It's just too bad you're all the way up in the cove.

Why? Oh my god. If you say the coon one more time. It's too bad that you have the cove. That's very hard to cure at six, seven. You need a lot of penicillin. Do you have a question for me, Connor? Is there any way that I can help you?

Is there a question I can answer for you? I'm curious, have you, other than the Simpsons obviously, have you ever pitched an animated show or wanted to create an animated show or had like a premise for something like that? That's a good question. No. I don't think so. I think it's funny. I think of myself as an animated character.

I really do. I think of myself as a cartoon. And that's how I think I present in the world as an animated character in search of his animated world, but somehow I misplaced. But I think the hair, the way I behave, my sense of myself has always been cartoon. And that was my earliest influence in comedy was Warner Brothers cartoons. That's where I think I learned 90% of my timing from cartoons that were made in the 40s and 50s, you know, for Warner Brothers.

And that's where I picked up so much of who I think I am. You are kind of a daffy duck, the personality. Yes, yeah, no, no. I love to, when I come into any money, I go, you who, you who, I'm rich, I'm rich, I'm rich, and I jump around the room. I'm also quick to the minute someone else has good fortune, my whole face turns. And I am like, that's despicable. He's my favorite.

Yeah, he's fantastic. He's fantastic. Yeah, I think I'm a little bit him and yeah, so that's how I, it's interesting. I've, I've not once I got my own show. But with your, your interest in history and crimes of history and stuff, would you maybe relate something like one of your interests where you could sort of tell those stories in an interesting way with an animated show? You know, it's funny.

I think I just couldn't be too involved because I'm too impatient. I like to go and make things, the, the, the medium that I found that works for me is think about it, go out, make it happen, and then try and get it on TV as quickly as possible. That's what works for me. And I think getting back to as much as I loved and admired working for all these people in The Simpsons and loved the work I did there, I, having there be a year elapsed between, or sometimes a year and a half between concept and seeing it on television just didn't work for me.

I, it's too much time. And so I like things that are just thrown together. You get it out there. It upsets people and you move on. That's my motto. Well, Connor, I have a feeling we'll meet up one day. I do. I think I'm going to be the next time I'm in Vancouver.

I hope so. I have a feeling we'll meet up too. Oh yeah, yeah. Okay. It's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. I have a feeling.

Well, that's how you get it. I have a feeling that the next time I'm in Vancouver and I'm headed to the Queen Elizabeth Theater where I'm doing my one man show, I don't know, Brian's Inner Mothra, I'm going to, I'm going to see a really cool six foot seven Kurt Russell private detective walking down the street who's wearing jeans that were stolen from Schaefer Garment Hotel because we didn't want to buy them. And I'll, I'll know I have a friend. Or the ankles are just too high.

Right. Oh, I had to wear those. I, my pants didn't fit and kids always said, where's the flood? Where's the flood? I had, I had three years of my life of hearing, where's the flood? Hey, where's the flood? And I just hated it. Well, where was the flood?

The flood was in my mind. My self-esteem was flooded with pure hatred. Right here in your heart. Connor, it's been very nice talking to you. You're a fine fellow. Awesome talk to you. And just keep doing what you're doing, man, because it seems to be working. Don't change a thing.

Yeah. Life, life is, life is good if you're Connor Ferguson. Yeah. Look at that smile. All right, well, great to meet you. Sona and Matt. You too. Yeah.

Take care, Connor. Nice talking to you. Bye, Connor. All right. Have a good day. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.