Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - The Jazz Singer

Episode Date: January 8, 2026

Conan talks to jazz singer Lucy in New York City about vocal scat technique and the themes of her favorite tunes.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 team cocoa.com slash call Conan. Okay, let's get started. Hi, Lucy. Welcome to Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Hello. Lucy!

Hi, Lucy. How are you? Hi, Sona. Hi, Conan. I'm great. How are you? I'm guessing you already know Sona. Is that right?

I know her. Yeah, you know, it's a small world. world when you're an Armenian, but, you know, but I wanted to make sure that I met you not through Sona, you know, to avoid any kind of nepotism. Yeah. I just found out today. But also, it's funny, nobody asked her if she knows me because they didn't want to seem like racist or, you know, act like, oh, you're Armenian, so you must know Sona. But we actually have met before. That's so funny. And I didn't tell them that I knew you. So this is good. This is good. Well, what is, how do you say your last name, Lucy.

It's Yegazarian. Yegazarian. Okay. And do you live in the same community as Sona? No. I live in New York, so there's no Armenians here. Yeah. Very good.

There's no Armenians here, which is good. I like it like that. Oh, yeah. That's great. Not racist at all. I hate Armenians. Those people drive me crazy. They do.

They do. Yeah, I'm with you, girl. Well, I get street cred because when I get into, it sounds, it's just absolutely true. But whenever I take an Uber, I would say, what would you say, Sona like 80% of the time? Maybe even more. The driver is Armenian and he knows that I went to Armenia with Sona. And he's seen clips from the episode. And Sonas taught me enough little bits of Armenian that I can say, hello, how are you?

Where's the restroom? And we have a nice ride together. It's good. I'm really glad, but I'm really glad my Uber drivers are not Armenian. I mean, I love my people, but in moderation. Yeah, it's too much. I avoid the Irish at all costs. Really a horrible tribe, a horrible tribe.

Well, tell me about yourself. What do you do, Lucy? I'm a jazz singer. Yes, very cool. That's great. It's kind of stereotypically as New York as it gets, I know. But when I moved to New York, I came here with a dude. degree in world history. So I was looking for a job with that. And I couldn't find one. And I'd

been singing for years and years and I had to pay the rent. It was so broke. And people kept calling for, you know, restaurant gigs and things like that. So I kind of gave up and I was like, all right, I guess I'll just continue with the singing thing. And it's been a long, long time now that I'm doing that. So yeah, I do that. And then during COVID, I opened a little cookie business because there was no work and, you know, I needed the money. So I do a little bit of that on the side, but overall, I'm just a singer. Well, quick question. Sona, have you heard Lucy perform? I have, and she is absolutely amazing.

And I'm not just saying that because I've met her and I know her. She is such an incredible jazz singer. And I'll send you her stuff. I think you should definitely. Yeah, I'd like to listen to it. Yeah, she's really, really amazing. That's really impressive. And I'm just curious, how did you get into jazz singing?

It's so specific. You must have known it in an early age Oh, I have a good voice I have a good control of my voice And I like this kind of music You know, see, I grew up in Armenia in the 90s And we were, you know, everyone was poor And I think every parent was kind of looking

For that thing that their kid could do To get them out And I think my mom realized like, oh, I think my kids can sing Sing, sing so we can get a visa So it was like that, you know? Yeah I know, it's so dark, but it's true That's how it is, you know?

Sure, of course. But jazz, I don't know, my dad was into it. He had a lot of, like, kind of semi-shady friends during the Soviet Union that would get these, like, jazz records that weren't supposed to be in the USSR. So he always had these, you know, random recordings of things. Oftentimes you wouldn't have a cover for it, so you had no idea who was playing it. It was, like, recorded over a Michael Bolton CD, you know, but people weren't sure if it was Ella or Carmen or who, but it was always, to me, it was like, it was the sound of America. It's what America sounded like to me.

And I was always drawn to it. Even, you know, I didn't speak English when we got here. How did you learn to speak English? From you. No. Are you serious? And I know that's insane. And the reason why I actually submitted to this is because I was talking to somebody

and I mentioned you and I was like, I learned English pretty much from Conan, family guy, and Mr. Rogers. That's the trifecta. Yes. Many times I've seen. seen those three circles intersect. It's so funny because this is not the first time. Many times I've had people tell me that, yeah, you were on the Internet in my country or there was a weird channel that mistakenly showed you.

And they would learn English from me, which I find kind of horrifying, but I'm also happy. Your English is fantastic, by the way. Perfect. Thank you. I mean, I was obsessive about kind of like passing as an American, so I didn't want to have an accent. But I think people don't give enough credit to television and especially, you know, late-night television

where that fourth wall isn't there. So you were talking to me, you know? Reading books and all that stuff and school is fine, but it feels like somebody's actually talking to you. It's very intimate. It's very intimate. And that makes me very happy. I'm very happy you're in our country.

You're clearly very cool and extremely talented. And I wish I could do what you do. I don't know. Yeah, but you don't know if I'm any good at it. What's that? Don't get, you don't know if I'm any good at it. Don't get. Sona's raising about you.

She says you're terrific. And you know what? I'm going to go out on a limb here and say, because you seem like a humble person. You don't seem like a self-promoter. I imagine you're very good at this. I really do. So I'm going to have Sona get me some of your music and I'll listen to it.

But before I do that, I'd like a lesson from you. How would I sing? I just want to, let's say I want to, you know, these careers, they come and go. I might need to get into jazz singing late in my life. And this would be the time and you're the perfect person to, hey, I taught you to speak English. You teach me jazz singing. Okay, so I guess the most common thing people associate with jazz singing is scat singing, right? Scat, uh-huh.

Most people are really bad at it, especially singers themselves. Right. But I think the easiest approach to it is to think, like, if you were drunk at a bar, and there's this song you remembered and you want to remind the guy next to you at the bar, like, you know, this song and goes and how would you sing the melody? That's what Scat singing is. You're like just trying to recreate a melody. So give me like a tune.

Give me like a Christmas song. Well, it's got to be something we can clear. Is that right? I don't forget what the rules are here. I don't know. We still don't know what the rules are on a song. So it's got to be something. Maybe we should just do row, row, row, row your boat because I don't imagine we have to.

to pay any money for that. That's fine. So what's to say it's row, row, row your boat? So I'm drunk, and I'm trying to tell you, because every sight you see a summer calf, come on, let's see this row, row, row your boat. You know that song? Yeah, it's the one that goes,

So, sir, but-da-ba-ba-da-ba-da-da-da-da-da. Sir, you're bothering the other customers, and I've been told to eject you. We already asked you to leave three times, sir. Yeah. Yeah. All right. It's a... How was that? Be honest.

Okay, you got to bring it down. Bring it down. That was a lot. I'm drunk. Well, but... How drunk am I? When I'm drunk, I don't bring it down. No, like a mellow kind of drunk.

Oh, I see. Okay. Not like a psychotic Irishman. Okay, that's too much. Everything I do is wrong. No, no, that was good. Now go, right? between the first one and that one.

moments. Why are you stabbing yourself with a paper, a letter opener? Oh, my God. What's your favorite kind of songs? What are the themes of your favorite songs? Thematically, you know, what do you like? I used to avoid singing blueses. I thought I was too young and I didn't get it, but I really enjoy singing a blues and especially, you know, like old blueses that are about terrible, terrible men. I like those. I like those.

But I don't do it to like, I don't like divisive music. I don't do it to mock the gents. I guess I mock them for a moment. Sure. But I like to point out the elephant in the room. And then we can all kind of like laugh at it and move forward together. I think speaking as a gent, I think a lot of us need ridiculing. And, you know, we should be able to take it.

Now, I don't mean me specifically. I can't handle it. And I'm never to be criticized in any way in song or prose. But, yeah. I actually think people take it well when it's with a sprinkling of humor and in the arts. You know what I mean? It's hard to have those conversations. But I think when you're singing it, I can sing a lot of things that I can't say to people to their face.

You know, it's funny you say that I, I come from a fairly repressed culture where you don't say something. If I'm unhappy with someone, I don't tell them, I keep it locked inside, and I resent. And I learned many, many years ago that I can make these sort of passive-aggressive jokes

where they're laughing, but I think maybe 20 minutes after I've left, they notice, hey, wait a minute, I think he doesn't want me to take the last slice of, cake anymore. And because he just sang to me a song, which I enjoyed about assholes who take the last piece of cake. So, I mean, Sona, you've seen me. I'm the maestro, yes? Yeah. If there's a, if there's a genre of music that's just being passive aggressive, Conan would be the number one

artist, I think. Because you're creative. I'd be Pavarotti. You would. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The passive aggressive genre. Then you'd make a good jazz singer. There's plenty of that in the American songbook. But you're absolutely right. I've actually found that my husband's a saxophone player and whenever he's on stage I'll say things to him on stage just banter in between that I would never say to him off. But it like releases the

tension and then we get off and we're good. Like you need to do the dishes and things like that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, he's in the middle of a solo and you say ha ha, you're a terrible lover. Anyway. I'm going to try that. Yeah, try that. Guys love that, especially when they're

On stage. So I'm curious, famously to try and sing jazz, you talked about tough times. Was there a moment that was just the lowest for you where you had no money, you didn't know what to do, and you had to take a drastic step?

Yeah, I mean, when I first moved to New York, I was working as a tour guide at Madison Square Garden. Yeah, that's some great tour. Yeah, it was rough. Actually, I got fired. To your left is a hobo. Over there is a puddle of urine. Sorry.

I got fired because I used to tell them that there used to be a beautiful train station there and they tore it down to build this. And they didn't like that. Torn down so they could put up that monstrosity. Yeah, they didn't like that. So I got fired. But right around that time, I, I, I couldn't pay rent, and I had just no money, and I had this horrible toothache once.

And I went in, and they were like, it's this big, long thing, we got to do it. And I said, I don't have money. And they said, well, we can just pull it out. And I didn't have money for that either. And I ended up selling an old mandolin I had to get the tooth pulled out. This is like an O. Henry story. No, I was just thinking, did you ever think of taking the mandolin and using it to smash the tooth out? That's a good twist to the same.

story all I have is this mandolin to get my tooth out wait a minute and then you smash it out but then the mandolin breaks and you've damaged the tooth only more and you have no mandolin and that's the end of the story and it's called shitty story it sure is I'm gonna write a whole book of those where it's just got that kind of twist ending and it sucks shitty stories It just doesn't resolve, leaves nowhere, yeah. She knew then that she had to smash the tooth out with her own mandolin. She did it. It ruined both things, and then she was even worse off.

Actually, next chapter. Right after that, I did this big competition that tends to be like the big break for a lot of jazz musicians called the Monk competition, and I lost. So that was really the cherry on top, so it was great. What's because your mouth was bleeding and you were playing a broken mandolin? Just blood shooting out your mouth. Your head's swollen, and you're playing a mandolin that's in three pieces. Outside of Madison Square Garden. Exactly, yeah.

And a hobo's like, I like it. That's so, I mean, I think you're a very impressive person. I have enormous respect for immigrants. I think people don't understand that you're, you know, most Americans are born into a language they never have to, and they never have to switch. And when people are born into one language and one culture and then they have to remake themselves as you have done to speak a completely different language, and I know there are many immigrants that speak three languages, it takes an amount of grit and courage that's awe-inspiring. It really is. And you're just a very impressive person. I think it's so cool.

Thank you. Thank you. I agree as far as immigrating. It's a strange thing to do. Yeah. Yeah. It's a hard thing to do. To learn English when you were in your late 20s. Okay. When I met Sona, she did not speak a word of English. And I hired her as my assistant. And remember when I painted the alphabet? Do I remember when I didn't speak English in my late 20s? Is that what you're asking? Yeah. Okay. Is this the story where you said I jumped out of a bush and then you're like, I'll domesticate you and teach you English? Or is this the one where I floated to this country in a basket?

They are one story? Your dad was being attacked. Your dad was being attacked by goats. Okay. He put you into a, he quickly made a small boat out of thatch, thatchen leaves, and he floated across from the island of Armenia over to Los Angeles. I was walking along in search of an assistant. You had, like Superman, grown to maturity in the boat. It took a long time. Yeah. And then you saw what you thought was a red-headed woman walking down the street. And you jumped out and said, but have!

And I said, oh, my God. And remember? And then I taught you everything you needed to know to become one of the most important people in America. Oh, thank you. I'm so indebted to you. Are you as offended as I am that he said that I floated off the island of Armenia, Lucy? I mean, it's very landlocked. It's landlocked.

There's no body of water around it. No, you haven't been there in a while. There's a piece that broke off. Just Google it, Sona, Google it. Anyway, as you can see, Lucy, I'm a very ignorant man. I'm a very foolish man. And you are a very talented artist, a very beautiful person. and you decided to spend time with me.

So this is on you. And now my scatting career begins. Yes. But I am going to have Sona get me your work because I really want to listen to it. Yeah, please. I also have a show at the Alex on February 13th. You're more than welcome to it. Oh, in Glendale?

In Glendale? In Glendale? Yeah. Hey, maybe we can come see you. Yeah, I mean, it's an easy Valentine's Day if you don't have any ideas, you know what I'm saying? I'll be there. I don't have a date. I would love that.

My wife will not speak to me on Valentine's Day. She says, don't even think about it. She's busy with her boyfriend. Yeah. Man, that guy's a looker. You guys are crazy. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay, Julie. You just ruined it. Now it's not believable. Well, Lucy, thank you so much for reaching out to us. I do get great energy talking. to people like you, very positive, very talented, and you've given me a lift and you're really funny. So thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you for teaching me English, Conan, even though you didn't mean to. And Sona, don't you want to thank me too? No, I'm okay. I'm good. Thank you.

No, no, thank you. I'm good. No, shit. Okay. All right. Well, you take care. Thank you. You guys too. Happy holidays. Bye, Lucy. Bye, Sona. Conan O'Brien needs a fan With Conan O'Brien, Sonam Obsessian, and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross, and Nick Liao. 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 wherever fine podcasts are down.