Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend - The Mothman Cometh

Episode Date: February 13, 2025

Conan talks to Sam in Chicago about designing cryptid-themed adult toys and accessories. 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. Wanna talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com slash call Conan. Okay, let's get started. Hi Sam, welcome to Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Hey, how are you there? Hey Sam, how are you? I'm doing really good.

How are you doing? Doing great. First of all, loving the hair, Sam. You got the- Thank you. Yeah, I know. I know. I felt inspired. I love, I'm not egotistical enough

to say it's the Conan swoop, cause you know- The Conan swoop. I call it the Conan swoop. I think Bob's big boy invented it, but looks very cool. So I'm loving that. Tell us a little bit about yourself, Sam. So my name's Sam and I live in Chicago

and been a big fan of yours since forever. Thank you. Actually with my first paychecks, I actually bought a TV. It was like back in like 2003, a little tiny LCD TV that I could watch Conan, like your guys' show in my room right before I went to bed so I wouldn't keep everyone else in the house up.

Wow, so you have excellent comedy taste and you're considerate. That's a great combination. Yeah, I try to be. And my brother, whose name is also Matt, also loves, has always loved you too. He's about as tall as you too. Oh wow, okay. I would have been as tall as you if I had a Y chromosome, but I am a trans guy.

Okay, okay. Which means that I started life as a girl and when I was 33, I transitioned to being a guy. Okay. Yeah. And tell us, so how old are you now? How long ago did you transition? So I transitioned when I was 33 years old, I started, and I'm going to be 39 next month.

So. You look fantastic, by the way. Yeah, I know, too. Thank you. Thank you. I was gonna say, you look like you're like 22 years old. Yeah. I know, well, that's kind of like one of the perks of like, you know, transitioning a little bit later is, you know,

you look, you always look a little bit younger, like when you're transitioning from female to male. But like for me, like for some people, like in their early twenties, like that's not so great. But like when you're in your thirties, you know, I'll take it. I'll look younger. That's totally cool with me.

I was gonna say, I was thinking, I wanna transition from a man my age to a man who's much younger. Someone figure that out. Don't we all though. Yeah. I gotta figure that one out too. If I could figure out how to transition my joints

and all of my problems. Oh, they're gonna figure it all out. Have you watched the substance? Yeah, we'll figure it out. They're working on it. Demi Moore is working very hard on this. Yeah, it worked out great for her too. Yeah, we'll figure it out. They're working on, Demi Moore is working very hard on this. Yeah, it worked out great for her too. Yeah, it looked like it did to me.

So Sam, what's your gig? What's your job? What do you do? So pretty much, I run my own business. I actually make adult toys. Okay. I've actually been in the industry since 2008, but when I started transitioning, which was I think it was that was like 2019. I kind of noticed that there wasn't

toys on the market that like were super compatible with like trans anatomy, and like the changes that your body. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, hey, I've got these skills from working in the industry. Can I translate that into something that works good for a variety of different body types? And that's what I've been doing pretty much since then. It's mostly just been me, my designer who lives in Denmark, and then just recently one of my partners started helping me make toys designer who lives in Denmark. And then just recently, one of my partners

started helping me make toys, like just, you know, to keep up on orders. Now, I'm curious. So you were in the adult toy business before you transitioned. Is that right? Yes. I see. Okay. Yes. And then realized that, hey, wait a minute, there needs, there's a market here

that's not being taken care of. Yeah, exactly. And it was like, I mean, there's a market here that's not being taken care of. Yeah, exactly. And it was like, I mean, there was definitely stuff out there and I swear I probably bought like one of everything just to see and then it's taken, you know, it's taken a while, but like we've, like one of our toys took like four years

to finally design, so it would be combat compatible. Um, and then another thing we completely came up with, uh, that nobody else has done is, uh, we came up with what's called a grindable, which is like halfway between, uh, like a, like a, like a sleeve and like a grind pad, which is something that like some people use, like, you know, like cis women will generally use to, uh, like grind up against. So we kind of invented something that was halfway between that me and my designer.

And then when it's ready for market, how do you get the word out? So one of the things, so our toys are cryptid-themed. So they're basically like fantasy toy themed. So that was like what my old business did. So I kind of just kept going with that. But mine are cryptid base. So meaning like all of my toys are like monsters and stuff like that.

Yeah. So they're based on like monsters and, you know, folklore. Oh, my God. We have like a Mothman. We have Minotaur. You know, we've got the Jersey Devil. You know, we're trying to come up with more stuff. What's the Mothman one like? I think you have a customer here.

So I'm going to show you. Yeah. So this is our Mothman. Oh, wait a minute. Yeah. So this is our, yeah, this is our medium. No, it's not. We have two sizes smaller.

That's a medium? What are you guys talking about? What's the big deal? And two sizes bigger. Whoa. But yeah, and then these are all made of platinum. That's a medium? Yeah, we have two sizes smaller. And two sizes bigger. Whoa. But yeah, and then these are all made of PlatinumCure medical-grade silicone.

So these are not like the toys that you just buy like, you know, online that are just made of unknown materials, you know. Right, you want to make sure you're using medical-grade. They're all medical-grade Medical grade safe, yeah. Yeah, so, yeah, we, you know, that, and then we make these, we can, I, like, one of the cool things that I can do is I can fade the silicone to, like, this is, you start with one, it's one bucket, and you fade all the way down to a different color,

so it's- You jiggle so much. It's fun, I mean, like, I have a background in art too, so that's, that helps. It is beautiful. Art and comedy, so, I mean, you have to have a sense too. So that's oh that helps it is beautiful art and comedy So I mean you have to have a comedy as well Yeah, so, you know all throughout high school I did improv and theater and all of that and then when I got out of high school, I was like man I really missed this

so I ended up starting a we go to furry conventions, which is another way that we market, cause there's a big market for like mythology. And explain for anyone who's listening, who doesn't know, including me exactly, the fur, what is the furry world is? So the furry fandom is just like a group of people

that enjoy anthropomorphic animals. So we're talking stuff like, you know, as, you know, like, like, like Bugs Bunny all the way up to, like, Zootopia. Things like that. People just enjoy that. And for the most part, it's, you know, it's very just, like, family-friendly, but there is a, like, a not safe-for-work kind of side of the fandom.

Um, but we're very good at... There's a not safe-for-work, uh, echelon of every fandom, including probably Team Coco. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This work is not safe for work. I did hear those, someone was reading those fan, I think it was Sona had the fan fictions that.

Yes, yeah. No, no, there's that echelon of in every world. You can't go, if you're a geologist, there's a not safe for work fandom. Oh yeah, 100%. And the same goes for like the cryptozoology stuff. And that's why there's like a whole monster lover community, things like that.

But when I first started going to these- So you do comedy, cause you have all these different worlds there's that you're exploring or that you're part of. And you said that you're also in the comedy world, but in the furry world as well. So do those crossover, do you do comedy in the furry? At furry conventions.

At furry conventions? Yeah, so I really missed doing, I really missed doing improv specifically. So one year I asked a convention if I could host like an improv panel and we just called it, Who's Lion? So it was like an animal pun on whose line is it anyway. I don't know why,

but I think that's a very marketable idea. Who's lion? It's really funny. I like that. And we ended up, our first show had like 60 people and like what we ended up doing was we just kind of let the audience come up and participate. Like I would, you know, work and play the games.

I was just basically like running like, hey, we're playing this game now. And you know, we've had like up to 500 people at one show. I mean, obviously not everybody can participate at that point when there's like that many people, but we do try to get as many people up as possible to play in these games so we can just share in like the love. And everyone's dressed as animals.

Not everybody. So I would say like 10% of a furry convention actually like actually has like costumes. But then these are just people who are, you know, we're coming to hang out and we have like a common interest and they, you know, they want to come up on stage and, you know, have a good time. And some of them are in suit. Like I've done it in suit. Like when we do a charity version of Who's Lion, I'll generally be in my fursuit.

And what's your fursuit? So my fursuit is an African wild dog. I've had like a bunch of different fursuits throughout the years, but my current one is an African wild dog. So you're on stage doing comedy dressed as an African wild dog? Yes. Okay, I mean, my mind is expanding

in so many amazing ways. I'm still on that Mosh Man schlong. Yeah, the Mosh Man schlong. Yeah, the Mosh Man schlong. You just said that ready to go that was right off camera. What else? I have a ton right off camera. Let's do a parade. Come on.

Let's do a parade. So first of all, remember I talked about the grindable? Whoa! So this is like our invention. We actually have the provisional patent on these. We have two of them. We have the serpent interface and the xenon interface. That must have been a fun day at the patent office.

I can't just picture a really nerdy guy. And tell me what you have! I have these! Me! Well, thankfully my business lawyer is a patent lawyer and he's just like he's so cool about it He's like whatever and then you know another thing that we did was we actually ended up scaling it up So sysmen could use it as like a master purtory wait, is that just friction based or you did is an electronic? It's all silicone I've never seen you this involved in the engineering of anything.

You use it like you would a flashlight. What? You use it like you would a flashlight. Oh, a flashlight. Yeah. And it's all textured on the inside and everything. It's like a tube that you stick your dick into. It's a flashlight that you fuck.

Yeah, you fuck a flashlight. Yeah. But it's like, inside is not like a like a that's what a paper towel tube is for My wife's always like where's the tube? Why is a paper towel just everywhere lasts a little bit longer than that? How I can make them last You just got a shellac them first and bake them in the Sun My wife well why all these towels just all over the place?

Oh, God! Sorry, dear, I was fashioning a flesh light. Oh, my God. Wow, my marriage is over now. You're just gonna see me walking alone down the highway with a suitcase. And a paper towel too. No, no, no, you open the suitcase

and 15 paper towel holders fall out. Oh my God, this thing is broken. This thing is broken. So, all right, I'm picturing you doing improv or stand up on stage dressed as an African wild dog. That must be a little challenging because it's hard enough to do improv, but when you're dressed as a furry animal,

that's gotta be really challenging. Yeah, I mean, like we have microphones on stage. So one of the funny things about it is that, like when you do have like a fursuit and you are on stage and especially like, even if it's like a smaller crowd, like we still have to get the microphones on the fursuiters.

Yep. You know, normally I have no problem projecting. But even in suit, like I have issues with it. So you have to like put the microphone like all the way in the fursuit mouth. So it's up against your mouth in the head. So it kind of just like looks like you're well, deep throating a microphone when you're doing that. But yeah, so but for something untoward to happen. Yeah. So, uh, but yeah, no, we always have, like,

a really good time and... I love how delicate you were about, oh, and it's... I don't know how else to say this. You just showed us... nine different products that would get me arrested in any airport. I just saw a purple spiked clam that was a sex toy. A clam?

Yeah. Well, I mean, like I go through the airports all the time with these in my carry-on. Right. Well, they don't beep. Because I want to have, I want to make sure that they don't get lost because we've had like, like, because we go to conventions to sell and I've had like packages get lost like there's in in in right in in Boston Specifically there are two boxes of my toys That just never showed up to a convention in Boston that we were at because those are just somewhere

Yeah, no, they got delivered to the hotel and someone signed for them, but nobody could find them, right? So I don't know where they are. They knew what they had there. So now we put air tags in all of our boxes. They probably think they're staplers or something. Exotic staplers. Yeah. Ka-tinka, ka-tinka, ka-tinka.

Hey, I got this new paperweight. Yeah. You mean the Mothman? Yeah, I have a paperweight and look, I have a stapler that looks like, it's a slip. As you would call it, a clam would call it a clam. A clam. Listen, you've expanded my mind in wonderful ways.

And this is an impressive business that you've got going here. Thank you. It means a lot. Do you have a factory? Where is the actual production done? So it's done right here at my house. My entire basement is finished and like it's a finished basement

that we've like completely set up to do all the, we have seven 3D printers. Wow. We have a couple of vacuum chambers, because we have to take all the air out of the silicone before we pour it. So there's no bubbles in the toy. And yeah, we just do everything here, like just locally.

And I get all my supplies locally. I mean, I'm thinking there's chemicals then in your basement. You would hate there to be, there's never could be an explosion or anything. Cause you don't want these things raining down in the neighborhood. No, the dildo is not flammable. Look out, put up your umbrellas.

Like a meth lab? We do have a- Ka-blam! And I'm just picturing them coming down like missiles. All the dildos just raining from the sky. Yeah. But no, there's- Someone looks up and goes,

Oh no! Gloop. Out of control. This is an out of control interview. raining from the sky. But no, there's a- Someone looks up and goes, Oh no! We have an exhaust fan. Galoop, out of control. This is an out of control interview. Oh my God. I blame you, Sam. This is your fault. You took a very serious sober podcast.

Mm-hmm, yes. And it's become- Oh yeah, uh-huh. Very serious. We're very dramatic, serious podcast. Did Sam have a question for me? You have a question, Sam? Yeah, so one of the things that I always wondered is,

do you ever wish that they still made the Otaku at Taco Bell? Oh, that's right. I think I did a remote once. Did I do a remote once? Yeah, you did a remote. It's one of my favorites. And I went with, who did I go?

Hayes. I went with, yeah, I went with Chris Hayes. That was a fun remote. Yeah, it was. I have to say, and I'm not, we are not sponsored by Taco Bell or anything, but man, that was delicious. What was in it?

Do you remember? I'm trying to remember, it was delicious. It was like corned beef hash, potatoes. Yeah, I was gonna guess. And then I believe you dumped a Guinness on it. Yes. Well, you can't go wrong dumping a Guinness on anything. But yes, I remember Taco Bell,

they asked me to design something. And so I went all Irish on them. And I think I had one bite and then had a massive heart attack. Yeah, I'm shocked it's not like in every Taco Bell. I guess Taco Bell decided not to go wide with it. But if you're ever at the Dublin Taco Bell, it's their biggest seller. The old Taco.

Yeah. Sam. But yeah, like ever since then, anytime I can get potatoes and tacos, like there's like a couple of places. I mean, like Taco Bell does do that, but like there's like other places that like sell mashed potatoes and tacos and stuff like that.

I always have to get it because I always think of the- Well, they rip me off, man. They rip me off. You've got to make sure no one's ripping you off too. Hey, that's a good question because I'm sure it sounds like you're onto a market. There might be people out there that are like, hey, wait a minute, I'm glad you got the patents. That's a good question, because it sounds like you're onto a market. There might be people out there that are like, hey, wait a minute, I'm glad you got the patents.

That's the important thing, especially on the moth. Yeah, for that one, yeah, especially, yeah. It's still provisional patents, so rest assured that's sitting on some government office somewhere waiting to get approved. So. Right on their desk. Yeah, it's right there, yeah.

Sam, it was very cool talking to you. You're very funny and best of luck with your business. And we're very lucky to have you as a fan. Yeah, I'm lucky to have you guys to listen to because you guys are always on when I'm working on stuff. So I always save the podcast for when I have, like, you know, long days to get through orders. So...

That's very cool. We inspire the dildos. We do. You do. There's a little bit of us in that thing. Yes, in every single toy. And then my one partner wanted me to show you this. Oh!

He made a Team Coco colored. Look at that! Oh! This is a biomech. Actually, that's exactly what mine looks like. Oh my God. Well, I'm sorry, but I was in an industrial accident when I was nine. I was in a pumpkin patch that exploded.

All right, Sam, we're going to take off, but thank you so much. Take care. Yeah, it was nice meeting you all. Really cool meeting you, Sam. Have a great day. Bye-bye. Bye-bye. Conan O'Brien needs a fan, with Conan O'Brien, Sonam Ovsessian, and Matt Gourley.

Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Nick Leow. 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.