Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Andy Blitz, Jose Arroyo, Listener Questions

Episode Date: April 5, 2019

Conan writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell are joined by former Late Night with Conan writer Andy Blitz to talk about some of his favorite Conan remotes in celebration of 25 years of Conan, pranks he’s pulled, and The Slipnutz. Then, fellow Conan writer Jose Arroyo returns to clear his good name. Plus, Mike and Jessie talk about Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and more as they answer some listener questions.This episode is brought to you by Vrbo and LinkedIn. The Slipnutz Open For Slipknot Video: https://bit.ly/2uNgq4ICheck out Conan25: The Remotes here: https://conan25.teamcoco.com/Got a question for Inside Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone] and e-mail us at [e-mail] Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com.

And now it's time for Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Welcome to Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. I'm Mike Sweeney. I'm Jesse Gaskell. We're writers here at The Conan Show. And we're once again, we're back to show you behind the scenes here at The Conan Experience. Yes, The Conan Experience. It's an experience. The four-dimensional ride that is Conan. We just went live on teamcoco.com with 25 years of Conan remotes. Yes. That's the deal. 350 remotes.

It's starting in 1993, right up to the present. Yeah, and the remotes are, I think, some of people's favorite things that the show has even ever done. Yeah, and so many of these have not seen the light of day since the internet was invented. That's right. Yeah, yeah, and there's some great,

great funny pieces to discover online. Yeah. At Team Coco. And we have a former Conan writer on this week to talk to us. Yes. About some of his favorites. Yes. Andy Blitz.

Andy Blitz. Very funny comedian. And he was a writer on the old Late Night Show. And he's gone on to be a prolific writer on other shows. He wrote on Master of None. Yeah. And Review with Andy Daly. And we're very excited to have him here.

Yeah, he's got a lot of good stories. Yes, he does. And fun pranks he pulls. Oh, Andy. What a prankster. And then coming up a little later, we are going to atone for a sin. We committed in episode two. Five episodes in and we're already apologizing.

Yes. We're already backtracking and backfilling. So we have our fellow writer, Jose Arroyo, coming on to clear his good name. Yes. And then we're going to answer a few more listener questions. Yeah. Because those have been fun to get. So let's get right into our interview with Andy Blitz.

Here's Andy. We're here with Andy Blitz or Andrew Andy. I should know this by now, right? Because I've known you for many, many years. I have a research check on it. It was a thing when I had to you for many, many years. I have research check on it. But maybe you have a-

Let's go. It was a thing when I had to choose for the credits for my first episode. Oh, yeah. What's on your IMDb? And it was Andrew. It was? I'm asking. Oh.

I thought it was Andrew. I think it was Andy. Okay. But it was very stressful because I knew it would stick. And your parents? Do your parents? What do your parents call you? Only Andrew Blitz.

They call me Blitz sometimes. No, my parents call me Andrew. And then family calls me Andrew and friends call me Blitz mostly. Yeah. Yeah. The last name thing. I get that too.

This is Andrew Blitz slash Andy Blitz slash Blitz. Andy Blitz. a writer on late night uh for many years and a story writer many many many many shows and uh hilarious stand-up comic thanks you're welcome and do i have to introduce you as well no that's we're nobody yeah it's all about you andy i ran into you at a bar this weekend, Andy. Yeah. So that sort of precipitated this. Yeah.

This was fate because I never really leave home. No. Me neither. We were both there and we were both like, I've never been out on a Saturday night. Yeah. We're recording this in Andy's bathroom. Yeah. That's the only way we could get him to do it.

It's weird, but I had to agree that for all future episodes are also going to be recorded in my bathroom. Yeah, that's reasonable. That's fine. We had to check it out first, but we're totally cool with this bathroom. I like the echo. So you guys saw each other in a bar. We were in a bar. We did. We both were,

I think, a little embarrassed to be there, but it worked out. I mean, not really. It was. We both were, I think, a little embarrassed to be there, but it worked out. I mean, not really. It was a cool scene, and I always feel uncomfortable when people around me look very cool. I couldn't believe the amount of people that were there. I thought nobody likes to go out, but then I guess bars would go out of business. Probably. Is this bar one of our sponsors?

Do we have any bar sponsors? I know they should be. Yeah. Zebulon was the bar. Zebulon was the bar. It's called Zebulon. Yeah. Well, we're really glad you're here. Yeah.

Me too. Well, and it's sort of, it's the perfect opportunity for us to chat with you because Conan just released 25 years of remotes on all the field pieces. Team Cocoa.com came out recently. And they're all there. They're all there.

There's over 350, I think. Yeah. Is that every remote that was ever done? Every remote, mostly. Oh, sorry.

No, that's fine yeah that period where yeah James Lipton hosted the show

for a while went to Neverland yeah those have all been deep six I did a bit with James Lipton yeah

jumping right into stories sure name drop I was worried I had anxiety that I wouldn't remember

because I'm always afraid oh yeah i'm not gonna remember my past right and then you're gonna mention like name a single character that you did on the show right right and then i'm gonna struggle to come up with one and then you prove that you were on the show you're gonna get suspicious you're gonna check imdb and find that i would did not in infect. But then you're reading, you're reading James Lipton's memoir and he mentioned, he totally refreshed your recollection. The whole chapter. Yeah.

I, it was a new year's countdown. Yes. And I had him, um, we would, every year we would do a big, because we, we came on at midnight in the Midwest. Right. So we would do a central time zone countdown. In the middle of the show, right? Exactly.

1130 central time. Exactly. And so every New Year's Eve, right. And I had James Lipton dressed as a different character for each number. That was fantastic. Yeah. Wow. I forgot about that.

And that was one of those things sometimes writers make something and then they they cook something up with a pre-tape in that or an edit room and show the first time they show it to the writers everyone loves it so much we just keep watching it over and over again we watch it like 10 times in a row yeah but that was great and he um he i had him dress as batman and then i just missed he just changed out of his batman costume and was going to change into the he was in i can't remember it was like in a more reasonable costume like a cowboy or something you wanted a photo with him as batman well he ran hillary clinton was doing it she was a Senator at that point. And she ran,

she was doing an interview a live at five across the hall from us. And James Lipton knew her. Of course. And I was like, I just missed making James Lipton run into Hillary Clinton

while he was wearing the Batman costume. But he did run into her as a cowboy? He was a cowboy or something. Yeah, it would have been. Yeah. She would have decided

to retire from politics after that. Or have a different running mate, James. Pat Lipton. Then we started using him a lot in sketches. And he'd always come in with, he goes, I like the script, but I just had some idea. And he'd start pitching ideas and you'd be like, oh yes, we had some idea. And he'd start pitching ideas. And you'd be like, oh, yes, we could do that. And he'd be like, once again, you're not going to take a word of my advice, are you?

And he was briefly the head writer between Groff and you. Exactly. Yes. He hired me. He was that good. He was fun, though. He was always great to have around. Yeah.

So you did a sketch with James Lipton, and you did a lot of remotes. I did a lot of remotes, yeah. You actually starred in remotes, which is unusual, I think. I know. I don't think he's ever let a writer do that since you. No. I love the positivity. Yeah yeah because no one could follow who knows no way um no i really appreciate it that was very nice of yeah to to let me be in

the pieces you was the first one you're in i guess obviously you started out by being in a remote with conan i'm guessing. Am I wrong? I don't remember the chronology. Probably the apartment one. Yes, I would guess, which is really funny. Conan hunted for an apartment for you. Exactly. Right. With a very nice and long-suffering realtor.

She's great. She was a good foil for you, too. Good sport. She was perfect. Right. Oh, and then you two shot her. Oh, too. Good sport. She was perfect. Right. Oh, and then you two shot her. Oh, boy. I am just remembering this now.

Oh. You two shot a remote that was probably the second one. Oh. Yep. Which was getting you dressed for the Emmy Awards. Conan was going to help me get ready for the Emmys. Right. And so we shot

about half of the remote maybe. Uh-oh. Oh, you didn't finish it. I don't think we finished it. I think, no, maybe we shot more than half. Alright. But we shot it on September 10th, 2001. Uh-huh. I think I know where this is going. Do you?

We were not nominated for an Emmymy oh so that was unexpected tragedy yeah conan was helping me we went to get me fitted for a tuxedo maybe got like manicures pedicures something like that and then um i told conan i used to have more i had a phobia flying which was another went to another right you took a taxi but i told conan it, I had a phobia of flying, which was another, went to another remote. That's right. You took a taxi. But I told, it's a real phobia. Oh, I didn't know. I didn't remember that.

Yeah. I mean, it wasn't like, people have pointed out that I then went to India and obviously did not drive to India. Right. So they busted me. I'm considered a fraud among the remote fans. On Reddit. Yeah, Reddit. There's a whole thing. Andy Blitz is a fraud a whole lot of reasons he takes mass transit but i told conan i was nervous about flying

and he said don't worry nothing ever happens on those cross-country flights and the next day was 9-11 that's true that's a completely true story. That's a real quote. Yes. Oh, okay. So the Emmy remote, were the Emmys that night or no? No, the Emmys were going to be that weekend. That weekend. Did they actually happen? They did a month later. Yes, but first

I, so I was going to go in early to watch the footage and figure out what else we had to shoot. Right. You were going to go to downtown. Uh, I was going to, yes, we were going to shoot. Um, I did, when I got there, there was like news people and somebody said like, uh, I was just saying yesterday it was like a slow news time or something like that. So in my brain, I was just thinking about my remote in my in the back of my brain.

I was like, that's a weird thing to say unless something has happened. Yeah. Did that make sense? That was not that didn't make sense. Did you think that maybe word had gotten out about the remote? Yeah. I think there was there was a big uh question is it is it acceptable or not to air this remote in the general public i think then the news was covering

so it was never edited so it's just raw that i don't know what happened yeah gone and well you used to do something different every year for the emmys if i remember correctly oh that's right you you were a bit of a prankster you dated a prank yeah we would go for a while and we would always lose we'd always lose we lost every year but i i feel we we lost with real style. Did you win at some point? We won one year, yes. But this is pre. But this is before that. Yes. Nominated, but always losing.

Yeah. The one that really got it perfect was I flew out to L.A. Thank you. L.A., where we are now. To NBC, yes. We were in New York, so they would fly us to LA and put us up. Right. And I brought my girlfriend at the time, and we came out.

And then we would all meet in front of the hotel and share limos to go to the ceremony. NBC would spring for limos. Yes. They were very generous. You didn't each get your own. There would be like four riders and their significant others. Four or five in each limo. Right.

And then, but everybody would be gathered because the limos would all mostly pick people up from the same place. Right. And so people just noticed, oh, that looks like Andy Blitz and his girlfriend a little bit. And then they just came up and started chatting with everyone. And I think maybe, Sweeney, I understand that you put it together. That's what I heard in the report. So it was we hired lookalikes. Oh, my God.

Yeah. How did you find these people? It was a friend of my brother's who didn't even look that much like me but he had he had kind of long hair right and i don't really have hair at all so we made him shave his head and then he's i didn't know that you made him shave his head made him shave his head and his beard was a little whiter so he dyed his beard so he was unemployed he truly had nothing going he uh yeah i can't remember if i paid him or promised to pay him something happened and he brought his wife okay um who wore a uh a red wig to resemble the red hair of my girlfriend of your girlfriend

yes and he but she had a his wife had a russian accent which my actual girlfriend did not right that's that's the only way we knew something was a yes a miss yes wait a minute and i gave them photos of everybody on staff who would be there in the limo and their backstories and things to talk to them about right and so they just would they would resume a conversation right from the airplane yeah so from the office right so they got in the limo yeah and everyone's just like oh you know what fuck you blitz god damn no it was very funny at first but yeah at what point did people figure it out? This guy is too funny. This guy is funnier than me.

The great thing was he came out both barrels blazing. He's like, hey, Mike. He looked at me. He's like, Mike, how? You know, I never saw this guy ever. And he knew you had taught him little specific private things about each person right that only you would know right and and that people would not necessarily be happy to be shared with a complete stranger exactly so he he did one round really well and then you know it's

like a it's a 45 minute limo ride and like six minutes into the ride he was out of gas he was just like uh so guys the Emmys huh and we're just like yeah they had strict instructions to insist that they were us yes he wouldn't break character and if anybody was to ask them

like where did Andy find you he'd be like where did I find me right exactly I'm Andy a mirror yeah but did you not go to like, where did Andy find you? He'd be like, where did I find me? Right. Exactly. What are you talking about? I'm Andy. A mirror? Yeah. So did you not go to the Emmys then, or did you eventually?

No, we drove. You didn't go? We drove to the beach. We drove to a dinner in Malibu. Uh-huh. That actually sounds a lot better. And it was the most fun I ever had on Emmys night. So you, to clarify, you did win the Emmys that year by not going.

I did win by not going. not going to the beach. Yeah. You, you pulled a stunt once when we moved to LA, it was Superbowl Sunday. Oh, okay. And, um, I was about to watch the game. I do. Yeah. About to watch game with my wife and my younger son, my older son wasn't home. And the doorbell rang literally during the national anthem. And I went and opened the front door and Andy was there with a bag of kettle corn. And you're like, Hey man, I'm here. I'm here. I'm ready to go. Super bowl party.

Right. Yeah. It was the first I knew you were dropping by. It was just your family and Andy. It was my wife, my son, and and andy and i i knew you were doing a bit because of your history but and i'm so i didn't want to let on to you i didn't want to blink so i'm like yeah come on in man we were expecting you to have a seat and we're watching the super bowl and you know like i i think i my wife well Cynthia knows you. Yeah did she give you the ad?

No she literally knew oh you're doing a blitz so my younger son is still in a blitz? I mean he was a little bewildered. So how long did you stay there Andy? So I refused to blink so yeah

Stayed there for the whole game I refused to blink as well. You're right. Which begs the question, what is the difference between a bit and actually you guys just watching the Super Bowl together?

Well, it turned into a really wonderful... Civilization started as a bit. It's like, I'm going to put these little things from the trees in the ground. It'll be hilarious.

Yeah. It's true. We ended up just having a wonderful time watching the game. Packers-Steelers. I don't remember that yeah i don't think cynthia enjoyed that bit but um i think she enjoyed it this is a whole this is a whole series of of bits i did that were not necessarily appreciated do they all involve you coming over and being fed at their house. Yeah. That's right. You got chili.

Oh yeah, thank you. I owe you for that. That's today's Blitzy and Practical Jokes and Bloopers. I'm a real Clooney. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, so remote. So then you did the one where you looked at

apartments with Conan, and then there was the one in Toronto. Did you get an apartment from that remote? Oh, that's a good question. I don't remember how I got my current apartment. Oh, you're still in that apartment? I'm in the apartment that was in the remote where Conan had to help me decorate it.

Oh, yes. Conan helped me decorate my apartment. That help me decorate it. Oh, yes. Conan helped me decorate my apartment. That's where I live. Oh, wow. Yeah. And I don't really have more furniture than I did at that time. So we need to do another remote where Conan redecorates. Yeah, absolutely.

That was a while ago. That was a while ago. That's pretty... And you don't have any... Sweeney sweetie got sad that's what his silence was that's a long time to not buy furniture well it's new york city you don't give up an apartment yeah yeah that would be crazy yeah i would yeah and it's in a great neighborhood is it rent controlled i don't remember um i guess i should pay right probably oh boy what else uh dudes aplenty you know i did that dudes aplenty is a huge fan favorite and i you don't people don't know that that one i think more so than than most a lot of reboots was more driven by a particular writer, which in this case was you.

Yeah. There's tons of ad libs in it, but there are also a lot of touches that you came up with beforehand, which is great. Yes. Thank you. I recently found an outline. Maybe it was like after American Idol was happening or something. I found an outline for that bit that I had written. And it was because maybe it was around the time of these competition shows,

American Idol starting or something. It was going to be, there was this piece that I don't even know if it's, it's online or not. I know dudes are plenty is online. Right. There was a thing that they narrowed it down from maybe six billion was maybe the world population back then this was a billion less people right wow there's a billion more people to enjoy that remote and yet the same apartment anyway go ahead so the um and then they were

eliminating uh just the first two people that were played by me and Doug Stolle. And then it was like to form a boy band, making the band. Maybe that was a, there was a show making the band. Oh, that's probably it. So it was, Conan got down to his five boy band and then it was going to keep going and I was going to have him pick like a favorite band member from that boy band and then a favorite body part of that person so it was just going to be like the winner was just going to be more eliminations the torso

one of the singers but yeah i know that was um dudes aplenty yeah yeah we wrote the song before yeah i wrote those beautiful lyrics. Yes. And then they came out and performed it live after the remote, which was great. Yeah, with choreography. Yes. Did you co-write that with Vivino? Jimmy Vivino.

Yeah. Yeah. Who's still the music director on the show. Yeah. Yeah. He wrote, yes. And then we did a follow-up to Dudes of Plenty where we made a video. A music video.

Oh, right. Yeah. So the two songs, Baby, I Wish You Were My Baby. Right. Is the first song. And then Awesome Girl is the second song. And the Colton Dunn is in the group. That's right.

Now on Superstore. Yeah. Oh, that's fantastic. Yeah. Thought I recognized it. We had a lot of people kind of start out in sketches on the old late night show. Right. It's sort of like Law and Order where you get everyone in New York.

Exactly. At one point. Do I do the police procedural or corn? I'll have my agent weigh in. Yeah. Well, the other remotes we did we did i did i took a cab to uh toronto right oh yeah because of your fear of flying my fear of flying and we were doing a week of shows in toronto yeah and so the the bit was one of our riders didn't want to fly with everyone else he went out and well here's how he went and

then it was literally you going outside ruckfeller center you see the marquee you go out get a cab yeah i was hailing cabs and actually and you did that in real yeah and i was people i think often wonder when they see stuff like that how real it is and if you already had a cab driver booked for it did you yeah just had to keep going until you found someone who was willing? Yeah. We annoyed a lot of people that were struggling to make a living and feed their families. Pay their lease for the day. And you're saying, take me to Toronto.

Yeah. How many, how many false, how many misses did you get before you got a guy who's like, sure, get in the back? 4,890. It's like a, now you're thinking of the, uh, the Slipknots. That was, that was the role. There were more rejections for people to cover the Slipknots song. Oh my gosh.

I forgot about that. Yeah. Oh yeah. Have you ever told that story? I don't know. But it was. Because Slip Nuts is another big fan favorite. Yeah. And I forgot this piece you did where you were working on a cover album.

A cover of all the Slip Nuts greatest hits. Right. Of all the greatest hits. Which was all Slip Nuts. Right. And the first person we asked to do it was Steve Wynwood. And he said yes. Wow.

And I was like, wow, that's amazing. And it was the first time I heard actually amazingly talented musicians and the kind of legend singing the Flip Nuts song. Yeah. That's incredible. And then the second person we asked was Patti Smith. Right. And she said yes.

What? Right. And then I was just summoned to Patti Smith's dressing room. And it was just me and her and her acoustic guitar. And she played me her arrangement of the Slipknot song. It was like, I was losing my mind. I could not believe like what was happening.

And it was, it was like beautiful. It was actually like a beautiful version of the song. And she's Patti Smith. I mean, that's just amazing. But in my head, I'm like Steve Wynwood and Patti Smith,

Battalion 1000. I'm like, who won't do this? Yeah. Let's ask in my head, I'm like, Steve Wynwood and Patti Smith, Battalion 1000. Sure. I'm like, who won't do this? Yeah. Let's ask Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney. Yeah. Well, at that point, I did get ambitious. So like, there was.

This is the part I remember. You two did like a whole show or something. They did a whole show. Yeah. You two, the a whole show or something? They did a whole show. Yeah. You two, the band You Two. The band You Two did, they did interviews and they played, I think, four songs. And. Wow.

We did, the whole show was dedicated to you two. Yeah. And they were playing Madison Square Garden for a few nights. Right. They were probably mad. So they had time to kill. Yeah. They were in New York. I wanted them. Looking them stuff to do to do it

live on stage the flipknot song for their crowd uh um and i think i i badgered jim pitt jim pitching that to them he was our musical uh the booker would book. Wait, are you serious that you actually pitched the idea of them performing it live during one of their shows at Madison Square Garden? Yeah. Just admit it. It didn't say it. Yes. But I was, I had also, that's one of my opening negotiating positions.

You were willing. I was willing to have them do a studio version. Oh, see. That's very smart. If they had said said that I wasn't going to walk away. Right. Right. Good. Good.

Good. Good. But they wouldn't do that. I thought you'd gotten crazy. And then the tables just started to turn. And I was like, okay, we got one.

No. Right. Yeah. And then, um, do you think you too, like reached out to, I've got to warn you about being asked to do the Slipknot song.

And it would have been an interesting montage of people rejecting me when I would go. I asked Billy Joel to do it. Also at Madison Square Garden. At that point, I think I was in retreat. I was just like, wherever, you can record it at home. And he wasn't quite following the bit didn't the bit right a fan yeah it didn't compute for him yeah and i think he politely declined dolly parton said no the sweetest she was it was like so nice she she was just like i'm sorry i don't understand this so you pitched her in person i

think that might have been stack stack might have gone to dolly part this. So you pitched it to her in person. I think that might've been Stack. Stack might've gone to Dolly Parton. You hired Stack to play you. And go pitch it. Yeah. She wouldn't hear a pitch from anyone except for Slipknot Andy. There was a bit I always wanted to do,

which was we were going to reunite. I was going to do it with was re we were going to reunite. I was going to do with the, this other writer, Greg Cohen, we were going to reunite a really famous comedy duo and it was David Bowie used to do comedy with Earl Weaver, the manager of the Baltimore Orioles. And the pitch was to literally get them together and do a comedy routine. Oh yeah. And it never, Earl said no. Exactly. Well, you, you start with Earl. No. Uh, yeah, never, never Bowie. I was always told Bowie. The answer was Bowie's not in performance mode right now, which I thought was a great answer yeah like if he was in performance mode he'd consider

it well so what was the culmination of the the covers the uh the cover band how did it all eventually i mean it was a whole like i i pitched to neil young and he just he just stared at me right and was just like thought slip nuts were a real kind of nut. And just like, like didn't want to like, clearly he wasn't interested. And I just want to say, I'm so sorry I bothered you.

Right. But he was like, what's a slip nut? You know, I was like, oh, it's just like a peanut. So like,

oh, he was just, he was just messing with me. Yeah. He was messing. And then who else? There was a lot of other no's and then i was worried uh but then but then we had a breakthrough then we uh turned it around oh excellent yeah yeah asked to do it and uh chris martin and could not have been nicer like agreed to do the bit before even knowing what slip notes were he's just like whatever you want me to sing what you seem cool and uh he he was just super nice about it um but you should

have had him go to neil young after that yeah got him to yeah do a duet or earl weaver christmas well actually then he did um the thing about it was because coldplay understandably was more interested in their own song and rehearsing that, Chris Martin had forgotten to tell the rest of Coldplay that he had spoken to me and agreed to do this bit. And he told them, like, oh, he's like, oh, we're

going to sing a song by the Slipknots. And the rest of Coldplay was like, that's when they broke up. Yes. Yeah, that was the beginning of the end. So what, wait, so did they actually? They did it, yeah. So we got it. So that's when they broke up yes yeah that was the beginning of the end so what wait so did they actually they did it yeah they did it so we got it so that's out there somewhere all right so put that online yeah all right that we have to get that so i think we put all those coals together right and it aired on one show the the different covers yeah yeah okay that will tribute

on nuts. Okay. We'll have to get that online. Yeah. I wonder if we can try to get that online in conjunction with this, this podcast. Yeah. All right. Oh, that'd be cool.

All right. Let's do that. And then we opened a four that's on, that's been posted online. That's online. Now is, is, uh,

the slip nuts opening for slip. Not for real. For real. Yeah. In, uh, East Rutherford trying to expand our fan base i watched that recently and i i was once again filled with terror when you guys hit the stage it's it was yeah it's scary legitimately frightening yes uh yeah stack

was saying that uh reminded me that there was a guy um i don't know who he was a stage manager for them who told us like he's like be careful right before we went on just said be careful these guys will often throw batteries at bands that they like oh my god wow so who knows what's going to happen to you and then uh it was legitimately scary i wanted to go out and do an encore um i thought it'd be fun to do after the band uh in the middle in the middle of their set for their encore yeah that was yeah but you wanted to go so you guys ran off and then you wanted to run right back out yeah yeah yeah Yeah. Yeah. But the other guys had children that they felt more. Oh, right.

They have families. Yeah. Right. Yeah, exactly. Right. But what a career. And we did a reunion. We did a reunion in San Francisco.

Right. Yeah. At Sketch Fest? Yeah. And they dedicated, it was a whole panel and everything? Well, no, we just did a show. We did a performance of our classics for the audience in the theater there. Nutheads?

Yeah. Yeah. There was a lot of Nutheads. Samford, Neil Young lives up in that area. What if he was in the crowd and was like, I fucked up. I blew it. The one that got away. No, I mean,

I hold a grudge, so I left instructions that Neil Young is not to be admitted into the theater under any circumstances. I printed out a photo of him, and I wrote his name with a sharpie. And then I said, do you know how to be wearing? Andy, thanks so much for coming in.

This is great. If you think of anything else you want to. Andy, thanks so much for coming in. Thank you for coming. This is great. This is great. If you think of anything else you want to talk about, just find me at Nebulon. Oh, yes. You have a residency there, right? Yeah. I'll go there. That's where I go. All right.

I feel the- Do you hit the turntables? Mm-hmm. I will do the next one in your kitchen. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you, Andy. Thanks, Andy.

My pleasure. Thanks, guys. Thank you. Bye. Bye. do the next one in your kitchen yeah well thank you andy thanks my pleasure thanks guys thank you bye bye all right this is uh this is new territory new territory we uh need to deal with some business here. It's sort of like when the newspaper issues corrections. Right. Or do newspapers ever apologize? I don't know. They issue corrections. Clarifications, if you will.

Politicians issue apologies. Yes. We're here with a writer, Jose Arroyo, who's been on the show before. Hi, Jose. Welcome back. Good. Nice to be back.

Yay. In episode two, we Nice to be back. Yay. In episode two, we talked to Diana Harmon. So we asked about the weirdest request she'd ever gotten. Right. Because requests run the gamut. So she talked about a request she got when she was new, and it was to look for some porn for a comedy bit.

And we laughed because since the beginning of the show, the late night show, there's been many bits that have touched upon pornography and its role in our society. As a matter of fact, oh, yes. I was just thinking that someone once said that 90% of humor is below the belt. You know, it's like either sex, it's either extramarital functions. Right, right, right.

It's just a very common denominator. It's very common. Yeah. And anyway, we were talking to Diane and she's talking about a bit that she researched for a writer and I named the writer and it's Jose. Well, you said, let me guess. Yes. And then you said. Well, because she said the writer was really self-conscious asking her and it's Jose. Well, you said, let me guess. Yes. And then you said.

Well, because she said the writer was really self-conscious asking her about it. Yeah. But I thought that some things were kind of left out. Like she said, well, a writer came up with this idea and then went down to research. But writers, and this is good bones, you know, sort of bare bones knowledge of how the show works. Right. A writer conceives a brilliant idea or the idea I had either way, but, and then presents it to, you know, in a writer's meeting and then the

head writer gives it a thumbs up or thumbs down, sometimes consults with Conan about whether to go forward, sometimes makes the decision on their own and then sends the writer to produce the idea. Right. I was a head writer at the time. I totally proved the idea. Yes. You weren't just going rogue into Diane's office. I just wanted to make it clear because I am the most self-conscious person in the world.

No, I know. I know. I know. That I wasn't doing anything rogue or bizarre. Oh my goodness gracious. Yes. And this podcast is a perfect example of how far I will go to try to make myself

absolutely crystal clear that I didn't mean it, you know, whatever. But only because in the end, I think the podcast with Diane ends with, I just want to say, I'm sorry. And I thought, oh, did I say, do something that would require someone to say I'm sorry? And I was like, no, I kind of followed every protocol. Absolutely. I know. And the one who said to say sorry now is me because

I don't think I, when we did the interview with her, I was just like, oh, well, everyone knows Jose. So, yeah, I'm glad we, I'm glad he came on and cleared the air. This mic is always open for people who have regrets about their interviews and want to come on. And I'm excited to see who. Yeah, no, I had no regrets about, I wasn't part of that original interview. You were not part of that interview. I just wanted to add context. The fact that the bid had been approved. Yeah, thanks for letting me come on and clarify.

Yeah, thank you. The most self-conscious writer on staff. All right, I'm going to go. Your word's not ours. All right. Okay, thank you, Jose. Thank you. All right, bye.

And to close out the show, we have a few listener questions. Let's check them out right now. Yes. Hey, Mike and Jesse. I had a question for both of you. With the release of Conan 25 and the remote, I wanted to know, Mike, what was your favorite remote on the old late night show? And Jesse, what was your favorite remote

since your tenure on the current show? Thanks. Hope you have good luck getting the good snacks. Well, that's an interesting question. And it dovetails perfectly with the theme of this episode.

That's right. The 25 Years of Conan remotes now on TeamCoco.com. I have a ton of favorites. Some of my favorites were ones that were done very last minute and we had to turn them around really fast. Like Conan out in a snow blizzard one day. We just ran out and shot something and got it on the air. That's fun. Yeah.

But I love Triumph at the Star Wars. Oh, yeah. It's such a classic. Remote. Were you there for that? It was right at the Ziegfeld, I think, which is two blocks from 30 Rock. So I went back and forth a little bit, but no. Because how long was the shoot?

The shoot? Oh, boy. Was it over more than one day? Triumph remotes are notoriously long shoots. They can run really long. But I also love that one because it was a great combination of jokes that were written by the writers and then great, including Robert Smigel, and then great ad libs by Robert on the spot. So it's a perfect amalgamation of the two. And I think the most famous line from that remote is when Triumph with Darth Vader goes,

Oh, which one of these buttons do you push to have your mommy come pick you up? And that was written by Andy Secunda, who's a really funny writer and a great performer. So I don't know if he ever gets credit for that. And it comes up all the time. People bring up that line. Ask about that line specifically? All the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah. what's your fave um well

i did i i was lucky enough to get to work on a triumph remote too since i've been here which was triumph goes to the trump inauguration oh right it was insane i can't believe i went to the trump inauguration i forgot you that's amazing so it was you, obviously Robert. It was me and Robert and Todd Levin. Oh, wow. Okay. Yeah. And then it was really, I mean, it was just a crazy cultural experience to have. But yeah, there were a lot, I mean, there were a lot of counter protesters. And so there was lots of fodder. Lots. And Robert's fearless. Like a lot of times you'd be like, well, we're not going to go talk to that crowd. And then you look over and he's already over there with the puppet.

It's like, I guess we are talking to that group. Yeah, he was getting right into it. I mean, we'd find big groups of like frat boy. Right. And he was getting right in there. And everyone pretty much knew Triumph and liked him Yeah, that helped. Oh, that helps. Yeah. But it really was. So I was also there for the Women's March after the day after. Oh, and the the crowds for the Trump inauguration were tiny. I was going to ask you that was It was very anemic. So you can verify. I can verify. I was there. That great controversy that it truly was under attended.

Yeah. Okay. And the thing I really remember was taking the metro to the mall for the Trump inauguration. It was like, no problem. Plenty. Like we sat down on the metro and then for the Women's March, it was so packed that I think it took us like 45 minutes just to even get up to the Metro train. Wow. And then there were trains going by that were completely full, so you couldn't even get on a train.

And it was like packed with everywhere. It was packed to the gills. It was like that here in LA. And that's the LA subway. Right, right. It right right was no one even knows exists was packed yeah but um i have another favorite remote yes from early on which was uh it was conan and dave franco um go on tinder oh that's a great one and it was so much fun because we didn't know where it was going to go right Right. And we were trying, they were talking to people on Tinder.

Right. And matching with them and then trying to get somebody to actually meet up with them. And everyone was terrified. And so I had to get on the phone with, and I was pretty new here, and I had to get on the phone with a woman that they had matched with on Tinder and try to convince her to meet up with them. Yeah. And let them come over to her house.

And she agreed. And they went over and it was so fun because she was there with her brothers. Oh, good. And their family was really sweet and game. It was nice to have a crew there. Do you know what I mean? Yes, yes. And I think it helped, too, that I was a woman and I was talking to her.

But how insane, I mean, to have someone call you and be like, can we, this is, you know, Conan O'Brien and Dave Franco, can we come over? Well, but she knew, didn't she know it was them from the Tinder match? Well, but I think you would imagine that that was, that the person was lying. Yeah, that they were catfishing you. Right, right. Because a lot of people put celebrity photos on there and it's not really the celebrity. I guess. This is the, right, yeah, you can pretend to not know. I don't not really the celebrity. I guess. Right.

Yeah. You can pretend to not know. I don't. How Tinder works. I blissfully don't know. But yeah, it's fun when the remotes, when you don't know what the ending is going to be. Right. In the beginning.

And that happens a lot of times. No, that is exciting. That is fun when it has a story arc like that and you have to, you go with the flow and you figure it out. And maybe follow a new thread that you didn't even think you'd find. Very exciting. It's fun. That happens a lot. Yeah.

When that happens on remotes, it's, and then you're like, I think this is the ending. Then you just kind of figure out how to put a button on it. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, thanks for the question. hey guys loving the podcast just calling in with a quick question what's the weirdest flex you've ever heard conan say weird flexes uh from conan around the office thanks weird flexes yeah sounds like a fetish site. He would do a flex where he'd imitate an obnoxious rich guy, like, just like, yeah, things are pretty good.

And then he'd sneeze and he'd pull his hand up to his nose and blow out like a whole wad of cash. I'd say that's my favorite Conan flex I've seen. Yeah. He's very good at finding, if you make even the tiniest, like if you're talking to him and you stumble over a word, even the tiniest bit, he'll grab onto that immediately. Like you have a speech impediment. I feel like You can't make any mistakes around him. I stopped talking in front of him, I think, in 2004. And if you observe closely, I don't, I don't, I just don't open my mouth. Yeah. And he'll often do, he likes to do bad impressions of people where he'll just go, I'm Jesse.

I'm stupid. This is, I'm Jesse. I'm stupid. This is what I sound like. Is it what I sound like? It might be. I don't know. Well, that's all the time we have for that question. Thank you, caller. Hey, keep those questions coming.

Those are so fun. Yeah. And if you have more questions, call us at 323-209-5303. All right. That's our show. See you next week. Yeah. We have to.

We're contractually obligated to. Yes. So we'll see you next time. And we like you. Yeah. Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast, is hosted by Mike Sweeney and me, Jesse Gaskell. Produced by Kevin Bartelt. Engineered by Will Becton.

Mixed by Ryan Connor. Supervising producer is Aaron Blair. Executive produced by Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross. Jeff Ross. Jeff Ross. And Colin Anderson and Chris Bannon at Earwolf. Thanks to Jimmy Vivino for our theme music and interstitials. You can rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts.

And of course, please subscribe and tell a friend to listen to Inside Conan on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you like best. Ta-da! ever platform you like that this has been a team Coco production in association with you