Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Andy Richter Revisits His Favorite Remotes & CONAN in Berlin

Episode Date: May 24, 2023

Andy Richter joins Mike and Jessie to discuss some of his favorite remotes, including his trip to Woodstock, visiting his old apartment in Chicago, and eating pot brownies while riding in a rickshaw in the Mardi Gras parade. Plus, Mike and Jessie are abruptly interrupted by the one and only INTERRUPTER (AKA writer Brian Stack) to break down the origin story of the classic bit. Got a question for Inside Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone] or e-mail us at [e-mail]. 

And now, it's time for Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Welcome to Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Welcome yourself. Okay, I will. Hi, Mike. Hi, Mike Sweeney, writer on The Conan Show, and I'm here with another Conan writer, Jesse Gaskell. That's me.

Hi. Hi, Jesse. How are you? Oh, I'm well. Thanks so much for asking. Yes. Well, even though we've seen each other every day. All the time.

All the time. Everywhere. We just run into each other a lot. So, but. Yeah. We just spend a lot of time with each other traveling internationally, in fact. Right up until the Rider Strike was called, we were working on a new Conan travel series. Right.

Which was just announced. Which was just announced. We had to keep it under wraps. It's going to be on Max, hopefully, someday. Someday. If there's still television. Right. But you know what?

If no one ever sees this, we had a good time. We have a few photographs. It might be for the best. But it did get interrupted by the writer's strike. But the idea is we go back to work when this is all over. Yeah, we just pick right back up. We have two shows in the can. Two in the can.

We went to Norway and we went to Thailand. And this was fun. You probably saw this. So in Norway, we had these really incredible drone operators who were like just at the top of their game. I mean, they were killing it. And they gave us these beautiful sweeping drone shots. They used the Inspire 2. Yes, of course.

As opposed to the- With the IntelliCore processing. Exactly. Instead of the Marvic 3. Yes. Is it the Marvic? It's the Marvic 3. We had a long conversation about which one to go with.

We did. And they encouraged us to go with the- The Inspire 2. Inspire 2. That's state of the art. And it made all the difference. It really did. But it requires two operators.

So- Right. Is it a scam a bit like, oh, I need, you know, I can't do it alone. That would be, sure, whatever, fine. So we had these guys. Yeah, we had these guys and they were,

you know, they show up and they were like, basically how you would cast drone operators to look. Yes. If you were, drone operators to look. Yes. If you were, if they were actors. You know, I guess you're right. And they had their own drone vehicle. They had a car. Yeah, they had.

But they were like hit men. Like they opened the back and they just start putting tubes together. And yeah, they were very impressive. Yeah, slapping cranks on it. And then, and they were so fast and they were very impressive. Yeah, slapping cranks on it. And they were so fast and they were really good. And we knew that Succession had filmed in Norway when we were there because a lot of our local crew had worked on Succession as well.

And that was their big like, you know, like, yawn, yawn, we'll do you. Yeah, we did Succession. But just so you know, we just did Succession. Yeah. Like, okay, fine um and then when we were watching the norway episode of succession of succession right not of golden uh they they go out to this retreat right um near with madison river crew yeah and it's in this beautiful remote part of Norway. And in the background

of one of the scenes, someone's flying a drone. Yeah. And it's our drone operator. I know. They got on camera. He's on camera. Oh, my God.

As a drone operator. I know. That's unbelievable. And I was just, I swear that's one of the drone operators. It was totally him. He kind of looked like Greg a little bit.

He did. I know. So initially I thought it might be Greg, but then when he shouldn't be positive. I had to eyeball Greg in the foreground and then I was like, okay. There can't be two Gregs. He's the Inspire 2 operator. Yeah. He has like the body of Greg.

Right. But the brain of Tom. Right. What a potent combo. Yeah. Yeah, I know. What an Easter egg just for four people. And maybe their family. Did you recognize the drone? Were they using the Inspire?

It was the Inspire 2. It was. Yeah, there's no question about it. All I was wondering is where's the other second operator? Oh, where was the second operator? That's a great point. It's a scam. One operator inspired two.

Ah, they bullshitted us about needing two guys. Well, but they didn't need it to be worth, I mean, it wasn't filming anything. So maybe you can just play with the drone if it doesn't have a camera on it. That's a really good point.

I'm just trying to save your asses. Drone operator apologist. Now, you need two operators for the Inspire 2. One to pilot and one to operate the camera. But they took amazing... Oh, the footage is gorgeous. It's gorgeous. Yeah. I mean, it was one of those things where I was

like, no, no, just get the cheaper thing. I mean, who cares? I can't tell the difference. But then you really, you look at it and it's like, oh, we're, I mean, it makes us look like Succession. Yeah. No, it's very beautiful. Very beautiful. Yeah. So someday you'll get to see that, we hope. And in the meantime, you still have Inside Conan. Right. In the meantime you still have inside conan right in the meantime we're gonna dig we're gonna keep living in the past yes whatever we're like old war veterans like remember what else can we dig up and well the theme of this season of course as we dig into the past is conan on the road yeah Yeah. So all his remotes. Conan outside the studio. Travel shows.

Mm-hmm. All of that stuff where he left the desk. Right. And our guest today is someone who I can safely say loved being outside the studio. Yeah. Driving home. Exactly. Andy Richter.

Yes. Andy Richter, who actually, I I learned initially started the remotes for late night. Right. Like really was kind of the remote guy initially. Like Conan was like the housewife. Yes. In the studio, making meals, taking care of the kids. And Andy was the guy going out doing remotes out on the road.

Going out into the field. Initially, back in 93 and 94. And then kind of late or the summer of 94, Conan started doing his own remotes. And then we were off to the races. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, so Andy has a lot of really great memories behind the scenes of some of those early remotes

like riding the gyroscope at Space Camp and interviewing bands while completely covered in mud at Woodstock and we did finally get to find out a question that I had had which was what he did

with his downtime when we were in Berlin when he wasn't working right he was there for like three days, but only taped one scene. So we're like, the whole time, I'm like, what is he doing? Yeah, I was jealous.

Oh, so jealous. He was gallivanting around Berlin. He was. So here's Andy Richter. Well, we're here with an old friend. An old friend. Hi. Somehow, we had no one booked.

He was in the hallway. We grabbed him. Put a bag over his head. Sometimes not having anything to do really pays off. Yes. Yeah. I was just here. You know, there's snacks here.

Familiar faces. Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi. Yeah, so I came in. And the second you relaxed, that's snacks here, familiar faces. Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi. Yeah. So I came in. And the second you relaxed, that's when we grabbed you. No, I was happy to come on. And I'm going to preface this.

I told Mike this already. You not so much because I wasn't as mean to you. I listened to the previous version of this podcast that I had been on, which was in April of 2019. The first time. Yes. Right. We were just getting started. Certainly, you were probably very kind and gentle.

No, I will tell you what happened was just that at that time, I had just, my marriage was ending. And I had just moved out like two months before that. I think you had just come from therapy. That's exactly right. You had come from therapy, which you mentioned. I do therapy on the phone. Right. And I was in my office doing a like choking, sobbing therapy session.

And then was like, okay, done. Time to go talk about the show. Here's Andy Richter. No, but I came in, shot out of a rocket. And I was so mean to you, Mike. I was so shy. I don't remember. No, I just like, you were like, no, I just was, I was an asshole.

I'm sorry. Jesus. Now I feel worse. I didn't know what was happening. No, no, I just was, I was an asshole. I'm sorry. Jesus. Now, now I feel worse. I didn't know it was that bad. No, no, no. I was, I think your therapist owes me an apology for getting you that riled up. Well, I am curious though. So Andy, so you listened to that interview recently.

Last night. Oh boy. You've been on the podcast since then though. Yeah. You came on again have i yeah yes it's like you deliberately wanted you just wanted to hear yourself then too you might have oh my god apologize we probably had this conversation already what was the second one about what are we focused on i don't know i don't know but i didn't know that i thought I was only on the one time.

No, you've been on. You had already made up for the first one. Right. Oh, good. And we have you booked for August to apologize a fourth time. I have no recollection of that whatsoever. But, you know, that was the first one was supposed to be about remotes, which we got to after about 45 minutes of me working things out. And the first thing I said about the remotes is,

I don't remember lots of them. And that's why doing this podcast, there's so much stuff that I just don't remember. I'm sure it's a blur. Yeah, it's a blur for me. Especially in the old days, so many of the bits that we would do, it'd be like, you know, we need you downstairs at 1.30 to do this bit. Okay.

And I might have kind of glanced at the bit. And, you know, everything's short, so it's not like there's any memorization. Go down and it's like, oh, here's your Imelda Marcos costume. Okay, dude. And it's talking about other things that are going on, oh, here's your Imelda Marcos costume. Okay, dude. And talking about other things that are going on and you put on the Imelda Marcos, get the makeup on and then go out and shoot it. And, you know, and it takes 10 minutes to shoot it. And then you take off all the shit and you go to rehearsal and it just, you know, it's

all just part of the day. And then it would get cut in rehearsal. No one would ever see it. Or it would air that night and you're already moving on to the next day. Yes, exactly. It was five nights a week back then. It was, it was.

And it was, yeah. And like I say, there was such a high volume of stuff that, you know, I mean, you know, the Imelda Marcos, I mean, I just say Imelda, because there was an Imelda Marcos. Was there?

Yeah. And I, but, you know, it's like when you're doing it, you just kind of, you know, there's cue cards. Like as performing goes. You're not supposed to learn the lines. Yeah. It's the deal with cue cards. Yeah, and you just go in and do the thing.

And, you know, it's very in the moment and you don't devote a lot of, you know, you certainly aren't like thinking about your character. You know, you just. Well, I think that's probably, I mean, I think you're touching on something that made you so good at what you did on the show is that you were very present in it. You weren't thinking too far in advance about like, oh, I'm going to, you know, have these quips. You were just in the moment and improvising and responding. Well, yeah. I mean, that's the way I like to do it.

And that also over the years, I have, I fully believe that that's the best way to do it, especially a show like that. I, you know, like I would, I always felt, especially later during the TBS years, I, and I would say to Conan, I said, people want to see you and me spending an hour together and people coming over. They want to experience this hour that you and I are experiencing. So we need to be within this hour and being ourselves. And I always wanted to kind of have fun because I felt like it was important for me to have. If I had fun within that hour, then it would be fun to watch. Uh-huh. As opposed to sweating and worrying about how is this going to be perceived by the audience.

It just seemed, you know, I mean, that was what rehearsal was for. Yeah. And even then, I mean. Right. No, you were always, I feel like the red light never fazed you. Like you were always just from the beginning. Right. Able to put that part out of it.

Just yourself and you would always come across as very kind of relaxed. Oh, thank you. Right. Able to put that part out of it. Just yourself. And you would always come across as very kind of relaxed. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was. Just hanging out in Conan's garage. Yes.

Well, that's, I, you know, I always would, when guests would be on and they would be super nervous, I'd say, have fun. Right. I said, pursue your own fun on this thing.

Yeah. Right. Because that's, that's going to be fun to watch. That's good advice. No one can challenge thing. Yeah. Right. Because that's going to be fun to watch. That's good advice. No one can challenge that. Yeah. Yeah.

Do you feel like sometimes would people afterwards be like, you know what? Thank you. That relaxed me. Not that I can. Not that I can. You totally got inside my head. Not that I can recall. And I mean, it was very infrequent that I would even be in engaged with people before the show most of the

time i was seeing i might have say hi i might say hi or something in the in the green room but most of the time that when the people came out was when i would see them and it was always interesting to me and in the early days very surprising to me. Like, I remember Sam Neill, who I, who was just so fantastic. And also, too, like, now that I, now that he's more of a, like, he's on Instagram. Uh-huh, I know. I just love him so much. He's such a real person. But he came on, and he's like Mr. Handsome Movie Star to me.

Yeah. And this was in the early days when I still felt like a hayseed and he was a nervous wreck. And it was just, I thought, oh, right. He's not. Yeah, he's human. And he's not used to having to say things that haven't been written for.

Right. You know, he's, yes, he performs in front of people. And just be himself. Yeah. Or to be himself and to be accepted as Sam Neill and not, you know, Dr. What's-His-Face or Jurassic Park. So I never got a lot of a big chance, but I would tell people like in a commercial break or something. And a lot of people would turn to me and like one of my favorite ones, Jake Gyllenhaal, who the first time I ever met him, I was doing a bid on an MTV Movie Awards. It was in between Late Night and Tonight Show, TBS show.

And me and Rachel Dratch, Lindsay Lohan hosted the MTV Movie Awards. And Rachel Dratch and I did a. It was two years ago. Rachel Dratch and I did a bit where we were her parents, like an onstage bit where we were her parents. And standing around in our red wigs, Jake Gyllenhaal and Scarlett Johansson walked up to us. And Scarlett Johansson, and I had forgotten that she did a bit on the show when she was a tiny little kid.

Like 10 or something. But Jake Gyllenhaal was talking to me like, you're the guy that has been on that funny show that I've loved for so long. Yeah.

It's just so... That's so cool. But it's weird. It's just like, no, you're a movie star. Yeah. I'm a clown. What are you doing?

So I'm, you know, I've had like nice exchanges with him over the years. And the last time he was on the TBS show, we were talking about something else as the segment producer came to take him away. And I walked him over the curtain as we're finishing what we're talking about. And as he leaves, he goes,

he says to me, and very earnestly is like, was that okay? Was that good? And I, and I just, I said, I just said, honey, none of this matters. he leaves he goes he says to me and very earnestly he's like was that okay was that good and i and i just i said i just said honey none of this matters none of this matters it doesn't like it doesn't matter i said it wasn't good i know i said i said did you have fun did you enjoy the time that you were here and he was like yes and i said then was a success. And that's all you can control. And that's all that matters.

Because I still don't believe that Jake Gyllenhaal doing that got people to go see whatever movie he was in. Yeah, yeah. The only thing I ever felt that it moved the needle was books. You get on a TV show and you can sell more books. That's a tangible thing. But then they stopped having authors on TV shows. Yeah, exactly. They're like, oh.

This is helping people? It's the same thing. It's like cancel. Ban, you know, and guest bans. It was fun, but I don't think they ever sold a lot of albums. Unless you were like brand new. Brand new, right. Breaking a new or a new comic or someone yeah the people had never seen

before yeah well so andy we i know we already talked to you for 15 minutes about remotes when you came out the first time but that is what we wanted to talk about today because we're this whole season of inside conan is outside conan oh and so it's uh remotes okay and travel shows yeah and you've done a lot of all of those things. Yes, I have. Well, hey, why don't I name some of your top viewed remotes and see if these jog any memories, if you have any memory of doing any of these. Sure. Okay, the Space Camp remote in Huntsville, Alabama.

Say no. No, I do remember that. But the main thing that I remember from that is that we shot that and it was fun and I got to like ride in one of those gyrotron kind of things or whatever.

Were there G-forces? No, you know those things that are sort of amusement parks? Yeah, exactly. You know, like it's a gyroscope that you get put in. They put a NASA sticker on it. Yeah, yeah. And charge you triple.

Yeah. And they did have, I think, some things that were more kind of, you know, daring or extreme. But, you know, just for the day and me being a grown-up, I don't think they let me do that. So, but it was, i i mean i don't remember too much about the shoot i think that was my idea um but we went out at that night out to dinner um and i think jeff adio right was in charge yeah he was a producer on it and uh he was an early jordan schlansky Yeah. And he liked to live large, let's just say.

And we found like, he found like the best restaurant in Huntsville, Alabama. Which was so- Albee's? That is living large.

No, but it was like, it was a night. It was like a young, ambitious chef opened a nice restaurant in a strip mall. Like a prefix menu.

Yeah, and it was the first place I ever had, I just remember, it was a watermelon salad with like goat cheese and balsamic vinegar, which now is like. Yeah, but it was probably

pretty fancy then. It was the first time I ever had that in my life. And I was like, watermelon? With onions? And cheese? And vinegar? It's the best thing I've ever eaten. It's the best thing I've ever eaten, you know? That and it was hot. Those are the things I

remember about that one. I love the things that stick out in our memory. I'm like, I couldn't tell you what I ate that day. Right, right. Mention another one. I want to hear more menu items. Okay, what about the camping trip to Harriman State Park in New York? Yeah, that was, I remember that. Yeah, that was like a Saturday. Anyway, that was one, that one felt sweaty.

Oh, it was sweaty. Yeah, that one, I mean, by sweaty, I mean, we didn't know what we were doing. We didn't have a lot of ideas. Camping's tough. I mean, by sweaty, I mean we didn't know what we were doing. We didn't have a lot of ideas. Camping's tough. I mean, that's a tough set. Yeah.

You're pretty isolated. Yeah. And I just, it was like, I don't know. You know, and sometimes, also in those days, we did so many remotes that you'd just get out and feel like, I don't know. Right, right, right. It's like, this is Saturday. This is Saturday. I don't know. Saturday. That shocks me. I don't feel, you know. Right, right, right. It's like, this is Saturday. This is Saturday. I don't know.

Saturday. That shocks me. I don't remember. Oh, that's messed up. It was on the weekend. Yeah. We didn't do it in just one day. That's.

Did you have to spend the night? No, no. We just drove up and drove back. Pretending to kill. There was, there was, that was the, in the early days too, a lot of like what was tough about remotes and especially like in the early days. Because I did, Robert had me do remotes, but he didn't, and I talked to him. When the show started. Yeah, and when the show started.

Yeah. Because we were, you know, trying to use every part of the animal. Right, right. And you were kind of this free radical. You could go off. Yeah. Shoot stuff and bring it back. And he was very aware at the time of Letterman's remotes were so indelible in people's minds.

Right, right. That he didn't. And we lived in reaction to a lot of things that had been done before. Yes. So he felt Conan going and doing remotes would be too much like we're trying to be a letterman. Right. So to send me out and kind of, you know, it's like dum-dum discovers the world. Right.

You know, it was that kind of. Right, right, right. So I did, I don't know, like 13 or 14 remotes. And then it was just kind of, he was like, those look like fun. And we did some together and then he started doing his own and I would do my own. But there would be stretches. I think there was like one stretch where, because I would work all week. The show was five days a week.

And then I'd go do a remote on the weekend and then come back and have to edit it. You know, like I would have to edit the piece myself. It was my piece to edit. That's when you stopped doing them. No, no, no. Wait a minute. Like there was a stretch, I think, where I worked like 35 days in a row or something like that. Oh, wow.

Because, you know, I'd go shoot all weekend and come back and then have to do the show. And then the next weekend there'd be another thing to do. Right. And so it got to be. And editing took so long back then. Yeah. Because it was literally tape machines. Yeah.

And you'd go shoot 10 hours of footage. And you'd have to, the first thing like any film student will tell you, the first thing is to log your footage. You have to watch it all. You have to sit and watch 10 hours of this stuff. And we never, we didn't ever had anyone logging the footage while you shot it. No. So. No.

You were like, oh, okay, let's go see what's on there. And you have to kind of scan through. And make notes. Yeah. Scan through. And even that, and it's like I mentioned it when we talked about this before. We didn't, nobody knew how to do this. Right. Nobody knew how to,

they don't teach you this in film school. They don't teach you this at Harvard. So, yeah, we were just kind of making it up as we went along you know but yeah so it could be very exhausting I mean Robert probably had experience

from SNL and Conan maybe I don't know but not not in like go to the Miss America pageant shoot for a full day and a half

come home and make and you need a beginning middle end yeah and it's like is this going to be seven minutes is it going to be seven minutes?

Is it going to be two acts? What is it going to, you know? If you show Robert, he had the whole edit in his head. I always felt like the way women are born with all their eggs, he was born with every edit he was ever going to make. And then he's releasing them once a month. Because sometimes you'd be like, okay, let's move on. And he'd be like, no, no, no, no. We need this one shot of the guard dog barking or turning around.

And then when like a week later in the edit, it was this perfect puzzle piece that fit in. And yes. I wish my brain worked like that. It was amazing. It is amazing to watch. Robert is a brilliant genius. Yes. I wish my brain worked like that. It is amazing to watch. Robert is a brilliant genius, but he also would make everyone crazy because sometimes he was like a painter that didn't know when to stop the painting. Yeah, yeah.

And in this case, too, the painting went on TV. Right. It was scheduled to go on television. Yeah. And there were a couple times where he was in an edit room. Some Harry. The band's playing the warm-up, and he's like, I got a couple more cuts. Right.

And then they would have to feed the remote from the edit room that he was in rather than bring it back to the control room. That's unbelievable. Yeah, it was really by the seat of the pants, yeah. I used to have to do the warm-up early on, and I'd be editing things for that night show, and I'd have to run up, do the warm-up, and go back. I remember going back down to keep editing in the 15 minutes Conan was out there and the band was playing. To get it done and ready for the show. To get it done and then run it up. Like during the monologue.

During the monologue. Wow. And seeing someone physically put the tape in the machine. It's so then run it up. Like during the monologue. During the monologue. And seeing someone physically put the tape in the machine. It's so weird to think about working that hard. Because you just... Your body can't take that stress.

And your brain is like, why are you doing this? The notion of being on a late night talk show and staying there till five o'clock in the morning to edit a comedy piece like, oh, no, no,

no. What? No, why would you do that? That's your priority. You're wrong. Yeah, yeah.

You're not doing brain surgery. It's for young people. It's like wars. Yeah. Send them out there to the, like, why did I do that?

Wars and sketch comedy. Yep, exactly. Live improv shows. Okay, what about the Woodstock remote? Yeah, that was a big one.

Yeah. Yeah, we went up there and it was... And that was the 1994 Woodstock. Yeah, that was the one... Not the 1999. Yeah, the famous one that has the documentary.

And I didn't even... I didn't... Like, I watched that one. I was like, I don't remember. I've never seen it. Yeah, I watched the documentary. And I think there might don't remember. I've never seen it. Yeah. Yeah, I watched the documentary. And I think there might even be a couple of documentaries.

But, yeah, it just was a disaster. Whereas this one wasn't such a disaster. And it was, and I think it was more, like, in the same location as the original. Right. And maybe not exactly, but very close to the same. It was kind of evocative of the original. And maybe not exactly but very close to this it was kind of yeah evocative of the and uh and we drove up there and also too for just me like out in the hot at a music festival it's and i was saying like in the van i was so crabby i was like this is on the entire earth

this is like one of the last places i would want to be at this particular moment let's go and it was my idea i was going to wear a suit um because i thought it would be funny yeah yeah like where because i will always wear a suit on the show um but then it was so hot that i couldn't i just i think i wore jeans and a sport coat which was already stifling yeah right um and then we walked around and i mean again that was kind of like loosey goosey. Robert had the idea for me to act because in the spirit of like hippie dippy sharing, I would go around and share people's food, which, you know, like I always put those things under the put those kind of bits under the category of fatty loves to eat.

And I try to keep them to a minimum. It's the same thing. We used to do bits where we would use nudity and like my nudity in different bits. But it's like there were some writers that were like a little lazy and they would need an ending. And it's just like, and then you were in a cross nude. And I'd be like, no, no, that is a special weapon that we only use in certain situations. So, you know, I was like, oh, eat. Okay, I'll eat.

And it was a funny bit and it was good. And then I don't know. Oh, and then I slid down a hill with mud we had i talked to yeah i got and got completely covered in mud and it was i mentioned this to the woodstock song yeah yeah and i mentioned this that like robert and i were standing watching because we knew kids were muddy because there was a bunch of muddy kids around and uh we were standing watching where they were going down we went and saw it and like i could tell i was i was turning to him i could tell he and i was like i said like i have to get in that mud don't i like yeah so i did that and then i went and interviewed a bunch of bands

covered in mud um but it was really fun i got poison ivy from the mud right but yeah it still was it's still like it's still it was it never got to be it never got to overcome

like I don't want to be here right it's so hot yeah I mean it just all this like it's still like what's next

what are we shooting next and also and also quite frankly like a lot of bands I didn't give a shit about you know I mean if it had been some bands I wanted more

yeah I mean then maybe but even then I'd you know like I didn't want to go out into the but who wants to

yeah like you're there working yeah I find it hard to some people I think are maybe good at that like if you're out working. I find it hard to, some people I think are maybe good at that. Like if you're out working at something to then go, oh, you know, you can come over now and enjoy. It's kind of like, ugh, it's already been right for me. Let's get out of here.

Get a shower. Yeah, I'll come back soon. Were there remotes that you were excited to do in terms of like, oh, this is something I would be doing anyway. And it's great that I can double this up with work. Well, definitely there was, I got interesting access. Yes, that is what I was thinking about. Like I did one from the Super Bowl, which I mean, I'm not a big football fan. But just to be at the Super Bowl was pretty fun.

Yeah. And to see kind of. With a press pass. Yeah. And to see the weird things like we were in a ridiculous stretch limo and you have to go through about four checkpoints to get back to like the backstage media area. And when we were driving in, we had this very funny driver who I was way in the back. And there was like eight of us.

And, you know, it was like the camera guys and stuff all in the stretch limo with smoke out windows. We pull up and I just said, tell him it's Senator Ted Kennedy. And so he did that. He just rolled down the window and go like, I have Senator Ted Kennedy in the back. And I go, right on through. And we went through every. Don't even check. Nobody checked anything. Oh, those are the good old days

every checkpoint every checkpoint till we got to that you could still do that yeah yeah yeah i think he's still alive we don't have time to check right but anyway yeah it was uh yeah and i never have been to a super bowl since or care to be in one ever. Yeah, that's, I mean, that's enough. Yeah, yeah. Conan did a, a pregame show once that I,

with Bob Costas that I, in Tampa. Uh-huh. And we wound it up like half an hour before the game started

and it, it, it felt like you were at an event that had nothing to do with football. And no one was there really to watch a game. And you just, my, I just had nothing to do with football. Yeah. And no one was there really to watch a game. Right.

And you just, I just wanted to get out of there. Yeah. It's just like rich people get to hang out with their friends. Yeah, it just didn't, it seemed like not a fun event. I'm very intimidated by sports stuff anyway because

I don't know that much about sports. You always say that but you know you follow sports well I like baseball you're a baseball fan I like baseball and I have

but that has been sort of a late in life when you played football in high school I played football but I don't I don't follow you wrestled in the Olympics

but there's so much to know I mean some people the minutiae of what you could know right yes and I'm always it always feels like and I mean I was never particularly bullied or anything.

I'm a large person. But I always feel like somebody's going to be like, wait, you don't know anything about sports. And then I'm going to get noogies or something, you know. Nerd. Like I had to go, I did the, I did a basketball, NBA playoffs. And it was a Houston Rockets and somebody else because it was in Houston. And like I had to ask questions at the press conference after the game. Oh, that is intimidating.

That would scare the hell out of me. And Robert was feeding me the questions. I didn't even know what I was asking. But that, oh, my God. That's even worse. Did you have fun out there with the ball? Yeah, yeah. Oh, where you don't even know.

Well, and it's also, too, I think stuttering John was there. And I just felt like, well, I'm doing what he does. I'm just a cheap imitation of stuttering John at this point, you know? Yeah. Yeah, that is, it's, I mean, I would be intimidated. Anywhere, like, yeah. The idea of you getting bullied, I, you're the, I always say you're the strongest, most naturally strong person I've ever known.

Oh, yeah. Why do you, what have you seen him lift? I have, no, I used to like, early on, I'd like try to wrestle with you or attack you. And I remember you were just kind of like, you just closed your arms around me and just went like a hydraulic press. And I literally just felt, I literally fell to the floor. I was just like, Jesus. I remember it to this day.

It was very gratifying. I'm not as strong as I used to be. I mean, like I can feel it, but that's just because I'm getting older and I don't, like I used to go to the gym a lot more than I do now. You went to the Warner Brothers gym, didn't you? I did. I had a regular thing set up there. But I just, and I, you know, but I also, I worked a lot when I was a kid. When I was a kid, I did a lot of physical labor.

Oh, yeah. And I, you know, I lifted heavy things onto trucks. Right. And so that does. It's the best workout. Yes, it is. You know, it is like that because it's, you know, it's like if you. It's natural.

If you shake a roofer's hand, it's like, you know, it's like shaking a couch cushion, like a firm. They're just, their hands are just so muscular from working. And I used to kind of have that with my back and, you know, and I just had a body strength. I could lift lots of heavy things. I mean, I still can do it. I can't, the house that I just moved out of, the house that I moved into, that I lived in alone in Burbank, I ordered a dresser, like a big dresser, probably about five and a half feet high and about five feet wide. It was a big, heavy dresser. And it got delivered and left in the driveway.

And I didn't have any. And I got it into the house myself. No. And yeah. Absolutely. The physics of that? I don't even. Well, it was from working at a moving company.

Yeah. And I had, I had a hand truck and I had a furniture dolly. Oh, okay. And when you know a few, when you know a few tricks, like when you learn some tricks in moving. How to balance it. Yeah. Like, you know, like a big tricks, like when you learn some tricks in moving. How to balance it. Yeah, like, you know, like a big dresser like that, you put it on its side on a furniture dolly. And then you're basically like moving a refrigerator that's on big wheels, you know.

Right. But like I had to get it up three steps with a hand truck alone. And then like tip it into the house onto the dolly. Had to like run around to the back of the house to get to the other side of it because it was in the doorway but getting it up the stairs myself with a hand truck i really felt like i could feel my guts being pushed out of the like scrotum hole at the bottom of my abdomen I was like it was like if I had the bottom's fallen out

wait one more we have scrotum holes one more I had no idea when we're done I'll show you okay

but no but I was like if there was one more step I think I would have like just sprung a gut splurted and I hope

someone was watching like whenever I do anything physical you want someone around oh no I got I mean I otherwise I like whenever I do anything physical you want someone around oh no I got I mean I otherwise I would say

I said did you know virtually everyone that would come of course I brought that all the way yeah so

I would put a sticker on it yeah it was carried three stories it is amazing though I think the you're capable of so much more when you

when you're in a situation like that too where you're like I gotta now what am I're like I gotta now what am I gonna do I gotta take care of this I got myself

into this mess I gotta finish this it's amazing what you can do when there's a dresser in your driveway yeah it's really

only one option yeah I'll be too embarrassed if someone comes home and sees this here I can't leave I can't just put my clothes in here and leave it

out here exactly someone sees this here. I can't leave. I can't just put my clothes in here and leave it out here. Exactly. Well, you probably remember revisiting your Chicago apartment. Yeah. Yeah. That, I mean, that's a two-parter.

Yeah, that was. A really popular one. Yeah, we went all over the place. Yeah. I mean, because it wasn't just. Conan was in that too, right? Yeah. Yeah, you were showing him around.

That was, that whole remote was the two of us going around. Right. And I think it was— Because he lived there too. Yeah, yeah. But I think that it was supposed to be me showing Conan around all my favorite haunts. Right, that's my memory. And some of them were kind of my favorite haunts.

And then there were other that they just kind of— Yeah, some great, great like old german dive bars you know yeah that were like at times like in mid-april would make you a little nervous if you know what i mean uh these old old german bars oh yes yes april yes i understand april 20th. Yes. Look it up, folks. A little past the 15th. So, yeah. It's their St. Patrick's Day. There were some German bars. They've all kind of like. Peter.

Yeah, they've all been kind of watered down. But there was like some German. Like there was one that we never went to very much that a friend of mine and I went to once. And you had to buzz in. And she and I buzzed in and you had to buzz in and she and I buzzed in and we both look like, we look like Hansel and Gretel together, but still even coming in,

like there's like this old, this old Helga behind the bar kind of looking, really looking, really clocking us and like, all right, are you cops? Buzz? No,

not cops. I'm sure that it was like, you know, are your ancestors south of Belgium? Right, right, right. Probably, you know. And so, but, and then just, and then really not feeling welcome the entire time. And it's all just old crowds going like. Wow. You know.

There is a German neighborhood on the Upper East Side. I don't even know if any remnants of that are left. It's watered down too because there was a restaurant up there called The Ideal Restaurant. It was a German restaurant. And it was like one of those, just a long diner counter. And then a big stove full of cast iron pans full of oil for making schnitzel

that never moved. That days were there all this like same oil hot for 50 years. Sounds ideal. And then Do you like German food?

I love German food. You do? Yeah. I really do. Is there a good German food in LA? Is there anywhere to go? No. The only, I mean, there is a couple places, but I mean, A, it's so bad for you.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like so much of it is so bad for you. Just bread and meat. And I just usually wait to go back to Illinois because there's still a few good ones there. Okay, this is a little detour, but you also came to the Conan in Berlin show. Yes. Which we've both said the Conan in Berlin show. Yes. Which we've both said is one of our favorites. Yes.

And it's so hilarious. And the segment you were in is just one of the favorites. Where you guys learned the Schuplattler dance. Yeah, yeah. And then danced alongside these two brothers, these German brothers. And their dad. And their dad. Yeah.

Yeah, that was really fun. Yeah, it was hilarious. It was, I mean, Conan had started doing the international remotes. And when they started, the first one was Cuba. And it kind of happened. And I was actually supposed to do, we were going to shoot a remote of me being the grand marshal of a mardi gras parade yeah and but it it it so happened that the conan thing got booked and it and he was going to cuba like five days after i would have been in new orleans so it was just a man power man woman

power thing the crew was yeah the crew would they were they were gonna say you know it was too soon before cuba to do my thing and and for the writers that would need to go and edit so uh i still went and i and i just got to be even better i got to eat weed brownies during the whole thing. I remember that now. That would have been a great result, though. I rode in like a little homemade kind of like rickshaw bike thing. And that some guy behind me and he had a big coffee can full of weed brownies that he was just eating constantly. As he's like pushing, you know, riding a bike,

my big ass around New Orleans. But I, so I got to go down there and just have fun. I didn't have to worry about making TV. And, uh, and then the Cuba thing happened. And I would, and then I remember one time in the monologue meeting going like, well, is it going to be like two acts or are we going to do it as different acts throughout the week? And everyone was like, no, it's its own special. It's its own hour long special. And I was like, oh, and then, you know, and then as they started to stack up, I started to feel a little left out.

You know, I started to feel a little bit like, you know, like, well, I'd like to go on a trip to a different country. Right. So when the Germany thing came around, I mean, and it was it, you know, and he, you know, it made he took people that it made sense. Like to take Steven Yeun to Korea. Sona to Armenia. Yeah. It makes sense to like me to Korea.

You know, like I like kimchi, you know? So it made sense to take me to Germany just because of my last name and whatever, you know? And, uh, but it was so, it was so much fun in a way because, I mean, you guys know better than I do. Those are very kind of seat of the pants. Yeah. And I got to fly first class on lufthansa uh-huh oh so nice oh my god so nice the germans really have figured out like the seat like the chair was just it was like it was like i if what like a bmw was a rolls royce or something. And just like German flight attendants that I feel like I, like they, I don't, I may be transposing this something else, but I feel like they were wearing gloves. Like, yes, yes, they were. Yeah, yeah.

No, because I know in Alitalia, when you fly Alitalia, as you board, they're all wearing these like fantastically beautiful brown leather gloves that fit perfectly. And I want to say that the German flight attendants had that, but I don't think they did. But it was just like, you know, would you like some champagne? And I'm, you know, kind of agnostic about champagne, but sure, sure. And then it's like, holy shit, that's the best champagne I've ever had in my life. Movies are better on airplanes. Champagne. And then we stayed in a beautiful old hotel

that had bullet holes in it from World War II because it had been a bank or something and partisans had holed up in it or something. People wanted their money out and my whole experience of that trip was me you know having dinner with you guys and then well what's tomorrow like well we're going out to shoot some stuff in the morning we'll be back around one okay so i got your call time i got yeah i got from when i wake up until one to go wander and i just yeah you bought a lot of stuff i remember you bought yeah i bought some artwork and stuff like well not i mean old prints and stuff right but i just and i if i had to do over

again i would have done because i kind of just decided i'm just gonna because you know the hotel was in a nice area i'm just gonna go that go that way, you know, like I'm going to just wander and not really. And then as I would go, I'd kind of read up on things, you know, like what I was seeing. But it was about like three or four days of that. And then, you know, like one day I think like I just wasn't used at all. Right. You know, and then it would be, you know, we'll need you at one and then emailing and, you know, I'd get an email or a text, you know, we're not coming back till

three. Yeah. All right. So we push it till three and then it's like probably five, you know? So I just kept having more and more time to just hang out in Berlin and I had never been to Germany. So it was really, oh yeah. It was really fun. Have you been back or was that your one time? No, no. I would like to go sometime. How was the German food?

I love Germany. Yeah. The German food was excellent. It was very good German food. Not as good as Illinois. No, no. But then that bit with the,

with the brothers was, it was, yeah, it was pretty funny. And I mean, and, uh, Oh yeah. One of my favorites. And again, was it was yeah it was pretty funny and I mean and uh oh yeah

it's one of my favorites and and again the thing that I will take away from that was at one because the brothers were

there's all kinds of acrobatic shit that they do like holding each other upside down and I tried to do that with Conan right

while he slapped supposed to be slapping my butt right and upside down he slapping my butt. Right. Upside down. He was missing my butt and slapping the backs of my legs so hard that, like, when I got back to the hotel, there were just, like, Conan handprints. Oh, no. Stinging red hands.

Oh, he was, like, smacking the hell out of the back. Oh, and I was, I was like going you know and I think I even said to him like less realistic if you want to do that again please hit my butt

this time yeah because the butt has the nice padding and he also was not holding back no he was wailing

on me you know as I'm holding him upside down. I could have dropped him on his head. I remember that was one take. You were just kind of like, okay, I'll hold him upside down once. And then we ended the thing in this crazy, and this was, again, like just seemed like so Berlin-y to me. A nightclub that was in an old building.

Right. That was like eight walk-up stories and they were different. Some people lived on some floors and then other floors were production studios. You expected to see people like maybe doing heroin on the stairwell. It was like a movie from the 60s. Yeah. And then there was like, you know, like one floor is just a bar. Yeah.

Oh, and then the next floor down, you're like, oh, people live here. We can't just go in there. And then a giant courtyard with like 300 people. Yeah. Yeah. And then, and I was only used in that a couple of times. It was like me and, you know, Conan was supposed to be DJing. Yeah.

And it's like me and Flula were together. Right. Flula. Looking, yeah. Looking, were together looking disproving. And then so it was like six hours of just kind of hanging around in this crazy weird nightclub and getting to wander a little bit. And then I left, and then I heard that after a certain point, the entire place becomes like a freeform sex club and that a few of our crew members were, you know. Oh, I definitely left before that. Yeah, I left before that.

Some people were letting their hair down, I think. I don't know exactly. Which hair? Well, I don't know. I don't know. I was well and, you know. Yeah, in the bed. Yeah.

Winking, blinking and into bed. Yeah. Beddy-bye. Yeah. Winking, blinking, and nod land. Exactly. I hope we're going to end on. Well, we can because we're going to have Andy back. We know Andy's back. Oh, yeah. A lot more apologies coming from you. I'll remember this time.

Yeah. Yeah, sure. I got to go back and see what I said the second time. The middle time. I know. You might have stuff to apologize for there. Now you're going to forget talking about remotes you forgot about. Yes.

Yes. Well, if you do. It's many layers. Well, it's funny. As we talk about it, there are ones that I then, you know, they come back to mind. Oh, yeah, right. We did that. I was thinking we drove an ice cream truck around.

That was a great one. You know, and I hadn't thought about that in years, and it just was in my head when you were talking about the camping one. Right. It was around that time. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And again, it was just like a Saturday, and there wasn't like a lot of ideas. It was just.

We'll see what happens. Yeah, go out. Around that time, you did one where literally backstage had a map of the tri-state area and you threw a dart. Oh, yeah. It was some college. Oh, no. It was some little nowhere. This one's South Centerville.

That's it. That's on the list. It's on the list. We covered everything on the list. Yeah, that one was. And then you just went there kind of. That's a great way to pick a remote. That was very Huell Hauser because we just kind of were like, hey, there's some people in their yard.

Let's go talk to them. Can we go in your pool? Yeah. Yeah, it was. We don't have a pool. That was a very, sometimes those could get, because you felt the pressure of like, I got to make some television here. I got to make some television here. I also was thinking, one, I should say.

Like nothing happening is good for a beat maybe, but then something has to happen. No, something has to happen. What were you going to say? I interrupted you. I was just remembering, and this was a remote, but just it was in a comedy bit. And often things would be presented to us, you know, so-and-so's coming to town

and they're going to be signing books. You want to do anything at the book signing or something? So somebody came in and was like, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, Macho Man Randy Savage, are going to be across the river at like a- A book signing. a marina. No, there was a boat show at a marina in Hoboken across the river.

And they're like, do you want to do it? And he's like, oh, I got to think of something for Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. And so I came up with this idea that the devil appears. And it was H. John Benjaminjamin uh voice of bob's burgers and archer yeah um and he was the devil and presented me with my heart's desire if i would sign my soul over to him and i signed it over and conan's like what are you doing and then i go you know and i'm like bring it on and then it just just turns out that my heart's desire is driving around in a speedboat firing guns with Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. Firing guns in the air.

Woo! That's really funny. In the Hudson Bay. And so we went to shoot that. And God bless Bill Tull, who has passed on. Yes. Prop master. Our prop master.

He drove the van, which he didn't need to drive the van. He's like, I'm going to drive the van. And he drove through like the garment district on the west side going 60 miles an hour. Just so fast. Cutting corners to where like I'm sitting in the passenger van. And if there hadn't been glass in the window, I could have kissed a person standing on the corner. Oh, my God. Cutting it so close.

People going, whoa. Yeah. Smacking side view mirrors. Sounds like Bill. Whack, whack, whack. You know, as we're driving down. Yeah. We get out.

Were you in a hurry? Bill was always in a hurry. Bill was, yeah. So, we get out there. You wanted to meet Randy Savage. We would go, you know, we went out and shot the thing. And we had a bunch of, you know, we'd always overthink it and bring a bunch of props and stuff. Yeah, yeah.

Rubber chicken. Bill had a little kid's fishing rod. And for some reason, and he was being real casual with Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. Randy Savage is fine. But somehow he got on this thing that he lost the fishing rod and he got on this thing

that Hulk Hogan had taken it. And he kept going, hey, Hulk, where's my fishing rod? You know, it's a kid's fishing rod. You can't use it. This Bill told us. Yeah, yeah. He's like, come on, Hulk, where's my fishing rod? You know, it's a kid's fishing rod. You can't use it. This Bill told us. Yeah, yeah. He's like, come on, Hulk.

Give me, you know. Yeah. Hulk, where's my fishing rod? Like teasing him. And Hulk at first is like, ha, ha, ha. And then he's like, no, no, seriously. Where's my fishing rod? Bugging him throughout just in little bits.

And then would, you know, would know to like back off for a while. And then dive in again. Like, come on, seriously. I need that fishing rod. We want to do it for a while and then dive in again. Like, come on, seriously. I need that fishing rod. We want to do it for a bit. So we finished the thing, and it's time for Hulk and Randy Savage to go sign autographs in the boat show pavilion. We get back in the van. Bill insists on driving again, and someone's like, oh, someone else can drive.

Bill's like, no, no else can drive. Bill's like, no, no, no, I'll drive. I got the keys. We pull out of the place. But then he stops in front of the pavilion, goes, hold on, I got to get something. Gets out, runs in for a few minutes, comes back out, gets in the van. And I said, what did you forget? I said, you didn't bring anything. He goes like, I just want to go back in and ask Hulk for the fishing rod one more time. That was real. He really did that. He wasn't doing a bit. No. And he used it in his next bout on WWE.

But he said, he said, he said like, because he was signing autographs, he goes like, yeah, he goes, he goes, that time he looked a little hot. It's like the last time he did, he looked a little mad. I pushed it too far. Serious ball busting.

I know. That's great. I love that story. Yeah, I do too. Thank you so much, Andy. Thanks, Andy. It was fun. Thanks for having me.

You'll be back. I will. I want to see that dresser someday. It's in storage right now. Thanks to our old friend, Andy Richter. Thank you, Andy, for joining us. Yeah. Oh, of course.

Andy has his own Team Coco podcast. The three questions. Not three questions. The three questions. Be sure to check it out. Guess what? What, Jesse? We've got a listener question.

As day follows night. Who's it from? It's, well... Tanner Boyd. It's from Tanner Boyd. From Camas, Washington? Camas, Washington. Tanner says, hey, Mike and Jessie, I'm a huge fan of your podcast.

Been listening since the first episode dropped, and I love all the behind-the-scenes information you give us fans. I don't see why you need to read any further. Thank you, Tanner. Not a question, more of a statement. Exactly. But we'll accept it. Oh, there's more. Oh, my question involves the famous Brian Stack bit, The Interrupter.

I have always died laughing at this bit every single time. Was this a Brian Stack original bit or made up by a group in the writer's room? Was this a bit that started during one of your long late nights and then turned into something amazing? Or is there a particular one of these sketches that stand out the most to you guys or Brian? Finally, I know on his last day at Conan, Brian Stack surprisingly did the interrupter one last time. What made him pick that character to play? And did you guys get into any trouble doing that sketch at TBS? Oh,

this person knows a lot about IP. Is that it or is there, there's more? No, then Tanner says thank you guys again for putting together

an awesome podcast. yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are great questions. Those are great questions. I don't know if we can answer them.

I don't really know all the details. I just wish there was someone we could reach out to. I know. Like me. Oh, my God. Oh, my God.

It's the interrupter. Brian Stack himself. Hi, Brian. You're rusty. That was bad interrupting. We had to lay a lot of pipe for you. Like me. Yeah, I was like way late on the uptake.

You were worried about actually interrupting. Yes. The new polite interrupter. Yeah, I'm way too emotionally repressed to interrupt people in real life. But thank you for the question, Tanner. And appreciate your interest in the bit. Yeah, well, you know, we normally go through these questions and I read that one

and I didn't remember the exact details of how it was created. My memory is you always- Usually we just lie. We usually make stuff up and get the hell out of the podcast studio. Like, we're done. But this time we thought we'd added

just a touch of professionalism. My memory was always that you and the hilarious other writer, Michael Komen, wrote them together. But I don't know the origin story of The Interrupter. I was hoping you would be able to tell us. And if you want to cut Michael Komen out of this entirely, we're not talking to him. So you can take 100% credit. Well, I wish Michael was here to clarify some of it because I'm a little fuzzy on it. But the way I remember it was that Michael originally suggested it as kind of a one-off joke for new characters.

Based on the fact that Conan would often, as you remember at rehearsal, say, okay, how am I going to get interrupted today during the show? Because in the middle of the show, there'd be some kind of character that would be like, excuse me, Conan, it'd be some weird, you know. Not so fast, Conan. Yeah. Usually in the audience.

It'd be like, there's a prospector in the audience, you know, or something. And it would always be like a guy in a gorilla suit or some insane thing that would interrupt the show. Who's already lit. Yeah. Who's lit and mic'd.

Yeah, and Conan would be like, okay, how am I getting interrupted today? And so Michael, Michael Komen, the hilarious Michael Komen, as you said, suggested,

what if we had a character whose sole purpose was to interrupt? That was his, like, like, like, and it was kind of

an inside joke off of what Conan was joking with us his... And it was kind of an inside joke off of what Conan was joking with us about. But Michael suggested that I do the character. And I don't remember if it was Michael who suggested the crazy musketeer type outfit that I was wearing with the long hair. I think it might have been Michael. And then he said,

just do whatever voice you feel suits a guy who looks like that. It's such a douchebaggy voice. He gave you carte blanche. I think a lot of my character voice, they probably came from just my love of old movies. Like guys going, yeah. What is that character actor's name? Conan always does him.

We always. Oh, wow. Really? I can't remember. I'm embarrassed to say I don't know uh was in so many 30s and the handling of the traveling salesman you know sounded a lot like william powell and i think all those voices stuck sunk into my head over the years right and uh but then the interrupter i think it was just going to be that one-off uh thing he came in he said i think our

i think he said something like our next new character. And I was like, is me the interrupter, you know? And he said like, oh, this character seems really obnoxious, you know, it was like that kind of thing. And then he was gone. It was a really fast bit. And then a couple of months later, I think it occurred to me that maybe it'd be fun to bring him back for like a tease act like where he would talk about like who the guests were on the next day because we needed a tease act that day and we did it again I think for a tease act and it was fun and then I started kicking around the idea with Michael of like expanding finding out more about this guy and like you know more about his insane his personality and life yeah so so that was how it developed into a full-fledged sketch

was it kind of gradually grew from a really quick bit to a slightly longer bit to a full sketch. And then we probably did about- 4,000 times. Are you kidding me? It was like, there were a lot of them. And my wife, Miriam, my wife, Miriam came in as a female interrupter

in one of them, which was actually my- Right. That was my favorite of all the interrupter sketches we did. I think that was the one that I think Michael tossed in the line in that one that was where we had said he lived in a dumpster behind the Port Authority bus terminal. And Conan said, wow, you must have about, and this was Michael's line, I think, seven different types of hepatitis. I just love the idea of someone having seven different types of hepatitis. I just love the idea of someone having seven different types of hepatitis. Three that happened. That was Michael's.

But I loved, I loved writing those with Michael. Cause it was just, you could get more and more into the, how belieffully awful his life was. Right, right, right. You know, and how he was okay with it. And then to have miriam come in as a female interrupter in the same outfit was really fun yeah that was great i forgot about that and i love that he remembered you did it uh that was one of my favorite shows your last show i mean

it was sad bittersweet that you were leaving the tbs show we were all bummed out but but i felt the same way yeah but it did make it extra sweet that you did conan was into you doing the interrupter sketch to say goodbye and it was it when i watched it again recently it just came up my feet i i kind of got choked up again because it's no it's so sweet but it's so funny so funny and on that show, too, everyone should check it out. We put together kind of the best of your bits over the years, which is a great montage. I thought it came out great. Oh, man.

How did you edit it down? I know. I know. It's four hours. It's four hours long. But anyway. I'll always be. I'm eternally grateful to you, Mike, for putting that package together. It was so, it was so, like, it was really touching to me to just to see that package.

And I had forgotten about some of those bits. Well, we had to fill time on the show. So it was like. No other celebrities had that. Hey, we don't have to write something if we put together a stack montage for tomorrow. Sorry, but that's... Yeah, it was funny too because I said, I remember saying to you, can we use these old bits from like the NBC show?

And Mike just goes, we're just doing it. And I was like, oh man, you're the best. Like, so Mike was willing to risk litigation. Yeah, right. That's how much he loved you. I have so much skin in the game. That meant a lot to me that you're like, we're just doing it. Well, NBC never.

Occasionally we would do old NBC, like we had the masturbating bear on. That's true. We would do celebrity surveys, some old NBC things we'd keep along and they never said boo. I think it would be if you did all NBC stuff, maybe you'd hear something from them.

But they had their own issues. That's probably true. And I don't remember whose idea was to have the Interrupter come in live. Was that yours, Mike? No. I mean, I have no idea. When in doubt, when I don't remember something, the answer is no. How did you choose which stack character to do live?

That just seemed like a great one to do. Yeah. Yeah. I guess it was kind of the logical one. If you're going to have someone come out live at the end, the one that would actually disrupt the reel. But that was really, it meant a lot to me to come out and just do that one more time with Koenig.

It had been several years since I had done it, I think. And it was fun. I remember Ron Funches and Aubrey Plaza were the guests that day. Oh, great. It was just, it was fun just kind of walking around backstage dressed in that costume just saying, Oh, hi, how's it going? So I always loved, that was one of my favorite things at Conan was just seeing people being themselves dressed like, seeing like Mike Gordon

dressed as the masturbating bear without the bear head, but just talking like Gordo, you know. Having cheese in the back, yeah. That was always my favorite, just seeing people out of character, but dressed in full character. Well, my

favorite thing that I'd forgotten about was this character was born out of conan always in rehearsal going oh who's gonna interrupt me now like i love that it was off of an inside joke which i think makes it extra cool yeah i love that michael would often pick up on little i think inside things that Conan would mention. Right. Yeah, he just always, he was very perceptive about those things, I think. So, yeah, I have Michael to thank for the concept of the character, and then

it was a really fun collaboration, writing the sketches with him later. Great. Yeah, once you figured out, I mean, a lot of your characters tended to have dark backstories. Very dark. That's true. It was funny, only looking back, I think we talked about this, but someone said, Brian, did you ever notice

that most of your recurring characters really hate themselves? Who, me? Well, that's true, I guess. It's like me, all my insecurities and self-loathing. It's like my way of processing all that stuff. Well, it's a healthy way to get it out. Saying it out loud, exactly. Healthier than murder. Well, it's a healthy way to get it out. Saying it out loud.

Exactly. Healthier than murder. Well, that's why I loved writing for Joel, the announcer, too, because you could just have Joel with his upbeat voice say the worst things about his life. I've been living in my Chrysler eating government cheese. Yes. I wrote a few of those Joel is sads. And when I wrote them, they're like, wait, when did it turn into Joel is mad? Because I just had him shitting on Conan

and Andy in the show. And then they're like, wait, no, this wasn't. Joel's disgruntled. This isn't the template. It was Joel.

I think Andy used to call that bit Joel is Sweeney because it was just, it was just Joel speaking as Mike. Right. Telling Conan to shut up. Thinly veiled.

Right. Exactly. But then you rescued it. So it was great to see you again. Yeah, I know. Thank you, Brian. Thanks. Well, it was my pleasure to come back and great to see you.

Great to see you again. Yeah, you too. Thanks, Brian. Thanks, Brian. We'll see you soon. Okay, bye. Thanks for the question, Tanner. All right.

All right. That was very nice of Brian to take time out. I know. From his East Coast lifestyle. From his busy striking schedule. That's right. All right. It was very nice of Brian to take time out. I know. From his East Coast lifestyle. Busy striking schedule. That's right. We didn't even get into that. A little very busy.

Where he's picketing. Yeah. But now's the time for, we should ask, think of questions for other late night writers. That's right. Because we know they're all available. We can get them. Yes, they can't keep putting us off anymore. Yeah, so if you have

a question for us or any other person who's ever been affiliated with the show, please give us a call at 323-209-1079. Don't worry, no one will answer.

Or email us at insideconanpod at gmail.com. And if you like the show and I don't know how you couldn't, oh wait, there are many reasons. You can support us And if you like the show, and I don't know how you couldn't. Oh, wait. There are many reasons.

You can support us by rating Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast on iTunes and leave us a review. I think if people don't like the show, they didn't make it to this part of the show. Oh, I'm right. And even if they did like the show, they may not have made it. I don't. But when I listen to podcasts, I go right down to the last two minutes. I want to hear the credits. I love the credits. Exactly. I love the show. They may not have made it. I don't, but when I listen to podcasts, I go right down to the last two minutes. Yeah. I want to hear the credits. Exactly. I love the credits.

And they want to hear those three special words. What might those be? We love you. Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast is hosted by Mike Sweeney and me, Jesse Gaskell. Our producer is Lisa Burr. Team Coco's executive producers are Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Nick Liao.

Engineered and mixed by Joanna Samuel. Our talent bookers are Gina Batista and Paula Davis with assistance from Maddie Ogden. 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 or an enemy on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you like best. I'm not going to tell you what to do. Put on your hat, it's the Conan Show.

Try on some spats, you're gonna have a laugh. Give birth to a calf, it's Conan! This has been a Team Coco production.