Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Brian Stack Returns

Episode Date: December 11, 2020

Legendary writer/performer Brian Stack (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Conan O’Brien) joins writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell once again to talk about the origin of his character The Interrupter, playing Conan’s creepy gift-giving cameraman, improvising with Conan when a sketch goes off the rails, the evolution of WikiBear getting darker, the many absurd hats of Joe Galliano, and his very first written Conan sketch “Andy’s Little Sister” featuring Amy Poehler. Conan Has Creepy, Gift-Giving Cameramen: https://youtu.be/fytM0u3m4Jg Got a question for Inside Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone] and e-mail us at [e-mail] For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com

And now it's time for Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Hey, everybody, welcome back to Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. We're your hosts. I'm Jesse Gaskell. And I'm Mike Sweeney. And we're writers on The Conan Show on TBS. Right before we started recording this, no joke, I put on some pants for the first time today. I reached in the pocket and I found a $20 bill. Oh, that's great.

Which has never happened to me before, and it was very exciting. I have neither put on pants nor found a $20 bill today. Well, I started something exciting, a wooden jigsaw puzzle. Oh, my gosh. Oh, that sounds very hygge. It does sound very hygge. But it's some company in Colorado, I think, called Liberty, and they make them out of plywood. And I guess it's a throwback to the way

they used to be made, but it's a nightmare. I mean, I dumped the pieces out. I felt like I was looking at an unassembled car or something. I just I don't know if I'm going to continue with it. There's straight edges, but you know how you usually start by doing the, you know, the edges?

The border. Like, well, no. The fun of these puzzles is the straight edges can be from the middle of the puzzle.. They're like, well, no, the fun of these puzzles is the straight edges can be from the middle of the puzzle. And they're like, if you really want to have fun, you can order the puzzle without the cover art

so you don't even know. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah, no, it's madness. I guess I'll give it a go. We'll see what happens. Well, it's funny you brought up puzzles because someone at work sent out a link to Pod Swag, the website.

Oh, right. And I went on and there's actually an inside Conan puzzle. Wait. And I had no idea that it existed. The puzzle is, why does it exist? There's a ton of merch for us that I didn't even know about. What's the puzzle of? Just the cover art?

The puzzle is the cover art, yes. There's some really great stuff on there. Well, that's a great tip, especially for this holiday season. Yes. If you want a white elephant gift that will not get stolen by anybody. If you want to see that look of puzzlement when something happens. Do you like explaining your gifts? Boy, do we have a line of gifts for you.

We got to introduce our guest because we talked to him for a long time. Again, he's another two-timer on the podcast. He's kind of, for years, synonymous with the show, Brian Stack. Just... A legendary writer-performer, yes. He was one of those guys that you could always just... A pinch hitter.

You could put him in a sketch and there was a pretty good chance that it was going to get on the air. It's almost like Phil Hartman. You know, you'd hear like, oh, well, write something for Phil Hartman and it would get on SNL. Yeah.

It's money in the bank. So we talked to Stack about some of his iconic characters and how he's doing Hunkered Down in upstate New York, right? Yeah, he lives in Westchester County and he was in his kitchen, which you could probably tell because you may hear some kitchen appliances going in the background.

It sounds like he's in a diner. Yeah. There's someone going, corner! I've never, I don't know that term, corner. Yeah, it's like when you go around the corner with and you got a tray full of glasses. You yell, corner! I worked in food service for a while. Here he is, Brian Stack.

Well, we are here with Brian Stack. Hello, Brian. Hey, Mike. Hi, Brian. Hey, Jesse. Welcome back to Inside Conan. One of our only repeat guests. I think Conan was on twice.

Yeah. Smigel. It's very exciting to have you back on. Oh, it's so great to be back. Thanks for having me back. Yeah, it's great to see you. Well, we miss you because you're in New York. We do.

Yeah, I miss you too. I really do. I just, I think about you guys all the time. And I was thinking about this, I was like 18 years when it was supposed to be three months is just crazy. I worked at Kona for 18 years, and I thought it would be 13 weeks. It's just kind of crazy. I'm so grateful.

I'll always be so grateful for that and to get to work with you guys. And you, at the time, were living in Chicago when you came in for those 13 weeks, right? Yeah. I was still living there where I'm from, and I got a little sublet and thought, you know, I was probably going back in three months. But I fell totally in love with it right away, and I was thinking it'd be great to stay,

but I really didn't think it was going to be possible. Right. And then you learned that no one ever gets fired. Exactly. Exactly. Wait, what if I want to leave? No. It's a hotel California.

I think at the time it helped that NBC was like rolling in that Friends and Law & Order cash. And I was making Writers Guild minimum. And when Tommy came back, I think they were like, oh, what's one more writer? Tommy Blacha was a writer you filled in for. Right. I was supposed to you filled in for. Right. I was supposed to just fill in until Tommy came back. And then I think at the time I was just a drop in the bucket. I was like bagel money.

So it wasn't a big deal. I'm sure within a week you being there, it was like, oh, he's staying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, thanks, Mike. You're too kind. Yeah, of course. Well, I loved it right away. I definitely wanted to stay.

That's for sure yeah one thing i want to ask you is you know there's a big conan news last week about going to hbo max i saw that you tweeted about it and wrote something very nice about your time on the show like you said 18 years with conan you just got this giant outpouring of people on your Twitter feed just saying that they were big Conan fans, but they identify so much of the comedy on that show with you as well as Conan, you know? And I thought that that's kind of probably a really nice thing to hear. It's really meant a lot. And just that I think we all have those things we watched when we were growing up. And a lot of times, I don't know about you, Mike, but are you Jesse, but there were times where we'd be doing the show at Conan and you felt like we were kind of just doing it for ourselves. And you'd almost forget that anyone was seeing it. Yes, agreed. It was always kind of a surprise to me when people would mention a bit, even if it wasn't my bit. Like, I remember when John Mayerer was on the show and he mentioned a bit that Glazer and McCann had done called Tea Copywriter

Cage Match. It was one of my favorite bits. I had nothing to do with it, but I loved it so much. And the fact that he saw it and knew what it was, I was like, wait, you know about Tea Copywriter Cage Match? That aired on television? Who told you about that? Exactly. But that's the best. Or when Jack White recognized Andy Blitz as Leonard Diesel, Vin Diesel's nerdy brother. Yeah, he's like, you're Leonard Diesel.

And I'm like, oh, my God. Jack White knows Leonard Diesel. This is the best. And that's just the best, you know, when these people recognize little bits from our show. Right. That was a great sketch, the tea copyright cage match. It was so Glazer and McCann. It was just right.

They're sitting in the audience. Yeah. And they were guys who wrote the copy on the side of tea boxes like Bigelow and. Yeah. Like Lipton. Sleepy time tea. Chamomile. Yeah.

Right. Right. And they start one-upping each other and getting really cocky with each other, and the only way to settle the feud was to have a death match in a cage. And my favorite moment in it was, Conan goes, you know how this works? And Glazer goes, sure do.

And McCann goes, no. McCann has no idea what the rules are or anything. Just one of those wonderful little moments. What characters do people most associate Brian with? Because he's done so many. Yeah, like what do you hear about the most? Well, the weird thing was I was often buried under wigs and costumes. Beards, yeah.

Well, the weird thing was if I looked like myself, it was usually someone else's bit. I usually would hide as much as possible. But one thing I remember, I think I might've told you this before, but we were in a bar on 48th street or Irish bar and the bartender goes, Oh, you know,

you're one of the slip nuts. Cause in the slip nuts, I pretty much look like myself, but I was usually buried under wigs and hats and glasses cause I was hiding. Right. Yeah. Or doing a voiceover. Exactly.

Yeah. Trying to just bury myself as much as possible. You know, one character we didn't talk about the last time, and if we touch on anything we talked about the last time, a buzzer will go off. It's a nice system. One of my favorite characters, the Interrupter. Oh, thanks, Mike.

Yeah, which I think you created with Michael Komen. Yeah, Michael had the idea for it originally, uh i think you created with michael kohman yeah michael michael had the idea for it originally because i think you might remember this but conan would often joke at rehearsal okay how am i going to get interrupted today like i'm going to get interrupted by some weirdo in the audience right a weird character is going to interrupt me right someone in the audience is going to go uh excuse me con Conan. And it would always be like, you know, he'd be like, what's going on? I can't believe Conan's been hating that for 25 years. Oh, my God. Because he still hates it.

Well, he used to say, like, oh, I'm Mr. Mooney in this sketch. Right. Lucy had a comedy series, I guess, in the 60s. And her boss was like, Lucy, what is the meaning of this? Like she worked in a bank and she was like, so he's like, oh, I missed. He was a straight man in a lot of these sketches. It's just like, okay. And Michael, I think Michael was just kind of playing with that idea and wanted me to come in as a freak. And it was originally just supposed to be a one-off. And then several months later, was like hey can we expand that into and like learn more about that

guy and uh so we we brought him back and uh it just for the 800th time we did it yeah and like like almost everything i did it would get gradually darker and sadder like the character would get more and more uh have more and more of a horrible life. So you'd learn that he lived in a dumpster behind the Port Authority bus terminal. One of my favorite lines, I think it was Michael's, was he had seven different types of hepatitis. And Conan goes, I didn't even know there were seven different types of hepatitis. Yeah, and the timing on that, the back and was was great oh thanks it was always fun to do yeah yeah miriam came in as a female interrupter in one right bride of interrupter yes exactly

we would joke sometimes she'd be in a a sketch and you know miriam's great she's hilarious great performer there's been so many great tv shows and we'd use her all the time in sketches. And sometimes if the sketch got cut because it wasn't funny, we're like, oh, it's going to be tense in the stack house tonight. Oh, it's always fine. We were so used to it. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

We have that Irish Catholic self-esteem where we're like, I'm surprised it didn't get cut. That went on. You mean I didn't ruin it you know what i love when you um left the conan show and tbs to go back to new york we ran a big tribute like kind of your greatest hits and at the end you came out live as the interrupter which was fun and in violation of the NBC intellectual property laws. Mike, I swear I am eternally grateful, first of all, that you put that package together was way more than I ever expected. And it meant a lot to me. Thank you. Oh, that was fun. Was that a surprise?

I was not expecting there to be like a reel like that. And then for you to throw us a goodbye party too is incredibly nice. I watched it again when I knew you were coming on and it's great. It really does have a lot of things you did that I totally forgot about that are hilarious. Well, someone brought up in the writer's room. The party was a tax writer.

Yes, Jesse. In the writer's room this week, we watched, I can't even remember why it came up, but we watched a sketch where Brian, you are a camera guy who, for some reason, bought a lovely scarf for Conan's wife for the holidays. Oh, the creepy cameraman, yeah. That's right. I mean, it's so funny, but then also you kept improvising at the end.

I mean, we could all tell that it was improvised because I think you even commented on, you were like, you mean, why is this sketch going so well? And then you said, I bet your wife likes it. And then Conan made you, he goes, are you even a cameraman? Let's see the shot that cameraman is shooting. And then you guys improvised about that for five minutes. But there was so much improv that would always make it onto the air, which is so fun. I mean, how did you, you and Conan really found a rhythm where you kind of knew, all right, it's going to be okay for me to keep improvising with him. Well, I think the fact that he came from an improv background himself and that he really enjoys when things would go off the rails always made it more fun.

Like when Wikibare fell off his desk once, we were like, or he knocked it off right and then it was like just you could have fun with that or when i i was walking down the stairs as god and i slipped in my sandals because i'm so clumsy right and he said god have you been drinking you know those are a lot of times or i remember when mccann's uh shot he shot andy blitz and then he shot himself and his wig and hat fell off right when he died and so he's laying there laughing uh while he's supposedy blitz and then he shot himself and his wig and hat fell off right when he died and so he's laying there laughing uh while he's supposed to be dead and those were a lot of times like when those things happened and you roll with it and treat it and have fun with it those are the best moments when you're yeah really just and i think conan is so comfortable with you because

he knows i think he wanted love when things went off the rails with you. He knew he was in good hands, yeah. You brought up Wikibare, which we should explain what that is if people don't know. It was just a toy that came out eight or nine years ago. It was like a Teddy Ruxpin toy. Right, right. And you could ask it questions.

It was based on Wikipedia. It would answer any, it was a teaching tool for children. We brought it out, and you did the voice of it. It started... Oftentimes, you and Conan would improvise at the end, which was delightful, but it got very dark. But also, I think the sort of game of Wikibare came out of improv, didn't it?

Because initially, in rehearsal, it didn't go quite as dark, and then that was something that you improvised, Brian. Right. I think originally Todd and I had the idea just the fact that there's a lot of misinformation on Wikipedia. With Todd Levin, who's a writer on the show. At rehearsal, one of the stories was about something that was a little bit dark and Conan

started jokingly going, well, Wicked Bear, why don't you just talk about the Manson family? Yeah. And I know way too much about the manson family so i just started riffing with him about oh that's probably why abigail folger was you know i started like throwing in all these and he's just like oh my god wiki bear and i remember conan saying at rehearsal he goes i think this is the bit i think this is the game it's it has to be this dark stuff that's not appropriate for kids yeah right really dark it was one of those happy accidents where we're like oh yeah this is how it should be right and then that became a balancing act because sometimes it was in rehearsal it'd be too dark yeah it was

like i mean we'd be laughing really hard But we're like I don't think We can do that on the show Yeah there was one story about a German guy Who wanted to eat another guy Oh yeah And we're like this is just not even dark funny It's just It's too German

It would improve our ratings in Berlin Right exactly Oh I'm glad you remembered it I couldn't remember what the too dark story was, but that sounds about right. I think that was it. I think that was it. I think, though, in the very first Wikibare we did, there was a story about the Donner Party. Right.

But it was from 19th century, so I think it was, the other one was too soon, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because I remember one line in Wikibare goes, he was the first one eaten. Yay! Because I remember one line in Wikibare goes, he was the first one eaten. Yay. You know, I think because it was a pioneer times thing, it was okay. We always made fun of Lincoln all the time. And it was just, we'd come up with different ways that he was assassinated. Like, I remember once we had Lincoln come back, his head was cryogenically frozen. So, his head in a bell jar, and he's talking to Conan.

You know, it's great to be alive again. And then the curtain opens, and a bell jar comes with the head of John Wilkes Booth. And he's got a gun in his mouth and shoots the Lincoln head. I remember one where you shot yourself as Lincoln because there was an ape that had come back in time. And you were losing your mind, so you shot yourself. Sure. Ian Roberts was an astronaut. It was insane.

It was completely insane. Oh, my God. I remember there was an ape Lincoln. Ape Lincoln. That was insane. It was completely insane. Oh, my God. I remember there was Ape Lincoln. Ape Lincoln. There was a sketch with like five different time travel tropes going on in it. And, of course, Money Shot Lincoln, legendary. You, of course, you sold the hell out of that bit. I'll always respect the hell out of you for many reasons.

I sold the hell out of it. I pretended I was orgasming. I really had to reach deep. That's a legendary. For the emotional truth of that. I've always admired that when people have the courage to go, you went all out with that bit in terms of your commitment. McCann, when he used to do the- It was Brian spit. And he, I wanted, I was trying to please, I was trying to make him laugh. Well, McCann's another one who was always fearless. Like when he would do the loser character,

he would push his stomach out as far as he could when he was wearing a speedo because it was funnier. He has no vanity, you know, it's like, yeah, none. I always admired that.

So he wouldn't always insist on his ass cheeks showing. Yes. Yes. If it's funny, he'll debase it. That's right. He played when we first started at TBS. One of the first remotes was Conan went to visit the TBS standards person

and I was asking him, what's allowed? Isn't allowed? And then he calls in Brian McCann and Brian turns to leave and the ass cheeks are coming out. Oh, he played S&M Lincoln. That was one of the funniest characters ever. That was.

But you had a lot of great characters on the TBS show, too. One of my favorites that made me laugh so hard. And I think you came up with this bit with Todd again. Todd Levin was, it was called Basic Cable, name that tune. Oh, right. Yeah, that was Todd's idea. Yeah. That's great.

Yeah. And the whole premise was, now that we're on basic cable, we can't afford to play real music because of the legal, the rights cost too much money. Truth in comedy. Exactly. It was convoluted, but the whole point of it was to get to you singing. We'd have knockoffs of famous songs. Right. And you would sing the knockoff and you were a singer called David LeFontaine. Who also had a dark backstory, right? Yes. I think so. And my favorite part was Conan would always say, I hate that guy. He would, he would say to the audience member, I hate him.

I hate him so much. And I would enjoy like tossing in something like not as much as I hate myself or whatever. Right, right. And those were always my favorite things because it's just wallowing in the hatred. Yeah, no, you improvise. Once you're done with the songs, which were all,

I enjoy stuff that's bad on purpose. And those songs were hilarious. But then, yeah, you'd ad lib a lot afterwards with conan which which was great oh thanks that was always so fun and also uh you played uh joe galliano yeah that was always fun too he was a designer in paris who got in trouble and so you came out to defend yourself and he's outlandish in his dress and so every time they cut away from you to talk to conan we put another insane hat on their head. Yeah. Scott, Scott chronic. He was always one of those unsung MVPs of the show.

He's our wardrobe designer. His creativity and humor that he would inject. Oh my God. He would suggest something kind of a vague idea and he would always make it 10 times funnier, you know? And like, and his hats in addition to the the time and effort involved were always super funny and creative and like i remember one had like unicorns flying through the air like over rainbows and stuff and like and it was a birthday cake too i mean they were just insane hats we just basically said scott go completely nuts with these hats you know and

yeah well and that was a fun sketch because part of the fun was that sometimes the hat wouldn't completely get on. Like, it wouldn't, the change wouldn't be perfectly executed in such a short amount of time. Right. Right. And it'd be kind of busted

when we'd cut back to you. You'd still be, like, trying to do the character while you might see someone like Bruce or we're putting the hat on your head still. Yeah, I think there was a rehearsal outtake of Bruce actually in the frame a few times and stuff. Right.

You know, that's an interesting point what Jesse brought up for live television. Well, live, what I mean is television show taped in front of a live audience. We would oftentimes think about, oh, you know what? Even though some of this stuff is only seen by the studio audience and the TV audience won't see it, it'll be a delight for the studio audience and that'll kind of

make the whole piece more enjoyable. And I think that's an example of that. Like something, that audience that was there got to see people throwing these hats on you every five seconds. And I think they were just like, kind of like seen behind the curtain a bit yeah i think they really enjoyed that yeah yeah like we were talking about that once with the clutch cargos where you know we would have to cut out of the face and see the lips robert smigel and conan when they started that were really smart about it they had the actors doing it out in front of the audience so they were kind of in on the joke of how it was being done. It just enhanced the humor of it, I think, and people's enjoyment.

Absolutely. I came to see the show in 94. Andy got us tickets when I was still living in Chicago, and I was just visiting New York. And I remember Robert doing a clutch, and they had the curtain open. And I was like, this is so cool to see how they do this. You know? And I, I remember really having that audience experience of watching, he was doing Bill Cosby and Don King, I think. And, um, I remember, uh, that character Slim Organbody was on that show. And I remember all the details cause it was such a big thing for me to come see a live taping. It was, it was really exciting. And I never want to forget that, you know, it was really fun. I went to one late night taping once. It was David Letterman. And I just remember all of it was just etched in my brain.

Like, Letterman came up before the show. And I'm just like, oh, my God. He saw me in the audience before the show. Oh, I know. I know. And then I'm like, I can't wait to see who the guest is. How could it get better? And it was Paul Sorvino.

So that totally calmed me down. Then you're like, oh, I could do do this i could do this job right yeah i think it was sarah jessica parker the night we saw it oh wow yeah so now i mean you've been working on the late show with stephen colbert for what six years now oh my gosh it started in uh 2015 so a little over five years yeah it's crazy wow wow it really did because i's crazy. Wow, wow, wow. It really did, because we did the TBS. I was there at the TBS show for five, and that kind of flew by, too. I remember when we first got to the Warner's lot, I was like, wow, this feels really good. It just felt like a really good place to do the Conan show. I always liked that lot a lot.

I always thought it was fun to walk around. Oh, it's great. Being a film nerd, too, I would walk past and I would hear a tour guide say, and this was used for the French cafe scene in Casablanca. And I'm like, oh, my God. Yeah. And I would just nerd out completely. And then I would see like an old James Cagney gangster movie on TV that was a Warner Brothers thing.

And I'm like, oh, that's the New York set where the taco place is. Yeah, yeah. Like it's right near the taco place. And like that's one of the magical things about that lot, I think. That's cool. I know. And it's all like one small block that just gets transformed into any time period and any city in the world.

It's so strange. And you're right. Some of those buildings have been there since the 30s. Yeah. It's crazy. They just keep redressing them or putting different names in the window. Yeah, from Casablanca to Heart of Dixie. I know.

Or the Gilmore Girls. Yeah. We had a German au pair who was living with us for a while, and she was a Gilmore Girls fanatic. And she came to the lot one day, and she goes, oh, it's the cafe. Was ist dies? It was so touching to see how overwhelmed she was being on the Gilmore Girls, like seeing the Gilmore Girls buildings and seeing the gazebo. And she goes, that's the tree, the tree where the girl would sit under and stuff. And I hadn't seen the show, so I didn't know what she was talking about.

But that was very nice for her. That's always weird when people are just going gaga over something that you haven't experienced. And there was an old writer on Conan, Mike Stoynoff, who's he played Blossom's brother on the TV show Blossom. Right. Right.

And I never watched Blossom. And so it was, I was like, okay, sure. You know, but we'd go out, we'd leave Rockefeller center to get lunch.

And people were screaming at him. Just getting nannies thrown at him? Yeah. Yes. Yeah, practically. And it's like, wait a minute. Something's wrong with this picture. I remember when my daughters first met Conan, they were, I think my youngest daughter was excited to meet Conan because he had just interviewed Ashley Tisdale.

Oh, that's great. Who was like a Disney star. So she's like, what is Ashley like? Yeah, she's like, exactly. She's like, you've talked to Ashley Tisdale. And I'm like, he's the host. I'm now one degree away from Ashley. That's great.

It was pretty adorable. And Conan rolled with it very, very wonderfully. I was just going to ask Brian if he has any memory of a time something went really poorly. Because I always just assume that you killed in every single sketch. Is there ever a time that you remember something not working out the way you thought it would?

There was one night where I only had a two-line thing and a live bit. And I told Steve King, the cue card guy, I was like, I don't need cards, Steve. It's all up here. Oh, boy. Yeah. And I told Steve King, the cue card guy, I was like, I don't need cards, Steve. It's just too long. It's all up here. Oh, boy. Yeah. And I remember I just went up.

I just went completely blank. And Steve flipped a card. Like, he had one. Like, he just anticipated or sensed that. Because it was just a brief pause. But I think he knew I was screwed. And so he saved my butt in that one and I remember there's been so many you know well you brought up the cue card thing and when I

when I was first in a sketch on Conan I remember someone really explicitly told me it might have been the stage manager Greg Kassoff but he was like you have to read the cue cards. Don't memorize the lines. Just read the cue cards. Because if you try to memorize, you'll go blank when the audience is here. So just, you know, in rehearsal and in the show, read it. Don't have it memorized. Well, that's why I feel so bad that the first sketch I wrote at Conan, I think we talked about this last time, was Andy's Little Sister, where Amy Poehler was playing Andy's Little Sister. And I was so new that I thought if people could see the cue cards, they would see all the jokes. And I said, well, let's not use cue cards.

Amy can just... I was like, Amy can just memorize the line, which is insane. And it was so unfair. And she didn't complain. She just memorized it. Oh, wow. And I still can't believe she did that and i can't believe i'm asked her to do that which was so insane because i had never done it myself i

had never done anything in the audience where i would have known that how crazy that was right i think probably a few times in after a few we we ended up using cards but i just remember thinking oh they'll see all the the upcoming punchlines yeah they'll see the jokes coming up but they don't really look at the cards they're looking at the monitors watching the sketches so i didn't know that so i felt i felt so bad people look at the cards i used to be obsessed with that too like sometimes the cue card guys would hold the cards up well before the person started the sketch. So that was my pet peeve. I was like,

can you just wait till, I mean, I know it's like, you know, you don't want to do it too late, but I was like, can you wait as late as possible before you hold up cards and let the audience know that,

you know, someone's about to interrupt coding from the audience. There is kind of an art to it. The timing of it. But also if someone's already sitting in the audience in a gorilla costume, they're gonna know. That's usually what happens. That's so true.

I remember sitting as the devil once, all the way in the far back seat, and I was like, someone's gonna see me sitting here as the devil. In New York, they don't even blink. Oh, that was my other thing. Like, you'd come into rehearse, and they'd put something like the gorilla in the second row. It's like, let's move him in the back.

So that every single person sees. I always like the look of the audience members when you'd sit down next to them and they have no idea what the bit is, but you're just sitting there dressed like a cucumber or something. And you're just like. Right. It'd be great if you never, if it never paid off, if you were actually weren't in the sketch. Oh, that would have been fun.

I remember once Glazer, we, we did a bit where Glazer was this guy with maracas who was shaking with the band. Right. And we, we decided to let it go like about two thirds through the show before Conan calls out,

Hey, who is that guy? Right. Right. I remember he turns to Max, he goes, Hey, Max, you're going to introduce the special guy sitting with the band. And this is literally, he's been shaking maracas in a mariachi outfit for two thirds of the show. Half the show. And then he says, Hey, Max, you're going to introduce the guy in the band. And Max goes, I thought you invited him. Anyone else in the band invite him? And I said, Sir, I don't understand. If no one invited you, why are you here? And Glazer just runs out of the theater.

And that was the whole joke. And I remember, but you had to watch two-thirds of the show just seeing him sit there shaking his maracas. And it's like. Yeah, like in and out of every commercial. Because they'd show the band. Yeah, that's great. It made no sense. No, I love stuff like that where you lay a lot of pipe.

I love the fact that we could kind of take swings like that at that show and just say, well, it may not work, but we think it's funny. And like, yeah, there were so many bits like that where we're like, like Glazer with a little Clinton hand puppet that we go home. Oh, boy. That was just an office bit. And it ended up making it on the show. You know, I love that bit. Conan was like was like ah there's not there's nothing there and i'm like no it's when he does it in

the writer's room it's so funny i think i saw one of those i don't know why i saw it again years later and i was terrified to watch it because i it did well but it is a lot of like part of the humor is how bad. Is how late at night it is when you're watching it. How late at night it is when Slazer came up with it. Well, Brian, we have to wrap up with you, but we like to ask our guests for a piece of advice for somebody out there listening who might want to do what you do. And that could be improv, writing, sketch.

I think one thing that I've found, and this goes with the stand-up friends I've come up with, I've never done stand-up in my life, but I think it's true for the stand-ups that I've worked with and the people who are exclusively writers and the people that came out of improv, is that everybody kind of started out doing something they genuinely loved, as corny as that sounds. I think if you start off doing something that you really love doing as an end in itself, it's more likely to become a means to an end because you're working with people you really like, you're on the same wavelength, you're doing stuff that you genuinely enjoy, and that shows in your work. And so I think people, it's perfectly fine to just be a writer. I think that's great. I do think there can sometimes

be an advantage to being in a community of improvisers or a community of standups. Because as you know, a lot of times you find out about opportunities from your peers you were in the trenches with. Yeah, mostly. Yeah, because I actually found out about submitting to Conan through people like McCann and Andy and those guys who knew me from Chicago. Conan didn't know who I was. John Groff didn't know who I was. And you didn't't know who I was and you didn't, Mike. So it was like, I can't tell you how many times I've heard that from other people too,

that they found out about opportunities through people who they started out with when they were just working in basements and stuff. Yeah, like a lot of times people are like, I got a network or I got a, but that stuff just kind of happens by being in the trenches and investing a lot of time in addition.

You know what I mean? So it takes like after doing something for three or four or five, seven, eight, ten years, it's like, oh, you don't even think about it. But you've got this community of people who are helping each other and it evolves very naturally. Yeah, absolutely. And I think that that's been true for so many people I've met in various types of communities, stand-up, improv, writing. Also, I think it really helps,

as you know, 95% of the time, you're just hanging out in an office with people too. So I think it really helps to be someone that is going to sound Pollyanna-ish, but it's nice to, and gets along with other people. Because I think if you get a reputation as someone who's really difficult or a pain in the ass, they know that most of the time you're going to be sitting around in an office with

them. It should be people you want to hang out with, you know? Yeah. So you're going to want to hire, like if you get a bad rep and someone's like, ah, I've worked with that guy. He's really funny. He scares me. Yeah.

Or he makes life really difficult. I'm not saying that difficult people can't succeed because we all know difficult people. But I think it really helps to be. God knows difficult people can succeed. Yes, definitely. But I think it really, it's easy to get a reputation as kind of being an asshole and stuff. And it can follow you. It can haunt you.

I think it can harpoon some of the opportunities that came along because someone would be like, yeah, he's funny, but he's it's not worth it. You know, it's not. Just going to say, I think we've said this before, but Brian is notoriously one of the nicest people that anyone's ever worked with. Suspiciously so. I agree. Thank you so much. And honestly, I'm not just reciprocating it. I sincerely say that back to both of you. And honestly, I never take it for granted when I'm working with really nice people that are really funny. And I'll always be grateful I got to do that for so many years with you. Well, we're grateful, too.

I wish you guys the best, you know, with the HBO Max show. Oh, thanks. And the Without Borders and whatever else you guys are up to in the meantime. And please give my love to everybody at the show. We will. It was great to talk to you. And please give my love to everybody at the show. We will. It was great to talk to you. And thanks, Will. Thanks, Jen.

Thanks, Brian. All right. That was Brian Stack coming to us from his kitchen in Westchester. Corner. 86th corner. I'm going to 86th corner. It was nice to catch up with Brian. He is really, truly one of the sweetest people I've ever met.

Yes, incredibly talented. But you know enough about him. Let's turn to a real staple, and I think something that's never been done or attempted on any other podcast, and that is questions from listeners. Wow. We have a question today from a fan.

It's a voicemail. It's a voicemail. It's a voicemail. Good. I love voicemails. Hi, Inside Conan. I would like to know how they prepare an audience member for something like the Wahlburgers guy, especially how long they're sitting there next to the performer like Mr. Debuchet in a giant ridiculous costume before we see them on camera.

Thank you. That's a great question. Yes. I love the term, how do they prepare the audience? Prepare the audience. Sounds like they're bathed. There's some light massage. Right.

We should explain about Wahlburgers, the Wahlburgers sketch. It was around the height of the popularity of the show Game of Thrones. Right. And Andre Dubichet would dress up as a guy in, like, a Game of Thrones cosplay, basically. Yes. Like one of the men who protect the wall. He would, you know, have a real booming voice, and he would say, Something is coming, Conan.

And it starts with a W. I'm talking, of course, about Wahlburgers. And he actually was a big fan of the show Wahlburgers. So it was a misdirect. Oh, no. Because you thought he was going to talk about Game of Thrones. Now I realize we have to explain what the Wahlburgers TV show is. Which, of course, is a reality show about the Wahlburg family.

And their burger joint. Yeah. The sketches are hilarious. Yes. And we talked to Brian about this a little bit too, but we often have crazy costumed character in the audience and they do have to sit and wait for, usually Conan goes, he comes out and does his intro and monologue and then the character's introduced. So there's a while where the person's just sitting out there in the audience. Well, for a while early on like some sketches on on the old late night show there'd be like five or six characters in the audience in a sketch in a sketch that would start right

after conan did the monologue they would precede them prior to the show starting then conan was like you know what it's really distracting to be doing monologue jokes. And I'm staring at a bear and someone dressed as God. A banana. Yeah. And, you know, Neptune and, you know, with the trident. He's like, can we maybe start seeding them after the monologue, but before the sketch starts? So that was the concession to Conan. Yeah, usually there would often be like a VT or something before the big character sketch. So then you could come out during the VT. And actually they do have to warn the audience member whose seat you're taking

because it's a real audience person that's sitting there. And then they know in advance that they're going to be moved for this sketch. That's got to be scary when a giant bear is coming towards your seat. I think you should give them a heads up. You got to move, yeah. Well, thanks for that question.

I think we said this last week, but we only have a few episodes left of the season. So if you have questions, get them in. I heard that they started pouring in and I'm just imagining that scene in Harry Potter where all the owls are, get them in. I heard that they started pouring in, and I'm just imagining that scene in Harry Potter where all the owls are bringing the letters in. But if you have questions for us, please email insideconanpod at gmail.com.

Or leave us a voicemail at 323-209-5303. And that's it for us. All right, well, we'll talk to you soon. And as always, we like you. Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast is hosted by Mike Sweeney and me, Jesse Gaskell. Produced by Jen Samples. Engineered and mixed by Will Becton.

Supervising producers are Kevin Bartelt and Aaron Blair. Executive produced by Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco. 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. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.