Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Chris Fleming

Episode Date: September 18, 2020

Comedian Chris Fleming stops by to talk with writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell about trying to make earworms in his comedy music videos, creating the web-series Gayle after moving to LA, what inspired his androgynous fashion, taking a bus from Boston to New York as a teenager for 2 minutes of stand-up stage time, and being heckled by a college mascot into doing a dance-off during one of his stand-up gigs. 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. Welcome to Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. That sounded important. Didn't it? Yes. Yeah. I'm Mike Sweeney. I'm a writer on The Conan Show. I'm Jesse Gaskell. I am also a writer on The Conan Show. And we like to talk about other things about The Conan Show together. That's right. And we always have exciting guests. And

this week's no exception. So what's been going on, though, first with you, Jesse? What have you been up to? Well, I am very excited. Later today, I'm going to go see the stink flower. What? At the Huntington Gardens. They have a blooming stink flower? Yeah, yeah. Or sorry, it's called a corpse flower, I think, technically.

Or corpse flower, right. But they have a blooming corpse flower. It is in bloom for one day only, and that is today. Oh, my God. That's a lot of pressure. As soon as I saw the email, I was like, well, I have to go. I'm literally dropping everything to go and see it and smell it. But under COVID, I'm assuming the line to get in to see it, that's going to be, you should leave right now.

Well, no, they regulate how many people come in. You have to wear a mask. But I'm kind of hoping that maybe once I get right up to the front of the line, I can lower the mask just a hair to get a whiff of that sweet corpse. I don't think you're going to have to lower the mask to get a load of the corpse. I mean, the name is literally based on the fact it's supposed to smell like an actual dead body. Yeah. Have you, you've never smelled one before? A dead body or a corpse flower?

Either one. No, I have not. There's one in the New York, when I lived in New York forever and ever, at the Botanical Gardens there. And, you know, I refuse to live my life around a flower, but you do what you need to do. Well, no, I never have gotten the opportunity before,

but now that we work from home, it's like all the stars are aligning. It's perfect. For me to go smell the corpse flower. I'm curious to hear how many people show up for the corpse flower. I'm curious too. I know. It could be a total zoo. It could be like Coachella. Yeah, I'll report back. Good. We have a great show today. We do. Oh, we have a-

A live guest. What a segue. No corpses here. No. Very, very funny comedian, actor, and super talented. It's a pleasure to have him on the show today. Chris Fleming. I think he rose to fame with a web series called Gale. Yes. He plays sort of a Karen character before there were Karens. Right. And we talk about that. That was kind of like he started making those

and got instant attention, you know, from Hollywood and, you know, got an agent and a manager and all that stuff. Yeah. And since then, he's made a ton of funny music videos. And he's also been in a series for Team Coco. Right. Meet the Conan Staff. Yeah. Which is an online series. And he's really funny.

He's in one of those episodes. He's great. He plays a Conan Staff member, even though he's not actually on the Conan Staff. It's a little bit confusing. Well. For me. Yeah.

So here's Chris Fleming. Tell us where you are right now, Chris. I'm in my pagoda. I'm in my pagoda right now. Is this where you record music? Oh, I record a lot of the scratch tracks back here. And I do have like, I film over there a bit. But a lot of the music, have you, I didn't know that you were aware of my music career. Very deep dive. I'm flabbergasted. I'm flattered and I'm blushing. I do record some of that, most of that in Massachusetts. My brother-in-law is in a folk band. And so I kind of just use his gorgeous mic to do that.

Oh, that's great. To legitimize my terrible pipes. Well, you have music in a lot of your comedy videos. I do. I do. Yeah. And then do you also have aspirations as a serious musician? Oh, no, no, no.

Oh, no, I don't. That's a good sign. No, for a comedian. Yeah. Because some comics, I think, secretly want to be rock stars. Oh, certainly. Certainly. And they become so big, they start singing be rock stars. Oh, certainly, certainly. And they become so big, they start singing at the end of the show like, you know, if you'll indulge me.

No, don't do it. Are you talking about Conan specifically? No, I'm not talking about Conan. He's self-aware about it. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He wears the cowboy boots around the house and everything. Right, right. Yeah.

No, I don't know. I think who knows where I'll be in my head in like five to ten years, but I hope that I don't. I mean, I want to make comedy music that sounds good, though. You know? Yeah. Right. That's like a real bop.

Yeah. Yeah. I try to make earworms and stuff. Right. Kind of like an 80s desperate synthscape that i like to listen to but i but i don't know i don't know if i'll ever be i think that if i do try to genuinely pursue a music career it means that i've seen something or experienced something that there's no coming back from yeah yeah no i'm going to say the videos i've been watching I've been dazzled by how well directed and edited and

shot they are oh well we aim to dazzle beautiful music videos yeah thank you serious seriously and I love the one I don't I'm afraid to talk to men is thank you thank you see that was um that was the first music video that I uh first like the song that I recorded on my own without my musician. I have a bunch of musician friends. And so I just kind of slaved away on Logic myself and like just kind of smashing my forehead against the keyboard trying to make, I was listening, there was this 80s band, I think they're called the Hooters. And they had a song called We Danced All Night. And I was just trying to rip that song off. Oh, yeah. For that.

Cool. Yeah, I appreciate that song off. Oh, yeah. For that. Cool. Yeah. I appreciate that a lot. You released a video in like May, the Boba manifesto. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And I was wondering if that had been if that was something that like came out of quarantine, creative storm, or if that had been in the works for a long time. You know, I haven't actually started writing anything during quarantine because I feel like this is like making something during a time like this is how like the PT cruiser got invented, you know, like, I don't think anything good can come from this period. So

that was something that I had prior. And we were kind of that was like part of the touring show that I was doing. And so that was like the opening number. And so I just kind of cannibalized that entire show and just made it into videos. Oh, yeah. You used every part of the buffalo. That's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's that's what we did. We tore the buffalo to pieces. Well, Chris, OK, I want to go back to why you're here. Oh, yeah. I just want to contextualize you a little bit for our listeners because I first learned about your comedy from Conan O'Brien who's a fan of yours

and I think he learned about you from his kids because I don't believe that he would have found you on his own you're popular people find me when they're ready that's the way I look at it I'm in no rush to get into the zeitgeist. If you don't know me yet, that's fine. You will when you need to. But you've been doing YouTube videos for like the last decade. I mean, can you tell us a little bit

about how you got into comedy and what how you sort of made that first? Because did you start with your YouTube series, Gale? Was that kind of your first foray? That was the first successful, relatively successful thing that I did. I'd been doing stand-up since high school. And I started that in Boston at this quirky little club called The Comedy Studio. And I started that character, Gale, there.

And then I got kind of seduced into moving to LA by this manager who then, as soon as I got kind of seduced into moving to LA by this manager who then, as soon as I got to LA, she became a chef, uh, right, right. As soon as I got here. Every manager wants to do something else. That's always true. Yeah. Yeah. It's a messed up profession to, to, yeah, it doesn't, it's still runs me the wrong way. Uh, the whole, the concept of it, uh, it's a weird bedfellow to have. It's very, yeah, I don't really believe in it. Anyway, so then I came out here.

I was kind of drowning in the stand-up scene. I was getting nowhere. And then I was like, okay, I should just turn this character that I knew worked in clubs that I really liked, Gail, into a web series. Because that seems to be like what a couple people had been doing. And so that kind of amassed like a little bit of a following. And then was Gail based on somebody in your life? I mean, because yeah, yeah. Are you from a small town in Massachusetts? Yeah, I'm from a small town in central Massachusetts. And she's kind

of an amalgamation of a bunch of different people in my town, one of whom actually, one of the women went to jail for embezzling money from the Boy Scouts. And then there was a pie chart that was released of what she would spend the money, the embezzled money on. And it was like, 30% of it was for edible arrangements. And so I was like, okay, I gotta. So physically, I would make my mouth really small because her mouth was really small. And so that was, she was the physical inspiration for Gail. But a lot of people were, and a lot of women in my town are really pissed at me.

Like there's a woman named Gail who she's not based on, who was like, thinks that I based it on her. And I'm like, no, no, I think you're're lovely i wait so did that anger spill over to like your your fat parents like get any blowback from their friends yeah they get egged every day the house just gets covered we can't leave yeah no no um no my time it's very repressed uh uh you ever see the witch that movie the witch yes yeah that, that's kind of what the vibe is. Very, I mean, that's Massachusetts. Very 1630s.

Yes, it's the best representation of living in Massachusetts. I tried to catch it in Gale, but The Witch really got, in like the 2000s, that's what it's like. So, no, no, my parents, they don't say it, but you hear it, you know. So then, oh God. So, yeah, so I put that online hoping that the industry would like notice me and then like offer me things, but that never happened. So I just like, that's not how it works. Yeah. I know. I didn't, I didn't know that. And so you have to do it over again on Tik TOK. Right. Right. So then I just kind of got like a following through that and then toward doing standup after we toured like shows of Gail and then I just kind of got like a following through that and then toward doing standup after we toured like shows of Gail. And then I kind of burnt me and my

loved ones and friends and family into the ground because it was just all of us working on it so hard all the time. And like, it was too much. So then I stopped that right as it became kind of popular, which sucked. And then that's perfect. That's what you're supposed to do. Right. But you did 40 episodes of Gail. Yeah, that's a lot.'s what you're supposed to do. Right. But you did 40 episodes of Gale. Yeah, that's a lot. That's an incredible amount of work. Oh, it was a lot. I got very physically injured a lot doing it. It really took a toll on everyone that was involved in it. Yeah, did you find yourself becoming Gale? Was it like exercise bulimia? I was, I was, yeah, I had to be,

I had to be like very fit for it because, uh, because every monologue is her power walking in the middle of the street and often like in the snow and stuff. And so I was very, I had to be in very good shape. And then I slowly, when I turned 30, I just kind of stopped. Like I got like, it was the first time I was like, okay, I can like be still, you know, like I don't crave, I like, I didn't have that kind of kinetic energy anymore. Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, like 30 washes over you and it's like, oh, you can exhale or something. I don't know. I think I know. Well, you're a great physical comic. You are. Oh, thank you. Oh my God. You have a great physicality. It's. I think I'm just long.

And I think that, um, I think that. Well, you're long too. That helped. That doesn't hurt. I think I must've seen you guys. Cause I would occasionally go to, um, Conan backstage to when Gary Goldman would perform and, and I would go and I, though I would wear some really, really outrageous kind of slutty outfits.

And, and, and I think people would think that I was, Gary had hired like a cheap escort. I think it was kind of, that's what I thought. I got into like the way British comedians were dressing and like, like 08, 09 and stuff. And they were a lot more kind of androgynous. And I didn't think that anyone was doing that in America. So it just seemed like kind of an easy way to stand out. And it also made me feel really powerful to dress more femininely, especially in meetings when talking to men. I felt like it was a way to have power. Oh, interesting. I've been kind of arriving at that by talking to a therapist about that a little bit too, about why I suddenly started

dressing. Well, just because it, I mean, the sort of nonconformist thing that we were talking about, like it does kind of give you, OK, I'm not going to play your game. You know, I'm playing my own game. Well, right. And also, I think I have a huge fear of being compared to other people because that then allows room to be like, oh, I'm less than that person, you know? So like if I would wear just like a plaid shirt on stage, it could be like, oh, he's not as funny as John Mulaney,

you know? And that's like, I think, I just like not being able to be compared to anybody, you know, and just being like- I feel like plaid shirt on a comedian has to come with a beard. Okay, okay, yeah. Yeah, which I cannot grow.

But also I started wearing women's clothes because they just also fit. I have a rather thin build. And so they would just fit me better. And they breathe better. And yeah, yeah. They do. They're just better. Yeah. Yeah. And then there's this amazing Dutch lady that I met online who now just makes clothes for me for... Oh.

Yeah. Oh, that's so cool. So you have a personal stylist? Yeah. I'll just give her... Her company is called Feast Studios and she does a lot of faux fur stuff. And I also look like I feel different than other people,

you know, tactile-wise. Oh, yeah. So you don't have to go to thrift stores to sort of source your own stuff i i don't you ever do that i have a i have a severe cat allergy so i i can't go to thrift stores oh my god it's just like i feel the presence of 10 000 cats every time i walk through i'm like i'm like a medium when i walk into the thrift stores well consider yourself lucky then yeah yeah before we go any further, I also want to say I'm starstruck

because I recognize you guys from the Conan documentary that I love. Jesse, you also... Well, no, I'm not. I wasn't here then. You weren't there then. Okay.

No, I didn't work there yet. But Mike, you absolutely were. Yeah, I've been around. You were on the patio. The patio. Yes. The famous patio scene. The famous patio scene. I love that movie because my two sons have a cameo in it. I was told not to watch that before I got, when I got the job at Conan. Oh, that's hilarious.

People said, don't watch the documentary. Who told you that? I don't know. Friends were like, you don't, you don't want to know. It's better if you don't. Wow. Did you watch it? I don't know. Friends were like, you don't want to know. It's better if you don't. Wow. Did you watch it? I haven't watched it still. Oh, it's really good. I saw it when it came out.

And yeah, I haven't seen it since. It's one of those things. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it's something that you rewatch. But it really does give you a sense of like oh wow that this does take a lot to be to be Conan this is

that endurance is really something yeah no he's when he's focused on something like just because the show has its own life and it's you know it's four days a week or five days a week and so that was kind of okay there's a ton of work to do but then when he'd do an outside or a one-off project i always felt like that's when i really saw how

focused he could become on something that was important to him and i'd always be like oh wow i thought i yeah could work hard but he he's on a crazy level of focus. It's very impressive. And that live tour was an example of him just going, okay, we're doing this. And that's all he thought about and all he worked on. And he's the same way, you know, if he's doing a commencement speech

or he just gets so focused on it, it's very impressive. I can't imagine having that energy like every year that goes by i'm just kind of i get closer and closer to just wanting to less motivated yeah like i get opportunities now where i'm like if i had this five years ago i would have been like oh yes but now i'm like i'm kind of tired. But that's so nice to get to that point where you realize you're allowed to say no to things. Yes, that's very powerful. Can I ask you another question about Gail? Oh, certainly, certainly.

You were living in LA. Yeah, I was living in Boyle Heights at that point in my life, yeah. Oh, okay. Oh, I love Boyle Heights. Yeah. But it looks like you went back to Massachusetts to shoot them. Yeah, that was part of the problem was that people would get really livid if they would see like a palm tree in the back. And so we would have to fly like a couple times a month to go back and shoot in Massachusetts.

It was a lot of money. Did you have to pull permits and stuff to shoot there? Or were they like, no one ever wants to shoot here? Oh, we certainly should have. I've never done anything legit in my life, like in terms of permits or anything. We were getting like kicked off. We would just go and then be asked to leave.

Until someone tells you, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Which was also very much a young man's game. Like I don't really want to cause that kind of a ruckus anymore. Like I don't want those confrontations with mall security, you know? I think what I'm hearing you say is you don't want to work. You're just like, I'm done working. Sorry. I'm just going to wear beautiful Dutch clothes.

That's what I'm saying. Sorry. No, no. I think it's just, I think, I think i'm in a particular um i talk like this a lot right before i do something um very very uh labor intensive i i i always go in and out of these things and i fantasize about going to missoula montana and completely just changing my life and working at like a tropical fish store but but i never get there yeah i worked at this camp once and the man, there was this guy who looked like Teddy Roosevelt who like ran it. And he told me, we didn't have any kind of relationship or anything, really. I was kind of shy. And then at the end, I was leaving and he was like, Chris, I want to tell you something

before you go. And he rolled out a map and he said, if things ever go bad for you in your life, go here. And he pointed to Missoula, Montana on a map. Wow. In my head. Do you think he buried treasure there for you? I don't know. Maybe it's like a townhouse that's in my name or something. I don't know. I don't know what's in Missoula for me. Wait, where was this camp? Where were you physically in Connecticut? In his office. And he picked Missoula, Montana for you. And he rolled out a map and he pointed. If things go bad, go here.

And so that's in my head. He has a bunker full of guns there. You gotta go. He did seem like vaguely libertarian in hindsight. Physically, physically he read as libertarian. Yeah. seem like vaguely libertarian in Heinz. Physically, physically, he read as libertarian. I'm really flattered that you guys like my wardrobe. I really appreciate that. Oh, God, I really love it.

Jesse mentioned your wardrobe. Okay. No, I love your, I don't notice wardrobe. I don't. I mean, I noticed you're wearing a wife beater t-shirt. Yes, I think that's, your Ralph Cramden look is amazing. This is a camisole I got in Montreal last year before the Just for Laughs festival. Oh.

I call them cams for short. Cams. Yeah, yeah. Because I realized I didn't have an undershirt for a very low cut blouse that I was going to be wearing. So I invested in this. Yeah, yeah. So doing Gale, was that the first time you sort of dabbled in wearing women's clothing? You know, yeah, it was like, I just did that to service the character. And then everyone, I think that did kind of help with the androgynous story behind me, I think, because that was the only output that I had was me playing a 53-year-old

woman. And I would just wear my mom's clothes for that. And yeah. Was cup size hard to choose? Well, yeah, that's a good question because I never wanted it to be like, oh, the dressing in drag is the joke. So I wore a very, very, it was like maybe an A-cup bra. Like I think I would wear like just a very small bra and not even necessarily stuff it. I think maybe occasionally I would put like a sock or two in there, but not an ample bosom. No.

Right. No, and I like that it's not, the joke isn't that it's a man wearing a dress. Right. You become that character. Oh, yes. It's very fluid. No. Right. No. And I like, I like that. It's not the joke. Isn't that it's a man wearing a dress. Right. You become that character. It's very fluid. Yeah. And you don't, it's not, you don't need to do like a woman's voice. I love that. You don't. It's a deeper voice than mine, actually. Yeah. Her voice is much deeper than mine. It's perfect. And I think now those could serve as training videos for Karen. I got, I've been getting a lot of comments about that. Yeah. Right? Yeah, yeah.

That it was kind of a... Yeah, Gail was the first Karen. A prophetic Karen prediction. Yeah, yeah. Where do you think your comedy sensibilities come from? Because you, I mean, you're very absurdist, and I think you have a lot of similarities to Conan, and that's probably why he gravitated toward you, but who were some of your comedy heroes

growing up? I mean, I loved Conan. You don't have to say that. Yeah, you don't. I talked to him about this, about the Walker Texas Ranger lever was pretty big for me that he used to do. I got really into... I mean, Robin Williams was my

favorite. I got into Mork and Mindy because my dad, I loved it. You liked the clothes. Yeah, I did. And I just, I just loved like the concept even as like a kindergartner. So I just got obsessed with him. And then I didn't even want to do standup, but my mom was like, like in high school, I was like not doing so well in school. And I was like, I wanted to be an actor.

And my mom was like, you want to be like Robin Williams, right? And I was like, yeah. And she was like, how do you think he did what he did? And I was like, he just became an actor. She's like, no, he did stand up. You got to do stand up. I was like, I don't want to do stand up. And she's like, you're going to do stand up. There's an open mic nearby. And she took me to the, she was your momager. Yeah. Yeah. So she made, she like made me do stand up at like 16. I'm really grateful for that. But I love that your mother steered you into, no, no, no, you're not going into acting. You're going into something much more. It's very strange. Yeah. Yeah. It's very, very odd when I think of that.

I read, did you take the bus down to New York to do standup? Yeah. Yeah. I used to do, to do this, this tragic bringer show when i was like 17 or 18 at the old improv i would take the bus it's like five hours from boston to do like two two minutes of stage time at the improv and i would then take it back home uh so i could work at the health club as a secretary uh what do you call it not a secretary but i was like front desk the receptionist and i had to be back by like 5 a.m it was a a dark, dark days. Oh my God. Yeah, yeah, yeah. For like two to three minutes of stage time.

No wonder you're exhausted. I know, I know. Residual exhaustion. You were shot by 23. So you'd literally do the set and then get on like a late night bus back to Massachusetts. And I remember being wet all the time.

I remember like, I just remember like soaking wet on the bus. That was like when I was like 18, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Was the idea like you just felt like, yeah, because Boston has a really big standup scene. Oh, yeah. But did you feel like, oh, I've got to do it in New York City? Like you weren't a part of the Boston scene? I've never been a part of anything, you know? I oh, you've got to do it in New York City? Like you weren't a part of the Boston scene. I've never been a part of anything, you know? I mean, Boston embraced me eventually in a really big way. But at that point, I felt like it was more like I needed to get signed or something.

And I did, actually. Somehow, through one of those Springer shows, I got an agent who was great, actually, and then got me on that. There was an old thing called the HBO Aspen Comedy Festival. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And so like, he got me on that, but then I was like, so not prepared for that. I did not do well. And then I just went back to college.

Like nothing ever happened. Oh wow. So you were in, this is such a great story. You were in college. Yeah. You, in one of these trips down to New York, you got an agent. And then the agent got you the Aspen Comedy Festival. Yeah.

Like, an assistant to this agent, who's also, his name is Conan also, the agent. Oh, I know him. Yeah. He, your contact list is just all Conan's in your phone. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And then, like, he had, I had to do, like, five or six auditions.

Right. And then like he had, I had to do like five or six auditions and, and then I, I, I did, I kept taking the bus back to do these sets and everything. Like it was crazy. Your mother wouldn't buy you an Amtrak ticket. No, no, no, no. It was just the bold bus. Yeah. But then you were discouraged by how things went at the Aspen Comedy Fest. Oh, I was like a sophomore in college. And I think I knew, you know, I got heckled actually at the festival by a very wealthy Aspen resident.

Oh my God. Because it's just these like incredibly wealthy people that come to see these shows. Yeah, lots of furs. Lots of furs. Lots of furs. Yeah. Lots of poachers. Yeah. Oh, so I like kind of didn't do great at that festival. And I felt like really not strong enough as a performer. Like because I had only been like I'd only had like good crowds or something and I had not been doing it long enough. And so you were like 20.

Yeah, I was I was 20. And then, yeah. So then I just like did stand Yeah, I was 20. And then, yeah, so then I just did stand-up all the time after that and just worked. Which there's no – I think early on, part of your brain is almost like, well, I'm not going to be better a year from now. And it's like, actually, if you do it constantly for a year, your league's better. But it's such a gradual improvement process you don't even realize yeah how much you're developing learning how to like

bomb on your terms and everything is kind of important like so you still like there's nothing worse than feeling like you were kind of pandering uh and you still didn't do well you know right um so there's like a it's like a lengthy process that i wouldn't recommend anyone go through no but you're right it's really painful i mean that the first sort of getting over the the bombs embracing the bombs yeah and just like a crowd just not understanding you at all and then you don't understand yourself while you're saying those things. And like, you kind of lose all sense of self. And it's like, Oh God, what am I doing? Who am I? I did an outdoor show at Just for Laughs a couple of years ago. And within, it was for all these Quebecois families who were non-English speakers. And, and before I went on, the host was like, Hey, Chris, you're going to have a great

time, but just so you know, you're not going to hear any laughs because the trees suck up all the laughs and he was right there's like a certain way that time can go by where if you're not getting laughs you can do like every joke you've ever written in like a really short period of time and so i just had to take my glasses off and just kind of disassociate and go somewhere else yeah just yeah pretend you were in a inside a volcano yeah yeah i once had to do a show at a college and it's supposed to be an hour long and it was like a crowd of eight people it was death and i was rattling through material and at one point there's this did i do where like i pull my arm in front of me and that's when i check my watch to see how much time yeah and i was like please be 50 minutes please be 50

minutes and i bring the arm down and it's like i'd been up there like 19 minutes i still know that i was like oh my god what am i gonna do for 40 there was one um one show i did at bowling green state university and i i was booked to perform at like it was a 48 hour all night walk where people had to they kept the students up like kind of like guantanamo style like they were completely just sleep deprived and they were wandering around this gym the perimeter somehow for charity like for some charity. What does it do? Yeah, yeah, right, right. How does that fuel a charity?

I don't, I don't understand. So I had to perform at like 11 o'clock and they were like, or midnight or something. And they were just like, kids were just like throwing basketballs like at like the hoop or just like, they were just like completely not there. And I had to perform on a stage

where people would just walk by, like during like halfway through something you know and they just keep walking and eventually it got to a point where i like i started making fun of the mascot there was like an eagle and then there was a an eagle that was like that was an address an identical eagle in a dress and so i was i started like talking about the eagle's wife and they were like and then the only the only response i got all night was them saying that's not his wife that's his sister and they all started the whole gym turned how could you not know that and then the eagle right how did i not know the lore of the eagle? And then somehow the eagle appeared on stage next to me, the male eagle. And then you woke up.

Yeah. And he was holding a whiteboard that just said boo on it. Oh, no. No, are you serious? Dead serious. He was leading the crowd in a boo. And then somehow nonverbally, he challenged me to a dance off. And the crowd, it wasn't like a fun, like, kind of like wedding dance-off.

It was like a, you better to like. This is for your life. Yeah, it's like West Side Story dance-off. And so like, I'm like unironically giving it my all. And then the eagle somehow knocked my glasses off. And so I was on all fours and the crowd was just cheering for the eagle. They hated me. They loved their eagle.

And I'm trying to find my glasses on the ground. And then I looked at my clock and I had done like 58 minutes. So I just sprinted off stage. Oh my God. Wow. But yeah, that was when I stopped doing standup for a while. Bowling Green State.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was like 2011. We always like to ask our guests for a piece of advice that you might offer to someone listening who is aspiring to do what you do. Oh, wow. I'm certainly not equipped to give any kind of advice whatsoever. But I think if I had to. That's not true.

I would just say try to learn like what your own sense of comedic integrity is, I guess. And just know what makes you laugh and what stuff that you would want to see and make that. And I mean, don't be like psychotic, but don't care too much about the success that it brings you. But I mean, if it's like not working, learn from that, but also do what is right for you, I guess. Well, I think you said something earlier that touched on that, where you said if you're going to bomb, you want it to be on your own terms. You want to know

that you gave it, that you put out what felt good to you and felt indicative of your comedy and not like, oh, I was trying to fit into this box and then I still bombed. Just assume you're going to bomb no matter what. So you might as well do it doing something you love.

And that goes for self-deprecation too. Like if you're going to self-deprecate, like make sure that you do it, like, still be kind of good to yourself or do it in a way that you don't afterwards feel like, oh, I really threw myself to the hounds for no reason. But yeah, yeah. Yeah, have some respect. I feel bad all no reason. But yeah, yeah. Yeah, have some respect. I feel bad all the way around. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, thank you. Well, thank you so much, Chris. And we can't wait to see what else you do. Thanks, Chris. This is a pleasure. Yeah, this has been lovely. This has been so lovely. Yeah, I hope I see you guys again soon.

Okay. Thanks. Bye, you guys. Thank you. Thanks, Chris. That was Chris Fleming. Yes, our close personal friend, Chris Fleming. Yes, very tight now. You should follow him on Twitter because he's also very funny there. He is at Chris Fleming on Twitter. And right now, we've been asking fans to write in with questions or to leave a voicemail question.

I think we have one that we haven't heard yet. Ooh. Let's cue it up. Hey, this is Freaky Bonkman. I've always wondered about the backdrops behind Conan. Can you tell me who made them, what that process is like, and which one's your favorite? I like the mid-'90s super Art Deco ones. But tell me more.

Thank you. Love you guys' podcast. Wow. That was the mellowest person I've ever heard. We got a call from a jazz DJ. I know. Hey, man. He loves the background.

Yeah. We've never gotten a question about the background. No. Christopher Gumas. He's our set designer. Yeah. I don't know if that's his formal title, but he's in charge of all the look of the show, including the set you see Conan doing the mono and interviewing on. And he also is in charge of all, like when we do pre-tapes of little comedy bits. A lot of times something will be written at 11 a.m.

We give it to them and they'll have a complete living room set or a kitchen set or a doctor's operating room by 1 p.m. Yeah, we'll be like, this has to look like it's a senator's office and they can throw that together. Right. And it's for tonight's show. And so it's very exciting. You have actual people with talent. Like if you were ever there when they're building it, it's jaw dropping how quickly they just descend and assemble this little world. And then the second when you're like, okay, we're done taping. Two minutes later, it's just gone. It's just dust. Yeah. Yeah. They take it apart and all the parts go back in storage. It's incredible.

I know. It's so cool. You mentioned the sets from the mid-90s. Yeah, there were a lot of really cool backgrounds for the show. There's an Art Deco one. I think that was in the late 90s, maybe. That's all I've got to say about it. Well, and I'm curious about the cityscapes that are often behind, because a lot of late night hosts do that. But we've usually had a cityscape behind Conan. And then in recent years on the Conan show, that became the Warner Brothers lot. There was like a miniature. That was a great one.

That was really cool. There was some sort of generic, it was like, this is the coast, but I couldn't tell exactly if it was a real place or not. Like a lagoon. It did look lagoon-like. It looked like we were off the Isle of Capri or something. Yeah, with a giant moon. There's always been a giant moon.

But I think that's the reason for that, always having the window, is you want to create this sense of depth behind on the set. And that's why all talk shows always have that fake window look going. Yeah. And also, they usually don't film at night. Right. We film at four in the afternoon, but then it looks like nighttime because that's when people watch the show. So, it doesn't feel incongruous.

Although I remember in the 70s, The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson, for a long time, had, I think it was like an outdoor back. It was almost like kind of that wallpaper you'd see of just an outdoor forest. It was kind of like that. It was on a pond with plants and that's never been, no one's ever replicated that. That's really funny. That came and went. But yeah, it is. There's a lot of TV magic that goes on. You can make it look like you are pretty much anywhere in the world. Yep. You know, I remember right at, this is, 9-11 always comes up on our show. In August of 2001, we debuted a new background set for Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Oh, with the Twin Towers in it? Yeah, it was looking downtown. It was looking downtown. It was the view from

the top of Rockefeller Center where we did the show. And so way in the background, but in a way, the focal point were the Twin Towers. And everyone's like, ooh, to nod over this new background. Sorry, I'm laughing. And the set. Yeah, how dare you? And then, you know, a month later, it all had to be revised. Yeah, that was the real tragedy was someone had to redo the background. Oh, dear God.

I'm looking at our producer's face. I know, I know. And she wonders how to cut this. They're going to cut it. No, I love this. Come on. I don't know. Anyway, thank you for that call.

And if you ever want to just call and chat, I mean, what a soothing voice. I feel so relaxed. Yes, thank you for calling. Did we get his name? Oh, he said Freaky Bunk Bed. Interesting. Oh, Freaky Bunk Bed.

Freaky, if you want to call back, if you have any carpeting questions about the carpeting we've used over the years, please call back. Anyway, thank you, Mr. Bed. If anyone else has questions for us, you too can leave us a voicemail at 323-209-5303

or email us at insideconanpod at gmail.com and that's our show thank you we'll be back next week 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 Blaire. 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

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