Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Conan O’Brien Must Go Writers Roundtable

Episode Date: April 19, 2024

Conan sits down with writers Mike Sweeney, Matt O’Brien, Jessie Gaskell, and producer Jason Chillemi for a roundtable discussion about the making of his newest travel show Conan O’Brien Must Go, featuring insights into the destination selection process, a sneak preview of a Bono-centric segment, and the tease of a special surprise narrator.

Hey, hi, everybody. It's Mike and Jesse. Hi, Jess. Oh, hey, Mike. We're here to talk about something we just did recently with Conan. Oh, Conan O'Brien? Yes, Conan O'Brien. Maybe you've heard of him? Right. If you're listening to this?

Actually, we spent a year working with Conan on a new project coming out on Max called Conan O'Brien Must Go, and it's a new travel series. We did four episodes and they're all out now on Mac. So you can check them out. Yes. And we did one other thing with him. We actually, we sat down with Conan on his podcast, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, to talk about this new Mac show

and all these behind the scenes nuggets. And he let us talk a little bit occasionally. It was a lot of fun. It also Matt O'Brien, one of the writers, and Jason Chalame, our producer, was there as well. And so we really got into stories and revelations, including, I don't want to give it away, you're going to have to listen,

one of us got pregnant. Yeah, I was pregnant. I had a strike baby last year during the strike and she's here with me now. What are the rules with the writer's guild? If you have a strike baby, the writer's guild gets first refusal on the baby. Oh boy. That's rough. So yes, you've had, you've had a baby. Let's just promote your baby and forget about the other thing we have to promote. Yeah. I mean, I don't think that she's going to earn me any money in any capacity.

Well, let's see. We have to get the word out. That's right. Where is she appearing next? She's doing Hot Ones. Okay. One of the younger people to do Hot Ones. Yeah.

That would be interesting. She hasn't started Solid Foods yet, but she's going to go straight into wings. Oh, okay. Do they puree the wings? Oh, yeah. I hope that they do. Okay, good. This is how you figure out if babies have allergies, too. That's right. If she's allergic to ghost pepper, we'll find out.

I never knew what ghost pepper was till yesterday we're talking about conan o'brien's episode of hot ones which if you haven't seen it yet you could go check that out right a lot of people have checked it out already they have i know it's doing very well trended he hit the ground running let's say on hot Ones. Yes. Yeah. He brought his doctor with him. He's our physician as well. It was Jose Arroyo. Dr. Arroyo. Who has been on our podcast many times. Yes. Yeah.

Well, so Conan was on Hot Ones promoting this show that we're also promoting called Conan O'Brien Must Go. Yep. It's a new Max show. It's a travel show where we went around the world and popped in on fans who called in to Conan's podcast. Right. We surprised all of them,

which was very hard to figure out. Yes. It's hard to surprise people internationally. Yes, it is. I know. Because it's a long way to go for someone to not, you know, be in town

or just be too busy to see you to go all the way to norway and find out they're vacationing in la yeah that would be that would be what i'd call a screw-up yeah someone would be in trouble it's a real gift of the magi oh we would just laugh it off we screwed up boss but um that was a fun trick and some of our favorite fans lived in thailand and so when we went it happened to be 108 degrees that's right that's how much we like those those fans yeah we put conan through some physical feats yes i mean the whole show is really us putting conan into physical danger and elevatingating his heart rate and blood pressure in various ways and putting fake mustaches on him. That's a lot of what the show is.

And we tell him it's all for a quote unquote comedy. But the Thailand show, you can watch him lose up to nine pounds of water weight from the beginning to the end. It's very dramatic. Okay. So check out a clip from Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend with us now. We go to four countries. The first one we went to was Norway. And then the second one we went to was Thailand.

Then we went to Argentina. And we finally ended up going to Ireland each time visiting a fan. And I was impressed. We did manage to surprise most of these people. They didn't know we were coming. And so there was a lot of logistics involved in that because you can't take a plane ride for 15 hours and go to a foreign country and then find out that someone's gone on vacation or moved. They're in LA. We just don't feel like being on camera. Yeah, so we had to, Mike, maybe you could explain how we figured out the way to let them know that we might need them as a follow-up to their podcast interview, but not let them know that I was coming.

Well, Jason was kind of- Chills, chills. kind of... Chills. Chills. Chills. I apologize. Chills would have to... Each fan was different. So some were like, I'm going to be here.

We would just... Chills would reach out to them and say, hey... We sent out feelers, yeah. Yeah, we sent out feelers, make sure they're going to be around. Then it was, we came up with a construct that, oh, you know what? We might be doing kind of a behind the scenes of some of our fans,

and we would just send a cameraman there to shoot you for the day. Shoot some B-roll, yeah. We love your podcast interview with Conan. We want to shoot some B-roll. Right, yeah. And we'd leave you out of it. Right.

Now, the problem is, and that worked for the most part. Occasionally, i would show up in a country and it would show up on their social media that i was around right but then um you know jason would probably have to put out the word chills chills sorry i'm wrong of me chills would have to get out the word that no no conan's in country but he refuses to meet with you because he's an absolute prick and that you know just to sort of really throw them off the trail he's blocks away he's right turn around hey i'm looking

out my window he's he's two alleys from here yeah yeah but he's he wants to peek in your window but he won't come in he shoots the b-roll himself yeah so um we uh and and again one of my people have always asked me um why do i what is it about these travel shows i like so much i love um that we can there's not much we can control and i've had many people say to me well that must be terrifying and i find that to be liberating and really fun. We never quite know what the gold is going to be. And random things will happen. I'll bump into people on the street, like in Norway, who are just perfect comedy foils.

We couldn't ask for better people. Or there's a scene in Norway where I'm on a boat and I'm holding something. I'm sorry, where I'm in Thailand and I'm on a river and I'm holding something i'm sorry where i'm in thailand and i'm i'm on a river and i'm holding something that i've been handed which is quite obscene and just then a boatload of an american of american family goes by and i quickly but you if you asked if you asked the greatest comedy directors in the world to try and manufacture that moment it wouldn't happen because i've looked at that scene and you guys have looked at these things in editing a lot. The timing is perfect

because it's an accident. Yes. Or you lose your luggage. I mean, that was just something that made me think, you know. Yeah, I lost my luggage on one of the trips and had to go

and I went across the street and this is, I needed to buy some clothes and right across the street there was an absurd shop that only specialized in making traditional costumes, Norwegian costumes that people wore like 200 years ago. And no one's ever bought one. No one ever. They were so delighted.

I couldn't believe someone came into their shop. Like, really? No. And so I bought one. And then I walk out on the street. And the first guy I run into is just so happy to talk to me and tell me what an idiot I am. And not to be mean, but just to be very honest in a very, I'm guessing, Norwegian way. Everyone there was very straightforward. Very straightforward. Refreshingly matter of fact. Yeah. Not hamming it up.

And we had a really good time. The fans to a one were great. The fans were. Yes. Because one of the things that I've noticed too is there's that second where they're happy, excited to see you. Like, oh, Conan, you're here. That's cool. But then they very quickly are just themselves,

which I like because then they start giving me shit. They're not afraid to point out when I've made a mistake. And again, yeah, they're just hanging out. And that was. They were all funny. They were all funny. And smart. Yeah.

They were just great. And I think meeting them, meeting them on their turf makes them feel a little more comfortable. Well, often go, I mean, I think almost every time I go into their homes with one or two exceptions, I, I, I surprise them. And then I go right into their homes and start finding and start finding things. And again, it's real and it's in the moment and it was really fun. But I have to say, we've all worked, done these remote shoots before. All of us have worked on them for years.

One of the nice things now is we're working with max and they told us um we want this to look really great yeah we got this incredible uh unit uh we have these these women are spectacular emily emily toppers our director of photography yeah and and she's fantastic. And Emily Strong's doing sound. Right. Brenda. Brenda. Yes. Is there a second camera?

Brenda, when we were in Argentina, at one point I'm on a horse and we needed a shot. And Brenda grabs a camera and jumps onto a horse facing backwards with the camera. Completely unfazed. Completely unfazed and gets the shot and I thought, who are these three Amazons? She was unbelievable. Kicking ass. She's like, I've done this before. She goes, I'll just sit backwards and follow

the lead horse. Yeah, I'll just ride the horse backwards and shoot you with no hands. And we're all like, uh, because we were like, do we need a truck, a flatbed? And meanwhile, she's on the horse. Yeah, she's already up there. Yoo-hoo. Yeah, I'm over here solving the problem, you idiots.

Well, yeah, it's a great look. I mean, the drones. Drones. Oh, yeah. I mean, we've never had, sometimes we messed around with drones, but we got these really good drone operators in every country. And, uh, you know, my thought was a really good travel show should look absolutely gorgeous. And then all of the other ones teach you about the country. And it's very important to me that you learn nothing about the country. That's, that's your guarantee. It removes knowledge. Yes.

If you had knowledge about the country beforehand and you watch my show, I do think you'll laugh, but it will erase any useful real knowledge about the country. I love the drone operators in Norway. It was two guys. Oh, my God. They were great. And they're like, they just did succession. And we're like, wow. Because a lot of succession loves to shot in Norway.

One of them is in succession, yes. That's what I was getting at. Well, there's last season. Just to remind people, the last season of succession, half the season takes place when they go and- Skarsgård's character. Yeah, Skarsgård's character. I meet with him and they're in Norway.

So they shot there and they had just worked on that when we worked with them. And these guys, Ben, we were, I was like, oh my God, you just worked on Succession and now you're with Conan O'Brien.

Like how the mighty have fallen, but they were great. But there's this climactic scene and big scene in Succession. This big yard, this giant party by a river. And I'm watching it and then I see the drone guys and we're like,

oh my God, they made it in. And they're playing drone guys in the show. But you know what's great is that they were salivating for us to come up with comedy ideas

where they could pull off something really amazing right and so um that was a joy there was just a lot i have to say uh the the it could be very tiring it's a lot of work um to go to fly so far and then we usually have to hit the ground running right away but um the minute we get out there and start talking to people i mean ireland we went to ireland to visit a fan and just anyone you bump into in ireland is a professional comedian it's not their profession right but they could be yeah if there's just something in the water in the bones yeah oh man yes there are some uh hilarious people you spoke to in Ireland.

The other cool thing in Ireland was you were walking down the street and people were just like stunned it was you. And then they took their earbuds out and said, I'm listening to your podcast right now. Yeah, people. I ran into people in Ireland who were listening to the podcast as I ran into them. And then this made me really happy.

We were shooting something on the River Liffey, which is the river that bisects Dublin. It means cuts it in two, Matt. And but anyway, he and so. Can we take that out? Can you actually make it play twice yeah loop it so anyway um reverb yeah so anyway i'm standing there by the river liffey and this cab drives by and someone rolls down the window and goes there was talk of gerbils and one of the catchphrases from the from the podcast and i was so happy that my people um left left this country i go back to the actual plot of land that my people had that my my great-grandfather had

we left in 1871 because you know we couldn't make it there anymore and went uh to uh the united states and all these years later, I've come back. And my legacy is this obscene story about Mickey Rooney talking about Richard Gere having gerbils in his ass. It lives on. Ah! The O'Briens come back! There's talk of gerbils, I tell you! Believe it or not, that came full circle.

Yeah, it tell you. Believe it or not, that came full circle. Yeah, it really did. Yeah, so that was just a taste. Oh, just a sweet, sweet barbecue sauce encrusted taste of the podcast episode on Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. A smattering. And make sure to listen to the rest of it and check out the Max show, Conan O'Brien Must Go, which is available to stream now on Max. Four countries to choose from. Four episodes. Enjoy them all.