Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Fred Armisen

Episode Date: July 24, 2020

Comedian and actor Fred Armisen (Saturday Night Live, Big Mouth, Portlandia, Los Espookys) stops by to talk with writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell about his history with doing stand-up at Largo in Los Angeles, his first appearance on Late Night with Conan as a self defense expert, how SNL strips you of your ego, and more. Fred Armisen’s first appearance on Conan: https://classic.teamcoco.com/node/110011 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. Hello, welcome once again, Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Podcast and small talk by two Conan writers named Mike Sweeney and Jesse Caskell. Actually, his name is William Michael Sweeney, but he's always gone by his middle name. How have you been, Sweeney? I've been okay. I just changed sweatpants. I have two pairs. Oh, you have two pairs that you rotate throughout the week. Yes. And that makes me feel good about myself. Well, if you turn them inside out, you will have four that you rotate throughout the week. Yes. And that makes me feel good about myself. Well, if you turn them inside out, you will have four pairs.

What a life hack. What have you been up to? You know, I'm learning to sew. It's a lot of trial and error. And I made a real bonehead novice move the other day. Because the first thing you're supposed to do when you start is you wash the fabric first, because otherwise you're working with fabric that's not going to be its final size. And I forgot to do that. And so then I made a whole garment and put it in the wash and then it shrank up and now it's child size. What was it? A dress or a... No, this was just a shirt. It was like probably eight hours of work. That seems really fast for a shirt.

Seems really hard to me. Oh, I didn't do buttons or anything. It was just a pullover. Buttons are really hard. Oh, well, then yeah. Eight hours. No buttons. You just reminded me of that.

It is an inside Conan podcast. We used to have someone on the staff who had a button phobia. What? This person was terrified. No. I'm not kidding. And I thought it was a joke and they never wore anything garments with buttons on them. And I got them as a secret Santa once, one year. And so I made, I went out and I bought $50 worth of shirt buttons and I made a mosaic that just said love and Oh, no. And gave it to him. And you know what?

He got mad at me. Yeah. That's really triggering. But I worked really hard on that. I'm sorry I'm laughing. I've just honestly never heard that that could be a focus. I had never heard of it either. I wanted to find out for myself.

So I was there when he tore off the gift wrapping. And he's just like, you asshole. Oh my God. We hire the weirdest people. Well, I think that this is the perfect segue into today's guest. We have a great guest today. We were very excited about today's guest. He's he loves buttons.

He does love buttons. He actually was wearing a jumpsuit when we interviewed him. He was. And it looked great. Yes. He's everywhere. He's love buttons. He actually was wearing a jumpsuit when we interviewed him. He was. And it looked great. Yes. He's everywhere. He's in so many great shows, either starring or cameos. I know.

He only picks good projects, I think, too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's never name who this person is. It's Fred Armisen. It's Fred Armisen. Yes. Here's our chat with Fred. How much are you guys working on the new version of the show?

The Largo version? I mean, we're writing it. So a lot. Yeah, but we're not there at all. There's a lot of writing, but then there's a lot of ad-libbing. Like yesterday, Andy was on the show for the first time in the actual space. And so, you know, a lot of that was ad-libbing,

but, you know, we give him some general ideas. And then he says, I'm not going to do them. Right. Exactly. It looks good. I'm really enjoying it. Like, it's pretty. Also, I love Largo.

Yeah, I was going to ask you about your history with Largo. It's kind of the only place I really started doing standup. I performed in other places, but then a little here and there. And my standup used to be like doing characters and stuff. Right. But I moved to LA in 2000 and I had friends tell me, oh, you should go to Largo. That's when it was on Fairfax. And as soon as I went there, that's where I, that's where I wanted, I wanted to be a part of that. I didn't tour

around the country as a standup comedian. No, really no comedy clubs, a few little variety shows and stuff, but basically Largo was the place that I wanted to be a part of. And I remember also being alone. Like I just went and I would just sort of stand at the back and everyone knew each other. And it was like, Jimmy Pardo, your friend, he was there. And Paul F. Tompkins, Karen Kilgareff, Marilyn Rice. I should go through the whole list of everyone. Sure, sure. Marilyn Rice. Was everyone you worked with then successful?

Yeah, it's true. But in a way, yes. Because whenever I think back to it, everyone I think of is doing something now. So Marc Maron, Blanket Patch, they all seem to have made their way and made a name for themselves. I guess the failures all just probably killed themselves. Or killed each other. Yeah. So when you first showed up at that Largo back in Fairfax, was it intimidating at all just because you felt like you were entering this world where everyone's kind of a click or did that fall away very quickly? It fell away because I had spent the better part of 10 years playing in a band in Chicago. So everything seemed to be a delight to me everything was like whoa i'm on stage without my drums i'm on stage without a band i don't have to lug equipment around and also i was alone so i kind of didn't have anyone to impress which i kind of liked and i think i was 32 or 34 or something there was something about it where i felt like I had already done so much that I'd wanted to do.

So I really felt like I had nothing to lose. Yeah. And also probably having been in a band that this was almost like entering a parallel universe, maybe like it felt familiar. Yes. In certain ways. Largo is a very musical place anyway. I remember they would have musical guests. They would be acts in between and people with someone play a song at the end.

So it's felt something felt very musician-y about it. Right, right. Anyway, and then the relationship continued. I still get to perform there, you know, when they were doing shows. And I love going there to see shows. There's one time after September 11th, I remember I went to go see a show and Patton Oswalt performed and he just changed my mood about September 11th. Oh, and for our listeners, a horrible time. I don't mean to like name drop events, but it was a really shocking time in

history. We actually always end up talking about September 11th on this podcast for some reason, but I think this is the fastest we've ever gotten there. So yes, we broke a record. You get a t-shirt. Not to get us off of September 11th, but... We'll come back to it. We'll come back. Fred, this is interesting because I think a lot of stand-up comics want to be rock stars, but you kind of took the opposite track. You started as a musician and then you went into stand-up. Was stand-up always something you wanted to do, but it just took you a while to get there or?

No, it was something, I definitely wanted to be something. I don't know what it's called, but I wanted to be that person who was like a musician, but then is also entertaining on talk shows. There was something about like, when David Byrne was on Letterman, he sat down, he had an interview. And I was like, what's that person? That cool hybrid. Yeah.

Yeah. There's like a weird element to it, you know, that I really liked. John Waters was in that zone. Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo. So they're like these people that like, I just was like, what is that? So even when I was in a band, I remember I would talk on the microphone a lot. I was a drummer. I am a drummer.

So even the instrument is very, you know, pay attention to me. Right. You know, very loud, very symbols and stuff. Yeah, it's visual. It commands attention. Yeah. It's almost like it's regal and you're seated. Right. Right. Were your other band members cool with you talking on the mic or were they like, man. Yeah. You're sort of, it's almost like it's regal and you're seated. Right.

Right. Were your other band members cool with you talking on the mic or were they like, man, you've got to be cool? No. And they were patient with me because they never said, shut up. But I could tell they weren't like, this is awesome that you've decided. But they were fine. They were okay. You know.

Well, when the shows were going on for four hours, they probably wanted to wrap up. Yeah. Yeah. They were like, okay, you know, we we're on stage too, by the way, you know, you know, it's just something that like over time sort of meshed into each other in a really fortunate way. I'm glad it did. When I did characters and stuff, sometimes they'd have an instrument and then on various shows, I've always gotten to play drums or guitar or something yeah well so you came to la in 2000 and started doing stand-up yeah this alternative comedy space largo yeah and then i believe you did stand up on conan that same year so that, that's incredibly fast, really fast. Can you tell us how, and this is before you, this is before SNL. Exactly. Yeah. So this might be 2000, 2001. It was really

Zach Alifanakis who sort of got me, I ended up on some shows with him and I think he brought me to Lisa line gang and somewhere in there, she was booking Largo and somewhere in there, Paula Davis was around and she got me booked on Conan. And so we went around New York. We had to do some, um, like nightclub shows, you know, to get the act right. Oh, the act was a self-defense expert. Right. It's, it's hilarious. I just watched that. It's so great. Terrible fake mustache. Really greasy mustache. Yeah. Which at the time I thought was a good mustache. I was like, Hey, this is pretty good. That sets on the team Coco website. So yeah, it was, you can watch it. It's really fun. Hilarious. It was so meaningful to me because

I remember when I went out on stage, that was like the first time I've ever had like, you know, a camera with the red light over it. Right. You know, like facing me. And I remember thinking, oh, I love this. Like it felt really like, oh, this is this is going to be fun. So you weren't nervous at all. Yeah. It was another thing of it was another thing of I've got nothing to lose.

You know, as a character, you know, the character was a self-defense expert who gives bad advice. Even if nobody laughs, I didn't, I didn't feel that pressure of like, hey, I'm a funny guy. It was like, can this be convincing as something weird? As so many things on Conan were, I really, really watched that show all the time. So it felt like it was in the tradition of all that stuff. Yeah, that's a perfect fit. It was seamless. It was fit in perfectly.

So I love that you weren't the red light because some people, man, I've heard people say that when that red light comes on the first few times, it just kind of flips them out. But for you, it was a very calming effect. Oh, I love that. That's great. He falls asleep with a red light over him.

Yeah, it's just like facing me. Am I on camera? Okay, good night. I think it's also that like, oh my God, this is a pretentious thing to say. There's something so honest about a red light. It's not like hidden cameras and stuff. It's just like, hey, it is now time to begin right so paula davis yeah she paula davis

our talent booker still there and every time i see her that's great yeah whenever you see her it must be like ah you introduced me to the red light she opened the door she was like here's the door, the official door to network TV. I remember you being in a sketch. Maybe you were on SNL already. I'm not sure. I don't know if you remember this, but I saw you do this character and I was laughing so hard. You played an audio engineer on the show and you sat in the back of the house. Do you remember that at all?

I did that on your show. I was in the back of the house. I was playing like a sound guy. Right. And now that I look back, I'm a little bit like, darn it. Like, why did I feel the need to do a bit all the time? Because I would see like Will Ferrell do a bit. And now I'm like, I'm a little annoyed at myself.

I'm like, buddy, I wish I would have just sat there and just done an interview. It's like my, whatever, first or second time on Conan. I'm like, right relax relax i i there's a there's a lot of that in the early days of like not knowing that it's okay to like be yourself a little bit yeah geez oh so you were a guest and you were interacting with a pre-tape of yourself up in the booth thinking like i was as important as will ferrell like when he goes on he does a whole bit i'm like well yeah because you know he had enough experience to have done it plenty right right that is probably that template of you think oh well that's how you do it you've got to come you've got to come with material yeah yeah exactly but over the years i learned

all they want you to do is just sit there and just be nice. Yeah, just sit there and look hot. Yeah, sit there and look hot. That's it. That's all they want. But you know, when I die, that's the main lesson of life. He sat there and looked hot. That's right. If I die, If I die. Yes. Going back to 2000, how, because what year did you end up getting cast on SNL? 2002. Wow.

So from that was just one thing after another of getting to do more shows. I ended up on a pilot for Bob Odenkirk, another Largo regular. From that, all of that stuff, I got an audition at SNL. Wow. So I stayed in the NBC building. NBC was, you know, a major part of my life is, yeah. Cause you know, you guys were right upstairs, right downstairs, two flights below. I'm always so impressed, obviously by anyone who comes through the fulcrum of SNL it seems like such an intense distilled high pressure showbiz situation I feel like if you're a success there everything you do after that I must seem like child's play almost yeah but maybe you never felt pressure you love

the red light maybe you just couldn't wait for that live show every Saturday. Well, that part, I like, I mean, I loved it all. The thing that you learn or that I learned from it is it strips you of your ego, which is great. So if you think you're a brilliant writer, the fact that it brings you back down on Monday and the way that they just rip apart your sketches, the way that, you know, where you walk in thinking you're such a genius where the audience doesn't laugh. It's really good. Because it's so fast, you just build a thick skin and you start to not treat your own work like with preciousness. Yeah.

Just move on. And I'm sure you guys are already used to it coming from your show, but it's something that I definitely learned. So it was really, really, no one explains it to you. No one says like, Hey buddy, I'm so sorry. You know, we might have to cut this part of the sketch and it's fun. None of that. It's just so in a, I mean, this is a good thing. It's so cold. Right. Well, it's not personal. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. No one has time to, to put their arm around you. There's no time to explain to you. I think we might have to cut it. It just doesn't.

And then when it's been a couple of weeks of that, then you sort of get used to it. And then I started to write a lot faster without worry. Yeah, without as much self-judgment probably, self-editing. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's a really useful skill to learn because I think when writers start or just any creative people, we're so precious about our work and everything feels very

vulnerable and personal. And the sooner you can disconnect your self-worth from your work, the better. Totally. The better it becomes. And it goes the other direction too, where sometimes, you know, I thought I wrote something brilliant and then the audience liked it. Then I'm like, this is it. This is my new piece. And then a week goes by and everyone kind of forgot it. You know, it's all becomes kind of disposable, which is another, which is another thing that's good for you. It's like, it's great to get a laugh but you know there are more comedians there are more shows things move so fast you can't just ride on that forever it just it lasts maybe a week or something except for a couple sketches that stand the test of time but other

than that an impression of someone who isn't even you know well known anymore so you're like well so what right right it's so topical so topical well yeah and the good thing is that the failures go away quickly but then the successes also leave you quickly yeah you never get to ride on that feeling of success for very long no little bits and pieces which is you know it's it's worth it definitely but i it. I loved every minute on that show. Yeah. Because everyone I met, everyone I worked with, all these brilliant writers. And I was thinking the other day also about wig people, like people who put the hair people. Yeah. You take for granted a good wig.

And then after I left the show, sometimes you're just in other situations where you're like, oh, no one cares like that. The attention to detail, not making it too jokey all the time, making it look kind of real. Right. A wig and costume are so transformative, right? So important. If you put on the right thing, it kind of helps you get into your character. Yeah. And it's oddly easy to take for granted. You just think, oh, what a brilliant, you know, I'm thinking of another comedian who's, you know, you're like, oh, they're great. I can't believe how great they are. And then you forget, like, you know, I'm thinking of another comedian who's, you know, you're like, oh, they're great. I can't believe how great they are. And then you forget, like, you know, that there's like added visual touch of all those the nuances of those costumes and wigs is like it's a big deal.

Right. Especially when you see like when you see a crappy version. Right. Yeah. The Party City version. I think you said you were talking about Portlandia once, that the costume designers were a big help with that show. Oh, yeah. Just in terms of finding who the character would be.

On a low budget, too. But, you know, because Amanda, who did the costumes for Portlandia, was from portland she was able to find costumes that i never would have thought of yeah in her house yeah she because it was a really low budget so she had to go to sort of like thrift stores and like smaller stores but she found all the right stuff that looked realistic but it had like enough of a joke to them i'm sure the wardrobe people on snl are amazing. And I know we've always had amazing people. Our current head of wardrobe, Scott Chronic, you go to him with an idea and he'd make everything funnier. He would just take the idea and come up with wardrobe where you'd be like, oh, wow, that's much better than anything. Oh, that's better than I even thought.

Yeah. And then you're in a rush. You thank them kind of, but then you have to go and put it on. There's no time. You guys did a sketch. I don't know if you're going to remember, but it's a long time ago where Andy was like getting into like, I don't know if it was a student film. And the student film was like Andy is like Mr. Money bags or Conan is Mr. Money, like a very nice, but you do remember it. I do. It's a bit that we used

to do called new directors or guest directors. And so it was a way to do different genres. And, and so, you know, we had a Swedish director and, uh, you know, it'd be like a Bergman film. And then this was exactly what you said. We got a college student majoring in film to share this opening. And so it was over the top, you know, political commentary. And Conan was like the Monopoly man. Yes, that was it. Throwing money around and oppressing Andy.

And Andy was like, you know, talking to the man. Oh, it was so good. It was like 1997. Wow. The obsession with student films and money and like, it's like. Yeah, capitalism. Capitalism. What?

Why don't we question it? It's all made up, man. Yeah. People have that experience a lot when in their formative years, like seeing something on late night TV, I think alone in the dark and becoming something like, I will never forget this. Yeah. This sketch will, you know, stay with me the rest of my life.

Some of them do. That one especially. That's so funny. Going back to Portlandia, because I have to say for it, it really is one of my favorite sketch shows of all time. Oh, thanks. Did you guys do, was there a lot of improv in Portlandia or is it all like acting to make it look like improv? Yes and no. So like, it's a weird mix. And for those of you just tuning in right now, she asked about... Yeah, if you could

just repeat the question before you answer then we we cut us out in the oh right so it's just me so she's just asked about and she just asked about improv versus scripted it's like yes we improvised a lot but also we did a lot of improvising that ended up not getting used and over the years we realized we're wasting time if we keep going on crazy tangents yeah so yes there's improvisation but over the years we started like let's just get through the day you know and let's get it's great to show off how quickly you can think but but um yeah jonathan chrysal our director and carrie they were both good about like we seem to not be using all these

like lingering takes right like having button after button after button to the scene like you only need the one button you just need to and we get it and so we got better at you know uh there'd be a there'd be a sort of of blueprint for how the sketch goes. And then we would make up our own lines to it. But we started to really, you know, focus them up a little bit. That's a great discipline. I mean, don't you see movies sometimes where you're seeing their comedy movies and you're like, oh, this scene was clearly improvised. Oh, yeah.

And sometimes it's like, I don't know. I don't know. Yeah. I would have put that in, in the movie. I mean, I think people can fall in love with improvised scenes sometimes. And,

and it sounds like you guys are very disciplined. Like, no, you can hear it though. You can hear it in movies. And I mean, no disrespect to movies in general, but I'm a fan.

I love them all. But you do see the scenes where you could tell that they're like enjoying themselves and having right i mean it's great i'm glad it exists but you can hear the language of improvisation a little bit yeah yeah the godfather has lots of uh no no no that's wrong that was very scripted godfather three i'm thinking oh yes that's that's right that one is they didn't care at that point he's like ah whatever i won't watch those movies because of any depiction of organized crime yes of course not i can't believe they haven't been canceled do you think they'll cancel organized the mafia like you guys are brutal bullies yes with your threats well they have to get on twitter

first yes that's a big twitter presence and then i had to do something recently where i had to do an italian like in italian and i'm it is one area i don't know if they're getting upset yet right like if it's still okay to make fun of italians or even the mafia i thought that was the only thing we had left yeah honestly you could fudge it and say i'm doing a new yorker and it's like no you're doing an italian italian american fred so los espookys yeah i want to talk about too um because it's coming back for another season which is yeah exciting i really like the show yeah it's great it's almost entirely in Spanish. So did you grow up speaking Spanish? Yeah. My mom's Venezuelan and she made sure that we all

spoke Spanish and my relatives on her side, we all spoke Spanish. And I was in Venezuela a lot. I was just like, I want to do something in Spanish, but something that isn't about being Latino, something that wasn't like the American experience. It was, it was more like i want to do something in spanish but something that isn't about being latino yeah something that wasn't like the american experience it was it was more like i wanted to forget about the cuisine and all that stuff gentrification yeah all that i didn't even want it to be about struggles i thought it'd be cool if it was just about something a little more of what my experience was or when you know when i've been to also to Mexico, where there's like an obsession with horror movies and horror and monsters, something in that zone,

there was some elements of sort of fantasy and it was, it's like a little crazy, but based on the sort of goth world. Right. Did you co-create it with Julio Torres or? And Anna Fabrega. Okay. Brilliant writers and performers and. Yeah, it's so well-written. I just kind of like, I came up with the idea for the pilot okay brilliant writers and performers and yeah it's so well written I just kind of like I came up with the idea for the pilot and then they took over and

made it 10 times bigger I'm sorry a thousand times bigger they turned it into like a real like a full universe yeah yeah yeah in a way which is like what I like about working with other people and about being alive is that I never would have been able to think of the storylines they came up with. Right. So every time I open a script, I'm like, I never would have thought of this. Thank you. Great. It's got a life of its own.

That's fantastic. Did you shoot a lot of it in Mexico? No, in Chile. Oh, cool. In Santiago. Oh, wow. That's great. We were going to shoot in Mexico and we couldn't.

And then we did like a sort of online search of like, okay, where else can we shoot? And Chile had the right kind of budget and the right environment. It just worked out. So we shot half of season two already. Then we had to stop. We had to stop. Wow. This was, you know, whatever, March.

Right. And it was very like, it was things fell apart little by little. Right. Almost done with episode three. We're going to shoot the rest of this week. And then little things happened. We're like, yeah, like we might not be able to get back. That was what it was.

It was like, we might not be able to get back. I think they're closing the borders. It became not fun. Those worries of, I don't know if I can get back into the country. Yeah. So we lost a day and then two. And then after a while, everything closed. And it's been kind of okay that we have all this footage and we have those episodes done.

And somehow everyone's got a good attitude about it in that everyone's going through it. Yeah. So Anna and Julio, everyone's just like, well, we'll get back to it when we get back to it. Yeah. There's nothing we can do. This is way out of our hands no and you're right everyone's in the same boat it's not literally there's nothing you could do about nothing we can do so i assume they're gonna wait until the you finish shooting before the second season comes out or are they going to release just those episodes no because it's only six episodes so it's like we're halfway done

that's like a British season. Yeah. Well, everything I do is very British. Everything. Well, Fred, this has been so, so fun. Oh, I don't know. This is so funny. We're not done yet. No, we're just starting. No, no. We don't wrap things up. The reason we should do a couple hours is because people have the time. I'm fascinating. Well, I didn't know how much time you had.

If you have more time, we can keep talking to you. You're very thoughtful about comedy, which is always, it's so nice to meet people who are really, really just brilliantly funny, but then also thoughtful about it. You know, it's not like, oh, that person's just insane. So that's why they're so funny. That's very kind of you. Wait, we have one more question, Fred, which we ask all of our guests,

which is if you could give a piece of advice to someone who wants to do what you've done with your career, what would it be? Okay, so first thing is I'm going to try not to give an answer I've given before because then I don't want my brain to go into like,

I'm just going to ramble. I think it's okay to think of people you didn't want to be as people along the way. I was like, I'm saying, you know, like just in their sort of like the kind of work that they did. I was like, that's not my thing. I like doing this other, for example, like regular standup comedy. So it's okay. If you feel like you're not succeeding at one thing. It's okay if that's not the right thing for you. Where I would have felt like a failure if I was like, I don't know how to do those jokes of, hey, my parents are from, you know, did you ever notice all that kind of stuff? Yeah.

So if something isn't working, it's okay that it doesn't work. And it's okay to kind of take a left turn and try something else. I think it's important to be patient. Being impatient and thinking, I need that. That was my gig. Don't do that to yourself. I did a bunch of those and I'm like, I can't even remember what it was that I thought was so important.

But at the time, it was just the most important thing in the world. That's gonna make or break. And hand in hand with that is being competitive with yourself, but not with other people. And hand in hand with that is being competitive with yourself, but not with other people. Never. You will lose that battle being competitive and all that.

It'll just make you miserable. If anything, if there's someone who you think is your competition, just get to know them and, you know, learn from them and hang out with them and do work on something together. Right. See what that's like.

And then stab them in the back. Yeah. Murder them. Well, Fred, thank you so much thank you it's really fun you're just one of my favorite performers of all time that's very very nice i really appreciate it and one of the hardest working men i think in show yeah geez you guys no but seriously and you're you're always in so many great shows and projects it's yeah i think you do You have a really good picker because you. Yeah. Yeah.

You made my day. I really do appreciate it. That's very nice. Oh, that's very sweet. It's just true. All right. That was Fred Armisen. Oh, that was so fun.

I really love him. We didn't even get to talk about some of the great shows he's on, like Documentary Now. And he also voices Elliot on Big Mouth, which is a great show. And there's going to be another season of Los Espookys, which I'm excited about. Yeah, yeah. It's fun to talk about that. I'd love the job that characters have for like one. I'd like to do it once, but I wouldn't want to have to keep. Oh, being a professional creep. Well, I've always thought about those people who get jobs like at not scary farm or, you know, the Halloween horror hayride people.

Right. And how that would be really good if you were an actual murderer or a creep. Oh yeah. Be a good cover. There's a haunted house in New Jersey where I grew up and, uh, had tons of actors in it and as a giant hit, but then like gangs started going through it and just beating up,

beating up the monsters. It was like, Oh, Jack the Ripper. Huh? You think you're tough? Bam. Oh,

you're a tough guy. Yeah. Yeah. So they're like, ah, we're, we're doing away with the actors. Uh, we have a listener question. Oh, you're a tough guy? Yeah. Yeah. So they're like, we're doing away with the actors. We have a listener question.

Oh, great. It's from Steven H. Dear Jesse and Mike, I love hearing you both on the podcast and have been a fan of all things Conan since the very beginning in 93. Oh, man. Wow. That is a real fan. That's last century.

I want to first address your lack of a celebrity showbiz partner name, like how Conan and Andy are famously known as Candy. I was thinking Messy. Wait, are they famously known as Candy? I've never heard that. So he wants to call us Messy? He wants to call us Messy. Yes. Okay. I didn't know we needed a shortened name for us. Steven's question is, can you describe more about the writing process for the show, please? What's the life cycle of an idea from inspiration in the shower to Conan buffooning on camera? Are there writing partners or does everyone work independently? How does he know about the shower?

Do you ever think of stuff in the shower? Is that like, oh, yeah. Like where are you are when you have to grind out an idea or you have the germ of an idea? Is there something you do to kind of prime the pump, like go for a hike or? I usually go for a walk. Yeah. I take the dog for a walk. What do you do?

Well, walking is, I mean, there's so many articles about, you know, want to get your brain working, go for a walk and walking's great. Or I go, I like to swim, but that's hard to do on a whim but it's true I sometimes I'll work things out in the shot like I'll just lose track of how many gallons of water I'm wasting you take three hours shower yes yes I think that's a good question uh the life cycle of an idea in other words so yeah the morning, I think he wants to know that we come in and we pitched. I mean, we used to go into an office and we would pitch the idea in the writer's meeting in the morning. In olden days. Now we do that over Zoom. Some ideas are topical and they have a very short shelf life. So they'd have to be done that day.

And then others can live on the bulletin board for years without ever getting done. immediately go into writing mode. And usually we are working on them individually, although occasionally, if it's a real scramble, we'll get a few writers in an office to help. I think that helps to have a gang get together and bang out lines. Don't you think that helps speed it along? Oh, yeah. I like writing as a group. I prefer it but usually we are alone yes when you're alone banging out a script for that day first you're furious that they said go do it because yeah my favorite is if you pitch an idea and they go oh that's great but there's no way we could get a tank real tank here by 1 p.m oh that's my favorite too and And then you're like. When it's a great idea, but there's logistical reasons why it can't be done. And you're like, okay, I'll suffer.

But when you have to do it, and then you feel like someone's turning the arms of the clock while you're trying to write the script, it's just like, it can't be noon already. Yeah, and you're also fielding phone calls from the whole production staff because people are wanting to know, okay, what sort of actors do you need? What are the costumes? What are the props? What are, you know, if you need video clips or sound effects. Right.

And so you're just picking up the phone every five seconds. Right. And also, and you're like, I don, no, you haven't been in here in two weeks and you're coming in the one day I've got something. The reason everyone starts calling you is the first step is you get an idea green lit. You have to send, we called it a heads up email to all the departments,

giving them as many details as you can about what the bid is. And so then, yes, you're sitting there trying to write this script that has to be done in like 40 minutes. Everyone's either calling or knocking on the door at finding out about props and wardrobe. And so you really have to multitask.

Yeah. And then it goes to rehearsal, rehearsal with Conan, which is more of an audition really for the ideas than a rehearsal. It's Conan seeing things for the first time. Sometimes if it's an ambitious idea, the head writer will run it by him. So just because if it's going to cost a lot of money to produce or you kind of want to have his backing going into it.

But a lot of times what you're saying is it's the first time he's hearing or seeing anything. So he just looks into the audience and sees that there's someone dressed like a pirate and immediately he hates it there was i i don't know what year it was i bet you could pinpoint it if you wanted to where he flipped where it was like maybe the three millionth character dressed in an insane costume in the audience showed up in rehearsal. And I think he just was like, okay, I can't take any more characters. Please, all they do is interrupt Conan. They always interrupt and he always politely allows them to say their piece. That is my favorite thing when, like you're saying, you'll see a pirate or something go, start crapping all over it before he's even

rehearsed it. And you're just like, if you're the writer, and even if you're not the writer, you're just sitting there going, oh my God, this is going to be brutal. But sometimes this sketch is so good, you can see it win him over. Like a third of the way in. He'll stop fighting it. Yeah. And then by halfway, he's on board and then he ends up loving it. And you're just like.

It's coming from behind to win the game. Yeah. Time to quit. Go out on top. Occasionally, Conan does have notes and usually his notes are very good and he'll have lines you know he'll throw out a line or something that is funny and you wish you had thought of yes because and he really we we call it kind of like punching punching up or or bringing up a script and he's a he's a master of it and he does it effortlessly in rehearsal

and sometimes in his head yeah sometimes it's stuff that's so you're like you just said like why didn't i think of that because when he says it it seems it just seems very obvious and logical you know he used to when i was head writer if we're doing a sketch and he had a line in there that he wrote in rehearsal and it killed, he'd stop and look over at me and just smile during the taping of the show. Cause you know, he's got to get his kicks, get his kicks where he can, where he can. And it became a running joke. So, you know, of course, if he suggested something and it didn't get a laugh, it was never discussed again. We'd love more questions.

We would. You can email us at insideconanpod at gmail.com. Or leave us a voicemail at 323-209-5303. Although I'd like to, we should hire live operators. That probably would be a waste of money. I think that would be cost prohibitive. But it would be kind of fun to have an answering service. Okay, well, that's our show for the week. That's our show. And we'll see you next week. We like you. 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 Blaiart. 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.