Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Matt Gourley

Episode Date: August 7, 2020

King of podcasting Matt Gourley (Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend, Superego) stops by to talk with writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell about the evolution of being a producer for Conan’s podcast to becoming a sidekick, being an early adopter to podcasting with his podcast Superego since 2006, his time voicing a motorized trash can at Disneyland, and getting black out drunk for the first time in his life on TV for an episode of Drunk History. Got a question for Inside Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone] and e-mail us at [e-mail] For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com

And now it's time for Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Hey, welcome to Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. My name is Mike Sweeney, a writer on The Conan Show, and I Mike Sweeney, a writer on The Conan Show, and I'm Jessie Gaskell, another writer on The Conan Show. We are your hosts, and we take you deep inside, beyond the esophagus, through the stomach, really in the duodendam area. Yes, and that's where things get bad. We have a great show today. We're excited about today's guest. We are. He has kind of taken our place as Conan's new punching bag. Yeah. And that's tough for one person to do. That's a lot to take on. We're talking about

the producer of Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, Mr. Matt Gourley, one of the kings of podcast. I mean, he's been well known in the podcast community for since its inception. Yeah. His podcast Super Ego is one of the original podcasts and it's still running. Here he is. Mr. Matthew. I call him Matthew. Matthew Gourley. Wow. That felt good. Really nice. Well, so we just did a sync clap and Matt Gourley, I'm told that you're the one who does that for Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend.

Yeah, it's nice to be on the receiving end of the sync clap instead of pulling the strings. Yeah, what a treat for you. It really is. I mean, we're joking, but if I'm being honest, it's nice to just be along for the ride. Our engineer Will executed that one. Any critique? Did he do a good job? He did it better than I could. Will's a master. He's the real brains behind this. He should be running the whole show. Yes. I would love if it turned out that you weren't recording this, Matt.

What if my audio is just awful? Well, this is your third podcast of the day, so we should go easy on you. We'll keep this to four minutes. It's the last one though. Like this is the one where you get me loosey goosey and I'm, I'm all yours. I've never seen you like this or heard you like this. Matt after dark. Oh yeah. Well, so people who are fans of Conan's podcast, Conan O'Brien needs a friend. We'll recognize Matt's voice, Matt Gourley. Beautiful silky voice. Your title is producer, isn't it? That's right, yeah. But you're also a character on the show now.

Yeah, that came as a surprise along the way. Well, originally it was just going to be, can you kind of help out with this? And then I think it kind of became more of, well, do you want to produce it? And then somewhere along those production lines, I became an embattled sidekick along with Sona. Once you started recording with Sona, Sona Movesessing, Conan's real sidekick at work,

his assistant. Yeah. He needs two co-hosts to handle him on a podcast. Yeah. And I need her just to get through it. I was curious because I think Conan is kind of relentlessly on the attack. I assume you always have each other's back, probably. That would be the wisest thing to do. Yeah, although today was one of the first,

I think one of two times where we didn't because it was an argument over are s'mores good? And Conan and I, of all people, agreed that they're overrated and Sona, she goes hard for s'mores. Oh boy. So you were torn. What did you do in that situation?

Well, I agreed with Conan, but ultimately I have to side with Sona just because it doesn't feel right to agree with Conan. Yeah. He's trying to separate you. I think so. He is always trying to divide you and then further weaken you and then divide you again against yourself. You know what? I love s'mores. You can say that here on our podcast.

Thank you. It's nice to be in a safe space. By the way, there's a big opportunity for you to promote the number one comedy podcast in the world on our podcast. Nice move. Congratulations to who's ever managing your career. But we are giving you the opportunity to be, I mean, you're the star of this show.

You don't have to play a supporting character. And you can say whatever you want here. No, I choose to use it for good and get along and be friendly and nice. And I mean that in a pointed way. Oh, yes. Point well taken. Well, this is a safe space. Thank you. Anything you say

that is negative about anyone will be looped and played over and over again. The audio archives, I've got things I'm sitting on that weren't during sessions. Oh, right. Nobody ever better mess with me. Yeah. People should know that if you're speaking into a microphone, it's always recording, even if you don't think it is. Yeah. People should know that if you're speaking into a microphone, it's always recording, even if you don't think it is. Yeah. Are you hands-on with editing the show afterwards? Yeah, that's, I edit the entire show. Oh, wow. Okay. Will does all the engineering, like the recording and stuff, but now we record separately in our own locations. But yeah,

I receive all the files and do all the post-production and content editing and all that stuff. Oh, wow. Are you ever tempted to edit out Conan being really hard on you? Oh, I have. I absolutely have. Oh, I love that. Do you run it by him like that? 25 minutes of you exoriating me, I'm going to take out or? No, he doesn't even listen.

So I don't. No, of course he doesn't listen. No, he doesn't listen. That's a great position to be in. Because you didn't know that you were going to end up being such a big part of the actual podcast. But then it slowly, at some point must have dawned on you like, okay, I'm, you know, I have to come prepared every week for whatever ribbing I'm gonna take. Yeah, that was a real learning curve. Yeah. You know,

Conan will often mention how he grew up in a family of six and that this is his learned behavior from fighting to survive, you know, in the jungle of his family's wits or whatever. In the jungle of a middle-class Irish household. Right, right. I grew up in a super polite, kind, and friendly family where we just didn't do this kind of thing. So it's been a real shock to my sister. I do sort

of carry issues with my older sister who's kind of, I love her now, we were so close, but she was a bit of a bully and I was probably a bit of a, you know, a little annoyance, but yeah, so we have those. It's strange that that relationship now mirrors your professional relationship. I know, now that I think of it, you're probably right. Perfect training. Yeah, I know. That's probably the perfect storm we've got going and why there's some clashing. Yeah. Yeah. You fell right into that old pattern. I know. Well, you can break out of it. No, you can't. Well, I should ask you guys, like, give me guidance. What are your tools? What's your advice?

It's like when you see when your bully starts bullying a new kid and you're like okay you're just really uh you want it yeah we were like for years like hey you know you should try a podcast with a co-host just you know stretch your wings get you out of my office so your advice is i've got to find someone else to be the new exactly okay so we might need like an assistant producer or something. Right. Or find a new medium for him to. Or I could just quit.

I could quit and someone else to take my job. You can't quit. And I'm so damaged. I mean, I've been there 25 years. I don't even understand. Someone has to remind me that any of it is, there's a problem with any of it. I have Stockholm syndrome. It's just like, I don't see what the big deal is here, folks.

He's tough, but fair. So is that an adjustment? It must have been an adjustment, right? Because Conan is, sometimes I marvel at, he really is like a dog with a bone. Once he's got something on you, he'll just keep hammering. And it's funny. you have to give it up it's funny i think it all started with how i was dressed and so i've just never also had anybody

who wasn't over 70 comment on how i dressed you know as a sort of like you know there you'd go to thanksgiving and the grandma would be like well i love well i don't like that shirt you know it was just so blatant is that a rock and roll band yeah it was that kind of thing and i was just so thrown for a few episodes i just didn't say anything because i just was i did don't even know how to respond especially from someone who sometimes is wearing a crocodile dundee hat right unironically yeah yeah yeah plastic teeth i'd respect that hat if they were real alligator i know good point you can see the plastic seam running around every single tooth very impressive this feels good so did you just start showing up naked to the pot so he couldn't go after your clothes you know what's funny is i did start dressing down and i

don't know if it was subconscious at first or it did, but I started, I went from whatever he thought I was. He used to dress kind of like, I remember some sweaters, v-neck sweaters. We'd see you in, yeah. I'm sure, yeah. I mean, you could probably call me at that time

like bookish or something, but he had turned me into like a tweedeed wearing hipster i don't know if he fully understands what a hipster is but i went from that to what i called like cia dad like someone who's undercover and is trying to look like they could be at home at a pta meeting or something like the most inoffensive yeah like on the. Yeah, exactly. He got his first foothold on the way you were dressed. And then what does he have other specific riffs with you? Things he's always going after that. Yeah. What else does he think hipsters do? Well, he, he gets on me about my tastes and some of like, but they're very similar to his. Like I

have a phone that used to be owned by Eisenhower presidential history. Oh, he wouldn't let up about that, but you know, well, he's jealous. That's just jealousy. Oh yes, of course.

He wants you to give up the phone. Yeah. It's not going to happen. My sister, Jenny. Well, now he'll try to Trump you by buying a phone that, you know,

the, the first phone ever used in the white house. Yeah. Yeah. So now he goes after your interests in spite of them mirroring his own. And then sometimes there'll be a glimmer of bonding over them, but just not enough. No. And then sometimes it'll level out, but then it'll come back.

And you just, I'm always on my toes, I'm finding. Or I'll get comfortable. He will lull you into like comfort. Yeah. And that's when he can smell the blood. Yes. That's when he strikes. I've gotten lull you into like comfort. Yeah. And that's, that's when he can smell the blood. Yes. That's when he strikes. I've gotten lulled.

Like when we're doing a five weeks of shows by the third day of the first week, you're like, okay, okay. I'm revved back up. I'm ready. I've got my armor on. But the first day back from a break, totally. He'll come at you at full revs. Yeah.

We were supposed to take a few weeks off for the podcast right because it's quarantine i think he's got nothing really occupying his time and he just said nope we're back to it next week it's twice a week now well we've we had one every day this week and we went from what i thought was going to be a couple weeks off to full bore recording and there was a moment where i went i'm not emotionally prepared for this yeah you need to up your therapy session i know yeah but you you mentally thought you had a nice little a little break coming that's right i thought i was going like i had a two-week pass from east berlin into west berlin you know instead your break is doing a podcast with us

that's i'll take it that is telling you this I'm telling you, this is cathartic, guys. This is feeling good. But Matt, you, okay, just to get away from Conan for a second, I'm sure we'll come back. But you've been in the podcast game for a long time. I learned this about you that you started in like 2006 doing podcasts. Isn't that embarrassing? See, that's what he should be getting on me about. Why is that embarrassing?

I don't know. You were such an early adopter. I didn't even know we had podcasts in 2006. I had a Blackberry. Yeah. Well, you couldn't have listened. I mean, we had so few listeners. It was, yeah, it was a little... Where did they go? I mean, just how did they go onto the internet? It was the only way you could do it it you could listen like on a website where the audio would be posted or apple itunes podcast still existed but there was no iphone well it was that year but it was still coming out so you had to download it on your desktop and then sync

your ipod with it that's why it gets the name podcast because it was originally for ipods oh wow i love that your involvement predated the iPhone. Yes. Yes. That's quite a demarcation line. Here's how crazy it was. We even recorded our first episode, not on a computer, but like a digital music hard separate recorder. And I would pump it into my computer with analog wires. Like there was an analog component to our podcast. my god yeah oh wow you were recording onto vinyl yeah basically i was the jack white of podcasts okay now you i know i think you are a hipster i know but it was by necessity because i didn't have the software not the not the aesthetics i swear it's like you and jimmy pardo were the only two people doing podcasts. I know, that's true. Yeah. What was your podcast about?

It's called Super Ego. And in one form or another, it's still going because we would take these long breaks. And it's purely improvised character comedy that then I would edit down to really tight things and give it like high production value. So it seemed like, you know, they're like three to five minute sketches, but they were longer improv recordings of just people with kind of, you know, whatever we call it, like personality disorders. But that was the basic idea. But then it just kept going throughout the years and we still do it and used to do live shows before the world went inside. Right. Didn't you do a reunion show last year? A tour? We did do it. Yeah, that's right. We did a little mini tour on the Pacific Northwest. Yes, right. I remember. I was following it on Instagram. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Wow. And you've been doing improv a long

time too, right? Yeah, since high school. Oh, my God. Yeah. I used to be on this thing called comedy sports, which was like a varsity sport for improv. I've heard of comedy sports. Yeah. I used to be on this thing called comedy sports, which was like a varsity sport. I've heard of comedy sports. Yeah. Yeah. It's not a sport. No. To be clear.

No. And sometimes it's not comedy. And you grew up in Southern California. So did you get school credit for doing that in high school? That's a good question. No, not technically, but it was part of theater class, kind of. Yeah. I'm guessing you always wanted to be doing what you're

doing in some form or another. Did your, were your parents, or maybe I'm wrong about that, but were your parents supportive of your showbiz aspirations? They were. I wanted to be an animator more than anything until I kind of got to high school and started doing improv. But even then I went to college to study graphic design and then quickly switched it to set design and then to performance. And so I went through a lot of little ringers, but yeah, I still these days don't know what I want to do. I don't know if I'm doing this as a career or what this is, but I think I just going to keep this going until retirement age and then pack it in. Well, I mean, you literally can fall into things like you know you're just talking about the evolving role you have on the conan podcast so

yeah which you weren't thinking of going into it and now no i do love though that you i mean the fact that you did both improv and podcasting before anybody else. It's like, there should be a statue erected of you for white men everywhere. Yeah, let's definitely replace Robert E. Lee with a podcaster, a white male podcaster. Now's the time. A lot of people don't know Matt was tweeting in grade school. Yeah. Just you were ahead of it on every front. It was amazing. I did. I was really interested in like morning radio personalities when I was younger. And then it only recently hit me that kind of what the podcast with Conan is, is like a radio DJ and his producer and like news person. Yeah. It's, it really is a morning zoo. It's an afternoon zoo. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And I, I feel like it's

like a kind of like ancient Greek Cassandra myth of be careful what you wish for. Yeah. I know. I always wonder if I know a few, uh, comedians who I swear when, when they were kids, they knew they were going to be famous when they grew up. And I wonder, like, I wonder if you as a kid had some premonition about what your future is going to be. I only had a premonition of what I wanted it to be, but then that would change like every six months, even to this day. So it's kind of a mess of unfocused goals, but also I think I'm more comfortable not committing to something. I mean, I got married at 43. So clearly there's commitment issues. Yeah. Can I ask if there were people whose careers you looked up to or that, you know, as a kid, you were like, Oh, that, you know, that guy's got it going on.

I guess I actually Letterman of all people. So I mean, I all joking aside about Conan, I was, we're definitely going to tell him this. I did watch the show. But he didn't come on until I was in, I think, college. So I had already kind of just been watching Letterman for so many years when I was younger. There's something about who you are into when it comes to comedy, when you're kind of like 13, 14, 15. The same thing with music. Like you're just in love with those people the rest of your life.

I mean, I still am convinced that my music taste from age 13 was perfect. I think so too. Yeah. Who was it? Fiona Apple. I mean, she's still the best. You're not wrong. I know.

I think I am actually right. Yeah. That's pretty good. If that's your choice at 13, you're doing really well. Because mine was something more like Def Leppard. What was your first showbiz job? Oh, my first showbiz job. I guess commercials.

Well, I did a bunch of plays in college and then a little bit of regional theater and then i started doing some commercial acting and a tiny bit of tv but then i didn't really do anything for the longest time and i was teaching college i was teaching acting and theater history and stuff like that. But then I started doing a little bit more acting and I, I ended up booking this job as the Volkswagen spokesperson for three years for the these commercials. And I did like 30 some commercials for Volkswagen. Oh, wow. Yeah. And it all, it came through podcasting. It came because the director knew super ego and all, then my acting work all started coming from supererego and so i kind of said do i

really need an agent i'm not booking anything on my own merit you know i couldn't go into an audition and really nail it but if i knew that they were bringing me in for the podcast then i felt like oh at least they're making the choice to have me here not i'm not being foisted on them right well i heard about a job you had that fascinates me. I mean, you told me this, that you worked at Disneyland. Yeah, for many years. 13 years. Yeah.

Oh my God, 13 years. How many shows a week would you do there? At most, it would be like four days a week, six shows a day. Were you like a Disney prince? What were you doing? No, no, I wasn't. I was in the kind of like union performance section where we would do improv comedy and then this job i had

that's come up on the conan podcast before i was it's so hard to explain but there's a trash can that was fully motorized and i was hiding among people on just walking along the park and i had a bag and i could control this trash can and I had a secret microphone in my hand that would modulate my voice and the sound would come from the trash can and so I could just talk to people as the trash can which could fully amble its way through all the crowd and speak to people what oh my god this was a prank show you did a prank show at Disneyland yeah basically that sounds like something Disney wouldn't allow. I know. A rogue guy with a mic and

wouldn't they worry about you hurting someone with your mobile wastebasket running to and over? Yeah, and they probably should have too because there was a point where I just didn't care anymore and was saying things that they would have never Oh, I'm sure. Oh, wow.

Were you doing schhtick i mean what was your yeah i mean i was just would go over to the other trash cans and say sheila i want a divorce or like you know i would get in a screaming match with them or i would harass people for their to throw away their churros and things like that yeah it's a high point were people ever screaming like that wastebasket yelled at me? A lot of times kids would come up and ruthlessly kick it and then I would drive up to the parents and go why don't you do something about your

children? Oh my god. You need to manage your children. It was depressing. Feed them to me. That's hilarious. I had no idea. I've never seen this trash can at Disneyland. I don't think it's there anymore. I know. I think it started and ended. There was a lawsuit.

It would break down a lot too. It would break down and then I'd be like, okay, break time. The first job I had there when California Adventure opened, there was this restaurant called the ABC Soap Opera Bistro, which was built on all the ABC soap operas. So every room of the restaurant was a set from one of the soap operas. And so once in an hour, no one, and they, they showed that in their attendance.

And we would do this thing where once an hour we come in dressed as like surgeons and scrubs or like millionaires and an Ascot and just do a little table side improv thing. It was like 10 minutes of the easiest improv with your friends. It was the, I'll never have an easier job. And it was like a union job too with full benefits and everything. It was incredible and it couldn't last. We'd come in one, it's like some days to work at 10 a.m.

And they'd say, we're not going to open until 5 p.m. So just go ride some rides. Oh, wow. And we'd do an hour of work and then go home. It was a dream job. Would the people eating there know that this little show is happening? Yeah, we'd be right among them and we would use them. Like, this is my wife, Monrovia.

How could you leave me? And they ate it up. And it was not quality improv. She's been in a coma. Yeah, exactly. It was a lot of that. I was worried people would be like, uh, we're trying to eat. There was some of that. There was some of that. Yeah.

Yeah. Everyone goes there for the food. Right. Was it one of those things where you ended up like, have you, do you go back to Disneyland ever now? Or do you just hate it there because you worked there for so long? I don't hate it because I have nostalgia for it, but I was also never a Disney freak because I grew up going. And so it never felt super special to me. It did when I was young, but then when I was older. So now if I go back, it's kind of nostalgic. And my wife worked there as well. So we have like that in common. She was a face character. She was a princess,

like a, I guess she was a Cinderella. And she dated a wastebasket. She married a trash. Right. That should be a Disney fairy tale. We met at Universal Studios. What? Oh, get out. Oh my God.

Doing improv. Yeah. You're the ultimate Southern California couple. You met at Universal. Yeah. And then after that, you guys started working at Disney. Transitioned to Disney. No, we worked there for years and never knew each other.

And then both got this job at Universal doing improv, and that's how we met. Oh, wow. Oh, my God. So this is a real circuit. I don't think I realized that there were that many. My wife and I are working on a podcast about behind the scenes at Disney and all the crazy shit that goes on. And so we've been researching all this stuff.

Oh, that's a great idea. Enjoy the lawsuits. I know we're, we're, we're really having to navigate. Matt, have you, has there been a guest on Conan? O'Brien needs a friend that you've like really fanned out over you guys. Cause you get great guests. Yes. Yeah. Well, David Sedaris was a big one. Oh, yeah.

That was really a treat. He seems like he'd be a little ornery. Yeah. I think I thought that going in and he was so friendly and so nice and so game. Yeah. He was wonderful. Loved him. And then there's also like the, you know, the big ones that like Michelle Obama and

Tom Hanks, even though Tom Hanks was on Zoom, but still. Right. You're kind of checking yourself in those moments. But then I remember Timothy Olyphant and Jeff Goldblum being so incredibly funny and Charles Barkley, too. I think the common thread I'm finding is the guests that really rib Conan. Yes. Are the ones that I'm really enjoying. My liberator. Yeah. Yeah. Are the ones that I'm really enjoying. My liberator.

Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I know. I take, Oh, we said, I think we even said that to Julia Louis-Dreyfus.

Will you take us away? Take us with you. Please. You're writing mash notes to all these people. Charles Barkley is really, man, is he funny. Oh God, he was great.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, all those people that mentioned are hilarious. You know who I, he had on the television show the other day, who's really, they have a great back and forth and really gives it to him is Jim Gaffigan. Oh God, he was funny. He was on the podcast too.

Yeah. And he was sort of edgier than I'd ever seen him in his comedy on the podcast. Yeah, he was sort of edgier than i'd ever seen him in his comedy on the yeah he's kind of an edgy guy yeah is there anyone that you would love to have on the show that hasn't been on do you have a wish list oh my god okay hold on what i think i would have this ready to go yeah eisenhower the ghost of eisenhower well letterman was a huge one too because oh yeah obviously yeah do you ever want to linger after and be like, Oh, you know, of course I do, but I can't, I'm just incapable. I can't, I can't bother someone like that. I feel right. I feel horrible.

You know, Judy Dench. I would like Judy. Oh, that would be so fun. Yeah. I have nothing to do with the guests. And that's the thing. I get a lot of people on social media going, get this person on, get this, always Norm MacDonald. I literally find out who the guests are when everybody else doing the podcast does. I have nothing to do with it. Right, right. Oh, speaking of social media,

they put up an excerpt from the podcast on the Team Coco website. And because it was over Zoom, everyone got to see you. I was reading some of the comments. People are obsessed with the way you look i know do you know that people don't know that i'm as old as i am well you don't know you don't look old at all you look like but i think they think i'm in my 20s what i've noticed was everyone's like oh my god he i didn't i didn't think he'd be so good looking like i, I haven't seen any of that. Do tell.

Why would I say this? They're like, oh, I thought he'd be fat and with a beard and wear like a cardigan sweater. Which is weird to me. I don't get that from your voice. Because he paints such a picture of me as this, you know, like penny farthing, riding knickers, wearing tweed cap, pipe-smoking, mustache-twirling. Yeah, basically, yeah. Oh, that's right, I forgot.

Yeah. Can I ask you about something? You also had the distinction of being on, correct me if I'm wrong, the first episode ever of Drunk History? Yeah, that's right. Oh. That's kind of cool.

Were you a drunkard? I was, yeah, I was a drunk storyteller. Does it concern you that they're starting this show and they're like, we need someone who gets drunk a lot? Frankly, I was honored. I was truly honored. You were already doing it, so you might as well just record. Seriously, yeah. You did it about Watergate. Yeah, I did Watergate. And then I did the Alamo that season as well. I did the story of Werner Von Braun. But I did the Watergate and the Alamo

in the same night. Oh, my God. Yeah. And I had already thrown up like halfway through the story. You really you really threw up. I did. And it's really I mean, it's very funny. When I saw the Alamo one, I literally did not remember the Alamo. I did not. I couldn't remember a thing I said. And I've never been blackout drunk to my knowledge before. Well, you wouldn't remember it if you had. No, it's good. The one time you're blackout drunk, it's on television. That's the way to do it. Matt, we, uh, we always like to close the show by asking people, um, for advice for somebody who might want to, and I know that you're still figuring out what you want to do,

but if there were somebody out there who maybe wants to have a career like yours, some advice for that person? Oh, like mine. Well, do it for the love of the game because I, God knows I never intended for this to be a job or a career. It was just something that was really fun. And because no one thought, and I, my friends and I never thought anyone was listening. We were uncensored and the more you can just kind of do your own thing and have your own voice and do it for the sake of doing it, probably the better it's going to be because you're going to be having fun doing it. I think I've said it before, but anything worth doing should be worthless and just have fun, I guess. Was that, does that work? Yes. Okay. Absolutely. I think a lot of people get caught up in like,

how do I monetize this? And that should always come last. Okay. Absolutely. I think a lot of people get caught up in like, how do I monetize this? And that should always come last. Yeah. But the goal is to make no money. And then you know that you're really doing something you like. Yeah. Maybe even lose some money. If you're, if you really want to have a good time and lose some money, this career is for you. Yeah. Then it's a true passion. That's right. That is good advice. And Matt Corley, this was so delightful. Yes. Well, Mike and Jesse, I'm a fan. So I, when they asked me to do this, when Jen asked me to do this, I was thrilled and I love the podcast. So thank you very much. Oh, well, we're big fans of yours.

It was so nice to get you alone and you know, on your third podcast of the day. Yeah. But this was like free therapy. Let's do this again next week. Same time? Did you get enough therapy? Are there any questions or advice you want at all? Just save me, hold me. Okay. Just know that you're not alone.

Yes. That helps. That helps. Basically, our whole podcast is just a network of people who have been traumatized by Conan. It's like a human resources center call line. And you're welcome on any time, you know, if a new situation arises. Yeah. Just call the hotline. You just say the word. I'll be calling after every session.

All right. Good. All right. Thanks guys. Thanks. Okay. Thanks. And that was Matt Gourley. Yay. We need to tell you in case you didn't know this, the new episodes of Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend

are available every Monday, wherever you get your podcasts. That's actually incredibly accurate information. And you know what? Somehow, miraculously, we still have time to answer a fan question. Today's question comes from carl m having listened to conan o'brien needs a friend since the beginning okay brown noser as well as inside conan it seems that there are many guests that conan really enjoys having can you name any that seem to be particularly favorites of his and your favorites oh i, I mean, Conan loves funny people.

Part of it is selfish. Well, A, he gets to laugh a ton. But plus, I know he's often said he loves when comedians come who kind of take being on a talk show seriously and actually prepare to come on and be really funny because it makes his job easier.

And plus, he has a great time. Yeah, no, I think that people don't realize that the kind of the ideal guest is someone who has brought stories or has material, stand-up material that they want to do. And it's not just actual improvising. Yeah. There have been guests who come on where they think that's how you do it. What you just said, where you, well, you just go on and you talk.

And then you just talk about what you had for dinner the night before and right it often becomes a real workout for conan yeah i love when conan has on like a couple of names that come to mind nicole byer yes and nikki glazer yes are both really funny on their own but then their chemistry with conan is so funny because they're both a little bit blue yeah they're blue and they're both a little bit blue. Yeah, they're blue and they're not afraid to shock him with sex talk. And they give it to him right between the eyes. Yeah. And he gets very uncomfortable and it's really fun to watch.

Yes. So they have a great dynamic. And he also loves occasionally when he has people he's venerated for so long come on. That's I think that's really exciting for him. Like, you know, when Carl Reiner first came on and then kept coming on and Mel Brooks or whenever Steve Martin's on, it's those Martin Short. Yes, Martin Short. I mean, they're actually friends, right? They are friends.

But Martin Short just rags on him the whole time. So it's really funny. And Conan loves it. Well, who are some of our favorites that we've had on Inside Conan? Matt Gourley, right? We should mention just Matt Gourley because he just made me. I think that's the beginning and end all. You know, J.B. Smoove.

Oh, he was so funny. Well, because he had just come from doing the show. And I swear, I don't know if he knew he had left Conan's studio and walked into our podcast studio. It was just continuous. And he just went. I just like to imagine that he's always like that. And whether or not there's a recording device around. I think so. Yeah. We just got in his RV and hung on for dear life.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, there's one that I think we both loved. We loved having Robert Smigel on because he's hilarious and he has such a good memory of the early years. Right. We liked him so much, we actually have him coming back. So that'll be in the next few weeks. And if any of you other listeners have questions besides Carl, you can email us at insideconanpod at gmail.com. Or leave us a voicemail.

We played a good one already. Call us at 323-209-5303. Okay, so we'll see you next week or well, you'll hear us next week. Bye. Okay, bye. We like you. Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast

is hosted by Mike Sweeney and me, Jesse Gaskell. Produced by Jen Samples. Engineered and mixed by Will Becton. Supervising producers are Kevin Bartelt and Aaron Blair. Executive produced by Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco. And Colin Anderson and Chris Bannon at Earwolf. Thanks to Jimmy Vivino for our theme music and interstitials. You can rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts.

And of course, please subscribe and tell a friend to listen to Inside Conan on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you like best. This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.