Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Matt Walsh

Episode Date: June 28, 2019

Comedian and UCB co-founder Matt Walsh (Veep) joins Conan writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell to talk about the hardware commercial that got him into SAG, which UCB performers went to the emergency room as a result of their Conan bits, capitalizing on the chemistry of the Veep cast via improv, and much more.This episode is sponsored by Cannondale Bicycles (www.cannondale.com/conan).Check out Conan Without Borders: Australia: https://teamcoco.com/australiaCheck out Conan25: The Remotes: https://conan25.teamcoco.com/Got a question for Inside Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone] and e-mail us at [e-mail] Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com

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It's light, comfortable, and even connects effortlessly to your smartphone via the free Cannondale app to track your ride data, let you know when it's time for a tune-up, and more. To experience the Treadwell, visit your local Cannondale retailer and try one for yourself. To enter to win a new Treadwell, see the official rules at cannondale.com slash Conan. And now, it's time for... Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Hello, welcome to Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast.

I'm Jesse Gaskell. You're Jesse Gaskell. I am. I'm Mike Sweeney, and we work here at The Conan Show. We're writers here on the show, and we love- And we know everything about the show. We know everything, and we've only divulged 4% of it so far. We love to talk about stuff going on here, and- Yeah, there's been a lot going on here.

Yeah. Because we just got back from Ghana. Two days ago. We were there with Conan, I should clarify. He's doing a travel show at Conan Without Borders, and we spent six days there. And we also went with Sam Richardson, one of the stars of Veep and Detroiters. Yeah. And the Tim Robinson sketch show.

Just a really hilarious guy. Really funny. Who has family in Ghana. Yes. He lived there for a while. His mother's whole side of the family, his mom grew up there and so we got to hang out.

Yeah. They cooked dinner for us. They did. It was a unique experience. It was really fun. I mean, I think this, I don't want to jinx it, but I think that show's going to be really great. Well, I think that was the classic definition of a jinx. So which is a jinx not

jinx i'll leave it in and we'll jinx it jinx away we shot some great stuff yeah we shot a lot of stuff and it was so now it's a lot of it's really ours to ruin at this point it is we're gonna botch it in the edit room sorry uh but we had promised that we were going to record an episode while we were there. We said that before we left. I don't know if we promised. We just teased it. Yeah. And we didn't.

We didn't do it. It was just shooting. We were shooting video all day. There was no time for podcast tomfoolery. No, there wasn't time at all. And if we had tried to approach Conan about recording, he probably would have swatted us away. Yeah. It was, we were very, it was constantly, we were running on empty and we were not, we were blowing through lunches.

I mean. We were eating chicken in a van while zipping to the next shoot. At 4 p.m., yeah. Shoot. So, yeah, podcasting didn't quite, that'd be like saying, we'd like to stop to get our nails done. You know, it kind of would seem like that.

And then we were in the Heathrow Airport on the way back and briefly we were presented with an opportunity to podcast and we both hid, I believe. Yeah, we did kind of hide in different parts of the airport. Well, the key is not to be together because then the equipment could pop out. So we kept...

One of us was always MIA. And it worked. We didn't have to do it. Yeah, we just kept trading trips to the bathroom. Yeah, so we didn't do anything there. I'm sure closer to when this show airs, we'll get to talk about it more with you all.

What's that? Oh, our time's up. Sorry. Sorry, guest. No, we actually do. We didn't totally fail you because we have a great guest this week. Really great guest. Oh my god, I'm very excited. We've been trying to book him for a while and a 9.30 a my God. I'm very excited. We've been trying to book him for a while. Yeah.

A 9.30 a.m. slot opened up. And so we finally get to chat with the great Matt Walsh. Matt Walsh of Upright Citizens Brigade. Founder fame. Founder fame. And now, of course, everyone got to really enjoy him on Veep. Yes. He's just one of the best improvisers ever. Yes.

And a great, great guy. And really fun to hang out with. And he also was on Late Night with COB. Yes. That's one reason he's here today is because when UCB came to New York in 96, those guys appeared on Late Night all the time in pre-tapes and in sketches because they were friends with some Chicago writers, Andy Richter, Brian McCann, Brian Stack,

and all the writers used them in sketches all the time. Yeah, they were really part of the troupe. They really were. And we just want to warn you in advance. We start this conversation talking about Austria. Yes. And then... just want to warn you in advance we start this conversation talking about austria yes and then in the middle of a discussion of about traveling and yes which wasn't really part of the interview but then we didn't want to stop because it was funny um and then later we try hamfistedly to work in a way that that that that would seamlessly transition later but we ended up deciding not to edit it.

So you'll just hear it all in its weird uncut glory. Yeah, sorry. So yes. Uncut glory is also a good name for a gay bar. We decided from now on to... That is a great... Let's get out of this and start investing in gay bars it is gay pride month

that's true uncut glory so anyway here's Matt Walsh in his uncut glory yes yes yes that was the whole purpose I met some Belgian dude

when I was traveling about in Europe many moons ago and he was telling me about his plan I'm like I would do that yeah so we crossed at Gibraltar and then took the train through Marrakesh when I was traveling about in Europe many moons ago, and he was telling me about his plan. I'm like, I would do that. Yeah.

So we crossed at Gibraltar and then took the train through Marrakesh, and then you see all the Berber, you know, like on the Folgers coffee crystals, those gentlemen. You see the nomadic Berbers throughout the mountains. Yes, of course. Yeah, yeah. So this was a long time ago. Long time ago, 1989. Oh, wow. Oh, wow.

Yeah. 30 years ago? Before it was cool. Before it was on Instagram. A period of discovery for you. Yes, it was. It was a walkabout for myself. With a Belgian man.

Four months. No, that was just one dude I met. I literally traveled from Scandinavia through, I actually went to school in Austria for a year. So I went back to Austria, visited my family there, and then went, my host family, and then did everything, you know, went to Eastern Europe. That's cool. Were you at college? No, I was post-college.

I was trying to figure out, I was a psych, I worked on a psych ward, and I was taking classes to be a psychologist, and I was very unhappy, and I was also doing comedy at night, and I was at a crossroads. No wonder you were unhappy. Yeah. Comedy was making me unhappy. Cranky. A little cranky. Wait, so are you still in touch with the host family?

You know, I'm a terrible, no. No. I could probably find them. I know their address in my head. 502-0-Geyard-von-Nissen-Strasse-N-I-S-S-T-R-A-S-S-A. Is that true? Salzburg, Austria. Oh, my God.

Maybe they're listening to this podcast. They'll talk to you. We're going to reconnect to you. Alex and Stel had nicked the sisters, like three sisters, Stutzi, Wutzi. Stutzi and Wutzi. And Kutzi. And Kutzi. But I'm not kidding.

Their real names were Alexandra, Beatrice, and the sister lived in Vienna. I forget her name. She was Stutzi. I love the way you say Stutzi. Stutzi. So you weren't in Vienna. I lived in Salzburg, which is a beautiful, idyllic, sound and music looking city. Birthplace city.

And I lived there for a year. And every weekend we would go you know to Paris we would go to Italy we would go to Poland we would go to Amsterdam wow great it's very central Europe so you can get out and go you almost sighed when you said all those cities like oh you know we had to go to Paris and I'm grateful for it no it sounds I don't want to bore you with like no it's the white person's pilgrimage well it kind of is because you're seeing the great western civilization art museums every city has like the picture that you knew growing up and so you go to like munich had a bunch of uh broigel stuff i liked broigel

the elder yeah not the younger the younger the elder younger is a knockoff. Okay. And then, of course, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. Vienna had a bunch of like, Fiendesjake, like Otto Klimt. A lot of Klimt. Yes, in Vienna. They have a whole Klimt Museum. There you go. And more Bruegels.

And Bruegels. There are a lot of Bruegels. The Bruegels are better in America. New York City has the best Bruegels. New York City has one Bruegel. It's the water, yeah. It's in The brogles are better In America A lot of brogles New York City has the best brogles New York City has one broogle It's the water Yeah It's the water

No New York City has one broogle It's Do we? It's the summer harvest Yeah In the meadow I knew you would know this stuff That's why I'm like

I love brogles Getting there Yeah We always do this And I think it's what people want to hear We have to introduce the person we're talking to Right right But we'll

Look it's up to Kevin Our producer To take this chunk And put it Later Drop it down in the middle of our Vienna chat. And then it's seamless. We didn't even get to that. Don't you want to know what he was studying over there? Yeah, sure. I studied generally like art history and Western civilization.

Oh, that makes sense. Wow. And then I had German, so I took basically three semesters of German and two semesters, you know, intensive and then one other introductory class. And then for a month, I didn't live, but I traveled around Turkey with my roommate who was from Japan, and Turkey was just unbelievable. That's one of the most fascinating places. Oh, yeah.

Yeah. It's so many changeovers of. Changeovers and like you stumble into like these ruins, like in Rome. Right. They built a 7-Eleven, you know, over a 2,000-year-old bathhouse. Turkey's even better than that. You go into the restroom in the Rome 7-Eleven. Yeah.

Wait a minute. That's real? Vomitorium, right? Yeah. It's crazy. So Turkey had like the Temple of Artemis and Ephesus, that old city. Right. Oh, I went to Ephesus.

Yeah, exactly. I watched a guy, an American guy wearing a backpack tried to squeeze in between two columns and he knocked a column over and it shattered. No! I mean, that's a 12,000-year-old city. And I watched and I was just staring and my mouth was agape and he kind of looked around like nobody saw that right and walked away.

And I was just like Hey you It's broken forever Clean up marble walkway I know Right exactly Clean up on the marble walkway It lasted 12,000 years And then this one guy

Well plus they stand those up Like I'm sure that wasn't They found it Right Stacked it Mortared it or something Maybe it was Looked beautiful Until people started wearing backpacks and then it turned into a ruin.

Yeah, that's why it's a ruin. It's true. Because they love it. Exactly. Always deadly. Wow. Stonehenge suffers from the same problem. That's Roli suitcases.

Knock those over. That's fascinating. I love that. I know. You're very well-traveled. Very well-traveled. I have been fortunate, yeah. Yeah.

Do you want to travel? I've never been to Ghana. Yeah. I'm envious of you all. Well, you should be. I hadn't been to Ghana until I had. Do you look forward to traveling with your kids? I know your children are on the young side.

We have traveled. They've been to New York. For brogles. They've never seen a broigle. We did a summer in France two years ago. I got to do a movie in France. So we did Paris. You should only take movies in France.

Exactly. They said, I asked them if I could take my family. And they were like, yeah. And I'm like, all right, I'll do this, whatever it is. I'm going to guess you loved having your family there. But is it a little tense when you're working every day? It's probably worse for my wife, Morgan. because she's got to figure out what they're going to do for the day.

I go off to work, and I'm pretty structured and taken care of. She's got to fend for herself. And we landed in Bordeaux and had the worst bug-infested Airbnb you could possibly imagine. And then the people were rude, and they said, this is the first time we ran into Americans. And of course we're having a problem. So they got really hostile. So Morgan had to like document, cause it was the kind of place where you move in and all the drawers were

full with everything. Like there was no dressers and they hadn't cleaned up. There was stuff everywhere. They had the mom and the daughter just vacated. They were bedbugs. Exactly. Then the daughter came back in the middle of our stay because she had to get some stuff out of her room and we're like, sure.

Oh, my God. It was very like- Oh, my gosh. Informal and terrible. Yeah. Wow. So we ended up getting a much better- But for example, Morgan had to do all that stuff because I was working.

So it's a lot harder on mom. But the kids- And she loved it. She did, ultimately. And the kids just see you staring at a script it's like what's he doing children children someday you'll understand well you bring them a set and they're not interested that's the truth they'll they'll hit the craft service table and then that's about it yeah they're definitely we filmed in like a beautiful vineyard called chateau beauregard for

like a month ah but that's not really stimulating to a kid. Like a grown up, it would be interesting to see the process and the machinery and talk about it. Very boring to kids. Vineyards are very intrinsically boring to children. They are. Yes. They're plants. Yeah.

It just looks like work. This is a hundred year old rootstock. Okay. Right, right, right. Okay. What's next? They plant roses at the end of each row. Did you ever hear that?

No. Is that true? For certain grapes? What does it do? Because if the rose gets a disease, the rose has a very, it's very similar to the grape vines. So the rose is almost like a canary in the coal mine. If the rose gets in trouble, everyone's on alert to check out for some sort of fungus or something. I think your kids would have enjoyed that aspect.

I wish I had been there with them in France. I've got to believe that story wouldn't have made them that much more interested. I don't think so. Followed up with my Bruegel insights. No, I'm still not interested. I'm going to be a kid now. Tell me that story. I just did.

Oh, I'm not interested, Mr. Lighty. That's boring, Mr. Swine. Where's my iPad? Well, perhaps this wine will help. Dad says I can't drink that. Just a sip. Your dad doesn't seem very present in your life. He's off shooting movies all day.

Uncle Michael. That's true. He just looks at his papers when he comes home. Exactly, his papers. And mom resents having to move Airbnbs. Ruminates about his days in Turkey. We're never going to introduce him. We're very excited here to talk to the one and only.

Oh, my God. It's Matt Walsh. It's Matt Walsh. Hi, everyone. Who I've been in love with for years and I've never said it out loud. Friend of the show. Friend of the show. Old friend of the show. Old friend of the show.

From late night days. Yeah, from old late night days. Old, old late night days. On the ninth floor? Is that what you were? It was the ninth floor is where the offices were. Yeah. We've been painting a good picture of that time period.

Oh, really? Yeah. Oh, cool. Trying to make it sound positive. No, it sounds like it was very renegade in a lot of ways. There was a lot of running and shooting. Yeah. I was just talking to my buddy, Michael Delaney, who's also an old school pal.

Oh, yes. I love Michael Delaney. We were reliving some Halloween sketch that I got to do with you where I played a, we were both doctors, and I think Oldie Olderson might have been Frankenstein. Oh. Oldie Olsen. Oldie Olsen. Oh, yes.

Wow. Oh, my goodness. But that was just literally last night, talking about an old Conanstein. Oh. Oldie Olsen. Oldie Olsen. Oh, yes. Wow. Oh, my goodness. But that was just literally last night talking about an old Conan sketch. Right. Regaling.

Because when I landed in New York, Conan's, you know, under five days getting a job at Conan paid my rent. So it was very important that our friends at Conan

were keeping us busy. It was really good. Was that how you got to join SAG? No, I was my first. I was already in SAG in Chicago for a True Value hardware commercial in 1994.

You're still getting residuals. Do you have a copy of that ad somewhere? You must. I did. I probably had it on VHS somewhere, which is probably in a trunk somewhere. So that was your first official acting gig. That was my first paid Were you a customer or an employee? I was a True Value guy and I had an answer for everything.

It was sort of an attitude of it. You still look like a true value guy. Yeah. I guess so. Yeah. I go to you for hardware questions to this day. You look like you know what to do. To my house after hours.

I drop by. You're way around a valve. Yeah. Through my window. You'll just stand there looking through my bedroom window and I'll wake up. And your excuse is you had a hardware question I did

it was about the metric Allen wrench which I don't have I have the US standard but that's email could have covered that and I could have gotten back to you in the morning yeah but I just thought

seeing you personally and the dogs are barking because you look like a stalker right and the great thing is you have aisles in your house so it really I do have

it matches up perfectly I do have stock and they're all labeled yeah yeah so yes how i'm really curious because i was there i think when you guys moved the the ucb the original ucb right moved to new york and started appearing on the show but i don't know the mechanics i mean i know you guys were all friends with andy and yeah mcbryan mccann and i don't know if stack was there yet there was a real chicago connection to your show 96 big chicago connection and so dino i kind of already knew dino all right at the time so dino would have been walking around

or some version of that writer's staff right so those people and then Yeah In Rockefeller itself Like upstairs Like I think McKay Was there already And McKay And Tom Giannis And you know There was some other Chicago guys upstairs At SNL

So there was like Friends in town And Andy I've known forever Steve Jobs garage Of comedy Right What great thing

Did we create Like what was our iPod? I guess. That's for historians. The wussy wagon? Was the wussy wagon our iPod? Were you in the wussy wagon?

Come on. Okay. Come on. All right. I just want to debate you. Oh, and Stephen Colbert was in New York. Tommy Blacha. Yeah.

Colbert. On Exit 57. Yeah, Colbert was doing Exit 57. He's another Chicago guy who, I think, threw me a job when I landed. He was very nice. Yes. Before he turned. Before he turned and hosted a show.

Right, right. So maybe you've talked about this a million times, but how did you guys decide as a group to move? Do it in a better way. If we're going to do the same conversation, I challenge you to do it in a better way. Okay. Okay. Like for a New Yorker conversation, I challenge you to do it in a better way. Okay. Like for a New Yorker reader. I want a New Yorker reader conversation. To do it better, wouldn't I have to have knowledge of the other times we've talked about it?

Use your gut. Ask the questions that nobody's asked me, but still covering the same subject matter. Okay. Why New York? Both of you. Both of you. Why New York and not Michigan? Why not smaller steps?

Because New York could build an audience. Could build an audience, a theater following. And we had faith that if we could build a following, we could catch a break. Did you literally research like, oh, there's a dearth of good improv in New York? Of hipsters with money to burn? No, we did like a showcase in New York at that point. And we did a showcase in New York. And the vibe was if we came to New York, we could sustain a longer run.

And Los Angeles wasn't even on the table. Los Angeles was like a showcase town. If you went to LA, you would do a showcase for some woman at Fox, or you would do a showcase for a guy at Comedy Central, and then it'd be gone. Right. So we wanted to kind of hit the ground running and keep the shows running to build word of mouth. Right. Oh, okay, great. So you came to New York

in 95 6 March of 96 alright how many shows were you doing a week what was the theater was it open every night

probably shows five nights a week guaranteed we did punch your we came to New York with like two shows punch your friend in the face

and bucket of truth shows that we had put on in Chicago and then we would do our free show ass cat on Sunday nights and then we would do our free show, Ask Kat, on Sunday nights. And then we would do Luna Lounge, which was the hip alternative Monday night show. And then inevitably, there'd be a Wednesday night show that the guys from the States,

David Wayne's group, did Stella. So we would do Stella one night. So we were kind of up at least five nights a week. Wow. And then rehearsing. Back in the day when you couldn't post an Instagram, like, come see our show this weekend, you had to get flyers printed and go to Washington Square

and accost people. Oh, wow. And that's where we were when we landed in New York. You'd hit Washington Square and hit them up. Hit Washington Square and hit young people and flyers that were like five by three. Right. Cut them up at the Kinko so you could get like six to a page or whatever.

And who in the group slacked at handing those out? I know someone. Probably Polar a little bit. Someone was already going to the bathroom. No, she came out, but yeah. The boys were a little more aggressive in flyering, I would say. But she came out. She was good.

Okay, good. And did you guys have to take on other side jobs during this time? Yeah, well, I sold my van, so that gave me like a month or two of rent. Yeah, it gave me like two months in rent, so I was okay. How much was rent? Do you remember? Well, I had a room in Hell's Kitchen with a guy named Leo Allen and a guy named Johnny Spanish. And I had a tiny little closet of a room for like $325 a month.

Oh, that's amazing. So finding that after I lived on somebody's floor for a few weeks, a guy named Bill Cotton, then I moved to Brooklyn, and Brooklyn was terrible. And then I got to Manhattan, and it was great. Brooklyn was terrible. It just seemed too far away. It was right by the Gowanus Canal, and they hadn't irrigated it yet,

so it stunk like sewage every night. It just reekeded so you would wake up with a wall of stench if your window was open and you would think oh my god i peed myself and then and then you're like no that's just brooklyn waking you up there was a giant fan that broke i think in 19 the 60s that that churned up the the water in the guanus and they were were like, ah, don't even bother. That's exactly where I was living. Yeah. It was probably toxic. Yeah. But now it's better, right? There's flow down there. They added some flow.

Yeah. So now the condoms are circulating on top of the water. The condom eddies. I had an illegal sublet for 11 years. But I was- In New York? In New York. 11 years I lived there.

And it was over at an Irish restaurant. In Manhattan? and but I was in New York in New York 11 years I lived there and I it was over at an Irish restaurant and in Manhattan in Manhattan I was so scared of the landlords

that my refrigerator broke I broke it trying to knock the ice out and I lived for 9 months without a refrigerator oh my god because you didn't want to

stir anything up it was so like exactly you never asked for anything from the landlord I thought I would get kicked out. So, and that's when I started dating my wife, Cynthia. That's when you went to law school.

Oh. And I remember I had an ice cream. That's right. I had an ice cream. I didn't know you were right. Ice cream cake for her. No, I was doing standup at night. And I remember I had a cake for her and it was, I had it in a cooler.

And she was just like, what is wrong with you? That was your refrigerator or cooler? Yes. Yeah. Very impressive. It made a good first impression. That's funny. That's like.

It's not that funny. I had a car where I lost the gas cap. So instead of buying a gas cap, I just twisted up a rag and shoved it in there. My dad got so mad at me. Because he's like, that's like a rolling Molotov cocktail. Yeah, yeah. That's so dangerous. I'm like, you you're right now would you like but it was that thing of like i could fix it and buy a new one or i could just twist a rag in there well especially after the hardware ad he was probably

come on hardware money probably wasn't rolling in yet this was my diesel rabbit back in the day when i owned a diesel rabbit. Oh, my God. A diesel car? Diesel rabbit. Wow. And in Chicago, you had to plug it in at night because the diesel fuel turns to jelly in the winter. Wow. Because it's got oil and other things in it, so you have to have a block warmer.

A blanket, like a block. A block warmer. But I didn't have an outlet, so I had to park it a block away at my college at the Joann Fabrics, illegally stealing power from the Joann Fabrics. Wait, how did you plug into Joann Fabrics? There was an outdoor outlet. Oh, my. Well, that's their fault. That's their fault.

Yeah. Did you notice that, or were there other diesel drivers to tick you off? No, the guy, when I bought it, used it or whatever. And he's like, in the winter, you're going to have to use this block warmer whatever and he's like you're gonna and then in winter you're gonna use this block warmer so there's a little plug and then you get an extension cord

wow and it was easier because there was no parking on our street right where I lived in college so I had to park off

and then I found the Joann Fabrics and I would park on the side of the and plug in every night and nobody ever said anything wow Joann Fabrics

I probably owe them that's so cool there. Probably like a year's worth of power. Yeah. Wow. I'm not going to pay them off. This was like an early electric vehicle. Do Joanne Fabrics own people listen to the show?

Yes. I hope so. They're actually one of our sponsors. They're online now. I'd love for them to be. Okay. They make erectile dysfunction pills. Right now we just have cotton.

They're our biggest sponsor. They're cut with Nazi cotton, too. It brings you down at the end of it. You got to cut it somehow. Yeah. You don't want to stay up the whole time. No, no, no. It's exhausting.

What happens if the diesel turns, jellifies? You can't crank it over. It won't turn. Okay. So when you get your starter going, it's so muddy and gelatinous that it won't turn the crank. And what do you do? Do you just have to leave your car there forever? Then you'd have to get it somewhere, and they would have to heat up the block, the engine block.

I never knew that about diesel fuel. Pass it. Are there any other peculiarities? You heard it here first, folks. So do you get nostalgic when you see other diesel vehicles? Like, oh, man. Well, the diesel Rabbit was, they didn't make a bunch of them. So I am nostalgic for the diesel Rabbit.

It was like a little two-door lime green. Also had other issues. So when it rained, for whatever reason, all the water that came down the windshield would collect inside this heater. So when you turned on the heater or opened the heater vent like in the middle just water would flood it would just go whoosh wow for some reason

I had a Volkswagen Beetle that oh never had a Beetle had an electric when you made right turns it honked oh

really? yeah so I just started waving to people like complete strangers like hello because everyone would look up like what the fuck

I had a Chevy Nova that had a hole where you could see down through the highway when you were driving. Really? Yeah. That's fantastic. Yeah. So, Matt, do you remember the first late night sketch you were on? I'm so sorry. My first Conan sketch was probably, I don't have a specific memory.

It was probably like a satellite TV channel would be my guess. Yes. With like, I don't know. I don't know. You did one, I don't know, I remember many. That's amazing. You did one with Amy Poehler where you played a husband and wife. Oh, yeah.

Newscasting team. Oh. And you started delivering the news and then immediately Oh, yeah. Newscasting team. Oh. And you started delivering the news, and then immediately, making banter, it got very passive-aggressive. That's funny. It escalated, and then you, at the end of it, just go, and you grab the desk and overturn the news desk. And it's, I haven't seen that in years in your you know we're digging up a lot of old archival stuff and putting it online and um later that year i think stuff like that's going up and i'm done i'm dying to see that again because i remember watching that i don't remember

that one oh man i remember uh it to me it was just like a perfect little video I remember kicking John Groff's car in the satellite he had John Groff had a car he was a head writer he had a shitbox car and he donated it for some shoot and I remember it was like Road Rage Channel or something and he allowed me to like kick it

and I was like kind of trashing and he said go for it so I slammed the door and kicked it and put a dent in it. And he didn't care. That's great. He probably made money on that. Yeah. At least 25 bucks for the wardrobe bump.

And, and then you also, we, there was a bit we used to do that was incredibly labor intensive. So we stopped after a while, but it was guests will never have back. And it would be elaborate pre-tapes of Conan with a guest, and it didn't work out that well.

And I think you were an animal handler. That couldn't have gone more better. Yeah, who was allergic. That was ridiculously well-executed. It was so great. They taped latex here under my neck. Your makeup person did such a great job. And then he was laying behind the couch and just inflating it with a tube.

Oh, my God. And so I had like a pee fall, like had a chicken that was a pee fall. Yeah. And then Conan's like, are you allergic to animals? I'm like, oh, yeah, I am, but it's fine. And then by the end of the interview, you could see the surface tension. And Conan was like, when you're by a balloon that's about to pop, the whole interview was him going, uh-huh, uh-huh.

Yeah. Oh, that's great. It really came off extremely well. Yes. Well, it was cool because we shared all the great makeup people from Saturday Night Live. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So there was this guy, Louie, there who was amazing.

Yes, it was Louie. Good memory. And you just go up, you sit in the chair, and you come down with this amazing, yeah, this bladder. And it works so simply. It works so simply. Just someone literally blowing on a hose. And we used to do a show at UCB, our bloody Halloween show, and I borrowed that idea where we- Stole.

Had a woman's- Stole. Had a woman's heart explode in our story. Oh, wow. So we would pin a condom to her bra and then put a shirt over it and fill the condom with blood. Oh, my God. And then have her trail. She had a boa. So the tube was in the boa.

And then she would throw the boa over the couch. And she would lean back. And then somebody would inflate. And then her heart would explode and there'd be blood in it. Oh, wow. That's elaborate special effects. Yeah. Well, not really.

It's practical, simple. Yeah. But fun. So I learned stuff from early Conan, too. Oh, that's great. Mm-hmm. Now, you guys were in, and that's the other reason I'm glad this stuff is going to go up, because you were such an integral part of the show.

You guys were on, like, almost every night on the show. Oh, my gosh. In a pre-tape or in a live bit, and you guys were on like almost every night on the show in a pre-tape or in a live bit and you guys elevated everything and and so then it was conan is a creature of habit and and especially with performances and especially in front of there we had performers who would be great in rehearsal and just having the crowd there and the red light on would just get a little tight. Yeah, because some actors aren't used to being in front of a live audience. Right, exactly.

Exactly. And, you know, it's Darwinian. It's like, well, okay, that's not good. And you guys pre-tape or live just nailed everything. Well, yeah, because that was where you came from it was live live performances it was more Matt Walsh

more Matt you know more Amy lean on it yeah Amy more Matt Besser yeah Ian

more Ian Roberts and we just used you guys yeah almost every day there was one where I think it was a everything can break channel

like some idea that was probably a Brian McCann idea but McCann I think it was a everything can break channel, like some idea that was probably a Brian McCann idea. But McCann, I think, got cut because we were throwing things at each other. Or maybe it was Ian. Ian. Ian got cut. Was it Ian who got cut? It was Ian who got cut. Oh, wow.

Because I forget where I was. We were shooting something. I think we were out of town. Yeah. And I got the call that Ian got cut. This is so deep. This is so specific. Did he get

disability payment? No. There's a lawsuit still investigating this claim. Wait, what's that? Aaron,

input. What's happening? He fell onto the corner of a desk. He was throwing something too heavy and he spun around and his face went right

onto the metal corner of a desk and he had to be rushed to the hospital and get plastic surgery on his face. Oh, my God. Were you there? Were you worried? He got a couple extra things done, too.

I mean, I wasn't specifically in the scene doc when it happened, but I remember it going down. Him and, I think, McCann were going like nuts. Right. It was like something crazy. He spun around like a shot put, and then his face went right into the corner of the thing. But I think we still use the footage. Oh, of course you gotta salvage the footage yeah yeah we got wow no that was that was awful and and when you think they showed up in the hospital and made ian sign a

waiver during surgery wait till he's under and just move his hand with a pen. Sweeney, go in there. You signed it. Oh, man. I remember McCann went to the emergency room once. I forgot this. And it was my fault. And I felt awful. But it was a bar fight scene. Breakaway bottle?

Breakaway bottle. On the head, right? I think Andy Blitz hit him. I think I was there for that day, too. Oh, wow. Well, I remember it. And then I hit him. Oh. I think I was there for that day, too. Oh, wow. Well, I remember it. And then I hit him. What happened?

I followed up, and basically what I did was there was a broken piece of glass in his head. Wedged under his scalp. Oh, my God. And then I wedged it into his scalp slash skull. And he was in agony, quiet, because he was just super quiet. And I was like, oh, God, he must be in agony, because he was just super quiet and I was like oh god this he must be in agony because he's just not himself

and I went to the I was outside the emergency room and I was like great glad you came but the second they took it out he was he was all better it must have hurt terribly yeah there's so many occupational hazards

well candy glass you do try to wear a hat or a wig if you're breaking it on sunset or you break it if you're gonna break it

break it on the side and try to like keep your hand open you're an expert on candy glass well I've done it's expensive too by the way

I get a little insulted by how much that costs there's like a monopoly oh of course how much does it cause those are they're really fun it's like 35 bucks

for a beer bottle. I'm not kidding. Really? For one beer bottle. So if you do a six pack joke, that's 200 bucks, whatever. Wow.

That's 10. You know what I mean? Yeah. And then a wine bottle is going to be like 40 or 50. Wow. And then the bigger the item, the more.

Yeah. A Methuselah. So I hope, yeah, all the aspiring writers listening are taking note yeah that's something to think about when you're putting your packet together well it's funny because a lot of the sketch no a lot of sketch people like write in because it is fun to break away stuff yeah but then you realize how much it is so then you're like let's just get a small

thing we can break yeah how about it or a real bottle or we just smash a plate we don't break it on anybody's head right yeah well i love that you're an expert on the art of fake bottle breaking. Very few things I can be an expert on. That would be one of them. Breakaway chairs? Go. I would say have a stuntman do it once and see where the cuts are on the chair. Like, stunts generally be safe.

Don't worry about how it looks. Just be safe. Like, that's what I always tell people. Like, don's what I always tell people. Like, don't care. Like, if you really want to sell the punch, or if you could, try to leap a little further. It'll sell you falling down the stairs better or whatever. Right.

Ignore that. Don't do it. Fall down the stairs. Either don't do it and have somebody professional do it. Yes. Or if you're going to fall down the stairs, just be really safe. Don't worry about how it looks at all. Right.

Well, yeah, because the people telling you, I mean, they're human. Yeah. We're all just making this shit up as we go along. Mm-hmm. So it's not like anyone's really an expert on your safety. We're all highly fallible. We are highly fallible. Yeah. I remember one of our first UCB sketches for the comedy show on Comedy Central.

We had a big gunfight in a living room, and I had a shotgun as my cop character. And they gave it to me, and I'm like, is it loaded? He's like, no. I'm like, okay. And then I pointed it down, and I pulled the trigger, and bang, it was loaded. No. Oh, my God. It was loaded.

Not that that could kill you, but it could hurt you. Oh, my God. Because there's like wadding in there. And there's a little black. And if you did it up against your head, you could die, obviously. It was perfect seal. But the point is, like, that was a great lesson to learn. It's like, don't trust anyone.

No. And this was the stunt coordinator or the effects guy who told me, like, don't worry about it. It's not loaded. I'm like, okay. Was he like, oh. He's like, oh, I guess it was. My bad. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. So that's another one for, I guess he was. My bad. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. Oh. That's another one for the kids listening. Yes. I bet you have great advice on working with child actors and animals. Don't guilt. Here's another story.

Yeah. I did a classic desk bit for Conan where people came up. I don't know what the premise was. But anyways, people were presenting. You guys had written like 20 jokes or 10 bits and like 5 would make it for show

right I don't know what the bit was it was a death bit yeah yeah but you guys always overwrote and then we'd cut 3 of those so we'd do whatever the good news

everybody gets paid like you're there for the day you get paid but there was a boy who got cut and I heard his mom in the hallway outside she's like you go tell conan

you're sorry i that you're you didn't sell your thing correctly or that your thing didn't work and he was i remember this story and i remember six yeah yes and i was like hey you were i just like shouted over hey you were great today just so you know and your mother your mother was terrible I didn't say that yeah but that was just a weird awful thing to hear I I've heard

in the airlock it was right in the airlock unbelievable yeah that boy yeah that boy was Justin Bieber yeah

and now Tom Cruise is gonna pay see how it works maybe it is worthwhile yeah cause he's had a wonderful career that was great of you to yell that. And I'm sure, you know, of course, the mother didn't.

She's probably like, what's wrong with that guy? I know. You were terrible. Complimenting my kid. My loser kid. I had a kid do that once, too, and came up and said, I'm sorry that we ruined the sketch or something. And I'm like, because the sketch got canceled. And I was like, yeah, I spent 10. And I was like, it has absolutely.

Yeah, I spent 10 minutes like trying to. For you, that's important though. Well, of course. And it's like, no, it was canceled because we didn't. It's the writer's fault. It was the writer's fault. It's always the writer's fault. Of course.

But we always overwrite too. There's inevitably 50% of this is going to get cut. Right. And it was the kid. I hope the kid's listening now. You were terrible. And you ruined something we really worked hard on. But yeah, no, it just.

I know. I always feel so bad. Oh, it was so terrible. Even with adults, when stuff gets cut. Oh, it's awful. It's hard. Yeah. And it'd have to be the one to break it to them.

Awful. It's OK if you're like an adult, because that's the game. I know. But a little kid, come on. That was a hard thing to learn. Like, we'd rehearse a sketch. And often it was older. Like, we learned after a while, stop casting real.

Well, there's a fine line with older actors. Oh, yeah, yeah. But we had someone playing Einstein. They're some real hams. Yeah. They are really super hammy. Yeah. And then we were just like, oh, let's just have Glazer play.

Yeah. Just put a white wig on, a crazy wig and mustache on Glazer. And then you don't worry about it. But having to go after rehearsal and cut someone. And then if they watch at night, see someone else doing it. But you just learn to do it and not think about it. The first few times I agonized. Well, there's no time.

There's no time.'s no time your show eats material like crazy you can't get attached to anything no you learn that early on I'm sure

yep yep yes oh yeah it's all desperate it's not nothing's personal anymore yeah it's a good lesson

to learn though and yet so detached and yet you know what it is personal it's personal when it's bad it's not personal when it's positive right Lesson to learn, though. So detached. And yet, you know what? It is personal. It's personal when it's bad. It's not personal when it's positive.

Right. No, exactly. That's never a reflection of myself. That's a good point. Yeah, true teamwork's never personal. Yeah. So around this time, the theater was growing. Did you feel like being on TV was kind of helping legitimize things or at least helping draw some attention to the theater? Yeah, I think for the sketch group Upright Citizens Brigade, I think having a TV show and then being able to make a go in New York with Conan.

The Conan bits came first, I think. Yeah, when did the UCB show start? 98. So we were sort of living hand to mouth from 96 to 98, doing Conan bits or doing things, whatever we could do to survive. And then I think once we had a show on Comedy Central, around the same time we opened a theater, and that kind of gave us a sense of permanence,

having a location where we could do our own shows and like continue to teach classes. And then all these friends we had made, like who came through classes like Andy Daly or Rob Riggle or Rob Fugel or like people who are also coming up through the Conan like scenes as well. It was neat to have everybody in one place and to not worry about anything it was like keep the keep the tickets low lock it up at night pay the light bill it was pretty simple you know right um so that was great and all those uh great people you just mentioned were they all

did any of them migrate from chicago or they all just were here and these were all meets in new york like paul sheer uh-huh andyunda, who wrote on the show later for you guys. Chris Gethard. Chris Gethard. Yeah, we talked to him. Yeah. I mean, he talked about how that changed his life really. Yeah, and it's – people forget what – to go from not being on TV to a show

that Conan can put you on TV that night is just crazy as an actor. Yeah. Because like with a commercial, you're going to audition 50 times. Right. And then you're going to get one and then you're going to shoot it and then it'll come out a month later. But like to get a call from Cecile Pleba or whoever was casting and said, come down, we got a Frankenstein bit.

And then you'd come down, you're filming it. And then you can tell your parents that night, I'm on Conan tonight, I think. Yeah. If I make it. Right, right, right. Sometimes you call them and you go, I don't know if I'm going to make it. But as an actor, as a kid in New York, it's unbelievable. It's great.

It's such a delight to have that immediate feedback, that immediate gratification. The teaching is really interesting to me. Because I think once you're doing all these shows, teaching new people was still really an important component to you guys, right? Well, I think the sort of like, I don't know, to the new world, the sort of gold we brought back from the new world was long form improv. So we came from Chicago and we came to New York and nobody was doing what we call long form improv,

which is sort of sustained scene work around a single suggestion. Chicago city limits existed, but it was very like short form, whose line is it? Very short form. Yeah, games. So what we were teaching was something we cared about, but also we connected with an audience that had never seen it. So they saw us do our first Ask Cats, and they're like, I want to do that. I want to be able to sustain scenes and do tricky edits and rapid pace, you know, things on their feet.

So that was- You were missionaries. Yeah, we were. I guess so. The Bible was the Del Close teachings. Yeah. So that's exactly why we kept teaching. And then I didn't really like teaching after a while because I think you need to have a

learnable moment in every scene. And I can't, I can't, I can only go like, ah, I don't know why, but it's not working sometimes. You know what I mean? Whereas someone like Ian Roberts, who's maybe one of the greatest improv teachers you'll ever meet, he can see any scene, and he can think about it, and he can give you an idea.

And then he can tell you why that idea will fix what you were doing. Oh, wow. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. So he's very good. So that's why teaching, I did it for probably a couple of years right when it landed.

Right. But I stopped teaching a long time ago. Did teaching help you just in your own performing? Or was it just like a teach? I am teaching. I'm teaching this week because we have the Del Close Marathon coming up. Oh, cool. I'm teaching Thursday and Friday.

Oh, that's funny. But I'm teaching a character class. I'm not teaching Thursday and Friday, but I'm teaching a character class. I'm not teaching improv because I feel like I can teach a character class. I can help people create a character from scratch. And that's like a three-hour class. I won't have to see him for eight weeks. I won't have to watch someone in the class who I know is never going to get it and continue to give them notes.

That's hard. That's hard. That's got to be a drug. Yeah, because it's like, in those cases. Yeah, you want to help everybody. You do. You want to provide some epiphany for everyone in that class that you experienced. It's like, oh my God, that's what it feels like to be in the groove or to improvise successfully.

You want to give that to everyone, and you can't. Right. Yeah, some people are just there to, I don't know. The people who struggle. Be better at public speaking or, you know. Please their parents. Yeah. give that to everyone and you can't right yeah some people are just there to i don't know the people who struggle better at public speaking or you know there's at least their parents yeah but those people can do it like the people who get in trouble with improv specifically are like just personality types that need to be controlling right and inability to listen and like kind of not respecting physical space some people are are constantly grabbing people. There's issues.

And so to fix them, you would have to re-tinker their personality. Their childhood. Yes. Yeah. And so those are the people that struggle, I think, with collaborative art forms like improv. Yeah.

It's funny. I'm sure some people start out that way, and then immediately the light goes on, and they're like, oh, okay, I need to. But then there's, you're saying there's some people just never, they just can't change. Personality-wise, it's a big, you could, but you'd have to be there for them every week in therapy and talking about it and helping them land

and walking them through the change in their personality. And I'm like, I'm not going to do that. No, yeah. I'm not going to do that. No. Yeah. I'm not going to do that. Exactly. Well, you mentioned Ian Roberts and was it...

I taught Ian to improvise. He was never funny. He was one of those personalities that was very controlling and really good. That's why I brought him up.

I taught him. What, did you love having him on Veep with you this season? Yeah. Yeah. What's funny about Ian

is he's so like, UCB in general, we don't really communicate a lot. But like Ian was on my show and didn't tell me. So he's like on set one day. Oh my God. I wasn't working that day. And then the next day I show up for work and like, oh, Ian Roberts was here yesterday.

I'm like, what? So I texted Ian. I'm like, why didn't you tell me you were on? Because casting's big. I didn't know who they cast. Yeah, yeah. And like Ian Roberts was on. I'm like, Ian, why didn't you tell me you were on because casting's big I didn't know who they cast and like Ian Robertson's like

Ian why didn't you tell me he's like oh yeah I don't know I figured I might see her maybe I wouldn't congrats and let me

know when you're working next I'll come by and hang out or whatever yeah it's like he was at your house and didn't say hi yeah

he was in your bedroom yeah wow yeah I mean that It's like he was at your house and didn't say hi. He was in your bedroom. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I mean, Veep, it's just the greatest show. Oh, thank you. It must have been so much fun.

And it got better and better. Oh, thank you. I think. Thank you. You specifically. Oh, well, yeah. Thank you. No, but it was like by the end, you were such such a your i mean your character was always a big part

of the show but it it really i felt like that last season you really got a lot i mean once you mike had success like him turning i love i love that him turning into walter cronkite for the country was great and i think it was a great device for the show because i told dave before the season because you can always pitch ideas and then you'll pitch Mandel an idea and he's like well it's a good idea

but here's and then they've already thought about it in the writer's room and he'll tell you why it dead ends here so you always pitch ideas and they mutate

but sometimes they use them and I just said like I like the idea of how Trump talks to Hannity like how he you know has access to him and he gets his ideas

from him I don't know who's using who. And Dave's like, yeah, we kind of have an idea. And then I think from that, a year or two ago, they came up with a much better version of that. But what I like about Mike's journey this season, even other story elements, is the season was supposed to be 10 episodes. And then they shortened it to seven.

So they had mapped out 10 episodes. So they had to truncate. And I think they'd already started filming one and two. When they got word? Oh, my God. When they decided. Because it was like they wanted to give reasonable days to Julia. They didn't want her there 15 hours a day because she was on the back end of her battle.

Right, right. She's great, but they still want to be courteous to that. But what ended up working, especially in the last episode, is sometimes in shows, conveniently, what you're talking about appears on TV. Right. And it's an illustration of that. And sometimes when you watch it, you're like, oh, that's cheesy. That's so lazy. But in our show, having Mike in that world gave you a reason

to care about that footage. And they just did it seamlessly. So what I admired about, because they were truncating everything, and sometimes those devices to like, ah, fuck, if we had a news story that could just tell this, then we don't have to have a whole scene about it. Well, lo and behold, we have a news anchor. That's great.

And so I think it was also very efficient for storytelling as well. Yeah. No, it really kind of drove everything along. And it never feels like really another news item that's happening while you're talking about what's happening. But you never felt that. Well, you brought up a fascinating thing, just you pitching ideas. And I don't know if people realize in a lot of TV shows, they have these just walls between, well, you're a performer. Right.

And the writers are doing the writing. Sequestered. Yeah. Yes. And then, and I think that hurt, you know, obviously hurts things. And then you hear something like, to me, The Office was a great example where I think it was much more collaborative between the performers and the writing staff. And, of course, many times the performers were the writing staff. Yeah. course, many times the performers were the writing staff. Yeah.

And the results are pretty good. And so how did it work on Veep then? I think in the early seasons, we definitely had like a free take where Armando would say, okay, let's muck about, try to keep it moving, but do whatever you want. Oh, great. Have fun with it, he would say. And from those takes, whole lines or whole exchanges would end up in the final cut.

And then when the early table reads, early seasons, they would workshop scripts on their feet. So if something wasn't working, we would read the script once and put them down and then improvise around the scene and try to fix it. And then the writers would be in the room transcribing things we said, and lo and behold, they would end up in the script. So they used improv to generate dialogue and fix scenes. Come season five, six, seven, when we started getting to America, the American writers, the Brits had left. I think it was more spotted usage, but the channels of collaboration were still wide open.

So the process was always like pitch ideas on set before the season, come into the writer's room. It was always two-flow, but it was a little more improvising with pitching as opposed to like whole cloth, writer sitting down and taking notes while you improvise off the first draft. That's great. It's a long-winded answer. No, it's not at all.

To me, I think that's really interesting. But I think in a way, too, sometimes it's out of necessity. Like with a me i think that's really but i think it in a way too sometimes it's out of necessity like with a conan bit for example if you guys are cranking out 12 satellite tv things right and i come in and you're like well walsh it's called break the window and all i can tell you is there's like eight things you can break and there's four you can't ready action right yeah i think that lends itself to improv a lot. But that's out of necessity. Right. So I think Conan in the early days for us.

It's out of shoddy writing. Well, the pace and also the pace. Yeah, of course. But you guys were always receptive to like, oh, if we can get Ian to do this character. He's so great when he's angry. Yes. Just make sure you get angry. And it's called the angry carpet cleaner.

Right. Do you know what I mean? And then the writers were there. And they'd say, OK'd say okay say this make sure you say but that was very collaborative and very improvisational too but that was out of necessity too right because the amount of work you guys have to generate the amount of bits yeah tape yeah and then we started writing to you to your personalities so making it more collaborative yeah and less work for us again sure right it works, who cares? I mean, I'm sure as an actor and an improviser, it's like you probably come into things and you're not sure whether you're being invited to sort of improvise on stuff or if that's maybe frowned upon.

I mean, I'm always happy when improvisers want to just go for it. And I'm not precious about my lines, but some writers are very precious. So it's, I mean, is that something that you kind of established in advance? Like we have a... Yeah, that's good. Well, hopefully I'm at a point where people know what I do and they want me because I can... And that's why you're there. I can lend a little something to it. Not like, but if I worked for Aaron Sorkin, I'm sure he wouldn't let me change anything.

But there are usually the things that I choose to do are people who want to collaborate and want to use the resources that I can bring to something. Right. Because I'm not a huge ego. I'm not going to be telling them everything that needs to happen. I'm going to go, here's some good ideas and that's good, but why don't we make this better? That's always been my dream is to be able to contribute to the material I get to perform, whether it's writing it

or just standing having a session with the writer before we do the scene. And with Veep, every scene, we never totally memorize. We get to set, and inevitably, they give us brand new sides because they've rewritten it and rewritten it and rewritten it. So you don't ever commit to memory totally. You just kind of have an idea. Oh, interesting.

So in the morning when you show up, and then when we rehearse, you're always looking for things to discover in the set. Or when you do the read-through or the sort of walk-through, you feel the energy of Tony giving you that line, and you realize, oh, you should give him a cookie on that line. And sort of choreography becomes part of it. I don't know. It's an intangible thing.

You just sort of, you're aiming for a target that is like a gut feeling. Right. And just a chemistry. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah, because Veep was so, I mean, it's so tight. And keep Julia happy so she doesn't throw a tantrum.

Yes. Priority one. Priority one. Yeah, she seems like a nightmare.'t throw a tantrum. That's a priority one. Priority one. Yeah, she seems like a nightmare. A Roseanne tantrum. That's what we call that. Keep Twitter. Keep on Twitter.

A Roseanne tantrum. Yeah. And so, I mean, what are you working on now? What am I working on now? I just did a Netflix movie where I played a dad in a rom-com called The Perfect Date. Okay. This kid Noah Centineo and- Love him.

A gal from Alley. Are these like YouTube people? Austin and Alley. No, Austin and Alley. That's a- The gal who played Alley, Disney. Disney, yeah, yeah. I forget her name.

It's terrible. She was really cool. So I did that and I played a dad kind of like Harry Dean Stanton in Pretty in Pink was that his name? oh great yeah yeah that kind of down and out like the kids

taking care of the dad when Molly Ringwald had to take care of him that's great but still like a good guy not a a good guy but like it's kind of sad

because you see the girl like tying his tie for his interview in Pretty in Pink but I really liked that because I love that movie and so I was excited to do that. And then I'm pushing an indie movie that I'll hopefully be doing with Isla Fisher come September.

Oh, great. But that's like- In France? No, it'll be here in LA within 30 miles. What was the movie you shot in France? It's called Under the Eiffel Tower. Then that came out in March. Oh.

Oh, that's actually probably dropping on, I should promo that. It's dropping on Netflix pretty should promo that. Yeah. It's dropping on Netflix pretty soon. Keep an eye out under the Eiffel Tower. It's another romantic comedy. Very nice. And then, thank you, Michael. Yes.

Thank you. And then the dropping on Netflix. I'm glad Netflix is kind of, there's this romantic comedy boon happening. Well, it's so funny. Those are the ones that you realize what friends of yours love romantic comedies, no matter what they are. Yeah, yeah. Like, there's a girl I work with, a woman I work with, she's like,

I saw you on The Perfect Dime. I'm like, you watched that? She's like, oh, my God, every one of them. Like, they'll watch any romantic comedy. You're like, okay, all right. Yeah, like even the Hallmark Channel ones. Yeah. It's funny to see what people's tastes are.

Yeah, right. Because I always assume, like, none of my friends are going to watch a romantic comedy. Be surprised. Be surprised, yeah. I've watched every one, but I'm not going to, I don't want to tip my cards. Yeah. Every single one ever made. Yeah, yeah.

I'm trying to think of how we get segue to your family in Austria. So we can keep all of that stuff. I know. I mean, get the conversation to talking about Salzburg, Austria. There you go. Oh, yeah. Have you spent any time there? Why don't I have some Mozart?

And you can go, that reminds me of my time in Salzburg. I did a year. This is deja vu. I studied in Salzburg for a year. Okay, that's all we need. We're all set. We got the pickup, yeah. Take.

Kevin knows what to do. Well, just tell me what to say. No, that's all we need. We're all set. We got the pickup, yeah. Take. Kevin knows what to do. Well, just tell me what to say. No, we're all set. You don't have to trick me like a monkey. We're all set. I'll just say it. I'm an actor.

Just write it down and I'll say what you need transitionally. My impression is you're not very collaborative. Well, we could say, we didn't say this on record, I don't think,

but we just got back from Ghana with your Veep co-star. Sam Richardson. Some great pictures. I followed Sam's Insta. It was so great to see. I'm so jealous you guys got to go over there. That would be really fun.

We would have taken you if we'd made it. I just have dumb Irish roots. I don't have anything that sexy. Ghana sounds like it was stunning and so interesting. It was. It was very interesting. Yeah. It was like what I think real travel experiences should be, where you're learning.

You're sometimes a little bit out of your comfort zone, but you're really sensorily engaged all the time. All the synapses are firing. Worried about offending people at all. Yeah. That's my constant. Constantly sweating. I would be like that. worried about offending people at all yeah that's my constant constantly sweating I would be like that I would be like

accidentally like I'm going to do something accidentally so offensive that's all that I don't want to happen yeah and then you think about the thing you're not going to do

so much that that's when it happens yeah or in the palace like I would break the historical sword or something right

like that's like I just want to stand rigid tell me where to be we did go to a palace in Kumasi. Are you referencing pictures that Sam put up? Oh, yeah.

We met the palace. The queen mother. We met the queen mother of, basically, of the Asante people. She's the royal. Yeah. Yeah.

And you had to bring gifts, right? We had to bring gifts. Goat and liquor. Yeah, we did. Not a goat. It's called a ram. Sorry. Yeah. No, we were corrected because I wanted to, I thought it was a goat. You kept calling it a goat. Right. and liquor. Yeah, we did. Not a goat. It's called a ram. Sorry. Yeah.

No, we were corrected because I wanted to, I thought it was a goat. You kept calling it a goat. Right. And they're like, and then schnapps, which I love.

I don't know whether that's for the ram or for. I didn't know who drinks schnapps, but now we do. The royalty. Maybe the queen mother. A shanty royalty.

The queen mother looked like she was quite comfortable in that. Is it American schnapps? Like that sugary peppermint schnapps that we drank? Oh, I don't know what brand. It was. No, it was the imported stuff they said.

Okay. Good. Yeah. The imported stuff they like better than, I think there's also local schnapps. Yeah. And then we brought something else called cash. Just money and odd words. Just money and odd words.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. American or Ghana money? It was Ghana. Ghana. Ghana currency. brought something else called cash like just money and odd money yeah wow so yeah american or ghana money it was ghana ghana currency but we impressed her and then there was a moment where we thought we were going to get to meet the king right because she had like passed up the ladder that they came with cash yeah when we were done she just said go meet the king and that her just kind of saying that off the cuff said all this activity into motion ooh and did you get to meet the king

we didn't we did not because then it turned out there was controversy with some of the other chiefs because they were like we already have people in line to meet the king

and if these Americans get to go meet him then it's going to look bad right even though they're loaded but Sam has got to be a celebrity over there like he's a successful Hollywood actor.

I know. It's weird. I don't know if the queen has seen Peep. But Conan, the counterbalance. I wanted to promote our comedy marathon, too. Oh, yeah. It's our first marathon. Yeah, great.

It's in L.A. Oh. It used to be in New York. It used to be in New York, yeah. It was in New York for 20 years. Oh, my God. This is the first time in L.A.? Yeah, our 21st marathon is coming this weekend. Is it at both theaters? Yeah, it'll be at Franklin and Sunset. It was in New York. For 20 years. For 20. Oh my God. Is this the first time in LA? Yeah. Wow. Our 21st marathon is coming this weekend.

And is it at both theaters? Yeah. It'll be at Franklin and Sunset. It's at Staples. The Staples Center. No. I'm sorry. I just thought you were trading up.

No. In a big way. How are you? The rental on that was too big. We looked into it. Are you going to be performing there? Yeah. I'll be doing like probably 10 shows over the course of Friday at four starts and goes

to Sunday at midnight. But you probably get the good times. You don't have to do it at 4 a.m. anymore. I will not be there at 4 it starts and goes till Sunday at midnight but you probably get the good times you don't have to do it at 4 a.m. anymore I will not be there at 4 a.m. yeah

right I will not be there at 4 a.m. and no teaching during that period I am teaching Thursday and Friday oh that's when you

are teaching that's right I'm teaching a character class but uh listening is an important part of improv guys I don't pay attention I think I prove that

every week on this show why is that doddering fool on a microphone well I would venture to say probably a lot of our listeners are

gonna be at the Del Close Marathon already but if they're not then they should be let them know no it's fun and you guys have

probably been there right back in the day I never went never went no you seem very familiar with it well I went

the way you referenced the midnight shows and the bitch shows or whatever no I mean I went through the UCB program but I never went actually never went? no you seem very familiar with it well I went through the way you referenced the midnight shows and the bitch shows or whatever no I mean I went through the UCB program but I never went to the New York marathon

okay yeah I read about last year's marathon and it was just people talking about oh yeah there was an article at five in the morning

yeah my favorite thing is like after one in the morning to like five a.m. there's these slots called the bit shows, and you get a 15-minute slot.

And they're just like a premise that you're forced to execute for 15 minutes. Like one of my favorites is to catch a predator prof. So they'll have a scene where somebody comes in, and then a kid is in the room supposedly, and then everybody comes out of the closets and doors and says, I'm John Stossel, and you're busted. And then then they reset and they try to do as many of those entrapments in the course of 15 minutes. Oh, wow.

So a new improviser will come in and then they'll... And back in the day, there was... One of the originals was Cosby Prov. Everybody did a terrible Bill Cosby impression and had a terrible sweater. That was one of the granddaddies of them. When will that be funny? We're not doing, no, that has not been relaunched and won't be relaunched anytime soon.

It's all new in LA. And then there was Spacey Prov. Yeah, Spacey Prov, I'm sure. But anyways, the bit shows are fun to sample. Yeah, and it's like there's so much stage time available, so lots of people get to go up, which is cool. Yeah, exactly. And people come from all over the country to do improv or whatever. Oh, that's great. Yeah, it's really fun.

That's great. Yeah. Mention those dates again. June 28th, 29th, and 30th. Excellent. That sounds great. At the Upright Citizenship Day. UCB Sunset, UCB Franklin. Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. Matt, thank you so much. Thank you, guys. This was really fun. I can't believe I never did this. Thank you. Thank you. I mean, we just started this podcast. Did you? Yeah. Beautiful. Yeah. Matt, thank you so much. Thank you, guys. It's been a pleasure. I can't believe I never did this. Thank you.

Thank you. We just started this podcast. Did you? Yeah. Yeah. How long have you been doing it? Like three months. Three months?

Yeah. So you're still among the early guests. Right. We'll probably ask you to be back before our run is up. Oh, you guys have a, you've already gotten canceled? Yeah. Already canceled. All right. I'll do the last episode. I hope so. That before our run is up. Oh, you guys have a, you've already gotten canceled. Yeah. Already canceled. All right.

I'll do the last episode. That's okay. This is it. You'll come back for our retrospective. We're ending it with you. Well, there's one more person, Ian Roberts,

who's been here the whole time. Oh, come on in Ian. I just thought, you know, why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't tell you. Well, that was it.

That was it. The great Matt Walsh. That's the end of the interview. That was fun, yeah. That's the end of our show. And the end of our show. Thanks for listening. Yeah.

We'll see you next week with Brian Stack. Brian Stack. A former late night writer who's loved by fans and also now a writer on The Colbert Show. Yes. No, he's a legend. Yes. And, yeah, I think you'll really enjoy that, too. Yep.

I'm assuming that you enjoyed this week's. I probably shouldn't do that. Very presumptuous, Jessie. Very presumptuous. But, yeah, tune in next week. And we like you. Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast, is hosted by Mike Sweeney and me, Jesse Gaskell. Produced by Kevin Bartelt. Engineered by Will Becton.

Mixed by Ryan Connor. Supervising producer is Aaron Blair. Associate producer, Jen Samples. 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. Ta-da! This has been a Team Coco production in association with Earwolf.