Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Producer Jason Chillemi Revisits Classic CONAN Remotes

Episode Date: May 6, 2022

 Jason Chillemi (the man who made all of our favorite Conan remotes possible) joins writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell to discuss the classic Ice Cube and Kevin Hart remotes, the early days of CONAN in Los Angeles, what it was like filming Tom Cruise and Conan in London, and why he loved working on the Warner Bros lot.Got a question for Inside Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone] and e-mail us at [e-mail]

And now, it's time for Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Hey, welcome to Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. We are your hosts. I was trying something new there. And you know, success. Pew, pew, pew, pew, pew, pew. We have to go back. Try and drum up excitement.

Go back and edit that into all the previous openings. Because that's a keeper. Because this is my persona from now on. And this is where we procrastinate saying our names. A tried and true honored tradition on the show. It is. You are Jesse Gaskell. I'm Mike Sweeney.

Yes. Welcome to Inside Conan, where we're kind of working our way through Conan's... We're meandering. We really are with stops. Talking about, you know, exterminators who come to our house. I mean, I guess that's germane. But we're looking at an overview of conan o'brien's late night career yeah yeah a storied career and if

you're doing it alphabetically i'd say we're up to q q that sounds good q prime non-years q double prime oh no. It's all fresh and new, guys. We're back at home. Yeah, last week we did, we inaugurated. We were in a studio. We're one of the first inaugurators of the new Conan podcast studio. I'm not sure what happened. I'm back in my shitty home office.

Did you clog the restroom? Oh, my God. I love that's your first. Well, there's only one explanation well you take that back young lady that's slander oh my god there's a lot of talk back at warner brothers just about people's bathroom habits oh i know which was fun like that stuff would come up sometime in the writer's room it would because people had secret bathrooms they would go to that were like in other buildings. That was my favorite thing.

The secret bathroom revelation. And you know what? I was, I did not go, I did not like going to the bathroom in our building. Yeah. Well, so our bathrooms on our floor, there were two stalls. Right. In the women's. Is that what, what there were in the men's?

One stall. In a urinal. Oh, wow. So you were what, what their women's? One stall. In a urinal. Oh, wow. So you were like, you know, I don't know. So if you're using the stall, everyone knows why. Yeah, it's just, yeah, no, it was not, that was just like a no-go from the beginning. Like, no.

From the get-go. Well, at least for me. You know what? I remember like in school, like there, I'm old enough where we didn't even have doors on the bathroom stalls because of smoking oh and their desire to make sure no one was smoking trumped any privacy yes the most basic like you're a teenager yeah and you're not gonna have a door like how many how many high school people from my school were scarred by that?

Anyway. They never pooped again. I didn't. I haven't. Where would you usually go? Which bathroom did you use? At Warner Brothers? Yeah.

There was one downstairs in the lobby that had a lock on it. Yeah. There was one. But that one was potentially used by the entire building, including the facilities management people that were on the first floor. Yeah. Like, you know, that's very dangerous. That one was dangerous.

So there was one where, oh, there's one way over by where we do editing, the editing truck. Yeah. That was the one I used. Yeah. Ah, yeah. I liked going in that. I mean, we were editing a lot of the time too. Right.

And that's how you'd meet people from all over the lot because people from all the buildings probably ended up going there. Yeah. Yeah, so. Which means no one was pooping in their own toilets. They probably were available to use. And I just want, so just to clarify,

I just want to make it clear. If I did clog a toilet, it was never one in our building. No, no, you didn't. It was all the other buildings where my picture was up and they're like, do not let this man in here. Is he putting car keys down there? What's happening? What if we just started like, hey, you know, if I'm going to use other studios' bathrooms, maybe I'll just use the other studio and just watch their show instead of ours. Take it to the next level. Just start going to work at a different job.

Mike's been spending all day at the mom's set. Speaking of other shows, you saw that news that James Corden is ending. Right, he is. I think he said he was homesick. Oh, wow. Yeah, do you have any inside scoop? No, I don't.

But I have a sense of like late night, is it shrinking a little bit? Is it ending? It's, you know, with this whole initial, like everyone going to streaming. Yeah. I don't know. I don't know.

Yeah, because people don't really watch late night at night anymore. Right. A lot of people don't. i haven't heard about a lot of new like there was a while there where all every network was like oh we're gonna have our own late night presence and now i don't feel like that's happening a lot in terms of talk shows but so is your guess that they're not going to replace him as oh i i think they would i mean i'm assuming that's yeah a going concern that makes money as long as it makes but and i've heard a lot of names floated brought in another white guy but they had to fly him in from iceland you know james wasn't white enough. We're going to go Nordic this time. We're going to get someone from Sweden.

You've heard some names floated? I haven't seen that. Who have you heard? I heard somebody like Nicole Byer would be great. And she would be. Oh, God, yeah. So. I like the idea that her late night show would really be kind of maybe a little naughty.

You know, like. Right. Something that you really shouldn't, you should only be watching late at night. Oh, that's a really good point. That would kind of make it, yeah, I think it would really give it a different stamp. You know? I'm imagining her doing

the whole thing in a bubble bath. Right. Well, hey, we have a great show. Oh my God, we have a great show. Yeah. I just remembered how good it is. I think we both are in love with him. Oh, we are. That's fair to say, right? We're in love, but it's not like a, it's a very secure love.

It's not something, you know, we don't lose our heads in it. It's like this love feels like, it feels like home. You wish all love could be like this. Yes. It's just natural. It fits like a great jacket or coat and cozy he's been with the show since 1997 where he started late night yeah and he became the guy the go-to guy our producer who's in charge of every pre-tape and remote shot on late night.

Yeah. And then The Tonight Show and then Conan at TBS, which is... There for every single one. Completely unflappable. So unflappable. With an iron stomach. He had an iron stomach. He played such a critical role in so much of the comedy on Conan.

It's fun to catch up with him about some of his favorite memories yeah we talked to him about the start of the tbs show uh working with ice cube and kevin hart on that famous remote and a few remotes you guys came up with that didn't end up making it to air yes that was really fun to hear about that was it was exciting to talk about those it's our good friend and producer, Jason Chalemi. Basically, every remote since, I don't know, 1999? Seven. 97.

Yeah. Wouldn't happen. Every pre-taped bit, not just remotes, but like every comedy. Outside the studio. Outside the studio. Anything outside the studio. I have a good analogy for what Chalemi does. Okay.

He's like in curling, there's the people that go along and make the ice smoother. Right. Ahead of the puck. With the broom. Yeah. But he does that for the remotes. I have a broom. Problem is you have to explain curling, which this could,

we could be here a while. It's a Canadian sport. Right. He was at Late Night. Yep. And came with the show to the Tonight Show. And then was there at the beginning of the TBS show. So that's the era that we're mostly focusing on right now.

Right. But you were there for all of it. All of it. Were you on the tour, the legally prohibited tour? No. Okay. We shot stuff before you left. Right. Right. But you were there for all of it. All of it. Were you on the tour, the legally prohibited tour? No. Okay. We shot stuff before you left.

Right. Right. There was a cold open. The pizza boxes, right? He was like. Right. Conan, like it was like catching up with Conan after he'd been, you know, off the Tonight Show for a couple months.

So he had a long beard. Oh, right. And there was something with a bald head. He played evil Conan. We shot some stuff. In his house. He played an evil television executive based on

no one in particular. I don't know. It was kind of fictitious. Kind of a Marvel, you know, bad guy, basically. So what were you doing during that time leading up to the TBS show? Right. After the Tonight Show, but before the TBS show started back up in the fall.

We want answers. Taking some well-deserved rest. Yeah, it was very little. There was not a lot going on. Every once in a while, there'd be meetings about what's next once we knew. But you had just moved to California with your family. Yes, seven months.

How was everybody feeling about that? We all had, I mean, everybody knew there would be an X. You knew in advance. We kind of knew. Because it was advanced. That is taking over the Tonight Show. That's very unusual when you think about it. You had a lot of time.

Yeah. To mentally prepare. We found out five years ago. And it was a big step. Like, we tricked our kids. Like, we knew. They were little. They didn't know.

But we knew, oh, okay, Conan's going to be going out. Right. So we took him on a vacation to la you know visit people it was like wouldn't it be fun to live here and then right when the news came out we're like oh my god that place we just were yeah we could live there wouldn't you love to go to disneyland exactly exactly so we kind of bradley had one and she was four months old so she had had. Oh, yeah. Really? So it was fine.

Yeah. She was easily moved. Malleable. Malleable. Right. So then when you started coming back to TBS on the Warner Brothers lot, historic lot. Yeah. What were those early prep days like?

You started shooting remotes. That's what we did at first, right? We just started shooting things. Yeah. What were some of the remotes you guys did? I know you did the focus group remote. Or no, that was for the Tonight Show. started shooting things. Yeah, what were some of the remotes you guys did? I know you did the Focus Group remote. Or no, that was for the Tonight Show. That was tonight, yeah.

First, Conan was the... Running Across the United States. Well, that was Tonight Show. Yeah. Running Across the United States is like one of my favorite things we've ever did. Yeah, that was insane. Well, we can talk about that. Where did you go for that? I mean, I'm assuming he didn't actually run across the United States. He kind of did. He kind of did.

But we in quick snippets. Took a car and a plane. Quick snippets. Or a plane. No, we actually had a plane. Yeah. And we did it all in like a weekend. Wow.

I broke my arm. How did you decide where to go? Oh, that's where you broke your arm? Yeah. We were shooting him running along over the State Street Bridge. And Jason Munoz, our sound guy, backed up and knocked into me. I love that you gave him a shout out. Yeah, I gave him a shout out.

Well, it's something we always joke about. It's your bit. No, it was no fault of his. I was in the way. No, no, I'm always in the way. It was like a raised. There was a raised lip on the sidewalk. Yeah.

And I literally, I fell flat on my back in the middle of State Street. Oh, my God. And, you know, I got up and I was like, oh, wow. I'm fine. I'm fine. Let's keep shooting. But then all the traffic, the light turned green. It's like I literally fell right into the street.

If it wasn't a red light, it could have been way worse. Yeah. But I just broke my elbow. Yeah. But we had to shoot like four more. Then we went to Wrigley Field and had him running across Wrigley Field. Then we flew to St. Louis, had them run by the Arch. Then we flew to New York City.

Well, then we were in Kansas. Oh, then we were in Missouri. Missouri, right. You guys haven't heard of a green screen? I know, I know. But we didn't start in Chicago. First, we went to Vegas the night before. We spent a night in Vegas.

Okay. That morning, we filmed in Vegas, went to Utah, Moab. We went to Moab, Utah. That was great. And then we were going to go to Aspen. To Aspen, but the weather was bad. So the pilot was like, okay, we'll take you to Jackson Hole. Oh, that's great.

And we're just like, okay. Like it was nothing. Like it's an Uber, yeah. And the sun was setting, so we had to race, drive out there and shoot that. That was a great shot, so. Yeah, but we were running out of time. Yeah, from after Jacksonville, we went to Chicago and we spent the night, didn't we? Yes.

The next day we went to Wrigley Field. First you almost broke your arm, then went to Wrigley Field, then St. Louis. Oh, yeah, so you broke your arm and then had to continue shooting. And then we got into New York City. And then we got to New York. Oh, you're right, of course. Did you go to urgent care? I went to the emergency room at 1.20 a.m.

Did you really? Oh, man. I don't remember that. I knew something was wrong. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They didn't give you a brace or something?

No, it's so late. I like, you know, they're like, yeah, your elbow's broken. Here, here's a sling. Yeah. Transparent sling. I know. They don't want you, because I broke my elbow last year. They don't want you to put a cast on

because then it freezes. Oh, is that why? Yeah. You have to keep using it, but it's really painful. Oh, you've got it. Right. Yeah.

Sure. How'd you break your elbow? I fell off a bike. Oh. Yeah. It wasn't even on. Dude, Jason Munoz though, right? Yeah.

He was there. No, yeah. I was avoiding him. He gets kickbacks, I think, from the medical community for just tossing people down. As far as that shoot goes, it was really simple. I mean, you jumped off a plane, you got to a place, and he just ran by you.

Like, it was just running. It's not like we were doing a lot of heavy lifting. But each time on the plane, he came to love that song right away. I mean, it was always in the plane. We're playing that song. It was Surrender. Which song? Surrender by Cheap Trick.

Which is a great, but he just kept playing it on the plane over and over again. Like it was just, I just remember that being played so much. But I also, that's the only, whenever I hear that song, it's all I think about. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, I'm fine without hearing that song. I know. You guys are gonna be in a helicopter for the bridge shot.

I know. Going to run across the GW bridge. Oh, cool. And we in a helicopter for the bridge shot. I know. I ran across the GW Bridge. Oh, cool. And we had a helicopter. Oh, nice. And no one told me. It wasn't really discussed before. I was like, well, there'd be this cameraman.

But I just thought I'd be down on the ground communicating with them. He's like, well, you have to be up there. And I was like. Yeah, helicopters are scary. It was. Especially like you're right above the George Washington Bridge. And then he's like, okay, call it. And I'm like, oh, no.

There's a little tiny Conan way down. It's like, okay, action. And he just starts running. That shot's a great shot. But we did it twice. I think we did, yeah. And we were so dumb. He was wearing actual dress shoes, like beautiful.

And he couldn't walk for two days after that. He's like, I think maybe some rubber sole. But that literally may have been our last thing we did at the day. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that was fun. Yeah, and so then you flew back to L.A., I'm assuming. And there were some pieces we picked up on Universal a lot, I think. Right, him running through the gate.

The doll museum, right? Doll museum? Oh I think. Right. Him running through the gate. The doll museum. Right? Doll museum? Oh, right. We did it in the back lot. We faked it in the back lot. We were at the Universal lot. Right.

Yes. Where NBC reigned. But going to Warner Brothers, going to TBS and the Conan show, that cold open was he got shot. There was a whole Godfather scene. It was a Godfather. Yes. Oh, right.

Like the Sonny. It was a very funny. The glass building. We went up to a meeting right and we filmed it in the tbs we filmed in that brown building right by the by warner brothers the tbs building yes okay it was a conference room he met with people about the idea for the new show or something oh first was him like what he was doing again what he was doing to kill time after the Tonight Show. So it was him working as a kid's clown, him working at a fast food. That was in my backyard. That was in my backyard, the kid's clown.

Oh. There you go. Were your kids in it? No. Oh. No. They weren't in SAG after yet. Yeah, yeah.

Not yet. We never violate SAG after rules, folks. Don't even try. Oh, and then he's on like the 6th Street Bridge. He's had it. He's about to jump and Larryry king comes and goes as his guardian angel oh he goes don't do it conan there was there's something with mad men also yes he did it with john ham because because mad men was right at its apogee so uh he applies for a job there and uh yeah and then he finally meets with tbs right that's a really funny conference room scene where like i think he's like here's our He applies for a job there. And yeah. And then he finally meets with TBS.

Right. That's a really funny conference room scene where, like, I think he's like, here's our offer. He opens it up. It says less. And then he opens it all the way and it says a lot less. And then he leaves. And then he gets shot by the car first. Yeah.

And then later on, he doesn't get shot again in that glass building. Doesn't he get shot twice? Why doesn't he get shot the first time? Well, you know, if it's a... That Sonny Corleone gun thing we shot on a Saturday on Warner Brothers. That was a big to-do. Yeah, because it seemed like more bullets than we normally use. Climax. For comedy, yeah.

And blood packets. Yeah, yeah. That seems fun. Yeah. He was just like. Oh, yeah. Doing the. He loved it.

He loved it. The death shakes. Stuff like that keeps him going. Yeah. Like just knowing like, oh, you know what? You're going to get shot 120 times in four days from now. He's like in a good mood for four days. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, because it's kind of like getting to actually be an actor in those movies yeah you can kind of get conan yeah exactly i mean you know it gets to be basically yeah yeah if you threw a motorcycle in or yeah something you could get conan on board pretty fast right when we did um that's another one where he got roughed up uh it was sons of anarchy anarchy right all those all those cash shows we did, that's another one where he got roughed up. It was Sons of Anarchy. Oh, Sons of Anarchy, right. All those cast shows, we did fun cold opens, which were Walking Dead. We would do cast shows on TBS.

We started doing them with like Sons of Anarchy, Orange is the New Black. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Walking Dead cast. And we shot a fun cold open where Conan was a biker. Conan was a zombie, right? Yeah. I forgot the Orange is the New Black. Conan was a zombie biker i mean we mixed and matched guys we threw it all in there sky's the limit so we're really curious about like when we started at warner brothers yeah and and maybe i don't know if it was that much different when you dealt with the lot at universal when we shot stuff on the lot there but what was it like dealing with um all these shoots on the lot was that yeah the sort of institution of it

and you're dealing with other shows and they may want to use the same right you know piece of land that they we want to use at first you kind of had to scout things because it was like okay yes so we'd always like jesse let's meet in a golf cart in 15 minutes and go look at this bench by the swamp. That always made me feel like show business. Totally. It's like, okay, Jesse and Jason, you got to go to the back lot and check it out, you know. Or you'd be like in a writer's meeting. You're like, I got to go scout this thing.

Right, right, right. And then it turns out she's just hiding in the bathroom. This stall looks great for the shoot I'm doing a month from now. We'd always meet. You guys knew? Where I'm texting for an hour. Right. We have our own Warner Brothers studio op. So they would always go with us.

Like one person dedicated. Dedicated to our show. I'm sure they had multiple shows, but it was our main person. Okay. And we'd always meet them out. And some of them were more strict than others. They'd be like, no, you can't. Some of them were very our main person. Okay. Yeah. And we'd always meet them out. And some of them were more strict than others. Yes. They'd be like,

no, you can't, you can't do fire here. Some of them were very on our side. Right. Yeah. Oh, good. Yeah.

But some of them were like kind of, no. All in all, we had pretty good ones. Yeah. I don't remember a lot of examples. No.

We actually, we shared a building with all of them. Right there. They were on the first floor. Right. So I think they felt akin to us.

Yeah. We shared a bathroom. Yeah, exactly. Because it's easier doing a lot versus let's all get in a van and let's go to, especially for that day's show. You know, you want to speed is of the essence. Like for a storefront, like instead of trying to get permission to shoot in downtown burbank right where you have to yeah but then you'd have to dress it yes that's and then can be expensive conan after a while after not too long was like second he just thought anything in the back lot he would get tired of

it and also that it looked fake yeah which yeah depends how wide you get but yeah it usually would take you out of the reality of yeah you'd be like that was the Gilmore Girls

gazebo right eventually you just keep saying the same things over and over again I mean it's just it's only a very few that we used

right I mean we were talking about like Bill Tull and John Rauer props guys were on recently and they just talked about a New York City which I can vouch for and you can vouch for.

Do whatever you want. We stole it. We called it stealing. Yeah. We never got permission. Permissions. Well, because usually it was, like, we'd come up with it at 11 a.m. Yeah.

And it'd be for that night show. It's like, go shoot it. And sneak a camera onto the subway and bring us all of molasses. And you never got in trouble. Or just shooting out on the street. And elaborate, like, just crazy. Crazy over the top things. But Burbank is different.

Right. You had to. And doing it day of was impossible. Yeah. Well, this is a company town. Like, shoots are so prevalent here. It's their money. Yeah.

That they're out looking for. Oh, yeah, yeah. Violators. They're like parking cops, you know. They're like out to give you tickets. When I learned, I mean, I thought this was kind of interesting that you can't use drones in Burbank. You have to clear it, right? Or it's like a hard clearance.

Because of the airport? Because of the airport, right. Yeah, so close, yeah. Oh. But that. When did that come up? How did you learn that that yeah i because we would ask for them a lot i mean it seemed like oh we'd want it's just such an easy way it was a pain to do at warner brothers especially because of the airport yeah it could happen but it thinks hoops had to be jumped through oh palms had to be

greased yes did we ever do it no I mean we used a drone for the I remember Todd had a bit the drone it was like we went to a park yeah you went to a park to drone

yeah the concert he was doing it was a dance dance competition but from drone so did you have permission to use that drone yeah

okay I was gonna bust you no there were certain things I got permission for yeah fires I remember it was always. Animals on the lot were always better than animals off the lot.

Like, you know, things are guns, gunplay. Would you start to be able to know when a pre-tape was going to work or when it was going to get cut? That's a good question. That's a good question. I guess. Yeah, sure. I mean, remotes, they only happened once, really. Remotes with Conan.

Oh, yeah, with Conan. Oh, the remotes got cut. Yeah. I mean, you get bad feelings, but you know pretty sure early on. What was the remote that got cut? There are two remotes that got cut. I know two, but I don't think it's the same two. Oh.

Is it the same two? Which two? Well, I know the one. Now there's four. Now this, I don't know. The one for sure. Yes. Was a? Well, I know the one. Now there's four. Now this. The one for sure. Yes. Was a Conan remote, Warner Brothers, TBS.

And we shot it in the back lot. We started in the back lot. Yeah. And we found these, the idea was that Conan was going to become a sign. A sign spinner. Oh, sign spinner. Oh, yes. You know, we moved out to LA and all you're just like.

Oh, it's like a seat. Of course. And so, hey, and how do these guys learn to do it? And it turns out there were these guys who would teach you how to become a science man.

So we figured this was a home run. So the idea was to start, he'd have a tutorial on the lot and then we'd take him out. To do it on the street. Yeah.

We never got past the tutorial. But we... And I think that's probably when he really started hating shooting something in the back lot. That could have been it.

Because he called certain things a comedy vacuum. Yeah, yeah. So they went to this empty back lot. And it was just him with the sign spinner teachers. So there's no walker-bys that he can deal with. He was stuck with these two guys. Stuck with these two guys who were kind of schticking it up because they had a lot of jokes. And I think, you know, like a lot of times,

Jason, we'll all kind of, when we're dealing with people... See yourself, be straight, let him be. Don't do your material. He's the joke. I mean, we usually specifically, like we used to do remotes and, you know, we'd talk to them and they'd be like, oh, we've

got the guy for this. He's the crack up in the, you know, the cafeteria. And we're like, no. We do not want that guy. Don't want that guy. Yes. And we also want you to fire that person. Not only do we not want to use them, you've got to deep six them.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They should not be employed. We need a restraining order taken out. Yeah. So these two sign guys were joking around and it's. It was one of those those Were you out there? They were goofing. Were you out there?

No. Right. So it was one of those things where like because I think Matt O'Brien was out there. Matt O'Brien was out there. So it was one of those

things where he Conan's talking to them but as he's talking he's also like looking at Matt. He'll say something to them and he'll mumble something else to the camera.

To the shot to Matt. Murderer. Yeah, exactly. So all that was happening. It was just, oh no. He started So he starts to tank it. Yes, he started mumbling stuff that he knew Matt wouldn't see until he was editing it. Which, those things are like Easter eggs.

I know. Or the looks to camera, yeah. We've all seen his looks. At one point, they had him spinning the sign and it went flying off and he like fell down or something. He got up and he just turned to the camera and went, I'll get you. We just walked that over. And then one time these guys are yelling,

I'm like, spin it, spin it. And he just turned to the camera and goes, spin, shut up. I would love to unearth this footage. Spin shut the fuck up. It's good. You know what? And then it was immediately like, all right, let's huddle up.

And it was like, we're not going outside. We're just pulling the cord. Yeah, we're pulling the cord in this. Yeah. And then, you know, do you remember the other one? Well, I know mine. I don't know. I mean, what other one?

The one I'm talking about is in New York City. No, I was thinking of a different one okay see well let's talk about both I think it's the well it was the central going ghost hunting

in Central Park right with Frank Smiley that's when we were going ghost hunting was it ghost hunting or he was looking for he was going to be

at the Apollo Theater right a week of shows at the Apollo Theater so we met it was like 1030 at night and we were outside of 72nd I'm making it you know outside 1030 at night and we were outside of 72nd, I'm making it,

we were outside. 10.30 at night, you're already. Right, it was late at night. Yeah. He's had a full meal. We're on the dangerous side.

Yeah, exactly. We had been shooting all day also. We had been shooting all day. Right, right. So going into it was very,

but like that's. The attitude wasn't, like sometimes it's like we've got to make this work. Yes, yes, there's no. The attitude was like. And you already had some other stuff. We'll see if it works out.

It was like 10 minutes tops. Yeah. What's yours? Well, it also involved ghosts. Oh. Remember? Oh, you're right. We brought ghost hunters.

Maybe he's afraid of ghosts. He's afraid of spooks. You're right. You're right. And goblins. Yeah. Wait, it was ghost hunters in the stage? And shades. What?

Were they hunting the stage? Yes. I think we got the host Yeah, you're right. Like a reality show. Oh, yeah. And you know, we worked on this old stage from the 20s. So let's bring them here. Yeah, there might be some. The Goonies.

Who knows what kind of ghosts. And so, again, it was an indoor comedy vacuum. Oh, no. The only thing missing were the sign spinner guys showing up. Spin! And was the host also cheesy? I mean, was that part of the problem? Yeah, they were, you know, polished.

Those shows are, yeah. Yeah, it was not a good. I think they're pretty fake. Yeah. For the most part. Yes. And they were dead. We are blowing pretty fake. Yeah. For the most part. Yes. We were blowing the lid.

Yeah. I forgot that one. Yeah, and they were down in the bow. There's these weird little crawl spaces. Like where special effects... Because that sounds kind of cool. Yeah. It does sound... Going into the water tank under there?

No. No way to do that. There was a giant water tank under the, we were talking about that recently, right? Where they filmed The Old Man and the Sea. Wait, in our stage

or the one next door? Yeah, in our stage. Oh, really? And also Goonies, right? Goonies was, but I don't know if they did the big, I bet they did that next door.

Oh, okay. Because we were next door to, 16 was the biggest one. It's called Stage 16, which is the largest soundstage in Hollywood. Yeah. It is giant. Yeah, it's the largest soundstage in Hollywood. Yeah. It is giant.

Yeah, it's giant. Like Universal was, okay, you've got some studio space. Yeah, yeah. But then the rest of it's a theme park. Right. Whereas Warner Brothers is just. You felt like movies. Oh, we're in studio.

You're going to see Clint Eastwood at the commissary. Right. Or someone dressed up in a suit of armor. Or like people in costumes. Yeah. Or like when they were doing the hangover movies, like Zach Gaufnakis would be driving by in a golf cart. You felt like stuff was happening there. It was very exciting.

Most of the movies, those seem to be happening at night and on the weekends. Yes, they did them on the weekends. And they would never let you know. I know. There should have been an email blast. Yes, that's right. If you want to come watch. They erased all, I remember the J-Girl. There should have been an email blast. Yes, that's right. Like, if you want to come watch. They would.

They erased all the parking spaces because there were no parking. Like, they had addressed it for like the 30s, right? Oh, yeah. For Mank. Oh, they did Mank. As we were leaving,

they shot some Mank there. Okay. They did some, they grabbed some Mank. Yeah, they grabbed some Mank. Let's get some Mank. Yeah. In the can.

And Hail Caesar, they changed the. Oh, so they erased our parking spots? They erased all the parking spots because there was no parking spots. Yeah. In the can. And Hail Caesar, they changed the- Right. So they erased all our parking spots. They erased all the parking spots because there was no parking spots. Yeah, just for that, I'm sure. And they put 30 cars. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

But they do it all, yeah, kind of under the radar and they do not. Yeah, like they did that J. Edgar Hoover movie with Leonardo DiCaprio across- Oh, right. That was Eastwood, right? Was it Eastwood, J. Edgar? It was. Hail Caesar, I know, was there. Right, yeah.

We're just, yeah, yeah. They did a courthouse. They made the courthouse like Roman art and Roman-esque. Yeah. right was it Eastwood J Edgar it was Hail Caesar I know was there right yeah we're just yeah yeah building they made the courthouse like Roman art and Roman yeah that courthouse I recognize

in everything everything that's a thing like once you like that that was a courthouse from the old Batman show right which you know

Hall of Justice an old person which I think I heard from all the tourists they only shot once and they kept showing the same clip no matter who the villain was

no matter who the villain was it was Batman and Robin with a person in the middle. And that's how every show ended. The same piece of footage. So if you went back, you'd notice that's not the Joker or it's not Catwoman or, you know, it's the same. Did you guys ever

go on one of those tours? I kind of wanted to. Conan, did he ever hijack one? Or that was a Universal? Universal, we did that. He would always call down to the tours. He'd open his window on the second floor and yell at them. Yeah. We used to pitch early on.

It was like, hey, you become a tour guide. Right, right. And he's just like, can I just do my show here? No, you've got to go out and dress like a gladiator. Yeah, Universal. I mean, tonight at Universal, we did a lot of that. Like, go to the foyer place. Not the foyer.

The, what's it called? Make sound effects. Oh, the Foley. The Foley stage. He did a lot. Like, check out the wardrobe. I feel like we did all that. Warner Brothers, we didn't do that anymore.

Yeah. It was less investigating our new place. We did a props remote at Universal. And like, within the first 20 minutes, Matt O'Brien and I were like, like, you know, it's just row after row of crazy props. And we're like, oh, my God, we're going to get like 20 remotes out of this. And 10 minutes later, it was out of steam. And we're like, is there anything here? And we're like, what's in this door?

And I opened a door and it was dark and I turned the light on and there were six stagehands sleeping in there. What? Turned the light on. And they're like, shut that door. Like a sweatshop. Guys, guys, sorry. Well, Jason, maybe you can walk us through what you would do for your job to prepare for a remote. Like, what's the process?

Maybe we could even pick a remote. Like, there's some favorites. Maybe we could even pick a remote. Like, there's some favorites. The Taco Bell remote. Dion's soul food remote. Taco Bell's a tough... I mean, Taco Bell, you're dealing with a lot of... Corporate. Corporate.

So you don't really... It's more integration-y. So you... They tell you what you can do. It's basically like, we're going to be there with eight people, two cameras, and we tell them what we're programming with. And we'd have someone on our end. I think it was Tanisha, probably.

Who's our... Tanisha Fields. Yeah, our marketing guru. Right, right. Yeah. And there'd be certain things we'd have to hit. The new burrito or the new taco. Or maybe...

What about the Kevin Hart remotes? Right. The ride-along. Yeah, the ride-along. Well, the first one was actually... Because we had never done anything like that before. And we knew... The first one was the Lyft.

Lyft. The Lyft driver. Which was also, was that an integration? It was for Ride Along, the movie. Oh, yeah. It was an integration for Lyft. But not for Lyft. No. But people who watched were like, oh, you know, Lyft's in on this.

And I was like, no, they weren't. Actually, we knew we were going to call a Lyft. We knew we were going to be on a corner somewhere and meet these guys. Yeah. Right. And then we were going to call a Lyft and the driver might come and say no. Like we knew we, nothing was planned beforehand. That was all real.

That's another thing. And we also had these, you know, Conan, Kevin Hart, and Ice Cube waiting there. Like we didn't want to make them wait long. No. So we were, I remember. What part of town were you in? Right in Hollywood. Yeah, in Hollywood.

But I remember like days before, our camera guys, Seth and James, Seth St. Vincent, James Pelcheski, and our audio, Jason Munoz. Jason Munoz. We'd practice because we were sitting up because we didn't want them waiting. It was almost like a pit stop. So I remember driving around our stage at stage 15 in a car and pretending, not pretending, like, oh, this guy just agreed to let us set up cameras in his car. Yeah. How fat? How fat?

So we got it down to like 10 minutes. Like a pit crew. Literally did it like a pit stop, like, oh, this guy just agreed to let us set up cameras in his car. Yeah. How fat? How fat? Yeah. So we got it down to like 10 minutes. Like a pit crew. Literally did it like a pit stop, like a pit crew. It was really like. That's amazing. Well, because, and so what you're saying is it was not planned in advance who this driver was. Who the driver would be.

Because if we had planned it. Then with a car would have been fixed the day before. You could have set up the car with the GoPros. So you had to do. It probably would have been a month. But we really wanted the reality of it. Yeah. Yeah.

And, and so. So the practice actually, I mean, they got faster and faster and faster. And when this guy came, they got it set up pretty quickly. Yeah. And then we, the rest of us jumped in a van and we just. We followed, we were in a follow up. As far as permits go, like that's when you're driving around the city and you're not interfering with anything.

It's just your. You just go. Yeah. You steal. And so how many GoPros were there? Like six? I think there was two in the front. like six I think there was two in the front yeah

I think there was two in the back like seeing side angles or something right and then and then we had

a camera in the van it was a camera in the van but then they put one like outside getting like tires and stuff

right trying to make it could have gotten that later yeah pretty stuff yeah but um

we can't start until we have that tire shot but then the audio guy had to put his like rig in the trunk his guy had to put his, like, rig in the trunk. His receiver had to be in the trunk.

Oh, right. Yeah. And if our van got too far away, our follow van got too far away from them talking, we heard static.

We didn't hear anything. Like, we had to go. Yeah, oh, stickler. So I remember our driver was just going through red lights and just dragging through. It's like a sting operation.

Yeah, yeah. We had to stay as close as possible. And, no, I was going to ask if, Jason, were you involved in screening the driver? We were kind of like, if someone agrees. It's going to be good.

It's going to be good. And I don't remember who the writers were on that. I went. It was me. Okay. Just you? Yeah. Yeah.

And then we. The first guy we got, we liked. We just liked him. Yeah. He seemed like a cool guy. Yeah. So much of remotes is just luck. Luck. It's just luck.

And you run. And seeing where it goes and being open to it. There's so many iconic, but within the Conan world of, you know, remote moments of meeting people where people think, oh, well, that person's a plant. And it's like, no, it's just. We just shot a lot of other stuff that we cut out also jason you got so great at at talking to someone over the like one of my all-time favorite remotes is conan's commercial audition remote oh yeah oh yeah and you know you were calling around different there's so many was that at tbs that was a tbs yes there's so many you know in la there's so many commercial acting and i you call but you would just get this sixth sense where you're like i think this guy's gonna be good and and

you nailed it every time like that no but seriously i think the science spinners also though but no you get a good sense there's less science spinners there's less science spinners to pick from yeah so thank you i appreciate it but yes so much of the like the man in the street stuff is But no, you get a good sense of like- There's less sign spinners. There's less sign spinners to pick from. Yeah. Thank you. I appreciate it. But yes, so much of the man in the street stuff, that's all just luck and timing. Yeah.

And just- And waiting it out. Hanging out on the street for a while. Right. Although usually that stuff, it helps that he's famous. Yep. Because he'd attract- But even, I got those travel shows. I don't know if we're talking about the travel shows here, but we, I mean, how lucky, we always got lucky on those shows.

We did, I know. It seemed like. It's almost like it wasn't luck. Yeah. Right. Except Japan, where not a single person knew who he was. No one knew who he was. We didn't, if you watch the show in Japan, there's not, it's like, hey, where's the usual

man on the street stuff? Yeah. Because no one would even look at him. Right. But like the family we bought, you know, the family to be his family, we i mean they were all great they were all great oh that that could have been you know we could have there was an article in new yorker about you can rent a family yeah yeah yeah so we went to that service and then he just yeah he just picked some people yeah they met him at his hotel room that was instant family and they turned out to be great great but that stuff like that happens

so many times right butcher. The butcher guy. Oh, the butcher guy in Berlin. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, who's great. But it's, I mean, part of it is Conan's super fast at reading. Of course. But also, yeah, it's just a lot of luck involved, I think.

Yeah. Don't you think? And I have always been surprised by people in L.A., especially being cool with being on camera. But also there's a lot of people that aren't hams, you know. You would think it's like, oh, everyone's going to be an actor. But that's not the case. It's not the case, yeah. There's a lot of just regular people.

Yeah, that's true. It's true. Yeah. So I don't know. Do we have anything else about the Kevin Hart remote? The second one we had, that's the one like, all right, we're not wasting it. We knew we have a driver's ed vehicle. We set it up the night before.

I think it was Dan Cronin's idea that Conan teaches driving. Yes. And it was a great idea. And we're like, that is it. Because how do you follow up the first one? And this is such a great idea. And this is for Ride Along 2. Ride Along 2, the sequel.

But I think Matt O'Brien and I went on this one. And the night before, we had this person to be the driver, the student driver. A real student driver. A woman who didn't have her license, and she was great. And, I mean, I guess we could talk about this. Yeah, I want to name a name. It turned into a thing where she wasn't in the country legally. Oh, no.

And she worked for someone, and it became this whole thing of it wouldn't be the country legally. Oh, no. And she worked for someone and it became this whole thing of it wouldn't be good for her to be on TV. And she was so... Jason and I both talked to her. Yeah. She was great and it just seemed... She was wonderful.

And I remember thinking we were just screwed. And then I forget who. Yeah, did you send an email blast out? Maybe. Diana Chang, right? Yeah, it was Diana Chang. But I don't know how it happened. How we zeroed in on her.

Yeah. Who worked for Team Coco, the digital studio. Yeah, and she also didn't have her license. Right. Right. And so. That worked out. Yeah, it worked out great.

Yeah. But that was literally, that happened like at 10 p.m. The night before. Oh, wow. The night before we were shooting it. And you know, it was like, a lot of times things fall apart, you can push it off. But you know, you had this whole studio. Oh, no, yeah.

And Kevin Hart. I'm not making that call to Kevin Hart. Or Ice Cube. Kevin Hart I'd call, but not Ice Cube. Yeah, and that was good too. Yeah. And those things go, especially when you're driving, like, oh, what's that over there? Let's pull over there. Like, you have no idea what's going to happen. And then you're things go, especially when you're driving, like, oh, what's that over there? Let's pull over there.

You have no idea what's going to happen. And then you're in the follow van and you're just having to jump out. And we went to that dispensary. The dispensary. Right, the dispensary. It was great. And then we ended up at a restaurant. Ice Cube.

We got a hard drive-thru for chicken or something. We got chicken somewhere. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's how we ended. And then Ice Cube took the pot from me. Yeah. But those two guys were so great.

Oh, my God. Like, I can't wait. Those three together were, yeah. I left that day. I was just like, well, I'm their biggest fan. We got it. No, they were so great. They were so great. They were hilarious.

So funny. Ice Cube was so funny. So funny. I mean, Kevin Hart you already knew. But I didn't think about Ice Cube. And, man, was he funny. So funny. I know.

Oh, man, such a fan. Those three together are really, they're great together. Yeah. Speaking of car remotes, what about the Tom Cruise remote? Were you there for that one? I was. Yeah. Oh, wow.

That was also. Conan drove around with Tom Cruise. No, I guess it wasn't. I guess it was tied to. Was it for a Comic-Con? I think it was for one of the Mission Impossible. It was for a movie. Yeah.

I think the movie where he. One of the Mission Impossible? Yeah. Or one where he was. I think the movie where he... One of the Mission Impossible? Yeah. Or one where he was flying the airplane. Top Gun? No, because that's... No, no, no, no. It was a drug courier movie.

Oh. Right? I don't know. Somebody talked. He's constantly... Risky business? I don't know. The Iran-Contra one?

American Made. Maybe. But the whole thing was he was recovering his fractured leg. Classic clip of him jumping across a building like... Yeah. For Mission Impossible. Because he was recovering his fractured leg. Remember that classic clip of him jumping across a building like. Yeah. Forbition impossible. Because he does all his own stunts. Yeah.

Yeah. And he broke his foot or something. And he said, I still want to do something with Conan. Yeah. But can you come up with something. Right. Can you come to London. Where I'm not running around.

Yeah. And so. So they can't. Was it Matt? I think it was Matt. Conan. It was... Conan's idea? Conan's idea. Yeah, but Matt went. And Matt, you and Matt went. Yeah.

Yeah, so what was that like? That was great. It was so much fun. Very, like, I mean, we knew we only had him for, like... Tom Cruise. Yeah, Tom Cruise, a brief period of time. Matt and Conan, you had forever. Yeah, those guys. So once we got there, we had a local person helping us, a fixer that we've had in all these countries.

We had our car, and that car was already set up. GoPros. So many cameras. So many cameras. Audio was ready to go. All we had to do is we literally pulled up to a spot. We met in a back alley, because we're away from crowds. And Tom Cruise's vehicle pulled up.

He got out of this car and went right into this car. He wasn't even out of the car. Seamless, yeah. Wow. Like rain wouldn't have hit him if he was. It actually was raining that day. It was raining that day. But our audio guy like mic'd him up in a window.

And then from there it was just a similar. Yeah. Because they never got out of the car until the ending, I think. He jumps out. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you had a stunt guy. You had a stunt guy. And that was just literally driving around dreary london it was great and we just didn't follow them the whole day we probably had him for like an hour and a half yeah yeah

and how was he he was great he could not have been nicer he was from the car he was shaking everybody seemed like he was great and yeah he was really a nice guy yeah and they had a funny he was really funny yeah just how like how like, oh, he got the... Well, Conan sent him the idea and he loved it. We had all these props in the back, like, this is the bucket, this is, you know, these are the different things. Right, right. Yeah, we always bring a lot of props.

Yes. On these remotes. And Chilamie, you always end up having to be the one carrying them around. Because we don't, yeah, we don't have a full crew. Like, my favorite mental image is of you carrying that um when we were in italy with jordan oh yeah and conan conan will be like we're gonna buy that right we'll pay we pass something that we like and and there was this pinocchio like one of those kids like wooden pinocchio facade yeah and he made jordan kneel down and put his face in it it was heavy it was

big and heavy stand oh it was like 50 pounds yeah and I was like oh well let's you know we can bring this back throughout the show in different locations and Ptolemy was there carrying it in every

we never brought this back it never appeared again but it's funny I was it appeared one at a time and it was in your arms the whole time we were in Italy

I recently I felt terrible I was recently going through our old storage units we have like a couple storage units for dollar. Yeah. And I saw that.

Yeah. It was like raised up on a pillar. I know. Is it like Indiana Jones? Like how much, how much crap do we have? Seriously. Is it, is it? There's a lot of stuff.

And what other? There's three different units. Defunct shows are in that warehouse. Oh my God. It's so funny. It's the Golden Girls. It's literally like Indiana Jones. Oh.

There's one specifically that's like Indiana Jones. Oh. There's one specifically that's like Indiana Jones. One of the storage, really? We have a small part of it, but like it's a giant warehouse full of TV shows, movies. Full of arcs. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah. I wonder if someday it'll be like Storage Wars. Like they're just going to stop paying for it. They'll auction it off. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I got a 28 foot tall Conan bobblehead. For $4. Jason, do you feel like there's ever, because you're a person, I mean, your reputation on the show is like, you're always going to try to make it happen, whatever it is. Whatever the request is.

Did you ever say no to things? I didn't. Yeah. You were never the one to say no. I was never the one to say no. You were like, I'm going to look into it. Yeah. We'll do the best we can. I mean, it's all we can do. Yeah, we'll get a live alligator on the lot.

Yeah, because I'm not the one getting it. Like, then we have... Right. I tell our prop guys, Bill and John, you guys talk to, and it was just like, can we get a live alligator? And can it, you know, can it be on a bus? You know? Yeah.

Right. But you're a great team with our prop guys prop guys too because I feel like the three of you are always like whatever you need we can make happen yeah we'll try to do this but it's kind of be that way with

everybody like it's more my job also was like I would help find locations and this and that and permits and insurance

but it was also keeping all the departments happy and real high you know yes sometimes they're

working over the weekend. Sometimes they're doing this. We're all on the same team and we're trying to do the best we can. How do you keep your morale high? I'm naturally high. I'm always... Well, because you're a very low-maintenance person. You're sort of like a succulent. I don't even think I've ever seen you

drink water. Succulents are good. You eat one meal per day and you don't drink any water and you're up at all hours. How do you do that? And you can be prickly. I'm not doing well. I'm falling apart. No.

I don't know. I don't know. It's fun doing things for people you like. You know, like we had a good group. You know, we're not cleaning bathrooms. We're not like. That's true. We have a really fun

job all right okay well this is so much fun is there anything we didn't get to that you guys okay it's just fun seeing you and talking to you it's great seeing you i know this is so great i can't wait for you to produce something else what's next yeah yeah yeah i'm ready okay great Okay, great. We are too. Thank you, Jason. No problem. Thanks, guys. Thank you, Jason Chalemi. Always a pleasure. Yeah, so it was fun to see him in person. Yeah, we were in person for that brief moment before we weren't asked back to the studio. I guess you're working the kinks out in there.

Yeah. We didn't break it. I don't think we broke anything. I don't think so either. They had so many cameras trained on us. Yeah. We didn't break it. I don't think we broke anything. I don't think so either. They had so many cameras trained on us. Yeah, I know. I think that was to make sure

we didn't steal anything. We have a fan question. We do. We've been getting a lot lately. This is fun. Yeah, we have. I know. Thank you for all the questions.

I'm glad our fans learned how to write. Oh, dear Mike and Jesse, as an unprofessional animator, I have to ask about animation on the show. Conan's show seemed to have more animation than any other talk show. It especially featured a lot of stop motion work. So who did the animation?

Was it done in-house or did you know someone? Was it a bother? Thanks for pulling back the curtains on a show I love. James Gordon. Oh, I thought it was James Corden for a second. Oh, man. And that sounds kind of British. Was it a bother?

It did. Was it a bother? Was it a bit of a bother? Was it a bit of a bother to do that animation? A spot of animation. Let's only talk about whether or not it was a bother. Thank you, James. Yeah, thanks.

You know, that's a great question. It is a good one. The answer is, he says he's an unprofessional animator. All are stop motion. Yes. I mean- It was amateur. We had great animators on the show, especially at TBS.

That's when computer animation kind of took over and- Oh, yeah. We had amazing artists. The graphics department was- Eric and Angus. Yeah. And Pierre. But back when we're doing

stop motion we did that on late night a lot and matter of fact we did an entire show it was a stop motion we called it the claymation episode oh how fun on late night and we took a rerun yeah and we created it entirely with um claymation and we we do a lot of little comedy bits like late night potatoes, Christmas special, like just really crazy stuff that was stop motion. Here's how we did it. Yeah, did that take forever?

Each writer did it. So if you were the writer who wrote the piece, you did the animation, you ordered up the sets and all the little, everyone loved like getting these little, you'd come down and there'd be these amazing sets made out of clay.

And then you'd have all these little characters and it was just so much fun. So then what you do is, cause you know, usually a lot of times it would be for like that night show or the next night show, there was no time to do proper stop motion. So what we did was we would just put the camera on and the writer would literally act out everything with his hands and do all the movement and do all the movements. Like just like if the writer would do all the animation himself, like if you wanted to raise the arms, he'd reach in, raise the arm an inch, pull out, reach back in, pull it up, out, in, out, in, up, up, up.

And the camera just rolled on everything. And then you'd take it to the edit room. And then the poor editor would pull out all the hands in between every stop motion shot. And you'd get this incredibly crude looking crappy. Yeah, really jumpy, but on purpose. Right. That was our rationalization. And it was part of like, you know,

our late night credo that it was supposed to look crappy. So that dovetailed perfectly with our methods. Yes. And that's how we did it and with your aesthetic and the editors were the real heroes of all our stop motion because they literally made it in the edit room by taking out the writer's hands like 480 times from a one-minute sequence yeah i wish there was just a button where you could control find. Yes. Hold hands. Yeah, I bet you there is.

They should call it the late-night animation software. So that's how he did it. Cool. Yeah. And do you think that Conan, having worked on The Simpsons, I mean, did that inform wanting to have more animation on the show?

I mean, that's a very different kind of animation. then I think he really loves that. So if like, you know, once a month you go come into rehearsal and he's got this, you know, comedy animation to watch. He's got like a spaghetti Western. Yeah. No, it's just, I think it's,

he's just delighted by it. He's just delighted by it. Is that it? So yeah, it was a fucking bother for, no, it was a real bother for the editors to answer your question. Anyway, thank you, James.

Thank you, other listeners. Yeah, thanks for all the questions. For giving us this opportunity to reminisce. And you can submit your listener questions, email us insideconanpod at gmail.com or call us 323-209-5303. Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh, and if you like the show, we have to say this.

I'll say it. You can say it. Go get on the internet and rate us. Yeah. And give us all the stars that are possible, which is I think the number five. It is five. And in return, we will always, always, always,

what will we do? We will always love you. Oh. Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast, is hosted by Mike Sweeney and me, Jesse Gaskell. Produced by Sean Doherty. Our production coordinator is Lisa Byrne. Executive produced by Joanna Solotaroff, Adam Sachs, and Jeff Ross at Team Coco.

Engineered and mixed by Will Becton. Our talent bookers are Gina Batista and Paula Davis. 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. It's the Conan Show. Put on your hat. It's the Conan Show.

Try on some spats. You're going to have a laugh. Give birth to a calf. It's Conan! This has been a Team Coco production.