Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Reggie Watts Revisits His Surreal CONAN Performances

Episode Date: May 20, 2022

Reggie Watts joins Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell to discuss performing on the Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour, why he felt so comfortable improvising his CONAN appearances, performing with Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band, and how James Corden told him the Late Late Show would be coming to an end.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. Hi. Hello. Oh, hello. Hi. Hi there. Hi. Hi.

Hey there. Come on in. I'm in. The water's there. Hi. Hi. Hey there. Come on in. I'm in. The water's fine. This is Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. And we've got the Hollywood goo. Keep going. I can't wait to hear some.

As Conan likes to say, what's the buzz? It's literally goo. What's the buzz out there on the streets? It is goo. Goo we scraped off a the buzz? It's literally goo. What's the buzz out there on the streets? It is goo. Goo you scraped off a Hollywood sidewalk. It may not be what you're looking for. It's the gum underneath an executive's desk. Yeah.

We're your hosts. I'm Jesse Gaskell, and that is Mike Sweeney. That thing over there is Mike Sweeney. Speaking of goo, he's human goo that has the gift of speech. Somewhat sentient. That's debatable. But we discussed the behind the scenes.

He said he was going to do abs today, but he has yet to do them. Yeah, but who wants that kind of access? No, there's such a thing as too much access. He's begged us to watch him brush his teeth and we just say, no, we're not doing access. No, that's, that's, there's such a thing as too much access. He's begged us to watch him brush his teeth.

And we always, we just say, no, we're not doing it. No, that's season four. Uh, you did a gig with another host.

I did. I just, um, finished a gig, a five week job with, uh, David Letterman. Yeah.

I've heard of him. Yes. No, he's hosting a new show on Netflix. It's a standup show called that's my time with David Letterman. Yeah. I've heard of him. Yes. No, he's hosting a new show on Netflix. It's a standup show called That's My Time with David Letterman. He does some time up top and then he has a comedian on who does like five minutes and then Dave interviews the comedian. Oh, cool.

Yeah. It's a new show. Yeah. And it's recorded in front of a live audience, I'm assuming. Yes. We recorded it at the historic Fonda Theater here in Hollywood. Oh, I love that theater. Oh, yeah.

It's a great theater. I'd never worked with him before. And so that was quite exciting for me. And there was just one other writer, Mike Gibbons, very, very funny comedy writer here in L.A. And you guys wrote all of Letterman's set, basically. Right. And Dave, of course, wrote. And he was incredible. He was amazing.

And, you know, you'd write one-liners for him, and then he would just kind of put them into his own vernacular. Like, he would just take a one-sentence premise and on stage, in front of the audience, tease it out and build it up, and then just nail the punchline. Land the plane. Wow. Yeah.

Unbelievable. Just joke after joke. Oh, that must have been so much fun to watch. It was incredible to watch. It was incredible to watch. And then sometimes he just started doing jokes that we sent that he had never even said he liked. He just did out of memory.

Oh, he just remembered? Oh, my God. Yeah, he was unbelievable. And he was hilarious, just to hang out, like God. He was unbelievable. And he's hilarious. He was hilarious. Just to hang out like while we were going over the monologues. Yeah. Was that your first time meeting him? Yeah.

Oh, cool. Yeah. And anything anyone said around him, he would just grab out of the air and have a funny reply to and just. Yeah. Incredible to watch. Did you have to learn what his sort of what he liked to riff on the way? I mean, you know with conan we'd write a lot of like right conan's a virgin women hate him he's pale so you had to

come up with kind of new right what were letterman's little well we were writing jokes you know well he's got a beard so you know little openers about you know addressing his appearance and and uh then and then he kind of trimmed his beard like a few weeks out. And then I thought, oh no, we're writing too many beard jokes. And he's, I thought that was a brushback pitch. He's sabotaging them. Yeah. I thought he was communicating by, you know what, I'm going to keep these guys on edge by trimming my beard. But we didn't really get to meet till just day before we taped, started taping.

We taped over two shows. So it was, I mean, you know what it's like. It all becomes a last minute scramble of once you're together in person of picking an order for the jokes to sign what's in and out and which show to slot it into. There were six episodes.

So, Oh, wow. But that was fun. All six over the were six episodes. So. Oh, wow. But that was fun. So you filmed all six over the weekend. Right. Yes. Oh, wow. But that was exciting. That's a big job. Yeah, it was exciting. It was really great. And it was great to work with him and his two producers, Mary Barclay and Tom Kenny were great. So it was really fun. That's so cool. Yeah, no. And Conan was really, he said, oh, you know what? He goes, if you get a chance to work with Dave, you've got to do that. And I, yes, it really was like an indelible experience.

It really was great. Yeah, so Conan wasn't jealous. That's good. No, he played it totally cool. Wow. Yeah, and believe me. He wasn't texting you during coming up with things for you to do. Yeah. Yeah. So anyway, but you know, there- He wasn't texting you during coming up with things for you to do. Yeah.

Yeah. So anyway, but you know, there were times where Dave was like, should we do this joke or that joke? And I said, Dave, right now I'm working on my podcast with Jesse. Please, I'm trying to figure out what fan question we should answer next week. Just back off.

Hey, now, it sounds like you weren't doing that. You know, you're right. So what's been going on with you? Oh, my God. What's going on? Well, I mean, things have been similarly busy for me. Yes. No, I mean, I'm trying, I'm looking for work.

I'll put that out there. Yeah. I'm trying to get staffed on a on a narrative comedy oh that's what i'm looking to do so i've been taking great at that meetings that are called generals they're called generals they're called generals yes like just to get to know you and break the eyes yeah it's like get getting to know your personality and it's funny getting to know executives. Your personality. And it's funny because, I mean, these meetings have been going on. So all the main networks, like the primetime networks, are all doing, they were sort of figuring out their lineup in the last couple weeks. Right.

And then they have upfronts this week. Yes. Where they announce what actually is going to be on their lineup. So, you know, I've been taking these meetings and sometimes you'll spend an hour talking to an executive about a show, a certain show. And like I watched the whole show and got caught up and then had pitches for it.

And then you find out this week that that show's canceled. Oh no. So there's no job at all. Wait, would this be after you did this meeting? Yes. Right after it? Yeah.

Yeah. Like immediately after pretty much. Oh my God. Oh my. And you've got to wonder whether certainly that executive doesn't know it's being canceled. Why would they waste their time? Oh yeah. No, they don't know.

And they don't want it to get canceled. But people above them. Although I've heard stories of executives knowing something was canceled, but to other people right up till the last second, they're just like, oh yeah, nope. We love it. We love it. Right. We love it. Yeah. I think that there might've been a little bit of that because- Right.

Especially the later it got in the process, I felt like a little bit of the light was going out of their eyes when it would come up, but they have to still kind of go through the motions, I guess. Yeah. So anyway, I think I have multiple offers on canceled shows. Well, our guest today, I have to say, is a singular performer. I will safely say he might be the bravest, one of the bravest performers I've ever seen in that this man will go on a TV show and improvise an entire appearance on a television show. With music, yes. With music.

Yeah. I think you and I, we've seen him enough to know that, yes, everything he does, he makes out of whole cloth right on the spot. It's really, if you haven't seen Reggie Watts perform live, you should do yourself a favor and try to see him. Or just, yeah, Google some television, you know, some late night or concert appearances by him. And it's just something to behold. It's amazing. It's so much fun. And it's different every time.

Right. He's that rare, like he's equally talented at music as he is at comedy. Yeah. So he can improvise the way a jazz artist would improvise music and then also improvise in the comedy sense. And stick the landing. And stick the landing. Yeah. To use that term. But yeah. And of course, now he's on TV every night. He's James Corden also james corden's band leader so that's right which we we learned about that job too and and how he kind of brings his sense of improv to that position but before that he was a regular on the conan show and he even opened for conan on the legally prohibited from being funny on television tour or that's correct. As I like to call it. Yes, that all happened back in 2010.

And that's how Reggie came into the kind of the Conan family, so to speak. So here he is, Mr. Reggie Watts. I remember seeing you like when I first started going to see live comedy in Los Angeles, and it just blew my mind. I was like, oh, wait, there can be musical comedy that's actually Angeles and it just blew my mind. I was like, oh wait, there can be musical comedy. That's actually good music. Oh my God. Thank you. Thanks for that. That was like half the reason why I do it. It's not a musical parody. Yeah. I was like, oh, it's not intentionally bad. This is great. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Oh, that's

awesome. Where did you first see Reggie? I don't know if I saw you at UCB for the first time. I vividly remember a show at El Cid, though. That was like a long, long time ago. Oh, yeah, yeah. Probably when I first moved here. Yeah, it was like in the mid-aughts, probably. Yeah. I feel like everyone remembers the first time they saw Reggie.

I think everyone's just, it's not like anything you've seen before. So it just. What's the first time you saw Reggie, Sweeney? First time I saw Reggie. Well, first time I heard about Reggie was from all the writers when Conan was going on tour and they're,

and you know, it's just like, well, you know, should be an opening act. And I think Todd Levin was like, uh, Reggie Watts.

And then all the other, other writers were like, oh my God, yes, Reggie Watts. And I had not seen you because, you know, I never left the office. I had no idea. I didn't know who was president. So I think the first time I saw you was, I guess I saw a video maybe. And the first time I saw you live probably was on tour. You just booked in without seeing him.

You never went to a rehearsal, right, for the tour? No. I don't think so. You just showed up and did the show. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Eugene, yeah. And the, you know, you killed right away and it was fantastic.

Oh, man. Yeah. Thanks. Yeah, that was a weird, that was a very weird moment. Because when you hear about something in a news news cycle but then you're directly associated to it a few days later. Right. Had you been following all the drama

with The Tonight Show and then got a call to be a part of the tour? Yeah, I mean, everybody was talking about it. All the comedians. We all knew about it. And we're all like, and then a few days later, then we heard about the tour, we all knew about it and we're right and we're all like and then uh and then uh and then like

a few days then we then we heard about the the tour the plans for a tour and then not too long after that my manager called and was like hey we'll do the tour i was like sure i think you had other stuff stuff maybe you were doing other tours but it worked out where you could do all the shows it just was worked out perfectly you just planned a parallel tour yeah yeah yeah it was just like helicoptering right back and forth can you tell us more about so this is i mean we're kind of backing into it but this is how you i think first became associated with Conan and the Conan TV show, right? Am I wrong? Maybe I'm wrong about that. No, it is.

It is. Yeah. I mean, I knew Todd from the Jimmy Kimmel or not Jimmy Kimmel to Jimmy Fallon. He's so many Jimmy's the Fallon show. And I believe and or he knew people. I don't know. He was responsible slightly for that for me being on that show. Oh, because he was in the comedy because he would be at the comedy nights. I don't know. He was responsible slightly for me being on that show. Oh.

Because he was in the comedy. Because he would be at the comedy nights. Uh-huh. Yeah. You know what? The writers are great sources for everything. Like casting. There'd always be new sketches and be like, oh, who'd be good for this?

And just because the writers were out all the time. And at UCB, they'd say, oh, this person, that person. That was the first time it was like hey who'd be who'd be a good opening act for coden but they they had the answer for that too so it was great i know i felt so lucky it was it was amazing it was one of the greatest tours i've been on a few tours and that was definitely one of the best tours i've ever been on yeah i'm sure the energy was just insane it was yeah it was a very unique tour because it was half television people and half like tour people, music touring people. So it was this really cool convergence of two different production styles working together, which was insane.

I love because I love seeing how production functions. And so that was really cool. Yeah. Were you kind of familiar with both sides of it? I mean, just from having a music background? Yes. Yes. I mean, the music touring probably more so than TV, but I had been on, you know, a couple TV things. And, you know, I definitely understood how TV worked. I just didn't have as much experience with it. You know, and then, of course,

going out on the road the version of the tv element to it was also slightly different so like right everything was slightly different than it normally would be isolated you know right were you a fan of like had you watched late night before you ended up going on the tour with conan did you what was your sort of cultural awareness of conan o'brien And you can make stuff up. Yeah, of course. Of course. And these are all going to be lies and embellishments.

There's just like a Conan drone flooding out my window right now. There's a sight trade on your forehead. Yeah, I just heard missiles armed. Yeah, no. You know, quite honestly, I didn't have television. I didn't have access to cable. I didn't live with it in the 90s, late 90s and 2000s. Also, I didn see clips because he was a weirdo. You know, he was he was the kind of outlier guy. And I really appreciated just the strangeness and also the sincerity of what he was doing. The other shows were a little bit more standard. Yeah. It seemed like you had a similar sketch sensibility in terms of wanting to

zag when others zig. Right, yes, 100%. So I was aware of that. So I always had a huge amount of respect for him. Yeah, it was just kind of like something that was built in. He was kind of of the late night. He was the closest to the sensibilities of all the comics I was hanging out with in the Lower East Side.

So he felt like, oh, he's kind of like one of us, but he's got a talk show. When's he coming to the Lower East Side? I know, when's he going to come there? It's like, now he's too tall. He can't fit through the door, man. He's too tall. You're right, man. So then you kind of quickly started becoming a staple on the TBS show in terms of a guest,

like a musical slash stand-up spot guest, which was a really, I mean, that was nice for the show. I'm sure to kill two birds with one stone. Do you remember the first appearance you did? Cause I've,

I just watched a bunch of them. I know you did, let's see in 2010. Yeah, I think that was the first, it was in November. So it was right after the show started. Is it the one I was wearing the golf sweater? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I think that was the first. It was in November. So it was right after the show started. Was it the one I was wearing the golf sweater? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I lost that sweater.

Do you remember based on what you wore? Yeah. Yeah. Basically what sweater I wore. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I do remember. I think that was the one. I think Kumail was in the audience. I got him into the show with Emily. Oh, nice. Yeah. I do remember that. Well, you know, I think Kumail was in the audience. I got him into the show with Emily. Oh, nice. Yeah. I do remember that. Well, you know, I mean, that was the cool thing about Conan, right? Like, like the whole team around Conan and the whole spirit around the Conan show is more open to people who are a little bit outside of the norm and they're a lot more forgiving and open um to trying an idea and so for me obviously i had gone on tour so they saw what i did um that definitely helped um yeah yeah but uh but they knew what they were getting into yeah they they knew pretty much even though i didn't

know what i was doing but like you know they were like go for it kid you know and uh uh yeah five minutes here's this five minutes good luck and put some future stars in the audience yeah totally no big deal it's hollywood yeah i you know it was i just remember being you know obviously very excited and um you know nervous i wanted to do i didn't want to do well but you know once i got started it was it was great but it was always like so i mean that five minutes goes by like boom you know like it's so quick and for me i'm like i hope this is enough time right you know and i hope i'm not going over time you know that's really that was probably my biggest concern the whole time i was performing was like i hope i hope i'm on time you're not

used to that constraint ever i'm i assume you Not general. I mean, because it's loose. That kind of straight jacketing. Yeah, right, right, right. I mean, TV is a lot more like, please stick to this. We would appreciate it very much. The advertisers would like if you... Yeah, we don't want to edit your performance. Unless you're going to mention Budweiser.

Yeah, totally. Unless you mention one of our sponsors. We'll just tie it into a commercial. And then we won't have to pay for it. But yeah, I mean, you know, doing obviously doing like lineup nights, you know, you should stick to a certain amount of time, but obviously it's loose. So, yeah, this was like me kind of having a new parameter that I wanted to I wanted to be good size. When you started doing TV spots, were you worried about how your, your comedy was going to translate into that, you know, like you said, that, that golf sweater type five, like, was that stressful for you to

have to kind of condense things into? No, again, really, really the only thing that I, that I wanted to make sure was that I was fitting within the time that was asked for the show. Like that was, that was the only thing I was ever really worried about the creativity part. That's kind of the easier part because you know, that's, that's what I do. But mostly I just want to make sure that I'm respectful of the show's time. That's so nice that you have that sort of inner security about.

Yeah. Otherwise I freak out. Yeah, no, that's amazing. I'm just like, Oh boy. Yeah boy yeah i i would think if you're if you improvise something for five minutes afterwards are you ever just like oh i wish i had thought of this or that or you don't even worry it's just like it is what it is and uh it depends it depends sometimes i'll have like you know i wanted to end energetically

differently than i did because i might have been like a little bit too worried about time. And then I kind of forgot about doing it. You know, I did that when I did Ted. The way I ended it was not the way I wanted to end it. I wanted it to be like full of effects and swimming, you know, and all this cool shit. And then I want to cut off. But instead it was like I had no effect. So I was kind of trying to do it vocally.

And it really sucked. But but yeah, I mean like all the Conan things, like because I also did some high concept stuff on there and, and just the fact that I got to do it was enough, even if it wasn't like exactly maybe how I envisioned it in my mind, the fact that I actually did it and walked out the stage was like, wow,

that was the thing that I thought about and I actually got to do it. I pulled it up. I pulled it off. I pulled it off. Yeah. Yeah. My impression was you had kind of an open end. Once the TBS show started, it was kind of like,

come on when you feel like you're ready and then do whatever, pretty much. It was whatever you felt like doing. Yeah. I know. It's great. I know. I,

I loved that. I mean, I love that. You know, the other thing I loved about, you know, I think I talked about this for the documentary. All right. Conan O'Brien can't stop. Yeah. Yeah. I talked about it, that. You know, the other thing I loved about, you know, I think I talked about this for the documentary. All right. Conan O'Brien can't stop. Yeah. Yeah. I talked about it.

But but the thing I also like my thing is that I noticed about shows is that shows are run by a whole crew of people. And, you know, there's showrunners and all this stuff. But really, the feeling of a show kind of reflects the host in many ways. But depending on like some people kind of surrender to whatever, they're just like, it's a job and they just like, here's, here's what it ends up being. And this is it.

But with Conan, it always felt, it always just felt chill like that, which I always appreciated because if I, if I ran a show, that's, that's the vibe, you know,

that's like Conan, Conan was doing a show the way I would run a show, you know, not that I'm, not that I'm in anybody in that realm, but, but you know what I mean? Like maybe at some point, not that I'm not that I'm anybody in that realm. But but, you know what I mean? Like maybe at some point, maybe who knows? But but yeah, you know, and so I appreciated that.

And I also appreciated even on tour. I like that he took the time to like just come into the dressing room and just like hang out. And yeah, he legitimately likes to hang out. Yeah, he really likes to hang out. I know, you know, he's a hanger out. He's a hangers outer. And, you know, and he needs he needs people energy. I i understand i'm the same kind of person i need some energy so why not like let's dive into someone's vibe you know that's on the show right because they're here yeah so like let's do it you know uh so i really

enjoyed that plus we commiserated over the fact that he grew up cath and i grew up cath oh yeah and uh and then i'm half redhead yeah. And, and then I'm half redhead. Yeah. So we're both, I'm half redhead. He's full redhead, you know, so.

Wait, which half? My mother's French with red hair. Oh, I thought maybe it was like the back. Oh yeah. No, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

no, no, no, no, that would be incredible. That would be, I would never be like, go,

you're so punk rock. It's like, I don't do anything. It's just like this. Speaking of your mother being French. One of my favorite things is all the different accents and voices you do and do you is that ever pre-planned like i saw one where like you kind of had a new york voice then you did a song then you came back out of that and you're british there's no rhyme or reason to any of it every time i've seen you and do you do you ever plan that ahead or you're just like whatever voice comes into your head at the time no i don't

really plan it i'm just i'm just like you know like as i'm approaching the stage i'm like maybe i just start talking and then if the voice kind of sounds british then i just stick right you know and then i know that when I end a song, like, as I'm finishing a bit or something, or a sonic thing, or it doesn't have to be a song, it could just be a hard switch, like, mid-sentence or whatever, but I'm just thinking, like, oh, something different.

Something different. Oh, um, this. Coming out of it, right. And then I'll just switch to that. Wow. But it really depends. It's like, that's what I love about it. I'm like, ah, how do I, cause I'm really just kind of in the audience, you know, as I'm doing it. And so I'm like, what's going to fuck them up? You know, like, like, you know, I love that. You know,

you're putting yourself in the audience and like, what would throw them for a loop? Yeah, exactly. Like, what do I want to, what would I want to see? Like, I want to, I want to be what would I want to see? Like I want to, I want to be, you know, I want to be tripped out. I want to be, you know, I want to be like destabilized, you know? And so, yeah, that's usually, it's just like an instinctual.

I want to feel like someone slipped something in my drink. Yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I always say that like for my performances, I want people who aren't on drugs to feel like they're on drugs and people who are on drugs

to like blast off into another dimension. So, hopefully. Wow. Well, I don't think I realized. I mean, I knew that you did a lot of improv, but I don't know if I realized that you were literally like walking out there, not totally sure what you were going to do. So what would you do? Because I know usually for our standups, there would be like a rehearsal or even, for instance, you did one where you played and you started improvising music with the basic cable band. Oh, yeah.

Like, what would you do to rehearse for that? Did you rehearse at all or were you literally just like, I'm showing up right before my... A sound check. Yeah. I mean, I think that the most I would do is maybe a sound check. But I think the one with the band, I don't even know if we did that. Because all I said was at the end, I'll cue you to, you know, kind of take over from what I had laid down on the loop machine. Wow.

Oh, wow. And then they would take over. And we'd just do this handoff and then I would continue. And so, yeah, because you don't, you know, the thing is like those things I don't really need.

I think the, the one that kind of the song about a horse or whatever like that, I think I discussed a structure with the musicians backstage. So we had a structure and we just came up with the strumming pattern, like backstage in the green room. And that was kind of it. And then when we went on stage and it was just costuming and lights to make it look more solid than it was and uh and then we just started and just did it and then and then that was the one where uh what's his name from zz top uh gibbons oh billy billy gibbons yeah billy gibbons

just happened to be there and decided to join in. And so he's just there in the back. And I was like, OK, yeah, sure. Let's have him, too. Sure. Absolutely. Wow. That's so magical. It was very magical.

It was very just very surreal, you know, because that's my favorite thing. I love having like all these insane resources set up for a moment. That's like super uncertain. It's like the best feeling for me because you've got the support of the the framework around you yeah so that kind of does all the heavy lifting for structure um and and then all i have to do is play off of the situation which is just a blast for me yeah they i mean they're the basic cable band they're so great at just because they would back a lot of musical guests and they just seemed incredibly versatile and kind of could just jump into anything.

Oh, they were great. They were the greatest, man. Like really, really cool cats. I'm glad I got to meet them. And Jimmy was always like just such a warm, open, welcoming guy for me. Jimmy Vivino. Yeah, the Vivines. That's great.

Yeah. The Vivino. That's great. Yeah. Well, yeah, that's so, it's cool to hear. Cause I feel like what you're describing with comedy, it's similar in music where if you're just, if you have enough skilled musicians,

they can get together without rehearsing and kind of make something, make something. And, and maybe your comedy is similar where it's like, if you're, if you're a skilled enough improviser, you can just, and you have other people like that around you. Yeah, you can just go out there and make something.

Yeah. Which is what it feels like watching you in Conan. Yeah. I mean, I mean, it's, it's, but comedy is very similar to music. That's what, for me, when I play music, but also I see comedies in music as well. And so it's similar, at least improvisationally, they kind of come from the same place. It's just a different expression of the same idea. There was one appearance that I wanted to ask you about where you really kind of went into a comedy sketch, the Kwanzaa Juice. Oh, yeah.

Was that something you had written or did you, like, did a writer pitch that for you? How, what, because it felt like that was your appearance, but I couldn't tell exactly where the, like where the sketch ended and where the performance began. Yeah. Yeah. I, uh, no, that, that wasn't all I told. I told them I wanted like kind of like a fireplace chair kind of situation. And I wanted a large tome of some sort. And, uh, and then I wanted like some kind of a

bottle that was labeled Kwanzaa juice I think those are the things that I asked for and then so you produced the sketch yeah yeah I pretty yeah I guess I produced the sketch yeah yeah and then I just like you love production yeah yeah I do I did uh yeah and I just like I just got up and improvised oh wow you know because I knew that I was going to probably start sitting down with the tome that I knew. Uh-huh. And then I was going to do something with it. You got to tome out there.

You got to dress the tome. You got to tome it up. Yeah. Tome to tome to tome. Yeah. So. Tome. Yeah.

Tome. Yeah. Yeah. That was just like one of those things where I was like, just have these things out there and I think it'll work out. And it did. Yeah, it did did i thought it was pre-written i was like oh maybe that was a i don't know a jose arroyo sketch oh nice pitch for you nice oh yeah no yeah that's great it worked yeah it worked as we all know you are now the um you're the house band the band

leader at the cordon show how did you start getting involved uh, the band leader at the Corden Show. How did you start getting involved with the Late Late Show? Yeah, that was, I think I just stopped doing comedy bang bang. Right. Oh, wait, so the emphasis is on the second bang? Yes. A lot of people don't know that. Yeah, thank you. A lot of people don't know that.

You've been saying it wrong. Well, I'm always afraid to mention it because I don't know which bang to accent. It sucks because it's like, it just seems a certain way and it's not. And it kind of like, it's terrible. I like comedy. Death Ray was just easy. That's why English is hard. It really separates real fans from the hype

boy. Comedy bang bang. Yeah, so I just quit. You know, I was did my last show and was in town, I think, I was, did my last show and was in town, I think for like an extra few weeks or something like that. Right. Then I got this call from my manager saying like, Oh, this guy, James got, he's going to take over Kilborn's I guess. No, not Kilborn. Yeah.

Is that right? Oh, no. Craig, Craig Ferguson. Yeah. So many Craig. Yes. So many Craig, so many Jimmy's take over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So many Craigs. Yeah, so many Craigs, so many Jimmys. Take over his spot, so it's going to be a talk show, and he's interested in you being a band leader. And I was like, but I just got out of being a band leader. I already did my time. I did my time. I put in my time already. Now we're getting pigeonholed.

Yeah, no. So I was like, yeah yeah I'll meet with them met with them at this hotel in Beverly Hills and yeah and it was just kind of like he just was like do you want to be the band leader it's like most of the things in my life I've gotten really lucky because people

just asked me to do it and I didn't have to like I wasn't and you don't know how to say no yeah I don't know how to say no or it's obvious that I should say yes. You know, you're like, I already do a fake British accent. Now this guy's doing. I know. It's like, why is he?

Oh, well, God, these Brits. It was surreal, though. I mean, because, you know, I'd just gotten done with Comedy Bang Bang. I was like, oh, I play a fake band leader. Yeah. You know, on a band leader. I'm a one man band leader on a fake band leader yeah you know on a you know a band leader i'm a one-man band leader on a fake talk show and then here's this guy asking me to be on an actual talk show as an actual band leader

with a band yeah so it was very weird to like have those things time out like that was very odd so did you did you go out and put that band together yourself yeah is that all yeah wow yeah they asked me you know i you know sarah silverman basically i i took like a month to figure out whether i want to do this or not right and um and sarah at the end was like well just just ask for all the stuff that you want and if they give it to you consider doing it so uh you know so i just said i want to put together my own band i want the band to improvise i don't want to be wearing suits um I want to put together my own band. I want the band to improvise. I don't want to be wearing suits.

I want it to be more of a rock band kind of situation. And I want to minimize rehearsing as much as possible because I want to be improvising. That was great advice from Sarah Silverman. Oh, yeah. Sarah's always the sage. If I have an issue, a conundrum, I just ask her. She usually gives me a pretty awesome reflection. And so they said yes to everything, and then you're like, fuck!

Yeah, yeah. I gotta do it. Now I have to do it. Yeah, seriously. So I was like, oh, well, I guess I gotta do it now. Right, right. But it was great. It was great.

They've outsmarted me in every turn. Those are great terms, though. It was great terms, and they agreed to it, and I love that they did. And I think James just has really good instincts in that regard. He's really good at letting people do what they do. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, so that was great.

And then I, yeah, I just put together, I knew the first two cats that I wanted. I wanted Tim and Steve. I knew Tim and Steve from Seattle days. And Tim's a genius guitar player, just a virtuosic monster. And then Steve was great because he had a company called Ikey Beats that did sound-alikes and audio logos for radio stations all over the world.

So he had to reverse engineer, you know, all kinds of songs because they wanted sound-alikes. So he's just like a master producer. Yeah. And so I was like, oh, that'll come in handy. He's also an amazing keyboardist and a saxophone player. And I was like, oh, that'll come in handy if they need jingles, you know, or they need something that's pre-written for a sketch or whatever,

he could do it. And in his sleep, it's super easy for him. It's wild how things happen when they should. Like you had all this background with these other musicians. And when it came time for you to like pick a band. Yeah. You knew right where to go. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, although the drummer and the bass player, that was a little bit more of a hunt. Just play along. Yeah. Oh, sorry.

I mean, yes. What were you saying? I feel like interrupted you. So yeah, it was great. And then I was looking for a drummer and a bass player. And I asked Catherine Popper from Jack White's band at the time, because she's just an amazing bass player.

And I was like, oh, that's right. Because I wanted Tim and Steve, and then I wanted diversity for the band. And so there were all kinds of great musicians that I could have asked. It could have been a bunch of dudes up there, but I need at least one or two other women in the band. Sure. And at least a person of color in the band. And so Guillermo was recommended to me by a bunch of local musicians and tried him out. And I was like, I like this guy's vibe.

He's great. And so I asked him. And then Hagar was in new york i was in new york because i was still living in new york you know getting ready to move all my shit and so i met her at a rehearsal space and i i tried out a bunch of different bass players but right amazing bass players but they just weren't like down to just wasn't they weren't the right vibe and then uh i sat down with hagar and i did like i brought my looping pedal and i would do like i would just improvise a song like do a quick beat and then do like a vocal bass line or whatever and then she would like hear the bass line and immediately start

playing it and yeah then we jam for a little bit i did it only took me about like maybe 10 minutes i was like yeah this is the one and plus she's like super charismatic um and very striking and so uh that was kind of like, I didn't actually notice that until she actually showed up. Cause I was like, she's bad-ass. And I was like, yeah.

And then she showed up for rehearsal and all the producers were like, wow, she's so telegenic. And I was, I was like, oh yes, yes. I knew that.

I knew that. Of course. Yeah. But you know, she's Israeli. It was cool. Like, and so I think like we put together a good Muppet band, you know, I just wanted a Of course. Yeah. But, you know, she's Israeli. It was cool. So I think we put together a good Muppet band. I just wanted a Muppet vibe.

And all of those players are all kind of outsiders. You know, Guillermo is like one of a kind. And Tim has been playing in weirdo, super high intellectual, but weirdo bands for a long time. I mean, also playing for like K Lang and play piece of people like that as well. But generally his, his original projects are like really way out. Awesome stuff.

And then, and then Steve was just like a studio dude. Like he was just in a studio, like hunched over, you know? So like an indoor kid, you know? So like the whole band is a bunch of like weirdos,

you know, and the Hagar's is really like, you know, like playing for all kinds of people. Yeah. So it was great. And when I put it together and they like yeah sure and i was like great okay so is that is that chemistry when it all can you just look at all the band members and go oh that person's really fitting in with everyone you know what i mean like it just musically can you tell that or just yeah is this also involved like talking in between and getting a vat just yeah yeah i mean like you know i did i purposely set up this series of i did a

weekly show um which was kind of like going back to my roots in seattle in the 90s when we'd have jam nights and so i had a and i you know purposefully chose a tuesday night either wanted a tuesday or wednesday coming off night at El Cid. And we would just improvise, you know, for a couple hours. And I did that for, we did that for, I'd say like almost a year. Oh, wow. And, and I did it on purpose because I wanted to accelerate the chemistry. Oh, wow. Yeah. So I just like putting people on the spot, you know, it's like, we're doing a show. So we're going to improvise live and I'm going to see what happens. And, and it just worked out.

That's really smart. Yeah. And you had to get everyone else as comfortable as you are with that. Cause I'm sure that's not what every musician, you know, gets into music thinking, oh, I'm going to have to also kind of improvise on live television. Right, right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah.

Cause yeah, I want to just want them to be comfortable, you know, because, and, and now we, we, we do improvise, but it's kind of, uh, we have, because we have to, any piece of music that we do, it has to be registered for publishing. Oh, right, right, right. So we, we actually now have our, a catalog, like a bump catalog, uh, of bumpers. And so we have like, I think so. I think Tim calculated it at around like 4,000 or maybe more of these bumpers. And so he can just put together, you know, on the list, on the sheet for the day.

He was like, oh, we'll do this. We'll do that. We'll do this. We'll do that. And then he'll slightly remind like in our comms, like, you know, while the guests are on or while we're doing a bit, he'll, he'll be like, E. Okay, cool. And then we're sitting there for a second and then they'll be like, we'll be right back. And so there's like reminders. You don't have to memorize what number everything is. Like this is 2,317.

And some people do recognize the names. Yeah. The names are fucking ridiculous. I mean, they are, they are so stupid, but they're, they're, they're, they're, I can't even think of any,

but like, I think Bezos Mikulos is one of them. What's the, oh yeah. Like Don's Sweeney, who he was like our original, uh, kind of music dude.

Uh, I like that one. Yeah. It's just like a bunch. And then they're just so ridiculous and so many like you're really gonna register these but uh can you string them all together and release them as like oh my god yeah just like the longest spotify playlist we should explain a bumper is that's the music when it's like we'll be right back and then the music yeah

yeah yeah that's the play and play out. Play in, play out. Yeah. I kind of realized I theorized this. I don't know if it's true, but I was thinking like the reason why they call them bumpers. Do you think it's because it's in relation to cars, you know, like the bumpers on cars, like there's a front bumper and a rear bumper.

Oh, right. Of course. I think that's exactly what it is. Seems like it would be. Or it's some weird German word from the 20s. And it protects the show from impact. Yes, right. Right, right. From the commercial. Yeah, it's like, you know,

it's not a dry cut back to the show. It's like there's a little bit of softening. A little moisture. Yeah, a little moisture. A little, you know, crossfade moisture. It's great. So there's not too much friction. You don't want that. You don't want a dry show because it breaks. Well, how are you... So, James Corden

just announced that he's ending his show next year what i know oh that's why we had you on oh shit you would have heard they wanted us to break the news to you they thought oh this right after you woke up was the way to do it okay um i really don't think we should be the ones doing this wow that's so cool um no i mean that's so cool no I mean that's no that's that's cool that's really cool it's not for a year so you have time yeah yeah take it away I mean it is kind of nice

with with these you know Hollywood announcements like that it's like you have a year to sort of let things sink in and you probably knew about this before that announcement you've probably been badgering them well yeah yeah go back to that it was it was it was definitely like everyone was like uh what are you what are you when are you gonna yeah what are you you know um for for a while everyone's playing cool you know everyone's like running theories you know but i someone someone said like months and months ago that they said that uh they were talking to james and he remembers james saying

james saying something to the crew that he'd like to give people a year so so i and james for them you know that's the one thing it's like when james says something will be like the way it is like it i don't think there's ever been a time when that hasn't been true like like he says what he means and and so it was this uh so I I had a pretty I was pretty certain uh right yeah prepared for maybe not but but pretty certain that there was at least going to be a year behind it and then I just remember uh after a show the band was like yeah James wants to meet with us but like with the band and I never got a text. So I was like, Oh, he just wants to meet with you guys. Okay, cool. So I started to leave and James was coming down the hallway and he's like,

he's like, are you joining? And I'm just like, Oh, I don't know. You want me to go down? Are you going to join? Okay, sure. And then, and then we just walked down into the band room and he sat down and it was great i mean he told us before i mean you know a few people knew uh you know but uh he told us first because he was like well you know you're you're part of the you know you're on camera and right you know you're you're you're on on stage and you're the kind of the face of it and so

i just want to let you know what i've decided and then you know he talked about it and it was it was emotional you know he was um it's hard not, you know, he talked about it and it was, it was emotional, you know, he was, it's hard not to, you know, I try to play it cool, but it's hard not to be emotional when you know that this is something that he sincerely has thought about very, very, very hard and made this decision. And I was kind of not totally surprised because, you know, I, I just, I kind of like I, cause I see James is he's kind of similar to me.

He's like, you know, he's on a journey and he's he's an artist and a creator. And he I don't think that I never felt like this is his absolute thing that he wants to do. Right. Yeah. This is a stop along the way. This was his ultimate dream. Yeah. Because, again, he got offered it like I did,

you know, it wasn't, it wasn't like he was fighting to get it. He was like, you know, right. Anyway. So I wasn't totally surprised.

And then, um, yeah, it was a very, very odd moment. It's like one of those surreal moments. I mean, it's kind of similar to like taking it back to like getting the,

the Conan tour. It's like, you're, you're like, you hear about something and then it doesn't, then nothing for a little bit. And then suddenly it's like, here's the reality. It's like, Oh, right. For real. Like, yeah. Oh, this is the reality. Oh, Oh, this is really is. I guess I have to address this now with myself. Yeah. Like this is real. So I need to figure that

out. But, um, you know, I actually, I'm very excited. I think it's good, uh, especially for creative folks to be scared a bit and not get too comfortable. And it all depends on, you know, obviously the crew, the production people would love it to keep going forever. You know, that's like the gig. I get it. For creative people, it's nice to be dangerous. Yeah. Well, these are great gigs. I mean, a late night show, it's like one of the only jobs that you kind of know where you're going to be for the next year and yes you also know what your vacation days are and it's like it's just very stable it's the yeah it's the insurance company of yes television a hundred

percent a hundred percent yeah and and i get it and you know and all the you know the people in the band are like okay oh what do we get it you know everybody's everybody, and all the, you know, the people in the band are like, okay, well, what do we get it? You know, everybody's, everybody's like, it's a, it's a mixed bag, you know? Cause they're like, okay, that means I got to figure out. I mean, even for me, I'm like, Oh, I got to figure out, well, I guess I better save up this year. Cause I don't know what's going to happen the year afterwards, you know? Well, I'm sure someone's going to just offer you something.

Probably the last day of late, late late show i want you to start doing dramatic acting yeah yeah yeah you have great acting chops yeah well yeah we'll see will smith uh no but someone has to fill fill in that yeah that's right yeah yeah why not you the lack of serious actors yeah i don't you know i don't know. But I think in general, there's kind of excitement. There's like that uncertainty, but also, fuck it. You know, it's like when I decided to quit my job in my 20s and focus on music. Like, that was really scary. Yeah, no safety net.

No. And you're right. I don't think for artists, being too comfortable is not usually a good thing for innovation in terms of keeping things. It has to be a little scary, like you said. Yeah. And that's, and that's a totally fine. And I mean, James is in the same spot. He doesn't know what he's going to do either.

And, um, and he feels that he's just like, I just know that this is, this is the right decision for me. And, and, and I really appreciated that. I appreciate his honesty. Yeah. It's just his ability to communicate what it is that he needs to say as he's feeling it. And you can tell that he's taken a lot of consideration behind it. You can feel it.

Yeah, I'm sure it's a hard thing to walk away from. Yeah. Yes. Has your time there gone super fast? That's my experience working on a late night show. Lightspeed. Just like, whoa. Yeah.

How did seven years go by? Yeah. You guys know, it's like, you know, you show up and you do your thing and you get into a rhythm and it's broken up by amazing moments. And then there's some like, well, the show just ran really well today. You know, it's like, it's like they all start to kind of bleed together. The comedy factory. Yeah.

Yeah. Totally. Yeah. You're pumping out, you know, it's a volume based industry. So it's like, yeah, we've got to make a lot of stuff,. The comedy factory. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. Yeah. You're pumping out, you know, it's a, it's a, it's a volume based industry. So it's like,

yeah, we've got to make a lot of stuff, a lot of content. Yeah, of course. And you almost don't have time to think about the future. Really. Do you know what I mean?

It's so you've got to be, Oh, we're doing a show. We're doing, you're just like making donuts. So yeah, it's hard to think long range. Yeah.

It's not, yeah. It's not really a thing that naturally lends itself to that way of thinking. It's more like, yeah. You know, especially for me, cause I just, I show up, I'm not part of the rehearsal. I show up like, you know, 10 minutes before the show starts and, you know, and then we. Is that true? That's fantastic.

Oh my God. That sounds great. Yeah. Oh, so you don't like when they do musical parodies or anything like that, are you, are you involved? Your music work is all just about playing on the show. Yeah. Oh, that's great.

Yeah. Yeah. If there's like any extra music, usually they'll ask Steve to do that. Oh, got it. If there's a bit like, because I told them I didn't want the band to automatically back up people. I wanted like, because I just, I like the band being the band. Keep them unique. Yeah. Just keep them the band. And on up, you know, people I wanted, I wanted like, because I just, I like the band being the band. Yeah. Just keep them the band. And on rare occasion, we will, like we, they backed up a couple of musicians went and backed up Michael Buble. Right. And that was really great. Oh, that's cool. For Buble, you got it. For Bubles, anything. You

want that on your resume? Yeah. You just want it. You just want to say you did it you know the boobs um yeah i just wanted the band to kind of like be the band and so for the most part we were just doing music and if there's anything that's extra generally uh tim who i kind of thought when i put the band together would kind of become the first officer you know um. He's that guy. So he helps organize all this stuff. Yeah. He's awesome. So he's kind of like the, the AD man.

And, and I just, that way I just get to show up and do my thing. So sweet. It's great. Well, I know we have to let you go, but I love the Reggie's question segment that you do on the late,

late show. Yeah. But I want, I thought this was our chance to ask you a question. Sure. So Reggie, if chance to ask you a question. Sure. So, Reggie, if you could ask yourself one question, would you? You don't have to answer it. You know, if I had to ask myself one question, would I?

Yeah. I guess if I had to. Take as much time as you need. Yeah, if I had to. No, you don't have to. You could. Oh, okay. If I could. Probably not. to take as much time as you need yeah if i had to no you don't have to you could okay if i could

and i probably not smart correct yeah that's the right answer thank you so much reggie oh my pleasure it's great seeing you again yeah can't wait to see what you do next for sure yeah yeah yeah we'll see i'll just be like on a farm just like right right right they just asked me they asked me to run the'll just be like on a farm. Right, right, right. They just asked me. They asked me to run the farm. Yeah. He's running a farm in a golf sweater. It's like, oh, that makes sense.

Thank you, Reggie Watts. That was great. Thank you, Reggie. He's delightful. He is great. Human. Hey, we've got a listener question. We do, we do.

You know what? We get a lot of listener questions and not a got a listener question. We do, we do. You know what? We get a lot of listener questions and not a lot of listener answers. I want our listeners to give us some answers. Well, do we ever posit any questions? I mean, we have to start asking questions. I don't know what to do with my life or why we're all here.

Yeah, I don't know. Yeah, I would love for anyone to weigh in on that. Yeah. Yes, please send us in answers. But in the meantime, we're gonna answer your questions. Yeah, and don't know. Yeah, I would love for anyone to weigh in on that. Yeah. Yes, please send us in answers. But in the meantime, we're going to answer your questions. Yeah, and you know what? This question, that kind of, that little existential intro sort of leads us into this question. Oh, okay, good.

Let's hear it. It says, hmm, I thought about sending a voicemail, but heck, typing is so easy. Sure, okay. Mike, how did you go from attorney to comedy writer what led you to make the change what was it like to change professions asking for a friend thanks kevin kevin you know what i used to be when i did stand-up uh there were lawyers who wanted to do stand-up who would kind of reach out to me and ask for advice. I bet.

Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of crossover. I mean, we've maybe talked about this before, but I feel like lawyer brains and comedy writer brains are somewhat similar. Yeah, sure. In that you're solving puzzles a little bit. Right. My experience was a lot of the lawyers I met who went into comedy just went to law school because

they were putting off disappointing their parents pursuing comedy and it has to do with parents i mean i base i never wanted to be a lawyer ever in my life and my my mother who was kind of a monster uh basically yeah told me i had made you yeah but you know and then i was in law school and i was like oh well i can't quit like what so i yeah i worked as a trial lawyer for three years in new york city and that's and move i finally moved um into new york city and then i started out of yeah your mom's house which is probably helpful yes and i started doing stand-up at night so i was a lawyer during the day and then I'd run and do open mics. I'd still be in a suit. Cause a lot of times I was working on a trial for the next day and I'd literally run from the office to do standup.

I did. Yeah, absolutely. I once left a briefcase in a pocket park in your midtown Manhattan with all the evidence for a trial was in this. Oh my God. But I'm so absent-minded. I went back to work and I was like,

okay, time to work on that case. I was like, I never runs. And there was- Did somebody find it, but they dumped all the papers out and took the briefcase? Oh my God. That would have been fine.

No, it was just still sitting right where I- Oh wow, that's great. But anyway, yeah, the second I was making $50 a week doing standup, I quit being a lawyer. And I had no money saved. I had an illegal sublet. So my rent was cheap. So I could do that.

$200 a month. Yeah. And it was great. You know, at the time, like if I went on a date with someone and I explained, oh, you know, I'm a lawyer, but I really want to do stand-up comedy. If like 20 minutes later, the woman said, I just can't get over. You said, why would you give up being a lawyer? I'd be like, thank you. We're done.

You're not the one. Yeah. I mean, most lawyers I know or attorneys, I guess, don't like being attorneys. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there were people in law school who I was like, oh yes, you were born to be a lawyer. Like they just love it. They just, they're very passionate about it. But yes, I would happily encourage any lawyer who wants to go into comedy passionate about it. And, but I, yes, I would happily encourage all, any lawyer who wants to go into comedy, do it. And the other thing- Just quit.

And no, and do it. I know a few lawyers who are also comedians. Right. And the other thing too, is you don't necessarily have to quit. If that sounds scary. Right. You could still do comedy.

Yes. And have a day job job and maybe even talk about your day job in your comedy absolutely yes um or improv or whatever it is that yeah you want to do at night um and maybe you know starting that way you can kind of ease yourself out of it you don't have to like quit and then start taking improv classes Yeah. I just want less lawyers in the world. I think that's win-win. But yes, I mean, that's how I did it. Of course, I started doing, trying stand-up and... And make sure you like that too, because... Yes.

The irony, unfortunately, I mean, is that anything, once you make it a job, becomes a little bit less pleasurable. Yes. Do you ever think about what you would do if you weren't a comedy writer now? Oh, no, because I can't think five minutes ahead. Well, you'll never have to make that decision, but. Yeah, I become a golf pro on the senior tour. I'd have to learn to play golf.

I don't know. How about you? I think about it all the time. The fact you asked that made me think you've really given it a lot of thought. I mean, I have like the sort of pie in the sky, like, oh, I'm going to open a sandwich shop or I'm going to open a yarn store. Wait, what? Yeah. You've thought about opening a yarn store? I certainly have. And it would just be a very cozy place where you could come and you could knit, you could buy yarn. I think I have an owl in this fantasy. A real owl. An owl that lives

there. That's your store mascot. Yes, exactly. Oh, I love that. But would you know how to, I, I couldn't, I could never run a business. Run a business? No. See, that's the problem is I don't, I know how to do the thing that I like, but I don't know how to run a business no see that's the problem is i don't i know how to do the thing that i like but i don't know how to run a business about it which is also my problem with comedy um or i was like maybe i'll start making cbd dog treats oh that's i haven't tried to do this at all but that's oh don't worry it's like an emerging market no one's gonna arrest you i'm so naive when about all things involving cannabis yeah is that a thing with dogs like getting your dog high i have no idea oh it's not even getting them high because the cbd is just for like the relaxing part of it sure but it's to calm anxious dogs. Oh. And I have that. Oh, your do a full career change. Yes.

For some reason, I have this in my head, but landscape architect. Ah, really? Yeah. I think I'd have to go maybe get a degree. Sure. And get to work outside. You're outside. I have a green thumb.

That's what I was going to ask. I've seen your garden. It's beautiful. Yeah. I mean, my parents are both, they both have like full green hands. So I inherited just one finger. Did you grow up doing a lot of planning? Like, were you kind of at their side?

Yeah. Yeah. I did gardening with them. And my dad has a PhD in soil science. So he would give, he gives me lots of tips. Okay. You know, I thought maybe we were near the end of the podcast, but then you said your father has a PhD in soil science. Yes.

There is that much to learn about it. Wow. Does he specialize in certain? I think he specializes in certain crops. Okay. Ah, all right. Yeah. So that's kind of what he... That's why we lived overseas, actually. He was consulting on crop growth in Latin America. Corn? Yes, some corn, but

mostly like specialty crops, like berries, blueberries. Really? It's a big one for him. Acid big one acid loving what kind of soil do blueberries like i don't honestly i don't know don't play dumb i know you know i don't know what the ph of the soil is that they need wow you know sometime i should tell a story about i was going through my father's old papers and I found a letter he wrote in 1972. And in it, it was about a meeting he had with a Dr. O'Brien from- What?

From Boston. No way. And it turns out he had met- It was Conan's dad? With Conan's dad. No way. Yeah, in 1972. Oh my God. Isn't that crazy? That's really weird. It is weird. And he saved the letter too. I have the letter, yeah. Yeah. And my sisters and I,

we were all going through his papers simultaneously. And if they had come across that letter, they wouldn't understand. They wouldn't have noticed it. Right. You were the only one who wouldn't have thrown it away. Right. And then I called Conan like 10 minutes later and he goes,

I'm here with my father. And he asked him and his dad didn't remember the meeting, but he said, yeah. He said, yeah, at that time, because they were working. Well, why did your dad meet with him? My father was director of research for a pharmaceutical company and he was working with antibiotics at the time. Oh my God. Yeah. So I think he had talked to Dr. O'Brien about some clinical trials that were happening up in Boston. Wow. Yeah. Because Conan's father was also a research scientist and that's what my father was.

And that's what my father was. Weird that's what my father was. Yes. Crazy. That is crazy. Yeah. I wonder if we're cracking the formula for comedy. Yes, comedy writing. You have to have a deeply scientific father. Exactly.

And probably mother too. Yeah. No, my mom has a master's in. There you go. In what? Great question. Biology? I might be wrong.

Well, I feel we covered a lot of ground this week. Yeah. Where am I? Who am I? And what do you want to be? This felt like a very intense therapy session. Yes. And that's why I'm glad you teed up our listeners giving us answers instead of

questions. I'm looking forward to that. So please submit your listener answers. Leave us a voicemail at 323-209-5303. We have an email. It's insideconanpod at gmail.com. And here's a compelling reason you should give us answers,

Jessie. Yeah. Oh, because we love you yeah 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 burr executive produced by joanna solotaroff adam s 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 interstitions.

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