Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Ruthie Wyatt

Episode Date: December 4, 2020

Ruthie Wyatt (Team Coco Head of Production and Live Events) talks with writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell about originally applying to be a production assistant at The Tonight Show, location scouting and transforming spaces during Comic-Con, favorite memories from the travel shows & the Conan & Friends stand-up tour, and meeting her Dads: The Podcast co-host Rory Scovel. Plus, Mike and Jessie answer a listener question about the time Conan dumped toilet paper, laundry, and marshmallows on Mike’s car. Got a question for Inside Conan? Call our voicemail: [phone] and e-mail us at [e-mail] For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com

And now, it's time for Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. Welcome back to Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast. We are your humble hosts. Hi, I'm Mike Sweeney and you're Jesse Gaskell. We're writers on The Conan Show. We are. And we bring you behind the scenes of this historic late night empire. Enterprise. Yes. Spanning generations. It's like a dynasty. They'll talk about the Ming dynasty and the Conan dynasty. Exactly. And some great ceramics have come out of the Conan Dynasty. I'm learning how to make ceramics.

Is that true? Yeah. I've been taking a pottery wheel class. Man, you are always learning new skills and trades. I also have dye on my fingers right now. Can you see the pink dye? Oh, God, I'm glad you explained that. I thought you were taking steroids or something. I didn't know what was going on with your red hands.

I can't keep still for a moment because I will just get so depressed. Ceramics. Yes. I love it. Do you have a potter's wheel? I don't have a potter's wheel, but I've been going... Actually, I can't anymore because they had to close with the safer at home but right i've been going to the pottery studio it's actually called the pottery studio okay in east la yeah it's fun it's hard it's i'm not i'm not good at it and i don't like that

feeling i haven't done anything like that since i think it was eighth grade or maybe freshman year in high school in art. I was the guy who made things that would explode in the kiln and ruin everyone else's. Oh, wow. It's like, well, you got a bit of Mike Sweeney and all of your items now. You're welcome. If you're still with us. What? We'd like to introduce the show now. Oh, yeah. Ruthie Wyatt. She's an office mainstay at the Conan Show.

She is. She's really the queen of Team Coco. She is. Well, let her tell you what her title is. Here's our interview with Ruthie Wyatt. We're here with our friend, friend to all, Ruthie Wyatt. Hi, Ruthie. Hi. We're actually good friends in real life. Yeah. And I realize I don't know what the title of your job is. Oh, that makes me so happy because that means we're real friends. Like, when you're real friends, it doesn't matter what you actually do. it doesn't matter what you actually do it doesn't matter what your

credits are yeah okay tell us what your actual job at team coco is well my actual title is head of production and live events you've been with team coco for 10 years now yeah in, in October, it had been 10 years. Wow. I started like the month before the TBS show started in 2010. Wow. So you've really been with it for the entire run. What were your duties initially? Well, initially, I was the digital coordinator. I was working at NBC, not on The Tonight Show, but at NBC before. And I was the executive assistant to the president of digital, but I knew I really wanted to work on The Tonight Show because I was up in like that Black Tower high rise right over The Tonight Show's studio with you guys. Okay, wait, so take us back. And by the way, Ruthie has like a mind like a trap. So that's

why we asked you to be on here because you really do have a memory of literally everything that has gone on with the show since it's been at TBS. That's why I made notes. I have a notepad. Oh, yeah. We really want to know what's on your notepad. So and then didn't you initially interview to be someone's assistant? I did. So I was working at NBC at the Channel 4 News. That was my first job in television. And I worked in the promo department. So all those like tonight at 11, you know, are the votes real? What's in your refrigerator? It could kill you.

Yeah, I worked at the Channel 4 News. But I always wanted to work on a on a show. I always wanted to, like either be a producer or a writer or be like do something creative, in addition to learning about promos. But that wasn't my initial thing. And so a few years into working there, I used to apply for all the jobs online at NBC. And I applied for a job. This was when, just as a context, Conan was still doing Late Night in New York City. And I worked at the Burbank studios where they filmed The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. And

there was a job for a PA at The Tonight Show. And that was sort of, at that time, maybe a step down from what I was already doing because I was a coordinator. All these silly little terms. But I was like, I don't care. I'm willing to do anything because I want to work on a show and I want to learn how a show works and all that. And because I worked on that lot, I knew some of the people that worked on The Tonight Show and also Access Hollywood shot there in Days of Our Lives. It was a very happening place in the mid-2000s. So I applied for a job that was called a PA at The Tonight Show. And I thought, I don't care.

I will do that to learn. And then I got a call from this guy who was HR. And he said, hey, you know, we saw you applied for the PA job at The Tonight Show. But actually, this job is a disguised job. It's not a production assistant job. It would actually be a personal assistant job. And it would actually be to Conan O'Brien when he takes over The Tonight Show next year. And I was like, huh. Yeah.

What? I'll stick with news promos. I was like, oh, okay. They're like, well, have you ever considered being, you know, like a personal assistant? And at the time I kind of was, I mean, I was a coordinator. So I was like an assistant to the vice president of promos and then also supported the team. And I was like well i don't know i well and now that you know what the assistant job entails you were definitely

qualified oh i was gonna say well i was also just kind of like i don't know if i want to keep going and being a personal assist i was like you know are there any jobs uh like as a producer's assistant or a segment producer's assistant or a writer's assistant like i would really like to learn that not that i don't want to work directly with conan but at that time i was like i don't really want to do the and they were like you know um like their their producer's come is out here and she's going to be interviewing and then if you make it to the next round then you'll interview with with Conan. And I was like, well, I never say no to an interview. You don't say no. So I went over and I interviewed with a woman named Sarah Federovich, who is our line producer. And she

was great. And we had a lot of fun. And she was like, Okay, and I also like met with the HR person that night. And then it was felt very much like a reality TV show. They were like, Okay, so we're going to be considering everyone and we will call you this evening and let you know like if you've advanced to the next round. And I was like, Okay, like, all right. Like, am I going to get a rose? Like, will I make it? And then they called me told me we'd like to have you come in tomorrow and meet with Conan and another producer and I was like okay that sounds great and the whole time I'm thinking like what am I gonna wear because that was my one interview outfit like I didn't have you know I was like 26 years old or something I didn't have multiple you makeover montage yeah

yeah I wish um so I went back over I'm sitting in the lobby of this office waiting to meet Conan and there's a woman next to me and we're kind of just being pleasantries and saying hi I'm nice to meet you I said oh don't you work over I've seen you before don't you work over at the NBC Burbank lunch oh yeah I do oh I have seen you before and we were like oh yeah we've seen each other in the commissary over there. Oh, hey, yeah. Okay. Well, you know, best of luck to you. You know, it's kind of like silly to be sitting like in an office space with other people who are going to interview for the same job. But you're like, you know, all right, good luck. And she was like, didn't you wear that yesterday?

Yeah. And that was Sona. Oh. Uh-huh. And. Wow. This is like a prequel episode of, right? Like we already know all the characters, but now we're going to go back and see them before we knew them. And then, you know, obviously Sona got that job and I'm so happy that she did because they're like, like, honestly, like not, I want, I was like, I want to work on the Tonight Show. I'll take any job, you know, like that there. I'll do anything you guys want.

I want to work for Conan and this show. And but like, it's such a match made in heaven that that Sona got that job because I would have failed. Like, I was so done being a personal assistant at that time. Right. I ended up getting hired by the president of digital entertainment at NBC, a wonderful woman named Vivi Ziegler, who was fantastic and became a really great mentor for me. And she had worked at NBC for a long time. And she loved Conan and Jeff. And she was always like,

you know, if you come work for me, I will help you, you know, whatever you want to do moving forward. And she thought, if you want to work at the Tonight Show, maybe we could work with them and see if we could find something for you there after you've worked for me for a while. Okay, great. And then during that time, Sona and I became friends, which was awesome because now she was at Universal a lot also, and I was there.

And then everything happened with the Tonight Show, and I was like, well, great. Now I'm never never gonna work for conan but let's fast forward because you so you work sorry tell me your title again you're the director of yes we're real friends i know i'm the head of production and live events for team coco you also um come with us on the travel shows so that's yeah where we've gotten to know you but you have been like a real road dog for Conan because you've gotten to go on all of the stand-up tour

that he did at the end of 2018, right? Yeah. And other like Team Coco stand-up events throughout the country. Yeah. You're always on the go. I feel like you've got your away suitcase. It's all packed and ready to go at all times.

It's true. For those stand-up shows, do you go ahead of time and help kind of pick the theater and or? I will do location scouts. So we've done a lot of those for all the Team Coco houses. I work on those with JP Buck. JP and I have gone on and other people from the team several location scouts our last one that we did was we for was supposed to be for comic-con this year there was kind of a bigger group of us because we were going to do another team coco house last year we did one where we took over an entire restaurant and had three nights of shows and live podcasts during comic-con and during comic-con yeah yeah you guys really transform a spit like you've done this a bunch

of years where you find a space and then you transform it into a comedy club yeah basically where like i've seen before pictures and then after looks insane it looks nothing like it but wait staff's less friendly in the after shots yeah the first one we ever did at comic-con was like an old Thai restaurant. So it was literally like, it was just like cement floors and drywall. And then we worked with TBS on that one and they brought in a whole crew and we redid the whole inside and made it like a cabaret club. Yeah, you walked in and it was this beautiful backroom club with booths and it was amazing. And you always have cool details, like a drink will have like a

foam rendering of conan's hair yeah last year at comic-con we redid all of the menus and so we spent um like the ladies of digital and i were in you know like before comic-con as you guys know like you're just working non-stop like we would be in the office until like two in the morning preparing for Comic-Con because we were always doing multiple things like covering the Conan show at Spreckles Theater, and then also producing this Team Cocoa House takeover of a space down there. Because everything's like, for those who haven't been to Comic-Con, a lot of the restaurants transform into a hub for like Game of thrones or you know yeah whatever the big thing is and so just a place for people to get free shit basically yeah you're always somehow at

the center of it's like if if i find out there was a party in somebody's suite i know ruthie was there and i know she probably has pictures to document it would you pull like all nighters down there or no oh Oh my god, yeah. Seriously. Yeah, last year I oversaw the loadout of Team Cocoa House and I'm literally coming back. Well, but you also have to bake in some of the like, you know, having fun too

because it is like adult summer camp. You're working your ass off, but you also are like, you have to also eat dinner. Right. So last year I oversaw the loadout of Team Cocoa House and we wrapped it. So you're like a head roadie. Totally.

A head roadie, yeah. I mean, yeah, that's all I want to be. I came back in the hotel lobby with all my bags shuffling in at five in the morning and Matt O'Brien is just walking with his suitcase down the aisle and we make he's like what are you doing and I was like I just finished unloading Team Coco House he's like I'm literally leaving and getting on a plane right now and I was like yep I'm gonna go sleep for like two hours before

I leave for the rest of the trip but yeah those those trips are always pretty wild plus last year Team Coco House stayed open until like midnight. So everybody from the show ended up coming there to hang out afterwards. From the regular taping at the Spreckles, would go hang out there at night after the comedy show? Yeah. Terrible things would happen. I mean, you gotta keep the party

going. let's talk about your involvement with conan without borders so how did you get involved initially in the travel shows and what do you do on the travel shows aaron blair had always gone along as the digital representative um grabbing all that content. And then when... He's the guy from the live streams. Yes. Then when you guys decided to go to Mexico City, that was a different show, right? Because you were doing the studio show at Televisa and then also the remotes out in the world. Yes. Instead of coming back to LA to assemble everything we shot into one show, we assembled everything while in Mexico city in one week and

then showed that along with conan writing having a monologue etc like basically doing his the show he does in la yeah in mexico in spanish and espanol yeah for a crowd in a studio down there so it was much more ambitious it was so cool cool. You guys, that was such an amazing undertaking. We're always looking for ways to give ourselves less time to put a show together. Yeah. So that was your first? That was my first one. Yeah. Because we took more people from the show, you know, like Brit Kahn and Aaron Gilman, like some of our booking team came down there for it. Our lighting director, Rob Hume came, Frank Smiley came on that trip.

Sure. I got to come because it was just going to be a bigger endeavor, right? And then we were going to and also, we had really started focusing on Snapchat at the time, like Instagram stories. And that's and I've always produced and made social content for the show. Yeah. And I kind of remember digital teams sort of would split up like, this is our Snapchat person, this is our Snapchat person. This is our Instagram person. This is our Facebook person. Right, and so like,

Blay would host the Facebook Lives that we do from all those shows, which has always been really fun, and giving people the behind the scenes. Yeah, so I came along on that trip, but that was my first one. And I was so nervous. You never ever seem nervous. Oh, thanks. That's a big compliment.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. I felt nervous. Well, I. That's a big compliment. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I felt nervous. Well, I just wanted to do a good job. It seemed like such a big deal to be, you know, to go along and be. Right. I don't know. I mean, maybe this sounds like cheesy or something, but I never like expect to be, you know, assigned

to a project or travel anywhere. You know, sometimes you'll get like, oh, well, you're going to go on that. Well, I don't know. It's nice to be asked if you do. Like for all of the road shows, because it starts like originally for the that first show to New York City in 2011. Like there really wasn't a reason for me as the digital coordinator at that time to go on that trip. But oh, I pitched an idea to have at that time, you know, it was like Conan was back in New York and it was the TBS show had just really launched. And so I said,

why don't we have a big like party for all the bloggers and all the, you know, reporters at that time, there was, uh, there were all covering Conan on TBS. Let's have a big party for them. And then JP Buck ended up having a standup show with the writers. Oh, this was really fun. We did. So we were like, why don't we dovetail this together and make it a writer's standup show at the Gotham Comedy Club in New York. And then downstairs in their basement have a party afterwards for all of those bloggers. At the time, Gawker was still a huge thing. And we invited all these people from Huffington Post and Gawker and all that stuff.

And what's funny about that was JP booked a host for that stand-up show. And it was Amy Schumer. And she sat with me and my intern in the back, and we like ate pizza. And then she'd be like, okay, gotta go up. All right, give it up, guys, for Todd Levin. Next up is Dan Cronin. It was so fun. And then we had a big party afterwards.

And I produced that party, and that was the reason I got to go. Yeah, you're a party producer that's really like yeah i love it i love parties head of party production and then i went on the last you know pretty much all the last travel shows that have happened um after mexico right what's been your favorite country that we've gone to oh my god i love all of them so much they're not listening. When you always do a really good job of making friends with like, cause we always have a local crew and a local producer and Ruthie always falls in love.

I do. I have a crush by like day one, day one or day two. I'm usually have a crush on like the security guard or it's always someone you would not expect. And then it's like, Oh, of course Ruthie has a crush on like the security guard or oh it's always someone you would not expect and then yeah it's like oh of course ruthie has a crush on that yes i always i always get a big crush and i always love i love our crew i love them so i love our crew and i love the people that we work with in those countries yes our crew's great and then all the local fixers Always turn out to be

Delightful people It's like, you know, we're all crying Like, I'm gonna miss you Okay, when you asked my favorite country It's really hard to have a favorite country, right? I mean, do you guys have a favorite country? We knew you were just putting it off Just declaring a favorite country

No, because I really do Like, I mean, Ghana was so incredible I never thought in my entire life Like, I am middle class gal from a two-bedroom house in santa clarita with not a lot you know like there wasn't we didn't know fancy people like you know nothing like that and then here we are like in africa i never thought in my life i would go to africa on a work trip let alone the kind of amazing adventures that we have, you know, so it's hard to pick. But do you have any favorite memories just from hanging out like after hours? I swam

in the Mediterranean Sea with our crew at like three in the morning in Tel Aviv with with Seth, our DP and James, our camera, and Munoz, audio. We all swam in the Mediterranean Sea at like three in the morning. I'm so glad you all survived that. It was really, really fun. That one was like the first big international trip that I was going on because Mexico City, that was too, but it was like a three and a half hour flight. Israel was the first time I ever took a long distance like 14 hour flight like that so i remember we show up and then blay and

i are always like hit the ground running you know because like for social media we're covering all the you often have to film conan getting off the plane getting off the plane yeah at lax you guys are shooting yeah and on the plane absolutely yeah there's always stories happening and you guys are shooting. Yeah. And on the plane, absolutely. Yeah, there's always stories happening. You guys, I have to say, work so hard on these travel shows. It's,

yeah, when we're not shooting the show, that's also time for you to be on and doing all the behind the scenes stuff. Doing behind the scenes,

yeah. Plus, you're recording Conan when he's shooting and stuff. So it's, it's a nonstop job. Plus,

Conan's always having to do a podcast or something. I mean, there's a non-stop job plus conan's always having to do a podcast or something i mean there's a yeah they recorded a podcast on the plane home from australia play and and conan had to like record ads so we went over to like this little section that had a little lounge area on that plane and the two of them i shot photos and social media of them recording on the plane it was um wellie, do you have any favorite memories from, because we haven't even really talked about the stand-up tour.

Oh my god. That was so fun. Do you have any stand-up memories from that? Well, one, I remember Sweeney, you came over and you were like, I forget what it was. We were like... Yeah, Sweeney was on most of that tour as well, right?

I was. Well, that was just so fun. It felt like I always wanted to be in a band, but I can't sing or play any instruments. And that really felt like we were kind of a band. And also we had legend Gus Brandt as the tour director for that. Yeah, the tour producer. He's yeah the tour producer he's amazing yeah he's amazing and he's he's the foo fighters tour he's a big rock band travel manager and so he

slumps slumps it by coming with us yeah he's he's amazing he really is and so i but i remember like i don't know what we were like going over some stuff with you sweeney and you're like it's approved like a tour sweeney doesn't care like sounds good like you were like we were like what about this caption what do you think about this you're like yep approved sounds good i was a little less anal on that tour no no i was well it was i don't know there was it was like a new thing that we were doing and it was fun. Yeah. Everything's approved.

Everything's approved. It was liberating for me. Oh, well, on that tour, that's where you met your current podcast partner, Rory Scovel. Had you met before that? We had met before that. I had produced some behind- behind the scenes content with him at the conan show we had met that way and then by the time of that tour we had been doing the monthly shows moses and friends at the dynasty typewriter in la and rory had been on that a few

times so we we definitely he's so personable we'd like hang out and chat and then yeah he came on that first leg of the conan and friends tour right he's like you he's a big connector and and loves to have a great time yeah i could see why you two would be fast friends yeah we all played craps in atlantic city yeah i had to miss i had to go to a wedding i missed that right i was so upset oh right yeah you missed because then jemma and i went and played blackjack with jeff ross oh boy great he taught us how to play blackjack yeah that was great i mean you know showed us the tricks let it ride let it ride yeah well ruthie thank you so much for coming on and sharing some of your photographic memory with us thanks guys we always like to ask

our guests if you have a piece of advice. Well, write things down. Stay in touch with people, you know? Also, don't make any assumptions. Don't make any assumptions. That's just a life rule. That is a good rule. We were just talking about how you're going to try to put together some sort of written history of

the Conan show at TBS. Oh, yeah. I would love to. I told Aaron Gilman, our fabulous talent coordinator, we need to sit down and go over all the behind the scenes of all the talent, all the celebs who've come through. And then all the... It's such a show within a show, right? Right. Like, that's the...

You could do an oral history. Yeah. Yeah. So, I think that would be... That would be great. That would be so fun. I love it. Look forward to a 487-hour oral history of The Conan Show.

The first week. Yes. Then 2011. Yeah. Oh, my God. Well, Ruthie, thank you so much. Thank you, Ruthie. And everybody listen to Dads.

You can hear Ruthie on Dads. Dads. The podcast. With Rory Scovel. You two are great together. I like to say it's with Ruthie Wyatt and then featuring Rory Scovel. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. I'm totally cool with that. Totally cool. You guys are the best. I truly wish we could have done this in person. I can't wait till we can. Me too. Yeah.

I love you guys. Okay. That was Ruthie. That was Ruthie. And we have a fan question. This is great. Okay. Hi, Mike and Jesse. In 2010, Conan did a bit in which he dumped toilet paper, laundry, and marshmallows out his office window into Mike's white BMW convertible that was parked under Conan's office window.

Assuming this was really Mike's car, did Mike know this was going to happen? If not, what was his reaction? Finally, in bits like this where a mess is made, who has the responsibility to clean up? Thanks so much, Nick. That's a lot of questions there. Wow, we're going to really take you behind the curtain on this. A one-minute bit. I looked it up.

It was 10 years ago. It was before the TBS show started, which. Oh, wow. So it was a web only? Yeah, our engineer, Will, pointed out, because he worked on it. He was one of the cameramen for that bit. Sadly, that was my car. Everyone made fun of that white BMW.

They called it the Barbie mobile. And I. I love it. Cause you got that right when you had moved out to LA, right? I needed a car right away. And I went and leased that car. And you went to the sunset strip. Yeah, exactly.

I did know about it in advance. I said, Hey, can we throw shit in your car? And I'm like, sure. We need the keys. And were you hoping they would ruin it and you could i was hoping that a new car yes i was disappointed it was only marshmallows who cleaned it up i wonder who did clean it up hmm i'm sure i found a few errant marshmallows but that's kind of normal for having a car over a year. Yeah, if you look under the seat, you can relive the past year in its entirety.

We've used Conan's old car a lot, his Ford Taurus, which he still has. Yeah. I think it was in the Warner Brothers parking garage for years because you literally couldn't drive it. And I was just like, well, where are we going to tow it to? If they're not badgering us to take it out of there let's just leave it there there have been bits there is a bit i think that todd levin pitched to customize conan's car like go to one of those big la yeah car customizing places make it a low rider yeah exactly and and we were going to just really deck it out. And we came close a few

times to doing it. And when it was time to pull the trigger, I think Conan was always just like, no. Oh, he's sentimental about it. He's sentimental about that car. And then, or I don't know, maybe he thinks the Smithsonian's going to want it. I don't know, but he did not. When push came to shove, he'd be like, ah, he'd step away from the abyss. Well, thanks, Nick, for writing in. Yes, Nick. There's only a few episodes left in season two. So if anyone has questions, go back through our archives and find a bit and ask a question about something very specific in

it because we will answer it. Yes. And we'll go off and talk about something else as well. So send your questions to insideconanpod at gmail.com. Or leave us a voicemail at 323-209-5303. Okay. Thanks, everybody. Stay safe out there. Yeah. We'll talk to you next week.

We like you. Inside Conan, an important Hollywood podcast, is hosted by Mike Sweeney and me, Jesse Gaskell. Produced by Jen Samples. Engineered and mixed by Will Becton. Supervising producers are Kevin Bartelt and Aaron Blaire. Executive produced by Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco. And Colin Anderson and Chris Bannon at Earwolf.

Thanks to Jimmy Vivino for our theme music and interstitials. You can rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. And of course, please subscribe and tell a friend to listen to Inside Conan on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or whatever platform you like best. This has been a Team Coco production in association with earwolf