Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Skyler Higley

Episode Date: November 27, 2020

Comedian and Conan writer Skyler Higley talks with writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell about his experience working remotely from Chicago as a new Conan writer, what it’s like pitching ideas in the room at The Onion, moving to Chicago from Utah to pursue comedy, and pitching the Christmas in September episode of Conan. Plus, Mike and Jessie answer a listener question about Executive Producer Jeff Ross. 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 to Inside Conan, a very important Hollywood podcast. A very special episode of a very important Hollywood podcast. It is a special episode. It's the day after Thanksgiving. It is. We should introduce ourselves. I'm Mike Sweeney, writer on The Conan Show, and you? I'm Jessie Gaskell. All right, there you go.

You already knew, but you set it up perfectly. That's right. I went to hosting school last week. I took an intensive. That's one of the things I learned. It is the day after Thanksgiving, but we're recording this before Thanksgiving. Right. We're just predicting what's going to happen. Who knows? Well, I'm going to have a low-key one because I'm not going anywhere.

No, this was ideal for me because I don't like Thanksgiving. No. So to have an excuse to not do it is perfect. I never thought about this. I mean, does anyone hunger for Thanksgiving? I don't know. I think it's one of those things that we just do because, you know, you grow up doing it and now it's tradition.

Why didn't that get pushed like everything else this year? Why didn't that or combine it with Christmas? Well, that's my thing anyway anyway is it's too close to christmas that's why you can never enjoy it because right you're gonna see your family three weeks later so thanksgiving is just like let's throw in a stressful dinner that everyone has to right sit through and then turkey too is like the most stressful protein to cook to cut yes never tastes good it's always well i mean it's fine good. It's always, I mean, it's fine, but you have to put gravy on it.

Right. And it's like, well, I could have put gravy on anything and enjoyed that. I agree. Gravy on anything is fantastic. Also, though, it's the kickoff

to the Christmas season, which is also anxiety producing because then you have to buy gifts. Yeah. For me, it's hard because it's a period where you're supposed to think about other people,

which I'm really, not my strong suit well you know what we have a great guest today we do have a great guest yes he's a great guy oh i love him he's our latest addition to the conan writing staff he joined us this summer yeah we gave him a few weeks to settle in before we asked him to be on our podcast. That's right. That's right. But he's delightful and really funny. And man, he just hit the ground running with getting ideas on the show right away. Oh my gosh.

So quick. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's also not even in LA. He's been in Chicago this whole time. Right. He's had no reason to relocate. We only know him through Zoom. We've never seen his bottom half. Right. So here he is, Sky Chicago this whole time. Right. He's had no reason to relocate. We only know him through Zoom. We've never seen his bottom half.

Right. So here he is, Skylar Higley. Yeah, so Skylar, you are currently in Chicago. I am currently in Chicago. It's windy. It's rainy. It's dark. Two hours ahead of everyone else.

It's fine. That's right. We're out here in California. You always get your news ahead of us. I do. This must be real wild to have started a new job during quarantine and only have done it remotely so far. Yeah, it's funny. It feels like I don't have a job.

We all kind of feel that way. I feel like busy and then i'll get stressed out by things and then i'm also like i haven't you know gotten dressed or showered right at all so it's it's very weird to be he's a real comedy writer yeah i think a writer's room is is a sort of singular challenge to come in as a new writer when there's kind of already a dynamic in the room. But I don't even know if it would be harder or easier to do it when there's no physical comedy room. I really couldn't tell you either way. It's, I think, just a different vibe of like,

it's already hard to, I think, just know when to talk, you know? Right. And then over Zoom and stuff is like, well, if you talk at even slightly the wrong time, nobody's going to hear your joke. Yeah, exactly. I know it took me a while to figure that out because I, for a long time, would just say something and then there would just be no response. Not even like people scrunching up their faces in disgust or anything like. That's me in a room with actual people.

Well, that's been the thing so far i've been like so did was that not funny or did nobody hear it because i and nobody tells you either way no no because if no one heard it no one knows to no one knows to tell you so yeah so then you have to say it again and then maybe a third time louder. And then now you've really committed to that joke. But by the time it's like the third time that it's, we're two lines ahead and the joke is gone. So like, why let's just let it go. I'm not now, if I just see someone's lips moving on a zoom,

I start laughing. Whether I've heard it or not. That's fantastic. Let's do it. I think we should, that's a good idea. Well, yeah, it took me a really long time to talk in the Conan writers room because. Is that true? I'm trying to remember. Yeah.

I mean, just with the rhythm of things, you have to like figure out what's the right time, like a jump rope, like when do I go in? Right. And yeah, it just took me forever to get a sense of the room energy. Oh, we should mention you're a stand-up comic as well. I mean, am I? I haven't done it for months. You're a sit-down comic, man. Let's back up. Okay, so you've been a writer at Conan for five, six months now, is that right? Yep, since July. So, yeah, five, six months. Wow, that time has gone by upsettingly fast. From what I've heard, you submitted a packet

in a previous, like the last time we hired, that's when you submitted a packet. And I think Matt wanted to hire you then as well, but was just waiting until he didn't have to get an office space for you. So waited for the pandemic. That was, yeah, that was what he told me. He said, like, we would like you to be here, but if you could just not be here physically, that'd be cool. That would be a lot more affordable for us. So you had submitted that, a packet then. So what had you been doing in the time between submitting and finding out that you got the job? So that was, I mean, now like a whole year ago when the last time package went out.

And you hired Glenn instead. So she is my enemy. I have to be a key her. There has to be some resentment there. Yeah. Yeah. We are very, we hate each other. Yeah.

That's public record. Yeah. Glenn has also expressed resentment about you being the new baby too. Oh, right. The new baby always gets more attention. Yeah. in January. Before that, I was just doing stand-up and stuff. But that was a similar thing of just going into a new writer's room, trying to figure out how to do that, knowing when to talk. And it's even harder because everybody's talking about really interesting and nuanced rhetorical things about politics and stuff. Right, right.

Yeah. I mean, that sounds like a really intimidating writer's room, to be honest. Yeah. Well, it still is. And I have been through it. And I'm still like, does anyone like me? Oh, no. How big a writer's room is that? I think it's about the same as us. 12 people, I believe. Okay.

Yeah, that sounds right. But it gets separated into different groups of timely stuff and evergreen stuff. Okay. And then the pandemic shut everything down and we were all remote. Right. I want to hear a little more about the Onion Writers Room and how that, because, I mean, the Onion, it's a comedy institution.

They've been around forever. But I had no, I have no concept of how, like, do you come in and pitch the way we do every day? Or is it, how do you know what to pitch on? Yeah, you run through a lot of stuff. Every day? Or is it how do you know what to pitch on? pitch email. And then if they get something, which you'll have a meeting of maybe like 30, 40 headlines or something in like a specific document or something like that. And then you will only get maybe two or three out of those, like however many headlines people tried to pitch. And it can vary like on really rough meetings. Sometimes you don't get any and people have

pitched a lot and you're just like, okay, well, we didn't get any of this meeting. So often there's like a second meeting where people have had more time to pitch headlines. And then when they're doing like election stuff and covering a lot, then sometimes there's like a third one where it's like, we need even more stuff. So it's a lot of jokes that people can go through. Yeah. Do they literally just go off the headline or do you ever try to like give them a few lines from the story that might bolster the headline to help sell it area man yeah well sometimes they have little readers after um

you'll see on like when they post it it'll have the reader i think one went up today that was like 70% of Republicans don't believe the elections happened. And then they have a little quote reader. So if you pitch that, you would put it in like parentheses, but it's all pretty much like in the headline. And it's because like the way an onion joke works, like, I don't know how often people are actually clicking on the articles, not very often, honestly. So the joke has to be like it's all in the headline. Like it can operate as a full article when you read it. Yeah.

Let's say they go, oh, yes, we love that headline. Go write it. What kind of deadline are you on for that? On timely stuff, it's typically like as soon as possible. But the article format's pretty easy and straightforward. And once you get it, it's kind of like stand-up where you have your premise and then you escalate your premise and you expound on it.

And then there's one other joke at the end. So it's like, it can be easy to write those once you get into the rhythm of doing it. But yeah, they just try to get it in as fast as you can. On Evergreen stuff, you have a little more time and they give you kind of a list of headlines to do, to write up. And then that'll be in a couple of days. So Evergreen is like, all right, you can rest now.

I'll see you in a month. Write some stuff about dogs. Yeah. And it's also like, you don't have to do that every day. You know, it's like the Evergreen stuff is like you have Monday, Tuesday off maybe. And then you have the big meeting Wednesday, and then there's writing, and then more pitches later in the week. But Timely is just this everyday thing where by Thursday, you're just like, I don't know, what? Yeah, I know the monologue writers on the Conan show would always say when there was a break, they would have a total news shutdown, just

like they had to rest their brains. You know, when you're on the clock, you're watching the news or absorbing the news 24 hours a day, it seems like. Yeah. That's why I've been pretty, not that I can be in any way disengaged from the news because, I mean, we just got out of an election cycle and we're all doing stuff on the election. So, it's not like I can be really disengaged, but I've been less like spending all day reading stuff than before. Yeah, which is probably healthier in general. Much better for your brain. Yes.

Way better. But it was still like a really, you know, fun and cool experience. It's really cool to be in that room and to see like how those things get put together. And those people are all geniuses. Every single person that can write onion stuff. Not just those people, Skylar, you were in that room. Oh, wow. I wasn't, you know, like setting you up for that. It all seemed pretty planned to me. That went like clockwork. I mean, how often would there be a discussion about like, whether something, I mean, you said, maybe something felt like it wasn't working. Would that just be comedy wise? Or it wasn't working, like the perspective was off's satire. So you're kind of like criticizing and parodying things. So like it's wrongheadedness, but you want to make sure things don't come from a wrongheaded place. And then especially when it comes to things like this summer with like the Black Lives Matter movement and everything, those things were like,

really, we want to get the right tone on this and it can be really difficult to have those conversations about getting the right tone especially in like a room of like predominantly white writers you know and then even like stuff about you know feminism and me too and stuff and all sorts of things those conversations could be like i don't want to say like they are hard but like just like intense conversations where everybody's like trying to get the right take because you don't want to put anything out that is detracting from the world. They're wrongheaded. And of course, like then when the onion does put it out, a whole bunch of people on the internet are going to be mad anyway. So it's like,

are people mad for the right or wrong reasons? You know? Yeah. I mean, how much of that did you pay attention to? Or was it mostly just ignored? Like we can't read the comments. It was paid attention to insofar as like, it's just what you want to pay attention to, right? Like if people are saying like a joke is not okay, and it's actually like fine,

then you just have to make the decision that that's fine. But sometimes people are saying certain things are not okay, or this was tone deaf or something like that. And they're actually right, you know, so you have to pay attention to it as much as you want to, but that's why having a room of people getting your like moral barometer right is,

is really good. And I'm glad that this show does not have that level of scrutiny. Yeah. I mean, it's probably sort of a mixed bag to start writing for something that is mostly apolitical or can offer like a wider range of types of comedy. It doesn't all have to be, you know, like with a strong ethical point of view. Did you have to like do any deprogramming or? Yes. Well, here's what I really had to get used to was the transition from like, the amount of headlines that needed to be submitted per any week versus like, like, so how much do we want per meeting? And then Matt says like, yeah, maybe like one or two ideas if you have them. And I'm like,

what do you mean if I have them? Why did you hire me? Yeah. I work at vacation lab. I'm like, what? And I mean, that was just like starting out. He's like, yeah, I mean, this time is, you know, it's really weird and intense. So don't stress yourself out. And I'm like, well, that's all I've been doing for the past, you know, however many months. So how do you like the experience of you started out, you know, using the term freelance where you're sending stuff in versus then being part of a room and talking to everyone? Some people have a strong preference for one over the other. Or do you like both scenarios where you're working together with a group, but also those times where you get to just work on your own without distraction?

I like being in a room more just because like, it's, it's cool to have friends, you know, be able to talk to people instead of just like throwing jokes into a void and just kind of like not knowing or really hearing about them or talking about them with anybody ever. That's kind of something that I need in order to be able to work, you know, is just to be like with a group of people and like to be able to collaborate on stuff is very helpful for me. Yeah. Have you gotten to collaborate with anybody on the script yet? Or has it mostly just been you on your own in Chicago? I think, you know, and uh the worst writer on our show wrote uh psa for uh voting for that's right he's talking about me i figured it was you it was great and it was good to work with you and i think we did a really good job and i think we're the reason why arizona went blue arizona came through

why did we even waste our time on florida and ohio but you're welcome america it was all of our very specific location-based jokes how did you two do it did you like i've heard of people in these times like one person would write a draft send it to the other person they'd make suggestions or did you guys zoom together or just talk it down on the phone? Exactly. I think Jesse just wrote a draft and sent it to me and then I just put it in your initials. No,

we both wrote jokes and then I kind of compiled it and then Skylar made some very important tweaks. I added in the word Arizona. Jesse didn't have that. Yeah. I forgot that part. It's got to be the state, Jesse. Come on. Yeah. So, okay. Skylar, have you met over Zoom Conan yet? We've met like twice and we've interacted only via Zoom. So it was a very interesting meeting.

It was weird just being like, this is somebody I've seen my whole life and idolized. And this is like a comedy legend to me. And he's always been on a screen. And now I'm meeting him and he's still on a screen. Still two-dimensional. I'm going to tell you this right now. I don't know if Conan O'Brien is real. I'm not sure.

No, it's all pre-taped. They gave him a script with your name in it, and it seems like he's interacting with you. Yeah. I appreciate your agnosticism on this. Maybe he's a hologram like Tupac. Do you, like, let's say the pandemic went away, are you excited at the prospect of moving to Los Angeles?

Or do you kind of love working remotely from Chicago? Oh, I know. The work situation right now, I'm going to be honest, I do not like it at all. I hate like, just like, I want to go somewhere to be able to work. All the time I'll just like roll out of bed and then just like, for no reason at all, just be like, I'm working now and just start working because my life is right there. It does all seem arbitrary. Yeah. I have already not amazing time management and now it's just like, it'll be like 3am and I'll be doing stuff. And I'm like, why am I doing this right now? This is not like, they talk about work-life balance. How do I have that when my work and my life is in the same like tiny

box apartment so yeah i would love to move to los angeles and like uh see you people in person and actually be able to like work in an office that seems fun it's so much more fun no i i feel like when we finally see you in person it's going to be like reuniting with a family member who yeah who was taken from snatched from us right went off to war and yeah yeah yeah war and wrote letters home and you read his pitches over the letters and it's like my dear ethel maybe we do something where andy whatever right well you know jesse pointed out something which is true like we've seen you so often but it's this work zoom and so there's a lot of joking and stuff but like we haven't really gotten to know you that the way you would if you were like jesse was joking like one walk

from our office to the commissary she'd'd learn, you know, all about your background. And we haven't had that opportunity. Well, yeah, like the first week you worked on the show, we probably would have all gone to lunch. Right. And we would have accomplished what has now taken us six months. Right. Found out your deepest, darkest secrets. But did you grow up in the Chicago area or did you?

No, I grew up in Utah. I moved out to Chicago to do comedy. Is there not a big comedy scene in Utah? They have one. Well, I don't know what it's like now because people have said, told me different things about it. I never knew. But when I was like there as a kid, I wanted to start comedy and all the places like there

just wasn't enough of anywhere that would let me go. And then I also just kind of saw, you know, what the scene was like that it just kind of felt like in the open mic scene there was like just a bunch of guys that were like these 40 year old white men, each of them, one at a time going up, saying how they wanted to kill themselves. No jokes. Just cries for help over and over themselves. No jokes. Just. Oh my God.

Christ for help over and over again. I hate my wife. I hate my kids. Oh boy. There'd be one guy that goes up that you're like, that guy's funny. Who's that guy? That's,

that's, that's pretty good. I didn't know that's something you could do. And then it was just like the darkest, you know, the rest of the time, which is the majority of open mics, but yes, it's true.

At that time, it was a very specific brand of like, I just knew that when I was looking at the scene as far as stand-up is concerned, I didn't want to do that. But I did do improv there. What kind of improv do they have? Long-form improv. Name three Mormon leaders. And go.

Brigham Young, Joseph Smith, Joseph S. Smith. Beautiful. You're in the group. Thank you. Wait, and how old were you when you wanted to start doing stand-up? You said you were pretty young. Yeah, I moved out of Utah at 20, like right when I had kind of just turned 20 to go. Right.

I did that thing that no parent wants you to do where you're like, I'm not going to finish college. I'm going to do comedy. Except for it worked out. So now there's really... Well, I did the math. I'm like, I'm not good at anything else. And I know I want to do this. And I was just at this school where it was just, Utah State University, it's just a state school and, you know, fine school, whatever. But I was just like, I'm gonna work on an English degree and wait four years and then try to pursue what I want to do and get all the same jobs and all the same pay. And it's going to be the same like slog through whatever I have to do first, but I'll be more in debt and start later. And I just kind of didn't want to do that. I get restless when it comes to things. So I want to, if there's something I want to do, I want to do it. I feel like that calculation you did is

basically, that should be the test for graduating college. If you do the math and figure out that you don't need to be there, then you just automatically get a degree because you don't need to be there. You should get a PhD. Yeah. I should get a special certificate printed that looks like a diploma on my wall, but just says, realized I didn't need to be there. Yeah. It's actually worth more than a PhD. So, wow. So, were your parents, did they,

were they support supportive? Why do I think they were? Yeah. My mom was very supportive about it. Yeah. So she was like, yeah, if anything you want to do,

do it. But she's always supportive of like stuff that I do. So it's like almost to a fault where I'm like, you know, you want some pushback? Like, no, give me notes,

mom. I'm trying to you know, you want some pushback. Like, no, give me notes, mom. I'm trying to, I need your notes. You said everything's great. I mean, how am I supposed to know? It's great. Not a good producer, my mom. So you left college to go and then you started doing standup and sketch and improv and all of that in Chicago. yeah which is a great place for it you know yeah it's a great city for like everything is like people are really working hard at it and there are people who are really good at comedy here super creative and so like it's a very good place to go right you're gonna start and that's what i had always heard like that's why i had you know done it.

Were you like, Oh, eeny, meeny, miny, moe, what city should I go to? Or did you just go,

ah, Chicago? I mean, it was just the thing, this thing that was happening at the time when I started listening to podcasts. It's when the podcast boom really started when I was in high school and stuff.

And I'm just hearing all these comedians that just came out of Chicago that are like, you got to go to Chicago. All these like Kumail Nanjiani and Kyle Kinane and Pete Hall and all these people that were doing really well and came from Chicago and then heard of Second City, obviously. And so then it just kind of seemed like a natural thing where I'm just like, I'm going to go there and try my hand at all these different types of things to see what fits me the best and if I can get better at it from there. And was the onion on your radar then? You knew it was based there. Was that one of the things you were interested in exploring?

It was vaguely on my radar at the time, but it wasn't as much as i i really thought that i was gonna do the thing that like a lot of these snl people have done which is just like go to second city and then like go through all that and become a sketch writer and go to main stage and then just get on snl from going through second city because i had that like you know it's like college for i don't want to go to college i want to to go to college for comedy. And you get to Second City and quickly find out that is not how it works when you go there. What do you mean I have to pay for class? Yeah. It's like a whole hierarchy, a hierarchy and $1,300 for a class that they say like, this is what a joke is.'re like oh i knew that right actually

i looked at the time and it is time to wrap up but we always ask our guests if they have a piece of advice for somebody out there listening who might want to take a path similar to yours and that could be in you know any of the areas that you've worked in in stand-up or sketch or satire or now sketch writing it's weird because like I think the advice changes so often of like what to do especially now like it's just so random how anybody is able to do anything so I think the only advice that you can really operate off of is like work hard and do like what you think is funny like just like be yourself and play your own like comedic angle because like there's so many people doing comedy and so many people really trying to do like this and the only thing that you can offer to like the world of

comedy is just like the thing that only you can do or the thing that you think is funny so like don't try to do what other people are kind of like pulling you to do or don't just because something is the way things are people are doing it doesn't mean you have to do that or if that fits for you you can do that that's really good advice because I do it can be very I think there's a lot of pressure to, oh, you know, and especially if someone's trying to, like talking to an agent or, you know, representation always wants to push you in like a, where's your social media presence or like, that's true. You have to be good at on all platforms. But yeah, this is how marketable

this is, which is like something that I never like hearing. If I know, like if someone says, I'm like, I don't, I didn't do that so that I don't, I never care. I don't care about that stuff. I like to make things that I like to have fun. Oh,

that's my other piece of advice to popped into my have fun, which is, you know, because like you wanted to do comedy because it's like a fun, funny time. Yeah. Let me enjoy about it. It's really easy to be able to get into these weird holes and thought processes like we were talking about with just these warring factions of comedy of hating stuff and judging stuff and feeling really bad and cynical.

Have fun, even though you are going to get stressed out. Try to keep fun on your side if you can and then also just like be cool you know advice for the ages be cool oh man that works for any chemical engineers part of the reason why you're going to be in the writer's room is people are going to like want to have you as a person around you know right? Right. And if as a person, you're not like cool as a person, then people are going to be like, hey, like, let's not hire this guy. Yeah, absolutely.

That's also really great advice. I mean, we actually have a really, really, I think, generally cool room. Yeah. Oh, no, everyone's great. I like everyone a lot. When I came in, I thought it was going to be much more intimidating and scary than it is. And then it's people that I have come

in and become like, I was already a fan of like things like, you know, like fix this mug and stuff like that. And then just like wall burgers and stuff. And then meeting Andre, I'm like, I'm like a little starstruck because I'm like these, some of these sketches that you wrote are so like crazy and funny. And then the stuff that Lori was doing with her mom at the time, which is just like so inspiring. Like right when I got there, Lori's like, yeah, I'm dealing with this thing and I'm turning it into beautiful comedy art.

And I'm like, okay, wow. So yeah, I do really like the people on staff and that is not just me kissing up that's i i mean i've been working there 25 years and this this is like my favorite group it's just i am always happy to see everyone yeah yeah and i agree i when i started i thought it was going to be like people were going to be assholes because the show's so funny and i assumed that to make a funny show you had to hire a bunch of assholes but i was glad that that wasn't the case i think that's the special sauce of this show

though too is like part of what like makes it so good in a certain ways that like people aren't assholes maybe it just feels like so warm that like you can i feel like i can pitch more things without feeling afraid of it being like, oh, that was stupid. Cause I've pitched some things that I'm like, that was dumb, but. Well, the good news is it's also anonymous. So we didn't know that it was yours. Just there that tells you that, okay, you don't feel like you're being judged every time because

your ideas read out loud with, by the the head writer without saying whose idea it was. Unless everyone's like, oh, we love that so much. Tell us who's it is. Well, you'll find out who's it is eventually. But that's one of the greatest things is yes, if you pitch a bad idea, hopefully no one will ever know it was you. I was just so afraid that it was always going to be bad ideas that I'm like, I'm never going to get anything on. Right, right. Oh my God. I think you got something on like the first or second day that you were on the show. You hit the ground running. Yeah. No, you've been, and you've been indispensable. I mean, one of my favorite things we've done this year was our Christmas in, when did we do it?

Oh, in September. I love that show. It was a Christmas special because A, we, who knows what day it is and B, maybe we won't even make it to Christmas. The way this year is going was the idea. It was so brilliant. And it was also fun just to have Christmas music and. Yeah.

It was a great idea. Simple, great idea. Yeah. It was, it was such a random, like me coming in with just a bunch of things just to be like, every time I pitch, I like to think to myself, we're not going to do this.

Right. So I can just kind of say anything. And the fact that, like, shout out to Levi, because I think that was kind of getting lost in the shuffle. And then Levi brought it up again. It was like, we should really do this random Christmas thing. And I do feel like it's what we needed at the time. I was feeling really bad. It was.

Right? Yes. It was great. It was a total emotional pick-me-up. I also love it was what we needed at the time. I was feeling really bad. It was. Right? Yes. It was great. It was a total emotional pick-me-up. I also love it was the last show before a break. And so that was, it was kind of fun to go out to a break on a high. Do you know what I mean? Like where everyone's just like, oh, that was a great show.

Yeah. Even if we do never come back, we at least we have that show. Yeah. I can't wait for the real Christmas where we have to try to think of like, somebody brought that up this week. And I was like, we already did a Christmas show. Yeah, that was it. That was all my ideas. When I talk to people about it, like, hey, we're doing a Christmas show. And they're like, you're getting ready for that already. And I'm like, no, we're doing it in September. Everybody in my life was like, why? And I'm like, right? And they're like, huh? And I'm like, right? And they're like, huh? And I'm like, right?

You're like, exactly. And they're like, no, but why? Yeah. Exactly. Isn't that comedy? And they were like, I guess. If you say so. Well, Skylar, you're a perfect fit for the show.

I'm really all glad to have you. And I hope one day we get to see you in person. Yeah, in the flesh. Yeah. Maybe you don the flesh. Yeah. Maybe you don't exist. Yeah. Maybe you're the hologram. There it is.

That's exactly what it is. I wanted to distract from myself and I am the Tupac hologram. Yeah, I can't wait to finally meet you guys in 2024. And that was Skylar. Thank you, Skyler. Thanks, Skyler. We didn't even get to this,

but Skyler has a separate sketch group outside of his Conan sketches. It's called Problemagic Comedy on YouTube. And also, you know what? I just learned our guest last week, Andrew Weinberg, who is a former Conan writer, contributed to the Borat movie, which I thought was exciting.

Oh, no way. Yeah. That is exciting. I'm mentioning it a week later. Better late than never. We have a fan question today. It's a voicemail. I love voicemails.

Ooh, yeah, me too. Let's hear it. Hey, guys. This is Pat Hickey. I really like the show. And for some odd reason, at the end when you're giving the credits, Jesse's impersonation of Jeff Ross, I find really funny and love to hear more impersonations of Mr. Ross.

So that's it for me. Thank you. Bye. Okay. I love that. He's talking about our executive producer, Jeff Ross. That's right.

It's Jeff Ross. And a lot of people do impressions of him at the show. And I guess you did them in the credits, which we recorded before we ever even started this podcast. Who knew? It was buried in there. I know. I'd forgotten about that. Jeff Ross Easter Egg. Yeah, Jeff, I think we've

talked about this before, but our riff on Jeff is that he likes soup. Gotta get some soup. Yes. Conan started that. I don't know where it came from. I don't know. I don't, I've never seen Jeff Ross. Ask for soup. Although maybe once Conan started doing Jeff going, I gotta have soup.

Oh, it was a little bit of tail wagging the dog situation. I've seen people modify their behaviors after Conan has zeroed in on something. So you've become more of a scarecrow because of Conan calling you that. He does call me the scarecrow. You know, I don't think it's a compliment, but what I try to do is, I just assume it's a scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz, and then I'm like, oh, well, you know. He's a good guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, wait, so Jeff, let's see, what else, what are the other riffs on jeff ross um oh the other thing i connect him to is saying that he wouldn't do something i wouldn't do it i wouldn't do it i wouldn't do it i wouldn't do a monologue i wouldn't do it i wouldn't do jokes there was a monologue meeting uh right before the show where we picked the jokes and it's a very small group it's a monologue writers and the head writer would be in there, Conan, maybe Sona, maybe Tracy King, and Jeff Ross. So it's very small, and you want to hear laughs in there. If something gets stoned at that late point, it's tough.

The joke could be on the... On the cutting block, yeah. Take on Jeff is, he's a hard laugh. He's a hard laugh, yeah. Especially for monologue jokes. I will say part of the time, I think maybe he's not fully paying attention because he's often looking at his phone. He's doing stuff on the phone. So he may have only heard the punchline without the setup.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, he's a tough laugh. He's a tough laugh. But that's how you know when you get a Jeff laugh, you know that you earned it. Yeah, although sometimes it's like, it's hard to even know what to think. It's like, wait, what does this mean?

What does it mean? Is this a laugh? Do we do it? Do we not do it? Is that a sneeze? Right, right. But anyway, that's our executive producer, Jeff Ross. That's right.

He's like this iconic Hollywood guy. So he is sort of larger than life in my mind. Yeah. You know, he and Conan started the late night show together in 93. Yeah. He's going to be on our show in a couple of weeks. He is. Unless he cancels.

I wouldn't do it. I looked in the mirror and said I wouldn't do it. I wouldn't do Inside Conan. Let's get some soup instead. Yep. Do the soup. Anyway, that's our show. That's our show this week.

If you've got a listener question you can email inside conan pod at gmail.com or leave a voicemail at uh sorry i got distracted by my phone uh 323 how ironic 209-5303 see 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 Blair. Executive produced by Adam Sachs and Jeff Ross at Team Coco.

And Colin Anderson and Chris Bannon at Earwolf. Thanks to Jimmy Vivino for our theme music and interstitials. You can rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts. and 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.