Inside Conan: An Important Hollywood Podcast - Sona Movsesian

Episode Date: May 8, 2020

Conan’s assistant Sona Movsesian joins Conan writers Mike Sweeney and Jessie Gaskell to talk about moving into her new home, her grandmother’s love of Flaming Hot Cheetos, helping Conan with tech questions, how she became Conan’s assistant, and if it’s a good idea to change careers later in life. 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. Hi, and welcome back to Inside Conan. I am Mike Sweeney. I'm a writer on The Conan Show. And you are, I believe, still Jesse Gaskell, also a writer on the show. And we are, of course, many miles apart from each other. On a Zoom. Zoom is really exhausting for me. I don't know if you find that. I've heard a lot of people complain. Why are you drained? I don't know. I find the timing very hard.

We have a daily writer's Zoom. So it's a total of 12 people. And it is, you kind of have to, it's harder than obviously being in a room together to decide when to jump in. Yeah, you really have to time it right. And then if you see someone else leaning in, then you're like, oh man, I got snaked. Yeah.

Also, there's slightly more pressure when you say a line in a video chat. If you say a line in a video chat. If you say line in a room and no one laughs, you just sink down into the cushion a little deeper. But here, it's just, I almost feel like. I know. It's like you clear your throat first. Ahem, ahem.

Excuse me. Listen to this one. I've got a funny for you. Yeah. But it is fun to see you all every day. No, that is fun. That is fun to see you all every day. No, that is fun. That is fun. Even though most people are, when you look at them, you're like, oh, what?

They're, they're off looking at something else. Yeah. They're either, you know, maybe writing a YA novel. I know Glenn's been doing a puzzle during the meetings. Yes. I sometimes knit. Is that true? Yeah, it's true. I'm going to look for telltale knitting.

I keep it down on my lap so that no one can see it, but you can see my eyes looking down. What are you knitting? Oh, that's a scarf, I believe. Yeah, it's going to be a wrap. There's like another outside part that goes around it. That's beautiful. I love the pattern. Thanks.

Yeah, it's a chevron pattern. I do car mechanics. I work on engines and engine blocks during the zoom yeah no the zoom writers meeting is uh it's a little bit of a shit show it's a lot of people talking to what's it's fun there's a lot of good laughs so let's get right into it who are we talking to today oh we have a great guest today we have uh she's one of the top 100 most famous armenian americans uh and she's conan's assistant but she has become a star right she has i googled her and you know how it does predictive googling and it was how much does sona from conan make in a year was like the top question people want to

know how much she makes at conan and then i think the second one was Sonam Obsessian feet. Wait, what did you say? Are you serious? That's a known thing that they're just, the foot fetish people are relentless. I'm so naive. Now I wish we would have asked her

to show them. How do we subtly get photos of her feet? Oh yeah, it's on WikiFeet. There are already photos of her feet on WikiFeet. Get out, seriously. There are like five photos yeah i'm i'm shocked sweeney the the internet is a bad place i hate to be the one to tell you this

yeah well i that's why i never google anything on that note yeah let's hear our interview with Sona. Hey, Sona. Hi, Sona. Hello. Hi. It's so good to see you. It really has been like six weeks since I've seen you. It has.

I know you don't realize how long it's been until you've actually see people's faces that you used to see every day. And I'm like, Oh, I'm, I miss you guys. I miss seeing you and talking to you and stuff. I know. I miss my life. Seeing each other on a zoom. I I've seen you a couple of times on zoom.

Cause you recorded a few things. You guys do secret happy hours. That's nice. No, it was work. It was really hard work. Conan was shitting on Sa and i got to watch poor sweeney has to edit all of the videos that i do yeah yeah you i feel like you probably edit

all of the stuff that i normally do on the show i've ended up doing that for some reason and uh but i love it they're always really funny so So it's like, gee, I hope I can edit this. Well, it's like on SNL when a writer and a performer get paired up together and they really start to make magic. Seems like that's what you two are doing. Oh, come on. Oh, sweetie. The only difference is it's not SNL.

Like Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. Sure. It's true. I know. We say dick animation and you actually animate dicks running around a track. Well, you don't, but yeah. No, the second Conan described that race, I was like, oh, we have to animate a dick race. You were already sending an email to the graphics department.

I was. I was very excited. Just to clarify for people, this was a bit with Conan and Sona. How did it start? Conan said, you know, I'll make a vow not to be mean to you. And Sona was like, oh, that lasts 30 seconds. And then you go right back to being a giant dick. After 30 seconds, it's back to the races.

And then Conan said, the dick races? He started describing the race. And then you said, the dick races? He started describing the race. And then you said, do they have little jockeys? And he said, yes, those are smaller penises. So it was very,

it was a very visual description. Hearing it back, I'm realizing back to the races isn't something people say. And I think that's a indication that I was raised by two non-native English speakers is when I mess up things like that.

Oh, that's really cute. Yeah, I do that all the time. It's like when you see a t-shirt in Japan or something that's been translated and it's like a little... That's my life. Does it happen to you a lot or no? All the time.

Really? Yeah, it's with idioms and sayings and I'll say something and someone will be like, I don't think that's it. And I'm like, it's not. Yeah, I'm trying to think of an example of one that I did recently. I think it was like. Well, we have some English is such a weird language anyway. It's not, it doesn't make sense at all.

There are no rules. You just have to memorize it. And that's it. It always frustrates me when Americans are like, learn English to immigrants. And it's like, English is hard. Most Americans don't speak English. Yeah, it is. It is. It's, you know, and I but I also know people who've been here for like 60 years and their English is still terrible. It's like they're not even trying. They're just kind of like, nah, I'll figure it out.

I'll find people who know how to speak Armenian. That's me you're talking about. I was born here and I'm still like, what's the right word? Oh man, how are you guys doing? We're okay. So where are you? You're at your house in Altadena. Is that right?

Yes. Your new house. Wow. Have you had time to now do a bunch of stuff at the house? Was this really good timing for that? It actually was. It's funny because I've talked about buying a new house and then moving into my new house and unloading into my new house. I think because Conan brings it up constantly. He's just fascinated with it, I guess. I don't know. But I feel like I talked about my home buying process so much. On the podcast? Just everywhere. On the show, on the podcast, just anytime Conan and I do something. And so I feel like everybody knows every step of it. But we're all very pleased with your mortgage rate. Yeah, I know.

Wow, that is detailed. But I did, I think that it would have taken me months to unpack and it took us just this, like we're completely moved in at this point. I mean, we just have to put up some more wall art, but you know, I mean. It would be sad if you hadn't finished moving.

What date did you move? How much did you beat kind of the curfew for when everything stopped by just a few weeks, right? Yes. We, we, we moved in in February. So we were here for like a few weeks and then we were, you know, shut down and locked in here. Right.

Right. Well, not locked in, shut down and locked in here. Right, right. Well, not locked in, but yeah. Can you go out your, Altadena is literally, I believe, on the edge of some mountains. Right, the Angeles National Forest. Yes. Yeah, I actually just picked up eggs from Linda in wardrobe.

Oh, Linda, I picked up eggs from her. We had Linda on the podcast. You've both now done it. I need to contact linda because this sounds like a real experience linda is in our wardrobe department and yeah and she she uh she has a farm oh like a working farm that she says it's it's the farm that batman bought because she worked on all the batman movies i did not know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We didn't know that either. She calls her chickens, the girls, her hens, and she sells. And she raises food rabbits.

She likes to tell. Oh, I didn't know that. Rabbits for consumption. Yes. Very nice. Not for pets. Nope. Not for pets. If you keep one as a pet, she will come and reclaim it and butcher it herself wait so how do you pick up eggs from her farm i mean she used to send an email every day and i or like every other day or whatever and i think that she now has a network of people who buy their eggs from her yes and so like i want to say a few days ago i i text her i was like hey linda can i come pick up some eggs she's like i'll put you on the list and I'll text you when there's some available because everybody wants a piece of Linda's eggs. Yes.

And you have to drop what you're doing. Like I'm on that list too. And I'm just like, oh, wow. You know, you see your eggs. Oh, you have to like race other people there to get them. Well, no, she'll just, you'll just get an email that says, okay, there's a dozen eggs waiting for you outside under a box.

Yeah. And you, you have to then mower the money and tear into the car and head up to Altadena to get your eggs. Yeah. Yeah. She's like four minutes away from me. So it's really easy to pick them up. But yeah, you, you drive, it's, it's, it's, she's at the foothills right by a hiking trail and you drive up and I never see her. I never talk to her. I know exactly where the eggs are. I pick them up. There's a Venmo. And

then I just go home with, you know, fresh eggs. It's a really nice situation. I like it a lot. She could be dead and the chickens are running things. Yeah, we don't know. Has anyone heard from Linda? Chickens are clicking out emails. You're up next. They're still selling the rabbits for food. The only reason I got eggs this time was because someone couldn't pick them up. So I took their place in line.

Wow. Yeah. It's a, I got, I lucked out anyway. So it's so Darwinian out out there out in altadena you know what i have lost a ton of weight and i think it's because i'm cooking all the food i'm eating i had no idea how unhealthy it was to just eat out if you think you're being healthy i cannot

believe it i mean and i'm like learning how to make things I've never made before. Like what? Well, I recently made this like, well, this is something I baked. I baked a zucchini chocolate bread, but also just like, I never really had made fajitas before. It's not hard. Yeah, no. But it's fun. I don't know. And you know, pasta sauces and shit like that.

Do you still bring out the fajitas like on the sizzling skillet to the table? Passing by other tables that are all jealous i do i really thought i want to make it as close to the restaurant experience as possible so i'm like hot plate i think fajitas are embarrassing when they i always i know it's just like everyone i feel like they pour dry ice on it or something yeah extra steamy yeah like there's no way they could be steaming that much. It always looks much better than it tastes, which is why they give you bread to shove it into.

Oh, shut your face, sweetie. Fajitas are the best. I'm sure yours turned out incredibly. No, I mean, I just, I'm a big fajita person in general. That's my jam when I go to a Mexican restaurant. I had no idea. Well, you're shitting all over it. so i almost didn't even want to tell you but i'm proud of it i'm proud of being a fajita lover yeah no i'm sorry um i was gonna ask sona do you cook any armenian food so funny

you asked that because i found an armenian cookbook called lavash which is the bread that they make and i was like, there's a ton of things here I could make. I've never heard of a single thing in that book. And I don't, I don't even know where you can get the ingredients. No, I don't, I don't even know where I would be able to get those ingredients. I think because Armenians are so regional. And so a lot of what we eat, because my parents are from Turkey are, you know, Turkish influenced. And there so a lot of what we eat, cause my parents are from Turkey are, you know, Turkish influenced and there's a lot of that.

So I think that's like straight from the old country cuisine. And I, I just don't know any of that stuff, but I want to get an Armenian cookbook and actually learn how to make stuff. Cause yeah, that'd be so, especially now it seems like a good time. Like French fries.

I know those are big over there. My grandma used to love making French fries. That was, she loved French fries and Flamin' Hot Cheetos. Those were the two things. Oh, Flamin' Hot Cheetos are so good. I know. I've never had those. They're so good.

What, are you serious? I've never had them, no. Oh, it's, Sweeney, I'm going to send you a bag of them. They sound like they'd go? Are you serious? I've never had them. No. Oh, it's sweet. I'm going to send you a bag of them. They sound like they go great with- You and Cynthia are going to feast this weekend. Can you imagine the fajitas and then that's followed up with a bag of shitty flaming Fritos? I have no idea where my grandma tried them, but I remember we went to her house and she

had made like lamb chops and she made all this like hummus and all these Armenian foods. Then she brings out a bowl and dumps in flaming hot Cheetos. And we were all looking at each other like, when would you have ever, ever even tried this? There's no way you would have. Like, you don't go to the liquor store. You don't go to the like. But I love that she was also also like and now for the main event like in a glass chiseled glass bowl wait are you claiming hummus is a armenian food

well it's something we all eat oh it's not armenian i mean who invented hummus it's i think that's a big argument right yeah i thought it I thought it was the Israelis. Oh, maybe not. Or the Greeks. I don't know. Oh, so before we started recording, Sweeney, you were telling a story of Sona had her adorable dog with her. Oh, there she is.

Hi. What's your dog's name again? Rufy? Oki. Rufy. I don't know. No, her name is Oki. Oh, okay.

Sorry. That's so much okay i oh shit on my dog's name no no how'd you come up with the name oki you know my husband and i were in okinawa for our honeymoon because when we were in japan we went to okinawa for a few nights and then we saw her picture on instagram and a friend of mine was giving her away because she couldn't keep her. And so we called her Okie to remember where we were when we decided to adopt her. Oh, that's actually sweet. But so Sweeney, you did a cruel thing to Okie.

You and Okie have had a... Oh, you had Okie in the office once. I mean, Okie's an unusual looking dog, let's say. I'm sorry, what? What's that? Well, he looks even different now that, or she, sorry, looks different because you gave her a haircut, right? Oh, look at Oki.

Yeah, it's growing back. But yeah, she's small and some would say, you know, rodent-like sometimes. Yeah. Possibly. So she was in the office and i i think i just turned to one of our producers named kramer and i was like oh um you know there's a rodent issue on this floor can you contact warner brothers and have them look into this and i i thought it was clear i was talking about your dog so then like several hours later i just happened to be in the landing

upstairs i was sitting in a chair and these two men in uniforms could come up and they're looking around and they're like we checked the third floor no signs of rodents there and i was like uh i'm sorry fellows excuse my intrusion but i couldn't help but overhear what is this complaint you're investigating they're like well this guy kramer called us i was like oh i think i can i don't think you're going to actually find rodents no matter where you look oh my god well also sweeney you are a postal worker so you have a huge animosity towards dogs uh i was a mailman rightfully so yeah mailman i was a mailman for four summers is still one of the great jobs of uh all time i have to say i i loved that job but dogs do really hate mailmen i had to yeah i once got bit by a dog

and i had to go to a police dog lineup because I was bit by a black Labrador retriever and there were two identical looking black labs on the street. So they're like, oh, you know, you got to go up there. Which one was it? And you know, it's the one with the flesh. How could you tell them apart? The flesh hanging out of its mouth.

I think it's that dog, Hercules. I remember its name, Hercules. Oh my God. Was it a bad bite? Did you have to go to the doctor? It wasn't that bad. But the mailman, like, you know, when you work in the summer,

you're subbing for the regular mailman or on vacation. And when the mailman I was subbing for came back, the owner's names were the Chalemys. I remember that. And he goes, the Chalemys dog bit you? He goes, go to the police, sign a complaint. Three complaints, they got to gas them.

Please calm down. This is a part-time job. Wow. Well, let's bring it back to the show. What have you been asked to do from home for Conan right now? For the first few weeks, he couldn't do anything technological without getting on the phone with me and then me calmly trying to talk him through it and then him getting angry and frustrated. But eventually he like really got the hang of it.

I mean, he's he shoots a lot of the show himself, and he uploads it himself, and he really is just doing everything. But when it first started, he had such a hard time getting all that. He was cranky, I think. Yeah. Well, in the office, he's used to like,

hey, Conan, I took this new iPhone and loaded it with all this stuff. Yeah, he just gets handed it and it's yeah there we go and i think he was kind of used to that there is a learning curve with technology yes yeah but he gets frustrated very easily like almost too easily like you just try to be patient a little bit. It's fine. Now that that's pretty much handled. Now I just make like, just do this schedule and just send it out every day and make sure everyone knows what's up. Okay.

Do you miss your daily live interaction with him? At first I, I didn't, but now I, I kind of, I don't know what that, you know, it's not a Stockholm thing where you start to like. Yes, that's the right word. Is that it? You know, I miss my tormentor. I do. I think everybody kind of like, you know, I bet Matt O'Brien misses getting pummeled by him almost to a certain, like everybody just misses the abuse we suffered.

But because it's loving abuse and, you know, I mean. Yeah. Are you like trying to pick fights with talk to like elicit the response i keep calling him like i keep saying he's super white and irish and i can't go outside and the text like uh i'm not i'm armenian and how can you be that old and still have freckles do you have any ptsd like at 1 p.m are you in your house and just going oh god i forgot to order lunch for conan oh no wait no because i stopped having that kind of thing a long time ago i was like oh my god i forgot to do this for going and i'm like oh shit i forgot to do that okay back to sleep there's no it's uh it's no that that that doesn't exist anymore just in general i i have to say hats off to you for

getting to a point early in your job where you didn't worry about ever ever pleasing your boss yeah and then even kind of making that part of your shtick so that it's like, you can't change now because that would change your dynamic. And he wouldn't like that. I actually wanted to start getting really good at my job. And I was like, no, this will hurt the dynamic. So I'll just stick to what I'm doing. That would actually threaten your job.

It is brilliant. To be competent. Whenever other people are out there imitating you, and this will lead to a podcast and television i told my boss to go fuck himself i think that what i did very early on that he didn't know how to react to was when i mess up i'm like oh shoot i you know what i messed up and i'm really sorry i think that it threw i threw him off that i was owning up to not doing something and i was apologetic about it and so i keep keep on, he was going to catch you in a lie. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But I've never,

I've never lied about it. If I don't do something, I'm not like, Oh, so like this intern forgot to do something. I'm very like, Oh, I didn't do it. I'm really sorry. And then, uh, he's just kind of like, Oh, okay. I guess like there's nothing I can, I can do. She apologized. just kind of like, oh, okay. I guess there's nothing I can do. She apologized. What kind of creature is this that ends up to its mistakes? I've never seen this. Take responsibility? Yeah. I don't know.

Wow. And I think he likes it at this point. What a strategy. Yeah. I really think at this point, too, and you guys know, when someone messes up, Conan's like, ooh, yum, delicious. He's so excited the more serious to fuck up the more excited right i can dine on this for years he'll bring up something sweeney probably did like 17 years ago well i don't think that's the case yeah you haven't screwed up since

then no it's been a perfect track record he brings up a comedy piece i did that bombed so bad in rehearsal and it was only like a 20 second piece of tape i think i tried to re-edit it to make it work and so so we rehearsed it a second time and it again everyone just stared at it and it was it was called plumber yoda it was Yoda. Like when he wasn't working, you know, he was using the force to like clear pipes under his hands. And it just, he just waved his hand and you saw a pipe clear out. And it, you know, it wasn't funny.

Oh man. I'm so glad you remember that. I would have forgotten it. But he keeps bringing it up whenever he really wants to. Yeah, I was going to say the fact that you can remember your big failures. You haven't had so many that they've all just blended together. Was that like 20 years ago, Sweeney? I mean, it must have been.

Yeah. Oh, easily 20 years ago. It was like 1998, maybe. He loves it almost more when people screw up than when they do something right. Absolutely. And so I'm just this endless well for him. I feel like I fuel him in a way, but of course. You're his favorite employee.

I've seen him get upset when like really good news comes over the transom. He's kind of like, shit. Like if the writers win a writer's guild award, he's like, Oh yeah. Okay. I'll, I'll,

I'll be back in the cell by tomorrow. It's like, well, you want it to your names. Just shut up. Where am I? I'm an upside down world. I don't understand his reactions anymore.

What a sad world we live in. I know. But we're all here talking about him because we miss him so much. I know. I know. If you had to pick a date, when do you think,

if we're ever back at Warner Brothers in our studio, when do you think that would be do you have an idea about it uh i would think it i'm gonna say the beginning of june wow really i think of 2020 i do i think i think it will be different i don't think that we could have the audience back but i think we it could even be like are we to get our hands on tests? I have no idea. I don't know. I think that there's just going to be, cause it's a month from now. And I, I don't know.

I feel like I, yeah, I'm going to say the big, cause we have a couple more weeks and I think we have a hiatus coming up. I don't know what the situation is, but what are you guys doing over your big break? Let's go nuts yeah i don't know that's my guess i would be my guess why what do you guys when do you guys think never oh i didn't expect them to open the lot up that soon yeah you know what hearing june 1st i'll subscribe to that sure i hope you're right i was gonna say september oh my god well yeah maybe just to be an outlier i'm gonna say 2023 and until then conan has to operate an iphone in his home office i do think before we go back to

the lot there may be some other version of right we all go right we have to go to conan's house or something right shoot stuff i mean we'll see if things open up where where there might be an intermediate step to be determined that part of it's kind of exciting in a way or just the kind of the way things are evolving and changing day to day exciting is the wrong word but it kind of keeps you on are evolving and changing day to day. Exciting is the wrong word, but it kind of keeps you on your toes a bit. I've stopped having expectations about anything. I just immediately, like so quickly,

everything I thought was going to come to pass just was absolutely wrong. So now I'm like, I'm not even going to try. It's true. I'm just here until someone tells me I could leave. Yeah. Oh, man. going to try it's true i'm just here until someone tells me i could leave yeah oh man um well sona we actually have a voicemail from a listener for you hello conan people um i have two questions um and you can choose whichever you like. The first one is for Sona. Sona, how did you get your start? What were you doing before you were Conan's assistant?

And I'd love to hear from you about that. And then question number two. I'm someone who is now in their mid-30s and thinking of making a major career change. Do you think this is a good idea? And have you ever wanted to change careers? Okay, so that's three questions. Thank you all so much.

You guys are making my quarantine so much better. And I wish you all well. Thank you. Aw. And she asked you all well. Thank you. Oh, and she has three questions when she started out saying two. So but that's a great question. Yeah, those are really good. I Yeah, what did I do before? Yes. What did you do so long ago? I worked at NBC. That's what I did. Okay, so I interned at NBC during my last semester, and then I joined the page program. And you, did you study film in college?

I studied communication, which is broad. It's just like anything. It's just a random. You went to USC here in Los Angeles. I did. I went to USC. You love your alma mater. I do.

I'm a, I'm a proud Trojan. And I interned in the alternative programming department at NBC. And I didn't know what that was when I signed up for it or when I interviewed for it. And I found out as I was interning what the alternative programming department does. Yeah. It's just anything non-scripted is alternative programming. Oh, okay. So like specials and reality shows and all that stuff.

And then I joined the page program. I was hoping it was like programming about threesomes or something. I know. And then I joined the page program because of my internship. Yeah. And that was really fun.

That was, it was really, really cool. Did you wear the jacket? I wore this blue polyester blazer with a white button down and a peacock tie and a gray skirt and black tights do you have pictures of i can you send us a picture i didn't take a single i hated that uniform so much and i didn't take a single picture in it and then uh i was doing that for six. Then I went on assignment in the publicity department in events and did that. And then that turned into a job.

And then I worked for publicists for like a few months, hated it and quit and then got another job. So I went back to events. And while I was working in events, I became friends with Mark Lepus, who was the old publicist on Late Night with Conan O'Brien. And then he was a great guy. He was one of the good publicists. But he... Some of my best friends are publicists.

Then when I found out that Conan was moving to LA, I started campaigning pretty hard to get a job on the show because I was a big fan of him. And so, yeah. Does he know that? He does. He does. And so, yeah. Does he know that? He does. And then right before my interview, Mark Lepus sent Conan a text sort of vouching for me. And I think that's a big reason why I got my job. So it's in part thanks to Mark Lepus. So thanks, Mark. Oh, that's nice. While you were at usc did you want to go into television was that your kind of dream okay yeah i think that i was i wasn't sure if it wanted if i wanted to

get into movies or tv and i just like tv more i just have always loved yeah you famously love tv yeah i do so i it was a no-brainer but also it's jarring and going to this woman's maybe second or third question. I'm not sure. Breaking into it is tough, but I think it might actually be easier now. Am I crazy for thinking that just because there's so many streaming services and so much content? What do you guys think? I feel like there's so many more job opportunities now. Well, I think for writing, it's different. There are more platforms, but then the jobs are running out faster because the seasons are all shorter on those platforms. Like, it's only 10 episodes. So they might only have writers for, I don't know, a few months. And then

you're released again and having to find another job. So there are actually more writers competing for a smaller number of jobs at any given time. Oh, I didn't know that. But I am going to say I'm a big advocate of loving your job. I think it's, you know, a silly thing to be an advocate for. But there have been two instances where I absolutely hated my job and I quit them almost instantly. But I also had the sort of cushion of very supportive parents who would have always let me move back home if I needed to. So I didn't care. But I think that, you know, if you're interested, I think if she's interested in getting into TV, she should just try.

I don't I don't think it's too late for. Well, yeah. What do you think about that? Oh, I'm interested. The part where she said she's in her mid 30s. I do think sometimes entry level jobs tend to go to people straight out of college. And you might end up having, you know, duties where you're like getting coffee for somebody or making copies. It might feel bad to be in your 30s and doing that stuff. But, you know,

I also think that's where everyone has to start somewhere. And if you're, if you're willing to do it, then other people are probably going to enjoy having someone more of an adult around. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, I'm a big fan of switching careers and trying to filter out that idea that, oh my God, you know, if I didn't do it by the time I was 29 even, then it's too late.

Like that's, you just can't think that way. Yeah, yeah, I'm 100 even then it's too late like that's you just can't think that way yeah yeah I'm I'm a hundred percent well sweetie you had like 15 careers before you became well I was a mailman of course that was my world and then you know that one dog practicing lawyer yeah yeah I know the law thing I never wanted to be a lawyer. I ended up becoming a lawyer. And then I was a trial lawyer in New York City, which was crazy. But I always wanted to do stand-up. And I just, once I moved into New York City,

I started doing stand-up at night. And I was doing trials during the day. I had $25 a week doing stand-up. I just quit. I had no money saved either. But I never wanted to be a lawyer. So people are like, how could you give that up?

I'm like, what? The worst job on the planet working with the worst people on the planet it was tough how old were you when you started doing that like when you switched over to stand-up twice 28 okay and then I did that for nine years and that was that was great I mean back then in the late 80s early 90s you can make I mean I made a good living just working in manhattan and i did colleges and all sorts of different stuff so i i made a good living yeah then i started applying for late night writing jobs and so the second i started working at conan i had to stop doing stand-up because we were there

at midnight every night and i couldn't do sets like i used to do like god six sets a night in new york city like six nights a week and i i had to i couldn't schedule anything so the hours were crazy back then and so i just stopped doing stand-up that's not so in a way that till midnight what's that yeah yeah i didn't know you worked that late oh my god it was especially back then like i'd shoot and edit a lot of things and it was old tape machines. There was nothing was digital and you'd literally be there till 6am editing a three minute piece. Oh God. Cause they'd want it for the next day and you, you had to pull an all nighter.

Jeez. Yeah. It's totally different. Crazy hours back then. Anyway, switching gigs is great. yeah and i actually think if you're creating content like if it's comedy if you're doing stand-up or if you're making tv it's better to have some real life experience under your belt than 20 somethings that come straight out of college and go into the business and start writing or whatever they're doing they don't have any experience except for having been college

students, but people want to see TV about regular people's lives. So it's better if you've had some experience being, doing something else, like working in a different kind of office or being a mailman. And then that can inform your what you produce you know because that's actually more relatable than just if you worked in tv your whole life then that's all you know yes well even on yeah even on our show how many people start off as interns and have never worked anywhere else like you could you can tell you can tell yeah it's it they kind of miss that basic what jesse's saying that those life experiences that you you would draw on in any creative job. There's a big argument, you know, if you want to be a movie director, should you study film in college?

Or you could argue that, or you could argue, no, like spend your undergraduate studying, just learning as much stuff in many different topics. And then when you're done with college, if you still want to be a movie director, then pursue it then, you know, but at least have all this general knowledge under your belt. Yeah. Know about the world. Yeah. I agree. Yeah, like us.

We're really worldly. Yeah. Check this out. We did it right. But seriously, yes. Any mailman-related humor on Late Night Over the Years did come from my pen. It's great. Well, I think it's time to wrap up.

We've got to wrap this up. Unless anyone has anything else. I know. It's time to start drinking. It's 4 p.m. It is. That's when we start drinking in this household. My wife's making Negronis.

Oh, I love Negronis. She's a really good mixologist. Now I want one too. I'll be right over. Come on over. She'll come over. Safe distance. Sona, it's really good to see you. It's so good to see you guys.

And hopefully you're right and we'll all see each other again in the flesh. June 1st. Yes, June 1st. Thanksune 1st thanks sona oh no problem bye sona that was sona that was fun that was a lot of fun she's got a great laugh she does i see why conan oh yeah he's her around he's no dummy she's the only audience member you need everyone else can go home well she may's the only audience member you need. Everyone else can go home. Well, she may be the only audience member he ever gets again. We'll see.

We are loving your listener questions. Yeah, they're great. Yes. So you could email us at insideconanpod at gmail.com or leave us a voicemail. It's really nice to hear people's voices right now. Our number is 323-209-5303. So that's it for this week. Yes. 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 Blaire. Thank you. of course please subscribe and tell a friend to listen to inside conan on apple podcast spotify stitcher google podcast or whatever platform you like best