Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff - Inside Late Night: Brian Stack

Episode Date: September 22, 2026

Brian Stack joins Mark Malkoff to revisit 29 years in late night, with stories from his long runs with Conan O’Brien and Stephen Colbert. He gets into classic Conan bits, Amy Poehler, the “Alabaster Ape,” Shrieking Joe, and the shock of The Late Show’s cancellation.

from late-nighter.com, it's Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff. Welcome to Inside Late Night with Mark Malkoff for Late Nighter. Today we talked to Brian Stack about his years writing for Conan O'Brien and Stephen Colbert. Brian Stack, it's nice to see you. Thanks, Mark. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. Oh, I'm so excited.

I used to watch you back in Chicago when I was there for a summer and I would go to the ETC. And if you took classes there, you could go and see the shows as many times as possible. So it was you and your wife and Neil Flynn. And I mean, it was Jim Zulovic. I mean, your wife, Miriam Tolan, it was such an amazing group of people. And to be in Chicago right then and mainstage with Tina Faye and Rachel Dratch and Scott Atz. And it was really a special time when you were there. Thanks, Mark.

Thanks for coming out to see us. Yeah, that was, I feel very lucky looking back at all the people I got to work with and watch, you know. including just before when I started touring in the touring company, just watching people like my future boss, Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell and Amy Sedaris. And before that, you know,

people like Farley and Odenkirk. And, you know, it was just, it was a great time to be in Chicago. When you were growing up in Palantine, Illinois, I was in Arlington Heights until I was in fourth grade. So we were pretty close by.

But when you were growing up, I know like Peter Sellers, SCTV, you had all these influences. Did it ever occur to you that you would get into comedy at that point? You know, it never occurred to me that I could do it myself professionally. I loved it as a fan, you know, and I was kind of a comedy obsessive, like so many other

comedy people I know when they're kids, but I didn't know anyone in showbiz and in, you know, the Chicago area, it seemed like people in show business came from outer space or something. So, and I didn't know about Second City. I kind of discovered that through my love of SCTV. because people would be like, you know, there's this theater in the city that these people came out of. And so my love of SCTV led me to so many other things. But yeah, I think I was a shy kid. I was very introverted.

And I think as a kid, I thought all entertainers had to be extroverts. And now I know a lot better. I know a lot of my favorite entertainers are introverts. It's so interesting to look at you because you're such a, in my opinion, looking at you a confident performer and so good. what you do. And when you got to undergrad in 1982 to Indiana University, Blumenten, you meet Mick Napier, who in Chicago circles is a, you know, this legend, annoyance theater. But at the time, he had this improv group, and you were too shy, even though he encouraged

you to try it, but you would go and watch them, but this was, you didn't have the confidence at the time, correct? Right, yeah, I was so afraid. I loved it so much. And I could tell it would be really fun if it did work. But I, yeah, I was so afraid of being bad at it because I loved comedy so much that I was afraid of trying it and failing. But when Mick, I used to go see Mick's group all the time and he later became, you know, a wonderful director at Second City and founded the Annoyance Theater in Chicago, as you know, and has worked with Stephen and Tina and all these wonderful people. But, yeah, Mick at the time, I was randomly assigned to his dorm floor and I'll always be so grateful for.

for that because he's the one that ended up getting me interested in improv and telling me about Improv Olympic, which back then someone had to kind of tell you about it wasn't very well known and very few colleges had improv groups. So Mick was incredibly important and pivotal in my life, for sure. So you graduate in 1986 and then you go and do you do a summer at Improv Olympic, and that's your first time really on stage? Yeah, it was actually, I didn't even perform in front of people, but it was my first time trying improv in classes. And I felt totally in love with it that summer. Sharna Halpern, who taught my beginning class, put me on a Herald team. But we didn't end up performing because I had committed to going to grad school, University of Wisconsin. And I had mixed

feelings about going off to Madison because I had discovered this thing I love, you know, improv that summer. But by sheer luck, there was this wonderful theater, the arc theater in Madison, where I did my first performing in front of people. And actually, that's where the late great Chris Farley was actually my first group there. And Todd Hanson, who was later head writer at The Onion, was in that group, and a lot of wonderful people. But yeah, Mick, I took that taking that beginning class was huge, though, because I fell in love with it right away. Fall of 1986, you grad school, University of Wisconsin at Madison. And you had done cartoons for your undergrad for the student newspaper. And you go to the daily cardinal offices. You are interested. I'm going to do some, maybe some comic strips,

and that's where your interest lied. But you ran into, it was Bill Kuzak, right? It was John and Jones sibling, Cusack. And he's the one that told you about this improv group, the arc, and that's when you audition. He's the one, he'd never remember me or that conversation, I'm sure, but I remember going into the Cardinal, and he was sitting there. And I had seen him in an arc show, because a friend of mine said, hey, there's this little comedy theater and we went to see a show and Bill was in the show. And so I recognized him immediately and I saw him sitting there in the Cardinal office and I said, hey, I really enjoyed your show. I just took a beginning improv class and it's really fun. And he said, you know, they're starting up a new group at the ark and they're having auditions this week.

And it was just serendipity, I guess. And so I always wanted to thank him and I've never run into him. He was at Adam McKay's wedding, actually. And I wanted to go over and say something. and I never got a chance. But so if he's out there, I'm very, very grateful to him. Changed your life. And then you're 26 and you meet a fellow 26-year-old Chris Farley. And he was wearing, when you first met him, the same kind of jacket he wore in Tommy Boy, correct? It was like a bomber jacket.

He had a bandana on his head. Is that true? Yeah, we were both 22, actually. Oh, really? Yeah, we were both. Chris was 26 when he got on SNL. Okay. amazingly young when I look back on it.

But Chris and I, Chris had was finishing up his degree from Marquette and was back in Madison where his family lived and working for his dad's company, Scotch Oil. And I was, yeah, I showed up. And I remember he had a bandana and his Marquette rugby jacket. And I remember thinking, wow, this guy's nothing like me, but I love him. You really bonded. I thought it was so interesting because this is the first time you got in front of an audience, this improv group. And then just a year later, you're doing some Sam Shepard One acts. This is at the

Ark. It's Cowboys Number Two. And the Wisconsin State Journal in August of 1987, they wrote as Stu, Stack portrayed a perfect, innocent playing cowboy in Indians. His monologue about decay was delivered with a death sense of control and timing. It was one of the best moments of the night. So when you're in, that's pretty amazing to get praise like that critically. Thanks, Mark. I'm amazed you found that because that old review because it was amazing to even get critics to come out to little shows like that because the arc was so small. But that was a, thanks so much for mentioning that. That was a really fun experience.

I was supposed to do that play with Chris, actually. And Chris and I started rehearsals for it. And then Chris said in the middle of rehearsals, he said, I got to go to Chicago. I got to go. And I remember thinking, oh, I'm sad to not do the show with him, but I could just tell he just, he had to go. He was chomping at the bit. And when I would, before I was done with grad school, I went up to, went down to visit him in Chicago. And that's when I first met one of my best friends, lifelong friends, Pat Finn, who went to college with Chris.

And Pat's one of the best people in the world. And he and Chris were like brothers at Marquette playing rugby. be doing comedy. And then when you went to Chicago to visit Chris, that's when you first saw Colbert on stage, correct? Yeah, I went to Chris's first Second City Touring Company show. I was so excited that he had gotten into the touring company, and I went, and it was an incredible group.

It was Stephen Colbert, Chris, Ian Gomez, who you've probably seen in a million things. Paul Donello, who worked with us at Colbert later, and was Strangers of Candy, Rose Abdu, Jenna Jollivitz. It was just an incredible crew, of people. And they were doing scenes from the main

stage and just killing and bringing an incredible level of energy to them. And I remember thinking that was the first time I ever saw Stephen and Paul. And I've been huge fans of both of them ever since. I wanted to ask you about

Chris Farley's first Saturday night lab. You were both 26. That's where at my research. I got that wrong. But so you're 26 and Chris is using his tickets for his very first show. This is Kyle McLaughlin is hosting with Shannad O'Connor. Chris is using his tickets for his family and Bob Odenker

got you a ticket. That's how you were able to attend. That's amazing that you know that, but yeah, I was friends with Bob's girlfriend, Claire, who did improv with us and comedy and stuff. And she just asked him as a favor to get me a ticket, which is incredibly nice of him. And I knew him a little

bit just to go in to see the mainstage cast with he and Chris. And he was a great guy and he just did that one mainstage show. But that was when they did Matt Foley, motivational speaker that summer. And Bob and Chris had their last night to Second City together. And just before, and I would never have thought I could get a ticket for that show. But it was so exciting to go.

And I was so excited for Chris when he came out in the Twin Peak sketch. And Conan was actually, you probably know this was the guard leading him out there. And I was so, we went to the after party afterwards. Thankfully, my friend Gary knew Robert Smigel through his improv. classes and Robert was nice enough to get us into the after party and I remember Chris just seemed like a little kid who'd been allowed to stay up late. He always had that wonderful childlike vulnerability to him that everybody could see in his performances. But that was so exciting for him and we were so happy for him. And then just a few years later, you're auditioning for Saturday Night Live.

They flew you out to New York. This was in 1995 when they were revamping the cast. what was that like when you did audition? I know that you did a Ted Kennedy, you did Sean Connery, what am I leaving out? And what was your audition like? Oh, you know, it went fine and the people were really nice to us and everything. One thing I learned, though, from that is, and I tell young people this all the time, if that's the kind of show you dream of working on, have stuff you can do by yourself to camera

that's ready, that's like tested in front of an audience and everything. I came exclusively out of an ensemble environment doing improv with multiple people and sketch shows with multiple people. I didn't have anything I could do by myself to camera like that. So it went fine, but I didn't really have endings for my bits, you know. But it was fine. And my wife, Miriam also auditioned. They flew her out twice, actually, and they loved her. But it's like one of those things where I remember that was the year they hired Will.

Farrell and our buddy Dave Kekner and Nancy Walls and them. And I was happy for them. But looking back, I don't know if I would have been able to handle the intensity of that kind of show, even though it was the dream job for all of us, you know. Did it help at all when you auditioned that your friend who had been on Saturday Night Live for a year, who was from Chicago told you what Phil Hartman told her when she auditioned. I believe it was, it was Beth Cahill. She auditioned and asked Phil, she happened to seem to you have any advice. And he said something to the effect. Just to let you know, we're all scared to death.

It's part of the job to pretend that we're not. And this is the guy who's easily one of the best SNL cast members of all time. Did that advice help you at all to know that somebody like that is feeling that anxiety at that level? I think it's incredibly good advice. I was so happy for Beth. Beth was on my Improv Olympic team. And I was so excited for her when she got SNL in 91. And but yeah, I think I heard that story later after I had auditioned.

But I think it's fantastic advice. And I think there's something very comforting about it that even the best performers like Phil Hartman are masking a lot of insecurity and fear and self-doubt that, you know, no one ever really gets away from that even if you're at that level. You know, just keeping that in mind. There was something very, very inspiring and comforting to know that every, everybody goes through those feelings. Yeah, Mike Myers and Dana Carvey saying that we thought we were going to get fired every week.

And it's unbelievable to look at that. So in November of 1992, you and John Glazer are hired the very same day at Second City, correct? That's right, yeah. So you get Second City, and you've been in Chicago then for a few years. And then that was your only goal. I mean, that was winning the lottery, getting to Second City. Beyond that, you just weren't really thinking about anything, correct? That was the goal at the point.

It really was the top of the mountain for me when I was in Chicago. I never thought I would even get a chance to work at Second City. And it's one of the reasons when I would audition there. I was so in my head and so self-conscious that I would have people like Mick and other people going to bat for me when going in and say, you know, take a look at Brian. He's coming in. And I would completely invalidate their opinion because my brain would just completely freeze. But thankfully, they came out without telling us, they came out to say,

see our group Jazz Freddy, which was an improv group I was in with my wife Miriam and Dave Kackner and Pat Finn, Rachel Dratch and Kevin Dorff and just a wonderful bunch of people, Pete Gardner. And I'm so glad I didn't know they were in the audience because I was just having fun and just relaxed and having a blast. And so they hired several of us from that group, including my wife, Miriam. And so I'm so grateful I got to work at Second City. But for several years there, I'd kind of written off the possibility of doing that. So that was my ultimate goal in Chicago. So you had an advertising job for those four years.

What did that feel like to quit your day job to do comedy? Well, you know, it was, I remember feeling like, wow, this is really taking a leap into the unknown, but I don't remember hesitating about it. Like, I don't remember feeling like, because it was such a dream of mine to work at Second City, I just remember thinking, oh, I got to do it. There wasn't even a question. And all I was doing when they first hired me was understudying the touring company, which means you might get called twice a month to do a show.

But I still just had to go, you know. But working in advertising, I'm grateful that I got to do that for four years. It was a, I worked with some really great people and it gave me an outlet at night to go do the improv shows for fun and for free. We never made any money, but we had a great time. In 1997, you got a call from your old Chicago friend and Conan writer Brian McCann, that Tommy Blacha, who's been on this podcast, really is. injured his foot. He's going to be out. They need somebody just to fill in for a few months for a cycle. And they ask if you would submit, catch ideas. How much time did you have to get them a packet?

You know, I threw it together over one weekend. And that's another thing I tell people have stuff ready. Just, you know, because luckily, I think if they were hiring someone for a full-time job indefinitely. They might have been had more scrutiny, you know, with my packet. But because I was supposed to just be filling in for 13 weeks, I think they're like, all right, well, they liked it well enough to give me a shot to come out. And luckily, Andy Richter and Tommy and Brian McCann and Greg Cohen, you know, knew me and kind of vouched for me and said, I think it'll be good for the 13-week cycle. And then thankfully, they like what I was doing once I got there

and they figured out a way to keep me on after Tommy came back and I'm so grateful I got to work with Tommy because as anyone will tell you who's worked with him he's one of the funniest guys in the world. I want to talk about your Conan Packett. Normally it's two pages of ideas. I know one of them was Poseidon.

They bring him out in a tank of water and they just force him to do humiliating things like jokes, stuff like that and you really did a good job with that capturing kind of like the mythological language and they like that idea? They seem to.

It was one of the ideas that they liked, but it's funny. I don't remember if we did anything from my packet on the show. Although I did have one idea, I think Conan's old girlfriends show up and they're a little angry. And oddly enough, that got put on the grid to develop into a sketch. And I remember going, I don't really know what to do with this. And I wasn't, it was kind of a half-baked idea. And that, thankfully, though, that inspired me to think to myself,

okay, jealousy, what would I, what would be fun? What would be fun to see in that area, like of jealousy? And that's where the idea for Andy's little sister popped into my head because I thought, oh, it would be fun if instead of old girlfriends, it's like a 13-year-old girl who may be Andy's sister, who has a crush on Conan and he has to politely reject her because, hey, I'm too old for you. And if I didn't already have a girlfriend, I'm flattered, you know.

And then thankfully, the amazing Amy Poehler brought that simple idea to incredible heights with her performance because I think that no one ever told me this but I think it's one of the reasons they kept me on

past the 13 weeks was because that sketch went over so well and it's all thanks to Amy yeah Rick Ludwin I was friends with Rick Ludwin vice president of NBC

late night and he would talk about that sketch we had some launches and he was he absolutely loved that piece that was one of your first pieces that you got on

correct? It was the first real sketch I wrote on the show. And I remember I hadn't met Rick Ludwin at the time, but John Groff, our head writer, said, hey, we got a call from Rick Ludwin saying he really liked your sketch. He said, you got your Ludwings.

Did you have any inkling at all that Amy and Andy would do some improv here and there within that sketch? Did that happen a lot that you would give performers material and that they would maybe play rock? It wasn't a lot of improv, but they brought a lot to it. It only helped the piece. I would say. Absolutely.

Well, they're both brilliant improvisers. And Amy, I remember in one of them, like the Thanksgiving sketch, she threw in my favorite line in the sketch where before she runs down and attacks, Andy, she yelled, you know what? It's judgment day, bitch. And that was pure Amy. But her performance brought so much to it that I almost feel like she was a co-writer of it because she, her volcanic, her vulnerability combined with her volcanic rage, you know,

she can obviously do anything. And she's, I remember the first time I saw her on stage at Improv Olympic was also the first night I saw Tina. They were on an Improv Olympic team. And Amy seemed, Tina was kind of shy at the time. And she would step forward and say something incredibly brilliant. But Amy seemed fully formed right from the start. Like I don't remember her really ever having an arc where she got, where she transformed into this star. She always seemed to have that fully formed quality to her.

Tina always had that incredible Dorothy Parker wit and intelligence and talent, but she was a little more shy early on, came out of her shell. You and your wife thought, you know, we're going to be in New York three months. We're going to move back to Chicago. They still had your jobs ready for you when you got back, correct? It didn't occur to you that you maybe would stay permanent. Well, yeah, that was a weird time because I think even though I loved working at Second City so much, it felt a little like it was time to go. anyway, and I never thought that day would ever come for me. But I think because I loved it so much, I wanted to do it when my heart was fully in it.

And so I did stop working there right around the time I got the job. But I was going to go maybe teach a class and do some other stuff and do voiceovers in Chicago, hopefully, and things like that. But yeah, I loved working in Second City. And I'll always be grateful for having that opportunity, though. I'm just looking at the bulk of your characters. It's unbelievable what you've been, what you accomplished at Conan on camera and writing wise. But I wanted to talk about one of my favorite pieces, and I know the public, the interruptor. You were in a meeting with Conan. It was you and Michael Coleman had this idea, but Conan was basically saying he was tired of

sketches where he'd be talking. And then somebody in the audience would interrupt him. And then Michael had this idea, no, we're going to have someone and that's all he did. And then he, Michael pitched it to you right after the meeting and then you wrote it together. It was going to be like a one time inside joke, kind of like making fun of Conan for what he just had mentioned, correct? Yes, exactly. We were at rehearsal and he wasn't really complaining about being interrupted, but he jokingly said, as he often would,

like he would joke around with us all the time. Okay, what kind of weirdo is going to interrupt me today? Some kind of weird prospect or whatever, because we had so many freaks that showed up in the audience. And so, yeah, Michael said, for new characters when we were doing new characters the next time around. He said, what if we had a character whose sole purpose is to interrupt? And so we could kind of just play with the idea that Conan was joking about.

And then we did it just as a part of the new characters. And it was very, very, just a very slight little concept. And then I remember thinking, hey, maybe we could bring that back for a tease act, where the T's acts would be like telling who was going to be on the show the next day. And we brought it back and we're like, hey, that was fun. we just kept fleshing it out more and more. And then when Michael and I started writing the sketches, you just found out more and more about the interruptor

and what a horrible life he had and how he lived in a dumpster behind the Port Authority bus terminal and had seven different types of hepatitis and stuff like that. But it was fun to see how it evolved from a simple little joke-off of something Conan said into a full character.

It must have been a thrill to have someone like Fred Willard come up and said he was a fan of the character. I mean, to get a claim from somebody like that. Oh, it was beyond belief to even talk to Fred Willard. Like, and I didn't meet him until we were working in L.A. And he's just, I mean, he was a guy I grew up idolizing. And he couldn't have been nicer.

And he and his wife, Mary, were just the sweetest people. And he came and did an improv show with us at I.O. West one night. And he was just a delightful human being. And it's so sad that he's no longer with us. But, yeah, he was, he's everything you hope. And more, you know. When did you start doing the clutch cargoes? And I know that you mentioned in an interview that Robert Smigel, he really liked to keep the curtains open so the audience could kind of see the process.

Because I know early on in Conan, I think they had the curtains closed and you couldn't really see it. But that really did add something. But how soon were you doing clutch cargoes? I'm trying to remember how early on. Robert did the vast majority, as you know, the voices. But now and then, like if he was out there with another character, they would have, like, they would maybe have me, jump in, you know, to do the second character, or McCann did a lot of them. But I remember when I went to see the show in 94, Andy got me tickets.

And I remember the curtain was open then when I was watching Robert do the clutch that night. And I was like, oh, that's really cool to see how they do it. And I thought that was a cool instinct of Roberts to just that the audience might enjoy that. I saw a photo of your office at Conan at 30 Rock. And it looked similar to Joe Franklin's office. Kind of in disarray. Was that usually what your office was like, or was that just an off day?

Oh, I wish I could say it was an off day. My desk was always a complete disaster. I think it's my ADD and lack of organizational skills. Yeah, I just had post-its all over my computer with germs of ideas and like old dioco cans and like photos and frame things and mugs. Yeah, my desk, you rarely see. saw the surface of my desk. It was always covered with garbage. You were famous at Conan for interns.

I've talked to so many people that interned. And one thing that they would say, besides that you're hilarious and brilliant, they would say, Brian would memorize or he would get to know every intern's name. And it would blow their minds the fact that you did that. I wanted to know, do you have that inherent ability to meet somebody once and then know their name? Did you take a memory course, or is it effort to kind of to learn people's names for you? I always tried to make an effort to learn the names. And partly because I was an intern once myself. And whenever I felt like I wasn't completely invisible, I always appreciated it.

Like I was an intern at the local CBS station in Chicago. And I don't remember the people there really learning our names or anything. But I do remember just feeling like if someone just didn't look through you like you a cloud of vapor. I always appreciated it. Like, you were just a human being. And yeah, that was when Bill Curtis and Walter Jacobson and Gene Siskel were there. And, but I always try to make the effort just because I remember just feeling like, oh, it's nice when people at least acknowledge that you're there and that, and I remember feeling like I had a lot of questions and was really clueless about things. So I always tried to answer people's questions when they had them because I

remember having all those questions myself. If you ran into the interns 10 years later, would you still remember their names? Do you have that kind of recollect? I wish I don't remember everyone. I've run into some and I know the face and sometimes I remember some and I feel bad because I have a certain amount of bandwidth in my head. And one of the amazing things is just how many of our interns have gone on to do wonderful things that they come back as guests like John Krasinski, you know, or Mike Bribigley.

Mike Bribigley was an intern my first year. at Conan. And what's hilarious about Mike, too, is he already, he doesn't seem any older now than he did then, but he was probably 19 and he already seemed kind of like a dad in the suburbs. Oh, that's really funny. Yeah. Mindy Kaling. Mike Periglia on Twitter, on X said that you were a national comedy treasure. Oh, that's so sweet of him. That means a lot coming from Mike. Yeah, I love him. I went to see his show on Broadway with Miriam and that was really fun. And like Ellie Kemper and Angela Kinsey. Mindy Kaylin.

Yeah, Mindy actually babysat for my older daughter once. She had babysat for McCann and she was very sweet to offer to do that. And she probably wouldn't remember that. But we're just really happy for them. And Katie Dippold, who just, who created Widows Bay was an intern of ours. And Jen Statsky, who did hacks. Vanessa Bear. Vanessa Bear from Saturday.

Yeah, I love Vanessa too. Yeah, so over the years, we're so proud of those people. Not that our internship had anything to do with their later success, but it's so cool that they cross paths of this at one point. Absolutely. I love the fact that just at writers' meetings are around the office. You would just play around with your old Chicago friends. And one day before a writer's meeting,

you pretend to shoot Brian McCann in the leg. And he just starts singing this song just impromptu about having bulletproof legs. So you just shoot him in the chest and then he falls off the chair. And the next night, it's on the show. Right. Yeah, that was one of, a lot of our favorite ideas were complete accidents like that. And that's really how I remember it.

And Brian, you know, I think a lot of, yeah, a lot of our favorite bits weren't bits that we'd come up with sitting at our computer trying to think of stuff. Like McCann came in with a FedEx box on his head that looked like a Pope hat and started. blessing us and we're like FedEx Pope, why not? You know, it's perfect. And so many ideas, the Slip Nuts, another one that came up like 1 a.m. the night before they first aired because we didn't have a middle of the show sketch and we were stuck and Slipknot, the band was on the show the next day and we're like, what if there's a stupid comedy group book by mistake that's, but that was all desperation, you know,

and sleep deprivation. And those were a lot of our favorite ideas. Once Tommy Blatcha, I came in and I said, oh, I. have some channels to pitch, you know, for satellite TV and Tommy said, I have one too. And he jumped off the coffee table and started choking me. And I just said, oh, the jump and choke channel. And that became Bill Riley's jump and choke channel. And that was just Tommy jumping off a table and choking me. So that was, you know, so a lot of our favorite stuff was just screwing around. Who were some of the favorite guests that you went backstage to say hello to and maybe get a photo

or just tell them that your work means a lot? Who were some of the people that stand out? Well, you know, a lot of times I left people alone, even if I idolize them. But there were a few times where I made an exception. Like I remember with Steve Martin, he was standing in the hall, just looking at pictures. And I just went over and I said,

just a quick thank you for the inspiration. You know, as corny as that sounds, I just said, thank you. We're all huge fans and you've inspired so many of us. And he was very, very nice and gracious. And he reminded me kind of of an art professor. who is just like, oh, thank you, thank you. And there's nothing wacky about him.

And that was another reminder to me that, you know, people are often very different from their stage persona, you know, that he seemed like a very, very sweet, kind of shy, you know, introverted guy in many ways, which as a kid wouldn't have made any sense to me at all, that Steve Martin could be, like, quiet and introspective. And, but then I remember going up to some musicians at times, like REM and Paul Westerberg from the replacements and, you know, But then sometimes the guess I was most excited about and geeking out over,

I got the sense that some of our audience might not even be that familiar with them, like Michael Palin from Monty Python. I think people were like, oh, he's like a travel host or something. And I'm like, no, he's a comedy god, you know? And Andrea Martin, I remember just going into just, she was so sweet and gracious. And she was just sitting there reading a book. And I said, I just want to say a quick thank you. And she couldn't have been kinder.

So a lot of times those people are like comedy Beatles to me, you know. I love the fact that you and the writers woke John Cleese up from a nap. You knock on a stressing room door to say hello and you woke him up. And he was pleasant. I mean, I've met him a bunch of times. He's always been super nice. He was, he was kind to you guys, I'm guessing. He was.

I didn't realize. I wasn't even going to go down and bother him. But all the writers kind of wanted to go down. I think we got courage from being in a group. Like, you know, and so we all kind of just went down together. and we knocked on the door. And I think we did wake him up from a nap because he looked like he had just sat up off the couch.

But it was pretty adorable because he goes, I suppose you'd like to say that I've been an influence on you. And we're like, yeah, that's because he's been told that so many times. And we're like, yeah, that's pretty much it. Like he knew exactly what we were going to say. But he was very gracious about it. And yeah, I was a thrill to meet him too. Normally when guests are over there,

because I worked in TV for a long time, and people, when they would come over, usually on their very best behavior. And I had heard this story about a musician guest on Conan. And you mentioned this in an interview. But John Mellencamp, when he came over, he was asked to not smoke. And apparently I was told the story, and you mentioned this, he blew smoke in the person's face. And that was like, I never heard of somebody being a guest in that happening, doing something like that.

I remember we, I worked on a show when we made Mellencamp, go out to the sidewalk with the audience in line that had tickets to smoke. But I guess that's going to happen once in a while. But that did happen. I didn't see it happen, but I remember hearing about it. And I remember being kind of, it was very disappointing to hear too. Because as you know, I went to college at Indiana University. And he was kind of a local, he was sort of the Springsteen of Southern Indiana, you know.

And I'd seen. But, you know, I remember hearing that and thinking, oh, that's a bummer, you know. Usually, yeah, when they're there, they're in their best behavior. You did mention because they would do in the year 2000s and they would have sometimes celebrity guests. Roseanne wasn't happy with how it went, correct? Afterwards, she wasn't happy. My memory of it was that she didn't seem happy.

And I didn't talk to her or meet her or anything. But I got the sense that she didn't like how it had gone. And she walked off and kind of, it seemed like she was less than pleased. Did they go back and do it again? Or did they edit, do any edits to your record? recollection? Not to my recollection, but I thought it when I watched it later, I was like, that seems fine. It seemed fine. But yeah, I get that's, and maybe I'm wrong. Maybe she was just kind of directly just heading back to her dressing room. But I remember feeling a vibe like she was

maybe less than happy without a gun. I don't know. Was the traveling salesman Hanigan, was that something that you did around the office? I know you said it was inspired by William Powell, the thin man, but was that something that you did for a while around the office before you did that as a character? Not really. I remember, I think it was Andrew Weinberg who said, what if we had Stackplay a door-to-door joke salesman? And then we started thinking, well, maybe he's kind of a bit of an old time guy. And that voice, I realized only later that I kind of got it from all the old movies I watched, like William Powell, The Thin Man and My Man Godfrey, because I've watched so many

of those old movies growing up with my parents and grandparents turn me on to them and I still love them. But that's sort of a mid-atlantic way of talking, you know, that sort of way, you know, from the old screwball comedies. And I think that had soaked into my brain, you know, without even on it, not even on a conscious level. So, but yeah, when Michael and I and Andrews started writing the sketches, they also got more and more elaborate. Like it started off like he was selling things like a vacuum, like that a salesman really would. sell. And then the more we did it, the more it got into products that no one would want, like, salmon-flavored underwear for hunters that, you know, of course, grizzly bears would attack you. So

there are products that had no appeal at all to anyone. And then we would usually end up with the jokes that were always terrible. And that was our favorite thing to write with the bad jokes. Like, you know, like, boy, that Angelina Jolie sure is beautiful. If she was any brighter, she'd put the sun right out of business, you know? And there's no joke. There's no, you know, there's no, or George W. Bush, you know. And, you know, it would be, they were really fun to write because it's so fun. As I think it was John Levine who was a very, very funny comedy writers said,

if you ever want comedy writers to sit up eagerly in their chairs, tell them you need a bad joke. A deliberately bad joke. There's nothing more fun than writing a deliberately. bad joke because we always, we're always trying to think of something good. I've talked to a bunch of Conan writers on this show, and one of the things that has come up is the hours, 12 to 13 hour days, sometimes going until midnight. Did you think that that was necessary? I mean, there were writers that would camp, would just sleep at the office, right?

Because it was easier than going home because it was so late. Yeah. I was working in the city early on when I was there, so I never slept in the office, but Michael Gordon did occasionally because he lived in Westport, Connecticut, and it wasn't always worth it to go home. But at the time, I didn't really have any other perspective because it was my first TV job, and it just felt normal. I was like, this is kind of how we do it, I guess. And I think some of that had come over from Robert and Conan working at SNL,

where late nights were just part of the, it was just a normal thing to them to work late. And, but we would get in around 1030 or 11 in the morning. And then we weren't always there super late. But I do remember one time being in the editing suite, editing satellite TVs at like 3 a.m. or something. But that was really unusual. I'd say, but midnight was not unusual to get out. Longer hang. But it was really, I got to say, though, as late as the hours were, it was so fun being in those writers rooms with those guys.

and there was so much, Brian McCann did say, I think the first week I started at Conan though, he goes, there's so much fucking around. And I know a lot of time gets wasted, but I did learn over the time that a lot of times, time that felt like it was being wasted did result in some of our favorite stuff because it was the screwing around waiting for a meeting

or hanging out in the hallway or, and just this general sense of anarchy in the office, like Tommy Blotchett throwing, like one of my favorite stories Andy had a stack of headshots that he would send to fans, you know, with autographs. And Tommy used to do a character that was Andy's publicist and you'd walk into Andy's office and you go,

have you met my new publicist? And Tommy would just grab a huge stack of Andy's headshots and throw them out the window onto Sixth Avenue. Which is absolutely, that was the, it was just pure anarchy a lot of the time, but in a really fun way. And Tommy and McCann used to throw food. We had mice running through the office late at night in the early days, at least.

And Tommy and McCann used to throw cornbread at the mice and go, get out of here, mouse. But it was, of course, the mice were delighted because they were getting all the food. And Tommy would throw food in the ceiling tiles and you just go, hey, mice, get out of here. And so it was, yeah, it was madness. You mentioned some of the guests that you were in all of kind of the SCT, Python people. I thought this was interesting. You said in an interview that the one guest that Conan was the most nervous to talk to was Peter Falk. Yeah, if I remember correctly, I remember he even mentioned that once, I believe, that because Peter Falk was the biggest TV star when Conan was a little

kid, you know, being on Colombo. And it's hard to think back because I think a lot of young people do know who Peter Falk is. But he was he was the biggest guy on television at the time and the highest paid actor on television as Colombo. So a lot of times, yeah, those people you grow up revering and that were huge when you were little, that's why guys like Michael Palin, you know, through me so much. And he couldn't have been nicer and more gracious. But those are the people that I'd be way more intimidated by them than like the biggest movie star of today, you know. How hard was that after 18 years, you know, you do, you're with Conan. I mean, for all these years to sit down at TBS. You did the Tonight Show. You did TBS and tell Conan that you wanted

to move back east. What was that conversation? Like, were you emotional when you told them you were leaving or was, did it just feel like this was time? You know, I really was emotional because I never had any real desire to leave Conan. I loved working there start to finish all 18 years. And I love Conan and I love the people there. But, you know, I'd always hope to work with Stephen going back to Chicago days, I love Stephen too, and I was one of his biggest fans going back to improv basements. As a person and as a performer, I thought he was just incredible, just the way Conan is.

And my family had been feeling a pullback to New York, too, where my daughters were born and everything. So it was a combination of those things. And when Stephen said, you know, and the Stephen and his people said, we'd love to have you if it's okay with Conan, and we don't, you know, poach people from other shows. And Stephen and Conan are friends.

And that's the only way I would have wanted to do it. And Conan couldn't have been nicer and more understanding about it. It was very bittersweet, though, because I love Conan and I loved working with him. And he couldn't have been nicer, you know, and he understood completely. But, yeah, it was never a question of wanting to leave him. It was a question of wanting to work with Stephen at some point. And I'm so grateful I got to do that, too, because, you know, there, They're such great bosses and so great to their people in addition to being great at what they do.

I mean, there is as kind and respectful to the people they work with as they are brilliant. I love hearing that. I would hear stories of people from Conan. He would always be doing bits around the office. And you did an interview saying that when you told Conan you were leaving, it was maybe the first time you actually had a genuine conversation with Conan. He would call you the alabaster ape. Yeah, I was exaggerating a bit because I certainly had some real conversations with Conan over the years.

But most of the time, if we interacted with Conan in the office or in the halls, he was doing some kind of bit. Like he would walk in the office with his guitar and he'd be riffing around with us and he would he would jokingly abuse people. But he only did it to people he loved, you know, and the people he liked either liked or loved. And so like he would walk in there before of us on a couch and he'd say, oh, it's a Mount Rushmore of incompetence. And it was, he was just, he was so funny all the time. And, you know, Stephen's brilliantly funny too, but he, sometimes she'd have a real conversation with Stephen in the hall. And Stephen could do bits with the best of them. But, but Conan was almost always doing some kind of insane bit.

And I love how Sona calls him out on that, like on his podcast. So it's like, you're always doing this. Were you walking around Los Angeles and he saw you like randomly and from a car started heckling you? Well, I was walking in Studio City and I heard Alabaster Rape and I look over and I see Conan in his convertible driving passing pass. And when I left the show, I got him. I asked our graphics department to make it. I got a photo of an albino gorilla and I put my face on it. And I said, thanks for everything, Conan, you know, your friend, the Alabaster Ape.

And so, and it's so funny because he's as pale as I am. Oh, if not more. I love the fact when you, at TBS at Warner Brothers, you were. actually could walk to work. I mean, the commute. No one in L.A. does that for the most part. That's exactly right. I was so, yeah, I lived in Burbank. I lived in Studio City for a couple years, but I could also walk to the Warner's lot. And I'm so grateful for that because when I did have to drive, like the first year when we were on the Universal lot, it can be really stressful, as everybody says in L.A. The traffic there is murder. But I liked L.A. more than I thought I would.

And I really liked Burbank. And the Warner Brothers lot was just a wonderful place. to work. And, you know, I would nerd out as a film nut just walking past and hearing the tour guide say, this is where they shot the French cafe scene in Casablanca. You know, and I'm like, oh, my God, it is. You know, and this is where they shot Cool Hand Luke, breaking the parking meters at the beginning of Cool Hand Luke, you know, and just as a, or the Jimmy Cagney gangster films, they have the old New York set there still.

And, yeah, that was just as a film and a film nerd, I just. I would just, you know, flip out hearing that stuff. Brian McKinn, it was his idea for you to do Frankenstein. Can you tell the Walter Cronkite story when he was a guest over at the show? Yeah, Brian, I think originally had me do it because I don't bend my knees very much and I'm not going to move like Frankenstein anyway. And but yeah, there was one time where I was, we would write the Frankenstein waste a minute of our time bits together.

But Brian had the original concept for that. Thanks, Brian. But yeah, one time I was getting up on. of the makeup chair and I had the bolts and I had my big platform shoes on and the shoulder pads and everything. And I, Walter Cronkite was coming in to get his makeup done as I was leaving. And I completely forgot what I looked like. I was just so starstruck by Walter Cronkite, who was this legendary newsman. So I just said, oh, it's such an honor to have you here, sir. And he's like, oh, she's like, good Lord. And, but he handled it with tremendous grace and bravitas. And he was, he was, but I worried that

maybe I took a little time off his life with that. What was that like that summer leading up to Colbert's late show premiere in September of 2015? I know that you were across the street from the CBS Broadcast Center. The office says, what was that summer like? How did you use your time creatively? Well, we were working on, first of all, just trying to come up with some possible bits for the show, but also kind of practicing, you know, how we would write a story. off the topical news thing like, you know, okay, let's say if we were going to do a, you know,

a story about today's news, you know, how might we do it? And just to kind of work those muscles and stuff like that. And it was really odd, though, because no one obviously saw Trump coming. And I remember when he announced his candidacy that summer, we were all kind of thinking, well, he won't be on the, he won't still be a candidate when we start the show in September. That's just, and we all kind of thought that. I think most of America did. And Trump probably thought that himself at the time. So that was something we didn't see coming, that's for sure.

Did you know that the show in that summer, were you talking that we're going to do a mostly political show? Or were you talking maybe we'll do more sketches in the vein of Conan? Or was there any talk of how the show would, what it would be? You know, that's a good question. I don't remember there being a concrete, like a thing being dictated to anyone. We were just kind of just hoping to make it, you know, what Stephen had in mind and find fun stuff to do and find some fun bits to do. And I think we all kind of thought it might be ideally what it ended up becoming, which is a combination of topical stuff with non-topical stuff or stories like, meanwhile, that we did later, which aren't ripped from the headlines. Or they were ripped from silly headlines.

because Stephen, as much as anyone loves doing silly stuff and loves doing stuff that has nothing to do with politics, I think we felt obliged to do it a lot because it was so much a part of the news. But we loved writing about like a drunk raccoon that broke into a store or just a weird new flavor of Taco Bell or something. Those were, or just silly character bits. you know, those were oftentimes our favorite things to do. Stephen, too, like he's as smart and brilliant as he is with political satire. He loves silly stuff. Like, he loves being goofy. I know Rick Moranis was in the office of the offices that summer.

Was there any talk of him doing sketches? Was he close? If so, was he close to possibly doing sketches for the show? You know, I'm not actually sure about that. I do remember hearing he was around and we all idolized. Rick Moranis, of course. But then I don't remember what happened with that. I know he may have gotten preoccupied with other things or whatever. I wish I could tell you exactly what, why things did or didn't happen with him doing bits, but we would have loved it. That's for sure.

For the first, I mean, the 10 years, I mean, you were there for 11 years at Colbert, 10 years, number one. What was that first season like? Because all I remember is people saying, you know, this was a mistake. Colbert's in last place. And those shows always take time to figure it out. I mean, the Daily Show, the first year with John Stewart, we miss Craig Kilbourne. Johnny Carson, when he took over for Jack Parr, months and months, we miss Jack Parr. They take time. But what was that initial year like when, you know, even Stephen was asked about the rumors that Corden and Colbert were going to switch places, which thankfully didn't happen. But what was what was that like, morale and just about the show behind the scenes? What was that like?

the morale always felt good to me because the people there you know as corny as it sounds that people are just the best and uh step even included of course i think the tone really does get set from the top at these shows like with conan and stephen um but i don't remember i don't remember morale ever being low i just remember everybody was just like let's just keep you know doing a fun show the most fun show we can do and plugging away and i don't remember hearing a lot of that background noise too much at least among the writers and um then And, you know, gradually, I do agree that a lot of times you have to find your audience and build it. Just like with Conan did, like Conan said early on at late night, like I was lucky to come in after the show was number one in a time slot at Conan and stuff.

Like, I got there in 97. But I talked to a lot of the writers into Conan in early days. It was pretty rocky. They didn't know. They would be told they're canceled on a Friday and on Monday they were told they weren't, you know. They could have filled the audience initially. I mean, it was it was one of those things, but succeeded wildly. Early on, Colbert, it's interesting to look at the late show because he had Trump on.

He had Ted Cruz. It was a much different show than it became. About a year or so in when Chris Lick came in, was there a deliberate decision that we're going to start being political and we're going to take a political side, which had never really been done on one of these late night shows. And somebody went to number one taking a political side. It was always Johnny Carson, you have to be down the middle, Jay Leno down the middle. Was there a, do you remember a deliberate decision that you, but there was a meeting we're going to do this from going forward? Or was it organic? You know, I could be wrong, Mark, but as far as I know, it felt very organic, like the way it happened. I don't remember hearing any, like, decision, like firm decision in that way.

If there was, I wasn't aware of it. Like, I felt like it sort of evolved into what it became. And I think that, you know, the point of view of the show. came a lot as we sort of discovered what we wanted to be. But one thing that I always loved about Stephen and Conan is that they really, they got to do, I think, I think they would agree with this. They got to do the show, the kind of show that they wanted to do, which is really great.

And that's all, you know, I think they both went into those shows with that attitude of like, I got to do the show the way I think I should do it. Otherwise, there's no point in doing it because it won't work. I know you'd be in the writing room sometimes. Tom Purcell, Lightning Fast Mine, Colbert, Lightning, Fuss. What was that like? And they would literally be rewriting in the show up until showtime some days, correct? Yeah, we'd all be tossing in, you know, alternative jokes.

And Stephen is definitely, as with Conan, as much a head writer in many ways as he was the host. Like, Stephen was always writing and tossing in ways to improve lines or, he uh you know and it's since it's his show he had the final voice on what he wanted to say but stephen like conan they're they're writers as much as they are performers and brilliant writers and um so they would come up with uh and tom was just always a great right-hand man for for stephen because i think he tom has such a kind of service mentality like he's a great staff officer in the military my dad was in the military and he would talk about how a lot of times staff officers didn't have the ego to want to be the you know, the big four-star general, but they,

the only way anything got done was having those kind of guys around, like with that kind of service mentality and wanting to just serve the show or serve the people around them. And yeah, Tom is another brilliant guy. He also, you know, came out of the Chicago improv scene, and I've been friends with Tom since, I think I met him in 89 or something, which is crazy. What were those morning meetings like the writer's meetings?

I know they would start earlier than like Conan would usually a little earlier and you could leave much earlier, which was nice. But what were the pitch meetings like for the pitching monologue comedy bits, cold opens? Well, yeah, we would start earlier because it was so much more topical and ripped from the day's headlines. And we would get these amazing news breakdowns from our incredible research department that would, you'll kind of tell us what the main stories of the day were, along with some of the silly. hear stories like there'd be meanwhile stories tossed in there too and um yeah we would pitch some ideas um first just among the writers and then we'd have a meeting with stephen and tom and uh you know some of the producers and things like that and figure out what stephen wanted to do on the show that day and what he was feeling passionate about and then we would break off and write uh everyone to work in usually groups

of two on the stories and then there'd be a rewrite or a read down to see what was working and then rehearsal in the afternoon and then after rehearsal we would literally be rewriting right up until Stephen ran on stage like Stephen be in his suit you know ready to run out there and um and uh yeah it was very very up to the minute you know as i remember hearing lorne michael said once you know the show doesn't go on uh because it's ready it goes on because it's 1130 on set and that's how our show, you kind of had to let it go at 530 and just go, well, it is what it is and we'll hope for the best. And hopefully it'll be a great show. But we have another one tomorrow. I thought it was so interesting because at this point, 18 years of Conan, you'd never

written monologue jokes before. Was there a learning curve at all for that, for you doing that? There was. You know, I, uh, I'd done, yeah, mostly character sketches and bits and TZACs and, uh, desk piece stuff at Conan. Occasionally, I would have to be. to write those jokes like when Conan hosted the Emmys and things like that, we would all toss in jokes for the monologue. But that was a different muscle, you know. And also at Steven's show, we didn't tend to do just a one-liner monologue joke. We tended to do chunks of jokes on a story. So it was a real challenge. And I worked with so many people at Stephen's show, Stephen included, that are so brilliant at political satire that I had so much respect for them because political

satire is not my natural strong suit. And I'm just more, I tend to gravitate more towards the silly apolitical stuff. So it was a fun challenge, but it was a challenge for me. And I learned so much from the people I was working with. And Stephen, he just has this incredible mind. And the people I work with, so many of them were just geniuses at coming up with a great joke off of a political data point. But yeah, that's not my natural strength. What was some of the favorite bits? that you did on camera in cold opens or near the top of the show.

I'm trying to remember. You know, some of the stuff I really enjoyed doing the most were, you know, silly little voice bits, like whether I got to do Winston Churchill or FDR or something like that. I always tried to bring an idea as much to life as I could.

I do remember one time we did a silly bit that was just a one-time thing, but it was a... Someone said they were like, high-end, super well-paid truckers or something. So I did like kind of a snooty trucker who sounded kind of like he was from Connecticut,

like there. It was just a silly bit, but I remember enjoying that. Yeah, it's all kind of a blur, but I always loved trying to do my best to bring other people's ideas to life. And sometimes, like, I would get, you know, people would have an idea

and suggest me for something. And like I remember there was an idea to have when there were so many Democratic male white guys running for the Democratic nomination at the Iowa caucus one year, they decided to send me as a fake other white candidate guy just to see if people would just believe that I was really another. And they called me Gregory Whiteman. And that's always out of my comfort zone when I'm playing someone who looks like me. I tend to wear a lot of costumes and wigs and stuff. So I was like, really? They wanted me to do it, okay. So they sent me to the Iowa State Fair,

and I walked around pretending I was a real candidate. And people, most people totally bought it. But I wasn't trying to humiliate them and make them feel stupid. But there were so many of them that why wouldn't there, it was totally plausible that I could have been one of like the 12 guys doing it. When you were at Conan, the writers would produce their pieces. Was it like that at Colbert's Land Show, if you came up with an idea as a writer,

would you produce it? Well, it was a little different. Like, you could work with the producers, but it usually did tend to get assigned to a producer to kind of put everything together. Yeah, I think Robert Smigel and Conan kind of had brought that system over from SNL where if it was your piece, you'd order the wardrobe,

you'd call up the graphics, you'd like do that. And I always thought, even though I love working with the producers at Colbert, I always did enjoy like kind of calling up those things because whether a piece lived or died, you could kind of go, well, you know, it's exactly what I asked for. But I loved our producers at Colbert, too. They were great. And they were always open to hearing what you had in mind. But it was, there tended to be the writers and then the producers at that show. But yeah, like at Conan, we tended to sit in the editing room and edit things with the

editor. And yeah, and so sometimes you, you, at least it did end up, whether it lived or died, it was at least what you had in mind. Were you happy that they brought back Shrieking Joe, that they, that they showed that on the, was it the worst of? Oh, yeah. I remember it was initially pitched, J. Katzier pitched. Oh, he's hilarious.

He's a lifer. I mean, he was there. I mean, I don't know. People know. He got discovered by John Stewart. He was doing a graduation. beach, I believe, and John Stewart was the speaker and saw it, and that's

how he got hired with Colbert. He's great guy. Yeah, Jay's a wonderful guy and an absolute genius with comedy. And he pitched originally, because I think Kid Rock was talking about running for Senate or something, and Ted Nugent might have been too.

So he pitched me as like a cross between the two, shrieking bat shit Joe is what he was called originally. And we did it. And, you know, intentionally making him very obnoxious, obviously. But I think we underestimated how obnoxious our audience would find him. And even though that was the whole point, we're like, oh, he's insufferable.

You know, that's the whole point. But yeah, I never expected to do him again or anything. But when they showed me his effect on the ratings, it really cracked me up because, in fact, when the show finished up, Lauren Martello, one of our producers, gave me a graph of what Shriek and Joe did to the ratings, like where it just, literally plummeted, like, because they could track it, like, second by second. And it's like, wow, he really made people change channels. And Carly Mosley, God bless her, one of our writers, who everyone loves, pitched me to come back at the end. And she came out as my daughter, Shriek

and Jane. And, but yeah, that was Carly's pitch. And I worked on it with her. But thanks to Carly, we brought him back. I still can't believe you could be number one in Light Night and get canceled. When, when Stephen told the staff, including you, to be on a Zoom call, did you have any inkling what he was going to say? And what did he say? How brief was it? Because I knew that he just wanted to tell the staff. And then he went back and did the audience bit to, um, to insert in the show. What, what, what do you recall? Well, I just remember, um, that was such, it's all kind of a, a bit of a blur, you know, that, that whole week because I think, well, we'll never know exactly what happened. It feels very, I think we were all bracing for the possibility, like all late shows do

these days, of having budget cuts and things like that. We knew that that was a real possibility, given the landscape of late night TV and the network viewership, you know, being lower than it used to be. But, yeah, cancellation was just a real shock, you know, for everybody, especially having a number one show. So, yeah, it was a real, I think, shock for everybody. And it was, it was quick, correct? It was just very, very quick that Steven said, this is what's going on and that was it.

It was like a minute less than a minute, correct? It was, I do remember it being, it felt very sudden. That whole week felt very sudden. And I think it was, yeah, it was one of those things where I don't think, anybody you know saw something like that coming when you have a number one show and like i don't pretend to know all the stuff that went into it but um like i said we're bracing for the fact that we might any of us could at any time in television you know get laid off or whatever that that happens all the time or shows cut their band which is always heartbreaking you know when you see shows uh you know have to

downsize and cut cut corners and things like that it's just the reality these days but um But it was still, yeah, it was a shock for everybody. And as sad as I am that the show ended because I love the people and I love the fact that we got to do it for 11 years. As corny as it sounds, I'm more grateful than I am sad. But it is sad. I miss everybody.

It was such a great bunch of people. And Stephen couldn't have been a better boss like Conan was. And he's so good to his people. And I think he, he does. does, you know, incredible things for people that, you know, he never talks about or publicizes, you know, and so, yeah, and I know friends that have worked on shows for two weeks, you know, or shows that didn't even make it to air. So the fact that I got to work in late night for 29 years, even if I don't do it again, I'm really grateful for that.

Longevity. Where did you watch the final episode of Colbert McCartney comes on stage? Where were you, what was that episode like to produce the show or to work on getting that show read in to watch the final product. That was, that was, as sad as it was that the show was coming to an end, it was such a joyful way to go out, like, with McCartney. And we all paraded on stage at the end when McCartney was doing Hello Goodbye, and they had the whole staff and everyone from the show come on stage. And that was incredible.

And I give Stephen a lot of credit, too, for, like, wanting to do some of, like, wanting to kind of do what our show does and do some stories that were literally from that day. Like, we did some stories in the monolog. that day that were just from that day. Like he's like, let's just keep doing what we do. And also there was room for a little bit of last minute stuff too. Like I remember jokingly suggesting that because people had said the Pope might be on and there was rumors that the Pope might be on.

And I just jokingly said, well, what if we say he is here but he won't come out of his dressing room because we got the wrong snacks? And so he's having a tantrum, you know, behind the door. And Steven's like, yeah, why don't we have, Brian, you just do a Chicago-type voice and just say that you're mad about the hot dogs. And so they just had me throw a hot dog. And that was all very last second. So it's kind of funny for a show that we knew was coming for a long time.

To still do last minute stuff was really fun. And I think in the spirit of the show. Yeah, that was an amazing run that you had. I mean, talk about longevity, two shows for still a look. Brian Stack, thank you for doing this. I have so many more pages of questions. Will you come back at some point as a guest? I'd love to, Mark. Thanks. And thanks for having me. Oh, no, this was amazing. I do want to point out multiple people that worked at Colbert's Lade Show told me, because I know Mike Brum and that the joke was that both people said, you know, everybody said Mike Brum's the nicest person ever. And then you meet Brian Stack. And he's even nicer. So more than one person told me that that kind of joke around the office. And that says a lot about you.

Oh, thanks, Mark. Yeah, I give the title to Brum for sure. He's a good man. Or J. Everybody there is really nice. As corny as that sounds, it's really true. And, yeah, I feel so lucky, you know, at Conan, too. I think if you switch the staffs of both shows, they'd get along with everybody at the other show. I sound like Pollyanna here, but that's the honest truth.

Like, it was just a great bunch of people at both shows, and I'll always love them. Thank you, Brian. This was fun. Thanks a lot, Mark. Appreciate it. Thanks for listening. Please subscribe so you never miss an episode. on Apple Podcasts, please rate it and leave a review.

Be sure to go to late-nighter.com for all your late-night TV news, and you can find my podcast at late-nighter.com forward slash podcasts. Have a wonderful week, and I'll see you next Tuesday.