The Three Questions with Andy Richter - Brian Stack

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

Longtime Conan writer Brian Stack worked with Andy on all three of Conan's late-night shows and played fan-favorite characters like Artie Kendall the Ghost Crooner, the Interrupter, Hannigan the Traveling Salesman, one of the Slipnutz, and more. The comedian, who now works as a writer for "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert," joins Andy Richter this week to discuss memories from the writer’s room, twenty-seven years in late-night television, the creation of Amy Poehler’s Andy’s Little Sister character, the contrast between his upbeat demeanor and dark sense of humor, and much more.Do you want to talk to Andy live on SiriusXM’s Conan O’Brien Radio? Leave a voicemail at 855-266-2604 or fill out our Google Form at BIT.LY/CALLANDYRICHTER. Listen to "The Andy Richter Call-In Show" every Wednesday at 1pm Pacific on SiriusXM's Conan O'Brien Channel.

Hey everybody, welcome back to The Three Questions. I'm your host Andy Richter, and this week I am talking to my friend Brian Sack. My favorite shows are the ones where I get to talk to people I actually know and love. Brian worked on all three of our late night shows, from Late Night with Conan O'Brien to Conan on TBS, and I have known him since the late 80s. We did improv in Chicago together. He's partially responsible for many of your favorite ridiculous characters from those shows,

including Artie Kendall, the Ghost Crooner, the Interrupter, Fantastic Guy, Hannigan, the Traveling Salesman, WikiBear, and Slip Nuts. He's currently a staff writer on the late show with Stephen Colbert. They're lucky to have him. Here's my conversation with Brian Stack. Can't you tell my love's a cold one?

Alright, hello everybody. This is the three questions. Sometimes it feels like cheating. I just get to talk to my old friends sometimes and reminisce. And that's what we're doing today because I'm talking to Brian Stack. Andy, great. Thanks for having me on. I've been a big fan of this podcast for a long time and it's always great to talk to you. Well, how are you? We're talking to you from home, right? You're in New York.

Yeah, here at home and you're home too? Yeah, I'm in my wife's office too. I normally don't do these from home because there's dogs barking and children yelling. Yeah. The dog just on cue started barking. But yeah, it's a Friday, you know. Do you go into, well, I guess I should just say, I mean, you have been a comedy writer on late night since like 90, I mean, in the late night television world since like 97, is it? Yeah, exactly. 97 is when I got hired at Conan, yeah. Yeah and and pretty continuous right? I mean it hasn't stopped. Yeah I feel really grateful

about that and I don't know if you remember but my job at Conan was originally supposed to be for 13 weeks. I was filling in for Tommy Blacha who broke his leg really badly and you guys were nice enough to recommend me to send in a packet and they liked it enough to bring me out for what I thought was going to be a 13 week filling job for Tommy and then luckily they liked the stuff I was doing and figured out a way to keep me on after Tommy came back which was especially great and then it turned into 18 years and which is amazing with Conan. So and Tommy it was so fun to get to work with Tommy who even going back to the Chicago days I thought was one of the funniest guys in the world.

Yeah, yeah. Tommy, Tommy Blatch was an old friend of mine who worked on the show. I didn't remember that part. Like I don't, I don't remember. Well, I don't remember lots. I knew because it really did sort of there was you and then there was Dino Stamatopoulos, who was a Chicago guy, and then Brian McCann was there. There were a lot of, and Tommy, there was a lot of Chicago improv people that ended up working on the show. And I could never remember exactly how it all came together. But I just assume in my mind that it's all my fault.

That I got everyone to work there. Well, you guys were nice enough to recommend me to send in a packet, because Conan and John Gropper, the head writer at the time, did not know me really at all. And so I'm really grateful to you. And I remember you got me tickets, you and my future wife Miriam, tickets to come see the show in 94.

And I remember being, it was so exciting to come see the show. But yeah, Glazer, John Glazer came along later and Kevin Dorff and it became kind of a club. I knew I was forgetting some of the other Chicago crew that had been through. So I mean, how do you feel about working in late night all those years? I mean, do you ever feel like, oh, I should have gone to LA and, you know, tried to make it as a sitcom writer or something like that? Or?

Well, I've always been curious about that world because there've been so many sitcoms I've admired a lot and I've always wondered what it would be like to work in a room like that. But yeah, I'm grateful for the steady work working with so many great people over the years and getting to do so many, you know, silly character bits and stuff like that. So I'm incredibly grateful to have gotten to do what I've done, but I've always been curious about that. Like when I talk to like former interns of ours, like Jen Statsky, who's gone on to be create like hacks and worked on and everything, like I'm so fascinated by their experience and what they've done or Katie Dippel, who interned for us too. And that's such a fascinating world

and I know you've worked in it in a lot. Yeah, it's honestly, there's plus and minuses. I mean, it's like there's always, first of all, there's always the grass being greener on the other side of the fence kind of thing. But honestly, I'm like, I'm like, like just for the steadiness of what you've done and sort of like the, the absence of fuckery that happens on a late night show, you know, you just go in and you think up your sketches and then you do them and then

you go home and then you, you know, and you have your life and it's like, and it's a fairly regular schedule. And that is really nice. And, and because, you know, there is what you do lack when you do suit, you know, sitcom kind of stuff is just the not knowing and the constant kind of putting yourself up to people. And it's not even like, at least you're, you're getting judged by the same people over and over and over. If you do this, it's like, Oh, I got to find a new group of people that forget my name

to then judge my work, you know, and try and try to not hold them beneath contempt, you know, try to like think of them a little bit better than that they're garbage. I was, I felt very spoiled to, to have been around guys like you and then very nice people at the Colbert show but all those years at Conan just working with the funniest nicest people all the time and just laughing constantly and just just watching the bits like late night bits when you're sleep deprived and the stuff you guys would do in the office, you know, it's hard to imagine any room being more fun than that, you know? Yeah. Did you, when you set out, you grew up in Chicago, but you grew up in the suburbs, Artie, did you grow up right in the city? I grew up mostly in Palatine, northwest suburb of Chicago, but before I was five, we lived all over

the place because my dad was in the army, so lived in Germany and Monterey California and Baltimore and all kinds of stuff but for most of the time I remember I was in the Chicago suburbs like you. Were you always into comedy like were you always like first of all you don't strike me as like a smart ass like you weren't the kid that was getting in trouble in school were you? No I think I was like kind of the kid who would mumble to his friends like, and was too shy to like stand up on the desk and raise hell. But like, I would like quietly like, kind of quietly question everything I was being told, but didn't have the, I wasn't assertive enough or confident enough to be like openly rebellious or anything like that, or a class clown.

I was too shy to do that. And I, it, I remember as a kid thinking, and I don't know if you felt this way, that I thought if you went, everyone in show business had to be an extrovert. Yes. Like I always thought, well, you must be, there's no way that Steve Martin could be a shy person.

Or like it would never in a million years occur to me that there could be introvert. And now I'm a little surprised when people aren't introverted in showbiz Right. It is really strange how most people are like because I mean I I mean I can talk to people and I can You know, you can take me to a party and I do fine, but I am Kind of shy like I do like given the choice I

Would say like if you said hey, there's a party, and then I would be filled in with the details of the party, I would say, like, eight out of ten times I'd go, you know, I'd rather stay home. You know, I'd rather, like, I'd rather just kind of stay home and, and I, and it's, I mean, it has gotten worse as I've gotten older, but I was always kind of that way. I was always even, you know, like, at family gatherings was always kind of that way. I was always even, you know, like at family gatherings was always kind of like hiding off in a side bedroom watching the little spare TV, you know, and just not being in the main swell of things.

But I understand. I know what you mean. It did. I mean, it is, you would think that, especially in comedy, that it was all loud assholes that were, you know, like get a load of me's kinda. But did you start taking comedy pretty seriously when you were young? Well, you know, it never occurred to me to try it myself,

even though I loved it so much, cause I was so, I was so afraid that if I tried it, I would be bad at it, cause I loved it so much that I almost, it was almost like a sacred thing to me. So thankfully when I was in college, your friend and mine, the great Mick Napier, lived on my dorm floor. By sheer chance, I was assigned randomly to- In Indiana University.

Yeah. And Mick Napier, by sheer luck, ended up on my dorm floor. He was a year older than me. And he was the most original and hilarious person I'd met in my life up to that point and still one of the funniest people I've ever met and just a fascinating guy to be around and he got me really interested in improv because he had a group there with Faith Soloway and Joe Bill and Mark Sutton was around then and stuff and I used to go see them and it looked so fun I was like oh man I'd love to try that and he would encourage me to audition but I didn't have the guts to do it but I was so, oh man, I'd love to try that. And he would encourage me to

audition, but I didn't have the guts to do it. But I was so mad at myself for not trying it that when he told me about Improv Olympic, which he left school before I did and then was doing Improv Olympic with Sharna in Chicago, Sharna Halpern, and he told me about the classes there. So the summer after I graduated college, I went and took a beginning class with Sharna at at IO Improv Olympic. So thanks to Mick, I discovered that. And that's where I met you and almost everybody else. It's my closest friends to this day, you know, came out of that scene. What were you going to do before that? Like what we you were at IU and then you went on to graduate school. What were you going to do? Well, it was funny.

I went to grad school for all the wrong reasons. I didn't know what to do. I was like really lost for what I was gonna do with my life. And I got a TA job at University of Wisconsin that would pay for school while I was taking classes. So I committed to going there. And I loved Madison and that's where I actually started performing in front of people for the first time at this little theater, the Arc Theater, where the late great Chris Farley was actually my first group there. And Todd Hansen, who was head right at the Onion years later, was in that group.

And a lot of great people. And Pat Finn was there too, wasn't he? Pat Finn there too? Pat was friends with Chris at Marquette, and I met Pat and Chris later on. And I didn't meet Pat until I got to Chicago. And he's, yeah, one of our closest friends yours and mine since then but um yeah Pat and Chris were obviously like brothers you know like when I finally saw them together in Chicago later on they were like just like twins almost yeah I was I didn't know what I was gonna do and once I started doing improv in grad school I

knew that I wanted to keep doing it I didn't think I would ever make any money doing comedy but I when I I knew when I wanted to keep doing it. I didn't think I would ever make any money doing comedy, but I knew when I got back to Chicago, I was gonna try to keep doing it. And that's when I got back and I remember meeting you and all the other people when I got back to Chicago after a couple of years. Did you have fallback plans?

I mean, did you have, when you went, like when you went to Wisconsin to start grad school, you didn't think, I mean, you just said you weren't thinking about doing improv for a living or, you know, comedy. What did you think you were gonna end up doing? Or did you still just kind of not know? I didn't know for sure. I thought maybe something like advertising or maybe teaching or something like that and I was sort of on the academic track to go on for a PhD but I stopped after the master's degree and didn't go on for it

but I ended up working in advertising for a few years after I got back to Chicago after grad school so that was my day job for about four years before I got hired by Second City. There were advertising jobs for I think McCann did too. I didn't, McCann I think, Brian McCann, I think, Brian McCann worked, I think, for Montgomery Wards or something. Yeah. But yeah, that, because that for me, I think, you know, I'd be working in advertising probably if things hadn't worked out the way that they did because it was there

right next to you, you know, in Chicago while you're doing comedy and then everybody wanted, you know, there wasn't a lot of, there was not TV shows in Chicago then and there weren't a lot of comedy movies that were being cast out of there. So it was like you were looking for commercial work. So it was advertising. There was a real overlap there. There was.

And that's why, like when I, when there was anything related to TV around, it was such an incredibly huge thing. Like I remember when you were in an episode of hard copy I was like oh my god someone I know is in a TV show it was such a huge thing and you were just playing a murder victim yes yes I was yeah I was a victim of the rope trick the famous John Wayne Gacy rope trick yeah that was a that was very weird. That was actually Joey Soloway was a production manager at that time. Joey Soloway who's gone on to do Transparent and a million other things. Yeah, Faith's sibling. Yeah, and Faith went and you went to with their

sibling Faith in IU and who's an amazing improv pianist, which is such a niche job. She's really good at live accompaniment to piano with an improv team. But yeah, they were production manager and somebody came to town to do hard copy to do a reenactment segment, and that's what hard copy was at the time. And Joey just hired everybody at the Annoyance Theater to be murdered by this really creepy gacy guy. They found a really good lookalike and just you're hanging out in a house not too far from where it actually happened in the suburbs shooting all these little bits.

And it was like, it was kind of chilling and weird. I'm sure it was it was much more exciting when we all went to see you in Cabin Boy because we were so excited like our friend Andy's in a movie this is unbelievable and we all went to see it it was like me Blondell and a Brian Blondell and a bunch of other people were just sitting there I can't believe Andy's in a movie this is the best and uh so we were sitting in the theater watching that that was just a huge thing for everybody. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Well, I remember too, like, Ken Campbell was in a show called Herman's Head. I remember that. Yeah. Yeah. That he was like one of the first people that I knew, you know, that sort of like I had known that was, oh, there's a guy on TV.

Like just there's these first moments where you're like, oh shit, this is not just fucking around getting drunk. You know, this could actually lead to something. This could lead to, you know, a career. It's really sort of magical in many ways. It is, and like when Farley got Serenade Live or when Betty Cahill got Serenade Live or Keckner, you know, some other friends of ours from the community,

it was just amazing. Cause that was like everyone's, a show everyone grew up watching. And it was like this dream job. And that was just surreal when that started happening. And it was, I was so happy for him, but it was kind of insane. ["Can't You Tell My Love's A Girl?" by The Capsule Boys plays.] Your comedy, and it's even like, they give me like a research and it's like,

often has dark undertones. Which, you know, which is like you, you always had that. You always had that. Well, you have, first of all, you're very, you're very much of a wordsmith of comedy. You're very good with words and it's very sort of, and I mean this in the best possible way, like prosaic, you have an enviable ability to put together words

very quickly in a way that seem like they were thought of. You know, like that somebody took a long time to say things that you say very quickly. And, um, and sure. And, uh, but then, but there always was like, there always, and because you are such a friendly, pleasant, nice person, I mean, generally speaking, I don't know what the fuck you do at home. I mean, you could be a monster for all I know. But there was always this dark undertone.

And I wonder, you know, sort of like just, you know, like if there was a scene where it was like, you know, a happy family, like you might say, oh, there's a body in the basement, you know, like that was sort of, you know, an angle you might take. And I'm wondering, do you, is there something, does that come from somewhere, do you think? I mean, is there something about you? Because it is unique to you. I mean, you're not just, you know, you're not the only one that does it, but you, it is a big part of what makes you so funny. Oh, thanks, Andy. Yeah, it's funny.

I didn't realize until years after doing some of these characters that there was a pattern to it of like a lot of self-loathing and insecurity and like stuff like that underneath the characters, which I think like, right. Well, like most comedians, I think we all deal with like some kind of mood disorders and like I've always struggled with, and I know you've talked about it openly and I've

always been grateful to you for this and people like Pat and Oswald have been, I think it's so helpful when people talk about it. I've always struggled with, you know, at least mild depression, you know, over the years since I was a kid. And so I think that insecurity, self-loathing, feeling inadequate, feeling not good enough, all those things. Like when I first started at Conan, I know you used to write some of these too.

I loved writing those Joel is sad bits because Joel was another character who had, in a big, bright, friendly way, would talk about a lot of dark things going on in his life. And- Right, right. Yeah, we'd be things like, I don't find any joy in anything anymore. Exactly.

Stuff like that. Oh, it made me laugh so hard. And the first original sketch I wrote at late night was Andy's little sister, which was with Amy Poehler as your little sister with the pigtails. And even that, it was like her going from being a sweet, you know, little girl with the pigtails. And even that it was like her going from being a sweet little girl with the

pigtails with a crush on Conan. Right. And then when she was politely rejected, she would go into an apocalyptic rage like a volcano. And speaking of the Worsmith thing, one thing I felt so guilty about looking back was I asked Amy to do that without cue cards. Because I was like, I was too dumb and new to realize that the audience doesn't look at the cue cards anyway, but I thought they would be reading along with everything. Yeah. So she memorized these huge, long, crazy speeches,

and then gave these performances that, I remember the first one we did, I remember thinking, this is a little simple idea and maybe we'll get a real 13 year old girl for it. And I was talking to John Groff about it and we're like, could Amy look 13? And she totally did when she got the pictures on. Oh, absolutely, yeah.

And her performance was just, I mean, she can obviously do anything, but I was in complete awe of what she brought to it. And you guys were so funny together. I remember the one where she hit you on a dead run, coming down the stairs and knocked you completely out of your chair. Yeah. Yeah.

I remember she ad libbed the line too. It's judgment day, bitch. Yeah. Yeah. When she did that, you know, cause like she, she dove on me and, you know, and I sort of helped back to put, you know, push back on the chair. But when I, when I went over, I just remember I got like a perfect chiropractic chiropractic adjustment all the way up and down my spine.

When that happened, I was like, Oh, that's an unforeseen benefit. Nice. You know, crack, but yeah, that was, that bit was so great. And that was, you know, those UCB people and you know, that was, I've talked about this before in the early days at Conan. Like I was very intimidated by the notion of New York city and TV and that like, you know, here we were, I felt like some hayseed and then we started writing bits. Which again, we didn't know, you know, I didn't know how to, I just was sort of mimicking what I had seen on other shows and like, well, I guess you write this down

and then somebody calls in actors and then you have them read it. And, but when I, when we started auditioning actors, I was like, these people aren't funny. Like they're just, you know, like there would be all the, we have a bit and then you just, in the early days, we just would hope that they, we would find somebody that could make it as funny as it was on the page. And then people like Amy and people like Matt Walsh and Andy Daly, and we started getting these, and Ian Roberts, we started getting these people in that would make it funnier in ways that we hadn't even seen. Like Amy, like you said, Amy was value added to that,

you know, like to that sketch. And that was, I think also in many ways, that's when the show started to take off, is when we had all of that talent to rely on that was a bunch of young, hungry, energetic people coming there to be funny. And we really were able to showcase that. Yeah, they made everything better.

You fall into that category too. I mean, it was like you hadn't done anything in television up to that point had you no not really I've done one episode of early edition like as a little zoo security guard like that that child I was filmed in Chicago and With Kyle Chandler related to Friday Night Lights I was his first show but it was the only show filmed in Chicago. So that was all I had really done before Conan Yeah, and I think you're right about you know, all those UCB people made everything better. You know, all the ensemble in New York was incredible.

When you were in Chicago, how long were you in Chicago just kind of doing improv stuff? Well, I started back taking classes in like fall of 88. I started taking second city classes and then started at IO taking classes again there. So I was there from about 88 until 97. So, and I was at second city from late 92 until I left until 97. So about four and a half years. And that was your living. I mean, second city, you made a living. Yeah, luckily, you know, we didn't make much. But it's such a nice, affordable city, Chicago,

like, you know, where you can kind of get by. And I was living in kind of a dumpy apartment. And I was able to luckily do a little bit of voiceover work, which was supplement, especially in the summer. Sometimes we would do, you know, just a few shows a month in the summer with the Second City Touring Company. But the last couple of years, when I was in the resident company, you could get by, just you could get by okay. If you were, I think if you had kids, it might be tough, but it was, we were all, most of us were all single

and kind of just able to, to squeak by. And it was a, it was a great time. What was that like for you? I mean, what was that, was that like a very happy time? Did you, yeah, I mean,, what was that? Was that like a very happy time? Did you? I mean, because what was your day would be like, you know, your days were open, weren't they? Pretty much. And then you just go and do, you know, one or two shows at night and then you're done. Yeah, like the well, the first the first years in Chicago and I was just doing improv for fun.

I was working at an ad agency full time as a copywriter towards the end there. And then, yeah, when I was in Second City, you know,time as a copywriter towards the end there. And then, yeah, when I was at Second City, you know, we'd be trying to go out and do auditions. If you could get an audition or two, you try to hit those during the day, or if you could do a little voice work, or whatever. But yeah, we'd have the shows at night. And on the weekends, it was kind of a crazy schedule. The second show wouldn't go up till 11 p.m. So we'd get out at around 2 a.m. on Saturdays. But it was you just kind of got used to that schedule.

But it was a lot of fun. And I love those times. I especially love the touring days when we were riding around in a van. It felt like kind of being in a not to make it sound cooler than it was, but kind of like being in an indie band where you aren't making any money, but you're you're around right that you just love the people you're with and you're riding in a van, you know, eating the worst food and yeah, it was and seeing parts of the country playing a lot of colleges. Like we got to go back and play at Indiana University and University of Wisconsin and stuff like that was just such a treat to do, you know.

Yeah. When you got the opportunity to come to New York to do late night, I mean, were you, were you disappointed that you were just going to be writing? I was so excited to get that opportunity. Like, because I knew you guys were there. And like, I think if I was coming into a job where I didn't know anybody, I think it would have been a lot more terrifying. But the fact that you and McCann and Tommy and you were there, I was like, well, I'm gonna know those guys and it'd probably only a few

months anyway and I love those guys. So that made it a lot easier. And plus the UCB guys were there. They had already like Amy, Amy Matt Walsh, Matt Vesser and Ian Roberts already had like ASCAT going at UCB on Sunday nights. So that was like coming back it was sort of like finding a little clubhouse that was there already, that of people you knew from Chicago. So it was just kind of like a going bowling with your friends every Sunday night to go do Ascat.

You know, it was just, as you remember, it was the best. Yeah, yeah, no, yeah, I was involved in that a lot in the early days and did monologues with them. And some improv, but mostly monologues. By that time I was like, you know, for me, it was always, I got so much, so much sort of like performance itch scratched by doing, you know, the Conan show every day that I didn't have a lot of like, ah, this weekend I got to get on stage. You know, I was like, I was like, I already did shows. I already did laugh with a bunch of funny people, you know?

Yeah. When you got into that atmosphere, because there is like the phrase that I've coined for writing for a late night show is that you're laying tracks for a train that you can hear coming. Right. Like, you know, it is just there's pressure and there's not,

and you know, and in contrast, when I came out here, I was really struck by because, you know, you get to where you, you know, you got a bunch of spots on a board to fill, which is your schedule of the week, and everybody pitches ideas and you go, yes, no, yes, no, yes, yes, no. And you come out here and people would pitch things in a room when I'm, you know, I was a writer on the show, producer on the show, but also the star of the show and they pitch things and I'd go, nah. And everyone would be like, whoa. Like, you didn't like talk them down easy and say, well, I appreciate where this idea is coming from and it is really funny, but I just don't think, I just was like, no, there was no time for that.

And I wonder how it was coming into that kind of, that sort of where the, where the reject, because of the time constraint, the rejection can be kind of brutal. Like you can, you know, there's a night when you're supposed, which I think was Thursdays, was it, when we had to come up with the ideas for the next week? I don't remember, there was like a pitch night. And I think it was Thursdays. And, you know, and in the beginning too,

I, you know, I was on the show, but I had to come up with them too. And you go in with, you know, five or six ideas and hope that one of them too and you go in with you know five or six ideas and Hope that one of them sticks. You know, what was that? Like that kind of that pressure that was an adjustment and I remember I remember thinking though that It was kind of nice because once I realized that oh this happens to everybody everybody says stuff that isn't landing and Yeah, that's okay

And it's not the end of the world and as long as you're in a room where you're not afraid to toss out a bad idea then you're fine because all the good ideas come from rooms where people aren't afraid to say bad ideas you know where you don't feel like your head's gonna get bitten off for you know people aren't gonna say yeah let's do that if it's not good but there are also I think if you're around if you're in a good brainstorming environment, you're going to come up with a lot. And a lot of my favorite stuff would come up by completely by accident. I'm sure you remember that too, where it's just like, like I was sitting next to McCann once before a writers meeting

started and I pretended to shoot him in the leg. He was sitting next to me and he started singing that he had bulletproof legs. And so I shot him in the chest and he died he fell off the chair and that was like oh We could put that on the show. Yeah, of course. Why not? I've got bulletproof leg And that was just Brian yes ending like an improviser Yes Ending me shooting him in the leg and then just coming up with a funny twist on it that he would die If I only his legs were bulletproof So, uh, yeah, I think that if you're around the right people and you're screwing around

like that and Like there were so many bits like that I remember McCann putting a FedEx box on his head and Blessing us like he was the Pope and we're like, hey, the FedEx Pope, why not? That's a new character. And then he came on as the FedEx Pope. Yeah, and those were all office bits. If you're around people that just are enjoying screwing around, I was laughing so hard hearing your story that you were telling about Tommy saying,

as your publicist, just throwing your head shots out the window. We just had a bit where someone would come in and I'd say, have you met my new publicist? And Tommy would just open the drawer, grab probably 20 headshots and just fling them out the window on the sixth avenue. He used to throw, he used to walk in and throw stuff off Sweeney's desk, Mike Sweeney, and one time it was like important insurance papers. He just threw them out the window.

Like out the window. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. There was all kind of, it was such a fun place to work. And I feel like so lucky that A, it got to happen in that place.

Like, cause 30 Rock is such a, uh, an iconic place, you know, and so much has happened there. But I mean, I remember there was, there was so much stuff got thrown out those windows. I mean, usually late at night, but like, for some reason there was a five gallon bucket of little rubber Superballs in the office. This might've been before you got there. I don't know what the bit was,

but they ended up in our, in our office. And we used to, during this would be during the bit was, but they ended up in our, in our office. And we used to during this would be during the busy times, just toss one out and see it just bounce around in people. Cause and it was also low risk, like unless it hits somebody in the eyeball, it wasn't going to hurt anybody, but it was just funny cause they bounce so high that people would be walking and it would bounce in front of them and that you could see them go like, did, did a fucking rubber ball just drop out of the sky and bounce in front of me?

And it would like go all the way across the street. And then of course we did that for a while, but then we at one point had to dump the entire bucket out onto sixth avenue, but that was later at night. And it was, you know, I got to tell you, it's, you know, it's pretty fun. It's pretty fun to dump stuff out of office windows in Manhattan. Oh, it's, that's fantastic. I remember that we would have mice running through the halls at night too.

And Tommy and Brian McCann would throw cornbread at the mice and say, get out of here mouse. Like the cornbread are like, oh, great cornbread at the mice and say, get out of here mouse. Like the cornbread are like, oh great, cornbread. And he would be like, and then McCann would go, why do we have mice? And he would throw sandwiches into the ceiling. Yes. Tell your friends to stay out of here mice. There was a drop ceiling, you know, like in the,

like there is in most places and you know, like in the, like there is in most places and fluorescent lighting, like most office buildings. And in our conference room, Tommy used to, I mean, there was a lot of it that's almost kind of indefensibly juvenile and childish, but Tommy used to grab just food and just throw it up there. I don't even know what the, just, you know, like just lift up the ceiling tile

and whip a whole plate of barbecue in there. And in the, and then nothing really, I mean, there'd be occasional mouse, but the room above it was the studio of the special effects guy. And he kept saying like, my studio's infested with mice. Mice all over my studio.

And, uh, and it was like, oh yeah, that was us. Sorry. Can't you tell my loves a girl. I also always remember Jonathan Groff. McCann was a very gifted artist when it came to drawing erect penises into things. And there was behind Jonathan Groff's desk, he was the head writer, there was a head shot of Marty Stewart, the country music artist who has like big black kind of like, looks like Annette Fugicello hair.

And he's angled in the Sun's way in McCann Druitt so that his arm was coming off and just masturbating a giant floating erect penis. And Jonathan Groff did a long interview with the Wall Street Journal about the business of late night television. And then realized after the guy left, like, oh, there was Marty Stewart jerking off a big cock

behind my head the entire time. And I think they even took pictures, photos of him sitting at his desk. Oh, I remember that headshot, like it was yesterday. Yeah, they were very funny times. I remember just like you and Conan just constantly doing bits too. Like Conan, people would think like Conan

would come into our office and talk shop and talk business. If he came into our office, it was usually to do a really hilarious bit. Like he would get in with his guitar. To waste everyone's time. Right. Yeah. And it was always like, he would come in.

It took me a while to figure out that he would start bits by saying that something seriously happened. And then I would realize that it was a joke. But like one time he came in and he goes, he had just introduced sting at cent in Central Park. And he came in, he goes, Oh, that was that was really bad. And we're like, what happened? He goes, Oh, I made a big mistake. I was introducing stinging in Central Park and I came out and I said, into the microphone, I said, uh, if Bing Crosby was der Bingle, then I guess Sting is der Stingle. And he said the booze began as a low rumble in the back. And then the crowd started rushing the stage to try to attack me.

But he said it like it was something he had really done. Yeah. And so it was always, or he would, one of my favorite bits was he would come in and go, Oh my God, I'm in page six again in the New York post. And he would on the spot improvise some gossip column bit that he had appeared in where he did the worst possible thing. She's horrific stuff. And that was always one of the things I enjoyed most,

but it had nothing to do with what we were supposed to do that day on the show. Yeah, yeah. No, he, one of my favorite standing bits of his, and he would meet an accomplice where he would get someone to say to a third person, to the third person say, "'Conan does an amazing imitation of you.

"'You gotta see this imitation that Conan does of you. Then let it sit for a while and then mention it later and later. Then just really let it stretch out and stretch out until the person's finally, come on, what is this imitation of you? Conan would be like, all right, here it is. Duh! Pfft! Duh! Duh duh duh duh duh duh! Duh! Like this. Oh my God, it's uncanny.

It's just like you. There reminds me of the time you said to McCann, you're stupid and he goes, what's that? What's that? You said it really smug. Oh yeah. What's that?

You know, I was like, oh my God. He's too stupid to know. Yeah. Like the arrogant idiot is one of the best things ever. Well, as it, as a, you know, it is a volume business and, and I, and I wonder, you know, it's been a while since I did it. And then I, but I, you know, I just wonder sometimes like now you're still doing it. Like how, how does it, How is it keeping things going?

How is it making sure that you're always contributing and always getting things in there? Are there periods where you're just like, are there dry spells? Oh, sure. Yeah. It's an it's an interesting challenge too at the at Stephen show because compared to Conan show Which was we didn't tend to deal with politics in a direct way at Conan as you remember like yeah We dealt with it. It was usually like Robert Smigel doing Clinton saying me ha, you know, it's a crazy hillbilly horny hillbilly Yeah, right and those were it was it was fun to address politics that way But yet at the new show has been Right. And those were, it was, it was fun to address politics that way. Uh, but yeah,

the new show has been, uh, a fun challenge, but an interesting challenge to try to write more about topical things. And none of us saw things like Trump coming, of course. But, um, I work with people that are so brilliant at it and have been doing it. Some of them have been doing it since the Colbert report days. So it's a, it's a challenge, but it's, yeah, it's a totally different muscle than a lot of the stuff we did at Conan, that's for sure. Yeah. Do you like writing? Because I would hate if I had to write serious jokes about politics. It would be so hard. I was so glad we just got to be stupid about politics. It is fun to get to be silly. and we we do and I think the fact that Steven

like Conan, you know, enjoys silly stuff very much and it's fun to try to inject silliness in there. And it's fun to do bits like Meanwhile, we do a bit called Meanwhile, where it's stories that have nothing to do with politics, you know, so it can be more like, well, weird new flavor of Doritos or something or someone Finding a monolith in the desert or something just weird stories but yeah, it's it's an interesting challenge because I I realized that everybody has their strengths and weaknesses and like

My I think my strengths were always tended to be more towards silly character based stuff And yeah, and I try to contribute when I can, like this week, like we were looking at a gold, a silver coin that Trump was trying to con people into buying that was like a hundred dollar coin that was made out of $30 worth of silver. And there was this terrible stock music in the background. And I just started joking about, well,

this is the least good news for the guy who makes that music. And I started doing like kind of a cheesy rock guy doing high kicks and just like playing. And they said, why don't we have it come out with a keytar and just be that guy who makes that crappy music. So every now and then like stuff like that is more in my wheelhouse than trying to write a really sharp satirical take on something.

Yeah, yeah, about porn-train. And I work with people who are geniuses at it, and Steven included, you know, who can just effortlessly toss off hilarious lines off of a serious data point, you know. Yeah. Now, you mentioned characters, and I mean, and that was, you know,

the old stalwart late night fans will remember you from some of these, like the Interrupter, Artie Kendall, the Ghost crooner, who actually just, I would just retweet it or read whatever you call it. I don't know where it was, threads or whatever, but there was one that people were using as a JD Vance because it was something about, you know, women should be having babies all the time and if not, they should be thrown in the river and drowned or something. Which is, there's that Brian Stegg sunny disposition,

you know? But those characters, you know, and the Interrupter's a classic one too, and that's like a really, like that's almost, the way that that would end up getting written and the timing of that was so, it was like, I don't know, fucking Moliere or something. It was like really clever kind of theater.

And are there some of those that you, like are there your favorites of those? Were there some, and were there some that you kind of got tired of doing? You know, because we always were looking for refillable bits. So when you come up for something like the Interruptor, it's like, oh, thank God. There here's something, you know, that we can do again and again and again, because we're always looking to fill up those slots. Yeah, I really I enjoy doing those every time pretty much. Also because like I would write them, like for example, the Interrupter I would write

a lot of times with Michael Komen, who with such would come up with so many great lines for it or, and I wrote the Hanigan, the traveling salesman sketches with Michael and Andrew Weinberg and we, it was so fun bouncing around horrible things for these characters to say and just insane things to say. Like one of my favorites, I think it was Michael's line was in The Salesman, he said, he talked about living in it. Oh, I'm sorry, it was the Interrupter actually. It was the Interrupter said, they're all so dark,

but the Interrupter said, he lived in a dumpster behind the Port Authority bus terminal and Conan said you must have about, the interrupter said, seven different types of hepatitis? And that was Michael's, I think Michael contributed that one. But just the idea that and then Conan goes I didn't even know there were seven different types of hepatitis. So it was fun to like finish the thought that way. But yeah it was such a, they were so fun to write. And then at the Conan show at TBS,

Todd Levin and I would write WikiBear, which was very similar, very dark stuff. But WikiBear, oddly enough, some fans may know this, but it started off, Todd and I were gonna do a bit about how there was a lot of misinformation on Wikipedia and the bear was getting things wrong. But then at a rehearsal, it took, one of the stories was a little dark. It was the Donner party or something. And Conan said jokingly, why don't you just talk about the Manson family, Wiki bear? And I know way too much about the Manson family. So we just

started ad-libbing about the Manson family and Conan's like, I think this is the bed. Yeah, and Conan knows a lot about the Manson family too. He does. And so we're like, oh, that's the bed. It's this sweet little bear who talks about the worst things in the world. That was another case of the darkness underneath the cuteness. And that seems to be where I'm drawn. Did you have favorites among those, among those? I think I always loved doing Artie Kendall. I always loved doing Artie, The Interrupter and Hannigan at late night.

I also always loved doing, McCann originally tossed in the idea for Frankenstein, Waste a Minute of Our Time, which I ended up doing a lot. And I would write those with him sometimes. What was that one? I don't remember that one. Oh, it was McCann, I think because I moved kind of like Frankenstein and barely bend my knees and like,

McCann thought it might be fun if I was Frankenstein. And he said, how about Frankenstein waste a minute of our time? And it's just, he comes running out like he's gonna show you something really exciting. And I think my natural goofiness and people pleasing kind of personality, uh, fed into this.

And so I would go down the hall, like, huh, huh. Like I was a little kid who wanted to show his mom his report card. Yeah. And then we would go into a hallway and I would like point at an old pipe or something, or like a light switch. And we actually did one with Tom Hanks where I pointed at a light switch and, Oh, we come in the hall and Cohen is like, are you going to finally show us something interesting? And I come out in the hall and Tom Hanks is I pointed at a light switch and, oh, we come in the hall and Cohen is like, are you gonna finally show us something interesting? And I come out in the hall and Tom Hanks is there

and he goes, oh my God, it's Tom Hanks. And I shove Tom Hanks out of the frame and I just pointed a light switch, which is really stupid. And Tom Hanks, God bless him, he was so nice. He said, how about if I get excited about the light switch too? And we were like, oh, that's fantastic. That's why you're Tom Hanks.

You're a brilliant guy. Exactly. In 2015, you left LA, you left the Conan show for geographic reasons. And was that difficult? Or were you just really happy to get back to the East Coast? I know there was something with, you had a school that you wanted your kids to get back into

was a big part of it, and I certainly understand that. But was it sort of, like was it a bittersweet sort of thing to make that move? It was, like I'd always, I loved every year I worked at Conan all those 18 years, and I love the people I worked with, you included, and Conan. Thank you. Are you happy to say that?

You know how I am. You haven't said me. I know, it's the truth. If you hadn't specified me, I would be, you would be in trouble. Well, you know how spoiled we got there, like even the peep guys in the band were just the best. You know, like everybody was great.

And, but I had always hoped to work with Steven at some know, like everybody was great. And, uh, but I had, um, always hoped to work with Steven at some point, like I, he, I was a fan of his going back to the Chicago days and I loved, uh, the, the work he was always doing and I'd always hoped to work with him in some way, but I never had any desire to leave Conan. Yeah. You know, it was never like, I want to get out of, get out of this situation. It was a combination of things. And, um, I had always hoped to work with steven in some way and um, He like conan, you know, they're both such brilliant writers in addition to being great performers and um, They're also great bosses like they're both really good to their people, you know, which is as you know is not

Always the case, you know these people yeah yeah and this so I got I got I've been really spoiled in terms of having bosses that are really good to their people and great to work with and yeah and I know Conan and Steven are friends which helped too because Conan was so nice about when I was leaving and Steven only wanted to do it if it was okay with Conan so I'm really grateful to both of them for being so supportive. Imagine if Conan did like, no, fuck that. He wants to move tough shit. It'll make his family happy. Fuck that. It was funny though when I went in to talk to him about it and just ask kind of for his blessing for it. I was like, why does

this feel so strange? Because he was being so nice about it and supportive, but I was like, why is this so strange? We're having like, oh, we're having a regular, actual sincere conversation. It was usually always a bit, you know, like, as you know, which is one of the reasons I love listening to his podcast because I just like cry with laughing listening to him do bits. And yeah, it's always killed me. But it was nice to just have a real conversation. He hasn't changed.

He hasn't changed. I mean, because now, and you know, it's like you talk about it, how comfortable it is and how, and you know, he now he has a podcast studio and he has, you know, different podcasts under that, that thing, even though it's been sold to and he has, you know, different podcasts under that, that thing, even though it's been sold to SiriusXM and I'm one of them. But, you know, there's still people there that have, you know, like they're just, they're leaving to go to New Zealand to shoot the, the Mac show, you know, his travel show. And, you know, Jason Chalemi is there and Jason Chalemi, I don't know if

Jason Chalemi has ever worked another television job. Like he's just, Jason was an intern. Yeah. He was an intern on the show and there just were so many people that were like that and, you know, and when the TBS show went off the air, there were a lot of people that, you know, they, they had kids going off to college and they had never really worked anywhere else but for Conan O'Brien. And that is, I mean, that's, you know, that doesn't say that these people are

cowards, you know, it says, it's a nice place to work. It's a really good place to work. And I'm so happy to still be able to kind of be in that, in that, in the circle of people that are still kind of doing stuff. And I guess the main point is you blew it. Way to go. You did. Actually, I texted Conan when he won the Emmy for Conan O'Brien Must Go and just said,

how well deserved it was and how hilarious it was. And I was just reminded, how I still walk through Rockefeller Center a lot, like on the way to work or walk past it. And I am reminded every day of how lucky I was to work with you guys for all those years in LA too. And yeah, it was just the best. I mean, was there a difficult transition

between working on Conan and working for Steven? Like, did it take you long to kind of find your footing in a new show? Well, luckily the people are really great at the show too. In fact, I think the staffs of both shows would get along great. I think, as you know, at these shows, the tone gets set from the top.

I noticed that at like, even at shows like, I did a couple little tiny bits at like Parks and Rec and 30 Rock and stuff. And like, I could tell the tone gets set at the top there too. Like the tone that Amy would set, you know, where there's, it's almost like there's a no asshole rule. Like, cause life's too short to have assholes around. And it's like, hey, look,

I work with enough talented, nice people. I don't need to deal with your bullshit, you know? So it's, so I think that the people are great and so that that made it really easy to slide in there and Tom Purcell who's an old friend of ours who you probably remember from Chicago right did you know Tom? Yeah I've run into him a bunch over the years. Yeah and Paul Daniello you know who I've known I remember going to see Chris Farley's first touring company show at Second City and it was the first time I ever saw

Stephen Colbert and the first time I ever saw Paul Daniello was they were in his touring company and yeah That was the fall of 88 and it's so strange that I'm still working with these guys all these years later I'm a big comedy fans to Paul and Stephen Were the co-creators of both the sketch show Exit 57, I mean among other people, and Strangers with Candy, Amy Sedaris' show, those guys. So, you know, it does, it is, there's so many little areas where you do see people that just decide, like, let's just work together for the rest of time if you don't mind, you know. And if you can do it, it's such a nice way to do it.

It is, I don't take it for granted at all because I've talked to friends who've worked in very toxic situations and I really feel for them. But I feel very fortunate to have had such great people to work with all these years. Is there stuff left undone for you that you feel? Because I imagine, and And I imagine being able to come home every night is a pretty nice deal. I imagine that you've got to make television comedy during office hours, which there's

a lot of people that don't get to do that. And, but is there, but you know, it is consuming. There's not a lot of room in your life to do other stuff. And is there stuff that you, you know, is there a screenplay in your desk drawer that, you know, you're dying to get made or? I love the idea of doing that. I've always loved the idea of doing something like that. And I've always admired people that have even written

terrible screenplays, like, cause they wrote one, you know? Yeah. Like they sat down and did it. Just, it seems like such a daunting task. And I have the highest admiration for people that have the discipline to sit down and do that. And I used to think, Oh, Brian, when are you going to, when are you going to at least try to do that? And I still like the idea that if someday the spirit takes over and I'm inspired to do something like that, I love the idea of doing it. But I don't know if I ever will. I I do love that idea. But like I love doing outside stuff here and there. Like I've always loved doing voiceover work more than anything. Yeah. And you know, and I just did, I know like, I love how

you did like Madagascar and stuff like that. Isn't it just the funnest? Like you go in and you go into a windowless booth and it's just like, that's where I'm the most comfortable. I think. Yeah, especially cartoons. Getting to do cartoon voices is just, you know, that's like, that's like beyond any kind of like grown up sort of aspiration to be a performer and a creator and an artist. It's just like, I get to do cartoon voices.

Like that's just exciting to me. Oh yeah, like when I was a kid, like I remember hearing Tom Kenny, who does Spongebob. I don't really know Tom. I know his wife Jill, but Tom said that his idol growing up was always, he didn't want to be a big comedy TV or movie star. He wanted to be Mel Blanc. Yeah. He wanted to, that was his hero. And I totally relate to that. Like the idea of like Dan Caslanetta, I think has a dream job, you know?

Like people like that, just doing that kind of stuff. And I totally relate to that. I just love that. I like the anonymity of it. I like that you don't have to look like the character you're playing. You just like, if you can do a biker voice, you don't have to look like a biker, you know?

Right, right. Do you have a hard time writing long-form things? I think I've just always had trouble working up the discipline. One thing I always love to work about at working at Conan and Stevens Show is it's almost like, I like to put it in this term, this simple, but it's almost like you get homework. It's almost like you're getting school homework where it's like, hey, this sketch is on the grid. like you get homework. Like it's almost like you're getting school homework where it's like, hey, this sketch is on the grid. You have to write it. It's for tomorrow. And like, or we have a slot to fill.

Like I remember when Glazer and Andy Blitz and I came up with the Slip Nuts, which is a really silly bit that you helped us out with in the Slip Nuts reunion. That was literally like 1 a.m. and we had nothing the next day for this sketch. And we're like, what are we gonna do? And we saw slipknot was on the show. We're like what there's like a comedy group called the slip nuts

What do they do? They slip on nuts, I guess It was just like it was like that stupid and that desperate like we're tired at where our brains were fried and You could that's the only way you come up with something like that is when your brains fried and I remember when we pitched Dolly Parton to try to do a Slipknot song in a Slipknot's tribute album which is ridiculous enough as is I remember hearing her response was I thought it was so sweet she said I'm sorry I don't understand the idea and I don't feel comfortable doing something I don't understand I was like oh that's I love that I love how sweet she was but and also we didn't understand. I was like, oh, that's, I love that. I love how honest and sweet she was. But, and also we didn't understand it, you know? No, there's nothing to understand.

It's like, no, Dolly, you do understand it actually. It's nothing. Yeah, you got it. You nailed it. And, but yeah, I think I love, I've always loved that you can't agonize over it too much because you have it has to go on the next day like you have to write something for the next day and like in one whenever we did sketches like the traveling salesman or something you wanted it to be as good as it could possibly be but when showtime when taping time came around you had to let it go and just go I'm gonna go out and sell sell the hell out of it and make it the best it can be but Um, but there was, there's something staring at a blank page with no deadline.

I think I've always been fascinated by people's ability to work under those conditions, like to write a screenplay. You know, I, I, I need it. I need an assignment. I need a deadline. And I, you know, and the notion of like, okay, here's a blank page, write whatever you want. I'm like, I don't know what that is.

I don't know what I want. You know? Tell me what you want and then I'll fill that jar. Don't, you know, I'm terrible at that, which is I think, you know, that's like when people just, like a lot of people nowadays, they just kind of assume that like I did stand up and it's like, no, I don't, I don't, I like,

I need people like you that will get on stage with me and be funny and, and there won't be homework. You know, it's like, no, we're just going to go and make it up when we get there. We don't have to think about it. And it's, you know, just get it, just spit it out and have it be done and move on to the next one. And that's like so much more my personality. And I think yours too, I think we share that. Well, thanks for tossing me in that with that.

Cause I've always thought, like I always imagined like you being a great guy to bring in like for an existing screenplay where they want to punch it up and like go, Hey Andy, Andy, what could this guy say? And like, you'd be like, I don't know, maybe this. And it would be, oh, Andy, Andy, what could this guy say? And like, you'd be like, I don't know, maybe this, and it'd be, Oh, that's great. You know? Well, I mean, I tell people that. But yeah, but yeah, that was, well, that was often, especially when, you know, once I was on the Conan show,

and it had been going on for a few years, and even into the, you know, the TBS show, it's like, I didn't, I didn't feel the pressure the pressure to come up with new stuff and to come up with bits that the other writers did. Because I was on the show and I knew nobody's going to fire me, but I always was there for Punch-Up. I always was there and whether it was before it went out. Oh, here's my daughter, Cornelia, Brian. Hi, Cornelia. Nice to meet you. That's

Brian. He can't, he can't hear me. Here. Hi, Cornelia. Nice to meet you. I'll be done in two minutes. I meant to congratulate you, by the way, on your marriage and the adoption and everything. I'm just so happy for you. Oh, thank you. Thank you. Yeah, she's homesick today from school. She's got a cold, so. But yeah, it was, that became like something that I got to be good at, you know? I mean, just sort of rewrites and dollops on it. And I remember too, like in the early days when I used to feel guilty that I wasn't,

because I, you know, I felt like I was hired as a writer and I was meant to, you know, shoulder as much of the load as the other writers were, and yet I was hired as a writer and I was meant to shoulder as much of the load as the other writers were and yet I was on the show. But there were times when I start to feel guilty that I hadn't done enough. Then I'd realize like, no, I got a really good solid laugh at this act. Then I said this during that bit and it was like, I'm adding, I'm contributing.

I just still finding a way to feel like I'm not, I'm contributing. You know, I just still like, you know, finding a way to feel like I'm not doing enough and feel bad about it. But- Yeah, that's our job. Yeah, yeah. But I was always thinking, I was always thinking like if I was a movie producer,

I'd like get like a boardroom table and a bunch of burgers and just get like you, Pat Oswald, Paul F. Tompkins and you know, people like that and like Nikki Glaser and stuff and just throw you in a room and go, ah, just riff. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, that would be fun. That would be a lot of fun.

Well, is there something that all these years of doing this have taught you? Is there something like, do you ever talk to young people and they give them advice? And I mean where it's willingly, you're not like forcing yourself into a, into a bus to tell kids stuff. Well, you know, I think one of the things I've learned over the years, it seems like

is, like when people are doing what they think they're supposed to do to be successful, I think sometimes they get off on the wrong track. But if you're doing what you genuinely love to do, with people you love to do it with, as corny as that sounds, I think that's where so many of the good opportunities come from. If you're doing stuff as an end in itself, it's more likely to become a means to an end, you know, down the line. Because like we all came out of that improv scene in Chicago never expecting to do it professionally necessarily. We were just around people that made us laugh and we were having a blast doing it and thankfully it led to some other opportunities, but

like for example, I always remember you saying you never felt right about trying stand-up and I always felt the same way. I love stand-up. I admire it with everything in me, but I could never imagine doing it. Cause I like being on stage with an ensemble of people. So if I had tried to make it through doing standup, it would have looked forced, it wouldn't have looked right. It wouldn't have been like, ah, he doesn't have his heart in that. Even though I love standup, I love it. But I can't imagine doing it myself.

Even at Second City, if I had to go out and talk to the audience as myself Like install or something. I was like, oh, please get me out of here You know, I I got to do I want to do a character with like five other people on stage, right? And um, so I think that if you find what if stand-ups your thing though do that, you know like I see so many people we came up with Dan Cronin and Todd Levin and Mike Sweeney and McCann did improv and stand-up and he loved them both. And that's great, do both if that's what you love. But I think do what you love with people ideally

that you love and that's often harder, easier said than done to find those people. But if you can find them, cling to them like you're in a lifeboat, cause it's like, it's the best. And so many of the opportunities that you find later on come from those trenches, like, you know, from those, like you guys recommended me from

Little Improv Basements in Chicago, you know, Stephen Colbert recommended Correll to The Daily Show cause he knew him from Chicago, knew he was great. Adam McKay recommended Tina Fey, Tina Fey brought Jack McBrary in, you know, and then, you know, it's like you reach out and grab the people you know are good and you bring them in to show them to people that don't know they're good yet. You know, yeah. And yeah, that that's how so many of the opportunities come along.

If you're and I think also just this is as corny as it sounds, I think just being a good person to work with who's not a pain in the ass, you know, when you're coming up, just be someone that people like to work with that treats other people well. And like, I always think like Greg Cohen, for example, who worked at Late Night, you know, as a writer, you remember Greg and he'd been a busboy at Second City.

And I was really happy for him when he got hired as a writer and I was genuinely saying Hey, man Congratulations, this is fantastic You got a job and he said later that I was one of the few people that kind of came up and said that To him and just said and I was I wasn't saying it trying to get anything from him I was genuinely happy for him but I think people remember that stuff like when you're just in a good person coming up like Good good person to be around. And, uh,

I remember things like that. I remember people that were, um, like Paul and Steven and, and yeah, those people, they were, they were, yeah, they were nice to me in Chicago before they had any reason to be, you know, they w I was a nobody that I go. I remember going up to Corel in a 7-eleven parking lot one night Before I worked at Second City and just going hey, I just wanted to say you're really really great And he was super nice and he's he's hasn't really changed at all He's knowing he's still the same guy and Colbert's the exact same guy. He was in Chicago

You know, he just yeah, it just more people know who he is I think if you know cuz there's like people that I think of, that I think, oh, that person, you know, why haven't we heard from that person in a long time? They're comedy or actors or whatever. And I think frequently it's like, cause they're terrible to work with. Cause they're like,

they make the people around them miserable. And you know, and then you've got, you know, and then you've got people like Martin Short and Steve Martin who are still relevant and still vital and still doing it. And there's a lot of people, you know, their age and their peers that you're not because they probably aren't that great to work with, you know? So yeah, be nice. It is, it's a, they're long days, you know?

And I mean, it's always, you know, it's, it, and I don't even care if it's not show business. Working is, there are long days that you have to spend with people and if you want to continue working, make it so that you make the days more pleasant rather than less pleasant and it will go a long way towards keeping you working. Absolutely. And I remember that very clearly like on the Parks and Rec set, you know, Amy,

everybody from the prop people to the crew to, you know, people that weren't even in the scene, like Jim O'Hara would be in the next room. Everybody you could tell, it was almost like a, again, as corny as it sounds, it was kind of like a family. Yeah. And it showed in the show, it showed in the work. There was- It did. Yeah, it comes through,

even if people aren't aware of what it's like. Carell was like that at the office too. Like, you know, I remember just the general vibe around that. It all gets set from the top, you know, like with Conan and Steven. Well, Brian, thank you so much for doing this. It's, I mean, this again, this is like one of the perks of this, of this particular job is that I get to talk to people, you know, we got to have a nice hour long conversation here. Yeah, it was great to talk to you again, Andy.

I really miss you. And, you know, I, it's great to see to you again, Andy. I really miss you and it's great to see you again. And congratulations on everything. And thanks for asking me to do this. Sure. Good to see you. Tell Miriam and the girls hello. And thank all of you out there for listening. And I'll be back next week with more of the three questions.

The three questions with Andy Richter is a Team Coco production. It is produced by Sean Doherty and engineered by Rich Garcia. the Three Questions. with assistance from Maddie Ogden, researched by Alyssa Grahl. Don't forget to rate and review and subscribe to The Three Questions with Andy Richter wherever you get your podcasts. And do you have a favorite question you always like to ask people? Let us know in the review section. Can't you tell my love's a-growing? Can't you feel it ain't a-showin'?

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