Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend XX
[0] Hi, my name is Stephen Young, and I feel ecstatic about being Conan O 'Brien's fan.
[1] Okay, I don't buy it.
[2] There was such a long pause.
[3] It's because I had to process the word ecstatic to mean it.
[4] Fall is here, hear the yell, back to school, ring the bell, brandy.
[5] his shoes, walking loose, climb the fence, books and pens, I can tell that we are going to be friends.
[6] Yes, I can tell that we are going to be friends.
[7] Hey there, and welcome to Conan O 'Brien needs a friend.
[8] I am joined, as always, by my compatriots, my boon companions.
[9] I never understood what that meant, boon companion.
[10] I don't know what that means.
[11] I've never heard that.
[12] It was something, it was saying that you'd hear in the olden days.
[13] He's my boon companion.
[14] use that on this show early on and you gave me hell for it.
[15] That's right.
[16] Yeah.
[17] Yeah.
[18] I was doing it in a mocking way to, I've never forget a goarly dis.
[19] And so, but I'm joined, of course, by Matt Gorley and Sonom of Sessian.
[20] Yes.
[21] Yes, you are.
[22] I'm not sure if you don't quite add to the equation.
[23] You may detract, but still, it's something.
[24] And that's important.
[25] No, she's the secret sauce.
[26] No, I think you are.
[27] Well, I'm not.
[28] We've covered this.
[29] I'm the just You're not.
[30] You're so funny, Matt.
[31] You're so on your toes.
[32] Yeah, you're so good.
[33] It's all survival.
[34] It's all survival.
[35] I mean, can you agree that you and I are the important part?
[36] That's what we're getting now.
[37] Let's be clear.
[38] I say we, what is clear is we may never know what makes Conan O 'Brien needs a friend such a successful podcast.
[39] We just may never know.
[40] I'm glad you finally realize that.
[41] I had on the subject of our podcast kind of a fun experience, which is, A couple days ago, I went and visited my in -laws up on Bainbridge Island in Seattle.
[42] So went to Seattle, and then you get on a ferry, and you go over to Bainbridge Island, and there was a gathering there, and I attended with my wife and kids.
[43] We had a lovely time.
[44] And then you drive back the other direction, and you get back on the ferry to go back to Seattle.
[45] We're waiting in line, and I get out to kind of just stretch my legs, because we're waiting on the ferry and sitting in our car, our cramped rental car.
[46] Nice dig.
[47] I'm sorry.
[48] It was a little, you know what it was?
[49] It's a perfectly, I'm not going to name the car.
[50] It was a perfectly fine car, but as you know, I have freaklessly long legs.
[51] And not the most generous interior on this car.
[52] It's very hard to rent a Bugatti.
[53] Oh, Jesus.
[54] And so, wow.
[55] This was an American car that was a little cramped up front.
[56] And so I get out, and I'm stretching my legs.
[57] And these people in the, the car next to me, recognize me, and they're very excited, which is nice, and their windows are down, and they go, this is so weird.
[58] And I said, what?
[59] And they said, we listen to the podcast on this commute back and forth to Bainbridge Island all the time.
[60] And here you are.
[61] And, you know, as path leaning into their car, invading their space.
[62] Because I'm a needy person, and I really wanted to get my head all in their car and be like, how are you?
[63] And, um, you knicksend them?
[64] I Nixoned them.
[65] Again, the old Nixon.
[66] That's Nixon motorboating a woman.
[67] I couldn't.
[68] I am not a crook.
[69] I could have gone my whole life without that.
[70] Anywho.
[71] I haven't lived until I've heard that.
[72] So I can't.
[73] I leaned, you know, I'm talking to them, and it just was so funny because it just tickled my fancy that here are people who, they do this commute a lot.
[74] And can you imagine if you're a commute every day and you like this podcast, you're listening to it and it's part of your regular diet and the next thing you know, I'm sticking my head in your window?
[75] It's like they summoned you.
[76] Yes, exactly.
[77] It was like the conjuring.
[78] And so it got me thinking that I should make it, I want to pledge to people out there who listen to this on a commute.
[79] There's a decent chance you will encounter me while you're in your car and I will stick my head in the window.
[80] The more you listen, the more that is likely.
[81] Yes, and it'll be kind of like, you know, when you hear sometimes about someone who hits a deer with their car and the deer gets partially through the windshield and then the deer starts thrashing, that's me. If I know you've been listening to the podcast and I encounter you and I stick my head in, I may become wild and start thrashing.
[82] Oh, man. Yeah, and then you've got to just put me out of my misery as quickly as possible.
[83] Do you ever get upset that people mention the podcast but don't mention that 28 years you were on television?
[84] You know what's so funny?
[85] I don't.
[86] Really?
[87] Yeah, you'd think I would.
[88] I think if someone went way out of their way to say, I love this podcast, what were you doing before?
[89] That would.
[90] Well, it means they're keeping up with you.
[91] That's a good time.
[92] But I'm telling you, I have, you know, it doesn't happen a lot, but there are still times when I encounter someone, and they go like, oh, my God, Conan O 'Brien, I just love what you did on The Simpsons.
[93] And I'll say, oh, that's great.
[94] And they sometimes almost look like they don't know what happened after that.
[95] Yeah.
[96] And I, so I'm happy, if anyone likes anything I did, if someone says that that crocheted potholder you made for Mrs. Gaines in the fifth grade was just killer, I'll take it.
[97] So I'm just happy that people like it, but it did get me interested in, oh, right, people listen, a lot of people listen to podcasts while they're commuting.
[98] Yes.
[99] And I just want you to know if you're commuting right now.
[100] Yeah.
[101] Or if you're in your car and you're listening.
[102] Look in your back seat.
[103] Look in the back seat.
[104] And I want to say there's an 11 % chance.
[105] I will rise up behind you.
[106] You'll see me in the rearview mirror.
[107] Oh, God.
[108] And I'll go of you the old Nixon motorboat.
[109] Oh, no. Come here, Pat.
[110] Come here, Pat.
[111] No. No, Dick, no. And get in those boobliners are.
[112] Hold on an earlickman.
[113] Get in here.
[114] He's motorboating those guys, too?
[115] No, he wants them to watch.
[116] He wants hold him and Ehrlichman.
[117] watch him motorboat pat this is what was on the missing portion of the watergate yeah yeah exactly that he wasn't worried about being caught when he was just decency when they when they suspected him of having his assistant Rosemary Woods delete the crucial 18 minutes little floor he wasn't it wasn't it wasn't him worried about being caught orchestrating the break into the cover up of the watergate it was the 18 minutes of him motorboarding pat How about the old 5 o 'clock shadow grow out a little bit?
[118] No!
[119] A little friction there.
[120] You get the old peace signs in the air.
[121] And oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[122] Oh, the shadow.
[123] It's just going to hurt.
[124] No, just if you grow it out just a little bit.
[125] It's a little bit of...
[126] Yeah, it's an exfoliant.
[127] Come here.
[128] Oh, you lose your lufa?
[129] Come here.
[130] Take off your top.
[131] Please, Mr. President.
[132] If you don't have a lufa, take off your top.
[133] I'm going to give you the breasts of a 20 -year -old.
[134] Yeah.
[135] I'm going to loof you up real good.
[136] Give me the old Dick Nixon.
[137] A motorboat.
[138] No, checkers.
[139] Don't go in there.
[140] All right.
[141] We got to get it.
[142] All right.
[143] It's less that we have to start the episode.
[144] It's more that we have to end this.
[145] I don't think our guest has probably left.
[146] My guest today, of course, played Glenn on the hit.
[147] series The Walking Dead.
[148] He also starred in the Oscar nominated film Minari.
[149] And now you can see him in Jordan Peel's latest movie.
[150] Nope.
[151] I love this guy.
[152] And I'm thrilled.
[153] He's with us today.
[154] Stephen Young, welcome.
[155] I'll say it up front.
[156] I adore you in every way that one man can adore another.
[157] Same.
[158] I was just thrilled that you were coming in today and that we were going to get to talk.
[159] Thank you.
[160] It always does me well.
[161] It does.
[162] To have Stephen in my life.
[163] To have some Stephen time just does me well.
[164] That's too kind.
[165] It's always great with you too.
[166] Yeah.
[167] I mean, that's the thing is like if you open the floodgates for me, I'll just gush.
[168] So I'll just keep it tempered.
[169] But I feel the same.
[170] And I think for me what I've really appreciated is you've always allowed space for me to grow the structure that you do have.
[171] Like you have you have your show.
[172] You have kind of, I don't want to call an institution, but.
[173] But yeah, like you've built a thing in which people come and maybe feel like they have to conform to the thing.
[174] But you've always allowed me to show up over time in different stages of my own life.
[175] Well, it's funny.
[176] I mean, it just happens naturally, I think, with you because you have so many different facets.
[177] I mean, when you would first come on as, oh, you're, you know, it's Stephen from the Walking Dead.
[178] It's this huge show.
[179] And you'd come on.
[180] so clear to me right away that there's so many facets to you, which you've shown over time.
[181] But when I first got to know you, it was, well, this is a former Second City guy who probably was interested in sketch comedy and then got into very quickly when you came out to L .A., you got that Walking Dead gig, right?
[182] So quick.
[183] Like within a matter of months.
[184] Yeah.
[185] Literally in like half, six months, I got that.
[186] Did you have any disappointment before you got that gig?
[187] I did.
[188] I was out for pilot season and I had auditioned for this network pilot that I got to the last stage.
[189] It was me and this other guy.
[190] And I didn't get it.
[191] And I was like decimated that day.
[192] They have told this story, but like I was eating at an I hop by myself.
[193] Well, that's, first of all, that's a sign of trouble right away.
[194] That's up there with drinking alone.
[195] You can't do an eye hop alone.
[196] Oh, not by yourself.
[197] Give me all the pancakes.
[198] All of them.
[199] It was...
[200] Mr. Young, please.
[201] All of them!
[202] It was not great.
[203] And so, yeah, I got a phone call there saying I didn't get it.
[204] I thought it was done.
[205] And then, you know, two months later, the thing that I couldn't have gotten if I had gotten the original thing.
[206] So, I don't know.
[207] After that, I just stopped.
[208] I mean, I still bug out, but I stopped, like, forcing it.
[209] These disappointments that you hit along the way, and I, you know, believe that.
[210] I've said this, but I was convinced it was my destiny to be a writer for late night with David Letterman.
[211] Like my, that is the key.
[212] You know, and it almost feels like Lord of the Rings.
[213] If I don't, I need to cross that bridge to get to the other side.
[214] I'm just trying to pull Gourley in.
[215] I need to cross that bridge.
[216] I love bridges.
[217] Hates all Tolkien and Lord of the Rings.
[218] But any kind of bridge talk, he's in too.
[219] Oh, man. We'll talk, we talked for an hour about the Triborough the other day.
[220] We're doing suspensions next week?
[221] Yeah, we are.
[222] We'll get to it.
[223] I'm sorry.
[224] I'm just excited.
[225] It's next week.
[226] It's next week.
[227] And I have the specs you asked for.
[228] Thank you.
[229] But no, it felt like the only way to get to the magic land is I need to be doing for Dave what, you know, I need to be a writer on that show.
[230] And I need to do some performing on that show.
[231] And I just felt that that was the thing that had to happen.
[232] And when it didn't happen, I thought, well, that's it.
[233] Now, if I later on helicopter route, I call it Google Earth, if you pull way out and look at your whole life, if that had happened, I would not have worked for Lorne Michaels who would not have noticed me and thought, hmm, maybe that idiot could run, could be a talk show host.
[234] None of that would have ever happened if the thing I wanted it, you know, and to happen, happened.
[235] So I wouldn't change a thing.
[236] And that includes a lot of missteps and disasters along the way.
[237] But people need to know that.
[238] They need to know that.
[239] Because in that moment when you're sitting in an iHOP and you get that call and you just look at the waitfish and go like more more syrup I'm drawn I go to an IHop alone every morning what am I doing wrong you're doing right no no no you're doing you're doing you it's not sad when you do it yeah yeah okay for me it's a celebration to go to IHop alone well now you have twins oh yeah so going anywhere alone I mean you've been to this You have two young kids.
[240] Yeah, yeah, yeah.
[241] And I am no longer in that boat.
[242] My kids are teenagers, but when they were little, if someone said, we have an iron maiden here, you know, we're going to lock you in it, and spikes are going to go into your flesh.
[243] I would say, would I be alone?
[244] Well, yeah.
[245] So my kids wouldn't be with me. No. Clang!
[246] Mr. Brian, we're supposed to lock you in it.
[247] You're not supposed to jump into it and shock.
[248] it behind you.
[249] I said no calls.
[250] I said no calls.
[251] But yeah, that's, well, what you were saying earlier too, kind of I've been thinking a lot about or constantly reminded of, of not just you can't control things, but also you can't take the thing that brought you to that point with you when you want to go to the new place.
[252] If that makes sense what I just said.
[253] Well, yes, it does to me to look at your situation where I think just months, five months after getting to L .A., you're cast in Walking Dead, which then becomes one of the most popular TV shows, you know, on television, and is this huge success, and you're a major, your character's a big part of it, and you're there for five seasons?
[254] Seven seasons.
[255] No, I liked five.
[256] Yeah, five is good.
[257] Five is a cleaner number.
[258] Did you just meet at six?
[259] You want to just do six.
[260] and call it.
[261] No, no, no, no. I watched, the show was great all the way through, but I thought you phoned it in for two, and I can tell which two.
[262] The last two were really just, yeah, I agree.
[263] You could actually see you look into the lens.
[264] You'd shoot the lens, and you'd shake your head like, yeah.
[265] It's coming, guys.
[266] No, but you must have, you get the word that, okay, here's what's happening to your character.
[267] Yeah.
[268] Which I imagine maybe felt somewhat like your eye hop moment.
[269] By the way, IHOP will no longer They'll no longer buy ads with us An IHOP moment is now considered a career failure Or the beginning of something great Hey, let's spin it, let's get you guys some IHOP Yeah, you might be underestimating how many listeners are alone In an IHOP listening right now Listen, if you're there right now, I apologize Mix the coconut and the blueberry syrup It won't be disappointed Well, you know what's so funny, I was on a hike literally yesterday and I got stopped by these two two dudes that were like oh hey you look like Glenn and I was like yeah I was on the show and then they go hey did they kill you off or like did you want to leave and they gave me like two options of like did they force you out or did you want to leave and I was like it's not like that like and I was with my children and they were like really trying to get to the meat of like was I pushed out or not and for me I'm like I don't have time to explain this to you first off because I have two children we got to go home it's sweltering it's a hike but also I was I was trying to I didn't know how to succinctly say like sometimes you just accept what it is and you just go with it like there's no tension behind right any of those things like when someone presents to you after five six seasons on a show and they go hey looks like this is the end for you and also with the added like bonus of me having a comic book issue come out two years prior that says, I'm done.
[270] Right.
[271] You go like, okay.
[272] Like, am I scared?
[273] Am I kind of worried about what's coming?
[274] Like, perhaps, but also, okay.
[275] Like, that's just what that is.
[276] Like, I'm not going to go like kicking and screaming.
[277] But also, to the point of what you brought up before, which is you can't bring it with you, you made this, I don't know if it was a conscious decision, but somehow you knew, okay, I'm leaving this experience and I'm not going to try and replicate it, duplicate it.
[278] I'm not going to try and find this someplace else and keep it going.
[279] It's time to change it up.
[280] Yeah.
[281] And I don't even know if it's that conscious.
[282] I just think it's like manifest for me as like my police voice in my head says, if you do it again, you're a hack.
[283] And so I just don't do it again.
[284] I can't.
[285] I cringe for me personally.
[286] Right.
[287] Also, it's not like your character could have come back.
[288] because they made it so clear.
[289] The way in which you departed that show was so unbelievably brutal.
[290] One of the most shocking things I've seen on television and I'm including my own early work.
[291] 93, 94.
[292] But no, but I was just, I, you know, it's not like Glenn could come back and go, I've got a terrible headache.
[293] Yeah.
[294] And my eyes knocked out, but I think I'm okay.
[295] Yeah.
[296] Yeah.
[297] And that's it, too.
[298] Like, those are the blessings that I feel like I've gotten in my life, which is, like, an absolute door shut.
[299] Yep.
[300] Like, there's not, like, a crack in the door.
[301] It's like, this is slam shut, and it's, like, barricaded.
[302] You can't come back in.
[303] What are you going to do?
[304] You're going to, like, petition outside the door?
[305] Like, they're not going to open it.
[306] I have to say, because you and I have been friendly and know each other, and I really like you, I got, I will admit, the actor who plays Negan, who killed you with a baseball bat.
[307] Yeah.
[308] Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
[309] Yeah, Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
[310] He came on our shows at Comic -Con.
[311] And I swear to God, it took it.
[312] It was an effort for me to not have attitude.
[313] And I'm an adult.
[314] I'm a rapidly aging adult who understand, who's in show business and understands, I had a little bit of trouble like, you fucker.
[315] I feel so bad for Jeffrey.
[316] And it was just, it was in there a little bit.
[317] I think I cut him off a few times on his anecdotes.
[318] Or I read the notes and read ahead to what joke he was going to do and got there first.
[319] Yeah, more like a grapefruit, right?
[320] What?
[321] Well, that's all the time we have for this asshole.
[322] Murderer.
[323] Once you get your bat and get the fuck out of here.
[324] Oh, God.
[325] Friend killer.
[326] He had such a hard gig.
[327] To, like, show up, displace the foundation of the show and then, like, continue on.
[328] Yeah.
[329] They didn't stick around.
[330] Yeah, like, be there.
[331] Now, let's show the lighter side of Negan.
[332] Yeah, wild.
[333] I have this theory that I actually got from my father, who has many disreputable theories, which we'll talk about another show.
[334] I'm all about those.
[335] Yeah.
[336] But my father, when I was a kid, he explained to me once, he thought that it's really good when kids don't quite know where they fit.
[337] If a kid is too secure in their environment, They grew up maybe too self -satisfied, whereas if there's a little bit of questioning, and I don't think he was intentionally trying to make this happen, but he just sort of knew.
[338] I grew up not quite knowing, what are we?
[339] Are we?
[340] We're doing pretty well, but are we middle class?
[341] Do we have a really shitty car.
[342] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[343] But we're in a nice house, but I'm Irish, but I don't play hockey like all the other kids who are Irish Catholic, and they kind of don't like me and Jewish kids really like me. I don't quite, I'm not an athlete, I don't quite know where I fit in to my environment.
[344] But I think my dad might have had a point about that.
[345] And when I think about your life, I think whatever discomfort I may have had, I think for you might have been like to the third power because you are, first of all, you're born in South Korea.
[346] When did your parents emigrate?
[347] We emigrated 88.
[348] Right.
[349] Yeah.
[350] Yeah.
[351] My dad was so impatient.
[352] He should have just waited.
[353] He owned a home in Seoul.
[354] He was doing well for himself as an architect.
[355] And he just wanted to leave so bad.
[356] My mom was like, wait till the Olympics.
[357] Maybe the housing value will go up.
[358] And then you can have some money to move over here.
[359] And he was like, nope, getting out of here.
[360] Right.
[361] And we just jumped on a plane, went to Canada, and we're here now.
[362] How long were you in Canada before you?
[363] A year.
[364] And then you came to, you went to Michigan?
[365] Mint to Michigan, yeah.
[366] But I think the key component of all of this is that my parents didn't explain anything.
[367] Like I recently, once I had my kids, I was talking to my dad, who's the sweetest man. But he was just like talking about my son while he was standing there.
[368] My son is like two or three at the time.
[369] And he was like, oh, he doesn't know.
[370] And I'm like, he knows.
[371] He's taking in everything you're putting out.
[372] Like he might not be able to conceptually understand it and speak to you about.
[373] it but like he feels everything and it made me understand I was like oh you didn't explain anything when we like you literally took like safety and then displaced it and didn't explain anything that's a huge move for someone at such a young age to be hurled over into Canada and then make your way down to Michigan you're part of this completely different culture and did your were your parents fluent in English no and that's the thing too is that like The dark part of it that takes a while is, like, first you're displaced and then there's a slow separation from your parents over years because I get more ingratiated into this place and they're still like stuck where they're at.
[374] Well, you have some of that sona, right?
[375] Oh, everything you're saying, I'm totally.
[376] Because your parents came to, from Armenia to...
[377] Well, they came from Istanbul.
[378] Istanbul.
[379] Both of them did.
[380] Yeah.
[381] My dad came in the 60s.
[382] My mom came in the 70s.
[383] they got married here, had both me and my brother here, but they're still very, I mean, when your parents immigrated here, they probably went towards where other Koreans were, which is what my family did with Armenians.
[384] And so, you know, it's the exact same thing.
[385] You know, it's like, how much do you assimilate?
[386] How much do you stay true to who you are?
[387] And it's hard.
[388] And what feels like a betrayal?
[389] Yes.
[390] Is it a betrayal that you became so, you know, you're such a, some of your values are probably very different from your parents.
[391] Very different.
[392] Yeah.
[393] Yeah.
[394] Yeah.
[395] Yeah.
[396] 100 % yeah yeah total lack of morality anyway seriously whatever I feel it well I think like you know like when we talk about them they do feel intense especially these days when we're putting spotlight on these things but I think what's really great that it feels like we're coming to is like these stories of isolation or feeling abandonment or separation are universal and also so American in some weird way like I feel um and and Every time I lead with, or if I lead with this story of, like, my immigration young trauma, I realize that, like, kind of really deeply connects with everybody.
[397] It's like, oh, I felt majorly alone as well.
[398] And something that's interesting as a theme in my life these days is isolation.
[399] And I don't know what the answers are for that, but, like, is that what everything is about?
[400] You mean some of the things that you're working on in your work, you mean?
[401] In work, but then like, you know, you like draw the, you like do the whole diagram of like, what does this fundamental thing about?
[402] And it's like, oh, like, I'm scared to be alone.
[403] Like that's the root of like most of the things.
[404] Like in the same way that like we talk about, you can't bring the thing that got you there with you.
[405] The pension to want to hold on to that thing is like, well, if I let this go, they might, they might like let me go.
[406] If I don't pass through with this accolade, they might not allow me. into this next stage.
[407] Right.
[408] Or coming on to your show, it could have been like, I have to deliver how I was in the beginning or else I might not be able to come back again.
[409] Right.
[410] But instead, every time I showed up, you're like, yeah, like, whatever you want to do is like how you are, and that's cool.
[411] That's just laziness on my mind.
[412] You're going to crack the lip, but you're like, people around me were saying, you should get him to do what he did last time.
[413] It was so great.
[414] I'm like, I don't know.
[415] I don't want to even look at the notes.
[416] Let's bring him out of here.
[417] Let's crank this thing.
[418] out and let's get me to the grave as fast as we can.
[419] Get me to the grave is my new, that's my new catchphrase.
[420] Get me in a grave.
[421] Get me to the grave.
[422] But you know, it's funny because I hear, one of the things that is a gift to me is throughout my career I'd make these silly things with people that had nothing to do with anything that wasn't, they weren't political, they weren't based on the news, they were just silly, and you had this idea to take me to this spa.
[423] This Korean spa here in L .A., so I took you up on it.
[424] And I think once a week, maybe or once every two weeks, people come up to me and they love it.
[425] And I have a lot of Koreans that come up that know that you and I went to Korea together.
[426] And it's been this gift because it wasn't intentional.
[427] We just did it because we knew.
[428] You knew.
[429] You said, oh, my God, if I bring this tall red -haired woman to a spa and these women walk on his back and he has to get.
[430] get in a freezing plunge pool and stuff.
[431] This is just going to be funny.
[432] And it was, it was really delightful and it holds up nicely after all this time.
[433] But it also was, I think, help me appreciate how much I loved going and checking out other cultures and me being the joke.
[434] You know what I mean?
[435] I enjoyed putting myself in situations in other countries where I'm the odd man out.
[436] And they're kind of laughing at me and I don't quite get it.
[437] And I mean, I think if we hadn't, we did that remote and then we ended up going to Korea together and it was such you know we were improvising a lot we were on buses we were exhausted yeah yeah we were also dealing with social media in in South Korea is so hypersensitive I mean they love you but then if you do one thing that they they can feel slighted but then if you do one other thing to correct that then they love you again And I remember you were helping us navigate, don't do that.
[438] Okay.
[439] Well, here's the rub, though.
[440] I think part of the reason why, and I'm just kind of coming to this now, that maybe those remotes and like those bits kind of worked was also I was incredibly unreliable.
[441] Yes.
[442] Like, I wasn't also not you.
[443] Yeah.
[444] You know what I mean?
[445] It wasn't like an interpreter and you.
[446] It was like a fallible, unreliable guy.
[447] that is mostly American, also going along.
[448] But, like, interesting because, like, I'd be – the gaze of that country would reflect off of me a little differently than you, and you could notice that.
[449] Really?
[450] What do you mean?
[451] I mean, from – if you watch it, I think you can notice it, until you get to that point where you're like, hey, what is this dish?
[452] And I'm like, I have no clue.
[453] You know, I don't know.
[454] I kept forgetting that, wait a minute, you're a Canadian guy who went to Michigan as much as you're a South Korean.
[455] But I was like, there's a lot of times I'm like, Stephen, tell us about this wonderful ritual and you're like, I have no idea.
[456] I don't know.
[457] No one explained this.
[458] Yeah, I'll explain the Detroit Pistons line up to you.
[459] But I can't help you with what this monk is saying right now.
[460] Well, that's the thing too.
[461] Like it just gets me really interested in like, man, like we're living such a global life now.
[462] Yeah.
[463] So many gazes now available for all of us to kind of consume and take in.
[464] I can't even imagine all the things that have shifted in the wake of that that we're just not even aware of.
[465] We had an amazing moment.
[466] We went to, you and I got in a bus with my crew and we drove and drove and drove and drove and drove and we got to this beautiful mountup.
[467] I remember it was cold.
[468] It was cold in South Korea.
[469] And like an idiot, I was like, right, it gets cold until, I remember that from MASH.
[470] There were episodes where they were cold.
[471] I'm like, Conan, come on.
[472] Not everything is 1970s TV.
[473] No, no, no, I remember Major Burns shivering and eating a blanket.
[474] So, yes, it gets cold in Korea, but it was really cold, and we went to the top of this mountain, and there was a monastery, and you and I went, and there was, it was so, I mean, it really looked the part, this very spiritual place, and they took us through, and they were teaching us how to meditate and pray and bow and we were, you know, these monks just seemed like they had found the answer and remember thinking they figured it out.
[475] They figured out the answer.
[476] And then at one point we had a break in shooting and one of the monks was gesturing me. He didn't speak English, but he was like, he wanted to show me something.
[477] He took me out back and he showed me their massive satellite for streaming content.
[478] And then I was like, what do you watch?
[479] and they were like, oh, breaking bad, you know, we watch.
[480] Two phones.
[481] He had an iPhone and a Samsung.
[482] Yes, he had an iPhone.
[483] One phone rang, and he was like, darn phone.
[484] They went to switch it off because I thought, when I leave this, once I leave this temple, I shall throw away my phone.
[485] Because, and then, and the monk is like, damn it.
[486] And he reaches in and turns off one of his phones, but it's the wrong phone.
[487] And then I see he's playing, you know, some game.
[488] You know, he's building his Sims world.
[489] I don't know, but it was a really great experience and funny and I like experiences that humble me. And I've noticed that, and I think we're similar that way.
[490] We both could tell that we didn't quite know it was going on.
[491] We didn't quite fit in this environment.
[492] And yet that was sort of the fun of it.
[493] That was the charge.
[494] Oh, man. After the kids came, that's it, right?
[495] Like, submission.
[496] right like that's to me you have a five year old five year old and a three year old so you're really in it right now so in it yeah so tired yeah um but yeah like sometimes there's just nothing better than like the act of submission just to not have choices but what's in front of you is like kind of the most beautiful thing um i hate choices i agonize about them yeah like i can't decide between A or B, it's like, it's like nuclear warfare in my brain.
[497] Our big thing is our daughter was born and it was so long, she's 18 now, so this was quite a while ago, but it was so long before we could go to see a movie.
[498] And I remember when I made it all about that.
[499] I just want to go to a movie.
[500] Wouldn't it be amazing to go to a movie?
[501] And I remember like planning it out and my wife finally agreeing after a long time.
[502] It's about a year ago.
[503] My daughter turned 17.
[504] No. But planning it was planning.
[505] out like this is now we're gonna okay she's agreed we could go see a movie we're in New York and we went and we saw I chose master and commander and you know which is a great film and we're sitting there and I could see my wife waiting throughout the whole movie to spring up like a jack in the box so we could go which you know it wasn't she wasn't just losing herself in the movie and I was like I love this movie but I could tell my wife was a burning coal I've got to get back yeah because I created this life and I must be with it at all times and I I really respect that, but I was like, we're gonna watch this movie to the end.
[506] And then at the very, there's the last line, which by the way is, well, I certainly am a master and commander.
[507] Wait, Russell Crow says that at the end.
[508] He says that at the end and don't check this out.
[509] But Russell Crow, it's weird, he turns right to lens.
[510] It's a very controversial ending.
[511] And he says, I certainly am a master and commander.
[512] And then the first credit came up, my wife jumped out of her seat and half ran, and we were right there, near the plaza, that theater that's right near the plaza on the upper east side near the park, she leapt up and started running pretty much out of the theater to jump in a cab.
[513] And I had to catch her.
[514] She was going to leave me if we didn't get back to our daughter.
[515] And so, yeah, that was our last movie for quite a while.
[516] But whenever I see that movie now, I have this tension that has nothing to do with the movie.
[517] Because it's all about that period of time when there was no, we're not going to a restaurant.
[518] We're not going anywhere.
[519] We're not seeing a movie.
[520] There's always those weird, a weird thing that happened to me recently is like my wife now started finding like her freedom.
[521] Like she's now chosen to like, oh, cool.
[522] The kids are starting school.
[523] Let me go do my thing.
[524] And like for the longest time, I was like very secure about our relationship.
[525] I was like, yeah.
[526] Like it's all good.
[527] And then she started having her own life.
[528] And then I was like, why do I feel so insecure all of a sudden?
[529] And I realized I was like, oh, it's because there was a false sense of security because you chose to be home a lot.
[530] And it was like a predictable thing for me. And now that you're out there doing your thing, I'm like, oh, I'm being tasked now to like let that go.
[531] And like, someone said to me this where I was like, it's fun to, it's nice to lead because you can never be left behind.
[532] And I was like, whoa.
[533] Well, what's her thing?
[534] That's the other thing because I got jealous from my wife.
[535] went back to her thing, which is running a kissing booth.
[536] And I got jealous.
[537] That's the dumbest thing I've said in a while.
[538] I love it.
[539] I'm jealous of my wife's work.
[540] What does she do?
[541] She has a kissing booth.
[542] Five cents a smooch.
[543] No, I just hung out with her friends.
[544] It wasn't even that thing.
[545] It was just like...
[546] That's what she says.
[547] Oh, that's true.
[548] There you go.
[549] Now I'm spiraling.
[550] It's so weird she said that.
[551] It's so simple.
[552] And that threw me off.
[553] in that way, which then looped back to like the source of all of my bullshit, which is like can I, am I okay being by myself?
[554] If I choose it, I can.
[555] But if it's like placed upon me, that becomes this whole equation in my head that I got to deal with.
[556] Right.
[557] We're getting to it, guys.
[558] I'm sorry.
[559] This is good.
[560] This is supposed to be therapy in some ways.
[561] And so, no, but I have, I know that.
[562] I love, I swear to God, I think half the reason that I wanted to build this place that we're in right now is because I need a place to go where people have to listen to me riff and safe, spin out foolish, say nonsense and people just roll their eyes and be like, yeah, it's a safe space for me to act like an idiot.
[563] It is.
[564] But for no one else.
[565] I was going to say, it's not safe for everybody else.
[566] Yeah, it's an actual, like, just shut up.
[567] Just shut up.
[568] Just shut up.
[569] And I have to taste that.
[570] Shut up, right, right, right.
[571] Just shut.
[572] Yeah, right.
[573] Did you know that you were going to get into film when you left?
[574] You know what was really crazy was when I left that show?
[575] I actually had no clue what was possible for me. I recently saw this YouTube video, I think it was like a big think video, talking about how a long time ago, when the first guy broke like the impossible mile.
[576] Yes.
[577] Went sub four, right?
[578] Yep, four.
[579] They thought that was crazy that he was some.
[580] freak and then like a week later somebody else broke that and then a week later somebody else broke that and it made me think a lot about like if you can't see it you can't push through that like if you can't even envision that for yourself um you have nowhere to go and so i don't know how it happened but it wasn't this conscious choice of like oh i'm going into film it was more just like i'm willing to let go of the thing that got me here in its totality because there was a lot of talk of like striking when the iron's hot and And they were like, you better get something now while it's like, while you're in the mix.
[581] And it wasn't this like, oh, screw that I'm not doing that.
[582] It was more just like all the things that are presented in front of me, all the hot iron strikes are very literal and obvious.
[583] And something that felt like a repeat of what I'd just done.
[584] And so those were very simple nose.
[585] It wasn't like this agonizing decision.
[586] I was just like, I did that.
[587] No, thank you.
[588] and I think just that act of saying no opened up the path to I have no idea how I'm here now but I couldn't envision this I'm just doing this now so yeah I think about that a lot like just five six seven years ago if you would have asked me if I would have been able to be in these films that I've been in I would have been like there's no way like I can't even I would have made up some thing that said like the industry would never allow me to do that and I'm like who would stop you Like, you're just building, I mean, maybe, I have no idea, but it became this feedback loop for me of just, like, stopping myself.
[589] It's so awesome that you got your Oscar nomination and such a great, you know, achievement for you personally.
[590] And then, of course, it was written about a lot that this was a first, you know, and that you were breaking ground.
[591] And, but I wondered how much of that, because you're a very sensitive person who, you know, is about as, you're a very humble and sensitive person.
[592] And I wondered, was that at all tricky, the balancing act of feeling the weight of this mantle of you are a first and you represent, you know, a whole culture and a people?
[593] And I could see you seeing it for the complicated thing that it is.
[594] Yeah.
[595] It was very complicated for me. I don't even know if I found like a good resting place about that.
[596] But like I think I think for me how I thought about it was first it was a feeling of like it feels weird to extract more value out of this.
[597] Like the accolade itself is such an incredible thing.
[598] It doesn't make sense for me to like stand up on a soapbox about it and like claim it and like eat off of it.
[599] It felt like enough to just, like, somehow be part of the process of attaining that thing or, like, having that thing be broken.
[600] And then there's just going to be other people right behind me that are going to do that and, like, better probably.
[601] So it just, it felt like I didn't need to, like, cement myself there.
[602] Right.
[603] And it may, it may have turned people off.
[604] It may have turned people off to be, like, why wouldn't you, like, rep the community or, like, or, like, really plant a flag?
[605] And I'm like, I'm pretty sure the flag's been planted.
[606] Like, it's there.
[607] Well, it's also the act of the movie.
[608] I'm going to make sure I'm saying it right.
[609] Minari, no judgment if anybody says, it's Minari, but like how, it's like asking someone.
[610] No, it's Minari.
[611] Yeah, it's Minari.
[612] Say it with me. Minari.
[613] Minari, like, you can't, I'm not.
[614] Minari's great.
[615] I love being like, no, no, no. No, say it again.
[616] Minari is great.
[617] But it's just a great movie.
[618] It was a great story and it was beautifully told.
[619] And so to me, the triumph is the work.
[620] And then you are who you are and that means what it means.
[621] But I understand what you're saying.
[622] There's a through line here throughout the whole conversation that I respect.
[623] And I understand, which is, and this is old saying that you can't, anything you can put your hands on in this life and feel you can't take with you into the next life.
[624] And I think we do get very obsessed with accolades.
[625] Yeah.
[626] people get obsessed with.
[627] This is what I achieved.
[628] And I've thought that it's really good to minimize those things as much as you can and just think, was the work good?
[629] Yeah.
[630] How was the work?
[631] And the work there is really beautiful.
[632] That movie really moved me a lot.
[633] It felt very real and honest to me. And also not manipulative.
[634] There are some movies that take me to a place, really make me care about people, and then kill everybody.
[635] You know?
[636] And that's powerful with a capital.
[637] P. And no, this was this was very, this was very nuanced.
[638] The battle always becomes like how much of a thing that you're trying to make has embedded within it.
[639] And I don't want to say ego because it's so like overly like talked about at the point.
[640] But I mean more like how much of it like is possessed by you.
[641] It's not your like this idea is not mine.
[642] Like someone would have thought of it.
[643] Someone would have come up with it.
[644] Isaac came up with it.
[645] And It just happened to be expressed in this moment through these individuals, but like I feel like certain, the things that you call manipulative, I think it's because they have this tinge of being like, I want to like own the part of this moment.
[646] And I need you to like feel my ownership of it.
[647] So I'm going to like tell you how this is mine and not yours.
[648] And I think the whole part of Minari, especially when I know Isaac, like Isaac is such a beautiful selfless human.
[649] he wants to invite people to the table, his table, to eat, and then that's it.
[650] Like, he doesn't need, like, payment.
[651] He doesn't need, like, someone to, like, write an essay about it.
[652] He doesn't need, like, any more extraction of value than just, like, simply enjoying this meal that you can connect to as well.
[653] And I think how that manifests with the movie was just, like, we don't want any barriers of entry for people outside the culture and in the culture.
[654] Right.
[655] I went through an immigrant experience that had its own traumas, but, like, there are parallels to other people's experiences with that and like but there's always this need sometimes when you're making something that hasn't been seen before to lay claim and ownership over that thing right because maybe you want to plant your flag that you're the first one yeah and I'm like oh is that you don't want to be the first one like railroad that with like a better time yeah you know what I mean like oh cool I beat the four minute mile but like Usain bolt doesn't care yeah you You know.
[656] So I don't know.
[657] I'm, all that to say, like, I'm not a selfless person.
[658] I'm incredibly ambitious as well.
[659] And I think part of where my ambition comes in is I feel like I've learned that I cannot take the boat I carved with me to the next place.
[660] Like, I have to, like, completely let it go and then go make a new one.
[661] Yeah.
[662] It reminds me of that.
[663] And the boat analogy is, and I've always loved this, is like, the Vikings when they showed up somewhere, they would, the first thing to do.
[664] It was like, burn the ships.
[665] Yeah.
[666] And it meant like, we're not leaving.
[667] Yeah.
[668] Now that's over.
[669] So anyone who's half their head is into, we've got to get back, you know.
[670] So, no, we're not going anywhere.
[671] This, we're here now.
[672] And if we do get back, it's because we accomplish a lot here, which usually was horrible stuff.
[673] Yeah, pretty bad.
[674] What I'm saying is the raping and the pillaging has to happen first.
[675] that's the thing I've always admired about you especially when we were talking when you went to Korea I was just like oh you you just go with it whether we're all humans so like going with it also implies like flailing about while it's happening oh I'm the master of flailing same that's my medium is flailing but in the end you accept the terms yes you know I know I know a lot of people who are still caught in not accepting the terms.
[676] Right.
[677] And it's rough what I watch some people go through.
[678] Yeah.
[679] And I can see how that I could easily go through that same thing.
[680] It's not something that's easy to not do.
[681] It's more just to say like, oh, like, we all have this desire to like grip tight to this last thing that we had.
[682] Now, I know, nobody knows much about this Jordan Peel film.
[683] Oh, yeah.
[684] And I'm very excited.
[685] Yeah.
[686] And I also love that I don't know what's happening and that very little has been said.
[687] And to me, that feels, and it's such a compliment.
[688] But Jordan Peel's really good at it.
[689] I think J .J. Abrams is really good at.
[690] They almost have like an old -fashioned sense.
[691] Yeah.
[692] It's Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey like, wait, you're going to, we got something for you, but you have to come into the tent when the show happens and then you'll be blown away.
[693] And we have a culture that gives away way too much before things happen.
[694] happen now.
[695] I can't tell you, my kids always want to watch the trailer to a film before they watch the film.
[696] Yes.
[697] And they have them on Netflix and they'll say, look, let's watch the trailer.
[698] Yes.
[699] And they basically want to watch, they want to know what Citizen Kane is about and they want to know what Rosebud is before we watch the movie.
[700] Yeah.
[701] Like, no. No, just to experience it.
[702] But it's culturally, I think.
[703] My five -year -old does it already.
[704] Really?
[705] Let me watch the trailer.
[706] I'm like, what are you talking about?
[707] It's good.
[708] Just as trust.
[709] This is a movie I'm in.
[710] Yeah.
[711] What are you doing?
[712] I was nominated for an Oscar for this film.
[713] Let's check out the trailer.
[714] Let me see the trailer.
[715] Yeah.
[716] There's something about the way like trailers and all these things like pull us out of like experiencing what is happening right in front of you.
[717] And I do respect deeply what Jordan's doing, which is like bringing it back to like, remember when we were like there and paying attention at the same time?
[718] And like experiencing something together.
[719] I really think that was like the draw of Top Gun for me. Like I, like the people went bonkers for that.
[720] You can, you know, come up with a bunch of, like, conclusions about what that was.
[721] But, like, for me, it was just like, oh, I forgot.
[722] We can all show up here.
[723] Know nothing about how this is going to go.
[724] And just communally watch this and, like, be present with all of, with each other on this ride.
[725] I thought that was really, one thing I wasn't expecting was at the top of the movie.
[726] Wait.
[727] Don't spoil.
[728] This isn't a spoiler.
[729] It's not a spoiler.
[730] I have a small child, so I can't get out to a movie like what you guys are talking about?
[731] I'm not going to ruin the movie.
[732] I'm not gonna ruin the movie for you.
[733] I don't like that look in your eye.
[734] I know, I don't believe you.
[735] You have a look on your face.
[736] I was shocked that he doesn't fly a plane at all.
[737] At one time, not once.
[738] Yeah.
[739] It opens with him in a hospital and he's no longer allowed to fly because of the inner ear infection and no legs.
[740] No legs.
[741] And, but it's a lot of him thinking about flying while he eats pudding.
[742] I'm in.
[743] You know, what I will say, I love, first of all, Tom Cruise is my age.
[744] And so, a huge.
[745] thing for me was like it's practically staying in the theater because he looks amazing and he's running around and jumping into a cockpit and making out with this beauty and I was just like yes we're still here I know now listen trust me I my powers of self -delusion are so powerful that when Tom Cruise is doing these things I'm able to say yes I'm still attractive to Jennifer Connolly.
[746] People are like, what?
[747] Jennifer Connolly doesn't care about you.
[748] He brought you in.
[749] He brought you in.
[750] No, he brought me in.
[751] No, I did think there was part of it, which is, and Brad Pitt, too, I'm the same age as these guys.
[752] And so I know that they are genetically very different from me. I accept that.
[753] And they go to a gym and probably eat properly.
[754] Yes, there are some differences.
[755] But still, I root for them to keep making work.
[756] movies and getting, you know, having a makeout scene or a sex scene, because that means - Yeah, taking their shirts off.
[757] Yeah, it just means that, yes.
[758] I'm down for it too.
[759] I'm totally fine with that.
[760] It means my penis will work again.
[761] Oh, well, that's, that's how I'm looking at it.
[762] Well, the doctors say it won't, but when I see that film, I know it can happen.
[763] You see that eating pudding and go, yeah.
[764] Just crushing Viagra into my pudding.
[765] Something will give.
[766] It's got to.
[767] Something will give.
[768] Move, damn it, move!
[769] Don't want to.
[770] Maybe if you stopped yelling at it.
[771] Anyway, that took a turn.
[772] But it was nice.
[773] And also at the beginning of the film, Tom Cruise, there's just a shot of him saying, hi, Tom Cruise here.
[774] We made this movie for you.
[775] We worked really hard on it.
[776] And I'm glad you can come to the theater and enjoy it.
[777] It was, I kind of got a little emotional.
[778] that.
[779] Yeah, yeah.
[780] They could have released it.
[781] They could have, like, had you watch it isolated in your own home, but, like, they saved it for the thing.
[782] Like, you knew?
[783] I mean, um, yeah, I don't know what I'm scratching at, but like, we're definitely, we're spoiling a lot.
[784] We're too aware of a lot of things.
[785] Yes.
[786] I know too much.
[787] I don't want to know all this stuff.
[788] So much stuff online and also streaming content and movies and there's so much in our lives that just isn't honest.
[789] Yeah.
[790] When you see something, it's really honest.
[791] And if that, means, you know, it's a puppy falling into a blender.
[792] Not on, not on, not on, momentarily stunned that it fell in the blender, but the blender's unplugged.
[793] Yes, yes, yes.
[794] And those are rubber blades.
[795] Rubber rotors.
[796] But then you see it accidentally turned on.
[797] No, I'm sorry.
[798] No, I thought I'm saying.
[799] And the puppy is murdered.
[800] There's a joy of discovery when the child runs in.
[801] Sorry, Sona, that's your own fault.
[802] and you know it.
[803] You should never have come to work for me. I know, that's terrible.
[804] Come on.
[805] Well, this is been, I mean, you know, we, there's no, I got to wrap it up on a pop you and a blender.
[806] It's funny, we've always been on the same wavelength since the first day I met you, but I love your honesty and your lack of hubris about all this because you've had the kind of achievements that someone could have and frankly just be insufferable and you just continue to say this is what happened and I'm very fortunate.
[807] I work hard.
[808] I'm talented, but I'm very fortunate and I'm anxious now to see what's next.
[809] And what's the next chapter?
[810] What's going to happen next?
[811] And you're going to find out along with us, which is exciting.
[812] Yeah.
[813] Thank you for something.
[814] I don't even know if I could have processed that, but I don't know as much as y 'all.
[815] I'm just right.
[816] Well, let me tell you, it's a game show.
[817] I'm in.
[818] And it's a really shitty one.
[819] Oh, man. But you make a ton of money.
[820] Okay, okay, okay.
[821] It's going to go to school.
[822] It's called, whose vomit is this?
[823] Oh, man. They get celebrity vomit, and you have to look at it.
[824] Oh, as long as it's celebrity vomit.
[825] Oh, yeah.
[826] Oh, there's a lot of celery in there.
[827] Undigested celery.
[828] I'm going to say, Demi Lovato, yes.
[829] Someone make that show.
[830] Hi.
[831] It's a matter of a matter of.
[832] of time.
[833] That idea needs to be expressed through somebody.
[834] Let's do it now.
[835] No, let's never do that.
[836] It's horrible.
[837] Stephen, thank you so much for coming in and very much looking forward to Nope.
[838] Thank you.
[839] When is it coming out?
[840] Or is that a mystery as well?
[841] July 18th is our premiere.
[842] That's exciting.
[843] I'm gonna...
[844] That's on Monday?
[845] But I think maybe 22nd, July 22nd.
[846] Yeah.
[847] I got to know these things.
[848] I'm really looking forward to it.
[849] Well, please come back, too, because you're a guy who should not just be a one -time guest.
[850] You should come back occasionally.
[851] And, you know, I'll come back and not be so serious.
[852] I like this.
[853] This was good.
[854] Okay, cool.
[855] I like this.
[856] I was punctuated with idiocy.
[857] Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
[858] Serious punctuated with idiocy, describes all of my favorite Lincoln speeches.
[859] And Gandhi.
[860] He'd always work in some material.
[861] Idiot.
[862] Thank you for having it.
[863] Thanks a lot, Stephen.
[864] That's great.
[865] We have something very exciting to discuss right now.
[866] One of us, I won't say which of us, it could be Matt Gourley, it could be Conan O 'Brien, or it could be Sona Mubstessian.
[867] One of us is about to be a published author.
[868] I can definitively say it's not me. Right.
[869] I'm not even a published reader.
[870] I'm not sure how that joke works, but we'll do some, we'll do some triage on it and figure it out.
[871] Sona, this is exciting.
[872] You have a book coming out.
[873] Tell us, what's the book called?
[874] It's called the World's Worst Assistant.
[875] Yes.
[876] I love it.
[877] Finally, vindication.
[878] It is, I have to say, out of the three of us, it is shocking.
[879] I'm the only one who wrote a book.
[880] I'm not even kidding.
[881] No, it is, especially Conan with you, because you're.
[882] I'll get there someday.
[883] You, yeah.
[884] But I, this book, let's focus on the book.
[885] Yeah.
[886] You've written a book called.
[887] called The World's Worst Assistant.
[888] Yes.
[889] And it chronicles what, Sona?
[890] It chronicles my time as your assistant.
[891] Yes.
[892] Thank you.
[893] And I have to say, I read the book, my wife read the book, we both thought it was spectacular.
[894] You were very honest.
[895] I know.
[896] You are quite honest in this book about the ways in which you took advantage of my kindness and idiocy to make that job a boondoggle for you.
[897] And you give great advice for how people can emulate you.
[898] Well, I think when I first started writing it, I think I thought, oh, am I going to make Conan look bad?
[899] And then when I was done with the book, I made you look great.
[900] And I made myself look horrible.
[901] And I think that I would say that.
[902] Well, no, I do.
[903] I look terrible.
[904] I think that there's a lot that I have gotten away with.
[905] But I think it's a credit to you because especially now, there's a lot of conversation about like shitty bosses and you are not a shitty boss I make I think the fact that I could make fun of you and say things to you means that you're not a shitty boss oh people will read this and go what was his problem why didn't he fire her a long time ago this guy was asleep at the switch no I have to say it is it is very well done the book is really well done it's really funny and there's some real sweet parts in it too and uh i was very impressed your husband does the artwork for it and it's really good and funny very funny he made you look really uh pathetic yes i spent hours posing for him he really captured my complete ability my complete inability to uh establish order in a workplace yeah but i did i did think of how How would I want to write a book that I would want to read?
[906] And I realized I would want cartoons in a book.
[907] So I just put a lot of cartoons and illustrations in mind and pictures.
[908] And I wrote the forward.
[909] And you wrote the forward, which is clearly just the strongest, best part of the whole book.
[910] It's a really good book.
[911] Yeah, but I mean, it's, you know, and I talk about how my book peaked at the forward.
[912] And I think it's very true.
[913] I think that I have a prediction that fans of this podcast, because I'm constantly meeting people who listen to the podcast.
[914] They always ask me. And it's funny, I used to get this a lot for years and years and years when I was doing the late night show or the Conan show.
[915] Wherever I was, I could be anywhere in the world and people would say, where's Andy?
[916] They thought that we traveled together and, you know, if I walked into a men's room, they didn't know why Andy wasn't with me to take the urinal, you know, to my right, which is the position he's supposed to be assuming.
[917] And it's the same thing now, because of the podcast, I go places and they go like, well, where's Sona?
[918] Where's Matt?
[919] And I go, well, I'm taking the, you know, family on a vacation in Tahiti.
[920] Why would I take them with me?
[921] But they insist that you guys must be somewhere.
[922] But I think fans of the podcast are going to really like the book.
[923] I do talk about the podcast because I think this is very nerve -wracking sometimes.
[924] You guys have done this a lot.
[925] Like you guys have, you've performed in front of people.
[926] You've done so many podcasts.
[927] but I think I'm the odd man out having never done it.
[928] And it's very, it can be very nerve -wracking, but I do talk about how I became a national speech champion and that after that, everything else just didn't, did it matter?
[929] What age did you become a speech champion?
[930] Come on.
[931] No, I'm serious.
[932] I'm asking.
[933] I was 20.
[934] You were 20.
[935] In college.
[936] In college, you won a national speech championship.
[937] I did.
[938] And I remember when I first hired some, about months after I hired her, you dropped that you had been a national speech champion.
[939] And then every time you and I would get into an argument, you would bring it up.
[940] Like, hey, wait a minute.
[941] I'm a national speech champion.
[942] I'd say, I know.
[943] What does that have to do with the fact that you embezzled $35?
[944] Or you fed gummy worms into the printer as a prank?
[945] What does that?
[946] I was a national speech champion.
[947] I like that.
[948] Instead of the world decided that you peek too soon, you proclaim, I peaked then.
[949] That's exactly right.
[950] Takes the pressure off.
[951] Yeah.
[952] And I do mention how out of the podcast, my friendship with Matt Gourley started and how that's my favorite part about it.
[953] Oh, my God.
[954] That's really nice.
[955] But also, you know, you commit crimes.
[956] Don't know what you're talking about.
[957] And by the way, let's keep the focus on you.
[958] No, I mean, one of the questions is, doesn't the world's worst assistant have the world's worst boss?
[959] Possibly.
[960] Possibly.
[961] No. You commit crimes.
[962] Of course.
[963] You've allowed this to happen.
[964] I allowed it to happen.
[965] I always thought, even at its very worst, I always thought our interaction was so funny and comical.
[966] It was, we were living out a sitcom of the, everything was so upside down.
[967] Yeah.
[968] But with, in our relationship as assistant boss.
[969] And, you know, we live in this world now where people are trying to codify, what does that mean, rules in the workplace.
[970] And you and I always had a completely absurd relationship to one another.
[971] And it got to the point where I thought, this is great.
[972] This is more important than not setting the right example for people in the world.
[973] This is just too funny.
[974] And I think it's been borne out over time.
[975] And I think one of the things that helps a lot is you're always you.
[976] You're always you.
[977] And that's what I like about your book is that your book is very honest.
[978] And it is really a reflection of you.
[979] Some of the things that you do that you describe in the book may be criminal.
[980] Did you check the statute of limitations on any of these things?
[981] But it's all done with love.
[982] It's all done with love and a real joie de vivre.
[983] And I think that's what makes it so much fun.
[984] Yeah.
[985] So I'm encouraging people to check out the book.
[986] I'm excited for it to come out and excited for people to read just what you've done.
[987] That's true.
[988] It is very true.
[989] A lot of it has been a lot of fun.
[990] And it's been so much fun being your assistant.
[991] I love it.
[992] And I'm going to do it until I die.
[993] I'm just going to ride those coattails forever.
[994] That's true.
[995] Just to use those perks that I get.
[996] One of my favorite pictures that we had in the old office was we were doing some event.
[997] And it's me taking selfies with about 900 people in the background.
[998] And you're in the foreground, not helping it all drinking the largest poor of chardonnay you've ever seen.
[999] Someone put half a bottle of chardonnay into a glass and you are enjoying it so much.
[1000] and I'm in the background working my ass off.
[1001] There it is.
[1002] I love that photo.
[1003] There it is.
[1004] There it is.
[1005] There it is.
[1006] Oh, and look at your face.
[1007] Your face is kind of like, oh, I hope he's okay.
[1008] Oh, my God.
[1009] We got to post that.
[1010] I know.
[1011] I got to find the clean version.
[1012] Go to Team Coco Instagram.
[1013] Yeah, go to Team Coco Instagram.
[1014] I got to find the clean version of it.
[1015] Yeah, but it is.
[1016] And Team Coco podcast Instagram.
[1017] So tell us when this book is going to be out and where people can get it.
[1018] This book comes out.
[1019] July 19th, comes out tomorrow.
[1020] Right.
[1021] And it's available everywhere.
[1022] Your independent bookstores, your Amazon, your Barnes & Noble.
[1023] I mean, it's everywhere.
[1024] Gas stations, airport kiosks.
[1025] Okay.
[1026] I don't know.
[1027] I'm just saying things now.
[1028] I don't know where to buy books.
[1029] I didn't think you did.
[1030] That's why it's shocking.
[1031] I grew up.
[1032] So I am doing three events.
[1033] One of them is in Seattle.
[1034] That's tomorrow.
[1035] One of them is in L .A. And Matt Gourley is moderating.
[1036] and then another event is in San Francisco on the 21st.
[1037] I don't think you gave dates for two of those, did you?
[1038] Oh, the 19th Seattle, July 19th, Seattle, July 20th, Los Angeles, July 21st, San Francisco.
[1039] I'm so great.
[1040] Do you want to get the word out on your events?
[1041] Yep, I'm going to be in the Western Hemisphere, then I'm going to be in the Southern Hemisphere, and then I'll be sort of towards Europe.
[1042] Anyway, I'll see you there.
[1043] I hate this so much.
[1044] No, you don't.
[1045] No, I really kind of do.
[1046] I'm not even joking.
[1047] I really hate.
[1048] But Matt is moderating one of those events for me, the one in L .A. On the 20th.
[1049] And I thank you for doing that, Matt.
[1050] So crazy.
[1051] I didn't get the invite.
[1052] Okay.
[1053] Oh, yeah.
[1054] We're just going to use the whole session to ship talk.
[1055] What if you two realize how much you prefer just talking to each other without me?
[1056] And what if it instantly becomes far more successful?
[1057] We realize that I've been an anchor.
[1058] I've been an albatross on this the whole time.
[1059] We do a new podcast called just, we have.
[1060] friends we are friends we don't need friends yeah it's just the chill chubs it's called sona and matt are emotionally mature adults and it just buries this podcast so much more popular hey hello the podcast thanks a lot no you're not yours conan the most immature one god it's so good listen to real adults who brains have formed naturally oh we're only adults relative to you i don't think relative to the rest of the world yeah you don't set the bar that high yeah You know, I just was out in the hallway and saw Jack McBarran tried to bite him.
[1061] Oh, no. And he said, sir, stop biting at me. Proof that I should be locked up.
[1062] Well, congratulations.
[1063] Thank you very much.
[1064] The book, again, is called.
[1065] The World's Worst Assistant, and Forward is written by you.
[1066] And the book by Sonam of Sessi.
[1067] By me. And art by...
[1068] Bytec Baroy and my husband.
[1069] Very cool.
[1070] Congratulations.
[1071] Thank you, guys.
[1072] Thank you for your support.
[1073] Conan O 'Brien needs a friend.
[1074] With Conan O 'Brien, Sonam O 'Sessian, and Matt Goorley.
[1075] Produced by me, Matt Goreley.
[1076] Executive produced by Adam Sacks, Joanna Solitaroff, and Jeff Ross at Team Koko, and Colin Anderson and Cody Fisher at Earwolf.
[1077] Theme song by The White Stripes.
[1078] Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino.
[1079] Take it away, Jimmy.
[1080] Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair, and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples.
[1081] Engineering by Will Beckton, additional production support by Mars Melnick.
[1082] talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Brick Kahn.
[1083] You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts, and you might find your review read on a future episode.
[1084] Got a question for Conan?
[1085] Call the Team Coco hotline at 323 -451 -2821 and leave a message.
[1086] It too could be featured on a future episode.
[1087] And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O 'Brien needs a friend on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.
[1088] This has been a Team Coco.
[1089] production in association with Earwolf