Conan O’Brien Must Go: Season 3 Roundtable Discussion Part I

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1:01It's just too good to wait. That happens to me sometimes. Me too. You can try rules like no sipping until the appetizer arrives or you tell your friend, don't let me touch my glass, but every time you're staring at an empty glass, so if you've ever finished your Coke Zero before the first fry hits the table, you're among friends. It happens. Occupational hazard with Coke Zero. Real Coca-Cola taste zero sugar, too good to wait. Enjoy an ice cold Coca-Cola Zero sugar today. Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Want to talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com slash call Conan. Okay, let's get started. Hello, Conan O'Brien here. And this is a very special episode that we're doing. Conan O'Brien needs a friend because I am sitting here with the creative masterminds behind my travel show, Conan O'Brien must go. By the time this drops, all four episodes will finally be out.

2:04India, Netherlands, Morocco, Philippines. I'm very proud of these shows. I think this might have been our best season yet. I think there's a lot of funny and even some heartwarming stuff in those episodes. And I'm thrilled to be here with the team that's been with me on all of my travel shows going back to the very beginning. And I'm talking about Mike Sweeney. Hello, Mike. Hello, Conan. Well, and now we're losing. We are dropping fans by the ratings drop off right there. Yeah. Oh, and Jesse Gasko. Hi, Jesse. Hi, Conan. And that was a little more sincere. And then you know him as Dr. O'Brien. I know him as Jose O'Brien. He's an actual human being sort of Jose, how are you? Hi, hi, Conan. And guys, we have been working together on travel shows going back years and years and years, the 80s. That's right.

3:05That's the 1980s. When we traveled to the Berlin Wall, we saw a lot. We actually caused the Berlin Wall to fall. I was doing a bit with Jordan and we slammed into it. And then everyone was like, I want to fuck, let it go. I almost said Putin, but that's historically inaccurate. It would have been Yeltsin, Conan Stoppet. Anyway, let's talk about these shows. And I made this statement that this might be my favorite season. You guys can weigh in. And I'm not just saying that, Ne, I think this is our brushed yet kind of stick. I was very proud of these. They're all quite different. A bunch of these are countries that we always wanted to go to and it never quite worked out. And the furthest flung season, I think. We've traveled far to get to these places. Yes, yes. And if you go by just mileage alone, these are our best shows. And it all starts with, I'm going to start us off on India because that was the first

4:07episode that dropped. And Mike, maybe you can speak to this, but India was on our wish list for a long time. I think there were some bureaucratic difficulties if I'm correct. Self-inflicted. Probably self-inflicted. But Mike, why don't you lay the table a little bit for our long journey starting years ago to go to India? It started in 2017. We were putting India together. And there is a lot of red tape, a lot of bureaucracy to shoot in India. I'm sure if you wanted to start a petrochemical plant, it's smooth sailing. But to shoot a TV show, it's rough. And so, and then it turned out, we shot something in 2004 without any permits. And that someone dug that up and dinged us for that. So on the eve of going, we pulled the plug because we still didn't have an answer.

5:11And instead, in two weeks, we planned you going to Italy with Jordan. Yeah. I remember that. So we're going to go to Italy. But because of a kind of weird rogue remote that we did years and years earlier, Andy Blitz, Andy Blitz, very funny writer, had a very funny idea, which is he's having problems with his computer. And he's talking to someone at the call center, which of course is in India. And he's having difficulty. So he wraps his computer up, what's it under his arm gets on a plane and takes it to India, which is a very funny idea. Of course, we meant no offense to anybody, but none. What we didn't, because we're all wet behind the ears and Andy Blitz, and I can say this, I don't think this is legally actual. He's a fool. Andy Blitz. Really? No one got any permissions or anything. It was just sort of shot of guerrilla style. And that caused us to be put on some list, but it all worked out.

6:16And our huge thanks to the government and everyone involved in letting us come to India. We had a wonderful time. It is one of my favorite places to visit. It's spectacular. Yes. India is a spectacular place. I cannot say enough good things about our experience there. And I loved, there's one fan that really, he's one of my all time favorite fans, and that's Rusty. Yeah. Unbelievable. That's a special guy. He from the first 10 seconds. Are you meeting him? Yeah. I met him as the way these shows work. It always starts kind of with a random fan calling into us and I talked to them on the podcast. And well, you speak to this Jesse. He was just electric right away. He came in really hot and funny doing a million bits. Yeah. And then we, which could go either way sometimes. I mean, sometimes people try that. And it's like, this didn't work. Yeah, so trying to hard or it comes off awkward.

7:19He just, he owned it. He owned it. He was, you know, he was that great quality of, he was hilarious and also sweet. And yes. And to that, that, you know, he's, you know, been, been dealing with an ailment since birth. He's been dealing with this and he's confined to a wheelchair. And he is the most sunny, optimistic, hilarious, forward thinking, live in the moment guy. Yeah. He's inspiring. He's really inspiring. So going and visiting him and meeting his parents is one of my favorite because any, if you watch this episode and I hope you do everything that happened in Rusty's house with his family, you can't invent any of that. It is uninventable. You cannot script that. It was just a happening.

8:20I was, hey, why don't you weigh in? I agree. How much shorter than everyone else? First of all, everything he said is true. We couldn't have planned the, well, the, as Rusty is his own character, very dynamic, very funny. His father is off the charts. You know, incredible as well. He's, he's almost as tall as you. Very outspoken. Has kind of a, kind of a military bearing and no filter and no filter. And at one point he brought his own sound effects. Yeah. And then at one point the dad leaves the room to go get something and comes back carrying a giant shotgun. Yes. Yes. And I think it's loaded and I think it's pointing at me. That was one of those like, we don't have a safe word and we probably should. Yeah. When you're in the situation. Yeah. Yeah. And so that was intense. Of course, his mom was fantastic and sweet and also her eyes were just, you could see she's lived a thousand lives with these two characters.

9:22Exactly. And it was, we were from Rusty after they watched the show and apparently his mom was grateful that we left some certain things out of the conversation. His dad was mad that we hadn't gone further. Oh, is that true? With the edit. Yeah. He wanted us to keep the whole thing in. Oh, he wanted, oh, he wanted it to be a nine hour special about him. Exactly. Yeah. One of my favorite things is India is this massive place as you can, as you know, it's one of the most, you know, populous nations on the globe. And one of my favorite things is we shot the thing with Rusty and his, his mom and his dad and his dad was this crazy character. And I think the next day we're out shooting in this really crowded area and all the sudden I hear, hello, Conan. It's him walking by. It's Rusty's dad. How can you run into a person twice in, I know literally like two people or three people now in India. And I'm out in a crowded area far from Rusty's home.

10:22And this guy goes rushing through and he's like, hello, Conan. I'm on business. I think he has gone with him. It's a city of 20 million people. And, um, and of course, what's the other fans? There was Nicky. Yeah. Who wanted to be a talk show host and you gave him lessons on how to be a talk show. But this was a fun moment because we go to see Nicky. Nicky was someone who was interested in, in maybe having a talk show in, in India. And I said, well, I'll give you some pointers when we thought that'll be a good segment. We go to Nicky's house and he had talked to us about his colorful roommates. Yeah. One of them was a huge fan of yours. Yeah. He was sort of arranging for you to come surprise. Surprise. But we knock on the, any one of me to say hi to his, his roommate, his huge fan, knock on the door and Nicky's there, but his roommate is not. Who we were going to surprise. And so this all plays out in real time where I said, well, where is he? Always at the gym.

11:23Where's the gym? Oh, it's like a five minute drive from here. Let's go and we all run into a van. Um, and that became my favorite thing about these shows. I love the set pieces, obviously, where we've prepared. But when we are not prepared and you just have to go with something, sometimes you slip into these magic currents. Yes. You feel like, I don't know what's happening here. We are not in control, but this is really fun. And I think, I don't know how it happens, but somehow that star dust does come through when you look at it later on in the edit. Yeah. You're like, you can tell God works for HBO. Yes. Yeah. He did work for Showtime for a little bit, but he was underpaid and he didn't think they had the same reach. Then, uh, so that, and then I have to say, uh, you guys did a brilliant job.

12:23We obviously wanted to do our homage to, to Bollywood and Mike, maybe you can talk a little bit about how that came about. We did it. We did our, our, a Bollywood number with the assistance of all these incredible actors, producers, you know, producers, you know, camera people, sound people, I mean, on this director's, assistant directors, they, we gave them the script and the, the items, elements we wanted in it, like the dancing. And they hired a team that was expert in Bollywood productions and fast. I think in her and Bollywood, it is also being able to quickly produce something. And they did a masterful job. It was incredible. I was, I was for, first of all, I mean, the dancers, men and women, um, are just gorgeous, beautiful and so talented and funny.

13:28And you know, the minute they saw me, they're like, okay, we got it. Yeah. Yeah. We'll do our best. Yeah, we'll do our best to help, uh, this idiot. And then, um, we also got the assistance of these, uh, two actors who are incredible. Ali and, uh, reach out. They're, yeah, they're married. They're married and Ellie Fizzal and, uh, reach a shodra. Yeah. And they, Bollywood stars. They are big Bollywood stars. And I just love fans of yours, apparently. Well, I think they said anything. They're like, sure, sure. We're fans. They were just lovely. They were really funny and they played along, uh, and again, one of my, I, I, I like to go, inflict myself on another country. And then, um, what we've found time and time again is, uh, that these people from a completely different culture are so smart and they're so funny. They're so good at, at playing along and also giving me a dig when I need one.

14:32Trust me. I'm a big piñata that needs to be whacked regularly. Uh, I were like, please wait until we start rolling. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What am I going to do? Yeah. Yeah. You know, when you own a house you've got to fix it yourself, Sonja. Yeah. You, you see this to be true, right? Yeah. Your garage door breaks. And you're like, well, I have to fix it. Probably at first, you said, Hey, I'll get the super to fix it. It's your house. It's mine, dude. Yeah. Liberty Mutual customize is your car and home insurance to save you money. In fact, they work over time to tell your insurance policy around what you actually need. The only thing they can't do is get that Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty jingle out of your head. Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty Liberty. Liberty Liberty it's in my head all the time. Yeah, me too. Yeah.

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16:33Enjoy an ice cold Coca-Cola zero sugar today. This is the story of the one. As a shipping manager, he's running the doc. docking supplies and making sure every order goes out on time. And Granger helps them stay prepared. From shipping supplies to PPE to hand tools, he counts on Granger to keep products moving and trucks rolling. So his operation runs smoothly, no matter the shift. Call 1-800-GRAENGER. Click Granger.com or just stop by. Granger for the ones who get it done. That show also features one of my favorite set pieces that we went in with, which you guys

17:37worked really hard on. And I don't know when I've been happier to show up. I know what you're talking about. You're talking about the monkey at this time. Yes. Which by the way was your idea. You talked about. That's why I love this so much. I guess there's a problem with monkeys stealing cell phones. Yes, it's a big problem. It's a big problem. Yeah, it's a big problem. It's a big problem. Yeah. And you said, well, why do we have a little mini AT&T store and we lure the monkeys and we do a sting operation? Sting operation. And so I was such an outrageous premise. I was such an outrageous. My favorite thing is a completely outrageous premise that you commit to 100%. So sure enough and huge thanks again to Chilemi and everyone involved to sure enough they built a tool. Working. I was going to start with they built an AT&T store. It's monkey size. And then monkey scale. Monkey scaled. And then they built to lure the monkeys a robot monkey.

18:40And I guess if you haven't seen the India episode, if this doesn't intrigue you enough to get HBO or steal HBO or go hang out. This is a break into a home that has HBO and watch it. No, a monkey's phone and watch it. But I remember we were in the van and I do get very tired sometimes on these, you know, your jet lagged and there's a long lot of traffic and which were we in? Where were we? Which city were we in for this one? I was out of Bangalore. Outside Bangalore. That's right. North of Bangalore. North of Bangalore. Long drive. We get there. I have to we're getting closer and closer and I'm thinking, okay, which one is this now? And someone said this is the monkey sting operation and I flew out of that van and I was electrified. And I saw a monkey robot and a monkey scaled AT&T store and real monkeys up in the trees.

19:41And I just felt like all of my career has been leading to this moment. Something else is in service of this moment. So that was in some ways that was our sting operation. Yes, to make you a monkey remote. Yeah, at the end, the monkey robot said, God, that guy's desperate. Well, that's India in a nutshell. It doesn't our discussion doesn't even scratch the surface that it is one of my all time favorite travel shows. And that's really saying something because these shows mean so much to me. And you guys did such an amazing job and top to bottom, the people, the cuisine, just the whole vibe. India is one of the most different places that you can go on the planet earth. And I just the whole time was alive with, you know, everything was heightened because of

20:44the colors, the fabrics that, yeah, the feast for the senses. Yeah, it's incredible. And it's everything. It's all the things, all at once. It was amazing. And I'm going to move us on now to the next travel show that drops in the order, which is out now, which is I mean, they're all out now. But the second one was the Netherlands. And this, the highlight for me, you can probably guess, was, oh, I'm going to say, well, we'll talk about that in a little bit. Let's talk about the fans first. Um, yeah, the fans, Mike, the model, who you wanted to, you want to get modeling lessons from an actual professional model? Mike is this absolutely beautiful woman's model. But she's also, she is brutally funny. She is a sharp shooter. She's so smart and funny. In the minute, I mean, you could, and we could sense that in the discussion with Michael

21:47when we talk on the podcast. But then when I showed up and she, I, I'm waiting for her in front of her studio and then she pulls up on a bicycle and she walks up to me and I knew immediately, uh, this woman is going to tear me to shreds. And I'm going to love it. And I'm going to love it. She was so funny. She was lovely. Yeah. So she was giving me modeling lessons. I've since when I look at our segment now, she asked me, well, what are the things you're not happy about with yourself? And I go on this long list of the parts of my face that I had no problem rattling off my long list of things that I don't like about my face. And at no point, did she jump in and go, oh, come on, Conan. Uh, no point. Did she say, no, Conan, what are you talking about? She's nodding as I'm shredding my own face in front of her. Like, yeah, yeah, no, I know you mean, I know you mean so keep going, keep going.

22:48Yeah, keep going. Oh, you're forgetting that. Right. Right, right. So, uh, but um, she gave me lessons. She's just, I love that segment. She's such a funny segment. Yeah. Yeah. Do you learn how to, how to walk on a runway? There was a, there was a Conan sort of look alike model who was much more handsome than you. They had to stay next to you. Why would you say that? Well, younger. Now, let's not say better looking. Yeah. No, it's me back in the day. No, you would have been. Yeah. All my flaws were still there, but they weren't as egregious. Um, no, they were, that was a really fun segment. Great. Uh, we showed up in, uh, Amsterdam on Kings Day. Mm-hmm. And that was just kind of a happy accident. We, the way the schedules work, you have to slot these things in and you have to make sure you accommodate, oh, we're doing the Oscars. So we got to make sure we accommodate that. This is when I could go and it had us showing up on this day and we realized it's Kings Day when everyone, uh, puts out every piece of junk they own on the street and people

23:51party and they wear orange. It's the one day they can sell things without having to pay a tax or anything. So everybody does a flea market, it's a giant flea market. So I'm walking around the flea market. That's a happening because you can't script that. You guys had a really funny idea, which is there's a big problem with confiscated bicycles. Yeah. People parked their bicycles illegally around Amsterdam. So you guys said, hey, it would be really funny if we went to the graveyard where all the confiscated bikes are. We, but the Boneyard. Yes. The Boneyard. So, uh, and, uh, Swings, uh, that's what I call Mike and you should own that by now. Uh, Swings, what am I, let's make sure I'm not forgetting, uh, anything else about another, oh, there's a great fan. So I think that was my highlight. Okay. Well, the other fan Lucas, do you want to talk about the other fan Lucas? Oh, yes. Lucas, uh, my, uh, basketball player who wanted to, you to teach him how to trash talk. Yeah. Yeah. You came, you came armed with a series of insults that you shut the, uh, they were,

24:55some of them were horrible, some of them were funny and the one he loved the most was Van Gogh Fuck yourself. Van Gogh Fuck yourself. Yes. I feel like the other one's greatest contribution. They're all Netherlands sort of based insults, but what I also loved about that segment is, um, I like obviously to go in, uh, go in with massive amounts, my favorite thing is massive amounts of attitude with no talent to back it up. So, should I be playing basketball at all? Probably not. Should I be playing basketball with a professional? Absolutely not. But then, um, he brought one of his friends out who is much bigger than me. It makes you look fly. I'm sick. How tall is he? Do you think he was around six eight six eight. He is five inches on me. That's one of my favorite things because while we're shooting the first part, I'm like, how are we going to end this segment? How are we going to end this segment? And then we look over it is Dave who's six foot nine.

25:57Yeah. I think they're just like, I think truck. Yeah. I think Dave will be the ending. Yeah. And sure enough, I then go up and I start insulting Dave. Yes. And the acting like it will be no problem for me to trash you. He of course immediately starts to, uh, kick my ass. And so I start karate chopping. Oh, but of course, my personal highlight was, um, dressing like Van Gogh. Oh, that was such a good costume. And um, shut up just got chronic for that costume. Yeah, it's got chronic great costume. And also I love that, uh, you know, Van Gogh was, I think, a red head. So there's some similar colorings there. And also I'm a very tortured artist, uh, who's, uh, my, my nation's greatest contribution. But boy, yeah. Uh, and so, um, that was really fun. And I love the excitement of it because we were shooting something down by the train

26:58station and we all just got back kind of on the later than we wanted to back to the hotel. And you were like, let's do the Van Gogh because we're right across from the Van Gogh Museum. But we had to rush to get you dressed and get that beard on. We had to do it all in like 10 minutes because the museum was going to close. Yes. We were racing. So I am, I quickly throw the stuff on and then I'm running to get to the museum. And the whole idea is I want to get kicked out of the museum. These are things you want to happen, but you have no control over it. So what if I had showed up in the guards were all laughing and said, Oh, come on in. Come on in. Well, that's no fun. Boy did they do us a favor. They were not amused. They were not amused. They were not amused. They asked you to clear the exit area. Yeah. And the minute you, uh, I meet opposition like that, I'm so happy. Uh, but anyway, that was a thrill. Netherlands really fun.

28:01With a lot of these shows, we, we kind of think of the facial hair first and then plan, the segments around that. Like what, what kind of beard or mustache could you put on? Yes. Uh, last year when we were in Vienna, uh, for the travel show, I, I, I was Freud. And the minute I'm put in costume and any kind of makeup or fake facial hair, and I get to have a stupid accent. I am, uh, I'm just a pig and shit. I'm so happy. And then I start to, I, I just free associate. I go into some other space. I go into a trend and yeah. And so we got to do that with, uh, with, uh, van Gogh, I got to become van Gogh. And I have a gripe, which is that I died in obscurity. And then all my works, which I got nothing for in my lifetime are now being sold for hundreds of millions of dollars. The most prized artworks in the world. And I'm bitter about it. So I want to go and get a piece of the merch.

29:01Yes. And, um, the, the, the tourist, I encounter were really fun. The whole thing was just, uh, was just spectacular. And here's what I think we're going to do. I think it's going to be a two-parter because we've had so much fun talking about these first two episodes. These are all available now, uh, on HBO. And it's called Conan O'Brien Musco. And I, I really do, these are a labor of love. Um, there's, uh, that's pretty much all I can say. I absolutely love doing it. And I love doing it with this team. Uh, you guys are spectacular. And no, it is. It's just, it's, it's something that means so much to me. And I'm so proud of these ones. They're out. Uh, this is just part one. We'll be back next week to talk about the other two episodes, which are out now. All of them, they've been coming out once a week. Uh, they're all out now. And you can see them. This is the third season. Uh, I really love the other two seasons too.

30:02If you want to check those out, but, um, let's sign off for now unless you have anything to add on Netherlands. The Netherlands, oh, just the, you were hauled into the international criminal court. Yes. Which is in the, which the Hague is in the Netherlands. And that's where, best for people are, are tried for international crimes. And, um, I was, I was arrested and taken to the Hague for my various comedy crimes. Exactly. Against humanity. Crimes against humanity. And you've never seen judges at the Hague more unified. I'm apparently the one thing everyone can agree on. That was a really funny statement. He instated the death penalty. Okay. Which they wanted to, they wanted sentence carried out immediately using just heavy staplers. Uh, so India, Netherlands and next week we will talk about the other two shows. Morocco, Philippines. This is all behind the scenes gold. And we'll see you then. Conan O'Brien needs a fan with Conan O'Brien, Sonom of Sessian and Matt Gourley,

31:06produced by me, Matt Gourley, executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and Nick Liyah, incidental music by Jimmy Vivina. Take it away, Jimmy. Supervising producer Aaron Blair, associate talent producer Jennifer samples, associate producers Sean Doherty and Lisa Berm, engineering by Eduardo Perez, get three free months of serious XM when you sign up at serious XM dot com slash Conan. Please rate, review and subscribe to Conan O'Brien needs a fan wherever fine podcasts are done.