Wanda Sykes Returns

Actor and comedian Wanda Sykes feels indifferent about being Conan O’Brien’s friend. Wanda sits down with Conan once more to discuss honing her comedy chops while working at the NSA, being tricked into auditioning for Curb Your Enthusiasm, and her first foray into drama with her new movie Undercard. Later, Conan questions assistant David Hopping’s musical taste after being exposed to his personal playlist. For Conan videos, tour dates and more visit TeamCoco.com. Got a question for Conan? Call our voicemail: (669) 587-2847.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:03Conan O'Brien?

  One in four Americans targeted by scams ended up falling for them.

• 0:07Speaker 01

  I did.

• 0:07Conan O'Brien?

  For me, it would be four out of four. Did you fall for a scam?

• 0:09Speaker 01

  I fell for a scam once.

• 0:10Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, my God. Incredible.

• 0:11Speaker 01

  They didn't steal much.

• 0:12Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, still, you got taken for a ride.

• 0:15Speaker 01

  I did.

• 0:15Conan O'Brien?

  And you just put it out there that you're easy to scam.

• 0:17Speaker 01

  I am.

• 0:18Conan O'Brien?

  One accident, a little click, can expose your information, putting you at risk of identity theft.

• 0:22Speaker 01

  Mmm.

• 0:22Conan O'Brien?

  Thankfully, there's LifeLock. LifeLock has live, US-based restoration specialists who will be with you every step of the way to fix your identity theft from first alert to full restoration. Join now and save up to 30% off your first year. This is a good thing to have in your back pocket, don't you think?

• 0:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, I need this.

• 0:39Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, you do need it. You need it fast. Go to lifelock.com/conan. That's lifelock.com/conan to save 30%. Terms apply.

• 0:51Conan O'Brien?

  Now, Sona, clearly, I'm a very important person to you.

• 0:54Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:54Conan O'Brien?

  Just accept the premise and we'll move ahead.

• 0:56Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 0:57Conan O'Brien?

  I'm a very important person to you. What would you get me from Macy's for the holidays?

• 1:02Speaker 01

  A vase.

• 1:04Conan O'Brien?

  No, I don't want a vase. I want something better.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  A jacket.

• 1:08Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, nice jacket. I love a nice jacket.

• 1:09Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, that jacket. Nice jacket.

• 1:10Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, so now you have to do it, because you said you would.

• 1:12Speaker 01

  Aw, man, I didn't know you were doing that.

• 1:14Conan O'Brien?

  Well, I know the holidays are months away, but it's never too early, Sona, to find gifts that I will love, gifts I will wear, and surprises that make the season unforgettable for me.

• 1:26Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 1:26Conan O'Brien?

  Macy's Gift Guide makes holiday shopping easy with beauty favorites, stylish fashion, jewelry, cozy essentials, must-have toys, home upgrades, and picks for every person on your list. Coach handbags, Breville appliances, Lego UG, and more, all in one place, so you can skip the scrolling and shop with confidence. Shop now in-store or online at macy's.com/giftguide.

• 1:51Speaker 02

  Hi, my name is Wanda Sykes, and I feel...

• 1:57Speaker 02

  It's different about being Conan O'Brien's friend.

• 2:22Conan O'Brien?

  Hello and welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, joined by my good friends, and I put that in quotation marks. Oh. Well, I'm sorry, your employees.

• 2:34Conan O'Brien?

  Sona Mobssessing, good to see you, Sona.

• 2:35Speaker 01

  Good to see you, too.

• 2:37Conan O'Brien?

  And you would be David Hopping, I believe. I am, yeah, that's correct. Thanks for being here, David, sitting in for Matt Gourley on paternity leave. And Sona, I'm told that you had kind of an exciting moment recently. You went to...

• 2:51Speaker 01

  Exciting moment.

• 2:53Conan O'Brien?

  Well, you went to Disneyland, yes?

• 2:56Speaker 01

  Can I say, I have been to Disneyland so many times, I've never seen anyone dressed up like Geppetto walking around.

• 3:03Conan O'Brien?

  Right.

• 3:03Speaker 01

  And you do this bit about my dad.

• 3:05Conan O'Brien?

  Your dad has a big mustache, and he looks kind of...

• 3:11Speaker 01

  A normal mustache.

• 3:12Conan O'Brien?

  He's a white-haired gentleman with a white mustache. He always has reminded me a little bit of Geppetto, and I used to do a long riff about how he carved your brother.

• 3:21Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 3:22Conan O'Brien?

  And, well, you know, we had some good times, meaning I was laughing and you were staring at me angrily.

• 3:26Speaker 01

  Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 3:27Conan O'Brien?

  But I had a good time, and that's called a good...

• 3:28Speaker 01

  But you also got into like, "Oh, Danny, my real boy. You're gonna be my real boy." You're shortening it now.

• 3:34Conan O'Brien?

  Well, Danny wanted to be a real boy.

• 3:35Speaker 01

  Yeah, Danny wanted to be a real boy.

• 3:36Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, he carved a puppet, and Danny wanted to be a real boy, and he was swallowed by a whale.

• 3:40Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 3:41Conan O'Brien?

  Anyway, that's neither here nor there.

• 3:42Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:43Conan O'Brien?

  But you had this moment, you sent me this picture that blew my mind.

• 3:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 3:49Conan O'Brien?

  You went to Disneyland... Oh, there it is. And tell the tale, tell the tale.

• 3:53Speaker 01

  Well, Geppetto was just walking around. I don't know.

• 3:56Conan O'Brien?

  And you've never seen a Geppetto before.

• 3:57Speaker 01

  I've never seen a Geppetto walking around.

• 3:59Conan O'Brien?

  Because it's not a character. There's Goofy, oh, there's Goofy, oh, there's Mickey, oh, there are some of the princesses from some of the newer movies.

• 4:09Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 4:10Conan O'Brien?

  Iconic figures. Geppetto?

• 4:12Speaker 01

  I know.

• 4:13Conan O'Brien?

  Geppetto is a tradesman.

• 4:17Conan O'Brien?

  Geppetto is a woodworker. He's got a, you know, and so I've never seen a Geppetto. Do you see Geppetto much? I actually haven't. David, you go- I live there. David practically lives at Disneyland. You never see Geppetto. You're walking and you run smack into Geppetto.

• 4:34Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 4:35Conan O'Brien?

  And you know, what do you have to do?

• 4:36Speaker 01

  I, so I, I like immediately, shockingly, there was no line to go meet Geppetto.

• 4:41Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, oh, no one, no one wanted to hang out with the old Italian man who is a day laborer.

• 4:52Speaker 01

  I know. I'm like, Anna and Elsa are walking around, Moana's walking around, and then you have Geppetto and no one cares about-

• 4:59Conan O'Brien?

  No, of course. No one. He actually, when he walks into the park, they put him out when they want to get people out.

• 5:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:06Conan O'Brien?

  When it's time to close the park, they say, "Release Geppetto." And he says, "I'm making the puppet. I'm making the puppet." And people just go streaming out of the park. Yeah, they do. And then, wow, we closed right at six.

• 5:21Conan O'Brien?

  Closed early, yeah.

• 5:22Speaker 01

  So I ran right up to him and I never-

• 5:24Conan O'Brien?

  And he's never had anyone do that.

• 5:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:26Conan O'Brien?

  Was he curious as to why you were happy to see him?

• 5:29Speaker 01

  No, I think I was like, "Geppetto!" And nobody else was saying that. And then I went up to him and I, I asked if I could take a picture. And I'm, I'm, I put my arm in, like I interlocked my arm around him.

• 5:40Conan O'Brien?

  You're so happy in this picture.

• 5:41Speaker 01

  I'm so happy. And this is the worst thing that I did. And I sent it to you and a few other people.

• 5:47Conan O'Brien?

  This is me hanging with my dad.

• 5:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 5:49Conan O'Brien?

  At Disneyland. I was so delighted because it proved to me that my riff is actually a pretty good one. This is what your dad looks like to me. I'm telling you, it does.

• 6:03Conan O'Brien?

  It does. This is what your dad looks like to me.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  This is not what my dad looks like.

• 6:06Conan O'Brien?

  He looks a lot like that guy. He just doesn't have the glasses on the tip of his nose.

• 6:09Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 6:10Conan O'Brien?

  But, I mean, that's what your dad looks like to me.

• 6:12Speaker 01

  Well, and then also, I mean, we cut him-

• 6:13Conan O'Brien?

  Cause my, my eyes turn everyone into a cartoon character.

• 6:16Speaker 01

  Uh huh.

• 6:17Conan O'Brien?

  That's what your dad looks like to me.

• 6:18Speaker 01

  So, we cut him out of this picture, but Mikey ran in with me, even though Mikey had absolutely no idea who this was.

• 6:24Conan O'Brien?

  And probably frightened.

• 6:25Speaker 01

  Big fuzzy man.

• 6:26Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, well, he just saw this, this, uh, big-

• 6:29Speaker 01

  Frightened.

• 6:30Conan O'Brien?

  Well, he's, "Geppetto, look, look at that guy. That's not something a kid goes, yay." Yay.

• 6:36Speaker 03

  He just thought it was his grandpa?

• 6:37Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 6:38Speaker 01

  Oh my god, I know.

• 6:40Conan O'Brien?

  You know, he's a guy who's probably being driven out of business.

• 6:46Conan O'Brien?

  You know?

• 6:46Speaker 01

  Oh no.

• 6:46Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, because they're making puppets in China now that are much cheaper.

• 6:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:50Conan O'Brien?

  So Geppetto is a beleaguered figure now.

• 6:52Speaker 01

  And the tariffs are making his material really expensive.

• 6:55Conan O'Brien?

  Tariffs are totally fucking over Geppetto. And Geppetto's like, what did I do? This isn't good. And then he goes to the store and there's tons of cheap puppets flooding the market that are from other countries, you know?

• 7:09Speaker 01

  Anyway, I hate, uh...

• 7:11Conan O'Brien?

  You hate what? Don't hate your father.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  No, I love my dad.

• 7:14Conan O'Brien?

  Don't ever hate your father. I love your father. Why did you say you hate your father?

• 7:16Speaker 01

  I said, I hate it when I play into your bits. And, you know, as soon as I sent that text, I was like, why am I calling my dad Geppetto?

• 7:25Conan O'Brien?

  You kind of threw your dad under the bus.

• 7:27Speaker 01

  I did, and I'm sorry to Gil.

• 7:28Conan O'Brien?

  Well, I win.

• 7:30Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 7:31Conan O'Brien?

  Because, here's how I win. I got to see you link arms with Geppetto and call him your dad, and you feel badly about it. And so, and your son is scared. I win on every level. Every single level.

• 7:46Speaker 01

  Well, congratulations.

• 7:48Conan O'Brien?

  Yep. Oh my god.

• 7:49Speaker 03

  And if anyone wants to see that picture, you can go to Team Coco Podcast on Instagram and it'll be, it'll be there for everyone to see.

• 7:55Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, it is, that should be your Christmas card next year. It really should.

• 7:59Speaker 01

  No, no boys. It's just me and Geppetto from Disneyland.

• 8:03Conan O'Brien?

  All right, well, very excited today. My guest today is an Emmy award-winning comedian, actor, and writer who stars in the new movie, Undercard. She's an absolute legend.

• 8:19Conan O'Brien?

  Wanda Sykes, welcome.

• 8:24Speaker 02

  But even the universe didn't want me to make it here today because my car broke down as I was leaving. It wouldn't start. So the universe was saying, don't do this. Don't, why, why are you going? Why? Come on, man, why even go? Like, the radio came on, and music was jamming. It was like, isn't this cool? Just sitting in your driveway, listening to some Sade? Why, why are we leaving?

• 8:48Conan O'Brien?

  So, your car has...

• 8:49Speaker 02

  Then the sun broke through the clouds. It was... It's like, man, you're right.

• 8:54Conan O'Brien?

  Wow, your car has a self-esteem function.

• 8:57Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 8:58Conan O'Brien?

  Do not lower yourself.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  She would rather sit in the car than be here.

• 9:02Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, okay. Well, I want to say, you killed me a couple of weeks ago. I don't know when this comes out, but you were on the Golden Globes and you destroyed me. You were so funny on the Golden Globes.

• 9:14Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 9:15Conan O'Brien?

  And you're just there and you're accepting an award for, I believe it was Ricky Gervais?

• 9:20Speaker 02

  Right, I was presenting for Best Comedy Special.

• 9:24Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, and you said afterwards, Ricky won, and you had to accept on his behalf. And you said, "I accept on behalf of God and the trans community."

• 9:36Speaker 02

  Thank God, I thank God.

• 9:37Conan O'Brien?

  Thank God, and then, yeah. And, um, did you ever hear from Ricky?

• 9:41Speaker 02

  I have not.

• 9:42Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 9:42Speaker 02

  I've not heard from Ricky.

• 9:43Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah. That was just fantastic. But you always are, you're just...

• 9:49Speaker 02

  But I would hope Ricky would got it, he got a laugh out of it, knowing him. You know, I don't know him, but knowing his work, I'm sure he got a good laugh out of it.

• 9:56Conan O'Brien?

  He'd have been happy with that.

• 9:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 9:58Conan O'Brien?

  Or not, we'll never know.

• 10:01Conan O'Brien?

  But it's a real gift to just be able to always be yourself. When you get up, you're always Wanda Sykes 100%. I mean, anytime I've seen you in your career, your comedic voice is so sharp and so you, and no one else can do that. And I'm thinking, when you were first getting up doing stand-up comedy, did you have access to that? It took me a while to figure out how to be this Conan guy up there.

• 10:29Speaker 02

  Right.

• 10:29Conan O'Brien?

  And I'm wondering what early you would have been like, because I know you were getting up there in the, probably 86, 87, around then.

• 10:38Speaker 02

  Right, 87.

• 10:39Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 10:40Speaker 02

  Um, I think we all start out, like, doing Seinfeld. You know what I'm saying? It's like observational comedy and we, that's what I was doing. It was all about just writing jokes that I thought, hey, isn't it funny when, you know, this happens or whatever? But it was never about me or it, like, into my, you know, persona. It was just what's on paper, the jokes, that's it, you know?

• 11:11Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 11:13Speaker 02

  It was later. Uh, in life, I guess when you get confidence and it also was when I uh was going through a divorce. That's when it was like, fuck it, let's go, you know, then it was more me.

• 11:27Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 11:27Speaker 02

  That came out and I was like, oh, this, this is who I'm gonna be. This is who I am and also uh it's, it's easier to just always be yourself. You know, in a way you could say that I'm kind of lazy, really, I don't, really, right? I'm not.

• 11:42Conan O'Brien?

  That's the moral here.

• 11:43Speaker 02

  Really, I'm lazy. Just, yeah.

• 11:46Conan O'Brien?

  But that's where really where great stuff comes from.

• 11:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, why give you something else? When I was like, oh, you know, I'm just, I'm just doing me, I'm just gonna do me.

• 11:54Conan O'Brien?

  But it is funny how I, I know me early on, I was always echoing what I had grown up watching and what I loved. And so there'd be times where I'm, I'm not me yet, I'm all the things that I really loved. And then it takes a while, all that stuff just gets shed and eventually it like gets melted down and eventually you start to come out. But it's a process and that's where it just really helps to um get time.

• 12:24Speaker 02

  Right, did, did you have your like comedy outfit, like your, your comedy uniform, like this is where this, I have to have this cause this is, I'm funny wearing this. Like I, I, I will wear hats, I'll put a hat on, I thought, this is funny, this is good. Because if I bomb, I can blame it on the hat.

• 12:43Conan O'Brien?

  Sure.

• 12:45Speaker 02

  This hat's not funny.

• 12:46Conan O'Brien?

  So if you were about to go on and you.

• 12:48Speaker 02

  Thinking, yeah.

• 12:49Conan O'Brien?

  If, if you were about to go on and you couldn't find the funny hat, you'd be like, I can't go out there.

• 12:54Speaker 02

  I can't go on. Pete Robinson cursed me out, like, I mean, he just ripped me apart because um when I moved away from hats, then I needed a sweater, I needed like a, you know, not, not a Cosby sweater, but like a, but you know, where people will go, ooh, that's a nice sweater. So Keith and I were, we were in Philadelphia and I was gonna go to the Funny Bone. And I didn't have my sweater, cuz we went to the movies and then I thought we would go back and get my sweater and then go to the club. He's like, no, we're going to director's club. I said, I can't go to the club. I don't have my sweater. And he's like, what do you mean? I said, I need my sweater. He's like, you look fine. I said, no, no, no. I, I, I gotta get my comedy sweater.

• 13:36Speaker 02

  And when I said that, he just ripped me apart.

• 13:40Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 13:40Speaker 02

  And he was like, I'm not going back. And he took me to the club and I had to go on without the sweater, without the hat. And I, I did okay.

• 13:49Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 13:49Speaker 02

  So.

• 13:50Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 13:50Speaker 02

  That's when I was like, okay, I don't, I don't need these things.

• 13:53Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 13:53Speaker 02

  Did you have that?

• 13:54Conan O'Brien?

  Think of where you, you know what, I think my version of that was my hair.

• 13:59Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 13:59Conan O'Brien?

  I think that the reason I was always, when I found out in my teens that my hair was kinda springy and could, I could have this big shelf hanging out over the front. And I started combing it up like that and kinda rockabilly and just, and then, but also part game show host and I, um, I think a lot of that was, uh, don't look at me, look at this. Do you know what I mean? It was, my hat came with me.

• 14:30Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 14:31Conan O'Brien?

  My comedy hat. And, you know, you look at some of the early late night shows and I, there are ones where this thing is coming out like three feet. And it's going way up in the air and you're thinking, people at home must have just been saying, what is wrong with him? He looks like a fool.

• 14:50Speaker 02

  Your, your hair's in everybody's shot.

• 14:51Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, exactly, yeah. Every time I turned around, the guest, Mr. T would get hit in the face. Um, it's just so funny how everybody.

• 15:05Conan O'Brien?

  It's this self-hating thing, which is very natural, but we don't think we're good enough. Especially when you're that, when you're starting out and you think I have to, I, I need all this extra stuff to be able to go up there. And then later on, now I've been going to these different clubs to try out Oscar material and I'll just, I don't even know what I'm wearing. I'm just wearing a T-shirt sometimes. I'm not fixing my hair. I'm not doing anything because it took me decades to say, okay, I'll just be me. But I mean, it took a long, long time.

• 15:40Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, here's the other thing, cause I, I do the same thing. If I'm working out material, like I'm working on my, my next special and you know, my, at the, the Brea Improv, I'm, I'm gonna go just like this.

• 15:53Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 15:53Speaker 02

  Because I don't want the au- audience to have expectations. Like if I put on something nice, then they're gonna be like, oh, we getting a real show.

• 16:01Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 16:01Speaker 02

  But if I just come like this, nah, I'm not, I got a notepad and I just walked off the street.

• 16:06Conan O'Brien?

  That's why I'm doing the Oscars.

• 16:06Speaker 02

  I'm just, yeah.

• 16:07Conan O'Brien?

  I'm gonna host the Oscars in a slankit.

• 16:12Conan O'Brien?

  In the breaks, I just lie down. You know, I, I never knew this. I mean, I was thinking about you yesterday and today and

• 16:22Speaker 02

  That's scary.

• 16:22Conan O'Brien?

  Doing my recent, yeah.

• 16:23Speaker 02

  That makes me very uncomfortable.

• 16:24Conan O'Brien?

  That's why your car wouldn't start.

• 16:25Speaker 02

  That makes me very uncomfortable right now.

• 16:28Conan O'Brien?

  Thinking about you and where do you live? Where do you live?

• 16:33Speaker 02

  When they said, hey, Wanda's here out in the parking lot, then you started thinking about me. I don't like that.

• 16:37Conan O'Brien?

  No, no, no. I'm, I'm good about this stuff.

• 16:40Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 16:40Conan O'Brien?

  But that your, your dad's a, was an army colonel.

• 16:44Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 16:45Conan O'Brien?

  And so you grow up, and mom a banker, so you grew up in strict family.

• 16:50Speaker 02

  Uh, not necessarily.

• 16:53Conan O'Brien?

  That's what, I mean, that would be the cliche, I guess, is that they'd be strict people.

• 16:57Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:57Conan O'Brien?

  I mean, I grew up in a strict family. My dad was like a, you know, a, a academic and scientist and my mom's a lawyer. And strict in the sense that, um, one of us going into comedy wasn't maybe their first choice.

• 17:12Speaker 02

  Right.

• 17:13Conan O'Brien?

  You know, but beautiful, lovely people, but real good Catholics, church people. So I'm just curious if you had that experience?

• 17:21Speaker 02

  Uh, yeah, me, they were, you know, Uh, black people in the south. So there, there was always some type of the structure and uh, they, they were strict, but we had fun. We, you know, they were um, my dad would, was serious about his job, but when he got home, he'd take his uniform off and, you know, he was dad. Uh, and also my, my dad hustled, man. He had side jobs and everything, you know? Um, that's how I fell in love with bowling, I guess, because he would, on weekends, clean the lanes. Yeah. Uh, so, yeah, so it, it was strict from the, you know, looking on the outside, but, yeah, inside, you know, yeah.

• 18:06Speaker 02

  They were just, like you said, high, a lot of values, church, all of that. So, no, uh, someone saying, hey, I'm gonna go do comedy.

• 18:14Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 18:15Speaker 02

  Uh, the question was, so, so what was that college I paid for? What was, what was that about? Why, why did we do that?

• 18:21Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah. That's natural.

• 18:23Speaker 02

  And now my mother, I talked to her yesterday, it was so funny, and she said, uh, she goes, you know, I, I don't understand, like, when you went in college, why, why didn't you just take, like, performing arts? Why didn't you go in? Like, oh, oh, so now, you know?

• 18:37Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 18:37Speaker 02

  You putting it back on me, like, I wasted, you know, it's still going back to college, like, I wasted.

• 18:44Conan O'Brien?

  What did you, what did you study?

• 18:45Speaker 02

  Marketing.

• 18:46Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 18:46Speaker 02

  Marketing, I was like, I, I didn't know what I wanted to do, but, but I was like, oh, no science? Yep, marketing, that's me, that's it.

• 18:53Conan O'Brien?

  And then you worked with the, uh, for the NSA for a bit. That's, that's, uh, that's really funny.

• 18:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:00Conan O'Brien?

  And, okay, here's my question. Um, because a lot of us, before we get out in front of people and start trying to be funny, we have these jobs where you're kind of funny at work. Were you funny at the NSA?

• 19:16Speaker 02

  I was funny at the NSA. I was, I was funny at the NSA, I killed.

• 19:20Conan O'Brien?

  Think of the huge security breaches. It's a great sentence. Think of the terrorists that weren't caught, because you were busy joking around.

• 19:29Speaker 02

  Uh huh, yeah, yeah, um, you know.

• 19:32Conan O'Brien?

  So you're funny, you're funny at work, and did you have people around you saying, hey, you gotta get up there? You gotta go do?

• 19:37Speaker 02

  I did, yeah, I did, um. But you know, I was serious about the job. But but it was, you know, we we would have a good time, you know, we um. But I also knew it it got to a point where it's like this, I can't do this. This is not going to be my life, you know. Uh, because you will see, you know, the the people who who was on their way out. Um, to that retirement thing and like one dude, he would just. He would just look at the stocks, that's all, you know, all day. And I was like, saving America, aren't we staying, you know, it's like, yeah, here we go. Saving America, that's right.

• 20:22Conan O'Brien?

  You know, winning an award, that's a big achievement, right?

• 20:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:25Conan O'Brien?

  Every now and then in life, maybe something nice like that comes your way.

• 20:28Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 20:29Conan O'Brien?

  Winning them consistently is almost impossible. It just doesn't happen, you know? Well, guess what, winning five times in six years? You know what that sounds like to me? Sustained excellence.

• 20:39Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 20:40Conan O'Brien?

  Hyundai has done just that, earning the title of America's best SUV brand for 2026 from U S News and World Report. You are a very happy Hyundai driver.

• 20:48Speaker 01

  I drive a Hyundai Palisade and I love my car. I love it. I love driving it around.

• 20:53Conan O'Brien?

  I've been tooling around in a Ioniq 5 N, which I love.

• 20:57Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 20:57Conan O'Brien?

  Beautiful car. Well, listen, whether you need an SUV for everyday life, your next big adventure or extra room for family and friends, Hyundai has an option for you. The Tucson Hybrid is loaded with technology and built for everyday life. The Santa Fe Hybrid is fully capable and ready for adventure. The Palisade, that's yours, right?

• 21:12Speaker 01

  Hello.

• 21:13Conan O'Brien?

  They're going to rename that the Sona. The Palisade Hybrid, yeah, delivers premium capability and class leading interior space. With available, I have this memorized, H track all wheel drive up to an EPA estimated 619 miles of range on vehicles like the Palisade Hybrid and Hyundai's industry leading warranty. It's easy to see why Hyundai continues to deliver the quality, innovation, technology and value drivers expect from an award winning brand. View U S News Best Cars at cars.usnews.com and call 562 314 4603 for complete details.

• 21:47Conan O'Brien?

  Owning a car or home comes with responsibilities. Sure, it's fun, but sometimes it makes you wonder why you ever longed for adulthood in the first place. I do that all the time. I'm like, oh, these bills, these bills. What am I gonna do?

• 21:59Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 21:59Conan O'Brien?

  You know, when you own a house, you gotta fix it yourself. Sona, you, you see this to be true, right?

• 22:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, your garage door breaks and you're like, well, I have to fix it.

• 22:07Conan O'Brien?

  Probably at first you said, hey, I'll get the super to fix it. It's your house, dude.

• 22:10Speaker 01

  It's mine, dude.

• 22:12Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. Liberty Mutual customizes your car and home insurance to save you money. In fact, they work overtime to tailor 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.

• 22:24Speaker 01

  Liberty, liberty, liberty.

• 22:25Conan O'Brien?

  It's in my head all the time.

• 22:27Speaker 01

  Yeah, me too.

• 22:28Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. Start your quote at libertymutual.com.

• 22:34Conan O'Brien?

  Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is so good, it's almost impossible not to finish it before the meal arrives. It's just too good to wait. That happens to me sometimes.

• 22:43Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 22:43Conan O'Brien?

  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.

• 23:01Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 23:01Conan O'Brien?

  Real Coca-Cola taste, zero sugar, too good to wait. Enjoy an ice cold Coca-Cola Zero Sugar today.

• 23:14Conan O'Brien?

  So what was your big break? You're doing comedy and then you, you did a, was it a contest you entered? Or was it a, the Coors Light?

• 23:23Speaker 02

  Coors Light Super Talent Showcase.

• 23:25Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 23:26Speaker 02

  Showcase, they're a radio station in DC sponsoring it. And I was like, you know what, I should, let me all write some jokes and go audition for this thing.

• 23:36Conan O'Brien?

  So you're still at the NSA at this point?

• 23:37Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, I'm still at NSA.

• 23:38Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 23:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 23:39Conan O'Brien?

  And so you, uh... You go up, you do this, you enter. And how did it feel? Did it feel right, right away?

• 23:46Speaker 02

  It did.

• 23:47Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 23:47Speaker 02

  It felt right, like, you know, oh, wow, okay, these people, you know, you get that first laugh and it's like, oh, okay, this is, this works. Yeah, I didn't win, but I was really happy with the way, the way it went and just, it felt like I belonged here. And Andy Evans, he was the, the emcee. And he was like, where, where did you come from? I haven't seen you in the comedy clubs or anything. I was like, yeah, I don't, I haven't been to a comedy club. And he was like, okay, you know, he just became my mentor. He would show me around comedy clubs and would work with me on material and stuff. So, yeah, and just, everything just felt right.

• 24:29Conan O'Brien?

  And then, I know that you-

• 24:30Speaker 02

  Then I bombed silly the next time.

• 24:33Conan O'Brien?

  Right, right. Which is classic.

• 24:36Speaker 02

  Like, bomb, like, people, people turned their chairs around, you know, it was-

• 24:40Speaker 01

  Oh, my God!

• 24:41Conan O'Brien?

  And they were bolted to the floor.

• 24:42Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 24:47Speaker 02

  It was just like, ah, I gotta get up, I, I don't care.

• 24:50Conan O'Brien?

  You can just get up and turn around. No, no!

• 24:52Speaker 02

  No, no, no, no. Fam, you could just leave. No, I, I gotta make a real statement.

• 25:02Conan O'Brien?

  When do you, you start opening for Chris Rock? Is that right? Is that, maybe you do it for a while and then you, is that, was that a bit of a level up for you?

• 25:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, by that time, I had left the NSA and was living in Jersey, I guess, to be closer to New York. And I opened for Chris Rock when he was, he was about to do Bring the Pain.

• 25:26Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 25:27Speaker 02

  Yeah, and that, yeah, that was a, a big come up for me, I guess, because he remembered me when he got his talk show.

• 25:35Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 25:36Speaker 02

  And-

• 25:37Conan O'Brien?

  Chris Rock Show.

• 25:38Speaker 02

  Yeah, and asked me to submit some writing samples.

• 25:41Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, so you were a writer on the Chris Rock Show, which was great, and then you guys win the Emmy.

• 25:49Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 25:50Conan O'Brien?

  Which is still very bitter for me.

• 25:51Speaker 02

  I'm sure.

• 25:52Conan O'Brien?

  Because I know we were, we were nominated. And then Chris gets up and says, well, I think Conan should have got this. And I wanted to stand up and say, then why can't I have it?

• 26:00Speaker 01

  Oh, my God!

• 26:02Conan O'Brien?

  But, um-

• 26:03Speaker 02

  And when Chris said that, we all went, shut up, Chris!

• 26:05Conan O'Brien?

  Shut up, Chris! But, um-

• 26:10Conan O'Brien?

  But if, yeah, you don't, you can't be bitter when The Chris Rock Show wins. You just can't be. It was so great. And so I, uh...

• 26:18Speaker 02

  Not if you want to win that NAACP Image Award, you can't.

• 26:23Speaker 02

  That would slip right through your fingers too, didn't it, Conan?

• 26:26Conan O'Brien?

  I was so close, but I stood up in the audience and I said, "Why?

• 26:31Conan O'Brien?

  Why?" And then I think I said on camera, "When will the white man get a break?"

• 26:36Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 26:37Conan O'Brien?

  Which was a mistake.

• 26:38Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:39Conan O'Brien?

  Remember that? And then you were like, "Conan," and I'm like, "You're right."

• 26:42Speaker 02

  Oh, you shouldn't have done that. That was a bad idea.

• 26:44Conan O'Brien?

  It's been thousands of years. When is it our turn?

• 26:47Speaker 01

  Oh, wow.

• 26:48Conan O'Brien?

  But anyway, um, you, uh... People are now looking. Did I really say that? No!

• 26:57Conan O'Brien?

  What did you learn working in a writer's room?

• 26:59Speaker 02

  Well, with AI, I can make it look like you did.

• 27:03Speaker 01

  Do it, do it, do it.

• 27:08Conan O'Brien?

  When did you, uh... Because I always think, I don't know if you had the same experience, but once I got into a writer's room, I felt like I had been fish that had been flopping around in the desert for the first, you know, 20-something years of my life, and then someone put me into a pond. That's what it felt like to me. Did you feel that way about being in a writer's room?

• 27:27Speaker 02

  Um, you know what? The, I was the only, uh, female writer, and the guys that I was with, they were so supportive.

• 27:36Conan O'Brien?

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:37Speaker 02

  Um, so, yeah, so I kind of just felt like I was at home, you know? They, um, actually, you know who was a really big help? Because I would, I would write things and there were just like these long monologues. And, uh, Louis CK, he was on the show, and he, he looked at my, at my stuff. He goes, "Wanda, you have a lot of jokes," and he knew me as, you know, from stand-up.

• 28:00Conan O'Brien?

  Right.

• 28:01Speaker 02

  He goes, you got, he said, "Stop writing these long rants." He said, "Look at the newspaper and just write a joke on, on an article." That's, that's all. He said, "This, this is what this is," he says. "And then, you know, if you got a sketch bit, do that." "Okay, great." And then every week, I would just... Getting jokes in. You you show up and you think, oh, it's I'm writing for Chris Rock, so I need to write this big, long monologue. You don't think that it's just

• 28:26Conan O'Brien?

  Kind of a rant.

• 28:27Speaker 02

  Throwaway jokes. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

• 28:29Conan O'Brien?

  I need to write like this thing that goes on for a couple of pages.

• 28:31Speaker 02

  Right, right, right. So um, he he then, once I got it, I'm like, OK, um, you know, I can follow directions. I got it.

• 28:38Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. What's a real discipline, too, because on Saturday Night Live, they used to say, we do all our weird sketches in the week, and then on Saturday, they would say, come in in the morning and write Weekend Update jokes. And just to supplement, you know, whatever Herb Sargent and whoever was the update desk was doing at the time. Um, it was Dennis Miller, I think, just. And you'd sit there and you'd just be going through the news and you started, I started to learn, right, this is this is something I hadn't really done before. But I see the game, there's a game to this, and you just got to try and figure it out. But it was a great discipline. Um, and so

• 29:18Conan O'Brien?

  you do that, and then what happens after you're done with the Chris Rock Show? What was the next step?

• 29:26Speaker 02

  Steve Martin had a show, um, The Downer Channel. And I had a meeting with him. And I'm like, is Steve Martin, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do it.

• 29:37Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 29:37Speaker 02

  And when he pitched me the idea of the show, I was like, oh, God, this is awful. This is gonna be awful. And I don't even know if I'm right for this. I'm like, but is Steve Martin? So I was like, yes! And we did The Downer Channel. Um, and then from there, I forgot what happened after that.

• 29:59Conan O'Brien?

  You lost the whole 15 years.

• 30:03Conan O'Brien?

  It says here you were in a coma for a while.

• 30:05Speaker 02

  I think I worked on, I think I worked on my my hour. That's what it is. Yeah, I was, I went back to stand up and I was working on my hour, and that's when, uh, I think Tongue Untied probably came out. Yeah.

• 30:18Conan O'Brien?

  That process of getting an hour, I don't think people realize because now the way entertainment works, streaming, the minute someone has an hour, sometimes even before they really have an hour.

• 30:29Speaker 02

  Before they have an hour.

• 30:30Conan O'Brien?

  Before they have an hour, when they have 20 minutes, they need to come out with their hour special, and the minute it comes out, people can say, that was great, where's the next one?

• 30:40Speaker 02

  Right.

• 30:40Conan O'Brien?

  And it used to be, if you think about the history of this whole thing, people would develop vaudeville, they'd develop their hour and do it for 40 years.

• 30:50Speaker 02

  Forty years, yes.

• 30:51Conan O'Brien?

  And now it's, that was great.

• 30:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 30:53Conan O'Brien?

  And so it's like a band that has their first album and it's everything they've been playing all those years, and people are like, that's fantastic, we need the next album in six months.

• 31:03Speaker 02

  Yep, yeah, yeah.

• 31:04Conan O'Brien?

  And they're like, huh, I can't, so that's a huge achievement to get that first hour.

• 31:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, and I'm, you know, I, I take at least three years, I think three years is the shortest time that I've turned around and then another hour. I usually take at least four or five years. You know, it tore with it, you gotta, you know when it's special. I mean, sometimes there's hours and then it's special. And I remember I shot my first hour, the advice Chris Bra gave me, he said, make, make sure it's special, don't go up there and do a set, do a special. Like, okay, all right, well, and then, you know, thinking about it, okay, now I, I get what he was saying, because you know, you can watch some stuff and you go, okay, that was an hour.

• 31:51Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. You legally, you legally met the requirement.

• 31:55Speaker 02

  Yes, exactly, great job, it clocked in.

• 31:58Conan O'Brien?

  Here is your certificate, yeah, yeah.

• 32:01Speaker 02

  Clock in.

• 32:02Conan O'Brien?

  You have had this really great career where I, stand-up's your first love.

• 32:07Speaker 02

  Until now.

• 32:08Conan O'Brien?

  Until terrific.

• 32:09Speaker 02

  Things going great.

• 32:10Conan O'Brien?

  But, what are you talking about?

• 32:13Speaker 02

  Till I got here.

• 32:15Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, this?

• 32:18Conan O'Brien?

  Oh. Look, present dip. Accepted.

• 32:22Speaker 01

  This is a low point.

• 32:24Conan O'Brien?

  This is a low point.

• 32:24Speaker 02

  I gotta bounce back.

• 32:27Speaker 02

  From this.

• 32:28Conan O'Brien?

  When people do the podcast, I can see them often texting their agent while I'm talking to them. And it's usually what happened?

• 32:37Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:37Conan O'Brien?

  Or we need to talk.

• 32:39Speaker 01

  It's time for a comeback special.

• 32:41Conan O'Brien?

  Everyone does their comeback special after the Conan podcast.

• 32:46Speaker 02

  So about that Dancing with the Stars?

• 32:53Conan O'Brien?

  Curb your enthusiasm.

• 32:56Conan O'Brien?

  Obviously, you're, you have such a strong, undeniably unique comedic voice. And I can tell, like, you with Larry is just, if, if someone, long before you did it, if someone had just said, Wanda and Larry, I'd have been like, oh, yeah, that has to happen. Is that how you felt when that came about?

• 33:18Speaker 02

  I, you know, big fan of the show.

• 33:20Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 33:21Speaker 02

  And I, I knew that one of the producers on the show and, and she said, we, we gotta get you on there. I'm like, okay, um, I would love to. I said, but look, I, I can't audition. I said, I'm horrible at, you know, in the audition process. And I said, and I, I don't, I, I, it'll just kill me if I'm like just not funny in front of Larry David. I can't. So don't, please don't put me through that. I said, just, I'm just gonna be a fan of the show. And she's like, okay, all right. And then, uh, she said, hey, um, we're shooting around the corner, you know, from you. So why don't you come over to this car dealership? Cause we're shooting here and, um, and Larry just wants to say hi. I said, oh, I get to meet him? She said, yeah, yeah, I'm like, okay.

• 34:02Speaker 02

  So I walk in and there's Larry and Larry goes, hey, Wanda, I know that tush anywhere. I was like, I was like, what the fuck did you just say? And I said, why would you say that? And we would, and we just got into it. He goes, you got the job. I'm like, what? Like, she tricked me.

• 34:20Conan O'Brien?

  Did he say we were rolling? Hey, by the way, we were rolling. What is so funny, that's hilarious, but also, when you hang with Larry, you're in the show. He is that guy. And you can be with him, just hanging out at a party, and he'll come in with a plate of food, and you're talking to people, and he'll be like, eh, don't you kind of hate it when people interrupt you, when, with a plate of food, when you're, and you're like, you're doing a bit. You're doing a bit, and he'll say, no, no, no, I'm just saying, you're like, there's no camera here. But it's delightful, because you get to be, if you're in his life, you're on that show in some way.

• 34:55Speaker 02

  Okay, yeah.

• 34:56Conan O'Brien?

  That's how it feels like. But yeah, you were just perfect.

• 34:59Speaker 02

  Yeah. I, I, I enjoyed it, but I don't like being around him, though. Honestly.

• 35:06Conan O'Brien?

  Conan, nobody does.

• 35:08Speaker 02

  So, right.

• 35:09Conan O'Brien?

  Nobody does.

• 35:10Speaker 02

  He likes making you feel uncomfortable. Like, at lunch, I'm walking in, and, and I see him coming, and I'm like, oh shit. You know, I, I don't, I don't want to sit with him. I don't want to eat with Larry.

• 35:22Conan O'Brien?

  He always has to eat alone.

• 35:23Speaker 02

  I don't want to eat with him. I, I go sit over with the grips. I'm like, I'm not. No.

• 35:34Conan O'Brien?

  No, we should make it clear, no one wants to hang out with him. He's always alone.

• 35:38Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 35:39Conan O'Brien?

  He's always alone.

• 35:40Speaker 02

  All right.

• 35:41Conan O'Brien?

  Because I think he loves to be, he loves to be annoying. He just loves to, I mean, he loves that, hitting that frequency, and he's so good at it.

• 35:48Speaker 02

  He's the best. The best at it.

• 35:52Conan O'Brien?

  I want to talk about your personal life for a second, because I find it interesting. I know you talked somewhere about how you thought coming out was important, it, it helped you get up in front of people, and you felt like, be more honest, or before you had been holding back a little bit. Is that the case?

• 36:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. Um, before, you know, it's, I knew I, that I had this, you know, secret, or whatever. And so I had to have somewhat of a, you know, protection of. Uh, and, and it's just sitting there in the, in the back of your brain, you know? Um, so it's like, I don't wanna push too much because somebody might yell out, you know, you're, you're a lesbian, or hey, you're gay, you know?

• 36:37Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 36:38Speaker 02

  So it's like, okay, I don't, let me just at arms distance, let me, you know, protect myself. Uh, but once I came out, it was like windows down, you know, roof back, you know, let's, let's, let's go. So I just felt, I just liberated that there was nothing, uh, that I had to hide, you know?

• 36:58Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, it's like you were carrying something, you put it down.

• 37:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah.

• 37:01Conan O'Brien?

  Or it's like a version of the funny hat or the sweater.

• 37:03Speaker 02

  Right.

• 37:04Conan O'Brien?

  It's just like, no, no, this is me.

• 37:05Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 37:06Conan O'Brien?

  And, um...

• 37:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, there's nothing you can say now to, you know, that, that would, uh, you know, hurt me or whatever.

• 37:14Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. People shout that at me a lot.

• 37:16Speaker 02

  A lot? You're a lesbian?

• 37:17Conan O'Brien?

  You're a lesbian.

• 37:18Speaker 03

  It's usually just Sona?

• 37:19Conan O'Brien?

  It's usually Sona. Sona follows me in the clubs.

• 37:22Speaker 02

  Well, maybe you shouldn't have gotten the tattoo.

• 37:29Conan O'Brien?

  And, um, I know I've met your wife, she's French.

• 37:33Speaker 02

  Yes, she is.

• 37:34Conan O'Brien?

  And is there a culture clash there because, uh, with the French, you know, just like your wife, she's from this very different situation? How does it manifest itself in your relationship?

• 37:45Speaker 02

  Uh, I mean, everything. I mean, even from like, just, I mean, food alone, it's, you know, you, you, there's no snacking. So, yeah, snacks.

• 37:57Conan O'Brien?

  They don't do that.

• 37:57Speaker 02

  I gotta like sneak, get my snacks. You know, like, I, I would like go in the car, eat a couple potato chips.

• 38:07Speaker 02

  And I come in the house, she was like, is that, uh?

• 38:12Speaker 02

  I smell, uh, uh, but, uh, is that cheese?

• 38:15Speaker 01

  Is she smoking? I'm sorry, I saw you do.

• 38:18Speaker 02

  She doesn't smoke, it's just how I see her.

• 38:20Conan O'Brien?

  I see her.

• 38:21Speaker 02

  That's just how I see her.

• 38:22Conan O'Brien?

  She has an invisible space cigarette, yeah.

• 38:24Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 38:26Conan O'Brien?

  That is fantastic.

• 38:27Speaker 02

  But she, yeah, it's, it's the three meals, but it's, they're great meals, you know? Um, that, because it comes with wine and champagne, you know? And there's like a little pre-meal before, you know, pre-snack before the meal.

• 38:41Conan O'Brien?

  Maybe if you had wine with your potato chips, she would be, she'd be okay with it.

• 38:46Speaker 02

  We've done that with champagne. She's like, time for your perro, you know? And, and there's a little, like, some pistachios, maybe a little saucisson and some champagne. I said, oh, I can get down with this. This is... Now we talking, you know, and then you have your lunch and then you get to do that again for dinner. You get to have a little pre-game for the, for the dinner.

• 39:07Conan O'Brien?

  They know, they know a thing or two in France about how to live.

• 39:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's, uh...

• 39:12Conan O'Brien?

  That we haven't figured out.

• 39:14Speaker 02

  Right. We were in Mexico and she wanted to buy these bowls. And she was, you know, just, you know, going back and forth with the guy. She, she also speaks Spanish. So she was going back and forth with the guy and, you know, the guy was like 700 and she was like, uh, no, four. And the guy was like, alright, you know, four. So, and I heard that he asked her, uh, where she was from. She said, oh, Belgium, right? So, like, why'd she say she's from Belgium? So we get outside and I'm like, why'd you tell that man you're from Belgium? She's like, well, I didn't want the French to look bad.

• 39:51Speaker 02

  I didn't want, I didn't want you to think badly of the French.

• 40:00Speaker 02

  I'm like, that's, that's the kind of shit French people do, you know? That's exactly what French people would do.

• 40:11Speaker 02

  You know, I'm not gonna take responsibility for that, no.

• 40:15Conan O'Brien?

  Now, you've got teenagers, twin teenagers.

• 40:18Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 40:18Conan O'Brien?

  Do they think you're funny? Will they give it up?

• 40:21Speaker 02

  Uh...

• 40:22Conan O'Brien?

  My kids, my kids are very wary of giving it up for me.

• 40:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 40:26Conan O'Brien?

  And I get it. They're like, uh, they're very happy to put me down.

• 40:32Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 40:33Conan O'Brien?

  Um, and rightfully so.

• 40:34Speaker 02

  They do it. They, they love doing it. Olivia, uh, was like thr- two, about two years ago, two, yeah, Mo- Mother's Day, she gave me a pet rock.

• 40:45Conan O'Brien?

  I haven't heard of those. I think those were big in like 1976, the pet rock, yeah.

• 40:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, and you could decorate it. You could put like the googly eyes on it and little crazy hair on it. And I, and, and she was like, isn't that great? I was like, you know, my mother would have thrown this at me if I had given her...

• 41:02Conan O'Brien?

  A rock.

• 41:03Speaker 02

  A rock.

• 41:05Speaker 02

  I say you are a very blessed little girl right now. But she thought it was funny, but you know, to do that.

• 41:14Speaker 02

  So it's that type of thing where they know what I do and they know that people know me. So to them, they feel like it's their job just to, mm, just to bring you down a little bit, just to chop you down.

• 41:27Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 41:28Speaker 02

  A little bit. So I, you know, I, I, I get it. They did come to a show this summer. I did a little European tour and they came to the show in Paris.

• 41:40Speaker 02

  And they were the first two backstage and they were like, oh, mom, that was so cool. That was great.

• 41:48Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, good.

• 41:49Speaker 02

  Wow, you're, you know, so they enjoyed the show.

• 41:51Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 41:53Speaker 02

  But mom at home, no, I'm not funny. They, yeah.

• 41:58Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 41:58Speaker 02

  They, they don't give it up at all.

• 42:00Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 42:00Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:01Conan O'Brien?

  It's better that way.

• 42:02Speaker 02

  I think so too.

• 42:03Conan O'Brien?

  Wouldn't it be creepy if they're like, you're just so funny?

• 42:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:06Conan O'Brien?

  What?

• 42:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:07Conan O'Brien?

  No, I'm not.

• 42:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it was so funny. Lucas went through a little phase when he was like maybe 10.

• 42:16Speaker 02

  Because, you know, we were down in the streets and some people, you know, like, hey, Wanda, you know, Wanda Sykes, what's up? And they would go, why are they, why are people yelling? I said, I don't know. They're just, you know, maybe that's somebody I went to school with or whatever. That would try to downplay it. Lucas went through this phase for like three months. Whenever I walked in the house, he would go, Wanda Sykes.

• 42:40Conan O'Brien?

  Get it up.

• 42:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 42:42Conan O'Brien?

  Make some noise.

• 42:43Speaker 02

  He just said, that's how people do it. So he's like, Wanda Sykes.

• 42:48Conan O'Brien?

  That would be creepy.

• 42:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:50Conan O'Brien?

  That would, yeah.

• 42:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:51Conan O'Brien?

  Um, let's talk about the movie because this is, I, I was saying your stand-up is your, feels like that's your lifeblood, but you're a good actor. You are a very good actor and this opportunity to do this film, how did it come about? Undercard.

• 43:08Speaker 02

  Tamika Miller, uh, the director and co-writer of the script. She reached out to me, uh, and she's like, look, I have this project. It's for you. I I wrote it with you in mind. Uh, I would love to send you the materials. I'm like, okay, all right. And I read the script and looked at the materials. I was like, oh. And I said, this is good. And so I I called her. I said, so, um. Queen Latifah said no, right?

• 43:45Speaker 02

  And she's like, no, I'm telling you, this is I I had you in mind for this. So I was like, you know, I I don't know if I can pull it off. I said, I've never done a drama and. I she's like, I believe me, I think just trust me, you can do this. And, you know, we met and kind of like went through the script. Um, yeah, and I was like, okay, and you know, she just had so much faith. That I could do it. I'm like, well, I'm gonna prove her wrong, you know.

• 44:16Conan O'Brien?

  Really? You had faith in me, huh? Well, watch this. Yeah, but you do a very good job and your character, uh, whose name is No Mercy. That's her nickname.

• 44:27Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 44:28Conan O'Brien?

  You have this world weariness that seems real, like you're dealing with a lot. Your character is dealing with a lot and you're getting evicted and you're going through. Some intense stuff and you're going through intense stuff with your son and you aren't putting any. Comedy air quotes around it at all. Do you know what I mean? Which I think is, that's another scary thing to do.

• 44:51Speaker 02

  Right.

• 44:51Conan O'Brien?

  But, uh, you did it really well. And I don't know, what is it like for you to sit and watch yourself in this situation where? You are so not going for laughs. Did that feel scary at all to you?

• 45:05Speaker 02

  Oh, absolutely, absolutely. Um. I I know, like after a take, she was, she would say, okay. And I said, you sure? She's like, yeah, I got it. And I'm like, yeah, but what, you know, the. Is there something else that you need? She's like, Wanda, I got it. Let's come on, let's move on.

• 45:23Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 45:24Speaker 02

  Uh, but for, for me to go back and watch, I, I couldn't go watch the takes. I, you know, and I'm glad she didn't say, you wanna see it? And, you know, so, uh, I didn't see it until it was, until it was, you know, completed. And then, uh, my notes, a lot of my notes were more about, we were just, you know, the story, moving the story.

• 45:43Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 45:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 45:44Conan O'Brien?

  It's so interesting, cause you go along in a situation where you know when something's working.

• 45:49Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 45:50Conan O'Brien?

  Because you hear this very specific sound, but then you're in a situation where that is not the goal anymore. I mean, in the limited experience I've had doing any kind of acting, it's been, well, where's the laugh? And you're like, there isn't one, you moron.

• 46:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 46:06Conan O'Brien?

  You're a moron. There's no, and, and you really need to shed all of that. Put it away, cause that is not the point of what we're doing anymore.

• 46:15Speaker 02

  Right.

• 46:15Conan O'Brien?

  And it has nothing to do with that world.

• 46:18Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 46:18Conan O'Brien?

  And so, that's always, uh, a new level of terror. Cause, you know, especially when you're trying these things and, you know, you, you know, you're not, you're not 25. And you're like, okay, I've done some stand-up and now I'm gonna try this. It's just a whole, you've, you've been relying on a certain rhythm for a really long time and now it's this. It's, uh, I don't know, I found it terrifying. Anytime I've had to be in that kind of situation, you know?

• 46:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, it is. Um, but I knew I, I couldn't do it. You know, I was like, I, I said, Wanda, you cannot, like, do the wink at the camera. You can't.

• 46:55Conan O'Brien?

  Just one.

• 46:56Speaker 02

  You can't, you know, you just, yeah, you, you, you have to lock it.

• 47:01Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 47:01Speaker 02

  It's the only way.

• 47:02Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 47:02Speaker 02

  This thing is gonna work. And the, the crew, everyone who worked on that film, they were, you could see them, like, rooting for me.

• 47:13Conan O'Brien?

  No, that's nice.

• 47:14Speaker 02

  The cast, everyone, you know, after that first day, it was like, oh, this bitch can act. Okay, come on, y'all, let's move faster. Hey, hey, come on, come on. You know, she ain't bullshitting. Come on, everybody, come on, come on, come on. They, I mean, everyone. I mean, everyone just like, oh, shit, all right, we might have something here, let's go. Yeah.

• 47:33Conan O'Brien?

  So, are you interested in doing more? That's, that's always the question you'll be getting a lot, is the acting, the, the, you know, just? Film acting, you know, doing this kind of.

• 47:43Speaker 02

  It's it's gonna be project by project based on that, you know, I'm I'm not looking for another dramatic role. Um, you know, I like making people laugh. I want to. Yes, comedy is my that's that's that's my my love. So I, you know, that's what I'm looking for next.

• 47:59Conan O'Brien?

  Wanda, congrats. You're getting great reviews. Undercard is in theaters now and um, I want you to come back soon because I love talking to you. You're hilarious and you're also, I know you to be a really great person. So it's always a delight to hang with you.

• 48:15Speaker 02

  Thank you, Colin.

• 48:16Conan O'Brien?

  And I hope now you're no longer indifferent.

• 48:18Speaker 02

  Well, you know, I I love you, but you know, we'll see.

• 48:31Conan O'Brien?

  You know, winning an award, that's a big achievement, right?

• 48:34Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 48:34Conan O'Brien?

  Every now and then in life, maybe something nice like that comes your way. Winning them consistently is almost impossible. It just doesn't happen, you know? Well, guess what? Winning five times in six years? You know what that sounds like to me? Sustained excellence.

• 48:48Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 48:49Conan O'Brien?

  Hyundai has done just that, earning the title of America's best SUV brand for 2026 from US News and World Report. You are a very happy Hyundai driver.

• 48:57Speaker 01

  I drive a Hyundai Palisade and I love my car. I love it. I love driving it around.

• 49:02Conan O'Brien?

  I've been tooling around in a Ioniq 5 N, which I love.

• 49:06Speaker 01

  Mm hmm.

• 49:06Conan O'Brien?

  Beautiful car. Well, listen, whether you need an SUV for everyday life, your next big adventure, or extra room for family and friends, Hyundai has an option for you. The Tucson Hybrid is loaded with technology and built for everyday life. The Santa Fe Hybrid's fully capable and ready for adventure. The Palisade, that's yours, right?

• 49:21Speaker 01

  Hello.

• 49:22Conan O'Brien?

  They're gonna rename that the Sona. The Palisade Hybrid, yeah, delivers premium capability and class-leading interior space. With available, I have this memorized, H-Track all-wheel drive, up to an EPA-estimated 619 miles of range on vehicles like the Palisade Hybrid and Hyundai's industry-leading warranty. It's easy to see why Hyundai continues to deliver the quality, innovation, technology, and value drivers expect from an award-winning brand. View US News Best Cars at cars.usnews.com and call 562-314-4603 for complete details.

• 49:57Conan O'Brien?

  We all have those pieces in our closet we can count on. Sona, I imagine for you it's that leather jacket I got you.

• 50:02Speaker 01

  Are you gonna do a bit?

• 50:03Conan O'Brien?

  No, no, it's a really nice leather jacket I got you once.

• 50:05Speaker 01

  I had that and then I replaced it and yes, I use it all the time.

• 50:09Conan O'Brien?

  We all have that versatile jacket, the perfect t-shirt, and those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy. And you know what I was thinking about this morning?

• 50:18Speaker 01

  What?

• 50:19Conan O'Brien?

  Quince. They do it best. They really do. I was really thinking about this.

• 50:22Speaker 01

  What a coincidence that we're doing an ad for them.

• 50:24Conan O'Brien?

  No, a co-coincidence.

• 50:26Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 50:28Conan O'Brien?

  That's why I get the big money.

• 50:30Speaker 01

  I gotta go.

• 50:30Conan O'Brien?

  Cut to very small amount of money. Quince makes elevated everyday essentials using premium materials and designs that are timeless, thoughtful, crafted, and made to be worn again and again. And when the temperature starts to drop, Quince makes it easy to build on those everyday staples with versatile layers. Layer up. That's the key. Now, Blay, you're using some Quince.

• 50:50Speaker 04

  That's right. I'm spending a lot of time back east in Michigan. It's getting a little colder, so I got a featherless quilted jacket in Atlas Navy, and I just feel like a different guy. I feel classy.

• 51:00Conan O'Brien?

  You look like a different guy because you're well dressed.

• 51:03Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 51:03Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 51:03Speaker 04

  No, I'm serious. He looks like a hobo half the time.

• 51:05Conan O'Brien?

  That's true. He's right. That's true. No, they really do great stuff. Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app-exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada and the UK as well.

• 51:20Speaker 01

  All right.

• 51:20Conan O'Brien?

  And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know it was Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. Please do that. Say, "By the way, I heard about this on Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend." "Oh, I didn't really ask. I just want you to know." It's the best way to support the show.

• 51:39Conan O'Brien?

  Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is so good, it's almost impossible not to finish it before the meal arrives. It's just too good to wait. That happens to me sometimes.

• 51:48Speaker 01

  Me too.

• 51:49Conan O'Brien?

  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.

• 52:03Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:04Conan O'Brien?

  Occupational hazard with Coke Zero.

• 52:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 52:07Conan O'Brien?

  Real Coca-Cola taste, zero sugar, too good to wait. Enjoy an ice cold Coca-Cola Zero Sugar today.

• 52:20Conan O'Brien?

  All right, now, David, you very kindly last night drove me out to Covina.

• 52:25Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 52:26Conan O'Brien?

  I am trying out some material and I went to the Chatterbox.

• 52:30Speaker 05

  Mm-hmm.

• 52:31Conan O'Brien?

  Which is a terrific comedy club that Laurie Kill Martin told me about, out in Covina. And so, uh, you said, "Hey, I'll give you a lift," very kindly. And you and I were driving and I tried to play my tunes through your car.

• 52:47Speaker 05

  Yeah, you said you wanted to be the DJ.

• 52:49Conan O'Brien?

  I wanted to be the DJ. And you said, "Well, just use my phone because it's already hooked up."

• 52:54Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 52:54Conan O'Brien?

  So I got a brief glimpse.

• 52:57Speaker 05

  It was the biggest regret of my life.

• 52:58Conan O'Brien?

  I got a brief glimpse, you know, because I see all of my, you know, I have my DJ list.

• 53:04Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:04Conan O'Brien?

  And it's all rockabilly songs and then The Clash and then, you know, it's just this, it's, it's all this different stuff, stuff from the 90s. But it's, it's pretty fast rock. And, um, you know, sort of jet fueled rock and roll, uh, percussive. And then you said, "Just use my phone." And you hand me your phone.

• 53:25Speaker 05

  Why I did this, I don't know.

• 53:26Conan O'Brien?

  And I could see your Spotify.

• 53:27Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 53:28Conan O'Brien?

  And what did I see?

• 53:31Conan O'Brien?

  The first thing I saw.

• 53:31Speaker 05

  First thing, I handed the phone and I just hear, "Oh, my God."

• 53:35Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 53:37Conan O'Brien?

  What was the very first thing?

• 53:38Speaker 05

  It was a Hilary Duff playlist. And then I recently went to the Pantages to see The Notebook, the musical, so I was listening to it.

• 53:45Speaker 01

  I did too!

• 53:46Conan O'Brien?

  The very first thing I saw was The Notebook and then like seven songs from The Notebook.

• 53:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 53:52Conan O'Brien?

  And then...

• 53:53Speaker 05

  It's a great soundtrack.

• 53:54Speaker 01

  It is. It is a great soundtrack.

• 53:55Conan O'Brien?

  I'm not aware.

• 53:56Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 53:57Conan O'Brien?

  Is that the, what's, what are the songs? Like, is Notebook a song?

• 54:00Speaker 05

  No.

• 54:01Conan O'Brien?

  Notebook. I fill you with my thoughts, you're a notebook. Nixon was a crook, you were a notebook. Okay, so what?

• 54:11Speaker 04

  It's based on the movie. It's not a, a musical about a notebook. It's based on the movie.

• 54:16Conan O'Brien?

  Well, that may be an opportunity, in my opinion.

• 54:18Speaker 05

  It's like picture of you and Ryan Reynolds were singing in that bit you did with him for The Notebook.

• 54:23Conan O'Brien?

  Where I made out with Ryan Reynolds?

• 54:24Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 54:24Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. Um, well, listen, that was the first thing I saw. Then there's a lot of Hilary Duff.

• 54:30Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 54:30Conan O'Brien?

  Who I think is lovely. I love Hilary Duff. Who doesn't?

• 54:32Speaker 05

  She's the best.

• 54:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 54:33Conan O'Brien?

  Um, and, and then I start flipping through. You just had, uh...

• 54:37Speaker 05

  Oh, well, I'm going to see the Backstreet Boys next week, so I had them on there too.

• 54:41Speaker 01

  All right.

• 54:42Conan O'Brien?

  Um, you know, it was, uh, it was fascinating. A quick glimpse into how we're different.

• 54:47Speaker 05

  A little bit, a little different.

• 54:49Conan O'Brien?

  Just a little bit, just a little bit.

• 54:51Speaker 01

  A little bit different.

• 54:52Conan O'Brien?

  And, you know, it wasn't, it wasn't, I don't judge. I'm not a judge.

• 54:55Speaker 05

  Oh, you're not judging. Who are you talking to? I'm sorry. Let's take a poll. Who thinks Conan judges?

• 55:03Conan O'Brien?

  I am not a guy who judges.

• 55:06Speaker 05

  No.

• 55:06Conan O'Brien?

  I don't see how we're different. I only see how we're the same.

• 55:12Speaker 05

  Who is this guy?

• 55:14Conan O'Brien?

  This is the guy I wish I was. Is it the guy I, I don't. No, it's not.

• 55:20Speaker 05

  I hate this guy.

• 55:21Conan O'Brien?

  Uh, no, um, yeah, I was, uh, how long? I mean, what else would I have found if we had gone through? Seriously, let's talk about what else I would have found if I'd kept scrolling.

• 55:29Speaker 05

  Oh, God. Well, you would have found some audiobooks. I'm listening to one called You'll Never Know. I think you'd like it.

• 55:34Conan O'Brien?

  What's that about?

• 55:35Speaker 05

  It's like a murder, mystery kidnapping book.

• 55:39Conan O'Brien?

  Okay.

• 55:39Speaker 05

  It's really good.

• 55:40Conan O'Brien?

  Okay.

• 55:40Speaker 05

  Um, you would have found, uh, some like, you know,

• 55:46Speaker 05

  any music that a 15-year-old girl. Like a Carrie Underwood, yeah. Some Sabrina Carpenter.

• 55:53Conan O'Brien?

  So I get the most excited, uh, texts from you the other night because you got last-minute tickets to go see Hilary Duff.

• 56:01Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 56:01Conan O'Brien?

  And you lost your mind.

• 56:03Speaker 05

  It was.

• 56:03Conan O'Brien?

  Which was very sweet. I like that.

• 56:05Speaker 05

  Dare I say, it was the greatest night of my life.

• 56:07Conan O'Brien?

  But you've seen me perform.

• 56:09Speaker 05

  Oh. Dare I say, it was the greatest night of my life?

• 56:12Conan O'Brien?

  That's quite a dare you just took.

• 56:14Speaker 05

  And the, um, same venue I've seen you perform at The Wiltern.

• 56:17Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, it was at the, she did a show at The Wiltern? So you said you saw her and that it was transcendent?

• 56:22Speaker 05

  It was like, the crowd was incredible. She was amazing. She did all the throwbacks and some new ones from the unreleased album that you guys are all excited for.

• 56:31Conan O'Brien?

  We should get her in here. I act like I could just summon her. No, I, this isn't one of those things where I, that's so sad. David just looked like I've arranged to have her here. David, who do you think I am?

• 56:43Speaker 05

  Aren't you like the Oprah of comedy?

• 56:45Conan O'Brien?

  No, I'm really not.

• 56:49Conan O'Brien?

  That's so funny. You looked for a second like, oh my god. Well, David, guess what? We have a surprise for you.

• 56:54Speaker 01

  Oh my god.

• 56:55Conan O'Brien?

  I can have a publicist try to get her on the podcast and she'll probably say no. No, love to have her here, but she was a big part of your growing up.

• 57:06Speaker 05

  Everything, yeah. All her music, movies.

• 57:08Conan O'Brien?

  What was the show she was on?

• 57:09Speaker 05

  Lizzie McGuire.

• 57:10Conan O'Brien?

  Lizzie McGuire.

• 57:10Speaker 05

  They were supposed to bring it back and then it didn't happen. We're all devastated. Billy's McGuire movie, a classic.

• 57:16Conan O'Brien?

  Okay.

• 57:17Speaker 01

  Right.

• 57:17Conan O'Brien?

  She was also in Agent Cody Banks, I believe.

• 57:19Speaker 05

  Agent Cody Banks, which you've watched.

• 57:21Speaker 01

  How do you know Agent Cody Banks? How did you know that?

• 57:25Conan O'Brien?

  I was a big investor.

• 57:26Speaker 01

  Oh, okay, alright.

• 57:28Conan O'Brien?

  Put everything I had into it. Did okay. No, I don't even know why I know that. I just remembered her being in that movie.

• 57:37Speaker 05

  You were traveling somewhere and it was on?

• 57:39Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, I think I watched it. It's one of those movies where I watched some of it over someone's shoulder on a plane. Without sound.

• 57:45Speaker 05

  So creepy.

• 57:46Speaker 01

  Conan! That's a weird thing to say.

• 57:49Conan O'Brien?

  Everyone does that.

• 57:51Speaker 01

  To just look at someone?

• 57:52Conan O'Brien?

  Everybody watches, you're on an airplane flight and someone usually on the other aisle, like one or two rows up, is watching a movie and you're too lazy, that being me, to like, I'm supposed to go find which movie I'm gonna watch. But I just start looking over someone's shoulder and they're usually about a third of the way in. And I just start watching it without sound and trying to figure out what's going on. No one else has done this here? I've done it. Eduardo, have you done it?

• 58:22Speaker 01

  I don't. I've definitely peeked over to see what people are watching. I've peeked over, but I'm not like full on watching it.

• 58:27Conan O'Brien?

  No, I'll kind of watch it because you kind of try and figure out what's going on and, oh, okay, I see.

• 58:36Conan O'Brien?

  Cody's gotta get his way out of that volcano. Oh, look, there's Hilary Duff. She must be the love interest. I don't know, you just watch those things. I've watched many movies like that.

• 58:46Speaker 04

  It's also way better than what happened to you on a plane where someone was watching you and saw you.

• 58:50Conan O'Brien?

  I've had that, I've had that experience where someone was watching a monologue of mine and looking over and if the joke was good, they would turn and give me a thumbs up. I can't hear it because they've got their, they've got their headphones on.

• 59:03Speaker 01

  Oh god.

• 59:03Conan O'Brien?

  And they were watching my monologue and I had, this is a bunch of years ago and they were watching, it was when they have the, you know, it's TV.

• 59:10Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 59:10Conan O'Brien?

  So they're watching the show that was dropping right then that I had taped a few hours before. And this person kept, they would turn around and I can just see me making stupid gestures and looking like a fool. And then you can tell my rhythm and then I hit the punchline and the person turned to me on the first one and gave me a thumbs up. And I'm like, oh, well, that's good. And then I saw them, I was trying to rack my brain because just a few hours later, what was the second joke? Was the second joke any good? And then I kind of had a bad feeling and I, I can see, I know my timing and I see that I finished that joke and the person turns to me and did the eh gesture. And I'm like, are we gonna do this the whole flight? Good one, not so good one.

• 59:53Conan O'Brien?

  Uh, anyway, so I had that experience, but I really do like watching someone else's movie and trying to figure it out.

• 59:59Speaker 05

  My last flight, so I know I'll get this. I was watching Heated Rivalry, but I like, I'm on a flight, so I like, sat with my phone like this, covering everything.

• 1:00:08Speaker 01

  Blanket over you and no pants on.

• 1:00:11Conan O'Brien?

  Watching, is it porn?

• 1:00:12Speaker 01

  It's not porn. Stop taking away from the show.

• 1:00:16Conan O'Brien?

  I'm not trying to.

• 1:00:17Speaker 01

  It's tender and it's sweet.

• 1:00:18Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, but there's nudity.

• 1:00:20Speaker 05

  The first two episodes especially has nudity.

• 1:00:23Speaker 01

  Real fun. There's butts. Well, we talked about this.

• 1:00:25Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, we talked about that and I think everyone's talking about Heated Rivalry now. Uh, they don't need any help from us anymore. I think we got them safely launched.

• 1:00:31Speaker 05

  You did it all?

• 1:00:32Conan O'Brien?

  We did it.

• 1:00:33Speaker 01

  It isn't a movie you can comfortably watch or a show you can comfortably watch on an airplane.

• 1:00:37Speaker 04

  Yeah. Same thing happened to me with, uh, I'm watching this show Industry, which I love right now. And there is, and it's kind of all going fine. It's about finance, but sometimes there's some sex scenes. And there is a, all of a sudden a reveal where she's wearing a huge strap on and I, I like jumped forward in my seat to block. But the, the people next to me saw what I was watching and that was horrible.

• 1:00:58Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, well, they probably just thought, you know. Suspicion's confirmed.

• 1:01:01Speaker 04

  Yeah.

• 1:01:01Conan O'Brien?

  But. El Crepo in seat 7D.

• 1:01:04Speaker 04

  It's way better than the time where So the Dark Knight Rises had just come out. And it was that time where it was on planes, but you couldn't watch it anywhere else. It was out of the theaters, but wasn't on streaming. And I just really, I spent, I'm not kidding, probably an hour and a half just watching the Bane scenes. Cause it's just over and over. And then I realized what I was doing and I looked over and the woman next to me was horrified, like trying not to look at me and I realized, oh yeah, I've just been watching Bane for an hour.

• 1:01:32Speaker 01

  Why were you just watching?

• 1:01:33Speaker 04

  He's cool, man. Bane's cool. Come on.

• 1:01:36Speaker 05

  You would just like finish it and then just rewind to that?

• 1:01:38Speaker 04

  Yeah, cause yeah, exactly.

• 1:01:40Speaker 01

  You just forwarded to Bane scenes?

• 1:01:41Speaker 04

  What?

• 1:01:42Speaker 01

  You just forwarded to the scenes with Bane?

• 1:01:44Speaker 04

  Yeah, those were cool scenes. Bane's cool. Come on, guys. I'm not the only guy who thinks Bane's cool in here.

• 1:01:48Conan O'Brien?

  Not at all.

• 1:01:50Speaker 04

  All right, well, I think we're out of time. The rap late is on.

• 1:01:54Speaker 01

  Let that linger. That is weird.

• 1:01:57Conan O'Brien?

  Rap line came out of rap, those came us in. Uh, okay, so, uh.

• 1:02:02Speaker 04

  Wow, I completely derailed that.

• 1:02:04Conan O'Brien?

  No, that's okay.

• 1:02:05Speaker 04

  I'm sorry.

• 1:02:06Speaker 01

  No, we can't cut that. We can't ever cut that.

• 1:02:10Speaker 04

  I thought we were sharing stuff of us on planes.

• 1:02:12Speaker 01

  When I rewatched Heated Rivalry, I forwarded to the sex scene, like a normal person. But like, I just didn't know people forwarded to like all Bane scenes in the, in The Dark Knight.

• 1:02:24Conan O'Brien?

  Not everybody. Blah. All right. Uh, listen, I'm proud of everyone here. I don't even know why I said that. Um, oh, this is just a segment, right?

• 1:02:35Speaker 05

  Yeah.

• 1:02:35Conan O'Brien?

  Okay, so there's no fun thing at the end where I go, our next guest?

• 1:02:38Speaker 05

  No, you just say bye?

• 1:02:39Conan O'Brien?

  I so don't know what happens on this thing anymore.

• 1:02:41Speaker 01

  That's okay.

• 1:02:42Conan O'Brien?

  Uh, listen.

• 1:02:43Speaker 01

  I'll help you.

• 1:02:44Speaker 05

  You're doing your best.

• 1:02:45Conan O'Brien?

  You know what? You should be proud of your set list of music.

• 1:02:49Speaker 05

  Thank you.

• 1:02:49Conan O'Brien?

  You know what I mean? It's yours. It means something to you. Uh, it means nothing to me.

• 1:02:53Speaker 05

  No.

• 1:02:54Conan O'Brien?

  Uh, and I, I judge you for it negatively.

• 1:02:59Speaker 05

  You're welcome for driving you to Covina.

• 1:03:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:03:02Conan O'Brien?

  Just literally a few streets away from my home. Peace out. Keep up.

• 1:03:09Speaker 03

  Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend with Conan O'Brien, Sonam of Sessian, and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Nick Liao. Theme song by The White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy.

• 1:03:30Speaker 06

  Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista, and Britt Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Coco hotline at 669-587-2847 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign up at siriusxm.com/conan. And if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.

• 1:04:19Conan O'Brien?

  Technology can generate salary recommendations in seconds, but building an offer that lands skilled talent, that takes more than just an estimate you came up with.

• 1:04:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're right.

• 1:04:29Conan O'Brien?

  That's where Robert Half's new 2027 Salary Guide can help.

• 1:04:33Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 1:04:34Conan O'Brien?

  Did we use a salary guide with you, Sona?

• 1:04:35Speaker 01

  Uh, no, but maybe-

• 1:04:36Conan O'Brien?

  For several years, I just gave you groceries, remember?

• 1:04:39Speaker 01

  I know, yeah, I remember that. That was not good.

• 1:04:41Conan O'Brien?

  Uh, well, anyway, now you've got Robert Half's new 2027 Salary Guide. As a staffing firm placing talent every day, Robert Half combines compensation data with the experience of local recruiters, so you can hire with the confidence that comes from experience. The new Robert Half Salary Guide is here. Visit roberthalf.com/salaryguide.

• 1:05:02Speaker 06

  Hey, it's me, Teddy Swims. You hear that? That's life. So go grab it. Grab your old friends, grab new friends, grab a white glow. Grab flavor for everyone in your group. Grab music, laughter, and moments you'll never forget. You'll never regret it. Oh, hey, man. Grab new friends, grab old friends, grab life by the glow. White glow. Please drink responsibly. White Glow Celta Works, Chicago, Illinois.