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

Conan returns with producers Mike Sweeney, Jessie Gaskell, and Jose Arroyo for a deep dive into his travels through Morocco and the Philippines on the newest season of Conan O’Brien Must Go. Wanna get a chance to talk to Conan? Submit here: teamcoco.com/apply

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

• 0:02Conan 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?

• 0:14Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:15Conan O'Brien?

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

• 0:19Speaker 01

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

• 0:22Conan O'Brien?

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

• 0:26Speaker 01

  It's mine, dude.

• 0:27Conan 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.

• 0:39Speaker 01

  Liberty, liberty, liberty.

• 0:41Conan O'Brien?

  It's in my head all the time.

• 0:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, me too.

• 0:43Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. Start your quote at libertymutual.com.

• 0:49Conan O'Brien?

  With the US Bank Smartly Visa Signature Card, you earn an unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase. Huh, it's a good deal.

• 0:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:57Conan O'Brien?

  No quarterly activations, no categories to track, just unlimited 2% cash back on every purchase. Sona, just the other day, I bought you this antique wig stand.

• 1:07Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 1:08Conan O'Brien?

  And I didn't get cash back and I regret it now.

• 1:11Speaker 01

  Oh, okay. Well, that's a very thoughtful gift.

• 1:14Conan O'Brien?

  Do you wear a wig or is that your hair?

• 1:15Speaker 01

  Absolutely not. It's definitely my hair. And so it's kind of insulting you would buy that gift for me.

• 1:21Conan O'Brien?

  Well, I'll just return it anyway, but I do wish I got cash back.

• 1:24Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:25Conan O'Brien?

  Visit usbank.com/smartlycard to learn more. The creditor and issuer of this card is US Bank National Association pursuant to a license from Visa USA Inc. Some restrictions may apply.

• 1:39Speaker 01

  Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Wanna talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com/callconan. Okay, let's get started.

• 1:49Conan O'Brien?

  Hey, Conan O'Brien here and we are back with part two. Very special two-part series we're doing. Behind the scenes look at Conan O'Brien Must Go, season three. And in season three, I go to India, Netherlands, Morocco, and the Philippines. And last week, we discussed India and the Netherlands, two shows that really made us happy. And today, we're gonna talk about Morocco and the Philippines. These are all out now. Conan O'Brien Must Go, HBO. We're very happy with how it all came out. And I'm sitting here with three of the writer producers that have done every travel show with me. And that is Mike Sweeney. Hello, Mike.

• 2:33Speaker 02

  Hello.

• 2:35Conan O'Brien?

  Yep, can't be real.

• 2:39Conan O'Brien?

  Jesse Gaskell.

• 2:40Speaker 03

  Hi.

• 2:40Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, very good. And hello. And you know him as Dr. Arroyo, but we call him Jose Arroyo. Jose.

• 2:50Speaker 03

  Hi, Conan.

• 2:50Conan O'Brien?

  And pretty good. The only one here with a soul is Jesse. But I can't stress enough how hard these talented people work to make these shows really fun. It's a lot. It's very labor intensive. And I know that anyone watching these shows just thinks, oh, that's Conan just improvising and having fun and being funny off the cuff. And 98% of the time, that's true. But you do

• 3:20Speaker 01

  I was gonna say, that's you commenting that.

• 3:22Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, but you work very hard on that other 2%. No, the since the beginning, what's the first show we all did together?

• 3:33Speaker 03

  Cuba.

• 3:33Conan O'Brien?

  It was Cuba, that's right.

• 3:34Speaker 03

  Cuba, 15.

• 3:35Conan O'Brien?

  And how many countries have we done now if you count Conan Without Borders? Plus, then we changed to Conan O'Brien Must Go for HBO, so that's 25.

• 3:45Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 3:46Conan O'Brien?

  Gone to 25 countries. There are 25 nations where I'm no longer welcome.

• 3:52Speaker 01

  170 to go. What are the six if you count the US?

• 3:54Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, you know, when you pass a bad check, they put your picture up on the register? Yeah. I'm at the cash register of every country that we visited. And you know, how it works is and what's really happened with Conan O'Brien Must Go is it begins with a fan from another country calling into the podcast, Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend. I chat with them and if you sense a certain kind of electricity, that resonates. It doesn't happen with everybody, but sometimes we notice, oh, I've just talked to, you know, two really funny fans from Japan. And the next thing you know, we're gonna head to Japan.

• 4:37Conan O'Brien?

  Or I've just talked to two really funny fans in India. Let's go. So, once we know we're gonna go, Mike Sweeney, Jesse Gaskell, and Jose Arroyo drill down. They think a lot about the country. They try and figure out what are the fun places we could see Conan going? What are kind of the fun activities that are, you know, that this country's known for, that Conan could participate in? And then you guys meet with me. I throw in some ideas. We all hash it out. And then we take off. There's a whole other apparatus. There's Jeff Ross, our executive producer.

• 5:20Conan O'Brien?

  There's Jason Chalomi, who's been with me since early days of Late Night. He started as an intern.

• 5:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 5:27Conan O'Brien?

  And

• 5:28Speaker 03

  Invaluable field producer gets everything done.

• 5:31Speaker 01

  He knows where the bodies are buried.

• 5:32Conan O'Brien?

  He knows where the bodies are buried. And he's the guy, if you say, if we are on the street of Bangalore and one of us says it would be really funny if, in this moment, if Conan was able to hold up a cuckoo clock made of caramel.

• 5:50Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 5:51Conan O'Brien?

  We say to Chalomi, Jason Chalomi, cuckoo clock made of caramel? And he goes like, hold on a second.

• 5:57Speaker 01

  I already, I packed it.

• 5:58Conan O'Brien?

  He, no, he or he goes rushing off down an alley and comes back 20 minutes later with one.

• 6:05Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 6:06Conan O'Brien?

  And maybe he killed somebody. I don't know.

• 6:10Conan O'Brien?

  But

• 6:10Speaker 02

  And he picks all our local producers, all our fixers.

• 6:14Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, and that's it. We should also I neglected to say that last time, but in all of these countries, Jason finds, and he has he has a perfect batting average. Unerring batting average. Picking, finding these people who are so good at what they do, they live in country, they're from that country, and they just know how things work. And

• 6:40Speaker 02

  Right.

• 6:41Speaker 01

  But also have good chemistry with us and

• 6:43Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. And they become, every time we become friendly with them, it's very emotional when we leave these countries because we have been living with these people for a week. It always starts with them being very formal and polite when they meet me. I'm coming down the escalator in one of 25 countries. And I say hello to them and they say, oh, hello, hello, Mr. O'Brien. I go, no, no, no, it's Conan. And within 24 hours, they're making fun of me.

• 7:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:12Conan O'Brien?

  And then we're all joking around. We have inside jokes. And at the end, we're all crying and hugging each other.

• 7:16Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 7:17Speaker 01

  Drunk kickboxing.

• 7:21Conan O'Brien?

  So let's talk about

• 7:23Speaker 02

  They're in the show, like in the Philippines.

• 7:24Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, yes. Well, let's get into it. Let's start with Morocco because that is the third show. And the reason we're having these special podcast episodes is because all four are out now. And so season three complete is available on HBO, Conan O'Brien Must Go. And Morocco, let's talk about it.

• 7:44Speaker 03

  It's funny, you mentioned Jason Chalomi. Right before we started this podcast, he came in and he said Morocco is wildly popular on HBO. It's like the one that's really, you know, kicking it off and

• 7:58Conan O'Brien?

  Why is that, do you think?

• 7:59Speaker 03

  It's a completely different look, for one. Two, you have Sona with you on this episode.

• 8:05Speaker 01

  The road trip element, I think, is really fun.

• 8:07Speaker 03

  And the chemistry between the two of you is so strong.

• 8:10Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 8:10Speaker 03

  It just builds laughter.

• 8:11Speaker 02

  You should have her on your podcast.

• 8:14Conan O'Brien?

  I mean, yeah, but she's such a, she's such a wallflower.

• 8:19Speaker 03

  No, no, you gotta draw her out.

• 8:20Conan O'Brien?

  She doesn't speak up.

• 8:21Speaker 03

  You gotta draw her out.

• 8:22Conan O'Brien?

  She's so quiet.

• 8:23Speaker 03

  Yes, she's

• 8:24Conan O'Brien?

  So, but, well, go ahead, Mike, yeah?

• 8:27Speaker 02

  I was gonna say, my favorite thing about this episode, when we were planning it, we had to plan it quickly after the Oscars. And we're like, oh, it'd be great to have Sona to, you know, for a different look. Sona come to Morocco, that would be great. And we're like, we're like, why?

• 8:45Conan O'Brien?

  We need an organic reason. There needs to be an organic reason for Sona to come.

• 8:49Speaker 02

  Jesse remembered her talking about

• 8:54Conan O'Brien?

  On the podcast.

• 8:55Speaker 02

  Yes, about argon oil for her hair.

• 8:58Conan O'Brien?

  Yes. No, on the podcast.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  A lady knows.

• 9:01Conan O'Brien?

  On the podcast, Sona

• 9:03Speaker 01

  Same recognized game.

• 9:04Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. Sona had talked about needing argon oil for her hair, which, and it, you know, you have to get it from Morocco. And she had gone on about it. And then we thought, oh, wait a minute. This is already, this is already in the ether. She has talked about this. So that became a quest. Sona's here to get her argon oil. And then, obviously, I adore Sona. And she is such a good natural improviser. I mean, I hired her to be my assistant. And then, and it just turned out that she was one of the funniest natural improvisers.

• 9:47Conan O'Brien?

  And also has a completely different energy, background, point of view from me. And she's she is just the best. So having Sona along was magic. And then these sweeping desert shots? We're in like a part of the Sahara Desert. And it looks like a David Lean movie. It looks like Lawrence of Arabia.

• 10:14Speaker 01

  It doesn't, yeah, I mean, so often we're used to seeing shots, especially in LA, where it's like, oh, I know where they went. They went to Barstow for that.

• 10:22Speaker 03

  Or Lancaster.

• 10:23Speaker 01

  Yeah. And this is like, you can't recreate that anywhere.

• 10:27Conan O'Brien?

  They went to Pasadena for that.

• 10:30Conan O'Brien?

  I can see Gourley's house.

• 10:32Speaker 03

  The little Sahara neighborhood of LA.

• 10:35Conan O'Brien?

  Little Sahara. Oh, they have such good restaurants there.

• 10:41Conan O'Brien?

  But yeah, so for all the reasons, Morocco is so iconic. And the fans that we talked to in Morocco were great. And we knew, okay, they'll be good to talk to. We'll have a good connection with them.

• 10:57Speaker 03

  Yassir was the guy.

• 10:58Speaker 01

  In Casablanca.

• 10:59Speaker 03

  In Casablanca, who admitted to you that he had never seen the movie Casablanca.

• 11:04Conan O'Brien?

  Which enraged me.

• 11:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, we're going to Morocco.

• 11:08Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, we gotta get this guy to watch it. And yeah, that was brilliant. And also, this is not in the show. But speaking of Casablanca and the movie.

• 11:23Conan O'Brien?

  There was some snafu at the airport and we had to fly out of Casablanca. But there was a major bureaucratic holdup. And we, we needed to get on this plane to fly to a different part of Morocco.

• 11:37Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 11:38Conan O'Brien?

  And they, we couldn't get on the plane. And we were trapped in this airport for a bunch of hours. You guys were playing like Pictionary.

• 11:46Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 11:47Conan O'Brien?

  And everyone's, you know, we're walking around, we're stuck in this airport. And then I realized the plot of Casablanca is people trying to fly out of Casablanca, but they can't.

• 11:59Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 12:00Conan O'Brien?

  So, you know, real quick, I need my papers, you know? No one can get out of Casablanca, they're trapped. And so I kept going up to the customs guys and trying to say, isn't this kind of funny? Cause the plot of Casablanca is that they can't get out of Casablanca on a plane. And that's the whole thing. And now I'm stuck in Casablanca. These guys hadn't seen Casablanca.

• 12:22Speaker 03

  No.

• 12:23Conan O'Brien?

  Didn't think I was funny. And they may be right about that. And so the whole thing was, was an absurdity. But that was a little behind the scenes story. We were in vans, driving. We, um, we came ready to shoot with GoPros in the van. So you really see Sona and I just tooling around the desert.

• 12:45Speaker 03

  In a vintage Land Rover, I think.

• 12:48Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 12:48Speaker 03

  Or.

• 12:49Speaker 01

  A Defender, was that the?

• 12:50Speaker 03

  Yeah, one of those sort of classic looking desert, desert vehicles.

• 12:55Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, which by the way, and this is not, not that, it just was an older truck. It was maybe a 25, 30 year old, 40 year old, 70, 100 year old truck. And it, it drove for shit. I mean, it just, it was, it was.

• 13:10Speaker 03

  That's in the show.

• 13:11Speaker 01

  It was also way too small for you. I mean.

• 13:14Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, I didn't fit. My legs were all tied up in pretzels, but also the amount of play in the steering wheel was suicidal.

• 13:23Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 13:24Conan O'Brien?

  It was suicidal. But that's all in the, that's all in the episode.

• 13:27Speaker 02

  And I think, I think the owner was getting mad. You were bad mouthing his beautiful vehicle.

• 13:32Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, well.

• 13:33Speaker 02

  It's like, what?

• 13:34Conan O'Brien?

  Whoa, whoa, whoa.

• 13:35Speaker 01

  He doesn't know how to drive it.

• 13:36Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah. He was like, that's not how you drive it. Yeah. It's like, no, no, no. Sir, I assure you, this is a piece of shit.

• 13:44Speaker 03

  But you getting a sand bath with, with Sona being like allowing yourself. This is where you're, you're like the Chuck Yeager of comedy. You just put yourself in any situation where you think there might be a laugh below, you know?

• 14:00Conan O'Brien?

  It's a need. It's a neediness.

• 14:01Speaker 03

  It's such a neediness. But I, you've done it in, in almost every country we've gone to.

• 14:06Speaker 01

  We're fracking for laughs.

• 14:07Speaker 03

  We're fracking. And you'll do anything. And at one point you're just being buried in the Sahara.

• 14:13Conan O'Brien?

  And it's really hot. The, the sand is very, very, you know, when you, you step on a, you're on a super hot beach.

• 14:20Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 14:20Conan O'Brien?

  How it burns your feet and you imagine shovels full of that temperature sand being thrown on your bare chest.

• 14:28Speaker 03

  Up to your neck.

• 14:29Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. But again, I'm thinking, well, this could look funny.

• 14:32Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 14:32Conan O'Brien?

  So, and I can go get an outer layer of skin someplace else.

• 14:37Speaker 03

  Anywhere else.

• 14:39Conan O'Brien?

  No, if someone can demonstrate to me that something's funny, I will do it. And then we'll sort it out with surgeries later. That's my attitude. So Sweeney, what am I forgetting about Morocco? Because there's so much, it's hard to keep track of it all.

• 14:55Speaker 02

  There is great drama. There are these incredible shots of you and Sona on camels.

• 15:01Conan O'Brien?

  Yes.

• 15:01Speaker 02

  Against the really large dunes. And we got delayed getting, we wanted to shoot right before sunset and we got delayed getting there. And time is running out and we pull up. There are, that spot there, other people on one side like riding camels. So we're like, okay, we're going to the left.

• 15:28Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, I was gonna say. Eva Longoria was there. Stanley, Stanley Tucci was there. It's just a backed up travel shows.

• 15:37Speaker 01

  It's golden hour.

• 15:39Speaker 02

  So we had to literally run up to the dune and get the camels up there. And you, you guys got on the camels just in time.

• 15:48Conan O'Brien?

  Yep.

• 15:50Speaker 02

  And we shot it just before the sunset.

• 15:52Conan O'Brien?

  And you got that spectacular light.

• 15:54Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 15:55Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 15:56Conan O'Brien?

  And, um.

• 15:58Speaker 03

  That's in the show. These were the shadows of the camels. You see them against the sand. It's very dramatic, very cool.

• 16:05Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 16:05Speaker 03

  But that was like the country part. And then you went into the, into the souk, into Marrakech.

• 16:10Conan O'Brien?

  Yep.

• 16:10Speaker 03

  And you and Sona were finding, finding comedy in the stalls of the, of the markets.

• 16:17Conan O'Brien?

  There was, you'll always find people.

• 16:19Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:19Conan O'Brien?

  You'll always find people. There was a guy there who was in, very politically incorrect. Some of his comments.

• 16:27Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 16:27Conan O'Brien?

  And to the point where I was almost choking. I was like, how is this guy not in jail? But I leave that to the authorities. And yeah, the, the, again, go ahead.

• 16:41Speaker 02

  Oh, you did a portrait with a famous Moroccan artist, Hassan Hozaj.

• 16:46Conan O'Brien?

  Yep.

• 16:47Speaker 02

  Which was amazing. That was fun.

• 16:48Conan O'Brien?

  He has shot Billie Eilish. She's, I mean, he, he's had taken so many iconic photographs of huge stars. And then he decided to, to try Conan O'Brien. It was, that was really fun.

• 17:00Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 17:00Speaker 01

  It was really cool to watch. Yeah, it was just sort of in an alley behind his studio, but he, he makes it look unique with all these Moroccan textiles that he incorporates into his work.

• 17:12Speaker 03

  And he got you in the mood by having a live music player there playing the goomberry or something like that.

• 17:18Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 17:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:19Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 17:20Speaker 03

  And it kind of puts you in a trance.

• 17:23Conan O'Brien?

  Of course.

• 17:23Speaker 03

  Exactly.

• 17:24Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 17:24Speaker 03

  It was really something.

• 17:25Conan O'Brien?

  The, again, we had this magical experience. Great fixers, great locals helping us out.

• 17:34Speaker 01

  Great food.

• 17:36Conan O'Brien?

  Food there is spectacular.

• 17:38Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 17:39Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. We had pizza.

• 17:42Speaker 01

  That might have been the only place we did, no, we did have pizza.

• 17:44Conan O'Brien?

  General Chow's Chicken. I love we go to these countries and we just only eat pizza. The food in Morocco. They make a pizza margarita.

• 17:55Speaker 01

  It's on a pita.

• 17:56Speaker 02

  Marrakech, Marrakech pizza.

• 18:07Conan 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.

• 18:12Speaker 01

  Are you gonna do a bit?

• 18:13Conan O'Brien?

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

• 18:15Speaker 01

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

• 18:19Conan 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?

• 18:28Speaker 01

  What?

• 18:29Conan O'Brien?

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

• 18:32Speaker 01

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

• 18:34Conan O'Brien?

  No, a co coincidence.

• 18:36Speaker 01

  Oh, no.

• 18:38Conan O'Brien?

  That's why I get the big money.

• 18:40Speaker 01

  I gotta go.

• 18:40Conan 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, you're using some Quince.

• 19:00Speaker 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, an Atlas Navy. And I just feel like a different guy. I feel classy.

• 19:10Conan O'Brien?

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

• 19:12Speaker 04

  That's right.

• 19:13Conan O'Brien?

  Exactly. No, I'm seriously, he looks like a hobo half the time.

• 19:15Speaker 04

  That's true. He's right. That's true.

• 19:16Conan O'Brien?

  No, they, 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.

• 19:30Speaker 01

  All right.

• 19:30Conan 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.

• 20:30Speaker 05

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• 21:23Conan O'Brien?

  Let's transition now to the Philippines. Because the Philippines is the final episode. And again, it is out now and all four are out. But Philippines, we've been wanting to go to the Philippines a while. Because somehow, and Mike, you might remember how this happened. We became aware that for reasons that we don't completely understand, we have a big fan base in the Philippines.

• 21:53Speaker 02

  A giant, giant fan base. One thing is your old late night show was broadcast there. So you had a lot of older fans and then you had a lot of younger fans from YouTube clips. And so we've got, just for Conan O'Brien needs a fan. We get so a giant amount of fans from the Philippines writing in. And then when we started interviewing them, each one of them, they were so dynamic.

• 22:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, it was hard to choose.

• 22:25Speaker 02

  Funny, sweet. We were just like, we have to go to the Philippines. It was just kind of, we have to go.

• 22:30Conan O'Brien?

  Filipinos are so, are very funny. Great sense of humor and irreverent and they like, they, they seem to love silliness and irreverence. And they, one of the things that was really fun about going, so we're in Manila. We're staying in Manila at this hotel. And every day I'd come downstairs and the lobby would be filled with people who wanted to say hello and maybe have me sign something. And some of them had made gifts and it was a love in. And I'd come and every single day, every single day I would go down to the lobby.

• 23:13Conan O'Brien?

  And sometimes I'd say, I really need to get my coffee first. Or I'd do it for a while and then I'd say, I, I just gotta go get some coffee. And I'd go into the, to the restaurant to get some, just some coffee. And they would come with me and like sit down at the banquet and I'd be like, okay. But, but it was a great, it was just a great vibe.

• 23:35Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 23:36Speaker 01

  And they knew, I mean, this was surreal for me because it's not like I'm a forward facing part of the show. But they, they knew all of our names and they, you know, wanted autographs from all of us.

• 23:48Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, they knew, they were like, oh my God, it's Jeff Ross.

• 23:50Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah.

• 23:50Conan O'Brien?

  You know, and then, do you want some soup, Jeff? You know, they know like little, little side, little bits that I was doing. They would be like, oh, it's, oh my God, it's, it's Blay, Blay.

• 24:00Speaker 01

  Blay.

• 24:00Conan O'Brien?

  Blay, right? They, they all knew you from Clueless Gamer.

• 24:03Speaker 02

  It was incredible, yes. So the outpouring of love was incredible in the Philippines, really.

• 24:07Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah. And can't say enough about how gratifying that was and how spectacular they were. And I have to say, one of my, one of the fans who had called in was this gentleman who was very interested in becoming, you know, he's a really good martial artist.

• 24:29Speaker 03

  Mustafa Mustafa.

• 24:30Conan O'Brien?

  Mustafa, Mustafa, the name's so good. They, it's so, so nice, they named him twice. Mustafa Mustafa. And he was really funny. I mean, that's one of those conversations I had on the podcast where 30 seconds into the conversation, I said, I'm going to go to the Philippines and hang out with Mustafa Mustafa. So he was great. And then he wanted to be an action star and I was like, I will make you an action star. So we actually, and again, great fixers, great helpers, great research.

• 25:00Speaker 03

  And girly were the fixers and they were characters themselves.

• 25:03Conan O'Brien?

  These two women that were so funny, we ended up putting them in the show. And, and then they make it into the promo for the show.

• 25:12Conan O'Brien?

  And.

• 25:13Speaker 02

  Well, they, they were clearly a comedy, they'd been a comedy team.

• 25:17Conan O'Brien?

  I don't care what anyone says. They don't know it, but they're a comedy team. So they, they helped us arrange to get myself and Mustafa Mustafa on this local procedural.

• 25:31Speaker 01

  Action.

• 25:32Conan O'Brien?

  Action show.

• 25:33Speaker 03

  Police show.

• 25:33Conan O'Brien?

  And so.

• 25:34Speaker 03

  Sangang Dickit.

• 25:35Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. Okay, let's just watch it.

• 25:37Speaker 03

  Okay, sorry. That's the name of the show.

• 25:39Conan O'Brien?

  Okay, I'm sorry. I thought you finally cracked. Um, yeah.

• 25:47Conan O'Brien?

  So they, and that was fun because again, anytime I get to wear a mustache or have, or wear a shirt that's open to my navel and be a dick, uh, which I get to do in my private life all the time. But whenever I get to do that in front of a camera, I'm just so happy. And then Mustafa Mustafa was great. We get a, and so we got to be in this show together. And again, our thanks to the producers and writers of that show. Because I love hanging out with TV writers because that's how I got started. And so the next thing I know, I'm talking to the, the woman that wrote the episode and the guy that wrote the episode. And they were just like, they're fantastic.

• 26:27Speaker 01

  They're just like us, yeah.

• 26:28Conan O'Brien?

  No, you know what's so funny? We started, I said, we just started.

• 26:32Speaker 02

  Complaints.

• 26:33Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, we started just bitching about some of the things about being a comedy.

• 26:37Speaker 01

  Actors.

• 26:38Conan O'Brien?

  Goddamn actors.

• 26:39Speaker 03

  Didn't read the line right.

• 26:40Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah. And I was up all night and they just, they just ad libbed through that line that I worked all, really hard on. So it was nice to know that wherever you go, there you are.

• 26:49Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 26:50Speaker 03

  Yes, that's true.

• 26:51Conan O'Brien?

  But we had.

• 26:55Speaker 02

  The Philippines has some of my favorite.

• 26:57Speaker 03

  You had three fans. You had Mustafa, you had Tricia.

• 27:00Conan O'Brien?

  Yep.

• 27:01Speaker 03

  And then you had Charles. And Tricia, with her husband, ran a hotel in the outskirts, outside of Manila. You offered to help them drum up business for the hotel.

• 27:12Conan O'Brien?

  Yep.

• 27:14Conan O'Brien?

  And I basically got to reprise the Jerry Lewis role in The Bell Boy.

• 27:20Conan O'Brien?

  Again, anytime I'm given the slightest bit of authority and I get to wear a suit.

• 27:25Speaker 01

  And a costume.

• 27:26Conan O'Brien?

  A costume and a hat and I'm given a tiny bit of authority. I become worst guy ever. It was so much, it was such a delight. And I was so impressed by the culture, the people. And, and we found people along the way. We found a balot salesman who agreed to play along with us. You had a great, balot is a, describe what balot is so I don't.

• 27:54Speaker 03

  Balot is a.

• 27:54Speaker 01

  You ate it.

• 27:55Speaker 03

  I actually, actually, yeah. Aaron Blair and I wound up eating balut, which is a duck egg that has been fertilized and is actually the, and the duck has formed a little bit. And then they steam it and then you eat it and you eat the whole thing.

• 28:11Conan O'Brien?

  Because there's a little bit of.

• 28:12Speaker 03

  Well, sure.

• 28:13Speaker 01

  Bones and.

• 28:14Speaker 03

  Little bones and cartilage.

• 28:15Speaker 02

  And the beak.

• 28:16Speaker 03

  And beak and so on. But it's, you know, it's actually widely popular throughout Southeast Asia. There's balut versions in Vietnam and other countries.

• 28:25Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. No, it's a, people love to go, go crazy for balut.

• 28:29Speaker 03

  It's a, it's a popular street food. And you found a street food vendor and you had a great conversation with them.

• 28:35Conan O'Brien?

  And then things there go kind of off the rails where.

• 28:38Speaker 03

  So off the rails.

• 28:39Conan O'Brien?

  I end up having an argument with.

• 28:42Speaker 03

  A metaphysical discussion with a duck?

• 28:44Conan O'Brien?

  A duck, okay, listen, let's.

• 28:47Speaker 03

  I'm giving away.

• 28:48Conan O'Brien?

  A surprise appearance by Doc, by Dr. Arroyo.

• 28:51Speaker 03

  Well, sure, sure. Stay tuned.

• 28:53Conan O'Brien?

  So, so many different adventures.

• 28:56Speaker 01

  This one went off the rails in a lot of places.

• 28:58Speaker 03

  In a beautiful way.

• 29:00Speaker 01

  There's also the MacArthur suite.

• 29:02Conan O'Brien?

  We, General MacArthur had a suite when General MacArthur was in charge of the Philippines. Actually, he, he lived there before the war. He lived there, I believe he returned after the war.

• 29:16Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 29:17Conan O'Brien?

  And.

• 29:18Speaker 01

  He said he would return and he did.

• 29:19Conan O'Brien?

  He did return. But yes, there was, I, I got to be in that suite. And then I don't know what happened.

• 29:26Speaker 03

  You dressed up as MacArthur.

• 29:28Conan O'Brien?

  I dressed up as MacArthur.

• 29:29Speaker 03

  Got the pipe and the.

• 29:30Conan O'Brien?

  And then things got X-rated at one point when I'm lying on.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  Yeah, we realize when you lie down, like some things go to another level usually. There's something about your comedy.

• 29:40Conan O'Brien?

  I am so repressed that when I lie down, all this sexuality comes out of my pores. But, but it's not really sexuality. I don't know what it is.

• 29:48Speaker 03

  It's.

• 29:49Conan O'Brien?

  It's some.

• 29:50Speaker 03

  No one's aroused.

• 29:52Speaker 02

  Why do we shoot you in your right position? You should only be lying down.

• 29:56Conan O'Brien?

  No, the Philippines has a lot of great looks. It's got a lot of.

• 30:02Conan O'Brien?

  Again, we're finding that when we go to these different countries, the country takes over. Yes. You know, that the, it's the people and the culture and the humidity in the air and the smell of the food takes over and that becomes the improv partner. And then we can plan so much and you guys, you know, work really hard at planning as much as possible. And then it's not unlike, you know, a good quarterback. You go in with a plan and then 80% of that time, that plan goes to shit and you need to quickly pivot.

• 30:42Conan O'Brien?

  And so the country takes over at some point and sometimes all the plan stuff works really well. Sometimes we go, we show up and we realize immediately, well, we planned to do this, but that's not happening. But hey, what's that over there? Who's that guy? So anything can change at any moment.

• 31:00Speaker 03

  In every episode, there were things.

• 31:01Speaker 01

  So much fun, yeah.

• 31:02Speaker 03

  That we had to drop for one reason or another and we found something or you discovered something.

• 31:08Speaker 02

  It's always the most exciting part of any show is when things go, when we have to do that pivot. We have to do the pivot.

• 31:16Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. It's so funny because I found out, yes, there are, people talk about, oh, like my favorite Late Night with Conan O'Brien clip, you know, or Conan clip from TBS, whatever. Yes, there's a lot of good stuff that writers work really hard on, that they planned and that was mapped out and it's great. And then I also am aware that so many great moments are accidents. Something kind of went wrong, but we were able to, you know, go with that. Cause it's really fun and people have a sixth sense. Audiences, fans, anyone has a sixth sense of when something is organic. I think you can tell just from looking at internet content.

• 32:00Speaker 03

  Yes.

• 32:01Conan O'Brien?

  When people are faking it.

• 32:02Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah.

• 32:03Conan O'Brien?

  It's like drinking wine. It's like, it's, it's just flat.

• 32:07Speaker 01

  It's like, oh, this is just a sponsored.

• 32:08Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah, whatever. Exactly. But when you see something real, humans know it.

• 32:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 32:15Conan O'Brien?

  The way like a dog can sense danger or like an earthquake's coming, humans know when.

• 32:21Speaker 01

  AI could never do what we do.

• 32:24Conan O'Brien?

  Actually, this has all been AI.

• 32:28Conan O'Brien?

  Well, those are the shows. That wraps up our two-part discussion of these travel shows. It's called Conan O'Brien Must Go and I'm very grateful to my.

• 32:39Speaker 03

  Season three.

• 32:40Conan O'Brien?

  Season three.

• 32:41Speaker 03

  Streaming on HBO.

• 32:42Conan O'Brien?

  Yes. And this season is India, Netherlands, Morocco, Philippines. There are two other seasons. I'm very proud of these shows and grateful to you guys for working so hard and being so talented. And the whole team. I mean, everybody, it is a labor of love and so many people are involved. But my favorite thing about these shows is that, and I know it sounds corny, but I do believe that we make a lot of friends when we go to these places.

• 33:16Conan O'Brien?

  And we, there's a, we go in with a lot of goodwill and, and then we're usually, we're just inevitably always met by these wonderful people with great energy and enthusiasm. And so it's just a joy all around.

• 33:35Speaker 01

  It's the best thing. I can't imagine a better job.

• 33:38Conan O'Brien?

  I think penicillin's the best thing. Like any kind of really effective antibiotic, but you know, I guess that's being challenged these days.

• 33:48Conan O'Brien?

  What do I know? Anyway, check those shows out. Mike Sweeney, Jose Arroyo, Jesse Gaskell. Of course, shout out to Blade Two, who comes on every show. Jeff Ross, Jason Chalamet is.

• 34:02Speaker 03

  Scott Chronic and his costume.

• 34:04Conan O'Brien?

  Scott Chronic coming up with crazy outfits and I'm sure we're forgetting people, but I want to forget some people.

• 34:09Speaker 01

  Our crew.

• 34:10Conan O'Brien?

  Oh my God!

• 34:11Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 34:12Conan O'Brien?

  What the hell?

• 34:12Speaker 02

  Emily, Emily and Brenda.

• 34:15Conan O'Brien?

  We have this Amazon, this crew of Amazons. Let's discuss them briefly because we have to.

• 34:21Speaker 01

  We do. Yeah, we have an all-woman crew that I love. I mean, you don't talk about it that much, but I think, feel like we should because it's unique and, and they're all so good at their jobs. They chase after you and Brenda gets backwards on a horse and they.

• 34:38Conan O'Brien?

  Brenda's this camerawoman who would, no matter what we're doing, she's very athletic. She will grab this camera that weighs more than I do and she will jump on a horse and ride it backwards so that she's in front of me.

• 34:51Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 34:51Conan O'Brien?

  She does stuff like that.

• 34:52Speaker 01

  She did it underwater.

• 34:53Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, she went underwater in the Philippines.

• 34:55Speaker 03

  In the Philippines, she's.

• 34:56Speaker 01

  She's scuba certified and will film you underwater. Yeah. Brenda Zuniga.

• 35:01Speaker 02

  The last scene of the Philippine show, all the entire crew just leapt into the water to shoot it.

• 35:08Speaker 01

  Yeah. And then Emily Topper.

• 35:10Speaker 02

  It was amazing.

• 35:11Conan O'Brien?

  Emily Topper, Emily Topper is, you know, she was the first person we found in this crew and she's spectacular.

• 35:22Speaker 02

  And she's our director of photography.

• 35:24Conan O'Brien?

  She's the director of photography and she is just, I've never seen her once get rattled. And guess what? All of us get rattled.

• 35:36Speaker 03

  All of us.

• 35:37Conan O'Brien?

  I've had to slap Jose countless times. Jose has slapped Mike. Mike has slapped Jesse. We're all slapping each other like the Three Stooges and, and losing our heads and.

• 35:48Speaker 01

  She never gets diarrhea. She almost does it. It's amazing.

• 35:52Conan O'Brien?

  You know what? That was the first thing on her resume.

• 35:55Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 35:56Conan O'Brien?

  She's never get diarrhea. No, she's absolutely incredible. And then.

• 36:02Speaker 01

  And then Emily Strong is the last.

• 36:03Conan O'Brien?

  Oh my God. Emily Strong does sound, I'm yelling at her all the time because I never want to be mic'd and I have to be mic'd. And that is her job to mic me. And every time she's putting a mic on me, I'm saying, do I have to wear a mic? Because I thrash around so much and she's like, yeah, you have to wear a mic, idiot.

• 36:24Speaker 03

  But whether you're in the winds of the desert or in a.

• 36:28Speaker 01

  When they were in their sand bath being buried and she's off to the side and like in long sleeves and pants and she's holding the boom mic.

• 36:35Speaker 03

  In a hundred degrees.

• 36:36Speaker 01

  Laiden down with equipment.

• 36:38Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. No, there, we are, I'm so glad that we stopped at the very end of this episode to credit the people who, you know, it's a cliche to say we couldn't do it without. If we didn't have these three women shooting the show and recording the sound, there'd be no show. And they are just great souls. They are great souls.

• 37:00Speaker 01

  And good things.

• 37:02Speaker 02

  While, while we're still here, I got to mention our editor, Matt Shaw.

• 37:06Conan O'Brien?

  No! No editing should, should be done.

• 37:12Speaker 03

  Our graphic artist, Chris Weller.

• 37:13Conan O'Brien?

  Yes. Shaw and Weller are amazing. I just, you know.

• 37:17Speaker 03

  The other editor.

• 37:18Conan O'Brien?

  No!

• 37:19Speaker 03

  Come on, let's go. What is it? Mission creep? These people are integral parts of your show.

• 37:23Conan O'Brien?

  Can I just, William Morris Endeavor.

• 37:25Speaker 03

  William Morris Endeavor.

• 37:28Conan O'Brien?

  They've done a great job. Gavin Pallone was the one that got me that peanut butter commercial. No.

• 37:34Speaker 03

  Staff at HBO.

• 37:35Conan O'Brien?

  No, no, no. I mean, first of all, anyone who knows anything about television production knows that especially, especially, especially in comedy, editing, editing, editing, editing. And I know you guys work very hard on the edits, but this group, Shaw and co, they do such an amazing job. Such an amazing job.

• 37:56Speaker 01

  Instincts are perfect and so fast.

• 37:59Speaker 02

  And fast.

• 38:00Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 38:02Conan O'Brien?

  I just want to mention that my brother Neil has done nothing to help.

• 38:07Conan O'Brien?

  And actually, I didn't even think he watches them. No, he, you know what? He doesn't have, he doesn't have HBO. You know that? My brother Neil, who's watched every one of my, he doesn't have HBO and I keep saying to him like, hey Neil, Neil, I'll catch you HBO. And he's like, I'm good. I'm good. Don't you want to see my shows? He said, I'll catch them later. Catch them later. How? That's my brother. Anyway, we are not thanking him. Thanks to everyone. If you're listening, check out, check out a show. I think you will, or check out all four and then watch them again.

• 38:43Conan O'Brien?

  They are, they're really fun and I hope you agree. All right. Peace out. Tupac.

• 38:48Speaker 01

  Bye.

• 38:49Conan O'Brien?

  Bye.

• 38:51Speaker 06

  Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan with Conan O'Brien, Sona Movsesian and Matt Gourley. Produced by me, Matt Gourley. Executive produced by Adam Sacks, Jeff Ross and Nick Liao. Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino. Take it away, Jimmy.

• 39:08Speaker 06

  Supervising producer, Aaron Blair. Associate talent producer, Jennifer Samples. Associate producers, Sean Dougherty and Lisa Berman. Engineering by Eduardo Perez. Get three free months of Sirius XM when you sign up at siriusxm.com/conan. Please rate, review and subscribe to Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan wherever fine podcasts are done.

• 39:38Conan 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.

• 39:46Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're right.

• 39:47Conan O'Brien?

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

• 39:51Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 39:52Conan O'Brien?

  Did we use a salary guide with you, Sona?

• 39:54Speaker 01

  Uh, no, but maybe.

• 39:55Conan O'Brien?

  For several years, I just gave you groceries. Remember?

• 39:57Speaker 01

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

• 40:00Conan O'Brien?

  Uh, well, anyway, now you 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. You can hire with the confidence that comes from experience. The new Robert Half Salary Guide is here. Visit roberthalf.com/salaryguide.

• 40:20Speaker 06

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