Staff Review With Skyler Higley

Conan talks to staff writer Skyler Higley about his origin story, writing eye catching comedic headlines, and takeaways from last year’s Oscars. 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?

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• 0:23Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 0:24Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, you take those quick trips, "Oh, your kids are gonna need back to school stuff." You got your Apple Card, you're ready to go. Apply for Apple Card now and use in minutes with Apple Pay. Subject to credit approval. Apple Card is issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA, Salt Lake City Branch. Terms and more at applecard.com.

• 0:43Conan O'Brien?

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

• 0:45Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 0:46Conan O'Brien?

  Just accept the premise and we'll move ahead.

• 0:47Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 0:48Conan O'Brien?

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

• 0:53Speaker 01

  A vase.

• 0:55Conan O'Brien?

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

• 0:57Speaker 01

  A jacket.

• 0:59Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, nice jacket. I love a nice jacket.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, that jacket. Nice jacket.

• 1:02Conan O'Brien?

  So now you have to do it, because you said you would.

• 1:03Speaker 01

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

• 1:05Conan 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. 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. You can skip the scrolling and shop with confidence. Shop now in-store or online at macy's.com/giftguide.

• 1:43Speaker 01

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

• 1:52Conan O'Brien?

  All right, this is a special thing we're doing lately. Normally, I would talk to a fan somewhere around the globe during this segment. But these are different because I have my amazing Oscar-writing team downstairs. These are writers that are... they're the best. They really are the best.

• 2:11Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 2:12Conan O'Brien?

  And I hang out with them all the time. We try and think of fun things we could do at the Oscars this year. And since I have this room downstairs, I'm pilfering them one by one to talk to them and just find out more about them because they're very funny, very talented. And today, it is Skylar Higley's turn. Skyler, let's hear your origin story. Where are you from?

• 2:36Speaker 02

  Um, can I first say, this is the most respectful I've ever heard you speak to me.

• 2:41Speaker 01

  Thank you, thank you, that's what I said last time.

• 2:43Speaker 02

  The Colonel O'Brien... yeah, I love these writers.

• 2:46Speaker 01

  Yes!

• 2:46Speaker 02

  In 20 minutes, it's gonna be different.

• 2:48Conan O'Brien?

  Let me tell you something. Well, we should also say that any time I enter the room where you guys are, the kind of dungeon... No, it's a nice room, but I can't just walk into the room. I kick the door open like it's a drug raid. And then I come in and I start doing cartoonish, over-the-top insults. I say, "You guys are the best writers I've ever seen."

• 3:11Speaker 02

  This is what I was waiting for just now.

• 3:12Conan O'Brien?

  But then I realize I don't have my glasses.

• 3:14Speaker 01

  Oh, okay.

• 3:15Conan O'Brien?

  So I go to put my glasses on, and then I look at them again, and I show cartoonish disappointment in what I'm seeing. And it's all theater.

• 3:24Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 3:24Conan O'Brien?

  But I think, I know I have a good time.

• 3:28Speaker 02

  We have a great time. And then we wait for you to leave, and then we work.

• 3:31Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, then you get back to work, right? Oh, I can really tell when they're like, "Okay, he's done like 35 different riffs. We've gotta get him out of here so we can get back to work."

• 3:41Speaker 01

  And you ruined the door downstairs.

• 3:43Conan O'Brien?

  I kinda did.

• 3:43Speaker 02

  There are scuff marks on it every day.

• 3:45Speaker 01

  Yeah!

• 3:46Conan O'Brien?

  I know, I know.

• 3:47Speaker 02

  I love it. I like it a lot. It's a treat for me. I just sit there and wait and go, "Hey, let's tire himself out."

• 3:55Conan O'Brien?

  But I don't.

• 3:55Speaker 02

  You don't.

• 3:56Conan O'Brien?

  I don't tire myself out. Um, Skyler, yes, tell me, I remember when you first started working for me, which would be, what, what year did you start working for me?

• 4:03Speaker 02

  2020.

• 4:04Conan O'Brien?

  Okay, 2020.

• 4:05Speaker 02

  Do you remember in the middle of the pandemic and there was, uh, the BLM? Remember when we cared about BLM for a second?

• 4:11Conan O'Brien?

  Mm-hmm.

• 4:12Speaker 02

  And, uh, it was right in that time. I was like going really crazy because it was Chicago and the police and everything were there. And then it was like, I was having like just a lot of anxiety around that time.

• 4:25Conan O'Brien?

  Sure.

• 4:25Speaker 02

  And then people called me up and were like, hey, um, do you mind meeting with Conan's people? And just for like a meeting. And I was like, yeah, I guess. And then it was like, oh yeah, do you want to write for Conan O'Brien's show? And I was like, well, I think the world's ending. So sure, like there was a virus. There was like an uprising of, of social, you know, it was like, uh, fine, yeah.

• 4:49Conan O'Brien?

  This will be the last thing I do.

• 4:52Conan O'Brien?

  But I, what I remember most is that because everything, uh, you, you still, you didn't move because it's the height of, you know, not just COVID, but so much insanity. So you would zoom in from your apartment.

• 5:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:07Conan O'Brien?

  And your apartment was in Chicago. And I remember the angle was, I don't know if it was the, how much of it was the angle and how much of it was the apartment.

• 5:14Speaker 02

  It wasn't the angle. I lived underground.

• 5:16Conan O'Brien?

  Okay. It looked like, so Skyler would, would, you know, okay, here's Skyler. Um, and you would appear on the screen and it looked like your ceiling was one inch above your head.

• 5:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:29Conan O'Brien?

  And it looked like you were being held captive.

• 5:32Speaker 02

  It looked like, I mean, in, in being John Malkovich, when he has to go into John Malkovich's head and the ceiling's really low. That's kind of where I lived.

• 5:39Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 5:40Speaker 02

  Yeah. Yeah. But it's cheap rent when you live underground. Let me tell you something.

• 5:44Conan O'Brien?

  Well, uh. I mean, this has been much discussed, but you've done hilarious, hilarious work for me on the, uh, on the Turner, on the Conan show. And then, uh, on the work you've done on the Oscars last year. This year, uh, has been stupendous. You wrote that insane joke last year.

• 6:05Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:06Conan O'Brien?

  It was one of my favorite jokes to get to deliver.

• 6:09Speaker 02

  Oh, and it was also like, just, I don't know, it just, sometimes in comedy, you have that moment where things just like line up. You know, where you just get blessed with a premise and like, this is a perfect, it lines up and you do it. And, um, I didn't, you know, I don't know if anybody expected it to be quite as big as it was.

• 6:29Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, I think there was a sense before I went out.

• 6:32Speaker 02

  Well, yeah.

• 6:32Conan O'Brien?

  Well, this'll be fun.

• 6:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:34Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. And I, I don't want to misquote it, so maybe you can, um, remind us.

• 6:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:38Conan O'Brien?

  I'm, I'm, I walk back out, it's the beginning of an act.

• 6:41Speaker 02

  Beginning of the midway point, which is important because last year, the Super Bowl, Kendrick performed at halftime. And then he did his stuff with Kendrick and Drake, everybody remembers. And you just come out and you say, well, we're halfway through the show, so it's time for Kendrick to come out and call Drake a pedophile.

• 6:56Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. And so I tell that joke and then I'm just bathed in not just laughter, but screams. And I, and I, it's, I have to tell you, if you have a disease, if you have cancer in your body and you walk out and tell a joke like that to a room that big, and you get that reaction, you will be cancer free.

• 7:16Speaker 02

  Oh.

• 7:16Conan O'Brien?

  It cured me of any ailment I might've had, huge. And then I walk right backstage and there you are, all nicely dressed.

• 7:23Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:23Conan O'Brien?

  I think I gave you a, uh, thank you.

• 7:27Speaker 02

  And then you were like, your name is Skyler, right? I, I noticed the moment Conan started respecting me as a person.

• 7:34Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah. Well, started to.

• 7:36Speaker 02

  Started. I didn't say.

• 7:37Conan O'Brien?

  And then you spent that capital really quick.

• 7:40Speaker 02

  Oh, of course.

• 7:40Conan O'Brien?

  Uh, but I'm curious, I haven't really sat down and talked to you about your backstory. When do you start thinking, okay, comedy's my thing, this is what I'd like to do? Uh, how early did you get the bug? How did this all happen for Skyler Higley?

• 7:55Speaker 02

  Um, I got the bug, you know, early, like as kids, I feel like, I, I was like, I feel isolated, I feel like a weirdo. Uh, you know a thing or two about that and.

• 8:07Conan O'Brien?

  You're fired.

• 8:09Speaker 02

  Bye.

• 8:10Conan O'Brien?

  Bye, everybody.

• 8:13Speaker 02

  No, no, no.

• 8:13Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, and I've had your apartment made even smaller.

• 8:16Speaker 02

  Oh, I have to go back to the old apartment?

• 8:18Conan O'Brien?

  Yes.

• 8:19Speaker 02

  No. I'm doing Zoom like down here.

• 8:22Conan O'Brien?

  I've had your ceiling lowered.

• 8:26Speaker 02

  I was in, yeah, like, like junior high, high school when I thought, oh, I can actually do this. Because when I was growing up, it was like 2010. So there was this big comedy podcast boom. And everybody was talking about how you could do comedy as a, a career. And I feel like a lot of people before that didn't really have that sense. And I remember, you know, there were very key moments of watching your show and watching the documentary, the tour doc, Conan O'Brien Can't Stop, where it felt like, oh, this person is like, can have, you can have your problems and your anxieties. And I was going through a lot of anxiety at the time. But the comedy part can be like a salve. It can get you through hard stuff. And it like, the doc, I've never told you this really, but that documentary was like a big deal for me

• 9:11Speaker 02

  as like a kid, being like, okay, things are crazy and scary and I'm very anxious and you can go through things and you can be okay. And if you really commit to being funny, you can make it through stuff. So that was a part of the bug, but it was just a bunch of, you know, there's YouTube had come out. There's a podcast, there's all this stand up. I remember growing up watching like the blue collar comedy guys, weirdly enough. And I was like, okay.

• 9:40Conan O'Brien?

  Like Larry the Cable Guy.

• 9:41Speaker 01

  Jeff Foxworthy.

• 9:42Speaker 02

  Jeff Foxworthy and the guy with the puppets. Remember that guy?

• 9:45Speaker 01

  Jeff Dunham. Why do I know all that? I really have him in the pocket.

• 9:50Speaker 02

  The one with the really racist puppets. And listen, when I was 13, the best thing ever. I was like, yeah, he's a jalapeno.

• 9:59Speaker 02

  Why wouldn't he be a jalapeno? That's hilarious. He's on a stick, there's a terrorist, he's dead, that's cool. I didn't know. But you know, you just kind of grow up with that. And like with the internet too, you just got so much access to it so early. And then.

• 10:14Conan O'Brien?

  So that's a different, that's a very, uh, different. This is one of the things that fascinates me, talking to someone as young as you, that I didn't have access to any of that.

• 10:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 10:26Conan O'Brien?

  That was not the world I was in. There were occasionally shows that peaked out here and there.

• 10:31Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:32Conan O'Brien?

  That were revolutionary and amazing, but they were very few and far between. And most of it's like, "It's the Love Boat."

• 10:38Speaker 02

  Right.

• 10:39Conan O'Brien?

  And you're like, huh? Uh, this is, this is our comedy. And, um, you're getting, so it's, it's not just shows you're seeing on television. Were there sitcoms or anything that you were into, or is that not really?

• 10:53Speaker 02

  Oh, totally. It was sitcoms that were, I get 30 Rock, Community.

• 10:58Conan O'Brien?

  Yep.

• 10:58Speaker 02

  Parks and Rec, those were all out in exactly the formative time that you would want to watch it. I remember watching those shows and just being like, they're just being as crazy as possible on TV.

• 11:09Conan O'Brien?

  They're making themselves happy.

• 11:11Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 11:11Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 11:12Speaker 02

  And it's very specific, and I always really appreciated that.

• 11:15Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 11:15Speaker 02

  So it was just something that I think in this era felt like a real viable career path. And before I even went to college, I knew I want to do comedy. And so I went to college for like a year, and I was working on an English degree. And I was like, this is a waste of time, probably. Uh, go to college, kids. But, but you don't have, if you're going into comedy, I don't know.

• 11:39Conan O'Brien?

  We just did a podcast with Lisa Kudrow, where we, where I ended up, I ended up encouraging people to smoke.

• 11:45Speaker 02

  Oh, good, yeah.

• 11:46Conan O'Brien?

  This is the worst.

• 11:47Speaker 02

  Things are going really well.

• 11:47Conan O'Brien?

  We should be shut down immediately. You're telling kids, "Don't go to college."

• 11:51Speaker 02

  Don't go to college.

• 11:51Conan O'Brien?

  Get some cigarettes, but get a lot of them.

• 11:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, but the good ones.

• 11:55Conan O'Brien?

  Buy in bulk.

• 11:57Conan O'Brien?

  So, um, you leave after a year.

• 11:59Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:00Conan O'Brien?

  Okay, and then what do you do?

• 12:01Speaker 02

  I moved to Chicago because, you know.

• 12:04Conan O'Brien?

  From where?

• 12:05Speaker 02

  Salt Lake City, Utah.

• 12:06Conan O'Brien?

  Okay.

• 12:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 12:07Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 12:07Speaker 02

  Yeah, you didn't, yeah. Actually, I think-

• 12:09Speaker 01

  I think I did know that, but I associate you more with Chicago.

• 12:12Speaker 02

  Yes, I I lived, I feel like I became an adult and a real person in Chicago. Cause I grew up, you know, Salt Lake Mormon, the whole thing. And so I was very sheltered and I had no sense of the world. And in fact, comedy was like a lot of what gave me a sense of like, this is what other people are doing. Whereas where we were, it was very like, you go to church, uh, you do all the church stuff. You're not really supposed to watch like The Simpsons and stuff. And, you know, I was obviously, but like, yeah, so comedy was also, I think, kind of what got me out of being super religious. But, um, I was like, I have to pursue this. I moved to Chicago because, you know, you hear about Second City, you hear about stand up, you hear about

• 12:56Speaker 02

  all of this improv stuff and sketch, and I just wanted to do all of it, you know? And, uh, so I just moved and everybody's like, that's crazy. You're just dropping out of school to move to Chicago. And I was like, it'll be fine. Like, I had no sense of my own mortality at 20, so I was like, yeah, you can just like, go wherever you want and do whatever you want. And I think I have enough of an aptitude for this that it'll be okay. Uh, obviously that hasn't worked out at all, but.

• 13:26Conan O'Brien?

  I keep trying to get you on a legitimate project.

• 13:32Conan O'Brien?

  I'm doing the best I can. But so what do you, how do you support yourself? You get to Chicago. How do you live?

• 13:39Speaker 02

  Terrible jobs, terrible jobs. I worked for, uh, one of those companies that I think the first job I had was one of those companies where they're like, we're gonna go out and help people have a better electricity. It's just like a pyramid scheme. I was in a pyramid scheme for a couple of days.

• 13:57Speaker 02

  You do that. You gotta be in a pyramid scheme for like a little bit and where you go.

• 14:01Conan O'Brien?

  You really do.

• 14:02Speaker 02

  And they're having these meetings, honestly, not unlike when Conan kicks in the door to the writers room, where they're coming in with all this energy and, yeah, we're gonna do it. And it's like, what do we do? And they're like, don't worry about that. We're gonna do it. Sell, sell, sell. It's like, what is the product? And they're like, shut up, you know?

• 14:17Conan O'Brien?

  It's occurring to me right now that all of my career has been a pyramid scheme. I come in with a lot of energy and it's at the end, you're just bankrupt.

• 14:29Conan O'Brien?

  So, okay, so you're doing a bunch of-

• 14:31Speaker 02

  Just random shitty jobs and, and then I started contributing to Clickhole, which is um, an offshoot of The Onion for like the internet generation.

• 14:40Conan O'Brien?

  I know Clickhole.

• 14:41Speaker 02

  Yes, you did a video with Clickhole where, do you remember the premise of the video you did for Clickhole?

• 14:45Conan O'Brien?

  Yes, I'm in the background, right?

• 14:47Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:48Conan O'Brien?

  Describe it, I can't, because you're gonna describe it better than I can.

• 14:50Speaker 01

  I remember this, I remember when you shot it.

• 14:51Speaker 02

  I don't know if, I don't know if I remember it, but you're-

• 14:54Conan O'Brien?

  Making something or cleaning-

• 14:55Speaker 02

  You're pouring milk.

• 14:56Conan O'Brien?

  Yes.

• 14:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:57Speaker 02

  I think it's a couple going through a breakup, and the premise of the video is a couple goes through breakup while Conan O'Brien pours milk into the sink in the background.

• 15:05Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, pouring milk in the sink in the background.

• 15:07Speaker 02

  We're in some random house.

• 15:07Conan O'Brien?

  You can kinda see me.

• 15:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:10Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 15:10Conan O'Brien?

  It's not, I'm not really that featured.

• 15:12Speaker 01

  And, yeah.

• 15:13Speaker 03

  This woman tells her husband she's pregnant.

• 15:15Speaker 01

  Oh my god! That's right, that's, that's what it was. And then you were like, this is perfectly good milk and I'm, I'm pouring down the drain.

• 15:23Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, I was just narrating how this is good milk, it's not that it's bad, it's just going right down the drain.

• 15:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:28Conan O'Brien?

  So you were working there when I-

• 15:30Speaker 02

  No, I wasn't working there when you did that, but that was probably one of those early things. That probably came out when I was in high school, and that was one of those things where it's like, if people are making that, and you can do that, that is the kinda thing I wanna do.

• 15:43Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, cool. That's great.

• 15:44Speaker 02

  And, and so I, I remember my first headline I ever got on there was like, um, like heartwarming, even though this man and woman are from different religions, they still had sex on a park bench.

• 15:58Speaker 02

  So that, you know.

• 15:59Conan O'Brien?

  There you go. Then you knew I'm on terra firma here. This is good. Okay.

• 16:03Speaker 02

  That, that fifteen dollars, like also the first time ever getting paid for writing something.

• 16:07Conan O'Brien?

  Well, that's huge, right?

• 16:08Speaker 02

  This is amazing.

• 16:09Conan O'Brien?

  The first moment, someone, and I always appreciate it and I still appreciate it, I did a set the other night at some comedy club in Covina, and um, after I was done, they gave me an envelope, which is what happens in standup, and it had a twenty dollar bill in it.

• 16:25Speaker 02

  Right.

• 16:25Conan O'Brien?

  And I took it home and I taped it to uh, the glass that's in my closet, you know, when I get dressed in the morning and I'm just like, I taped it up, because I remember the first time I got, and it's- Anytime you get that one to one hit of, I just went and had a lot of fun. I think the audience was happy, I had fun, and then someone gave me a $20 bill.

• 16:48Speaker 02

  Right.

• 16:48Conan O'Brien?

  It does feel like magic.

• 16:50Speaker 02

  Right, because you got that $20 bill and maybe you spent like five minutes like talking about foreskin or something. And you're like, this is money.

• 16:57Conan O'Brien?

  I did the whole set on foreskin.

• 17:00Speaker 02

  All of your Oscars jokes is weirdly, you keep being like, give me more foreskin.

• 17:05Conan O'Brien?

  We don't have enough foreskin.

• 17:06Speaker 02

  We go, Conan, what about the movies? You go, no, foreskin.

• 17:10Conan O'Brien?

  No one cares about those movies. They want foreskin.

• 17:14Speaker 02

  This whole thing.

• 17:16Conan O'Brien?

  Boy, this is gonna be a bad Oscar.

• 17:19Speaker 02

  No, I love it.

• 17:20Conan O'Brien?

  Fifteen minutes up top about foreskin.

• 17:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 17:23Conan O'Brien?

  Just cut to stars streaming out, getting in their cars and leaving before they've even their category's been announced.

• 17:31Speaker 02

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 17:38Conan O'Brien?

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

• 17:41Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love awards.

• 17:42Conan 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.

• 17:56Speaker 01

  Nice.

• 17:56Conan 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.

• 18:05Speaker 01

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

• 18:09Conan O'Brien?

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

• 18:28Speaker 01

  Hello.

• 18:29Conan 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.

• 19:03Conan O'Brien?

  Owning a car or home comes with responsibilities.

• 19:06Speaker 01

  Whoop, whoop, whoop.

• 19:07Conan O'Brien?

  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?

• 19:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 19:16Conan O'Brien?

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

• 19:20Speaker 01

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

• 19:23Conan O'Brien?

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

• 19:27Speaker 01

  It's mine, dude.

• 19:28Conan 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.

• 19:40Speaker 01

  Liberty, liberty, liberty.

• 19:42Conan O'Brien?

  Liberty, liberty, it's in my head all the time.

• 19:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, me too.

• 19:44Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah. Start your quote at libertymutual.com.

• 19:51Conan O'Brien?

  This fall, I wanna try something different.

• 19:52Speaker 01

  What?

• 19:53Conan O'Brien?

  I like to change it up. I like to learn things, so I'm gonna try and make apple cider.

• 19:57Speaker 01

  Ooh.

• 19:57Conan O'Brien?

  Every morning.

• 19:58Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 19:58Conan O'Brien?

  This fall, just to see if I can do it.

• 20:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:00Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, fall's the perfect season to try something new, like joining T-Mobile.

• 20:04Speaker 01

  Oh, that's good.

• 20:05Conan O'Brien?

  See what I did?

• 20:06Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:06Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, there are 250 reasons to join T-Mobile right now. You wanna hear what they are?

• 20:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:10Conan O'Brien?

  They're America's best network.

• 20:12Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 20:12Conan O'Brien?

  True story. Plus, T-Mobile has got off-grid satellite coverage. That comes in really handy. I like to just wander in the woods sometimes.

• 20:19Speaker 01

  Oh, that's weird.

• 20:20Conan O'Brien?

  When I'm thinking about, like, making apple cider.

• 20:22Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 20:22Conan O'Brien?

  And that's when it comes in handy. Here's another reason. High-speed data in over 215 countries and destinations. I travel a lot for the

• 20:29Speaker 01

  You travel a lot.

• 20:30Conan O'Brien?

  Travel show that I do.

• 20:31Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 20:31Conan O'Brien?

  Stream this podcast while ignoring local landmarks. That's always fun to do. Like, oh, look, there's the Mona Lisa. Yeah, check it out. I'm in the Louvre. I should, but I'm listening to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend.

• 20:42Speaker 01

  That doesn't seem like a good idea.

• 20:43Conan O'Brien?

  It's a great idea.

• 20:44Speaker 01

  Okay.

• 20:45Conan O'Brien?

  You know, you can see art anytime. But how often can you listen to this podcast?

• 20:49Speaker 01

  My god.

• 20:50Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 20:51Speaker 01

  What?

• 20:52Conan O'Brien?

  Now, all these reasons make T-Mobile a great choice.

• 20:54Speaker 01

  I agree.

• 20:55Conan O'Brien?

  T-Mobile is stacking up reasons to join. Go to tmobile.com and find yours best, based on analysis by Ookla of speed test intelligence data first half of 2026. Can't believe I read that. T-satellite with capable devices in most outdoor areas in the US where you can see the sky. High-speed international data with qualifying plan. Visit tmobile.com, consult a physician. I just threw that in there.

• 21:19Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 21:23Conan 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. Me too. You can try rules like no sipping until the appetizer arrives, or you tell your friend, "Don't let me touch my glass." But every time you're staring at an empty glass. So if you've ever finished your Coke Zero before the first fry hits the table, you're among friends. It happens. Occupational hazard with Coke Zero. Yeah. Real Coca-Cola taste, zero sugar, too good to wait. Enjoy an ice cold Coca-Cola Zero Sugar today.

• 22:02Conan O'Brien?

  Okay, so you're doing that, and then how did we find you?

• 22:06Speaker 02

  I was fellowship writing at The Onion at the time. Or no, no, there was packets that go out. The way that The Conan Show, I think, always sent out packets is different than most late night shows because you guys just went like, "We want 10 ideas." And you ask any follow-up questions, you're like, "What do you mean, ideas?" And they're just like, "10 ideas." And so I remember writing a packet, and I put, you know, stupid little jokes in the packet. I remember one of them, because they're just like different pitches, and one of my pitches was just straight up like, "Conan O'Brien does blackface." And then I did a colon, and then I just wrote, "Conan O'Brien does blackface." And it wasn't obviously a real pitch,

• 22:48Speaker 02

  but I was like, "Well, people are gonna remember that if I put that in there." It's like, "Yeah, what if he did it?" And then somebody, because you know, you have to read like a bunch of these things. It's a tactic to get people to be like, "What the hell is, what's going on?" And then like actually read it.

• 23:03Conan O'Brien?

  It catches the eye.

• 23:04Speaker 02

  It catches the eye, yeah, sure.

• 23:06Conan O'Brien?

  Oh, that would be very unfunny.

• 23:08Speaker 02

  Oh, that would be bad.

• 23:09Conan O'Brien?

  And you'd never hear from me again.

• 23:11Speaker 02

  Yeah, but if you put it in the middle of a bunch of funny ideas, like you like coming up with like, "What's the worst thing I could say or do?" And I always love thinking about that stuff too. So I'm like, "I don't know." I thought it would just be like, whatever. I also did never think I would get the opportunity. And then a year went by, and then it was in the middle of COVID and The Onion, and I think that there was just like, you needed to hire again, but there were packets left over from last year.

• 23:40Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 23:41Speaker 02

  That's how it happened.

• 23:42Conan O'Brien?

  Also, you can tell when you look at a packet, it's Mike Sweeney will say, "Oh, you gotta see this packet." And you can tell...

• 23:51Conan O'Brien?

  Almost right away in a packet when someone knows who they are and is kind of confident about their comedic voice.

• 23:59Speaker 02

  Oh, sure.

• 23:59Conan O'Brien?

  And I think that's always what sets it apart. It isn't, sometimes I can read a packet and I could say, yeah, there's not one idea here that we could use right now, but this is a-

• 24:13Speaker 02

  You weren't gonna use that blackface one?

• 24:14Conan O'Brien?

  We did. Yeah. No one paid attention. No, uh, sometimes you don't even think, oh, okay, here it is. Idea number seven, we could use that, and idea number nine, we could use that. That could go into the show, so hire this person. Sometimes you'll read a whole packet and think, yeah, not one of these quite has my voice, but this is a really funny person. And that is the harder thing to find.

• 24:41Speaker 02

  Right.

• 24:42Conan O'Brien?

  Do you know what I mean? And then a funny person will come in and they'll take the temperature of what's going on here and very quickly will start just saying, oh, yeah, do this, do that, do this, do that, and maybe broaden our horizons about what could be funny, because-

• 24:55Speaker 02

  Right.

• 24:56Conan O'Brien?

  We, we, you know, don't always know everything. And so, that's the idea, is that's those, it works.

• 25:04Speaker 02

  That's what I find beautiful about comedy, though, too, is that, you know, you and I are, by all metrics, very different people.

• 25:12Conan O'Brien?

  Mm-hmm.

• 25:13Speaker 02

  I think we can say that.

• 25:14Conan O'Brien?

  I don't know what you're talking about.

• 25:16Speaker 02

  I don't know, I think we could say that.

• 25:17Conan O'Brien?

  I think you're insane.

• 25:18Speaker 02

  I would say that, like, you can be from two very different worlds, but sort of the idiosyncrasies of, I think, comedy for comedy's sake and whatever this idea of like a, if there is a true, like, north in comedy of just, like, funny, that is, like, kind of all the same, a little bit.

• 25:39Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 25:39Speaker 02

  Even if all the specifics are different, when something's, like, really, really funny, it can be this crazy weird sketch thing, or it could be like this version of stand-up or whatever, it can still be really funny and you can hopefully, like, connect. And, like, you gotta be able to learn how to speak different comedic languages, and I feel like I had to learn how to speak the Conan language.

• 26:00Conan O'Brien?

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:01Speaker 02

  You still end up getting like the best stuff out of this person's really different, but they know how to fit their thing into our world. And like, look what came of it. Like, I think one of the first things I pitched at the show when we were on Zoom is that we just do a whole Christmas show. Cause I'm like, I think we're gonna die. Let's just do a Christmas show.

• 26:19Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 26:20Speaker 02

  And you really liked it. You were like, let's go. And we, we did Christmas in like August, I think.

• 26:25Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, we did. We actually decorated the whole, I think we decorated the Largo Theater.

• 26:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:29Conan O'Brien?

  It was really fun.

• 26:30Speaker 02

  It was fun. And I was like, wow, this is.

• 26:32Conan O'Brien?

  No, but also it's just, uh, I mean, I'm sorry you thought that. It's, it's so funny because I talked to so many young people, people your age and younger in 2020, who really did think it was the end of the world.

• 26:45Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 26:46Conan O'Brien?

  Just only because I was older, I was able to say to them, no, it's okay. This is not the end of the world. We've been through this. This is what happens in, in, in life. We go through these things and we have to come together and they're scary. And then we move on and I hope evolve, but that is, no?

• 27:09Speaker 01

  No, I'm saying, did we evolve?

• 27:12Conan O'Brien?

  Sure. I mean, look at the world today. Perfect.

• 27:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's great.

• 27:16Speaker 02

  I think we can agree there are no problems.

• 27:18Conan O'Brien?

  I agree a hundred percent.

• 27:22Conan O'Brien?

  We don't get out much.

• 27:27Conan O'Brien?

  So we are now, as we tape this, uh, what do we, like a month away from the Oscars, I think.

• 27:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, five weeks.

• 27:34Conan O'Brien?

  And now we're get five weeks and it, um, it's funny, like we, we get in there and, okay, you tell me. I'm asking you, I'm legitimately asking you.

• 27:44Speaker 02

  Okay, okay.

• 27:45Conan O'Brien?

  I have always thought that the bullshitting in a writer's room isn't really just bullshitting. It's kind of essential and I can't prove it. But we'll go in and I think, I don't know what was happening today. I was acting something out. You guys are making fun of me. We're, it, it, it has nothing to do with the show that we have to put on in five weeks. We were working on a lot of those, we're being very responsible. But we will get off on tangents. We were all laughing really hard.

• 28:17Speaker 02

  Right.

• 28:18Conan O'Brien?

  And maybe it's terribly inappropriate, but some of us are practically crying. And I will leave afterwards and I'll think, well, that was really good. None of that will go into the show.

• 28:30Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 28:31Conan O'Brien?

  But it's serving some purpose, or I'm just wrong and it's a waste of time.

• 28:35Speaker 02

  You're, no, you're right, because I've been in rooms where, writers' rooms where it is fun. And I've been in writers' rooms where it's not fun. And even on just like an essential level of just like wanting to come into work. And it is hard work sometimes, so you are gonna wanna have to be there to do it. It's important to be like, I don't know, I'm gonna laugh really hard today. And it's, maybe we'll see and like, or some crazy joke come up. And maybe it does become something, probably not, but like, it's fun to just be in the space.

• 29:11Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 29:11Speaker 02

  Other times, when you're trying to do comedy and you feel terrible and you're under the gun. And it's like, well, it's gotta be exactly right. And also people aren't supporting each other. It's not fun to do. It's weird. You can be in these situations where you're like, dang, this was like my quote unquote dream job. And I feel terrible every day.

• 29:35Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah.

• 29:36Speaker 02

  That is not, despite the fact that you are deeply abusive, that is not.

• 29:41Conan O'Brien?

  I gave you a good shoulder massage today.

• 29:44Speaker 02

  Oh, okay. To employ shoulder massage.

• 29:47Conan O'Brien?

  I got in there. I felt some knots and I went at it.

• 29:50Speaker 02

  Honestly, he released my chakras. It was really, I feel, I feel loose now.

• 29:54Conan O'Brien?

  There you go.

• 29:55Speaker 02

  Did he, did he ask you if he could first? What do you want me to say to that? What, how should I answer, boss?

• 30:02Conan O'Brien?

  I think we take the fifth amendment.

• 30:03Speaker 02

  Okay. Oh, okay.

• 30:04Conan O'Brien?

  I might have left across the room and started deeply giving Skyler a deep tissue massage.

• 30:10Speaker 02

  Yeah. Might have crept over like a Scooby Doo villain in order to do.

• 30:14Conan O'Brien?

  I did. I came over like, anyway, look, I'll be jailed for my crimes. Um, we all know that, but, uh, what was the biggest, this is the question I wanted to ask before we have to wrap. Which is, what was the thing about working on that show last year, the Oscars, that, was there something that really profoundly surprised you? Because it's. You and I have both worked in, you know, different versions of show business and then there's That Show.

• 30:42Speaker 02

  Right.

• 30:42Conan O'Brien?

  Which is this, uh, still this kind of big iconic thing. What, was there something that you took away from that?

• 30:50Speaker 02

  I, before working on that, I had no sense of, uh, scale, I guess. I, and obviously we, I knew it abstractly, but I didn't know what it would feel like being there. And I never realized that, um, the jokes, almost every joke, it felt like there was like a headline about like, everybody's talking about this joke that you had just said like five minutes ago.

• 31:17Conan O'Brien?

  Mm-hmm.

• 31:17Speaker 02

  I had not experienced that before and it was weird to be like, oh, all eyes are on this and it's, it's live and it's happening in a way that doesn't really happen that much almost ever anymore. Like the only live comedy that you have is SNL, but it's still not the, it's not like it's getting like millions and millions of views every week. You know, it's like, it was just huge and I had not been in a space with also like that many celebrities before. Obviously you see them around, but when they're all in sort of a concentrated area, that star power is just like, you're seeing people that you've seen your whole life just whiz by your vision. It's like very, I don't know, just kind of surreal.

• 31:58Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, it is.

• 31:59Speaker 02

  And then it's just like, alright, well, let's just make, go back and make sure these jokes work. Like, let's go back down into that dungeon below the theater and just make sure the jokes work because there's pretty people upstairs and it's scary.

• 32:11Speaker 01

  Is that where they put you?

• 32:12Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah.

• 32:13Speaker 01

  Downstairs in like the basement?

• 32:14Conan O'Brien?

  There's a room downstairs, uh, cause I go there too and we'll sit there and we'll think, okay, we just rehearsed, but now we gotta go downstairs. Last year it was, I think Cynthia and Ariana were practicing their song and they kinda wanted to clear the area.

• 32:28Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. They said, get out.

• 32:29Conan O'Brien?

  Get out!

• 32:29Speaker 02

  For Cynthia and Ariana.

• 32:30Conan O'Brien?

  All of us.

• 32:31Speaker 02

  You're not important enough. You get out!

• 32:33Conan O'Brien?

  And all of us went down and just were all underground like, uh, and then we were in this room and we're trying to figure out, should this joke go before this joke or after that joke? And, but this thing that I find is... The scale can change, but the process is the same.

• 32:50Speaker 02

  It is.

• 32:51Conan O'Brien?

  Meaning, if we were working on a show that was just gonna be a live, fun sketch show that we were gonna perform for an audience of 200 people at the Largo Theater, it's still the same process.

• 33:03Speaker 02

  Right.

• 33:03Conan O'Brien?

  You gotta have the ideas, you gotta fight over them, you gotta, and then you can change the scale, and you can add these beautiful iconic people, but it's still the same thing.

• 33:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 33:14Conan O'Brien?

  And the process isn't that much different, except I need a lot more makeup.

• 33:18Speaker 02

  Right.

• 33:18Speaker 01

  Oh.

• 33:19Speaker 02

  It's also very gratifying. That moment of, I, I think the two days before, I don't know what it is, where we're feeling kind of insane, and you remember those last 48 hours? It's like, we're like moving stuff around. There was just a sense of the adrenaline that's rushing through me and being like, oh, we're actually, we're really doing it, and this has to happen and we've gotta pull it off. Some of the best moments kind of happened, I don't think that, Jesse didn't really, like, I think it was Jesse's idea to put the sandworm in the band, that happened like, five minutes before the show. It was like, but that's like really...

• 33:55Conan O'Brien?

  And it happened because it had to happen, because something else dropped out, and we quickly said, okay, I think it was, I don't know who it was, but it was Jesse, great, but just, oh yeah. So yeah, we're gonna go do it again. Let's hope it all goes well.

• 34:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:10Speaker 01

  Mm-hmm.

• 34:11Speaker 02

  Things got really quiet in here.

• 34:12Speaker 01

  Yeah, dude, it's a lot of pressure for you guys. I'll be watching, it's no pressure for me at all. I just enjoy, I was in the audience.

• 34:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:20Speaker 01

  While you guys were underground, oh my god.

• 34:22Conan O'Brien?

  You're always high.

• 34:23Speaker 01

  We were sitting next to Kurt Russell.

• 34:25Speaker 02

  Whoa.

• 34:26Speaker 01

  And Goldie Hawn, oh my god, it was great for us.

• 34:28Speaker 02

  I don't think you should have that good a seat.

• 34:29Speaker 01

  It was so great. I danced with him.

• 34:32Conan O'Brien?

  I don't think...

• 34:32Speaker 01

  We took shots with Coleman Domingo.

• 34:34Conan O'Brien?

  This isn't right, I don't know.

• 34:35Speaker 02

  Coleman Domingo loves taking shots.

• 34:36Speaker 01

  Oprah and Gayle were behind us.

• 34:38Conan O'Brien?

  Why are you getting such a good seat?

• 34:40Speaker 01

  It's like you guys did all the work.

• 34:42Speaker 02

  You had so much fun, we were scared.

• 34:44Speaker 01

  I know. I know, you guys are talking about the Oscars, like, it's scary, and I'm just like, why, it's fun.

• 34:49Conan O'Brien?

  Yeah, okay.

• 34:50Speaker 01

  But the work you do makes my life better.

• 34:52Conan O'Brien?

  I don't, can I go on record as saying you should not have that good a seat?

• 34:56Speaker 01

  I already did.

• 34:57Conan O'Brien?

  I can't believe Oprah's like, oh, there's all this hair in front of me.

• 35:03Conan O'Brien?

  All right. Skyler, um, yes, I'm gonna go and, and, uh, throw objects at all of you in about five minutes. But, uh, you're brilliantly funny. Uh, I thank you for, uh, loaning your talents to me. And onward and upward, I say. Thanks for having me. And upward.

• 35:22Speaker 04

  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.

• 35:39Speaker 04

  Supervising producer, Aaron Blair. Associate talent producer, Jennifer Samples. Associate producers, Sean Dougherty and Lisa Byrnes. 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.

• 36:09Conan 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.

• 36:18Speaker 01

  Yeah, you're right.

• 36:19Conan O'Brien?

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

• 36:23Speaker 01

  That's good.

• 36:23Conan O'Brien?

  Did we use a salary guide with you, Sona?

• 36:25Speaker 01

  Uh, no, but maybe-

• 36:26Conan O'Brien?

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

• 36:29Speaker 01

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

• 36:31Conan 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 so you can hire with the confidence that comes from experience. The new Robert Half Salary Guide is here. Visit roberthalf.com/salaryguide.

• 36:52Speaker 04

  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 Claw. 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 Claw. Please drink responsibly. White Claw Celta Works, Chicago, Illinois.