Placeholder Image

字幕列表 影片播放

  • Thank you so much for joining us here today and for accepting our invitation.

  • I understand.

  • It was very tough decision to make.

  • Yes, there's some controversy.

  • Before I came to your fine school came to this wonderful place, Oxford.

  • As I think you call it.

  • I received a lovely invitation to come here to these hallowed halls and speak to all of you.

  • And I agreed and said, I'm coming.

  • Then about two days later, I got the following email and I hope it's okay to share it with you right now.

  • Is that okay?

  • May I share a female with you?

  • Wow, You're a fun crowd.

  • It's from another college, a college known in Cambridge.

  • This is the email that went right to my people two days after accepted your kind invitation.

  • I'm also aware that Cone is currently scheduled to visit Oxford for a similar event.

  • It would be incredible if we can also feature in Conan's busy calendar.

  • The Cambridge Union is older than the Oxford Union by eight years.

  • Wait.

  • Are of the opinion that students here in Cambridge are This is all word for word are more engaged, attentive, on more prone to asking insightful questions as compared to their Oxford peers and would love the chance to prove it.

  • I just watch it.

  • I just want you to know I got that email and I just immediately thought, Who writes crap like this?

  • I'm going tomorrow.

  • That was so rude of them.

  • I thought you were very nice to invite me and you invited me first.

  • That's you know, that's that's I mean that.

  • I mean, I didn't say that just because I'm here and I want to suck up to you people.

  • Well, we never say that people were trying to get from Cambridge that we're better card.

  • That's because you're secure.

  • You know, You guys know you're the best.

  • You don't tell anybody you're the best way.

  • There's something actually wrong and secure about those Cambridge people.

  • They frighten me, and I will not go there unless I'm paid.

  • I don't know why I'm shouting.

  • I have a microphone, but there's something about this hall in this institution that makes do you want to say I demand freedom and freedom way.

  • You could literally say anything in here, and it sounds more majestic than it really is.

  • I think Starbucks burns their coffee and I die saying it.

  • This isn't going to be a real conversation.

  • I'm gonna act like a jackass the entire time, and there's nothing you can do about it.

  • I think Cambridge made the right choice.

  • I'm sorry.

  • I'll behave.

  • I promise.

  • So on your pod cost you.

  • Wow.

  • What an energy drop.

  • No, it's not your fault.

  • Used.

  • You went right into conversational tone.

  • I had just said we were gonna free all of the peoples of the world and get rid of Starbucks coffee.

  • Then we went into the podcast.

  • There's no there's no easy ramp from one to the other, but let's get into it.

  • The podcast.

  • You talk a lot about the journey of becoming a professional comedian.

  • Yeah.

  • One was it that you realized that that was what you wanted to do.

  • Well, when I was a, uh, man, when I was a kid, I loved making I come from a big Irish Catholic family.

  • Six kids.

  • I believe there's others out there.

  • Uh, you'd meet a new one occasion in the bathroom, but, uh, and I was packed in the middle and I used to make my brothers and sisters laugh And then I made other kids at school laugh, but I never thought it was a profession.

  • I grew up in Brookline, Massachusetts, right outside Boston.

  • Don't pretend, And and I thought, um, you can't be in show business.

  • I didn't know anybody in show business.

  • My father is Ah, brilliant man.

  • He's Ah ah, microbiologist, infectious disease scientists.

  • And my mother is a brilliant woman and was a lawyer for a big law firm.

  • And I just thought my job was to buckle down and be serious.

  • So I was always fighting this nature and thinking, You can't do that for living.

  • You have to be serious.

  • So I worked hard and, uh, again, I just thought comedy was something you did for your friends.

  • And then my life changed when I went to what we consider an old university.

  • Harvard.

  • Uh, it's so hilarious that we're so proud of the fact that Harvard's like 16 38 and then you come here and it's they have McDonald's.

  • We're that old okay?

  • And now I live in Los Angeles, where sometimes people will come to look at your house.

  • You know, they'll come and fix because something's wrong with the basement and they'll say they're here to fix it in the Oh, man, you got one of these old houses when I They built this during Obama's first term, huh?

  • So I've had Thio.

  • I went toe Harvard and I had worked really hard, and I was a serious student.

  • And the second I got there, a friend of mine said, I'm off to the lampoon on and I said, What's that?

  • Like an idiot?

  • And he said, It's the college humor magazine and I said, Well, I'll tag along and I got addicted.

  • I slept there, I lived there.

  • I became my life, uh, running the place.

  • I mean, it was very evocative of this place.

  • It was this.

  • It's this old hall.

  • It's got these old traditions.

  • Many famous writers and cartoonists have come there.

  • Now, of course, a lot of the TV shows you watch or have seen have been written or produced.

  • Bye lampoon people.

  • It's really a wonderful, amazing place, and I'm not saying this because of your connection there, but it really did feel like my Hogwarts experience.

  • When I went there, it was it was ah, they I worked very hard.

  • I got accepted.

  • I was 18 years old and I just said, Whatever this is, I'm throwing in my lot with these people.

  • And that would've been 1981 Ah, when I was accepted.

  • And since that day, I've been thinking and breathing comedy pretty much 24 7 since then.

  • And that changed my life.

  • When I graduated college in 85.

  • I thought, How do I keep doing this?

  • I need to keep doing this.

  • Even if I don't make money doing this, I have to do this.

  • And fortunately, turns out it does pay.

  • Ah, and I worked on Senate live.

  • I worked on a few shows when I worked on Senate live on.

  • And then I worked on The Simpsons, and, um And then I got my own show, and now I'm here.

  • So it is.

  • It's feels miraculous to me.

  • I'm very people overuse the word grateful in my business this I'm really grateful when deep down inside, they're total assholes and they're not grateful.

  • But But I really am.

  • I do.

  • I do feel I'm a really good guy, and that's something good guys say.

  • But no, I it's been just a really great journey, and my favorite thing is connecting, so I don't care how I do it.

  • But not that long ago, uh, someone came to me and said, You should do a podcast and I said, Why would I do a podcast when I have have a TV show that's been on forever?

  • And it's on YouTube and they said, I think you might like it And I really thought it was a stupid idea when I started doing it, and I can't tell you could go anywhere in the world.

  • And people listen to the podcast very differently than they watch a show.

  • They get to know you and you can.

  • I've had so many friends of mine who I called up and asked their very so unselfconscious Lisa could row when I asked her, Do you want to the podcast?

  • She said, No hair, no makeup.

  • I'll be there in 10 minutes.

  • They really do love the fact that they don't have to pretend to be someone else.

  • And then you can have this incredibly powerful conversation with them, and you can get two things that you could never do in television.

  • I have to make a you'd have had to take two commercial breaks by now if this was on television, Seriously, you know, for horrible products on, but here you don't.

  • It's in this podcast format.

  • You can attain this kind of connection.

  • You can't attain any other way.

  • So I absolutely love it.

  • And I love the friends.

  • I mean, in that short time the couple of days that I've been here in London and then here I've had so many people come up to me, people that have no idea I'm coming here.

  • Say, Oh, I love the podcast.

  • Podcast is meaningful to May and Ah, so that's that's lovely.

  • And you've been on air for decades.

  • What?

  • What do you do to keep the show fun for you?

  • Uh, fun for me?

  • We fire people, you should see the look on their faces.

  • These air people with Children, they have mortgages.

  • And I'm like, Caligula, at this point, I'm like, you know, I'm not firing you and hiring my horse, you know?

  • And so that's fun.

  • Uh, I would say one of the challenges with anything is on.

  • Everybody has this issue.

  • I don't care who you are.

  • If you're whatever your field is you've got to keep it fresh for yourself.

  • For me, I think I've been fortunate that I've been forced to reinvent it many times.

  • The initial show was one show that then gradually morphed into a slicker, more Polish show.

  • It started in 93.

  • I think it got a little more polished around 1 4002 and then it morphed into the Tonight Show and I went out for that.

  • But that all blew up because I got into a big argument with my network and I ended up forced to you re decide who I waas and it was.

  • This was a huge story in America and I had to figure out Okay, who am I now?

  • And start again on a different network, and that has gone through about two revolution.

  • So and now we've changed the format again.

  • Toe, half hour, because an hour long I started looking my hour long show and looking at how it's represented on YouTube, which is how most people see it and should see it.

  • And I said these two don't relate to each other.

  • So I changed my show to look more like it would on YouTube reduced to half a now, and I talked to one person as opposed to a show that is comedy.

  • First, guess that you want to see second guess you don't care about third guest you don't care about.

  • And I hate to say that to the second and third guests of the world, but right, I decided I'm too long in the tooth.

  • I've been doing it too long.

  • I don't want to say it was great talking to you.

  • Now we're going to stick around for that guy who's 19.

  • And he just got on a show where he plays a brooding teenager.

  • He's never had a life experience.

  • His big disappointment in life is they didn't have the portion the color gray he wanted, and I'm supposed to pretend to care about him so I couldn't do that anymore.

  • So we weigh, just shoved it down to 1/2 hour, and then I talked to one person.

  • Here is Will Ferrell.

  • I have a great time talking to him.

  • We do much more than half a now er for the studio audience, and we put all of it on YouTube because there's no time restraint there and Then we cut it down to half a Knauer for Turner and Warner Brothers.

  • So to me, that feels like how shows That's how shows should be made.

  • Now I'm not saying my other.

  • My compatriots are in the Dark Ages, but well, do the math.

  • You know, I'm saying no one drinks here.

  • I don't get it.

  • But anyway, you also talked a lot about wanting your comedy to be evergreens that someone can watch us get 20 years from now.

  • Yeah, My favorite comedy is, uh, right now in the States.

  • As I'm sure you're all aware, it's six.

  • People are very angry, and so I must feel like comedy has gone in to completely directions.

  • You know, there are people that have been it's all about, I mean, all about politics.

  • The entire show is politics.

  • And so when you see the round up for what they talked about, it's blank took down Donald Trump today someone so roasted, you know?

  • Ah, uh, this person, the administration, it's all that and some of it's very clever and very good, but it's all of that.

  • And then there's another kind of comedy which is completely escapist.

  • Let's play games.

  • Let's have fun.

  • And then I feel like I just found my own thing that I like, which is really silly comedy that I've been doing since 1993 where I'm doing the show and maybe someone interrupts me and it's an old coal miner in the audience.

  • And then we have an adventure together, and, uh, it doesn't make any sense.

  • It's not linked to anything.

  • We use puppets.

  • I love puppets.

  • I love any stuffed animal that's objecting to something that I've done.

  • I love comedy that just makes me laugh, and it's silly.

  • And then I think one of the things that's nice is I have people your age coming up to me now and they're saying, Oh, I just saw that thing last night where you, you know, um, you were, Uh, God only knows you.

  • You got on a bicycle and you drove up a caramel mountain and you visited God and it was so silly and stupid and it meant nothing.

  • But I really liked it.

  • And I think, Wait a minute.

  • We made that in 1994 to 95.

  • We had a very popular character on the show for a couple of years called the Masturbating Bear.

  • And it was a bear in a diaper that just masturbated on cue.

  • I'm sorry.

  • I'm sorry, but those are the things you talk about when you invite me and, uh, you want to talk.

  • Economics will do that next time, but this is what you got.

  • But it was just the silliness of it and the craziness of it that I love so much.

  • And so we're still finding people that come back and see those old sketches and really like thumb.

  • And I like them because you don't have to know it's not comedy that goes bad 24 hours after you make it.

  • Because the outrage over that decision to cut that item in the budget it doesn't make sense 24 hours after you've said it.

  • But a bear master being is always good comedy.

  • So, like you said, you don't react thio political and current affairs as much as other.

  • Well, we do.

  • We do if we have a good, silly, fun idea, but I try not to live off of it exclusively, you know, try toe.

  • So everyone has their own way of doing these things there is not a right way.

  • There's not a wrong way.

  • There's just the most important thing I say toe people who are interested in doing what I do for a living is do the stuff that you are passionate about, and I've always been passionate about silliness and the stuff that influenced me.

  • I was very influenced by English comedy growing up.

  • I loved Monty Python.

  • I love black adder.

  • I love the young ones.

  • I would watch all these shows and then uh um, you know, I I saw the British office came out, and I just loved that those were still funny.

  • Now that they're talking about universal themes, you know, uh, and and to me, that's the kind of comedy that I love it.

  • It's completely silly, and it's dealing with human situations rather than Here's what happened in the news today, which I admire, I think it's really great.

  • I just don't think that's my skill set and something else that you always come back.

  • Thio is that really successful?

  • People are often a lot more insecure about their work than we would expect them to be.

  • Yeah, how does that work for you?

  • Well, I'm not.

  • But blessed, I suppose.

  • Uh, no, I, um you know, it's it's actually, uh, it's really important to me if you leave with no weather.

  • Little, um, if you leave with nothing else today or tonight, leave with this.

  • We have a very, uh, we have a culture that's constantly looking at our phones at people that we think are so incredibly happy and have everything, and I will tell you for a fact.

  • The disparity, the difference between what they're projecting and how they are is monumental a lot of the time.

  • It's not that these people are all miserable, but I do think we're this instagram age in this age of projecting wealth and fame.

  • And what's what's this incredible fun that you can have?

  • There's a lot of people out there that strive because they're insecure.

  • They try harder because they're running from something or they're very unhappy.

  • It's not the only reason they're successful, but it's a mixed bag, and when you get successful, there's some unpleasant stuff that comes with it, and there's dealing with envy, and there's dealing with Schadenfreude A.

  • And there's dealing with, um, other people's expectations that you're always gonna be that person and I wouldn't trade my life for anything in anyone else's in the world.

  • I'm very happy.

  • But I do think I've seen so many people in my profession American, uh, performers, actors, comedians who I wouldn't want to be in a 1,000,000 years.

  • They just they're unhappy people.

  • And there's a lot of unhappy people.

  • Just is there are everywhere and I think we get this.

  • We get this bad read, we just We're only seeing this very, uh, flattened out image of them laughing and driving a sports car.

  • And we think if I had that on, my problems would be solved.

  • And I remember thinking that, you know, when I was first starting out in the business, if I had what these people had, then I would have no problems.

  • And, uh, that's why I really do try to tell people that you've got a enjoy what you d'oh.

  • You have to enjoy it.

  • There's so many people, so many people.

  • They want to be famous for fame's sake and famous Nothing.

  • I mean, it is just a clear broth.

  • It doesn't doesn't add much flavor.

  • It doesn't it doesn't have any nutritional value.

  • You know, I could go with this broth analogy forever.

  • If you put meat in it for a long time, that meat will soften.

  • Famous high in salt.

  • Uh um and I You know, I I just I just I just encourage people to look twice at that and say I do what I do because I really do enjoy it.

  • I really do, like making this kind of stuff.

  • And I felt like I had some facility for it, but, um, I never enjoyed the brief periods of time that that someone in the paparazzi has wanted to take a picture of me.

  • It just felt creepy.

  • It felt and and, uh and they eventually realized on the most boring person in the world and that their pictures of Conan O'Brien goes and buys 2% milk again.

  • Worrying sensible outfit with dad bod was like not selling.

  • You know, I had a funny experience here a couple of years ago.

  • I was in London and a friend.

  • I didn't know this place, but a friend said to me join me for dinner, and I said Okay.

  • And he said, I'm at the Children firehouse.

  • I didn't know what that was.

  • But I guess it's this place where a lot of stars go.

  • What's that?

  • You don't go there all the time.

  • I don't know.

  • Well, okay, clearly, I've just made a fool of myself in front of everyone.

  • But there was this place in London.

  • This restaurant with the paparazzi would hang out in front.

  • We have him in l.

  • A.

  • And you go there if you want your picture taken.

  • I didn't know that.

  • So I just go in and then I eat my dinner and I come out.

  • And it's all these people from all these UK paparazzi with the giant, you know, and they walk out.

  • And I think one guy sort of knew me and took a picture.

  • So they all started taking pictures, and there's, like, 40 people just firing away photos did it?

  • I did it.

  • And so I did this, you know?

  • And then I started to walk away, and they all put their cameras down to the one that said, Hey, who the fuck are you?

  • I said it was just This is true.

  • I said I'm a male model from Germany, but I love that they took a picture of me.

  • I didn't know who I was and they were yelling at me essentially, cause I wasn't famous enough.

  • You know, it was just such a weird dynamic.

  • I had rue I had wasted their time.

  • So on another note falling on for there was no transition there at all.

  • We're gonna have to edit that for YouTube.

  • We'll put something else in there.

  • You know, maybe some rock music or something.

  • A C D.

  • C.

  • What?

  • What's what?

  • What's your attitude to criticism of your work?

  • Do you try to seek it out or someone you know?

  • I do not seek out criticism.

  • My work?

  • No.

  • You know, that's one of the things that always surprised because I've had guests come on, the show very famous people.

  • And they have confided in me Oh, I'm you know, after my last appearance, people said this about me.

  • You said that I actually had a guest.

  • Come on, my show and in the commercial break, Say to me, Last time I was on, people were saying this was a man.

  • People were saying that I had had terrible plastic surgery, and it really hurt my feelings, and I haven't had plastic surgery.

  • Why would they write that this in the commercial break?

  • And I said to this person, Why are you reading that?

  • Why would anybody anyone can write anything?

  • Why would you read that?

  • And there is something in this new world that you're all dealing with.

  • Uh, I'm quite comfortable not knowing what people say about me.

  • I just People have said some, and my deal that I made with myself is I don't want to read the bad stuff, and so I won't read the good stuff.

  • And, um, I'm told there's been some really nice things written in some really nice publications.

  • And I just say, That's nice to hear.

  • And people give me this sort of gist of what it is, but I don't want to read it, because if I read that, then I feel I have to go looking for Well, I hate him.

  • You know, his hairs looks like a ridiculous pastry.

  • You know, uh, my father wrote that, uh um I don't want, you know, and I That's one of the questions that I have is when people start looking for it is in my nature I will find the unsmiling face in the crowd and wonder what was his problem.

  • Why wasn't he having a good time?

  • And that is classic.

  • All comedians do that.

  • But as you get older, um, you learn that that just that way lies madness.

  • Not no good will come of that.

  • None.

  • So, um, I'm not.

  • I know what it is I do.

  • I have really good friends, and my friends tell me that wasn't great or that was funny.

  • That wasn't so funny.

  • I would change that.

  • I mean, I I write a tweet and I say, What do you think?

  • I have interns in the office saying Nope, so bad.

  • And I listen to them.

  • I listen to other people and sometimes they get into arguments with people.

  • I think, really, because I think it's a good idea, but I try not to have an ego about it.

  • And so people usually let me know when I've missed the mark.

  • I'll know.

  • So I don't need a random person.

  • Um, you know who's or a troll to tell me that I suck because deep down, I know that that's not funny.

  • You should feel sad now.

  • You mentioned taking on board the advice of your interns on part of what makes your show's down, that is your relationship with your stuff and have that swerving into 70 appetites.

  • Was that a conscious production choice, or was it something that happened?

  • You know, there's an old, the most famous.

  • He was completely unknown in the U.

  • K.

  • But the most famous talk show host of all time in America was this guy named Johnny Carson, who I grew up watching his brilliantly funny and he was and everybody watched him.

  • I mean, the entire country watched Johnny Carson, and what he said once is he was on the air for 30 years and no one had ever done that.

  • No one ever been on there for 30 years.

  • And he said, Once, um, you'll use, you'll end up using everything you have meaning.

  • If you've got any kind of skill or any kind of ability or anything up your sleeve, you will end up using it, and I've found that to be true.

  • You end up using whatever is available to you when you have to do so much, uh, TV.

  • Tell someone there's so much product, you end up trying anything and you know where it's like we're living and we're working in a bakery and we have to be open 24 7 You'll end up trying stuff like, I'll just throw a carrot in there and see what you know Broth, if you will, on you end up trying things, and that's what we ended up doing.

  • And, uh ah, Dar staff is there, and my assistant is this personality, and we were doing tons of hours of comedy without even realizing it.

  • We have these long, insane conversations with each other, and then we realized, Wait a minute.

  • What if we put a camera on this?

  • And the interesting thing about Sona on my assistant?

  • If you've seen any of this stuff on YouTube, she doesn't change.

  • She's always she is the same person.

  • You can put a camera on her.

  • You could put her in Wembley Stadium and have 75,000 people stare at her.

  • She'll still act like Sona and then wanna go get a grilled cheese sandwich afterwards, you know, and go home to her husband.

  • She's just that person.

  • So we started using those people and, um, it's added a whole other layer you know?

  • Ah, we ended up realizing we have this great resource, so we might as well use it.

  • Um, and we don't wanna overdo it, but, uh, some of these people have a guy that works.

  • We named Jordan Slansky.

  • Oh, the idea that in this great historic hall that is seen like Churchill and Einstein and Malcolm X, the idea that the name Jordan class could be mentioned and get a round of applause is such a cosmic joke.

  • To me, it's such a such proof that there's ultimately it's a silly world we live in.

  • He is that guy.

  • He is that person.

  • He's this weird, strange guy.

  • I honestly don't know what he does on the show.

  • Every day, Every time I ask him, he says I have various tasks and duties like, What does that mean?

  • Well, I attended various.

  • He keeps saying various on, then throwing other words in there, and I honestly don't know what he does.

  • So we're very excited because, uh, you guys know the property brothers, those guys is that is that big over here?

  • I don't know if you guys know them, but his office is a mess and we brought these two huge YouTube stars in and surprise them with the property brothers.

  • And they're these big stars and we walk in and I go Jordan, look who's here to clean up your office, doesn't even get out.

  • Looks at them.

  • And I went Jordan, When people walk into the room, especially famous people, you should probably stand anyone.

  • Their fame is of no consequence to me.

  • They can come or they could, you know, just like he doesn't.

  • We just surprised him with cameras.

  • He had no idea we were coming.

  • Most humans would react a little bit.

  • I see no reason to stand for these.

  • You know, it's fascinating.

  • He's a weird, weird man.

  • And where Ah, we're maybe I hope we're advancing the cure for something by putting him on TV.

  • You also You just mentioned Johnny Carson.

  • What?

  • I'm sure you were a fan of him while growing up.

  • What was it like to meet someone like that and realize that you too well, he wasn't So I'm not kidding.

  • He didn't really know me.

  • I was brand new.

  • And when I got my start in America, I was a complete unknown.

  • I was The Simpsons writer, and they were looking for this big slot to fill, and today they would have thousands of qualified candidates because of YouTube, the Internet that have have There's so many people.

  • Everyone has 75 episode shows on Netflix, you know, by the time they're in utero on live from the womb, you know?

  • And so the idea that that they would when if there was a giant opening for a show, if Stephen Colbert decided he was going to step down, they'd be 1,000,000.

  • You'd know all the names of all the people who were probably gonna replace him.

  • And I had this very strange moment in time where it was pre Internet.

  • So after Carson, I would say the biggest host was this guy, David Letterman, and he suddenly left and there was a hole.

  • And they said to my boss, My former boss, it's Aaron alive.

  • Can you find somebody to fill it?

  • And he went, let me think.

  • And then, through a series of just crazy chances, he said, You know, there's this writer I know with weird hair and a weird name who makes the other writers laugh, and they're like, Well, does he do?

  • Stand up?

  • No.

  • Has he done anything?

  • Not on camera.

  • You're kidding, right?

  • No.

  • I think he might be good.

  • And so they gave me a tryout and I did really well with the tryout, and they gave me this show and the entire United States said, What?

  • Who is this?

  • What's a Conan?

  • Who is this person?

  • Seriously, And then for the first year, I was on the air.

  • I was never 1/10 as funny as I was on the audition, because it's one thing to audition for something you don't think you're going to get.

  • So I walked into the audition.

  • I'm like, I'm never getting this stepped up down about it and back then in the early nineties, that was funny.

  • But I you know, I just thought, Oh, you know, I'm not getting this.

  • And I was so relaxed that they said, This guy's got it, you know?

  • Put him on.

  • And then the next thing you know, I've got this show and I suddenly I have responsibility and I have this Irish Catholic sense of I've got to do a good job on.

  • I've got to make sure that I please everyone, which is the least funny space to come from.

  • What an unfunny approach.

  • So my first year on the air, we did a lot of really inventive fun comedy, but I was like, Yes, yes, well, we'll return soon by your graces and we'll see you back here when we resume the program.

  • And I had, you know, sweating and I hadn't hit puberty yet.

  • And people were like, I hate this woman.

  • Uh, and it was very people wrote the nastiest things.

  • I mean, I just got destroyed in the press Are your press could be mean.

  • Our press was really mean and man did they let me have it And I remembered This is a true story.

  • I went saw was starting to see a therapist.

  • I was under so much pressure and feeling like the whole world, you know.

  • And so I went in to see the therapist, and I lay down and I said, I think people hate me.

  • I think they want me to go away.

  • I think, um, they think that I'm terrible at what I do and that I'm a failure.

  • And the therapist said, Listen, these are voices we all have and these air voices that recur and it comes from your shame center and it can happen.

  • But we all have these voices and it's just a voice.

  • It's not really And I said, You ask, It's the cover of USA Today held up the paper and it said all of that stuff and he was like, Well, okay, maybe the paper is a dream.

  • I'm like, No, it's a paper.

  • I could shove it in your mouth right now.

  • Well, who's to say I'm Rio?

  • You know, that'll be $185.

  • So, uh, but then it got, things got better, and then the critics turned around.

  • But man, that was that was And now I'm in this unique position.

  • That's crazy.

  • It's another thing to tell you about which is all these years later.

  • I just I was convinced.

  • I just said, Well, people hate us, they hate us.

  • And we got through those first couple of years, and then and now I meet these people who inspire me.

  • Um, you know, my one of my favorite comedians working, and he's just lovely person and brilliant, brilliant comic John Mulaney.

  • Let's not go too far.

  • What's that he's coming to the union and mark always coming in March.

  • Well, I'm here now.

  • The guy is good, but let's not get crazy now.

  • He's he deserves that.

  • And he's just so funny.

  • And he writes, He's such a brilliant writer in such a great performer.

  • And but recently I got to be friends with him and he would say, Oh, yeah, I used to watch you that first year.

  • Wasn't it great?

  • What are you talking about?

  • Everyone hated me, and he said I wasn't aware of that.

  • Me and my friends just thought it was really weird and cool and funny when I said, Why couldn't you have come and said that to me?

  • Back in 1993 I was like, Well, I was 11.

  • I think an 11 year old pajamas coming to see you would be weird, you know?

  • But that's the other thing, too.

  • Is that if I was just going off of my feeling of how things were going or the public perception of how they were going, all the evidence that I had was was awful.

  • All the scientific evidence was not good ratings.

  • Bad critics bad.

  • Um, you know voy a word on the street.

  • You suck er, go home.

  • You suck.

  • Just just tough.

  • And then all these years later, these people whose comedy I just love tell me we really liked you in the unit was really you know, we were watching right away and we liked it and I didn't know that.

  • But I think that's something inspirational for people to know.

  • Is that, um, again going back to We live in this culture of you're constantly checking in to see how you're doing and how someone else doing compared to you and you're getting a lot of inaccurate information about how you're doing.

  • You know how you're doing as a person, as an 18 year old or a 19 year old or a 20 year old or whatever Who's here at Oxford at this moment, how you're doing, you just don't know.

  • It really is about how you feel about how you're doing.

  • And, um, and checking in constantly on social media, I think, is very tricky thing.

  • And I'm not some old guy's saying Social media is a bad thing.

  • I'm very young.

  • Uh, no, I love social media, and I think it is mostly a force for good.

  • I just think it's like one of those 50 to 48 propositions where it really is.

  • There's so much there that could be very difficult.

  • And I think there's a lot of pressure on this generation.

  • There's so much pressure on you that wasn't on my generation.

  • We could be blissfully ignorant about what someone else had for breakfast.

  • Uh, you know how much they love avocado toast and how many likes that got?

  • Um, we didn't know all that.

  • And I think so.

  • There's a lot of pressure that people are doing with here that I'm sympathetic to.

  • I think it's time for questions from the audience now.

  • So if you have a question, please raise your hand, Wait for the microphone to come to you, and please stand up whilst in your question can we start with the hunt in the very back row over the Remember with the glasses.

  • You're an Oxford.

  • He just said The guy with the glasses way learned fellow who takes things seriously.

  • Yes, yes, you stand.

  • Hello, Levine.

  • I've been washing for many years.

  • I've been watching you for many years.

  • What's your name?

  • Kevin.

  • Kevin Hello, Kevin.

  • Uh, how much of the Georgians Slansky character is like made up?

  • Because I feel like I've told you.

  • He is Really?

  • He's a Really He's a real person.

  • And I've had arguments with him when there's no cameras around that air.

  • Hysterical.

  • And I'm thinking, Why aren't there cameras rolling right now?

  • He is a real person.

  • Does he sometimes put maybe an extra 10% on it?

  • Yes, he does.

  • But don't pour during my answers.

  • Ones like it was like, I think he's done nice.

  • You are.

  • Where's my cab?

  • Cambridge.

  • I'm going out.

  • Um, yeah, but he's pretty much that guy.

  • He really is.

  • He really is.

  • Okay.

  • Thank you.

  • I thank you.

  • I thank you, Kevin.

  • Kevin, you get to keep that mike.

  • That's yours to have.

  • That's a new thing we're doing here at the union.

  • Once you get the mike, don't give it back, All right?

  • They're all these people, and then they have to wait for the mike to get to them.

  • This is awkward.

  • He's right there.

  • I can hear him.

  • Hi.

  • Oh, yes.

  • Hello.

  • How are you?

  • Hi.

  • I'm good.

  • I'm really excited to see you.

  • Very excited.

  • to see you love your podcast.

  • Thank you very much.

  • So especially love Sona.

  • So height is ona She's not here, so Yeah, You talked about Jordan and you mentioned Sewn already.

  • I was wondering if you could talk a little bit more about your relationship with Sona.

  • It always seems pretty antagonistic, but also that you really, really love each other.

  • Right.

  • Well, that's how it Yeah, you know, it is funny.

  • Uh, my wife's here on she convey validate the the actress playing.

  • My wife is here.

  • Uh, that's my wife.

  • Lies it right there.

  • And she will tell you that dealing with Sona on the phone about anything in our it is that same person, she's 100% authentic.

  • It's my assistant.

  • I hired her.

  • Um, And then one day I heard this strange language, and I heard her.

  • And it was her talking to her mom.

  • She she had never I'd only heard her speak fluent Southern California English when she was having this heated conversation.

  • And I came out and I said, What's going on?

  • And she said, I was just having a talk with my mom, and I didn't realize that they're both speak Armenian, and they were both its speaking fluently.

  • And she's very loud.

  • And when they're having a normal, pleasant conversation, it sounds intense.

  • And so I came in and I said, What sounded like you were to Dracula's were having an argument, you know, And immediately in that moment we decided, like he's this.

  • Either this person's either offensive or this is gonna work.

  • And it worked.

  • We just because she came right back at me on living off potatoes and, er, um, you know, and it just jelled.

  • And we're constantly, you know, we just did a thing recently where I got her to.

  • It was, Ah, Riel.

  • Cameras were rolling, We were just talking.

  • And then she started talking about all the stuff she's stolen from stores and she just went and she was like, I took this lip gloss.

  • I took that from this store and she knew it.

  • She had an encyclopedic knowledge of all the things that she's stolen over the years.

  • So I said we should do a remote where you and I go back to all those stores and try and make amends, and it's stuff like she's, you know, it's all like dollar 99 Lip gloss, A headband from forever 21 You know, some socks or the tassel on them from Gap for kids.

  • I don't know why she stole that just weird stuff, but you know it.

  • It just is so silly.

  • And it works that that's, I think, one of the reasons that we keep doing it.

  • And we did have a very nice we took her to Armenia.

  • It was really fun to go to Armenia and we didn't know what the end would be.

  • And we had so much fun adventures in Armenia and I took her.

  • There's women there whose profession is to find People are husband and you go and we were looking at all these pictures of these guys in her little house in Armenia and, um so that was a fun remote.

  • But then, in the end, we ended up going to the Holocaust memorial, and that was incredibly powerful and really amazing.

  • And I do love it when a show like Corn Without Borders, which is on Netflix, can encompass, really laugh out loud, funny moments and then a really moment didn't feel exploitative.

  • It all it felt we went there She wanted to go.

  • We told the cameraman You've got to be out of sight.

  • I told all the writers and the producers, You have to go away.

  • And we just had this great moment and she was crying her eyes out and it was really powerful.

  • And it was a beautiful thing.

  • And wherever I go now, Armenians come out and they say Conan.

  • But Evan, I say inch plastic, Love them, you know, And that's all I know.

  • And, uh um, but But it's that's been the really nice thing is that it's all about making connections.

  • And you know it is.

  • Ah, I'm sort of addicted to go in two different places and trying to see Do they do they?

  • Can I connect with these people in Haiti, in Seoul, South Korea, in, um, you know, in Italy.

  • And we just went to Ghana for your return and had some really great moments.

  • And, you know, I'm the whitest person in the world, but it just and we had a guy I was talking to, and I'm trying to learn about culture and gone, and he's from Ghana and he's this, you know, it's just this really interesting, funny guy, but he's looking at me and he went your skin I'm wearing.

  • I was wearing a short sleeved shirt and I went those air freckles and he was like, Uh huh and I said, What's the matter?

  • He went.

  • I thought you were sick.

  • And then I had the experience of going to a club with him and being the only white person in the club and realizing this is how my friends, who are African American who you know, live in work on my show.

  • If they go somewhere in there, the only person of color there, I know how they I see.

  • Now I see how it all gets flipped around, and I love that.

  • I love trying to get outside myself and connect to people and see if we can make them laugh.

  • You know that?

  • That's just a lovely part of the job.

  • Could we go Thio the member in the blue in the back?

  • Hey, Conan.

  • Big fan.

  • Uh, just wondering.

  • You've got a very laid back vibe, man.

  • Thank you.

  • I'm from Canada.

  • What you say I could hear him.

  • What?

  • But it's kind of freaky with all your from Canada?

  • No.

  • Yeah.

  • Yeah, that too.

  • It's cold.

  • But you just stood up with this?

  • No, like a man.

  • I love it.

  • My question is so with, like, all eyes on us with social media and stuff, it feels like everyone's kind of always watching us at this stage in our lives.

  • And for those of us who have, maybe, like, TV and media ambitions, should we be extra careful with what we put out there, or should we just kind of, like, go with it and accept that society will maybe change its use?

  • And, you know, like when you grew up, there wasn't maybe that there was no smartphone.

  • Sorry.

  • Um, so what you're trying to say if I can interpret in my day to get a dick pic out there was very hard.

  • You needed a lot of equipment you needed.

  • It was like nine people involved, and then you had to mail them, and it was it wasn't worth it.

  • There was no erotic zing at the end, you know, there was a difficult time, you know, that's the part where I think Yes, obviously.

  • I mean, look, we're all I see it both ways because we, We, uh, currently have a president in the in the United States who seemingly has done all kinds of things that would have ended anybody else's career five years ago.

  • And his attitude seems to be We're not talking about that right now.

  • And then he has that weird sort of Obi Wan Kenobi.

  • These are not the droids you're looking for.

  • He does the most outrageous things, you know, You're like, Wait a minute, the nine porn stars and he's like, these are not the droids you're looking for.

  • And we're all, like, these are not the droids.

  • And so, you know, I think it would be a real shame if you didn't everybody, uh, quote Hannah Montana.

  • Now, uh, everybody makes mistakes.

  • Everybody has those days.

  • That's all I know.

  • I know that.

  • Because I at a five year old daughter when, uh when she was all the rage and she had a pen that every time you clicked on it would sing that song until the battery died.

  • And I ended up just digging a well and dropping it into the well.

  • But anyway, um, I don't I would hate for your generation to think I would hate it if five and six and seven year olds were thinking I might want to be in broadcasting someday, I might want to be a comedian.

  • I'd better keep my social image pristine for all time.

  • I think that's an unrealistic expectation personally.

  • So I think things are going to adjust.

  • Do I think that people should try to be civil and show common sense?

  • Yes, I think it's really good idea if you're going to be drinking a lot to maybe put the phone in a box and lock it, you know on.

  • So you come back around again just because But I think there's gonna be Oh, I think your generation and I say this, I think optimistically, I think your generation is going to we're in.

  • We've been going through a moment where people can go back and look back 15 years and say, Oh my God, or eight years or three years and say, Look what you did at this party.

  • We have this picture and your life is over, and I I think it would be terrible for everyone in this room.

  • Children, I have a 14 year old and 16 year old I don't want them to go through life thinking that you're This is the age where you're supposed to be making some mistakes, robbing some banks, committing some crimes.

  • Uh, but but at the same time, I think, yeah, you're definitely You want to be responsible with that phone in your camera?

  • You know, uh, that camera in your phone, Um, you know you.

  • And so I'm probably the last person to give you advice, but I I hate the sound of what I'm hearing from you is a 19 or 20 year old person who's saying I'm bright.

  • I got a future.

  • But how worried do I have to be about everything I do on social media and I I would like to think you don't have to be that worried about it.

  • Did we go too?

  • The member?

  • These silences in between questions are great.

  • I got on.

  • Thanks for being here.

  • Oh, thanks for a nice to be You talked about how you like your comedy to be on universal topics, so it can be timeless.

  • But do you think that besides that, um, there's like, every generation has any particular type of humor?

  • And if Saul What does it take to make a millennial off?

  • Oh, well, uh, clearly, I wouldn't know, but I would.

  • But no, I don't I don't I don't think you know.

  • I think the best thing you could do is go on like Adult Swim.

  • And that's just an interesting example.

  • Or just go on the Internet.

  • There's so many different types of comedy.

  • There's there's always been different brands and styles of comedy, and right now I see all of it happening simultaneously.

  • I do not think there is a type of humor that works four millennials, and then if you go 20 years later, there's a different sensibility that works for them.

  • I think there are certain universal

Thank you so much for joining us here today and for accepting our invitation.

字幕與單字

單字即點即查 點擊單字可以查詢單字解釋

A2 初級

柯南在牛津聯盟的完整問答 (Conan's Full Q&A At The Oxford Union)

  • 7 0
    林宜悉 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
影片單字