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

conan o'brien needs a fan want to talk to conan visit teamcoco.com call conan okay let's get started hey conan o'brien here and we are back with part two very special two-part series we're doing behind the scenes look at conan o'brien must go season three and in season three i go to india netherlands morocco and the philippines and last week we discussed india and the netherlands two shows that really made us happy and uh today we're going to talk about morocco and the philippines these are all out now conan o'brien must go hbo we're very happy with how it all came out and i'm sitting here with uh three of the writer producers that have done every travel show with me and that is you mike sweeney hello mike hello yep can't be real and jesse gaskell hi yes very good and uh and uh uh you know him as dr arroyo but we call him jose arroyo jose hi conan and um yeah pretty good uh the only one here with a soul is jesse uh but i can't stress enough how hard uh these talented people work uh to make these shows really fun it's a lot it's very labor intensive um and i know that anyone watching these shows just thinks oh that's conan just improvising and having fun and being funny off the cuff and 98 of the time that's true but you do you work very you commenting that yeah but you you work very hard on that other two percent uh no the the since the beginning uh what's the first show we all did together cuba it was cuba that's right 15 uh and how many countries have we done now if you if you count conan without borders plus then we then we changed to conor bryan moscow for hbo so that's 25 yeah gone to 25 countries there are 25 uh nations where i'm no longer welcome if you count the u.s yeah you know when you when you pass a bad check they put your picture up on the register yeah i'm at the i'm at the cash register of every country that we visited um and you know how it works is uh um and and what's really happened with conor bryan moscow is it begins with um a fan from another country calling into the podcast conor bryan needs a friend i chat with them and if you sense a certain kind of electricity uh that resonates it doesn't happen with everybody but sometimes we notice oh i've just talked to you know two two really funny fans from japan and the next thing you know we're gonna head to japan or i've just talked to two really funny fans in india let's go so um once we know we're gonna go uh mike sweeney jesse uh gaskell and jose arroyo drill down they think a lot about the country they try and uh figure out what are the fun places we could see conan going what are kind of the fun activities that are you know uh that this country's known for that conan could participate in and then you guys meet with me i throw in some ideas we all hash it out and then we uh we take off there's a whole other apparatus there's jeff ross our executive producer there's uh jason chalemi who's been with me since early days of late night he started as an intern yeah and yes invaluable field producer gets everything done i mean where the bodies are he knows where the bodies are and he's the guy if you say if we are on uh on the street of bangalore and one of us says it would be really funny if in this moment if conan was able to hold up a cuckoo clock right made of caramel yes we say to chalemi jason chalemi cuckoo clock made of caramel and he goes like hold on a second i packed it he no he yeah or he goes rushing off down an alley yes and comes back 20 minutes later with one yeah and maybe he killed somebody i don't know but and he he picks all our local producers all our fixers oh and that's it we should also yeah i didn't i neglected to say that last time but in all of these countries um jason finds and he has he has a perfect average unerring batting average uh yes uh picking finding these people who are so good at what they do they live in country they're from that country and they just know how things work and right um but also have good chemistry with us and yeah yeah and they become every time we become friendly with them it's very emotional when we leave these countries because yes we have been living with these people for a long time and we've been living with these people for a long time for a week it always starts with them being very formal and polite when they meet me i'm coming down the escalator in one of 25 countries and i say hello to them and they say oh hello hello mr o'brien i go no no it's conan and within 24 hours they're making fun of me yeah and then we're all joking around we have inside jokes and at the end we're all crying and hugging each other yeah it's a drunk kickboxing so let's talk about they're in the show like in the philip yes yes uh well let's let's get into let's start with morocco because that is the uh third show and the reason we're having these episodes these these special uh podcast episodes is because all four are out now and so season three complete is available on hbo conor o'brien must go and morocco let's talk about it because you mentioned uh jason chalemi right before we started this podcast he came in and he said morocco is wildly popular on hbo it's like the one that's really you know kicking it off and uh why is that do you think i it's a completely different look for one two you have sona with you on this episode and the road trip element i think is really fun and the chemistry between the two of you is so strong yeah uh it just builds you should have her on your podcast so i mean yeah but she's such as she's such a wallflower no no you gotta she doesn't she doesn't speak up she's so quiet yes she's um so but uh well go ahead mike yeah oh i was gonna say my favorite thing about this episode when we were planning it we had to plan it quickly after the oscars and we're like oh it'd be great to have sona to you know for a different look sona come to morocco that would be great and we're like we're like why we need an organic reason there needs to be an organic reason for sona to come jesse remembered her talking about on the podcast yes about argon oil for her hair yes no on the podcast a lady knows on the podcast yeah sona had talked about needing argon oil for her hair which and and it it you know you have to get it from morocco and she had gone on about it and then we thought oh wait a minute this is already this is already in the ether she has talked about this so that became a quest sona's here to get her argon oil yeah um and then uh i obviously i adore sona and she is such a good uh natural improviser uh i mean she i hired her yeah yeah to be my assistant and then and and it just turned out um that she uh was one of the funniest natural improvisers and also has a completely different energy background point of view yeah uh from me and she's uh she is just the best so having someone along was magic and then these sweeping desert shots were in like a part of the sahara desert and it looks like a david lean movie it looks like lawrence of arabia it doesn't it's yeah i mean so often we're used to seeing shots especially in la where it's like oh i know where they went i went to barstow all right or lancaster yeah yeah and this is like you can't create that anywhere they went to pasadena for that i can see gorley's house the little sahara neighborhood of la little sahara oh they have such good restaurants there um but uh yeah so for all the reasons morocco is so iconic and the fans that we talked to in morocco were great and um we knew okay they'll be good to talk to we'll have a good connection with them yassir was the guy in casablanca who who admitted to you that he had never seen the movie casablanca which enraged me we're going to morocco yeah we gotta get this guy to watch it uh and um yeah that was brilliant and also this is not in the show but speaking of casablanca and the movie there was some snapshot of the movie and i was like oh my god i'm gonna watch it and i'm gonna have food at the airport and we had to fly out of casablanca but there was a major bureaucratic hold up and we we needed to get on this plane to fly to different part of morocco yes and they we couldn't get on the plane and we were trapped in this airport for a bunch of hours you guys were playing like pictionary yes and everyone's you know we're walking around we're stuck in this airport and then i realized the plot of casablanca is people trying to fly out of casablanca but they can't so you know really quick i need my papers you know no one can get out of casablanca they're trapped and so i kept going up to the customs guys and trying to say isn't this kind of funny because the plot of casablanca is that they can't get out of casablanca on a plane and that's the whole thing and now i'm stuck in casablanca these guys uh hadn't seen casablanca no didn't think i was funny uh and they may be right about that and so the whole thing was uh was an absurdity but that was a little behind the scenes uh story we were in vans driving we um we came ready to shoot with gopros in the van so you really see sona and i just tooling around the desert in a vintage land rover i think yeah or the defender or is that what yeah one of those sort of classic looking desert desert vehicles yeah which by the way and this is not uh not that it just was an older truck it was maybe a 25 30 40 year old 70 100 year old truck um and it it drove for shit well i mean it just it was it was that's in the show and i way too small for you i mean it oh i didn't fit my legs were all uh tied up in pretzels but also the amount of play in the steering wheel was um suicidal yeah it was suicidal but that's all in the that's all in the episode and i think i think the owner was getting mad you were bad mouthing this beautiful vehicle yeah well it's like what well he doesn't know how to drive it yeah yeah he was like that's not how you drive it yeah no no sir i assure you this is a piece of shit yeah uh thank god you're getting a sand bath with with sona being like allowing yourself this is where you're big you're like the chuck yeager of comedy you just put yourself in any situation where you think there might be a laugh below you know like it's a need it's a neediness such a neediness but i you've done it in in almost every country we've gone to you're like fracking yeah and you'll do anything and at one point you're just being buried in the sahara and it's really hot the sand is very very you know when you you step on a uh you're on a super hot beach yes how it burns your feet and you imagine uh shovels full of that temperature sand being thrown on your bare chest your neck yeah but again i'm thinking well this could look funny yes so and i can go get an outer layer of skin someplace else anywhere else yes no if someone can demonstrate to me that something's funny i will do it and then we'll sort it out with surgeries later that's my attitude so uh sweeney uh what am i forgetting about morocco because there's so much it's hard to keep track of it all there is great drama there are these incredible shots of you and sona on camels yes against the doones and we got delayed getting we wanted to shoot right before sunset and we got delayed getting there um and time is running out and we pull up there are that spot there are other people on one side like riding camels so we're like right okay we're going to the left yeah i was going to say right stanley stanley was there uh it's just a backed up travel shows yeah golden hour so we had to literally run up to the dune and get the camels up there and you you guys got on the camels just in time yep and we shot it just before the sunset and you got that spectacular light yes yes uh and um that's in the show these were the shadows of the camels you see them against the sand it's very dramatic yeah cool yeah but that was like the country part and then you went into them into the souk into marrakesh yep and you and sona were finding finding comedy in the stalls of the of the markets oh there was you'll always find people yeah you'll always find people uh there was a guy there who was in very politically incorrect some of his comments yes and uh to the point where i was almost choking i was like how is this guy not in jail uh but i leave that to the authorities um and uh yeah the the again go ahead oh you did a portrait with uh famous moroccan artists yes on hajaj yep which was amazing that was fun he has shot billy eilish he's i mean he he's had taken so many iconic photographs of huge stars and then uh he decided to uh to try conan o'brien it was that was really fun yes it was really cool to watch yeah it was just sort of in an alley behind his studio but he he makes it look unique with all these um moroccan textiles that he incorporates into his work and he got you in the mood by having a live uh music player there playing the goomba or something like that yeah yeah yeah and you kind of put you in a trance of course exactly yeah it's really something uh the uh again we had this magical experience great fixers great locals helping us out um great food oh food there is spectacular yeah yeah we had pizza we had general chow's chicken uh i love we go to these countries and we just only eat pizza the food in morocco they make a pizza margarita it's on a pita let's transition now to the philippines because the philippines is the um final uh episode uh and again uh it is out now and all four are out but uh philippines we've been wanting to go to the philippines a while because somehow and mike you might remember how this happened we became aware that for reasons that we don't completely understand we have a big fan base in the philippines a giant giant fan base one thing is your old late night show uh was broadcast there so you had a lot of older fans and then you had a lot of younger fans from you youtube clips yeah and so we've got just for conan o'brien uh needs a fan we get so a giant amount of fans from the philippines running in and then when we started interviewing them each one of them a they were so dynamic yes smart funny sweet we were just like we have to go to philip it was just kind of we have to go filipinos are so are very funny great sense of humor and irreverent and they like they they seem to love silliness and uh irreverence and they Uh, one of the things that was really fun about going, we were in Manila, we're staying in Manila at this hotel and every day I'd come downstairs and the lobby would be filled with people who wanted to say hello and maybe have me sign something. And some of them had made gifts and it was a love-in and I'd come every single day, every single day I would go down to the lobby and sometimes I'd say, I really need to get my coffee first or I do it for a while. And then I'd say, I just got to go get some coffee and I'd go into the, to the restaurant to get some, just some coffee and they would come with me and like sit down at the banquette and be like, okay. But, but it was a great, it was just a great. Vibe. Yes. And they knew, I mean, this was surreal for me because it's not like I'm a forward-facing part of the show, but they knew all of our names and they, you know, wanted autographs from all of us. Oh, they knew, they were like, oh my God, it's Jeff Ross. Yeah, yeah. You know, and then do you want some soup, Jeff? You know, they know like little, little side, little bits that I was doing. They would be like, oh, it's, oh my God, it's, it's Blay, Blay, Blay, right? They, they all knew you from, from Clueless Gamer. Amazing. Incredible, yes. So the outpouring of love was incredible in the Philippines, really. Yeah, yeah. And can't say enough about how gratifying that was and how spectacular they were. And I have to say one of my, one of the fans who had called in was this gentleman who was very interested in becoming, you know, he's a really good martial artist. Mustafa, Mustafa. Mustafa. Mustafa, Mustafa. The name's so good. They, it's so. It's so nice. They named him twice. Mustafa, Mustafa. And he was really funny. I mean, that's one of those conversations I had on the podcast where 30 seconds into the conversation, I said, I am going to go to the Philippines and hang out with Mustafa, Mustafa. So he was great. And. And then he wanted to be an action star. And I was like, I will make you an action star. So we actually and again, great fixers, great helpers, great research and girly were the fixers. They were characters themselves. These two women that were so funny. We ended up putting them in the show. Yes. And and then they make it into the promo for the show. And well, they they were clearly a comedy. They've been a comedy team. I don't care what anyone says. They don't know it, but they're a comedy team. So they they helped us arrange to get myself and Mustafa Mustafa on this local procedural action show. Police show. And so gang dick it. Yeah. OK, let's just watch it. OK, sorry. So that's the name of the show. I'm sorry. I thought you finally cracked. Yeah. So they. And that was fun, because, again, any time I get to wear a mustache or have or wear a shirt that's open to my navel and be a dick, which I get to do in my private life all the time. But whenever I get to do that in front of a camera, I'm just so happy. And then Mustafa Mustafa was great. We get a. And so we got to be in this show together. And again, our thanks to the producers and writers of that show. Yes, because I love hanging out with TV. Writers, because that's how I got started. And so the next thing I know, I'm talking to the the woman that wrote the episode and the guy that wrote the episode. And you're just like, they're fantastic. Like us. Yeah. No, you know, it's so funny. We started. I said, like, we started. Yeah. We started just bitching about some of the things about being a comedy. Goddamn actors. Didn't read the line, right? Yeah. Yeah. And I was up all night and they just they just ad-libbed through that line that I worked really hard on. So it was nice to know that we're. Wherever you go, there you are. Yeah, that's true. But we had. But you. The Philippines has some of my favorite. You had three fans. Favorite fans. You had Mustafa. You had Trisha. Yeah. And then you had Charles. And Trisha, with her husband, ran a hotel. Yeah. Outside of Manila. You offered to help them drum up business for the hotel. Yeah. And I basically got to reprise the Jerry Lewis role in The Bellboy. Again, any time I'm given the slightest bit of authority and I get to wear a suit and a costume and a hat and I'm given a tiny bit of authority, I become a worst guy ever. It was so much. It was such a delight. And I was so impressed by the culture, the people. And we found people along the way. We found a balot salesman who agreed. Yeah. Yeah. He agreed to play along with us. He had a great balot is a. Describe what balot is so I don't. A balot is a. You ate it. I actually, actually, yeah. Aaron Blair and I wound up eating balut, which is a duck egg that has been fertilized and is actually the, and the duck has formed a little bit and then they steam it and then you eat it and you eat the whole thing. It's a little crunchy because there's a little bit of. Well, sure. Bones and. Little bones and cartilage. Bones and the beak. And beak and so on. The beak is in there. But it's, you know, it's. It's actually a widely popular throughout Southeast Asia. There's balut versions in Vietnam and other countries. No, it's that people love that go, go crazy for balut. It's a, it's a popular street food and you found a street food vendor and you had a great conversation with them. And then things there go kind of off the rails where. So off the rails. I end up having an argument with. A metaphysical discussion with a duck. A duck. Okay. Listen. It was. I'm sorry. Am I giving away a duck? A surprise appearance by Dr. Arroyo. Well, sure, sure. Stay tuned. Yeah. So, so many different adventures. This one went off the rails in a lot of places. In a beautiful way. Dr. Arroyo. Oh. There's also the MacArthur suite. General MacArthur had a suite when General MacArthur was in charge of the Philippines. Actually, he lived there before the war. He lived there. I believe he returned after the war. Yeah. He said he would return and he did. He did return. But yes, there was. I got to be in that suite. And then I don't know what happened. You dressed up as MacArthur. I dressed up as MacArthur. You got the pipe and the cat. And then things got X-rated at one point when I'm lying on. Yeah. We realize when you lie down, like some things go to another level. Yes. Usually there's something. I am so. I am so repressed that when I lie down, all this sexuality comes out of my pores. But it's not really sexuality. I don't know. Oh, no. I don't know what it is. It's. It's some. No one's aroused. Why do we shoot you in that bright position? Yeah. You should only be lying down. No, the Philippines has a lot of great looks. It's got a lot of. Again, we're finding that when we go to these different countries, the country takes over. Yeah. You know, that the it's the people and the culture and the humidity in the air and the smell of the food takes over. And that becomes the impression. Yeah. And then we can plan so much. And you guys, you know, work really hard at planning as much as possible. And then it's not unlike, you know, a good quarterback. You go in with a plan and then 80 percent of that time, that plan goes to shit and you need to quickly pivot. And so the country takes over at some point. And sometimes all the plan stuff works really well. Sometimes we go, we show up and we realize immediately, well, we plan to do this, but that's not happening. But hey, what's that over there? Who's that guy? So anything can change at any moment. In every episode, there were things that we had to drop for one reason or another. And we found something or you discovered something. It's always the most exciting part of any show is when things go when we have to do that pivot. Yeah. To do the pivot. Yeah. It's so funny because I. I found out. Yes, there are people talk about, oh, like my favorite late night with Conan O'Brien clip, you know, or Conan clip from TBS, whatever. Yes, there's a lot of good stuff that writers work really hard on that they planned and that was mapped out. And it's great. And then I also am aware that so many great moments are accidents. Something kind of went wrong. But we were able to, you know, go with that. Because it's really. It's really fun and people have a sixth sense, audiences, fans, anyone has a sixth sense of when something is organic. I think you can tell just from looking at internet content. Yes. When people are faking it. Oh yeah. It's like drinking wine. That's like, it's, it's just flat. It's like, oh, this is just a sponsored. Yeah. Yeah. Whatever, exactly. But when you see something real, humans know it. Yeah. The way like a dog can sense danger. Or like an earthquake's coming. Humans know when, when. AI could never do what we do. Actually, this has all been AI. Well, those are the shows, that wraps up our two-part discussion of these travel shows. It's called Conan O'Brien Must Go. And I'm very grateful to my. Season, season three. Season three. Streaming on HBO. Yes. This season is India, Netherlands, Morocco, Philippines. There are two other seasons. I'm very proud of these shows and grateful to you guys for working so hard and being so talented and the whole team. I mean, everybody, it is a, a labor of love and so many people are involved, but my favorite thing about these shows is that, and I know it sounds corny, but I do believe that we make a lot of friends when we go to these places. Yes, mm-hmm. We, there's a, we go in with a lot of goodwill and, and, and then we're usually, we're just inevitably always met by these wonderful people with great energy and enthusiasm. And so it's just a joy all around. It's the best thing. Right. I can't imagine a better job. It's a great, I think penicillin's the best thing, like any kind of really effective antibiotic, but you know, we'll, I guess that's being challenged these days. Mm-hmm. Yeah. What do I know? Anyway, check those shows out, Mike Sweeney, Jose Arroyo, Jesse Gaskell, of course, shout out to Blay, too, who comes on every show. Thank you. Thank you. Jeff Ross, Jason Chalemi is- Jason Chalemi, Scott Chronic and his costumes. Scott Chronic coming up with crazy outfits. Mm-hmm. And I'm sure we're forgetting people, but I wanna forget some people. Our crew. Yes, our crew. Our crew. Oh my God! That's right. What the hell? Emily, Emily, Emily and Brenda. We have this Amazon, this crew of Amazons. Beautiful. Let's discuss them briefly 'cause we have to. We do. Yeah, we have an all-woman crew that I love. I mean, you don't talk about it that much, but I feel like we should 'cause it's unique. And they're all so good at their jobs. They chase after you and Brenda gets backwards on a horse and they- Brenda's this camera woman who, no matter what we're doing, she's very athletic. She will grab this camera that weighs more than I do and she will jump on a horse and ride it backwards so that she's in front of me yeah she does stuff like that she did it underwater in the philippines she's scuba certified and and we'll film you underwater yeah brenda zuniga the the last scene of the philippine show all the entire crew just leapt into the water to shoot it yeah and then emily it was amazing emily topper uh emily topper is uh you know she was the first person we found in this crew and she's spectacular and she's our director of photography she's the director of photography and she uh is just i've never seen her once get rattled and guess what all of us get rattled all of us i've had to slap jose countless times jose has slapped mike mike has slapped jesse um we're all slapping each other like the three stooges and and losing our heads and she never gets diarrhea she does it it's amazing you know what uh that was the first thing on her resume can't get diarrhea no she's absolutely incredible and then um and then emily strong is the oh my god emily strong does sound uh i'm yelling at her all the time because i never want to be miked and i have to be miked and that is her job to mic me and every time she's putting a mic on me i'm saying do i have to wear a mic uh because i thrash around so much um and uh she's like yeah you have to wear a mic idiot but whether you're in the wind in the winds of the of the desert or they were in their sand bath being buried and she's off to the side and like in long sleeves and pants and she's holding the boom mic a hundred degrees laden down with yes equipment yeah no there we are i am so glad amazing crew that we stopped at the very end of this episode to talk about the film and the movie and to credit the people who you know it's a cliche to say we couldn't do it without if we didn't have these three women shooting the show and recording the sound there'd be no show and they are uh just great souls they are great souls yeah so uh well while we're still here i got to mention our editor matt no no editing i'm sorry should be done graphic artist chris weller yes shaw and weller are amazing i just you know the other no come on let's go what is it mission creep these people are integral parts of your show can i just william morris endeavor william morris endeavor they've done a great job the gown alone was the one that got me that peanut butter commercial no staff at hb no no i mean first of all anyone who knows anything about uh television production knows that especially especially especially in comedy editing editing editing editing and i know you guys work very hard on the edits but uh this group sha and co they do such an amazing job yeah yeah such an amazing job instincts are perfect and yes so fast fast yes um i just want to mention that my brother neil has done nothing okay and actually i don't even think he watches them no he you know what he doesn't have he doesn't have hbo you know that my brother neil who's watched every one of my he doesn't have hbo and i keep saying to him like hey neil i like it neil i'll get you hbo and he's like i'm good i'm good don't you want to see my shows he said i'll catch him later catch him later how that's my brother anyway we are not thanking him uh thanks to everyone uh if you're listening um check out check out a show i think you will or check out all four and then watch them again uh they are uh they're really fun and i hope you agree all right peace out tupac bye bye conan o'brien needs a fan with conan o'brien sonam of sessian and matt gorley produced by me matt gorley executive produced by adam sacks jeff ross and nick leo incidental music by jimmy take it away jimmy supervising producer aaron blaird associate talent producer jennifer samples associate producers sean doherty and lisa berm engineering by eduardo perez get three free months of sirius xm when you sign up at siriusxm.com slash conan please rate review and subscribe to conan o'brien needs a fan wherever fine podcasts are done Thank you.