Conan O'Brien | Full Q&A at The Oxford Union

[Music] [Music] so 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 was some controversy before I came to your fine school I 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 an email with you wow you're a fun crowd it's from another college a college known as Cambridge this is the email that went right to my people two days after I accepted your kind invitation I'm also aware that conan's 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 we are of the opinion that students here at Cambridge are this is all word-for-word a more engaged attentive and more prone to asking insightful questions as compared to their Oxford peers and would love the chance to prove this I just watched it I just want you to know I got that email and I just immediately thought who writes crap like this [Applause] I'm going tomorrow uh [Laughter] 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 this 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 were a better Cod that's because you're secure you know you guys know you're the best and you don't to tell anybody you're the best [Applause] there's something actually wrong and it's secure about those cambridge people they frightened 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 Dean want to say I demand freedom and freedom [Applause] you can literally say anything in here and it sounds more majestic than it really is I think Starbucks burns their coffee and I don't 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 podcast you think wow what an energy drop no it's not your fault used you went right into conversational tone I had just said we were going to 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 when was it that you realized that that was what you wanted to do well when I was a 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 you'd meet a new one occasionally in the bathroom but 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 you can't be in show business I didn't know anybody in show business my father is a brilliant man he's a microbiologist infectious disease scientist 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 I'm 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 it's so hilarious that we are so proud of the fact that Harvard's like 1638 and then you come here and it's they have McDonald's that are that old and now I live in Los Angeles where sometimes people will come to and look at your house you know they'll come in fit because something's wrong with the basement and they'll say they're here to fix it and they'll be oh man you got one of these old houses went ahead they built this during Obama's first term huh so I've had to I went to 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 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 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 you watch or have seen have been written or produced by 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 they I 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 have been 1981 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 it turns out it does pay and I worked on Senate live I worked on a few shows when I worked on Senate live and then I worked on The Simpsons and and then I got my own show and now I'm here so it is it feels miraculous to me I'm very people overuse the word grateful in my business they say I'm really great for when it deep down inside they're total [ __ ] 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 someone came to me and said you should do a podcast and I said why would I do a podcast when I 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 and I started doing it and I can't tell you I can go anywhere in the world and people listened 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 they're very unselfconscious Lisa Kudrow when I asked her do you wanna do the podcast she said no hair no makeup I'll be there in 10 minutes they 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 to 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 and but here you don't it's it 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 the podcast is meaningful to me and 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 fun for me yeah we fire people you should you should see the look on their faces these are people with children they have mortgages and I'm like Caligula at this point I'm like you know I'm firing you and hiring my horse you know and so that's fun I would say one of the challenges with anything is and everybody has this issue I don't care who you are if your 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 polished show it started in 93 I think it got a little more polished around 2001 2002 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 read aside who I was and it was this it 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 revolutions so and now we've changed the format again to half-hour because an hour long I started looking at my hour-long show and looking at how its 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 we just do half an hour and I talked to one person as opposed to a show that is comedy first guest 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 guest 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 gonna 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 Porsche in the color gray he wanted and I'm supposed to pretend to care about him so I couldn't do that anymore so we we just shoved it down to a half hour and then I talked to one person here's Will Ferrell I have a great time talking to him we do much more than half an hour 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 an hour 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 as someone can watch it 20 years from now yeah my favorite comedy is right now in the states as I'm sure you're all aware it's people are very angry and so I almost feel like comedy has gone in two completely directions it's 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 roundup for what they talked about it's blank took down Donald Trump today someone so roasted you know this person the administration it's all that and some of it's very clever and very good but it's all 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 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 it comedy that just makes me laugh and is 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've you know you were god only knows you you got on a bicycle and you 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'll think wait a minute we made that in 1994 in 1895 we had a very popular character on the show for a couple 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 you want to talk economics we'll do that next time but this is what you get 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 and really like them 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 doesn't make sense 24 hours after you've said it but a bear masturbating is always good comedy so like you said you don't react to 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 I try to so everyone has their own way of doing these things there's not a right way there's not a wrong way there's just the most important thing I say to 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 loved Black Adder I loved the young ones I would watch all these shows and then you know I I saw the the British office came out and I just loved that those are still funny now it's they're talking about universal themes you know and and to me that's the kind of comedy that I love it's 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 to 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 last I suppose no I you know it's it's actually a it's really important to me if you leave with no other little if you leave with nothing else today or tonight leave with this we have a very 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 the what's the 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 and there's dealing with other people's expectations that you're always going to 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 performers actors comedians who I wouldn't want to be in a million years they just they're unhappy people and there's a lot of unhappy people just as there are everywhere and I think we get this we get this bad read we just we're only seeing this very flattened out image of them laughing and driving a sports car and we think if I had that all 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 that's why I really do try to tell people that you've got to enjoy what you do you have to enjoy it there's so many people so many people they want to be famous for fames sake and fame is nothing I mean it is just a clear broth it doesn't doesn't add much flavor doesn't it doesn't have any nutritional value and you know I can go with this broth analogy forever if you put meat in it for a long time that meat will soften [Music] famous high insults 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 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 and they eventually realized I'm the most boring person in the world and that their pictures of Conan O'Brien goes and buys 2% milk again wearing 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 ok and he said I'm at the Chilton 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 well okay clearly I've just made a fool of myself in front of everyone but there was this place I'm running this restaurant with the paparazzi would hang out in front we have him in LA 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 was like 40 people just firing away photos and so I did this you know and then I started to walk away and they all put their cameras down to the one of them said hey who the [ __ ] are you I said it was this is true I said I'm a male model from Germany what I love that they took a picture of me didn't know who I was and they were yelling at me essentially because I wasn't famous enough you know was just such a weird dynamic I had Rui had wasted their time so on another note following on from there was no transition there at all we're gonna head --it that for you too we'll put something else in there you know maybe some rock music or something ACDC no I do not seek out criticism my world no you know that's one of the things that we surprised me as I've had guests come on the show very famous people and they've confided in me oh I'm you know after my last appearance people said this about me or 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 what this is 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 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 I'm told there's been some really nice things written and some really nice publications and I just say that it'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 my father wrote that I don't want to 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 you learn that that just that way lies madness not no good will come of that none so 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 have changed that I mean I I write a tweet and I say what do you think and I have interns in the office saying nope bad and I I listen to them I listen to other people and sometimes I get into arguments with people I think really because I think that'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 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 and part of what makes your show Stan that is your relationship with your staff and how that's woven into so many Apple yes was that a conscious production choice or was it something that happened just you know there's an old the most famous he was completely unknown in the UK but the most famous talk show host of all time in America was this guy named Johnny Carson who I grew up watching he's 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 the air for 30 years and he said once you'll use it 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 found that to be true you end up using whatever is available to you when you have to do so much TV so much someone there's so much product you end up trying anything and you know where it's like we're living in a 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 it was out you know broth if you will and you end up trying things and that's what we ended up doing and our staff is there and my 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 so now my assistant if you've seen any of this stuff on YouTube she doesn't change she's always this 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 want to 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 it's added a whole other layer you know we ended up realizing we have this great resource so we as well use it and we don't want to overdo it but some of these people I have a guy that works for named Jordan shlonsky who is yeah the idea that in this great historic Hall that is seen like Churchill and Einstein and Malcolm X the idea that the name jordan shlonsky would 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 every time I ask him he says I have various tasks and duties I'm like what does that mean well I attend to various he keeps saying various and then throwing other words in there and I honestly don't know what he does so we're very excited because 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 surprised him 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 it doesn't even get up looks at them and I went Jordan when people let's walk into the room especially famous people you should probably stand anyone there fame is of no consequence to me they can come or they can let 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 people you know it's fascinating he's a weird weird man and we're we're maybe I hope we're advancing the cure for something by putting him on TV he also you just mentioned Johnny Carson yeah what I'm sure you were fan of him while growing up what was it like to meet someone like that and realize that they're a fan of you too well he wasn't 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 a 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 they'd have there's so many people everyone has 75 episode shows on Netflix you know by the time they're in utero and 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 a million you'd know all the names of all the people who were probably going to 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 aren't 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 were 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 at the tryout and they gave me the 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 one-tenth as funny as I was on the audition because it's one thing to audition for something you don't think you're gonna get so I walked into the audition I'm like I'm never getting this and depth up-down about it uh and back then in the early 90s that was funny and 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 them on and then the next thing you know I've got this show and I suddenly I have responsibilities and I have this irish-catholic sense of I've got to do a good job and 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 but 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 and it was very people wrote the nastiest things I mean I just got destroyed in the press I mean are your press can 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 and saw I 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 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 are 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 real and I said you asked it's the cover of USA Today he 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 real you know that'll be a hundred and eighty five dollars so 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 that's another thing to tell you about which is all these years later I just 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 all right he's coming to the Union in March oh he's coming in March well I'm here now the guys good but let's not get crazy now he deserves that and he's just so funny and he writes he's such a brilliant writer and such a great performer and but recently I got to be friends with him and he would say oh yeah I would used to watch you that first year wasn't it great and I was like 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 and I said why couldn't you have come and said that to me back in 1993 and he's like well I was 11 I think an 11 year old in pyjamas 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 you know boy word on the street you suck go home you suck just just tough and then all these years later these people whose comedy I just love tell me oh we really liked you in the big you know was really you know we were watching right away and we liked it and I I didn't know that but I think that's something inspirational for people to know is that again going back to we live in this culture if 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 eighteen 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 and checking in constantly on social media I think is very tricky thing and I'm not some old guy saying social media is a bad thing I'm very young [Music] no I love social media and I think it is mostly a force for good I just think it's like one of those 52:48 propositions where it really is there's so much there that can 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 you know how much they love avocado toast and how many likes that guy we didn't know all that and I think so there's a lot of pressure that people are dealing 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 asking your question can we start with the hand in the very back over there remember with the glasses you're at Oxford you said the guy with the glasses the learning fellow who takes things seriously yes yes you stand hello Dean I've been watching you for many years I've been watching you for many years what's your name Kevin Kevin hello Kevin how much of the Georgians slansky character is like made up because I feel like I told you he is real he's a real he's a real person and I've had arguments with him when there's no cameras around that are hysterical and I'm thinking why aren't their cameras rolling right now he is a real person does he sometimes put maybe an extra ten percent on it yes he does but don't pour during my answers one's life everyone's like I think he's gone mad you up or hates me where's my time to Cambridge I'm going now yeah but he's pretty much that guy and he really is he really is okay thank you I thank you I thank you Kevin Kevin you get to keep that mic that's yours to have that's a new thing we're doing here at the Union once you get the mic don't give it back all right there all these people and then they have to wait for the mic 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 I'm very excited to see you love your podcast thank you very much so I especially love sohna so hi to Sona I know she's not here so yeah you talked about Jordan and you mentioned sone 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 not what's uh you know it is funny my wife's here and she can validate the the actors playing my wife is here 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 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 and she was having this heated conversation and I came out and I said what's going on and she said I was just having an talk with my mom and I didn't realize that they're both speak Armenian and they were both it's 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 we're having an argument you know and immediately in that moment we decided like he's to see that this person's either offensive or this is going to work and it worked we just because she came right back at me and you know living off potatoes and you know and it it just gelled and we're constantly you know we just did a thing recently where I got her - it was a real 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 lipgloss 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 ninety-nine lip gloss a headband from forever 21 you know some socks with a tassel on them from Gap for kids I don't know why she stole that just weird stuff but you know it it it just is so silly and it works that that's what 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 a husband and you go and we were looking at all these pictures of these guys in her little house in Armenia and 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 Conan Without Borders which is on Netflix can encompass really laugh-out-loud funny moments and then I'm real moment didn't feel exploitative at 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 EV and I say inch passaic love him you know and that's all I know and but but it's that's been the really nice thing is that it's all about making connections and you know is sort of addicted to going to different places and trying to see do they do they can I connect with these people in Haiti in Seoul South Korea in you know in Italy and we just went to Ghana for a year of 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 who I was talking to and I'm trying to learn about culture and Ghana and he's from Ghana and he's this you know he'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 sleeve shirt and I went those are freckles and he was like uh-huh and I said what's the matter and 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 in work on my show if they go somewhere and they're the only person of color there I know how they died I seen it I see how it all gets flipped around and I love that I love trying to get outside myself and connect to people and and see if we can make them laugh you know that that's just a lovely part of the job could we go to the number in the blue in the back hey Conan big fan just wondering you've got a very laid-back vibe man thank you I'm from Canada what'd he say I couldn't hear him okay wait it's kind of freaky with all your Canada no yeah yeah that too it's cold but you just stood up with this so like hey 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 it to use and you know like when you grew up there there wasn't maybe that there was no smartphone sorry 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 I that's the part where I think yes obviously I mean look we're all I see it both ways because we 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 people 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 and you're like wait a minute 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 are and so you know I think it would be a real shame if you didn't everybody I'm gonna quote Hannah Montana now everybody makes mistakes everybody has those days that's all I know I know that because I had a five year old daughter when 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 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 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 gonna be drinking a lot to maybe put the phone in a box and lock it you know and so you come back around again just because but I think there's going to be a 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 I mean I have 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 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 or that camera on your phone you know you and so I'm probably the last person bill 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 these silences in between questions are great I got an thanks for being here oh thanks very much 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 there's like every generation has any particular type of humor and if so what does it take to make a millennial laugh oh well 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 for Millennials and then if you go 20 years later there's a different sensibility that works for them I think there are certain universal elements of comedy that surprise people and are funny and we tend to agree for the most part on what those are and there's but I don't think there's something it's specific to your generation where I think oh this is what a millennial thinks is funny because look at all the different kinds of comedy they're thriving right now they're so completely different you know and there's their you have even late night shows in America the distance between say what a Colbert is doing or what a James Corden is doing is just completely different it doesn't mean that one's bad and one's good they're just very different so I and then and if I tried to say one of those senses of humor is for Millennials and one isn't I would be mistaken yeah there's a guy right here on Dianna the rover that I'm just gonna point up there's a man right behind me who could physically assault me if we don't get to him wait I think I can take him stand up stand up oh [ __ ] okay forget it no I won't fight him because I don't want to I'd hurt him I think yes thank you again for coming to speak with us they're not going to the other place I was just wondering it's like Voldemort now the name was lace his name cannot be spoken I was wondering you with your show in the podcast as well are there any other sort of great passion projects that you sort of have always wanted to do on your horizon as you enter your Golden Age it's funny you mention that because there's a little meet-and-greet beforehand I guess people I don't know if they won something or lost something but they had to talk to me for about 10 minutes before we came out here and one of them said so about your attire a and you do hit a certain age or when you've been around long enough where you guys can look up clips of me from 93 and it probably looks to you like this is footage from World War two you know and I don't blame you for thinking that what's funny is as you go along I remember really clearly being your age I remember it's so well and being at Harvard we had a room it's just like this it's called Sanders theater and I did comedy there one night perform comedy there one night and I remember I'm so connected to being that age and I honestly don't feel that differently now that's a very strange thing and I know that to everyone here you'd think that's impossible it must hurt every time your heart beats your stool must be a white gel that part's true they don't know why highly flammable anyway the point is this the point is that that I don't feel any different I really do feel like I just like being silly the way I did when I was 15 18 25 35 45 and now I'm 56 and I'm the same way if there's certain people I see I will get visit like you know people have known for a long time I'll wrestle them in a silly way I just have that very very childlike attitude about things and so I never really think that much about well now I'm this age and it's time for me to go into that sweet light you know I think most people don't think that way they just I mean I like that I'm sort of oddly not self-conscious about it and I have a ability I think to in a childlike way just be where I am now which is I love doing the show I really love doing the Travel specials those are a joy the Konan Without Borders shows and I love doing the podcast and then when they invent or I stumble upon some other way to be silly or to sort of get my essence out there that I will probably try and do that so it's very interesting it's it's why you probably look at people and when I was your age I used to look at people and think why don't they stop now you know there must there's a place they can go and they're cared for you know and but then you get to the you get to start to be that age and you you think why would I do that I feel pretty good and I like doing this so I think I'll just keep taking a stab at it you know until you know people like you say we really don't want to hear what you have to say here you know and that would be rude to write me that just don't invite me the point is is if you went out of your way to write me and say we don't want you to come that would have been incredibly rude you did point out I want to bring this up I said to that thought oh we were what you gave me a nice tour because you wanted to show me what it was like out in the rain and you're very lovely you were really nice and and you gave me this great tour and then at one point I was saying like so kind of like trying to get to how did you decide to invite me and you went we invite lots of people thousands and thousands and every now and then some sucker says ok I'll pay my own airfare that was that was really I that was a really funny part was my manager who's been with me forever he's always used to he this is it's his job it's what he does so he didn't get the memo you know but my my when I'm someone in my office told me you've been invited to speak here and I've know what this is and I thought this is really cool and I want to do that and that's during a week when I could get to look to London so let's do it and then I think Gavin pallone my manager was like he quote he told me he said I called them I talked to them to try and hammer them on the money I don't know who it was but I just pictured somebody picking up the phone but there's no money what are you talking about and then he's like well then he wants seven first-class airplane no he gets nothing it's the honour of it all he called me up honor of it all what is this crap we'll get our money somehow I know it someone's going to lose a scholarship because of this that'd be so great if we took away some like someone who really deserved it there's scholarship and then I'm just driving around La in a Bugatti that says Oxford what an ass unfortunately we don't have time for any more questions I'm sorry but thank you so much for coming here can I just say I know that you you want me out but this really is this is legitimately a joyous thing to get to do to come to get an opportunity to come to speak to so many young smart people and it's just absolutely lovely there's been a real treat for me so thank you for having me you

Channel: OxfordUnion

Views: 1,269,802

Keywords: Oxford, Union, Oxford Union, Oxford Union Society, debate, debating, The Oxford Union, Oxford University

Id: RcjHq7E0mGw

Length: 60min 8sec (3608 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 26 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/zeel2314]

Wow that thumbnail is the one time i seen Conan look his age

[u/imnotfromatlanta]

I need to watch more of these Q and As because the person interviewing Conan seemed so robotic and awkward. The interview didn't feel natural. Conan killed it as usual anyways. Let me know if I'm off base at all.

[u/hellyesiguess]

Wait, at around 13:26 Conan talks about how not only the full show, but also more than they show on TV is uploaded to youtube. What am i missing here? Most of the time not even the full interviews are uploaded to youtube?