How Taylor Tomlinson Prepared To Host "After Midnight" | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend

obviously getting this late night gig uh which is so different than your show cuz it's like a fake game show and it's you know uh like a reimagining of at midnight and and there were a lot of people because we did so much press after it was announced before we were actually doing the show and so I did all these interviews where people like weren't totally sure what it was or like a lot of people online when it came out were like we thought this was a talk show and CBS screwed Taylor Tomlinson and I'm like we were never doing a talk show everybody like I I Tour on the weekends like I'm not going to do a show Monday through Friday it's funny cuz people keep saying like oh it's your show and I'm like it's really not like this is like if anything our show like it's such a great team of people and it's why I wanted to do the show because I I wanted to like have these co-workers it was like I'm like I want to have fun with all these people and make a new thing every day but like they were asking me questions like so when you designed the set I'm like I designed the set they're like when you're booking the show I'm like I don't book the show they're like well when you hired the writers I'm like I didn't hire the writers and I want them to like me so bad I'm like I had no I'm like I can't take credit for anything about this show I don't dress myself like right right I show up someone does my hair and makeup they put me in clothes I'm like an American Girl doll but they just kind of cart around like I really I'm like everyone on that show I think probably has a harder job than I do first of all there's so many things I can relate to which is I was the same age as you when I started my show and yeah they were very different shows but it's still that thing of I remember your first of all your experience was doing standup which is very solitary and the thing I always wanted was I I wanted a pirate ship with my fellow Pirates I always wanted that and I had it in ways when I worked on Saturday Night Live or The Simpsons I loved that we're all in this together but it wasn't my pirate ship and then I I just loved um having these people and and like you got these writers and I just so wanted them because no one knew who I was I wanted them to think I was funny the writers so I would do bits for them all the time I worked harder trying to make the writers laugh than on anything for the show because I really wanted those people to think that oh yeah no he's okay he's all right which was so screwy cuz I was supposedly the host of the show right but I understand that wanting to be or how nice it is to have a group must feel good after all those all that time on the road where you're it's it's very it's just you and a microphone yeah and also like I I don't know if you felt this way I mean you were using Q cards right yep okay we have a teleprompter it's like a little computer and it they type out it's like a q card but it's so it's like some kind of like a machine you know I never had a t prompter ever never no because we changed things too much at the last second and so we always did cards and so I just we changed things in this it's easier to just type it in right yeah Jesus they lied to me they said well that that'll can't happen on a prompter I think it was they just didn't want to buy one it was NBC and then Turner they just didn't want to buy a prompter yeah cuz I still have my Conan Q card because they give it to you when you do a late night show which was very nice we want it back by the way those things aren't cheap well now I know that how hard it was they're like we got to cut a whole new one cuz you don't like that line every time we we wrote a new joke a tree fell in the forest somewhere I got to say working on the ghost seamlessly requires a strong Network okay it's fine to talk about oh I'll do my work in the supermarket or wherever I am or on the beach but you need a good Network yeah if you're constantly like spotting out or whatever that that sucks yeah that well said and um succinctly said anyway that's why you should check out T-Mobile they're America's largest and fastest 5G network with T-Mobile you'll be covered in more places with the 5G speed you need for your life on the go plus they also cover more highway miles with 5G than anybody else whatever takes you on the go T-Mobile's got you covered I like to travel a lot yeah you do yeah and I like to sometimes just drive around the country just look at people see what's going on in America you know people think when someone gets into my position oh Conan he doesn't know what's really going on he's up there he's one of the biggest stars ever I don't know people say that no one says that trust me I've asked I never heard anybody say that find out more at t-mobile.com Network today coverage not available in some areas fastest based on median overall combined 5G speeds according to analysis by ukla of speed test intelligence data Q3 2023 see 5G device coverage and access details at t-mobile.com when I started doing when I did like the screen test and everything and even when I started doing the show everyone's like so impressed when you can read a teleprompter to a point where I was like do people think I'm dumb like I know I didn't finish college but not like you I didn't finish Harvard you know what I mean right and I studied teleprompter yeah but everyone was just like it's really hard some people don't know how to read teleprompters and I was like I okay like I'll take any credit you'll give me but this was again I was like so nervous about it I was practicing reading teleprompters on Tik Tok local news anchors will do like now for a teleprompter Challenge and so I just reading like five car pile up on tonight today's freeway like but in a funny way I'm like pretend like it's the show um and like let's see how fast you can read it um there's all these little things and then there's the big thing yeah so all there's all the little things that yes that that I think anyone can learn it just takes a little time but you just learn the stuff about getting new information getting information off a cter off a prompter and and which cameras are where and where your single is those are things I think that anyone can pick up um and then there's the much bigger thing which is how to be you in a very strange environment I've always thought that is the the thing that no one's thinking about is the advice you get and the advice uh this is the biggest name drop of all time for my generation anyway but uh just before I started I got to meet Johnny car and he knew that I was going to be taking over The Late Night show and he said just be yourself and I was like okay and then I did the show for a couple of months and no one liked it and um I I always pictured that Johnny Carson would call me and say I didn't know that that was you have you tried being me could you maybe uh find someone else to be at be me but um but I always realize that it's more complicated than just be yourself because it's just be yourself in the most artificial environment in the world which is 3 2 1 and Taylor go and prompter and lights and music and okay now we're going to these people and this is going to happen and it just took me a long time to realize oh this is the skill is I need to figure out how can I just be this uh person that I am I didn't want to be a fake person I want to be a real person but in a freakish environment yeah and um that's what those things are yeah yeah no I definitely I mean I say to the live audience we have in studio sometimes because I'll be like playing off the comedians we have on the show and then I have to go to the next game which is me reading the teleprompter and so we're like oh yeah it's great and then I go all right I have to go back into teleprompter again and I know it's going to feel jarring to just be like and yeah totally and we know each other in today's internet news and it just feels so but you're like okay just everyone I know to and it's going to cut together great like just it's very strange and figuring out how to deliver jokes I didn't write because I'm just not used to that I've been writing my own jokes for like 10 years 14 years on the road and like that is me so it's not hard to be myself on stage doing standup but yeah in this environment like it is it is very easy to read jokes that were written for me by a room full of very funny people but yeah it's also hard to deliver them in a way that feels authentic

Channel: Team Coco

Views: 132,679

Keywords: team coco podcasts, team coco podcast, podcast, conan obrien needs a friend, conan needs a friend, conan o’brien needs a friend, needs a friend, conan o’brien podcast, conan o’brien needs a friend podcast, celebrity interview, comedy podcast, conan podcast, matt gourley, sona movsesian, taylor tomlinson

Id: e3h33WZi-kE

Length: 8min 35sec (515 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 30 2024