Now, I wanna ask you something.
I'm curious, 'cause I've, I know a bunch of the performers
at "Saturday Night Live," I used to work there.
And some of them have told me that you're
a superstitious performer.
Are you?
Yeah, I don't like to be, 'cause I think it's,
I mean, most performers are, I think.
I just have this thing where before I go on,
I have to, like, light a certain candle with lavender in it.
'Cause I read somewhere that lavender was lucky.
And so I have to light a candle-
So you do, I mean, you carry a candle with you?
(Molly laughing) Seriously, I mean-
No, I have one in my dressing room.
Okay, it's "Saturday Night Live," and you light that.
Yeah, I light it.
And it's just a certain kind of nice candle
that I get at stores.
And sometimes when I'm on my way to work,
if I don't have enough, I'll stop the cab,
I'll be like, "I have to run in the store,"
and get the candle, come back,
and I put it in my dressing room.
And I also have to have, after every dress rehearsal,
a little bit of a pretzel with mustard on it.
That's why.
Are you even hungry at that point?
No, but, no!
No, it's just like a, it's like a ritualistic thing that,
I guess I'm afraid, like, if I do get a low blood sugar,
it'll make me feel good.
So you need a little piece of bagel
and you need to light a lavender candle?
Yeah. That's your ritual.
And it's always been that way?
Pretzel, a pretzel. Okay.
No, just in "Saturday Night Live."
Right. Yeah.
Do you do anything like that?
I do stuff.
I just have to, I always have to, just before I come out
and see the audience,
I have to sorta just get down just real fast
and then pop back up again.
Now, I don't know why, but I've always done that.
Really? Yeah!
And I have to get completely nude
and then put my clothes back on.
And, sometimes, there've been, no, there've been...
(audience applauding)
There've been three shows where I forgot
to put my clothes back on.
I ran out at the top of the show, "Hey!"
And got a big laugh. (audience laughing)
And, but no, I do, I just have to like crouch down.
I think a lot of people have like a little thing
that they're afraid not to do.
I mean, I know, who's the guest we had on the show, Andy,
who had to walk around a plane, like, twice
before she would get on the plane?
I can't remember who that was.
I don't know, I don't remember either.
Were you reading a magazine during that interview?
Could be, yeah. (Conan laughing)
Okay.
A lot of good magazines out there.
(Conan laughing) Yeah!
You don't have to keep them there on the couch though, yeah?
Did you, on the "National Spelling Bee,"
they had this little girl,
I don't know if you guys saw it,
she looked very superstitious
or she looked like she had some kind of,
before every word, you got to get a copy of this tape,
she would like... (Molly blowing air)
Say the word and have to do like, she had red on,
she looked like a nut. (audience laughing)
She, she was home-schooled.
Another person you're hoping isn't watching.
(Molly laughing) I love it!
Some little girl,
"Can I stay up late and watch Mr. O'Brien?"
"Yes, you can tonight."
"I'm a freak!"
(audience laughing) No, she was cute.
But, believe me-
I saw that tape though. Wow!
That's a frightening thing. She had some rituals.
Now-
But, another thing, when I used to do shows in L.A.,
I would invite, like, everyone to my show
'cause I had to get my own audiences
and I would just go,
and I'd go, "Oh, you got to come to my,"
I did a stage show with this partner
and I would go into stores, and bookstores,
and then give people flyers to my show.
And I went into this one bookstore
and there was this girl who I knew through a friend
and I invited her to my show,
but she was really mean.
She was like a mean, mean, mean lady.
And she played the violin and I invited her and she was-
And she was being mean? No!
I'll get you!
Here's the curse, Molly Shannon!
(Molly laughing) Well, that's an odd image-
Practically. Okay, uh-huh.
But she's like, looked at the invitation,
she was like, "You do comedy?
And I was like, "Yeah."
She was like, "All right, maybe I'll come."
And I left the bookstore and I was like,
(Molly gasping) I had a panic attack
that she should not be in my audience,
that it was gonna be trouble.
And I needed to get that invitation back and get it out.
So I went back in the bookstore and I got the invitation.
I said, "I'm really sorry, I made a mistake."
And I took the invitation
and then I went on Sunset Boulevard
and I had to rip it out, and do a circle dance,
and like spit a spell and wash it away.
All that evil energy.
And that's the end of my story.
Why haven't you been arrested?
(audience laughing) I'm just curious.
I would just think the police driving around L.A.,
woo-hoo-hoo-hoo!
You're dancing-
That spelling bee girl is nuts.
(Molly laughing) (audience laughing)
Now, who feels silly, huh?!
I think you learned a lesson about name-calling, young lady.
(Andy laughing) That was a crazy time.
It was a, I was very sad
and I have a lot of superstitious rituals, ha!
Exactly, there you go. (Andy laughing)
Well, you showed me, you fixed my little red wagon.
I gotta mention this, next Saturday, January 10th,
Samuel L. Jackson is gonna host "Saturday Night Live."
That's a cool guest to have.
With musical guests, Ben Folds Five.
Excellent band.
Oh, okay.
You're in with the kids, huh? (Conan snapping fingers)
Yes, my baby. Daddy-oh, all right.
We're gonna take a break, everybody.
Thanks so much for coming here
on this very special Central countdown time zone.
Thank you very much. Whatever it was, I forget.
I forget the premise already.
Molly Shannon, everybody! Happy New Year!
David Attell, coming up. (audience cheering)