Sona Movsesian has taken a temporary leave of absence.
She's been out promoting her, her new book.
World's Worst Assistant.
Terrific, terrific effort by Sona.
It's a really funny book.
It's out there and she's flogging that.
She'll be back soon, but this is an opportunity.
Sona's not here which means we can dish on Sona
and we can be completely honest.
And to help us do that is Sona's own assistant.
Who pretty much does everything.
(group laughs)
Since the minute he was hired, because, well,
if you read Sona's book
you'll find that she never really was my assistant.
And soon she'll be back continuing, not being my assistant
but David Hopping has taken over, David.
Hi.
You're an occasional voice here on the podcast.
First of all, I'd like to know, how did you get this job?
How did you get the job of being Sona's assistant?
So I interned for you back in 2014.
Then I was a tour guide
on the Warner Brothers lot for like two years.
And like once a month I would just come,
just like walk through your office just to make sure
people remembered who I was.
And then.
So you were running tours on the lot.
Were you ever present when a tour saw me?
I was.
Walking along.
I was giving a tour once and you drove by on golf cart.
People must have just lost their minds.
I, actually it did work out perfect.
Cause I had two fans that were like huge fans of yours
and then you waved at them.
And then I got tipped
because they were excited that they saw you, so.
So wouldn't I get some of that money?
No.
I would think I would.
No, it doesn't work that way.
Okay, first of all I was sort of being, doing a joke.
It's, I'm glad that it actually turned out
that they were really excited,
but I remember the tours would come around
every now and then,
and I would always feel
like I had to have performance energy
whenever a tour passed.
I know that not everybody felt that way.
There were other celebrities that'd be like,
eh, meh, tour,
and they wouldn't give anything right?
Yeah, some hated the tours.
Yeah, yeah.
I probably shouldn't say who.
No, no, you probably, probably shouldn't say who.
Probably should.
I'll tell you later.
Pretty Little Liars?
Mhm.
Really?
Okay. Interesting.
I'm just guessing if you're a Pretty Little Liar
you don't wanna see a tour.
Yeah.
Some of them were really nice.
Of course we're not naming names
but occasionally there'd be a Pretty Little Liar.
One little liar.
(group laughs)
Literally ran away from my cart.
I was like driving and she had a security guard
stop my cart while she like sprinted away.
Okay.
We're not, again, we can't get in trouble
because we're not identifying which
Pretty Little Liar ran away
from the, the tram taking tourists.
Yeah.
I had like the biggest Pretty Little Liars fans
so then I was trying to come up with any excuse
and I was like, oh, I think she's in costume.
Like she couldn't, spoilers.
Maybe. I don't know.
Right.
(group laughs)
She's late for a heart surgery.
(group laughs)
Something like that, that makes her seem noble.
She usually stops and says hello
but she needs, she's late for dialysis.
First of all, their name is Pretty Little Liars
so you'd expect that kind of behavior.
Yeah, it's very on brand.
So anyway, that was your job,
then Sona brings you on board.
Yeah.
To be an assistant right?
Mhm, so I assisted her and Marie Weber at the time
who was Jeff Ross's assistant.
Right.
To basically just run errands for you and Jeff.
Right.
Get me my basic.
I'd get your groceries.
I would take your car to get washed.
Okay.
You got me groceries?
I don't remember that.
Every Monday.
I think someone,
I think someone else was using you to get groceries
and saying these are for Conan.
I don't think so.
I will never forget.
I got the grocery list and on it, it said,
whole carrots because Conan likes to peel them
and eat them like Bugs Bunny.
Oh my God.
That's just not true.
Oh, of course it is.
It is not true.
Of course it is.
No, I would tell you if that was true
but what an insane thing to write on the list.
I think I, I think I still have the list from 2016.
Right.
Did it have my various creams and emollients that I need?
No.
Various potions.
We never got you that.
Powders, elixirs.
No.
Balms.
It did have roasted turkey.
I ate a lot of turkey back then.
Lean, lean protein I liked.
'Cause I was a lean comedy machine.
Now I'm a bloated parody of myself.
(group laughs)
Wow. It got dark so quick.
I'm Marlon Brando at the end of Apocalypse Now.
(Conan mumbles)
The horror, the horror.
Swallowed a bug.
Yeah.
I'll explain what that is to you later.
Okay.
I also asked off,
so the day that I got hired,
I asked off for four weeks before I started
'cause I was going to Europe the next day.
Wait, you got hired to assist Conan O'Brien
and you said my first request is to blow this off
for four weeks.
You can do that?
I, yeah, you should, you really should have done it.
No, at the interview they told me I could start.
So I just said, well, I leave tomorrow for four weeks.
Is that okay?
And Sona said it was fine.
Okay. Yeah, sure Sona said,
and she said, that's a coincidence
'cause I'm leaving tomorrow for the Caribbean for six weeks.
That's something she would do.
Oh great.
We'll both be away.
Who'll look after Conan?
I don't know.
He'll find some turkey and carrots on his own.
The freak.
Was there any illegal activity in your time with Sona?
Did she ever encourage you to break the law in anyway?
'Cause she's a little bit of a rule breaker.
Well I think it was legal then.
What?
What are we talking about?
Well
Stealing?
It wasn't stealing.
We never stole anything together.
I don't think.
Okay. I don't think.
But one of the first times I ever tried weed
was in your office.
What?
Like literally in his office?
In my office at Warner Brothers?
With Sona.
We, this is a safe space right?
Like we can't get in trouble.
Oh yeah, there's no, there's no recording device here.
Okay, cool.
In the podcast studio.
Yeah. But like what's said on the podcast,
like you can't get fired for right?
Let's hear it and I'll let you know.
Okay.
So wait, you're in my office at Warner Brothers Studio?
It was a day where you did a double show.
So you always gave like, you know,
there's always a dinner break
and you were downstairs getting ready for the next show.
And we went into your office and opened up the window.
We did blow the smoke out the window.
This is where they shot Goonies by the way,
you know, it's, this is a sacred place.
They shot Casablanca and more important to you and Sona,
Goonies.
On your stage, they shot both of those?
They shot Casablanca, was not shot on my stage,
it was shot in and around
I think in a couple of locations, but.
Goonies too?
Goonies.
You reefed up on the set of Goonies?
Yeah.
David Hopping, I am proud of you.
Thank you.
So any tour that was going by, would just see smoke.
Now, did you, did you get a good buzz going?
Not really.
I don't think I did it right.
The first time, you don't always feel it.
Yeah.
I've tried it many times
and still nothing really happens.
Really?
Yeah.
You probably have such a firewall
for any kind of brain changing thing.
You know what I mean?
It couldn't get through that.
I might be, I might be a, just a strong barrier.
Whenever they give me a medication,
I need a lot of it for it to have an effect.
And I've heard that that's a red haired thing.
Really?
That redheads need more of a medic, yeah.
That's actually.
He's choking, he's so shocked.
(group laughs)
Oh my stars.
So anyway, that's a little digression.
So wow, so that's that's ballsy of Sona to get you.
And then my first bag of edibles was from Sona,
which kind of came from you because you rewarded her
when she watched like whatever, 50 episodes of friends.
Yeah she, we did a thing,
if we could,
'Cause she watched so much TV at work
I had made a bet that she couldn't watch
50 episodes of friends and she did.
And I rewarded her with her favorite thing,
a bag of edible gummies.
And she kind of just like went
through the hall as like the weed fairy.
Just like giving people edibles.
Wow. She's getting you guys hooked
and then she can be a dealer.
Yeah.
First one's free.
Wow.
What?
I wonder if this is in her book.
I don't remember this.
I read her book.
I don't, that part is not.
I don't think this part's in there,
but other crimes are in her book.
Yes, that's true.
Now you're the assistant not just for me,
but for Jeff Ross as well
because we've really paired things down a bit here.
(group laughs)
So you're assistant to two of us.
Sona.
You're supposed to be assisting Sona,
but she's off selling a book on a book tour
and the book's about
how she screws around all the time and you do all the work.
Mhm.
So is that fair?
Do you have any resentment there?
No.
'Cause someday you get to write a book.
Yeah.
The world's most average assistant.
(group laughs)
All right.
Well listen, thank you.
And please keep ratting her out.
Okay.
This is important.
All right.
Because if she were here, she's so loud
and so defensive, she'd start yelling over all of this
and none of it would get recorded.
(group laughs)
So this is really our chance to get the, the dirt on Sona.
You're a good man, David Hopping.
Thank you.
And again, a quick plug for your podcast.
What's it called?
Back to the best.
And it's about '90s trivia?
'90s, early 2000s nostalgia.
Lot of Disney Channel.
Yeah.
Okay.
So you're screwing around too while I pay you.
No, well.
Yeah you are.
Okay.
I know we have to wrap, but we,
Sona did come on my podcast
and we waited 'til you went down to rehearse your show once.
And then we had my friend Grace who I co-host with come in
and we sat in your office and recorded our episode.
What the hell?
(group laughs)
This is unbelievable, unbelievable.
I think it's like episode 15.
I am the ultimate chump.
I'm paying these people to get high in my office,
record their own podcasts.
My therapist meets me in your office
and we do our sessions in there.
(group laughs)
And then your therapist bills me.
Yes.
All right well,
I guess I should be mad at you
but I'm just kind of impressed, Dave.
Oh, thanks.
Yeah, so.
Well done.
David Hopping, well done.