-That was a standing ovation.
-Man, that was -- Come on! Knock it off!
[ Cheers and applause ]
-That's gotta feel good.
[ Applause ]
That's got to feel -- -You know,
I know you meant well,
but I had "The Tonight Show" for 10 minutes,
and you just ate into my time. -[ Laughs ]
We'll give you time. -This is all the time I have!
Knock it off!
-Standing up on this desk, I was almost as tall as you are.
You're a very tall individual. -Yes, I'm a freak.
Yeah, it's not good. I'm a kind of height --
And many people have said that it's --
that would hurt your career to be that tall.
I was told that there were, over the years,
guests that might not want to come on,
especially male actors that are smaller
because I would tower over them.
So it's a true story, what I would do for years,
and you can see it on tape,
is I would get up from the desk
when I introduced "it's Bono from U2," whatever,
and I would get up and I would go like this,
and I would greet them, and then I would place them in the chair,
and then I would go back. -[ Laughs ]
You'd pick them up and place them.
-Pick them up... -And put them in the chair.
Pat them on the -- -Sometimes a little burp.
-That's nice of you. -They've just had their bottle.
Who can say?
But, no, I was self-conscious about that.
I didn't want to...
As you know, if you're the host,
you want to make sure that everyone's comfortable.
And I didn't want to be this big Muppets puppet
dangling over everybody.
So I was constantly crouching.
-Yeah, I remember that was -- that was intimidating
the first time I met you because of your height.
But it's just also like you -- you're larger than life
because we know you from -- from TV.
-Yeah, well, the words' "iconic."
Um... [ Laughter ]
-That's the... -[ Chuckles ] So stupid.
[ Laughter ]
I didn't read it -- Sorry. -The hell was that?
[ Laughter ] No, seriously.
It is something that...
Well, I remember very well the first time...
I think you came on. We had you on as a guest.
-Yeah, you were my first-ever talk show,
and thank you so much for this.
I have a photo here. -Like I'm not gonna have --
Yeah. This is us. -1999.
-This is 19... [ Audience awws ]
Yeah. That is us.
That's 1954. -[ Laughs ]
I was honored to be on your show,
and I'm honored that you're --
You know what I remember, though, most?
-What? -You were on the show.
Great. I come out in the hallway, and your parents --
You remember this?
Your parents are in the hall, which is right here.
His parents are in the hall, and they were like,
"how did Jimmy do?" -[ Laughs ] Oh, my gosh.
-And so I just said, "That kid's going all the way!"
-Yeah! -And your parents were like,
"Conan says he's going all the way!"
-Yes! That's it. -And then I realized...
I say that to everybody. [ Laughter ]
I say that to Stu Schmitzel. -[ Laughs ]
No, you were -- Who's Stu Schmitzel?
-Yeah, seriously. I love Stu Schmitzel.
-But, no, I remember they were so sweet.
And I remember you were great right away,
so it all worked out.
-No. My gosh, I can't thank you enough.
Even seeing you in the hallway, I was like...
It's weird to come back. It's weird.
I haven't been in this building for such a long time,
and, uh, I haven't been on this floor in forever.
-Yeah. What was it like? Did it, like --
Did flashbacks happen? Did you...?
-You have strange memories of...
I mean, I was here for 16 years doing the "Late Night" show
before we went out to LA, and right across the hall,
and I just -- all these memories came flooding back to me.
And the first thing that will hit you and it will hit you too,
because one day you'll have this show as long as you want it.
But when you're 98, you'll move on and someone else...
someone else will be in this studio.
When someone else is in your studio, it feels weird.
So I walked in and I said, "Who's in my old studio?"
And they said, "Kelly Clarkson."
-Yeah. -And I love Kelly Clarkson.
Who doesn't love Kelly Clarkson?
But still, I felt like, "It's not right!"
-It should be a museum! -Blasphemy!
-That should be a museum!
-They should have burned it to the ground.
Then Kelly came out to say hi and I said, "Don't talk to me!"
[ Laughter ]
"You make me sick!" -You took it. Wow.
I did. I feel terrible, Kelly. I really do.
But, uh, no. What do you remember?
Like, do you remember like doing the show...?
-I remember very clearly I would come in --
You come in to work, and you take a right to come into this,
I'm thinking. -Yes.
-I don't really know right or left. It's on my sock.
But... -Yeah, yeah.
Yes, I make a right. -And I would take a left
and go into the studio right across the hall.
-That was Letterman's studio.
-That was Letterman's old studio.
I inherited that.
And I remember my dressing room is right there near the hallway.
And for years we had my name on it.
It just said Conan O'Brien.
So this was where "Live at Five" was taped.
So people would come on the show at "Live at Five."
They would leave -- and I'm talking
70-, 75-year-old actors
who are now doing theatre, local theatre.
-Sure. -They would come out
and they would see Conan O'Brien's dressing room.
They would bang on my dressing room door.
I'd be in there trying to take a nap.
-Yeah. -And I'd open the door,
and they'd be like, "Come on, put me on the show!"
-They're trying to get booked on your show?
And so I remember very clearly Frank Gorshin,
who was TV's Riddler in the 1960s,
knocking on my door and doing voices outside the door.
"You let me in, you dirty rat," like voices from the 1930s.
"Now see here, kid, you're gonna let me on the show."
And I thought, "Why is my name on the door?"
Anyone can knock on my dressing room --
And so that's how everyone got booked.
They would just knock on my dressing room door.
-That was always your dressing room door?
-It was my dressing room door. Yeah.
-I remember Max's dressing rooms across from yours. Max Weinberg.
-That's right. -And I remember because in his,
he had the Muppet pipes in his dressing room.
Do you remember? -Yes.
The Jim Henson Muppet pipes.
Jim Henson did a show here in the '60s
and did all these amazing drawings on the pipes,
and there was a little hole cutout in the wall
where you could see them.
I hope they preserved it. -Yeah.
So it was in Max's dressing room.
So I would bring my parents to the show and I'd go, "Hey, Max?"
He's like, in his, you know, robe or something.
He's like, "Yeah?" I go, "Can my parents see the Muppet pipes?"
He's like, "Ugh, yeah, come on in, man."
-Yeah, you're lucky he had his robe on.
-[ Laughs ] Yeah.
-He'd always say, "Come in and see the Muppet pipes,"
and you'd come in...
-That's not true! No, no, no, that's not true.
-Yes! -That's not true!
No, no, no. -"Did you see a pipe you like?"
[ Laughter ] -The, uh...
-Oh, come on! -We put -- We put --
We put it behind... [ Laughs ]
That's so funny.
But people just come into your room.
-They would come in and -- But it was fun.
We had -- I mean, also crazy memories of, uh,
stuff that happened back in the '90s
that seems surreal now.
But we had a show that we were getting ready to do
and about 45 minutes before the show,
or maybe -- maybe longer than that.
But not long before the show,
there was a fire somewhere in the building,
and they said, "We're clearing it all out."
We decided to do the show anyway,
so we went down to the skating rink.
The guest was Samuel L Jackson.
Andy Richter, my sidekick, and I ran into a Sharper Image
and bought one of those massage chairs,
put it out next to the rink,
and Samuel Jackson is like sitting there...
The coolest guy in the world,
but no one can make one of those chairs cool.
-Yeah, no. Yeah. -And he's sitting there,
and I --
Those are the things, I don't know about you,
but when I in my life now ride around Manhattan,
all I remember is I remember being, you know,
dressed in a loincloth on that corner
and -- and dunking myself in chicken broth.
Like, just stupid, idiotic things.
We get flash memories, and any other doctor would say,
"Oh, you know, you're mentally ill.
You're going insane."
No, no, these are things I really did
and that you have done, yeah.
-It's -- Do you walk around the city now?
I mean, does New York City feel like --
I know you live in Los Angeles,
but does New York City feel like you're home?
Do you walk around? And people must recognize you.
-Yeah. People are so nice to me.
And one of the things that's interesting about me
and I don't -- there's two types of people in our business.
There are people that are very happy to do a selfie,
and people that are shy about it, don't really want to do it.
I'm guessing you're like me.
I'm always like, "Of course I'll do a selfie."
-Yeah, why not. -Takes a second,
makes them happy.
And so I do a lot of selfies in New York,
but my favorite was I went to Boston recently.
That's where my -- my parents are still up in Boston,
my family's still up in Boston.
And I was going to Logan Airport
going through the line, TSA line.
And I'm -- you know, you go through the line
and you're taking off your belt, you're taking off your shoes.
This really nice young guy in a white shirt
and a baseball cap starts chatting with me,
and he's saying, you know, "Conan, I love the podcast
and I also really love the old 'Late Night' clips.
I watch them all the time.
And, you know, I also really like the stuff
you did with 'The Simpsons.'"
And I'm like -- He's so nice.
And I'm saying, "Thank you so much."
Then we both go through the TSA thing.
He goes through, I go through, I collect all my stuff.
You know, the way you're kind of distracted.
I put my belt on, get my shoes back on.
I turn around, see the guy, white shirt, hat,
and I go, "You know what?
Let's do selfie.
Come on, come here, let's do a selfie."
And the guy goes, "Um, okay."
[ Laughter ]
And I said, "Come on, selfie! Let's go!
Let's go, you knucklehead."
And I get him, like in a headlock and he does a selfie.
And just as he's taking it, I look.
My guy's over there.
[ Laughter ]
-Who is it? Who is this guy?
-This is just a guy who's also wearing a white shirt
and a baseball cap, which is pretty effing common.
So rewind that story now and see it from his point of view.
He's waiting for his wife to come through.
Conan O'Brien comes through and is like, "Hey!"
[ Laughter ]
"Selfie! Get in here! Come on!
Come on!" -Come on!
-Get over here!" -That's what I'm talking about.
-And I told the guy, "I feel so -- but you can delete it."
And he looked like he was on the fence about deleting it.
I felt terrible, but I love moments like that
where I'm -- go right back down to whatever you think
you've achieved in life... -Immediately humbled.
-...there's a guy who thinks, "I met Conan O'Brien.
He's just an insane a-hole." [ Laughter ]
-Guys, more with Conan O'Brien when we come back.
We're gonna talk a lot of things.