my guest tonight is a very talented
actress who is starred in glee
the marvelous mrs maisel in the film
best in show uh
in addition to a million other great
projects
she's also the host of hollywood game
night
and weakest link which premieres tuesday
on nbc uh i love her please welcome jane
lynch jane thank you for being here i'm
thrilled to be
here merry christmas and you know what
merry christmas
as you know we are uh
well we're celebrating christmas now
because frankly we're just not sure
mankind is going to make it to december
25th yeah let's do it now we don't want
to miss our last christmas
and then we will know that this is our
last christmas too which will make it
that much more special
so nice of you to dress up in the spirit
uh
doesn't it aren't you feeling
christmassy right now i am i
love christmas and i start i i don't
think it's ever too early to start
the music it is a little too early with
the uh decorations i think i'd get sick
of them by
by christmas eve but i i just love it i
love it love it love it
yeah well we did this again we're doing
it now
because we're not we think things are
just going to come to an end in about
four weeks
oh god oh lord good thing we can
laugh about it conan can we though i
don't know maybe we can't we'll find out
i can laugh at anything now i'm that
medicated uh
you know there's i have a little bit of
a bone to pick with you jane lynch oh
okay sure
and and you're universally beloved
people love you
and i you know i i'm such a huge fan of
your work
but i do i do have a complaint which is
you've been on my show many many many
times
and every time you're on my show you
come out you sit down
and then you immediately start talking
to andy
and you do that because you and andy
have a
prior relationship you worked on a stage
show
years ago before i knew andy you always
sit down you start talking to andy and
then you
keep talking to andy this is an actual
this is the typical interview
that i do with you where look at not
even making eye contact
with me not even looking at me only
looking at andy
and i i find it very insulting well i'm
sorry but that
i wouldn't have thought that was true
until i saw that photographic evidence
but i'm sure we included you in the
conversations i'm sure
i don't know i think you're just easily
left out is andy there tonight
uh well yeah andy's sitting in the in
the audience hey andy can you hear me
hi jane hey how you doing i'm doing fine
how's your dog you've had him for her
for a year now right uh
daisy yeah a little over a year oh a
little dollop of daisy i love that dog
she's so cute i love that you keep
taking pictures of her and posting it on
twitter it's great
yeah well she's very photogenic she's a
very pretty dog and she's
just keeps getting bigger and bigger
it's you know would you say you're a dog
person you know i was getting a pony
when i got a puppy would you say that
you're a dog person now
oh absolutely i always was you know i i
have uh
he was he's talking about being a dog
person go ahead what yeah uh yeah
no i uh i do i've always been a dog
person yeah i'm in everything i love
animals
i would have cats if my kids weren't
allergic
mm-hmm you know yeah do you i i usually
have cats but uh that
i they both passed away in the last
couple of years but i do have uh two
dogs we usually have three believe it or
not we have two cocker spaniels now
um and one of them's kind of an
and the other one is just really old and
blind and deaf but we love them both
equally
yeah andy ask conan if he's a um
animal person just so we can include
this oh you're right
um hey conan you've got a dog right yes
i have two dogs
tell us about them loki and bosco
they're great dogs
yeah look what kind of dogs are they
conan they're golden retrievers
okay hey your dog is a a mix isn't isn't
she isn't daisy a mix isn't she like a
mustache
so she's not a purebred like i hate when
people get purebreds that just uh
you know my counters i'm sorry i'm sorry
i'm
i'm cutting it off jane i i think that
you and i should talk when there isn't
someone interrupting us
okay i think that's probably a good idea
whatever i'll get with you after the
show
sounds great it's great to hear your
voice i'm sorry i can't see your face
that's all right hey i have a question
sure jane you've been in this business
uh quite a while you've had so much
success
uh in in film and i you know just
different iconic roles you're always
funny and i'm just curious
what was your first job in front of the
camera like we all have to start
somewhere
i did uh and i've mentioned this before
but i remember the first job i got was
actually doing industrial uh footage
i've done
a company yeah i think that was the
first thing i did you remember the first
thing that you did
yes the first thing i did in front of a
camera was a home shopping show
and it was right when they were starting
it was called america's shopping place
it would have been in the
probably the mid 80s and it was 24 hours
of television shopping uh programming
and i was on the
2 a.m to 5 a.m
the coveted slot exactly and
we took phone calls we took live
phone calls in the middle of the night
of people buying
cubic zirconia and i learned so much
about being on my feet
and dealing with uncomfortable
situations and
yeah i learned a lot learned a lot about
improvising and they were trying to
replace me too the whole time because i
wasn't your typical
you know uh kind of home shopping person
and so i would audition my replacements
wait they would audition people they
wanted to maybe replace you with in
front of you
in front of me and i would help them of
course being the nice catholic girl
going
oh this is how you do it you you read
from this book but make sure you your
eyes are on the camera and you
look down and you grab a line and then
you look at the camera and i gave her
all the tricks of the trade
that does sound very much like you let
me help you destroy my career
very nice of you well uh i think those
days are long behind you i don't think
you're going to have
you you were you are so busy you're
doing so much you're doing
hollywood game night which is a really
fun show there's a great
there's a great vibe on that program
everybody seems to be having
a good time and you're a very congenial
host oh thank you it is it's a good time
you know it's kind of fun nothing deep
nothing crazy just there to have you
know basically a game night in my house
ostensibly but
of course it's not my house uh-huh oh
they built a house to resemble your
house
they did yes an exact replica if i did
was in that situation i would have them
build a house that's
far superior to my house well that is
actually because
well here's a here's my question for you
so you've got that show
now you've got this uh new show this new
version of weakest link
right that you're doing and it's
interesting to me so remembering
the previous weakest link there was a
real edge to that show and there's a
real edge to the host
yeah you're i know you as very nice
jane lynch you're doing hollywood game
night
now you're doing this show that might
require a darker jane lynch is that is
that
true that is true yes indeed and i
am here for it i loved it i had so much
fun
dismissing people calling them on their
stupidities
and keeping it a little classy at the
same time i think i can say
so you put people down in a classy
refined way
absolutely they don't even know that
they've been slapped
full across the face so
here's my question which is the real
jane lynch
the happy welcome to my home let's have
a
fun uh game together
or the cruel um the cruel one from
weakest link which one's the real one
the weakest link is my shadow for sure
it is it is what's going on not so far
under the skin either it's about you
only have to go about a quarter of an
inch to get that really dark
cutting person and then hollywood game
night it's just all you know me
pretending to be this affable
wonderful welcome to my home place and i
can only do it for like a couple hours
at a time and then everybody's got to
leave
everyone's just got to leave because
you're about to lose it at that time
exactly
have you ever melted down on game night
just someone doesn't get
messes up the game and you forget and
you forget which show you're taping and
you
lose it on everything oh yeah i kelly
clarkson i grabbed her by the throat
because she was trying to take
my job she was trying to control the
game so i grabbed her by the throat and
i
threw her into the ball pit no that
didn't happen but i wanted to do that
we're going to edit out the part where
you say that didn't happen because
that's going to make it into a tabloid
you know what i remember from the
weakest link is that that great cutting
line
you are the weakest hi the weakest link
goodbye and you're oh so that's how you
do it oh you go goodbye
it's like adios amigo or amiga
nice thanks yeah it's really nice to
dismiss them that way and what's really
fun conan is
we've added to uh this iteration of the
weakest link a tunnel
so it's like going into dante's inferno
it's bright red and we've got this
music and they have to walk it's the
walk of shame straight
into the pit of hell and i love every
moment of it
i think this is very good for you
because i have found that
when i'm in a comedy sketch or anytime
i've done to do comedy over the years it
required me
to really go after somebody i feel
it's so it's just gonna help you
vent all of this this rage that lies
deep within
jane lynch it's gonna you're gonna vent
all of this exactly and you know your
body and your psyche doesn't know that
you're pretending
no and so it's an actual relief
and it's there's a catharsis and then
you walk away and everybody you know
like the contestants they love being
yelled at they love
being shamed so uh yeah there's no no
harm no foul
yeah well sounds like you're a clinical
sociopath
yes indeed um listen uh
i love talking to you and i love that
you
got in the christmas spirit for us and
uh i know you
probably have something to say to andy
now um you know yeah andy are you going
home for christmas we're from the same
hometown too so you you
you don't know much about chicago so
i'll ask him are you going home for
christmas
this year andy who knows
yeah you will not be able to do exactly
i might have to
i might have to steal a glider and
escape the us
i i would love to come with you so if
you do please
swing by laurel canyon and pick me up i
will i will it'll be all right
because i'll have the dog too obviously
oh i'd love to see daisy i'd love to see
daisy again
and um just thank you so much conan for
having me on and i'm sorry i can't
include you in this but you're not from
chicago and you don't understand
the whole thing that goes on between us
so
i've been in chicago been a bunch of
times yeah okay so that's probably as
good as being from there
no it is not and andy guess what i miss
you very much and it's
been really nice to talk to you yeah
yeah we will see each other when this is
all when this is all when it's just the
two of us we can probably
uh pick up where we left off i mean that
goes without saying okay
okay honey i love you love you too okay
are we done conan yeah okay weakest link
weakest link premieres on tuesday
september 29th
on nbc jane lynch
andy richter i forget my name
conan o'brien i remember thank you thank
you very much uh really i'm i'm uh very
happy for you
looking forward to this new show and uh
and you're always a delight
every single time thank you so much we
vow to you
merry christmas christmas merry
christmas to you all of you
and a happy new year