Hi, my name is Taylor Tomlinson
and I feel braggadocios Nice.
about being Conan O'Brien's friend.
That's very good one, I like that.
It is a really good one.
Try bragging about it though, it's not gonna-
Oh, I have. Oh, you have?
Oh I have, yeah.
I sent it to my sibling group chat this morning.
Oh, nice.
Which is very active and my youngest sister
wrote back, in all caps, "Holy fucking shit, say hi
to Sona for me, I love her so much, and Matt, my idols,"
and then in lowercase, "love Conan too".
Oh, that was a body blow. (Sona laughing)
That was a punch to the solar plexus
(Taylor laughing) and I wasn't prepared for it.
So, all the wind has gone out of me now.
I liked it.
Yes, I get it, I get it.
No, it's very helpful because a lot of people ask,
like, "Have you done any cool shows?"
When people don't know that you're successful,
they're like, "Have you done any cool gigs?"
And you're like, "Kind of."
And going on tour with you is always my answer.
Oh, that's nice, thank you. Yeah, it's really nice.
We had a blast.
We had so much fun.
I don't know what your memories are of that
but I'll just bring people up to date.
I wanna say this was before COVID.
2018.
2018 and maybe the cause of COVID.
We're not sure. (Sona and Taylor laughing)
There's the Wuhan theory
and then there's the Conan tour theory.
It was weird you had a lab on the private jet.
I'm constantly doing experiments with weird viruses.
We're like, "Is that a bat, Conan?"
Just work on your set. (Conan laughs)
Yeah, hey, tighten up that ending.
Okay, why don't you worry about your stuff
and let me worry about these bat viruses
that I'm concocting. (Sona laughing)
You know, we all have hobbies.
That's your hobby, oh. That's my hobby.
Yeah, I need to be more careful
about keeping that shit in the lab.
But, anyway, we went on this tour
and I remember, my distinct memory of you was,
I would say most of the audiences were really good.
Yeah. They were really terrific
audiences wherever we went, but I remember you
just being absolutely fearless in a way that
blew me away because you're so young.
Oh, thank you. And I was very impressed.
I was like, this person doesn't know fear
or is not showing that you have fear
but you would go out there and you would kill it
and you had a sense of purpose that I found
to be incredibly impressive. Oh, that's so nice.
You know, you're like a third my age
and I just was blown away by that, you know?
Yeah, yeah. I've actually done the math.
Have you? (laughs)
Yeah, I'm 79 and you were 11 on that tour.
Yeah I was like, "Is Conan 90?"
(Conan laughing)
You're gonna really love her.
Unlike some of us, she didn't fight in the Korean war.
Yeah, I think I was 24 at the time,
and what I found is that if you start really young,
people are very impressed with you even if you are trash.
So, you know, who knows how good I actually was,
but it's like when you see a dog skateboard
(Conan laughs) and you're like,
he's not supposed to be able to do that.
Is he a good skateboarder?
It's like, no, he is a dog, but he's doing it.
He's doing it. Yeah, which is more than
we ever thought he could do.
I'm not gonna say you were a dog on a skateboard.
I'm not gonna say that.
You're a hilarious comedian.
And one of the things that impressed me is,
we talked a bunch of times and your work ethic
and, I don't wanna say pressure you put on yourself,
but you have a very high standard,
which I found to be incredibly impressive.
Oh, thank you.
Well, again, when you're younger in this business
I think you get certain opportunities when you're young
and you want to prove that you're worthy of them.
So, that's certainly an aspect of it
that contributed to that pressure.
And then also I just, you know,
wanna be really good at my job.
I think it's more fun when you're really good.
But yeah, I mean, that tour was so insane
because I remember the first night, maybe,
we all had dinner and you like pulled me aside afterward
and made a point to be like, "Hey, just so you know,
really glad you're here, you deserve to be here."
Like, you kind of picked up on my imposter syndrome.
I feel like. Right, right.
And made a point to be very encouraging
which I think you did with everyone, I heard.
Not with Funches.
(laughs) Well, he's very confident.
Yeah, he's an imposter. (Taylor and Sona laughing)
Look, I know we all feel like we're impostors,
but Funches is.
No, absolutely.
I'm picking on this guy 'cause I absolutely adore him.
He's so good.
First of all, you showed up for the tour
and you were sick. Oh yeah.
This was back when it was impressive
to push through an illness.
This was, again, 2018, I think I had like the flu
the first leg of the tour.
I came back the second week
and everyone was like, "Nice to meet you,"
because the first week I was just in so much pain,
I was trying not to even drink water
because we were on a private jet with Conan O'Brien
and I'm like, "I can't be in this bathroom."
Can I say the most impressive thing?
Yes, we got a jet for certain legs of the trip,
you know, to get us from here to there.
But, the economics of the tour was,
yeah, this is how it's gonna work,
if there's 11 of us on a private plane, this can all work.
So, we did that and about halfway through the tour,
I remember you guys saying, "So, Conan,
when you bought this jet." Yeah. (laughs)
"How did you pick out this wood grain?"
And I said, "Wait, what?"
And you guys were like, "When you bought this jet."
And I remember, I think I was saying to you,
I said, "This is not my jet,
we're leasing this jet for this tour
because the tour is helping to pay for it,
but I fly commercial, I don't have a jet."
And I said to you, "What made you think that I have a jet?"
And you said, "Well, you've been
on television my whole life." (Taylor laughs)
I'm like, (laughs) so therefore you must have a jet?
I'm like, "Are you fucking kidding me?"
No, my jet is American Airlines. Hi, American.
I'd like a little less- I remember thinking
if Conan doesn't have a private jet, who the fuck does?
Well, I have, I say like,
this is a thing with me, I see people,
and I know that it's a big sign of success
with, like, Instagram people and influencers
that you fly around on a private jet and I always
tell people, "Do you know what that shit costs?"
Oh yeah. And you're going to?
None of your children will ever go to college
if you're flying around on those things,
it's not gonna happen.
I'm very happy to hitch a ride with someone
or if the tour will pay for it, great, it's lovely.
But I just knew when there was that moment
where you guys were like,
"Huh, so Conan's jet's pretty nice."
Oh yeah, we all thought that was your jet.
I should have kept my mouth shut too.
Yeah, you should have.
And I should have worn a big fur coat the whole time.
You should have.
I remember too, we were all scared
to take the photo in front of the jet
but we wanted it, obviously, the minute we saw the jet
we were like, "We're all getting a picture
in front of this jet, right?"
But we were like, it has to be a group photo,
we have to time it, so I think we waited
till like the last day, maybe, of the first leg.
And I remember Ron was the one who was like,
"Yeah we're taking a picture
in front of the jet, of course!"
And we were like, "Oh, thank God, okay. Let's just do it."
And we were also like, "Can we ask Conan
to be in the photo, is that okay?"
I don't know, I don't know if anybody...
I guess Flula probably knew you the best of anybody,
but I, certainly, had only met you for moments on your show.
And so I didn't know what you were gonna be like.
And I remember saying like,
"Why is Conan like hanging out with us?"
Did your respect for me drop, plummet?
(Conan laughs) Oh yeah, of course.
The veil was pulled back and I said,
"Maybe he's not as talented as I thought he was
if he's rubbing shoulders with us."