Your chemistry with Conan,
I mean, when Kumail Nanjiani couldn't make it on the show,
and I had to fill in for him as a guest,
it was an out of body experience
to sit on a chair in between the two of you.
And I don't know if I ever told you that.
I mean, I grew up, like a lot of people my age especially,
I grew up watching you and Conan on TV.
And so you guys are like, in my opinion,
the best late night duo that's ever existed.
And so when I was filling in for Kumail as a guest,
I remember just being like, I cannot believe
that I'm sitting in between Andy and Conan right now.
And that I know both of them very well,
and they're friends of mine.
And it was one of those things where I was like,
I don't know how I got here,
but I am so excited that I am here.
It was just such a beautiful moment
in my brain at that point.
Oh, I loved it.
I mean, honestly, you know, Kumail's great,
but like, he's not you.
(Sona laughing)
When people would say to me, like,
who are your favorite guests,
and I'd be like, my friends!
Like, Andy Daly, or Matt Walsh,
or Will Arnett, or Amy Poehler.
When my friends come on, that's all, you know.
Like, oh, Tom Hanks is there.
Tom Hanks is a lovely guy, but he's not Andy Daly, you know?
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, yeah, he's not you.
Yeah, and you have so many cool friends.
Andy, that list was just so cool.
(Sona laughs) I know, I know.
I really do, don't I?
Well, you do.
(laugh) But the hilarious thing is, though,
that I don't see any of them anymore.
That's part of old age, is I don't see any of 'em.
If I had to list my friends,
people would be like, who, what?
And you just listed (Andy laughs)
the most legendary improv people.
I mean, that's so cool.
Well, yeah.
Well, I mean, you know.
That's your world,
that's where you came from. There was
a rigorous casting process to be my friend,
and these guys made the cut.
I'm honored.
I'm honored to be your friend. Well now,
let's talk about this book. Ah!
'Cause you wouldn't be here just to chew the fat.
You're here for a reason.
Yeah, I don't wanna be here just to talk to you.
Yeah.
Of course, I would do it even if I didn't have a book.
But yeah, I wrote a book, Andy.
I wrote a book.
Where did that come from?
Did you say, I think I should write a book,
or did somebody come to you and say you should write a book?
My friend Liesel, who is a good friend of mine,
she was like, "You should write a book,
"and you need to call it 'The World's Worst Assistant.'"
And I was like, "Okay."
And then the next day I told-
Is Liesel in publishing or something?
Or is she just one of the kids from "The Sound of Music?"
No, (laugh) I know.
I forgot her name is Liesel. (both laughing)
She was actually my college professor.
Oh, okay.
She was my speech teacher,
and then I joined the speech team because of her, and-
Oh, okay.
We've kept in touch since college.
She's, you know, younger and cool.
And she just like, has really great ideas about every,
she's one of those people who's just like, you know,
make suggestions to you about things you should do,
and you're like, yeah, why didn't I think of that?
She's one of those people where you're like,
it's good to have her in my life.
And I love her.
And she suggested it.
And it was like something in my head was like,
I should do that.
That's fun.
And I first needed to get Conan's approval,
'cause it's called "The World's Worst Assistant,"
and I'm obviously gonna talk about
my time working for Conan.
And he was like, "I'm writing the foreword.
"Send it to my agent at WME."
And so, he helped me get an agent.
He wrote the foreword for it.
So he was really supportive.
I mean, I couldn't write the book if he wasn't,
'cause I still work for him- Right, of course.
And it would've been really awkward if like-
Yeah, yeah.
I work for a guy.
(laugh) Yeah.
So yeah, but it's a lot about my time working for Conan.
I mean, it's a lot of the things that we talked about,
which is, like, there's always been
sort of like a fish out of water kind of element to me,
and how I felt being in television and working in TV.
So, a lotta the things I got to do,
like when we went to the White House Correspondents dinner,
when I met, like, Bill Clinton, or Jimmy Carter,
there was moments where I was just like, what is this?
Like, how exciting that I get to do this.
And I've always told myself not to get jaded by it,
not to get too comfortable
and think that I deserve to be there.
So, I've always had this wide-eyed wonderment about my job.
And so I talk about that.
I talk about a lot of stories,
about how much I've sucked at my job
over the years, in certain aspects.
And it's a lotta tongue in cheek,
'cause I think when people think about Hollywood assistants,
I think they think about these people
who just are overworked and miserable,
and they're constantly sacrificing
their personal and and physical and mental wellbeing
for their bosses,
who will help them propel them to a different job
that will, you know, it's a means to an end.
I feel like there's a take to my job,
which is I never had to do any of that.
I never had to compromise who I was,
and my mental wellbeing
or my physical wellbeing for this job.
And I got to a point where I was like, this is cool,
so I don't need to go anywhere else.
Like, I'm fine being Conan's assistant
for the rest of my life. (laughing)
And I think that it was like,
that's the sort of angle that I wrote this book from,
was you've heard all these horror stories
about being an assistant,
but this is not a horror story.
This is something that's, this is fun.
And this is a fun take on it.