I think you may be the best storyteller in Hollywood.
Over all the years that we go out to dinner
and you talk about the different celebrities you've met
and you're so funny about them.
And it got me thinking today seriously,
What do you think is one of your,
I know Frank Sinatra was one, and you've told me that story.
But what's one of your biggest
celebrity encounters of all time where you
were kinda probably new on the scene and just,
just kind of blown away that you
were actually talking to this legend.
Well I remember the first time I went to an awards show.
It was January of 1980.
And it was the Golden Globes.
And I had never been to an awards show.
My wife and I were sitting,
I remember we were sitting with Marilu Henner,
and then she later told me who else was there
because I can't remember, she remembers everything.
And um.
But John Travolta was sitting at our table
and it was like unbelievable, in Hamilton Ontario.
And suddenly I see Al Pacino who is just, that's my idol.
Yes, Al Pacino, yeah.
And I go up to him (laughs) and I'm in a tux.
I'm 29 and I look about 20.
Yeah.
And I go up to him and I say Mr. Pacino,
I just have to say that you are
the greatest actor in the world.
You inspire people, you make people want to be an actor.
And your work is beyond comprehension.
And he looked at me and said
"Thank you, I ordered a Stoli about 25 minutes ago."
"And I'm kind of getting impatient for it".
So he clearly thought I was a waiter.
And I didn't know how to tell him I wasn't.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I said okay, kay Mr. Pacino I'll find out where it is!
I'll get you your drink.
I'll get you your drink Mr. Pacino.
No.
But it is always daunting to meet,
and who is the biggest hero you've ever met?
He's right here.
Was that?
It was a little desperate.
Little desperate. Little needy, little sad.
Little needy, little bit sad?
No really, from your childhood?
I would say, I would say it was in
the late 80's or early 90's.
And Lorne at Saturday Night Live
invited Robert Smigel and I out to dinner.
And he just sort of mentioned
we might be joined by some people
when Robert Smigel and I were writers on Saturday Night Live
and I'm about 24.
And all of a sudden I just hear
"Hey, how's it going, everybody chi"
and it's Paul McCartney.
And he sits down with us and he's with his wife Linda.
And I'm, I mean I don't just, I'm not just a Beatles fan.
I know every song, I play the guitar,
I'm obsessed with them.
And I found myself immediately Lorne was like,
"Uh Robert and Conan are working on a T.V. pilot,"
"Conan, explain it to Paul."
Like first thing he said.
And Paul's just like "Oh, okay what is-"
and he's looking at me and I'm like,
it's a show about the people
that do things and they're people.
And then at one point I said something like
but that's kind of what we're doing.
He went "You know, it's a world of pressure making something
I mean when I was with the Beatles you know when the people
with the big bags of money came along we had,
oh we had our act together so we were okay but we had
already worked it out in the clubs."
And he started talking about
John and everything and you just-
You can't believe it.
Diarrhea everywhere, yeah.
It was him, I don't know why he was.
Nice imagery.
Yeah, thank you.
I had to add a little image there at the end.
Well that's a wonderful story,
you know I was gonna say that.
I was gonna say that.
You know you really had your own
golden rule of show business,
just because someone asks you a question
doesn't mean that they need an answer.
Yes Mister Short, yeah.
Write that down 12 times.