That job that you guys had was a real organizer.
That job was so inflexible, the schedule-
Mm.
And it dictated so much where you live,
how often you can leave where you live-
Yeah.
When you get to be home,
how much you need to sleep
before you go back to the place where you do the job.
We kind of organize our whole life
around the demands of that job.
And that changed really recently.
So we're still kind of, I think,
sorting through what is possible now-
Yeah.
That you don't have to be at the studio five days a week.
Right. Right.
And you get more than two weeks off at a time.
Oh yeah.
When we got married, it was one of those,
that was back in the NBC days,
and so that was one of those winter breaks.
You guys never got more than two weeks off at a time.
And only in the summertime, only like in August.
Yes.
Which is like when I took my family to Japan once-
Right. Which you could.
Which was you could fantastic trip.
But going to Japan in August is like going
to Tampa in August.
Right. Right. Is, you know.
But that's when you have the time to make that turnaround
Exactly. Yeah.
Yeah. So we did it in January,
and it was a week long break.
We did it in Seattle,
so he had to get to Seattle for the rehearsal dinner,
the rehearsal, the wedding, the whatever.
And then we had our honeymoon.
It was like, "Okay, now you gotta go do that,"
and then check that box before you get back
to New York to be-
Yeah.
Back on the set.
So, I remember the first time that we had
three weeks off in August.
I mean, Conan used to say,
"I wonder what it's like to have three weeks off.
I wonder what it's like"-
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Which is by the way,
join the rest of the population.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like, who gets three weeks off?
Right. Right. Right.
Well, and also, I mean-
You get a lot of weeks during the year.
My feeling with him sometimes is like,
"I bet you could swing it if you pushed it,
considering your name's in the goddamn title."
Well, for many years, I think that was not the case.
Yeah. Yeah.
That probably did turn into that.
But yeah, that was anyway.
So we were still living under those constraints,
but then also little kids and all that stuff-
Yeah. Yeah.
So I was sort of trying to cobble together
my own homegrown MFA in theater,
and which probably maybe I learned more doing that way.
I don't know.
Yeah.
'Cause I really had to be active about it.
So yeah, that's what I've been doing.
But you know, the theater it's,
I don't know how it compares to TV or film
in terms of how long it takes a person average to emerge-
Yeah.
But it seems like it takes an average of a decade-
Oh, wow.
For someone who's working constantly.
Sometimes there are exceptions to that obviously,
and certainly historically there have been a bunch
of exceptions to that,
but it really takes a long time-
Yeah.
For someone to gain any kind of traction-
And break through.
Yeah. Yeah.
Even just in that industry-
Yeah.
Forget the public.
So- Yeah.
So I've been an emerging playwright now
for quite some time, (Andy laughs)
and whether or not I'll actually emerge.
I don't know. Yeah. Yeah.
But it's been fun trying.
Yeah, I just don't have the-
Patience?
The patience and the attention span.
It's like-
I don't know that I do either.
When I've written pilots,
and then getting notes and back,
by the time it's time to really then-
Work on it.
For the pilot to be passed on and sold to somebody,
I am done with it.
Yeah, right.
I'm no longer even interested in it
because they've just kind of needled you to death on it.
And then I end up getting to be like,
it there's too many notes, I'm like,
"Fine. Screw it." Nevermind.
Yeah. Whatever.
I don't even care anymore.
I'll show you.
Right. Yeah.
Way to go, Andy, you really showed them
by not caring about your own project.
I had a friend who used to say, "I'll show me."
Yeah. It's one of those.
Yeah.
So that daily product really does have its upsides
of what you guys did.
Oh, absolutely.
Conan used to say, "We're making pictures in the sand."
Yes.
And that to me is terrifying,
because it takes me so long to figure out
what I'm doing and to get it to the place
where I'm happy with it,
that I need it to be a little bit more indelible.
I need it to feel like maybe someone will perform this
more than one time,
that this will have a life in a different age-
Yeah. Maybe.
Don't know if any of it will, but-
Yeah, I- I have to try.
You get, I mean, again, I don't know.
I mean, I guess it's kind of suited to my personality.
Like when I started working freelance,
I liked the different faces, different places, aspect of it.
And so that's why being on one show
for all of those years was not something I would've-
Chosen.
Or well, yeah, probably chosen,
but also I wouldn't have pictured that for myself.
Right.
And the metaphor I always use is we're laying tracks
for a train that you can hear coming.
Like it's- Right.
It's just over that hill, we better get these tracks laid.
Right.
You can't overthink it
Yeah, which is kind of a blessing in that sense.
And coming back to work
on "The Tonight Show with Conan" was you know,
I left in 2000 and I had a very kind of like,
"I gotta go out into the world
and see what I can do on my own."
One of the remarkable things about
the two of us working together is that it's very difficult
for people with similar skill sets
to sit next to each other
and do the thing that they do-
Differently.
Yeah. Differently, and especially-
But in concert
Yeah, in concert, especially like,
you know it's like having two lead singers.
Yeah. You know? It just, it's-
Anne and Nancy Wilson,
although one of them does play the guitar.
Right. Exactly.
Yeah. Yeah.
Alan, he plays a guitar,
but he's also like the lead singer.
But it's remarkable that we got through that,
but that's also too, like I think I needed
to go away and do some other stuff.
But the main thing when I came back,
it was like I can think of something in the morning,
and it'll be on TV-
Right. That night.
That's pretty incredible.
It's crazy. Yeah.
Nobody gets that.
I mean, such a small percentage of people get that,
and it might not matter to you if you're-
I'm an overthinker- Yeah.
So for me, it's terrifying.
Right.
And I'm thinking too of now anyone listening to this
who's dealing in YouTube at all's like,
"Why wait till tonight?"
Yes.
It's just now. Right.
It's just happening- Right. Right.
As it's happening. Absolutely.
Which terrifies me.
I can't even tell you how much.
Yeah. Yeah.
Well, I'm just too old.
I am still am living in analog kind of,
just the structural nature of television
and entertainment to me is just antiquated-
Right.
Because somebody that's far more successful than me is
on YouTube and I'll hear, "Oh, they're on YouTube?"
Right. Oh gosh. Small time.
But it's like, "No, dummy, they're
That's the mainstream now.
That's what's happening.
That's the big time.
Yeah. Yeah. It's-
Or TikTok, really- Right.
Now. I know.
I can't even keep track.
I know.
And there's so many things, that I'm just like,
"How do you make money at that?
Where does the money come from?"
I mean, podcasts for that matter-"
Very terrifying.
Like, you know,
and people sell podcasts for gazillions of dollar.
I mean, how does that happen?
Does anyone check to make sure it's profitable?
Is it really, is there really that much money in-
Let's go back to advertising.
Yeah, yeah. Advertising.
Again.
But it's like, are they selling that many socks?
They must be.
Okay. Okay.
I trust that it's something there.