Would you consider a guest host?
Trust me, after what I’ve been through, no. No guest host. Someone could come in and then I come back and they’re like [in Jay Leno voice], “Yeah, I’m not goin’ anywhere.”
What do you think about Jimmy Fallon hosting “The Tonight Show?”
I think he’s great. I think he’ll do a great job. I’m happy for him. I’m really happy for him. I really sincerely wish him the best and I think it will go well. It will all go very well.
With the audience spread over all these platforms, is it hard to get credit when something hits?
I think the hardest thing about today is that all of us are coming into this new world with biases. My assistant doesn’t have these biases. She watches a lot of television on the internet. She likes things and she experiences them in a very different way. A lot of us grew up in the big three network, “Oh wow, ‘MASH’ is going to square off against ‘Happy Days!’ Who’s gonna win?” Which was actually a real story in the press and that’s not how it’s working anymore. “Breaking Bad” exists in a different universe than “CSI: Miami.” They live in completely different universes. No one’s saying, “What if ‘Breaking Bad’ goes up against ‘CSI: Miami?’” It’s just a different world. We’re coming at it from that world and it’s taking a while, when you grow up a certain way, that’s in your DNA.
I’ve had to rewire my brain. The good thing, as I said before, is I just learned that my job is to stay focused on new experiences. What’s a new way to be funny? What is something I haven’t done before? That keeps me feeling young. I’m always stunned at how young my audience is, and I don’t mean I’m looking at a sheet of paper. I mean when I walk through an airport, 14-year-old boys are saying, “I love that thing that you did last week.” Now, they didn’t say, “Hey, it’s 11, let’s go watch ‘Conan’ on TBS. Let’s get some popcorn made. ‘Conan’s on everybody, gather ’round.”
They saw it, it was funny to them and they’re less obsessed with who’s what generation I think. They’re more just looking at it’s funny, it gets through. And also it’s harder. It’s harder, it’s more challenging in some ways, but it’s also more rewarding. I’m really excited by this new world. You can be afraid of a new technology or you can embrace it and I decided a couple years ago, because I had to, embrace it. I actually was in a situation where it was like embrace this new technology or die, so I embraced this new technology and it’s been a beautiful thing for me.
Is your assistant the same one you had in the Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop documentary?
Yes, she’s right here.
How did she like that film?
She loved it because she was the star.
Did she know she was going to be so prominent in it?
I think you knew. You were happy with the film. You got a lot of marriage proposals. Sona’s been instrumental, and also because of this new kind of television we do, Sona lost her “Gigolos” mug. She threw a fit and sent out a nasty e-mail so I grabbed a camera crew and said, “I will find your ‘Gigolos’ mug” and went around the office to find it.
Then I ended up finding it, bringing it back to her, revealing all the time that Sona was screwing around all day and that actually no one in my office seemed to be working on anything. I went to people’s desks and one person took out a bottle of Jack Daniels. They’re like, “Yeah, and I think someone took some of my Jack Daniels.” Why is there Jack Daniels at your desk? Anyway, we got that out that night. I had so many people stopping me about, “Your assistant’s totally screwing around at work.” It’s this beautiful new world where if you can make something funny and organic, they really like being let in.
