Chapter 1: What does Lisa Kudrow think about being Conan O'Brien's friend?
Hi, my name is Lisa Kudrow. And I feel still really good about being Conan O'Brien's friend. Is this a day-to-day thing with you? Every day I take a walk and then I go, wait, how do you feel about being Conan O'Brien's friend? Fall is here, hear the yell. Back to school, ring the bell. Brand new shoes, walking blues. Climb the fence, books and pens. I can tell that we are gonna be friends.
Yes, I can tell that we are gonna be friends. Hey there, welcome to Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, joined by, well, Nomad Gorley right now. He's still out on paternity leave. Yeah. It's been six years now that he's been on paternity leave. This child just joined the army. Good to have you here, David Hopping. Great to be here. And Sona of Session, of course, as always. You were late today. Yes.
We just taped an interview that you weren't here for. What happened? Was it a little bit of a snafu? There was a little bit of a snafu. What happened there? It wasn't in my calendar. So if it's not, I'm like, you know, if it's not there, I don't know it's happening. Is this a physical thing you write in, a physical calendar? What do you mean?
Like I have a calendar and I write in it with my like a pen? Yeah, it's got like, you know, a fireman with no shirt on. Oh, like a calendar. That's the kind of calendar I picture you having. You probably like a sexy guy calendar. That's a digital one. But then there's other calendars that get sent that do have it on there. And I didn't pay attention to those.
There was a show about male dancers that you were obsessed with. They weren't dancers. Oh, they were gigolos. They were gigolos. You were obsessed with gigolos. Did you have a gigolo calendar back in the day? I did have a gigolo calendar. And every month. And see, this is why I asked you. I picture you having like a gigolo calendar or a shirtless fireman calendar or now a heated rivalry calendar.
Yes. Yeah, baby. Okay. And then the problem is you get so distracted by the hunks that you don't write things down. Every time you go...
oh I'll write down I've got to be in there for that interview for the podcast and then you look up and it's one of the shirtless hunks from heated rivalry and you go and then you forget and you just write blither blather blather yeah or I just drool all over it and you draw butts on the calendar oh my god I draw butts but maybe maybe that's my system for putting things in my calendar yeah two butts means I got to get into the podcast yeah
Three butts means I've got to go see my orthopedic surgeon. Yes. It's my butt code. Yeah. It's the butt code for my calendar. Look, but then also today. And then you use different things. There's some butts. There's some penises. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Six butts and two penises is Mikey and Charlie need to get their shots. Yeah. This is her system.
The ancient Incas used knotted strings instead of recorded language and it worked fine. Sona uses a series of butts and dicks. Yes. And in a certain order. And I mean, when you published your version of King Lear, it was fantastic. People are going to look at my calendars thousands of years from now. And they're going to be relics of butts and penises.
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Chapter 2: What unique calendar system does Lisa Kudrow use?
It just always cracks me up because we've been friends literally forever. And she is one of my absolute favorite people in the entire universe. She stars as Valerie Cherish in season three of the hilarious HBO series, The Comeback, which people are so psyched for this. So psyched for it. She is one of my closest friends. I adore her and I love when she comes on the podcast. Lisa Kudrow, welcome.
I mean, we've known each other forever and got started together, as everyone knows, in improv in 86. And it's still a day-to-day thing with you. I never know. I never know. I'm hot and cold. Am I still good? There have been whole years where I've been out. But at the moment, I'm in, which is fine. And we'll see how it goes. That's not true. It's the other way around. Yeah, I know. What?
Where did that come from? Look, in the 2000s, I just turned on you. No, we were just it's funny because, I mean, you came in here and you started being really funny and we're just laughing and we hadn't even like turned on the microphones yet. And it just always feels strange when I say, hey, my guest tonight is Lisa Kudrow, because we had dinner last week. Yeah. With my wife, Liza, and you.
And Michelle could not be there because he refuses to dine with me now. Right. He was out of town. I know. He was out of town. We're just trying to start trouble. Yeah. Anyway. But, yeah, we had a blast. And so it's so funny when it's formalized back. this way a little bit. And it used to be worse, not worse because you were always great.
But when I would say, when I had a band and it was on TV and they'd be like, all right, here she comes. And you'd come out and you, you know, the dress and I'm bowing to you and then getting behind my seat. I always flash back to you and I in a DuPars diner in the late eighties going, here's a funny idea for a skit. Yeah. Well, we both got to get back to our day jobs. Your day job was writing.
Yeah, at least I had a decent, yeah. And you were slinging hash. At the headache clinic. At the headache clinic. Why were you slinging hash at a headache clinic? I don't know. You said slinging hash. I wanted to be a good improviser. Yeah, that was good. That was good. Now it's a very funny scene. A hash slinging headache clinic. Exactly. Yeah, I'm delighted that you're here.
People get very excited when you come. Huge fans here. And so Paula Davis, who we were just talking about before the mics came on, who's been with me forever, who's our booker, she is vibrating forever. for, I would say, a month now, talking to me about the comeback and the new season of the comeback. That's what she was telling me. She's doing a rewatch of season 22. But she's not the only one.
I have so many friends that are telling me the comeback, and because they know that you and I go way back, people are asking me questions about it. I don't know anything. A lot of people from my life couldn't watch seasons one and two. They couldn't handle it. It was tough. And I think probably for you, even though you're too supportive to say it, but my husband hasn't seen them.
Do you know that? Really? I didn't know that. Michelle has not seen all of season one or all of season two. But I think that's sweet also. I think that's really sweet. I watched both of them and thought it was brilliantly funny. But because I'm such good friends with you and care about you, it's hard. It's hard. I just don't even know what anyone is talking about right now. With that. I can't.
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Chapter 3: How has Lisa Kudrow's character Valerie Cherish evolved in The Comeback?
2004, and... Came out in 5. Yeah, and you were kind of... I mean, it's... I think it's two years or something before Keeping Up with the Kardashians. It's like... This is, you were doing a satire of something that hadn't, I don't think, really formed yet.
Then you come back 10 years later, and now, which then commented on that moment, and I think few people would have the patience or the nerve to say, these come out once every 10 years, but it's really cool. Because now, I have not seen a second of the third season, but the idea that you can now drop in again a decade later. It's very unusual. It is, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah.
But I'm so, it's so great that we didn't get picked up that first season because it gets to be about something. Right. Were you surprised when it didn't get picked up? Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. I was surprised. Yeah. Why were you surprised? Just because it was really good. Thanks. And you think, well, this will now get picked up. Yeah. Of course, I've been wrong about these things before.
I've had my own experiences. Wait, what do you mean? I don't know. But I think... You've only had an easy time. You're right. You and your privilege. I know. Never a bump in the road. What's nice about the world we live in now is shows used to go away all the time. But now there's this world where shows can not get picked up, but they don't go away. And then you can have this audience build.
And people who... And if you... I mean, I've seen it with so many like Party Downs, an example of a show that I don't think was getting a lot of attention. But you can check in on it years and years later. And it's almost like The Wire. You know, there are these comedy shows that, OK, didn't see it, didn't support it. You check in much later on. I wasn't aware of Party Down.
And then you you see it and you go, oh, they've really they've made a nice little Swiss watch here. Yeah. And it's just as good now as it would have been if I had tuned in the day it came out. And definitely the comeback had that. Yeah. Where it was building and building. And you probably experienced a lot of people when you're out at the supermarket. Oh, yeah.
The supermarket is where all the fans of the comeback are. They are. They are. They're there. They're there in the produce lane. And you're there like, what about those melons? And you're like, I don't know. Hey, the comeback. Yeah. But I go to a lot of supermarkets. But you must have had that experience where you're hearing from people. Yeah. I love that.
And so you didn't hear that necessarily from the, you know, the people that made the show or broadcast the show. Right. But you knew I'm hearing from way too many people. Well, even when it was when we were on, we heard. David Bowie got in touch with HBO because he was going to be on tour. He didn't want to miss anything. So send him. Wow. Whatever. 2005 DVDs or whatever it is.
Look, I'm looking like, I don't know. We don't remember. Then you find out the other shows David Bowie wanted. I didn't get the latest Fear Factor. Yeah. Where they eat shit. Can you have that one, please? You're like, David. But and then we felt like, oh, OK. Yeah, that's right. HBO. That's all they need to hear, probably.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Lisa share about the nature of comebacks?
You know what Robert Smigel said to me once? He looked at me when I was being insane about something and tightly wound. And he said, you're the only person I know who would be healthier if he smoked. That smoking and the breathing and the nicotine, it would extend your, he said, Conan, it would extend your life.
It's bad for everyone else, but you, and I think about that sometimes because Robert's been right about a lot of things. Yeah. And now I think at my age, if I started now, I'm like, come on, how much damage could I do? No, but this has nicotine in it. Oh, nicotine gum. Yeah. Look, I didn't even take one, but I have it.
This is turning into an ad for starting to smoke, which I don't want it to be, although I'm a little intrigued. Wow. Wait, but I do want to say something because you said, are you different? And here's, you are a little different. How? I mean, we should be, shouldn't we? Yeah. Don't you think? Sure. Okay. But you had told, like when we met. Different from when I was in 1986. Well, yeah.
I mean, I should hope so. I don't think you're as tightly wound. No, I'm not. Okay, good. He was worse than the end. Okay. No, she's absolutely right. I will make my time working for you. You have gotten a lot more chill. Yeah. Yeah, I see that too. But he told me that he would be so tightly wound, like something I can't, either I don't remember or I just don't want to say. Yeah.
No, because you were telling me something happened at college and it upset you. And you sat and you quietly just like took apart a chair. Yeah. Really just like quietly. Yeah. Patiently. Yeah. With rage. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Something in the comedy realm hadn't gone my way.
And I went back to my room and there was a very sturdy wooden chair that they have at Harvard that has like the Harvard insignia on it. And I quietly was pulling out all of the pieces of the chair. Yeah, I had that in me. There's a guy in here who scares me. Is that scary? Because maybe this is scary. You told me that story and I went, yeah. Right. Yeah, yeah.
Because you can't actually get violent in front of anybody. No, no, I would never turn that on anyone. The person I beat up on mostly is me and writers who need a physical beating every now and then. Sure, well. No, I, yeah. But I mean, of course we both change. I think having kids changes you too. Yeah. Yeah.
Like I love, and I said this recently on someone else's podcast, but so much of being young is being narcissistic. Mm-hmm. It's necessary. You kind of have to be a narcissist when you're young and it's got to be all about you and your problems have to be the biggest thing in the world because you are going through life and the stakes are big.
And then once my daughter showed up and then later my son, I remember instantly knowing, oh yeah, I don't count anymore. I'm not... I get it. Yeah. And liking it. Like, it's about them. Yeah. Takes the load off. I've got to be here for them. And just even thinking about it, I'm much calmer. Yeah. So I, yeah, needed to be having kids when I was 15. Well, that's what you were built for.
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