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Callaroga Shark Media. Hey, I'm Johnny Mack with your daily
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comedy news, daily briefing on stand up comedy, comedians and
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the comedy industry. A sentence the algorithm love, so I
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keep saying it. The Oscars are tomorrow night. They will
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be hosted by Conan O'Brien for the second year in
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a row. Conan said, it's not just about being funny
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moments a moment, it's also about acknowledging what there is
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in a larger sense. As the host, I'm sort of
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the human avatar or whatever. I'm the entryway for the
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person watching at home, the person the audience member can
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relate to. I've been working for a really long time
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on material for the show with my writers, and it's
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still evolving. Because we live in a very fast paced world.
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Jokes we thought of two months ago are relevant now.
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There might be things that happened this week that will
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find their way into the show. He recalled last year
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there were a lot of challenges. The LA wildfires had
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him working well displaced. Conan said, so this year, I
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get to wake up in the morning in my own room,
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which sounds like a small thing, but it's a huge thing.
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So this year, all the movies are so different, they're
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also vibrant. There's so many different voices, so much artistry
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went into them. I think it's one of the best
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film years that we've had in memory. As for a hosting,
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he doesn't see the job being punchlines all the time.
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He explains, it's not necessarily about being one hundred percent
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funny all the time. Sometimes there are moments where it's
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my job to move us along to the next moment.
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He and the team talk a lot about prep and
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design and getting everything just a certain way and practice practice, practice,
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But when this show happens, it's an organic thing that's
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unfolding in real time. The show will be a living organism,
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for better or worse. Conin did several interviews during the week.
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When with The La Times, they talked about the elephant
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in the room, which is the ongoing war in Iran,
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Conan said, my job is to always try and hit
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this very very thin line between entertaining people and also
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acknowledging some of the realities. It's a dance that goes
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on up until the show begins. Between us, and he
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referenced his executive producers. We'll find the right tone. Conan
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recalled when Johnny Carson hosted the Oscars during the Iran
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hostage crisis. When I was a boy, Johnny Carson parodied
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ABC's Nightline with the joke It's Day four hundred and
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forty four of the Oscars. Conan said, it was such
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a funny, topical joke that touched on something everybody was
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thinking about and at the same time got a big
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laugh and was unifying, and that was meaningful to me. Now,
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what about the rumored safety threats. One of the showrunners said,
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every year we monitor what's going on in the world.
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They have the support of the FBI and the LAPD.
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The show runner said, this show has to run like clockwork.
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Everyone is coming on the show that is witnessing the show,
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even a fan of the show. They're standing on the barricades.
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Who want everybody to feel safe and protected and welcome.
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On Late Night or Bill Carter spoke with Conan. You
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can listen to that entire interview on the Late Night
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or Podcast Feed Wednesday's episode the Bill Carter Interview. Conan O'Brien,
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I just added that to my cue. Let's see how
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absurd my cue is. Right now, this is a real number.
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If you follow me on LinkedIn and or the substack.
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I've been mentioning, this is a real number. Okay, Right
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now I have two hundred and sixty nine episodes of
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podcasts downloaded to my phone. That would take two hundred
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ninety hours and twenty eight minutes to listen to all
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of them. However, it's getting warmer out. Johnny Mack will
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either walk the dog or sit out in the yard,
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or fall asleep in the art, or sit on a beach,
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or sit up at the new summer place that I bought.
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So don't worry that number is going to get lower.
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I'll eventually listen to Bill Carter and Cone and I digress.
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Carter asked, is it true that the Motion Picture Academy
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asked Conan to come back before he even left the
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stage last year? Conan said, not quite, but it was
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pretty quick. He talked about being a complete unknown back
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when he took over for David Letterman. He said, now
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we live in an arrow where there's no such thing
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as a complete unknown. Anyone like me starting out today
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would have six hundred hours of YouTube clips. Conan described
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his resume back then. He said, a writer, but he's
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got an interesting vibe. Will there be a cold open
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on the Oscar? Conan said, you can expect some things.
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We have more than one thing. We have some pieces
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I really like. We have some live things I'm really
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excited about. Very vague, Conan said, what I love most
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is the process. I love hanging around the writer's room
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in my post late night life. The two things I've
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missed most are having a writer's room and having a band.
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When first asked to host the Oscars last year, Conan said,
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I was intrigued right away. I had done award shows
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in the past. I like the format. I like being
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out in front of people. I like the feeling of
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ceremony because you can kind of play against it. So
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when they asked, yeah, I have to try this, I'm
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curious about it. I know it's a lot of work
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and I'm gonna put myself through some misery, but let's
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do it. And as for the second ask, yeah, I
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like to try that again. I had such a good
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time the first time. I'm glad I did it. They
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talked about it being a tough room. ConA explained, the
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people in the room, you're literally the last thing they're
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thinking about say his barometer. If I'm having a good
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time and feeling the flow of it all and I'm
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making myself laugh ninety nine percent of the time, it
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means it went well. I call that the hallway ratings.
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I used to talk about this. It's serious a lot.
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If I was walking down the hall and feeling good
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about a show and people stopped me in the hallway
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to talk about what they had just heard on the radio,
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That's how I knew we had a good show. And
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like this show here. You know, you do it every day.
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Some episodes are better than others. Be realistic. You know.
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Some days I find a muse and the episode is
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a little more fun. Sometimes I'm just going through the headline.
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Some days there's nothing to work with. Some days I've
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find inspiration on the fly, so I know what Conan
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is saying. Conan says it's even better if something unexpected
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comes up during the show. It's a little like Olympic diving.
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You get grated on the difficulty if something just happened,
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people are looking for the host to guide them through that.
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If you could do it in a funny way, the
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potential payoff is much greater than anything you thought of
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three months ago. Does Conan miss standing in front of
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an audience daily? Hmm, he says, no, I do not.
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You get one life. I spent a long chunk of
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my life doing that. I really enjoyed it. It was thrilling,
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and now I like trying out all these other things.
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I thought I would miss it, but I do not.
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As for a late night, he said, my assumption has
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been that it's gonna morph as everything does. Now. People
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are watching their favorite comedian who no one else in
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the room has heard of. Had he worked Linden Late
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Night in the fifties or sixties, I would have left
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after the tonight show and you wouldn't have heard from me. Again.
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Would Conan consider hosting SNL asked Bill Carter, And again
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you can hear that whole interview on Late Nighter. Conan said,
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good question. I never want to be that guy comes
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back and says, hey, this is my old high school.
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I used to go here. Hey kids, I'm groovy. But
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never say never. If it came up, it could be
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exciting to try. I'm not banking on it, certainly not
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asking for it. Conan got a big cover piece in
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the Hollywood Reporter under the headline, Conan O'Brien just can't
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help himself. Conan said, we work in an industry where
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everyone's constantly hyper analyzing where they are on a certain scale.
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All I can say is I get to do the
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thing that, for better or worse, I was put here
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to do. The article quotes John mulaney, who said, I
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don't watch a lot of these things, but I just
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remember thinking, is this the greatest Oscars ever? Conan is
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a true artist and an incredible broadcaster. He's also got
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one thing you cannot fake and can't only earn, which
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is stature. Jeff Ross is quoted he had told Conan
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when the first offer came in. I told him you
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don't need to do this. You've got nothing to prove.
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When we quit late night, the goal will only do
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things that are fun, things we want to do well.
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This is what Conan wants to do. This is interesting.
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Mike Sweeney was Conan's head writer and says, if anybody
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knows O'Brien's tail when an idea tanks, it's him. Sweeney
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explains his tell his tail is that he mocks at
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mercilesly for at least five minutes. He's most delighted in rehearsal.
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When things go wrong or they're just bad. It's like
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delivering fresh meat to lines gauge. If it's your bit
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that's getting eviscerated, you're laughing as hard as anyone. You
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may be curious, how much do you get paid to
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host the OSCAR? Is not all that much in the
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scheme of things. A twenty thirteen article in The Hollowod
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Reporter suggested a number between fifteen and twenty five thousand dollars.
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Seven years ago, Jimmy Kimmel said I got paid fifteen
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thousand dollars to host the OSCAR. Wanda Psyke said hosting
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the twenty twenty two ceremony actually left her out of pocket.
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I find that hard to believe. But okay, by the way,
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remember twenty twenty two. Now, that was the year with
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the famous slap. Every time I see this sentence, it's
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just my brain fries your host that year Wanda Sykes,
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Regina Hall, and Amy Schumer. Amy Schumer hosted the Oscars.
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Let's just all ponder that for a second. I just
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wanted to just stop and think for a second. Now,
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if I said to you, hey, you know who's hosting
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the Oscars tomorrow, Amy Schumer, you'd be like what, wouldn't
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you wouldn't you be like what? Well? Twenty twenty two,
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Amy Schumer hosted the Oscars. That's the thing that happened.
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The New Yorker asked Conan O'Brien, it's a high risk,
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maybe even the low reward gig, isn't it? And Conah said,
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I choose not to see it this way. It was
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really fun. I grew up watching Bob Hope do it,
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Johnny Carson do it, so it's a very cool thing
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to be connected to. And as you know, I'm very
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interested in history, and this thing has been around for
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one hundred years, almost a hundred years, solet's have fun
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with it. That's my attitude. What I've learned myself over
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time is I can't fake enjoyment. I need to find
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ways to make sure that I'm having a lot of fun.
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I need to prepare. I mean, I'm a big preparation person.
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I work with this brilliant team of writers who are
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just downstairs from where I'm doing this podcast. I go
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down there, they're all around a long table and they're like,
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these premises are no good. Yeah, these premises are no good.
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We got to get the Glengarry premises, and I yell
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at them, I'm the Alec Bald when it comes in
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and gives that great speech upfront. I'm talking about the
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movie now. I think we all know that, not the play.
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They asked Conut about the slap and he said, well,
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you know, I don't want anyone to slap me. I'd
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like a streaker, you know what. I'd really like a
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streaker to slap me. That would just satisfy so many
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of my dormant Catholic hang ups. But it's a weird
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duality here. It's a weird thing. I like to plan
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and I like to prepare, and then I love when
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something goes off the rails. If accidentally a light falls,
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you can make a whole show about that, you know
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what I mean. And I don't know what it is
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about human beings, but they instinctively know when something is
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real enough the moment, and then they say, you react
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in real time like a human being and make something
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funny out of it, and that has ten times the
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value of anything you could have written. So you have
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to be open for things to slightly go wrong, and
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it's fun and electrifying. My whole life has been prepared,
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but then, like any good quarterback, be ready for the
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whole play to fall apart and then wing it. The
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New Yorker asked Conan about the performance of it all
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being a heightened you. Now, I'm just a dude in
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the podcast. But this is how I teach this. I teach,
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you know, I've been a media executive for thirty something years,
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and I teach the college class and I always tell everybody,
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you have to be real, but you ramp u up
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to one hundred and five percent. And you know, I've
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talked about this candidly. John doesn't like Adam Sandlor movies.
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I don't find them funny, and I just go on
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with my life. But Johnny Mack, who records this podcast
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in the basement, as you know, Johnny Mack hates Adam
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Sailor movies and loses his mind and they even exist.
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You can even hear how it just changed my speaking delivery.
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You know, I'm getting more animated, so that that's the
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performance part of all this. Conan said, I'm always this guy.
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There's a heightened me, but it's really not that much different.
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I routinely would just t to people on the street,
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complete strangers, and then that will lead to me doing