Dec. 15, 2024

Conan O'Brien's Personal Loss, David Letterman Reflects on Career

Show Notes
Transcript

In this episode of daily comedy news, Johnny Mac delves into a rare interview where David Letterman talks to GQ about his career, his struggles with identity, and his continued work on Netflix. The episode also covers Jay Leno addressing rumors about his recent injuries and his modest hotel stays. Further, it touches upon Conan O'Brien's tragic week with the passing of both his parents. The show wraps up with anecdotes from John Mulaney's bedbug scare on set and Nikki Glaser's experience after the Tom Brady roast.

00:12 David Letterman's Rare Interview
00:45 Letterman's Reflections on His Career
01:28 Letterman's Thoughts on Other Hosts
02:28 Letterman's Personal Growth and Advice
04:42 Jay Leno's Rumors and Clarifications
07:02 Conan O'Brien's Family Loss
07:25 John Mulaney's Bed Bug Incident
08:27 Nikki Glaser's Roast Experience

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WEBVTT

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Kalaroga Shark Media. Hey there, I'm Johnny Mack with your

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daily comedy news. David Letterman did press, which is pretty rare.

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He did an interview with GQ magazine. I'm trying to

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figure out why. I think because he's promoting the Letterman

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Fast Channel on Samsung TV plus. A Fast Channel is

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one of those channels that shows up on like your

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Roku app or on your Samsung TV, and it's like

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an old style live TV channel. You can fast forward,

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you have to sit through the commercials. It's one of those.

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So there's one that's just Letterman. I put it on

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last night and they were showing stupid pet tricks and

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stupid human tricks, which was never my bags. I bailed,

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but I like the idea of the channel. Let him

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be told GQ in show business, I find that I've

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pretended to be someone I'm truly not. The interview took

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place in Indiana, and Dave said, in my life here

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in Indiana and at my home with my family, I'm

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probably the person I actually am, and I regret that

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they don't kind of cross at any point. Letterman is

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still working doing the show for Netflix called My Next

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Guest needs no introduction and says I'm surprised that I'm

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still doing it at my age. On the other hand,

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I still get a kick out of what we're doing.

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So what does that mean? I don't know. GQ said

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to Dave, you know, if you read press about you

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from the eighties and nineties, you were portrayed as miserable.

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Letterman said, yeah, that's great. I love that is the characterization. Fair. Yeah,

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I think so. There's a couple of things going on there.

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I was drinking heavily in those days. That may have

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provided some fuel for misery, and I guess not achieving

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what I imagined to be. Like you'd say, Johnny Carson, there's

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never going to be anybody as good at that kind

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of show as Johnny. Nobody better. Maybe there are people

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now who are excellent broadcasters and as good as Johnny,

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but nobody better. Trying to think if there's anybody right

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now who says good as Johnny, I don't think so.

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Colbear is definitely not. Falin's definitely not. Because Kimmel as

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good as Johnny, I don't think so, Letterman says, So here,

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I'm thinking, oh crap, am I not going to be

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as good as Johnny. What am I doing here? I

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like the idea that I was characterized as miserable. That's delightful, Dave.

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Early in your career you were criticized fairly for not

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being a great interviewer. Dave said, probably, yeah, I think

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that's true. Any criticism that has befallen me, I'm sure

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I had a coming. Here's the issue with me when

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I got to California. I don't know if this contradicts

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everything I've said before. When I got to California was like, Okay,

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I'm here, let's get ready to go. I thought I'm

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the guy we've all been waiting for. And I operated

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like that for a little bit. And the first time

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I realized it was a mistake, I had a morning

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show on NBC. It was on for a day and

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a half. Then it blew up the network. And that's

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when I realized, you know, the thing about me being

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the guy, maybe that needs to be like, let's take

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another look at that, Dave. Did you get better over time?

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I don't know. I mean one hopes. God, thirty years

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plus one hope you get a little better. I do

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say that for the last handful of years and my

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favorite part of the show is just talking to people.

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Because doing comedy each and every night, each and every night,

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each and every night, that's meaningful and not just laughable.

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That's tough. It's really tough. And I was always lucky

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to have men and women who were really smart and

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really good writers. I'd just be in the next room.

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But the thing I enjoyed mostly was actually just talking

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to people. Dave had a reputation for being confrontational in

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the early days, and Dave said, yeah, I guess so,

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I will say that also in those days it was

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probably under some real or imagined mandate that would provide

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energy that would help the show succeed. But no, that's right, GQ. Dave,

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your reputation in your show years, accurate or not, was

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not social. Dave said, I felt like wherever i'd go out,

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there'd be an expectation in which I couldn't live up to,

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which was, here, he comes, he's gonna do a show,

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He's gonna be funny, We're gonna be entertained. I kind

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of felt like that expectation takes quite a lot of energy,

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because I didn't want to bleed it off before or

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after the actual show, which was always in desperate need

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of entertainment. He talked about his energy and said, you'd

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either spend time preparing, time ruminating about what it might

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gone wrong, or try and enjoy what it went right,

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and anything else didn't matter. And that's the mistake of

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having a career where it's the same thing each and

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every night. Now I still advise people not to retire,

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but it was so single focused. If we can make

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these three four hundred people laugh every night, that's our responsibility.

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So the idea that it actually transported beyond that would

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always come as kind of a glaring surprise. All I

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cared about was television. One hour of television that I

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was responsible for for thirty years. That's all I cared about.

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Everything fell apart went away. I didn't even know if

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it was falling apart or not. And now I have

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the energy and the broader focus to recognize humanity as

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other fulfilling pursuits. A lot more here, and we've got

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some holidays coming up, so I'll save more of that

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for some time, maybe Christmas week. Looking ahead, I will

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have episodes for you every single day, like always. I

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am going to pre tape a couple just so I

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could take a couple of days off around Christmas, and

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you know, there are things like best Comedy Specials of

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the Year that I want to do anyway, so I'll

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record a bunch of those, but I'll be here every

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day for you. I'm also bothered this session you're hearing

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right now. I've only been recording for seven minutes and

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I can already hear that rasp in my voice that

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whatever bug I caught It's almost a full three weeks ago.

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Now I still feel it. I still feel that my

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voice going really quickly. I don't feel sick at all,

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but boy, I just feel the rasp anyway. Jay Leno,

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let's stay on late night type hosts. Jay was on

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Spike first In's Spike's Car Radio, and Jay pushed back

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on all the rumors about what's going on. There was

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one rumor that said Jay owed money to the mob

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and had been subject to a beat down. Leno said,

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it's so stupid. Spike said the photos Jay looked like

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an AI of a Jay Leno that had been thrown

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off a building. All right, Jay, you've got money. Why

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he's staying at Hampton In. Jay said he got into

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the area at one am and was only going to

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be there for a short stay. He asked for the

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nearest hotel and happened to be Hampton In. Leno defended

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the brand, saying it's a Hilton. Why wouldn't he stay

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somewhere like the Four Seasons? Leno said? Why would it

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pay eleven hundred dollars a night? Leno explains if his

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wife was with him, then he would have stayed in

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a nice hotel, but it's just him. He doesn't feel

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the need. Spike said he's been on the road with

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Jerry Seinfeld, and Seinfeld also stays at modest hotels. Spike

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shows Jay some social media posts, including one where the

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author wrote, Jay Leno was beat up in some kind

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of ritual. I suspect or to be silenced. Jay, is

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it a gambling debt? Jay said, Nope, never gambled in

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my life. I liked that the mob would drive to Greensburg,

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Pennsylvania to meet me on top of a hill and

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then throw me down the hill. All right, Jay, why

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were you walking? Why didn't he have a car? Jay

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said again he was only in town for a short time.

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He didn't think it need one, And as I'm falling,

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I see these two elderly ladies. One of them goes

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that looks like Jay Leno falling down the hill. The

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two women came over after he fell down. Leno said

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they realized it was actually him. They gave him a

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ride to a nearby restaurant. He says, of his injuries,

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I didn't think it was that bad. When a server

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brought his sandwich over, the server told Leno, hey, you

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know you don't look too good. But rather thansee medical attention,

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Jay asked for directions to the nearest CVS and bought

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an eye patch. All right, what about all the weird

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stuff with the cars on the motorcycles, Leno said, there's

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a lot of accidents in between you don't even hear about.

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Jay says he got a good laugh when he told

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the crowd, ladies and gentlemen, I'm just completing my fall

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tour and added audiences love seeing rich people catch on fire.

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Maybe this is just how I sound now. I've worked

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in radio media, audio whatever this is now for thirty

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plus years, and I have run into older men who

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start to get that rasp in their voice. It sounds

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great if you're a DJ. Maybe this is just how

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I sound. Now for real. During the break there, I

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hit pause on their cording and went upstairs and I

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went and got my iced coffee. Here the voice was

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driving me nuts. Today. Doesn't hurt, but the fuzz all right,

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shut up about your voice, John, if you want to

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sport the show, buy me a coffee. Dot com slash

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d comedy news. Serious topic here. Conan O'Brien, Oh wow,

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what a week. Conan's father, doctor Thomas O'Brien, passed away Monday,

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December ninth. Thomas was ninety five. Three days later, on

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Thursday the twelfth, Ruth O'Brien passed away at age ninety two.

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In an interview published on Thursday, Conan told The Globe,

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my father was in constant motion and he was interested

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in everything, absolutely everything. John mulaney was on Jimmy Fallon

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during the week. Mulaney was filming a scene for poker

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Face and said he's been going back and forth between

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Staten Island and Queen's. We're at a Rundown real life

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location like a motel for this one scene, and afterwards

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it was this summer. I'm standing there with Miguel and

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he goes, oh, no, I think I have some bug

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bites and I look down and he's got these three

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red bites and he goes, oh, no, I might have

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bedbugs from the shoot. Malanie gets back to his room.

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He notices he has bites and I go, oh my god,

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I got bed bugs from doing a peacock show. You

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never think that's how you get them, but it is.

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I texted Natasha Leone. I go, hey, do you have

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Miguel's number. Miguel's the director. I need to get in

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touch with him right now about something. She sends to

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me Migul's number and I text him. He texts Miguel,

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it's John m'laney. I've read bites on my legs too,

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What did you do for these? And he's really bed bugs.

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He doesn't hear back. I call Natasha and I go, hey,

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mcguil hasn't gotten back to me, and she goes, oh, yeah,

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I say you the wrong Miguel. Apparently m'laney texted the

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guy Miguel who has the hit song remind me to forgets.

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Malaney spoken to the TV and said, Miguel, if you're watching,

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they weren't bed bugs and on set medic let me

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know it was fine. It's a good lesson. Nikki Glazer

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posted on Instagram, I'm sorry if I'm everywhere right now,

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It'll be over soon. She talked about the roast of

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Tom Brady in May and said it was a life

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changing performance, one of those things that you sort of like,

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you just never know what's gonna happen, but everything changes

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after the next day, I was in line places and

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seeing my face on people's phones. She told Jimmy Kimmel.

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I felt like Taylor Swift for a couple of days.

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I felt that level of fame. No, you didn't, and

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that is your comedy news or today. You didn't. You

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were not Taylor Swift. Relax. You told a couple of

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funny jokes on a roast A bunch of us watched.

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H You're such a hater, John, I'm not. I speak

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truth to the media. See to morrow.