Staff Review With Skyler Higley

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1:13Conan O 'Brien needs a fan. Want to talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com slash call Conan. Okay, let's get started. All right, this is a special thing we're doing lately. Normally, I would talk to a fan somewhere around the globe during this segment. But these are different because I have my amazing Oscar writing team downstairs. These are writers that are the best. They really are the best. And I hang out with them all the time. We try and think of fun things we could do at the Oscars this year. And since I have this room downstairs, I'm pilfering them one by one to talk to them. and just find out more about them because they're very funny, very talented.

1:59And today it is Skylar Higley's turn. Skylar, let's hear your origin story. Where are you from? Can I first say, this is the most respectful I've ever heard you speak to me. Thank you, thank you. That's what I said last time. The Conan O 'Brien. Yeah, I love these writers. Yes. In 20 minutes, it's going to be different. Let me tell you something. Well, we should also say that anytime I enter the room where you guys are, the kind of dungeon. No, it's a nice room, but I can't just walk into the room. I kick the door open like it's a drug raid. And then I come in and I start doing cartoonish over the top insults.

2:38I say you guys are the best writers I've ever seen. This is what I was waiting for just now. But then I realized I don't have my glasses. Oh, okay. So I go to put my glasses on and then I look at them again and I show cartoonish disappointment in what I'm seeing. And it's all theater. but I think I know I have a good time we have a great time and then we wait for you to leave and then we work yeah then you get back to work oh I can really tell when they're like okay he's done like 35 different riffs we've got to get him out of here so we can get back to work and you ruined the door downstairs I kind of did there are scuff marks on it every day yeah I know I know I love it I like it a lot it's a treat for me I just sit there and wait and go hey let's tire himself out but I don't I don't tire myself out Skylar yes tell me I remember when you first started working for me which would be what year did you start working for me 2020 okay 2020 do you remember in the middle of the pandemic and there was the BLM remember when we cared about BLM for a second and it was right in that time I was like going really crazy because it was Chicago and the police and everything were there and then it was like I was having like just a lot of anxiety around that time.

3:55And then people called me up and were like, hey, do you want to meet with Conan's people and just for like a meeting? And I was like, yeah, I guess. And then it was like, oh, yeah, do you want to write for a Conan O 'Brien show? And I was like, well, I think the world's ending. So sure. Like there was a virus. There was like an uprising of social, you know, it was like, fine. Yeah, this will be the last thing I do. but what i remember most is that because everything uh you you still you didn't move because it's the height of you know not just covid but so much insanity so you would zoom in from your apartment yeah and your apartment was in chicago and i remember the angle was i don't know if it was the how much of it was the angle and how much of it was the it wasn't angle I lived underground.

4:46Okay. It looked like so Skylar would would you know okay here's Skylar and you would appear on the screen and it looked like your ceiling was one inch above your head. Yeah. And it looked like you were being held captive. It looked like in being John Malkovich when he has to go into John Malkovich's head and the ceiling's really low. That's kind of where I lived yeah yeah yeah but it cheap rent when you live underground let me tell you something well uh i mean this has been much discussed but you've done hilarious hilarious work for me on the uh on the turner on the conan show and then uh on the work you've done on the oscars last year this year uh has been stupendous you wrote that insane joke last year yeah it was one of my favorite jokes to get to deliver.

5:39Oh, and it was also like just I don't know, it just sometimes in comedy, you have that moment where things just like line up, you know, where you just get blessed with a premise and like this is a perfect. It lines up and you do it. And I didn't you know, I don't know if anybody expected it to be quite as big as it was. I think there was a sense before I went out. Well, I thought, well, this will be fun. Yeah. Yeah. And I I don't want to misquote it, so maybe you can remind us. Yeah. I walk back out. It's the beginning of an act. Beginning of the midway point, which is important because last year, the Super Bowl, Kendrick performed at halftime, and then he did his stuff with Kendrick and Drake.

6:20Everybody remembers. And you just come out and you say, well, we're halfway through the show, so it's time for Kendrick to come out and call Drake a pedophile. Yeah. And so I tell that joke, and then I'm just bathed in not just laughter, but screams. And I have to tell you, if you have a disease, if you have cancer in your body and you walk out and tell a joke like that to a room that big and you get that reaction, you will be cancer free. Yeah. It cured me of any ailment I might've had, huge. And then I walk right backstage and there you are, all nicely dressed. I think I gave you a thank you.

6:56Thank you, Skyler. And then you were like, your name is Skyler, right? It's - I noticed the moment Conan started respecting me as a person. Yeah. Yeah. Well, started to. Started. I didn't say. And then you spent that capital really quick. Oh, of course. But I'm curious. I haven't really sat down and talked to you about your backstory. When do you start thinking, okay, comedy's my thing. This is what I'd like to do. How early did you get the bug? How did this all happen for Skylar Higley? I got the bug, you know, early. Like, as kids, I feel like I was like, I feel isolated. I feel like a weirdo.

7:35You know a thing or two about that. And you're fired. You are fired. Bye. Bye, everybody. No, no, no. Oh, and I've had your apartment made even smaller. Oh, I have to go back to the old apartment? Yes, you have to go back to the old apartment. I'm doing Zoom. I've had your ceiling lowered. I was in, yeah, like junior high, high school when I thought, oh, I can actually do this. because when I was growing up, it was like 2010. So there was this big comedy podcast boom and everybody was talking about how you could do comedy as a career. And I feel like a lot of people before that didn't really have that sense.

8:14And I remember, you know, there were very key moments of watching your show and watching the documentary, the tour doc, Conan O 'Brien Can't Stop, where it felt like, oh, this person is like, can have, you can have your problems and your anxieties. and I was going through a lot of anxiety at the time. But the comedy part can be like a salve. It can get you through hard stuff. And it like the doc, I've never told you this really, but that documentary was like a big deal for me as like a kid being like, okay, things are crazy and scary and I'm very anxious and you can go through things and you can be okay.

8:49And if you really commit to being funny, you can make it through stuff. So that was a part of the bug, but it was just a bunch of, you know, there's youtube had come out there's uh podcasts there's all this stand-up i remember growing up watching like the blue collar comedy guys weirdly and i was like like the cable guy and the guy with the puppets remember that guy jeff dunham yeah why do i know the one with the really racist puppets and listen when i was 13 the best thing ever i was like yeah he's a jalapeno why wouldn't he be a jalapeno that's hilarious he's on a stick there's a terrorist he's dead that's cool i didn't know but you know you just kind of grow up with that and like with the internet too you just got so much access to it so early and then so that's a different that's a very uh different this is one of the things that fascinates me uh talking to someone as young as you that I didn't have access to any of that.

9:56Yeah. That was not the world I was in. There were occasionally shows that peaked out here and there that were revolutionary and amazing, but they were very few and far between. And most of it's like, it's the love boat. Right. And you're like, huh? This is this is our comedy. And you're getting so it's it's not just shows you're seeing on television, were there sitcoms or anything that you were into? Or is that not really? Oh, totally. Sitcoms that were, I get 30 Rock, Community, Parks and Rec. Those were all out in exactly the formative time that you would want to watch it. I remember watching those shows and just being like, they're just being as crazy as possible on TV.

10:40And they're making themselves happy. Yes. And it's very specific. And I always really appreciated that. So it was just something that I think in this era felt like a real viable career path. And before I even went to college, I knew I want to do comedy. And so I went to college for like a year and I was working on an English degree. And I was like, this is a waste of time, probably. Go to college, kids. But you don't have, if you're going into comedy, I don't know. We just did a podcast with Lisa Kudrow. I ended up encouraging people to smoke. Oh, good. This is the worst. We should be shut down immediately.

11:19You're telling kids, don't go to college. Don't go to college. Get some cigarettes, but get a lot of them. Yeah, but the good ones. Buy in bulk. So you leave after a year. Yeah. Okay, and then what do you do? I moved to Chicago because, you know. From where? Salt Lake City, Utah. Okay. Yeah. Oh. Yeah. Yeah, you didn't. Actually, I think I did know that, but I associate you more with Chicago. Yes. Yeah. I lived I feel like I became an adult and a real person in Chicago because I grew up, you know, Salt Lake Mormon, the whole thing. And so I was very sheltered and I had no sense of the world. And in fact, comedy was like a lot of what gave me a sense of like, this is what other people are doing.

12:01Whereas where we were, it was very like you go to church, you do all the church stuff. You're not really supposed to watch like The Simpsons and stuff. And, you know, I was obviously. but like yeah so comedy was also i think kind of what got me out of being super religious but um i was like i have to pursue this i moved to chicago because you know you hear about second city you hear about the stand-up you hear about all of this improv stuff and sketch and i just wanted to do all of it you know and uh so i just moved and everybody's like that's crazy you're just dropping out of school to move to chicago and i was like it'll be fine like i had no sense of my own mortality at 20.

12:42So I was like, yeah, you can just like go wherever you want and do whatever you want. And I think I have enough of an aptitude for this that it'll be okay. Obviously that hasn't worked out at all, but. I keep trying to get you on a legitimate project. Yeah. I'm doing the best I can. But so what do you, how do you support yourself? You get to Chicago. How do you live? Terrible jobs. terrible jobs I worked for uh one of those companies that I think the first job I had was one of those companies where they're like we're gonna go out and help people have a better electricity it's just like a pyramid scheme I was in a pyramid scheme for a couple days you do that you gotta be in a pyramid scheme for like a little bit and where you go you really do and they're having these meetings honestly not unlike when Conan kicks in the door to the writer's room where they coming in with all this energy and yeah we're gonna do it and it's like what do we do and they're like don't worry about that we're gonna do it so so so it's like what is the product and they're like shut up you know it's occurring to me right now that all of my career has been a pyramid scheme i come in with a lot of energy and and then it's at the end you're just bankrupt yeah yeah yeah yeah so okay so you're doing a bunch of just random shitty jobs and then I started contributing to ClickHole, which is an offshoot of The Onion for like the internet generation.

14:10Yeah, I know ClickHole. Yes, you did a video with ClickHole where, do you remember the premise of the video you did for ClickHole? Yes, I'm in the background, right? Yeah. Describe it. I can't, because you're going to describe it better than I can. I remember when you shot it. I don't know if, I don't know if I remember it, but you're pouring milk. Yes. I think it's a couple going through a breakup and the premise of the video is a couple goes through breakup while Conan O 'Brien pours milk into the sink in the background. Yeah, I pour milk into the sink in the background. We're at some random house.

14:38You can kind of see me. Yeah. Yes. I'm not really that featured. This woman tells her husband she's pregnant. Oh, my God. That's right. That's what it was. And then you were like, this is perfectly good milk that I'm pouring down the drain. Yeah, I was just narrating how this is good milk. It's not that it's bad. It's just going right down the drain. Yeah. So you were working there when I... No, I wasn't working there when you did that. But that was probably one of those early things that probably came out when I was in high school. And that was one of those things where it's like, if people are making that and you can do that, that is the kind of thing I want to do.

15:13Oh, cool. And great. And so I I remember my first headline I ever got on there was like, like heartwarming, even though this man and woman are from different religions, they still had sex on a park bench.

15:28So that, you know, there you go. Then you knew I'm on terra firma here. yes that that 15 dollars like also the first time ever getting paid for writing something oh that's huge right this is amazing the first moment someone and i always appreciate it and i still appreciate it i did a set the other night at some comedy club in covina and um after i was done they gave me an envelope which is what happens in stand-up and it had a 20 bill in it And I took it home and I taped it to the glass that's in my closet, you know, when I get dressed in the morning. And I'm just like, I taped it up because I remember the first time I got.

16:08Anytime you get that one-to-one hit of, I just went and had a lot of fun. I think the audience was happy. I had fun. And then someone gave me a$20 bill. It does feel like magic. Right, because you got that$20 bill and maybe you spent like five minutes like talking about foreskin or something. And you're like, this is money. I did the whole set on foreskin. All of your Oscars jokes is weird. Weirdly, you keep being like, give me more foreskin jokes. We don't have enough foreskin. We go, Conan, what about the movies? You go, no, foreskin. No one cares about those movies. They want foreskin. So the whole thing.

16:46Boy, this is going to be a bad Oscars. 15 minutes up top about Forski just cut to stars streaming out getting in their cars and leaving before they've even their category's been announced

17:08well Father's Day is coming up hint hint June 21st we're not your children What? My children are not getting me anything, so it's up to you guys to get me Father's Day. They have never bought into Father's Day, but you guys are going to. You're my employees and you have to. Well, guess what? Luckily, Macy's has a wide range of options, the expertise to help you find the perfect gift. Macy's is the answer for Father's Day. David, as my sort of surrogate son, the son that I hired to buy me things. Exactly. I hope that you're prepared for this Father's Day, and I hope you've consulted Macy's. Oh, I sure I have done both of those things.

17:54First. Oh, there you go. You love a pun. We got you a shirt that says The Grill Father. I love that shirt because you know what? I love the Godfather movies, and I love grilling, and they've combined them with The Grill Father. And are you ready to combine it even more? Let's see the next gift. Ooh. A ninja indoor grill. Can I say something? That looks really good. It does. And then, you know, sometimes when you're grilling, You know, you might want to get rid of that scent, that smell. So we got you some Dior cologne. Oh, is that Sauvage? It's Sauvage. Oh, my God. I love Sauvage. And I love that it does mask the scent of charred meat really well.

18:30So happy Father's Day from us and Macy's. You know what? I want to say thank you. Those are cool gifts. I love it. Check out Macy's online gift guide for more ideas at macy's.com slash gift guide.

18:44I was at the airport I was waiting in one of those long lines and I kept saying hey let me through I'm Conan O 'Brien and they said shut up you'll wait in line and I went okay and that's so sad it's a really good story but I was hungry I didn't have a snack with me you gotta keep and I didn't want to lose my place in line and go try and find something I know that's when you gotta have Nutri-Grain on you you gotta always have a snack in your bag and when it's a Nutri-Grain it's perfect It's perfect because it's the right size. It's handy. It's also nutritious. Yes. Okay. You can go anywhere. It's made with 10 grams of whole grains, 10 vitamins and minerals.

19:20These guys are obsessed with tens. And no high fructose corn syrup. Nutri-Grain nourishes and it hits the spot with delicious flavors. They got strawberry, apple cinnamon, blueberry flavors. I just had a blueberry back in the snack area. Yeah. With a little bit of a glass of milk. You earned it. Nice job. Nice job. Find nutritious and always delicious Nutri-Grain bars at your favorite store or online retailer today. And look for new Nutri-Grain Crunchy bars in stores near you. Oh, I'll get that crunchy, I will. The Disney Plus, Hulu, HBO Max Bundle. The best in entertainment in one bundle. This month, stream Pixar's blockbuster family hit, Hoppers, on Disney Plus.

20:06The hit horror comedy, Send Help on Hulu. and season three of the HBO original series House of the Dragon on HBO Max. Get the Disney Plus Hulu HBO Max Bundle today. All of these and more streaming soon. Available with Disney Plus. Hulu Max Bundle plans starting at$19.99 a month. Terms apply. Visit DisneyPlusHuluMaxBundle.com for details.

20:35Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first, but didn't live up to the hype. Yeah, like all the time. Yeah, I did that with an all potato restaurant. Oh, no. Marketers know that feeling. They optimize for the numbers that look great, like impressions, but then they don't see revenue. You know what I'm talking about, don't you, Sarah? Oh, yeah, all the time. Yeah, LinkedIn has a word for that, bull spend. Bull spend. Yeah, instead you can get the highest ROAS of major ad networks with LinkedIn ads. Cut the bull spend. Advertise on LinkedIn. Spend$250 and get a$250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com slash Conan.

21:16Terms apply.

21:22Okay, so you're doing that. And then how did we find you? I was fellowship writing at The Onion at the time. Or no, no. There was packets that go out. The way that the Conan show, I think, always sent out packets. is different than most late night shows because you guys just went like, we want 10 ideas. And you ask any follow-up questions, you're like, what do you mean ideas? And they're just like 10 ideas. And so I remember writing a packet and I put, you know, stupid little jokes in the packet. I remember one of them because they're just like different pitches. And one of my pitches was just straight up like, Conan O 'Brien does blackface.

22:02And then I did a colon. And then I just wrote, Conan O 'Brien does blackface. and it wasn't obviously a real pitch, but I was like, well, people are going to remember that if I put that in there. Just like, yeah, what if he did it? And then somebody, because you know, you have to read like a bunch of these things. It's a tactic to get people to be like, what the hell is, what's going on? And then like actually read it. It catches the eye. It catches the eye. Yeah, sure. Oh, that would be very unfunny. Oh, that would be bad. You'd never hear from me again. Yeah, but if you put it in the middle of a bunch of funny ideas, Like you like coming up with like, what's the worst thing I could say or do?

22:38Yeah. Yeah. And I always love thinking about that stuff, too. So I'm like, I don't know. I thought it would just be like whatever. I also did never think I would get the opportunity. And then a year went by and then it was in the middle of COVID and the onion. And I think that there was just like you needed to hire again. But there were packets left over from last year. And yeah, yeah, that's how you can tell when you look at a packet. It's Mike Sweeney will say, oh, you got to see this packet. And you can tell almost right away in a packet when someone knows who they are and is kind of confident about their comedic voice.

23:19Oh, sure. And I think that's always what sets it apart. It isn't, sometimes I can read a packet and I could say, yeah, there's not one idea here that we could use right now, but this is - You weren't going to use that blackface one? We did. Yeah. No one paid attention. No. Sometimes you don't even think, oh, okay, here it is. Idea number seven, we could use that. And idea number nine, we could use that. That could go into the show. So hire this person. Sometimes you'll read a whole packet and think, yeah, not one of these quite has my voice, but this is a really funny person. And that is the harder thing to find.

24:02Right. Do you know what I mean? And then a funny person will come in and they'll take the temperature of what's going on here. And very quickly, we'll start just saying, oh, yeah, do this, do that, do this, do that. And maybe broaden our horizons about what could be funny because we we, you know, don't always know everything. And so that's the idea. It's those it works. That's what I find beautiful about comedy, though, too, is that, you know, you and I are by all metrics, very different people. I think we can say that I don't know what you're talking about I think we could say that I think you're insane I would say that like you can be from two very different worlds but sort of the idiosyncrasies of I think comedy for comedy's sake and whatever this idea of like a if there is a true like north in comedy of just like funny that is like kind of all the same a little bit even if all the specifics are different when something's like really really funny it can be this crazy weird sketch thing or it could be like this version of stand-up or whatever it can still be really funny and you can hopefully like connect and like you got to be able to learn how to speak different comedic languages and i feel like i had to learn how to speak the conan language but you still end up getting like the best stuff out of this person's really different but they know how to fit their thing into our world and like look what came of it.

25:31Like I think one of the first things I pitched at the show when we were on Zoom is that we just do a whole Christmas show because I'm like, I think we're going to die. Let's just do a Christmas show. And you really liked it. You were like, let's go. And we did Christmas in like August, I think. Yeah, we did. We actually decorated the whole, I think we decorated the Largo Theater. Yeah, it was really fun. It was fun. And I was like, wow, this is. No, but also it's just, I mean, I'm sorry you thought that. It's so funny because I talked to so many young people, people your age and younger in 2020 who really did think it was the end of the world.

26:06Oh, yeah. Just only because I was older, I was able to say to them, no, it's okay. This is not the end of the world. We've been through this. This is what happens in life. We go through these things and we have to come together and they're scary. And then we move on and I hope evolve. but that is, no? No, I'm saying, did we evolve? Sure. I mean, look at the world today. Perfect. Yeah, it's great. I think we could agree there are no problems. I agree 100%. Yay, all right. We don't get out much.

26:47So we are now, as we tape this, what are we, like a month away from the Oscars, I think. Yeah, five weeks. And now we're getting five weeks and it's funny. Like we get in there and okay, you tell me. I'm asking you. I'm legitimately asking you. I have always thought that the bullshitting in a writer's room isn't really just bullshitting. It's kind of essential and I can't prove it, but we'll go in and I think, I don't know what was happening today. I was acting something out. You guys are making fun of me. we're it it has nothing to do with the show that we have to put on in five weeks we we're working on a lot of those we're being very responsible but we will get off on tangents we were all laughing really hard right and maybe it's terribly inappropriate but some of us are practically crying and i will leave afterwards and I'll think, well, that was really good.