Conan O'Brien took a rare turn in the interview guest chair on the popular podcast "Never Not Funny" this week, and in the course of the 100-minute candid, freewheeling conversation, spoke at length about his life in comedy with host Jimmy Pardo.
Plenty of ink has been devoted to Conan O'Brien over the last year: as a comedian, as a man, as a movement, and as cultural icon. But what many of these often melancholy pieces have left out is a demonstration of why O'Brien is beloved in the first place: his razor-sharp wit and masterful conversational affability.
For the first time since his new show "Conan" premiered on TBS, O'Brien sat down for an extended conversation as a guest of the weekly podcast "Never Not Funny." He and host Jimmy Pardo riffed on a wide range of topics, such as the world's obsession with his relationship with Jay Leno, how O'Brien's propensity for made-up words might affect his children, and why he's an ineffective swearer.
The episode marks the second time O'Brien has appeared on "Never Not Funny," his first appearance occurring during his "Tonight Show" run in November 2009. (Pardo, a stand-up veteran, is currently the warm-up comic for "Conan" and was the same for O'Brien's short-lived "Tonight Show.") The popular podcast was named GQ's "#1 Relatively Obscure Thing You Need To Be Paying Attention To" in 2010, and Pardo differentiates the show from other interview programs by focusing less on PR talking points and more on funny conversation between professional comedians.
While "Never Not Funny" is one of the few successful subscription podcasts, Pardo is offering the entirety of the Conan episode for free. It can be downloaded from iTunes or streamed from the show's website. The full mp3 is available here. In the meantime, here's a video excerpt from the episode, where Conan and Jimmy discuss the future of Conan's post-"Tonight Show" beard.
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