Conan Helps A Young Comic Overcome Stage Fright - "Conan O'Brien Needs A Fan"

You're studying comedy, do you have any questions for me? Is there anything I can do to help you? Okay, so the biggest question I have, I remember I was listening to your podcast once, because literally for Spotify, you guys were like my #1 podcast. I think 10,000 minutes of me listening to you guys. Yeah. Oh, that's so sweet, that's so sweet. Thank you. Yeah, so a question I had. you said that when you first started doing improv. you would get really nervous. and I'm pretty sure a teacher of yours had to pull you aside. and be like, "Calm down.". And I was wondering how you got through that.

and how you became who you are now. I think a lot of people. and myself included think your job is to become funny. and to become this person who's known. or a celebrity or whatever you want to call it. And I think it's not that. I think if you're doing it the right way, you're figuring out a way. to become the person you already were. in an unusual situation. So when you say at home. and with your friends you're Richard Pryor,

and then you get up on stage. Yes, that's the trick, is figuring out. how can I bring that person who's funny at home? How can I bring that person up on stage? And that takes a little doing and takes time. But the good news is you have that person, that person's fully formed. That person is the person you are. with your friends and family. What's tricky is when people say, I'm not funny with my friends and family,

but I want to be a comedian. You're like, well, (laughs). I don't think that's going to work. but I do think that that's just called time. If you spend enough time in front of people, I mean you can watch the first, you know year of me on late night television. And I look like a guy who's trying. to do a good job as a comedy host. What happens is through the sheer. just amount of shows we had to do. and the sheer stress and whatever it was,

that all fell away, and soon I just felt like I was always on TV. so the real me came out. The real me ended up coming out. And so that's what you do. is you get your stage time until the real person comes out. That's such good advice. Does that make sense? No, it makes perfect sense. Yeah, is it okay if I charge you for it? No. Well, since like I'm a student, so I don't have much money in general. I'd prefer if you didn't. Well, what I like to do is it'll be like a student loan. and it will be a very high rate.

What. Not a good rate. What happens if she doesn't pay? You already gave her the advice. (laughs). Yeah, well I will repossess your comedy career whatever. Oh okay. career in comedy, I will come and I will repossess it, (laughing). or I'll say I now have 80% of it, you know, it's a really, look you never should have gotten on this call. This was a big mistake. 'Cause now, Chelby, it's just like, I just have a huge controlling interest in your career, and there's no way out.

There's really no way out.