Natasha Lyonne & Conan Get Existential | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend

but I just get the sense that you're you. read a lot you're you're crazy. intelligent and you read a lot because I. feel like you you make. a would do do you read widely do you. read all just different kinds of stuff. do you like history what is it yeah. um yeah I mean I don't think I'm that. smart with like um shapes uh but. sometimes I know CU like I feel I don't. have a high IQ um but um but then I do.

see other people try to like pack up the. car and then I'm like oh maybe I do have. a high IQ because cuz I see them trying. to fit sort of like a chair into the. trunk like clearly the wrong way and I'm. like wow I thought I had a low IQ but. I'm watching this guy put this. chair he just can't figure out that's. not going to close but if you just. tilted all right and I let him go a. while and and then you know I help help.

out sort of gently cuz uh that's what. girls have to do. uh. and watching a slow motion. train and I oh okay you thought of that. all right and uh sure let me give it a. whirl um but uh yeah I guess it was I. was a film and philosophy uh double. major uh in the abstract at Tish uh. dropped that so yeah I'm pretty.

uneducated uh and very self-taught. therefore well I mean it sounds to me. like you're educated in the best way. which is your self-educated yeah so it's. a a rambling sort of much like how I. talk and exist and move through life H. but it's a you know like a rabbit hole. that's you remember the 90s I think I. read something because this really stuck. in my mind which is I think it's when. you were in rehab you said you walked. around with a giant biography of. Rasputin oh yeah and I was thinking oh.

this is my kind of person because I am I. I like to read about the darkest. weirdest people Rasputin has always. fascinated me and uh I just thought um. you know I I there's something about. that kind of that's that's how my mind. works is that I think that's what I. would walk around and be I probably. wouldn't be reading the uplifting book. they would want me to read on my path to. Better Health and here are the steps and. things like that I would find a very.

very dark figure in history and read. their biography and it would give me. some kind of Solace yeah and uh I don't. want to burst your bubble but um. Rasputin biography was something that I. was carrying around while I was on drugs. uh in rehab it was more like I got very. into um uh I was reading Thomas Pinchin. against the day I was so excited when it. came out because it was like a thousand. pages and you know there's nothing to do. with rehab except uh you.

know sit on a sofa and they feed you a. lot and uh so uh yes I really associate. Rasputin with like a back pocket kind of. you know New York. 99s like the the scumbag era but I. remember finding it in my storage space. and I still have the same copy of it and. um I I love it it's very ragged I really. put that that Rasputin through hell and.

it's like that kind of was he's hard to. he's hard to kill. too famously hard to kill that guy that. guy and I was like the I. took him through though my God you know. um but yeah I was uh uh reading uh a lot. and often and widely and uh also movies. you know um because their film school. was so expensive right they wanted like. 60 Grand a semester or some and I. was like.

honey yes you're nuts so that's a you. know like rich kid and what I did I. bought this uh this studio apartment uh. that was gry adjacent uh and I spent my. um I had $100,000 from all these jobs it. was a I think uh krippendorf's tribe is. what what gave me that money which is a. a blackface movie if you haven't seen it. it's a Disney uh blackface picture um. and stting Richard DF rind dorf's tribe.

I remember that uh yes uh so the premise. is that uh Richard dfish is a an. anthropologist whose wife dies and now. he's a sad widower with these two three. kids and so he decides to. create a a fake tribe in his backyard oh. yes it's it's worse than you think and. uh and so then essentially.

it's all of us Richard drus myself and. uh I guess the other two uh Sons I'm I'm. the eldest um all in full blackace. uh how have I never heard of this people. yeah wow it's pretty nuts so you chose a. good you chose a good time to get out I. think let's go to a clip. yeah 1998 1998 and so I took that money. and I um uh I was like a I'll just.

buy an apartment cuz the other money all. my childhood acting money had been spent. already um not by you no and I I thought. I was going to get a Lambo that's why I. was doing it um I was Pro I was promised. that I was going to get a Lambo but I. never materialized um but I did get a. bad credit score early because my social. security number was being used. frequently um so yeah you know going to. the film forum for the quadruple.

feature. was so much cheaper than Tish um so. that's why I dropped out I bought the. apartment you know and so your. film school was just watching a ton of. films yeah but I mean like this rabbit. whole thing that used to happen um in. our our times um the before times MH. when you would uh you know you had to go. read and search and dig and go to the. Strand to follow up on the.

okay so who is this George kakor. all right okay Billy Wilder what you got. like you know you would go down a rabbit. hole and then figure out who Philip. Marlo is and you know see the sort of. lineage there and understand you know. pre-code Hollywood and you know this. Haze code who the is this Haze. and so I think that that sort of selft. and it was always with the sort of the. things that that seem to be plaguing you. uh tilt to it.

of um you know what's it all about Alfie. um and death and these things and uh. really the thing that it was really but. it was in uh in reham that I really. started connecting directly to science. because in high school it was not my. thing um but uh I remember reading this. uh Bill Bryson book uh walk in the woods. which one no it's um I don't know. history of nearly everything yes yeah.

yeah and I was like oh okay I think I. can use that concept as like this higher. power concept because it was. so uh impossible to sort of reconcile um. I whatever you know what is this idea of. uh uh you know like an anthropomorphic. God or whatever um and I really. understood the scope of how little I. understood about the world do you know. what I mean like it's a very narrow.

thing that I'm an expert in which is. like uh you know drugs mental health and. like Cinema of the 70s um but that book. really opened my eyes like just how. inconsequential I was in the scheme of. things and that there was so much I. didn't even well that okay that is the. uh philosophy idea that has been the the.

greatest Comfort to me in like the last. 20 years it's just the more I know the. less I know I I try to read a lot I try. to listen to people I try to understand. things and the more I understand things. the more I'm humbled by the vast amount. that I don't know and I take I said this. a couple of years ago in an interview. and people thought well he's really dark. or he's I remember it was like Conan's. goth but I was basically saying you know. I think nothing I do in this life is.

going to outlast me that much and I I. think soon after we go um besides my my. my wife and my kids I don't think that. it's going to mean that much to people. and I mean that in a comforting way. meaning it's the it feels like the. pressure's off in a way if you don't get. I think too many when people get wrapped. up in this concept of I'll live forever. or this my work and how will I be. remembered I think that's a huge waste.

of time you know it's an ego trip and. it's a you know yeah it's like uh what. I've heard the best thing about the the. 12 steps I've heard is it's like you're. uh deconstructing the house that ego. built you know um right and uh yeah I. mean it's a NeverEnding nightmare uh you. know being a person because uh you know. the truth of the matter is you feel good. with when your chips are up and you feel.

bad when they're down or like you send a. text message and you don't get the reply. you want you're like what the I do. and you spend four hours thinking about. it and then the text comes in and you're. like oh now that's a yesterday's. problem I guess we're back baby like and. it's so weird you know what I. mean like it's weird that every day you. have to kind of play this game of sort. of having a good day driving my car or I. a piece of um couldn't couldn't.

hail a taxi and you know uh I I I I I. love the animate objects and uh. Logistics um they seem to be two real. troublemakers you know uh you loathe. inanimate objects yeah now wait a minute. uh I know what you mean if you if you. mean what I think you mean I find that. the minute I care about something that I. can hold in my hand I will misplace it. fairly soon and I will spend about six.

hours worrying about where it is even if. it costs like $42 yeah I will devote. time to being very upset that that thing. I liked having I can't find now and then. I will find it like six days later in an. obvious spot and be way Overjoyed about. that and realize that I just ate up more. of this precious time on Earth worrying. about the you know $60 bite pen that I. bought here in Larchmont that uh has a.

cool sort of orange tone to the cap that. I liked doodling with and then it was. gone for 6 days and I was bereft but now. I found it again oh why would I put it. inside a sock why did I do that what. made me think of that but here it is yay. I've got that pen back and it's crazy. and then who closer to the Grave good. job Conan good little soap opera yeah. but it's I mean I understand what you're. saying that's what I'm saying yeah.

exactly what I'm saying like what the. are these things it's like oh. where's this bottle cap oh okay now. you're a Magical Mystery Tour cool glad. this is happening I mean it's. nuts I had a okay I had this moment of. Awakening yeah when I years ago in New. York when I worked in 30 Rock across the. street was Christy's auction house and. one day they said oh all of the. Roosevelt family memorability is being.

put up for auction and I thought well I. got to go check that out so I went over. and it's Franklin Roosevelt and Elanor. and then they had a bunch of kids and so. basically I went and looked and it was. room after room after room of all the. stuff they had given each other for. Christmases going back to like. 1922 up until you know past when. Franklin's gone and well into the 1950s. and it was just case after case after. case of stuff that looked like you know. that's a tie clip that's a a little. watch fob oh look there's a little case.

you can put some pills in oh look. there's a little I yeah there's a. bookmarker that's made of. peor uh and it was thousands and. thousands of them it was like the end of. Citizen Cane where I'm looking at all of. it and I'm imagining is them unwrapping. it on Christmas Day. 1931 well isn't that. grand thank you thank you look at that's. going to hold my tie quite nicely thank. you. yay Christmas.

1935 well isn't that grand that's going. to keep my place in the book and now. everyone's dead and it's a room full of. and everyone's buying it and then. they're going to give it to somebody. it's going to be like hey thanks that's. fantastic that'll hold my tie in. place and then they're going to die yes. and it's just then we're just I don't. know that's what I don't know why that. one christe's auction just opened my. eyes to what a sh the whole thing is y I.

love goth. Conan well you're all going to die. everybody you're all going to die God. Conan's a. okay.