Roy Wood Jr. & Conan Headlined The White House Correspondents' Dinner | Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend

I want to start today by saying uh that. I saw your performance on the White. House correspondence dinner and I. thought you were fantastic I thought you. were absolutely fantastic and I've done. that venue I've played that thing twice. uh once uh uh under Clinton but the. hardest one was following Obama which uh. I mean it was almost like he was hosting. the Daily Show he had audio visual he. had you know they had all this stuff he. had all these writers working on it he.

had uh I mean it was perfectly produced. I think he spent more time on that White. House correspondence din than he did I. bet the economy tanked that the week. that he did the correspondence dinner. and he just you know and so my. experience was and I'm sure it's maybe. it's the same but you sit with the first. lady is that was that your experience. sit right next to Joe Biden yeah and my. experience was I'm sitting next to. Michelle. Obama and Obama's up there and he's. killing and I know I'm supposed to. follow him.

and I've got all these Jokes which I. think are pretty good I've worked hard. on it but I'm he's they don't let you. know what what the president's going to. do and the president gets to go first so. you're there with all these jokes you've. been working on for six months and. they're saying Obama's up there and. he'll he'll do one that's kind of close. to something that I was going to do yeah. because it's all the same stuff in the. news so I'm trying to flip through all. my blue cards and take out the ones that. he's touching to drop them but at the. same time Michelle Obama's talking. talking to me and she's saying so your.

children are how old now Conan and at. one point and it's so funny cuz she's. cuz she's the greatest she's such a. lovely i' I've friendly with her she's. such a lovely person she's the star in. every room she's beautiful she's really. funny but in this one moment I'm. thinking would you please leave me alone. shut up I've got it I've got to figure. out if he's doing my my debt sealing. joke or not I can't remember who it was. next to Trevor Noah last year when.

Trevor did the correspondence dinner but. Trevor came up there and was like. straight laser focused on his set and. whoever it was on one side of Trevor. somebody was like well why aren't you. talking to Tre why didn't you talk to. Trevor they're like he was focusing on. his stuff he didn't have time to. chitchat it is is the way not to do. comedy is to make the comedian sit out. in front of the audience for an hour and. a half and then watch someone else go up. and get the yeah like and and uh it's.

just it's a it's a crazy kind of show. business but it's a fascinating. experience and uh I later got to talk on. this program I got to talk to President. Obama and I said you know it's so unfair. because you were so I said you're so. good and you've got all the best. material and the you are the most. powerful person in the world and comedy. is all about status and you get to go. first and then with no ceremony the.

minute he's done they just go. like no buffer no buffer nothing and he. said yeah y yep he said yep I uh yeah I. know I know it's not fair but uh I don't. care I thought that is just so true what. does he care and then Biden Biden closes. with this dark Brandon joke which I. guess is like his alter ego yeah with. the sunglasses yeah yeah and then he's.

standing there while I'm being. introduced Still Still milking the L. yeah milking still playing the room and. now I have to walk past him to get to. it's like come on man you just rip just. go. leave just get the hell out of here why. are you it's not you know it's funny. it's not it's it's not about the. comedian on those nights that's the. other thing Joe Biden's in my ear I'm. going over cards and then my writers are. texting hey man kellyan Conway's in the. room hey I'm on Twitter right now.

turns out fouchy did show up if you have. a fouchy joke maybe you should add a. fouchy joke and then they're just. ganging jokes in the what's app thread. and I'm like guys everyone please shut. the up I can't focus yeah but. thanks for that information Bill bar is. here oh okay cool oh Caitlyn Jenner's. here okay cool and it's a lot but it's. just trying to figure out at that point. where to add a joke I would say that's. when the set for me was like okay these. are the jokes yes fou she all right.

maybe then Biden goes up Biden stepped. on I had a rert Murdoch Fox News joke. that I just threw out all together. because Biden's was funnier yep and I. just I could do mine but it's not gonna. why even bother and then his Tucker. Carlson and Don lmon stuff hit so hard. that I reordered y I changed the bad. order to create more space between those. two topics for me I was doing the same. thing like this joke comes out this joke. comes out okay Obama just hit that this.

joke comes out this joke's still okay. but it flips up here now cuz it's got to. go earlier to sort of tag what he said. and you're doing all that while the uh. most. important woman in the country is. chatting you up about you know what. college do you think your daughter might. be interested in we we we talked about. Alabama and the South and. barbecue and and I was nervous in a. weird way because.

like I like my first inclination when I. spoke with her was just to go don't. worry you're safe yeah like is this are. you are you just gaming me to find out. what I'm going to say about you sure. yeah exactly because there's a lot of. that the week of get DMS from. people at particular news organizations. hey man how you been uh you ready for. Saturday I know what you're trying to do. you're trying to butter me up yeah so I. don't go after you yeah so no she was. she was very nice but we're not talking. policy and how to solve immigration.

right it's just oh Alabama Barbecue. tastes different from Carolina Barbecue. yes you're right it does and then how. how for me and I don't know if this was. right but I chose to also have a care of. concern for how the outside world would. consume my performance MH because. everyone goes oh it's a corporate treat. like a corporate gig for an auto. manufacturer company you're just going. to do your your car jokes car industry.

jokes and they're going to like them but. like yeah but there's people are going. to watch this later and I kind of want. to have a joke that they kind of yeah. would relate to so how do we balance the. two and so then it just became how to. use pop culture yep in there as kind of. the glue like for as long as you hear a. word of a thing that you recognize and. you're familiar with yeah like the joke. at the top about the Fox News I'm not. going to do any jokes about Dominion cu. Dominion will come after you matter of.

fact Dominion is my favorite voting. machine if you want the truth have. dominion in the booth such a great joke. yeah so then the tag was if there's. people there there's the original joke. was if there's two people you don't want. to see in court it's dominion and cardi. B yeah either you know the cardi B 4. million defamation suit story y or you. don't yeah then one of my writers I got. to give credit to Lily Lily blumpkin uh. she's over at The Daily Show Lily goes. also GW paltro yes and I.

go cuz I just I don't in that world but. guess what what she which is smart and. credit to your writer that and and and. you for seeing that or or that. resonating with you is okay now you've. LED everybody into the tent because if. you don't know cardi. B you definitely know that means you. were definitely following gwyneth's. trial and saying um you know and so I. mean that's that brings up one tag. informs you about the tag you don't.

understand yeah what I appreciated too. you were hitting both sides you were. hitting both sides which doesn't always. happen you know what I mean and I. thought uh so yeah you can get up there. and you can go after Tucker Carlson but. you were also had plenty of stuff on Don. Lemon and it was pretty clear that you. were not playing favorites with the. right or the left which I think is. really important right now the biggest. debate within assembling the whole set. was when do we hit Biden do you hit him.

before or after Trump mhm to set up the. whole idea of oh no I'm going to go at. the Liberals too sure but if you go at. Biden too soon you lose the whole room. yep because you haven't earned their. trust with any Jo it's like so what do. you do yeah so we just we we stacked the. set with what I like to call soft. targets first that I feel like everybody. in the room would be okay with so Fox. News Tucker.

Santos yep Don Lemon right and then. Trump a little bit but not too much. Trump as to not make you think that this. whole thing is about Trump yep then you. go into everybody else I think uh you're. you had this great joke about you know. um you know France is burning to the. ground because they people do not want. to work an extra 2 years they want to. retire at 62 not 64.

and they're literally burning Paris and. he said and we have a guy here who's 81. or 80 and is begging us to get to work. for four more years and to me that was I. mean I was laughing really hard but it's. also so fun to see Biden has to laugh. you know and it's also a really funny. joke it's a really funny joke that you. can relate to and it's not but I thought. what was really smart is the first thing. you did when you get up to the podium. because you got to get them early first. thing you do when you got to the P you.

said oh there's I think you left some. documents up. here first joke and it's just silly. because it's so silly that he. accidentally left some top secret. documents at the podium and so and they. cut to him and he laughs and it's like. you know that's to me that's great. because you broke the ice and it's also. it's such a silly joke like you know. what I mean it's it's it's silly that he. gets up on the podium and leaves some. top secret documents I was I was howling.

at that it was great to have right away.