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And you were listening to Conan do the monologue.
What were you listening for?I just wanted to know if they were a good crowd.
And they seemed really, really good.
That doesnt mean theyre gonna be good for the comic, but its a good sign.
Up to the very last second he can take jokes out.
There was maybe one or two at least.
How is writing a monologue joke different than stand-up for you?Im not political onstage.
It doesnt interest me.
I can see it dividing the room, and I dont want that.
I wanna write dark jokes that everyone laughs at, or most people laugh at.
I guess I just wanna aggressively document my life on this earth.
You just have to do so many every single day.
The feeling of,I have nothing left, but I have to write ten more jokes.
Well, Ill find something it kind of helps me work on jokes in my act, as well.
But they feel very separate.
Some jokes come really quickly and theyre good, and some are a labor and theyre awful.
Sometimes the awful ones get picked because they work.
In the morning, I feel really good because the news stories are all fresh.
Let me see if I can find another angle.
That gets really tough.
A few months back you tweeted something.To the dismay of some people, I might add.
Sure, but to the, whatever the opposite of dismay is, to other people.
Stephen Colbert was like, This is incredibly useful.I was like, Oh shit.
You tweeteda list of monologue joke transitions you compiled over years working onConan.
Things you’re able to use after the setup.
The second sentence always starts with When.
So I just compiled a lot of them and kept them together in one document.
But they arent state secrets.
If you listen to a monologue, you’re free to pick out the transitions.
Sometimes youre like, I dont know where to go with this one.
And then its like, the jokes already in the setup and you just kind of restate it.
When you look at the transition list, it helps to take you out of your habits.
If you’re able to just take it around a different way, its very helpful.
As I told you before, I wanted to apologize for something.
A few years agoI wrote a piece about Ali Wongs special.Oh, yeah!
I didnt know that was you.
But also, that was the general consensus.
It wasnt just Vulture.
That was how it was presented.
As you noted, you were doing sets at the Aspen Comedy Festival pregnant.Oh, yeah.
I flew to Alaska six months pregnant.
Cory Kahaney did her half-hour on Comedy Central pregnant.
Kira Soltanovich self-released a special.
She was seven months at the same time.
Those are just friends off the top of my head.
But I think what is true and different was how people really latched onto it.Yeah.
People liked that she was pregnant.
Im pretty sure Lisa Landry hid it.
She was six months out.
She just pretended it wasnt happening.
The fact that Ali could be aggressively pregnant was really cool.
But this feels a little more permanent.
Its just a shift in what Americans enjoy, which is great.
And Im glad I never quit.
I know some people that did quit and that theyre sorry they did.
Which is painful theres nothing I can do about it.
We know its not good to live in that anger, but sometimes youre like, Ohh.
Its like, Oh, my God.
They just didnt allow it.
Now theyre more likely to be like, Yeah, of course.Theyre not all Yeah, of course necessarily.
But, at the same time, it is frustrating.
I felt like, Im never gonna be able to headline until Im like 40 or something.
Its just different now.
It seems like the industrys more excited about them.
Whereas we just had to keep yelling and seeming like we were always in a bad mood.
I just do road work on hiatus weeks.
Building an hour is a totally different thing to put together than a five-minute set.
Youre just trying to get the jokes as compact as possible.
Its easier to put together a short set.
Little chunklets to put together.
