Adam DeVine

Summary

Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend – Episode: Adam DeVine (Release Date: June 2, 2025)

In this engaging episode of Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, Conan O’Brien sits down with actor and comedian Adam DeVine to explore Adam’s multifaceted career, personal challenges, and journey in the entertainment industry. The conversation delves deep into Adam’s early life, his rise in comedy, significant career milestones, and his experiences balancing personal health with professional commitments.

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1. Welcoming Adam DeVine

[02:55] Conan O'Brien: "One of them went in, which was very impressive. You okay?"

Conan introduces Adam DeVine, highlighting his notable roles in Workaholics, Pitch Perfect, and The Righteous Gemstones. The friendly banter sets a light-hearted tone as they engage in playful antics involving popcorn, showcasing the comfortable chemistry between the hosts.

2. Adam’s Early Life and Challenges

[24:54] Adam DeVine: "Yep. Kablamoed."

Adam shares a harrowing childhood experience where he was severely injured in a bike accident involving a cement truck. The incident resulted in multiple surgeries and a lengthy recovery period, profoundly impacting his life trajectory.

[25:19] Adam DeVine: "I was on my bike. My legs are... a little better, but it was half the leg."

He details the extent of his injuries, including broken bones and punctured ribs, emphasizing the resilience required to overcome such adversity.

3. Transition to Comedy

[30:21] Adam DeVine: "Exactly. And this was sixth and seventh grade."

During his recovery, Adam found solace and a new path in making people laugh. He recounts how his creative antics on the phone led to opportunities in radio, paving the way for his future in comedy.

4. Building His Career

[36:34] Adam DeVine: "Yeah, that is true."

Discussing his transition from Workaholics to films like Pitch Perfect, Adam reflects on auditions and unexpected career shifts. His candidness about not fully understanding the roles he was auditioning for adds a relatable and humorous touch to the narrative.

[38:54] Adam DeVine: "Well, I'm learning the more... Yeah."

He emphasizes the importance of staying relaxed and not over-preparing, which contrasts with the high-pressure environment of the entertainment industry.

5. Personal Health Struggles

[32:43] Adam DeVine: "The physically, no. Up until maybe three years ago..."

Adam opens up about his recent diagnosis with stiff person syndrome, an autoimmune disease that affects his mobility and daily life. He discusses the challenges of managing his health while maintaining his career, highlighting his dedication to physical therapy and other treatments.

[33:12] Adam DeVine: "Which is essentially like a death sentence for the most part."

The conversation touches on the emotional and physical toll of his condition, showcasing Adam’s perseverance and positive outlook despite significant health hurdles.

6. Insights into Acting and Creativity

[40:38] Adam DeVine: "I feel like I'm definitely way more prepared in the things I do now."

Adam shares his approach to acting and creativity, emphasizing the value of not becoming overly attached to one opportunity and remaining open to diverse experiences. His anecdotes about surreal moments in his career, such as hosting the MTV Movie Awards, illustrate the unpredictable nature of show business.

7. Collaborations and Relationships in Hollywood

[46:46] Adam DeVine: "No. No. I think he, like, knew Workaholics a little bit..."

The discussion shifts to Adam’s relationship with Danny McBride and their collaboration on The Righteous Gemstones. Adam describes the camaraderie and mutual respect within the cast, highlighting how these relationships have enriched his professional life.

[47:41] Adam DeVine: "It's a very funny movie. And so we were at the after party..."

He recounts his first meeting with Danny McBride at an after-party, underscoring the importance of networking and forming genuine connections in the entertainment industry.

8. Fatherhood and Personal Growth

[51:13] Adam DeVine: "I mean, I love it more than I even thought I would."

Transitioning to personal life, Adam discusses his experience as a father, sharing heartfelt moments and the joys and challenges that come with raising his son. His humorous take on parenting reflects his ability to balance comedy with sincere emotion.

[52:08] Adam DeVine: "Come on, Dad. I know you got it. You got it."

The episode highlights Adam’s growth both personally and professionally, illustrating how fatherhood has added depth to his character and humor.

9. Reflecting on the Journey

[53:33] Adam DeVine: "Yeah. So it's. It's. It's been a blast. I'm. I'm loving it."

As the conversation winds down, Adam reflects on his journey, expressing gratitude for the opportunities and relationships that have shaped his career. His positive outlook serves as an inspiration for listeners navigating their own paths.

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Notable Quotes

• Adam DeVine on Overcoming Adversity:

  • [24:58] "I was hit by a cement truck as a little boy. I was..."

• Conan on Career Pivots:

  • [15:24] "So, again, this proves this idea I have that that wasn't where you're supposed to go. You went where you were supposed to go."

• Adam on Fatherhood:

  • [51:24] "I love it more than I even thought I would."

• Adam on Health Challenges:

  • [32:43] "Up until maybe three years ago, I would say, yeah, it's basically behind me."

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Conclusion

This episode offers a comprehensive look into Adam DeVine’s life, showcasing his resilience, humor, and the meaningful relationships that have fueled his success. Listeners gain insight into the personal struggles and triumphs that shape Adam’s career, making it a compelling listen for fans and those interested in the behind-the-scenes journey of a successful comedian and actor.

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Join the Conversation:
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Transcript

[Conan O'Brien]

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[Sona Movsesian]

I would, Conan.

[Conan O'Brien]

Thanks, Sona. Whether it's cleaning your house, getting that dream car, or checking off your to do list, winning at life is a great feeling. I'm pretty good at winning at life, aren't I? Sona, are you okay? Keep moving. State Farm helps you win by helping you create an affordable price just for you. Doesn't that sound like a win, Sona?

[Sona Movsesian]

That I like an affordable price just for me?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, you do. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can bundle and save with the personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on ratings plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amounts of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state. That's my low voice.

[Adam Devine]

Hi, I'm Adam Devine and I feel exuberant about being Conan o' Brien's friend.

[David Gordon Green]

Fall is here Hear the yell Back to school Ring the bell Brand new shoes Walking blues Climb the fence Books.

[Conan O'Brien]

And pens I can tell that we.

[Adam Devine]

Are gonna be friends.

[Conan O'Brien]

I can tell.

[Sona Movsesian]

That we are gonna be friends.

[Conan O'Brien]

Bang, bang, bang. No.

[Sona Movsesian]

Okay.

[Conan O'Brien]

Okay.

[Adam Devine]

I'm doing it.

[Sona Movsesian]

I'm doing it hard. Stay there.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm doing it hard. I'm doing it hard. Stay there.

[Sona Movsesian]

I'm gonna do it hard.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm start the. I'm starting. Hey, Conan o' Brien here. Welcome to Conan o' Brien Needs a Friend. And I'm watching. Sona has a bag of popcorn and she's whipping it across the room. Yes. Yes. You know what's impressive? Sona started whipping popcorn across the room goarly trying to catch it in his mouth. There were some failed attempts. I decided to just start the podcast on the action. And what's interesting is Sona threw two accidentally. Accidentally. And one went into your mouth. And now you're choking. Are you okay?

[David Gordon Green]

Never better.

[Conan O'Brien]

One of them went in, which was very impressive. You okay? I am okay. Look, I never said we were a real podcast. You, you know it's funny. It was reminding me of. You were throwing popcorn across the room. I have two dogs, Loki. Wait a minute. You'll see. Loki and Odin. Uh, Loki's a mature 7 year old dog and one of his abilities is I can just drop a little treat and he can snap it out of the air. Um, he's very good at it. Odin is a one year old pup and a goof. And so I'll drop it for Loki and he'll just snap it just as you did right now. Just snap it out of the air and then I'll drop it for Odin and he. It bounces off of his head and then he snaps his mouth like two minutes later. He's just. He's a total clown.

[Adam Devine]

But he's slowly.

[Conan O'Brien]

He's slowly getting the hang of it. And so I just had. When you were throwing the popcorn across the room. I have this ritual every day where I'm trying to teach Odin to be able to snap it. And I realize that you're slightly smarter than my one year old daughter. Aw, thank you.

[Sona Movsesian]

But you know what? It was on me. It was hard to throw popcorn and I just couldn't get the aerodynamic.

[David Gordon Green]

It's a long distance to get that popcorn there.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah.

[David Gordon Green]

But we pulled it off. We did it.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah. You're a good food cat catcher.

[David Gordon Green]

Hey, thanks.

[Conan O'Brien]

There is a reason that's what my wife calls me.

[David Gordon Green]

She just. You're just a food catcher. That's all you are.

[Conan O'Brien]

That was fun. I think we've got a loose vibe today and I want people tuning in right now to know that we're a bunch of fun, regular folk that just toss popcorn around.

[David Gordon Green]

We lost all of it.

[Conan O'Brien]

I know.

[David Gordon Green]

All of it.

[Sona Movsesian]

Whatever we set up, you just.

[Conan O'Brien]

I just ruined it. Yeah. It was a nice moment I had to get.

[Sona Movsesian]

Can I throw popcorn at you?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. I don't think so.

[David Gordon Green]

And you didn't even mean in his mouth. You just wanted to.

[Conan O'Brien]

You want to use a different food.

[Sona Movsesian]

Single handful.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. Super hot fried chicken right off the frying pan. Burning my face. Scorching it. Yes. Hot soup. Really, really hot, sweet and sour soup that you throw at me with a hose. I'm just. I'm glad that we're happy and we're having a good time and that the. I'm going to just say it. I don't use the word vibe much, but there's a good vibe today. It's like we're just a bunch of pals having fun. That's all.

[Sona Movsesian]

A bunch of goofy, goofy pals Throwing food.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, throwing food around.

[Sona Movsesian]

That's nice.

[Conan O'Brien]

We clean up afterwards. I'm not going to because I didn't throw any. Oh. But that means I have to. Eduardo and I, by the way, are the people who have to clean up the studio. So I'll clean that up. I don't know. I'm going to say. I'm going to say that's on Matt and Sona. They should have. I would never.

[Sona Movsesian]

We can do it.

[David Gordon Green]

I just ate all the pieces on my seat.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, Eduardo is the head of the studio. Eduardo, is there food allowed in here?

[Eduardo Perez]

Typically, we try not to allow food here, but you guys feel.

[Conan O'Brien]

These are. I had no idea. Wait a minute.

[Sona Movsesian]

Never heard this rule.

[Conan O'Brien]

Excuse me just a second. Eduardo has the floor. Now, I also want to preface again, Eduardo is the genius who designed this beautiful studio that everyone compliments us on. And so, again, props to you, Eduardo. I knew that we weren't supposed to have liquid.

[Eduardo Perez]

It's just good studio etiquette to not have food or drinks in the studio. But this isn't your typical studio anyways. It's a podcast studio, so we kind of built for some food.

[Conan O'Brien]

Now, hold on a second. So that's really a recording thing that you're not supposed to have food around, because we've had a ton of food in here all the time. Again, and you've never said a word.

[Eduardo Perez]

You're more traditional. No, because, you know, it's a good vibe. So I try to just, you know, he's cool, dad.

[Conan O'Brien]

But, like, for example, if I were to bring in a goulash, would you have said something? A big, hot, steaming goulash in a big ceramic bowl and then just been like, goulash for all. I'm slopping it around.

[David Gordon Green]

Coca Cola and Mentos.

[Conan O'Brien]

Is that cool?

[Eduardo Perez]

Yeah. No, that would not work. Like I said, it's a podcast studio. It's whatever you guys want it to be.

[Adam Devine]

Just.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, no, I respect your. Both as a technician and a craftsman. I respect the work you've done, and I want to honor it. And maybe we should honor Eduardo by not having food in here anymore.

[Eduardo Perez]

I'm cool with snacks. Like. Like anything that's contained. That's why, like, I prefer she was.

[Conan O'Brien]

Throwing the food across the room. But you say, okay, let me list some foods. Goulash. No.

[Eduardo Perez]

Probably no.

[Conan O'Brien]

Okay. Just a big boiling, meaty stew.

[Eduardo Perez]

Definitely no.

[Conan O'Brien]

Okay.

[Sona Movsesian]

Tacos.

[Conan O'Brien]

Tacos.

[Eduardo Perez]

Oh, allow it.

[Conan O'Brien]

Chowder. Tacos. You allow. But what about my beloved Boston chowder?

[Eduardo Perez]

Get out of here.

[Conan O'Brien]

Mezcal. Palomas. Yes. There we go. Oh, I see a trend here. Wait a minute. This doesn't feel fair. What about a lot of corned beef and potatoes out of here? Oh, man.

[Sona Movsesian]

What about some quesadillas?

[Eduardo Perez]

Oh, yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

More, please. Please.

[Sona Movsesian]

I see what's going on.

[Conan O'Brien]

How about some Armenian? Grab a de.

[Adam Devine]

Go grab a goo.

[Eduardo Perez]

Depends on the day of the.

[Sona Movsesian]

Okay, Grabba the goo.

[Conan O'Brien]

What is it? What is. What would be an Armenian dish that I should have yelled out? And don't say, because I know there's a lot of dried fruit. Khash. Khash.

[Sona Movsesian]

Khash.

[Conan O'Brien]

Khash. What's that?

[Sona Movsesian]

Khash? It's hoof soup.

[Conan O'Brien]

Soup. Soup. What? Come on, Lahmajun.

[Sona Movsesian]

Let's go. That's the Armenian pizza. Khash. We've talked about this. It's, you know, it's like a peasant dish kind of. They take all the parts of the animal that they didn't eat and they throw it all in a soup.

[Conan O'Brien]

But hoof. You wouldn't eat the hoof.

[Sona Movsesian]

Oh, you could eat the.

[David Gordon Green]

It's hot.

[Conan O'Brien]

Is what. Hoof is hardened collagen. It just melts down, I think.

[Sona Movsesian]

I don't know enough about it. I know there's gonna be so many Armenians mad at me, but I. I always grew up thinking it's hoof soup. Maybe there are no hooves.

[Conan O'Brien]

Okay, all right. Maybe it just got a bad name. Eduardo is busily searching for it on the Internet.

[Eduardo Perez]

It won't come up.

[Sona Movsesian]

I don't even know.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's on the dark. You have to go on the dark web.

[Sona Movsesian]

I don't know how you.

[Conan O'Brien]

Hey, if you want some. If you want some hoof soup, you don't just go on. You don't just type that into Google. You got to know a guy who knows a. Who knows a horse.

[Sona Movsesian]

Okay. And I also don't know how you. In English, how you do the kh.

[Conan O'Brien]

Soul.

[Eduardo Perez]

Yeah, I tried Kh.

[Sona Movsesian]

I think you do an X. Oh, I see. X A, S, H.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, that's a good excuse I'll use if, you know, I tell my wife, I'm like, hush. And she's like, don't. You tell me to be quiet. I'll say. Just wanted some hoofs. That's worse.

[Eduardo Perez]

So I did find it, actually. Ah, K H, A, S, H. Or the way you spelled it. So it says, hash is a traditional Armenian soup often made with cow feet or other beef.

[Conan O'Brien]

Cow feet. They can't mean the hoof, though.

[David Gordon Green]

Well, there's no other real part of the foot? Yeah, it's gotta be.

[Sona Movsesian]

You gotta. You gotta use the whole part of the. The whole cow.

[Conan O'Brien]

So is there a saddle in there? I mean, what's going on?

[Sona Movsesian]

Okay, there's no saddle.

[Conan O'Brien]

It also says it's often consumed as a hangover remedy. Yeah, I'm bad. You have a little of that. And you're like, I'll never drink again. Anything. Nothing's going in my mouth again. Don't you. A hoof in your throat. The idea of consuming anything again. All right, I'm gonna get this show going. Time to get this show going. My guest today has starred in such TV shows and movies as Workaholics, Pitch Perfect, and the Righteous Gemstones. He also has a podcast called this is Important. Hey, that's a great title. Which releases new episodes every Tuesday. I'm excited he's here today. Adam Devine.

[Adam Devine]

Hey, you did the po.

[Conan O'Brien]

Welcome. I did the pause. I did the pause. Yes.

[David Gordon Green]

Our long national nightmare is over.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes. There's a slight pause there before you say my name. Because I think you were exuberant about being someone else's friend and then remembered it was me, and I could see the life leave your body.

[Adam Devine]

Well, I, I. I am bad at reading.

[Conan O'Brien]

Not much of a reader, are you?

[Adam Devine]

No, no, no. You put me on the spot reading. I'm gonna make my own, actually. When I was a kid, they thought I couldn't read because I would head a little bit and then make my own story up, Right? And then they're like, he's an idiot. He can't read. And then they put me into class like a remedial reading, and they're like, we think he can. He just is making his own shit up.

[Conan O'Brien]

Like, he's highly creative is what he is. In third grade, I had heard that there was this Evelyn Wood speed reading course where people. And there was advertised on television where you could read really fast.

[Adam Devine]

I thought that was so cool.

[Conan O'Brien]

I just went to school and told people I could do it, and they're like, prove. So I picked up a book and I flipped through the pages really fast. And I wasn't reading, but I was flipping through it really fast. Cause I was trying to. I was embarrassed. So I was covering for the fact that I had said I could do this. And then I did it with another book and another book. And then they asked me what the books were about, and I was just saying stuff that kind of sounded like it would be the book of.

[Adam Devine]

You're like, george Washington saved the day.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. You know, saved the Day. Yeah. And so. And they were like, wow. And they told the teacher, Mrs. Sollitt, and they said, Conan's a speed reader. He can three. He just read three books in like two minutes. And she came over and saw what I was doing and basically said, you're an idiot. This is bullshit. Knock it off. And I remember being so embarrassed, I turned beet red. And I said, I'll never do a stupid thing again. More red, more red, more red. And I was drinking that day. Adam, it's a thrill to have you here. Good to be here. I remember you first came onto my radar because my assistant, who's with me today sonam of session and joins me often. I remember she was my assistant. And from the day you started working for me, every day you would come in and you are constantly talking about this show, Workaholics.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

And you were obsessed with that. Oh, cool.

[Sona Movsesian]

I was. I love that show.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah. Thanks.

[Conan O'Brien]

And when I hear that someone that something else is really funny, I'm furious.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, furious. I understand that.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know, like, what? This can't be funny. How am I involved? And she said, it has nothing to do with you.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I said, am I in it? And, you know, it was at that level of pathology. Did I write for this?

[Adam Devine]

They steal my journal and create a TV show.

[Conan O'Brien]

There must be some way, you know, and. But no. And then she started showing me clips of the show, which was hilarious. And then I started having you guys on, and it was a perfect mix of my audience, what you guys were doing, which was so inventive. And again, my favorite kind of television and entertainment is when good friends are entertaining themselves.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And almost defying people to say, look, you can like this or not, but this is what we like. And I thought that was pretty cool. And I thought we'd start there because Sona, I love it. Yeah, you were. I mean, you had. You had made like pictures and posters. It was crazy.

[Sona Movsesian]

Relax, okay. You went to Adam's, watched it.

[Conan O'Brien]

You went to Adam's house.

[Adam Devine]

You were outside my house smelling my underwear. Yeah.

[Sona Movsesian]

Is that weird? I was a fan of your show, so I thought I'd just drive my sky.

[Adam Devine]

I remember how excited we were. Cause you were our favorite. And now not so much. But back then with the intro, when I walked in, that's when it diminished. And I'm like, emil, you're number one.

[Conan O'Brien]

Adam Divine.

[Adam Devine]

So we were super excited when we came. And I was just tell I had a Hollywood meeting a few minutes ago right before I came here. And I was telling the story. They were talking about Danny on this show, and. And I was like, oh, I'm about to go do that. And talking about you and how we used to.

[Conan O'Brien]

Danny McBride.

[Adam Devine]

McBride. Yeah. And we used to come and do the show and how one time we were scheduled to perform, but then a portal to another realm opened up. And instead of us performing or coming on and being guests, a portal to another realm opened up and the wizards actually performed. If you remember that.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yes, I do remember that very well.

[Adam Devine]

Gangster rapping wizards from another realm. And they look kind of like us. I wouldn't say identical. They had beards.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Adam Devine]

So, yeah, that was pretty cool that you had them on in our stead.

[Conan O'Brien]

I've had this theory for a while that oftentimes in show business and in life in general, for anybody, you think that your destiny is one thing, and it's your failure to get that. And you pivot and you get something that feels lesser to you, and that is actually the real path to where you should be going. And I know for you, you were convinced when you went to college that you wanted to. Was it ucla?

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

You thought, this is where I have to go. But it was too expensive. You couldn't afford it, so you went to a different school. Where'd you go?

[Adam Devine]

Orange Coast College.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Adam Devine]

Which is a community college in Orange County.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. So you feel like, oh, you know, my path to my real future has been blocked because I don't have the money. I'll go here instead of. And that's where you meet Kyle and Blake. So again, this proves this idea I have that that wasn't where you're supposed to go. You went where you were supposed to go.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah. I mean, you and my mother are the same person. Cause she says this all the time, but I do.

[Conan O'Brien]

I thought I had a new idea. I do listen to your mom's podcast a lot.

[Adam Devine]

Yes, it's good. It's good. Skank Talk. Skank Talk with Penny D.

[Conan O'Brien]

Hi, Penny D. Hi, pe.

[Adam Devine]

Yes. So, yeah, we met there, and it was like a kismet thing. I just thought Blake was so funny and so different. And he had a cute, tight little afro at the time. He didn't have those look. And I always, like, kind of girls, like, think he's sexy, but that was not the case in community college. And he was very funny. And then Kyle, who ended up directing a lot of our stuff and is now a big director, and he. We were like, oh, you guys make videos? I make videos. I'll show you my Videos from high school, and you guys show me yours. And then as they were showing me theirs, I, like, was sinking down in my seat, and I'm like, theirs are so much better than mine, like, the quality of their video because Kyle's just a talented director, and it was just me going, like, I think if the frame just holds on me the whole time, that's a good shot.

[Conan O'Brien]

Hey, man, I think your way is my way also. I don't understand why I'm not in frame.

[Adam Devine]

So if the camera's here, that's all we need. And you can be off camera, deliver your lines off camera. So their stuff was so much better. And then. And then it was kind of off to the races from there. And then we just sort of clicked. And it also is the type of thing that when you spend. When you're in your. Like. I mean, we are teenagers. We're 18 years old at that time. When you're that age, you spend 100% of your time with those people. And so we just had so many inside, like, the way that we talk and the way that we communicate with each other and is so familiar that I think when we finally got our shot, people were like, oh, I can tell that they're great friends. I want to be part of that.

[Conan O'Brien]

The chemistry was all there. You had done your 10, what Malcolm Gladwell would call it, the 10,000 hours of. We've done all our stuff. I'm going to go back a little before that, which is something I wasn't aware of, which is you went through a pretty traumatic experience when you were a kid. 2. First of all, you were Catholic.

[Adam Devine]

I'm still reeling from that. Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And, you know, that's. And. And David, you went through Catholicism as well. Yeah, yeah. We.

[Adam Devine]

I have a. I have a one year old now. And my. My. My wife was like, we have to get him baptized. And I know no other way. So I'm like, yeah, he's Catholic. And my wife is like, no, he's not.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Adam Devine]

And I'm like, I might as well just make him Catholic. I don't know. Like, that's what I know how to do. You kneel, you stand, you do this thing. Yeah, that's the thing. And no, that is not how we're raising our son. No.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. My wife is Episcopalian and was not raised in the Catholic Church, but when we had our kids, I was the same way. I was like, you know, they will be christened in the Catholic Church.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And it just came out of me. And she was like, well, we can. We will all be christened in the Catholic Church. All of a sudden I thought I was going to. Yeah. Like something took over my body.

[Adam Devine]

On the third day, Jesus rose again.

[Conan O'Brien]

I rose in the air, I spun, my arms went out and they were. And thank you, Liza, for going along with me on that one. It made my folks really happy.

[Adam Devine]

That's cool.

[Conan O'Brien]

But it's funny because you do this show about mega churches now. And it was hilarious show, which we will talk about because I love it and Danny was on talking about it as well. But it is the polar opposite of the Catholic experience. Did you know when you were. And going. When you were a Catholic, going to Catholic masses, did you know that there was such a thing as mega churches out there?

[Adam Devine]

I think they were just sort of starting by the time I was like, when I was a kid. I don't think they really existed in like the 80s, early 90s, I don't think.

[Conan O'Brien]

Or if they existed. They. They weren't quite what they were.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah. And then. And then I remember in high school when I'd have to go to church and. And then my friends would go to church and they were just Christian. They didn't even like. There wasn't like another thing that you said wasn't like, I'm Christian, but I'm Catholic or I'm a just Christian. Yeah. They're like, we're just Christian. And I'm like, what? And they're like. And we have rock climbing walls.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I'm like, what?

[Adam Devine]

And they're like, yeah. And there's a cotton candy machine.

[Conan O'Brien]

Do you eat a wafer? No. Gummy fish?

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Swedish gummy.

[Adam Devine]

Gummy fish? Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

No. And it's also like, there's music and who's playing Fish? Fish is playing. And there's a light showing and loaves. Where does this happen? At the Sphere in Las Vegas. I want this religion. Hard benches and, you know, parables seem very cool. Man, you know what spring is to me?

[Sona Movsesian]

What?

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm not a poet or anything, but it's a season of renewal and quality rest.

[Sona Movsesian]

That's nice.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. Really good rest. You know, winter's been so cold. It's hard to sleep in all that cold. And the wind's howling.

[Sona Movsesian]

That's wind?

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, that's wind. Or a ghost. Well, winter's over and so is the excuse to hibernate if you're gonna emerge from your cocoon. What? They're mixing a lot of things here. At least do it well rested. A new mattress could be the boost you need to face spring. And Mattress Firm can help anyone sleep all night. Every night. Mattress Firm gets it done, son. Experience quality sleep on a premium mattress. Mattress Firm will find you the right bed with their wide selection of quality mattresses at every price, every single price ever imagined. Mattress Firm carries a curated premium selection of mattresses so you can get the upgrade you want. Sleep is important eight hours a night. If you can get it. Curing sleep. Get matched at Mattress Firm's Memorial Day sale and sleep at night. Text CONAN to 766693 for $100 off your next purchase at Mattress Firm. Restrictions apply. See mattressfrom.com or store for details. This episode of Conan O' Brien Needs a Friend is brought to you by McDonald's. All new McCrispy strips. New McCrispy strips are here. I've been waiting. I've been waiting patiently.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah, you have.

[Conan O'Brien]

And then just the other day, the Tom crier came down the street and said, hear ye, hear ye. The new McCrispy strips are here. It's chicken made for dippin' Tender, juicy white meat chicken with the golden brown peppery breading. It's chicken so good, it deserves its own sauce. The creamy chili McCrispy strip dip. Say that nine times fast, you'll get arrested. A sauce that's creamy, savory and sweet with a little heat, but it works with any of their sauces, you know?

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

New McCrispy strips with a new creamy chili McCrispy strip dip. Oh, my God. They're trying to get me. But they didn't. It's McChicken made for dippin' I've lost my mind. Let's be real. I mean, it's time we got real. Don't you think, guys? Yeah, B2B marketing is pretty tough. It is. You can craft the perfect campaign, but if it lands in front of the wrong people, it might as well be invisible. Hey, where is it? Where is it? I don't see it. It's invisible. It's like reaching pro gamers instead of programmers. You know what I'm saying? Makes a big difference. That's where LinkedIn comes in. Gather around, everybody. LinkedIn's a network of over 1 billion professionals who actually get business on LinkedIn ads. You can target your buyers by job title, industry, company role, seniority, skills, company revenue, and. Did we say job title yet? I guess that's a joke. So stop wasting budget on the wrong audience and start targeting the right professionals with LinkedIn ads. LinkedIn will even give you a $100 credit on your next campaign, so you can try it yourself. Pretty cool. Just go to LinkedIn.com TeamCoco. That's LinkedIn.com TeamCoco. Terms and conditions apply only on LinkedIn ads. You went through something very intense that I didn't know about, which is you were on your bike and you were seriously injured.

[Adam Devine]

Yep. Kablamoed.

[Conan O'Brien]

What happened? Kablamoed is the medical term. You could just dumb it down.

[Adam Devine]

For the rest of us, I was kablamoed.

[Conan O'Brien]

We got a kablamo here. I saw that. There's an episode of the Pit where they go, we got a kablamo.

[Adam Devine]

We got one kablamo coming in.

[Conan O'Brien]

When he's fully kablammed. We need 3 cc's a feel better quick. So what happened? Because it's pretty.

[Adam Devine]

I was hit by a cement truck as a little boy. I was.

[Conan O'Brien]

You were on your bike?

[Adam Devine]

I was on my bike. My. Are you guys squeamish?

[Conan O'Brien]

Nope.

[Adam Devine]

Squeamish. So.

[Sona Movsesian]

Holy.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, my God.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah. So it looks like uncooked chicken, but it is my leg.

[Conan O'Brien]

And is that with skin grafts then over it?

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, yeah, that's skin grass. So the. The skin was ripped off and the other leg's a little better, but it was half the leg. And I broke everything from the knees down that I had to reconstruct. My legs and then my left femur and then some ribs, and I punctured along and was bleeding out of my ears. But then they're like, no brain damage, clothing.

[Conan O'Brien]

I beg to differ. Based on your work.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, totally. Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

The doctors are looking at workaholics.

[Adam Devine]

We might have gotten it wrong 25 years ago.

[Conan O'Brien]

We've pitch perfect workaholics. Wait, are you looking at CAT scans? No, no, just the work.

[Adam Devine]

No, his filmography.

[Conan O'Brien]

So, I mean, we're laughing a lot, but horrifying. And were you on. Were you unconscious for a long time?

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, it was a couple weeks. It was a medical induced coma. And then. Yeah. So essentially I lived in the suburbs and three cement trucks were going up the hill as two were coming down or some version of that because new houses were being built everywhere. And my friend was across the street and he yells, come on. As in, let's go. And I took that as coast as clear. And he goes, come on. And I'm like, okay. And I walk out after the third cement truck passed. And so I couldn't see the other side of the street and was hit and I flung. I said 500ft because that's what my mom told Me. And that's what's in my Wikipedia page. But then I did another pot podcast, and I think Theo Vaughn was like, 500ft. That's so far. And I'm like, it's really far.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, I guess it is.

[Adam Devine]

He goes, how far is the longest field goal ever kicked? It was like 162ft. And I'm like, I wasn't kicked. My mom's a liar.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Adam Devine]

I don't know if I was even hit.

[Conan O'Brien]

Me saying, I'm a speed reader.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

I went a hundred miles. Yeah.

[Adam Devine]

It was my mom, like, trying to judge up the numbers of me getting hit by a cement truck. She's like, it was 500ft, too. It wasn't even a small distance.

[Sona Movsesian]

It was 500ft many.

[Adam Devine]

And it wasn't. It wasn't 30 tons. It was 80 tons. It's 80 ton cement truck, so one of the heaviest in the world.

[Conan O'Brien]

When you're hit by a cement truck as a kid and you get that kind of damage, you don't need to judge it out.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, I know. I know.

[Conan O'Brien]

It was also carrying dynamite.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And it blew up.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah. And then he had a gun on him. She shot him. He shot him in the leg, so you couldn't tell. So you couldn't tell he was in the leg, so you couldn't tell. And then the funny. I mean, funny. But I was hit in one county and landed in another because. Because the. The road was the dividing line between the counties. So that was a fun thing that.

[Eduardo Perez]

We got to talk about.

[Conan O'Brien]

But so the recovery process, because you're in a wheelchair for a chunk of time.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, for about two years. It was middle school, was really cool for me, and it was kind of a cool, cool experience to be the crippled kid. Yeah. So I was in a wheelchair.

[Conan O'Brien]

Would.

[Adam Devine]

Get on crutches and then have another surgery. I had something like 26 or 28 surgeries during that time. And. Yeah. And then. And then my eighth grade year. So that was the summer going into sixth grade, and by eighth grade, I played football.

[Conan O'Brien]

Wow.

[Adam Devine]

And by the way, the worst guy on the team. It was the coaches being like, he can play. And then they're like, you're a defensive lineman. Yeah. So it's just me just like, going, ah, falling over our quarterback, getting sacked.

[David Gordon Green]

You're just.

[Conan O'Brien]

Your entire body is made of recently healed bones. Yes. Doesn't sound like a good idea. Who would let you play, Penny? Who would let you play football?

[Adam Devine]

My doctor, actually. My mom was like, if the doctor says you could play, you could play. And the doctor was like, I don't. I don't see what's wrong with it if he wants to play. And my mom's like, you son of a bitch. Oh, my God, how dare you? And then I. And then I played, but, you know, I was really, really bad. And then. And so I thought I was going to be like, this athlete as a kid. I was like, that was my whole, you know, I'm like, I'm going to be a professional baseball player. No one in my family's athletic. So this was a pipe dream. But that was my. My goal. And then after I was hit, I. I always. My. I have a very, very funny family. And I always liked making people laugh. And then I started to call into radio stations. And I would call into the radio station in Omaha, 1067 the Edge, or 1019 the Edge. And I would do different voices and different characters. And then that became like a little thing on the radio.

[Conan O'Brien]

Confined. You're like, this is you at home, wheelchair maybe not going to school. You can't be having fun. So this is what you do.

[Adam Devine]

Exactly. And this was sixth and seventh grade. And then they were like, come on down. We want you to be part of the drive time hour. And so my mom loads me into the minivan, takes me down there. My legs are. Can't bend, so they're fully just extended, standed in front of me. She picks me up, she puts me in the wheelchair, wheels me into the radio station, and they're like, oh, we didn't realize you were a crippled child. We thought you were an adult man, by the way, a sad, weird adult man who only talks to us in character voices. But we didn't know you were. So we can't pay you and have you be part, you know, we can't have you on staff, but we can pay you in, like, Cranberry CDs. I have. I have all the cranberry accepted Cranberry wallflowers. Yeah, all the good. All the hits. And then. And then, like, free concert tickets. And so then that was sort of my segue into comedy, where I was like, oh, it's. You can being funny. You can do cool things and get cool things.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. That is the crucial moment, I think, for a lot of people in our industry is the moment you and some people realize it or know it really early, but the moment when you realize, wait a minute, there's a use for this thing. I do. Yeah, I just thought I was, you know, entertaining slash annoying. My brothers and friends to no end all the time. And then someone links it to. That's great. Here's a cookie. Here's a free T shirt. Wait a minute. Here's a job here, Here's a job there. And it's. You can't believe it.

[Adam Devine]

You can't believe it. I could not believe. I was so excited. And the fact that my mom was getting her hair done. She was. She has this beautiful poof penny. And so she was poofing this thing up at the salon. And I came on the radio, and someone in the salon said, oh, my God, I love this guy. He calls in all the time. And my mom was like, and. And I remember once that happened, I was like, oh, I can. My mom. Like, I'll put some shine on the family by doing this thing, because I'm not going to be the professional athlete that we all thought I was going to be.

[Conan O'Brien]

There's still time. Yeah, there's still time. You're a young man.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah. Cornhole is getting.

[Conan O'Brien]

Do you have any residual pain from what you went through in your life, or is that all behind you?

[Adam Devine]

The physically, no. Up until maybe three years ago, I would say, yeah, it's basically behind me. Like, I have a creek in the knee or whatever. But in the last three years was. It was crazy. I. I suddenly start to have spasms, and my muscles will get super tight. And the doctors couldn't explain it. And they told me at one point that I have this autoimmune disease called stiff person syndrome.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh.

[Adam Devine]

Which is essentially like a death sentence for the most part. And people die within, like, six years usually. And so they told me that I had it. And they told me I had it a month before Beau was born, my son. And I'm like, this isn't a cool thing to say to me. So I'm on the toilet at 4am looking at videos of people with stiff person syndrome. I'm like, I. I don't want this to be my life. And then six months goes by. Or then they tell me, well, maybe you don't have it, because I had one of the markers but not the other marker in my blood. And they're like, maybe you don't have it. And then six months goes by, and I'm shooting gemstones, and they're like, we do think you have it. So I. Then I went to Philadelphia and I met with the oldest man alive who coined the phrase stiff person syndrome. He's like, the guy. And he told me, I absolutely don't have it. And it's all residual from my accident. But it's, it is a weird thing where, like.

[Conan O'Brien]

Harrowing.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah.

[Adam Devine]

That I can't, I mean, I, I, you know, it's a weird thing because I still want to act and want to do all this stuff, but I have a hard time standing for more than like 15 or 20 minutes at a time and I can't run and move in the same ways that I could just a couple years ago. So I'm, I'm doing a wild amount of physical therapy and, and that kind of stuff. Like, now that I'm in between, you know, jobs, I'm still writing and doing all kinds of other stuff. But as far as being on set goes, I'm just like physical therapy, bodywork, acupuncture, chiro, chirotherapy, like every, everything. So I'm in the midst of it now.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's, I mean, clearly you've been through, you went through this massive injury, but it is just true. The, the best analogy I' heard is that when you're born, you're dropped into a current that's taking you in the right direction and very powerfully and you just get bigger and stronger, doing absolutely nothing, you know, and then as you get older, the current starts to slow and then it comes to a standstill and then it starts to go the other way. And so you actively have to work at staying just where you are.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I thought, yeah, I think that's the best description that is of the agent process, which is, is I do a lot just to stay where I am. You know, it's.

[Adam Devine]

I used to work out a lot to like look strong and get muscles. And now I'm like, it's just like holding, like holding weights, like just isometric holds and just all this stuff that I was like, I'm never gonna do this now I work out like I'm an 88 year old grandmother, like, who's just like, doesn't want both of her hips to snap if she misses a staircase.

[Conan O'Brien]

You have pool noodles with a bunch of other old ladies.

[Adam Devine]

Absolutely. I just have my hair in a hair net. There's nothing to do with it.

[Conan O'Brien]

Peanuts yelling at you. Your noodle's hitting her noodle.

[Sona Movsesian]

You go to the salon with Penny now?

[Conan O'Brien]

Totally.

[Adam Devine]

I gotta work on my foot.

[Conan O'Brien]

Penny in here.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, I have to say I wouldn't know any of this. Cause I mean, in all your work, but in your latest work in gemstones, you're just always so physically present and funny and, and great, you know, and you, you know, We've covered you. Do you meet the fellas. You guys do Workaholics, you start to get traction. Pitch Perfect. When Pitch Perfect comes along and you are up for this role, you didn't even really know what the role was. Is that true?

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, that is true. We were shooting Workaholics and it was. They were like, the producers really like you for this Pitch Perfect movie. You should go audition. And I'm like, I don't have time. Like I have my own TV show. I don't have time. And they were like, make time. This is a real movie. It's universal. Go. And so we made it. So I wasn't shooting the scene after lunch. So I could go during lunch. I could drive my ass down to Santa Monica or I think it was Santa Monica audition and then get back before I had to do the scene later in the day. So I'm like, all right. And I go. And I'm looking at the sides as I get there and I think it's a baseball movie. I swear to you, I think it's Pitch Perfect. I think it's a baseball movie.

[Conan O'Brien]

I would. That would be my first assumption.

[Adam Devine]

Yes. I'm like stretching out in the parking lot, like, all right, maybe I got a. And then I see all these guys singing and I'm like, that's not going to help you with the baseball movie. Pussy.

[Conan O'Brien]

Look at these losers.

[Adam Devine]

Oh boy. Someone didn't play baseball in the fifth grade. And so. And then I actually take a look at the sides and I'm like, this isn't baseball at all. There's a lot of singing in this baseball movie. And so I go and I, I do the, the scenes and it went well. And they were like, what song did you prepare? And you had not prepared anything. I had not prepared anything. And they're just like, well, it's whatever like song that you know a lot of the words to. We just want to know you can carry a tune. So the weirdly, the first song that popped into my head was, was whatever happened to predictability? The Milkman, the Paper Boy, the Evening tv, which is the Full House theme song.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah.

[Adam Devine]

And. And then somehow I got. I have no idea. I walked out of there. I'm like, they all laughed really hard, but I'm like, I didn't prove I could sing. I don't think they wanted like a 80 year old jazz singer to, to.

[Conan O'Brien]

Be the lead of. I love that they're one of the lead leads actors out there listening right now who are furious. Who do Everything. They've gone to Juilliard. They can. They find out. They research the role and then they hear you. I don't know. I thought I was sing. I don't know. I guess I'll do the full house theme. Predictability. You're hired. Yeah. Okay. Thanks.

[Adam Devine]

Well, I'm learning the more. Yeah. I feel like I'm definitely way more prepared in the things I do now. But I think there is a special. If you could care less about most things, it goes better if I think when you care too much and you're too wrapped up, you get emotionally tied to a thing and you, like, you want it too much, and it comes off as like a weird manic energy. When you come in the room, you're like, hey, how's it all. Pleasure. Pleasure to meet you. And you're talking to the. The casting director, the producers. Like, I don't want to hang out with this guy on set.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, they can smell it.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

There's a pheromone you put out when you. I had. When I auditioned, when they had a test for me for the late night show to replace Letterman. I was a writer on the Simpsons, you know, had no business even auditioning for this thing. But Lorne knew me. Da, da, da. He said, you know, maybe whatever. A bunch of sort of things came together. I thought, there's no way this is happening. So I went into it thinking, well, this is fun. I'm gonna pretend to be a talk show host.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And that was the spirit that I did it in. And then a couple of weeks later. Ring, ring. You're replacing David Letterman at 12:30. And I was completely unrelaxed for the next two years.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah. Once you have the job. Once I had the job, actually do it.

[Conan O'Brien]

Hello, everybody. Welcome. I hope you like the show.

[Adam Devine]

We're gonna try our really hard.

[Conan O'Brien]

I hope you like it. It's gonna be good, I hope.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, my God, this guy's awful. And then, you know, you. The volume, the sheer volume of it knocked that out of me. But the. I know what you're talking about. Yeah, you just are. It's better you didn't know.

[Adam Devine]

I think so. And I. I've. I mean, now as my career has. Has grown and gone on, I'm like, I'm definitely more prepared with things, but I still try to bring that energy of like. Like, I. I've been around long enough that if this thing doesn't go, I'll find something else or I'll put another thing. So, like, don't put Too much pressure on. On one thing. And I think it. I think it helps.

[Conan O'Brien]

I have this weird ghost memory of hosting the MTV Movie Awards and I did something with you, but I don't remember what we did. I'm sure there's a. I. Do you. I have no memory.

[Adam Devine]

You came and, like, you were slain on the guitar. And then I came and helped you sing this.

[Conan O'Brien]

Like, I don't remember.

[Adam Devine]

I don't even remember. It was such a fever dream.

[Conan O'Brien]

You know what was so crazy is all I remember about that is I said, yeah, I like to try things. And they said, hey, do you want to host the MTV Movie Awards? And I thought, that's funny. Even then I was old, but I was like, oh, God, no, but you know what I mean? I was just like, okay, sure. And all I remember is they put me in something that hides you and it. And it lifts up and reveals you as like. ROCK MUSIC PLAYS ROCK ARPEGGIOS PLAY and I remember just a voice going, ladies and gentlemen, here, here. Mtv, Conan open. And just before they said my name, smoke started to fill the chamber. And I'm like, what the fuck? Cause they didn't do that at rehearsal. Cause they wanted smoke to billow out. And I. And you're like, I just. Yeah, I just knew then that this is insane. I shouldn't be on one of these shows where there's smoke.

[Adam Devine]

I hosted. You weren't.

[Conan O'Brien]

But thank you for helping me. Of course.

[Adam Devine]

I hosted the MTV Movie awards in like 2017 or 18 or something like that. And I'm dressed as the. I didn't have. I was shooting a movie, the Game Over man with the Work of Skies. And I didn't have time to do a lot of rehearsals, so I flew down the day before the. Or the day of the event. And we just rehearsed the big opening sequence in the morning. Just that morning. We only ran through it twice. And I'm dressed as the. The Beast in full Beast makeup. And I'm like, supposed to walk down the stairs. And then I hook me up to a rig and fly through the audience and I tip over someone into like. He's dressed as a candelabra. I think it was Blake Anderson. And he falls in and the stage starts on fire. It's like a whole thing and everything has to be pretty perfect. And it's a whole song and dance number. And I remember the crowd is behind is the back of the stage, but I'm facing them. And then I turn around once the curtain's open and I'M facing them and I'm like trying to think of the lyrics. Like, so I'm like sort of mouthing them. And I think the audience thought I was really nervous, which I was moderately nervous. But they're like, you can do it. You can do it, Adam. And like girls being like, it's okay, you got this, you got this. And I'm like, this is making. That's making it worse. It's making it worse. But it's weird. It's a weird.

[Conan O'Brien]

Sounds like you've had plenty of these. I've had so many moments where I suddenly become aware that my life is very strange.

[Adam Devine]

Oh, yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

One was shooting a thing in a car in a open topped convertible Bentley with Mr. T out. And there was a scene that required us to be driving in the country in upstate New York. And he's driving and we're driving for a while and I fall asleep next to him. Really fall asleep, genuinely, because it takes. Cause it. Cause I'm tired and I put my head back and I fell asleep hard for like maybe two minutes. And I woke up and I'm looking straight up and it's fall. Upstate New York. Beautiful leaves are passing over my head and I turn my head slightly and Mr. T is driving in a car. And I don't understand what's happening. And I thought that's what show business is. If you. That's. I mean, that's what I love about it is when you have moments that of I'm just. I'm looking out at this city of people. I just knocked over a human candelabra. I'm dressed as beast. What's happening? What's going on?

[Adam Devine]

That's so surreal that I had a surreal moment with you when you called me to do that bit on the movie awards or whatever you were hosting. I was in a hot air balloon.

[Sona Movsesian]

What?

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, I was literally flying in a hot air balloon with my ex girlfriend at the time. And we were soaring in the sky. And I get a call. My agents told me, hey, expect a call. And I'm like, I'm getting on a hot air balloon. And they're like, someone's gonna be calling you. You have to pick up. They're gonna be calling you. Pick up if you can. I'm like, I'm currently getting on a hot air balloon. Can they call in a couple hours when they're done? They're like, no, he's gonna be calling you. And I'm like, okay. And I didn't know who it was.

[Conan O'Brien]

I could have Called you later.

[Adam Devine]

I know, I know. That's why I'm like, agents are just like, it's happening now.

[Conan O'Brien]

Now it's a game of telephone that's constantly like, Conan wants it now. Yeah, no, I'm. It could be.

[Adam Devine]

It could be in an hour. So I'm like, in a hot air balloon. I get the call from you, and you're like, hey, you want to do this thing? And I'm like, yeah, I'm in a hot air balloon. You're like, weird joke. Haha. And I'm like, I seriously am. And then. And then we landed. And we landed. It was in San Diego. And when we land, we land in these, like, rich people's backyard, and they come out with champagne and they're like, oh, my God, this has never happened. And you land in our backyard. Do you want to race go karts? And we're like, as. They're like, tying, like, putting the balloon, like, deflating it and everything. And we're like, okay, they have a full go kart track that we just got her, like, race. And we raced with their children for like an hour as they. As they put this balloon. And I'm like, this is a surreal. Like, Conan just called me in a hot air balloon. Yeah, it was surreal.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's one of those things where, God forbid, a crime or a murder had happened somewhere around that time and you needed an alibi and you said, I was in a hot air balloon. And then we landed and there was a go kart race. And I just talked to Conan. It sounds like, rock him up.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, it sounds like a little kid who's just, like, caught in a lie, who just keeps saying stuff and then. And then.

[Conan O'Brien]

So I'm curious about Righteous Gemstones. Such a funny show. Did you know Danny McBride? Had you guys met before you started working on this thing?

[Adam Devine]

No. John.

[Conan O'Brien]

You guys have an amazing chemistry together.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, thanks. We're.

[Conan O'Brien]

That whole cast. It's. It really is one of the great casts on television right now. And so. And. And you all feel like you're so simpatico. And so I was. I was thinking, did you know Danny?

[Adam Devine]

No. No. I think he, like, knew Workaholics a little bit and seen some of my other stuff. And his writing partner, John Carcieri wrote for us on Workaholics for one season.

[Conan O'Brien]

Okay.

[Adam Devine]

So I think that might have been a connection. But he. Yeah, he. He just asked if I wanted to be. Play his brother in something. And we. He was like, would you mind coming? We've never met. Would you mind coming out and. And having a dinner? And I went to Charleston and met him and David Gordon Green and Jody Hill, and we had this nice dinner and everything. But actually, the very first time I met Danny, he doesn't remember this, really, but it was at the. This is the end premiere.

[Conan O'Brien]

Oh, yeah.

[Adam Devine]

It's a very funny, very funny movie. And so we were at the after party, Seth Rogen and everybody. Yeah. And. And so I'm at this after party, and I'm like, kind of. I was pretty early on at this point in my career, so I'm, like, really excited just to even be in the room, and I'm like, oh, my God, like, all these comedy heroes are here. But Danny, for me, is, like, on a Mount Rushmore. Like, I love the guy, and so I'm trying to, like, I smoke weed, but not like Seth Rogen does. And so. So he's going toe to toe with. He's like, here, here. And so I'm like, okay, I can keep up. And this. Through the cloud of smoke, Danny appears. And I go, you're Danny McBride? And he's like, yeah, man. Hey, nice to meet you. And I go, you're a bright shooting star. I swear to you, dude. I said he was a bright shooting star. And. And then he's like, all right, man. And I went and grabbed my girlfriend, and I was like, we have to leave. And she's like, why? I'm having a good time. This is a fun party. And I go, I just called Dana McBride a bright shooting star. And she's like, you're right.

[Conan O'Brien]

We do.

[Adam Devine]

We do have to go now.

[Conan O'Brien]

We need to leave immediately.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, you're not allowed to be here anymore.

[Conan O'Brien]

I love this whole thing where he, you know, he lives in Charleston. He lives in Charleston with his people. And they. I love that they've just. He was talking about it here on the podcast. They just live in. You're like, he's not. Nope. Not going to live. Not going to move to la, any of that. We're just going to make our stuff. And he.

[Adam Devine]

He had lived here for years, so it's not like he doesn't have a. A base here. But he. Yeah, they. They were just shooting. I think vice principals his. His series right before Righteous Gemstones. And they just, by happenstance, couldn't shoot where they. In Wilmington, I think North Carolina. And they had to shoot in Charleston, and they really hadn't spent much time there, and they shot there, and they fell in love with it because it's one of the Prettiest places.

[Conan O'Brien]

It's really gorgeous.

[Adam Devine]

And they all live on an island 20 minutes from downtown. And when I was there, I rented a house on the water, and everyone just drives in golf carts. It's idyllic. It is so fantastic. And Danny, to your point of, like, us being such a great cast and feeling like we know each other, he does such a great job, and I feel like I learned so much from him about, like, being a leader. He takes his people out all the time. He does little parties. He does get togethers.

[Conan O'Brien]

He's.

[Adam Devine]

Hey, everybody, come over. We're grilling at the house. We're gonna go swimming. We're gonna go out on a boat, whatever it is. And you really feel like you. You were jumped into his gang right away, and it was.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'm not down with any of this.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah. I'm so sorry.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, I mean, you're just putting something out there now.

[Sona Movsesian]

It'd be really nice if you can invite us over for, like, food and parties and stuff.

[Adam Devine]

That'd be a nice place.

[Conan O'Brien]

I will arrange for a table for all of you at Paquito Mas. I will not be there. Someone who looks kind of like me will be there, and you guys will cover the bill.

[Sona Movsesian]

Arrange a table.

[Adam Devine]

I would love a Conan impersonator. Just shows up.

[Conan O'Brien]

Wig when his head. And you can see the strap that's holding his wig on is under his chin. Flip, flop, chip, chop. All right, well, you guys have to cover this. Remember, Kona's not paying for it.

[Adam Devine]

Flip, flop, chip, chop.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yep, that's my.

[Adam Devine]

The old tagline.

[Conan O'Brien]

That's the old tagline. How do you like being a dad? I think I haven't seen you since you became a dad.

[Adam Devine]

I. I mean, I love it more than I even thought I would. Yeah, it's. It's not funny to say that, but it's true.

[Conan O'Brien]

No, it's okay to actually have a human emotional feeling occasionally.

[Adam Devine]

Not often.

[Conan O'Brien]

You're allowed. 1 don't like it.

[Adam Devine]

They don't like it.

[Conan O'Brien]

It.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, it's. It's. It's great. And he. Every day is so fun.

[Conan O'Brien]

How old now?

[Adam Devine]

He's 15 months, which is like. I never thought I'd be the type of person that was, like, after a year to talk about months, but it is important because you if. Because, like, at a year, if he can't say dada, that's totally fine. But by 13 months, he's, like, a total idiot. So. So you really keep tabs on. On every little thing where I'm like, dada, Dada.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah. And you're taking another page off the calendar.

[Adam Devine]

Come on, Dad. I know you got it. You got it.

[Conan O'Brien]

But you'd be such a fun dad. I think I can see you. A lot of it is. And it was. I mean, I loved being silly with my kids and still do, to their dismay, but I. I just ate it up with a spoon. I. It wasn't like, well, time to get on the floor and act like an idiot. I'm always on the floor acting like an idiot, so there should be kids around.

[David Gordon Green]

Yeah.

[Adam Devine]

It's weird if there's not. Yeah, it's. It's unreal. And I'm. I'm, like, learning new things. Like, I can do a great Elmo. Like, he's, like, thrown for a loop. He thinks I'm possessed. I'm like, hi, Bo. It's me, Elmo.

[Conan O'Brien]

Wow. That is good.

[Sona Movsesian]

That is good.

[Conan O'Brien]

Like, come over here.

[Adam Devine]

Play. Put your toys away. And then he's like.

[Conan O'Brien]

Yeah, that's kind of scary, actually.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, it is. I didn't know I had it. And then all of a sudden, I'm like. I act like I'm possess Elmo control. Now.

[Conan O'Brien]

You will go to the atm.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

You will use this pin number. Okay. Elmo. Elmo can create all kinds of hell.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah. Elmo's a maniac, turns out. And. Yeah. Yeah. So it's. It's. It's been a blast. I'm. I'm loving it.

[Conan O'Brien]

I. I'm so thrilled that you came by and did this.

[Adam Devine]

Me, too. Yeah. I'm a big fan. This was.

[Conan O'Brien]

Well, I. I just. You've always been incredibly nice to me, and. And so. So just getting to hear you tell your story and take us through it is. It's so funny. I'm just. Imagine a lot of people listening to it who are big fans of yours, getting kind of inspired, who don't even know half the shit that you've been through.

[Adam Devine]

All the Symmetra kids out there, they're like, I can walk.

[Conan O'Brien]

You never know.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Thank you so much for coming by.

[Adam Devine]

Of course. Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Thanks for having me. You're a fine fellow. And please come back.

[Adam Devine]

I'm glad you came around on me. Yeah. Because this. It didn't. It didn't start off great. Yeah. I'm glad you came.

[Conan O'Brien]

I have to tell you, when you walked in the door, I was mad.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah, I know. I noticed that energy, you know, And.

[Conan O'Brien]

I like your work, but when I just got this energy of pure evil.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah. Well, it's because I. I Went with the suede jacket. You went with the standard leather. And it was. It was kind of a battle from.

[Conan O'Brien]

There on, whenever I'm wearing just regular leather, tanned leather and someone else has suede.

[Adam Devine]

You're a monsters. How dare they?

[Conan O'Brien]

It's just. It's on. I feel threatened. Yeah, I feel threatened.

[Sona Movsesian]

Makes sense.

[Conan O'Brien]

Hey, Adam, thank you so much.

[Adam Devine]

Of course. Thanks.

[Conan O'Brien]

We drink so much water every day, and it's just water. And I'm like, hello, boring. Yeah, there's got to be a way to make water more exciting. Well, guess what? Someone cracked it. With authentic flavors and lively carbonation, Waterloo Sparkling waters bring full flavor artistry. Blay, you're drinking one right now.

[Adam Devine]

Drinking one right now. I got the.

[Conan O'Brien]

The raspberry nectarine and it is tasty. It's very good. Very tasty. Everyone here in the office has been enjoying them. They're excellent. They're delicious. And you know, you say, what's flavor artistry? Some people think, oh, you're just talking a lot of high class nonsense, Conan. No, it's about custom crafting, multisensorial flavor experiences of aroma, taste and mouth feel that make you say wow wow to that sentence. Waterloo waters are crafted, not formulated or off the shelf. Just purified sparkling water and non GMO project verified natural flavors, which I insist on.

[Sona Movsesian]

Me too.

[Conan O'Brien]

With zero calories, sugar, or sweeteners. I drink water constantly. I just had a couple of glasses of water and it was just regular water upstairs. And I regret that time.

[Sona Movsesian]

It was boring. You'll never get that back.

[Conan O'Brien]

I'll never get that time back. Three full glasses of water. I wish it was Waterloo and I could have had. What did you have? Raspberry. You know what, what's that one cracking open a peach right now. Okay, well, you should. You could have offered that to me. You just ate a second when I haven't had one. Oh, sorry. Nice. Thanks a lot. I'm so thirsty. Where are you working tomorrow? Give Waterloo Sparkling Water a try. Look for Waterloo Sparkling Water next time you should shop. Learn more about the flavors from Waterloo sparkling [e-mail] when the world feels stuck in serious mode, Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles burst in to unleash pure, childlike, creative energy. One awesome bowl at a time. And a shout out to my brother Neil, who is nutso for Fruity Pebbles and Cocoa Pebbles. Many a time when Neil and I get together, even now in our advanced age, first thing we do is have some Fruity Pebbles or Cocoa Pebbles. Neil, I'm thinking about you. Eating Pebbles is a full sensory experience. Delicious taste, mouthwatering aroma, vibrant colors, and crispy flakes in every heaping spoon. It's amazing. The texture is so great, those little flakes. Fruity Pebbles are tangy and intensely fruity. Cocoa Pebbles are rich and chocolatey, just like they should be because it's cocoa. Like an instant treat. Pebble cereals are loved by kids and adults alike. The magic spans generations. When was the last time you could say that about any product?

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

They turn every bowl into pure milk. Magic. Fruity or chocolatey?

[Sona Movsesian]

That's my favorite part.

[Adam Devine]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

Make your breakfast less blah, more yabba dabba doo. Head to your nearest grocery store to buy a box of delicious pebble cereal now. Don't do it tomorrow. Don't do it yesterday. Do it now. Yabba dabba doo in the Flintstones and all related characters and elements copyright and trade trademark Hanna Barbera. Occasionally, I like to reminisce about my comedy showbiz past. This just popped into my head and it takes me back to this very particular time in my career. I just did. We weren't even recording and I did a bit and a very stupid, silly bit, and I'll explain what that was in a second second. But it immediately reminded me of this time, I think, back in maybe 1993 or 1994, and is when my show was first starting. And a lot of younger people don't know this, but when my show first premiered In September of 1993, it was new, it was very raw. I was very inexperienced, very young. I was replacing the great David Letterman. So as you can imagine, there was a lot of criticism and doubt and people were like, who hired this guy? And it was choppy waters for quite a while and people thought, maybe this isn't going to work out and everything. And then Dave invited me on his show. His show was on CBS and it was the big number one show at the time. And this was a big deal to get to go on Dave's show and promote the show that we were doing a couple of blocks away, his old show. It was a big deal. And so I was thinking of what to do, what stories could I tell. And then it's just a total because I was always goofing around as a total joke in the writer's room. I acted out doing something where I said, what if I just went out? And again, I wasn't serious, but what if I just walked out there? And David Letterman, David Letterman said, all right, well, this next gentleman took over our old show at the late night show that's on at 12:35 on NBC. And I think, please welcome Conan O' Brien. And there's the band playing Paul Schaeffer. And I walk out and I shake Dave's hand, and I sit down and Dave says, so, Conan, how do you like in the new show? And I say, and this is. You might have to check out Instagram for this, but whatever. But because I'm going to act it out that I was eamcoco podcast, Eamco podcast. And that I would say. He would say, welcome, Conan. And I, you know, how's it going over there at the new show? And I'd say, well, Dave, I gotta tell you, I just think, oh, my God, you glitched.

[Sona Movsesian]

Oh, my God, why would you think this? What is wrong with you?

[Conan O'Brien]

And absolutely freeze. And the reason this came to mind is just before I froze, something I used to like to do is say, I gotta tell you something. And I would freeze. And I got pretty good at it where I could really freeze and commit to it. And the whole idea is I would freeze. And I would not have told Dave beforehand or his producers or anybody. Oh, man. And so I was pitching this as, you know, the way I love to pitch. This is the worst thing I could do.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yes.

[Conan O'Brien]

So I'm pitching this. The writers are laughing really hard. And Robert Smigel, who's the head writer at the time and, you know, brilliant head writer and everything, said, you have to do it.

[David Gordon Green]

Oh, man, I'm nervous already.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I was like, what? I can't. And he. And he said, you have to do it. That's not true. And you just freeze. And I just knew that what would happen is I'd go like, well, Dave, I just think that I. And then Dave would like, watch for a bit and go like, hello, Conan, Conan, Conan. And then he'd probably like, Paul, I think we have a situation. And no matter what they did, I would stick to it. And then Dave would just say, okay, I think we're. Guess we'll just take a commercial.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And Robert Smigel can deny it if he wants. Robert Smigel said, not only should you do it, you have to do it, you have to do it. And I was saying, I don't think I can do that. I'm barely not getting canceled now. In fact, we were canceled at one point for like 30 minutes by NBC and Burbank. And then they realized they didn't have a replacement. So, I mean, I'm not even hanging by a thread.

[Sona Movsesian]

They had to stick with you.

[Conan O'Brien]

They were like, we literally don't have another person drive around and try and find someone. But that's how bad it was. So I'm not just hanging by a thread. I'm hanging by a thread of the. A tiny thread that came off that thread.

[Sona Movsesian]

Why would Rob think that that's.

[Conan O'Brien]

Cause Robert thought it was so great and revolutionary and would just like. No one's ever done anything like that. It would be like an Andy Kaufman. And I would stick to it and I would.

[David Gordon Green]

And you would never unfreeze the entire time.

[Conan O'Brien]

I would not unfreeze. They would go to commercial. They would probably just say, like, get the fuck outta here.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

I would go across the street and that America would in that moment realize he has broken the sound barrier of comedy. And I was thinking, I don't think that's what's gonna happen. So what did happen, what did happen is that I didn't do that and thought of some stories probably best. And because I was new and nervous, I did. By today's standards, I did, you know, like, that was okay. I'm sure it wasn't. I didn't have the confidence or I think people hadn't tuned into my rhythm yet too.

[David Gordon Green]

And there's no way to know which way Dave Letterman would have gone with that. He could have liked it or he could have really.

[Conan O'Brien]

I think he loathed it. Yeah.

[Sona Movsesian]

Any normal person.

[Conan O'Brien]

And I. I absolutely like when he does it, how we feel deranged.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah.

[Conan O'Brien]

And so that's just for you comedy nerds out there. That's the world I was in. In where Robert Smigel, and God bless you, Robert, still the funniest, most prolific. It's Robert Smigel or Jim Downey, take your pick. These are just insanely top of the best comedy writers. Prolific and so essential to the DNA of my late night show. And that he was pushing me to do that.

[Sona Movsesian]

That's crazy.

[Conan O'Brien]

And if I had said to him, okay, I'm gonna do it, he wouldn't have stopped me. He wouldn't have stopped me. He wouldn't have said, you know, he wouldn't have chased me down to the west side and said, wait, wait, I thought about it, I thought about it. Don't do it. And there's an alternate universe. I don't know if you guys in the sci fi world, you know, where there's an alternate universe where things play out differently. There's an alternate universe somewhere where I come out and Dave says, conan, how's it going? There with the new late night show. Well, Dave, I. It gotta put be honest.

[Sona Movsesian]

Oh, my God. That would have. That Conan is just like working in accounting or something.

[David Gordon Green]

Although I do like this part where he's just frozen and you and I can just have a conversation.

[Sona Movsesian]

Yeah, but we never would have met.

[David Gordon Green]

No, that's true, but we have it now, so let's not waste this talking about him. Yeah, and maybe you and I could just talk about some.

[Sona Movsesian]

Which comedy bit do you think triggered that memory from? Do you think it was sanitized pirate? Or when he picked up the tissue and went, tissue? I barely even know you.

[Conan O'Brien]

I did hold a wet wipe in a perfect square to my eye during one of the breaks, and I put it over my eye and said, hey, check it out. Sanitized pirate. I do it sort of a la Robin Williams, you know? Ooh. You know, sanitized pirate. There's no. I don't know what's wrong. I need to go to a doctor and there is a hospital half a.

[Sona Movsesian]

Block down from where we do this. Yeah, so close. The medical center.

[Conan O'Brien]

We need to get me there. But that is just. I'm just telling, you know, longtime fans that Maybe there's a 1% chance it would have catapulted me into a new realm.

[David Gordon Green]

That's the thing, is there is that you'll never know. Tiny chance where it could have been this stellar, almost pre viral moment, but there's also this big chance of like, oh, you know, it could have killed me.

[Conan O'Brien]

This is upsetting.

[David Gordon Green]

Could have killed you.

[Sona Movsesian]

Oh, yeah, easily.

[Conan O'Brien]

It would have killed me. Yeah, it would have killed me.

[Sona Movsesian]

There's no Internet now. It's not like people can share it and be like, look what this guy did.

[Conan O'Brien]

Right? Exactly. There was no intervention. Something's wrong with this guy. Yeah. And then canceled the next day. Internet can sometimes save you because people can be really upset about something and then they. The Internet rallies behind you and they realize, oh, no, no. People out there get what he was trying to do. Anyway, that's just something that came to mind. I wanted to share it. I thought that was worth our time.

[Sona Movsesian]

It makes Robert look crazy.

[Conan O'Brien]

I love you, Robert. You're a genius. And who knows? Maybe you were. We'll never ever know. Peace out Tupac.

[David Gordon Green]

Conan o' Brien Needs a friend With Conan o' Brien Sonam of Session and Matt Gourley Produced by me, Matt Gourley executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and Nick Leow Theme song by the White Stripes Incidental music by Jimmy Vivino Take it away. Jimmy. Our supervising Producer is Aaron Blair and our Associate Talent Producer is Jennifer. Samples, engineering and mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns. Additional production support by Mars Melnick Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Bautista and Brit Kahn. You can rate and review this show on Apple Podcasts and you might find your review read on a future episode. Got a question for Conan? Call the Team Coco hotline at 669-52847 and leave a message. It too could be featured on a future episode. You can also get three free months of SiriusXM when you sign [e-mail] Conan and if you haven't already, please subscribe to Conan O' Brien needs a Friend wherever fine podcasts are downloaded.

[Adam Devine]

Hey, this is Jeff Lewis from Radio Andy Live and Uncensored.

[Conan O'Brien]

Catch me talking with my friends about.

[Adam Devine]

My latest obsessions, relationship issues and bodily ailments. With that kind of drama that seems to follow me, you never know what's going to happen.

[Sona Movsesian]

You can listen to Jeff Lewis live at home or anywhere you are. Download the SiriusXM app for over 425 channels of AD, free music, sports, entertainment and more. Subscribe now and get 3 months free offer Details Apply.

[Conan O'Brien]

Pass it on.

[David Gordon Green]

Today my bank made a big mistake, but I forgive them. My server spilled water on me, but I forgave him. My toddler drew lipstick on the wall. Was I ever mad. It got me thinking. I can forgive my bank and my server, but I'm upset with my own kid. I mean, what's most important here? So tonight the two of us are doing lipstick art on paper. Forgiveness is in you. Pass it on dot com.