Staff Review With Todd Levin

Podcast: Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Date: March 5, 2026
Guest: Todd Levin (Conan’s longtime writer)
Host: Conan O’Brien
Producer/Engineer: Eduardo Perez

Episode Overview

In this engaging episode, Conan brings up one of his key writers, Todd Levin, for a candid and playfully deep-dive “staff review.” Leaning into their long-standing collaborative partnership, Conan and Todd reflect on the evolution of comedy writing, the unique culture inside Conan’s writers’ room, and the creative and sometimes chaotic process behind memorable “Late Night” and “Tonight Show” bits. The episode brims with warmth, inside jokes, and a treasure trove of backstage stories—especially for fans curious about how quirky comedy comes to life.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Todd Levin’s Arrival & Early Days (00:13 - 02:00)

• Backstory: Todd joined Conan’s team in 2009, just as Conan was leaving “Late Night” in New York to (briefly) helm “The Tonight Show.”
• Comedy as Career: Both Todd and Conan share that comedy felt like an otherworldly pursuit growing up in non-entertainment households—“show business is this thing that exists on Jupiter and it’s done by aliens.” (Conan, 05:02)
• Parental Influence: Todd credits his father’s record collection (Bob Newhart, Cosby) and relaxed movie rules for nurturing his love for comedy, paralleling Conan’s own upbringing.

2. Standup Comedy & “Alternative” Scenes (06:20 - 09:00)

• Finding His Style: Todd started by reading pre-written bits on stage à la Newhart’s reserved style, then slowly grew more comfortable improvising.
• The Alternative Scene: He describes New York’s late-90s/2000s alt-comedy spaces (Rafifi, Luna Lounge, UCB), highlighting the welcoming vibe for experimental humor—versus the more “combative” atmosphere of traditional clubs.
• Stand-out Quote:
  “In the alternative rooms, you’re kind of like, well, this will make you like me … [but in clubs] it’s more of a struggle, like, I have to make these idiots like me in my brain.” (Todd, 08:51)

3. Jumping Into TV Writing (09:34 - 10:57)

• First TV Job: Todd confesses that “Late Night with Conan” was his first real writing gig—a daunting leap for a huge fan who felt unworthy at first, even nearly taking a lower-profile VH1 job instead.
• Playful Regret:
  “I’d love it if you had turned us down and worked on ridiculousness.” (Conan, 10:56)

4. Favorite Bits and Legendary Skits (11:12 - 16:50)

• Minty the Candy Cane:
  • Todd’s first real “breakthrough” bit: a holiday sketch about a candy cane (“Minty”) that briefly fell on the ground—a simple, old-timey musical number sung by Brian Stack and performed by Brian McCann.
  • "Minty, the candy cane who briefly fell on the ground. Now he's covered in goo." (Conan & Todd, 12:22-12:28)
• Human Centipede Menorah:
  • A surreal, boundary-pushing Hanukkah bit riffing off the horror film. Todd recalls Patton Oswalt being “horrified” by it and cast members forming a “shared trauma bond.”
  • "Take something monstrous and make people have to celebrate it … or take something sweet and make it monstrous." (Todd, 16:50-16:58)
• Wiki Bear:
  • A children’s toy parody where an innocent-looking bear offers bizarre, dark Wikipedia facts—pivoting mid-answer to macabre trivia (like Ed Gein’s lampshades).
  • "Speaking of bright ideas … Ed Gein made lampshades out of human skin." (Conan as Wiki Bear, 18:01)
• The Man with Bulletproof Legs:
  • Brian McCann’s physical comedy, super-short shorts, and recurring “self-satisfied” bit where his bulletproof legs inevitably fail to prevent his demise.

5. The Writing Process: Ownership & Risk (19:18 - 24:38)

• Autonomy in Conan’s Room:
  • Todd was shocked—and later exhilarated—by how much responsibility writers have at Conan’s show: “You’re kind of expected to not just write your bits, but produce them and, in a sense, direct them as well.” (19:33)
• Learning by Immersion:
  • Conan credits SNL’s Lorne Michaels for this sink-or-swim creative model—writers interface with every aspect, from designers to editors, which breeds ownership (20:37–21:05)
• Creative Resourcefulness:
  • Sometimes, writers’ ambitions outpace common sense or budget:
    “Why is Minty made out of silver? Because that’s the way I thought of it.” (Conan, 21:52)
• Example of Excess:
  • Todd and Dan Cronin’s “Del Taco Delivery System” bit: a fake ad for a device that recognizes when the toilet is flushed, signals stomach readiness, and delivers burritos accordingly—a joke that ballooned into a needlessly elaborate, expensive sketch.
  • “It became so ambitious where … it opens up like a third eye and takes you to this place of nirvana, where everything’s perfectly in sync. It was so expensive.” (Todd, 22:45–23:20)

6. The Joy (and Risk) of Pushing Boundaries (24:14 - 24:38)

• Trying to "Break Conan":
  • A running motivation for the writers was to push Conan and see what might slip onto the show:
    “So much of what I felt I was trying to do as a writer was to break you because you’ve seen so much. … There’s that kind of line between okay, that’ll work for the show, and I want to see that on the show.” (Todd, 24:14)
• Conan’s Playful Antagonism:
  • Conan admits to “salivating” when a bit bombed, going into full roast mode, much to the writers’ horror and amusement (25:01–26:37).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• "You’re like a ninja, an assassin … you’re quiet ... then you’ll say something hilarious and write something great, but there’s not a lot of, you know, babbling and ‘hey, look at me.’"
  — Conan, praising Todd’s low-key style (02:30)
• “My favorite era of singing is about 1914—megaphone singing.”
  — Conan, on the retro flair of the Minty bit (12:40)
• “He had a license plate that said ‘Tonight Show for Life’ ... it wasn’t even legal!”
  — Conan, ribbing Todd’s optimism before “The Tonight Show” tenure (01:35)
• “There’s no past. There’s only the present. Time is a loop.”
  — Conan, on the ephemeral nature of comedy and mockery (26:38)
• “Time flattens everything.”
  — Todd, on surviving showbiz ups and downs (26:37)

Timestamps of Key Segments

| Timestamp | Topic | |-----------|-------| | 00:13 | Welcoming Todd Levin; 2009 "Late Night" era | | 03:32 | Todd's journey: early comedy influences | | 06:59 | Entering the NYC alternative comedy scene | | 09:34 | Getting his first TV job with Conan | | 11:25 | Bit breakdown: "Minty the Candy Cane" | | 15:07 | Bit breakdown: "Human Centipede Menorah" | | 16:46 | Comedic themes: sweet/monstrous combo | | 17:11 | Bit breakdown: "Wiki Bear" | | 19:18 | Adjusting to the hands-on Conan writers' room | | 22:02 | Ambitious/failed sketches: "Del Taco Delivery System" | | 24:14 | Trying to "break" Conan | | 25:01 | What happens when a bit bombs | | 26:37 | Finale: Gratitude, mockery, and showbiz time loops |

Final Notes

With affection, humility, and typical Team Coco irreverence, this episode is a backstage pass for comedy nerds. It reflects how writerly obsessions, mad creative risks, and the joyful agony of bombing are as much a part of the show’s DNA as Conan’s hair or dance moves. Todd and Conan’s mutual respect—buoyed by decades of inside jokes—makes for one of the most intimate and illuminating “writer’s room” episodes yet.