Topromote his new remote special Conan Without Borders: Berlin airing tomorrow night, Conan O’Brien recently chatted with a group of reporters including Esquire, and after explaining why he prefers to travel the world as the late night clown over being more of a late night political satirist (“There’s an inappropriate, awkward man in every culture, and I can be that guyâ€), O’Brien revealed one idea for a remote special he’s been working on that would involve some help from Nick Offerman and a much shorter flight:
After the election, I gave a talk at the top of the show and tried address the elephant in the room that this election has happened and half the people are ecstatic and half the people are miserable. The next day, I get an email from Sarah Vowell, the NPR commentator. We’re both history buffs. She said, “I like what you said. I love these travel shows you do. You should do one where you go to Middle America or the Rust Belt.†I wrote back and said that’s a fantastic idea, would you go with me? And she said, “I would go with you, but also it would be great if you took Nick Offerman†[because] in addition to being an incredible comedian and terrific actor, he grew up on, like, a soybean farm and builds furniture with his hands and comes from that culture and is not condescending about it. So I actually talked to Nick about it the other day. I love the idea that Sarah was pitching, but I want to make sure that it was a show that would have appeal both ways. Meaning that, regardless of how you voted, there would be appeal there, and it would be just funny. We wouldn’t be talking about who you voted for. The idea would not be, “You’re in a flyover state, ha-ha!†It would be a tricky balance to make sure that was the case.
Since 2015, O’Brien has traveled to Cuba, Armenia, Qatar, South Korea, and now Germany. Check out the rest of his interview over at Esquire.