Conan and Sona in Morocco

Hey there, welcome to Conan O'Brien, Needs a Friend. [music playing]

I'm joined as always by Sonna Movesesian.

Hello. This is kind of a special moment in our podcast because we at the moment are in a car in Morocco. Sonna and I are in the backseat of the car. Yep.

“Blay is in the front seat shooting us, I think, for video capture.”

And Rashid is our driver. Hello Rashid. Rashid is helping us out. He's driving and I may occasionally ask Rashid for any kind of help we might need, like content or humor.

That's good. Yeah. So here's the story. Shooting an episode along with Sonna of Conan O'Brien Musco, a visited a fan who is in Casablanca.

Yeah. So we flew into Casablanca, right? And we shot there for what two days? Yeah.

We were there for two nights.

Mm-hmm. And we hung out with our fan who was very cool. And we had a good time with him. Yes, sir. Then can you say his name?

Uh-huh. We allowed to? Yes. Yeah, I'll go ahead. Yes, sir.

Yeah. Yeah, he's cool guy. Yeah, well, what did you say can we say his name? I don't know.

“Is this, we can talk openly and say all the things?”

Well, yeah, we're safe. We're far from America when the backseat of a car. I'm driving through the desert. So you can say whatever you want. Okay, I didn't know how much of the episode.

Yeah. You wanted to discuss it because I, I wish, I should have asked questions before we record it. This is okay. I was talking about how we do it. And I just started.

You started making yourself laugh really hard. I was going to launch into, you know, why we're here, where in the country we are, some of the customs and traditions. But you seconds before we started recording started laughing really hard. And they asked you why.

And you said, because there was that famous song, right? This is how we do it. And then you said online, there was a guy whose name is how we do it, right? And why don't you tell us when you, when you get yourself under control? There's a picture of this guy.

He's just a guy. And his name is Howie. His first name is Howie. And his last name is Do It. And then it just has the song looping that's saying,

"This is how we do it." Right.

“Um, and how long were you, how long were you watching that for?”

I mean, it's not how long I watched it. One time it's how many times do I watch it. Okay. It'll make a week. And what made you start laughing about this now in, in deep in Morocco,

whether the Algerian border. I don't know. Okay. I have no idea, but it was also somebody saying the song, and it makes me instantly think of that. I'm sorry, you know what? Ooh.

Well, that was cool. We were almost, almost hit the car ahead of us. Anyway, I'm sorry. That was not Rashid's fault because the car ahead of us hit the brakes. No. And it was a mom walking her child across the street.

Yeah. Which is illegal. She shouldn't have to do that. Okay. So let me give everyone, now that we got, this is how we do it on your, uh, have your system.

We went to Casa Blanca, right? Then we, we finished up with the fan, and it's time to go to the desert. Okay. Here's, I thought it was a funny part of the whole situation. We're at the airport in Casa Blanca. Yeah.

And we can't leave because, somehow, our papers weren't in order. Yeah. And we couldn't get on our plane, so we were stuck in Casa Blanca, because we didn't have our paper's ring. Of course I nod to the famous film, Casa Blanca.

And, um, and what's the whole plot of Casa Blanca? No one can leave because they don't have their exit visas, they're trapped. And so I kept going up to the officials and saying, "You've got to help me, Reak. You've got to help me, Reak." Like Peter, Laurie, and didn't know what I was talking about.

Oh, they didn't know? No, no, they didn't know. And, um, I was jailed for a while. Oh, maybe if you went as Elsa, they would have been like... You know what? That was my mistake.

I should have dressed up as Elsa. Yeah, that would have been nice. Um, or else Humphrey Bogart. Yeah, she, yeah, she, you know, just said, yeah, she. Yeah, no, you should have done that.

We were there for, what, four hours? Yeah, but we were only supposed to be there for 20 minutes. And, anyone who knows me knows, I can do Peter, Laurie, going, "I need my papers, wait, I can do that for four hours, easily." I could have gotten it for three days.

You could. And you know what, when people don't get something I'm doing, I love it, and I do it. I go twice as hard. I know, I know.

Do you ever get tired of your own bits? Oh, God, no. Is there ever a time when you're like, "Oh, this is... I've been doing this for a long time." Oh, no, no.

I'm always just so happy to be trapped inside this guy.

Okay, what a weird way to put it. Finally, we get out of Casa Blanca, right? We get out of Casa Blanca, and we fly.

Yeah.

“Way to the east, right to the border because we want to have some, that sweet Sahara sand look, you know,”

the classic look of camels and dunes. What was the name of the place we stayed play? Uh, yeah, it was in, it was in. For, uh, this is a, this is a mayor's so God. Mayor's so God.

Mayor's so God. Mayor's so God. Mayor's so God. Mayor's so God. We stayed in Marzoa, okay?

And we hung out there, and it was incredibly hot. So hot that our camera equipment could fry. Yeah. We could melt down if we didn't, uh, keep it cool enough. And boy, did we found a place?

I'm never supposed to hang out, didn't we?

Oh, my God. I mean, it was 105 in the shade. Uh, it was incredible. Just the, just the elements are working against your biology. Yeah.

And I saw it in real time. Yeah, but it was fine. And it's beautiful. Yeah, it is. And you and I had some adventures there.

Uh, we had a very special treatment that'll be featured in the show, where we get buried in sand, you and I, which is incredibly hot when they first do it. And you think you're going to die. Mm-hmm. And then your body shuts down.

You don't feel it anymore. So that was fun. And yeah, I died for a while. Oh, they had to resuscitate me. They didn't know that, but me.

It was metovac to a hospital in Aspen, Colorado. And then flown back to the shoot.

“So that's why this remote is taking us over nine years to shoot.”

Then, today was the day where we need to drive, because we're now making our way to Marrakesh. Yeah. So to get to Marrakesh is a very long drive. We are on our way to Quarza Zate.

Quarza Zate. Is our right Rashid? Quarza Zate. Quarza Zate. I think the way I said it was more accurate for Rashid.

Oh, my God. It was so rude of you to correct me. Do I correct you when you say "Newton North" or "Brooklyn High"?

Two things he's never said in his life would never say.

I don't know, and he says, "Hey, let's go over to Roxbury." And let's get a roast beef sandwich at Busy's roast beef. I don't start parsing his pronunciations. Anyway, we are gonna fly from Quarza Zate to Marrakesh. Then we'll be in Marrakesh and we'll shoot there.

And Marrakesh is gonna have, that's gonna be a little more lux. I think, it's gonna be a lot of shops and bazaars and stores. You may be buying something.

“A lot of you'll buy it, you can buy them, you'll a lot of stuff.”

Well, I don't know, I can, I don't have a lot of money. Okay, I'm very famously, I've not done well. I'll just charge it to the show. You can't. Okay, I just want a lot of stuff.

I want a bag, I want stuff for the boys. No, it's something for tech. I want stuff for my house. Okay. I'm just gonna end that now.

Okay. Yeah, I'm just gonna end that now. So we are on our way to Marrakesh and that got me thinking, it would be great if we could sing a song in the car about going to Marrakesh and then, of course, there's that Crosby Stills Nash song.

I thought you were gonna say this is how we do it. No. That was my second thought, but not my first thought. You know, but you know this song, all aboard that train, me to Marrakesh, all aboard.

Well listen, I bring it up for a reason, I've never liked that song.

Oh, no! I don't love that song and it's the only song I know that's about Marrakesh. And so I thought we should come up with our own song about Marrakesh. Okay. And then maybe we can use it on this travel show.

Oh, that sounds fun. If it catches on, we all on the rights. Yeah, if it catches on, you know I'm tone deaf, but it's okay, I'll do my best. Yeah, so what are you thinking? Any ideas for song on our way to Marrakesh?

Marrakesh, oh, Marrakesh, it's a land of things to buy. You weren't kidding when you said tone deaf, it's for God. Really bad. You can't, um, uh, Marrakesh. What?

What are you doing? What are you contributing to being? You sound like you're not even that interested in Marrakesh. You're like, like Marrakesh passed you, it's near but it's kind of across the street. You don't really want to say hi to Marrakesh, you want to, uh, Marrakesh.

Do you know what I mean? You don't want to stop and chat with Marrakesh. It's the posterity. It's revelatory. You've got some beef with Marrakesh, but you still kind of like Marrakesh, but you're

not ready to talk yet. That's the way you just greeted Marrakesh. Maybe it's a distract from Marrakesh. Yo, this is Marrakesh, Marrakesh can suck it.

No, no, no, I don't want to go that way. Yeah. I'm actually like, I don't mean it because I'm actually really excited. No one, you know the great thing about you son and no one listens to anything you're saying, they sort of, they get the gist, but no one's, no one would be offended, even

in living in Marrakesh.

When I first started singing the O-Marrakesh one, that was me kind of trying to do O-Canada

“both O-Marrakesh, and it didn't work, but what's yours?”

Moving along, along the Marrakesh, moving along, along the Marrakesh, I put my troubles on the back of the camel, moving along, I got to go to Marrakesh, break down. No, when you beatboxed, you kill it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, when you, when you, also what genre was that? I don't know.

It started folky, and then you started doing a beatbox, and that doesn't make sense. Okay, hold on, well, sometimes you're supposed to mix genres, and that creates a whole new genre, and then you remembered forever. Oh, you're being an innovator. Yeah.

Well, anyway, we'll think about that. I don't know the between us, we're going to come up with a song. Marrakesh. Marrakesh. Marrakesh.

I don't know how to come up with it. Marrakesh. Um, hey, I want to have a sash in Marrakesh, like it was not such short-for-session sash. Sash, yeah.

I want to. But what kind of sash? Sex sash.

I want to have a sex sash in Marrakesh.

I want to have a sash. Hey, Rashid is laughing. Rashid, you like this? I want it. What's that?

You like it? I'm going to have a sex sash in Marrakesh. Yeah. He liked it. He loved it.

“I think anyone's ever called it a sash before.”

Well, you know, a sex sash. A sex sash is you're having, you're hooking up. You're knocking boots, but you're also keeping records for your tax attorney. You're monitoring the time. You're making sure that any suggestions made during sex are kept and sent to an inter-off

as memo. I'm going to have a sex sash in Marrakesh. I don't know. It's a least sexiest song I think I've ever heard. Well, but one of the least sexiest, not the least sexiest.

That means it's kind of sexy. Do you want it? Oh, I guess. Yeah. No.

It's just a bad song. What do you think so far? What are your observations about Marrako? First of all, I love how they drive. I think Americans are a little uptight, but these guys, you know, if someone's in front

of them and they're driving slow, they just pass them. Yeah, even if cars are coming in the other direction, even if they pass, and even if everyone's killed, they still don't mind. Yeah. Oh, God.

Another thing that I have noticed, the food is great.

I mean, Marrako is always great.

Every meal has it. Every meal we have is fantastic. Sweet. And then I realized on this trip, I love camels. And then camels are cool.

The very smart, they seem like they have the very soulful. Yes. And man, you're up so high when you're on a camel. It's fantastic. I almost fell off getting on and off.

That would've been good. I mean, it's, no, it would've been good footage if you fell off, because if we could play it, you're falling and then loop backwards and then falling off again and backwards and put the sound effects on it.

“Boy, I don't know why that's what you think of.”

You should have it. How about like, oh, I'm so glad you didn't. So nice that you didn't fall off the time. Yeah, it's really funny to put a sound effect to someone not falling off a camel. That's hilarious.

What are you doing up there? Well, I'm perfectly comfortable and I'm setting a very steady on this camel. Boy, that's not funny. Come on. You can't do that.

Yo-yo sound. Boy, boy, boy, boy. But anyway. I would enjoy the desert as well. You don't really loved your, if you had done America's funniest home videos, but all the

videos were a kid walking very carefully around a pool and not falling. Someone walking in with a tray of meatballs and then them fall off, but you put funny sound effects to it. Yeah. Chris and meatballs and they look just fine.

Boy, I only knew other than that. As they set them down on the table and nothing bad happens. Wouldn't that be a great America's funniest home videos? You just make normal mundane videos? Yeah.

Oh, there's grandpa on the, uh, his grandpa on the diving board and, oh, that was a nice, simple dive and he seems fine. Boy, I'm going to have a success. I don't like how you're doubling down on this, the song, the success in America's. It doesn't even roll off the tongue.

Can you say it three times fast? I'm going to have a success in America's. I'm going to have a success in America's. I'm going to have a success in America's. I'm going to have a success.

It's not, you know, the success in America's. I'm going to have a success in America's. I'm going to have a success in America's. Okay, that was good. Not bad.

Yeah, not bad. This will catch on. It would be huge. Not long. Help where you go.

It's going to be my trout, my trout is going to be huge.

Yeah, it's going to be huge. What? He's going to be huge. Can you hear the worst impressionists? Really, I'm bad.

Yeah. But I, you know, what? I commit. I tried. You do it.

No, I can't do it. He's, he's not a big enough figure. And he's not, I don't think enough people sort of know how he talks or find him ridiculous.

“So how can you, how can you do an impression of someone like that?”

Oh, I just did. - So, you can't do it that way. - You're running along, rolling along, or on our way, to the next flight, this has been a lot of travel. But you know what, I've noticed,

when we sit down and have the food, I keep thinking the same thing, and I keep saying, Sonna, is this what it's like in your family? Because it's lots of plates that are filled with various dips

and breads, and everyone reaches in and glute glute glute. And I thought this must be very much your home, and everyone's sort of shouting and having fun. I mean, our crew. - You were asking this question,

I couldn't tell if you were like making fun of me. - No, no, no, no, you were actually saying it. - You are a meanie, and you were a Moroccan. - Yes. - But I've noticed that there are certain similarities.

There's Boba Gnuch, which you love. There's various flat breads. There's a lot of fresh, wholesome, vegetable,

and of course, the chickens are amazing.

- They're so good. - But it just made me think of your family. - It's like a collection of little plates and dips and bread, and then the main dishes. - Yes, in that way, yes.

And are we loud? - Yeah. - You guys are very loud. - Oh, come on. You guys were loud.

Six kids. - Nothing like you. - You are the loudest person. You're the loudest mammal of encountered. (laughing)

- I mean, including other, you know, let me just, it's incredible. - I know. - I want stride. - Am I?

- I want stride to help. - Pretty loud. - I want to try to help a bear that was screaming for its life out of a bear trap. And you were twice as loud as that bear.

And when I let the bear out of the trap, it attacked me because it was my trap. - I have a hard time. - I set the trap. - I'm moving on.

I had a hard time believing you and your five siblings. - We were loud. - We were like precious sitting, eating your ham, and your potatoes, and your boiled food. - Each one of us had our own ham

and it hung on a rope above where we sat at the table. So there were six kids, my mom and my dad, and my grandmother. So that's nine ham's hanging from nine ropes around a circular table in the kitchen

on Canard Road and Brooklyn. And--

“- Is it like oxygen, oxygen masks falling for a minute?”

- Yeah, in an emergency, a ham would drop down. And we'd all bad at it and die out of it, die out of it. And then, you know, that scene in the first Jurassic Park where when it's over, the person on the roof would raise the ham's and they would come up

and it was just bones. And pieces of metal twisted cage, but I just added the cage in there. - So, you were loud too, but we're loud. - We've drifted, anyone who's tuning in right now

has no idea that we're in the back seat of a car driving through the desert in Morocco on our way to Marrakesh. - Yeah, if you're just tuning in to this podcast. - If you're just tuning in, well, I don't know how it works.

- How do you not know how it works? It's been like eight years that you've been doing what? - Picasso didn't understand how the paints were made. - He used the medium in a masterful way and defined a generation, really created 20th century art.

So, I think I'm doing the same thing with whatever this is. I don't even have to know what it is. - Oh my god.

- And this is cool, I've never been to Marrakesh of you.

- I've never been to Africa. - Oh, that's right. - I've never been to Africa. And we, I haven't traveled with you since like 2017, I think. - Right, it's been fun having you.

I will say that, you've been a great addition. - I've been having it. - We've been having a really good time.

“And if you couldn't come for a long time”

because your kids were so little, now they're old enough. You were face-timing within the other day and I got on and they get, they know who I am, obviously. And I mean, they're, they're, they're Godfather.

- Yeah. - I'm gonna make one love for the game, if you. - Isn't that funny? That's pretty topical. - Yeah, that's good.

- That's very topical. - Yeah. - And it's all the rage right now. - That's a movie. - Godfather.

- Yeah. - You've only a power. If you don't want your skill, then I want his mother to feel like this. - Is that Trump?

- That's my Trump. (laughing) - You've only a power. You've only a power on the economy. - That's, you know what's funny?

I'm doing little comedy right now. - Yeah, I know. - It's very edgy. - Yeah. - And also, then York Times is gonna love it

'cause it's very smart and incisive. - You know what? - Yeah. - Oh, I'm gonna do it, who are you ready? - And I'm gonna make one off of the Game of Youth.

- Right? That's just, I mean, that's, I'm gonna get all of the best prizes for being smart. - But they can refuse it and they have refused it.

oh, this is, I can't believe I'm a satirist now.

- Yeah, you are. - Okay. - I'm pretty incisive. - But yeah, no, you're their godfather. They saw you.

They were really excited. They love their uncle Conan. - But what I'm saying is they can now handle you taking off, so maybe you'll come on more trips. - Yeah.

I would love to come on more trips. This has been so fun. It's nice. It's nice for me to get away.

“- And how does Tank do looking after the kids when you're gone?”

- He's great. He's such a good dad and he's able to handle it. He's on top of it. He feeds them, get some ready for school. Take some all by after school stuff.

- Okay, it's getting boring. When you said feats, I was like, okay, now we're gonna go down the list of feeding basic human needs. (laughing)

He waters them. - He makes sure the-- - How nervous was Liza every time she left you alone with your children. - Do you think she left me alone with the kids?

- No, one's no. - No, no, she would not. - I will leave her. - She would better. - I would use them for bits and they would be lost.

I'd say I don't know where they were. The whole bit was they get on the bus and I don't know where it's going. (laughing) - That's the bit, Liza.

So no, Liza's an incredibly smart woman. - Yes. - That's the last thing she would ever do. - Yes.

- And here's the thing, oh wow.

- Rashid, so Rashid peaks around the truck. Look at this, then he guns it and passes the truck. Never she did, if you ever had a close call where you came around to go forward and then you almost got nailed.

You know what? What are you saying? He doesn't want to talk about it. (laughing) - Wait, when do you go off road?

- I don't know, today no. - Okay. - Today no. - Have you ever gotten close to an accident? - accident for less than what?

- No, last night. - Last night. - No one said last night. - No one said last night. - Rashid you just, you just, you just, you're covered. (laughing) Rashid you're wanting for a hidden run. (laughing)

Lookin' for you. (laughing) No wonder the front of the car, the last night. - Last night. (laughing) - Rashid you would be terrible in police questioning.

“- Sarah, do you want anything about a crime last night?”

- Murder last night. (laughing) - Me? (laughing) - The sorority? (laughing) - Rashid? - Oh my god, all right.

Rashid you're gonna have to be a regular part of the podcast now. You're coming with us to Los Angeles. - Yay! - You're gonna live with Sonah and Tak

and all of her relatives. You'll sit at a long table. - We don't all live in one house. - Oh please, you know you will. - That's not how it works.

- Guys, sleep in a bunk bed. It's 13, 13 beds tall. Your dad's on the top, right? You put a little weight on his mustache. So it unfolds over the side of the bunk bed.

(laughing) - I love Gill, you know that. But he has a mustache. (laughing) It's ridiculous.

- Don't say it's ridiculous. - What? - Gill's mustache is not ridiculous. - No, no, he's a handsome man, he's a good guy, but it makes him very easy.

I can become Gill at any time by just sticking a napkin under my nose. He's saying Sonah, Sonah, it's one of my better things that I do. - Is that better?

- It's my best impression, it's better than my tromp. (laughing) - I'm gonna make you awesome, I can't refuse. I only do that 'cause the movie's so new. (laughing)

All right, Sonah, we're gonna wrap it up, but this is exciting. People are gonna hear this back home. - Yeah. - And this is, and look, I'm gonna lower the window

and you're just gonna hear what it's like outside in Morocco. This is, you can hear the desert, listen. - Wow. I'm sorry, me talking about tech, feeding the kids was boring.

I'm trying to be international here, hold on a second.

There's a, oh, there's a policeman and he's looking at me holding the microphone out the window. Oh wait, he's looking scrolling through his phone, we're okay. Anyway, I put the microphone out the window

and it's just air passing over a microphone. I didn't really think that through, but I thought it was still fascinating and a worthwhile experiment. Okay, well, Sonah, I love this trip.

I can't wait for people to see what we've been up to. - Yes. - And let's continue with your regularly scheduled podcast

“and remember, go and I have a sexish, in marriage case.”

- Right? - No, I like mine better. - Okay, peace out. - Conan O'Brien needs a friend. With Conan O'Brien, Sonah Mavsessian and Macquarlie.

Produce by me, Macquarlie. Executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross and Nick Leow. Theme song by The White Stripes. Incidental music by Jimmy Vavina. Take it away, Jimmy.

Our supervising producer is Aaron Blair and our associate talent producer is Jennifer Samples. Engineering in Mixing by Eduardo Perez and Brendan Burns, additional production support by Mars Melnik. Talent booking by Paula Davis, Gina Batista and Britcon.

and you might find your review red on a future episode.

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