Cover Your Hole

- Conan O'Brien needs a fan. Wanna talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com/callconan. Okay, let's get started.

“- Hey, Philip, welcome to Conan O'Brien needs a fan.”

Hey, guys. Hey, Philip, how are you? - I'm doing well, how are you? - I'm just gonna comment right away and I encourage our listeners to watch the video.

You've got one of the most neatly curated beards I've seen in my life. I mean, it's incredible. I feel like you had a jeweler come in (laughing)

and maintain your beer. - Yes. - Impressive. - Very impressive. Philip, tell us a little bit about yourself.

Where do you live? Where do you come into us from right now? - So I live in the Weemsburg, Virginia area. So colonial Weemsburg, have you ever been here? - Right, right in that area, Eastern Virginia.

- So yeah, this is live at? - And tell us about yourself. What makes you tick Philip? - All right, well, I grew up in this area.

So I've always been a huge fan of history.

- Yep. - So love history. I live here, I'm married to my wife Karen. She's a high school math teacher. I have two teenage boys.

We love being outside. Whether it's in the woods, hiking, boating, whatever it may be. So that's kind of our world. - Okay, I feel like this is a dating app now.

(laughing) And I like, you swipe right, if you're a sitter left, swipe right, right, right. - You swipe right, if you're really interested, you swipe up for a super swipe.

- Get out. - Yeah, that's right. - I just swipe you up Philip. - Yeah, super close. - Because you like history, which I love.

Now I see in my notes here, it says you're a relic hunter. I don't really know much about that. What do you do? - So it's a hobby, it's so relic hunting.

If you've, it's kind of like using a metal detector. - To grow fine. - Okay, so you can go out looking for, well, yes, if you're in Williamsburg, Virginia, you've got lots of stuff.

I mean, mostly, there's a lot, probably civil war stuff.

And there's probably also revolutionary war.

What else? - Absolutely. - Absolutely. - That sounds like you had hit Kader. - Go ahead.

- Yeah, so growing up in this area, it was sort of all around me. I live right between James Town, Colonial Williamsburg, Yorktown, Cold Harbor, all the battles outside of Richmond area.

So it kind of grew up right at the epicenter of that sort of history. And so what are you finding? When you got your metal detector, what are the things you're pulling out of the ground

that are exciting to you? - I don't, I also just, we find bullets, civil war bullets, American Revolutionary bullets. We find buckles, sometimes old cannonballs and artillery shells and buttons and coins

and all sorts of things. - What's one of the coolest things you ever found? Like you pulled it out of the ground and you thought this is awesome. And one of the coolest things I've found was a posy ring.

It's called, it's Colonial posy ring is the name of it. It's a gold ring that they would have a young man would have shared with a young woman back in Colonial times.

And when I first found it, I thought it was just simply,

I'm not sure what it was. And then when I got home and cleaned it up, I realized what it was. And inside of it it has some old gothic script. I think it says, I choose the,

I actually have some stuff over here. I have this so cool. - That's so cool. - That's amazing. - How well you can see that.

- And now, I swiped up and now you're proposing to me. (laughing)

“That's right, that's how things happen on this.”

This is one fast app. (laughing) That is so cool and poignant and sad and sweet at the same time, you know? - Yeah, well, I mean, I found it in a field

and so often times, you know, people got married much younger during those times than they do today. And so it was much smaller and probably as she got older, she would wear it as a necklace or a charm. And it fell off at some point and laid there

for probably 200 years until one day I dug it out of the ground. - Right. - And does her ghost hunt you now? (laughing) - No, no, that's what I would worry about

when I pull something out of the ground is eventually the ghost or zombie. - No, no. - Would come looking for it. - Zombie. And it says to you once found a live grenade.

- Yeah. - So you find all sorts of things. - But the grenade, say I choose the. (laughing) - Oh no, it did not, fortunately.

- Oh no. - The one there would say there's some of us. - You're so kind to yourself. - Yes, yes, sorry, so proud, you know? - Whatever, it's what I do, it's what I do.

Nice ceiling, Michelangelo.

“- Ah, that's what I do, that's what I do.”

- Sorry. - So what do you find a live grenade? Don't you have to call the police? - Yes, you do. When you're digging, you find all sorts of stuff.

And one of the things I would say is most of the stuff you find when you go hunting or relic hunting

and more beer cans. And anything metal you can think of

“that's been in the ground for a long time.”

So you don't, most of what you find is not worth keeping, it's not civil war or American Revolution. But this particular day, I dug a hole and pulled out the ground.

I wasn't sure what it was at first.

And realized quickly, we live, if you know what I mean about the Hampton Road's area, that's a lot of military bases. - Sure, sure. - We've been in this area for a very long time.

And realized pretty quickly what it was. And moved it, I don't know, I sort of got told, I should've done this later, I picked it up and moved it to a tree line and stuck it next to a tree. I don't know why I did that, I started it.

- Juggling it. (laughing) - Yeah. - Ticking it like a hacksack? - Yeah.

- You kicked it like a hacky sack for 20 minutes. - Yes. - Well, you were listening to a fish out, but there you go. (laughing) - You okay there, son?

It's not pretty hard. - When you left, don't move away from the mic. Get those laughs right in there. - I worked for those. - We'll record.

- Yep. - Okay, for the record, which is it. Sona has the best laugh. - She does have the best laugh, but she has the best. - But Phil, you know what I'm trying to say this.

Phil, this drives me crazy. - What I'm saying is I'll get, I'll say something. She'll laugh real hard and she does this. She fades away from the mic and I'm like, "Those are my laughs."

- My milk mama. - You're here at, wow. - That's sweet milk to me. - You hear them, you want other people to know I'm laughing at you.

That's what that is. - With me, with me, not at me. - Anyway, Phil, we got off on this sidetrack thing. - We just talked about Sona's laugh. - Yeah, let's bring it back to you.

- Yeah, let's get off the sidetrack stuff. - Let me just say, okay, I know. I could hear you said before they call me in the room and they told you guys there was a civil war relic hunter and you're like,

"Oh, I knew that was gonna happen with you." But that's okay. 'Cause I wanted to, nope, but my goal was that she would laugh at some point. Because you guys did real quick,

we're gonna get off the relic hunting stuff for a moment. I listen to you guys all the time in the car on the XM radio. So I listen to you guys, there you go, a little plug for XM. I listen to you guys, so you guys are the voices in my car.

And so we've talked about Sona has the best laugh. - She does it. - You know what? I will agree, you have the best laugh.

Sona, you've always had the best laugh.

And I considered you one of the treasures I pulled out of the ground. - Uh, is that work? - Is that a compliment? - Oh, it was so close.

It was almost close. - You were when I met you, you were dirty. - Yeah, you know that, right? - I feel like you tell people, I like, jump out of a bush when you were at your home.

- So you were at your home? - Yeah. - There was a, maybe the first year of me, knowing it was me brushing you clean. - Oh, that's so sweet.

Thank you so much. Thanks for making me human. - But she had a great laugh. - I was the live grenade, you picked that. - She were in a way.

“- But wait, back to the grenade, so what vintage is the grenade?”

Is it, it's not a, it's not a, it's a Korean. - Oh good, okay. - Korean war air grenade is what I found out later. And so, again, set it next to the street. New, I'd spent over 20 years in the fire department.

These sort of things happen in this area again because of all the military bases. So a new, needed to be done. So I called, called it in. There's a lot, the military base nearby us,

sent their bomb technicians over who examined it and quickly determined that it was a live grenade and that is actually the pinnip in pull-out of it and thrown. But I guess somehow it hit just right and ever exploded

and I moved it with a shovel. And so the guys were not, they were like, you moved that,

you should never move that.

And, but it was really cool. I mean, these guys got out of the truck. They looked like they were extras in a military movie and me tall, the mustache, the whole deal. And they go over and they basically put a thing of C4

and sandbags around it and I have a video of it. - They blew it up. - They blew it up. - Yeah, they did fire the whole fire, the whole fire hole and blew it up.

And I asked him where the little wire was that went from the C4 to the little explosive thing. He was like, no, we do that all by Bluetooth now and so they blew it up with the phone. - Oh my God, that's cool.

- No, but it is a cool, it sounds dangerous to me. Like, I'm there setting up my C4 and I'm packing it around the object I want to blow up when someone near me accesses a song on Bluetooth and I have my face gets blown off

because they wanted to listen to fish. - Yeah, whatever, you know, fish. Just 'cause David needed to hear Hillary Duff. I have to die. (laughing)

- Hey, some things I want to do. (upbeat music)

“- Can you imagine having that job where your job is to blow things up?”

- Yeah. - You know, you have C4 and you have a van

I gotta go blow something else up in a field. - Yeah. - That's a great job. - Is it great? - I think it'd be fantastic. - Oh, I didn't know if you were gonna say greater,

terrifying. - No, I love that.

You get, first of all, your times your own,

you get to drive around, you should probably accompany car. You get C4 that you don't have to take care of. - I like it. - I don't know, I just like a company car. - Kind of, it's just gonna be fun

and you get to see stuff blow up, which would be fun. - Yeah, I don't think that ever gets old. - How do you do, because how do you even know where to look? How do you do, I imagine there's some kind of research involved in finding out what's a good place

to try and find relics, what will be fruitful, because you can't just wander around a big state like Virginia hoping that the thing that sets off your metal detector is a civil war heirloom.

“You have to do some research, I would think, right?”

- Yeah, that's over half of it. It's just spent in the time to study, it's really doorky, but it's a ton of fun, but just look at old maps in history and library congress has maps that you can access online, so you're cool those,

and then figure it out where you can go, but then getting permission to go to this place,

is obviously you can't go to any national parks

or state parks or anything like that. So it's finding private property farmers, people that own land that you ask permission, can I come on your property and dig holes? And can I search for relics for old things

that might be on your property? And a lot of times they'll say no, and sometimes they'll say, yeah, and do they have a deal? Like if you find something valuable, they want to keep it.

- Sometimes, it sort of depends. Some of them, most of them actually don't really care. What I've run into is they just kind of go, I don't really care, I'm not, that's your thing, it's not my thing, so whatever you find.

- There's others who have said, "Hey, I'd really like to see what you find." And then there's others you can maybe work a deal with and go, "Hey, let's split whatever it is we find." - I'm intrigued.

There's part of me that would wanna go around and fool guys like you, like drop things in the ground. Do you know what I mean? Go out and buy, you know, go and buy, like what looks like a night's helmet.

And then drop it in a hole. - I didn't watch them. - And then hide in a bush and watch you guys come by and think that you've found, "Oh my God, King Arthur's Court, "they hung out here in Williamsburg, Virginia."

I know that's a bad thing I'm admitting to, but no, there's people that do that. - No, really? - No, no, no, there's a guy, no, there's a guy here locally who has been known for decades.

It's one of the best replica makers of Civil War, buckles and things like that. And if he made one that wasn't quite perfect, he was known to go in the Cold Harbor area and bury it and hide it and people would find it

and lose their minds. - Oh, man. - I love this guy. - I love this guy. - I love this guy.

- Yeah. - I love this guy. - Hey, can this guy contact me? I will fund your operation. - Yes.

- Yes. - You know, I would be drawing up like a fake getty's burger dress and then dropping it in a hole. - Oh. - You know, so like that, a fake Lincoln's beard.

And a note that says, "If you find my beard, contact A Lincoln, "1600 Pennsylvania Avenue." I would want to see people freak out. - 1600 was he, he couldn't live in the White House. - Lincoln?

- Yeah. - Yeah, the White House was there.

“- Who is the first person to live in the White House?”

- Good question, Thomas Jefferson. - Oh, okay, I didn't know that. - So now there's a Lincoln bedroom. It's like the most famous room in the White House. - Yeah, I just thought it was, I'm sorry.

I was, I'm not sure, I'm the first president.

- It's true. - You thought I lived in a split-level condo in Recida, California. (laughing) - Yeah, I saw that that hot tub the other day. The communal hot tub.

(laughing) - Sorry. - Yeah, I'm not sure. - I'm not sure. - I asked questions, I'm curious.

- Yeah. This is, I mean, this is fascinating to me. I just, because whenever you examine something, you find out that it's a whole ecosystem. There are probably really good artifact hunters,

but there are also probably ones that give you guys a bad name. Do you know what I mean, that breaks some of the rules? - I imagine, yeah. - Well, I mean, it's like in the other--

- Oh, you just got mad. - Oh, you just got mad. - You got mad, yeah? - You got mad. - Yeah, so much fun.

- Well, no name names, don't name names. - No, I mean, there's like any other niche or subculture. There's etiquette, and there are people that that hold to that etiquette and do it respectfully, and there's others that just simply don't.

“- What is the etiquette of treasure hunting like this?”

- Well, one of the things would be just, if you did call, you cover holes, and you'd be just surprised how many people will dig holes in some ice yard and just leave them, which if they have animals like horses and livestock,

they could step in it and get hurt. - Yeah, terrible. - What? - Yeah, and so-- - That didn't feel sincere. - No, I meant that's bad. That's a bad idea. - Oh, okay.

- No, am I real? - If, man,

I've always said that since day one.

And when I meet a guy that doesn't cover his hole, I'm out. (laughing) I'm like, cover that hole, dude. - Cover the hole. - Yeah, I'll try it. - And then every now and then, think it, yeah, I say that all the time in my regular life.

And I'm, I guess what, I'm rarely outside when I say it. - Hey, dude, cover your hole. (laughing) - I'll cover my hole, you cover your hole, I guess, before. - I don't like it when someone covers my hole.

- That's where I draw the line, don't cover my hole. If I said you can't cover my hole, don't cover my hole. (laughing) - You cover my hole, I'll cover your hole. How much more do you think I can go on this?

- I don't know what it needs to stop. - I don't think it does, I think it needs to go more. - Yeah, I think it's to stop. - Yeah, but anyway, never heard you say, "Hold so many times."

- Well, I'm just saying, cover your hole. - That is the rule, that is the rule.

“- Yeah, that's what, guess what, fill up.”

People here are laughing and acting like it's a joke. But it is the rule, and it's a simple rule to listen. - Please sign, cover your fucking hole, you know what I mean? - Or I'll come over there and cover it for ya, you know what I'm saying? - I've got a whole cover in my pocket.

- A little brass plate. - So you cover the hole, you know what I love? That's all of it you just said. - Cover down. - My favorite thing about this whole interview

is fill up, finally going, so.

And you think you're gonna get away from the topic and then you said, "You got to cover your hole." - Can we also talk about what else he does, which is he's also a preacher? (laughing)

- I spent over 20 years in a fire station. There is little of these years of that. - You got to cover your soul, and you gotta cover your soul. - If you don't cover your soul, I'll come and get a preacher to cover your soul.

See you live by two rules, cover your soul and cover your soul. - These are the rules that fill up lives by. - Are you a fire chief? - Yeah. - Listen, we'll get to that.

We've got a lot to get, you know, we've got to a lot to cover here. - It's just, you know, we really do. - I'm a preacher. - Yeah, so I hope I didn't offend you with my cover your whole run,

“but I think it can be taken many different ways,”

and so I'm not worried about it.

And what is your religious denominational acceleration? - Non-denominational problem. - Non-denominational, got it, very good. - You accept all kinds. - All kinds.

- I'd be welcome as a Catholic. - You would be welcome. - Okay, absolutely. - I like that, I like it, very accepting. - Absolutely.

- And how long have you been preaching for? - 12 years, I think it is 13 years, something like that. - And before that you were a firefighter. I was biocasional for a while. I worked in the fire service,

and I worked at a church simultaneously, and did that for a period of time, and then as the church grew, it was a church plant, so it started from scratch, and as things grew, then I, that I was full time,

here is the preacher. - You seem like it could be a good preacher. - You seem like someone that would be very understanding, accepting a cool guy, a good sense of humor. I think you would be very good at that.

- I hope so. I will tell you this, I grew up, and my dad did not go to church very often. And one of his biggest things was he was like, he'd meet preachers, and he would go,

"That preacher doesn't know anything about real life, "he doesn't know anything about me, "he doesn't understand anything, "because they live in his little world, "and he just reads the Bible all day,

"and sits in his office, and sings hymns, or whatever." And so I was determined from the beginning that I wouldn't be that guy. And that's one of the reasons why between the fire service, and just real life, just to just be a regular dude,

just a regular guy. - Regular dude out there, digging up grenades. (all laughing) - I get it man, it's not the sexiest hobby. - I get it.

- I love it. - I actually pretty cool. - I think it sounds great. - I'm sorry you heard me make that voice that's not what I meant at all.

I thought it was just more like cone- - It's gonna kick out of me. - He was mocking me for being a civil war history. - No, that's the typical response I get whenever anyone finds out that I dig holes and find old stuff.

So I complete, it's the reaction I get from my wife when I bring stuff home, and there's mud, and I bring it in the kitchen, and I'm cleaning stuff up that I found, and I'm dorking out over it.

“And my wife just like, could you just please get that out of the kitchen?”

So I get it, it does not offend me at all. - Oh good, I mean, I just know Conan what it's gonna get really excited about it. - I am excited about it. - And I feel like you wanna go out with Philip

and like dig holes in Virginia. - I do. - I tell you, you come to Eastern Virginia. I got another metal detector, we will go out and dig holes.

We'll find something cool. - And we'll cover 'em up, and we'll make sure that every single one I'm scuffer.

Every single one I'm scuffer, that's right.

No one pugs the whole like me. - All right, I think we broke it. Philip, it was lovely talking to you. By the way, when this airs you will no longer be a preacher.

“So you need to find yet another vocation,”

'cause that is over.

When are little who's on first routine plays?

But it was really nice talking to you, and I'll see you on down the road, sir. - I mean, I really appreciate the time. It's cool to see you guys. Seriously, I listen to you guys all the time.

“- Thanks for listening to, I said I knew since I was,”

since I was like in college, so I just--

- Oh cool. - Thanks for just taking the few minutes just to hang out with me. - This was a joy for us, seriously. Really fun talking to you, sir.

- All right, take care, Philip. - Bye bye. - Take care. - Thanks a lot, bye.

“- Conan O'Brien needs a fan, with Conan O'Brien,”

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