Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend
Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend

Summer S’pouses Episode 2: Amanda Lund

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Amanda Lund feels ‘you go girl’ about being Matt Gourley’s spouse.   Amanda talks to Conan and the crew about performing as a Disney princess at Tokyo Disney, satirizing The Total Woman, and Matt’s sh...

Transcript

EN

Hi, my name is Amanda Lund, and I feel you go girl about being Matt Goroly's ...

Some responses with Conan O'Brien, Sonom of Sessian, and Matt Goroly, and Liza Powell O'Brien,

Tak Boroyan, and Amanda Lund. Amanda, we have a lot to talk about here, because I have painted a picture of Matt over the years, and there have occasionally been charges that it's not an accurate picture.

I portray him as an defeat, you know, fez collecting, loot playing, twee who hangs out right in, and little, little bespoke, garage sales, right?

You're just asking the wrong person if I'm looking for a defense here, but no, but I'm, of course, I'm a caricatureist, not a, I don't paint portraits, I make obscene caricatures. So Amanda, where have I gone wrong in describing the Matt Goroly we all know and tolerate? You're, you're touching on so many truths. There's a lot of truth to it, but I think where you go wrong is the style aspect, because I think people are imagining him in a little vest and like a little cap. I know he has one. It's deep in the closet. Do you have a vest?

I have a vest as a part of a suit, like a three-piece suit, but you never had just a solo vest.

Oh, like, without a shirt on underneath. So I go out all the time. All the time, you worked at Chippendale. Yes, I portray him as a guy who wears like a straw-boater hat and a little bow tie that spins when he pushes a button in his pocket. And you know what, since he started working here, he won't wear a bow tie anymore. Any more? Okay, that's great. So I'm changing his behavior.

You and Tucker Carlson, you're exactly the same.

And I think one time he wore a little scarf, but that was just for 24 hours.

And then it was like a little experiment that you did for a while. So that is true. And so it is true. He loves like little hobbies. Yeah. It was like a scarf like a flight attendant? Yes, a 1968 Swedish flight attendant named Enga, who's Vavavum. I love your look at it. We were on vacation. It was like a kind of an open relaxed linen shirt with a little scarf.

Oh my god, if you were taking a photo. Yes, first of all, man.

Yeah, thank you. I can live off the meet on that phone for seven years. I'm not, I didn't bring here to have you live for me. Yeah. I need to sing your praises, Amanda. You are very talented and very accomplished. And I don't want to embarrass you or anything, but you have quite a list of things you've done. You're a very successful podcaster. You have played Disney princesses many different ones.

Is that right? Where did it all start? Why don't you tell your story for us?

Okay, and you did this motion which, like, kind of sort. I want, I want three, I want your life in three words. Okay, this is, no, no, go for it. This is a nightmare. I did not know I was going to be like interviewed. Okay, no, I just thought I was more like a seat filler. Like here it is. No, Amanda. You are not a seat filler.

And by the way, no, and if you think there was any planning that went behind any of us, any of this, you don't know us. Okay, where I'm just as surprised as you. Okay, let me just say I'm from Long Beach, California. Okay. I, I worked at Disneyland. This is interesting. I played a princess when I was in high school, until into young adulthood. And that's where it stops. Oh, wait. And that's where I peaked. But this is fascinating to me because I remember clearly

my wife and I taking, uh, Nev to, I think we took her to Disneyland and the princesses were there. And to this day, I haven't seen my daughter that excited. I mean, she's excited about a lot of things, but it's, it's a kind of their meeting real royalty. These, it was, it, she was, oh, yeah. It is real royalty. The scary thing is she was 21 at the time. No, I'm okay. No, she was just this little girl, but she was meeting Cinderella. I know you played Cinderella. I mean, you did it in Tokyo for six months.

Yeah, I did it. I played Mary Poppins in Cinderella in Tokyo when I was 21. And it was the best six months of my life. Oh, wow. So you know what it's like to just have Mary for a while. Okay, I do. I know what I had fans when you work at Tokyo Disney. You have like full on a fan base. Because they're the fan culture there, especially for Disney is just outrageous and they love it so much. So I would be just writing the subway on my day off. And someone would come up to me and like hand me an envelope.

That was filled with pictures of myself from the park. Oh, my god. Is that kind of scary?

Well, um, I liked it.

Because at the beginning of your term, you work there for six months. People decide like, "That's I'm going to be a fan of hers." And then on your last day, they all wait for you and they shower you with gifts. Oh, my god. You're dying. We know we're learning some important things here. The other way. Matt wore a scarf once like a flight attendant. And Amanda likes Amanda photograph her from a great distance. Yeah. And then hand her the photos in an envelope.

It's nice to have, you don't get a lot of pictures of yourself. You know,

especially as a mom. You always behind the camera. Yeah, it's three. Three shrubbery.

I was, I was going to say I know there's like a distinction between the ones that have to wear the heads.

And then they're like the ones like you who are just at your face. Yes. So is there, is there like a legit hierarchy?

Well, okay. When I worked there, yes. But it was just a pay hierarchy because a face character, you get paid a little bit more. But you don't get paid as much as what Matt did at Disneyland, which was he was a talking trash can. Yes, they're unbelievable. I'm unbelievable. Push the talking trash can. And he got paid no joke like three times as much as I was making as a princess and working hazard paying because people people people are constantly

shaming of a half-eaten burrito in there in the trash can for the hundredth time. You know what? Are you on your knees like waterling? So you weren't inside. I think that's where you really should get the big bucks. If you were inside the trash can. I was walking around with a really smart scarf on. Yeah. And I had a little remote controller in a bag. And so I was nearby with a microphone hidden in the crowd. And the, and it's a remote control. Are you controlling the motions of the,

wow. Okay. So it was like early drone work. Yes. So you could see why I was at a higher pay grade.

No, I don't see that. No, I don't even know the princess. Is it true that the military isn't just in weaponizing these trash cans? Just to go defend you friend. I can't say 10,000 trash cans could be 10,000 Matt Gourli's. Doing improv? Doing improv. That would kill him. Yeah. Probably none to dead. Good improv. Is it a powerful weapon? What? You've, you've done. You have done many podcasts. Yeah. And they're very creative. They involve character work. I mean, let's face it.

We sit here. We babble like chimps. And somehow we get away with it. But these are very creative podcasts. Can you tell us a little bit about some of those? Oh, yeah. Sure. Okay. So when I met Matt, this is a long time ago. Like, he was already podcasting because like he was one of the first. Yeah. You know, but I also was kind of podcasting from my little apartment in Tai Town. I had my original podcast was called Trading Movies with Craig Cacowsky and my friend Maria Blisucci. And so they would each

give each other a movie to watch the other one had never seen. And I was just the host. So I would never

have different generations. They were different generations. So that was my very original podcast. And I didn't even know what was happening. I just knew like I was talking. And and I didn't know I was listening or anything. And then, um, yes, and since then, I have my kind of my life's work. It's called The Complete Woman. And that's a character piece based on my muse who's um, a love and marriage expert from the 1970s. Her name's Maribel Morgan. It's a real woman. Yes.

And she's a, she's a real woman. And I found this little book in a used book shop. Um, one afternoon, I had just a rose on the cover called The Total Woman. And I cracked that thing open and I was like, Oh, this is amazing. It's like the most insane marital advice. Yes. Um, and so I do a play on that. And you can have it as you this inspired you to become this woman. This, I am hurt. It's a great idea. But it was if these albums were found. So it sounds like

a record from the 60s. It's kind of vintage. And it's all produced. It's so good. Yes, it's really fun. And I, I love doing it. And it takes a lot of work because I edited and do all the sound design. So it's, it's been a while since I've done a season. Amanda is a more legitimate, I, I will know Matt super legitimate podcaster. I'm a total fraud and you're a total fraud. Oh, well, you know, you guys are the real deal. That's very cool. Well, I can get on the little

computer and do a little sound design. So, you just got a good job. Is this woman still alive?

You know what, last I checked she wasn't, she's not now an artist and you can, she does like paintings of horses. Give me an example of some of the advice. This woman was giving women in the 70s or the 60s.

So, okay. Yes. So this is, okay. So this woman was a direct response to second wave feminism.

She was like, no, it's ruining marriages. Like, we have to get away from this. And it was all, it was based in evangelicalism. Is that the word? Okay. And so she was basically like, we can't be feminists. It's ruining our lives. We have to empower ourselves to make our husbands happy. Yes. Okay. No, you're going to like, say it as the word. No, it's seen.

Conan's legit going to like some of this stuff.

The only way to stop a man from cheating is to let him cheat with you. Okay. Okay. And like, she means,

like, yeah, okay, she means get away. Yeah, get away. Yeah, get away. What was it? Get away. What was it she dressing up like a native American? We have a she called it an Indian princess and guess what? Her kids love it too. Oh my god. Who is this lady? Okay. And then another one of her ideas. And this, she was on the cover of Time Magazine. Okay. This woman was a sensation. Oh, wow. Okay. She's like, people know her if you ask a woman of a certain generation. So she

suggests if you don't have the money for a full-on costume, just wrap yourself in cellophane and go go boots with nothing underneath and answer the door when he gets home from work with a

Chris Martini. And this was actually referenced in Fried Green Tomatoes, I believe. What? Yeah.

And the movie Fried Green Tomatoes, one of the characters does that to spice up the marriage.

I haven't seen it in a long time, but that's what the internet says. She's a whole.

Yeah, you know, be naked. Yeah. Also, if you want to stop your husband from cheating, which is any moral thing to do, it's your job to let him cheat with you, which means it would be so confusing, because then you'd play a character that Guy would spend most of the time bitching about his wife to you. The sex is terrible. Well, well, that's too bad. It's so, it's so strange. So she's dropped all that now. I don't know what the lady's up to,

but I just love her. And I hope she's still with us. I'm going to google it after I leave

here today. I'll send you guys an email with an update if you can please do that. I'll show notes and some of them. No. I'm going to ask you some personal questions. Just matter, or come home, just steaming mad about Conan and his, that prick. I can't believe I

had to put up with him today. And then you have to give him more teeny and wrap him and sell a thing.

Does that ever happen? Shut him up. Yeah. It's only happened like once. Wait, what's talking about that? Okay, we'll even not know. I know. I know. Not often. Not often. Oh, man, there's something here. Do I probe more? Or do I leave it alone? Oh, go for it. Oh, go for it. Okay, nothing goes in. I look. I think I'm a fun guy to work with, but I'm sure there've been to moments. We all have moments.

He loves this job. We're so happy to be here. Can I just say something? You're becoming a woman again. She's like, I just have to keep this red-haired man happy. No, one more tip for a quick. Okay, so like if you want your husband to take out the trash, but you don't want to now, obviously. So you go, oh, honey, your arms look so strong when you take out the trash. This is this manipulation. Oh, I love it. I do love her. Yeah, I thought she was going to say,

there's a hot chick out by the trash. And you should walk over that way with the trash. And then

she has to put a wig on and run over there and go, "Hi, a big boy!" What's great about this woman, though, she ended up being the breadwinner because she was such a sensation. And she would go like head to head with the actual feminist of the time like on talk shows and stuff. Oh, and she would debate them. Yes, she was a complete, like, spectacle. She's like the OG Tradwife. She, yes, she was. Yeah, it's exactly making all the money, too. Yeah, that's why I love her because she's just crazy.

How do you like to win wine? How do you like to relax? What's a good day for you when this one's out of the house? You get to just chill off with my Indian princess. Who looks suspiciously like a man-dad? Oh, I love, I love to kick my feet up. I love to unwind with a little bit of reality, television. You know, I love when people cut their hands into a microphone. You know, you just made it louder. Yeah, yeah, I know. But there's no listen. You will not be shamed here about reality,

television because, uh, lies has been getting into the real housewives lately of, I think Beverly Hills. Yeah, she says it's, it's particularly nutty right now. And, um, yeah, you know, I, I don't publicly speak about reality television. Not for any reason. Just no one's ever asked me. Um, but I will say like, but it's a policy of yours. Yeah, until someone asks you, I will not murder. I'm less given the opportunity or asthma. I have morals. I have morals. I just don't have a friend

to talk to about it. And I don't want to talk to anyone out loud about it. So, but a lot of, um, really dignified women watch these shows. Like Michelle Obama watches some reality television, Liza. Yep. Yep. That's it. Are you looking at me? I'm like, I'm so violent. I abandoned a lot of

My reality shows.

that I like, uh, you know, I like my sexy shows. I like shows where people are banging. Okay.

So, can I just say you talked about how a lot of classy people? The, uh, amazing legendary director

Werner Herzog was here when he did the podcast. And I said, what do you how you like to, uh, and he said, I, you know, he said, I sometimes I like to watch these reality shows, to observe Honey Boo Boo. And I thought, if, okay, Werner Herzog is watching Honey Boo Boo. Yeah. It's true. We're all okay. Yeah. Yeah. So, it's fine. I like it. I mean, I get to into it, though. Like I really want to watch Love Island, but it's like of huge commitment. Yeah. I can't,

I've not gotten into that. I'll say this again. They, each one of those people burns about two calories in episode. They sit, they talk, and then one of them might stand up and lead them to a

slightly different area that's three feet away to have a separate talk. And that's what

Jimmy has said that. It's true. Yeah. Oh, it's a bad take. Just made ever come home and go, Conan said the funniest thing today. Well, he does say, like, he told me that. And he said, you might be interested in this that Conan said, oh, that's nice. Does he? I have a question. Yeah. Yeah. Does he have too many projects? Yes. Do you see all these teetering and doing things? And is it annoying? I, yes. I can answer for it. Definitely.

He does love a project. Yeah. And in your defense, I've been over to your house, and he's very talented. He'll say, oh, I built this. I built that. And clearly, you are quite handy.

But yeah, he does seem like someone who is always tinkering in the corner. Yes. Like, the latest

project is okay. So he's got the back house, right, which is like our little his podcast studio

number two, second to this one. And okay. So in the, on the wall, he's doing these other podcasts.

I won't have it. Look, on the wall, there's, okay, a guitar case with a guitar in it. But it's not just a guitar case. You open it up and a bar comes down. And inside, it's a hidden closet. And inside the closet are like booze shelves that are lit from below. You know. He is a crafty alcoholic. And now. And then he made a bass in it. But it's really a beard dispenser. Giant flask. Yeah. Yeah. It's, I'm noticing a theme here. I know. No, that you are,

you're very good at it. But I just think there must be times where you think you put down that screwdriver right now. Let's tango. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There it was. And there's, I support the projects. But in, there's certain projects. I'm like 100% behind in some that I'm just like just turned a blind eye to. And I go let him have his fun. You know what I mean? As long as he's fun. He's in the

door by 60 years. What do I care? What he's doing with the first 10 hours of the day. Wow.

I start podcasting probably at 5.30 a.m. every morning. You can do anything you want as long as you're home by six. That's an incredibly way that you're getting. Yeah. Liesets have a me to do anything as long as I don't come on. Okay. This is a fair question, I think. But is there anything that Matt does routinely that sort of wrinkles you a little bit that it doesn't have to be anything terrible? But just like, oh my, you know, because my wife has plenty of those. Oh, like a pet peeve. Yeah.

Oh, this is like a question. Okay. This is a real question. Okay. Well, okay. This he doesn't do it as much anymore. But he used to, where noise canceling headphones like around the house listening to podcasts. I'm so I would talk and then there'd be no answer. And that I didn't like that.

And so we talked about it. Exactly. That's why you got a podcast. Just just say you could

talk to your husband. Welcome back to Hello, Matt. You please put the tuna salad back in the refrigerator. Your arms look gray when you take out the trash. We talked about it. Your legs look gray when you get the fuck out of here. We had a serious discussion about it, but I was wearing noise canceling headphones. Yeah. Oh my god. But now what he does is he just plays him out loud on the phone. Wait, not that often though, do I? Do I need to do I need to scale this back? Listen,

I'm cool. I'm easy, easy. I'm like, oh, I don't. I'm just I'm being put on the spot to say a pet peeve. Yeah. You know, I think we found rap sign just come up here. No, we found this is an area where maybe there could be some improvement. And I think of this, this series is a little bit of marriage counseling. Yeah. You know, it's a chance. And the the healthiest marriages can use with a little discussion, except for mine. Or maybe I can talk, but I don't want anyone else type of that. Oh,

You guys will like this.

Yeah. Okay. So this is something about you that surprised me. Okay. So Matt and I had been and it kind of goes back to like the question of like your your hobbies and like his is he how you perceive him or how you just play him on the podcast. Okay. So Matt and I have been dating for like a couple of years at this point. It was in our old apartment and in our bedroom there was like this old vintage

trunk that we were using just as a bench. Like I just thought it was a decorative trunk. I never thought

you sit on it. You put your your work boots on. You head out the door. Yes. And I never thought to open it. And so one day it was just like, oh, I wonder if this could be storage for something and I open it. And inside there are hundreds of t-shirts, novelty Shakespeare t-shirts. And for years, he had been selling these t-shirts hand drawn Shakespeare art in these t-shirts on a website. He had a whole website domain and he never just closed this to me. You had a secret website.

It was not hiding it. The business had like, like withered to a near death. Well, it wasn't even I wasn't really expecting money in bespoke, cool Shakespeare t-shirts. What? Explain to me what he's even more like you're like, okay, I had this. He's still sells them and he's still selling it.

Wait a minute. Can you describe, I'm not going to go to him. You can't speak for a second.

I mean, it described this one of these lighting up. Okay, I just had to say this. It was like a white t-shirt with like a hand drawn ink portrait of like, I don't know, like, hamlet.

What happened to Hamlet again? Nothing good. Okay, okay. And it's like a mom, am I thinking about it?

And if this were anything. Okay, there'd be like a quote underneath it. That was like a joke. Like, what? They were humorous. So it was just hamlet lying dead on the ground and the quote was not to be. And so I would to be or not to be your festival. Yeah. And as like merchandise for their plays and stuff like that. That's like, I'm not proud. You went to see your face. No, no, but first, like, fascinates me. It fascinates me a couple things here. There's, I'm imagining it's not a huge bedroom because you're a

young couple. You haven't got married yet. You know, he's not, he's, she's living off of T-shirt dough from Shakespeare festival. We're living in the house that those Shakespeare T-shirts built. He told me he was a teacher. He did not mention that he was running this company. Right. He tells a lot of people he's a teacher and it's so rewempered with his generous. No, it had just died. It was, I was, you know what? I mean, that's where he was. I mean, I don't

love here. You're, you're wife fiancee catches you. You're, that's my, you're secret. You're secret activity on the internet late at night. And it's not robot porn. It's watching, it's, it's T-shirt, a T-shirt company with puns about Hamlet. Anyway, it's, it would have been better if I had a mistress. Yes. It would have been so much better given so much happier if it was just, it would have been, if it was just, you opened it up and it's just hundreds of thousands of VHS cassettes. Yeah,

or Dildos. If it was just Dildos. Dildos, you'd be like, I would have been, oh well, yeah, we can

resell these, hose them down and resell them. I think I just sat there quietly and just waited

for him to get home and was like, how do I, what do we say? The secret life and so what did you, you just said, explain this and you held up a t-shirt. I did and then you're bringing in one of these t-shirts. Yeah, you have, yeah, you are. Yeah, you are. I gave them all over. Oh, here we go. Yeah.

I've known, I've known Matt for maybe 14 years. At this point, I've never heard of this before. I've

never heard the story and it must have been happening while we've known each other and the fact you had an entire business is just, it shouldn't be shopping because of what it is, but it's just shocking that it existed in the quiet. I mean, it really is like, if I was just, if I make landmines in my spare time and bury him around, you know, it's just a shocking. Well, honey, do you want to plug your website because it's still live? I don't know. The website is the website is red bubble.

It's on red bubble and every time he makes a sale now, he forwards me the email and people are buying like the sticker version of it. So it'll be like 88 cents for like this. I forward it, I'll feel you sticker. Can we plug it on? Well, how do people find it? We need the money. Oh my God, these are tough. It's a gory house. Go listen to the complete woman. That's the pod.

That's where you should go. This is, all right. Well, your your podcast, the complete woman

sounds hilarious. Thank you. I'm going to investigate this business if you're a smart and there's nothing you can do about it. I am curious. I know I've been given the wrap like 15 times, but you're extremely entertaining. How did you guys meet? Like, what was that, the cute meat? How did it go? Yeah, the cute meat. It was a trash can was following you home. It was a really cute,

I'm sorry.

there together for years. Never across past that we remember, but we met at Universal Studios,

Hollywood, the entertainment capital of LA, and in an orientation, anyone who's been to Universal,

probably has seen on the New York street, they have like these New York people who hang out of a window are like, hey, like, "Puporone, you're whatever." "Biboni, I love that." Yeah, so for one summer they were trying, they had a little like British street, and they were like, well, let's put some British people hanging out of the window,

and Matt and I were hired to do this job, and we met at Orientation, and it was-

Your line was English, but Peron. Yeah. But we met at Orientation, and it was like, love at

first speed. Oh, yeah, it's a right away. Right away, and then by the end of the Orientation Day,

we were going up, you know, like, those big escalators, they had to the parking structures, he and I were on the escalator together, and there was a couple in front of us, and they were both wearing the Nicio del Toro wearable, what's it called? The Wolf Man shirt. The Wolf Man shirt. The Wolf Man shirt. Yeah. That had big rapper and graphics of Benicio del Toro as the Wolf Man. Right. And I thought, I could make a T-shirt better than that. And I did.

And I did. And I turned around and he said, "That's going to be us in 20 years." Oh.

And then it is. In five years, that's what we're doing. Yeah, that's what we're doing. Yeah. That's really sweet.

Yeah. Also, you brought your little kids in today, which was really sweet. Yeah. That's lovely. Yeah. A new little baby. That is the smilingest baby. I've ever seen.

Just amazing. And then until I showed up. It's smiling at everybody. And then I was like, "Hi,

a kid." A man, thank you so much for coming in, really cool. And this is fascinating. We're going to, and then there's going to be an episode where just you guys talk. Wow. How are you guys scared? Yeah, I think we might lose the podcast. We're thinking, yeah, I think this could be a problem. But you know what? I'm happy. We ran our course. Yeah, we did it. We did it. We did it. Yeah, I got a good run. Put us down. Put us down. We got a good run. All right. Thank you very much, Amanda.

Conan O'Brien needs a friend with Conan O'Brien, Sonom of Sessian, and Mac poorly, produced by me, Mac poorly, executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Nick Leo, 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

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