The Bonering Conan

- Conan O'Brien needs a fan.

Wanna talk to Conan? Visit teamcoco.com/callconan. Okay, let's get started. - Hmm, no, two, two. - Oh, what's your cerebral change?

(laughing) - It's terrible timing. - I don't know.

“Hey, welcome to Conan O'Brien News and Fan.”

- Oh my God. - I went over to Elijah. The more Leapologize quickly to you, sir. Matt Gorley was chewing, it looked like a kind of a nut bar. It was a nut bar, and that's rude

because we're talking to you, you're a guest, but my mouth is clear, and I can speak to you, succinctly. I just was given no real warning. - No, I think you did.

- You're just how you talked. - Yeah, you've been away for a while, so maybe something happened. - Thank you. - Oh, yes.

Andrew, yes. I forgot out of talk. Andrew brought out the big guns right away. He knows you took an overly long paternity leave. Here we go.

Your name, sir, is Andrew Zolti. That's your real name, but you go by the name. Tell me how to pronounce this. - Breakfast? (laughing)

- What did you have? - That's what I go by. - What have been-- - I didn't know if it was. It says breakfast, and I thought,

oh, chances are I'm gonna say

“breakfast, and he's gonna go, "Excuse me!"”

(laughing) It's break fast, but it is here in the notes that it means to move fast and break stuff. - I don't read the notes. - Okay.

- I talk to people. - I was trying to count. - I was trying to help you. - You don't need to, excuse me, I got to have another bite. - Yeah.

- Yeah. - You need to go up one. - In the carbo load. So breakfast, you are-- - It says here, you are a kinetic sculptor.

What is kinetic sculpture? Tell me about it. - Can you see behind me? - Yeah. - But it's also a pot of so much.

- I thought it would be good too. - Yeah, that doesn't really include some words in there. Somewhere. - I do. - I do.

- Behind you, let me describe to our listeners who aren't watching this, that yes, I see interlocking rings that are twisting and unjulating. I see, I mean, it's very cool. I see a shimmering series of silver rectangles.

There's a, I mean, look, I could describe these things all day. - Could you? 'Cause that was a rough decision. - Yeah, that was pretty rough. - That was pretty rough though.

- Oh, look who's, that was pretty, yeah. - Look who's candy bar just hit the stomach. You came in high. (laughing) (humming)

Chomp, chomp, chomp, chomp. - Really? - Coat in? (laughing) - Okay, breakfast, tell me,

this kinetic sculpture, I've seen examples of this places. I go to Seattle a lot. It's where my wife's family's from, and they have a hammering man there. It's a tall sculpture that hammers away.

Like it's, like it's hammering out some pewter or something, but it's really cool and it's about, I don't know, might be 40 feet tall, yeah. Is that, would that be a kinetic sculpture? - I think it would.

I mean, kinetic just means moving, but I try to dial it up a little bit. So like, so yeah, all the things I make, tend to try and one make them really interactive, which should maybe if I run away from the microphone

in a second, I can show you.

But then all these things are actually moving based on real-time data as well. So like this little silver moving kind of moves like water. - Yeah, it's beautiful. - It's beautiful.

- It does. - It does. - And it, I'm gonna, I'm gonna. - He's moving away, he's moving away. - Oh wow, he is like a magician,

you just waved your hand over this surface. And it all stood as sort of angelating, responding to you and all the different tiles moved in a different way. It was very cool. - Yeah.

And it's actually the way that it moves, it's connected to Lake Chapala in Mexico, which is receding due to climate change. And so as that water goes up and down, it changes what happens when you move your hand through it.

So kind of like if you had a puddle, like a deeper or shallower. - Yeah. - It actually changes based on that. So all the pieces have this sort of real-time data

thing going to it in interaction. And it pretty much just comes from me being a kid, walking through museums and feeling bad that I was bored and just trying to make art. - You walk by a Michelangelo's David

“and thought, why ain't that fucking guy moving around?”

- No, yeah. - Why isn't his penis twirling? - It's on. - Oh my god. - Well, I'm serious.

- We can make it twirling. - I know. And it should twirl, it should grow and shrink in relation. - Yeah. - To, now we're talking.

- Well, okay, I went too far, yeah. - But growing. - Not at all. - It's a, it's a, it's a... - So, I have a question.

- I have a, well, wouldn't that be amazing

- It's only.

“Clearly, I completely unfamiliar with how a real penis works.”

- Hey, mine goes up and down based on that lake in Mexico. - Yeah. - Mm. - Whenever a lake passes, he's like,

"Oh, wow!" (laughing) Breakfast, and I say this, I love saying, breakfast, now listen here, breakfast.

You are the most important meal today.

What are the devices at work? What's happening to, and what kind of mechanical stuff are you doing? What kind of wiring? I'm just curious, I don't need, you know,

to get into the weeds on the... - Yeah, we will. - Yeah, it's, well, I should be fair in that over there, normally there's, there's 16 people that help me do this these days, you know,

'cause we make massive, massive things. So, so we're doing all the electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial design. So, there's computers inside each one of these things. There's motors, there's, you know,

we make pieces with 9,000 motors

“that move 24 hours a day in the middle of cruise ships”

and weird stuff like that. But it is complex, takes a tremendous amount of effort in time and gets really nerdy. - I have a question, but, you know, it's just for the kids.

- What is this?

- It's very cool, these things look amazing.

What is the funny, just ask about sculpture, but what's the maintenance? I mean, do you get cold in, like you've, you've done a very beautiful, complicated, and they say, yes, one of the servos,

one of the 9,000 servos is on the fritz, is it hard to maintain? - Our battery needs to be replaced. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - You just go to Angie's list,

to get some more of how do you, exactly. - Yeah, yeah, it's all anxious. - You know, the fix is sculptures. (laughing) - Where is it?

(laughing) - Oh yeah, you got one of those on gelating, lake, titty, cock, all right. I know what's going on. - Look at screwdriver in it and be fine.

- Yeah, no, it's, I mean, that is the, that is actually my favorite question answer because I get it constantly. And the way that I explain this is, we live in a world where we are very used to consumer devices

that are made as kind of cheaply and efficiently as possible and they got a cost very little. If you think about sending a satellite into space that you don't get back, that's kind of more the model that we follow.

- Right.

“- So every, that's why we make everything from scratch.”

Is to every motor is custom design, every circuit board and the part you put on there. You can choose something that instead of costing 10 cents, oh, we spent a dollar on that one little part. And it will now last 50 to 100 years

instead of five to 10. And so, if you build it the right way, it will last and then at the same time, we got a lot of pieces all around the world. And if something were to happen,

I've had the cleaning person smash a broom into something, then we got to make it really easy to just swap it out. So we also designed-- - And fire cleaning birds here. - Yeah, exactly.

- That's the first thing you do, at least fire them.

You designed and built a piece called the Pearl. It says here, it's a 54-foot sphere with thousands of tiles and it mimics the wind and waves. I mean, where is this? How can I see this?

- That is the one on, or we made two of them, and they're on the two biggest cruise ships in the world. So they literally hold up the decks above where they are. This is massive thing.

- Oh, so it's, they're load-bearing. - As well. - They're load-bearing. - Yeah, that's a horrible idea. - That's a really, it's, I mean, it's load-bearing.

It's 54 feet. - Yeah. - And circumference, I guess, a thousands of tiles. - And it's nine, nine thousand motors moving. - This is the one I was saying, it's just 24 hours a day.

- In the middle of the ocean, reacting to data across the Caribbean. - It's a beast, and it was a little hard to sleep at night. - I could just see that the ships crashing all the time 'cause everyone on board is just looking

at the undulating sphere. - Whoa. - And then they just ran into a nice bird. - And then the sphere regulates even more. - Yeah.

- Because it's perfect. - Undulating, and then it's underwater, undulating. 'Cause I'm probably not supposed to say it, but there's a, there's a stairway that wants, so you walk down these stairs through the middle of it.

And my fear kind of came true, which is who on a rocking ship, looking at a sphere can walk down stairs and not trip and fall, and they probably don't like me mentioning that, but you know,

there's some extra stair lighting now. We'll just bring that light. - So, and my God, rest there's salt. (laughing) - Exactly.

- Thank you. - So, I'll make sure my lawyer doesn't listen. - Yeah, yeah. (upbeat music)

that's on the same scale as, you know, you know, one of those sculptures or pieces of architecture that defines a city. Junior name saying the way the Eiffel Tower defines Paris, the way the Trump arch is gonna define Washington, D.C.

- God!

“- And by the way, you should make that thing move, you know?”

- Somewhere else. - Move on. (laughing) - All right, hey, we did political humor. - We did political humor.

Dumb space. - Hey, but go ahead, what do you think? - Yeah, no, I mean, that is the dream, I would say, is that we don't build, we don't build like the Eiffel Tower kind of kind of pieces anymore.

- Yeah. - And if they are, they're, I don't know, I want to create something that's the big dream. - What's a great subject? - We can now imagine Brookline Mass, you know?

- Yeah. A giant mechanical Conan used car balloon, yeah. - Yeah, what would you do, what would you do it? - Let's say I wasn't sane and let's say I had a massive amount of money.

(laughing) And I commissioned you, what, how would you depict me, how would you use your powers, how would you use your powers in, with all these servos and moving parts to do a Conan sculpture?

- To do a Conan. - Okay, so what you like, I actually think we should lift from the Michelangelo. I think we need a nice, banner, a Conan. - We need a, we need a Conan figure, a boner and a Conan.

- Oh my god. - We're gonna use that. - We're gonna use that. - And then I think what we're gonna do, we're gonna make your hair.

- It's gotta be that hair, we're gonna do that a brass. - Yes. - And it's gonna, actually, we'll connect that to Brookline. - So whatever the wind is, I don't wanna remind you.

- I don't wanna remind you. - How the wind is blowing and Brookline will affect how my massive 60 foot high hair is angelating? - Yeah, but I think the best part is.

- Do you know those sculptures that some thought, like you'll go by a statue where you'll rub it, the guy's foot or his nose and it's like luck? - Yeah, yes, yeah, yeah, and they're torn. - They're actually kind of worn away in those.

- They're worn away. - So I think this is how, 'cause my pieces are interactive.

“So I think you need to rub some part of your hair,”

your hair shoots out. - I think we all know what we're talking about here. - I think we do. - I think we do. - And we should go for it.

- How about instead of that? - I'm the real man gets rubbed. The kinetic sculpture has a hook up. - That's right, yeah. - And so, you know, it's been a twist.

- Yeah, when I'm in some rub and talk joint in Miami, wait or in Prague, my hair starts doing a looping loop. - Not your hair. The hair is still connected to Brookline. - Oh, the hair is showing you Brookline, okay, I got it.

This is amazing that you have made this, your life.

I'm always fascinated by people who manage to through perseverance,

talent, a lot of hard work. I'm sure carve out this life of themselves. It's just kind of perfect. And it sounds like you're doing exactly what 10 year old you would have dreamed of doing.

Is that true? - I think that's very accurate. - Yeah. - Yeah, it's still waiting for the money. - But we'll get to that part.

- I mean, you seem like it must be very successful. - Yeah, if you're in your space, it's very, there's the success in terms of what we've achieved. - Yeah, definitely. - But then I got to send my kids to college.

- He's got to be a way to do that. - Yeah. - But well, I don't want you to go outside and just I'm going to bust, I'm just going to play guitar in the street.

Everything's going to be fine. I'm not worried. I think he's got what he's overrated. - Tell me everything's going to be fine. - It's going to be fine.

- They can learn from their phone. - They are in their phones, we'll tell them what they need to do. You've got sculptures to make. They are not your concern.

- I always say that about children.

- Is it true that you worked? - Someone told me that you worked on the Conan Blamp when we launched on TBS back in 2010. Is that true? - That is, yeah, absolutely.

I've got to flew in that blimp. - In fact, I will tell you all of this is here because of that blimp. Because it was the first project, so we started breakfast. It was me and two other guys.

And we were trying to explain to people how you could connect the online world in the real world. And TBS calls up and says we have a blimp. Do you think you can connect that in some way? And that was the first project that kind of...

- Oh, that's right. - Guys, people could like tweet at the blimp and it would react. - Yeah. - It was forced.

Is there a number four square? - Yeah.

“- You're not sure if you remember four square.”

- So we was the first moving location.

So people would get in their cars to try and get close enough to check into it. And then the blimp would actually get happy or sad.

And if it got happy, it would go over to like a baseball game and get a hot dog or check in. And that was where I'm happy or to cemetery and sad or at a baseball game. (laughing)

- I'm not even kidding. (laughing) - Oh no. - But that's amazing.

First of all, thank you because I thought that blimp

was one of the coolest things I was ever associated with. It was so much fun. And then I go in it.

“- Yes, I flew in the blimp and I'll never forget this.”

They let me take the wheel at one point. Which isn't that scary because it's a balloon, but I put it into a power dive and it was slowly diving down. And through the windshield, I don't know if you can remember

this son of you were at the good year. And it was good year. - Yeah, it was. - You were at the good year, you would come with me. And so you were in this giant field and I went into a power dive and it came to that.

And I remembered you in jeans and in that brown leather jacket running away as I was in a power drive, power dive in a good year blimp with my name on it. - It's like a beautiful kill.

- Yeah, it really was. It's one of the funniest images in my head is me and they're like, well, you're gonna wanna pull up soon, but it's not dire in a balloon. They mean like, maybe that potato was done in another hour.

But I'm gonna dive and you were saw me coming towards you and you ran. - I remember that.

“- And you ran and I really do remember that.”

I do. - Clement tormenting my assistant with the good year blimp in real time. - Six men. - This is really fun.

I love the stuff behind you looks amazing.

It really does. And I think it's-- - And then make it look more exciting. - Sure. - Are you ready? - Oh my God. - Do you see that? - Yes!

- Oh my God. - Oh my God. - This sculpture behind you just became my face. - Oh my God. - Oh my God. - Now turn it off. - No. - That's it. - That's it.

- That's it. - That's it. - That's it. - That's it. - That's incredible. Look at that. - Oh, he just ran through my face and shattered it. - It is so cool.

“- I didn't like the part where my face went away.”

- Let's go get back, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, and let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go, let's go

They're in galleries. Yeah, there's more stuff where you now. Where am I right now? Can we go there? This is, yeah, this is Brooklyn.

Next time you're in, you're Brooklyn a couple of days ago. I cut a gun by. I don't know. You cut a bin here. Yeah, you should.

You're lost. I had a gig. I had a gig at Williamsburg. It was really fun. But I missed that idea.

No. Well, my hats off to you, and I'm looking forward to seeing more of your stuff and I just very cool to talk to you and to see what you're up to.

I'm amazing to talk to you guys.

I'm honestly massive, massive fan. This is a true honor. Well, the honor, the honor as ours, you're super talented, and I hope our paths cross because I want to see what you're up to. I really do.

So cool. Likewise. I love it. Well, this is what we're doing. Thanks so much for having me.

I'm sorry. There's no more to see if what we're doing. I think you're going places. All right. Take care, man.

We'll see you later. Have a good day, everyone. Conan O'Brien needs a fan with Conan O'Brien, Sonom of Session, and Matt Gourli. Produce by me, Matt Gourli, executive produced by Adam Sachs, Jeff Ross, and Nick Lea.

Incidentally, music by Jimmy Vivina, take it away, Jimmy. Supervising producer Aaron Blair, associate talent producer Jennifer Samples, associate producers Sean Doherty and Lisa Burm, engineering by Eduardo Perez, get three free months of SyriusXM. When you sign up at SyriusXM.com/Conon.

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