All of the ones who are successful, to a one, never tried to make me laugh in the elevator. Let your work speak for itself. You’re not going to start as a writer. You’re going to start getting someone coffee. Do your job. Be professional, watch, listen, and then do your work. … It’s all about finding out what your passion is. That’s what’s going to be funny. It’s what Johnny Carson told me—be yourself. Just be yourself. It’s the only rule that works.
Conan O'Brien's Guide To Creativity
“My formula has always been I’m big on preparing. Prepare like crazy. But then just as you’re heading out, half an hour beforehand, forget all of it. It’s there. It’s in your reptile brain. Go out but feel loose enough to grab opportunities as they come up. Don’t just stick to the plan if you see an opportunity. Now sometimes you go out there and the energy is such that you just stick to the plan and you do fine. But when you get out there and the energy is particularly good, I’m the first one to throw out things left and right and just go for it. The show is always best when it’s just play. When you’re playing, there’s a tension, yin-yang tension between think beforehand and then just get out there, between preparation and improvisation. And that’s been a lot of my career, finding the balance between those two.”
