Conan O'Brien: when he took over late night from David Letterman, everyone wondered who the gangly redhead was. Ten years later—after some hitches and stumbles—he is arguably the funniest man on television. Here, he switches chairs with fellow sidesplitter Jack Black

Interview, Sept, 2003 by Jack Black

JB: It's like in sports, when one of the major stars gets injured ...

CO: I love when people who were never athletes start using athletic analogies.

JB: [In a sportscaster's monotone voice] "When Richter left, it was like when Jordan was injured."

CO: Yeah, and I'd been hobbled by a rough tackle, but then I was in the zone and I started going for gold, [Black laughs] and that's the year we won the Super Bowl. Lorne Michaels [Late Night's executive producer] said to me once, "You're a survivor." That's one of the reasons he said he picked me [to host the show]. People ask me, "How did you keep the show on the air in the beginning, when you were getting criticized and things were so rough?" and I say, "I had no choice." It's like if you're in a burning building and there's only one way out, you're going to get out through that opening or you're going to die. I literally had that level of intensity. I remember thinking, I am not going down in history as that guy who replaced Letterman and was around for three months. You can shoot me through the cerebral cortex, but I'm going to keep going.

JB: It's kind of like a Depression-era approach. You know, how people who were raised during the Depression scrap and fight harder than other people.

CO: True, but I have really comfortable shoes and a pretty nice car. People think, Oh, what a happy-go-lucky chap, with his funny show. But I think they'd be surprised to know that I would eat through a concrete wall if I thought it was funny and would make people happy for an hour at 12:30 at night.

JB: Right. So, do you get nervous when you have to have someone on the show who's obviously lame? How do you ignore the fact that they're totally lame?

CO: [laughs] If they're really lame, I'm hoping they're not on the show. But if they are, I will try to address their lameness in some way, but where it's not about me--it's not my style to say I am better than you. It sounds corny, but I'm the host and I've invited them.

JB: Yeah. Because you have to interview a lot of the David Hasselhoffs of the world, because that's who people want to see.

CO: I sometimes have more fun talking to those people, like Hasselhoff or Fabio, than talking to some cool, cutting-edge movie star because you don't have to take it too seriously. I mean, you can talk to Fabio about his man boobs and reach out and grab one. [Black laughs] I've always thought that there's this mistaken belief in television that you need to have the biggest-named guest to have the funniest show. So many times I've seen new talk shows start up and book giant movie stars, and I think, Those aren't the funniest people.

JB: Right. No.

CO: I've always taken the attitude, Let's just get funny people and try to have fun, and that'll create its own heat. So much of the time it just starts with good energy. I think if our show does one thing consistently, it's creating a mood so that people loosen up and act in a way they haven't acted in other places. We've had Harrison Ford on a couple of times, and he gets really goofy in a way that he doesn't on other shows. And I think sometimes it's because [laughs] I'm jumping around in the monologue or talking to a puppet or doing something ridiculous. "That guy has no self-esteem, so why should I?"