It was like the perfect storm.

I answered the call.

I played around, I had fun.

I didn't take life too serious.

And it turned into this really fun joke that touches

with a lot of people

because everyone's gotten a wrong number.

And so I'm yes, I'm always flattered.

Do I think I'm the greatest community in the world?

Hell no, but do I love that it's a really solid joke

and could be one of the greatest jokes ever told?

Yeah, bro.

(upbeat music)

[Buck] A lot of work goes into a short,

late night stand up set.

Join me, JP Buck as I spotlight the comedians who came

up with some of my favorite Conan sets.

This is The Setup.

[Conan] Please welcome back to the show.

The very funny Jay Larson.

(upbeat music)

You know, I've worked with late-night bookers

on Craig Ferguson and on Carson Daily.

And the whole thing has always been

it has to be quick jokes

in case someone tunes in and they see the set.

You could never do a long story.

Do you remember how long we tried to get this set

to a time that worked

you were going to take a chance and we couldn't do it?

And then finally you were like, "Let's do it."

And every comedian comes to me all the time and they're

like, "One of the greatest sets of all time on late night."

And I'm like, "I know" and doing a story,

remember we tried it the second time it didn't go as well.

For an audience that's in the room,

if they don't get on board right away

you're not going to get them later.

And I hadn't even thought of that.

Never once did that cross my mind, you know

the first time it crossed my mind, Kumail said to me,

he goes, "Man, that Conan said", and I'm like,

"Oh thanks man."

He goes, "Did you, what would you have done

if two minutes in they hadn't like got on board?"

And I was like, "Dude, I never even thought of it."

Like I just never thought of it

because I love that story so much that like

I'm not saying it's never not worked,

but like it's never not worked.

When you sent it to me,

it was timing out at about six and a half minutes.

Maybe longer at that early stage.

I mean, every late nights that I did

before this one was like 4:20, 4:30.

And for your audience, like

you gotta be exactly... We're on TV.

This isn't like at a club where they're like

"let's go" and they're flashing the light.

It's like, you got to get off.

If you go long, we're going to have to cut

something out and they're going to watch this

set finish and it's not going to make any sense.

Yeah or you're going to have to ask Conan

to cut from his monologue and plots.

(upbeat music)

I have a question.

Your cell phone rings and you don't recognize the number.

What do you do?

[Man] Ignore it.

Ignore it.

Don't answer it.

Not me.

I like life.

(audience laughing)

The other day.

My cell phone rang 917.

That's in New York number.

I didn't know it who it was.

I messed up my words there.

You can tell I'm a little nervous.

I say, all right, nine one seven.

I'm basically I'm saying, I didn't know who it was.

So right then and there, like I'm like ,

"Just get past it," just cause if you know JP

as a booker and as a standup, you can stand

in the back of the room, watch a comic, do a joke, you know.

And you can see the tiniest miss

just the tiniest little word

that no one in the room will notice

but you will see the laugh at the end of that joke.

Not hit as hard.

This is the story.

So I can recover.

But that was like, I was a little nervous, you know?

I picked it up anyway, hit talk.

I said, "Hello", guy in line goes,

"Hey Bruce, what's going on?"

My name's Jay, not Bruce.

So I said, nothing much, man.

What's going on with you?

(audience laughing)

And he said, "I'll tell you what's going on.

I just got an email about the budget it's supposed to

be 15,000.

Now it's 10,000.

And I'd like to know what's up."

(audience laughing)

I got excited in my chest.

(audience laughing)

I grabbed the steering wheel.

I was like, okay, focus, your name is Bruce.

There's a budget, it was 15,000.

Now it's 10,000.

No, one's happy about it.

That's all we know.

That's all we know.

When I go, "My name's Jay, not Bruce", is like

the audience is a little bit like, "All right

what's going to happen."

Like what's, I can feel it.

And I always know where they are.

And that's what I love

about stand up is you're like, "Just hold, I got you."

You know what I mean?

And like right here at this moment

everyone swarms in when you grab the steering wheel.

So I just repeated back to him what he said

to me and I go, "10,000 is supposed to be 15,000."

He goes, "Yeah, I know.

Well, I just got an email and now it's 10."

I go, "Listen, man.

I don't know what to tell you.

I've been on the road all day.

You know, I haven't even seen it."

And he goes, "Did you send this out?"

(audience laughing)

Give him some attitude you're Bruce.

I didn't like it.

(audience laughing)

That's like my favorite thing in the whole joke.

It's like I didn't even like the way he talks to Bruce.

Like I'm stepping up for Bruce.

I said, "Listen, man, the budget was 15,000.

We had a couple extra expenditures.

It went up to 16,2 I reworked it

got it down to 14,7 I had 300 to play with.

So I called it 15 and I sent it out."

And he goes, "Yeah, well now it's 10 man."

(audience laughing)

And I was like, "Oh my God, that worked,

that worked phase one, complete phase one complete."

like now I'm in the door.

I have a 401k.

I was at the Christmas party, okay?

That's one of my favorite lines.

Which one?

I've been at the Christmas party.

That's a Sickler, that's Sickler.

Yeah.

Standup is such an individual thing.

It's you alone.

But in comedy clubs, when you get off stage

it's hanging out with other comics and you're getting ideas.

And that was one of them.

It used to be like,

"I had a 401k", 'cause this didn't happen in the call.

This is everything afterwards.

You know what I mean?

I think in the longer version I go

like, "I was at the Christmas party", like,

"Yeah I got a little tipsy and stole a toy for Todd."

You know, something like along those lines

that just was like, it doesn't matter.

But it's fun, yeah.

So he goes, "Did Larry, okay, this?"

I go, "Listen, man, I took the budget to Larry.

Larry said it looked fine, but I knew it was my ass

on the line.

So I ran it by Jennifer, just in case just to double check.

Jennifer said it looked good.

I sent it out."

He goes, "Yeah, well now it's 10 man."

And I realized this guy has no idea what's going

on over there.

He hasn't talked to Larry.

I know he hasn't talked to Bruce.

He doesn't even recognize my voice.

(audience laughing)

I know he didn't talk to Jennifer.

I just made her up.

(audience laughing)

So that's the only thing that's not real.

[Buck] Okay.

Jennifer, I literally made her up and made her up.

My guy is so thorough that he didn't just run it by Larry.

He ran over to Jennifer too, just to,

you know see how it went

So he goes, "Listen, man, what are we going to do

about this?"

And I go, "Listen, I'm on the road right now.

I haven't even seen the email.

Why don't you give Larry a call, check in with him.

See what he says, call me back."

Just praying he will.

Because that returned phone call was going to be amazing.

(audience laughing)

That's when I thought this whole thing would end.

He would hang up, call the guy

call me back and be like, "Who is this dude?"

You know, that's when I thought it was going to end.

I get home I'm so excited.

I take out my cell phone.

I'm like, you know what?

I'm going to save that guy's number.

Give him a call in a couple of days, touch base.

You know what I mean?

Check in.

(audience laughing)

See where we're at you know?

So I save it in my phone under random guy.

It's what he is, he's a random guy.

Four or five days passed I forget about it.

Laying on my couch, watching the ball game, phone rings

in the dining room table.

I get up watching the game, grab the phone

watching the game, looked down, random guy.

(audience laughing)

But it's been a couple of days.

You know what I mean?

So I'm like random guy, who's random guy?

Like who would even have random guy

as their name that comes up?

And then I was like, random guy.

(audience laughing)

Like now I'm panicked, you know what I mean?

People's lives have been affected.

It's only five grand, but I don't know how big

that company is, but I'm addicted to it.

You know what I mean?

I started this thing I need to see it through.

This physicality of you going back to the phone,

like I love this miming.

It's 100% literal.

I'm so careless with people's worlds

that I just even forgot it was happening.

And now I'm like, "Oh my God, before it was, you know

just the call before it was a number.

Now it's a name, its personal like this,

something has happened

and now I'm going to have to face the music."

I don't know who they are, but I was still scared.

You know what I mean?

And I do remember, I like put my earbuds in

because I just needed to like move around.

You know what I mean?

I didn't want it here it was too close.

So I put my ear buds in, just get a little distance

you know, just see a little space and I hit talk.