Conan O’Brien has confirmed that he used to write material for Saturday Night Live at David Letterman’s desk.
During a recent appearance on Hot Ones, hosted by Sean Evans, the comedian and TV host explained that he sometimes sat in the Late Night with David Letterman studio when he worked on SNL, which were both filmed inside 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.
In the episode, Sean asked Conan if it was true that he used to write material for SNL while sitting at the iconic talk show host’s desk.
“Yes, I would sit, they had like a covering over his desk, to protect it from any a**hole, so our studios were at nine and I would go down to, he was in 6a, which is the studio I eventually took over,” Conan said. “But I didn’t know that was going to happen, and I would sit at Dave’s desk, and I had Dave’s perspective and I would sit there and work on a sketch.”
The comedian continued, “And then this crazy situation develops, one in a billion chance where I get a chance to audition for that show and then get it. But if you had told me that when I was sitting behind Dave’s desk as a Saturday Night Live writer, I would have said there’s no way.”
Conan worked as a writer on the sketch comedy series between 1988 and 1991.
David hosted his long-running late-night show from 1982 to 1993 before Conan took over, with Late Night with Conan O’Brien running from 1993 to 2009.