From his early days writing Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons through his Late Show years and controversially short reign on the Tonight Show throne, Conan O’Brien found a rabid following for his edgy, inspired lunacy. Abruptly thrust into the center of a highly public exhibition of network television’s cruel, hard vagaries, Conan discovered emotional depth in his relationship with his audience that enabled him to eschew cynicism, and may even have strengthened his commitment to, and love of, pure, childlike silliness. Though his post-Tonight Show future remains unclear (yet undoubtedly assured) at the time of this writing, he was still on-air when we discussed not the ugly business of late night TV, but his particular take on comedy: what fuels it, why a joke can be just a joke and a laugh just a laugh, and how we’ll never really know why one produces the other.

Conan’s conversation with Paul Provenza is in the book.