Brian Stack spent 29 years in late night, first with Conan O’Brien and then Stephen Colbert. But when he joined Late Night with Conan O’Brien in 1997, the job was only supposed to last 13 weeks.
Stack was brought in to temporarily fill a vacancy after writer Tommy Blacha injured his foot. He threw together a packet over a weekend, got vouched for by old Chicago friends including Brian McCann and Andy Richter, and figured he’d soon be heading back home.
Instead, he stayed with O’Brien for 18 years.
On this week’s episode of LateNighter’s Inside Late Night podcast, Stack tells Mark Malkoff how some of Late Night’s best ideas came from writers simply messing around. McCann once walked into the office wearing a FedEx box like a papal hat and began blessing people, giving birth to FedEx Pope. Blacha jumped off a coffee table and started choking Stack, inspiring the Jump and Choke Channel.
“The time that felt like it was being wasted did result in some of our favorite stuff,” Stack says.
That spirit also produced Stack characters like the Interrupter, Frankenstein, and Traveling Salesman Hannigan. His first major sketch, Andy Richter’s Little Sister, grew out of a half-formed packet idea about Conan’s ex-girlfriends. Amy Poehler played the lovestruck 13-year-old and, Stack says, brought so much to the character that she felt almost like a co-writer.
Stack also remembers O’Brien as someone who was almost always doing a bit around the office. Conan nicknamed him “the Alabaster Ape,” and once spotted Stack walking in Studio City and yelled the nickname at him from his convertible.
In 2015, Stack made the difficult decision to leave O’Brien and join The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He says he had never wanted to leave Conan, but he had admired Colbert since their Chicago comedy days and wanted the chance to work with him.
The move required Stack to learn a different kind of writing. After 18 years doing mostly characters, sketches, and desk pieces, he suddenly found himself writing topical and political comedy alongside Colbert and a staff that could rewrite material right up until showtime.
Stack remained with Colbert through the end of The Late Show. He recalls the cancellation as a shock, but he says he looks back on his career with more gratitude than sadness.
Even the finale retained the spontaneous spirit Stack had loved throughout his career. Amid rumors that the pope might appear, Stack jokingly suggested saying he was backstage refusing to come out because the show had provided the wrong snacks. Colbert liked the idea.
So after 29 years in late night, Stack went out doing what he had always done: turning a dumb idea into a bit—this time by pretending to be an angry pope and throwing a hot dog.
Click the embed above to listen to Brian Stack’s full conversation with Mark Malkoff now, or find Inside Late Night on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
