Conan O’Brien reveals who was his worst guest after 25 years of hosting late-night TV

"You wouldn’t say it was a great experience. But you would remember it. It was what we call 'compellevision.'"

A good interviewee can be an amazing thing: open, funny, honest, interesting, intelligent, charming, etc. A bad interviewee can make you want the ground to open up beneath you and swallow you whole before you chew your own lips off with cringing awkwardness, not unlike the time Graham Norton revealed who the worst guest he's had on his show was. Professional interviewer Conan O'Brien was a guest on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, and while discussing the thousands and thousands of interviews he's performed over the 25 years as a talk-show host, the topic turned to the worst one of all time: "Abel Ferrara got booked on our show and he’s a wild eccentric … and he fled, during the show, before his segment. He ran away, got into the elevator, and was out on the street when [my segment producer] gave chase. He caught him, led him back, made him — pushing him — got him backstage. He came on camera against his will. And then, he came out and I think started yelling at me." Ferrara, in case you didn't know, is the director of Bad Lieutenant, King Of New York, Body Snatchers, and Driller Killer. He was a very big deal in the 80's, but hasn't directed a feature since 2014. Anyways, O'Brien went on to say that while he wasn't sure if Ferrara was drunk or not, he has absolutely no time for guests who come out on the show drunk. He describes them as just laughing at their own jokes and taking too long to reply to anything, while also hinting that an actor from "on a certain show where everyone’s trapped on an island" was INCREDIBLY drunk when he came out on to his chat show stage. The particularly mystery of who that actor might be shouldn't be lost on anyone... Oh, and if you're interested in watching that Ferrara interview, here you go: Clip via billross22