Sona Moffsesian’s new memoir, The World’s Worst Assistant, manages to turn things around when an ambitious young woman who excels in both Burger King’s drive-through and NBC page programs gets a job as Conan O. She talks about what happens when she says “Brian’s Assistant — a deal she sealed by asking if she could lie down during the interview.
“The HR representative told me that Conan likes my sofa jokes,” she writes. “I joked about being lazy, so I started working at Conan — foreshadowing at best.”
Thirteen years later, Movsesian, who co-sponsored the podcast, said,Conan O’Brien needs friends, ”Has accumulated a lot of skills and work experience that LinkedIn rarely boasts. For example, I heard that Robert De Niro’s assistant was watching 55, so she had seen 58 “Friends” episodes on her watch in four days. Are you sleeping at work? How to “abuse a corporate card without technically embezzlement”? The “Worst Assistant” provides a guide for that.
But Movsesian’s story is not about celebrating laziness or inadequacy. It’s about how two flawed people intended to be together found each other: accepting employees about who she is and how she works. A boss and an employee who accepts the boss about what he is.
“I give Sona space to become Sona (see book),” O’Brien wrote in the preface. .. “
Here, the worst assistant in the world talks about the movies she watched the most, the TV she can watch with her kids, and the Girl Scout cookies she bought in bulk. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.
1. Shale Sher is a very important person, not just a contribution to culture and fashion. She is part of an Armenian and I am an Armenian. For us, few celebrities are in the limelight, and no one is bigger than Shale. The fact that she is an icon and she is half Armenian was a really big problem for all of us, especially growing up.
2. Evil look Evil eyes are found in many cultures, including Armenian culture. It usually has blue, white and black round eyes. It keeps the evil eye away from you. If people are trying to curse you in some way, or want you sick, it pushes it away and protects you. It’s in my car. It’s in my house. It’s working It’s a big part of what I’m Armenian and human.
3. “Galaxy Quest” “Galaxy Quest” is the first movie I’ve seen four times in theaters. When I didn’t have enough people to go with, I went to the theater alone and saw it. I have never done such a thing. I don’t know why, but I always felt strange to go to the movies alone. “Galaxy Quest” broke the seal for me.
4. Fred Rogers I have twin 1 year old boys. What can my husband and I see with them so that we don’t hate them? So I bought all the old seasons of “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood”. The episode is timeless. There is an episode where he meets Yo-Yo Ma. Then he looks like this: Let’s look back at how Yo-Yo Ma talked about how he feels when he plays the cello. And there is only a minute of complete silence. Now no one does it. Nobody does anything for a minute.
5. “Cheers” I started making a lot of noise about the whole series about 6 years ago. Then I met a man who would be my husband and found that he was also “toasting”. We were in about the same place. When he told me, I was: Oh, we have to get married and we have to finish the “toast” together.
6. Lock Wrestling was a big part of high school for me. It was like a soap opera that I didn’t think I needed in my life. And rock was the most important character. When Rock left wrestling, he brought my wrestling love with him. But I still see what he is. I don’t care if I’m interested in it, I abandon my kid and go to the movies for a few hours.
7. Cock Sparrer When I met my husband, he was in the Cock Sparrer cover band, the British punk rock band. It’s a genre I’ve never really been into, but when I heard Cock Sparrer playing with Santa Claus, we went to see them. It was really cool to connect with her husband like that, see what she liked in her favorite genre, and realize that I really liked it too.
8. “Step Brothers” A few years ago, after buying an apartment, I was able to cut a window in the wall between the kitchen and the living room and watch “Step Brothers” while cooking. The more you watch Will Ferrell’s films, the more you can capture the nuances of things. But I also love being able to wear it, do something else, watch TV at any time and laugh at what’s happening.
9. Disneyland When I was a kid, I was really surprised when I went to Disneyland. My heart will explode. Now I can go there and buy popsicles, after 5 minutes I can buy popcorn and after 2 minutes I can eat chicken tenders. You can do Disneyland as you did when you were a kid, but you can do it as an adult because you pay for it.
10. Girl Scout Cookies Girl Scout is the place where I met a group of core friends when I was in elementary school. It doesn’t matter if you are the daughter of a colleague or a stranger on the street today. “I’m a girl scout. Do you want to buy cookies?” Say yes. I will buy a lot of cookies from you. Most often it is Samoa.
