Amanda Lund, wife of Conan's producer Matt Gourley, reveals that Matt secretly ran a Shakespeare pun t-shirt business out of a trunk in their bedroom for years without telling her — and still sells stickers on Redbubble for 88 cents each. The conversation also digs into Amanda's stint as Cinderella in Tokyo, where she had a dedicated fan base who photographed her on her days off and showered her with gifts on her last day, and her podcast 'The Complete Woman,' based on evangelical 1970s marriage guru Marabel Morgan whose advice included wrapping yourself in cellophane to stop your husband from cheating.
Key Moments
Amanda Lund
“I would be just riding the subway on my day off and someone would come up to me and like hand me an envelope that was filled with pictures of myself from the park.”
Amanda describes the intense fan culture at Tokyo Disneyland, where fans photographed her in character and tracked her down on her days off.
“On the wall there's a guitar case with a guitar in it, but it's not just a guitar case. You open it up and a bar comes down and inside it's a hidden closet. And inside the closet are like booze shelves that are lit from below.”
Amanda describes Matt's latest tinkering project — a hidden bar disguised as a guitar case in his home podcast studio.
“I open it and inside there are hundreds of t-shirts, novelty Shakespeare t-shirts. And for years he had been selling these t-shirts, handdrawn Shakespeare art in these t-shirts on a website. He had a whole website domain and he never disclosed this to me.”
Amanda describes discovering Matt's secret Shakespeare pun t-shirt business hidden in a trunk in their bedroom.
Amanda Lund is a comedian, podcaster, and actress from Long Beach, California. She worked at Disneyland and Tokyo Disneyland as a face character, playing princesses including Cinderella and Mary Poppins. She is the creator of 'The Complete Woman,' a character-driven podcast inspired by 1970s marriage advice author Marabel Morgan. She is also the spouse of Conan O'Brien's producer and co-host Matt Gourley.
Takeaways
1
Tokyo Disney fan culture is obsessively structured At Tokyo Disneyland, fans formally 'adopt' a specific character performer at the start of their six-month contract and follow them for the entire run, photographing them even on days off. On the performer's final day, the fans gather and shower them with gifts — a ritualized fandom lifecycle unlike anything at US parks. Amanda Lund experienced this firsthand as Cinderella, being handed envelopes of her own photos on the subway.
2
Matt Gourley ran a secret Shakespeare t-shirt business For years while dating Amanda, Matt Gourley quietly operated a website selling hand-drawn Shakespeare pun t-shirts — for example, Hamlet lying dead with the caption 'Not to be' — hidden in a trunk in their bedroom. Amanda discovered it by accident when looking for storage space. The business still technically exists on Redbubble, where stickers now sell for around 88 cents, and Matt forwards Amanda the sales emails.
3
Marabel Morgan was the original anti-feminist influencer Marabel Morgan's 1970s book 'The Total Woman' was a direct counter-movement to second-wave feminism, framed in evangelicalism, that reached Time magazine cover status and made Morgan the breadwinner while she advised women to subordinate themselves to their husbands. Her advice included wearing cellophane and boots to greet husbands at the door — a scene later referenced in the film 'Fried Green Tomatoes.' She now paints horses. Amanda Lund turned Morgan into the character-driven podcast 'The Complete Woman.'
4
Face characters earn less than remote-control trash cans At Disneyland, 'face characters' like princesses — performers whose actual faces are visible — earn slightly more than costumed characters in full masks, but significantly less than specialty operators like Matt Gourley, who controlled a talking remote-control trash can and earned roughly three times Amanda's princess salary. The physical danger and technical skill of the trash can role commanded hazard-level pay despite involving no costume or performance in the traditional sense.
5
Amanda and Matt met doing British street improv at Universal Despite both working at Disneyland simultaneously, Amanda and Matt never crossed paths there. They met at a Universal Studios Hollywood orientation for a short-lived 'British street' attraction where performers hung out of windows shouting at tourists. They bonded immediately — 'love at first speak' — and by the end of orientation day were already finishing each other's jokes on an escalator.