Conan O'Brien

Last night I went to a taping of the Conan O'Brien show.  We didn't plan our trips in time to get actual tickets for the show but you can get standby tickets the day of any show for free. 

We found this out while buying our tickets for a tour of NBC studios.  Normally I think tours are dull but this one was actually pretty interesting and I recommend it if you're in town.  You get to see the sets of many of your favorite shows and the guides are slightly better than cheesy. 

Back to Conan.  The tickets we received had the numbers 61 and 62 on them.  Unfortunately at the time we received them they indicated it was a lottery system and not a first come first serve idea.  That being said we wasted an hour checking in early and standing around for what was essentially a known failure. 

On to Tuesday.  I looked up the location to get tickets in our guide book and online and made arrangements to arrive at 7:00 AM.  Unfortunately both our guide book and the website failed to mention the exact location where you should be waiting.  It's also not marked nor is in the place we received our tickets on Monday.  As a result I wandered around for a bit, found a line that was forming and confirmed it was for Conan.  As it was already past 8:00AM at this point I didn't like my chances and headed home.

On to Wednesday.  I woke up slightly late but still managed to get to the location at 7:30AM and waited until 9:00AM to get the tickets.  I was number 13 in line.  I showed up on time and needless to say, got into the show. 

While getting in means your in, it also means you have several more lines and metal detectors to go through.  In the third or fourth line several people started cutting and going to the front.  A very annoying teenager was inching his way up the line but stopped just behind me after I gave him a very appropriate look.  I was just about to ask him to get back in place when I noticed he was staring up the line.  One of the people who already cut was his girlfriend and was being flirted with by several bystanders.  Seeing how incredibly upset this was making him, I was content to let him stand beside me and seethe. 

Onto the show.  Conan is amazing funny in person.  He came out before the show and introduced himself.  He joked around with the audience for a few minutes and then started the show. 

Brad Garet was the main guest and is also very funny.  The only bad part about the show was the band; Rogue Wave.  They sucked and were quite boring. 

As soon as the show was over Conan grabbed the mike and started singing.  "This is the song you never hear on the show ...".  You can imagine the rest.  He ran off with a flourish of waving hair and we exited stage left. 

The one immediate take way is that I don't feel like the camera fully captures the physical side of Conan's humor.  He's constantly moving and dancing when he's on stage and performing off camera antics.  My favorite was a windup pitch of the microphone to a stage hand who almost dropped it but managed a diving body save which prompted an additional cheer from Conan.