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BY SETARREH MASSIHZADEGAN -- Northwest Indiana Times -- Friday, May 12, 2006 CHICAGO | With their blue tickets raised overhead, thousands of people marched triumphantly through a maze of caution tape and security guards to take their seats in the Chicago Theater's grandiose expanse. Once inside, it wasn't long before the crowd erupted in a series of ever-intensifying cheers: First, with the director's appearances on stage during setup, again when the crowd was warmed up by a staff member's wisecracks, louder for Max Weinberg Seven's trumpeter Mark Pender -- until the tremendous moment when the big man himself emerged from the wings. "We've got to settle down before a Jerry Springer Show breaks out in here," Conan O'Brien told his audience Wednesday. "Don't make me marry my sister." With his celebrated hair flip, O'Brien has played to eager Chicago audiences. The one Wednesday had the treat of seeing comedian Dave Chappelle and rapper Common on stage, as well as Chicago blues musician Lil' Ed, who gave O'Brien a lesson in Blues 101. O'Brien wowed the audience with Chicago-tailored jokes. He said, "In Chicago, the most popular wine is something called 'Cabernet Old Style.'" Audience members also discovered answers to the elusive question of what happens during commercial breaks and what the quirky redhead does when the camera is turned the other way. While audiences watched O'Brien jam with Lil' Ed in a previously recorded video, O'Brien paced the stage, paying almost no attention to the video screens and the audience's laughter. Instead, he consulted stage crew about the tuning of his electric guitar, which he played live with Lil' Ed at the video's end. At commercial breaks, O'Brien's stage crew rushed him, much like a pit crew on a race car, to powder his nose, refill his water and, presumably, discuss pertinent issues. O'Brien appeared unfazed, even while engaged in conversation with Chappelle and others. At Chappelle's entrance, the audience released such a roar that Chappelle appeared dumbfounded. Lizzy Morse, 20, said after the show, "When Dave Chappelle came out, I thought the place was going to crumble." Chappelle addressed his much-discussed mental state: "It was a weird thing to get called crazy. At first it was scary and now I feel like it's liberating." Audience members were amused to see the intimate aspects of O'Brien's off-camera pampering. "It feels a lot more intimate when watching it on TV," Chicago resident Martin Morse, 22, said after the show. |