Written by Carly
The plans were conceived around Christmas time when my friend, Kirsty, was fortunate enough to receive not one, but two sets of tickets to a taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. The dates for the two shows were exactly one week apart, a week that has officially become a sacred holiday for the two of us. The “Countdown to Conan” began on day 207, with the first taping being July 15 and the second, July 22. Throughout the waiting period, the event became more and more popular among our family and friends, and we were constantly being questioned as to “what day on the countdown it was”. Being as excited as we were, we were almost always able to instantaneously reply with the correct number of days remaining.
The countdown slowly advanced and as the days wound down, our anticipation grew larger until we could not longer wait another day. As if the fact that we were going to be seeing an actual taping of Conan -- our beloved late night treasure -- wasn’t enough to keep us from heart failure, we were later informed of some very exciting news from our friend, Claire, which immediately resulted in cardiac arrest.
The reason the Conan-news from Claire was such a big deal to us was because Claire’s mother grew up with Mike Sweeney’s (Conan’s head-writer) wife, Cynthia, and they were very close friends. Claire’s family had become close with the Sweeney family over the years, as her mother and Cynthia did not want lose touch with one another. Claire had the opportunity to meet Conan a few times and had also talked with him and Sweeney over the phone. (Claire even showed Sweeney our Conan website, and Sweeney wanted to show it to Conan!)
Anyway, upon hearing about our plans to venture to the Big Apple, Claire and her family arranged with the Sweeneys a PRIVATE MEETING WITH CONAN after the first show on the 15th. This made the anticipation unbearable, yet completely worth the wait in the end.
July 15th came and we woke around 7am, after a good 2 hours sleep. The night before consisted of staying up till the early morning hours, watching consecutive episodes of Conan, unable to grasp the reality that just a few short hours would bring us within arm’s reach of the man of who most often graced our dreams. We took a train all the way up to New York from the Delaware County area of Pennsylvania. Accompanying us were Claire, Kirsty’s boyfriend, Chip, and Kirsty’s mom. It was a long train ride, but we found many ways to make it fun, without ever losing sight of what Rockefeller Center had in store for us.
When we arrived in NY, we still had about 2 hours to spare before we had to be at Rockefeller Center, so we ate and walked around the city. At about 3:30pm, we headed over to the “Rock”. We walked around and found the NBC Experience store (which I suggest you check out) and we did “Desk Drive with Conan”. For anyone who hasn’t seen/done it, we sat in front of a blue screen and looked at a monitor. We saw the video of Conan at his desk, and whenever he asked us a question, the monitor told us what to say back. When we finished, we received a video tape of it, which was better than any other souvenir we could have bought. 
The time came to go get our tickets and wait in line. Thanks to Claire’s “Cone-nection”, Sweeney hooked us up with VIP seating. We got into our special VIP line of about 10 people, received our tickets and wristbands, and waited until it was time to head towards the studio to be seated. Now, we were told that VIP normally gets seated right behind the band in the larger section of the audience, but for some reason, they sent us up to THE FRONT ROWS in front of Conan’s desk. A stairway split the audience so that looking at Conan’s desk, there are three or four rows of 2 seats on the left, and then rows of about 5 seats on the right. Kirsty and I sat in the third row, in the pair of seats on the left along the railing. The band was to our left and to our right was Kirsty’s mom (along the aisle), Claire, and Chip. Waiting for the show to begin was the hardest part of our entire adventure. We were minutes away from our dreams coming true, and we could barely contain ourselves from shaking with excitement. Kirsty’s mom, Claire, and Chip all managed to find amusement in watching us, as they were well-aware that Kirsty and I were die-hard, obsessive Conan fans.
The pre-show began with the guy who plays “Preparation H Raymond” [Brian McCann] coming out to warm up the audience by telling a few jokes. He asked if it was anyone’s birthday, and being that it was in fact Chip’s birthday, we told him and he gave Chip an expired coupon to Taco Bell. He talked for about 10-15 minutes until finally, he introduced the man Kirsty and I had been waiting our entire lives for. Through a stage door came 6 feet and 4 inches of pure beauty. Our hearts skipped well over 10 beats and our eyes did not once stray from our prize. He came to the front rows and began to shake hands with everyone. As he came closer to us, he offered me his hand, and we shared a good shake. My hand then went numb and stayed that way for about a week.
For about 15 minutes we sat and listened to him, inches away from us, talk and make jokes. At one point, he asked if everyone was excited, and as everyone started to cheer, he grabbed Kirsty’s mom and asked her to dance, and they danced in the isles, which then ended in a very warm-looking hug. Not many kids can go and tell their friends that their mom danced with Conan O’Brien, so that was a huge treat for Kirsty and her mom.
Conan went back and the band came out and played a long song, which included Pender holding a note on his trumpet for probably 45 seconds to a minute, or longer (it was really long, but impressive). The show began and the band, the monologue, and Conan were all amazing. Throughout the show, we couldn’t help but laugh at Pender. He was directly to our left, only about 4 or 5 feet away and every time we looked at him, he looked back at us and started to mock us and giggle at us like we were doing to him. He was making faces at us all night, it was hilarious.
The guests were Vivica A. Fox, Alan Cumming and music by Ricky Fanté. One of the skits they did was “Clutch Cargo” with John Kerry and John Edwards, where Kerry’s face gets all droopy and loose. The actors set up their mics on the music stage, and sat while their lips were filmed and they read their lines from a script. It was neat to see them supply the voices right on stage.
Anyway, the show went great, the musical performance was awesome because the song Ricky sang (It Ain’t Easy) is so good, and everyone on Conan’s staff knew the words, so while Ricky was performing, the crew just sat along the set and sang along. Conan walked around singing and bobbing his head with the music. It was very adorable; Kirsty and I were melting.
After the show ended and the crowd began to empty out, Mike Sweeney’s wife, Cynthia, grabbed us from the audience and brought us down onto the set. She took us through the door that Conan came out of in the beginning of the show. (Sometimes on the show, when Conan has extra characters or he goes backstage, you will see this door, to Conan‘s left, or to the right if you are looking at Conan). This door led backstage where all the dressing rooms are. We passed Conan’s dressing room and got to see him inside of it. Cynthia took us down the hallway where we met Pender and La Bamba. For some strange reason, La Bamba knew where I lived. We told him we were from the Philadelphia area, and when I told him the name of my small, off-the-map town, he exclaimed that he knew where it was, and I was even more shocked when he pronounced its confusing name without any difficulty. We started laughing when we met Pender because we felt awkward, considering we were making fun of him throughout the entire show. However, to our relief, he told us that we were making him laugh so hard all night long, and he had to stop looking at us because we were so funny. We talked for a while and in the midst of the conversation, we saw Jimmy Vivino and Max Weinberg, both seeming very angry for some reason. We later found out that their anger was due to their having to re-tape a part of the music for a segment, thus ending our conversation with Pender and La Bamba, but not before we had the chance to snap a few shots for souvenirs!
Cynthia took us on a tour around backstage. We got to see the old SNL studio, which I believe she said is being used for Carson Daly now. Next, she took us to the prop room, where every single object that has ever been on Conan was kept. We saw almost everything; no Walker Texas Ranger lever. Cynthia said that it was currently somewhere else, and Kirsty and I were both very disappointed. After our little tour, she took us into the green room, the room where guests wait until they are called on stage. It was a small room with a few couches, and we sat and talked for a while. Shortly after, Mike Sweeney came in to greet us.
Before I get into what seeing Conan was like, I need to supply a little background information: Kirsty was wearing a t-shirt that she made specifically for the occasion. Across the chest was a picture of Conan’s mid-thigh to chest area, in his string dance position. The shirt read “Get ready to enter… …the Cone Zone” Also, her jeans were supported by a belt that she purchased off of eBay, which had a picture of Conan on the clip. If not for her attire, our Conan experience may not have been all that it actually was.
Mike Sweeney entered the green room, and we exchanged hellos, and told him a little about our trip up to NY and such. He noticed Kirsty’s shirt, and when Kirsty told him that she had made it herself, he spoke some of the finest words that I had heard all day long; “Oh, he has got to see this… I’ll be right back.”
Trying to contain ourselves, both assuming his intentions, we sat anxiously in the green room, anticipating what we hoped would happen. Sweeney came back, but to our astonishment, he returned alone. Our slight disappointment was quickly overturned when Sweeney asked us to follow him. He led us down the hall towards the door we came in, and made a left into a smaller hallway, with a few rooms. We followed him up to a door and he poked his head into the dressing room and when he stepped out of the doorway, out strolled Conan O'Brien. My heart fell out of my bottom and I just smiled and stared at him in amazement. He immediately greeted us, shaking our hands and asking how we were. He remembered Claire and her family, and he also remembered dancing with Kirsty’s mom.
Sweeney told Conan that he wanted him to see Kirsty’s shirt, and Conan looked at it and began to do his string dance for us. It was amazing. Kirsty also showed Conan her belt, and he laughed and thought that it was strange that he "held her pants up". She offered to give him the belt, but he kindly said no, feeling that she should keep it. The highlight of the conversation was probably when he growled at us. (Rrrrooowwwwllll!!!)
I wish I wasn’t hadn't been so deathly afraid while we were talking to him. He was asking us a bunch of questions, and I was unable to work the muscles in my mouth to create any sort of sound. I believe the only thing I said to him the whole time was, in response to him asking if we were big fans, I stuttered out, “Yeah, we have a website about you.”, and immediately put my head down in embarrassment and regret. I feel bad now because on any normal day, I would probably have never even brought the website up, because I know there are thousands of sites about him all over the internet. I am very sorry that was not able to say anything intelligent to him. I think I was even too choked up to laugh at the jokes he was making with us. Unfortunately, the time came for us to leave, as Conan and Sweeney both had things to do. We took some pictures, said goodbye, and went our ways. It was an amazing day and I am extremely glad I had this opportunity. I didn’t get to go the next week to see him; I don’t remember why. Kirsty went up again and of course, she had a blast. If anyone is thinking about going up for a taping, I highly recommend it. It was probably the best experience of my life to date. It took more than about 5 months to flush the butterflies out of my system, but I will never forget my trip and my experience meeting Conan.