Thursday, June 23, 2005
By Amanda
Conan brought the Led out when I was there! (Yes, I witnessed the above in person!)
After getting liquored up at a yummy Mexican restaurant, I arrived at NBC Studios around 3:00. The confirmation letter tells you to arrive by 4:15, and the show tapes from 5:30-6:30 Tuesday through Friday. I ordered my tickets over the phone in November of 2004 when they were booking for the 3rd week of June, 2005. At 3:00, there were approximately 40-50 other people in line in front of us! (You are seated by your place in line.) The wait wasn't all that bad. As you can probably imagine, a group of [mostly] young Conan fans standing in close quarters for over an hour in non-air conditioned space isn't terribly dull. There were NBC workers (pages) coming around talking to the fans in line. One of them said he met Conan very briefly and that Conan eats a lot of chicken wings. Around 4:00, the pages were going through the line collecting confirmation letters and making sure the people in line were on the list. They handed out a ticket and wristband to each person and directed us to put the wrist bands on immediately. They told us to be back in the line by 4:25 if we happened to stray from it. I think everyone was escorted to the elevators around 4:35. Before boarding the elevators, everyone's bags were searched pretty thoroughly by security. This was the 1st place in NYC that did more than a quick glance into my backpack -- they actually took stuff out and searched through it (I look evil). So you go into the elevator with a good-sized crowd of people and the elevators take you to the 7th floor automatically (no buttons in the elevator). When we walked out of the elevator, we were in the area outside the top/back of the studio. In front of me was the hallway I've seen on the show with all the pictures of Conan and various guests doing crazy things, mostly from the very old set and very young Conan. Here I surrendered my ticket to another page and got a free Late Night t-shirt (yay!) I walked through the hall past more pictures. Then from the top left entrance, I entered the studio (cue Handel’s Messiah).
The studio was surreal. I couldn't believe where I was! The temperature was cool (comfortable I thought for summer), and there was very loud music playing over the speakers. It was some good, recent rock CD (not sure exactly what; I don’t listen to the radio much!) There were pages directing people where to sit as they entered the studio. There are 2 sections of seats: 1 section in front of the area with Conan's desk and the guest chairs, and the other section in front of the band/monologue area. In the below pic of Conan doing a warmup (not from the day I went), you can see the aisle that separates the 2 sections:
I ended up in the section in front of the band/monologue area in the 2nd row, 5th seat from the center aisle that you see above. I was sitting diagonally to the left of Conan's chair. Conan's Eisenhower mug was the only thing on his desk. It was surreal to be sitting there looking at the empty set. The studio is nice and cozy. I really love it! The size is just right. The colors are very relaxing. The walls and seats have the same plush blue carpet material that is on the floor. The set is amazing to look at. The backdrop behind the interview area is awesome to see in person. It's very obvious that it's a curtain when you see it in person because it is wavy. The stars on it are really shiny silver and the rest of the backdrop is very vibrantly colored. The whole studio is totally pimped out! It looks like a shack-up joint or something with all the plushy carpet and night-time feelings it brings. It was cool to realize that is where all that crazy stuff I've seen on the show over the years has taken place.
At that point, I was getting kind of anxious as I was sitting there waiting for Conan to come out. Y'know the door that is to Conan's left when he is at his desk? You can see it in these pics:
That door kept opening and various people who work for the show were coming out doing their thing to prep for the show. At one point the door opened and a bunch of people started cheering. I got all excited, but it was Bob Costas (a guest that night) by the door, not Conan! (Nothing against Bob though!)
I think around 5:15 Brian McCann (Preparation H Raymond, Raisin, various other characters) came out from behind that door to do the audience warm-up. He came up a few stares in the aisle that divides the audience and stood there. He was f#@*ing hilarious! After the warm-up, I didn't think I would be able to laugh anymore for the rest of the show because my cheeks and my sides hurt from laughing so hard! When Brian came out, somebody said "preparation H" so then he made a joke involving sphincters. He thanked us for coming and apologized for the waiting around and everything before the show. He explained the applause signs and the HD monitors to watch the show on (my 1st time seeing the show in HD!) He ensured us that we were very safe in Rockefeller Center. He said we should enjoy being in an explosion-free environment for 1 hour of our lives. And then he showed us his Rockefeller Center ID that he wears around his neck, which is simply a square with some numbers on it. He explained it's an excellent security system. [sarcasm] Someone in the audience yelled out that we got free t-shirts, so then Brian said something like, "We ask that you return them at the end of the show and please put them in the proper bins according to size - Medium, Large, XLarge - or we'll be f*@$ed up for tomorrow." lol...[on a side note - they only give out large shirts, because according to a page - "Everyone is a large in Conan's world."] Brian asked where people were from and what they did there. He asked if anyone was skipping work or class which sparked some funny conversation. I can't remember what else he said but he was hilarious! Love him. Then Brian introduced Max Weinberg and the rest of the band. They came onstage from the same side door Brian came from. Everybody went crazy. I was really excited to see them! I believe they played 2 songs, and they are VERY LOUD with all the mikes and speakers. As you can probably gather from TV though, they are awesome!
Then (after much anticipation) Brian introduced the host of the show... Mr. Conan O'Brien! At that point, everybody stood up and started freaking out, clapping, and screaming. I couldn't see much, but Conan came running out through that side door. He was wearing his navy blue suit pants, blue long-sleeved shirt, and green tie. He looked very chic. He came running up the aisle Brian was just in (that divides the audience) and shook some people's hands that were on or close to the aisle and near the front. I think he came up about to the row in front of where I was. Then he went back down to where he does the monologue and everyone was clapping and screaming. I wish we could have screamed and clapped for Conan for the full hour because Conan deserves it. But anyway, he made a hand gesture for us to sit down and keep cool.
It is hard for me to remember exactly what happened and what Conan said because I was in awe of the whole predicament. I think he first welcomed us to the show and asked us how we were doing. He started dancing in the aisle and had a random guy stand up and dance with him. The guy was sitting in the end seat on one of the rows of double seats in the front. Conan was dancing kind of provocatively and so the audience member was dancing the same way with Conan. Then all of a sudden Conan stopped dancing and was like "whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait -- what the hell are you doing?? And why were you rubbing my back?" So that was fun. The audience member told Conan that his female cousin sitting next to him came from California to see the show. Then Conan said "Oh you came from California?" kind of flirtatiously and came back up the stairs next to where they were sitting. The next part got me a tad jealous. He got practically in the girl's face and he purred at her and hissed and did his clawing motion toward her with his hand. (I would have been dying at that point). From what I could see of the back of her head, the girl just kind of sat there and didn’t do anything, so Conan told the guy, "I think you and I have the better chemistry."
Then I think Conan asked us if we were excited. Someone in the front row on the right said something, and Conan said, "This guy down here is excited!" Then he noticed another guy behind the excited guy was rubbing his back I'm guessing. Conan said, "Why is the guy behind you rubbing you? Do you know him? [mocking the guy] Oh look it's Conan!" then Conan rubbed himself. (that was hot!) Conan said he wanted to see one of the guys he was joking with hug Max with porno music playing in the background. So one of them went down on the stage where Conan does the monologue and hugged Max while Jimmy played porno music. It was a good time. Max gave him his drum sticks and Conan made a joke about that being so sweet until Max pulled out two more drumsticks a second later. Conan went over where he does the monologue and said, "How are you guys doing over here?" to the section of the audience behind where the band is (where I was sitting). A guy in the front row of my section was wearing a homemade shirt that said something along the lines of "Conan – it’s my birthday" so Conan said, "Oh look it's this guy's birthday -- happy birthday!" And then someone else said, "It's his bachelor party" And Conan said, "That's nice, who's getting married?" And made a joke about coming to the show for a bachelor party. Conan said something like, "We have an amazing show tonight. And I've never said that before to an audience." He made some other jokes. After Conan's spiel, he and some guy from the crew stood across from each other and turned inward towards each other, then they bowed at the same time (a pre-show ritual I'm assuming). Conan walked back toward where the curtain is to go backstage to where he comes out from at the beginning of the show. He was probably out with the audience for about 5 minutes total before the show started. At that point, it was really close to being time for the show to start. The crew member who does the countdown to when they're taping held up his fingers to countdown seconds before the show. Then the Max Weinberg 7 started playing the opening theme and the show was starting!
The closest I got to Conan was probably about within 10 feet of him (I can't believe it myself). Sadly though, I did not get to shake his hand, talk to him, hug him, or anything of that nature. Conan looks about the same in person as on TV. He is a really hot daddy. A major difference is that in person I could tell he was wearing a lot of makeup. His pompadour is awesome. It is more brownish than red. His eyes looked kind of bloodshot (drinky winky?) They are a really nice blue though. His wedding ring is very shiny gold. He is really thin and tall... you could have guessed that! Very energetic person!
During commercials, the Max Weinberg 7 plays continuously and it is very, very loud from the audience's perspective. Conan sometimes got out of his seat and sometimes remained sitting at his desk during the breaks, but he was always working. During the first commercial break, Mike Sweeney (the head writer) talked to Conan. Conan always talked to people from the crew or people came up and told him things during the commercial breaks. On the blue cards you might have noticed that he uses during interviews, he sometimes wrote things, crossed things off, and circled things during commercial breaks. I don't know what exactly was going on there. But it was very professional during the commercial breaks - no playing around! During the last commercial break, the band stopped playing prematurely and the crew member was counting down seconds on his fingers until they'd be back from commercial. Conan started counting out loud, but the numbers he was saying were different from what the crew member was holding up on his hand. Conan said something like, "This is my show, I say we have 8 seconds left!" or whatever. It was amusing.
There was a skit where an actor came in and played the role of a lightning bolt. Conan and the Lightning Bolt Man had an interactive dialogue in the skit. Conan was at his desk, and the actor was in front of the curtain to Conan’s right. Conan and the actor had in front of them what I believe to be identical cue cards. As the actor said his lines, Conan silently mouthed the actor's lines (when Conan was off-camera). I think Conan did that to make sure the actor was saying the correct lines and also so he would know when to come in with his next line. After the skit was over, they went to commercial and Conan went over to where the actor was and shook his hand. Conan told him 'good job' or something to that effect and was really nice to him.
So you've heard the song that the Max Weinberg 7 plays each night after Conan says, "Stay tuned for Last Call with Carson Daly. Bye everybody, bye!" or something to that effect. And you've seen Conan get out of his desk and twirl around his microphone in his hand. What happens after that is Conan sings some words along with the melody of that song in his high, pretty singing voice. It goes something like this, but this is not verbatim.
The part that's not on TV
I'm wasting the audience's time now
They can't leave because the host is singing
Ba da ba ba (etc.) let-me-say-my-high (and he hits a really high-pitched note)
Conan did not look in my general direction at all during his pre-show bit. One thing that struck me is that he didn't look at the audience at all during the taping of the show either, at least not that I saw. Y'know how when you watch on TV it looks like Conan is speaking directly to you? It always creates the illusion in my mind that he is looking at the audience when he’s speaking. Well when they are taping, he is staring into the camera and that's it. You might say "well, duh!" But it was just weird watching him while taping because he was looking at the camera and at the cue card right above the camera. He wasn't looking at the audience at all as it seems on TV.
After the "the end of the show song", Conan was in the monologue area and said something like "Thank you for coming"... And he finally looked RIGHT in my direction. I don't know if he saw me, but he looked in my direction so I was happy to have possibly been visually acknowledged by Conan O'Brien. I looked right into Conan's eyes. They are so blue... I will always remember that moment. Then as he was leaving, he was waving to the audience and he looked in my direction again. I was a happy girl after that. :)
Conan disappeared out the side door that he first came out of and everyone started to leave. On my way out of the studio, I just remember La Bamba and Pender were still by their designated spots in the band. Some audience members were talking to them and I saw La Bamba sign an autograph for someone. I really wish I could have taken a picture in there because it is a really cool studio. (Photography is not allowed.)
The whole show went very smoothly. After viewing the show on NBC, I don't think they edited anything at all from this episode. Everything was perfect the first time through, and everything they taped was broadcast on TV. Late Night is a very professionally done show, even if Conan and the comedy aren't always super professional. Anyway that is what I love about Conan's humor! I have never laughed so hard in my life as I did starting from when Brian McCann came out until the end of the show. I mean, I laugh at the show at home but it is a whole different experience when you're in the audience. As an audience member, it's like Conan is really doing the show for you, and you sort of get to [minimally] interact by clapping, laughing, and shouting various things if you desire. It is very cool - every Conan fan definitely needs to go to a taping!
My pictures:
The NBC studios marquee - 6/23/05
The ticket I had. They take it away from ya. :( 
A blurry shot of the wristband, which they let you keep. I wore it around Manhattan for the rest of the night and people kept asking about the show! :)
The free t-shirt! It says "audience member" on the sleeve.
The GE building on 6/23/05 around 9:00pm, viewed from the 86th floor of the Empire State Building. This is the building in which the show is taped.