A Night with Conan O'Brien and Friends

Conan O'Brien and Andy Richter at McCaw Hall

There were a couple things I knew going in to the Conan O'Brien show Sunday night. It was at McCaw Hall, Conan would be there, and...that's about it. (Sunday also just happened to be Conan's birthday!) Not a lot was said about the show, and no one knew who the guests would be. Would he set it up like a talk show? Would he ride a unicycle for 90 minutes?

It turned out to be an interesting mix, more like a variety act than a comedy tour. There's been some positive and negative talk about the tour, but if you're a huge fan of his talk show, then you probably would have had a fantastic time. The show's opening act, Reggie Watts (formerly of Seattle and currently of Maktub), did a great job of working up the crowd and getting them ready for 90 minutes of hot Coco action. He brought on a lot of laughs with his great mix of electronic music, dirty jokes, and wacky lyrics. The Seattle-specific call-outs really perked up the audience as well as his dazzling voice. 

And then on came Conan with a bang, kicking off with a two-minute standing ovation by the awaiting audience. He started with a pretty typical introduction, talking about the tour and its purpose, with quite a bit of the complaints that we've gotten used to hearing from the ex-NBC host over the last three months. The Seattle crowd ate it up, and it must have felt good to have that many people behind him. Guests that joined the comedian onstage included his sidekick Andy Richter, one of his writers, Deon Cole, who did a short stand-up routine, La Bamba and his "Big Band," and that night's special music guest Dave Matthews.

Conan's musical guest Dave Matthews at McCaw Hall

(The patrons of Monday night's show were lucky enough to have musical guests Eddie Vedder and Mike McCready of Pearl Jam grace the stage. According to LiveNation's twitter feed, they played "Baba O'Riley" for the ecstatic packed house.)

Unfortunately, a few of the gags fell short of a laugh for me, but thinking back on the whole experience, it was a good time. One of the highlights was Dave yelling, "F#@& you, Conan!" in jest after having pulled the strategically named "Chuck Norris Handle" (so called due to NBC's possible intellectual property rights to the original Walker Texas Ranger Lever), which played a clip that showed a very young Haley Joel Osment saying, "Walker just told me I have cancer AIDS." Classic. Andy added a few chortles with fake advertisements for Dick's and the Fremont Troll, which he claims has been "smelling like pee since 1990."

I appreciate that Conan wants to keep his people employed until the upcoming TBS show begins, but I think it fell a little short of the excited expectations palpable around the venue before the show. Maybe if he'd done a little less NBC-bashing and a little more of his classic goofy act? The Seattle Times thinks it'll improve with age, once some of the lesser jokes hit the editing room floor and new material takes its place. I just hope TBS-version Conan is happier and more content with his place in life once he's settled in.