Jax - Concert Review - Conan O'Brien
Live From Vancouver, It’s Conan O’Brien!
*Many Spoilers Ahead!*
It’s 6:12pm and I’ve just pulled into the closest parking lot to The Orpheum Theatre in downtown Vancouver. I’m running behind as usual and don’t even realize I’m parked directly in front of the tour bus taking the cast and crew of Conan O’Brien’s Legally Prohibited Tour to 31 shows across North America. Giggling to myself like a naughty toddler, I snap a few pictures on my camera phone and meet up with my friend Jen to see The Greatest Man In Late Night play at one of the oldest and most regal theatres in the city.
After some seriously good hot dogs and root beers at Dougie’s Modern Dog on Granville we lined up with the crowd outside the Orpheum and waited our turn to be searched for cameras.
As you can see, there were a few restrictions regarding recording and picture taking. I was only armed with my camera phone because of this but somehow a guy managed to enter with his Mac Book Air a few rows ahead of me. I can’t take a grainy picture without flash, but he can Skype his wife? I digress.
The show started out with singer/comedian Reggie Watts, a crazy, funny and talented man with the raddest afro I have ever seen. His songs were a mix of beatbox,drum machine and soul music. In between each one he had the crowd warmed up with funny stories and audience interaction. By the time he had us chanting “Conan! Conan!” in a mix of his dance/trip hop song, we were pumped and ready for the Ginger to take the stage. What a great way to kick off the night.
Conan enters the stage to cheers and catcalls and a thunderous applause after a brief intermission. The standing ovation lasts 5 full minutes as Conan humbly bows and waves to the crowd. A smile spreads across my face as I realize how much I’ve missed sharing my late nights with the tall redheaded kid from Boston. It’s been 3 months since he’s been on TV and although we haven’t forgotten how great of a host O’Brien can be, it’s still amazing to see firsthand after 17 years of watching live from my couch.
There were appearances by The Masturbating Bear,Triumph the Insult Dog, Andy Richter as the loyal sidekick and the Max Weinberg-less 7 featuring Labamba. A 30foot bat from Meatloaf’s last concert, a Walker, Texas Ranger “handle” that showed some classic and hilarious clips of the show and a really clever montage about post talk show depression as well as the 8 Steps To Grieving the Loss of a Talk Show. #8 being “Get Your Ass To Vancouver!”
That’s one of the best things about the show they have cleverly put together. It had a lot of local shout outs and Conan, missing being able to “throw to a commercial”, took it upon himself to create some funny local commercials for Andy Richter like Japadog and The Penthouse t-tty bar. As Andy says, “The Penthouse has been around since 1940, and so have some of its dancers. For when you’re feeling more creepy than horny!” If he comes to your town you will really enjoy this part of the show. I especially liked hearing about one of our Olympic mascots, Sumi, down on his/her luck and strung out on smack in Pigeon Park, a local all-you-can-inject drug buffet on the Lower Eastside. Funny, yet laced with a bit of politico snark.
The evening would not have been complete without seeing Conan in the tight ass purple pleather suit Eddie Murphy wore in Raw. Yes, that one. Not only, did it make me feel good about my pasty skin and flat ass, it seriously had me laughing so hard I was wheezing. Never has the Irish looked so good. Forget Colin Farell, I’m with Coco.
The show ended after several more songs, one liners and completely appropriate jabs at Leno. He expressed how thankful he was to Canadians, as we were the first ones to really get his humour when his ratings weren’t that strong in the early years. I was sorry to see it coming to an end. After two hours of non stop giggling my cheeks hurt, my stomach had an ab workout and my mascara was all gone from the tears of laughter.
“You know in all my years in show biz, this is the first time anyone has ever paid to see me and I really appreciate that. But I have been paid for people not to see me…” he says with a maniacal laugh and does the String Dance.
We’ve missed ya, Conan. Welcome back.
