By DOUG ELFMAN -- Chicago Sun-Times -- Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Fans enter the Chicago Theatre on Tuesday afternoon for the first of Conan O’Brien’s four shows this week.
So Mr. T and Conan O'Brien took a romantic canoe ride down the Chicago River. Mr. T is a native, so he pointed at stuff the way a tour guide would. Then they strolled down the street. Suddenly, O'Brien realized Mr. T was only citing certain structures, and he said, "You seem to know the buildings that have the name written on them."
There were a lot of local bits like that on Tuesday's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien." The NBC host is staging his show at the Chicago Theatre this week in a road trip to a city known for its staged comedy. A lot of his writers started out here.
Anyone who thought O'Brien wouldn't make use of cliched jokes and bits about Chicago was quite wrong. His band's trombonist wore a local police uniform. One recorded bit re-created the moment in the Chicago-shot movie "The Untouchables" where a baby carriage tumbles down the stairs of Union Station. (Adult announcer Joel Godard was in the carriage. Was funny.)
"Late Night" writers approach such comedy by lightly ridiculing big things in pop culture, but they embrace them by doing so. It's like giving a hug and a punch at the same time. A lot of comedy is like that. You get to have your cake and eat it, too, and smear it all over someone's face, but in a nice, but-I'm-sick-of-you way.
Tuesday's best moment was when "Will & Grace" actor Sean Hayes sort of called O'Brien on this. In his interview, Hayes asked the crowd if they remembered the local band he was in, Sounds From the Stairs. The crowd cheered. O'Brien cracked on Hayes for eliciting what showbizzers call "pity applause."
"You got a lot of that tonight," Hayes said.
To which O'Brien meowed and licked the snow globe on his desk. That was totally the right move. If you get caught playing to your audience, the only way out is to play harder, if your masturbating bear isn't around to bail you out.
Right, I almost forgot, there was this masturbating bear, a semiregular "Late Night" character, who parachuted in from a plane over Lake Michigan.
Similarly, the guests on the show were expatriate Chicagoans dropping in on their hometown. Mr. T rode down a wet playground slide, griping, "My booty's wet!" Hayes soared above the stage on a wire, more Flying Nun than Peter Pan. Cheap Trick played "Surrender." And George Wendt accomplished one push-up.
The crowd ate all this up, starting with a three-minute standing ovation when O'Brien walked onstage. Their hoots drowned out about 23 percent of what could be heard in the theater.
That audience was part schizo, as are a lot of audiences. The taping started 25 minutes late at 4:55. Thousands of fans, who looked to be in their 20s mostly, grew restless and chanted "Conan! Conan!" But then they started booing -- and hissing -- as they waited to see a free show hosted by someone who's presumably an icon of theirs.
O'Brien's warmup guy and writer Brian McCann (from ImprovOlympic) tried to settle them down without dousing the house.
"Conan's just finishing a bag of coke," McCann joked. "He got it off some guy named Bob Sirott." 'Twas in jest, fair Sirott fans, not an accusation.
CONAN'S QUIPS
ON HIS SHOW'S CHICAGO DEBUT:
"This is my first chance ever to act like a jackass in the Central time zone."
ON WHAT MARQUETTE AND JOLIET SAID UPON DISCOVERING CHICAGO:
"This is the land of milk and honey. Now let's fry it and cover it with cheese."
ON THE WORLD CHAMPION WHITE SOX:
"Not only that, the Cubs are currently the best team in Wrigleyville."
Who's next: Guests for tonight's "Late Night With Conan O'Brien":
Comedian Dave Chappelle
Rapper Common