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Wednesday, October 19, 2005 By Becca [editor’s note: This was the episode when Conan gave the Eisenhower mug that sits on his desk (of which he apparently has many) to a very lucky audience member from Finland. Robert Smigel gifted Conan with the original Eisenhower mug; I speculate he didn't give that one away.] On October 19th at 7:30 in the morning, I boarded a bus along with my dad, sister, and aunt to begin the best day of my life. The bus was bound for New York City Port Authority. This day was bound for glory. My dad had called NBC back in May of 2005 to try and get reservations to see Late Night with Conan O’Brien in July or August for my birthday. He was told that there were no open reservations for the rest of the summer, and he should call sometime in July or August for a reservation in October. When he called back that second time in August, we were reserved four seats for the October 19th show. It was the best birthday gift I could have asked for. On the day of the trip we planned to go to Coney Island early just to kill time. We did some batting cages and ate some hot dogs while taking in the whole New York experience, including two 45-minute subway rides through Brooklyn. After our return to Manhattan from Coney Island, we went straight to 30 Rock and found the Reservation line for Late Night, which was already full with 10 or 15 people. While my sister and dad stood in line, my aunt and I found a bathroom in 30 Rock where I put on my homemade “Conan Can I Have a Hug?” t-shirt. After about a 20-minute wait, we were moved into an adjacent hallway to wait some more. In this hallway they gave us our wristbands (which I still have on) and our tickets for admission. I went down to the gift shop and bought my $12 Conan tumbler. I knew that if Conan would have seen this he would’ve freaked. (Remember the Conan Night-Light?) So then we waited some more and chatted with each other about our fondest Conan memories and favorite episodes. After what seemed like an eternity, we were finally taken to the metal detectors and searcher-guys, then to the elevators. Once we got to the 7th floor, we were greeted by some seemingly friendly girls who then started violently chucking t-shirts at us telling us to get excited. SAH-WEET. The hallway walls were filled with great caps from Conan episodes and some bumper artwork. I was pumped. My posse and I were then filed down to the FIRST ROW on the left side of the studio, directly in front of the band and where Conan does his monologue. Sexy. The studio was small, cold, and well lit. Emphasis on that small part. I had been in the studio before on a tour when it was being used for storage, so the atmosphere this time was a lot different for the actual show. Finally, the warm-up guy [Brian McCann], who most may know as the guy who plays Preparation H Raymond, came out and did a bit about the guy from Finland, “booger sugar”, and other funny stuff. Then, the band was introduced and started playing a song. Um, did I mention we were sitting within arms reach of the band the entire time??? During the song, Mark Pender held a mic up to me to sing “BABBBBBAYY” into it. I did, and I probably butchered it, but it was all in good fun. He then held it up to my dad and my sister and continued to rock out. Then he did that weird trumpet thing where he holds a note for like a full minute and a half. We were scared for our lives. But it was amazing. Then, the warm up guy introduced my idol saying, “OK I just got the signal that Conan finished a bag of coke and we’re ready to go! Here’s the host of the show… CONAN O’BRIEN!” There he was. My hero. My life’s inspiration. The point of skipping school and spending $50 on a bus ticket from Reading to New York. The point of life. Mr. Conan Christopher O’Brien. The world practically stopped as he came through the doors on the right side of the studio. I started shaking and my jaw dropped. I might have been drooling, I can’t tell for sure. He climbed halfway up the steps and started to gyrate. WHOA. I couldn’t believe it. He was RIGHT THERE. GYRATING. Doing his thang! He rowled and hissed and hugged and licked. Dang. His hair was awesome, and even from across the studio you could tell the brightness of his blue eyes. Finally I regained control of my bodily functions, and tried to recruit him to give me a hug by waving at my t-shirt. The band saw it and laughed, but Conan didn’t. Oh well. So after he was done talking about the guy from Finland some more, he did the show. We were watching the monologue from about 10 feet away. I was waving at him the whole time during the song and stuff. The show was great. A great episode overall, 5 stars. I laughed the whole time. I also learned a lot about how the show itself works. In between segments Conan and the producers come together to change their notes and add some things. There’s never any idle time in between takes. Seeing that only makes you appreciate the work those guys do to make the show awesome. The only down part was the musical guest, who sucked big time. During the musical segment I just stared at Conan standing there all sexy-like with his arms crossed listening. I was in heaven. Afterwards, he sang a sweet, sweet song about him being the host and us not being able to leave yet. So the whole time I was waving at him yet again. He still didn’t see me. Oh well. Then he left the studio waving, hair bouncing, prancing like some sort of earthbound god… Afterwards, before we left Pender looked up at me and I said “Yeah Pender!” He just smiled, laughed and said, “You guys were great!” Apparently he asked us where we were from (I didn’t hear him so I was just sitting there smiling, stupified) so my sister told him “Reading, PA” to which he responded “Oh yeah I heard of that. It’s in PA.” He was a really nice, funny guy. So then I asked for his autograph and gave him a piece of paper and pen. He wrote, “To Rebecca: Love ya! Mark Pender”. Then, when we were leaving we were in the same elevator as the Finnish guy who was given the Eisenhower mug. Jealousy! [editor's note: Although this particular Eisenhower mug is now probably in Finland, another Eisenhower mug was in place on Conan's desk during the taping of the next episode.] The best part about Conan is that he is really a genuinely funny and awesome guy. You could tell by the way he talked in the warm ups that he loves doing what he does. He loves meeting all the different people and interacting with them. October 19th, 2005 will remain in my memory forever as the best day of. My. Life. |