Conan O’Brien’s Legally Prohibited From Being Funny On Television Tour, Live in Austin May 15th, 2010

May 172010

That might be the longest title for an article I’ve ever written. ¬†But it’s ultimately justified because two days later, I still can’t get over the fact that I got to see Conan O’Brien perform in person. ¬†I know, I know- I had the opportunity to watch him for years in NYC or for six months in LA, but I just don’t get to those parts of the country… well… never really. ¬†It’s been something of a dream for about the last decade to see a taping of his show. ¬†When The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien was unceremoniously shut down in January, I knew that one day I would have the opportunity to see Coco once he was hired to another show. ¬†But then in March when Conan tweeted that he was going on tour and would be coming through Austin, I bought tickets for the wife and I within minutes. ¬†This past Friday, it became one of the most justified purchases in my life.

I’ve already filled my hyperbole quota for this write up but there’s more coming. ¬†Look I won’t beat around the bush, I’m a pretty big fan of this guy if you couldn’t tell. ¬†So needless to say, my expectations were riding ridiculously high. ¬†The show was at the recently renovated Austin Music Hall, which ended up being rather intimate. ¬†Opening for Conan was a gentleman named Reggie Watts. ¬†I’d never heard of the guy before and when he walked out, the wife and I looked at each with the same “is this guy for real?” expression. ¬†But I knew as soon as he mentioned smearing applesauce on titties, I was sold. ¬†Here’s a video for his song “Fuck-Shit Stack,” which I’ll add he performed ¬†including his own live dubs-

And then things went crazy as The Legally Prohibited Band performed two numbers, with La Bamba, Jerry Vivino and Mark Pender running through the crowd during the second one. ¬†Then we heard Andy Richter announce the man, and the house went crazy. ¬†What followed was a video of Conan, complete with a Gandalf length beard and huge distended belly, lying on his back with empty beer bottles and pizza boxes littered around him. ¬†The video went on to show a montage of Conan preparing for the tour. ¬†Conan then appeared on stage, donning a custom University of Texas Football jersey, and raising his hand to form a pair of longhorns. ¬†It was at this point in the evening I wish I had brought an extra pair of trousers. ¬†Need I remind you, this is maybe ten minutes into the show and I’d felt as if Mr. O’Brien had already made love to me. ¬†Ok, I’ll stop. ¬†My god he’s dreamy. ¬†Ok, seriously.

So he began the show with an extended monologue, much like the beginning of his shows. ¬†The difference was he had a lot of jokes written specifically for Austin, which I thought was pretty cool. ¬†The main one I recall was Coco poking fun at the “Keep Austin Weird” slogan. ¬†He argued that the very act of trying to make something weird or manufacturing strange directly contradicts the phrase. ¬†Conan tried to imagine the city council meeting where the main focus was to establish said weirdness and the struggles a city would find therein. ¬†I’m hacking the joke to bits here, but it ruled.

From there the show was littered with musical interludes from Conan and the band. ¬†Eventually Andy Richter shared the stage in his sidekick capacity and was completely awesome. ¬†Pretty much the first thing he said, in regards to Austin, was, “I’ve gotten really fucked up in this town.” ¬†Andy was extremely liberal with his use of the word “fuck” throughout the night. ¬†Not that I mind, but I’m sure there were some that were completely shocked.

I’ve come to the point in this write up where I can’t really remember the order of events but here were the remaining highlights from the show-

Deon Cole, a writer for Conan’s Tonight Show, did a set of his jokes. ¬†Some of them were rehashed from his numerous appearances on TV but he was able to be a little more raw with his humor and really had the crowd going. ¬†I can only hope Deon joins Conan’s writing team when the show goes to TBS.
The Masturbating Bear made an appearance but due to the fact that NBC may hold the intellectual rights to the character, he was quickly changed to The Self Pleasuring Panda. ¬†Chaos ensued on stage.
I can’t believe I’m typing this, but holy shit, they brought out the Walker Texas Ranger Lever. ¬†They called it something else, but it was completely awesome. ¬†Clips of Mr. Norris kicking ass were played and then the segment ended with the famous Haley Joel Osment episode. ¬†If you haven’t seen it, you’re in luck as someone put it on YouTube-

The remaining items of interest involved more musical performances with Conan and the band, including a completely awesome inflatable bat (claimed by Coco to be from Meatloaf’s “Bat Out Of Hell Tour”), and Austin’s own Charlie Sexton took the stage to play a song. ¬†All in all, I had a complete blast for the entire two hours of the show. ¬†My face hurt something fierce from smiling so much. ¬†If you are afforded the chance to see this tour or any other live performance from Mr. O’Brien, please do yourself a favor and make it happen.