"I SAID NEE-HA!"
The Late Night With Conan O'Brien Newsletter #05/10-058
Hellooooo everyone! Well, as you know Neeha has been away for kind of a while now, but it's good to be back! Thank you for all the messages of support you've been sending to me over the past month. Nothing much has changed here (really), and Neeha will be back to it’s normal weekly schedule from now on. I’m breathlessly excited (and booking another flight!) after hearing about "The NBC Experience". There was hardly anything at the NBC store while I was there and it was kind of a disappointment… but soon, Conan, AND shopping combined. There could not be a better place to be.
I want to welcome NosRambles to Neeha and remind everyone that if you’d like to become a writer, I’m always looking for more people to join the (tres small) team! Enthusiasm for Conan is everything! Just email me if you’re interested.
NOTE THIS: Conan’s on Sesame Street Tomorrow (05-11), he sings with the Muppets!! That’s a nice mental image to enjoy for a looooong time. Check your local PBS channel for times.
Have a conetastic week everyone and let's get it awn!
Late Night Linzi
Editor
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CONTENTS -
LATE NIGHT NEWS
**NEW MOST WANTED**
LIVE@6A From Linzi
NOSRAMBLES With Nos4a2
UPCOMING GUESTS - May 10 - 21 1999
THE CONOLOGUE JOKES
FYI
END QUOTE
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LATE NIGHT NEWS
TALK TO ANDY IN NEW CONAN CHAT ROOM: Over at the new-look Conan website you can now chat live with other Late Night fans on-line. The chatroom is hosted by Talkcity, you can sign in as a guest or register as a regular user and the only *real* flaw is that the page is full of advertisements, and there's some annoying pop-up messages while you're chatting…. Plenty of Conan fans to talk to in the other 23 hours of the day though.
This is tres exciting!! ANDY RICHTER will be joining chatters online in the new chatroom on Wednesday May 19th at 1pm EST.
ALSO NEW AT THE CONAN SITE THIS WEEK! New "The More You Know" and "Satellite TV" and "Actual Items." The bigger news is that Andy is going to start contributing to the web site in a major way. Next week, they plan to launch a new item called "Andy's Opinion." Every two weeks, Andy is going to offer his opinion on some random topic. Users will have the opportunity to respond to Andy's opinion via email. Andy, will in turn reply to the user's thoughts. Hopefully this will create an ongoing dialogue between Andy and his fans. Keep an eye on the site this week for a teaser page promoting Andy's Opinion!! We look forward to it!
Check it out at:
http://www.nbc.com/conan/
NBC HAVE OPENED A NEW THEME STORE AT 30 ROCK. The store, "The NBC Experience" is full of much more NEW Conan merchandise than ever before. From logo caps, t-shirts, mugs to notebooks, picture frames and much more.
Also at the NBC Experience, you can have your photo taken green screen and choose which NBC scene you’d like to be placed in like behind Conan’s desk or doing the monologue for example. For $15 you can get a video of you acting green screen. You’ll take the place of Andy alongside Conan on a "Desk Drive".
http://www.nbc.com/shop
Get the mail-order catalog from: 1-800-NBC-8760
VIDEO OF THE WEEK! The Late Night website has the infamous and highly dodgy "Late Night Nipples" sketch in the late night theatre section.
http://www.nbc.com/NBCconan/index.asp?section=theatre
THE REAL Y2K PROBLEM…. 236 days to go to the Year 2000 and the staff of Late Night are still undecided as to what they're plans are for "In The Year 2000". When asked about it in a recent interview Conan told the Yale Herald: "We're still figuring that one out, and we've been thinking about it for awhile. We might take it in a totally different direction, or we might simply retire it. A sketch is good as long as it doesn't get old, so we'll have to see if we can think of something else that we should do with it." At "Neeha!" our opinion is that they shouldn't change a thing. Send your own suggestions to the show by emailing latenight@nbc.com
Read the Yale interview at:
http://www.yaleherald.com/archive/xxvii/1999.04.16/ae/p12conan.html
COMING SOON……. Simon & Schuster Interactive have announced this week that Deer Avenger II: The Return of Bambo is in the making. The sequel to the popular "Deer Avenger" written by Brian McCann will feature Bambo hitting back at hunters and falling in love with - Jane Doe?!? … Watch this space for further details….
CONAN CAME LAST IN A RECENT SURVEY for Valvoline that asked men which talkshow host they would choose to help them change the oil in their cars. The freckled wonder scored a phenomenal 3% of male votes. The guy who's on before Conan on NBC topped the poll with 29% of votes. Blah.
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**NEW MOST WANTED**
LOOKING FOR AN EPISODE OF CONAN YOU MISSED? From next week you can advertise here in Neeha. It's not a guarantee that you'll find someone to tape the bits for you, but as Neeha is sent to over 2000 Conan fans you might get lucky!!
To request an episode or episode(s) in Neeha put "MOST WANTED" in the subject line and send your requests to Linzi24@aol.com. Try to include as much information as possible, especially the date of the show you’re looking for if you have it. Requests should be sent in by Fridays.
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LIVE@6A From Linzi
I'm writing about my very own Conan experience this week. Just over a month ago I took a trip into New York, to see "Late Night" for the first time. A week later I went back again and actually met Conan. Since I don't live in an area where people know who he is, I've no one to impress with my story but you. All I get is "You met who?" or "Conan the what?" And I'm like "Yeah, he's this really great guy, he's sooooooo famous. He's a megastar in America!" No one quite understands just_how_cool it is though, so I hope you'll enjoy it.
The first time I went to a taping ever was conetastic. Every second I was there just felt amazing and surreal. I was seated on the band side. The first thing I noticed was how small the set looks when you're looking down on it. Conan's famed "walkover" must, in reality, be just a quick jump. It's really wee.
I have to bow to Mike Sweeney at this point. When he comes out and introduces himself to the crowd and makes fun of them especially College Students and people from outside the USA he really does set the audience up-especially first timers-for enjoying the show. I was too shy to tell him I was Scottish, that and I can smell the obligatory haggis joke coming a mile off. His hilarious interaction with the audience is so much fun to watch that I was sad that it seemed to be over as quickly as it had begun. The only slight thing that tainted his performance in my opinion was a joke that he repeated word-for-word the second week I went-a joke about one of the Stage Hands appearing in an Irish Spring commercial. It was funny though. I'd love to see him to a stand-up spot on the show one day though.
Mike tested audience levels for recording and then introduced Conan to the audience. It's surreal when he walks out and heads up the stairs shaking hands with fans…. The entire audience was transfixed as he launched himself into a pretty nifty version of Elvis' "Hunka Burning Love". I think this was the best part of the whole taping, he never sang the second time I was there. The pre-show is (almost) more fun to watch than the show itself. Somehow admitting that seems sad, I think it just means I had a good time.
I'm pleased to say the first show was a good one. The guests were Stone Cold Steve Austin, Louie Anderson, and Ben Savage, a guy with not much to say, but a cool name eh! He had a small army of girlie fans in the audience (all sitting in front of me) shouting his praises. They performed "In The Year 2000" which was great. The male suits sitting to my right were flipping out at this, I think they had a bet on with each other to guess what they would be doing. We all won. Watching the band try their best not to crack up while Conan and Andy are telling jokes is the best.
It’s so bizarre when you meet someone who’s on TV. It’s not really like meeting someone for the first time because it feels like you already know them. A few weeks ago the fab Jennifer Esposito ("Spin City") put it to Conan "Do you know how many times you've been in bed with me?" - something to that effect anyway. You have an eerie sense of false-familiarity with someone famous, which made me nervous.
Highly unfashionable though it may be, the first thing I thought when meeting Conan was "God you're wearing a lot of make up". And though I instantly regretted it, one of the first things I said to him was "You're so tall". Clearly, I'm a genius at stating the obvious. Immediately I tried to apologise to him for verbalizing something that's probably said to him more often than NYC cab drivers need English lessons. He cooly played it down though, and said, "No, no, you have to tell people that I'm tall. People don't know!" I guess they don't, he does look a lot more "wee" when he's on the TV. He's every bit of 6' 4" in person. Now you know.
Conan was in a bit of a hurry that night, it was right after the show had finished taping that he appeared in the Green Room-which is mostly yellow by the way--to meet myself and three other people (friends of his brother Justin) who were waiting on him, he was heading to Boston for the Easter weekend. The whole "meeting" was over pretty quickly; it seemed to pass in a blur. He signed my logo baseball cap "Thanks for coming, your friend Conan O’Brien" and talked about going to Boston, his brother Justin, the show, the guests, the Neeha interview, and the Ford Taurus—not just a Conan favourite, an O’Brien family favourite too apparently. He said he’d be happy to do another interview with Neeha sometime… and that he’d give us something "shocking" to write and talk about next time.
After the short-but-sweet meeting the four of us wandered out into the hall hoping that we could get an impromptu studio tour. We were in luck! One of the pages offered to show us the studio! We followed her in to 6A and ooooh-ed and ahhhh-ed in all the right places of her Tour Speech, which she struggled to remember, but did present us with a few delightful facts: "This piece of camera equipment is worth $500,000…" – (better step back incase you damage it you fool!) "The seats the audience sit on are from an old Broadway theatre…." "The studio is constantly pumped with refrigerated air because it gets so hot when the studio lights are on." (Possible explanation for Scott Healy cutting glass with his nipples.) And the classic: "This used to be David Letterman’s studio when he was the host of Late Night…."
While she was telling us about the studio and the cameras… we wandered around the studio--not far though, it’s not like there was anywhere you could go to-- from drums to Conan’s desk and the chairs, I even stood on the star that marks where Conan stands to do the opening monologue… It looks slightly more spacious from down there than it does from the audience perspective, but only just. On the way out we passed Andy’s dressing room, he wasn’t there, but on the door I noticed a pink postcard with three fluffy white kittens on it. Andy is the cutest.
After the little look at 6A it was time to go… once again we wandered out to the elevators where there is a large framed photo of Conan (from maybe the third season). Mark Pender and James "The Worst Nickname in all of showbiz" Wormworth were about to leave. Clutching his own guitar, and now dressed more casually in a short cream-colored jacket, black tshirt, jeans and old shoes, Conan wandered towards us again to say bye. I asked him to show us his guitar. The two band guys chorused after me "Show us your guitar!" in a girlie voice then they laughed at me. Tossers!! Conan was happy to talk about his guitar and show it off. Then he disappeared into the corridor in search of his own BatPole to slide down and off into the night….
On the elevator Mark Pender told me about the time he was in Scotland with B.B. King. Swanky. I asked James Wormworth how long he would stay with the show. They both looked at each other, burst out laughing and told me "Forever". We will see.
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NOSRAMBLES With Nos4a2
I began watching 'Late Night with Conan O'Brien' late last May, so I've got an important anniversary coming up. My yearlong devotion to the show requires some reflection. Mixed in with great memories, like Triumph at Westminster, Conan in Ireland, the Fifth Anniversary, Bill Reilly's Jump and Choke Channel (and other inappropriate stuff) there is also that question we all have to ask eventually: Why do we like Late Night? I have a theory.
I've been watching Letterman, switching to see the guest interviews with Leno, then heading on over to Conan. And then it hits me. I like LN because I feel like I know the host. Conan is probably the only late-night host who reveals personal details on-air. On Thursday, David Letterman interviewed Sarah, Duchess of York. She asked him about his love life, and Dave hedged the question. I tuned in to see Jay Leno's wife Mavis being interviewed on 'The Tonight Show', but the panel didn't reveal any personal details about the big-chinned host. (Although I did learn that the couple first had sex in a car in the Hollywood hills. Boy, there are some memories you wish you could just erase.) But on Conan, we learn about crappy birthdays, books the host has read and movies he's liked, details about Andy's marriage and the fact that the 'co-host' is buying a car. Little details that help make a connection with the audience. Do we really tune in to Late Night for the great comedy? I laughed at 'Dennis Miller Live', but I don't exactly want to give Miller a big, fuzzy hug.
So, do personal comments add or detract from 'Late Night'? Did we feel closer to Conan after he told supermodel Vendela that he has sex with the lights off? You don't get much closer than that, after all, and I'm not sure if that's something you should use to win fans, should you ever get your own late night talk show. I've been a loyal fan of David Letterman since he started the CBS show, and I every personal factoid I've gathered about him I've learned from unauthorized biographies. I can't say anything about Craig Kilborn, because there's not much time for personal sentiments during Conan's commercial breaks. Anyway, to make a long story short, do we watch because we feel a personal connection? Or just because it's funny? Food for thought. Cya!:-)Nos4a2
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UPCOMING GUESTS - May 10 - 21 1999
MONDAY May 10 (Repeat of 2/5/99):
Pamela Anderson, Michael T. Weiss, Ricky Skaggs
TUESDAY May 11:
Paul Reiser, Chris Kattan, Old 97's
WEDNESDAY May 12:
Janeane Garofalo, Ben Stiller, George Segal
THURSDAY May 13:
Sarah Michelle Gellar, Camryn Manheim
FRIDAY May 14:
Rob Lowe, Michelle Williams
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Monday May 17 (R 2/12/99):
Rosie O'Donnell, Daniel Stern, Patton Oswalt
Tuesday May 18:
Shannen Doherty, Timothy Dalton, The Atomic Fireballs
Wednesday May 19:
Scott Thompson
Thursday May 20:
Tom Selleck, William Shatner
Friday May 21:
Helen Hunt, Keri Russell, Built To Spill
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UPCOMING MUSO GUESTS
Lit (May 26)
George Thorogood (June 08)
Seal (June 11)
James Brown (June 25)
Cubanismo (July 09)
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THE CONOLOGUE JOKES
Transcribed By Robin Banks
"Bud Light has a new ad campaign that says "Be yourself" and it shows two men holding hands. Unfortunately, those men could only "be themselves" after drinking twenty Bud Lights."
"There's a new book out that I am interested to get. It's a book that gives explicit details about Abe Lincoln's sex life. Apparently, President Lincoln was anti-slavery but pro-bondage."
"The Tony nominations came out yesterday, and everyone was shocked and surprised because Nicole Kidman wasn't nominated. When asked to comment, Kidman said 'My husband is not gay!'"
"The other day, John Bobbitt was arrested for stealing from a clothing store. Reportedly, Bobbitt told the judge that he forgot to pay--he said 'Hey, I'd forget my penis if it wasn't sawn off.'"
"President Clinton is in trouble again. In Washington court room yesterday, Kathleen Wylie testified that in 1993, President Clinton touched her breasts, kissed
her on the mouth, and put his hands up her dress. When asked about it this morning, president Clinton said 'I have to admit that does sound like me.'"
"In Detroit yesterday, Al Gore made a speech concerning the future of the American auto industry. Reportedly, Gore made one slip when he referred to cars as 'my fellow machines.'"
"A group of protesters who are very unhappy with the rapid expansion of Starbucks have been repeatedly smashing the windows of a Starbucks in Maine. Customers say it's been really inconvenient because several times they had to use the Starbucks across the street."
"Apparently, there's a brand new museum in Washington that's devoted to the history of drugs, and when you go to this museum you can see bongs, rolling papers, and several bags of marijuana. Reportedly, the museum is doing well but the snack bar is doing even better."
"After 60 years in broadcasting, Hugh Downs announced that he is leaving 20/20 and retiring from television. Downs said 'I'm too old to be on 20/20, and I'm too young to be on 60 Minutes.'"
"In an recent sex survey, 40 percent of Americans said that during love making their partner's satisfaction is their priority. The other 60 percent said 'What partner?' Little autobiographical joke for you there..."
"Sunday, in case you didn't know, is Mother's Day. I have a little Mother's Day fact, which is interesting. In a recent survey moms said that their favorite thing to do on Mother's Day would be to spend a quiet day at home with their families. Moms said their second favorite thing to do would be to hang out backstage with Metalica. Or, is that just my mom? She has a problem..."
"Monica Lewinsky is in town. It was in the paper today, all over the New York press, after she showed up at a New York night club last night, a huge barroom brawled and bottles were thrown. Afterwards Monica said 'I wasn't scared. I feel right at home under a table.'"
"Dennis Rodman is in the news again. Denise Rodman settled out of court with a collage student who claims he was injured when Rodman butted him in the chest. The student said 'The chest butting wouldn't have been so bad, but Dennis was wearing one of those pointy Madonna bras.'"
"A New York man is suing the owner of a dog because he claims the dog bit him in the crotch and eliminated his sex drive. In a related story, earlier today the dog was purchased by Hilary Clinton."
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FYI
"NEE-HA!" #58 was edited by Linzi Gallacher who bows to Robin Banks, and Nos4a2.
The Basics: Eat. Sleep. Watch Conan.
On the Web: http://www.angelfire.com/ny/lacob/conan.html
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END QUOTE
"Yesterday the FDA approved a new obesity drug that blocks fat. In fact, this morning it wouldn't let Star Jones into work." - Bobby Bowman
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