work hard and be kind.

It is so hard to put this into words.

The first time I ever saw Conan O’Brien, I was six years old and should clearly have not been awake at such a late hour. At the time, I was mainly focused on loving cats and pretending that I was Todd from Disney’s The Fox & The Hound. I cannot remember why I was allowed to be up so late that night, but I remember my dad telling me to watch for the little white cat on the screen, during Conan’s opening credits.

Conan O’Brien has been a part of my life ever since. That’s not to say that I never missed an episode. It happens with even the best of shows. But he has always been around and I have always loved him. His silliness, his awkwardness, his nerdiness, and his kindness. I have stayed up to watch him whenever possible and there has been no other late night talk show host for me. To me (and no offense to Johnny), he is the king of late night.

During my sophomore year of high school (2002-2003), when I was probably my most awkward ever, Comedy Central would air repeats of Late Night with Conan O’Brien the day after the shows aired on NBC. I loved this year. Every evening, at six o’clock, I would go into my room and watch the show. I even taped a bunch. I have an entire Conan VHS stack in my parents’ house. They’re probably worth a fortune now.

Also during this year, since I was so into Conan and was able to easily see him every day, I started writing Coco quotations (say that, it’s fun) that I especially liked into my daily planner. It was more pressing to me than due dates or homework assignments. That planner is now full of notable Conan O’Brien quotes from the early 2000s.

In French class, we were to make up a comic strip a la Asterix. I made a comic poster of Conan playing for the Boston Red Sox. Sort of a “best day ever” scenario. I think it’s probably the greatest thing I ever made in French class. And my favorite part is that, as I was making it, Neve O’Brien’s birth was announced. I wrote a dedication to her on the back. I’m sentimental that way.

My parents and I went to NYC for my sweet sixteenth birthday with the intention of seeing Conan. We weren’t able to get tickets, so we opted for the next best thing: a tour of NBC Studios in Rockerfeller Center. When I was in his studio, I almost spontaneously combusted. Our tour guide mistakenly said that he was six foot two and I corrected her. “Six foot four, actually.” I literally pushed my glasses up my nose. She smiled at me. Then she said that he was the head of his college’s newspaper, but couldn’t remember which. “The Harvard Lampoon,” I aided/made an ass of myself with. She smiled again. “You should be leading this tour!” That started a running joke with my parents and I. Someday, I was going to be Conan O’Brien’s coffee girl. The page who hands him his coffee cup. Oooh yeeeah.

While in the NBC Experience Store, Dad and I did the little pre-taped, interactive “Desk Drive” with Conan. We look pretty dorky in the video, but it is also a really fun memento. I showed it to my friends for my birthday party later on and one of them thought I’d actually met Conan and ridden his desk. I didn’t want to tell her the truth. So I didn’t.

Only kidding.

Anyway, I have so many fond memories and little mementos that span Conan’s entire late night talk show host career. Little things like magazine clippings to big things like notebooks full of silly stories about him. And I own four Conan shirts. I think it is safe to say that, of all of the things I have loved over the years, and there have been a lot of them… Conan O’Brien has had the greatest impact on my life. He has made me want to give people something to laugh about, and has proven that nice, slightly nerdy people can succeed without having to change who they are.

I finally was privileged to see him, live and in person, in Upper Darby, PA for his “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” on June 7th. Several times, thoughout the show, amidst all of the laughing, I had to wipe sentimental tears from my eyes. It was a long time coming, and that, I think, made it three billion times more special for me.

When he first lost his show on NBC, I was furious. I thought I had walked into a horrible reality show or something. The more I read about it in that really fast-paced week of drama, the more angry I got. However, when Conan made his farewell speech on his last episode of The Tonight Show, I took his words to heart. I will not be cynical. I will still be able to see him. The wait till November is tough (and it was so tough to watch him board his tour bus and ride away, knowing that I wouldn’t be seeing him again till then), but it’s only five months. I waited seventeen years to see him live. I can wait five months to see him on my tv again.

And the wait will be worth it.

~Sara

Tags: conan o'brien, nostalgia, sometimes i ramble