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Conan O'Brien
I have been a fan of Conan
O’Brien since he hosted the Late Show with Conan O’Brien. On March 21st
2011 I got the chance to be an audience member for the show
Conan on TBS. The episode was
called Ninjas Don’t Wear Corduroy and Conan’s guests were Sarah
Silverman, Biz Stone, and comedian Pete Holmes. This was the first time
I have ever been to any taping of any show and I am sure it won’t be the
last. I had a fantastic time and the extra entertainment that the
audience gets along with being there for the show was amazing. The
picture below shows where I was sitting in the audience along with my
sister Tomasina and her friend Tina.
First though I want to mention the line/wait to get into the show. I was too
late for reserving tickets online for the date I had in mind so I had to get in
line for standby tickets. If you are going to try to get tickets for Conan
through the standby option, then plan on this show taking up your whole day.
First you need to get the standby ticket in the morning at 10am. Then you need
to come back at 2pm to see if you can get an actual ticket to be in the
audience. The show starts filming at 4:30pm and ended at about 6:00pm if I
remember correctly. Besides lunch, I spent most of my day waiting to get into
Conan. The hour and a half show was well worth the wait though. I got to see so
much that the camera doesn’t show, plus there was additional entertainment for
the audience besides the taped show.
This entertainment includes music from the Basic Cable Band (shown in the
picture below), a standup comedian before the taping starts, a special song from
Conan at the end, and other various antics. I don’t want to go into it too much
more than that, because I think if you are really curious you should experience
it for yourself and go see Conan live. Just know that it’s awesome. But what I
will go into is what I learned about camera tricks and some of the other tricks
that go into the filming of the show that I noticed.
Until I actually stepped foot in
the studio I had no idea how small the studio actually was.
The positions of all of the cameras make it feel
like the studio is so big, but it is not. I would say that the stage was maybe
sixty feet wide at most and perhaps thirty feet deep. One thing that trips me up
when watching on TV is how long it seems to take celebrities to walk from the
curtain to Conan’s desk. The time it takes makes the studio seem much larger. I
am also somewhat puzzled as to how they fit some of their live skits in the area
with the curtain. For example their recent Angry Birds skit seems like it would
require more room than is permitted.
One interesting thing to note is that when Conan is giving his monologue, the
stage with his desk is pushed back. During the commercials between his monologue
and his skit at his desk, the stage with the desk rolls out towards the audience
five to ten feet. Then they put a TV in front of the stage so Conan and the
guests can keep track of what’s going on. The picture below illustrates the
stage before (right) and after (left) his monologue. If you look where the
yellow arrows are pointing, you will notice that the stage is further away from
the audience in the picture on the left and closer in the picture on the right.
Jeff Ross, the producer, holds up time cards so Conan can keep track of when
they need to take a break. I would have expected someone else to be doing that
besides the producer.
As an audience member it is
sometimes hard to hear what is being said because the audience sounds are so
loud. I understood a lot more when I went back and watched the episode on
teamcoco.com.
While videos are playing everyone breaks from their stage persona to either
concentrate on the video or to take a break before the camera comes back on
them. I just thought this was interesting to note because for some reason it
never crossed my mind what they are doing during videos. During the commercial
breaks Conan and his guests do talk to each other like the camera shows as is
pans out.
There was one more bonus to seeing Conan live that I did not expect. You get a
quick tour of the Warner Brothers lot. Conan’s studio is located further in so
you get to walk by a lot of stuff on your way there. For example I walked past
studios for The Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, and Lopez Tonight. The Big
Bang Theory had cars parked in some of the celebrity’s spots so I assume they
were working. The studio for Two and a Half Men was empty as would be expected.
Then there was Lopez Tonight. As we were walking out of the lot after Conan’s
taping, Lopez Tonight was just starting and had some open spots in the audience
for people who did not mind standing. Unfortunately I did not go, my group was
exhausted and hungry. But for the amount of time spent waiting for one show, we
could have gotten to see two shows which is a good deal.
Well, that is all I have to say
about seeing Conan live. If you ever
are in LA and have time to go to a taping of Conan I highly recommend it.
Copyright, Brian De Vitis, 2011 Contact Me at bdevitis@live.com