By now everyone is well aware of the blunder NBC made when they decided to change things around with The Tonight Show. At first Jay Leno was going to leave to be replaced by the popular Conan O’Brien. Leno’s ratings had drifted and they felt it was time for a change. The problem came when Leno’s new show, on weeknights at 10, failed to draw and audience and he wanted his old show back.
The idea was to move Leno’s show to 11:30 and move O’Brien back to 12:30 where he had been. It would retain the name The Tonight Show, but never happened. Unhappy with the move and the treatment he received, O’Brien turned them down and all parties involved considered going to court. Instead a settlement was reached and O’Brien was forbidden to appear on TV, radio or the internet, for several months. During this downtime, he formulated the idea of going on the road with a live show. This film was the result of that decision.
The film shows a behind the scenes look at O’Brien and how driven he is. The title refers to what the director noticed as he traveled and filmed, that while he might tire and grow restless, O’Brien just couldn’t slow down. Repeated views of him meeting and greeting fans and family members of his cast and crew on the road show him always “on”, willing to be there for people even though it gets to him. When accused by one fan of ignoring him he is stunned as he never walks away from giving an autograph and rarely turns down the request for a picture.
The movie begins with O’Brien suggesting that they do a road show, that since he can’t appear in the media why not go live? It seems as if the whole idea begins as a joke but snowballs into a success story. Unable to appear on the internet, O’Brien tweets that tickets will go on sale online. The next thing you know tickets are selling out within hours of the announcement, second shows are being added and the whole idea blooms into reality. Now he just has to have a show to take on the road.
Rehearsals, meetings with his writers, band selection, all are parts of putting the whole together. And you can see as he does so that Conan is actually having the time of his life. The first show arrives and he genuinely has fun while on stage and in a subtle way you’re able to see that he is taken off guard by the number of fans who come out to enjoy the show and support him.
Guests stop by here and there including Jim Carrey and a double hit of Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart. But with each stop on the road, Conan is inundated by the fans, all wanting just to have a part of him, to touch and be photographed with him. This would be one thing but in the middle of telling his road manager that they need to leave him some down time in walks a cast member with her family. But Conan is too nice to complain or toss them out, so he gets into “on” mode and smiles for pictures, never ignoring a single person in the room.
The touring and the fans do eventually take their toll on O’Brien. He is a born entertainer, loving his time in the spotlight. But he wants to have time to himself and his family as well. We get glimpses of them in the film but my feeling was that he wanted to make them a part but not put them under the scrutiny of the public eye at the same time. Good move.
Watching pieces of his performances will make you laugh. Watching behind the scenes pranks and jokes will make you laugh. And seeing the man who walks out from behind the curtain now for who and how he really is will give you a new understanding of what drives him, how entertaining he truly is and a respect for him that few celebrities are deserving of. Conan O’Brien is the real deal and this film proves that.
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