[A] little over a year ago, I experienced a profound and very public disappointment. I did not get what I wanted, and I left a system that had nurtured and helped define me for the better part of 17 years… “But then something spectacular happened. Fogbound, with no compass, and adrift, I started trying things. I grew a strange, cinnamon beard. I dove into the world of social media. I started tweeting my comedy. I threw together a national tour. I played the guitar. I did stand-up, wore a skin-tight blue leather suit, recorded an album, made a documentary, and frightened my friends and family. Ultimately, I abandoned all preconceived perceptions of my career path and stature and took a job on basic cable with a network most famous for showing reruns... I did a lot of silly, unconventional, spontaneous and seemingly irrational things and guess what: it was the most satisfying and fascinating year of my professional life. To this day I still don't understand exactly what happened, but I have never had more fun, been more challenged—and this is important—had more conviction about what I was doing.
One's dream is constantly evolving, rising and falling, changing course. Way back in the 1940s there was a very funny man named Jack Benny. He was a giant star, and a much younger man named Johnny Carson wanted very much to be Jack Benny. He emulated Jack Benny, but his own quirks and mannerisms, along with a changing medium, pulled him in a different direction. And yet his failure to completely become his hero made him the funniest person of his generation. David Letterman wanted to be Johnny Carson, and was not, and as a result my generation of comedians wanted to be David Letterman. And none of us are. The point is this: It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique.”
~- Conan O’Brien speaking to the Dartmouth College Class of 2011 (H/T Randall Bloomquist)
He's being beaten by Chelsea Handler at 11pm among others. Maybe that Team Coco thing wasn't so cool after all.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903639404576514691273411486.html
Posted by: casual observer | August 18, 2011 at 09:13 PM
And this guy's sitting in something like 26th place in late night. Right behind the girl whose most clever joke is about getting herpes from a dildo she bought on ebay. America. Pfft.
Posted by: Tony | August 18, 2011 at 09:17 PM
What about Jimmy Fallon ? He looks to have a brighter future.
Posted by: KS blathers for the halibut | August 18, 2011 at 09:28 PM
Hell. Talk about a bunch of illiterate nincompoops. You totally missed the point of Hood's post and the message therein. Instead, right on time, you all rush to diss O'Brien.
What a bunch of little girls.
Posted by: Jovita | August 18, 2011 at 09:41 PM
Yeah, life lessons are irrelevant if they come from someone who's not doing well in the ratings.
Posted by: Pete | August 18, 2011 at 11:06 PM
Just to clarify, I was dissing America. I have far too much respect for Conan to speak ill of him.
Posted by: Tony | August 18, 2011 at 11:09 PM
Conan had his day, and that was the nineties . Humor changes over the decades and Conan just couldn't stay relevant for more than about 15 years. hey fifteen yers ain't bad. He is going to be cancelled by TBS, Lopex is already gone, theyre trying to break it to Conan gently. I personally think the guy should have just accepted the later start for the Tonight Show which was offered him. Instead he became an all-or-nothing, well, purist, or is it prick? Conan's onair game is pretty lame now. Time to ertire from tak shows and do something else, or just retire early and enjoy his millions.
Posted by: Tommy008 | August 18, 2011 at 11:34 PM
and whats this "basic cable" crap that Obrien keeps repeating. i find it asinine. not very smart to diss the only network willing to take a chance on his tired old crap. He sounds liek some sort of elitist snob, repeating this over and over. Does anyone really have a cable package with TBS and nine or ten other cable stations on it anymore, like back in the 80's, when "basic cable" really meant something? most people seem to have TBS and about 30 or 40 other channels at least, nowadays even ghetto dwellers. Just another sign of O'brien's growing irrelevance
Posted by: Tommy008 | August 18, 2011 at 11:49 PM
Would George Lopez have tanked in the ratings wihtout Conan Obriens help ? i dont think Lopez believes they would have. His previously good ratings nosedived after he was bumped bakc an hour later to follow Conan's primetime latenitght show at 11 p.m. His show has just been cancelled. Lopez didn't have the best of feelings toward Conan before ginger boy intruded into his TBS world. Years ago comedian Lopez tried to get booked on Conan's NBC show and had been told that the "demographics" of the show's audience (apparently white dorks) just weren't a "right fit" for an L.A. latino comedian like Lopez. i don't think Conan will be on the Lopez xmas card list this year.
Posted by: Tommy008 | August 19, 2011 at 07:04 AM
Conan's talent really lies in the writing end of the comedy business and that's likely where he'll now end up. Not to worry he is a great money manager and he has done well enough to be independently wealthy many times over.
To speculate on Conan's dreams is akin to saying that tommy's dreams are realistic. Only the beholder of a dream can legitimately make a substantive comment thereon.
Posted by: StarTheWonderDog | August 19, 2011 at 07:28 AM
haah the circus freak dogboy still trying to play his jealous putdown trip vis a vis me when all his credibility is gone with the Blatherwatch readership., i called his bluff on his constant challenges for me to predict a stock that would turn a profit the following day. i not only did it, i did it on a day when the market finished down 500 points. his response- pretending none of it ever happened, like a coward.
Posted by: Tommy008 | August 19, 2011 at 07:47 AM
by the way...will be sunny and warm for the next four days here inMonte Carlo. Time to do some hiking, urban and otherwise. I ented a Jeep at the rental car agency. The fellow American guy who keeps the million dollar Ferrari Enzo in a garage over here, just fo rhis visits, took me out for a spin, up and down the winding mountainside highway above the city. Absolutely incredible car. Eat your heart out dogboy, as you ponder your failure, envy (both the penis and money varieties) and bitterness.
Posted by: Tommy008(postcard from Monaco) | August 19, 2011 at 08:02 AM
Hm, let's see now will you be hiking at the pool or in your room. Jovita nailed you big time, you've no creditability left but DO keep fantasizing.
Posted by: StarTheWonderDog | August 19, 2011 at 08:49 AM
no longer at at the Hotel de Paris, by the way... back to a mere four star place . Staying at the Riviera Marriot now, near the marina at Cap-d'Ail.....sublime......the yachts over here are incredible....
Posted by: Tommy008(postcard from Monaco) | August 19, 2011 at 08:50 AM
didnt nail me at all...started liyening to kgo in my hotel room on my laptop....then moved out to the pool for breakfast, taking my laptop with me..... at first i dodnt want to mention breakfast by the Hotel De Paris pool, thinking id be laying it on a bit too thick for housebound unfortunates like the Dogboy suffering through the still bad recession in seattle. so, in the one post i mentioned the room...in the other, the pool....nothing illogical about that....
Posted by: Tommy008(postcard from Monaco) | August 19, 2011 at 09:01 AM
Nice try but not good enough. You will forever be regarded as a con, now get back to your sweeping chores at the beautiful Monaco hotel.
Posted by: StarTheWonderDog | August 19, 2011 at 09:21 AM
no ...it's perfectly plausible....so much so that the Dogboy , in his true mind, not the pretend one he shows here, really doesn't know whether i'm here in Monaco or not....perfectly plausible .....
Posted by: Tommy008(postcard from Monaco) | August 19, 2011 at 10:01 AM
Years ago, somebody gave me a copy of Conan's Harvard Commencement speech. I went looking for it online and it is kind of ironic given the state of his affairs today.
Posted by: joanie | August 19, 2011 at 08:36 PM
my first week at the Riviera Marriott is in the history books. These yachts here at The nearby marina dwarf my 38 foot Chris Craft i had down at Leschi. The caRS in the marina parking lot aren't too shabby either. A team of armed security guards PATROL THE LOT 24/7. Maseratis, Ferraris, Rolls Royce. Looking forward to one more week here at the hotel, and then it's a train trip to Nice and a flight out to San Diego, where summers' 2nd leg starts.
Posted by: Tommy008 (postcard from Monte Carlo) | August 20, 2011 at 09:47 AM
What about your promise to not be on this blog for the summer. You know Tommy the boys with the REAL toys and the REAL money never have to tout it, it's self evident. They don't go around bragging about their success and or belongings on blogs. It's fun to dream though and I understand your need for that, but please don't let it interfere with your real job and life. No matter the job it is precious in these economic times so be proud, keep your head up and pursue diligence. But, enough with the bull shit, Okay.
Posted by: StarTheWonderDog | August 20, 2011 at 10:06 AM
what wonderful advice from the dogboy, Seattle's housebound unfortunate this summer. Not. I'm surprised he didn't advise me to wear sensible shoes, like the old woman he is. bwahahahaaha nothing wrong with my little summer travelogue to spice up the blog. htis fellow (woman?) has a major jealousy problem. its the old "he cant do it (become rich) so he doesn't want anyone else to be able to do it. big woof, Dogboy.
Posted by: Tommy008 | August 20, 2011 at 10:45 AM
im seriouslt starting to suspect Dogboy is a female. His/her prim prissy little moralistic sermons just for me, full of unasked for and unwanted advice, sound terribly girly.
Posted by: Tommy008 | August 20, 2011 at 11:08 AM
This vacation is not bullhsit, i am actually overseas right now, where it is heading toward the late evening here in Monte Carlo Some will believe it is bullshit and read it as chapters in a novella. But who, tell me , who else but some jealous silly old woman, the silliest old woman in town, wuold actually give a shit one way or another,r let alone take the time to write your asinine chiding reponses, Dogwoman?
Posted by: Tommy008 | August 20, 2011 at 12:02 PM