Save this article to read it later.
Find this story in your accountsSaved for Latersection.
Its nicer without the desk, Conan OBrien told Jeff Goldblum Monday night.
I used to really feel like I was doing peoples taxes for them.
Thats whats so great about thenew streamlinedConan.Nu-Conan, if you will.
He is doing what he feels like doing, and nothing else.
WhenConan went onThe Late Showthis week, Stephen Colbert called him the elder statesman of late night.
But hes not a statesman, hes an old crank.
Hes the Lemmy Kilmister of late night: wearing leather jackets and talking mad shit.
OBrien is doing the same to the WB lot.
Late night is his place, because hes comfortable there.
But hes too old to put up with bullshit.
The thing that made me saddest about oldConanwas the perfunctory nipple play.
Every night, the band would play OBrien on and hed cap it off with rubbing his nips.
Sometimes hed invite an audience member to give them a tweak.
Every night, OBrien would perform this nipple ritual (niptual?)
But that doesnt mean the show feels cramped.
A sketch can use as many ghillie-suited actors as you could ever want.
These protracted bits are what make him the happiest, and it shows.
Was there a pre-written punch line hidden away in there?
Either way, OBrien is having fun, and Im having fun with him.
I have to watch all of late-night television, every week.
Now the show feels like drinking with Lemmy.
Van Damme couldnt get a handful with a desk in the way.
When you pare away the bullshit, you leave room for magic.
