///Mike@Boston Audi

A friend has tickets to Wed's show, so hopefully we'll be able to get in, although they claim they issued more invites than there are slots AND there'll be a stand-by line as well. Should be fun once all the waiting in line ends.

shrtbus(w/ cq)

between my roommates and I we had ~15 email requests for tickets and none of us got any...

pisses me off when people who a) don't watch conan, b) don't get it, and 3) try to sell their tickets which they got for FREE for $200+, get tickets and I don't...

I wish they would have given out tickets in a better fashion...presale or something...by allowing people to email in requests for two weeks allowed non-fans to get tickets...

no.radar

<b> Conan in Chicago: I pity the fool who misses it </b>

Note: Don't read this entry if you don't want to know what happens on Tuesday's "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

Die-hard fans of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" may wonder whether the Masturbating Bear will be part of O'Brien's schtick when he takes over the "Tonight Show" in three years.

Who knows whether the bear will survive the switch to the more conservative time slot, but rest assured, the onanistic mammal appeared on Conan's first Chicago show.

One of the opening skits in Tuesday's "Late Night" featured O'Brien vowing to do a "classy show" in the historic Chicago Theatre. Moments later, large video monitors to either side of the stage showed the Masturbating Bear skydiving into our fair city; he soon scurried into the Chicago Theatre to perform his embarrassing business (all of which takes place under an ungainly diaper).

The 3,000-plus fans in the theater, many of them under 30, went wild.

"Never has so much money been spent on something so stupid," O'Brien said.

The taping, which began just before 5 p.m., took just over an hour. And Conan fans who did not get e-mail ticket reservations from NBC are strongly encouraged to line up for standby tickets to Conan's shows on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. <font color="red"> <b>Staffers scrambled to fill the theater by the time the taping began, and every person in the standby line got in to see Tuesday's "Late Night" taping. </b> </font>

Guests at Tuesday's show included "Will and Grace" star and Glen Ellyn native Sean Hayes, who swooped in on a flying rig and talked about his unsuccessful stint in a Chicago band, and Cheap Trick, who performed "Surrender" (O'Brien came out at the end of that song and jammed with the band so hard that he ended up writhing on the floor).

The most hilarious segment of the night was a pre-taped bit in which Mr T. gave O'Brien a guided tour of Chicago, starting with the former site of the Robert Taylor Homes apartment building where Mr. T grew up. The "A Team" actor also served as Conan's batting coach at Cellular Field, and the pair ended up on a kayak on the Chicago River, where Mr. T pointed out the old traffic court building and shouted "I pity the fool" at a hapless duck.

The best part of the Mr. T segment involved their trip to the Sears Tower, but it would be churlish to reveal why the words "I never skipped with a white guy before" were spoken.

The tiny applause signs to either side of the Chicago Theatre stage weren't needed: The crowd loved the monologue jokes about Barry Bonds, about the Cubs (the White Sox are the best team in baseball, O'Brien noted, while "the Cubs are the best team in Wrigleyville") and ate up O'Brien's speculation of what the first explorers of the Chicago region must have said: "This is the land of milk and honey. Let's fry it and cover it in cheese."

Another enjoyable bit, which will continue throughout the week, was the Wheel of Wendt, in which "Cheers" star George Wendt came out to do one of six activities on a spinning wheel; Tuesday night the wheel landed on "do one pushup." Wendt, clad in the shorts and a black T-shirt, did just that to the cheers of the crowd, despite their obvious hope that the wheel land on "chug a beer" or "give Chewbacca a massage."

O'Brien also made a momentary star of Wrigleyville resident Andria Fekken, who, as O'Brien pointed out from the Chicago Theatre, had the worst seat in the house; her top-tier seat was more than 150 feet from the stage. When he caught sight of her via a monitor, he pretended to fall in love with her, and he brought her out for a bow at the end of the show.

Some other bits and pieces from Tuesday's "Late Night" taping:

La Bamba, one of the horn players in O'Brien's band, dressed for the evening in a Chicago Police Department uniform.
O'Brien's desk looked small on the big Chicago Theatre stage. He's a big guy, but even so, the desk constructed for his Chicago visit seemed sort of tiny.
Hayes' entrance, which was to the theme from "The Greatest American Hero," was marred a bit by the fact that he bumped into one of the arches at the side of the stage. It'll be interesting to see if they edit that out of Tuesday's broadcast.
The usual opening montage of the show was replaced by a montage of Chicago images.
O'Brien shook hands with fans from the edge of the stage for several minutes after the taping ended.

MARKNMTT

did not get any either. My buddies wife did though...I guess I have too much crap to do to take the full day off to go wait around and do it but still pissed.

uke

A friend is a writer/researcher for Conan. She confirmed that they well overbooked the shows, so a lot of people are going to be left stranded. Your best bet is to get there early. She suggested 2ish.

CvTech

mmm....Chapelle...bishes

///Mike@Boston Audi

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/8862/conan_ticket.jpg"></center><p>dumb **** during the entire show which tripped up the speaker and made it very hard to hear what the person was saying due to the crappy acoustics.