Enduring a 30-city, three-week tour of NBC affiliates, working the country one station at a time en route to taking over “The Tonight Show” on June 1, Conan O’Brien has learned what America wants.
“People want to see me have fun with this,” he said in Denver on Tuesday. “They don’t want me to overthink it. They don’t want to see me worry about it or take care of the institution in a conservative way,” he said.
“The Tonight Show,” a television institution since the 1950s, airs at the unlikely hour of 10:35 p.m. in Denver, earlier than in most markets and a switch from O’Brien’s accustomed “Late Show” slot of 12:35 a.m in New York.
“I’m so used to being seen by people half asleep, the idea that people could be awake and experiencing my comedy, it’s worrisome.”
Unspooling his 6-foot-4 frame into an overstuffed chair in the KUSA-Channel 9 studio, he claims he hasn’t watched Jimmy Fallon’s new show, which this month inherited his timeslot of 16 years.
“These shows grow,” he said. He and all late-night talkers must endure a critical “spanking” at first. “It’s like a baby’s born, and you start criticizing it for not running across the room.”
O’Brien is a self-professed “nerd” about TV, talk shows and comedians. He first met one of his idols, Jack Paar, in the mid-’90s in New York.
“I got a letter on Paar’s stationery, very cool big red letters . . . written on his typewriter — thanking me. He says, “I really think someday you’re going to get the Tonight Show. Until then, take my advice: Marry a good woman, wear blue shirts, and get a dog.” And I did all those things. Best advice I’ve ever had.”
Joanne Ostrow: 303-954-1830 or jostrow@denverpost.com
