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Conan says "go for it"
Late-night comic O’Brien offers advice to UB students
By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Contributor
Acclaimed late-night talk-show host and comic Conan O'Brien closed out this season's Distinguished Speakers Series with a sold-out, crowd-pleasing performance on Saturday that was equal parts discussion, Q&A and improvisational comedy routine. This year's undergraduate student choice speaker, O'Brien came onstage to a standing ovation.
A comedian's art depends on his sense of timing and intuition. O'Brien—whose talent as a writer on such television series as "Saturday Night Live" and "The Simpsons" contributed to his big break as the host of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien"—discussed the role of both in his career and offered advice to students, no matter what their interests.
"The thing about comedy, which is true of a lot of fields, is you learn even science isn't a science," he said. "Most of it is people just figuring things out and stumbling upon the good ideas. A lot of the best stuff comes on an intuitive level.
"It's shocking how little you have to lose," he said. "Listen to that voice and just go for it. That's what happened for me. When the door opens, you've got to just jump right in."
Despite a fortunate break after college writing for HBO, which got his foot in the door of showbiz, O'Brien's career experienced highs and lows and took a lot of hard work.
"I didn't know you could make a career in show business," said O'Brien, whose mother is a partner at a law firm in Boston and father is a doctor and professor at Harvard University. O'Brien graduated magna cum laude from Harvard in 1985 with a degree in American history.
"That's not where comedians come from," he said.
But, he said to students, "You will find the minute you start getting a check, your parents don't care what you do for a living anymore."
O'Brien overlooked the speaker series' usual lecture format to devote all two hours to questions from students. Dennis Black, vice president for student affairs, acted as a moderator or "co-host," in the words of O'Brien. Black looked on as O'Brien roamed the stage, riffed on various topics and wandered into the audience to speak to a student face to face.
Black introduced students from the audience to ask questions and read others submitted via the Web and from audience members the night of the event.
Some of the little-known facts O'Brien mentioned include his sole writer's credit on "Marge vs. the Monorail," one of "The Simpsons" most beloved episodes; his undergraduate thesis entitled "Literary Progeria in the Works of Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner"; and that most of his interviews are improvisation.
One student asked about his future as the inheritor of Johnny Carson's former seat on the Tonight Show in 2009. What will happen to his surreal sketches and off-beat humor in an 11:30 p.m. time slot?
"It's just going to be very low-key and quiet," O'Brien said. "A lot of acoustic music. I'm going to come out every night and talk about relationships."
But in fact O'Brien said he doesn't foresee tempering his edgy comedy. He said the worst move to make as a comic is to over-think it. "Once you start to think about demographics, you're dead," he said.
Instead, O'Brien said his intent is to take on the "Tonight Show" with the same straightforward attitude that makes his own a success: "Just try and do a funny show every day. The funniest one I can do."
His foremost advice to aspiring writers is to just sit down and write, he said.
"The reason I'm in this business in the first place is I got on The Harvard Lampoon," he said, in reference to a well-known student humor magazine. "I started to write and to think about what's funny.
"The hardest thing to do is start. It's very hard to have the discipline to go into your room and shut the door and write. But you have to do that."
Near the close of the event, O'Brien introduced UB alumnus Jordan Schlansky, a producer who's worked on several projects with O'Brien and accompanied him to the event.
"I get invited to a lot of things," said O'Brien, who was the undergraduate Student Association's first-choice speaker based on student votes. "I can't go to many of them," he said, "but I wanted to be here."