Hard Core for Conan

The late-night tv landscape is going to be changing pretty soon, so to make sure we didn't miss Late Night with Conan O'Brien's last remaining weeks in New York, Stefanie, Elin and I made the trek to Rockefeller Center to get standby tickets this morning. They're handed out at 9am, but you can't just role out of bed at 8:30 and get there and hope to get in. We didn't want to take any chances, and taking into account stories we had heard about only two stand-by ticket holders getting in and that Conan only has twelve shows left in New York, we arrived at 6am. We were first in line....for a whole hour! Taxis would drive by and look at us, businessmen walked by and asked what we were standing in line for today. It was brutally cold, and after three hours I couldn't feel my fingers and my toes were headed that way, too. But we were stand-by ticket holders numbers 1, 2 and 3!

So you get to leave after getting your ticket and don't have to return until 4:00. We all went home and took naps, showers. Then back to Rockefeller Center, where we still felt pretty cool being the first people in line. We get to go in after VIPs and people who have advance tickets; they let in 28 stand-by ticket holders. We still felt cool being first.

When you watch Conan on tv you'd never know how small his set actually is. The same is true for Jay Leno's set; both have an illusion of being large with their bands so far away when they're actually just across the room. Conan is hilarious, but seemed even more so as I got to watch him live, which is always the case when I see something live. The guests were great: the handsome and funny Jon Hamm, the cute and makes-me-miss-Ed Ginnifer Goodwin, and the uber-ly talented and musically diverse Theresa Andersson. A great way to spend a day in New York.