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Movie Review: Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop

Gregory Fichter

Getting fired from The Tonight Show is the best thing that has happened in Conan O’Brien’s career whether or not he acknowledges it. In being forced out of his twenty-plus year comfort zone as host of major network chat shows, O’Brien was left to ponder the indeterminate fate of a rather privileged and safe career – beginning as a writer during golden ages of The Simpsons and Saturday Night Live, culminating in his improbable ascent as heir to David Letterman on Late Night with Conan O’Brien. The sordid details of Conan’s brief stint as Jay Leno’s replacement at 11:30 are the stuff of recent showbiz legend, so I won’t go into it here – which aside from a brief recap as the film opens, the new documentary Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop avoids rehashing as well. Instead, we jump right in as a brooding and shell-shocked Conan has already grown the beard that fostered his new status as a kind of folk hero and won devotional favor with the alternative comedy crowd. “I’m with Coco!” ran the populist refrain which adorned everything from t-shirts to picket signs last year. A ratings-grabbing stunt in May saw O’Brien shave off the beard in his sixth month on his new TBS show, thus giving wistful closure to the most confused and interesting stretch of his career. Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop gives us a lasting and hilarious testimonial to an artist going through a therapeutic public exorcism.

After spitballing ideas with his writing team for ways to reach his audience when a legal stipulation prohibited any TV appearances, O’Brien and his team settled upon a national variety tour that aided in prolonging and intensifying “Cocomania” during the spring of 2010. Following the comedian and his troupe in the ensuing months, documentary cameras are given access to an angry, witty O’Brien who is much funnier in his unguarded moments than the polished, self-effacing guy trying to win ratings on TBS. Whether playfully berating and hitting his male writers with alpha zeal or forcing his game female assistant to communicate only by speaking into a banana “telephone,” Conan commands a room and exhibits a determination to laugh in the face of his misery. As entertainment, the ginger giant’s zingers make for many hysterical moments, but the film is guarded about showing us the man when he is “off.” Aside from a few moments alone with his wife and kids and signs of road burnout late in the movie, this is far from an all-access pass.

Just like the host himself, the film truly comes to life during the extended performance numbers from the “Legally Prohibited from Appearing on Television Tour.” With full band, back-up singers, and mainstay sidekick Andy Richter in tow, the gang put on sold out gigs in dozens of American cities comprised of comedic digs at The Tonight Show scandal, musical performances which indulged Conan’s love of rockabilly, Vegas-era Elvis, and Vaudeville, and a series of guest star performances (Jim Carrey, Stephen Colbert, Jon Stewart, and Eddie Vedder all offer their support). Shot out of a cannon every time he hits the stage, O’Brien is blessed with infectious energy which takes a toll in backstage scenes of the exhausted showboat graciously meeting with all comers, but privately irritated by the demands placed upon him. But Conan is no prima donna, he remains likeable and given to making fun of the celebrity drama usually displayed on reality TV or vainglorious docs like Madonna: Truth or Dare.

Winding up the tour with an intimate, sweaty gig at his friend Jack White’s “Third Man Records” store, Conan appears younger and more unfettered than he ever has in his years on television, reaching a catharsis while tearing through Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock.” Conan may be glad to have a TV show again, but after watching the rollicking Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop you will be left wanting more of the embittered, caustically funny, uncensored showman presented in this excellent documentary.

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Gregory Fichter

Greg toiled for years in the hallowed bowels of the legendary Thomas Video and has studied cinema as part of the Concentration for Film Studies and Aesthetics at Oakland University. He has hosted the cult movie night "Celluloid Sundays" at The Belmont in Hamtramck, MI. and enjoys everything from High Trash to Low Art.

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