Conan O'Brien Can't Stop: Blogger movie review
While it falls slightly short of last summer鈥檚 documentary 鈥溾�� in terms of providing insight on the souls of stand-ups, 鈥溾�� is still a fascinating true story of catharsis through comedy and the journey of one man across America to overcome his anger. When that man is Conan O鈥橞rien and the story is true, it makes for a much better watch than your average melodrama. It鈥檚 touching and humorous, never stooping to the lows of a mere 鈥渂ehind the scenes鈥� documentary.
I remember watching the end of Conan鈥檚 tenure on 鈥�The Tonight Show,鈥� also the beginning of this documentary, depending on your outlook. I remember his joking in spite of it all, but mostly I remember this quote: 鈥淎ll I ask of you, especially young people 鈥� is one thing. Please don鈥檛 be cynical. I hate cynicism 鈥� it鈥檚 my least favorite quality and it doesn鈥檛 lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you鈥檙e kind, amazing things will happen.鈥� It was a great message from someone leaving a terrible situation who seemed to be smiling to whatever life had ahead of him.
But as 鈥淐onan O鈥橞rien Can鈥檛 Stop鈥� shows, that wasn鈥檛 necessarily the case. Conan takes no steps to hide the fact that he was angry at Leno and NBC for screwing him over, and this rage is something that he has to take great steps to keep bottled up inside. Thus, he has to surround himself with people and keep trucking forward in show business, fearing that it will consume him if he were ever to stop.
He then embarks on the well-publicized 鈥淟egally Prohibited from Being Funny on TV Tour,鈥� a wild comedy act of his own invention to keep him busy in the six months that NBC stipulated he could not appear on television. It鈥檚 fun for us to watch, as it shows a personal side to Conan that we don鈥檛 get on late night between celebrity interviews and political humor. Although we all know that he now has a show on TBS, it鈥檚 a fascinating journey of indecision and rediscovery through show business, revealing of both a man and a craft. A-
Marshall blogs at .
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