You've probably met someone like this: He works terribly hard, to get where others get easily.
That, roughly, is Conan O'Brien. His opener tonight was pretty good; to get there, however, he had to work 10 times as hard as Jay Leno or Johnny Carson ever did. Here are a few of my comments; please add yours; also, please do the same for my previous blog, on tonight's debut of "I'm a Celebrity ... Get Me Out of Here":
1) What Leno and Carson did was basic. They simply stood there and told jokes. Many were funny; laughter was huge.
2) O'Brien, instead, had only a few stand-up jokes. Instead, he tried hugely elaborate visual stunts. Conan running across the continent? Conan driving around Los Angeles in an old Ford Taurus? The letter "D" from the "Hollywood" sign being hauled off? These were fairly funny, but Leno and Carson got bigger and quicker laughs by just talking.
3) Another filmed bit -- Conan as the announcer for a Universal Studios tram line -- was relatively lame. Twice, O'Brien pretended at length to cry with fear; it was only semi-funny the first time.
4) The set, however, is gorgeous. And there may be better things ahead from the location, in the midst of the Universal lot.
5) Pearl Jam was great and the camerawork on its song was first-rate.
6) Did you see what Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam did shortly after the song? instead of standing next to O'Brien, he scampered up one step. That's helpful; O'Brien (6-foot-4-and-a-half) can make people seem tiny.
7) One person who can stand next to him is Will Ferrell (6-foot-3). Ferrell was a good first guest tonight; he even sang a farewell song, explaining that "literally, no one thought you could do it."
8) We knew he could do it and do it pretty well -- just not with the ease and laughs of a Leno or a Carson.
9) The best line came early, when O'Brien explained that his timing is perfect. "I'm on a last-place network, in a state (California) that's bankrupt and this is sponsored by General Motors.
10) Tuesday may be better -- with Tom Hanks and Green Day -- could be be better. The first show was fairly good.