Day: January 9, 2010

For those of you expecting something funny or something newsworthy about comedy, well, I apologize in advance for this post. But I'm a journalist who, in this age, writes as much about my life as I do about comedians and comedy, so I feel like I need to explain what happened last night (or early this morning). Because life as an independent online journalist is so profitable, I also work three to five evenings a week for a company in the Gramercy neighborhood of New York City, and usually come back to Brooklyn via the subway in the 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. hour. It's quiet. It's cold. On some late nights such as Halloween or New Year's Eve, you can hop on the 4 train and find it packed with silliness. But usually it's quiet and lonely on the 23rd Street southbound platform of the 4/6 line. At about 2:40-2:45 a.m., I entered the platform alone and almost immediately saw a man lying down in the ditch right in the middle of the tracks. He was out cold. Or dead. Wasn't sure at first glance. Because my first instinct was to shoot my head to the left to look up the tracks to see if a train was coming. On the southbound side at 23rd Street, you can look north at least two stops — it's one of...

Here it is, fresh off of the Internet, Conan O'Brien talks about Jay Leno, NBC and late-night reshuffling rumors in his Tonight Show monologue — or as Conan said tonight, "The Sometime At Night Show with Some White Guy." First he impersonated Leno, imagining Leno calling him to correct his joke about Leno taking his parking spot this morning. A bit later, Conan also summarized some of the many rumors that have been circulating, including the time changes, cameos on MTV's Jersey Shore, and a fight to the death with sharpened sticks. Winner gets to leave NBC. "Trust me. That's an appealing proposition," Conan said. Roll the clip! Before this video, right from the get-go, Conan started right into it in his monologue. "We have a great show for you tonight. I have no idea what time it will air, but it's going to be a great show." (Audience laughter) "I promise you that…We're going to screw up a lot of DVRs with this." "NBC has finally come up with an exciting, new idea. They want me to follow Jay Leno." Cut to Andy Richter at his announcer's program. "Wow! WOW! I've got to sit down." Conan: "They've been working on this. Are you going to be all right?" Richter: "They've got to rewrite the history books on that one." "I had a really weird day. When I got...