Self-deprecating, late night, funny man, Conan O’Brien spent a week filming his show at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theater.  So early one morning a fellow staffer and friend Nick Donofrio and I woke up very early and headed down to the Orpheum to try and get in to the show.

Waiting in line for tickets was almost as interesting as the show it self, we killed time by playing cards and Travel Scrabble.  We met some interesting people in line who joined in our games.  The crowd around us was an interesting one that was for sure.  Packed with people who were drinking and or smoking their breakfast.  A huge group of a true San Francisco stereotype came out in full force…Deadheads, because on the show that night was Bob Weir and Rat Dog, which is the remnants of the San Francisco, band the Grateful Dead.  At one point we were worried that we might not get in, but lady luck smiled down on us and we made it into the theater.

The packed theater was alive with sounds of excitement and people holding up home made signs as if they where at a concert for a top of the pop charts boy band, a boy band fronted by a tall skinny pale red head.

The Max Weinberg 7 the Late Night house band took the stage to a raucous round of applause as they took the stage to play a few songs before the show, and really got the crowd going for the big moment when Conan took the stage.

Conan took the stage to a standing ovation as he grooved his way down the golden gate bridge that decorated the stage.  Pausing at the bottom to do his trade mark string dance where he wiggles his hips back and forth like they’re attached to strings and stops abruptly when he cuts the strings.

In the opening monolog Conan joked about how the historic Orpheum was smack dab in the middle of the Tenderloin district which he said is the only neighborhood where you can go to an art museum see a play and defecate in the middle of the street. 

It also appears from that monologue that Conan O’Brien and Mayor Gavin Newsome are having a torrid love affair and man if those guys had a love child their kids would have some damn good hair.

Randy Jackson from American Idol and former member of Journey came out on stage to crowd barking like dogs at him or as he would say “Dawgs.”  During the interview Conan did an audition for American Idol singing Journeys Lights.  His vocals were interesting to say the least.  But alas Randy did not feel that Conan was good enough for American Idol. 

Randy Jackson was fallowed by Patton Oswalt a comedian who is known for his work on The King of Queens.  Oswalt a native of the Bay Area got the laughs with jokes about scene kids, and the lame three wheeled cars tourists rent to go site seeing around town.

But the bit where Conan learns to play Frisbee Golf with the national Frisbee Golf Champ David Feldberg was one of the major highlights of the show with the course set up in the crowd.  Things got a little crazy and the competition soon deteriorated into the two men tossing Frisbees to the audience members./

Musical guest Bob Weir and Rat Dog gave the crowd a flash back to the San Francisco of the 60’s, as the band played to crowd was dancing with their arms and swaying to the music in the classic hippie fashion.  After the show Conan stuck around a bit to sign autographs for his wonderfully crazy fans.
Conan who is used to filming his show for audiences of around two hundred, played in front of crowd around three thousand, and he stepped up to the plate and hit a homer brought the funny to San Francisco, if you ever get to see this pale red headed funny dude do it.  You are in for the treat of a life time.