So for my trip to Los Angeles I went with my friend Garrett, who currently sits next to me at work. We’ve been friends for over sixteen years now and we’ve always talked about going to Los Angeles and E3. About two weeks before our trip I floated the idea of getting tickets to Conan O’Brien’s show on TBS. The first time I tried to see Conan host a talk show was in 1997 when I was in New York. Back then, you didn’t use the Internet to get tickets, you had to use old-fashioned mail. I wasn’t prepared though so I had go into the stand-by line. Everyone showed up that day though, so the chance was lost. I eventually did see Conan live when he came to Vancouver on tour after he lost The Tonight Show to that rat bastard Jay Leno. That show was more of a variety show though and not his well-known talk show style.
I thought perhaps I could finally see him in his most famous element. Garrett was open to the idea so he made arrangements to sign up for tickets on the Wednesday that we were in Los Angeles. The guests for that day weren’t on the TBS web site until almost before we left on the trip though. We were left wondering who’d be on the show. Once the guest line-up for that week was revealed, Garrett and I knew we had some decisions to make. It turned out the main guest for Wednesday was Fred Armisen. The day before was Kate Beckinsale. Now before I continue, I must make it clear that I’m a big fan of Fred Armisen and I’ve enjoyed his comedy for well over a decade. From his SNL days to his appearances in movies, he’s made me laugh countless times. Having said that, I was hoping for huge, big-name movie star to be the main guest for our day. Ok, so we would have settled for an absolutely gorgeous female star as well, someone like Kate Beckinsale for example.
Garrett and I agreed we’d play it by ear and make a decision sometime on Tuesday, after our first day of E3 was done. After E3 wound up for day one, we came to the consensus that we’d probably need as much time for E3 as possible. If we decided to go to Conan’s show, we’d have to leave E3 on the second day pretty early to get to the taping on time. Since we also were flying out on Thursday, that meant we couldn’t get a full day of E3 on that day either.
We cancelled our tickets to the show. Conan’s show tapes in the afternoon and we had to be there at 3pm. If he had taped at night, which most shows don’t really do, we could have gone but the timing was just not right. I don’t feel that bad since I’ve seen Conan live before and I feel like there will be another chance for me to see him again for a taping. Los Angeles isn’t very far away at all and getting tickets was quite easy.
So apologies to Fred Armisen, I am a fan and continue to enjoy his work. Please don’t take it personally.