Stars: Conan O'Brien, Andy Richter
Director: Rodman Flender
Release Date: September 13, 2011
MPAA Rating: R
I don't know a single person who wasn't for Camp Coco. He got the wind knocked out of his late night sails before he really even really had a chance to get into the groove of things. After just a few months of hosting The Tonight Show, Conan O'Brien's dream job, he was asked by NBC to step down as host so that Jay Leno could, once again, host the show. What followed was an uproar that got everyone talking. Some even protested. Despite the public calling foul, O'Brien departed from The Tonight Show with class and dignity, telling all of his fans, "All I ask is one thing, and I'm asking this particularly of young people that watch: Please do not be cynical. I hate cynicism; for the record it's my least favorite quality. It doesn't lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you're kind, amazing things will happen." And with that, he was gone.
Not for long, however. Although a contract with NBC forbade O'Brien from appearing on television, radio or the Internet for several months after leaving The Tonight Show, he felt he needed to somehow channel the frustration and creativity inside of him. "The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour" was his solution. This 2010 tour consisted of going to 30 cities within a span of two months. This was the perfect medium for Conan O'Brien to connect with the fans who had stood by him during his NBC troubles and to vent about those troubles in a completely hilarious way.
Conan O'Brien Can't Stop is a documentary that began filming at the birth of the tour and ends with its final gig. There's something quite sobering when you see Conan O'Brien openly talk about how his dreams were dashed and how depression sunk in shortly after. These tense bits of talking-head interviews are interspersed with concert footage in which O'Brien sings, plays guitar, does late night-esque monologues, and exchanges banter with the audience. He has several guest stars throughout his tour, including Eddie Vedder, Jack White, Jon Hamm, and others. You even get a behind-the-scenes look at O'Brien, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert backstage during a show discussing what they're going to do that evening (no rehearsal time for these chaps) moments before they are to go out in front of the audience. My biggest complaint is that I don't feel enough of the concert bits were used in the documentary. I would have loved to have seen the skit O'Brien, Steward and Colbert performed together that night, but it isn't included.
Not to say that what happens backstage isn't funny. Andy Richter, O'Brien's rotund sidekick, is on board with the tour and provides plenty of the laughs. O'Brien jokingly laments about the before show and after show parties he attends and all the hands that he has to shake. His assistant becomes a mental punching bag for him, ridiculing her for calling her mother "dude" and for not getting his takeout orders right. If this were anyone else, you might dislike the guy.
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