Watch Conan tonight because it’s his last night hosting The Tonight Show. NBC’s horrible managing of their talk show circuit (or should I say, ‘circus’) has actually come to this. The only vindication I’ve seen is how amazing Conan handled his show up to the very last minute. Some of the most memorable and gutsy performances of any talk show host I’ve ever seen.

This is a blog and people like stories on blogs, so here goes my one good personal Conan story (my one bad one is about the time I went to Circuit City to buy a new TV remote for someone at Conan - might have even been Conan himself. I don’t know though… yeah, lame story, right?). Here’s the good one:

I was fortunate enough to work with a crew from Late Night when they brought Triumph the Insult Comic Dog to the Republican National Convention in 2008. I was the most expendable crew member so I was tasked with trying to sneak in with the obviously prohibited signage in the St. Paul Excel Energy Center. So they handed me a stack of “Totally Gay for McCain” signs. Yes, that’s right - featuring a big rainbow! I soon found myself detained by Secret Service. There were supposedly REAL protesters caught sneaking in with bags of urine earlier! Yuck. Well, I had to explain to everyone that I was not there to protest, but was working for a foul-mouthed dog puppet on a late night comedy show. The RNC people wanted me arrested but the secret service instead just took the signs and my press pass for the night. But don’t worry - I got a new set of passes and was able to finish out the week with Triumph. Aside from getting to watch Robert Smigel in action in and around the convention all week, the highlight for me was operating a camera while Triumph interviewed the perennially nuts-but-lovable Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader. [Edit: I’ll add a video later, looks like NBC took it down.]

Anyways, I’m not trying to make this all about me - but rather to say that I have seen first hand how dedicated, talented and awesome members of Conan’s crew are. That’s a powerful trio of human characteristics and I have to believe that it will carry everyone pretty damn far out of this messy situation.

So, much luck to everyone in Conan’s camp! The support the world is showing for Conan is great and I hope it somehow translates into bigger better things down the road for him and everyone. Unfortunately, this mess affects far more than just Conan - but also the good, loyal people that work for him deserve major kudos, too. On that note - follow @bigbley and read http://aaronbleyaert.com/ from now on.