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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Let me try that again (and maybe ask Jeff to delete my messed up post above.  I am sorry, Jeff!).

O'Brien gave a commencement speech about 25 years ago that I still refer to now. The speech was about failing and how important it can be, and that it often led to better things.

Major excerpts of the speech are here (https://academyatthelakes.org/wp-content/uplo...vard2000Excerpts.pdf ), but here is the end if you don't want to follow the link:

"And then, an insane, inexplicable opportunity came my way. A chance to audition for host of the new Late Night Show. I took the opportunity seriously but, at the same time, I had the relaxed confidence of someone who knew he had no real shot…a week later I got the job.

"So, this was undeniably it: the truly life-altering break I had always dreamed of. And, I went to work. … We debuted on September 13, 1993 and I was happy with our effort. I felt like I had seized the moment and put my very best foot forward. And this is what the most respected and widely read television critic, Tom Shales, wrote in the Washington Post: “O’Brien is a living collage of annoying nervous habits. He giggles and titters, jiggles about and fiddles with his cuffs. He had dark, beady little eyes like a rabbit. … O’Brien is a switch on the guest who won’t leave: he’s the host who should never have come….

"There’s more but it gets kind of mean.

"Needless to say, I took a lot of criticism, some of it deserved, some of it excessive. And it hurt like you wouldn’t believe. But I’m telling you all this for a reason. I’ve had a lot of success and I’ve had a lot of failure. I’ve looked good and I’ve looked bad. I’ve been praised and I’ve been criticized. But my mistakes have been necessary. [...]

"I’ve dwelled on my failures today because, as graduates of Harvard, your biggest liability is your need to succeed. Your need to always find yourself on the sweet side of the bell curve. Because success is a lot like a bright, white tuxedo. You feel terrific when you get it, but then you’re desperately afraid of getting it dirty, of spoiling it in any way. I left the cocoon of Harvard, I left the cocoon of Saturday Night Live, I left the cocoon of The Simpsons. And each time it was bruising and tumultuous. And yet, every failure was freeing, and today I’m as nostalgic for the bad as I am for the good. So, that’s what I wish for all of you: the bad as well as the good. Fall down, make a mess, break something occasionally. And remember that the story is never over."

[/quote]

So I have always loved him as a comedian and this makes him really like him as a person.  A lot of people, not just successful/showbiz people, they don't get this.  This is something only someone with a soul would say.  And to say it to a grad class at Harvard and not to just say something funny/charming/witty/cool/easy that sounds good - that's someone who actually cares about others.  Not sure how you would not like someone who would make a speech like this?[/quote]

A pampered silver spoon ego maniac with all the connections you’d ever need in life and a Harvard degree waxing on about failure and taking risks. What a rebel.  :roll: [/quote]

Actually coming from wealth, medical doctor and law partner - it is highly commendable that he stayed true to his creative comic self,

There would be so much pressure to be successful in more conventional ways .

I often feel like I am being transported to places that I have never heard of when listening to  Conan. He definitely lives in a way more interesting head space than most of us.[/quote]

lol. Comedy and journalism is full of rich nepo babies with prestige degrees. They can afford to slum it in their 20s and take “risks” because they can always look forward to millions via inheritance and tap their parents connections to get a serious job later on in life. If comedy didn’t work out, Conan could have gone to an Ivy law school in his late 20s.[/quote]

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