The Largo Theater in West Hollywood, where Conan O'Brien has been filming his TBS talk show quarantine-style since July, has been robbed. After discovering the loss of various pieces of studio equipment, O'Brien revealed the theft during his regularly scheduled show, all the while marveling at just how bizarre the whole ordeal was.
O'Brien detailed the robbery on the air, along with his long time sidekick Andy Richter and producer Jason Chillemi, repeatedly pausing due to nearly uncontrollable laughter. As confirmed by Chillemi, the thief stole several laptops used for virtual interviews as well as a slate. For those unfamiliar with the term in the context of show business, a slate is that fun little black and white doohickey that somebody snaps in front of a camera just before shooting begins. Yep, somebody stole that. Presumably a Scooby-Doo villain brought to life.
The explanation started out as just an incredulous recounting of what happened. O'Brien and Richter talked about the incident, joking about how the audience (entirely made up of roughly 350 cardboard cutouts due to COVID-19 safety measures) must have been an interesting sight to the thief. But the sheer absurdity of it all quickly reduced them to fits of laughter as they jokingly speculated that maybe the thief is still there hiding among the cardboard audience.
"What happened to us? This kind of sh** isn't happening to other big-time late night shows. No one breaks into The Tonight Show and steals all of the equipment," O'Brien humorously mused as the ludicrousness continued to sink in, while also reflecting on how things have changed for him and his show in 2020, "We've become this garage band that drives around. We've got our van and we've parked it in an alley, and someone broke in and took our amps."
Conan on TBS had recently changed its style to a slightly more intimate vibe, opting to remove musical acts in favor of a more streamlined humor-focused structure. So O'Brien's show possibly faced less of an adjustment when moving to its current form due to the pandemic. Still, apparently crime doesn't self-isolate, so things ended up getting a little strange even by Conan standards. How this will affect the show going forward has yet to be seen, though the stolen property appears to be easily replaceable, so it could have been worse. At least nobody was harmed.
O'Brien has been a fixture in late night comedy (and other forms of comedy) since the 90s, and something like this is highly unlikely to change anything. In fact, it could be argued that the burglary has proven how even seasoned veterans like him can still be surprised. As if to prove that theory, he's clearly taking it well, quipping, "just for the laugh alone, maybe it's worth it."
Source: The Hollywood Reporter