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SPOILER ALERT!
At first, the figure on the small stage is almost unrecognizable.
He's got a scraggly beard. He's dressed in dark colors. He's got a guitar strapped across his chest, strumming it wildly as he belts out a bluesy, mid-'70s Elvis tune about polk salad.
Ladies and gentleman, Conan O'Brien has left the building. All hail Coco -- the once and future late night host who Monday night will be born again (at least for a few weeks) as a rock star.
It's the afternoon of April 2, a little more than two weeks before the man NBC dumped as host of "The Tonight Show" is set to kick off a cross-country music and comedy extravaganza in Eugene, Oregon.
O'Brien, longtime sidekick Andy Richter, executive producer Jeff Ross, a dozen writers and staffers, some band members and a slew of tech support types are at a nondescript soundstage directly across from Burbank's Bob Hope Airport.
A sign just outside the parking lot directs visitors to the stage with just one word: Coco.
There's no security at all. No fancy table of crudites or any sort of craft services to speak of.
On stage, O'Brien's act is still taking shape. But the heart of it is in place.
As the practice run goes on for more than two hours, it becomes clear things will have to be cut. "There's too much show," one person at the run-through laments.
Some things seem too good to cut, though:
-- A cold open in which O'Brien -- in full Fat Elvis mode -- is seen aimlessly wandering about his home, alone, adrift and waiting desperately for someone to call him with a job offer. Drowning his sorrows in carbs and alcohol, while a mournful pop song from the '70s plays, O'Brien drifts further away -- until finally he gets a call inviting him to hit the road. Cue the "Rocky" music, and the Coco transformation.
-- O'Brien is backed up on his several musical numbers by two saucy, hip-shaking soul-singers known as the Co-quettes. They banter with O'Brien, trading off with Richter as O'Brien's chief comic foil for the night.
-- Video interstitials throughout the show feature a bald, generic network executive warning the audience not to say anything bad about the Network -- because they, like Conan, are being watched. It's not a slam against NBC -- though the fake programs this exec introduces sound like something Ben Silverman might imagine. It's more just a nod to the events of the past four months.
- -O'Brien warbles his take on "Polk Salad Annie," but changes the lyrics to reflect his tough upbringing in Brookline. Brookline, Massachussetts. Where Whole Foods was a harsh reality. It's classic O'Brien self-mockery. Disco classic "I Will Survive" also gets a makeover, with lyrics appropriate to a scorned talk show host.
