Conan’s Final Show
I have to admit, I never watched The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. I’ve always liked Conan but I’m just not interested in watching talk shows anymore – anyone’s talk show. But I did watch Conan’s last show on Friday and it made me think of a couple of things.
First: Conan, for all his goofy shenanigans, is a gentleman. Even though he had carte blanche to say whatever he wanted and even though it seems that most of America hates Jay Leno right now, he never once took a shot at Jay. Now, I wasn’t expecting him to – it wouldn’t help his cause, it would be out of character and it would’ve made him look bitter. But I found it interesting because I don’t know if many other folks would be so gracious after getting such a screw-job. It was nice to watch someone take the high road and play it cool.
Second: Conan said something near the end of his show that really spoke to me. He said:
“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.”
I’ve been trying to get a comic strip into the newspapers for over ten years and I’ve only recently given up this life-long goal. I never thought I’d do a webcomic, let alone start a webcomic with the intention of making it my bread and butter. But here I am, in webcomic land. I know there’s no guarantee that I’ll make a nickel out of this thing but it was comforting to hear someone else say: “Hey, I didn’t get what I wanted either but that’s no reason to give up.”
I wish you luck, Conan in whatever you do next.
"I know there’s no guarantee that I’ll make a nickel out of this thing…"
Well, with advertising, you are nearly-guaranteed nickels, at least.
I think I only watched one Tonight Show With Conan O'Brian. I also have little interest in late night talk shows. By-product of little interest in TV.
What Conan said definitely applies to a lot of professions, including webcomics. Cheers. I hope you gain lots of new readers in 2010.
Thanks, man! Good luck to you as well.
I just started reading your webcomic today, thanks to a link from The Whiteboard. Since I've been reading that comic for ages, I at least give each one he links a shot. I imagine that you will get more readers due to his link. I like what I've seen so far, so it has ended up in my RSS feeds.
Any ways, giving up never got anyone anywhere. Along the lines of what Conan said, I personally prefer to keep walking, because I might not end up where I was heading, but wherever it is might be even more interesting.
I also just followed a link from the webcomic the whiteboard here today, great comic! Read all the past ones, look forward to reading each day now and I'll be letting people know about the comic, hopefully get even more readers for you.
As for Conan, I also only saw one of his shows and was no true fan. However the man got a very poor deal out of the situation, his words are well chosen and speak true.
Exactly how I feel. Well said!