We’re with Coco

Are you with Coco? Do you even know what that means?

If so, you’re definitely a Conan O’Brien fan. If not, well, maybe not so much.

And if the latter is the case, you probably didn’t spend $725 for the “Meet & Greet” ticket package, or $500 for the “Hot Sound” package, or even a measly $250 for the “Hot Seat” package to Monday’s 8 p.m. show at the Hult Center, where the man who ever so briefly hosted “The Tonight Show” kicks off his 30-city “Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour” right here in Eugene.

Not that all the tickets to the show are that expensive. The vast majority went for $39.50, $59.50 or $79.50. But the fact that those more expensive packages sold out, and that the entire show is a sellout, is a sign that the lanky, red-haired comedian’s fans are indeed cuckoo for Coco.

The “I’m With Coco” Facebook page has almost a million fans. And the tour officially has adopted the Coco madness by making its Web site www.teamcoco .com.

The nickname came from the second episode of “The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien” on June 2, 2009, when actor Tom Hanks got the audience to chant “Coco” after the name was used in a skit called “Twitter Tracker.”

“If that catches on, I’ll sue you,” O’Brien jokingly said. But it was too late, the name stuck like Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog sticks to mocking celebrities.

For the rest of the summer, audience members often blurted out “Coco!” during O’Brien’s monologues. And when NBC’s attempt to move O’Brien from the 11:35 p.m. time slot to 12:05 a.m. — and bring back former host Jay Leno because of O’Brien’s low ratings — blew up in the network’s face in January, O’Brien fan and Los Angeles artist Mike Mitchell responded.

Mitchell created an online poster called “I’m With Coco.” It sports an image of O’Brien, red hair aflame, in front of an American flag.

O’Brien, 46, became somewhat of a modern national folk hero when he spurned NBC’s offer to move to 12:05 a.m.

Instead, he negotiated a $32.5 million buyout deal, which included a stipulation that he not appear on another network earlier than September, and left the show that had been his dream since childhood, when he grew up watching Johnny Carson.

After 11 years of doing “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” at 12:35 a.m. on NBC, the dream came true in 2004 when NBC offered him “The Tonight Show,” putting in place a five-year plan for him to replace Leno in 2009.

But after less than eight months as host, there was O’Brien during the final week of his show’s run in January. More popular than ever, ratings soaring, he made fun of the network, its executives and Leno:

“Hosting ‘The Tonight Show’ has been the fulfillment of a lifelong dream for me — and I just want to say to the kids out there watching: You can do anything you want in life. Unless Jay Leno wants to do it, too.”

“Incredibly ham-handed”

Robert Thompson, director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University, said NBC’s handling of the situation was “incredibly ham-handed” — and somewhat bizarre.

“I think everybody thought that NBC must have been run by some people with serious mental challenges,” Thompson said in a telephone interview.

O’Brien’s ratings during his short-lived stint on “The Tonight Show” might have been poor, but he remained popular with younger viewers. They rallied behind him in the wake of the NBC debacle.

“It’s kind of strange; Conan O’Brien was one of the young, exciting performers on television,” Thompson said of the man who got his start as a writer on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” and Fox’s “The Simpsons,” before replacing Letterman on “Late Night” in 1993. “I have great fear he will never make it back.

“I think he should have taken the 12:05 a.m. slot.”

Conan fan Amanda Minor of Eugene — who bought six tickets to the show at the Hult the morning of March 11, when they went on sale — said of NBC’s decision: “I think it was really unfortunate and a big mistake. But I think (O’Brien) probably has more fans now.”

O’Brien’s two-month tour includes longtime sidekick Andy Richter and the former “Tonight Show” band (albeit without drummer and Bruce Springsteen sideman Max Weinberg). The troupe heads to Vancouver, B.C., on Tuesday, and then on to stops in San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and Radio City Music Hall in New York City before ending in Atlanta on June 14.

But why is he kicking it off here in Eugene?

“Simply a matter of routing,” tour spokeswoman Lisa Taylor wrote in an e-mail.

“Why not Eugene?” Thompson said. “It makes a lot of sense. Eugene’s a college town, and I would imagine the demographics are similar to Conan’s audience.

“I’d think he would have lots of fellow travelers in Eugene.”

Eugene will serve as a test show of sorts for the tour. And it makes sense to start it here than in a major market, where it’s “not as convenient for New York critics to fly in” and pan the first show, said Libby Tower, the Hult Center’s marketing and public relations manager.

Also, the Hult Center has a good reputation as a place for comedy, Tower said.

“Comedians love it here,” she said. “It’s large enough (2,450) that you can sell a lot of tickets, but it’s not such a huge hall where everything’s on a monitor and you’re disconnected from what’s happening on stage.”

Shock and mock

In keeping with his appeal to a younger crowd, O’Brien launched the tour on Twitter on March 11 with this 7:21 a.m. tweet. “Hey Internet: I’m headed to your town on a half-assed comedy & music tour. Go to https://TeamCoco.com for tix. I repeat: It’s half-assed.”

Two days later, O’Brien announced via Twitter that he had begun his “special tour diet: waffle batter, no veggies, and massive amounts of German blood sausage.”

It’s that sort of irreverent, off-the-wall humor that appeals to Minor, a 28-year-old stay-at-home mom.

“He pushes the envelope,” said Minor, who plans to go to Monday’s show with her husband, her brother and his wife. “He’s a little more risque (than Leno,) which I like. He’s got that shock value.”

He’s “snarky,” Minor said. “It appeals to me. I can’t actually remember the last time I … watched Leno.”

Minor heard about O’Brien’s Eugene appearance from a friend on Facebook the morning of March 11, and she snapped up six $39.50 tickets online before noon. She bought two tickets for a friend, but it turns out she can’t go, so Minor is trying to sell them for a profit.

Minor has had offers from a guy who said he’d do her dishes for a month (“Which is really tempting”) to someone who offered $150. As of last week, she was holding out for more.

Minor never considered spending $725 a ticket to meet O’Brien backstage and have her photograph taken with him before the show.

“That just seemed weird to me,” she said. “Seeing him from afar is fine.”

The “Meet & Greet” package includes front row seats, access to sound check, a pre-show cocktail reception, an autographed item, a collectible laminate and some other sort of merchandise. Speculation about the spendy packages has focused on O’Brien trying to earn money for his staff, who lost their jobs when he split with NBC.

Most of the less expensive tickets sold out the day they went on sale, but the promoter gave back about 200 it was holding last week, according to the Hult Center ticket office. The last seats were gone by Wednesday.

So, what to expect from this tour? More than likely, some more mocking of NBC.

“If the title (of the tour) is any indication, it will also be sending a message about how Mr. O’Brien, and his Team Coco, feels about his abrupt departure from ‘The Tonight Show,’ ” The New York Times’ Bill Carter wrote on his blog March 11.

Thompson guesses there will be lots of “segmented bits,” that it won’t be O’Brien, who has never toured as a stand-up comedian, doing jokes for two hours.

Will we see any of the skits and bits O’Brien showed on NBC over the years, from Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog to Conando and “The Year 3000”? Not likely, as NBC claimed those as the network’s “intellectual property” when it and O’Brien went their separate ways.

As to why O’Brien chose to take his show on tour, Thompson said: “One, I think he needs the practice.” Like any performer, you tend to get stale if you’re not working, he said.

“He used to have a TV show five nights a week. He needs to keep his timing and everything. Especially if he expects, come September, to work again.

“He definitely doesn’t need the money.”

Call Mark Baker at 541-338-2374 or e-mail him at mark.baker @registerguard.com.