Conan O'Brien Opens Comedy Tour In Eugene, Oregon To Good Reviews

ROLLING STONE Magazine gave high marks to Conan O'Brien's stand-up music and comedy tour opening show last night, calling the performance, "extremely funny". And THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER also gave high marks to Conan's road show which opened at Eugene's Hult Theater last evening. Next stop is British Columbia, then Seattle, as the show tours over the coming weeks. Backed up by Andy Richter and the same Max Weinberg Seven band as seen on TV, the show looked much like a high quality version of one of TV shows O'Brien & company perform. Even the "Masturbating Bear" character made an appearance, despite legal wrangling with NBC over "intellectual property" rights ownership. Who knew that the "Masturbating Bear" was even intellectual?

With a trimmed beard, and playing guitar for a good parody of "I Will Survive", O'Brien managed a few more jabs at the situation over at NBC where lost his job as THE TONIGHT SHOW host. Legally, O'Brien agreed not to take jabs at NBC. But he manages ways around that, and still manages to bring up the topic about as often as he could.

Exiting the studio, O'Brien received a few cheers like a rock star would get.

But O'Brien wakes up to a number of critical reviews for his decision to go to TBS of all stations. Even here, at Wizbang Pop, we were highly critical of this being a bad career move on many levels. But, for last night, Conan O'Brien had a big night back on stage. And he deserves high praise for taking a lot of time to put on a show that easily exceeded expectations.