Skip to footer

Conan O'Brien: Here's the special Comic-Con activity he's hosting

O'Brien is broadcasting his TBS talk show from Comic-Con from Wednesday to Saturday and guests will include cast members from 'Game of Thrones' and 'The Walking Dead.'

|
Ben Margot/AP
Conan O'Brien arrives for the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences awards in Moffett Field, Calif. in 2013.
  • By Derrik J. Lang Associated Press

Conan O'Brien is offering up a free space for Comic-Con attendees.

The talk show host was on hand Wednesday night to kick off a raucous bingo tournament he's sponsoring while in town to tape his TBS talk show during the four-day pop-culture extravaganza.

"It's nice to see so many people refusing to enjoy something in the moment," O'Brien teased the rowdy crowd as he was surrounded by smartphones when he arrived on stage to ceremonially draw the first bingo ball. "Have you actually ever looked at a real painting? You're not even looking at me right now!"

O'Brien will host TBS' "Conan" at the Spreckels Theatre from Wednesday to Saturday, featuring guests from such TV series as "Game of Thrones" and "The Walking Dead." His after-hours, invite-only bingo tournament is being held for super-fans at a top-secret gallery space in downtown San Diego.

"When I saw that Conan was hosting a bingo event, I had no idea that it actually meant bingo," said "Conan" fan Andy Kopp, who resides in the building where the bingo balls are being drawn and attended Wednesday's inaugural match. "He managed to turn something as lame as bingo into something that was fun and exciting."

The raucous affair, which features free-flowing booze and back-up dancers, is being hosted by Michael Stauffer, who has organized similar over-the-top bingo games at The Standard hotel in New York.

"I've been watching the introduction to this game backstage," said O'Brien during Wednesday's match, which featured a dance-off contest and expletive-filled karaoke intermissions. "I've never seen a more overblown introduction to bingo. It's hilarious. "

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Conan O'Brien: Here's the special Comic-Con activity he's hosting
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/TV/2015/0709/Conan-O-Brien-Here-s-the-special-Comic-Con-activity-he-s-hosting
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe