Conan O’ Brien walks into a bar… and a giant peanut beats up his doctor! We promise, this is not us attempting comedy, just the truth of the unhinged shenanigans that unfolded in Bengaluru when the American comedian paid a visit to the city for an episode of his travel-comedy show Conan O’Brien Must Go. Months before the episode premiered, photographs of O’Brien filming at Toit and the Dodda Alada Mara taken by others as well as posted by himself, gained online attention. What viewers eventually saw on screen was only a slice of what had been planned for his visit. Having premiered on August 22 on JioHotstar, the show took fans on a journey of Mumbai and Bengaluru through O’Brien’s eyes as he filmed a Bollywood music video, learned to get on a crowded local train (only to be immediately heckled) and rolled with all the punches India threw at him with a grin and sharp response.
What fans may be surprised to learn though, is that the city’s iconic festival, the Kadlekai Parishe, where streets are lined with heaps of groundnuts to celebrate the harvest, nearly made it in. “O’Brien and his team were so excited about the idea of a festival centred around peanuts. We had set up a visit to the Kadalekai Parishe and some other pieces, which couldn’t happen because O’Brien had to leave due to a personal emergency,” shares Anita Vachharajani, who was one of the India line producers on the show along with Amit Vachharajani, the founder of Backpack Films, local partner for the show.
Nikhil Kini, a city-based talk show host who appeared on the show, shares another near-miss moment, saying, “I pitched a bunch of things, but my top priority was that he should make a dosa. But sadly, it couldn’t happen because it felt too chaotic to add on that day. I still feel Conan making a dosa would have broken the internet!” It was Kini’s appearance on O’Brien’s podcast last year, where he spoke about Toit having a picture of the comedian outside their restroom and his roommate’s love for O’Brien, that became a catalyst for his visit.
The show has a mix of pre-planned comedy bits but makes it a point to allow room for spontaneity, something O’Brien especially shines at, notes Amit, who has filmed with the likes of Eugene Levy and Stephen Fry among others, “Having worked on factual content shows for many years now, we are very aware that there is always ‘documentary gold’ waiting around every corner in India. Of course the fact that Conan is so good at extracting humour from any ordinary situation adds to it. For example, the ‘fake-a** liberal media’ comment someone made on the Mumbai train was unexpected and how Conan responded was hilarious. One can’t script such golden moments, they just happen. A documentary film crew is always prepared to capture such surprise encounters. As producers, without setting up the back-end meticulously, this magic cannot happen quite so seamlessly.” Anita adds, “His writers and his team worked and worked on the show for months. And once they landed, the writers and Conan still worked together as they filmed, organically creating more material as they interacted with each other, the place and the people there, riffing off each other. There was a lot of improv energy.”
While a section of the show focuses on O’Brien giving Kini an exaggerated mentoring session on hosting talk shows, the two, along with Kini’s friends did get some time in between shots to have a genuine conversation. “I was able to show him some of my videos. It was just insane to see him watch them, his eyes lit up and he called his producer and said, “Look at what these guys are making!” He was very present and like I suspected, as kind in person as he seems on screen. We got to show him what Bengaluru’s social culture, the pub culture is and he showed us we can go a long way by just working hard and being kind.” He adds, “Something meaningful to hear from him was how important it is to take care of yourself and not burn out in this industry – two years into his late show gig and earning a good sum of money, he lived in an apartment with a single bed and no furniture. For a huge part of his early career he was happy doing what he was destined to do but also beating himself up about it and pushing himself beyond what’s healthy."