Last Friday, Conan O’Brien was on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and he told a story about how David Letterman got him a horse, yes a real horse, as a thank you gift for writing a nice letter to the semi-retired talk show host about all he did for late night television.
The story goes, when the TBS late night host heard that Letterman sent him a gift, he got overly excited. He got even more excited when he heard that the truck the present was in was too big to fit through the gates of the Warner Bros lot in Burbank. Therefore, he skipped, I am assuming, to get his gift that also skips. That is because it was a horse. What does a Harvard Man from Boston in LA via NYC know about horses? Nothing that is what.
Therefore, he found a place to take care of the unridable horse, and it was not cheap. On topic but off track, there are several equestrian centers in Burbank that are within a mile of where Conan tapes his nightly show. He could literally walk there, that is how close they are close to him. Anyways, after two years, he found a new home for Dave, so they donated Dave the Horse that was given to him by Dave the Letterman. A place so nice that is why we say that hoses go to greener pastures.
You would think that is where the story ends. It does not. David Letterman was on Jimmy Kimmel Live yesterday, since the ABC host is taping the show in Brooklyn this week, and Dave told his side of the story. Letterman likes to give gag gifts and thought he would send Conan the horse with two cowboys while O’Brien’s show was taping and the stallion would take a big dump on the stage like when Ben Stiller brought a camel onto JKL many years ago. Then after the horse took a big sh!t on Conan’s stage, the giftee would sent the gift back to the gifter. That did not happen and Letterman had to pay for the thoroughbred that was returned to sender.
What did we get out of it? Two late night talk shows telling their stories on two other late night shows that are not their own. I cannot wait for Letterman to be Conan or Conan to be on Letterman’s Netflix show, so we can get the next chapter on their story.
And how did you like that in both cases the guests, who are also late night show hosts, totally dominated their interview segments on the other person’s late night show. The men behind their desks knew that they had met people who are better at their jobs than they are.
On that note, I think that Conan should spend a block of his show telling an unscripted tale because he is a great storyteller. I could watch him talk for 4 hours every week just talking about whatever. Don’t you just love the way he tells stories?
