Steel Notes Magazine
(Poster art from the 2010 “Legally Prohibited…” tour)
As painful as The Tonight Show incident was, however, it did help bring Conan and his crew to
international attention and helped cement the loyalty and passion of his fans, who proudly call
themselves Team Coco. Conan himself found the Team Coco name endearing enough to adopt
as an official term for his staff who help create and produce the show he started and which he
continues with Andy Richter and the Basic Cable Band (which is what the Max Weinberg 7
renamed themselves after Max’s departure in 2010) continues on TBS simply titled “Conan”.
And though I’ve wanted to see them and say thank you to Conan for all of the above, due to
some ongoing health issues and the show’s move to CA in 2009, I didn’t have the chance to do
so. That is, until I was lucky enough to get tickets for the November 2016 Conan NYC event.
My husband Jerry and I took the overnight bus from Baltimore and arrived in NYC around
quarter to 6am. We moved very fast from our bus stop to the subway station to get the first train
we possibly could to Harlem so we could get in line for our assigned seat tickets, which are
handed out in order of arrival. And I’m very glad we got there when we did—there was a bit of a
line already formed, but nowhere near as long as the line that eventually appeared behind us as
we waited for 9am. As we were in line, a member of the Team Coco crew (who, by the way,
could not possibly been any more professional and courteous, but even more than that, are
genuinely kind people) noticed I’m on crutches and said to us “Please go to the side when you go
in. We’re putting you in the VIP section”. I was just floored. It was because I began suffering
from serious and debilitating nerve damage over 10 years ago that my plans to see Conan when
his Late Night show was based in NYC were thwarted. That this same disability was now getting
me VIP treatment…well, as Bart Simpson would tell you “The ironing is delicious”.
It was an absolutely gorgeous Wednesday in NYC, so after Jerry and I got our tickets, we went
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Steel Notes Magazine
www.steelnotesmagazine.com
November 2016