{"id":174470,"date":"2025-12-08T19:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/174470\/"},"modified":"2025-12-08T19:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-08T19:00:09","slug":"conan-obrien-gives-stephen-colbert-advice-on-life-after-late-night","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/174470\/","title":{"rendered":"Conan O\u2019Brien Gives Stephen Colbert Advice on Life After Late Night"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOne thing was clear Sunday night in Newark, New Jersey\u2019s sumptuous sold-out performing arts center: Mom had gotten to the audience.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Late Show\u2019s Stephen Colbert<\/a> sat down with longtime late night fixture Conan O\u2019Brien for a conversation as part of the annual fundraiser for Montclair Film, where Colbert\u2019s wife, Evelyn Colbert, serves as president of the board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI was the youngest of 11 children and I always thought, I still think, they are the funniest people in the world \u2026 but I was terrible at telling stories,\u201d Colbert said to a rapt crowd. \u201cI remember once hearing my mother say to my brothers and sisters who were groaning about how terrible my stories were, I heard my mother say, \u2018You listen to his stories, it\u2019s so important to him.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cTo this day, if someone enjoys a story of mine I think, \u2018Mom got to you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tFor roughly 20 years, Stephen Colbert, 61, has sat behind a desk and told his stories to audiences who have looked to him to make them laugh. In May 2026, Colbert\u2019s latest chapter of storytelling will come to an end. The shocking announcement <\/a>that The Late Show would cut the lights for good came in July after Colbert criticized<\/a> CBS\u2019 corporate parent Paramount for making a $16 million settlement with Donald Trump amid its $8 billion merger with Skydance.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile the president\u2019s name wasn\u2019t said onstage Sunday, the specter of Colbert\u2019s exit hung heavy in the auditorium. In opening remarks, even New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy couldn\u2019t help but address the obvious, saying that he wanted to be in attendance to exchange notes with Colbert, seeing as they were both on their way out the door<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tStephen Colbert and Conan O\u2019Brien <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMichael Loccisano\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Brien, who hosted Late Night, The Tonight Show and Conan for nearly 30 years, offered Colbert some words of wisdom<\/a> \u2014 mixed in, of course, with trademark faux deprecation \u2014 since ending his show in 2021, when, Colbert said, O\u2019Brien actually asked him if he\u2019d considered quitting.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI ended my thing four years ago and God damn it I\u2019ve had so much fun. I\u2019ve really enjoyed myself and it was a great lesson for me,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cThese shows are just a way for Stephen Colbert to relate to people, they are not the way. There are so many different things that you can do and that you\u2019re going to do that are going to give you enormous amounts of pleasure, and you\u2019re going to be really great at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cYou\u2019re going to have people on the street saying \u2018Oh my God, I loved\u2026\u2019 and it\u2019s going to be this other thing that you\u2019re doing,\u201d O\u2019Brien continued. \u201cYou\u2019re just not there yet, you haven\u2019t begun that yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tOne of the first things on Colbert\u2019s list, the two men joked (perhaps), is a ridiculously self-serious Hallmark Christmas movie wherein O\u2019Brien would play a careerist who thinks his girlfriend\u2019s wish for a Christmas miracle is grossly impractical, until she journeys back to her hometown to find Colbert running a candy cane factory with his three daughters, Tinsel, Holly and Popcorn String.<\/p>\n

\n\tLeaving late-night TV after more than 20 years behind the desk, Colbert lamented the loss of a more than 30-year staple in American entertainment. All Colbert and O\u2019Brien wanted were shows reminiscent of vaudeville, the pair said.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThis is a really old television form; one of the oldest and most successful forms that through radio is tied to vaudeville,\u201d Colbert said. \u201cI love who I work with, and I enjoy what I do. I\u2019m kind of sad for the form; that there\u2019s one less place for people to have that experience.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One thing was clear Sunday night in Newark, New Jersey\u2019s sumptuous sold-out performing arts center: Mom had gotten…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[32460,146,2323,85,46,10120,6676],"class_list":{"0":"post-174470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-conan-obrien","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-events","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-late-night-tv","14":"tag-stephen-colbert"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}