{"id":640175,"date":"2026-10-24T17:54:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-24T17:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/640175\/"},"modified":"2026-10-24T17:54:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-24T17:54:14","slug":"a-new-york-bar-owner-riffed-with-conan-obrien-in-90-seconds-of-viral-video-she-says-changed-my-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/640175\/","title":{"rendered":"A New York bar owner riffed with Conan O’Brien in 90 seconds of viral video she says ‘changed my life’"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Brooklyn bar owner saw her life change overnight after riffing with Conan O’Brien for 90 seconds in a now-viral video.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Debbie Shields, 68, of Bed-Stuy, had just transferred from the A train to the F when she and her friend Tony came across the comedian, who was filming a segment for Kareem Rahma’s viral Subway Takes.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘[Tony’s]\u00a0a big fan of Conan,’ she told The New York Times<\/a>. ‘I said: \u201cWell, you hold the seat for me and I\u2019m going to go sit next to him.\u201d’<\/p>\n

‘So I walked up and I walked past him. I said: \u201cHey, Conan.\u201d He said: \u201cHey, how you doing?\u201d And I sat down and went on from there.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the viral video, Rahma asked the comedian if he knew Shields, to which he jokingly told his host that they were married a long time ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Right, a long time ago. We got two kids,’ Shields said, playing into the ruse.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘How are they, by the way? I haven’t visited,’ O’Brien shot back.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘They’re fine. One’s in medical school, the other one’s in jail,’ she said without missing a beat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Debbie <\/p>\n

Debbie Shields, 68, of Brooklyn, had her life change overnight after she appeared in 1.5 minutes of a viral Subway Takes video\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Her <\/p>\n

Her viral moment happened after she got on the F train and decided to go say hello to Conan O’Brien, Kareem Rahma’s guest on his show Subway Takes.\u00a0‘One minute and 29 seconds changed my life,’ the mother-of-three said\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I’m sorry I’ve never sent any money,’ he said.<\/p>\n

‘It’s okay, they still love you,’ the Confessions Bar owner said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As the two continued to play into their joke, O’Brien laughed like a schoolgirl as others watched the spontaneous moment unfold.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘You were my happiest marriage, that was the best year and a half of my life,’ O’Brien said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I’ve heard that from my other three husbands too,’ Shields quipped, sending the comedian into a fit of giggles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The less than two-minute interaction skyrocketed Shields to fame, with people now coming into her bar just to catch a glimpse of New York’s hottest comedian.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘One minute and 29 seconds changed my life,’ the mother-of-three told CBS News<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, she’s considering pursuing comedy, especially at her own bar, where she hosts weekly comedy nights.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Rahma <\/p>\n

Rahma has since visited Shield’s business Confessions Bar in Bed-Stuy\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Since <\/p>\n

Since the clip, Shields is now considering picking up stand-up comedy\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘I do go onstage and introduce the comedians, but that\u2019s my limit,’ she told the Times. ‘I just might do [start doing stand-up], because it sounds interesting.<\/p>\n

‘I love to make people laugh. I love to have fun. I love to enjoy life, because life is beautiful. It\u2019s what you make it.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

The entrepreneur said she even laughs at funerals, causing her friends to say they can’t be seen together, she told CBS.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the clip was posted to social media, Rahma has visited the bar, where he took a photo of the two together.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As for O’Brien, Shields said he might stop by for karaoke on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘He says he can clear a room with his singing, so watch out,’ she told CBS. ‘It should be very interesting.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

And even if he doesn’t make his way to the Bed-Stuy bar, he’s already left his mark. On the menu, Shields now serves a drink called The Baby Daddy O’Brien.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Daily Mail has reached out to Shields for comment.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Brooklyn bar owner saw her life change overnight after riffing with Conan O’Brien for 90 seconds in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":640176,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[61425,557,156,1767,48440,111,43,139,69,437],"class_list":["post-640175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-conan-obrien","tag-dailymail","tag-entertainment","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-times","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640175","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=640175"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/640175\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/640176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=640175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=640175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=640175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}