Shields told K\u00f6ksal she’d love to collaborate with him again. Here is part of their conversation. <\/p>\n
Debbie, what is your relationship status with Conan O’Brien now? Is remarriage in the cards? He walked out on you again?<\/p>\n
He just did his interview and walked off the train.\u00a0“Bye Debbie.”<\/p>\n
Typical. How are the kids feeling?\u00a0<\/p>\n
They’re fine. They’re used to him not being around.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In all seriousness though, how are you doing with all of this attention?\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s crazy right now.\u00a0SXM radio, I was in the New York Times, 1010 radio.<\/p>\n
Internationally, are they interested, too?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yeah, somebody called me from Japan, 1:30 in the morning, Australia, England. Oh boy, it’s been busy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
On that day on the train, did you have any idea what you were walking into?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not at all.\u00a0I was going to see my accountant for my business.\u00a0<\/p>\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1793059745_822_default.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
O’Brien appeared delighted with the random encounter. (Emma McIntyre\/Getty Images\/SiriusXM)<\/p>\n
Did you just see that shock of orange hair and the pasty skin? He would say that about himself, so I feel like can say that.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No, I saw a camera crew. And when I saw the camera crew, my friend said, “Oh, that’s Conan O’Brien.” I was like, “Oh, OK.” But I was looking for a seat because I’m always looking for a seat on the train. So I got me a seat and I told him “You hold the seat and I’m just going to go over and say hi.” And that’s all it took.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And you did not miss a beat, a millisecond even. Have you always had that kind of comedic timing?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yeah, I mean if you give it to me, I give it right back to you. That’s how it goes.<\/p>\n
That’s the New Yorker in you, I would imagine. But you are at another level, though.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thank you.<\/p>\n
You didn’t seem nervous, but were you at all nervous inside?<\/p>\n
No, I was having a ball.<\/p>\n
He was, too.<\/p>\n
Yeah, we had a good time doing that.<\/p>\n
You were a fan of Conan before. What about him do you like?<\/p>\n
Yes,\u00a0I like his style of comedy. He’s witty, he’s fast, he’s risky, he is risque. I just like him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Did you have any idea about the show SubwayTakes?<\/p>\n
No, I didn’t know anything about that show, nothing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It’s really cool when you meet a celebrity whose work you admire and the exchange goes really well. Sometimes, it could be not as pleasant. You go about your day, you went to your accountant. And then when did you start getting a sense that this was more than this great memory for you?<\/p>\n
Tuesday evening.\u00a0Somebody told me, “Oh, you’re on Conan, we saw it.” I was in my bar and people started showing me.\u00a0Then Wednesday morning, it went crazy. People were calling me at eight in the morning. “Oh, you were all over the internet. You’ve got five million hits.”\u00a0Then somebody called me at like about 10 in the morning, “You’re on television, on channel five. You’re on channel four.” And I’m like, “Oh my God.” It was surreal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That’s what I do with people, even in my bar. The name of my bar is Confessions Bar, I have comedy on Friday nights. I introduce the host of the comics and I really go off on the people. I make them laugh, I talk about their outfits, whatever it is, and they all love me. I like to see people happy. And if I lay my head to rest today,\u00a0I want people to remember that I made people laugh.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oh, they’re sure going to remember, Debbie. Conan’s at the top of that list. Do you think he’s going to drop by?\u00a0<\/p>\n
He’s been in touch with me. Kareem’s team has been in touch with me to do another show with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Oh my goodness.\u00a0What would be your dream show?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Saturday Night Live.<\/p>\n
I think at least Conan could arrange that for you. Conan said he’d do a sitcom with you.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yes he would, and I would love to do one with him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What does this tell you about life?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Life is funny, you never know where your blessings are coming from. That’s why you have to live your life in a certain way. So when the aura of God, or whatever you want to see or call it, sees that you’re doing your best and you’re trying really hard and you genuine, he always throws you a ball.\u00a0<\/p>\n
You’ve got the comedy night at Confessions, are you incorporating this new part of your life and your ex-husband into the bar?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yes, we invented a drink called Baby Daddy O’Brien. We’ve got whiskey, Triple Sec, lemon, lime, and blood orange.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Can we expect you to bring your show to Toronto sometime?\u00a0<\/p>\n
That would be fun. I love Toronto. I love Canada. I’ve been to Canada so many times.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I’m sure people would love to see you riding the subway here, too, Debbie.\u00a0Thank you for this.\u00a0<\/p>\n
My pleasure. You just always laugh your ass off.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That’s the key to life.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LISTEN | Interview with Debbie Shields: As It Happens5:53Meet the Brooklyn bar owner who stole the show on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":383380,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-383379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383379\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}