{"id":891750,"date":"2026-10-23T08:16:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T08:16:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/891750\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T08:16:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T08:16:12","slug":"conan-obrien-met-his-match-on-subway-takes-shes-a-68-year-old-bar-owner-from-brooklyn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/891750\/","title":{"rendered":"Conan O’Brien met his match on ‘Subway Takes.’ She’s a 68-year-old bar owner from Brooklyn."},"content":{"rendered":"

Conan O’Brien was killing it on Subway Takes<\/a>, the popular internet talk show hosted by comedian Kareem Rahma in which celebrities defend controversial opinions \u2014 while sitting on a New York City subway car.<\/p>\n

After arguing that all statues should be made out of soap<\/a>, O’Brien apologized to a woman who was waiting to take a seat.<\/p>\n

“That’s OK, Conan,” replied the woman, who has since been identified as Debbie Shields, a 68-year-old Brooklyn bar owner and mother of three.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rahma then asked them if they knew each other. O’Brien joked that Shields was his ex-wife.<\/p>\n

“Yeah, we were married a long time ago,” O’Brien said.<\/p>\n

Shields, without hesitation, went with it.<\/p>\n

“We got two kids,” she said.<\/p>\n

“How are they, by the way?” O’Brien asked.<\/p>\n

“One’s in medical school. One’s in jail,” she replied.<\/p>\n

They kept the improvised bit going.<\/p>\n

O’Brien asked whether their children still loved him, despite never having visited and not paying for their education.<\/p>\n

“Your pictures are everywhere in the house,” Shields assured him. “Don’t worry.”<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly, her scene-stealing turn with O’Brien on Subway Takes quickly went viral.<\/p>\n

“It is crazy,” Shields told the New York Times<\/a> of her newfound internet fame.\u00a0<\/p>\n

She said she has no formal experience in improv aside from hosting comedy and karaoke nights at her bar, Confessions<\/a>, in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. (Shields said it’s called Confessions because “the more people drink the more they confess.”)<\/p>\n

O’Brien later told New York Magazine<\/a> that he was floored by her comedic skills.<\/p>\n

“This amazing woman sits down next to me and suddenly she’s throwing improv comebacks at 100 miles per hour,” he said, adding that he’s open to working with Shields again.<\/p>\n

“I’ll do a sitcom with her,” O’Brien said. “Or open a restaurant. Or we can just hit the road and do a two-person show.”<\/p>\n

Shields told the Bed-Stuy Stoop<\/a> that making Coco laugh “wasn’t my intention.”<\/p>\n

“But if you kick it to me, I kick it back,” she said.<\/p>\n