Conan O' Brien's Legally Prohibited from Being Funny 30-City Tour

by Manny Castro | March 11, 2010 at 01:39 pm

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Since Conan O' Brien's 45-million dollar exit contract from NBC prevents him from appearing on TV until September, he has decides to take his act on the road.

Today he announced a 30-city tour titled the Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour. It starts on April 12 in Eugene, Oregon and ends on June 14 in Atlanta, Georgia, visiting at least 20 states.

O'Brien joked, "It was either a massive 30 city tour or start helping out around the house."

Conan O’Brien’s fans, fellow comedians, and other culture vultures are applauding the announcement. The former Tonight Show host recent foray into Twitter, has media watchers split over what the comedian will do next.

Some say the tour is to bring O'Brien enough exposure to get back to TV.

"What Conan hopes to accomplish with his cross-country tour is attract a huge enough interest to get him back on television with a plum deal,” says Paul Levinson, media professor at Fordham University.“Since he has no TV show nailed down with Fox or Comedy Central, this is obviously his way of keeping himself in front of the people,” says Richard Goedkoop, a professor of communication at La Salle University in Philadelphia.

"He is ... thumbing his nose at corporate America (NBC) by saying with this tour: 'I may have to stay off TV for a period of time but that is not going to preclude me from doing what I love via other avenues,' " says Don Tanner of strategic communications firm Tanner Friedman. He, sidekick Andy Richter, and members of his former Tonight Show band will offer up "a night of music, comedy, hugging, and the occasional awkward silence," promoters promise. Absent will be longtime O'Brien bandleader Max Weinberg.

The musical chairs fiasco with Jay Leno in the past year is likely to be a comedy topic seized on by O’Brien, as quips from Leno, David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel, and Jimmy Fallon about the subject raised ratings significantly for all of late-night TV. The website TMZ has reported that O’Brien won’t make a cent off the tour – that he is doing it to employ his former staff among the 40 who will work on the production.