The 'Late Night' star used humor to talk about the lessons he has learned. Introduced as "NBC's International Man of Mystery," late-night talk show host Conan O'Brien joked, danced and reminisced last night before a packed house at the Annenberg Center's Zellerbach Auditorium. With no show to tape -- NBC airs reruns Monday nights -- the comedic writer and host of Late Night with Conan O'Brien entertained the audience of about 900 University students for two hours and 20 minutes, nearly an hour more than had been scheduled. O'Brien, 34, began his speech by praising Penn and his Ivy League alma mater, Harvard University, where he graduated from in 1985. "Penn is a great school," he said. "Let me also say that Harvard is a great school -- to poop on." Most of O'Brien's speech focused on the depths he reached and the risks he took before rising through the entertainment-industry ranks. "I always got in over my head and put myself in positions that were really scary," the Massachusetts-born entertainer said. "Let me tell you -- that works." As many students shouted what he called "inane questions" throughout the night, O'Brien spoke of his days as a history and literature major at Harvard, where he was twice president of the Harvard Lampoon, the famed humor magazine. "It changed my life," he said. "For the first time, comedy had some kind of value." The first few years out of college were rough for O'Brien, with a failed stage show, periods of temporary work and short-lived TV stints on The Wilton North Report and Not Necessarily the News. But those appearances, O'Brien noted, paved the way for a writing position at NBC's Saturday Night Live -- where he won an Emmy Award in 1989 -- and as a writer and producer for Fox's The Simpsons. O'Brien described the creative process at The Simpsons as an "intensive writing lab." He added that while it was a good position, he did not want to keep writing for sitcoms. When David Letterman left NBC in 1993 for CBS, O'Brien -- then a virtual unknown -- was surprised to be asked to take over. "I wasn't a longshot to take David Letterman's job -- I was a complete impossibility," he said. "You'd have to be a completely demented fool to think, 'I'll do it'." O'Brien also commented on the difficult start Late Night had, with an inexperienced crew aiming to push the limits of television. He also spoke about critics' harsh reaction to the show, saying many were "mean about me and even meaner about [sidekick] Andy [Richter]." Topics in the question-and-answer session following the speech included Howard Stern, marijuana use and one student's chances of receiving a summer internship. College sophomore Risa Sang-Urai asked for a hug -- a request that was granted. O'Brien kept the mood light with impressions of Stern and Tonight Show host Jay Leno. He also interspersed video clips of his early industry failures, a never-before-seen audition tape for his current late-night position and clips from SNL, The Simpsons and Late Night. Through humor and self-deprecation, O'Brien consistently tried to convey to the audience that risk-taking is a necessary part of the upward path. "Don't fear failure -- embrace it," he said. "I had to go out and look really bad before I could look really good." The $3 tickets for O'Brien's speech -- the first he has given on a college campus -- sold out in an hour last week, with tickets being scalped for as high as $10 each, students said. But many indicated that it was worth it. "He put through a very good moral, but used a lot of humor to get it across," Engineering freshman Jeffrey Levisman said. "It gave me perspective." Daily Pennsylvanian staff writer Seth Grossman contributed to this article.
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