Chat-show host sends fans into near-hysteria at Helsinki Airport
Conan O'Brien seeks sauna inspector position for his Halonen endorsement
American comic and talk-show host Conan O'Brien made landfall in Finland on Saturday, starting a five-day visit that has been trumpeted for days on end on his Late Night With Conan O'Brien. The show is aired on NBC and relayed - at a few days' delay - to Finnish audiences via the teens & young adults cable/digital entertainment channel, subTV.
The comedian's arrival at the VIP terminal at Helsinki-Vantaa International was witnessed by around a hundred journalists and an enthusiastic crowd of a couple of thousand outside, most of them teenagers.
O'Brien began his press briefing with a few words in passable Finnish, read off a phonetic cue-card, expressing his delight at being welcomed to our "beautiful country".
He quickly got into his stride, and announced he would be requesting a return favour from President Tarja Halonen, whom he claims he helped to win re-election by his endorsement and energetic campaigning on her behalf in his TV-show, where he used mock advertisements highlighting his supposed resemblance to the red-headed Finnish leader.
Following the U.S. pattern of cabinet and ministerial appointments for services rendered, O'Brien said he had his eyes on the position of sauna inspector, and that he would be taking this up with Halonen when the lookalikes meet in person on Tuesday.
"I'd like to be the inspector of saunas", he quipped. "Mostly women's saunas, but also men's, if they are under 30 and good-looking."
A few moments before, he had walked into the packed VIP terminal to face the journalists. The terminal had been temporarily re-named "Conan O'Brien International Airport" in his honour.
"Thank you, thank you", he said to the room, displaying all the gestures of a visiting statesman. However, behind the role-playing one could see that the star was nervous and clearly astonished at the reception he had encountered. Close up, he could be seen blushing.
The journalists included an NBC camera and sound crew. Material for O'Brien's show in the States is to be shot during his five-day visit, but no actual programmes will be taped here. The visit has been made possible as the Late Night slot is off-air for the duration of the Winter Olympics.
During the visit, apart from the 20-minute audience with Tarja Halonen slated for Tuesday, O'Brien has planned to tour some of Finland with his camera crew, including a possible visit to Lapland. Later on Tuesday the talk-show host will pick up a Telvis Award for being "The most surprising and entertaining TV personality in Finland" during 2005. He will also present the award for best female TV performer.
O'Brien again brought up the subject of his uncanny resemblance to Tarja Halonen, joking that one after another he would begin to resemble other prominent Finns, until he looked like anyone who was anyone in this neck of the woods.
The similarity gag was taken a step further with a young O'Brien lookalike in attendance. The comic's personal manager went and jotted down the details of 15-year-old Viktor Wikström for possible future engagements.
"Hey, you're better looking than me", said O'Brien.
"Absolutely", replied Wickström.
Outside the terminal, a crowd of around 2,000 fans, most of them teenagers, had turned out to welcome their hero. The advance warnings of the visit on the TV show and on websites had been heeded: the first arrivals had shown up at 11:00, four hours and more before the O'Brien entourage was scheduled to land.
They remained good-natured despite having to stand in the cold for several hours, until 16:30, when the star popped his head outside to wave to them. He had to climb on a rather rickety-looking stepladder to be seen above the heads, and this time he dropped the showbiz pretence and appeared genuinely touched by the warmth of the reception.
Girls screamed, boys shouted, and some of the hardier specimens even ripped off their shirts.
Another short appearance, and it was all over, and the crowd and their banners dispersed into the afternoon, probably to catch up on the Winter Olympics from Torino or watch themselves on the evening news.
There is no doubt the turnout surprised the organisers as much as it did Conan O'Brien. "There hasn't been anything like this seen at the airport since Paul Anka", said one police officer, referring to the teen idol's visit in the 1950s.
Then again, the policeman might have added the names of such luminaries as Ryan O'Neal (in the guise of "Rodney Harrington" from Peyton Place), William Conrad (the creator of the role of overweight detective "Frank Cannon" in the long-running TV series of that name), teen heart-throb David Hasselhoff of Knight Rider and Baywatch fame, practically the entire cast of the CBS daytime soap The Bold and the Beautiful (believe it or not, eight girls were christened "Brooke" and six were christened "Taylor" in Finland between 1980 and 1999), Ken "Wiseguy" Wahl, whose visit in 1988 caused headlines in all the wrong ways, Monica Lewinsky, busty topless model Samantha Fox, and, most recently, ex-NBA star Dennis Rodman, who attended the 2005 Wife-Carrying World Championships and even turned out for a Finnish basketball team.
These and many others have often been ferried around Finland to be goggled at by the locals, particularly during the Midsummer weekend.
Finland is ultimately just another entry-stamp in Conan O'Brien's passport: he has filmed past segments for his show in Canada, the Republic of Ireland, Germany, The Netherlands, and Australia. His 2004 Canadian road-trip - and the off-colour jokes it spawned about the hosts, particularly among the Québecois - led eventually to a tongue-in-cheek "grovelling apology" from the talk-show host.
It remains to be seen how Finland will fare at Conan's hands when he gets home. You can invite a comedian here, but it's a lot harder to tell him what's funny and what is not.
Still, we're used to it. The country has emerged more or less unscathed from the mosquito-swatting, wife-carrying, sauna-sitting, mobile phone-tossing, tango-dancing, air guitar-playing coverage it has routinely received in past years - and hey, let's face it, the news items could have been a lot worse.
Ultimately another Irish wit was probably right on the money 115 years ago, when he noted that: "There is only one thing in the world worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about."
Links:
Conan O´Brien (Wikipedia)
Helsingin Sanomat
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| 13.2.2006 - TODAY |
Chat-show host sends fans into near-hysteria at Helsinki Airport
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