Conan O'Brien took his show on the road last night, kicking off "Chicago Week" the most literal way possible with a bit of Irish step-dancing, in addition to a chat with the mayor and some silliness involving a bridge and some bratwurst. As you'll see in the video ahead, O'Brien's attempt to partake in some Irish step dancing resulted in a young dancer getting kicked in the face.
The segment below runs for over eight minutes, and those who want to see Conan explore Irish culture Chicago-style might do well to watch the entire video. It includes a tour of Chicago's Irish American Heritage Center, a counting of the bars and a mocking of the gift shop. But if you're really only interested in seeing the lanky Irish American comedian flail about as he valiantly attempts to Irish step dance, skip to about the six-minute mark. It's about that time that some of the female dancers take to the floor to impressively pound out the rhythm with drumsticks, while O'Brien does his routine. And at some point, he gets a little too close to one of the dancers… or his foot does.
In fairness to O'Brien, as light as he was making of the whole experience (in typical O'Brien fashion), he seems to be putting genuine effort into pulling off the dance routine, and it doesn't look like he intentionally kicked the girl in the face. Her reaction was as amusing as it was impressive, as she smiled, looking surprised, and kept on pounding the beat. A true professional! As you might have seen, after the dancers performed on stage at Conan's show later on (and if you didn't, watch it! They're really good!), they turned the earlier slip-up into a bit as Conan apologized to her and paid her off.
Tune in to see what happens next on Chicago-style Conan tonight at 11/10c on TBS.
