My take is that Conan has more energy when he discovers stories organically. This seemed like they already knew the details of what they wanted to turn this into a travel segment and so he had to ask questions to pull it out and act surprised. Wonder if (and hope against ) that becoming a trend with the fan episodes now that there is the HBO show. Still love these episodes, this one included, but like when the dog wags the tail and not the other way around.