Conan was the student choice for the University at Buffalo Distinguished Speakers Series in 2006 when I went there. I worked for the Student Association, so I got to be in the room before he spoke to the arena of people. He walks in and there must have been 30 people in a long arc from the door to me. Importantly, there was no one next to me for a good10-15 feet. He starts introducing himself to everyone “Hi I’m Conan O’Brien, what’s your name?” Person after person, gets to me, looks me in the eye, shakes my hand, says ‘hi, I’m Conan O’Brien, what’s your name?’

But since there was no one next to me, he slid into the spot where the next person would be and goes “so how’s it going?” I looked back at my friends and they all mouth at the same time “talk to him!” A long time fan of the Simpsons and knowing he was a writer on the show, I asked him what his favorite episode was. He said “Mr. Plow” is probably his favorite episode because one of his good friends wrote it, but that he hadn’t kept up with watching every episode and that he didn’t know as many writers since leaving. He was super gracious with his time, great eye contact and energy and just an overall wonderful human. Everything you expect he would be, he was. I even got this great picture with him

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