By Katelin Paiz
Published: September 27, 2009

By Katelin Paiz
Daily Titan Staff Writer

Red hair perfectly quaffed into that immovable signature wave, impeccably tailored suit, Andy Richter and of course the Max Weinberg Band could mean only one thing …

I’m a go go for the CoCo show show!

Friday was my third time making the long traffic-filled journey into the heart of Hollywood to see “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” but admittedly was my first time actually making it in to see the show.

In a series of heart-breaking mishaps and miscalculations for this Conan fan, my tickets were given away on both of my previous attempts.

But not this time!

This time I was determined. This time I was driven. This time I was three hours early.

Conan is a fairly recent import to California and the reason for my obsession of vying for a spot in the audience.

I was lucky enough to land three tickets to the Friday show when the guests were Courteney Cox Arquette, Ted Danson and Nelly Furtado.

With my older sister and her boyfriend at my side, I triumphantly waited in the line of the first 90 people to arrive.

We were each given a golden ticket to show of seniority. I began humming, “I Got a Golden Ticket” from “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” in giddy anticipation.

In my excitement, I could not help but accost the people sitting nearest to me.

“We always watch ‘The Tonight Show,’” said Sally Wilson, 53, who turned out to be an Australian in the U.S. for her wedding anniversary. “We saw online where you can get tickets, and we thought, ‘Cool, let’s see them taping an American TV show.’”

Her husband was equally enthused.

“The show is quite familiar to us even though it screens on the other side of the world,” said David Wilson. “It’s interesting to see all the behind-the-scenes activity.”

Indeed, the behind-the-scenes activity was one of the most interesting parts of the taping.

Before the show even started, the studio was buzzing.

The crowd “warmer-upper,” as my sister called him, poked fun at the audience in an effort to amp us up for what was to come.

Meanwhile, the production crew set up cameras, and the security looked forebodingly at the crowd, daring any audience member to take out their phone and begin texting.

The commercial breaks proved to be very revealing into the actual character of Conan and his celebrity guests.

One might think that during the commercial breaks the make-up artists come out for a touch up and the gloves come off, but that was not the case.

The band played enthusiastically throughout the breaks while the cameras adjusted and Conan chit-chatted with Andy and the guests.

He also took a second or two to make a few off-camera jokes to the delight of the crowd.

The show itself was surreal.

Cox Arquette admitted to a run-in with lice.

Unlikely as it may seem, she was then able to transition into promoting her new show “Cougar Town” to which my sister’s Chili’s bartender boyfriend, Scott Austin, whispered, “‘Cougar Town’ is what I see every night at work.”

And in my head I thought, where else can you see Cox Arquette talk about her new show in conjunction with de-lousing — only on a show show with CoCo!