Ever since Anthony Bourdain passed, pop culture has been missing an embodiment of the spirit of travel and adventure.
People have tried to fill the void, such as Jack Whitehall and most notably Gordon Ramsey with Uncharted—not to say Ramsey wasn’t doing travel shows before, he was, but he CLEARLY tried to be the “new Bourdain” with Gordon Ramsey: Uncharted—but no one has really captured the wider mass consciousness like Bourdain did. It isn’t just that he spoke knowledgably about food, or how he invited locals to share their passion and information about their cities and homes, Anthony Bourdain made you want to travel, too. There was no “by proxy” to his travel shows, he wasn’t selling the FEELING of travel, he was advertising the benefit of traveling yourself. But now, perhaps there is a worthy successor to Bourdain in…Conan O’Brien.
Conan is, of course, best known as a comedian. A writer, a performer, a late-night host, he’s been synonymous with American comedy for decades. But to me, the best Conan is and always has been Travel Conan. Anyone who has watched Conan long enough knows this, whether it’s his memorable fights with Jordan Schlansky across Italy, or the time he went to South Korea with Steven Yeun, Travel Conan is Best Conan. Like Bourdain, Conan is genuinely interested not just in stuff but people, and as he is an expert interviewer, he’s great at drawing even the most nervous people into interesting conversations.
The trailer for Conan O’Brien Must Go, his new travel series debuting on Max in April, dropped this week, and it shows Conan in a variety of locales around the world, sometimes fighting with Jordan Schlansky—a bit that NEVER gets old—sometimes not. The pitch is that Conan visits places he’s been invited to by his fans, and then jumps off into larger adventures highlighting those places. He argues with Jordan about the pronunciation of “tango” in Argentina, discovers his name STILL isn’t popular in Ireland, and hangs out with a snake in Thailand, but what stands out the most are his interactions with the people he encounters as he travels.
As bored as he seemed of the talk show game by the time he ended his run as a late-night host, Conan is at his best when talking to people. It’s one reason why he’s one of the few mega-famous people with a podcast that isn’t annoying—he’s so good at it, you can’t be mad he’s doing it. And that’s on display in this trailer, Conan talking to people, connecting with them over even the most ridiculous of circumstances, and through that, exploring new locations. I will watch anything Conan does, but I am genuinely excited to see him dedicate himself fully to being a travel host, because if anyone can keep the flame of Anthony “go places, meet people, share food” Bourdain alive, it just might be Conan O’Brien.
