Brian McCann (actor)
Encyclopedia
Brian McCann is an American
Emmy
and WGA
award-winning writer
/actor
/comedian
best known for his sketch comedy
work on the late night talk show
, Late Night with Conan O'Brien
, and more recently on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
and Conan.
, which he describes as "an extremely uptight (and dry) town". He graduated from Boston College in 1987. There he met and was influenced by the as yet largely undiscovered sociological and political commentator and comic, JR Beretta. He has two older sisters, is divorced and has a daughter. McCann moved to New York in 1995 when he became a sketch writer on Late Night with Conan O’Brien until the end of the show's run in 2009. McCann played many recurring characters on the show, most notably Preparation H Raymond and The Suicidal Kayaker. He has also served as the warm-up comic that talks to the studio audience prior to each episode since 2000. McCann also wrote and provided many voices for the video games Deer Avenger (1998) and Deer Avenger 2: Deer in the City (1999). He is a graduate of the Player's Workshop of the Second City and the Second City Training Center.
McCann made recent guest appearances on NBC
sitcoms such as 30 Rock
and Parks and Recreation
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
Emmy
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...
and WGA
Writers Guild of America Award
The Writers Guild of America Award for outstanding achievements in film, television, and radio has been presented annually by the Writers Guild of America, East and Writers Guild of America, West since 1949...
award-winning writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
/actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
/comedian
Comedian
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience, primarily by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting a fool, as in slapstick, or employing prop comedy...
best known for his sketch comedy
Sketch comedy
A sketch comedy consists of a series of short comedy scenes or vignettes, called "sketches," commonly between one and ten minutes long. Such sketches are performed by a group of comic actors or comedians, either on stage or through an audio and/or visual medium such as broadcasting...
work on the late night talk show
Talk show
A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
, Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien
Late Night with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show hosted by Conan O'Brien that aired 2,725 episodes on NBC between 1993 and 2009. The show featured varied comedic material, celebrity interviews, and musical and comedy performances. Late Night aired weeknights at 12:37 am...
, and more recently on The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien is an American late-night talk show that featured Conan O'Brien as host from June 1, 2009 to January 22, 2010 as part of NBC's long-running Tonight Show franchise...
and Conan.
Biography
McCann was born and raised in Wheaton, IllinoisWheaton, Illinois
Wheaton is an affluent community located in DuPage County, Illinois, approximately west of Chicago and Lake Michigan. Wheaton is the county seat of DuPage County...
, which he describes as "an extremely uptight (and dry) town". He graduated from Boston College in 1987. There he met and was influenced by the as yet largely undiscovered sociological and political commentator and comic, JR Beretta. He has two older sisters, is divorced and has a daughter. McCann moved to New York in 1995 when he became a sketch writer on Late Night with Conan O’Brien until the end of the show's run in 2009. McCann played many recurring characters on the show, most notably Preparation H Raymond and The Suicidal Kayaker. He has also served as the warm-up comic that talks to the studio audience prior to each episode since 2000. McCann also wrote and provided many voices for the video games Deer Avenger (1998) and Deer Avenger 2: Deer in the City (1999). He is a graduate of the Player's Workshop of the Second City and the Second City Training Center.
McCann made recent guest appearances on NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
sitcoms such as 30 Rock
30 Rock
30 Rock is an American television comedy series created by Tina Fey that airs on NBC. The series is loosely based on Fey's experiences as head writer for Saturday Night Live...
and Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation
Parks and Recreation is an American comedy television series on NBC that focuses on Leslie Knope , a mid-level bureaucrat in the parks department of Pawnee, a fictional town in Indiana. Created by Greg Daniels and Michael Schur, the series debuted on April 9, 2009; it has run for three seasons and...
.
Late Night with Conan O'Brien recurring characters
- Adrian Foster ("but my friends call me Raisin"), a hippie folk singer playing an autoharpAutoharpThe autoharp is a musical string instrument having a series of chord bars attached to dampers, which, when depressed, mute all of the strings other than those that form the desired chord. Despite its name, the autoharp is not a harp at all, but a chorded zither. -History:There is debate over the...
- Eyeballs O'Shaughnessy, who expresses his emotions with the aid of various pairs of glasses that have eyes drawn in.
- FedEx Pope, who was billed as the show's least popular character even in his first appearance, as if he had previously appeared. He wears a white bathrobe and a FedEx delivery box on his head.
- Fun Hole Guy, an audience member who acts prudishly and derides Conan for his lack of decency, then stands up and storms off, revealing fishnet stockings, hotpants and a shirt with "Fun Hole" on the back and an arrow pointing down.
- Guy who is always confused about future guests, who is an audience member who appears during Conan's listing of future guests. His thought bubbles are visible to everyone, and he always thinks of the wrong person (either with a similar sounding name, or one name the same as the guest announced), or is thinking of an object that is somehow similar to the guest's name.
- Jerry Butters, the 4 AM time slot talk show host across the hall - his favorite to perform.
- Kneesocks Jones
- The Loser, always somewhere e.g. "The Loser at the Beach", or "The Loser at the Golf Course". He always got attacked by a bear at the end of the sketch and said "Oh, No! Conan it's that damn bear again!"
- Mick Ferguson, The Guy Who's Awfully Proud of his Bullet Proof Legs
- "No Reason to Live"-guy, an audience member who becomes depressed by something inconsequential Conan says, and runs off to kill himself. After he runs out of the studio, stock footage (esp of a man in a kayak tumbling down a ski slope but other footage, like a cyclist pedaling off a bridge or a train plummeting off a mountainside) is shown, supposedly of the man killing himself. He then returns, unharmed.
- Preparation H Raymond, a buck-toothed, large eared man who sings songs about Preparation HPreparation HPreparation H is a brand of medications, manufactured by Pfizer, used in the treatment of hemorrhoids.Preparation H dates from about 1935. It was originally packaged in a tube like toothpaste, with a similar consistency...
, with a refrain of "Raymond's here,Raymond's here" while handing the product out to the audience, and eventually eating some from the tube. - RobotRobotA robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
on a ToiletToiletA toilet is a sanitation fixture used primarily for the disposal of human excrement, often found in a small room referred to as a toilet/bathroom/lavatory... - Page from Attractive Camp, who walks with a long gait and smugly repeats that he "just got back from Attractive Camp".
- Randy the Pyloric Sphincter
- Terry Allen, a prospective late night host who schemed with Andy Richter to take over Conan's show in a four-part soap opera "Journey Past Midnight".
- S&M Abe Lincoln: A new character introduced in March 2007, he is Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
, complete with beard whiskers and stovepipe hat. Dressed in nothing but leather S&M attire, with a red ball gag stuffed in his mouth, as he walks across the stage he whips himself with a short cat o' nine tailsCat o' nine tailsThe cat o' nine tails, commonly shortened to the cat, is a type of multi-tailed whipping device that originated as an implement for severe physical punishment, notably in the Royal Navy and Army of the United Kingdom, and also as a judicial punishment in Britain and some other...
. He usually lingers by the stage door, until the segment goes to commercial. - Johnny G, a guy who thinks Max Weinberg is hilarious.
Conan recurring characters
- Minty, the Candy Cane That Fell on the Ground: Introduced in December 2010, Minty is a candy cane covered in various pieces of garbage and insects as he "briefly fell on the ground." He also has a very catchy theme song.
- "Fight To The Death Building Battle" announcer
See also
- Sketches from Late Night with Conan O'BrienSketches from Late Night with Conan O'BrienThe following is a list of sketches which debuted on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on NBC.-Moral Outrage:In response to a recent news story, usually about misconduct, Conan speaks at length about his moral outrage, and his feeling of responsibility to remove this type of behavior from society;...