Allow Conan O’Brien to Introduce You to Chris Fleming
chris fleming’s hourlong special Live at the Palace has made the leap to HBO, a milestone for a performer who built his following "one hyper-specific, unhinged YouTube video at a time. " "I want to begin by expressing some astonishment, " Conan O’Brien tells viewers as he helps frame the special.
Live at the Palace and the HBO leap
The special, Live at the Palace, collects Fleming’s dense, specific comedy—New England pathology, suburban-mom archetypes and absurd references—into "an acrobatic hour of comedy that somehow gets bigger the more specific it gets. " "Someone who’s been watching Fleming for years is Conan O’Brien, " the conversation notes, and O’Brien served as executive producer on the project.
Chris Fleming’s comic world, up close
Fleming’s path from web series to premium television is plain in the discussion: he began with the breakout series Gayle and moved "from YouTube specials to Peacock and now, finally, to HBO. " He describes his current surroundings in a way that underlines the local flavor of his humor: "I’m in Northampton right now. Do you understand that?" and later, "I literally saw a porcupine! Did you know there’s porcupines in Massachusetts?"
Conan O’Brien onstage and off
O’Brien’s introduction blends affection and bewilderment. "You’re a ridiculous figure. I’ve been enamored with you for a long time, " he says, then opens the conversation with a comic misdirection: "I thought this was an interview with illusionist Doug Henning. And he died in 2000 and I went to his funeral, so that’s on me. " The exchange captures the pair’s rapport and the way O’Brien frames Fleming’s strangeness for a broader audience.
The interview keeps returning to specific, memorable images—Fleming riffing on suburban anxieties and Northeastern oddities, O’Brien riffing back with celebrity asides: "You look like Sissy Spacek in Carrie when you take them off, " Fleming quips about O’Brien’s glasses. "I have the longest license plate in Los Angeles. It’s actually illegal, " O’Brien replies. These moments underline the special’s comic texture while spotlighting the relationship that helped bring it to HBO.
For viewers, the confirmed next step is straightforward: Live at the Palace is on HBO with Conan O’Brien attached as executive producer, and the sit-down between the two Northeastern comics accompanies the special as part of its rollout. "We got the two northeasterners together to talk about it, and the rest took care of itself, " the conversation closes, leaving Fleming’s finely tuned, oddly specific comedy to find a wider audience.
