It was a comedy night after a ton of drama at the Kennedy Center. Performers celebrating Conan O'Brien with the Mark Twain Award for American Humor are lined up to blame President Trump for overhauling the performing arts agency.
Sunday's famous comedy awards ceremony in Washington, DC marked the first major star-studded event at the Kennedy Center, following Trump's unprecedented shakeup.
Last month, Trump announced that he would remove multiple members of the Kennedy Center board and nominate himself as chairman. He later said the Kennedy Center was “waking up.”
O'Brien was nominated for 26thHe was the winner of the Mark Twain Award in January, a few weeks before Trump's dramatic change.
On the red carpet before the ceremony (streamed on Netflix starting May 4th), O'Brien spoke publicly for the first time about Trump's move.
When ITK asked for his response to the news that Trump would be chairing, the 61-year-old former TV late-night host said, “It sounds like a big priority. I'm his priority, the Kennedy Center, and only he knows his priorities.”
“There's a lot going on in the world, but perhaps controlling the Kennedy Center should be at the top of the list,” O'Brien said.
“What everyone wants to do is a personal decision, but my decision was that there are a lot of people here who have been here for a very long time and are working at the Kennedy Center,” O'Brien told reporters.
“They work so hard to promote the art, so I want to be here in that spirit,” he said.
Only a handful of performers appeared on the red carpet at the event. This is usually filled with celebrities. But many Hollywood stars, and some of Trump's most vocal critics, have landed in the country's capital to celebrate O'Brien and laugh at the Kennedy Center's presidential takeover.
“I really miss the time you were America's only Orange A—-,” comedian Sarah Silverman told the host of the redheaded “Conan O'Brien Needs Friends” podcast.
“Late Show” host Stephen Colbert regularly skewers on the CBS show, stomping cards, and squealed chicken wings when he did a sketch spoofing O'Brien's “Hot Ones” episode that spread last year.
“In light of the new leadership at the Kennedy Center, these are all right wings,” Colbert cracked.
When O'Brien originally accepted the Mark Twain Award, Colbert told the audience that the Kennedy Center was “a very different place.”
“Today they announced two board members. [former Syrian president] Bashar al-Assad and Skeltor,” he said.
“It's an honor to be here at the Kennedy Center. Or, as we'll know next week, “Roycorn Pavilion for Big, Strong Men Who Love Cats,” comedian John Mulany said in a reference to Trump's former lawyer and leader.
In a video message praising O'Brien, Martin Short inserts the name of the Department of Health and Human Services secretary in place of 35, saying, “There is no more appropriate recipient to win the final Twain Award here at the Robert F. Kennedy Center.”th The president is named “Living Memorial.”
When he gave O'Brien the night honour, former “Late Show” host David Letterman said, “I'm not a historian, but I think history shows that this will be the most entertaining collection of resistance ever.”
Some of the biggest applause of the night occurred during O'Brien's acceptance speech.
“I am grateful to all the beautiful people who have worked at the Kennedy Center for years and are worried about what the future will bring,” he told the Standing Ovation. Sometimes there were loud applause when O'Brien praised former Kennedy Center Chairman David Rubenstein and his former president, Deborah Lutter.
O'Brien, who rarely gets political in comedy, sometimes hit a serious tone as he praised the Mark Twain Award name.
“Twain doubted the expression of populism, zingoism, imperialism, money-obsessed mania of the golden age, and the heartless expression of America's power and self-importance,” O'Brien said.
“More than anything, Twain was a patriot in the best sense of the word. He loved America, but he knew it was deeply flawed.
“Some of you may be thinking, what does this have to do with comedy? It has to do with comedy and everything. Everything!” cried O'Brien.
“A comedy I've loved forever: a comedy self-critical, despise and dedicated to the proposition of flawed, ridiculous and covered in the mud,” he said.
“When we celebrate Twain and truly see him about who he is, we acknowledge our commonality and we get a little closer,” O'Brien told the audience.
After a passionate speech, O'Brien was surrounded by a group of Dunst Wayne Look Ally-Ixes – picking up guitars to play the song with Adam Sandler: Neil Young's 1989 hit, “Rockin in the Free World.”
