Washington – Washington (AP) – Conan O’Brien is defined to receive the Mark Twain Prize Sunday evening at John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Artswhere the Drama behind the scenes of the host institution can suspend the celebration.
O’Brien, 61, was appointed the last recipient of Prize for success for life in comedy In mid-January, about three weeks before President Donald Trump turned upside down the Kennedy Center Opposing the longtime president and the chairman of the board of directors. Trump rejected the Board of Directors and replaced them by loyalists, who then elected him president.
By announcing the changes, Trump posted on social networks that those who were dismissed “do not share our vision of a golden age in the arts and culture”.
It remains to be seen how this vision is seen, but Trump spoke of wanting to book more Broadway shows and launched the idea of granting Honors of Kennedy Center Status to actor Sylvester Stallone and singer-songwriter Paul Anka.
In this maelstrom, O’Brien, whose comic personality has never been particularly political. Comic strips always tend to hurt laziness and self-depreciation. But he also relied on sensitive societal problems sometimes. In 2011, O’Brien officiated a gay wedding live in his program, supervising the wedding of his longtime costume designer Scott Cronick and his partner David Gorshein.
O’Brien made projectors of almost total darkness in 1993 when he was chosen to replace David Letterman as a “late night” host despite no significant experience in the camera. The former editor -in -chief of Harvard Lampoon had spent the previous years as a writer for “Saturday Night Live” And “The Simpsons”, appearing on the camera only as an additional occasional background in the “SNL” sketches.
He then welcomed “late at night” for 16 years, longer than any other host. O’Brien was then used to replace Jay Leno as an animator of “The Tonight Show”, but this experience ended with a public failure. After seven months of drop in grades, the leaders of NBC brought back Leno for a new program that would move back “The Tonight Show”. O’Brien refused to accept this decision, leading to a public spit This ended with a payment of several million dollars in O’Brien and its staff to leave the network in early 2010.
O’Brien then organized another talk-show on the TBS Cablodistribution station, while launching successful podcasts and travel programs. He is currently on a hot sequence of the Elder Statesman at the end of his career. His series of travel, “Conan O’Brien must go”, Drew of popular and critical praise, with a second season to come. His recent concert welcoming the Oscars was so well received that the producers announced that they were bring it back next year.
In the wake of Trump’s takeover of Kennedy Center, several artists, including the producers of “Hamilton” and the actress and writer Issa Rae, announced that they cancel the appearances on the site.
Others have chosen to play while making their feelings known from the stage. Left comics W. Kamau Bell directly discussed the controversy in its performance just days after the reshuffle. Earlier this month, the cello Erin Murphy Snedecor ended her set with a performance of the Woody Guthrie protest hymn “Everything you fascists lose.”
The recipients of Mark Twain generally receive tributes and testimonies from a star collection of comics and celebrities. Given the nature of the actors, it seems likely that some of them Sunday evening tackle the question of the uncertain future of the institution.
The other actors receiving the life production price include Letterman and Leno, with George CARLIN, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Newhart, Carol Burnett, Bill Murray and Dave Chappelle.
The ceremony will be broadcast on Netflix later this year. The date has not been announced.