hector o heochagain travel show

TG4's Hector Ó hEochagáin is 'proud' he stayed to film as war broke out during new show

Hector and the rest of his team were at the heart of history as they explored Europe just as the Russia Ukraine conflict broke out - but they stayed put to film

• 22:26, 13 NOV 2022

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Hector Ó hEochagáin got a shock when him and his team ended up in the middle of a warzone while they filmed their new travel show.

Hector was back on the road for TG4's Hector: Balkans go Baltics but it definitely wasn't all smooth sailing.

They ended up in Eastern Europe as the Russia and Ukraine conflict broke out and saw history playing out in front of them.

Read more: Inside famed writer Michael Harding’s incredible country retreat and 'home away from home' in Monaghan

Speaking to RSVP Magazine, he said: "We were in the middle of the snow, in the middle of Lithuania when the war broke out. We were only 400km from Kyiv, Ukraine.

"From Turkey we were travelling to Serbia, Romania, Poland, these countries had experienced 40 years of communist rule, they had all been behind the iron curtain, then suddenly the iron curtain has opened up again with this whole s**tstorm happening.

"So to be in that neck of the woods, filming the series for TG4, it made it so topical and current. I think it’s really going to open our eyes, as an Irish audience, to what life is like in these countries now, and what it was like for a country that was under Russian rule for 40 years."

Hector admits it was a nervewracking time for them and their families, but they're proud they stuck it out.

"When you walked out to get a coffee on the street, people were worried," he recalled. "When you put on the news in the hotel, the war was all they were talking about. We were only a couple of hundred kilometres away from warzones.

"You could see that there were a lot of NATO personnel coming into Lithuania and a lot of military uniforms in the foyer of the hotel. Things were playing out before our eyes."

"Our wives were ringing us asking, ‘Are you safe? What’s going on?’ But we had a plan B that if it got too bad we were going to get out of there and come home as soon as we could, but I’m proud we stayed and showed this part of Eastern Europe at such a vulnerable time," he said. "These are our cousins, they’re only three hours away on a flight and they deserve all the support that they can get."

Despite the danger and the ruckus, Hector was delighted to be back doing what he loves after two years of the Covid-19 pandemic curbing international travel.

"After two years of doing shows around Ireland and lockdown shows, to be back at Dublin Airport ready to board a flight with my best mates, who I’ve travelled for 22 years with, Ross [O’Callaghan] and Evan [Chamberlain], was great," he gushed.

"The mad thing was, we were getting on these Ryanair flights to the other side of Europe, not to the other side of the world so we never thought war would break out while we were working on the show! I was delighted to be on the road. We did it in the middle of winter and it’s going to look amazing.

"We started in Istanbul, and travelled to some of the most beautiful European cities I’ve ever been in."

Hector: Balkans go Baltics continues on Thursdays on TG4 at 9.30pm.

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Hector Ó hEochagáin: 'The day of fathers not doing a tap in the house is ending - we're different dads now'

HECTOR Ó hEOCHAGÁIN has noticed how nice his garden is for the first time.

He always knew he had a lovely garden – but being stuck in lockdown has crystallised just how nice his garden, and his home, really is.

“I am standing in my garden at 10 o’clock at night and I’m really happy that I have a nice garden. And I knew I had a nice garden, but I didn’t know how nice the garden was because I didn’t pay attention. Do you know what I mean?”

You might forgive Hector for not appreciating how nice his garden is. He’s usually abroad for three months of the year, filming in exotic places around the world as part of Hector Central, Hector i gCeanada, or Hector USA – Ó Chósta go Cósta. No flower bed can compare.

As part of his new show Hector Anseo, filmed from his shed in Galway and over Zoom, Hector chats to some of the people he’s met along these TG4 travel journeys, ordinary people around Ireland, as well as well-known names like economist David McWilliams, and Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald.

“I stay in touch with an awful lot of the drivers who have driven us around,” he says.

“So today, I’m talking to a guy in Kathmandu and then I’m going live to Khartoum in Sudan, to talk to Nava who was our fixer – a young Muslim girl in Khartoum today and I want to find out about lockdown there.”

Being at home is no strange thing for the travel presenter, either. For the other nine months of the year when he wasn’t filming, he’d be manning the house – cooking the dinner, cleaning the house, or doing a wash.

“There’s a lot of stay-at-home dads, and I was one of those,” he says.

“And I like cooking the dinner, I like putting on a white wash and I like putting on a coloured wash, and I like hanging out the wash, and if it’s a good day for drying, I will make sure I might get two washes done.”

During the course of the debate about the Irish government’s handing of the coronavirus crisis, there’s been some suggestion that the response disproportionately impacts women, based on the assumption that women mainly mind the children in Irish households.

What does Hector make of that?

“I think the dads are more hands on than ever before in this country,” he says.

I just think the whole dynamic has changed in this country compared to what was in the ’80s or in the ’60s or whatever. We’re different dads now.

“Nine times out of ten most of the dads are working, but when they come home, that work doesn’t stop there. Not many mams or dads can afford to flop on the couch when they come in at 6pm.

I think the day of the father not doing a tap in the house is coming to an end. I think the day of a lad not pulling their weight in the house is few and far between in the modern day.

“I’m trying to be a good role model for my teenage boys, aged 14 and 15. I’m trying to show them, if the barbecue goes on, they do the cooking. They understand what it’s like to wash a few pots after Sunday dinner, which is complete and utter punishment.

“But they also see me doing it as well. And then sometimes I turn to them and I go, ‘Listen, I can’t do this all myself. So will you do the sitting room, and you do that room?’”

That’s the lesson for the kids. For adults, things become a bit more profound as Hector outlines two major things he thinks we’re going to learn from the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns.

The first thing Hector reckons is that the word ‘karma’, a word he puts a lot of faith in, will dominate the post-pandemic world.

We thought that this was a Chinese problem in January, and like the majority of the world, we thought that this was over in China, the other side of the world.

I think people will realise that we are on one planet – that because something happens there, [doesn't mean] it’s not our problem.

“And I think that’s a really good thing in a way that we realise we have to mind Co Galway, Co Meath. We have to mind China, we have to mind Kazakhstan. We have to mind Tunisia and Honduras because we’re all the same.” 

The second thing he thinks may change, or that we might learn, is a new way to work.

“I think [this is] going to give people the opportunity to get off the wheel and say, ‘I can work from home’. Hopefully we’ll be allowed to work from home two days a week, so that’ll have a knock on effect with stress levels, and all the anxiety that comes with the 6AM, get the kids dressed, get the kids to school, get this, get that, and get into your job in middle management and management pushing people to be in by eight o’clock to get their jobs done.

I just think it’s a reset but there’s a big reset button being pushed, and I think we’ve a chance. 

As part of Hector’s new show, on TG4 at 9.30pm on Thursdays, he aims to talk to people about how lockdown is – but it won’t focus on the pandemic.

There’s a nice mixture of good chat and earthiness and sport and music – but there’s also talking to a B&B owner in Inis Mór to see how life is there.

Then there’s also a live link to a Bean an Tí in Connemara, who should have 16 boys in her college this year, but for the first time ever the summer colleges are not going to happen.

Then we’re going to a postman , then over to a  lady in Kerry . The women of the country, the roots of their hair have been in decimated and destroyed for the last 10 weeks, so she’s now putting together all the mixes and the dyes and the customers drive through the hair salon at her house, she opens the bedroom window and her customers take the dye.

“I spoke to chip shop owners and pub owners all over the country and ice cream van owners and I’m talking to a lot of ordinary people,” he says, adding that in the middle of all that will be profound chats with Tommy Tiernan, Dean Rock and his father, Danny from the Coronas, and Gavin James.

“I’m trying to get a little bit philosophical with all these people just to give us a window of what lockdown is like.”

He says he deliberately didn’t ask Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan on the show.

“I wanted to give him a break,” he says. 

If you want to watch the six-part programme Hector Anseo, it’s on TG4 at 9.30pm on Thursdays, starting tomorrow.  

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• Lovin Dublin

25th Oct 2018

Hector sets off on ‘the greatest adventure of them all’ in new TG4 travel series

Brought to you by TG4

These aren’t the type of places you’ll find in your average travel brochure.

You won’t find too many people in Ireland as well-travelled as Hector ó hEochagáin, but the broadcaster will be setting foot in parts of the world unknown even to him in a new TG4 travel series.

In Ó Siberia go Saigon, which begins this Thursday (25 October) on TG4, Hector will start off in one of the most remote regions of Siberia on an epic trip across Russia and Asia before finishing up in Saigon eight weeks and over 8,000 kilometres later.

In the first episode, viewers will see Hector chilling with a Russian Orthodox priest in extreme -30°C temperatures (as you do) and from there, he’ll be taking in the sights and meeting the people of Mongolia, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand and many more over the course of eight weeks.

If you don’t catch the first episode at 9.30pm this Thursday or any of the subsequent episodes over the course of the series, you can always catch up on the TG4 player here .

And remember, if you haven’t already done so, check out the competition we’re running in association with our cáirde at TG4, where you can win an all-inclusive trip to Thailand worth €5,000.

The details for that one are right here .

The longest and most epic journey Hector’s ever done begins deep in Siberia, 3500km from Moscow. One of the world’s most isolated places, he’ll get to know its fascinating history and welcoming people. At the end of his 8,000km journey, Hector will then land in the city of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh). You can catch up with Hector on  TG4 Player .

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Hector Ó hEochagáin new series looks at 'how well we know our Eastern European cousins'

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17.05 27 Oct 2022

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Hector Ó hEochagáin joined Kieran in studio to chat about his new travel series, taking over the podcast world and Hector tested Kieran his Gaeilge...

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• Arts & Culture

Balkans go Baltics: War memories and close bonds in Hector's new travel show 

Hector Ó hEochagáinin at a hammam sauna in Istanbul for Balkans go Baltics, on TG4. 

One of the things Hector Ó hEochagáin loves to do most in life is look at a map. His director, Evan Chamberlain, and himself — the pair have been working together on travel documentaries for over 20 years — will spread a map of the world out on the bed of a hotel room. On the table beside them will be a few beers. They’ll pore over the map, plotting, scheming like a pair of Victorian adventurers.

“I loved geography at school — the names of capital cities, mountains, rivers always got me going as a child growing up in Navan,” says Hector. 

“My favourite one was the capital of Albania. I knew it was Tirana. It always got me bonus points! When I look at a map, I get a buzz. It’s my best friend. There's something about maps. They’ve been there for centuries. Google Maps in your car or on your phone is replicating what sailors had in their galleons hundreds of years ago with all their instruments and stuff."

Chamberlain and Hector plot their route. “We go: ‘what about this? Look at the Balkans. Look at the Bosphorus. Look at the Black Sea. What about if we go from here to there — from the Balkans to the Baltics?’ The title immediately gets people going. Where is the Balkans? Where is the Baltics? If you look at the map, it's a natural progression through Eastern Europe — one line to the other.”

Hector’s 3,000-kilometre hike from the Balkans to the Baltics in the north is the latest seven-part instalment of his travels around the world, as he gets a handle on the cultures and customs of Turkey and several countries from the former Eastern Bloc, including Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania and Poland, as well as two Baltic states. Each country gets devoted an episode. It’s notable, he says, how much a dent the communist experiment made on the people he met along the road.

“There's so much mental and physical baggage in the air in these countries. The old Yugoslavia was broken into six countries. All these countries are unique in their own way, but they have been covered by the curtain of communism. You can feel that there's been a lot of misery, war, tension, a lot of sorrow and death. A lot of oppression."

Hector says it's difficult for countries like Poland, Serbia, and Latvia to shed their past. "A country like Poland has been battered by the Nazis and ruled by the Russians. People think Eastern Europeans are cold and hard and very stern-looking people. But they put up with an awful lot of destruction over the last 60-70 years. It takes a while to break down these people, to get to know them, but I found them to be the most amazing, friendly, hardy people.

"I wanted to find out on the journey had I anything in common with these people, as an Irishman from an island a couple of hours away in Europe. What have we in common with them?” 

Hector and his production crew had to pull an episode on Ukraine last minute, as Russian military forces started gathering on the Ukraine border just as they were about to enter the country for filming. 

He touches on several other war-based topics during his travels, including a fascinating visit to Gallipoli, site of the needless deaths of more than 3,000 young Irishmen during the First World War. His visit to Auschwitz left a mark that still lingers.

“It was a beautiful, sunny winter’s day. There was snow falling gently, about three or four foot of snow on the ground. We walked in through that wooden gate. It's only seventy-something years since this happened, the blink of an eye — where millions of people lost their lives. Even talking about it now makes me feel sick to the stomach that mankind can be so evil to do what they did.

“When you look to the left in Auschwitz, that's the way to the gas chamber for those men and women. When you look to the right, even in the workhouses, in the places they were sleeping, you can see the marks on the walls, the stains of blood. There's a spirit of sadness, a sense of stillness, a sense of something awful having happened in the buildings and in the area. I felt guilty leaving it five or six hours later — guilty as a human being that this happened. How in the name of God have we allowed this to happen?"

Hector found the visit worthwhile but chilling. “Nothing can prepare you for when you stand in there in the gas chambers. They have one installation. It’s a glass box. It's about 20 metres long. It has children’s suitcases and shoes piled up on top of each other that they took off them as they went into the gas chamber. As a parent, it was harrowing to witness. It’s horrific, a place of history, but everyone should see it — to see what went on there.” 

The atmosphere, of course, is lighter elsewhere in the series. It’s hard not to laugh out loud at the sight of Hector grimacing during a vigorous pre-dawn massage at the Turkish baths. He drinks rakia — a home-distilled spirit like poitín — in rural Bulgaria, singing along with the distillers in jovial mood; he visits Count Dracula’s castle in Transylvania; he polishes his tennis skills at Novak Djokovic’s centre of excellence in Belgrade.

Hector felt a particular kinship with the people he encountered in the Baltic republics, that he was with kindred spirits. He dancing jigs gleefully with the locals, who were playing accordions and dressed up like Wren Boys, in rural Lithuania, for example, during a festival to mark the end of winter, which climaxed with the burning of a 40-foot effigy of a scarecrow.

“When I got to Latvia,” he says, “I was out with a survivalist in the forests. A brilliant guy, who took me out in the snow on a frozen river in 10 degrees below zero on a canoe. We went hunting. We lit a fire. He fed me by this tree in the wilderness. He showed me how to survive in the pristine Latvian forests. Almost sixty percent of the country is under forest. It reminded me of the way Ireland could have been when Ireland was full of silver birch and mountain ash and oak trees and we were all tribal.

“What I got from sitting with this man, and the way he looked, with his blue eyes and his white skin, and the way he talked about Mother Nature — I felt a connection with him immediately, as a descendant of this island of the Celts because I know I'm descended from the Fir Bolg. 

"If you look at the latitude line, Latvia and Lithuania are the true Northern European cousins of us. I felt really at home in a forest in the ice with a hunter survivalist talking about his love of the land. The feeling I got from Latvia and Lithuania was: these are my people.” 

• Hector — Balkans go Baltics, TG4, Thursday nights, 9.30pm 

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Hector says tragic death of brother Freddie has spurred on RTE pal Tommy Tiernan to get checked

Hector was left devastated after his brother Freddie died from a heart attack in June 2021

• 06:00, 23 AUG 2022

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TG4 star Hector Ó hEochagáin has said he “lost half of himself” the day his beloved brother Freddie died.

The presenter’s brother, Derek ‘Freddie’ Keogan, died after a sudden heart attack, while cycling to work in Copenhagen last year.

Hector marked his first anniversary by planting a tree in Galway with some of his ashes. He was joined by Freddie’s two children, who flew in from Denmark.

He told us: “It was the end of June… his kids came over from Denmark, Luka and Asta, we had a thing where we planted a tree with some of his ashes. I miss him every single day. I’ve lost half of myself, you know. Unbelievable.”

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But Hector told us how his pals, including comedian Tommy Tiernan, got such a fright over Freddie’s sudden death that it made them get checked out.

“I’ve met so many people who have lost siblings, brothers, sisters suddenly, tragically… I’m very proud that so many men and women are coming up to me in random positions, going 'I’m after getting four stents because of your podcast', 'I’m after getting my heart checked out because of your podcast', 'I’m after getting myself checked out'..

“I’ve had cards and letters from people all over Ireland, all over the world, especially men who are getting themselves checked out. All it is is a little tube that stops the blockage from a heart attack happening.

“Them blockages can kill you. I’ve said it, all my friends, we’ve all got checked so it is a very positive thing. Even Tommy (Tiernan) is getting checked. Tommy is talking about all types of checks, fingers up the bum and everything,” he said laughing.

Opening up about his long-standing friendship with Tiernan, Hector said he gets “giddy” when he arrives at Tommy’s house to record their hugely successful podcast with Laurita Blewitt , who recently tied the knot to Joe Brolly.

Hector said: “I get giddy when I get to Tommy’s house. He has a cup of tea ready for me. He knows how I like my tea. We walk out to the garden shed. Laurita brings the buns or the scones from Mayo, we lock the door and we turn down the lights and we pull the curtains and we talk and nobody has a clue what will happen.

“That is the beauty of it. It’s mad,” he said.

But he said he won’t be appearing on Tommy’s hit Rte show. The Tommy Tiernan Show, anytime soon.

He said: “Sure what would I do if I walked out, and Tommy sees me on the show. He’d say, ‘Sure I only saw you yesterday’. As he said to Michael D (Higgins) ‘I’ll see you around’ and Michael D said, ‘Ah sure you know where I am’. I mean what would me and him talk about, sure I was in his garden shed yesterday.

“We do it all on the podcast. There is an honesty to this podcast. There’s ups and downs, there’s tears and laughter, there’s times of sadness, there’s grief… we’ve spoken openly about losing our mothers and how we lost our mothers. We spoke about losing siblings. Tommy has spoken about real stuff that he has never had the opportunity to do before.”

Hector was talking at TG4 season launch yesterday (MON) at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, which announced a new season of his travel show. Hector Balkans go Baltics will see the Irish language native go on an amazing trip from the Balkans of Eastern Europe to the Baltics of the North.

His travel show is celebrating its 22nd anniversary on our screens and Hector opened up about how proud he is of the series.

“That is what I want to do, I want to make a good show. I’m not here for myself for glorification. It’s not my ego. I never thought from the beginning that I would do a show for 22 years and it has grown to what it is now. On the station hand in hand so I’m super proud of it.

“People have grown up with the show and that is an amazing thing to say and I’m happy that I’m doing it for TG4 because TG4 is here for the long haul. It’s the parish. Everything is on TG4 that we need as a society to watch decent television.

“We travel the world making documentaries and we give you our version on what we see.”

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And for sport lovers, there will be live coverage of the United Rugby Championship begins on September 17 on Rugbaí Beo with over 40 live games this season including exclusive terrestrial coverage of the URC Final.

Gráinne McElwain learns more about GAA silverware around the country in new series Scéalta na gCorn. Underdogs is back with the clash of the ash this season. The management team of John Allen; Claire O’Connor and Jamie Wall are looking for squad with enough drive, skill and passion to take on one of the greatest hurling teams. The best GAA action all year round continues on GAA Beo.

Junior Eurovision takes place in Armenia this year and for the first time ever, the public will have their say in choosing Ireland’s young contestant.

Loyal fans of Ros na Rún eagerly await to see what will happen to Briain when the next season begins on September 6th. A new drama series for young people Saol Ella portrays the life of Ella, a thirteen-year-old girl with a wish-list for the summer, to find a potential suitor and more importantly, to have her first kiss.

TG4 is expanding upon its TG4 Gach Áit strategy again this season with a focus on prominence of Irish-language content. Róise & Frank, an Irish-language feature film from the Cine4 scheme by TG4, Screen Ireland and BAI, will have a cinema release nationwide from September 16th.

An Cailín Ciúin, recently selected by IFTA as Ireland's entry for 'Best International Feature Film' at the 95th Academy Awards. The Best International Film contenders will be shortlisted from approximately 100 films to 15 international finalists on December 21st. Inscéal, the production company behind the film, is on the verge of a US distribution deal which will see An Cailín Ciúin released in cinemas across America.

Two other films from the Cine4 scheme, Arracht and Foscadh will have their television premieres on TG4 this autumn, while TG4 will be available on Sky Glass which will launch in Ireland later this week.

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‘Traumatised’ – Hector O hEochagain shown early TV work on Gogglebox Ireland

Hector O hEochagain’s early entertainment work on TV3 has been called “rotten” on a celebrity special of Gogglebox Ireland.

Virgin Media Television’s programme on Wednesday is to celebrating 25 years of the channel.

Presenter O hEochagain, known for his travel shows, was shown a promotional video he made for the channel, then known as TV Three, which began on September 20 1998.

He is seen doing a sketch in the clip where he arrives at someone’s home and tells them about the new channel.

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O hEochagain reacted, when he appeared on the couch alongside Derry Girls actor Tommy Tiernan and radio broadcaster Laurita Blewitt, saying: “This is the first ever f***ing TV3 broadcast… I’m f***ing traumatised.”

He also agreed he still does the same shapes which he called the “jitterys” when asked about it by Tiernan who appears alongside him on their award-winning podcast Tommy, Hector & Laurita.

In reference to his acting for the promotion, comedian Jason Byrne, who appeared with his son Daniel on the couch, said: “The acting rotten, it’s rotten… Hector must be 19 in that.”

Irish journalist and news anchor Grainne Seoige was also shown her reporting on Bill Clinton’s scandal with his then White House intern Monica Lewinsky and TV3’s weatherman Martin King saw a clip of him wearing sunglasses during a broadcast.

Entertainer Twink, real name Adele King, also said she has “no recollection” of looking at a man’s leg while presenting a dating programme.

After saying on the old TV show it was “gross”, she told drag queen Panti Bliss: “Clearly I’ve never changed.”

The show also touched on the cervical check screening controversy where more than 200 women were affected by failures in Ireland’s CervicalCheck screening system.

It emerged in 2018 that 221 women and families were not told about misreported smear tests.

While being shown a show with health campaigner Vicky Phelan, who died last year following her cancer diagnosis, Tiernan said: “It’s just incredibly depressing that it takes somebody’s public suffering to highlight things that are wrong in the system.”

The 2015 coverage of the referendum which brought about the legalisation of same-sex marriage was also shown with red-haired children’s TV puppet Bosco celebrating in LGBT+ nightclub The George in Dublin.

The celebrity special of Gogglebox Ireland is available on Virgin Media Television’s online streaming site.

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'Conan O'Brien Must Go' is side-splitting evidence of life beyond late night TV

Eric Deggans

Conan O'Brien dresses as a Viking in Norway. Conaco/Max hide caption

Conan O'Brien dresses as a Viking in Norway.

To be honest, when I first heard Conan O'Brien was ending his TV talk show in 2021, I assumed news that he might turn to variety shows and online programs to continue his career was some combination of face-saving and wishful thinking.

But after watching the four episodes of his new Max series Conan O'Brien Must Go , it's now obvious — even to a thickheaded critic like me — that leaving late night TV really was liberating for O'Brien. He's leveraged his unique sensibility into several different podcasts, a deal with Sirius XM , specials featuring other stand-up comics and now this travel series for Max — which resembles jokey specials he did for cable channel TBS back in the day.

And as the late night TV genre crumbles under sagging viewership and the decline of traditional media, O'Brien's renaissance also provides an example for the future — where fertile comedy minds and talented performers can spread their work over a much larger canvas.

Pop Culture Happy Hour

Is conan o'brien the best 'hot ones' guest ever discuss., learning a lesson from 'hot ones'.

O'Brien already made a splash recently with his brilliantly maniacal appearance on the interview-while-eating-hot-wings show Hot Ones , slobbering over hot sauces while claiming, as he was checked over by a fake doctor, that "I'm fine! I'm perfectly f*****g fine!"

This is the place where O'Brien shines — he's called it "this strange phantom intersection between smart and stupid" — and it's on full, freakish, super silly display in every episode of Conan O'Brien Must Go .

The conceit of the show is pretty simple. O'Brien heads overseas to visit average folks in Norway, Argentina, Thailand and Ireland who had once Zoomed in to speak with him on the podcast Conan O'Brien Needs a Fan . Sometimes the visits seem like a surprise — he catches one aspiring Norwegian rapper in shorts and Crocs after popping up on his doorstep — and others seem a bit more planned, including his visit to a radio show with about four listeners in Buenos Aires.

Each episode begins with a solemn monologue which sounds like it is delivered by the film world's most eccentric voice, German filmmaker and actor Werner Herzog (he's not credited in the show and when asked, a publicist at Max shared a quote from O'Brien: "I can neither confirm nor deny the voice in question.")

The torturous accent by "Herzog" makes every line sound absurdly hilarious, describing O'Brien as "the defiler ... with dull, tiny eyes ... the eyes of a crudely painted doll ... he scavenges in distant lands, uninvited, fueled by a bottomless hunger for recognition and the occasional selfie."

Now that's smart. And oh so stupid.

A funhouse mirror version of a travel show

O'Brien performs onstage with a fan in Norway Conaco/Max hide caption

O'Brien performs onstage with a fan in Norway

Fans of O'Brien's Conan Without Borders specials on TBS already know what his style is when he tackles a travel show — throwing himself into outrageous reactions and situations while working his quirky brand of improvised conversations with hapless bystanders.

In the Max series Conan O'Brien Must Go , that includes O'Brien offering screechy vocals onstage during a performance of a Norwegian emo/rap band. Or asking provocative questions of a couple therapist/sex expert. Or getting beat up in a "fight" with a 10-year-old boy in a bar.

It's all an excuse for O'Brien to unleash his energetic wit, taste for silly absurdity and skill at drawing laughs from sympathetic — if often befuddled — strangers. Whether you enjoy this special will depend on how you feel about O'Brien's style, which can feel a bit like the world's best class clown doing everything possible to make you crack a smile.

(Rent a family in Norway so they can say goodbye when he gets on a SeaCraft? Check. Get local artists to paint a mural of O'Brien, a soccer star and The Pope on the side of a building in Argentina? Double check.)

'Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend' Is A Joke Name For A Podcast — Sort Of

But what amazes in a larger sense is how O'Brien has turned his sensibility into a comedy brand to fuel work on many different platforms. And, at age 60, with more than 30 years as a comedy star, he's been released from the shackles of any genre to shine wherever he chooses — whether it's an episode of Hot Ones or a streaming service which sometimes looks like a collision between True Detective and 90 Day Fiancé .

Leaving late night TV as late night left him

I'm old enough that I started covering TV not long after O'Brien made his first move from the shadows of life as a comedy writer – he worked on Saturday Night Live and The Simpsons — to succeed David Letterman in 1993 as host of NBC's show Late Night (now hosted by Seth Meyers). Back then, NBC gave O'Brien years to figure out the show, honing his smartly serious comedy in a way that would inspire then-teenage fans like Seth Rogen and Bill Hader .

O'Brien left NBC after a disastrous deal where the network tried to make him host of its venerated late night program The Tonight Show and also keep its former host Jay Leno at the network. He moved to a late night show on TBS in 2010, but even then, there was a sense that his creativity was a bit hemmed in by the format.

After 28 Quirky Years, Conan O'Brien Is Leaving Late Night

By the time he left his TBS show Conan for good, it seemed O'Brien was already caught in a trend which would hobble other late night shows — as young viewers consumed his content online and ratings on cable dropped.

Now, with a podcast and digital media company worth many millions and growing status as a TV comedy legend still willing to do almost anything for a laugh, O'Brien is proving there is a successful life beyond late night.

Particularly, if you have the talent to play the fool while leaving little doubt you're also the smartest person in the room.