Conan O'Brien brings 'Funny' tour to Radio City

THE EVENT: "The Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour," Tuesday and Wednesday nights at Radio City Music Hall.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT: Conan O'Brien, the Guy Who Used to Host "Tonight," returns to the city where it all started, and (specifically) right across the street from where it all started. The "Tour" runs for a couple nights here before heading up to Boston and ending in Atlanta June 14.

WHAT'S THE CRITICAL REACTION BEEN LIKE? Reasonably good, to very good. "Thank you, NBC, for canning Conan O'Brien," ominously began the review in the Edmonton Journal, "because that allowed Coco to come to Edmonton!" Not everyone has been so kind: The Toronto Star called the material "dated and self-serving."

WHAT'S THE BIGGEST SURPRISE? The music - as in, there's almost more of that than the comedy. The show and band kick off with Curtis Mayfield's "Move On Up," while Conan sings / performs Tony Joe White's "Polk Salad Annie" (with the aid of backup singers the Coquettes), among other chestnuts.

DOES NBC COME IN FOR A GOOD, SOLID DRUBBING? By legal agreement, the answer would be "no" - and that's a good thing because we really are so over that and would hope you are, too. Still, there are jibes here and there. With the network's headquarters right across the street, this should form a key part of the New York shows.

ANY OF HIS / OUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS OR BITS? Yes indeed. Triumph . . . the-self-pleasuring bear, now a panda . . . while a key part of the show is the comically photo-shopped "Walker, Texas Ranger" clips, summoned by use of a lever. (On the West Coast leg, he got Seth Green, Aziz Ansari, Jonah Hill, Sarah Silverman and others to pull the lever.)

HIS STYLE? Antic and self-deprecating. "People say I look like Paul Bunyan with an eating disorder, or the Brawny paper towel guy before a transplant," and so on. A popular, and genuinely funny bit - the eight stages of mourning the loss of your TV show. One of them: "Buying everything that Amazon says I would also like."