Some of the criticism is valuable. You go, `oh, it's true, I'm not good enough at the yet, I could get better at this, I could get better at that.' If you're one of thirty people making a show behind the scenes, and people don't like the show of course that's easier to take than `It's the Conan O'Brien show' and some critic decides he doesn't like it. Yes, it is harder. For the critics who say they like it, it makes the highs much higher, but the lows are... when someone says they don't like the show, they're saying they don't' like me.

CONAN:

'In general, you can only listen to so much of it. If I had one piece of advice to say to you about criticism, it is that difficulty or fear is not an indication that you're wrong.'

Critics have been excoriating. You've been subject to recent headlines like USA Today's "Conan: Still No Reason to Stay Up" and multiple mentions in Esquire's "Dubious Achievement" issue. Entertainment Weekly took a shot below the belt in its Oscar review with "Oh Whoopi, even Conan would be funnier."

There is a level to his criticism which is that it's the Thing to do. David Letterman goes to CBS, and his show is big, and so NBC is portrayed in the press as the people who let him go, therefore any decision they make is going to be stupid. I think there are some critics that look at this show as 'It's the show that's not David Letterman.' My feeling is I'm not going to do his show. I'm not going to do anything like his show. I'm a different person I'm not going to try to top his act.

David Letterman himself came on the show and he's a sincere person. He went out of his way backstage and on the air to compliment the show. That's someone whose opinion I respect. Because he knows what it takes to do a show.

A year ago at this time, when I found out even the possibility of doing this, I said to myself, 'Boy, whoever follows David Letterman, regardless of what they do, is going to get the shit kicked out of them for a while And Lorne Michaels told me, 'You're going to take a pounding for a while. Are you up for that?' I said, 'Yes'. Is this the easiest way to do a show? No. it's not. The easiest way to do a show is get your show, do it in relative obscurity, have it be in kind of a safe place, on for a couple of years and let people slowly find it, and then they start writing reviews a couple years into it, that kind of thing. That's easier to do. Am I complaining? No.

In general, you can only listen to so much of it. If I had one piece of advice to say to you about criticism, it is that difficulty or fear is not an indication that you're wrong.

CONAN O'BRIEN'S 9TH ANNUAL COLLEGE BRAND

Up-and-coming bands enter to

208 E. 51st Street, Box 316

New York, NY 10022-6501

By May 31, 1994

Tapes must be on 1/2" VHS tape and run no longer than 5 minutes. (75 percent of performers in the band must still be in college.)