Lea DeLaria Teaches Conan to Translate Scat

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In her conversation with Conan O’Brien on Tuesday night, somehow Lea DeLaria was able to fit in the topics of dildo endorsements, her sex life, the art of scatting and children’s animated movies, all in one interview, plus also talk about her Netflix series, Orange is the New Black. That’s probably because it’s easy for Lea DeLaria to multi-task since she’s a comedian, actress and singer. And this triple threat had Conan wondering if he was even going to be able to air the interview.

Normally, Lea DeLaria would take a seat on Conan while wearing one of her trademark suits. Not on Tuesday night though. She came through the curtain in a flowing, shimmering, silver gown ensemble including a turban. Her look was reminiscent of the late comedian Totie Fields. When Conan commented that he had never seen her in a dress before, Lea commented back that she’s “embracing her inner drag queen.”

Back in 1993, Lea already knew how to shock audiences with her act. In that year, she became the first openly gay comedian to perform in late night when she appeared on the Arsenio Hall Show. That was a full 4 years before Ellen DeGeneres made her ground breaking coming out announcement on her sitcom and in Time magazine. And Lea’s conversation on Conan probably wouldn’t have gotten through too many network censors even with the bleeps that Team Coco placed in post.

Lea and Conan talked about her sexual past which included men and women, and which led Lea to explain that, “I’ve seen my share of cocks to know that’s not what I want.” You can guess which word in that quote got bleeped. She also talked about a new plot point for her character Big Boo on Orange is the New Black. Boo is getting a girlfriend played by Beth Dover. Lea said that it didn’t take a lot of work to find her character’s motivation to be attracted to Beth’s character. As Lea put it, “Who the fuck wouldn’t want to go down on Beth Dover?? I’m in!” Again, not hard to find the TBS bleep.

The OITNB star also talked about how she’s been approached to endorse dildos and that naturally segued into her voice role as the Demolition Derby school bus, Miss Fritter in Pixar’s Cars 3.

Lea DeLaria wrapped up her interview with Conan by performing some jazzy scat, but with the twist of having Conan, her scat protege, translating what Lea was scatting. Something may have been lost in the translation, but you can judge for yourself by watching the clips below from TeamCoco.com

You can catch up on the latest season (#5) of Orange is the New Black which debuted this summer on Netflix and you can see Lea DeLaria’s comedy cabaret act live with upcoming dates in Boston and New York City. For more information, go to her site LeaDeLaria.com,

Ernie Tripper
Ernie Tripper