Nigel on Conan...

Anyone watch Nigel Marvin on Conan last night? I thought it was embarrassing. Every snake was really snappy, including the first Burm he brought out. He was bleeding pretty well at the neck from the time he walked on stage from a Monitor. It was an opportunity for them to show some great animals, but instead looked like a sideshow act with Conan running and hiding from most of the animals. Of course the first Burm was "straight from the Everglades" and spent it's time trying to nail anything that moved.

Agreed. I watched it too. Felt kinda bad for Nigel. Conan just kept making fun of him.

it was insane to watch. Nigel the reptile expert, then he brings out animals that probably rarely get held, Conan's jumping around like a monkey, all the super bright lights, i am sure that all helped. this is the second time Nigel has done this in as many years. if he is going to bring snakes on shows like that they need to be relatively tame. that was a real idiot move but that's just my opinion.

here is the clip just in case you missed it.:upset:

I can not believe they did the bit with the burms and the everglades. And they made such a big deal over the monitor but if you have ever held a monitor that size your going to get cut somewhere. They dont mean to do it but there claws are so freaking sharp all it has to do is touch your skin

:O I can't believe watch I just saw! It was horrible. I read on another site that Prehistoric Pets where providing the animals for this shoot. It looked like he was purposely trying to make the Mangrove and Burm look jumpy. The whole thing was a mess. Nigel, Austin and even Brady seem like they do it more for the shock then the wow thats neat or even to educate.

I also thought it was embarrassing and the last thing we needed to be on TV especially on a show that's so popular. This could have been a great opportunity to showcase some amazing (and tame) reptiles and get a ton of new people interested and to attend the NARBC. There's no way I would ever show that segment to anyone who doesn't keep reptiles. I had high hopes for this being a positive showing for the reptile community, but man what a letdown.

WOW. Brian Potter told me about this a few weeks back and I had really been looking forward to seeing it...

Unfortunately, this didn't turn out so well. If Nigel didn't have that 4 inch blood trail down his neck, this might have been a little better... You'd think they would have been a little more selective in choosing animals to bring out for a nationally televised show.

Meh...it's all showmanship. The audience wouldn't be nearly so entertained by placid animals. And I do believe Nigel didn't intend to walk out with a bleeding neck...I'll bet it happened right when the curtain was about to open and he couldn't do anything about it. When he sits down, he reaches around to feel it and looks surprised that he's bleeding.

Taunting someone with snappy snakes isn't exactly good diplomacy for the reptile-keeping world, though...and I surely wish Nigel could have come up with a better way for his animals to be "entertaining".

Email I got from Brian Potter (NARBC Promoter) kinda explaining it as Judy did.
Re: Conan Show

Tim,

I know what you mean.......but what TV wants is something totally different. Think Croc Hunter.......if you look at the shows that dont go with that type of "sensationalism" they tend to go off air quickly. At the shows we are all about tame animals and respect for them and keeping them in a safe manner. But when it comes to promotion for the show.......we tend to "hype" it up. Please undersatnd I COMPLETELY understand your thoughts. We have been doing shows and tv for 9 years now.......Nigel even longer than that. By no means is that what we are about (mean animals)......but it is the best way to get advertising out to the masses. Nobody wants to watch a program with Nigel holding Bearded Dargons and Leopard Geckos. After the show ended the producers were VERY happy with us and how the show went if that explains a little???? I hope you understand our position is to show the industry in the best light possible while at the same time exposing our industry to the most people. Anyone who comes to the show will know where we stand. Hope to see you at a show!

Brian

Here is a link to the video clip if anyone wants to check it out that missed it.

http://www.tonightshowwithconanobrie...82809/1152169/

I saw it and was not impressed; kinda upsetting. I'm pretty sure any snake will get nippy when being handled with one hand and jostled through the air left and right.

i thought it was an entertaining show o.O sure it didnt show the reptiles at their finest, but it was interesting to see them. the most calm animal was the LARGEST animal of the all ^-^

I saw animals being animals.

I really didnt see anything that out of the ordinary.

Be honest, I mean we all know that this happens with any kind of snake.

It's part of the hobby, but I don't think it should be used as an example of what reptiles are like. If I was showing a group of friends my reptiles I wouldn't pull out a WC burm or a rear fanged Mangrove and let them bite me.

You can be entertaining without being shocking. The audience ooh'd and ahh'd over that frog and it just sat there, the big retic was the grand finale and it didn't poop or bite or anything, it was just an amazing animal that isn't often seen in the media other than when a keeper does something wrong.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Steve_Ray

The audience ooh'd and ahh'd over that frog and it just sat there, the big retic was the grand finale and it didn't poop or bite or anything, it was just an amazing animal that isn't often seen in the media other than when a keeper does something wrong.

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:gj: good point haha

but people cheered and got excited over seeing the active animals

IMO: thats wut tv wants to display. excitement, not oooh ahh. lol

I think everything went perfect... Im not sure what this was supposed to be about, but considering Nigel Marvin was the guest, im guessing it was supposed to look at true wild animals.... I look at reptiles in two different ways... 1 way (our way), clean, captive bred, tame PET reptiles... Then a second way (Nigel's Way), Wild caught, crazy aggressive, intimidating animals... And obviously Nigel isn't going to come out with a few hatchling ball pythons and a captive bred albino burm, when his way/theme is that of someone like the crocodile hunter.... I dont think this had any affect on the way people think of reptiles as pets... It just affected their realization on how much further they should stay from reptiles in the wild... Now if they wanted an episode to positively affect how people thought of Captive PET reptiles, they should do a "Reptiles As Pets" episode...

Could have been better, they should have had more tame snakes so people know that they aren't all aggressive like that. A wild burm from the Everglades...yeah, I don't think that was the best representative. Besides that and the obese water monitor, I don't think it was too bad...