Conan showcases Steven Ho’s fight work on ‘Tonight Show’

Conan O’Brien, who has been settling into his new position as host of NBC’s THE TONIGHT SHOW, brought on Hollywood stuntman, fight choreographer and martial arts instructor Steven Ho last night to learn how to react to punches and kicks in a humorous, yet educational segment showcasing some of the basics of modern screen fighting.

Ho began his career as the stunt double performing the fighting moves of “Donatello” in the two live-action TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES sequels. Conan made an inadvertent reference to the Ninja Turtles after Ho and his stunt team rigged the show host up in body armor and a wire harness for the segment’s finale. After running through a simple sequence of punches and kicks where Conan played the “bad guy” and got punched, kicked and struck with a fire extinguisher, he was struck with a shovel by Ho and pulled through a breakaway glass window by Ho’s wire pullers.

With typical self-effacing humor, Conan made light of the whole experience but in truth both he and the audience were getting an excellent primer on screen fighting from one of Hollywood’s top screen fighting trainers.

He founded, and currently heads the XL Action Team, which is responsible for providing MA training to leading cast members of films like TROY, CONSTANTINE and SPIDER-MAN 2.

Steven Ho has also been busy of late with recent stunt work on PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END, TV movie MASK OF THE NINJA and CRANK: HIGH VOLTAGE.

Most recently, he worked on ROGUE’S GALLERY, an upcoming action comedy starring THE HANGOVER’s Zack Galifianakis, Emilie de Ravin (LOST) and Maggie Q.

Thanks to Jonathan V. for the tip.