Ladies and gentlemen,
we have a very special treat for you this evening.
Our good friend, Steven Ho, has been here many times.
(audience applauds) Good to see you, Steven.
And he always instructs me in the art of combat
and I flourish in those arts.
Tonight- (audience chuckles)
Knock it off.
Tonight, he's back to teach me some iconic moves
from the father of modern martial arts, the great Bruce Lee.
Stephen, hello, thank you for being here.
Thank you. It's amazing.
(audience applauds)
Steven, you and I have worked together a lot over the years.
I understand Bruce Lee was your main inspiration
for getting into what it is you do.
Yeah, I think Bruce Lee was the most iconic
martial arts in history. Okay.
He was a huge influence for me
and the entire martial arts community.
All right, we actually,
just to familiarize anyone who hasn't seen it recently,
we have a clip here from a classic Bruce Lee film,
"Game of Death," to familiarize ourselves with the master.
Let's take a look.
(Bruce Lee yelling)
(nunchuks whipping)
(man grunts)
(Bruce Lee yelling)
(kicks impacting)
Yeah, okay, I got it, yeah.
(audience laughs)
All I had to do was see that
and I think I memorized it all.
I am ready to go.
Do you think I can pull this off?
Yeah, let's experience the essence of Bruce Lee.
Okay, first I'm going to warm up and really
get into the Bruce Lee mode right here.
(audience applauds)
As you saw in the clip- Yes, yeah.
Bruce was very fluid. Fluid.
And he believed in life and in fighting,
to be like water. Water.
You must be like water.
Many people have told me I am a lot like water.
Well, you're not as a coordinated or graceful, probably,
as Bruce was, but you have long-
I'm sorry, what a dick-y thing to say.
(audience laughs)
Right here up top, when I look like this,
you will pay for your words.
What's the first thing I have to know?
Let's get warmed up. Warmed up, okay.
What do I have to learn?
Start in a fighting stance,
and let's just open up our hips.
Open up our hips. (chuckles)
Kind of like that, okay.
I'm pretty good at that, if you know what I mean.
Ladies.
Now that you kind of have that, let's extend our-
I look like a banana having a seizure.
(audience and Conan laughing)
Okay, what do I do?
This is called a crescent kick.
Okay. So it's the same thing,
but you extend your leg and you go
out and around in a circle.
It looks like a dance kick,
but if you put some torque on it-
Whoa, that was incredible! It becomes very deadly.
I felt myself go back in time.
(audience laughs)
I met Lincoln for a second.
You want to try it?
Yeah, what do I have to do to go that?
Show me one more time how you do it.
Sure, well, you go from here, up and around.
Up and around, so you bring the knee up
and then around that way. Correct, correct.
Okay.
(Conan yells)
(audience applauds)
Wow!
You got to make sure.
What are you hitting me for?
You got to keep your guard up.
You didn't say anything about keeping my guard up.
We did that the last show, we talked about that.
Okay? Okay.
So, let's do that same thing, but keep your guard up.
There you go. Okay, my guard's up.
(Conan yells)
Good. Oh, look at that.
(Conan yells)
Good, perfect.
(Conan yelling)
Okay, that's good.
How come we have a-
(Conan yells)
(audience laughs)
(audience exclaims)
(audience applauds)
(audience laughs)
I am like water.
Okay.
So keep that in mind. Okay.
And now, let's work on footwork.
Okay, footwork. Okay.
So Bruce, in the sixties, was one of the few martial artists
that actually was inspired by Western boxing.
Okay. So in the sixties,
most martial artists had really traditional stances.
And Bruce believed in doing that, but also staying light,
like a cat. Like a cat.
So he was very much like a cat.
Like a cat. Or like a bull
in a very strong stance.
So I would move between being a cat.
Right?
And being a bull.
So that's our drill we're going to do.
Why are they here?
(audience laughs)
Seriously, I thought they were from the audience
for a second.
I've noticed in the past,
when we've done drills like this,
you would often hide behind your desk,
so these gentlemen will stop you.
That is also a great Bruce Lee technique.
(audience laughs)
When he's been doing office work, yeah.
So wait, they're here, if I try to run away,
they're going to do what?
They're gonna hit you.
Okay. Yeah.
All right. So you stay here with me.
Okay, we didn't discuss any of this in rehearsal.
All right, and I'll use my Hulk hands.
Wait a minute, wait a minute.
This is not a standard fighting scenario.
(audience laughs)
Bruce Lee, I've seen all the movies,
he never encountered a guy with large, green Hulk hands.
Okay, so when I say cat. Right.
Do your Bruce Lee cat, stay light,
stay light and kinda, there you go.
More coordination, more coordination, more coordination.
What's wrong with what I'm- More coordination.
(Conan meows) Now bull, bull, bull.
Get a bull stance, bull. Bull.
Fighting stance, guys, come in tighter, tighter, tighter.
Let's bring it in. Okay.
Okay, here we go.
(audience laughs)
Here we go.
And cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat.
Bull, bull, bull, bull, bull.
Strike a pose.
Freeze.
Cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat, cat.
Wait a minute, wait a minute!
Cat, bull, cat, bull, cat, bull, cat, bull.
Wait a minute!
And cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, cut.
Break, break, break, break. Wait a minute.
Wait a minute. Break.
What kind of crappy exercise was that?
(audience laughs)
I learned nothing there.
You should have learned to be more like water.
You got to go with the flow, with what's what's around you.
Where are they going?
(audience laughs)
They're going to renew their gym membership.
(audience laughs)
There'll be back, they'll be back.
I'm like water in that I lose my breath easily.
Okay, here we go. Okay.
What's the most iconic Bruce Lee move?
One inch punch, for sure.
One inch punch. One inch punch.
So one inch punch, Bruce did this in 1964
at the Long Beach International Karate Tournaments,
and it's a technique, not a fighting technique,
but a technique to show that you can generate power
with speed and technique.
If you're only one inch away?
Correct.
As opposed to having big mass or having to wind up.
So I'm going to do this on you,
but I have to warn you that it can cause internal damage.
It could cause your heart to explode.
Crack a sternum.
So I have this.
Then why do it at all?
Well, I have this pad for you.
This is gonna protect me?
I'm not going to go full power.
Okay. Okay?
This is like a foam Ritz cracker, all right.
This is just to give you an idea.
So, very slowly, it's from here, one inch punch,
and then I torque in like that.
Okay, you didn't really do it.
Really do it. Well, let me take this off.
Okay. Let me show you this.
Wait, no, no, no.
(Conan yells)
Ow, okay!
Okay. I didn't do high.
Yeah, but you went low.
Why'd you do that?
Because I want to avoid your heart.
You mean you could stop my heart from beating?
I don't know, we could try. Okay.
(audience laughs)
We're okay.
Let me try it on you for a second, okay?
Okay. How do you like that?
It seems to have no effect on you.
You have to remember, you need to torque.
Ow! You need torque.
Make sure you torque, make sure you torque.
Okay, it's going again, all right.
That's incredible.
That's incredibly powerful.
Yeah, you can get a lot of power off that.
You can get a lot of power out of one inch, I know that.
Don't do that.
(audience applauds)
Let's not do that.
No.
(audience applauds)
That was low.
I shouldn't have done that and I apologize.
You know, they encourage me, that's the problem.
(audience laughs)
It didn't work on me, but maybe we'll try it on a board.
Okay. See if it works on a board.
What is this? Oh, okay.
Okay, so we're going to do the same thing.
Actually, when I was in South Korea, they taught me this,
so I did work on this a little bit with a board.
So one inch.
Just make sure if you hit it incorrectly,
you're gonna break a finger.
So be aware of that, okay?
So from here, remember our breathing that we've done.
We did a few years ago.
Yeah. Inhale, exhale.
And then on the exhale, power through.
(Conan breathing heavily)
(Conan yells)
(audience applauds)
We're killing the Bruce Lee brand right now.
Yeah.
Okay.
All right, what's happening here?
So, before Bruce Lee.
(chuckles) This looks like a-
(audience laughs)
I'm going to leave it alone.
Okay.
This one, you can write the joke for this at home.
(audience laughs)
Before Bruce, film fighting was mostly John Wayne punches.
Yes, big round ones, yeah.
And then Bruce introduced the kicks.
Yes.
So this is a roundhouse kick.
Because you know, kicks are obviously
a little bit more difficult since we're not using our,
you know, our hands, we use more often.
Yes.
So I'll show you the power of a kick
and then we'll practice with you.
Okay. Okay?
Here we go, ready? Yeah.
(both yelling)
(audience applauds)
How'd you do that?
You take this foot back?
This foot goes back, right, what happened?
Well, let's try it.
Okay, what do I do?
Bruce also believed that boards don't hit back.
He didn't believe in training with wood.
So, would you like to try a kick on a person?
Yes, I would love to do it.
Okay, so let's come over here.
Oh, it's not you?
Why isn't it you?
It'll be my cousin.
Okay, all right.
Let's get him in here.
Cale?
(audience laughs)
This is Cale.
(audience applauds)
There's a guy over there.
I saw that guy earlier.
Yeah, the guy over there.
Looking pretty good to you, huh, sir, yeah?
(audience laughs)
Okay, so this is called a power side kick.
Bruce's favorite kick.
Power side kick. Power side kick.
So this is how it starts.
Just a quick refresher, we've done this before.
Okay. Left leg steps behind you,
or you can skip up if you're more comfortable.
Yeah. Pick up your right knee,
and then it kicks out.
And then you go (grunts) like that.
Yeah, just make sure, you got to lift your knee.
Lift your knee, lift your knee.
Okay, it's tearing, there's tearing in the groin.
Let's come closer to Cale.
The whole groin area just tore.
Okay, right here.
So, slowly walk through, up. And then bang.
That's a little low, right?
You want me to go up higher?
I could also go lower.
Nah. Okay, all right.
So up high, and then right there.
There you go, and push through.
Okay, all right.
So, be like water, flowing.
Keep your energy.
(audience laughs)
Okay.
You ready?
Okay, here we go, ready?
Yeah.
Let's start with your right foot right here.
Okay, right here, right here, okay.
Very good, focus.
Look there, look there.
Why are you looking down? Right, okay, yeah.
For a second, I was thinking about a movie.
Okay.
(audience laughs)
It was Transformers, it was bad.
And three, two, one, go!
(Conan yells)
Oh, no, not there.
Okay, okay.
I completely missed him.
I completely missed him, let's try that again.
Okay. Okay?
(Conan yells)
Okay.
Better.
More torque. More torque.
So, meaning, when you're using your leg,
right now you're just using your leg, right?
Yeah, right.
You use your upper body, and torque into it.
Okay, right, right. Okay.
I almost thought of the same thing.
Oh, lovers.
Okay, here we go.
Okay, and three, two, one, go!
(Conan yells)
(audience gasps)
(audience applauds)
(Conan trills)
What Bruce move was that?
That was Bruce Lee also channeling a chicken.
I could tell he helped me out a bit there, that's okay.
A little bit, a little bit, okay.
Yeah.
So now we're going to recreate a scene from
"Return of the Dragon" where Bruce Lee kicked a bad guy
into a box wall.
Oh, I remember that one. Okay.
Bruce Lee versus the wall of boxes.
Exactly. Yeah.
So now you have four, five people to kick against.
Okay.
So we're just going to go in succession.
We'll go sidekick, bounce back, side kick, bounce back,
and all the way through.
Okay. All the way through.
So this is, imagine I'm in an alleyway made of cardboard,
and five guys with foam,
and then a six guy who's looks like
he's a hitter for the Boston Red Sox,
show up out of nowhere to attack me, okay?
That's perfect. That's my motivation.
You give me a cue when?
So let's start right here.
Okay.
And action!
(Conan yelling)
(audience applauds)
(Conan yells)
(audience applauds)
(Conan exclaims)
Steven Ho, ladies and gentlemen.