TDS experience!!!
06-23-09 (Tuesday)
Going to see The Daily Show!!!
A week after we got to see Stephen at TCR, my friend and I had tix to see Jon at TDS. Here's a little behind-the-scenes stuff, including a hysterical Q&A. Aww, Jon, I heart you.
After grabbing lunch at Ellen’s Stardust Diner, where the waiters and waitresses are aspiring Broadway stars who serenade you the entire time, climbing on tables, the women with glitter by their eyes, my friend and I headed off towards TDS studios at 733 11th Ave. We got there shockingly early, 12:30, three hours ahead of the suggested line-up time and five hours before they let people in. Even we thought that was excessive. We wandered away, then came back. It was only one-something. Watching passing traffic and feeling stalkerish, we decided it was hot out and wouldn’t Starbucks be nice? We went on a quest, found it, I grabbed a caramel frappuccino light and my friend an iced coffee. We sat there for a bit. When we got back to the studio it was a little after two and there was already a decent line formed. As the line curled around next to us, there was a family from Pennsylvania and Delaware (what are the odds) who we spoke to briefly. There weren’t interns who came out to entertain like at TCR, but there was a random guy walking around with mini cheeseburgers on a plate. To pass the time, my friend and I sat on the sidewalk with our backs to the wall and played hangman, usually with TV show quotes as the subject. Finally, we ended up with numbers 18 and 19 and entered the loading dock in the first group.
The loading dock was unadorned except for the giant posters of Rob Courdry, Ed Helms, Jon Stewart, and Sam Bee that hung from the ceiling. They were older and a little dusty-looking, but a very nice reminder of the true hey-day of the show. Ah Rob and Ed, how I miss thee! At least Ed Helms is around on The Office, which supplies a fix. ;)
The show itself definitely felt different than TCR. You can tell that TDS has been doing this for ten years: they have a system, and they have it down pat. The studio is also bigger, which makes it seem more like you’re watching a play than interacting with a performance (like at TCR). Still, it was fun. The audience is laid out in about three sections, one facing the right side of Jon’s desk (Jon’s right), one directly in front of Jon, and one further off to Jon’s left. There actually might be another section in there, but my friend and I were seated in the section directly in front of Jon in the first row, and I wasn’t quite paying attention to the seating when there was a whole studio to look at in front of me. The cameras kind of blocked us throughout Act I, but if we ducked we could still see Jon between the cameras. And Wyatt, against the green screen, was in full-view. We got to see Wyatt completely crack at his “fuck a coyote” line, which then made Jon break, and they could never quite get it back together after that. And it was sweet watching Jon giggle while viewing Jason Jones’ Iran segment. Our audience cheered so loud for the Iranians who were getting one question after another about America right, especially when the one interviewee named all the presidents backwards from GWB to Nixon. Very impressive. Times Square was just embarrassing. And when the Iranian guy and girl exclaimed that they knew The Daily Show, that they watched it, and said, “Hello, Jon!” to the camera, all of us erupted into cheers. You can’t hear it that well on the broadcasted show, but we were pretty loud. And the “Heh-heh, I’m the decider”-Jon basically fell apart laughing, it was hysterical.
But the best part of the whole show, to be honest, was the Q&A session right before taping. The first question was asked by a tall, thin woman, fifties, with short-cropped gray hair: “Which do you think will be harder long-term? Raising a boy or raising a girl?” The question caught Jon off-guard, impressed him. “Wow, that’s a difficult question,” he said. He paused, then asked if she had any kids. She said she did, a boy and girl. He asked which one was harder for her, and she said the girl, definitely. “Because they’re more complicated,” Jon said, and the woman agreed. Jon said how he can see that already. He says he gets home from work and his daughter greets him at the door, saying in a well-enunciated, prim and proper voice, “Hello, Father. How was work? Did you tell funny jokes? That’s wonderful.” “Meanwhile,” Jon continued, “my son is naked, running around wearing a cowboy hat, and trying to fit his fist into his mouth.” We cracked up. “But I understand my son,” said Jon, “I don’t understand my daughter.” He told us a story about how she once said (the names are wrong, I can’t remember exactly), “Father, me and Amelia” (“we don’t know any Amelias,” Jon inserted) “went to Polynesia, and we learned stuff and it was fun.” Jon paused for us to laugh, then continued, “And I’m thinking, ‘That…didn’t really happen, did it? Because I was here all weekend.”
The second question was from a bulky-looking young guy about three rows behind us. He asked Jon if he knew a certain football player who was on the roster at William and Mary. The name didn’t ring a bell for Jon, who then asked the guy just how big he himself was. “Those people around you look like accessories!” Jon said. The guy replied, “I’m 6’3”.” “Oh,” Jon nodded, unfazed, “so we’re about the same size.” We laughed.
The third question was about whether or not Jon had heard that Perez Hilton got punched in the face by someone from the Black Eyed Peas. Jon had absolutely no idea who any of those people were.
The fourth question, though, was the kicker. A pretty, blonde young woman seated next to her parents raised her hand. When Jon called on her, she began, “I met a guy-” “Oh, she met a guy! Congratulations!” said Jon, and we all laughed and clapped for her. She smiled, shaking her head, continuing, “No, no, I met a guy who mentioned you. He said he broke up with his girlfriend because she was best friends with you, and she never stopped talking about you.” There was a long pause. Jon blinked, then said, “Wait, what?” and so began the scramble to get more info, as we in the audience sat there, enjoying our chance to hear this dating drama unfold. “Let me get this straight,” Jon said, then told the story back to the girl. She nodded. “Who’s this girl?” Jon asked, unable to hide curiosity. “Did you get names?” “I didn’t get any names,” the girl said. “How about the guy? How old was he? He must be about my age, so…” “He’s old,” the girl confirmed. We laughed, and Jon tilted his head to the side, giving her a quick nod with his chin. “You could’ve done that delicately,” he said. Then he asked, “Where did you meet the guy?” And the girl replied, “At a gas station,” at which point we all collapsed into hysterics. So all that is why, at the top of Tuesday’s show, Jon lets everyone know if they’re ever at a gas station and there’s some guy complaining about Jon, just to tell him “it was twenty years ago! I don’t even know that girl anymore!”
Other quick little endearing or memorable things: The warm-up comedian talked for a bit with a skinny, bearded, tattoo’d guy in his twenties who sat two seats over from me. The kid represented a lot of big-name bands and was in charge of merchandise distribution. The comedian asked, “Can you hook me up with free stuff?” “Yeah, definitely,” the kid said. “Cuz if you do,” the comedian said, “I’ll let you sleep with Jon.” We hooted and cheered pretty loud at that. Also, TDS blasted Springsteen’s “Born to Run” before taping started. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jon started all his shows with a Bruce song. And between segments, Jon curled up his blue note paper and looked through it, like a telescope, across the sea of audience. My friend and I waved as he passed us, which made him swivel back to ‘search’ for that sudden sign of movement. Other times he sat there frenetically drumming his pen on the table.
So basically it was another wonderful trip. I rec going to see TCR if you want more audience involvement, but it was very awesome to sit in on TDS and think, ‘Yay, that’s Jon Stewart!’ and hear him tell stories.