Taping repor(T)s!!!
The Daily Show - 6/17/09
Watch it here if you are American/have a proxy.
I got to the studio at about 2:20. There were already a few people there, including
doraemon_2000 . I joined her in line and we set about waiting. After a while, a guy came out and yelled the rules at us. At some point we were joined by @batchout, aka David, who had responded to my open tweet about my extra ticket. He's a computer tech from uptown New York and we talked operating systems while we waited in line. Eventually susied23 joined us too. After they came down the line to take down names and give out tickets, Susie got approached by a woman who I guess was in charge. She called her out for being there on Monday as well, and said that their policy was to "acknowledge" when people were there more than once in 4-6 months. I'm not sure if any of us ever figured out what that was supposed to mean, but after Susie explained that she was from Scotland, the woman got really excited, talked about how wonderful it is there, and left without kicking her out of line. So we were like "Oooo...kay?" David and I were excited because we were tickets 115 and 116, and 15 and 16 are two of the Lost numbers! Dun-dun!
After standing in line some more and once again having the rules yelled at us, the front of the line got let into the building to wait. When I went through security, the security guy pulled out my sonic screwdriver and asked, "What's this?" Sheepishly, I replied, "...A child's toy." Then he was all like oooh, is it your lightsaber? I just let him think it was, as I really didn't feel like trying to explain. We stood around in the little "holding room" for a bit longer, until they finally let us into the studio. Yay!
The first thing I noticed was that it's way bigger than it looks on TV. There's quite a bit of space between the audience and the desk so there's room for the cameras to move. There's a seating area to the left of the desk and then the main seating area in front. We were in the middle of the main area, third row back, which is the first row on the risers. So pretty awesome seats. There's a huge area to the right of the desk that I never even imagined was there. I guess it's where the green screen goes, but it wasn't up that night because there wasn't a live correspondent piece. The set is a lot more square than it looks on TV too, if that makes any sense. Also, the reds are oranger. I just had to get that out there, as a color geek.
After everyone was seated, the warm up guy came out. His name was Pete something, I think. Susie says he was not as mean as the other warm up guy, Paul. Anyways, he walked out the The Who's Baba O'Riley. He laughed and said, "Teenage Wasteland!" at which point all of the Who fans in the audience yelled "Baba O'Riley!" There was a bit of confusion until he realized that we were simply correcting him on the name of the song. After that was cleared up, he went in to his thing. There were twins in the audience, whom he declared should fight to the death. There were also two brothers sitting in front of us that he said looked like He-Man. He tried to set one of them up with a girl from England who was in the audience. There was also a couple from Switzerland. He started yelling out things that he associated with the Swiss - "Cheese! Neutrality! Chocolate! Secret bank accounts!" Then he asked them what they did for a living - the man is a cheese and chocolate maker. And of course there was the guy with dreadlocks that got dubbed "Stoner Jesus."
Okays! So then we were done with the warming up of the audience, and it was time for Q&A. Jon!! Yay!!! I'll do this bit in script format for a bit of easier reading.
Q: When are you going to Iraq?
A: Never. My wife told me absolutely not. I'm still not sure how his wife let him go. Oh, right, he's not a pussy.
Q: What's your favourite thing about Bill O'Reiley?
A: I don't know...his silky soft skin? ...I made that up.
Q: What pundit are you going to take down next?
A: No one, I hope. It's really awkward. But maybe Fox & Friends?
Q: (This one was from the English girl) Can you tell me about your show, but in an English accent?
A: (In ridiculous accent) My name is Jon Stewart, and our show is located on 11th Avenue... (I think he said some more stuff but the accent was so silly and thick that I couldn't really understand what he was saying.)
That was the last question, and then it was time to start the show. When he introduced himself at the top of the show, he said his name in the same silly accent he had done before. So, you viewers at home, that's what that was about, as was the later reference to "Soccer...I mean football."
I don't really have much to say about the taping of the show itself, because he did it all straight through with no mistakes. It was rather fun watching him laugh at himself during the taped "interview" bit. I didn't even catch much of what was going on on screen because I can watch that any old time. He was facepalming at the end of that sequence, presumably because of the sheer ridiculousness of it! As I mentioned before, and as you loyal viewers will remember, there was no live correspondent piece that night. Instead, we got the first part of the Jason Jones story about Iran, actually in Iran! Again, I was more watching Jon than the screens. There was a wonderful epic headdesk moment during the bit where Jason asks for a translator, even though the man he's interviewing is speaking perfect English. After that, Jason came out real quick for a round of applause. The part I was most excited about was the sausage wrapped in pancake on a stick dipped in baconnaise bit. Ever since it was introduced, the sausage wrapped in pancake has been one of my favourite recurring jokes. And it was so much fun goading him on with cheering! The interview was funny but nothing special to talk about, although I did quite enjoy the Diego reference.
So after the show was wrapped, we thought that we might get a toss because there was one set up and ready to go on the teleprompter. Sadly, they must have run out of time, because we didn't get one. However, since it was Wednesday we got to see the intro of the international version of the show. As they were setting it up, he asked if anyone had seen the international version. A few people said they had, and Susie told him that they actually played the whole versions of the show in Britain. He was surprised by that.
After they taped the opening, which took all of 30 seconds, that was the end. Jon thanked us all for coming, and we were ushered haphazardly out into the night, to the strains of "Beat It" lol. And that was my first Daily Show taping! Exciting!
The Colbert Report - 6/18/09
Watch it here.
I was determined to be first in line for The Colbert Report. After all, there is a long history associated with that #1 ticket! Even though Susie and I had agreed to get there at 2:00, I was there at about 1:45. There was nobody else in sight, and the rain was coming down at a pretty steady rate. I was just starting to feel a bit silly when Susie arrived, and a little while later we were joined by a woman named Regina. She was quite adamant about finding out whether she could bring her 15 year old son to the show. (The answer was a definite "no," lest they suffer the wrath of Viacom.) Anyways, so the three of us became the line. Regina had two extra tickets, which she gave to the fist people to arrive for standby, a couple from Texas. We passed the time telling stories about travel, and eventually enough of an actual line had formed that we were let into the covered line area.
The staff who came out to let us in line as well as take our names and whatnot were all very nice, although I was still sad that I had missed Mark by *that much.* They were all super cool and stayed outside in the rain to talk with us while they waited for people to arrive and check them off the list. One of the interns, named Molly, told us it was her first time working a show, and she was super excited. So we had a bit of a yay-fest over the fact that it was my first show and I was her first audience member! Susie and I also marked The Wall with our names, and I drew a strange symbol in order to baffle those who follow us.
When we finally got inside, my jeans were soaked up to the knees, since I had pretty much been standing in a puddle for three hours. Again, my sonic screwdriver got looks from security, although this time I simply said it was a fancy flashlight/pen. (Well, it is, technically!) Once we were let inside the studio, we almost got seated out in the bit by the interview desk, until the guy was like, "Wait, you guys were first, right?" and Susie and I were given the seats of honour right in front of the desk. Sadly, our line friends ended up somewhere else. (Regina had actually broke the 6 month rule, I think the only reason they let her in was the audience was small that night. I think there were like 15 or so people from standby that got in.)
The warm up guy, who is also named Pete, but a different one than at The Daily Show, was super cool and funny. He (as well as various other staff members) kept emphasising to us that Stephen needs our energy so be energetic! I think we were all just happy to be inside lol. I retained a lot less of the warm up jokes here than I did at The Daily Show for some reason, but I do remember he told Susie that her accent was from wherever Americans decided it was haha. He also argued with some woman about welfare for a while. There was a guy behind me from Ontario whom he said looked like a young Q-tip. Then I said I was from Saskatchewan, but I honestly have no idea what he said back to me. Fail much?
Okay, so after one more reiteration of the energy thing, and telling us to ask about Iraq because it would be good to have fresh questions, it was Q&A time with Stephen himself! Really the only thing that represents my brain at that point is KAHSD:ASD:AS:"F"L!!! Okay, I need to say to all you naysayers out there that his hair looks really good IRL. Take my word for it. He asked if we had any questions to humanize him before he got started. Again, script form.
Q: How hot was it there? Really?
A: Like they built the whole country inside of a tailpipe. I don't know how civilization started there. They must have been like 'Two rivers! Okay, we're stopping here! No more hunting and gathering, from now on we bring the food to us!' Seriously, it was like having a camel constantly breathing on your face.
Q: Can I give you a drawing?
A: Sure, but you need to give it someone to bring down here or you'll get tackled!
It was a super cute little cartoon of him, in an oval frame.
Q: Was there any time you were scared?
A: (I actually don't remember what the first thing he said was) ...and when we were landing and taking off, because we had to fly evasive circles.
Q: Were you scared of doing political stuff over there?
A: The only thing I was scared of doing was the Don't Ask Don't Tell bit. They asked us specifically not to do it, but we did anyway.
Q: (From Susie) Your show was on in the UK, but then it got cancelled. When is it going to come back again?
A: I though it was over there?
Susie: No, it got cancelled again. It was on at 3 am.
He found this quite funny.
Show time! After the opening, (I was on TV for a second!) he went into the bit about the fly Obama killed. When he got to the part about flies being curious about a rat carcass, we got break #1! Squee to the max! He laughed, and apologized, saying it was their 12th straight week of filming. (Honestly, I'm very surprised they didn't take a break after Iraq.) Of course, this led in to the Jeff Goldblum piece. We were all very surprised and totally excited! They did the whole bit, and after it ended Stephen got us to thank him, and bam, commercial break! Immediately a bunch of staffers rushed up to the desk, then he got up and left the set (passing like half an inch from me, OMG!) Upon his return he explained to us that there had been technical difficulties and they had to do Jeff Goldblum's piece all over again. Sucks to be him I guess, but awesome for us! As they set up the scene again, Stephen told us we had to act surprised again, and added that "jokes are funnier the second time!" Jeff asked Stephen if he could do anything better the second time, and Stephen told him never, you're always perfect. (He did do it better the second time around, jsyk.) I also need to mention that apparently Stephen likes to make eye contact with people during the commercial breaks. There were a few times that I would be watching him and all of a sudden he'd be looking right back at me. I never knew something could be so creepy and yet so amazing at the same time.
I was so excited to get a Threatdown that night - it's my second favourite segment after Cheating Death! Not much to say about that, it went pretty smoothly, although I do miss the times when #1 was always bears. Then there was Bears & Balls. It's not my favourite segment, but I do love it because of the high chance of character breaky goodness on behalf of the sound effects. Sure enough, we got another break right at the beginning of the segment, and he started it over again. After he struggled through the middle bit which was immensely character breaky but ended up on TV anyways, he had to start the last bit over again. As I recall, he told them "Just start it again from the full frame of the kid doing the stupid skateboard thing." The interview was, like TDS the night before, funny but not particularly special. There was the goodnight, we cheered, he left, and that was the end! It seemed to be so short, even with the amount of retakes we got.
Susie and I waited around for nearly 2 hours afterwards, but then the Chinese delivery guy showed up, and we decided if they were getting takeaway it wasn't worth it to wait hours more. So sure, I didn't get that "perfect" fan experience, but I had an amazing time and wouldn't trade it for the world.
See all of my photos from my trip here. (Yes I am too lazy to put them in the post. Deal with it!)
Watch it here if you are American/have a proxy.
I got to the studio at about 2:20. There were already a few people there, including
doraemon_2000 . I joined her in line and we set about waiting. After a while, a guy came out and yelled the rules at us. At some point we were joined by @batchout, aka David, who had responded to my open tweet about my extra ticket. He's a computer tech from uptown New York and we talked operating systems while we waited in line. Eventually susied23 joined us too. After they came down the line to take down names and give out tickets, Susie got approached by a woman who I guess was in charge. She called her out for being there on Monday as well, and said that their policy was to "acknowledge" when people were there more than once in 4-6 months. I'm not sure if any of us ever figured out what that was supposed to mean, but after Susie explained that she was from Scotland, the woman got really excited, talked about how wonderful it is there, and left without kicking her out of line. So we were like "Oooo...kay?" David and I were excited because we were tickets 115 and 116, and 15 and 16 are two of the Lost numbers! Dun-dun!
After standing in line some more and once again having the rules yelled at us, the front of the line got let into the building to wait. When I went through security, the security guy pulled out my sonic screwdriver and asked, "What's this?" Sheepishly, I replied, "...A child's toy." Then he was all like oooh, is it your lightsaber? I just let him think it was, as I really didn't feel like trying to explain. We stood around in the little "holding room" for a bit longer, until they finally let us into the studio. Yay!
The first thing I noticed was that it's way bigger than it looks on TV. There's quite a bit of space between the audience and the desk so there's room for the cameras to move. There's a seating area to the left of the desk and then the main seating area in front. We were in the middle of the main area, third row back, which is the first row on the risers. So pretty awesome seats. There's a huge area to the right of the desk that I never even imagined was there. I guess it's where the green screen goes, but it wasn't up that night because there wasn't a live correspondent piece. The set is a lot more square than it looks on TV too, if that makes any sense. Also, the reds are oranger. I just had to get that out there, as a color geek.
After everyone was seated, the warm up guy came out. His name was Pete something, I think. Susie says he was not as mean as the other warm up guy, Paul. Anyways, he walked out the The Who's Baba O'Riley. He laughed and said, "Teenage Wasteland!" at which point all of the Who fans in the audience yelled "Baba O'Riley!" There was a bit of confusion until he realized that we were simply correcting him on the name of the song. After that was cleared up, he went in to his thing. There were twins in the audience, whom he declared should fight to the death. There were also two brothers sitting in front of us that he said looked like He-Man. He tried to set one of them up with a girl from England who was in the audience. There was also a couple from Switzerland. He started yelling out things that he associated with the Swiss - "Cheese! Neutrality! Chocolate! Secret bank accounts!" Then he asked them what they did for a living - the man is a cheese and chocolate maker. And of course there was the guy with dreadlocks that got dubbed "Stoner Jesus."
Okays! So then we were done with the warming up of the audience, and it was time for Q&A. Jon!! Yay!!! I'll do this bit in script format for a bit of easier reading.
Q: When are you going to Iraq?
A: Never. My wife told me absolutely not. I'm still not sure how his wife let him go. Oh, right, he's not a pussy.
Q: What's your favourite thing about Bill O'Reiley?
A: I don't know...his silky soft skin? ...I made that up.
Q: What pundit are you going to take down next?
A: No one, I hope. It's really awkward. But maybe Fox & Friends?
Q: (This one was from the English girl) Can you tell me about your show, but in an English accent?
A: (In ridiculous accent) My name is Jon Stewart, and our show is located on 11th Avenue... (I think he said some more stuff but the accent was so silly and thick that I couldn't really understand what he was saying.)
That was the last question, and then it was time to start the show. When he introduced himself at the top of the show, he said his name in the same silly accent he had done before. So, you viewers at home, that's what that was about, as was the later reference to "Soccer...I mean football."
I don't really have much to say about the taping of the show itself, because he did it all straight through with no mistakes. It was rather fun watching him laugh at himself during the taped "interview" bit. I didn't even catch much of what was going on on screen because I can watch that any old time. He was facepalming at the end of that sequence, presumably because of the sheer ridiculousness of it! As I mentioned before, and as you loyal viewers will remember, there was no live correspondent piece that night. Instead, we got the first part of the Jason Jones story about Iran, actually in Iran! Again, I was more watching Jon than the screens. There was a wonderful epic headdesk moment during the bit where Jason asks for a translator, even though the man he's interviewing is speaking perfect English. After that, Jason came out real quick for a round of applause. The part I was most excited about was the sausage wrapped in pancake on a stick dipped in baconnaise bit. Ever since it was introduced, the sausage wrapped in pancake has been one of my favourite recurring jokes. And it was so much fun goading him on with cheering! The interview was funny but nothing special to talk about, although I did quite enjoy the Diego reference.
So after the show was wrapped, we thought that we might get a toss because there was one set up and ready to go on the teleprompter. Sadly, they must have run out of time, because we didn't get one. However, since it was Wednesday we got to see the intro of the international version of the show. As they were setting it up, he asked if anyone had seen the international version. A few people said they had, and Susie told him that they actually played the whole versions of the show in Britain. He was surprised by that.
After they taped the opening, which took all of 30 seconds, that was the end. Jon thanked us all for coming, and we were ushered haphazardly out into the night, to the strains of "Beat It" lol. And that was my first Daily Show taping! Exciting!
The Colbert Report - 6/18/09
Watch it here.
I was determined to be first in line for The Colbert Report. After all, there is a long history associated with that #1 ticket! Even though Susie and I had agreed to get there at 2:00, I was there at about 1:45. There was nobody else in sight, and the rain was coming down at a pretty steady rate. I was just starting to feel a bit silly when Susie arrived, and a little while later we were joined by a woman named Regina. She was quite adamant about finding out whether she could bring her 15 year old son to the show. (The answer was a definite "no," lest they suffer the wrath of Viacom.) Anyways, so the three of us became the line. Regina had two extra tickets, which she gave to the fist people to arrive for standby, a couple from Texas. We passed the time telling stories about travel, and eventually enough of an actual line had formed that we were let into the covered line area.
The staff who came out to let us in line as well as take our names and whatnot were all very nice, although I was still sad that I had missed Mark by *that much.* They were all super cool and stayed outside in the rain to talk with us while they waited for people to arrive and check them off the list. One of the interns, named Molly, told us it was her first time working a show, and she was super excited. So we had a bit of a yay-fest over the fact that it was my first show and I was her first audience member! Susie and I also marked The Wall with our names, and I drew a strange symbol in order to baffle those who follow us.
When we finally got inside, my jeans were soaked up to the knees, since I had pretty much been standing in a puddle for three hours. Again, my sonic screwdriver got looks from security, although this time I simply said it was a fancy flashlight/pen. (Well, it is, technically!) Once we were let inside the studio, we almost got seated out in the bit by the interview desk, until the guy was like, "Wait, you guys were first, right?" and Susie and I were given the seats of honour right in front of the desk. Sadly, our line friends ended up somewhere else. (Regina had actually broke the 6 month rule, I think the only reason they let her in was the audience was small that night. I think there were like 15 or so people from standby that got in.)
The warm up guy, who is also named Pete, but a different one than at The Daily Show, was super cool and funny. He (as well as various other staff members) kept emphasising to us that Stephen needs our energy so be energetic! I think we were all just happy to be inside lol. I retained a lot less of the warm up jokes here than I did at The Daily Show for some reason, but I do remember he told Susie that her accent was from wherever Americans decided it was haha. He also argued with some woman about welfare for a while. There was a guy behind me from Ontario whom he said looked like a young Q-tip. Then I said I was from Saskatchewan, but I honestly have no idea what he said back to me. Fail much?
Okay, so after one more reiteration of the energy thing, and telling us to ask about Iraq because it would be good to have fresh questions, it was Q&A time with Stephen himself! Really the only thing that represents my brain at that point is KAHSD:ASD:AS:"F"L!!! Okay, I need to say to all you naysayers out there that his hair looks really good IRL. Take my word for it. He asked if we had any questions to humanize him before he got started. Again, script form.
Q: How hot was it there? Really?
A: Like they built the whole country inside of a tailpipe. I don't know how civilization started there. They must have been like 'Two rivers! Okay, we're stopping here! No more hunting and gathering, from now on we bring the food to us!' Seriously, it was like having a camel constantly breathing on your face.
Q: Can I give you a drawing?
A: Sure, but you need to give it someone to bring down here or you'll get tackled!
It was a super cute little cartoon of him, in an oval frame.
Q: Was there any time you were scared?
A: (I actually don't remember what the first thing he said was) ...and when we were landing and taking off, because we had to fly evasive circles.
Q: Were you scared of doing political stuff over there?
A: The only thing I was scared of doing was the Don't Ask Don't Tell bit. They asked us specifically not to do it, but we did anyway.
Q: (From Susie) Your show was on in the UK, but then it got cancelled. When is it going to come back again?
A: I though it was over there?
Susie: No, it got cancelled again. It was on at 3 am.
He found this quite funny.
Show time! After the opening, (I was on TV for a second!) he went into the bit about the fly Obama killed. When he got to the part about flies being curious about a rat carcass, we got break #1! Squee to the max! He laughed, and apologized, saying it was their 12th straight week of filming. (Honestly, I'm very surprised they didn't take a break after Iraq.) Of course, this led in to the Jeff Goldblum piece. We were all very surprised and totally excited! They did the whole bit, and after it ended Stephen got us to thank him, and bam, commercial break! Immediately a bunch of staffers rushed up to the desk, then he got up and left the set (passing like half an inch from me, OMG!) Upon his return he explained to us that there had been technical difficulties and they had to do Jeff Goldblum's piece all over again. Sucks to be him I guess, but awesome for us! As they set up the scene again, Stephen told us we had to act surprised again, and added that "jokes are funnier the second time!" Jeff asked Stephen if he could do anything better the second time, and Stephen told him never, you're always perfect. (He did do it better the second time around, jsyk.) I also need to mention that apparently Stephen likes to make eye contact with people during the commercial breaks. There were a few times that I would be watching him and all of a sudden he'd be looking right back at me. I never knew something could be so creepy and yet so amazing at the same time.
I was so excited to get a Threatdown that night - it's my second favourite segment after Cheating Death! Not much to say about that, it went pretty smoothly, although I do miss the times when #1 was always bears. Then there was Bears & Balls. It's not my favourite segment, but I do love it because of the high chance of character breaky goodness on behalf of the sound effects. Sure enough, we got another break right at the beginning of the segment, and he started it over again. After he struggled through the middle bit which was immensely character breaky but ended up on TV anyways, he had to start the last bit over again. As I recall, he told them "Just start it again from the full frame of the kid doing the stupid skateboard thing." The interview was, like TDS the night before, funny but not particularly special. There was the goodnight, we cheered, he left, and that was the end! It seemed to be so short, even with the amount of retakes we got.
Susie and I waited around for nearly 2 hours afterwards, but then the Chinese delivery guy showed up, and we decided if they were getting takeaway it wasn't worth it to wait hours more. So sure, I didn't get that "perfect" fan experience, but I had an amazing time and wouldn't trade it for the world.
See all of my photos from my trip here. (Yes I am too lazy to put them in the post. Deal with it!)