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fredericksToday (okay, technically *yesterday*) was the day I had tickets to attend The Daily Show.
Admission to the taping wasn't guaranteed, as the e-ticket confirmation I received made sure to point out in massive bold print. The studio doors were scheduled to open at 4:45, so all those who wished to attend were strongly advised to get to the studio at least an hour to an hour and a half in advance (I assume they threw the italics in to be doubly powerful, but who knows). I vaguely recalled reading on the TWoP boards about someone showing up at the studio for a taping at 1:30 and being thirtieth in line and I figured I should aim for that time as well. I planned to leave my house around noon in order to have time to drop off some woefully overdue books and CDs before heading to midtown but (brain of a goldfish, remember) I got distracted and didn't end up getting to the train station until 12:40 or so. I blew off the library visit and went straight into the city, making it to 11th Avenue (I had *no idea* there was an 11th Avenue, btw) and 51st by 1:40.
...and no one was there, not a damn soul. I walked up to the doors and tried 'em - locked (the inscription over the main doors: "Abandon all news, ye who enter here"). A bit embarrassed, I went down to the corner store and scoped out some goods before deciding to suck it up and sit down in front the place. I figured I'd give it until 3:00 and if no one else showed up I'd wander around trying to figure out what the hell was going on. So I sat. And sat.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
atraxia called around 2:30 to tell me when she planned to head over and I told her there was no one in the vicinity. As soon as I'd hung up the phone an older gent moseyed over to ask where The Daily Show was taping (me, in my head: "Were the awning and signs with the pictures of Stewart and the correspondents not enough to tip you off?"). I told him it was right here (waving my hand behind me - I didn't sit down for an hour for nothing) and, voila!, I had company. We chatted for a bit (he was carrying David Sedaris's newest book so I figured he had two things going for him): turned out he was from Vancouver on vacation and was hitting up a bunch of NYC-based talk shows. He'd managed to get tickets for Conan, Letterman, and TDS during the same week. As it takes forever to get tickets for all three, I was duly impressed. I'm not very good when it comes to prolonged conversation with someone I haven't hit it off with so things tapered off after a bit.
The both of us sat there in semi-awkward silence until the next set of people showed up, a couple on vacation from Florida. I was amused to see so many tourists making their way over and left the three to bond as I returned to Storm Front with a Tori soundtrack. I looked up around 3:15 and saw the line had grown tremendously. Around 3:30atraxia showed up, and after we engaged in a shameless round of "we're number one!" squees we hunkered down to wait for the doors to be opened.
And waited. And waited. The line behind us continued to grow while a VIP line was created on the other side of the door. The line people/overlords came around occasionally to make sure things were orderly, putting up borders and ropes and the like. We were allowed bathroom breaks once we lined up in front the door yadda yadda yadda. Basically we sat around until 5PM, when the VIP people were let in (VIPs were just people who'd been unable to secure seats to a taping the day before and were thus given preferential treatment, something that should give hope to those interested in attending but worried about being able to get to the studio on-time), then the lowly general admission peons were let in, metal detectored...and led into the basement. Keeping an orderly line in the basement was nigh impossible, so it turned out my booking it out there for 1:30 meant jack squat when it came to seating in the studio (seats were not assigned). Some of the people who'd seen my sorry ass squatting in front of the studioplaying the harmonica as tumbleweeds drifted by were sympathetic, and when we were let back upstairs (after the VIPs were seated) atraxia and I managed to make our way into the studio rather quickly.
The studio was bigger than I'd imagined. I'd been to a taping of Conan back in HS and I remembered how *tiny* that space was (deceptively so), but this place had three well spaced-out seating areas.atraxia and I got great seats - second row in the middle section, direct Stewart view - and we hunkered down as we waited (a theme, you notice) for the pre-show to begin, mocking the musical selection and the very very short man (kid?) who'd greeted us and shouted out taping directions (note: asking Stewart for hugs and/or kisses? not allowed) while we were out on 11th Avenue.
The pre-show warm up was performed by a Paul Mercurio. Oh, not this Paul Mercurio, the Paul Mercurio I spent a good three years of my adolescence crushing on, but this Paul Mercurio, an asshole who managed to annoy the hell out of me for ten minutes...more proof that I've pissed off The Big Guy/Gal somewhere along the line. He went around the room prepping us on how to laugh for the taping (loud) and then (rather creepily, IMO) got us going on a chant of "Jon, Jon, Jon". It felt too cultish for me to get comfortable. Then he started with the "audience banter", going around the room joking with random folks in the crowd. I was sort of cool with things until he turned to the "brother in the corner there with the hat" (BITCTWTH for further reference). Now, mind,atraxia and I had done the color scan and determined we were two of maybe five non-whites in the audience, so I was all ears as to what Mssr. Mercurio was going to rank on. Shit, let me put my soapbox away and just say it turned into a weird bit of race discussion (BITCTWTH: "I'm not black!"; Asswipe Mercurio:"You sure? Yeah you are, look at your face there"; fredericks: "Wteeeff, dude") and ended with Mercurio telling BITCTWTH that the black guy sitting next to him threw a shadow on him that made him look black. Shhhhhyeah. But the comic does get a nanopoint for saying, on finding out BITCTWTH's name was Jasper: "Oh yeah, you're definitely white". A nanopoint, and that's it. Oh! and then he called on atraxia and asked her what she did for fun...leading to a mention of drag puppet bingo. *grin* Okay, that was hilarious. Asswipe got another nanopoint for saying atraxia's name was pretty (cuz it is!).
So Mercurio goes off and Jon comes out (! omgbbq!incineratedpanties!!). He greeted the audience warmly and then asked if we had any questions for him. We were unprepared for that, but those who'd attended tapings in the past obviously knew the score because hands were raised and questions were at the ready. The first woman Jon called on had a last name of Swallow and...yeah, the entire audience and Jon went puerile and laughed for a bit. She was a sport, though, and seemed more than prepared for our reactions. Ms. Swallow (teehee!) asked what Jon's first job was, and he answered with a hilarious tale about getting fired from a Woolworth by his older brother for breaking $2000 worth of fish tanks (was it a true story? who knows). There were a couple more people called on and then Jon thanked us again and told us the guest would be...Pat Robertson. My heart dropped, my lunch rose, and I looked over atatraxia in shock. As far as I knew the guest was scheduled to be Pat Buchanan - not someone I was a fan of at all, but the dislike I had for that man *paled* in comparison to the disgust I had for Robertson. Turned out Jon had gotten the names mixed up and he informed the audience of his mistake after a couple of music filled minutes (during which time I glanced towards the doors mebbee twice).
The show itself played the way it aired. We all screamed dutifully when the introduction was announced, and laughed loudly when the funny came around and smacked us across the heads. Jon's "who the fuck are you?" in response to the Fox News questioning of Clinton cracked my shit up. Commercial breaks were actually taken; after Jon's "we'll be right back" the loud-ass music was cued up and played for three minutes or so before we were called on to cheer like crazy mcnutters (my throat was achy when we finally left). During Dan Bakkadahl's piece Jon watched with us and cracked up a few times himself, which was quite funny; Bakkadahl came out and waved to applause during the commercial break after his segment. Buchanan was just as nutty IRL as he was on the television screen - I kept wishing he'd stop saying "immigrants" and just plain say "non-whites" when we went on his bit but other than that the audience managed to stay civil (honestly, did Mexicans kick his dog when he was younger or something? Jesus). After Buchanan left the stage Jon and Co. tested the satellite connection to Colbert's studio, and the audience was allowed to listen in on Jon and Stephen banter (Stephen blowing the shofar and then making a bong reference = comedy gold). The taping wrapped up with Stephen and Jon doing their hand-off, the airing of the Moment of Zen, then Jon thanking the audience and joking a bit about how they managed to snag the Pakistani president for Tuesday's show.
Annnnnd that was it for the taping. Five hours of waiting for twenty-two minutes of pay-off; I could make an inappropriate analogy here but I'm tired and I'll spare those that have managed to skim this far. Mercurio's pre-show shtick did lead to some observed inadvertent hilarity on the way to the subway, as BITCTWTH and his (apparently) black companion struck up conversation with two middle-aged white women from the Midwest who'd also attended the taping. It was funny but...? great is the word I'm looking for. Two kids in hip-hop gear with straight-up City accents bonding over The Daily Show with people with whom, at first glance, they have nothing in common. It was a nice end to the afternoon.
Since the taping wrapped at 6:30 I had time to return the late materials to the library AND make it home in time for NBC's Heroes. Loved it. Wasn't a fan of Ali Larter's pointless stripping, but enjoyed everything else. From what I can tell over on the TWoP boards Hiro seems to be the fan favorite character and, dude!, friggin' let me join the bandwagon right now. He's adorkable, what with the "Days of Future Past" and Kitty Pride reference and the glee with which he wielded his powers. Another character I'm fond of is Peter the nurse. A male nurse on television! A nurse who's competent and NOT under a doctor's thumb! I'm lovin' it, oh yes. So what if he seems to be flyin' higher than a kite? The cliffhanger (from which all the tension was leached by the subsequent spoiler preview for the next episode) has great stuff. The whole thing looks very promising. I intend to re-watch the pilot tomorrow and maybe formulate some more coherent thoughts. As it is I'm running on negative.
Oh yes, and I caught the tale end of Bridget Jones's Diary while waiting for FMA to come on. Little squee for Gaius Baltar whenever he showed up on the screen.
Admission to the taping wasn't guaranteed, as the e-ticket confirmation I received made sure to point out in massive bold print. The studio doors were scheduled to open at 4:45, so all those who wished to attend were strongly advised to get to the studio at least an hour to an hour and a half in advance (I assume they threw the italics in to be doubly powerful, but who knows). I vaguely recalled reading on the TWoP boards about someone showing up at the studio for a taping at 1:30 and being thirtieth in line and I figured I should aim for that time as well. I planned to leave my house around noon in order to have time to drop off some woefully overdue books and CDs before heading to midtown but (brain of a goldfish, remember) I got distracted and didn't end up getting to the train station until 12:40 or so. I blew off the library visit and went straight into the city, making it to 11th Avenue (I had *no idea* there was an 11th Avenue, btw) and 51st by 1:40.
...and no one was there, not a damn soul. I walked up to the doors and tried 'em - locked (the inscription over the main doors: "Abandon all news, ye who enter here"). A bit embarrassed, I went down to the corner store and scoped out some goods before deciding to suck it up and sit down in front the place. I figured I'd give it until 3:00 and if no one else showed up I'd wander around trying to figure out what the hell was going on. So I sat. And sat.
atraxia called around 2:30 to tell me when she planned to head over and I told her there was no one in the vicinity. As soon as I'd hung up the phone an older gent moseyed over to ask where The Daily Show was taping (me, in my head: "Were the awning and signs with the pictures of Stewart and the correspondents not enough to tip you off?"). I told him it was right here (waving my hand behind me - I didn't sit down for an hour for nothing) and, voila!, I had company. We chatted for a bit (he was carrying David Sedaris's newest book so I figured he had two things going for him): turned out he was from Vancouver on vacation and was hitting up a bunch of NYC-based talk shows. He'd managed to get tickets for Conan, Letterman, and TDS during the same week. As it takes forever to get tickets for all three, I was duly impressed. I'm not very good when it comes to prolonged conversation with someone I haven't hit it off with so things tapered off after a bit. The both of us sat there in semi-awkward silence until the next set of people showed up, a couple on vacation from Florida. I was amused to see so many tourists making their way over and left the three to bond as I returned to Storm Front with a Tori soundtrack. I looked up around 3:15 and saw the line had grown tremendously. Around 3:30
atraxia showed up, and after we engaged in a shameless round of "we're number one!" squees we hunkered down to wait for the doors to be opened. And waited. And waited. The line behind us continued to grow while a VIP line was created on the other side of the door. The line people/overlords came around occasionally to make sure things were orderly, putting up borders and ropes and the like. We were allowed bathroom breaks once we lined up in front the door yadda yadda yadda. Basically we sat around until 5PM, when the VIP people were let in (VIPs were just people who'd been unable to secure seats to a taping the day before and were thus given preferential treatment, something that should give hope to those interested in attending but worried about being able to get to the studio on-time), then the lowly general admission peons were let in, metal detectored...and led into the basement. Keeping an orderly line in the basement was nigh impossible, so it turned out my booking it out there for 1:30 meant jack squat when it came to seating in the studio (seats were not assigned). Some of the people who'd seen my sorry ass squatting in front of the studio
atraxia and I managed to make our way into the studio rather quickly. The studio was bigger than I'd imagined. I'd been to a taping of Conan back in HS and I remembered how *tiny* that space was (deceptively so), but this place had three well spaced-out seating areas.
atraxia and I got great seats - second row in the middle section, direct Stewart view - and we hunkered down as we waited (a theme, you notice) for the pre-show to begin, mocking the musical selection and the very very short man (kid?) who'd greeted us and shouted out taping directions (note: asking Stewart for hugs and/or kisses? not allowed) while we were out on 11th Avenue.The pre-show warm up was performed by a Paul Mercurio. Oh, not this Paul Mercurio, the Paul Mercurio I spent a good three years of my adolescence crushing on, but this Paul Mercurio, an asshole who managed to annoy the hell out of me for ten minutes...more proof that I've pissed off The Big Guy/Gal somewhere along the line. He went around the room prepping us on how to laugh for the taping (loud) and then (rather creepily, IMO) got us going on a chant of "Jon, Jon, Jon". It felt too cultish for me to get comfortable. Then he started with the "audience banter", going around the room joking with random folks in the crowd. I was sort of cool with things until he turned to the "brother in the corner there with the hat" (BITCTWTH for further reference). Now, mind,
atraxia and I had done the color scan and determined we were two of maybe five non-whites in the audience, so I was all ears as to what Mssr. Mercurio was going to rank on. Shit, let me put my soapbox away and just say it turned into a weird bit of race discussion (BITCTWTH: "I'm not black!"; Asswipe Mercurio:"You sure? Yeah you are, look at your face there"; fredericks: "Wteeeff, dude") and ended with Mercurio telling BITCTWTH that the black guy sitting next to him threw a shadow on him that made him look black. Shhhhhyeah. But the comic does get a nanopoint for saying, on finding out BITCTWTH's name was Jasper: "Oh yeah, you're definitely white". A nanopoint, and that's it. Oh! and then he called on atraxia and asked her what she did for fun...leading to a mention of drag puppet bingo. *grin* Okay, that was hilarious. Asswipe got another nanopoint for saying atraxia's name was pretty (cuz it is!).So Mercurio goes off and Jon comes out (! omgbbq!incineratedpanties!!). He greeted the audience warmly and then asked if we had any questions for him. We were unprepared for that, but those who'd attended tapings in the past obviously knew the score because hands were raised and questions were at the ready. The first woman Jon called on had a last name of Swallow and...yeah, the entire audience and Jon went puerile and laughed for a bit. She was a sport, though, and seemed more than prepared for our reactions. Ms. Swallow (teehee!) asked what Jon's first job was, and he answered with a hilarious tale about getting fired from a Woolworth by his older brother for breaking $2000 worth of fish tanks (was it a true story? who knows). There were a couple more people called on and then Jon thanked us again and told us the guest would be...Pat Robertson. My heart dropped, my lunch rose, and I looked over at
atraxia in shock. As far as I knew the guest was scheduled to be Pat Buchanan - not someone I was a fan of at all, but the dislike I had for that man *paled* in comparison to the disgust I had for Robertson. Turned out Jon had gotten the names mixed up and he informed the audience of his mistake after a couple of music filled minutes (during which time I glanced towards the doors mebbee twice). The show itself played the way it aired. We all screamed dutifully when the introduction was announced, and laughed loudly when the funny came around and smacked us across the heads. Jon's "who the fuck are you?" in response to the Fox News questioning of Clinton cracked my shit up. Commercial breaks were actually taken; after Jon's "we'll be right back" the loud-ass music was cued up and played for three minutes or so before we were called on to cheer like crazy mcnutters (my throat was achy when we finally left). During Dan Bakkadahl's piece Jon watched with us and cracked up a few times himself, which was quite funny; Bakkadahl came out and waved to applause during the commercial break after his segment. Buchanan was just as nutty IRL as he was on the television screen - I kept wishing he'd stop saying "immigrants" and just plain say "non-whites" when we went on his bit but other than that the audience managed to stay civil (honestly, did Mexicans kick his dog when he was younger or something? Jesus). After Buchanan left the stage Jon and Co. tested the satellite connection to Colbert's studio, and the audience was allowed to listen in on Jon and Stephen banter (Stephen blowing the shofar and then making a bong reference = comedy gold). The taping wrapped up with Stephen and Jon doing their hand-off, the airing of the Moment of Zen, then Jon thanking the audience and joking a bit about how they managed to snag the Pakistani president for Tuesday's show.
Annnnnd that was it for the taping. Five hours of waiting for twenty-two minutes of pay-off; I could make an inappropriate analogy here but I'm tired and I'll spare those that have managed to skim this far. Mercurio's pre-show shtick did lead to some observed inadvertent hilarity on the way to the subway, as BITCTWTH and his (apparently) black companion struck up conversation with two middle-aged white women from the Midwest who'd also attended the taping. It was funny but...? great is the word I'm looking for. Two kids in hip-hop gear with straight-up City accents bonding over The Daily Show with people with whom, at first glance, they have nothing in common. It was a nice end to the afternoon.
Since the taping wrapped at 6:30 I had time to return the late materials to the library AND make it home in time for NBC's Heroes. Loved it. Wasn't a fan of Ali Larter's pointless stripping, but enjoyed everything else. From what I can tell over on the TWoP boards Hiro seems to be the fan favorite character and, dude!, friggin' let me join the bandwagon right now. He's adorkable, what with the "Days of Future Past" and Kitty Pride reference and the glee with which he wielded his powers. Another character I'm fond of is Peter the nurse. A male nurse on television! A nurse who's competent and NOT under a doctor's thumb! I'm lovin' it, oh yes. So what if he seems to be flyin' higher than a kite? The cliffhanger (from which all the tension was leached by the subsequent spoiler preview for the next episode) has great stuff. The whole thing looks very promising. I intend to re-watch the pilot tomorrow and maybe formulate some more coherent thoughts. As it is I'm running on negative.
Oh yes, and I caught the tale end of Bridget Jones's Diary while waiting for FMA to come on. Little squee for Gaius Baltar whenever he showed up on the screen.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-26 11:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-26 02:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-26 12:20 pm (UTC)and i loooooooooooooooved hereos. cute indian lead. adorable japanese guy. i seriously wanted to hug him and squeeze his cheeks.
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Date: 2006-09-26 02:19 pm (UTC)And "Heroes"! The lead was damned hot, and you just wanted to jump around with Hiro and squeeze his cheeks. I hope neither of them are killed off for dramatic effect. ::fingers crossed::