|
First, some history: back in August, I emailed the show for some tickets, and never heard back from them. In about November, I got a phone call from the show, and asked if January 4 would be okay for tickets, and naturally, I said yes. So I got on the list for that day, eagerly awaiting the tickets. At the beginning of December, got the email for the tickets, and we were raring to go.
Finally, January 4!! It's a three+ hour drive to NYC from Worcester, MA. We left about 10:30, and got in almost exactly at 1:30, after getting stuck behind an accident on the Cross Bronx Parkway for a short while. Parked in a nearby parking lot, and walked out to the studio, which has a blue awning over the studio with "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on it. There was no one there--I figured there would be a long line, but since there wasn't, we went to go and eat. When we came back about an hour later, there still wasn't a line, so we decided to take a walk uptown. We walked about 15 blocks, by which time I was getting sore, tired and cranky, so we went back downtown, only to discover a huge line! I was a little upset and told my friend Steve that perhaps we shouldn't have gone on our walk!
We conversed with the girl behind us for quite awhile, while she waited for her friend to come and join her. We got in, though it was closer than I thought! Supposedly, there are 216 seats, and we were 209 and 210. Well, the way they make you file in, we got even luckier! There are three sections around the stage: left, right and center. We were finally situated front row, center section, facing the stage. One problem: the camera was directly in front of us!
A guy comes out to warm up the audience. His name was Paul Mercurio, and he was funny. He's also one of the writers on the show. He was embarassing some of the audience members in a good hearted way--one of the guys was an older man dressed up in a suit who you would swear was a conservative. Several of his targets had a lot of fun with it, though. There was an older lady there that he said something like she should be home knitting and drinking tea--she responded by saying that was wrong--she drank beer!
Then Jon came on for a few minutes and answered a couple of questions as well, including one from an audience member about when did he think the impeachment process would start. He laughed, and told her she DID know that congress was controlled by republicans, didn't she? He said something to the effect that he would not be impeached until he "had his dick in her skull." That got a huge laugh! It was a really loose set, and everyone was friendly. I'd say that the audience was close to 100% liberal, because some of the jokes and better laugh getters would not have pleased conservatives!
Mercurio told us that we needed to really go over the top in cheering and yelling, because the studio ate up sound quite a bit, which it did. We were hoarse by the time we left.
It was difficult to hear Jon sometimes as a result, but as long as it got into his mic, we weren't worried.
The three screens behind Jon also work as the "green screens" for special effects. It's kinda cool because when Rob Corddry came out, he was in front of the screen to my left, which was to the right of Jon. We didn't see the backdrop on the screen, just the green, so it was mixed from the control booth. During the "eye" scene, it was kind of eerie, but it was funny when they flashed to the kitten.
Behind the screens, there were a couple of other backdrops which had stuff going on them to enhance the stage. It was mainly to hide and disguise the area behind Jon and keep it from looking barren. The stage itself was very simplistic. A desk, chair on top of a two tiered round dais. Put that with the screens, and voila! you have a set. It is filmed with two camera on heavy platforms and a third camera on the boom mike, which is the camera that comes in from the beginning with the swooping action. The teleprompters are on the other two camera platforms.
The guest was cool. He is a liberal, so it was a good time for us to encourage him. When he started his comments about how closer to the top the less knowledge they have (regarding the whole administration on Iraq), we were roaring.
The show didn't produce any bloopers. We did, however, get a little tiny bonus--he had to film a five minute spot for the CNN Global Edition, which he did, and then he thanked us all for coming and being there, and he left. It essentially took a half hour to film, because they would make small breaks to fill in for the commercials as well.
It was then time to wrap up and go home, which wasn't as orderly an exit as our entrance had been!
They DO hand out more tickets than they have seats for, though, but if you're from out of town, they try to get you in. They asked us all in line if there were any NYers there, because they asked up anyone was willing to give up their seats for a group from Michigan. They offered VIP tickets for next Monday if someone volunteered, which a couple behind us agreed to. So both the out of towners and the NYers got rewarded as a result.
That's about it. It was a lot of fun, and it was a great chance to see everything and to see Jon and the production crew. If you really want to see it, though, just remember to be persistent in asking for tickets, but that it might likely be a six month wait.
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
