So some of you may have noticed from my comments elsewhere that I am in NYC for a few weeks, doing some approximation of working. Anyway, earlier this week, I decided to play truant, because there is one experience that I wanted to have that unfortunately cannot be had on the weekend or in the evening: sitting in the Daily Show's studio audience.
I work outside the city, so the trip is long. Took two hours, actually, because the public transit in some of the suburbs is very sparse, even compared to less extensively transit-enabled cities than NYC. But I got to the studio at the recommended time of 3:15. That's more than two hours before the official admission time!
I had a (free) online admission ticket. The show is always free. That means that I was very lucky to get a ticket, as they are usually booked solid months in advance. They do usually have some no-shows, so there is a standby line, but it is not worth taking time off work for such a fat chance; the line when I got there was already pretty long.
The studio itself was not quite what you might expect. NBC here, for instance, has the fancy-shmancy Rockefeller center. Famous shows are taped high up. Other famous shows have Times Square outposts on Broadway. The Daily Show is taped in what appears to have been some kind of converted grocery store or something, fifteen minutes to the west and north of Times Square, quite a walk from the subway for a Midtown Manhattan location. No trimmings, surrounded by car dealerships and convenience stores.
We waited around, some of us sitting down. I tried to work, actually, but had computer trouble, so I just surfed the web. I got to know a little about the other people on line. Behind me was a couple from upstate NY here on a day trip apparently just to see the show. The two women in front of me were playing hooky from work themselves; they were faculty from a nearby university. A good chunk of the crowd, actually, were people taking time off work...
Finally, the "bouncers" came out to check our tickets and read us the rules. A jeans-and-T-shirt brigade, they could have been working at a bar or some community theatre rather than one of the most watched shows in the world. The rules: go to the bathroom first, first cell phone ring means expulsion, and so on. Then we went through metal detectors and bag inspection, which the bouncers/ushers performed in good humour.
The studio itself was just what you expect from what you see on TV, except one is behind all the cameras rather than just some of them. And we could see the teleprompters and producers.
We waited for quite a long time while the speakers blared rock-and-roll at us. Eventually, out came the warm-up comedian, some stand-up unknown who was allowed to plug his own performances. The show has no laugh track, and it was his job to teach us to laugh loud enough for the microphones and reduce our inhibitions. He was funny, but an over-reliance on the s3ks j0kz made it clear why he was the warm-up act and not the show.
Then the star himself came out. It's his habit to meet the audience and take a few questions. He's funny and a pretty classy guy even when the cameras aren't rolling, and the bouncers apparently have some amount of affection for him as an employer (sort of), so it hopefully wasn't just the audience. Sorry if I sound cynical that way, but I assume famous people are guilty until proven innocent on personality matters in general.
Then the show started. It wasn't a heck of a lot different from what you see on TV, actually. Yes, he does use the teleprompter, bur he does also improvise quite a bit as well. His guest was pretty educational as they often are. Between breaks, he consulted in close huddle with the producer types. Then he taped the extra overseas segment that they apparently attach for foreign networks.
So I'm not a fanboy type, and I don't agree with all of his politics. But it was a fun experience. At five to one ratio in terms of travel/waiting to watching time, I probably wouldn't do it again, as it's not that different from seeing it on TV. But it was a worthwhile and funny experience to have once.
Cool! Glad you did it, guy. But aren't you going to tell us which segment it was? Who the guests were? So that we can try to detect your laugh among all the other laughs on that segment?
Posted by: skdadl | July 26, 2008 at 02:51 PM
I saw Stewart do live stand up in my city last year. He does come across as a decent enough guy but it was a much bigger venue than the one you were at and maybe flyspecks always seem decent.
Posted by: Snag | July 30, 2008 at 01:29 AM
Exactly, who were the guests??
Posted by: Jennifer | July 31, 2008 at 09:24 AM
And to think I posted a couple of days late just to obscure the day I went. Fine, it was the TJ English day, about Cuba and the mob.
Posted by: Mandos | July 31, 2008 at 10:02 AM