On Monday, Steph, Odd, Kalina and I went to the Daily Show. The show was awesome with NBC Nightly News’s Brian Williams as the guest and a once in a blue moon appearance by Lewis Black.
Here’s the meat of it–a great interview / sparring with Brian Willaims:
Before going to the show, there were a number of uncertainties to which we did not have answers until after the show, so I thought I’d compile my notes:
- Reservations can be made through the Daily Show website.You can request to reserve up to four tickets. For the July 20th show, we reserved on February 16th.
- Once you arrive at the studio, you get to wait in line on the sidewalk outside the theater, located here. There’s a large awning to keep the sun off your back. We arrived at 3pm and were 10th in line in what would be a line of about 200 people (I came a tad later after picking up Azuri falafel for everyone). At 5:30pm (or sometimes 4:30), ushers handed out numbered cards that denote your place in line and whether you have a reserved seat or whether you’re standby.
- The line runs back and forth along the length of the building, about 200 people long. If it grows longer, it curves around the the corner of the block and goes down 52nd st. The studio seemed to fit about 200 people (after VIP’s) so if you’re in line past the tensa-barriers you probably won’t get in.
- At 6:30pm, you enter the building, get security checked, metal detected. You have to check your camera if you have one. You can bring handbags and backpacks into the studio. You can bring food in as well as long as you don’t take it out (and/or eat it). I had a banana, falafel and vitamin water in my bag.
- By 7pm, you’re seated in the studio (which, like all TV studios, is much smaller in real life).
- A comedian comes out and warms up the audience for 10 minutes.
- Jon Stewart comes out before the show to say hi, crack some jokes and field questions. One person’s question was, “Did you know your fly is down?” Ha. He was pretty embarrassed and said that in 10 years of the show he’d never left his fly down.
- The show is shot in the same timing as it airs and you’re done by 8pm.
Afterwards we went to Keen’s and indulged in filet mignon and lobster. A fun fun evening.
After the show! Happy!
