Back-tracking to my Saturday...(best ever)
Determined to check off another awesome thing on our to-do list of life, Richie and I left Hofstra at 3am Saturday (technically still Friday night in my book...) in attempt to see Saturday Night Live..well, live.
Everyone needs to see it in person at some point, especially when it has been a huge part of your life. (even if it isn't always funny anymore)
SO
waited for the hofstra bus in the cold for half an hour, and it wasn't coming...so i called public safety and asked if they could wake up the bus driver for us. the officer said "i'll take care of ya, kiddo!"
and allegedly sent the bus in our direction.
alas, we waited longer and it still wasn't there, and then our wonderful friend Billy happened to be walking to his car...and offered us a ridicuously early morning lift to the train station.
meanwhile, the hofstra bus finally went by, and was confused because there were not, in fact, two students waiting for it at the student center.
so we get to the train station at about 3:45am. the train's leaving at 4. it's damn cold, and the doors aren't open yet. BUT! there weren't any creepy Hempstead train station creeps out, cause it was too cold. Bonus point.
we got on the train, arrived at Penn Station 50 min. later, and proceeded to walk all the way up to 30 Rockefeller Plaza under the NBC Studios sign on the 49th street side...as instructed to do so by the SNL stand-by ticket instructions.
THERE WERE ALREADY LIKE 30 PEOPLE THERE! they had mattresses and blankets and chairs! looney bins! it was fucking cold out!
but richie and myself had nothing but our coats, and thus, the crazy people were smarter than us..because they were warmer than us.
a nice couple from san diego ended up in line behind us. they were cute. they were here to check out wine cafes so they can open one in CA. then that guy that's been to every performance of snl ever (except 83 of them, he says) came by to enlighten us. he's pretty great. go wait in the stand by line just to meet this guy. he was at the first episode in 1975, and he still goes. they all know him by name.
anywho, 7:00 finally came and we got our stand-by tickets and headed back to penn, to head back to hofstra....because we were COLD and TIRED.
i spent the day sitting in my room watching funny movies, as i was for whatever reason still unable to sleep, despite not having slept since thursday night.
we got back into the city at 9, walked around for a bit, explored toys r us...because it's a great place to explore, and then went to 30 Rock to get in line. you get in line in numerical order, so that all your waiting in the morning is actually worthwhile. we had tickets number 22 and 23. which is ridiculously low. there were people with numbers in the 80s.
stand-by works like this: in the morning you can choose between tickets for the dress rehearsal, and tickets for the show. we chose the show because well, it's the show. our chances of getting in were much slimmer than if we had chosen the rehearsal. (Louis Klein, the man who has been to all the shows, happened to be carrying a statistics sheet on how many stand-bys they've let in this season...haha)
you go back at 10:45 for the show, and wait in line in order to see if you'll get in. if someone doesn't show up by 10:45 on the dot, they have to go to the end of the line. two people ahead of us showed up a minute late. after arguing with nbc personnel, they finally left. this was basically the best thing to ever happen.
they let the first 30 or so stand by people in through the metal detectors, and we had to wait in front of the elevators. "once you're on the elevator. you're in" they said. they let the first 14 people on the elevators. richie and i were DYING. there were only 3 people in front of us. then the girl came back down and called for the next 2 people. damn. we figured that was it. why else would they only call two. so everyone left in line started to get all, "awww mannnnn we lose" (because that's an adjective)
and THEN
moment of truth
they called the next 3 people. so the guy in front of us, and WE got to go IN to the ELEVATOR.
YAYYYYYYY
when we got off, the girl was like "k take these bracelets. the show's about to start. hurry!"
and we got to rush to the studio doors. it felt like we were on it or something and we were getting our call for places.
...but maybe that's just because me and richie both want to be on snl and we were a little excited.
so we get in and the usher points the guy in front of us to the single seat in the back row. we figure we're going in the back somewhere, too. but amazingly, life can get even better, and we were brought down the stairs to the FRONT row of the balcony, and then to the CENTER.
so we literally are facing the band directly through the center aisle of floor seating. we're right behind all the cameras and crew. we have a perfect view. honest to god, we had THE best seats in the entire fucking studio audience. at complete random.
and who is the first person i see? Lorne Michaels. He's beautiful. i'm in love with him.
so the show's going on, we ended up being on tv. you know those random clips they do during commerical breaks where they show the set being put together or the audience? we were in one of those.
and basically at our feet was a monitor set up facing the crew and actors so that they can see what's on camera. and during all the sketches, lorne was standing right there facing us, looking up at the screen.
and at us.
that's right lorne michaels acknowledged my presence, and my life is now complete.
i'm going to go to saturday night live many more times now. i used to want nothing more than to be on the show. and then that dream kind of faded and i just wanted to act in general. now the snl dream has come back and i want to be on the show again. i don't care if it isn't that funny anymore. it's still snl.
and the day continued to be the best ever, because when we were going back to school we ran into a ton of hofstra kids on the train, and it was absolutely lovely. and then when we were all waiting in the cold at hempstead for the bus, we realized that it randomly decided to start going to the other train station. so i called public safety again and got them to send us a bus and save us all. there were 10 of us, friends and also kids i dont know. (a couple of them weren't huddled with us, they just got on the bus when it arrived - and thus have no idea that i saved them from hempstead...) and the officer called me "kiddo" again so i love him.
*fin*
Everyone needs to see it in person at some point, especially when it has been a huge part of your life. (even if it isn't always funny anymore)
SO
waited for the hofstra bus in the cold for half an hour, and it wasn't coming...so i called public safety and asked if they could wake up the bus driver for us. the officer said "i'll take care of ya, kiddo!"
and allegedly sent the bus in our direction.
alas, we waited longer and it still wasn't there, and then our wonderful friend Billy happened to be walking to his car...and offered us a ridicuously early morning lift to the train station.
meanwhile, the hofstra bus finally went by, and was confused because there were not, in fact, two students waiting for it at the student center.
so we get to the train station at about 3:45am. the train's leaving at 4. it's damn cold, and the doors aren't open yet. BUT! there weren't any creepy Hempstead train station creeps out, cause it was too cold. Bonus point.
we got on the train, arrived at Penn Station 50 min. later, and proceeded to walk all the way up to 30 Rockefeller Plaza under the NBC Studios sign on the 49th street side...as instructed to do so by the SNL stand-by ticket instructions.
THERE WERE ALREADY LIKE 30 PEOPLE THERE! they had mattresses and blankets and chairs! looney bins! it was fucking cold out!
but richie and myself had nothing but our coats, and thus, the crazy people were smarter than us..because they were warmer than us.
a nice couple from san diego ended up in line behind us. they were cute. they were here to check out wine cafes so they can open one in CA. then that guy that's been to every performance of snl ever (except 83 of them, he says) came by to enlighten us. he's pretty great. go wait in the stand by line just to meet this guy. he was at the first episode in 1975, and he still goes. they all know him by name.
anywho, 7:00 finally came and we got our stand-by tickets and headed back to penn, to head back to hofstra....because we were COLD and TIRED.
i spent the day sitting in my room watching funny movies, as i was for whatever reason still unable to sleep, despite not having slept since thursday night.
we got back into the city at 9, walked around for a bit, explored toys r us...because it's a great place to explore, and then went to 30 Rock to get in line. you get in line in numerical order, so that all your waiting in the morning is actually worthwhile. we had tickets number 22 and 23. which is ridiculously low. there were people with numbers in the 80s.
stand-by works like this: in the morning you can choose between tickets for the dress rehearsal, and tickets for the show. we chose the show because well, it's the show. our chances of getting in were much slimmer than if we had chosen the rehearsal. (Louis Klein, the man who has been to all the shows, happened to be carrying a statistics sheet on how many stand-bys they've let in this season...haha)
you go back at 10:45 for the show, and wait in line in order to see if you'll get in. if someone doesn't show up by 10:45 on the dot, they have to go to the end of the line. two people ahead of us showed up a minute late. after arguing with nbc personnel, they finally left. this was basically the best thing to ever happen.
they let the first 30 or so stand by people in through the metal detectors, and we had to wait in front of the elevators. "once you're on the elevator. you're in" they said. they let the first 14 people on the elevators. richie and i were DYING. there were only 3 people in front of us. then the girl came back down and called for the next 2 people. damn. we figured that was it. why else would they only call two. so everyone left in line started to get all, "awww mannnnn we lose" (because that's an adjective)
and THEN
moment of truth
they called the next 3 people. so the guy in front of us, and WE got to go IN to the ELEVATOR.
YAYYYYYYY
when we got off, the girl was like "k take these bracelets. the show's about to start. hurry!"
and we got to rush to the studio doors. it felt like we were on it or something and we were getting our call for places.
...but maybe that's just because me and richie both want to be on snl and we were a little excited.
so we get in and the usher points the guy in front of us to the single seat in the back row. we figure we're going in the back somewhere, too. but amazingly, life can get even better, and we were brought down the stairs to the FRONT row of the balcony, and then to the CENTER.
so we literally are facing the band directly through the center aisle of floor seating. we're right behind all the cameras and crew. we have a perfect view. honest to god, we had THE best seats in the entire fucking studio audience. at complete random.
and who is the first person i see? Lorne Michaels. He's beautiful. i'm in love with him.
so the show's going on, we ended up being on tv. you know those random clips they do during commerical breaks where they show the set being put together or the audience? we were in one of those.
and basically at our feet was a monitor set up facing the crew and actors so that they can see what's on camera. and during all the sketches, lorne was standing right there facing us, looking up at the screen.
and at us.
that's right lorne michaels acknowledged my presence, and my life is now complete.
i'm going to go to saturday night live many more times now. i used to want nothing more than to be on the show. and then that dream kind of faded and i just wanted to act in general. now the snl dream has come back and i want to be on the show again. i don't care if it isn't that funny anymore. it's still snl.
and the day continued to be the best ever, because when we were going back to school we ran into a ton of hofstra kids on the train, and it was absolutely lovely. and then when we were all waiting in the cold at hempstead for the bus, we realized that it randomly decided to start going to the other train station. so i called public safety again and got them to send us a bus and save us all. there were 10 of us, friends and also kids i dont know. (a couple of them weren't huddled with us, they just got on the bus when it arrived - and thus have no idea that i saved them from hempstead...) and the officer called me "kiddo" again so i love him.
*fin*