Omanis and Cheesecakes and Heights, Oh, My!
We woke up and went out to have bagels for breakfast. Afterwards we decided to walk up to Rockefeller Plaza and see if we could get on the NBC studio tour. Unfortunately, they couldn't get us in until 1:45, and that was just cutting it too close to The Daily Show, so we scrapped the idea. We decided to jsut walk south and see what there was to see. Eventually, we reached the Empire State Building, and decided to go up. The line was long, they were saying 90 minutes, but we decided what the hell. Bob had never been there and I haven't in almost 20 years, so we waited. As it turned out, it only took about an hour, so we were glad we waited. It was a really nice day, not too hot and nicely breezy. We got some souvenirs at the top and just enjoyed the view for a little while. Some kid spit off the side and some specks hit me, so I laid into him. His mom just stood there and let me do it, then when I was done, she laid into him, so that was pretty funny. After that, we strolled back toward the hotel, stopping for lunch at a place called Pax. I had a salad with tandoori chicken, and Bob got a burrito. We eventually made our way back to the hotel, then it was time to head over to the show.
It was only about 5 blocks away, so again we walked. We got there about 3:10, and were about 40th in line. We sat around on the dirty-assed sidewalk (seriously, couldn't they have hosed it down that morning or something?) listening to a crazy homeless guy walking back and forth with his message of peace, candle lighting, and hedge funds. At around 4:30, they handed out the tickets, and we waited a little longer. They let us into a lobby area at around 5. There, they gave us the spiel about how we were the laugh track, so try to laugh loud and get into it, and how Jon likes to answer audience questions before the show, but no autograph, picture, or hug requests. We finally got into the studio with everyone seated at about 6:15. The warm up comic came out for a while; he was pretty funny. After that, Jon came out and was funny and adorable. A guy a couple rows behind us raised his hand for a question. He said, "I understand you're a crossword aficionado." Jon said yes. The guy looked down and said, "What's a six letter word that means oil rich indians? Starts with O." Jon thought for a minute and said, "Omanis." It fit, and he did a little happy dance. Another lady asked if she could betroth her 3-year-old to Jon's. He sat on top of the desk and said, "I don't see a problem with that. He does have a little thing going with Apple Paltrow, though, but he doesn't know it yet." A couple more people asked him some lame questions, then they started the taping. It went by super fast. I mean, it is only a half hour show, but it really flew. You know what was neat? The correspondents literally stand like 4 feet to Jon's right when they do the "on the scene" reports. It has to be hard for them to look at the camera and not at each other when they're that close together. Unfortunately, we didn't have a celebrity interview; we had a Harvard professor who wrote a book about happiness. At least they gave everyone a copy of the book at the end. Then they did the hook up between Jon and Colbert, which, interestingly enough, is an actual satellite feed between the Daily Show studio and the Colbert studio, which is somewhere else in the city. We could hear Colbert's audience in the feed, so they either film one, do the feed, then film the other, or film them at the same time, then do the feed. There was some kind of delay, so Jon and Colbert chatted about his wrist, cracked jokes, and talked to the crowd. Then they were ready, and they filmed the feed, then it was over. Jon came out and thanked the crowd, then we left.
After the show, we decided to get dinner from a street vendor, then we went to Junior's, which is supposedly the best cheesecake in New York. They weren't lying. Bob got plain, and I got chocolate mousse. It was the most ginormous piece of cheesecake I've ever seen, and it was delicious. I couldn't finish it all. After that, we walked around Times Square for a while, then headed in for the night. Another great day!
It was only about 5 blocks away, so again we walked. We got there about 3:10, and were about 40th in line. We sat around on the dirty-assed sidewalk (seriously, couldn't they have hosed it down that morning or something?) listening to a crazy homeless guy walking back and forth with his message of peace, candle lighting, and hedge funds. At around 4:30, they handed out the tickets, and we waited a little longer. They let us into a lobby area at around 5. There, they gave us the spiel about how we were the laugh track, so try to laugh loud and get into it, and how Jon likes to answer audience questions before the show, but no autograph, picture, or hug requests. We finally got into the studio with everyone seated at about 6:15. The warm up comic came out for a while; he was pretty funny. After that, Jon came out and was funny and adorable. A guy a couple rows behind us raised his hand for a question. He said, "I understand you're a crossword aficionado." Jon said yes. The guy looked down and said, "What's a six letter word that means oil rich indians? Starts with O." Jon thought for a minute and said, "Omanis." It fit, and he did a little happy dance. Another lady asked if she could betroth her 3-year-old to Jon's. He sat on top of the desk and said, "I don't see a problem with that. He does have a little thing going with Apple Paltrow, though, but he doesn't know it yet." A couple more people asked him some lame questions, then they started the taping. It went by super fast. I mean, it is only a half hour show, but it really flew. You know what was neat? The correspondents literally stand like 4 feet to Jon's right when they do the "on the scene" reports. It has to be hard for them to look at the camera and not at each other when they're that close together. Unfortunately, we didn't have a celebrity interview; we had a Harvard professor who wrote a book about happiness. At least they gave everyone a copy of the book at the end. Then they did the hook up between Jon and Colbert, which, interestingly enough, is an actual satellite feed between the Daily Show studio and the Colbert studio, which is somewhere else in the city. We could hear Colbert's audience in the feed, so they either film one, do the feed, then film the other, or film them at the same time, then do the feed. There was some kind of delay, so Jon and Colbert chatted about his wrist, cracked jokes, and talked to the crowd. Then they were ready, and they filmed the feed, then it was over. Jon came out and thanked the crowd, then we left.
After the show, we decided to get dinner from a street vendor, then we went to Junior's, which is supposedly the best cheesecake in New York. They weren't lying. Bob got plain, and I got chocolate mousse. It was the most ginormous piece of cheesecake I've ever seen, and it was delicious. I couldn't finish it all. After that, we walked around Times Square for a while, then headed in for the night. Another great day!