This weekend, many of my mini-New York dreams came true. A Friday stroll into the beautiful depths of Central Park (20 tiring blocks worth, in fact), a discovery of a truly rare CD in St. Mark's Place (Cat Power radio sessions circa 2000, complete with emotional breakdown within the first minute) and a Sunday visit to Serendipity (which was just how I pictured it would be from the movie appearance-wise, even though we didn't honor our reservation.)
But the best yet was being in the studio audience for "The Daily Show" today with Kelly and Logan (Joey missed making it by literally one minute — stupid ticket lady!) I've been watching that show for what I can't believe has been a decade now. Since the days of Craig Kilborn, the Beth Littleford interviews and correspondents like Brian Unger. Ah, those were the days...
The studio was much smaller than I pictured it, and even its current state is apparently impressive compared to years past. The 200-something capacity place has apparently doubled in size in the last year. Yikes! But small venue means intimate relationship with the performers — excuse me, journalists, who included Samantha Bee (my current fave correspondent), Dan Bakkedahl (who I also saw at UCB two weeks ago) and of course Jon Stewart, one of the foxiest men in news today, fake or otherwise.
As far as talk show experiences go, I can't imagine a more welcoming one. Dave Letterman, for example, never addresses his audience before, during or after the show, and I definitely can't see the ladies of "The View" taking time before their show to chat up their audience.
Jon Stewart, however, does a Q&A with the crowd before taping, which naturally turns into standup. A woman stood up and introduced herself as Elizabeth Swallow, which of course got a huge laugh. "I thought you could do something with it," she said to Jon. "I'm not even going there..." he said, waving his hands.
Another dude in the front row asked why JOn — a notorious germophobe — doesn't allow hugs from fans but welcomes handshakes.
"See, you think it's for my protection, but it's actually for yours," he said with perfect timing.
It was so crazy to see him in action. Even between takes or while footage was playing, he seemed both intently focused and ready to make an insanely witty comment at a moment's notice. He and Stephen Colbert even did some off-camera banter via satellite in between commercials that involved a ram's horn (he reprised it for tonight's show, in case you saw it.)
But if you saw "The Daily Show," you probably did not hear my contribution. After the first commerical break, Jon introduced Dan Bakkedahl's piece by saying, "And now for something completely different, a story about boys..." Anyone who's attended a show with me could tell you what the sound I made was called: the concert "Yeah!" It's deep, guttural and not unlike a frat boy at a football game. It was perfectly timed and, I thought, pretty darn loud.
But whether it was drowned out by the studio during taping or during our collective excitement as we watched the edited broadcast at 11, my "Yeah" was nowhere to be heard. But just knowing that I did it is satisfying enough. Besides, as Samantha Bee pointed out during her "live broadcast" from the Fox News headquarters, "I heard it with my eyes."
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