I was able to see the pen-ultimate show taped before this current break they’re on. The one with Kevin Spacey.
Before the show:
The first thing that happened made me a tad unhappy. I arrived at the studio at around 2:30 and was the 6th person in line. YAY! Then 15 minutes later, the head security guy came out and told us to come back at 4, even though we had tickets. So as I was walking away, it occurred to me, how will I get my place back in line? If people start showing up at 3:45, are they really going to get shooed away? Why didn’t they hand out numbers?
So my concerns were valid. When I arrived back in line at 3:50, I was now probably the 25th person in line. I wasn’t happy. Nevertheless, I decided that I should just be happy to be there and get in to see the show and not complain. So I just sucked it up. I do wish that they would hand out numbers though.
There wasn’t really anything all that new or notable. The blonde peppy audience coordinator was not there. There was a different, less blonde and not quite as peppy audience lady there. The familiar guy was still there, though. Stuart? I think. The one whose wife had a baby recently? He was there.
Pre-Show:
The warm up comic was a guy named Jared. He was good. After the usual audience warm up stuff, he went around for people to give shout outs. At first he wanted to talk to people who had come from far away. He talked to people from Germany, he talked to someone who had been a reporter for a local station for like, 25 years and was retired and had always wanted to come see the show. YAY for getting to see the show in retirement! He talked to a soldier who was visiting from out of town, who got a nice ovation from everyone.
Then finally Stephen makes his triumphant entrance!
Q&A:
The first question was about Northwestern. The kid was going there in the fall and wanted to know about dorms. Stephen started to sing the Northwestern fight song, but he didn’t know the words so he just sort of mumbled something for a few seconds. “Go Northwestern, Go Northwestern, hmmm, hmm, hmmm, hmmm” It was somthing similar to that.
He asked about the kid’s family who was there with him, if the parents went to the school, but the parents did not. He mentioned a couple of the good dorms and said some inside NW lingo that went over my head.
A woman asked, “what kind of car did you drive in high school?” To which he answered, “I drove my mom’s Honda civic, Julia Pinkney.” (I’m pretty sure that was her name)
At this point for a split second, I was perplexed at how he knew the woman’s name. Then he said, “We went to high school together, how are you?” and he went over and gave her a hug.
Of course, at this point, I don’t recollect what they said, because I was just plain jealous that she got a hug. There were two women in the audience that got “hugs” so to speak, from Stephen that night, but neither of them were me.
Later on, during a break in the taping, I noticed the audience coordinator go over to give Julia a gift bag.
If I had been sitting next to Julia, I think I definitely would’ve asked her for a little piece of inside info about Stephen, as much as she was willing to give.
Another question was have you ever watched your performance at the WHCD? He said yes he did and that it was hard to watch it. He said he watched that video on Youtube where the camera is just focused on Bush the whole time. He then did an impression where he sat down on the platform in front of the desk and leaned back and had that look on his face, that one that Bush had on his face the whole time, sort of wincing and scrunching up his mouth.
Hobbit cameo? He said the same answer as before, he can’t confirm or deny it. Which, to me, means yes.
The last question was “Do you have any preshow rituals?” He said he goes up to the stage manager, Mark, and shakes his hand, then one of the things he mentioned was how he stands right at the entrance, the place where he comes out after being introduced by the warm-up comic, and chews on a pen. He then went backstage to grab all the pens to show us. He has those cheapie bic pens that they don’t make anymore. He talked about how when the show first began, he was so nervous that he pretty much destroyed a whole pen every night, because they were all so new to this and they didn’t know what they were doing.
That was all, I didn’t get picked. I was off too far to the side and he was in a hurry, I think. Then the taping began.
Taping:
During the People who are Destroying America piece, I was watching Stephen. He had a very serious look on his face. A couple times during the piece, he seemed to be signaling to us in the audience to stop clapping. This was, I assume, because we were sort of drowning out what was being said. It was such a great powerful piece (The openly gay mayor of Vicco KY) I could understand why he did that and why he was so serious during it. Usually he is laughing along with the audience. Then at the end when he was just looking down and he said “we’ll be right back”, I then realized that perhaps he had been trying to stay in character, during the piece. Immediately after they broke, he looked over to Paul and Barry backstage, and he was smiling.
The other notable thing was that after Kevin Spacey walked out, he got a huge long ovation. Once it was over, he got up and walked away waving goodnight, but of course, he came back for the interview.
After the interview was over, Stephen apologized to the woman he sat on, for violating her. She was just laughing and didn’t appear to be the least bit upset over it.
He had to retape the line about the 36 Olympics. He did it a few different ways. There weren’t any mistakes, which was actually a little disappointing. It was the quickest taping ever.
Post taping:
He took one last question after the taping was done. “What is your favorite flavor of froyo?” His answer was dutch chocolate. YAY for chocolate! Then it was over.
I did try to wait afterwards to get a pic with Stephen but the security guys said he wouldn’t be able to stop. Perhaps, next time, who knows?
I was sitting all the way off in the corner, directly under the E in the flashing COLBERT sign. One good thing about that was that I could hear the guys backstage talking. It’s where the crew sits, I think. However, what they were saying didn’t really register with me. As I walked out of the studio, I looked over to that area and I noticed that they have a couple tables set up. That’s where Barry Julien, Tom Purcell and Paul Dinello came from everytime during the breaks, so I assume that’s who I heard before the show. Maybe.
I got onscreen briefly, right after the Emmy pursuit:
I also wrote some other inside tidbits in the episode recap, just in case you want a little more.
August 14, 2013: The Taping ReporT!
I was able to see the pen-ultimate show taped before this current break they’re on. The one with Kevin Spacey.
Before the show:
The first thing that happened made me a tad unhappy. I arrived at the studio at around 2:30 and was the 6th person in line. YAY! Then 15 minutes later, the head security guy came out and told us to come back at 4, even though we had tickets. So as I was walking away, it occurred to me, how will I get my place back in line? If people start showing up at 3:45, are they really going to get shooed away? Why didn’t they hand out numbers?
So my concerns were valid. When I arrived back in line at 3:50, I was now probably the 25th person in line. I wasn’t happy. Nevertheless, I decided that I should just be happy to be there and get in to see the show and not complain. So I just sucked it up. I do wish that they would hand out numbers though.
There wasn’t really anything all that new or notable. The blonde peppy audience coordinator was not there. There was a different, less blonde and not quite as peppy audience lady there. The familiar guy was still there, though. Stuart? I think. The one whose wife had a baby recently? He was there.
Pre-Show:
The warm up comic was a guy named Jared. He was good. After the usual audience warm up stuff, he went around for people to give shout outs. At first he wanted to talk to people who had come from far away. He talked to people from Germany, he talked to someone who had been a reporter for a local station for like, 25 years and was retired and had always wanted to come see the show. YAY for getting to see the show in retirement! He talked to a soldier who was visiting from out of town, who got a nice ovation from everyone.
Then finally Stephen makes his triumphant entrance!
Q&A:
The first question was about Northwestern. The kid was going there in the fall and wanted to know about dorms. Stephen started to sing the Northwestern fight song, but he didn’t know the words so he just sort of mumbled something for a few seconds. “Go Northwestern, Go Northwestern, hmmm, hmm, hmmm, hmmm” It was somthing similar to that.
He asked about the kid’s family who was there with him, if the parents went to the school, but the parents did not. He mentioned a couple of the good dorms and said some inside NW lingo that went over my head.
A woman asked, “what kind of car did you drive in high school?” To which he answered, “I drove my mom’s Honda civic, Julia Pinkney.” (I’m pretty sure that was her name)
At this point for a split second, I was perplexed at how he knew the woman’s name. Then he said, “We went to high school together, how are you?” and he went over and gave her a hug.
Of course, at this point, I don’t recollect what they said, because I was just plain jealous that she got a hug. There were two women in the audience that got “hugs” so to speak, from Stephen that night, but neither of them were me.
Later on, during a break in the taping, I noticed the audience coordinator go over to give Julia a gift bag.
If I had been sitting next to Julia, I think I definitely would’ve asked her for a little piece of inside info about Stephen, as much as she was willing to give.
Another question was have you ever watched your performance at the WHCD? He said yes he did and that it was hard to watch it. He said he watched that video on Youtube where the camera is just focused on Bush the whole time. He then did an impression where he sat down on the platform in front of the desk and leaned back and had that look on his face, that one that Bush had on his face the whole time, sort of wincing and scrunching up his mouth.
Hobbit cameo? He said the same answer as before, he can’t confirm or deny it. Which, to me, means yes.
The last question was “Do you have any preshow rituals?” He said he goes up to the stage manager, Mark, and shakes his hand, then one of the things he mentioned was how he stands right at the entrance, the place where he comes out after being introduced by the warm-up comic, and chews on a pen. He then went backstage to grab all the pens to show us. He has those cheapie bic pens that they don’t make anymore. He talked about how when the show first began, he was so nervous that he pretty much destroyed a whole pen every night, because they were all so new to this and they didn’t know what they were doing.
That was all, I didn’t get picked. I was off too far to the side and he was in a hurry, I think. Then the taping began.
Taping:
During the People who are Destroying America piece, I was watching Stephen. He had a very serious look on his face. A couple times during the piece, he seemed to be signaling to us in the audience to stop clapping. This was, I assume, because we were sort of drowning out what was being said. It was such a great powerful piece (The openly gay mayor of Vicco KY) I could understand why he did that and why he was so serious during it. Usually he is laughing along with the audience. Then at the end when he was just looking down and he said “we’ll be right back”, I then realized that perhaps he had been trying to stay in character, during the piece. Immediately after they broke, he looked over to Paul and Barry backstage, and he was smiling.
The other notable thing was that after Kevin Spacey walked out, he got a huge long ovation. Once it was over, he got up and walked away waving goodnight, but of course, he came back for the interview.
After the interview was over, Stephen apologized to the woman he sat on, for violating her. She was just laughing and didn’t appear to be the least bit upset over it.
He had to retape the line about the 36 Olympics. He did it a few different ways. There weren’t any mistakes, which was actually a little disappointing. It was the quickest taping ever.
Post taping:
He took one last question after the taping was done. “What is your favorite flavor of froyo?” His answer was dutch chocolate. YAY for chocolate! Then it was over.
I did try to wait afterwards to get a pic with Stephen but the security guys said he wouldn’t be able to stop. Perhaps, next time, who knows?
I was sitting all the way off in the corner, directly under the E in the flashing COLBERT sign. One good thing about that was that I could hear the guys backstage talking. It’s where the crew sits, I think. However, what they were saying didn’t really register with me. As I walked out of the studio, I looked over to that area and I noticed that they have a couple tables set up. That’s where Barry Julien, Tom Purcell and Paul Dinello came from everytime during the breaks, so I assume that’s who I heard before the show. Maybe.
I got onscreen briefly, right after the Emmy pursuit:
I also wrote some other inside tidbits in the episode recap, just in case you want a little more.