Lucky Hubster Caroline has sent in this wonderful “Taping ReporT” of her adventures at the August 3rd taping of “The Colbert Report”.
This report almost wasn’t written because I almost didn’t get in! I arrived at 4:30 on a rainy day and got ticket #31. Later, just as they were moving us to the entrance, an intern asked me, “Have you been to a taping before?” I said “yes” and he answered “March 2011.” (i.e.: less than six months ago).
Oops. Busted. They must have a computer list they check against or something.
My excuse (which I didn’t tell them) is that I just moved to NYC this spring and wanted to make up for all the years I couldn’t go to tapings because I lived in Italy.
Luckily the interns took pity on me, since I had already been waiting on line a long time and there wasn’t a huge crowd that day. So thank you, kind interns! Anyway, I promised not to come back for six months, so no taping until 2012 for me.
Karenatasha’s excellent taping report already describes what happens before Stephen comes out quite well. I will second the fact that the warm up comic, Julian McCullough, is very good. His jokes are almost totally improvised – based on who he sees (and wants to pick on!) in the crowd.
I got a good seat, in the second row, near where the guest is interviewed. The crowd was enthusiastic, which you’ll hear when you see the episode.
One of my favorite parts of the taping is the audience Q & A with Stephen out of character. The first question was if our Super PAC statement of purposes should be written sincerely or more with character in mind?
Stephen’s short answer was that he wants our statements of purpose to be sincere.
He also explained how the Super PAC came about. Basically, they have been improvising it along the way. It started with the Colbert Report’s spoof of Tim Pawlenty’s over-the-top PAC ad (which said something about a Colbert PAC at the end). The network lawyers quickly asked if Stephen was really going to form a PAC, because “it would open up a whole can of worms”. Stephen looked very mischievous at this point. “So, we said yes, we want to do it.”
Now he has hired a guy who has crafted messages for the Republicans (like using “death tax” for estate tax). The CR staff has put together a word cloud from all the statement of purposes so far and this guy is going to help them make a TV ad, based on what we said. (I will be very curious to see what they come up).
Then, an aspiring actress who hopes to transfer to Northwestern asked which program Stephen did at Northwestern. Stephen said he transferred too, from a small all-boys college in Virginia. At Northwestern he was in the School of Theater. “I was an ac-tor,” he said in a fake pretentious voice.
The last question I remember was a couple attempting to do some type of bit, where the girl asked a long question in Russian and the guy was going to translate for Stephen. But after the girl finished, Stephen cut in and said something like, “I got this. Uh, yes. And then I put some cream on it.” So we never heard what the guy was going to translate. (I guess Stephen couldn’t resist the opening they gave him). Moral – if you’re going to try a bit, keep it very short! Or, better, just ask a question.
After the show, Stephen asked if we had any more questions. Someone asked something about all the members of Congress he’s interviewed. I couldn’t hear, but the question may have been which member impressed him the most.
Stephen squirmed and said, “I’d rather not say, but I have interviewed some outstanding members of Congress.”
The last question was a girl asking, “Do you cry?” Stephen looked a bit startled and said, “Do I cry? Yes, at the drop of a hat. Why do you ask?”
I think the questioner didn’t have an answer for this and maybe choked up a bit. Then Stephen said something like “Ah, it takes one to recognize another.”
He is really so sweet, even when people ask questions that are a bit strange/very personal.
Then he waved and left.
About the show, most of us were doubled over laughing at his mime of a T-Rex trying to put on a condom. That was probably my favorite moment of the episode. I was happy there was a Threatdown – one of my favorite segments. Also, I noticed that Stephen continued talking to his guest, Robert Wittman, after the interview, for nearly the whole
commercial break. As someone else said, “I wish we could hear this!”
Stephen only had to redo one part – the intro (he messed up the very last sentence). As Karenatasha mentioned, Paul Dinello is one of the people who hovers over Stephen during the breaks. I was torn at whom to stare at, because I am a big fan of Paul’s too!
Anyway, that’s my report. I enjoyed the show very much and was impressed with the other fans.
August 3rd, 2011: The Taping ReporT!
Lucky Hubster Caroline has sent in this wonderful “Taping ReporT” of her adventures at the August 3rd taping of “The Colbert Report”.
This report almost wasn’t written because I almost didn’t get in! I arrived at 4:30 on a rainy day and got ticket #31. Later, just as they were moving us to the entrance, an intern asked me, “Have you been to a taping before?” I said “yes” and he answered “March 2011.” (i.e.: less than six months ago).
Oops. Busted. They must have a computer list they check against or something.
My excuse (which I didn’t tell them) is that I just moved to NYC this spring and wanted to make up for all the years I couldn’t go to tapings because I lived in Italy.
Luckily the interns took pity on me, since I had already been waiting on line a long time and there wasn’t a huge crowd that day. So thank you, kind interns! Anyway, I promised not to come back for six months, so no taping until 2012 for me.
Karenatasha’s excellent taping report already describes what happens before Stephen comes out quite well. I will second the fact that the warm up comic, Julian McCullough, is very good. His jokes are almost totally improvised – based on who he sees (and wants to pick on!) in the crowd.
I got a good seat, in the second row, near where the guest is interviewed. The crowd was enthusiastic, which you’ll hear when you see the episode.
One of my favorite parts of the taping is the audience Q & A with Stephen out of character. The first question was if our Super PAC statement of purposes should be written sincerely or more with character in mind?
Stephen’s short answer was that he wants our statements of purpose to be sincere.
He also explained how the Super PAC came about. Basically, they have been improvising it along the way. It started with the Colbert Report’s spoof of Tim Pawlenty’s over-the-top PAC ad (which said something about a Colbert PAC at the end). The network lawyers quickly asked if Stephen was really going to form a PAC, because “it would open up a whole can of worms”. Stephen looked very mischievous at this point. “So, we said yes, we want to do it.”
Now he has hired a guy who has crafted messages for the Republicans (like using “death tax” for estate tax). The CR staff has put together a word cloud from all the statement of purposes so far and this guy is going to help them make a TV ad, based on what we said. (I will be very curious to see what they come up).
Then, an aspiring actress who hopes to transfer to Northwestern asked which program Stephen did at Northwestern. Stephen said he transferred too, from a small all-boys college in Virginia. At Northwestern he was in the School of Theater. “I was an ac-tor,” he said in a fake pretentious voice.
The last question I remember was a couple attempting to do some type of bit, where the girl asked a long question in Russian and the guy was going to translate for Stephen. But after the girl finished, Stephen cut in and said something like, “I got this. Uh, yes. And then I put some cream on it.” So we never heard what the guy was going to translate. (I guess Stephen couldn’t resist the opening they gave him). Moral – if you’re going to try a bit, keep it very short! Or, better, just ask a question.
After the show, Stephen asked if we had any more questions. Someone asked something about all the members of Congress he’s interviewed. I couldn’t hear, but the question may have been which member impressed him the most.
Stephen squirmed and said, “I’d rather not say, but I have interviewed some outstanding members of Congress.”
The last question was a girl asking, “Do you cry?” Stephen looked a bit startled and said, “Do I cry? Yes, at the drop of a hat. Why do you ask?”
I think the questioner didn’t have an answer for this and maybe choked up a bit. Then Stephen said something like “Ah, it takes one to recognize another.”
He is really so sweet, even when people ask questions that are a bit strange/very personal.
Then he waved and left.
About the show, most of us were doubled over laughing at his mime of a T-Rex trying to put on a condom. That was probably my favorite moment of the episode. I was happy there was a Threatdown – one of my favorite segments. Also, I noticed that Stephen continued talking to his guest, Robert Wittman, after the interview, for nearly the whole
commercial break. As someone else said, “I wish we could hear this!”
Stephen only had to redo one part – the intro (he messed up the very last sentence). As Karenatasha mentioned, Paul Dinello is one of the people who hovers over Stephen during the breaks. I was torn at whom to stare at, because I am a big fan of Paul’s too!
Anyway, that’s my report. I enjoyed the show very much and was impressed with the other fans.