On Monday, August 5th, 2013, I had the pleasure to attend my fourth taping of ‘The Colbert Report.’ Living in New York, I have been so fortunate to be able to attend every six months. But … more on that later …
My friend, Aran, attended with me with this time and this was her first taping, so she was leaving it up to me to get the tickets, schedule when to arrive, etc. We arrived a bit early … 2:45pm. Okay, very early! We didn’t plan on arriving that early, but it just kind of happened. But there was already four people there and shortly after, more people in their respective parties joined them. So, arriving at that time was not such a bad thing. They started to check us in at 4:00pm and everything seemed status quo. As they started to line us up next to the building, the head security guard (the guy you always see in videos, pictures, making announcements, etc) says to me, “Welcome back!” Um … ok! Thanks! Now, he uttered these same exact words to me six months ago. At the time I thought, “Does he really remember me? It this mistaken identity?” Well, last night proved that he DOES remember me. My friend and I started to laugh and proceeded to line up. A while later, one of the interns who checked me in comes up to me and asks, “You are Victoria, right?” Um … yeah. Ok, but a more important question – why do you want to know? With a smile, he says, “Ok” and walks away. I had no idea what that was about. I was hoping I won some grand prize that would allow me be become Stephen’s new female best friend … but to no avail!
We eventually made our way inside to the waiting room, where you could hear dance music playing beyond the doors into the studio. Hindsight now tells me that it had to be Stephen and Hugh filming the “Get Lucky” scene for the music video. How funny it was happening practically in front of us and at the time, nobody knew.
They eventually let us into the studio and our seats were great! We were towards the middle section on the aisle and had a perfect, unrestricted view of Stephen’s desk. The warm-up comedian was great and he definitely was out there longer entertaining us more than usual. He said they were doing some last-minute re-writes to make sure the show was perfect. Then, the time finally came! It was time for Stephen’s arrival! As the music begins to start blaring, “I Want You To Want Me,” Stephen comes charging out from the back, high-fiving all of the staff, the front row and throwing his microphone into the air! I’ve seen this happen four times and each time, it’s just as exciting and surreal as the first! It is so exciting seeing him in person; he just oozes charisma.
It was finally time for the Q&A! Now, if any of you recall my previous taping reporTs, I have probably become known as the girl who has chickened out every time in asking him a question. I want to do it, but I just freeze! I’m always afraid I’m going to trip over my words and sound like I have peanut butter stuck to all corners of my mouth. But I promised myself it would be different this time. I even told my friend, “If I don’t raise my hand immediately, just shove my arm.” The time came, he made his “humanize” me speech…and my arm went straight up! And…he called on someone else!
Here is the Q & A …
The first question was … Why did The Daily Show pick John Oliver to host and not you? Answer: Because I have my own show! Yeah, Stephen seemed a bit puzzled by that question and I’m wondering if the guy just asked the question as a joke.
This guy was a few rows behind me, so Stephen was already looking in my direction. He asked, “Anyone else?” Again, my arm went straight up and Stephen says, “Yes.” Now, I was just about positive that he was talking to me, but the last thing I wanted to do was start talking and he ended up meaning someone else. So I said and pointed to myself, “Me?” Continuing to look at me, Stephen says, “Yes.” YES! This is it Victoria! Speak slowly and whatever you do, do not trip over your words! “When you were at Northwestern, were you required to take any type of dance as part of your program?” YES! I did it! I made sense! I sounded coherent! Stephen’s answer: “Sure, I did. It was part of the theater program!” He spoke to me! He understood me! Again, I made sense! I asked him, needing more details, “What dances?” He went on to explain it was dances that involved interpretation to make them into better actors. He then said, “I also did dancing growing up in Charleston, South Carolina. I had won a competition … okay second place … during a cotillion dance.” The audience was getting into it and was verbally reacting every time he would tell a piece of the story. Then the best part, he started to dance. I knew he had some dancing background and as a dancer myself, I was hoping to her more about it. Also, I was hoping for a demonstration! And I got one! He started to move around the entire space, smiling from ear to ear. He then asked, “What is this called?” Someone yelled out, “A box step?” He said, “It’s the Foxtrot! Nobody does the Foxtrot any more. I’m doing it now for you to show you how hip I am!” HAHA! And that was pretty much it … or at least what I can remember. He started to talk to me and the entire time, even though he is talking to the entire audience, in the end, he was looking directly at me! So, I kind of froze there! And so did my friend. When it was all said and done, I leaned over to her to celebrate and she grabbed my arm, endearingly! I will tell you one thing, when he speaks to you, he really speaks to YOU! I’ve met Stephen now a number of times and each time, he has been the same way. You can tell he really appreciates his fans!
Some of the other questions during the Q&A …
Q: What song would you like to sing from a musical?
A: “Heaven on their Minds” from Jesus Christ Superstar, which is a song that Judas sang. With that, he began to sing the song, really getting into it. He started to move around to the melody, clearly feeling the song. We were very lucky … first I prompted him to dance, then someone got him to sing.
Q: What pizza do you prefer, New York or Chicago style?
A: He stated that they are both good and very different from each other. He then mentioned that his daughter Madeleine just got back from a five-week journalism program at Northwestern University called the Medill Cherubs. Madeleine asked Stephen if he ever ate at Giulianos (I think that was the name). He said, “Of course!” However, he went on to clearly state that when you go into that place, you need to order the sausage pizza. Apparently, it’s a layer of thick sausage at the bottom of the pizza, followed by more sausage on the top. He also added that it’s quite a miracle that people come out alive after eating that pizza.
Q: What do you think of the Millennial generation?
A: They are fine. I have three living at home!
There was another question, which I cannot remember, but the answer was the story he has told a number of times about Evie telling him to “get the f**k out of the house and return back in as my husband.” I’m pretty sure everyone knows that story; it not, let me know and I will tell.
The show itself ran pretty well. The usual things occurred: hair and make-up after Q&A; Wriststrong toss. Only one flubbed line, which made him laugh. Like usual, he said that nobody would know this happened unless we tweeted about it. (Hey, this is not Twitter)!! The rest of the show went down without a hitch. I love watching him when there is a brief news story they have to show during the segments. At this time, you can see his inner-workings just by looking at his expressions. I love how he continues to remain in character and really feel the moment, even when he’s not speaking. A true professional.
They were meeting for a significant amount of time in between segments, clearly discussing and evaluating everything. Paul Dinello was present again, for I didn’t get to see him last time I was there.
Some of the songs that played during the breaks were “Fell in Love with a Girl” (during the make-up, like usual); “Holland 1941,” which he started off by singing along with the “Two… One, Two, Three, Four…;” and “Electric Feel.”
After the show concluded, the audience remained back for another 20 minutes (it’s a hard job, but somebody has to do it). They had to re-do a few lines, for the audio didn’t come out as clearly as needed. At one point, he stated that he was just going to read one of the longer parts off of the Teleprompter. However, they had some difficulty finding the line. Stephen, on the other hand, knew where it was supposed to be and calmly called out, “Keep going. Keep going. Start from the bottom up and try from there …” It took about a minute to find it and it was becoming humorous.
Now, as you saw during the show, the last segment was Stephen and Hugh reading off the naughty words that are allowed on cable. However, it was not filmed this way. They actually filmed that part first, then the interview. However, after the show was completed, Stephen stated that he wanted to change it around so the audience can see Hugh’s real interview first and then the silly segment. He felt it was important that Hugh was given the proper time. I thought that was very nice and you can tell Stephen has a real respect for Hugh. After the interview was done and Stephen went back to his desk, he said out loud to everyone, “What a nice guy. It was great talking to him. I only got to meet him at the Emmys on the Red Carpet, but I don’t count that…I try to blank the Emmy’s out sometimes.” The whole audience let out a collective, “Awwwwww!” He stated, “Yeah, thank you for your compassion.” It was so cute and he had a great smile on his face the entire time. As for the setup of the segment, Stephen had to re-tape the ending so it would allow it to flow into the final scene. He had to re-tape it so he wasn’t saying, “We’ll be back with Hugh Laurie,” to just “We’ll be back.” It was great to watch, for he had to pretend he was watching Hugh speak and basically react to the air. You couldn’t help but laugh!
When he finished re-doing whatever he had to, he thanked us all for coming and stated “You guys were a great audience. Really great!” I must say … we were! HAHA! But really, we were very loud and enthusiastic and you could tell Stephen was having great fun with it. He went on to say he would take another question.
Q: What do you prefer, “Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings?”
A: If you could see the expression on Stephen’s face … priceless! He had this, “Are you kidding me,?” look on his face. He stated, “Did you ever watch this show?” Everyone was laughing, clearly understanding where Stephen was coming from. He did go on to say that he loves and respects the works of J.K. Rowling and thinks the Harry Potter books are wonderful. However, LOTR, for him, is on another realm.
With that, he said good-night and that was it.
After the show, my friend really wanted to get an autograph for someone, so I told her that I would wait with her. Again, another difficult job, but somebody has to do it. We were waiting for about 20-30 minutes (I really don’t remember), when one of the security came out. He stated that Stephen was going to be a while for they had to do a lot of editing. Um, yeah, that was definitely obvious. We got out at 8:45pm, which was already late and while we didn’t mind waiting, we knew that by the time he came out, it could have easily been close to 10:00pm. And at that point, he would probably want to go directly home. (And now looking back, knowing all of the chaos that was starting to erupt at that point with Daft Punk and the VMA’s, I’m really glad we decided to leave). As we started to walk away, the head security guard I spoke about earlier yelled out to me ,”Good-bye Victoria!” What???? Ok, how did you know my name? I turned around and started to follow him to his bike, “How do you know my name?” He said, “Well, you have been here before right?” I said yes, for he replied smiling, “Well, there you go!” And at the moment, I said to my friend, “I’ve officially become ‘one of THOSE fans!’” HAHA!!! Great, security knows my name! I guess that’s what happens when you live by the show and have no difficulty attending every six months! And reflecting back, that is probably why the intern earlier wanted to know my name. The security guard probably asked and he wanted to make sure he was giving him the correct name. I have a friend who is going to be attending a taping soon and I told her to tell him, “Victoria says Hi!” HAHA!!!
It was a great taping! Stephen was in a wonderful mood and really interacted with the audience in a comedic, light-hearted way in between the segments. He truly loves what he does and it’s palpable to everyone watching him! So, I can attend again in February. Great! I will make sure I also say hi to my favorite security guard (anybody know his name, by the way)?
August 5, 2013: The Taping ReporT!
On Monday, August 5th, 2013, I had the pleasure to attend my fourth taping of ‘The Colbert Report.’ Living in New York, I have been so fortunate to be able to attend every six months. But … more on that later …
My friend, Aran, attended with me with this time and this was her first taping, so she was leaving it up to me to get the tickets, schedule when to arrive, etc. We arrived a bit early … 2:45pm. Okay, very early! We didn’t plan on arriving that early, but it just kind of happened. But there was already four people there and shortly after, more people in their respective parties joined them. So, arriving at that time was not such a bad thing. They started to check us in at 4:00pm and everything seemed status quo. As they started to line us up next to the building, the head security guard (the guy you always see in videos, pictures, making announcements, etc) says to me, “Welcome back!” Um … ok! Thanks! Now, he uttered these same exact words to me six months ago. At the time I thought, “Does he really remember me? It this mistaken identity?” Well, last night proved that he DOES remember me. My friend and I started to laugh and proceeded to line up. A while later, one of the interns who checked me in comes up to me and asks, “You are Victoria, right?” Um … yeah. Ok, but a more important question – why do you want to know? With a smile, he says, “Ok” and walks away. I had no idea what that was about. I was hoping I won some grand prize that would allow me be become Stephen’s new female best friend … but to no avail!
We eventually made our way inside to the waiting room, where you could hear dance music playing beyond the doors into the studio. Hindsight now tells me that it had to be Stephen and Hugh filming the “Get Lucky” scene for the music video. How funny it was happening practically in front of us and at the time, nobody knew.
They eventually let us into the studio and our seats were great! We were towards the middle section on the aisle and had a perfect, unrestricted view of Stephen’s desk. The warm-up comedian was great and he definitely was out there longer entertaining us more than usual. He said they were doing some last-minute re-writes to make sure the show was perfect. Then, the time finally came! It was time for Stephen’s arrival! As the music begins to start blaring, “I Want You To Want Me,” Stephen comes charging out from the back, high-fiving all of the staff, the front row and throwing his microphone into the air! I’ve seen this happen four times and each time, it’s just as exciting and surreal as the first! It is so exciting seeing him in person; he just oozes charisma.
It was finally time for the Q&A! Now, if any of you recall my previous taping reporTs, I have probably become known as the girl who has chickened out every time in asking him a question. I want to do it, but I just freeze! I’m always afraid I’m going to trip over my words and sound like I have peanut butter stuck to all corners of my mouth. But I promised myself it would be different this time. I even told my friend, “If I don’t raise my hand immediately, just shove my arm.” The time came, he made his “humanize” me speech…and my arm went straight up! And…he called on someone else!
Here is the Q & A …
The first question was … Why did The Daily Show pick John Oliver to host and not you? Answer: Because I have my own show! Yeah, Stephen seemed a bit puzzled by that question and I’m wondering if the guy just asked the question as a joke.
This guy was a few rows behind me, so Stephen was already looking in my direction. He asked, “Anyone else?” Again, my arm went straight up and Stephen says, “Yes.” Now, I was just about positive that he was talking to me, but the last thing I wanted to do was start talking and he ended up meaning someone else. So I said and pointed to myself, “Me?” Continuing to look at me, Stephen says, “Yes.” YES! This is it Victoria! Speak slowly and whatever you do, do not trip over your words! “When you were at Northwestern, were you required to take any type of dance as part of your program?” YES! I did it! I made sense! I sounded coherent! Stephen’s answer: “Sure, I did. It was part of the theater program!” He spoke to me! He understood me! Again, I made sense! I asked him, needing more details, “What dances?” He went on to explain it was dances that involved interpretation to make them into better actors. He then said, “I also did dancing growing up in Charleston, South Carolina. I had won a competition … okay second place … during a cotillion dance.” The audience was getting into it and was verbally reacting every time he would tell a piece of the story. Then the best part, he started to dance. I knew he had some dancing background and as a dancer myself, I was hoping to her more about it. Also, I was hoping for a demonstration! And I got one! He started to move around the entire space, smiling from ear to ear. He then asked, “What is this called?” Someone yelled out, “A box step?” He said, “It’s the Foxtrot! Nobody does the Foxtrot any more. I’m doing it now for you to show you how hip I am!” HAHA! And that was pretty much it … or at least what I can remember. He started to talk to me and the entire time, even though he is talking to the entire audience, in the end, he was looking directly at me! So, I kind of froze there! And so did my friend. When it was all said and done, I leaned over to her to celebrate and she grabbed my arm, endearingly! I will tell you one thing, when he speaks to you, he really speaks to YOU! I’ve met Stephen now a number of times and each time, he has been the same way. You can tell he really appreciates his fans!
Some of the other questions during the Q&A …
Q: What song would you like to sing from a musical?
A: “Heaven on their Minds” from Jesus Christ Superstar, which is a song that Judas sang. With that, he began to sing the song, really getting into it. He started to move around to the melody, clearly feeling the song. We were very lucky … first I prompted him to dance, then someone got him to sing.
Q: What pizza do you prefer, New York or Chicago style?
A: He stated that they are both good and very different from each other. He then mentioned that his daughter Madeleine just got back from a five-week journalism program at Northwestern University called the Medill Cherubs. Madeleine asked Stephen if he ever ate at Giulianos (I think that was the name). He said, “Of course!” However, he went on to clearly state that when you go into that place, you need to order the sausage pizza. Apparently, it’s a layer of thick sausage at the bottom of the pizza, followed by more sausage on the top. He also added that it’s quite a miracle that people come out alive after eating that pizza.
Q: What do you think of the Millennial generation?
A: They are fine. I have three living at home!
There was another question, which I cannot remember, but the answer was the story he has told a number of times about Evie telling him to “get the f**k out of the house and return back in as my husband.” I’m pretty sure everyone knows that story; it not, let me know and I will tell.
The show itself ran pretty well. The usual things occurred: hair and make-up after Q&A; Wriststrong toss. Only one flubbed line, which made him laugh. Like usual, he said that nobody would know this happened unless we tweeted about it. (Hey, this is not Twitter)!! The rest of the show went down without a hitch. I love watching him when there is a brief news story they have to show during the segments. At this time, you can see his inner-workings just by looking at his expressions. I love how he continues to remain in character and really feel the moment, even when he’s not speaking. A true professional.
They were meeting for a significant amount of time in between segments, clearly discussing and evaluating everything. Paul Dinello was present again, for I didn’t get to see him last time I was there.
Some of the songs that played during the breaks were “Fell in Love with a Girl” (during the make-up, like usual); “Holland 1941,” which he started off by singing along with the “Two… One, Two, Three, Four…;” and “Electric Feel.”
After the show concluded, the audience remained back for another 20 minutes (it’s a hard job, but somebody has to do it). They had to re-do a few lines, for the audio didn’t come out as clearly as needed. At one point, he stated that he was just going to read one of the longer parts off of the Teleprompter. However, they had some difficulty finding the line. Stephen, on the other hand, knew where it was supposed to be and calmly called out, “Keep going. Keep going. Start from the bottom up and try from there …” It took about a minute to find it and it was becoming humorous.
Now, as you saw during the show, the last segment was Stephen and Hugh reading off the naughty words that are allowed on cable. However, it was not filmed this way. They actually filmed that part first, then the interview. However, after the show was completed, Stephen stated that he wanted to change it around so the audience can see Hugh’s real interview first and then the silly segment. He felt it was important that Hugh was given the proper time. I thought that was very nice and you can tell Stephen has a real respect for Hugh. After the interview was done and Stephen went back to his desk, he said out loud to everyone, “What a nice guy. It was great talking to him. I only got to meet him at the Emmys on the Red Carpet, but I don’t count that…I try to blank the Emmy’s out sometimes.” The whole audience let out a collective, “Awwwwww!” He stated, “Yeah, thank you for your compassion.” It was so cute and he had a great smile on his face the entire time. As for the setup of the segment, Stephen had to re-tape the ending so it would allow it to flow into the final scene. He had to re-tape it so he wasn’t saying, “We’ll be back with Hugh Laurie,” to just “We’ll be back.” It was great to watch, for he had to pretend he was watching Hugh speak and basically react to the air. You couldn’t help but laugh!
When he finished re-doing whatever he had to, he thanked us all for coming and stated “You guys were a great audience. Really great!” I must say … we were! HAHA! But really, we were very loud and enthusiastic and you could tell Stephen was having great fun with it. He went on to say he would take another question.
Q: What do you prefer, “Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings?”
A: If you could see the expression on Stephen’s face … priceless! He had this, “Are you kidding me,?” look on his face. He stated, “Did you ever watch this show?” Everyone was laughing, clearly understanding where Stephen was coming from. He did go on to say that he loves and respects the works of J.K. Rowling and thinks the Harry Potter books are wonderful. However, LOTR, for him, is on another realm.
With that, he said good-night and that was it.
After the show, my friend really wanted to get an autograph for someone, so I told her that I would wait with her. Again, another difficult job, but somebody has to do it. We were waiting for about 20-30 minutes (I really don’t remember), when one of the security came out. He stated that Stephen was going to be a while for they had to do a lot of editing. Um, yeah, that was definitely obvious. We got out at 8:45pm, which was already late and while we didn’t mind waiting, we knew that by the time he came out, it could have easily been close to 10:00pm. And at that point, he would probably want to go directly home. (And now looking back, knowing all of the chaos that was starting to erupt at that point with Daft Punk and the VMA’s, I’m really glad we decided to leave). As we started to walk away, the head security guard I spoke about earlier yelled out to me ,”Good-bye Victoria!” What???? Ok, how did you know my name? I turned around and started to follow him to his bike, “How do you know my name?” He said, “Well, you have been here before right?” I said yes, for he replied smiling, “Well, there you go!” And at the moment, I said to my friend, “I’ve officially become ‘one of THOSE fans!’” HAHA!!! Great, security knows my name! I guess that’s what happens when you live by the show and have no difficulty attending every six months! And reflecting back, that is probably why the intern earlier wanted to know my name. The security guard probably asked and he wanted to make sure he was giving him the correct name. I have a friend who is going to be attending a taping soon and I told her to tell him, “Victoria says Hi!” HAHA!!!
It was a great taping! Stephen was in a wonderful mood and really interacted with the audience in a comedic, light-hearted way in between the segments. He truly loves what he does and it’s palpable to everyone watching him! So, I can attend again in February. Great! I will make sure I also say hi to my favorite security guard (anybody know his name, by the way)?