Hubster Jen has sent us this wonderful “Taping ReporT” of her trip to the November 4th, 2014 taping of “The Colbert Report”.
A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend the live taping of Stephen’s last election special. I had been trying to get tickets to one of Stephen’s last shows for a while. I originally had a ticket to go to a taping two weeks later, but the person I was going with couldn’t make it and I was not sure if I could plan on getting to New York City by myself. I, being a college student from Massachusetts, would have had to take a bus or a train to get there, and I was having trouble planning all the details, such as times and what I would do overnight. Anyway my mom found out I was planning all this and she called up my aunt who likes to travel and likes comedy shows and asked her if she could come with me. My aunt said she would love to go, but she could not go on October 28th, the day I originally had a ticket for. She asked if I could switch the ticket for another day. I wasn’t really sure. I kept my eye out for more tickets to be released for another day. I got a ticket for November 18 and I cancelled the other one. On November 1st my mom said, “Bad news.” I said, “What?” She told me that my aunt couldn’t go and she felt really bad. Her boss wanted her to go some meeting that day. I had been wanting to go to the show for years and it was supposed to be my birthday present from her. I didn’t get too down, because I had hope that we would be able to go to another taping on a different date and maybe get two tickets this time. I said, “I’ll be able to get tickets to a different date,” seeing that I had done it before. That night I was up late and was on the Colbert Report website under the tickets page and kept refreshing. Just for the record, I was wearing my lucky socks, and as I did for the November 18th ticket I prayed “Please God, help me get tickets to the Colbert Report.” Someone up there was listening to my prayer because I got two tickets! It was around 12:30am, when I saw that two tickets were available for November 4th. I knew that it would be last minute to plan a trip two days in advance, but I grabbed them, figuring that even if I couldn’t go, I could cancel again for the third time. I was so surprised that I actually got the only two tickets and my aunt was able go that day. I was so excited when I realized it would be the live election special taping. When I first got the tickets, I hadn’t even realized that. This would be my first taping and sadly my only taping.
It was a very warm night for November. It was in the 60s. I insisted on getting to the show a couple of hours before they told us to be there, which was 15 minutes before 10pm. I would have liked to be there at least two hours before, but we were stuck in so much traffic and we hadn’t had anything to eat yet. If I was by myself I would have gotten there earlier, because I would have tried to get front row. I wanted to high five Stephen. I knew that one person in the party had to stand in line, but my aunt didn’t believe me and thought that it would be like when she went to a Lettermen taping. She thought they would give you your tickets and ask you to come back later in a couple hours. I kept telling her that I knew how the tickets worked, but she didn’t listen to me. Having read a lot taping reporTs, I knew that you stay in line and get your ticket based on where you are in line. I knew that guests could meet you in line by the time they tell you to be there. For us, that time was 10. I was worried that we would not make it to the show in time. I thought that I would have to face the predicament of having come all the way to New York City and not even getting to see what I came there for. Anyway, we got in line a little after 8:30pm, after having dinner. We weren’t too late! The line was fairly long, I’d say maybe 30 people or more. I’m not good at “the guess how many” game, so I could be way off. My aunt found out that the ticket situation was what I explained to her. I said, “I told you so! You didn’t listen to me!” It was later than I hoped, but I was just so glad to be there in line. Once I was in line, I finally felt relaxed. I had been worrying all night that we wouldn’t get there in time. My aunt was holding our leftover food from the restaurant we ate at, so she decided to go back to the hotel room and come back and meet me in line. They told us at 9 that we would be going in, and I was texting her saying that she might not make it back in time. Our hotel was fourteen blocks away. But it wasn’t until 9:30 that we actually started moving inside. My aunt made it back just in time. The guy that checked us in, was handing me my ticket when she came back in line. We were tickets number 75 and 76. I wanted to be closer, but oh well, I was just glad to have a ticket in my hand.
We went through the metal detector and I had my bag checked when we went inside. I never would have imagined that the waiting room was going to be that packed. More and more people kept coming in and some guy that worked there kept telling us to move back and get closer together. I read that the room was small and crowded, but man, people couldn’t even find a place to stand with being on top of someone else. We were in the waiting room for a while too and it was hot. I had to fan myself with my ticket. They were playing the Best Of video, but at first you couldn’t even hear it. I had never seen the actual video (having never been to a taping before), but I had seen most of the clips, such as the Daft Punk segment, the offer for Donald Trump, the iBucket segment, the Wheat Thins sponsorship, the Halloween skit with Tom Hanks and Matt Damon, John Lithgow’s performance, an interview with Steve Carell, and some more that I can’t remember. They were funny clips. After we had been inside for maybe an hour, one of the guys that worked there said we were going into the studio soon, that Stephen was rehearsing in there and they would start calling our numbers to let us in. He had us make a lot of noise, so that we would interrupt the Daily Show’s taping down the street. We screamed and cheered really loud. He told us that Stephen would be doing a Q & A out of character, and even the United States Congress didn’t get Stephen out of character! We were told to go to the bathroom because that was our only chance. We were still watching the best of video. By this time we were like “Come on! What is taking so long?” Then maybe a half hour later, the audience coordinator working there gave us the laydown of how the show goes. He told us to laugh really hard at all the jokes in the intro even if we didn’t think they were that funny. (There was no table of contents. He must say that every time). He said that we were an important part of the show. He said that we are the laugh track for the audience at home. He said that Stephen is an improv comic and feeds off the energy of the audience. He told to make a ton of noise, because “Stephen eats that shit up.”
We didn’t get into the studio until after 11, I think. I was so excited to see the studio in person. It was small, but I liked that about it. The desk had the illusion of an aquarium with fish swimming in it. The Colbert sign from Stephest Colbchella ‘012 was to my left. And above me, I saw the all the cool lights. Like they said, every seat is a good seat, and they all get to face Stephen. We sat in the sixth row, second to last row. I had an aisle seat. Paul Mecurio was the warm up comic. When he first came out he told us that we had to laugh very loudly at Stephen’s jokes. He made us go “HA!” very loudly and some audience members had to do it into the microphone. He judged whether their “HAs!” were good or not, and made fun of those who didn’t “HA!” loud enough. He did his usual, make fun of people in the audience routine. I thought he was funny, although I didn’t want to get picked on. He asked if anyone was from another country, and what they did for a living. He asked a girl if she was here with her boyfriend. She said yes. He asked if they were going to get married and they didn’t look so sure of it. I think one of them said, “Yes” and the other one said “No.” He asked a guy with tattoos where he was from and he said “Australia”, then he asked “Who are you here with?” and he answered “My partner.” Paul Mecurio said, “Oh, so you’re gay? Are you guys going to get married?” He replied “Once it’s legal.” We clapped and laughed when Paul flipped off the other couple and said, “Hear that? Fuck you guys” or something like that. Throughout Paul Mecurio’s bit, he was getting us to make a lot of noise and chant “Stephen, Stephen, Stephen” really loud. Part of his job was to get us to get us pumped up. His routine didn’t last very long. He introduced Stephen and I looked at the door anxiously waiting for his entrance.
Then Stephen ran out to Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me” and high fived everyone in the front row. He was “wooing” and really had a lot of energy and enthusiasm. It was so unreal to see him in person. It was amazing. He threw his microphone up really high in the air. It flipped a couple of times and he caught it. He did that quick little crotch grab he so often does, then he sat down and we chanted and cheered for a while. He told us that we had to get going because they were going to do the toss. I knew they would do one! I was so excited. Stephen answered a few questions but not for very long at all. I could tell that Paul Mecurio’s routine and Stephen’s Q & A, were kind of rushed because they were taping live and had to get ready really quickly. I’ll try to remember all the questions for Stephen. They might not be in order and I’m paraphrasing them. I knew I wasn’t going to ask a question. Partly because being a huge fangirl, I couldn’t think of anything to ask him that I didn’t already know and also because I just wanted to sit back and listen to his answers. I also get shy when it comes to talking in front of a lot of people.
One of the people Stephen called on was a guy who projected his voice loudly. Stephen said, “I can hear you!” We all laughed. The guy said that he wrote a paper on him in high school and used the word “truthiness,” and his teacher didn’t believe it was a word. He asked “What should I have told him?” Stephen said, “You should have told him to look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary.” An older guy asked if Stephen would be going to some political rally or something, Stephen said, “No, probably not.” I had never heard of what he was talking about. Then Stephen said, “How about a question from a girl?” A British girl told him, “I came all the way from Britain to see you.” Stephen put on a funny British accent and say “Oh jolly! Supah!” She asked him “What ever happened to Chuck and Geoffrey?” He said “You watch Strangers with Candy. I’d like you to know that means you are emotionally disturbed.” Then he said “I think that they would have ended up happy together.” She said, “I thought they would commit suicide or something.” Stephen said, “No, No, they were both udder cowards.” With so many people with their hands up to ask a question, Stephen said, “I feel like I’m on the Bachelor,” then he exclaimed, “Yes! Yes! A hundred times yes!” A girl told him that she wrote a 20 page paper about his show said she goes to Northwestern. Stephen replied, “That guy wrote one in high school.” She asked him if he got to do anything fun like that. He said, “Writing a 20 page paper?” She said “About a TV show.” He said, “No, we actually did real work.” Then he said, “I was a theatre major” and something else about not doing that much work. He told us how he used to wear leg warmers and cropped shirts when he was in college, saying, “It was the eighties” and then he sang some eighties song. I can’t remember which what it was, but I knew it. Someone asked what his favorite song to sing was. He said, “I like to sing a lot of songs.” Then he sang some song I’ve never heard before. The microphone was echoing too so it wasn’t clear audio. Another guy asked Stephen what his rose and thorns were, and the guy repeated the question saying “your highs and lows.” Stephen said, “Come on, stick with your metaphor!” He said that the rose was doing the show for us, and “There were no thorns.” We awed. Another guy asked if Stephen would be doing the character on the Late Show, to which Stephen said, “I’ll no longer be a pundit, but you’ll get to see how much of the character was actually me.” Then he shopped taking questions. Someone miked him up and he got a little bit of makeup and hair spray before they turned on the cameras. Stephen told us to “Have a great show.”
They filmed the toss with Jon and then he started the show. I loved the graphics and the title of the special, something like “Midterms: Detour to Gridlock… An Exciting Thing I’m Totally Interested In … Wait! Don’t Change The Channel, Watch This Video Of A Duckling Following A Cat Dressed Like a Shark Riding A Roomba ‘014.” I laughed really hard at all the jokes, and so did my aunt. They were just so great. She had never really seen the show before, so she did not know what to expect. I could tell that she was surprised by how funny the show was and how funny Stephen was. Most of the time, when they would show a clip, I would watch Stephen as he prepared for the camera to come back to him. It was really cool getting to see his wheels turning. I loved seeing the Mountains of Midterm Madness skit in front of my own eyes, to the left of me. I noticed the green screen first, and then I saw the guy dressed as the devil. I liked seeing how serious he and the writers were during the commercial breaks, when the writers would be circled around his desk discussing with him. They were playing some really good tunes during the breaks. I think one song was a Jack White song. During the commercial break right before he did the fake farewell segment in the chair by the fireplace, he started dancing like a freak to “Lonely Boy” by the Black Keys and it was just awesome! We clapped along and it was so much fun. Before he left, he answered one last question, which was “Who first introduced you to Tolkien?” He said that it was his friend Keith who said that he should really read the Fellowship. So when Stephen got to go to New Zealand and be in The Hobbit, Peter Jackson gave him some really cool balrog that he thought was the coolest thing, and he decided to mail it to Keith. After that last question, he ran out quick, probably to get home because it was late. Since it was live, they wouldn’t be doing any editing after the show.
I really loved being there at a special taping, Stephen’s last election special, but I was a little disappointed that there was no smoothing down the back of the hair and makeup lady’s hair, no flinging wriststrong bracelets, and no pretending to throw the dagger. I was looking forward to that! I guess because of the show being live, they just had to start filming. It went by so fast! It was unfortunate that it only lasted a half hour, rather than 45 minutes, but I had a blast! My aunt loved the show too. She wasn’t expecting it to be nearly as funny as it was. She said that she liked the clips from the Best Of video too. She said Stephen would be a great replacement for Letterman. I will definitely be going to a taping of the Late Show once he goes over there. Once you experience the joy that is Stephen Colbert, it is hard to not want to experience it again! It was lovely to be a part of the Report and I’m glad I got the chance to do so before the Report is sadly no longer.
Thanks for reading!!
November 4th, 2014 – Live Election Special: The Taping ReporT!
Hubster Jen has sent us this wonderful “Taping ReporT” of her trip to the November 4th, 2014 taping of “The Colbert Report”.
A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend the live taping of Stephen’s last election special. I had been trying to get tickets to one of Stephen’s last shows for a while. I originally had a ticket to go to a taping two weeks later, but the person I was going with couldn’t make it and I was not sure if I could plan on getting to New York City by myself. I, being a college student from Massachusetts, would have had to take a bus or a train to get there, and I was having trouble planning all the details, such as times and what I would do overnight. Anyway my mom found out I was planning all this and she called up my aunt who likes to travel and likes comedy shows and asked her if she could come with me. My aunt said she would love to go, but she could not go on October 28th, the day I originally had a ticket for. She asked if I could switch the ticket for another day. I wasn’t really sure. I kept my eye out for more tickets to be released for another day. I got a ticket for November 18 and I cancelled the other one. On November 1st my mom said, “Bad news.” I said, “What?” She told me that my aunt couldn’t go and she felt really bad. Her boss wanted her to go some meeting that day. I had been wanting to go to the show for years and it was supposed to be my birthday present from her. I didn’t get too down, because I had hope that we would be able to go to another taping on a different date and maybe get two tickets this time. I said, “I’ll be able to get tickets to a different date,” seeing that I had done it before. That night I was up late and was on the Colbert Report website under the tickets page and kept refreshing. Just for the record, I was wearing my lucky socks, and as I did for the November 18th ticket I prayed “Please God, help me get tickets to the Colbert Report.” Someone up there was listening to my prayer because I got two tickets! It was around 12:30am, when I saw that two tickets were available for November 4th. I knew that it would be last minute to plan a trip two days in advance, but I grabbed them, figuring that even if I couldn’t go, I could cancel again for the third time. I was so surprised that I actually got the only two tickets and my aunt was able go that day. I was so excited when I realized it would be the live election special taping. When I first got the tickets, I hadn’t even realized that. This would be my first taping and sadly my only taping.
It was a very warm night for November. It was in the 60s. I insisted on getting to the show a couple of hours before they told us to be there, which was 15 minutes before 10pm. I would have liked to be there at least two hours before, but we were stuck in so much traffic and we hadn’t had anything to eat yet. If I was by myself I would have gotten there earlier, because I would have tried to get front row. I wanted to high five Stephen. I knew that one person in the party had to stand in line, but my aunt didn’t believe me and thought that it would be like when she went to a Lettermen taping. She thought they would give you your tickets and ask you to come back later in a couple hours. I kept telling her that I knew how the tickets worked, but she didn’t listen to me. Having read a lot taping reporTs, I knew that you stay in line and get your ticket based on where you are in line. I knew that guests could meet you in line by the time they tell you to be there. For us, that time was 10. I was worried that we would not make it to the show in time. I thought that I would have to face the predicament of having come all the way to New York City and not even getting to see what I came there for. Anyway, we got in line a little after 8:30pm, after having dinner. We weren’t too late! The line was fairly long, I’d say maybe 30 people or more. I’m not good at “the guess how many” game, so I could be way off. My aunt found out that the ticket situation was what I explained to her. I said, “I told you so! You didn’t listen to me!” It was later than I hoped, but I was just so glad to be there in line. Once I was in line, I finally felt relaxed. I had been worrying all night that we wouldn’t get there in time. My aunt was holding our leftover food from the restaurant we ate at, so she decided to go back to the hotel room and come back and meet me in line. They told us at 9 that we would be going in, and I was texting her saying that she might not make it back in time. Our hotel was fourteen blocks away. But it wasn’t until 9:30 that we actually started moving inside. My aunt made it back just in time. The guy that checked us in, was handing me my ticket when she came back in line. We were tickets number 75 and 76. I wanted to be closer, but oh well, I was just glad to have a ticket in my hand.
We went through the metal detector and I had my bag checked when we went inside. I never would have imagined that the waiting room was going to be that packed. More and more people kept coming in and some guy that worked there kept telling us to move back and get closer together. I read that the room was small and crowded, but man, people couldn’t even find a place to stand with being on top of someone else. We were in the waiting room for a while too and it was hot. I had to fan myself with my ticket. They were playing the Best Of video, but at first you couldn’t even hear it. I had never seen the actual video (having never been to a taping before), but I had seen most of the clips, such as the Daft Punk segment, the offer for Donald Trump, the iBucket segment, the Wheat Thins sponsorship, the Halloween skit with Tom Hanks and Matt Damon, John Lithgow’s performance, an interview with Steve Carell, and some more that I can’t remember. They were funny clips. After we had been inside for maybe an hour, one of the guys that worked there said we were going into the studio soon, that Stephen was rehearsing in there and they would start calling our numbers to let us in. He had us make a lot of noise, so that we would interrupt the Daily Show’s taping down the street. We screamed and cheered really loud. He told us that Stephen would be doing a Q & A out of character, and even the United States Congress didn’t get Stephen out of character! We were told to go to the bathroom because that was our only chance. We were still watching the best of video. By this time we were like “Come on! What is taking so long?” Then maybe a half hour later, the audience coordinator working there gave us the laydown of how the show goes. He told us to laugh really hard at all the jokes in the intro even if we didn’t think they were that funny. (There was no table of contents. He must say that every time). He said that we were an important part of the show. He said that we are the laugh track for the audience at home. He said that Stephen is an improv comic and feeds off the energy of the audience. He told to make a ton of noise, because “Stephen eats that shit up.”
We didn’t get into the studio until after 11, I think. I was so excited to see the studio in person. It was small, but I liked that about it. The desk had the illusion of an aquarium with fish swimming in it. The Colbert sign from Stephest Colbchella ‘012 was to my left. And above me, I saw the all the cool lights. Like they said, every seat is a good seat, and they all get to face Stephen. We sat in the sixth row, second to last row. I had an aisle seat. Paul Mecurio was the warm up comic. When he first came out he told us that we had to laugh very loudly at Stephen’s jokes. He made us go “HA!” very loudly and some audience members had to do it into the microphone. He judged whether their “HAs!” were good or not, and made fun of those who didn’t “HA!” loud enough. He did his usual, make fun of people in the audience routine. I thought he was funny, although I didn’t want to get picked on. He asked if anyone was from another country, and what they did for a living. He asked a girl if she was here with her boyfriend. She said yes. He asked if they were going to get married and they didn’t look so sure of it. I think one of them said, “Yes” and the other one said “No.” He asked a guy with tattoos where he was from and he said “Australia”, then he asked “Who are you here with?” and he answered “My partner.” Paul Mecurio said, “Oh, so you’re gay? Are you guys going to get married?” He replied “Once it’s legal.” We clapped and laughed when Paul flipped off the other couple and said, “Hear that? Fuck you guys” or something like that. Throughout Paul Mecurio’s bit, he was getting us to make a lot of noise and chant “Stephen, Stephen, Stephen” really loud. Part of his job was to get us to get us pumped up. His routine didn’t last very long. He introduced Stephen and I looked at the door anxiously waiting for his entrance.
Then Stephen ran out to Cheap Trick’s “I Want You to Want Me” and high fived everyone in the front row. He was “wooing” and really had a lot of energy and enthusiasm. It was so unreal to see him in person. It was amazing. He threw his microphone up really high in the air. It flipped a couple of times and he caught it. He did that quick little crotch grab he so often does, then he sat down and we chanted and cheered for a while. He told us that we had to get going because they were going to do the toss. I knew they would do one! I was so excited. Stephen answered a few questions but not for very long at all. I could tell that Paul Mecurio’s routine and Stephen’s Q & A, were kind of rushed because they were taping live and had to get ready really quickly. I’ll try to remember all the questions for Stephen. They might not be in order and I’m paraphrasing them. I knew I wasn’t going to ask a question. Partly because being a huge fangirl, I couldn’t think of anything to ask him that I didn’t already know and also because I just wanted to sit back and listen to his answers. I also get shy when it comes to talking in front of a lot of people.
One of the people Stephen called on was a guy who projected his voice loudly. Stephen said, “I can hear you!” We all laughed. The guy said that he wrote a paper on him in high school and used the word “truthiness,” and his teacher didn’t believe it was a word. He asked “What should I have told him?” Stephen said, “You should have told him to look it up in the Oxford English Dictionary.” An older guy asked if Stephen would be going to some political rally or something, Stephen said, “No, probably not.” I had never heard of what he was talking about. Then Stephen said, “How about a question from a girl?” A British girl told him, “I came all the way from Britain to see you.” Stephen put on a funny British accent and say “Oh jolly! Supah!” She asked him “What ever happened to Chuck and Geoffrey?” He said “You watch Strangers with Candy. I’d like you to know that means you are emotionally disturbed.” Then he said “I think that they would have ended up happy together.” She said, “I thought they would commit suicide or something.” Stephen said, “No, No, they were both udder cowards.” With so many people with their hands up to ask a question, Stephen said, “I feel like I’m on the Bachelor,” then he exclaimed, “Yes! Yes! A hundred times yes!” A girl told him that she wrote a 20 page paper about his show said she goes to Northwestern. Stephen replied, “That guy wrote one in high school.” She asked him if he got to do anything fun like that. He said, “Writing a 20 page paper?” She said “About a TV show.” He said, “No, we actually did real work.” Then he said, “I was a theatre major” and something else about not doing that much work. He told us how he used to wear leg warmers and cropped shirts when he was in college, saying, “It was the eighties” and then he sang some eighties song. I can’t remember which what it was, but I knew it. Someone asked what his favorite song to sing was. He said, “I like to sing a lot of songs.” Then he sang some song I’ve never heard before. The microphone was echoing too so it wasn’t clear audio. Another guy asked Stephen what his rose and thorns were, and the guy repeated the question saying “your highs and lows.” Stephen said, “Come on, stick with your metaphor!” He said that the rose was doing the show for us, and “There were no thorns.” We awed. Another guy asked if Stephen would be doing the character on the Late Show, to which Stephen said, “I’ll no longer be a pundit, but you’ll get to see how much of the character was actually me.” Then he shopped taking questions. Someone miked him up and he got a little bit of makeup and hair spray before they turned on the cameras. Stephen told us to “Have a great show.”
They filmed the toss with Jon and then he started the show. I loved the graphics and the title of the special, something like “Midterms: Detour to Gridlock… An Exciting Thing I’m Totally Interested In … Wait! Don’t Change The Channel, Watch This Video Of A Duckling Following A Cat Dressed Like a Shark Riding A Roomba ‘014.” I laughed really hard at all the jokes, and so did my aunt. They were just so great. She had never really seen the show before, so she did not know what to expect. I could tell that she was surprised by how funny the show was and how funny Stephen was. Most of the time, when they would show a clip, I would watch Stephen as he prepared for the camera to come back to him. It was really cool getting to see his wheels turning. I loved seeing the Mountains of Midterm Madness skit in front of my own eyes, to the left of me. I noticed the green screen first, and then I saw the guy dressed as the devil. I liked seeing how serious he and the writers were during the commercial breaks, when the writers would be circled around his desk discussing with him. They were playing some really good tunes during the breaks. I think one song was a Jack White song. During the commercial break right before he did the fake farewell segment in the chair by the fireplace, he started dancing like a freak to “Lonely Boy” by the Black Keys and it was just awesome! We clapped along and it was so much fun. Before he left, he answered one last question, which was “Who first introduced you to Tolkien?” He said that it was his friend Keith who said that he should really read the Fellowship. So when Stephen got to go to New Zealand and be in The Hobbit, Peter Jackson gave him some really cool balrog that he thought was the coolest thing, and he decided to mail it to Keith. After that last question, he ran out quick, probably to get home because it was late. Since it was live, they wouldn’t be doing any editing after the show.
I really loved being there at a special taping, Stephen’s last election special, but I was a little disappointed that there was no smoothing down the back of the hair and makeup lady’s hair, no flinging wriststrong bracelets, and no pretending to throw the dagger. I was looking forward to that! I guess because of the show being live, they just had to start filming. It went by so fast! It was unfortunate that it only lasted a half hour, rather than 45 minutes, but I had a blast! My aunt loved the show too. She wasn’t expecting it to be nearly as funny as it was. She said that she liked the clips from the Best Of video too. She said Stephen would be a great replacement for Letterman. I will definitely be going to a taping of the Late Show once he goes over there. Once you experience the joy that is Stephen Colbert, it is hard to not want to experience it again! It was lovely to be a part of the Report and I’m glad I got the chance to do so before the Report is sadly no longer.
Thanks for reading!!