Hubster Kaitlyn has sent us this wonderful “Taping ReporT” of her trip to the September 24, 2014 taping of “The Colbert Report.”
Hey guys!
My name is Kaitlyn and on Wednesday, September 24, I was able to attend The Colbert Report taping with my best friend. It was our first, and sadly last, taping so everything was completely new to us! And it was the episode with Bill Cosby so that made it even better.
I don’t want to go into too much detail about all the waiting we did (we got in line at 2:30 pm) and the security and waiting room stuff because I’m sure most of you know it all by now and I could seriously write pages if I were to go into detail (and this is already going to be a long Taping Report so be warned). Basically it was just a lot of standing around. All the posters on the walls of the waiting room were so cool to see in person, and of course the video playing Colbert’s greatest hits was hilarious, though as people crowded in it got to be too loud to hear the TVs.
Finally they came out to tell us it was time to go inside. They told us to get pumped and make sure we yelled a lot because “Colbert really eats that shit up”. Then they called in a few people with VIP tickets first, followed by everyone else in groups of ten according to the number on the tickets they gave us.
My friend and I were numbers 4 and 5 so we got to go in the studio in the first group. They seated us in the front row, but way in the left corner as you face the stage. We had a great view of Colbert at his main desk, but not the best view of the interview table.
As we walked in, I was surprised at how tiny the audience area really was but how large the set felt. From what I had read in other Taping Reports, I had expected the set area to be much smaller. I also noticed that the audience was seated kind of at a weird angle to the set, so that our seats on the left corner were further away from the set than the seats in the right corner.
Anyways, the warm up guy Paul Mercurio came out. I had read pretty mixed reviews about him in other Taping Reports so I wasn’t really looking forward to this. I was right. He really didn’t make any jokes at all. He just kind of picked people out of the audience and interviewed them, asking their name, where they’re from, what they do for a living. He would make a “joke” about something they said and then moved onto the next person and did the same thing. I really wasn’t impressed.
But then it was time! Colbert’s stage manager came out and told us that when we saw him wave his script around his head, that was our signal to go nuts. So he did it, and Colbert came running out, high-fiving everyone in the front row. Unfortunately, being in the far corner, as he got to us he started turning towards his desk so my high five was more of a brush with his fingertips, and my friend didn’t get to touch him at all. Bummer!
He ran around his desk and came around to stand in front of us. We cheered and chanted his name and he just soaked it all in. When we finally settled down he said he would take a few questions. I can’t remember word for word the questions and answers, but here’s the gist:
Question 1: What can we do to get Republicans and Democrats to work together?
Colbert: There’s this show called Rival Survival and they put Jeff Flake and Martin Heinrich on the show, and they actually were able to cooperate or else they would have died! So we need to do something like that: hang both parties over a pit of fire or something.
Question 2: Once you take over for David Letterman, will you be relocating your family from New Jersey to New York?
Colbert: That is an extremely personal question. I might have to call security on you! (then he started mumbling stuff into the microphone that was hard to catch but I heard something about stalkers and changing the locks) The short answer is no. I mean I got the kids. The boys love archery and I think shooting bows is frowned upon on Madison Avenue.
Question 3: When you ran for president in 2008, I missed my opportunity to vote for you. Was your running for office real?
Colbert: *laughs* Was it real? If it hadn’t been real, it wouldn’t have been a joke! No, actually when I announced to my writers I had filed the paperwork, my publicist, who is also a standup comedian herself, asked, “Are you for real?” And I said, “Of course!” When I filed the paperwork, everyone went apeshit. They went fucking crazy! I hadn’t expected that reaction.
Question 4: What are you most looking forward to when you take over for Letterman as compared to this show?
Colbert: Well I can’t compare anything to this show. Just because I’m leaving it doesn’t mean I hate it. Quite the contrary! I have so much fun on this show. But don’t worry! I’m not dying I’ll be on the other show so you’ll still get to see me!
Question 5: What are you going to be for Halloween?
Colbert: I’m going to be what I am every year: an American!
He then looked at his stage manager who said it was time to start, so he ran to the desk. A few people came out to go over notes with him and fix his hair and makeup, then he threw out a few Wrist Strong bracelets, told us to “have a good show, guys” and they started. It was very abrupt. I had expected a little more notice that they were about to start filming, maybe some warnings to us not to do anything stupid that would ruin the taping, but there wasn’t.
They did record a table of contents. I can’t remember any of what he said in it, though. I was way too starstruck and in shock that I was actually witnessing Stephen Colbert perform. I mean, he was right in front of me!
After the table of contents and the opening credits, we went nuts as the “eagle” camera zoomed overhead, and we chanted his name while he blew the rams horn. The first section of the show before the first commercial break went pretty much exactly as it was broadcast. He did flub once when saying the line about Yom Kippur. The line is, “From now until Yom Kippur marks the time of solemn reflection and atonement known as ‘the days of repentance’.” Instead, he said, “From now until Yom Kippur knows…. Oh shit!” and burst out laughing. But he pulled himself together and said the whole line over so that they were able to just edit it out.
I tried to watch Colbert as much as I could so I wasn’t really looking at the TVs above him. When they were playing the voicemails for PK Winsome and Terry Gross, and the camera wasn’t on Colbert, he was mouthing along to what they were saying. At one point he said a joke right before they cut to a news clip (something about a blow job? It was a play on words with someone’s last name) and as soon as the camera wasn’t on him he cracked up laughing at his own joke. It was hilarious! He had pulled himself together by the time the news clip was over, and I think they ended up editing that joke out because I didn’t hear it when I was able to watch the episode later.
It was also interesting to note that on the teleprompters he was reading from there were notes about things for him to do. Like if he was supposed to point at something to emphasize a point, it was written for him to do so on the screens, or if he was supposed to pause, it was written into the script. I don’t know how he keeps it all straight. I would end up reading those directions out loud!
Oh, and also his stage manager stood next to whatever monitor he was reading at at the time, silently giving Stephen feedback and directions. For example, after a joke he would dramatically, but silently, “laugh” or boo or do whatever the audience was supposed to do. At one point, when Colbert was angry about President Obama’s coffee salute and was throwing his pen down on his desk in anger, his stage manager was miming the same action, telling Stephen to keep throwing the pen. If you watch at that part, you can even see Stephen’s eyes glance briefly to the right of the screen (his left) to look at his manager. It was odd. I had always thought things like that were improvised by him, but I guess not!
Thus ended the first section of the show. During the “commercial break”, Paul Dinello and two other writers came out to talk to Stephen. They started positioning the cameras at the interview desk so I assumed that meant there would not be a second segment at his main desk, but instead two interview parts since Bill Cosby is such a high-profile guest, and I was right.
Bill Cosby walked out near the interview table and we all stood up and cheered. He bowed and took a seat. I looked over at Stephen and he was pretending the applause was for him. He turned back to his writers while the cameramen continued to set up, and someone who I think was Bill Cosby’s assistant got him situated.
Finally, the stage manager waved his script over his head, we started cheering, and Colbert introduced Bill Cosby, though we were so loud I missed the joke. Stephen ran over to the interview table and sat down, and finally we calmed down enough for them to be able to talk.
The first part of the interview went almost exactly how they played it on TV. I can’t remember anything happening that they didn’t air. Like I mentioned, my friend and I didn’t have a good view of the interview table. We were pretty far away and I had to lean over the whole time to look around one of the cameras in order to see what was happening. It was funny, though, how Bill Cosby basically controlled the whole interview. Colbert hardly got a word in edgewise in that first part.
As they cut for the second “commercial break” Colbert motioned that they were going to go right into the next part of the interview and they went right back into it. This time Stephen was actually able to direct the conversation a bit, and they talked for a long time. They cut a lot out of the aired interview, but the extended interview online is everything. My favorite parts of the whole interview were 1. Colbert’s face after Bill Cosby admonished him for taking the ball sandwich joke too far and 2. Bill Cosby recounting the story of his phone call with his friend Johnny. It was just such a unnecessarily drawn out story which really didn’t have a point at all and I was just cracking up!
Stephen’s face as Bill Cosby gets onto him about the ball sandwich joke.
Sadly, it all had to come to an end. After the interview, Bill Cosby exited the studio the same way he came in and we all gave him another standing ovation. Then, Colbert returned to his desk to quickly film the Goodnight. When he finished that, a few tech people came out and told him he needed to say the “five” in “Transformers 5” over again because it hadn’t come out clearly. So he said it over and over with different tones towards one of the cameras until everyone was satisfied. Once the camera was off of him, he thanked all of us for coming and walked out. When he had gone, the stage manager also thanked us and told us we could exit to the right, and that was it.
We walked back out through the waiting room to the street and they had already set up collapsible fences from the studio entrance to the street so Bill Cosby could get to his car. We all crowded around both sides of the door and about 5 minutes later he walked out. Three gentlemen asked to get pictures with him so he did that, then he looked at us like, “Anyone else want one?” but when no one asked he said, “Well OK then” and walked to the car. Right as he was about to get inside the car, he turned around and said, “I want you thank all of you for being here tonight! Now go to your homes! Stop this foolish behavior!” And he got in the car and drove away. It was hilarious!
So of course my friend and I waited around for Colbert to come out. We stood near the door as all the writers and various tech people left. Paul Dinello came out pretty early with his little dog. I was surprised to see the dog wasn’t on a leash! Is that even legal in New York? A group of people standing near the door talked with him, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. A little later one of the security guards came out to go home and he asked if we were waiting for Stephen. When we said we were he warned us that it would be a couple of hours, which we were fine with.
As we waited, more and more people left. Soon it was just me and my friend, and a group of three guys who had happened to be sitting right behind us in the studio. We struck up a conversation with them and learned their names were Chris, Rich, and Jerome. They were really cool and apparently they had been to quite a few tapings!
Finally, Stephen came down the stairs. He said, “Wow! You guys have waited a really long time!” And as he put his bag down in the back of the car, one of the three guys, Chris, asked if we could get pictures. He goes, “Of course! But let’s make it fast. I have somewhere to be.” He went around and took a selfie with each of us. He insisted on being the one to actually take the picture because he claimed to be good at it, but my phone confused him! So he’s kinda making a funny face in my picture. It’s perfect, though, and I love it!
While he was taking the pictures with us, Chris asked how he had managed to make it to the Google talk at 92Y the previous night. Apparently Chris, Rich, and Jerome had been there, which was funny because we had been there, too! It was amazing seeing Stephen out of character and he was absolutely hilarious. Anyways, Colbert answered that they just asked the audience to arrive extra early and they taped the show earlier than normal. Then he thanked us for coming, got in the car, and left.
Overall, we had a blast. I didn’t realize how short the taping was going to be. With the audience questions and taping combined, including the extended interview, Colbert was with us in the studio a total of about 45 minutes, maybe an hour at the most. It seemed really short for the amount of time we spent waiting before the show and after, but it was definitely worth it. Not only did I get to watch him perform in character during the show, but I got to meet him and take a picture with him! And he touched my phone! It was all an amazing experience.
When everything was said and done, a comment my friend made while we were eating donut-ice cream sandwiches at Holey Cream with Chris, Rich, and Jerome perfectly summed up how I felt in that moment: “I am perfectly content with life right now.”
September 24, 2014: The Taping ReporT!
Hubster Kaitlyn has sent us this wonderful “Taping ReporT” of her trip to the September 24, 2014 taping of “The Colbert Report.”
Hey guys!
My name is Kaitlyn and on Wednesday, September 24, I was able to attend The Colbert Report taping with my best friend. It was our first, and sadly last, taping so everything was completely new to us! And it was the episode with Bill Cosby so that made it even better.
I don’t want to go into too much detail about all the waiting we did (we got in line at 2:30 pm) and the security and waiting room stuff because I’m sure most of you know it all by now and I could seriously write pages if I were to go into detail (and this is already going to be a long Taping Report so be warned). Basically it was just a lot of standing around. All the posters on the walls of the waiting room were so cool to see in person, and of course the video playing Colbert’s greatest hits was hilarious, though as people crowded in it got to be too loud to hear the TVs.
Finally they came out to tell us it was time to go inside. They told us to get pumped and make sure we yelled a lot because “Colbert really eats that shit up”. Then they called in a few people with VIP tickets first, followed by everyone else in groups of ten according to the number on the tickets they gave us.
My friend and I were numbers 4 and 5 so we got to go in the studio in the first group. They seated us in the front row, but way in the left corner as you face the stage. We had a great view of Colbert at his main desk, but not the best view of the interview table.
As we walked in, I was surprised at how tiny the audience area really was but how large the set felt. From what I had read in other Taping Reports, I had expected the set area to be much smaller. I also noticed that the audience was seated kind of at a weird angle to the set, so that our seats on the left corner were further away from the set than the seats in the right corner.
Anyways, the warm up guy Paul Mercurio came out. I had read pretty mixed reviews about him in other Taping Reports so I wasn’t really looking forward to this. I was right. He really didn’t make any jokes at all. He just kind of picked people out of the audience and interviewed them, asking their name, where they’re from, what they do for a living. He would make a “joke” about something they said and then moved onto the next person and did the same thing. I really wasn’t impressed.
But then it was time! Colbert’s stage manager came out and told us that when we saw him wave his script around his head, that was our signal to go nuts. So he did it, and Colbert came running out, high-fiving everyone in the front row. Unfortunately, being in the far corner, as he got to us he started turning towards his desk so my high five was more of a brush with his fingertips, and my friend didn’t get to touch him at all. Bummer!
He ran around his desk and came around to stand in front of us. We cheered and chanted his name and he just soaked it all in. When we finally settled down he said he would take a few questions. I can’t remember word for word the questions and answers, but here’s the gist:
Question 1: What can we do to get Republicans and Democrats to work together?
Colbert: There’s this show called Rival Survival and they put Jeff Flake and Martin Heinrich on the show, and they actually were able to cooperate or else they would have died! So we need to do something like that: hang both parties over a pit of fire or something.
Question 2: Once you take over for David Letterman, will you be relocating your family from New Jersey to New York?
Colbert: That is an extremely personal question. I might have to call security on you! (then he started mumbling stuff into the microphone that was hard to catch but I heard something about stalkers and changing the locks) The short answer is no. I mean I got the kids. The boys love archery and I think shooting bows is frowned upon on Madison Avenue.
Question 3: When you ran for president in 2008, I missed my opportunity to vote for you. Was your running for office real?
Colbert: *laughs* Was it real? If it hadn’t been real, it wouldn’t have been a joke! No, actually when I announced to my writers I had filed the paperwork, my publicist, who is also a standup comedian herself, asked, “Are you for real?” And I said, “Of course!” When I filed the paperwork, everyone went apeshit. They went fucking crazy! I hadn’t expected that reaction.
Question 4: What are you most looking forward to when you take over for Letterman as compared to this show?
Colbert: Well I can’t compare anything to this show. Just because I’m leaving it doesn’t mean I hate it. Quite the contrary! I have so much fun on this show. But don’t worry! I’m not dying I’ll be on the other show so you’ll still get to see me!
Question 5: What are you going to be for Halloween?
Colbert: I’m going to be what I am every year: an American!
He then looked at his stage manager who said it was time to start, so he ran to the desk. A few people came out to go over notes with him and fix his hair and makeup, then he threw out a few Wrist Strong bracelets, told us to “have a good show, guys” and they started. It was very abrupt. I had expected a little more notice that they were about to start filming, maybe some warnings to us not to do anything stupid that would ruin the taping, but there wasn’t.
They did record a table of contents. I can’t remember any of what he said in it, though. I was way too starstruck and in shock that I was actually witnessing Stephen Colbert perform. I mean, he was right in front of me!
After the table of contents and the opening credits, we went nuts as the “eagle” camera zoomed overhead, and we chanted his name while he blew the rams horn. The first section of the show before the first commercial break went pretty much exactly as it was broadcast. He did flub once when saying the line about Yom Kippur. The line is, “From now until Yom Kippur marks the time of solemn reflection and atonement known as ‘the days of repentance’.” Instead, he said, “From now until Yom Kippur knows…. Oh shit!” and burst out laughing. But he pulled himself together and said the whole line over so that they were able to just edit it out.
I tried to watch Colbert as much as I could so I wasn’t really looking at the TVs above him. When they were playing the voicemails for PK Winsome and Terry Gross, and the camera wasn’t on Colbert, he was mouthing along to what they were saying. At one point he said a joke right before they cut to a news clip (something about a blow job? It was a play on words with someone’s last name) and as soon as the camera wasn’t on him he cracked up laughing at his own joke. It was hilarious! He had pulled himself together by the time the news clip was over, and I think they ended up editing that joke out because I didn’t hear it when I was able to watch the episode later.
It was also interesting to note that on the teleprompters he was reading from there were notes about things for him to do. Like if he was supposed to point at something to emphasize a point, it was written for him to do so on the screens, or if he was supposed to pause, it was written into the script. I don’t know how he keeps it all straight. I would end up reading those directions out loud!
Oh, and also his stage manager stood next to whatever monitor he was reading at at the time, silently giving Stephen feedback and directions. For example, after a joke he would dramatically, but silently, “laugh” or boo or do whatever the audience was supposed to do. At one point, when Colbert was angry about President Obama’s coffee salute and was throwing his pen down on his desk in anger, his stage manager was miming the same action, telling Stephen to keep throwing the pen. If you watch at that part, you can even see Stephen’s eyes glance briefly to the right of the screen (his left) to look at his manager. It was odd. I had always thought things like that were improvised by him, but I guess not!
Thus ended the first section of the show. During the “commercial break”, Paul Dinello and two other writers came out to talk to Stephen. They started positioning the cameras at the interview desk so I assumed that meant there would not be a second segment at his main desk, but instead two interview parts since Bill Cosby is such a high-profile guest, and I was right.
Bill Cosby walked out near the interview table and we all stood up and cheered. He bowed and took a seat. I looked over at Stephen and he was pretending the applause was for him. He turned back to his writers while the cameramen continued to set up, and someone who I think was Bill Cosby’s assistant got him situated.
Finally, the stage manager waved his script over his head, we started cheering, and Colbert introduced Bill Cosby, though we were so loud I missed the joke. Stephen ran over to the interview table and sat down, and finally we calmed down enough for them to be able to talk.
The first part of the interview went almost exactly how they played it on TV. I can’t remember anything happening that they didn’t air. Like I mentioned, my friend and I didn’t have a good view of the interview table. We were pretty far away and I had to lean over the whole time to look around one of the cameras in order to see what was happening. It was funny, though, how Bill Cosby basically controlled the whole interview. Colbert hardly got a word in edgewise in that first part.
As they cut for the second “commercial break” Colbert motioned that they were going to go right into the next part of the interview and they went right back into it. This time Stephen was actually able to direct the conversation a bit, and they talked for a long time. They cut a lot out of the aired interview, but the extended interview online is everything. My favorite parts of the whole interview were 1. Colbert’s face after Bill Cosby admonished him for taking the ball sandwich joke too far and 2. Bill Cosby recounting the story of his phone call with his friend Johnny. It was just such a unnecessarily drawn out story which really didn’t have a point at all and I was just cracking up!
Stephen’s face as Bill Cosby gets onto him about the ball sandwich joke.
Sadly, it all had to come to an end. After the interview, Bill Cosby exited the studio the same way he came in and we all gave him another standing ovation. Then, Colbert returned to his desk to quickly film the Goodnight. When he finished that, a few tech people came out and told him he needed to say the “five” in “Transformers 5” over again because it hadn’t come out clearly. So he said it over and over with different tones towards one of the cameras until everyone was satisfied. Once the camera was off of him, he thanked all of us for coming and walked out. When he had gone, the stage manager also thanked us and told us we could exit to the right, and that was it.
We walked back out through the waiting room to the street and they had already set up collapsible fences from the studio entrance to the street so Bill Cosby could get to his car. We all crowded around both sides of the door and about 5 minutes later he walked out. Three gentlemen asked to get pictures with him so he did that, then he looked at us like, “Anyone else want one?” but when no one asked he said, “Well OK then” and walked to the car. Right as he was about to get inside the car, he turned around and said, “I want you thank all of you for being here tonight! Now go to your homes! Stop this foolish behavior!” And he got in the car and drove away. It was hilarious!
So of course my friend and I waited around for Colbert to come out. We stood near the door as all the writers and various tech people left. Paul Dinello came out pretty early with his little dog. I was surprised to see the dog wasn’t on a leash! Is that even legal in New York? A group of people standing near the door talked with him, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying. A little later one of the security guards came out to go home and he asked if we were waiting for Stephen. When we said we were he warned us that it would be a couple of hours, which we were fine with.
As we waited, more and more people left. Soon it was just me and my friend, and a group of three guys who had happened to be sitting right behind us in the studio. We struck up a conversation with them and learned their names were Chris, Rich, and Jerome. They were really cool and apparently they had been to quite a few tapings!
Finally, Stephen came down the stairs. He said, “Wow! You guys have waited a really long time!” And as he put his bag down in the back of the car, one of the three guys, Chris, asked if we could get pictures. He goes, “Of course! But let’s make it fast. I have somewhere to be.” He went around and took a selfie with each of us. He insisted on being the one to actually take the picture because he claimed to be good at it, but my phone confused him! So he’s kinda making a funny face in my picture. It’s perfect, though, and I love it!
While he was taking the pictures with us, Chris asked how he had managed to make it to the Google talk at 92Y the previous night. Apparently Chris, Rich, and Jerome had been there, which was funny because we had been there, too! It was amazing seeing Stephen out of character and he was absolutely hilarious. Anyways, Colbert answered that they just asked the audience to arrive extra early and they taped the show earlier than normal. Then he thanked us for coming, got in the car, and left.
Overall, we had a blast. I didn’t realize how short the taping was going to be. With the audience questions and taping combined, including the extended interview, Colbert was with us in the studio a total of about 45 minutes, maybe an hour at the most. It seemed really short for the amount of time we spent waiting before the show and after, but it was definitely worth it. Not only did I get to watch him perform in character during the show, but I got to meet him and take a picture with him! And he touched my phone! It was all an amazing experience.
When everything was said and done, a comment my friend made while we were eating donut-ice cream sandwiches at Holey Cream with Chris, Rich, and Jerome perfectly summed up how I felt in that moment: “I am perfectly content with life right now.”