The Big Day

Well today was the day, the reason that we flew 2000 miles one way, the reason we sat in a room with no food, no cell phones, no cameras for 4 hours today. Today was the day we got to go see Jay Leno. We started out this morning by making a quick change of plans. We were initially planning on taking some form of LA transportaion tomorrow back to LAX, but all our research showed it to be pretty pricey. So this morning found us back at Budget Rent a Car. We got our car and headed to NBC. When Sally Garmin found our parking place we headed over to take the tour. The tour was ok, but not great. I was amazed at how antiquated some of the their stuff is, like the spot you watch the movie. I would expect a flat screen not a 1980's tube TV. They are very strict on cameras for "copy right" reasons. Tour would have been better if we could have actually taken a couple of pics. After the tour we headed over to scope out the spot where we would be standing in line. We had planned on eating, sitting around awhile and getting in line. Turns out they let the first 30 into a magical little room. A Holding cell might be a better term for it. So we went ahead and checked in forgoing food and comfort. The privileged prisoners get first dibs on the commoners seats. Today during our holding cell time we met some interesting characters. There was a crazy lady in the room. She is crazy, on crack who knows. She annoyed pretty much everyone in the room. She did a half backed Zsa Zsa Gabor. I can't repeat some of the stuff she said but she was whacked. One of the neatest things besides Jay was a neat lady we met today. There was a lady in the room with us that knew every guard, every camera man, talked with John Melendez when we got inside. Anyway she said this was her i think 305th trip to see Jay. It was pretty impressive just to hear her talk, and how well she handled the crazy lady. As we stood there I realized that I had been to her blog before when i was looking for tips on the tonight show. At that point i put two and two together and knew she was going to blog about the experience etc. So i looked her up on the net tonight. Her name is Glozell here is a link to her blog. Glozell was really cool. Looking at her page it seems she has met about everyone! Glozell if your reading my blog thanks for making today a great experience! I love your sense of humor.

Ok to the heart of our trip. The Show was cool. I'm alittle bit in shock that we even got to go. I learned a couple things today that i did not know before today. One idea i had in my head was that they probably did some edits to the show. That isn't true. They start taping and then roll. They pause and goto a black screen during commercial. The dead space is the same length as the commercials. Then they just bring it up live again after the fade. so that was pretty wild. The stage was smaller than i thought it would be. There were lights, and cameras everywhere. Cameron and I made it on the front row of commoners. The seats on the floor are occupied by special guests and hand picked people. So our common faces didn't lend us those seats. But we were on the front row of regualr seats. In hind sight i'm not sure being on the front is ideal because you get blocked alot by the big cameras. I wouldn't do it another way for our first time, but the higher up folks probably could see the show better than we could. The spot where he does the monologue retracts into the stage once he is done. Fifteen minutes before they went live Jay came out and welcomed everyone to the show. He was still in his denim clothes at that point. After he went off stage he put his suit on and was back out in just a few minutes. I guess he has done this enough that he doesn't need to get ready very far in advance. I can't really remember much about the monologue because i was looking around trying to see all the behind the scenes cue card stuff. There were several crucial people you never see on camera directing things. They were the cogs that made things spin it seemed. Kevin & John were seen very little during the show. One neat thing we noticed is during the interviews there is a lady just off stage that is writing things on cue cards fo stuff to ask. I guess this is so Jay doesn't have to come up with it all during the course of the talk. Jay was able to look at them and on camera it looks like he looking at the guest. that was pretty neat. For a first timer it was hard to see that actual show for being so interested in all of the behind the scenes stuff. I'll be anxious to check my Tivo to see the polished product that we saw being created. After the musical act and Jay says goodnight stay tuned for Conan all the guests and Jay stay over there to do a TV spot. Its what you see during the news lots of times saying stay tuned for tonights show. I hate that this maybe Jays last year, but i'm really glad that we got to come see him. sammy did really good hooking me up for my 30th birthday! I know this turned out to be a long blog, I feel like i've left some stuff out so there maybe a follow up as it all comes back to me.