My visit to The Daily Show, Feb. 6, 2007
(This was posted originally to a messageboard so it’s divided into parts; and has been edited slightly since the original posting. I attended with someone who shall be known as “Lefty.”)
Yay!
One thing: Jon is a pixieish elfin man! That’s so NOT just a joke! He really is an elf! I’ll be back later to report more. 
———-Later————–
I’ll skip all the travel stuff except to say that I almost missed my flight and it was made worse because those smarmy little punks who work at TSA are mad with the pitiful power they have and if you make any sort of challenge to it, they are going to “show you who’s boss” by pulling you to the side and letting 50 people go ahead of you through the metal detector until they look over and say smugly, “Okay, now you can go through.” Thankfully Jet Blue held the plane for me. Fuckers. Punk little kid with an ugly tattoo on his FACE. Yeah that really makes me feel safe that some dude dumb enough to put a big irreversible blotch on his face is monitoring my bags.
So I get there and have to take the E train from JFK to the city and I ended up getting off at 51st and Lex and walking the rest. It actually was not that cold at this point [N.B. This was during those couple of days when it was below zero in the Northeast] and I thought, “Oh this isn’t bad at all” - words that would taunt me later on. I wanted to walk past the Colbert studios just to see, so I went up to 54th and then walked west until I got to the 10th-11th block. TCR studios were totally quiet - it was pretty early at this point but those fangirls are crazy so I thought I might see a few. Nope, nobody. Several “black cars” though (those are the car-service cars that Stephen apparently has been taking lately, although the ones I saw didn’t necessarily have anything to do with him). I tried to look in the office window but there’s really nothing to see and I didn’t want to appear to be a stalker so I didn’t stop or anything.
Then it was down to 11th, turn left, and walk the 2 blocks to The Daily Show studio. Lefty was there already, first in line. We talked for a while and then I really needed a coffee and something to eat so I went off in search of sustinance. Strangely, there is really nothing around there in the way of food. Not for several blocks. Someone could make a fortune by opening a coffee shop across the street and bringing a cart over from 3-6 PM every day. If you’re looking for a business venture, give it some thought. Even a college kid could get a cart and do this - charge $3.00 for a regular coffee; people would definitely pay it. You could sell those handwarmer things too. Anyway, I ended up walking back up 11th, back down 54th, and found a Dunkin’ Donuts on 10th. Of course they didn’t have a bathroom. There must not be one bathroom in the entire of Manhattan, even for customers. So then I treked back to TDS and I hope to god nobody at TCR wondered, “Who is that weirdo who has walked by THREE times?!” (I have rather striking long red hair so it’s not hard to notice me. Just sayin’, for editorial purposes only.)
A few more people were gathering by this time. It still wasn’t that cold, thankfully. At some point, “the line guy” comes out and says that they’ll probably let people in early because it’s so cold but that still won’t happen for another hour and a half or more. He was rather humorless, I must say. And he got a little annoyed when I wanted to use the bathroom even though he offered to let people use the bathroom.
Oh, I have to report on the biggest “Waaaahhhh????” I have ever seen. Shortly after we got there, this woman comes over and stands in front of the VIP sign, which clearly says, “VIP ticketholders only - have your VIP letter with you.” She’s reading the sign, looking at her email, and she continues to stand there. We just assumed she had VIP tickets. Meanwhile the line is filling up and by 3:30 had at least a hundred people. By 4:00 there were 200. So eventually they come out, take our names, etc., and then they start letting the VIPs in first, as is the normal course of events. This woman, who has been standing there over 2 hours, gives the door guy her email and he says, “That’s not for VIP tickets - you have to go stand in the regular line” - the END of the line! She ended up being one of the last 10 people in line. I mean DUH! Didn’t she wonder what all those other people were doing standing there?! I’m still stunned at how someone could miss something so obvious. Now is the time to mention that the temperature had dropped drastically in the past hour and it was cold. COLD. My toes were small little nubs of ice. And this woman had waited there all that time and now had an excellent chance of not making it in. They overbook, so even if you have tickets if you get there too late and end up at the back of the queue you are screwed. And she was now very, very late.
Anyway, we get in and they pack us into a depressingly badly decorated room to wait another 45 minutes. They really need to paint that room and put some chairs in it. Washing the floor might be nice too - it was filthy. The YMCA is cleaner. A journalist (I don’t know where from) talked to us for a while about why we were there, if we watched the show regularly, etc. Then they finally start letting us in. I have to point out that really, for TDS, it doesn’t matter much if you get there “first in line” or not because they tell you where to sit. It’s not like at Colbert where first in line gets El Primo Seat #1. It so happened that we got excellent seats - directly in front of the desk, one row up (it’s better not to be on the floor because the camera often blocks you) - but there’s really no reason to get in line early. If I go again, as long as you’re there by 3:30 or so should be fine - within the first 150 people (to account for the VIPs, who will get in before you). I took advantage of the waiting by removing my shoes and wrapping my frozen feet in my mittens and scarf.
#
—–Later, after many exhortations to “hurry up and finish the storyyyyyy!!!”——-
I feel so important! People are hanging on my words … usually they’re just yawning.
Anyhoo: So the warmup guy came out (Paul Mecurio) and did his thing. He asked various people in the audience where they were from and saw Lefty with the Stewart/Colbert ‘08 shirt and said, “Oh, you’ve got the shirt, you must be a stalker.” That got a big laugh. He asked some other people questions and came to this one weird/hostile dude who had some kind of problem. Maybe his wife just told him it was over or something. I don’t know what his issue was but he was a killjoy. Paul M. kind of gave it back to him good, as any comedian would.
Oh, he also did the “you’ve got to be really loud” speech and had us practice screaming and clapping. This would factor in to the show’s overall experience later on, you’ll see. Oh did I mention yet how incredibly small the studio is? It looks MUCH bigger on TV. At least three times as big. The screens behind the desk look gigantic on TV and they are large but not that large. 8 x 8 maybe? And the round thing the desk sits on is small. There is barely 15 feet from the front row to the desk. It’s really shocking how different it looks on TV. I thought at least 30 feet from the front row to the desk. Not even close.
So finally Paul is done and he introduces Jon. And Jon. Is. A. Pixieish. Elfin. Man! He comes out and does kind of a quickie little stand-up act combined with the Q&A. Unfortunately I didn’t get to ask my question but Lefty did get chosen and gave him the Cheetos [N.B. She had brought Cheetos for him, as a joke, which she also did the last time she was there] and he apparently remembered the ones from the last time. Let’s see, what other questions got asked … someone asked who the worst guest was and he jokingly said Jimmy Carter (because he was roaring drunk) and then seriously said Rick Santorum. I guess he forgot about Tori Amos. [Tori Amos could not manage to say almost anything to him except “ummmmm.” She was either high or is a giant ditz, her musical talent notwithstanding.] He also said the only reason they do a Q&A at all is because he fucks it all up in rehearsal and so they have to rewrite every day and need more time. I forgot to mention that previously some guy first brought out a pen and put it on the desk and then we knew it was “almost time” when he brought out the blue-paper script. He needs to get a nice pen - it’s one of those cheapie Bics. Guess a Mont Blanc that would go with his $2,000 suits is too expensive for Comedy Central.
So then he says we’re ready and sits down and they start the countdown and we’re all screaming and the result is that people in the studio miss the first 10-15 seconds of everything he says! It’s MUCH louder in the studio than it seems at home. Obviously they adjust the levels in post. I mean it was deafening in there and while it’s loud at home, it’s not like he is obliterated by the noise.
During the Jason Jones taped thingy [Jason Jones did his second “Laguna Beach” segment that night] Jon watched on his own monitor and laughed and laughed the whole time. I actually didn’t watch the JJ segment because I wanted to see what Jon was doing. Also when he did that “apply directly to the forehead” thing, we see that he’s getting ready by getting that thing out of his pocket; then he does the bit; then puts in back in but you don’t see any of that at home: it seems like he’s got that forehead med thing on the desk already but he doesn’t.
When Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” did his interview, I missed most of that too because of the laughing. Jon looked like he was having a good time with that guest. Oh and he swore a few times, which of course got bleeped - now I can’t remember what; I’ll have to watch and see. Was there a “pussy” in there? Can’t remember. Of course we were so disappointed that there was no Toss. I really wanted to see that. Oh well, such is life.
What I noticed most of all is how different it is on TV than in real life. In RL it’s much more (to me) a standup comedy show about the news, whereas on TV it’s a news show that is funny. I don’t know if that will make sense unless you’ve seen it live. I wonder how TCR compares to this? Nobody has mentioned this difference in feeling that I recall.
And then it’s over, Jon says thanks for coming and standing out in the cold, and we’re done. I don’t think Jon comes outside afterwards to meet waiting people (which I’d never do anyway) although I really wanted him to sign my Naked Pictures book and that is clearly never going to happen. I had thought about asking Humorless Guy if I could leave it with him and they could even mail it back to me, but he was … humorless … and obviously not going to cooperate.
That’s all until the next time! It was great fun though and I highly recommend it. Oh as I said to Lefty: man do those people “dress down” there. You think Jon’s grey t-shirt is “casual”? They’re all dressed not just for Casual Friday, but for Hangover Sunday after Seriously Drunk Late Saturday Night. They all looked like bag people except for maybe two staff. It was a little odd, I thought. Maybe I’m just not used to it.
Oh, Jon’s feet don’t reach the floor in that chair. Did I mention that already? They really hike it up. You can’t tell on TV but his feet are just swinging in the breeze down there.
Elfin! 
Someone on the board remarked later, “It’s actually very weird seeing a TV show live as opposed to watching it on TV.”
I had responded: It was kind of weird … I guess because I have always looked at TDS as Jon being Jon - not a character; he’s just himself, Jon Stewart, talking about all this absurd crap done by our government and how it really pisses him off. But when you see it live, you see that it’s scripted and he’s reading a TelePrompTer and there’s people telling him to hurry up, slow down, 10 seconds, etc.
I do think he is still being Jon - not a character - and of course it’s not that I thought he winged the show every night - I know there’s a script - but it’s a lot more “packaged” and “produced” when you see it live. Little things like seeing him take that forehead medication out of his pocket and getting it ready for the shot - whereas on TV it’s just there and then it’s just gone but you don’t have this real-life practical and necessary motion of Jon’s taking it out of his pocket and then putting it back. It just magically appears when it’s needed and disappears when it’s done with.
Still totally worthwhile seeing the show live though. I’d love to go back in a few months. When it’s warmer.
The End.