I was extremely lucky enough to get tickets to see a monologue rehearsal for The Tonight Show. I have watched every night since Jimmy Fallon took over, as you've seen in my February Favorites post, and I was so psyched to even step into the building! And, as to be expected, the rehearsal didn't disappoint.
Originally, one of my friends was going to go with me, but unfortunately she got sick, so I went on my own, even though my print-out said that it was for two people. When I walked into 30 Rockefeller Plaza, I felt intimidated. Who wouldn't in that building? Seriously! It's such a historic place. Anyhow, I went up the escalator that took me to the mezzanine level and since I ended up having a Priority ticket, I was put on the other side of the hallway, where there was only two other people! That's right, I was third on the priority line. The other line of people I saw was the General line. How I got a Priority ticket, I have no idea, but right on!
After about maybe fifteen minutes of waiting, two Tonight Show staff members came up and told us that they were gonna check in the Priority ticket holders first, then the General ones. I got my pink ticket from one of the staff members after I was scanned in, then I had a half hour to kill because they told us to come back at 3. I went to sit on one of the staircases because if I would have gone all the way into the concourse, I would have gotten lost! When I was trying to get back upstairs, Questlove walked right past me! I didn't have the courage to say anything to him because I'm a little chicken shit, but it was cool to just see him walk right past me.
3pm came around and I got back upstairs; went through security and then into the elevator that brought us to the entrance to the studio. One of the writers came out to greet us and explain what we were gonna see during the rehearsal and such and reminded us to turn off our phones and not take out our cameras (no photography at ALL. Not even inside. I was all ready to at least take one pic of the studio but NOPE. Didn't happen.) They then brought us to the little waiting area and showed a couple of old Late Night clips before we went inside. As a fan of television and a former student of television, walking into Studio 6B gave me chills. This was the studio that Johnny Carson did The Tonight Show for ten years. A lot of history in this place. Wow. Just wow. Incredible.
Fun fact: television cameras are very deceiving. The actual studio is really small! On TV it looks humongous, but in reality, it's about the size of a black box theater. And it's where the magic happens every night. As I walked in I turned and saw Jimmy with three of his writers at the desk and I was mentally freaking out. I'm so bad in front of celebrities, it's a wonder I kept my cool at my last job, but I digress.
Jimmy got up to welcome us to the rehearsal, and for those that are curious, yes, he does look even better in person! As he was welcoming us to the rehearsal, he asked the camera man to pan down to his shoe so he could show us how torn it got and said that he had been tripping on it all day. Then he asked Miles, the head writer, to give him an introduction and the jokes began. I was literally laughing until I started tearing up. His monologues have been on point, and this one would be no different. Great jokes about Harvard beating Cincinnati in college basketball; the Ukraine/Russia situation; Rob Ford, etc. It's so interesting also to see how different audiences react to jokes. For example, he did a Walmart joke with us and we were laughing like hell, but on the air it kinda flopped. Then he went into the Thank You Notes, which is why I specifically went for tickets on a Friday rehearsal. James from The Roots came out so he could play the music while he did them. Again, what he does in a rehearsal compared to how many he does on the air is very different. A few of them bombed with us and he didn't use them on the show that night. He also told us a funny story about one of his writers that used his name to get tickets to see Billy Joel.
It ended all too soon, honestly. It felt like it was only five minutes because I was having such a great time, but it probably lasted about a half hour, give or take. When I walked out of the building, it was only 4pm. But even though it was so brief, I would go again in a shot. I put in for tickets again for a rehearsal in April, and hopefully will be able to get tickets to an actual show taping in May, preferably the Friday before my birthday, the 23rd. If anyone has the chance to go to this, GO! You won't regret it!
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