For those of you that don't know, anyone (16+ I think) can try to win tickets to see the show. If you "like" their Facebook page or follow the show on Twitter, they post once a month the date and time they'll be giving out tickets for the next month. So on that specific date back in June, Evan and I each had our laptops open to the webpage, waiting for it to refresh to the ticket website. Evan's appeared first, but every date he clicked on said it was sold out, and after a few minutes he gave up. My screen appeared a little later and a similar thing happened to me. But I just kept clicking. Then one magically became available! The only option was for 1 ticket, and I clicked at lightning speed and the next page said....CONGRATULATIONS! I had successfully won a free ticket to the Tonight Show for July 31st! Sorry, Evan.... So I guess if you're planning a trip to NYC, try your luck a month ahead of time to get tickets (again, only on the specific date/time that they announce).
My ticket information said that my seat wasn't guaranteed, as they purposely over-sell tickets, so I didn't want to announce my excitement out of fear that I'd jinx myself. It also mentioned a suggested time to pick up my ticket on the day of the taping. I decided to look on Yelp to read reviews from people who had been to the show, and most of them said to get there around 2:30pm to retrieve tickets. On the day of the blessed event I showed up at the NBC Experience store (at Rockefeller Center) around 2:35pm, and ended up waiting in line for probably about 15-20 minutes. As I had learned on Yelp, the Pages issue tickets with either letters or numbers on them. Numbered tickets usually sit farther back, and tend to be older people (in all honesty). They make sure to have a young crowd at the front of the audience (with lettered tickets). I got the letter P, and noticed that they ran out of tickets soon after I got mine...lucky break! They also give you a wristband and little chocolate, while issuing further instructions.
I had almost an hour before I needed to head back and line up in front of the Tumi luggage store, so I grabbed a coffee nearby. Now here's the tricky part. I headed for the luggage store 5 minutes before my instructed time and no one was there. Eventually 3 other people showed up waiting around as well. We all decided to check inside the building, and realized that all of the stores around Rockefeller Center also have entrances from inside the building. That was the entrance they meant--not the entrance outside in the plaza. Thank goodness we found that in time, or I might have completely missed the show! But really. He should have specified, since there are technically 2 entrances.
So then I waited in another line, this time grouped up by letters and then numbers. They announced absolutely no cell phones were allowed out once we got to the studio, so I wasn't able to get any fun pictures once inside. We entered the studio group by group (in my case--a lovely group of 1), and I was seated in the 5th row... almost on the aisle (oh, to get high-fived by Jimmy). The first 4 rows actually get blocked by all the cameras and people moving around the set during filming, so I was lucky to be just one row higher. Also, it was freezing in the studio (understandably), just fyi. While everyone was getting seated, they played some clips from his past shows up on the tv monitors to keep us entertained. And then a guy came in and "warmed us up," reminding us that there is no laugh track, so it's all up to us.
Soon the band came out (each member introduced, how nice), and they played a song before the show actually started. And then around 5pm it was time for Jimmy! The set is much smaller than it probably seems on tv. His desk is very short, and then there's the middle strip where the curtain hangs in the back, and furthest on the right is the band. We of course all stood up and cheered when Jimmy came through the curtain, and he said we were a good crowd (watch it! it's right at the beginning. we're all so special). Apparently the audience from the night before were kind of duds...LOSERS!
So our guests were Julia Roberts(!!), Andy Cohen, and comedy from Ron Funches. Julia was fabulous and sweet of course, and it really felt like she was including us in their "interview." You can see her look to the audience for our opinion (like when she talked about dads' roles with newborn babies) a few times. The rest of the show kind of explains itself if you watched the episode. And Jimmy was great. He really just seems so happy to have this show, and he has so much fun with everyone. Whenever they stopped for commercial breaks the band usually played, so it made that time go by pretty quickly (much better than being stuck at home watching commercials!).
Once the show ended, Jimmy ran up and down the aisle giving high-fives while we all cheered. When the taping finished, he waved to everyone and then headed off set. The time flew by! Then we waited while they had us exit one row at a time, and the guy from earlier came out to entertain us.
And that was it! Definitely a really cool experience for free! It just takes some time and dedication on that one special ticket day. You gotta act fast!
Well, this ended up kind of being a long post...whoopsies!
