See A Late Night Show

So I put on my life list that I wanted to go see a late night show.  I would prefer SNL, BUT since I am on the west coast that might prove to be difficult.  I remember when I lived in LA I would see people line up to go to The Tonight Show.  So in late April I went on Jay Leno's website and signed up to be a member of his studio audience.  I didn't expect to even get a response since it took months for me to hear from the Ellen show, but heck, Ellen is way more awesome (sorry Jay).  So two days later I received an email confirming that I have 3 free tickets for the May 6th taping.  How awesome is that?  It does help my chances that he tapes 5x a week.

To my surprise the new Tonight Show studio is where Ellen used to do her tapings.  We lined up outside, and slowly went through security.  Once we passed security we were given numbers.  We were in the 120's.  We waited for almost 2 hours before taking turns going into the studio.  We were near the center but almost in the back row.  We had a good view of the band and Jay, however our view was obstructed when Jason Derulo came out to perform (but to be honest I really didn't care much to see him).

 A screenshot from the show...unfortunately you can only see us from behind

Before the show, Jay came out in his jeans and a t-shirt and thanked us for coming, and then took pictures with some people from the studio audience.  Afterwards, this man came out who's job was to make sure we were pumped and happy.  He instructed us to laugh loud, and clap loud.  The band came out, and then soon after Jay came out.  There are no cuts, everything is done as is (with mistakes and all).  It was actually really hard to hear Jay, so it made it especially hard to laugh genuinely when you couldn't even hear the joke!

Someone from the band singing with Samuel L. Jackson (photos from the NBC site).  This was during a commercial break.

Samuel L Jackson and Jay (photos from the NBC site)

The first guest was Samuel L. Jackson, and I now have a greater respect for him (even though he was in "Snakes on a Plane").   During one commercial break, one of the singers of the band went up to Samuel L Jackson to give him an opportunity to sing.  I was pleasantly surprised at how good of a singer he was!  The second guest was Kara Dioguardi, and I didn't really care much for her.  Jason Derulo performed right after that, and after he performed we were told to stay in our seats.  The three guests and Jay then made promos for the show.  I thought that was so cool to see that.  Overall, it was a great thing to do in LA for FREE!!  Even if you are not a fan of Jay, I still think it's a great thing to do to get the Hollywood experience (even though it technically is filmed in Burbank). 

Date Accomplished:  May 6th, 2010