Supernova8610's Journal - My Conan O'Brien Taping Adventure (5/4/07)

My Conan O'Brien Taping Adventure (5/4/07)

May. 4th, 2007 at 3:45 PM

I went to see Late Night with Conan O'Brien in San Francisco on Friday, May 4, 2007.

*ahem*

The adventure begins on the official Late Night with Conan O'Brien message boards on NBC.com. I did not get my ticket confirmation to see the show and I badly wanted to go see it. I was just about ready to sulk around the house after the disappointment of not getting my confirmation; I was even planning on getting to San Francisco at sunrise to wait in the standby line. I did not really want to do that, though, because I did not know if I would get in or not, and I did not want to risk it. Plus, I had classes and I didn't want to chance missing those for something I might not get into. So, on a whim, and because I wanted a sure chance to see Late Night with Conan O'Brien live and in person, I decided to post a message on the official Late Night message boards asking if anyone had an extra ticket for the show. If they did, I asked if anyone would be willing to give it to me out of the graciousness of their hearts. The day that this occurred was on Tuesday, April 24. To be honest, I did not have very high hopes of someone responding. The next day, on April 25, I got my answer.

It turns out that someone had opened up multiple e-mail accounts and sent out multiple ticket requests to see Late Night in San Francisco. They got a confirmation for both Wednesday, May 2 and Friday, May 4. When they saw the message I had posted, asking about tickets, they asked me if I wanted one of their ticket confirmations. I sent the person a private message saying that yes, I did. I gave the person my e-mail address as well, for good measure.

The person sent me an e-mail, asking me if I wanted the ticket confirmation for Friday, May 4. They said that they wanted to take a tour of Alcatraz and would only be able to do so on Friday, and not Wednesday because that was when they were seeing the show. I sent the person an e-mail in reply saying that I did want the May 4 tickets. The two of us had already discussed the matter of checking in at the Orpheum theater to get the tickets themselves, and it was discovered that ID's were not going to be checked. So, with many "thank you's" and "I will love you forever's" on my part, the person forwarded the Friday confirmation tickets to me.

The day of the taping, Friday, May 4, finally arrived, and I picked up my friend at her house at about 8AM. We went to the store first so we could get stuff to eat while in line (hey, we didn't want to have to leave the line for any reason, except to use the restroom if we needed to). We finally left for San Francisco at 8:45AM (after filling up the car with gas), and we arrived there at 9:30AM. It took us a few minutes to find a place to park. After parking the car at last, we walked to the Orpheum theater. We got there a little after 10AM and got in line. On the way to actually get in line, I noticed one of the show's writers, Brian Stack, standing outside talking with some people. I recognized him from a few of Late Night's sketches. When my friend and I got into the line at last, I was pleased to see that we were fairly close to the front.

At around 11:30 they started handing out tickets for some of us, so, because I wasn't a guy and needed a guy to check me in, I sent a text message to the guy who had given me his Friday confirmation. He came to the rescue and check my friend and I in and afterwards, he hung out with us for a little while and we chatted about various stuff.

Not a lot happened in line. My friend and I got to know a few of the other people who were in line with us, and we had a good time talking with them. A couple of the guys my friend and I were chatting with got a little vulgar, in my opinion, about 2 or so hours before we were to be let into the theater. Although, they had been drinking some, so maybe that was why. I told them to tone it down a little and they did. Other than that, they were pretty nice. I talked with a few other people about past episodes of Late Night, and we had a good time laughing together.

At one point some of the band members of Late Night: Max Weinberg , LaBamba, Pender, and Mike Merrit came out of the theater near where we were all waiting, and everyone cheered. Max is a little shorter than I thought he would be; he looked to be about the same height as me, and I'm 5'8". Then they climbed into a van and drove away. I think they might've been getting something to eat, but I'm not sure. A little while later, Tom Waits came out, and people started cheering again. He looks rather short in person; at least, he looked shorter than me. He went back into the theater again a little bit after that.

Finally Max, LaBamba, Pender, and Mike arrived back. People were cheering (myself included) as they walked back into the theater. After that, since I had an hour and a half until they started letting us in, I decided to take a quick trip to the restroom. The restroom was actually in the form of roughly a dozen outhouses. As I walked from near the front of the line from where I had been waiting to the outhouses which were a ways down from me, I had the chance to see how long the line had become. Let me tell you that it was LONG; I knew there was almost no chance the people in standby across the street would get in. So, after finishing with the outhouses, I got back to my place in line; from then, the time before we were let into the theater passed by VERY slowly.

When at last we were allowed inside, at 3:15, we were told to form two separate lines: those with bags had to move to the right and those without bags moved to the left. As I walked inside, I held open my purse so the security guard could "search" it. Then I, with my friend right behind me, moved into a shorter line where a security guard passed a metal detection wand up and down my front and back; it made a short beeping noise to show that I had nothing dangerous or whatever with me. They're basically the same as the metal detection rods you see in airports. After that, my friend and I joined the crowd waiting outside the doors of the theater itself.

There was a small sort of balcony where I could see some guys sitting around. I guess they worked all the technical stuff for the show, I'm not too sure. A couple times one of the guys came out and looked at all of us, standing there beneath him, and we started cheering for no reason. One of them also came out with a camera, and we started cheering yet again; the guy took a picture of us and then disappeared. I noticed some of the other guys that I could see glancing down at us and smiling; probably at the fact that we were cheering them. I thought it was pretty funny.

Anyhow, we were waiting there, crowded together, for a few minutes, and at last the doors to the theater itself opened. There was a mad rush, what with everyone running in to get the best seats possible. I grabbed onto my friend's arm, plunged into the mass of people and made my own dash to get the best seats possible. My friend and I ended up in the middle section near the right side of the theater, and we were in the seventh row from the front of the stage. I was sitting one seat away from the aisle. We had pretty darn good seats, and I counted myself lucky to be as close as I was to stage, and as close as I was to Conan.

I looked around as everyone was filing in, at the stage, and around the whole theater in general; I smiled at the thought that I was at long last attending a taping of Late Night with Conan O'Brien. I have been watching Late Night since August 2003, back when I was sixteen years old (I am now twenty). Ironically enough, the first episode I ever saw was when I was on the airplane on my way to New York City (I flew JetBlue). Yes, I did set foot in the studio where Late Night is filmed, but it was completely empty at the time. After I got back home to California and started watching Late Night regularly, I remember thinking it was a shame that I did not get to attend a taping of Late Night (and that I did not take a picture of the empty studio, for which I am still kicking myself over). Because I live in the Bay Area, I knew that I would have to fly all the way to New York City to do so, and I knew that it would be expensive. So, imagine how happy I was to finally be able to attend a taping of one of my all-time favorite television shows on my home turf.

After everyone had filed in and sat down, the doors were closed and no one was allowed to enter or exit. The time was about 3:45. One of the writers, Brian McCann, came out from behind the curtains and gave us a talk about how we shouldn't take pictures of Conan because he was albino, and any flash photography would result in his getting sunburned, or something like that. We all laughed, and Brian McCann mentioned some other things about the show, but I can't remember what it was now. Oh well, I guess it doesn't matter.

After he was done talking with us, the curtains were raised and the band members of the Max Weinberg 7 could seen be sitting down, ready to play their instruments. Everyone got up and started cheering. After Max himself had sat down the bad started playing some music; it was really loud, but that didn't matter. I was having a great time, clapping along with the beat of the music. At one point, Pender got out from behind the Late Night podium emblazoned with the Late Night logo and started walking across the stage, playing his trumpet all the while. He walked down the stairs and began making his way up the aisle. He stopped on his way up the aisle, still playing the trumpet with the other band music in the back ground. He had to have been at least five or so feet away from me at that point; it was awesome! Pender's head is shiny. After that, he continued cruising up the aisle, and then made his way down the other aisle on the other side of the theater. After he got back up on the stage, he held a note on his trumpet for a long while; it was pretty impressive, and everyone started cheering and clapping.

So after Pender had finished and got back to where the other band members were, they started playing another song which everyone once again clapped along to. But at 4:00, the Late Night announcer, Joel Goddard, appeared on the stage. This time, the entire theater erupted in cheers; we all knew what was coming next.

Well, let me say that the show itself was AWESOME!!! I could go on an on about how cool it was, seeing Late Night live. Right as it started, I came to the immediate conclusion that seeing Late Night with Conan O'Brien live is seriously 100 times better than seeing it on television; there's so much energy and adrenaline in the air. I won't go into detail about the show itself, but during the commercials, I payed attention to what was going on up on the stage. At some points, I could see Conan standing around talking with Jeff Ross (I think that's his name) and some of the other Late Night people. A couple times, when Conan was sitting at his desk, a make-up lady dabbed some make-up onto Conan's forehead; probably so that it wouldn't be shiny when seen on camera. There were some occasions when Conan would stand near the edge of the stage, pointing at random audience members and waving. I was slightly disappointed that he didn't point and wave at me, but oh well. I also remember seeing Conan hop up and down a few times (his hair is nice and floppy; it made me smile), as well as dancing around on the stage; at one point, he even did the twist! But, I didn't get a good look at it because two girls sitting in front of me always had a sign up during the commercials that blocked my view of Conan. They also held it up during the show, so I actually didn't get a very good look at him throughout the thing, but I'm getting off track.

After the show was over, my friend and I exited the Orpheum theater and waited outside the staff exit, where I knew Conan would be coming out of sooner or later. While we were waiting behind a barrier (there were two, on either side of the staff exit), I showed one of the security guards a dollar bill that had Conan's face on it (I was hoping to have Conan sign it); he thought it was pretty funny. I also had the pleasure of seeing a few of the Late Night people exit out of the theater; I saw Joel (who I wish I had gotten a picture with, since other people were doing so; from what I saw, he seems like a nice guy), Max, Jordan Schlansky, Aaron Bleyaert (best last name ever), and Scott Healy, who plays the keyboard for the Max Weinberg 7. He stayed around for a little while, signed some autographs and chatted with some of us. My friend asked him: "Do you like signing autographs?" To which he replied: "Yeah, I do." That made me laugh. :-) As he was about to leave, I asked Scott Healy if I could get a picture taken with him, but unfortunately he didn't hear me. As he walked away, I could see a little bald spot on the back of his head. Why I thought that was adorable, I have no idea. But, I did. I'm weird.

At around 6:30pm it was getting pretty cold and windy, and I was shivering. I remember, at that time, seeing the the staff exit door open again; I leaned forward to see if I could see anything in the building, and guess who I saw, standing just inside the door? Conan! I gasped, and told the people around me that I had seen him, standing right inside; they thought I was joking at first, but I told them: "Seriously! He's right inside there!" They thought it was really cool. :-) Then, a few seconds later, Conan stepped outside; everyone suddenly started cheering and calling out to him.

There were pops of light as camera flashes went off; I myself took a picture of him, as he was going down each side of the barrier, signing autographs. When he came close to me, I held out my Conan dollar, and Conan took it from me; I don't know if it was just me, but I swear I saw his eyes widen for a fraction of a second when he saw my Conan dollar. As he was signing it, I asked if I could get a picture taken with him. He told me to "make it quick." I admit, my spirits did sink a little when Conan said this to me, but since I could tell he was in kind of a hurry, I brushed it off. He gave my Conan dollar back to me, signed a few more autographs, and then went to get into a car that was waiting for him. Before Conan got into it, though, he stopped and thanked everyone for coming. Then, he got into the car and shut the door.

The crowd dispersed, and everyone went home, or to wherever it was they were staying. My friend and I walked the few blocks back to her car, and drove back to her house. I got into my car, and on the way home, I was left to my musings of the wonderful, wonderful day that I had just experienced. Yes, I was (and still am) a little disappointed that I didn't get a picture taken with Conan, but at least I got his autograph, and I think getting an autograph is just as good. Overall, though, I had the best time EVER seeing one of my all-time favorite shows live, and I count myself incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to do so.

~*~

Here are the pictures I took of the event: