The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, Part Dos

by cari [ Topic Politics, Pop Culture, Ridiculosity | Comments Off ]

Well, we (C., K., R. and me) got there at 4 PM and waited in the “V.I.P. line” for half an hour. I felt bad about making everyone meet early, but they are reportedly quite strict about being there at 4:30 on the dot (according to the V.I.P. ticket request form, which also asked us to respect The Daily Show’s “kind jester” in offering V.I.P. tickets to Viacom employees. I looked all over but never saw him. You know, the jester. Ha.). Outside, I joked that we could throw shit at Hillary, and C. told me to be quiet because They were listening.

We went through a metal detector and security looked through my purse. The metal buckles on my boots set the detector off, and I was praying they wouldn’t make me take them off because quite honestly, it took some doing to put them on in the first place (because I unfashionably have actual calf muscles which is apparently unheard of in boot-making circles).

I shouldn’t tell you this in case you decide to wear boots with buckles to The Daily Show so you can smuggle in knives or guns with which to harm Jon Stewart, John Oliver, John Hodgman, et al. Let me just say, if you did that, there would be nationwide rioting, with me at the forefront. I would be the one with the pitchfork. So let me just add, that you will not be able to get your buckled boots/gun/knife past security unless you are also a cute, Asian girl in a pink dress with some cleavage showing (cleavage for Jon Stewart!).

We were numbers 7, 8, 9 and 10 in line and had to stand with about 20+ other “V.I.P.”s in one of the drabbest holding pens I’ve ever seen. Against hospital beige walls were giant banners with pictures of Jon Stewart, Rob Corddry and Samantha Bee, which is only interesting to look at for maybe a minute tops. Then there was a ceiling mounted TV turned off. Then there was a ceiling bracket with no TV. Then there were signs on doors that said Comedy Central Employees Only. We waited there for about an hour. When they finally let us in, it was in numerical order, so we were front row! Woooo! Note to V.I.P. ticket holders: try to be within the first 10 people in the V.I.P. because everyone else is seated in the second row or in a few rows back for some reason.

We were, I don’t know, 13 feet away from Jon Stewart! The studio is pretty tiny and his desk looks like a little person’s desk. There were cameras in front of us, but I could still see him pretty clearly. It’s fun to watch him because he readies his expression at the beginning of the clips, so when the camera cuts back, it doesn’t catch him making the expression. They did a segment about the news cycle’s coverage on the leap year extra day, which was pretty funny and which they cut for time. Jon is funny during commercial breaks but he’s very professional and almost serious looking, consulting with the producers constantly.

We were disappointed that Hillary was via satellite and that she took up the bulk of the show. We can’t complain I guess because it was a special appearance on the eve of historical primaries. In retrospect, if Hillary had actually been in the studio, security would have been over the top (we would have been looking at the backs of Secret Service types) and I would most certainly have been tackled outside and taken to Gitmo for my comment about throwing things at Hillary.

In all, we had a lot of fun, we laughed a lot and I would do it again in a heartbeat.