decheung goes to the Late Show

So tonight (Monday) I attend the 7pm taping of the Late Show with David Letterman. I’ve done this twice already, and my image has never made it to broadcast.

Attending a taping, and this is obvious I suppose, really brings home the fact that the show is a production, and now just some chatty chat chat chat with some ha ha ha’s sprinkled about.

At the risk of being banned from ever getting tickets again, here are my positive and negative thoughts the experience (which will be aired this Friday):

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Positives (in no particular order):
1. While you’re there, you’ll notice that the ground rumbles every so often - this is because the subway is passing by. It’s actually some what audible. The fact that this isn’t picked up in the audio feed must be some amazing engineering achievement.

2. Jessica Biel was the second guest. Not bad. Unfortunately for her, Dave was in a “I’m not going to be a vessel for you to simply shill Blade 3” mood, which is why she was obviously there, and end up giving her very little time - most of it was him making stupid shit up about a dog named “Bob”.

3. Paul Schaffer and the CBS Orchestra really do put in a lot of energy. I’m quite surprised. Will Lee, their bass player, also puts in an insane amount of non-dairy creamer into a tiny cup of coffee. He basically turned the container upside down and let a huge amount pour all over the cup and the speakers.

4. Barak Obama makes a fine fine guest. I was pretty surprised that Dave asked him if Colin Powell was forced out… And the answer Barak gave was a bit more “yes he was!” than I would’ve expected from a politician. Barak is quite the politician - as he walked off stage, he gave the audience a set of hand gestures and looks that really made you feel like he was waving to YOU specifically.

5. In the 120 seconds before the show aired, Dave noticed to women wearing brand new Late Show sweaters. They tell him that they cost $50 each - and instantly he has the stand up comic assistant give them each $50 in cash back from the assistant’s wallet. Nice!

Negatives:
1. When you go get your tickets, the interns do some sort of screening process to ensure that the center front almost always consists of people like Dave - older, white, couples, from the Midwest or the South. They get shunted off to a separate line where one person noted “Hey we’ve all got Southern accents!” Watch Late Show versus the Tonight Show and compare the demographics of the first few center rows - the Tonight Show is usually obscenely multi-ethnic and young.

2. Dave made a lot of jokes about the Pacers/Pistons/Artest incident. Uh, Dave - this is the Friday episode - by Friday this will be very old. And why did he waste precious Barak time on this??

3. “Does it float segment” perpetually sucks. Why they continue with it is beyond me.

4. The studio is damn cold (not news), and has this mild “old NYC building” funk smell to it.

5. The prepping by the staff: LAUGH AT EVERYTHING. LAUGH A LOT. LAUGH LOUD. LAUGH LAUGH LAUGH.

The taping experience could be so much better if they were more transparent about the process. For example, give a brief talk about what goes on (and believe me, plenty goes on - there’s an incredible amount of running around on stage during the taping), what each stuff is - heck even offer a paid tour!!

Instead, it’s in-and-out. One can definitely leave feeling that the audience is there only so that they don’t have to use a laugh track.
Oh… And when will this be in HD!