On Monday, January 9, 2017, I had the opportunity to go to New York City and see a taping of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert. In one of my previous articles, I talked about my experiences at tapings of both Late Night with Seth Meyers and the Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon, but this was different.
Colbert's show tapes on Broadway in the infamous Ed Sullivan Theatre. It was there that the Ed Sullivan Show made its home, and it was there that the Beatles made their US debut. Before Colbert took over the Late Show, the theatre was home to the Late Show with David Letterman. The Ed Sullivan Theatre is a historical landmark in Manhattan; it was beautiful inside. The huge Colbert marquee lights up part of Broadway in an amazing way that characterizes New York City perfectly.
My friend and I arrived at the theatre at around 2pm. The tickets from online said that priority ticket holder check-in began at 3pm, but a line was already starting to form outside of the theatre. We got in line and waited outside in the freezing twenty-one degree cold until around 3:30pm. For around 45 minutes we waited outside to check in, and after we checked in and got our wristbands. After that, we moved a few feet past the check-in area and waited outside for another 45 minutes. Then the staff let us start to go through security and into the waiting area of the theatre.
We were standing in lines waiting to get in to the theatre, and we could hear the band sound checking. There was also a TV that was playing some of the best bits of Colbert and his guests on the show. At around maybe 4:30pm, they began to let us in the theatre. There were two sections of the audience; one section was going to sit in the seats on the floor of the theatre, and the other section was going up to the balcony.
My friend and I got lucky enough to get seats on the second row on the floor. I stretched my legs out and could touch the stage. We sat around for a few minutes, and then the stage manager came out and explained some things to us. After that, the warmup comic came on. He picked on some of the audience members and got them on stage, and he had us all cracking up and getting hyped up for the show. After his warmup routine, he introduced the house band, Stay Human, along with Jon Batiste. They started playing some songs and they got us dancing and having fun, and then they introduced Stephen.
Stephen came out to greet us, and this was all before the cameras were rolling. He took some questions from the audience, and he was really genuine and fun. He thanked us for waiting out in the cold to be there, and he made sure that we all knew what was going on during the actual taping. One girl asked about an internship, and after Stephen talked to her about it a little bit, he had one of the producers write down her name. That's pretty awesome.
The cameras started rolling, and Stephen came back out on stage. Since it was the day after the Golden Globes, his monologue relied heavily on the awards show. They began with a cold open that mocked the reporters and celebrities that continually confused the movies Hidden Figures and Fences with a movie trailer for 'Hidden Fences'. After the cold open, Stephen joked about the Globes and addressed Meryl Streep's speech.
After Stephen's monologue, they moved on to the guests. Billy Joel was the main guest; in his honor, they had the top of the theatre dome illuminated with a piano print. Billy Joel talked about things like using the Beatles as his inspiration, playing Madison Square Garden, playing on stage with Paul McCartney and Tony Bennett, and sneaking on stage with Jimi Hendrix as a roadie faking an accent and carrying cables. He then played his song "Miami 2017 (Seen The Lights Go Out On Broadway)", which was incredible live. His performance is on the show's YouTube channel. My mom raised me listening to artists like Billy Joel, and to hear him play live and be feet away from him was an out of body experience. I can't even put into words how amazing it was; the performance was so beautiful that it took my breath away once Billy Joel started singing.
After a little segment called "True Stories Behind the Hits", Billy Joel left. The next (and last) guest that Stephen had on was Josh Holloway. Before Josh came out, Stephen showed us a short parody that they had already made about Ted Talks, and he gave us a sneak peak of it since it wasn't in Monday's show. He also had to film the promos for Monday's episode and act like Billy Joel was next to him, when really, the seat next to him was empty and Billy Joel had left.
Josh Holloway came out and talked about his recent vacation, his kids, the President-Elect, and his show on USA. Most of the episode was centered around Billy Joel, which was absolutely amazing. At some point between Josh Holloway's interview and when Stephen says goodnight to the audience at home, he came down into the audience.
The audience coordinator near us had come over to my friend and I, as well as the other people with aisle seats around us, and said that Stephen usually comes over there to greet the audience and give high fives. He came over to me and shook my hand, and I was ecstatic. He then went back up to the stage and filmed a little something, and after another little break, he came back down into the audience and gravitated toward me. He came back over to me before they started filming the goodnight, and he shook my hand again, looked me straight in the eyes, smiled, and said, "Hey, thanks so much for coming tonight! It really means a lot!" Then, he filmed the goodnight, and I was right next to him and I was on camera!
The entire experience was insane, and I absolutely loved every second of it. The amazing memories that I made there on Monday were worth standing outside in the freeing cold for an hour and a half.
