Los Angeles DAY 9: Show Enhancers

Wednesday, April 22, 2009. "It's hard to stay up, it's been a long, long day, and you've got the sandman at your door. But hang on, leave the TV on, and let's do it anyway. It's okay. Tomorrow's just your future yesterday."

For those that don't know, that is the theme song to 'The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson' who is, in my opinion, the best thing on late night television. That's right, I said it, even better than Conan O'Brien.

So I've been wanting to see Craig Ferguson live ever since I planned the trip out here. Today was a good a time as any. I think for the first time since being here, nothing was scheduled to happen today. So Chelsea and I planned to go see Craig Ferguson, and it did take planning. Although the obstacles weren't daunting, there were some. First, I had to print the tickets out. Flitz has no printer. So I text Keen and asked if she had one. Her response, "black people don't have printers." She suggested Kinkos, however, there were none near nor on my way to the CBS studio. So instead, Chelsea and I just walked down the street and hoped to find something. Sure enough, we did. It was some small cheap place with computers still running Windows 98 at best. It cost me $1.25! But I wasn't going to complain.

Next thing I needed was a nice shirt. One of the rules to be a studio audience member included dressing appropriately which meant no t-shirts, shorts, hats, etc. Again, I texted Keen to see if she happened to have any men's dress shirts. She didn't but suggested that I check out the dollar store across the street. Sure enough, they had clothes. The only thing I found fitting for the occasion was a reddish maroon silk button down for $2! So I bought it!

So far, we were doing good. Next thing was to figure out the bus system since we were going to have to take public. It was easy enough. Then we set foot.

It didn't take too long to get to the CBS studios. After a little wait in line, we proceeded into the building. The whole experience was a little surreal, seeing the set and everything. It looked more colorful in real life. After we sat in our assigned seats, a comedian comes out and warms up the crowd with direction, jokes (funny and corny), and chocolate. I think his stage name was Chunky. His job was to prep us and keep us entertained before the taping started. One of his jokes went like this:

"What did the saggy left boob say to the saggy right boob? We better get some support or they're gonna start thinkin' we're nuts."

So you get the idea. He also, like any good comedian, picked on some of the audience members. Which brings me to another point. Chunky let us know that we weren't audience members, rather, show enhancers. Fair enough.

Finally, the time came. With a thundering applause, Craig Ferguson came running out. We all stood in ovation. Then he proceeded to his monologue. He has the best monologue on late night. The next part threw me off a little. I then realized that we saw the monologue, the cold open, the e-mail section, the segue to a performance, and the closing statements for the upcoming Friday show. Then they switched gears and Craig switched ties and did interviews for the Thursday show. So technically, after the editing and all, we saw parts of two different shows. Oh the magic of TV land.

The e-mail section was totally awesome. Steven Wright came out "unexpectedly" to aid Craig in the e-mail section. If you don't know who Steven Wright is, youtube him. He is a funny comedian with a weird dry sense of humor, I love it!

The guests that were there for the live taping were desperate housewife Teri Hatcher, who looked fine as ever, and author P.W. Singer. The Teri Hatcher interview was very entertaining. Craig seems to have great chemistry with all his guests. The P.W. Singer interview was funny as well as interesting. He authored a book called 'Wired for War' which talks about the modern advancements in robot technology that is now being incorporated in the military.

The whole experience, as I said, was surreal, but very entertaining. Craig Ferguson is such a great performer and I would recommend to anyone, if out here in LA, go see a live taping.

After seeing Ferguson live, Chelsea and took a bus back to Hollywood Blvd and grabbed a bite to eat at California Pizza Kitchen. Jana, our waitress, gave us some of the most friendliest service I've ever had. The food was good too. After dinner, we called it a night.

My two hours as a show enhancer was time well spent. I'm looking forward to enhancing more shows in the future, with an even more integral part perhaps.

P.S. Sorry for no pictures. We weren't allowed to bring any cameras in on set and we took public transportation so we had no car to leave stuff in.