The Tonight Show with Jay Leno

We went to the taping of "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" this afternoon. It was fun. Tickets are free, you just have to sign up for them. Seating is on a first come first serve basis. We got their early and got really good seats. We ended up sitting in the second row. (There were also some floor seats up a little closer.) We were about 20 feet from the stage. There were these crazy girls sitting two rows behind us, desperately trying to attract attention. They were very loud.

The studio was very small. It sat roughly 200-300 people. It was very cold. (We wore jackets.) I was really surprised just how small it was. I was expecting something much larger. Jay Leno walked out about 15-20minutes before taping began, and he told some jokes and explained how the show was going to work. He took pictures with some of the audience.

Afterwards, this other comedian came out and told some jokes, warming up the audience. He made fun of a lot of people, so at times it was hard to watch. He was jestful, but perhaps also mean. He threw some stuff out into the audience, and I ended up catching a small "bag" of some sort. It has some travel stuff in it.

Then the show started.

Steve Carell was the first guest, followed by a little 9-year old girl.

The musical guest was the band Bright Eyes.

Overall, it was really interesting (and at times quite funny) to be there. My world is now a little smaller though. The "bigness" of a national TV show is actually produced in a small studio by relatively normal looking people. Magic seems to dissipate with observation.