Thursday started off right with Krispy Kreme in Orange. Tim Horton's are mediocre in comparison. Cream filled Krispy Kreme chocolate donuts were a revelation in pastry. After the breakfast of champions, headed over to a fancy open-air mall to sniff around for some deals. Checked out the Vans store which had a big indoor skatepark attached. Well, enough with malls, time for Hollywood. Took the freeway to Hollywood then cruised around and checked out the sights. It's cool to see places that have been in TV and movies first hand; everywhere feels glamorous. Parked at the mall next to CBS studios and checked out the mall at The Grove, but a mall is a mall basically anywhere you go. There was a farmer's market attached though, which had a cool vibe to it and we had some lunch there. Slow roasted corn beef sliced by a chef onto fresh rye bread with tangy mustard with a lemonade to wash it down. Best sandwich I've had in years, hands down.
Next comes the moment I'd been waiting for since I booked the trip; two tapings of the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Oh man, so excited! The mall is right next to CBS so we just walked over and lined up at the check-in outside the gates. Handed over the tickets, got ID'd then went to the 2nd waiting area just outside the building, where all audience members enjoyed a metal detector and security check. Then we sat and waited. and waited. and waited. Probably 45 mins. Then a guy gave us a rundown on how and when to cheer and laugh. Then the warm-up comedian gave us a pep talk and finally we were permitted to enter the hallowed halls of CBS television city. Then had to walk 3 flights of stairs, line up and wait again. AHHH LET US IN PLEASE!!! The CBS employees finally led us to the studio and into our seats. A typical studio audience for a talk show is 300 people. Craig's audience is only 105. So we "have to be extra loud" and "we want Craig to think whoa, is there 106 people tonight?" Good motivational talk warm up guy, let's get this show on the road. Chunky, the self-proclaimed mediocre warm-up comedian introduced himself and explained how the show was going to work, then introduced Sarah Maclachlan. Huh? She's not supposed to be on this show...weird. Good performance. Very acoustically tight for a live performace in this TV studio. Then she and her band packed up and left (They record musicians whenever they're in town and piece it together with whichever shows need a musical guest later on. This performance will be on an episode next week). It should be noted that the studio was absolutely freezing. Colder than any hockey rink I've ever been in. I had a long sleeved shirt and jeans on and was shivering and rubbing my numb hands together the whole time (guess they didn't want us falling asleep?). Anyways, then Chunky gave us about a 30 minute comedy routine, incorporating some audience members (including four of whom that were lesbians, which helped the routine greatly), comedy bits and cheesy jokes (What did one saggy boob say to the other? Hey we better get some support or people are gonna think we're nuts!). We were all laughing hard by the end of it and ready for Craig. First we were introduced to the "greatest sidekick in the late-night talk show industry, Geoffrey Peterson" the random phrase-sprouting robot. Then out came Craig in a very silly mood. He talked to us a bit then did an intro bit using a rabbit puppet cursing out CBS for giving him shit about too much cursing and dick jokes, which he of course ridiculed and proceeded to make even more of them. He welcomed his first guest Rashida Jones who wasn't originally booked on this taping, so what a great surprise for us! They did their interview which went longer than planned so after Rashida left Craig goes over to the producer and they decide to cut the emails section to make up the time. Dr. Oz was the next guest and he and Craig had an odd talk about colonscopies but Craig kept it awkwardly funny. It's different seeing the guests in person on the show as opposed to TV. Very different vibe about it, sort of like they're on a stage and acting out this litle chat for us. It didn't seem nearly as natural as it looks on TV. Hard to explain really, but like 2 people having a planned conversation in a basically empty room in front of other people. Craig wrapped up the show with the "what did we learn of the show tonight, Craig?" to wrap filming. In between segments and after the end, Craig talked to the audience, including going over to the row of lesbians (the staff seated the hottest girls they could find in the front row and the rest of us back from there) and chatting about their tattoos and his.
We filtered out with the rest of the audience at this point but got to stay at the waiting point outside the studio because we had tickets for the next taping as well. We were led back in but got the very back row of seats this time. Chunky gave us a similar, but slightly altered routine and brought out Craig again. He started into the tweets and emails off the bat but a doorbell rang and the first guest Donald Glover came out. Now I had been under the impression that DANNY Glover was the guest but this guy was young so for half the interview I thought it was some bit that Craig and a staff member were doing acting as Danny Glover being interviewed. Apparently Donald Glover is a young comedian. The next guest was Katie Sagal who discussed Sons of Anarchy, which was cool since I'm a big fan of that show. During the intro monologue Craig had referenced the lesbians who sat front row in the first taping, which was funny because we had seen their interaction with him. Craig also jokingly mentioned an audience member not clapping very hard for the intro, and when he went to commercials he said to her "I sure fucking called you out on that one, haha!" Craig wrapped up the show with some harmonica, and we headed out of the studio back to the parkade. Very glad I got to see both shows, as they both had some very funny parts. Before going back to Anaheim, we took a drive down Hollywood Boulevard and checked out the scene. Very sketchy at night, with lots of tattoo shops and shady characters. Drove back to Anaheim and stopped at Del Taco for dinner, which meant ten 39 cent tacos to go with the Sam Adams beer from the night before. Delightful meal for under 5 bucks (God bless America). Chowed down, watched the Late Late Show on TV and went to sleep.
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