On Thursday, February 4th we went to a taping of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. We arrived at 4:30pm at the filming studio in Hells Kitchen on the East side of Manhattan, New York. After a quick crowd discussion with security about what not to bring into the studio, namely weapons, we went through the security check (a quick metal detector and bag check) to stand in a waiting area just inside the building. The waiting area itself was very uninteresting. It it a large empty room with a TV hanging from the wall (switched off) and some other assorted rubbish. We waited here for almost an hour until finally at around 5:30pm when the audience is admitted entrance to the studio.
The filming studio itself is quite large in size (much larger than The Colbert Report studio). Seating in the studio allows for a crowd of roughly 230 people at capacity. Choosing your seating location is not an option, as the friendly assistants direct you to a spot that they decide upon as you walk in. This is not really a concern as all seats have a good view of the stage.
After 75 minutes of sitting in the crowd listening to mostly classic and modern day rocks songs the warm-up guy came out to greet the crowd at roughly 6:45pm. The comedian informs us to laugh and get excited when we see Jon, as this will keep the episode exciting for all. The comedian makes a few funny jokes about people in the audience and then at roughly 7pm Jon Stewart enters the studio.
Jon Stewart comes out with his usual enthusiasm and fields about six questions from the crowd. Our questions were of the usual garden variety (what animal would you be if any, what do you like about living in New York, what would be your strategy if Leno attacks…) and Jon was able to give quite humorous replies to these. After the crowd’s questions Jon jumps behind his desk to begin taping of the show.
Firstly the intro music is played, and as practiced beforehand the crowd goes crazy with yelling! Filming behind the scenes is rather interesting. Jon Stewart mostly follows the scripted Teleprompter (which we could see from our seats to the left of the studio), and the taping runs very smoothly, almost at the same pace as the actual airing several hours later at 11pm EST. In between the adverts Jon will get his makeup checked and make some silly faces at the crowd. Time between adverts is the same as on actual TV (I guess it makes it easier for airing just hours afterwards).
Our interviewee for the night was Democrat Anthony David Weiner from New York’s 9th district. He spoke on his push for universal health care and was interesting to listen too. David and Jon knew each other as students and so made some funny jokes about their history together– as well as the obligatory weaner joke (yes, it is pronounced that way).
At the end of filming Jon did a big wave and said goodnight and we were escorted out the side door on to the streets of New York. It was an interesting and enjoyable experience that I would recommend to all!
To check for tickets to a future taping visit http://www.thedailyshow.com/tickets.