Touching the Hand of God

Today I "shook" two hands that many would only dream of touching. I almost wet myself when I touched one, the other was nifty, but meh, didn't excite me.

A month ago I booked tickets for the Dr. Oz show, intending to go with my mother. Her flight, however, left the day before the show taping so I was left with two seats in the audience at 30 Rockefeller Center to see this glorified television doctor talk about health fads... at least I thought he was over-glorified. My mom loves this guy, but I never saw the appeal. Then I went to his show taping and was forced to watch an entire episode. He's actually quite an informative cat. On this particular episode, he talked about internet weight loss scams, asthmatic peoples, and self-defense, among other things. Seeing the magic behind the show (aka the amount of times he screws up and says "let's run it again") is interesting to witness. Later that day, however, I saw a true master practicing his craft.

Thanks to an incredibly generous friend, I was able to obtain a ticket to see a live taping of The Colbert Report. A dream. Seeing this show live was an utter dream. The taping began at 7:00pm. I got in line at 4:00. I wanted to be as close to Stephen as possible. I wanted to smell him (yes, my passion for Stephen is on the creepy side). If you ever watch the show, you'd be surprised how small the studio actually is, unlike Dr. Oz's ample space. Whenever Stephen runs from his desk to the interview table (by the fireplace) he over-exaggerates the run to make it seem father away than it is. It's actually like five steps.

Enough about the studio. Let's talk about how I was giddy as a school girl with a new My Little Pony. I almost cried when Stephen walked onto the set. Before the show, he always does a meet and greet with the audience. The fantastic part about this is he does it out of character. The narcissistic, cocky character that is Stephen Colbert gets set aside for a short moment and we get a view of the real Stephen.

The taping itself was a site to see. As is mentioned to the audience multiple times before we even enter the studio, Stephen is an improv actor. He did, after all, begin in sketch comedy. Therefore, to properly fuel Stephen, the audience is encouraged to laugh, hoot, holler, and enjoy themselves. Which is why you can hear me give an audible 'whoot' after Stephen mentions Boy Scouting around 3 minutes 23 seconds into the episode.

Once the cameras start rolling, Stephen just flows and never skips a beat. He takes about a 10 minute pause wherever a commercial break lies in the show. At that point, his director, producer, and make-up artist come to the desk and I assume brief each other on the following segment. Besides these little pauses, this comedic genius seems practically flawless. Even when his guests match him in whit. Such as tonight, Brother Guy Consolmagno, who talked about the Catholic church encouraging exploration of extraterrestrial life, and Sherman Alexie, a native American author who is fighting to keep books in print.

After the taping, Stephen sincerely thanked the audience for being a part of the show. I like to think that thank you was directed specifically at me. I proved it by diving over four chairs as he left the room to give him a high five. I'm never washing that hand again.