New York, New York!

This is going to be sort of a long post, but I'll try to just talk about the highlights of what I did in New York. So anyways, if you didn't know already, and you are the type of person who doesn't read titles or likes to skip first sentences, I went to New York with a couple of my friends (Jakrit, Bach, and Ricky).


Day 1 (3/10/09):

While riding on the bus from D.C. to New York, I was thinking about how many celebrities I would get to see, and sure enough in the first ten minutes of arriving in New York and walking down Broadway, I see Supreme Soul's RJ from America's Best Dance Crew casually trotting down the street. I don't know which is more sad. The fact that I was star struck by a reality star, or the fact that I watch America's Best Dance Crew and knew that he was a member of Supreme Soul.


Later, As we are walking down Time Square and soaking it all in, there was a stand up comedy promoter on the street that caught my attention. Usually, I just ignore these promoters on the street, but I was curious to see who the acts were. As I approach him, he tells me Patrice O'neal, Dave Attell, Judah Friedlander, and Arj Barker are going to perform. My first initial reaction was in awe because these were all comics that I knew and loved. So after talking it over with the guys, we agree to go. After the transaction was made, I had a vague sense that we were being ripped off. Let's fast forward a bit to later that day. So as we arrive at the venue, Stand Up NY, we talk to whom I assume to be the manager and tell him we were here to see so and so. Turns out we were ripped off, and Dave Attell was the only one on the list scheduled to perform out of the lot. The manager offer us a refund and offer free drinks at the bar. We decide to suck it up, and stay and watch the show. Brian McFadden, Dave Attell, Russ Meneve, and Paul Mecurio (Emmy winning writer for the Daily Show) performed and put on an awesome show. One of Russ' jokes was actually directed in our direction, which was cool to interact with him as it was a set up for an Asian joke. At the end of the day though, it was all worth it as we had the opportunity to take a picture with Dave Attell and Russ Meneve.

Dave Attell and Russ Meneve. Oh yeah, and that orb on my head.

Day 2: (3/11/09)

Rise and shine, it's 311 day. On our way to Rockefeller Plaza for our NBC Tour, we look across the street to see the Today Show building where they are taping live. We decide to go check it out and be one of those people on TV who stand outside the window. As we approach the window, I see Hoda Kotb interviewing this old guy promoting his book. I had no idea who this guy was and still don't have a clue. Anyways, I decide to do a little jig behind him because why the hell not, I'm going to be on television right? Here is the footage. Watch starting from 3:25.





After all that jazz, we go on the NBC Tour, in which we are escorted by two very attractive NBC pages. We got to go into Brian William's studio, where we saw MSNBC taping live. We also got to see the SNL studio, which was jawesome to see in person. It's actually pretty small. As we are walking through the hallways of Rockefeller, we keep saying to each other, "This is where they shot Laser Cats!"

Now for the best part. Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. I called in about two weeks before the taping to get tickets, and as we go pick up our tickets, they reserve our spot in line before we get to go into the studio. We are literally in the front of the line with only one person ahead of us. The people behind me see my Virginia Tech hoodie and ask if I go there. Coincidentally, they also go there, which sparks up a whole conversation. They tell me that they waited in line since 2 a.m. to get tickets for the show and Jimmy Fallon came out and brought them breakfast and gave them 40 bucks. They also tell me they got to see the entire cast of SNL walking out of the building, including Jorma and Akiva from the Lonely Island. Was I jealous? Of course I was, but it was cool talking to them. Here is Jimmy's video blog about the incident.




We are seated in the second row behind the kids who waited all night to get tickets. The set was amazing. It was all fresh and new. What's cool about going to the live taping of a show is that they actually put on a show for the audience that people don't get to see at home. So when The Roots come out, everyone goes nuts. This is my second time seeing them live. They open up with Seed 2.0. As the show begins, Jimmy does his monologue, which I thought was one of the better monologues he has done. Anyways, after the monologue, Jimmy mentions the kids who waited all night for the show and the camera pans to them. Guess what, we're totally in the shot too.

Totally awesome.

That's not all though. Here are a few other shots that I sneak myself in.

ello ello.

Twitter segment.

Russell Brand was the first guest and was hilarious. He is extremely witty. Seeing him, Jimmy, and the Roots all at the same time was so surreal. Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht from Diggnation were the second guests. Although I wasn't too familiar with them, they were pretty cool. Jakrit, on the otherhand, was familiar with them as he follows their show. I do remember him showing me one of their shows awhile back. The musical guests, the Virgins, were also pretty good. At the end of the show, Jimmy always runs into the audience to shake hands. I didn't get to shake his hand, but I did get to grab his arm. Apparently Bach, grabbed the shit out of his arm and shook it vigorously. After the show, we stayed back for a little bit just to see if we could talk to anybody. I saw Questlove talking to Diggnation, and at the end of their conversation I yelled out, "QUESTLOVE!" He heard me and came over to shake my hand. My trip was complete at this moment. I'll repeat this if you missed it. I got to shake Questlove's hand. Here is the link to the episode if you want to watch it.


These are basically the highlights of my trip to New York City, the city that never sleeps.