My friends and I arrived outside The Colbert Report's studio and waited in line for about 45 minutes. We were numbers 52-55 in line. Then we went inside to the waiting area where they showed us clips of the show and let us use the restrooms. We were here for a while, they said Colbert was doing rehearsal for a while. Here I am holding my pass, waiting to go in:
Once we got inside (into the marvelous stage) we they went over some more rules. A comic came out and warmed us up (not like that was needed). He then welcomed Stephen, we gave him a standing ovation, and he ran around the studio. He took some (about four) questions here out of character, but I sadly didn't come up with any in time.
Now, time for taping. We began with the Carville portion because they were going to lose the satellite transmission in 10 minutes. He told us about the "Bing" joke so we would understand it as we went into the segment. Carville was a little hard to hear/make out, so we mostly just laughed at Stephen's jokes. There's also a continuity error here because they taped this segment first: Stephen has sleeves when he ripped them off in the first act.
We then moved onto the main segment. The part with the Exxon Valdez was done on two takes, Stephen didn't like the way it went the first time. When Stephen did the part with "What the Bing?" he actually said "What the fuck?" in the studio, but still gave it a Bing thing. Funnier than the overdubbed "Bing" in my opinion. The pretaped portion was shown to us too, but without the background music or the Wilhelm scream as the dummy is thrown off the roof.
Between the main segment and the interview segment, Stephen threw some "Wrist Strong" bands into the audience. One landed in the aisle next to me and I grabbed it before someone else could take it. It's on my wrist as I write this. After flinging some into the audience, he flung a couple at the guest. One of them was on the floor behind Stephen throughout the interview, as seen on the video. Here I am wearing mine (taken later that night):
After the interview, Stephen filmed the portion wrapping up the Bing donation. He did this in two takes. The first time, he was talking about the Bing logo on screen and they took it off too quickly. He laughed for a while and then we started again from the laugh after the 100,000 was reached.
At one point during a commercial break, Stephen began mouthing off the words to a song playing in the studio and moving his finger across his view of the audience as he mouthed it. It was hilarious. He also said his favorite part was when the turtle adjusted the rear view mirror in the pretaped segment.
The show ended and he went around and bumped fists with a bunch of audience members (sadly, not me!) before thanking us, the crew, and the actor who played the BP CEO. He left and then we left soon after. A great day!
I also took a picture as we were leaving the studio.
Me Sightings:
First off, I am in my red Rutgers shirt in the second-rightmost section (including the small rightmost section) second row from the top. I circled myself in these pictures so you can identify me. (Note: Times given do not include the 15 second commercial of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia found on colbertnation.com).
- Opening Fly-by: Before and after turning to Colbert. After, I have my arms up in the air. (~0:50, ~0:54)
- At the end of the second act, I can be seen for a split second on the left side of the screen. (~14:52)
The kicker: "By the way, Bing is a great website for doing internet searches. I know that because I Googled it."
