Many of you who keep up with my articles, or just know me in general, know how incredibly obsessed I am with Ellen Degeneres, her show, her life, her face. All of it. Just this past week I was given the opportunity of a lifetime, the chance to attend a taping of her show in Los Angeles, California, and let me tell you, it was absolutely amazing.
We started out the day getting ready, a friend of ours who has been to the show multiple times suggested that we dress nicely, he told us the nicer we were dressed, the closer we would be to the front! So that is exactly what we did. He also advised we get there early, so we arrived at 10:30 a.m. for the 3:30 p.m. taping. True fans, I know. We sat around most of the day, ate sandwiches we bought the night before, danced like crazy to the nice music playing in the parking garage seating area, and waited to be checked in for the show to start.
At about 1:00 p.m., a few ladies with Ellen shirts on made their way to the seating area, and started giving us directions over a microphone. My cousin and I were approached by a man who worked for the show who asked us to meet him in the parking lot the left of the garage along with about 25 other people he had chosen of the 300+ bunch! We were closer to the end of the line, a lady asked us questions, I informed her I was wearing Ellen underwear at that moment, and that I would argue with anyone who claimed to love Ellen more than me! She sent us back to our seats where my mom told me they had just brought about 90 people into the building where the show would be taped, these were the VIP section, we were "Guaranteed section" however, the Ellen ladies informed us that our seating number would have no effect on where we were seated!
Shortly after this, we were walked across the street in a group of 30, we went through strict security, and were then sat in a familiar hallway with many pictures of Ellen and her many guests down the wall. After this, we were led into the infamous Riff Raff room, where we were advised to stay in line, and that we could leave our groups two at a time to go shopping, they had everything from Ellen footie pajamas, to Ellen wine glasses...it was great.
We were soon led into the studio where there was a strict no picture policy...which sucked I know, but it was so incredible...and get this, when we got in the studio which holds 400 was half full, the lady asked us our number, looked at a clipboard, and took us all the way down to the front row where there were just four empty seats just waiting there on us!! We had a dance party to all different songs, and soon, Dj Twitch entered the room, and danced for us! He is an incredible dancer, and had a lot of fun with the audience! The hype guy informed us that our episode was being filmed for "Finding Dory" week which premieres this summer, I am guessing this is because Ellen will be super busy that week and unable to film!
Before I knew it I heard the sounds "And here she is, Ellen Degeneres!" and out she came, being on the front row certainly made me try my hardest to hold back tears but I just couldn't do it, I was so happy, so star struck....it was seriously breath taking! Ellen was right there, 20 feet from me...in the flesh. She went straight into her monologue, about Dory of course, and then she danced through the audience as always, it was perfect. She made it back to her seat where we enjoyed the show...it was a great one I will tell you that!! She spoke to us during the commercial breaks, danced with us, and even gave us tickets to go see Finding Dory!
I would go on, but I do not want to give away the episode we were filming, it plays June 13th and if you are following me on ANY form of social media, I promise I will inform everyone to set their DVR! This was one of the best days of my life, and I am so thankful to have been able to fulfill one of my wildest dreams imaginable! I can not wait to go again!!
Next stop, lunch with Ellen & maybe even a spa day! ;)
xoxo, Casey
