Everyone, at some point in their lives, has watched a talk show.
You might have caught an episode of "The Ellen Show" when you clicked that TV on after work. You probably wanted some background noise while you were getting ready in the morning, so you turned on "The Today Show." Whoever- or whatever- your talk show preference is, you've definitely caught a few of them.
What's cool about talk shows is that not only are some of them filmed live, but they have a live audience reacting to what's happening on the soundstage right in front of them. This is the allure of a talk show; it becomes sort of intimate, like 100 of your closest friends and family got together for a cup of coffee and a chat, inviting your famous celebrity cousin over to catch up.
At least, that's how I viewed it when I went to a few talk shows myself.
Living in New York has a lot of perks, one of them being that a bunch of talk shows film in the city. You've got "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon", "The Today Show," and a lot of others.
I had the opportunities to be part of not just "Today's" audience, but also "Live With Kelly" and "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." And, let me tell you, I learned a couple of things as an audience member, as a reporter, and as an actress.
First, their audiences absolutely have to stay energized at all times. The cameras are constantly rolling, and the audiences are what drive the show. On "Today", we were instructed to keep up our energy for a good two and a half hours as the camera panned around to get shots of us behind the barricades, waving our posters enthusiastically and cheering. A lot of us got there early, though, so it was a little difficult to keep up the energy. Maybe that's why "Today" employed two people to alert the audience of what the cameras are about to do and what the audience has to do to respond to them. Needless to say, my second cup of coffee and a nap were calling my name after the entire affair.
The case wasn't so for "Live With Kelly", where the show started around 11 a.m. and not 7 a.m. like "Today". The executive producer stood close, instructing us to respond appropriately to what Kelly Ripa and Alec Baldwin were saying; for example, the show I attended had Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Aaron Tveit as guests and the executive producer told us to respond with an "Aww" at the mention of The Rock's daughter. Like "Today", we also had to keep our energy up, but it was pretty easy for most of us because in the transition to commercial breaks, they would play energizing music and the hosts would interact with audience members. So it was high energy, but also very fun.
Last, I went to a taping of "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." Like "Today" and "Live With Kelly," we also had to keep our energy up and were told what to do as audience members, but the main difference that set "The Late Show" aside from the other two is that we had a guy named Paul "warm us up" by telling us jokes and making us dance stupidly to the live band. He brought up a lot of audience members onto the stage and would also call on members in the balcony, including everyone in a short amount of time. Then the stage manager began to talk, and he instructed us to cheer whenever he waved a blue roll of paper, calling it "The Festive Paper Wave". I think what really does set "The Late Show" apart is that Stephen Colbert himself came out and did a live Q&A with audience members and made us feel like we were all friends over at Stephen's house for dinner. It felt almost like Stephen himself was an audience member. We weren't as tightly instructed as the other two talk shows, and the live band actually had portable instruments, going up to the balcony to play the transition music at times. Out of the shows I went to, "The Late Show" was my favorite.
Being an audience member was fun, but I learned a lot sitting in those chairs. Aaron Tveit was also a guest on "The Late Show," and he was promoting his new show, "BrainDead." He gave Stephen the exact same answer as he did on "Live With Kelly." Stephen also asked essentially the same questions as Kelly Ripa.
As a reporter, I learned that guests like it when questions are different and they can actually give a thoughtful answer. David Duchovny was a guest on "The Late Show," and Stephen asked David if he liked being an adult. I could tell David only got more comfortable sitting beside Stephen's desk as he answered the question.
As an actress, I learned that the reporters will say the same thing, but you have to have an answer ready at hand. Aaron and David both answered their questions almost immediately, leaving no dead space between. They didn't think for a long minute or ask to get back to the question later. Like lightning, they had an answer.
Right now, you're probably thinking, "How did you get tickets? Does your bank account hate you now?"
Um, no.
I spent nothing on tickets, thanks to the website 1iota.com. There, you can submit an audience casting profile and also score free tickets to popular talk shows. However, with "Today" and "The Late Show," the cases are different.
For "The Today Show," all you have to do is RSVP for the day you're coming, and you're set. You just check in when you arrive at Rockefeller Plaza, and you get to see the show.
"The Late Show" is a different story. You can get tickets online for a cost, which score you floor seats. Or, you can arrive before 1 p.m. at the Ed Sullivan Theatre and give a representative your name and come back at a given specific time to get free automatic entry to balcony seats.
You can catch every one of these shows on NBC, CBS, or your local television stations.
