Daily Show

Last night, Eric and I went to a taping of the Daily Show. Like the Colbert Report, there was a lot of waiting involved--but it was much smoother and more organized. I got there at 4 and Eric joined me at 4:40. We were let in a little after 5 and hung around a dingy, depressing basement room. We got great seats after we were finally allowed in the studio--in the center, just a few rows back. I've been a critic of the new set, but it actually looks really cool in person, much better than on TV. Jon Stewart's desk is translucent and you can see that he has a little ledge to rest his feet on. He makes us short people proud. There was a warm up comedian, who was funny, in a mean-spirited, mocking of others way; I was quite relieved he didn't focus in on us. Then Jon himself came out and took questions. Eric and I wished Molly were with us, because she would have thought of a really good question, wouldn't have been afraid to raise her hand, and, with her red hair, would have had a good chance of being noticed. As it was, the questions were kind of lame, but he was funny. Then the show started. Rosario Dawson was the guest, which was a little bit of a let down, but she was actually a lot funnier and more on the ball than I would have guessed. The highlight however was that it was a night Lewis Black was on. Jon Stewart kept cracking up off camera as Black ranted and raved. There was some sort of technical difficulty and a piece of video wasn't shown, which meant one of Black's jokes didn't make any sense at all. They stopped the taping and there was big pow-wow up at the desk, then they played the tape and we all laughed. On the broadcast last night it was edited in seamlessly. At the end, Jon Stewart asked us all to come back soon. Given the fact that I requested the tickets last February for the next available date, that seems unlikely, but I'll give it a shot.