David Letterman Show

I've had a very NY-esque week.
I've been living here for a year and a half now, but I don't always take advantage of the place. I go out a lot, sure, but it's usually to eat/visit my friends at the restaurants where they work/go to writer's group. And sometimes I'll go to Trader Joe's.
Other than that, I can get pretty hermit-like, especially in winter. I hole up in my living room with the kitties and write/watch bad TV/play far too much Solitaire. But now it is almost SUMMER and it's finally warm out again, and I feel motivated to DO STUFF.
I had some extra motivation last week because my mother and brother were in town visiting. I researched all the fun NY-esque stuff we could do (go to an art gallery opening! see obscure museum exhibits! visit weird tiger exhibits in South Seaport!). Unfortunately, most of my ideas did not pan out (art gallery opening reception turns out to be for press only... obscure museum exhibit is only one floor of bad photos... tiger exhibit that claims to still exist online actually closed last year...).

Luckily for me, my mom's a bit more organized. She and my bro won us tickets to the Dave Letterman show (you had to answer trivia to win them. like "what color is the announcer's hair?"* and "what instrument does Paul Shaffer play on the show?"** neither of which I knew, so good thing they called mom and Kevin instead of me).
So, on Thursday afternoon, we showed up to get our tickets. They gave us great seats, really close in front (though unfortunately off to the side, so you couldn't see us on camera when they panned the audience).
At 4, we lined up in the (freezing cold!) entryway to prepare for the filming. The production assistants (who must have either been cheerleaders or theater majors) got the audience rallied up, by making us scream a whole lot, and gave us our instructions.
These include: no shouting while Dave or a guest is talking, or the band is playing, or any point when it's not the audience's turn to laugh. No "woo"-ing (y'know, that sound you make any time someone tells you to scream, which as it turns out is really hard to suppress when you're supposed to make a lot of noise, but NOT go "WOOOO!"?). Lots of clapping. And extraneous laughing, even when jokes aren't funny. As they put it -- laugh now, think about it later.***
I'm not a huge fan of the show (BLASPHEMY! ... they make you swear up and down that you're the biggest fan ever before they let you on), but it was definitely a cool experience. And the jokes did seem funnier in person, in an audience full of hysterical laughter, than they do at home when you're watching it on TV.
Plus, the guest that night was the Big Bang Theory's Jim Parsons, who plays Sheldon on the show. I have a huge crush on Sheldon (wut? I like tall nerdy guys, okay!!), so this was awesome.****
Also, interesting fact. The bridge thing in the backdrop of the show? It's a 3-d model. MIND IS BLOWN NOW?!
... maybe it wasn't that exciting, but I thought it was cool. And when they lifted the scrim in the backdrop behind scenes to bring on the Brooklyn chorus to accompany the band performing, we got a glimpse of all the storage containers and shelves lurking behind said bridge! This is NYC after all. Even on a TV show, no space can go to waste!
Also, another fun fact. This is Dave Letterman with a beard:
















And this is my dad:



Can you tell the difference? Neither could the tourists on our annual family Disney World vacation trips back in the day, who constantly asked Dad for his autograph...

* the announcer's hair is red, as it turns out. I didn't even know there was an announcer?
** and he plays the keyboard. which I probably would have known if they'd said "that annoying guy with the weird laugh" instead of "Paul Shaffer"
*** which explains why the audience always seems to think Dave's dumber jokes are hilarious... I'd wondered about that on the few occasions my brother forced me to watch Letterman instead of Colbert (HERESY).
**** also, kind of weird. Jim has very similar body language to Sheldon (awkward and a bit feminine), which I'd always thought he was putting on in the TV show. But maybe he's kind of a nerd in real life too? BIGGER CRUSH NOW.