By Mallie
One gorgeous July evening, I made my way into bed and turned on the TV. There I saw him, the most laid back and funny comedian I had ever seen. His name was Colin Quinn. I found him on a show called "Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn." His awesome Brooklyn accent, his smile full of dimples and casual demeanor just roped me in. I was hooked. I began watching regularly for what is now a year and a half.
* * *
As I flipped through my mail on a cold December afternoon, I came across a letter with Comedy Central as the return address. I became ecstatic! I hurriedly opened the envelope and what I found in it was amazing. The letter read:
Dear Comedy Central viewer,
We've been looking at the ratings for our various shows and the cities these ratings come from. We noticed a sharp rise in your town's ratings for the 11:00-Midnight hour. As part of our continuing appreciation for our viewers, we invite you and a friend to be part of the audience for 2 Comedy Central shows. We'll send 2 tickets with backstage passes to you when you choose your shows. We appreciate having dedicated viewers.
Sincerely,
Comedy Central
Two shows?! With a friend?! Wow. I finished reading the rest of the day's mail and got online as soon as I can. I HAD to tell Chrystal!
I got online and emailed Chrystal the information. I got a reply from her about 15 minutes later. She couldn't believe it. She demanded we get tickets for The Daily Show. I demanded we get tickets for Tough Crowd. We agreed and I wrote the reply letter. We were going to see and meet Jon Stewart and, my crush for this whole year, Colin. I couldn't wait!
* * * * *
In 2 months, Chrystal and I had our plans made and put them in action. We met each other in New York at the airport. We then went to the hotel and check in. After that, we went to one of the many delis in the city and picked up some lunch. After we ate, we did some sightseeing. By the time we were done doing the day's sightseeing, it was time to get to bed. We both had a big day tomorrow; we were going to meet our 2 loves!
It was February 14th. The big day. We awoke around 9 A.M.and ordered some breakfast. As we finished breakfast, the phone in our room rang. We weren't expecting anyone to call. I answered the phone.
"Hello," I said.
"Hello, this is Colin Quinn. As part of your trip here, a surprise phone call from me and Jon is included." Colin said.
"H-h-hi Colin, er, Mr. Quinn." I stuttered out after a few minutes of silence.
"Colin's fine, thanks. I'm not a formal kinda guy." Colin replied.
I had said Oh My God about a million times in my mind by now.
"I hear you're coming to my show tonight. Would you like to know who'll be my guests?" Colin asked me.
"Sure, I'm up for any behind the scenes information." I replied.
"Aight, tonight's guests are Greg Giraldo, Nick DiPaolo, Jim Norton and Rich Vos. I'd better pass this call to Jon soon so I'll see you tonight?" Colin said.
"Very good guests, Colin. (This was my dream cast!) I'll see you tonight, Zin." I said, involuntarily calling Colin one of my many nicknames for him.
"See you later, now here's Jon." Colin said.
"Bye Colin, I'll pass the phone to my friend now." I said.
I passed the phone to Chrystal and fell on the bed. I couldn't believe it. Colin called me! I didn't hear anything Chrystal was saying to Jon, all I could think about was the phone call and the upcoming night ahead of me.
"See you later, Jon." Chrystal said, finally breaking my trance on Colin. She hung up the phone and flopped on the bed beside me. All we did for the next 5 minutes was lay there and say oh my god. A few squeals got mixed in there too. When we finally snapped out of our reveries, we realized it was noon.
"Geez, it's noon already. We'd better get some lunch and start getting ready for tonight!" Chrystal said.
"Oh gee, we should. I know a really good deli down by St. Patrick's cathedral where we can get some lunch. Care to go there?" I asked Chrystal.
"Sure, let's get a move on if we want to have enough time to get ready." Chrystal replied.
We then walked the 2 miles down the street and around the corner to the deli. After we were done eating, we made our way back to the hotel and chose our clothes for the night. I chose a pair of my best jeans that I had brought with me. I also chose a crisp white blouse I just bought a day before the trip and a black blazer I was planning to wear for church the next day. Chrystal chose a denim skirt with a red three-quarter collared shirt. We both had black boots to go with our outfits. By the time we got dressed, put our makeup on and did our hair, it was 4:00. It was time to hail a cab and get to The Daily Show studio.
* * * *
We reached the studio around 5:00. We had a half hour left before we were to be at the studio for check-ins. We decided to swing by a local convenience store to pick up a few extra pens for autographs. It was 5:25 as we left the store. We then got in the line going in the studio. A page checked our tickets and said we had, now get this, front row seats! We got past all the security checks and made our way to our seats. At 5:45, Jon came out for the warm up. We cheered and asked a few questions. It was 6:00 and time for the show to begin. We heard 'February 14, 2008, From our studios in New York, this is the Daily Show with Jon Stewart' over the speakers. Chrystal and I cheered and applauded as Jon started his usual doodling. The show had begun! After the first act and during the first commercial break, we caught a glimpse of Lewis Black waiting backstage. Yet another surprise! Tonight was a Back in Black night! Lewis came onstage and set up for his segment and the theme music played again. Act 2 had started. Lewis ranted on the various republican candidates and their results in the primaries so far. Chrystal and I both agreed that Lewis's Back in Black was one of the best we'd seen. After that, the music played into the 2nd commercial break. When the show came back, we saw Jon's interview with Colin Farrell. At the end of the interview and the commercial music came on, I absentmindedly did my little Daily Show dance. I felt like such a loser when the rest of the audience stared at me like I had a zillion heads. After that, we got ourselves ready for our 5 minutes backstage with Jon. He could only give us the 5 minutes because he had a gig at the Comedy Cellar that night. We could only take the 5 minutes anyway. We needed to get to the Tough Crowd studio. During our time with Jon, we asked him some questions about him and the show and we also asked him if he had some time between 8:00 and 10:00 and he said yes. We made plans to go for some cheesecake then with him and hopefully Colin.
It was 6:25 and we sat down in yet again, front row seats, in the Tough Crowd studio. We saw Colin pacing offstage. I almost jumped out of my seat, but Chrystal held me down. I looked at my watch. 6:30. Time to start the show! We saw Colin come onstage and say,
"Welcome to Tough Crowd."
I let out a little squeal. Colin finished his monologue with a blown kiss and the theme song began playing. I blew that kiss right back at him. Act 1 started and a spirited discussion about President Kucinich ensued. That took up all of the act and the music played into the first commercial break. Nick DiPaolo did a new piece of stand-up during the break. It went over well. The music played again and Act 2 got underway. This featured an Armageddon, We the People and a debate on other news of the day. Second commercial break came and Act 3 was setting up. Colin had a "what are they going to say" segment. Pretty funny, but not the greatest Act 3 I had seen. Act 4 came and the show was over. After the show, we went backstage to talk with Colin. He gave us 10 minutes for a backstage interview. We asked him lots of questions and found out a lot. We then asked him if he could make it for cheesecake at 8. He agreed and we went to pick up Jon. It was 7:45. We had to grab a cab and get down to the Roxy. I had been to the Roxy once before, back in 2001. Great cheesecake. As we pulled up to the restaurant, Jon whispered something in Chrystal's ear. I had no clue what that was until 4 days later. We got 2 pieces of New York style strawberry cheesecake and shared. I shared with Colin and Chrystal shared with Jon. As we ate, we got to talking. Colin and Jon had worked together before and were pretty good friends. We found out that both were single (Colin was never married and Jon had divorced his wife Tracey back in 2005) and looking. Chrystal and I winked at each other. We also found out that Colin was working on a new Broadway one-man show called "Erin Go Bragh" It was yet another Irish based play. When he mentioned Irish, I immediately chimed in that I was born on St. Patrick's Day. Colin's deep brown eyes brightened.
"St. Patty's Day, eh?" Colin queried.
"Yep, St. Patty's Day." I replied.
"Where's your Irish name then? Melanie's nowhere near Irish." Colin asked, jokingly.
"Well, I'm not Irish, I was just born on the day." I replied.
"Ok, ok, I'm not trying to getcha peeved. I do like your name. Melanie, Melanie. Hey, can I call you Mel?" Colin said.
"Sure, can I, uhm, call you Col? Or perhaps, Zin?" I asked.
"Yeah, but what kinda nickname is Zin??" Colin said.
"Well, way back in 2004, I got the idea to call you Colzin. Basically, add a Z to your name. It just sorta stuck." I responded.
"I see. I gotta tell you, Mel. I love it! Yes, you can call me Colzin or Zin." Colin said.
I felt flattered. I had always thought that Colzin and Zin were stupid and dumb nicknames. But, hearing approval from Zin himself, I felt a new respect for those names.
"Ok, cool." I said.
We finished eating our cheesecake and then we spent some time down at the bar downstairs. I looked again at my watch and it was 9:50. Time for us to part. Jon had his gig to get to and Colin had to get home and start researching the topics for the next day. We said our goodbyes and after waiting all day for this, I got one of Colin's famous bear hugs! I melted into Colin and took in the moment. Chrystal got a nice sized hug and a kiss on the hand from Jon.
"Very pleased to meet you, Chrystal." Jon said, sincerely.
"Pleasure meeting you, Mel." Colin said, seriously.
We got their email addresses and then parted ways.
* * * * *
Back at the hotel, all Chrystal and I could do was ponder what had taken place that day. It was past midnight when we got back, so we decided to just get to bed.
* * * * *
The next morning, I woke up around 8:00 to get ready for church. Chrystal was pretty exhausted from the day before, so I let her sleep. I wrote a note telling her to meet me at Radio City Music Hall at noon. I made it to 9:30 Mass at St. Patrick's and then used the rest of the time to go souvenir shopping for some family and friends. Chrystal met me at noon and we got some lunch. We then went back to the hotel to pack and check out. We checked out around 2:00 and got to the airport about 3:00. Chrystal's flight left around 5:00 and mine left about 5:30. We got a few things to read and some snacks for the plane trip home. Around 5, I waited at Chrystal's gate and said goodbye to her. Around 5:30, I got on my plane and came back home. This was the best 3 days I had had in a long while. I loved it and I wrote a letter thanking Comedy Central for the awesome trip. It was worth the 5 year wait!