We had plenty of time before we had to stand in line for Conan, so we took a NBC Studios Tour. I had been on the tour once before in January, but this tour was even better. We checked out the studios for Dateline NBC, The Rosie O'Donnell Show and SNL. SNL looked bigger than when I saw a taping there in December. It almost brought a tear to my eye to sit in those bleacher seats once again. Upon finishing the tour, my friend and I shopped in the area and bought Conan t-shirts at the NBC Experience tour.
At 2:30 pm, we began waiting in line. We were numbers 13 and 14. The bad part about waiting in lines at NBC is that you can't sit down, so it's easy to get tired and bored. Three hours later, we were still in line, but now we were up stairs waiting on the seventh floor. Finally, at 5:30 pm, we were let into Conan's studio, which was adorably cute with stars and moons painted on the walls. We were lucky enough to sit in the second row, which had a great view of the entire studio.
Mike, the show's warm-up guy and writer, came out and welcomed us to the show. He asked where everyone was from. There were visitors from Finland, Paris and Austrailia in the crowd. Mike made fun of the guy from Paris and was pretty funny.
Then Conan came running into the studio to the Max Weinberg 7 playing their hearts out. Much to my surprise, he took a lot of time with the audience. First, he danced with a young girl. She looked mortified, and she sat down nerviously after a few seconds. Next Conan danced with a guy named Jesse, and then they hugged for awhile. Conan joked that Jesse wouldn't pull away from him. Finally, Conan made friends with an older woman named Rosetta. He was convinced that she had no clue who he was. I highly doubted that since she had stood in line for hours like the rest of us. Then Conan, the band and Jesse danced around Rosetta. She looked like she was in shock. She was lucky, though, because she became a running joke throughout the show and got on television.
The night's guest were NBC news anchor Brian Williams and model Amber Valletta. During commercial breaks, Conan would talk around his desk with his producer, director and a few others. He would also get his mug refilled with Diet Coke. After Amber's interview, Conan and her chatted non-stop during the breaks. They seemed to have a lot to talk about.
At the end of the show, Conan said good-bye, and we made our way out of the studio. This is the point where I never want to leave. As always, I was one of the last people out of the studio. Leaving NBC Studios, we saw Amber Valletta in the lobby signing autographs, but we didn't stop and pester her.
Conan was a blast! Whenever he comes up in a conversation with friends, everyone always agrees that he's the next Johnny Carson. If he isn't already big now, he will be in the future. Not only is he hilarious, but he's a nice guy, who doesn't mind dancing with strangers in his audience. Gotta love him.
~Annie~