Last night Brian and I went to the taping of a pilot for Comedy Central. The show is called "Michael and Michael Have Issues" and it is a sketch comedy show starring Michael Ian Black and Michael Showalter. Brian and I are generally obsessed with Michael Ian Black. His new book, My Custom Van, is hilarious. I also still harbor residual love for any actor who was on the show "The State."
Brian and I were able to get free tickets due to my Google Reader addiction; one of the blogs on my Reader is Michael Ian Black's blog and he put up a post about getting tickets to the show.
The studio was in Hell's Kitchen and there was already a long line when we arrived. We showed up about 15 minutes prior to the time they said the doors would open. We ended up standing outside for 2 hours due to "lighting issues."
While we waited in line they kept yelling at us, "Go to the bathroom now! This is your last chance!" A girl we talked to also told us that we weren't supposed to wear anything white or with a big logo on it. In addition to the yelling, we had to sign a release giving up all claims to our likeness during the taping and disclaiming any liability on their part for the use of our likeness, voice, singing or caricature. This scared us a bit but we couldn't complain since it was free.
They shuffled us into a big room with a stage set up in the back. It was free standing and looked like a quirky loft. We were all directed to folding chairs and repeatedly told to shut off our cell phones. We were not allowed to leave for any reason without permission from the crew.
Since it is a sketch comedy show we were being filmed for the parts where they introduce the sketches. They took the audience shots first. All of the cameras were pointed at us, there was a big microphone nearby and they introduced us to what was happening and made some jokes to get us laughing on camera. It was very strange. While being filmed you knew that your laughter was going to be spliced and rearranged to fit jokes that you weren't laughing at.
After they turned the cameras to the stage the filming went rather slowly. There were a lot of breaks for wardrobe changes and between shots. I think the hardest part was laughing at the second and third take of a joke. The first shot, which was usually the worst, got the loudest laugh. After we listened to it three times, and listened to them argue about it, it was harder to keep up the laughter.
We did get to see a couple of the sketches on monitors next to the stage. That made it a bit more fun. They were pretty darn funny too.
All in all, it was an interesting experience. I will never look at TV shows the same way again. I had heard about canned laughter and how fake the whole experience was but it never really clicked until I saw it in person.
Brian and I were able to get free tickets due to my Google Reader addiction; one of the blogs on my Reader is Michael Ian Black's blog and he put up a post about getting tickets to the show.
The studio was in Hell's Kitchen and there was already a long line when we arrived. We showed up about 15 minutes prior to the time they said the doors would open. We ended up standing outside for 2 hours due to "lighting issues."
While we waited in line they kept yelling at us, "Go to the bathroom now! This is your last chance!" A girl we talked to also told us that we weren't supposed to wear anything white or with a big logo on it. In addition to the yelling, we had to sign a release giving up all claims to our likeness during the taping and disclaiming any liability on their part for the use of our likeness, voice, singing or caricature. This scared us a bit but we couldn't complain since it was free.
They shuffled us into a big room with a stage set up in the back. It was free standing and looked like a quirky loft. We were all directed to folding chairs and repeatedly told to shut off our cell phones. We were not allowed to leave for any reason without permission from the crew.
Since it is a sketch comedy show we were being filmed for the parts where they introduce the sketches. They took the audience shots first. All of the cameras were pointed at us, there was a big microphone nearby and they introduced us to what was happening and made some jokes to get us laughing on camera. It was very strange. While being filmed you knew that your laughter was going to be spliced and rearranged to fit jokes that you weren't laughing at.
After they turned the cameras to the stage the filming went rather slowly. There were a lot of breaks for wardrobe changes and between shots. I think the hardest part was laughing at the second and third take of a joke. The first shot, which was usually the worst, got the loudest laugh. After we listened to it three times, and listened to them argue about it, it was harder to keep up the laughter.
We did get to see a couple of the sketches on monitors next to the stage. That made it a bit more fun. They were pretty darn funny too.
All in all, it was an interesting experience. I will never look at TV shows the same way again. I had heard about canned laughter and how fake the whole experience was but it never really clicked until I saw it in person.
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