We Never Saw or Touched Any Monkeys.

We got our Letterman tickets about an hour after arriving at the Ed Sullivan theatre, via subway thank you very much.

Following a small break we had to be back at the theatre for the taping. Stephen Colbert was the guest that night along with some lady playing with toys intended for tots. Once you get in the theatre to prepare for the show, the interns subject you to multiple pep rallies. It grates the nerves after a while especially when there is lack of sleep involved. We both had less than 4 hours sleep since leaving Jax. I normally get 8-10. Once you finish with the seminars on how to clap, how to laugh and pass the final exam on how to show Dave you're having a great time, you're ready to hit the seats! The audience is then herded into the main theatre by the now Krishna inspired Interns clapping loudly and rapidly. It felt like a hazing as we were sprinting from the foyer to the interior of the theatre- I kept expecting to get paddled as we ran the gauntlet to our seats.

Once seated we were treated to a 5 minute warm up by one of the producers or Dave's manager or something like that. Then the band is introduced one by one with Shafer coming on last of course. The band is incredible. TV does not do them justice. Once the band finishes their warm up(s), Dave comes out in time to answer audience questions. Conveniently, he comes out 2 minutes before taping. That means, he has time for one question. The lucky audience member Dave selected for our taping asked the amazing question of "Who do you most want to interview"? Dave made fun of the guy/question for a few seconds and finally answered with "I don't know" basically because "he doesn't care" about anything/anybody. Blah blah blah then he runs off to get ready for the taping that is about to begin in 10 seconds.

Once the show starts it is over in a flash. The band plays during commercials and the next thing you know Dave is waving goodbye and running off stage. We had a great time and from what I understand, it is very hard to get tickets to his show so we were very lucky. From watching the show on TV to attending it, I was left with a completely different idea of it though. Initially, I thought Dave was very spontaneous with a lot of ad libs and nobody was counting every second etc. No. It is a very tightly wound, tightly run professional production from the time they hand you the ticket to the point of ushering you out of the theatre. Dave hit his marks and was out of there basically. I always thought they sort of made it up as they went along but it is quite rehearsed and scripted. The feeling was kind of like when I first discovered Madonna was only 5'4". It didn't change my love or adoration but it certainly made me question reality for brief nano second. Oh and the stage is much smaller in real life.