Below are pics of my visit to see Stephen Colbert on March 4th.
Here's what happened:
We wait outside the studio in Hell's Kitchen (yes,
Hell's Kitchen) for 20 min, then we are let in to a waiting room after we go through a security check (it is Hell's Kitchen). The security guy sees my Colbert book and says, "Oh, I see you brought your book, but there will be no time for autographs." No autographs!? More on that later... We wait in this small room for over an hour with 100 people in it. Packed like sardines. We meet this guy who says his cousin is married to Stephen, and he lives in Berkeley now, but his family is from SC. He says he manages small bands on the West Coast and went to high school with people on SNL. I said, like who? He mentions Andy Samburg... I don't believe this guy. He is hitting on my friend even though his girlfriend is there playing on her iphone completely oblivious. He has on a Met Art Museum button, and my friend asks what rooms he went to (we went there earlier that day too). He says he loves the Met, but his girlfriend is more beautiful than the paintings (gag). She isn't paying attention. After he is finished lying to us and flirting with my friend, he tells his girlfriend he is "completely devoted" to her. Yeah ok....
The stage manager comes out and tell us we are about to go in, there are 3 guests tonight, what to do and what not to do, and that Stephen will come out for a few minutes and take questions out-of-character from us. I decide to ask him about
Feminists for Colbert the blog the Women's and Gender Studies department started to woo Colbert to see us/mention us, which he did not, even though we sent him a t-shirt :(.
Colbert comes out, and is super nice and humble. People ask him questions about things on the set (like the microwave he actually stole from Bill O'Reilly). The guy from above has his hand raised, and so do I. Time is running out. While Stephen is answering someone's question, I turn to my friend Allison, who said guy was hitting on, and I am complaining about this dud who is supposedly related to Stephen "sees him at the 4th of July Family Barbecue in Charleston, and can ask him questions anytime. Stephen sees my face, of anger and interprets it as "she is mad at me for not calling on her." So, he says, "I see you. I am going to call on you, don't be mad." So, he does, and I ask about Feminists for Colbert, he has never heard of us, and wants to know if the site is "safe for work." I tell him it is and he should check it out and give love to the College of Charleston Women's and Gender Studies Program.
Then, taping starts. (you can watch the show
here.) You can't see me or hear me, but he shook my hand at the end, but they edited it out for time. I'll cry later about that... Then, we are filing out to leave, sad about not meeting him, but the security guy summons us over. Then the stage manager comes and says, you have a letter? We produce the letter and go backstage to meet him and take photos with him. We tell him where we are from and he says he is jealous of us going back to SC (well, I went back to NC, but close enough). He is SOOO nice, signs our books, and take photos with us. Plus, I partially hugged him!!!!
NOTE the amount of joy in my face in these photos:
In my book, he wrote: "To Taylor: Be Brave!! Stephen Colbert"
