Tonight Show Recap - Line and Preshow

I hadn't thought about trying to go to Leno because I thought it would be a pain in the ass. Renegade asked if we should try. Well, I'm about the easiest person on Earth to talk into having an adventure so I said sure.

She stayed with a friend nearby that night and got to the line early. I left home at 6am to catch the first bus. Just after 8am she called me (I was in dowtown LA waiting for my second bus, which was late) and told me we had tickets. There were also stand-by tickets but we didn't have those. Yay! She told me where they were and when my bus finally got me there at 9:30am they were easy to find.

The Leno line is very nice. It's right up against the studio on a street corner. There is traffic going by, but the sidewalk is wide, then there are planters with wide edges to sit on, then more wide sidewalkness, some pillars and more sidewalk. There is another low planter with a wide edge to sit on against the studio. That bit is under an overhang of the second story, making a nice shady area. (plus we were on the north side) so it was quite shady. The weather was perfect, mid-70s I'd say.

Everyone there was very mello and calm. I saw a couple of people I know. I had no idea who the other people were because I haven't been able to go to the local get togethers recently. People were very cool about the line. Some would leave for lunch for an hour or so, wander around, go to their cars, and never worried about cutting or having things stolen. And we all said how spoiled we were going to be for Kimmel when things would not be so nice. I'm going to miss that shade and wide sidewalk.

Later in the afternoon I saw someone up front watching Clay on a small DVD player. I said I had some DVDs if they liked. Apparently they were playing videos for some young couple (I thought it was just the guy they were working on but I think I heard later they are both new fans) and I was asked if I had the 50s set from Jukebox. I went and pulled out the montage DVD a friend made for me and they were all excited to show it to them. Someone had come out from the studio pushing a small cart, and set it near the doors. It held 2 large coolers with spouts, one of water and one of lemonade, and some small cups. How nice! I said, "What, now we are having the line catered?"

A Leno person came out and passed out cards we could use to write questions to be asked of Clay. I called wildaboutclay to ask for some suggestions. I wrote one question of my own which I thought might be funny, then she called me with a couple of others from our friends cat and idol. I got some more cards (one per question) and wrote one from idol (Can you still turn your feet around backwards?) and put her name and city. Then I heard a scary rumor that if they picked your question they would have you read it! I did not want to read my question! ACK! Also, I did not think I could really pass for my other friend's name so I put my name and city for her question. (How did you enjoy the songwriting process?) Then I hoped they didn't use any of my questions. My question? It was "It took me 3 1/2 hours to get here by bus. Can you give me a ride home?"

I handed in my cards and Renegade and I went to the car to take things back and change. We got back to the line and an intern came out and shouted "Who's here to see Clay Aiken?" People cheered and she said "me too." (She could say this every day for all I know) There were several interns, male and female, who checked our ID and tickets, searched purses and generally got the line ready to go. They were all nice and polite.

We were in the first 30 people, and we entered first. In the door, through a metal detector and into a nice little holding lobby. Once we were all in they took us down a hallway. This hallway was a wall on the right and on the left were many, many, many ropes going up behind the ceiling. I wanted to pull one. LOL Then through a door to our right and we are in the center of the studio. Many people said the set looks bigger on TV, but I guess I'm used to things like that, so I hadn't noticed.

The band area was against the far right (to the audience) corner, then the big TV, then the desk/couch. Off the left end of the stage was the performance set, which was floor level and angled a bit toward the center. Just past the performance set was a wall and a doorway, which was right next to a doorway in the side of the perfomance set (which has that curtain-like thing in the front).

All of the lower level seats faced front (the couch stage) and only the seats in the upper level corners faced in (I think). There are 3 rows of chairs on the floor in front of the bleachers, these are the people who get up when Jay enters to shake his hand. The chairs/lower level bleachers end just to the left of the couch stage, then there is a bit of empty space for cameras to maneuver in front of the performance stage area. There are some upper level seats that round that corner.

When we entered, we were led to the far left side of the floor. That new couple were seated in the middle of the left side section of chairs. In the first row of bleachers were Bob and Linda and some others, about 5 people on each side of the isle. (The very center of the bleachers is cut out for cameras) The lady in front of me, Joanie, was pointed to the far left seat of the second row. She said something to the usher and he said "You're here to see Clay Aiken, right?" She said yes and he pointed her to that seat again. Her seat was sticking out past the first row (so she had bars instead of a seat in front of her) and I sat next to her, then Renegade and some others near the isle. We sat down and saw we were right in front of the performance area. (Just to our left) Awww! The nice Leno people purposely sat the Clay fans closest to the stage! They rock.

As we sat and waited they brought in the rest of the audience in groups. They played previous upbeat musical performances on the monitors to amuse us. One of the young male ushers was talking to the ladies in the front row of bleachers on the other side of our isle. Then I saw the end lady hand him something... a pin! He walked away messing with it, and went over to the security guy standing on the stage to get help pinning it to his NBC coat lapel. They finally got it on properly and the intern turned around and showed us, and we cheered! Yay! It was cute. Then he walked off set to our left.

The security guy (grey hair) said something to the ladies. I think he asked if they had another one. They said they did and the lady started digging in her purse. He walked over and they handed him a pin too! He went back up to his spot on the edge of the stage and put it on his puffy coat. (kinda like the one Uncle Frank wears on Kimmel). When he had it on he was like Ta DA! And we cheered. Then yelled something about Clay, and someone told him about ClayDawgs, so he yelled out "ClayDawgs!" and pumped his fist in the air, and we cheered again! What a fun crew. The security guy left the stage for a bit and came back to say something to the ladies with the pins. They got excited but we didn't know why. We'd find out in a bit.

Joanie and I kept looking over at that doorway on the left. We couldn't see the whole thing but we were hoping for a peek of someone. At one point Andy came out and was talking to one of the Leno people for a couple of minutes. Andy is pretty. My friends agreed.

I kept waiting for Warm Up Guy (WUG) to come out and start being funny. Some guy came out and put a bag on Jay's desk and started taking things out. Nobody really did much so he started talking to us snarkily about how if someone takes things out that look like gifts that we should cheer. He said a few things to us about the show. He addressed us specifically. When the guests come out, cheer. Now, especially in the case of Clay Aiken cheers he said to applaud and cheer when he comes out but not to shout things out at him during the interview. He did talk to some people in the audience a little. WUG was not especially funny.

About 15 or 20 minutes before showtime Jay walked out in jeans and a denim shirt with a mic. Yay! He did a preshow warm-up/telling us what will happen thing. He was funnier than WUG. He told us how they do the show "live to tape," meaning they do it as if it's live but it isn't. All in real time, no retakes, with the breaks being exactly as long as the commercial breaks will take. At one point security guy motioned to the pin ladies and they asked Jay for a photo. He said yes and the five of them went down to the stage.

He asked one next to him where she was from. She gave him her city (local) and he asked what she did there. She said "I'm a Claymate." We cheered and Jay laughed. He said, "Your mother must be very proud" and she pointed at the woman next to her... her mom. It was pretty funny. Jay said it was genetic. He talked to one more lady and then he said it was time for a picture of him "with the Clayettes." He had another group of people down. Then a couple of girls from Texas. When they were getting ready for their photo one girl asked if he could get Clay. LOL Then he left to go get dressed.

WUG pulled 8 people out of the audience to dance on stage. They were all lined up and were brought forward to dance one by one to a random selection of music. Sometimes WUG would make funny comments. Then they got back in line and when they were all finished they got their gifts and went to sit down.

We were cheering for the dancing people and the band started to play, the voiceover started and POOF the show was begining! So all that loud whooping at the beinging of the show was for goofy dancers than then morphed into WOOT it's time! Kinda groovy.