Jay Leno Taping - vip style

Arriving at the NBC Studios, Studio 11 Late Night Show with Jay Leno

Waiting to be seated!

One of Jay's cars!

Cupcakes! OK! I'll have a chocolate one!

Another item checked off our to-do/to-see while living in LA list...we went to a live show taping of Jay Leno!!!  Knowing that it can require waiting in long lines, and getting tickets before hand we didn't know if this would be possible with Jake.  However, last week during our deep sea fishing adventure, the ship's captain, Captain Bob, has a son in law who does lighting for the show and said he could hook us up! We jumped on the opportunity, and didn't realize how good it really was until we got there!  All we knew is that we got to wait in the green room before the show started.  Now, let me preface this by saying that I was someone who grew up watching Jay with my parents.  We would be kept up late at night by a lot of tornado sirens in Oklahoma, and so we would watch Jay and laugh and then hunker down if a tornado was on it's way!

The day of the show, Erinn Smith was beyond gracious and watched Jake for us.  He was in little boy heaven playing in their sandbox, kissing baby Benson, and I'm sure following big boy Eliot around! Jake loves Eliot and a HUGE Thank you Erinn!!! We will miss that darling family so much! After dropping Jake off, we got stuck in traffic on our way to Burbank! Ahhh.  We were supposed to be there at 3:15, but we didn't make it until 3:45pm and we were so nervous we wouldn't get in!!! Luckily, security let us in right away no problem, with super close parking close to Jay's fancy car, while the lines and lines of people waiting were just starting to be let in.  We ran to the front, told them our names, and we were walked to a separate entrance while they put us in the green room.   They seated everyone else and we wined and dined, well we ate a cupcake...or two in a comfy green room! Then they told us the show was starting in just a few minutes, so they had a special escort take us to our reserved seats with Turner written on the seats! We were in the very front and center of the set right on the balcony right behind the cameras Jay stares at, so you could say he was looking at us the whole time! I was so excited!!! We were seated as Jay was inviting people to sit in the chair before the show started! He was dressed casually in a t-shirt and jeans, and then went back to change and get hair and makeup done, while some really funny guy came out and danced and pumped us all up! It was so much fun to see Andy dancing and laughing.  We just totally let loose and screamed and laughed.  Heaven (minus a few colorful jokes of Jay's).  We were taught how to applause appropriately, and how to scream and when to stop.  The energy in the room was insane.  I mean, most of these people travel miles to watch Jay and were sunburnt from waiting all day! We were just thrilled to be a part of it.


I was surprised by a few things during the taping.  First, Jay reads his jokes off hand written cue-cards! He's old fashion and there is a person who holds them just under the camera while he reads them.  You mean, he doesn't just spew off his jokes from the seat of his pants?! NOPE there is a person who writes them all by hand, for most of his show and he has really good writers! He is so good that it doesn't look like he's reading them, but now that I've seen him do it, I can tell! For some of you, who don't know, I was a news anchor at BYU broadcasting for a summer.  I had to read a teleprompter and it's supposed to be as natural as possible, but let me tell you.  It's NOT easy, but Jay was super good, and super old school.  Fun stuff.

His guests were Andy Samberg and Seth Mcfarlane, both comedians, and unknown to us, but they were funny and Andy Samberg kissed Jay as a joke, but again, I think the whole thing was totally scripted and prepared before hand, but the interviews were candid, just certain elements were not.  I got a wave from Andy AND Jay during a commercial break.  I didn't think Jay was waving at me until I started dancing and then he did too, and I laughed and he did as well and then he pointed at me and I laughed and then  I think my face turned red, no I know it did. Andy thinks Jay winked at him, maybe he did, I mean Jay kissed another guy on the show ;-)

We got a  backstage tour from Capt. Bob's s.i.l after the show.  We saw the inner workings of the show and all the stuff backstage including Jay's gym at work. Spoiled?! No way!!!

In the editing bay, they have 1 hour to edit the show and send it out to New York before it's syndicated! CRAZY fast editing, but these people are super good.

We had a blast and would love to do it again if we come back.  Thanks again Erinn for watching and wearing Jake out! We love it here and it's certainly hard to leave this wonderful, entertaining place!