A few months ago I looked at the conference calendar and noticed that CASRO, IIR The Market Research Event and an Omnicom meeting were not only back to back to back but also 15 miles away from each other. Even though I didn’t want to spend 10 days away from the family and office I decided to stay out on the west coast and not fly back between conferences.
I was hoping to have a little fun while I was going to be in Los Angeles for what I believe is the longest business trip of my career. I thought long and hard and since the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Diego Padres didn’t cooperate, I knew I wasn’t going to the World Series. I needed to come up with a plan “B”.
Plan B was trying to get tickets to The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. You know the deal a friend of a friend of a friend secured me 4 tickets to the October 20th show. For those of you who haven’t gone before here is what happens:
3:00 Show up to guest relations to pick up our tickets
3:10 Shop in the Tonight Show store
3:45 Get seated in the audience
4:10 Jay Leno comes out in jeans and sets expectations and tells a few jokes
4:20 A comedian comes out and continues to get the audience warmed up and engaged in the show
4:30 Show starts on the dot
5:32 Show ends on the dot
5:34 Jay and his guests shoot a few promo shots
5:40 Attendance exits the show
Since the studio only seats 380 people, industry friends Stacey Weber, Kim White, my college roomate and myself were for of the lucky ones that day. During the break Kevin Eubanks and the band play great music and continue to get you totally engaged in the experience.
All I can say is the Tonight Show is a model for a business that runs smoothly day after day, week after week and month after month. What is amazing is Jay has been doing this since May 25, 1992. That is over 14 years – over 3,100 shows! Actually we went to show 3,238. Wow!
His material is still fresh, he has a permanent smile on his face and appears to be genuinely having a great time. Yes there were a few mistakes, a few jokes that weren’t perfect but Jay is such a professional and so quick it doesn’t matter.
I believe the studio audience leaves the show everyday totally satisfied and amazed at the ease with which this show is produced. Since Jay has already announced his retirement in 2009 you may want to attend a show sooner rather than later.
If you don’t have a friend of a friend of a friend to get you tickets here is a link that will help you out:
Tickets for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
Let us know if you have attended this show or others and what your experience was.
PS The guests that day were
| Amanda Peet |  |
| John Landis |  |
| The Spiridellis Brothers |  |
| JoJo |  |
of course I didn’t have any clue who Jo Jo was…
Tim Sunderland says:
Bank in 1986 I was working for a trade association in the high-performance automotive industry. Each year we had a huge trade show in Las Vegas, including a banquet for about 2500 people. We historically had some big name entertainment — Natalie Cole, The Beachboys, etc. That year the entertainment we had booked bailed out on it about 60 days before the show — a problem because we had already promoted him in the industry press. The CEO barked that he wanted to see a new name, and it had better be a good one. A week later he sat at a staff meeting and said, “We just booked Jay Leno. Who is this guy?”
Stacey Weber says:
I was very lucky to have the opportunity to go see The Tonight Show. It was an awesome experience! Thank you Merrill, Debby Schlesinger (who was originally invited, but decided because she’d been several times, she would rather give her ticket to someone less fortunate. Yes, I was 2nd choice, but I can live with that- in this case), and the friend of a friend of a friend who got us the great seats and perks.
For years, when I‘d watch Jay or Dave or any show with a live audience, I would wonder what these people had to do to get in the audience. Did they order tickets ahead of time? How far ahead? Did they have to wait in line for tickets to be given out on a first-come, first-serve basis? How many hours before the show did they line up? Of course, I guess I wasn’t too interested in finding out the answers to these questions, since I never actually researched it. But, now, I know. . .at least for the Tonight Show!
People did wait in line, but being among the VIP audience members, we did not. Our tickets were waiting for us at Guest Services- just a short 7 minute walk around the NBC Studios building. We waited in line for a few minutes to “check in” and get our tickets. While we were waiting for a page to escort us to the studio, we had the opportunity to browse the NBC Studios gift shop- conveniently located at Guest Services! Given that I had never done anything like this before, I figured a souvenir was in order and purchased a tee-shirt for myself and a hat and a hat pin as souvenirs for 2 others.
About 30 minutes and $45.00 later, we were off to walk around the building again to enter the studio. Because we were special (I found it amazing how many “special” people there actually were at Guest Services. . how’d THEY get their tickets?? Do they all have different friends of a friend of a friend or is it the same friend of a friend of a friend that got our tickets???), we strolled right past all those poor people who actually had to wait in line for their seats.
When we entered the studio, I was surprised how small it was. I’ve heard people say that the sets and the auditoriums are always small, so I was expecting that, I just wasn’t expecting it to be THAT small. Even when I looked at the show on the TV screens being played in the studio, I was struck by how much bigger everything looked on screen than it did in real life.
The staff really does make the experience fun. As Merrill mentioned, Jay came out before the show and “warmed” us up, as did another person who worked for the show. He also told jokes and gave away Tonight Show merchandise. The band kept us entertained during the commercial breaks.
It was cool to see the show being taped (I had an advantage over Merrill- I knew who Jo Jo was because I’d just seen her on Today earlier that week performing the same song), but the before and after the actual taping were the really neat parts- all the “behind-the-scenes” stuff. However, the highlight, of course, was getting to go up on stage, shake hands with Jay, and take a picture with him. It definitely made my trip to LA and totally paled my mother’s celebrity experience of shaking Conan’s hand in NY!
Ok, Merrill, I fulfilled my end of the bargain. . .can I now have my copy of the picture with Jay, please????
Johnny says:
It sounds like you had a good time at The Tonight Show. I’ve been watching Jay Leno for years now, and I think he is one of the best late night talk show hosts there is. Probably tied with Connan Obrien. It’s cool how he manages to use todays news and mix them up with some good ol fashion humor. He is so funny, and I really love watching his show. Jay is nominated for favorite talk show host for The People’s Choice Awards! He’s up against Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey. You can vote for Jay at http://www.pcavote.com , you have to hurry though, voting ends on the 10th! I work with The People’s Choice Community, just giving you guys the heads up!
Kimberly White says:
Well Merrill, this is my LONG over due response to your Jay Leno blog! Oh what a night…or afternoon as the case may be. I have been the very lucky recipient of two tickets to Jay Leno over the years and yes – I too was very impressed by ‘the well oiled machine’.
We lucked out and ‘had connections’ so we didn’t have to wait in the long line outside of the studio in hopes of getting in. We went directly to the ‘VIP Guest Services’ area and checked in. We got to wait in the air conditioned area until about 25 minutes before the show started, verses outside all day dealing with the elements. I can only imagine what the person whom thought that they were first in line thought when this long line of guests approached and got to go in to the studio before him. After walking to the front of the line and we cleared security, we were escorted directly to our reserved seats.
Both tapings were fabulous. Last time we got to sit in the green room and have snacks before the show and this time we were surprised with the opportunity to take photos with Jay after the show had ended. One of the impressive things was the fact that the man that introduced us to Jay actually told him our connection to the show while introducing us. I thought that it was great that Jay was made aware of our connection as well as the other VIPS’ connections to his show.
Merrill – thanks again for another fun afternoon at the Jay Leno show!
Is it too late to get my copy of our group photo with Jay?