Does anyone know any good memory boosting tricks? I think with all these fictional characters and events swirling around in my head, my brain is having trouble grasping on to the tangible ones. Or maybe it’s just a product of my generation: if I didn’t tweet it youtube it instagram Facebook tumblr snapchat (ok, that last one’s flawed) right away, it never happened. Why would my brain exert actual energy when social media (and its warehouse of servers in Alaska*) can do that for me?**
What I’m trying to say is I only have one picture from Day 8, so it practically didn’t happen. But it did and it was great. Onwards!
*There’s a horror movie pitch somewhere in there.
**Those platforms have to store their info somewhere, right? Someone told me that once… I think I need to read more books.
The picture is from Day 7.
What we did in the morning doesn’t matter. (I don’t remember.) It likely involved breakfast at some point and probably a little TV. What matters is what we did in the evening: attend our first LIVE! STUDIO! TAPING! Well, except for Jimmy Kimmel the night before… So, it was our first LIVE! SITCOM! TAPING! (to be aired at a much later date). Barbara (the Wonderful) arranged for us to attend a taping of Men at Work, the TBS show we have previously seen a rehearsal of.
Danny Masterson, Adam Busch, Michael Cassidy, James Lesure
And now, like all our feelings for Clint Eastwood, I bring you the conflicted chart* of emotions:
The Good: The show, Men at Work: It’s funny. It’s not 30 Rock but not everything can/should be. It’s cute and fun and would make for excellent background TV on a rainy day of collaging.
The Bad: Our audience warmer** whose name escapes me but we’ll call Chris, because that’s what he called every male he brought up to the front, (except for Ryan – see below). I understand now that there are different calibers of warmers (stay tuned for future post) but way back then, on Day 8, I thought all studio audiences had to sit through an uncomfortable, groan inducing*** and, frankly, racist five plus hours of Chris’s brutal jokes. (He more or less just brought people up to the front, heckled them, then made them dance.) I understand that the job must be VERY hard — I could certainly never do it — and it probably wasn’t as awful as I’m making it out to be and, in fact, most of the audience seemed to really enjoy it, so, you know what, why not run with it, Chris, the same way I’ve completely run away with this ridiculous sentence.
The Ugly: The two individuals, (one nicknamed “rapey Ryan” and the other, let’s call her Christina), who chose to bump, grind, and otherwise engage in inappropriate behaviour in front of 200 hundred people. (I’m no prude but when the shirt AND belt come off and you’re shaking your bits atop the face of a woman who is now lying on the floor, I’m looking away.)
The Good: The attractive writers/crew. Nisha found her future husband. (Who, naturally, we stalked after the show and who, naturally, completely ignored us.)
The Bad: The sandwiches they served far later than midway through the night. But, hey, the taping (and the sandwiches (and Chris’s entertainment)) was all free, so this is not a real complaint.
The Good: Michael Cassidy! This guy has the smile/wave/laugh move down like you wouldn’t believe. He even took the time to come up to the audience and answer questions. It might take another 10 years but this guy’s going to be a movie star. Mark my words. (Seriously, I got a total Ryan Reynolds/George Clooney early TV days vibe.)
The Bad: Danny Masterson. (Hyde!) I couldn’t tell if he was phoning it in or his character was meant to be really, really low energy. Probably not the best question to arise.
The Ugly: Molly Sims’ face. It. Doesn’t. Move. (Which really isn’t ugly so much as sad.)
The Good: The rest of the cast. James Lesure nailed every take and brought something new every time. Adam Busch was also fantastic as were the “suburb” extras.
The Bad: The Nickelback joke! There was a great Nickelback joke in rehearsal and it got cut. I think we were the only ones who laughed at it in rehearsal and the show doesn’t air in Canada, so I get it; but we were sad anyways.
The Good: Going to a taping of a sitcom!!! All bad and ugly aside, it was an incredible experience. It’s absolutely longer than ideal, but five or six hours of numb butt is the trade off for seeing a television show taped live; and it’s worth every minute.
*Not a real chart. More of a list, actually.
**One who keeps the audience “warm” i.e. laughing during the lengthy hours and repetitive takes.
***I know that a “groan” is still categorized as a “laugh” but let’s not aim for that, okay?
The alien spaceship we saw floating on the way home.
Kelly Tatham 