The Big Apple...

...and Jon Stewart...

It is the city that never sleeps, the city of lights, the big apple – New York City – the home of international finance, fashion, art, culture, and music, not to mention the United Nations. It is the most densely populated city in North America, with over eight million residents. I only had sixty hours to see as much of it as I could, but I made the most of it.

My Television News professor, Peter Downie and another television professor at Concordia University, Brian Gabriel, organized the trip. There were 15 students and two other faculty members with us. We got a group rate with Amtrak and the Journalism Students Association sponsored the trip, so it was dirt-cheap for all of us.

The train from Montreal was terrible – don’t ever do this – we were delayed by over two hours on the way there, so we arrived at 9:30 PM at Penn Station in central Manhattan. Our hotel– The Pennsylvania Hotel – was across the street from the station, which sits under Madison Square Gardens, home of the Knicks and the Rangers.

It was a great location and a deal, quadruple occupancy (with four beds) for around $200 US a night. The rooms were large, clean, and comfortable. Each person got their own key card, so we could all come and go as we pleased. The staff were courteous, and we didn’t experience any problems with the room. We were minutes walking from Times Square; the subway was easily accessible – though a bit harder to figure out than Montreal’s Metro, I managed just fine with my built-in super navigation system (I’m always the navigator on road trips).

What can I say about New York that hasn’t been said before? Probably nothing. But it was my first time there, and a whirlwind trip at that. I managed to pack in: Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, “Ground Zero” at the World Trade Center Site, Battery Park, Chinatown, Canal Street, Little Italy, the Staten Island Ferry, a cab ride, a rickshaw ride through central park, the Strawberry Fields of Beatles fame, the “Friends” fountain, Trump Tower, The Ritz, Rockefeller Center, The Empire State Building, FAO Schwartz (where I played the giant piano like Tom Hanks in the movie BIG), Fifth Avenue, New York pizza (terrible BTW), not getting carded for cigs or in bars, taking the subway, shopping, shopping and shopping. Not bad for two days. Of course the main event wasn’t even seeing the city… I was there for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart!!!
We arrived for the taping at just past 4PM we were waiting in the “VIP” line, which meant that we actually had tickets and they were waiting for us. The building sits on the corner of 11th Avenue and 52nd Street and has a blue awning and huge posters of the members of the cast. A sign above the door reads: “Abandon News All Ye Who Enter Here.” We were given our tickets – pink laminated poster board with a handwritten number, mine was 17. Once in the building, we were herded into a room to wait more. We were told there would be no photos or autographs, but there would be a short question period before the show.

Our group was the second to be seated. Front row, on the right side of the studio, Jon’s desk was about ten feet away from me. There were about 200 seats and as many lights in the studio. Four Sony cameras equipped with Teleprompters were placed around the stage and several huge screens made up the rest of the set. Jon’s desk sits on top of a two-stepped circular platform. It was a little over ten feet away from my seat.

I pulled my seat as close to the stage as I could, and waited. There were big black curtains hanging beside me, I pulled an edge back to see what I could. There was a man sitting with headphones looking at a monitor. He looked at me and raised an eyebrow. “What do you do?” I asked him. “You’ll see,” he replied. I didn’t (still don’t know what he did.)

Since we were the first to be seated we had to wait for the audience to fill up. They were leading people in group-by-group and assigning them seats. Microphones hung from the ceiling all over the studio – no laugh tracks at the Daily Show. The ceiling looked like the night sky for all of the lights that were shining. It’s incredible what it takes to put together a real studio. People were running around the studio, getting ready for the taping, but the atmosphere was relaxed and everything was under control, after all, they do it everyday. Finally the emcee came out. I didn’t catch his name, but he’s a staff writer who used to be a lawyer. He got the audience warmed up; after all, you need to be in the mood before being able to laugh loud enough for TV.

He picked on the group across the studio from us; they were from the National Defense University – basically the military’s think tank – they probably could have been guests on the show. He picked on one woman who was just back from Iraq – she had been in charge of reconstruction – “So, you were building houses?” he asked her. “No,” she replied. “So then you were directing a construction site?” Again she answered no. “so you weren’t really doing anything then!” he laughed in her face. I would be careful what I said to some of those people. She ended up getting him back later on by telling him that he shouldn’t have quit his job as a lawyer. His reply to that was lying down on his back, spreading his legs for her and telling her to lick his balls. In poor taste? Probably. Funny? For sure.

He came to our side of the studio and saw that we were all wearing Concordia Journalism sweatshirts. He asked us where we were from. He honed in on Brian – one of the professors that came with – “Are you their chaperone?” he asked. “Well, no,” Brian replied, “I just came with them.” Which, of course, is true. Then he picked on a few other people, and before we knew it Jon Stewart was front and center.

“Boxers or briefs?” one woman asked him. He answered with something like “the boys are free!” After a few quick questions, it was time to tape the show. Everything went so smoothly, all the b-roll, the camera movements, Jon’s delivery; the show went off without a hitch. The guest was a guy who wrote a book called Eat This Book, about competitive eating. Jon’s best question: So, how hard do you have to work to make this legitimate? – or something to that effect.

At the end of the show Jon walked behind one of the giant screens, but was in my direct line of vision. I caught his eye and waved. He looked right at me and waved back. What a moment. Seems so silly, but I think it just shows that he’s probably a really nice guy. Brian told me after the show that he noticed that Jon said “thank you” every time he was handed fresh copy.

It was a great experience, and worth the train ride from hell. I wouldn’t do anything differently, except maybe ask Jon a really smart question. But no regrets! We walked back to the hotel through mid-town Manhattan. Stopped at the Hershey store where I bought a bucket of chocolate for Cherry (my room mate).

I didn't have nearly enough time to see all of New York. I’ll have to go back. When I do there are a few things on my “to do” list. The United Nations – where you can get a sheet of stamps with your photo on them. Museums, museums, museums – MoMA, Natural History, Guggenheim, Television and Radio, just to name a few – there are hundreds. More of Central Park. More clubs and bars. Soho. A Broadway show. TV tapings – Saturday Night Live, David Letterman…Everything else. You could probably live in New York for your entire life and not see everything, but I think I did quite well for sixty hours.