My SNL Experience for January 7, 2012

Saturday Night Live is single-handedly the best comedy show that has ever graced the small screen. 

 

It’s so easy to browse through seasons in my mind and reminisce on sketches that bring smiles, chuckles and deep belly laughs.

The only thing better than experiencing SNL from your living room would be experiencing it LIVE in the studio audience.

I’m here to tell you that it is possible to be there; even with no connections to the show.

First of all, as I will explain later, the seating for SNL is not a fair and just system.  You should go ahead and accept that fact now.  Simply put, people connected to the show get awesome seats.  People who win the lottery just get seats; and some of them are disappointing.

How to get tickets

Three ways:

1.       Have a connection to the show

2.       Lottery

3.       Stand-By

Methods 1 and 2 are the only sure-fire ways you will get a ticket and since the lottery is how I got on the show, it’s what I will focus on.

Where to start

Set a reminder on your calendar for August because August is the ONLY month you may enter the lottery for the upcoming season.  The e-mail is simple.  Here is what I sent on 8/18/2011 from my gmail account:

Subject:  2011-2012: Entry to SNL Ticket Lottery

Body:

Contact Info:

Ray LastName

480 My Street

My Town, AL  35000

Home:  (205) 555-1212

Cell:   (205) 555-1212

That’s it; except you may want to"white-list" tickets@nbc.com snltickets@nbcuni.com in your e-mail account.  See Final Notes for more details.

Now put it in the back of your mind and set a reminder in your calendar for August of next year.   

As with any lottery, it’s very difficult to get tickets.  The studio is small and a lot of the seats will be reserved; not just the VIP section on the floor but also the seats up above.  This makes available seating an even smaller pool.   So, if you get the tickets, by all means go because you have won a very rare treat!

Ok, let’s say lightning strikes in your direction.  You will receive an e-mail like this approximately 38 days before the show:

This is the real deal; though you can do as I did and call NBC to verify.  

It’s time to buy your plane ticket and make plans to stay in NYC.  For what it’s worth, we stayed at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers and we were within walking distance to 30 Rock (10 minute walk).

After you plan your vacation, now you have to wait. :P

On the night of SNL, this is what will happen

You will enter at the entrance on 49th street

The line for ticket holders starts around 9:00.  If you get there at 9:00, you will have this view for quite a while:

The line for people holding standby tickets starts around the same time; although they get their standby tickets earlier that day.  You will have to verify with other sources about how to get standby tickets.

Have your confirmation email printed and ready to hand in.  

They will not let you in without that e-mail.

The Pages start exchanging tickets for your printed email around 10.  You will get a ticket that looks like these:

NOTE:  You don't get to keep these tickets as you have to trade them in for wristbands :(

Once they start rounding everyone up, you will walk through a metal detector and show your ticket.   

You will receive several warnings about cell phones.  Follow them because, at all times, big brother is watching.  You don’t want to ruin your experience by getting kicked out.

You then form a line to the elevators.

Once you arrive to the floor for normal seating, you will stand there and wait about 30 minutes.  It is fun to stand in that hallway.  First, there is the anticipation of being at a live SNL show, but there are many pictures on the wall honoring past seasons.

After the wait, you will enter the studio.  It looks something like this:

Please forgive the look of this model above, it’s my first attempt at creating a room.  It’s not to scale, but gives the gist.

Here’s the break down:

Performance Areas: 

1. The Music Guest Performs here
2. This is the main stage.  Skits, Weekend Update and the opening monologue are performed here.  Behind this stage is the SNL band.  The black part of the stage retracts. 
3. Two stages for sketches

a.       These areas are for sketches too.  They are nothing more than a few moveable pieces put together

b.      This is the same as area a, but was an unused sketched during the live show (e.g. it didn’t make the cut)

c.       This crew uses this area to construct sets during commercial breaks.  The crew brings in all the backdrops. (the same happens for area 2)

10-60.  These are the seating areas.

We were one of the first lottery ticket holders in line and we were seated in the very back in area 10. 

If you were looking at us from the stage, we were at the red circle here: 

My first thought when we sat down was “Who did we piss off?”  

I knew the VIP section below was for important people, but there are more assigned seats (e.g. non-lottery winners) at the top as well.  I know this because there was masking tape across seats with names on the tape.  

Also, and this was even more frustrating, if the reserved seats for people upstairs are not filled; then people on standby got those seats.  (Remember: SNL seating is not a fair and just system).

How do I know that?  Well, no one told me, but as they finished seating everyone, you could see certain people look for their friends on the other side of the studio and wave to them excitedly.  They had that kind-of expression on their face that they knew each other and they couldn’t believe they were sitting there.  

Sitting in worse seats than someone on standby stings; mainly for two reasons.

1. They did not win their seat in the coveted lottery
2. The people who had the assigned seats did not have respect to even show up; whereas my wife and I planned our entire trip around this event…grrr!

So be prepared for that.  We were thankful that we did not sit in the 60 seating area though.  In some of those seats you could not see the band area nor the musical act.

Also, what my 3d model doesn’t show are the lights hanging from the ceiling which block your view.  We had an awesome view of the musical guest, a descent glimpse of the main stage, but all the other views (particularly area 3) were completely obstructed

Notice the areas for the ‘a’ skits too.  They face away from the audience.  Which seems strange at first, but, believe me, it’s very entertaining to see all the behind-the-scenes work that goes into a sketch.

Behind us was a sound board; another sound board was in the corner opposite of us.

As we sit down and we wait, there’s a little hustle and bustle we get to watch; last minute prep before the show. 

Then, the band starts doing some warm ups and they performed a couple of songs; one guy did a great version of Fire by Hendrix.

This might be interesting if you sit in our area:  behind the 20 seating area was a glass door to a room.  VIPs are in that room; watching TV and drinking.  Cast members are in there too.  I know this because someone who walked out that door forgot to completely close it; and I saw Jason Sedekis casually walk by.

I felt like Jane Goodall; observing celebrities in their natural habitat.

The reason Jason got up was to speak to the audience.  He didn’t walk out the glass door mentioned above (though that would have been really cool), but he did make his way to front stage through other means.

He spoke to us because the show was delayed due to a football game.  He cracked some jokes at the people sitting in the shitty seats and then bragged about the band a little.

After he finished...Keenan came out with Abby, Nasim, and Vanessa.  They stood on area 2.

In full Charles Barkley make-up, Keenan performed a song with the girls:

 The song:  Doobie Brothers, Long Train Running (Without Love).  As you probably know, KEENAN CAN SING! It really got the whole crowd pumped up.  Of course, the girls in the cast are super hot; so it was entertaining to watch them sing backup.

Cool things you see the audience does not

• The crew...they are a well-oiled machine; watching them set up stages between commercial breaks rivals watching a NASCAR crew during a pit-stop.
• With the skits facing away from the audience, you get to watch and read the cue cards.   I had fun seeing the difference between what was on Sir Charles' cue card and what he actually said.  The cast members were spot on!
• Watching cast members laugh off camera as they watch their comrades perform.
• Seeing Lorne...we did not see him till the end and he had zero interaction with the audience....still cool though.
• As a 36-year-old grown man who loves rock ‘n roll, I can tell you that Kelly Clarkson was awesome!  The sound in that studio is great plus it was so surreal to watch this girl casually walk out on the stage, joke around with the band and, once the camera hit her, she turned into a pop star.
• After the Lord Wyndemere sketch, Bill Heder looked up in our area as he scampered off set.  I waved and he waved back.  I felt brushed with fame and also a little tickled as he was dressed like this:

• Finally, at the end of the show,  seeing the cast members hug each other and wave to the audience without credits rolling in front of you.  I never feel complete till I see that part of the show.  It's always intrigued me.

Notes about Season 37 (2011 - 2012)

• Last Year for Paul Brittain (final episode was on January 14th, 2012)...no more Lord Wyndemere :(
• Last year for Andy Samburg
• Last year for Kristin Wiig
• The show we attended was the highest rating for the season.  (NFL Playoffs had a little to do with it)
  

Final Notes

• In 2012-2013 season, NBC changed their SNL ticket address from  tickets@nbc.com to snltickets@nbcuni.com.  Make sure send your entry to the NBC site.  
• Your e-mail account should understand that tickets@nbc.com snltickets@nbcuni.com is NOT A SPAM address.  Thus, you should add that address to your trusted senders list.  Each e-mail client has their own way of doing this.  If you perform a web search like this:  "Whitelist XXXXXX" where XXXXXX is the name of your e-mail provider (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Windows Mail, etc.), you will find instructions on how do this
• NBC Pages and staff very hush-hush on how it all works.  They were polite to the audience members but they weren't giving out any details on how it all worked.
• Flattery got me nowhere.  Early December, I wrote a kiss-ass letter to SNL letting them know how much the show means to me.  Charles Barkley  lives about 15 miles from me so I hit him up with a kiss-ass e-mail trying to work the local angle.  Finally, my excited “Woos” and “Yeahs” to the NBC Pages as they ask us if we were ready to see the best show on earth got me nothing either.  You can try, but don't be upset if nothing happens.
• Prepare for surprises.  This is just a personal thing.  I’ve been married for 11 years and have known my wife for 14.  We’ve been to all kinds of concerts and events.  She’s a very quiet person yet when Seth Meyers made it out on the stage, I heard her scream with excitement.  Apparently, she is a Seth Meyers fan.  It was funny to hear such an excited reaction from her.

Conclusion

As far as entertainment is concerned (sports, theratre, rock concerts, etc.), SNL is the one I cherish most.  If you go, you will not regret it!

As far this post is concerned, it's is just one person's experience from a LIVE SNL taping.  Your experience may vary.  I would certainly love to know details of how the show went for you if you care to post them.