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Published: February 2nd 2010
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Our day began with some shopping, of all things, at the Century 21 shopping centre, well Nic and I kind of watched Jaimee and Joel shop, we were trying to cut down on buying stuff as we'd just have to ship it back to NZ. It was too frantic for my liking anyway, I need space if I'm gonna shop. I think females thrive on swarming shops; males just look for the quiet spots where they can have some sanctuary, which is what I did in the foetal position until it was all over.
Back in the outside world we took a few photos of the giant Wall Street Bull statue that is near The Bowling Green and Financial District. It is supposed to give you financial luck if you rub it. Strangely though many people choose to rub the statue in somewhat inappropriate places. By that I mean they rub the bull’s nuts from behind. No gentle way of putting that really. A lot of the people doing this were Asian; I think it is a sign of virility or something? I hope they aren't trying it with real-live bulls, that could get messy.
One of Joel's aims
of the trip was to eat at the restaurant chain Taco Bell who serve a range of Mexican food. We made a mad dash in the rain to find one that we had seen out of the train window, it was a lot further from the train station than we realised. I think Joel appreciated it though. Most of the Taco Bells are operated in combination with KFC. I thought Taco Bell was ok but I know where my loyalties lie, I'm still pondering whether to get a 'KFC til I die' tattoo. Whilst at the restaurant I think Jaimee set a record for the fastest drinking of a bucket of Mountain Dew. They sell drinks in huge containers and by the time Joel and I had ordered our meal Jaimee had smashed back about 2 Litres of Mountain Dew, I think I might take her to one of those restaurants where they have free refills, she if she can put them out of business.
Back at the hostel we said our goodbyes to Jaimee and Joel who were flying across the Atlantic back to London. Nic and I made our way to the Ed Sullivan Theatre where we'd
won a ballot to get tickets to see David Letterman! After a long wait out in the rain, we received our tickets and made our way inside. We were still unaware of who the special guests would be for the night, some rumours were that it was Jeff Goldblum or Beyonce, I know who I'd prefer to see. Those predictions were both wide of the mark though. Whilst queued up inside (but not yet in the studio area), a pre-show entertainer/comedian got the crowd warmed up and informed us of the proper etiquette. We were allowed to laugh our arses off in the right places, but if we yelled or heckled then we'd be shown the door in prompt fashion. No cameras were allowed inside, I couldn't take any shots, booooooo. We were ushered into our seats, and this is where we learnt that our guests would be former Batman star Micheal Keaton and UK singer Lily Allen. We were pretty damn happy with that. We also learnt that this was their second recording of the day and would be aired on Friday (they do two recordings on Mondays so they get Friday off, pretty good idea I reckon).
Another pre-show comedian kept the crowd in good spirits and the CBS band lead by Paul Shaffer cranked out some really good tunes. When David Letterman (or Dave as I'm allowed to call him) came on he was so relaxed and casual that we didn't even know if filming had started. I have been to some TV recordings before and they often do plenty of retakes. This show was done all in one take, no mistakes were cut, we watched for an hour and all of that hour was shown on TV. That’s pretty amazing professionalism if you ask me.
Whenever I've watched the show on television I've always thought that it was set at night and from a high rise studio that has a window overlooking New York. How wrong I was, it's filmed during the day from a first floor studio. They have a very intricate set that looks like the New York skyline on wheels that slides apart. In fact when Lily Allen performed they slid the set apart during a commercial break and rolled out her bands stage, within about 30 seconds they had all the set back together and were ready to go, a
very slick operation.
Micheal Keaton was promoting a new movie called The Merry Gentlemen; I guess it must have bombed, as I never really heard much about it. He had a broken foot so hobbled onto the stage with a cast and crutches. He is actually a really humorous and witty guy, shame his career has kind of trailed off. Lily Allen sang a song that she'd just realised called 'The Fear' which was brilliant, it sounded amazing. I didn't want to leave in the end, partly because the show was great, partly because the weather outside was friggin awful. We spent our last evening in the Big Apple getting our fix of authentic pizza, it really is amazing in New York.
So all in all the Letterman show was a great experience. Shame I couldn't take photos, but in the end I took a few of the TV screen when it aired. If you pause and zoom in you can actually see us in the audience, I'm basically famous, I'll probably be getting offers to star in feature films in the foreseeable future. Not sure if I’ll find time for them seeing my data entry career is
so promising right now. Perhaps Michael Keaton could play me in ‘The Data Enterer’ and resurrect his career.
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