My niece Carolyn was in town and my aim to be the cool auntie paid off when we got stand-by tix to Saturday Night Live. Host was Zach Braff (my niece thinks he is a bit of a hottie) and musical guest was Maroon 5 (Adam Levine, ditto). Personally, it was seeing Lorne Michaels and Darrell Hammond that got my heart a'racing.
Since it was the last show of the season, many celebs were in the audience. The cast of 30 Rock stood behind my niece, I stood next to Ivanka Trump (which made me feel really, really short), and we saw venerable announcer Don Pardo on the way out. The crowd was beyond enthusiastic & skits gut-hurting funny. SNL is the comedic cultural institution of the last three decades and I felt honored to be there.
How to Get Stand By Tix: Get up super early and stand in line at 30 Rockefeller Center on the 49th St. side under the NBC Studios sign by at least 6 am. Many online guides say the 50th st. side and also recommend arriving by 7 am, but this was not the case for us. By 6:20 am the line was already out the wazzu and I got ticket #93. Pick tix for either the 11:30 pm show taping (recommended) or the 8pm dress rehearsal. Return to the same location (they say by 10:45pm, we were there at 10:20), go inside, get in line according to number, and hold your breath hoping they have room for you. I was the LAST PERSON to be seated, getting a special office chair next to the sound dude.
Standby tix do not guarantee admission, so unfortunately some folks where turned away. But not the adorable newlyweds behind us, there on a mad dash to experience unique-to-NYC outings before moving to Chicago. Which brings up another recommendation-talk to folks in line next to you. You will get the most wonderful stories!
1 comment:
I too am trying to be the cool one (husband in my case). This is step one of my effort to get SNL tix for my wife's B-day. Looking for weekends of 4/19 or 4/26. Willing to go standby (great insights) but would prefer to find tix ahead of time. At 40 yrs old with 3 young kids, my wife will be reluctant to give up her sleep time on vacation.
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