Earlier this week, I told you the heartbreaking tale of my almost admission into the taping of the Colbert Report. My friend Amanda and I were numbers 15 and 16. When it came time for us to be admitted, we got the door slammed in our faces, as number 14 was the last person to get a ticket.
Read about our experience in line and details from the taping of the show after the jump.
2:30PM. 513 W. 54th Street.
This morning, Amanda and I decided to give the Colbert Report another shot…rain and all. We arrived on the scene at 2:30PM. I thought that it would be too early because I walked by at 1PM and there was no one in line, but I wanted to make sure that we got in. The guest on this night was John McCardell, but we were there to see Colbert… naturally.
We ended up being numbers 2 and 3. The wait wasn’t so bad. The show was taping early, so we only had to wait until 4PM.
5:10PM. 513 W. 54th Street.
After we signed our name on the list, we got to go home until 5:10PM. I knew we had a great chance of getting in, but we were dissed twice in one week — by SNL and the Colbert Report — so I didn’t want to jinx anything.
The Final Verdict…
VICTORY!!!! Yes! We did it! We finally made it! Whooooo!! Hell yeah!!
The Colbert Report Taping
The Colbert Report is very strict when it comes to taking pictures inside of the studio. Once we got through security, we were told that we had to turn off our phones and tuck away our cameras. We got filed into the studio by the numbers on our ticket. We were numbers 55 and 56. We ended up on the third row on the very left, if you’re facing the stage. These seats were really good because we never got blocked by cameras, like some of the people in the front row did.
My Chicken and Egg Moment with Stephen Colbert
Once you get seated a comedian comes out to warm up the crowd and announce that you can ask Stephen questions and that he’ll be out of character. I didn’t plan on asking a question because I didn’t have one, but I couldn’t pass up the opportunity and Amanda was encouraging me. So I came up with my question.
After Stephen makes his entrance the crowd goes wild. He says a few words to the audience and jumps into the Q & A session right away. I waved my arm frantically and was the second person that he called on. When I stood up to ask a question he said, “look how polite she is” because I was the only one who stood up to ask a question. Here’s the transcript of our dialog.
Me: If you could mud wrestle any president in history, who would it be?
The crowd laughs and without skipping a beat…
Colbert: Martin Van Buren! (let’s out a little giggle) I’ve been waiting for someone to ask me that question.
That is when I got a nod of approval from one of the crew, Guessepi. He liked my question, too. But that is not where the story ends. Later in the show, Stephen made a joke about Martin Van Buren. It left me with a chicken and egg conundrum. Did he already have that joke in the can and said Van Buren because he was already thinking about him? Or did he improvise and add in the Van Buren joke? He is quick on his feet, after all. But, alas, I’ll never know.
Final Thoughts
Obviously, it was worth the wait — both of them. The Colbert Report line is not bad. I like the fact that you get a break before having to come back for the show. And getting an inside look at the taping is also fun. Some highlights include Stephen getting down to House of Pain’s “Jump Around.” Or when we was teasing his hair person — she was caressing his hair to fix it, so he reached over to caress her, too. And of course, the few words that I got to exchange with him. 
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I’m SO glad you blogged about this
If I had to go to Panda’s blog to read about it, there’d be nothing there but a sh*tload of OMFGYAYAYAYYAYAYAISAWCOLBERTTODAY!!11!1oNe!1!!1ONE!!1–If you know what I mean 
I’m SO glad you guys got in! And when Panda told me about the question you asked, I died laughing 
Worth the rain? WORTH IT.
omg you lucky…..
Yay! Thanks. I’m glad we got in too! My Q & A with Colbert was PURE luck!
So frickin’ cool. Way to sass it up!!
So what time to they start taping the show, around 4pm? Awesome you got to ask him a question!!
They start signing people up for the show around 4:30pm. Then you return at around 5:15pm (depends on the schedule for the day) to see if you got into the show. Filming starts at around 7pm. But, if you want to get in, I would recommend 2pm to stand in line.