The Craig Kilborn Experience

Yesterday I woke up and thought "Gee, I have only one week left living in LA. I don't have much to do today, so why not try to do the one tourist activity I haven't yet done: get into a studio audience." I succeeded in doing just that, as I was in the audience of last night's Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn. I don't really like Kilborn and I would rather have seen a sitcom or gameshow, but since we're in summer hiatus season, talk shows are the only thing taping.

Despite the woefully tiny audience of just 87 people, securing tickets on the day of the show was a breeze. I printed my free ticket off their website and showed up at the studio at 3:30. I'm still not sure why they made us arrive a full 2 1/2 hours before the show started, but I do know that the guy in charge of rounding up the audience really hates his job. After suffering though the warm-up-the-crowd comedian, the show began with a performance from Jewel (they film segments out of order). The highlight of her set was actually before she started singing: After some guy yelled out "I love you!", Jewel yelled back "I love you too... no really, I mean I want to have sex with you." Oh, celebrities say the darndest things off camera.

The show itself was a painful reminder of why I never watch The Late Late Show. Kilborn's jokes were lame and smarmy while his interviewing skills were subpar. When talking to Terminator 3's Nick Stahl, Kilborn accidentally called him Arnold. But the worst part was that the stage managers practically held guns to our heads as they made us laugh, cheer and clap until our hands were sore. I'm not sure whether I should even bother trying to attend The Tonight Show next week now that I know how much effort it takes to be a big-time late night audience member. Sure I got to see Jewel's cleavage up close and got on camera for about a second and a half, but was it really worth it?

My new goal is to scour through the flood of acting gigs posted on Craig's List to see if I can win a part as an extra in a music video or something. I'm more than happy to play a towel-waving thug.