The Late Show with Stephen Colbert — Attraction in New York

The Gist: "We need a live audience because laugh tracks are too tacky. Aren't you guys obsessed with Colbert? Come on down! We'll get your laughs on the mic and kick you back on the curb no problem - and we won't even do it quickly! Here's a bookmark for your time."

The Good: Staff working the queue and security are kind and very good at managing crowds. They're helpful and it's easy to get your questions answered by anyone in the crew.

Comfortable seats (once inside), and it's cool to see the behind the scenes of the show. Interesting broadcasting and taping equipment, and the band is very good.

The Bad: Whether or not you have priority tickets, you have to wait in line for a while. If it's general tickets, you're in line a VERY long time. Hopefully the weather is good, because there's no coverage overhead. Once you're packed in, they break for your only bathroom break right before taping around 4:30 PM (ends around 7:30 PM). They will not let you leave any other time, and you cannot have anything to drink. You cannot use their bathrooms when taping ends, you must use facilities at another store. The Starbucks across the street will make you pay to use their bathroom. I contacted the Late Show team via email prior to the show and specifically asked if Accessible seating allowed restroom breaks during commercial break, and was ensured twice that this was true. At the show, I quickly learned that was not the case. Not everyone has the ability to endure lack of restroom access for 3-4 hours - being lied to about this fact was completely unnecessary and made for an extremely uncomfortable experience. I would rather them have been honest, so I could have opted not to attend.

The "opening act" is entirely unnecessary. The comedian isn't good, he just finds people in the crowd, pulls them on stage, and prods them until he finds someone actually funny. He'll make you chant "Stephen" 50 times and keep making you stand up, even though you've been on your feet all day. The band is great, but makes you stand and clap for 15 minutes to an endless instrumental. That gets old pretty quick.

FINALLY, you get your crowd instructions, taping starts, and Colbert barely acknowledges your presence. You can hardly hear him or the guest during clapping or cheering (which is prompted often), because the speakers facing the audience are pretty low for his mic. Maybe your guest will be live if you're lucky, but they're frequently pre-taped, and it's likely at least one of your segments will be.

Overall, I learned I'm not the kind of person that enjoys an experience like this. I think you have to really, really, really stan someone to be willing to attend. It honestly feels a little exploitative, and my wife and I felt pretty foolish when we left. Definitely demystified the process for me. Other than confirming with your own eyes that Stephen Colbert is in fact, a real person, there's nothing advantageous to attending in person versus watching a taping.

Recommendation (A Plea, Really) to the Show Team: What is this, 1990? There's no reason to have the audience lined up for hours prior to taping. Have an online ticket lottery system, assign seats or rows when tickets are awarded, and have an optional "standby" line outside for people who didn't win the lottery to grab the seats of anyone who can't attend. Make check-in online or in-app. If you want to be extra anal, you can even use proximity check in, so your system can verify that someone is actually in front of the theater when they click the "I'm Here!" button. If McDonald's can do that, I'm sure you can figure it out.

Get more accurate with your last call for the restroom break. I went for last call, but taping didn't actually start till another half hour later. Allow restroom breaks during the comedy and musical acts, and especially allow them during commercial break for emergencies. It's not difficult to have one of the dozen ushers nearby to escort someone back to their seat during the following commercial or not-filmed segment.

Our time is just as...

During Q&A with Stephen Colbert the most insightful question came from the upper balcony: “What brings you joy?” Colbert was heartfelt: “Time with family.” This was minutes before the 5:30pm taping began for the Monday, May 6 show with guests Ethan Hawke and Cedric the Entertainer.

A dear family friend had passed away and Stephen, his extended family and friends had gathered in his home state of South Carolina for the funeral over the previous weekend. He said that while the occasion was sad, he was grateful for having had that precious time with family and friends.

I promised my son I’d take him to the show when he turned 16, but the 2023 writers’ strike delayed his attendance to age 17. Paul Mecurio, the comedian charged with warming up the crowd pre-taping, was hilarious. He’d select random people from the audience, bring them on stage, ask questions and spin real life material into comedy gold. Warming up the crowd is clearly the key formula for making live audience television work.

I had been to a Letterman taping in the late 90s in the same theater and sat in the balcony. My son and I were lower level, just five rows from Colbert’s desk. If you do it right, it’s a lot of work being an audience member. Colbert and staff want super high energy. Stephen even said to us “We’re making a great show together.” My voice grew hoarse from cheering and my hands were red from all the clapping.

I definitely was laughing when not many others were, but I couldn’t discern my voice when I watched the show later that night. The audience noise is captured from mini-microphones at half volume dangling overhead while Colbert, Louis Cato (the band leader) and guests are captured at full volume. Being part of the live audience was a truly New York experience and a lot of fun. But you only need to do this once in your life, like climbing to the top of Lady Liberty’s head. It only took a total of about five hours from the time I began standing in the priority ticket line at 2pm until I exited the theater after the show ended at just before 7pm.

One other question during the Q&A was about what’s in Colbert’s coffee mug. It’s just black decaf coffee. That was the only disappointment of the evening. What question would I have asked Colbert if given the chance during Q&A? Do you think our national moral fabric has been tainted by the egregious wantonness of the 1980s?

(See my separate review of a fantastic gem of an Indian restaurant on 53rd St & 9th Ave for a meal idea post...

It was my first time seeing Colbert live, and it was a great experience. Not fantastic by any means, but definitely a good time (with some gripes).

I have two main issues: First, the constant requirement to be loud and laugh on command whenever the show breaks for commercial and comes back makes my energy feel artificial and, quite frankly, violated. I realize that the show is live and the energy of the crowd is important, but I feel like that's even more reason for it to be REAL rather than artificial. The band and comedian before Colbert do a decent job of energizing the crowd, but if the show fails to generate genuine excitement and laughter out of the crowd, then it shouldn't be the crowds job to support that and carry that burden.

Second, the commercial breaks are FREQUENT. And I mean every 3-5 minutes. Colbert was on the stage for roughly 40 minutes and I spent just as much, if not more, time observing him sitting there (not interacting with the crowd) as I did when he was on-air. This coupled with the constant requirement of needing to laugh, cheer, and applause ("roughly three time as loud as normal") twice every time a commercial happens really just makes the show feel less special.

Tl;Dr show was funny, he is a comedian, 50% of the jokes fell flat (not bc of topic but purely bc they were written poorly) but the other 50% hit extremely well. Nothing is off limits. Show is definitely more left-leaning in political view, but still very enjoyable for conservatives especially if you maintain an open mind. Constant need to supply energy to the stage crew/actors/bands/Colbert is draining and is the worst part of the show. They are very "appreciative" of it so maybe it's a little more bearable. And the show is still very entertaining to see it at least once. Further trips would have to be fueled by a special guest I'd like to see (not that you can choose when you get...