Do you want to be part of a live studio audience? Or to discover the funniest and sharpest The Daily Show guest hosts in NYC? Get ready for an afternoon of laughter and a behind-the-scenes look at your favorite late-night talk show.
Ever since Trevor Noah announced he quits the role of hosting The Daily Show, I was very curious about who will replace him. He had his last show in December 2022. And when I saw there are going to be The Daily Show guest hosts every week, I decided to join one of the live recordings. You know, for the good old times’ sake. I wanted to see Chelsea Handler. And if you don’t know, I have another article in which I explain my experience of joining most of the night shows and one morning one. And I will give you important tips on how to prepare for it.
How To Get Tickets for The Daily Show?
The good news is the tickets are free. Anyone can join as long as they have an account on the website. Make sure you choose your date and read all the fine print to understand what the rules are. Choose The Daily Show and then the date when you are available to go. It’s important to remember your entry is not guaranteed unless you are selected as one of the priority tickets. It’s worth watching your email because you don’t know when or if you get to the priority. As it happened to me this time around, I just received an email as seen below.
Location & Waiting in Line
The location of the Daily Show studio is in Manhattan, which is not hard to miss. You can actually just write the name of the show in Google Maps and it will pop up. At the same time, the exact address is given in the email as well. Personally, I transferred to a 1 and stopped at 50th Street and then I walked for about 15 minutes (around 5 blocks).
I arrived around 15:20 and there were already a few people waiting in line. I had my ID ready, my vaccination card ready, and my online confirmation ticket. If you do not have a priority ticket, remember the queue starts around the corner. The priority line is at the main entrance. We were lucky because they had heaters above us so we didn’t freeze. It was a rather chilly February day. Eventually, we all got the yellow ticket and got ready to enter the building.
We got inside around 4 pm. I decided to go to the toilet because once you are seated you are not allowed to move. And I knew we are still going to be kept a little until we make it to the studio. And we did wait for about 30 minutes more. We never got asked for the vaccination card, or for my ID. That was rather strange. But the mask was mandatory and if you didn’t have one they offered very simple blue ones.
In the Daily Show Studio
We entered the studio in the order of the ticket we received – it was numbered, and we got directed to our chairs. We were asked not to take pics before being seated. And to my shock, I had great seats. Yay, priority! But I was about to find out later it was not where the camera was pointing at. So no, you cannot see me.
The first big difference I’ve noticed since last time was the wifi. They had wifi offered on the big screens with all the social media of the show. I do not remember having that back in 2018. You are not allowed to use your phone during the recording but before that is very encouraged. They want a free promo for the show, right? Not that they needed. I think all in all we waited for about one hour for everyone to be seated and for us to receive the last explanations. We were advised to have all our stuff under the chair because we will stand up a lot. And we did.
Pre-Show
It’s very common to have a comedian warming up the public before the actual show. And usually, that means they’ll do some crowd work. Starting with asking who’s from abroad. And then talk with the public. Make some jokes, then ask some more questions. And so we found out there was a big group of students from Belgium who are studying production and they came to check how it works in the US. Apparently, it was a school trip. I was shocked because of the difference between my university opportunities. And the comedian said they only went to the Bronx Zoo. And he went to school in the Bronx. Then he talked with a Danish married couple.
I am the one that won’t raise my hand no matter what so once again I did not. But the lady by my side did, she’s an ob-gyn from Texas. I immediately thought about abortion rules, but the comedian was talking about guns. Which, to be fair, still counts.
Daily Show Guest Hosts – Chelsea Handler
Chelsea came out of nowhere. The comedian was still talking when Chelsea Handler came to say hello. The makeup team was following her and so she went back a little. And then in a short time after we started the show. Probably be around 5:30 pm. When you are in the public you need to applaud, obviously, but also to keep standing up. We knew about it, anyway. Also, you need to keep the energy high. And I have to be honest, I was not that much in the mood, but the energy of the public really made me have a good time.
We started with the headlines. The thing that nobody tells you is you won’t hear her at all when the applauses happen. So I didn’t know what she was saying every time she talked at the same time we were applauding. And this is one of the things we have been worn about. You need to react not watch the show. Haha, a bit ironic. We then continued with a segment in which Desi was in the studio behind a green screen.
The Main Guest – Ashley Graham
The main guest was Ashley Graham. She is a model and a body positivity activist. Let’s not forget that the episode happened around NY fashion week so her appearance was needed. Unfortunately, they edited quite a bit of the interview, I am sure that is normal with every guest. It seemed extremely short but they also talked about breastfeeding in public, which didn’t come up in the actual episode. They also had a longer back-and-forth about Ashley being over Chelsea (chairs-wise). Currently, she is trending in the media because of her interview with Hugh Grant during the Oscars. Quite awkward and I stand by her. She really tried.
After the guest left, they changed the studio during a short break. Chelsea wanted to come closer to talk with us a little but the production told her to stay in a spot for the last moment (the zen moment, usually shown on the episode, not on the YT videos). She asked someone from the public about dogs, she was looking to adopt.
Finally, the last segment came about in which Chelsea had a roundtable with local comedians. I think this was a segment from the previous show she had a while back. And to my surprise, I got to see Matteo Lane. Unfortunately, the conversation seemed a little forced and their laughs were as well. I didn’t recognise the other two comedians, but my partner worked with one of them. Small world, even in NYC.
The show ended around 6:30 or so and we were asked to wait for our turn to leave. And that was all. We then left the theatre the same we entered, more or less.
Currently, daily show guest hosts are still on, and I do have to say my favourite was Hasan Minhaj. He’s just in another league. And Roy Wood Jr. did a pretty amazing job too. I think everyone is curious about who is going to host permanently. What do you think?
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