Late Night Late Show

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Backstage :: Late Night Late Show, Wrigleyville, Chicago

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Green Room :: Late Night Late Show, Wrigleyville, Chicago

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Late Night Late Show, Wrigleyville, Chicago

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Late Night Late Show, Wrigleyville, Chicago

mr_t.jpgMr. T :: Late Night Late Show, Wrigleyville, Chicago

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Audience :: Late Night Late Show, Wrigleyville, Chicago

I was pretty nervous to appear on the Late Night Late Show. I mean, radio, newspaper, even TV.. they’re all edited before anyone sees them. And this was a live show, taped and distributed online. If I tripped and fell and landed on my face or said something retarded, the whole audience would see it AND it would probably be distributed like crazy online.

Once I got to the theater and met with everyone backstage I calmed down a lot. I really didn’t know what to expect or what they were expecting from me, but Jordan, who plays the host Mark Luge, took me aside to explain how it all worked. Basically the show loosely models the late night shows you know – Letterman, Leno, Conan – except that they are improvised and have a theme. The theme for last night was internet/e-/the tech boom. It opened with Luge as the host chatting and talking to his musical sidekick, Mr. T. Then their were some other characters coming on and kind of a running story throughout the show. Andrew Huff and I appeared as the show’s guests and our spot was really only 5-10 minutes (thankfully!).

Before the show the performers were really nice and went out of their way to talk to me, to tell me they checked out the site, and to comfort me about the performance. Everyone was just there to have a good time and to have the audience have a good time. And Nick, the booking agent, was there to get us drinks, make sure we knew what was going on, tell us where to be and when, and basically just hold our hands the whole time. It ended up being a ton of fun.

I think it’d be fun to go back and see a performance that I’m NOT in. They do the show every Saturday at midnight and it’s only $5 to get in.

Also, all week I’ve been like “How many people are really gonna show up at midnight on a Saturday night on a holiday weekend to hear some dorks talk about their websites?” The answer is “about 70.” I took the audience photo while I was on stage and said I was going to blog about it.

See also:
» Erin’s Flickr photos (lots of photos of us on stage)
» Gaper’s Block Flickr photos
» “Late Night” Photos by Justin Sondak at Chicagoist
» e-Likeability (.mov, 38 seconds, 713k)
» e-Duck (.mov, 60 seconds, 1.2mb)
» Musical Guest (.mov, 40 seconds, 664k)