Lauren and I were fortunate enough to win tickets to attend today’s taping of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Well, she was fortunate enough to win the tickets. I am just fortunate enough to date her.
The guests for tonight were scheduled to be Andy Samberg, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Finneas, but we were told upon arrival that there would be a surprise guest in addition that everyone was going to love. After much time guessing who it would be, Lauren’s friend hoping it would be Billie Eilish (Finneas’ better known sister), her friend’s boyfriend and I hoping it would be someone from the Super Bowl last night, Elon Musk, or Margot Robbie (who is on the schedule for tomorrow), and Lauren hoping it was going to be Brad Pitt after Jimmy showed a pre-recorded bit that they did for the show, the surprise guest was revealed to be none other than RuPaul, who is not only the most famous drag queen in the world, but as he/she corrected Jimmy on the show, “the queen of drag”. So much for Patrick Mahomes.
The top three moments for me were the beginning monologue, Andy Samburg’s buddy from The Lonely Island eating a raw T Bone steak a few seats to the left of us as part of an act, and Jimmy walking through the crowd to do some unrecorded Q&A during one of the breaks. The Roots were on point as expected beginning with Express Yourself and the performance from Finneas (as well as his interview for that matter) surprised in a good way. I am going to check out some more of his music this week.
I was most surprised by the number of lights, the largeness of the cameras, and the hidden door in the waffle wall behind the couch area through which Jimmy would exit the stage between segments.
I used to watch the show quite a bit when Jimmy first took it over from David Letterman but other than that I have never been much of a late night talk show guy, or any time or type of talk show guy really. Nonetheless, being a part of the audience was a thrill and an experience that I would highly recommend entering yourself in the lottery to win if you are near the New York City area.
I have been a fan of Jimmy’s since the movie Fever Pitch, the underrated romantic comedy that took an unscripted turn when the Red Sox ended up breaking the curse and winning The World Series that year. I remember I happened to visit Boston for a Sox game with my dad that summer and there was fake snow in the streets in August for the purpose of the film.
We all really enjoyed the show and Jimmy certainly does a great job hosting it. If you happen to watch it tonight, you might see us a couple of rows back in the middle. I was in a grey sweater, probably clapping and trying to figure out which camera to look at.
