The Ellen Show

The Monday after Easter, I went to a taping of the Ellen show with my mother-in-law, Jan, and sister-in-law, Allie!  It was SO much fun!!  We got the tickets through a friend of a friend...our friend Heather's, sister-in-law's sister.  ha.   You can't see me on the show at all, but Allie has a brief shot when Ellen went up into the audience to dance.

When we got to Burbank, we had to wait in a holding area outside the studio until they gave us our tickets to go in.  When I got a chance to meet Courtney, who gave us the tickets, she actually upgraded us to VIP tickets!  It meant that we were in the first group of people to enter the audience.  We ended up being in the FIRST row!  It was so amazing.  Here's a pic I got off of Ellen's Facebook page.  I circled us (and Tom who I'll talk about next) in red.

Tom, was the guy who pumped the audience up before the show and let us know when to clap and stand and whatnot.  He was funny and really nice.  At the end of the show Tom gave me a free t-shirt (b/c I shamelessly asked him for one).

Before the show they play all kinds of music VERY loud.  I could barely hear what Tom was saying to us some of the time.  Then people who want to dance in front of the group are picked to come down to the front of the stage.  That's what the girl is doing in the picture.  All the cameras are on the audience the whole time.  I've heard Ellen comment on her show before that she watches everyone dance before the show as do the guests on her show that day.  Then, all the sudden all the cameras turn around and the Ellen theme song plays and then there she was!  Standing about 15 feet from me!!!!  She did her monologue right in front of where we were sitting.  She talked about the earthquake that had happened the day before.  It was, of course, hilarious.  Then she goes up into the audience to dance.  Allie was the very first person she passed by....thank goodness since Allie has much better dance moves than me! 

The guests on the show were Ryan Seacrest, Mary McCormack, Citizen Cope and Rod Blagojevich (latest cast off from Celebrity Apprentice).   At each commercial break music was playing and, of course, dancing.  A few people would come up to Ellen right away to touch up her make up and show her notes.  Really, she didn't have much interaction with the audience at all.  While Ryan was on, she let 2 people ask questions about American Idol....but other than that, she never really talked to the audience.  Even during the taping, she was always looking into the camera....so it still kind of felt like you were just watching the show.

We got the Sherlock Holmes DVD and the CD of the band, Citizen Cope.  Anything free was exciting to me!

At one point she even walked INCHES from us.  When the band was playing, she was standing at the podium that's to the left of me in that picture.  I had Tom sitting next to me, so I was trying not to be creepy person staring at her while she was standing SO close to me.  I looked a couple times though...how could I not!  Then when the band was almost done, she walked RIGHT in front of us to get across stage to greet the band. 

At the end of the show she thanked us for coming b/c she knows how hard it is to get tickets and how long you have to wait even if you do have tickets.  Then, there was an organization that wanted to present Ellen and Portia with an award for all the work they do with animals and the environment.  So, we got to watch her recieve that and give her acceptance speech.  I wonder if that had not happened if she would have talked to the audience more at that point.  After the award she thanked us again and went back stage!

Overall, it was an awesome experience.   From the time you were in the waiting area until you left there was always music playing and it was a really fun atmosphere.  Seems like Ellen has created an awesome environment to work in.  Being so close to Ellen was awesome!