What a crazy week.

I know most of the country has been buried in snow so I won’t tell you how warm the breeze is from my open window is. Lets just say its been unseasonable warm even by Southern California standards. I think the drastic change in the weather has effectively started the flu season early in our preschool. My daughter has been holed up all week with mommy (or is it the other way around?) battling the crud. We went the entire fall without as much as a sniffle so I guess it was time. I did manage to get a day off on Thursday to drive up to Los Angeles to be an audience member of a CONAN taping with the fabulous Kathleen of (ksugarandspice) and Priscilla of (Shes Cookin) .

If you are in the So. Ca. area I HIGHLY recommend you try to get tickets. I am a long time Conan fan, there is something about his lanky goofy ways that make me laugh so LOUDLY I inevitably wake up the house around 11pm every night. Let me tell you Thursday’s show was no different. guest were Ricky Gervais (<– his blog is hilarious BTW) can’t wait to see him host the Golden Globes Sunday!,  Kaitlin Olson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) and Cheap Trick!!

If you fan Team Coco on facebook they will post a link you can access to request tickets from time to time. I filled out a few questions and within a few days I had received my confirmation! All you have to do is show up by 2:30 at the Warner Bros Studios (Burbank) with a photo ID and you’re in! Here’s my  tip for you if you want to sit upfront then arrive early! They begin checking people in at 1:30 but I suspect there were people there earlier than that staking their place in line. We checked in around 2pm and were group 75. We actually had seats about half way up in the center – great view~ and the studio holds maybe 200 audience members so the who thing feels pretty intimate. You do have to go through metal detectors and get a wristband upon check in and there is a strict policy of no cameras (I forgot) they will let you go put it back in your car or you can claim when you exit the taping. You can bring a cell phone and a purse (unlike my Oprah experience) which makes no sense since phones these days have excellent cameras, in fact we saw people snapping photos in the sound stage after the show (whoops).

Wear comfortable shoes – there is a lot of waiting (taping begins at 4:30) and walking involved. You are escorted like schoolchildren lined up in pairs through the small city sized studio lot. We saw a million trailers, racks and racks of costumes and these HUGE towering numbered studios that look like blimp hangers (most of them built in 1935). Once you are lead into Stage 18 an usher will seat you depending on how many are in your party filling in the gaps. We hardly had to wait once we were seated. La Bamba and the Basic Cable band plays (they are awesome) they have a HILARIOUS warm up guy Jimmy Pardo <–if you are from Chicago you KNOW! and before you know it they roll the cameras. Huge TV monitors are staggered everywhere above you so you can see the lead in to the show and the video clips, it has a very “LIVE” feel to it.  Its cool to see all the cameras and dozens of people carefully orchestrated on stage just out of the view. They are literally feet away from Conan with the cue cards and mics dressed head to toe black wearing some sort of CONAN logo-ed wear. (yes of course I have my Team Coco shirt)

It whooshes by and before you know it they wrap it up after Cheap Trick played (I forgot to wear my checkerboard vans that day! damn!) and then Conan gave us a little serenade about how this is the part of the show nobody gets to see .. it was very cool! My last tip if you are like me and have to drive out of LA to get home would be to grab dinner AFTER the show and wit out that traffic although I have to saw my lunch choice of Champagne followed by a Morton’s French Dip and onion rings was a good call too.

You can watch the episode we saw on TBS clicking here.