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| James Corden, Jack Hanna, Ana de Armas, and Michael Fassbender |
The reason why I love writing for Fassinating Fassbender is so that I can share with my fellow fans, these exciting opportunities I have to chronicle Michael Fassbender's career and his public appearances. Tonight, I hit another milestone in being able to attend a live taping of a talk show where Michael was a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden. Before I go into detail about the preparation I had to go through, and the pre-show production things I witnessed, Michael was in his usual fine form. He's such a handsome and charismatic man and I am so lucky to be able to attend these events and support him. The show will air Thursday, Oct 5, just hours after it was recorded. It will be available on YouTube on Friday. In a nutshell, Michael talked about his new movie, The Snowman, a clip was shown, and he talked about his Ferarri racing and causing a wild crash in Miami with a team member. If you've never seen the James Corden show, you would be surprised to learn that the guests arrive into the studio from a curtain behind the audience, and they walk down the stairs giving high fives. I sat in the second from the top row, three seats in from the aisle on the left (as viewed from my seat), so I had a great seat and was able to see Michael enter into the studio just a mere 15 feet away. So close!
Just over two weeks ago, I read that Michael was going to be on the show, so I submitted my request via 1iota and got waitlisted. Thankfully, after a week, I got approved to get a ticket to attend the taping. However, the way the ticketing process is set up is that there are Priority ticket holders, the people who requested tickets well in advance, like a month, and then there are general tickets to accommodate an additional 25-40 more people into the studio if capacity permits. It is explained in clear details that although I have a general ticket, I may not get into the taping, and that would be because all the priority ticket people showed up, and they only let in a few of the general ticket holders. Luckily for me, I arrived early enough so that I was the first general ticket holder and with that, I had a 98% chance of getting in. As it all came about, all 30 of us general ticket holders were able to get into the taping. After showing ID and getting a blue wrist band, we were corralled into a seating area to wait for a bit before going into the studio.
Once in the studio, there are audience coordinators who specifically arrange people to sit in certain sections of the studio. They pay careful attention to the numbers of people in a group, and if you're a person attending solo, they have certain spots allocated for us. When the lady was about to tell me where to sit, I noticed 6 seats open in the second row and I asked her if I could sit there, she said a firm, no, and told me to sit in the seat which happened to be in a great spot anyway to see Michael enter into the studio. So, it all worked out and for future reference, if you were to attend the Late Late Show, don't ask to sit in a certain spot, they have it all planned out where they want you to sit. There was a guy who was like the production cheerleader, he gave us the cues to scream, shout, and clap and be as energetic as possible. His job seems like a dream job, a lot of fun.
When the show started, James Corden came out and gave his opening monologue and talked about the show's guest. Ana de Armas is in the new Blade Runner film, and Jack Hanna is a well known talk show guest who comes on with the coolest animals. In the stage photo above from the show, the bird pooped on the stage. Michael was very friendly with a cute baby beaver, and some beautiful rare cats from Brazil. In between commercial breaks, the studio played cool music, and there were some executive type production honcho dudes who came out to talk to both Michael and Ana between breaks. A select few lucky 'VIP' type guests had their pictures taken with James sitting at his desk.
When the final commercial break was completed, James and his guests posed with the animals for their intro promotion clip that comes on TV an hour or two before the actual show airs. It's just a heads up of sorts to promote the upcoming episode and to let people know who the guests are for that evening. After that clip was done, James thanked us all for coming, and both Ana and Michael waved and left the stage. As I previously mentioned, there was NO way, at all, for any type of autograph, or photos of the guest. The prize was just being there breathing the same air as they were and enjoying a great show taping.
I'm grateful for the opportunity to attend tonight's show and it was a fantastic introduction into the process of taping a popular late night talk show. I would only do this again for Michael, or Chris Evans, or if I have a friend visiting LA and we can attend a show together for fun. I have submitted a request to go to the Jimmy Kimmel Show on Halloween, so it would be nice to compare the experiences of both shows.
Again, it's so much fun for me to be able to share this with you all. Everything I do for Fassinating Fassbender is for my friends and readers to have a better understanding of the process I go through to attend the public events where Michael will be a guest at. I look forward to many more of these adventures to share with you!