Waiting in line overnight for tickets to the Saturday Night Live Season Finale.
(Sarah Side Note: I have never watched SNL on TV, only Live.)
The way it works is all SNL tickets are done by mail lottery. If you want tickets you write in the summer before and names are randomly selected. Tickets for the coming season for the Dress Rehearsal or Live show are then mailed to the lottery winners. If you do not get tickets but want to attend the show you go Stand By. Stand By tickets are available at 7am the day of a Live SNL taping. One per person. EVERY person in line has the choice to get a Dress or Live Stand By ticket, in numerical order. THEN you must return that night for your selected show and hope that people who already have tickets don't show up so you can get in! If real ticket holders do not show up, then the stand by ticket holders take their places according to the number on their Stand By ticket. So 3 ticket holders don't show up, #1-3 Stand By get in. Get it? The lower your number the better your chances. Which is why many dedicated fans end up camping out for Stand By tickets. They want the lowest number possible to increase their chances. Sometimes 30 people get in, sometimes 7, sometimes 1, sometimes none.
It's a gamble. It's also soooo much fun waiting in line with about 150 strangers from all over the world. An adventure standing still (or sitting) is not one you should pass up! It's tradition.
The first year finale (2007) was just happenstance. My friend Sarah & I had gone earlier in the season (seeing Matthew Fox/Tenacious D and Jeremy Piven/AFI) and decided to again for the Season Finale. In that Finale line I met one of my good friends to this day, Kendyl. New to NYC from Arkansas. We bonded and continued our friendship through the next year with Beach Trips, Dinners, Movies, etc.
In 2008 Kendyl and I returned to that same line to celebrate our 1 year "Friend-aversary" and see Steve Carell/Usher and Surprise Guest John McCain. In that line I met another instantaneous friend, Derek. Meeting Derek is possibly one of my favorite "how we met" stories and has also proved to be a great friendship. We spent a lot of good times together during the next month of his visit. Sadly, he returned to his CA roots, and no matter how much I beg and plead he still hasn't come back. He has continued taking my calls though so all is not lost. :) Derek was with 2 other guys (Josh & Dave) who I didn't know but recognized from church. It's a small world in general, it's a tiny world when you're LDS. Josh, Dave, & I got to know each other better over the past year (I dated one of their roommates actually) and, in fact, Dave is now my awesome Home Teacher and a guy I feel very lucky to know!
Not only do I meet amazing people at these over-nighters, but I have also never NOT gotten into a show. Pure luck. Inevitably I will be turned away at some point, and was convinced that this Will Ferrell/Green Day Finale would be it. However, you don't know until you try!
This year, on 5/16/09, I went with my close friend Karine. You'd think we'd get sick of seeing each other daily ("our" kids are best friends) and living in the same neighborhood (she loves me so much she moved from New Jersey onto my street! A month later she moved a couple blocks away; we needed distance ;P). Nope, not sick of each other. We are actually very compatible in the hang-out-and-not-kill-each-other arena. Bonus! Seeing as it was Will Ferrell we knew we'd have to get in line early. Previously, I'd never gotten in line before 2a.m. This time we went straight after work, lining up behind an already gathered crowd of about 35 people. The very front had been there as early as Thursday night and Friday morning!
About 20 minutes after setting up our camping chairs, Arlene showed up. To call Arlene a regular in the SNL line doesn't do her justice. She is die hard. Arlene has been in EVERY SINGLE Stand By Line since 1995. She stopped counting how many shows she's gotten into long ago, but can tell you story after story after story about seeing them. She lives with her cat Diana (yes after the Princess), works for an Accounting firm, and went to Barnard, majoring in Math. She's likely in her early 50's, with crazy hair (gray roots, brown tips) that sticks straight up on top of her head, crooked teeth, freckles, and bejeweled sweaters. Arlene is quite particular, a stickler for rules and making sure everything happens "just so". She runs the line, rain or shine (or snow). She's a character who likes my character, and we've bonded. I LOVE her and could not have been more thrilled to have her sitting behind me!
Karine and I sectioned off our cushy "campsite" of blankets, chairs, snacks, reading material, DVDs, Happy Meal dinner (hold the Toy), and music. All settled in for the 12 hour over night stay on Rockefeller sidewalk, voluntarily demonstrating how 'The City That Never Sleeps" never does.
Around 10pm the best thing to ever happen to me in an SNL line rolled up on 4 wheels and covered in neon paint. A Brooklyn-ite, complete with a "Flatbush" tattoo, and his 5 yr old daughter, Amelia Brooklyn no less, pulled up directly in front of us. They were not only entertaining to the eyes, but parked and put on a song and dance show for us for about 45 minutes. He was the nicest guy, she was the cutest little girl, and we all had the best time singing old hits blasting out of the mega-phone speaker on the top of their self painted car. He showed us pictures of his 3 older kids (ranging from 20-28), and Amelia soaked up all the attention and chatted with everyone without pause. It was adorable.
Above Dora it reads "Amelia Brooklyn owns this car".From Princesses to Dora to Nickelodeon to Noggin, she certainly owned this side of it!
Dad's Side
Rollin' Up in Style
Father, Daughter Duo (and she LOVED it)Cell phone got the rest of "That's Amore". Not good visual, but you can hear the audio.
After they left we hunkered down for the night and slept considerably well on 2 blankets over concrete. At 7am we chose tickets for the Dress Rehearsal, and went home for a little nap (I said considerably well, not great). We returned that night for the moment of truth, and hoped it was a good omen that we had each received our ages as ticket numbers.
As luck would have it, 24 & 25 were magic numbers! They let in 30 people for Dress (my favorite), and not only did we see Will Ferrell and Green Day but Amy Poehler, Tom Hanks, and Maya Rudolph were surprise guests!
As Weekend Update began I lamented to Karine, "This is so weird. I've never seen it without Amy, how sad! Seth looks so lonely." About 2 seconds later I went berserk as Amy Poehler came gliding across the stage in her Newscaster chair. It made the show for me, especially the impromptu improv they did right in the middle of the Update.
I always thought I'd have to wait until I got married or had kids to start traditions that meant something. Turns out that building my own life as I go makes them just as near and dear.
As luck would have it, 24 & 25 were magic numbers! They let in 30 people for Dress (my favorite), and not only did we see Will Ferrell and Green Day but Amy Poehler, Tom Hanks, and Maya Rudolph were surprise guests!As Weekend Update began I lamented to Karine, "This is so weird. I've never seen it without Amy, how sad! Seth looks so lonely." About 2 seconds later I went berserk as Amy Poehler came gliding across the stage in her Newscaster chair. It made the show for me, especially the impromptu improv they did right in the middle of the Update.
I always thought I'd have to wait until I got married or had kids to start traditions that meant something. Turns out that building my own life as I go makes them just as near and dear.
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