"Live from New York it's Saturday Night" is a phrase that I've heard on TV and in person tons of times, but it had a different kind of affect on me this week. Carolyn and I were lucky enough to score some last-minute tickets to the dress rehearsal of
Saturday Night Live this past Saturday. Alec Baldwin was the host and Christina Aguilera was the musical guest. First of all... I knew it was going to be an amazing show when I heard the guests, but I really didn't image how amazing it was going to be.
I have to give a huge shout out to my fellow NBC Pages who majorly hooked us up! I've said it once, but I'll say it again...
Pages take care of Pages. We made our way upstairs and wound up sitting on the cushions in the back row. Not a bad seat, mind you, as we were dead center, but not the most comfortable. Five minutes before the start of dress my friend Audrey comes running up and grabs us. Apparently there were two open seats down on the stage floor, so they pulled us to sit there! I've been to
SNL as a Page a bunch of times, but never as an audience member. We were about 10 feet away from Alec Baldwin during his opening monologue... pretty amazing. But it gets better...
There was buzz about a lot of cameos but we hadn't heard any official word if anyone was going to show up. As expected,
SNL alums Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan showed up, who costar on
30 Rock with Alec. Great to see them back on the stage! Later in the show they did a sketch about the
SNL platinum lounge, where only people who have hosted 12 times or more are allowed. Waiting for Alec in the lounge was the one and only Steve Martin! Amazing!
(What's even more amazing was that during the live show Martin Short and Paul McCartney appeared in the sketch! RIDICULOUS!) Alec also has a reoccuring sketch
"The Tony Bennett Show" where he parodies the singer on his own talk show. Well, you guessed it, the REAL Tony Bennett showed up to be a guest on the show! Once again, amazing! They also did a sketch (which got cut) called
"The Speedreader." Will Forte came into the audience to sing a song at the end and biffed me in the head while singing! After the show he came up to apologize saying that it was the Speedreader, not him, that hit me. Hilarious.
Later in the show, Alec stood right in the aisle behind me to introduce Christina Aguilera. Just as he got the cue to begin he grabbed my shoulder as he delivered the intro. Amazing! And let me say... I am a fan of Christina Aguilera. I have been since she came out. She is probably the most talented singer of my generation. Her voice is so powerful for such a tiny girl. It's pretty cool to think that I was closer to her performance that I could ever hope to be at a concert. That girl can sing. Not only did she sing two amazing songs of her own, she came out at the very end of the show to sing a duet with Tony Bennett!
RIDICULOUS!
The whole night seemed like a dream. Besides all of the cameos, it was an all-around amazing show. All of the sketches were genuinely funny, and the ones that actually made it to the live show were hilarious. Each and every one of them, which is rare considering it's not easy to fill a 1.5 hour show with completely funny material every week. We had an amazing experience and I have to thank everyone that hooked us up! So a big thanks to
Kat, Shannon, Nia, Lyndsay, Audrey, Chris, Ken and everyone else who we ran in to.
THANK YOU!
