Gather ’round, kids because I have a story for you about how Scream Agency quickly became the world’s luckiest agency in all of the land.
Back in August, Gem (Scream Agency’s Art Director) and myself – both big fans of the LOLs – entered the Saturday Night Live ticket lottery to try to win our chance to see an episode taped in Season 41. Seeing as how 30,000 people enter the lottery every season, and less than 5% are actually selected, we figured it was like throwing a needle in to a haystack.
But then, just about three weeks ago, we BOTH received the email from NBC letting us know that we’d won tickets. Not only that – but we won tickets to the SAME EPISODE, which happened to be this past Saturday’s season premiere with host and musical guest – Miley Cyrus. Those odds? I’ll have leave that to my hometown in Vegas but I will say that its pretty unfrigginbelievable. Winning lottery tickets to SNL > Winning the lottery.
Gem took his sister and I brought my cousin (the world’s biggest SNL fan, and actually whom I entered the lottery on behalf of), making it a true family affair.
We were required to arrive to the theatre no later than 10:15 p.m., where we were escorted up to a waiting room until about 11 p.m. when they brought us into Studio 8H – which is so much smaller than I had imagined. I wish I had photos to share with you here but the NO CELL PHONE PHOTOS policy is pretty clear and strict. But to give you an idea, they hand out about 34 sets of tickets per episode, and then fill in with standby’ers and those people who know people. So… it maybe holds 150 people?
About 20 minutes before showtime, Michael Che of Weekend Update came out to warm us up followed by a performance of “Gimme Some Lovin'” by Kenan Thompson and a few female cast members. Sets then got shuffled around, lights went down and we heard a “90 seconds” until LIVE warning. At this point, you could’ve heard a pin drop, it was that silent and still in the studio leading up the cold opening of Season 41.
Our highlights:
Hillary’s Bar Talk. We were maybe 30 feet away from a woman who could end up being our first female president. She came off incredibly likable and Kate McKinnon’s “well you could’ve supported sooner” when speaking on gay marriage definitely got one of my giggle bursts of the night. Plus, Darrell Hammond’s special appearance as Bill Clinton was a fantastic surprise.
Watching Lorne Michaels watching. The man reigns.
How seamless everything was. There is no question that SNL is a well-oiled machine, as its been operating for 41 seasons now. But witnessing how quickly the sets are setup, with cast assembled, and then broken down to move on to the next skit, was neat to see.
Pete Davidson’s Trumpdate Weekend Update. One word: Sanjaya.
The Squad. Because, GOALS. And aren’t we all feeling, like, her whole deal?
All in all, an incredible and truly surreal experience, that we were lucky enough to experience together.
Now, excuse me as I go listen to “Welcome to New York” for the thousandth time.
