Here I am posing with the lovely and talented Maria Pope (center). That's me on the right, in the blue sweatshirt. On the left is Shirlee (Foxyscribe). I had just told Maria how much we love Campaign 2000.
They tape two Late Shows on Thursday. We went to the earlier show, which started at 4:30 pm (normally the show tapes at 5:30, but they have changed to an earlier schedule for the summer; it probably has something to do with Daylight Savings Time, and the earlier harvest in Canada). The second show (which aired Friday), would begin at 7:00 pm. During the hour and half between tapings, a lot of Late Show staff and crew were running in and out of the theater to go get something to eat or whatever.
We spent that time loitering outside the theater on 53rd Street, chatting and taking pictures with a lot of Late Show staffers. Many of them seemed to know about AFL, and if they didn't before, they do now. We especially hoped to get to see Mike McIntee (production assistant and Wahoo-boy) and Tony Mendez (cue card boy and star of the Tony Mendez Show). We (well, Traci, mostly) asked almost everyone that we talked to if Mike and Tony could come out and see us. Mike knew in advance that we, his loyal Wahoo readers, would be there that night.
The first person that we talked to was Maria Pope, executive producer and star of Campaign 2000. Someone (Shirlee?) commented to Maria that there was no Top Ten. Maria said that was because there was too much show. I commented that the Survivor castaway went really long (Maria agreed), and told her how much we love Campaign 2000. I was really happy to have the chance to tell her that in person. The other pictures that we got are big group pictures, but I somehow ended up with a fabulous closeup of me and Shirlee with Maria Pope. We had just come out of the theater at that point, and I still have my sweatshirt on in the picture.
Felicia came out, and someone told her that she just had to say hi to Brad. Brad came over and Felicia addressed him by name and gave him a big hug. Brad was dazzled by the curbside beauty of Felicia. We got a group shot with her.
Sid came out, clearly in a hurry, and didn't stop to talk. Someone remembered that there had been something we had wanted to ask Sid: is it "sacks and sacks" of letters, or "stacks and stacks"? Brad heroically chased Sid across the street, holding up his hand to stop traffic in a move much like Paul's "It's okay, I'm a celebrity" in the bit where Dave thinks the show is over and Paul has to go after him. We watched Brad approach Sid, walk along with him for a moment, and shake hands, before Sid continued on his way (Traci and Carl caught this on videotape). The word from Sid: "sacks and sacks".
It then became a quest to ask each band member that we saw about the sacks/stacks controversy. We got a group picture with band member Tom "Bones" Malone, who confirmed it is "sacks and sacks", but admitted that for years he thought it was "stacks and stacks". I guess he wouldn't necessarily know the words, since he would always be playing the trombone and not singing. Felicia also confirmed later (we saw her a second time, probably on her way back from somewhere) that it is "sacks and sacks", and so did Al Chez (Chesnowith).
Ah, Al Chez. Al knew a lot about AFL. He asked about Donz, and wanted to know "Who is Annette?". He also knew about "that guy who just left". (Timko!) He wondered why he hadn't read about the group trip. (We had been instructed not to mention it on AFL ahead of hand, because of the limited tickets. Traci sent out something like 40 e-mails to AFLers inviting them on the trip, but if it were posted on AFL prematurely she probably would have been bombarded with way more requests than she could have handled.) I told Al to read our trip reports when we get back.
We got a picture with Al, and pictures with Biff Henderson and Barbara Gaines (both of whom seemed really pressed for time, but were courteous and kind enough to pose for pictures). Oh, and a picture with Late Show "intern" Andrea.
Oh, and we saw Pat Farmer arranging splattered food on the sidewalk, which turned out to be for a Mailbag letter on Friday's show (the one where Dave buys his groceries online, and they are dropped down from outer space).
We continued to ask everyone we saw to send Mike McIntee and Tony Mendez out. We really wanted to see them, and had presents for them. (Maria Pope, Al Chez, and Felicia each got a button, and there were T-shirts for Mike and Tony.) Mike did not come out. We do and do and do for Mike, and this is the thanks we get? (I know, he probably had to type up blue cards for the later taping. Still, it would have been nice to meet him.) We finally saw Tony running back into the theater very close to the 7:00 taping; it was clear that he didn't have time to stop. (We also saw Paul returning to the theater as it approached 7:00. He didn't stop, but told us as he ran by that he didn't have time and had a show to do. Fair enough; it was getting late by then.)
