A few years ago I was hanging out in Midtown Manhattan with my pal Joy and having tremendous fun as usual. On this particular day I insisted we browse the NBC Experience store so that I could pick up a "Late Night with Jimmy Fallon"
tee-shirt.
WELL, while in the store, we were approached by a pleasant girl asking if we wanted to watch Jimmy Fallon rehearse his monologue! Umm..gee...well... YEAH!
She gave us special passes and we came back an hour later and spent time with around 20 other people listening to Jimmy read jokes. We sat up in the front row, so we were mere feet from Jimmy (and his writing crew, who were sitting all around the stage too), a wonderfully intimate setting in an fantastic old studio - the SAME one Johnny Carson did the Tonight Show in when he began in New York!) (Ugh, I hate to be all over the place with this story, but, BTW, I actually saw Johnny Carson at Coogies in Malibu in the early 90s) SO, Jimmy watched all of us laugh hysterically .. or not.. and then picked the jokes that would make it to that night's show.
Joy and I lucked out again when they handed us stand-by passes for the ACTUAL show taping that day. We came back and waited patiently with 60 other people to see if we'd get in, but when then got to Joy and me, they only had ONE SEAT left in the theater. Since I was a way-bigger Fallon fan than Joy, I ran in by myself and didn't look back. (Joy LIVES in Manhattan, so don't feel sorry for her!) The best part of THAT was at the very end of the show Jimmy ran up and down the stairs where the audience sits and he slaps hands, etc. and I was sitting on the end of the row and got a SLAP ME FIVE from Jimmy Fallon. SWOON.
I was too starstruck to ask him to autograph my Late Night tee-shirt (yes, I always carry a Sharpie with me, like a weirdo) - my only regret.
I don't know if they still do those rehearsals for the Tonight Show, or even for Seth Meyers, but if you get that opportunity, TAKE IT.