Day 2: Los Angeles, CA
Nau mai
Yesterday we played in Los Angeles, California.
It was Kimmel Day. I awoke to find that Tristan had already made a powerful start to his morning with a walk in the local nature preserve and an iced coffee under his belt. I had committed some powerful snoozes on my alarm, and it hadn’t served me particularly well. Luckily it was a soft call time, and we headed to the studio at 10:30, showered and fresh, and ready to face the day.
We were picked up in a black Mercedes Benz Sprinter that had a limousine fit out - six comfortable leather seats, tinted windows, and ample leg room for all passengers, and came complete with a driver clad in an ill-fitting black suit.
It was only a five-minute drive to the El Capitan Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. The sun was bearing down fiercely, and we were glad to disembark from our beautifully airconditioned vehicle into a beautifully airconditioned building. We walked up a long corridor lined with framed photographs, the best and the brightest guests of the show captured for posterity in these images. Our crew had been in for an hour already getting the stage ready. Gabe had been working with the local technicians on the audio setup, and our new lighting tech Erin had been dressing the stage with her homemade lamps.
There wasn’t much to do except settle into our very stylish dressing room and enjoy the provided snacks and couches. I used the provided clothes steamer to flatten out my t-shirt and with that my duties for the next hour were dispensedd, allowing me to turn my attention to assembling a breakfast. I picked out a packed of Lemonberry Yoggies Trail Mix from the selection of packet foods we had been allocated and paired it with a medium ripe banana and mandarin.
There wasn’t much to do except settle into our very stylish dressing room and enjoy the provided snacks and couches. I used the provided clothes steamer to flatten out my t-shirt and with that my duties for the next hour were dispensedd, allowing me to turn my attention to assembling a breakfast. I picked out a packed of Lemonberry Yoggies Trail Mix from the selection of packet foods we had been allocated and paired it with a medium ripe banana and mandarin.
While this was going on there was a show rehearsal underway in the theatre. The doors were locked to keep the evening’s jokes from being leaked to the public. Once this was wrapped it was our turn for rehearsal and we took our places, performing a quick soundcheck and running through the song a couple of times to make sure that everyone felt comfortable. We made sure we had our arrangement locked in, our version of Straight Line Was A Lie that had a few bars trimmed off to perfectly fit into our 3’30” time allocation.
The makeup team came to visit when we returned to the dressing room, and we had the option of a light glam or a full glam. I went for the light option from the makeup artist, and the hair stylist added some sea spray to my hair and gave it a light tousle.
Then it was back to the theatre for camera rehearsal. We stood and played while Steadicam and boom operators practised their shots, a choreography of pans and zooms that would capture nothing but our best angles for the American television audience. After our camera run-through we rolled into a take. Alec the show runner was warm and reassuring, making us feel very confident after a heavy bout of affirmations. We finished the first take and Alec told us we had nailed it. That was all we needed to hear and at 2:30pm we decided we were done for the day. Our prerecorded segment would be edited onto the end of the show, and it would look like we were there in the room with Jimmy.
