Last week I attended the first results show taping for America’s Got Talent at its new home in Newark, NJ. Being as it was the first week, we had no idea what time we should arrive. The night before they said 500-800 people who had vouchers for tickets were refused. It was recommended to get there 1 hour early, but we ended up getting there 2 hours early.
Almost immediately after we arrived, they started giving out tickets. We got tickets in the 3rd Tier (there are 4 total) in row F. They told us that doors would not open until 7, so we had some time to kill. There is a restaurant, Nico’s right in the same complex as the NJPAC, so we got in line there. (If you think you might be going to a taping – make reservations! You’ll get right in!) It was an Italian restaurant and was really good (they had my favorite – Gnocchi!) and resaonably priced as well.
At 7 we got in line to go inside, but as soon as we got in the line, it stopped moving. There was a mob of people waiting for the elevators, so we took the stairs up to the 3rd Tier and then had to wait for EIGHT when we could finally go to our seats!
Row F turned out to be the last row in the Tier and we couldn’t see Howie’s “X” on the stage because of the ribbon/rainbow/whatever that went around the stage. That was ok though, since it was a result show they wouldn’t be using their X’s anyway.
Joey Kola was the warm up guy and he was AWFUL. Apparently during the silence when Nick is trying to say who is going home/going through – we are supposed to cheer and yell out the name of who we want to go through. We were never told this so no one did it. After the first one he told us we should have been doing it. Well, we would have if we were instructed to! It came across quite awkward when watching it back on the TV although I guess if you weren’t there you might not have noticed it on the TV.
Cirque De Soleil Zarkana did a little bit from their show – they are just amazing. They had 4 guys standing on top of each other! It was nuts. Fortunately the majority of their performance was further back on the stage so we could see. (If we stood up we could see almost everything but then you had to deal with seeing over the people in front of you who stood as well.)
Will I Am also did a song as well… we stood for him to be able to see because he really used the whole stage for the performance and had dancers and all sorts of stuff going on.
Overall, it was a fun experience, but it was a LOT of standing around and I am not sure I would do it again – if we did we’d have to take me in the wheelchair I think because it was just a bit too much.
(And for anyone wondering – the 4 we thought would go through did!)
What an interesting blog; I just wonder when you started
your tally for YTD, like, how many years ago?
I’ve been to concerts I paid to get into and waited in line for general
seating for hours and hours and yes, it stinks.
The episode you saw was a good one though especially with Cirque du
Soleil. My Dish co-worker got me hooked
on this show when he discovered it on his PrimeTime Anytime recordings, and now
I can watch them commercial free too with Auto Hop. That saves me enough time that I can watch an
extra show in an otherwise busy evening when I have to handle 3 children.
YTD stands for “Year to Date” so that started in January. I went to my first concert 14 years ago and that is where the other tallies begin.
Oh, hahaha! I meant to write “Total concerts seen” rather than YTD. I get that part, but thanks for answering about when the total started. I don’t have that much dedication to anything more than eating and, well, the other thing everyone has to do besides die.
What an interesting blog; I just wonder when you started
your tally for YTD, like, how many years ago?
I’ve been to concerts I paid to get into and waited in line for general
seating for hours and hours and yes, it stinks.
The episode you saw was a good one though especially with Cirque du
Soleil. My Dish co-worker got me hooked
on this show when he discovered it on his PrimeTime Anytime recordings, and now
I can watch them commercial free too with Auto Hop. That saves me enough time that I can watch an
extra show in an otherwise busy evening when I have to handle 3 children.
YTD stands for “Year to Date” so that started in January. I went to my first concert 14 years ago and that is where the other tallies begin.
Oh, hahaha! I meant to write “Total concerts seen” rather than YTD. I get that part, but thanks for answering about when the total started. I don’t have that much dedication to anything more than eating and, well, the other thing everyone has to do besides die.