The “Gettin’ It Out Of Our System” Reloaded Tour 2009 – Day Three (and one-half) – New York City!!

Well, NYC is clearly out to kill us – we had hoped to make it over to Rockefeller Center this morning to catch The Today Show, which happens to feature the Toyota Outdoor Concert Series during the summer. Scheduled for today, rockers All-American Rejects, whom even a couple of old farts like us enjoy.

Alas, after a manic day of stuffing as much into our sock as possible, we awoke AFTER the show had finished. Technically, we rejected the All-American Rejects…

However, we did manage to fill our day nicely yesterday, all things considered:

1) We trekked down from our hotel to Rockefeller Center, and booked ourselves into the NBC Studio backstage tour. Pretty cool stuff – even though photography is prohibited during the tour. We got to stand in the NBC Nightly News studio, and view where MSNBC runs like a well-oiled…TV news station. No celebrities in sight.

2) We stopped in at the freakin’ Saturday Night Live studio, and got to sit in the bleachers used as general seating – whilst gazing at the mainstage, the music stage, and the stage most of the skits are staged. I’d have liked to have taken a picture there, but being tackled by an NBC page and ejected from the building wasn’t on my to-do list for that day. Still, to sit where Belushi, Akroyd, Farley, Farrell and so many more have filmed bits for my TV at home, was pretty darn cool.

No celebrities in sight…

3) We saw the make-up room, and a mock news studio, where a couple of the common tourists were able to do news and weather. If there had been animals, Mrs. That Dan Guy would have been in like Flynn – she’s done it before, and crushed a young child’s heart in the process. Don’t mess with MTDG and the chance to get up close with a critter…

No celebrities in sight. Technically, we would have been allowed to see Jimmy Fallon rehearsing for his show, but The Jonas Brothers were in for his show, so the building was sewn up tighter than a 12^th-Century virgin’s chastity belt.

4) Leaving NBC, we booked and took the Rockefeller Center tour, and went up to the Top Of The Rock to take photos of the city. Sadly, it was pretty overcast, so our photos were less than impressive. As it was, we barely took a little over 125 shots throughout the whole day!

5) Racing back to our hotel, we grabbed a pretzel for dinner, and got ready (hastily) for our first Broadway show – “God Of Carnage”, starring the stellar Marcia Gay Harden, the radiant Hope Davis, the suave Jeff Daniels, and…James Gandolfini!!

What a show! A blistering social study masking as a comedy, the play centres around the four lead actors, initially meeting civilly over an awkward moment regarding their children. Needless to say, the civility disintegrates shortly thereafter, and the humour is relentless from there to the conclusion. What a howl!

6) Our celebrity spotting was far more successful outside of the NBC studio – after the play we got to see each of the stars (and solicit signing of our playbill), PLUS watched Jane Krakowski (30 Rock) pick up what we presumed were her parents, AND comic/writer Bruce Vilanch (Hollywood Squares). I confess – we ogled. We are SUCH shameless tourists…

7) Finally, after the show we were lured into an off-Broadway comedy club, where we actually caught a comic that we had seen at the Calgary Comedy Festival, earlier this year. Too funny – both his set, and the coincidence.

So, in light of filling our day to the brim, something had to give, and it was The Today Show. Clearly, we will be back – this place is waaaaay more addictive than Vegas.

If only we weren’t trying to get all this OUT of our system…

Chow for now!