Hollywood Experience!
Thursday Sep 26, 2002
Jump to Rainbow Room later in this babble.
Wayne Brady Show experience
Today was quite the experience. On Wednesday we went to Venice Beach and were given studio audience tickets to the Wayne Brady show. Wayne is one of the Drew Carey guys that sings a lot and has recently started a morning talk show. Most show tapings do not allow children, Wayne lets 'em in over five years old - thanks Wayne! So on Thursday morning at 11am we showed up at CBS studios in Hollywood and experienced our first studio audience. It started with Mike at the door being very kind to us. We gave him a BARENAKEDFAMILY.com card and hope he'll come see our site and sign our day~tripper. We then sat with the rest of the audience outside the studio and signed a release that allows CBS to show us all over the 'universe in perpetuity'?!? Then they herded us into the studio set which was very cool looking and Bill came out to pump up the crowd - this man had some energy and made the experience a lot of fun! Once the show started, Wayne Brady came out and did his thing. He's a funny man and very entertaining. We recommend you see his show. In L.A. it airs at 10am on CBS. Wayne's guests were Melissa Joan Hart (Sabrina The Teenage Witch), Alan Cummings (the goofy TV guy from Spy Kids), and Rita Rudner. We were more impressed with Bill than anyone - the energy, the spontaneity, the excitement, the free candy! Thanks for a great time Bill! We also sat next to the nicest Mother and Daughter from Michigan, Karen and Megan Moore. Megan was six years old and close to her b-day (22 days). They were in town for Megan to try out for commercials and ended up singing for Wayne Brady! She was soooo good. Megan did a Britney song (Oops) for the audience with the band.
After the show we had the opportunity to talk with Mike who appears to be like an audience manager. He was very cool and invited us back to the afternoon taping of the show. We also learned he was from the Seattle area and unfortunately didn't get a chance to talk with him much (maybe next time). We burnt up our mid-afternoon eating lunch at the Farmers Market and the kids tried hard to figure out a talent for some attention during Bill's studio audience entertainment. Austin figured one out we'll talk about below...
At the second taping of the Wayne Brady Show, Mike recognized us and led us through the line right to the front - sure made us feel like rock stars! Karen and Megan were there again and Megan was lined up to sing for Wayne on the show! Apparently the show couldn't get the rights to sing Britney's song so she had to pick a Disney song (It's a Small World). We got better seats this time and Bill recognized us from the first show! We sat behind some awesome cheerleaders from Sherman Oaks High School and think that one of them had the hots for Austin! The audience for this second taping was so much more energetic. Bill was once again very entertaining (and had more free candy). The celebrity guests were Kevin Sorbo (Hercules), Elon Gold from the new show 'The In-Laws' (the one that is yelling 'who's your daddy!'), and Phil Vassar - a really good breakthrough Country Western singer that has won lots of award. Megan also got to sing during a Wayne Brady talent show and won a Nintendo Gamecube! During the commercial break as Bill was entertaining the audience, he selected Austin to dance on Wayne's stage, announced that the BARENAKEDFAMILY.com was in the house, and later Austin sang with the band - a line from 'Baby Got Back'! It was awesome!
Both tapings made for a long day. We arrived at CBS studio around 10:30am and left the second taping around 7:30pm. On Friday morning we watched the first taping of the show and found ourselves in the audience a couple of times on national TV! We watched the second show on Monday. Is this homeschooling or what!
Our hands were tired and sore from clapping, Greg couldn't whistle anymore if he tried, and we were all hoarse from yelling. Even so, we were excited and hungry so we decided to take advantage of our Hollywood locale and go to the world famous Rainbow Room on the Sunset Strip to have dinner. We have eaten there a couple of times during the day and had learned that the evenings were the time for celebrity sightings. The Rainbow is within blocks of the Whiskey and the Roxy which are also world famous for their Rock N Roll roots. Bands like Van Halen, Poison, Motley Crue, and many more have played there. The Rainbow has snapshots of celebrity's all over their walls and the staff has mega stories they are happy to share. "John Lennon fell down those stairs"... "Brett Michaels from Poison puked in that corner"... "Slash peed over there on the floor"... "Marilyn Monroe and Joe Dimaggio met at this table"... "Lemmy from Motorhead is a regular and always plays that Pac-Man game"... "Jack and Kelly Osbourne are regulars"... and so on.
Kids go wash your hands and lets eat! The food is good and priced right. The service is outstanding. We show up around 8:30pm (Thu night) and get a great table in the middle of the place. It was pretty empty this early even though Sunset blvd was showing signs of a big night. We learn that Quiet Riot (Cum on feel the noize) is playing one of the nearby clubs and is having their after show party at the Rainbow. We're inside the Rainbow (dark place) in our sunglasses and Greg lets his hair down. We're feeling like rock stars and others are trying to figure out who we are. Waiting for our burgers, David Spade (SNL, Just Shoot Me, Emperor's New Groove, Joe Dirt) walks in and sits at the table right next to us! We are big fans of David's and it probably became obvious that we're not rock stars as we do our best to contain ourselves next to David Spade! David freakin' Spade! At the table right next to us! We're giddy now, not as talkative and trying to figure out the 'cool way' to say hi. Greg turns around and stumbles out words to the effect of - 'uh, hey, is it an, uh, bad time, or, uh, is it cool to uh, say, hi?' David was nice and pleasant, said hi to the kids, Jenn couldn't see because of a plant and was very frustrated. David asked the kids if they were fans of 'The Emperor's New Groove'. Kesley started her Joe Dirt 'daaaaang' impression and here's Joe Dirt himself doing 'whaaaat', 'daaaang', impressions with Kesley!!!! It was a moment we'll never forget! Later in the evening he also threatened to throw bread and water on our children. Thanks Dave! You rule in real life and your art! He also took extra time to say hi to Jenn when she was able to sit away from the plant.
During this time, some bimbo in the back of the place started screaming the words to a Quiet Riot song being played - this is when we learned Quiet Riot was here with us when she yelled out 'I LOVE THIS SONG, I'M MARRIED TO THE F*!&ING DRUMMER!'. Some people. The waitress told us they were there, but we didn't recognize any of them. There were many rock star looking people there. We were the only ones with kids - talk about another great home school experience!
After dinner, we started to walk back to the car (about 10pm). Jenn suggested we go the opposite way just to check it out. So we're walking down the street checking out the many eclectic people and Jenn recognizes Jack Osbourne! We soooo wanted to see an Osbourne because they are family. Greg and Kesley walked into the small crowd he was talking with shook his hand and asked him to say hi to his parents. He may have thought we knew him or his dad because Greg was looking and feeling like a rock star at this point. Austin went back and handed him a BARENAKEDFAMILY.com card and Jack chuckled and seemed intrigued. Sure hope he comes out to our site - Jack, thanks for your kindness and hope you drop a line.
We got home about midnight. Can't do this in Public School!