Seeing Saturday Night Live... Live!

For our first weekend back at Fordham after winter break, my roommates and I decided we wanted to do something fun and exciting that you can only do in New York City. Since freshman year we had been talking about going to a taping of Saturday Night Live, so we decided there is no time like the present and set off to spend 12+ hours on the streets of New York in order to get tickets to the January 21st taping of the show hosted by Aziz Ansari with Big Sean as the musical guest.

We entertained ourselves by watching Netflix on our phones.

NBC hands out tickets to either the dress rehearsal or live show at 7 am on the Saturday morning of the taping on a first come, first served basis. To secure a good spot on line, my roommates and I arrived on 48th street (where they hand out the tickets) at around 5 pm the Friday before. Yes, it was freezing cold and even raining at points, but we stayed strong and stuck it out. To stay warm we bundled up with layers of clothes and blankets. We also bought ourselves hand and feet warmers from the 24-hour Duane Reade that was conveniently located right across the street from where we set up camp.

At 7 am when the NBC pages came out to hand out tickets we were exhausted but excited. We put our names down for the live show, but there was no guarantee we would actually get in to the taping. We went back to our dorm, slept the day away, and arrived back at 30 Rock at 10 pm to line up yet again to try to get into the live show. We were numbers 19, 20, and 21 in line for the live taping, so we thought we had a decent shot at getting in, but the entire time you are lined up the NBC pages and security guards are reminding you that there is no guarantee you will get to see the taping until you are physically in a chair in the studio.

Once we finally got up the elevator, into the studio, and in seats, we allowed ourselves to be completely excited. Seeing the taping of the show was so amazing. We watch it live every week but there is something different about getting to actually see it happen in front of you. It is so interesting to see how the studio is set up and to see what they do during commercial breaks.

My roommates and I are three of the little blurry faces somewhere in the audience!

Even though we had to wait out in the cold for hours on end, the whole experience ended up being completely worth it and we can't wait to do it again soon! It is one of those New York bucket list items that we are glad we got to check off.