Martha Stewart! (or, The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe)

First of all, Thank you, thank you, thank you to Nancy Levene for inviting me to go with you to be at Martha Stewart's Breast Cancer Awareness show!  Now, on to the remembering............

Our front row, on the floor seats.  The "potting shed" set is behind us.

I met Nancy at the train station in Ramsey a bit before 7 a.m., and we got on the train to Secaucus.  So far, so good.  Dressed in "nice" heeled boots, a tasteful but fashionable skirt, and solid pink top (no sleeveless) as per the very, very specific emailed instructions from the Martha show rep.  (And you had to reply back with exactly what you were wearing on top.  For the record, pink cashmere twin set, as you can see from the photo.) This is part 1 of the WARDROBE reference.  Feeling very special. Change trains at Secaucus, easy (thanks to Nancy, again, for knowing what we're supposed to do) and get into the city with plenty of time to be at the studio by 8:30 for the 10 a.m. show.  It starts to drizzle.  Excuse me, there was NO RAIN in the forecast.  We stand in line for not long, and then are ushered into a waiting area, where we are identified as Survivors on our tickets with a big "S."  (We are a special sub-group of the audience.)

We fill out all kinds of waivers and a paper that has us list any questions we might have for the special guests, and Nancy gets picked to ask a question on-camera!  (I didn't write any questions because I didn't want to get picked. Slightly egotistical of me to think I'd get picked, now that I think about it, and really stupid, now that I've been there.)  We wait while Joey Kola, stand-up comedian and Martha's audience "fluffer" comes and tells us the signals for the various audience reaction they'd like to hear.  He's very loud (the LION) We're "trained" to "mmmmm"  when he rubs his tummy, and to "ohhhh" when he does something else; wild gesticulating over his head is for loud clapping, hooting, and whistling.  I can't remember the rest but it was pretty funny. He really does shout a lot and the end result is he's got everyone's attention.  Then during the taping he makes sure by handing out little freebies to you if you're REALLY enthusiastic. (no freebie for me)  When you think about it, Martha is probably so successful because she's so controlling.

After the show - Martha takes questions from the other 3 people who didn't get to ask the experts.  They had to think fast on their feet to change their questions, since the experts were no longer there :)  Joey K. is in the striped shirt.

We sat in a "special" section for survivors down on the floor, not up in the tiered regular audience section.  Good news, bad news.  We were probably only 20 feet from the sets, which was cool, and we got to see all the cameramen, cue card people, and miscellaneous folk who run around behind the scenes.  On the other hand, the camera that pans the audience to show on TV before and after breaks does NOT scan that section, and when the cooking segment was filmed, that part of the set was so surrounded by cameramen and sound people that you couldn't see the cooking unless you watched the giant monitors up near the ceiling.  (So, if you ever watch the show and you see the audience looking up, that's why.)  They assigned about 7 people to ask questions, and Nancy was #3.  (They only got to 4 people, in the end.)  Nancy got on camera, of course, as did the couple of people to her left.  I was to her RIGHT.  Cosmic justice for me thinking I shouldn't write a question because I might get picked.........................

View from the front row - very exciting!

Because of the topic for the hour it was not terribly exciting - an impression I confirmed when I came home and watched the TiVo'd version.  Nutrition expert, other doctor who showed pictures of mammograms, stem cell experts, healthy food recipe.  Done.  It really is only an hour, live and we were back out on the street by about 11:15 (rain over, thank goodness.)  But before we left our small special group had a photo taken with Martha.  Joey instructed us to get up "in formation" in the same order we were sitting (so Nancy and I were in front.)  As I get up there, I find I'm RIGHT NEXT TO MARTHA!  She glances over at me (or maybe through me) and says "tall in back, short in front."  No smiley hello, glad you could be here, nothin' but frosty. (White WITCH,  anyone?)  Of course, since I had chosen the boots with heels (which by now were rubbing a bit on the toes) I was taller than the woman behind me, and so ended up in the back row.  Haven't seen the photo yet but in that sea of pink, I'm glad my hair is longer so I can look for it.

BUT WAIT, what about the giveaway, you ask?  There's always something great; last time, Nancy got a pink Kitchenaid mixer.  I had lowered my expectations to a cookbook.  But when Martha shows off her cool Ralph Lauren "Pink Pony" sweatshirt cardigan, I get excited.  Nope.  We got tee shirts (part 2, WARDROBE.)  As Nancy and I had lunch afterward to make the most of our Manhattan experience, we check the tags (left on, of course) and find the retail price of these tee shirts is $98. Guess I won't be going out to look for the cardigan.

It was fascinating to watch, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.  And when I do I'll go hoarse from yelling, and sore from clapping, and I'll ask a question.  I still admire the woman; I'm hopeless.