Colbert

When I made my decision to go to school in New York last spring, I had one goal, one dream, one great aspiration that would mark my four years here as successful. I am ecstatic to announce, only nine months into my stay here, that I have achieved that lofty ambition: I have attended a live taping of The Colbert Report.

Right here.

Tickets are free and available on the show's website, but that doesn't mean they're easy to get. On the contrary: they're released in small amounts at seemingly random times in the day for seemingly random upcoming dates. This past Monday, I checked the website out of curiosity after finishing the pharmacology exam, and what do you know, I scored three tickets for Tuesday. Let me just say that it wasn't at all difficult to find two more people to come with me. We had to get there early (which translated to 4:45 -- we couldn't get there earlier because of class) to get a better spot in line, which translated to better seats in the studio. When we were finally able to walk into the studio, it was like magic. It looked exactly like the TV show (obviously), but it felt so surreal to actually be there. Before the show began, a comedian came out and entertained us in the audience. Then, Stephen himself came out and did a short question-and-answer session.

SOOOO excited to be here!

My favorite Colbert moments are the ever-so-rare clips in which he cracks up, not able to stay in character because of the ridiculousness of whatever he's reporting. Miraculously enough, we got to witness one of those moments. Check out the clip, OR just go ahead and catch the full episode. I'd recommend the latter.

My stomach ached from all the laughing. Jon, Eman, and I were euphoric after the show, calling and texting our friends to brag about it. What a perfect night. Oh, Colbert. What a hero.