Jay Leno

This morning at WAY too early (5:45 am), Scot, Manda and I got up so we could make it to Burbank (the city) by 7:00 am so we could stand in line for tickets to the Tonight Show.  We were numbers 2-4 in line, so we got the tickets and set off to tour Hollywood and downtown LA.  We ate at another Mel’s for brunch and then drove around.  We hit the Chinese Theater and a mall in Hollywood where I picked up a fedora (this proved to come in handy later).

We drove back to Burbank and got in line at 1:15 pm; we were already about 30 persons back at this point.  They opened the doors at 3:00 pm and we got seats on the floor.  About 30 minutes before we filmed, Jay himself came out in jeans and a shirt.  He gave us a spiel about how the show would go down – it’s a ‘live taping’, which means that the whole thing lasts exactly an hour, all the mistakes stay in and as soon as it’s over (taped from 4-5 pm Cali time), it’s beamed to New York, where it’s aired at 11:30 pm EST.  Then he took questions and let people come up on stage to take pictures with him (from a polaroid in the studio, since all cell phones and cameras were disallowed).  We were almost out of time when he asked for one more person.  I shot my hand up and – among the others around us – he called out, “You, sir, in the hat.”

Manda and I jumped up and made our way to the stage.  On the way up, he asked where we were from, and I told him, “Missouri” (I had promised Manda she wouldn’t have to speak from the stage).  He then asked what we did and I told him that we were both campus ministers.

“Ministers?!” he exclaimed, “I was going to make fun of your goofy hat, but now I guess I can’t.”  He then motioned for the photographer and told Manda to get in the middle because “You’re a cutie.”  We snapped the picture, both shook his hand and he told us, “God bless you” as we made our way back to our seats.

Scot got up and did some stand-up shortly after that, during the ‘Audience Got Talent’ portion of the preshow.

Then it was time for the show to start, and it was a lot of fun to watch.  One of my students told me he thought he could hear me ‘Woot Woot’ a couple of times during the show.

So, to review, Jay Leno made fun of my hat, hit on my fiancee and blessed me.  All within about a minute.  And here’s the proof:

He’s right, you know.  She is really cute.

What a fun day!  If you check it out on Hulu, you can just barely make us out right at the beginning.  Watch for the goofy brown fedora.