Sunday, November 6, 2011

Me and Martha

A couple of weeks before we left for our holiday, I overheard someone at work talking about Martha Stewart and attending a taping of her show.

Brilliant idea, I thought. I'm just a bit of a fan. Just a bit. (Who am I kidding?)

So I signed up on Martha's website, and just before we left I got an email confirming that I was to attend a taping on Monday 24 October! And there were rules about what to wear - bright, solid coloured clothes, no washed out colours, black, white or grey. No t-shirts. Oops. Hadn't planned on packing anything like that! (Luckily for me there was a Lane Bryant store not far from our apartment in Harlem so I could shop for a shirt. And maybe a few other things slipped into my shopping bag. What of it?)

Monday came and we headed to the studio in Chelsea. I joined the queue of brightly coloured women and men, and then I sent the Mister on his way to have his own non-Martha adventure.

When the queue finally moves, you end up inside a holding area.

Martha Stewart Show

Martha Stewart Show

We stayed here for about an hour, signing waivers and meeting Joey Kola, who warmed the audience up and told us who was going to be on the show today. And then it was time to climb the stairs to the studio.

I got lucky with where I was seated. Second row from the front. So close to Martha. See my lovely new teal shirt from Lane Bryant? And red beaded necklace from Re/Dress NYC? (I felt quite special until I saw another girl in exactly the same shirt as me. Luckily we weren't sitting close!)

Martha Stewart Show

Martha Stewart Show

Martha Stewart Show

While we waited for the show to start taping, we watched all the action in the studio.

Martha Stewart Show

Martha Stewart Show

Joey warmed us up a bit more. He was a lot of fun. This is the least blurry photo I could take of him - he didn't stop moving.

Martha Stewart Show

And then we had to put away our cameras as Martha was joining us for the taping. The show had a breakfast entertaining theme, and Martha cooked eggs with a local breakfast celebrity Willy Geist, and cookies with the head pastry chef of Momofuku Milkbar, Christina Tosi. The audience were all given a cookie and Christina's new book "Milk". Joey also gave me some beautiful Martha Stewart paints, but they were too heavy to take home so I gave them to our landlady's little daughter, Yasmeen (our landlady emailed us after we left to say than Yasmeen had been making Halloween decorations with the paints).

Martha Stewart Show

After the taping, Martha took questions from the audience, and we were allowed to bring the cameras out again.  I think Martha is amazing - I doubt she would suffer fools gladly, and she seemed quite down-to-earth for someone who is so wealthy and high on the social scale. The floor manager said only two questions would be answered as they had a time constraint, but Martha kept pointing out people with their hands up, and kept answering their questions.

Martha Stewart Show

I never saw the show on TV - it was screened on the Thursday after the taping, but in the middle of the day and we decided to walk around the upper east side instead. But you can see the show (if you can abide the terrible ham ads before each segment) over here.

It was a great day - probably one of the highlights of the holiday. I laughed a lot, and even made a new friend while waiting in the holding area. I would go in a flash if I visited New York again.

12 comments:

  1. That was brilliant! what an adventure; I can just imagine being in the waiting area surrounded by all those accents. Tell us more.

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  2. Oh My Goodness - that looks brilliant Michelle!
    Yes - I bet she doesn't suffer fools gladly! She looks a little bit scary - and a bit of a perfectionist? But her shows are so great - I've only caught them on in the middle of the night here. So glad you had a great trip!xxJ

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  3. OOOOOOMMMMMMMMMGGGGGGGGG Martha.... I think I may have passed out from excitement if I was there!

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  4. How exciting! Thanks so much for taking us behind the scenes with you. So very very interesting.

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  5. Welcome home! Glad you had a great trip.

    Karin

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  6. That's so exciting! I always wanted to go to Chicago and see an Oprah taping, but now that is over I will have to go back to NYC and catch up with Martha!

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  7. What a great adventure. Such serendipity to be there and all that! And some pretty generous audience participation gifts!

    I once went to a live show of Andrew Denton's Money or the Gun at ABC studios in North Sydney. Prior to taping, he even spoke to me and made jokes at my expense to warm-up the crowd. Not quite on the Martha scale but I do understand how special it is to see these folks live in studio audience - it's so immediate and interesting to be part of all the behind-the-scenes, within-the-show stuff. No wonder it was a highlight. What a great trip, you had.

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  8. Ahhhh! I'm so envious! Not so much for Martha herself, but because I desperately wanted to try and go to a taping of Ellen when I was last in the States, but unfortunately couldn't make it work :( So exciting reading of your adventure, though!

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  9. No black!!!! Can't cope! How awesome, and I love what you wore.

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  10. I'm not really a Martha fan, but that is so cool that you were able to go to a taping! And how funny about the clothes! I know bright colours work best on tv, but no t-shirts?! I wonder what they would do if you wore the wrong thing? Love the red beads with the teal top!

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  11. Looks like a lot of fun! It's great seeing how the magic of television happens. I get the feeling that the dress code wouldn't work so well in Melbourne...

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  12. OMG Martha !!!!!! I think she is pretty amazing too. I mean lets face she would work hard but wow what a brand she has built and she gets to do crafty stuff for a living. I just am blown away that you got to go and be part of it - exciting ! you looked great btw and you took great pics too :D

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