The Exes - "Pretty Women"

It was kindly requested of me to share "MORE PLEASE" from my night at The Exes. For this entry, I'll focus on my show experience.

Above, the stars of the show from L to R: David Alan Basche, Kristen Johnston, Kelly Stables, Donald Faison, & Wayne Knight.

After exploring Vasquez Rocks Park for the day, I arrived to the CBS Studio Center just before 4pm. The Sater parking garage attendant kindly requested I park on level 4 or higher. With my lack of ability to correctly park my rental car, I rolled on up to 5 where I had more than enough room to make a 3-point parking job.

I took the elevator to the basement, while Eric Hutchinson's song, Going Down to the Basement, played through my head. My overly filled bag o' stuff and I made it through security with flying colors.

And then I was greeted by the first in a long series of people decked out in red jackets. I've come to know these people as Pages. For being a "guest of Kristen Johnston" I was the happy recipient of a red wristband that gave me super powers to walk on the studio lot unescorted.

It was simple, just hang a left on Smoking Gun Lane, do the hokey pokey at bungalow 8, and then ease on down the road to Stage 17!

I'll admit, it felt kind of silly telling everyone I was a guest of Kjo... Almost as if I was bragging (not my style), but finally I bumped into Kelsey, who helped facilitate the ticket exchange with Kjo. Kelsey was another smiling face on the long list of extremely helpful and accommodating staff. I got checked in and received the show program.

(You're welcome for the sideways photos. Hey, you try blogging on your phone.)

Then I was escorted to my kickass seat. Left side, front row, on the aisle closest to center, seated next to the Twitterly famous Shadley Grei.

I was just chilling in my seat thinking when Clark the DJ said I looked concerned. I suppose I was... What if I need to go to the bathroom? I don't want to miss a single second! With the bathroom being down the block, I would need to be escorted with a gaggle of people by one of my red jacketed friends (unless it was an emergency).

As if someone knew I needed a distraction, next thing I knew, Allan Murray graced us with his presence. He was the best warm-up guy I've ever seen (I've been to 5 talk show tapings). Mix improv, impersonations, a crank-yankers call, with enthusiasm, prizes, sandwiches, water, a cookie, and you have the best recipe for a happy audience.

Before I knew it, the entire audience had been whisked in and a previous episode of The Exes was queued up for us. But hey, I've seen all the episodes and still need to go to the bathroom. Perfect window for a pitstop and I got back to my seat in no time to see most of the hilarious episode. (Check out The Exes website, I think you can stream episodes.)

Next up, the 5 stars were introduced to an ecstatic crowd. (Little did they know, I saw most of them sneak down the left side of set on their way backstage.) The show was going to start!

The scenes for this episode took place in the boy's apartment, the bar, Holly's office and in an airplane. As you can see by my oh so accurate map, I didn't have a good vantage point for several of the scenes. That's where the big TV screens hung infront of the audience seating came in real handy!

The crew was kind enough to shoot/show us the episode in chronological order. They had to shuffle cameras and people back and forth in between scenes and when able, the stars took a moment to interact with us. Extremely awesome!

Did you catch above that I mentioned show us? Sure enough, they had scenes that did not take place on the sets we could see. I believe they taped them the day before, but the location has not been divulged. So, when it got to the airplane scene, they played it on the TVs and recorded our laughter.

Each scene they shot live for us was run through at least three times. A few times I noticed some lines had been tweaked and in some cases the actors physical comedy was lessened or driven over-the-top (which was beyond hysterical!)

Our job was to enjoy ourselves and laugh. I gotta say, I was a bit of a slacker at times. I would get wrapped up in the scene and forget to verbalize by laughter. Sometimes I only let out an almost inaudible chuckle. That, my friends, does not help make a laugh track.

Some of the coolest parts of a taping don't make it into the episode. You've got the bloopers or possibly in Kjo's case, bleepers. (She warned us she curses just a tad.) I loved seeing their mistakes make people laugh (including themselves) or watch them twist that small hiccup into comedic ridiculousness.

Now the part I loved the most was watching the actors during resetting of the scenes. Goodness only knows how The Exes actors compare to other TV shows... but, from what I could tell, these 5 stars are a tight-knit group and truly love what they do and have appreciation for their crew and audience.

Once they wrapped up the final scene, we got to show our appreciation for their hard work. A standing ovation was definitely in order! I was going to leave one happy camper with a full belly and cramped up cheeks (Results of smiling and laughing too much, a good problem to have!)