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Opinion: 30 Rock Live in New York: I Was There! 
Mon, Nov 19
Following the lead of Saturday Night Live’s live performance at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York last Saturday, the Emmy-winning cast of 30 Rock performed a live staged reading of an upcoming episode to a standing room only crowd at UCB tonight. And guess who was lucky enough to score a seat? That’s right, folks. Your old pal Media Maven was there to see the whole cast and crew of 30 Rock in full force. How I wish you could’ve been there, dear friends! But since you were not, here’s a full play by play of the action. Hopefully this will at least paint you a picture of what it was like to be there. Use your imagination! (Cue “Imagination Song” from South Park “Imaaaagination, imaginaaaation, imaginatiooon”):
6:45—I arrive at UCB (corner of 8th ave and 26th street). There are 2 lines, 1 for reserved ticket holders (me) and one for stand-by (people not getting in). The line was already about 40 deep when I arrived and so I took my place at the back of line filled with 20-something new york comedy hipsters with facial hair and beanies.
7:00 – I get a cool blue UCB bracelet b/c I’m on the 30 Rock list. It’s good to be da king.
7:30 – My cousin and I eat horrible Korean sushi in line. Rather than use pieces of fish, they use a ground fish paste of sorts. It was like fish toothpaste. Awful.
7:45 – We enter the NY center of alternative comedy. The majority of the seats are already filled or taped off. These seats are for VIPs, 30 Rock/NBC crew members, UCB performers and other miscellaneous guests. We find some nice seats stage left.
7:50 – We look around as the seats fill up. People are jammed into this theater. Every seat is full, every added seat is full, and all standing room is occupied. People enjoy their $2 PBR’s and witty banter.
7:57 – The UCB announcer dude asks us to turn off our cell phones and pagers. Does anyone still use a pager? Live theater, you’re already way behind the times by not being a television program or movie. Try not to date yourself even more, mmkay?
8:00 — Right on time, the lights go down and Tina Fey runs on-stage! She explains the purpose of this event (all proceed from the $20 tickets go to pay the recently unemployed 30 Rock p.a.’s), thanks UCB and NBC for allowing this awesome staged reading to take place, explains what a staged reading is (the cast will be reading from scripts as they act out the scenes, stage directions will be read, a banjo and keyboard will provide musical accompaniment, Jack McBrayer and John Lutz will improvise commercials during the act breaks, certain minor roles will be played by various 30 Rock writers on hand), and asks that no one blog about this because they will be acting out an episode that isn’t airing for 3 weeks (don’t worry, I won’t give anything away!). She looks great, the energy in the house is rocking (they love when Fey asks them not to spoil the episode for others because “we’re just like Heroes!”), and now we’re ready for the show.
8:05 – The UCB announcer introduces each member of the 30 Rock cast, as the live music plays. Every major player is here except for Alec Baldwin’s assistant Jonathan (a.k.a. Sanjay from Weeds) and guest star Edie Falco, whose role is played by SNL scribe Paula Pell. Baldwin and Morgan get the most cheers by far.
8:07 – Before the episode begins, Lutz and McBrayer do a quick commercial. They ask for a product (“beer!”) and improvise a commercial about a father and son fishing. McBrayer is hysterical. It’s obvious that he must be the one around the set who cracks everyone else up. I’ve always hated on McBrayer in the past, but sweet Jesus is he funny in person.
8:09 – The episode begins. I don’t want to spoil it by giving you a full blow by blow of the episode, so I’ll just give you some highlights. Jenna wins an award for Best Actress in a Movie Based on a Musical Based on a Movie for her part in Mystic Pizza: The Musical: The Movie, Alec Baldwin and Paula Pell do a ridiculous standing, one-legged humping maneuver, and Tracy introduces the concept of “sharking” (pulling down a chick’s tube top in front of people and videotaping it).
8:25 – 1st commercial break. Tina Fey raffles off some Sheinhardt Wig Company shirts signed by the cast. McBrayer and Lutz do a hilarious tampon commercial where they pantomime playing one on one basketball (McBrayer on D waves his arms up and down while moving side to side, Lutz wiggles his head while dribbling from side to side.) They follow it up with a second commercial about photocopiers. Not that funny.
8:29 – The episode recommences. Some great lines– Jack in the executive dining room: “Gentlemen and token ladies, I have an announcement”; Liz: “I’m just saying what everyone was thinking, like Carlos Mencia”; James Carville: “You want to know how to steal candy from a vending machine?”
8:38 – Our final commercial break. Fey raffles off some James Carville shirts (they say “James Carville” on both front and back), and McBrayer and Lutz reprise their one-on-one commercial, only this time, it’s for flame-throwers.
8:43 – The final moments of the episode. Josh is nicknamed Dr. Haircut. Some other stuff happens.
8:50 – The show is over. The cast looks thrilled to have gotten to perform in so electric and personal a setting. We are quickly ushered out of the theater, as there is another show going in there at 9:30.
All in all, it was a terrific 50 minutes of fun. And fittingly, the real star of this performance wasn’t the cast, or the audience, or the idea of the reading itself. The real star was the writing, as this episode was filled from start to finish with absolutely hysterical dialogue. I don’t know if these laughs will be lost in the translation from live reading to television, but I can imagine Ben Stein reading this whole script by himself and I’d still crack up because the writing is just so damn sharp. I look forward to blogging about this episode again once it airs, to see how much, if anything, is lost or changed. For me, this live reading was not only a pleasant experience in its own right, but it reaffirmed my faith in 30 Rock as a fresh, energetic, and most importantly, side-splittingly funny tv show.
Grade: A Following the lead of Saturday Night Live’s live performance at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in New York last Saturday, the Emmy-winning cast of 30 Rock performed a live staged reading of an upcoming episode to a standing room only crowd at UCB tonight. And guess who was lucky enough to score a seat? [...]
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