2006 Trip To NYC I haven't seen my old roommate Aaron much since he moved to NYC in 1990.

My pal Aaron is a staffer on the Martha Stewart Show & he got me tickets to watch them tape the Memorial Day episode

MY PAL AARON
Aaron and I used to be flatmates way back in the 80's. He's originally from Hermosa Beach and sort of knew some of my South Bay friends from there. We only really became friends after moving to SF. In 1990 he moved to NYC and then to Connecticut with his Martha job. He's really only been back in NYC for a couple of years and through it all, we've kept in touch and managed to stay friends.

Did I mention Aaron has won a couple of Emmy Awards® for his contributions to the Martha Stewart Show?

MARTHA WHO?
Right up front I have to explain that I've never really watched The Martha Stewart Show, I didn't see her season of the Apprentice, I've never even thumbed through her magazine and I really don't know all that much about her except for what I hear from the media. Even before all of the criminal prosecution stuff I remember seeing her on chat shows and thinking she seemed very uncomfortable, stiff and wooden.

WATCHING HER WORK
Imagine my surprise when I watched her work and I realized that she is funny and even self-effacing at times. She seemed to have a great rapport with many of the staffers I saw her interacting with. She was a consumate pro and even cracked several jokes at her own expense.

She had a running gag with Joey Cola, the comedian hired to 'warm up' the audience. It seems they had a bucket of frogs on a show they were taping earlier in the week. Apparently they dared each other to stick their hands in the bucket or something and she kept teasing Joey about having an itch on her hand and she pretended to be developing warts at his expense. It all seemed so light-hearted and if it's like that all the time it seemed like a fun place to work.

THE AUDIENCE EXPERIENCE
I've probably been in more than my fair share of TV audiences over the years. Growing up in Southern California it seems like every couple of years we would have a class trip to one taping or another. The Martha Show really went above and beyond with the ammenities for the audience. The refreshments were top-notch of course and it seemed like they went out of their way to explain what was going on and to let us know what was going on when they were taking a break to set something else up.

FINISHING TOUCHES
Once we were all seated, they suggested we take photos while they made last minute lighting adjustments. As you can see, some of my photos came out pinkish and others greenish - that's because they obviously optimized the lighting for their cameras not mine.

The stage manager, seen on the right in this photo, went over his checklist with various segment producers and staffers. Seen all together the show's various segments flow together naturally but for my taping we saw them in reverse order because the celebrity guest, Hugh Jackman was running late so obviously they couldn't film his bits until he arrived.

WANTED FOR QUESTIONING
I got recruited to ask Martha a question. I was a little apprehensive at first because I've never even seen the show. The producer was so sweet about it though how could I not agree? The fact that she would give me the question to ask Martha made it even easier to comply.

They wrote out all the questions that various audience members would ask Martha. I was nervous as the producer got to my row and I used that to memorize my question, "What was the one guest you were nervous about having on your show?" Of course Martha had plenty of time to go over her answers backstage, but she still made it seem totally impromptu and natural when she admitted being nervous right before Robin Williams' appearance. With his 'zany' and unpredictable brand of comedy I could see how that might make her nervous.

HUGH JACKMAN'S TURKEY BURGERS & BAKING WITH BEEF
Hugh rushed in a couple of hours late. He said he took a boat from a fundraiser in New Jersey and apologized profusely. He interacted with Martha and the audience for a while before they taped his first segment which featured him chatting with Martha. In his second segment, he was in the kitchen with Martha while she showed him, and us, how to make turkey burgers. I'm still morally opposed to eating turkey but I thought it was interesting how Martha prepared them with curry and put the chese at the center of the patty. Because we had to wait so long for Hugh Jackman to arrive, the production staff promised us a present to pick up on our way out. It was a cookbook dedicated to cooking with beef - even though I'll be re-gifting it at my first opportunity I think it was a really nice gesture.

I'M ON THE SHOW ALL SUMMER LONG
While we were waiting for Hugh, they filmed quite a few pans of the audience to use all summer long for promos and intros or whatever. My sister saw one of them and apparently I'm easy to spot in the crowd.
All in all, it was a really great experience and in the end, it made me a Martha fan.