I am thrilled to have worked at the Tonight Show with Jay Leno for the first time last Friday. Graham Colton, the guest musician that night, asked me to support his band by playing backup tracks from my laptop during their live performance. (YouTube clip here.) As I huddled off camera my laptop played tambourine, backup strings, piano and click into the shows audio mix.
Having never been to a TV taping before I found the experience surreal. The Tonight Show is a well polished operation. The size of Jay’s stage/studio impressed me. On camera his studio and stage look bigger than they are. Apparently special lenses in the cameras add depth to the images. Things look bigger and better when Hollywood applies their magic.
As the show taped I found myself amazed at how that moment in time quickly spreads far and wide. The sound of Jay’s voice was not reverberating from my TV, it resounded straight from the man in a suit standing in front of me. And I had just seen that guy sitting backstage on a couch chatting with Tom Brokaw in a t-shirt.
It is even clearer to me now that TV might not be as accurate as we are lead to believe. It sure is entertaining though.
