Photo by Megan Wahman
It takes a special kind of person to wait in line for two or more hours in sub-zero weather for tickets to anything. (As we all know, standing in sub-zero weather is more painful than skiing or sledding or biking or shoveling in sub-zero weather. Your feet, very slowly, turn to blocks of ice.) But some things are worth it. Like seeing The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon live after the Super Bowl. With Justin Timberlake. And Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. And the cast of This Is Us. My friend Jen and I did not stand in line for two hours (long story), but I salute those members of last night’s audience who did. Scoring a ticket when they were released to the public (and gone in a hot second) back in December was only the first step: You had to show up in person Sunday morning to actually claim them. Some unfortunate people stood in line for up to four hours in the cold and didn’t get tickets at all because they overbooked, which is typical for TV shows. What the …!
At least everyone in the audience had assigned seats, so when it was time to return to the Orpheum Theatre last night, many of us waited until the last minute at 9:30 p.m. to push our way inside. And we were all instructed to POWER DOWN OUR PHONES! No pics allowed. In fact, the woman behind us was caught taking photos of the set and a show staff member came over and made her delete them all in front of her. Snap!
Sarah Elbert was able to snap this shot inside the Orpheum without being arrested by Tonight Show police because taping of the show had wrapped.
Our show started with clips from The Tonight Show that got us all jazzed up for what was to come, and made me jealous of Jimmy Fallon, who has one of the coolest jobs in the world. Luckily he’s good at it so I don’t hold it against him. Then came a warmup by Tonight Show comedian, Seth Herzog, who delivered with some Minnesota jokes and a rundown of what we could expect during the show. When the Roots came out and jammed on the stage, pumped up from their Eagles’ Super Bowl win, we were all ready to get up and dance—all 2,200 of us in that theater (10 times the normal audience for the show). And every seat was filled. God forbid if you had to go to the bathroom—as I did a half-hour after being seated (but at least an hour before the show went live). I crept down the aisle only to have the usher—a stern-looking woman who could have been a stand-in for Nurse Ratchet or Kathy Bates’ character in Misery—shake her head at me and shoo me back to my seat. Oh, dear, why did I have that second cocktail at Mercy Bar before the show? It seemed like the right decision as the game was in its final minutes.
Seth Herzog came back out and promised a surprise. We all watched as they set up a big band on the stage and dancers came out and mulled around in their Timberland boots and camo pants. The show’s announcer, Steve Higgins, appeared onstage and explained, once the applause died down, that they were actually (shhhh!) taping the first musical performance with Justin Timberlake because they wouldn’t have time to set up and break down the set in time. Then, suddenly, JT wandered onto the stage! YES. He rocked the song Supplies, which I thought might be about dad supplies but is not. Maybe a half-hour later, as the show actually began, it was funny to watch that performance now being played back—like a fast-forwarded version of Groundhog’s Day. Looked and sounded as good as I remembered!
When he came out, Jimmy Fallon got a huge response from the crowd, making the audience director’s cues totally unnecessary. Like Timberlake, he seemed to genuinely like being in Minnesota, with tales of going to Mickey’s Diner and enjoying a Juicy Lucy. “You heard it here first!” he proclaimed. “We’re moving the show to Minneapolis!” After a prerecorded Songversation bit with Timberlake and a touching tribute to Bob Dylan that updated “The Times They Are A-Changin” for 2018, the guests came out and chatted with Fallon. The Rock seemed a little smaller in person than I expected, and that movie, Skyscraper . . . well, I’ll catch it on Netflix. Maybe. The cast members of This Is Us came out for a quick huddle after their tear-jerker of an episode, which had just played on NBC (though we hadn’t seen it, obviously). Timberlake performed another song, “Say Something,” with Chris Stapleton. And then it was over! Or was it…
Timberlake seemed to be talking to Fallon about something. One more song?! Yes, please!!! As The Roots packed up and the crew started to leave the stage, the two buddies pounded out an acapella version of the Bee Gees’ “Nights on Broadway,” from their skit The Barry Gibb Talk Show, which debuted 15 years (!) ago on SNL. Fallon laughed, and walked to the edge of the stage. Timberlake shrugged his shoulders: “S**t, you’re all here!” So he and his band played “Drink You Away” from his previous album, The 20/20 Experience.
And then, it really was over. The lights came up, I high-fived Jen and then hobbled off to find the restrooms.
If you want to watch the show in its non-live form, you can stream it here. (You can’t see me; I checked.)
Sarah Elbert (left) and Jen Buege are editor-in-chief and executive editor of Delta Sky Magazine, which is published by MSP Communications.
