Day Off

I asked my boss if I could take today off "for no good reason."

(Sometimes honesty is best.)

Boss was cool about this.  (I make a point to time these little discussions correctly -- generally, right after I've finished a project.  Ideally, one I'm particularly proud of.)

So, today, I spent my day off standing on Fairfax Avenue.  For five hours.

Which was really cool because:
(1)  I was with a friend;
(2)  We talked with some like-minded strangers; and
(3)  At the end of said five hours, (following a well-needed bathroom break), we got to see a taping of The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.

Tonight's show, in fact.

The Doctor Who special, as it were.  With Matt Smith as the guest.

(So, yeah, me and about 104 other geeks who were able to take the day off.)

There were some amusing mixed signals between the information the audience services people sent to us and the thought-processes of the show's producers.  The audience services people  -- via a special e-mail -- told us they were looking for huge Doctor Who fans, which encouraged some to, er, express their fandom in their attire, as it were.

(Yes, I wore a bow tie.  Shut up.  Bow ties are cool.)


The producers then proceeded to wig, because they were afraid we were more of a Doctor Who audience than a Craig Ferguson audience.  Many of us were both.


(He's a good part of the reason getting to bed by midnight is often such a challenge.)


So, anyway, we're all in line, and then the audience services people tell us about the producers' concern, and the next thing we know they're pulling people out of line and asking them to change what they're wearing.  So people wearing Doctor Who T-shirts were covering them with jackets, or putting on other shirts.  There was some dude in full Eleventh Doctor get up -- perfect copies of Matt Smith's shirt, bow tie, and jacket.  (Probably suspenders, too; I didn't see.)


They make him take his bow tie off.  So, by the time we're going through security, dude has lost his tie, opened his shirt a bit, and just seems like a regular guy in a tweed jacket.


They did not confiscate my bow tie.  (Nor did they do anything about the woman dressed like Amy.  I actually think they didn't know.  Certainly, the guys manning the metal detectors didn't know what to make of all the sonic screwdrivers people were bringing in.  But, seriously, we'd been encouraged by that earlier e-mail.)  Still, some people were asking me how I managed to get my bow tie in there when they made the other guy take his off.  (Probably because mine could pass for "a fashion choice.")


But the guy who took his off didn't actually put it in his car or anything.  It came in with him.  At some point during the taping, he puts it back on.


He does not get thrown out.


Instead, he ends up on television.


Because while the show's producers might not have been thrilled about someone in the audience dressed like the Doctor, Matt Smith noticed, and pointed it out during the interview with Craig.  The producers had no choice but to -- at the end of the show -- go back for a pick-up shot of the dude in his full get-up.  This struck me as, in some way, righting the universe.