The Schedule was written. FINALLY. It was a normal Wednesday morning. I got an email from the website. One of the “ASK A QUESTION”. Bob and I both get cc’d on it. The executive producer of The Daily Show asked if we were a……..
I IMMEDIATELY sent Bob a text on the facebook saying CHECK THIS OUT. IT’S NOT A FREEBIE
Bob went into action.
By 9pm that night we had the right people ready to be in the right place at the right time.
We got there and EVERYONE there was super hospitable. The staff was a little taken back by us playing in the middle of the staff lounge, but when they realized what it was for they all kind of smiled and went WOW……This is going to be FANTASTIC. We still didn’t know what the joke was or what was needed.
A couple hours later we are dressed. Paper work is done. We go back stage and we STILL DON”T KNOW THE JOKE. Which means we still didn’t know what we were going to play. So they gave us the stage directions. The time comes for them to here what we have to play and we played the beginning of the closer. The Smashing Pumpkins Tonight, Tonight.
We did a run of that.
The Executive producer, Head Writer, Director and Stage Manager came back stage and asked for something different. They started using hand gestures and words that don’t normally describe music. Someone said BOMBASTIC. I asked “LOUD????? We GOT LOUD?????” Dennis Argul and Rob Thatcher wrote this major statement in the show this year BUSH13:WEARE in the middle of the second production. We played it for them and the moment we played they all smiled and cheered. PHEW…..
We rehearsed a few more times. Worked out the timing of the Punchline, the cue and my countoff for the members and the rest is The Daily Show and BUSHWACKER History.
– Minesh Shah