I lucked out and got tickets to a taping the other day, though couldn't stay. To be up front, they asked that you stay until 8 pm! This when we entered at 11 am in the morning. And, very few bathroom breaks allowed.

To those who haven't been to one, this is how it went down.

We sat there, forever. My friend and I ended up in the balcony, as that allowed us more freedom to move around and leave early.

Finally, a balding 'warmer-upper' came out and made bad jokes. Like, really bad.

After this, he instructed us to make reaction shots. The show is heavily edited, so he would tell us how to act as the cameras panned the audience. Us people in the balcony got yelled at a lot, as we moved around, had to fill in empty spaces, and this couple next to me was nucking futs. They were seriously overdoing everything, and I got hit in the process of the gentleman's overenthusiastic applause.

So, we had to cover our ears and groan like there was an awful singer on stage.

We had to stand up and applaud and yell, "Las Vegas!" or "Vegas!"

We had to boo and stand up and motion that they leave the stage

We had to gasp like something horrible happened.

I think there were a few others too, oh, laughter was one.

Then Jerry Springer came out and made more bad jokes. But then I had to go to the bathroom, as we were a couple hours into it and NOTHING had happened. I eluded the PAs that were roaming around and went back to my seat releived.

FINALLY Peirce and Sharon came out, they were very nice and personable.

Then another 1/2 wait for David, and we were instructed to chant his name over and over to 'entice him' out.

He looked REALLY old in person, like, you couldn't beleive it. He looked fake old too, not real really old.

The annoying warmer-upper came out too, and made more bad jokes.

Finally, the ACTS! I think my friend and I only stayed to watch a few, maybe six, it really wasn't a case of huge talent. There were:

2 bad magicians. One got through (he opens for Poison I think he said? 80's rocker vibe, boring as hell) the other was told that he only served to embarass his daughter (part of his act) on a national scale. lol. So true, it was really really sad.

2+ bad singers. One was a 4 year old girl, who got sent through because she remembered all the words to her song. The other was some weird elvis type of clown (note, he didn't say he was elvis, but was compared to a bad elvis) and the other the singing accountant. These two did not go through.

I should note. the buzzer sound IS REALLY FRICKING LOUD! It scared me so much each time it went on.

There was a hip hop dance troupe, they went through to the next round.

Uhm, let's see

Andes music group, they were great, but I'm partial to that type of music.

Shadow puppets - also interesting.

Nothing else was remarkable.

Depending upon your tolerance for loud buzzing noises, long waits, and boring at best acts, I really wouldn't reccomend going to one of these auditions tapings. But it was an experience!

That sounds awful and I'm sorry you had to endure it.

thank you funnygirl, it was. But it got me out of work for half the day.