The Voice of Geoff Peterson
For the next two weeks, the usual voice of Geoff Peterson, Josh Robert Thompson will be away.  To take his place, Craig has enlisted the help of some friends who will give voice to the erstwhile robot skeleton sidekick.  On Monday, it will be Alfred Molina.  On Tuesday it will be Dominic Monaghan.  Wednesday, Tom Lennon will be the man behind the curtain.  Larry King will be at the controls on Thursday.  And on Friday, Geoff’s voice will be provided by Louie Anderson.  And coming up next week will be Lauren Graham, Paula Poundstone, Shadoe Stevens, Angela Kinsey and more.  It should be a fun experiment, as Craig tweeted:

While @joshrthompson is out of town @GeoffTheRobot will have multiple personalities starting tonight with Alfred Molina. #thisisgonnabeweird

And Geoff added:

Tonight, Alfred Molina will work me like a puppet. #sorrymrsmolina

For the full list of upcoming guests and voices of Geoff, check out our Guests page.

Getting Noticed
The website britscene.com enjoyed Imelda May‘s performance on the LLS Friday night and GeeksOfDoom.com is realizing why watching Craig is a good thing.

A Taping of the LLS
The RSA’s @HMSFox, longtime reader of our daily posts and loyal robot skeleton, had a chance to attend a taping of the Late Late Show in Los Angeles last week. She sent us her story:

[stextbox id=”custom”]Journey to the Center of the HOV:
My whirlwind trip to the HOV’s Capital,
LLS Studios at CBS Television City

Vital Stats:
Taping Date: Friday, November 4, 4:30 show
Air Date: November 22
Guests: Jason Segel (Muppet Movie; How I Met Your Mother); Eliza Coupe (ABC’s Happy Endings)

“One short day, in the Emerald City…”

Waaaaait a minute…excuse me, wrong show. Who let the “Wicked” soundtrack in here? *rummaging* Try this—

“It’s time to play the music, it’s time to light the lights…”

A Muppets fan since probably before birth if that’s possible, when Jason Segel showed up on the LLS guest list for November I figured it had to be to promote the Muppets movie coming out November 23. Knowing full well with Craig Ferguson and the LLS it was entirely possible Jason would be on and they would do everything *but* discuss the Muppet movie, I decided to risk it and threw together one of my whirlwind weekend trips. I’m glad I did.

The story of an LLS taping really starts once inside security waiting to be seated. Chunky B the warm-up comedian usually comes out to explain how tapings go, but since this was a double taping day he was still inside and Dukes from 1iota the ticket company did the spiel. He did a great job, and it was a good crowd—energetic and willing to laugh. Dukes joked we were one of the few audiences who kept going with his “Make some noise if you understand me” waaaay past the time necessary.

(If you’re interested in what the CBS building looks like, and what you see as you line up, there’s a few pictures on my Twitpic account).

You know you’re a bit too engrossed in a show when you start spouting off random factoids to the people around you. 🙂 Upstairs near the studio, the first taping hadn’t let out yet so folks in line chatted about the show. One group wondered when the show would air, another person asked who Josh was and I explained he voiced and puppeteered Geoff, and lo and behold…Josh walks right past me. The first group had come out and Josh was with them, I guess catching a quick break between shows. So there you go, Close Encounters of the Robot Kind… 🙂

One other oddball close encounter once we were seated–Chunky B came out to do the warm-up, and as he worked his way over the railing into the audience, I got to hold his candy bag (that is so NOT code :-). You see Craig throw candy during the show, but Chunky hands it out during the warm-up as well. And when Craig threw it later, a piece came right at me and I managed to miss it. There’s a reason why I sucked at baseball…

The show started, Craig came out, we all cheered and hollered, and the monologue began. I don’t want to spoil too much, but hopefully it won’t kill anyone to know that yes, the show did in fact talk about Muppets. No puppets, but a lot of Muppet jokes. And to leave you with a bit of anticipation for the show on the 22nd, try and guess which Muppet Craig thinks he looks like. With a bit of imagination, I’d say I’d agree. 🙂

At the end of the monologue Craig and Josh were whispering back and forth and Josh said something Craig commented likely wouldn’t make it to air, but damned if I can remember what it was now. Stupid short term memory.

Craig hung out between the monologue and cold open (the open gets filmed second) and chatted a bit with the audience. He called us “The best audience ever—like I’ve never said that before!” (He’s just playing with the audience, keeping us alert while they set up the next segment, but I can verify he has said that before—I saw my first taping in February, and he said it there too. :-P)

Probably one of the more interesting bits about the taping (since you see much of what goes on on the show itself, there isn’t much time between the different segments), is watching Craig interact with Michael Naidus, the producer. On TV we’ve all seen Craig look over to Michael during the show, but there really is a give and take there. Michael does in fact have his iPad out, checking on things, and even when Craig doesn’t actually talk to him while the film’s rolling he and Michael seem to subliminally communicate back and forth. I guess that’s what happens when you work with someone day in and day out over the course of years, you get good at anticipating each other. Anyway, during the breaks the ESP stops and they actually talk–this time around Craig had to redo his intro to Jason Segel because the Muppets film was already going to be in theaters by the time the show airs. But otherwise, what you see on air is pretty much what you get—there isn’t a lot of retakes, or extraneous material that’s edited out.

Jason Segel’s interview segment came up, and thanks to where I was sitting when he first came out he looked straight at me, so that was neat. I won’t give away much about the interview either, but Craig did get a few good shots in about why he wasn’t in the movie when Jason said he could be. Plus there’s a mention of Muppets as a gateway drug to Monty Python, so there’s that. 🙂

Jason stuck around to film another segment, so Craig had to change his tie. Sticky’s going to love this—George the costume guy came out and hung around to help Craig adjust it (the TIE—minds out of gutters, folks :-). And when I say hung around, he hung around—he hovered behind Craig for a full minute. I’m not sure why, but his face turned red and he was giggling up a storm, so Craig managed to get off the classic “He’s standing right behind me, isn’t he?” line.

The second guest, Eliza Coupe from Happy Endings, was very nice and they had fun together. I wish I could rock the shorts she came out in (okay that came out completely wrong… :-P).

Sad to say since it was only three days ago, but by this point I can’t remember what they did for the show closer. But as everything was wrapping up, Craig introduced Josh as the man behind Geoff and Josh came out and took a bow, so that was nice. The last taping I saw was before Josh started full time as Geoff, so this was new to me. I guess, and hope, they do it every night.

And that’s that. Craig walks back to the dressing room, Michael gathers his stuff and with a few last words to the crew he takes off, the house DJ is introduced, and the crew covers up the cameras so they can get out of there (it was 7:10 by this point, so when they do 2 shows it’s a long day). You’re led out the way you came in, past the big red neon CBS eye logo.

Hope you enjoyed this tour through the heart and soul of the HOV, a daily taping at LLS studios. Please remain seated until the ride comes to a complete stop.

Actually, I hope the LLS ride never does stop…because damn, what a ride it’s been. :-)[/stextbox]

Thanks to @HMSFox for sending us such a great account of her adventure. If you have a chance to attend the taping of a show or one of Craig’s live performances, we’re always happy to share your story with other hobos. Just use our Contact Us page to send us your information and we’ll pass it along!

Tonight’s Guests
Monday on the Late Late Show, along with Alfred Molina as the voice of Geoff Peterson, Craig welcomes actor Jeffrey Dean Morgan and a last-minute change to music from The Grascals.  Comedian Jeff Ceasario has been pushed ahead to next Tuesday’s show.  This Tuesday, Craig interviews actress Jennifer Tilly and author Lawrence Block while Dominic Monaghan provides Geoff’s voice.




Guest Update

Along with details of the guest stars providing the voice of Geoff Peterson over the next two weeks, the schedule has been updated through November 18th, with specific dates for Robin Williams, Don Rickles and Beth Behrs, along with the addition of the band Black Dub.  Full details are on our Guests page.

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