New York à la Keiko: The weekend à la Keiko: Standby line for Saturday Night Live show with Jennifer Lawrence and The Lumineers

It's the long weekend! Yay! No work for me tomorrow and looking forward to a 4 day work week!

My weekend passed rather quickly and I did NOT stay home like I did last week but did the complete opposite. A little idea sprouted in Dave's little head to attempt getting standby tickets for this weekend's Saturday Night Live show. The host was Jennifer Lawrence with musical guest The Lumineers! We didn't actually get in the show that night but I'll happily tell you about the process and our failed attempt...There are tons of bloggers out there recounting their stories which you should read to give you an idea what your chances are of getting into the show without tickets.

SNL standby ticket for the Live show -nykeiko.com

Four of our friends agreed to come try with us but two bailed. I don't blame them, it was really early and reaaaaally damn cold.

The plan was to get in line in front of NBC Studios at 30 Rockefeller Center at 5 in the morning and wait for the handout of the standby card numbers at 7 a.m. Five in the morning seems pretty early right? but it wasn't. We had no idea how late we were until we got there and saw about a hundred or more people already in line! We had to go wait in a second line on 48th street and Rockefeller Centre since the line in front of NBC Studios was too long. I was shocked. A guy in line behind us did a count and said there was approximately 166 people in front of us. Some people were supposedly there since Wednesday! That's three days of waiting in the cold! At that point, we kind of knew that our chances of getting into the shows were zero but we stayed anyway to experience going through the whole process. The number of people they take is totally unpredictable. They will NEVER be able to tell you what your chances of getting into the show is..NEVER. It just depends on how many ticket holders show up and that's it! The studio's capacity is 325 seats I was told by one of the girls who handed out tickets. It's really a shot in the dark and most probably depends on your luck more than anything. Anyway, while in line and froze our toes off, we enjoyed some free hot chocolates, apple cider and apple pies distributed by a food truck 'Chock Full O' Nuts'. That was kind of nice and unexpected and not sure if they were sponsored by NBC or just generous business owners. Does anyone know? They also sold hand and feet warmers for $2, blankets for $5, water, soft drinks and warm food all for $1.

5 a.m. sleepers in line

Free Chock full of nuts hot chocolate, cider and coffee and apple pie !

Free diluted hot chocolate from Chock full o' nuts

We waited on 48th street and Rockefeller

Finally, at 7 a.m., they started giving out standby card numbers. You had to show a valid ID and they wrote each and every person's full name down on a sheet and also on the back of the cards they gave to you. Crazy inefficient! We were told to ask which of the two shows had the lowest number and go with that one but the ladies giving out the tickets did not know (?) so we just took tickets for dress rehearsal since we thought our chances were better but actually weren't sure if we were up for returning that night. If we did want to give it a try, returning back into the city at 7:15 pm was easier than returning at 10:45 p.m.! We got our numbers at about 8 a.m. since we were pretty far up the line. S&S got tickets to the live show but they didn't plan on returning unless we got in the dress rehearsal. Our numbers were #266-267 but we were told that they were NOT the real ticket numbers. Still confused about that. Anyhoo...

At 8 a.m., we get our standby tickets. We were #266 and 267 for the dress rehearsal -nykeiko.com

The Rockefeller Center at the crack of dawn

For the 8 p.m. dress rehearsal show, you had to return to N.B.C. Studios at 30 Rockefeller Centre at 7:15 pm. We did not have to wait outside this time to our relief. We took our chances with a grain of salt and set our expectations very low. Pages checked our card numbers and told us to get in line. We had to find our place in line by getting in order according to our card numbers. The line was pretty long and once again, knew our chances were very very very low but somehow, everyone seemed hopeful so everyone stayed! The line started moving forward at about 7:25 p.m. as ticket holders started going through the security checkpoint (metal detectors) following by going up in the elevators to the studios. Then, a whole bunch of standby people got in and my hope was slightly elevated. However, at around 7:45 p.m., they decreased the number of people they let through security and that is when we knew that seats were probably filling up and they were just letting a few in just in case there were a few seats available. There were probably 20-30 people before us... At about 7:55 p.m., they announced that the show was filled and thanked us all for coming. A lot of disappointed, dressed up people that night. We saw about a dozen people who got through security come back out with very disappointed boo hoo sad faces. They were so close! WE were pretty close too I thought! They let in a big number of standby people compared to what I've read online (though most of the bloggers tried for the live shows) so maybe we could have gotten in if we had been willing to get in the standby line at like 2 a.m. or on Friday night (nahh)?! Anyway, you just never know. It varies every damn show and no one can tell! Sucks for the people who waited for days though...we were fine about not getting in and walked around Times Square, drank milkshake and went to the Toys R' Us store to play:)

N.B.C. Studios

Line up behind us

SNL NBC security Checkpoint with leggy pages

This is how close we got. By the way, the NBC pages were attractive and peppy and ready to help guide you and answer your questions. Don't you think their skirts are a little short? Oh the entertainment industry...