Joei Carlton

February 11, 2009 - My Special Birthday

My day started around 6:00 and we, Tom and Donna Clapham, Sandra Schemmer and I left the campground at 9:00 A.M.  Thankfully everyone was ready to leave early because no one wanted to be late or rushed.  It was a 2 hour drive and we stopped at a Target store along the way because the evening before I received the 5th call from the Ellen DeGeneres show making sure we were still coming AND to let us know that Ellen had teamed up with a food bank and we should bring some canned goods or non perishables.  We picked up some cans at Target.

We arrived at Warner Bros. around 11:30.  We checked in and went out for a lunch and arrived back at 12:45 ready to stand in line to get the tickets when it opened at 1:30.  We then sat around until 3:30.   Our numbers were called in groups of 30 or so and we filed in for our seats.  Until show time we were given instructions about dancing and clapping and no other noises would be tolerated.  I never danced so much in my life and ALL the activity had NOTHING to do with Ellen.

After we were all settled we discovered that our seats were right behind a camera…..so we saw almost nothing.  Ellen did her monologue which was quite funny and some of it had to do with Don’t ASSUME anything because it makes an ASS of U and ME and unfortunately that came to pass. - I’ll explain that a little later.

Her guests were Curt Warner who was adorable.  Steve Harvey was wonderfully funny and Neil Shaw who is a vet in Florida who treats animals for free if necessary.  Good Show but not worth our 100 mile each way drive.

Now I ASSUMED that Ellen would be funny, which she was. I also ASSUMED she would friendly which she definitely was NOT.  She had absolutely no repport with the audience.  During any changes she was with the crew. They were checking what was happening next. They were fixing her making. There was not one word spoken to the audience.

When the show was over she took less than 15 seconds to thank us for our enthusiasm and then she was gone.  Not even one minute to talk to the audience. 

I then stood in line to purchase a mug with The Ellen Show on it.  When I got it home I discovered a sticker on the bottom that said it was made in China and it had lead and cadmium in the color and was cancer causing.  On the way out we were given a copy of Steve Harvey’s book and a $100.00 gift card to Starbucks.

I’M DEFINITELY NOT IMPRESSED.  If this sounds too negative then you know how I must feel.

Thankfully we had an easy trip home except for getting a little lost, stopped for dinner along the way. I thoroughly enjoyed the company of my friends.        Joei