Another year, another 72 hours in sunny Los Angeles, California. To be fair, it was still sunny at home, too, but this had the promise of a bunch of fun things. Now, I’m going to recap it all for you!
The trip started off with a bang several hours after we landed with a live taping of The Conners! I fear I will get killed if I reveal anything about the plot of the episode, so I won’t say much. What I can say though is that you’ll see Katey Sagal and Emma Kenney’s Shameless costar Ethan Cutkosky show up in the fourth episode of the fifth season. As someone who doesn’t watch this show regularly, I still appreciate the humor and was tickled to see Nat Faxon has joined the cast! Filming lasted about three hours and we saw six scenes get filmed, but in between set-ups we were treated to some comedy and games. Even more exciting though is that I’m almost 100 percent sure that Kenan Thompson was sitting in front of me and my friend. We may never know for sure though…
After that we caught a show at the Laugh Factory that was supposed to feature Dane Cook, but he bailed at the last minute. That small disappointment was easily made up by all the dudes that took the stage last night. Ending the night in Cook’s place was Jackson McQueen and he had us howling with laughter. Job well done to everyone there! Also, how cool to check out such an iconic comedy club! The next day we kept the comedy going at a live taping of the Doug Loves Movies! podcast! His guests that afternoon were comedian Amy Miller, actress Ayden Mayeri, and The Lord of the Rings co-stars Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd! Very cool! The podcast was fun with just general conversations (too much about the Queen’s calling hours, though) and movie-related games. If you take a listen to the podcast episode (recorded on Batman day if that helps), you’ll hear my friend get reprimanded for just confirming that Ayden’s film did in fact feature Tilda Swinton.
Some other very Holly wood things we did were watch the original Ghostbusters at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. This place was packed with die-hard fans of the film, and there were plenty of snacks and gravestones to go around. What really had me geeked though was that Ivan Reitman’s son, also famous director, Jason Reitman, was there to introduce the film. So cool! You’ll also be pleased/shocked to know that this was my first time watching Ghostbusters – I think it holds up! Continuing all things Hollywood the next morning included a hike up to the Hollywood sign! It definitely had me sweating, but the views were incredible. The trip to LA was topped off with music at Primavera Sound, but you can read more about that here.
Overall, it was a packed trip and it was so much fun – I already want to go back!