ROVE - Live from Sydney 16th of November, 2008
Guest line-up: Daniel Craig, Ben Stiller & Chris Rock, Tom Piotrowski. Plus performance by Snow Patrol.
Cast: Rove McManus, Carrie Bickmore, Peter Helliar, Dave Hughes, Hamish Blake, Andy Lee & Ryan Shelton.
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The season finale of ROVE for 2008 was being broadcast from Sydney, and we were extremely fortunate enough to have been offered tickets to be in the studio audience.
I skimmed the email the first time and upon reading it the second time, I realised it stated that we were invited back to the green room. Now this is the part where there was a lot of swearing of disbelief on my end.
- ON THE DAY
About to leave home, received a call from my friend Bob* informing me he was going to be arriving late, and the fact that he didn’t want to wait around in the lobby like the previous time.
"Late? Alright, I didn’t want to mention this because there was never a guarantee but we might have access to the green room....they specified that you can’t arrive later than 7 pm on the paper any way... wait, what do you mean ‘what’s a green room?'" I responded over the phone.
(* Name changed)
- ON SITE
Arrived in front of the studio and rang regular visitor to RoveOnline.com, Anniea to meet up, unaware I was walking behind her but we introduced ourselves for the very first time.
Then joined the surprisingly large queue where I met Anniea’s friend Kat, just had to find her food and toilet (in that order) and she was satisfied. Easy.
- INSIDE THE COMPLEX
Once we passed the doors we met the production assistants at a desk ready to mark our names.
Nervously and slightly intimidated by the security presence, I handed over a piece of paper "I’ve made it easier for you, those names at the bottom"
Next thing we know, they’re handing each of us two passes and telling us to follow Murray to the green room, it went smoother than I thought it would – Nice!
"So what did you do to get these passes?" Murray asked,
"That’s a good question..." I replied as he accompanied us.
- GREEN ROOM
There weren’t many people lingering around, Kat at this point had her eyes set on the food awaiting us on the table (plenty of wine, bread and dip).
Anniea and I decided to walk up to the next level to explore the unfamiliar surroundings, first thing I noticed – the unsupervised fridge.
What was upstairs? Nothing worth noting, offices and Snow Patrol’s dressing room.
Bob eventually joins us, and we kept to ourselves. The area began to fill and we spotted Haydo chatting to Megan Gale.
Anniea visually excited - spotted Wil Anderson from a distance, and pointed him out while considering whether or not to approach for a photograph.
I turned around for a curious look and said "Ohh yeah..." did a double take and recognised the man Wil was chatting to, it was Rove’s manager Kevin Whyte!
This is the odd part, for that split moment I got a bit excited and contemplated about approaching (don’t ask me why, I should be excited about Wil Anderson but wasn’t), in the end didn’t because he was in a conversation and the last thing you want to do is interrupt.
- MEETING ROVE
Rove’s personal assistant Lisa approached us and pulled me aside to briefly talk about an opportunity to meet Rove, unfortunately I became incoherent and rambled on a bit after she introduced herself.
I do remember asking for permission to take photographs with Rove but I believe she said no, it’s up to him (photographs were not authorised on site you see, and I just gave away the fact that we had cameras).
Some moments later, looked up and there he was next to Lisa.
This is the ‘oooohh...’ moment, then followed by the thought Geez, he’s pretty tall... wait, I’m short of course he is.
I reached out and shook Rove’s hands and said "Hi John... errr, Rove", possibly in a brain dead yet semi-shock state.
"So you’re based in Sydney?" Rove initiating the conversation.
"Yup... just south of Sydney, not that far from here... really easy to get here" [incoherent mumble continues, someone should have given me a slap]
Not sure what else happened beside the fact that he had to carry the conversation, I wasn’t prepared with any questions. I was hoping we’d bump into him as he walked passed for rehearsal but didn’t expect he’d actually make time to meet us - massive bonus, couldn’t believe they’d be that considerate. He also agreed to pose for photogaphs.
Introduced Anniea, she was brilliant - had a lot to comment on so I stood back a bit while trying to sneak a photograph in.
As Anniea’s blog stated, they did chat about future DVDs, recent stand-up tour, and praise for the Jay Leno appearance.
I might be making this part up, but at the time I thought he was apologising for the ARIA Awards, because I stood there thinking ‘wait why is he apologising? – it was great’ [also had a flashback of Pink onstage presenting the final award].
Looking back on it, it was related to the YouTube account suspended by Channel Ten.
(My fault for uploading snippets from the ARIAs, but if you’re reading this TEN – Please temporarily remove the copyright infringements so I could access the profile and delete the clips).
I thought he also mentioned something about our previous visit; drawn a complete blank, was actually hoping Anniea was taking notes.
Rove turned to his personal assistant and asked her where we were seated; her response "to the right" both making out hand signals to one another at this stage.
My final words should have been ‘thanks for your time and allowing us backstage’ but embarrassingly enough what came out of my mouth? - "thanks for not suing". Yes, either I was not in the best mental state at that time or need to stop doing that.
- LEAVING THE GREEN ROOM
As we were being ushered out of the green room, a very familiar face was rushing around with a headset in the background. I shouted ‘hey what is your name?’ at the poor crew member who of course looked a bit dazed and confused by my random comment.
"Fitzey" he replied
You might recognise him in the thumbnail or from this sketch on the show
- PRIOR TO SHOW TIME
Ushered into our seats by the crew, and pleasantly surprised to see reserved notes on them.
First thought: ‘Really?’Second thought: ‘Must souvenir that piece of paper home after the show.’
"I thought the green room was going to be green" Bob commented.
A massive audience turn out for the finale show, one of the show’s largest.
Studio warm up guy K.B, went through the clapping procedure to the audience, switch phones completely off not on silent, don’t be the last one clapping ... etc, then introduced Rove and Pete.
Rove told the crowd how there was a room party or get together for the crew but he unfortunately forgot the room number, only the floor level. Whilst looking for it heard music emitting from a room, assuming that was it he went in.
Turned out to be a gay couple expecting a stripper, and then something about trying to leave over the back fence/balcony but was caught by one of the party goers and dragged back in.
Peter Helliar gave us a heads up on a joke used during his PeteSpace segment.
Head turning soon-to-be Wonder Woman Megan Gale ran to her seat to our right, a walk way gap separated us. (Nudged Bob, but like the rest of the men he was too busy drooling. I didn’t want to make her paranoid by staring so I ignored her, of course glanced her way a few times but that was because she had lollies and I secretly wanted some).
N.B Don’t take photographs while the show is still in progress (esp. with celebrities in the audience) or you’ll have the warm up guy running up to have a word with you. It happened to a couple sitting behind her.
- ON AIR
Rove psyched himself up as the intro commenced by running around the stage and over the furniture, it would have been awkward if he stacked right about now.
Regular segments such as PeteSpace (Who doesn’t love Pete?), Carrie at the Newsdesk, guest Daniel Craig, Hamish & Andy, Help Me Hughesy's segment topic? Meeting celebrities - how ironic, Chris Rock & Ben Stiller, Ryan Shelton, Tom Piotrowski etc.
- DURING COMMERCIAL BREAK
Rove walked up to where we were seated to ask how the show was going, I panicked and might have said "Good... great... she’s blogging it [later]" pointing to Anniea redirecting the attention.
Anniea: "It’s brilliant!"
Rove: "Taking notes?"
Anniea: "For sure!"
Rove: "What would you rate it?"
Anniea: "Five"
Rove: "Out of ten?"
Anniea: "No, out of five."
I really did think he was coming up to have a chat with Megan Gale, unaware Anniea had previously requested he say hi during the show.
He looked to his left and noticed Megan and continued his chat with her.
- END OF THE SHOW
Visualise this image - Rove running slow motion Baywatch style towards you.
Unfortunately this is what was going in my head at the time (100% accurate):
We’re never going to be invited back here again, quick take a photograph! **FLASH** ok you just blinded him - bad idea
He handed over a blue running order sheet "so you know how the show works"
- EXIT
Managed to convince one of the crew members I recognised to pose next to the sign, he seemed hesitant at first but proudly declared that he was the "lolly bitch" (I thought K.B was).
I forgot to ask permission if it could be uploaded online so this image may disappear in the next few days.
"Don’t worry about it" I replied but thinking ‘OK, it doesn’t say RoveOnline on that but I think he’s going to Google’
- CONCLUSION - Did you actually read all that?
I rate it 10 out of 10 for hospitality towards their fans. The generosity encountered by the Roving Enterprises team was outstanding and honestly unexpected. I can’t speak for everyone but it did seem like a bit of organisation were placed towards ensuring we had a great night.
We weren’t celebrities, family members or friends, just a few random fans but it was a bloody great experience so I applaud them for the trouble.
- Anniea – GREAT time meeting you, it’s nice to put a face to a name. And now you have access to my social network profile, feel free to stalk me.
- Kat – You’re hilarious full stop, enjoyed your commentary.
- Bob – Come on you’re not supposed to know I have a website what are you doing reading my personal blog?
- Random
If you’re going to be in the studio audience, when you leave and there’s someone by the door handing you flyers, don’t do what I did and take it to be nice but assume it’s junk.
On the night we went they gave out free Nando meal vouchers, not realising this I stuck it on the sign outside as we parted ways.
It apparently stated ‘Rove finale 08’. Now Bob was smart enough to sell this piece of paper for $20.
THE END. No more blog entries from me. Promise.
These Things We Love - ROVE finale 2008
ROVE highlights and crew credits
Don't forget to check out Anniea’s blog or visit the official RoveDaily.com.au site
