That's Not Funny...

A couple weeks ago Craig Ferguson taped an entire episode of The Late Show (Charlie Rose) without an actual audience.

According to friends, there are 100 seats - 10 are reserved for house guests and 30 - 40 are available through requests for tickets. The remaining seats (50-60), are each paid for by the show (At $20 per hour, per person - more later). So, why not save $1,000 bucks an hour and just get rid of the audience, right? Brilliant!

Well, without giving away ALL of the secrets, but maybe some: When I had first moved to L.A., I had seen numerous ads for "Paid Audience" jobs; News Flash: There are entire agencies dedicated to just filling seats for every conceivable show that tapes live in front of a Studio audience.

The requirements were simple (ID and just show up for 8-10 hours at the designated studio *conveniently* located in Burbank). The job simple enough, sit and watch the show as part of a studio audience - for $8 per hour ($20 studio pay per hour, $12 to agency and $8 to you!) - that sounded like a fun temp job. Only issue, I began working - so, the idea was immediately nixed. I do have friends that went through the experience (More on that later, too).

Anyway, in the spirit of saving show budget, maybe I would recommend investing in a high-quality laugh track, a licensed copy of Final Cut Pro, and the latest version of Adobe After Effects...Ah, maybe even a low tech approach using mannequins wearing wigs for the over the shoulder shots and the quick sweeping pans of the 'Fake' audience - Alright, I'm done...