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The Audience of One was an integral part of the show. Since the NAN studio didn't really have the room a studio audience, they decided to just bring in one audience member per night. People would send in letters saying that they'd like to be an audience of one. The lucky person did not get free airfare to New York or a free hotel room once they got there. However, they did get a chance to interact with Allan on the air and get a behind the scenes look at the show.
And now all the way from everywhere, let's welcome the Audience of One!
Kevin Paul Dillon was the Audience of One on August 13, 1991. He calls the experience "fantastic" and "something I'll never forget".
William Newcomb was the Audience of One member on Dec. 1, 1992. He urges people to DRINK MORE MILK! :)
Although, now he urges people to drink more Foster's....
David Shetterly is a very informed NAN fan. He was the Audience of One on May 27, 1992, and also provided the very nice-looking NAN logo so prominently displayed on the main page. Thanks David!
Scott Brandenburg was on the night of August 21, 1991 where the Cholesterol Carousel was the infamous Japanese energy drink: Pocari Sweat. Here's an excerpt from his email:
I also had a letter read on the air sometime in 1990, showing my logo for the big Len Pal logo contest. I was at the Audience of One reuinion show in 1992, and got to see first-hand Nick's glorious return to the Shagfest. I still have my official Night After Night hat, t-shirts, Mobley soap, a signed postcard from Allan that he sent me because of a letter I wrote him about Dave the Weatherman being the Antichrist, and tons of old Comedy Channel schedules and cards. I'm just glad to see that I'm not the only one who still remembers the funniest show on TV.
Lori Taft didn't give me the date of her appearance, but she does insist that she was there, and I have to take her word for it. Here's part of her email:
I was also an Audience of One, attended the Audience of One Reunion, and months later took Havey to lunch at Pizza Uno in King of Prussia, PA, where a waiter mistook him for Jay Leno! The show was one of a kind, and I taped a lot of them. I used to send him stuff, just for the joy of seeing him talk about it on the show. (Yeah, I'll do anything for attention.) A friend of mine from Reading, PA was also an Audience of One. His name is John Fundyga; plus, a former co-worker, Kevin Browne, now living in Harrisburg, PA. After he went off the air, I offered to do a fan club deal for him, but he said he wasn't ready. So I'm glad you're doing this. Thanks!!!
Michele Smolin has an excellent name (even though it only has one "l" and she can be forgiven for that) and was an AO1 shortly before the show ended. Check your old tapes of the last month of the show. You might even get to see her!
Judy Downer was the AO1 for August 31, 1991 (there sure are alot of you August folks online. Was there something in the New York water that month?). Anyhow, here's her email:
The whole experience was exciting and fun--except for me, I was terrified and shy and gave Allan absolutely nothing to work with. Some of the comedy bits done on the show were the "hidden camera" in Bill Shortridge's office that demonstrated what a babe magnet he was. At various times during the show we would go back (via camera) to Bill's office, where he would be, for instance, painting a picture and talking to a whole audience of pretty young interns (long before we all knew what Clinton was up to). He demonstrated a toaster oven, an appliance in use presumably way before the young interns' time. It was hilarious. There was also a "Second Opinion" piece in reply to a Dear Abby column in the news, about Native American secrets of lovemaking. This involved a random assortment of implements--was one of them an eggbeater? Anyway, it was overall a great experience, and I only regret I didn't give Allan more to play off of. Afterward, though, I started sending letters to him at that show that he said he appreciated and enjoyed. He was a gentleman. Carry on with the good fight.
Andrew S. DiMino was so enamoured with his own AO1 experience that he actually did a webpage on it on his own domain! I'll let Andrew tell you about it himself.
Anna Piskoz was on the second-to-last NAN episode in 1992. Ok, you know the deal. Here's a part of her email.
Everyone, including Allan, was incredibly sweet to me, and made me feel completely at home for my television debut. I had a blast!!! It actually convinced me to pursue a career in t.v. and/or film. If you would be so kind as to pass along my e-mail address to Allan, and let him know that the experience was an incredibly positive and influencial one.
Oh, and one more funny little memory. That episode we had a back-up Audience of One who tried to bribe her way onto camera by buying everyone cookies. Fortunately, it didn't work. Keep up the great work!
Simon Push was on May 3rd, 1992, the same night as Carol Channing. Here's what he said about his experience:
Allan kept making fun of my bell bottoms that a friend talked me into wearing (some friend). I told Allan I worked for the cities subway system, and he kept asking me about getting on the wrong train and winding up in Jersey, penniless. It was a funny story. Allan and the crew were very nice and gave me a tee-shirt and a coffee mug that they all signed.
Thanks for the page.
Simon Push
P.S. Do you have any NAN crew e-mail address? That would be a hoot to send them a nice letter..
Well Simon, more than one NAN crew member has emailed me in the past, but I'm not sure if they would like their email addresses publicized. I shall look into it.
Lisa Foy was Audience of One during the last months of the show.
I had the pleasure of meeting Allan along with Joe Bolster and Dom Irerra. During a break in taping Jon Stewart offered to share a bottle of water with me (a genuine honor). The real thrill though was the AO1 Reunion where I spent a little quality time with Allan, who is truly a gracious man.
[missing image]This is Vince Barajas and his cronies...they sped all the way from Illinois, and they got 4 speeding tickets between 'em. Y'know when you speed, sometimes ya gotta stop. Hey, Vince, show 'em what happens when you stop in a speeding car!
And Vince actually emailed me recently to share what happened on the car trip over, and the taping:
It was the week after my 20th birthday that I headed up to NYC with my friends for our NAN appearance. At the time, I was living in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, and my friends had come all the way from Houston. A few weeks beforehand, I had received the call to be on the show. I remember being standoff-ish at first, because I didn't know who was calling me, and then when I found out it was the audience wrangler, I immediately became apologetic. He told me, "You wouldn't have been so rude if you'd known who it was, would you?" So my friends and I drove up together in their rented astro van, and we were seriously crunched for time when we left.
We drove all night, sometimes at speeds in excess of 100 mph, and we got four speeding tickets in three different states (IN, PN, and NJ). We had a radar detector on board, but apparently it wasn't working very well. By the fourth time we got pulled over, we thought we'd never make it to NYC. I remember it well. My buddy Dan (pictured at right in your website photo) was crying, because he thought he was going to be tossed in the slammer (it was his second speeding bust in a matter of hours), and I was very upset because I thought I had blown my big chance to be in the AO1.
The NJ state trooper who pulled us over was wasting all our time, screaming at us and telling us that if we wanted to act crazy and endanger people's lives, we should do it our own state. After he was done with us, we lamely limped to the nearest payphone, where I called NAN and told them I wasn't going to make it (they had already begun taping). They said, "Just get here when you can. We'll wait."
An hour or two later, we crossed into Manhattan and found the HBO building. The guys pulled up right in front and let me off while they found a place to park. I ascended this very small elevator, and when the door opened, there I was - on the NAN set. Allan was waiting for me, and I was quickly put into place for our "chat" segment. I'm probably the only AO1 member ever to show up only at the END of the show. But I later found out Allan and his staff had some fun with that, tracking my progress on a map as I made the trip.
By the time the chat session was done taping, my friends had made it into the building and we started the quick rehearsal of our epilogue segment. Allan and his writers made it up on the spot, having us try out one or two other ones before settling on the "show us what happens when you stop" bit.
Then my friends and I were all sent to the green room, where we sat and chatted, ate some snacks, and reflected on our incredible high speed journey. I remember being creeped out because I saw the guy that played Dave the weatherman wandering around in the halls outside. Soon Allan reappeared, and he shook our hands and accepted the Pez dispenser I had brought him as a tribute. I think I may have been the first person to get the idea to give Allan a Pez (he seemed surprised by it), but someone topped me soon afterwards by presenting Allan with a Pez dispenser featuring a sculpted likeness of his own head. Allan said that we all "seemed like nice boys", except for my friend Dan, whom Allan singled out as "a troublemaker." To my surprise, Allan presented me with a personal check for $400! He said it would cover the speeding tickets. Then, since we had showed up too late to see any of the real guests (the guest that day was John Mendoza, so I didn't miss much), Allan graciously invited us to return the next day and watch the taping from off camera.
The next day, I returned to the studio alone, while my friends checked out the big apple, and I hung around and took pictures behind the scenes and with Allan. Finally, it was time to go, and I was on my own again.
I loved my NAN experience. I'm probably the only AO1 member ever to get paid! Looking back, the speeding my buds and I did was REALLY stupid, but you don't think about those kind of things when you're 19 or 20. At the time, I was a college student who was trying to get his own talk show started on cable access. Today I am a reporter working for one of Texas' largest stations. And while I can't say that Allan had anything to do with that, I can't prove that he DIDN'T. ;-)
Take care, -Vince