My Glee Experience

Friday, November 5, 2010 was seriously the best day of my life! I won tickets to go to a taping of the Sectionals episode for Glee this season! I took my good friend Kellyn Brandt with me.

I took this picture to illustrate my excitement! And also because my hair is getting really long.

I went and got Kellyn at noon because I wanted to make sure to get there early and scope everything out. The tickets said they were first come first serve and I didn’t want to take any chances at not getting in. We got to the theater a little after 1:00. No one was lined up yet, but there were cops everywhere. We went to eat at CPK and I got the avocado rolls because I haven’t had them in so long. SO good! We went to a soda shop after called Galcos. It’s a store with old fashioned sodas with really hilarious names. I took a lot of pictures. Then we headed back to the theater. It was about 3:30 at this point. The line was already really long, but not too bad. We waited there for 3 hours. Fans of Glee are super annoying! Kellyn and I were going a little nuts. But we had plenty of entertainment. There was a guy who looked like Billy Ray Cyrus. He had the hair, the super country shirt, and the chick sunglasses. Seriously, his hair didn’t budge an inch when he moved. I wish I’d had my camera, but we left everything in the car because they wouldn’t let us take any recording devices in. And I didn’t think we’d be there for more than like a half hour or so. I think I knew better than that, but I left my camera in the car anyway. People who worked with Glee kept coming out sporadically to give us photo release statements to sign and tell us to put our phones in our cars. One of them was really handsome. He looked just like Clinton from What Not To Wear. It was uncanny. He ended up being a big head honcho once we got inside. They finally gave us wrist bands at like 6:00 and they took us in at 6:30. It was definitely annoying to wait that long, but it was SO worth it once we got inside.

The set was interesting where the audience was sitting. There was a floor section and two balcony sections that were at a really steep incline. Kellyn and I were in the upper balcony section on the first row. We missed being in the lower section by like 6 people, which was a little frustrating because the lower section would for sure be on camera. The floor section was filled with dummies, the actor’s parents, and some paid extras. We sat inside for probably another hour before people started coming out on stage. But the Clinton guy said since we waited so long he was going to try to get the actors to come up and do Q&As with us. He said he couldn’t promise anything, but a short while later he brought Chris Colfer (Kurt) up with him! He was literally two feet in front of us as he walked by. That was my first heart attack of the night. SO cute! He is really witty and just completely adorable. Someone asked him why he was so adorable and he said some of it was genetics and he was created in a lab. Another girl asked him if he was single - implying that she wanted to be his girlfriend. I wanted to tell her that he likes boys in real life. He was wearing a Chunk shirt!

The exact one that my sister Amanda has. I thought that was funny. We tried to get him to do the Truffle Shuffle, but he declined.

We were given prop programs, but they were pretty legit and had a lot of information about Sectionals in them. They started filming with one of the other groups. The group was called The Hipsters and they were seniors, as in senior citizens. Seriously, one of the cutest things ever. They sang a song I’ve never heard of called In the Living Years. They filmed the group from behind to get shots of the audience. After they performed, The Warblers performed. They’re the group from the school that Kurt’s new boyfriend is the lead singer of. They sang Hey, Soul Sister, a song that I loathe. But now I have a positive memory of it, so I don’t loathe it quite so much anymore. They rocked it. It was very entertaining and they were wearing the sexiest prep school blazers. I dig men in uniform.

After the first two groups performed, all of the Glee cast members slowly started coming out on the stage and everyone in the audience was obviously screaming. They really weren’t that far away from us. I could see them all perfectly. Cory Monteith (Finn) popped out really quick up on the balcony and said, “Hi!” That was my second heart attack of the night! That’s all he said because he had to go down to film, but he was like 10 feet away from us!

New Directions performed Time Of My Life and a song called Valerie. They were both awesome. The dancing was a lot more involved than they’ve done in the past. Especially in Valerie. Heather Morris (Brittany) and Harry Shum, Jr. (Mike Chang) did a sick swing dance number with all these awesome lifts, or “fireworks” as it was described to us.

There was a lot of downtime between takes and it was so funny to sit and watch the cast interact. Kevin McHale (Artie) and Naya Rivera (Santana) were meowing at each other and Kevin does this game where he plays an animal and the rest of the cast gives him commands like he were a dog or something. He was a big flirt. Kevin would stand up a lot in between takes and the other cast members would play in his wheelchair. When he and Jenna Ushkowitz (Tina) came up for their Q&A it was really funny to see him just walk up. Mark Salling (Puck. That’s right, Puck is back! And so is his Mohawk!) took a video of Harry Shum, Jr. doing a Dirty Dancing impression of Patrick Swayze and posted it on Twitter. I laughed so hard and you can totally hear me in the video.

http://www.twitvid.com/SPVJG

Cory Monteith was staring at me from the stage the whole time. One of the perks of having red hair, I guess: you stand out in a crowd. He and Lea Michele (Rachel) came up together toward the end of the night and when they were called back down they said they’d let them come right back up. People had been trickling out throughout the night and after Lea and Cory went down to film after their Q&A, Kellyn and I moved down to the lower balcony and were in the 3^rd row from the front, right in the middle section. That’s when they did most of the filming of the audience, so we’re totally going to be on the show if they show the balcony section at all! They sent us home right after that.

Half of the actors came up for Q&As at one point or another except for Amber Reilly (Mercedes), Heather Morris, Matthew Morrison (Mr. Shue), Harry Shum, Jr., Naya Rivera, and Mark Salling. Harry and Mark came up and signed some autograph’s, though, so all the cast except for three people came up to at least say hi. Naya and Heather may have been in that group, too, but I can’t remember. And they were all just feet away from me! Dianna Agron (Quinn) was so sweet. She is completely the opposite of her character in real life. And Chord Overstreet (Sam) seems like he’s in love with her in real life as well as on the show. The cast members who didn’t come up all waved to us from the stage and most of them said something to us. Matthew Morrison told us we were sexy.

We got to be there for four hours. Best four hours of my life! There were so many things going on around me that made me want to pee my pants the whole time! The whole day I just kept saying, “This is real!” I accomplished one of my main goals of moving to California and I was on Glee! It was so amazing! It wasn’t what I had originally anticipated when I moved out here to try to get on the show, but I’m completely satisfied with the opportunity I got. It was seriously the BEST DAY EVER!!!!

Glee-cap: Brtiney/Brittany

This was the most fantastic Glee episode thus far, completely trumping my original favorite episode, Laryngitis. I L.O.V.E. Brittany. She's always had excellent one-liners, and this episode was full of an overwhelmingly brilliant slew of them, but giving her complete thoughts together with her dancing and singing abilities created a bombshell, making me change my opinion of her from being mildly amused to sheer adoration. Her monologue about why she didn't want to sing Britney songs left me gasping for air from utterly awesome delight: "My name is also Britney Spears. My middle name is Susan, my last name is Pearce, that makes me Brittany S. Pearce: Britney Spears." Oh, the joy in my heart.

Some of the best Brittany one-liners from the night:
-"This room looks like the one on that space ship where I got probed." (Carl not reacting was the cherry on top.)
-"When I smile I'll look like an adult baby, but with boobs."
-"Finn can fly?"

Brittany attacked everything. I've never wanted to be anyone else so much in my life! She looked almost exactly like Britney Spears in the videos, it was uncanny. That snake almost went in her mouth and she didn't even react! She is such an amazing dancer, I'm glad they finally gave her the chance to shine and gave us the opportunity to witness her gloriousness. I wish I were as hot as her and that I could dance like that. And holy crap, those little kids in her fantasy rocked it! Also, I love it when SYTYD dancers are on the show. Sometimes they're hard to spot, but it's always such a joy to see them.

There were other things in the episode that I enjoyed as well as Brittany. For example, Emma's elation about the seemingly simple act of mixing the green grapes and the red grapes together in one bowl with Carl was adorable. "It was madness, sheer madness." And then John Stamos walked in and all of a sudden there he was, just like that. It was glorious.

I loved that almost all the Glee kids had perfectly white, shiny teeth like movie stars, except for Brittany, Artie, and Rachel, who prides herself on her star quality. Poor Artie. Another glorious one-liner from Brittany: "I was pretty sure Dr. Pepper was a dentist."

Kurt was a sassy little fire house in this episode. He's never had that much spunk or passion that he's voiced before, except for that one time when he called out Finn when they were going to be roommates. It was a little shocking, I'm not sure yet if it was in a good or a bad way.

I liked Brittany better as Britney than I liked Rachel. I thought she looked cute, though. It just wasn't her best style of music. She's definitely more of a balladeer :) (that word totally spell checked, in case you were wondering). You could tell she was uncomfortable with the dance moves, too. I'm not sure if Lea Michele just needed to loosen up or if they were having her act a little uptight on purpose because that's Rachel.

That creepy blogger guy's reaction to Rachel's school girl look was so awfully wrong it was fantastic. "What do you want for her? I'll give you anything. I'll give you my house. I'll kill my parents and I'll give you my house." I think I would have reacted the same way Finn did if I were faced with that in reality, walked away wide-eyed and terrified. I'm not even going to get into the HORROR Sue saw.

I was so embarrassed for Will with all the gimmicks he pulled to try to win Emma back. He was such a douchey ex-boyfriend in this episode. Boys, take note, copying the new guys' every move will just make you look like an idiot, and a scrambling idiot at that. But question, why does Terri get a spousal support check when she's the hag that wrecked their marriage? She is scary!

I think it's amusing, but frustrating, that they have singers guest star on Glee, but they don't sing. Josh Groban, hello?! And again with Britney Spears. At least they had Olivia Newton John sing on the show. But since Josh Groban is the reason I started watching Glee in the first place, I would like to see him sing when he guest stars.

I almost died when the football team started breaking out to "Stronger"! First, they got down to "All the Single Ladies" (which got me hooked on Glee to the point I could never look back), and then this. Sheer genius. I love Artie so much. He's probably my favorite. He's so preppy, but so gangster. He's always so hardcore in the songs he sings. And is it just me, or is Finn improving with his dancing? Last week when he tried out for the Cheerios was the highlight of my life. I feel like he's starting to hold his own. The best part was when Artie woke up: "Mmmmm. Britney."

It warmed my heart when Coach Bieste had change of heart about Finn and Artie being on the football team. I really like where her character is going. She doesn't creep me out like Coach Tanaka did. I think it was his form fitting spandex/rayon clothing and the fact that he was always sweaty. I wouldn't have dated him even if I weren't a germaphobe like Emma. But I am one, so maybe that's why I wouldn't. I'm not nearly at the level Emma is, though.

Did it weird out anyone else that Mr. Shue danced with his students in such a provocative number? I was a little worried about where that was heading. He totally creeped me out in this episode. He's sexier when he doesn't try to be. I have been really wondering what was intentional and what was just happenstance in the way the characters came off in this episode. I also wonder what the "Toxic" performance will do for the Glee Club, if anything. I did enjoy Mr. Shue's singing in the song, but it was still creepy. At least he acknowledged it later on. The cat calling from the blogger guy and the girl standing next to him made me laugh uncontrollably: "Mr. Shue, let me be your Britney." "Mr. Shue, I want your babies." And Sue's line was the best: "It's a Britney Spears sex riot!"

Okay, question: Carl or Mr. Shue? Who would you pick? I already love Carl. If I were Emma, I would totally choose him, especially after the way Will acted in this episode. I don't even care if Carl can sing or not. And not just because he's John Stamos, but if I remember correctly, he can sing (have mercy!).

One last thought about Mr. Shue's plot line this episode, I'm sorry Will, but it wasn't that you weren't good enough for Emma the way you were, it was that you weren't loyal to her...

I really liked the development of Rachel and Finn's relationship in this episode. Rachel worried me at first. She was a little too manipulative and unreasonable, and I realize she acted that way because of her insecurities, but it was awful. I appreciated that they grew stronger instead of just breaking up. I'm curious when they're going to bring to light the fact that Finn and Santana slept together and that Jesse and Rachel didn't. I miss Jesse. And what happened to Puck and Quinn's relationship? Puck never stays with anyone for very long and they rarely talk about his bouncing around. But he told her he loved her, that's not something I'm just going to forget. I'm glad that Finn shot Quinn down, even though it was awful of Rachel to test him like that. The way Finn looked at Rachel when she was singing to him was beautifully heartbreaking (I love Paramore), and the moment when he pushed through Brittany and Santana over to Rachel and walked down the hall holding her hand was so My So Called Life that I almost cried.

The writers and creators of Glee wanted to give Brittany her limelight, and they succeeded with flying colors. I'm a Brittany fan through and through. I hope they'll continue to showcase her talents in each episode to come. This show is pure brilliance. It's a show that encourages people accept themselves and others for who they are. It makes me want to be a better person. And it thoroughly entertains me in the process. There isn't anything else out there like it.