i went the day before phish played in 2003 on valentine\'s day in la.
got there at like 5am, you have to wait on like 19 different lines, and the entire time you\'re on the line people are doing waves, cheering, clapping, etc, etc. they sell you this \'showcase showdown breakfast\' (not sure of the name, it was something like that, just like $3 eggs and bacon and toast), then the line goes past the CBS gift shop, you fill out paperwork to make sure you haven\'t won on there before... then interview you, you break for lunch and then you come back for the taping. i was in the 5th row or something. it was pretty intense.
they come out and they have you practice yelling and cheering and oohing and ahhing. they tell you to yell a lot. bob barker is a dirty old man. the guy sitting next to me who barely spoke english made it up on stage and won the whole thing.
it was *SO* much fun.
then i went to see particle and moe. that night at the wiltern and got shitfaced.
my story however, isn\'t nearly as cool as some dudes who i met in the lot at shoreline 2000. they all had ac/dc bag shirts on, and the one dude from the group who made it up there (they always pick someone from a huge group but you have to register beforehand) was tripping his balls off. didn\'t make it on stage. got a vacuum as a consolation prize. that day i also found out that in the 40s/50s ac/dc meant bisexual, so all these old people thought they were some weird w00k bisexual cult.