Where Martha Stewart Talks About Being in Jail

I had the pleasure of attending a taping of the Martha Stewart Show at the Chelsea Studios in Manhattan. It’s probably not something that I would have gone out of my way to find tickets for, but I was invited as part of a Meetup group I joined for Brooklyn mothers. I took up the opportunity as much to meet new mothers as to see the inner workings of the famed show from the perfect homemaker herself, Martha Stewart.

Once you get beyond the fact that the show started taping an hour late  *boo, hiss* remember, in my group we were all mothers either with young children or pregnant, so an extra hour meant feeding schedules were thrown off, babysitters and dads left waiting, and pregnant ladies nearing exhaustion. In any case, it was still enjoyable to see how such a big machine works.

Our first email invite said that we all had to wear bright flashy colors, apparently Martha likes color. So when I happened to be outside Old Navy in Midtown a few days back, I ended up buying a few bright colored tops that I probably never would have if not for the specific Martha request. An hour after having bought the tops, I got an email saying we were actually now going to be part of a “Black and White” show – solid black or white only on top. What the? Oh well, I now have some funky new tops that need me to get a life so I can go out and wear them.

The show was split into 6 segments and in between we were entertained by comedian Joey Kola which was an added bonus because he was super funny. I won’t tell you about the show, you can watch for yourself on Tuesday, March 13. As a testament to how great Joey was at warming up the audience, you’ll see me clapping my arse off in excitement like I’ve one a million bucks over black and white cookies and black and white tiles. Yes, really he is that good at getting a crowd revved up.

Martha is an interesting lady. She was funny and meticulous and took time out to answer a few questions before she needed to head off to do her radio show. One lady asked why Martha hadn’t written her autobiography yet. She responded that she’d been asked by many people while she was in jail…ummmm…crickets! Akward silence from the audience. She rolled her eyes and mentioned that she didn’t think that while serving jail time was the appropriate time to write her memoirs, she preferred to wait for better times before writing a book about her life . We all applauded this lady who’d been to jail and seemed to have come out of it bigger and better and with a sense of humor to boot.

We left with a pretty decent goodie bag and hopefully some new friendships. I have to admit I’m keen to see another live taping, maybe something like Jimmy Falloon.

 

Thanks to Martha for inspiring an injection in my spring wardrobe and for offering black and white interior design ideas with the help of celebrated interior designer Celerie Kemble (and extra thanks for her book!)

Thanks to Karen at A Child Grows for organizing this unique to New York experience.

Have you ever been in the audience at a live show?