'The Daily Show' gears up to film at Penn

Next week, Penn will share a piece of the Democratic National Convention’s spotlight.

"The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" will be filming at Penn’s Annenberg Center from Tuesday, July 26 to Friday, July 29. Eight hundred free tickets were distributed to the Penn community in a lottery in April, and a full audience is expected at each of the four nights.

Comedy Central first reached out to Penn about a year ago about the Annenberg Center being a possible filming location for its show, according to Annenberg Center Associate Managing Director Stuart Jasper. The Annenberg Center was one of five venues that were being considered, alongside the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, Drexel’s Mandell Theater, the Philadelphia Theater Company and the Prince Theater.

“Penn is home to smart, curious and socially involved students and faculty members,” Jasper said. “We have the right combination of size and venue, the location is easy to park and close to public transportation [and we have] the technology and the availability during the summer months.”

Daily Show Executive Producer Jill Katz affirmed Jasper’s statement, saying that the Annenberg Center’s location on Penn’s campus and facilities made it a standout spot for the show’s tapings.

“There are a lot of ingredients that make the right choice for us, and the Annenberg Center had the right size stage, sufficient space — and we always love being at a school,” Katz said.

In addition to being the location for this summer’s "Daily Show" tapings, Penn already has a history of partnering with Comedy Central. In 2000, Jon Stewart filmed "The Daily Show" at the Annenberg Center during the Republican National Convention. In 2008, "The Colbert Report" filmed at Annenberg’s Zellerbach Theater for its coverage of the Pennsylvania Democratic primary.

Seats sold out almost immediately for "The Daily Show"'s Philadelphia tapings in April, when "The Daily Show" opened up tickets to the general public on its website.

“It took no time for them to all scooped up,” Katz said. “They went fast — an hour or so, gone.”

Half of the tickets went to the general public, while the other half were reserved for Penn affiliates. Tickets are non-transferrable and require an ID to pick up.

Students who don’t have tickets but are still hoping to attend the tapings can opt to queue in a standby line each day at the Annenberg Center, according to Jasper.

“We’ll have a standby line in the event that people don’t show, but we won’t know that until we get closer to the actual start of the show,” he said. “Right now everything is pretty much filled.”

However, Katz said that a standby line would not be encouraged, as "The Daily Show" purposely overbooks audience members to ensure a full theater in case some ticket holders don’t show up.

“We’re not promoting a standby line or anything like that because we think enough people will have booked tickets to fill the seats,” she said.

"The Daily Show"’s production team is set to arrive on Penn’s campus a week before the tapings to build a custom set for the show and work with the Annenberg Center’s technical and professional staff.

There will be high security throughout the week of live tapings, according to Jasper, and audience members will be discouraged from bringing large bags or taking pictures at the show.

“We are working very closely with the Department of Public Safety and the Daily Show staff to ensure efficient crowd management,” Jasper said.

As for special guests on the show — an oft-expected staple of television coverage at national conventions — they “haven’t been finalized and certainly not released yet,” according to Katz.

Students will be expected to arrive around 2 p.m. on each day of the tapings to stand in line and go through security checks. Audience members will be let into the theater at 4:30, and filming will start around 6 and end at 7.

However, the Thursday taping of "The Daily Show" will break this mold. On July 15, "The Daily Show" sent out an email informing ticket-holders that the show would be broadcasting live at 11 p.m. on July 28, in order to react quickly to Hillary Clinton’s scheduled speech at the DNC that night.

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