Have you ever sat in the studio audience for a show taping, like the David Letterman Show or Jay Leno or Late Night with Conan O’Brien? No? Have you ever thought it might be cool to do that? Well, guess what? It is. And you don’t have to be in New York City or L.A. to do it.

I have been looking long and hard on your behalf, Solo Traveler, for fun and free things to do in the Burlington area, and have been kind of disappointed that the “free” part of that is hard to find. Tours at Ben & Jerrys and the Vermont Teddy Bear Factory cost money, as do museums and the Flynn Theater. You can’t really go out to listen to live music without spending at least a little money on drinks and a cover charge. And if you fly into town, bicycling on the bike path or kayaking on Lake Champlain requires that you rent the needed equipment.

But if you want to do something fun and unique and FREE some Thursday night in Burlington, look no further than a taping of the Late Night Saturday with Tim Kavanagh show at Champlain College. The show is a riff on the aforementioned shows, but with a local context, so most of the guests are Vermonters. If you’re from out of town, you probably won’t know them. But that’s okay. Just go with it. It’s not the big-name guests, it’s the fun factor that counts. The show tapes every other Thursday from September or October through May, from 7pm-9pm, and the show airs at 11:30pm on Saturday nights on local CBS affilate, WCAX-TV.

Just for the record, Tim and I went to high school together, and I’m embarrassed that it’s taken me this long to get to the taping of one of his shows. (Mea culpa, Tim.) He has always been a funny guy and a natural entertainer. Those of you outside of Vermont may know him best for his turn as Homer Simpson (chasing a giant donut around town) in the short video that won the contest to host the premiere of the Simpsons Movie in Springfield, VT. He co-wrote and directed this video. You can read more about Tim here.

I went to the taping with a friend, but solos are more than welcome. It was fascinating to see one of the mysteries of showbiz revealed–how the audience is made a part of the show, from where we were seated to the directions given on when to laugh and when and how loudly to applaud (which turned out to be completely unnecessary on the evening I went, because we all wanted to laugh and applaud at all the right times anyway). My throat and hands were sore from cheering and clapping by the time I left. But it was a blast!

We had incredible luck regarding the night we chose to attend. Shortly after the show started, Juniors Pizza delivered boxes of pizza and passed them around to the studio audience (way to show your audience a little love!). Guests that night were former Vermont governor and former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland, Madeleine Kunin, and a band called North Sea Gas who came all the way from Scotland. The Scots were so good, we were all spontaneously clapping along to their music; nobody had to direct us on that. Kunin gave a great interview about women in politics–stemming from her book Pearls, Politics & Power - How Women Can Win and Lead–which was particularly timely at this moment in history. She shared the fact that Vermont has the highest percentage of women in its state legislature of any state in the nation. Go Vermont!

My only regret is that I had to leave early, so I couldn’t stay for the second taping–or to catch up with Tim and his wife Sherry. My bad; they really do request that people stay for both show tapings (for logistical reasons–they need bodies in the seats for both shows), and from now on, I certainly will stay for both, because one hour went by way too fast and I wanted more! So if you do plan to be in Burlington on a Thursday night and you want something fun to do, definitely consider blocking two hours of your time and coming to a taping of this show. The taping schedule is available at the website, as are directions on how to get there and information on how to secure your free tickets.

For a sampling of what the show offers, here’s an eight and a half minute video clip of Tim’s interview with Vermont native son, actor Adam Grimes. (For the record, I remember that commercial!):