Close Encounters of the Jon Kind
 TDS Tapings

Name: Valerie C.
E-mail: ValKattan@aol.com
Age: 18
Location: Pennsylvania
Encounter date: February 21, 2001
Note: See scan of of the autograph here.
Added: May 1, 2002

My mom decided to take me to The Daily Show as my birthday present. I draw portraits, so I drew a portrait of Jon hoping I could get an autograph. When we finally got near the doors, there was a guy and a girl. I asked my mom if she could ask the girl if I could get an autograph, so my mom did. The lady said, "Nope. No, sorry." Then the guy came to us with a list of last names and he asked for our last name. My mom told him, and he said, "Well you're not on the list. Did you RSVP a week before today?" Of course my mom said yes, but he just looked at us (my mom, my sister, and my mom's boyfriend) and said, "Well do you have tickets?" and my mom said yes. I was so scared I wasn't gonna get in because we weren't on that list! But he let us in anyway.

We went inside into a waiting room. There were like 100 people standing in this one room waiting for rehearsal to be done so we could get into the studio. The same lady who said no to the autograph made an announcement before we went in. She had to explain to us about a few rules and such and such.

The doors to the studio opened, and as we were walking in, the guy with the list was directing people where to go. My mom went up to him and said, "Do you think you can give this to Jon Stewart? My daughter did it and she wanted to get it signed but there's no signing." The guy looked at the portrait and said, "Wow! That's really good! Do you want the copy signed?" I told him, "No, I want the original signed, I wanted to give Jon the copy." And he said he would do it for me! I was so shocked! I got the book back 20 minutes afterwards because I guess he left the book in Jon's dressing room or something. I joked around with my sister and said, "I think he stole my sketch book and sold all of my portraits."

At the end of the show Jon walked in behind us, but he was five feet below us. When he walked by he said, "Have a good weekend everybody." I just sat there and looked at him and said, "Hey!" and he looked at me while he wishing everyone a good weekend. I should have done something smart and waved my book so he could see it and say, "I liked the picture!" or something like that. Oh well, always next time!

Compiled by Melly.