Photograpy by Thomas Bugarin

Last week, The Apiary told you . This week, The Apiary chatted with ACTUAL PEOPLE in the SNL stand-by ticket queue to hear their stories.

The first in line:

First in line is a man named Louis Klein. He’s been coming EVERY week to see the show since its premiere in 1975. He’s a bit of a recurrent character in SNL lore and in blog accounts of the stand-by experience. Today, he has been sitting here since 9:00 AM. When Louis anticipates a highly popular host such as Will Ferrell, he makes 9 his call time. He has a paternal sort of relationship with the cast members and talked openly about who he thinks will leave this season. He is optimistic about the future of the cast.

During our conversation, Louis produced a spreadsheet documenting the number of stand-by guests who were admitted for each show in the 04/05 season. Stand-bys have better chances of getting into the dress rehearsals than the live shows, but the OVERALL numbers for both generally bounce from the single digits to the mid-40s. It all depends on the hosts.

Here are the lowest and highest stand-by admittance extremes for this season:

Host: Luke Wilson w/ Musical Guest U2 11/20/04
Admitted to Dress Rehearsal: 0
Admitted to Live Broadcast: 0

Host: Paul Giamatti w/ Musical Guests: Ludacris & Sum 41 1/22/05
Admitted to Dress Rehearsal: 110*
Admitted to Live Broadcast: 85
(*there was a blizzard in NYC that night)

The last in line as of 8:30PM:

“People keep asking if we’re here for Star Wars,” said a cheerful girl laying on the ground, wrapped in a blanket like a bouquet of flowers. She’s next to a group of college aged guys who earlier in the week saw a taping of The Daily Show--one of boys hails from Ohio University. Behind her is a man blowing up a canary yellow beach raft with the words “Fun Island” printed on it. All are thrilled to be here.

Don’t mean to sound like one of those programs on the Discovery Channel that tapes adorable baby turtles hatching on the Galapagos and then tells you that most will be eaten by crows before they dash to the sea... But unfortunately, by 8:30 PM Friday, there are already 50 or so people in line. The ones I spoke with--should they err and request a ticket to the Live show--will probably not get in.

Stand-by numbers will be passed out at 7AM Saturday. Those in line will come back again and find out their fate.

More pictures after the hump!