As many of you already know, Ellen Degeneres has impacted many of
peoples’ lives in a positive way and I am lucky enough to be one of those
people. She has always been an inspiration to me as I watch her show daily and
I love the love and kindness she shares with people. When I heard she was
coming to Australia, and more importantly, Melbourne, I jumped at the chance of
attending one of her live shows. So on Tuesday the 26th of March,
2013 that is exactly what I did.
My friend Kelsy and I woke up at 4am
and caught the train into the city, wearing our matching “I love Ellen”
t-shirts. We got there at 6am and waited in line for almost half an hour where
we got our wristbands, clarifying the number of people that have been checked
in. I was number 938, and by 6:30 in the morning, there was over 1000 people
waiting for Ellen, who wasn’t coming on stage until 12pm.
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| Sleepy and laying on our blanket, while a massive crowd builds around us at 6:30am. |
A little while after sunrise, I saw a couple of other people I knew and we all
stuck together. Shockingly since there was already so many there, we didn’t
have the best view. In fact, we we’re almost sitting in the very back row, and
also very sleepy. But we didn’t let that stop us. We were so happy and excited
to even be waiting for Ellen, we even got the attention of one of Ellen’s crew
members to approached us and asked for our names. She told us to meet her at
8:30 for an interview. We had no idea what to think!
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| A very zoomed in view from the back row. |
We gathered with about 15 or so other people who got picked and stood in a
circle around Ellen’s crew. They explained that we had the chance of actually
getting up on stage with Ellen! I mean, we weren’t getting our hopes up or
anything but we were pretty excited.
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| Waiting to get individually interviewed by Ellen's crew. |
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| Kelsy (right), and I. |
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| Kelsy and I in our Swisse hats they gave us to wear. |
They told us to wait around until they
called us back, and after a couple more hours of waiting (I know, but it was
worth it), they told us to follow them. We took our belongings from the very
back row (at this stage there was almost 3000 people waiting), and followed the
crew members who they took us to the very FRONT ROW.
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| On the barrier, front row! |
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| The view behind me! (over 3000 people in total showed up to Ellen's live show) |
I literally couldn’t
believe it. What are the chances?! Ellen was appearing on stage in an hour and
the stage was less than a metre away from me!
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| My view of the stage. |
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| Tony the DJ! |
When she finally came on stage, it was one of the best moments I’ve ever
experienced. It was amazing. Turning back to see the rest of the crowd, and
then where I was lucky enough to be standing is absolutely mind-blowing. I also
made friends with a few other crew members of hers, such as her Executive
Producer, Andy Lassner who actually gave me a bottle of Ellen water which is
proudly sitting unopened in my room today. Ellen was also handing out Ellen underwear,
which I also got a pair of (although they are mens, I’m not complaining haha).
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| Ellen on stage! |
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| Jeannie, Andy, Portia and Ellen! |
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| The Ellen underwear I caught from Ellen. |
But the surprises from the best day ever didn’t end there. When the show was
almost finished and she had already given out thousands and thousands of
dollars to people that needed it and/or earned it, Kelsy’s name got called to go up on stage to play a game. I
literally could not believe it. Shaken and surprised, I wished her luck and she
stood on stage next to Ellen and another lucky winner and played Finish The
Lyrics, it ended up being a draw and they both won $1000!
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| Kelsy on stage talking to Ellen in the middle of the game Finish The Lyrics! |
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| Ellen saying her goodbyes <3 |
I’ve never experienced anything like it! Ellen you are truly inspirational and
such a beautiful person that I was so lucky to witness first hand. I just want
to say thank you again for this amazing experience, it was one of the best days
of my life!
- R xo
* most of these photos were taken on an iPhone, and aren't the best quality. I didn't have a blog back then so I didn't think about taking my proper camera, apologies!
