It’s probably safe to say that most of you who listen to the Purple Rock Podcast or read our website are probably also RHAP fans. So we thought it’d be fun to share my experience going to the live show in L.A. last week! I will admit it has nothing on attending a Survivor finale, but it was still a good time.

After waiting in line all by myself, I discovered that you can’t just use the ticket bar code on your phone, you have to first go to the box office first. So that was mildly annoying. I was meeting up with my friend Kacie, who is a mod at r/survivor. (See, we don’t hate everyone on reddit! Just the ones who have different opinions). But she was running late because it’s L.A. and there is traffic. Once I get my actual ticket, I walk into the venue- still all by my lonesome- waiting to go into the actual room where the show will be. While I’m standing around with strangers, who should walk by but the Knowingest Know It All himself, Stephen Fishbach! Apparently he somehow remembered me from the finale after party because he stops when he sees me, saying hi and that it’s “good to see [me] again.” Suck it, people standing with me in line. You may have friends, but I have Stephen motherfucking Fishbach.

Inside, there are tables, not just rows of seats, so they don’t let you sit wherever. My sad little party of one is steered toward the corner of the room, but luckily it’s only a few minutes until Kacie shows up and joins me. Myles Nye, who you hear do the game at the end of the podcast, is a couple tables in front of us. We all met at the viewing party that Max invited me to during Worlds Apart, so I’m feeling less tragically lonely at this point. Unfortunately, our corner seats are literally a side view of the screen, but it’s a big enough screen that it’s still doable. But then… oh, but then the magic happens. Stephen Fishbach comes by and sits right next to us. Obviously, I think this is pretty cool, but Kacie loves Stephen. I mean, we all love Stephen, but Kacie loves Stephen. She does a decent job at playing it cool, so it’s not as intense as that one time I met Cochran, but it’s still pretty fun to watch her try to hold it together.

He sits with us for the first part of the show, but then uses his host privileges to not have totally crappy seats.

The crowd was of course pretty into the show, applauding when Tai found the idol and laughing at the Tai/Caleb segment and Alecia’s embryos. During the tribal council, everyone was freaking out. You could hear people ask, “What is happening?!” when Jenny stood up, or maybe you could just hear me say that. (I was bemoaning the probable death of my fantasy team).

In terms of the actual Know It Alls show…you probably listened to it and maybe even watched the video, so here’s a quick list of highlights.

• We all flipped our shit when Penner was introduced. Practically a standing ovation, chants of “Penner! Penner! Penner!”
• Max’s hair, beard, and partially unbuttoned denim shirt made him look straight out of the 1970s.
• Penner’s face when Corinne talks about being into Kyle Jason. Totally baffled by the idea.
• During the game at the end, when Myles asked who was a casting misfire, Jenn stood behind Tyler and pointed at him.
• Actually, ignore everything else I said, Jenn pointing at Tyler as a casting misfire was the entire highlight. (Editor’s note: It’s funny because it’s true.)

After the show I finally got to stroll around and meet people I had conversed with on Twitter, such as Shandy and Shut Up Tim! from The Tribe, and Ryan Elder, who allegedly recognized me from my cartoon Twitter picture. Or he heard me talking to the Tribe people. Either way.

I actually didn’t spend a lot of time talking to any of the Survivors afterward, but I did want to help Kacie get a picture with Stephen. While we waited, I found myself being volunteered to take pictures for everyone else meeting him. Weirdly, this also happened at the finale after party, so I guess I’m the official iPhone photographer for Stephen Fishbach. Kacie gets a picture, and of course I get one for myself, even though he wasn’t wearing an amazing plaid suit this time.