So, I'm in the studio audience of Real Time w/ Bill Maher on 11/19 when Friday Night @ the Fights breaks out.

Seriously, I was there.

My girl's sister is friends with someone there so we go every now and then... I was also there the other week when Mos, Cornell West were on. (Add Mighty Mos to the list of 9/11 conspiracy theorists, too; but Black Dante was smart enough to get on the panel and discuss his views as opposed to yelling indecipherable crap from the shadows like a fool.)

For starters, the reason you won't see any reverse angles or camera phone footage is because you're not allowed to bring any of that stuff into the studio; they check you before you enter the building—metal detectors, security guards, etc. You have to show ID, be on the list, etc just to get past the parking lot. (Though oddly enough I did see a couple VIPs in the reserved/taped-off sections chatting on their cells. If any phone footage gets out, my guess is it'll probably be from that angle.)

Next, as gets explained each week by the head writer/exec producer who comes out about 15 minutes before we go live, Maher uses the same studio where the old Carol Burnett show was done and where Drew Carrey currently does the Price is Right show. (Why Drew, why?)

So onto the good stuff(i.e. Who got kicked out and why):

The studio audience capacity is only 188—accordingly to the fire hazard/capacity sign posted on the way in. The audience is split into essentially 3 sections—left, middle, and far right. And given the added folding chairs, I'm guessing they hit the 200 mark, just to fill the room up. And with all the panning shots and sweeping angles and shadowing, that 200 looks like 400 once it's broadcast.

The first knucklehead was seated as far right as you could get and kinda hemmed in his chair; so once he yells out his junk he knew he was going down. We were in the middle section but still close enough to get a good look. He was a white guy who starts in about the 9/11 being a hoax. Even though he wasn't more than 30 feet away and yelling, you could barely make you anything he was saying.

Soon as a couple pages (ushers) and security showed up, this pasty white chick with brown hair in a ponytail stands up from the middle section to my left and yells out, "Don't tase him, bro!"(I actually remembered her from the line outside—she sat right across from me on a bench as we all waited to get in. She was pretty antsy-looking—just seemed sorta irritated and jumpy, but I didn't think much of it at the time.)

Everyone's still focused on the guy to the right, because he won't shut up and because the security guards have to step over about 8 people just to get at him. He jumps up, yells something else indecipherable and then yanks out this big, blue and white sign, which he had under his shirt. It was like watching a bad superman impression.

But before he can aim his little sign at a camera so folks can see it, he gets mobbed and wrestled out. That's when Bill Maher loses it and jumps the stage into the crowd. But by the time he gets there the guy has been hustled half-way out. Maher ends up shoving the security guys who are shoving the guy out.

The whole time I kept thinking: "God, Bill Maher is really short!" It was like watching Frodo go at it with a crowd of barbarians or something.

Then the ponytail chick starts in again, this time she calls Maher a coward for silencing the guy. (Clearly she's in on it.) Maher, who's overtly PO'd and redfaced by now, threatens to come back out into the crowd and mop her up; she's ultimately removed by more security.

But it's not over.

As Ponytailed chick gets hustled out, a guy from the right side of the crowd gets in on it. He stands up and yells out, "Why didn't question &*$^@?!" Why don't you challenge %^$?" It was like these people were yelling into megaphones or something—they couldn't articulate a coherent thought for squat!

So now, half the Real Time staff—writers, producers, CBS pages, etc are all lining the back row looking for the next one.

But somehow a white guy in a black leather jacket walks in and stands along the back wall right behind me. He starts booing and mooing like a cow trying to heckle Maher. The panelists are all stunned and nervous. Chris Matthews has this totally confused look on his face, so does Joel Stein—the smart-ass guy from Time magazine. They just seem like they're debating whether or not to get up and leave.

Everyone in the crowd's pretty much over it now. We're just annoyed, because we know there's more of them, but we can't figure out where they are. And what's worse, we have no idea what they're saying. They're just making no sense. The key to a good protest/act of disobedience is that it should have an obvious point and message. Otherwise you're just a fool making noise and hurting your own cause.

All told, there were 4 people—3 men, 1 woman (that we knew of), all trying to air out Maher. It was quality.

On the way out I meet a guy named "James" who tells us that he comes to the show every Friday. (He lives pretty close by and knows somebody.) James says that about 3 Fridays back protesters started coming to the lot with 9/11 conspiracy signage yelling crap. Two weeks ago, he said that one person was in fact kicked out of Real Time for yelling similar junk.

"They've been planning this for weeks," he added before he got into his car with his buddies.