>> and we've been watching the red carpet arrivals at the hilton hotel here in washington, d.c. they'll continue to arrive and we'll continue to tape them and show those to you later. here's a look at our upcoming schedule this evening. at about 8:00, the president and mrs. obama are due to walk into the ballroom. they've been to a reception ahead of time with members of the white house correspondents' association board. then the dinner program will walk into the dining room.

we'll show that to you live at about 8:00 this evening. then at 8:30, once the first part of the dinner program is over and the guests start to eat, we'll be back here and we'll show you highlights from past dinners and more red carpet, until the full dinner program begins at about 9:40 p.m. this evening. at about 10:15, we'll hear from seth meyers, head writer and weekend anchor host at "saturday night live," and president obama, who will be speaking there afterwards. you can watch all of our live coverage and get a lot of information about past white house dinners and this white house dinner at our web site, c-span.org/whcd. the "whcd" stands for white house correspondents' dinner. if you go there, you can get an aggregate of all the dinner attendees tweets.

they're sending in tweets as they go and we're aggregating those. you can see the hash marks at the bottom, nerdprom or whcd. you can also view a lot of video from past dinners and see articles about this year's dinner. here's one tweet from brooke burke, who is co-host of "dancing with the stars." she's at the dinner and she tweets out, "i hope president obama is ready to rumba. o.k., maybe a bit inappropriate. hopefully a waltz." dana millbank has an article about the dinner on the web site, as well. he had it in "the washington post" and put it on our dinner web site. here are two paragraphs from the article. the correspondents' association dinner was a minor annoyance for years when it was a nerd prom for journalists and a few minor

celebrities. but the event has spun out of control. now awash in lobbyists and corporate money, it is another display of washington's excesses. that's from dana millbank, you can read the full article on our web site, c-span.org/whcd. about a week ago, we talked with seth meyers. he'll be speaking at about 10:30 or so. we talked to him about how he was getting ready for tonight's dinner. here's seth meyers. >> well, one of the highlights at the annual white house correspondents' dinner is the entertainment. that assignment has been given to jay leno, wanda sikes, stephen colbert in the recent past. this year it's seth meyers, head writer for "saturday night live" and weekend update anchor. mr. meyers, why did you take this assignment? >> well, it's an honor to be

asked, certainly, and when you look down the roster, people who have done it in the past, i'm incredibly flattered to be on that list now. i have heard it's a really hard room. brian williams contacted me immediately to warn me about the lion's den i was walking into. but as a comedian, you like those challenges so i'm looking forward to it. >> how do you start preparing for something like this? >> well, you know, fortunately, i have a job that's already something like this. we obviously follow politics and what's happening in the white house in our show as part of our daily routine. and as chance would have it, we had a couple of weeks off leading up to the event so mostly you sit around with your writers and try to figure out what would work in the room. you can watch old speeches and other others have done, what material works, talk to people who have been in the audience before. but in the end, you have to pick

the jokes you feel are the funniest. >> when you're standing there telling your jokes and the president is sitting next to you, does that affect what jokes are told? >> it's very funny, robert smigel, the talented writer who worked with conan on his in the mid 1990's, pointed out to me that they'll watch you tell jokes but that's not as interesting as watching the president listen to those jokes. so i think to some degree you have to keep that in mind but at the same time you can't perform thinking about how the person next to you is reacting. you have to charge ahead and hope it all works out. >> is there anything off limits? >> well, certainly we have the same issue at "saturday night live" all the time. i think there is a line of good taste and you aim for that line and try to get as close as possible and there are probably a few times where you cross it due to trying to target it that closely but i feel this is a

president with an incredibly good sense of humor who is also, i should point out, very good at this when he tells his own jokes. that's the thing that i think is most remarkable looking back at the last couple of years, is how hard the president kills. with that in mind, i think we'll probably let it rip. >> what about current events? will you focus on current events? >> yeah. one of the exciting things, it may be a tough room but as someone who follows politics, i think it's exciting to go into a room where people are incredibly well informed. you can make jokes about the minutia you politics that wouldn't work on "saturday night live" unless you had the setup beforehand. have all these people in the same room that live in the world of d.c. that are far better informed, not just more than the normal person, but more than the entertainment industry certainly. so it will be fun for me to be in the room where it's probably

the only place certain jokes have a chance of landing. >> you've been with "saturday night live" for about 10 years. how did you get started in this business? >> i was, you know, beforehand, i was an improvisor. i worked in chicago for a long time. i was lucky enough to work overseas in an improv troupe and i was lucky enough that someone came to see the show in chicago. >> where were you raised? where did you go to school? >> i grew up in new hampshire, so i think that's probably where the seeds of being interested in politics begin, because i went to a big high school, manchester west and manchester is, i feel like, where a lot of start.ntial campaigns i graduated high school in 1992 and i believe we had almost every candidate, clinton included, came to our school and spoke. and it was a very good place if

you thought politics were interesting, to grow up. >> and then college? >> college, i went to northwestern university in chicago. >> what did you study? >> i studied radio, t.v., film. not well. i'm not going to lie to you. i was a very bad student. but i learned the precastinator's spirit that has helped me so much working on a show you have to put up once a week live. are you a supporter of president obama and does that affect your humor? >> well, you know, i am a supporter of his. i'm certainly behind him winning the last election. with that said, john mccain was an excellent "saturday night live" host and i count him as a friend because he appeared in a sketch i wrote so i have his back forever. i don't -- the fun thing is, i think that when you're in a room like this and i think there's

this incredibly special part of the white house correspondents' dinner is that a comedian gets to poke fun at the president and whether you're a supporter or not, you don't want to pass up that opportunity. >> have you watched past dinners? >> i have been watching past dinners. it's interesting just to notice how political comedy has changed so much in the last 15 years. i started in the mid 1990's and have been watching people, watching people that i think are similar to me in style and as well as people that are completely different but it's fun. it's fun to, one, be reminded that it is a hard room and it's been a hard room for a lot of great comedians but you can tell there are certain people that do a great job. are you surprised at the attention paid to this gig? >> well, i mean, i feel like i'm one of the people that pays attention to it because i find

it fascinating. but it does seem like d.c. cares a great deal about it. but i feel like, as well, they should. it's an incredibly american undertaking that there's an event where, you know, comedians get to tell jokes about the president right next to him. >> seth myers, head writer for "saturday night live," weekend update anchor and this year's entertainment at the white house correspondents' dinner. >> we are back at the washington hilton, the red carpet arrivals. some of the folks who have come through include joan rivers, carol king, hill harper, alisa milano, et cetera. we're going to watch for a few more minutes now. this is live coverage.

>> and you're watching c-span's live coverage of this year's white house correspondents' dinner. this is a live shot at the washington hilton. this is the one dinner every year that the president typically attends. the last president who did not attend one was jimmy carter in 1977. he was not having a good year with the press and sent jody powell instead. calvin coolige in 1974 was the

first president to attend a white house correspondents' dinner. tickets, $2,000. most of the guests coming in today are attending this year's dinner. some of the folks on the red carpet, gind rich, will i am, cee-lo. here are some of the invited guests. "u.s.a. today" invited david arquette and courteney cox, rick fox and eliza dushku of "bring it on." "washington post" invited donald trump. and fox news has kate hudson there this evening. and people magazine, bristol palin, mindy kalin from "the