Stephen Colbert and Frank Rich did a charming interview at the 92nd Street Y tonight. Colbert added the ‘t’ to his name and spoke opening (and charmingly) about the show, the run for the presidency, blogging and the book.
The talk included the stunning revelation that following Dumbledore’s outing "Gandalf is only bi-curious;" they had to use wire cutters to get Bill O’Reilly’s microwave and the Colbert didn’t really want the gig at the Daily Show and only started on it to pay his rent. While it is impossible to include everything, I’ve got some highlights after the jump.
Colbert reads RedState to get into character. He talked about checking the blogs after certain shows, mentioned he ended up on a German blog after the Correspondence dinner and said he would love to see someone LiveBlogging during the Kissinger moderation of GuitArmageddon saying "did that really happen?" (They wanted Kissinger to end the show saying "Where are my pancakes? I was promised pancakes" but Kissinger thought that was too far.) When Colbert was pressed to name blogs, Redstate was the only one he’d say he read.
He is a terrific performer. His opening bow had the pompous self-importance of a Miss America returning to her home town, pretending people weren’t supporting her. He immediately dropped the character and only slipped into him on occasion. He sang a few bits from Jesus Christ Superstar and then imagined doing a bit of him in character, rewriting the ending "He dies? No give them a happy ending this time—that’s where the money is. He’s a king!" He also did a terrific Ann Coulter imitation, flipping the hair with snotty derision oozing from his pores.
Colbert is really charming. One of his staff went way too far, comparing working on the Colbert Report to the how Ken Burns’ documentary portrayed the battle of Normandy. (I kid you not!). Colbert was perfect, saying "yeah, it is really busy" and supporting his writer, while at the same time rerouting the conversation. Colbert does not want to be president. He wants to be very clear about that—he only wants to run for president! When asked if that was like foreplay without sex, he said "foreplay’s great—you should try it sometime!"
The original ad for the NY Times of his book said "Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize* *They give Pulitzer’s for balls, don’t they? (Source: Wikipedia)." The NY Times wouldn’t run that, because while Colbert’s staff had changed Wikipedia, it had been changed back when the Times checked (Colbert claims someone from Wikipedia has a watch on his ISP and when anyone changes anything, alarms go out.) Also, The Times didn’t want to run the word "balls."
Maureen Dowd asked him to write his column before she was aware he was running for president. (‘Is it real or a joke?’ someone asked; "what’s the difference" he replied.) "Why do you want me to write your column" he reportedly asked Ms. Dowd; "Why did Tom Sawyer want that kid to paint his fence" she retorted.
A little on the making of the show: It is exhausting! I had never really thought how much work they have to do to create 4 half-hours a week, but because there are no correspondents, it can’t be farmed out. "The Word" is the toughest part, and they try to keep several days ahead on that. The Daily Show gets dibs on the most immediate things because they are more of the nightly news show, while Colbert is more of a "news magazine" working along the same themes for several days.
To prep the interviews, he and one of the writers will sit down, brainstorm questions and then improv how the interview may go. Maybe one quarter to one fifth of those things will end up in the interview and a lot of the interview is genuine, but it really depends on who he is interviewing.
Dinesh D’Souza was one of the hardest interviews he did (along with Jane Fonda, for obvious reasons, and Tom DeLay). According to Colbert (and this might not be 100%--I don’t don shorthand): "I had a tough time translating my opinions into my character’s opinions. I ended up shouting the entire time. I was agreeing with him at top volume!"
Like Stewart, Colbert rightly noted that their show doesn’t so much educate about the news as having a self-selecting audience of people who really care about it. "Our show is a safety-valve emotionally."
Colbert clearly loves what he does. He said weeks like this one, where they are working on new material but he doesn’t get to perform, are really hard: "I couldn’t do what you do. I couldn’t care about it and not get laughs! You (Frank Rich) must weep all the time."