Tonight's guest on The Daily Show is Sarah Vowell and on The Nightly Show, Bree Newsome is a guest as well as panelists Holly Walker, Ricky Velez, Mike Yard, and Rory Albanese.
Sarah Vowell is an author, journalist, essayist, social commentator and actress. She was also the voice of Violet in the animated film The Incredibles. She is on to promote her latest book
Lafayette in the Somewhat United States which is due out October 20, 2015.
Chronicling General Lafayette’s years in Washington’s army, Vowell reflects on the ideals of the American Revolution versus the reality of the Revolutionary War. Riding shotgun with Lafayette, Vowell swerves from the high-minded debates of Independence Hall to the frozen wasteland of Valley Forge, from bloody battlefields to the Palace of Versailles, bumping into John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Lord Cornwallis, Benjamin Franklin, Marie Antoinette and various kings, Quakers and redcoats along the way.
Drawn to the patriots’ war out of a lust for glory, Enlightenment ideas and the traditional French hatred for the British, young Lafayette crossed the Atlantic expecting to join forces with an undivided people, encountering instead fault lines between the Continental Congress and the Continental Army, rebel and loyalist inhabitants, and a conspiracy to fire George Washington, the one man holding together the rickety, seemingly doomed patriot cause.
While Vowell’s yarn is full of the bickering and infighting that marks the American past—and present—her telling of the Revolution is just as much a story of friendship: between Washington and Lafayette, between the Americans and their French allies and, most of all between Lafayette and the American people. Coinciding with one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history, Vowell lingers over the elderly Lafayette’s sentimental return tour of America in 1824, when three fourths of the population of New York City turned out to welcome him ashore. As a Frenchman and the last surviving general of the Continental Army, Lafayette belonged to neither North nor South, to no political party or faction. He was a walking, talking reminder of the sacrifices and bravery of the revolutionary generation and what the founders hoped this country could be. His return was not just a reunion with his beloved Americans it was a reunion for Americans with their own astonishing, singular past.
Vowell’s narrative look at our somewhat united states is humorous, irreverent and wholly original.
This sounds very interesting, I will have to keep it in mind. I have been enjoying the show TURN: Washington's Spies on AMC and so reading about the actual history from the time sounds like fun.
Bree Newsome
Brittany "Bree" Newsome became a social media rock star Saturday in Internet warp speed, of course, after she clambered up a flagpole outside the South Carolina Statehouse and removed the Confederate flag at the break of dawn.
The flag was hoisted just hours after Newsome's effort, which took place about 6:30 a.m. EDT. She and a compatriot, James Tyson, 30, both of Charlotte, N.C., were arrested and charged with defacing a monument. Tyson was hit with the same charge for assisting her. A #freebree crowdfunding campaign at Indiegogo raised $97,446 within 23 hours.
Newsome is a graduate of New York University's prestigious Tisch School of the Arts, where she received a B.F.A. in film and television. While at NYU, she wrote and directed a humorous public service announcement called “Your Ballot, Your Voice” encouraging young-voter turnout. The PSA won the grand prize in a competition sponsored by Tisch and MTV. Her short film Wake won several awards on the film festival circuit and recently made its national television debut on the ASPiRE TV network, notes Newsome's website.
Holly Walker
made her acting debut at the tender age of 8 in For Spring is the Season of Happiness. She almost turned down the role of Mother Nature (she wanted the role of "Spring") until she found out Mother Nature had the most lines. On that day, a diva was born. Holly has traveled the world performing comedy. She has been to more than 40 U.S. states and over 30 countries worldwide. She is an alum of the improvisational companies Boom Chicago and The Second City. Holly currently works on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore as a writer and performer.
Ricky Velez
is a stand-up comedian and a contributor to The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore on Comedy Central.
Mike Yard
is an actor and writer, known for Souled Out Comedy (2009), The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore (2015) and Holla If I Kill You (2003).
Rory Albanese
is an American writer and comedian. A Long Island, New York native, he was an executive producer and writer for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, which he joined in 1999 and was with until October 2013. He is now Executive Producer of The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore.
Upcoming Guests
THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART
Mo 7/20: Paul Rudd
Tu 7/21: TBA
We 7/22: Jake Gyllenhaal
Th 7/23: Ta-Nehisi Coates
The shows are taking a break from next Monday 7/6 through Thursday 7/16, returning Monday 7/20. Remember Jon's last show is quickly approaching, on Thursday August 6. That means once they return there are only
3 weeks of shows left!