Colbert Report 2012

In 2010, I went to the Daily Show with a few friends, and that was okay, but my real dream was to go see Stephen Colbert in The Colbert Report. Well, last Tuesday, Michele made that dream come true.

Outside the Colbert Report

Stephen is awesomer in person than he is on the show. He is also geekier. These are not ways of saying the same thing (though I've been known to be a fan of geeky). Let's get the bad out of the way before I begin endlessly gushing about Colbert.  He always says on the show that he's a big fan of Lord of the Rings trilogy, but he is not kidding-- he has entire poems memorized from the books and he's not embarrassed to spew them out at pretty ladies. Um, not so good. 

Okay, now that that's out of the way, Colbert walks on water. He is the kind of religious man that lives the teachings of his religion. He advocates tolerance, charity, and community. He is hilarious. Michele and I laughed the entire time we were there. He is tired of the bullshit he has to make fun of every day. As hilarious as his rant against Congressman Steve King was on the show, in between segments he boiled it down to, "Who comes out in favor of dog fighting? Seriously, what is he talking about?" Why is Colbert on an entertainment program and King is in our government when clearly it should be the other way around?

Reporting on Congressman Steve King's glassy-eyed man puppies

He also told this amazing story about how he decided to go into comedy, but the best part was this quote, "I wanted to do something where there was so much joy in failure." It struck a note with me. Obviously we don't ever want to fail, but when it happens anyway, how much better would our lives be if we could run with it, guilt-free?

Michele and I closed out our perfect girls night with Indian food and drinks. I am running out of time to have Michele in New York. I am super happy for her that she is chasing her dreams (!) but I am really getting sad about her leaving.

Michele!

Me with Colbert-glow. I heart him.

Daily Show 2010

We went to the Daily Show! Thanks so much to our patrons Jon Stern and Becky Smith who decided they had better things to do than enjoy hilariousness. Kevin lined up two hours before show time, and Brian, Akua, and I rolled up at the last minute because the tickets say you can do that. Kevin also played the part of Stern in getting us into the event because theoretically you should have the person named on the ticket with you. We were a little nervous about that one.

The blurry long line at the Daily Show

We went to the May 12th episode. Jon Stewart is pretty funny even off camera which is nice to know. During the writers strike of 2007-08, I was starting to suspect that he really depends on his writing staff. One of his funniest jokes had to be cut out of the broadcast because it depended on an off-camera set up. During the off-camera warm-up, someone in the audience commented that they were traumatized when John Oliver came to their college and spent most of his comedy routine discussing his father's penis. Stewart responded that it's all Oliver ever talks about. Then during Stewart's back and forth with Oliver about David Cameron being elected Prime Minister, out of nowhere, Stewart zings him with crack about his dad's penis. The audience erupted with exuberant laughter, and the video editors had to figure out how to slice it all out.

Michael Patrick King, Director of Sex in the City 2

The interview with Stewart's the director of the horrible Sex in the City sequel was a bust. But Lewis Black, who I rarely find to be funny, stole the episode with his attack of Glenn Beck and the Arizona's new immigration law. Please watch it, aside from being hilarious, it details in just under 6 minutes what a horrifyingly scary and dangerous network Fox News is-- ironically dangerous to democracy. Good times though!