» The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Options

[Ms Interpreted]

Wow, I thought about Ishmael Beah, too -- I think it was something about the tone of the interviews and Jon's obvious respect for them both.

Kamkwamba's story highlights an amazing contrast between what one (remarkable) person can do vs. what a collection of self-serving politicos (our Congress) cannot seem to do. It's not a contrast with which I'm satisfied.

And thanks so much for linking the story about Jon re-shooting the intro, shamskygirl. What a sweet and wonderful thing -- I'm looking forward to hearing UnderCover's recap of it all.

[dubbel zout]

I loved seeing Wyatt, but I couldn't care less about how the economic turndown is affecting rappers, joke or not.

The interview was sheer delight.

[loudfan]

Next week's guests:

10/12: Secretary Janet Napolitano (Secretary of Homeland Security)
10/13: Chesley Sullenberger (airline pilot & author – promoting book “Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters”)
10/14: Barbara Ehrenreich (author – promoting book “Bright-sided: How the Relentless Promotion of Positive Thinking Has Undermined America”)
10/15: TBD

Week of 10/19: DARK!

I must admit I wasn't sure if that rapper last night was real, or if the entire bit was a parody. It seemed so over the top. I guess he is for real, though.

[UnderCover]

Big crowd last night. I got there at 3:30 and ended up in the line at the side of the building, which means the snaking line at the front of the studio is full already. The taping started right on time (just after 6:00)- a rare occasion. I was with someone who had never been to a taping before and she was horrified by Paul Mercurio, the warm-up guy. When Jon came out he said, "I'm the host who doesn't have sex with his entire staff." He seemed very relaxed during the Q&A and happy to answer a lot of questions. Here's what I remember:

A couple from Belgium said they had a box of chocolates for him. He said that of course he was happy to take any food from his audience, "especially when it's unwrapped." There was some back and forth about Belgium. The guy said he came from an area near the border, and John said, "Oh yeah! That...near that restaurant..." Then it turned out that they actually live in NY, so he dismissed them for acting like they're from an exotic place "but they're actually from 22nd Street." The next guy said that since he accepted their candy, he wanted Jon to go skydiving with him. He was a skydiving instructor and guessed he has jumped from a plane about 4500 times. Jon asked how high up he is when he jumps, and then he converted the feet into miles and asked a few more questions about skydiving ("yeah, but you have a parachute"). The next person said that since Jon accepted candy and was going skydiving, would he come and help him wait tables? Jon said, "Now that I've done." He spoke about his days at Panchito's, which is up the street from me and his description of it was dead on. Someone from Israel spoke, but I can't remember the question, and Jon said that that is one place he had been "because it is required of Jews," and no, his Bar Mitzvah was not there, but in New Jersey. There was a husband and wife who were from Alaska, so before they got to their question he asked them what they do in Alaska. The guy is a lawyer and the woman is a doctor, which amazed Jon. He said it was like Northern Exposure meets The Cosby Show. Then they asked how much he would pay to have dinner with Sarah Palin. Jon said that we choose to caricature her as "batshit crazy," and wondered what she is really like "close-up." The guy said that she's even worse and that it was a relief to everyone when she resigned. Jon said, "She did it for you, you know." As to the dinner, he said, "At a good restaurant? I'd pay for her dinner. No. We'd go dutch." Someone else pointed out her husband and said that the last time they were there, he had been asked to pose in front of the studio with some people who were going to say he was Jon. He had an ever so slight resemblance, which Jon said he saw, but really, anyone they fooled was not paying attention, either to the picture or to the show.

The show started and the people from Alaska got a shout out. There was a segment on Tom Delay's latest dancing exploits, and then the one you saw on the Dalai Lama. Jon seemed to find Wyatt Cenac's piece very funny, and Wyatt ran out to wave to the crowd after it was aired. The interview was as you saw it. It went long, but there was no waving from Spinney the stage manager like there can be when he needs to wind up an interview. Everybody just let it keep going. During the break after the interview there was some consulting with the producers, and then the music stopped, and Jon said, "Hi. What's going on?" Then he explained that they were going to reshoot the opening, because he didn't want to cut any of the interview "with that amazing young man." He said that the Delay piece could be saved for Thursday "when we phone it in anyway." He did a new opening, jumping right into the Dalai Lama piece. I wondered whether the Alaska people were disappointed, as their shout out got bounced.

Being Wednesday, the introduction to the International Edition was taped, and it was about the US not getting the Olympics. He said that "we elected the guy you wanted," and made a big deal about Oprah going over, saying that "her book club doesn't run itself, you know," and described her taping little presents to the bottom of every chair in her studio.

Jon showed his true heart by inviting William KamKwamda on the show and by clearly being touched by him. I felt lucky to have ended up seeing that interview.

This post has been edited by UnderCover: Oct 8, 2009 @ 1:29 pm.

[shamskygirl]

Thanks as usual, UnderCover. I'm always in awe of your recall skills, especially for the Q & A.

Interesting how Jon referred to himself upon walking out. I wonder if anyone (in the live audiences) has asked him how he feels about the Letterman saga?

[FartyPants]

comment on Tuesday show .. a bit late, but I have to say I enjoyed Larry's commentary and card tricks! He is my most favorite correspondent on the show! (followed closely by Asif and Jon, I used to like Hodgeman, but he hasn't been very funny lately :( )

So was slim-thug in on the joke? Funny either way, but really funny if he wasn't :)

This post has been edited by FartyPants: Oct 8, 2009 @ 2:02 pm.

[attica finch]

"I'm the host who doesn't have sex with his entire staff."

Maybe you would if you'd hire more women, Jon. Just sayin'. I mean, not that shtupping the staff is admirable, but would a little more diversity hurt? [/goodnatured nitpick]

Thanks for your usual fine reporting, Undercover!

[Ms Interpreted]

Excellent write-up, as usual, UnderCover. You certainly ended up at a great show; it was a touching interview and an impressive young man.

Maybe you would if you'd hire more women, Jon. Just sayin'. I mean, not that shtupping the staff is admirable, but would a little more diversity hurt? [/goodnatured nitpick]

Interesting that you should say that, attica finch, as I just linked this in a blog post I put together a little while ago: it's an interview with Daily Show co-creator Lizz Winstead discussing women in comedy. In the past, I'd heard people like Allison Silverman saying that they always got more applications from men than women. Although I certainly don't think Jon (or Stephen) is sexist at all, to me, that statement could have meant almost anything (i.e. a thirty or forty percent female applicant pool still counts as more men than women applying). But three out of 150? Ouch. I would, of course, love to see more women and/or minorities on the writing staffs of the shows, but if they're still not seeing the applicants ...

[shamskygirl]

I'm glad you jumped in with that, Ms Interpreted, as the estimable attica finch's comment reminded me of the interview I just did with Sam Bee (which I will link soon, I swear), during which I asked about this issue, too. Sam maintains that there's actually a large number of women working at TDS behind the scenes in production, etc. She also maintained—and I wonder about the specifics of this—that the show uses a lot of freelance submissions from women writers. As for full-time writers, while she told me that the writer who replaced Rachel Axler is a woman (sorry, am blanking on the name), like Lizz Winstead she laments the lack of woman comedy writers for television in general, and the fact that they don't get the applications.

Does "The Late Show" have all that many more women writers on staff than TDS? Just curious. During the writer's strike, it certainly seemed that Dave's "guys" were the only people we heard from.

This post has been edited by shamskygirl: Oct 8, 2009 @ 4:12 pm.

[loudfan]

shamskygirl, according to this recent New Yorker piece, "(Jay) Leno has no women writers on his show. Neither does David Letterman, and neither does Conan O’Brien."

It seems like a lot of TV comedy writers come out of the Harvard Lampoon -- including O'Brien himself, any number of "Simpsons" writers over the years and no doubt plenty of TDS writers. I would be curious how many women work on the Lampoon and why they might choose careers other than TV comedy writing. It must be a pretty cutthroat, high-stress, competitive field, and maybe more men than women are willing to go through that? I don't know.

A few weeks ago, someone posted here that TDS had recruited writer/blogger Daniel Radosh after reading some short pieces he had written. Maybe they should actively be seeking out funny women. I mean, it must be a bit of a relief that the cries of "diversity" have calmed down now that they have Larry, Wyatt and Aasif on board.

[Ms Interpreted]

The Newark Star-Ledger just posted a new Q&A with John Oliver. There are a bunch of fun bits in it, but I think this is my favorite:

Q. Stephen Colbert had left when you started. Did you feel like they were big shoes to fill?
A. Trying to fill his shoes is like standing in clown shoes.

His comment on what he and Wyatt generally write was interesting, too.

And here's a little clip of Aasif, who was at last night's premiere for the new stage production of Hamlet. He talks about the new M. Night Shyamalan film, which (obviously) he's in.

[shamskygirl]

"(Jay) Leno has no women writers on his show. Neither does David Letterman, and neither does Conan O’Brien."

Thanks for posting that, loudfan. It confirms my suspicions. The only woman late-night writer I can recall gaining any level of notice was Merrill Markoe, in the early days of Letterman's "Late Night." Then, of course, the two women who created TDS, but their influence was more than just writing.

I gather that Sam Bee was actively sought out, from what she told me. I gather this new woman writer was, too. If the show really does work in large degree with freelancers, maybe they could cultivate some of those women contributors more actively. I don't know. I can say, as a magazine editor, that it seems to me there's a relative shortage of women in all forms of writing. I wish our publication had some women who were willing to write about business, for example, or politics. But for one thing, with rare exception, they'll make more money going into those fields directly than they will writing about them.

Thanks for those links, Ms I. Good fun.

This post has been edited by shamskygirl: Oct 8, 2009 @ 6:36 pm.

[loudfan]

The only woman late-night writer I can recall gaining any level of notice was Merrill Markoe, in the early days of Letterman's "Late Night."

Don't forget Tina Fey, who was head writer of "SNL" for many years! I (heart) Tina.

If the show really does work in large degree with freelancers, maybe they could cultivate some of those women contributors more actively.

I'm not sure Sam was accurate. This Los Angeles Times article about freelance joke writers quotes TDS head writer Steve Bodow as saying the program does NOT accept them due to the "potential for producers to unfairly exploit the many hungry writers out there -- stringing them along, paying them for piecework, and never creating real staff-level jobs."

[dreamy]

I haven't been here in a while, but just had a pleasurable experience reading the links you've all posted...and thank you, UnderCover, for that excellent recap.

I saw the interview for the second time, and boy, how great. What I particularly loved is how eager and fresh and just plain excited Kamkwamda was/is. Not to be too sappy, but there is often such a sense of fatigue, if not outright cynism out there, in every corner, and certainly most of what the Daily Show covers makes it impossible to feel oh, I don't know, 'spring-like' about the world. But here is KamKwamda - and I find I love his enthusiasm as much as I admire his achievement.

And I'll leave now before I cause any cavities. It was just one of those days, and this interview just enthused me. Glad it seemed to do the same for Jon.

[shamskygirl]

You're right, I did forget Tina. I think I tend to put SNL in a different category--it's like TV comedy variety in its own time zone--than I do the late night shows that involve some level of "talk." But Tina has been enormously influential, obviously.

I'm not sure Sam was accurate. This Los Angeles Times article about freelance joke writers quotes TDS head writer Steve Bodow as saying the program does NOT accept them due to the "potential for producers to unfairly exploit the many hungry writers out there -- stringing them along, paying them for piecework, and never creating real staff-level jobs."

Y'know, I'd really like to know this for a fact one way or another. Sam may indeed be misinformed or inaccurate, but Bodow may say this officially, and yet be dissembling somewhat. I remember when Jann Wenner swore up and down that Rolling Stone never accepted queries from freelancers, and that proved to be totally untrue. RS just didn't want to be overwhelmed with submissions.

This post has been edited by shamskygirl: Oct 8, 2009 @ 7:10 pm.