Zeitgeist for March 26, 2007

Six Degrees Of Stephen Colbert – Mark Your Calendars!
Feel One Degree closer by seeing these guys in person…

• ‘Daily Show’ actor to host ComFest – Daily Pennsylvanian (U of Penn): “Daily Show correspondent Dan Bakkedahl will host the Ninth Annual Mask and Wig Intercollegiate Comedy Festival on April 9 and 10, officials from The Mask & Wig Club and the Social Planning and Events Committee said.”
• The F#$K Monkeys Unite – myspace.com: Featuring Matt Lappin, a producer of Strangers With Candy and The Colbert Report, The F#$K Monkeys Unite will be playing at the Parkside Lounge (312 E. Houston, NYC) May 26 and June 22.

Guess what Stephen’s reading in April
Do you think he’s pre-ordered it from Amazon.com?

• Tolkien Jr completes Lord of Rings – The Independent: “The first new Tolkien novel for 30 years is to be published next month. In a move eagerly anticipated by millions of fans across the world, The Children of Húrin will be released worldwide on 17 April, 89 years after the author started the work and four years after the final cinematic instalment of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, one of biggest box office successes in history.”

The Marowitz Colbert
At first I thought it must be another Charles Marowitz writing this essay – but it is the playwright, director, theater critic and author of ‘The Marowitz Shakespeare’. Shame about the small errors in detail, but it is full of high praise for Stephen’s work.

• Schizoid Comedy & Stephen Colbert – Swans Commentary: “His stock-in-trade is obliquity — but in Colbert’s case, that which is oblique is also clearly apparent. His façade is that of a gung ho, flag-waving, all-American conservative, which masks the almost surreal radical that festers underneath. It is through Colbert’s proclaimed enthusiasms that one decodes the subversive messages and liberal sympathies that make up his true feelings, which means his audience is constantly obliged to translate bloviations and innuendo to ascertain their reporter’s true intent. This is a new wrinkle in American comedy and there is no one, not even his mentor and only begetter Jon Stewart (on whose Daily Show Colbert started his television career), who demonstrates that degree of comic sophistication.”

Gratuitous Name Dropping
It seems soooo right that it’s almost a shame to call it gratuitous.

• Mavs win a hard one with Hawks – Dallas Morning News: ” A fair fight? This was like Sean Penn challenging Stephen Colbert to a comedy smackdown.”
• The Wow Factor – The New Yorker: “Listening to Lang Lang, I think of the absurdist pundit Stephen Colbert, who promises not to read the news to his viewers but to feel the news at them. Lang Lang feels the music at you, in ways both good and bad.”
• Chris Buckley lowers the boom – USA Today: “Political humor has changed since Buckley started out. “It’s much edgier. It’s like a gutting blade,” Buckley says. He considers Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to be “real artists.” But the problem with writing political satire is “the continual competition with the news itself.”

Just how much would it cost for to have Stephen come talk to me?
Well, I think I just got out priced… unless his fees are higher for Arkansas.

• ASG vice president role defined – The Arkansas Traveler (U of Arkansas
  “”We made out a list of all these people to try to talk to, and Jon Stewart was up there, but he kind of got ruled out pretty quick because of expenses [about $200,000],” Jewell said. “Stephen Colbert was a little bit less, but then at some point he jacked his price up and decided he wanted a private plane as well. So we couldn’t do that either.”"

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