We’re already eating up this article, but PARADE magazine has “done us a solid” and given us even more information on their fantastic Stephen Colbert article and photo shoot. From PARADE publicist Alexis Collado:

Photo By Andrew Eccles for PARADE

COMEDIAN STEPHEN COLBERT TELLS PARADE: “I AM DAMAGED”
And He’s Not Talking About His Broken Wrist!

Photo By Andrew Eccles for PARADE

New York – September 20 — “I like damaged people,” Colbert Report host Stephen Colbert says. “And I am certainly damaged.” His comment may seem like a joke, but the comedian is being painfully serious: In this Sunday’s issue of PARADE, Colbert opens up about the childhood tragedy that changed his life.

Colbert was the youngest of 11 children growing up in Charleston, S.C. It was a big, bustling, Irish-Catholic family—”a humorocracy,” Colbert recalls. “Singing around the house highly encouraged.” On Sept. 11, 1974 everything changed. His father and two brothers were killed in a plane crash. With his other brothers and sisters either working or heading back to college that fall, the household was suddenly diminished to just two: 10-year-old Stephen and his mom. “The shades were down, and she wore a lot of black, and it was very quiet,” he remembers.

In sixth grade, Stephen switched to a new school. The nerdy newcomer who had just lost his father and two brothers had a rough time. “I was beaten up on a regular basis,” he recalls. Eventually, he started making jokes. “The beginning of my junior year, nobody knew me at school. A year later, I was voted Wittiest, and people were happy when I showed up at parties.”

Always a devout Catholic, Colbert lost his faith after graduating from college. “I was very depressed about it,” he says. “I wanted the idea that I would see my father and brothers again, and it was heartbreaking to think that that wouldn’t happen.” Then, one winter day, as Colbert walked down a street in Chicago, a Gideon handed him a Bible. “It was so cold I had to crack the pages,” he recalls. “I flipped it open, and it had a list of things to read about if you were feeling different ways. Under ‘Anxiety,’ it said ‘Matthew V,’ the Sermon on the Mount.” He paraphrases: “‘Who among you by worrying can change a hair on his head?’ It spoke to me.”

Around the same time, while apprenticing with the comedy troupe Second City, a fellow actor surprised him with an unexpected onstage stunt. “I burst out laughing,” he recalls. “Something burst that night, and I finally let go of the pretension of not wanting to be a fool.”

But it was a long time before he could make a living at comedy. In the mid-’90s, now married and with a baby, Colbert came to New York and found himself unemployed. “We were going through our savings, and I was tearing my hair out,” he remembers. “I would hide from my wife because I didn’t want her to see my crisis of confidence.” Then, out of the blue, he got a call for a writing stint at VH1. “You know, that job saved my life,” he says. “I am just convinced that an angel whispered my name in their ear.”

In 1999, he landed a job writing and performing for The Daily Show. At first, Colbert had little interest in political humor. But soon, host Jon Stewart “infected me with his spirit of satire,” Colbert says. “I learned to talk passionately about things you care about and be fair to a position that you don’t agree with. I realized that I had stumbled into a perfect job for me.”

Now living in New Jersey with his wife and three kids, Colbert says he just wants to be normal. “To have a wife and kids, and live in a suburban house, and wear khaki pants, and pick them up from the dry cleaner—I don’t see anything wrong with that. I think a lot of people who perform have a fear of being ordinary. They confuse ordinary with common.”

This uncommon man even manages, when he can find the time, to teach Sunday school. Colbert remembers the lesson of the Sermon on the Mount: “That’s being fearless,” he says. “Not living in fear is a great gift, because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time. If you’re laughing, I defy you to be afraid.”

Colbert’s new book I Am America (And So Can You!), is due out Oct. 9. Visit Parade.com for outtakes from PARADE’s funniest photo shoot ever.

Not sure where to find this weekend’s issue of PARADE? Ms. Collado reminds us that PARADE is distributed in over 400 Sunday newspapers throughout the nation, reaching more than 71 million people each week. Keep your eyes peeled, Nation!

EDITED TO ADD: Here’s a glimpse of the cover art you’ll want to look for this Sunday, photo by Andrew Eccles for PARADE (click for larger image). We were sent this photo by PARADE publicist Alexis Collado (thank you very much!) and would also like to thank lightfromlight at colbertsheroes.org for showcasing it.

Colbert cover by Andrew Eccles for PARADE

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