Comments on: Stephen Colbert on NPR – WordsWithGrace reports

By: C

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 21:17:35 +0000

@WWG
It was at 18:16. He described how he’d stretched himself across four audience members, moaning in wrist/hip pain, and said that he was still miked. He vocally reenacted wailing about having a book due tomorrow [Terry laughs], and then went on to wail, “Does anyone have any questions?” [Terry snorts]

By: WordsWithGrace

WordsWithGrace — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 23:10:44 +0000

OOOOoo, when was the snort-laugh? I failed to take proper note of it!

By: C

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:13:31 +0000

OOOOoo, I almost forgot my other maybe favorite part–Stephen made Terry laugh so hard and abruptly that she snorted!

I love it when Terry snort-laughs!

(Note: I think the Highest Snort Count ever was in her interview with Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. Let’s hope Stephen can steal that honor on a future fourth(?!) visit with Fresh Air.)

By: C

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 21:50:44 +0000

How great, WWG, that he hit your question about his kids response to ice cream with Dad’s face on the carton!

In the part of the interview that WordsWithGrace summarizes thusly:

“They discuss how they developed the Stephen character at first, then how it has evolved over time with things like the Green Screen Challenge or the bridge naming or the Metaphor-Off – which has nothing to do with politics or and isn’t something O’Reilly would do.”

I was reminded of something from the Amy Sedaris Fresh Air interview. Amy talks about how she performs–how it’s not she, herself, figuring out how to perform a scene, but rather a secondary character inside of her figuring out how to do the scene. (I’m sure to be misrepresenting her words some, but you get the idea.)

When Stephen said that “Stephen Colbert” started out as the Daily Show character…the well-intentioned, poorly-informed, high-status idiot, then moved through a more news-persona-based (O’Reilly, Anderson Cooper, et al.), and then back around to include the wacky “idiot” persona stuff, it got me thinking of there being a similarity to Amy Sedaris. It’s as if there’s this irrepressible, secondary “Stephen” character doing the acting, rather than Stephen himself doing the acting. Maybe that explains a little bit why so many people find his Law & Order episode so amusing!

Sorry if that’s not making much sense. My gut-brain is too hungry for serious clarity just now.

I think my favorite part of the interview was when he learned from Terry how accurately they’d been channeling O’Reilly. Superstantial!

By: bd

bd — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:50:47 +0000

The drug you want is called Flurbiprofen, with an “i”. It’s an anti-inflammatory.

By: entropy

entropy — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 20:08:31 +0000

I just got done listening to the interview (I always livestream NPR while at work) and that was freakin’ awesome!!! A terrific interview! I hope his Larry King interview is Stephen, not “Stephen” because I think he’s even more engaging and helps people to appreciate the genius of his performance when he gives us a peek of the real Colbert.