Six Degrees: Steve Carell interviewed on NPR and Larry Wilmore interviewed on ‘Nightline’

Take heart, Daily Show junkies, the week of reruns is nearly over.

In the meantime, I’d recommend listening to this Fresh Air interview with Steve Carell, originally aired yesterday. From NPR (audio available at the link):

The ‘Real Life’ of Actor Steve Carell

Fresh Air from WHYY, October 24, 2007 · By the end of The 40 Year Old Virgin, the title character had lost his virginity — and actor Steve Carell had become a star.

The actor, who was a correspondent on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show for several years, has gone on to films including Little Miss Sunshine and Evan Almighty, and next summer he’ll star as hapless secret agent Maxwell Smart in a Hollywood adaptation of the vintage TV series Get Smart. And of course he’s got a central role on NBC’s The Office.

Now Carell is starring in Dan in Real Life, a big-screen comedy about a newspaper columnist who dispenses advice about parenting — never mind his own problems on the home front. Among other things, he falls in love with a woman without realizing that she’s his brother’s girlfriend.

If you need more diversions, the hilarious Larry Wilmore was also interviewed within the past couple of weeks; ABC’s Nightline has the story (including video clips of Larry joking with Jon Stewart and Aasif Mandvi at the link).

Veteran TV Writer Moves in Front of the Camera
Larry Wilmore Finds Humor in Observations About the Black Experience

Fans of “The Daily Show” are used to hearing host Jon Stewart introduce Larry Wilmore as the show’s “senior black correspondent.” In fact, Wilmore is the show’s only black correspondent, a joke he plays to the hilt.

Wilmore’s character suffers repeated indignities, from being asked to expound on the meaning of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday to being told he can’t cover Wall Street stories — a situation Wilmore feels isn’t too far form reality.

“Most of the time, your black anchors are on the weekend, I’ve noticed,” he said. “We don’t want to see them during the week, you know. We can take black people on the weekend. But one of the things I noticed, too, when a really bad thing happens in a black area, the black correspondent’s going there, and they’re going to report on it.”

. . .

‘Do You Understand How Rap Works?’

But Wilmore saves his greatest firepower for the n-word, especially recent attempts to ban it, as seen in a memorable encounter with fellow “Daily Show” correspondent John Oliver and New York City councilman Leroy Comrie in March.

Oliver: Leroy, are you at all concerned that we’re banning one of the most versatile words in the English language. It can be used as a noun:
Wilmore: Yo, yo what’s up my n—er.
Oliver: A verb.
Wilmore: Hey, man, don’t n—er those potato chips.
Oliver: An adjective.
Wilmore: Oh, so now you’re n—er rich.
Oliver: An adverb.
Wilmore: Man, that’s some n—erly sh–.
Oliver: Would you say goodbye to all of this?
Comrie: I think all of those usages are vile and just need to be stopped.
Oliver: What do you say to rappers who need that word in terms of their rhyme scheme?
Comrie: Need the word? I don’t think you need the word.
Wilmore: I’m not sure about that, Leroy. Finish this phrase: ‘I’m not sayin’ she’s a gold digger, but she ain’t messin’ with no broke –.’”
Comrie: Um … I’m not sayin’ she’s a gold digger, but she ain’t messin’ with no broke … fool.
Wilmore: Do you understand how rap works, councilman?

Full interview available here

In case you haven’t seen the “Wilmore/Oliver Investigates” that the article refers to (regarding the “N” word), you can watch it here, albeit in its edited form (or download the unedited version from SendSpace here). Incidentally, there’s also an NPR interview with Wilmore from this past summer in which Larry discusses that segment. If you’re not offended by the language, you’ll laugh until you cry (especially at about 9:45 into the interview).