Six Degrees: ‘On the Air’ has a conversation with Allison Silverman

Fans of The Colbert Report owe a huge debt of gratitude to Allison Silverman, a woman who has worn many hats when it comes to the Report. Currently one of the show’s executive producers, Ms. Silverman was formerly one of its co-head writers (as well as being a writer-producer for The Daily Show and Late Night with Conan O’Brien) and can currently be heard providing the voice of Stephen’s “soul mate” on I Am America (And So Can You!), the audiobook*.

An article by Cynthia Littleton in “On the Air” catches up with Ms. Silverman:

“Colbert Report”: Meet the showrunner-in-chief

Stephen Colbert comes across as so comfortable in the skin of his “Colbert Report” arch-conservative pundit persona that it’s easy to forget he’s playing a character that has been developed by him and the writer-producers on his Comedy Central skein.

Chief among those “Colbert Report” truthiness-deciders is Allison Silverman, who was upped last month to exec producer of the show along with Colbert and Jon Stewart. Silverman, whose resume includes stints as a writer-producer on “The Daily Show” and “Late Night with Conan O’Brien,” has worked closely with Colbert during the past two years to fine-tune the character that walks a fine line between arrogant jerk and arrogant-but-lovable-jerk. (And arrogant-but-lovable presidential candidate as of Oct. 17, so long as those pesky Federal Election Commission rules don’t drum him out of the race.)

“In the beginning we were conscious that he could turn out to be a real jerk of a character, and we still think about it a lot. We’ve always wanted him to be arrogant and willfully ignorant, but not someone you’d just hate,” says Silverman, who joined “Colbert” shortly after it was picked up to series in 2005. “A lot of times it’s all about the tone. Sometimes he’ll do something that comes off as too repugnant. He’ll say the exact same things but change the tone just a little bit and it makes all the difference.”

. . .

Silverman (pictured [above] on the set with Stephen Colbert) knew she was taking a bit of a gamble when she gave up a gig on NBC’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” to join the nascent “Colbert Report,” which started out with an order of 32 segs, or a little more than six weeks. But having worked with Colbert during her stint on “Daily Show,” she had faith in his ability to pull it off, and at the very least she knew they’d have fun and do some very experimental comedy. Silverman’s background of working in improv comedy, at Chicago’s ImprovOlympic and at the famed Boom Chicago Theater in Amsterdam, made her game for the challenge.

“I was extremely confident that whether or not (‘Colbert Report’) existed past those first 32 episodes, I’d feel we tried our hardest to do a great show,” Silverman says.

. . .

With her success on “Colbert Report,” rising from co-head writer and co-exec producer to showrunner, Silverman has become one of the few femme writer-producers to ascend to the top ranks in the world of latenight comedy skeins. That fact is duly noted by Silverman but she doesn’t dwell on it.

“I think all (writers) bring different senses of humor to a show,” she says. “I don’t think mine is particularly based on being a woman. There are definitely topics that I feel like I bring up that possibly wouldn’t get brought up by a male executive producer…but I don’t see it as my job to add a female slant on things.”

What does define her job is how the public relates and reacts to “The Colbert Report.” Silverman sez she thanks her lucky stars every day that she’s able to work with such a multi-faceted hyphenate as Colbert.

“What has really worked about the show is that somehow people can see through the character to see who Stephen really is, and they laugh with him,” she says. “That’s what’s most exciting to me about this show.”

Full article available here

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* For a fuller profile of Ms. Silverman and other members of The Colbert Report‘s wonderful staff please check out the “Better Know a ‘Report’ Staffer” course at our sister site, Colbert University.