Hee! John Oliver brought the funny last night at New York’s Peter Jay Sharp Theater, and EW.com’s PopWatch approves (internal links omitted):
John Oliver deserves his own series!
Feb 21, 2008, 05:26 PM | by Simon Vozick-LevinsonAs I sat last night in the auditorium of Manhattan’s Symphony Space, laughing wildly at the stand-up routine that Daily Show correspondent John Oliver was taping for an upcoming Comedy Central special, one question kept nagging me: When exactly did he write all this side-splitting stuff? Could Oliver’s barbs been penned…gasp…during the late writers’ strike? So I breathed a sigh of relief when Oliver mentioned in passing that his material was actually written for him by a 10-year-old boy in Indonesia. “He lives and works at a factory,” Oliver said of the presumably non-Guild scribe. “Works, mostly. He’s a real worker.” He then whipped out the child’s “blood-spattered notebook” to share some more observational bits about “the man hitting me with a stick.”
That’s Oliver’s style in a nutshell: viciously political, with a smirking meta edge (plus an excellent Oxbridge accent). Like Jon Stewart in his prime, he metes out caustic political judgments on topics like religion, war, colonialism, and global economics — barely bothering to act like he’s kidding. Yet like Stephen Colbert, he’ll also slip at times into an elaborately ironic persona, eviscerating right-wing excess by pretending to embrace it. At one point, he played an excerpt of President Bush’s 2008 State of the Union address over Bette Midler’s “Wind Beneath My Wings,” kneeling in humble admiration. “What’s your solution, Jon Stewart?” he shouted righteously.
Oliver was at his best last night when he was playing off of pre-recorded videos like that, or when he got to interact with special guest Andy Zaltzman. In other words, it all amounted to a 90-minute episode of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report as hosted by Oliver — one hell of an audition. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Comedy Central needs to give Oliver his own regular show, stat. (In the meantime, you can tune in to his stand-up special on the auspicious date of April 20.) Who’s with me?
Fabulous job, John! And, Simon Vozick-Levinson, entre nous, plenty of that “side-splitting” material you’re referring to was performed on various episodes of The Bugle, so I’d say it’s fair to assume that it wasn’t written *for* Comedy Central, and it therefore was not in violation of strike rules. (Also, I think you’re missing a “have” in your first paragraph.)
I’m sending a hearty, “Well done, you!” in John’s and Andy’s general direction. Looking forward to seeing the show, come April!
Jon Oliver is my absolute favorite correspondent on The Daily Show — he’s completely hilarious.
Can’t wait for the Comedy Central special!!!
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Yes! I love The Bugle and am loving Andy Saltzman (sp?). I cannot wait to see the special, but I am a little irritated at the assumption the articles writer made about John Oliver breaking WGA strike rules. People really need to stop making such serious accusations without any proof.
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I went to this show, stood in line at 7:45 when they said we should get there, and after an hour and fifteen minutes of standing in the freezing cold (when we were told doors would CLOSE at 8:20) I left.
Unprofessional.
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Yeeeeyyy! John Oliver is doing a stand-up show! A TDS addict’s dream come true! How many days ’til April 20th?
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Can’t wait for this! A great review… Although I don’t think anyone could ever describe John’s accent as Oxbridge!!
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I was lucky enough to go see his San Francisco show (I was sitting literally front row, we totally made eye contact, I about died in my seat), anyways it was pretty much one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen.
I’m quite pleased to be able to see it again on the tube~
Yay John!!
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I was at the first set, where Andy had a bit of an audio malfunction…. and John had a problem with the word “protest”… on the second round of Andy’s appearance, he caused quite the stir… I doubt it will be in the final cut. The fundies will be soooo pissed if it is, not to mention a Lanzman or two…. And, John is so dead on with his commentary _ I was at “There Will Be Comedy” where he did this set – as George Jean Nathan once observed:
The test of a comedian is whether you laugh before he opens his mouth. John passes that one with Aces, for GREAT political satire doesn’t get old.
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I was at the 9:00 in the front row for this! Really good show. For anyone wondering, I heard most of the material at another John show several months ago (before the strike) so don’t worry about John’s breaking any union rules. The mess-ups were the best part, in a way. Near the beginning, they totally lost power so John had to do a rather large segment all over again, several times, which earned him a huge applause at the end.
@ Eric: apparently the early show ran quite long, so the later one didn’t start until much later. I was lucky that I was inside on a VIP (not that that meant anything) ticket. It’s too bad it was so held up; unfortunately that’s what happens a lot when taping. If you live in NYC, he performs there a lot anyway so you could try again sometime. Don’t hold it against John is what I mean.
Really looking forward to the broadcast and seeing which parts they spliced from which show.
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@Meow House: Everything started late – the early show, was to have been seated by 6:30, we weren’t. The mic malfunction required a re-take of John’s intro to the piece with a bit a of banter between him and someone in the audience. The visuals made his commentary even more spot on, than when he performed this set @ “There Will Be Comedy” and, since this was stand-up, No Rules Were Harmed in the Process.
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Hey gabbified – I was at the SF show too! Second row on Friday night (8pm) with my family but John was so funny that a friend and I went back for the 8pm Saturday show and we got the front row table in front of the mic stand. What a cutie he is! Both shows were great. I can hardly wait for the special to air. Funniest thing I’ve ever seen. We’re still laughing about it at my house. Just the other morning as I was leaving for work my husband beckoned me to lean in close and then (in honor of the oreo pizza bit) told me to “do something wonderful”. I hope that “unfair trade” and “Kenya has 3 apples” make it onto the Comedy Central show. Not that there were any throw-away bits in the routine I saw, but those two moments were my favorites.
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