Six Degrees: Fun with the “Friends of Stephen”

Howdy, cats and kittens. Since you’ve requested it, and we like to accommodate people (when we can), here’s a quick roundup of the activities of some of Stephen’s friends and colleagues.

• I’m sure none of us saw it because we were busy watching Stephen and R.E.M., but TDS alum and Second City co-hort Steve Carell was on Leno last night. If you want to catch up with his interview, you can watch it here.
• We already blogged about Jon Stewart’s being honored by the USO; here’s a little more on the awards ceremony.
• Daily Show Resident Expert (and general funnyman) John Hodgman continues his association with McSweeney’s, this time penning the introduction to The McSweeney’s Joke Book of Book Jokes. You can also catch “Hodgie” in a featurette included on the DVD of Judd Apatow’s Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
• Daily Show writer Josh Lieb has sold his book I Am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President to Warner Bros. The Hollywood Reporter has a few more details on the upcoming adaptation here.
• Colbert Report scribe Laura Krafft continues to perform in the “Let’s Have a Ball” shows at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. The show runs on Saturdays; dates and ticket information are here.
• Rory Albanese (producer, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart) is hosting another “Friends, Acquaintances and Colleagues” gig at Comix on April 10th. The guest list this time includes a couple of familiar names: John Hodgman and Pete Dominick!
• Correspondent extraordinaire (and recent Colbert Report stowaway) John Oliver has quite a bit going on. As an initial matter, I want to give him all sorts of virtual lovin’ because he’s finally updated his gig list; you can access it from here for some upcoming gigs. Thanks, man! There are a few more odds and ends to add, though:
• John is also scheduled to perform in “Tell Your Friends” at the Lolita Bar on April 14th (thanks for the tip, Scorpioprodigy!). Info on the show is here.
• You can also catch John performing at the AIDS Walk NY Benefit on May 16th; ticket info is here. You know how we adore guys who support good causes … !
• This one’s a couple of weeks old, but I don’t think I blogged it here at the time: John did a radio interview prior to his Denver shows (it’s the first 15-20 minutes); it’s every bit as amusing as you’d expect.

You may have seen some of these already (especially if you regularly check out the Comedy Central Insider), but these links should all be reasonably current. As ever, we ask you to remember to please confirm any appearances with the venues; this info was gathered from general ‘net postings, not from the individuals, themselves. Additional corrections or tips are welcome in the comments; please do check them out, should I be unable to keep the post updated.

If you’ve read this far, here’s a little bonus. I’m not going to make a habit of blogging about Stephen’s former guests, but because I really loved his appearance and because the Martin Luther King, Jr. retrospectives are timely, here’s a lovely John Legend performance of the classic U2 tribute to Dr. King, “Pride (In the Name of Love)” — hope you have the time to give it a listen!

• Six Degrees: The I Can’t Believe it’s Already February Edition.
• SIX DEGREES: Jon Stewart joins Bill O’Reilly on ‘The O’Reilly Factor’ – Full and Unedited Interview
• Six Degrees: Daily Show Edition
• Six Degrees: ‘The Daily Show’ writers at the Paley Center (2008)