Six Degrees: Projects, gigs and appearances from ‘Daily Show’ and ‘Colbert Report’ alums

Man, these bookmarks build up *fast* when I have a few busy days! Anyhow, here’s the next round of collected links and whatnot for the friends and colleagues of one Dr. Stephen T. Colbert:

Lewis Black (Contributor, The Daily Show)

• Lewis is in the midst of a publicity swing for his new book, Me of Little Faith, with a fairly complete listing of tour dates here (h/t Lisa).

  It sounds like a ton of fun, and if you want a preview, have a listen to this interview he did with Leonard Lopate below:

• Lewis seems to be taking his lead from Stephen’s insane schedule lately; in addition to his Daily Show and Root of All Evil duties and his book tour, he’s also got a couple of stand up dates scheduled in Virginia. He’ll be in Richmond on July 31st and in Norfolk on August 2nd; you can get more information here.

Peter Grosz (Writer, The Colbert Report)

• Peter will be reteaming with Saturday Night Live‘s John Lutz on Wednesdays this month at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater to perform “2 Square“, an adaptation of his long-running Chicago show “4 Square”. Drop in and check it out (thanks to DB and Jenny for the links)!
• In addition to his UCBT work, Peter is scheduled for a stop in the recurring “Tell Your Friends” show at the Lolita Bar on June 23rd. This show gets rave reviews, so do try to check it out, if you can.

John Oliver (Correspondent, The Daily Show)

• John Oliver has reteamed with the always hilarious Andy Zaltzman to record a new round of “Political Animal” shows for Britain’s Radio 4. Information on the broadcasts is here; having gone to the taping of the “American dimension” of this show, I feel very comfortable saying that this is something you’re going to want to hear.
• Speaking of John and Andy, it’s been a while since I’ve mentioned their brilliant weekly podcast for the UK’s TimesOnline, “The Bugle“. That doesn’t mean the podcast is any less funny, so make darned sure you’re checking it out regularly. [Editor's note: I tried to access this site just now and it seems to be down, but that is the correct link, so I urge you to try it again later.]

Zeitgeist-y Stephen Colbert stuff

• Stephen has lent his name (and expert opinion) to a couple of recent books. The first of these is for fan favorite Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL), whose new book is called Fire-Breathing Liberal: How I Learned to Survive (and Thrive) in the Contact Sport of Congress. Stephen said this about Rep. Wexler’s book: “I enjoyed Congressman Wexler’s book even more than I enjoy cocaine and prostitutes.” There’s an article about the book here, or you can go hereto read the full Amazon description.
• Not content to merely write a blurb for the book jacket, Stephen penned the introduction to cartoonist Al Jaffee’s Tall Tales, an upcoming collection of Jaffee’s works. Stephen notes, “This collection proves that not only has Al Jaffee always been funny, he’s always been disturbed.” You can read more about Jaffee’s book herefrom Amazon.com.

John Hodgman (Contributor, The Daily Show)

• If you’ve read this far, you deserve a cookie. Or at least a laugh. Happily for you, John Hodgman is good for a hearty one of those in this hilarious clip with Ricky Gervais (tip of the hat to Comedy Central Insider for this vid). Warning: Unless you frequently spend your work day contemplating having tiny penises for nipples or similar questions, this one is probably NSFW (but very, very funny!). Enjoy!

UPDATED TO ADD: No sooner do I get all that typed up than I realize that Eric Drysdale (Bobby!) has new gig info posted, and it’s anyone’s guess whether I’ll have another “Six Degrees” entry ready to go by then. So here’s your notice: Eric will be participating in next Monday’s “Wasp Cove” show at Comix (great venue), and interested people can get tickets here.