Stephen Colbert at the Two River Theater benefit

I’m still trying to recover from an excellent night out last night to see Stephen (and a little bit of “Stephen”) at the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank, NJ. It was a successful night all around — the show was a sell-out, or close to it, so Two River Theater Company gets the financial benefits of a Colbert Bump, and the audience was treated to two hours of fascinating and witty conversation between two old friends. Stephen and his interviewer, Two River Theater’s artistic director Aaron Posner, have a history that goes back to their college days. Not only were they friends and fellow acting students at Northwestern, but Aaron Posner once directed Stephen in a college production.

After Mr. Posner came out and gave a brief synopsis of Stephen’s career, Stephen himself came out to wild applause and did a few flamboyant bows before settling down for the conversation. The first question from Aaron: what were the three or four most important turning points in your life that brought you to where you are today? Stephen’s reply: the first was his discovery of improv, and how that appealed to him so much more than learning lines. The second was his decision to start an acting company with some of his friends, which disintegrated almost immediately. After that, he took some time to travel around Europe, then when he came back, he decided to stick to comedy and set serious acting aside. The third thing was getting a job with Second City. And it wasn’t a performing job at that time, it was some kind of menial clerical job, I think. He actually went on for quite a long time with the answer to this question, and covered a lot of ground. He got especially philosophical when discussing the difference between acting and doing improv.

After this lengthy beginning, the topics went off in different directions, and I don’t remember all of them or in what order they happened, but I’ll just sort of throw them out here randomly. I may repeat some things that were said elsewhere, but it’s all good, right?

In discussing what influence Evie has on his work, Stephen mentioned that she was an English major, so she has a good feel for the flow of language and how to pull it all together. Stephen then explained how comic writers can become inured to the shock of comedy (or something like that), and how they have a tendency to let that build up on itself until they’re no longer writing for human beings. Evie is the one who reminds Stephen that he’s writing for human beings. She’s also the one responsible for the lovely library they have in their home. All the books are hers; Stephen’s contribution is the Mad magazines piled up underneath.

When talking about his early career — I think here he was talking about Second City — he learned how important it was to embrace failure. It’s not enough to say “I’ll do better tomorrow,” he thinks it’s important to love failure. If you embrace it completely, you can’t be afraid of it.

One of the big learning experiences for him along the way was doing “Exit 57,” because at the time he and Amy and Paul had no idea how to do a TV show. He’s embarrassed by it now because, he said, you can drive a truck through the space between the jokes. They also put in 24-hour days trying to create the show. But later, when he had a chance to work with Robert Smigel and some other people whose names I can’t recall, that’s when he learned how to do TV, and that’s where he learned that it’s much better to kill yourself with a 12- to 14-hour day than it is with a 24-hour day.

Going off on a tangent at one point, he said he’s annoyed that the White House has called Fox News fake news, because then how much faker does he have to be to compete with that?

In discussing his counterparts in the “real” news world, Stephen said that while he may not agree with some (or all) of what they say, he can respect sincerity. He believes Bill O’Reilly is sincere. But he had pretty harsh words for the ones who prey on people’s fears and try to manipulate them for their own gain. Later, during the Q&A with the audience, someone asked him what he thought of Glenn Beck. Stephen didn’t give a direct answer, but he did say that Beck goes out there every day, climbs the tree, puts the genius noose around his neck, and jumps.

Citing a reference to Sherlock Holmes, Mr. Posner asked Stephen what the attic of his brain would look like. Stephen said nothing in there was alphabetized. It was like a teenager’s room, with stuff dropped randomly on the floor. He also said that someone had once told him that he has a lust for knowledge, and this was not necessarily a good thing because it wasn’t a love of knowledge, it was more like an addictive need to acquire it. Stephen seemed to object mildly to that assessment, and I have to agree. If the man has a brain like a sponge, let it absorb all it wants.

There was a lightning round of questions that were asked of both Stephen and “Stephen,” which was quite funny. He didn’t seem too sure how that would work out before it began, but he had fun with it. Here are the questions that I remember, and the two different answers.

What super power would you like to have?
Stephen: Invisibility
“Stephen”: Flight

What three historical figures would you like to meet?
Stephen: Jesus, Copernicus, and JFK
“Stephen”: Genghis Khan, and I can’t remember the other two

If there was one thing in your life you could go back and change, what would it be?
Stephen: He said something completely cryptic about not going into someone’s office to turn on the air conditioning. I’m sure that made sense to no one but him.
“Stephen”: “I would kiss Jane Fonda back.” (That made me laugh til I cried.)

If you could capture your philosophy of life into a saying on a t-shirt, what would it be?
Stephen: “Well, I thought it was funny.”
“Stephen”: “Wear a cup.”

For the last part of the evening, there was a Q&A session with the audience. Given the general stampede to the microphones, I decided it was best to stay in my seat and let others have their thirty seconds of glory. There were actually quite a lot of questions, and I don’t remember even half of them. Two lucky Zoners were able to ask questions; lockhart43 was the one who mentioned No Fact Zone, which resulted in the shout-out from Stephen, and I saw in the comments to last night’s post that it was Jerzegrl who asked Stephen how he got involved with DonorsChoose.org.

At the end of the evening, as Stephen was leaving the stage to a standing ovation, he jumped up and clicked his heels together. It was a very appropriate way to finish an enjoyable evening.

And finally, because we can’t have a Stephen appearance without one of these: Fangirl Suit Report! Navy suit, white shirt with narrow blue stripes, green tie with navy and silver (?) diagonal stripes.

I left out a lot here (not gonna lie to you, people, I’m totally outta gas and need to go sleep!), so anyone who wants to add more and didn’t already comment in last night’s thread should jump right in!

• Eye Candy – Two River Theater Company Edition
• Eye Candy – Friggin’ Lucky Zoners edition
• Two Rivers theater benefit at the Count Basie Theater – TONIGHT!
• Stephen Colbert talks to (and does not shout at) NJ.com