Archive for John Hodgman
Six Degrees: Keeping up with the people in Stephen Colbert’s world
Posted by: | CommentsTime to play our game, kids, and find out what’s going down with all the fine friends of the incomparable Stephen Colbert.
Mitch Rouse (co-creator and “Officer Civilian,” Strangers with Candy; various roles, Exit 57)
- Congratulations to Mitch Rouse, whose new series, The Factory, will debut on Spike TV! Reuters has more.
Evelyn McGee-Colbert (um, you know, *Mrs. Colbert* — also, various roles, Strangers with Candy)
- The lovely Evelyn will be judging the New Ideas for a New Carolina statewide business contest this June 4th. She and Stephen will appear via video during the awards ceremony; details here.
Laura Krafft and Meredith Scardino (writers, The Colbert Report)
- In addition to their other duties, Laura and Meredith will be joining Dave Hill’s Festival of Sight and Sound and Other Stuff at Comix tonight, April 30th! Read more about it here; this sounds like an amazing collection of people.
- Also, because I don’t think we ever formally mentioned it on the site (probably because we didn’t see a formal announcement anywhere else), a big “Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!” to Meredith, whose name recently began appearing in the writing credits for The Colbert Report (she formerly wrote for Late Show With David Letterman). Depressing bit of trivia for the day: Of the sixty-seven writers nominated for an Emmy in the Comedy/Music/Variety Show category last year, only four were women. Three of those four (Krafft, Scardino and Allison Silverman) now write for The Colbert Report. [Hat tip to WordsWithGrace and New York Magazine for that stat.]
John Hodgman (Resident Expert, The Daily Show)
- John’s going to be at this year’s BookExpo America! This year’s attendees can catch John at Sunday’s Book and Author Breakfast on June 1st with Ted Turner, Azar Nafisi (*loved* her book Reading Lolita in Tehran) and Dennis Lehane. Yay! I’m definitely looking forward to John’s new book.
John Oliver (correspondent, The Daily Show)
- John continues to make my life better by giving his charming little interviews; here’s one with Bedford Today. His pride in his letter of complaint from Buckingham Palace is perfection; this quote had me giggling uncontrollably: “I asked Buckingham Palace for more copies of the letter and I think it was at that point they understood it was not being taken seriously.”
Jon Stewart (if you don’t know who he is, I can’t help you)
- Yeah, this isn’t a new idea that MSNBC’s expressing, but I always love it when people praise Jon. He’s doing what he does for the laughs, first and foremost, but that doesn’t mean his smarts and (gulp) journalistic integrity aren’t also on full display.
- This has already popped up in several places, so I suppose I should mention it, although it does sort of pain me to do so: There are evidently some impossibly cute pictures of Jon and his daughter in the latest US magazine. Thing is, the chatter I’ve heard from people reluctantly(?) gushing over the pictures also suggests that Jon was not pleased to have been targeted by the paparazzi at that time (there’s evidently video), which isn’t surprising. So … I’m not going to link to it. It’s out there, but I’d ask that people consider NOT buying the magazine; I’m sure you can find it on the web if you want to badly enough, but I’d rather not contribute to the magazine’s revenue stream, myself. Jon gives us a lot of himself on his show, and intruding on his father-daughter time really doesn’t sit well with me. (And please, don’t link it in the comments to this post. I’m getting off of my soapbox now, thanks.)
Rob Corddry (former correspondent, The Daily Show)
- You can catch up with Rob on the big screen in Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, and he’s answering some questions about it here. Can I just say that he sounds altogether too gleeful about being able to play such a howling racist? Hee!
Ed Helms (former correspondent, The Daily Show) … and Rob Corddry, take II
- Ed’s in Harold and Kumar, too, you know, but that’s not the only project he’s worked on with Rob, lately. Recognize the voices in this video?
Thanks for keeping us all entertained (and me a little overworked), everyone! No kidding, at the rate these folks are going, I just about need to hang it up at my real job to be able to keep up with them.
Credit goes to Caitlin, DB and the CC Insider for several of these links; bravissimo!
EDITED TO ADD: Lisa pointed out that Lewis Black will also be at BEA; details are in the comments. Sorry for overlooking you, Lewis, and thanks for the correction, Lisa!
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Six Degrees: Fun with the “Friends of Stephen”
Posted by: | CommentsHowdy, 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!
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