Archive for John Oliver
Six Degrees: Kiss Me I’m Irish Edition.
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Ok, so I lied. I’m not actually Irish, I’m Australian but you can still kiss me and we drink just as much … if not more. I hope you’ve all recovered from good ol’ St. Patty’s Day and the festivities that ensured. Mine was a rather dismal day, I didn’t touch a drop of drink, there were no celebrations at Uni and I only wore green by accident. So if you’re like me and have had a boring day/week I hope the activities of Stephen’s friends and colleagues puts a smile on your dial.
Friends of the Show
Amy Sedaris
- You can pre-order your copy of Amy’s new book “Simple Times: Crafts for Poor People” from Amazon which is due for release on 2 November, 2010.
Product Description:
America’s most delightfully unconventional hostess and the bestselling author of I Like You delivers a new book that will forever change the world of crafting. According to Amy Sedaris, it’s often been said that ugly people craft and attractive people have sex. In her new book, SIMPLE TIMES, she sets the record straight. Demonstrating that crafting is one of life’s more pleasurable and constructive leisure activities, Sedaris shows that anyone with a couple of hours to kill and access to pipe cleaners can join the elite society of crafters.
- Amy was recently a guest on the “The Martha Stewart Show” to promote her new book “Simple Times: Craft for Poor People”. You can view a clip of Amy’s appearance here and here.
Conan O’Brien
- CoCo’s coming to a city near you!! Check out Teamcoco.com for all the details on Conan O’Brien presents: “The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour” – A Night of Music, Comedy, Hugging and the Occasional Awkward Silence.
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Difference Makers: The Story Pirates hold second “After School Special”
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Every now and again, we get tips about events that just warm the cockles of our hearts, and this one is a doozy. Story Pirates is a great organization that promotes literacy in young children. It boasts what I think is a wonderfully creative way to get kids involved in stories called the Play/Write Program. To quote the Story Pirates website, Play/Write is ” … a series of creative writing and drama workshops that lead to a musical sketch comedy show acted by adults and comprised entirely of stories written by kids. The award winning show has been described as ‘Monty Python meets Schoolhouse Rock.’” Gang, how cool is that?
Here’s the thing: it just got even cooler, because the Story Pirates group is holding an “After School Special” benefit. It will be hosted by The Daily Show correspondent (and friend of the blog) John Oliver, and there are some pretty amazing prizes up at auction for the Story Pirates’ benefit. Between now and March 20th, you can bid on prizes that range from a Wii console to a tour of the NCIS set (plus a meeting with its star), a cast-autographed script from Community or Parks and Recreation to VIP tickets to The Colbert Report.
Best of all, Jon Stewart is offering a uniquely heartwarming prize: an offer to star in your child’s story. That’s right, Jon Stewart will star in a performance of the story written by the winning bidder’s child, and the winner will receive VIP tickets to the show. Can you even imagine how amazing an experience this would be for the winner’s budding young author?
The benefit takes place on March 21st, and most of the auctions close one day before that. Please, all of you with deep pockets and philanthropic souls, head over to the Story Pirates site and make your bids.
(Huge hat tips to the folks at Story Pirates, Mark Malkoff and DB for letting us know about this event!)
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Six Degrees: The I Can’t Believe it’s Already February Edition.
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Am I the only one completely baffled by the fact that January has gone by in the blink of an eye and that we’re already steam rolling straight through February? February of course, can mean only one thing – Vancouver!! But while Stephen is off polishing his skates in preparation for the Winter Olympics his friends will be back in the good old US of A working on their latest new projects.
Friends of the Show
Neil DeGreasse Tyson
- Dr. Tyson has been selected by over 600 Global Science Advisors as the EarthSky Science Communicator of the Year for 2009.
Many expressed this sentiment about Dr. Tyson: “Especially since 2009 was the International Year of Astronomy, it’s appropriate that we honor Neil deGrasse Tyson and acknowledge his outstanding efforts to promote astronomy and other sciences.”
EarthSky has featured Dr. Tyson in an 8-minute EarthSky Clear Voices for Science podcast, speaking on the importance of science in creating an informed U.S. electorate.
Neil deGrasse Tyson: ‘Learning How to Think is Empowerment’:
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Six Degrees: Daily Show Edition
Posted by: | Comments From comedy shows to music, the Daily Show correspondents are all over these days!
John Oliver (Correspondent, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
- I know I have been making time to watch John Oliver’s New York Stand-up Show at 11 PM EST, Fridays on Comedy Central, but apparently Rob Riggle isn’t particularly interested. For two weeks in a row, he has found ways to avoid supporting John’s new show:
Jokes.com John Oliver and Rob Riggle Talk About the Show Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games Jokes.com John Oliver and Rob Riggle – More Reasons to Watch the Show Joke of the Day Stand-Up Comedy Free Online Games As Rob is so eager to mention, it seems he will be on Comedy Central Presents in a couple of months, and we’ll be sure to let you know more about that.
(h/t: MsInterpreted) - Here is an interesting opportunity to see John Oliver from before he was on The Daily Show. The last acting credit John has in IMDb before The Love Guru was as a car salesman on a British medical sitcom called Green Wing. So far as I can tell, he only appeared in a few clips only one minute into the first episode of the first season called “Caroline’s First Day.” You can see it all of yourself (if you’re in the US), as the entire series is now on Hulu. I have not watched the entire episode myself, but it looks like it could be a good show.
- John recently appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
Demetri Martin (Former Contributor, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
- Important Things with Demetri Martin is coming back for a second season, which is good new for many of you, I’m sure. While I didn’t watch the every show, all the clips I was able to catch were excellent! Although the shows won’t be airing for a while, there may still be tickets available for tapings in San Francisco in mid-February. Follow the link and if you do reserve tickets, let others know it’s possible in the comments.
John Hodgman (Contributor, The Daily Show with John Stewart)
- If you’re in the Bay Area and you can’t see Demetri Martin’s show, you also have John Hodgman coming to you soon! He will be at the SF Sketchfest 2010 at 2 PM on January 30th at Cobb’s, where he will be conversing with Dave Eggers. To find out more about John’s appearance and the rest of the festival, which will have a long of other great comedians, check out this article.
Wyatt Cenac (Correspondent, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
- Although it’s too late to see the show, there was a great interview with him in preparation for that gig. There’s talk of the movie Wyatt starred in, Medicine for Melancholy and the way The Daily Show approaches cable news. He also mentions the field producers, of whom I’m far more aware since I started following Miles Kahn on Twitter. (h/t: MsInterpreted)
Aasif Mandvi (Correspondent, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
- The National, an English-language paper from Abu Dhabi, UAE, has a great article about Aasif. It discusses the film Today’s Special, which is based on his one-man show Sakina’s Restaurant. Given the setting of the film, there is much discussion of food in culture, particularly Indian culture. Aasif also talks about being involved with The Daily Show while also acting in films.
Ed Helms (Former Correspondent, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
- Comedy Central Insider has some great YouTube videos of this great former correspondent showing off in way we’re not used to: on musical instruments. You can watch him playing the banjo while singing along, or playing the piano while chatting along. These are far more authentic uses of instrumental props than when Colbert and Dinello sang with the bassoons. (h/t: MsInterpreted.)
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Six Degrees: ‘The Daily Show’ writers at the Paley Center (2008)
Posted by: | CommentsHey, kids! The Paley Center has posted clips from last year’s talk with The Daily Show writers and, if you’ve got the time, they’re funny and illuminating viewing. Watch Miles Kahn, Wyatt Cenac, John Oliver, Rob Kutner, Steve Bodow, DJ Javerbaum, Rory Albanese, JR Havlan, Adam Lowitt and more. I can’t embed the clips, but click on the links or image below to go to the Paley Center’s YouTube channel (where you can also find clips from the hilarious 2002 Daily Show writers’ Paley Center chat). You’ll be glad you did, really!
Daily Show Writers – No More George W. Bush Jokes (Paley Center, 2008)
Daily Show Writers – Interviews That Went Wrong (Paley Center, 2008)
Daily Show Writers – How the Show Is Made (Paley Center, 2008)
Daily Show Writers – Visit Florida To Watch The Debate (Paley Center, 2008)
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Six Degrees: John Oliver Mini-Edition
Posted by: | CommentsGreetings, all! Don’t worry, we’re still a Stephen Colbert blog here, but you all know that we have a soft spot in our little hearts for John Oliver, too (obviously), so we thought you might enjoy this little update to yesterday’s entry.
You see, John Oliver was a guest on Fresh Air with Terry Gross today, and it’s a delightful, must-listen interview. John talks about his new show, compares his need to do stand-up to a heroin addiction, relives the moment when he broke his nose for The Daily Show, and much more. Check it out here:
While we’re updating you on John’s info, here’s a piece from THE USA Today that discusses his new show. I read somewhere (can’t find it now, sorry) that Canadian viewers will see John’s show a week later than what we see here in the U.S., but I’m sure someone here can update us in the comments section if that’s not true.
Two final items: first, if any of our readers from Houghton, Michigan want to see John (and you should want to!), he’ll be doing a set at Michigan Tech on February 6th. No real details on this one, but you should pencil it in.
And second, just a reminder to watch John on Jimmy Fallon’s show on the 7th. I have no doubt it’ll make for excellent viewing.
EDITED TO ADD: It’s like an immutable law of physics or something; whenever I do a Six Degrees or John Oliver-related entry, something new turns up within an hour of my posting it. This time, it’s his review of In the Loop, which will (finally) be released to DVD for U.S. viewers next week. Variety has the review here, and I’ll second John’s recommendation, as it was a crazy-good movie. And I’m so glad he said what he said about Malcolm Tucker using swearing like jazz; a couple of us commented about that back when John did his interview with No Fact Zone last Fall!
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Six Degrees: Daily Show Edition
Posted by: | Comments Although we haven’t seen them on The Daily Show for a while, there are some good opportunities here to catch up with all our favorite hosts and correspondents. And while we’re at it, we’ve got some things to anticipate in the future!
Jon Stewart (Host, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart)
- You probably all know by now that Jon had the privilege of introducing Bruce Springsteen at the most recent Kennedy Center Honors event, but this footage of the event is probably new to the Zoners here. From Crooks and Liars:
Read more about Rob Riggle, Samantha Bee and Jason Jones, Aasif Mandvi and John Oliver after the fold.
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Six Degrees: Articles and videos from ‘Daily Show’ peeps
Posted by: | CommentsHello, boys and girls. I know Tiger usually does these now, but there’s been so much news coming in on our favorite people from The Daily Show that I thought I’d throw a few links together while we await her next post.
Let’s get things started with a few items featuring Jon Stewart’s recent trip to the Kennedy Center Honors, where he helped to pay tribute to honoree Bruce Sprinsteen. First off, check out this photo of Jon and his wife, Tracey, on the red carpet. How fabulous does she look? I love that Jon looks like he can hardly believe he’s there with that gorgeous woman. The Washington Post did a general write-up of the event here; NorthJersey.com went into more detail about Jon’s tribute to Bruce here. I love Jon’s quote that “When you listen to Bruce Springsteen, you weren’t a loser, you were a character in an epic poem about losers.” Nicely put, Mr. Stewart. CBS will air footage from the event on December 29th.
If you’re in the mood for more from John Hodgman, Larry Wilmore, Samantha Bee, DJ Javerbaum and John Oliver, then click past the jump!
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