Archive for Taping Reports
Stephen Colbert to TSA: Enjoy!
Posted by: | CommentsOne of the commenters over at Television Without Pity just gave a brief rundown of last night’s taping, and it contained this totally wonderful tidbit from the Q&A:
Most awesomely, someone asked him what he thought of the new body scanners at the airport, and he said that he was going to take some lead paint and write on his johnson (his word) “ENJOY!”
No lie, if I were working for the Transportation Security Administration and encountered that, I’d be laughing my backside right off. Hahahahaha!!
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‘The Village Voice’ delights in The Mountain Goats on ‘Colbert’
Posted by: | CommentsI don’t know why it makes me smile so to read people’s accounts of their Colbert Report visits, whether they’re from fans, bloggers or even the guests. I guess it just pleases me to know that people enjoyed themselves enough to want to share the experience … and possibly, if you’re The Village Voice, to gloat just a wee bit that they were there. (And no, I’m not envious. Not at all.)
What You Didn’t See on Last Night’s Colbert Report: A Mountain Goats-Colbert Duet
By Zach Baron
Wednesday, Oct. 7 2009 @ 11:21AM. . .
Colbert can be seen waiting out the commercial break between the conversation and the band’s performance of “Psalms 40:2,” frantically studying a sheet of paper, the contents of which he’s clearly trying to memorize.
This turns out be preparation not for a joke or a bit but for “This Year.” What he’s doing during the commercial break and even during some of “Psalms” is trying to nail down the lyrics. Because, it emerges, he’s convinced the band–or vice versa, who knows–to allow him to guest on the song. And thus we are treated to the world’s first and likely only collaboration between Stephen Colbert and the Mountain Goats, live, in front of 100 or so people, Colbert and Darnielle alternating bars, harmonizing on the chorus, and generally living out in real time a kind of mutual rock fantasy camp dream. Some lyrics are flubbed, and in the aftermath Colbert looks like a guy who would desperately like to get a second try-out, but he’s got to move: he directs some anguished looks at his watch and then, a few minutes later, at a car idling outside, before getting in and leaving. The cameras were rolling, but it doesn’t look like Comedy Central broadcast it–maybe cause the take wasn’t perfect, or maybe because this one was for the personal scrapbook and for whoever else happened to be in the room. We’ll just go ahead and pretend like we’re sad that the rest of you weren’t.
I don’t know about you, but I’d *love* to see that duet turn up as a ColbertNation “Exclusive” (hint hint, Comedy Central) …
In the meantime, don’t miss Stephen’s interview with John Darnielle:
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| John Darnielle | ||||
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EDITED TO ADD: I just noticed some pretty cool photos from rehearsals of The Colbert Report, with Stephen and The Mountain Goats. I particularly like the ones from the rehearsals of “The Year” — you can see the energy in them. Check them out here at Flickr user Lalitree’s photostream.
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Pre-toss banter: Jon Stewart “not at all worried” about Stephen Colbert in Iraq
Posted by: | CommentsNormally, I’d be content to wait for nerdygirl’s Daily Show Toss Recap to replay the joyous little exchange between Jon and Stephen, but I saw this and knew I needed to share: lucky fan Doglet was in the audience last night and was willing to dish on the details. So in addition to seeing the toss from The Daily Show to The Colbert Report (a treat in itself), we get this nice little write-up about Jon and Stephen’s pre-toss banter over at Television Without Pity. From Doglet’s comment:
Seeing the toss was really exciting; I could see “check in with our good friend..” on the autocue when I came in but thought it had probably been done before we came in. Jon came on screen with his feet up on the desk, which was really cute. He welcomed Stephen back and told him he had been “not at all worried about him”, to which Stephen replied “you’re very much like my mother in that way”. Apparently Jon sent Stephen a “Vietnam-era army helmet” as a present before he left. They riffed on that for a little while, Jon saying it was to match his “necklace of human ears” and Stephen saying he’d written “killer” on the side. They chatted about how hot it was (Stephen: “Every time I got out of a vehicle I’d think, I must step away from the tailpipe. Then I realised the whole country is IN a tailpipe”) and how bizarre it was that civilisation was born there, where there’s no vegetation except between the Tigris and Euphrates (Stephen: “It’s too hot to move. Let’s stay here and develop agriculture”). After the toss ended Stephen remarked “we totally freeballed that one” and then disappeared backstage for a while, before coming back out for the q and a.
Okay that is just beyond adorable. Let’s watch that charming little twosome again:
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Daily/Colbert – Welcome Home, Stephen | ||||
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Seconding that standing O, over and over again. Welcome home, everyone!
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Reasons to love Stephen Colbert: Number 1,000,001
Posted by: | CommentsI don’t usually link to taping reports because they (1) make people who weren’t there envious, (2) can start to sound the same and (3) make ME envious, but this has a really cute anecdote from Wednesday’s show, and I think people here will enjoy it (emphasis added)
NYC Review: The Colbert Report
. . .
After hustling to Colbert’s studio, we put our names on a list (a much more efficient system than at The Daily Show) and left for about 20 minutes. We came back, waited for another half hour, and got some promising news when a show employee came back and told us he would try to get some of us in, but noted standby people usually are bad audience members because they “didn’t wake up excited to see Stephen Colbert.” Still, the guy said he’d try to get us in if we promised to laugh really loud (a flashback, if you read my review of The Late Show). At this point, I laughed hysterically at the guy until he told me I was scaring him.
But scaring show employees must earn points, because my mom and I got the last two seats in the 107-seat studio! The only negatives of this experience came from waiting in line at The Daily Show, then the Colbert Report, and then standing in a waiting area for another hour. On this particular night, the show’s graphics crashed, so they didn’t start taping until 8 p.m. – one hour late.
This led to a longer-than-normal routine from the warm-up comedian, as well as some awkward waiting. But once Colbert came out, he was tremendous. Unlike Letteman, whom I described as a curmudgeon, Colbert brought plenty of energy and love for the audience, allowing several questions – and even phoning a couple’s babysitter to explain why they’d be coming home late.
. . .
Okay seriously, how cute is that? Can you even imagine being that couple’s babysitter? I’m sitting here in my office with a big goofy grin on my face. This is why it’s so particularly enjoyable to be a fan of Stephen and the Report.
(And no disrespect to Jon and The Daily Show, but I do think the crew of The Colbert Report does an exceptionally good job of making its audience feel welcome.)
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Stephen Colbert reminisces about Second City
Posted by: | CommentsThere’s a cute story from Stephen’s Second City days with Steve Carell in this taping report from Wednesday’s show; check it out at “Today is the Day …”:
. . .
Stephen came out and I was totally starstruck. He ran through the theater “in character” and then stepped out of character to take a few questions from the audience. Somehow I forced the words out of my mouth to ask him about his best moment on the Second City Mainstage. He mentioned two scenes: one where he played a younger brother called “Whittlin’” and one called “Maya.” He then proceeded to explain the scene to the audience:
He and Steve Carell are returning to his hometown. He warns Steve that people treat him a little bit differently when he’s back home. Someone walks buy and shouts, “Hey Shirley.” Stephen explains that when he’s home people treat him like an old, black woman. Inspired by Maya Angelou, Stephen’s interpretation is simply his natural voice and expression when stating things like, “Hello. I’m an old, black woman.” He also explained that it was the only scene they ever did that was perfect in improv. They never changed a word of it and it was a great moment on stage.
. . .
Stephen Colbert as Maya Angelou? I need to add that to my list of “things I’d love to see” (you know, along with the incontinent squirrel and suchlike).
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Audience perks
Posted by: | CommentsColbert University staffer Vigwig sent me a picture with this message about her visit to The Colbert Report yesterday, “We got Tube SOCKS! Freaking Colbert Nation, Stephen approved USA embossed tube socks under our chairs. How funny is that?” Actually? Quite. And they have excellent taste in ganking copyrighted iconic pictures.
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TV Squad’s Annie Wu makes a pilgrimage to ‘The Colbert Report’
Posted by: | CommentsI love it when fans who also happen to be prominent writers in the blogosphere make it to the show. I’ve been a fan and regular reader of Annie Wu’s since I first started blogging about The Colbert Report, and we’ve quoted her and linked to her stories on a fairly regular basis here. I’m really glad she finally got to make it to the show. And she got to touch the desk! I know I saw a taping report of this on the Colboards (*waves at our Senior Junior Correspondent, Nicole*), so it’s interesting to see a different perspective of it all. You’ve GOT to go read the whole show recap, but here’s an excerpt.
The Colbert Report: Annie’s adventure
Or ‘How Annie Embarrassed Herself in Front of 100-Some Strangers, or In Which Annie Is Filled with More Self-Loathing Than Usual’, but more on that in a moment.
Posted Feb 14th 2008 11:02AM by Annie Wu
…
I blame the hours of extreme cold for causing my naturally Floridian brain to short out and malfunction. My hand shot in the air and Colbert politely gestured to me. “Yes, young lady?” That’s when the verbal diarrhea started. I told him about my bad luck with the show and made an incredibly stupid and self-indulgent request, asking Colbert to dance, Strangers with Candy credits-style, with me. Yes, I asked that. As soon as the words tumbled out of my mouth, I thought, “Well. That was remarkably dumb, Annie. What in the hell is wrong with you?” I swear, I have absolutely no idea why I thought it would be okay for me to make that request. What Colbert should have done was tell me, “No. Go die in a fire” and then have several burly guards promptly carry me away. But he didn’t. Instead he (along with all the audience members and horrified crew members) stared at me for a moment and then asked the guy in the sound booth, “Do we have anything? Get me a dance mix.” As the sound guy tried to find something, Colbert said, “Obviously, we’re not prepared. We don’t normally do this…”
Some generic jock jam came on, I started dancing. With. Stephen. Colbert. I still can’t quite wrap my brain around it, but it actually happened. It was the most surreal fifteen seconds my life. Seriously, I’m still cringing over the fact that I lost my mind and asked him, but what truly and absolutely blows my mind is that he went along with it. When I sat down, completely flabbergasted and confused, I think I muttered a thank you of some sort and then he smiled and thanked me.
And I think it was right about then that my mind exploded and covered everyone and everything around me in a five foot radius. I am an idiot. Thinking back, I can’t believe I did that. It’s so completely out of character for anti-social me, I am still waiting to wake up from this bizarre dream. Or nightmare? I think it’s nightmare, because I still hate myself for letting my guard down and asking him. Don’t get me wrong, because it was totally awesome, but it was so inappropriate of me to ask and I still can’t figure out why I did it. It doesn’t seem like something I would ever do. Dare I ponder the possibility that my fangirliness managed to overpower my decent common sense? No, I dare not, because the thought scares me too much. Moving on.
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Because when it boils down to it, there’s a fangirl in all of us
Posted by: | CommentsFriend of the blog Lindsay over at Lindsayism.com posted this little vignette today that made laugh quite a bit. It’s really cool to have stories like the Ménage à Awesome to report, but sometimes it’s also cool to just simply revel in the happiness of other fans. So here’s the story:
Stephen Colbert is a Huge Neutral Milk Hotel Fan!
What are three of our favorite things?
Stephen Colbert
Neutral Milk Hotel
My Friend Stephanie aka “Stiff” (if you know her)Last week, Stephanie went to see ‘The Colbert Report’ live. What follows is an instant-message re-enactment of our real-life conversation after the show:
Me: How was Colbert?
Stephanie: AMAZING!!! OH MY GOD STEPHEN SANG NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL TO ME!
Me: What?? (Beatlemania screaming face, actual screaming, etc)Here are the facts as we know them. Between segments, the Neutral Milk Hotel song “Holland 1945″ came on (as, apparently, it often does) and Stephanie began absentmindedly lip-synching along to it. A few seconds into the song, she realized Stephen was pointing at her and singing along. According to witnesses, Stephen and Stephanie continued to sing along to the song while making eye contact for over a minute until their reverie was interrupted by the end of the commercial break. During this time, Stephen:
- Appeared to know all of the words to the song.
- Moved his head to look around a producer when his eye contact with Stephanie was briefly blocked.
- Acknowledged his and Stephanie’s mutual understanding of the sad nature of the song, which is about Anne Frank, by making a “sad face” and tracing the motion of an invisible tear down his cheek. Stephanie, in kind, mimicked this motion back to Stephen.In Stephanie’s words: “I can die now.”
Geoff, a sketch comedian who attended the show with Stephanie and witnessed the event, had this to say:
“It was magical. Neutral Milk Hotel was playing, Stephanie was singing, I was singing. Then I looked up and noticed Stephen was singing. Then I saw that he was singing in my general direction, so I looked to my right and realized that he and Stephanie were singing to each other. So I told Stephanie, “Hey, Stephen Colbert is singing to you!” and she did her best job of shushing me while continuing to sing Neutral Milk Hotel with Stephen. I was about 15 seconds behind on all fronts. But still, pretty awesome.”
It’s stories like this, when I can see the joy that Stephen brings his fans on such an individual basis, that make me appreciate the fact that I am a fangirl for a love junkie. And for those of us who may not have heard the song due to being musically stuck in 1992 (RuPaul ROCKS!!), a link to the song can be found over at Lindsay’s site.
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