Allison Silverman, former executive producer and first head writer of ‘The Colbert Report’ , has written a fanastic article for Vulture. Working on the early years of the show from 2005 – 2009, Allison details the very first episode and how it evolved over its initial eight week run, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and Stephens commitment and willingness to try new things, and the difficulties of working out the shows point of view and how to communicate it through the character whilst maneuvering the ambiguous line between the Real Stephen and the character “Stephen”.
There’s a lot about Stephen as a performer that I think comes from his many years of being in theater and, especially, being at Second City. He’s just game. He’s willing to go for it. There are plenty of funny people on TV who, for whatever reason, aren’t willing to try things, even just to give a joke or a premise a shot in rehearsal or at a read. As a performer, Stephen will always go for it — he will always take the big swings — in a way that writers just dream of. He’s not afraid to fail because he kind of likes failing. Stephen used to tell me, “You’ve got to learn to love the bomb.”
————
I think Stephen is a person who makes very conscious decisions about how he wants to live and how he wants to interact with the world. He really, really tries to be disciplined about keeping to that. He describes his religious faith as “a choice” he makes every day, and I think the idea of actively choosing to be a positive force in situations instead of being more passive about [them] is something that’s with him all the time. His life is very deliberate in how he decides to interact with people and in how to behave.
I think Stephen will be great hosting The Late Show. And maybe, since he’ll be himself, people won’t be so scared of being interviewed by him. I mean, a lot of guests were terrified. In my years backstage at Colbert, I saw many of the country’s most powerful people take far too many trips to the bathroom.
Full Article: Vulture
Allison Silverman on the Early Days of 'The Colbert Report'
Allison Silverman, former executive producer and first head writer of ‘The Colbert Report’ , has written a fanastic article for Vulture. Working on the early years of the show from 2005 – 2009, Allison details the very first episode and how it evolved over its initial eight week run, the White House Correspondents’ Dinner and Stephens commitment and willingness to try new things, and the difficulties of working out the shows point of view and how to communicate it through the character whilst maneuvering the ambiguous line between the Real Stephen and the character “Stephen”.