Your trusty CN Helper got a chance to check out the April 24th, 2014 taping of ‘The Colbert Report’. This is the post-Colb-pocolypse nostalgia edition.
Warm Up
I spent Shakespeare’s maybe-birthday celebrating the best way I know how: by attending my third TCR taping. Landing in NYC, especially when I know I can get over to the studio, fills me with great joy, in spite of my struggling with some kind of mutant allergies and being rudely treated by transport staff almost as soon as my feet hit the tarmac. However, I brushed the New York bruskness off of me and prepared for a couple of days of rest, reflection, and Stephen.
It was hard for me to stand in the hold room and feel like this might be my last visit. As I mentioned, I have been here before on two occasions, but looking at the space now, with a handful of posters haphazardly placed on the wall (a new addition, The Colbert in the Rye is there, looking magnificent), conversation with my taping companion turned to what the new show’s space might look like. The highlight video is changed again, because it had a lot of Iraq clips and Daft Punk, and other newer episodes. A couple of young ladies asked me to snap a picture of them excitedly holding their tickets next to Stephen’s portrait. A young man asked me if the question he planned on asking Stephen was a good one, and I gave him my sound advice. It’s kind of sad to me sometimes how much I know about the show and Stephen now, but I am blessed that I get to share my experiences with you wonderful Hubsters.
Everyone looked ecstatic as per usual to be in the hold room awaiting the taping, and in many ways it was just as before, but I felt kind of bittersweet. This chapter of the story is going to run out, and a new one will begin soon. It is a sad thought, but kind of an exhilarating one as well, that the next time I see the show it will in no way resemble this space or experience, except for Stephen and the staff that will join him.
My taping friend and I noticed that many of this audience were really young, like barely-passing-age-requirement-young. The warm up comedian, Paul Mercurio, went around and thoroughly interrogated various members of the audience. He picked on a lot of couples, including one who met on the dating app tinder, and he applauded them for their “substantive” mate-finding approach. He pulled an older gentleman from the crowd who was wearing a very posh, country club sort of outfit and gave him a pretty hard time, as well as a youngish guy who made it clear that he thought marrying his longtime girlfriend was “too expensive.” (Someone behind us yelled “run!” to the girl, presumably.)
He also singled out the only two black guys in the audience, as well as a young Sikh gentleman who was a math major at Columbia. He asked if he could cut his hair (very politically correct – brave comic.) By coincidence, his Columbia math professor was there, and Mercurio asked if he could tutor his son. Mercurio asked the guy, “do you have a pen” to get his number and then looked around for a pen, which was hilarious, because we all had the pens that are so nicely placed on the seat at every taping. I was like, the only thing all of us have in common right now is having a pen, Einstein! (I kid, I kid.) Looking at the audience assembled for my third time now, it made me appreciate what an eclectic group we are. It’s definitely a hip Nation.
Stephen
After a bit of time we heard Stephen’s voice over microphone and then he bounded in (purple tie! yay!), slapping the hands in the front row. I have to say, of all the times I have ever seen him in person, I have not seen him this happy. The audience coordinator mentioned that Stephen “loves” to be asked about the late night transition, so contrary to what I thought, he is really open about talking about it and must be really excited. By his elated demeanor, I can imagine that Stephen is feeling on top of the world at the moment. One of the audience members asked him what will happen to the character at the show’s end and he said sincerely, “I don’t know. Well, we have 102 more episodes to figure it all out.” A cute group of girls from Germany asked him if he had been to Oktoberfest and he replied “did you see me there — what was I doing?” or something like that. He also made the asking-girl stand up so we could you see how young she looked “you look 12,” he said astutely. A lady asked him to wish her brother a happy birthday, and he sang “Felicem Natalum” to everyone’s delight.
He flung quite a few wristrong bracelets to the crowd, and then did the knife bit where then pretends to throw a sharp knife into the crowd. There was a table of contents, but obviously they were cut, as the show did feel a bit long. He immediately flubbed the second line of the intro, and that began a series of flubs that required Stephen redoing many segments. In my previous two experiences, he did each episode flawlessly — to my disappointment — and I was glad that I got to see how they dealt with errors and basically get more time in the studio. Another cool thing is I was seated right where the staff was coming in and out, so it was interesting to me to watch them work and hear their comments. It’s apparent they keep an eagle eye on every moment to make sure the bits are translating and will redo anything that needs to be until it’s perfect. They’ve all caught Stephen’s Perfectionism Syndrome, but winning a couple of Emmys will do that to you, I suppose.
Cliven Bundy
The show dealt a lot with racism and that awful Cliven Bundy, and every tape he rolled of Fox News and Cliven’s terrible racist tirade just put a pit in your stomach. But we were tasked with laughing, so it was like “boooo” and the sensation of immediately trying to laugh, which is hard, because it was tough subject matter. Stephen acknowledged as much when he was bantering with his staff and asking to roll it again “I am trying to keep it light,” he said, “we are talking about racism, and it’s heavy stuff. Roll the m**f*&n tape!”
The biggest reason he had to redo the Cliven Bundy segment three times was because of the song that Paul Dinello was backing him up on. Yes, Stephen was really playing, he had a capo on and was playing what looked like C and D chords maybe, while reading the complicated lyrics from the prompter, which is hard to do for anybody. I was so happy when I saw Dinello huddling behind him with a guitar. (Whenever I see him with a guitar I think of the lovely song Paul did on Exit 57 “My Wife Dumped Me for a Guy Named Jesus.”) The first time Stephen played, we all started clapping along. But we started clapping faster and faster. After he finished the segment, he told us he wanted to do the segment over and for us not to clap, because he said it was throwing him off, which was true. Also, I heard from the producers milling about that Paul was having a hard time staying down low enough to make the bit work. So they did the segment again, and we had to start from the beginning with the tape and everything, but on the second try once again Stephen flubbed the guitar.
While this was going on, Paul also played around with creeping in front of the camera after the song, which he ran by Stephen before the first take. It was so cool to see how they play off of each other and how Stephen trusts him so implicitly. The only improvised elements of the show left up to chance came when he utilized Paul, which was this bit and at the sign off.
Finally, on the third try, he got the song right, but again, we had to run the whole segment over, which was really long — and containing maddening subject matter. What impressed me, as if I could not get impressed with him any further, is that he never got frustrated, he doubled down and did an even better take on the third try and got everything right. I was thinking, if it were me, I would be so flustered, but he was so professional. Performers can learn so much by just watching him work. Also, Paul played his best riff on the third take, resulting in his satisfied looking expression after the riff.
Paul is also very modest as well, at the “sign off” he did the creep thing across the camera, which surprised Stephen, and Paul said “no, you’re good, you do your thing” kind of begging himself out of the shot, but Stephen insisted he creep across camera again. They were also trying to figure out who would wear which 10-gallon hat, and Paul looked at us and said aside-ly, “this hat’s too small. He’s got a big head!” and we laughed – and luckily Stephen didn’t hear him.
Finishing the Hat
Getting back to before the sign off, we transitioned from racism to sexism (all the bad “isms”) with Phyllis Schlafly’s thoughts on women’s pay scale. He had a hard time saying her last name, so at the end he had to redo a couple of lines. He made an incredulous comment like, “I can’t believe she’s still around – she was going on during the Reagan and Carter administrations.” I think we kinda shrugged, because as I mentioned much of the audience had not yet even been born during the Reagan administration, so we were equally as clueless about Ms. Schlafly’s motivations. But both topics were good and I could gather that the show was very strong, even just by piecing it together from the taping. I was also counting us lucky for getting a great musical bit in our experience.
Finally, after all of this and an extensive amount of consulting with the producers and reading of blue cards, we got to George Saunders. The interview went well, and as George is such a good sport and great with the character, Stephen really went after him for one.freaking.example of him being kind to another person. Pretty much the whole interview aired, except for a brief story likely omitted for time about Saunders’ experience with a Buddhist monk’s treatment of a homeless couple begging for change. It was interesting that Saunders talked about his middle school, because by coincidence I went that very school for one year as a transfer student, and had a pretty horrible experience there with the kids, so I am not surprised he also observed some jerk-tastic levels of bullying. It got better for me later, though. Sorry to digress.
After the sign off, Stephen stayed with his feet on the desk, hat on, and guitar in hand. He looked pretty bad ass up there. He asked if there were any more questions, and the young man who I spoke with in the hold room asked him what his favorite thing to teach in Sunday school was. Stephen mentioned that he doesn’t teach Sunday school this year, but when he did it was for 7-year-olds, and how complicated and profound their questions can be, i.e., “what was there before God?”, and how you have to draw like Venn diagrams to explain everything well. He also said they ask questions with sincerity, before they become cynical and posit them when they’re 19 and getting high with their friends – and he mimicked a teenager asking a “deep” question and smoking a blunt. Before leaving us, he started playing “How Lucky” by John Prine, and sang it softly. He played it really well! My friend was surprised at his skill. Some people were singing along with him, and it took me a bit of time to figure out which song it was. I only know John Prine from when he was on the show. The lyrics are pretty nice, and poignant, given the all the good things happening to Stephen at present:
Today I walked down the street I use to wander Yeah, shook my head and made myself a bet There was all these things that I don’t think I remember
Hey, how lucky can one man get.
April 24, 2014: The Taping ReporT!
Your trusty CN Helper got a chance to check out the April 24th, 2014 taping of ‘The Colbert Report’. This is the post-Colb-pocolypse nostalgia edition.
Warm Up
I spent Shakespeare’s maybe-birthday celebrating the best way I know how: by attending my third TCR taping. Landing in NYC, especially when I know I can get over to the studio, fills me with great joy, in spite of my struggling with some kind of mutant allergies and being rudely treated by transport staff almost as soon as my feet hit the tarmac. However, I brushed the New York bruskness off of me and prepared for a couple of days of rest, reflection, and Stephen.
It was hard for me to stand in the hold room and feel like this might be my last visit. As I mentioned, I have been here before on two occasions, but looking at the space now, with a handful of posters haphazardly placed on the wall (a new addition, The Colbert in the Rye is there, looking magnificent), conversation with my taping companion turned to what the new show’s space might look like. The highlight video is changed again, because it had a lot of Iraq clips and Daft Punk, and other newer episodes. A couple of young ladies asked me to snap a picture of them excitedly holding their tickets next to Stephen’s portrait. A young man asked me if the question he planned on asking Stephen was a good one, and I gave him my sound advice. It’s kind of sad to me sometimes how much I know about the show and Stephen now, but I am blessed that I get to share my experiences with you wonderful Hubsters.
Everyone looked ecstatic as per usual to be in the hold room awaiting the taping, and in many ways it was just as before, but I felt kind of bittersweet. This chapter of the story is going to run out, and a new one will begin soon. It is a sad thought, but kind of an exhilarating one as well, that the next time I see the show it will in no way resemble this space or experience, except for Stephen and the staff that will join him.
My taping friend and I noticed that many of this audience were really young, like barely-passing-age-requirement-young. The warm up comedian, Paul Mercurio, went around and thoroughly interrogated various members of the audience. He picked on a lot of couples, including one who met on the dating app tinder, and he applauded them for their “substantive” mate-finding approach. He pulled an older gentleman from the crowd who was wearing a very posh, country club sort of outfit and gave him a pretty hard time, as well as a youngish guy who made it clear that he thought marrying his longtime girlfriend was “too expensive.” (Someone behind us yelled “run!” to the girl, presumably.)
He also singled out the only two black guys in the audience, as well as a young Sikh gentleman who was a math major at Columbia. He asked if he could cut his hair (very politically correct – brave comic.) By coincidence, his Columbia math professor was there, and Mercurio asked if he could tutor his son. Mercurio asked the guy, “do you have a pen” to get his number and then looked around for a pen, which was hilarious, because we all had the pens that are so nicely placed on the seat at every taping. I was like, the only thing all of us have in common right now is having a pen, Einstein! (I kid, I kid.) Looking at the audience assembled for my third time now, it made me appreciate what an eclectic group we are. It’s definitely a hip Nation.
Stephen
After a bit of time we heard Stephen’s voice over microphone and then he bounded in (purple tie! yay!), slapping the hands in the front row. I have to say, of all the times I have ever seen him in person, I have not seen him this happy. The audience coordinator mentioned that Stephen “loves” to be asked about the late night transition, so contrary to what I thought, he is really open about talking about it and must be really excited. By his elated demeanor, I can imagine that Stephen is feeling on top of the world at the moment. One of the audience members asked him what will happen to the character at the show’s end and he said sincerely, “I don’t know. Well, we have 102 more episodes to figure it all out.” A cute group of girls from Germany asked him if he had been to Oktoberfest and he replied “did you see me there — what was I doing?” or something like that. He also made the asking-girl stand up so we could you see how young she looked “you look 12,” he said astutely. A lady asked him to wish her brother a happy birthday, and he sang “Felicem Natalum” to everyone’s delight.
He flung quite a few wristrong bracelets to the crowd, and then did the knife bit where then pretends to throw a sharp knife into the crowd. There was a table of contents, but obviously they were cut, as the show did feel a bit long. He immediately flubbed the second line of the intro, and that began a series of flubs that required Stephen redoing many segments. In my previous two experiences, he did each episode flawlessly — to my disappointment — and I was glad that I got to see how they dealt with errors and basically get more time in the studio. Another cool thing is I was seated right where the staff was coming in and out, so it was interesting to me to watch them work and hear their comments. It’s apparent they keep an eagle eye on every moment to make sure the bits are translating and will redo anything that needs to be until it’s perfect. They’ve all caught Stephen’s Perfectionism Syndrome, but winning a couple of Emmys will do that to you, I suppose.
Cliven Bundy
The show dealt a lot with racism and that awful Cliven Bundy, and every tape he rolled of Fox News and Cliven’s terrible racist tirade just put a pit in your stomach. But we were tasked with laughing, so it was like “boooo” and the sensation of immediately trying to laugh, which is hard, because it was tough subject matter. Stephen acknowledged as much when he was bantering with his staff and asking to roll it again “I am trying to keep it light,” he said, “we are talking about racism, and it’s heavy stuff. Roll the m**f*&n tape!”
The biggest reason he had to redo the Cliven Bundy segment three times was because of the song that Paul Dinello was backing him up on. Yes, Stephen was really playing, he had a capo on and was playing what looked like C and D chords maybe, while reading the complicated lyrics from the prompter, which is hard to do for anybody. I was so happy when I saw Dinello huddling behind him with a guitar. (Whenever I see him with a guitar I think of the lovely song Paul did on Exit 57 “My Wife Dumped Me for a Guy Named Jesus.”) The first time Stephen played, we all started clapping along. But we started clapping faster and faster. After he finished the segment, he told us he wanted to do the segment over and for us not to clap, because he said it was throwing him off, which was true. Also, I heard from the producers milling about that Paul was having a hard time staying down low enough to make the bit work. So they did the segment again, and we had to start from the beginning with the tape and everything, but on the second try once again Stephen flubbed the guitar.
While this was going on, Paul also played around with creeping in front of the camera after the song, which he ran by Stephen before the first take. It was so cool to see how they play off of each other and how Stephen trusts him so implicitly. The only improvised elements of the show left up to chance came when he utilized Paul, which was this bit and at the sign off.
Finally, on the third try, he got the song right, but again, we had to run the whole segment over, which was really long — and containing maddening subject matter. What impressed me, as if I could not get impressed with him any further, is that he never got frustrated, he doubled down and did an even better take on the third try and got everything right. I was thinking, if it were me, I would be so flustered, but he was so professional. Performers can learn so much by just watching him work. Also, Paul played his best riff on the third take, resulting in his satisfied looking expression after the riff.
Paul is also very modest as well, at the “sign off” he did the creep thing across the camera, which surprised Stephen, and Paul said “no, you’re good, you do your thing” kind of begging himself out of the shot, but Stephen insisted he creep across camera again. They were also trying to figure out who would wear which 10-gallon hat, and Paul looked at us and said aside-ly, “this hat’s too small. He’s got a big head!” and we laughed – and luckily Stephen didn’t hear him.
Finishing the Hat
Getting back to before the sign off, we transitioned from racism to sexism (all the bad “isms”) with Phyllis Schlafly’s thoughts on women’s pay scale. He had a hard time saying her last name, so at the end he had to redo a couple of lines. He made an incredulous comment like, “I can’t believe she’s still around – she was going on during the Reagan and Carter administrations.” I think we kinda shrugged, because as I mentioned much of the audience had not yet even been born during the Reagan administration, so we were equally as clueless about Ms. Schlafly’s motivations. But both topics were good and I could gather that the show was very strong, even just by piecing it together from the taping. I was also counting us lucky for getting a great musical bit in our experience.
Finally, after all of this and an extensive amount of consulting with the producers and reading of blue cards, we got to George Saunders. The interview went well, and as George is such a good sport and great with the character, Stephen really went after him for one.freaking.example of him being kind to another person. Pretty much the whole interview aired, except for a brief story likely omitted for time about Saunders’ experience with a Buddhist monk’s treatment of a homeless couple begging for change. It was interesting that Saunders talked about his middle school, because by coincidence I went that very school for one year as a transfer student, and had a pretty horrible experience there with the kids, so I am not surprised he also observed some jerk-tastic levels of bullying. It got better for me later, though. Sorry to digress.
After the sign off, Stephen stayed with his feet on the desk, hat on, and guitar in hand. He looked pretty bad ass up there. He asked if there were any more questions, and the young man who I spoke with in the hold room asked him what his favorite thing to teach in Sunday school was. Stephen mentioned that he doesn’t teach Sunday school this year, but when he did it was for 7-year-olds, and how complicated and profound their questions can be, i.e., “what was there before God?”, and how you have to draw like Venn diagrams to explain everything well. He also said they ask questions with sincerity, before they become cynical and posit them when they’re 19 and getting high with their friends – and he mimicked a teenager asking a “deep” question and smoking a blunt. Before leaving us, he started playing “How Lucky” by John Prine, and sang it softly. He played it really well! My friend was surprised at his skill. Some people were singing along with him, and it took me a bit of time to figure out which song it was. I only know John Prine from when he was on the show. The lyrics are pretty nice, and poignant, given the all the good things happening to Stephen at present: