Welcome to Better Know a Guest, your weekly guide to the wonderful and diverse array of personalities appearing on ‘The Colbert Report’ and ‘The Daily Show’ each week.
Hello, Colbert News Hub! The news focus this week has been on the racial tensions in America and clashes between white police officers and black men. As much as “Stephen” doesn’t see race, everybody else does. There are protests going on all around the country (and in New York City in particular), and I wouldn’t be surprised if they continue to be covered on the Report. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone ran a story about gang rape at the University of Virginia, which turned out not to be true, and Sony was hit with a major cyber attack that may or may not have been the work of North Korea. In lighter news, NASA ran a successful test run of its spacecraft Orion, which was a major step in developing manned missions to Mars, and Beyonce beat Dolly Parton to become the most Grammy-nominated woman ever.
Stephen’s guests this week are the President of the United States, a comedian, and a podcast host. Jon’s are two authors, two filmmakers, and a national security adviser. As usual, let us know what you’re looking forward to in the comments!
Monday, December 8 (2014)
President Barack Obama (President of the United States)
Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States. He began his political career as a community organizer in Chicago in the late 1980s, before attending Harvard Law School. He was the editor of the Harvard Law Review, and in 1994 published his first memoir The Audacity of Hope (for which he later won a Grammy). Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, and served there until 2004 when he was elected to the US Senate. Four years later, Obama was elected the first black president of the United States. As president, Obama has made healthcare his priority, and passed the controversial Affordable Care Act, mandating that all Americans have health insurance. He repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (a huge move for gay rights) and worked to pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq, and successfully lead a mission to kill Osama Bin Laden. However, his foreign policy has been fraught with controversy over drone strikes and the attacks in Benghazi, and American involvement in the war in Libya, and his homeland security efforts have been marred by the NSA spying scandal. Obama is known as an exceptional speaker, and has given iconic speeches on race, school shootings, and most famously at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
Born: August 4, 1961 (Honolulu, Hawaii, United States)
Education: St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School | Besuki Public School | Calvert School | Occidental College | Columbia University | Harvard Law School
Books: The Audacity of Hope | Dreams from my Father
Awards: Nobel Peace Prize | Time’s Person of the Year | Grammy Award | NAACP Award
Previous ‘Colbert Report’ appearance(s): June 8, 2009
Previous ‘Daily Show’ appearance(s): Interviews – November 8, 2005 | April 22, 2008 | October 30, 2008 | October 28, 2010 | October 19, 2012 |
Follow: @BarackObama
Tuesday, December 9 (2014)
James Corden (Actor: “Into the Woods“)
James Corden is a British actor, singer, comedian, and one of the stars of the new film Into the Woods. Corden originally gained fame in Britain as the star and co-creator of the sitcom Gavin & Stacey, and went on to perform in a wide variety of film and TV projects. Corden is also a star on stage; having performed in the West End in London and on Broadway. He attracted international attention for his role as Frances Henshall in the play One Man, Two Guvnors. It was announced this year that Corden will succeed Craig Ferguson as the host of The Late Late Show, following Stephen Colbert every night on CBS. He currently stars in the Disney movie of the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods, which is about a baker (Corden) and his wife who want to start a family but get a curse put on them by a witch (Meryl Streep). Their story intertwines with that of many beloved fairy tale characters, including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel. As reported by The New Yorker, Stephen Sondheim confirmed that Disney had made some changes to the plot, reworking the adult nature of the characters storylines to fit in with a Disney audience.
Born: August 22, 1978
Education: Park Middle School | Jackie Palmer Stage School | Holmer Green Upper School
Filmography: 24:7: Twenty Four Seven | Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? | All or Nothing | Heartlands | Starter for 10 | The History Boys | How to Lose Friends and Alienate People | Lesbian Vampire Killers | Gulliver’s Travels | The Three Musketeers | Into the Woods
Television: Boyz Unlimited | Jack and the Beanstalk | Teachers | Dalziel and Pascoe | Little Britain | Fat Friends | Heroes and Villains | Horne & Corden | Gavin & Stacey | Beast Hunters | Little Charley Bear | Doctor Who | Begin Again | One Chance | The Wrong Man | National Theatre Live | The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night | Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot
Awards: BAFTA Award | British Comedy Award | Broadcasting Press Guild Award | TV Quick Award | Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award | Tony Award
Follow: @JKCorden | Facebook | Instagram
Wednesday, December 10 (2014)
Sarah Koenig (Host: “Serial“)
Sarah Koenig is a journalist and radio host, and currently hosts the wildly popular podcast Serial, which is a real life murder mystery story told over the course of weekly podcasts. The story is about a 1999 Baltimore strangling, and it’s a story that Koenig has been studying for a year. It is a true murder mystery with many aspects still unknown, and the case has captured the attention on the internet and skyrocketed this podcast to fame. Koenig began her career as a political reporter at the The Concord Monitor, covering the 2000 presidential election. She then covered politics for the Baltimore Sun, before becoming a producer on NPR’s This American Life (of which “Serial” is a spinoff). Serial is extremely popular online, spawning many web conversations and even Slate’s podcast about the Serial podcast.
Born: July 1969
Journalism: The East Hampton Star | ABC News | The New York Times | Concord Monitor | Baltimore Sun
Radio: This American Life | Serial
Awards: Peabody Award
Follow: @serial | Serial on Facebook
Thursday, December 11 (2014)
Smaug the Dragon
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies Special
And now, let’s check in with our good friend Jon Stewart over at The Daily Show!
Monday, December 8 (2014)
Norman Lear (Author: “Even This I Get to Experience“)
Norman Lear is a television producer, and author of the new memoir “Even This I Get to Experience”. He has worked on over one hundred shows through his long Hollywood career, including the wildly famous sitcoms like Diff’rent Strokes and All in the Family. Lear is also known for his patriotism and political activism; he founded the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, the business education program Business Enterprise Trust, and the youth voting campaign Declare Yourself. He once purchased an original copy of the Declaration of Independence and toured the country with it for ten years, and filmed a documentary of famous people dramatically reading it. In his new memoir, Lear talks about his Hollywood and business life, and makes the argument that even his darkest times (such as losing tons of money in various businesses) were worthwhile because they were all life experiences. As The Wall Street Journals Jim Kelly notes, the memoirs of most Hollywood moguls tend to be pretty bland, and avoid making their writer look vulnerable or indebted to luck in their industry success. But surprisingly he furthers, that Lear is engaging and unpompous, and isn’t afraid to poke fun at himself while writing about his life with brutal honesty.
Born: July 27, 1922 (New Haven, Connecticut, United States)
Education: Weaver High School | Emerson College
Filmography (selected): All in the Family | Sanford and Son | Maude | Good Times | The Jeffersons | Hot In Baltimore | One Day at a Time | Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman | The Dumplings | All’s Fair | All That Glitters | Fernwood 2 Night | America 2 Night | Diff’rent Strokes | The Facts of Life | The Baxters | Archie Bunker’s Place | Silver Spoons | Gloria | Square Pegs | a.k.a. Pablo | Who’s the Boss?
Books: Even This I Get to Experience
Awards: Emmy Awards | Peabody Award | National Medal of Arts | Women in Film Lucy Award
Follow: Website | @TheNormanLear | Facebook | Youtube
Tuesday, December 9 (2014)
Kathryn Bigelow (Director: “Last Days“)
Kathryn Bigelow is a film director, whose most recent work is a short film about elephant poaching. She began gaining notoriety by making a series of action films in the 1990s, with her big break ‘The Hurt Locker’, winning her two Oscars (she was the first woman to win one for Best Director). She directed ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, which was also an award winning film and sparked much debate about America’s use of torture. Her latest film, “Last Days”, is a short feature for time.com about elephant poaching. In the film, she draws a comparison between elephant poaching and terrorism, because “both involve the loss of innocent life, and both require urgent action.” She hopes to use this film to bring awareness to the issue. As it would take much time and a large budget to film actual elephant poaching, Bigelow and her team decided to use animation in the film instead to attract a broader audience.
Born: November 27, 1951 (San Carlos, California, United States)
Education: San Francisco Art Institute | Columbia University
Filmography: The Loveless | Near Dark | Blue Steel | Point Break | Strange Days | The Weight of Water | K-19: The Widowmaker | The Hurt Locker | Zero Dark Thirty | Last Days
Awards: Oscar Awards | BAFTA Awards | Producers Guild of America Award | Satellite Award
Previous ‘Colbert Report’ appearance(s): Interviews – July 30, 2009 | January 22, 2013
Juan Zarate (Director: “Last Days”)
Juan Zarate is a national security expert, who currently works as the senior national security analyst for CBS News, and is a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School. From 2005 to 2009, Zarate was President Obama’s deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism. He is an expert in “financial warfare”, in which America attacks terrorists’ financing. In addition to his roles at CBS and Harvard, Zarate also advises the security think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, and was appointed by Pope Francis to a board that oversees the Vatican’s finances. He is the strategic advisor for the Last Days of Ivory campaign, which is raising awareness of illegal elephant poaching and ivory trade. The campaign began as a short film by Kathryn Bigelow about elephant poaching, and turned into a larger project to bring awareness to the issue by directing people to write about it with standard hashtags and a badge, as well as donating money to foundations that organize awareness campaigns.
Education: Harvard University | Harvard Law School
Books: Forging Democracy | Treasury’s War
Follow: @JCZarate1
Wednesday, December 10 (2014)
Suki Kim (Author: “Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite“)
Suki Kim is a journalist and author, who was born in South Korea, before immigrating to the United States as a teenager. Her debut novel, The Interpreter was a murder mystery, about a court interpreter who investigates her parents’ murder. Her second, Without You, There Is No Us, is a work of non-fiction about life in North Korea. Kim was curious about the country, so she took a job teaching English at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, an upscale college in North Korea that teaches children of the country’s elite class. She wrote about her experiences there, with the book gaining a lot of attention because North Korea is notoriously difficult for an outsider to infiltrate. Kim acknowledges that her writing may put some of her North Korean contacts in danger, but has said that she believed the information needed to be out there in the world. She also writes about how she tried to educate sheltered children about the outside world, and the inherent dangers in doing so. The Chicago Tribune calls the book “Remarkable … A deeply unsettling book, offering a rare and disturbing inside glimpse into the strangeness, brutality and claustrophobia of North Korea … Kim’s book is full of small observations that vividly evoke the paranoia and loneliness of a nation living in fear and in thrall to its ‘Great Leaders’ … Her portraits of her students are tender and heartbreaking, highlighting the enormity of what is at stake.”
Born: Seoul, South Korea
Education: Barnard College | School of Oriental and African Studies
Books: The Interpreter | Without You, There Is No Us
Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship | Open Society Foundations Fellowship | PEN Beyond Margins Award | Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award
Follow: Website | @SukisWorld
Thursday, December 11 (2014)
Mick Foley (Producer: “I Am Santa Claus”)
Mick Foley is a wrestler, writer, and comedian. He began his career as a professional wrestler, taking on various personas, his most famous was Mankind, which he says is based on a combination of the movie Frankenstein and Tori Amos. Toward the end of his wrestling career Foley wrote a memoir (by hand), without the aid of a ghostwriter. The book was funny and engaging and became a New York Times bestseller, launching his career in comedy. Since then, Foley has gone on to write four memoirs, four children’s books, and two adult novels. Foley is also a stand-up comedian, and has acted in comedies such as 30 Rock and Boy Meets World. He has made several appearances on the Daily Show, most recently to help John Oliver trash talk after Oliver was mentioned in a WWE match in a dialogue about immigration. His new documentary is “I Am Santa Claus”, which tells the story of Santa impersonators from all walks of life. The movie is so far generating a buzz for its depiction of a gay Santa impersonator, and Foley has vocalized his support for all types of Santas. He went to Santa school (which is a thing), and met great Santas who were gay, straight, female, and Jewish. Foley is a supporter of all Santas, as long as they are not criminals.
Born: June 7, 1965 (Bloomington, Indiana, United States)
Education: Ward Melville High School | State University of New York
Filmography: Now and Again | Avatar: The Last Airbender | Staten Island | Anamorph | The Daily Show | Savage Hot Babe Massacre | 30 Rock | I Am Santa Claus
Books: Have a Nice Day | Foley is Good | The Hardcore Diaries | Countdown to Lockdown | Mick Foley’s Christmas Carols | Mick Foley’s Halloween Hijinx | Tales from Wrescal Lane | A Most Mizerable Christmas | Tietam Brown | Scooter
Awards: Medal of Reasonableness from the Rally to Restore Sanity
Previous ‘Daily Show’ appearance(s): Interview – November 10, 2010; Appearances – November 19, 2009 | March 15, 2010 | June 18, 2013
Follow: Website | @RealMickFoley | Facebook | YouTube
Better Know A Guest, December 8 – 11, 2014
Welcome to Better Know a Guest, your weekly guide to the wonderful and diverse array of personalities appearing on ‘The Colbert Report’ and ‘The Daily Show’ each week.
Hello, Colbert News Hub! The news focus this week has been on the racial tensions in America and clashes between white police officers and black men. As much as “Stephen” doesn’t see race, everybody else does. There are protests going on all around the country (and in New York City in particular), and I wouldn’t be surprised if they continue to be covered on the Report. Meanwhile, Rolling Stone ran a story about gang rape at the University of Virginia, which turned out not to be true, and Sony was hit with a major cyber attack that may or may not have been the work of North Korea. In lighter news, NASA ran a successful test run of its spacecraft Orion, which was a major step in developing manned missions to Mars, and Beyonce beat Dolly Parton to become the most Grammy-nominated woman ever.
Stephen’s guests this week are the President of the United States, a comedian, and a podcast host. Jon’s are two authors, two filmmakers, and a national security adviser. As usual, let us know what you’re looking forward to in the comments!
Monday, December 8 (2014)
President Barack Obama (President of the United States)
Barack Obama is the 44th president of the United States. He began his political career as a community organizer in Chicago in the late 1980s, before attending Harvard Law School. He was the editor of the Harvard Law Review, and in 1994 published his first memoir The Audacity of Hope (for which he later won a Grammy). Obama was elected to the Illinois Senate in 1996, and served there until 2004 when he was elected to the US Senate. Four years later, Obama was elected the first black president of the United States. As president, Obama has made healthcare his priority, and passed the controversial Affordable Care Act, mandating that all Americans have health insurance. He repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (a huge move for gay rights) and worked to pull troops out of Afghanistan and Iraq, and successfully lead a mission to kill Osama Bin Laden. However, his foreign policy has been fraught with controversy over drone strikes and the attacks in Benghazi, and American involvement in the war in Libya, and his homeland security efforts have been marred by the NSA spying scandal. Obama is known as an exceptional speaker, and has given iconic speeches on race, school shootings, and most famously at the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
Born: August 4, 1961 (Honolulu, Hawaii, United States)
Education: St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School | Besuki Public School | Calvert School | Occidental College | Columbia University | Harvard Law School
Books: The Audacity of Hope | Dreams from my Father
Awards: Nobel Peace Prize | Time’s Person of the Year | Grammy Award | NAACP Award
Previous ‘Colbert Report’ appearance(s): June 8, 2009
Previous ‘Daily Show’ appearance(s): Interviews – November 8, 2005 | April 22, 2008 | October 30, 2008 | October 28, 2010 | October 19, 2012 |
Follow: @BarackObama
Tuesday, December 9 (2014)
James Corden (Actor: “Into the Woods“)
James Corden is a British actor, singer, comedian, and one of the stars of the new film Into the Woods. Corden originally gained fame in Britain as the star and co-creator of the sitcom Gavin & Stacey, and went on to perform in a wide variety of film and TV projects. Corden is also a star on stage; having performed in the West End in London and on Broadway. He attracted international attention for his role as Frances Henshall in the play One Man, Two Guvnors. It was announced this year that Corden will succeed Craig Ferguson as the host of The Late Late Show, following Stephen Colbert every night on CBS. He currently stars in the Disney movie of the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods, which is about a baker (Corden) and his wife who want to start a family but get a curse put on them by a witch (Meryl Streep). Their story intertwines with that of many beloved fairy tale characters, including Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk, and Rapunzel. As reported by The New Yorker, Stephen Sondheim confirmed that Disney had made some changes to the plot, reworking the adult nature of the characters storylines to fit in with a Disney audience.
Born: August 22, 1978
Education: Park Middle School | Jackie Palmer Stage School | Holmer Green Upper School
Filmography: 24:7: Twenty Four Seven | Whatever Happened to Harold Smith? | All or Nothing | Heartlands | Starter for 10 | The History Boys | How to Lose Friends and Alienate People | Lesbian Vampire Killers | Gulliver’s Travels | The Three Musketeers | Into the Woods
Television: Boyz Unlimited | Jack and the Beanstalk | Teachers | Dalziel and Pascoe | Little Britain | Fat Friends | Heroes and Villains | Horne & Corden | Gavin & Stacey | Beast Hunters | Little Charley Bear | Doctor Who | Begin Again | One Chance | The Wrong Man | National Theatre Live | The Feeling Nuts Comedy Night | Roald Dahl’s Esio Trot
Awards: BAFTA Award | British Comedy Award | Broadcasting Press Guild Award | TV Quick Award | Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Award | Tony Award
Follow: @JKCorden | Facebook | Instagram
Wednesday, December 10 (2014)
Sarah Koenig (Host: “Serial“)
Sarah Koenig is a journalist and radio host, and currently hosts the wildly popular podcast Serial, which is a real life murder mystery story told over the course of weekly podcasts. The story is about a 1999 Baltimore strangling, and it’s a story that Koenig has been studying for a year. It is a true murder mystery with many aspects still unknown, and the case has captured the attention on the internet and skyrocketed this podcast to fame. Koenig began her career as a political reporter at the The Concord Monitor, covering the 2000 presidential election. She then covered politics for the Baltimore Sun, before becoming a producer on NPR’s This American Life (of which “Serial” is a spinoff). Serial is extremely popular online, spawning many web conversations and even Slate’s podcast about the Serial podcast.
Born: July 1969
Journalism: The East Hampton Star | ABC News | The New York Times | Concord Monitor | Baltimore Sun
Radio: This American Life | Serial
Awards: Peabody Award
Follow: @serial | Serial on Facebook
Thursday, December 11 (2014)
Smaug the Dragon
The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies Special
And now, let’s check in with our good friend Jon Stewart over at The Daily Show!
Monday, December 8 (2014)
Norman Lear (Author: “Even This I Get to Experience“)
Norman Lear is a television producer, and author of the new memoir “Even This I Get to Experience”. He has worked on over one hundred shows through his long Hollywood career, including the wildly famous sitcoms like Diff’rent Strokes and All in the Family. Lear is also known for his patriotism and political activism; he founded the liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, the business education program Business Enterprise Trust, and the youth voting campaign Declare Yourself. He once purchased an original copy of the Declaration of Independence and toured the country with it for ten years, and filmed a documentary of famous people dramatically reading it. In his new memoir, Lear talks about his Hollywood and business life, and makes the argument that even his darkest times (such as losing tons of money in various businesses) were worthwhile because they were all life experiences. As The Wall Street Journals Jim Kelly notes, the memoirs of most Hollywood moguls tend to be pretty bland, and avoid making their writer look vulnerable or indebted to luck in their industry success. But surprisingly he furthers, that Lear is engaging and unpompous, and isn’t afraid to poke fun at himself while writing about his life with brutal honesty.
Born: July 27, 1922 (New Haven, Connecticut, United States)
Education: Weaver High School | Emerson College
Filmography (selected): All in the Family | Sanford and Son | Maude | Good Times | The Jeffersons | Hot In Baltimore | One Day at a Time | Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman | The Dumplings | All’s Fair | All That Glitters | Fernwood 2 Night | America 2 Night | Diff’rent Strokes | The Facts of Life | The Baxters | Archie Bunker’s Place | Silver Spoons | Gloria | Square Pegs | a.k.a. Pablo | Who’s the Boss?
Books: Even This I Get to Experience
Awards: Emmy Awards | Peabody Award | National Medal of Arts | Women in Film Lucy Award
Follow: Website | @TheNormanLear | Facebook | Youtube
Tuesday, December 9 (2014)
Kathryn Bigelow (Director: “Last Days“)
Kathryn Bigelow is a film director, whose most recent work is a short film about elephant poaching. She began gaining notoriety by making a series of action films in the 1990s, with her big break ‘The Hurt Locker’, winning her two Oscars (she was the first woman to win one for Best Director). She directed ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ about the hunt for Osama bin Laden, which was also an award winning film and sparked much debate about America’s use of torture. Her latest film, “Last Days”, is a short feature for time.com about elephant poaching. In the film, she draws a comparison between elephant poaching and terrorism, because “both involve the loss of innocent life, and both require urgent action.” She hopes to use this film to bring awareness to the issue. As it would take much time and a large budget to film actual elephant poaching, Bigelow and her team decided to use animation in the film instead to attract a broader audience.
Born: November 27, 1951 (San Carlos, California, United States)
Education: San Francisco Art Institute | Columbia University
Filmography: The Loveless | Near Dark | Blue Steel | Point Break | Strange Days | The Weight of Water | K-19: The Widowmaker | The Hurt Locker | Zero Dark Thirty | Last Days
Awards: Oscar Awards | BAFTA Awards | Producers Guild of America Award | Satellite Award
Previous ‘Colbert Report’ appearance(s): Interviews – July 30, 2009 | January 22, 2013
Juan Zarate (Director: “Last Days”)
Juan Zarate is a national security expert, who currently works as the senior national security analyst for CBS News, and is a visiting lecturer at Harvard Law School. From 2005 to 2009, Zarate was President Obama’s deputy national security adviser for combating terrorism. He is an expert in “financial warfare”, in which America attacks terrorists’ financing. In addition to his roles at CBS and Harvard, Zarate also advises the security think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, and was appointed by Pope Francis to a board that oversees the Vatican’s finances. He is the strategic advisor for the Last Days of Ivory campaign, which is raising awareness of illegal elephant poaching and ivory trade. The campaign began as a short film by Kathryn Bigelow about elephant poaching, and turned into a larger project to bring awareness to the issue by directing people to write about it with standard hashtags and a badge, as well as donating money to foundations that organize awareness campaigns.
Education: Harvard University | Harvard Law School
Books: Forging Democracy | Treasury’s War
Follow: @JCZarate1
Wednesday, December 10 (2014)
Suki Kim (Author: “Without You, There Is No Us: My Time with the Sons of North Korea’s Elite“)
Suki Kim is a journalist and author, who was born in South Korea, before immigrating to the United States as a teenager. Her debut novel, The Interpreter was a murder mystery, about a court interpreter who investigates her parents’ murder. Her second, Without You, There Is No Us, is a work of non-fiction about life in North Korea. Kim was curious about the country, so she took a job teaching English at Pyongyang University of Science and Technology, an upscale college in North Korea that teaches children of the country’s elite class. She wrote about her experiences there, with the book gaining a lot of attention because North Korea is notoriously difficult for an outsider to infiltrate. Kim acknowledges that her writing may put some of her North Korean contacts in danger, but has said that she believed the information needed to be out there in the world. She also writes about how she tried to educate sheltered children about the outside world, and the inherent dangers in doing so. The Chicago Tribune calls the book “Remarkable … A deeply unsettling book, offering a rare and disturbing inside glimpse into the strangeness, brutality and claustrophobia of North Korea … Kim’s book is full of small observations that vividly evoke the paranoia and loneliness of a nation living in fear and in thrall to its ‘Great Leaders’ … Her portraits of her students are tender and heartbreaking, highlighting the enormity of what is at stake.”
Born: Seoul, South Korea
Education: Barnard College | School of Oriental and African Studies
Books: The Interpreter | Without You, There Is No Us
Awards: Guggenheim Fellowship | Open Society Foundations Fellowship | PEN Beyond Margins Award | Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award
Follow: Website | @SukisWorld
Thursday, December 11 (2014)
Mick Foley (Producer: “I Am Santa Claus”)
Mick Foley is a wrestler, writer, and comedian. He began his career as a professional wrestler, taking on various personas, his most famous was Mankind, which he says is based on a combination of the movie Frankenstein and Tori Amos. Toward the end of his wrestling career Foley wrote a memoir (by hand), without the aid of a ghostwriter. The book was funny and engaging and became a New York Times bestseller, launching his career in comedy. Since then, Foley has gone on to write four memoirs, four children’s books, and two adult novels. Foley is also a stand-up comedian, and has acted in comedies such as 30 Rock and Boy Meets World. He has made several appearances on the Daily Show, most recently to help John Oliver trash talk after Oliver was mentioned in a WWE match in a dialogue about immigration. His new documentary is “I Am Santa Claus”, which tells the story of Santa impersonators from all walks of life. The movie is so far generating a buzz for its depiction of a gay Santa impersonator, and Foley has vocalized his support for all types of Santas. He went to Santa school (which is a thing), and met great Santas who were gay, straight, female, and Jewish. Foley is a supporter of all Santas, as long as they are not criminals.
Born: June 7, 1965 (Bloomington, Indiana, United States)
Education: Ward Melville High School | State University of New York
Filmography: Now and Again | Avatar: The Last Airbender | Staten Island | Anamorph | The Daily Show | Savage Hot Babe Massacre | 30 Rock | I Am Santa Claus
Books: Have a Nice Day | Foley is Good | The Hardcore Diaries | Countdown to Lockdown | Mick Foley’s Christmas Carols | Mick Foley’s Halloween Hijinx | Tales from Wrescal Lane | A Most Mizerable Christmas | Tietam Brown | Scooter
Awards: Medal of Reasonableness from the Rally to Restore Sanity
Previous ‘Daily Show’ appearance(s): Interview – November 10, 2010; Appearances – November 19, 2009 | March 15, 2010 | June 18, 2013
Follow: Website | @RealMickFoley | Facebook | YouTube