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.
Hey there Hubsters! I hope all of you enjoyed a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! After a week off, it’s time for some more Colbert–and goodness knows we’d better soak it up while we can! As usual, let us know about any topics you hope the guys will discuss in the topics below. Stephen’s guests at the desk this week are two actors, an economist, and a musician. Jon’s guests this week are two actors, a comedian, and a journalist.
Monday, June 2 (2014)
Thomas Piketty (Author: “Capital in the 21st Century”)
Thomas Piketty is a French economist who studies wealth and income inequality. His book, Capital in the 21st Century discusses the sources of income inequality, and how the gap builds over time. To do so, the book compares data from over 20 countries, some of which stretch back to the 18th century. Piketty believes that the spread of information has allowed society to avoid having even wider gaps in income, but worries that we have not sufficiently altered the structures that create such inequality. He believes that political action has put a halt to rapidly growing inequality before, and it can do it again. Thomas Edsall of the New York Times commented that “Final judgment on Piketty’s work will come with time – a problem in and of itself, because if he is right, inequality will worsen, making it all the more difficult to take preemptive action.” However, The Financial Times has been very vocal of its skepticism of Piketty’s work, as have many conservative financial and political thinkers.
Born: 7 May 1971 (Clichy, France)
Education: Ecole Normale Superieure
Works: On the Long Run: Evolution of Inheritance
Tuesday, June 3 (2014)
Morgan Freeman (Host: “Through the Wormhole”)
Morgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, and narrator. Currently, he lends his hosting and narrating talents to Discovery’s Through the Wormhole. The show explores what we know about space and examines theoretical questions about the universe and life, bringing together the brightest minds and best ideas throughout science — Astrophysics, Astrobiology, Quantum Mechanics, String Theory, and more — to reveal the extraordinary truth of our Universe. Its fifth season premiered on March 5, 2014.
Born: 1 June 1937 (Memphis, Tennessee, United States)
Education: Broad Street High School | Pasadena Playhouse
Filmography: Driving Miss Daisy | Lean on Me | The Civil War | The Shawshank Redemption | Amistad | Bruce Almighty | Million Dollar Baby | War of the Worlds | Batman Begins | Evan Almighty | The Bucket List | The Dark Night | The Dark Knight Rises
Television: The Electric Company | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry | The Twilight Zone | Ken Burns’ The Civil War | Slavery and the Making of America | Stephen Fry in America | Curiosity
Awards: Academy Award | Golden Globe | American Film Institute Award | Black Reel Award | Chlotrudis Award | Empire Award | Screen Actors Guild Award | Walk of Fame
Previous “Colbert Report” Appearance(s): Interview – 11 January 2010
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – 2 June 2010 | 23 May 2013
Wednesday, June 4 (2014)
Jonah Hill (Actor: “22 Jump Street”)
Jonah Hill is an American Oscar-nominated actor, producer, screenwriter, comedian, and voice actor. He stars in the upcoming movie 22 Jump Street, the sequel to the surprise hit comedy 21 Jump Street. In this installment, officers Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) go undercover again – this time at a local college. While investigating, Jenko gets in with the football team while Schmidt becomes involved in with the art majors. These differences threaten their friendship and their ability to solve the case. The film hits cinema’s on June 13th, 2014.
Born: 20 December 1983 (Los Angeles, California, United States)
Education: The Center for Early Education | Brentwood School | Crossroads School Filmography: Accepted | Get Him to the Greek | I Heart Huckabees | The 40 Year Old Virgin | 10 Items or Less | Knocked Up | Evan Almighty | Horton Hears a Who! | 21 Jump Street | This is the End | The Wolf of Wall Street | How to Train Your Dragon 1 & 2
Television:NYPD Blue | Reno 911! | The Simpsons | Comedy Central Roast of James Franco
Awards:MTV Movie Award | Palm Springs International Film Festival
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – 3 June 2010 | 6 December 2011 | 19 December 2013
Follow: @JonahHill | Facebook
Thursday, June 5 (2014)
Chrissie Hynde (Album: “Stockholm”)
Chrissie Hynde is an American musician, best known as the leader of the rock band the Pretenders. In 2014 she released her first solo album, titled Stockholm. It features collaborations with Neil Young, Bjorn Yttling, John McEnroe, and Joakim Ahlund. Available on June 10, 2014, Mojo describes the album as, “… 11 songs of nonchalant defiance, hard-edged resignation and occasionally crumpled vulnerability that show off her enduring appeal”.
Born: 7 September 1951 (Akron, Ohio, United States)
Education: Firestone High School
Discography: (with The Pretenders) Pretenders | Pretenders II | Learning to Crawl | Get Close | Packed! | Last of the Independents | Viva el Amor | Loose Screw | Break Up the Concrete | The Isle of View
Follow: @ChrissieHynde
And now, to check in with our good friend Jon Stewart over at The Daily Show!
Monday, June 2 (2014)
Robert De Niro (Correspondent: “Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr.”)
Robert De Niro is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actor, voice actor, director, producer and co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival. He will lend his talents to the upcoming HBO documentary about his late father, artist Robert De Niro, Sr. The film features De Niro, Jr. reading passages from his father’s journals, especially those in which he revealed that he left his wife (De Niro’s mother, Virginia Admiral) after realizing his homosexuality. The documentary also reflects on the artist’s career and his life, and was first screened at the Sundance Film Festival where it was met with enthusiasm, curiosity and surprise. De Niro told the crowd at the Yarrow Theater after a screening of the film, that “I did this for him,I wanted my younger kids — who were born after he died — to know what their grandfather did. I even kept his painting studio intact so they could see it.” The documentary premieres on June 9th.
Born: 17 August 1943 (Manhattan, New York, United States)
Education:Elisabeth Irwin High School | Stella Adler Conservatory | Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio
Filmography: The Godfather Part II | Taxi Driver | The Deer Hunter | Raging Bull | Cape Fear | Casino | Great Expectations | Ronin | Men of Honor | Meet the Parents | Shark Tale | Meet the Fockers | Little Fockers | Limitless | New Year’s Eve | American Hustle
Awards: Academy Award | Golden Globe | Kennedy Center Honor | Walk of Fame
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – 10 September 2008
Tuesday, June 3 (2014)
Ricky Gervais (Actor: “Derek”)
Ricky Gervais is an English comedian, actor, voice actor, director, producer, musician, and writer, who rose to fame as the creator and star of the original UK version of The Office. His latest television venture is the show Derek, in which he stars as the titular character, a nursing home employee named Derek, who, while mocked and disliked by many outside of the nursing home, often goes above and beyond his duties to make the residents feel happy. The show has met mixed reviews, with one critic saying that “Derek is as irreverent as might be expected from a show starring Ricky Gervais, but this time he brings a surprising amount of depth and empathy to the title character.” Others critics have voiced concerns that the character of Derek is an unsympathetic portrayal of a person with mental disabilities.
Born: 25 June 1961 (Reading, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom)
Education: Whitley Park Infants and Junior Schools | University College London
Filmography: Night at the Museum | Stardust | Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian | The Muppets
Television: The Office (UK) | Robbie the Reindeer in Legend of the Lost Tribe | The Office (US) | Extras | The Simpsons | Family Guy
Books: Flanimals
Awards:British Academy Television Award | British Comedy Award | Royal Television Society | Emmy Award | TCA Award | Writer’s Guild of America Award | AFI Award | Golden Globe Award | Satellite Award | PRISM Award
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – 21 September 2005 | 3 April 2006 | 13 December 2006 | 16 September 2008 | 24 February 2009 | 16 September 2009 | 22 February 2010 | 14 December 2010 | 14 April 2011 | 14 February 2012 | 11 April 2012 | 17 April 2013
Follow: Website | @RickyGervais
Wednesday, June 4
Gigi Ibrahim (Subject: “Gigi’s Revolution”)
Gigi Ibrahim is an Egyptian activist, journalist, and blogger, and is often noted as “one of the leaders” of the Tahrir Square protests during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. She and her work are the subject of the PBS Frontline documentary Gigi’s Revolution. The documentary follows her use of social media to report the activities of the revolution going on around her and share them with the world.
Born: 2 December 1986 (Long Beach, California, United States)
Education: American University in Cairo
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – 26 April 2011
Follow: @GSquare86 | Facebook
Thursday, June 5
Tom Cruise (Actor: “The Edge of Tomorrow”)
Tom Cruise is an American actor and producer, who stars in the upcoming movie The Edge of Tomorrow, a science fiction film based on the novel All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. In the future, an alien race invades Earth. The aliens are known as “mimics” for their ability to imitate Earth fighting tactics, making them almost impossible to combat. In one battle, Major William Cage (Cruise) is killed when he detonates a bomb to kill an alpha mimic. He then wakes up on the first day of his deployment. He soon realizes that every time he dies, he activates a time loop that takes him back to this day. He resolves to use his new-found power to try and halt the invasion. Cruise is joined by Special Forces soldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson), Sergeant Farrell (Bill Paxton), and Dr. Carter (Noah Taylor). The film has generally been praised, and many were impressed that the time-loop plot device did not become boring.
Born: 3 July 1962 (Syracuse, New York, United States)
Education: Robert Hopkins Public School | Henry Munro Middle School
Filmography: Risky Business | Top Gun | Rain Main | Days of Thunder | Far and Away | A Few Good Men | Mission: Impossible | Jerry Maguire | Interview with the Vampire | Mission: Impossible II | Minority Report | Austin Powers in Goldmember | The Last Samurai | War of the Worlds | Mission: Impossible III | Valkyrie | Tropic Thunder | Mission: Impossible–Ghost | Rock of Ages
Awards: AFI Award | Saturn Award | Empire Award | Golden Globe Award | MTV Movie Award | People’s Choice Award | Satellite Award | Walk of Fame
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – 17 April 2013 | 12 August 2004
Follow: Website | @TomCruise | Facebook
Please remember to vote in our weekly favourite guests polls, and don’t forget to let us know which guests you’re looking forward to! Also please try to comment with any tips or suggestions that you have for this post. Thanks! Here’s to a great week of shows! That’s all for this week Hubsters! See you next time!
Better Know a Guest: June 2 – 5, 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.
Hey there Hubsters! I hope all of you enjoyed a wonderful Memorial Day weekend! After a week off, it’s time for some more Colbert–and goodness knows we’d better soak it up while we can! As usual, let us know about any topics you hope the guys will discuss in the topics below. Stephen’s guests at the desk this week are two actors, an economist, and a musician. Jon’s guests this week are two actors, a comedian, and a journalist.
Monday, June 2 (2014)
Thomas Piketty (Author: “Capital in the 21st Century”)
Thomas Piketty is a French economist who studies wealth and income inequality. His book, Capital in the 21st Century discusses the sources of income inequality, and how the gap builds over time. To do so, the book compares data from over 20 countries, some of which stretch back to the 18th century. Piketty believes that the spread of information has allowed society to avoid having even wider gaps in income, but worries that we have not sufficiently altered the structures that create such inequality. He believes that political action has put a halt to rapidly growing inequality before, and it can do it again. Thomas Edsall of the New York Times commented that “Final judgment on Piketty’s work will come with time – a problem in and of itself, because if he is right, inequality will worsen, making it all the more difficult to take preemptive action.” However, The Financial Times has been very vocal of its skepticism of Piketty’s work, as have many conservative financial and political thinkers.
Born: 7 May 1971 (Clichy, France)
Education: Ecole Normale Superieure
Works: On the Long Run: Evolution of Inheritance
Tuesday, June 3 (2014)
Morgan Freeman (Host: “Through the Wormhole”)
Morgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, and narrator. Currently, he lends his hosting and narrating talents to Discovery’s Through the Wormhole. The show explores what we know about space and examines theoretical questions about the universe and life, bringing together the brightest minds and best ideas throughout science — Astrophysics, Astrobiology, Quantum Mechanics, String Theory, and more — to reveal the extraordinary truth of our Universe. Its fifth season premiered on March 5, 2014.
Born: 1 June 1937 (Memphis, Tennessee, United States)
Education: Broad Street High School | Pasadena Playhouse
Filmography: Driving Miss Daisy | Lean on Me | The Civil War | The Shawshank Redemption | Amistad | Bruce Almighty | Million Dollar Baby | War of the Worlds | Batman Begins | Evan Almighty | The Bucket List | The Dark Night | The Dark Knight Rises
Television: The Electric Company | Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry | The Twilight Zone | Ken Burns’ The Civil War | Slavery and the Making of America | Stephen Fry in America | Curiosity
Awards: Academy Award | Golden Globe | American Film Institute Award | Black Reel Award | Chlotrudis Award | Empire Award | Screen Actors Guild Award | Walk of Fame
Previous “Colbert Report” Appearance(s): Interview – 11 January 2010
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – 2 June 2010 | 23 May 2013
Wednesday, June 4 (2014)
Jonah Hill (Actor: “22 Jump Street”)
Jonah Hill is an American Oscar-nominated actor, producer, screenwriter, comedian, and voice actor. He stars in the upcoming movie 22 Jump Street, the sequel to the surprise hit comedy 21 Jump Street. In this installment, officers Morton Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Greg Jenko (Channing Tatum) go undercover again – this time at a local college. While investigating, Jenko gets in with the football team while Schmidt becomes involved in with the art majors. These differences threaten their friendship and their ability to solve the case. The film hits cinema’s on June 13th, 2014.
Born: 20 December 1983 (Los Angeles, California, United States)
Education: The Center for Early Education | Brentwood School | Crossroads School Filmography: Accepted | Get Him to the Greek | I Heart Huckabees | The 40 Year Old Virgin | 10 Items or Less | Knocked Up | Evan Almighty | Horton Hears a Who! | 21 Jump Street | This is the End | The Wolf of Wall Street | How to Train Your Dragon 1 & 2
Television:NYPD Blue | Reno 911! | The Simpsons | Comedy Central Roast of James Franco
Awards:MTV Movie Award | Palm Springs International Film Festival
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – 3 June 2010 | 6 December 2011 | 19 December 2013
Follow: @JonahHill | Facebook
Thursday, June 5 (2014)
Chrissie Hynde (Album: “Stockholm”)
Chrissie Hynde is an American musician, best known as the leader of the rock band the Pretenders. In 2014 she released her first solo album, titled Stockholm. It features collaborations with Neil Young, Bjorn Yttling, John McEnroe, and Joakim Ahlund. Available on June 10, 2014, Mojo describes the album as, “… 11 songs of nonchalant defiance, hard-edged resignation and occasionally crumpled vulnerability that show off her enduring appeal”.
Born: 7 September 1951 (Akron, Ohio, United States)
Education: Firestone High School
Discography: (with The Pretenders) Pretenders | Pretenders II | Learning to Crawl | Get Close | Packed! | Last of the Independents | Viva el Amor | Loose Screw | Break Up the Concrete | The Isle of View
Follow: @ChrissieHynde
And now, to check in with our good friend Jon Stewart over at The Daily Show!
Monday, June 2 (2014)
Robert De Niro (Correspondent: “Remembering the Artist: Robert De Niro, Sr.”)
Robert De Niro is a two-time Academy Award-winning American actor, voice actor, director, producer and co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival. He will lend his talents to the upcoming HBO documentary about his late father, artist Robert De Niro, Sr. The film features De Niro, Jr. reading passages from his father’s journals, especially those in which he revealed that he left his wife (De Niro’s mother, Virginia Admiral) after realizing his homosexuality. The documentary also reflects on the artist’s career and his life, and was first screened at the Sundance Film Festival where it was met with enthusiasm, curiosity and surprise. De Niro told the crowd at the Yarrow Theater after a screening of the film, that “I did this for him,I wanted my younger kids — who were born after he died — to know what their grandfather did. I even kept his painting studio intact so they could see it.” The documentary premieres on June 9th.
Born: 17 August 1943 (Manhattan, New York, United States)
Education:Elisabeth Irwin High School | Stella Adler Conservatory | Lee Strasberg’s Actors Studio
Filmography: The Godfather Part II | Taxi Driver | The Deer Hunter | Raging Bull | Cape Fear | Casino | Great Expectations | Ronin | Men of Honor | Meet the Parents | Shark Tale | Meet the Fockers | Little Fockers | Limitless | New Year’s Eve | American Hustle
Awards: Academy Award | Golden Globe | Kennedy Center Honor | Walk of Fame
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – 10 September 2008
Tuesday, June 3 (2014)
Ricky Gervais (Actor: “Derek”)
Ricky Gervais is an English comedian, actor, voice actor, director, producer, musician, and writer, who rose to fame as the creator and star of the original UK version of The Office. His latest television venture is the show Derek, in which he stars as the titular character, a nursing home employee named Derek, who, while mocked and disliked by many outside of the nursing home, often goes above and beyond his duties to make the residents feel happy. The show has met mixed reviews, with one critic saying that “Derek is as irreverent as might be expected from a show starring Ricky Gervais, but this time he brings a surprising amount of depth and empathy to the title character.” Others critics have voiced concerns that the character of Derek is an unsympathetic portrayal of a person with mental disabilities.
Born: 25 June 1961 (Reading, Berkshire, England, United Kingdom)
Education: Whitley Park Infants and Junior Schools | University College London
Filmography: Night at the Museum | Stardust | Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian | The Muppets
Television: The Office (UK) | Robbie the Reindeer in Legend of the Lost Tribe | The Office (US) | Extras | The Simpsons | Family Guy
Books: Flanimals
Awards:British Academy Television Award | British Comedy Award | Royal Television Society | Emmy Award | TCA Award | Writer’s Guild of America Award | AFI Award | Golden Globe Award | Satellite Award | PRISM Award
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – 21 September 2005 | 3 April 2006 | 13 December 2006 | 16 September 2008 | 24 February 2009 | 16 September 2009 | 22 February 2010 | 14 December 2010 | 14 April 2011 | 14 February 2012 | 11 April 2012 | 17 April 2013
Follow: Website | @RickyGervais
Wednesday, June 4
Gigi Ibrahim (Subject: “Gigi’s Revolution”)
Gigi Ibrahim is an Egyptian activist, journalist, and blogger, and is often noted as “one of the leaders” of the Tahrir Square protests during the Egyptian Revolution of 2011. She and her work are the subject of the PBS Frontline documentary Gigi’s Revolution. The documentary follows her use of social media to report the activities of the revolution going on around her and share them with the world.
Born: 2 December 1986 (Long Beach, California, United States)
Education: American University in Cairo
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – 26 April 2011
Follow: @GSquare86 | Facebook
Thursday, June 5
Tom Cruise (Actor: “The Edge of Tomorrow”)
Tom Cruise is an American actor and producer, who stars in the upcoming movie The Edge of Tomorrow, a science fiction film based on the novel All You Need is Kill by Hiroshi Sakurazaka. In the future, an alien race invades Earth. The aliens are known as “mimics” for their ability to imitate Earth fighting tactics, making them almost impossible to combat. In one battle, Major William Cage (Cruise) is killed when he detonates a bomb to kill an alpha mimic. He then wakes up on the first day of his deployment. He soon realizes that every time he dies, he activates a time loop that takes him back to this day. He resolves to use his new-found power to try and halt the invasion. Cruise is joined by Special Forces soldier Rita Vrataski (Emily Blunt), General Brigham (Brendan Gleeson), Sergeant Farrell (Bill Paxton), and Dr. Carter (Noah Taylor). The film has generally been praised, and many were impressed that the time-loop plot device did not become boring.
Born: 3 July 1962 (Syracuse, New York, United States)
Education: Robert Hopkins Public School | Henry Munro Middle School
Filmography: Risky Business | Top Gun | Rain Main | Days of Thunder | Far and Away | A Few Good Men | Mission: Impossible | Jerry Maguire | Interview with the Vampire | Mission: Impossible II | Minority Report | Austin Powers in Goldmember | The Last Samurai | War of the Worlds | Mission: Impossible III | Valkyrie | Tropic Thunder | Mission: Impossible–Ghost | Rock of Ages
Awards: AFI Award | Saturn Award | Empire Award | Golden Globe Award | MTV Movie Award | People’s Choice Award | Satellite Award | Walk of Fame
Previous “Daily Show” Appearance(s): Interview – 17 April 2013 | 12 August 2004
Follow: Website | @TomCruise | Facebook
Please remember to vote in our weekly favourite guests polls, and don’t forget to let us know which guests you’re looking forward to! Also please try to comment with any tips or suggestions that you have for this post. Thanks! Here’s to a great week of shows! That’s all for this week Hubsters! See you next time!