March 6th, 2014: The Taping ReporT!

Telegram.com’s Bob Datz writes of his experience attending the March 6th taping of “The Colbert Report”.

The warmup gave way to a Q & A with Stephen himself, referring to “my character” to describe his TV persona. He was dressed for the part but didn’t play it as he took questions on “Dungeons & Dragons” and what CDs he would take on a cross-country road trip. He even squeezed in a bit more of that after the show.

The taping itself included maybe three mispronounced syllables that had to be re-enunciated to be spliced into the finished video before cablecast. And it took him three takes to nail the octave changes on a parody of the National Anthem that would serve as a royalty-free version of “Happy Birthday,” when he lampooned Warner Bros. for asserting its ownership of the actual song.

But here was the bonus revelation:We all know the man can sing, but he apologized for the fact that he grew up knowing only the bass vocal line to the song, presumably in school chorus and such. Between the second and third takes, he demonstrated that line while the stage manager took the melody, and we were treated to a beautiful barbershop duet version of the Francis Scott Key classic.

Full Article: Telegram.com

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