October 22, 2013: The Taping ReporT!

TWoP member loudfan has posted their “Taping ReporT” of their trip to the October 22, 2013 taping of “The Colbert Report”.

Stephen answered lots of audience questions. Luckily, they were all good, none of the tired old “who would win in a fight, you or Jon Stewart” variety. Mr. loudfan asked if Stephen would be doing anything around the Sochi Olympics, since he’d done such a great job in Vancouver. “I saved the Vancouver Olympics!” said Stephen. “Are you going to save the Sochi Olympics?” asked Mr. loudfan. “Nothing can save the Sochi Olympics! I want nothing to do with them!” he replied. So I guess the U.S. speed skating team is on its own for 2014.

Somebody asked if Stephen would ever consider taking 3 months off a la Jon Stewart, and if so, what would “his character” be up to and who would fill in for him. Stephen said that if he left for 3 months he didn’t think he could ever return, and in fact, his character is actually on set 24 hours a day, just talking, and we only see the 30 minutes that are taped. Bill O’Reilly was who he named as a possible guest host, and Stephen said that a year into his show, “when O’Reilly still liked me,” Fox offered to let him spend a week filling in for Papa Bear on his show (!). Stephen was too busy with TCR and his first book and had to say no, which he now regrets. He said he was curious if the stuff they would write for him to say on “The Factor” would be funny if he said it, and that the things he says on TCR are similar to what BillO says, “just skewed about 15 percent.”

Somebody said how much they’d enjoyed Stephen’s dancing in the “Get Lucky” video (which was playing in the lobby before we were allowed into the studio) and asked Stephen if he could dance like Kid ‘n Play. Stephen said he didn’t know what that was, and a different guy (not the questioner) got up and demonstrated. Stephen said he could only dance like Milli Vanilli, and started sort of hopping back and forth from leg to leg.

The woman sitting right behind us (we were in the center section, on the aisle) said that she didn’t have a question, but asked if she could have “a small hug.” When I’ve seen TDS taped we have been advised NOT to ask Jon for hugs, so I thought perhaps some official person would emerge to say no to her. However, she said it in such a sincere way that everyone in the audience said, “awwww.” Stephen immediately bounded up into the audience, and gave her such a long, enthusiastic hug that they almost tipped over into our laps! He then commented that she “smelled great.” He referred to this at the beginning of the show, so now you know what happened!

There were a few flubs where he had to go back and redo things, like calling Tiger Woods “Tiger Words.” Oh, and everybody got a gift — a Colbert Report pen was on each seat. Plus Mr. loudfan caught a WristStrong bracelet for me, so that’s 2 souvenirs.