This was an event near and dear to me from the start. Not only was it Stephen Colbert, but it was Red Bank's historic Count Basie Theatre , home to many a memorable Kevin Smith Q&A. And even on top of that it was a benefit for the Two River Theatre Company where they just held a live Smodcast a month or so earlier. Needless to say, this event had my name written all over it.
We were let into the theater earlier than I expected and the staff helping up find our seats were exceptionally courteous. The show started relatively on time, Aaron Posner introduced himself to the crowd, quickly sped through Stephen's bio and welcomed the man himself on stage. They delved right into the questions sent to Aaron through his friends, family, theater community and Facebook page. When some of the questions were directly towards Stephen's other persona, he slipped in and out of character effortlessly. Halfway through the night, the floor was turned over to the audience and we were allowed to ask our own questions. What follows is a close approximation of some of the topics discussed. The quotes I use are as close to the actual quotes used as I could remember, so excuse any paraphrasing on my part.
Lightning round questions were asked to Stephen and then to "Stephen". The best question asked to both was what they would put on a tee shirt that would encapsulate themselves. Stephen's: "Well, I thought it was funny." and "Stephen": "Wear a cup." On what superpowers would they want, Stephen: "invisibility" and "Stephen": "flight". Of historical people they would like to meet, Stephen: "Jesus, Copernicus" and "Stephen": "Genghis Khan". There were other people named, but I think I laughed too hard at the first ones to catch the rest.
When asked about what he's learned from Jon Stewart and his experiences working with him, Stephen replied, "it would take six months of installments to get through everything".
Stephen was surprised when Barney Frank was genuinely angry at him after his "Better Know a District' segment way back when the show started. During the interview, Stephen believed the building ire he was exhibiting was all part of the joke as Congressman Frank is known to have a sense of humor. Stephen now tries to mention it on the show whenever he can to make up for it.
When asked if he would ever go Iran: "Only if he's allowed to leave".
He will never run for office for real because he's "said a lot of bad things." However when asked if he will run for president again in 2012, Stephen half-jokingly admitted "yes". After filming President Obama's segment for the Iraq shows, Stephen sent a letter back to the President's Press Secretary thanking them for their time and ended the letter with "see you in 2012".
He's mad that the White House has designated Fox News as 'fake news' as he's spent a lot of time working on being as fake as he can and wondered how much more fakey-ier does he have to be by comparison.
On the subject of pundits on television, Stephen imagines that some truly believe what they preach and cited Bill O'Riley as one of them. But there are others that are "cynical and manipulative" of their audience and labeled them as "evil counselors". He also described Glenn Beck as "climbing up a tree, tieing a rope of brilliance around his neck and jumping off the branch" every night.
Of his time in Iraq, he described the last night in front of the troops with his staff behind him as being a significant part of the whole trip. To experience the shared admiration the troops had for him and the admiration Stephen had for them was akin to "watching the mountains slowly reside", a truly awe inspiring, beautiful moment.
Looking back on his work on 'Exit 57" is hard for him at times because "you can drive a tractor trailer through" the span between the jokes. He has since learned to "cook faster" and also learned from that experience that you don't have to kill yourself by working 24 hours straight on show.
Improv has taught him to "learn to love failure". Once he'd really gotten into improv, he realized as far as acting was concerned, he was suddenly more interested in figuring out a character on his own as opposed to reading lines given to him. "He wouldn't make a good director's actor".
Who would win in a fight, an actual bear or Papa Bear? "Bill O'Riley, because he'd fight dirty."
My favorite story of the night; someone asked him about being able to walk into a comic book shop and see himself on the cover of Spiderman right next to comics based on his own characters. He described it as surreal, but not as surreal as when Marvel Editor in Chief Joe Quesada said that while reading Captain America's will (read Marvel's brilliant Civil War series to get the full story), his trademark vibranium shield would be bequeathed to "Stephen" as he was the only one else American enough to wield it. So when the actual replica of the shield arrived at the studio Stephen thought how bizarre it was that a fictional character gave HIS fictional character a fictional object... that he was holding in real life.
When asked what Stephen's brain attic (a reference to Sherlock Homes) would look like, he replied, "nothing's alphabetized". Ideas are where he drops them and there are sections overflowing with material.
Described his wife, Evie, as basically being his grounder and his editor, making sure he's "writing for humans." The library of books in his house are all hers except for the "Mad magazines he stashed below".
Overall, this was a wonderful treat and I really hope he does more nights like these in the future. It was truly refreshing to see a small glimpse into the inner workings of the mind of the real Stephen Colbert.
Page Branson 2009
saturnkitty@gmail.com
