TimesTalks: Stephen Colbert

thank you good evening everyone I'm Michele gray the director of programming for the New York Times live conversation series times talks for 20 years times talks is paired New York Times journalists with the brightest and boldest creative minds from the fields of art politics social justice to film and television I'm delighted to welcome you to tonight's event with Emmy award-winning comedian writer producer and television host Stephen Colbert dubbed the most inventive comedian of his generation for the second year in a row the Late Show has earned Emmy nominations for outstanding variety talk show series outstanding variety writing for a variety series and outstanding directing for a variety series more than just an entertainer Colbert has used his comedic talents acerbic wit and political parodies to impact culture in extraordinary raise over the past decade moderating tonight's conversation is soap and Deb a cultural reporter for The New York Times writing about the intersection of politics and culture before joining the Times soap and covered Donald J Trump's presidential campaign for CBS News please join me in giving a very warm welcome to soap and Deb and Stephen Colbert [Music] well I usually don't get that kind of applause when I walk into her hello everybody welcome thank you so much for coming we're so glad you are here I think we should just get to it we have a lot to get through if you could keep you know don't run onto stage or anything like that although some of you might be tempted so Stephen I wonder if you could start by taking us through a typical day for you what was today like 40 can I start by saying is anyone fooled by taking the label off of this bottle what company could that be I go to work I get in the car around 8:15 it takes me an hour an hour and 15 minutes to get into the city I live in the New York area and I on the way in I'm reading the news breakdown that somebody has made the night before or gotten up early that morning to give me essentially what the national conversation is today what the major stories are or what they could be what the speculation is what will sort of grow as the day goes on I read scripts that have been sent to me the night before I all read I probably listen to the daily actually if I've got a moment if I finish all that I'll listen to the daily if I haven't already listened to it when I'm sort of getting ready for my day maybe listen to up first I'll read Drudge I'll see what's on the main page of Drudge I'll see was in the main page of HuffPo I'll look at the cover of The Times I might look at the post I'll look at the politics page for reddit the the the the trending or what's it called the the rising links or the front page of Reddit to see what sort of getting popular this in the morning and then then I'll call right before I get to the office I'll call my executive producer Tom Purcell and I'll say what you got chief and so on that first car ride that's all in the car right right it takes an hour or an hour 15 minute look at that and some of that I might have done before I come in like listen to a podcast or something like that and then there's gonna be a long answer if you don't want like decision it's a long day there are a lot of steps to the day there's nothing pithy about the answer I'm about to give you sure then I talked to my executor Tom Purcell and I say what's well what's going on what do we have cooking already what like what do you see and what I've already read then we'll have a discussion about the major conversation of the day like today it was like how much can we talk about Omarosa how much are we gonna talk about armor OSes book yes it all kind of broken happened after our last show which was on Thursday night and then we talked about well what are the issues of credibility or something like that and we have our own sort of internal debate which I'm sure you know real news does also how much can we Creedence can we give to this and how much is it worth talking about so then we make those decisions I get there they usually hold the meeting for me if I'm a little bit late just so I can be there to hear the initial pitch because it's just a quicker day if I've already heard their initial pitch in the morning and I can sort of say oh this is the part that I like or add my two cents or they can see the enthusiasm in my eyes about what stories are being percolated and then I leave that room alts being assigned and then I go meet with Chris Licht who's my showrunner who's sort of the nuts and bolts get you know make the trains run on time if you'll pardon the expression of the guy who actually like you know does the production of the show and and he'll tell me what the ratings were the night before he goes ok this is what happened and this is what they this is what they like these are the acts that sort of pop for people and then we'll do show business I don't know whether it's like something the network might want or what our schedule might be or guess that might be coming up things I could help us sometimes I might call a guest I like say I love to have you on then I go down and do what's called we I do what's called DTF which go on yes so then then I'm up for then I'm DTF you know and DTF means digital talent field meaning what does the digital team need from me what is the talent team for me like what am I gonna do with my guests like I'm having Mark Wahlberg wrong tomorrow night Wahlberg wants to come in early to do a bit what that bid might be so we'll jam for a while what that is digital might want me to record something for the web and then field what am i shooting in the field or what does the field already shot that I need to see usually I go to an edit room for that then after that it's time to talk to guest questions and the producers come in and tell me about the pre-interview they had like for instance what time is this therapy this is around 12:30 now and there's a little bit of break time in there where I might do whatever I need to talk to my assistant and then I do the producers come in and tell about the guest tonight my guests were Guy Pearce and Nicki Minaj and and so they might say oh this is the conversation we had with Nicki Minaj or this is the conversation to have with Guy Pearce and here are the four subjects that we think will be fruitful and I don't them to tell me what they're gonna say just say these are the areas and then they'll say anything else interests you about this person I think you want to say back any game you want to play or they might have a game idea for me and it's night for instance tonight one of my producers pointed out that what the news is it's called Barbie dreams is that the new Nicki Minaj song anybody this Wow he's anger on the pulse of our culture he's he's re he's our New York Times subscribers exactly I bet I bet she is though I bet Nicki Minaj she's sharp so they had like oh like these are the lyrics to the song where she's got beefs with all of these male celebrities who want to get with her and she said these are the reasons why you'll never be with me sexually and I said I noticed I'm not on the list and then she and then she's like oh that's that that might I invite her to say like why aren't I on the list so that's about the extent of the conversation it's but 10 minutes for each person then they leave then I have some alone time today I spoke with my wife on the phone it's really nice we had a little conversation then after that after I get ready for the show I 2 o'clock yeah that's ish ish that's what I should be but I don't generally fudge it a little bit I like to have ugh I like to walk around the building just to say hi to everybody so I'm not just a guy behind you know a locked door at the end of the hall which those show could easily turn into you know these these shows are famous for isolating the host and I don't want to do that and so I'd walk around I might have a comment just drop in with the producer or the writers are pretty busy but if I can a writer I like to pop into research and just say what's going on like what's what's happening today since our first conversation what do I need to know and then after that I have to shower shave dress makeup hair and then rehearsal and that's a three and then rehearsal goes from three to four ish and then there's then we go into a very intense rewrite we have an hour and a half to rewrite the show and then that room gets very unpolite hey you know that's that other very you in there while the rewrites happening yeah yeah yeah because I saw the pitch in the morning but I didn't see the rewrite that happened to mill the day then I I didn't see that I didn't see the draft I didn't see the rewrite that happened Mill today or the collation or the we're killing this whole aspect of the story or we're killing this whole aspect we're killing this entire story because the script didn't come back and we just have to you know we have to pick our chickens for the day and then I might say how come we don't have the thing on the rally that turned out to be nothing in in DC the begging of the nothing burger and like well that we we only had one joke that really worked well what was the joke and and I'll tell you the joke cuz it's not gonna be on the show tonight or no thing the joke was oh they came out in numbers those numbers about 20 to 25 white nationalist shows up wow I'm surprised usually when two dozen white nationalists get together in Washington it's just a cabinet meeting so that's it that we tried that in the monologue I think it went well but we try not to do a show we try to do a story there's only one joke we try to do at least three jokes on a story because we we actually don't think of our monologue is like going up there and telling jokes though there it's joke packed we talked about um we're storytellers and that's the sort of the aspect of the old show - the new show that's it that survived most is that while we do a monologue we do a much longer monologue than everybody else and the reason is is because we do we insist on doing four or five ten jokes on a single subject to tell the story to the audience were there to be storytellers and that I think that's what for me has made the monologue interesting to me because I thought I wouldn't enjoy a monologue I sort of resisted doing the monologue at first until we found a way to do it that wasn't just set up punch that a punch then then in that rewrite so many things are changing graphics are changing video is changing Chris licked again my showrunner is the whole time got his this this is where he has a lot of input into the extra the content of the show because he's going this is what's changing this is this is what's breaking this is the aspect of the story that's different now and so he'll ride herd on what is the priority in our monologue what we actually have to keep and what can go because we're always long we were ten minutes in rehearsal today which means somewhere 10 mins has got to come out now hopefully there's one story that's not working you popped out five minutes right there or something like that but sometimes you got a nickel and dimed it to death and that's one you have to start making priorities and go like are we really strangling a story that needs to be the only story tonight because it's the only thing that that's going to be in the national conversation for the next I want to say 24 hours but it's like six hours right you know if we're lucky at six hours if we're lucky I'll get on the show that we did today which I was really happy with will be the story still by 11:35 tonight but many's the time at we do show at 5:35 where's Chris but there 5:35 many's the time at 4:45 that we just go Oh what he did what and then we have to tear up the first act we have written in hire monologues in 45 minutes that happened with James coming got fired correct it happened with Tomi got fired it's happened several times actually and there's very frequently there's a there's a like space force space force was the first which was just that was Thursday right space force was Thursday God Thursday we that we were done and we were still we were already long we were like two minutes long how are we gonna lose two minutes from this because I don't want to lose it from the guests and though that can accordion a little bit and and then and you want a space force and then writers assistant is going like they're working on an upstairs and so that means the head writers opus Moreschi and J cats here have already got the writers working on this thing where Trump has made this announcement or depents it's Pence's furthered the story of space force which allows you to go and dip into some of the things the president has said about space for us and then you've got the graphics team we're throwing things at the wall as quickly as we can and it's like the first four minutes of the monologue which came together I think in 15 minutes something insane like that and so it gets impolite in that room because you know there's no time though politeness is a great Greece especially when you're in a hurry they're the only times I've had to like turn to a group of people and apologize about the way I've behaved is in that room and how often does that happen fairly and frequently right very rarely very real I feel terrible about it once the show's over but I have to feel fine about it until the show's over then that's it then the show and we do it in real time you know it's we start at 5:35 when at 6:35 unless there's like a bandha story to a song and then we do a post-mortem where we go like okay anything and you know how long are we oh what okay like tonight Nicki Minaj was fantastic Guy Pearce was great the monologues went long well we can't shorten Mac Miller the musician so we talked about what can come out of the show like what if there's something they can push til tomorrow that's great because then part of our meal is cooked for tomorrow and and and if not then it's just like oh well that like that that joke about you know that's usually just a cabinet meeting I think that's the section that has to go tonight and that's fine because who wants to up draft those assholes you know just like don't even talk about them and and then we're done then we're done and then usually hour after that I rushed down to the New York Times to be interviewed thank you yes this is this happens every day all the time yeah this is is that day just described compared to the first year of the show is that a chaotic day or has you have you kind of like oh my gosh no no no it is listen you are always to a certain extent on a show like this and I think anybody who hosts one of these shows or runs one of these shows or like Tom Purcell like is creative exactly one of these shows it's all it always feels a little bit like a flaming toboggan ride you know a blindfolded flaming toboggan right that's the joke they get Nicki Minaj they don't get been flying toboggan they'll get exactly you you never know what you just don't know the day is gonna be like so you're always surfing the chaos right no you surf the madness is what we sometimes I just surf the madness and just hope that you know you you you you don't wipe out before the end of the day my executive producer tom purcell i love he's got the same that I just love you goes one hour of today is gonna suck let's not make it the last hour because that's the one the audience sees so the earlier the early if it's gonna suck make your day suck earlier in the day and so you always have to know there's going to be a level of chaos but we have a process in place now that is pretty ironclad and and in it's ironclad nough stare is flexibility because you don't know what's gonna happen but first you have to have things to be repeatable like a clock on the show so that you can then take risks and that was one of the great things that Chris brought to us is that he has a brilliant eye for process and keeping people in their own lanes and once we knew how to do that we could start doing the show that we wanted to do but it's it's it's always chaotic to a certain extent but but that process and I've said this before but 51% of the show that I love is what the audience sees 49 percent is the process during the day mm-hmm and if the process sucked the shows got to be fantastic for me to not just be dead at the end of the day the Adrenaline's got to save me at the end of the day but the process if that's beautiful then you're way ahead on the show is there a skill that you have gained from doing the show now they didn't have before I'm okay if you see me you know that's I was not okay for you to see me what do you mean by that well I did everything in character hmm I I was always in care I mean when I got the offer to do this show I said to my my agent who brought to my manager James babydoll Dixon who me and Carson Daly and Jimmy Kimmel and he's the real king of late-night James Dixon because he represents so many people in that field and I said Oh baby doll you know I'm an actor if I go take that gig that'll be the first thing I ever do in my career that's not acting so you're an actor first comedian second was was I'm a comic actor you know there's I don't separate comedy and acting but I learned all my comedy through acting and improvisation which is a form of acting and so this is the first time that I've just been myself and that took me awhile to find the way to I'd never minded being seen on stage those from young actors have to get over the idea that people are staring at them we have this sort of monkey aversion to being stared at and you have to get over like a desire to like charge the glass and throw your poop at the audience out of fear of fear of judgment or attack or something like that it really is kind of primal but I mean to be seen as myself and for that to be sufficient MLK and personal interpersonal communications or I could have done this interview with you back on I did even I did times talkback when I did a shown character but to be able to stand on stage and know that in a form of entertainment heightened entertainment with pace and and and and beats and all that thing that you just yourself or a version of you because everybody has a persona is sufficient took me a little while to trust so when you go on so when you had the Colbert Report you had this braggadocious conservative you know yeah masks yeah when you do the show now how much of that is the real Stephen Colbert how different is that then when you have dinner at night with with the kids what very different than when I have dinner and I with the kids it's I'm glad to say it's very different that would be madness for them if I just stood at the end of the table and went thank you very much thank you you know you know funny story about that broccoli they look like little trees don't they isn't that crazy how much of that is me a lot a lot it's you know sesqui autobiographical it's one and a half times me hmm and was that discomforting when you in the first year of the show getting you to that I just didn't know how to use me mm-hmm I didn't know how to use me I knew there was something there I just didn't you know it all shows I think all shows are essentially emotional events you know you're sharing an emotional state with the audience and I mostly when the show first started a lot of my emotional state was how do you do this now that was sort of the emotional state and you could see that eventually and it started once in a spring shortly after you you came and gave us the space to find it it was late late in the spring when you kind of knew who the candidates were in 2016 that you kind of knew what the story was all the time and it made it easier for me to find my emotional center on stage because I had a feeling about the story every day and I learned to express that feeling in the jokes and remind myself and the writers that everyday that's what I've got to do I'm actually sharing how I feel about what everybody in the audience has been feeling all day that's part of the here what's the national conversation what have you guys been thinking about but it's really what are you guys been feeling about today this is what I've been feeling about it today and then when the monologues not working mostly is when I when I afterwards I have to go after rehearsal I have to say oh how do I feel about this we've got all these jokes but they're all kind of above the water our skeg isn't in the water and all I have to do is just dip that scag in the water and then we realize what jokes are merely not merely because it takes intellectual sweat but kind of like word tricks some jokes are just word tricks you know they're clever that's a boy that's a damning thing to say to a comedian that's very clever just did their and once you know how you emotionally feel about it you know which which jokes are not clever tricks and which ones you mean mm-hmm and that that took that took me a while to realize that even though I wasn't acting it was still an emotional event if he did what I'm saying yeah daddy oh well that rattled me now he's gay so obviously the I mean the turning point it seems like for your show came on election night in 2016 it was really signet was really significant yeah why did the audience start grabbing of gravitating towards you after that I'm gonna fact-check you on this did because I don't I didn't I we didn't actually start talking about ratings until well into the Trump presidency so I don't know when did they start grab wanted to start changing no but when did the audience start like when did it start going up when did they start okay so when we started doing live shows it brought an immediacy to the writing because there's no time for another draft it brought an immediacy to my performance because there's no sense that I could actually do a pickup or anything like that and an urgency or an intention to the interview because I had to get it in eight minutes or I had to get it in 10 minutes that we did 14 live shows or something before we ever did the the live election night show so we were ready for that night in every way other than what happened but I know your answer but that's literally the case though right you literally you literally were not you had you had personal and for the other we we had for shows we knew that were possible mrs. Clinton wins and we know it looks like she's gonna win but we're not sure Donald Trump could win but we won't know till the next day and he's definitely one we had these three we had material for these three and we started working on this one but I said to my guys I saw the first few drafts of things who worked and I said forget it I said don't do it I said I'm not saying it's impossible what I'm saying is if that happens it's it's it's like I'm hosting a show in a slaughterhouse like emotionally people are gonna be so raw that I don't know what Joe commits so disastrous in my opinion that I'm not I'm not sure if I can dance on the edge of that volcano anyway let's just let the lava flow over us if that happens and we'll improvise we'll see what happens and after the production team were they like well Stephen we really we really should have something no okay I think I think I mean if the as soon as I said that everyone like yeah you're right they didn't want to write it who wants to sit there I go okay let's just we got the other three what if he wins so so cuz again it's an emotional event and you have to write the thing about writing with urgency is that you have to anticipate the emotional quality of the performance when you write it what's this gonna feel like you're playing it in your head you got the old occipital rolodex of all the possible ways that an idea plays with an audience and there's just no there was no scenario in our head where that led to chuckles and so we said it just we won't do anything and I said and I'll just improvise and we'll just we'll talk about surf the madness and then we became like literally at what time what time we went on at 11:00 right it wasn't a normal time because with show time was 11:00 to 12:00 and I think around 10:00 I'm doing final makeup and everything like that and people are coming to me in the makeup chair and they're going I just want to give you a a little update on 5:38 the times has changed their prediction what the percentages are unlike this does I can't no don't I don't I can't no in the dome of the theater because we have this beautiful digital projection dome in the theater we had all we had said we were loaded for bear we had so I wish you could have seen the show we had planned for you guys so we should do it someday we should do all that material maybe after he's out of office we just do all that material one night and because we had we have we have fantastic we had the great Rowland's from Katy Perry I mean we put a lot of effort in us who else other stars came in we who were the other so we had big female stars because it was like a night for women and empowerment and we had we had naked men because it was show time we had show time and were like you couldn't do full frontal nudity on show time so we had buck naked men in rehearsal and on their asses it was painted I'm with her because we're all saying like listen everybody's always naked women on these Showtime and HBO shows let's have naked men it changes tonight bring them out so it was like it was like this it was like that and I find with her on the ass and and we actually halfway through the thing they have these guys actually wiped it off and painted on their own ass this we're on the back of it we were scrambling baby we were talked about where's where's the wheel on this truck we're just Jack and I from down the highway taking down telephone poles with us as we went and so we had this anyway in the dome we had this pie chart in the dome and the pie chart showed the electoral college we're showing it fill in a blue or red and with like in with like a like a yellow or a green unfilled yet like that and I walked onstage to do the monologue and I've already been told like we will know sooner than we hoped I'm like really well okay so I walked out I looked up and I saw the dome filling up red and I looked over to Chris if you look at the thing either like cut so they took it out of the dome because we were afraid our audience would look up cuz we didn't want them to know because they had no they had no cell phones or anything like that they didn't know they're finding out for me the live audience and we didn't want them to look up and go it's over Brenda you know hide the kids you know we so so yeah it was the head man and then and then we did like whatever the wheels came off and we killed all the comedy after like 15 minutes in something like that of an hour I had 45 minutes left in the show or something like that to Phil and then we went 20 minutes long so I did like an hour and 50 hour and five minutes something like that just by the seat of my pants just talking to people who were just gobsmacked as I was god bless Jeff Goldblum god el King saying Jeff Goldblum the guys from the circus some comedians Charlamagne tha God it was and we've drinkin we're drinking good bourbon we started drinking and then at the last 10 minutes we're like okay that's it right we know now we kind of know and I I just didn't know what to say so I just stood behind my Destiny's just started talking and that's how we entered it was there a part of you just the human side of you that was like I don't wanna do the show tonight I'm too upset yeah I mean yeah yeah but but there is like you say how much does the show is you well you have you know the show must go on and it's the show doesn't there and even really the show must go on is not like you can't disappoint the audience the show must go on because you have geared yourself toward doing that thing you're like an arrow that's already been released from the bow and you got to go do it and so I wanted to go do it and I actually I didn't want to not do it even though it was not the outcome that I wanted it stopped being comedy it just became an experience but it didn't want to do it any less because it was emotionally raw and as soon as it was over I think to answer in the longest possible way your original question from this section of tonight's lecture was why did that change is because when the show was over Chris said that was raw that was real and I said it was absolutely emotionally true for me and now I know that I don't ever want it to be this deep but now I know how to do this show it's that we can't ever lie to the audience for any reason and the way you mustn't a lie to the audience is emotionally because they can smell that and so we work really hard to keep our emotional Scaggs in the water all the time because I didn't want to go through that night for nothing for sure and the thing we took out of it is if if you if you feel it the audience will feel it with you and if you if you let yourself be emotionally honest and that's what changed for us for the show was that election night and then we have tried really hard hit or miss but we've tried really hard to keep our Skaggs in the water what do you think your show would look like if Hillary Clinton had won the election I don't I don't know I might I don't I don't know I mean do you ever think about that no I don't I don't have time to think about anything other than what's actually happening I think there would be such a Matt think of the level of unexpected racial animosity that came about when Barack Obama was elected president things that that shocked people oh I didn't realize there were still dragons around now there's a dragon out there the misanthropy are the the the the the misogyny that would have been up drafted not that it wasn't already in the in the campaign but the up drafting of misogyny I think would have been heartbreaking and would have been something to respond to because that's all that's what were there to do to respond to what happened today mm-hmm you're obviously not shy about your politics and in fact your willingness to excuse helped ratings but I think your audience is largely I think made up in people that agree with you and I wonder if possible I wonder if do you think you're given how polarized we are as a country do you feel like you're contributing to that in any way I don't know I mean I'm gonna let myself off the hook I suppose that's possible I don't people will tell me that the show has an influence on them they said that by the old show - that it has an influence on them and Who am I to say that it's not you know if they say it's influencing them than it is not my intention my intention is to laugh about what happened today make jokes about what happened today and 99.9 percent of the time and but I think the show actually reflects what's happening it doesn't create what's happening hmm you know we're we we have our own you know editorial agency we we choose the things we're going to talk about today but we talk about what we're talking about today because this was the conversation today for the most part there are some things that our conversation today that are too tragic to touch and to touch those they have to be inescapable the only thing being spoken about and then you have to approach it honestly and if I find what's happening a horror I have to make jokes that reflect that and it's turned out that I am NOT alone in that feeling I don't think I'm creating the audience's feelings I don't think I'm leading their feelings I think I'm saying this is how I felt today and people watching the show because they say oh yeah I agree that's how I felt today right well you've actually recently in a monologue joke you briefly referenced the challenges of writing jokes on the quote baby cages talking about Sarah oh yeah sure and you know you said Sarah you think you don't want to talk about the child separation policy try doing it on a comedy show yeah and you know oh you must love the Trump administration Stephen the sadness just writes itself yes and how often do you want to just break character and talk to the audience about what is happening I'm not in character and I do talk about to the audience what's happening but I'm doing it as a comedian you know I have no desire to throw away the jokes and go look I'll tell you what I think that the actual moral landscape of America is being permanently damaged I mean this but you laughed because I did it but if I did it you wouldn't laugh and I want to make them laugh I want to make the day better for them I want to make the day better for me I want I want the sense of community for the audience you know that's I'm there for them as much as they're there for me I need them as much as they might need the jokes on the show but the only time I want to drop the jokes is that if I think doing a joke on the thing is disrespectful to the person's tragedy when there is an inescapable all-consuming story like of the all-too-frequent gun tragedies I can't not talk about it because that in its way is dishonest but it would be I don't know how I as a human being can add a joke to that so I'll speak about it sincerely and I will speak about it from the heart and that's the only time I want to do that but I never want to have to do that can you give me an instance where you felt like this is something I don't have a joke for like any gun tragedy mm-hmm major tragedy other people's like the people's death you know specific death death in general is hilarious I mean a lot of people a lot of conveniens get into comedy I think to like laugh at death and I can't get me and nice try but so but someone's someone's public a public tragedy of someone else you know the me to movement is not something the the the the reporting on it the spinning of it the attempts to get out from under it all those things that are reactions to a tragic revelation are different I was working for The Daily Show when John was hadn't been there that long when 9/11 happened about two years and we went off the air like all the all the late night shows did and all the comedies did at least ones that are topical and our way back into it was not to talk about the event not the not the center of it but to go way out on the spokes to the outside of the wheel and to talk about reaction to it and not not critically but like how one of the first jokes we did was how people who really didn't like Giuliani suddenly really liked him and you know who is like the joke was you know before John it was you know I'm Rudy Giuliani I'm an iron-fisted leader and do what I say and things will be fine but and because and now it was now it's like I'm Rudy Giuliani I'm an iron-fisted leader do what I say and everything will be fine and it's just inflection really and so that was the thin end of the wedge will come back into talking about the story well we always want to do that but it but it's the tragedies that keep you off what is your level of Trump fatigue if any about having to joke about I'm about having to you know follow his Twitter feed about having to you know I stopped following his Twitter feed for a couple of months I just joined again this weekend I was kind of off for a while I figured I have it's big enough somebody'll tell me are you tired of joking about it no cuz I'm not tired of joking and it's it's the conversation you know and I'm not going to escape him being the President of the United States by not making jokes about him and by making jokes about him I feel better I mean III have us I have a release you know people come at me and say I just I loved your show at the end of the day I feel better about the day I feel the same way the day after Donald Trump was elected we went with the live show the night before didn't get a lot of sleep did the show the next night I immediately walked on stage and went oh I can't believe how much I need the audience and how I need the sense of community says well therapeutic for you it's completely therapeutic for me yeah I love it it I feel some I always feel better than when I went on stage and so am I tired of him being the president you bet am I tired making jokes about him no so how do you think this ends like are we going to revert to the tree happily very happily so are we going to revert to the traditional mold of candidates after Trump or are we headed I don't think I don't think the country will be the same I think America president Michael avenatti like what are we headed towards here I don't think so I don't think so I think I think the president is what did Sean Spicer koma a unicorn riding over a rainbow or something like that I think is I think he is a unique individual that I think I don't think there are a lot of I don't think there are a lot of Donald Trump out there so I don't know I think we return to some sense of normalcy after this or whatever the word of that means after this I we get a boring president next because this guy's exciting I assume that lik I don't when I heard that Mitt Romney was running for Senate and like oh god that sounds fantastic Mitt Romney that's oh that is a room-temperature glass of milk that I could really go for you know like you know if if it was Mitt Romney or Trump I lo Haga admit Romney would be fantastic so I think we get boring after this but I think the country is changed irreparably sounds like it's all damaged but I would say irrevocably our politics are changed by what mr. Trump has done to show what how social media can be leveraged how demagoguery can be used in America in ways that we haven't seen in our lifetimes before so it'll never be the same hmm so my opinion I don't know okay so in late July Ronan Farrow writes a big New Yorker story about sexual misconduct allegations against the CEO CBS les Moonves you talked about it I almost got this bit take water in my mouth for you too that you talked about it at length on the show and he's your boss three minutes at length if that's a pretty soft given that he's your boss given his power at the company yeah had you ever done a first first before anything can you take us what's your reaction to seeing the news did you immediately go back to and say we have to talk about this Chris called me I was I was down in South Carolina with my lovely wife having dinner with my lunch with my in-laws and Chris goes there's gonna be an article coming out and in The New Yorker it was like an hour later or something like that I guess he just got in the heads-up or fact-check or something like that and I said well what is it how bad is it and he said I don't know nobody's seen it yet and then I saw it and ruined my weekend and nothing about nothing my weekend matters but that's all I thought about for the rest of weekend I was like oh well this is Trent it's clear to me that I have to say something on Monday because we talk about what people are talking about and we've talked about most of the major revelations since the sort of the public knowledge of the me2 movement which has gone on for years but after survey certainly Ronan's harvey article not quite a year ago coming up on a year we're coming up on the Harvey versary and we've we've been we've we've we've talked about it so I I did something I would want to talk about I I came into the office that day and I told my my exact Tom Purcell I said there is no show there was only the second act for me we knew I knew we would do jokes in the monologue we did we did a couple of like standard the same level of jokes we did about everybody else we did three jokes on on Leslie Moonves and then three minutes at the desk and I primarily wrote it myself you know rode with Tom but it was it was what I want her to say and did you give the higher-ups a heads up we sent it to them right before we taped it right we sent it to them and they did not say anything about we said we're gonna do this we didn't say can we do this we said we're going to do this and I think they just said thanks for the heads up and that was it mm-hmm had you ever done something like that before I'm not purposely being obtuse but what do you mean by that like that go after your own Network go after your own bosses on the air in anyway I mean I know you've got after your own Network yeah I got off my own network of the old show fair mouth yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah but now but not like this but it would that was that was all comedic like like Viacom not supporting me to get Daft Punk on the show and MTV like literally we'd we'd built a whole like the show of the summer around deaf Punk and they don't show up because MTV will not release them from their obligation to only be on the MTV Movie Awards like two days after my show and I dedicated the entire show to making fun of my own corporate entity for having done that to me that I loved and that's directly from that's like a quote from Dave that's the sort of thing that Dave would do all the time like like they sent me a letter saying you can't do it for the following reasons and I said the letter goes with us and like I read it on air and I had an agreement with the old network I just said of them don't ever send me a letter telling me I can't do something because if you put it in writing I promise you I will read it on air and every time they would do it they would forget and then I would do it then go we forgot if we put it in writing so they just stopped sending they stopped saying no to me because a phone calls done enough they have to put it in writing and I would read it every time but again all of that is comedy this is different no nothing like that mmm cuz I've never worked for anybody like him before he's a really big deal mm-hmm I have to admit I was a bit surprised by the decision to have Sean Spicer at the Emmys and you are not alone yeah and to bring him onstage at the podium and you told any Cohen last night that you had no regrets about it I wonder can you tell me a little bit how it came about yeah we were we'd worked on the monologue I got to know we were my we had like a 15 minute monologue in our pocket or something like that and we wanted a final we knew that the all the last jokes were really about the president it was about him have never having won an Emmy it was about ratings that sort of thing and the last thing was about the only thing the man cares about his ratings he cares about TV this is a TV president and the thing that he always criticizes for is his people's terrible ratings and so I thought how can I make fun of his obsession with ratings and I'll go oh well he's really obsessed with his own ratings and that would be Shawn to come out here and to do that so we called him you called him right you had drinks with them and so how did it go he said really it was not a tough sell okay was not a tough sell and did you have a conversation with him beforehand a tricep do you need to tell him at all or you know did Chris do all I didn't meet him I didn't meet him until rehearsal yeah we just came out of rehearsal and I said all you've to do is hit that mark say your line and you're totally fine that's all I need you to do and here's the reason why I was perfectly fine with it is that the joke is not I felt a little bit bad for him because he's a walking punch line he is the punch line the punch line is I lied on behalf of the President now I'm gonna lie to the president and using the same lies I did for him which is a joke really about Donald Trump the jokes about Donald Trump and how Donald Trump lies about anything and he pays people to lie for him so I'm gonna pay somebody to lie for me that's what the joke is about in this instance was the joke written before you guys approached speiser like did you guys know exactly what you wanted him to do or was I know exactly what the joke was I think it was my pitch I don't remember that I've been told certainly afterwards everyone said no no that was your idea boss no I think I Christi I think that was my idea I said I think we should have him a nihilist we talked about it some people like no people are gonna be mad and like people will be mad about a lot of things and I think you I don't think you're necessarily wrong but I'm what'swhat's this work without any risk I called John Stewart and I said what do you think and he said you've got to that's the perfect ending to the monologue and and I said well people are gonna like think that that might be you know like it might be like a normalizing Trump is actually what we were worried about because we didn't think of Sean Spicer as as he seemed like a sort of a sad figure to us at that point who was never ever going to really work again and this might be the last time anybody ever sees him ever honest to god it never occurred it never like people were some people afterwards were like oh you're gonna normalize him I never for a minute imagined that it would redeem him in the eyes of the public and I'm gonna go out on a limb and say I was right that it did not redeem him in the eyes of the public and and and he's not Donald Trump he's not the actual source of the cancer he he's a he's a symptom and so when it was over I was happy for him well I'll tell you right before he walked out on stage so I just the monologue gonna - gone gone pretty well and and I'm looking around the room and and I just done the joke about like Oh Donald Trump you know Donald Trump's never won an Emmy because you know in the Emmys the popular vote wins and I got a nice laugh in the room and I looked around the room and I looked around them and I thought there's not one person in this room who disagrees with me except Gerald McRaney you know the major dad guy mm-hmm cuz I think he's a Republican he spoke at DOL's convention and I went oh maybe Gerald wouldn't like these jokes maybe he thinks these jokes are a little tough and then I saw the next joke I just improvise where I said where do I find the courage to tell these jokes in this room which got another laugh because I knew what was about to happen but I wanted that to happen because if you don't piss off the people who agree with you every so often you're not trying would you have been willing to do the same thing for Stephen Miller he I don't think he was no because he was still in power let's assume that he left the White House under what terms did he leave the White House did he say I'm against this and throw down his gauntlet and say I'm out of here embrace the downtrodden like what what is your hypothetical my hypothetical is that he left the White House in the same way Sean Spicer did and that they called a resignation but he was essentially moved out yeah but essentially essentially in the same way that Spicer left I don't know I don't know I would have to go back and think about what we knew about Stephen Miller at that moment because he's a far more corrosive figure and in he seems like a more insidious figure than a beaten dog mouthpiece this is what Sean Spicer felt like to me and a sad figure who could be useful in a punch line and as I said I kind of felt bad about it for that that I've sort of mom using this man's reputation for my joke Stephen Miller is more insidious than that so I don't know but again I don't know I'd have to go see what I knew about him at the time he certainly seemed a little not quite making eye contact with you you know back then that there was something a little bit scary about him mm-hmm I have one more question and I'll tell you one thing that I really said about about Sean Spicer Leeson I said that so my writers and I said the only thing I regret is you guys did such a good job I wouldn't want that last joke to take away from all the fantastic jokes you guys wrote because I was so proud of the job they've done mmm I have one more question then we were to take a couple I have a couple questions here from the audience and then we're gonna have some questions from people watching the live stream on Facebook comedy has you know late night comedy has historically been a very white very male-dominated place especially in the writers room as you were launching your show is that something you thought about and over the last three years I'm just curious what efforts you've made to definitely thought we thought very specifically I'd been very frustrated at the old show about my inability to find diverse candidates for thanks very much for the show and and and I it was late in that show when I came to realize that it was my naivete that a normal process would get you and a unusual the usual process we get you the unusual room it wasn't until we said no you please don't send us anyone but women that the because we would say like it's very important we want writers of color we want women and you would get 150 packets and there'd be eight women mm-hmm and we're like that's so frustrating until I said no only women and then I got 87 women and I thought where were these where were these people before and it and that was sort of the realization of my knee and my naivete that it's not enough to say you want it you have to go to a the not ordinary step of it occurred to us at the time that this was on an ordinary now now get a more balanced mix when we ask I think there's thankfully some changes going on in in the way women are perceived by the agents and managers and and just sort of word of mouth in the comedy world but we realized we had actually make an extraordinary step to get an extraordinary room now we have it's half you know white guys and half either women or writers of color something like that if if I think that's right have a nap now yeah got it so let's move to so let's move to some these are questions from people sitting in the audience this is from Liz fine Liz fine asks would you trade your success to be rid of the current president yes okay what else and I can say that because I know saying it will not take away my success that's how courageous I am Howard asks what do you think the effect will be if any of the current occupant of the White House on late night host coverage of future candidates and presidents I don't think the speed will ever change everything everybody does their job faster wait I thought I did we did fast work on the old show this show is you know as my friend John Stehr likes to say it's like going from college to pro ball it's like it's so fast to do one of these shows there's so much material but the news cycle I think will never slow down and I don't think that candidates in the future will ever allow it to slow down because they'll want to recapture the attention of the press they'll want to make the news story they want to change the cycle within minutes the way Trump does now hmm you'll see that as a tool got it Danijela from facebook asks I love this question what happens when you have to take a sick day I don't but I've never taken one ever even on the Colbert show how report down to the new show now 600 something like that I've done 2,000 shows you know I've never taken a sick day I've been sick I've done showing a bathrobe Paul Krugman was my guest actually Paul Kruger my guest I just sat there and again that's a real quote from Dave Dave I remember Dave when I was in college Dave doing the old show at NBC with a fever and checking his head and nurse check his fever as the show went on I just loved that I thought that was just so fantastic that I was kind of excited when I got sick like I was like throwing up shaking can't move sick and you know a doctor came in and shot me full of some whatever wonder drug b12 cortisone heroin whatever they gave me but I was still like a trembling feverish mess it didn't cure me and I did I did it I did a show it was fun mm-hmm well I remember I think during The Daily Show I forget John either I think he he got sick at there or something happened in with the last thing I don't have got sick but Jason Jones filled I'm at filled in at the last second yeah if some a serve emergency were to happen are there any procedures in place at all okay you can host God Wow I'm fine right now though no there are no prints you know what it's called a rerun right we would just do a rerun that's what we would do we've done enough now that we can do a rerun Erin from facebook says well what is the most awkward small talk you have made with guests during a commercial break oh I can't wait I haven't had a chance to see it but I just can't wait I just I hear I hear it's it's just I hear it's just so great and which is this what sequel is this some third or the fourth one it's not that awkward really got you got you you smell good right sometimes they smell great and the audience at home can't tell that I wanted I don't think it's appropriate for me to tell the audience that they smell good for instance Nicki Minaj smells fantastic and this actually came to hug me she sat down and I although it was like God she smells fantastic don't say that I think who haven't you interviewed yet that you'd like to Chris who with who's out there who is there somebody like we've been is there a white whale yeah more Republicans more Republicans would be fun I mean we we have them sometimes but it's usually people who have decided to retire you can only interview Jeff Flake so many times I don't know I just don't know I don't know I don't know I I I'm kind of grateful for anybody who comes on because you just don't you just you you be so surprised by people some some time I mean she's a giant star I didn't know that I'd have one of the most fun nights of my life ever with Nicki Minaj for 10 minutes tonight and you don't know and saying like that person's gonna be the great guest usually is is a lie to yourself it's you know it's the people who surprise you and so do you always visit them for the show start not rarely do really really I've never met them before I stopped that typicals throughout like dude about like no I don't know I don't uh I'm mmm I did John meet with his guests like to say hello before the show I think sometimes maybe I owe the old show I would always go in because I wanted to explain to them just to make sure they knew I was in character and I would say the same thing every time I would say hey thanks so much for being here you know I do the show in character and he's an idiot and he's willfully ignorant of what you know and care about please honestly disabuse me of my ignorance and we'll have a great time because what I wanted them to do was just to just to - honestly represent their idea and I and I would fail to understand them and that was the that was at the game mm-hmm they've never said hi to me hmm until I was the next guy in the seat and he came back and said hi to me to congratulate me all right one of the most incredible moments of television I think we've seen from your show is your interview with Joe Biden oh yeah that was an honor that was an honor we talked before that we talked before that what is running through your head as the interview is happening do you realize that this is a moment that's going to resonate with the with the viewers mm-hmm no I was very moved by his willingness to share his his experience his feelings about the loss of his son his faith and so I mean the best interview is your not detached in any way you're not thinking about how this plays but you're connected to the person and he he gave me a great gift that night by by trusting me with his story or trusting our audience and and that experience with his story and I remember when he left I turned to one of my producers and I said that nice old man just gave me the gift of me needing to be myself with him but I knew that only myself and only the person who had gone through what I've gone through in my life and the losses that I had faced could receive what he was saying and so that was the very first time that the guest helped me open my own door and be myself on stage in a truly honest way which which you know comes and goes but if there was one thing that the one aspect of it that made me stand outside of myself it was after he left I realized that he had he had needed that for me to have the interview but it was one of the most beautiful experiences on stage that I've ever had in my life and it was truly a blessing to have done it when you walked offstage after the show ended that show you mean yes that's it that specific show I imagine most days you know you just finished making jokes for an hour hour and a half did you what were you feeling did you call anybody new did you try to get in touch with him to say anything oh thank you like what did you what did you know I thanked him I thanked him like did you have any emotional reaction to the show later or something like that what did you have any emotional reaction after the show or anything like that yeah yeah mmm and then there are also some I think I had guess after him though right oh yeah Chris you weren't there yet I wish you have been I'm sure like after him I might have been I don't know it might have been him and then Louis black I don't know like you know you have that's the thing about the show is that you have to switch gears you have to like you know your your your comedic intellectual and emotional tofu you kind of like you have to match your energy to the next person not everybody's gonna be Joe Biden right and then you have some interviews that are a little bit harder that are a little bit more you have to ask awkward questions like I'm thinking about the reason why Bill Clinton and James Patterson um you know built for those of you didn't see Bill Clinton you know seemingly flubbed a response to NBC about questions to Monica Lewinsky was that a moment where you felt obligated to ask him about it comedic Lee or you know to make him feel at home since you're hosting a comedy show or is it to give him a grilling essentially I'm not there to grill anybody you know what I mean I'm not that I'm not an adversary to my guests so I'm not there you know I'm not there to stick a knife on anybody but as soon as I found out that we had we had I wait so Chris so I don't look at the board every day sometimes I don't know who the guest is until I show up sometimes not til they walk in and say there's your guest tonight because there's a lot to do and I and I trust my staff and that they've booked great people and fantastic and I it was like three days before President Clinton was on and I turned to Chris and I said really Bill Clinton do you know I you know like I haven't seen him on one of the he hasn't really been out much since the whole meet to movement started you know I got a you know and he said yeah I know and I'm like you know I don't want to do that right I don't want to do that now I have to do it I mean I want to do it as an honest performer and someone who's doing consistent work but it isn't gonna be no fun for me to talk about the thing that as a person on stage in that moment someone who's talk show I will not enjoy it all if I don't I can have both of those feelings at the same time it's like yeah it'll be great like I I do not share your confidence and so you know III knew I had to do it I didn't have any problem with doing it but I would be uncomfortable and so I tried to say it is just as clearly again like not to beat a dead horse here but like to speak exactly how I felt as soon as I found out that I'd be speaking to mr. Clinton whose presidency I admire and who I've had a wonderful time with many times but given the light of the way we're looking at a lot of past sexual misconduct to say you why were you surprised by the questions that you were getting from the Today Show because you are the the the most famous example of a powerful man misbehaving sexually at work misusing the power dynamic of my lifetime and and I think there were some follow-up questions but that was the hard one to get out mm-hmm we're just about time so when I asked one more question which is many late-night comedy show hosts their careers are measured in decades I wonder do you think about how much longer you can do this and a follow-up to that is at some point we assume that Donald Trump will no longer be President we do assume that don't we know what they say about assuming yeah do you worry about the direction of the show once Donald Trump leaves office no at all not at all because you know the show is about what happens today the shows what about what happened today or what everybody's talking about today and and basically we say Oh what did what everybody talked about today what's everybody thinking about or worrying about or whatever it is we know you have thoughts we know you have feelings about it here are thoughts and feelings about it that doesn't change mr. Trump became a singular story that I think added focus to our work but he's not the work like I was we did we were not doing Fridays right now because the summertime we're not doing Fridays but the last Friday we did there's not one Trump joke in the monologue it was all other things and it worked fine and how lovely that was he was on vacation and didn't make news that day people really weren't strangely talking about him I think baby talked about pence or something like that but whatever it is I don't know what Monday what today was to what is today Monday I don't know what Tuesday show I don't know what tomorrow show is so I don't really know what the show would be when he leaves but I would I know it'll probably never be it'll always be as fast and it'll always be about what people were talking about today and that will never change hmm well Stephen thank you so much for your time [Music] [Applause]

Channel: TimesTalks

Views: 2,162,014

Rating: 4.772934 out of 5

Keywords: Stephen Colbert, The Late Show, Emmy Award, Sopan Deb

Id: xx51IrK8mnM

Length: 66min 31sec (3991 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 13 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/alien_from_Europa]

He reads Reddit every morning. :D

Hi Stephen!

[u/barryoke]

Loved the way he put this answer:

"What skill have you gained from doing the show now that you didn't have [during the last one]?"

"I'm OK if you see me."

[u/LittleRenay]

Hi Steven!

[u/nonegotiation]

Talking about the types of future candidates was interesting. I for one want the liberal version of Trump. Stephen specifically.

I fully believe Republicans are going to continue putting up people like Trump or Kid Rock who know how to work the stage as entertainers.

[u/Kaladzee]

Aeq