[MUSIC PLAYING] JORDAN KLEPPER: Hey, everybody. SPEAKER: Well, hello. JORDAN KLEPPER: Hello. SPEAKER: I think I should
start with asking-- JORDAN KLEPPER: You
say hello back, guys. Come on, for God's sakes. Let's be congenial
to one another. What are these T-shirts? Can I know these T-shirts are? Sorry, it's right
in the front row. Are these pictures of
you on your own T-shirt? Is this a Google thing, or
is this just a Rob thing? Good to know, OK. SPEAKER: It's not an inside
joke we have to understand. JORDAN KLEPPER: OK, yes. Just a Rob thing, OK, good. All right, I'm learning
the Google ways, great. SPEAKER: So I want to start out
by asking who am I talking to. JORDAN KLEPPER: Ooh. SPEAKER: Am I talking
to you, or am I talking to the character
version of you? JORDAN KLEPPER: You
are talking to me. SPEAKER: The real Jordan. JORDAN KLEPPER: The real Jordan,
yes, as actualized as I can be, which is not very actualized. SPEAKER: What is the
difference between that person and the character? JORDAN KLEPPER:
I'd like to think the real me is a little
bit smarter and self-aware. SPEAKER: We'd all
like to think that. JORDAN KLEPPER: We'd
all like to think that. I think it's perspective. I think when we talk about the
character I play on the show or what have you, and the
guy I try to highlight, it's somebody who
doesn't understand his place in the
world, and therefore, feels like he's the
victim in certain ways. He feels like he's
being hated on. He's the white man who thinks
he deserves everything. And I think Jordan Klepper
is the white man who understands a little bit of that
privilege and that perspective. I think the character does not
and just uses that as a cudgel and as a weapon. SPEAKER: The world
is against him. JORDAN KLEPPER: The
world is against me. I have something
to fight against. SPEAKER: So how did
you find that person? How did you develop
that character? What kind of research
went into it? Did you go method
like Daniel Day Lewis? JORDAN KLEPPER: I just became a
little bit dumber and angrier, and just like that. I don't know what that Daniel
Day Lewis guy is even doing. I think what has actually
been really fun-- I've been doing improv comedy
and comedy for a long time. And so instead of
necessarily stand-up, with improv and with sketch
you create versions of yourself and find characters around that. And then getting to do a show
like "The Daily Show," what was really fun about
that is you are playing this heightened
version of yourself but with flaws that
allow you to bounce around different stories. And so I think the ability to
play that version of myself on "The Daily Show," who
wasn't-- it was titled Jordan Klepper. I was a correspondent there. But it's a different
version of Jordan Klepper. That's something that helped
me figure out both how I could play this new
show and how I could be a character within that world. SPEAKER: So it's kind
of a political moment we're living through. JORDAN KLEPPER: You think? SPEAKER: A little bit. Just a smidgen of
interest these days. JORDAN KLEPPER: It feels
like people focused on politics nowadays, yeah. SPEAKER: Possibly. JORDAN KLEPPER: It could be. SPEAKER: Or we're getting there. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes. SPEAKER: So to have a
show like this that's right in the thick of it,
right in the midst of it going right into
all these issues that people are talking
about with this bizarre meta twist, how did you develop that? JORDAN KLEPPER: Well, I spent
three years at "The Daily Show," and I was talking
with Comedy Central about doing another show. And I loved-- my job at "The
Daily Show" was a dream job. To get to both work
with those people to do a show that's constantly
responding to the news was my passion and
where I wanted to be. But we talked about if we
wanted to do a new show, where did that
show want to live? And at the time, I was going
to a lot of Trump rallies talking to a lot of people. And this political
moment you're talking about it, this new Trumpism
felt like something new. It felt like
something we were all experiencing and
trying to articulate what this moment was. And as we were brainstorming
what world should this show be in, I want it to be a show
that is about the news, and I want it to be
about something that feels like the news in 2017. And I think, as I was talking
to a lot of those people at the Trump rallies, we
were talking about where they were getting their news from. And it wasn't like-- Trump is not your
average Republican. He's not your average anything. And I think we realized it's not
an ideological Republican thing that's happening. It's a Trump thing
that's happening, and these people were
getting their news at these Trump rallies
not from the classic Fox News or at all CNN, they
were getting it from these more fringier worlds and sites,
like the "Infowars," the "Breitbarts,"
the "Daily Callers." It was like, I think this
world of paranoia and fringe feels like that
moment that we want to start to play around in. So if we're going to build
a show with a perspective, let's build it out of that,
out of that paranoia, that fear that's the less
classic conservatism and more like
paranoia and chaos. And I think also
folding that in-- SPEAKER: And make it funny. JORDAN KLEPPER: And
try to make it funny. I mean, for me, what I like
though is I got to play a character on "The Daily
Show," so I didn't-- What I always say is
it's show not tell. Trevor is so great
at being Trevor Noah and telling you the
bullshit that he sees. I think it's more
fun for me to be the guy who doesn't see the
bullshit and gets to play it. And for us, that felt
like that was the world we wanted to inhabit. SPEAKER: Immersion
in those worlds, what did you learn from it? What do you continue
to learn from it? When you're at
Trump rally, you're among Roy Moore
supporters or something, why is there this fixation
on conspiracy theories? Why are they getting their news
from these different sites? What's the appetite? JORDAN KLEPPER: The appetite
is for confirmation. Yeah, so there's confirmation
bias of that thing you feel. Now you can find it. You can Google it. I've researched you guys. SPEAKER: Well done. JORDAN KLEPPER: I
know what you guys do. SPEAKER: Product placement. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yeah. But you can find the news that
complements your world view. And so I see that is
something we all do. I'm guilty of it as well. We all have our news sources,
the places we want to go, the places that make us
feel good in the morning, of like, yes, this is
saying the thing about Trump that I want it to say. This maybe is from a
different perspective, but I can throw that out
because I don't like it. And I think we're
living in a time where Donald Trump,
what he's very good at is creating distrust
in institutions. And I think we should be
critical of institutions. We should be aware
of institutions. But what I saw at
these rallies was he legitimized the
idea of doubting all information you don't like. He's de-legitimizing
media in a way that people think CNN
is completely fake. People don't trust
anything that comes out of "The New York Times." SPEAKER: They
really believe that? JORDAN KLEPPER:
They believe that. I think you see that groupthink
because they hear it. A story that I often talk
about is I would go to-- I started going to Trump rallies
in January of the election year. And I would talk
to people outside. And I would say 2
out of 10 people would buy into the Obama birth
certificate, the birtherism conspiracy. 2 out of 10 would talk
openly about that. Because at that point,
it was very fringe, the idea of questioning
Barack Obama, his legitimacy as a citizen, was
like, eh, I'm not going to-- no, that's crazy. But I support Donald Trump. By the end, that was
easy 8 out of 10. It was so open that
you didn't have to feel weird about that because
all those people would walk into an arena where a guy
who's leading in the polls is telling them, "you should
be doubting these things." He was yelling at the
media, "they're fake. They're fake. They're fake." It's all you ever hear. And you hear
something three times, and you start to believe it. And with Donald Trump, you
hear something a million times. And I think we see that with-- we see what he's
doing with media. And I think it's
dangerous, because now you don't have to trust that
institution of news, and now "The New
York Times" is just as fringe as some bullshit thing
you see pop up on Facebook. And so I think that's
what I'm starting to see. I see it starting to
happen now with the FBI. And I think that's what's scary. I think that's the
next institution. Robert Mueller's going to fire
in the next couple of weeks, and there's not going to be
an outcry from those people because the FBI is
now an institution. Law enforcement
is an institution that we don't have
to buy into anymore. SPEAKER: What happens
when he gets fired? JORDAN KLEPPER: Boy,
I think timing is going to be really interesting. I think the Doomsday-- or the pessimist inside
of me says he gets fired, and the left is-- they throw their hands up. They're really frustrated. And there's a big groundswell to
hold Trump's feet to the fire. Hopefully there's a big-- I could see a big march on
Washington or something. I would hope to see that. I think that is a scary
moment in our culture. I don't see a lot of
the people on the right who are in power as having the
backbone to stand up to that. I think that's a really
scary point for us to be. SPEAKER: I feel like there
was this pivotal moment with Merrick Garland
and the Supreme Court, which people don't
always refer to. But the fact that Mitch
McConnell stonewalled so completely on
that is something that constitutionally is
simply supposed to happen. He was the nominee. He's supposed to go
through the procedure. It simply never occurred. That to me was a signal
of all bets are off. JORDAN KLEPPER:
All bets are off. The idea of bipartisanship or
a line that we won't cross-- and we don't talk about
Merrick Garland anymore. SPEAKER: Yeah, I know. People don't even
know who I'm talking about when I mention his name. It's strange, because
it was a major thing. JORDAN KLEPPER: That was
a clearly partisan move that people are like,
this won't stand. And now we don't remember it. He won. McConnell won. SPEAKER: By doing nothing. JORDAN KLEPPER:
By doing nothing, by not letting Merrick
Garland get his day in court, if you will. They got their own guy in. SPEAKER: And that seems
to me significant in terms of indicating what could
happen with Robert Mueller. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes. I think what we need is good
strong leaders to stand up against somebody who is
in their party for what is good in America. I think you see some people. You see people like Jeff Flake. You see people who are
willing to buck the system and go against what
the president is doing. And I think we need that. And hopefully,
hopefully, we have enough faith in American
democracy that people stand up. I honestly haven't seen
enough evidence of it. SPEAKER: I want to switch to
a question about your health. I'm concerned because of the
MAGAMeal going challenge. JORDAN KLEPPER: Oh, geez, yeah. SPEAKER: I don't
know if you saw this. If you didn't, Google it. JORDAN KLEPPER: Good, good. SPEAKER: Nice. What did you eat exactly? It was basically a Trump lunch. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes. So it came out in a book
by Corey Lewandowski, his former campaign
manager, just last week, if you saw this. Donald Trump's regular
order for McDonald's was two Big Macs, two
Filet of Fishes, and a chocolate
malt slash shake. That's what he would
order at McDonald's. They say regularly, even
daily, which is fucking insane. That's insane. SPEAKER: I'm nauseated
thinking about it. JORDAN KLEPPER: He's
a 71-year-old man, a grumpy old
71-year-old man who's just inhaling this regularly. And so on the show, our
mind was sort of blown. And the questions
we were asking-- one is, this is
this guy is making the most important
decisions on Earth, and this is the
fuel that he has. And so we were like, let's do
a thing where I'm discussing. I'm having to make decisions. I'm having to discuss
what he was discussing. At that point, it was
the Jerusalem decision where they were "moving"
our embassy to Jerusalem. SPEAKER: Just a minor thing. JORDAN KLEPPER:
Just a minor thing, just dealing with
the Middle East. So I decided to take
the MAGAMeal challenge and eat his entire order
in the course of a segment. And that's a lot of food, guys. I would not recommend that. By the time you
shove a Big Mac in, it's the smell of
the Filet of Fish that gets you a little
bit nauseous there. SPEAKER: You mentioned
that it was fishier than you remembered. It was JORDAN KLEPPER: It
was way fishier. I hadn't eaten that much
McDonald's in quite some time. And I was like, I can do this. And this one was real fun. We were writing the show,
and just before going out, trying to figure it out. I'm going to eat this meal. I'm going to try to do
it and kind of host, and we'll have somebody out
who's actually helping host. But how do I eat it? What should I eat first? Will I be able to eat
all of this stuff? And we had probably like
a 10 minute digression of whether it was possible
for a human being to eat this. And then we took a
step back, and we were like, this is the
regular order of the commander in chief right now. And we're like, I just don't
know if it's humanly possible. I just don't know. SPEAKER: Did you
actually finish it? JORDAN KLEPPER: I
finished almost all of it. I still had like-- I think I was 3/4
of the way there. I still had one Fillet of Fish. I mean it. I almost vomited
six times because it is the smell of fillet of
fish shoved into your mouth. SPEAKER: There was kind of a
chartreuse hue on your face. JORDAN KLEPPER:
Yeah, you get where that color's coming from Donald
Trump when you eat his diet. You're like, oh, I see this. I also eat that, and I
don't want to get vile. But I'm like, that's
what that man eats. You know he's stressed. He's nervous because
everybody is coming at him. And can you imagine just the
Trump farts in a car with him? Because that bag already
has its own order, and you just have an
unhealthy 71-year-old man with the weight of
the world on him who is just angry inhaling that. I'm like, that is the worst
place on Earth to be right there. SPEAKER: That's actually the
most disgusting scenario ever. JORDAN KLEPPER: Can you just
imagine being in that car? Oh, oh, OK. SPEAKER: But you're OK. I wondered if you
could even think after that, because I would
imagine the brain fog, the food coma. JORDAN KLEPPER: I
ended that segment. I did go backstage and
threw up a little bit. SPEAKER: A little bit? JORDAN KLEPPER: A little bit. SPEAKER: [INAUDIBLE] go in! JORDAN KLEPPER: I
wanted more to come out. And then I came out, and I
interviewed astronaut Scott Kelly. That's the fun
thing of this job. And if you watch
that, my eyes are so bloodshot in that
interview because I had just thrown up nearly 2,400
calories and then sat down with an astronaut. It's a fun job. SPEAKER: What's space like? JORDAN KLEPPER: Yeah,
tell me about space. How does that affect your body? Tell me. SPEAKER: You grew
up in Michigan. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yup. SPEAKER: Michigan went to Trump. JORDAN KLEPPER: It did. SPEAKER: Do you have
any insight into that? JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes, yes,
I have a lot of insights. SPEAKER: Good. JORDAN KLEPPER: Good,
let me share some. No, I grew up in
Kalamazoo, Michigan. Michigan is always right
on the line with that. I did a special
about the gun debate that focused a lot on Michigan. And it's partially because
Michigan is very much a microcosm of America. Kalamazoo has got a
couple universities. It's a fairly liberal town. You go 10 miles
outside of Kalamazoo, and you are in hunting town. And all you're going to
do is you're hunting duck. You're hunting quail. It has Calvin College,
which is 40 minutes outside of Kalamazoo. It's a very religious
little enclave as well. And you start to see
America is full of a lot of different people,
a lot of things they very much care about. And I think when I would go back
and talk to people in Michigan, you see that, I think,
a lot of liberals focused on this
election as something that you are taking
the totality of Trump. And I think there's a
lot of people in Michigan and places across the
country who take one issue, and they hold on to that. And it could have been
the Second Amendment. It could have been abortion. I think we see that
in Alabama as well. There's a lot of Trump voters
who are one-issue voters, and that issue might have
just been, I want a change. And for me, that's
always been something in Michigan whose had-- Michigan has had its issues. Detroit has had a really tough
time, is coming back right now. Flint has had a
really tough time. The automobile industry
has been up and down and a little bit back
up again in a way that people are frustrated. People are underemployed. And I think you look
at election as a way to like vote for change. And at its simplest--
in this last election, if you were unhappy about
where you were in life, and you wanted a
change, the candidate who was advocating
change was Donald Trump. And I think I could empathize
with that understanding. I was against that decision
for a lot of the reasons. But I could see that a lot of
people who were frustrated, who were down on their luck
and were like, I want change, to me, Hillary
Clinton is not change. Donald Trump, at least
it will shake things up. SPEAKER: Even if change
is a dumpster fire. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yeah,
because I think-- change is a dumpster fire. SPEAKER: I don't care. JORDAN KLEPPER: It's different. But I do think at
it's basic, if you are somebody who has
been down on their luck and doesn't have a lot of faith
in what government can do, then the idea of, let's
blow up the government, is not as insane as some
people might make it out to be. Again, not something
I advocate, but it is something I can empathize with. SPEAKER: When you
were growing up, were there certain comedians
who had an influence on you and your sensibility? JORDAN KLEPPER: I was
a huge Jim Carrey fan. But as far as
sensibility, I just ripped off every line he said
in "Ace Ventura" and "Dumb and Dumber," and just
regurgitated in my math class. SPEAKER: Did you really? JORDAN KLEPPER: Oh, yes, I
was so annoying in math class, just quoting "Dumb and
Dumber" line after line. SPEAKER: The teacher's just
like, Klepper, oh, my god. JORDAN KLEPPER: Just shut up. Let me go through this theorem. But I think "Monty
Python," British comedy, was always really
exciting to me. "Monty Python," sketch
comedy, "The State," those were early things
that I really got into it. "Whose Line Is It
Anyway?" was something that I fell in love with
watch on Comedy Central and made me go and do
improv comedy in college. SPEAKER: Did it really? JORDAN KLEPPER: It did, yeah. I would come home after
school in high school and watch "General
Hospital" with my mom, and then I would watch
"Whose Line Is It Anyway?" on Comedy Central. And I would love it. I loved Ryan Stiles,
Colin Mochrie. And when I went to
college, I didn't know what I was going to do with my life. And at orientation,
I walked onto campus, and there was an ad up to
audition for the improv team. And I was like, oh,
that's such a fun thing. I've been a fan of that. Let's give that a shot. And it was a blast
and kind of segue into me taking a real interest
in this idea of comedy and the idea of performance. SPEAKER: I recently saw-- I finally caught up with
"The Big Sick," great film, and it reminded me of
those gutting moments of a comic up on stage trying
to get the crowd to laugh, and things are just-- Have you had those nights? JORDAN KLEPPER: No, no, I've
always had success with comedy. SPEAKER: Just home
run, batted 1,000. JORDAN KLEPPER: Almost, but
with improv, you'd be surprised. I'm always just knocking
them out of the park. SPEAKER: Just from the start. JORDAN KLEPPER: Right off
the bat, you'd be surprised, a real natural. No, that is part of
the quest, I think. Improv is full of those moments. I think, from an
outsider perspective, it's almost entirely
those moments. From an insider, you
think you're killing a lot more than you are. But I think that
feeling of you can fail and you're constantly getting
response from the audience is part of what is so exciting,
but it never goes away. I think you're always
hoping that you are getting the response that you want. But comedians, you're
always failing too. Again, that has
been something that is a really worthwhile
lesson, especially doing the job I
do right now where you have to be responsive. We write a lot of jokes. We write a lot of shows. We're doing one every day. You can't be precious, because
that fear will lock it up, and you won't create anything. And so I think that nugget
that I take from improv is-- try, be confident. If you fail, step over it,
and keep moving forward. SPEAKER: I would imagine
you can't get hung up on one dead joke, one failure,
or you'd just be paralyzed. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes. And you do. I'm not without
total fear and doubt. It happens for sure. The internet also
helps that too. You will have that moment
that didn't go well, and the internet will find it,
and they will tweet it back at you, which is really
nice to be like, remember, you're a failure. Thank you, good to know. SPEAKER: Just wanted to
let you know you suck. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yeah, exactly. Thank you noted. SPEAKER: Right on. JORDAN KLEPPER: So
that is always there. But yeah, I think if you
get too caught up on it-- again, I'm lucky. I go into work the
next day, and it's like, I've got to
focus on today. SPEAKER: Another question
related to your health, more your psychological
health, your balance-- JORDAN KLEPPER: This
is like a physical. SPEAKER: I'm worried
about you, OK? I'm worried about you. JORDAN KLEPPER: Am
I am on trial here? What's going to happen? SPEAKER: How do you get away? You're swimming in these
conspiracy theories all the time to feed the
show, to feed your character. You're in touch with the lunacy,
the batshitness of "Infowars" and stuff like that. And how do you get away from it? How do you escape just to
meditate and get some peace? You know what I mean? Because I think it would infect
your dreams after a while. JORDAN KLEPPER: It does, yeah. Yeah, it does. I would say my
dreams are infected by the conspiracy of it. Also I'm three
months into the show, and the anxiety of putting up
a show is all encompassing. And so I think we are
inundated ourselves with news and getting this job done,
and the mind is racing. What I have found is getting
new input is very important, and I don't have a
lot of time right now. I had to move into Manhattan. I was a Brooklyn guy, and
I moved into Manhattan because that's
where our studio is. And so something I do now,
I wake up on Saturday. And it's like, I
can't read the news. I do it every morning, but I'm
not going to read it right now. I'm going to get
up, and I usually-- I go to art museums just for
an hour, an hour and a half, to get a new input that
is not commentary, that is not telling me about Trump. I can look at an
abstract painting, and I can make it about
Trump, and I usually do. But I like the idea
of getting something in that is just not modern
bickering, modern partisanship or editorializing. For me, that's pretty important. It gets me a little
of the way there. SPEAKER: Because I would
suspect everyone in this room can say there are
moments in our lives when we're inundated with social
media and the flow of all this to where it just
feels unhealthy. You're in it to the n-th power. JORDAN KLEPPER:
Yeah, I think it's part of our society right
now, this idea of turning off your phone. It's hard. And I think now this is much
more a part of what my job is, and I need to stay
up on top of it. But it doesn't
help with clarity. I think I find myself
losing perspective. Because every day,
we're making choices about what we're
going to cover, what the story of the day, what
our show's story of the day should be, and if you're
too glued to your phone, there's 10 new stories coming up
all the time that can make you lose perspective. But you have to ride that
line of being aware but also not being lost. SPEAKER: As a creator of comedy,
when a character comes along like Roy Moore, do you
do you dance a jig? Are you just like,
this is comedy gold? Or I mean the horse,
the little gun? JORDAN KLEPPER: The potential
rape and pedophilia. SPEAKER: I mean, he's
repulsive, and yet, you have to create comedy out of it. Do you react like this is
too much, it's too dark? Or, actually, we can create
something very entertaining out of it? How do you react to it? JORDAN KLEPPER: The reaction
is a guttural feeling. I react. I'm aghast at it. It isn't like we find
it, and that's the job. And it's amazing what
Donald Trump and Roy Moore will do on a day to day basis. I can't believe that. That is something
we can respond to. It's sad, becaused we watched
these videos, especially as Roy Moore was coming on the
scene, and hearing the things he talks about-- we are happy
we can find comedy in it. But we are saddened
by what we are seeing with these characters. So I do think-- people often ask
us, oh, you must feel so happy that Donald Trump
and this era feels so crazy. And it's like, the
comedy comes out of feeling frustrated and angry. I wish we didn't have this
clown in office right now who is tweeting out Islamophobic
videos day in and day out. It's like, this is insane. SPEAKER: Well, for me,
that was a level of disgust I reached it. I just felt like I
couldn't function. I was like, why
is he doing this? It's just horrible. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes. SPEAKER: But then you
have to create a show. You see what I mean? It's such an
interesting place to be, where you have to take that
disgust, that repulsion, that anger, and then
convert it into something that is highly entertaining. Your show is great. It's weird. JORDAN KLEPPER:
What's fun about that is, because we play
this character, for me, going into this
Trump era, what is fun is the defensiveness,
how Trump has to defend these noxious actions. And I think you can only throw
up your hands so many times. I'm like, you see what he did? You see what he did? And so for us, it's
like, we saw what he did. Sarah Huckabee Sanders is
going to have to defend this in an hour and a half. Kellyanne Conway is going
to have to twist this. Mitch McConnell is going to
have to find a way in which to walk the line. And for us, that's the
bullshit that we can look at it and be like, look at
the way in which people are bending over backwards
to support hate speech or to "not offend"
their core constituents. It's like we get to
play in that world. We get to hide and go crazy. And I think the one saving
grace that I have is I get to go to work with a bunch
of really smart, funny people, and we get to throw up our hands
and then be like, all right let's talk about it. Let's find a way to
find some light in it. SPEAKER: Do you have
any backstage rituals before you go on? Are there certain things
that calm you down? JORDAN KLEPPER: Cocaine,
man, just you know. SPEAKER: Old school. JORDAN KLEPPER: Old school
comedy though, right? SPEAKER: '70s,
'80s style, right? Whatever works, man. JORDAN KLEPPER:
Whatever, you know? We are writing right
up until the end, and so for me, it's
a very stressful day. It's 8-10 hour days of
putting together the show. But as soon as that
thing is locked, sent to prompter, I go
and meet the guests. The ritual is the getting
ready for the show. I do a couple of little
improv things I used to do, little warm ups just to kind of
get my mind like vocal warm ups or physical things to
get my mind remembering that I'm not writing
anymore, I'm performing. And then the crowd and
the energy of a room awakens you to turn from being
producer to being performer. And then you just go. SPEAKER: Like with
the MAGAMeal, were you saying before that you were
basically writing it 10 minutes before you were fine tuning it? JORDAN KLEPPER: Well,
what we sort of do, it's a race each day. And we write and rewrite
and throw stuff out and keep creating, and then
we do a rehearsal usually around like 3:30 each day. And that runs till 4:00-4:30. And graphics that
we're changing, everything is constantly
happening there. But at like 4:00-4:30, we grab
it, and we go into a room, a handful of us, and we just
basically rewrite and go line the line and change
the stuff that we like, add new stuff that's
happened during the day, until about 6:30, when
we give a thumbs up. And then usually, it's like
we get a 30 minute clock, and then we walk out and do it. So it's a sprint
until the performance. It's a lot of adrenaline. SPEAKER: I bet. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yeah. SPEAKER: In the spirit
of the word "sprint," I was told that we
should do something known as a lightning round. JORDAN KLEPPER: Ooh, Good segue. SPEAKER: But I got
my-- yeah, nice. I worked on that all week. JORDAN KLEPPER: Nice, all week? SPEAKER: Yeah, man. JORDAN KLEPPER: That's great. That paid off. SPEAKER: I was waiting for
you to say a word like that, and I thought,
I'll just move it. I'll just go. It's actually five
minutes early. I'm supposed to do the
lightning round later. But you said "sprint,"
let's do it now. JORDAN KLEPPER: Let's do it. SPEAKER: Yeah. But I'm going to do
it a little different. I'm going to do a free
association kind of thing, because I feel like we're living
in this world that's absolutely populated by super villains. It's amazing the
cast of characters that grace our screens. So I'm just going to
throw out their names, and I want to hear what
you think of each person. What comes to mind, free
association, Freudian? And when I start-- JORDAN KLEPPER: Freudian,
I'm just going to go, Mom, Mom, Mom, Mom. SPEAKER: --just go straight in. JORDAN KLEPPER: Sex, Dad. SPEAKER: MAGAMeal. Gmail JORDAN KLEPPER: Indigestion. SPEAKER: Disheveled
drunk, Steve Bannon. JORDAN KLEPPER: Pus. Pus, collars, layers, sweat,
ETA a year and a half, then he's out of our
life-- fingers crossed. SPEAKER: You had me at pus. JORDAN KLEPPER: Oh,
you sound like my wife. I don't even know
what that means. SPEAKER: Yeah, let's move on. Joe Arpaio. JORDAN KLEPPER: Oh,
disaster, disaster. I was down there at
one of the rallies where Trump was talking
about pardoning Joe Arpaio. And I think that was just a
disaster, partisan disaster, let's say that. SPEAKER: Mike Pence. JORDAN KLEPPER: Hair. SPEAKER: Hair? JORDAN KLEPPER: Hair,
just a little helmet, he just has a perfectly
coiffed helmet. SPEAKER: What's
underneath the hair? JORDAN KLEPPER: A
hatred of homosexuals, I think, at least the
last time I heard. I think it's just a body of
Christianity as a shield. That's what I think he's
got underneath there. Pus, let's say pus. SPEAKER: No, you
finally get pus once. JORDAN KLEPPER: I
only get one pus? Oh, I didn't know the rules. SPEAKER: You can't keep-- Bernie Sanders. JORDAN KLEPPER: 2020. SPEAKER: Is that a hope? JORDAN KLEPPER: That is a hope. You know what? I will say this. I was not necessarily
on the Bernie train this last election. But I look back to that,
and I am regretful. I think there was a lack
of media coverage of him. That I will say as
somebody who was watching a lot of that stuff. That definitely affected my
perspective of his chances, of how real his support was. And in one traditional way,
I think I looked at the race for president. I think looking back
at that, I was like, oh, I think there was a real
opportunity there that I definitely felt like I missed
giving him more of a chance than I probably should have. I think it'd be really
interested if he ran again. I don't know if it will happen. SPEAKER: Did you
think he couldn't win? JORDAN KLEPPER: I did. I think I knew a little
bit about Bernie Sanders when he came out and when he
was introduced to the people so early in that election cycle. I think the tenor
of the conversation was like, he's a socialist,
a joke candidate. SPEAKER: It'll never happen. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yeah. And in the same way everybody
talked about Donald Trump, in a way that was like, these
are the joke candidates. It's Jeb. It's Hillary. Let's focus on that. And I think, from
my understanding, the elections I had been through
and the people I talked to, it was like, oh, that's-- guys, have fun with the fringe. But it's these two
people, let's focus on it. And so that's the way
the media covered it, and it was always Hillary. But Trump was so enticing
that it was so Hillary, it was so Trump, but
it's probably Jeb. And then I think
seeing that turn out, going to some of those
rallies and seeing how excited people
for Bernie were, it was shifting in my head. But I was like, I think
the narrative really was this is not how
modern politics works. A guy like Bernie Sanders
won't become president, and I think we thought that
times 10 for Donald Trump. And looking back,
I was like, yeah, I think there was
missed perspective from the media's landscape. And I think I was
a victim of that. SPEAKER: I actually was
on the road the last week of the election because I did
a cover story for "Esquire," about Pharrell Williams. And he was campaigning
for Hillary, and there was an event in
North Carolina with Hillary and Bernie and Pharrell. And I was talking to one of
Hillary's advisors there, and I was like, you
have to win this. Do I say, please, please? I'm not taking sides,
but nevertheless. JORDAN KLEPPER: Feels like it. SPEAKER: You know, come on. He was like, oh, we got this. Don't worry. I'm kind of haunted by this. There was this
incredible overconfidence that I think maybe was
rooted in exactly what you're referring to, all the
paradigms from the past. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes, yeah. I would say that with
Trump, people are like, are you so surprised with Trump? It was like, I went to rallies. I saw up close the fervor
and the excitement people had for Donald Trump. But what you can't get
even going to those is that 36,000 foot view. I didn't have the perspective. The media kept telling me,
yeah, this won't catch on. I was like, people
are way into Trump. There's a lot of
support, these rallies. It feels legitimate. But everybody is running
it through these-- this is how elections work. This isn't going to pay off. Oh, I think things
are different now. And I do think
social media, I think Facebook feeds the way
in which we get our news, the way in which we
interact with the world. It's like, we're not
just looking at-- no, we're not all just
watching NBC telling us how this election is playing out. We don't know one place to
look, and it's so disparate, it's hard to get
that perspective. And I think going into
these next few elections, we just don't know how
they're going turn out. SPEAKER: A couple more
names, Ivanka Trump. JORDAN KLEPPER:
Oh, disappointment. SPEAKER: Disappointment? JORDAN KLEPPER: Disappointment. I didn't have a
huge hope for her, but I think the way in which
she talks about women's rights and things of that
nature, I think she holds a place where she
can challenge her father. I think she has in some
places with Roy Moore and what have you. But I'd like to see her use
that platform a little bit. It feels like Donald Trumps
only trusts about two people, and I think she's one of them. SPEAKER: But she spoke
against Roy Moore. JORDAN KLEPPER: She did. SPEAKER: And Trump, therefore,
supported Roy Moore. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes, yes. SPEAKER: Did I read that right? JORDAN KLEPPER: Well,
I think you did. I wonder what went
on behind the scenes with that kind of a thing. I think it was also
really interesting that Bannon came out and he
mocked Ivanka and the language she used for going at Roy Moore
or going at the idea of people who prey on children. I think it was a lightly
veiled comment that she made. I don't know. In the end, Donald Trump
only listens to himself, and I think it's
unfair to say, she should be able to
control her dad. But I don't think she should. I don't think she can. But I do think she
has his ear, and I wish she would talk a
little louder sometimes. SPEAKER: Mitch McConnell. JORDAN KLEPPER: Oh, spineless. SPEAKER: Right? JORDAN KLEPPER: Spineless. SPEAKER: Do you ever
have folks ask you, of all the super-villains, which
one do you loathe the most? JORDAN KLEPPER: I mean, I'm
having that happen right now. SPEAKER: But I'm
asking the crowd too, because I'm just saying,
personally, for me, just really McConnell
really gets to me. JORDAN KLEPPER:
What is it for you? SPEAKER: Because he could-- McConnell, because he
could stop all this. He could stand up for
civility and reason and unity, and he's not. He's actually the stonewall
that allows all this to occur. You know I mean? JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes. There's some great
quote that I will butcher about the idea of
the thing-- what is it? Bad shit happens when good
people don't stand up. SPEAKER: Yeah,
something like that. JORDAN KLEPPER: Gandhi said it. SPEAKER: Gandhi. Two white guys trying
to figure it out. JORDAN KLEPPER: What
was it Gandhi said? And I'm sure it wasn't even-- But I do think that's-- there are reprehensible
things that Donald Trump says and does. We talk about the video that
he tweeted out, for example. And I think there's
something about him that is so infuriating,
and I think it's just because he's so populist,
and he so needs to be loved. I don't know if it's-- I don't think he
less an evil guy. I think he's a guy
that just wants to be loved so much that he
would go to such evil places. SPEAKER: It's a pathology. JORDAN KLEPPER:
Yeah, and I think what you're talking about with
McConnell and all of these guys is there is another
layer right there. It's the layer that shakes
what I believed and loved about this country. I think it's still
there, but it scares me. Because it's like
stuff is shaking away that we're like, oh, my god. Like stuff that's happening
in North Korea, some of these things that he's
saying about women, some of these things that are going
on with this Islamophobia and stuff, it's
like, we're getting into dangerous
territory right here. If he fires Mueller,
we are discrediting the FBI, the branch
of the justice system that's supposed to
protect us, that's supposed to be separate
from the presidency. The thing that will stop a crazy
man who just wants to be liked and doesn't want
to be made look bad is other people in
positions of power who can put aside
partisan bullshit and stand up for the
betterment of this country that they claim to love
so dearly that they keep a Constitution their pocket
to prove to other people that they love it. And I think you see
people like McConnell and people that level
just kowtowing to winning. And I think this American
culture of winning is frightening, because
that's the ultimate ideology. And it's like, screw
you, Mitch McConnell. Support what is right. Protect this union and this
thing that you promised to do, and don't protect the idea of
winning in your next election or getting sponsors and money
so that you can move forward. I think that's the thing that to
me that is so frightening right now. SPEAKER: Yeah, although the
winning feels pretty nice. JORDAN KLEPPER: I like winning. Trust me. SPEAKER: With Doug Jones? Did you like that transition? JORDAN KLEPPER: That was good. Were you just waiting like,
he's got to say winning? I was thinking winning. I'll just move right into that. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yeah. SPEAKER: Yeah, language is fun. found there was this
fizzy sense of, at least on the social media, excitement
with Doug Jones that night. And then you wake
up, and you realize that they stole the internet
while you weren't looking. JORDAN KLEPPER: Whoops. SPEAKER: Sorry about that. Can Google stop that? JORDAN KLEPPER: Yeah, could you? Yeah, no? SPEAKER: You guys are Google. JORDAN KLEPPER: Can you
please, net neutrality, can we? It is, right? Everything moves
so quick with that. It was a day later,
it was like, oh, this other thing we
weren't talking about. SPEAKER: Hey, you having fun? We just took the internet. JORDAN KLEPPER: Dammit. SPEAKER: Ah, shit. JORDAN KLEPPER: We felt so
good that only nearly half of Alabama still
voted for Roy Moore. That's what's still crazy. SPEAKER: Yeah, a lot of people. JORDAN KLEPPER: A lot
of people still did. SPEAKER: OK, we're going
to do some questions from the much smarter
folks, who are you. So there are microphones around. Just go on up and jump in. Hi-- oh, Rob. AUDIENCE: One of the Robs. SPEAKER: How many
Robs are there? Is that a thing? It's like if your name
is Rob-- well, anyway, the questions are for Jordan. AUDIENCE: The question is,
with political news shows, I wonder is the goal
to create comedy from news or a political
impact with comedy, and how do you balance
the two of those? JORDAN KLEPPER:
I think, for us-- I am a comedian. I am somebody who-- I think people when people
often ask, they're like, oh, are you a journalist? Are you, what have you? I think it's very clear with
these shows I'm a comedian. I didn't go to
journalism school. I took improv classes. But that doesn't mean I don't
take my job very seriously, and the people we
hire are comedians. We hire journalists. We hire researchers. The things that we put
out, we hold in high regard and want to get it right. But I think it's very clear
that we are editorializing on the news there. And I think the
way in which we can do that is through
the prism of comedy. And I think we try to
stay in that lane of, let's show up in the morning. What we can do is
talk about what's happening in the news that day. They're a bunch of
smart, thoughtful people who have different
points of view, but let's get to the thing that
we are most frustrated about or care most about that day. And what we can do best is
try to find comedy and speak to that thing. And so if we stay
that line, then hopefully we can
get the end product that we are ideally aiming for. AUDIENCE: Hey, growing
up in the Midwest, I definitely know my fair
share of Trump supporters. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yeah,
where'd you grow up? AUDIENCE: Ohio and Michigan. When you were talking
about hunting towns outside of Kalamazoo, I literally
have been there many times. I understand. I'm just wondering based on
the number of Trump supporters you've spoken to if
their minds haven't changed in the last year. Do you think that they're
ever going to change? Do you think it's actually worth
even fighting that anymore, or is that just a
battle that is over? JORDAN KLEPPER: I do think the
idea of fighting for people-- you need to change your mind-- I think there are 30% of
people who the narrative is, this is my guy, and
I'm going to fight for this guy no matter what. And I think that is
100% going to continue and will continue into the next
election and what have you. I do think there
are a lot of people who are Trump supporters who
have their guard up but are open to having a dialogue. And I think it is for people-- I think as we have that
dialogue, like what we talked a little
bit about earlier, it might be less about
Trump than we think, people on the left. We get so obsessed and so
Trump focused about all the little things that he does. It's like, look at
this giant conspiracy board of a million things
I've already seen him do. Isn't this all the proof? Again, it might be about change. It might be just about somebody
who feels like a winner. And I think
sometimes engaging in that conversation might
be a way in which to see if there is a middle ground. But hopefully the people on
the left, hopefully Democrats, can offer, and I
think they will be able to offer in the next
election, that idea of change. Because I think in
a couple of years, that's what America
is going to want. AUDIENCE: Yeah, thanks. AUDIENCE: Hey, Jordan. Firstly, congratulations on
your new, "The Opposition." JORDAN KLEPPER: Thank you. AUDIENCE: When I got to know you
were leaving "The Daily Show," I was kind of distraught. You were my favorite
correspondent on the show. JORDAN KLEPPER: Oh, thank you. I'll let Hasan know. AUDIENCE: You used to do
one of my favorite bits, and it was called
"Fingers the Pulse." And you used to go
to Trump rallies and question the voters
there and their supporters. So I wanted to know. There's been a lot of videos
online about you asking them questions and them coming up
with ridiculous responses. How do you deal with that? And what was your
experience in the rallies? Did they know you were
from "The Daily Show" and you were presenting
the satiric angle to this? And were they angry at you? How do you deal with this? JORDAN KLEPPER: So I went
to a lot of Trump rallies. I actually just went
to one last week to get a feel for how things
had changed and what have you. I think we're very open
about who we are there. Not a lot of people necessarily
know who we are there, but we say, look, we want
to talk to you about what's going on and what have you. And I think I go into that, as
like in improv world, like I'm "yes, and-ing" the ideas
that are already there. And I think it's
like, you think this. Tell me more about this, and
let's hear more about this and what have you. And I think you
see a lot of people who are at those rallies who
are distrustful of media, but a lot of people,
with "The Daily Show" and with "The Opposition,"
they want their voices heard. And so they're eager to
talk about that on camera. And so we try to
find those people who are eager to talk about Donald
Trump, about what they think about what's going on,
and we start chatting. It doesn't necessarily
get contentious. Sometimes people around here
are so anti-media that they're following us around. They're yelling "fake news." And they're right. We are fake news. SPEAKER: You're a fake
guy delivering fake news. JORDAN KLEPPER:
Don't talk to them. They're fake news. Yeah, that guy gets it. He does get it. I will say a funny detail
that we got our last rally right before the election. We were getting
followed by people who were claiming that we
worked for Hillary and the FBI and were Googling the initials
on the back of our battery pack, which was just the
initials of the rental company, because they were certain we
were working for the government and trying to spy on
everybody, covertly, with a camera crew and mics. So they'll get you anyway. SPEAKER: That's the downside. I'm undercover as a comedian. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes, with
two cameras and a producer. Yeah, you never saw us coming. SPEAKER: Shh, don't tell anyone. AUDIENCE: Jordan,
did you ever try to reason with them once
the cameras went off? Did the real Jordan
come out and try to reason with them
about their thinking? JORDAN KLEPPER:
Yeah, I think I try to engage in conversation
in this character, but a lot of times,
I come out within. And I think this
character that I play, I think Jordan Klepper is
in there a lot as well. I think it's a hybrid of
you see this character, but hopefully you also
see me underneath there. It was really frustrating over
the course of the election to go to those. And by the end,
it was pretty raw, and there wasn't a lot
of veneer between how I felt on what was going
on, because it was angry. I was tired of hearing how
much they hated Hillary Clinton and what they wanted to
do to Hillary Clinton. And I don't to paint the
brush that that was everybody at those rallies, but there was
just such fear and anger there that it would come out. And I'd be like, I think
you're spewing hate, and you're just
echoing something that's happening in there. SPEAKER: And they're
like, that's not funny. JORDAN KLEPPER:
Wait, wait, come on. Let me just talk here. But again, the great normalizer
was inside that arena. And so I can talk
and argue with them about these things and
about the media being biased or about Hillary Clinton having
murdered these certain people and how she should be in
jail and what have you, and how Obama is an
American citizen, but I'm just a
guy with a camera. They walk in there, and the most
powerful person in the world is normalizing that. And so I think that's who is
controlling that conversation and is still controlling
that conversation, I think. And that's what I kept
running up against. AUDIENCE: Thank you, and
good luck on the show. JORDAN KLEPPER: Thank you. AUDIENCE: Hi, I also
grew up in Michigan, in Brooklyn, Michigan. JORDAN KLEPPER: In
Brooklyn, Michigan? Where's Brooklyn? Right AUDIENCE: About here. JORDAN KLEPPER: Right in
the middle right there? AUDIENCE: There's
a big NASCAR track. JORDAN KLEPPER: Oh, is there? There you go. That's only about 40
cities in Michigan. SPEAKER: You're going to
have to be more specific. AUDIENCE: In any
case, as such, I have a lot of aunts
and uncles and my dad and my brother who
voted for Trump. And I was curious. How do you-- I see them posting things
on social media that's becoming increasingly
detached from reality, and they start to trust
institutions less and less. I was curious. How do you think it's
possible for people to help others get their
faith in institutions restored or increase that or point
them to better stories without causing just insane
arguments or something like that? And also, do you see your show
as an evolution of "The Colbert Report" and the time that
that existed with Fox News? And now, you're focusing on
what's now the fringe of today? JORDAN KLEPPER: I think so. I think in regards
to interacting with family members who feel
like they are getting news elsewhere, I think
it's a tricky place. I don't know if I have the
answer or the suggestion. It's hard when
we're talking about, how do we change people's minds? It's not one of the
most effective attitudes to go into things. I want to make them
think what I think. I think that is a prevailing
attitude that everybody has right now, and
that's some of the issues that we're having. And online, it's just a way
in which we can swirl that up. I do think it's old
school, but sitting down conversations with
those people talking about those things, where you're
coming from and what have you, is a way to move things
a little bit forward. Empathizing with
where they come from can get you a step
or two closer. But again, I think we are in
this culture where we seek out what we want to see and
hear, and I think that that is difficult. So maybe get
in the way of that seeking, and maybe you can get
a little bit farther. As far as how we saw our
show, "The Colbert Report" was such an incredible show,
and I was such a fan of it. I think what Stephen
showed is that you can sustain a character
day in and day out and filter a show every
day through a different perspective, through totally
a satirical perspective and a character perspective. And so I think when we
were creating the show, we were like, let's try to
focus on what seems to be 2017. Let's look at this fringe. It's less American
flag ideology, and it's more like
anti-everything ideology. It's more winning
as an ideology. And so I think that's
what we're trying to build our show around. AUDIENCE: What or who has
surprised you while you're making "The Opposition?" JORDAN KLEPPER: What or
who has surprised me? What or who has surprised me? I will say Roy Moore
has 100% surprised me, that he could get so far. He lost by 0.8%. And I think it does show-- the fact that Alabama
turned is an accomplishment, and you are seeing a shift. But I think he ripped
away so much bullshit around faux
Christianity in a way that I think was really
interesting to see, this idea. We talk about this era,
the era 10 years ago, the Christian right, this idea
like we want a moral leader. We want somebody. It's about what is inside. It's not about partisanship
and what have you. And you saw that. It was like all
of that fell away, and it was just about abortion,
or it was just about winning. It was just about your
team getting ahead, and I think I was pretty
shocked at how blatant that became with this Roy Moore. Literally, we were
talking to people. We did interviews with it. You've seen it all
over the place. But the interviews
with supporters were like, what do you
think about the allegations? Yeah, I know,
potential pedophile. But I just don't want
a Democrat in office. People kept saying that. It's like, well-- SPEAKER: I noticed
one episode of yours that they were saying the
more that the mainstream media covered that,
the more inclined they were to vote toward Moore. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yes,
they need an enemy. And I think that's so powerful. Oh, we're not angry
at pedophilia. We're angry at the "Washington
Post" for coming in here and poking around. And that, to me, is
inanity, like insanity. Are those the same thing? I don't quite know. Maybe kind of. SPEAKER: What was
the first word? JORDAN KLEPPER: Inanity,
like to be inane. SPEAKER: Oh, inane, yeah. JORDAN KLEPPER: To be inane,
it kind of worked there. But I think I was-- SPEAKER: Inane in the membrane. JORDAN KLEPPER: Yeah. Is that a segue? Are we going into a
Cypress Hill segment? SPEAKER: Yeah, see? Now we're just going to-- OK, one more I think
we got time for. AUDIENCE: Awesome. I know "The
Opposition" is young, but have there been
any segments that have been just so absurd
where you just got close or just an
idea that you just cut off early that was just
too crazy to put on the air? JORDAN KLEPPER: Too
crazy to put on the air-- what have we done that
has been too crazy? I'm trying to think right now. We've tried to let
some crazy live. I think that's the freedom
of it being a young show. It's like, it's a dumb
idea to eat a bunch of food while talking about Jerusalem. But you're like, all right,
let's give that a shot. And a lot of them
do have to do with-- it isn't even production stuff. I can't remember. Let's dunk Jordan in a
giant thing of water, or we've had some ideas of
like, let's do an entire show-- I think one idea
which I like and we're pushing for weird stuff. When this Uranium
One deal went out-- "deal," like when it became the
counter argument with Hannity and the fringe that we
shouldn't be talking about Trump investigations, we should
talk about Hillary Clinton and her connection to Uranium
One, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary, Hillary. We worked on an act where it was
just me saying the word Hillary for eight straight minutes. And we worked through
it a little bit. SPEAKER: That's
some Andy Kaufman. JORDAN KLEPPER: It
was a little bit. That's where it was
like, I love that idea. And in the end, we
pulled the plug on it. We used a portion of it
where I ranted in that way. Partially because
it was like, I don't know if we've introduced
our show enough where people get
what we're doing yet, but maybe partially because I
was just afraid to just fill eight minutes with Hillary. But I'm hoping we
can get to that place where I grow the balls enough to
make that choice in the future. SPEAKER: There's still time. JORDAN KLEPPER:
There's still time. SPEAKER: We got a
sneak preview of that. I'm looking forward to it. JORDAN KLEPPER:
Wait, what are you referencing, me growing balls? Is that what you're-- SPEAKER: Yeah. Anyway, no, the Hillary,
Hillary, that would be amazing. I'd love to see that. That actually sounds great. JORDAN KLEPPER: I think that
story will come up again. SPEAKER: Yeah, well, that's
all they're fixated on. It's bizarre. JORDAN KLEPPER: She's
still a big, big enemy. SPEAKER: Well, they'll
impeach her eventually. JORDAN KLEPPER: I
think they will. [LAUGHTER] SPEAKER: Thanks for being here. That's it, I believe,
right, for now? JORDAN KLEPPER: Guys, thank you. [APPLAUSE]
