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Stephen Colbert

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This article is about Stephen Colbert, the actor. For the character he portrays on The Colbert Report, see Stephen Colbert (character).
Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert at Knox College
BornMay 13, 1964
Charleston, South Carolina
OccupationComedian/Satirist
WebsiteColbert Nation.com

Stephen Tyrone Colbert (/koʊlˈbɛɹ/; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian and satirist known for his dramatic style and deadpan comedic delivery. He is most famous for his work on The Daily Show, and as the star of its spin-off, The Colbert Report. The latter is a satirical parody of personality-driven, politically conservative news and opinion shows, especially Bill O'Reilly's The O'Reilly Factor.[1][2][3][4] Colbert was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2006.[5]

Personal life

Stephen Colbert and his wife Evelyn McGee-Colbert at the 2006 Time 100, as covered on the blog Rocketboom.

Colbert was born in Charleston, South Carolina on James Island, where he grew up as the youngest of 11 children in a Catholic family. On September 11, 1974, when Colbert was ten years old, his father, James Colbert, the vice president for academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina, and his older brothers, Peter and Paul, were killed in the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 while it was attempting to land in Charlotte, North Carolina. They were reportedly en route to Connecticut to enroll the two boys in the Canterbury Preparatory School.[6][7]

Shortly thereafter, Colbert's mother Lorna Colbert relocated the family downtown to the more urban environment of East Bay Street. By his own account, he found the transition difficult, and did not easily make new friends in his new neighborhood.[8] Instead, he developed a love of science fiction and fantasy novels, and became an avid fan of the fantasy role-playing games, especially Dungeons & Dragons,[9][10] a pastime to which he would later partially attribute his interest in acting and improvisation.[3]

Colbert attended Charleston's exclusive Episcopalian Porter-Gaud School. He attended Hampden-Sydney College before transferring to Northwestern University, where he took acting classes, a choice that was influenced by his mother and a love of Bill Cosby. While there, he became involved in the improvisation troupe ImprovOlympic. After college he went to work at Second City and participated in improv classes there.[3]

He is married to Evelyn McGee-Colbert, who appeared with him in an episode of Strangers with Candy as his mother. She had an uncredited cameo as a nurse in the series pilot, as well. The couple has three children: Madeline, Peter, and John–all of whom have appeared on The Daily Show.

Although not particularly political before joining The Daily Show, Colbert is a self-described Democrat.[11] He is also a practicing Roman Catholic, and a Sunday school teacher. Bill O'Reilly jokingly called for a boycott of The Colbert Report during an interview on The Daily Show, because he assumed that the name Colbert was French, "proving" that his satirical clone was a Frenchman.[12] Colbert is both an Irish and a French surname.[13].

Career in comedy

Early career

Colbert first performed with the Second City comedy troupe in Chicago, initially as an understudy for Steve Carell, who would also go on to serve as a Daily Show correspondent. It was there he met Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello, with whom he would often collaborate later in his career. When Sedaris and Dinello were offered the opportunity to create a television series for HBO downtown productions, Colbert quit Second City and relocated to New York in order to work with them on Exit 57, [10]a sketch comedy show which aired on Comedy Central from 1995 to 1996. Despite only lasting for 12 episodes, the show was critically successful, garnering five CableAce nominations in 1995 in categories including best writing, performance, and comedy series.[14]

Following the cancellation of Exit 57, Colbert worked briefly as a cast member and writer on The Dana Carvey Show, as well as a writer on Saturday Night Live, before taking a job filming humorous correspondent segments for Good Morning America.[10] Only two of the segments he proposed were ever produced, and only one aired, but the job led his agent to refer him to the Daily Show's then-producer, Madeline Smithberg, who hired Colbert on a trial basis in 1997.[15] During the same time frame, he worked again with Sedaris and Dinello to develop a new series for Comedy Central, Strangers with Candy, which was picked up in 1998, after he had already begun to work on the Daily Show. As a result, Colbert accepted a reduced role on the Daily Show -- filming twenty segments a year -- for Strangers with Candy's entire run.

Strangers With Candy

Colbert wrote and performed in the television comedy Strangers with Candy with series co-creators Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello. He played the role of Chuck Noblet, Jerri's strict and generally uninformed history teacher. In almost every episode, he is seen giving his class a lecture which is wildly inaccurate, often based on absurd, logically fallacious arguments. Colbert has likened this to the character he played on the Daily Show, and later on the Colbert Report, claiming that he has a very specific niche in portraying "uninformed, high-status idiot" characters, who are sometimes well-intentioned, but always wrong.

The program first aired on Comedy Central in 1999. Colbert reprised his role for the 2006 movie adaptation.

Colbert on The Daily Show

File:Stephen Colbert TDS.png
Colbert as "Senior Washington Correspondent" on The Daily Show

Stephen Colbert joined the cast of Comedy Central's parody-news series The Daily Show in 1997, when the show was in its second season. Originally one of four "correspondents" who filmed segments from remote locations in the style of network news field reporters, Colbert was referred to as "the new guy" on-air for his first two years on the show, during which time Craig Kilborn served as host. When Kilborn left the show prior to the 1999 season, Jon Stewart took over hosting duties, also serving as a writer and co-executive. From this point, the series gradually began to take on a more political tone, and began to increase in popularity, particularly in the latter part of 2000, during the U.S. presidential election season. The role of the show's correspondents was expanded to include more in-studio segments, as well as international reports which were almost exclusively faked with the aid of a green screen.[10]

Unlike Stewart, who essentially hosts The Daily Show as himself, Colbert developed a correspondent character for his pieces on the series. Colbert has described his correspondent character as "a fool who has spent a lot of his life playing not the fool" -- an idiot who is informed enough be able to cover for his idiocy much of the time, but is still an idiot.[10] The character was frequently pitted against knowledgeable interview subjects, or against Stewart in scripted exchanges, with the resultant dialogue demonstrating the Colbert-character's lack of knowledge of whatever it is he's talking about;[1][10] he also made generous use of humorous fallacies of logic in explaining his point of view on any topic. Other Daily Show correspondents have adopted a similar style, and the convention of having more character-driven correspondent segments, with Stewart serving as a kind of straight-man foil, is now generally accepted as a part of the show's format.

Some memorable segments Colbert has appeared in for The Daily Show have included "Even Stevphen" with Steve Carell, and "This Week in God," a weekly report on topics in the news pertaining to religion, presented with the help of "The God Machine". Memorable reports include the 2001 "break-up" of the Republicans "Singing Senators" following the defection of Jim Jeffords, and the report on Prince Charles and the British media reporting of royal family scandals through suggestive innuendo. In a few episodes of The Daily Show, Colbert filled in as anchor in the absence of Jon Stewart, including the full week of March 3, 2002 when Stewart was scheduled to host Saturday Night Live. On one occasion, guest interviewee Al Sharpton failed to arrive for the taping, so Colbert filled in as Sharpton.[16] Since Colbert left the show, the duty of filling in for Stewart has been assumed by Rob Corddry. Corddry has also taken over the "This Week in God" segments. New episodes of The Daily Show still occasionally reuse older Colbert segments under the label "Klassic Kolbert".

The Colbert Report

Main article: The Colbert Report
File:Colbert on notice board.jpg
Colbert with his "On Notice" board, on The Colbert Report.

Since October 17, 2005, Colbert has hosted his own television show, The Colbert Report, a Daily Show spin-off which parodies the conventions of television news journalism,[17] particularly cable-personality political talk shows like The O'Reilly Factor and Scarborough Country. Colbert hosts the show in-character as a blustery right-wing pundit, generally considered to be an extension of his character on the Daily Show. Conceived of by co-creators Stewart, Colbert and Ben Carlin in part as an opportunity to explore "the character-driven news", the series focuses less on the day-to-day news cycle than the Daily Show, instead frequently concentrating on the foibles of the host-character himself.

The concept for The Report was first seen in a series of Daily Show segments which advertised the as-of-yet-fictional series as a joke. It was later developed by Stewart's Busboy Productions and pitched to Comedy Central, which greenlighted the program, as Comedy Central had already been searching for a way to extend the successful Daily Show franchise beyond a half hour.[18]The series opened to strong ratings, averaging 1.2 million viewers nightly during its first week on the air. Comedy Central signed a long-term contract for The Colbert Report within its first month on the air, when it immediately established itself among the network's highest-rated shows.[19]

In January 2006, the American Dialect Society named as its 2005 Word of the Year: truthiness, which Colbert featured on the premiere episode of the Report. Colbert devoted time on five successive episodes to bemoaning the failure of the Associated Press to mention his role in popularizing the word truthiness in its news coverage of the Word of the Year.

2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner

Main article: Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner
File:Snapshot200604292346073on.jpg
Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner
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On Saturday, April 29, 2006, Stephen Colbert was the featured entertainer for the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner, delivering a 24-minute speech and video presentation which was broadcast on C-SPAN and MSNBC. In his faux-politically conservative character from The Colbert Report, Colbert satirized the Bush administration and the White House press corps with such lines as:

"I stand by this man. I stand by this man because he stands for things. Not only for things, he stands on things. Things like aircraft carriers and rubble and recently flooded city squares. And that sends a strong message, that no matter what happens to America, she will always rebound—with the most powerfully staged photo ops in the world."

The performance received a lukewarm response from the audience, and major media outlets paid little attention to it initially, hardly even mentioning it. On his show Hardball on MSNBC, Chris Matthews called the performance 'bad.' However, the video of Colbert's speech became an overnight internet sensation[20] and ratings for The Colbert Report soared 37% in the week following the speech.[21] After four days of near silence, the press began to recognize Colbert's speech with mixed reactions. Some thought that the speech went "over the line." Others, like Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, found it unfunny, while others still thought that Colbert delivered a magnificent performance akin to Harry Taylor's[22] criticism of Bush. [citation needed] Despite the media response, Colbert's speech continued to gain popularity, ultimately becoming the #1 download on iTunes.[23]

Other roles

File:Phil Ken Sebben.jpg
Phil Ken Sebben
Stephen Colbert also regularly performs as a voice actor on Cartoon Network's Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law, which airs as part of the network's Adult Swim. He provides the voice of the villianous prosecuting lawyer Reducto, as well as Phil Ken Sebben, founder of the Sebben & Sebben law firm. His trademark "ha, ha!" -- followed immediately by a word or short phrase relevant to the scene -- is widely recognized among fans of the series. Colbert has also made guest appearances on other Cartoon Network programs, such as the Ice Station -- Impossible! and Twenty Years to Midnight episodes of The Venture Bros.; he voiced Professor Impossible, an analog of Mr. Fantastic.

Colbert appeared in the big screen adaptation of Bewitched. He also guest-starred as an expert forger and murderer in an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, and as an annoying tourist going to see The Producers on Broadway in an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. He provided the voice of Ace in Robert Smigel's The Ambiguously Gay Duo which aired on Saturday Night Live opposite fellow Daily Show alumnus Steve Carell, and appeared in the Mr. Goodwrench commercials for General Motors. He co-authored the novel Wigfield with ex-Strangers With Candy costars Amy Sedaris and Paul Dinello, has appeared on Whose Line is it Anyway?, and has provided voices for Comedy Central's Crank Yankers.

File:Mrgoodwrench.jpg
Steven Colbert in a "Mr. Goodwrench" commerical.

Colbert also portrayed the letter Z in Sesame Street: All-Star Alphabet, a 2005 video release, opposite Nicole Sullivan as the letter A.

Trivia

Personal

  • Colbert is an avid enthusiast of Lord of the Rings and the fantasy game Dungeons & Dragons, a fascination that began in high school.[9] When Viggo Mortensen appeared on The Daily Show, a sound-clip was played of Colbert reciting the detailed lineage and personal history of Mortensen's character, Aragorn. To reciprocate, Mortensen sent Colbert a platter of Lord of the Rings characters molded in chocolate. Stewart quipped that the gift would give Colbert a "four-hour erection." Later, on June 7, 2006, Colbert noticed that CNN had, in its coverage of June 6 (6/6/06) put the picture of a Balrog in place of a devil. He spent a minute describing the difference between devils and Balrogs: "A devil is a fallen angel who refused to follow God and followed Satan into Hell; Balrogs are Maiar who refused to follow Eru and followed Morgoth into Thangorodrim". This is not entirely true, however, as Thangorodrim was not actually built at the time of Morgoth's expulsion (in actuality, they followed him into Udun). Colbert confessed his embarrassment upon realizing this on Late Night with Conan O'Brien on July 12, 2006.
  • On that same program he also mentioned attending GenCon and spending time with Gary Gygax.
  • Stephen Colbert secretly fawns over Doug Murphy, the incompetent doctor on "Scrubs."
  • Colbert is deaf in his right ear, as he has no ear drum in it. "I always wanted to be a marine biologist...but then I had this ear problem. I have no ear drum. (Flicks his ear.) So I had this operation at the Medical University when I was a kid. Now I can't get my head wet. I mean, I can, but I can't really scuba dive or anything like that. So that killed my marine biology hopes."[8] He once joked to The New Yorker that "I had this weird tumor as a kid, and they scooped it out with a melon baller."[24]
  • On March 16, 2006, Colbert featured a review from Orlando Sentinel columnist Commander Coconut in his "Who's Attacking Me Now?" segment. The review stated that Coconut was unable to pay attention to anything but Colbert's ears, as his right one sticks out slightly. In a call to Coconut regarding the review, Colbert stated that the doctor also noticed it stuck out slightly when he pulled the tumor out. Colbert continued his diatribe for several minutes to the apparent mortification of Coconut, though Coconut later revealed they had rehearsed the call several times. After the replay of the phone conversation, however, Colbert stated that he had not in fact had a tumor in his ear.
  • The San Francisco Zoo recently named a baby bald eagle Stephen Jr. after Colbert. He features clips of the bird occasionally on his show.

Professional life

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Steinberg, Jacques (October 12, 2005). "The News Is Funny, as a Correspondent Gets His Own Show". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-07-13. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Lemann, Nicholas (March 20, 2006). "Bill O'Reilly's baroque period". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2006-07-08. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b c Rabin, Nathan (January 25, 2006). "Stephen Colbert interview". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2006-07-10. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Scherer, Michael (May 1, 2006). "The truthiness hurts". Salon.com. Retrieved October 22, 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  5. ^ a b "The TIME 100: The People Who Shape Our World". TIME Magazine. April 30, 2006. Retrieved July 7, 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  6. ^ Solomon, Deborah (September 25, 2005). "Funny About the News". The New York Times. Retrieved 2006-07-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "Obituaries". The Washington Post. September 14, 1974. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ a b Donovan, Bryce (April 29, 2006). "Great Charlestonian? ... Or the Greatest Charlestonian?". The Charleston Post and Courier. Retrieved 2006-07-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ a b Rausch, Allen (August 17, 2004). "Stephen Colbert on D&D". Gamespy PC. Retrieved 2006-07-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ a b c d e f P., Ken (August 11, 2003). "An Interview with Stephen Colbert". IGN Filmforce. Retrieved 2006-07-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ Bierly, Mandi (July 22, 2006). ""Show" Off". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2006-07-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  12. ^ The Daily Show, 17 October 2005
  13. ^ http://www.one-name.org/profiles/colbert.html#origin
  14. ^ "Biography of Stephen Colbert at Comedy Central's official website". Comedy Central. Retrieved 2006-07-22.
  15. ^ Schneider, Jacqueline (May 6, 2003). "So What Do You Do, Stephen Colbert?". Mediabistro.com. Retrieved 2006-07-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); External link in |publisher= (help)
  16. ^ Candy, Pop (January 1, 2002). "Pop Candy's People of the Year 2001". USA Today. Retrieved 2006-07-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  17. ^ Gross, Terry (January 24, 2005). "A Fake Newsman's Fake Newsman: Stephen Colbert". {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |publication= ignored (help)
  18. ^ Fitzgerald, Toni (October 20, 2005). "The wit and sense of 'Colbert Report'". Medialife Magazine. {{cite news}}: line feed character in |title= at position 18 (help)
  19. ^ Amter, Charlie (November 2, 2005). "Comedy Central Keeps Colbert". {{cite news}}: Unknown parameter |publication= ignored (help)
  20. ^ "Video of presidential roast attracts big Web audience". Cnet News.com. May 3, 2006. Retrieved July 7, 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  21. ^ Lauria, Peter (May 7, 2006). "Colbert Soars". "The New York Post. Retrieved July 7, 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  22. ^ "Bush Faces Rare Audience Challenge in N.C." Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-07-14.
  23. ^ "That After-Dinner Speech remains a favorite dish". New York Times. Retrieved 2006-05-22.
  24. ^ Remnick, Daniel (July 25, 2005). "Reporter Guy". "The New Yorker. Retrieved July 7, 2006. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |accessdate= and |date= (help)
  25. ^ http://www.knox.edu/x12547.xml
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