Stephen Colbert
Stephen Colbert | |
|---|---|
 Stephen Colbert at Knox College. | |
| Born | May 13, 1964 |
| Died | IMMORTAL |
| Occupation(s) | Comedian, Satirist, Actor |
| Website | Colbert Nation.com |
Stephen Tyrone 'T-Bone' Colbert (IPA: [ˈkoʊlbɝˈ]) (born May 13, 1964) is a four-time Emmy Award-winning American comedian, actor, writer, and satirist known for his dramatic style and deadpan comedic delivery. He is best known for his work as a former correspondent for The Daily Show, and, since 2005, as the star of its sweet-ass spin-off, The Colbert Report, a satirical parody of personality-driven political news and opinion shows such as 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 was born in Sumter, South Carolina and grew up on James Island, the youngest of eleven children in a Catholic family.[6][7] His father, James Colbert, was the vice president for academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina. His mother, Lorna Colbert, was a homemaker. In interviews, Colbert has described his parents as devout people who also strongly valued intellectualism, and taught their children that it was possible to question the Church and still be a Catholic.[8] As a child, Colbert decided to imitate the "neutral", General American speech of American news anchors in order to avoid what he saw as a stereotype of Southerners as being unintelligent on many television programs. Consequently, Colbert lost his Southern accent at a young age.[9][10]
On September 11, 1974, when Colbert was ten years old, his father and two 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 enroll the two boys at Canterbury High School in New Milford, Connecticut.[7][11] Shortly thereafter, Lorna Colbert relocated the family downtown to the more urban environment of East Bay Street. By his own account, Colbert found the transition difficult, and did not easily make new friends in his new neighborhood.[6] Colbert would later describe himself during this time as detached, lacking a sense of the importance of the things other children around him concerned themselves with.[12][10] He developed a love of science fiction and fantasy novels, especially the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, of which he remains an avid fan. During his adolescence, he also developed an intense interest in fantasy role-playing games, especially Dungeons & Dragons,[13][12] a pastime which he would later characterize as an early experience in acting and improvisation.[3]
Colbert is deaf in his right ear, as he has no eardrum in it. "I always wanted to be a marine biologist... but then I had this ear problem. I have no ear drum. 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."[6] 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."[14]
Colbert attended Charleston's Episcopal Porter-Gaud School, where he participated in several school plays and contributed occasionally to the school newspaper, but, by his own assessment, was not highly motivated academically.[12] For a while, he was uncertain as to whether or not he would attend college,[15] but ultimately he applied, and was accepted to Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia, where he primarily studied philosophy.[12] There, he found the curriculum rigorous, but was more focused than he had been in high school and was able to apply himself to his studies. Still, after two years, Colbert came to the conclusion that acting was the only thing he really enjoyed working hard at. After two years, he transferred to Northwestern University to study acting, 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 The Second City and participated in improv classes there.[3]
He lives in Montclair, New Jersey with his wife Evelyn McGee-Colbert (known as Evie), 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 have three children: Madeline, Peter, and John–all of whom have appeared on The Daily Show.[16]
Although by his own account he was not particularly political before joining the cast of The Daily Show, Colbert is a self-described Democrat.[17][18] He is also a practicing Roman Catholic[8] and a Sunday school teacher.[19][20]
Career in comedy
Early career
Before acting with The Second City, Colbert worked selling souvenirs for the comedy troupe at their Chicago theater. According to Anne Libera, the artistic director of The Second City Training Center, Colbert still holds the record for greatest number of T-Shirts sold.[21]
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,[12] 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 Award nominations in 1995, in categories including best writing, performance, and comedy series.[22]
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.[12] 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.[23]
Strangers with Candy
During the same time frame, Colbert worked again with Sedaris and Dinello to develop a new comedy 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 the entire run of Strangers with Candy.
Colbert wrote and performed in Strangers with Candy, playing the role of Chuck Noblet, Jerri Blank'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, the Colbert Report, claiming that he has a very specific niche in portraying "uninformed, high-status idiot" characters. A running gag throughout the series' short run was that Colbert's character was a closeted homosexual, and was having a not-well-concealed affair with Dinello's character, fellow teacher Geoffrey Jellineck.
The program first aired on Comedy Central in 1999. Colbert reprised his role for the 2006 movie adaptation. He also co-wrote the screenplay with Sedaris and Dinello.
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. Thus, Colbert lost his status as "the new guy." 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 and 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 always faked with the aid of a green screen.[12]
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 to be able to cover for his idiocy much of the time, but is still an idiot.[12] He has modeled the character after Stone Philips "because he's the perfect, manly newsman package."[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][12] 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 "The 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 which Colbert broke out laughing numerous times during the segment, a rarity for him. 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.[24] After Colbert left the show, the duty of filling in for Stewart was assumed by Rob Corddry until he also left the show in August 2006. Corddry also took over the "This Week in God" segments, although Colbert's "boop boop boop" voiced sound effect is still used for the God Machine. New episodes of The Daily Show still occasionally reuse older Colbert segments under the label "Klassic Kolbert".
Stephen won four Emmys as a writer of The Daily Show in 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006.
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 broadcasting,[9] 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 Karlin 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.[25] 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.[26][27]
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 Colbert 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.[28]
Colbert was nominated for three Emmys for The Colbert Report in 2006, but he lost the "Best Performance in a Variety, Musical Program or Special" category to Barry Manilow. His only Emmy in 2006 came as a writer for "The Daily Show."
He was, however, named "2nd Sexiest TV News Anchor" in September 2006 by Maxim Online, next to Melissa Theuriau of France. He was the only man on the list. [29]
2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner
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 George W. 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. Some, such as Washington Post columnist Dan Froomkin and investigative journalist Robert Parry, claimed that this was because Colbert was critical of the Bush administration in the routine.[30][31] Richard Cohen, also writing for the Washington Post, responded by claiming that Colbert didn't get media attention because the routine wasn't funny.[32] Chris Matthews of the MSNBC show Hardball was also critical of Colbert's performance. Despite all this, the video of Colbert's speech became an overnight Internet sensation[33] and ratings for The Colbert Report soared 37% in the week following the speech.[34] Four days after the performance, the press began to recognize Colbert's speech, with mixed reactions. The video of the speech remained popular on the Internet, eventually becoming the #1 download on iTunes.[35]
Other roles
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 villainous 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's voice is also featured in the video game Outlaw Tennis.
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 a bizarre 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 and more recent television and film star, 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. Colbert also portrayed the letter Z in Sesame Street: All-Star Alphabet, a 2005 video release, opposite Nicole Sullivan as the letter A.
Colbert performed, in his deadpan newsanchor voice, the opening narration of the play / film Hedwig and the Angry Inch ("On August 16, 1961, a wall was erected down the middle of the city of Berlin...") as a track for the Wig in a Box (2003) CD, a compilation of music from and inspired by the play / film. His narration segues into Spoon performing "Tear Me Down." Colbert also read the part of Leopold Bloom in Bloomsday on Broadway XXIV: Love Literature Language Lust: Leopold's Women Bloom on June 16, 2005 at Symphony Space in New York City. Bloomsday is the annual celebration of one of literature's most famous days, June 16, 1904, from James Joyce's Ulysses.
He filled in for Sam Seder on the second episode of The Majority Report on Air America Radio, and has also done reports for The Al Franken Show.
He also provides various voices for the show The Wrong Coast (such as Aragorn for the Lord of the Rings parody skit).
Colbert was the commencement speaker for the class of 2006 at Knox College. Colbert also received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts Degree from the college on June 3, 2006.[36]
In 2004, Colbert performed with the University of Pennsylvania's Mask and Wig Club in their annual Intercollegiate Comedy Festival.
Stephen Colbert has along with many other appearances due to his involvement with the Daily Show and his own Colbert Report, made a graduation speech in his nephew's home town of Marietta Georgia at Lassiter High School, and plans to speak at that same nephew's graduation from the University of Georgia, Athens in 2007. On November 17, 2006 Stephen Colbert will be appearing as the main entertainment at Florida State University's annual Pow Wow homecoming celebration.
Stephen Colbert is rumored to be the host of the 49th Annual Grammy Awards which will be held on February 11, 2007.
On September 14, 2006, the Hungarian ambassador to the U.S. gave Colbert a Hungarian passport (doctored to include his name and photograph), 10,000 Hungarian forint (equivalent to approximately $50 U.S.), and announced that a bridge in Hungary would likely be named after him. Stipulations presented by the Hungarian ambassador, however, included that Colbert must be fluent in Hungarian and must also be deceased.[37] (See also Northern M0 Danube bridge)
During the August 15, 2006 edition of his show, Colbert requested that fans submit a request to name a new mascot for the Saginaw Spirit, an Ontario Hockey League team from Saginaw, Michigan, after him. On September 30, 2006, the team named the mascot "Steagle Colbeagle the Eagle" (a combination of Colbert's name and the word "eagle", a nod to his character's patriotic attitude) in honor of Colbert, featured on an October 2, 2006 episode of the show. In addition, Colbert received a Spirit jersey, which he "hung up on the rafters" (retired jersey) in the studio where his program is produced. In return, Colbert appeared in a video played at the team's next game, praising them for their choice and encouraging them to win.
Notes
- ^ a b Steinberg, Jacques (October 13, 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) - ^ Lemann, Nicholas (March 21, 2006). "Bill O'Reilly's baroque period". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2006-07-08.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c Rabin, Nathan (January 26, 2006). "Stephen Colbert interview". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 2006-07-10.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Scherer, Michael (May 2, 2006). "The truthiness hurts". Salon.com. Retrieved 2006-10-22.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "The TIME 100: The People Who Shape Our World". TIME Magazine. April 31, 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-07.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c 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= - ^ a b 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) - ^ a b Cote, David (June 9, 2005). "Joyce Words". TimeOut New York.
{{cite news}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help); Check date values in:|date=(help); Unknown parameter|http://www.timeout.com/newyork/DetailsAr.do?file=ignored (help) - ^ a b Gross, Terry (January 24, 2005). "A Fake Newsman's Fake Newsman: Stephen Colbert". Fresh Air on National Public Radio.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) Cite error: The named reference "freshair1" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page). - ^ a b c Safer, Morley (August 13, 2006). "The Colbert Report: Morley Safer Profiles Comedy Central's 'Fake' Newsman". 60 Minutes. Retrieved 2006-08-15.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Obituaries". The Washington Post. September 14, 1974.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c d e f g h i P., Ken (August 11, 2003). "An Interview with Stephen Colbert". IGN Filmforce. Retrieved 2006-07-22.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Rausch, Allen (August 17, 2004). "Stephen Colbert on D&D". GameSpy PC. Retrieved 2006-07-22.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Remnick, David (July 25, 2005). "Reporter Guy". "The New Yorker. Retrieved 2006-07-07.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Beazley, Nick (2003). "Student Meets Daily Show Correspondent With Ties to the Hill". The Hampden-Sydney Tiger.
- ^ Milanese, Marisa (March 2004). "The King of Comedy". Child Magazine. Retrieved 2006-08-11.
- ^ Kurtz, Howard (October 10, 2005). ""TV's Newest Anchor: A Smirk in Progress". The Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-08-11.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Bierly, Mandi (July 22, 2006). ""Show" Off". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2006-07-22.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Interview with Stephen Colbert on Late Night with Conan O'Brien, June 14, 2006.
- ^ Ambinder, Marc (March 3, 2006). "Colbert Seeks Rapport With GOPers". The Hotline. Retrieved 2006-08-13.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "Audio interview with Anne Libera, author of "The Second City Almanac of Improvisation," on The Sound of Young America".
- ^ "Biography of Stephen Colbert at Comedy Central's official website". Comedy Central. Retrieved 2006-07-22.
- ^ 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= - ^ Pop Candy (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) - ^ Fitzgerald, Toni (October 20, 2005). "The wit and sense of 'Colbert Report'". Medialife Magazine.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Amter, Charlie (November 2, 2005). "Comedy Central Keeps Colbert".
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help); Unknown parameter|publication=ignored (help) - ^ Masland, Tom (October 21, 2005). "Life, The Docudrama". Newsweek.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Peyser, Marc (February 16, 2006). "The Truthiness Teller". Newsweek.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ TV's Sexiest News Anchors, Maxim Online. Retrieved on 2006-11-22.
- ^ Froomkin, Dan (2006-05-02). "The Colbert Blackout". Washington Post. Retrieved 2006-05-07.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Parry, Robert (2006-05-04). "Colbert and the Courtier Press". Consortium News. Retrieved 2006-05-08.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050302202.html
- ^ "Video of presidential roast attracts big Web audience". Cnet News.com. May 3, 2006. Retrieved 2006-07-07.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Lauria, Peter (May 7, 2006). "Colbert Soars". "The New York Post. Retrieved 2006-07-07.
{{cite news}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ "That After-Dinner Speech remains a favorite dish". New York Times. Retrieved 2006-05-22.
- ^ Stephen Colbert (June 3, 2006). "2006 Commencement Address". Knox College, Illinois. Retrieved 2006-08-18.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ http://www.huembwas.org/Hirek/Colbert20060915.htm
See also
- The Colbert Report
- The Colbert Report recurring elements
- Stephen Colbert at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner
- The Daily Show
- Truthiness
- The Second City
- Northern M0 Danube bridge
External links
- Official website of The Colbert Report on Comedy Central
- Stephen Colbert at IMDb
- Audio / Video
- 1964 births
- American comedians
- American film actors
- American satirists
- American television talk show hosts
- American voice actors
- Bewitched actors
- The Colbert Report
- The Daily Show
- Law & Order: Criminal Intent actors
- Living people
- Northwestern University alumni
- People from Charleston, South Carolina
- Roman Catholic entertainers
- Saturday Night Live writers
- Science fiction fans
- Second City Alumni
- Fake News anchors
- Whose Line Is It Anyway? contestants
- Curb Your Enthusiasm actors
- Catholic Comedians