Pence criticizes DeSantis over Disney interference

The Jussie Smollet example is especially funny to me.

Sometimes around here I feel like I’m in the middle of a Jordan Klepper interview.

His post is a "Hunter Biden laptop" away from a full Klepper interview bingo card.

I was sad when Jordan Klepper's short lived 'The Opposition' was cancelled. His remote pieces are absolutely wonderful, in spite of the sadness of the subject matter.

One summer a few years ago Trevor was on tour and made a stop at our state fair. A bunch of us went and truthfully, I wasn’t at first sure what the crowd reaction would be or if there would be anything uncomfortable. And turned out not to worry, the place was full with 10,000 like-minded souls in attendance.
He was awesome and the first half of the show was mainly sweet and funny stories about his youth, his home, and his mom. And his time spent with Barack Obama. Then about half way through he casually mentioned t***p and the place erupted! It was what we’d come for and we weren’t disappointed. He was politically hilarious, serious and dead-on all at once. At any rate, our faces hurt from laughing and it was an evening we’ll never forget.

I saw Trevor a few years ago when he came to Orlando and also went to a Daily Show taping the night of the 2019 State of the Union when they did it live at 11pm. They brought us into the studio early to watch the State of the Union, gave us popcorn and water (usually a major no no at a TV show taping) and some of the writers even watched the first part of it with the audience before leaving around 10 to go prep the show. It was such a cool experience.

The closest thing I've ever done to that was attending Jimmy Fallon's monologue rehearsal. It started with a 20 minute talk with a writer where she walked us through their writing process leading up to the show. That was the best part of the whole experience. It all ended with 30 minutes of Fallon going through the material before it was pared down to the actual monologue. It was the summer that he injured his hand, so much of the material revolved around that. It normally included rehearsing whatever bit he did with his main guest and the band warming up. Both got skipped on our visit for some reason. It was one of my favorite experiences in NYC. Well, that and seeing U2 at Madison Square Garden the night before (the whole purpose of the trip).

I've done that with Seth Meyers, and then also gone back for the actual show taping. The rehearsal is much shorter, but actually much more interesting.

When I saw Seth Meyers he did a pretty long Q&A in the middle (I don't recall the reason for the break). He just stood in the middle of the audience and talked about whatever.

We tried for Tonight Show tickets and didn't get them, but managed to get priority tickets to the rehearsal that put us on the second row. We have been to NYC 4 times, all in the summer, and The Daily Show has been on hiatus for all but one. I tried to get tickets on that trip but never heard back. Ironically enough, our flight home on that trip was delayed because President Obama was en route to his final appearance with Jon Stewart on TDS. That was also his second time in the city during that trip. He saw a Hamilton preview with one of his kids on Friday night. We walked across the bridge from Brooklyn that afternoon and there was a huge police presence there and around the heliport. And that is way more info than anyone wanted to know about my last trip to NYC.

The bad thing about that would be having to endure Jimmy Fallon. (Sorry, not sorry- I’m not a fan)
The one who thinks he’s the funniest is himself. He’s the one ride I skipped at Universal, lol.

He started out well, but I hate his "I'm pals with all of the celebrities" thing. It's so inauthentic and annoying.

Yeah, I liked him when he first started hosting, but he wore thin pretty quickly. I will say though, in his defense, he does a decent job of acting incredibly enthusiastic for each guest. Whether he pulls it off as authentic or not, it can’t be that easy to be “on” every single night.

I like how the threads recently have trended towards 90's music and now late-night talk show host experiences.

I'm still bitter over Dave getting screwed out of the gig. Jimmy Fallon can't hold a candle to the great late-night hosts. Loved him on SNL in short-doses.

One of the best things I ever did was in the Summer of '98. Flew out from Columbus to New Jersey to visit an ex-girlfriend-turned-best-friend...she had secured us Letterman tickets. As a kid I would sneak out of bed and stay up and watch the late-late show after Carson with David Letterman (until I finally got a TV in my room....thanks, Mom), so this was like watching a childhood hero.

Only experience with a show-taping, but it was epic.

The worst talk show host IMO was Jay Leno. He couldn’t interview his way out of a paper bag. I’ll never forget tuning into the show and he had the Olsen sisters on for a rare interview who were around 16 at the time, and all he asked them about was driving and what kind of cars they might get. Yes, I know he’s an automotive enthusiast but c’mon. He had the chance to show America what makes teenaged billionaires tick but instead it was ten minutes about their temps.
But I digress…
As eager as guests are to appear on Jimmy Fallon’s show, the gossip reports are how much he’s reviled. Especially from his days on SNL where nobody could stand him. He acted like he ran the place, stole material from others and re-wrote sketches right at air time without telling a soul. There were even fisticuffs amongst the men. No one was sorry to see him go.

Letterman was pretty bad at interviewing in his early days. In part it was because he was being compared to Carson who was very good at that point. Some are better than others and its a skill that develops/is refined over time. Letterman eventually got a lot better.

Back in the day, interviews had a certain informative value to them. We often didn't know much about a given guest. Appearing on late nite shows was a way of getting in front of people outside your particular craft. Now there is so much more info available about celebrities, entertainers, sports stars, etc. Potential guests have a lot of other options for getting in front of people (and control many of those options). So less informative value in interviews/appearances leading to more need for drama, zaniness, etc to provide interest/entertainment.

I haven't watched late nite shows since Letterman (and moved on there with other life priorities before Dave retired). Couldn't tell you who hosts current shows or how many there even are at this point.

Seth Meyers does a solid job, as does Jimmy Kimmel. The surprise is that Colbert is pretty good at it, because I never really cared for him. He often has more "serious" guests, like politicians, authors and such, so I suppose it would make sense that he approach interviewing more seriously.

Also, all of their stuff is on YouTube, so no need to sit through an entire show anymore.

It's not a traditional late night show like the others mentioned above, but I'm a big fan of John Oliver's deep dive pieces that he does each week.

RCMAC:

The bad thing about that would be having to endure Jimmy Fallon. (Sorry, not sorry- I’m not a fan)
The one who thinks he’s the funniest is himself.

What's the difference between me and Jimmy Fallon?

I get through his skits without laughing.

That would also be the difference between me and Carol Burnett. Well, not exactly the same as she actually is a brilliant comic actor and provided so many genuine laughs, but to me that constant cracking up during sketches was some inexcusable amateurish crap. Now, Vicky Lawrence? She was the queen of the straight face, that one. She hardly ever broke.