Who better to lead us out of a few dark hours of the NYSE and Wall Street Journal not working than one Late Show host Stephen Colbert?
Before answering, watch this video message from Colbert’s desk shelter.
As we’ve still got months to go before the premiere of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Colbert has thankfully gotten restless enough, like one Chris Gethard, to do something like step in to guest host a public access show Only in Monroe in Monroe, Michigan.
So, Colbert gave us either what is a great, hysterical preview of what The Late Show would be like without broadcast network production value and a live audience or a wonderful imagining of what a show that’s somewhere between Pawnee Today, Between Two Ferns, and The Colbert Report hosted by Stephen Colbert would be like.
Maybe call it “Between Two Pieces of Michigan Wicker with Stephen Colbert”?
In either case, it’s great and it’s amazing that guest Eminem seems befuddled as he apparently looks like he’s trying to figure out if Colbert is still doing a bit.
Let’s hope he makes good on saying that he’s coming back to Only in Monroe in August.
Watch Colbert back in full form here.
This election year just got a whole lot more interesting as far as comedy is concerned. Yesterday, Donald Trump announced that he is going to run for President of The United States, which very much seemed like a present from the comedy gods.
Certainly, Stephen Colbert like the rest of the comedy world is already setting up for what will be a tornado of ridiculous soundbites and comb overs as you can see in Colbert’s announcement about Trump’s announcement done in the style of Trump’s announcement.
(via Vulture)
Odds are you weren’t watching the entire episodes on CBS.com, but the clips that were at Dave’s YouTube channel that you were watching are also gone.
As we’ve all had ample time to watch the clips from the final month of The Late Show with David Letterman, Letterman’s company Worldwide Pants, which retained rights to The Late Show, has apparently taken down any and all content from The Late Show that was online.
We can only hope this means that a big collector’s box set is coming or that they’ll be a Letterman version of Simpsons World.
Based off what we’ve read, it looks like Stephen Colbert is going to make jazz as popular as it has ever been since Whiplash.
Piece by piece, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is coming together as Colbert has announced veteran jazz virtuoso Jon Batiste as his bandleader or rather, his “official musical friend”.
So, rather than going the route of having the likes of Fred Armisen or Reggie Watts as a bandleader with comedy and music being both their fortes, Colbert is going for a dyed in the wool musician/straight man to play off of.
It’s just another yet thing that makes September seem further and further away.
Unless you’ve gotten to be one of the privileged few to sit in on one of the panel interviews he’s hosted or the commencement speeches he’s given, you haven’t seen much of Stephen Colbert since he left The Colbert Report at the end of last year.
Well, Stephen has a message for you and the rest of the world that he’s ready to come back with his new gig as the host of The Late Show at CBS.
Actually, he’s ready to come back three months from now on Tues. Sept. 8th.
Until then, you can watch that message again and again and again, follow @colbertlateshow on Twitter, like the FB page, and get the free Colbr app.
Hopefully, that’ll be enough to tide you over until Colbert’s next fun possibly facial hair related update.
Though James Corden is embarking on a whole summer without David Letterman as a lead-in, he is thankful that he’s gotten to follow Dave at all.
Thus, pretty much the whole of last night’s Late Late Show, which followed The Late Show with David Letterman finale, was in dedication to Dave.
From a duet, kind of, with Sting in front of The Ed Sullivan Theater to Corden’s introduction to Letterman (since they don’t have The Late Show in the UK) to…
…a Top Ten List of Things We Will Miss About David Letterman to…
…a fitting send off involving watermelons and a roof.
Late night talk shows at 12:35AM were not only pioneered by David Letterman, but they were apparently kept afloat by Dave as well.
On last night’s Conan, Conan O’Brien expressed his gratitude to David Letterman in a story of how Late Night With Conan O’Brien turned the corner from a rocky start with the Letterman’s aid.
In an even more touching move, Conan, in the middle of his show, along with Patton Oswalt urged viewers to set their DVRs to record Conan and then switch to The Late Show as soon as it was starting.
Like we briefly mentioned yesterday, Conan O’Brien is now the longest running active host of a late night talk show. we’re glad to have an elder statesman that’s still up to orchestrated chaos reign.
Already, you’ve heard from Conan O’Brien and Jon Stewart on Dave’s departure from The Late Show.
So, as today’s the final day of The Late Show with David Letterman, the rest of the late night world gave their parting wishes.
Jimmy Kimmel gave one of his most heartfelt, sincere moments in his farewell to Dave.
Jimmy Fallon gave thanks to Dave for paving the way for what late night is now.
Seth Meyers told his favorite Letterman story as well as recreated the opening credits of Late Night a la Dave’s version.
There will be more of these to come to be sure.
In 1982, Late Night with David Letterman premiered on NBC with Bill Murray as the first guest.
Ever since, Murray has been one of the most memorable guests through Letterman’s career and it was only fitting that the last guest that Dave interviewed would be Bill.
While there was a retrospective portion of Bill’s segment, there was, of course, hijinks involving a giant cake and starting a flash mob.
If you’re thinking the comedy is going to be pretty much focused on Dave Letterman today, you’re right on the money.
The Daily Show is off next week, so Jon Stewart paid his respect to David Letterman last night before Dave leaves The Late Show.
There were touching parting words from Jon and a clip from one of Letterman as a guest on The Jon Stewart Show.
(via The Hollywood Reporter/Entertainment Weekly)
Of course the final guests are Tom Hanks and Bill Murray.
The finale episode of The Late Show with David Letterman doesn’t have a line-up of guests, which we guess is to keep us all in suspense as to whether Dave will have a big star-studded salutation to late night as is customary or do something else altogether.
Still, the two days leading up to Wed. May 20th are sure to have plenty of moments that will be memorable for years to come with Hanks and Murray, two of the best late night guests that ever were. There will also be musical performances from Eddie Vedder and Bob Dylan.
Hanks and Vedder will be on Monday night’s show and Murray and Dylan on Tuesday.
Any takers on what Murray will be wearing in his final appearance or if he might take a jackhammer to the stage again?
We’re not sure who you are reading this, but we’re guessing you’re not one of the final few guests booked to appear on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Still, if you want to say thank you to David Letterman like all those fancy guests are doing, you can give it a shot here.
Though not officially affiliated with CBS or Worldwide Pants, our friend Adam Spiegelman has put together a Tumblr where you can share your story about how Letterman not only changed the face of comedy, but affected you personally as well.
Hopefully, any and all of any age can see how much Dave means to several generations of folks who aren’t Tina Fey, Martin Short, Jerry Seinfeld, or Steve Martin.
Thanks, David Letterman is a nice crowdsourced goodbye to a legend.
Brian Regan stopped by The Ed Sullivan Theater once more to grace the stage for one more great stand up set.
This marks Brian’s 30th appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman and, per usual of Regan, it’s a damn fine set and perhaps a nice preview of his live special coming up later this year.
It’s as almost if Letterman’s final episode is a month long.
Tina Fey let everyone in on what exactly goes into fitting into a fancy dress that women often wear on late night or to awards shows and how she’s not the biggest fan of the whole process.
So, with that in mind, Tina declared that she will no longer be dressing up for any other late night hosts and only did so for Dave out of respect.
In fact, she even gave him her final dress.
Though there is no box, wrapping paper, or bows, this is a pretty great parting gift from Will Ferrell.
Though Dave was chatting with President Obama, one should also note that Ferrell brought back one of his classic characters “Harry Caray” and crashed last night’s Late Show.
If only greeting card companies made cards that sounded like Harry saying goodbye to Dave, farewell cards might be worth getting.
Apparently, David Letterman has never been a guest on The Late Show with David Letterman.
Jerry Seinfeld makes the most of what will likely be his final appearance on The Late Show by turning the table, or rather, the desk, on David Letterman and interviewed him.
Of course, Letterman is still the same as he’s been for all these decades whether on the couch or behind a desk.
For curiosity’s sake, Jerry also gets a one-on-one lesson on how David impressively sprints out on to the show.
We have a feeling that if there’s some sort final episode tribute, Jerry will probably be there once more.
In case you needed another reason to watch Stephen Colbert take over The Late Show from David Letterman, the comedic brilliance of Brian Stack is going to be part of Colbert’s team.
Much of the absurdist fun that Conan O’Brien has had over the years in his various versions of his show heavily feature one Brian Stack in a multitude of ridiculous characters including Frankenstein, the voice of Wiki Bear, a traveling salesman, and many more.
Announced yesterday, Stack’s last episode of Conan will be tonight and he will then be taking off to bring his genius to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and that show will be all the better for it.
Stack is the sort of guy that will probably get a great tribute montage of his best moments on Conan very soon.
Norm MacDonald is just being Norm MacDonald, which is why you should be watching this right now.
Letterman’s exit is just over two months away and Norm made sure to not only notch in another classic Norm late night appearance with a story about “Mr. Baseball” Bob Uecker, but he also made sure to take a special gift from the Ed Sullivan Theater to remember his time there.
Full disclosure: we’re not sure how he got said gift out of the place.
While getting trashed and pinching people who aren’t wearing some shade of green even though you’re well past being a kid seems to be the order of the day on St. Patrick’s Day, Will Ferrell has an “important message” that he shares every year on the very same holiday.
Ferrell, donned in a costume that would befitting to a St. Patrick’s Day themed sequel to Elf, went on Letterman to teach us all the “real” meaning of the day and even did his own version of Danny Boy.
Maybe Ferrell could do a “Danny Boy-off” versus Paul F. Tompkins as his next stunt for charity?
Most performances by stand-up comedians on late night programs are rehearsed word-for-word and vetted in a similar fashion by the show and the network. The result is a highly polished display of jokes, one right after the other, timed out, usually, to be exactly 5 minutes. When you go see those comedians live, it’s usually a little more visceral, livelier, intimate, and personal.
Andy Kindler manages to do a tight set and still pull off being completely himself on late night. Andy is one of the few comedians that takes the national spotlight of a late night talk show to not only do his jokes, but give his signature commentary in between those jokes, which doesn’t seem rehearsed or vetted, but, instead freewheeling and so much fun.
His set from Letterman last night is another perfect example amidst a big pile of perfect examples of this. Note that he also ends right at 5:00.
Brian Kiley returns to The Late Show with David Letterman stage at The Ed Sullivan Theater to perform another set to, yet again, waves and waves of applause.
Watch his set here.
Sometimes, as a comedian, you never really know what extremes you yourself will go to get a laugh until you’re presented with those extremes in real life. John Oliver found out that he would indeed follow through pretty far in that regard at a recent show and told the story on Letterman.
Oliver also gave his take on our most American of days here in America, The Super Bowl.
Enjoy these clips for now until next Sun., Feb 8th when Last Week Tonight returns to HBO at 11PM.
Odds are that you’ve already gotten Louis C.K.: Live at The Comedy Store. If not, you should.
In either case, you can enjoy more of C.K. chatting with David Letterman about his “deflategate” theory as well as the weird obstacles one faces when performing stand-up in an arena like Madison Square Garden and circumventing getting passed at The Comedy Store.
Many children are often very revere the occupation of their parents. If a parent is something like a pilot or an engineer, etc., their kids will more than likely give a lot of respect to what they do.
However, when it comes to being a comedian, even one of the most successful ones around, it’s kind of a different story. Just check out Chris Rock and David Letterman dish about how their kids are less than impressed by their respective comedic works.