Avid watchers of late night know that celebrated actor Robert De Niro can make for one of the toughest interviews on a late night talk show. De Niro tends to be extremely reserved and short, if not monosyllabic, in his answers, proving a challenge for any and all late night hosts trying to make a conversation worthy of a national audience. 

When Jimmy Fallon first took on Late Night, De Niro was one of Fallon’s first guests, which was supposed to be a spectacle of sorts with Jimmy’s feverish energy juxtaposed next to Robert’s unwavering stoicism. The result was not the spectacle that NBC was hoping for. Still, that was all before Fallon opted towards all the classic games, lip sync battles, etc. he now does on The Tonight Show that are so popular.

Stephen Colbert never shies away from a challenge and used every trick he could think of to take what started off as a dry chat at the start, but turned into a pretty fun ride on The Late Show that even got De Niro laughing. 

This is just more proof, we think, that it’s a good thing that Colbert is at the helm at The Late Show.