The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (2015-????)

Caught the end of this, it was pretty entertaining. Fun music performance at the end. I like the 'new' character.

I did like Clooney's fake movie skits, it kind of felt like something Letterman would have done.

Since all of my reality seems to be on a 20 hour tape delay I'm just watching this now. I like that the band leader plays a melodica.

Hoo boy, second night was a little bit rougher.

Kendrick fucking slayed it though!

Yes and yes.

I just watched Kendrick's performance and holy shit

the sketchy CBS stream i was using blew up just before he came on so i missed it.

It was on the Kendrick thread, I'll repost because it should really be put on every thread (and also every music school's curriculum):

http://pitchfork.com/news/61137-kendrick-lamar-performs-to-pimp-a-butterfly-medley-on-late-show-with-stephen-colbert/

that may be a candidate for Is there such thing as a good medley? !

I could not help but contrast that performance against a sixth installment of two dweebs purporting to teach the history of rap.

wow that was nuts

(TV nerdery: Some really nice editing and shot selections throughout, too.)

Yeah, the low-shot from behind Lamar, looking at the ceiling, that one will be used again on this show.

I hope sparingly.

I dunno, they seem pretty proud of that ceiling.

his habit of interrupting guests was cute, or at least made sense, when he was in character as right-wind blowhard "Stephen Colbert"

but it just seems like a nervous habit no. I think Scarlett Johansson actually had to say something like "I was saying..." twice.

the segment w/ clooney was an odd situation where two very smart people, who you'd think would be good talkers, failed to find any way of engaging meaningfully, or even entertainingly, with each other.

i'm guessing he'll look over his performance and course correct. because i doubt too many guests are going to want to come on his show only to be talked over every time colbert thinks he has something clever to add.

i found watching the interview segments a little uncomfortable, in the way that watching any interaction where one person isn't following the "rules" of conversational turns-taking is a little uncomfortable. maybe as a teacher i'm hyper-conscious of this stuff. and it might just be first-week nerves. (lord knows when i'm nervous i tend to talk over people.)

His desk is too big to do interviews there. They need a separate nook with two chairs or something like the Report had. With that desk, the guest feels a mile away.

otm. Set should be more like this:
https://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lr52vz6yrp1r2i7nxo1_500.jpg

or this:
https://31.media.tumblr.com/adb03c3fcdb978f528045631357b4729/tumblr_n6rrgrtJyl1td73xio1_400.gif

http://www.blazermediagroup.com/images/susskindBrooks.jpg

he interrupted biden horribly a couple of times

generally enjoying this though

he interrupted biden horribly a couple of times

He did, but he also gave him long periods of time to go full Joe Biden.

Even the interview with the Uber guy was a lot more competent than the one with Elon Musk the night before. I guess there's gonna be up nights and down nights for a while until everyone settles in, but the difference between Wednesday night's show and Thursday night's show was huge.

I'm never gonna see this show (my job requires me to get up at 5:30 AM, so watching late night talk shows would be out of the question even if I wanted to), but the story behind that Uber interview is interesting.

Whoa.

That's great. Has Colbert always been a great human being? I bet he'll write an incredible memoir one day.

he's been really grossly smarmy in interviews, i find it really off putting. intermittently there will be a jolt of old colbert but otherwise he's so overly gushing. it's bad.

so the CBS computers kept crashing as they were editing Tuesday night, and premiere almost didn't air on time. That woulda been nagl.

all shows take some time to find themselves, sez me who hasn't seen a minute of this

intermittently there will be a jolt of old colbert but otherwise he's so overly gushing

I'm sure they're all trying to make a point and they want those not familiar with Colbert to see him as an approachable friendly person. But Fallon's got the ass-kissing nice guy market cornered so it'd be better for Colbert to continue playing the smartest guy in the room.

xp That's true, and I'm sure the show will find a nice groove before long.

I think the thing that's making me most uncomfortable about it is the set. There's way too much going on. Catwalks, spiral staircases, nooks and coves and a smaller-than-usual alley between the desk set and the band set where the monologue takes place. It feels claustrophobic and maze-like.

maybe Colbert will be the one to take down Trump. guesting later in sept

he's been really grossly smarmy in interviews, i find it really off putting. intermittently there will be a jolt of old colbert but otherwise he's so overly gushing. it's bad.

― J0rdan S., Friday, September 11, 2015 10:36 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah i think i get this. like during the jeb interview he said something like "there is a non-zero chance that i would vote for you" and then said nearly the same thing in the thursday night monologue. also maybe a calculated attempt to distance the new character from the old but definitely self-important/off putting.

He also said "On the last show I played a narcissistic conservative, now I just play a narcissist."

That non-zero chance bit is a favorite with some engineer types. But negative numbers are also non-zero.

i'm not asking him to be letterman or something but i feel like colbert swung hard back in the other direction and it really doesn't even seem genuine to me. i dunno maybe i'm just being really coldhearted but the solemness of the biden interview was laid on soooooooo thick.

but also like, he had on the uber guy and started off by telling this glowing story about the first time he got an uber, it was just weird and uncrticial and based in the sort of fantasy land that colbert existed to puncture! with fallon it's one thing because he came from a different arm of comedy, there should not really be an expectation of him doing prickly interviews that might actually illuminate an issue relevant to the world. and fallon doesn't even really have those sorts of people on. but colbert has purposefully loaded his first week with politicians and businessmen who to some extent control the future of the world and to what end has that produced literally anything worthwhile? to bring those people on and then kiss their ass really serves no purpose. if you're gonna do the happy go lucky late night thing just have on celebrities and keep it moving.

Nah you can still celeb pander and hold a network talk show wo stooping to Fallon levels of grovelling.

maybe Kissinger on his CC show was an omen

was deeply moving to see biden struggle with his grief.

sorry, that wasn't in response to anything above, just a stray note.

Not sure I see an issue with Colbert being acerbic with a politician on the campaign trail, empathetic with a public figure undergoing grief, and nonsensical with movie stars who don't have anything to promote.

he wasn't acerbic with jeb bush though -- he told him he might vote for him!!

In the same sense Jim Carrey has a chance with Lauren Holly in Dumb and Dumber.

And I see him inviting entrepreneurs onto this high-profile first week as a move toward elevating them to celebrity status, and surreptitiously cutting business-as-usual movie stars down to size (tho mentioning Darfur to Clooney and then not giving him a chance to actually say anything about it was nagl).

Also, that Kendrick Lamar set.

the biden thing, whatever. i dunno. it wasn't the subject of the interview but the fawning. he kept saying things like "service to your country" that just give me the willies

But I'll grant that we're asking for some level of personality consistency from the man behind the desk because that's almost literally the only one important thing a late show host has to provide.

Somehow it passed me by until now that Colbert teaches Sunday School. Is that a detail that was fed to the media in this image makeover campaign?

he fit in pretty seamlessly with everyone else from that era who went on to have as much success as is possible in comedy, i wonder if he's sad

he got a gig as a CBS correspondent and had a kid's show on Saturday mornings, so I think he's fine

Oliver apparently joined in 2006 - I thought he was like...2011

he looked about 14 in the clip they showed

gotta say I did love Stewart's "why did age hit me harder than any of you?" quip

Death to America. pic.twitter.com/StY5SgZ3ru

— Malcolm Harris (@BigMeanInternet) September 18, 2017

may we celebrate Indictmas henceforth every halloween eve :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbXO52kWT9g

Jimmy Carter rules

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQR5G3kvfNQ

returned to a live audience last night. man, his shtick works so much better in front of a crowd.

It's going to be such a shock when John Oliver is once again getting consistently interrupted with whoops and hollers.