Late night party with divas this week

Photo illustration: Vulture; Photos: The Daily Show via YouTube.

Let’s take a moment to honor the art of the interview. Despite the prevalence of celebrity-hosted podcasts, interviewing people is a separate skill set from delivering lines or even writing and performing comedy. Pull a joke out of someone – even someone who wants telling the damn story can be tough. The best late night show hosts make it easy by putting guests at ease, throwing in jokes when the famous person feels the need to be witty, making room when the famous person has found a joke they want to tell, and being the host of the audience surrogate to sell the joke. It is as if the jester also had to make the court laugh with the jokes of the king. But it’s all supposed to look casual, like this random celebrity is having a kiki with late-night Jimmy, like they do every night. Hats off to the late night buffoons.

I actually want to highlight two interviews that Stephen Colbert did this week: a conversation with Brian Cox and a conversation on Wednesday with Anna Kendrick. In the latter case, the best moment of the interaction was when Colbert perfectly summed up Kendrick’s story by gently reminding her that magic mushrooms are a legal gray area. In the first case, Colbert used his knowledge of Tolkien without making Cox feel weird, and he kept Cox in step with Shakespeare: quoting the Bard, praising Cox’s Brutus and, most importantly, giving Cox the opportunity to say, “Larry Olivier.” Larry Olivier ranks with Marty Scorsese and Steve Sondheim as a nickname. It’s always nice to see that.

Who among us doesn’t recognize Jon Hamm by his dick? This is iconic! Alex Edelman wasn’t ashamed to name the penis in this movie. Do I have news for you? game, and that’s where Amber Ruffin stepped in. The teasing she gave Edelman was just the right combination of rudeness and impression. And everyone had a chance to blame Michael Ian Black for not knowing: “Woo-ha!! Everything is under your control.” We can all bond over our love for Busta Rhymes. Flipmod is truly the best.

Seth Meyers really whoever you want him to be. He changes his routine to suit his guests at the drop of a hat, often making his conversations the highlight of the week. Bernadette Peters performed in full “grand dame of the stage” mode, and Meyers matched her energy perfectly. You could cast him as Vera Charles in the production Meme. This clip has everything you want from an interview with Bernadette Peters: monkey jokes, plans for Carnegie Hall and, of course, calling out Sondheim’s “Steve.” It’s so good.

Where is the previous one Late night the clip delivers everything you want from a traditional late-night interview. After midnight takes what you love about podcasts and puts it into context TV with shiny floor. Nicole Bayer tries to justify buying an air fryer And her purchase of a miniature grill for Matteo Lane, Sasheer Zamata, and Taylor Tomlinson is fucking gold. They can’t stop laughing and I can’t stop laughing until we all die.

These boys brought “theater” back to “political theatre.” They both threaded their needles brilliantly. Jon Stewart didn’t ask softball questions—he had plenty to test the campaign on—but Walz gave good answers. Were many of these replies semi-redirects to what he was supposed to be talking about? One hundred percent. But that’s literally his job now. Stewart’s refusal to support Cheney was classic. Daily Show shit. And when Walz said the Harris-Waltz administration wouldn’t take foreign policy notes from them, Stewart whispered, “…Promise?” Chef’s Kiss. Stewart rambles and mumbles a lot about how he’s not a real journalist, but I really appreciated his frankly journalistic approach to this interview. Did he feel…responsible? Inspiring? But also funny. Good job, boys.