What was the feeling like because it is
accruesible? Like that you feel the weight of that
house in every room and every piece of furniture that exists in that house. And the responsibility I imagine is it is a weight you bear every day that you walk through there. The day you walk out is that is the experience one of liberation is it one of exhale.
Are you? Are you now interviewing me John Stuart? No, this isn't going to make it into the show. How you doing? I am doing good. I'm a little chilly, you know, I will share with our listeners that our little studio
are spot is freezing cold all the time. So, you know, that's
interesting because I'm usually the one who's cold out of all four of our foot left in the house. I'm the one who gets cold,
“but I'm not cold. I'm freezing. I think it's because I'm”
sitting maybe I've got more lights warm in me up. So, I don't think that's it. No. But anyway, tell us about your Airbnb this time. Is it big? It's small. It's it's actually more manageable. It's more manageable this time around. And I, but you know, I like this place because off every single room,
there's a balcony. So, no matter what time of day you can find the sun. Have you gone out on the balcony since you've been here? I do. And I've been out a little shares if you like taking a cup of tea. Is there a view? What are you seeing on your balcony? That's the beauty of Airbnb. It's all furnished. So,
everything is set to go. Set to go. So, every part of the house, you can live in. So, what's the best view of the city? Oh, you
“get a city view. Now, we're not that high up. So, it's a”
little obstructed on the sides, but right out of the back, you can see most of Hollywood. That's cool. Yeah. You are really an urban adventure. Yeah. I love so proud of you. I've been a city kid. My whole life. So proud of you. Yes, thank you. Well, we, I'd say the Robinson house holds going to be really excited about
those pictures. Everybody's going to be excited about this one. Yeah, Austin and Aaron, for those of you who haven't listened to our show, I talked about them all the time, but they are 16 and 14. So, they're just getting to the point where they watch newsy type shows. And they love John Stewart. That's who we have
y'all. We have John Stewart here with us today that's a turn that. Yeah. He is now in the guest seat. Let's do an introduction and get John out. Let's get them out here. All right, John Stewart is one of America's foremost voices in political satire known for his 16 year run on the daily show. And his
recent return as it's host and executive producer and Monday nights of perfect because the boys stay up to watch the daily show, Monday through Thursday, but Monday, it's on for an hour. The rest of the day is a song for like half an hour or so. I just thought I throw that out there. I'm just letting you talk. He is also a dedicated social
activist whose efforts were instrumental in passing landmark legislation including the Pact Act and the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund Bill,
securing vital support for veterans and first responders.
He currently hosts the podcast the weekly show. Okay. And without further ado, John Stewart. That was lovely. I was listening back there to what you were saying and I thought, "Oh my god, did I die?" It's like you. No, you were alive.
Thank you for having me here. And thank you. Greg, I would say for letting me stay at
“the Airbnb. I so appreciate it. It's really nice, isn't it?”
It's lovely. Although I have to tell you and no disrespect, but if you are in an Airbnb where every room has a balcony, that's called a hotel. So I apologize. I don't know what they told you and how much they charged, but you're living in a hotel. They're being done. Yeah. Oh my god. What happened? Yeah.
How are you doing? How are you guys doing? It's lovely to see all you guys a great. Thank you. You look healthy. I feel healthy.
You're doing better than we are because you're only working one day a week.
Tell you something. That's the fight. No, not. You're in a fight. Like the daily thing is kind of a rip off. It grounded you down to another little bit, but this one day a week, thing is great. I can revelatory. When I look at talk shows,
comedians, folks who are on every night, I can't imagine. That's the first thing.
“I'm Ellen used to say, "You should do a talk show. You should do..."”
Yeah. I was like, "There's why. Why would I go from what I was doing to another thing that is really scary and hard?" It's hard for me to explain to you the kind of pressure that comedians and talk show goes face. It's not something I don't think you'd be up to bear up to you. And so I agree. There's a lot of time. A lot of people say, "What's the most important job in the world?" And they go, "I don't know whoever took over for Ellen."
But it is hard. I mean, you've got to come up with something. You've got to have an opinion
about the world every day, especially your commentary. But not hard. It's a real gift for performers
when you come up. You know, there really is. There's a ladder. And you really do make your bones doing the hard work, the kind of grunt work of comedy like driving from Rochester to Buffalo. And then down again over to Hartford and doing all those comedy clubs and all that. So when the opportunity ever presents itself for a regular gig, where you can live in one place and maybe raise a family. It really feels like you made it to the island. You've been in the
life raft, but you made it to the island. Do not open it. That did your mother say, "Well, that's wonderful, John. I'm so glad that you are." And it's just a question. And also that I did, like,
you know, "Did your parents encourage you?" And I was like, "Mm-hmm." Now, say that again,
what's that? What is that word? "incred." I mean, they knew I lived in the house. Yeah. But, and I also, I had the advantage of my parents split when I was probably 10 years old. Yeah. So, at that point, you really are. Your mom was holding it down. She was holding it down. Yeah. Her mantra was, "We will not lose the house." Yeah. You know, because we had, this was 7172. So, this was just in that era of
"I'm okay. You're okay. Feminine mystique." Suddenly, there was a consciousness in America for women that, "Oh, if my husband isn't asked, I don't have to take that." Right.
“And so that's what happened. Had she worked before what she was. She was a special”
teacher. So, she taught. Gifted program, a special program. She was a teacher. And then she also taught younger kids. Yeah. Had done that in New York City, in the Bronx, where she grew up in Washington Heights as well. She did it for a little bit in El Paso, when my dad was in the Army. She taught in Texas for a little bit. And then a little bit, when she came back. But so we were only, there was only, we only knew of two families. It had
divorces. And the other family lost the house. Yeah. So, we weren't going to lose the house. And she, to her credit. Didn't lose the house. Put it on her shoulders and went out and became what they called a teacher of teachers. She began to give seminars to other teachers. And then it became like an assistant principal. And then, and really worked her way through there. Could you, did you know that about your mom when you were at 10 when your dad left? And he left
you all high and right. Could you understand the situation that you guys were in at the time? I was glad that the, honestly, like that the yelling had stopped. I mean, honestly, it's one of the greatest things about, and it sounds counterintuitive to talk about one of the best things about divorce. Let me tell you something. Yeah. Yeah. If you're ever in this position, get yourself one of these divorcees to that desk. Um, you know that feeling when you're trying to sleep in a car alarm is going
off. Yeah. And there's no real rhythm to it. You can't quite get into it. You can't even use it
“as well. I know it's the feeling that you get in your soul when it stops. Yeah. That's what it was like.”
Oh, right. Okay. But I was, I wasn't aware of the psychological trauma that she had been taken that you're just glad the noise has stopped. Hmm. See, I was going to ask you which one of Ms. Funny, but now that doesn't seem appropriate. So, one of the drinks, see if you can guess.
Do you think your humor developed out of sort of a as a coping mechanism or, ...
They, my grandfather probably was was a pretty funny guy. But I don't your, my personal grandfather.
Okay. Nathan, my son is named after him. And he was just a character. Lived to be 94 died when he got a stroke playing poker with his friends in an OTB at 94 years old, smoking. He's just one of those dudes born in China, raising China. Family was wealthy till the Japanese took over China and then they had nothing. And he, you know, he used to say to me, when I had the money, I lived very well. But without money, I did not. And I was like,
“that's that's all right. Yeah. But so, but I, I mean, it's like anything else. I think sometimes,”
I think it's just how I'm wired. And I don't, I don't know that it was a response to anything more than it was just, these are the genetic wiring that I've been given. What's your, your relationship with your siblings? Were you guys tight growing up? Uh, well, so I've two, so my father had two of it. So he remarried. And then I have an older brother who and we have a very good really. So we're
very close. But I never lived with, you know, the other guys. And it was born of such complexity.
I don't know how your family histories run, but like, oh, everybody's got it. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's not really. It happens. I will tell you this. I can remember as an 18-year-old doing the landscaping at the apartment, because I was, I worked for landscaper in the summer. Doing the landscaping at the apartment building that my father lived in with his new family,
“that we had not been told about. That's how complicated. That's how complex it can get.”
Yeah, you know, and I hate to say, yeah, I know a few people who were in that, you know, but, you know, when you grow up in the world, folks do some stuff. That's right. You know, but I bet you were pissed. Oh, if you think I did a good job on the landscaping, you believed me. There were some divots. Yes, yeah. You know, you don't, I think, I think to a large extent, I did not clock any of the damage until much later.
Damage to yourself? Yeah, to your psyche, your soul or any of those things. You don't really reckon with it until much later, and I was relatively oblivious. And we, we also come from a generation for nobody talks about anything. Nobody kids are just, you know, like, they don't, there's a generation where you thought kids were just, they weren't taking in anything. Right. And that if you didn't talk to them about it, it just didn't bother them. You know, it's the same
thing our parents weren't worried about what we were doing on life. You know, now you drop your kids off to college. They're college tours. You take them. You unpack them. You take them to lunch. None of us. It's like, you got a college and it's like, how am I going to get there? You know, and I luckily I had him. So my dad was dropping him off. You know, but there, you know, there's just no
coddling, no conversation. Do you, do you wonder, you know, there was always a mindset for me
which was I was going to remedy that that when I had because of the feeling ultimately of being estranged from your father, which is, you know, for a kid, it's a big deal.
“But once you have kids, it becomes a bigger deal. I think that's when I really started to”
reckon with it because you go away a minute. So I love, I love this thing, this much and to just walk away from that and do that. Yeah, insanity. Yeah. But I keep wondering the steps I've taken remedially, what, well, what am I doing wrong? How much margin of urge do I have? How will my seeking to remedy those wrongs creating wrongs? Yeah. Yeah. It's like we're, you know, going too far in the extreme. I think that's something that our generation has to reckon with. And now we're
over parenting in some ways. Right. You know. And I also think, and they had this, you know, my dad was a, you know, he was depressive and, you know, and I make no, you know, I've come to terms with whatever it was. And I can remember when he was dying, he had dementia and I remember we and I were estranged and when I knew he was passing. So I went to see him. And I remember thinking,
You know, I felt badly for him this man who was going through this difficult ...
that clearly loved him that were going through this time with him. But I did not feel as though
that was a part of me in any way. I just felt like this poor man. These, these poor folks, I hope it's not too bad for them. I hope it's not too bad for him. Right. But it was a relationship that, you know, when you talk about bitterness or anger or those things, I didn't, it was a relationship drained of that through a strange man in a apathy. Yeah. And it just, it, it whithered so by, by the end there, it, you felt it for the human condition of it, but not for the, the familial condition of it.
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Did you always know you wanted to be a comedian or no? When did that? When did that?
“Maybe it started. It's a great question. It started right after I was fired from everything else.”
Where they were like, you're unreliable. You can't do anything. And glib. Which is a really good job. It's one thing to be unreliable. It's another thing to be glib on top of it all, man. Joking about your unreliable. I had always raised in that same era as you guys, where there was no social media, there was no aspiration to influencing. So it was never in the ether of this idea that I'm going to show business or I'll be
but I knew I wanted to create something. I started working in this punk club in Trenton, New Jersey, called City Gardens, which was this warehouse in the middle of Trenton. All these bands would
come through like black flag and the remains and bad brains and just really incredible performers
and creative people and they would be going there only because they were passing between New York and
“Philly. Yeah. But it opened up this world of possibility. Okay. And one day I just decided, you know what?”
I'm I'm Michelle all my stuff. I'm going to get in the car and I'm going to drive in New York and I'm going to live that life. And that's kind of where you when you were working in Trenton. So I was 20, 20 through 23 or four before I decided to move up to New York City. And and not no one was waiting for me. No one was encouraging. It's not like I would tell the guys at the bar like I'm going to be a comic in New York and they'd be like that makes complete
sense. It was more like all right seeing six months. So this was right after college then. Now right after I so I lived and worked in these bars and for the state for a couple of years. Okay. After getting to school. Yeah. Yeah. Living with a bunch of friends in Trenton. Yeah. Yeah. When you were first getting started like what was that like like when you were just coming out just coming out when you left Trenton. I mean you hit the
road brutal. Yeah. Oh, terrible. Can you talk about that? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. There was another one. Well, like anything else. So unlike things like sports or, you know, a lot of other things that that you do. There is no doing, but that you learn your first time on stage
nobody gives you grace with the idea that like, Oh, I bet this guy probably sucks because he's never
done it before. And I was I was up in New York for I ended up getting a job at this Mexican restaurant on McDougas Street called Penn Cheetos. And the bitter end was right up a block on Blaker.
“And they used to do the thing about comedies. You have to to work in a club. They have to”
accept you. They it's called passing you. Okay. So you perform there and the major clubs, comic strip, uh, caturizing star, comedy seller have a hierarchy. You can't just walk in there and be like, guys, you're not going to believe this. I'm here. I know you've been, I know you've been part of the structure. So then there were open mics beyond that where you could maybe get some stage time. You'd put, you know, 50 comics would show up. You put your number and a hat and they
pull them out. So if you had a high number, 48, 47, you're performing only in front of the three other comics that are left because everybody else did their thing and got out. There's a place called the bitter end. More famous pride from music, but Cosby and Carlin and prior and I used to work in those clubs as well. And they would do an open audition night, but after like four doors cover bands. Like it was, you know, uh, one o'clock in the morning. And so that was my first
1987. May of 1997. Got up at the bitter end with my little head written a whole little thing out and got up about 30 seconds into it. A guy goes, you're terrible. Oh. And I hit him full barrel. I was like, no, I'm not. And then and then he was like, that's it. And I was like, what? And he's like, well, this, even this is terrible. I was like, well, according to you, you know, boom. And so you can imagine everybody's like, there's Robin Williams here. Because this is,
No, it's awful.
six. I'm like, it was brutal. Really. Oh, yeah. And but I realized like the urge never went away.
The desire, the waking up in the middle of the night and writing down stupid thoughts never went away. And, and so I just started what you learn is there's a process. Yeah. And so if you immerse yourself in the world, if you get yourself in trouble, yeah. The people that are around that process are great guides. They're not meant to us, but they're guides. They tell you, generally what you want to do is you want to hit this, this, this, this, and this. Good luck. But there isn't anything to it,
“but to do it. So that's how you and I got really fortunate about a year into it, the comedy seller,”
which is right up the street from the Mexican restaurant that I was the day bartender. And who's the
day bartender next to restaurant? True. No, no, that you, you just point it out. It just makes margarita mix for the ice guy to lean up with. That's right. But aren't you happy there? Oh, I actually loved it. And so this woman named S.D. who was the booker at the comedy club and this guy Bill Grantfest who was also one of the bookers. They put me on every night. Sunday through Thursday. I wasn't allowed on the weekends because I was one of the good people went and they made me the last
person. So the shows you usually start eight or not a call and they go to whenever the last person left. So it could be two in the morning, it could be three in the morning. And that's how I learned the thing you want to learn as a performer, which is, who are you? What do you actually think? What's your rhythm? What, you know, stop doing an impression of sidefeld and start doing who you might be.
“And that's the ground. You know, that's how you sort of and it's growth. Who were you when you first”
started discovering who you wanted to be? Yeah. Who was that John? You don't have the confidence to know if what you're doing will have any kind of staying power as a skill yet. So you can have a night where you're just killing it, like on top of it and you're just singing like I am robbing Williams, like and then the next night, nothing, same stuff, nothing and you're feeling like I am the worst person to ever have done that and you, this is the ride you go on those early years. The win is
when you establish a baseline of where you go like, oh, I'm starting to develop this at like, like guys like Jerry, who are such, he's maybe the best craftsman probably since Carl and like to do like just of craft. Yeah. When you start to feel like there is a craft to it and you're not going just joke to joke anymore. That's when you finally develop that confidence a little bit. But it takes a while. Yeah. How were you when that happened for you? So what time is it now? Okay.
“I think it was, I don't think you ever cross a threshold. It's that you've, you suddenly realize,”
I'm not riding this roller coaster as hard as I was. Yeah. Yeah. And part of it is,
comics talk about their development in terms of it's always, the metric is always time.
You don't ever say like, I've gotten funnier. You say, I got 10 minutes. Oh, yeah. Yes. It's truly a function of time. Okay. Because to make money, you got to have an hour. You can do 15 minutes. You can MC. That'll pay $600 a week. Wow. Wow. If you can do 35, you can middle. Now you're going out there for 900, maybe a thousand a week. If you can do 45 or 50, and do it in the middle of a check drop, what do you mean? So a check drop is so when you go out to a club
and there's not so much in the city, but when you're working like an improv in another city or a yuck, or any of those kinds of things, if you're the headliner, well, everybody that's sitting there got to pay at some point. Yeah. Oh, and they're not going to wait till after the show because they're at turn and roll. Can you keep the attention while the room is turned out to be in the city. It's called the check spot. Yeah. Yeah. So once you get to a point where you have a certain amount of time
and you can handle your business during the check spot, that's when you go. Wow. Okay. Now I can now I can make a living and that's those are the metrics that you want to hit as you go. And that's all it was about. Any girls, any, you know, were you cute? Were you, you know? I think we all know the answer. Oh, no, no, you. I would, you know, I didn't meet my wife until I was
32 years old.
girlfriends, but the girls that you basically ended up going out with were the waitresses at the
“community because that's your whole life. Yeah. You know, you don't. Most girls, at that time,”
wanted to go do things. And most girls, you'd be like, "So here's my day. We're going to get high to four in the morning and we're going to watch a ton of three studious movies. And then I'm going to sleep till around one." And then I'm going to disappear. I want to around trying to think of some jokes. And I'm going to check this around three in the morning at the kettle of fish bar. Do it again. And we'll do it again, baby. And a lot of girls, as you can imagine, will be like,
"Simeo." It is not a lifestyle conducive to the healthiest of those kinds of lunch.
You make a good point. I never thought of it like that. Yeah, yeah. Even when I first met my wife,
she had a regular gone. And so she had to be up at seven and then I'd roll in 230 in the morning.
“Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey! And when you met her at what stage of your career were you?”
Oh, I was in, I was freshly canceled. I was, I met her. I had had a talk show on MTV. Yeah. Oh, yeah, right. Famously known for it's, we know that. A talk MTV was this, no number. No number. For a hot talk. They were, and it went real well. And then our Sineo retired, decided you wanted to do his show anymore. And Paramount, who owned MTV at the time, got the great idea that what makes more sense than
making me the next or Sineo. So I took that time slot. And so you can imagine the confusion.
Didn't work out. That's exactly right. And we knew it wasn't going to work out pretty quickly. You, you get the ratings. Yeah. So I was visiting friends who were filming things in Greenwich Village. And on one of the sets, there was a makeup artist who, when I came in said, "Do you have a girlfriend?" And I said, "No." Of course she said, "Well, I've got this girl." And she describes this girl in ways where I'm like, "This is a lie. It's a funny, sweet,
smart, you're decaying, but she's the pebble." So I'm like, "All right. I'll go out with her." So she writes the number on a dollar bill. She gives it to me. I go home. I call who turns out to be my wife, Traci. And we have a long conversation. I mean, like two hours. On the phone. On the phone. She-- Oh, cool. --and the phone. --the kind of phone. --we're all like, the kind of phone that's in the wall.
It's called a telephone. --the kind that had a cord on that. That's right. --that's right. --that's right. And she's lovely. Funny, smart. We're raised in sort of the same area. And I'm like, you know, I'd love to take out some night. You know, I'll call you on Friday. I'll take out. Well, at the time, I was pretty heavy-smoker and cigarettes cost money. And some of the money that the cigarettes cost are the ones that I had written her number on.
Oh, John. Okay. Okay. So I did not call her when I said I was going to call her. That's the-- I get it. But the story has a happy ending. Relax. --I know. But that just hurts. I mean, it just like, how? --Yes. So that was our original fart. So what I ended up having to do is go back to that movie set. Because I knew they were roommates. So when I found their call sheets, I saw her the number of makeup artists. So I knew that was the number. So I was able to call it. But it took a lot
“long ago. So when I called her again, it was a lot of like, hey, what's up?”
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So how was the first date? Fabulous. She, when I'm nervous, I talk too much and when she's nervous,
she doesn't talk at all. So we went to a little restaurant on 6th Avenue called Lupita's East LA Kitchen. No, Lupita's East LA Kitchen. We don't know the difference. And I can make up anything. You could. We went too. I said this woman deserves the most expensive meal. We stopped first the Tiffany. No, I figured first day, case of day. And so I sat and I ate my delicious burrito and heard delicious burrito and all the drinks and talked and thought this woman cannot stay
in me. Oh no. And we're walking home and I thought we're going by this one bar that I like. It's not a food stop and they're having a drink. Two sketches in. She comes alive. She's just. Two sketches in. She just went. She lost some drink. And I was, I was smitten. That was it. Wow. How long did you guys date? How long was it? She, she knows the answer.
“This I believe she said it was too long. She said you dated. We dated too long.”
I asked her and married me probably three and a half years in. So we've been going out for three and have you. We lived together for a couple years and had all the dogs and all those things. Oh, yeah. How long did you guys out? How long did you know? Did you know with your, which one? The one that stuck. Thank you. No, I didn't know right away because I was going through a major divorce. Oh. And we don't, we don't have enough time for me to tell my favorite story of meeting my wife.
I'll save that one for you.
and I moved back into my apartment, our family's apartment that we lived in growing up and my parents
“had moved my mom and moved downstairs where my aunt lived. Sure, he was living at home with mom.”
It's like, what are we talking about here? No. So whenever I would go out anywhere my mom would be like, you meet anybody and I'm like, no, mom, I'm not interested in meeting anybody. So I met my current wife Kelly and didn't ask for her number or anything. I just met her and I was like, after my mom asked me that when I came home, I was like, maybe I should have gotten her number.
He's such a slow burn. Right. There's always that way. I understand that you're recovering.
So I waited till Thursday because she told me where she worked and I looked it up and I saw her phone number there and I, as I'm dialing her number, she sent me an email. It's the exact same time. Oh, really? The kids met of, uh, the digital age. But then we dated for five years before we got married. Yeah, yeah. But it was, it was, but how long before introduced her to you? I'm bad with time. It was probably within the first year. It was definitely the first year. Yeah, it was first year.
“I mean, whenever he was ready to, do we meet her before the, the kids met her?”
Oh, yeah. Yeah. But he brought you know, did you know that when you met her, did you go, like, oh, yeah, this is, this is, well, because he was bringing somebody around. I mean, I don't know. Yeah. My brother is a slow burn. I mean, he's had like three girlfriends his whole life because
he was a basketball player, right? So he was always, you know, yes, basketball players famously.
You can't, you can't, you can't shake a stick and find a basketball player that is a dedicated. But he was also a very monogamous young man. Yeah. So he was very good man. He's a good man. So if he was bringing somebody around, it was like, okay, how are you feeling about the state of our nation? You know, I'm going to ask me that. Thank you. I'm going to tell you something. And this is recent. I don't know if we're making news here or not.
I'm really beginning to sour on this president. I feel like, you know, you know, I was with him.
“You know, then I remember after January 6, watching the insurrection and watching the police”
being sprayed with bear spray and being beaten with poles. I remember thinking to myself, I don't love this. You know, I'm going to, I'm thinking of maybe not supporting him next. I'm going to obviously, he won me back. But, uh, no, I mean, uh, I don't even want it because I imagine for you and your family and having been that it's, it's a surreal experience for you guys because of the effort that you put into building something up and to watch it
be corrupted to have this perversion of leadership. I imagine is especially difficult to digest. There's, there's a, there's a surreal quality to it. Although I have to say, you guys left money on the table. I'm a, I'm a shell meme call. Didn't even know it was possible. I was so many things. You guys didn't do a pump. You know, you really, you left some money on the table. You know, we could have had a Netflix deal
a decade ago. That's it. You could have had a weapons company. You could have sold missiles to yourself. Don and Eric have a drone company. I don't even know what to say. Yeah. You know, it's the level of corruption that is is in some ways maybe it's doing a favor by making this the current power structure and dynamic of this country untenable because of how explicitly corrupted it. Maybe that's, I don't know. Well, it's sort of, you know, what I say,
what we were saying about the rolling back of women's rights. I mean, you know, when things are okay, you know, it's easier to take what you have for granted and to think what,
you know, there will always be somebody there who wouldn't possibly do this, you know,
we've never had somebody who would do this, right? And you just assume that's going to be the way it is. I think at some level we were there as a country, just a little unclear, just a little,
Maybe we can get a little more, you know, maybe I can get more of a tax break.
maybe we can get richer than we are, you know, maybe we can get rights changed faster than ever before,
“right? Because, you know, our kids didn't witness much of the struggle at all, right? They didn't”
experience it. And that's, you know, that's the kind of growth you would have hoped for for the country that each generation, everything gets better and better and better. And that was actually happening, right? Until we get to a point where there's a generation that didn't even remember
what was wrong in the first place. Never saw it, right? I mean, you think about all the young people
who only have known only new Barack Obama is their president, like that was the America. There is that truth, too, right? What was the feeling like? Because it is accruesible, like that, you feel the weight of that house in every room and every piece of furniture that exists in that house. And the responsibility I imagine is, it is a weight you bear every day that you walk through there.
“The day you walk out, is that, is the experience one of liberation, is it one of exhale?”
Are you, are you now interviewing me, John? No, this isn't going to make it into the show.
I would never be interviewing. That's not what we were before. I was just curious.
No, no. I mean, I've sort of wrote about this in becoming. I mean, when we got on that plane after, you know, the election and the, you know, the outcome and the disappointment and young people. And, you know, all of it, I got on that plane and that last trip on Air Force One. And I barely remember much of anything, but the minute I walked through those doors, I burst out in tears. And I think I cried for like 30 minutes straight. And for me, that is a show of a release of, it wasn't sadness.
It was, thank God, we made it to the other side of that experience because it's not just the
responsibility, but as a mother, as like, okay, my kids are whole, my husband is whole, you know, it didn't, there was no guarantee that we get to this other side in one place. We were proud of
“what we did, but it was like, it was over. It's like, you know, and I, you know, who would know that?”
There were 40, some odd people who've ever had that experience. And it is, it's a, it's a weight because it's, it's not about you, right? You, you are responsible for every, every emotion, every sense of, of a young person's being, you know, I mean, everything we were doing, we understood what we were modeling, you know, and it's like you don't want to get it wrong, you know, you don't want to. So you were cognizant of the effects your policies and what it might have on the lives of
others. That's so interesting. So you're saying is in the middle of my say of war, you wouldn't necessarily bring out, I don't know, the specs for the ballroom. John, let me tell you, as, as, as their brother, her brother and brother-in-law, and all black people, we were, it, it feels like I was holding my breath for eight years, really, because of the magnitude of what they had in front of them, and how if they had somehow accidentally or maliciously done the wrong thing, how it would have affected
the entire race, right? That's, people don't talk about that, right? And, you know, the Jackie Robbins, it's the, it's like, well, that's it for, that's it, that's it. All right, let's try it too. But, but it's, you know, so not that you asked me, but I was relieved on that at the end. Really, all of that's an interesting part of it, too, is to be the family, but to not be in the house. Yes. Also, because you're not in sconstin it, you're on the outside, feeling all of the
Outside noise.
Yeah, but I'm out, I'm out in the streets like a civilian, man. I'm dealing with all that. Now, as, as the, the brother was at hard to hold your powder, when, because I know, listen,
“noise is noise, and everybody hears it. So I would imagine. You know, I, I think the, at the time,”
I was still coaching. Right. So, um, what I always said to people was that, as long as I know
they're in there, I know they're trying to do the best for the most people. Yeah. So what, the noise, I was hearing, what, not bad. Right. Um, and plus people were telling me I couldn't coach and needed to be fired anyway. Yeah, you're on noise. No, no, no, but it, it, it, um, I had the utmost confidence in them. So I wasn't worried about the noise because it didn't mean anything. Right.
I've always admired people who bet on themselves. The friend who starts roasting coffee in their garage, the side hustle cake decorator, my wife Kelly. She loves flipping my old sports merch online.
“It's very fun to watch. Inevitably, anyone who wants to sell something online comes across”
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“always a political curiosity, a passion in creating a way to incorporate it into your comedy?”
Well, yeah, so that's, you know, we talked earlier a little bit about like your first 15 or
20 minutes is almost always biographical. And then you move into kind of observational and
observational can be the sort of behavioral from the minutia to the trivial to something more consequential about relationships or things like that. But I was never particularly interested in those dynamics. I was interested in power dynamics. I was interested in in the way that the world function. And it always been that way in school and in everything else. And so that was I think if you wanted to feel like you were being authentic, you try and write material
that reflected your passions and interests. And that's sort of where that all came from.
“Yeah. And then how did the the whole Daily Show come about?”
So the Daily Show came about the Doug Herzog and Madeleine Smithburg and at least Roth were these two producers. And then the head of at the time Comedy Central Doug had wanted to do kind of what's the Comedy Central answer to sports center? What's what would make this network feel like it was a sort of living entity. And so the Daily Show is what Matt on at least produced to that end. And the head of the host for a basketball player, Craig
Hill, Craig. And he had decided to go off to do network. And I'd been out of work for while written a book. That's some other stuff and kicked around the clubs and done some incredibly memorable independent film roles. And yeah and I would and they asked me if I wanted to do it. And and I had said, you know, let me let me think about it. And and I thought about the way that that I saw that the show was in the way that I wanted to make it. And so we had discussions
about I thought that it could be a vehicle to explore those themes of power and politics. And
the distance between I was always really interested in the room before the room, the room where
the meeting took place. And then the politicians would go out and they would give their speech and you always wonder, okay, every because as you know, everything's purposeful, everything is intentional. So how are they designing? And has used sometimes now you just have a guy wake up at three in the
“morning and go, I think I might be Jesus. Point is this. But that's what I wanted the show to be”
to deconstruct what we see as powers reality, what's the reality behind that. And that seemed like the right form and also this surrounded by just great writers and performers and you know, and
the list of them is endless. Speaking of, you know, we had Jessica Williams on. Oh, God, she is amazing.
She's amazing. She's above. She's above. She's above. Yes, she is. She's above. She's very proud. Listen, it's like you don't want to screw that like it's she is such a rare. I watch video tapes all day looking for talent. And you know, and you watch them with sort of that idea, it's like scrolling on before answer. You're just doing this going through. And then every now and again, you go, huh? That's Jessica. She and I mean like not a produced like some low rent,
Old, Sony, and he can't like nothing video and she just explodes off and is a...
And but a talent that I mean, she's obviously doing, but you know, we knew that the minute you saw
and she was I think 20 years or so, like it was crazy. We couldn't even believe that. And she had never
done it. Never done it. He came in and was just she's certain people vibrate with no delay. Like in a like an electrical. She has like an electrical. Oh, yeah. So it's the synapses just fire.
“Yeah. Yeah. And she's that as a talent. And the best thing that I tried to do is try and find”
the most talent people I could and let them be them. I'd love to say that it was like, my guidance of that like I was. Well, you didn't say that, but a lot of other people have said that
about you. I mean, that's very that's. You know, they have talked about you being the leader at that
table. I mean, you know, the table that they were surrounded by. There was still your work ethic. There was still the example of your and I'm using the words that I've heard. Right. You know, was still your work ethic. It was still the tone that you set around that table. And you know, that there are tables. Other comedy tables. I've been at some of the tables. Where, you know, no, it's just the opposite. It's a little rough. And nobody's rooting for you. And there isn't the,
you know, so I don't know whether that's a question because you won't take it and you want to say, "How did you do that, John? How did you feel?" But I, yes. Once I read some of those art of war,
“I think I'd been in a lot of places that were not healthy. And, and when I first got there,”
I don't think it was healthy. I think it was rough. Yeah. And, and quite toxic. And that people's ambition was, I think it's hard for people that sometimes understand and maybe in the show is that if the show's good, we all win. Yeah. And so if we all, the energy that it takes you to create toxicity or selfishness or to be overly combative is energy that you're not using to elevate. Listen, America, can you say that again? Yeah, you're positive if we're going to leave us. Come,
I'm the producer. Uh, it was, you know, there's only a finite amount of energy in the day. So I had to learn how to parcel that energy for myself, but also for the staff to understand that like, we're, it's, in some respects, it's a refinery. And we're taking raw materials in the morning. And we're trying to create a process that can refine those materials into something that we feel is, and I don't want to say great, not great thing, but the, the greatest execution of our
“aspiration or intention. Yeah. Every day has to set an intention. And, and that's why for me,”
it's almost more fun to work on the process, because the process was so crucial in creating the
product. Yeah. And that was what that was the gift of having people around me who also really sort of dug that idea. Yeah. Like let's sit and talk about, because five minutes at 9 a.m. is 45 minutes at 6 o'clock, but now there's an audience waiting there. So if we can figure out how to create a process, that's repeatable, but not stifling. That was like, it was this great dynamic of challenges. Yeah. And, and, uh, and what I loved about it, it, it, it, I felt like it was the first time,
it used every part of anything that I thought I was able to do to its totality. Yeah. And that's why it was so nice to be able to come home to my family completely drained and spent, so that I had nothing left for them. I think the answer here is this. Work hard to plead yourself. Have nothing left for others. For your family. Well, what was family life like for you before you realized that you were, you know, I mean, which Tracy patient with it, what she getting pissed off about
it, what did she understand? Um, uh, I think that it's hard whenever you have young children. Yes. And, and this is probably for just me, Craig. Um, dumb boys.
Dumb boys.
and you've been working all day, the first thing you might not want to say is, how tired you are. Yes. Yes. You can't do that. So no, no. Yeah. You know, and that's, you know, that we should put that on a t-shirt. Don't say how tired you are. Don't, don't, yeah. You know, don't do it. Um, but she's also like, yeah, she's just a rare bird, like incredibly supported, but it took me a while to understand and to really, and really understand it,
how hard it was for her in those, in those years. Mm-hmm. It was really hard. Yeah. And uh, and uh, and the, the, the person that's coming into that that you've been Wisconsin at the whole day is also can come into it as the amusement park. Oh, God. Yeah. So you can walk in. It's been a long day of tears and, uh, limits and trying to set, you know, get raised them to be responsible day. And then this one comes in. It's like, who wants to ride on my back? And you, you know,
you're, you're, you're a wrecking ball. That's right. In this entire operation. Mm-hmm. And you think it's, but I don't get any time with them. And I do the thing. Yeah. And so, you know, dealing with all that is, it can be really, it can be really fraught, but what's so interesting is, as they become autonomous. Mm-hmm. And, and obviously, the, you know, those, those old ways of raising them when they're little, you know, that it's, you know, nice to be
“important, but it's more important to be nice, you know, and that, but as they get older, like,”
you know, they put fentanyl and coke right, like, just, you know, be, be aware, all right. Like, but then it's just the two of you. Yeah. And it's a really, really lovely, like, it's a comfort, like you've been through all these wars. Mm-hmm. And now you're kind of just together again on the couch. And you obviously, you know, the energy and excitement of the kids
being around is so incredible. I love them. I'm going to see them tonight tonight for dinner.
I love them. Yeah. But, you know, Brock cried when they went to college. Yeah. It's like, bye, little. Goodbye. Now I'd, I'd now Friday nights aren't wrecked with terror and fear about, where are you? Where are you? Right. And I, I would, I love their emancipation and growth. And the thing I'm just though is the job, like, don't you miss, so you're just a son, high school. So it's still a job. Yes. Like, the, it gave a, meaning and like, pattern to my life.
I'm good. Yeah. I look at all the meaning. I love my kids schedule. I love it. Some of the schedule. I love the schedule. I love my schedule. I have a great schedule. And it's also mine.
“But I think fathers can be that way, because you weren't there from six now. You missed a lot of it.”
I mean, I've had so much quality time with my children. That's so fun. So much. Yeah. I know them inside. And it must drive the crazy. I'm sure it must have driven my wife crazy. When, when, when when I first left the show and so it was all about then driving the kids to school and driving in a moment. I come back with a, they were in the car and they were talking about this. They're laughing.
You know, I never occurred to me. I'm sure my wife was saying how lovely. Yeah. You just soak it all.
Well, we, at that time, too, we moved out of the city. So we went through a kind of a strange, I don't know if you guys are very experiences. But so, when we were in the city, we went, they went to school in Granted Village called Little School called Little Red. Literally, like, the school Pete Seeger went to. Yeah. Every assembly and it's with, you know, honey in the rock feed all the children. We all hold hands and somehow just levitate. You know, it's all this magical.
“And we moved them out to Jersey. And this was 2015. I remember dropping them off at school.”
And the first bumper sticker I saw was Hillary for prison. And I was like, okay. I don't think honey in the rock is, is how this thing is, is going to go. But that was a big adjustment. And they, in some ways, I'm really glad that that happened because we were in Wisconsin. Something that was really eccentric and kind of cloistered. Yeah. Do you think comedy helps or hurts the political
climate? Oh, wow. Because here's what, you know, like, I mean, sometimes I just can't watch
anything. Sure. Sure. Right. Especially then. Because it was like, sure. Is this, is this funny?
Right.
I wonder what you, you think. Because it's, sometimes I think, is it, is it good that most young people are getting their news from the Daily Show or that they, you know, they want you to run for president or, you know, I mean, that we're in that position of where, you know,
“especially with social media. Right. It's like the funny idea has, look, I think the shows that”
that we do now, they go out on social media on the thing. But to a large extent, because we are infrastructure heavy, we are, we do, we are in some ways a relic of a previous era where it's sort of like, I'm running a blockbuster, a video store inside of a tower records. You know, like, it is, where people just be like, so you sell what house. Yeah. But in other ways, it has more reach because social media plays it everywhere. The question is,
what does, I, I never confuse cultural power with power. Yeah. I learned early on that the,
one of the frustrations of one of the joys of it is catharsis and being able to express yourself and do that thing that we talked about, like, what do you want to be as a comic? I want to be, I want my personal thoughts and dreams and whatever to be filtered through whatever our form it is that I'm pushing through. Second item of it is, but it's impotent. And, and does it, is it an opiate? Is it creating, uh, you know, and having worked on some of those things on
capital Hill and all that, I know the difference now, which I didn't before, the difference between activists who are in the trenches, doing that day-to-day work, trying to then that arc of the moral universe slowly tortures. It's not realizing there's a bunch of people trying to bend it back. Yeah. And so, you know, I wish there were metrics. I'd almost, I wish there was
“a double blind study where you could find out, like, am I hurt? Like, does this help? Does it corrode?”
Does it pervert? Is it something to be, is it ultra processed, you know, food that's given the country, a kind of political diabetes? You know, I don't, I don't know. I think I also have to step back on, it may not be an honorable thing we do, but we do it as honorably as we can in that, it is not in bad faith. So the way that I try and judge it is, any good faith, art, material, speech, talk that goes into the universe, I feel like is a win. There's so much bad faith.
Yeah. And, and I try to hold that, but I can't sit here and honestly answer, like, it's a win for society. Like, what I've done, of course, past 20, you know, I don't, I, I'd hate to think, obviously. Yeah, yeah. But there's many people on social media who would tell me, you know, that that is the case. Yeah. And, and the other side of it is,
“you have to be agnostic about, you don't get close to the people like the relationships with political”
figures are always fraught, or with media figures. I always say to people at the show,
look at the people around you. Yeah. Uh, when you leave here, if we do this right, these will be your only friends. Right. Right. Because one of the things about the sort of media industrial complex and the political media industrial complex is the associations diminish the purpose of what some of those disciplines are. They can exist in that. Yeah. And so that's hard. Yeah. You know, um, because you do feel there are people you really like. Yeah. You really,
and admire. But you know, at work, like, you're going to have to, and I'm sure for you guys, there's people you might like who do those things and you go. Mm-hmm. I think I'd like to punch that kind of thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and to answer my own question of you, I do think,
the cultural impact is important. I mean, I've always thought that, you know, that that power is
it's, it's not the same, but it's really important. Right. I mean, I felt that way even when I was first lady. You know, and I think art administration understood that. There was the, the Washington power, but it's like, if you wanted to talk to anybody, if you wanted anybody to hear you really, you needed to go at it from the culture. Right. Right. Where people are? Right. And not try to buck it. I mean, I didn't do one interview with face the nation or meet the press. Right. I never
sat down with the New York Times editorial board. Right. But I came on the Daily Show. Right. And I've
Never tried to have us arrested.
taking off the air or no, but it's a function of, it's a function of a confidence in your world view.
“There is nothing more, I think, fragile than someone who wields real power who feels that that”
power will be diminished by satire or commentary. You know, it's kind of a shocking for agility. I don't, for someone who wants to, you know, project alpha male dominance. And yet be so incredibly, you know, wrecked by something that happens at 12 30 at night. I mean, he's made all of our shows relevant again in a weird way. Yeah. Well, um, I thank you. Listen, I thank you guys for coming over. It's been such a delight. Now, you know, I turned this room. My book club
is going to be here. It's true. Are you enjoying the podcast? The podcast. Oh, the one that we do? Yeah, you know, the one where it should be interviewing people. Yeah, it's not. I get to talk to all kinds of different people. And I get to do it in my house, which is just that's perfect. Yeah. That's so cool. And it's also a way, you know, as you guys we talked about a little earlier, I'm not the most social, uh, socially inclined individual. Yeah, that was the, the, the most surprising
thing when I met you. It's all really. Oh, yeah. I mean, oh, he's so shy. Yeah, no, he's extremely anxious. Yeah, that's correct. Yes, that is correct. But he did true. That you keep your Emmys in a box
in a, uh, yes, I'm sure. In a, yeah, I've never been attached to, uh, material or awards or any of those
sorts of things. I've always, my wife found me, uh, when, when she found me, I was a, I lived out of those milk crates that you see get with all this stuff. And, and I'm barely out of those, barely out of that. So, uh, but no, this is, it's been, it's lovely to talk to you guys. True. Well, you know, we have a listener question that we need to answer to that. Very cool. Sagittarius. Your fire girl. I don't know where that. I don't know what camera I'm going to. I'm in surround
center. All right. All right. All right. Who's our listener? Who's our listener? All right. So this is from Eric. Hi, Michelle and Craig. My dilemma is this. I am certain that fixating on politics and political conversations right now will not improve the negativity, divisiveness, and hopelessness that I have and that seems to be everywhere. At the same time, it can feel naive to ignore things altogether because so many things able to work right now. The economy, loss of rights, deaths at home,
and wars overseas, the environment. So where does that leave the average person like me who both wants to escape or at least ignore the nightmare of our current political landscape? It also understands
“that doing nothing won't actually improve anything. What is the kind of work we can be doing?”
And what are the conversations we should be having that might make a difference, but also allow us to keep our sanity from Eric in Vermont. Okay, Eric. You're listed as a deep. Yeah. We do
something like this on my shoulder. It's always like, what's your taco bell order? Are you a
chelupa guy? Eric's going through it, man. He's I don't think he's going to be answering. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. That's right. That's like you're the answer. Let's see what you got. Well, we're all jumping, but we want to be polite and let our guests go first. Action is the antidote anxiety. And I've always felt that. He's existential anxiety is something you can never get your hands around, but we can get around our tactile. It's so funny that
“this is coming up. So I'd had this conversation with Trevor Noah about anxiety. And that's why”
I like woodworking. I like I've learned how to play the drums. There are things that are they're mechanical, they're tactile, they are rhythmic, they are repeatable, and they are grounding for me mentally. And he just sent me this apparently Winston Churchill self the same He sent me this thing about Winston Churchill used to be visited by depression. I don't have that, he'd be visited by depression and he would call it the black dog. And when the black dog would visit
he had to do things with his hands, he had to make things, he had to, and so Trevor was just sending me that, you know, this is your coping mechanism, put to explicit eloquence by Winston Churchill.
Then I just wrote him back and said, that's so crazy, it explains why I alway...
want to bomb the Germans. But I would think, you know, young people feel this way, you know,
in the olden days, you got rid of that with booze, like that's kind of how people dealt with that existential anxiety because they couldn't talk it out. But I don't know, like that was very
“anybody that I think that is able to articulate it in that way can get through it. Yeah, because that's”
like naming it is one of the hardest things. Yeah, no, yeah. I mean, one thing I totally totally agree, because some of you just got to work through it, you got to, and I totally agree with the tactile piece. I mean, I knit, I knit it my way through COVID. I play tennis like three times a week in the repetition of the thing, because you're on there. It's like, I have to run and hit that ball. I can't think about anything else while I'm doing it. I'm trying to figure out how to hit the ball better.
And I can do that for 90 minutes. And you know, that's 90 minutes of not thinking about anything except for that thing. Right. So I completely agree with that. The other thing I often say to people is, I think we run into the challenge of thinking that all change has to be big change. I think
“young people think that too. You know, and you hear about the young people doing something. Why?”
You know, I got 1,000 people to vote or I raised this. I mean, it's just like they, they're often biting off so much. Yes. You know, how do I end drug dealing in my neighborhood? How do I fix this
huge gigantic problem right under my nose? And the answer is, you can't. You know, what you
need to do first of all is just focus on what you can control. You know, focus on small right now, especially young people. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. You know, it's like, are you in school? Stay in school. Right. Do your homework. You know, that's, that's, you know, that's some power right there. Absolutely. And it's also sort of the quiet activism of living pleasantly, like in the sense of everybody that you encounter in your world, whether it's at
a deli nearby or when you go to the thing, if you interact with them in a way that recognizes their share of humanity, I'm telling you, man. That may win. It works. That's kind of you. It works. That's funny. It's funny that Eric is in Vermont because that goes to what what I was
going to say to Eric, you know, you, I, I probably never told you this, but when you all were first
running, I used to be a circuit. So on, I'd have practiced during the week and then on Sundays, they'd send me somewhere. Oh, wow. And I'd give the team off and then we practiced late on Monday, so I'd be able to travel back. Right. And one of the first places I went was this small town up in Vermont, really small, right by the water. And I remember, is a small little general store that I got dropped off at, to be picked up by somebody else and be taken somewhere else. And I went in
the general store. And I'm like in a suit, and everybody's wearing flannel shirts, right? And the sky says to me, you're not from around here. And it was like, oh, you figured that out because I got the suit, you think? Yeah. And, you know, and it's, I didn't say because I was black, I said, it's because I had the suit on because he knew why I was there, but he pretended that he didn't know and he's, like, you know, we got a lot of politicians coming up around here. You got anything to do
with that? And I was like, yeah, I do. I happened to, I happened to be coming up here to talk about Barack Obama and then I, I went into this whole thing. He's like, well, I don't know about that guy. And I said, well, why not? He said, well, he hadn't done much. And so I went into this very
“calm and quiet discussion about why you have to, every now and then give a chance to people who don't”
have the same experience that other people have because they haven't had the same opportunity. Real basic stuff, but it was quiet and it was calm and it was an hour of it. And by the end of it, he was, I don't know who he voted for, but he acted as if I had convinced him. Right, right. And I say this to Eric to John's point, there's nothing like conversation with people and to your point, Miche, it doesn't have to be with a thousand people, just hit him one, one person at
a time and talk to him about how you feel and how you think. And if you're smart and
Can put a few sentences together, people will listen to you.
Eric, is that guy in a talk to that would be? It was just like, oh, I had a question, I wanted to ask him
“in the store like we're doing. Now I got to read 16 years. Yeah, I was thrown in there. Eric sounds”
younger than the guy. Yeah, well, Eric, hopefully that helps you out a little bit, and anybody else who's listening. Thank you, John Stuart. Thank you, you're a very intelligent young man. I heard there was a P.A. job available. I saw the fruit. We don't know much. I just want to point out the difference
when you do a podcast with a former First Lady and her brother, the fruit selection in their
“brain world puts basic cable to such shame. I was literally marving it. Is that a red thing?”
The exotic nature. Don't we only put again? No, no, no, no, no, it's so nice to see you again. Thank you. Thank you. I've been this time. Hopefully, thank you.
Thank you. Thank you again. You're welcome.
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