Maturin

So if you've been watching The Daily Show this week you may have noticed they're filming out of DC. What you may not know is that the space they're filming in is the theater I work for. I spent most of last week on the load in crew, which for me meant pulling cables all over the goddamn place (these TV folk like their cable hookups, let me tell you).

The highlight of the whole week is tonight, when Obama is the guest. Unlike most episodes, the entire episode is dedicated to interviewing the president (funny story on that later). I'd hadn't been to a filming yet this week, but thought I'd better go see this one or I'd be kicking myself the rest of my life. Fortunate for me, I had the super-special backstage pass already. After a short security check, I was able to walk in to the mezz about 10 minutes before the warmup guy started.

If you've never been in a studio audience, it's pretty cool. I was expecting a warm up guy, but after he was done Jon Stewart himself came out for another 10 minutes of banter and Q & A with the audience. A theme for the week has been how different the questions are from DC folks than is his regular NY audiences. He said something along the line that a typical NY question is like "who would win in a deathmatch, a shark or a zombie?", while DC folks have been asking him about the significance of his red ties.

Of course, the big guest was Obama, but I have to say it wasn't the best interview ever. As you may guess, the content is on the whole toned down and more somber. Stewart doesn't interrupt Obama as much, and as such a lot of the interview is just Obama/Democrat talking points. (Stewart did say as much in the post show Q&A, that he purposefully held back from interrupting the President). Jon does get a little more digging towards the end, but on the whole I think he could've been tougher in his questioning.

Want proof I was there? Here's a continuity error to look for: The interview went long so they had to re-film the opening. Initially they started with a couple a minutes of jokey material called "Making the President Wait". It was mostly Stewart mugging for the cameras and doing stupid things like drawing faces on M&M's. It was actually very funny and I'm sad they had to cut it. Now the episode just starts with Stewart saying "Ladies and gentlemen, the POTUS". Watch Jon's desk when the episode starts: it's empty. Then look at it when Obama walks in: the desk will suddenly have some papers on it!!! (At the postshow Q&A, someone asked Jon why he always has paper if he never reads them. He incredulously responded if people in DC were asking about fakery and stagecraft).

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"Creating something is not a democracy. The people have no say. The artist does. It doesn't matter what the people witter on about: they and their response comes after. They're not there for the moment of creation."

--Russell T Davies

kamikazi89

please make note that Germany restrained itself from incurring large amounts of public debt at the same time Obama was encouraging just that at the G8

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katie west is the best