Photo credit: Martin Crook
Comedy Central host Stephen Colbert recently took a break from his New York studio to film four shows in Penn’s Annenberg Center.
How did he prove he actually was in Philadelphia?
“I have a giant map of Pennsylvania,” he quipped on his Monday, April 14 show, pointing to a green state map adorned with his head next to Philadelphia, a zombie and nuclear plant next to Three Mile Island, and in the middle of the state, an Amish man watching—what else?—”The Colbert Report” on a flat-screen TV.
For four nights, April 14 through 17, the comedian broadcast his nightly satiric news and opinion show in his trademark persona—one that is equal parts Bill O’Reilly and Geraldo Rivera. The set was designed and built specifically for Annenberg’s Zellerbach Theatre, and included (aside from the map), a giant screen with faces of famous Philadelphians Ben Franklin, Bill Cosby and Will Smith, and an “Election Center,” with a map of the 13 original colonies manned by Franklin impersonator Ralph Archbold. In character, Archbold joined Colbert on camera all week, providing plenty of homespun Franklin wisdom and generally acting, as Colbert put it, like the “Ed McMahon of the 18th century.”
This marked the first time Colbert had filmed a show outside of his New York studio—and he drew the biggest audiences in the show’s two-and-a-half-year history. Normally, the NYC studio seats about 100 people; Zellerbach seats a little more than 900.
The week’s guests included Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards (who stopped by Thursday’s show to perform “The Ed Words,” a spoof on Colbert’s regular “The Word” feature), Barack Obama via satellite and Penn grad John Legend, with whom Colbert sang the National Anthem at the beginning of the first show.
The show was filmed in segments and was broken up by a flurry of off-camera activity, During those breaks, Colbert made sure to toss several of his trademark red “wrist strong” bracelets into the audience. And after Tuesday’s show, in which The Roots played the National Anthem and then smashed their two guitars onstage, Colbert gathered the pieces, had the band members sign the remnants, and then threw the pieces into the audience.
Before each show, Colbert walked out on stage as himself (not in character), to answer audience questions submitted via the website. Questions before the April 14 show ranged from which state would he kick out of the union if he had the choice (his character would kick out Massachusetts, for sure), to his favorite Sunday School lesson. In response, Colbert—who has taught Sunday School at his family’s church—gave a brief summary of the story of Peter, who walks on water, but then falls in because he loses faith. Colbert laughed, and called this the “only example of physical comedy in the New Testament.”
To watch clips from Colbert’s week in Philadelphia, go to www.comedycentral.com/colbertreport.
Originally published April 24, 2008
