In real life, when not in character, the 49-year-old Colbert is exceedingly polite and down to earth — qualities no doubt reinforced during his years here, first at Northwestern, where he graduated with the class of 1986, and later performing throughout the city in the early '90s.

As an undergraduate, he studied dramatic acting but also performed in a college improv competition organized by Charna Halpern's ImprovOlympic (now known as iO Theater) in a group called No Fun Mud Piranhas that included fellow Northwestern classmate and future Lookingglass Theater co-founder David Schwimmer. Colbert stood out immediately, Halpern recalled: "I thought Stephen was the funniest right away. He was intelligent, he was well-read — he knew a lot about everything. He knew his mythology, he knew his history, he knew his politics. And he was funny."