It’s no secret that Stephen Colbert is a huge fan of the works of J.R.R. Tolkien. The man even interviewed Smaug back when he still had The Colbert Report on Comedy Central as part of an entire week of guests centered around the release of one of the chapters of The Hobbit. And now even over at The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, he’s still getting admirably geeky about Tolkien’s fantasy stories from Middle-Earth.

For those who don’t know, before an episode of a late night talk show is recorded, or any program with a live audience for that matter, there’s a warm-up so the crowd is ready to have a good time. Usually a stand-up comedian comes out to tell some jokes and talk to the audience just to get them ready for the show. Then the star of the show comes out for a bit to mingle with the crowd, usually taking questions from the audience. Stephen Colbert consistently gets nerdy questions about Lord of the Rings, and you can see his passionate responses after the jump.

Here’s some of the Stephen Colbert Lord of the Rings geek out sessions from The Late Show tapings.

It’s awesome to see anyone be passionate about the things they love, but there’s something special about seeing iconic entertainment personalities let loose and really geek out. Stephen Colbert even hosted the final panel for The Hobbit trilogy at Comic-Con, and you could tell he was having the time of his life.

Of course, even though Colbert is a huge J.R.R. Tolkien fan, that didn’t stop Ryan Gosling’s mother from sending a trivia question with her son when the Drive star appeared on the show back in May. The question was a bit of a cheat, but Colbert was certainly stumped. If you missed it, you can watch that video right here.