Opening Thoughts



Okay, first of all, massive apologies for the delay! Adulting is truly a nuisance to my fangirling endeavors lol But it’s been a day, and now that my brain has stopped short-circuiting from the whirlwind of surreal over-excitement, here’s my attempt to articulate a recap of last night’s LWT taping! (Also, this recap is literally 2875 words long, hence splitting it up into two parts…apologies for the essay!)

Just in general, the entire evening was ridiculously surreal. And amazing. Those are the two words I keep coming back to. My face literally hurt from smiling and laughing once the taping finished, and I still haven’t quite gotten past the “holy fucking shit, I was sitting maybe ten feet away from John Oliver last night” feeling. A whole lot of “what the what?!” has been going on here.

So, I took my friend who is a comedian/comedy nerd/also loves JO to the taping, because I knew he’d appreciate it more than anyone else I know in real life. So, it was super fun sharing the experience with him. He loved it. Also, I was feeling weirdly super anxious and shaky all day yesterday leading up to the taping – I’ve no idea why? But once John finally came out, it kind of centered everything, and I felt totally fine. John Oliver apparently has a very calming presence – which makes no sense considering lol but…I don’t know, that was just sort of nice.



Studio Stuff

Okay, once you check in and go through security and all that boring logistical stuff, you sit in a room in the order in which everyone arrived (my friend and I were super early), and you just sort of chill with everyone in the audience on massive beige couches for like an hour. But the room was super cool! Well, actually, it was super bare and white. But there were poster-sized photos from the show’s major moments all over the walls, which were fun to look at.

Now to the taping! (Because who cares about the above stuff? lol) So after waiting for a while, they finally bring you up to the actual studio to seat you, and I have to say – it was insane walking onto the set. It’s actually pretty tiny, and the audience isn’t far from John’s desk at all. Also, I saw some random stuff from previous episodes that were kind of chilling behind where the audience sits, like the Crazy Johnny’s Used Cars sign.



So, finally we were seated…in the front. Like, fucking FRONT ROW CENTER. *!!!!!* I genuinely could not believe our luck. We were right behind where the main monitors are (so right in front of the LWT desk), but up on a platform, and I was initially excited, but then super nervous that they’d be in the way. But it was totally fine, and I was literally sitting right in front of John. Holy fucking fuck. Also, the stage manager was actually in front of me, as well, so it was fun to see him interact with John and give him his cues and everything (I’m a massive BTS nerd lol).

Pre-Taping Shit

The warm-up guy (I sadly cannot remember his name) was hilarious and great and got everyone super psyched (not that we needed help, but it was fun), and he ended his bit with a t-shirt canon. A fucking t-shirt canon. I could not stop laughing, because OF COURSE that’s a thing that would happen at John Oliver’s show. Why wouldn’t it? lol I didn’t get a t-shirt (too shy/socially awkward to try), but it was super fun watching the excitement.

Q&A Awesomeness

THEN JOHN FINALLY CAME OUT. He was SO fucking funny and on and open and self-deprecating, which aw – I wish he’d realize how amazing he is – during the Q&A. It was so great.



His entrance was everything. They played “Thriller” when he came out and, as he explained right afterward, they usually play something else, so it kind of threw him off lol He couldn’t remember what the “Thriller” dance was, so he started doing the “Soulja Boy” dance – naturally. I’m assuming at this point that it was on reflex because he seems to do it all the time haha But then his brain kind of kicked in and caught up with the song and he did what he described as the “paws move” fro “Thriiller” – it was so fucking cute and hilarious, I was dying. And everyone basically lost their minds. We literally gave him a standing O – like, for a long time – to which he basically waved us off, like “oh my god, this is ridiculous and genuinely too much, please stop.”

Shallow side note: he looked GOOD. Like, SO FUCKING GOOD. That suit?! The blue shirt?! The tie?! Good LORD, sir. Also, how dare you?

So, basically during the Q&A my brain was losing it because he was LITERALLY right in front of me. But bits have been coming back to me more and more, so I’ll try to be as detailed as possible! Also, the quotes below are not word for word, but rather my best estimation of what he said (and I think they’re really close).

Once we finally sat down, he apologized because they were running a bit late due to last minute rewrites, to which we all laughed – he turned to us and laughed a bit as well, but then turned serious, like, “no, but really though…that’s what we were literally just doing.” loll

Someone asked him whether the idea for LWT came before or after his summer hosting stint on TDS. He immediately laughed and said, “Oh, for HBO, it was VERY much after the fact. Before that, they probably would have said, ‘oh, John Oliver from TDS….who the fuck is he? Also, who fucking cares?’ This show, in a very real sense, would never have happened if Jon hadn’t decided to make a film that summer.” It was hilarious, but also like aw! He was deeply self-deprecating during some of the questions, like even for him. It was kind of sweet though, because the stage manager kept shaking his head like, “dude, you’re fucking amazing at this? And also in general? Please stop.” Then he talked a bit more about how he and Tim Carvell thought it’d be fun to do something together and talked about it and then it became real and then it all just sort of came together in the end. But he was very adamant that it’d never have happened if he hadn’t hosted TDS.

He was also asked what it was like to work with JS – to which he, of course, went on a massive spiel about how much he loves Jon lol It was honestly ridiculously cute; he was really very sweet about it. He said, “it was the best, it was amazing. I learned everything from him, and am doing this now, because he taught me how to do everything. He literally brought me to America. I was working in England before that; I’d never been to America, and never would have come here if he hadn’t hired me, and I’ve barely been home since.” And then, I think to kill the sincerity, he was like, “I mean, am I okay with living in Jon Stewart’s shadow?“ and sighed while hanging his head melodramatically. Everyone was like AWW lol

I think it was next when someone asked him if JS ever did a spit take in his face, to which he was adorably self-assured, then confused, then slightly suspicious, then self-deprecating. He said "Yes, sure! Of course. Well, I think so, probably? …Why?” lol And the person mentioned the bit JS and SC had done over the summer before the RNC. And John was like, “well, sure, but Colbert is special,” and then he sighed again and feigned a deep sadness, and did that thing where he bends down to rest his elbows on his knees and then reaches for the floor like he’s about to lie down lol It was amazing.

Then he went off on this super random but absolutely incredible tangent! Oh god, it was great. Basically, the same people who designed the LWT set also did the one for SC’s show. And so SC was visiting LWT one day, and later that day after he’d left, John went to his desk on the set, and saw that there was a note from SC saying “Look what I did” with an arrow pointing to the place where he carved his initials – S.T.C. – into his desk! John walked over to the desk just to point it out to us lol (if he’s sitting at the desk, it’s on the leg of the desk to his right). John’s whole demeanor about this incident was essentially, “CAN. YOU. BELIEVE.” Omgsh, and amazingly – after the Q&A, when he went to sit at the desk to get ready for the actual taping, the stage manager said something to him and pointed to the desk to John’s left. John looked over and – I kid you not – he noticed for the first time that Sam Bee had done the exact same thing! She had carved in “Sam Bee was here.” I mean, can you actually believe these amazing dummies?! I love them so fucking much lol John was like, “WHAT THE FUCK?!?! DO YOU SEE THIS?!” about it lol Bless.



(I’ll post part 2 in the morning probably, because it’s nearing 3 am here lol Also, sorry again about the length - I wanted to try to share everything I could think of!)