There is nothing in the world that can prepare someone for what my co-author Sudhir Venkatesh (Freakonomics guest poster and author of Gang Leader For A Day) has on tap tonight: being a guest on the Colbert Report.
I speak from experience. There is nothing I wanted to do less than go on Colbert, but Dee Dee DeBartlo, the dear publicist at HarperCollins who had been so good and so loyal, begged me to do it. I reluctantly accepted. Only then did I go back and watch every past interview I could find, and realize what a mistake I had made. The more interviews with Stephen Colbert I watched, the clearer it became that these never go well for the interviewees. Colbert often looks like a genius; the people he has on the show do not. The best one can hope for is survival.
So, Sudhir, I’ll be rooting for you tonight. The only advice I can give is smile a lot, but don’t try to be too funny. Oh, and one last thing: when I was on the show, before Colbert came running over to the table for the interview, they left the index cards with questions sitting at the table next to me. I was able to peer over and see what he was going to ask, and I had a few extra seconds to think of something reasonable to say — not that it helped me much.
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Bah, you did fine. Having watched hundreds of his interviews, the key is to smile, roll with the punches and throw a jab or two of your own. I don’t think his interview style makes him look like a genius, it just makes him look like the blustery people he’s parodying.
Unlike Jon Stewart, Colbert stays in character when he interviews, so he’s always walking the fine line between being funny for the audience and not annoying the guest. If you show you’re willing to laugh at yourself, and at him, you’ll come off great.
I will be tuning in tonight to watch Sudhir. I’ve been following his Wire blog all season. Expecting funny spin from Colbert.
Just watched the two clip. Thought you did fine.
Judging by Sudhir’s postings on this blog he should be fine. As said above being able to laugh at yourself and make a small joke or two to reciprocate with Colbert makes for a smooth and entertaining interview. I think it’s a matter of knowing what to expect with his character instead of being on Jon Stewart’s show where he hews more closely to the “plugging” aspect of the interview, while Colbert is going for more laughs.
You survived better than Tim Harford did. Remember, you went up against the cleverest man on TV (by my lights). Go Sudhir! Even getting fried makes for good press.
If you thought you did poorly, you evidently didn’t see the interview with the guy who wrote the book about the sex robots. Not that he needed much help looking a little bit nuts…
looked like a decent interview to me. i really do enjoy colbert. your opinion of him appearing as genius is truly that… opinion.
I found out about your book (and bought it) due to the Colbert report
The Colbert bump is not to be underestimated!