The Daily Show: Ears Edition - Correspondents Open Up About Their Daily Show Journey

Episode Date: December 29, 2023

Jordan Klepper, Desi Lydic, Michael Kosta, and Ronny Chieng talk about their journey to The Daily Show, their favorite celeb guest stories, and what it's like facing threats in the field in these After the Cut segments. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Ditch the other hiring sites and let zip recruiter find what you're looking for, the needle in the haystack. Four out of five employers who post on Zip Recruiter get a quality candidate within the first day. Try it for free at this exclusive web address. Zip Recruiter.com slash zip. Zip Recruiter. The smartest way to hire. Survivor 47 is here which means we're bringing you a brand new season of the only official survivor podcast on fire. And this season we are joined by fan favorite and survivor 46 runner-up Charlie Davis to bring you even further inside the action. Charlie, I'm excited to do this together. Thanks Jeff. So excited to be here and I can't wait to bring you inside the mind of a survivor player for season 47th.

Listen to On Fire the official survivor podcast starting September 18th wherever you get your podcasts..... to On Fire the official Survivor podcast starting September 18th wherever you get your podcast. I remember my first night on the show. It was while I auditioned on I think a Friday and they told me come back four days later with a suit. Because they had no money to pay for the suits. And luckily I had one suit because I had gotten married a few months earlier and I came back with a suit and the day was bonkers. I arrived and oddly enough it was the day Crimea was invaded. And I know.

We actually know where that place is now. Because I didn't that morning and I showed up. And I went to this morning meeting which is an amazing thing at the Daily Show. So many funny thoughtful people in a room and I get thrown in there and it's such a welcoming place and there's John Stewart, somebody I've watched since I was very little. He's very old and decrepit. Also very short, small man. Wise beyond his years. And we were talking about Crimean all thiiiiiiiiii. they. they. they. they. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thoomomuoomuoomu. So, so many thoomu. Somea, so many many funny, so many funny thu. Somea, so many funny thuu. Somea, so many funny thuuu-a, so many thu-a, thu-I thu-I thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, thi, so many thi, thooooooooooooo-s, so many thu-s, so many thoooo-s, so many tho-s, so many tho about Crimea and all of these things, and they're like, Jordan, you're going to do a chat, you're going to do that tonight, we're going to talk about this, let's

go, and you brainstorm some ideas for the chat. And remember they bring me into John's office like right after the meeting. And I'm very nervous. I don't know how this day to th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And th. And to do th. And to do th. And th. And to do thi. And thi. thi. thi. to do thi. thi. thin, thin, tho. tho. tho. thi. tho. tho. tho. You're to do tho. You're tho. You're tho. You're th. You're th. You th. You th. You th. You th. You th. You th. You th. You th. You th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. to do to do to do to do to do to do to do the. to do to do to do to do to do the. to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the. the. the. the. essentially he's talking about the The commentary that's been written in the morning about what already happened in that room and I'm sitting across from him with a few other people Jen Flans is over there right now EP showrunner. She's in that room as well She's the best And there's a reason these shows can still run like they do with a different host every week and it's because of the team that we the tha. tha. tha. the tha. the the tha. thea. thea. thea. th, th, th, th, th. the. the. the. the. the. the the. the. the. the. the. the. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. So, th. th. th. th. th. th. th. th. the. te. te. to te. to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to toda. tha. tha. toda. these shows can still run like they do with a different host every week and it's because of the team that we have here at the Daily Show. And I remember, John's, he's talking about all these things with Crimea and I just keep thinking, I don't know where Crimea is. I don't know. And then we usher off and we brainstorm jokes and bits around the Crimea invasion. And it's fun.

It's a wild day. The chat comes up and you go into a rewrite, right before you come on out there, and you go one last time over it. And the process for a chat, essentially, the idea of this chat was, John is throwing to their first time correspondent who's in Crimea, and he's overwhelmed by the experience.

Truth in comedy, it's always the best way to go. And I remember in the re-write, you're in this small room and you're throwing jokes out there and John opened up of like, how would you react here? And I said, I'd say like, I don't want to disappoint you, dad. And I'd say, I don't want to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to the the the the the the the the the their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their their.. their their their th. theat. theat. theat. theat. theat. theat. theat. theat. theat. their their their their their I was feeling in that room at that moment. I don't want to disappoint you, Dad. And it was like, that's good. That was the first joke I got on the show. And I was like, all right, we're ready to do this? And you don't waste time at the Daily Show. When you're like print the script, it's like, great, we never had to break anyone near this, but living in poverty up until this point. I'm like, holy shit, I'm on the daily show, I'm about to be on the

daily show. I'm looking through the script, looking through the script. John comes out, I'm thrown, I'm right back there, and I'm looking through script, looking through the script. He says, we have something special, we're to, th. to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, I. And, I, I, I, I, I, I's, I's, I's, I'm to, I'm to to to to the to the the to the the the daily, I's to to the daily, I'm to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to to be, I'm about to be, I'm about to be a a to be, I's to be, I's to be a the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the, I's, I'm the the thea, I'm the thea. thea. thr. thr. throan. thea. throan. thea, I's thean, Run starts to play, which was the song he always played before he came out. And then he's like, you guys ready for a good show? They say, yes, he says, welcome the Daily Show. And he runs back, and we just had this little one-on-one moment. He just says, don't fuck it up. And I remember, like, he came back out there and right back there, like like tears. Because it was so much, this industry, it's hard, it's tough, and you're rarely in such supportive rooms like this. And for every break that you get,

10 other people don't get it, who are worthy of that exact same break. And in that moment, I was like, there's so much emotion right now in this space. And I'm like, fuck, you can't cry, you're on TV in three minutes. Pulling it it it it it th and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and I. And, and, and, and I. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. thi. together, together, together, together. together, together, together, together, together, tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. tha. And, tha. And, tha. And, tha. And, tie. And, t. And, and, t t t t. And, and, and, t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t t te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. te. t t t tears. I'm like, fuck, you can't cry. You're on TV in three minutes. Pulling it all together, coming on out, and nervously doing my first chat from right over there. So to get a chance to be here on a day like today with you guys and share that, it's real special. Thank you. Any other questions? Yeah. Do you have security around you? Sure. Sure.

Great question. Sure. Threatened. Yeah, a bunch of times. I'm going to scoot this way, but I'm going to maintain eye contact. I got you. I got you. It's getting tougher.

It's getting tougher. Maintain. Are we done? Are we wrapping it up? Perfect. This is great. This is not going to affect my ego whatsoever. I mean, it is, there's been an evolution. We'd go out and field pieces with no security. The MAGA movement changed those things. And so, I, the last few big rallies I went to, I had three or four security guards. I think at January 6th had four security guards, which is bonkers.

I mean, I was an improv teacher before I did this. You don't usually need security guards for those types of things. I rarely see aggressive enough behavior like it wants to threaten me and I need to fear for myself. Although when Trump lost the election, according to threaten me and I need to fear for myself. Although when Trump lost the election, according to some, there was a different energy out there. I went to a million Maga March, their numbers, not mine, and there was there was such an energy of anger there that we at one point got chased down an alley. Security guards had to like step in and so we had to approach things very differently. We're literally we have to be careful to be to be to be to be the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the different different different different different different different different the the the the the the different different different different different their their different different different their their their different different different different different their their their their the energy energy energy energy energy energy energy energy energy their their their their their the energy energy energy energy energy their their their their their their their the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the. different thi. their energy thi. different thi. different thi. different their energy their energy their energy their their their their theirto like step in. And so we had to approach things very differently. We're literally, we have to be careful

where we set up interviews and what have you. And I don't want to say that that's always the case when we go out there, but the tone has shifted. And people want to, want to aggressively come up, if you to engage with you in some? you ever been almost punched? There was just at home. Sure. Jesus. By my seven year old. Okay, okay, okay. I had it coming. Oh, does it? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We were going dark this show. Okay. There was one field piece that I did. It was a Trump rally, but it was a long time ago. It was right after he was elected. And I just remember someone coming up

and trying to grab the mic out of my hand and going, fake news, you're fake news. And they just saw the camera. And I was like, yeah, we're the original fake news. This is what we do. And then I was like, I don't want to do any more of these. Let's send Jordan. It's been your most memorable guest, like so far in conversation that you've had over the yard, because you guys both have been here for a really long time, so kind of for both

of you, it's the question. Has he most memorable guest? Oh God, right when I started the show, we had Gloria Steinemann and she was walking around the hall and she was walking reason she didn't know where to go. I don't know. She was just walking around by yourself and she popped into the edit that I was in and she goes, does anyone know where I'm supposed to go? And I was like, I do! And I just started the job so I didn't know where to take her. And then there were just the two of us aimlessly walking around back hallways. But it was just so it was such a cool moment to actually get to see her and meet her in person and then yours well that I remember

that moment that I as a man stepped in was like you ladies look lost follow the dude Gloria Steinem come over here I would say one of the fun like it is it's such a small little building and you see guests wandering around all the time. I remember Paul McCartney was here, and I know, have you heard them? From the Eagles, great, great musician. Love the Eagles.

But he came on, and he was one of the few guests, where we were sort of told internally, don't be in the hallways. Because sometimes you can find yourself in the hallway bumping into people and be like, oh, hey, President Clinton, I want to say hi. And so McCartney, they're like, stay in your edit bays. And I remember hearing Paul McCartney, walked through the hallways, singing as he does.

We get it. And nobody interrupted with him. He did his piece. And I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and I, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, I, I, and, I, and, I, the, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. And, th. th. I, th. th. I, th. th. th. th. the, they, th. th. I was, th. th. th. th. the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, the, edit bay, and he came off the show, and he walked through, and I saw the back of my, on the corner of my eye, the door was open, I saw McCartney walk by, and then he came into our edit bay. He turned around, walked into our edit, and he was like, so what's this? What he got playing with? What are you? What is the fu, he? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? He? I? I? I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I? And, I, I, I, I, I, I? And, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and? And, and? And? And, and? And? And? And, I? And? And? And? And? And, I? And? And? And? And, I? And? And, I? And, I? And, I? And, I? And, I? And, I? I? I? He? I? He? I? He? I? I? I? I? I? the... the. the. the. the. the. the. the the the the the the the the the the the the the the. And, I? I? I? I is this? What are you doing? What are you doing? Didn't he give notes? Immediately we jumped into bits. Like, I don't know, this music and here sucks, what do you want to do?

And he started playing the game of making fun of everything in there. And you realized, I realized in that moment, it was like, he just wanted to play. Like, he shows up to places. This the places places places places places places places places places places places places places places places places places places places, the places, the place, the place, the place, the place, the place, the world like shuts down around him not to bother Paul McCartney, but he was just like this, this element of joy that walked through the space that just wanted people to play with him. And so we told him to get the fuck out and that was it. Yeah, never fun again. Neither heard from him since. Finding great candidates to hire can be like trying to find a needle in a haystack. a lot of resumes, but not enough candidates with the right skills or experience. But not with Zip Recruiter. Zip Recruiter finds amazing candidates for you fast.

And right now you can try it for free at Zip Recruiter's smart technology identifies top talent for your roles quickly. Immediately after you post your job, Zip Recruiters' powerful matching technology starts showing you qualified people for it. And you can use Zip Recruiters' powerful matching technology starts showing you qualified people for it, and you can use Zip Recruiters' pre-written invite to apply message to personally reach out to your favorite candidates and encourage them to apply sooner. Ditch the other hiring sites and let Zip Recruiter find what you're looking for, the needle in the haystack. Four out of five employers who post on Zip Recruiter within the first day. Try it for free at this exclusive web address.

Zip Recruiter.com slash zip. Again, that's zip recruiter. thus sysp recruder. The smartest way to hire. Hey, everybody, John Stewart here. I am here to tell you about my new podcast, the weekly show. It's going to be coming out every Thursday. So exciting. You'll be saying yourself, TGID. Thank God it's Thursday.

We're going to be talking about all the things that hopefully obsess you in the same way that they obsess me. The election, economics, earnings calls. What are they talking about on these earnings calls? We're going to be talking about ingredient to bread ratio on sandwiches. And I know that I listed that fourth, but in importance it's probably second. I know you have a lot of options as far as podcasts go, but how many of them come out on Thursday?

I mean, talk about innovative. Listen to the weekly show with John Stewart, wherever you get your podcast. Does anyone have any questions? Yes. How did you get started and make your way to the daily show? Because that's like a dream of mine. Um, well, well, it all, I was born in 1981. I'll start from the very beginning.

I grew up, well actually I'm sitting here looking at my uncle J. Not to... Not to... It's his birthday today too. 35 years young. He, actually, Uncle Jay was truly one of my hugest comedic role models. Uncle Jay would make me laugh growing up until I completely pee my pants. I still do often, but that's more because I had a baby. But I loved, I was obsessed with S&L. I watched a lot of Carol Burnett growing up. My dad used to show me a lot of reruns of Carol and the women on S&L and Tina and Amy.

And there was something in me that really wanted to do comedy. But I grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, so that's not a sensible thing to do when you grow up there. But for some reason, I've got really great parents who are very supportive and supported this insane idea that at 19 I would move to Los Angeles and take classes so I threw myself into improv scene study and I just I started getting small roles one at a time one line and pilots that never went anywhere but when I reached my 20s I was obsessed with the Daily Show. I loved John Stewart. I watched religiously.

It was my dream to be on the show. I auditioned for the show three times over the years. And finally, the third time, I got the call, come out to New York. And this was right after they hired Trevor. And I just gotten married and I spent my whole career trying to plan, pick, okay, I can't go on vacation because I might get that Burger King call back and I got it I got to be there for the work and and I had just gotten married and we wanted to start a family

and I thought you know what? Fck it I'm gonna live my life and whatever happens and when I got the call to come here I th th th th th th th th th th th th th the the to the to to the to the to to their to to their their to to their to their to to their to to their to to to their try the their to to to to their to their to to to to plan to plan to plan try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try try their their their their their their their their their their their their try. try. try. try. try. try try. try to to to to to try. to to try. try and try. try. try. try. try. family. And I thought, you know what, fuck it. I'm going to live my life and whatever happens happens. And when I got the call to come here, I was four months pregnant, living in Los Angeles. I thought, oh, boy, do I tell them? Do I keep it to myself? And I would be starting the job six months pregnant. So I pulled Jen Flans, who's sitting right over here, and their, to. to. the to. to. to. to. to. And, to. to. to. to. to. to. the too, too, th. too, too, the too, th. too, too, I'm the th. thi and I'm the thi. thiol-I tho, I'm tho I'm tho I'm the the the the the the call, I'm the call, I'm the call, I'm the call, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I's, I'm the the the the the the the the the the the thiole. thoomoomoomorrow. thooooomorrow. I'm toomorrow. I'm thoomorrow, I'm theyoomorrow, I'm the the the the the the the six months pregnant. So I pulled Jen Flans, who's sitting right over here, our showrunner, executive producer, all things. I pulled her aside after the audition.

And she had this look on her face like, oh God, what are you going to ask me? Like, did you do a good job? What a needy actor! And I said, I said, this is my dream job, and I will move here tomorrow, but th, but th. but th. but th. th. th. th. th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th th thi tho tho tho tho th th the th th their their, I their, I their their, I'm their, I'm their, I their, I their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, their, I their, I their, I their, I their, I their, I their, I the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the the th th th th th th th th th thr-I, I'm, I'm th thr-I, I'm, I'm th th thr-I'e th thr-I'eat thr-I'eat thr-I, thr-and, I said, I said, this is my dream job and I will move here tomorrow, but you should know I am I am pregnant so I'd be starting the job pregnant. She goes, great. We can talk about her, we won't talk about it, whatever you want, whatever you're comfortable with. And seven and a half years later, and I'm here. And my seven and a half year old is sitting upstairs. Probably not watching this right now. He's eating snacks.

You had like one moment for your time with dinner show, that's like your peak moment. My peak? Yeah. Like your paink, oh, man. the street, thiiii. the street thi thi to times square. Man on the street the street the street the street the street the street the street the street the the the the the th th th're gonna go do this. Man on the street in Times Square, man on the street piece at a Trump rally,

Biden whisperer piece. And for me, usually I get mad immediately. I get scared. This is gonna be hard. I don't know what is gonna work. And at the end of every piece, I'm thankful I did it. I'm better for it. The piece was good. The editors at this show, holy shit, they can make you look so good. The editors, I will say this any chance I get, because the editors make you look really, really good.

Sometimes I'll watch it and I'll go, I don't even think I said that. I went to Switzerland to cover, Switzerland is gun crazy. They're nuts with guns. Everybody gets an assault rifle when they turn 18 because they don't have a military. They have more guns per capita than Americans. And they've had one mass shooting in a hundred years and they immediately changed the rules as soon as that happened. Somebody took a gun to their parliament and killed some people and they immediately took ammunition away from gun owners. All ammunition in

Switzerland is locked away in these fortresses. So that piece was, it was pitched and directed by Stacey Angelis. That's a really powerful piece. It's on YouTube. It's gone, it's gone really viral and crazy. But the idea of that piece is, you don't, you can still love guns. You can still have it, it's going to be very tough for us to change guns. It's the second amendment of the Constitution. It's the second thing we wrote. The first thing they wrote was you can say what you want, and then they were like, but you better get a gun if you want to do that. It's going to be tough to change that.

But let's learn from countries that have guns, their culture and they don't kill each other. So that's one of my favorite pieces and it's, yeah, I love that piece. I just wanted to know what if... No. Uh, anyway. I just wanted to audition to be a kid, uh, um, be on the show as a correspondent. Let me see what happened with me was, uh, I was doing shitty open mics in Australia and then and then Trevor asked me to audition for it so if you can find Trevor I think he can help you. Anyone else got any questions? Anybody questions are not like job offers?

Please, yeah in the back there, yeah. Yeah, a little bit. If you were a kitchen utensil, which one? What the f- I'd rather you ask you for a job. Is there a way? I don't know, potato peeler. I don't know. What's the least, most useful?

Over there, yeah. Do you think that you coming to New York affected like your comedy and everything rather than going to LA? Oh yeah, hell yeah. Hell yeah, definitely for sure. New York. I actually, when I first got my visa, I went to LA, my agent told me to come to LA and do pilot season. And that's a industry term for everyone, there's one guy in the industry, laughing, yeah, my agent was like he come to LA and do a pilot to do pilot to do pilot to do pilot to do pilot to do pilot to do pilot to do pilot to to a pilot to a pilot to a pilot to a pilot to a pilot to a pilot to a pilot to a pilot to a pilot to a pilot to a pilot to a pilot to do a pilot to to to to to. There's one guy in the industry laughing already Yeah, my agent said he come to LA do a pilot season pilot season Pilot season means you go into audition room with 20 Asian dudes who look like you Who all went to like Yale drama school and they're auditioning for like, you know,

psychic two on a whatever and I was I was in that for one I did that one time and as in I was in that. I was in that for one, I did that one time and as in I was in that season one time and I knew like man I'm not gonna outact all these actual trained talented people. The only thing I can do with my limited skill set is go to New York and be a huge asshole and so and it worked out about that so New York New York is New York is New York for life. Explore more shows from the Daily Show podcast universe by searching the Daily Show, wherever you get your podcast. Watch the Daily Show weeknights at 11, 10 Central on Comedy Central,

and stream full episodes anytime on Fairmount Plus. This has been a comedy central podcast. Survivor 47 is here which means we're bringing you a brand new season of the only official survivor podcast on fire and this season we are joined by fan favorite and survivor 46 runner-up Charlie Davis to bring you even further inside the action Charlie I'm excited to do this together. Thanks Jeff so excited to be here and I can't wait to bring you inside the mind of a survivor player for season 47 Listen to on fire the official survivor podcast starting September 18th wherever you get your podcasts