What I Love About Stephen Colbert (and What I Want From His LATE SHOW)

I don’t know if I can put into words exactly how I felt when I learned that The Colbert Report was going off the air. For most people (and I’m no different) the media is exactly what that word – media – suggests that it is: a kind of connective tissue between the world and us. He was certainly that for me. And yes, it was largely because he was absolutely hilarious as an inflated (although only slightly inflated) version of the conservative pundits populating cable news. But the real reason Colbert spoke so powerfully to me is that I knew right underneath the surface, he was an extraordinarily good person. How, you ask?

Clips like this one, in which Colbert remembers his late mother, Lorna.

And this one, where argues for charity.

And then I read this GQ profile, which just knocked me flat. It includes the following, from Colbert: “I love the thing that I most wish had not happened.”

He’s talking there about the death of his father and two of his brothers when he was ten years old. He explains that his mother showed him, through her faith and resolve, how to be hurt terribly by that event, but how to maintain a spirit of gratitude and joyfulness in the day-to-day. (I won’t say more, because I really want you to read the whole thing. Like, really. If you stopped reading what I wrote right now and went and read that GQ piece and never came back to finish this, it would be totally OK with me.)

That spirit shone through in those clips and in dozens more like it over the course of The Colbert Report. I was sad because I worried that leaving that show and going to an old staple like The Late Show and leaving the character behind would rob us of the chance to see that raw side of Colbert that I relished so much.

But that profile makes me think I’ve been a fool. Don’t get me wrong: The Late Show won’t be the same thing as The Colbert Report, but it doesn’t have to be to still be great. Think about how Jimmy Fallon has eschewed so many late night tropes in favor of his own voice and skills. He’s reinvigorated a show that was as dull as dishwater for more than a decade preceding his arrival (that last week of Conan’s run notwithstanding). I think Colbert will do the same thing. In fact, I think there will be an aspect of The Late Show that I’ll actually like better than The Colbert Report because I think we’ll actually get to see more of that underlying wisdom and kindness that occasionally punctuated the mad-cap satire of the Report.

So, now that I’ve got myself all jazzed up for Colbert’s new gig, I’ve got a short list of stuff I desperately want to see happen on the new show.

1. Stay Bookish

Colbert admits in that profile to reading endlessly as a kid. I think he has Lord of the Rings memorized the way some preachers hold the entire New Testament in their heads. On Jerry Seinfeld’s web series Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee, Colbert says the one thing he never denied himself, even when he didn’t have  a lot of money, was books. And it showed on The Colbert Report. While that show was on the air, there may have been no greater champion of up-and-coming writers of both fiction and non-fiction. He single handedly thrust Edan Lepucki’s book California to the top of best seller lists during her publisher’s well-publicized spat with Amazon over ebook royalties. It’s easy to imagine CBS pushing Colbert to go broad and shallow with his guest roster, but I’m hopeful that they’ll trust him to get great segments out of his interviews with authors and allow him to exercise his tastes in landing guests. The literary world could use a few more Stephen Colberts, and I hope CBS doesn’t take away the best one we’ve already got by pushing reality TV stars over Pulitzer Prize winners.

2. Stay Incisive

I know that Colbert isn’t going to be wielding a weapon anywhere near as sharp as the satire he brandished at Comedy Central, but I’m eager to see the degree to which Colbert engages the political side of things on his new show. Will he shy away entirely, fearing the temptation to lazily tread ground he’s already worn down to mud? I hope not. I trust that Colbert can still find the odd moment here or there to place a well-aimed cutting blow to politicians, especially as we gear up for another presidential election in 2016 (and one in which – God help us – Donald Trump is gaining momentum).

3. Stay Smart

Late Night TV has a (possibly unfair) reputation for being a vapid wasteland of celebrity project plugs and lowest-common-denominator punchlines. Fallon has changed the structure and focus of his show to combat some of that, and I almost always feel good (if little else) while watching him. Jon Stewart’s gone now, as is Letterman (both were whip-smart and up for asking the awkward question). Seth Meyers is, like Fallon, very polite and not very interesting. Kimmel is sharp too, but is content to play dumb. My hope for Colbert’s Late Show is that it becomes the funniest possible version of The Charlie Rose Show. I honestly think he’s quick enough on his feet and empathetic enough to ask serious questions, listen intently to the answers, and then punch everything up with his wit on the fly, keeping the audience laughing and thinking at the same time. He was able to do it for all those years on Comedy Central, and I think that with a few tweaks, he’ll be doing the same thing on CBS in no time.