The Comedy Central show has become must-see TV for liberal-minded late-night TV viewers around the world, but especially in the U.S. Fans don’t often get an inside scoop on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart unless they scour magazine stands for in-depth interviews with Stewart or, say, anchors Samantha Bee. But to the delight of Daily Show fanatics, a former intern has agreed to answer questions posted by anyone who’s a member of the website reddit.
The intern, known as darnjester99 on reddit, has taken to the reddit sub-forum IAMA to talk Daily Show (IAMA allows people in various jobs or positions to answer questions on what they do). Posted at 11 a.m. ET, the Q&A session has already attracted more than 680 comments.
He later revealed his full name, Adam Lash, when he posted a clip of his stand-up comedy on YouTube.
Working at the show in the spring of 2003, the intern got an inside view of how the show operates. He describes the writing process thoroughly: “The first thing that happens in the morning is there is a huge meeting with everyone, and I mean everyone. The EP (executive producer) goes over what will be happening today, what stories they will be covering. So then everyone gets their marching orders and go about there business. Writers to start writing, PA to start gathering necessary clips or props, and interns get the food and fill in the holes.”
Lash adds, “The writers got a few hours, say if the meeting was at 10am, they got about until 2ish to get scripts and jokes to the head writer. Then they start putting the pieces together. Which jokes make it in, which don’t. Then they have to match stuff up with video footage. Then Jon takes a look at it. It’s about 4:30 now.
Around 5ish they have a full run through of the show. Just Jon at the desk and any correspondents that are needed, and the writers, who are sitting in the audience seats. It takes about 25 minutes to go through stuff.
Then Jon and the EP and a few writers put there heads together to see what worked and what didn’t. And make any final revisions to the script.” The the script is loaded into the prompter, and the warm-up guy begins to entertain the crowd. Then it’s showtime.
Lash discusses Stewart‘s off-camera persona too: “He’s the same as he is on camera. Just the nicest guy. The first day there, when they were showing the interns around, Jon popped out of his office. We all froze, cause it was Jon Freaking Stewart standing in front of us, and he just goes ‘Hey guys, thanks for working for us for free.’ Then he went about his business.”
He was asked about Stewart’s ability to do everything in one take, and he replied, “I wish I did have a story of them messing up, but even if they do, they cover it well. You’ve seen the show, they laugh at themselves sometimes when they slip up but they keep on going. I like it better than way, it humanizes the comedy.”
Ed Helms was named as one of the nicest correspondents to meet. “Ed Helms even pulled me aside a few times to give me pointers on stand up,” Lash added.
He was asked about what he took from his experience at The Daily Show, and he writes back, “I’ve always describe TDS as my comedy mecca. It stands for everything I think comedy should be. Smart, satirical, speaking truth to power, and fun.”
