28 Comments
Stephen Colbert’s guest on his WGA strike-breaking show tonight is none other than Chris Beam–former B&W senior editor, V112 writer, co-founder of Ivygate and writer for Slate‘s political blog Trailhead (see iconic depiction at right).
Watch it at 11:30 p.m. He’s blonde and articulate.
Update: an interview with Beam, who’s in Manchester, NH in a noisy cafeteria. After the jump.
Bwog: You taped the show a few hours ago–how’d it go?
Beam: I don’t think I truly humiliated myself. We talked about the New Hampshire primary–he asked about the Edwards campaign. It was all sort of a blur. He was sort of, ribbing me at the beginning about my beard and I told him it was my strike beard.
Were you worried about being a guest on a strike-breaking show?
Beam: I was a little bit concerned but then I realized that he dedicated almost his entire show yesterday to the strike. He’s trying to use his show to argue on the writers’ behalf.
What’s it been like covering the campaign?
Beam: It’s been great. Kind of wild, fairly exhausting. I did this 36 hour bus tour with Edwards and I think he slept an hour. You wonder why anyone in their right minds would run for president and that’s probably why so many aren’t in their right minds.
What are you working on now?
Beam: I’m typing up a post about animals on the campaign trail. I saw a Great Dane with a Richardson sign draped over him. I saw an Obama goat. The goat appeared to be sedated.
–AMP
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28 Comments
@Anonymous Beam was among the finest writers I knew at Columbia. I think it’s very difficult to assess his performance, as there was clearly so much editing. Colbert might be more difficult to handle than even O’Reilly, but Beam came across as a reasonable, informed fellow. You don’t go on to Colbert and try to be super duper funny. It will seem forced. It’s Colbert’s show. Colbert’s the one who’s going to be funny. You can’t compete. The best you can do is answer with a knowing wink. That said, Beam’s posture could have been better.
@meh no editing. I’ve been to several tapings of the colbert report, and have never seen any editing.
@Avi Zenilman Beam’s conversation was 20 minutes and there was a time delay, so they edited it down.
But that beard!
@daniella too bad he missed the guy in a dolphin suit at the mitt romney rally yesterday.
@soo can anyone contribute/pull up a youtube of this for those who missed it?
@unfortunately it’s not really something you want to dig through any part of the internet for. i’m sure chris is brilliant and an amazing writer (actually i know he is because i’ve read his stuff) but he completely failed to realize that he would need to step it up several notches to face stephen colbert, who, even when he isn’t doing his “tv personality” personality, must still be pretty difficult to match in terms of wit and charisma.
i’m not saying everyone i’ve seen on there has been wonderful and has really made a name for him/herself, but i would say that chris was definitely the worst of the bunch. this could really have been an opportunity for him to show everyone what he’s got, but instead he
1) waited for colbert to stop speaking before he started
2) stopped speaking when colbert started talking over him
3) laughed and giggled at every joke as if he were watching it at home
4) missed several beats before he answered colbert’s jokey questions, and then didn’t answer them in a manner that was even remotely funny anyway.
the funniest part was the strike beard anyway, and that was the one moment in which he was specifically required NOT to talk.
@Avi Zenilman Chris Beam is an infected scab.
@yo.... ‘rjt’ should calm down with the ‘n****’….
@that was embarassing to all of columbia.
@no! don’t say that!! Colbert was kinda talking over him. He did a good job though. dude the last recent Columbia grad to get on Colbert or the Daily Show was Julia Stiles, so cut him some slack.
@wow a bunch of our retard profs are going to iran to apologize to admadinejad
http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=618008
i hope they get a hearty reception by the revolutionary guard which has treated so many of our soldiers so well
i suspect it’ll end up being more of a naomi campbell/hugo chavez situation though–with less hot
@fuck hillary clinton.
@hillary clinton no, fuck you!
bwahahahahah!
@what's the secret ingredient to a good interview on this show?
Colbert Rapport
@rjt nigga nigga jiggaboo
@Anonymous Hey, cool, we have the same initials! I’m taking this name, now, though, k?
@anti-rjt A haiku:
Rob Trump + Rob Trump
Equals no real sex for life
Divided by lame
@rjt 1) This is really cool. People should go read the Butler Sex Guide or whatever if they don’t know how entertaining/smart/funny he is.
2) I’m not sure why you’re claiming that Colbert’s show is strike-breaking. They’re not using any written segments or jokes, as far as I know.
@gawker calls him a scab anyway
http://gawker.com/342427/chris-beam-will-be-colberts-next-non+union-guest
@hmph Gawker is disgusting
Beam is adorable
@butler sex guide? what’s that? please tell me that is a ‘serious’ piece from the spec…
@youngin it was actually a serious piece from the B&W
@wow i mean chris beam is a hella good writer and an interesting chap, but has colbert run out of options so much on day 2? what’s tomorrow’s show? chris kulawik and the college republicans.
@well the way the primaries are going, kulawik might be the republican party’s next great hope.
@i agree Kulawik is the Republican Party’s next great hope.
@Anonymous ah so excited!!
@damn Never got to meet CB myself, but I heard his name bandied about the Spec offices a lot since his departure. Usually along the lines of “try to write more like/be more like/style your hair more like Chris Beam did”. This should definitely also be tagged Alums Who Make Us Proud.
@wow talk about a quick rise…