I don’t disagree with this as much as I once would have thought I might.
Totally agree that most of the scripted comedy bits are horrible (but then,
that was true on The Colbert Report also). And they do seem to know it -
Colbert himself periodically comments, somewhat self-consciously, when they
double-dip on the Monologue (doing stand-up jokes in Act 2 instead of
something at the desk). This is a complete reversal from the Dave years - I
used to wish Dave would just start the show with him talking off the cuff
from his desk (in fact, often I would not have minded if that was the
entire show).
The main points I would say in Colbert’s defense are that his interviews
with non-actors/singers are more often (though far from usually) pretty
good. Last night was a good illustration - Whalberg is terminally
unlikable, and Colbert could not do anything to help. Sanders, who it is
almost impossible not to have an interesting interview with, was great.
I think I like his musicial guests a little better than you do. Or at least
the occasional guest that I like, I really, really like, and that seems to
make me more generally positive. For example, Regina Spektor’s performance
a few weeks ago I thought was really transcendent, and was great enough to
hold me though a month of duds. Ditto Janelle Monae, who may have been ho
hum on interview, but I thought killed her performance on the show.
On Wed, Aug 15, 2018 at 2:40 AM 'Dave Sikula' via TVorNotTV <
tvornottv@googlegroups.com> wrote:
> Unsurprisingly to those who know my musical tastes, I was not as taken
> with Ms. Minaj as you, but I attribute that to the generally poor quality
> of Colbert's panels.
>
> Something just seems off with the whole show. The monologues are generally
> good (and does any other show billboard the main topic of the monologue
> like Colbert's does?), but the cold opens (especially the ones that feature
> Brian Stack, which is almost all of them) are almost uniformly dreadful,
> the scripted pieces (the big furry hat, confessions, the awful, awful
> greeting cards bits) are truly terrible, and the panels are fast,
> superficial, and too heavily (to me) reliant on the pre-interviews ("Can
> you teach me some Australianisms?"). The nadir is, of course, the music.
> Batiste's band is actually good -- in the studio --- but one would never
> know that from what one hears on the air, and the booked musicians come in
> one flavor: too loud and terrible.
>
> In spite of all of this, I watch the show -- or at least have it on -- but
> it's a long way down from even those too-frequent nights when Dave was
> phoning it in.
>
> --Dave Sikula
>
>
> On Tuesday, August 14, 2018 at 7:06:18 AM UTC-7, PGage wrote:
>>
>> More and more I find myself switching off TLLS episodes on my DVR after
>> the Monologue/s, or maybe a third of the way through the first interview,
>> especially if the first guest is just a celebrity. Last night’s show was an
>> exception.
>>
>> Nicki Minaj just killed it in her segment. Not just that I found her
>> hilarious (though I did) - but she was able to deliver the persona and
>> schtick that is her calling card in an organic and smart way. Most often on
>> talk shows a celebrity guest with a well defined, sharp persona either
>> tries to stay with their character and comes across as forced and hack, or
>> they act kind of like sophisticated Jerry Lewis (the least likable form of
>> Jerry Lewis) and try to convince us that they are nothing like their
>> persona. Minaj delivered what I assume must have been pre-planned bits in a
>> spontaneous and effective way, showing how her performing persona is an
>> elaboration of who she is. I have never been a huge fan of her act, but she
>> started to win me over last night.
>>
>> She is not the only one of course - I suppose we could make a list of the
>> best reliable celebrity guests on late night talk shows (e.g. Steve Martin,
>> Martin Short, Amy Sedaris, just to name three of my favorite from the
>> Letterman era), but such a list is only meaningful in the context of how
>> horrible most guests are. I liked Dave enough to suffer through all but the
>> worst guests (three I always clicked off of: “Dr. Phil”, Martha Stewart,
>> Donald Trump); I like Colbert enough, but not enough to stay with even half
>> of his typical celebrity guests. Fortunately, more than most, he often has
>> journalists and politicians and other substantive guests of note.
>> --
>> Sent from Gmail Mobile
>>
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