This clip shows the subtlety, the humor, the charm of my Stephen. If there’s any part of the Report that’s at all hit/miss, it’s the interviews. Sometimes people are humorless. Sometimes they just don’t get the satire. Sometimes they refuse to play the straight “man” to Stephen’s clown. But when it works, a Colbert interview is a thing of beauty, whether he’s disarming/destroying evil-doers or flirting with Gloria Steinem. In this case, Stephen matches wits wonderfully with Harper’s (and elsewhere) writer Garret Keizer, but then is clearly so clearly disarmed, charmed by his guest’s own wit and wisdom, that Stephen give Keizer the biggest props he has to offer, he nearly drops “Stephen Colbert” the character and has a heartfelt conversation with his guest. Nearly.
