STEVE INSKEEP, Host:
And let's hear next from somebody who's a regular on "The Daily Show With Jon Stewart," where he wears many different hats.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART")
M: I'm joined by senior foreign affairs correspondent John Oliver - our senior literary correspondent John Oliver joins us - for more I'm joined by senior presidential historian John Oliver. John, thank you so much for joining us.
(SOUNDBITE OF APPLAUSE)
INSKEEP: Yes, John Oliver, also known as the senior British correspondent.
MADELEINE BRAND, Host:
And soon he'll be known for a new show. Tomorrow night, "John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show" will debut on Comedy Central. John Oliver joins us to discuss his comedy, but first, let's hear a clip from his show.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "JOHN OLIVER'S NEW YORK STAND-UP SHOW")
M: Three and a half years I've lived here. I work hard, relatively speaking, for someone who does this for a living.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: I pay my taxes. I try to fit in. I've learnt your rudimentary language.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: I don't know what more you could reasonably expect me to do. And that's when it hit me. I know why I'm so angry. I know what this is. Taxation without representation.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)
BRAND: So you have some deep anger there about not being able to vote in America, even though you've been here for a very, very long time?
M: Yeah. I think yeah. I think anger is a very well-chosen word. Resentment. A sense of complete injustice, all of that. I mean, yeah, I understand that people laughed when I paused during that piece of spoken word, but they were wrong to do so. That was a very sincerely meant-from-the-heart sentiment.
BRAND: Well, do you even have a green card?
M: Yeah, I do now. Now you sound like a U.S. immigration officer. Actually, I do, as of just at the end of last year I finally now have a green card, so yes, I do. And I still don't get to vote.
BRAND: Well, what do you plan to do about it?
M: Well, I'm going to get a - I'm in the process of getting a very elaborate red coat stitched up, and then I will get my musket dusted and polished off, and then I'm taking this country back. You leave me no other choice.
BRAND: So you're actually going to be an anti-tea partier?
M: Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Those tea-party people don't know what - they've had it too easy all the last 12 months. The British are coming. We'll show you what tyranny really is.
BRAND: Well, why are you so eager to become an American, or at least to vote or to be part of our ways?
M: It's not so much that I'm eager to be American as I'm eager for you to be British once more. I still see this as very much our land. No, I love it here. That is the truth, and so I want to stay, so I was very anxious to get a green card, because life on a visa can be perilous.
BRAND: Well, how did you get here in the first place, because you have only been here for three years and yet here you are on "The Daily Show" and it's, you know, it's not some small tiny club in a small town. This is the big time for a comedian.
M: It's the big times within the terms of basic cable, yes. You're right. But no, I was working and writing in England and then I got offered this job. I hadn't been to America before so it was very strange. It was my favorite show as I was in England. So coming here the first day was very, very strange.
BRAND: You can watch "The Daily Show" in England?
M: Yeah, I watched it online and now it's also on in England.
BRAND: Really?
M: Yeah, we have televisions there too.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BRAND: Shocking. So you've been working on "The Daily Show" since 2006 and you do a lot of these sketches where you go out on assignment and play the straight man and ask ridiculous questions of people. Do all of them know that you're a comedian and kind of poking fun?
M: They know what the show is, and I guess when you sit down opposite of someone, you often do have something in the back of your mind, thinking why are you here? Why are you doing this? If you know this show, why are you doing this? The truth is, they just want to be on TV.
INSKEEP: People want to be on TV. Politicians - it might be, okay, a gamble, or some - they know that we have a viewership who actually votes. So I guess it's a controlled gamble the whole time. They know - they know the show, though.
BRAND: It didn't seem like that when you interviewed the Swiss U.N. ambassador recently on the show.
M: Okay. That's possibly true.
BRAND: When you sat down with this ambassador...
M: Yes.
BRAND: ...and you started, you know, making fun of Swiss neutrality and...
M: Yeah.
BRAND: ...but then towards the end it gets really sticky and uncomfortable, not only for him, but for the viewers, and you can hear some uncomfortable laughter in the audience. And let's hear that.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "THE DAILY SHOW WITH JON STEWART")
M: So easy to take a position on neutrality, hard to take a position on Hitler.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
M: We do - we did take strong positions on Hitler and many other things. We just didn't participate in the war. That's two different things.
M: Would it be possible for me to keep my gold here? Oh, Adolf, of course, lovely to see you again, come back in. What have you been up to? Actually, don't tell me. I want to be able to say I don't know.
(SOUNDBITE OF LAUGHTER)
BRAND: At that point, were you going for the humor or were you going for something else?
M: Yeah, I'm always going for the joke. It's a comedy show, so that is the most - that is the priority. And yet you also want to try and get - especially with - where you have interesting opportunities like sitting down with an ambassador, you want those jokes to illuminate something. And so the discussion you were referring was really about neutrality during the Second World War and whether that is appropriate, whether neutral - and you have to give him credit, he stands by it. You know, it's an all-in process, neutrality. You go for it and then (unintelligible) self-interest, to its logical conclusion.
BRAND: You probably get this question 100 times, but is there a big difference between British and American humor, do you think?
M: No, not really. No. That's the quickest way to answer that. The longest way is that I guess there are similar reference points - you know, your reference points have to change in a minor way, but so much of comedy is cross- cultural between the UK and the US. We get each other's stand-up comedians a lot and each other's comedy shows. So it isn't that much different. The only real difference in live comedy is alcohol level, which is significantly higher in the UK. Significantly higher.
BRAND: On the part of the performers or the audience?
M: Well, both, but especially the audience.
BRAND: Yeah, so is it a lot more raucous?
M: Yes, it is. It's a lot more raucous. There's a lot more - people really have come for a dialogue when they go to a stand-up show in the UK. They say, yeah, I understand that you have now finished your little comedy monologue; now I have something to say regarding what I've just heard.
BRAND: Maybe that's why you like the U.S. better.
M: That could be it. The U.S. is, surprisingly, more polite.
BRAND: Well, John Oliver, thank you very much.
M: You're welcome. It's a pleasure.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
BRAND: John Oliver, "Daily Show" correspondent and host of the new show "John Oliver's New York Stand-Up Show." This is a very polite MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm Madeleine Brand.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)