As “The Late Show” continues its final week, “The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart was one of Stephen Colbert’s final guests, a farewell gift for his old friend.
Stewart, 63, and Colbert, 62, reminded fans that they go back decades to the late 1990s, when the two worked together on The Daily Show during Stewart’s first hosting days.
“One of us hasn’t aged as well as the other,” Stewart said of himself, joking that “one of us is taking anti-aging peptides and the other is taking a placebo.”
The interview ended with Stewart gifting Colbert a new recliner, but he had a surprise in store for him by bringing out one of Colbert’s favorite singers, Andra Day, which clearly surprised Colbert.
She came out and kissed Colbert a few times before launching into the comedy giants’ 2015 smash hit, “Rise Up.”
Stewart is also familiar with Colbert’s position, recalling when Colbert was fired from “The Jon Stewart Show,” which aired on Paramount National Television from 1993 to 1995.
“The term at the time was ‘st-canned.’ I don’t know what to call it now. We had two weeks left and there were security guards at every exit…we didn’t get anything of value,” Stewart joked.
Stewart added that his show “spun out of control the last few weeks” because “I’m not a mature adult like you.”
Stewart’s final guest on that show was David Letterman, who added, “He said something very profound to me: ‘Don’t confuse cancellation with failure.'” …But then he said, “But in this case, that’s also a failure.”
Stewart also praised the Late Show staff, adding that everything he proposed to them, including skits with alpacas, was “very competitive.”
“I’m not a particularly good long-term planner, so I’m going to challenge them. I talked to them and said, “It would be interesting if they showed me where I live at the time. It would be interesting if I had a James Bond bookshelf, and when I opened the bookshelf, more of my hideouts were revealed.” Wouldn’t it be funny if it was revealed that I had an alpaca when it opened? I was going to come the next day, but he told me, ‘They’re going to be building a building, but the alpaca can’t be here until 1 o’clock.’
Colbert also welcomed director Steven Spielberg, who was promoting his new movie “Disclosure Day,” which will be released in theaters on June 12th.
