Stephen Colbert is positively itching to get on the air. So much so that he's saying a prayer every night that Donald Trump stays in the Republican presidential race just long enough to allow him to get off a few jokes when he takes the reins of CBS' "The Late Show" on Sept. 8.
In his appearance Monday at the Television Critics Association press tour, Colbert quipped that he's been reduced to "dry-Trumping" because he doesn't have a TV outlet for another few weeks. On the spot, he was challenged by the roomful of reporters at the Beverly Hilton to serve up his best lines.
"Every little boy grows up believing they could be president of the United States. I'm so happy that little boy is Donald Trump. Please stay healthy until I get on the air," he said, in the quietly sincere voice that viewers of "The Colbert Report" came to love. "Every night before I go to bed I light a candle and pray that he stays in the race, and I also pray that no one puts that candle anywhere near his hair."
Colbert thoroughly charmed the TCA crowd as he answered question after question about the process of dropping the mask of the buffoonish conservative commentator character that he played for nearly 10 years on Comedy Central's "Colbert Report." One of the things he's most excited about is to be able to do interviews in his own voice and persona. Interviews of intriguing people became his favorite part of "Colbert Report," although he had grown tired of having to process his questions through the filter of the character. By the end of the series run last year, Colbert barely bothered to do so.
"On the old show I wore the character as lightly as a cap. I could dial it up and down as need be," he said. "I'm looking forward to being sincerely interested in what they have to say without having to translate it through an idiot's mouth."
Colbert also announced that Kendrick Lamar will be his first musical guest on the show. Colbert said that it was only appropriate to welcome the rapper since Lamar was his last musical guest on "The Colbert Report."
As for a potential rivalry between himself and other latenight hosts, Colbert scoffed: "The idea of a war between hosts make no sense to me. My success doesn't take away from anyone else."
He also revealed that he knew Jon Stewart would resist any efforts to get sentimental during his recent latenight send-off from Comedy Central's "Daily Show," but tried anyway. "I told producers he's going flop around like a fish on the dock," he said. "I felt like a rodeo clown trying to keep him on the stage."
During the commercial break, he said, the correspondents gathered around him in a big bear hug. "We were all chanting 'Made him cry,'" he said. "It might be my favorite thing I did on the show."