“Don’t feel like you have to laugh,” someone tells me as I sit in the audience for the first time. “It’s important that we find out what works and what doesn’t during rehearsal so we can edit before show time.” But I felt awestruck, giddy even; Colbert could’ve read from The Bell Jar for the next hour and I’d still find it difficult to keep a smile from my face.

At the tail end of the internship, I found myself in the studio again, this time with the other interns, eagerly awaiting the true climax of the summer: a Q&A with Colbert himself. He sat in a lone chair on the floor in front of his character’s desk, a subtle gesture that let us know we were talking to Stephen Colbert the actor and not Stephen Colbert the megalomaniacal pundit. There was no artifice here, no showbiz insincerity; just a man addressing his adoring indentured servants. It was all the compensation we’d ever need.

One intern asked how Stephen feels about being pegged as not just a comedian, but also an important social figure. His response surprised me. He explained that, while there is some truth in the “sad-clown” theory of coping with a dismal world by finding comedy in tragedy, the humor comes first, with the political arena really just being a forum for the jokes. He doesn’t think he’s changing the world, and doesn’t really express a desire to do so. It was a refreshing take on his role in society, especially since there are times when Jon Stewart feels to me like he’s only a beret away from becoming the next Che Guevara, commanding an over-eager army of white college-age males with disposable income.

After fielding a few more questions, Stephen leaves the studio, citing an appointment to do voice over work at Sony studios across the street. I begin contemplating working for this man for the rest of my life, for free if I have to, but fall short of an overly sentimental O-captain-my-captain goodbye. The interns were then left to roam the studio unsupervised, and we proceeded to pose for pictures behind the desk in signature Colbert postures. A few even conduct mock interviews with each other, using question cards leftover from last night’s show. The scene carried with it a distinctly nostalgic, kids-on-a-playground vibe, recalling a time long before we concerned ourselves with padding resumes and finding decent health insurance, before we had to worry about global warming and the price of gas, before we knew there was a difference between whole and skim milk.

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