Standup show in Comedy Central n his fourth season, im pleased to have him here at this table for the first time, bell come. Nice to you have here. Thank you, mr. Rose t is a pleasure to be with you. Rose okay, stop that, mr. Rose. So the expectations of doing this. Yes. Rose in comparison to doing it. Right, of doing jon stewart, of doing jon stewart badly. Rose well, no, just doing it well get to badly later. Okay, i appreciate that. No, the expectation, i knew it would be terrifying. And it did not disappoint. And i wasnt sure it would be quite as much fun as its been. Its been a huge amount of fun. Rose what makes it fun . Well, because you get to ive worked on this show for 7 years so its like being a kind of nascar pit crew member. I know how the engine works but ive never got to drive it before. Only when you drive it dow learn how fast goes. Rose and you also realize it is a finely tuned machine. It is amazing. The show is an amazing machine. And a machine that jon has very strategically and int ri catly built himself. He has taught almost everyone in that building how to dot particular version of their job they do so skillfully. So yeah t was its been im even more impressed with the whole machine now than i was before i got the perspective of looking at it. Rose it raise the question though, they finely tuned it for him. And then theyre dropping you in to a machine that was finely tuned for him. Well, he finely tuned it for him. It is built he has built this thing over, you know, a decade and a half, which can be did. Rose has it been that long. It has been that long, i know. Its been awhile. So yeah, my real, my main responsibility was not to destroy that machine in three months. That was the main responsibility. You go no, i guess it showed how well the Machine Works that hes built. If you can have someone who does not have his skill sets, run it, and not crash it. Rose what skill sets does very that you dont have . Well, almost all of them higher than me. Almost everything plus 50 . Rose sow has better timing than you . I think thats probably objectively true. I mean hes very good at the things that probably you dont see that hes great at. Obviously hes very funny when you see him perform the show. Rose likewise are you. I appreciate that. But really its skill is everything that happens before then. Performing the show is a bit of fun at the end of the day or, you know, its not always fun. Sometimes its painful. But the day is making that show that you put in the prompter. Rose as finely tuned as you can possibly make it. As you can. And it wont always be as finely tuned as you want it to be. You will literally run out of time. But as a manager he is spectacular. He is absolutely spectacular. And so sitting in those shoes, i have even more respect for what hes able to do in overseeing the whole show. He is the managing editor. Hes everything. I mean he has fingers in every part of the show. He took himself describes it as a creative dictatorship. So every one on the show contributes but he is overseeing everything. You know, hes in with us at the start of the day and he usually leaves after weve all left. Walk us through the day. Behind the scenes of the daily show. You get there at whatever time and start the first meeting at whatever time. So like 9 00 in the morning we have a writers meeting. So that will be discussing what were going to do on the show that day. Now hopefully we will have a basic sense of that, especially if its a tuesday, wednesday or thursday from the previous afternoon, to try and get a little bit ahead. So Studio Production who have already been in before that writers meeting will bring up clips that they think would be useful, funny, good to juxtapose. And so from that discussion which should take about 45 minutes,. If it takes much longer than that were already sowing the seeds of trouble which will bloom into a disaster later. So people are sent away to do the single parts of the script or two people work on one thing. They need to come in, in about about an hour, hour and 15 minutes. Thats the most frantic point of the day where you are looking at a blank screen and churning out jokes and ideas for jon to look at. He will then give you notes on those, go back, redraft, possibly that will repeat itself once or twice more during the day. Well rehearse at 4 15. That is literally just talking to an empty room, you know, comedy is great in an empty room. And then there will be another rewrite between rehearsal and the show. And thats it. But what you can you can rewrite jokes quickly. Jokes arent that easy to write. Arent that hard to write, especially when you have people around you that are funny. What you cant do in that time of the day is completely redo the structure so the point of view of the fact has to be in place. That would be the hardest thing. Is finding the narrative. Because you can rewrite jokes up to the last moment. You can even make, change them on the fly. What you cant do is change the spine of the show. If you mess that spine up, you are in big trouble. Rose thats a Group Decision . Figuring out what the spine is, with writers and with jon and everybody. It is a creative dictato dictatorship. People put in and jon will. Rose what do you think. Yeah, and jon drives it. Rose the dumbest idea i have ever horde. Or he will try to reframe it is aing that is a great idea for another dimension where we do that. Lets do this instead. And yeah, ten times, hes usually right. Rose the hardest thing for to you do has been what, the interviews or what . It was initially. Because as you can tell from the australian piece, my training in interviews is relatively inhumane. You know, its to. Rose to make fun. Its to attack, or, you know, to certainly make fun of. And so it having a human conversation is not something ive had any training in either as a comedian or as, you know, a human being. Im british so human conversations are not something we excel in. We like to repress what you are talking about and we that is why you love downton abbey. Everyone is talk around what they actually think. So having a six minute conversation about the thing you actually want to talk about is very, very jarring to me. Rose but dont you like it . Ive learned to like it, yeah. Ive learned to. Rose because watching you, you have the impression which is very good s that the conversation could continue. And you sometime does for the web. But it is the notion that youre getting a chance to do things in which you simply can explore your curiosity and dow not have to go for the jugular at every other second. And you know thats the thing. There is a crunch of time at work. So there is a sense where you have to go for the jugular or for the point fast. There is not much room to breathe in those. You are trying to get as many things and as many jokes as possible into one place where. As in a discussion with, you know, whoever, senator gillebrand who was last thursday, you request have a more you can let the thing breathe a bit more. Rose David Letterman at this table once said to me, you know, i would love to do what you do. The way you do it because you done have to have a laugh every minute. Right. Rose and i have to find a laugh every minute. Yeah. Rose with some exceptions. Yeah, thats right. But also, he has he has a contempt which is earned. So he can he can sit in front of an actor who he demonstrably has no interest in and whose movie he clearly has not seen, and he can make fun of them and thats fine. Because hes earned that over decades. Rose yate, right. I cant do that. Thats another level of obnoxiousness. Rose an unearned exactly. You cant do that. So i would like to be able to sit back like letterman and says this seems bad this movie, and i admire your vig never selling it but its to the going to work. Rose how do you approach it when you know the movie, dont like the movie or the performance of the person sitting in front of you . I have been quite lucky because most of the movies have been at least tolerable and up from there. Otherwise you try and find Something Else to talk about. Rose exactly. I asked you about all of this before i started, remember. And i was looking, that was the thing that was most concerning me so you got to help me. Whats your rip cord. Rose thats exactly right. I wanted you to say, remember your father to me. I havent had to use that yet which shows its been all right. Remember your father to me. That was going to be mitel for. Rose im embarrassed you told that. Its true. Because it makes people go into memory. Yeah. Well, so, ive tried that a couple of times. Like ive found out something about them of a more personal nature or something that i thought that we shared. And we can try and talk about that to run out the clock. Rose so you have been doing this for the summer. Yeah. Rose you have from now until september 1st. The reviews are fantastic, without exception, i have not seen anybody, let me just say. Without exception you have not been on the internet then. No, i have not, no, i have not. You will find exceptions there. Rose you mean comments or actual reviews. Either way. Anyone could write a review. Rose comments say everything. Sure. Rose you know, its just but i have seen people like the guardian. Right. Rose that may have come from a profile as well but theyre saying, you know, two things. One they say, hes just step mood this job, its great, its different from jon but its greatment then they say you are the heir to this show or they ought to give you a show. They say everything. Oh, thats nice. Rose dont read it, do in the read it. Im not. Ive kept well away from all of that. Anything around it, those are the many things that jon was helpful about, before he was just try and ignore the Ripple Effect of the show. You want to try and ignore that as much as possible. Because it becomes annoying. Like you will have even the conversation i had with senator gillebrand. I saw a couple of things after the fact which was perfect example of him being correctedly warning me, he describes it as oh, attacks. Eviscerates, the daily show goes after and it really wasnt, you know, that kind of hyperbole does no one any favors. And its so annoying because it feels like its recontextualizing what was really supposed to be a polite, you know, probing interview, or interview in the old. Rose when i saw you do that i said hey, well done. Because you said to her, you were talking about the fact that she was the number one recipient of money from wall street and Goldman Sachs and others. And you said, i thought brilliantly, what did they get for that . Explain to me. But thats just, on a human level, it is not a very awful question. Thats what i want to know. That was my curiosity. She evaded it because shes brilliant at evasion. And i like her. I just thought it might be more interesting to its easy i think i said to her, its today have that conversation with someone that you naturally distrust but its harder and perhaps more interesting with someone who you admire. Because, her being compromised not nay criminal sense but just financially compromised, you feel, is interesting for me to talk about. And she you know, she was expertly got around that point. Rose by not answering the question. Right. Rose yeah, do you think after this summers guest hosting we all pretty much know your politics . S. I dont know. Rose but i mean in terms of the questions, in terms of the people you like, in terms of the people you admire, you come away with a sense of where you are in terms of sort of big policy questions. Probably. I mean does it matter . Rose it doesnt matter at all. I dont think my opinion really matters at all. F its not that it matters but do you in a sense of this, do you get a sense of where that person is in terms of some there have been maybe. There have been definitely the stranger momentses of the summer, weve been lucky because the summer is ibmly as you know, slow. And weve had, a right track, sprinkles, gay marriage, royal baby. Rose so its not slow. No, its been nasdaq, nsa, Anthony Weiner, incredibly ridiculous. Rose the gift that keeps giving. Thats right, which cannot not give. Rose yes. But there were momentsment like two shows in particular, a pretty hard to navigate when its feelings of complete despair. The Trayvon Martin verdict i felt personally very, you know, its very difficult. Theres a lot of emotion. And even more so i felt that was the first time i really felt johns absence. We the jury find George Zimmerman not guilty. Holy fuuch. So hes innocent 1234 wait, what . How could that possible you you have got to be theres no i cant even oh my god laughter which i guess is what well call tonights segment. laughter because that feels about right. That feels in your heart about right. The audience often looked to jon to make them, to help them articulate very complicated, painful feelings. And Something Like the Trayvon Martin verdict would be a moment where i could feel in the audience people are looking to jon. Theyre not looking to me. What they want is jon. So i felt a lot of weight on my chest that day of having to try as responsibleably and humorously as i can to help people through very complicated feelings. Rose im reminded of the time you said we will have for you this summer everything you love about the show except the thing you love the most. Yeah, exactly. Its the show is going to be the same, just the reason to watch it is gone. So thats what this summer has been, yeah. You just sometimes you just feel wow, its like people opening a present and thinking thats not the bike i wanted. Rose i did want a bike. I wanted a bike. And i get that that has two wheels. But its not as good. Rose no, and the color sucks. Exactly. That is how it feels, kind of children are forced, oh, no, grandma. Rose i know. This was not it. Rose i love this, i need this, but no. I wanted this so badly and you have not given it. Rose what about those people who say the daily show ought to be called the daily writers, that this is a show that writers have played a huge role in defining. That in no way takes anything away from jon or you. But it is writers who have given it Something Special because theyre so good. We have great writers, theres no doubt about that. And jon is the head you know, not the head writer but he is over the head. Rose definitely. Jon is you know, the uber writer. But it is a huge it is collaborative beyond just the writing. Our Studio Production, all the clips, montages. Rose where do its clips come from. How many people do you have in the basement . That basement, that shadowy basement is you know, one of the engines of the show. Rose a big engine. A big engine, so it isnt the writing is great. But the writing comes from somewhere. So it is a more collaborative model than perhaps a traditional structure of a television show. Rose it is the nonhuman genius of the show. Yes. Rose so we used we used to just have a stack of tivos recording everything. And then people watching it like clockwork orange, just having to. Rose so you used to have that, what do you have now . Now there are programs that are a little easier. You can type in key words, lexisnexis style rr give you all the clips on that subject. Will give the clips so you can type in a phrase and it will. Rose amazing. Yeah so, that has definitely eased the day and certainly means that we can work quicker. I was there in the days of the tivo. That was a little thats when are you the questioning getting people from the basement saying ive seen thing us wouldnt believe. It all get its a little deregueur down there. Rose when they find Something Sweet its like youve got too see this. It pretty much it is, there are definitely moments, we have one tonight where you go orbltion that is that is. Rose that was so sweet. Exactly so i dont know, once every few weeks you get something, which even bring you up like a gift, saying dont eat this at once, like its like a fine meal, just sit back, cleanse your palate before you watch this and then there are moments. Rose you cant believe that whofer said that, said that. Yes. Rose and just say thank you. Yes, exactly. Thank you, thank you. Rose we love you because youve given us something. This is a great gift. Rose this is a great gift. And please know that we are going to enjoy it. Rose Anthony Weiner does some of that too. Anthony wien certificate like a different kind of joy roller coaster. The really satisfying things are if you get the perfect juxtaposition. So you know, we have tonight we have Chris Matthews saying, senator rand paul is going to be the republican nominee. Look, i do this for a living. Thats where he stops. So then you say, well, do we have other examples of him getting predictions wrong because thats what we do for a living. And so yes they very much came upstairs and said uhhuh, here. How does Rudy Giuliani will be the next president of the United States sound. You go that sounds. Rose you dont have him saying yes, yes, yes. Rose coming right after he said rand paul. That is tonight that is literally what im looking forward to tonight. Im looking forward to the air between saying this is what we do for a living and that clip starting to roll. Thats split second is what i wish coy live in that air forever. Rose dow kiss it off by saying, this is what we do for a living. Of course, of course, of course. Rose its irresistable. Of course, because that is perfect that is when they come upstairs with a clip and you just want to hug them and say thank you, thank you. Rose double his salary. Thats right. Quadruplele that salry. Please more. Because there is addictive, its like heroin there just a gateway drug, now i want Something Else. Rose it is absolutely true. Now so what did they do anything all these brilliant people because you were in the chair and jon wasnt . Did we change anything. Rose anything. Theres not much reference to your nationality s it . Not really. Because you can, you know. Rose if you dont know that. Yeah, exactly. That becomes sonically obvious. And for stories like the royal baby, that plays in. But that would run its course. cheers and applause thats right. It was a boy. And finally we have a member of the royal family with an actual excuse for being a toothless petulant useless human being. laughter that one could get me into trouble back home. This boys ent rance into the world came with so much pomp and circumstance its hard for it not to seem like a royal blooup blooup you to the other 370,000 babies born that day. We believe the announcement now being put on the ease el, yes, in fact, it is there. It