Stewart, Jon

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Jon Stewart

Personal

Born Jonathan Stewart Leibowitz, November 28, 1962, in Trenton, NJ; son of Donald (an RCA physicist) and Marion (a teacher of gifted students) Leibowitz; married Tracy McShane, 2000. Education: College of William and Mary, B.S., 1984.

Addresses

Office— c/o The Daily Show, Comedy Central, Viewer Services, 1775 Broadway, 10th Floor, New York, NY 10019. Agent— Lee Stollman/James Dixon, William Morris Agency, One William Morris Place, Beverly Hills, CA 90212.

Career

Stand-up comic and writer. Host, The Jon Stewart Show, MTV, 1993-94, and The Daily Show, Comedy Central, 1999—. Appeared in films, including Mixed Nuts, 1994, First Wives' Club, 1996, Wishful Thinking, 1997, Playing by Heart, 1998, Half-Baked, 1998, Since You've Been Gone, 1998, Big Daddy, 1999, Committed, 2000, Tee Office Party, 2000, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart: Indecision 2000, 2000, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, 2001, Death to Smoochy, 2002, The Adventures of Tom Thumb and Thumbelina (voice), 2002, and Wanda Sykes: Tongue Untied, 2003. Writer for television series The Sweet Life, 1989; writer and producer of The Jon Stewart Show, 1993, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, 1999—. Has made numerous television guest appearances, including Saturday Night Live, The Larry Sanders Show, and Grammy Awards presentations.

Awards, Honors

Peabody Award, 2000, for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; American Comedy Award nomination, 2001, for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; Emmy Award for best writing for a comedy series (with others), 2001, 2003, both for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart; Television Critics Association Award for Individual Achievement in Comedy, 2003, for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.

Writings

Naked Pictures of Famous People, Rob Weisbach Books/Morrow (New York, NY), 1998.

Sidelights

"When future historians come to write the political story of our times," announced Bill Moyers on the public television program NOW, "they will first have to review hundreds of hours of a cable television program called The Daily Show. You simply can't understand American politics in the new millennium without The Daily Show." Writing in Esquire, A. J. Jacobs noted that "the smartest, most innovative show in TV is not Frontline or Nightline … or any Line. It is a small news show on Comedy Central hosted by a wiseass kid from New Jersey who has to comment on everything." Jon Stewart is the name of that particular "wiseass," a comedian, actor, and writer who "has established a distinctive place in the sea of television talk shows with his sharp but self-deprecating tongue and ironic humor," according to a contributor for Newsmakers. A spoof on serious news programs, Stewart's The Daily Show mixes humorous commentary with off-the-wall field stories and spurious headlines. His coverage of the 2000 elections drew as many viewers—mostly young and hip—as did mainstream news outlets, turning Stewart into a "pop icon," as national network news anchor Peter Jennings noted on ABC News Online. Jennings further noted that Stewart's show "covers politics with attitude."

As Newsweek contributor Marc Peyser noted, Stewart's "cut-the-crap humor hits the target so consistently … [that] he's starting to be taken seriously as a political force." So seriously, in fact, that the Democratic National Committee invited Stewart to cover its 2004 convention. Stewart's television career also includes multiple appearances on The Larry Sanders Show, and as a talk-show host on MTV. Additionally, Stewart turned his hand to book-writing with the 1998 title Naked Pictures of Famous People.

Halting Steps to Comedy

Born Jonathan Stewart Leibowitz in 1962, in Trenton, New Jersey, Stewart changed his name when comedy club emcees consistently mispronounced it. The son of a physicist father and a mother who was a teacher of gifted children, he grew up in Lawrenceville, New Jersey, "a magical little fishing village," as Stewart told Maria Speidel in a People magazine interview. "I was the wise guy in the family," he added. "I was very little, so being funny helped me have big friends." His parents divorced when he was a preteen, and he and his brother thereafter lived with their mother. In high school he was voted as having the best sense of humor as a senior; upon graduation, he went on to college at Virginia's William and Mary, where he studied chemistry and psychology, and played soccer, giving rise to an award still presented at that college: the Leibo, awarded to the clown of the soccer team each year. "My college career was waking up late, memorizing someone else's notes, doing bong hits, and going to soccer practice," Stewart told Chris Smith in New York.

After college graduation, as Stewart confessed to Speidel, he felt "just lost." Realizing that he did not want to be a psychologist, he moved back home for a time, picking up odd jobs such as bartending and running a puppet show for disabled children. Finally, in 1986, he moved to New York City, taking a job as a van driver for a caterer. Slowly, though, he began working on comedy routines, making his professional debut in 1987 at New York's Bitter End club. Though less than auspicious, this initial stage appearance convinced Stewart that he could have a career in stand-up comedy. Working his way up the comedy ladder in New York, he played clubs such as Stand-Up NY, and then moved on to performances at Caesar's Palace.

Stewart found a place in television in the early 1990s, hosting the Short Attention Span Theater for Comedy Central and then working in 1992 for MTV's You Wrote It, YOU Watch It, in which fans' letters were turned into comedy sketches. In 1993 he was one of the finalists to replace David Letterman on NBC's late night show, but lost out to Conan O'Brien. Instead, he ended up hosting his own show on MTV, The Jon Stewart Show, which People's Craig Tomashoff characterized by asserting: "what makes Stewart unique is his complete lack of pretense. He seems like Letterman's younger, hipper brother, taking the Late Show star's laid back approach one step further." For example, Stewart has been known to feature a ten-year-old harmonica player or a piano-playing grandma instead of a band. Instead of the expected celebrity interview, Stewart had a Foosball match with Kelsey Grammar one night, and on another night's show he demonstrated a basic life-saving technique—mouth-to-mouth resuscitation—on Pamela Anderson of Baywatch fame. Writing in Entertainment Weekly, Benjamin Svetkey described the show as a "shabby-chic affair, specializing in offbeat decor, offbeat guests, and offbeat banter." Though the show was canceled after one season of low ratings, it brought Stewart's face, wit, and name before an ever wider public.

Movies and a Book

After cancellation of The Jon Stewart Show, the comedian experienced "'as productive a three-year period as I've ever had,'" as he told Entertainment Weekly contributor Bruce Fretts. He made numerous television appearances, from The Larry Sanders Showto stand-in hosting for CBS's The Late Late Show and as a presenter for various awards shows. He also worked in the movies, playing parts in films including Mixed Nuts, Playing by Heart, The Faculty, and Barenaked in America.

He also decided to write a humorous book. By the time Stewart published Naked Pictures of Famous People in 1998, America was primed and ready. Fretts, writing again for Entertainment Weekly, called the book "brutally witty." Fretts further noted, "A funny thing happened when stand-up comic Jon Stewart sat down to write a book: He actually wrote a funny one. Rather than merely transcribe his monologues (like Jerry Seinfeld did) or pen a confessional tell-all (like Roseanne did—twice), Stewart's Naked Pictures of Famous People consists of 18 original humor pieces on a par with Woody Allen's Without Feathers and Steve Martin's Cruel Shoes." One piece is titled "Martha Stewart's Vagina." Another piece, "Pen Pals," features the correspondence between Princess Di and Mother Teresa. Other pieces include Larry King's interview with Adolph Hitler plugging Hitler's new book, Mein Comfortable Shoes, and a visit to a room where the Kennedys keep their unsuccessful children. As Fretts concluded in his review, Naked Pictures "reveals a basic truth that's too often forgotten by the shock-for shock's-sake satirists of the South Park era: You've got to be smart to be a smart-ass." According to a contributor to Publishers Weekly, the impact of "this collection of short humor pieces … accrues with the reader's total immersion." The same reviewer concluded that Stewart's "acerbic satires could easily become a cult fave."

The Daily Show

Meanwhile, Stewart had also been constructing a comeback to television hosting, announcing in 1998 that he would take over Comedy Central's The Daily Show, which had premiered two years earlier. Initially offered the job in 1996, he had declined; now he was ready to take it on, feeling more comfortable in New York than in California in the film industry. He began his new duties in January, 1999, signing an initial four-year contract, and taking over the 11 p. m. time slot. From the beginning, Stewart established himself as a fresh (in both senses of the word) face as an anchor to this show which is a take-off on the evening news. Writing in the New York Times, Peter Keepnews noted that Stewart "breathed new life into a show that hadn't even seemed to need it." With Stewart on board, The Daily Show, already a success, added half a million viewers nightly, in part because of Stewart's humor and in part because of its new focus. As Peyser noted, the show "wasn't particularly topical when Stewart replaced Craig Kilborn in 1999." Stewart, however, Peyser went on to explain, "wanted a more 'real' news program."

This new direction was announced during the 2000 presidential primaries and campaign; one of the show's regular "correspondents" found a place on Republican candidate John McCain's bus and interviewed the hopeful candidate in a mock-serious style that pleased audiences. This led to the show's "Indecision 2000" coverage of the campaign, hiring former Senator Bob Dole and former Labor secretary Robert Reich to cover the Republican and Democratic conventions, spoofing the style of other broadcasters, and winning a Peabody Award for its campaign reporting. What began as an ironic take on political coverage ultimately proved to be taken seriously. As Barbara Kantrowitz, writing in Newsweek,noted, "All of which proves that the line between real and surreal is getting a bit fuzzy." The reason for such interest in fake news is evident, according to Jacobs: "People are fed up with the news. As is Stewart. He hates its relentlessness, its pomposity, its onanism, its faux concern, its co-option of show-business salesmanship—and his anger fuels his humor, giving it depth, subversive power, and righteousness." As Stewart told Tad Friend in the New Yorker, "'My comedy is not the comedy of the neurotic. It comes from the center. But it comes from feeling displaced from society because you're in the center. We're the group of fairness, common sense, and moderation. We're clearly the disenfranchised center.'"

Stewart continued his particular blend of subversive humor into the new millennium, finding new targets for humor. With the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent war on terrorism, the tone mellowed for a time. Then it "tiptoed back toward topicality," according to Friend, with a sketch about Osama bin Laden and his possible new disguise. Stewart offered a different perspective on this new world. "The media's lack of proportion," Friend wrote, "which proliferated as the war did, clarified the show's new enemy: anyone who terrifies, offends, or panders to Americans, from Al Qaeda to Tom Ridge." According to Susan J. Douglas, writing in the Nation, Stewart's Comedy Central show continues to be "the medically prescribed antidote to CNN and Fox." Douglas went on to comment that The Daily Show, which began appearing in weekly compilations in 2003 on CNN International to 160 million extra viewers worldwide, "is dedicated to expressing utter incredulity over what Team Bush tries to get away with week in and week out." For Douglas, The Daily Show "reminds us that ridicule, scorn and laughter may be some of the most effective weapons of all." Ken Tucker, writing in Entertainment Weekly remarked that Stewart "is that rare thing: a humanist." Noting that the comedian takes on the Bush administration, Tucker also wrote that Stewart is also "bracingly merciless when it comes to the Democrats, whom he finds inexcusably fearful of providing party opposition."

The Daily Show has been honored with Emmy Awards, critical acclaim, and even praise from other real-life anchors, including Jennings. And surprisingly, a 2004 Pew Research Center poll of Americans aged eighteen to twenty nine years reported that over twenty percent "cited The Daily Show and Saturday Night Live as a place where they regularly learned presidential campaign news," according to a CNN.com contributor. Through it all, Stewart remains low key about his achievement. As he told Moyers, "I am surrounded by such talented people [on The Daily Show ] that … literally, I can just sit there, and advance the script. I am Dr. Exposition on the show. I just advance the script and then they take it from there." Regarding the Pew Research Center poll, he quipped: "A lot of them are probably high."

If you enjoy the works of Jon Stewart

you might want to check out the following books:

Woody Allen, Without Feathers, 1975.

Dave Barry, Dave Barry's Greatest Hits, 1997.

Steve Martin, Cruel Shoes, 1979.

Biographical and Critical Sources

BOOKS

Contemporary Theatre, Film, and Television, Volume 31, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2000.

Newsmakers, issue 2, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Columbia Journalism Review, January-February, 2003, Robert Love, "The Kids Are All Right: Young People and News: A Conversation," pp. 27-29.

Daily Variety, July 10, 202, Craig Offman, "Stewart Puts News on Wry for CNN Int'l," p. 15; December 9, 2002, Josef Adalian, "NBC Hits 'Daily' Double", pp. 1-2; July 18, 2003, Michael Schneider, "'Daily' Has Last Laugh vs. Serious Newsies," pp. A1-2.

Entertainment Weekly, September 16, 1994, Benjamin Svetkey, "Here's Jonny," p. 49; November 11, 1994, Bruce Fretts, "Host in the Machine: Jon Stewart and Crew Crank up for Another Day on the Late-Night Shift," pp. 36-39; August 21, 1998, A. J. Jacobs, "Who's Talking Now," p. 9; October 2, 1998, review of Naked Pictures of Famous People, p. 66; October 31, Bruce Fretts, "In Jon We Trust" p. 30; June 13, 2003, Ken Tucker, "The 'Daily' Special: It's a Brave News World, and The Daily Show Takes No Political-Humor Prisoners," p. 82

Esquire, July, 2001, A. J. Jacobs, "jon," p. 62.

In Style, February 1, 1999, "Jon Stewart," p. 95.

Mediaweek, June 10, 1996, "CBS Beats NBC for Stewart," p. 46.

Nation, May 5, 2003, Susan J. Douglas, "Daily Show Does Bush," p. 24.

Newsweek, July 31, 2000, Barbara Kantrowitz, "A Hard Day's News: Jon Stewart and his Irony-dipped 'Daily Show' Are Going to the Conventions with Bob Bole in Tow," p. 60; December 29, 2003-January 5, 2004, Marc Peyser and Sarah Childress, "Who's Next 2004: Red, White & Funny." New York, January 10, 1994, p. 36; July 10, 1994, p. 17.

New Yorker, February 11, 2002, Tad Friend, "Is It Funny Yet? Jon Stewart and the Comedy of Crisis," pp. 28-34.

New York Times, June 15, 1996, p. C19; October 3, 1999, sec. 2, p. 27; August 1, 2000, p. E1; November 22, 2000, p. E17.

People, April 4, 1994, Maria Speidel, "Prince of Cool Air," pp. 99-100; October 31, 1994, Craig Tomashoff, "The Jon Stewart Show," p. 13; January 23, 1995, Kim Cunningham, "Dear Jon Stewart," p. 90; November 23, 1998, Cynthia Wang, interview with Stewart, p. 47; May 10, 1999, "Jon Stewart: Comedian," p 160.

Publishers Weekly, September 28, 1998, review of Naked Pictures of Famous People, p. 73.

Time, February 10, 1997, Belinda Luscombe, "The Tomes They Are a-Changin'," p. 86; January 18, 1999, Joel Stein, "Jon Stewart," p. 88; May 12, 2003, p. 87.

U.S. News & World Report, November 4, 2002, Vicky Hallett, "Twenty-four-Hour Party Person," p. 12.

Variety, October 21, 2002, Stuart Miller, "'Daily' Dose of Gotham Edge," pp. A14-15.