Stewart, Jon 1962-

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STEWART, Jon 1962-

PERSONAL: Born Jonathan Stewart Leibowitz, November 28, 1962, in Lawrence, NJ; son of an RCA physicist and a teacher of gifted students; married Tracy McShane. 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.

CAREER: Stand-up comic and writer. Host of The Jon Stewart Show, MTV, 1993-94; host of 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, and Committed, 2000.

WRITINGS:

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

SIDELIGHTS: Bruce Fretts, writing for Entertainment Weekly, called comedian and actor Jon Stewart's Naked Pictures of Famous People "brutally witty." American pop culture got a glimpse of Stewart's irreverent brand of humor from his late-night MTV talk show, The Jon Stewart Show, which a People reviewer 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. Or, 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 Bay-watch fame.

By the time Stewart wrote Naked Pictures of Famous People, America was primed and ready. Fretts wrote, "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 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."