“The Daily Show” host Jon Stewart was one of Stephen Colbert’s final guests as “The Late Show” continues its final week, and he had quite the going-away present for his old friend.
Stewart, 63, and Colbert, 62, reminded fans that they go back decades to the late 1990s, when they both worked together on “The Daily Show” during Stewart’s first hosting stint.
“One of us has not aged as well as the other,” Stewart says of himself, joking, “One of these people is getting age-defying peptides, and the other is getting a placebo.”
The interview ended with Stewart presenting a gift for Colbert, a new recliner, but he had a surprise up his sleeve, bringing out one of Colbert’s favorite singers, Andra Day, which clearly stunned Colbert.
She came out and blew Colbert a few kisses before breaking into her 2015 breakthrough hit “Rise Up” for the comedy titans.
Stewart is no stranger to Colbert’s position, reminiscing on when he was fired from “The Jon Stewart Show,” which was syndicated through Paramount Domestic Television from 1993 to 1995.
“The term back then was ‘s–t-canned.’ I don’t know what they call it now. We had two more weeks to go, and they put security guards at all the exits … We didn’t have anything of value,” Stewart joked.
Stewart added that his show, ““spiraled so out of control” in those final weeks, “because I was not a mature grown-up like you are.”
Stewart’s final guest for that show was David Letterman, adding, “He said to me something very profound. He said, ‘Don’t confuse cancelation with failure.’ … But then he said, ‘But in this case it is also a failure.’”
Stewart also praised “The Late Show” staff, adding they were always, “So game” for whatever he had pitched to them, including a sketch involving alpacas.
“I am not a particularly good long term planner and I would challenge them. I talked to them and I said wouldn’t it be funny if it showed where I would be living at the time. Wouldn’t it be funny if I had a James Bond bookcase where I opened the bookcase and it revealed more of my lair. Wouldn’t it be funny if when it opened, it was revealed that I was raising alpacas? I was coming on the next day and he says to me, ‘They’ll build the room but the alpacas can’t be here till 1,’” Stewart said.
Colbert also welcomed director Steven Spielberg, who was promoting his new film “Disclosure Day,” which hits theaters June 12.
