- I remember my first night on the show, it was wild.
I auditioned on, I think, a Friday
and they told me come back four days later with a suit
'cause they had no money to pay for the suits.
And luckily I had one suit because
I had gotten married a few months earlier.
And I came back with a suit and the day was bonkers.
I arrived and oddly enough it was
the day Crimea was invaded.
And I know. (audience chuckling)
We actually know where that place is now
because I didn't that morning.
And I showed up and I went to this morning meeting,
which is an amazing thing at "The Daily Show".
So many funny, thoughtful people in a room.
And I get thrown in there and such a welcoming place.
And there's John Stewart,
somebody I've watched since I was very little.
He's very old and decrepit. (audience laughing)
Also very short, small man,
wise beyond his years but many years.
(audience laughing)
And we were talking about Crimea and all of these things
and they're like, "Jordan, you're gonna do a chat.
You're gonna do that tonight, we're gonna talk about this.
Let's go and you brainstorm some ideas for the chat."
And I remember they bring me into John's office
like right after the meeting.
And I'm very nervous, I don't know how this day works.
And we sit down
and John starts talking about not only what happened.
But essentially he's talking about the commentary
that's been written in the morning
about what already happened in that room.
And I'm sitting across from him with a few other people.
Jen Flanz is over there right now, EP showrunner.
She's in that room as well.
She's the best. (audience clapping)
And there's a reason these shows can still run
like they do with a different host every week.
And it's because of the team
that we have here at "The Daily Show".
And I remember he's talking about all these things
with Crimea and I just keep thinking
I don't (beep) know where Crimea is.
I don't know.
And then we usher off and we brainstorm jokes
and bits around the Crimea invasion.
And it's fun, it's a wild day.
The chat comes up and you go into a rewrite
right before you come on out there
and you go one last time over.
And the process for a chat, essentially the idea
of this chat was John is throwing to their first time
correspondent who's in Crimea
and he is overwhelmed by the experience.
Truth and comedy, it's always the best way to go.
And I remember in the rewrite,
you're in this small room
and you're throwing jokes out there.
And John opened up of like, "How would you react here?"
And I'd say like, "I don't wanna disappoint you, Dad."
(audience laughing)
And it made him laugh because that's how he was feeling
in that (beep) room in that moment.
I don't wanna disappoint you, Dad.
And he was like, "That's good."
I'm like, "That was the first joke I got on the show."
And he was like, "All right, we ready to do this."
And you don't waste time at "The Daily Show".
When you're like, "Print the script."
It's like, "Great, we're on in 20 minutes."
And so he comes out, I go back, my brain is spinning.
I've been doing comedy and entertainment for 15 years
but never had a break anywhere near this.
Been living in poverty up until this point.
I'm like, "Holy shit, I'm on 'The Daily Show'.
I'm about to be on 'The Daily Show'."
I'm looking through the script, looking through the script.
John comes out, I'm right back there
and I'm looking through the script,
looking through the script.
He says like, "We have something special happening today.
We have a new correspondent.
We don't have that very often."
I'm getting nervous.
And Born To Run starts to play,
which was the song he always played before he came out.
And then he is like, "You guys, ready for a good show?"
They say, "Yes."
He says, "Welcome to 'The Daily Show'."
And he runs back
and we just had this little one-on-one moment.
He just says, "Don't fuck it up."
(audience laughing)
And I remember like, he came back out there
and right back there like tears.
Because it was so much.
This industry's, it's hard, it's tough
and you're rarely in such supportive rooms like this.
And for every break that you get,
10 other people don't get it
who are worthy of that exact same break.
And in that moment I was like,
there's so much emotion right now in this space.
And I remember like tears and I'm like,
"(beep) you can't cry, you're on TV in three minutes."
Pulling it all together, coming on out
and nervously doing my first chat from right over there.
So to get a chance to be here on a day like today
with you guys and share that, it's real special.
Thank you. (audience clapping)
(upbeat music)