Sitting Down at the John

Nine years ago, a friend of mine was developing a comedy for his film production company, and they were looking for a British actor to star in it.  I recommended someone I'd just started seeing in a small role on a cable show a few months earlier who I thought was wonderful, really smart and hilarious, and mentioned him.  My friend didn't know who the Brit was, so I got another friend (who was a writer on the show) to put together a promo reel of the guy, and I sent the DVD over to my producer friend.

He liked it, but alas the movie never ended up getting developed far enough to do any casting.  And my recommendation was all for naught.  But even after only having seen his work for a couple of months, I really loved that British comic and thought he had a great future.

The program at the time was The Daily Show.  And the fellow's name was John Oliver.

I not only really love John Oliver's work, and have loved it from the first, but I love when he sits down for an interview.  He has such an honest, self-effacing and funny way of handling it all, and never in a way of being forced so that you sense he's really just seeking you to praise him.  When he puts down praise of himself, he tends to explain why that's wrong, accepting it (at least somewhat...) when he grants that it might be deserved.

I came across this good interview he did with Fusion's Jorge Ramos.