The Corddry Show invades U of M
Comedian entertains students as part of Celebration Week
Andrew Sain Staff
“Do you know who I am? I’m Rob-fucking-Corddry, dude!” These are the words of a comedian who has not let success go to his head.
Corddry, best known as “Chief Correspondent” on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart — a popular American “fake news” — packed the multipurpose room in University Centre to capacity on Jan. 27. He also filled up overflow seating on the main level, where the performance was seen over live video feed. The event concluded UMSU’s Celebration Week.
Corddry took the stage dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, a departure from the suit he wears on the Daily Show. Over the course of the hour he lectured students with readings from the university’s drug policy, interpretations of newspaper headlines, and a question and answer period in which he both asked and answered all questions.
Corddry described a typical morning at the Daily Show for all who were interested.
“I’m usually up around 6 a.m. doing satire pushups, followed by a couple of irony drills. I eat the New York Times for breakfast . . . wash it down with a Wall Street Journal smoothie, then I correct all the grammatical errors in the Manitoban.”
Currently living in New York, Corddry is originally from Massachusetts — “or as I like to call it, not Manitoba.” A graduate of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, he described himself as “classically trained.” After graduation he moved to New York City, where he toured with the National Shakespeare Company for a year. Corddry initially considered himself “quite the important actor,” and said, “if I were given a script, for instance, that was not written in iambic pentameter, I would literally rub my feces all over it.”
Following his tour with the National Shakespeare Company he founded an improv troupe called Naked Babies with a fellow actor. This, said Corddry, led to performing and teaching at the Upright Citizens’ Brigade Theatre in New York, which kicked off his acting career.
Corddry credited some of his comic ability to his upbringing in Boston.
“Everybody in Boston thinks they’re a comedian. But basically, they’re just sarcastic assholes, and my family are a group of sarcastic assholes. The dinner table was a kill-or-be-killed kind of affair, so everyone in my family is very quick only because we didn’t want to be crying in our desserts.”
A large component of Corddry’s presentation was a behind-the-scenes look at the making of a typical Daily Show segment using the example of an interview between Corddry and prestigious microbiologist Philip Tierno of the New York University medical centre.
Typical of a Corddry Daily Show segment, the video clip showed Corddry asking if it is possible to contract genital warts from a voting booth.
Corddry noted the one downside to his job: he constantly has to make fun of people, even those he admires. In his first interview as a Daily Show correspondent, with Gloria Feldt, president of Planned Parenthood, Corddry had to ignore his admiration for Feldt and, instead, stare at her breasts.
He did, however, note that the show’s intentions are good: “We really don’t want to take advantage of anyone who’s not an asshole,” he said.
Though the Daily Show is primarily political satire, Corddry said that he “is not interested in politics in the least.”
“Politics is what it is . . . I enjoy issues and I enjoy being a responsible citizen and understanding what is going on in the world, but politics is the business of what’s going on in the world and that’s horrible, it’s so tiresome,” he said.
Corddry ended his presentation by answering questions from the audience and was available after the show to sign autographs and record answering machine messages.
