John Oliver: The 60 Minutes Interview

at 47 years old comedian John Oliver has. won 21 Emmy Awards three peab bodies and. was named one of Time magazine's 100. most influential people he's earned the. accolades for his unique brand of. meticulously researched political humor. his Sunday night show Last Week Tonight. is now in its 12th season on HBO giving. him a perch to unleash ser in satirical.

takes on America his adopted Homeland so. how did a British born middleclass grade. school cutup become one of this. country's sharpest comedians we traveled. near and far to find. out the story will continue in a. moment this past summer we returned with. John Oliver to his comedic launching pad. Edinburgh Scotland where MO life is set.

against a medieval backdrop so tell me. about this place well as you can see. this is controlled. Mayhem every August the city hosts the. world's largest Performing Arts Festival. a month-long free-for-all known as The. Fringe artists from 60 countries perform. nearly 4,000 shows no Act is turned away. some of it will be great some of it will. be otherworldly bad but the fact that.

the two can exist concurrently is kind. of the point The Fringe is a magnet for. comedians as a 20-year-old studying. English at Cambridge University John. Oliver felt the pull he went and tried. his hand at standup and I remember. walking off stage thinking oh. boy I want to do that again right now. almost sounds like it's addictive oh a. absolutely addictive.

he came back year after year and headed. to the Royal mile a picturesque. cobblestone street that turns into a. competitive Marketplace for attention. sketch comedy from New York baby were. you doing this I was absolutely doing. this when you're first coming up here. the only way to do it is to almost beg. for people to come and see you it's John. Oliver so he doesn't have to beg people. anymore he was welcomed with open arms.

at this basement Club where he cut his. comedic teeth I want you to know that. I've befouled this stage so many times. before there's no guarantee this will go. well he told us he learns from his. mistakes and starting out he made a lot. of them it's the best place but nowhere. worse than at this tiny 55 seat venue. called Pleasants below this room was in. many ways my comedic Waterloo did you. fill all the seeds all of this was empty.

uh apart from those four seats and I. thought fine that's fine I can do an. hour to four people and that was my. intention going. in but his plans went ay about 10. minutes in two people walked out then a. third leaving one woman alone I saw her. hand slowly move down to her bag and I. said to her are you leaving and she said. yeah yeah I think I'm going to got up.

walked out and it's just me and a sound. technician in a room and he said do you. want to keep. going I said no I think we're done here. and also when you say do you want to. keep going do you mean this show or this. career certainly it feels like I've got. some decisions to make he decided to. stop going for the easy laughs when I. started off I just wanted to make people. laugh then I wanted to make people laugh. about things I cared about and for me.

that was politics in its broadest form. did it feel like a risk at the time it. felt like a risk worth. taking and it worked on his weekly HBO. show taped in New York City his unique. take on politics and intrinsic problems. is what sets him apart from just about. every other comedian on TV for because. it looks to me like you are striking out. looking right now he Delights in. revealing the absurdity in the obscure.

always we noticed with a twinkle in his. eye and a mischievous smile our main. story tonight is the threat of nuclear. Annihilation you tackle topics Hospice. Care bail. reform organ donations it's not your. typical comedy Fair no I know those. don't sound funny it's because. fundamentally they're not but there are. funny things about how in some of those.

problems are. and sometimes I think comedy is the best. most Illuminating way to talk about them. John Oliver has been making people laugh. since he was a kid in the suburbs of. Birmingham England his dad was a school. principal his mom a music teacher young. John excelled as the class clown later. as a young comedian he couldn't get. enough of The Daily. Show so in 2006 he sent a sample of his.

work and was called in to try out this. is the audition tape on Oliver's first. trip to New York he riffed with John. Stewart about the time Vice President. Dick Cheney shot an injured a friend on. a quail hunt I'm sure right now those. birds are laughing manically at us in. one of those little Kies of. theirs I don't I don't I don't think. birds can can laugh John what whatever. it is that they do do then warble tweet.

coup they're they're cing at us right. now John because he was hired on the. spot and over the next seven years. showed his range absolute pleasure to be. here John in 2013 John Stewart stepped. away to direct a movie I hope all of you. have a wonderful safe summer please. enjoy the show and tapped John Oliver to. step in I don't care what they say it's. my show now and I want it in pink was. that kind of like taking Daddy's car for.

a joy ride oh yeah that very first day. the Edward Snowden news broke and it was. really fun to sit behind the steering. wheel and think oh how fast does this. thing go or pretty quick it turns out. his turn at the desk caught the eye of. HBO which gave him cart blanch to create. his own show he asked Tim carll head. writer at The Daily Show and comedy. producer Liz Stanton to join him they.

were given the 11:00 slot on Sunday. nights did that seem like a gift or like. they were hiding you someplace no I mean. we were on after Game of Thrones like it. was like it was more of a sense of oh we. we're going to let some people down um. but it's his takedowns that seem to. Delight him the most because Thomas is. now at the heart of the he pounced on. news reports that Supreme Court Justice.

Clarence Thomas had not disclosed lavish. gifts from rich friends and a generous. deal on his prized motor coach look at. this beauty Clarence he offered Thomas a. new motor coach plus $1 million a year. out of his own pocket just sign this if. Thomas would resign from the Supreme. Court this is not a joke Thomas' lawyer. says the Justice met the terms of the RV. agreement and any other omissions were. strictly.

inadvertent you you seem to have few. limits on how far you'll go to get a lab. with Clarence Thomas the main point with. that was saying that there are not. enough guard rails on people giving the. money I can prove that to you by. offering this guy a million dollars a. year to get off the Supreme Court that. should be a crime the very fact that it. isn't is a problem and that felt like. the most visceral way to prove that fact.

facts are fundamental to Oliver's humor. we filed a Freedom of Information Act. request his deep dives into serious. topics are painstakingly crafted the. death penalty I've seen your show. described as satirical journalism. investigative comedy how would you. describe it in general it is just a. rigorously researched comedy show both. because we want it to be right and for. self-preservation purposes we don't want. to be sued into Oblivion.

Oliver's staff of 83 includes former. journalists as well as comedy writers. they churn out 30 shows a year it starts. with this hundreds of pages of research. on each main story this one out Oliver. carll and the writers turn those into. outlines and then a script which is. tested at a table read I do not want to. see a headline tomorrow that says John. Oliver blasts expensive detention Cs on.

taping day we watch them rehearse but. there are much more Humane ways to do. that and even some make last minute. changes and get sign off from the. lawyers finally it's. showtime welcome welcome welcome there's. a little bit of baited breath when he. says the uh tonight's story. is like you know they've been waiting. for maybe a year to come to the show and. they're getting a real dark one like. you've lined up in the cold you've maybe. taken a fly and he being told the main.

story is organ donation like oh and this. is my trip to New York yeah that's right. have a nice. dinner to balance things out Oliver. likes to close the show with something. zany we did it we did. it the Productions are Stanton's. Department I try and do to my best. ability anything we can do to make. something happen just cuz we love the.

dumb the dumb stuff is stuff we all love. to do some of the segments are pretty. elaborate. yeah. [Music]. count they can't be cheap we don't talk. about that we don't talk about that. they'll never find out how much any of. it costs we we're cheaper than dragons. as far as we're concerned that's the. financial. bar Oliver has devoted fans and passion. critics he takes aim at both sides of.

the aisle Biden's immigration policies. as we've discussed multiple times before. have been hap Hazard at best last season. you told your viewers do not vote for. Donald Trump absolutely I'm not going to. sit here and say that that is not a. partisan thing to do to say don't vote. for Donald Trump I think it's good. advice but more than 77 million people. MH voted for Donald Trump does your show.

speak to them I really hope it speaks to. some of them yes because most of those. main stories that we talk about are not. actually party political those are. lasting problems that have been there. before the last two or three presidents. and may well be there for after the next. two or three home of jails and the. though he highlights America's. shortcomings he told us he fell in love. with this country as soon as he. immigrated. he's now a US citizen who fell for an.

Iraq war veteran I married someone who's. very American yeah she was a medic in. the in the US Army and now we're married. with two American Kids you do love to. poke fun at America does it trouble you. that some people think that criticizing. this place means you don't love it yeah. I mean I just think that's utterly. absurd I think you can criticize. something because you love it because.

you love it and you want it to get. better he told us in his personal life. he's risk a verse but when it comes to. Comedy John Oliver loves to stir up. trouble so if you were to look into your. crystal ball mhm what's next other than. uh living in the president's gulags in. the future that's what my crystal ball. is show me right now what's next I have. no idea hopefully just more of this keep. doing what you're doing yeah it's so fun.

I can it's incredibly hard not. infrequently stressful but it's really. really fun as long as America has. systemic. problems we'll be there poking fun at. them what John Oliver loves most about. standup you are only one gig away from. bombing at 60 minutes overtime .

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