Stephen Colbert: A Gift from the Comedy Gods

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out

Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out podcast

Mikebirbiglia, Comedy, Dontthinktwice, Comedy Interviews, Thenewone, Iraglass, Interviews, Thankgodforjokes, Birbiglia, Mygirlfriendsboyfriend, Sleepwalkwithme

4.8 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 5 January 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Best of WIO: Stephen Colbert (Recorded January 2025) This week the legendary Stephen Colbert returns to the podcast. Mike and Stephen discuss the behind-the-scenes of Stephen’s Late Night job as well as his Chicago improv days. Stephen talks wisdom passed down to him by David Letterman, Del Close, and Mike Nichols, and shares what makes him cry most easily. Plus, Stephen’s thoughts on meeting George Lucas and the Pope.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	My first person I studied in improv with was Del Close.
0:06.8	And a lot of people had a guru relationship to him.
0:10.2	Some people, not a lot, but some people did.
0:12.1	I never did.
0:13.6	I mean, out of, like, probably when I was younger,
0:16.1	I was too emotionally distant to actually allow myself to join the cult.
0:20.3	You know what I mean? And also too much of a skeptic to get involved in the cult, even though some part of myself, the part whose father died when he was young was like, you be my daddy. It was, I'm sure, in there. But I never acting on it. That's a fitting aside to say, he used to say you're not improvising. You're just letting the universe channel through you if you just open up all your senses. That's it. Your job is to open up all the stops on the organ. That's it. So it can just flow through you. And he would take out his little pentagram and put it on his chest before he performed because he said the stage was a sacred space. And it is.
0:54.8	I mean, showstoppers.
0:57.1	Stephen Colbert throwing showstop and pitches all day.
1:04.4	Happy New Year, everybody.
1:10.1	It's Mike Barbiglia. We are back with Working It Out,
1:14.0	2026. That was the voice of the great Stephen Colbert. This is a rear of an episode from
1:19.9	almost exactly a year ago. January 2025, we loved having Stephen in the studio.
1:28.5	It was such a dream.
1:30.5	I've been on his show many, many times.
1:32.6	I've been a fan of his for so many years.
1:35.0	The late show is Stephen Colbert, the Colbert Report,
1:38.4	The Daily Show, Strangers with a Candy, on and on and on.
1:42.8	One of the great highlights of the year.
1:44.8	In a week, we will be back with an all-new episode with Sarah Sherman from Sarah
1:49.2	Night Live.
1:50.5	But today, I hope you enjoy Stephen Colbert.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 22 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out podcast, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mike Birbiglia's Working It Out podcast and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.