Spotted in New York: Stephen Colbert Marquis on the Ed Sullivan Theater

He’s already got great guests lined up. “I like George Clooney in light of the fact that he’s a splendid performer, an extraordinary executive and he thinks about the world”. I mean, how many celebrities have their own spy satellite? “That’s theology. I want to get to the religion”. He did announce Kendrick Lamar – the final Colbert Report performer – as his inaugural musical guest and later tweeted that Jeb Bush will be the first politician stopping by.

“I just want to say”. We’re very tight. I’m in Lake Cuomo all the time. As for the battle to be first in the ratings, “I didn’t play a lot of sports as a kid”, he said. “I don’t think anybody would have watched (‘The Colbert Report’) if they didn’t know I was playing a character – that guy was a real tool”.

“Not having to run everything I say through the character’s bible in my head is really lovely”, he said.

“About 10 days before Dave went off the air (in May)”, Colbert told TV writers here, “I spent about an hour and a half at his office and asked him questions”. I simply hope he’s taking his nutritional vitamins.

Besides, his “Colbert” character was “actively ignorant”, and Colbert himself clearly is anything but. During the press conference, he made the announcement casually saying, “My last musical guest [on The Colbert Report] was Kendrick Lamar, and I would love for him to be my first musical guest”. “I don’t feel like I have to come out of the gate knowing everything”. “I do know that the idea of war between hosts makes no sense to me”, Colbert explained. “My success doesn’t take away from anyone else”. And fighting amongst each other doesn’t sound amusing. “There’s no joke there, so I’m not interested”. But things change, and they change fast. They liked the show I used to do. “That’s why I wanted that day”, Colbert said. Don’t do anything unsafe; don’t ride any motorcycles …

Colbert memorably mocked Trump’s presidential announcement this past spring in a viral video that saw him imitate The Donald’s infamous hairstyle. Colbert said he had a long afternoon meeting with his predecessor, David Letterman, during which he asked Letterman if there was anything he’d wished he’d done differently.

“I’m a comedian, but my favorite thing on the (‘Report’) became doing the interviews”, he added – not the scripted material. And we’re probably never going to hear it.

Colbert didn’t give up too much about his specific plans for the format of his show.