• ~• • • • , ..,•• 4. • .1.-- 4, 44' ..•4 • •••$4, ,, •.:• 1; • , • •,. DO SOMETHING USEFUL DURING YOUR GRACE PERIOD. LIKE PAYING BACK YOUR STUDENT LOAN BEFORE INTEREST KICKS IN. , , 7 • • - „•„; v?" - • , , • -•'.• '-` 4 !`t, • `' " Ni kyr.' ti,)l\ifil A\4141?!i,,,.„. wit J" IMMO Friday, November 8, 2002 Virginia college students treated to standup Q&A with Jon Stewart by Mike Holtzclaw Newport News (Va.) Daily Press There are Q&A sessions, and then there's what Jon Stewart gave at Will iam and Mary Hall recently. Stewart -- star of Comedy Central's Enemy-winning "The Daily Show," host of the past two Grammy Award shows, and a member of Witham and Mary's graduating class of 1984 re- Mary, and when "There will be a day when the moderates rule he coached the the country, when gays will be able to get mar ried and you won't be able to sue someone because your hot coffee was actually hot. When you take that stuff out, the reasonable people will be in charge." turned to the campus for homecoming weekend and did a free question-and answer session for about 4,000 students who crowded into the auditorium. Questions, submitted by students and read by members of the University Centers Activities Board, were asked The Behrend Beacon and answered, so technically it was a Q&A. But in style and content, much to the delight of the crowd, it was an uproarious display of improvisational standup comedy with the occasional life lesson tossed in for good measure. "Whatever you do," he said in re sponse to a question about preparing for a career, "don't add to the suckiness that's out there. There's a lot of medi ocrity. Don't add to it." -Jon Stewart his homecoming appearance, there was no mistaking the edgy, topical and fre quently profane wit that has made Stewart a star. Stewart, 40, explained that while making the drive from New York along Interstate 95, he celebrated the arrest of the sniper suspects by "stopping for gas every live minutes and dancing at the pump." Asked about the moving speech he gave on the first "Daily Show" telecast after the Sept. I I ter rorist attacks, he replied, "The funny thing is, I wrote that speech in July and told myself, 'Boy, I hope I never have to use this.'" Stewart mocked banal questions such as the most important thing he learned in college "What adult proctor se lected these questions'?" - hut went to town on the .hip per submissions.. Qnd , • . • • • N. et student said he onoe had"someone tell him he looked like Jon Stewart. and wondered why that person laughed while making the comparison. Stewart replied that television k "a great equal izer." and suggested that if you put a grapefruit on TV, some people would find themselves sexually attracted to citrus fruit. "So the reason that person was laugh ing," Stewart said. "is because of the sad juxtaposition of how your life would he if you were on TV. If you look like me and you're on TV, there arc people who find you interesting. You look like me and you're not on TV, vou're alone." Melissa Anderson would disagree. She and her friends, fellow sophomores Kristen McAlister and Rachel Miller, came to the event with handmade signs proclaiming Stewart "W& M's dreami est alum." Stewart's answers did noth ing to change their opinion, even as he reminded his audience that he gradu ated college the same year that some of them were horn. "lie was great," Anderson said. "When you hear that it's a Q&A ses sion, you don't know if he's going to he serious or funny, or if it's going to he exciting or boring. But this was fantas tic." Aware of the strong social and po litical themes of the comedy in "The Daily Show," one student asked what Stewart considered to he "the most per tinent issue facing our country today." Stewart demurred, hut then observed that the biggest political divide is not between Republicans and Democrats, not between liberals and conservatives. "Really," he said, "it's between rea sonable people and extremist knuckleheads on both sides. The left, through the ACLU, has largely para lyzed the legal system. and the right, through big business, has largely para lyzed the wealth. But there will come a time when the disaffected middle will take control. and that will he you guys. "There will be a day when the mod erates rule the country, when gays will be able to get married and you won't be able to sue someone because your hot coffee was actually hot. When you take that stuff out, the reasonable people will be in charge." Page 5 When he played soccer at William and Gloucester (Va. ) High School boys soccer team to the first victory in the program's history, he was still going by his real name, Jonathan Stewart Liehowitz. But in
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