On Tuesday the adorably middle-named Jennifer 8 Lee appeared on the Colbert Report to promote her book, the Fortune Cookie Chronicles. It was a middle of the road interview. She took questions with grace and some savvy, perhaps shilling below the AP level but certainly not embarrassing herself. But being unremarkable takes an incredible amount of work. A%uFFFDJenny-penned piece claims%uFFFDit took a total of three advisors – friends familiar with the inner workings of winning a Colbert interview, including a writer for The Daily Show.
That she needed extra prep is strong statement about the host. Lee not only has some experience being interviewed about the book, but has also%uFFFD%uFFFDbeen an%uFFFDinterviewer - she's a reporter for the New York Times.
Be mediocre the Jennifer 8 way:%uFFFD
- "…it's a t%uFFFDte-%uFFFD-t%uFFFDte where he's trying to be funny while the author is trying to get her point across. Sometimes those goals converge, sometimes they don't. So in advance, my friends brainstormed on which of my points he might jump on. My friend Alexis (a huge Colbert fan) sent me an e-mail predicting how Colbert might respond to my argument that Chinese food is more American than apple pie given how much we eat apple pie versus Chinese food, and how I should recover from that.
Colbert: I eat apple pie every morning - with a jack and coke - and a bald eagle egg omlette.
Jenny: Well, there are exceptions - and you are clearly an exceptional American - for most would say Chinese food." - "The only way to come off looking bad is to try and out-funny [him]."
- "Colbert comes from an improv tradition and the first rule in improv is never deny. In other words, treat the outrageous things that he says at face value and segue into your points - don't brush them off. And keep talking. He needs the author to keep talking in order to riff."
Also, own a television and have seen a full episode of the show. Lee%uFFFDsays she%uFFFDhad succeeded in%uFFFDneither.
