“Think of us as more iO than Second City, more Del Close than Bernie Sahlins” says Jordan Klepper of “The Daily Show,” showing off his Chicago improv bonafides. “This is the closest thing on TV to doing live theater.”
Klepper is in town this week with “The Daily Show,” which is broadcasting all week from the Athenaeum Center for Thought and Culture in Lakeview, even as rival Stephen Colbert takes up residence at the Auditorium Theatre downtown.
The historic Athenaeum is, as you might expect, delighted with the high-profile booking: “It’s thrilling to see history and the present unite on our stage,” said executive director Lawrence Daufenbach. “The energy is palpable.”
Under the theme, “Indecision 2024,” “The Daily Show” plans to beam itself out from the Athenaeum each night of the convention, taping at 5 p.m. from Monday through Wednesday before switching Thursday to a live broadcast with the show’s signature talent, Jon Stewart, coming after the concluding convention session. Scheduled guests this week include Rep. Lauren Underwood on Tuesday and Maryland Gov. Wes Moore on Wednesday; Klepper himself will host on Wednesday night.
According to executive producer and showrunner Jen Flanz, the show’s writers plan to toil away all morning, prior to a 1:30 p.m. rehearsal. After the early evening taping, she said, “we all go to a big room together and watch the convention and then start prepping the following day’s show.” Flanz said that around 170 people are at work on this week’s broadcasts from Chicago, including technical crews.
“I’ve been revisiting all my old haunts,” Klepper said of his pre-taped segments, which he prepared this past weekend. “Guthrie’s Tavern. The Gingerman. The idea is to celebrate Chicago.”
By late-night TV standards, Klepper, 45, is a longtime veteran of the craft; he joined “The Daily Show” (which dates all the way back to 1996) in 2014, surviving the host transition from Jon Stewart to Trevor Noah. He left for a while to work on his own show, “The Opposition with Jordan Klepper” (which was cancelled in 2018) and then returned to “The Daily Show” in 2019 and stayed. He’s also the rare talent who does so-called “field work,” or creating pretaped segments on location, and also appears behind the desk.
Second City was where he began his career. Klepper joined the Second City Training Center after college in Michigan, moving on to the old Second City companies on cruise ships and then joining the touring company. While in Chicago, he also appeared in such comedy shows around town as “Whirled News Tonight,” “The Late Night Late Show” and “The Beatbox.”
“These conventions are like summer camps for all of us at ‘The Daily Show,’” Klepper said. “We get to uproot our lives, go to a new place and put on a fun show.”
“The Daily Show,” broadcasts at 10 p.m. Aug. 19-22 on Comedy Central and is streamed on Paramount+ and other platforms. “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” broadcasts at 10:35 p.m. Aug. 19-22 on CBS and is streamed on Paramount+.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com