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Personal
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Colbert was an
avid fantasy RPG player as an adolescent, a pastime to which he
partly attributes his interest in acting. He was known to be an
enthusiast of Lord of the Rings and the fantasy game Dungeons &
Dragons , a fascination that began in high school. When Viggo
Mortensen appeared on The Daily Show , a sound-clip was played
of Colbert reciting the detailed lineage and personal history of
Mortensen's character, Aragorn . To reciprocate, Mortensen sent
Colbert a platter of Lord of the Rings characters molded in
chocolate . Stewart quipped that the gift would give Colbert a
"four-hour erection ." Later, on June 7 , 2006 , Colbert noticed
that CNN had, in its coverage of June 6 (6/6/06) put the picture
of a Balrog in place of a devil . He spent a minute describing
the difference between devils and Balrogs: "A devil is a fallen
angel who refused to follow God and followed Satan into Hell ;
Balrogs are Maiar who refused to follow Eru and followed Morgoth
into Thangorodrim ."
Colbert is deaf in his right ear , as he has no ear drum in it.
"I always wanted to be a marine biologist ... but then I had
this ear problem. I have no ear drum. (Flicks his ear.) So I had
this operation at the Medical University when I was a kid. Now I
can't get my head wet. I mean, I can, but I can't really scuba
dive or anything like that. So that killed my marine biology
hopes." He once joked to The New Yorker that "I had this
weird tumor as a kid, and they scooped it out with a melon
baller." On March 16 , 2006 , Colbert featured a review from
Orlando Sentinel columnist Commander Coconut in his "Who's
Attacking Me Now?" segment. The review stated that Coconut was
unable to pay attention to anything but Colbert's ears, as his
right one sticks out slightly. In a call to Coconut regarding
the review, Colbert stated that the doctor also noticed it stuck
out slightly when he pulled the tumor out. Colbert continued his
diatribe for several minutes to the growing mortification of
Coconut. After the replay of the phone conversation, however,
Colbert stated that he had not in fact had a tumor in his ear.
Professional life
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Colbert was named as one of Time magazine's
100 Most Influential People for 2006.
Within twenty-four hours over the weekend of April 29-30, 2006,
Colbert was the keynote speaker at the White House
Correspondents' Association Dinner ; co-hosted Saturday Night
Live as the voice of animated character Ace, with Steve Carell's
Gary; and was profiled on 60 Minutes .
Colbert was the commencement speaker for the class of 2006 at
Knox College . Colbert also received an honorary Doctor of Fine
Arts Degree from the college on June 3, 2006. [22] On the June
8, 2006 show his Executive Producer credit changed to Dr Stephen
T. Colbert D.F.A. to reflect this.
Colbert performed, in his deadpan newsanchor voice, the opening
narration of the play / film Hedwig and the Angry Inch ("On
August 13 , 1961 , in the middle of the city of Berlin ...") as
a track for the Wig in a Box (2003) CD, a compilation of music
from and inspired by the play / film. His narration segues into
Spoon performing "Tear Me Down."
Colbert read the part of Leopold Bloom in Bloomsday on Broadway
XXIV: Love Literature Language Lust: Leopold's Women Bloom on
June 16, 2005 at Symphony Space in New York City. Bloomsday is
the annual celebration of one of literature's most famous days,
June 16 , 1904, from James Joyce 's Ulysses .
The San Francisco Zoo recently named a baby bald eagle after
Colbert. He features clips of the bird occasionally on his show.
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