Jon Stewart has climbed from
the comedy circuit to late-night talk.

ALICE BURDICK SCHWEIGER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

on Stewart smiles a lot in his New
York City. Two years ago, he was a
stand-up comic trying to make folks laugh
at comedy clubs, and today he is host of
the hip late-night "Jon Stewart Show."
Seen at midnight on Channel 2 in Detroit,
his competition may be Letterman, Leno
and Conan O'Brien, but Mr. Stewart has
something to offer that his rivals do not—
a more casual approach, targeted at the
youthful Generation Xers.
"My show in not as pressurized as the
other ones," said the 32-year-old host.
"We are a little less restrictive, even
though we are a network and have the
same network constraints as other shows."
Laid-back and boyishly charming, Mr.
Stewart possesses a unique sense of humor
rooted in his slightly off-kilter view of the
world. As an ex-veejay on MTV, Mr. Stew-
art likes to feature cutting-edge musicians
and bands. And as a stand-up comic, he
keeps his guests on their toes with quick-wit-
ted ad libs during interviews.
Indeed, his off-camera persona is very
similar to his nice-guy TV image. His show
is seen in 140 markets, which is about 92
percent of the country. (While his show
mostly airs at 12:30 a.m., the Detroit time
slot changed in November when CBS moved
to Channel 62 and Fox switched to Chan-
nel 2.)
"Depending on the night, we are often
No. 1 in Atlanta, New York and Seattle,"
said Mr. Stewart, who adds that his ratings
were higher in Detroit before the network
switch.
The self-described "wise guy in the fami-
ly," Mr. Stewart was born Jonathan Stewart
Leibowitz in Lawrence, N.J. (He insists he
dropped the Leibowitz to protect his family,
not because it was too ethnic.) His mother,
a teacher, and father, a physicist, divorced
when he was a small boy.
Mr. Stewart claims he knew early on that
he was funny. "My brother was very smart
and capable and I thought, 'HI am going to
get any attention in this house, I had better
start cracking some jokes.' "
He spent his college years at William and
Mary, where he played varsity soccer and
learned what it was like to be a minority. "It

was an eye-opener for me—I grew up among
Jews, and at college I met a lot of kids who
never knew a Jew before me." He also played
soccer in the Pan Am Maccabi Games in
1983.
In four years, he ended up with a degree
in psychology without any intention of pur-
suing that field. "I wanted to pursue some-
thing creative, so I started bartending," he
said. "And that was only the beginning of a
slew of bizarre jobs, including working with
mosquitoes in a lab."
With his love for comedy and a desire to
perform, Mr. Stewart decided he was des-
tined to become a stand-up comic. Af-
ter mustering up the courage, he
started from the bottom, playing
the comedy-club circuit in New
York's Greenwich Village and
around the United States.
Sometimes he bombed and
was once yanked off the stage be-
fore finishing his act.
One of his first stints was at the
Comedy Castle in Detroit. "I followed
a guy that was great, a local guy, and
I was really nervous. I had never
done 45 minutes alone before," he
recalled.
But Mr. Stewart finally per-
fected his offbeat stand-up act.
After a booking at Caesar's
Palace in Las Vegas, he ap-
peared in HBO's "Young Come-
dians" and hosted Comedy
Central's "Short Attention Span
Theater." That recognition
landed him the host job at
MTV's ill-fated "You
Wrote it, You Watch it."
Although the program
was short lived, it led to
"The Jon Stewart Show,"
which debuted in October
1993 on MTV. Within a
year, the show was picked up for
syndication and premiered on Sept.
12, 1994.
"We launched on the High Holy Days
and I felt uncomfortable about that," he
admitted. "I kept thinking about Sandy
Koufax who wouldn't pitch on Yom Kip-
pur during the World Series, and the sec-
ond night of my show fell on Yom Kippur.
Let's just say there was a lot of atoning
when the show was over!"
Mr. Stewart was a little ill at ease do-
ing celebrity interviews. "Until you real-
ly understand the dynamics of an
interview, you find yourself stepping on
the guest," he said. "But I learned that
if a guest is holding back, I have to car-
ry it. If they are forthcoming, I have to
pull back. When a host can turn a bad in-
terview into something cool, that's good
television."
Although many big names have walked
across Mr. Stewart's stage, he is still the
new kid on the block and doesn't always draw
the hottest superstars in the movie industry.
That's why, he claims, he goes out of his way
to accommodate the guests.
Unlike some veterans in the business who
refuse to be told what questions not to ask,
he will honor any request. "We are not ex-
actly the 800-pound gorilla in the business,
we are more like the roach motel," he chuck-
led.
Despite his modesty, Mr. Stewart has al-

most a cult following. He is recognized wher-
ever he goes and no longer has to wait for a
table at a restaurant—although he claims he
mostly eats at greasy pizza joints that only
have counters.
At present, he lives alone, if you don't
count a couple of cats that keep him warm
after a long, 12-hour workday. He did have
a long-term, live-in relationship that ended
in a friendship, and he would like to find an-
other significant other.
"It's nice to have someone to share the good
times and the bad times with," he said.
"Within a one-week period last year, I had
the worst moment and the greatest mo-
ment of my life. I was in the Los An-
geles earthquake and a few days

later on the Letterman show. I wished I had
someone to call besides my mom."
For sure, stardom has not gone to Mr.
Stewart's head. He is happy with what he is
doing and takes nothing for granted. "It's
been a wild ride this past year-and-a-half,
but I know better than to be complacent," he
said. "I know how quickly things can turn.
I just have to believe this is where I belong,
and no matter what, perseverance will keep
me here."

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