JON STEWART IS SERIOUS – AND NOT SO SERIOUS
Jon Stewart on hosting the Warrior Games in Colorado Springs, and his return to stand-up
One of the ways Jon Stewart has kept busy since stepping down as host of “The Daily Show” in 2015 has been honoring people he considers real-life heroes.
On Wednesday, Stewart announced a new section of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum at the World Trade Center dedicated to first responders. Just a few days later in Colorado Springs, he will kick off the ninth annual Warrior Games, which unites about 300 wounded, ill and injured service members and veterans from all branches of the military in an 11sport, Paralympics-style competition.
Stewart and his Comedy Central series won plenty of fans and Emmys during their 1999-2015 run, so Stewart wants to use his star power to shine a light on veterans, and their recovery and rehabilitation. The Warrior Games began as a way of supporting that in 2010, with events run by the U.S. Olympic Committee headquartered in Colorado Springs.
Now the Department of Defense steers the ship, and it’s bringing the games back to the Air Force Academy grounds after a few years away from the Springs. Competitions include archery, cycling, shooting, sitting volleyball, swimming, track and field, and wheelchair basketball (and new this year: indoor rowing, powerlifting and time trial cycling).
is not the only star lending a hand. Pop singer and “The Voice” judge Kelly Clarkson will perform a free but at-capacity concert as part of the opening celebration at Falcon Stadium on June 2, with Stewart as master of ceremonies.
We caught up with Stewart over the phone from his home in New Jersey to talk about how he got involved, what keeps him coming back, and what’s next for him in entertainment (hint: it involves a much bigger tour with Dave Chappelle than he first revealed last month).
Q: So the last couple years must have gone pretty well if you’re doing this again? Top: Former "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart congratulates Christopher Dieke on his Heart of the Team Award presented at the United Center during the 2017 Warrior Games in Chicago in July. Photo courtesy of EJ Hersom Above: Army National Lt. J.R. Salzman raises his arm as he crosses the finish line second in the Men's 30K Bicycle Disability race at the Warrior Games in Colorado Springs in 2013. The Department of Defense is bring the games back to Colorado in June with Jon Stewart as the master of ceremonies. Helen H. Richardson, Denver Post file
A: Last year (in Chicago) was the epitome of what we had talked about all along: trying to give it more of a feel for the athletes of an event that was captivating a city. And man, I couldn’t believe it. When we got into Chicago there were giant banners everywhere with the athlete’s pictures on them. And Chicago is not an easy city to penetrate. But they did a phenomenal job of raising the profile. We basically went from family and friends and caregivers at West Point (in 2016) to Soldier Field in Chicago.
Q: No doubt your celebrity has helped raise the profile.
A: I’m also there to provide a counterweight. Basically, they’re great athletes and it’s always nice to have someone there who needs help picking up a loose leaf notebook. It gives them more of a sense of accomplishment! But seriously, it’s not just “pay attention to these poor people, they’ve had a tough time.” It’s really about being inspired by this event that maybe you didn’t even know was occurring.These incredibly resilient athlete-warriors refuse to be defined by this one bad day.
Q: As odd as it is for some people to think of it that way, it’s true: A lot of these people’s lives were changed by one bad day at work.
A: You talk to (Colorado Springs resident) Israel Del Toro, who was really badly hurt in Afghanistan — 100 percent disabled — and rejoined the Air Force and he’ll say, “I just had a bad day at work.” And he’s not trying to minimize his suffering or the suffering of others. They’ve all been to really dark places. It’s about identity. Who are they if they’re not able-bodied? Watching adaptive sports reconnects them to camaraderie and their team and their own families. A lot of them will tell you, “I got on that bike” or “I started firing on the archery range and suddenly I was me again.” You feel them coming back, and it’s powerful. So not only is it incredibly impressive in its own right, but I think the country as a whole could use a little of their inspiration and resilience.
Q: Will you be co-hosting ESPN’s “SportsCenter” again from the games?
A: Yes, and they’ve been great. Hannah Storm is going to come out and we’re going to do “SportsCenter” from there. We just went and shot a really nice profile with Maj. (Christina) Truesdale down at Fort Benning and she’s a great feature athlete who has this incredible story. She was ROTC and became a veterinarian, then deployed to Iraq as a sort of liaison. She went in and worked with the Kurds in the north and was stationed in Tikrit in the Sunni Triangle area, surrounded by Bathists and the insurgency. They have incredible dogs that work there as soldiers and suffer with their fellow soldiers, so she’d put them back together. She was notified by special ops they’d like her to join with them. But through these deployments she suffered some really debilitating injuries in her back and neck, and ended up having this crazy injury where they untethered her spine. She went to a dark place, but found her way back to being herself and is competing at this year’s Warrior Games. Stories like that are everywhere. Each individual has this amazing narrative.
Q: You keep mentioning “dark places.” PTSD seems like an obvious and common problem among service members, but what is something else most people don’t appreciate about serving?
A: They’re isolated to begin with, as it’s a very small percentage of the population that serves. They and their families make a great sacrifice that we don’t have in front of us or see all the time — maybe by design. These are people whose loved ones are deployed overseas for four to five years at a time. Even on their best days, this is a population that deserves much more attention and much better lives than they often get. Let alone being wounded. That isolates you even more — even from your own branches, or your own, or fellow soldiers. Many of them feel, “If I’m not that, I’m nothing.” And getting back to their adaptive sports puts them back in that unit again. It’s all those things that drove them to service in the first place.
Q: I know you got involved with the Warrior Games after hiring veterans on “The Daily Show” and befriending the head of American Corporate Partners (a nonprofit that transitions service members into civilian roles).
A: Right, and in the same way that hiring veterans isn’t just, “Oh, let’s lend a helping hand to a poor vet,” this is about understanding that these are people. It’s tremendous human capital that we have in our armed services, and we started an internship program for vets at (”The Daily Show”) and ended up hiring like three of them. It’s not about helping about them, it’s about realizing how much they still have left to give. And if we tap that resource, it’s not to their benefit but to ours.
Q: When did you first really become aware of the military growing up?
A: My father had been in the Army, but we were a typical immigrant story — lower middleclass — and the service was a means of financial stability and paying for education. That sort of strata continues to this day. But for me, I was pretty typical in that I just went along my way and didn’t really think about it. And again, I’d like to stress I do think some of that is by design. The less we think about it, the less we think about if they are being utilized correctly, protected effectively and cared for back home effectively. It’s all the questions of our obligation to them that don’t have to be answered if we don’t ask the questions in the first place. For me, that came into focus during the Iraq War.
Q: Can you describe what it feels like to watch the games?
A: The beauty of this country is that we are, by our nature, sports-obsessed and focused on competition. And that’s the thing people might not realize about this: It’s fierce. It’s one thing to see the Jets and Giants, or in your case the Broncos and the Raiders, or the Broncos and the Chiefs, on the field. But man, that ain’t (expletive) compared to the Marines going up against the Air Force. That’s a rivalry. Those guys, they go at it and you feel the energy. They fight like hell, but at the end of it they’re also family, so it’s this incredible feeling of everybody going in there and giving it their best while reveling in the competition.
But you’ll be taken by the personal stories of people who really climbed out of a hole. At West Point we saw a triple amputee who had let himself go, and been through terrible trauma both physically and emotionally, and had seen friends pass. But he found solace in the pool. And to be there when he competed ...
Q: It would seem to give people something to feel good about in this age of permanent outrage and sarcasm. Speaking of which: Will you be announcing any more dates of that three-city tour with Dave Chappelle?
A: It’s so hard for us to line up our schedules sometimes, but we’re really hoping we can bang out some of these dates and then put together something a little more extensive after that, because we’d love to do a variety of places — holes in the wall to larger venues — and just play around with it. We want to do our own stuff but also some stuff together on stage. We’re trying to figure it out right now but I’m sure it’s going to happen.
Q: Have you felt a lot of excitement about your return to standup?
A: Well, I’ve had a lot of people say, “Man, can you get me Chappelle tickets?” And I’m like, “You don’t understand — I’m going to be there too.”