I don’t think there’s an official written version of what I’ll be performing tonight. I have a lot of notes and a lot of structure, but I’m still kind of redoing it every night. It’s nice to try new things and know that there are new things to do. I mean, it just reminds you that the end of the world is not the end of the world. 

 

RS: What are your ultimate goals, career-wise?

 

JH: It’s a big question for me, because, as I discuss in the show to a certain degree, my career became so different, very quickly, from what I ever expected it could be, and went so far beyond what I could have realistically hoped for. I mean, I had a pretty nice career as a writer of books and magazines and I thought that was great, and I thought that was it. But I love comedies, you know, and I love performing and I love movies and TV… but it never occurred to me that I would be able to make a career somewhere in those fields, because I just figured I didn’t start early enough. So it all just went so far past plausible imagination that it sort of blew my mind.

 

RS: Do you attribute that success to the commercials and The Daily Show?

 

JH: Yeah. [They] happened in the Spring of 2006. I went on The Daily Show to promote my book in November of 2005, so that’s almost eight years ago. And then in January 2006 they asked me back to be a regular on the show, and I felt that was the strangest thing that would ever happen to me. Then in March I was asked to audition for the ads, and by mid-April, I got the job. The ads brought this face and body, which I felt was unsuitable for television, to millions and millions of eyes. And because those ads became so culturally prominent, it raised my profile. But equally, and not to diminish it, television ads pay very well.