Stephen Colbert: Your Backstage Pass to the Finale

It was a surreal night. I walked into the studio for Stephen Colbert's final show as the bombastic, charmingly buffoonish character that so many have loved for the past 9 years, and felt like it was the most bizarre cross section of humanity assembled in one place.

Wow.

There's Francis Collins of the NIH, the guy who mapped the human genome. Karim Abdul-Jabbar is sitting across from Toby Keith. Oh, hey Saul, I mean Mandy Patinkin. I hope I'll see you again on Sunday night. How do I love thee, former poet laureate Robert Pinsky? Jeff Daniels. Yo-Yo Ma. Andy Cohen. Doris Kearns Goodwin. Yo Dr. Kissinger.

To read more names, my friend David Gregory took a shot of the guest list:

Backstage Colbert Finale
Backstage Colbert Finale

Related: Watch 'The Colbert Report' and More Comedy Central Videos on Yahoo Screen

We were divided into different rooms and assigned to groups. I was Group 4: Ken Burns, Andrew Sullivan (who's been on the show a record number of times), Ric Ocasek and David Hallberg, a dancer with the ABT and the Bolshoi ballet. We were asked to learn a well-known song from World War II, "We'll Meet Again." (Recorded by Dame Vera Lynn, it was also featured in the final scene of “Dr. Strangelove.”)

For some reason, I took it upon myself to ensure that people knew the song and the words because I didn't want a bunch of us to look clueless out there, including myself. Here's our motley crew of David Hallberg, Mark Cuban, Ken Burns, Keith Olbermann, Jeff Daniels, Charlie Rose and Andy Cohen, giving it our best shot with the version I found on Youtube. You can see why this was a sentimental favorite for soldiers going off to war and the sweethearts and families they left behind.

Backstage Colbert Finale
Backstage Colbert Finale

 

Backstage Colbert Finale
Backstage Colbert Finale

We practiced singing it a bunch of times with Mark Cuban, Jeff Daniels, Charlie Rose, and later Samantha Power, who seemed to really appreciate the rehearsal time. I think she's been pretty busy dealing with North Korea and other global hot spots and was happy to have a break.

Backstage Colbert Finale
Backstage Colbert Finale

We were given our marching orders, told where to stand in the studio, went through the "number" a few times and then waited for our big moment. Here's the final product ... including a brief dance with David. Hey, when a guy who spends a lot of his life in tights offers to trip the light fantastic with you, even for a few seconds, you need to be accommodating!

The takeaway from last night is that Stephen Colbert deserves every bit of success that has come his way. He's brilliant and funny and brilliantly funny, but what comes shining through … in seemingly all aspects of his life — his devotion to his family, his appreciation of his colleagues and extreme bro love for Jon Stewart, his graciousness with every guest — is his sheer decency.

In fact, on his own big night, he took center stage after the show to thank all his guests and team. Stephen said to the crowd gathered around him, "You gave me so much to care about. I'm not a journalist, but you all made me explorers of other people's ideas."

I was the dork running around with my phone recording videos of some of the people who showed up last night. (Yes, Bob Costas, it's come to this.) Think of it as my ragtag but heartfelt love letter from a myriad of people who appreciate, respect and just plain like Stephen Colbert. This is one of the good guys ... and thank goodness for all of us, we'll meet again!

 

Backstage Colbert Finale
Backstage Colbert Finale