So, it's just you and me, groundrules?

A 'Daily' dose
Jon Stewart finds plenty to laugh about in Ohio’s zany campaign season

Molly Willow
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Before a taping of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, audience members are directed to do two things: use the restroom and laugh properly.

The appropriate response to the satire of the Comedy Central show isn’t a chortle or guffaw. Instead, warm-up man Paul Mercurio explained, only a deep "Ha!" from the diaphragm will do.

Last night, a capacity crowd of 250 inside Ohio State University’s Drake Performance and Event Center needed little urging to express their appreciation of Stewart’s politically themed humor and a visit from Cleveland Cavalier LeBron James.

The 6 p.m. taping was the first of four planned this week as part of "Battlefield Ohio: The Daily Show’s Midwest Midterm Midtacular."

Stewart took questions from the crowd before the program began with a version of the regular intro: "From The Daily Show’s world news headquarters-slash-branch office at the Ohio State University … "

In his introduction, the host pondered the selection of Columbus for the show’s fifth-ever election-related road trip.

"Is it because Ohio’s values mirror America’s values? Or perhaps were Ohioans sent here by the future? "

"The 2004 election was decided here," Stewart continued, "and, oh, by the way — thanks."

Stewart frequently strayed from the exact wording of the Teleprompters mounted on each of three cameras and seemed unflustered by random chants of "OH-IO."

The taping for the 30-minute show took place in near-real time, with previously recorded segments projected on six televisions above the audience and loud music blaring during commercial breaks.

As regular viewers of the program know, "correspondents" frequently file reports from far-flung places that seem suspiciously like a studio.

In one of the early bits, Samantha Bee "reported" from Shaker Heights, Dan Bakkedahl from Youngstown and Jason Jones from Cincinnati.

All stood within 12 feet of one another, ringing the stage. As they spoke into the camera to Stewart, who was sitting near them, the televisions showed each in front of an Applebee’s restaurant.

The segment was OSU senior Sammy Usmani’s favorite.

"I thought it was hilarious," said Usmani, 21, who brought his 18-year-old freshman brother, Zach, instead of his roommate because Zach had scored tickets to the Michigan State road game.

Tony Logan, 54, of Hilliard, heard about The Daily Show’s plans to visit Columbus while attending a taping in New York, the show’s home base. He immediately requested tickets.

The show’s writers, Logan said afterward, did "a spectacular job of tailoring the show to Columbus."

The clearly partisan crowd loudly booed any Republican references, notably a video clip of the final Ohio gubernatorial debate in which GOP candidate J. Kenneth Blackwell accused Democrat Ted Strickland of supporting NAMBLA (the North American Man/Boy Love Association).

"How many points down in the fourth quarter do you have to be before you throw the hail-NAMBLA?" Stewart asked to applause.

With only 1,000 tickets available for the four tapings combined, seats were at a premium. Comedy Central received more than 7,000 ticket requests, a staff member said.

OSU Theater Department Chairman Mark Shanda, who helped coordinate the visit, said the school’s contract with The Daily Show guaranteed that 70 percent of the tickets would be distributed by the university.

The students who replied first to a publicized e-mail address received priority, Shanda said, but some tickets also went to alumni and OSU employees.

After waiting up to three hours to get into the Roy Bowen Theatre, audience members were directed to their seats by show staff members or Theater Department students.

A DJ played high-energy rock music before Mercurio took the mike.

Mercurio took frequent shots at Stewart’s diminutive stature, calling him a "tiny man" enough times that one of the pretaping questions from the audience was: "How short are you exactly? "

Although Stewart demurred (a staff member put him at about 5 feet 7 inches), the point was further made when 6-foot-8 guest LeBron James strode out.

OSU professor John Mueller is his guest Wednesday, followed Thursday by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in character as Borat.

No guest is planned for today, although several local politicians were invited.

Explained Stewart: "We did ask pretty much all of them, Gov. (Bob) Taft, Ken Blackwell. Apparently many of them are either preparing to leave office or go to prison."

And the crowd laughed: Ha!

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Explains why we commoners didn't have a chance at tickets.[/img]