He can sense the accusation coming—and with some justification. Maher is the host of Politically Incorrect, the irreverent talk show that moved from Comedy Central to ABC in January. Kilborn, 32, is the host of The Daily Show, which took over PI's 11 p.m. spot on Comedy Central. And so far so funny. The handsome, 6'4" Mid-westerner has become the channel's poster boy, and his show—a sharper, irony-drenched version of Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update"—is already drawing larger audiences than Maher's did during its first two years.
The secret of The Daily Show's success, says its host, is that it is a veritable bouillabaisse of humor. "I hit viewers with different types of humor," says Kilborn, who deadpans one-liners like "Olestra. You're sitting in it," before a studio audience. "There's highbrow, there's witty, there's puns, there's obnoxious."
Many feel the highlight of the show is "Five Questions." In this segment, Kilborn puts a celebrity guest on the spot with a quiz that, he explains, grew out of his search for Ms. Right. "I met this girl at a bar," he says, "and I said, 'I have five questions.' One was, 'Do you like garlic?' because I love garlic. 'Have you ever heard of Carmel?' because I love Carmel, California. [She passed both.] My next question was, 'What does peripatetic mean?' 'What kind of question is that?' she yelled. We never got through the full five." Most guests have trouble, too, usually blowing a state capital or a song lyric. Not Debbie Reynolds, though; she swept the board. Among her questions: "More attractive: Kevin Costner or a young Robert Wagner?" Her reply: "I want them both!"
Kilborn himself knows about tough choices. Growing up in Hastings, Minn., the youngest of three children of Hiram, an insurance executive, and Shirley, a homemaker, Kilborn was torn between basketball and comedy. "My folks would throw cocktail parties, and Craig would cart out his ventriloquist doll and do shtick," says his brother Chris, 35, a software engineer. But Kilborn also had a hoop dream. In 1987, after completing his course work in film and television at Montana State University-Bozeman, where he played guard, he got a shot. Despite having led his conference in turnovers, he was offered $600 a month to join a professional team in Luxembourg. "I said, 'You've never seen me play,' " says Kilborn. "The coach said, 'You're American, you'll average 30 points per game.' "
Deciding to pursue show business instead, Kilborn moved to L.A., where he taught traffic school to scofflaws to pay for improv classes. Seven months later he landed a sports-anchor job at KCBA-TV in Salinas, near Carmel. His antics—like getting two barflies to reenact a 1990 Evander Holyfield-Buster Douglas fight for viewers who didn't get cable—caught the attention of ESPN, which hired him in 1993 as a host of Sports-Center. Over three years, Kilborn won a cult following with his wacky intros ("I think we've all recovered from Monday's emotional Fresh Prince of Bel-Air") and play-by-play calls (After Kilborn shouted "Jumanji!" over a slam dunk, Robin Williams sent him an autographed movie poster).
Last year, when Comedy Central went searching for a new star, they settled quickly on Kilborn. "He was wry, he was quick, he thinks on his feet," says Daily Show executive producer Madeleine Smithberg. And he was ready to leave ESPN's Bristol, Conn., studios for New York City, where he now occupies a sparsely furnished one-bedroom apartment. Kilborn's musical tastes add to the bachelor-pad ambience. "When I was in Carmel, I fell in love with seafood, cigars and Antonio Carlos Jobim," he says, popping in a disk of the Brazilian composer's hits. There's still no "Girl from Ipanema" in his life, though. Maybe it's the garlic and cigars.
SAMANTHA MILLER
ANTHONY DUIGNAN-CABRERA in New York City
- Contributors:
- Anthony Duignan-Cabrera.
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