Jordan Klepper has lost count of how many Trump rallies he has attended. “We’re probably in the 30s range,” he said via Zoom. “Yeah, it’s blurry.” EQUAL Daily programAs the city’s resident protester, Klepper has carved out a niche by picking on the brains, or lack thereof, of Donald Trumpthe most enthusiastic and ridiculous supporters. “I took these front seats to the ends of the world,” he said.
In a new special titled Presenting the daily show: Jordan Klepper Fingers The Pulse: Rally Together airing Monday, October 28 at 11:30 p.m., Klepper returns to the scene weeks before “the most important election outcome of our lifetimes.” But this time, he will bring friends. Playwright and actor Jeremy O. Harris, We boys were fucked podcast server Corinne Fisher And Krystyna Hutchinson, And Reno 911‘S Thomas Lennon accompanied Klepper at various Trump rallies to see firsthand what the right wing has to offer.
A reporter on Daily program as of 2014, Klepper admitted that, by some estimates, he fell on his sword when he became the show’s rally guy. “When people started asking other reporters if they wanted to be on the scene, their response tended to be ‘Hell, no.’” But Klepper had a different reaction. “I really curious,” he said of Trump supporters. “One of the main things I do when I go out is, ‘Tell me why you like this person What.’ Really ask them to clarify why they are wearing a robe with a giant foam Donald Trump hat. I want to know why.”
To connect with the people he interviews, Klepper draws on decades of experience performing improv comedy at Chicago’s Second City and New York’s UCB Theater. “The tenets of improvisation are about speaking Correct,he said. “When you do compelling interviews with the man on the street, you’re making people feel comfortable enough to share and you’re creating something revealing. And I think a lot of that starts with improvisation.” Daily programThe demonstration segments’ success is largely because Klepper approaches all of his subjects with an improviser’s open heart and from a comedic standpoint. “A journalist must remain neutral,” he noted. “Often in a MAGA verse, it seems confrontational. CNN has a lot of people who think they are at war with them…. One of my strategies is to really make them feel comfortable speaking Correct, and ask them to find a more attractive and realistic place.”
Klepper is aware that his Kalamazoo aesthetic and roots can put interviewees at ease. “Trevor [Noah] often jokingly said, ‘Yeah, we sent you to the scene because you’re white,'” Klepper said. “I think there’s a lot of truth in it. I have a Midwestern sensibility, and a big, skinny white guy at a Trump rally used to invite people over.”
“I can’t help but look like I just got back from fishing,” he added.
