On board with THE DAILY SHOW

When I told people in North Carolina that I was moving to New Jersey, I got a wide range of responses, from "Why on earth would you do that?" to "What's wrong with you?" to "You may the dumbest idiot I know." At first I wondered if they were right, but in the last three weeks I finally found the answer. (Yes, it took me two years.) On Thursday, I sat in the studio during a taping of The Daily Show, just three weeks after doing the same for the Colbert Report.

For those of you who remember my Colbert exploits, you know that it marked the pinnacle of my life, a point from which I was only bound to fall mercilessly back to earth. While the Daily Show helped to ease that fall, it definitely did not live up to the Colbert high. At first i wondered if this was because I had essentially entered the Colbert Report as a TV audience novice, and The Daily Show was merely Take Two, but I don't think this is true. I entered Thursday strongly a Colbert man, and I went to sleep that night the same. For me, Jon Stewart - while excellent - does not live up to Stephen Colbert, and the experiences were very different.

There were many similarities, including the long lines to get in, the heavy security, and more. But the atmosphere at The Daily Show was much different. Being older and more established, there was almost a sterile air in the studio. Whereas the people at the Report emphasized so strongly that the show depended on our laughter - indeed, it seemed as though Stephen would go home and cry if we were not loud enough - we were told just once to laugh at the Daily Show, and even then it didn't seem that important. Jon came out and spoke to us, and he was certainly funny (even more so than he is during the show, oddly). The show began, and it was almost as if we were an afterthought. We couldn't hear him too well, especially if there was any laughing, and Jon played more for the cameras than for us. The studio was much larger, and Stewart was further away from us, almost kept at a distance. Colbert was exactly the opposite. During the show he looked at us and not always the cameras, playing to us, as if to ask us to laugh.

Perhaps most emblematically were the way the hosts entered and exited the studio. Stewart emerged from the back of the stage, spoke to us from in front of our desk, did the show, and then exited the way he came, never coming too close, letting the large studio act as a natural buffer between audience and host. Colbert, however, ran from behind the audience, jogging down the center aisle while slapping people's hands. He paced the studio while answering our questions before the show. After the show, he walked along the front row, shaking hands with many of us, and then - as you recall - walked up the aisle by me and graciously touched my ever-graced hand.

So perhaps this is my long-winded way of explaining why I prefer the Colbert Report to The Daily Show. Stephen Colbert is everything Jon Stewart was 10 years ago: the upstart, eviscerating mainstream ideas while remaining deeply in touch with his audience. Jon Stewart has reached a level of popularity which has made that impossible. In a way that is sad, because I have watched TDS since Craig Kilborn first debuted his "Five Questions." But, at least we have Stephen Colbert.

And did I mention: Stephen Colbert lives down the street from my school. New Jersey isn't all bad.