Al Franken spent nine years as a U.S. Senator from Minnesota, and it all finally paid off in recent weeks when he logged a stint as a guest host on “The Daily Show.”
Franken turned in some robust impressions of Charles Schumer, Mitch McConnell and Susan Collins during one sketch on the Comedy Central program that suggested he was taking some pretty interesting notes when he served in that chamber. “I didn’t give them a heads up,” Franken says in a recent interview, after his run. “I served wth those people. Some I could do. I’m not one othose impressionists who can do everyone. I do who I can do.”
While Franken is one of a number of noted hosts who have helped the show keep spinning after the depature last year of Trevor Noah, you might say he has been training for such an appearance for much of his professional life. Franken made some famous appearances on the long-running “Weekend Update” segment of “Saturday Night Live,” and, after a few stints on the show as a writer and performer, tried his hand at other exploits. He led comedic coverage of the the run-up to the 1992 presidential election for Comedy Central, presaging efforts to do so by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. He later became a progressive radio host for Air America. In recent months, he has been doing a comedy tour around the nation.
Comedy Central invited him to take part at “Daily,” where he, Leslie Jones, John Leguizamo, Marlon Wayans and others have joined the effortto keep on keeping on. There is some expectation in the industry that executives at Comedy Central and parent Paramount Global will use the guest stints as screen tests of sorts, potentially considering one of the program’s roster of contributors as a possible successor.
Franken’s guests during his week included BenDeLaCreme, star of “RuPaul’s Drag Race”; “The Sum of Us” author Heather McGhee; and “Succession” actor Alan Ruck. As part of the process for booking the guest hosts, “Daily Show” producers have reached out ahead of schedule to see if Franken and others have ideas of their own for people they’d like to have on the program. Franken was particularly pleased with McGhee, who he has interivewed in the past.
The comedian and politician found a lot to like about his run on air, from working with “Daily Show” correspondent Desi Lydic to the fact that he made it though the week with everything intact. “When I heard about it , I got a little nervous,” says Franken of the decision to host. In the end, however, he say, “No one got badly hurt and there were no falls.”