John Oliver was three months late. The award-winning late-night host was scheduled to appear at IU Auditorium on September 30, but two days before his appearance, the actors' strike ended and he rushed off to resume “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.”
“We are very pleased that he was able to arrange a new date,” said Maria Talbert, executive director of the IU Auditorium. “We were really pleased when we found out this summer that he would be available for a stop in Bloomington.”
Talbert said Oliver's one-night show was not part of the auditorium's original seasonal lineup, but as soon as auditorium management learned he was available, they jumped at the chance to book him.
It was a lot of Taylor Swift.
“He was someone we knew we wanted to bring to Bloomington for many years,” Talbert said. “We’re really proud to be able to bring these big-name artists into our community so they can share the same space with hundreds or even thousands of other people and enjoy an evening of laughter.” ”
Both Talbert and Oliver themselves emphasized that this was the comedian's first visit to Bloomington. Oliver joked that he remembered why he had never been to Bloomington before as he interacted with heckling audience members, particularly one heckler who yelled “fuck the monarchy.” Oliver joked that the audience beat him to the punchline and needed to “show his work.”
However, Talbert said she is sure Bloomington residents will enjoy Oliver's comedy as much as other viewers.
“He has a really interesting perspective on current events,” Talbert said. “His wit and unique perspective would be absolutely appreciated by our community.”
Known for his satire, Oliver begins each late night show with a tongue-in-cheek summary of the most popular headlines from the past week. In Bloomington you could tell almost from the moment he stepped on stage. One of his first jokes was, “I like watching bad things happen to billionaires,” as he described how Elon Musk crushed his own dreams of success destroy publicly Xformerly known as Twitter.
The Singing Hoosiers performed at the festival showcase on December 2nd.
Graduate student Leigh Levinson felt the show reflected her own struggles as someone working in technology.
“The climate around what happened with Twitter (now X) was really heated for us in our daily lives, so it was fun to hear it again,” she said. “I think he does a good job of incorporating important messages into satire.”
Jessica Jones came from Brownsburg to visit Oliver. For them, Oliver's show was a ray of hope.
“It really helped lift some really difficult times over the last few years, and so it was a great opportunity to just see him in person,” Jones said.
The audience loved Oliver and cheered him on with great laughter and applause. At times, Oliver engaged in a back-and-forth with members of the crowd. He chatted to the audience about Americans' love of “The Great British Baking Show” and joked that the show proves how oppressed the British are.
Oliver also demonstrated his knowledge of history as he described the process that led to Charles III's death. became King of England, focusing on the establishment's terror of Catholic monarchs and current events. He joked that the royals had no reason to say Meghan Markle was ruining the monarchy when her own past was so turbulent.
However, Oliver also took aim at America, describing how the military accidentally dropped two atomic bombs north Carolina and a nuclear bomb in use South Carolina during the Cold War and told the audience about his fear of being expelled from America before he gained his citizenship.
The Bloomington community gathered to hear original songs from the artists.
Oliver also spoke about COVID-19 and described how his lifelong dislike of the children's television show “Paw Patrol” came about. According to Oliver, he would use the show to buy his children's silence while filming the socially distanced version of “Last Week Tonight.” He loaded episodes onto an iPad, placed it in front of his children and ran into the other room to rant about the dangers of a police state while his children watched episodes that Oliver said glorified a police state.
He argued that the characters' high use of technology led to citizens becoming overly reliant on them, and lamented the fact that they taught his son what “surveillance drone” meant.
Oliver's dislike of technology was clearly shown throughout the show as he raved about the havoc created by Musk's $8 Twitter Blue verification system. He laughed as he described how a verified Coca-Cola account tweeted “Pepsi is better” and a verified Chiquita account posted that they had just taken over Brazil.
Oliver ended the evening by returning to what he started: rage against celebrities. He said that life will go back to the way it was post-COVID when people will hate celebrities again, mentioning the communal backlash that occurred after the final season of the TV show “Lost” and how it affected Americans brought together. He said people just don't have the energy to care about television or celebrities anymore.
The show runs from December 14th to 31st.
In particular, he said, we'll know America is back to normal when we hate Anne Hathaway again. Refer to the Storm of hatred against them, He described how one day, perhaps in the distant future, people in the United States would turn on the television and see Anne Hathaway on a late night show.
He told a heartfelt story about how she asked the late-night host to sing “Happy Birthday” to her crew member who loves the show – and then added how people should respond: “f*** Anne Hathaway.” When the show ended, he left us with a vision of hope, albeit in an unconventional way. In his sardonic way, he showed how America could finally come together: by hating someone.
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