Well my esteem for Stephen Colbert was nigh upon worship already due to his encyclopedic knowledge and slavish devotion to the works of J. R. R. Tolkien, but he may have gone up another notch last night. Ah, who am I kidding, the Tolkien knowledge pretty much eclipses everything else. But last evening’s show was pretty impressive since he had Yo-Yo Ma as a guest. The interview begins at about 13:30. Unfortunately, there isn’t a separate clip of the interview so you have to advance the slider. Though there is one of Yo-Yo Ma’s performance after the interview.
What’s the big deal you ask? Yo-Yo Ma is pretty much everywhere. That may be true, but is he on a show that with the audience demographics of the Colbert Report for over a third of a 21 minute program? What made the incident important in my mind was the recollection of Dana Gioia’s graduation address to Stanford University’s Class of 2007 where he noted popular culture once celebrated the achievements of public intellectuals and artists making household names of people like “Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Arthur Miller, Thornton Wilder, Georgia O’Keeffe, Leonard Bernstein, Leontyne Price, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Not to mention scientists and thinkers like Linus Pauling, Jonas Salk, Rachel Carson, Margaret Mead…”
He commented that the blame doesn’t flow in one direction, “Most American artists, intellectuals, and academics have lost their ability to converse with the rest of society. We have become wonderfully expert in talking to one another, but we have become almost invisible and inaudible in the general culture.”
So when I see Yo-Yo Ma on Colbert’s show joking with Colbert about the variety of ways people pronounce his name, (including Yo Mama), and referring to himself as being Joe the Cellist in some people’s eyes, I get a little optimistic about artists’ ability to converse with general audiences. I am encouraged when Colbert asks questions like, “Are the candidates addressing the concerns of Joe the Cellist” (here are their positions, by the way) and noting Yo-Yo Ma’s involvement with a variety of projects like the Silk Road Project because it raises general awareness about the importance and reach of artistic endeavors.
Whether it was intentional or not, Colbert addresses the whole issue of classical music being elitist and artists being aloof from the general public which opens the door to Yo-Yo Ma talking about the necessity for humility and collaboration. Colbert also asks if we are winning the classical music wars since the Chinese are studying Mozart and we aren’t clamoring to learn the pipa. Ma replies that it is Mozart that is the real winner. Colbert revisits the idea of classical music being elitist by asking if there are any good cello works about American themes like “pick up trucks and kicking ass” This segues into a request that Yo-Yo Ma play a song for Joe the Truck Driver. I don’t know if the piece he and his friends play is necessarily for Joe, but it also doesn’t conform to any classic music orthodoxy. In fact, I hope the look on Yo-Yo Ma’s face while his bagpiper yawps and hoots at him makes all the average and not so average Joes curious.
Attitudes won’t change overnight but increased awareness through conduits like the Colbert Report can help in the battle. Despite the self-involved bluster his television persona exhibits, Colbert has used his position to advance causes he believes in. One of his Lance Armstrong parodies resulted in a $171, 525 donation to charity.
One comment Dana Gioia made in his Stanford address that I totally forgot about until I went back to link to it, “When a successful guest appearance on the Colbert Report becomes more important than passing legislation, democracy gets scary. No wonder Hollywood considers politics “show business for ugly people.” Given all the potential fodder for comedy during this election season, I wouldn’t be surprised if the significant time devoted to Yo-Yo Ma wasn’t intended to advance an agenda and perhaps put Colbert’s influence to work for culture rather than politics for one night.
Colbert has begun to have musical guests on his show more often. Perhaps it is time to get in touch with his talent booker and send some intriguing performers his way.