Evie McGee Colbert

This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. My guests are Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert. They're partners in their marriage as well as in their production company, and she makes regular appearances on his CBS show, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.

Right. Then you're going to be home. I mean, you're not traveling to different locations.

The thing is sometimes when you're married to somebody who's famous and is in the public eye and very recognizable, people want to meet the famous person and look right past the spouse.

It's like the spouse doesn't really exist.

That's a real thing. And that's hard to deal with. Yeah.

Well, that's the thing, Evie. Like now you have a public persona.

We need to take another short break here, so let me reintroduce you. If you're just joining us, my guests are Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert. They co-wrote a new cookbook called Does This Taste Funny? Recipes our family loves. We'll be right back. This is Fresh Air. You're both from prominent families. Steve and your father died when you were 10.

But before that, he'd been a director of a program at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. And he worked at the National Institutes of Health. And then the family moved to South Carolina. And he became the first vice president for academic affairs at the Medical University of South Carolina. That was in 1969. Yeah. And Evie, your father was a prominent civil litigator.

He served in the South Carolina House of Representatives for three terms. He was a Democrat. Because your fathers were prominent, were you expected to be model children? Huh.

During the COVID lockdown, when he hosted the late show from their home, she was his partner on the show, acting as a producer, sound engineer, and serving as an audience of one. I loved hearing her laughing at his jokes. They're typically not partners in the kitchen because they have different approaches to cooking.

How do you think TV has changed since you started working on The Daily Show? What year was that?

And TV is a completely different – if you count streaming, it's a completely different place than it was. And networks are losing viewers. Streamers are losing viewers. YouTube is gaining viewers. It's a whole different world. And how has that affected you in your career?

You're kidding me, right?

Do I know you? I don't know.

If you're just joining us, my guests are Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert. They wrote a new book together called Does This Taste Funny? Recipes Our Family Loves. We'll be right back. This is Fresh Air. Stephen, I've known about your deep faith and Catholicism since The Daily Show when you were kind of like the religion correspondent and you had a regular feature called This Week in God.

This is the God machine. Yes. And, you know, you still talk about religion on The Late Show. And you satirize religion. You satirize Catholicism. You satirize the Pope. So I was really surprised when the Pope invited you to the Vatican as part of a larger event. And I don't remember what the event was, but Jim Gaffigan was there. I think David Sedaris was there.

What was this about?

So, Evie, if Colbert is doing all this cooking but doesn't eat it, do you get to eat it? And do you do a lot of the cooking that you actually both eat?

Yeah.

Did you get to meet the Pope one-on-one?

Evie, did you grow up Catholic and was your family religious?

When I was growing up, my mother wasn't much of a cook, but she had two like fantastic dishes that she made. And I always look forward to those. But Monday nights, I'd almost be in tears because Mondays are bad enough when you're going to school. And she'd sometimes make broiled mackerel, which is a very bitter fish, especially when you're a kid. Yeah. And with like canned string beans. Oh, God.

Did it matter to either of you that you were both of the Christian faith but of different denominations?

If you're just joining us, my guests are Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert. They wrote a new book together called Does This Taste Funny? Recipes Our Family Loves. We'll be right back. This is Fresh Air. I'd like you each to leave us with your favorite comfort food.

When you say carefree years, do you mean before your father died?

Yeah. Yeah, taste is powerful. It's true. Smell is powerful.

I know. Yeah. And lettuce with no dressing on it.

And also working, it sounds like working together so closely on the show worked out okay.

And I'd nearly be in tears. Later in the week, the food got better. So I'm wondering with each of you, the recipes in your book look absolutely sumptuous. But were there meals that you had that nearly brought you to tears when you were growing up? Oh, my God.

Yeah.

You know, I hadn't thought about this, that, Stephen, you were trying to recover from appendicitis and not having any appetite, not really wanting to eat. But still, you had to probably reread the recipes and read memories of food and how delicious food is. Yes. And meanwhile, you have no appetite.

We managed. Well, the book definitely survived that. It's very entertaining. I don't cook fancy things or ambitious things, but I enjoyed seeing the recipes. I enjoyed all the anecdotes. So I'm so glad we got to talk.

Stephen Colbert and Evie McGee Colbert have a new book called Does This Taste Funny? Recipes Our Family Loves. I'm Terry Gross.

Oh, no water? You're supposed to add a can of water.

Oh, I had that once at my aunt's house.

But now they have a new cookbook they co-authored with the great title, Does This Taste Funny? Recipes Our Family Loves. Shrimp are well represented in the book because Stephen and Evie grew up in coastal South Carolina where they still have a home. Each recipe in the book is preceded by the story behind it and memories associated with it.

Have you ever brought to tears anticipating something your mother was going to serve for dinner? Frequently.

Seasonally. Yeah. Yeah. Stephen, you had appendicitis not too long ago.

Two shows? I thought it was one.

Oh. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Did you have to change your diet after that? Because the recipes have some, you know, pretty rich.

Was that Jon Stewart's influence?

Since I asked about appendicitis and you did two shows, like, did you know what was wrong? Did you realize something really terrible was happening?

So you actually learn about Stephen and Evie as you read the recipes. If you watch Colbert's show, you know he likes a good drink. The book has a whole chapter on drinks. Each episode of The Late Show opens with a monologue, typically satirizing a major event in the news. Colbert doesn't pull his punches, especially when it comes to threats against democracy. Stephen, Evie, welcome to Fresh Air.

Did you feel at some point that you were actually close to death? And medically, how close were you? Hmm.

Evie, were you ever worried that he was going to die?

It's such a pleasure to have you back on the show, Stephen, and to talk to you, Evie. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

You grew up very close to each other, maybe a block away, I think you said.

But you didn't know each other until you met, like after you'd moved away from home, after each of you had moved away from home. And you met at a music festival, the Spoleto Festival in Charleston in 1990. Yes. And Evie, you lived next door to a theater, or I guess some of the performances were at the music festival. And I guess, Stephen, you lived a block away.

And both places became homes where the musicians hung out. Evie, your mother used to cook for the musicians a lot. That's right. But I'm wondering if being so close to a theater and meeting people who performed in the theater made you each feel like acting, show business was an attainable idea. Sure.

Oh, yeah. So first question to you, Stephen, how do you find time to cook? I can't believe that you find time. I don't have time to cook, and I don't have half the job that you do. I make, like, omelets and heat-roasted chicken. Really?

Yeah, you're not cooking to make food for yourself. You're just cooking to make a process.

Well, I do get to eat what he makes, which is often delicious, always. Often? Often.

Imagine the salt content.

Right.

Well, yeah. My parents, you know, everything was very local. So I think a lot of Charlestonians love this. It's shad roe, which is really hard to get. It's, you know, the roe of a shad fish. And I hated that.

They would have that all the time, too.

Wow. Yeah. Yeah, I think so. I mean, I decided it was, listen, I think I'm incredibly lucky to have been able to be home with our children. But Stephen's hours were really long and difficult. And I felt that I just wanted to be home with them when I could. So I ended up spending a lot of my time as a stay-at-home mother, which I had never expected to do. And it was real privilege.

Yeah, I think there were sacrifices. I had trained to be an actress, and I decided not to be an actress even before we got married. But then later in life, I had opportunities to do some performing, which I chose frequently not to do because it would take me out of town, and I felt that our family needed somebody at home.

I mean, I don't in any way want to suggest I ever felt cheated because it was such a privilege to be able to have the life I had. I feel incredibly lucky that I was with my children. I mean, even though Stephen had a busy job, he wasn't gone. He just came home late. So we were always together as a family. And in show business, that's super unusual.

So I think we've had an incredibly lucky time, frankly. Very blessed.

Hell with the family. Yeah. I had someone say to me once, Terry, that I think is so funny. I guess you'd been doing the Colbert pour for a year or two, Stephen. Yeah. I was chairing a book fair in our kids' school, and there was an author who said that she wanted to meet me because I was Stephen's wife. And I remember saying to my friend, my life is just getting really weird. This is just weird.

And she turned to me and said, the life you ordered has arrived. And I thought it was such a funny way, but it is true. It all comes as a package, right? If you want to be a performer or if you want to be an artist and with fame comes attention, comes opportunity, but also comes sacrifice of some way.

Probably on mine, too, actually. I mean, I was lucky enough to have had my father for a long time. He just passed away this past April. And at his funeral, when I delivered the eulogy, I mentioned how as a little girl, I used to like to put my feet in my father's footprints on the sand. And I think metaphorically, that's how I felt about him.

I admired my father so much that I always wanted to try to live up to be the person he was. And the same for my mother. I hit the jackpot with my parents. I really love them. And I think for me, it wasn't being a model child. cared about the community that they lived in and gave of themselves and their time to make the world a better place in whatever way they could.

And my parents were both selfless, community active. They did a lot in the town of Charleston.

It is.

Yeah. Oh, I don't know. I mean, my favorite recipe in the book is the one that we start with, my mother's cheese biscuits, because those were things that she made always. And so now when I make them, I feel like she's with me and it's comforting. And I love them. They're wonderful to give and they're delicious and fattening. I think comfort food should be fattening.

Smell is powerful. I think we both enjoyed that rediscovery of recipes that we'd grown up with, which we maybe had made them in our adulthood, but not really spent time with them the way we spent time with them writing this book.

No, no, no. But we have had fun, you know, and this whole process has been a lot of fun.

You have to be right about whether it's a teaspoon or a tablespoon.

Were your recipes fact-checked?

Well, I do get to eat what he makes, which is often delicious, always. Often? Often.