'Late Show' host Stephen Colbert reveals his bizarre pre-show ritual: "I slap myself in the face twice"
'The Late Show' host Stephen Colbert has a weird pre-show ritual! During an 2022 interview with The Wall Street Journal Magazine, Colbert was asked to reveal the one thing that he does before taping every show. In his response, Colbert quipped, “I slap myself in the face twice, hard. I’m never gonna get another chance to do those jokes or interview that person or be present for the audience because first you got to be present for the audience and see them and let them see you.” Shortly afterward, Colbert stated that it cannot be a little tap, it has to be a proper slap and demonstrated the same. "The rule is I have to slap myself hard enough that I wish I hadn’t," Colbert added.
In a separate interview with “Face the Nation” moderator John Dickerson, Colbert discussed his daily routine as a talk show host in detail and delved deep into his odd habit of slapping himself before every show.“I come out of rewrite. One of my guys, if he’s in the room, says, ‘Squeeze out some sunshine.’ And then I see one of my [production assistants]. She shakes both of my hands, she tells me where every guest is, if they’re there, as we walk upstairs. I don’t talk to anybody in the little airlock before we go onstage," Colbert said, as per CBS News.
During the same interaction, the 60-year-old comedian further stated that he does handshakes with most crew members of his talk show except his stage manager. “I shake all my sound guys’ hands, all the electrics’ hands…I don’t shake my stage manager’s hand. We just don’t do that. It’s evolved over the years. I have one Altoid, just a little sugar and just so my coffee breath doesn’t get my guests. I stand in place. I slap myself in the face hard, twice. Hard enough to regret it. Once isn’t enough. Both times, you have to slap yourself hard enough to go, ‘I would not want a stranger to hit me that hard.’ So I’ll wake up… ‘cause you only have one chance to do the show," Colbert explained.
In the past, Colbert has candidly spoken about his struggle with anxiety and it appears that his odd slapping ritual apparently helps him to calm down his nerves before every show. While having a conversation with Rolling Stone magazine, Colbert disclosed that he suffered a nervous breakdown right after tying the knot with his wife Evelyn in 1993. "I had a bit of a nervous breakdown after I got married — kind of panic attacks," Colbert told the media publication. Along with this, Colbert also mentioned that at one point his anxiety got so bad that he "needed to be medicated."
Later on, down the lane, the nine-time Emmy winner figured out that his anxiety disappeared when he performed on the stage. Colbert went on to say, "I would go to the show, and I would curl up in a ball on the couch backstage and I would wait to hear my cue lines. Then I would uncurl and go onstage and I’d feel fine. Which occurred to me at the time: Like, 'Oh, you feel fine when you’re out here.' And then as soon as I got offstage, I’d just crumble into a ball again."