It’s fun to see Jon Stewart matched or even bested. And he didn’t even know it himself for a few seconds. The guest was Tim Robbins, a smart, political and extremely quick witted actor/activist. But let me begin at the beginning. The interview started with some brief, humorous chat about Tim being the first person to sit in the chair since Clint Eastwood. Then Stewart asked Robbins how he is and Robbins replied, “I’m doing great other than, you know, the fact that the world is collapsing” referring to the financial world. They furthered the conversation discussing the “talking dog” movie being the top-grossing film of the weekend (“a sign of the apocalypse”) and that, because they have kids, they’ve had to sacrifice and suffer through years of “shitty movies”… “That’s why I did City of Ember, because it’s a really good film, the kind of film an adult can take a child to and actually enjoy the film.” Even Stewart knows brilliance when he sees it, responding “That was maybe the finest segway I’ve ever heard in my life!” They continued to talk about Robbins’ film and its indomitable spirit. An intelligent, well done promotion.

There’s a part of Robbins that still looks and seems18 years old. His spirit is certainly young and his presence is casual and strong. All that plus his awareness of current events and ability to discuss them intelligently lead to a most enjoyable appearance. Kudos to a job well done.

Bill Maher is clever intelligent and insightful. He can also be smug, condescending and obnoxious. His appearance on The Daily Show was humorous and thought provoking, but he often came so close to crossing the line of decorum that the audience may have miss his message. Not that he appears to care, but if people don’t watch or stay tuned in, you can’t educate them or even get them to consider your platform.  It’s ironic that as the election nears, Maher is riding the crest of his popularity among liberal audiences which would make him a perfect fit for The Daily Show’s studio audience, but at times as much as the crowed WANTED to be with him, the often rough time he game Stewart resulted in a palpable confusion in the audience.

Promoting his film Religilous, simply put, Maher even gave his host, a tough time. On several occasions, Stewart asked serious questions about religion and Maher shot him down, once just say NO! Not necessarily the wisest move as a talk show guest, even if it’s supposed to be funny.  There may be a bit of a battle going on here as Maher and Stewart jockey for the position as leader of the satirical political comedy kingdom. This could account for a slight unease displayed by Maher.

The other problem I had with Maher was that his spiel wasn’t new. He had set bits that he’s used on other shows verbatim. Again, a man this smart should be able to mix it up and offer a unique visit to every show. You need to make sure you do that. He of all people, being a talk show host himself should know better.

While not known for his sense of humor, Bill Clinton did prove he had one when he visited The Daily Show recently. He’s been making the rounds of talk shows lately and his appearances have been rather serious. So, a touch of levity demanded by The Daily Show was a nice change of pace. He still displayed his intelligence and pit bull determination to make his points, but seeing him lean back in his chair, laughing out loud and clapping and even grabbing Stewart’s arm several times, felt at least new to the current Clinton repertoire. (Stewart couldn’t resist saying at the end of the interview “[Oh and] that really hurt my arm.”)

Interestingly, he didn’t really talk about The Clinton Global Initiative that he was ostensibly there to promote. Not that laser-focused promotion is even possible on most nights with Stewart.  The appearance was additionally crippled by the fact that there were obvious edits, that one can only guess was due to the fact that the interview must have run long, although Stewart did give an uncustomary double segment. It makes it harder to critique a guest when that occurs because you don’t really see the natural flow of conversation and whether they achieved their goals. In this instance, however, I do believe Clinton allowed himself to be lead through The Daily Show comic minefield more than he expected, as he obviously felt compelled to fully answer the questions posed.

At one point Stewart asked Clinton how much he would win by if HE was running today? “20 points… You’d pretty much crush ‘em! You’ve still got it!” And whatever “it” is, he does… and now with a bit of go-with-the-flow humor, too.

William Safire is a brilliant observer of the political scene, a legendary speechwriter and a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist. Your average Daily Show viewer might – just might – know him as the author of Nixon Vice-President Spiro Agnew’s famous putdown of the press as “nattering nabobs of negativism.” A fact that apparently so enamored Jon Stewart, he was probably an easy booking on the show. However as a guest, Safire na-bobbled the assignment quite thoroughly.

Plugging an update of his classic book, “Safire’s Political Dictionary,” his exchanges with host Jon Stewart had as much electricity as your standard dictionary. When telling a story, he wandered all over the place, taking forever to make a simple point. Stewart was working overtime, desperately trying to turn the interview into something entertaining with barrages of gags, even interrupting and trying to save Safire’s creaky comments at times.

Further proof that Safire was in the wrong place at the wrong time was his failure to actually promote his book with any conviction. It took Stewart piling on superlatives at the end to get the message out. Clearly being a master of the printed word isn’t enough to carry the day under the relentless glare of TV. Bill stick to the typewriter…er, uh…computer!

There’s a reason host Jon Stewart has the ergonomic Aeron flight seat and the guests have an ordinary office chair: he doesn’t want his targets to get too comfortable.

Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska looked crisp and composed when he showed up to plug his book, “America: Our Next Chapter.” He did get a couple of uncharacteristically humorous zingers in while Jon wasn’t looking, but as entertainment, he had the misfortune to be a Republican who agrees with Jon on the folly of the Iraq war, so the sharpness of comic arrows that typically fly back and forth during a Daily Show conservative target was blunted by Jon’s eager nodding at his anti-war opinions. Without the sparring, the interview just fell flat.

Opinions were also at the heart of Sen. Hagel’s biggest problem on the show: he voiced a lot of them without interesting stories or new perspectives to back them up. Then there was his misreading of the audience for The Daily Show. Anyone interested in the ideas in his book would recognize the appeal right away. But this is a comedy show and the audience who shows up for the laughs, so viewers need to be seduced by the trademark humorous interplay, of which there was sadly little.

Two Whispers and two cardinal Guest Whisperer rules: have a pocketful of short, unexpected stories to hook listeners and viewers into your cause; and know the audience you’re facing and how to engage them.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino took the day off from being the butt of Jon Stewart’s jokes to help make her own, with a rare appearance on The Daily Show. Complete with permanent, pasted on smile and wearing overly perky pink, she did the best she could to keep up with the rapid fire Stewart, in what can best be described as yet another fruitless attempt to show that the current administration is “hip????”

Wound as tight as a drum, Perino remained mostly unflappable during the five minute sit down, impressing Stewart with her almost robot-like resolve to hold the company line. Only when Stewart moved on to the hypothetical, “what if you were Spitzer’s Press Secretary” line of questioning, did Perino, almost breathless at this point, begin to show wear. All in all an entertaining interview with some laugh out loud moments that ultimately served everyone well.