Ben Stiller is the perfect mix of quick-witted dry humor and goof ball nervousness, as evidenced by his recent entrance on The Daily Show. When Stiller attempted to sit down and pull his chair closer to the desk, he couldn’t.  He was subtly caught in a personal awkward moment, which caused him, finally, to just lean in to address Stewart’s first comments. It was affective, funny and almost seemed like a bit from a Ben Stiller movie.

As far as the verbal part of the interview went, it was clever and cozy. Cozy because here were two dads talking about their kids’ total lack of interest in their work. Stories were flying back and forth and male bonding was at its zenith. They concluded the lamenting with the following exchange:
Stiller: “They’re difficult. Children are difficult.”
Stewart: “I tell ya they’re too much. I want them out”
Funny stuff.

There was much discussion about Stiller’s new film Tropic Thunder, including Stewart asking how Stiller was to work with, as he was both director and star.  Stiller replied “I find myself uncommunicative and distant.”

Interestingly, the way the show is shot there is not a lot of opportunity for much visual intimacy as there is in most TV interviews.  The dominant camera two-shot, doesn’t offer the immediate reactions that viewers are used to seeing.  But, with that in mind, and Stewart’s ever-present own agenda to deal with, I must say Stiller did a very good job at keeping the interview personal and lively. He piqued viewer’s interest in his film, got laughs from the host and stayed humble to boot. Well done.

Robert Downey, Jr. was a crack up from the moment he came out to greet Craig Ferguson. Playing to the audience, posing and eliciting massive amounts of cheer, Downey immediately established as strong rapport with everyone including the host. His casual, gum-chewing, jeans & jacket wearing persona is much more relaxed and much less cocky than previous talk show appearances and lends itself to accessibility, even while his intellect and quick wit kept Ferguson on his toes.
The discussion of his new film, Tropic Thunder, was interestingly handled in that it was talked about for several minutes without actually saying anything substantive other than Ferguson saying, about Downey’s character, “You can’t do that!”  Then there much discussion about Downey’s new mustache (is it more “Star 80 porn” or “Super Mario Bros?”) but he further showed his non-stop entertaining qualities by easily slipping in and out of accents, winning much praise from the lucky studio audience.

Guest and host were so in sync that Downey even commented on it “…we have a spark going between us.”  From “Googling” masquerading as “masturbation,” to thinly veiled allusions to Downey’s drug years, much ground was covered here – all of it with energy and style. I actually laughed out loud…twice! Not an easy feat at that ungodly hour.
You can’t buy good chemistry, but you can learn to play off the audience and your host by listening intently and drawing retorts from your arsenal well rehearsed anecdotes. For Downey, it just comes naturally. Probably just another reason why he’s such a good actor.