Fact: John Oliver is a refreshing British born comedic satirist who now hosts HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.
How he got here… Well, just talk to Ricky Gervais.
John Oliver is starting a new career as an American comedic satirical nation. He started working on The Daily Show back in July of 2006 as the senior British Correspondent. But how he landed the job not many people know.
Back in the early 2000s, Oliver played and co-hosted various satirical podcasts and comedy festivals including The Bugle, Political Animal, and The Comedy Zone (Edinburgh Festival Fringe; 2001). He would take on the character, the “oleaginous journalist” at the Festival. Someone by the name of Ricky Gervais contacted Mr. Oliver after viewing some of his work (whom Oliver never met). Gervais absolutely loved how Oliver landed his jokes and knew he had potential. It was only through Ricky Gervais that Oliver would get his opportunity to interview for The Daily Show. Well, as we all know, he got the job and hasn’t looked back since.
After John Oliver co-hosted The Daily Show for eight weeks (rave reviews) while Jon Stewart directed his movie Rosewater, many suggested that he would eventually succeed Stewart as the host of The Daily Show or Craig Ferguson of The Late Late Show in comedy news shows. Well, that didn’t happen because HBO would give him his own show, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. And boy is HBO winning that endeavor! Here is John Oliver last daily show appearance:
