Stephen Colbert tweeted that he would be signing copies of his new children's book I Am a Pole (And So Can You) in New York yesterday, so of course we just had to go. Now we've gone to many book signings of TV stars before (most recently, The Office's Mindy Kaling and SNL's Rachel Dratch), and usually it involves the star saying a few words about the book, perhaps even reading a passage and/or answering questions from the crowd, and then everyone lines up and waits their turn to have a few minutes to talk to the star, get the book signed, and get a photo. Unfortunately, this was not the case with Colbert. For one, rather than have the signing at a big book store like Barnes & Nobles (like the others were), Colbert had his signing in a little independent children's book store, going along with the fact that this is a children's book (although it really isn't). We were all prepared to ask Colbert about what happened with his relationship with Jimmy Fallon, and how the whole thing got started, but sadly we only had a few short seconds with Colbert, enough for him to say "Hello" and "Thanks", and that's about it. Photography wasn't even allowed, so sadly we don't have a photo with him, although we did sneak in a shot of him signing someone else's book when no one was looking.
The book itself though is great. It's much longer than the version he read to Maurice Sendak on The Report, and there's lots of funny things written on the inside covers. Unfortunately, the ending of the book was changed from "I am an American flag pole, so pledge allegiance, or else!" as it was originally pitched, to the more conventional "so pledge allegiance, to me". Regardless, the book is still hilarious and a must-own for any Colbert fan (though not really for kids, as the "stripper pole" line is still intact).
And in honor of the great children's author Maurice Sendak, who passed away just a few days ago (on the day Colbert's book was released), here is the full 2-part Stephen Colbert interview with Sendak, where he originally pitched him the idea for I am a Pole.
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