Accompanying pictures (screenshots)

Source: Daily Show With Jon Stewart Source: Comedy Central TV show (USA) with Jon Stewart. New York/ USA. Date: November 28, 2006. New York/ USA. Credits: Comedy Central, screenshots

Source: Daily Show With Jon Stewart Source: Comedy Central TV show (USA) with Jon Stewart. New York/ USA. Date: November 28, 2006. New York/ USA. Credits: Comedy Central, screenshots

Source: Daily Show With Jon Stewart Source: Comedy Central TV show (USA) with Jon Stewart. New York/ USA. Date: November 28, 2006. New York/ USA. Credits: Comedy Central, screenshots

Daily Show With Jon Stewart

JS: Welcome back. My guest tonight, the legendary singer-songwriter whose brand new 3-CD set is called: "Orphans: Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards." Please welcome to the program, Tom Waits!

(Waits enters)

JS: (shaking hands) Heya, I'm sorry, I'm lame, I had no idea you were going to come and sit. How are ya?

JS: (at the table) Please sir, please welcome...
TW: Well, thank you, thank you...
JS: Uh, an absolute honour and delight to have you here, I'm an enormous fan.
JS: Thank you Jon.
JS: And uh, and I say that also by way of apology. Uh, I was just informed that before the program the ceiling in our restroom collapsed on you...
TW: It collapsed (laughter). I don't know, I uh... I can take it though. I'm a man, I'm a man.
JS: I appreciate that Tom!
TW: There were a lot of things falling around me and I kept my poise and I kept my balance and I kept my rhythm. (applause)
JS: Well, I appreciate that. I'm terribly sorry. It had been rigged up to fall on last night's guest, Rahm Emanuel, and I'm sorry that you got hit with the detritus.
TW: Uh, that's okay.

JS: Uh, I'm just absolutely delighted to see you. I was struck, when I met backstage, by your wife, your family, how unbeaten by life you are. How, how... you just seem vivacious and and uh uh, I used to listen to your music and think: "Boy, I'd love to lie in the street nearly dead with that guy!" (laughter)
TW: It's an act. You know? No, things are going well.
JS: REALLY well!
TW: Yeah, they are.

JS: Are you happy to be back in New York? Is it uh, you feel the vibe for you?
TW: Oh yeah. You know what I noticed? The first thing I noticed is, the windows, the store windows are so sexy, you know?. I mean, I was in front of an H&R BLOCK window. And there was... I was getting excited! (laughter)
JS: Yeah. You should see them around tax time.
TW: Oh I can imagine.
JS: Then they really break out the good windows!
TW: You know, the really weird thing is, that in Iraq you can't put a guitar in the window of a music store, because guitars are considered too sexy... They don't allow it!
JS: Are you bullshitting me?
TW: I'm not bullshitting you! They don't allow it!
JS: Because it's the form of a woman?!
TW: It's a beautiful shape of a woman. Yeah, it's the guitar. I have a 2x4 guitar that I play. And I was thinking, maybe I could get something going on over there.
JS: What if that's the key to solving this whole thing? Tom Waits, a 2x4 guitar and uh a little bit of music.
TW: It's probably something that simple.

JS: Do you find... (laughter). Wouldn't that be amazing! That would be... (applause). Do you find that for yourself, I always imagined you as like a self-contained artist, that you're able to not think about the sort of whims of cultural fads, things like that. You're always true to whatever your vision is. You seem like the opposite of, like Madonna. You know what I mean? Like the antithesis whose artistics work seems very centered.
TW: Yeah, okay. Alright well I'll take that. Yes, I've been lucky, I've been lucky, you know? I take my own path and I turn around and I look behind me and there are people that are following me. And I think that I get a kick out of that. (applause)

JS: Does it, does it... Cause I'm one of them. It just feels like music, it's almost like a wonderful literary soundtrack.
TW: Oh well, wow.
JS: And I'm nervous talking about it by the way. I don't know, I feel like I'll say something and you go: "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
TW: No, no...
JS: And then I'll have to hide my head in shame.
TW: No thanks, I appreciate your remarks.
JS: Well, thank you very much. I've appreciated your music for for lo these what 20-some albums?
TW: Oh wow, okay...
JS: Uh it's just... Oh, you didn't know that!?
TW: No, no!
JS: Am I following this more closely then you? (laughter)
TW: No, no, there's quite a few more than I remember making.
JS: Oh, is that true?
TW: Yeah.
JS: Well, I'm sure some of them I've been downloading mistakenly, and I apologize for that and I will give you money, and sorry about the ceiling!
TW: We'll work out something later.

JS: Exactly. Uh, you are gonna play for us which I'm absolutely delighted about.
TW: I'll do something...
JS: Not something off "Orphans, Brawlers, Bawlers and Bastards" though?
TW: No, no, we're gonna do a song called uh "Day After Tomorrow" off the last record. (applause)
JS: I'm delighted. Orphans is in the record stores now. It's phenomenal! We'll be right back with a song from Tom Waits!

(Break)

JS: Folks, join us tomorrow night 11, George Clooney is gonna be in the studio. Now here at tonight's show we have a performance by Tom Waits. My moment of Zen.

(Performs: "Day After Tomorrow")

Notes:

Follow-up November 29, 2006:

Jon Stewart: "Last night our guest was Tom Waits. He's a brilliant artist and musician, uh in all different manners. I have great respect for him. Basically when it turns to music, I love just a few people. Uh...: Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, uh Buffalo Tom, Beethoven and Roxette. And uh... (laughter). Really, just Roxette. But if you watched the interview, he mentioned the men's room ceiling collapsed, and he was saying like: "Well, oh. Ha, ha, ha. Got a white tile falling down." He weren't kidding, here's a picture of the..."

"That is what fell on Tom Waits! (laughter). Uh, so he was out here, he was like playing it down like: "Oh yeah, nothing..." And we went back there and it was like... an earthquake hit the bathroom! Uh, thank god for us, thank god for America, that night Tom Waits happened to be wearing... his kevlar porkpie hat..."

"Without the kevlar hat, we'd lost a great musicain. So, we apologise sincerely. And uh.... DAMN!"