Colbert then spoke about how - because of his improv comedy training - interviewing guests became his favorite thing to do on the Colbert Report. "All I really want from a guest is somebody who has something to say so I can play with them," he explained. "We have some common topic to be talking about. My character was actively ignorant about them. I think one of the reasons why I most wanted to drop the character is that I felt I had done everything I could with him. Or everything I could do with that show, other than have my honest interest in my guest, which is almost constant."
"And so now I feel actually more freed up," he added. "That was, in some ways, the most energetic, the most exciting part of the show, to me. And now I don't have to hold back at all. I had to put everything through, like, an occipital CPU up here to live?render what my character would think about what the person just said, but still have my intention behind it. Now I can just talk."
"I wore that character slightly as a cap," Colbert continued. "Dependent upon who I was talking to. When I spoke to Cardinal Dolan or I would speak to a Medal of Honor winner, I would just dial it up and down as need be. I'm very interested in my guests, and I'm looking forward to being able to be sincerely interested in what they have to say without regard to having to translate it through an idiot's mouth. So if that leads to some serious conversations, I'd be very happy. We had them before on the last show, and the audience came with us. So I don't see any reason why it should stop."
Toward the end of the panel, Colbert offered up his hopes as to who might still be making absurd waves in the news come September 8th. "I'm not going to name any names, but let's just say, I want to do jokes on Donald Trump so badly, and I have no venue," he said. So, right now, I'm just dry?Trumping."
"Every little boy grows up believing that they could be President of the United States, and I'm so happy that that little boy is Donald Trump. I just hope he's taking his vitamins. Please stay healthy until I get on the air. Don't do anything dangerous. Don't ride any motorcycles, because every night before I go to bed, I light a candle and pray that he stays in the race, and I also pray that no one puts that candle anywhere near his hair." Additional reporting by Eric Goldman.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/Showrenity.