LOS ANGELES (AP) – As Larry Wilmore sits down with a plate of pasta, a fan hands him a slip of paper with an idea to explore on Wilmore’s new Comedy Central show premiering Monday. It’s about international banking issues.
OK, that’s a stretch. Even if Wilmore exudes more gravitas than the typical comic, he’s unlikely to find the funny there.
Yet the encounter illustrates one of Wilmore’s strengths as he prepares to replace Stephen Colbert in the time slot following “The Daily Show” with Jon Stewart. At 53, he’s got a resume and maturity that a 28-year-old joke slinger can’t match, and he’s planning a show that’s not afraid to mix the serious with the silly.
“Better to have an authentic, interesting conversation and have the show be a little quieter than just setting up jokes that at the end of the day nobody cares about,” he said. “That, I’m not interested in. I’d rather be scared by something somebody says.”
Wilmore played a role, the “senior black correspondent,” on “The Daily Show.” He’s replacing a man who famously portrayed a cable blowhard on “The Colbert Report,” but Wilmore plans to be himself.