Natalie Portman’s Humblebrag won this week’s Late Night

Photo: Late Night with Seth Meyers via YouTube

So… what else is in the news? Last week we said the news was too grim and absurd. Then over the weekend, News really picked up. The late night hosts were busy, reacting to an assassination attempt and then (more or less) going back to business as usual to cover the RNC. Everyone was doing well. It says a lot that we can all move on from this kind of thing so quickly – well, except for the people who have put ear bandages on themselves. They’re still deep in this news cycle. But Late Night was going well. We have Twisters to promote, folks! Here’s who got the job done late at night this week.

Julio Torres came The Tonight Show with a fascinator. That’s bold! Torres said the look was meant to say, “I have an idea,” which is very on-brand. The most important thing in this interview was Torres’ impressions of all the different colors. It’s a great concept and an obvious approach to explore after working a lot with shapes. But what amused me most in this section was the way Torres always needed a few pauses to remember what talking point Jimmy Fallon was trying to segue into. Each time, it was like a little “Eureka!” moment.

The intensity between Jordan Klepper and Desi Lydic as they debate whether or not beards are acceptable is really good. The energy of the piece heightens the silly nonsense being discussed. I would like to particularly highlight Klepper’s oratorical skills when he says, “A straight talker who doesn’t succumb to the blather of the bigwigs at Philips Norelco.” A nice cadence in the spirit of “capital T that rhymes with P that stands for ‘pool.'”

Or, more specifically, his Matt Foley impersonation. During one of Stephen Colbert’s nightly live monologues after the RNC, he adopted the air of a man who lives in a van down by the river, poking fun at how loudly Rep. Tom Emmer hooted and hollered during his speech. It was remarkable how much Colbert altered his body shape for this performance, inflating his stomach by about 300 percent. That’s the skill of the Second City Touring Company.

The result of After midnight with Gillian Jacobs, Alaska 5000 and Chris Fleming was an unforgettable experience. Lots of great ideas! writer Sam Taggart A normal man roasted the entire panel, for starters. But the moment that really sang in the episode was when Fleming persuaded his co-panelists to read his riff Glengarry Glen Ross during the talk show portion of the episode. It had the energy of the precocious kid at a dinner party and the older family members approving of his antics. It’s a delicious mood to linger in for a while.

I couldn’t stop thinking about this interaction between Natalie Portman and Seth Meyers where they talk about what Sesame Street Monsters they’ve worked with since I saw it. Meyers talks about doing a bit with the Count and how his kids don’t like that. But then Portman drops in the most humble boastful way that she’s worked with Elmo, and it’s delicious. The way she white Elmo is a bigger catch than the Count, but this concern about Muppet status is rubbish, but still: Elmo! It’s the way Meyers conducts interviews – he lets things breathe, is an active listener, goes with the flow – that makes a moment like this possible.