The Colbert Rapport

and the Americone Dream

May 22, 2026

The first time I saw Stephen Colbert in Montclair, New Jersey, it was soon after he’d become popular on “The Daily Show.” He was at Kings supermarket, standing in the baking aisle trying to choose chocolate chips, on the phone with Evie, asking for clarity on which to buy.

The second time was also at a supermarket, the small Whole Foods on Bloomfield Avenue. My kid was halfway inside the freezer compartment, investigating the new ice creams from Ben and Jerry’s. He pointed at the container of Americone Dream and asked what the flavor was, just as Stephen Colbert walked by. I pointed at Colbert and suggested my son ask him. We, of course, didn’t, because us Montclairions are wayyyyy too cool for that. I remember he was wearing LL Bean Blucher moccasins, and was struck by how delightfully nerdy and square that was.

Tonight, I get the sense from local social media that the entire population of our town is taking the end of his show personally, as if it were an affront to all of us. Everyone here seems to have some story about Stephen (Some go deeper than others. See fellow Montclairion, journalist Jonathan Alter’s Substack post from yesterday.), and to a one, the stories are of a generous, kind and down-to-earth human. The same is true for his wife Evie. They are beloved for creating and supporting the Montclair Film Festival—now in its 15th year, and preserving our local cinema (along with a few other in-town celebs, but I shan’t name-drop). Long ago, when his kids were still in public school, he hosted PTA fund raisers. He even taught CCD at at the Catholic church.

It was his shows during Covid, initially shot in his house, that bonded me to him. His whole family pitched in, holding cue cards and handing him props. He was there every day on the TV buoying our spirits—but also just across town, trapped in his house just as we were. I still react to the opening music for the Late Show with a happy frisson: “Something good is about to happen.”

Colbert has donated $7.5 million from sales of his Ben and Jerry’s genuinely delicious ice cream flavor, Americone Dream, and spent the last months of his show auctioning off Late Show memorabilia to raise money for World Central Kitchen. Wednesday night he presented Jose Andres with a check for $2.5 million.

(Of course none of that compares to Trump’s generous donation of $1.776 billion of your tax dollars so he can pay whomever he wants for whatever reason they want.)

Lately, I’ve been really hoping certain people would leave the world stage. Colbert was not who I was thinking of. Damnit.

Stephen Colbert didn’t do it alone, he was surrounded by a brilliant, funny, hard-working staff, including my brilliant, funny, hard-working nephew-in-law, Aaron Nemo.

I couldn’t think of a better weekend to make an ice cream pie with loads of Americone Dream. Here’s a recipe: