From Jon to Trevor to rotating hosts—and then BACK to Jon—it’s been a wild ride for The Daily Show technical director Michael H. Williams.
The Daily Show‘s technical director, Michael H. Williams, started on the Comedy Central series during an interesting time in the show’s history.
“Literally my second day on the job was the day that Jon [Stewart] announced he was leaving for the first time,” said Williams. “And it was a bit of a shock, but the show has endured, and everything’s going great.”
Since he started in 2015, Williams has worked with a variety of hosts, from Trevor Noah as the permanent one to the rotating slate the show is currently running, with Stewart back behind the desk on Monday nights.
“As far as developing a rhythm with the hosts, it’s not really a spoken thing. It’s more like, there’s a pause here, or [Michael] Kosta might do this. You know, Ronny [Chieng] might make a face or things like that. It’s just something you just kind of feel over time.”
What does a technical director do exactly? Williams described it as like the audio guy who has the big board with all the sounds—only he has a big board with pictures instead of sounds. (You know you’ve laughed at when one of his images shows up during a host’s news roundup!)
But that’s just one part of his job. For the interview segment of the show, the man behind the switchboard will often offer up shots that could be beneficial to the director.
“I’m certainly listening to what’s being said, you know, by the host and by the guests. And, you know, sometimes I can offer a shot or if I anticipate something. Sometimes Jon can be very emotive. If it’s during an interview segment, sometimes I’ll just sneak a shot of Jon onto the preview channel to let the director see that. This is me letting him know, non-verbally that, hey, maybe Jon’s going to make a face. Maybe Jon’s going to do a little, you know, something.”
What’s the most challenging aspect of being The Daily Show’s technical director? Williams said it’s switching to and from correspondents in a segment that incorporates all of them. However, new technology has made it easier.
“We’ll get a bunch of correspondents on green screen and the host will do a little bit with each one of them in turn, but they’re all out there at the same time. They all have to be set up on green screen at the same time. We have a brand-new switcher now, a Sony MLSX1 that’s amazing. But before that, doing those sort of segments was a bit of a challenge because we just didn’t have enough switcher to put a background behind everybody.”
Before working on one of TV’s most iconic comedic properties, Williams worked for two of MTV’s iconic shows: TRL and Wild’n Out in the ’90s and aughts, respectively. While he’s developed a comfortability on The Daily Show, Wild’n Out had him on the edge of his seat.
“So many moments and so many memories that I have doing that show, you know, in New York and on the road. It’s just been quite a ride that I’ve had, you know, and as far as Wild N Out, it’s a great show. And that’s a challenging show in that it’s not scripted. You have to follow the ball a bit, which is super challenging because you don’t know what those guys are going to come out with at any given time. You have to be ready.”
The Daily Show airs Monday through Thursday nights on Comedy Central.
