Rocca rocks Baker Center with tales from front line

'Daily Show' reporter's presentation included cross-dressers, pigs

by Tiffany Royal and Jane Burcherd
FOR THE POST

A major player on Comedy Central's The Daily Show waltzed into a packed Baker Center Ballroom last night with material both seen and unseen.

Mo Rocca, a correspondent with The Daily Show since November 1998, presented Athens with a montage of never-before-seen clips and familiar faces - both celebrities and well-known politicians.

He ended the presentation by answering questions from the audience about his role as a journalist.

Before his big break, Rocca worked for four years behind the camera as a writer and producer for Nickelodeon's Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss and with PBS's Wishbone, a television adaptation of the popular children's book series.

His fascination with presidential homes gave him his break on The Daily Show.

Rocca interviewed a man so obsessed with Florence Harding (President Warren Harding's wife) that he dressed up like her and gave tours of the Harding residence. Rocca took pictures of this man dressed as both a man and a woman.

Those pictures helped make Rocca a full-time Daily Show correspondent. From there he logged regular airtime on the show's "Indecision 2000," their coverage of the presidential campaign trails. Rocca presented clips featuring John McCain's quips (the Republican candidate actually played along), George W. Bush's bowling technique and Gary Bauer's nasty fall off a press conference stage after flipping pancakes in front of the media.

"Moments like that are what we pray for," Rocca said.

Even though The Daily Show mixes in with mainstream media, they add a fresh, light-hearted dose of humor to the seriousness of politics.

Most politicians go along with it, particularly John McCain. On one occasion, McCain admitted candidates for the Supreme Court should memorize lines from Comedy Central programming, just to introduce a little more humor to the Capitol.

Rocca also pulled out a few of the raunchier segments. He aired a piece of footage produced by his colleague, Beth Littleford, that was so scandalous, "even the president of the network wanted the piece burned," Mo admitted.

Littleford visited a little Iowa farm that raised pigs, adding to their collection of (attention: euphemism ahead) pig genetic material by (another euphemism) manually stimulating the animals.

The audience groaned.

Still, overall the crowd seemed to enjoy it.

"He was really personable," said junior Katherine Fox. "He really cared. He wanted the audience to have fun."

Rocca concluded his presentation by revealing the two toughest parts of his job: getting close enough to the famous person to get a sound bite and trying to keep the interviewees calm enough to avoid sounding contrived.

"People try to be funny, but they are not since they are so involved in the story," Rocca concluded "There is no natural freshness."