'Truthiness' of Colbert: Ex-Charlestonian pens biography of Comedy Central's 'Report' star

Political satirist and one-time Charlestonian Stephen Colbert knew when he was developing "The Colbert Report" that the show would parody the cult of personality. Yet if it succeeded, as it has, the popular Comedy Central program would generate its own cult of personality.

As it also has, says biographer Lisa Rogak, who set herself the task of separating the man from his over-the-top comedic persona, a caricatured take on conservative political pundits.

"My name is Stephen Colbert," the actor once said at a commencement address, "but I actually play someone on television named Stephen Colbert, who looks like me and talks like me, but who says things with a straight face he doesn't mean."

Yet Colbert incorporates aspects of his real personality and interests into the character, which enlivened -- and complicated -- his biographer's process.

Rogak, herself a former Holy City resident, will publish "And Nothing But the Truthiness: The Rise (and Further Rise) of Stephen Colbert" (St. Martin's Press) on Oct. 11. It is the first full-length biography of the TV star. And if there's one thing that stands out in her mind, it's Colbert's real-world geniality.

"What came up over and over again ... is that he is such a nice guy, a genuinely, perhaps shockingly, good person," says Rogak, now living in New Hampshire. "But I also got the sense he is frustrated by the lack of time he has for real life, which is why he protects his family life so assiduously."

Colbert, whom Rogak calls exceptionally well-educated and well-rounded, did not participate in the project. Par for the course, she says.

"I always say the best cure for insomnia is an authorized biography. I always contact them and never expect to get through. But if I was in the position of one of my subjects, I might not want to help them either, because I would be intrigued to see what they could find and do on their own."

A writer since 1981, Rogak has 41 books to her credit, most recently "Haunted Heart: The Life and Times of Stephen King" (Thomas Dunne Books) and "Michelle Obama: In Her Own Words" (Public Affairs).

"Colbert is the most personable of my subjects, and he really came alive to me," she says. "When I started the bio, I had no expectations. I don't do a lot of advance research before selling an idea to the publisher; I prefer to go into it with my subject being an absolute blank slate."

"I grew up in a humorocracy where the funniest person in the room was king."

-- Stephen Colbert

The youngest of 11 children born to Lorna and Dr. James W. Colbert, Stephen Colbert burst into the world on May 13, 1964, in Washington, D.C. The family moved to Charleston in January 1969 when James Colbert, an epidemiologist, accepted a post with the Medical University of South Carolina. He served as the university's first vice president for academic affairs until his death in a plane crash in 1974.

The actor's mother still lives in Mount Pleasant. Colbert attended Porter-Gaud School, Hampden-Sydney College in

Virginia and Northwestern University in Chicago, where he became intrigued with improvisational theater upon meeting Del Close, director of the famed Second City troupe. His first professional performance was as an understudy for Steve Carell at Second City, and he also worked with comedians Paul Dinello and Amy Sedaris.

But the initial pivot point for Colbert came much earlier, says Rogak, when he won a part (albeit with no lines) in Gian Carlo Menotti's "The Leper" at the Spoleto Festival in 1982. He was between his junior and senior years at Porter-Gaud and a fellow cast member urged him to give acting a shot.

"That's all the benediction he needed. It set him off, at first, on the path of being a serious actor," says Rogak.

But comedy would win out.

It was with Sedaris that Colbert would develop the critically acclaimed sketch comedy series "Exit 57." Colbert also wrote and performed on the ill-fated "Dana Carvey Show" before again collaborating with Sedaris and Dinello on the risky cult TV series "Strangers With Candy."

But it was his work as a "correspondent" on Comedy Central's news-parody series, "The Daily Show," that catapulted him to a different plateau.

In 2005, "The Colbert Report" was spun off "The Daily Show," employing a similar news-parody format concept that relished sending-up such personality-driven programs as Fox News' "The O'Reilly Factor."

From the get-go, it was among Comedy Central's highest-rated series, earning Colbert three Emmy Award nominations. His book, "I Am America (And So Can You!)," appeared in 2007.

"South Carolina gives me all kinds of material, probably more than South Carolina wants."

-- Stephen Colbert

As part of her primary research, Rogak conducted numerous interviews, including those with Colbert's fourth-grade teacher at Stiles Point Elementary School, Angela Katsos Kiehling, and Dr. Maxwell Mowry at Porter-Gaud, also obtaining background information locally from Sue Chanson and others. These, plus conversations with adult contemporaries, suggested a definite relationship between Colbert and his on-air character.

"There is, but it's like quicksilver," says Rogak. "As soon as you see it or realize it's there, it's gone. That's why watching him on the show is such a game for so many people. As soon as he breaks character on his show, people grab that segment and throw it up on YouTube. I'm always amazed when I talk to people who don't realize that it's an actor playing a part."

Rogak swore the Obama bio was her last, but her agent and editor had other ideas.

"My agent and my editor were thinking, 'What is she going to do next after the Stephen King book?' It was my former roomie in Charleston, Michael Murray, who came up with the idea of Colbert. My editor loved the idea, and the Charleston connection. I put the book to bed a year ago in August, a month before leaving Charleston."

For those wondering what became of the former Charlestonian, she left town vowing to resume her peripatetic travels and not return to the States for another year. But then she started missing friends in S.C. and in New Hampshire, where she had lived for 20 years.

"I studied how people travel around the world full time, and a lot of them are in their 20s. They are OK with sleeping in hostels with seven strangers, which does not describe me today. So I cobbled together a six-month journey between press trips and friends and conferences and just bopping around. Then I spent two months in Guatemala, Mexico, Belize and Panama. I hit a wall after that. Now I don't feel the need. I'm making a new wish list. The urgency is not there now to be such a vagabond traveling the world."

The urgency to write remains.

"I always have to find something I have in common with my subjects. Sometimes I know this in the beginning, sometimes in the course of my research. Colbert and I both lost our fathers in the fall of 1974, though under different circumstances. We are pretty much the same age, and so for me it was really interesting to see how he dealt with the aftermath."