By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally filed September 28, 2012
Back when the debate mattered from 2006 to 2009, the Mac vs. PC ads became instant classics, featuring Justin Long as the confident Mac and John Hodgman as a neurotic, insecure PC.
Now the debate is between the iPhone vs. any Droid-operated smartphone. Hodgman, who will be at the Ferst Center Friday night, Sept. 28, at 8 p.m. with Al Madrigal and Adam Lowitt in a mini-"Daily Show" show, wouldn't mind playing a Droid phone. But he doesn't think Apple would resurrect the campaign.
“They don’t stick with an ad campaign forever,” Hodgman says in a recent phone interview from his Brooklyn apartment. “But I still love and appreciate Apple products. I was happy and proud to be associated with them for that period of time. They have to evolve.”
He remains an occasional contributor to Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart” and the show at the Ferst Show uses “The Daily Show” name since Madrigal is a full-time correspondent and Lowitt is a writer. Hodgman will do standup, he says, and hopes to generate “chuckles among the arched eyebrow set.”
"I am a literary humorist," he says. "I will do an imitation of stand up. As a deranged millionaire, I will come out and explain a little bit of the world from my point of view such as my frustrations with Mitt Romney and all the money I've given him. I think he should be doing better given what I paid him."
Asked about big Romney supporter and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, Hodgman says (jokingly, of course) that Adelson's a "front." But he does resent how much control billionaires have over Romney: "They don't know what we millionaires have to deal with. We still have to deal with the normals – you know, employees and such."
Other topics he plans to explore: “Wine, wealth, sports, the end of the world.”
More seriously, he says he had just done a bit for Stewart, but it was cut from that show because Stewart preferred to air an extended interview with Salmon Rushdie. "Not a decision I would have made," Hodgman says dryly. Asked if he was really hurt, he says, "The work is compensation itself. I'm happy to go there any day and spend time with those people. It's such an incredibly invigorating collection of weirdos and geniuses and smart, thoughtful, engaged people. And they have free sandwiches."
In concert
“Indecision Tour 2012: Daily Show Live”
8 p.m., Friday, Sept. 28
$40-$45 (lower with subscription)
Ferst Center
349 Ferst Drive NW, Atlanta
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