Stephen Colbert to move 'Late Show' to Chicago for Democratic convention

Stephen Colbert is taking his “Late Show” out of its storied New York theater for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, and Chicago is where he’ll be going.

The host will announce on Wednesday’s episode that during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, he’ll be making his August 19-22 episodes at the Auditorium Theatre, 50 East Ida B. Wells Drive.

“I lived in Chicago for 11 years, and it holds a special place in my heart, and not just because of all the Polish sausage that’s still lodged in my aorta,” he says on the show, taped earlier Wednesday. “Chicago is where I cut my comedy teeth performing at The Second City, and it’s also where this South Carolina boy got an education in winter. Did you know that tears can freeze?”

Audience tickets for the shows are not yet available.

It will be the first full-on production of “The Late Show” in another city, although during the pandemic, Colbert did bare-bones broadcasts from his homes in New Jersey and South Carolina.

The politically minded comedian is relocating for only one of this summer’s nominating conventions. During the Republican event in Milwaukee, Colbert will stay at New York’s Ed Sullivan Theater and broadcast his show live. As of now, live broadcasts are not planned in Chicago, but that is subject to change.

Colbert grew up in South Carolina but became a Midwesterner first to study at Northwestern University, and then as an aspiring actor at various Chicago theaters. He emerged as a standout writer-performer at Second City and remains active with the theater, serving on its board of directors.

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