Back to You, John

As both a staff writer and the Senior British Correspondent for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, John Oliver exists in an ethereal realm of striking and working at the same time. It's a delicate role: On the show's return, he appeared two places at once, with Oliver the correspondent arguing with Oliver the striker in an inspired bit of writing that we're not supposed to think is writing. Of course, thinking on your feet is not a problem for Daily Show correspondents — almost all of them, past and present, come from the stand-up stage, and Oliver is no different. He had a long history running his own satirical show in Europe, Political Animal, and last year he won the Breakout Award at the Aspen Comedy Festival. This weekend he leaves all the nastiness behind and once again tells jokes that might be, gasp, scripted. Such are the spoils of working stand-up.
Fri., Jan. 25, 8 & 10:15 p.m.; Sat., Jan. 26, 8 & 10:15 p.m., 2008