JH: You’re right. Obviously that’s not entirely true.

RS: If you can really do what you love, and get money, and buy, within reason, whatever you want at the store…

JH: Totally. I think you put your finger on it, really. Because the fact is I was doing what I loved, and being well compensated for it, and I never imagined those two things happening. I tried to imagine a world in which I could do something that I didn’t much care about and be well compensated for it. There are a lot of people who go that way, and I suppose that is a situation where money can’t buy you happiness. If you can do both, you’ve got it made! So I would highly recommend that people just get on television. That’s the best.

RS: Have you performed in Iowa before?

JH: Yeah, last fall I performed in Des Moines. It was a fun show. It was called “The Daily Show Live,” and it was a tour where different correspondents and contributors to The Daily Show would go to different places depending on everybody’s schedules. It was most often me and Al Madrigal, and then one or two other off-camera people who work at the show. It was tremendous fun for us and terribly confusing for the poor people who had bought tickets to these things. Because, they’re like, “Where’s Jon Stewart? Where’s John Oliver?” and we’re like, “Uhhhhh….It’s just us.”

But more to the point, it was interesting to travel with Al Madrigal, because Al is a really talented comedian, a really good guy, and someone who developed his creative life specifically in the stand-up medium. He’s not a line-cutter like me. I learned a lot from him about the art of stand-up.

RS: Twitter’s a great venue for that too. Like one-liners and stuff. I follow a lot of comedians on twitter.