Jon Stewart’s first date with his wife was almost a bust, but “two shots” were enough to turn things around.
“When she gets nervous she gets very calm and when I get nervous it’s the opposite,” the comedian said of his wife Tracey McShane Strike Force Five Podcast.
Stewart recalled eating “two huge burritos, hers and mine” at a Mexican restaurant on their first date.
He said she was so quiet that he was convinced she “not only didn’t like me, but found me repulsive.”
“Apparently she was feeling sick and wouldn’t touch her food, so I threw everything away,” he said.
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Before calling it a night, Stewart suggested stopping by a nearby bar.
“Two shots and she relaxes,” he remembers. “When she started talking and how funny and smart was she? Oh dear God.”
Stephen Colbert, one of the podcast’s hosts, said he texted McShane to get her version of events.
“I think when he got a few drinks in me it finally got me talking,” she wrote back, according to Colbert.
Stewart said he asked McShane to be his girlfriend on the spot.
“I wrote her a note, as cultured as I was at the time,” the comedian said. “It said ‘Would you be my girlfriend?’ And I only gave her two boxes to check: one was ‘yes’ and the other was ‘of course.’
Stewart shared In the past, he and his wife met after going on a blind date. They have been married since 2000.
The Strike Force Five podcast is hosted by five late-night TV hosts whose shows are on hold due to the Hollywood writers’ strike: Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Colbert, John Oliver and Seth Meyers.
The comedians started the podcast to raise money for their unemployed employees.
