Night of Too Many Stars with Jon Stewart

Not since Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg and Billy Crystal all stood up to make comedy count in the 80's and early 90's has comedy made such a difference than it did last night. Last night, Jon Stewart organized and hosted a benefit show simply titled 'A Night Of Too Many Stars' to benefit the disease that has been getting more and more attention lately, autism.

The show opened up with a great opening number from Jack Black being played along by the house band led by Moby. The laughs never stopped all the way through until the final act from Triumph the Insult Comic Dog complete with another rip at Moby from an audience member who won an auction prize of getting to come on stage and take a verbal shot at Moby.

Autism is a terrible disease that deserves more attention than it is getting and I for one was absolutely ecstatic to see this benefit taking place. I would like to absolutely give thanks to Jon Stewart for putting this benefit together and making the night count. For those of you who didn't see it, here is a recap of some of the highs and lows from a night of too many stars.

Best Moment: Stephen Colbert's personal donation of $50,000. It's hard to know if Jon Stewart was acting when Stephen when he said that he was making a personal donation but the gratitude between the two friends was obvious.

Funniest Sketch: Steve Carell and Oscar Nunez from 'The Office' speaking to all the cats that had inherited money from their rich owners.

Sketches That Fell Flat: Adam Sandler doing his remote simulcast from his home in LA. I'm a big Adam Sandler fan so it was kind of sad to see his bits fall flat.

Most Creative Method of Raising Money: Elvis Costello only playing his more popular songs if the volume of calls increased while he was on stage. Every time the volume of calls dropped he would switch to less known songs or songs that were just terrible. It was also great to see him get into the spirit of things near the end.

Most Disappointing Moment: David Letterman phoning it in with a top ten list. You live in
New York
and you couldn't just drop in? Even if you couldn't drop in, the least you could've done was come up with more than just a top ten list.

Great Guests: The benefit brought in some fabulous guests to perform including Mike Meyers and Jerry Seinfeld who were absolutely hilarious. Ben Stiller performing as David Blaine trapped in a box and Will Ferrell as Robert Goulet were also highlights of the evening that will be talked about for days to come.

Honorable Mentions: Brian Williamson from ABC reading news headlines and putting the names of people who pledged money in, Chris Meloni appearing on stage with a puppet before being kicked off stage 30 seconds later.

By the end of the night, the benefit managed to raise over $2 million dollars and they were still tallying up pledges. Jon Stewart stood up and made comedy count once again and I can only hope that he does this again soon. Last night Jon proved that he is a political pundant, satirist, comedian and now… humanitarian.