Daily Show correspondent Aasif Mandvi, who chased down John Mayer in the Live Earth press room to ask him if the show’s biggest act of environmentalism was “recycling old bands” like Smashing Pumpkins, Bon Jovi, and the Police, actually has deeper roots in the news business. His first job in New York was working at Michael’s, the media lunch mecca. “I started off as a busboy and worked up to waiting tables,” he says. He was eventually fired (though he prefers to think, “I left because they refused to pay me anymore”). “The first person I ever waited on was Tom Brokaw, and I was so excited,” he says. “He was a good tipper. And I remember he had an endive salad. And after that, I felt like I understood him. Whenever I’d see him on TV, I’d be like, ‘You know what that guy has for a starter? Endive salad.’ All my friends were very impressed.”

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• Archive: “Intelligencer”
• Articles by Jada Yuan

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