Stephen Colbert honed his David Byrne impression in front of a live audience on Saturday night, performing the Talking Heads hit Once in a Lifetime at a benefit concert for the Montclair Film Festival.
Colbert opened his rendition of the Eighties classic by mimicking one of Byrnes moves from the Once in a Lifetime video, throwing his arms over his head and his torso backward as if blown by a fierce gust of wind. The band for the evening, dubbed the Losers Lounge, ripped through Once in a Lifetimes signature vamp and added harmonies during the hook.
After finishing his performance, Colbert could not resist a quick joke at the expense of President Trumps senior advisor Kellyanne Conway. Obviously tonight is for the Montclair Film Festival, Colbert told the crowd. But all remaining donations, if theres anything left over, is going to go to victims of the Bowling Green massacre.
Colberts wife Evie is the president of the Montclair Film Festival Board of Trustees, and she decided to take the Festivals fundraiser in a new direction this year. We thought lets try to do a different kind of event that would reach a broader audience and be not just another fundraising event but have an entertainment component to it, she toldNorthJersey.com.
We thought how fun it would be to do an Eighties night, she continued. That kind of resonated with a lot of us who are in our mid-life, shall we say, and look back on the Eighties fondly.