Comedian Jon Stewart Binges on Shrooms For a Week Before a Set

Take pop star Miley Cyrus, for example, whose trips on Salvia changed her life for the better; boxing champion Mike Tyson, who took shrooms to help cope with traumatic brain injury; actress Kristen Bell, who credits psilocybin with her fight against depression; and Hollywood legend Will Smith, who went on dozens of ayahuasca retreats to conquer his childhood trauma. 

Joining the fray is Jon Stewart: comedian and former host of “The Daily Show”. You may have watched him arguing for cannabis legalisation, back in the day when it was certainly risky to do so. When every other news outlet stoked the coals of fear and claimed that psychedelics were a “gateway drug” (where have we heard that one before??), Stewart used his platform to help educate Mom and Pop viewers at home and make them feel at ease. Psychedelics are more than just for tripping out, he would say. There is more than meets the eye…

And he is absolutely right! 

Jon Stewart’s Week-Long Binge on Shrooms

In a recent interview with Radio Rahim’s “Til This Day” podcast, Stewart revealed how he sharpens his wits prior to a gruelling standup set onstage. A week-long binge of magic mushrooms, which he claims has helped him perfect his craft in comedy:

“You sort of learn about producing something. And I got to the point where I could do [magic] mushrooms for a week and wake up and go onstage, and to the audience, I got to be a good enough craftsman that it could forgive my imperfections to an audience.”

As proof of how the understanding of shrooms has progressed, podcast host Radio Rahim had no follow-up questions for the comedian. Such an open revelation would have landed the front page of TMZ back then — or maybe even cost Stewart his job at the network. 

Not today, however!

The King of Comedy

There is more to standup comedy, apparently, than simply going up on stage and telling an embarrassing anecdote or two. The most effective standup and hosting gigs require days, even weeks, of preparation to make the entire thing go just right. Stewart, a veteran TV host and comedian, knows this all too well. He also knows to time his week-long shroom binges to be totally sober once it’s showtime.

On the topic of perfecting his talk show or a comedy set, Stewart told Radio Rahim:

“You start to realise there’s a more sophisticated refinery that goes on behind this. 

“But then you continue to challenge yourself and build a different set of tools. Managing people, comedy’s a very solitary form. But what if you could marshal other resources, and manage them so that we’re all working towards the same goal? And that’s the talk show. And everything has a render time. If I want to make a graphic, if I want to do a [comedy] bit, if I want to shoot it and then edit it, you start to learn all the different subsets of creating your voice.”

Microdosing on Main

Even though microdosing as a trend has grown only recently, the idea of it has been floating around since the 1960s. The first person to point out that taking psychedelics — LSD to be specific — in very small doses to help treat depression, anxiety, ADHD, or existential boredom was Albert Hofmann: the chemist who discovered “acid”. 

And while he fought for the public acceptance of LSD until his death in 2008, the psychedelic compound would only enjoy a renewed popularity in Silicon Valley years later. What Hofmann had described as his “problem child” has become something else entirely. The tech boom of smartphones and social media would leave employees burned out and fresh out of ideas. 

The easiest solution for a daily boost in creativity? Microdosing. And not just LSD, either; the buffet of favourites had come to include psilocybin from shrooms and magic truffles. 

Cures Your Depression With Just a Tiny Bit

Stewart had expressed a desire to try microdosing psilocybin in the past, but he merely flirted with the possibility. (Hollywood is a high-octane industry, after all.) This podcast interview with Radio Rahim is the first time the TV icon has admitted on air to taking magic mushrooms on a regular basis.

Last year, Jon Stewart had exclaimed on an episode of his podcast, “The Problem”, of his itch to try taking super-low doses of psilocybin on a schedule:

“I really wanna microdose! I would love to.”

His head writer, Chelsea Devantez, who was just as intrigued with the idea of microdosing psilocybin as Stewart, had this to say:

“Honestly, doesn’t it sound great? I kinda wanna do it. It cures your depression with just a tiny bit of shrooms. Hey, can we get a microdose-for-shrooms sponsor?”

Stewart, ever the advocate for psychedelics, had the perfect reply:

“Today’s podcast is brought to you by psilocybin! Psilocybin: just don’t have it on an empty stomach.”

Half Baked (On Shrooms)

Here’s a fun fact! 

Did you know that Jon Stewart’s love for the psychedelic lifestyle went beyond his clever spiels on The Daily Show? The TV host actually had a cameo in the 1998 stoner comedy film, Half Baked, starring Dave Chappelle. In the movie, Stewart played an “Enhancement Smoker” who believes that every activity can be improved by taking psychedelics (in this case, cannabis).

A critically-panned film that has remained a cult classic for stoners, Half Baked helped to break the misconception that weed was dangerous. As opposed to hard drugs, which it was often lumped with at the time. Stoners are rarely violent; they’re more likely to form crazy theories with their friends.

Here are some unforgettable lines by Stewart’s character:

“I love Al Pacino, man. You ever seen ‘Scent of a Woman’? Sure, but have you ever seen ‘Scent of a Woman’…on weed? That’s the way to see it, man!

“Have you ever seen the back of a twenty dollar bill…on weed?”

Can you imagine a new scene like that one but with shrooms? I mean, it is Mr. Stewart’s psychedelic of choice at the moment, and reboots are all the rage right now…