> What is Stewart's background?
<http://natspaz.tripod.com/thejonstewartshrine/id1.html>
Biography
Jon was raised in Lawrence Township near Trenton New Jersey and lived with his parents Donald and Marian until they divorced in 1971. it was said that Jon took the divorce pretty hard and had alluded to tensions with his father many times in his comedy specials and on TV, anf that his father has never been to any of his shows.
Jon left for the college of William and Mary in Virginia when he was 17 where played soccer, where he said was the only thing he enjoyed doing while he was there. Jon had said that he was "miserable" there. Jon had to stop playing soccer after graduation due to a hernia in his knee that needed surgery.
[...]
After many unfullilling jobs, Jon moved to New York City to hit the comedy circuit in 1986. His first gig was at The Bitter End where he only had a few minutes to prepare and recieved what he called the biggest humiliation of his life, where it took another 4 months before he would hit the stage again, but after his first attempt, Jon knew thats what he wanted to do as a career.
After becoming know on the stand-up comedy circuit, Jon moved to the small screen, working for MTV on a show called Short Attention Span Theatre, and then after the short lived show was cancelled, he moved on to You Wrote It, You Watch It, where Jon wrote most of his skits. After that show was cancelled, Jon pitched a show to MTV, which eventually became The Jon Stewart Show. The show lasted almost two years, and even went into sydication for nine months after Paramount bought it.
After becoming known on the TV circuit, Jon moved to the big screen, signing a 6 movie deal with Miramax, and had some writing and producing in some of them as well. Not all movies were made, but the deal was fullfilled
As Jon moved up on the celebrity scale, he also moved up on the personal scale. While shooting Wishful Thinking in 1996. A Production Assistant working on the set told Jon about her roomate Tracey being intrested in him and with hearing so many good things about Tracey, Jon called her. The began to date and eventually moved in together. On the television show The View in 1999, Jon publicly announced his engagement to Tracey and how he proposed. He and Tracey loved crosswords, so Jon put his secret proposal in the crossword.
Jon's career was starting to roll, as he wrote a book on satirical essays and stories called Naked Pictures of Famous People which gained much acclaim. Also Jon was on a number of talk shows like David Letterman, and often co-hosted for Late, Late Show with Tom Snyder, and it was rumoured that when Tom left, Jon would take over as host, but unfortunately nothign came of it. Instead Jon had a steady gig playing himself on The Larry Sanders Show.
Finally in 1999, Jon got his big break when Craig Kibourn left The Daily Show and Jon opted to be the new host, which he got. Jon also became a write and executive producer for the show. Jon has been hosting the show ever since and gaining more acclaim. Since Jon took over, the show has been nominated many times for an Emmy and has even one once for best writing in a variety or comedy show.