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Living in l.a. msnbcs zach roth is live in illinois the site of the protests. set the scene and how things have been going so far. in a matter of an hour the gathering has gotten much larger. >> reporter: yeah, hi thomas there is by now a crowd i would estimate over 1,000 people. heavily young and minority in keeping with the profile of this movement and the mood is upbeat and optimistic. coming off of a big victory in l.a. having said that they are very focused still on that goal of $15 an hour...

Audience, the whole time for the first week or two that he had that beard, that, yes, ive been away, i know, were going to work this out and get back together. and then, you know, a couple weeks in the beard was gone and he was completely back. >> well, do you -- even though yours was prescribed, literally medically induced, is this the new you? and do you think youre going to use it as sort of like an on ramp back to the show? when do we get you back? >> rachel, weve been searching for the real...

Yours was prescribed, literally medically induced, is this the new you? and do you think youre going to use it as sort of like an on ramp back to the show? when do we get you back? >> rachel, weve been searching for the real me for so long now. and, but this is, you know, this is my, i cant know, 400th beard. i went through, you know, a real easy rider period during my motorcycle years with the long hair and long beards and all that stuff and ive had a lot of those different looks so its kind of...

Its going to be a practical joke. hes going to show up and ill do it on monday. im going to do it right from this l.a. msnbc studio im in right now for a couple weeks then back to 30 rock in july for the mother ship. and i cant wait. its going to be a lot of fun. >> have you been -- obviously when you were convalescing especially at the beginning and dealing with surgery and all that stuff, i know and i hope that you were completely turned off from the news. now that you are sort of reentering o...

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