Announcer its the the late show with Stephen Colbert tonight, stephen welcomes Jennifer Hudson, chris hayes and Christian Borle, featuring jon batiste and stay human. And, now, live on tape from the ed sullivan theater in new york city, its Stephen Colbert cheers and applause band playing stephen whoo hello cheers and applause thank you whats going on . Jon hey stephen welcome jon good to see ya stephen lovely, lovely. Welcome to the late show. Im your host Stephen Colbert. Its lovely to be back from our easter break. You have a great time, jon . Jon great time. Stephen i missed these people. Jon i missed them, too, man. Stephen i love being with you people night after night. cheers and applause what did you do for easter . Jon i was in mexico. Stephen whats mexico and easter like . Jon its great. Really spicey. laughter stephen easters not over, though. Easter rolls on. Was it this morning . This morning at the white house, they held the annual easter egg roll. Its a tradition that goes back to 1878, back when president rutherford b. Hayes let children hunt for eggs in his beard. laughter the president and the first lady kicked things off with the national anthem. And notice what she has to nudge him to do oh, say can you see. Stephen and put your hand up laughter do it do it youre the president youre the president piano riff he forgot to put his hand over his heart, happens to everybody jon every time. Stephen when i saw that footage, i almost forgot to put my hand over my face. cheers and applause piano riff yet, not the most embarrassing to happen at the egg roll. That honor goes to the official white house snapchat account that sent out this snap featuring a bunch of kids gathered around the secretary of educatuon betsy devos. audience reacts yes jon wow. Stephen its like betsy devos always says, theres no i in education, the way i spell it. laughter so when was the last time we were shooting a show . 10 days ago. Jon yeah, yeah. Stephen ten days ago. It was that night that trump hit syria with 59 tomahawk missiles. And, obviously, when youre bombing another country, thats a decision you take very seriously. He did it in the situation room with all available intel. Just kidding. laughter he was eating dinner at maralago with the chinese president , as he explained in this hardhitting interview with maria bartiromo. When you were with the president of china, we are launching these military strikes. Was that planned . How did that come about that its happening right then . Because, right there, you are saying, a reminder heres who the superpower in the world is. You have no idea how many people want to hear the answer to this. I have had i have watched speculation for three days now on what that was like. When did you tell him . But ill tell you. Before dessert . Stephen when did you decide to bomb those people . Before dessert . And whats the proper wine pairing with a Cruise Missile . A merlot . Or something more desserty, like a sauterne . What are we talking about again . War . Do go on. I was sitting at the table, we had finished dinner were now having dessert. And we had the most beautiful piece of chocolate cake that youve ever seen, aaaand president xi was enjoying it. Stephen yes, they were eating beautiful chocolate cake. Classic war story. Reminds me of Winston Churchills famous address to the british people we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall, nyum nyum nyum. Mmmmmmmm, cake. cheers and applause stephen mmm. So stirring. So stirring. piano riff stephen in between bites of beautiful chocolate cake, trump told the chinese president about the missile strike. So what happens is i said, weve Just Launched 59 missiles, heading to iraq. Well, heading to syria. Yes, heading toward syria. laughter stephen whoopsybombsies whoopsie cawhoopsie cadabra i got the wrong country. Its adorable. Hey, south korea, before the war starts, just to be safe, you might want to break out the spraypaint. laughter its not us not them cheers and applause but its easy for trump to get his wars mixed up. Because, in afghanistan, he just dropped something called the mother of all bombs. What is the right thing to drop this bomb . I dont know. I watch american news, i have no idea whats going on in afghanistan. But i do know this mother of all bombs is a dumb name and a really old joke. See, back in 1991, Saddam Hussein threatened that if the u. S. Invaded iraq, it would be the mother of all battles. So, in 2003, for the second iraq war, we built our largest nonnuclear bomb ever and as a taunt called it the mother of all bombs, or moab. So, its an old reference. Thats like deploying a tank that says on fleek. laughter anything in the past 26 years would be a more uptodate name. How bout bombo number 5 . laughter of course, the place trump really wants to bomb is north korea. First, north korea tested a ballistic missile, so we positioned a Carrier Group off their coast. Then, on sunday, north korea tried to show their military might by launching another ballistic missile, but it blew up almost immediately. I just want to Say Something to north korean dictator kim jongun it happens to everybody. laughter you get all excited and want to prove your manhood and then. Blameo. laughter next time, think about bombing baseball. And the missile failure was especially painful for north korea since it came on the heels of a truly awesome military parade. Just look at all those troops marching in perfect unison. Thats not just goosestepping. Thats got a little attitude. Jon mmhmm, a little pop. Stephen jimmy, can you play that again . Yeah, thats got a lot of pop. Goose steppings just that, but this is got a little drum beats stephen im not saying id make a good dictator, im just saying ive got the moves. Thank you for that drum work. Thank you. Really backed it up. Trump got back to work early this morning on the area he can make the biggest impact twitter. He kicked it off by livetweeting his favorite tv show. The first 90 days of my presidency has exposed the total failure of the last eight years of Foreign Policy so true fox friends. So, if i understand, hes quoting fox and friends, quoting him, and then agreeing with the quote of his quote. applause do i have that right . Jon im trying to figure that out my snoofl am i high stephen am i high right now or have i just been huffing pure trump for too long . You can tell if somebodys been huffing trump because they have that bronzer ring around their mouth. Too many of todays kids have the bronzer ring. laughter trump also weighed in on tomorrows special election in georgia, saying, the super liberal democrat in the georgia congressioal race tomorrow wants to protect criminals, allow illegal immigration and raise taxes thats right. Congressioal. Someones being tutored by betsy devos. cheers and applause weve got a great show for you tonight. band playing Jennifer Hudson is here. But when we return, ill be over there talking about alex jones. Stick around. Take on the mainstream. Introducing nissans new midnight edition. Only tylenol® rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. They release medicine fast, for fast pain relief. Tylenol® unlimited data on tmobile, now thats a treat. Why did verizon take so long to offer it . Is it because their lte network was built six years ago . Six years ago . Thats like a hundred in phone years. Tmobile built newer, faster, more advanced lte to handle unlimited data. Switch to tmobile, now covering 314 million americans and growing. And right now, get 2 lines of unlimited data for a hundred bucks, all in taxes and fees included. Im dr. Kelsey mcneely and some day you might be calling me an energy farmer. Energy lives here. cheers and applause band playing stephen welcome back, everybody jon batiste and stay human right there cheers and applause jon hey stephen nice t to be back. Its nice to be back, jon. Good to see you again. Jon yeah, its good to see you. Stephen im very excited about miss Jennifer Hudson coming up in a little while. Jon shes incredible. Stephen voice of an angel. Once in a lifetime talent. Jon super soulful. Stephen im not going to be outcomplimented by you. Jon oh, i didnt know it was a contest. Stephen shes ultratremendous. Jon yes, shes ultratremendous. Stephen shes also times infinity tremendous, john. Im the host. I won. Its important to me. Thats how fragile my ego is. applause thank you for applauding my fragile ego. There was some surprising news this week about infowars founder and customer making the waitress cry alex jones. The insane radio host is in a custody battle right now, and, so, hes trying to prove that hes stable enough to care for children. Unfortunately, he works in front of a camera. Im a pioneer im an explorer im a human, and im coming im animated, im alive, my hearts big its got hot blood, going through it fast. I like to fight too i like to eat i like to have children stephen im going to say that might be grounds for you not to have children. laughter clips like that make alex jones seem less like a fit parent and more like a cokedout football coach in a police standoff. laughter we were going to state we were going to state sir, get off the scoreboard we were going to state laughter just my high school . Jon that was good that boys good that boys good applause stephen but in a dramatic twist, now, his lawyer is arguing that alex jones is playing a character and he is a performance artist. Im not sure if that helps. laughter do we really want children to be raised by performance artists . No dessert until you finish eating your flag laughter then tell me what it meant. Of course, not everyone realizes hes playing a character. Like the most famous alex jones supporter donald trump, who appeared on his show during the election. Your reputations amazing. I will not let you down. You will be very, very impressed i hope. And i think well be speaking a lot. But youll be youll be looking at me in a year, in a year, in two years, so lets give a little bit of time to run things. But a year into office youll be saying, wow. Stephen president , weve been saying wow since day one. laughter cheers and applause piano riff if alex jones is a character, then President Trump got fished. Hard. laughter this is worse than when george h. W. Bush gave the president ial medal of freedom to robocop. But i feel for alex jones. Everybody knows that, for many years, i played a si tirricle rightwing character. This happened to me all the time when i played my rightwing character, talk radio host tuck buckford. I think we have a clip. Jim . Welcome back to brainfight laughter listen cheers and applause listen, people the liberals want to tattoo obama logos onto the skin of christian babies okay . And it makes me want to fight fight with my fists my blood is on fire my heart is a volcano. Its time to throw a virgin in it im a skeleton wrapped in angry meat im a warrior im a king one thing im not is a performance artist i hate artists because andy warhol put chemicals in campbells soup to turn veterans into bisexual zombies now a word from our sponsor selflubricating catheters buy my vitamins band playing cheers and applause stephen wow, i was so young back then. Well be right back with Jennifer Hudson. band playing cheers and applause the new galaxy s8 has the worlds first infinity screen. Which makes your world infinitely bigger. A camera fast enough to catch this, and intelligent enough to understand what it sees. And takes you anywhere you can imagine. Which makes it infinitely amazing. 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See your vet for more information on flea and tick protection you and your dog will love. Nexgard. The vets 1 choice. band playing cheers and applause stephen welcome back, everybody oh, goodness. Oh, lord have mercy. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. My first guest is a multiplatinum, grammy and oscar winning artist who stars in the new comedy sandy wexler. Oh im a huge fan im arsenio. I know, arsenio. Courtney. I heard your song, mr. Deejay. You have to come off the chain and do it. I love it. I got a call from Johnny Carson as well, he heard the song on the radio and booked her on the show next week. Carson. Well, congratulations. You ever need me, stage 29. Ill be there forever, baby. Didnt mean any problems, sir. You didnt tell me i was doing carson next week. That was a negotiation. They overplayed my hand. Carson retired two years ago. Stephen please welcome back to the show, Jennifer Hudson cheers and applause band playing wow. Hi stephen welcome back. Thank you for having me back. Stephen i love your outfit. Do you . Stephen not every guest has a cape. I get cold easy. So. Stephen it is cold here. I have to keep myself warm. Its not just the cape. Stephen welcome back. Thank you. Stephen happy easter. Happy easter. Stephen you grew up singing gospel in the church, right . I did, i did. Stephen how did you celebrate easter . Doing easter speeches in the church. My first solo was on Easter Sunday in the church. Stephen it was . It was. Stephen then what did you think . I sang must jesus bear the cross alone. And i forgot the words. Stephen i was the fourth wiseman in church in my first performance. That was christmas, though. Stephen we were late to church and they replaced me. So heres to performing this church the first time. What did you do this year . I didnt get to do too much. I have been so busy on tread. Normally we have a great easter gathering. We celebrate with my son and i give a mastive easter party. So im here, big dave is in new orleans and my son is in chicago. This is the first easter weve not been together. Unfortunately, we werent able to celebrate this year. Stephen did you drown yourself in peeps . What did you do . I got the day off. I never get a day off. Jesus gave me the day off. Stephen thats nice. piano riff applause thats nice. Do you have a favorite him onto this day . Oh, my god, talk about a child. I sang it in church. Do you want me to sing it . Stephen give us a taste here . Talk about a child that do love jesus he is one then i said talk about a child. cheers and applause i aint gonna sing the third verse. singing okay, im done. cheers and applause piano riff stephen ive got to say, that is not one we sang in my church growing up. If i wasnt a christian when that song started, i would be when that song was over. Nicely done. laughter you just finished the voice u. K. , right . I did. Stephen is this the first time you spent a long time in england . I did. Stephen did you like it or they they were going to all be like simon cowell . I thought that at first, but hes a bad representation. Stephen hes a bad representation of people. Yeah, i felt sorry for the brits. Theyre so gentle and nice and sweet people. I thought, what happened to him . Stephen they kicked him out and made him come over here. Do you like being on the other side of the line because obviously we first got to know you in idol. Now youre the person, you know, sitting there while somebody else is pouring their heart out wondering whether they could be a star. First of all, it feels good to have someone sing to me and not have to sing all the time. Allative to do is listen to people sing to me . I think do that. Stephen sure, thats why i took this job, fantastic. laughter i know what its like to be in that position. Who gets the opportunity, one, to be on a show like that, then to turn around and be a coach on the other side which is a cool experience. Stephen as a coach, what is the thing you want people to know most when they walk on stage . Well, thatters first of all, utilize the opportunity. You know what i mean . Take it for what its worth and know that who you win or not, you still have the prize, which is your talent, and you can still make it. Stephen well, youre the lesson of that because you were the seventh on idol. It has worked out. applause sandy wexler, on netflix with adam schiff, is this the first comedy youve done . This is my first comedy. And sandler is a legend. Its amazing to work with him. Stephen he finds you, hes a talent scout, an agent in the 1990s, so its a throwback, and he finds you in a childrens show dressed up as a chicken . Yes, i was an ugly duckling. Stephen my apologies, yeah. He heard courtney sing, and it reminds me so much of my life because this character parallels in so many ways. I worked with disney and had to greet with the characters. Stephen add disney world . On a cruise ship. My disney became my manager like sandy becomes the manager on sandy wexler. Stephen youre locked in with people on a cruise ship. You cant get away from them. Towfer be smiling all the time. You have to be in the disney way. Stephen whats the disney way. You have to be the disney point and be proper and dressed a certain way but its a great experience. Stephen youre always a cast member . Always a cast member. Always in the disney way. Ill remember what that is a little bit later again. Stephen youre talking like someone whos recovered from a cult. laughter but its a great experience. I use the cruise ship experience. I say if i can get through this, it means i can audition for a show like american idol. But i made it and now here i am. Stephen this is the 90s. You were but a tyke when this actual thing takes place because this is like 95. Yes. Stephen and youve done a little throwback dressing here. This is you in your best 90s garb. Because there any please hammer dont hurt em patch . There was a lot of that. I realized in the fitting im, like, dude, ive got that in my closet or i want that in my closet or did this happen in the 90s, like it was a lot of moments like that, because, you know, when youre in that time, youre not really conscious of whats going on until you look back at it. Im, like, this is what we did in the 90s . Yeah, so that was really interesting. Stephen has it been far