Around 9 p.m. on Saturday, I left the raging Carnival and impossibly long lines on College Green to make a quick pit stop at the 34th Street food court.

Literally 30 seconds after I had joined my friends in line, someone informed us that Stephen Colbert and his wife were checking out at CVS. To make a short story shorter, he shook my hand and I obtained a permanent background for my phone. I’m quite proud of my introduction: “Hello, Mr. Colbert, my name is Stephen, too. Can I take your picture?”

Stephen is in town until Thursday to tape his hit Comedy Central show The Colbert Report at Annenberg’s Zellerbach Theater.

I visited the set yesterday afternoon for a rehearsal and Q&A session sponsored by the Penn Democrats - it was quite the experience. The tricolor lights illuminated a restrained, neoclassical backdrop whose Corinthian columns framed a mural of Ben Franklin opposite Bill Cosby.

Throughout, Colbert was his usual animated self, though sporting jeans instead of the customary suit. Standing in front of his dazzling icons, Colbert displayed his improvisational technique. When one girl asked whether Pope Benedict’s impending visit would re-galvanize American Catholicism, Colbert (himself a Catholic) took issue: “I’m not just galvanized, I’m vulcanized - at least I would be but the pope won’t let me wear rubbers.”

Colbert’s off-the-cuff riposte savaged candidates as well as orthodoxies. In response to a question about who the candidate of change is in this election, Colbert deadpanned: “For me, the real candidate of change is Mike Gravel. He’s still looking for enough change for a bus ticket back to Alaska.”

The audience roared; if one measly rehearsal is any indication, Penn students are wild for Colbert.