Jon Stewart bid farewell to The Daily Show Aug. 6 with a parade of current and former correspondents stopping by to pay tribute. Among them was a new face: “Senior Evil Correspondent” Darth Vader. The Sith Lord appeared “via satellite” to complain about more than a decade’s worth of harsh comparisons to American supervillain Dick Cheney.
“There’s the Dark Side, and there’s whatever you call his sick thing,” Vader said.
If the voice sounded familiar — a snarkier, annoyed Darth Vader — it’s because it belonged to Madison’s Matt Sloan, co-creator of Chad Vader, Darth’s younger brother, and the locally produced web series Chad Vader: Day Shift Manager.
Sloan’s ability to impersonate the baritone of James Earl Jones (Darth Vader’s original voice actor) caught LucasFilm’s attention. Sloan has been their Vader ever since — with the sole exception of the final scene of Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, for which Jones returned. Sloan has lent his voice to video games, including The Force Unleashed, GPS systems, toys and even a talking toothbrush. When television shows need the Voice, they are pointed his way.
But The Daily Show was special. “There was going to be a back and forth with me and Jon Stewart,” Sloan says. “Getting to be on his final show felt like I was getting to be part of a historic event."
The scene was a bit of television magic. Sloan taped the spots weeks beforehand at Paradyme Studios on West Washington Avenue in Madison. On the night of the show, an in-studio actor (not Aaron Yonda, who plays the body of Chad in the web series) pantomimed Vader’s actions to Sloan’s tape while Stewart timed his interactions to Vader’s pauses. This did not dampen Sloan’s enthusiasm, because he knows that film and television are often constructed in the editing booth.
“I was surprised they did it so far in advance. I’ve done spots for The Tonight Show and Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and it’s always been ‘We need this today!’ It was nice to not have that pressure.”
“Senior Evil Correspondent” Darth Vader’s appearance begins at approximately the 11:18 mark.
