“Night of Too Many Stars” - HBO benefit telethon

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Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert Booked for 'Night of Too Many Stars'

Let me guess which charity the proceeds go to?

This is the charity
Next for Autism

Co Founder Laura Slatkin is on the board of Autism Speaks

Article by co founder Harry Slatkin

POWER COUPLE: LAURA AND HARRY SLATKIN Hamptons Magazine 2013 non Autism Article

The other co founder Iliene Lainer founded an autism charter school. The students at that school have to deal with "30 hours of intensive ABA" a week

Michael John Carley autistic founder of Aspie support group GRASP is on the board of directors

As I write this the show has aired.

Dispite my misgivings I watched the show primarly because Carly Fleischmann was scheduled to appear. In case you do not know Ms. Fleiscmann could not communicate in a way that was understandable to NT’s at all until her early teens. Still non verbal in her early 20’s she has a Facebook channel and a you tube channal where using text to speech app she has interviewed several celebrities in a bawdy, witty style that is funny.

The show did an introductory segment about her before they brought her on stage to interview Steven Colbert. She got one statement in then suddenly she was on the floor picking up the glitter that was released. She was ushered off the stage as the band played. The host Jon Stewart apologized and took the blame for the glitter coming down and said she is a talented interviewer. Later in the show they showed her and Colbert in the front row. Colbert explained it was her OCD that distracted her not autism told her not to feel bad he also noted her interviewing talent and said the interview with him will happen at a later time.

Stewart and Colbert did the best they could in a bad situation but it is a shame that the mainstream audience watching saw what they saw instead of a non verbal autistic person conducting a witty interview.

They did have a segment on Adult Autistics and as expected “High Functioning” or “Aspie” autistics were not shown. Otherwise it was typical fundraiser stuff. Bad jokes from people thrown together with little or no time for practice, segments of inspiration porn and heartstring pulling.

Full show.

Carly Fleishmann on Facebook wrote
Howie Mandel came up to me at the after party of Too Many Stars. He looked me straight in the eye and said what silly person pushes a golden buzzer at an autism awareness benefit? He said having challenges such as OCD have its good days and it’s bad days. He told me just because I have OCD doesn’t mean I should let it stop me from being a talk show host.

He told me he was even cleaning the confetti off the stage floor while Stephen was talking. I thought he was telling me that to be nice and then I watched the show. He really did pick up confetti.

He offered me a chance to interview him and he said. “Carly your bright and funny and I can’t wait to see what you do next. Your going to be a big star.”

Thank you Howie