Q&A: Miss Jon Stewart? Here he is backstage at the Emmys (and what he thinks of Donald Trump)

If you’re yearning for a sweet moment of zen since “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” went off the air in August, the former host had a few to share backstage Sunday night after winning Emmy Awards for variety talk series and writing for variety talk series.

What was atmosphere on the last month of the show?

A lot of ultimate Frisbee. I think we were just trying to get the shows done without being too circumspect so that we didn’t get melancholy. It was just more let’s enjoy each other’s company, do the best shows that we can and push to the end. I don’t think we reflected on it a whole lot until after “Born to Run” and we all sort of looked at each other and did a “That was fun.”

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Do you miss the applause? Come on, you gotta miss it ... Donald Trump, everything.

Is this an intervention? If I’d known what life was like on the other side, I probably would have left earlier. You can do what you want at the end of the day. You can get a smoothie.

Would you direct more movies?
It has been six weeks; what do you want from me? I may just end up on a boat somewhere floating out to an island. I’m not even sure yet.

If and only if Donald Trump were to be elected president, then would you consider coming back?

No. I would consider getting in a rocket and going to another planet because clearly this planet’s gone bonkers.

FULL COVERAGE: Emmys 2015

What do people say to you when you’re out and about?

A lot of people come up to me, and it’s interesting. On the street: “Wow, you are a lot shorter and older in person than I would’ve thought.” “Without makeup you look sick.” I get that a lot. It’s hard to say, most people are generally very nice, but it is New York so most people yell certain things from cars that they might not yell in other places.

Any advice for new “Daily Show” host Trevor Noah?

As far as Trevor is concerned, he’s such a talented guy and has a great foundation for this that it’s not a question of giving him advice, it’s just being there to support him if he just feels like chatting about what it’s like to do the show. But he’s got the best team in the biz behind him, and he’s great. Last thing they need is old pope appearing from around the corner saying, “Is that how you’re going to bless the wafer?” They’re very quickly going to develop their own style for it.

PHOTOS: Emmys 2015 Top nominees and winners | Red carpet | Show highlights

You’ve fought a lot of initiatives that you felt personally for; what platform will you use now that you’re not on every night?

Now that I’m not on television every night I’ll do a lot of it in my living room, generally in my underwear yelling at the TV.

You mentioned onstage you wouldn’t be back, but the summer episodes will be eligible. Are you not submitting the summer episodes?

No. No, this is it. I should probably go out on a higher note than “yeah, this is it.”

In a generation dealing with racial issues, economic issues, social issues, religious issues and political issues, how important is tolerance for our ability to get along as Americans?

I was under the impression that we fixed all that on the show, but you’re saying that we haven’t? Son of a bitch! That’s so much of a larger question than I think a comedy show could ever hope to answer. Maybe hopefully one day there will be a comedy show that’s figured it out and say, “Here’s your answer,” but until then I think definitely Adult Swim comes closest.

Follow me on Twitter @NardineSaad.

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