Brow Beat

Colbert’s New Late Show Marquee Is the Best Pizza Ad Ever. Update: The Pizza Place Reacts.

As Stephen Colbert shaves his beard, writes theme songs, and pulls weird promotional stunts in preparation for his takeover of the Late Show in September, the face of the Ed Sullivan Theater has changed to reflect its incoming late-night king with a new, if temporary, marquee. The ongoing construction might have been a real downer for nearby small businesses, but it will certainly not be for Angelo’s Pizza, the theater’s next door neighbor. A huge promotional poster for the eatery features Colbert himself, lounging in his best seductive pose, holding an equally seductive slice of pizza.

Update, 6:30 p.m.: Alex Kondilis, manager of Angelo’s Pizza, spoke to Slate via phone. As you might imagine, upon learning that Colbert wanted to shill for them, they were very surprised.

Did you know this marquee was going to happen?

Basically, one person from CBS came and informed us that Stephen Colbert and CBS had decided to create this sign for us, since the theater is under renovation and they took down the sign. They wanted to promote our restaurant so they wanted to do that for us since there was construction happening.

We were also pretty surprised that Stephen Colbert was doing that for us. It was a total surprise. They were like, “Oh we’re doing that for you,” and we were like, “That’s funny.” We’re really excited he did that for us and it’s a great thing and we’re happy and we’re looking forward to having him next door.

Has business been booming because of the sign?

Reporters have been coming in since they put up the sign in the morning. I’m actually pretty surprised how fast the news travels.

Are you guys big Colbert fans?

We like him. We were surprised.