Yes, it's finally time for Colbert's wry, deadpan alter ego, ''Stephen Colbert,'' to take center stage. ''He considers himself a man of the people,'' says Colbert, 41, of ''Colbert.'' (Confused yet?) ''I think he probably went to a pretty good school, like Cornell, but didn't study very hard.'' Meanwhile, the real Colbert, a Northwestern alum, has been working his butt off to ace Report. Here are the lessons he's learned from his tireless labors.

1 - SWEAT THE DETAILS...
As with any start-up, there's plenty of minutae to consider, but at the moment, nothing is more pressing to ''Colbert'' than his on-air wardrobe. ''Anderson Cooper is a sexy man. I want my suits to look like his,'' he says, complaining that no designer has offered its services. ''This isn't one of those passive things where Letterman wears something or Jon wears something, or Blitzer wears somebody, and there's a little [credit] at the end. I'm gonna talk about the cut and the feel of the suit on air. Whoever's not doing my suits is missing the boat and dropping the ball. All kinds of metaphors are not being handled correctly.'' Since this interview, Brooks Brothers has stepped up to the plate. (Sorry.)

2 - ...BUT NOT THE FACTS
While checking out a cut of his recently taped Colbert Report interview with Massachusetts congressman Barney Frank, Colbert asks the editor if all the awkward silences he's seeing are real or were souped up to make them funnier. Turns out they're mostly real, but the answer doesn't actually matter. ''My first choice is always real, because it's always better,'' Colbert says. ''But if something's not funny, I don't have any problem making it funny.''

3 - FLAUNT YOUR EXPERTISE
''It's very hot right now to be attacked by a bear,'' proclaims Colbert, stepping out of his private Report bathroom to discuss the trend he's read all about in The New York Times. ''Everybody's doing it or having it done to them, so [I'll give] my advice on what to do, because I am an expert on anything and everything.'' He'll put this omniscience to good use when debating himself — in a recurring segment called ''Formidable Opponent'' — and when interviewing guests, as in his chat with Democrat Frank, whom he asks, ''President Bush: great president or the greatest president?''

4 - IMITATE BILL O'REILLY
''O'Reilly's great because he is never, for any reason, wrong,'' says Colbert, explaining that the shouty Fox News Channel host served as inspiration for The Colbert Report. ''He's got a very strong persona, and the biggest ego. But he's just one muse. I love the way [Fox News'] Shepard Smith speaks in headline talk: 'Shepard Truncates Sentence.' CNN's Aaron Brown has a real folksy way of sucking the flavor out of the news. He really warms up each sentence and ornaments them with his adjectives, and that's something I will absolutely draw upon.''

5 - DON'T LOOK BACK
He's been a serious actor (his professional stage debut, while still in high school, was as a leper in a production of The Leper), dabbled in opera (he's a bass), had the requisite SNL stint (he voiced half of the Ambiguously Gay Duo with fellow Daily Show alum Steve Carell), and worked as a correspondent for Good Morning America (a gig that yielded only one on-air report). He may not have been ''weatherman funny'' enough for a network morning show, but Colbert's got two Emmys that say he's perfect for late-night ''news.'' While viewer expectations may be dauntingly high, Colbert's once and future boss Stewart is keeping it all in perspective: ''Inevitably, the show will not launch as a fully formed human being, but it will be fun to watch it grow and mature, and, uh, get recast, and then almost canceled, and then be sent overseas, become very popular in Belgium, and then put out its first DVD...''
(Posted online:10/14/05)