“When you have that double concentration, it really focuses you. It forces you to not lay back, becomes quite athletic. You don’t show, point, preen or strut, you do. That’s always the sweet spot.”

It’s something the governor should have done a long time ago, rather than strutting and preening on the national stage.

Those were early signs, in retrospect, of the preening arrogance and moral cowardice that fueled an atmosphere of perennial social crisis in France and have left Macron almost universally despised and politically isolated.

Playing to the audience, Stewart preened and posed his way through the hits, with an array of costume changes that ended with a white ruffled shirt, unbuttoned almost to the navel.

He preened, he hugged, he shook hands and hobnobbed with legends and politicians.