You’ve got to be willing to stick your neck out to be a great talk-show host, and that’s one thing www.elephantjournal.com’s Waylon Lewis has going for him. And, okay, maybe Lewis tries so hard that he’s stretched his into a giraffe’s neck, but his big mouth and big ideas do collaborate to bring a fascinating collection of mostly local people doing great things for the environment and the world into the public eye. It’s all part of his master plan; as he notes, paraphrasing his own recent Huffington Post column, “What the world needs now is the green Jon Stewart.” In other words, he hopes to be someone young people turn to for information through entertainment: “I want to effect change and have fun doing so, and a talk show seems like a good way to do it.”

You’ll get to catch the Boulder star-in-progress in action tonight when he hosts his Walk the Talk Show With Waylon Lewis, live at the Boulder Theater, 2032 14th Street, beginning at 7 p.m., with a guest list as vast as Lewis’s wind is long. That would include local Top Chef celeb Hosea Rosenberg (Says Lewis: “He’s a great guy who represents Boulder well, and who won by being nice.”); a New Tech Panel featuring entrepreneurial experts Brad Feld and Gwen Bell, Micah Baldwin of the Internet search startup Lijit and Jeffrey Kalmikoff of Threadless, a community-centered T-shirt design site; Anusara Yoga maven John Friend; and Boulder boy-girl sensations Paper Bird, who will perform their unique brand of old-timey, trendy music. And that’s not all at this blowout: In keeping with the green, 21st-century theme, there’ll be a pre-show Roll Out traveling performance piece through the streets of downtown Boulder, an eco-expo set up at the theater, and an eco-fashion show to wrap things up.

Tickets are $15 in advance or $20 at the door; go to www.bouldertheater.com or call 303-786-7030. Or, if you’re cheap (which is okay in the modern world), tune in to a live stream at www.elephantjournal.com.
Wed., May 6, 2009