Ex-Marine returns to battlefield as comedian for USO

By SEAN L. MCCARTHY

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

Rob Riggle was in combat in Afghanistan after 9/11 as a Marine Corps major during Operation Enduring Freedom. He returned to another battlefield last week, but to make laughs, not war.

His reports, “Operation Silent Thunder: ‘The Daily Show’ in Iraq,” began airing Monday night and continues all week on Comedy Central.

Even with his military rank, Riggle said he didn’t get better access in Iraq than embedded journalists.

“I didn’t go as a Marine in any shape or form,” he told the Daily News. “I went as a comedian.”

Riggle spent his days looking for comedy bits with a writer and field producer for “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” and his nights performing USO shows with a comedy troupe that included Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel (both cast members on MTV’s “Human Giant”) and former “Saturday Night Live” player Horatio Sanz.

They planned some comedy sketches for their “Operation Feel the Heat” but were more than ready to improvise.

“If there was some little bit, we tried to grab it,” Riggle said. “We left a lot to chance.”

Their tour took them from Kuwait to several makeshift bases in Iraq, at times within earshot of battles.

“We were on a forward operating base that was really close to Kirkuk when that bomb went off last week,” Riggle said.

They returned to New York over the weekend and began combing through the footage Sunday.

“I feel confident that if the troops watch this themselves, they would laugh,” Riggle said.