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For the segment, Daniel went along with acting the part of a vicious predator. It's a hilarious bit but he spent the hours leading up to his television debut last night nervously smoking and deciding whether he would watch at all."It'll be a game-time decision," he told me.Daniel is the guy who walks around with a mean mug when things are going well in his life. He always looks mad, but usually he's just nervous. This is the contradiction of his personality—he is an outrageously funny storyteller who keeps to himself, rarely goes out, and picks around on a fake Hofner bass in his down time.That's why he was a wreck when Jessica Williams and her crew from The Daily Show came to his Peoria home a few weeks back. The pack of Marlboro menthols he burned through on the back porch that day never stood a chance."I'm just a little worried that I didn't do a good job," he told me Thursday, as if he were an actor being paid to perform.Now, me and my friends believe, the world finally sees Daniel for the funny, goofy, loveable guy we all know him as—not some lowlife who took advantage of his situation to get a hefty paycheck.
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The pace of Daniel's life has slowed since his lawsuit was settled. "I don't got reporters at my door no more," he told me. Maybe The Daily Show segment last night will change that. But what's more likely is that Daniel will go back to his normal life—cruising around in the blacked-out Chrysler 200 he bought with his settlement money, cooking up chicken wings at the bar where he works, drinking his after-shift drinks, watching the Cubs, Bears and Blackhawks, and hanging out at home his family.But he will always have that smart-ass bone in his body. Recently, a Peoria government employee happened upon Daniel when he was having a drink at the end of his shift. The man chatted him up, apparently unaware of who he was.Daniel kept his secret, but buzzed and feeling like having some fun, brought up Twittergate anyway."Yeah, I guess you can do whatever you want nowadays," the man lamented.Apparently, like more than a few people in Peoria, he still thought Daniel was in the wrong when he parodied Ardis. Sleezy D played along."Yeah, he may have been wrong," Daniel said, referring to himself, "but that doesn't mean he should have had his house raided. I mean, people do wrong things all the time. Drinking and driving's wrong, but you're about to do that, too.""Well, you got me there," the man replied, laughing.He began to leave but turned around to tell Daniel one last thing."You're a stand-up guy," he said.Daniel said thanks, waited, then walked inside and started laughing his ass off.Follow Justin Glawe on Twitter.