Band of broadsiders
Not so long ago -- say, the last two decades anyway -- the brick-walled comedy club was an oasis of partisan-free humor, a place where musings on airplane food, mothers-in-law and bodily functions could be pondered over a two-drink minimum. No more.
Head out for some humor these days, and politics is almost inescapable. Sketch troupes slice and dice President Bush. Stand-up comics rip into Sen. John F. Kerry. “This is the one time and the one election where everyone is galvanized,” comedian Greg Proops says.
That comedy has fallen into two political camps only makes sense, given that as the November election approaches, we have become a country divided along party lines. Every choice is fraught with political meaning, whether it’s selecting a news outlet (Fox or CNN?) or picking a condiment (does buying a bottle of Heinz ketchup really help the Democrats?).
But traditionally, comedy in the clubs has been different. Political jokes, when they surfaced, often touched on nothing more than sex (the Kennedy and Clinton administrations) and stupidity (the Bush-Quayle and Bush-Cheney administrations). The thinking-man’s political comedy -- the type of headline-chewing wit embodied by newspaper-clutching satirist Mort Sahl -- was missing in action completely with the exception of, well, Mort Sahl.
The simple reason: survival. For those who haven’t achieved a measure of success, spending too much time on political material has often been the third rail of stand-up comedy.
“Dennis [Miller] has enough money and power; he can take chances and say whatever he wants now,” says Los Angeles-based comic Steve Eblin, who performs at clubs and on cruise ships. “When you’re an unknown like me out there trying to build an act, and you go out there and say conservative or liberal stuff, half the people aren’t going to like you immediately. If half the crowd doesn’t like you, the club isn’t going to like you because the crowd is unhappy, and you’re not coming back.”
But Eblin and an increasing number of comedians, sketch comedy groups and satirists on both sides of the aisle in Southern California have found a way to fly their true colors and not get heckled off the stage. The solution is solidarity.
Conservative cadre
For conservative-leaning comics, the unifying force is former sitcom and game-show writer Eric Peterkofsky (“Murphy Brown,” “Greed,” “The Weakest Link”). A frustrated conservative Republican, inspired by the successful “Blue Collar Comedy Tour,” Peterkofsky decided there was room on the live-comedy landscape for something other than what he perceived as liberal-bias laughs. So he cobbled together a cadre of conservative comics, slapped on a snappy title (“The Right Stuff”), created a cool logo (a microphone stand flying the American flag) and started touring the country.
They’ve barely slowed down since, Peterkofsky says, and next week the GOP-friendly comedy cavalcade rolls into New York City for eight nights at the new Laugh Factory outpost in Times Square. It just happens to coincide with the Republican National Convention.
The show’s busy slate of Republican fund-raisers, college campus shows and tour dates across the country has a lot to do with building audience expectations.
Peterkofsky packages and promotes the shows with an openly conservative agenda. (“No more shame, no more fear: Conservative comedians are here!!” it says on the group’s pamphlet. “Politically conservative stand-up comics are finally coming out of the closet!”) This way, he says, “the audience won’t get hit with something that offends them -- they know what to expect.”
At a “Right Stuff” show, they can expect host and headliner Jeff Wayne to introduce a lineup of three or four liberal-tweaking comics culled from a stable of seven: Eblin, Tony Robinson, Shayla Rivera, Chris Warren, Caroline Picard, Julia Gorin and Jeff Jena.
“We’ve got all kinds,” Wayne says. “Libertarians, Reagan Democrats, Republican Lites....”
The conserva-coms mock Michael Moore and Teresa Heinz Kerry, tree-hugging environmentalists and gun control advocates. Most of the material is clean (or PG-13), and each show closes with a series of the tour’s signature one-liners that begin: “You know you’re a liberal if “ (“You know you’re a liberal if you feel guilty about things that happened over 200 years ago that you had nothing to do with” or “If you think the terrorists would just stop killing people if we just gave them a hug -- you might be a liberal”). The crowds react in explosive applause to each punch line.
“Right Stuff”-er Eblin, who confesses he hasn’t really trained his sights on Kerry yet, takes particular pleasure in tackling outspoken liberal celebrities (Moore, Barbra Streisand, Alec Baldwin) and protest groups (the Earth Liberation Front, PETA). One joke involving the famously outspoken Dixie Chicks trio involves a crude reference to their “Wide Open Spaces” album.
Robinson, who calls himself “the group anarchist,” doesn’t do Democrat-versus-Republican material, preferring instead to expound on what he sees as the danger of the liberal mind-set. (“The liberal mind loves youth -- loves the young. Granted, the young are pretty, they’re shiny, they’re cute. But so are monkeys. And you wouldn’t give a monkey your car keys, would you?”)
The “Right Stuff” comics say that they find it preferable -- and refreshing -- to perform their partisan material to a crowd predisposed to see it their way. “They’re enthusiastic and receptive,” Robinson says. “Once after a show I had a guy come up and tell me that I was well on my way to becoming a great right-wing extremist -- and he meant it as a compliment!”
Left-leaning lampooners
The other side of L.A.’s comic equation -- the liberals, left-wingers and Democrats -- has also banded together, though apparently less out of necessity and more as a group sport. “Entertaining Politics,” set to begin Sept. 14, will assemble a group of satirical stalwarts including Sahl and Paul Krassner. It’s described as “seven Tuesdays of post-conventional wisdom.”
Roy Zimmerman, one of the performers slated to participate in the series, is already spreading his musical message individually. During a recent set at San Gennaro Cafe in Culver City, where he performs his show “Roy Zimmerman’s Patriot Act,” the folksinger used his guitar and razor-sharp wit to skewer the likes of Ann Coulter and Jerry Falwell while referencing Buddhism, Popeye cartoons and Reba McEntire.
Whether it’s a mock love song to Vice President Dick Cheney (“He’s like a barrel of oil, he’s crude and yet refined / He makes me feel like I’ve been wined, dined and strip-mined”) or a ditty about how he’s trying to stop using a particular expletive by substituting the words “Patriot Act” (“I just stepped in Patriot Act / I hate it when I step in Patriot Act / Because the Patriot Act is a hard thing to undo / Once it’s on your shoe”) he doesn’t leave a scintilla of doubt as to which side he’s on.
Among the dozen or so people recently gathered in the back room at San Gennaro to hear his toe-tapping diatribe were an ardent fan and webmaster who has painstakingly posted all his lyrics at www.roysongs.com, an older couple who have followed Zimmerman since he was part of a folk quartet called the Foremen, and a precocious toddler who delighted in the occasional dirty word.
For liberal-leaning satire that’s sketched instead of sung, there’s Big News, a group that has been making hay with the Bush administration every Thursday night at the ImprovOlympic in Hollywood for a year and a half. (Director Michael McCarthy says the cast and writers should “really send the president a case of champagne for providing us with so much quality material.”)
Ostensibly about the previous week’s news, the pastiche of live sketches and taped bits doesn’t hide its leftward leanings under a veneer of objectivity. In half an hour the show manages to lampoon, harpoon and lambaste every word, move and sideways glance the Republicans make with Phillip Wilburn’s simpering panderer-in-chief as the central character. Wilburn, a Texan who will tell you that he shares the same birthday as the president, plays Bush so dumb that Will Ferrell’s “Saturday Night Live” version seems like a Rhodes scholar.
The rotating cast includes political players such as Kipleigh Brown, whose ability to turn on a dime, playing Michael Jackson in one sketch and Laura Bush in another, is funny all by itself; Sara Mattison, who transforms from J.Lo to Teresa Heinz Kerry just as quickly; and John “John Kerry” Judy, who channels the Democratic nominee through chin and attitude alone.
While the crowd seems to enjoy the smart humor no matter whose political ox is gored, the loudest applause comes in response to material that casts the Bushies as malevolent bunglers, clueless hacks and hypocrites of the highest order. After a slide show featuring a Bush voice-over explaining the difference between flag-draped coffins from ground zero versus flag-draped coffins from Iraq (“Let’s go over this one more time: This flag-draped coffin is OK. [click] This flag-draped coffin is not. Got it?”), the crowd sits for a stunned second before breaking into hoots of appreciation.
Another perspective
Aside from the themed events, there are plenty of nights when politics pops up in the course of “regular” comedy. At Hollywood’s M Bar, a recent Tuesday-night show contained only a handful of politically oriented jokes -- until Greg Proops took the stage.
After making a passing reference to Cheney as “Vice President Joseph Goebbels,” he launched into an excoriating rant against the incumbent administration. The crowd went wild. The woman sitting at the next table whispered conspiratorially: “This is the Bush-hating club.”
Proops, who has been hammering away at the right onstage since “Iran-contra and Admiral Poindexter,” says he doesn’t pull punches no matter where he’s performing, be it Texas or North Carolina. (The most hostile response he’s gotten recently was actually from the audience at Caroline’s in New York City, he says.) But he admits that Hollywood spots such as M Bar and Largo are more inclined to see it his way: “It’s Hollywood; it’s the show business crowd. You’re not exactly at the Republican National Headquarters.”
With all the red-state rants and blue-state bluster, though, it’s important to keep perspective. That’s what Rick Overton, another “Entertaining Politics” performer, promises.
“I talk about politics,” says Overton, a writer, actor, improviser and stand-up comedian. “But my jokes are more about what’s tweaked in our own heads.” He sees the political situation and all the labels -- Democrats versus Republicans, liberals versus conservatives -- as things we’ve brought upon ourselves from our need to categorize and differentiate, when in reality we’re very much the same.
The difference between him and Bush, he says, boils down to this: “That’s 98 cents’ worth of minerals and salt water up there running a country, just like me -- 98 cents’ worth of minerals and salt water. He got that job, and I got this job.”
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Liber-laffers
On President Bush
“Has George W. done a great job? ‘Great’ and ‘George W.’ can’t be in the same sentence. It’s like matter and anti-matter -- the two can never touch.” -- Greg Proops
On Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft
“After losing the Senate race to a dead guy, he was so mad he was spitting nails -- he could’ve worked for Habitat for Humanity.” -- Roy Zimmerman
On Iraq
“Bush says he got God’s permission to invade Iraq. I’m wondering, which God? Don’t recall seeing many ‘Who would Jesus bomb?’ bumper stickers. Guessing it probably wasn’t Allah. Decidedly un-Buddha-like. I’m thinking Thor. Turns out, Bush is a Visigoth. Who knew?” -- Will Durst
On Al Qaeda connections
“The connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, so fervently insisted upon by the administration, is not accurate. It’s much worse. Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia, Kim Jong-Il, Hitler, Al Capone, Darth Vader, Lex Luthor and Saruman all went to high school together in Akron, Ohio. They all took college prep courses in dictatorship.” -- Big News
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Conserva-coms
On Michael Moore
“That scene in ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ when a tidal wave takes over New York City? That wasn’t global warming, that was Michael Moore doing a cannonball off the George Washington Bridge. I could use that guy’s cummerbund for a hammock.” -- Steve Eblin
On the Democratic ticket
“The Dems now have two Johns running -- when that happens in my house I call the plumber.” -- Jeff Wayne
On Sen. John F. Kerry
“First he said he gave away his medals, then he gave away his ribbons. Now he’s claiming it’s a wardrobe malfunction.” -- Jeff Wayne
On Teresa Heinz Kerry
“Kerry’s wife’s speech at the Democratic Convention was a lot like a bottle of Heinz ketchup -- slow, full of vinegar and after hearing it you wanted to smack her on the bottom.” -- Jeff Wayne
On gun control
“I’m a firm believer in the 2nd Amendment. I think everybody should have a gun -- because it’s the stupid people who shoot themselves while cleaning them.” -- Tony Robinson
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Where to go
In the run-up to the election, you can catch liberal laughs and conservative comedy across Southern California.
Big News: News-based sketch comedy slanted so far left it threatens to roll off the stage. Catch it before “Saturday Night Live” cannibalizes the cast.
ImprovOlympic Theater, 6366 Hollywood Blvd., Los Angeles. 7:30 p.m. Thursdays in August; 8 p.m. Thursdays in September. $10. (323) 962-7560. www.bignewsshow.com.
“Entertaining Politics”: Six super Tuesdays featuring soldiers of the political-comedy battlefield such as Paul Krassner, Mort Sahl (who’s been called “the godfather of political comedy”), Roy Zimmerman and Rick Overton.
The first event is “Mort Sahl’s America,” Magicopolis, 1418 4th St., Santa Monica. 7:30 p.m. Sept. 14. $35. For a full lineup and additional information about other performers, call (310) 471-3979 or go to www.entertainingpolitics.com.
“Roy Zimmerman’s Patriot Act”: Zimmerman uses his guitar as a weapon of mass destruction against the incumbent and company for three more solo dates before moving on to the “Entertaining Politics” series.
San Gennaro Cafe, 9543 Culver Blvd., Culver City. Friday, Aug. 27 and 28; Sept. 10, 11, 17, 18, 24 and 25, all shows at 8 p.m. Tickets: $12. Food/drink minimum: $10. (310) 471-3979 for reservations.
“The Right Stuff”: Eric Peterkofsky’s rotating band of ranting Republicans is next appearing for eight nights at the new Laugh Factory in Times Square but returns to Southern California for three shows next month.
Ontario Improv, 4555 E. Mills Circle, Ontario Mills. 8 p.m. Sept. 13. (909) 484-5411.
Irvine Improv in Irvine, 71 Fortune Drive, Irvine. 8:30 p.m. Sept. 14. (949) 854-5455.
Brea Improv, 120 S. Brea Blvd., Brea. 8:30 p.m. Sept. 15. (714) 482-0700.
All shows $17 with a two-drink minimum. www.improv.com.
For more information about “The Right Stuff” (or a pair of John Kerry flip-flops) go to ww.rightstuffcomedy.com.
“Comedy Death-Ray”: These Tuesday shows don’t exactly focus like a laser on politics -- you might find only a handful of Bush jokes a week -- but when the material goes blue-state, the crowd goes wild. Pray for a Greg Proops pop-in.
M Bar, 1253 N. Vine St., Los Angeles. 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays. Two-drink minimum without dinner reservations. www.FunBunchComedy.com.
(323) 856-0036.
Greg Proops: In addition to the occasional Tuesday-night M Bar stand-up appearance, Proops holds court at Largo in the guise of the “Greg Proops Chat Show.”
Largo, 432 N. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles. 8 p.m. Aug. 30 and Sept. 27. Cover varies. (323) 852-1073. www.largo-la.com.
