( Jennifer S. Altman / FOR THE WASHINGTON POST ) - Comedian Jamie Jackson getting ready to perform in “Laughing Liberally: This Ain't No Tea Party.”
NEW YORK — In a grungy basement comedy club on West 46th Street, Elon James White, 32, bursts onstage in a hooded sweat shirt, hip-hopistan baseball cap askew, and lobs an opening joke about Rep. Michele Bachmann.
“I’m a fan of Republicans. They are just so damn entertaining. They’re the best reality show — ever. Forget the Kardashians, I want to know what the Bachmanns are up to,” he hoots.
“That’s right, everyone. I’m a Negro in a hoodie, and I know who Michele Bachmann is,” he continues, as the audience claps and roars. “Sorry, but I’m paying attention!”
White is one of a dozen rotating acts in “This Ain’t No Tea Party,” a progressive comedy revue in the midst of a 10-week off-Broadway run. It often draws a packed audience filled with young Midwestern tourists in Uggs, dreadlocked blipsters from the Bronx, retired Upper West Side theater buffs, along with political wonks and human rights activists. The traveling show, Laughing Liberally, plans to tour nationally soon.
Like all good comedy, the show relies on timing. In a cultural moment that finds liberals dismayed by the tea party’s popularity and disheartened by Democratic losses in the 2010 midterm elections, the left is in need of a good laugh.
“Among liberals there’s no euphoria, that’s for sure,” says Laughing Liberally co-founder Justin Krebs, 33, who wears a rumpled suit and sports a loose ponytail as he ushers the audience inside. The goal, he says, is “to energize our base — in the same way the tea party does for the right. The left really needs this. It allows us to vent.”
Laughing Liberally is part of a national volunteer organization called Living Liberally, a social networking organization for like-minded progressives. It is best known for its offshoot, Drinking Liberally, a social club where progressives are invited to cry over a pint in bars and other venues while dishing on politics. “Like many liberals during the George W. Bush years, I realized I needed a drink,” Krebs says. He was not alone. Drinking Liberally grew to have chapters in 50 states.
Laughing Liberally began as a scrappy activist comedy show that entertained liberal protesters and others at St. Paul’s Ordway Center during the 2008 Republican National Convention in Minnesota. Justin’s father, Eric Krebs, a longtime theater producer, saw more in his son’s project than street theater.
“The tea party movement gives Laughing Liberally more urgency than ever,” says Eric Krebs, a curly-haired professor of theater at Baruch College in New York City.
Conservatives in the early 1990s turned to talk radio as their main venue to hash out politics while liberals dominated fake comedy news shows on television, says Paul Lewis, a Boston College English professor and author of “Cracking Up: American Humor in a Time of Conflict.”
“Inspired by Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio relies on what I call ‘rage-icule,’ an angry form of mockery that not only criticizes but also scorns its targets,” Lewis says.
Though conservative comedians exist — Dennis Miller or “Saturday Night Live’s” Victoria Jackson — conservative comedy hasn’t had as much mainstream success, Lewis says. In early 2007, Fox News attempted to launch a conservative version of “The Daily Show” called “The ½ Hour News Hour.” But after just 13 episodes, the show was canceled.
Performance artist Erdem Gunduz visited Washington and New York in 2007 for the arts education program.
1371679860000
Olney Theatre Center revisits “Angel Street,” a Victorian thriller that it last presented in 1950.
1371605280000
Review | Flying V’s show focuses on sex, social awkwardness and superheroes.
1371565560000
The Tony Award-winning Shakespeare Theatre is contesting the rise in fees for the use of its performance space.
1371244740000
Roundabout Theatre Company’s ‘Anything Goes’ is at the Kennedy Center until July 7.
1371178500000
The musical comedy has entertaining singing, dancing and laughs aplenty.
1371177000000.jpg)
Washington is experiencing a space crunch as growing organizations hunt alongside established companies.
1371145586000
D.C. company known for letting the fake blood fly during performances works on a more sophisticated image.
1370992560000
The festival runs through June 30 at the Source Theatre.
1370964000000
At the Kennedy Center on Friday night, a new ballet took the form as its subject and didn’t blow it to pieces.
1370729055000.JPG)
“Les Patineurs,” performed by the Sarasota Ballet, is the jewel of this year’s series at the Kennedy Center.
1370644178000
Choreographer Kathleen Marshall, whose “Anything Goes” is coming to the Kennedy Center, goes old school.
1370619900000
67th Annual Awards for Broadway achievement, once again hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, on CBS.
1370614008000
SUPERNOVA performance art festival aims to disrupt mundane routine in Rosslyn this weekend.
1370560895000The Post MostMost-viewed stories, videos, and galleries in the past two hours
Loading...
Comments