“The worst part about political jokes is they keep getting reelected,” said the professionally acclaimed Capitol Fools Friday, Sept. 20 during the troupe’s performance at UW-Whiterwater’s The Young.
The Capitol Fools are ‘uniting the country one laugh at a time,’ with their political satire musical spinoff about political celebrities and funny analyses from both sides of the political spectrum. The actors’ over-the-top impressions of American politics was seen as a light-hearted way to look at the importance of our nation’s voting process.
Michael Morrissey, director of The Young, explained the thought process on bringing Capitol Fools to UW-W.
“I programmed Capitol Fools to help celebrate the elections coming up by encouraging students and the general public to ‘reaching across the aisle,’ enjoy light hearted songs, and laugh with friends in this time of potentially very heated political differences,” Morrissey said.
“It’s my party and I’ll lie if I want to,” Kevin Corbett said while playing Donald Trump.
Capitol Fools is a national traveling group of professional actors and actresses. These actors travel all over the country from Hampton, Virginia, to West Palm Beach, Florida, Washington DC, and now Whitewater. The cast is made up of Jon Bell, Evan Casey, Kevin Corbett, Nancy Dolliver, Tara Gesling, Emily Levey, and Jack Rowles.
“Capitol Steps make politics fun again,” The O’Colly review of Capitol Fools said. Capitol Fools themselves is a part of a bigger organization called Capitol Steps. Capitol Steps began in December of 1981 as a group of Senate staffers who were planning entertainment for a Senator Charles Percy Christmas party. In the past 42 years, the performers have worked in 18 Congressional offices and represented 62 years of House and Senate staff members experience.
The group has been featured on most major new stations such as NBC, CBS, ABC and PBS. They are also featured twice a year on National Public Radio stations nationwide during “Politics Takes a Holiday” radio specials.
“I spent 10 hours on the phone with party elites to secure the nomination without a single vote from the people… now that’s democracy,” Jon Bell said while playing Kamala Harris.
Some may ask what is the connection between UW-Whitewater’s Young Auditorium and professional traveling performers such as Capitol Fools.
“The Young is what is called a ‘roadshow house.’ In our 30 years on campus, we’ve hosted professional touring shows from all over the world, ranging from single comedians to large Broadway productions,” Morrissey said.
The Young is hosting many other upcoming professional performances of all kinds this year such as Malevo Sept. 29 at 7 p.m., 360 AllStars Nov. 17 at 7 p.m., Our Planet Live April 27 at 7 p.m. and much more. To find out more on these performances and others or to buy tickets visit, www.theyoungwhitewater.com.
