Saturday, March 03, 2007

Dorchester Tent Show--it just keeps going..and going...and going....

The Tent Show just ended after an excruciatingly loooooooong two hours mostly consisting of the trifecta of GOP bashing: Hillary, Taxes and the OEA.

This group has a serious boner for those three things--and ain't pretty.

So not pretty in fact that the lack of topic variety had a tendency to damage the mirth. But there were some bright spots.

First of all, the music was really well done. From Vance Day's well warbled version of "Pay-Oh" (sung to the tune of the Banana Boat Song. Had it not been about taxes, it would have actually been original--to The Greasers, a quartet of GOPers singing in harmony about Giuliani, Taxes (shock) and the Tram. Neverthless, it was done with humor and well executed.

Another worthwhile act was actually performed by Democratic Senator Rick Metsger. Metsger came out as Gen. George Patton, bellowing about how Americans don't like losers so that puts the GOP in trouble with the electorate. Metsger barked about how Democrats are going to lead and the GOP are going to have to follow. It was done with humor..but there was an edge to it that made a few in the audience squirm. That's probably why I enjoyed it so much.

I also found the "DNN" segment really entertaining. It was a list of news-style read zingers aimed both at Republicans and Democrats--delivered smartly with a take no prisoners attitude. One especially good shot at Giuliani and Romney noted that the press is trying to interview Rudy's first two wives and Romney's junior and senior wives want equal time. Very irreverant but completely hilarious.

Most of the rest of it was throwaway stuff. Nothing especially interesting or controversial.

I was kind of hoping that they'd shoot for the stars a little...really skewer a diversity of topics. One skit seemed like it was a warmed over piece from 1998--attacking Bill and Hillary Clinton's marriage and reissuing disdain over the Lewinsky Scandal. They should have just cut that part out and saved my ass the extra 15 minutes of numbness. Another skit called "29 Minutes" kept going after global warming--which came across stale to me. The Hillary bashing, even satirically, bordered on an obsession. They didn't even really bother with any of the other Democratic Presidential contenders. Not even Obama--which I would have thought warranted at least a knock on his fight with Hillary or a "his middle name is Hussein" crack. Nada.

I'm headed off now to do covert operations at the Freedomworks shindig up the street. This will be the last dispatch for tonight--more tomorrow before I head out for home.