Capitol Steps Leave No Politician Behind

By Alex Carrion

The political satire group Capitol Steps performed in front of a packed crowd at the Pryzbyla Great Room last Monday. Politics is usually something that is hotly debated, especially among politics majors at the University. But when the show began, it was soon clear that Republican or Democrat, no topic would be too serious to laugh at.

Capitol Steps began performing in 1981, when several Senate staffers got together to make a small show for then Congressman Charles Percy. First designed to be a legitimate nativity song, performer Brad VanGrack explained that the original concept design was abandoned when “we couldn’t find three wise men or any virgins” on Capitol Hill.

The result was a free-for-all parody of songs that made fun of every well known political figure in the 80’s, sparing no one, including their own employers.

Since then, the group has performed for over 27 years, and every show since has had one thing in common: these comedians take no prisoners. Starting with a nice parody of a well known Broadway show, the group was quick to trumpet how excited the leftist media was for a new black president by singing “Obama Mia! Here we go again!” From start to finish, songs from Dancing Queen to Stayin’ Alive and even The Sound of Music were parodied to show how ridiculous Washington can be at times.

When songs weren’t being copied, words were being twisted into hilarious nonsense. The finale, called Dirty Lies, had VanGrack appear onstage doing little more than replacing the first letters of some words. Seeming harmless enough, VanGrack showed how dangerous a jumbled vocabulary can be, discussing the Road to the Election, or as he liked to call it, “The Load to the Erection”, as well as “Spelliot Itzer”, and how he was “Hanging Bores with bot hotties!”

While one could ask such comedians where they get their material from or how long they can keep up their work, it seems obvious that so long as politicians don’t stop having scandals or holding radical positions, there will always be work for Capitol Steps. As VanGrack put it, “The songs [we write] tend to just write themselves because Politicians are so messed up that sometimes the stuff just comes pretty naturally!”

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