BIPARTISAN HUMOR COMES EASILY TO CAPITOL STEPS DURING PRESIDENTIAL RACES.

Bipartisan humor comes easily to Capitol Steps during presidential races.
By DEBORA SHAULIS
ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR
DOWN-TO-THE-WIRE PRESIDENTIAL race makes for a suspenseful Election Day but easier work for members of the musical parody group Capitol Steps.
"A tight race is good," says co-founder, producer and lyricist Elaina Newport, promoting the group's upcoming appearance in Youngstown.
"People are focused. Individual lines on the debates get laughs because everyone was focused on them."
If there's a repeat of the 2000 election -- in which President Bush was declared victorious a month later -- Newport won't know what to do for an encore.
"We have shows on Election Day and the day after," she said. "The last time, we had written two shows -- one if Bush won and one if [Democratic candidate Al] Gore won. We didn't have a third show" when there was no clear winner.
The night-after performance ended up having some "Saturday Night Live"-like immediacy, as writers quickly penned songs about hanging chads and other issues. "It's not good for my stress level," she added.
Importance of humor
If voters are stressed out over the nastiness of this campaign, they haven't forgotten how to laugh at the bipartisan pot shots of Capitol Steps. "I think that's how we get through it all, our differences of opinion," Newport said.
Newport formerly subscribed to the "Dan Quayle" theory, which she named after the former vice president, believing that officeholders who are laughed at because of their intelligence levels are doomed politically. Today, "That doesn't seem to matter," she said. People accept that President Bush is "not all that bright. They like him or they don't. Even people who like him will laugh at a joke" at his expense.
Capitol Steps doesn't have to work so hard this year at balancing the scales between parties. "Election years make bipartisan humor much easier because both parties are in the headlines," Newport said. She compares this with two years ago, when the Republican party controlled the Oval Office and both floors of Congress.
The group's live shows are about 90 minutes long and feature 30 songs, as sung by five performers. That means the man who portrays John Edwards, Sen. John Kerry's Democratic running-mate, may re-appear as Vice President Dick Cheney, Newport said.
Newport has a love-hate relationship with elections. "You try writing a Dick Gephardt joke," she said, referring to the senator who wanted to be the Democratic nominee for president.
She and her collaborators racked their brains while trying to think of a rhyme for another presidential hopeful, Dennis Kucinich. They settled on spinach.
Of course, candidates come and go and issues change regularly. No wonder Capitol Steps has 24 recordings to its credit. The latest is "Papa's Got A Brand New Baghdad," a riff on a James Brown soul song and the war in Iraq.
Fun with songs
One song from that CD, "Help Rwanda," is in the live show. It's based on an imaginary conversation between President Bush and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about liberating other countries. It's set to the tune of The Beach Boys' "Help Me Rhonda."
There's also an opera, "Der Nadermauth," about Ralph Nader's continuing presidential campaign; a Bush character singing the R & amp;B lament "Ain't No Surplus, Now It's Gone"; and the first country line dance in a Capital Steps show. What started as the Billy Ray Cyrus song "Achy Breaky Heart" is now "Fakey Purple Heart," a la Kerry.
"I'm just so proud to see John Kerry line-dancing in our show, I can't tell you," Newport said. "It's worth the price of admission."
Capitol Steps has enough performers (including former congressional staffers) in its circle to send up to four groups to cities on the same night. There are shows every Friday and Saturday night in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, Washington, D.C.
Performances usually reflect national headlines, although there may be a few references to "local scandal," Newport said. There was a time when the Steps ended shows by saying that performers' wigs were loaned from the collection of the Mahoning Valley's infamous ex-congressman, Jim Traficant.
There is at least one topic we'll never hear the Capitol Steps address.
"We're against political reform!" Newport said. "The worst thing for us is if the politicians get competent and solve all the problems."
shaulis@vindy.com