Right-wing laugh riot

One night last summer, radio host Larry Elder beckoned his listeners to the Ha Ha Cafe in North Hollywood to film a documentary lampooning liberal film maker Michael Moore.

Intrigued, producer Eric Peterkofsky showed up for the night’s comedy. He listened as comic Jeff Wayne headlined the event with right-wing jokes rarely heard in comedy shows.

Something clicked, and soon Mr. Peterkofsky hit on the idea for one of America’s first all-conservative comedy tours.

He and Mr. Wayne found several comics, including Jeff Jena, Caroline Picard and Shayla Rivera. All flew to Los Angeles. They performed one night in Hollywood, two nights in Valencia and a fourth in Fresno. The shows sold out, and Right Stuff Comedy was born.

Right Stuff Comedy could be a comedic blip in a state that just recalled its Democratic governor. But meanwhile, in New York City, comic Julia Gorin has leveraged her politics into a successful show at the Don’t Tell Mama Cabaret on 46th Street. Her Republican Riot act entertains the small but loyal set of Gotham’s conservatives.

Dennis Miller, the former “Saturday Night Live” star whose sarcastic humor has drifted rightward since the September 11 attacks, is perhaps the most famous conservative comic. But in comedy clubs nationwide, a growing number of stand-up comics are carving a niche by being unabashedly political — and on the right.

Some find an audience at political fund-raisers. Others couch their right-wing views in patriotic fervor. All are tapping into a cultural phenomenon. Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and other talk-show hosts are entertainers as well as informers.

Their success suggests a hearty appetite for entertainment on the right. Movies and TV shows have yet to market to this demographic. But right-wing comics are trying to win the hearts of people who love to laugh, and hate hearing “Bush is an idiot” jokes.

“The vast majority of political comics are left-leaning, historically and currently,” says Brian McKim, editor of Shecky Magazine, an online site devoted to stand-up.

Comedy lures those who like to tweak the establishment, and so generally see themselves as liberal. Lenny Bruce’s obscenity trials made him a liberal cause celebre. George Carlin preaches atheism and has called private property one of the species’ great failings. Woody Allen’s style reflects the liberal manners of his Manhattan haunts.

Rush Limbaugh’s rise in the early 1990s, however, opened the door for conservative commentators to launch radio shows that didn’t just debate liberals and their ideas, but mocked them. The right also has its share of humor writers, from P.J. O’Rourke to Florence King and Larry Miller.

Performing arts such as acting, singing and comedy have been slower to change. “Ideology is more sacred,” says Julia Gorin. “Comics are supposed to be the sages, the thinkers, those pushing the envelope, but politically, no one was.”

Jokes about former President Bill Clinton centered on his peccadilloes, not his politics. “The Clinton years were really begging for a Lenny Bruce of the right, but no one emerged,” she says. Yet in the past three years, she’s seen more moderate-to-conservative political comedians entertaining crowds consuming their two-drink minimum.

Steve Eblin is one of those comics. He does two shows, a “GOP Comedy” show for Republican events, and a “Star-Spangled Comedy” show for mainstream audiences. He recently returned from entertaining American troops in Afghanistan, and plans to tour Iraq and South Korea soon.

Story Continues →