When I first started talking to Jack Rowles, the head of DC’s Reflecting Fools, a comedy show that takes pot shots at Democrats, Republicans and anybody whoever ran for office, it was right smack dab in the middle of the fight to elect a new Speaker of the House of Representatives. Everybody had a candidate and everybody had a funny story to tell about the House election. It had been 100 years since such a battle was fought to win the top spot in the House, the third most important and powerful position in the United States behind the President and Vice President.
“They’re not going to elect you, are they, Jack?” I asked back then.
Rowles laughed. “Let’s hope not!’ he answered. He slid that House comedy/tragedy into his show, DC’s Reflecting Fools, just like he and his partners slide lots of funny bits from public life into the show, which will be at Morristown’s Mayo Performing Arts Center on Friday, January 20. What to do about Vladimer Putin is next. They used to have him arrive on stage barechested and it got a lot of laughs. They’ll change that, though. They connect bit on Putin to a song they made up about the stalemate in the war torn Ukraine sung to the happy melody and new lyrics to There is Nothing like a Dame (it goes something like “who are we to blame?”)
The Morristown theater should be packed with people ready for a good laugh, no matter their political persuasion.
They always have been. Political comedy has been a staple of American entertainment since the middle of the 19th century. One of my favorite political bits went like this: Actor portraying Franklin Roosevelt is asked if he is a member of an organized political party. He answers “No, I’m a Democrat.”
It got a lot of laughs. Jokes and stories about a man or women in politics are always funny, no matter who the politician or what the political party. Rowles was last a part of the long running Capital Steps comedy show, which toured the country for years.
“Laughter is the best way to kill tragedy,” Rowles said. “Not only do we get people to laugh at difficult situations, but realize that they want to laugh. It has been true for years – laughter makes trouble go away.”
The Capital Steps crowd, producer, writers, all of them, is in charge of Reflecting Fools. They do now what worked for years.
Ironically a very serious event brought the Capitol Steps people back as Reflecting Fools.
You will remember it – the January 6 Insurrection, when hundreds of people flooded the hall of Congress to protest the last election.
“We saw the tragedy of it, the seriousness, for sure. But God, when you think about it, all these people running around in circles, that was really funny, too!” said Rowles.
“The important thing is that we don’t pick political sides. We skewer everybody. No one is safe from us,” he said. “That way, nobody can say oh, you’re picking on the Democrats, or picking on the Republicans. We pick on everybody.”
They will pick on everybody Friday, the 20th, in Morristown, too.
Best targets. “OH!” Shouts Rowles “Sex Scandals! Everybody loves sex scandals. During his Presidency, we could have done the whole show, for years, just on Bill Clinton and his sex scandals. Monica Lewinsky lives! Recently, President Trump is real big in that area. People love it.”
The Reflecting Fools is always looking for new stuff. Right now, they are trying to get in the story of President Biden’s recently discovered classified papers, found in one of his old offices. The story is the same one as told about Donald Trump and his papers at Mar A Lago and brought on such howling from the liberals and Democrats.
“At the start of the show we’re going to have a bit about newly elected Congressman George Santos from Long Island, the guy who has so much trouble with his stories. That is the beauty of a show like ours – there’s always people getting into trouble somewhere that you can make fun of…...” said Rowles.
Is there anybody in American politics that they just can’t make fun of?
“Nope!” answered Rowles.
Mayo Performing Arts Center is located at 100 South Street in Morristown, New Jersey. DC's Reflecting Fools will be there on Friday, January 20th at 8:00pm. For ticket information, click here.
