Politics with a Punch

A cadre of us unsavory folk managed to sneak into last night's Ringside Politics with a Punch at the Cricket Club just so that we could say we were once in the same room as Harry Shearer. Here are some quick notes from the proceedings:

• As the master of ceremonies, Jeff Crouere has an affable enough personality and a decent sense of who might be entertaining on the stage with him. Unfortunately he dedicates too much time to the most bland and overwrought topics. Plus his jokes aren't very funny. The important thing to remember about Crouere, though, is that he's not so much a poor political pundit as he is an untalented professional entertainer. Sure he's an untalented professional entertainer in the field of conservative political punditry but one imagines that this is less a result of conviction than it is the fact that conservative political punditry is a convenient route through which an untalented professional entertainer can make a living as an affable but boring scenester. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Crouere has managed to mediocre himself into this gig through geekery and persistence and the result is at least mildly entertaining enough to justify the fifteen dollar door fee. The five dollar Heinekens on the other hand... not so much.



• At the beginning of the program, Crouere's writhe lithe (see comments) shadowy sidekick Stephen Sabludowsky took a moment to both lament and rejoice in "The Internet" and its less than clear relation to the size of the crowd. The crowd was large. It wasn't clear whether Stephen was pleased or annoyed with this. He then warned the audience not to "record" any of the "copyrighted material" to be presented or "speak during the show." Crouere's trite unfunny monologue made Sabludowsky's first command painless to comply with... but the second downright impossible.



• An ill-conceived attempt to comply with the "no talking" directive led to some surreptitious note-passing with the kids seated at the next table. Only bad things come of such behavior. Just trust me.



• The Heinekens at the Cricket Club are five bucks. Did I mention that already? I had to limit myself to three.



• Kenya Smith, candidate for U.S. congress in District 2, was a panelist. One of Crouere's topics was the continuing and well-known legal troubles of the incumbent Congressman from that district. The Dollar Bill follies are a well-used but still solid comedy gold mine... not to mention a grand opening for any of the Congressman's candidates to extol his or her contrasting ethical purity. Smith was perfectly set-up to either let fly a scathing one-liner about his opponent or talk himself up a bit (or if he's got any real talent combine those two actions somehow). But when called upon Kenya said.... nothing memorable. I'm not sure he even completed a sentence. He did tug at his ear quite a bit as though someone might be about to feed him a line. But mostly he just sat there like a wet bottle rocket. Still this wasn't even Smith's biggest gaffe of the night. More on that in a bit.



• Harry Shearer is a very funny and talented person who should be encouraged to participate in as many panel discussion-public affairs-media type events which take place in New Orleans as he can possibly be brow-beaten into.



• LA State Representative John Labruzzo just wants us to DRILL and DRILL NOW. He even volunteered his "own backyard" as a possible location for this VERY NECESSARY IMMEDIATE DRILLING. I am looking into having a team of roughnecks dispatched to the Labruzzo residence this afternoon.



• Midway through the discussion, Varg looked over at me and asked, "Hey are we gonna get to say anything here?" "Man I hope so," I replied. We each spent the next forty five minutes anticipating an audience comment segment. Of course when the time did come, the two of us looked at each other and realized that neither of us had actually thought of anything to say. Typical. It was for the best anyway since anything we could have said would have been upstaged by the bizarre ramblings of a strange Zsa Zsa/Charro hybrid lady who had become unfortunately and temporarily detached from the bar.



• At the conclusion of the event, each panelist was given and opportunity to rail against his or her personal "Outrage of the Month". Kenya Smith, candidate for U.S. Congress in the second district, announced that he was most outraged by "citizen complacency". Needless to say, this floored several of the "complacent" citizens in attendance. Some of us were so concerned, in fact, that we pulled Kenya aside afterwards and suggested to him that when trying to curry favor with the electorate, it's generally not a good idea for a candidate to express his "outrage" at their "complacent" behavior. Kenya then proceeded to talk back at us for an uncomfortably long period of time without addressing... or even acknowledging the sage advice we had just offered him. Oh well, we tried.

Not a bad evening overall. I might even make Politics with a Punch an irregular habit in the future provided I start saving up now to cover the drink tab.

Update: Check out Varg's description of the event. Here's his take on Sabludowski:

I can only say he has the good looks of a homeless Harry Dean Stanton and the shining charisma of a heavily medicated Joe McCarthy.