With the promise of a three-day weekend dancing like sugarplums in their heads, students tend to forget Presidents' Day, the American political tradition usually lost in a haze of ski vacations and half-price sales at Filene's.
But this Sunday, at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway (JTOB), the basement theater nestled next to The Burren in Davis Square, two nationally renowned comedians will revive this tradition in a special one-night-only Presidents' Day show entitled "Political Animals."
Jointly headlined by critically acclaimed impressionist Jim Morris and Tingle himself, "Political Animals" will uphold the greatest tradition of all: The right of all red-blooded American citizens to unabashedly poke fun at their elected officials.
Armed with dead-on impressions, engaging stand-up routines and a biting social commentary that would make Bill O'Reilly blush, "Political Animals," Tingle says, will dissect and deride all the topical issues from presidencies past and present. The topics range from immigration to the war in Iraq, the founding of the country and the wiretapping scandal.
If you're looking for a Presidents' Day celebration that glosses over the problems of the current administration or takes a ceremoniously nostalgic look at past ones, "Political Animals" is not the show for you.
"Nothing's sacred in American politics," said Morris, "even if the right-wing conservatives and the fundamentalist Christians would have you believe otherwise ... We're going to be celebrating that by being as irreverent as possible, and our target is the well-financed and well-shielded Republican administration." After all, this is Massachusetts, folks.
Morris and Tingle, both veterans of the Boston comedy scene, take great pride in their local roots and credit what Morris calls Beantown's "great tradition of satire and social awareness" with encouraging the mixture of political commentary and humor that both men incorporate into their acts.
But underneath the punch lines, said Tingle, "I try to get to content. I've always been driven by content, and that's what motivates me."
The two comedians' political satire manifests itself in two entirely different comedic styles, something that Morris notes will work to the comedians' advantage in the "Political Animals" show.
"Boston has always been a great place for ... comedians who can complement each other on a program," said Morris. "In other words, it's not like a factory where everybody's doing the same kind of stand-up delivery; it's very individualistic."
"Jimmy is good at talking to the audience, and I'm gonna be hiding behind the very characters that Jimmy is talking about."
Apparently, Morris is being modest about his ability to impersonate political figures like John Kerry, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Rush Limbaugh and every present from George W. Bush to Richard M. Nixon.
Said Tingle of his co-headliner's propensity for parroting: "He [Morris] has developed - in my opinion - into the best political impressionist today; he's incredible."
Morris' r?©sum?© is, indeed, impressive and includes such high-profile gigs as the White House Correspondents' Dinner, appearances on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" and "Larry King Live," several network and cable comedy specials and, most recently, Morris began providing the voices for the "Saturday Night Live" cartoon serial "The X-Presidents."
Morris, who cites recently deceased former President Reagan as his favorite impersonation to perform, sees himself in a different light. "I think of myself as a political cartoonist," said Morris. "I use the impressions as a vehicle; I sort of disappear in character, and out of my mouth come some hidden truths."
Tingle, on the other hand, will work in a more eclectic format that he's been perfecting through his weekly Saturday matinee show entitled, "Jimmy Tingle's American Dream." There, Tingle combines stand-up one-liners with almost folksy story-telling, theatrical monologues and readings from his own satirical essays.
For Sunday's "Political Animals" show, he'll quote some of the more pertinent material from "American Dream" and draw the rest from a long career of political satire that landed him spots as the resident humorist on "60 Minutes II" and MSNBC, late night appearances with Conan O'Brien, Larry King, and Colin Quinn, an HBO comedy special, and cameo roles in films like 2003's "Head of State" and 1999's "The Boondock Saints."
Though a comedy show based on politics might at first sound a little stuffy, Tingle said that "Political Animals" is actually tailor-made for the college crowd, a demographic that, lest we forget, derives endless pleasure from quoting Will Ferrell's and Chris Parnell's "Saturday Night Live" presidential impersonations.
"[You can] listen to all the subjects that you hear about all the time that you study and hear about in the news in a really funny and entertaining way. Plus," said Tingle, "it's two-for-one." Indeed, "Political Animals," like all JTOB shows, boasts a 50 percent student discount, and a JTOB ticket stub earns the bearer reduced fares at eight Davis Square eateries.
When asked what he wanted the audience to take away from "Political Animals," Morris' response had surprisingly little to do with comedy; instead, he expressed a desire for the show to spur the audience to carry on the "healthy" American tradition of public critique of the government.
"I would hope that [the audience] would more easily see through artifice, any artifice on the part of our elected officials. In other words, I'm gonna strip the clothes off the emperor, and I'd like the people, when they see him, to say 'Yeah, yeah, [the] emperor has no clothes.'"
